Kahne Grabs Sixth Win Of Season At Charlotte, Blaney Grabs First.
Sunday, October 15th, 2006 1:51pm CDT
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
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[thumb:169:l:s=1:l=x]Kasey Kahne completed the sweep of the Cup races at Charlotte this year with his win last night. While the drama wasn’t matched with the previous night’s, it still had the story of its own. Some teams got it done, and other Chaser’s dreams went up in smoke.
Kahne was good most of the night. Although at time he found himself back in traffic due to various pit strategies in place, it was easy to see he had a car that would be competing at the end if all went well. It did go well, and his patience was rewarded when he crossed the stripe first just ahead of Lowe’s recent master Jimmie Johnson.
In the big scheme of things, none of the Chasers had much to gain as Jeff Burton kept his consistent ways and finished third to extend the 6 point lead he had prior to the start out to 45 points as we head to the paper clip of Martinsville and its infamous hot dogs. Yeah, they’re that good.
So as Gordon’s title hopes for number five went up in smoke with his engine some 33 laps from the end, and he lost 69 points to Burton, so did the realistic chances for his fifth Cup title. While not mathematically eliminated, the realistic vision says there are 9 other competitors to leap frog to take the title. Without some major help from lady luck, he may very well climb over most of the competitors, but he’s also got to get past not only Burton, but Harvick, Kenseth, and Martin as well. Something that the odds are just possibly too stacked against to accomplish. However, with Gordon’s determination it isn’t completely out of the question even with “the fat lady” warming up her voice in the wings.
As we’ve mentioned previously, Burton’s got the horseshoe thus far. He’s had a few minor stumbles, but during those times the competition has failed to be in a position to capitalize much. Sure his lead was cut significantly at Talladega, however he’s gotten two thirds of it back this week. While it’s far from time to crown him and go home, he seems to be the favored one in Lady Luck’s hands at the moment. Something that has proven in the past to be a factor throughout the season when we look back at past champions.
So it was a dramatic turn of events Saturday night, but the chaos of Friday night really shines through as Friday the 13th really showed its teeth.
What a chaotic event. If it’s a freak thing, it pretty much happened Friday night. From Harvick looking like he couldn’t even hold his ground against 2nd place Edwards for most of the night, let alone clench the title, in the closing laps as Edwards and Mears battled for the win, Mears went high and lost it. This ended up causing Edwards to spin as well, as Blaney and Kenseth ended up taking over the top two spots with a handful of laps remaining.
With Carl out of the race, it allowed the struggling Harvick to pick up the pace, and enough positions ahead to make history and clinch the 2006 Busch Series title.
As the laps continued from there, and under the green white checkers, Blaney and Kenseth battled for the win. Kenseth fought down low, while Blaney fought from the top. Coming through the final corner, Kenseth pushed too hard and went around as Blaney came to the checkers for his first Busch Series win. Kenseth ended up 4th, crossing the line backwards.
Add into that the fact that NASCAR couldn’t figure out who was supposed to be where on one of the final restarts, and ending up leaving the field running under caution for far more laps than realistically necessary, to a ton of other little freaky things as well throughout the night, and you had a prescription for what will be a Busch race that will be talked about for years to come.
Ah yes, there will be plenty of fire to tide us over this week until we reach Martinsville. Plenty indeed.
Robby Gordon officially to Ford, Ryan Newman tested a Camry (WTH??? Ask the Winston-Salem Journal, and their “sources”), Ward Burton running Martinsville in the #4, and a slough of other news as well. Not to mention the ongoing talks between Martin and Ford, with Martin trying to get permission to run a few Truck races in the #6 next season as well. Mildly put, Ford’s not amused one bit.
Oh yes, after weeks of nothing really out of the ordinary to discuss around the water cooler, this weeks going to be a bigger buzz than walking into Willie Nelson’s tour bus.
Filed Under: Busch Series, Nascar, Nextel Cup, The Chase
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I can’t help but believe the Ward Burton thing is a one shot deal for fellow Virginians.
There is some sort of scheduling conflict with Todd Bodine being in the car and that’s also part of the deal.
But, somewhere in the back of Ward’s mind his acceptance of the deal is probably an effort to show he can still turn a wheel with some effect even if it is in the #4.
He knows Red Bull and RYR are still looking and there is no better way to get your “name out there” than using a 3400 pound billboard.
marc said this on October 16th, 2006 at 5:38 am