Nascar is back

[swaimj]

On Sunday I turned the race on and was very disappointed to see that Bobby Labonte had fallen out. Then I realized that they were in a rain delay and last year's race was being broadcast.

Today I linked to Jayski and saw that Bobby Labonte had taken the lead early in the race for several laps and then fell out. It seemed like only yesterday....

Oh well, Kyle Petty finished well and a Dodge won, so I am happy!

 

[ccrobinson]

Notes from Fox's Hour of Bull prior to the race yesterday.

Is it possible to quietly make a lot of noise? According to Chris Myers, Dale Jr. is "...quietly making a lot of noise..." in regards to the points standings. How is that possible?

Prior to his "interview" with Kasey Kahne, Dick Berggren spent 30 seconds informing Kasey, and everybody else watching at home, that Atlanta and Bristol are different tracks. They're different?! No way!

DW and Jeff Hammond think it's a terrible thing to call a crew chief a cheater, even though the crew chief was caught, you know, cheating.

After listening to me rant about each of these, my wife asked, "Why are you watching this anyway?" She was right, so I turned on the NCAA until the race started. Then, I alternated between the UConn-GMU game and the race.

Well, that is, if you want to call it a race. It looked more like a demolition derby to me. Apparently, this is what passes for racing at Bristol these days, but when 20% of the race is under caution, I have a difficult time calling it a race. As opposed to the 80% of people who answered the Cingular poll, I think they should reduce the number of cars starting the race at Bristol and Martinsville. Nascar use to allow only 32 cars to start the race, and I think the racing was a lot better then with fewer cars.

Matt Kenseth on Bristol.
Anybody can run into somebody and pass them

Interesting, no?

I thought it funny that Jeff Gordon got so hot about Kenseth turning him around when Gordon has done the bump n run so many times himself.

Cheater Knaus came back this weekend and the #48 car finishes 30th. Coincidence? Or a trend? Time will tell. I did find something on the Fox broadcast to agree with when Jeff Hammond said to Knaus, "Tricks are for kids."

More fireworks to come next week at Martinsville.

 

[PastorSBC1303]

I did not watch a lot of the race as I was watching basketball.

Bad day for Gordon and Johnson.

Good day for Dale Jr, Tony Stewart.

I did find it funny that Gordon got so upset with Kennseth for that move when we have seen him do the exact same thing many times at Bristol.

 

[Scott J]

Keep talkin'... It's early.

I think Gordon was more upset because he was obviously better than Kennseth at that point. The 17 couldn't have made the pass without wrecking him. Is that the kind of "trend" we want to see? If your car isn't quite as good, run up behind the guy in front of you and spin him out?

I hope you keep that same perspective when Johnson, Gordon, or someone spins the 8 or 20 on the last lap even though they have the better car.

I'm actually kind of glad to see Gordon stop being such a nice guy. A little attitude might get him going.

 

[PastorSBC1303]

Whether we like it or not, it seems to be racing at Bristol. I am sure if it was the 8 or 20 I would not care for it either. But it is just the way things go. I just find Gordon to be amazing for getting upset at Kennseth when he has done that many times to other cars there. If you are going to do it to other cars, you have to be willing to take it once in awhile too.

 

[PastorSBC1303]

I found Gordon's tough guy act pretty funny. He sure wasnt going to take that helmet off

I mean let's face it, Gordon is one of the best drivers out there, but he is not a tough guy.

 

[standingfirminChrist]

They told me Homeland's track had been flooded...

... but they didn't tell me it was this bad!

 

[ccrobinson]

The 17 couldn't have made the pass without wrecking him. Is that the kind of "trend" we want to see? If your car isn't quite as good, run up behind the guy in front of you and spin him out?

Here's that quote again from Matt Kenseth.

Anybody can run into somebody and pass them.

This is a continuation of a trend that we saw in 2005 and I'd like to see it go away. The only way it would go away is to police that sort of thing like the FIA does, but that just ain't gonna happen in Nascar.

I hope you keep that same perspective when Johnson, Gordon, or someone spins the 8 or 20 on the last lap even though they have the better car.

Personally, I've been there, done that. In the June 2000 race at Pocono, Earnhardt Sr. got loose off of T4 on the last lap and Mayfield tapped him out of the way to win. Buddy Baker said on the radio, "Live by the sword, die by the sword" and the Earnhardt-haters said, "How about them apples?" and you know there's nothing you can say in response. I spent the rest of the day muttering under my breath like the guy who painted "Chefs" instead of "Chiefs."

He sure wasnt going to take that helmet off I mean let's face it, Gordon is one of the best drivers out there, but he is not a tough guy.

No, not by a long shot. What if it had been Robby Gordon instead of Matt Kenseth? Do you think Jeff would have shoved Robby, or would he have just vented his frustration for the camera only? He picked his battle with a guy he knew wasn't going to fight back.

 

[Scott J]

Originally posted by PastorSBC1303:
Whether we like it or not, it seems to be racing at Bristol. I am sure if it was the 8 or 20 I would not care for it either. But it is just the way things go. I just find Gordon to be amazing for getting upset at Kennseth when he has done that many times to other cars there. If you are going to do it to other cars, you have to be willing to take it once in awhile too.

How many times has he spun someone out, with a lesser car, and sent them from 3rd to 21st?

Has he pulled a bump and run on guys who were worse than him and in the way like Busch did Kennseth? Yes. That is the way short tracks are... and why I love them.

My question is do we want guys running up behind guys who just happen to have better cars to wreck them out for position? This can easily escalate.

 

[standingfirminChrist]

My question is this...

... If they will stab their friends in the back while on the track, can they be trusted outside of the racetrack field?

 

[PastorSBC1303]

Originally posted by Scott J:
How many times has he spun someone out, with a lesser car, and sent them from 3rd to 21st?

Gordon may have had a slightly better car than Kennseth. But let's not forget Kennseth had been up in first for awhile battling for the win too. So it is not like Kennseth was just awful either.

 

[Scott J]

Awful? Maybe not. But Busch used him up. When he made contact with Gordon, he was driving in straight... had he not made contact he'd have gone way up the track or maybe even hit the wall.

Kennseth really isn't that kind of driver. It would seem he was probably aggravated after having been hounded by Busch then finally losing the lead and a few spots. So, he took it out on the one he could get to- Gordon.

 

[ccrobinson]

Plus, factor in the aggravation from Jarrett not giving him a lot of room. Whether Jarrett should have given him room or not is immaterial, because Matt thought he should have.

 

[Scott J]

Maybe Matt should have taken Jarrett out instead of Gordon?

You have to wonder what Jarrett was up to. He wasn't racing for position and had no more business messing around with the leaders than Truex did... actually less.

 

[PastorSBC1303]

I did not understand Jarrett at all. He should have moved out of the way and let the leaders go.

If Jarrett does that, does Kennseth hang on for the victory?

 

[ccrobinson]

Now that you mention it, I wondered why Matt didn't go up there and move Jarrett out of the way. Maybe he expected Jarrett to back off and by the time Matt realized it wasn't going to happen, Busch was already there and the opportunity at moving Jarrett out of the way was lost.

It was as if Jarrett was paying Kenseth back for some slight, but I don't know what it was for either. They said that Jarrett was racing to stay on the lead lap, as if that made it Ok, but with the advent of the lucky dog, that makes no sense, and it makes even less sense considering there were 15 laps to go. It's not like he was going to pass everybody even if the caution had come out.

For all the talk from DW about Busch catching Kenseth, I wasn't seeing it until Jarrett started holding up Kenseth. So, yeah, I think Kenseth would have won if Jarrett gives him room to go.

 

[swaimj]

I don't like the "bump-and-run". I think the leader should be passed not knocked out of the way. I also think that the leader should be respected in the last portion of the race and that lapped cars should get out of the way. Guys who did what Busch did to Kenseth on Sunday will wind up losing other races that they might have won because others will disrespect them and take them out of other races. For instance, Jeff Gordon did a bump and run on Rusty Wallace at Bristol several years ago, but Wallace sent Gordon into the wall at Richmond the following year. Gordon did not whine about it (uncharacteristically) because he knew why it happened.

 

[ccrobinson]

If you're referring to the wreck at Richmond in 1998, Jeff was very upset about that wreck at the time.

 

[padredurand]

Wow, Nascar fines Gordon 38 cents and tells him he can't pretend to be a burly man until the end of August. That will teach the 24 not to be such a bully.

 

[Scott J]

I actually like the "bump and run". On a track like Bristol, a guy can have a better car but not good enough to get by an inferior car. Both guys pretty much know its coming... and should. What I don't like is what Kennseth did... which is not totally dissimilar from what Earnhardt Sr did to Labonte a few years back. A guy with an inferior car drives in hard and uses the left rear corner panel of the guy in front of him to turn the front of his car sending that guy spinning.

Hey... If this leaves Gordon a little wiser then so be it. All he (or anyone else) has to do is look around at what Stewart, Busch(s), and a few others are getting away with.

Sort of like Coach K said after his team got mugged by LSU... you have to adjust the physicality of the game. Maybe Gordon's waking up to that reality.