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Happy Monday everyone. Hope you had a great weekend. Today In Nascar History June 8, 1967: Richard Petty wins his first of six races at Smoky Mountain Raceway in Maryville, Tenn. This is Petty's only win on dirt at the track. The half-mile track is paved for the final seven races (the 12th and final race is in 1971). Thanks to Anthony for the heads up on these… Two really cool events going on at the moment. Please let your fans know about www.vest4k9. com and www.smokescamaro.com. Greg and Tony are doing some great work for their foundations, and allows fans some fun opportunities.
Comments from the Peanut GalleryFrom Max To quote John Hiatt, "Breaks my heart to see some star, Smash a perfectly good guitar. Good driver, but he is an Ass!! Max. From Pops Momma We all have seen this coming and it may not be in 2010 when Obama administration forces all this on us. What I want to know is why pick on racing when they need to curtail all sports if they go after one..Football at college level would save millions in education costs and also lower the demand for gas...same with baseball, tennis, golf and soccer but when you have idiots in Congress and even a President that has never had a operator’s license making decisions on how to lower foreign fuel consumption need to be replaced with someone that knows a little bit about history and auto uses. The reason the US depends on foreign oil is over tree huggers blocking oil drilling in the US...and those idiots that worry about spotted owls..my way of thinking those owls donate nothing to our survival...drill the oil wells and let the idiots that block oil companies from grilling on US soil move to a country where there is no oil…and take the damn birds with them! Pops Received this from a fellow veteran.......NASCAR !!!!! I hope this will protect the internet, but the track record of the new socialist government makes me wonder if honest people will be kicked off when they disagree with them. I used to be a parts man at a GM dealership, and was also involved in drag racing for 5 years, so i still have contacts in both GM and Chrysler dealerships, whom wish to be anonymous. They say, that SUV"S, pickup trucks, anything that consumes more than what the NEW 2010 guidelines for fuel economy will be history! Also, being the two auto manufacturers are bankrupt and are under government control, any unnecessary activities such as motor sports, NASCAR and NHRA will POSSIBLY be terminated for 2010! Basically the government is trying to cut down the need for foreign oil by eliminating NASCAR and NHRA, reasoning being, millions of people travel to these events, thus wasting fuel. Nothing done as of this writing! One Chrysler dealer I talked to was at the bankruptcy hearing, he has been profitable, but, contributed to Republicans, so HE feels that is why he is being dropped! In San Diego County, a family was ordered to cease and desist from having prayer meetings in their home. Luckily, public outrage caused the authorities to back down, another example of liberal attempts to eliminate religion! We are not going to be able to function in our own homes! Pops, I hate to say it, but I am one of those tree huggers. What a shock to you, huh? I love NASCAR, but I am still concerned for the wildlife that was put here on earth by God. I don’t wish to see any animal or living thing annihilated from the face of the earth. I believe we as a whole have a responsibility to take care of the earth, if for no other reason than our children. From Bob S NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bankrupt automaker General Motors Corp. announced Friday that it will sell its Saturn unit to car dealership operator Penske Automotive Group. Penske ... is owned by former race car driver Roger Penske, who owns NASCAR and IndyCar racing teams. From Chip Dear NASCAR Momma: Please correct me if I am wrong but wasn't there some hub bub about the engine in King Richard Petty's car that scored his 200th win in as being slightly over sized? I remember hearing some conversation about that between a group of fans at one time. It all comes back to me in the light of the Carl Long issue. I do not however recall hearing of any fines levied by NASCAR. I hope that I am wrong here but if not is this a rather hypocritical move on the part of the governing body? Goodness even DW mentions it in his column(the fine that is) One thing that NASCAR sometimes forgets is that fans don't. I am willing to bet that either "Lou or Pops" can elaborate on this and set me straight if I am wrong. If so I apologize to all King fans as I mean no ill will. Chip Bits and Pieces Long speaks to Dave Despain on Wind Tunnel: Part-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Carl Long [Carl-long.com - donation info there] joined Dave Despain in-studio Sunday night on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain to discuss his recent NASCAR penalty for an oversized Cup engine during NASCAR Sprint All-Star weekend. Long’s appeal was heard but the penalties, including his suspension and $200,000 fine, were upheld. 4th team for Penske? UPDATE denied: hearing Penske Racing could run a 4th team car this season, running the #22 Dodge with Justin Allgaier as the possible driver. Allgaier is currently 10th in the Nationwide Series Points for Penske Racing and won the ARCA championship in 2008. UPDATE: [Roger Penske] added that there are no plans to expand Penske Racing's three-car organization of #2-Kurt Busch, #77-Sam Hornish Jr. and #12-David Stremme. There have been reports he would move to a fourth team with Justin Allgaier, a rookie in the Nationwide Series. "We've made some good progress this year and we've got to maintain that," Penske said. "We're not in the silly season at all. ... We've got plenty of time."(ESPN)
Penske may make bid for Saturn UPDATE 2 no move to NASCAR: Roger Penske says he is contemplating a bid for the Saturn automotive brand that General Motors Corp. plans to sell or shut down. While Penske has not yet made an offer, he said Friday a decision would have to come soon and that a number of unidentified details need to be worked out. Penske has a vested interest in the automotive industry. He owns the second-largest U.S. automobile retail chain in terms of sales, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Penske Automotive Group Inc. He also owns heavy-duty engine manufacturer Detroit Diesel and has race teams in the IndyCar, NASCAR and Grand-Am series. But Penske denied that he has made a deal and said published reports are ahead of the process.(ESPN.com/AP) UPDATE: General Motors Corp. has struck a tentative deal to sell its Saturn brand to former race car driver and auto dealer Roger Penske. Penske, who owns the Penske Automotive Group dealership chain, told reporters on Friday that he plans to offer all 350 Saturn dealerships new franchise agreements. He says Saturn's 13,000 employees will stay on with the company for at least the immediate future. He declined to name the price for the deal. Penske says GM will continue to produce Saturn vehicles, though he is in discussions with manufacturers worldwide about building the vehicles going forward. (AP/ESPN) UPDATE 2: Team owner Roger Penske has no plans to move Saturn into the Sprint Cup series, saying Sunday he plans to stick with Dodge for at least the remaining three years of his contract with the manufacturer. General Motors Corp. announced on Friday an agreement for Penske to purchase the Saturn brand. Penske said he would like to get Saturn involved in motorsports, perhaps at the Grand-Am level, but not NASCAR's top series. "We have three more years with Dodge, they have not let us down," the owner of Penske Motorsports said before the Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway. "We see that continuing. They are current with all the obligations they have. I don't expect anything different." Richard Petty, the co-owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, said last weekend at Dover that RMP's cash flow from Dodge has ceased since Chrysler filed for bankruptcy. "I don't know what he means by cash [flow]," Penske said. "They paid the bills we submitted to them and they're on time. I don't know what he's talking about." As for Saturn, Penske said the key was saving 13,000 jobs and keeping 350 retailers in business. He said the plan is to provide them with products that will make them stronger going forward. "We'll be sourcing products from General Motors for at least two years," he said. "We will not be a manufacturer. We'll be a distributor." Penske did say the Saturn Aura is "tailor-made for NASCAR," but that any such plans would be 200 miles down the road.(ESPN)
NASCAR’s Robin Pemberton explains new restart rules: NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton gave an explanation Friday of the new double-file restart rules. Here are excerpts of the conversation with the media and his answers to some questions ask.
Stewart finishes 6th at Eldora: #14-Tony Stewart raced at his track, Eldora Speedway Saturday night and finished 6th in the 15th annual Dirt Late Model Dream, won by Jimmy Owens. Truex's brother wins at Watkins Glen: NASCAR Camping World Series East rookie Ryan Truex passed race leader Patrick Long between Turns 10 and 11 on the last lap and took the checkered flag in the Tioga Downs Casino 125 Saturday at Watkins Glen International. Truex, in the #00 NAPA Toyota, who was making just his fifth career start in the series for Michael Waltrip Racing, ran in the top three throughout the day.(WGI) Carpentier in the #55 for road course? hearing that Patrick Carpentier will drive the #55 NAPA Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing at the two road courses: Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen. Changes coming to improve the car-of-tomorrow? Drivers says NASCAR officials are telling them now changes are coming with controversial car-of-tomorrow, but no one seems to know what NASCAR might do, or when. "I think they're going to go look into the engines -- to maybe reduce horsepower," Denny Hamlin says. "Maybe do something to the cars…but it's tough to say whether they're going to add downforce or take it all away. But I think they are going to make changes to the car. And I think it's going to be after a lot of meetings with team engineers and finding out what we need to do to make them better." Two of the biggest problems with the new COT is --- that it doesn't want to turn in the corners, so teams are doing really farout things with the chassis to help it turn (once reason apparently for some of the Dover tire issues); and that it has such a high center-of-gravity and so much right-side weight that it eats up right-side tires. Kyle Busch says "I'd like to see NASCAR do something to help these cars – either by taking 100 pounds out of these cars, or taking some right-side weight out. We've all gotten smarter in building these cars, and now we all have maybe 200 pounds of lead, or rather tungsten, in the car (as ballast)."(mikemulhern.net) Final Dover/Season TV Ratings: A challenging season of NASCAR on Fox came to an end this weekend with a 4.0/10 (6.1 million viewers) for racing from DOVER. Sunday's 4.0/10 is down -11% compared to last year's 4.5/11 for the same race, making nine straight regularly scheduled races that have been down double-digits compared to 2008. The 2009 season of NASCAR on FOX concludes with an average rating of 5.1/11 (8.5 mill.), down -11% compared to last year's 5.7/12 and a new low in the nine-year history of NASCAR On FOX. Despite the poor year-to-year trend, NASCAR remains the dominant player in February-June sports. FOX's 5.1/11 for NASCAR more than doubles ABC's rating for regular season NBA (+113% vs. 2.4/6). It's also +46% better than ABC's NBA Playoff average (3.5/8) and NASCAR nearly matched the viewership of the complete
NCAA Tournament on CBS (8.5 million vs. 8.7 million).
Richard Childress Elected to NRA Board of Directors: NASCAR championship-winning team owner Richard Childress [#'s 07,29,31,33] realized a long-time dream when he was recently elected to the board of directors of the National Rifle Association. The NRA Board of Directors is elected by the Association’s four million members and has a broad spectrum of constituents with varying backgrounds, from law enforcement to competitive shooting, political activists to elected officials. Notable NRA Board members include Lt. Col. Oliver North, Karl Malone, Ted Nugent and Tom Selleck. The Board of Directors oversees the policies and programs developed by the organization. Childress, of Clemmons, N.C., is a lifelong supporter of the Second Amendment, a big-game hunter and an outdoor conservationist. The 12-time NASCAR championship-winning team owner is a Life Member of the National Rifle Association, Safari Club International, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Grand Slam Club/Ovis (Grand Slam #901). He was named a Board Member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation in 2008. Childress works with local, state and national agencies on wildlife/outdoor conservation efforts and many related charities. He worked with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in 2000 to reintroduce an elk herd into North Carolina for the first time in 200 years. His family recently teamed with Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center to create the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma.(RCR) Petty team's outsourcing may signal bigger changes By Jim Utter/charlotteobserver.com LONG POND, Pa. - Richard Petty Motorsports plans to farm out its five planned Nationwide Series races this season to a stand-alone Nationwide team, mostly likely Braun Racing, the Observer and ThatsRacin.com have learned. RPM has five scheduled Nationwide races in 2009, the first with driver Elliott Sadler at New Hampshire, and is working on a deal to run the races out of another organization, sources said. RPM spokesman Drew Brown said the organization had not made any decision on its Nationwide program, but expected to make an announcement within a couple weeks. The decision would likely raise eyebrows about the Petty organization’s future with Dodge, particularly if the agreement is with Braun Racing, which uses Toyotas. Dodge does not currently have any involvement in the Nationwide series, although Penske Racing fields a Nationwide program with Dodges on its own. In an interview last weekend, RPM owner Richard Petty said cash flow from Dodge, due to the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, was "in a holding pattern." "We've got to figure is 'Where is Chrysler going to go? Where are we going to be next year?' " Petty said. "So we've got to start planning right how for how we come out in February at Daytona." Benson loses ride as Red Horse shuts down 1 truck By Official Release MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Red Horse Racing has announced it is ceasing operation of the No. 1 Toyota driven by Johnny Benson. The decision is effective immediately. Red Horse Racing worked to secure sponsorship for the No. 1 since this past December but has been unsuccessful in doing so. "It hasn't been for a lack of effort," owner Tom DeLoach said. "We had several people working on finding a sponsor for the No. 1 and Johnny Benson. I've been working on it myself. We gave it our best shot, and we tried as long as we could, but nothing materialized. "I am saddened that we were unsuccessful in accomplishing our goal but this is a tough economic climate and the cost of fielding a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team with essentially no support other than our manufacturer is too much for Red Horse Racing to bear alone." Sponsorship for Benson was thought to be secure before the season began but the economic downturn kept that sponsor from being able to participate with Red Horse Racing. Benson, the defending series champion with now defunct Bill Davis Racing, has competed in eight events behind the wheel of the No. 1. He earned three top-fives and four top-10s including a fourth-place finish at Texas this past weekend. The No. 1 truck is currently eighth in owners' points. Red Horse Racing will continue to field the No. 11 Toyota, driven by T.J. Bell, as that truck does have some support. Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud Pocono 500 Matt McLaughlin · Frontstretch.com The Key Moment: Tony Stewart’s guys got him out on the track first after the last caution flag pit stop. Stewart nursed an incredible 41 laps out of a tank of fuel to hold onto victory. In a Nutshell: I guess it’s a matter of semantics. An “exciting” finish is two drivers battling door to door for the win off of turn 4. A tense finish is waiting to see who runs out of gas on the last lap. Dramatic Moment: Over those last final laps it appeared that most of the lead lap cars would run out of gas but few did. It was early in the race but Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle waged a hell of a battle up front there for awhile. Waiting to see if Jeff Gordon was going to get his fool head taken off by the rearview mirror of that Ford truck passing behind him in his post-race TV interview. You’d think a race car driver would have a bit better situational awareness. What They’ll Be Talking About Around the Water Cooler This Week It’s important to give credit where credit is due. I’ve always said a writer is like a battery. He or she has to have positive and negative posts to be worth a damn. I am impressed that NASCAR saw the positive reaction most fans had to the double-file restarts in the All Star race and quickly implemented the policy for points paying Cup races starting at Pocono. As with any sudden rules change, there’s going to be wrinkles that need to be ironed out, but I think it will make for better racing. They haven’t even announced how they’re going to let Dale Earnhardt Jr. re-start up front if (when) he goes a lap down yet! In all seriousness, it seems the sanctioning body is finally at very least paying lip service to fan’s concerns and that’s a very positive thing. We’ll see how it plays out down the road. In even more positive news, NASCAR officials are apparently strongly considering some near-term changes to the Car of Sorrow in another attempt to improve the quality of racing. To me this is like a man standing beside a pond with his crotch ablaze considering a near term leap into the water. Denny Hamlin (who correctly predicted that double file restarts would be implemented soon after the town hall meetings) says there’s a move underway to reduce horsepower in the Cup cars. That’s going to take some prudent and well reasoned rules changes. Given the engineering brilliance of the Cup engine builders to produce horsepower, it’s going to take some similar brilliant thinking to reduce horsepower. I’ve always been of the opinion that given a month some of these team engine builders could have my Yamaha QT50 moped outrunning a top fuel dragster. (Yeah, I own a moped. What can I say, gas over four bucks at the time, it cost me twenty bucks and I was drunk at the time.) This ends this week’s positive comments on recent NASCAR initiatives. We now return you to the usual tidal wave of negativity, cynicism, tortured analogies, character assassination, and reminders of how much better things were in the good old days. Meanwhile Hamlin might want to start being a little more reserved in his comments about what went on at that town hall meeting before he becomes the next driver to fail a pee test or be found with an oversize engine. Jeremy Mayfield’s Magical Mystery Tour hit high gear this week. First NASCAR managed to move the court proceedings from North Carolina state courts to federal court. Then NASCAR countersued Mayfield, claiming basically he was stealing prize money by running races full knowing he was in violation of NASCAR’s drug policy. They went on to note Mayfield wrecked in three of the five races he was running “under the influence” with the clear implication Mayfield was too intoxicated to drive safely. They also added a note that Mayfield was diagnosed with a third substance in his blood stream in addition to the Claritin and prescribed medication Mayfield has admitted to in his own court filings. The name of that substance was redacted when the court documents were published due to the gag order the judge imposed it is said. (My guess is what purple Pop Rock candy mixed with a cola but then it could have been meth.) This is going to get ugly. Meanwhile Mayfield’s team is said to be for sale. It’s funny that Brian France is so up in arms over a driver wrecking while supposedly under the influence. He had his own run in with a palm tree in Daytona Beach after a panicked woman called the police to say she was witnessing a driver, later identified as France, driving erratically at a high rate of speed and almost triggering several accidents. But the cops never tested Mr. France. Hell, I wish somebody had done a post-wreck teardown on his Lexus to see if the engine was oversized or the purchase price of the car was undersized as a beneficial gift from Brian’s buddies at Lexus’s parent company Toyota as they prepared to enter Cup racing. I don’t know Carl Long. I’ve never talked to the man, even by email. But, Boy-howdy! this guy has apparently pissed daily in some NASCAR official’s bowl of Wheaties. Long is one of those owner-driver types that help fill the field in the current economy but with one key difference. He’s been involved in NASCAR racing for a long time. In fourteen starts since 2000, Long’s best finish was a 29th place finish at Charlotte in 2001. But ever the gamer he kept chasing the dream. That’s until post-race inspection at Charlotte leading up to the All Star race revealed that an engine Long had purchased from Ganassi Racing built by Ernie Elliott (Bill’s brother) was oversize. How badly oversized was the engine? It was .17 cubic inches over the legal limit of 358 cubic inches. How big is .17 cubic inches? Cut a sugar cube in half. That infraction earned Long’s crew chief a 200,000 dollar fine and Long a twelve week suspension. Can we talk common sense here? Yes, I am a hot rodder and am aware of the old adage that there’s no replacement for displacement when it comes to building power. But let’s do the math. If a current 358 cubic inch engine set to stun makes 800 horsepower, the engine being oversized offered Long about a .4 horsepower advantage. To be found .17 cubic inches oversized, an eight cylinder engine would be .02125 inches too large in each cylinder, easily within the tolerances of an engine that had been overheated to the point of blowing up. The fine amounts to a charge of 340,000 dollars per cubic inch. Given the commonly accepted cubic inch displacement of 410 cubic inches found after that infamous Petty cheating scandal at Charlotte in the 70s, Petty’s fine would have been 17,680,000 dollars. Given the ratio between Long and Petty’s oversize engines, Petty would have been suspended for the next 3670 races or about 100 years. Yet Petty kept his win that day. The three cardinal sins in the Cup garage have been oversized engines, doctored tires and altered fuel. Yet when Michael Waltrip’s team was caught with that jet fuel in the car in their debut with Toyota, Waltrip professed ignorance (an art he has down to a science) and didn’t sit out a single race. NASCAR better be careful. With all the start and parkers they are suspending and fining lately they’re going to have a hard time filling fields soon. Speaking of which, only 33 trucks started the Texas race and nine of them basically threw up the white flag and headed for the pits with “vibration”, “overheating”, “handling” and even “too slow” issues. This whole start and park issue is out of control. Congratulations to Robby Gordon for his Baja 500 win. Yeah, I’m being serious. That’s a pretty impressive feat. Ratings of FOX’s portion of the Cup season, which included the Daytona 500, wound up down around 11 percent for the year. Given the argument that NASCAR fans can’t afford to buy tickets to attend races live in this economy, it seems counterintuitive that TV ratings were down given a stable and not diminishing fan base. What that tells me is that some fans are voting with their remotes that they don’t care for FOX’s coverage. To sum up it would seem that one in ten race fans decided not to watch FOX rather than enduring the farcical fare FOX tried to force feed fans. My final grade: F. We need that gopher to go-pher ever. Isn’t it odd that Jimmie Johnson, who often referred to Tony Stewart as his Rick Hendrick teammate, is now suddenly back-pedaling and saying he thought Stewart was crazy to try to start “his own” team? Having all those Hendrick and erstwhile Hendrick backed cars make the Chase is going to make things difficult if NASCAR decides to go ahead and make Jack Roush lose his fifth team after this season It’ll be interesting to see how TV ratings fare for the rest of the season. ESPN/ABC and TNT can’t be happy about the weak lead in FOX left them to face. I’m particularly concerned about this next stretch of races. Suburban fans might be surprised to learn not everyone gets TNT, a cable channel. I live in East Bumblefug. Out here a lot of folks still aren’t ready for the digital TV switch (the Amish apparently never got the memo) and even some friends with basic cable plans don’t get TNT. To get TNT, I had to agree to a larcenous agreement with my cable provider (who I won’t name because it would piss Comcast off) that costs me a fortune but gives me like 800 channels, 750 of which are playing syndicated Seinfeld episodes at any given time. I even seem to recall stumbling across the French Language Aboriginal Cooking channel, though I must add I strongly oppose cooking Aborigines. I’ll withhold my comments on TNT’s coverage until they get a second race under their belts other to say for the most part I was impressed by Sunday’s coverage. I’ve gotten some questions from readers about my take on NASCAR’s latest decision to offer select Internet journalists and bloggers press credentials. I’m saving that topic for Tuesday’s column while I gather up some information and talk to folks. But I will say this, the whole title, “NASCAR Citizen Journalists Media Corps” sounds so Orwellian that I’ve taken to sleeping with the lights on and hollow point loaded heat under my pillow. Supposedly there was a tribute to Tim Richmond, whose birthday would have been this past week, at Pocono this weekend. I never heard anything about it, but all day I was thinking about Tim’s Hollywood win here in ’87 when he returned to the series after sitting out the first half of the season due to his illness. For other Tim Richmond fans, for fans of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and for fans of old time racing I present this YouTube nugget: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_D3YLEflnQ Godspeed Tim. One thing is for sure. There was never a boring Cup race when Tim was running near the front. The Hindenburg Award For Foul Fortune It’s hard to win a 500 mile race when your car won’t even run all the way to the first turn. That’s what happened to Denny Hamlin who won two races at Pocono as a rookie. Anyone who was hoping for a quick fix of Dale Junior’s problems with the crew chief swap (and there’s a few million of you) had to be disappointed. To quote our old friend Bones to Captain Kirk, “Damn it, Jim, I’m a crew chief not a magician.” Kurt Busch ran up front for most of the day before a water pump seized on the 2 car. To be honest I can’t even remember the last time that happened. Despite his Nashville Nationwide win it was a pretty tough weekend for Kyle Busch. He couldn’t break a guitar in Victory Lane Saturday night and he couldn’t break into the top 20 at Pocono. It’s only my personal opinion but once again I think Busch acted like a jerk on Saturday night. A Gibson Les Paul is a sweetheart of a musical instrument and Sam Bass spent countless hours personalizing one of the coolest trophies in NASCAR racing. Busch says he’s going to cut the thing up so all his team members can have a piece. Hey, if you didn’t want it, why not have a charity auction and give your team members the sense of satisfaction of helping the less fortunate? Kyle, trust me, you’re no Pete Townsend. I’m all for the next NASCAR race winner trying to smash the Gibson, just so long as they are beating Kyle Busch over the head with it next time. The “Seven Come Fore Eleven” Award For Fine Fortune Tony Stewart had to start at the rear of the field after wrecking in Saturday’s practice but still won the race after nursing 102.5 miles out of a tank of gas. I don’t know whether to lump Jimmie Johnson under fortune foul or fair (while crickets and cicadas sing…) after Sunday’s race. He did run out of gas on the last lap and surrendered a handful of positions. On the other hand he had to restart the race out back after entering the pits just after a caution flag flew closing pit road. (And he’s right, they did need more visible markers to indicate pit road is closed. Whatever happened to that spaceship looking thing they once had at Pocono?) Once back in the pack Johnson barely avoided David Stremme’s stricken car after Dale Earnhardt Jr. knocked the fire out of the 12 car. Carl Edwards’ chances of winning the race seemed over when a pit road Snafu left him with a half tank of gas. A timely caution just after Edwards pitted left him not only on the lead lap but back in the lead. It’s hard to step in manure and walk away smelling like roses. Here’s one for Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Ryan Newman’s car began slowing rapidly on the race track. The 39 car pitted six times under caution as the cap, rotor and wires were changed and the team finally diagnosed a failed spark plug then changed it. Newman left Pocono with a fifth place finish. Believe it or don’t! Jeff Gordon’s car seemed off for much of the race. His team gambled on rain ending the race early but the showers stopped. He was forced to pit late and yet that late stop helped him earn a fourth place finish. Marcos Ambrose, Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish all left Pocono with surprise top 10 finishes thanks to fuel strategies. Worth Noting · The top 10 finishers at Pocono drove six Chevys, two Toyotas, a Ford and a Dodge. · While the win was his first this season, Tony Stewart now has top 5 finishes in seven of the last nine Cup points races, with three second place finishes in that stretch. · Carl Edwards’ second place finish was his best of the ’09 Cup season. It was just his third top 5 result in this year’s fourteen Cup races. · Jeff Gordon posted a fourth place finish after two results outside the top 10. · Ryan Newman (fifth) managed his sixth straight top 10 finish. · Marcos Ambrose’s sixth place finish was his second best of the ’09 season. · Juan Pablo Montoya has finished eighth in two of the last three Cup races. · Jeff Burton (ninth) returns to the top 10 after an absence of three races. · Michael Waltrip’s 17th place finish was his best Cup result since Martinsville. · Joey Logano in 23rd was the top finishing rookie of the race. What’s the Points? Naturally Tony Stewart is still leading the points. He’s now 71 points ahead of Jeff Gordon in second and 103 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson who remains third in the standings. Carl Edwards had a great points day, moving up five spots to sixth. Hamlin had a terrible points day, dropping five spots to 12th. He’s now just one point above the cutoff point for the Chase. Greg Biffle and David Reutimann both advanced two spots in the standings, rising to seventh and 11th respectively. Mark Martin fell one spot out of the top 12 to 13th, but as noted above he is just one point away from making the Chase at this juncture. Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch swapped the fifth and sixth place spot in the standings with Newman now having the advantage. Dale Earnhardt Jr. fell two more spots to 20th in the standings. Time to fire his crew chief again? Overall Rating (On a scale of one to six beer cans with one being a stinker and a six pack an instant classic) Pocono was like that little girl who had a curl. When it was good it was very, very good, and when it was bad it was awful. We’ll give this one three pony bottles of Genesee Cream Ale. Next Up: It’s off to Michigan where fans will have not only a view of the race but of the collapse of GM and Chrysler and its effect on the local economy. Troubled times have come, to that hometown. See ya down South, Kate. Commercial breakdown, driver focus, and links related to the Pocono 500 Start time to record race/commercial periods: 2:00pm TNT Just What the TV Doctor Ordered John Daly/dalyplanet.com They may be the smallest player in the NASCAR TV scenario, but TNT started the network's six race run with a bang. The philosophy was simple, try to give NASCAR fans everything they wanted. What a novel idea. Posted by Daly Planet Editor at 6:10 PM Rewind | Commentary and some of the key moments By Jim Utter/charlotteobserver.com Rewinding Sunday's Pocono 500 at the 2.5-mile Pocono (Pa.) Raceway: Rearview mirror Our pal Poole would have liked this NASCAR's new double-file restart policy appeared to produce the desired results on Sunday, keeping the fastest cars together on the track, racing for position for longer periods of time. The change made for some tense moments, but there were no obvious problems. I can only say that my former colleague, David Poole, would relish the moment. Poole, who died in April of a heart attack, had long advocated the use of double-file restarts with lead-lap cars up front. He believed it would be a simple change, already used at a lot of short tracks, which could make NASCAR races more exciting for fans. He was right. Trophy smash has them talking There was lots of talk Sunday about Kyle Busch smashing the guitar trophy he received for winning Saturday night’s Nationwide Series race at Nashville. Busch had said over his radio after taking the checkered flag he was going to give every team member a piece of the guitar. I didn't expect he meant it so literally. As far as I'm concerned, it’s his trophy, he can do whatever he wants with it. Plus, he ordered two more. So everybody comes out ahead. Waltrip team pair making strides Two drivers who have impressed me this season with what they have been able to accomplish in a relatively short period of time in the Cup series are David Reutimann and Marcos Ambrose. After a rough start, Michael Waltrip Racing is slowly progressing into a top-level organization. Key moments Lap 1 Denny Hamlin, who had the fastest car in Saturday’s final practice session, cannot come up to speed on the start and must make a pair of trips to the garage for fuel-pump issues. Lap 38 Carl Edwards takes the lead for the first time, passing Jimmie Johnson on the outside. He ends up leading the most laps (103). Lap 103 Just as the caution comes out for debris, Johnson heads to pit road, but the red light is on as he slides into his pit. He is penalized for pitting too soon, but eventually makes his way back into contention. Lap 164 When Jeff Gordon pits before the restart, Tony Stewart inherits the lead for just the second time on Sunday. He leads the final 37 laps. Lap 200 Stewart cuts his engine on and off to save fuel and is able to hold off Edwards at the finish. Notes Fourth isn't first, but Gordon's good with it It took everything Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet team could muster to pull out Sunday's fourth-place finish. Gordon, who was coming off a 26th-place finish last weekend at Dover, Del., started strong, but his car got very loose midway through the race and he was forced to make an early pit stop under green for adjustments. When it appeared rain could halt the race, Gordon stayed on the track and took the lead on Lap 160 trying to steal a win. His late pit stop, once it became clear the race would restart, allowed him to make it to the finish on fuel. "I am really proud of (crew chief) Steve Letarte and this whole crew for what they did to get me out there in that position and be able to go all the way. You have to get the finishes any way you can," Gordon said. "We never gave up. We were pretty good for a long time. Tried to win it with the rain; that didn't work, so fourth place - I’m pretty excited about that." Problem slows Newman - but not too much Tony Stewart wasn't the only Stewart-Haas Racing driver with a good performance on Sunday. His teammate Ryan Newman overcame adversity to finish fifth, his sixth consecutive top-10 finish. Newman had one of the fastest cars in the race but developed a spark plug problem. Until his team could successfully diagnose and fix the problem, Newman had to make six visits to pit road. He still managed to stay on the lead lap. He ended up fifth and jumped a spot in the series standings to fourth. "The guys did a great job on pit road getting everything changed. We got lucky just being able to stay on the lead lap," Newman said. "It was a good run for our guys to be able to fight back. We took the little extra gamble to put fuel in on the last restart there. That gave up a couple of spots, but in the end it was the right thing to do and we could guarantee ourselves a top five finish at least." Sunday a good step, Edwards says Carl Edwards remains without a victory this season but believes his performance on Sunday showed his No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing team has made great strides. Edwards led the most laps (103) but finished second to Stewart, as both drivers had to nurse their cars to the finish while stretching their gas. "It's close, it's close. I didn't think Tony could save that much fuel, but he did a really good job. Our car was getting great fuel mileage all day," Edwards said. "Tony beat us off of pit road that last stop by about three-quarters of a car length or something, but that's primarily because of his pit stall. We ran up front all day. "That's good. That's a good step. I'd really like to be out there with the trophy, but it's good for points." Next race LifeLock 400 Where: Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Mich. When: 12:30 p.m. Sunday. TV: TNT. Radio: Motor Racing Network. Last year's winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick fail to gain ground at Pocono Raceway By SceneDaily Staff LONG POND, Pa. – The fortunes of two NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers trying to regain footing in the series standings failed to turn in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway. With their struggles in the race, Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick - both championship contenders last season - actually lost ground in their bids to move up the standings. Earnhardt Jr., in his second race with interim crew chief Lance McGrew, finished 27th and fell two spots to 20th in the standings while Harvick finished 24th and fell two spots to 26th. The pair has just 12 races in which to turn the tide and break into the 12-driver Chase For The Sprint Cup field. But as of Sunday night, Earnhardt Jr. was 245 points out of the group and Harvick was 327 points out. McGrew said that he felt like his Hendrick team was making the right changes and heading in the correct direction early in the race. Then things underwent a downturn. "I felt like during the middle of the race we had something good to work with, kind of made some good changes and he was running some really good competitive lap times and we were all happy, then it just kind of went away at the two-thirds point of the race," he said. "… We're building Rome here and … we're still working on the communication. We've just got to do a little better job of figuring out what the track is going to do the next day and make the appropriate changes the night before instead of trying to change it during the race. It'll come." As he considered how the race played out, McGrew said it was difficult to adjust the car properly in the conditions that saw the sun burning on the track, then clouds over it, then rain fall, then the sun appear once more. In the moments after the event, he wasn't sure exactly what the team could have done differently. Overall, he said that the team should anticipate having to make some adjustments and that the group is focused on adjusting and learning one another in an effort to improve. And he remains confident they can do just that. "We're going to have some hurdles and there's going to be some mountains to climb," he said. "And we just have to keep our heads up and continue to try to get better. That's the biggest thing. If you give up, you're done. “Right now I'm still positive about it. I think there's a lot of talent on this team, and obviously there's a lot of talent in the race-car driver. We've just got to get him comfortable with what's under him." Stewart-Haas Racing's Ryan Newman rallies to fifth-place finish at Pocono By SceneDaily Staff Ryan Newman spent much of Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway trying to troubleshoot an issue on his car. Once the problem was isolated, though, the driver and his Stewart-Haas Racing team returned to full power and climbed to a fifth-place finish in the race. That continued Newman's recent surge and boosted him another spot to fourth in the standings. "It just took us a little bit of time to troubleshoot a spark plug that went bad and I think it was lap 108 or 120 or something like that when we got back on eight cylinders," he said. "The guys did an awesome job not giving up. We were close to going a lap down on pit road there." Newman said that the team changed the distributor cap and wires in his car during a stop, saving his effort for the day. "I felt like I was driving an old car or something and troubleshooting at the same time," he said. "But the guys did a great job on pit road getting everything changed. We got lucky just being able to stay on the lead lap with the Haas Automation Chevrolet. It was a good run. … It was a good run for our guys to be able to fight back. We took the little extra gamble to put fuel on the last restart there. That gave up a couple of spots, but in the end it was the right thing to do and we could guarantee ourselves a top-five finish at least." Newman was one of several drivers who opted to push their fuel mileage in the last 50 laps and try to conserve fuel. It worked out for both he and his team owner/teammate Tony Stewart, who earned the organization's first points win in the race. And while his team benefited from the gamble, Newman said the fact that both SHR cars enjoyed strong runs is a sign of the team's strength. So is the fact that they are both in the top four in the standings, with Stewart holding the points lead for the second consecutive week. "It's a group effort and you're seeing the results," Newman said. "When you get both cars in the top five it's not by luck." Penske Racing's Sam Hornish Jr. continues recent climb with 10th-place finish By SceneDaily Staff LONG POND, Pa. - There was a time not so long ago when top-10 finishes were hard to come by for Penske Racing’s Sam Hornish Jr. That’s not so much the case anymore. Hornish, who needed 44 starts to snare his first top-10 in NASCAR's top series, has now scored three top-10s in seven races, thanks to a 10th-place finish in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway. “Our day was OK; it was a long one for sure," Hornish said. "We started off the race pretty good, but then we lost the handle on the car a bit. We got it back, got some grip and track position, and then we had to come in late to top off [for fuel] and try to make it to the end. "We were racing with the 9 car [of Kasey Kahne] there at the end and I think Kasey got loose and went up the track, made some contact, popped a tire and had to drive the last two-and-a-half miles with a flat tire.” While many drivers either ran out of gas or had to pit for fuel in the closing laps, Hornish managed to use others' fuel woes to secure his strong finishing position on a day when his car probably wasn't quite that strong. "We weren’t really good at the beginning of the race, but got our race car better and were probably a top-15 car at the end of the race," crew chief Travis Geisler said. "Pocono is just a crazy race. You just never know how this race is going to pan out. ... We gambled a little bit and definitely gained some spots and had another top-10 run for the Mobil 1 Dodge." David Reutimann posts another strong outing with third-place finish at Pocono By SceneDaily Staff LONG POND, Pa. – The solid performances just keep coming for David Reutimann, who turned a strong run in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway into a spot in the top 12 in the standings. And one needs to give a nod to crew chief Rodney Childers for his role in the recent run. Reutimann joined those trying to gamble on fuel strategy and nurse their car to the end. Two weeks after staying out during a late caution for rain when the leaders pitted at Lowe's Motor Speedway, a move that netted him the win when the rain kept coming and ended the race, Reutimann joined a group of top contenders who were trying to stretch their fuel mileage. His fuel held up and Reutimann grabbed a third-place finish. That boosted him two spots, to 11th, in the series standings. Prior to the race, Reutimann said that when the season started, he and Childers focused on this as one of the races where the driver has struggled and where they needed to focus their efforts on improving his setup. Sunday, he ran well throughout the day before capitalizing on the final call. "I think it was probably stellar compared to the runs we've had here in the past," he said. "[This] place has never really been all that kind to me. Matter of fact, this time last year I was sitting parked in the middle of Turn 1 and 2 out of fuel and didn't even come back to the starting finishing line. "Little better deal today." Childers' call to save fuel following Reutimann's final pit stop allowed the driver to nurse it to the end while some others were pitting in the final 20 laps of the race. "Rodney Childers made a great call and just told us to save fuel from the time we went back out there and just trying to be easy with it, which I'm not really very good at that," Reutimann said. "So he kept telling me just we need to save some fuel and I was like, 'Well, do I need to ride or do I need to race?' and he just said, 'Just do the best you can.' And to me, that's not an answer, you know, so I just knew it meant go as hard as you could and just save fuel at the same time. I don't know exactly how you do that but [it] got us some good fuel mileage and just worked out in the end." Clearly, Reutimann is enjoying running at the front this season. He's been with Michael Waltrip Racing since its inception as a full-time organization in 2007 and is finding a new level of success. And now, he's in position to challenge for a berth in the Chase For The Sprint Cup. While Reutimann tabs himself as "not exactly the most confident guy here," it's clear that his team is on the right track - and that it is gaining ground week to week. "The potential was there, the way we finished out in the last year," he said. "I was like, 'Man, if we can just do this and do a couple of things a little bit better, man, I think we might be able to do that or at least be in contention to do the stuff,'" he said. "Anyway, it's worked out so far. We have definitely had some races that we would like to forget, but for the most part it's been a pretty good year and it's been pretty productive especially if you look back at the previous years and the results we have had compared to this year, there's just no comparison. "So those guys are pretty confident and they keep me pumped up. In the end, I felt like if we did the right things and we were heading in the right direction, I knew the possibility was there, and up to this point, I had not even had the possibility to do that, so I'm pretty happy with everything." Expected contenders Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch stunned by setbacks By SceneDaily Staff LONG POND, Pa. – Denny Hamlin’s day took a turn for the worse before he could complete even one lap in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway. Kurt Busch’s trouble came later – in the form of a broken water pump – but it was equally as crippling. And the end result was a disappointing outcome for two drivers trying to further solidify their position in NASCAR’s Chase For The Sprint Cup. Hamlin’s problems were the result of a fuel-pump issue that forced his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to slow just moments after taking the green flag. After an extended stay behind the wall for repairs, he returned to the track and finished 38th, 22 laps down. "It was just unacceptable,” crew chief Mike Ford said. “It's not the first time we've had fuel issues - across all three [JGR] cars. It's just plain unacceptable and it should never happen. We had a fuel pump lock up and that broke a couple other pieces in the system. It's one of those things that's difficult to troubleshoot in a short amount of time. “What started it was having the fuel pump lock up. It was just a parts failure." While Hamlin took a hit in the points standings – he fell from seventh to 12th, the last Chase-eligible position – Busch lost only one spot as he dropped to fifth. That was of little consolation, however, to the Penske Racing driver who, like Hamlin, brought a history of strong runs to the 2.5-mile track. Busch ran among the top 15 for most of the race before his car’s water pump gave way on lap 129. The 2004 Cup champion finished 37th, 18 laps down, after he too went behind the wall for repairs. “It was just a bad day for our Miller Lite Dodge team, bad day in this race and bad for the big picture, too,” Busch said. “We fought a tight condition for most of the first half of the race. We had a spring rubber pop out of the right rear. We kept working on it, but it just wanted to plow into the wall. Then I heard something just blow off - a loud poof. I hit pit road immediately. It was a broken water pump and we sheered the pulley. “We had to go to the garage to fix it and changed a shock while there. We got back out there and the rains came. The shock change had us running decent, but it was too little, too late. Just a bad day all around.” Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon pleased with fourth-place Pocono finish By SceneDaily Staff LONG POND, Pa. – Jeff Gordon wasn’t very pleased with how his car handled throughout a good portion of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway. All things considered then, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was pleased to finish fourth – a position he earned by staying on the track when many frontrunners either ran out of fuel or were forced to pit for fuel in the final laps. “You have to get the finishes any way you can. We never gave up. We were pretty good for a long time. That double-file restart there, boy I will tell you what, it killed us, so we have got to work on that a little bit,” Gordon said of NASCAR’s new procedure that now puts lead-lap cars side by side rather than single file for all restarts. “Just aero-wise, my car was good in a single-file line and when we were in clean air. But whew, it was a handful there in all that dirty air. We got shuffled back there and it kind of worked to our favor.” Gordon, who led the field to the green flag when polesitter Tony Stewart was forced to drop to the rear because of a crash in final practice, led the opening five laps and settled into the top 10 in the early portion of the race. But as the event wore on, the handling on Gordon’s car began to deteriorate and the four-time Cup champion faded. But a call by crew chief Steve Letarte to come in and top off the fuel tank under the race’s final caution with just under 40 laps to go allowed Gordon to stretch his final tank to the finish when many others couldn’t. Prior to that stop, Gordon stayed on the track when the other leaders pitted and led four laps in hopes the light rain that was falling might continue and allow him to steal a win. When that didn’t happen, he was forced to pit and give up his track position. Then with very little to lose, Gordon ducked in a second time to have his fuel tank topped off. Stopping a few laps later than most of the other lead-lap cars gave Gordon a little extra fuel to make it to the finish. “It actually helped us,” he said. “It helped us make it on fuel and to not have to conserve and we finished fourth. I mean we weren’t going to finish fourth without any other circumstance so all that worked in our favor.” Gordon, who restarted 22nd following that final stop, credited Letarte with making the calls that allowed him to snare his top finish. “Great calls in the pits,” said Gordon, who remained second in points behind series leader and race winner Stewart. “Obviously I’m very, very happy with a fourth-place finish because we fell so far back. “I mean, we were slowly, surely working our way back up there but we weren’t going to get anywhere near the top five.” JTG Daugherty's Marcos Ambrose earns top-10 finish in first Pocono Cup race By SceneDaily Staff LONG POND, Pa. – JTG Daugherty Racing's Marcos Ambrose became the latest NASCAR Sprint Cup driver to enjoy a strong showing in his debut race at the tricky Pocono Raceway. Ambrose, in his first full season of Cup competition, debuted at the track in Sunday's Pocono 500. While some might compare the track to more of a road course, Ambrose's specialty, the driver himself dismissed that notion quickly. “It’s got nothing to do with road courses," he said. "This place is insane how hard it is - like no place I’ve ever been in my life." Ambrose also got another lesson in Cup racing - how to save fuel. He joined the ranks of several Cup drivers who tried to conserve late and stretch their fuel mileage - a move that netted him a sixth-place finish in his initial appearance at the 2.5-mile track. "We had a fast car regardless of fuel strategy - it’s the first time I’ve had to save fuel at this level, so I didn’t know what to do so I was very conservative," he said. "I’m proud of my guys for putting me in that position and looking forward to next week and next week and next week.” In fact, the 32-year-old joked that the event provided a bit more of a workout than he would have expected. “I’ve got to work on my elbow strength because my elbows are worn out," he said. "I’ve been working them all day. So it’s a tough place. I think it’s one of my favorite tracks I’ve ever been to. It’s really tough to get around.” Stewart notches first win for new team By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service LONG POND, Pa.–Perhaps more amazing than Tony Stewart’s first victory as an owner/driver was his victory celebration Sunday at Pocono Raceway. Actually, what was amazing was that Stewart could even manage a celebration at all, after using every trick in the book–including shutting down his engine entering Turn 1 at the 2.5-mile triangular track–to save enough fuel to win the Pocono 500. The win was Stewart’s 34th in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series and his first since acquiring an ownership interest in Stewart-Haas Racing before the 2009 season. This is the first Cup win by an owner/driver since Ricky Rudd won at Martinsville on Sept. 27, 1998. “He’s doing a damn burnout!” Jeff Gordon’s crew chief, Steve Letarte, said in amazement after Stewart began his victory donuts on the frontstretch. Holding down his speed to the minimum needed to stay ahead of runner-up Carl Edwards, who also was saving fuel, Stewart crossed the finish line 2.004 seconds ahead of the No. 99 Ford. David Reutimann ran third, followed by Gordon, who benefitted from a fuel-mileage play by Letarte, and Ryan Newman. Stewart, who increased his lead in the Cup standings to 71 points over Gordon, lost more than four seconds of a 6.8-second lead over Edwards in the final 10 laps. “Breathe easy, boys, we’re gonna make it,” Stewart radioed to his crew as he rolled through the final corner. “God, I’m proud of you guys. You make me look like a genius in here.” “We didn’t tell you how to save gas,” crew chief Darian Grubb retorted. Stewart did that on his own, and he did so masterfully. He took the No. 14 car number to victory lane in a Cup race for the first time since Dec. 8, 1968, in Montgomery, Ala., when Bobby Allison beat Richard Petty to the finish line by four feet. Not that the No. 14 has run all of them, but the Pocono 500 was the 1,329th Cup race since Allison’s win. Stewart competed for a decade and won 33 races and two championships at Joe Gibbs Racing, but Sunday’s victory had special significance. “I’ve always had a great group of people to work with at Gibbs, but it’s just a little different when it’s your own, you know, when you’re the one that’s got to be accountable for (it),” Stewart said. Edwards, who won at Pocono last August by conserving fuel, lost the race off pit road to Stewart on the final stop for both cars, under a caution for debris on Lap 159 that was extended to seven laps when a light rain shower crossed the track. “I didn’t think Tony could save that much fuel, but he did a really good job,” said Edwards, who led a race-high 103 of 200 laps. “Our car was getting great fuel mileage all day, and (I’m) just really proud of my guys. We were great on pit road. “Tony beat us off of pit road on that last stop by about three quarters of a car length or something, and that’s primarily because of his pit stall (Stewart had pit stall No. 1, closest to the exit from pit road).” Edwards gained five positions in the standings to sixth, 281 point behind Stewart. Notes: Because of a crash in Saturday’s practice, Stewart was driving a backup car and was forced to begin the race at the rear of the field. … There were no major issues with NASCAR’s new double-file restart rule. Given that there were only five cautions in the race, the new format played a minor role. … Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran 27th in his second race with crew chief Lance McGrew. He fell two spots to 20th in the Cup standings. … A water pump failure dropped Kurt Busch to 37th at the finish, 18 laps down and cost him a position in the standings. He’s now fifth, 224 points behind Stewart. … Jimmie Johnson ran out of fuel on the final lap but coasted home in seventh place to remain third in points. … Denny Hamlin’s Toyota stopped running on the first lap because of a fuel-system issue and again on Lap 13 to cause the first two cautions of the race. Hamlin lost 22 laps during repairs and finished 38th, dropping five positions to 12th in the standings. Five Points to Ponder Nashville/Pocono Edition Mike Lovecchio · Frontstretch.com Kyle Busch is about as “Rock ‘N Roll” as Clay Aiken Add Saturday night’s guitar smashing episode to the long list of reasons why a number of NASCAR fans absolutely hate Kyle Busch. The victory lane celebration left musicians everywhere cringing at the sight of a custom Gibson Les Paul being smashed into oblivion a la Pete Townshend and left NASCAR fans in awe at the sight of a driver smashing a trophy seconds after winning it. I was like the many fans who couldn’t wait to read what everybody was saying about this seemingly classless act the next morning, but after sleeping on it and reading Sam Bass’ (the artist who designed the guitar) comments I have since softened my stance. Sure, Busch could have thought of a less dramatic way to make sure his team all got a piece of the trophy, but that’s not Shrub’s style. In the end, I look at this way: 1) Busch’s intentions were to give a piece of his trophy to each of his team members – a nice gesture. 2) Sam Bass told reporters that as soon as the two got together, Busch told him that he meant no disrespect – an honest apology. 3) Bass was not upset with Busch after the two talked – if Bass has no problem with Busch, and he would be the one to have the problem, then I have no problem with him. I’m not saying I agree with what Busch did, I don’t. There were 42 other drivers who would have done anything to hold that guitar. But, with that said, give the guy a break…there were no hurt feelings. Double-file restarts a hit It was one of those no-brainers. As soon as we got the official word that the Cup Series would feature “Shootout Style” double-file restarts, everyone realized that it would liven up the racing. Sure, the whole wave around for the lap down cars created some confusion, but all-in-all, every restart was exciting. There was side by side and 3-wide racing for about 10 laps before the field would eventually string out over VERY long green flag runs. It was cool to see the new rule go into effect at a track with a frontstretch as wide as Pocono’s, but the thought of doubling up cars at Martinsville or Bristol sounds even more entertaining. TNT Takes Over This week’s race saw the first of six races to be broadcast by TNT, after taking over from FOX, and based off of first impressions, I was pleasantly surprised. They showed a lot of side-by-side racing throughout the field and handled the entire late-race fuel mileage run perfectly, including telemetry on how eventual race winner Tony Stewart was saving gas. There were no furry creatures, only “RaceBuddy” who actually enhanced my raceday experience. More about the broadcast will be covered in Phil Allaway’s TV critique here on the Frontstretch tomorrow, but based on immediate reactions, Frontstretch LIVE BLOG viewers voted unanimously (100%) that the TNT broadcast topped those done by FOX. Kligerman’s wild day For readers who frequent this column, you may have noticed that I have in the past mentioned developmental drivers who have caught my eye. As a guy who has not followed the ARCA Re/MAX Series that closely this season, I’ll admit I’d never heard the name Parker Kligerman until this weekend’s race at Pocono. I wasn’t tuning in to see some phenom, he just simply caught my eye. The 18 year old Penske Racing developmental driver went toe-to-toe with Joey Logano in the mid-part of the race and eventually got by and held off Logano before running into tire problems…this all happened on the same day as his prom. Kligerman is a former open-wheel standout who has already found success in ARCA with one win this season, and he currently sits 2nd in points, although he’s buried on the Penske Racing developmental driver depth chart behind Justin Allgaier. He may be a few years away from competing regularly in NASCAR’s national touring series’, but from what I saw, he’s definitely got the talent. Frontstretch.com LIVE BLOG comment of the race Each week, I will further expand on some of the more interesting fan comments from our weekly Frontstretch.com LIVE Cup race blog. Here’s one of the more interesting comment’s from this week’s blog: “Sorry, Hendrick — swapping crew chiefs can’t make your driver pit correctly.” — Stephen, on yet another Dale Earnhardt Jr. pit problem I don’t know if he practices pit stops with the crew at the Hendrick |
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