At the drivers’ meeting two hours before the flag dropped Saturday, race director David Hoots offered no quarter to a group of drivers still wondering about the merits and intricacies of the double-file restart policy instituted five races earlier.
“You’re the best in the world,” Hoots told the assembled field for the LifeLock.com 400. “You shouldn’t have a problem doing this.”
If nothing else, the double-file restarts turned a mundane race into a shootout over the last 67 laps at Chicagoland Speedway. Five cautions produced the side-by-side restarts and plenty of traffic, and the lead bounced from Mark Martin to Jimmie Johnson and back to Martin for the win.
“I didn’t expect anything any different when it was implemented,” Jeff Gordon said. “Fifty percent of the guys out there are going to like it, 50 percent are going to hate it. It’s not for us. It’s for the people in the grandstand and the people at home. It’s exciting, man. We’re putting on a heck of a show.”
Johnson, the three-time Sprint Cup champion, was bumped off the lead by Denny Hamlin after one of the double-barrel restarts but did not seem particularly perturbed.
“Everybody was out of control, body-slamming,” Johnson said. “That was some wild racing. Didn’t think you could race like that on a mile-and-a-half [track].”
Not everyone was a fan.
“Double-file restarts four weeks in a row, and I’ve been in wrecks four weeks in a row,” said Jeff Burton, who got knocked out on Lap 226. “I’m about done with them.”
Feeling like a million bucks: NASCAR fans Donna and Richard Musgrave of New Castle, Colo., were $1 million richer after winning the “Lock In to Win” sweepstakes.
The Musgraves picked the top two finishers correctly — Martin and Gordon — for the June 14 race in Brooklyn, Mich., also sponsored by LifeLock. When that pair again finished 1-2 in Joliet, the Musgraves took home the $1 million.
“I don’t have any words right now,” said Donna Musgrave, a food service manager at a convenience store chain. “What a great contest. This is just a bonus.”
“She not only picked 1-2 at Michigan,” Richard Musgrave added, “she had 3-4 also.”
Tired out: Up next is the Allstate Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The abrasive track, combined with the first use of the Car of Tomorrow on the surface, resulted in catastrophic tire wear and caution flags after every 10 to 12 laps last year. Goodyear has done extensive testing since.
“I ran out of gas coming down the frontstretch on a full fuel run [while testing], and the tire was just about wore out,” Greg Biffle said, “so it was a perfect matchup.”
