It was a tale of two races for NASCAR's two home improvement cars this past Sunday. The Lowe's Impala, wheeled by Jimmie Johnson, was the dominant car all race long and the eventual winner. On the other hand, the Home Depot Camry, driven by freshman Joey Logano, was claimed by "The Monster Mile" early on in the event. The #96 DLP Ford of Bobby Labonte was the cause of the mayhem because Labonte was cleared low by his spotter. As he moved down the track, Logano wisely lifted off the gas to let Bobby in. However, Logano's predecessor in the #20, Tony Stewart, didn't get the memo and drilled Logano from behind in the entry to Turn 3. Since Joey's wheels were turned left to make the corner, his car spun down to the apron, back up the track and into the wall. This collected the #1 car of Martin Truex Jr, the #7 car of Robby Gordon and the #43 car of Reed Sorenson. Sorenson's Dodge t-boned Logano's Toyota, lifting the right side off the ground and rolling the Middletown, Connecticut native down the steep banks of Dover. Logano barrel rolled down the track seven and a half times before coming to rest on the apron. The crowd was totally silent, waiting for the rookie to emerge from the wreckage, and when he did, the grandstands erupted with clapping and cheering. And Joey Logano will be back racing at Kansas this weekend. You can say what you want about NASCAR's new car and how it races, but it sure is safe. And that is the most important part.
Now, back to the action. There were very few wrecks aside from an three car pileup on the frontstrech late in the race, involving Regan Smith, Elliott Sadler, and the aforementioned Martin Truex Jr, and an earlier incident involving Michael Waltrip, the #55 NAPA Camry, a blown right front tire and the Turn 1 wall. Waltrip and his crew worked feverishly to return to the track and gain valuable points toward next season, but it was all for naught, as the NAPA car never returned to the track. Kyle Busch also managed to hit the fence twice, taking some right side paint off of the #18 machine to the delight of the fans and Sam Hornish Jr spun off of Turn 2 by himself and received very minimal damage. But other than these incidents and some "debris" cautions, nothing much else happened to allow another team to take a shot at ruining Johnson's "monster" run. His Hendrick teammate Mark Martin finished second in the Kellogg's #5 and Matt Kenseth's #17 Ford had one of his best runs since winning the season's two opening races, finishing third. Earnhardt-Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya finished fourth and the "Blue Deuce"of Kurt Busch finished fifth. Rounding out the top ten were the #24 of Jeff Gordon, the #44 of AJ Allmendinger with a phenomenal run, the #9 of Kasey Kahne with a great rebound after last weeks blown motor, the #14 of Tony Stewart and his teammate, Ryan Newman in the #39. Despite Johnson's best run in some time, he still trails Martin by a mere 10 points in the standings and Juan Montoya assumed third from Denny Hamlin. Outside the Chase, Matt Kenseth was able to wrestle 13th place away from Kyle Busch.
This week, NASCAR travels to the Heartland and the Kansas Speedway. Will Dover spark a surge for the 48 bunch? Will Mark Martin keep this run he's on going and win the title? Will we see another daring last lap pass for the win, as we did last year with Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson? Who knows. We'll just have to see after all 400 miles have been run and the race has been won.
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