Wednesday, May 31, 2017

2017 NASCAR Pit Road Week 12: Charlotte

Weekly Review and Power Rankings

Coca-Cola 600

Image result for austin dillon charlotte

By Richard Tix

"We want more driver personalities and opinions." Kyle Busch say's something, questions stop, he finishes his interview once the questions stop. "Well, we don't want that!" People.....Make. Up. Your. Mind.

You don't get to pick and choose which personalities you get or who it is. Sure, you can not like Kyle Busch for whatever reason you want, but just realize it could be hypocritical if you want o get more raw emotion from NASCAR drivers. 

Guys, this is Kyle Busch the driver. He is brash and he wears his emotion on his sleeve. Maybe he does it in a way you don't like (I for one am not his biggest fan), but you need to start to realize we need guys like him around in the sport... I for one have spent more time defending some of his actions then I would like as a non Rowdy fan, but it has to be done because the hate has gotten out of hand.

Comments of "he needs to be fined" or "someone needs to put him in his place" are over the line. I for one wouldn't think I would handle the situations he is quiet like he does, but at the same time I am not in his shoes so I can't tell you if I would or wouldn't. 

On top of that, everyone is different and that is what makes life, well, life. It's what makes everyday original because you never know who you might run into and their personality. It's why you don't know what you will get after a race with high emotion and it's what most fans ask for (more emotion). Sure, Kyle may go about it different then you may think you would, but that doesn't mean we don't need his personality around and NASCAR should fine him until he shuts up. 

Kyle, I may not always agree with the way you go about things but keep being you. 

Oh, and Austin Dillon won his first career race which was pretty cool. Sure, it may have been on a fuel mileage strategy, but that is still a strategy that will always be around no matter how many "stages" we get a race.

With AD winning it brings the "cut" line up one spot when we start thinking about the playoffs. AD was a guy who we knew could win, but wasn't running that well that we thought it would happen before the playoffs (I actually predicted RCR would continue to trend up this year and win a race or two). He also beat Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney to VL after both drivers were all the talk of the early season. So, congrats Austin and RCR on a well thought out win and a good shot at the 2017 Playoffs.



Pit Road Power Rankings: Week 12 (Week 11)

  1. Martin Truex Jr (LW-2)- Truex had one of the best cars of the evening just one week after winning his second race of 2017.
  2. Kevin Harvick (LW-4)- Another top ten and another week without a win. It's still strange they haven't found VL yet, but it should happen eventually.
  3. Kyle Busch (LW-9)- Three straight top fives for Rowdy. Don't look now but Toyota is starting to turn it around.
  4. Brad Keselowski (LW-1)- Some bad luck in front of him cost him his evening at Charlotte, but BK is still a multi winner and third in points.
  5. Jamie McMurray (LW-6)- Sixth in points without a win. The last time he finished worse than 12th was race six at Martinsville.
  6. Kyle Larson (LW-3)- After wrecking on Sunday Larson now finally has a finish higher then 17th on the season, his first non top 20 in 2017.
  7. Jimmie Johnson (LW-5)- JJ had a good car for the 600 but in the end didn't seal the deal. 
  8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr (LW-7)- Ricky still finished in the top 15 (15th) and will look to get back to the top ten next week.
  9. Denny Hamlin (LW-NR)- Every few races it looks like Denny is going to get back on track and Charlotte's top five was one of those races.
  10. Joey Logano (LW-8)- It's been a rough few races for JoLo, but he should bounce back soon.
  11. Clint Bowyer (LW-11)- Bowyer has swapped out top tens earlier in the year for top 15's lately but he is still keeping some consistency going while sticking in the top ten of the points.
  12. Matt Kenseth (LW-NR)- Toyota's are making a comeback and Kenseth bounced back at Charlotte with a top five.
Dropped Out: Chase Elliott (LW-10) and Ryan Blaney (LW-12)
Just Missed: Kurt Busch, Daniel Suraez, and Austin Dillon

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