knew he was dead but, as we know, he survived. The two incidents at Bristol with Mikey and Mike Harmon having their entire front ends torn off left me just knowing they couldn’t have survived but they did and stepped out of their seats like it was a normal thing. The worst wreck I’ve seen had to be Geoff Bodine’s at Daytona in a Truck race. There was no way he could have survived that but he lived to drive another day.
Many years before these incidents my family went to Indy to watch qualifying. We never dreamed of going to the race since you could see so little of the track. The thing that stands out in my mind was what appeared to be a minor spin by Shorty Templin. It appeared his car barely backed into the wall and he’d be OK. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. It appears that the angle at which his car barely backed into the wall was such that it snapped his neck and he was dead. This was long before the days of headrests, HANS devices, etc. but it was still a quirk of angle of attack with the wall rather than speed. We didn’t learn that he’d died until we were on the way home and heard it on the radio.
Nationwide qualifying was rained out on Thursday and the field was set by points. Why? They had time Friday or Saturday morning to set the field. Since only one car had to load up no great harm was done but it’s wrong to let the claims jumpers get the best pit selections without a qualifying attempt. Meanwhile, the Texas crowd just went nuts as Junior ran to the provisional pole during Cup qualifying. Speaking of Junior, NA$CAR Now’s Marty Smith interviewed him Thursday evening and it was obvious that he is tickled pink to be where he’s at with Hendrick. Meanwhile, Kiddie Kyle made an ass of himself because the SPEED cameras were with Junior while Dick Bergeren was interviewing him about his qualifying run. I really want to like Kyle because he is obviously a talented driver. Once again, his attitude is making that difficult.
It ended up with Junior hanging on to P1 and the Cuz in P2. Kiddie Kyle starts third in the Interstate green colors and the Rocket Man fourth while Jimmie Johnson clocked in at fifth. Robbie Gordon clocked in fifteenth and I’m hoping he has a good run. David Ragan, who I was ready to write off as a wreck waiting to happen, shows great improvement and nailed seventh while Mike Skinner ran to ninth. It looks like the 45 car has problems as Chad McCumbee failed to put The Pigtails ride in the show. Kyle’s remarks on SPEED were curt and dismissive of our right to know. I’m sorry Kyle, it may be your families business but, as a high profile name in our sport, it is also our business. He also said he’d drive for another team if PE no longer wanted him. My question is who’d hire him?
Some years back my best friend and I use to make bets during the King’s final years as to what lap he’d hit the wall. Later we’d make bets as to what lap DW would go a lap down. The sad part was watching two of the sports greatest drivers looking so pathetic yet refusing to get out of the driver’s seat. Kyle Petty is long past his glory days and he’s bringing nothing but shame to his proud family’s name. Why doesn’t he see this? It’s time to hang it up and save the family name from further embarrassment
So now it’s on to Saturday and the CUP Lite race. As might be expected, Rowdy returned to form and essentially was untouchable once he got to the front after starting thirty first. I’d like to know why Eric McClure bothers to show up. After just ten laps he was two laps down and ended up 55 laps down. The only advantage I can see is he was getting lapped so often that Hefty got a lot of camera time as the leaders came up on him. Jason Leffler was the highest finishing regular in ninth. That gal doing the Anthem couldn’t figure out if she was singing or yodeling. What a disgrace along with the two sailors I saw not saluting. Not my Navy. We had seven run and parkers so we’re back to the days of field fillers. Without the Claims Jumpers we’d only have half a field of real racers. Thanks your HighnAss. The only bright spot was the twenty one car finally sporting sponsorship.
It’s now Sunday and what portends to be an exciting race. With Junior on pole the whole Junior Nation is alive and well and rowdy as ever if not more so. Roushkateers Edwards and Baffled led practice with JJ third. The fifteen car of Paul Menard was surprising in fourth with Dave Blaney fifth. As the green flag dropped will Digger run the show or will the action on the track rule? It seems like we were able to shame the ill advised Daft Tracker into retirement. Can we bury Digger?
While we had an exciting end to the race with the Cuz getting his third win I wasn’t impressed by what I saw. The race strung out real bad real early and we didn’t get to see all that much racing up front. While JJ managed a second place run it wasn’t a good day for Hendrick with Jeff Gordon dead last, Junior twelfth and Casey Mears twenty second. RCR did a little better with all three cars in the top eleven. Once again the Gibbs cars were strong with all three inside the top seven. The best of the best didn’t have anything for the Cuz today. Overall, it looks like the teams have a good handle on their engines with only two failures.
I really don’t understand how a team like
Gordon’s could be so far off with all their shared
information at Hendrick. For that matter, what
happened to Junior? Where were the NA$CAR
officials taking their nap? Mikey was three laps
down but pitted with the leaders and, unless Fox
missed it, no penalty was assessed. Digger
just don’t get it and keeps popping up. Phoenix
isn’t on my favorite track list but let’s hope we
see a more competitive race next week. I just
couldn’t get wrapped up with the Texas event
which was way short of living up to all the hype.
Gordon’s last place finish dropped him five spots
and out of that cherished top twelve. Jeff Burton holds the points lead with Kevin Havock maintaining second and Rowdy moving up to third. Junior maintained fourth and the StewPot moves up to fifth.
Until next time, be safe and God Bless.
Watch over those little ones and may we never forget 911.
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