Title sewn up for Gordon?

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

October 15, 2007 8:36 am CDT 3 Comments

Just when everyone thought Jeff Gordon was out of fuel–he found enough to win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and lengthen his lead over the field of fellow Chasers.

Back to back wins at Lowe’s and ‘Dega has put Gordon in the cat-bird seat to win his fifth championship. There were many pretenders at Lowe’s on Saturday night but Gordon was the true class of the field after Ryan Newman hit the wall with a handful of laps remaining.

Kyle Busch had a shot late in the race after all but ignoring team owner Rick Hendrick’s radio orders to not wreck each other at the conclusion of the race. Rowdy went for the win and was pressuring Jeffy when Newman went to pass and met the wall.

So its on to Martinsville and a visit to the paper clip. This is always fun. Let the brake rotors start glowing!

The Buzz ON PIT ROW is:

Is Jeff Gordon having one of those "story book" seasons, where everything just goes right?

The Fast Lap this week asks:

1) Was Tony just being Tony, or are non-Chase drivers "weapons" to be dealt with?

2) Dale Jarrett will retire after running 5 races in 2008. Is that his farewell tour, or further abuse of the past champion’s provisional rule?

3) Was NASCAR so desperate for a sponsor to take over the Busch Series that they sold out their first insurance company sponsor–Geico (and Loren/Warren/Lauren Wallace)?

4) Will Jimmy or Clint catch Jeffy?

Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else that happened while getting some home cooking at Lowe’s. If we like your comments, whether we agree or not, we may use them on the air during Tuesday’s ON PIT ROW. Leave us a comment on the blog or call the show–toll free at 1-877-502-8255 between 5-7pm edt on Tuesdays.

Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images/NASCAR

Filed under: Chase for the Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon, Nextel Cup Series, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, The Busch Bros, The Fast Lap, Warren Wallace

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Comments

3 Responses to “Title sewn up for Gordon?”

robert bourne on October 15th, 2007 4:26 pm

1-Tony needs to get off the non chase drivers thing…

2 Using the rules as they are written are part of the game…The Woods Brothers have taken advantage..If nacar doesn’t like it change the rule…

3-yep

4- it will be tough but can be done..the way things have gone who knows who will get caught by the chase gremlin next..

I was down at Toledo yesterday..great show… I wandered around hoping to meet up with Charlie but ened up talking with Phil Parsons…a fine fellow but a lesser substitute for Charlie..oh well maybe next time…
4ever3 on October 15th, 2007 9:38 pm

The Buzz:
Not yet, but it looks like is headed that way, although I think Jimmie Johnson’s season last year was about as textbook of a storybook season as you can get.

Hot Laps:
1) Tony is over reacting. Everyone is out there to win a race and no one is more ’special’ than another during a race - unless your boss comes on the radio and tells you not to wreck your team mate. Racing is racing, if NASCAR wanted the Chasers to be ’special’, then they would have put them in their own race with no other cars on the track. I’m going to write about this Tony thing tonight.

2) Abuse? You call it abuse? I call it rape! Retire with dignity and get out at the end, or after the Daytona 500. MWR does not deserve what he is doing for them, unless of course they are paying him a ton of cash to do it, which wouldn’t surprise me.

3) I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate on this one. If Geico is so deserving of a series sponsorship, then why didn’t they step up to the plate and put in an offer that would have shut Nationwide down? NASCAR is about the greenbacks, and they wouldn’t have turned down a better offer unless it was from a Tobacco company or the Taliban.

4) There is a chance they will, and I think Jimmie might get there, but I think Clint needs a little help - maybe he should get Menard to focus his attention on Jeff rather than Tony (heh).
TZ on October 16th, 2007 4:13 pm

“Buzz on Pit Row” Question: Yes … when he just up and wins like that at a nemesis track of his such as Charlotte, that’s when you know he can just do no wrong.

1. Tony’s probably overreacting a little in regards to the “non-Chase” drivers, but let’s not pretend that he’s the only one that gets on this kick when incidents like this happen. It’s pretty much the norm for any driver IN the Chase.

2. Just like “4ever3″ said … it’s absolute rape of the system. It’s not his fault, though, just simply a glitch in the NASCAR system. I’m not that bothered by it.

3. I think NASCAR typically - at the least - attempt to think their sponsorship decisions out. However, I could have told you from the get-go that signing Nextel as the premier series’ primary sponsor was ludicrous, and Sprint’s not much more of a step in the right direction, either. As for Nationwide, that decision’s fine by me. Besides, I see enough “Caveman” commercials anyway without adding twenty more every Saturday night.

4. Jimmy can do it, but I don’t think he will. Clint’s in way over his head with this year’s Chase.

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