What a difference a week makes! After last week's long, drawn out race that wouldn't end, the exciting Monster Mile proved to be what fans love to see: short track racing at its best. There were a few lead changes throughout the race, a couple of wrecks here and there, but the final 3 or 4 laps were what makes you sit on the edge of your seat and yell at the TV. See, in my house, we have both Jimmie and Tony fans. My son ADORES Tony Stewart. So, when Tony took the lead and appeared to have it in the bag with only a handful of laps left, my son was giddy with anticipation. And, considering how fantastic Tony has been racing this year (his first as an owner/driver), it looked like Tony was gonna be doing the infield shuffle with the checkered flag. Then, from outta nowhere (as all great drivers truly do), Jimmie Johnson started challenging the Tony Stewart for the lead. There were a couple of laps of "Is he gonna? Not quite. Oh man! Is he gonna? Not quite. Oh man!" before Jimmie showed what a magnificent team he and Chad Knaus are and flew right by Tony for the lead and eventual win. While Tony had to settle for a second place finish, he ended up first in the points standing, leaving my man Jeff Gordon to fall to second place, just 44 points behind him. Jimmie's first place finish brought him up one place in the standings to third, just 64 points behind Tony. The hard wreck that Jeff Gordon endured during practice certainly couldn't have helped his back problems any. Tony Stewart ended up being the first owner/driver to ever have the points lead this early in the year. Congratulations to both Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart.
There was alot of commenting happening about the #88 team as well. If you've been living under a rock over the past week, maybe you didn't hear that Rick Hendrick decided to shake things up with Dale Earnhardt Jr's team to see if he could help improve things in the #88 garage. Mr. Hendrick did this by having Dale's crew chief and cousin, Tony Eury Jr, step down and replacing him with Lance McGrew for Sunday's race. This seems to have been just the shot in the arm that the #88 team needed, since Dale Jr was running in the top 5 for many laps, eventually ending the race a respectable 12th. Only time will tell if this was a great move or not.
This was the last race to be televised on Fox until next year folks. I'll miss those guys, especially DW. It just isn't the same without his back and forth with Jeff Hammond. Sunday's race at Pocono will be televised on TNT starting at 12:30pm ET.
Top 5 Finishers at Dover's 2009 Autism Speaks 400:
1. Jimmie Johnson (#48)
2. Tony Stewart (#14)
3. Greg Biffle (#16)
4. Matt Kenseth (#17)
5. Kurt Busch (#2)
Heather Chavez - Second Self Virtual Assistance: When There Isn't Enough of You to Go Around!
Comments(4)