On a night of “firsts” for Joe Gibbs Racing drivers, Martin Truex Jr. continued to assert his mastery over the first round of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Rallying from a spin off the bumper of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s Ford and passing teammate Kyle Busch for the lead with 25 laps left, Truex led a 1-2-3-4 finish for JGR in Saturday night’s Federated Auto parts 400 at Richmond Raceway.
Never before had the organization swept the top four spots in a race in NASCAR’s premier series.
The victory was a milestone for Truex, too. The winner of last week’s playoff opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Truex had never before won back-to-back races. Now, the driver of the No. 19 Toyota has six wins this season, a season sweep at Richmond and 25 victories in his Cup career.
Busch came home second, 2.630 seconds behind his teammate. Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Erik Jones, who assured the Gibbs sweep with a pass of pole winner Brad Keselowski for fourth place on Lap 378 of 400.
THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF THE GO FAST
This week there was no player that selected Martin Truex, Jr. as their driver. therefore, this weekly award will back into the closet until next week.
THE MOVERS AND THE SHAKERS
The single biggest scorer after the checkered flag flew at Richmond this week was Snoopy Dawn. Snoopy racked up a very cool 54 points via Kyle Busch’s second place finish.
Next is a trio of players who were cheering on The Delivernator, Denny Hamlin. This threesome consists of Lonna The Quilt Angel, David The Mudslinging Throttle Jockey, as well as Bernie The Bay Area Bandit. All three added a nifty 49 points to their third segment tallies.
Not to be outdone this week are Bobby Blue Crush and Linda R. The Lemonade Lefty. Both players were betting the farm on Blazingly Bad Brad Keselowski. Their man was strong during the mid race phase of The Federated Auto Parts 400, but fell back to finish in 5th place at the end of the night. Nevertheless, The Lemonade Lefty and Blue Crush put 46 points into their race bucket.
Meanwhile, Amber The Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head, Carole, aka Rudy, as well as Dan The Numbers Cruncher added a much needed 39 points to their third segment totals. All three players were tucked neatly into Freaky Fast Kevin Harvick’s hot rod!
Lastly, Edie The Las Vegas Super Star put 28 points into her 3rd segment bucket via Jimmie Johnson’s 11th place finish.
With the exception of Dan The Numbers Dude, every other player changed zip codes this week!
The single biggest mover this week is Jeremy The Coach. The Coach was banking heavily on William Byron, and unfortunately, that pick just didn’t carry much water at Richmond. The Coach dropped like a bad habit this week five (5) places, which put him now in 10th place.
Not far behind The Coach was Linda B. The Lemonade Lefty plummeting four (4) places this week, landing in 11th place.
Bernie The Bay Area Bandit and Snoopy Dawn stepped up their game this week. Both The Bandit and Snoopy climbed up three (3) places now residing in 3rd and 7th, respectively.
There is a quartet that moved two (2) positions this week. Those four players include Bobby Blue Crush, David The Mudslinging Throttle Jockey, Lonna The Quilt Angel, and Jim, aka Chiefy. Blue Crush, The Mudslinging Throttle Jockey, and The Quilt Angel all moved up two (2) spots to sit now in 6th, 8th, and 12th, respectively. Chiefy, however, was not so fortunate, falling two spots to sit in 14th this week.
The remaining seven unnamed players so far in this post all moved up or down one place this week.
STRAIGHT FROM THE CRAPPER
Normally The Crappiest Pick of The Week goes to a player who, usually, can only muster up a single digit for a score. Well not this week, The Crappiest Pick of The Week goes to a player who racked up 12 points this week, which is usually a poor but safe score. But because of the way the scores fell this week The Crappiest Pick of The Week goes to Jeremy The Coach!
Along with a new leader at the top of the scoring totem pole this week, we also have a new habitant that moved into The Outhouse! Kathy The Church Forecloser has successfully evicted Carole, aka Rudy, this week taking over sole control of that fine facility!
Check out the results of the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond.
Next week NASCAR comes back home for the second home race at Charlotte. This week the drivers will be negotiating “The Roval” at that facility. Charlotte is also “the cutoff” race for the round of 16. There will be four driver that will be eliminated and that will break their hearts, most likely requiring them to take their “heartache medication”!
TIL NEXT TIME, PULL YOUR BELTS TIGHT AND LET’S GO RACIN’!