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Around The Bend – A Look At This Weekend’s Richmond And Kansas Races

On Saturday night it was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch taking his colorful M&M’s Toyota into victory lane. Busch passed Jeff Gordon on the final restart to take the win. In Kansas earlier in the day it was Target-Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon winning easily in the first IZOD IndyCar Series race on an oval. Additionally, Brad Keselowski powered himself to victory in passing several cars on the final two laps to take the win in the Nationwide race in Richmond. Johnny Sauter’s exciting win in Kansas on Sunday was a surprise in more ways than one, but more on that in a moment.

It’s must be frustrating to competitors when Jimmie Johnson’s car is having handling issues that makes mechanical guru Chad Knaus battle all night and still come home with a tenth place finish. Johnson was asked if he was frustrated or happy with a top-10 finish. Johnson remarked, “I guess a little bit of both to be honest with you. Tough night to earn points tonight where we had competitive speed, not dominant speed where we could run with leaders. There at the end, we had guys on tires and I wasn’t on tires and we were just fighting really hard for that spot.”

Is Jeff Gordon dispirited? He is currently enduring a 39 race winless streak and was passed late in the race by Kyle Busch after apparently having the car to beat. However, Gordon seemingly remained upbeat, “Well it was a heck of a night for us. Kyle (Busch) was just the class of the field there early and I don’t know what happened to him, he started falling backwards. We had some issues at that same time. We were able to maintain and then get the lead from Burton and then pulled. I knew I didn’t want to see cautions. Our car was not really very good on restarts, but, we were able to get a couple of good ones. (Jeff) Burton and (Kevin) Harvick were racing one another and we pulled away. I said please no cautions and sure enough, the caution came out. Kyle was really good on restarts and his car was really strong tonight on restarts. You didn’t want to have to race him on a shootout like that. We came out second. I had a great race with Harvick all the guys really all night. Great run for the DuPont Chevrolet. A little disappointed again that we are coming up short but we are getting plenty of practice at this green-white-checkered and these shootouts at the end. Hopefully when it counts later in the season, we’ll make it count.”

Did you know? This was Carl Edwards’ first top-5 finish of the season. Busch’s win was the first by the polesitter so far this year.

Viewers saw an exciting finish in both Richmond races due to the leaders being able to battle amongst themselves, not having to worry about lapped cars. However this was not the case at Kansas in the IndyCar race as Dixon had clear sailing with several lapped cars between Franchitti, Kanaan and himself. Franchitti was frank, “On the final restart it was tough because of the backmarkers. They were running side by side and driving you up into the gray, not giving us any room to race at the front. I managed to get the job done, so second was a fair result for our car today.” Franchitti added, “The officials need to do a better job of policing the backmarkers. It’s more of a respect thing. We’ve seen three races this year where backmarkers have been a problem.”

Kanaan also voiced his displeasure with the lapped cars, “It was frustrating with the backmarkers with three laps to go. I don’t think they should dictate the finish for the top guys. I don’t think it is up to the League; that is up to the drivers. It’s a matter of respect because it is going to come back.”

IndyCar Series race director Brian Barnhart needs to move lapped cars to the rear on restarts with less than ten laps to go on ovals, five on road courses.

The feel good story of the weekend was the return of John Andretti to the IndyCar Series joining his cousin’s Michael’s Andretti Autosport team. Andretti upstaged teammates Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti by finishing ninth as Patrick and Marco struggled to 11th and 13th place finishes respectively. John Andretti commented after the race, “I can’t be disappointed with this. I felt if we finished in the top 10, that would be better than I could expect and we finished ninth. We ran up there, we ran good and we ran good on the long runs. Like everybody, I think we wish (Scott) Dixon hadn’t caught it quite so good because then we could have finished a little better, but I’m pleased. We weren’t perfect, but it was good for me. I had a good time.”

With Dixon’s dominating performance coming into Indianapolis later this month, here is some distressing news. Team Penske and Target-Ganassi have a fourteen race winning streak on ovals. Also, Target-Ganassi Racing led 740 of last 1000 laps at Kansas Speedway. That would include TCG drivers, Dixon, Franchitti and ex-TCG driver, Dan Wheldon.

Not a great crowd for the IndyCar race in Kansas as it was the preliminary race for the Trucks? The truck crowd looked about the same. This appears to be the last year for the IndyCar Series and Kansas will most likely get a second Cup date meaning they won’t need an IndyCar race.

It’s a small thing but when they show a crowd all looking up at the flyby, can we the television audience see it too? True, not all fly-bys are judged equally. However, when they have a large bomber such as a B-52 or a B-2 Stealth fly over let’s see it, not just the stereotypical three-second MTV cut either.

The Truck Series is fun to watch, great win by Johnny Sauter, hard to believe they got that race restarted. With the heavy rain and hail, it looked like a complete washout. Can you believe that both Sauter and Ron Hornaday, Jr. saved their trucks after colliding in turn four after the restart? If you missed it it’s worth checking on YouTube or SPEEDTV.com. Also, does Rick Allen and Phil Parsons have to get so excited when they have trucks that are THREE WIDE!

Don’t forget to follow us on your Twitter account at www.twitter.com/racingnation. Tweet of the weekend from Jeff Iannucci (MyNameisIRL) “I’m a red-blooded guy, and seeing the lovely Emma Dixon rubbing a penny on her lips is very…well, I’m trying to watch a race here, ESPN!”

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