Saturday afternoon saw the CUP Lite cars back on the track for their 300 mile race with Rowdy at the back of the pack in a backup car. He sliced and diced his way through the field and worked his way into the top ten with little effort. It looked like he was on his way to a possible win or top five but it wasn’t to be. A blown tire, while running second, sent him to the garage and he seemed quite mature in his acceptance of his fate. Tony Stew Pot got taken out and he, believe it or not, accepted blame for his failure to control his car. Mark Martin was keeping my Chevy hopes alive when he took the lead and appeared to be the car to beat. Uncharacteristically, the 21 Childress car, with Bobby Labonte at the wheel, was solid black and without sponsorship. Bobby, uncharacteristically, spun out and hit the wall all by himself. Whazzup with all that?
After the next to last caution, Brad Keselowski was leading with Cousin Carl second. Mark was back to fifth but quickly moved up to third and nudged ole Cuz who swerved into Keselowski, taking them both out of contention and leaving Mark with the lead. I hated seeing my Navy car taken out and Keselowski being denied a great finish but I’m hoping Mark truly didn’t mean for that to happen. I’m sure Mark didn’t want to be the one responsible for a record setting thirteenth caution. Not many drivers go to Victory Circle, climb from their car, and offer an immediate apology. I give Mark credit for that but I’m left wondering if he’d have driven that aggressively had it not been so long since he last won a race. (I still think he won the Daytona 500 last year.) Congrats to Mike Wallace for being the highest Cup Lite regular finisher in seventh. We had two open wheelers finishing in the top ten and it was good to see Stanton Barrett with a fine eleventh place finish. Three observations I can’t help but make. Why is this new racing surface already causing wrecks due to bumps in turn one? What’s wrong with turn four? Is it the tires?
I haven’t quite decided what to call the CUP drivers who invade CUP Lite. I’ve heard Claims Adjusters, Claims Jumpers and my own WideButt Whackers. What say you? My name for the Gopher Cam, Stupid. Nothing new here so why name it? Seems like the vote was for Digger.
As the CUP race gets ready for the green flag, how ironic would it be to see Robby Gordon take the checkered flag by “A NOSE”? That’s highly unlikely but let’s see what develops. As the green flag drops who will be behind the wheel of the number 18 Toy, Rowdy of Kiddie Kyle? Well, it started of with Rowdy at the wheel but later on it looked like Kiddie took charge as the eighteen car wasn’t handling well. When Kyle says the car is too loose we know it’s loose. Preseason prognosticators had Hendrick on top of the heap with Roush closing the gap. Dodge was out of the picture and the Toys were questionable. Kahne was the only Dodge in the top ten with Hamlin the only Toy. Rowdy held on for eleventh place.
Many had Jimmie Johnson as the race favorite regardless of his poor qualifying effort. Chad Knaus was supposed to perform his usual magic and make JJ capable of his late race charge. It never happened. Jeff Gordon took a horrific late race hit to the inside wall opening and totally destroyed his car. Earnhardt, Jr. was the only Hendrick car left to challenge and he fell short of overtaking The Cuz for the win. Tony StewPot took a hard hit into the wall after blowing a right front. Robby Gordon got mired back in the pack by an early green flag pit stop and ended up forty second after blowing a right front. Kurt Busch was also sidelined by a blown right front.
The race ended with Cousin Carl taking the win, Junior second and Roush’s Greg Baffled third. Roush had three cars in the top ten including the hapless Reckin David Ragan in sixth. It looks like Ragan finally figured out it’s best not to try driving through the outside wall. But, here’s the deal. Cuz won the race because he wasn’t penalized for his wayward tire on his final pit stop. I don’t know why the camera guy was over the wall but he should have been pushed aside and the tire caught. NAZICAR made an on the spot decision, after a tape review, that it wasn’t the teams fault the tire got away. I have no problem with the decision being made that the pit crew wasn’t liable for the infraction due to an outside influence. That was a common sense, on the spot decision and ruling. Hallelujah. Now all we need is the same logic applied to the Robby Gordon nose situation and all will be right with the universe. We can only wonder if the Supreme Court of Daytona Beach will apply the same logic in reviewing Robby’s challenge to the previous penalty ruling due to an outside influence (error).
Kasey Kahne appears to be back on track after a dismal 2007. He fought hard to regain a lost lap, while fighting the flu, and ended up with an seventh place finish. RCR placed two cars in the top five and Mark Martin gave DEI tenth place. For me, this was a confusing race. The new car seemed to allow for side by side racing for those teams having the right setup. As with the previous car, the wrong setup led to problems with side by side racing and, maybe, the blown right fronts.
Post race inspections revealed The Cuz with an infraction that should cost him points and the points lead. Five CUP Lite cars were found to have loose covers on their oil reservoirs and were fined and crew chiefs suspended for six races because of a performance advantage. Ole Cuz was found with the same violation and, being consistent, NAZICAR must come down hard on his team since there is a supposed competitive advantage. Robby’s blown tire and poor finish has him thirty seventh in points. Let’s take 100 points from Cousin Carl and give them back to Robby. Sounds fair to me. Can Carl do an un-back flip?
One side note. One of the respondents to a
recent article accused me of shilling for NA$CAR
because I said something good about them. I
was accused of this because of all the money
and benefits my position accrues. For any who
think thusly, fuhgetaboutit. I don’t get a penny’s
compensation for my humble efforts. I write about
the sport because I love it regardless of it’s many
faults. Chances are that, if I were being
compensated, I wouldn’t be allowed the freedom
of expression I enjoy. Only twice have I been
asked by RaceMama to alter an article because
of her fear of liability. Even though it weakened
my stance, I gladly complied.
Another side note. How often do we have forty plus NASCAR haulers run a parade down the main street of any city? They did this at Lost Wages but I’ve yet to see any footage of this unique event except a brief glimpse on the FOX pre race. Three networks were there for race coverage and they couldn’t cut a camera crew loose to cover this? Somehow SPEED managed to send a whole production crew downtown for that stupid Ethridge, the idiot, side show with Jimmy Doesn‘t Forget. SPEED’s priorities seem out of kilter here.
As always, this is my opinion based on my observations. You may disagree but never be disagreeable.
May God bless you and yours, our great nation, all who serve to protect and defend and all victims of terrorism. Watch over those defenseless little ones and never forget 911.
Never forget: We Are the Land of The FREE Because of The BRAVE.
Mom, Apple Pie, John Wayne and NASCAR Racing, now that’s America.
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