Sunday, October 28, 2007

Never a dull Atlanta race


The late season Atlanta races have always been some of my favourites, going back to 1992 which was the first season I followed start to finish. Today's pre-race ceremonies had a neat "torch-passing" tribute to Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon. It was 15 years ago that Gordon made his debut and Petty shut it down, all while Bill Elliot, Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki battled down to the wire for the championship. Swervin' Irvan took out poor Davey in a wreck, which handed the title to independent hero Kulwicki by a single lap led. After that, of course, I was hooked.

As it's no longer the season finale, the excitement at recent races has been tempered somewhat. Today, however, a late race caution set in motion a series of events including a clumsy restart (how on earth did NASCAR not wave that off when it was clear the 11 was a sitting duck?), an executive pit road decision by Chad Knaus to take on two tires and gain track position, and a spectacular crash by a charging Earnhardt Junior which handed Jimmie Johnson his eighth win of the season. Johnson is now just nine points afield of Jeff Gordon and clear of most other competitors with only three races to go (Texas, Phoenix and Miami).

You gotta be good to be lucky / lucky to be good as they always say, no better example than the 48 team, who are aces at getting themselves into a position where they can pounce on these kinds of opportunities. Prior to the race, the California native Johnson pledged his winnings to the Red Cross and their SoCal disaster relief effort. He was matched by Lowes, Bruton Smith (track owner) and team owner Rick Hendrick, allowing for another one of those feel-good NASCAR finishes.

No comments: