It's all about racin'

Early Sunday morning, in the opening laps of the Australian Gran Prix, the reigning Formula One champion, Kimi Raikonnen, surprised everybody by moving up from his starting position of 15th to 6th place. As it turned out, he was carrying almost a full load of fuel when he accomplished this, because his car was heavier than many of the cars he passed, which made the feat even more amazing. Unfortunately, he was unable to finish the race.
We saw something similar at the beginning of NASCAR's Food City 500 from Bristol Motor Speedway, as Kyle Busch quickly made the front of the field from a starting position of 22nd with a car that wasn't handling all that well. He later spun out, while in the lead, and finished seventeenth, two laps down.
And we saw my favorite driver lead the majority of the laps of the race, driving very carefully and intelligently, for Bristol, only to be caught up in contact with Kevin Harvick's #29 car, spinning out with less then ten laps to go. Once again, as we did watching the Las Vegas race, two weeks ago, Tony Stewart fans went from an inspirational emotional pinnacle to a very depressing low in a matter of seconds.
But that is just racing.
That is just Bristol.
That is what short track racing is all about, and we have to think of that as wonderful.
It was a race where we saw the cars continuously in traffic, no matter what position they were in. The excellent camera positining Fox Sports had to cover the race gave us terrific views of what it was like for the driver to get through the traffic--a very good rendition of the Bristol experience. We saw the continuous battle for position, or to hold a lap, in circumstances that involved every car on the track. And all this was done without restricter-plates. It was pure racing.
And even though we may be unhappy that our driver, no matter who he may be, didn't win, we can be very happy that we saw NASCAR Cup racing at it's best.
Photo Credit: Racing One.com