Tony Stewart - The Great Atlanta Comeback!
Wow, what crazy day of racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway! The racing was fast, loose and crash filled and that was the first 65 laps of 325. As my blog readers already know, I am really on here to talk about how Tony Stewart did so I will not say much about Kurt Busch's dominance, Jeff Gordon's resurgence, Brian Vickers' bad luck, or Joey Logano's relentless quest to test the build quality of every outside retaining wall at each track the series visits (one of the announcer's actually referred to brushing the wall as pulling a "full Logano" today).
I was actually afraid that today was going to be a relatively poor day for Tony as his car was a little off the pace and after 60 laps he was pretty close to falling a lap down to the leader of the race. He pitted to have his car serviced and fell two laps down in the process, after one of the strangest caution flag calls I have ever seen. A crew guy ran half way across the infield grass to retrieve a stray tire and the officials threw a caution flag that lapped all but 6 drivers 65 laps into the race. I have watched NASCAR for at least 20 yrs. and I have never seen anything like this.
For the next hundred or so laps Tony was mired in the field 2 laps down in around 30th position. Then his car came alive and he managed to get both of his laps back and start his march back toward the front of the field. It was awesome! He finished 8th for the third time this season and moved up to 6th position in the season long points standings.
All I can say is that he is doing great and it looks like Stewart Haas Racing is going to be a racing force all season long. Keep going Tony!
I was actually afraid that today was going to be a relatively poor day for Tony as his car was a little off the pace and after 60 laps he was pretty close to falling a lap down to the leader of the race. He pitted to have his car serviced and fell two laps down in the process, after one of the strangest caution flag calls I have ever seen. A crew guy ran half way across the infield grass to retrieve a stray tire and the officials threw a caution flag that lapped all but 6 drivers 65 laps into the race. I have watched NASCAR for at least 20 yrs. and I have never seen anything like this.
For the next hundred or so laps Tony was mired in the field 2 laps down in around 30th position. Then his car came alive and he managed to get both of his laps back and start his march back toward the front of the field. It was awesome! He finished 8th for the third time this season and moved up to 6th position in the season long points standings.
All I can say is that he is doing great and it looks like Stewart Haas Racing is going to be a racing force all season long. Keep going Tony!
Yay Tony! Keep racing, Smoke!