Loudon thoughts and observations

Sometimes its better to be lucky then good. Kurt Busch proved that old adage Sunday by winning the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 thanks to a timely rainfall in Loudon, New Hampshire. Michael Waltrip finished second, followed by J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex Jr. and Elliott Sadler.

Thoughts and observations

Considering the kind of year Kurt Busch has had since finishing second at Daytona, this was just what the doctor ordered. He didn't have the best car Sunday, i'd go so far as to say he didn't have the 20th best car. But, sometimes it doesn't matter how good your car is. More importantly, it matters where you are on the track when that black rain cloud comes flying into the area.

Tony, Tony, Tony. What does Tony Stewart have to do to win a race this season? The man dominated Sunday's race and led the most laps but thanks to pit strategy he ended up a disappointing 13th. But that's alright, Daytona is next week and Tony's been known to use Daytona as a mid season launching pad.

Michael Waltrip and J.J. Yeley couldn't have asked for a better forecast Sunday afternoon. That rain gave both drivers their best finishes of the 2008 season. It was Yeley's best finish since his 2nd place in the Coca-Cola 600 in 2007 and Waltrip's best since a 10th place finish at Charlotte last fall.

Less then a week after his announcement that he'd be leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the season, Casey Mears led 53 laps and finished 7th on Sunday. That follows his season best finish of 5th last week at Infineon Raceway. So, let me get this straight, you announce your leaving your job and you have your two best performances of the season back to back? I don't get it.

Despite qualifying first, Patrick Carpentier didn't exactly have a great race. He did hang up front until the first round of pit stops, but after that he fell sharply through the field all the way to the back. He ended up finishing 31st. But hey, on the plus side, he's in the Shootout at Daytona in February.

You don't usually see many tempers flare up at New Hampshire but Juan Pablo Montoya let his temper get the best of him Sunday. For those that missed it, under the last caution flag Kyle Busch and Montoya were racing hard for position. Once the caution came out the two exchanged bumps. Apparently Montoya didn't really appreciate it and attempted to spin out Busch. The result? Busch over corrected when Montoya hit him and he spun right back down into Montoya taking both drivers out. A bone head move if I've ever seen one. And oh yeah, NASCAR penalized Montoya 2 laps for rough driving. D'oh.

So much for all those cars that qualified in the top 10. Some of them did good, others, well not so much. Carpentier (pole sitter) finished 31st, Bobby Labonte (outside pole) finished 10th, Kevin Harvick (3rd) finished 14th, Scott Riggs (4th) finished 34th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (5th) finished 24th, Reed Sorenson (6th) finished 6th, Dario Franchitti (7th) finished 38th, Martin Truex Jr. (8th) finished 4th, Matt Kenseth (9th) finished 18th and A.J. Allmendinger (10th) finished shotgun on the field (in other words, dead last). So, 3 of the top 10 starters finished in the top 10 while the rest were 14th or worst. Ouch.

With only 9 races left for drivers to claw their way into the chase, Kevin Harvick moved back into the top 12 with his 14th place finish, 15 points ahead of Matt Kenseth who dropped back into 13th after his first finish outside the top 10 in the last 7 races. It looks like Harvick, Kenseth, Bowyer, Kahne and Stewart are the drivers who will be battling for the 12th place spot. Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers are also pretty close but will need some help to get there. David Ragan has free fallen a bit to over 120 points behind but he can still make a charge and get into the chase with a little bit of luck.

Now, to the other race, the race to get into the top 35 in owner points. The No. 66 car driven by Scott Riggs sits 36th in the standings, 25 points behind both the No. 00 driven by Michael McDowell and the No. 77 driven by Sam Hornish Jr. (they are tied with 1,294 points).