Murphs Nascar Pool

Kyle Busch gets the job done in Homestead on Sunday, wins the Championship for 2020!  This is Kyle’s second championship, doubters or not Kyle deserves to have this if not more championships. Could not believe Martin Truex Jr. team put the tires on the wrong side of the car, not sure I have ever seen that happen. Then there was also Denny Hamlin’s team putting on so much tape on the front of the car that is overheated and had to make an unscheduled pit stop. Take those two pit crew mistakes out of the equation and who knows if we would have had a closer finish a closer finish. Yes Kyle can be his own worst enemy when the car isn’t how he likes it but if the car has speed not many others that can wheel like he can.

The Toyotas flat out were the best cars on the track in homestead. What can you say when one organization gets over half of the wins for the year and finishes 1,2,4 in the championship. I was hoping for a bit better of a race but they can’t all be barn burners so will take it for what is was and look forward to next year. Hopefully the Fords continue to be strong and the Chevy’s get their stuff together to be more competitive week to week in 2020. Noticed Jimmie Johnson announced 2020 will be his final full time Cup season. Not making the Championship format for the first time in his career and not winning at least one race this year probably had some influence on that decision. Much like Jeff Gordon did in his final years, I guess if he didn’t think he had a shot at winning every week why not go out with your head high,  seven championships with a shot at eight. Curious to see if he was in a Ford or Toyota how he would have made out in the last two seasons, will never know.

In the pool we a winner jumping up 2 positions from last week, congratulations Whiskey Farms for being the pool champion for 2019!  Top 3 positions were only seperated by 7 points!

Rounding out the top 5 we have Amigo Haters, Whiskey Farms, Team Gerda, and Team Infinity Warrior

Rounding out the top 10 we have Circle M Racing #1, Rollie, Oak Island, SLEDDIN, and Rushhour.

Biggest gain for the week goes to YEE HAAA and Julie Morris both 3 positions.

Biggest slide for the week goes to Mac Attack, Care Bare, smokinjoe, Whiskey Farms, Kcar, Spare Parts, and Murmac all down 3 spots.

Thanks to all that participated in the pool for 2019. Sorry I wasn’t very consistent getting the updates out in a timely fashion, no excuses for that. I thought the racing was excellent this year and I applaud Nascar for trying to make the racing better with changes to the packages the cars use.

Will be sending out pool disbursement email with all the pool winnings for 2019.

Denny Hamlin wins at Phoenix, punches his ticket to Homestead, Kyle Bush does as well but had to point his way in unlike Harvick, Hamlin, and Truex. It was tough to pass out there, not sure if Phoenix as the final race next year will be any more enjoyable than Homestead but that is next year.

In the pool we have Whiskey Farms, Whiskey Matters, Amigo Haters, Team Gerda, Team Infinity Warrior

Rounding out the top 10 we have Circle M Racing #1, Rollie, Oak Island, SLEDDIN, and Rushhour.

Biggest gain for the week goes to Butter me up 41 spots!

Biggest slide for the week goes to Team Kaleb down 68 spots.

Off to Homestead we head this weekend, final race for the year. 3 Toyotas and a Ford in the finale. Job Gibbs has a great shot to bring home the trophy again this year. Can Kevin Harvick the only non Joe Gibbs car that made the final four bring home the victory on Sunday?  I truly believe you have to win the final race to win the championship.

At this point Hamlin and Truex have to be the odds on favorites to get the job done.

Kevin Harvick and SHR showed they are not laying down to the Toyotas with the win on Sunday in Texas. Two spots left to make the final four, win in Phoenix at you are in. Can a Chevy make the final four and have all 3 manufacturers have a shot to win the title?

In the pool we have 4LBoxOfRed, Team Gerda, Team Infinity Warrior,  Circle M Racing #1, Rollie.

Rounding out the top 10 we have T’s Speedsters, SLEDDIN,  Team Everett, Russ Hour, and 68 Dad.

Biggest gain for the week goes to Ford Racing 19 up 3 spots.

Biggest slide for the week goes to Three Amigos, Butter Me Up, Dick Cunningham, Dutch, and Whiskey Matters all down 2 spots.

Standings will change again once we move onto the final race as drivers 5 to 8 points will get reset from 4xxx points back to 2xxxx points.

Off to Phoenix we go for Sunday, tensions tensions tensions.

Martin Truex Jr. joins Denny Hamlin as two of the final four at Homestead. Commonality? Yep you guessed it Joe Gibbs Racing. Well that and fact that they are running Toyota equipment, Toyota rocking again this year.

In the pool we have Team Gerda, 4LBoxOfRed, Team Infinity Warrior,  Circle M Racing #1, Rollie.

Rounding out the top 10 we have T’s Speedsters, SLEDDIN,  Russ Hour, 68 Dad, and Team Everett.

Biggest gain for the week goes to Dick Cunningham, Kcar both up 3 spots.

Biggest slide for the week goes to Ford Racing 19, Bob Cunningham, YEE HAA, Kim-Way all down 3 spots.

Standings will change again once we move onto the final race as drivers 5 to 8 points will get reset from 4xxx points back to 2xxxx points.

Off to Texas we go, let it rip.

Denny Hamlin sets his sites on the 2020 Championship with his 5th win of the year at Kansas. Brad Keselowski just missed the cut, that last restart got him caught up and traffic and allowed for Chase Elliot to get the final 8th spot for round three.

In the pool we have Team Gerda, Team Infinity Warrior, 4LBoxOfRed, Circle M Racing #1, Rollie.

Rounding out the top 10 we have T’s Speedsters, Russ Hour, 68 Dad, SLEDDIN, and CoolHeat.

Biggest gain for the week goes to Rocky Starter up 34 spots.

Biggest slide for the week goes to Warning Watts down 48 spots.

Standings will change again once we move onto the final race as drivers 5 to 8 points will get reset from 4xxx points back to 2xxxx points.

We now start round 3 for 3 more races, with top 4 moving on to the championship at Homestead. Going to be tough for the Blaney, Elliott, and Larson to climb above those in front of them with higher regular season bonus points but one bad week for any driver can put them in a must win situation. Off we go to Martinsville on Sunday, beating and banging for sure.

Kyle Larson finally gets another win at the Cup level with the win at Dover. Perfect time and with the win he will move onto the 3rd round of 8.

In the pool we have Team Infinity Warrior, Rollie, Circle M Racing #1, Zoom Zoom, and T’s Speedsters.

Rounding out the top 10 we have Amigo Haters, Matters, Whiskey Farms, Bandit, and Team Gerda

Biggest gain for the week goes to Bandit up 5 positions.

Biggest slide for the week goes to J&J Racing down 7 positions.

Off to the wild and crazy Talladega restrictor plate race this weekend. Expect some crazy moves by the bottom four in the standings that almost need to get a win to move on.

Chase Elliot is on a roll for wins at Road Courses, Chase gets the win in Charlotte. 12 of the 16 drivers move onto round 2, eliminations mix up the Pool Standings.

In the pool we have Team Infinity Warrior, Circle M Racing #1, Rollie, Zoom Zoom, and T’s Speedsters.

Rounding out the top 10 we have Whiskey Matters, Team Gerda, Amigo Haters, Three Amigos, and Whiskey Farms.

Biggest gain for the week goes to Dangers  Rangerous up 25 spots, back to back weeks for moving up the charts.

Biggest slide for the week goes to Eclipses down 37 spots.

Off to the Monster Mile in Dover we go this weekend. Ford, Toyota, Chevy, who will pull of the win this weekend?

Martin Truex Jr. gets his first back to back victory at the Cup level on Sunday. Joe Gibbs racing finishes 1, 2, 3, 4. Looks like Eric Jones and the number 20 teams finishes last though as his car fails post race inspection.

In the pool we have Amigo Haters, Whiskey Farms, Whiskey Matters, Three Amigos, Team Gerda.

Rounding out the top 10 we have JoJo64, Big Buzz, Bandit, 4LBoxofRed, and Team Infinity Warrior.

Most Points for the week goes to Last Lap Handicaps with 264.

Biggest gain for the week goes to Murmac up 5 spots.

Biggest slide for the week goes to Peterson Racing down 5 spots.

Off to the Roval this weekend at Charlotte. This was a action pack race this year, no reason why it should’t be the same this year. Final race for Round 1, anything goes to make it to Round 2 I think.

Martin Truex Jr. outruns everyone and is the first driver to punch their ticket into Round 2. Was quite the hammer down racing out there, restarts were crazy, lots of tire rubbing on fenders after most of them.

In the pool we have Amigo Haters, Whiskey Farms, Three Amigos, Whiskey Matters, Team Gerda.

Rounding out the top 10 we have 4LBoxofRed, JoJo 64, Big Buzz, Bandit, and Mitchman.,

Most Points for the week goes to Haywire with 276, nicely done.

Biggest gain for the week goes to Smokinjoe, Spare Parts, 4LBoxOfRed all up spots.

Biggest slide for the week goes to Peterson Racing down 4 spots.

Well Bristol with the PJ1 application turned out to be a great race. Denny Hamlin had his work cut out for him with overcoming a loose wheel twice during the race. His car was the best car out there and with cautions falling at the right time for him he was able to pull off the win. I was cheering for Matt Dibenedetto to pull off his first cup victory but Hamlin’s car was too good for Matty D to hold in off in the closing laps. Interestingly the one thing I did hear this week was that Nascar hands out the lug nut guns at the start of every weekend. According to Denny Hamlin the guns are numbered, some guns are good and some are duds. Denny says Joe Gibbs as an organization keeps track of the gun numbers so they know at start of the weekend whether they have a good gun or not. At heavy load tracks like Bristol loose wheels are common, and for the most part Denny says it is not the crews fault but rather the faulty guns. I remember Nascar mandating the lug nut guns a few years ago because teams were spending thousands upon thousands on high end guns to get faster pit stops.

In the pool we have Whiskey Matters, Team Gerda, Three Amigos, Amigo Haters, and Whiskey Farms.

Rounding out the top 10 we have Team Infinity War, 68 Dad, Circle M Racing #1,  Rollie, and Russhour.

Most Points for the week goes to Team Gerda with 324

Biggest move for the week goes to Shaylee, Dutch, Bob Cunningham all up 8 spots.

Biggest slide for the week goes to Pat Duench down 11 spots.