Aug 8

Written by: The Commish
8/8/2010 5:20 PM 

Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.  For this past weekend the Commish's team was definitely an insect as I got smacked in four of the six races to score a whopping 406 points.

The Nationwide race at the Glen saw Marcus Ambrose win his third in a row at that track in that series, with Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick filling out the podium -- if NASCAR believed in podiums -- followed by Brad Keselowski, Kyle, Ron Fellows, Nelson Piquet Jr., Jacques Villenueve, Steve Wallace and Michael McDowell.  I picked Carl Edwards, the guy who was fastest in practice and the winner of the last two NNS road races.  Flipper had an engine problem and dropped out to finish 33rd on the results sheet for zero FMFL points.

The trucks raced at Nashville and wasn't it nice to hear our National Anthem performed by young adults who could carry a tune and stay on beat without a metronome.  Toddy Bodine started and finished first, leading the most laps, with Austin Dillon, Aric Almirola, Timothy Peters and Johnny Sauter filling out the top five with Hornaday, Brian Ickler (in the 18 truck usually driven by Kyle Busch), Justin Lofton and Ken Schrader filling out the top 10.

I picked Schrader and scored a whopping 92 points ... but at least I was on the board.  Note:  Congrats to Jennifer Jo Cobb on finishing 19th in the highest-placing Ford.  Not that I have anything against Dodges but this series sure could use more Big Blue teams to try and keep the riceburners and bow-tie boys honest.

At Mid-Ohio the American Le Mans Series raced on Saturday with Chris Dyson and Guy Smith driving their No. 16 Lola/Mazda to a very close victory over the how-could-you-pick-anyone-else No. 1 Patron Highcroft HPD ARX-01c. Five of the next six finishers were driving the spec Chevy-powered Oreca FLM09 with one LMP1 in fourth and six GT cars ninth through 14th.  My pick?  The pole-winning No. 8 Drayson Lola; the car that crashed an hour into the event and not classified in the final results.  Rats.

Meanwhile, back at the Glen, the Grand-Am Rolex race was run with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas driving the No. 01 Riley/BMW DP to victory over the No. 10 SunTrust Dallara/Ford, the No. 99 Riley/Chevy, the No. 8 Riley/BMW and the No. 90 Coyote/Porsche.  This was the 01's seventh win of the season and the Chipster's first of the weekend.  My picks?  The Ganassi 01 (thank goodness) and the qualified-second No. 61 AIM Autosport Riley/Ford ... which crashed out early to be classified 23rd out of 28 starters.

Today was the Cup race at the Glen, won by Juan Pablo over Kurt Busch, Marcos Ambrose, A.J. Allmendinger and Carl Edwards.  Jamie McMurray, Smoke, Kyle, Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon filled out the top 10 with Harvick, Ryan Newman, noted road race lover Matt Kenseth, Sam Hornish, Martin Truex and Paul Menard filling out the FMFL points-paying top 16.  Ganassi got his first-even NASCAR Cup victory which was also the first for Target, meaning he was two-for-two for the weekend.  I picked Greg Biffle, who was also fastest in practice and at least among the top 10 in the race until getting tapped and shuffled back to a 24th place finish near race's end.  Another goose egg.

So I had no expectations whatsoever for the Mid-Ohio IndyCar race as I started Graham Rahal, who was fastest in the Friday morning practice at Mid-Ohio but not even mid-pack in Saturday practice or qualifying.  I wasn't surprised to see Dario win over Will Power, Helio, Alex Tagliani, Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe, i.e. the usual suspects.  Raphael Matos was seventh in front of Simona De Silvestro, Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay with Bertrand Baguette, Mario Moraes, Alex Lloyd, Dan Wheldon, Vitor Meira and first-time-IndyCar starter J.R. Hildebrand filling out the top 16.  Ashley Judd's husband gave Chip Ganassi his third W of the weekend and hood for Ganassi, Target and all those associate sponsors on the hat trick.

Oh.  My pick.  After struggling throughout the race Bobby's son had a couple of off-track excursions which resulted in a 20th-place finish result.  And nother zero for me.

Sheesh.

Some may think I threw this round because I am, or was leading the SPEED Celebrity private league and the Commish should never be showing up the real experts.  That is not the case.

But at least it's a horse race now.

And I hope to heck I don't have another weekend like this one.

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