Kentucky

RMFN finally reversed a gross trend in average scores at the snoozer-of-a-race in Kentucky, finishing the first half of the season with a 266 average - the highest for RMFN since Darlington in May. Damn Sunday Driver's 378 was also the third-best score of the season.

I set the breakdown as a Flash presentation this time, instead of a scrolling document. If you don't like it, let me know. If I don't like it, I'll go back to the way it was.

After Race 18, we got ride of a lot of players in the two bracket and heat competitions...

SINGLE ELIM BRACKET
We're down to the quarterfinals, and six of the eight remaining teams entered with top 17 seeds.
smokeum wins the Tough Luck Award, falling to MONSTER by just 4 points. The next closest race was Dirt Track's 41-point victory over RYAN'S FAST.
The quarterfinal matchups:
Gonzo33 (No. 35 seed) vs. katie's bootleggers (41)
Dirt Track (16) vs. LT4SS (16)
RMO Lug Nutz (17) vs. Damn Sunday Drivers (7)
SICK PUPS (14) vs. MONSTER (6)

DOUBLE ELIM BRACKET
Surprisingly, the losers' bracket didn't see a ton of close matchups. Rev-a-lusions' 29-point win over Shamrock was the closest.
The biggest news was Overall contender napolean's exit in the fifth round. It lost to JoRo's Rockets by 94 points and settled for a 16th place finish.
The losers' bracket matchups for round six:
Team Lester (No. 35) vs. Rolling Thunder (23)
Damn Sunday Drivers (30) vs. Rev-a-lusions (16)
HEAVY CHEVY (20) vs. JoRo's Rockets (24)
AMSKahne4 (14) vs. Killer Carl (21)
The winners' side had a bye round and resumes in round six (races 19-21), with the winners advancing to the semifinals. The matchups:
RMO Lug Nutz (6) vs. Sunday Money (10)
Cooter88 (4) vs. katie's bootleggers (44)

SINGLE ELIM HEAT
Four top 10 seeds were eliminated in the third round, including napolean and defending RMFN champion BLOWINSMOKE. AMSKahne is the highest remaining seed at No. 3.
Overall contenders RMO, katie's and Sunday Money are still alive.

DOUBLE ELIM HEAT
Like the Double Elim Bracket, the winners' group had round five off, leaving the spotlight on the elimination group.
RYAN'S FAST and Rolling Thunder tied for the last advancing spot, well ahead of the teams that were ousted.
napolean finished 15th; RMO stayed alive in the losers' heat by finishing second in the fifth round.
Winners Heat: MONSTER (2), Cooter (4), Sunday Money (10), katie's bootleggers (44).
Losers Heat: RMO (6), Swindell Motorsports (8), HEAVY CHEVY (20), RYAN'S FAST (22), Rolling Thunder (23), JoRo's Rockets (24), GOOD TO GO (25), SICK PUPS (42).

WORLD CUP
There are two weeks left in the Champion Qualifying group phase, and we have some teams already qualified for the knockout, bracket round.
Sunday Money 10 (Earnhardt), RMO Lug Nutz (Waltrip), Gonzo33 (Waltrip), Betty Boop Madness (Yarborough), Oval Friends (Allison), Top of Texas (Johnson), and Swindell Motorsports (Johnson) will take seven of the 16 final spots.
While the final places aren't know yet, we do know some teams that won't advance past this round: Tony is The Man, #3 Intimidator, Team Lester, Dirt Track OUTLAW, Hang on Harvick, Dale Earnhardt's Neck, and .... drumroll ... Overall contender .... katie's bootleggers (we'll learn how much it affects that team at the end of this phase).

HEAD-TO-HEAD
I appear to have found the bug that had HEAVY CHEVY a game short, leaving that team in ninth place after race 19. RMO leads, followed by napolean, katie's bootleggers, JoRo's and Sunday Money.
REMINDER: I'll try to keep this updated through the rest of the season, but if work or family news breaks, we may ditch this competition in the Overall standings.

CHASE
SICK PUPS and Top Of Texas each have three wins on the season, and hold much higher places in the Chase than they do in the Yahoo standings.
The cutoff currently includes 24 teams with eight races to go before the Chase starts.
RMO leads and katie's is second, but a reminder - we'll reset the points at Chicago.

OVERALL
RMO and katie's hold a nice margin over Sunday Money, but recall that katie's is facing an elimination in the World Cup. It could be a two-team race after Indianapolis, and even with that, Sunday needs RMO to stumble along the way.




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