February 13, 2006

Rookie Denny Hamlin Wins Bud Shootout

(Filed under: Race Recap)

Ah, it's good to be back.

Yesterday rookie Denny Hamlin won the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. The shootout is one of those non-points races that's just plain fun. I wish we had more of those. It's also a precursor to the new season, which means it all gets going next week. Woo!

As a side note, thank goodness NBC is covering the Daytona 500. No boogety, boogety, boogety. I guess after Daytona we'll have to endure Darrell Waltrip's local color until July, but at least we get a reprieve.

Back to yesterday's action: wow. I'm not sure I should be so excited about the craziness of restrictor plate racing, but wow. My favorite moment of the day was Mark Martin's save when Kyle Bush got into him and Martin skated up the track and almost took out Jamie McMurray. What a save. You can almost hear Martin in the driver's seat cursing under his breath about restrictor plate racing as he does some amazing driving. I just hope Martin can have better luck with restrcitor plate tracks this year.

And what was up with Carl Edwards' penalties? Not sure I understood that one. His odd dive to the inside to get around the cars pitting was certainly unorthadox, but it looked like he just got pinched and did what he could to avoid a wreck. Which he did. He certainly wasn't trying to gain positions. I guess not everything goes Carl's way. Let's just hope he can learn to be as happy-go-lucky about defeats as well as victories.

Oh, and the winner, Denny Hamlin. What is there to say? That kid did quite a job staying in front of some legends. And it looks like Gibbs might finally have a team to rival Hendrick and Roush when it comes to working together.

Posted by kevin at February 13, 2006 11:47 AM

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