Simmons - RPG - Gateway - Results

Simmons - RPG - Gateway - Results

Here is my RPG (funsies only... mebbee some MV points, we'll see...) for the
NNS at Gateway International tonight. Since I will be at the track watching
quals, I couldn't use the results to figger into my RPG. I did watch the
practice sessions and from what I've seen, it should be a good competitive
race. There are lots of young guns who are anxious to make a name for
themselves and are probably grateful there aren't many big guns from Cup who
are contending. I am especially looking forward to seeing young Mr. Logano.

Logano was indeed impressive and ran in the top five all night. It appeared
for a while that he would take home the win and was almost unstoppable. He
has a bright future in NASCAR. All the driving skills of KyBu and MUCH more
personable.

Here are the top five (in no particular order)...

Sorenson - Coulda, shoulda, woulda
Edwards - 1
McMurray - nope
Bowyer - nope
Wimmer - nope

Using my secret, patented, proprietary formula, Logano figgered into my top
five, but based on his inexperience, I have excluded him from my RPG. I may
regret this.

Yup, I regret it. His inexperience, which I expected to be a factor wasn't.
He handled himself like a veteran racer.


Sorenson has in the past dominated at Gateway and ran away
from the pack last year.

Reed started from the #2 spot and was in the top five most of the race until
he got caught up in an accident that he couldn't avoid... too bad...

Edwards and McMurray are MO boyz, so they have an
incentive to want to win in front of the "hometown" crowd.

Both ran well as evidenced by Cuzzin Carl's win, but McMurray had some
engine probs late in the race which caused him to drop from contention.

The same could
be said for the Wallace's, but I don't think they will be a factor.

They weren't a factor

The winner will be Sorenson (again).

Nutz!

Top rookie will be Logano or Cassill, I will go with Logano.

Finally, I got sumpin' right.

Complete race report follows tomorrow.

Mike

All in all, a good race, but some strange happenings. The track was beset
with electrical probs all night. Quals went well but, power failed to parts
of the track right before opening ceremonies.

In the stands, we could not hear the invocation or the anthem. We could
hear it on the scanners as MRN had backup gennies running. The drivers
could not hear the command to "start your engines". The leaderboard and big
screen display in the pits were inoperable. There was no flyover which is
really strange since Scott AFB is a mere 12 miles away. As the race began,
the control lights, caution, green, red were inoperable so a flagman was
stationed at every corner. During the race, the interior track lights
failed several times on turns one and two. In spite of all the electrical
gremlins, the race went off without a hitch.

McCoy is right that it is somewhat insane to start a race that late. I live
about 60 miles from the track and we showed up at 4:00 to watch quals. The
race started a little late due to the gremlins. The red flag slowed things
up a bit due to the crash that took out Wimmer and Sorenson. Anyway, by the
time the race was over and we stopped off on the way home for a bite to eat,
I didn't hit the sack til 2:30a. This ol' fart ain't used to that!!

On to the Brickyard!

Mike