Oct 31

Written by: The Commish
10/31/2010 9:29 PM 

Kyle Busch was pushing Aric Almirola's Toyota to the finish line at Talladega on Saturday and somehow, right at the last second, made a move to grab the victory with Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton, Ricky Carmichael, James Buescher, Timothy Peters, Austin Dillon, Jason While and Craig Goess filling out the top 10.  Ken Schrader, David Star, Mike Skinner, Mike Garvey, Narain Karthikeyan and Justin Hobgood filled out the FMFL points-paying top 16.

Polesitter Ron Hornaday?  He crashed four laps from the end, wound up on his roof and was classified 21st, losing both his qualifying points the the 44 markers he would have earned for leacing the most laps ... if he'd finished in the top 16.

Toddy Bodine?  Also a scrum victim.  He finished 18th for zero fantasy points.   Bummer.

What do Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, Kyle and Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have in common?  They all scored zero FMFL points in Sunday's Cup race at Talladega.  Double bummer.

While everyone talked and worried and waited for a 'big one' the closest thing came on the white flag lap, putting A.J. Allmendinger on his roof the same way Hornaday flew on Saturday.  And when the caution light came on it was Clint Bowyer in front of Kevin Harvick by an rch, followed by Juan Pablo, David Reutimann, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski.  Mark Martin, Regan Smith, Paul Menard, Elliott Sadler, Sam Hornish and Matt Kenseth.

It wasn't a bad race but nothing like Martinsville last week.  I also expect a better race at Texas, and then Phoenix and Homestead.  Because I believe restrictor plate races are dumb.

Next week we have F1 at Interlagos in Brazil plus Cup, Nationwide and trucks at Texas Motor Speedway.  The GP championship is still wide open between Fernando Alonso, Team Red Bull and (maybe) Lewis Hamilton while the Cup chase is tighter than its ever been this late in the season.

Picks are due by Midnight this coming Thursday.   Don't forget!

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