STEP AWAY FROM THE FOOD !! If 2TonTony can do it, so can you (that is, if you have enough money to hire a personal trainer to follow you around the country and feed you from a silver spoon). Nonetheless, give the guy some credit for shedding the pounds. However, once he retires, one can imagine that he’s gonna have second thoughts (and helpings) and become a blimp.
Two more races, then it’s history for another year. The championship is still up in the air. There are hordes of people trying to put a hex on the 48 car, and are shouting “anyone but JJ”. By golly, I think I’m one of that crowd…….
The Ice Man Goeth: TexasTerry’s finally gonna hang ‘em up. His last several years have been merely to fill in as a hired gun, mostly when an owner needs to slip into the race on a “previous champions” basis. And naturally, the cars aren’t the best, so Tlabonte just hasn’t done anything spectacular. So, he’s hanging them up…..until some team throws a bag of money at him to un-retire for a few races. If this sounds familiar, you’d be thinking of AwesomeBill. Some drivers (ahem, sirMark) just don’t know how to go out the door and close it behind them.
Smokeless: We can’t call him 2TonTony anymore, because he got the hint and hired a trainer to help him shed the pounds. Soooo, with all of the W’s he’s chalked up recently, I guess we could call him WonTonTony for the time being.
Da Race: Right off the bat, it was WonTon’s race to lose, and he didn’t give anyone a chance to take it. He was the class of the field, and simply ran away with the W. No hiccups, no wasted effort. When someone got close, he just stepped on the peddle and took off. The other guys were in a race for the second position.
Fall out: This was a race where the luck ran out on at least one Playoff contender. Jburton went down in flames when his RF tire blew, and his subsequent wall job. This clearly took the 31 car out of it in 2006. However, they still will be a force in 2007, so keep your eye on him.
Near misses: JJ had an ignition box problem, and Jr. did a wall job when Bowowyer got him aero loose. Both of these coulda done them in, but they both survived to remain in contention. Jr. went from 2nd to 34th in a blink of an eye, but his team rallied behind him.
MotorLess: Engine failures were significant tonight. First it was Menard, then RoboGordo (both had DEI engines), then in the waning moments of the race, a stout KaseOfKahne succumbed.. Bummer, dudes.
Last 25: As with many races, most of the anticipation occurred in the last part of the race. But unlike many races, it was just to see who could be the runner up (or ‘first loser’ if you want to put it that way). The spice came with the final pit stop under a green flag. Some took 4 tires, some took 2. The suspense ended when DaBiff hit the wall with about 7 to go. Yes, there was a shoot out, and yes, Happy caused Riggs to slap the wall. And yes, Smoke again smoked the field to dash for the win. In an interesting sidebar, Home Depot kicked Lowe’s in the tush.
Kudos: To WonTon, Zip and his crew for a domineering race. To the Lowes boys for another solid race. To RCR and Happy for consistently improving on their car. Huge kudos to Jr. and Jr., who battled back from a wall job to a 6th place finish. Driver #8 had the flu all weekend, and probably came close to barfing in his helmet, but he hung in there and drove a smart race. Good grief, the Blue Deuce actually had a Top 10 finish. And stop the presses: Mr.Pigtail had an 11th ????
Heaps of 3’s all over your local Home Depot,
Racing Maniac #3, #12, #8e, #7
