Maybe it _is_ his house! Jimmie Johnson won the UAW-GM Quality 504 tonight at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but we certainly couldn’t call it a race. We had so many tires poppin’ out there it sounded like duck season on da’ bayou. There’ll be a couple of teams who need to check their Powerball tickets cause that’s the only way they’ll be able to cover their tire bills! There was plenty of blame and lots of shame to go around tonight, and we’ve got more people to point at than we’ve got fingers. How do you make up rules during an event….and how do you police something like tire pressure? I realize these were difficult times, but if we can penalize and fine drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners for actions detrimental to the sport….why not track operators, sanctioning bodies, and tire manufacturers?
BTW, we delayed the start of tonight’s column so that we can watch a quarterback sneak from 20 different camera angles…..
This was the fourth win of 2005 for Johnson, his fourth in a row at Lowe’s, and the 18th of his Cup career. He’s now tied for 34th on the all-time win list with Geoffrey Bodine, Neil Bonnett, and Harry Gant. This was also win #138 for Hendrick Motorsports.
Joe Nemechek (4th) had his best finish since he was 3rd at Pocono in June.
Casey Mears (6th) had his best finish since he was 6th at The Brickyard in August.
Denny Hamlin (8th) had his career-best finish tonight…albeit only two races. He was 32nd at Kansas last week. He becomes the 43rd driver this season to record a Top-10 finish….last year we had 39 of ’em.
Dave Blaney (13th) had his best finish since he was 8th at Atlanta in March.
Johnny Sauter (16th) had his best finish since he was 16th at Talladega in April (only five races).
Kevin Lepage (21st) had his best finish since he finished 12th when we were here in May.
STREAKIN…..Carl Edwards has 4 Top-10’s in a row.
Jimmie Johnson has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races.
Mark Martin has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races.
Ryan Newman has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races.
This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Denny Hamlin (+31), followed by Johnny Sauter (+27), Jeremy Mayfield (+26), Travis Kvapil (+25), Ricky Rudd (+22), and Jeff Green (+22). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Jeff Gordon (-28 ), followed by Elliott Sadler (-26), Kyle Busch (-26), Mike Bliss (-24), and Tony Stewart (-21).
Denny Hamlin led a lap tonight for the first time in his NEXTEL Cup career. He’s the 50th different driver to lead a lap this season…the same number as last year.
We’ve got a dead-heat at the top of the “Chase” standings. Jimmie Johnson moves into a tie with Tony Stewart….Tony’s got the tie-breaker with five wins to four. It got tight at the top as the first six drivers are separated by only 52 points, and the Top-4 by only 17 markers.
In “Classic” points, the battle for that all-important 11th spot has changed hands again. Elliott Sadler is now up by 11 points over Kevin Harvick with Joe Nemechek entering the fray just another 6 markers back. Jeff Burton (21st to 18th) made the best move forward tonight while Jeff Gordon (14th to 17th) fell the most spots.(Stock Car Fans)(10-15-2005)
