The Cool Down Lap: You’re not in the Chase? Blame Mother Nature

The Cool Down Lap: You’re not in the Chase? Blame Mother Nature

 

(August 8, 2011)

 

LONG POND, Pa.—When it comes down to it, the drivers won’t be the ones who have the most to do with who qualifies for the wild-card spots in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup—and who doesn’t.

 Nor will it be the crew chiefs, engineers, pit crews, fabricators or the relative depth of the owners’ pockets.

 Like it or not, five races hence, Mother Nature will have as much to do with the final Chase lineup as all the combined efforts of the competitors and their support crews.

 That’s right—fickle, unpredictable, whimsical Mother Nature. After Sunday’s Good Sam RV 500 at Pocono Raceway, Brad Keselowski will be singing the praises of the grande dame. No doubt Joey Logano would prefer to put a cap in the witch.

 During the 100-minute rain delay in Sunday’s race, I did what sportswriters do. I wrote the story of the race on the assumption that it was over, knowing full well the story would be useless if the race resumed.

 Here’s what happened in that story:

 • “Rain Man” Joey Logano won the second storm-shortened race of his career.

• Logano made a meteoric move from irrelevance to a Chase-eligible position as a wild card.

• Logano thumbed his nose at those who had promulgated rumors that he would be replaced in the No. 20 Home Depot car by Carl Edwards—rumors Edwards quashed by announcing an extension with Roush Fenway Racing.

• Denny Hamlin climbed back into the top 10 in the standings with a top-five finish, opening up a potential wild-card spot for Logano, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.

• With Hamlin back in the top 10, Paul Menard held the first provisional wild card spot.

• By pitting right before the stoppage for rain, Brad Keselowski dropped like a rock in the running order, finished 24th and remained outside the top 20 in points, his Chase hopes bleak despite an earlier victory at Kansas.

 When the rain began to fall in torrents, it appeared for all the world the story would stand. Even as the track got soaked, there was another storm cell 70 miles to the west, moving toward the speedway fast enough to counteract frantic efforts to dry the track.

 But Mother Nature fooled us. The cell to the west broke up, the sun came out, track drying proceeded apace, and the race ran the final 76 laps to conclusion, rendering untrue every assertion in the story written during the delay.

 Instead:

 • The very pit strategy that would have buried Keselowski in a rainout put his No. 2 Dodge and the No. 22 of Penske Racing teammate Kurt Busch at the front of the field, because the rest of the leap-lap cars had to pit after the resumption.

• Keselowski’s heroic drive on a broken left ankle gave him a second victory, promoted him to 18th in the standings and rendered him an odds-on favorite to make the Chase.

• Logano cut a tire, made a late unscheduled pit stop and finished 26th, his Chase hopes all but over.

• A problem with lug nuts on Hamlin’s final pit stop buried the No. 11 car in traffic for the last restart. Hamlin finished 15th and remained 11th in the standings (23 points behind 10th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr.), in a provisional wild-card position.

• As it stands now, Keselowski and Hamlin are the wild cards, and Menard is out.

• After getting so little out of what could have been a dominating run, Logano has to wonder if there might be someone else knocking on the door of the No. 20 car.

 Logano, who was ebullient during the rain delay, let his crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, speak for him after the race.

 “We did all we could,” Zipadelli said. “We sat on the pole, we led a bunch of laps, we had a very respectable top-five car—I think one of our better performances in the last 2 1/2 years. So I’m not going to hang my head and be miserable over something on the racetrack. I can’t control that.”

 No, on Sunday, Mother Nature was in control, and Logano became a victim of circumstance when the spiteful old lady, who had given him his only Cup victory at New Hampshire in 2009, decided to balance the equation.

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service