Catchfence

The 2010 season is underway and it kicked off with a bang, not to mention a few other cliches – Jeff Gordon wiping out a bunch of cars, Juan Montoya wiping out at least one car, and Denny Hamlin wiping out a bunch of cars. With all that the Bud Shootout proved itself to be a terrific race, the battle for the lead a sidedraft battle as good as anything the sport has seen in the last decade. In the end Kevin Harvick was a somewhat surprising winner.

Looking at the event’s participants the following emerged -

HARVICK SALVAGED A MEDIOCRE NIGHT FOR RCR - Harvick raced hard and won, while teammate Jeff Burton didn’t seem to race anyone and had to come back from a spin. Burton never looked up to the speed Harvick was.

CARL EDWARDS MAY BE THE FASTEST CAR OF SPEEDWEEKS - Edwards looked to be the strongest car during the race; he was challenged repeatedly yet was able to hold the lead until the entire field finally ganged up on him and he got blown to the back; the rule is when you know who the fastest car is you gang up on him and trap him out back – the field did that to a T.

THE REST OF THE ROUSH FLEET LOOKED GOOD – Except Greg Biffle cannot finish a plate race well to save his bacon. They ran the old Ford engines for this race while using the new powerplant for 500 pole runs; the race engines next Sunday are expected to be the old ones, to date more reliable than the still-new FR9.

LET’S SEE WHAT THE REST OF PETTY-GILLETT CAN DO NOW - Kasey Kahne displayed muscle all race; it bodes well for teammate A.J. Allmendinger, last year’s Speedweeks darkhorse, at the very least.

JAMIE MCMURRAY LOOKS BETTER THAN EXPECTED - McMurray displayed a fight the Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevy #1 has never really had; indeed, he looked to displace his loose cannon of a teammate as top dog at the EGR outfit.

BRIAN VICKERS WANTS TO WIN BADLY - Vickers appeared to be the most aggressive at push-drafting and fighting to win; that he didn’t get a better finish than he did was surprising, as he was clearly the best of the Toyotas in this race.

JGR LOOKS DECIDEDLY MEDIOCRE - Denny Hamlin made a run to the front but never looked strong enough to sustain it, while Kyle Busch finished fourth, far better than he actually ran all night. Joey Logano was quiet all night but showed some muscle.

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS DIDN’T HAVE THAT HOT A NIGHT – Satellite driver Tony Stewart fought for the lead all night, but the rest of the Hendrick fleet didn’t look as strong as expected. Martin, Johnson, and Gordon reached the top five but never looked stout enough to stay there.

JUNIOR IS HOPELESS - I didn’t count a single car Junior passed all night and the car never looked able to do anything. A bad combination looks to be getting worse, not better.

ANDRETTI AND LABONTE GOT SOMETHING OUT OF THEIR CARS - John Andretti and Bobby Labonte don’t have stout racecars anymore but they got something out of what they had. I’m still amazed they’re not with Petty’s group anymore; they’d be a better fit than Sadler and Menard.

PENSKE RACING MAY HAVE TO DEPEND ON BRAD KESELOWSKI FOR THE 500 - Kurt Busch didn’t display as much muscle as one would expect, and despite Mark Martin’s apology it appeared Busch chopped into Martin and spun himself out.

The end result was a memorable race and a stout start to Speedweeks 2010.