Top Row Seat - The Winston
Dateline: 05/24/99The Winston lived up to it's hype as Terry Labonte was able to capitalize on Ernie Irvan's driving error and a rare wrong decision by Ray Evernham and take home the big payday.
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Terry Wins 2nd Winston
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Ray Evernham Is Human
For the first time that anyone can remember Ray Evernham made the wrong decision. The final pit stop was a classic two-tire versus four-tire dilemma. Ray Evernham has made this call correctly hundreds of times and won races because of it. This time, however, Ray decided to put on two tires while Andy Graves (Terry Labonte's crew chief) changed all four tires and brought his driver the win.
Leave it to Ray to finally make a mistake in a race that does not affect his driver's championship hopes. Heck, Ray even makes mistakes well.
The Wreck
FACT: Since the Daytona 500 kicked off the season there have been 11 points races and "The Winston." In those twelve races Ernie Irvan has finished exactly two of them with undamaged race cars.
Time and time again Ernie Irvan tries to over compensate for his weaker team and softened skills by being over aggressive. The result so far has been limited to wrecked race cars, but how many times can he dodge the bullets until he seriously injures himself or another driver?
MB2 Motorsports needs to reconsider the driving duties of the M&Ms Pontiac and make the best decision for their bank account, their sponsor, and their sport.
Think I was unfair to Ernie? Want to point the finger at Bobby Labonte? Mark Martin? Voice your opinion on the bulletin board. Or you can vent your frustration in the chat room Wednesday night from 8-9pm EST.
