Another good race is in the can.
As Mike LaFontaine said in ” A Mighty Wind “, “wha’ happened?”.
A perfectly fine race was interrupted by … I don’t know what. It started with some farcical caution with the 31 and went downhill from there. Not that I’m averse to the outcome, but it seems like the race director was abruptly awoken from the last couple weeks of racing and leapt at the first chance to make something happen. I’m probably wrong and, after everything is parsed, Nascar most likely made all the right decisions. Unfortunately, in many circles, perception is reality.
On the other hand, as is often the case, a ” lesser series ” provided the better racing. On Friday evening, with a couple laps to go, there was no way Kurt Busch was going to win. Another of those ” worth the price of admission ” moments. He not only didn’t have the better car, he had older tires. There have been relatively few races where sheer determination has prevailed. This was one of them. ( Think D.Jarrett/D.Allison, Gordon/Burton et.al., Craven, etc. )
So this was the first ” Capital City 400 ” since 9.7.80. In that race, with 3 cars finishing on the lead lap, were, among others, Richard Childress (11th), Jimmy Means (13th), Dave Dion (9th), Eddie Dickerson (21st) and 29th, and last, J.D. McDuffie.
4.28.67: @ Savannah, John Sears – 6’2″, 270 lb. – who raced to his first pole and led 3 laps, ” went out with rear end problems “. The report doesn’t elaborate.
If Ned was in the booth we might know what’s up with Dave Dion and Eddie Dickerson.
By Gary Erdakos
Ref: racing-reference.info, Greg Fielden’s “Forty Years of Stock Car Racing”, Richard Sowers’ “The Complete Statistical History of Stock-Car Racing”.
