Monday, March 12, 2012

Keselowski's Enemy: EFI; Edwards Aplogizes; Jr Ticked at Mark?

Keselowski's EFI Troubles Persist
As the closing laps of the Kobalt Tools 400 were winding down, for but a moment the No. 2 car of Brad Keselowski looked like he had the race won... or at least in strong contention for the win.

But then on a restart, not only did Brad drop like a rock from the front row to pit road, but ended up several laps down.  And despite the EFI not picking up any fuel, they had ended the day with fuel in the car.  Which means something was afoul with the EFI system.

Brad's team is struggling to figure things out because the last thing they really need are more potentially good runs getting ruined by the new EFI system.  And they took this on the chin, saying it's on them to figure it out.

Oh, and by the way, this was the same issue they had the previous week at Phoenix, but they didn't get stung so bad there.


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Edwards Apologizes to Kenseth


Where have we heard this before?:  "It's too bad he got wrecked."

Last weekend during one of the many restarts to the Las Vegas race, Carl Edwards had come down on the apron of the track while getting a jump on his teammate.  By going below the line, by the time turn one came up, Edwards had to get up onto the actual racing surface.  This forced Kenseth up the track and into Kasey Kahne and the wall.

The results?

Edwards 5th, Kahne 19th, Kenseth 22nd.

News reports said that Matt Kenseth left the track pretty quickly while Edwards might have been looking for him...  but the apology sounds like something we'll probably be seeing more of.

To be honest, I think we're going to be seeing more of the old Carl Edwards when it comes to doing what he has to, to secure every extra point this year.  Last year he lost the championship to a tie breaker with Tony Stewart.  And I thought back then that this bodes ill for the 2012 season, because all he had to do was finish one spot higher at any one race to be the NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion.

I think this year he's going to make sure he has that extra point.  And we all know what that means to anyone in his way.  Carl is an aggressive driver who does not apologize for his actions, even when it involves entire fields of cars caught up in his winning ways, so gang, look out!

But regarding last weekend, it really didn't look like Carl forced Kenseth up the track.. but that it's possible that Matt just had the air pulled off his car and he got sucked up into the wall.  But then again, that might not have taken place if they weren't three-wide coming past the green flag on the restart!

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Dale Earnhardt Jr Apologizes to Mark Martin

Man, what is it with all the apologies coming out of Vegas?

With around 25 laps to go, Dale Earnhardt Jr. plowed the back of Mart Martin's car, sending him into the wall and relegating him to an 18th place finish while Dale Jr. finished 10th.

The reason for the plow?

It seems that Earnhardt was passing Martin on the outside at one point and Martin drove defensively, slowing Earnhardt down.  Junior says there's some unwritten etiquette about this situation.

He also pointed out that he didn't mean to cause the kind of damage to Mark's car that ensued after shoving him up the track.  But that always seems to be the case, isn't it?

Me, I see it as racing as it is.

But Dale Jr. did have a good looking day yesterday until he got mired in traffic and then it was a struggle to get back to that winning speed once he was out of clean air.  Well, at least Junior Nation had some fun watching those first 70 laps!

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