The Pit Stall

Another eventful race is in the books of this 2008 Nascar Sprint Cup series season.  Jimmie Johnson did all he could to put this Chase for the Championship away, with his 3rd straight win at Phoenix, but Carl Edwards patiently worked his way through the field to finish 4th, keeping his slim chances at a title alive.  Johnson needs only a 36th place finish at Homestead-Miami to clinch the title, regardless of what Edwards does.  Everyone else have now been eliminated from contention.

This week pretty much clinched the title in my fantasy league.  A solid 300+ point race boosted my lead to over 200 points, which is near impossible to pick up in one week.  It’ll be nice to wrap up my first ever championship in a Nascar pool, after placing 2nd in two leagues in 2007.  I’ll comment more on results in other leagues once the season is complete.

Group 1 – Jimmie Johnson(0) & Carl Edwards(2)

I used my 9th and last start for Johnson in the desert, and was rewarded with max points for the win, pole and most laps lead.  A much needed, almost perfect performance by the #48 team was key in my team boosting it’s lead over my competition, who had started Edwards, and earned top 5 finish.  Jimmie is now my only option not available for the season finale.

Group 2 – Kyle Busch(0), Ryan Newman(2), Mark Martin(0), Martin Truex Jr(7)

This group was the key to victory in this race.  It was set up for disaster as I had Truex Jr and Newman set to start up until the morning of the race, and switched them out for the experience and consistency of Martin, in his last race at DEI, and Kyle Busch.  Truex Jr’s engine went very early in the race and he finished 43rd, while Newman finished 11 laps down in 34th, after having an early tire problem, serving a pit road penalty and eventually having to spend some time in the garage area fixing a sway bar problem.  Kyle Busch finished 8th and Mark Martin 14th, neither were ever really in contention for the lead, but still came away with respectible finishes.

Group 3 – Travis Kvapil(3), David Reutimann(1)

Reutimann ended up getting yet another start this week, and although he began the race up front, he ended up coming across the line in 25th position.  Not terrible from this group of drivers, but not great either.  Kvapil would have been the better option as he ended up finishing 21st.  This group was a wash for the week as the challenging team also started the #44.  Of course after not putting Allmendinger on the roster for the week, he was the top Group 3 finisher.

Recap

• Points for this race: 303 (Johnson, Truex Jr, Ky Busch, Reutimann)
• Most Possible Points: 365 (Johnson, McMurray, Biffle or Earnhardt Jr (Ku Busch qual), Allmendinger (Reutimann qual))
• Season Points : 9555
• Current Place : 1st
• Lead over 2nd : 203
• Overall Percentile : 97th

Filed under: Pit Picks, Short Tracks by Site Admin - Sunday, November 9th, 2008