iNSIDE SCOOP: Kentucky Thoughts

This past weekend, I ventured for the first time to Kentucky Speedway.

I had heard that it was way cool, and that turned out to be spot-on. It is, for many reasons.

The track itself is racy, just looking at it. As a tri-oval track, it just looks fast. Jerry Carroll, when he carved it out of the countryside, had a vision and he made it happen. The place is clean, designed well and resembles its SMI compatriots in attention to detail.

But it is in the boonies, with a capital ‘B’.

That in itself is no problem, and we had no problem getting in or out. Carmageddon, as they called the inaugural event in 2011, was no more. I did have a bit of confusion in trying to follow the forest of cones that the Highway Patrol had laid on for ingress/egress, but nothing serious. 

The racing itself was pretty good. The Nationwide Series put on a good show, and the Sprint Cup squads were all set to do the same when the rains came on Saturday.

Our hardy bunch of ONMC Members braved the elements—better prepared than the home-office crew, by the way—and we had a good time exploring the garage area and tri-oval area.

All in all, it’s a good place to watch a race. There are tracks on the circuit that aren’t as good, I’ll tell you that much. The fact that there are five White Castle franchises in and around the speedway area is another plus.

As for the race, which took place on Sunday, I have to wonder if Jimmie Johnson’s restart travails are a product of being better than most everyone else or something different.

For the second time in three races, Five-Time has been snookered or hoodwinked (his version) into a mistake on a restart. At Dover, he went and leader Juan Montoya didn’t, resulting in a black flag for jumping the start. Tony Stewart went on to win.

On Sunday, eventual winner Matt Kenseth rolled to the start and a gun-shy Johnson didn’t, resulting in a spin that dropped him through the field and eventually to a ninth-place finish.

Last year in the Chase, at Texas, there was a restart scuffle between him and eventual champion Brad Keselowski. Is this a trend or an aberration?

Keselowski is in danger of missing the Chase as the defending champ, getting turned in the tri-oval and collecting three other cars in the resulting melee. He’s on a skid that has seen him drop from safely in the Chase to out of it, and he has not won yet this season.

Denny Hamlin is about done, Chase-wise, with another crash and a drop in the points. Time is running out on Hambone, and he knows it. 

Ditto for Stewart, who is clinging to the wild-card by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin. Somebody else in the top 20 wins a race, or a driver with a victory slips to 11th, and he’s watching the final 10 races with a different eye this year.

And, there’s a plate race coming, where the point tallies could really change.