Kyle Busch had a big weekend. So did the People's Pitstop.
With your insight and assistance, the Internet's favorite fantasy NASCAR team racked up 292 points during Sunday's race at Michigan International Speedway, even though none of our drivers led a single lap. Our season total of 6,281 is good enough to put us back into first place in the 9beersfantasysportstavern league. But we lead Jeff Gordon Dupont 24 by only 16 points, so we'll need to keep on our toes.
Here's how we got to the top.
Tony Stewart: Started 18th, finished 9th and 74 fantasy points. Despite his strong finish, Stewart told an interviewer after the race that his team was "wasting" a Chase spot. Still, you get the feeling he isn't go to offer that spot to Clint Bowyer out of the goodness of his heart.
Brad Keselowski: Started 6th, finished 3rd and 86 fantasy points. This was Keselowski's fourth straight top 10 finish. Between Keselowski's broken ankle this season and Denny Hamlin's knee surgery last season, NASCAR drivers are going to start wondering if they need to hurt themselves every season.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Started 8th, finished 14th and 64 fantasy points. In Earnhardt's young career -- remember, he's still only 36 years old -- he has gone through more than his share of crew chiefs. With the latest disagreement about that last pit stop before the green-white-checkered finish, could he be wearing out his welcome with another one?
David Ragan: Started 7th, finished 12th and 68 fantasy points. This was Ragan's ninth and final start for the People's Pitstop. This season, the soon-to-be-B-lister scored 626 points for us, or 69.6 points per start. His average finish was 14.6. His best performance for us is a tie between the Texas race (started on the pole and finished 7th) and the 600-mile race in Charlotte (finished 2nd); he scored 98 points in each race. His worst performance for us was at Watkins Glen this month, when he scored 36 and had a heck of a wreck. And I'll bet you, the Internet, can't wait for a chance to vote for him again.
You also can't wait for the Saturday night race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Well, you don't have to wait to vote in the lineup polls, which are available right now and will close Thursday night.
For those of you who prefer fantasy football, you can vote in the running back poll that will help the People's Pigskin determine its draft strategy. That poll will stay open through Saturday night. Please vote now.
Showing posts with label Brad Keselowki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brad Keselowki. Show all posts
Monday, August 22, 2011
Thursday, July 22, 2010
"He Crashed Me" Redux?
Sometimes an unavoidable delay in your plans can prove to be a blessing.
For a couple of weeks, we at the People's Pigskin had planned a post urging NASCAR fans to pick up a copy of He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back, Mark Bechtel's authoritative look at the 1979 NASCAR season and how it helped make stock car racing a national phenomenon instead of a regional curiosity.
Yes, I know the People's Pigskin is hardly the first site to praise the book, but there is a fresh point to be made.
Bechtel does chronicle the entire season, including the yearend shootout in Ontario between Darrell Waltrip and Richard Petty. And the book does have some flaws. (Half the "footnotes" could have been incorporated into the main text with minimal effort.) But one of its strongest aspects is its look at the now-famous 1979 Daytona 500.
He describes what would prove a perfect storm for NASCAR: a blizzard that brought most of the eastern United States to a standstill, CBS' eyebrow-raising agreement to televise the race live in its entirety, the last-lap crash between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison (allowing Petty to win the race) and the subsequent fistfight between Yarborough and the Allison brothers that was seen by millions, many of whom have been watching stock car racing ever since.
Though no one involved with NASCAR goes so far as to endorse fistfights, lots of people still credit the fight with expanding the sport's audience by an order of magnitude. And none of the participants in that fight have suffered image-wide in the long term as a result.
Which brings us to Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski.
For the second time this season, Edwards and Keselowski banged heads last week during the Nationwide race at Gateway International Raceway. Keselowski (intentionally or not) collided with Edwards early in the final lap, and Edwards responded by colliding with Keselowski. The second collision allowed Edwards to win the race.
NASCAR has been telling anyone who will listen this season that it is letting its drivers "have at it" on the track, responded to the latest incident by fining Edwards, docking him points and putting both drivers on probation for the rest of the season. Is this the end of "have at it"? Hardly. But you have to wonder what would have happened if NASCAR had responded this way when Allison and Yarborough had their most famous incident.
(A fantasy racing aside: Edwards and Keselowski will remain in the lineup polls as long as they are still driving, but it would take a real leap of faith to vote for these drivers while they seem to be wearing matching targets on their rear quarter panels.)
For a couple of weeks, we at the People's Pigskin had planned a post urging NASCAR fans to pick up a copy of He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back, Mark Bechtel's authoritative look at the 1979 NASCAR season and how it helped make stock car racing a national phenomenon instead of a regional curiosity.
Yes, I know the People's Pigskin is hardly the first site to praise the book, but there is a fresh point to be made.
Bechtel does chronicle the entire season, including the yearend shootout in Ontario between Darrell Waltrip and Richard Petty. And the book does have some flaws. (Half the "footnotes" could have been incorporated into the main text with minimal effort.) But one of its strongest aspects is its look at the now-famous 1979 Daytona 500.
He describes what would prove a perfect storm for NASCAR: a blizzard that brought most of the eastern United States to a standstill, CBS' eyebrow-raising agreement to televise the race live in its entirety, the last-lap crash between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison (allowing Petty to win the race) and the subsequent fistfight between Yarborough and the Allison brothers that was seen by millions, many of whom have been watching stock car racing ever since.
Though no one involved with NASCAR goes so far as to endorse fistfights, lots of people still credit the fight with expanding the sport's audience by an order of magnitude. And none of the participants in that fight have suffered image-wide in the long term as a result.
Which brings us to Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski.
For the second time this season, Edwards and Keselowski banged heads last week during the Nationwide race at Gateway International Raceway. Keselowski (intentionally or not) collided with Edwards early in the final lap, and Edwards responded by colliding with Keselowski. The second collision allowed Edwards to win the race.
NASCAR has been telling anyone who will listen this season that it is letting its drivers "have at it" on the track, responded to the latest incident by fining Edwards, docking him points and putting both drivers on probation for the rest of the season. Is this the end of "have at it"? Hardly. But you have to wonder what would have happened if NASCAR had responded this way when Allison and Yarborough had their most famous incident.
(A fantasy racing aside: Edwards and Keselowski will remain in the lineup polls as long as they are still driving, but it would take a real leap of faith to vote for these drivers while they seem to be wearing matching targets on their rear quarter panels.)
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