Joshua and Cheryl have been offering up their own personal sets of HeartRacers~HeartBreakers for each race. The moments that stirred them for whatever reason will fall in the HeartRacers category, and anything that makes them wince, cry, or throw stuff will be HeartBreakers. All cawsnjaws readers are invited to add on their own to share with everyone.

Coming in to the race at Loudon, the biggest topic was one that barely cooled from last week’s race: Jeff Gordon’s win over Matt Kenseth, and whether or not he accomplished it without any dubious means. Despite several news bytes from both Gordon and Kenseth, no clear resolution of the issue emerged. Fans of either driver were surely hoping that circumstances would keep the No. 24 Dupont Chevy on one end of the speedway, and the No. 17 Dewalt Tools Ford on the other.

HeartRacers

  • For the second week in a row coming in to a race we have the news that a driver from Formula 1 racing is setting his sights on NASCAR. While Patrick Carpentier’s plans aren’t totally finalized, he was present at NHIS to do some testing with an unnamed Busch Series team. And a fun game of ‘will she or won’t she?’ has also commenced concerning IRL driver Danica Patrick. NASCAR fans have got to be finding all of this immeasurably satisfying.
  • ‘The devilish driver with a heart of gold’, Tony Stewart, had fans sniffling back tears of appreciation for his magnanimous gesture of donating $1 million dollars to The Victory Junction Gang Camp… again.
  • With the commencement of The Lenox Industrial Tools 300, the ‘Race to the Chase’ has officially begun.
  • Fans of Ryan Newman had to be thrilled to see him leading the pack to the green flag once again. Kenny Wallace fans must have liked his nineteenth starting place as well.
  • We have chosen four drivers as those to give some HeartRacers’ cheers to, for good performances, or ones that are better than as of late: Mark Martin (who finished fourth); David Stremme (who finished eleventh); Dave Blaney (who finished thirteenth); and Sterling Marlin (who finished sixteenth).
  • Jeff Gordon had various ‘encounters’ throughout the race, but none of them involved Matt Kenseth, he remained in the top 10 in the Chase, and actually gained a position. Despite his fifteenth-place finish, there were things to be happy about.
  • Carl Edwards followed up his Busch series win of the day before with a second-place finish. Not quite a back-flipping moment, but one worthy of a cartwheel or two.
  • After all was said and done, it was Kyle Busch who crossed the finish line first. Not only does this give him more ‘nyah nyah’ power with his older brother, but it moved him up four places in the standings.

HeartBreakers

  • Ryan Newman started in the front, but ended near the tail end of the pack in thirty-ninth. That’s not so good, but neither is having Tony Stewart mad at you for getting into him and making him wreck on lap 91.
  • Stewart’s various problems throughout the race not only dropped him four places in the standings, but one place out of the top ten.
  • Jeff Burton may have scored another choice qualifying position and found himself leading the race early on, but another speeding-on-pit-road penalty relegated him to a fortieth-place position one lap down by lap 83. Burton rallied to a finish in third-place, but it begs the question where he would have ended up had he been more patient heading on to pit road.
  • The No. 21 of Kenny Schrader was seen careening around the track a few times during the race, and ended up in thirty-fourth place.
  • Dark clouds were seen over the heads of the fans of Dale Earnhardt Jr. On lap 135 the driver of the No. 8 Chevy went out (and to the garage) in a puff of smoke. Earnhardt dropped four places in the standings to seventh.
  • Once again Bobby Labonte can’t buy some good luck. After a spin on lap 101 in which he sustained damage to the side of his car, Labonte just can’t seem to get the car to go. He winds up twenty-third, sixteen seconds behind winner Kyle Busch.
  • We have chosen four drivers to send out sympathetic HeartBreakers’ sighs to, for particular bad luck during the race: Elliott Sadler (who finished twenty-fifth); Clint Bowyer (finished twenty-seventh); Travis Kvapil (finished thirty-fifth); and Joe Nemecheck (finished forty-first). We are betting it was a long ride home from the track for all of these drivers.
  • We are also betting that Michael Waltrip isn’t inviting Robby Gordon over for dinner anytime soon, and vice-versa.