FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Hello race fans.   This blog will be quicker than a gas and go pit stop so hang on, check it out and post your comments.

1  --  Mark Martin  --  gets his third win of the year at Michiganis most wins in a season since 1998.  Even though it's great to see the 50 year old in Victory Lane, did Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle get to greedy in racing each other and burning up more fuel, thus running out on the last lap?  Martin is credited with leading only one lap.  The one that counted the most. 

2  --  Double File Restarts  --  After only two races, they seem to have made the restarts more exciting.  It may just be me, but it seems like the cars are running faster on those restarts.  In Michigan's race this past weekend, Jimmie Johnson still was able to get a full second lead in less than five laps.  They say cautions breed cautions.  That is true but in Michigan's race, there were only 3 cautions for 14 laps and the race was run in 2 hours, 36 minutes.  Could these type of restarts continue to lead to fewer cautions and the races run in less time?

3  --  Jeff Gordon  --  Blows an engine in practice on Friday, starts at the back and charges to a second place finish.  One commentator mentioned in the post race shows that if Jeff could have gotten better track position, he could have contended for the win.  That's a possibility only because we have seen so many times what he does when he gets out front and drives in clean air.  He would have still had a top five finish if Biffle and Johnson would not have run out of gas.  Here's something to think about for the road race at Sonoma next week.  How will his back hold up?  He'll have hard braking and more accelerations than normal and tight turns.  In some of those turns, he'll hop the curb some and that will jolt him. 

4  --  Juan Pablo Montoya  --  It seems as though driving a Chevy has given him a shot in the bow tie.  He seems to be running better throughout the season.   His 6th place finish at Michigan is his second straight top 10.  With a road course coming up next week, which is a strong suit for him, could we continue to see him climb through the standings?

 5  --  "Seatonomics"  --  That's my new term for judging how the economy is affecting sports.   While the lower 10 rows seemed to be empty throughout the front stretch, the stands in the turns were virtually empty.  Since Michigan has been hit exceptionally hard, I expected empty seats scattered throughout the speedway.  I wasn't prepared to see the thousands of empty seats in the turns.  I thought this would be a chance for some Canadiens to come down to catch a Sprint Cup race.  While some may have done so, it wasn't many. 

So fans, that will do it for this week's nuts, and no, I'm not talking about certain members of RNF (you know who you are).    Remember fans, before you leave the pits, make sure your lugnuts are tight.