Survivor Results after NHIS - Week 1

Week one proved to be more interesting that I expected. The race? Sorry, but this late in the week I can't be expected to remember every detail, but I do remember a few things:

1. The 07 car got his first victory. Nice work. It sounded like Bowyer was hearing every noise in the car. Now, I'm no race car driver, but I can sympathize. About 2 weeks ago I was pushing the RX-8 to the edge of its engineering limits on Lake Road in Bay Village. I had her humming right along and I could hear every bump and creak in the car. Of course in my case I was only travelling at 35 mph and only pushing the limits of the gas tank (which I found by the way at about 4:30 in front of Huntington Park. Lucked out - a AAA guy was in the parking lot helping some cotton-top who locked her keys in the car). At any rate, when you get close to success over and over and end up short, you begin to doubt your capabilities, or those of your tools. I would have been just as worried as ole' Clint.

2. Kurt Busch drives slow to a 25th place victory. 7 cylinders. They should give Michael Waltrip only 7 cylinders. Maybe he'd get up into the top 35 in points and start making races.

3. All 43 cars finished the race for the first time in like 20 years or something. That's a great stat. Even more surprising is that Montoya was in the race and that stat stood up. He rubbed all afternoon, but on the slower Loudon pavement, no one was going fast enough to get wrecked by him. At the same time, we have to ask - if Michael Waltrip had made the race would there be 43 cars at the finish??? Hmmm....

Now, on to the Survivor results. I was feeling pretty guilty about letting Joe make the mistake of taking Mark Martin. Yeah, right up until the end of the race. I had decided that since I've provided some level of involuntary consultation for peoples drafts in the past, that I'd allow Joe to get credit for the 01 car THIS RACE. Of course, then the 01 car winds up one of the worst 2 finishes. Then I thought, what if he had Robby Gordon (his next draft selection) in lieu of the 01 car. Well, he'd still have been eliminated. Joe, I'll say it again, at least you have Stewart.

The other elimination was Scott Mann's David Stremme. Like about 4 other cars this weekend, the #40 mysteriously ran out of fuel on pit road and couldn't get re-fired. After dropping back almost 30 laps, he finally got it running. Too bad. I actually believe that could have been a solid sleeper pick.

OK, here's the standings after Loudon (NHIS):

Eliminated Drivers:

NHIS - 1. #40 David Stremme (Scott Mann)
NHIS - 2. #01 Mark Martin/Regan Smith (Joe Yu)

Remaining Drivers

#17 Matt Kenseth (Scott Mann)
#11 Denny Hamlin (Carol Yu)
#20 Tony Stewart (Joe Yu)
#48 Jimmy Johnson (Ken Ross)
#24 Jeff Gordon (Steve Shaffer)
#99 Carl Edwards (Mike Inskeep)
#2 Kurt Busch (Curtis Krakowski)
#8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Jeff Terschak)
#1 martin Truex Jr. (Greg Osborne)
#5 Kyle Busch (Jon Lommerin)
#31 Jeff Burton (Pat Thornton)
#29 Kevin Harvick (Susie Mikesell)
#9 Kasey Kahne(Susie Mikesell)
#07 Clint Bowyer (Pat Thornton) NHIS WINNER
#12 Ryan Newman (Jon Lommerin)
#16 Greg Biffle (Greg Osborne)
#25 Casey Mears (Jeff Terschak)
#43 Bobby Labonte (Curtis Krakowski)
#26 Jaime McMurray (Mike Inskeep)
#18 J.J. Yeley (Steve Shaffer)
#42 Juan Pablo Montoya (Ken Ross)
#6 David Ragan (Carol Yu)