Do You NASCAR? - NASCAR News

Rating the Race: Lowe’s

by Tim Zaegel on October 15th, 2007

Jimmie Johnson dominates the early portion of the race – just has he has at Lowe’s so many times before – only to take a spin in the latter laps with absolutely no help from anyone. Tony Stewart came from the back of the pack to get himself up into the Top 5 only to make contact with Paul Menard on pit road, ending his chances of bringing home the checkered flag. Matt Kenseth was solid in the Top 5, leading several laps and looking as though he might contend for the win – well, until he the wall, anyway. We saw Ryan Newman go from fourth to first in a single turn in the final laps … and, then – you guessed it – hit the wall.

This race saw just about everything, including 26 lead changes, 15 cautions, a red flag with ten laps to go, and a green-white-checkered finish. Throughout the evening we saw several Chasers gain significant ground toward leader Jeff Gordon, but just as the no. 24 giveth – the 24 taketh away by the end of the night. We saw Chase Cinderella story Clint Bowyer challenge a four-time Cup Champion for the win in the closing laps … and, he probably would have won the race, but ironically enough, instead helped Gordon secure his place in Winner’s Circle. Thousands … hundreds of thousands of us debated for several minutes if Kyle Busch would spin his teammate out in an effort to win the race. That same number of people earlier in the evening debated as to whether or not Dale Earnhardt Jr would retaliate against his future teammate for moving him out of the way on the track.

When I go back and think about this race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Saturday night, I’m initially disgusted because … well, quite frankly I just can’t stand seeing Jeff Gordon win races. On the other hand, I’ve gotta acknowledge the fact that Gordon himself made this one heck of an entertaining race. And, besides … at least we didn’t have to watch Jimmie Johnson stink up the competition here again, so I guess I can live with that. All in all, I thought the action this weekend was a nice rebound from last week’s lackluster trip to Talladega.  On a scale of one to five, I’ll give this one a 3.5

Share This

Related Stories

• NASCAR Rivals: Kevin Harvick vs. Tony Stewart
• the Big Ten: Best Drivers With 3 or Less Wins
• NASCAR Rivals: Sadler Wrecks Stewart … Again!

POSTED IN: NASCAR, Rating the Race