Toyota/Save Mart 350

Hello Angels,

For the NASCAR enthusiasts, the final weekend in June of 2011 can be broken down by three words – road-course-racing.

NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series drivers had two different tracks to deal with – Road Course America in Wisconsin for the former and Infineon Raceway in California for the latter. While I normally only talk about the latter, I’m going to talk a little bit about the former first. Well, actually, I’m only going to talk about the first’s “end” that is.

Michael McDowell dominated the race and had the race “won” until the first of three green-white-checkered restarts. He got pressured and drove the car hard into one of the corners, and then had to brake harder than he wanted. He fell back a little and then ended up off the course. Eventually he completely lost control of the car and spun into the grass again. There were other cars crashing at the same time and that brought out caution and the second green-white-checkered restart. Justin Allgaier all but had the race won after he inherited the lead from McDowell but then another caution came out. That led to the third green-white-checkered restart. After he made one circuit around the track, the white-flag flew and Allgaier was still in the lead. Because of the caution, the field was frozen in place and all he had to do was make it back to the checkered flag at caution speed. Of course they started celebrating – with one problem though: they were out of gas. Reed Sorensen and Ron Fellows passed Allgaier with Fellows speeding by Sorensen to do so. When all was said and done though, the fourth driver to lead the race in five laps, Sorensen, ended up in victory lane, much to Fellows chagrin after the latter thought he won the race. In the end, Fellows was penalized one spot because when the caution came out, he was actually behind Sorensen and while Sorensen had slowed down for the caution, Fellows maintained racing speed illegally making a pass under caution.

Why I mentioned the Nationwide Series – well, Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 race at Infineon Raceway had the makings of that type of finish.

Clearly Kurt Busch was the class of the field leading a majority of the 112 laps. Busch went on to win the race, but what transpired during the race was a lot of taking and not a lot of giving. You can ask Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr., or Juan Pablo Montoya about that as they were either the instigator or on the receiving end of said aggression. Stewart and Vickers got together early in the race when Stewart pushed Vickers through turn 11 causing a pile-up that affected not only Vickers, but Earnhardt as well. Vickers hit the tires hard and heavily damaged his right front of the vehicle. Earnhardt had front end damage and he eventually burnt up his engine after his radiator lost its water a few laps later through a hole in the side of the radiator. The Stewart-Vickers dustup wasn’t done however when towards the end of the race, Vickers let Stewart pass going into turn 11 and then punted Stewart in the back end turning him hard into the corner’s tire barriers. The end result was Stewart’s rear-end lifted about seven feet off the ground with his car stuck on the barriers.

Montoya was this years’ Jeff Gordon from last year’s race. If you remember last year, Gordon got into just about everyone after a frustrating race. This year, Montoya did the same thing later in the race when he had fresher tires then everyone else on the track. Montoya eventually got spun by Brad Keselowski with five or six laps remaining.

Regardless, the green-white-checkered finish that I was anticipating didn’t materialize, and as I said earlier, Busch went on to win his first race at Infineon Raceway and in doing so, earned his first victory of 2011 as well. Congratulations to Busch and his Penske Racing team!

Gordon didn’t get into anyone this year – at least that was shown on TV anyway – and finished a very strong second place. Had the race gone on another couple of laps, and I might be writing that Gordon won the race instead.

Carl Edwards finished an improbable third, while Clint Bowyer and Marcos Ambrose round out the top-five. Joey Logano, who started on the pole, finished sixth. Jimmie Johnson finished seventh, while Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, and Brad Keselowski round out the top-10.

So, Angels, did your drivers survive the road-course-rage?

For one of our Angels – specifically Knox’Ville’ – a three-peat was not in the cards after winning his first two CHARLIE’S ANGELS TOP ANGEL AWARDS the past two weeks in a row. This week however he only had four drivers in the field and as we all know, that is a no-no. For this humongous blunder of astronomical proportions, So, instead of a third TAA in a row in four attempts, I have no other choice but to bestow Knox’Ville’ his very first CHARLIE’S ANGELS’ BONEHEAD AWARD instead. The driver not in the field, but in his lineup is Landon Cassel, who gave up his seat to road-course specialist, Boris Said. That said, your remaining four drivers – Gordon, Johnson, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin – finished second, seventh, 11th and 37th respectively. Hamlin led laps early, but damage from one of the many cars spinning caused additional internal damage later in the race.

Earning this week’s TAA is CorWin who had all five drivers finish in the top-17 – four of them in the top-10 and three in the top-five. Gordon, Bowyer and Ambrose finished second, fourth and fifth respectively. Keselowski finished an improbable 10th (having not performed very well on road-courses in his short career). Paul Menard rounds out your team with his 17th place finish. Congratulations CorWin on your TAA earning average finish of 7.6.

This week’s CHARLIE’S ANGELS’ GOLDEN CABOOSE AWARD goes to Julie despite Knox’Ville’ only having four drivers on his team. This is because even if he did have five drivers in the field, your GCA earning average finish of 23.2 would still have been worse than his had his fifth driver finished 43rd. That said, all was not bad for you as Edwards finished third and Ambrose finished fifth. Speaking of Knox’Ville’s’ fifth driver – Landon Cassil – Boris Said substituted for him and normally does better on the road-courses then his 28th place finish reflects. Stewart and Earnhardt crashed out of the race. This is Stewart’s first road course “did not finish” better known as DNF since he came into the cup series 12 years ago. Stewart finished 39th to Earnhardt’s 41st place finish. Better luck next week.

Kris, you didn’t earn this week’s TAA, but came close with your 8.8 average finish. With that average finish though, your team earned you this week’s CHARLIE’S ANGELS’ RUNNER-UP ANGEL AWARD. Gordon finished second to Edwards’ third-place finish. Harvick and Keselowski finished ninth and 10th respectively, while Kasey Kahne felt like a pinball getting bounced around the track. He had an up-and-down day because of it and finished in 20th overall when the checkered flag flew.

Mr. X, you and Kris had the same top-10 drivers – Gordon, Edwards, Harvick and Keselowski and their second, third, ninth and 10th place finishes respectively. Separating you from her though is David Ragan and his 29th place finish. All totaled, your drivers earned you a 10.6 average finish.

Evelyn, three of your drivers – Gordon, Bowyer and Ambrose – finished in the top-five on Sunday with their second, fourth and fifth place finishes respectively. Finishing well outside the top-10 are Said in 28th place and Stewart with his 39th place finish. Your average finish is 15.6.

Vivian, for you, Edwards topped your driver chart with his third-place finish. Harvick came in a distant ninth-place finish, while McMurray finished six spots behind that in 15th place. Jeff Burton and Stewart round out your team with their 21st and 30th place finishes respectively. Your average finish is 17.4.

Candy Man, you only had one driver finish in the top-10 – Edwards and his third place finish. That said, Martin finished 19th, Kahne finished 20th, and Burton finished 21st. Biffle rounds out your team with his 23rd place finish. Your average finish is 17.2.

For me, I figured it was time to change my line-up up a bit and changed four of my five drivers out for this race. That little experiment failed miserably for me as had I had my original line-up in the field, I would’ve been this week’s TAA. Instead I have Bobby Labonte getting spun into the wall and Stewart being spun into and then stuck on the tire barriers on turn 11. They finished 38th and 39th respectively. On the flip side, Gordon and Ambrose did what I was expecting and finished inside the top-five with their second and fifth place finishes respectively. Johnson rounds out my team with his seventh place finish. My average finish is 18.2.

Kelly, for you, Edwards finished third, while Harvick and Regan Smith finished ninth and 16th respectively. Ragan didn’t have a good day and finished 29th. Hamlin rounds out your team with his 37th place finish. Your team’s average finish is 18.8.

Pete, for you, Busch was the man – he completely dominated this race and got the win to prove it. That said, he was the only driver in your lineup to earn a top-10 finish. McMurray finished 15th, Smith finished 16th and Greg Biffle finished a distant 23rd place. Earnhardt finished 41st after his run-in on turn 11 and subsequent engine failure from the damaged radiator. Your average finish is 19.2.

Madison, Edwards was your only driver who turned in a top-five finish with his third-place efforts. Matt Kenseth was the recipient of another driver’s aggression and paid the price with a 14th place finish versus the top-five where he was running at the time. Kahne finished 20th, David Reutimann finished 24th, while Hamlin finished 37th. Your average finish is 19.6.

Gibbons, you round out our Angels’ this week with your 19.8 average finish and No. 11 Angels’ spot. Bowyer and Johnson did you well with their fourth and seventh place finishes respectively. McMurray had an up and down day; finishing down in 15th place. Brian Vickers took “have at it boys” to heart and totally ruined Stewart’s top-five run to finish 36th himself. Hamlin rounds out your team with his 37th place finish.

For the record, with Knox’Ville’ only having four drivers in the field, I’m unable to accurately gauge our combined teams’ average finish this week.

Next week’s race is the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Raceway. This race will be run on Saturday night, July 2.

Don’t forget to check the ESPN Stock Car Challenge website to see where you stack up against the other Angels after this week’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 race at Infineon.

Good luck Angels.

Charlie