The 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship begins today under a partly cloudy sky in Loudon New Hampshire. Baby Genevieve Marie is on pit road with Daddy Jimmie.
Jimmie Johnson is taking no prisoners as the first race of The Chase begins going three-wide pretty early on. He said on the pre-race show that their strategy is to get into the top 10 then reassess where they are at that point. First caution is out on lap 26. Bobby Labonte spins Scott Speed who spent time yesterday in the in-care care center with an illness. Aric Almirola was on standby in case Scott needed him. Looks like he won’t be needed today.
Second caution is out on lap 40 and spin out with Marcos Ambrose and Paul Menard. Ambrose got a little lose on the bottom of the track and Menard didn’t give him a lot of room so when Marcos went around he took Menard with him.
Marty Reid talks too much!!! He is constantly talking over DJ and Petree, the only guys in the booth who actually know what they hell they’re talking about. He babbles so much it becomes obvious that he’s clueless and yet he never shuts up – no matter how wrong he is. It drives me insane. I was not a big fan of Dr. Jerry Punch. I respected his knowledge and experience, but his voice/delivery didn’t thrill me, but I didn’t find it a turn-off. I was recently so aggravated with the inappropriate, unprofessional behavior of Reid that I was prompted to send an e-mail to NASCAR.
Bowyer leads as we are back underway. Petree says McMurray actually beat Bowyer to the line. The last adjustment seems to have made the 48 way too lose. He was making up ground after a less than stellar qualifying result. He is in the top 10 after starting in the 25th position. It seems as though everybody is racing pretty hard early. There are 300 laps scheduled for this race. Scott Speed has been treated and released from the infield care center according to Marty-the-Mouth.
Green flag stops underway at lap 100. Jimmie got a pretty significant trackbar adjustment. Harvick is complaining to beat the band – he is a very unhappy driver. Big Daddy got five points for leading the last lap during the pit stops.
Scott Speed is back on the track 85 laps down (at lap 134). Caution is out on lap 146 for debris. Clint has been leading by a couple seconds or more for a while. AJ is very frustrated because Logano is racing him very hard for that lucky dog spot. Jr is a little frustrated because he was moving up nicely and Regan Smith blocked him as he was coming out of his pit stall. Carl needs a drink during his pit stop. Jimmie is up one spot into third in the race off pit road, Clint kept the lead, Carl lost a couple spots.
Kurt seemed to do his best to spin Jimmie when he got loose on the corner, but Jimmie held onto it. Jimmie lost from third to eighth on the restart, but he’s working his way back up. Clint restarts strong and Carl seems steady. Harvick is saying they’re having a pretty terrible day, 
two bad pit calls, a slow pit stop the last time – he said they’ve been terrible all weekend. RC piped up and said he’d look into what’s going on.
New Hampshire has put a granite stripe in at the start-finish line. It’s the granite state and the track now has the granite stripe – I guess hoping for their version of kissing the bricks? And what the hell is this business of Marty beginning a sentence with ‘Driver X’ says, “blah blah blah something stupid/juvenile/cliché/inappropriate”. To whom is this guy related??? Or with whom is he engaged in sexual congress or illegal activities? There has to be a reason that he has this job! It most certainly has nothing to do with talent or professionalism.
At lap 190 the race has kind of settled into a rhythm. Carl is a little concerned about his water temperature which has climbed up to 230, buy they’re just keeping an eye on things.
Clint’s head is getting bad and he’s worried that if there’s a green-white-checkered he’ll get passed. He asked what lap they were on. Apparently he wanted to come in and get an adjustment. There are 93 laps remaining. Caution is out. Mark Martin’s left front tire is down. Shane told Clint he had to stay out until Shane told him to come in in order to make it to the end. Clint says if there’s a green-white-checker he’s going to be in trouble because “this thing won’t go”. Shane told him not to worry about it, he’s been taking off fine, he’ll do it again. Clint just edges out Smoke on the race off pit road. It was very close. Close enough that NASCAR Race Control is going to review it. The over-the-wall reporter is someone different, Anwar Parrish. It was a nice change from Hollywood Armstrong. Big race for the lead between Smoke and Clint – Clint holds him off initially. Smoke took over the lead and Clint got into Smoke, but Smoke held on. Carl spun Denny who ended up going around but didn’t hit anything and no one hit him. Denny said, “99 just can’t hold his line can he”?
Denny is now in 22nd position. Jimmie got some fender damage during the incident when Kyle checked up and he got into Kyle’s rear quarter panel. Carl seems to have a bit of damage also. Now Big Daddy has taken the second spot from Clint. Looks like business is picking up again. Jimmie restarts in 23rd. Elliott got the free pass. Burton and Kurt Busch are battling for fourth place. Kurt spun because Burton didn’t give Kurt much room. Jimmie probably got into the 18 which sent both of them spinning. Kasey got into the back of Kyle. Carl snuck through both Jimmie and Kyle. Kyle came down trying to miss Kurt, hit Jimmie, which then caused both of them to spin. Kurt seemed to actually admit that it was his fault. Jimmie needs to get some fender damage fixed. The crew chiefs are saying if Denny can make it on fuel and stays out he could be in good position. Smoke Bowyer and Burton stayed out. Denny is in for a pit stop. Some got gas only; some two tires. They’re working on the 48 to make sure they get the damage taken care of. Jimmie will most likely start the race in the 20s since everybody else has left pit road.
There were about 75 laps to go when the wreck occurred. 72 laps to go now. Petree thinks the first three may have hung themselves out with their strategy. Jimmie is a couple spots behind Carl trying to get around AJ Allmendinger. Darien is counting on more yellow flags. There have been six chase contenders involved in the last two incidents. Carl is racing Kurt causing Jimmie to get stuck by Allmendinger who is doing his usual foolishness. Caution is out. Keselowski got into Kenseth and Kenseth hit the wall. 67 laps to go as we head to commercial break.
Going back to green with 63 laps to go. Clint spun the tires of the restart and lost a few spots. Jimmie is in hell with Kurt, Carl and Biff, Montoya, Elliott Sadler and Kyle ahead of him and Allmendinger and Ragan around him. Clint says his car is so loose he’s just trying to hang on. Caution is out with Logano and Elliott Sadler spinning around – probably courtesy of Kurt Busch. Yep, Kurt got lose and into Logano, Elliot came down on Jimmie trying to avoid Logano. David Ragan got the free pass. JPM, Biff and Busch are pitting. Kenseth is in as well for a stop.
Burton is going after Bowyer with 50 laps to go. Carl is a bit lose and kind of all over the place, but so far he hasn’t wrecked Kurt Busch, AJ or anyone else. Smoke has regained the lead after Jamie Mc gave a strog challenge. Happy Denny and Big Daddy are battling for either. Kyle is in tenth. Jimmie says he has a huge chatter. He’s bringing it down pit road with 45 laps to go. Jimmie thinks there may be a loose wheel. Chad told him to bring it in if he thought he needed to. Jimmie brought the car in. 44 laps to go as Jimmie heads back out of the pits.
Kid Rock is on now with a Red Stag (Jim Beam) commercial suggesting people drink responsibly if they’re going to be out drinking tonight. I wonder if he was drinking responsibly when he got into that brawl in the Waffle House that he’s just finished a trial for here in Dekalb County.
Jimmie said it wasn’t vibrating now when he got back out there. Chad said the right front wheel was was loose. Jimmie is one lap down. Chad told him to just cruise; there’s nothing they can do about it now, until a caution comes out. BooBoo is in fifth after his earlier issues. Newman is racing Kyle for the tenth position with 33 laps to go. Smoke is still leading, but Clint is back in second.
Let’s see if this keyboard is a bit more helpful. I absolutely hate the keyboard on my laptop. It is thoroughly uncomfortable. Smoke is way ahead right now. Jimmie is in 26th. Jimmie is one position away from getting in the Lucky Dog position. He has to get around Robby Gordon who seems to be slowing down. Denny has gotten around BooBoo for fifth. Denny says the 11 team has lost enough to be able to win a chase now. There are 22 laps remaining. Carl is trying to get past Sam for the 12th position. AJ is following Carl. Kurt is sliding around behind AJ. Hornish is free to look for another ride because they don’t have sponsorship for him. They want to keep him, but just don’t have anything. The 33 team believes they’re short on fuel. They’re telling him to go get Smoke and to save fuel and Clint finally told them he couldn’t do both. So right now the strategy is to run second and hope Smoke runs out. Petree says if it doesn’t work for Clint it will be ugly and he will be in the 20s. McMurray is the first car that probably has enough fuel – he pitted eight laps after them. Denny just passed Burton. Mike Ford has told Denny that he has plenty of fuel so he can go after the leaders. 15 laps to go. Mike Ford says he doesn’t think the leaders will have enough fuel so he left it up to Denny to choose what to do. Smoke has a 1.2 second lead with 13 laps to go. AJ is now seemingly trying to battle Carl for thirteenth.
Denny just took the third spot from Jamie Mc. AJ is tring to take the spot from Carl still with four laps to go. Jr just passed Burton. Burton says he’s running out of fuel. Smoke is out. Clint has the white flag. Denny is coming hard at Clint. Clint wins!!! Smoke finished in 24th position. He’s trying to coast across the line and Clint is burning them down! Nice burnout and Smoke coasted across the line.
They were guiding Clint all the way, telling him when to save a little on one of the turns and when to get into the gas coming out to the checkered flag.
That was a pretty good race. Clint ran out of gas after the burnout and had to get a push. Denny is disappointed though he’s trying to be positive. He says they’re strong though. He still thinks they’ve got what it takes. He said he knew Clint would run out of fuel before he did.
Clint has jumped up to second in the points 35 behind Denny. He’s touting the momentum this gives them.
Smoke is not happy, but happy with what the team did. Smoke says he believes he ran them out of fuel. He says they apologized to him for running im out of fuel, but he thinks he ran them out of fuel. He’s not giving up and is still rather positive about the Chase.
Jr finished fourth. BooBoo is trying to do a positive interview, but, you know BooBoo, all the bad stuff is definitely there. Dover is next week, followed by Kansas. Clint has the giant lobster.
Congratulations to Beautiful Butt Bowyer on his first win of the season and the first win of the 2010 Sprint Cup Chase. He was the last to clinch a Chase spot, but once again he’s came out swinging.