Dover and Las Vegas weekend

Hey folks! Here's my take on the Dover and Las Vegas weekend. The Trucks were at Vegas and the Nationwide and Cup were at Dover.




Saturday afternoon was the Nationwide race at Dover. Kyle Busch won with 101 laps led, followed by pole-sitter Joey Logano with 95 laps led, rookie Chase Elliott with 1 laps led, rookie Chris Buescher and Elliott Sadler. Rounding out the top-10 were Kyle Larson, Brian Scott with 3 laps led, Regan Smith, Trevor Bayne and rookie Ty Dillon. With 5 races to go, Chase Elliott seems to have clinched Rookie of the Year and the top-6 names won't change, probably. Chase Elliott, Regan Smith, Ty Dillon, Brian Scott, Elliott Sadler and Trevor Bayne could move around in points, but only with multiple missed races could a driver fall from the top-6. Chris Buescher, the seventh place driver, though only 1 spot behind Trevor, his teammate is more than a race back in points, due to a Daytona DNQ in February. He wouldn't be as many points back, otherwise.  Their other teammate Ryan Reed's 9th. Trevor has MS and Ryan has diabetes, but they can each control their disease and race anyway. Chase Elliot and Regan Smith are the main title contenders. Other drivers not mathematically eliminated are long shots. Ty , in 3rd place is almost a full race back from Chase, who still leads.  If Chase chokes, which means he has a bad race or stretch of these, Regan Smith , teammate will overtake him in points. In addition to being a rookie, Chase is 18, 19 in November, so I think he could choke. Also, things outside the driver's control can cause a bad race. Another driver could hit him or he could have car trouble and either of these could cause a DNF. If it was a bad enough wreck or a blown engine, his race would be over that day.




Saturday night was the Truck race at Vegas. Erik Jones won with 19 laps led, followed by Darrell Wallace, Jr. with 84 laps led, Matt Crafton with 4 laps led, Timothy Peters with 26 laps led and Brian Ickler. Rounding out the top-10 were pole-sitter Ryan Blaney with 6 laps led, rookie Ben Kennedy, Jeb Burton, Taylor Malsam and Joey Coulter with 1 lap led. Bryan Silas led 2 laps and finished 12th. Rookie Tyler Reddick finished 15th with 2 laps led.   German Quiroga was 16th with 1 lap led. TJ Bell led 1 lap before a blown engine relegated him to 25th.




Sunday was the Cup race at Dover. Jeff Gordon won with 94 laps led, followed by Brad Keselowski with 78 laps led, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth with 2 laps led. Rounding out the top-10 were rookie Kyle Larson, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer with 1 lap led and Kyle Busch. Carl Edwards was 11th with 1 lap led. Pole-sitter Kevin Harvick was 13th with 223 laps led. Jamie Mcmurray was 22nd with 1 lap led. Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon are the best rookies and Kyle L. will probably be Rookie of the Year. The new Chase has eliminations and the first 4 to go were AJ Allmendinger, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Aric Almirola. Allmendinger and Almirola were underdogs, as Allmendinger's more a road racer and Almirola won a plate race and their teams aren't the best. Allmendinger's team's small and Almirola's, is for some reason, just not that great. Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Jeff Gordon are in the next round on the win each has and the ones to be in on points are Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne. Eight of these will make it to the next round, which starts in three races. Each Chase round's three races, until the final race. Four drivers will still have a shot then and the one with the best finish wins. Some people don't like the Chase, say no playoffs in motorsports. They don't think it's good in this kind of sport. I don't care too much. I like to watch motorsports and basketball. That's it, since I was 11, when I got over my sporty phase I had as a kid.


Come back next week for my take on Kansas.