Streak To The Finish...Just The Bare Facts at Dover II

First off, congratulations to Jeff Burton on his win at the Monster Mile. It was 175 races since his last victory in Phoenix, which is what you call a long drought. It sure was a great final 20 laps of that race to see him and Kenseth go for the win; unfortunately Kenseth ran out of gas and had to pit. That has been some of the best side by side racing this year. This just goes to show that two drivers that have the utmost respect for one another can make a race exciting. Despite Kenseth running out of gas, he still drives up next to Burton, puts down the window net and shakes his hand, now that is sportsmanship. Do you think other drivers were taking notes? Not too bad of a birthday present for Richard Childress who turned 61 this weekend. On the flip side to that, the other RCR Chaser, Kevin Harvick had an engine go south causing him to finish 32nd in the race and drop to 5th in the standings.

It was great to see a race where the majority of the drivers up front where non-chasers. How about that Reed Sorenson hanging up in the Top 10 most of the day. The Biff coming on strong and driving like the old days. The Blue Deuce showing it can tame the Monster. How about that #22 of Dave Blaney finishing 12th, it may not of been a Top 10 but this team is really pulling it together down the stretch. The Top 20 finishers only had 6 of the Chasers. What does that tell you about the so called Non-Chasers? Plain and simple, they are not afraid to go up there and race for the win and of course their sponsors.

Here are some thoughts from me on todays race and broadcast:

1. What is a Mulligan? The definition is, in a game, happens when a player gets a second chance to perform a certain move or action. This word is used commonly in golf. What the heck does NBC want to use a word that is associated with golf in NASCAR? I guess golf has its fair share of "drives." Hmmm, I wonder if Kasey Kahne will take up golf during the off-season.

2. Does Bill Weber have a problem counting the number of cautions? I mean, he mistakenly called the 2nd caution the first caution. I wonder if he thinks 1 + 1 = 3.

3. You have to love having the Hulkster as the Grand Marshal. Too bad he didn't rip his shirt while saying "Gentlemen Start Your Engines."

4. How about Kasey Kahne after his wreck with Tony Stewart sitting up on top of that stand all by himself. You can tell he was disappointed but do you think he was looking for those women that are in those Allstate commercials?

5. Speaking of those commercials, there sure are a lot of them for insurance companies. For example, Allstate and State Farm put on a majority of commercials during the race. Too bad they are not a primary sponsor of a car, with all the money that these companies make; you would think they could afford to put their name on the hood of a Nextel Cup car.

6. Is Law and Order really all that and a bag of chips? Yes, the race was on TNT and that is the channel the show is on, but that guy doing those commercials has one of the eeriest voices but is it really him or is he lip synching? Maybe we should ask Milli Vanilli for their opinion.

7. What is it with the elephant in the DLP commercials? Please someone fill me in on this one.

8. As far as broadcasting goes, NBC did a much better job covering the race. They didn't break away during the last 22 laps of the race. Great to see Benny back in the booth keeping the peace and queuing the duck. The coverage of the field was due to in part that most of the upfront drivers were not "Chasers" but they did keep everyone up-to-date where the Chasers were in the field.

9. What happened to the Cingular poll questions during the race? Maybe that was the good luck charm that Burton needed in the race and here I thought the jinx was every time the announcers said how many races it has been since Burton won.

10. Okay Coca-Cola, you need to update your commercial and website to show that Elliott Sadler does not drive for M&M’s anymore.

11. The dramatic pause during the national anthem, you have to love how a singer is told to wait until the jets are almost there for the fly by. Did they ever think that the weather may have held up those jets? Probably not.

12. Kudo’s for Harvicks interview after his engine blew up being very calm. Thank goodness it was Allen Bestwick giving him the interview vice Dillner.

13. Bravo to NBC doing the split screen of Jeff Burton’s wife during those last 20 laps of the race. Do you think she was more excited about the win then Jeff?

All in all, the Monster mile sure did mix up the standings amongst the Chasers and also gave some great media coverage to the Non-Chasers. My driver, Dale Jarrett, finished 15th at Dover. You can check out my personal site for Dale Jarrett at http://www.dalejarrett4ever.com

Next up is Kansas. Do you think any of the Chasers will be clicking their heels three times?