Readers close with a flourish
By Steve T. Gorches 648-3141 or sgorches@post-trib.com August 4, 2012 10:22PM
Top readers
Brickyard 400
Allen Curtis 212
Mike Moldovan 210
Scott Wilson 205
Nathaniel Hollowell 205
Phyllis Curtis 205
Shannon Zart 204
Joe Torres 204
Ken Cates 204
Renee Glans 203
Ron Zochalski 203
Jerome Mackowiak 201
Michael Rich 200
Steve T. Gorches’ picks: Brickyard: Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jimmie Johnson. Total points: 158
Updated: September 6, 2012 6:31AM
Well, it was a nice way to go out in the Post-Tribune’s sixth annual Fantasy NASCAR contest.
The readers showed they’re pretty smart — smarter than I am, once again, though at least I ended our season by choosing the winner. But then again, why wouldn’t you pick Jimmie Johnson to win his fourth Brickyard 400 crown?
We had 12 readers score more than 200 points (we’re listing them all this last week) since the top 10 was pretty full with popular drivers. The top five of Johnson, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon are very common picks among our weekly entries.
And the one with the best compilation of drivers was Allen Curtis with 212 points. He had Johnson, Busch, Biffle, Gordon and Denny Hamlin, the polesitter who finished sixth. It’s Curtis’ first victory in our contest since 2008. Allen’s wife, Phyllis, also had a pretty good week with 205 points , tied for third place.
Curtis was followed closely by contest regular Mike Moldovan of Hobart with 210 points.
It was another great season. Kudos go out to another large turnout of reader entries. Looking forward to another contest next year.
In the meantime, what can NASCAR fans look forward to the rest of this season?
Chase fever: Johnson has three victories to set himself up for the Chase while his Hendrick teammate Junior is leading the points for the first time since 2004. It could come down to those two popular drivers for the title, though others are in the hunt, such as Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin.
Another Hendrick drought: Junior ended his long drought of winning races, but it seems like his teammate Gordon is on his way to a long one if he doesn’t get it going soon. It hasn’t been that long, but he’s been close this season with nothing to show for it. And sitting 15th in the points standings, he could use a couple wins in the next six weeks before the Chase begins at Chicagoland.
