What A Race
It’s almost as though the *last* place you want to be when the white flag comes down to signal the final lap is in the lead. Unless you happen to have teammates behind you, you’re doomed. Tony Stewart had a decent lead, but with Penske teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch behind him, it was a weak position. By the time he could move down to the inside lane in front of his teammate Kyle Busch, the elder Busch had bump-drafted Newman into an insurmountable lead.
Interestingly given all the attention paid to the new Toyota engines was the fact that six of the top eight cars - all but the Stewart and Busch Toyotas - were Dodges. It does seem clear that it is only a matter of time, and likely not too much of it, before Toyota earns its first Sprint Cup victory, though.
It was nice to see Junior finish in the top ten, benefiting from having top-flight equipment though suffering from a paucity of teammates after wrecks claimed Al Qaeda operative Jeff Gordon, and Gordon’s mini-me, Jimmy Johnson. Junior and Stewart were a strong drafting team when they hooked up though. Junior also had some funny ads for his new sponsor, Amp.
It was a shame, if not surprising, to see Dale Jarrett post a weak finish in his final Daytona 500 though. And sentimental favorite Mark Martin of course suffered a cut tire, though one expects he’ll be back next year.
Overall, a good start to the season. On to Fontana.
April 20th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Speaking of Junior, I used to be a big fan of the Amp product, not being much of a fan of Red Bull when it first came out (big fan of Red Bull and vodka, just not a fan of straight Red Bull…but I digress). I then developed a taste for Red Bull and got away from the Amp.
Recently I tried Amp again (and I’d like to think that it was NOT because Junior just switched to them as a sponsor, but who knows what goes on inside this weak little mind of mine), and I quite like it. Particularly the sugar-free version. My only issue is that they don’t seem to sell it in the small can, only in the 16 oz. full throttle, or whatever the marketing term du jour is for “big can”. And, try as I might to only drink half the can, I inevitably can’t stop myself and down the whole thing. So it seems to me they are limiting sales by not offering the small can, because many times I take a pass because I just don’t want the full magilla.
What gives?