An Historic Weekend for NASCAR
June 17, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
If you talked to most race fans last week, you probably didn’t pickup on a ton of excitement heading into this weekend’s action. The Sprint Cup and Craftsman Truck Series were both heading to Michigan, and the Nationwide Series was set to take to Kentucky Speedway … two tracks that probably don’t rank up there on most fans’ list of favorites. Yet, somehow, someway, NASCAR is coming off of one of its most historic weekends in recent memory.
It all started with the Truck Series’ Cool City Customs 200 on Saturday afternoon. With a late race caution bunching the field up with just six laps left, Johnny Benson tried to rundown Erik Darnell for the win. It proved to be futile, as Darnell escaped with the win, but Benson was edged by just 0.005 seconds at the finish line – the closest winning margin in the history of the Craftsman Truck Series (or, at least since they began using electronic scoring in the 90’s). The win was the second in Darnell’s career.
The next big moment came at the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway, when the young Joey Logano – in only his third career Nationwide Series start – became the youngest winner in series history at just 18 years, 21 days old. The victory also gave Joe Gibbs Racing their tenth win of the season in the Nationwide Series (15th overall between the NNS & Cup Series), and many non-believers are now beginning to believe in the youngster’s talent and potential future in the sport. His nickname “Sliced Bread” is becoming to appear more and more appropriate.
NASCAR then topped off their big weekend as Dale Earnhardt Jr. used fuel strategy to overcome a largely anticipated Roush-Fenway Racing victory in the Lifelock 400 at Michigan. Roush had won 6 of the last 12 events held at MIS, and appeared to be in position for another with Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards looking very strong late in the race. In the end, though, it was Dale Jr. reaching Victory Lane for the first time in 76 races. Perhaps most impressive about the victory was the fact that it didn’t come at the track that people expected it to. Earlier in the season everyone had predicted Earnhardt to win at tracks that he’d enjoyed tremendous success at in the past such as Daytona, Talladega, Richmond, and Darlington. He’d come close on several occassions, but in the end, the victory finally came when Junior Nation had least expected it.
Throughout the season, there have been many races that I’d been very much looking forward to, only to find myself utterly disappointed after 400 or 500 miles. On the flip side of that, there have also been a few tracks that didn’t particularly excite me, but the end result turned out to be much better than expected. Sometimes I’m not sure if it’s a product of the Car of Tomorrow, or if it’s just one of those off deals, but it just goes to show you than anything can happen on any given Sunday.
DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You NASCAR also asks its readers …
1) How many NNS races will Joey Logano win in 2008?
2) How many Sprint Cup races will Dale Earnhardt Jr. win in 2008?
3) Which race was the most exciting of the weekend?
4) Which driver’s win means the most to his career?
This weekend was one of the most historic in NASCAR’s history.
Joey Logano is a young talent that has all the potential in the world to compete for a win every week. The only thing that will keep him from winning is getting caught up in a wreck.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally got the monkey off his back and can concentrate on running well, without as much stress on winning a race. Jr. does have talent though that will give him at least 3 more wins this year.
Logano’s win, though, will be the one that means the most to his career. He has shown from an early age that he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Congrats are due to both drivers, though.
1) How many NNS races will Joey Logano win in 2008?
At least one more, maybe two.
2) How many Sprint Cup races will Dale Earnhardt Jr. win in 2008?
Despite being a popular win, I’m not going to hold my breath for the next one. Then again, with the monkey off his back, maybe they can relax now and do what comes naturally. I can’t call this one.
3) Which race was the most exciting of the weekend?
Cup… The “Drama on TNT” was killing me. I missed the truck race so maybe that would have been the winner there if I saw that!
4) Which driver’s win means the most to his career?
Logano getting his FIRST win. Yep.
Jr getting his first non-DEI points win is a close second and a testament to his decision to move.
1. I think he will win a few more, maybe two or three.
2. I actually expect a win from him at Talladega during the fall, and maybe one or two more.
3. The Truck race, hands down.
4. I agree that it would be Logano’s first win. For Darnell and Jr, a win’s a win. Now, seeing that Darnell has a future as a Truck series regular, rather than a Cup regular, that win should be the second most important of the weekend.
1)How many NNS races will Joey Logano win in 2008? I’m guessing 2.
2)How many Sprint Cup races will Dale Earnhardt Jr. win in 2008? It depends, if he can avoid wrecks, get help from his teammates, and make the right moves, than I’m looking at more than one… maybe 4 in total. He gots what it takes to win and I’m sure he’s fully confident now.
3)Which race was the most exciting of the weekend? Definitely the Sprint Cup race… it has more of my favorite drivers and the race was cool.
4)Which driver’s win means the most to his career? Joey Logano’s. He’s proved at such a young age that he is a contender in the NNS.
1. I gotta say that I’m so impressed with Logano’s ability, that I’m actually going to call 4 more wins this year.
2. I’m gonna say 2 more. I’m with Jim on ‘Dega in the Fall, and then I think there’s another one looming out there for him that will come somewhere unexpected.
3. Overally, I have to go with the Cup race just because of the hype involved surrounding Junior. Now, you put the same exact drivers in that Truck race, and that’s it, hand’s down.
4. I’ll go with the general concensus here … Logano’s.