This last Sunday in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA, the drivers standings got jumbled up like lottery balls in the air-blowing mixer! But it’s not quite that bad. Just in spots.
The drivers in the top-12 driver standings did not change, but the ranks in the top-12 did mix it up.
Jimmie Johnson moved up 2 to 3rd, Kurt Busch‘s win moved him up 3 spots to 4th while the biggest mover of the day was sadly, Dale Earnhardt Jr, sliding back 4 spots to 7th.
Right now Greg Biffle sits 13th, 14 points behind Tony Stewart but what’s more of a concern is that if we’re looking at wild-card play-off positions, if you remember, the drivers with the most wins in the 13th to 20th positions could find themselves in 11th and 12th. I mention that because Tony Stewart has no win under his belt yet. But Stewart, for the moment can breathe a sigh of releif because no driver from 13th to 20th has a win.
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The 2011 Coca-Cola 600 fr NASCAR
Race Notes and Results
The 2011 Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway was the culmination of a very long day of auto racing viewing. Monte Carlo, Indianapolis 500 and then this, the longest race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the Coca-Cola 600. This is a long race, in fact it became the longest race ever in NASCAR. It started around 3 something in the afternoon and tore in into the evening, coming up on 8 at night.
So yea, today was an auto racing fan’s dream come true. That and my butt hurts!
But as the Coca-Cola 600 wound down, the question of fuel mileage started finding itself being pitched by the race announcers. Who had enough, who was told to put their foot in it and who was being told to save gas. At least that was the tactic with 10 laps to go, barely over 20 cars on the lead lap, and then with 8 laps to go, Matt Kenseth hit the pits for a splash of fuel, starting the cycle of green flag pits.
Then Jeff Gordon pits, while others were guessing the Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were good to go for the last five laps. And yet with 5 to go, Jimmie Johnson‘s engine blows up, throwing the suspense of cars trying to make it under a green flag out the window and now we had to worry about if yellow flag laps was going to affect the front-runners. That and some crew chief foul language being let slip out into the airwaves.
Under caution, a few cars stayed out, the rest came in for gas and tires. This didn’t bode well for Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and 8 other cars who stayed out. And then “Junior Nation” starts to worry because Dale Jr is turning off his engine to save fuel under yellow… but then he couldn’t get it going for a bit. Biffle had to buckle and pit under caution.
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