By Sherri Breaton
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| Tony Stewart wins the Kobalt Tools 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Photo courtesy of Nascar.com |
Tony Stewart was able to hold off Jimmie Johnson twice on a restart to win the Kobalt Tools 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. With only four laps left, Tony maintained the lead and captured the checkered flag .461 seconds ahead of Johnson. Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards came home third through fifth, respectively. Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Jamie McMurray, Trevor Bayne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the top 10. While last week was considered a sweet revenge for former crew chief Dariun Grubb with his win in Phoenix with Denny Hamelin, this week was even sweeter for Smoke as this is the first time he has been able to clinch a victory in the city of lights in the desert.
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| Tony Stewart leads Jimmie Johnson on a restart at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Photo courtesy of Nascar.com |
It’s also equally ironic that Stewart is running Hendrick’s engines and was able to beat the 5 time champ to the finish line. Jimmie was rough on the restarts after countless cautions.
Said Johnson on the restarts:
"They were awfully strong, (the Stewart team), the last two restarts ... second to the last restart, I just blew it. He got away from me. The next to the last start, I felt like I got a good one. He still cruised away.” Ya, you blew it.
Besides the obvious disappointment in missing the win by “that much” the fact that the #48 Lowe’s Chevy was able to rebound from having to start from the rear due to having to utilize the back up car as a result of a wreck in practice, to a solid second place finish is nothing to be ashamed of.
The #48 team is still embroiled in the appeals process as a result of the car they were planning on using in the Daytona 500, (keys words...”planning”...the car never made it to the racetrack and as karma would have it, Jimmie crashed and burned on lap two and was out of the race for the night) was deemed illegal.
Rick Hendrick was denied Tuesday, setting up one last-ditch plea to prevent crew chief Chad Knaus from having to sit out six races along with car chief Ron Malec, and driver Jimmie Johnson from losing 25 points.
I have to agree with Kyle Petty on this so called “committee” that oversees the appeals process at NASCAR. This panel is made up of a bunch of “old farts” as Kyle says, retired drivers, owners, crew chiefs, mechanics, officials etc, that decide the outcome of these infarctions. As Kyle said on air during the pre-race show, “you would be hard pressed to find two people on that panel who have actually attended a race in the past two years if not more”. They really need to change this process and have a committee consisting of recent retires and/or people who are current with today’s racing standards and what is considering “cheating” and what is considered “pushing the limitations of technology and trying to beat your competitors at the same game”. Hendrick said he will now make one final appeal to John Middlebrook, a former General Motors executive who serves as chief appellate officer on the National Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel. No date has been established yet for the final appeal. For now we will wait and Chad will remain on the box until such time.
Next week, we are on to Bristol Motor Speedway, and the always fan favourite “driver introductions”. Bristol is the only track that allows the drivers to choose the song in which they will be introduced to. Some of them in the past have been both funny and ironic. I will provide the full list along with the race recap next week post race.
Agree? Disagree?
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