“The more something changes, the more it stays the same.” That line from the old Huey Lewis song “I Know What I Like” seems rather a propos considering the outcome of the Coca-Cola 600. Among the drivers in our most recent weekly top 10, only Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch made the top 10 in the rain-soaked Memorial Day race.
More than anything, the results of the “600″ tightened up the race on the bubble. David Reutimann’s win reverses his previously sagging fortunes and the Roush- Fenway duo of Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth kept themselves in the hunt.
Without any further delay, let’s get to the top 10 and sort this out….
#10- Jeff Burton (down a spot from 9th)- This has not been a good year for Richard Childress. The good news for “The Mayor” is that he’s managed to steer clear of the same bad mojo plaguing Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears. The challenge right now is to fend off the driver just in back of him.
#9- Denny Hamlin (up a spot from 10th)- OK- so an 11th place finish is nothing to get all fired up about, he ran a fairly good race Monday and Hamlin is still 5th in the points. Like Burton, D.H. has some guys gaining on him.
#8- Greg Biffle (new week, same old place)- He finished 20th at Lowe’s, but Biffle fans take heart: his average finish of 11.4 over the last five races puts the Biff ahead of every driver in this top 10 not associated with Stewart- Haas Racing.
#7- Kurt Busch (down a spot from 6th)- He’s going the wrong way. As the season progresses, Busch appears to be losing momentum. The good news for Kurt is his cars are still good and a lot of his competition here near the front is having similar problems. His brilliant beginning to the season helped put him in 3rd in the points and provides space between Busch and the growing pack just behind him.
#6- Mark Martin (down two spots from 4th)- Monday’s race just didn’t do for the HMS crew what most of us expected. “M Squared” finished 17th, Gordon 14th, and Johnson 13th. In reality, he was better than that and had the race gone the full 600 miles, he would have likely finished much better provided he could have avoided bad luck. Martin loses a spot in the season points to 12th and he’s got a mess of traffic just behind him.
#5- Kyle Busch (up two spots from 7th)- Let me just get this out right now for those of you who think Shrub was screwed out of a win: given his penchant for using up his cars, I don’t think Busch would have won the “600″ anyway. As it stands now, Busch got a top 10 out of it, and he’s still very much a factor in the front pack.
#4- Ryan Newman (up a spot from 4th)- Here’s the hottest driver in NASCAR Cup competition right now. Newman elected to stay out and got his 4th straight top 5. Who will be the first SHR driver to win a race? It may be this guy.
#3- Jimmie Johnson (no movement)- Though he has some stiff competition for the 2009 Cup, Johnson keeps hanging on. While I question my pre-season prediction of a “4-peat”, I still say Johnson is very well poised to make one of those famous runs to vault himself back out front. I just think he’s going to have more than two drivers at his heels this time around.
#2- Jeff Gordon (no movement)- Still leading the points, the question is now may be one of whether his back will stop him in a way the competition can’t. Still- Gordon is tops in top 5s with 6 and only Tony Stewart equals Gordon’s mark of 8 top 10s in 2009 competition.
#1- Tony Stewart (no movement)- That 19th place finish takes some of the shine off his recent performance, but there’s no reason to believe he’s headed for anything resembling a slump. His season average finish of 10.2 puts the arch-rival of “Billy Bad Butt” right behind points leader Gordon.
READY TO STRIKE
By winning Monday, David Reutimann puts himself back in the chase discussion. Carl Edwards very much needed that 4th place finish at Lowe’s, reminding us of how good he can be. It will be interesting to see if he can keep it up. Edwards’ teammate Matt Kenseth also benefited from a solid run in Charlotte he currently sits in 9th in the standings. Juan Pablo Montoya, like Reutimann, like Kasey Kahne keeps sticking around the top 15 to lead us to believe he’s poised to pounce on any flagging competition ahead of him.
DISTANT THUNDER
Hey, aren’t you Joey Logano? Maybe the doubters should re-think their criticisms of Joe Gibbs for bringing the kid along so quickly. In a few short weeks, Logano has jumped to 25th. Brian Vickers got a good finish out of Lowe’s, but man does he need some consistency. I’m still keeping my eyes on A.J. Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose and Sam Hornish Jr. to provide intrigue.
OFF THE PACE
Clint Bowyer has driven off into oblivion. It’s downright sad what’s happened to him and teammate Kevin Harvick. Will the change at crew chief benefit Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Guess we’ll find out.
