Tony Stewart may be working spots for Burger King at the moment, but at the end of Sunday's race, he was making chicken salad."It was making chicken salad out of chicken you know what," said Stewart after finishing 5th. "We were pretty fortunate to get a couple of breaks there when we needed them."
The 'breaks' Stewart was talking about including getting back on the lead lap after falling behind thanks to a miscue on pit road. You could also toss in the fact that he kept his Chase hopes alive by not taking a finish deep in the field.
Casey Mears has had a downright awful season in 2009, but it got a little bit better on Sunday.
Mears finished 11th in his Richard Childress Racing entry and could have had a little bit more before falling back during the late restarts. It was his best finish since a sixth at Michigan in August, and it left him just one spot away from recording his fourth top-10 of the season.
Chalk David Ragan up as a guy who finished a lot better than his season has gone so far. Ragan, in the Roush-Fenway Racing No. 6, finished seventh in the 500-miler -- just one spot behind teammate Carl Edwards.
"Certainly, that's not what we want as the 6 car," said Ragan. "We're not celebrating like it's a win, but a top-10 the way our season has been is certainly refreshing.
Unbelievably, the top-10 was just the second for Ragan in 2009 with the first coming after 6th-place run at the season-opener in Daytona. Last season, Ragan brought in six top-5's and 14 top-10's.
Joey Logano nabbed an unexpected win in Saturday's Nationwide Series race, but didn't have the same luck on Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.
"We made one pit stop and it went to crap," said a frank Logano. "I don't know what happened. We went junk and couldn't fix it. Eventually, we swung for the fence and it was too far, so we went to the other side of the fence and we started backing it back up from there. I don't know why we went good to complete junk like a light switch."
Logano's words echo the general description of NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow chassis for much its lifespan in the Sprint Cup Series. Simply, the handling characteristics are incredibly similar to walking on razor blades. One misstep can spell disaster.
Logano finished 14th.
David Gilliland got a first time experience Sunday when he hopped into Kyle Busch's No. 18 after Busch exited the car on lap 62 due to overwhelming flu-like symptoms. It was the first time all weekend that Gilliland had driven car, meaning it would be a tall task to get a handle on the race car in the middle of the action.
It didn't go too terribly, but didn't go great, either. Gilliland earned Busch a 24th-place finish.
"It was a little bit different. It was an experience, for sure," said Gilliland. "Without practicing it and stuff, we just never could get it right."
Gilliland had previously inked a deal with Joe Gibbs Racing to drive a fourth car in a few remaining races this season. The first of those races will come Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte and Gilliland is a little more optimistic about running well.
"We'll be able to practice and do everything else and have a couple hours to tune the car to kind of what I need," said Gilliland. "I'm excited and looking forward to next week, especially."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but i think Kyle Busch was also the last driver to be a part of a relief driver scenario that saw another starter in the same race exit the race and later jump into another car.
Sunday in California, David Gilliland started in the No. 71 TRG Motorsports car which promptly exited the race on lap 13 as start-and-park. But back in 2007 at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch was involved in crash with his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team early in the event and figured the car was unrepairable. He left the track and headed home.
The team, though, fixed some damage on the car enough to get back on the track and needed a driver to earn some points. Dale Earnhardt Jr., also involved in the crash, was available and hopped in Busch's No. 5 car to make a few laps. As it turns out, it was somewhat of a foreshadow of what would happen in 2008.
Finally, I hope you missed Sunday's rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner by Jesse McCartney.
McCartney, a 22-year-old pop singer formerly of the boy band Dream Street, missed an entire verse of the National Anthem during the pre-race ceremonies.
I understand getting nervous and all, but come on. If you've been hired to sing a song that everyone knows -- get it right.
