May
17
Written by:
The Commish
5/17/2011 2:58 PM
Kyle Busch held off rookie Cole Whitt on a couple of late race restarts to win the Friday truck race at Dover with Austin Dillon and Shrub's best friend Kevin Harvick filling out the top five. Ron Hornaday was ninth, Johnny Sauter 11th, Parker Kligerman (first and only Dodge) in 21st and Todd Bodine 27th with mechanical problems.
As usual it was a great race and more and more people are taking notice of the Camping World Truck Series. Numbers for the SPEED broadcast were up 26% from last year's race and it was the third in a row to register a ratings increase over 2010.
On Saturday Carl Edwards beat Kyle, Reed Sorenson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to win the Nationwide race and postpone Busch's replacing Mark Martin as the series winningest driver. David Reutimann and Elliott Sadler followed with Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Clint Bowyer 12th through 14th although they shoulda would coulda been among the top five if not for a crash as they approached the finish line. Jennifer Jo Cobb started 43rd and came home 37th.
Also on Saturday the No. 9 Barbosa/Borcheller/France Action Express Riley/Porsche Rolex Daytona Prototype did something no other car has been able to do since last season -- beat the all dominant No. 01 Ganassi Riley/BMW. Action also took third with their No. 5 Donohue/Law car and the No. 10 Suntrust Chevy/Dallara and the No. 77 Dallara/Ford filled out the top five.
There were less than a dozen DPs on the entry list and many of us thought the No. 99 car was a good pick; same with the pole-winning No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Coyote/Chevy. But late in the race the No. 90 hit the Gainsco car and knocked both of them out. Pisser.
On Sunday Matt Kenseth took advantage of a two-tire pit stop to win the Cup race at Dover over Mark Martin (who didn't stop for tires at all), Marcos Ambrose, Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers. Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex and Jimmie Johnson were next, penalized by taking four tires on the last stop, followed by Happy Harvick, Jeff Burton, Dale Jr., Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, David Reutimann and Denny Hamlin.
The fav's who scored bupkis included Jeff Gordon (17th), Greg Biffle (19th), Ryan Newman (21st) and Tony Stewart (29th). Kasey Kahne and A.J. Allmendinger were contenda's but blown engines relegated them to 36th and 37th.
This week it's the Cup All-Star Race and trucks at Chahlotte, Nationwide in Iowa and F1 at Barthelona. But most eyes will also be on qualifying at Indianapolis, where for the first time in way too many years there will actually be some drama re: who gets in and who goes home.
Lineups are due by Thursday at midnight and remember, both the truck race and All-Star free-for-all are live on SPEED this weekend.
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