At age 61, John Force wins for the 127th time in his career….
With all the hype about the young drivers this weekend at the 50th Winternationals at Pomona all eyes were on the youngsters, Robert Hight, Ashley Force and Bob Tasca to name a few. But round after round John Force who has not won an event in 20 months drove past the others to his 203rd career final round. When the smoke cleared John Force beat Ron Capps in a holeshot to win his 127th career event and his 5th Winternationals.
In other events Top Fuel was won by Larry Dixon and Mike Edwards continued his winning ways in the Pro Stock Division.
Daytona 500 should be called Pothole 520
Like so many others, I was glued to my TV for the Daytona 500 this Sunday. I sat through all the pre-race and could not wait for NASCAR to kick off it’s season. Nascar and Fox have hyped the 2010 season up so much with the talk of all the changes to the cars and NASCAR making the remark to the fans that this year the drivers would be allowed to race a little harder without fear of penalties from officals. I watched all the speedweek coverage and read the driver blogs to sharpen by nascar skills. Then came the race.
Nascar has decided to do away with the rear wing on the COT (Car of Today) and replace it with a more traditional spoiler as seen in years past, but chose not to implement this change for the 500 but to add a “side-fin” down the drivers rear window for stability. During the Nationwide race this made for some great racing and a spectacular finish. But Sunday the tempatures were in the low 50’s and the rubber washed from the track by a rain the day before. Cars were not only loose but very unpredictable causing several incidents. Then on Lap 122 Jimmy Johnson suffered damage and a flat tire when a 18 inch piece of asphalt came up from turn 2 and created a hole. The event was Red Flagged for 1 hour and 40 minutes before it could be restarted. Then with 39 laps remaining the patch that was to fix the hole came apart stopping the race for almost another hour. After a lap 198 caution it then took two attempts at a “green, white, checkered” to complete the race which went 520 miles instead of the original 500. Jammie McMurray held off a late charge by Dale Earnhardt Jr to win in his first race with the Bass Pro/Tracker Boats #1 team. What is called the “Greatest Show in Motorsports” became the longest with Fox’s coverage beginning at 11:00 am and ending at 7:00pm.