Live on Type Delay: Chevy Rock n Roll 400

This is not the usual flag-to-flag coverage we present in Live on Tape Delay, due to the fact that we committed the almost unforgiveable sin of oversleeping on race day. We managed to start watching just before Kyle Busch got his payback from Dale Earnhardt, Jr in retaliation for "the spin heard around the world" at Richmond last Spring.

That finally being over with, and done with a finnesse of which only Junior is capable of, we watch a race that only Richmond is capable of presenting. Three wide racing all around the track, some bumpin' some beatin' and some bangin' is what makes the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 rock & roll.

The seventh caution of the race gave David Reutimann the opportunity to take the lead by staying out while the leaders pitted. It didn't take long for Tony Stewart and the others who pitted to catch up to him, but he did very well by holding the lead for the entire segment. Shortly after the eighth restart, Smoke catches him and takes the lead, with Jimmie Johnson close behind him.

There is another caution with around forty laps to go, and the leaders pit again. Truex comes off pit road first, but he only took two tires. Jimmie Johnson, whose #48 team got him out first among those who took four tires, makes quick work of Truex, and Stewart is right behind him.The final caution occurs with thirty six laps to go, and the final restart is with thirty one to go.

We have to stop being so cynical of Jimmie Johnson's abilities. For the final 25 laps, Stewart and Johnson are racing hard. Johnson plays it smart and maintains the high line that gives him more momentum off the turns. Stewart catches him with ten to go, and this is getting very exciting. Stewart does gain the lead for one lap, but Jimmie is faster on the high line, and pins Smoke to the bottom. The race goes all the way to the final lap--a well fought race that Johnson wins. This was a great finish that fed us almost too much adreniline. We are as disappointed as Smoke that he couldn't catch Johnson at the end--a win here would have been awesome--but Johnson showed brilliance in holding the lead for the win, and it was a very good race.

Meanwhile we had more drama going on between the drivers trying to get that twelfth position for the Chase. David Ragan, starting the race only seventeen points behind twelfth place Clint Bowyer, got damage to his front splitter in an incident early in the race--something that should have caused him problems, but didn't. At times he was as much as seven points ahead of Bowyer, and for much of the race was running side by side with Bowyer. But a damaged car is just that, and it was only a matter of time before the handling problems multiplied and it became too difficult for Ragan to keep up, so Bowyer ended up safe within the Chase for the Championship. His victory earlier this season gives him fifth seed in the Chase.

Earnhardt, Jr had a good car, but not good enough. He did get a top five finish with the car that never really looked better than being top fifteen capable. This is another thing that impresses us about Junior, and we wonder what would happen if he ever got a really good car. This is Hendrick Motorsports we are talking about, and, for the Chase, maybe they can get things stepped up as far as equipment goes.

There doesn't seem much hope for Jeff Gordon this year. At times, the 24 team has been brilliant, but for much of the regular season, it seemed lackluster. We are still expecting some sort of change in that team during the last ten races of this season. It would be difficult to change crew cheifs at this point, because of communication concerns. But if Gordon and Letarte aren't on the same page at this point, what would it hurt to put someone else on the pit box for the last ten races?

The organizations that performed the best this season are the organizations that made the Chase. Hendrick, Gibbs, Roush-Fenway, and Childress each have three cars in the Chase. Gillett-Evernham was the only Dodge team that had a chance to be in the Chase, with Kasey Kahne, but that team, which had been as high as eight in the standings, ran into trouble earlier this season and never really recovered. We could probably expect NASCAR--who changed the eligibility requirements for the Bud Shootout at the beginning of the season to ensure that all the manufacturers were represented--will once again tweak the Championship rules to include all the manufacturers in the Chase next year.

Final thoughts:

The race was awesome, and so was the Home Depot ad that featured Tony Stewart literally handing the wheel of the Home Depot car to his replacement, Joey Logano.

Kyle Busch handled himself very well in the post race interview, and did not seem angry or disappointed that he was taken out of the lead by Jr. He didn't put any blame anywhere, and congratulated his team, happy to be going into the Chase seeded in the top position. We will see some more wins from him this year, because he has the right attitude, and the right team with which to do so.

The fans at Richmond are loyal, and, even after the weather postponement, the stands were very nearly full, as far as we can tell. Richmond is one of the best tracks on the circuit, and continues to deliver great racing even with the new car, where the racing at the intermediate tracks has often fallen flat. We feel that the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 is an excellent venue with which to end the regular season.

Horsepower in the Windy City

The pre-race programming for the Nationwide Series races has the recurring theme of Nationwide teams complaining about the alleged Toyota horsepower advantage. Previous dynamometer tests on the engines have shown that the Gibbs Nationwide engines produce about twenty-two more horsepower than does the team's engine with the lowest horsepower. Rusty Wallace whose team runs Chevy engines, wants NASCAR to restrict the Gibbs team so they can't build powerful engines, while the rest of the Chevy and Ford teams want their manufacturers to step up their engine development programs in the series. The Dodge teams, notably Evernham and Ganassi, have remained strangely quite about the issue, perhaps not wanting to publicize the fact that they have as much horsepower as Toyota, something alluded to by one of the Dodge drivers early in the season (I attributed the blurted out information to Ryan Newman, but it may have been Elliot Sadler who said that).

Chevy plans to introduce the RO-7 engine that they use in the Cup Series to the Nationwide Series in 2009, while Ford and Dodge currently have no new engine program to compete with the Toyota.

NASCAR has said they will look into the difference in horsepower and see if they have to take any action to even things up (Rusty wants to even things down, but "up" is what the rest of the teams are looking for). That could include larger openings in the spacer plates NASCAR uses in the Nationwide and Truck Series for the Chevy and Ford engines.

Anyway, after the race at Chicagoland Friday night, NASCAR confiscated engines from nine different teams to ship to their R&D lab in Charlotte for dynamometer testing. They will see if there is a need to do anything to help the teams with the lower horsepower engines become more competitive with the teams that get more output from their engines.

As far as the race itself went, it was a clean race with only three cautions for the entire 300 miles. There wasn't much racing to talk about, and Kyle Busch won in the JGR #18 car, making it his fifth win in the Nationwide Series this season. The margin of victory was by a little more than three seconds over second place Denny Hamlin, who was driving the #32 Toyota for Todd Braun Racing. During the last part of the race, Hamlin had the fastest car on the track but all he could do in twenty laps was to turn a nine second deficit into a three second deficit. Brad Keselowski, who was ill, did not wimp out and brought his car to a third place finish, the highest finish among the Nationwide regulars.

The #20 team experienced its first missed set-up of the season, fighting a tight condition all evening long. Tony Stewart was able to "trick the car" into making the turns by driving harder than usual into the corners, and ended up with a ninth place finish.

The race should serve to remind us that Chicagoland is a boring track, even with the conventional cars. Still, there is no telling what could happen with the Sprint Cup cars Saturday night until it happens.

The New Young Guns are making their mark

Has anyone noticed how exciting the Nationwide Series races have become now that the series regulars are becoming more competitive? With the new "Young Guns," such as Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kelly Bires, and Brad Coleman, and the veterans becoming more competitive, a championship or even a race win is no longer a given for the "claim jumpers"--the four Cup drivers who are racing full time in the Nationwide Series. This is what we mean when we write about "evening up" rather than "evening down."

Drivers like Jason Keller, Jason Leffler, Mike Bliss, and David Stremme are the ones who will ultimately give the series its own identity, but the Cup bound young guns have given notice that if you are going to be competitive in the Nationwide Series, you better be prepared to race hard and be able to take some dents, dings, and bruises.

It would be nice if the Cup teams were limited as to how many cars they can run in one weekend in all three of the top series, but we don't advocate that NASCAR should tell any teams at any level what drivers they can use. Just imagine if NASCAR did do that. It would start with "you can't put Dale Earnhardt, Jr in the #5 Nationwide Series car at Daytona, because he is a Cup driver, and Michelle Theriault needs a ride." That would open a door for them to tell HMS, "Jeff Gordon already has eighty wins and four championships, so you can't race him in Cup any more. Instead, you have to put Landon Cassill in the #24 Sprint Cup car."

Get my point now?

That is a moot point, now that the Nationwide Series teams and drivers are stepping up. Drivers like Keselowski and Logano have said things like, "it doesn't matter who is in that car, it is just another car I have to pass."

I just love that attitude.

Returning to the subject of this post, which is supposed to be about the Camping World RV Rental 250 at the Milwaukee Mile, it seemed like the best race so far this year for the Nationwide Series. The racing started early, as it should at a one mile track in a 250 mile race. Pit strategy shouldn't really matter here--ideally such a race is about "go-go-go."

And Brad Keselowski went, leading the race from the pole for nearly 170 laps. Logano, was right behind him for many of those laps. With around eighty laps to go, Logano makes a move to race Keselowski for the lead. They race side by side for several laps, then, unfortunately, Logano gets loose while trying to pass Keselowski low. Keselowski's car happens to be in a position to keep Logano's car from hitting the wall, but unfortunately that causes damage to his car, and spins him out.

This was really unfortunate, because it messed up what looked like a great race between two of the Nationwide Series' top young guns, but when they are racing hard like that, something bad has to happen. Unfortunate, also, because now Dale Jr fans have another reason to hate another JGR driver. We have been pulling for Keselowski, because he has a chance to be the first series regular to win a championship in three years, so we didn't care much for this chain of events, either.

Another reason it is unfortunate is that it gives the Series' points leader, Clint Bowyer, the race lead. Another claim jumper, Carl Edwards soon catches him, and hits him hard with around thirty laps to go to pass him. Meanwhile, Keselowski has made it back to the top five, but the real threat remains to be Joey Logano, who has passed Bowyer and is running in second.

Caution with less than twenty laps to go. Logano asks his crew chief, Dave Rogers, "You know that 'give and take' thing? Is it more about taking now?"

"Yes," Rogers replies, "Take, take, take!"

But, in spite of hitting his marks perfectly, and in spite of the alleged "extra horsepower" of the Toyota engines, Logano can't catch Edwards, but does stay ahead of Bowyer, who is running third.

Joey Logano finishes the race in second place, and ends up being the only Nationwide Series driver to end up in the top five. Keselowski finishes in eighth, unable to hold his position against claim jumpers David Ragan and David Reutimann, who finish fourth and fifth respectively. It is enough to keep Keselowski in second place in the championship points, but now he is 188 points out of first, and only two points ahead of David Ragan in third.

Carl Edwards impresses us by using his victory celebration to pay tribute to Milwaukee native Alan Kulwicki, who originated the "Polish Victory Lap." Edwards takes the checkered flag and circles the track clockwise, to salute the fans, and Kulwicki. He also refuses to perform his customary back flip, because he doesn't feel it would be appropriate after the news of the death of Scott Kalitta. We have to respect him for that, it was a very honorable thing for him to show that consideration.

While we once thought Logano might be too boring to be a candidate for favorite driver when Stewart retires after next year, that thought has been changed. Logano has little respect for the veteran drivers, does not apologize, and does not even mention his slide that damaged Keselowski's car and possibly prevented Keselowski's second win of the season. A driver who does nothing more than thank his crew and mention his sponsors would be boring even if he won thirty-six races in one year, but Logano does not come across as boring at all. He, like Keselowski and many of the other Nationwide Series regulars, is in racing to do one thing, and that is to win.

With the announcement last week that Casey Mears will not be returning to race the HMS #5 car in Cup next year, we expect Hendrick to be putting Keselowski or Cassell in that car next year--most likely Keselowski. This will once again take a great driver from the Nationwide Series, which has been sorely in need of great drivers. Since Brad Keselowski has yet to race in the Cup series, we don't know for sure if this is a good move. He has shown that he can beat Cup drivers in the Nationwide Series, however, and that, somehow, justifies the claim jumpers.

Surprise!

In the modern day science fiction/horror classic "Alien." the space-suited investigators are exploring the wreckage of what appears to be an ancient spacecraft. They find the remains of a huge alien being, still strapped into the pilot's seat. Further investigation reveals a chamber full of egg-like objects. One of the explorers gets closer to one of the objects to get a better look when suddenly....
Ryan Newman wins the Daytona 500!
It was Roger Penske's first ever restrictor-plate victory, and his first Daytona 500 victory in his 36 year history as a NASCAR Cup team owner.It was Ryan Newman's first Cup victory in over two years, and his first Daytona 500 victory. For only the ninth time in the 50 year history of the Daytona 500, the winner came from a last lap lead change, this one brought about through the co-operation of no less than six Dodge Chargers working together. Talk about teamwork!
Suprises:
We have been speculating that it would take a lot of teamwork to stop the Hendrick Juggernaut, but the Hendrick Juggernaut hardly got out of the box. After a very long calm before the storm Jeff Gordon developed a fatal suspension failure and had to retire from the race. Later, during the storm of the closing laps, reigning NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion and pole sitter Jimmie Johnson got tangled up with DEI rookie Ragan Smith, in an accident that finished the end of his day, which had not been that good from the drop of the green flag.
With a little over six laps to go, Casey Mears, who had been running in the middle line, decided that he wanted to be the leader of the line that Tony Stewart and dedicated drafting buddy Dale Earnhardt, Jr were running. However, he made his move a bit too late, and got clipped by Stewart, who really had no choice, as Earnhardt was less than inches from his rear bumper.
A sidenote: If Tony Stewart had lifted a bit to avoid hitting Mears, and Earnhardt had run into the back of him as a result, would it be possible for Smoke to be more unpopular than he is now?
That left Dale Earnhardt, Jr pretty much on his own for the final run, which was not a very good situation to be in when it came down to the every man for himself portion of the race. Still, he managed to finish in eighth place, the best finishing position among the Chevrolets.
The expected (by some) conflicts among the volitile Joe Gibbs Racing team mates was something else that never happened. Nor did a continuation of the Tony Stewart/Kurt Busch conflict. In fact, Stewart and Dirty Kurty worked quite well together at different points during the race to move up throught the traffic, and in the end, raced each other very cleanly.
Tony Stewart said, after the race, that he may have made a mistake in making the decision to give up the lead to help team mate Kyle Busch on the last lap, but he had had the apprehension that if he had stayed in front of the charging Chargers on the last lap he could have been wrecked. So he opted to move out of their way in hopes that the alledgedly superior horsepower of his and Kyle Busch's Toyotas would be sufficient to get back in front of the Dodges. It wasn't, but the surprise here was that Smoke gave up a nearly certain win in favor of helping his team mate get a better finish. It may be surprising as well to those who know little about My Man Smoke that he admitted to making a mistake.
In the end, six Dodges finished in the top ten, the Toyotas of Stewart and Busch finished third and fourth, respectively, while the Ford of Greg Biffle, who finished tenth, and the Chevy of Dale, Jr. filled out the top ten.
Teamwork didn't work out for Roush-Fenway's David Regan and Matt Kenseth. Regan apparently misjudged the closing rate of the new Formula N car, and made a move toward Kenseth, lost control and wrecked both cars.
RCR had a similar incident between Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton. Burton had a chance to win the race, being in the proximity of team mates Kevin Harvick and Bowyer, But Bowyer also decided to move into line, and in doing so may have moved too soon, or too late, as he was clipped first by Harvick, then by John Pablo Montoya, who had meen moving up inside of Burton, and was sent careening into the side of Burton's car. After the incident, Burton expressed his displeasure with Bowyer, surprising many by showing that he can get angry.
Debunking the Myths (The "Snoops.com" section)
From various comments around the Web:
"Brian France and NASCAR are recieving bribes from Rick Hendrick to make sure that NASCAR policy is biased toward Hendrick Motorsports.
"Deals have been made to make sure Dale Earnhardt, Jr wins the Daytona 500"
"Toyota has paid off Brian France to make sure they dominate the field, and end the competition from the Chevy, Dodge, and Ford teams."
Either NASCAR does a terrible job at meeting their behind-the-scenes obligations or none of the above accusations are true. In the end, neither Hendrick nor Jr. came close to being given the win, and Toyota was clearly outraced by Dodge. The race itself should be enough to debunk the above myths.
But wait, the conspiracy theorists who have come up with these ridiculous accusations claim that they do not watch NASCAR any more, so they will be stuck with their own silly little beliefs forever, having seen no evidence to prove them wrong. We should not pity them, because their predicament is of their own making, and they will never know what they are missing in what is shaping up to be one of the most competitive and exciting NASCAR racing season to date.
Granted, the Daytona 500, being unique in both qualifying and in car set-up rules, and is not a true barometer of what is to come the rest of the season, but we saw an indication of the level of competition that we can look forward to. As the teams find ways to make the car handle better, and to preserve the tires better, the racing will become better. Thus we will be likely to see some of the best racing ever in the coming weeks and months.

All About Love

Those who have been with me for awhile already know this, so the following disclaimer is for those who may not be familiar with this blog:
This blog is not so much about racing as it is about the love of racing. It presents the views of a fan who does not claim to be an expert, but who has long been bitten by the NASCAR bug. "How bad have you got it" is not a question to me but a statement of fact. I hope to present my views in a way that some may find interesting and entertaining enough to keep coming back, and--by accident usually--find something useful in what is written here. Thank you all for your continued support.
There was much heartbreak in the Daytona 500 qualifying heats known as the Gatorade Duels.
The Wood Brothers Racing team and Bill Elliott did not make the much coveted cut for the Daytona 500. Ken Schrader, after a very valient try--alone against Michael Waltrip Racing--in his own words, "just wasn't fast enough."
Red Bull Racing's AJ Allmendinger also wasn't fast enough, not was two time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin. Jaques Villeneuve got clipped by John Andretti and nearly made an amazing save, only to be hit by three drivers who found themselves with nowhere to go--Dario Franchitti and Stanton Barrett. Barrett and Villeneuve were trying to race their way into the 500, and the accident put an end to their hopes.
Patrick Carpentier, the only open wheel and sports car newcomer who has had some experience in the tintops, nearly made it into a transfer position, but ended up fighting a loose car and a flat tire, and lost his battle to the wall. Carl Long, underfunded and under-equipped, as usual, never had a chance.
Finally, fan favorite Boris Said, who could have made the Big Race on his qualifying time, if David Reutimann could have finished in a transfer position, saw his dreams go down the tubes as John Andretti found himself in the right place at the right time in the rush to the finish.
But the love was there as well.
Fans loved it as Dale Earnhardt, Jr, won his second straight race, having moved all the way from the back of the pack after an engine change to take the checkers in the first heat. Earnhardt, who has, in the past, proven himself to be one of the best drivers when it comes to car control, and arguably the best at restrictor plate races, made it look easy as he brought his car to victory, without help from team mates.
There was some brotherly love in action as Mike Wallace, who was the fourth place finisher in last year's Daytona 500, spotted for brother Kenny, and successfully guided him to a transfer position. This did give me some personal satisfaction because, with Joe Nemecheck already in on time, Kenny Wallace's qualification means that both cars owned and sponsored by the Denver-based Furniture Row team made the Big Show. I consider this a home team victory.
There was also a lot of love for Brian Vickers, from Toyota, as the Red Bull driver fought his way to a transfer position that gave him a place in the 500. Now that Vickers is in, he is a driver to watch, with a talent that could not be displayed during last year's Toyota growing pains. Personally, I feel that if Vickers gets his car into the top 35 in owner's points, he will stay there for the entire season.
And now he is a very real threat to win the Daytona 500, but that is for a different item on this blog.
The real love was in the second Duel, where two Toyota teams showed not only love for their teams and team mates, but sacrifice as well.
Michael Waltrip had a very good chance at winning the second Duel, but opted instead to drop back and aid his team mate, Dale Jarrett, in getting into a transfer position. This will be Jarrett's last Daytona 500 in his career, and Mikey took one for the team to make sure Dale qualified.
Coach Joe Gibbs sat in a meeting with his three drivers before the Duels, and explained to them the meaning and importance of teamwork. The "Brat Pack" of racing took it to heart with an "all for one, one for all" attitude that showed in the final laps of the race. Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin both knew that one of them had to win the race, and get Toyota's historical first Cup victory, and that to achieve this it would take sacrifice on the part of the other. After Denny Hamlin's victory, the two drivers talked to each other on the radio, agreed that they had done the right thing, and congratulated and thanked each other. Now that is love for the team. Good work, Coach. If JGR can continue the season with this team spirit, HMS will definitely have some competition.
Now the stage is set for the Daytona 500, and our love of racing flows deep.

Okay, you can let go of my arm now.

Because I have finally decided to post my pre-season predictions. Everybody else who posts predictions has done so, and I can't read their picks until I pick mine.
So here goes:
Top Twelve (in no particular order):
Tony Stewart
The DeWalt Driver (I promised Babs that I will not mention his name here, because every time I have in the past it seems to jinx him. He is, after all, one of my second favorite drivers.)
Kyle Busch
Denny Hamlin
Carl Edwards
Jeff Gordon
Jimmy Johnson
Dale Earnhardt, Jr
Martin Truex, Jr
Juan Pablo Montoya
Ryan Newman
Kurt Busch
Biggest story of the year:
The return of the manufacturer's rivalry. Toyota and Chevrolet will enter a rivalry reminiscent of the old days, as Toyota ends Chevy's near domination of NASCAR. This will be good, economically, for both manufacturers, and auto sales for both will rise in volume as a result.
Dark Horse story of the year:
Dave Blaney will finally get his first Cup victory.
Rookie of the Year:
There are three viable choices here. Dario Franchitti, Regan Smith, and Michael McDowell. I would love to pick McDowell, as he is relatively unknown among NASCAR fans and press, and he is a very talented driver. However, I think Smith has the talent and drive of Denny Hamlin in his rookie year, and, unlike McDowell, he will be running a full season. So Regan Smith is my pick for this category.
And, finally, my prediction for the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion:
I do not think Jimmy Johnson will threepeat, though he will continue to increase his wins column. This really is Tony Stewart's year, because everything already seems to be going his way. He has already shown a controversial demonstration of his passion, and that passion is what wins him races and championships. Being the top driver for Toyota has also given him incentive to race for a new goal. I think the points race will be close, throughout the first 26 races, and even through the final ten, but I do believe Stewart will prevail.
Yes I am prejudiced, but I did try to be as objective as possible in my choices.
This will be a great season for NASCAR I feel, with the return of old school racing and very close competition. Enjoy!

Budweiser Shootout! What a ride!

If you are driving down the interstate between the months of November and February and you see people just standing on the overpass watching traffic, chances are they are NASCAR racing fans.

If you have a neighbor who starts a lawnmower engine every Sunday throughout the Winter, he or she may tell you that they are just letting the oil circulate, but chances are, it is a NASCAR fan who is telling you that.

The person you caught painting numbers on the junkers in your auto salvage yard is a NASCAR fan.

And, if you were sitting in a bar watching the SuperBowl, and a guy asked you, "Who's playing?" that was probably me.

And yes, I am a NASCAR fan.

When the major sports series with the shortest off season goes on break, for a NASCAR fan that is the longest three months in ones life. Happily that three months has come to an end.

Was the much anticipated Budweiser Shootout worth the wait?

Final practice for the Shootout, Friday afternoon, certainly added to the level of anticipation. Newspapers and television broadcasters carried the story of the altercation between Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch to every household in the nation. NASCAR couldn't have paid for such publicity, but the more immediate effect was that the adreneline level of millions of race fans rose drastically at the news. Kurt Busch fans were certain that Stewart had done something to make their driver angry, and cheering him on for "showing Tony Stewart that the other drivers are tired of his crap."

Meanwhile Smoke fans were celebrating. We like our driver because of his passion, and when that passion shows, we love it. This morning there was a headline on a fellow Smoke fan's page that read, "Tony Stewart got in trouble already. That's our Smoke!"

We celebrate his passion because we know that it means that he is ready to win races and championships.

For all that, this morning's news indicated that we would not see a continuation of the battle that began Friday. The new Smoke, who we love as much as we love the old Smoke had this to say about his rival:

Stewart said Busch's fender-slamming wasn't a big deal.
``What Kurt did coming onto pit road ... I've done a lot worse than what he did, so I'm not going to throw stones,'' Stewart said in a statement. ``Kurt's emotion and desire and passion to win are much like mine. The easiest way for us to go out and do what we do is just agree to disagree and go on from there.
``The best thing to do is to go on and move forward and not let this linger between the two of us. We've met in the NASCAR trailer twice now and we're both past it and we're hoping that the media will respect that fact, too, and let us move on from it.''
Stewart called Busch a ``great driver.''
``He got here for a reason -- it's because he's got talent,'' he said in a TV interview. ``That passion is what makes us all as good as we are. That's part of racing. That's what happens. It's no different than going to any Saturday night short track. We both got our cars fixed for tonight and we're ready to go.''

Although that put an end to thoughts we might see more retaliation during the race, that is actually a good thing, because now we knew that it would be a clean race.

And it was a clean race. The new cars were wiggling all over the place and that in itself was nail-biting because of the proximity of the cars. But to our satisfaction, the cars could actually close on the cars in front of them without as much reliance on drafting partners as the older cars had. This meant that there was real wheel to wheel racing, even with restricter plates. There were plenty of lead changes and a lot of good racing throughout the pack. It was reminiscent of the pre-restricter plate races where the slingshot maneuver could be used to its full advantage.
So, the wiggling added to the thrill, as did the lead changes. We will remain interested in the wiggling attribute next week, as we see how it effects the racing when the tire runs are longer.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr fans once again proved that they were the majority of all the NASCAR fans, as their cheers could clearly be heard above the roar of the engines. Junior Nation will ensure another upsurge of NASCAR popularity this year with their interest and enthusiasm for their driver, because, if there really are 75 million NASCAR fans, 49 million of them are Jr. fans. This is bound to influence more markets and new fans.

The Formula N (CoT) car proved to be racier than we would have thought, considering what we saw from it last year. It seems there is more great racing to come as the engineers and crew chiefs from each team get it figured out. The talented drivers who can adapt to the way it drives can also promise us a great season.

So, was the Budweiser Shootout worth the wait? In my opinion, you bet it was!

The Titans Clash In Texas

Photo Credit: (Jason D. Smith-US PRESSWIRE) Copyright © 2007 Jason D. Smith
It was bound to happen--two drivers with similar personalities, with an extreme passion for racing, and equally infamous for their temper were going to clash. What a better place for it to happen than Texas, where the victory celebration includes symbols of the Wild West. Juan Pablo "Johnny Paul" Montoya and Tony "Smoke" Stewart thrilled us as they beat and banged for several laps, showing us what happens when the Titans clash. Smoke lost the battle, but those of us who know him know that he will get over it. We were happy to hear, during the post race interviews, that the "Old" Smoke, with the fire, is still there within the "new" Smoke.
"I can't blame him (Montoya), because he's only had five or six weeks to try to learn everything," said Smoke, "...Maybe he should stay near the back while he learns how we do things over here.
"He is the best driver that team (Ganassi) has, besides David Stremme. (But) he didn't make friends with me today."
(AP Photo/Larry Papke)
We now have the scenario set for what promises to be one of the greatest rivalries in racing, one that actually has its roots in the 1997 Indianapolis 500, which Montoya won while Stewart ran out of fuel while leading on the last lap. This promises some great racing moments, which we may look forward to seeing as soon as next Saturday night at Phoenix.
Even without Smoke in the race, we saw some great racing in Texas. Attrition took out some of the best cars, but we were treated to yet another excellent and exciting finish, as Jeff Burton raced hard for a win over Matt Kenseth on the very last lap, in a race that wasn't decided until they crossed the finish line. Jeff Burton, who was the first Cup driver to win at TMS (it was his first career Cup win) was also the first repeat winner at the track.
Meanwhile, after Kyle Busch had run into the back of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who had slowed down to miss a spinning Tony Stewart--Stewart was trying to make a poor handling car work for him--he left the track, thinking that the day was done for the #5 car. The crew did, however, repair the car well enough to get it back on the track, and it was driven to the finish by none other than Dale Earnhardt, Jr. How's that for irony?
All in all, the race was the most eventful yet of the season, and, since events lead to events, we should be able to expect more of this in a highly competitive racing season.


In other racing news, Formula 1 super-rookie Lewis Hamilton finished second in the Bahrain Gran Prix, his third podium finish in his third career F1 race. This is the first time in the history of the world's premier racing series that a rookie has led the championship points standings--Hamilton is in a three-way tie for first at twenty two-points, with Bahrain winner Filipe Massa and Australian Gran Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen. Malalysian Gran Prix winner and current champion Fernando Alonso is a mere five points behind them, and, if you have never followed Formula 1 racing before, the tight points race is good reason to make this the season to start watching. The competition is hotter than it has been for a long time.