(WOMR file photo)
Denny Hamlin fulfilled his, rather brazen, promise made after last Sunday’s heart-break ending for the Joe Gibbs Racing #11 FedEx Toyota team. Hamlin dominated the field last week, however, his fuel tank ran empty two laps before the checkered flag flew. Fast forward to this Sunday: not only did Hamlin fulfill his promise to win at Louden but he did so in a very dominating fashion. Notwithstanding the fact that Hamlin dominated the field Sunday in the Sylvania 300, the new leader in the Chase points is not Hamlin, rather, it is none other than “Mr. Five-Time”, Jimmie Johnson! Johnson is quietly positioning his team to snag their sixth Sprint Cup championship, mark my word!
Movers and Shakers
Jimmie Johnson’s second place finish Sunday catapulted Carolyn into The Redneck Fantasy League lead! Even though it is only by a slim margin of two points, nevertheless, we have a new leader in Carolyn!
Looking at the movement in the standings after the Sylvania 300, it resembles “The Rise and The Fall of The Fall of The Third Reich”! There has not been such meteoric rises and falls in one single race this season like we had after the Sylvania 300!
Scott wins the prize for the single largest move in the standings since I took control of our fantasy league. Scott’s fortunes was riding with ol Kylie Busch, who had another bad Chase race Sunday. Ol Kylie could only muster a twenty-eighth (28th) place finish, thereby, garnering Scott only 17 points! Those whopping 17 points tied him with another player, Carole, for the least points scored Sunday. Additionally, those 17 points earned by Scott facilitated his meteoric fall of seven (7) places, landing him in 16th place!
There were two players that moved six (6) places Sunday, Marc and Jason. Marc was “sticking with the Biff”, and Jason was riding with Truex. Marc scored 26 points, and Jason scored 27 points. However, the net affect was that they both plummeted six positions in the standings! Marc now rest in eighth place, whereas, Jason landed in tenth place.
Jim, who picked the winner, Denny Hamlin, and accumulated the maximum 48 points, climbed five (5) places in the standings. Hamlin’s win enabled Jim to now land into second place, just two (2) points behind the new leader, Carolyn.
There were three other players who saw major positive movement. Richard “The NASCAR Picker”, Jeremy, and Carlton all moved up four spots each in the standings. Carlton’s fortunes, 48 points, was on the back of the race winner, Denny Hamlin! Richard grabbed 42 points from Jeff Gordon’s third place finish, whereas Jeremy scored 43 points from Johnson’ second place finish!
Next week NASCAR invades the self cleaning, high banks of the monster mile of Dover.
Twelve drivers, eight races, one championship, who will be the last man standing?
TIL NEXT TIME, PULL YOUR GLOVES UP, FLIP YOUR VISOR DOWN, AND LET’S GO RACIN’!