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Chicagoland at Night - Making the Grade Chicago
7/15/08: SOZ Studios, MI - By Dennis Michelsen "DMIC" (RaceTalkRadio.com)
When you build a track to handle both open wheel cars and stockcars it is hard to make it great racing for both. But the more harsh Chicago winters this track faces the better the racing has gotten for the Cup level. Switching to night races in July made the fans and drivers more comfortable and the track better for racing too. Now if NASCAR and Goodyear can be convinced that they need a different tire for the Cup cars than the Nationwide cars we might get even better racing at Chicagoland Speedway! This won't go in the books as an instant classic but it was better than we have seen in the past.
Race Grade B
The race broadcast on TNT earned a lower grade than the race itself. Perhaps NASCAR should re-think this "Summer Six Pack" idea because TNT doesn't have the right people in place to give fans a great broadcast. A simple switch of play-by-play announcers would probably help instantly but the director needs to study Fox Sports to learn how to handle the flow of a race. This was the best Chicagoland Speedway race we have seen and a great finish so it earns a high grade.
F for NASCAR's Penalty on No. 96
Right after the field took the green flag Saturday night the No. 96 was posted for a pass through penalty for an infraction during pre-race technical inspection. NASCAR thought the No. 96 team was trying to gain a weight advantage and one published report suggested the team had two drink bottles onboard filled with lead weight. It turned out to be more innocent than that but the damage was done knocking the team off the lead lap.
D for Carl Edwards' Luck
It looked like Carl Edwards was one of only two cars to be able to actually pass Kyle Busch on the track and was on his way to a win. But then the splitter on his No. 99 Ford broke sending him to pit road on a green flag. If this had happened earlier in the race he might have been able to race his way back into a solid finish.
C for A.J. Allmendinger
Just when everyone was ready to give up on this former open wheel driver he is starting to race NASCAR pretty darn good. No he still has not grabbed his first top ten finish but he has been in the hunt. Since returning to the seat of the No. 84 car at Talladega he has qualified for eleven straight races. His best streak last season was six. Saturday night was the fourth time this season he has finished in the top twenty.
B for Jimmie Johnson
Last year by the time the NASCAR circus passed the crossed flags Jimmie Johnson had four wins and nine top five finishes. This season he has only one win and nine top ten finishes! On Saturday night victory was oh so close until Johnson was robbed of the win on the restart by his former teammate Kyle Busch. But this team is starting to hit their stride with five of their top tens coming in the last seven races.
A for Kyle Busch
Kyle's collection of Cup checkered flags is up to seven this season and this was the most impressive of them all! The race was lost until that final restart and there was no way Kyle Busch was going to let that chance go. Seven wins in the first nineteen races of the season gives Rowdy one of the best starts to a season in the modern era of NASCAR!
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