Saturday night was easily the ugliest race that the 48 team of Jimmie Johnson had run all year. Indeed, it was one of the ugliest races that Johnson had run in quite a few seasons, with nothing that either Johnson or crew chief Chad Knaus working in any way.
"I forget how to race when you run like [garbage]," Knaus said at one point over the radio. Johnson was getting passed by the likes of Dave Blaney and David Ragan, guys whom Johnson usually dusts like roadsigns.
And when you're deep in the pack, bad things can happen. At one point, Johnson collided with Logano, sending Logano spinning into the wall. Johnson and Logano's crew chief Greg Zipadelli had profane words for one another over the radio, but that was just a little mouthiness, as it turned out.
While all the attention was focused on the front of the pack, with Kyle Busch running the show and Denny Hamlin trying to get close enough to read the M&Ms on his bumper, Johnson worked his way up through the pack through some canny pit strategy to finish a surprising eighth. (Logano managed an 11th-place finish even after spinning.)
After the race, Johnson took to Twitter to offer a simple assessment: "That's called making chicken salad out of chicken [garbage]," he wrote. (It was a profane kind of race, as you can see.)
This is why you can't ever count out the 48 team. They're the zombie apocalypse of NASCAR, always coming back again and again and again. And if they're in the mix for their sixth straight championship, it'll be because of nights like Saturday night. Like it or not.
Gretha Cavazzoni Marla Sokoloff Jennifer Love Hewitt Tina Fey Gina Philips
No comments:
Post a Comment