Kansas to Martin
It's a good thing that most of the Nextel Cup races are not like Kansas this past weekend - it was boring. Not even really worth talking
much about, but there were a few things I found a little odd, and therefore newsworthy. First, Mark Martin jumped back into the chase with his win, even though he said afterwards - in victory lane - that he was still too far back to contend for the title. I hope he's wrong.
Eight of the 10 'chasers' finished in the top ten, left out were Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman, so there was some minor shuffling of the standings, but with his fourth place finish, Tony Stewart is starting to take command. He leads by 75 over Newman, 88 over Biffle, 90 over Wallace, 92 over Johnson and 95 over Edwards.
Now for the interesting part of the Kansas race. Firstly, I mentioned in my preview that you should keep an eye on the 'teamwork' of the Roush-kateers,
and that it might fall apart about midway through the chase. Matt Kenseth refused to let teammate Kurt Busch lead a lap, getting five points, but Kenseth rightly pointed out, "When you get in the Chase you've got to get all the points you can." He added, "You can't give points away. I'm sure (Busch) is mad at me." Kenseth went on to say, that if he lost the chase by four points, he wouldn't be too impressed, especially if those points came by him letting someone lead a lap.
Busch didn't help the team's cause when he missed the opportunity to keep Ryan Newman down a lap. On a restart, with Kenseth leading, Busch, who was a lap down, starting at the front of the inside row, went on the offensive to get ahead of Kenseth, which put him on the tail end of the lead lap.
It's a good thing that most of the Nextel Cup races are not like Kansas this past weekend - it was boring. Not even really worth talking
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| Mark Martin jumped back into the chase with his win, even though he said afterwards that he was still too far back to contend for the title. (Photo: Autostock) |
Eight of the 10 'chasers' finished in the top ten, left out were Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman, so there was some minor shuffling of the standings, but with his fourth place finish, Tony Stewart is starting to take command. He leads by 75 over Newman, 88 over Biffle, 90 over Wallace, 92 over Johnson and 95 over Edwards.
Now for the interesting part of the Kansas race. Firstly, I mentioned in my preview that you should keep an eye on the 'teamwork' of the Roush-kateers,
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| Matt Kenseth leads Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle at Kansas. (Photo: Autostock) |
Busch didn't help the team's cause when he missed the opportunity to keep Ryan Newman down a lap. On a restart, with Kenseth leading, Busch, who was a lap down, starting at the front of the inside row, went on the offensive to get ahead of Kenseth, which put him on the tail end of the lead lap.