NASCAR 2011

[Lavabe]

CAUTION Lap 56
This time Kahne is out. He knocked with teammate Brian Vickers.
Looks like Ambrose tagged Vickers on a turn, causing him to spin into Kahne, who was racing next to him.
Now Vickers is blocking Ambrose. OMG... he peeled right into Ambrose while the field is following the pace car. NASCAR has ordered Vickers into the garage. No major damage to Ambrose.

[Lavabe]

CAUTION Lap 118 of 400
Bliss gets a tire down.
Blech earns the lucky dog.
Earlier, it was JJ's race, then Kenseth moved up, but now it's all Harvick.

Green flag racing again on lap 127.

[Lavabe]

Lap 156 of 400
Good news for JR fans... BUT sorry, not good news.
Kvapil spins out, bringing the caution. JR is the lucky dog.

But it's more complicated. Kvapil tapped Jr. The spin out of Kvapil was caused by Jr, who retaliated. NASCAR wound up taking the lucky dog away from Jr.

[Lavabe]

Lap 171 of 400
CAUTION
Menard spins, bumps the wall, and comes into the pits. Smith spun ahead of Menard just a little later, but he touched nothing, and is still on the track.

Harvick still racing well. Jr is on the lead lap. Bowyer racing well near the lead. Ragan has been racing 9th for quite a few laps.

[Lavabe]

Lap 184 CAUTION
JJ spins and hits the wall, some rear damage, after Kurt Busch skids and tries to avoid JJ. JJ was coming down on the turn and tapped Busch, but that was all that was needed to spin JJ. JPM spun to avoid the problem, and sustained some minor damage.

Yep... one messy race.

[Lavabe]

Lap 235 of 400
Edwards has held the lead for about 20 laps. Harvick has been sliding back over the last few laps.
Meanwhile, KES is in 2nd. Given Jr's POOR performance so far (25th or so), it's now VERY possible that Kes will knock Jr out of the Chase.

[Lavabe]

CAUTION Lap 250
JJ and KURT get tangled up.
JJ touched KURT, causing both to spin. Kurt is still running, but JJ is stuck in the pits. Basically, JJ and Kurt were at it all night.

Blech was in the pits doing a green flag stop when all of this happened. Dinger and Bowyer already made green flag pits before the incident.

[Lavabe]

Oh MAN!! The announcers point out that JJ (who is now in the garage) might have tapped Kurt to bring out the caution, and to give Jr the lucky dog. And yes... Jr is now on the lead lap.

[Lavabe]

Lap 287 of 400 CAUTION
Jeff Burton slipped on a turn, then hit the wall, damaging his rear end. Dude has had a BAD luck year.
JJ back in the race, down 34 laps.

Don't look now, but Hamlin has worked his way back to 10th.
Edwards STILL in the lead on the restart, with Biff, Kes, and Kurt.

[Lavabe]

Lap 297 CAUTION
Ambrose spun out on a turn due to 3 wide traffic. No damage. 20 seconds later, Logano looks like he blew an engine.

[Lavabe]

92 laps to go CAUTION
Reutimann got a little loose on the turn, but was tapped by Bowyer, spinning Reutimann.

Everyone EXCEPT the leader, Edwards, comes in to the pits, and gets fresh tires.

FWIW, Ragan is sitting nicely in 7th.

[Lavabe]

With 56 laps to go, it's:
Harvick, JG, Biffle, Edwards, Blech, Kurt, Ragan, Smoke, Newman, Hamlin, Dinger, Jamie Mac, Kes,Smith, Montoya

Jr is back in the Chase... at least for now.

[Lavabe]

With 20 laps to go, it's:
JG (who is REALLY charging), Harvick, Edwards (who doesn't have enough gas), Blech, Ragan, Kurt, Smoke, Hamlin, Newman, Biffle, Mac, Dinger, Smith, MM, Kes

BUT...
CAUTION with 17 laps to go...
Menard slips, spins, and brings out the caution, and everyone pits. What a break for Edwards

[Lavabe]

With 12 laps to go, it's green flag racing again:
Harvick, JG, Edwards, Blech, Ragan, Kurt, Smoke, Hamlin, Newman, Biffle, Mac, Dinger, Smith, MM, Kes

[Lavabe]

With 5 laps to go:
Harvick, Edwards, JG, Ragan, Kurt, Smoke, Blech BUT Edwards is charging !!

[Lavabe]

Harvick wins!!

Order of finish:
Harvick, Edwards, JG, Ragan, Kurt, Blech, Smoke, Newman, Hamlin, MM
Dinger, Kes, Biff, JamieMac, JPM, Jr, Mears, Smith, Blaney, Labonte
Ambrose, Bowyer, Kenseth, Leicht, Cassill, Reutimann, Gilliland, Kvapil, Burton, Truex
JJ, Lally, Vickers, Menard, Logano, Bliss, R Gordon, KK, and all the rest.

[YmoBeThere]

Looks like I picked up the win this week, but still way behind.

[Lavabe]

Looks like I picked up the win this week, but still way behind.

Congrats, Ymo! Looks like you beat Tilly and me by 24 pts last night. Weird development: looks like knights selected Jr, but he had no more selections left for him.

All of this means the following: Ymo has now moved into second place, 106 pts behind me, and 65 pts ahead of knights. Usul trails knights by 265 pts, but leads Tilly by only 47 pts. colchar trails Tilly by 53 pts. FWIW, I'm now in the 92nd percentile; I assume that Ymo is also in the 90+ percentile. I wonder how our league is doing versus other leagues.

The qualifiers for the Chase remained the same as those from the previous week, so Smoke, Jr, Kes, and Hamlin will be Chasing. Harvick's win moves him up in the seeding. JJ falls to 6th seed, as his poor performance at Richmond and lack of wins shuffled him back. Blech and Harvick are co-number 1 seeds, followed by Gordon, Kenseth, JJ, Edwards, Kurt Busch, Newman, Stewart, Jr, Kes, and Hamlin. The top three to miss it were Dinger, Bowyer, and Biffle. Dinger has raced VERY well all season. Bowyer had some horrible luck. Biffle has done much better since his crew chief change. Jeff Burton had a horrible regular season, ending up 24th.

[colchar]

I take it we were rained out on Sunday?

[YmoBeThere]

Indeed we were. Midwestern weather...