Kasey Kahne Wins At Infineon
Submitted by RACING NEWS DIGEST
We returned from our vacation Saturday night, or maybe it was early Sunday morning. We had a great time in Virginia with my wife and I taking 3 days by ourselves to go to Virginia Beach with out the kids. They stayed with my parents. Overall a fantastic vacation.
So Sunday was mostly spend getting unpacked and settled back in. Yard work needed to be done and that took quite awhile. We seem to have a toad up rising as there are probably thousands just in out neighborhood. Little baby toads jumping all over the yard.
My point? Well, while I had the race on the TV and paid attention as much as possible we were pretty busy around the house so the race did not receive my up most attention.
But Kasey Kahne was the winner and that gave The King Richard Petty his first win as a team owner. Huge congratulation’s to Kahne and the King for the win at Infineon for the Toyota/SaveMart 350.
This was Kasey’s first win in over a year and should move him up in the points 2 positions to 13th. He is only 3 points outside the top 12 now.
I was reading that Tony Stewart was pressuring Kasey Kahne at the end of the race. I didn’t really see it that way. Granted if Kahne would have bobbled a little Smoke may have been able to get around him. But I don’t think Stewart was really any match for Kahne at the end of the race.
Other than than I have started liking road courses more and more as I get more into NASCAR. At first I thought they were plain ol’ boring, but I can really appreciate all the effort that goes into them now.
And let’s face it, I thought yesterdays race was pretty exciting. At least the parts that I was able to catch.
This was the first road course race with double file restarts. During these restarts it was very important to be out front so you didn’t get caught up in the demolition derby that was happening behind you.
“The restarts were just wild,” Jamie McMurray said. “Everybody runs into each other and doesn’t really race. They just drive over their head, so it was frustrating. It was exciting, I’m sure, for the fans — but the guys just don’t pass right. They just run into each other.”
“It was intense. They were a riot,” Boris Said said of the restarts after finishing 24th. “It was just chaos — a free-for-all. Unfortunately, I don’t know who tagged me on the last one in Turn 7, but they spun me around and I had to let the whole pack go by. We were done then.”
Overall on other tracks the drivers don’t seem to mind the double file restarts. But I think they were all dreading it for the road course which is understandable. Restarting like that and hitting those corners on a road course is a lot different than oval course.
That being said, I think the fans loved it unless of course you driver was a victim of it. And overall I don’t think there were that many issues on the restarts. There were some yes, but it could have been a lot more.
POINTS
Tony Stewart’s 2nd place finish has helped him to maintain the top spot in the points. He was also able to put a little more distance on Jeff Gordon by expanding his lead to 84 points, almost a 40 point increase from last week.
Gordon finished 9th.
Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards flopped the 5th and 6th points positions. Ryan Newman had a rough day and finished 17th while Carl Edwards got a 13th place finish. Only 5 points separate these 2.
Mark Martin fell 3 positions to 11th after having a very bad day and finishing 35th.
New to the top 12 this week is Juan Pablo Montoya who jumped up 2 positions to 12th after finishing 6th. Kasey Kahne is knocking on his door just 3 points behind in 13th.
When one person enters the top 12 that means one person leaves the top 12. After finishing 34th Jeff Burton fell 3 positions to 15th 6 points behind David Reutimann.
The top 12 is a pretty tight points race. Looking at positions 4th through 12th it is only a 167 point difference.
From 1st to 12th is a 447 point difference.
