Friday, July 10, 2009

Exciting finish overshadowed by brutal crash

It was one of the most exciting final laps of any race so far this season, and not because Kyle Busch crashed just a few feet from the finish line. The fact that Busch, Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart were battling for the win made it a nail-biter to say the least.
Stewart did what he had to do to keep his former teammates Busch and Hamlin split up coming out of the final restart but in his efforts, Busch slid by to take away the lead. That set into motion a chain of events resulting in Busch blocking Stewart one too many times and ending up in the wall. First he dodged low then came up the track as the two came out off of Turn 4 and headed into the Dayton International Speedway dogleg along the front stretch. Busch’s final weave in his bob slowed him just enough for Stewart to get inside his rear quarter panel, sending Busch up the track and into the outside retaining wall.
Stewart went on to win the Coke Zero 400 and Busch took three incredibly hard hits. First was the driver’s side impact with the wall. Second, was a racecar’s equivalent of a body-cavity search as Kasey Kahne slammed into the rear of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota — nearly flipping the car end over end from behind. If Kahne wanted to know what kind of rear end gear Busch was running it would have been really easy for him to check. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Joey Logano slammed into the driver’s side door area of Busch’s car.
As I watched the carnage unfold in front of me, my first thought was whether or not Busch was OK. I got my answer when he dropped the window net and climbed out of what was left of his $250,000 racecar and began to walk back to the garage.
Personally, I don’t buy into the hype that he was going to confront Stewart in Victory Lane. I think he was dazed and wanted to get his head straight before he was whisked off to the infield care center for the mandatory medical evaluation. Yes, he was walking with a purpose but if you were able to get a glimpse of his eyes in the television shot, he looked like a space cadet — the last thing he wanted was to go get his bell rung again by confronting Stewart and his team while they were celebrating their win.
Afterwards, I began watching the chatter about the crash on Facebook. Most people were concerned about Busch’s well-being and others blamed him for the crash but were relieved to see that he was OK. However, there was this one jerk named Doug, (I will leave off his last name) who made the comment, “Kyle would look much better on a backboard on the way to the hospital.” You know folks, I don’t care how much you dislike a guy — there is no excuse for wishing them harm.
Now, moving on to another topic, there is a big day coming up for one NASCAR driver and I don’t mean this weekend’s race at Chicagoland Speedway. Somehow I missed the big announcement but during the upcoming off-weekend, Jamie McMurray will marry his sweetheart, Christy Futrell. Jamie recently posted some photos of “the girls” having a little get together in anticipation of the big day.
Good luck to Jamie and Christy. Hopefully, I can snag a photo after the ceremony and share it with you guys reading here.
In other news this week, Martin Truex Jr. made must have become tired of racing for a different team every six months or so because he announced that he will be leaving Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing at the end of the season.
Where will he land? Well, Truex has a really comfortable spot all picked out for himself in the No. 56 NAPA Toyota at Michael Waltrip Racing. Yep. In case you missed the big live press conference on SPEED Channel and streaming across the Internet, Waltrip will step into a part-time driver’s role next year and allow Truex to represent NAPA full-time.
“First of all, I’m really excited to be here,” Truex said during Tuesday’s press conference. “NAPA Auto Parts and Michael Waltrip Racing have been synonymous with each other, and NAPA’s been a great supporter of Michael Waltrip I’m going to be a proud driver of that car next year. I’m so thankful for the opportunity that Michael and NAPA and Bob have given me to do this next year. I’m just looking forward to going on to do really good things. The sky’s the limit, and they’ve built a good operation here, and just looking forward to it and excited for next year.”
Hmmm? Now, lets think about this for a few seconds. This guy, who is one helluva racecar driver, has been forced to endure seeing the team he raced for go from one majority-owner to another over the past two years, has the opportunity to drive for a team with a great sponsor and what appears to be a stable environment — of course he is going to be excited. This is a great fit for Truex and NAPA and I will lay odds he puts that No. 56 in Victory Lane next year.
In closing, last week I wrote about Jeremy Mayfield’s suspension being lifted for alleged violations of NASCAR drug policy by a federal judge and how NASCAR wasn’t planning on appealing. Well, they did.
On July 6, NASCAR filed a notice of appeal and then followed up with a motion to stay the temporary injunction ordered by U.S. District Judge Charles Mullens on July 1. It was NASCAR’s contention that the federal judge acted inappropriately in grating the injunction that would allow Mayfield to return to the track.
Technically, Mayfield was cleared to race last weekend at Daytona but logistically, he couldn’t pull his team and sponsorship together in time. One would think that the appeal by NASCAR would keep Mayfield from competing this weekend in Chicago but late yesterday, Judge Mullens signed the order and it was entered into the record regarding the injunction. There has now been recorded an entry in the court’s file to show that Mayfield would be kept away from the track during the appeal of the injunction.
I tried to find a comment from Mayfield’s camp — you’ll remember my dealings with his attorney Bill Biehl didn’t go so well — but Mayfield’s Web site has been taken down. I forwarded that information to Dustin Long, the president of the National Motorsports Press Association, so if I get any additional information over the weekend, I will post it here.
That’s it for this week. Enjoy the action from Chicago and check back next week to hear what is going on behind the scenes in the garage.

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