The New Bristol?

I tuned in to watch the usual Bristol fireworks, and a race broke out. What happened? After the exciting racing in the Busch race, I was expecting an action packed Cup race. The race was enjoyable based on what your definition of "action" was.

The old Bristol track had one groove, and cars were going fast, so the only way to pass someone was to bump, bang, and gouge your way past them. The result was more or less like organized mayhem, or "Ben Hur" style chariot races. There were frequent yellow flags, frequent cars spinning out into the wall, and always angry drivers after the race.

Bristol replaced its old concrete track with a new progressively banked concrete track. The goal was to make more than one groove to race in. If that was the ultimate goal, then mission accomplished. In Saturday's race, we saw cars driving side by side all night long.

There were a few problems though. One, the race was dominated completely first by Kasey Kahne, and later by Carl Edwards. Whatever action there was on the track, it was never around the leader.

Second, the racing bore no resemblance to the "typical" Bristol race. The main draw to the old track was that its "flaws" created a unique racing experience. Now those flaws are gone, and the new progressive banking turned Bristol into a smaller Homestead.

Maybe the problem was the combination of the new track, the new Car of Tomorrow, and a Goodyear tire that seemed a little too durable. Fresh tires seemed to provide little benefit. The old ones just wouldn't wear out enough.

I'm all for side by side racing, and driver safety, and fewer cautions. But I also admit that much of the excitement of Bristol racing seemed missing last night. I wonder if Bristol will continue to be the hardest ticket on the Nascar circuit. I wonder if the next Cup race will live up to the last Busch race. I wonder if Nascar is nervous about how easy some drivers made it around the track all night, and will try something like softer tires to add some strategy.

After the race, the drivers were all smiles, which is the surest sign that something is wrong at Bristol.

Bristol Busch: Two wide racing, Kyle Busch robbed

The racing at Bristol for the Busch race was really good. Much better than in previous years. Cars were easily able to race two wide, and sometimes even three wide. The trucks enjoyed similar racing Wednesday night, so there should be a lot of racing action for Saturday night's Cup race.

Speaking of which, congratulations to Johnny Benson for winning the truck race. He is a class act, and all around nice guy. It's great to see him having success in the truck series.

The big story from the Busch race was the bizarre ruling against Kyle Busch. I'm not a "Rowdy Busch" fan, as a matter of fact, any race that Kyle is in, he's usually not among my top 40 favorite drivers in the race. Nonetheless, Nascar's ruling against him was terrible, and could have easily been corrected.

Busch seemed to have one of the better cars, and was a strong contender to win. Then, under a yellow flag, he faked diving to pit road, and pulled back on the track. Nascar decreed that he made a commitment line violation, and penalized him, effectively moving him from the front to the rear. A move that he would never recover from.

The bizarre part is that the replay immediately showed that Nascar's ruling was completely wrong. Busch obviously did not touch the commitment line, or the cone.

Why couldn't Nascar correct their mistake? Everyone saw the bad call. Nascar uses videotape all the time to determine positions, especially under caution. And given the length of cautions, would it have killed Nascar to take another minute to rectify their blatantly blown call?

The entire episode was very strange, and fueled the usual conspiracy theories. If that call had been made against Junior or Gordon, would Nascar have bothered to fix it?

Nascar has had a few odd calls this year. It's fine to screw up now and then, but it's not ok to let the mistake stand, when it would be simple to correct it.

Watkins Glen: DEI dilemma

Watkins Glen provided a wonderful day of exciting and eventful racing. Anyone who calls for the removal of Watkins Glen from the schedule has obviously never attended a race here. The setting is beautiful, including the northern approach to the town, driving through miles of vineyards down the shore of Lake Seneca. The facility is great, and improved in some matter every year. Access is relatively painless. Even the pre-race flyover is the best of any track I've been to.

Furthermore, the Car of Tomorrow seems to really suit road racing. Case in point being Tony Stewart, who was able to survive a mid-race spinout, and still have the chance to get his car back up through the field. If he had been running the old car style, there's no way he could have passed 20 cars in that span of time.

Jeff Gordon appeared to have the race won, but he made the same mistake Stewart did, wheel-hopping off the track in Turn 1. Unfortunately for Gordon, his mistake came with two laps left, and no time to recover.

The other excitement was provided by a late race skirmish between Montoya and Harvick. The real culprit being Truex, who nudged Montoya in the corner, causing him to take out Harvick in the process.

The untold story of the day is the situation with Junior, Truex, and DEI. Junior was already in danger of missing The Chase, and his blown engine on Sunday knocked him back to 14th place in the standings, 4 points behind Newman in 13th, and 100 points behind Kurt Busch in the 12th and final Chase spot. His teammate Truex is in 11th, 158 points ahead of Junior.

A 100 point deficit with 4 races before The Chase is not insurmountable, but it's also getting to the point where it has to be a big concern for DEI. Or is it? With Junior jumping ship at the end of the year, would DEI rather see its marquee #8 car in The Chase, or would it rather see Truex get in, given that Truex will likely still be driving for DEI in 2008 and beyond?

This is just a rhetorical question, since both teams will be battling to get in. DEI has always revolved around Junior, with the other drivers being "the other drivers". It will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next month or so. Will there be a shift in resources and rooting interests at DEI? Will the employees be happier to see their committed driver make The Chase? Is Junior already starting to be considered a lame duck driver in the DEI camp?

In an ideal world, DEI would get the #1 and the #8 in The Chase, but if it comes down to those two teams battling each other for the final position, it could be surprising to see where DEI loyalties fall.

Pocono Race Report: Good weekend for the Busches

A 500 mile race at Pocono reminds me of watching a baseball game, it's more of a pastime than anything else. You're rarely, if ever, on the edge of your seat. You find yourself settling back, half paying attention, doing other things while the race is on in the background. You can mow the lawn, come back 20 laps later, and not much has changed.

One of the great mysteries of Nascar is why the gates are padlocked at Rockingham, a track with awesome racing action, while we spend 1,000 miles a year drowsily watching cars go around this dull 2.5 mile triangle.

The race this weekend was no exception. Kurt Busch seemingly led every lap (not really, but not far off). On each restart, the cars immediately spread out, and any passing was done more as a matter of attrition and superior horsepower than driving skill. Kurt Busch had the best engine package and downforce, therefore his victory was a foregone conclusion, just like a baseball game that is 13-1 in the 5th inning.

Junior made the race mildly interesting by once again unloading a horrible race car, then making wholesale seat-of-his-pants changes to it. Really, I have no idea why Junior bothers to test anywhere, it seems like they use the first half of each race as their test session. They actually changed the shocks under yellow, staying on the lead lap, and suddenly went from a back marker to a front runner. However, it was still not enough to outlast Kurt Busch, who drove the Blue Deuce to its first victory in quite a long time.

The race put Kurt Busch into 12th place in the standings, just 7 points ahead of Junior. The driver who should be more worried is Martin Truex Jr., who is only 38 points ahead of Busch, in 11th place.

As good a day as it was for Kurt, Kyle Busch may have had a better day, rumored to have signed with Joe Gibbs Racing. To borrow an old cliche, Kyle has a million dollar foot, and a ten cent head. If any Nascar owner has found the magic to get the best out of a talented but sociopathic driver, it is Joe Gibbs. And Tony Stewart is Exhibit A.

Gibbs seems to find the perfect blend of tough love and live and let live mentality. If Kyle can't find success at Gibbs, it's hard to imagine where else he could go after that to give him a better shot. JGR may be the perfect time and place for Kyle Busch to finally grow up.

Busch Report Montreal: Go away Robby Gordon

This race was absolultely ridiculous. A great afternoon of racing ruined by Robby Gordon, and terrible officiating by Nascar.

First, the good...Montreal provided a memorable setting and a beautiful track, along with legions of avid race fans. The event was a lot of fun, and looked great on TV. The international flavor of the road course ringer drivers was cool too.

The bad...Caution laps took forever. Good lord, the last 10 laps of the race took almost an hour. Circling a 2.7 mile track at 30 MPH provides for a lot of dead air time.

The ugly...Robby Gordon. Period. This guy has been a scourge on Nascar for far too long now. Get rid of him, please.

The racing was pretty good throughout. With 10 laps to go, all hell broke loose. There was a huge pileup of cars from about 5th place on back. At the front of the field, Gordon and Ambrose were battling for the lead as the caution flag flew. It was hard to tell who was in the lead at the point of yellow, but Gordon muscled past Ambrose, and Ambrose retaliated by spinning out Gordon.

The cars lined up behind the pace car, with Ambrose in the lead. Gordon was farther back in line, but started passing the field under yellow until he caught up to Ambrose and rammed his rear bumper. The two drivers menaced each other as they drove around for what seemed like 20 minutes under caution.

Finally, Nascar ruled that Ambrose was the race leader. They told Robby Gordon to go back to 12th place. Gordon refused to go back, and maintained his spot in 2nd. Nascar allowed the race to go green with Gordon right behind Ambrose, even though it was obvious what Gordon's plan was. Sure enough, the green flew, and Gordon immediately wrecked Ambrose from behind.

The last two laps of the race were a bizarre circus of Robby Gordon out in front, ignoring the black flag, while Harvick "won" the race behind Gordon. Both cars did side by side burnouts, as Gordon continued his charade that he won the race.

The real loser is Ambrose, who would have won easily, and gave the classiest post-race interview I've ever heard under the circumstances.

Nascar officials are totally to blame for this fiasco. There is absolutely no way that they should have allowed the race to go green until Gordon was back in his proper position, especially since everyone knew that Gordon was planning to wreck the leader. Nascar turned the finish of an exciting positive race into something that looked like a staged WWF conclusion.

The legitimate winner of the race, Ambrose, had no chance to win because Nascar allowed a car to wreck him. A car that should have been back in 12th place.

Robby Gordon's act is so old and tired, it's amazing to me that Nascar allows him on the track. How many times has he been "on probation"? It's one thing for a talented driver like Stewart to behave like a child at times, but Gordon flouts the rules more than any driver and his talent level is far too low to compensate for that. His arrogance and disrespect for the sport is tiresome.

No one goes to a race to see Robby Gordon. No one cares how he finishes. Gordon's only contribution to Nascar is to wreak havoc on races and racers every year. Nascar should park Gordon for a very long time. He brings nothing to the sport.

Personally, I'd love to see Gordon banned for at least long enough to drop him from 27th in the Cup standings to out of the top 35. There is talk tonight that he may not be allowed to race at Pocono. Let's hope that Nascar finally has the stomach to crack down on Gordon. It's long overdue.

Erin Crocker's Legacy

I share a hometown and an alma mater with Erin Crocker, so I've been following her fledgling Nascar career with some interest. Being from the Northeast, there has been virtually zero coverage of her in the local press, which is amazing given the usual fanfare given to any dubious achievements of local people. The fact that she has maintained her anonymity is a testament to how little my media outlets care about Nascar.

When I read last year that Ray Evernham had signed her, and put her on a fast track to success, I was really excited. I watched all her early Busch races, cringing each week as she either was over matched, or roughed up by the Busch regulars. Shortly thereafter, she was demoted to the Truck series, and it was more of the same. She qualified pretty well, but it was obvious that she was out of her league, or maybe just pushed too far, too fast. She crashed often, and was rarely able to stay on the lead lap.

Still, it was nice to imagine that maybe she was a natural, and would soon be representing my small home town in the Daytona 500. In 2007, or 2008, or beyond.

Then came the pictures of her always at Ray Evernham's side. Sitting with him on pit road on Sundays. Then the rumors. Then the accusations of Jeremy Mayfield. At first, I was disgusted with the allegations. As if a woman could never be judged on her talent, there had to be some cheap innuendo about her being romantically involved with her older boss. But pretty quickly, it was obvious that the rumors were true.

She disappeared from the Nascar radar screen as quickly as she arrived. Let's face it, the standard press coverage of Nascar is about as controversial as Pravda. They toe the party line. Evernham's personal relationship with her was rarely mentioned, nor were the business implications.

I lost track of Crocker this year. I had to search to find that she was dropped down to Arca, and was trying to work her way back up that way.

This week, the mainstream media finally got wind of the juicy story of the Evernham-Crocker situation, and there have been a few articles about it. The whole situation has felt very uncomfortable, fraught with conflicts of interest, and poor judgment.

The final straw, in my estimation, came this week when Evernham publicly admitted that Crocker should drive for someone else, and he made the outrageous claim that Crocker was somehow a "good role model" for female drivers trying to make it in Nascar.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and I'm embarrassed for both Crocker and Evernham. Crocker has singlehandedly set back the cause of any woman who is trying to break into Nascar. Women were not taken seriously to begin with, and now it will be even worse. What will the Nascar community think about the next young talented female driver who signs a contract with a rich male owner?

What if Evernham identifies an amazing young talented driver next year, who happens to be attractive and female? Could he possibly sign her? Or would the implications be too great for him to handle?

Every female developmental driver will have to bear the stigma of proving that they got their chance with their driving skills, and not because they are involved personally with their male boss. Crocker-Evernham's situation has played into every hackneyed old stereotype under the sun.

Evernham and Crocker are entitled to their personal relationship, that is no one's business but theirs. At the same time, it has no place being maintained between a boss-employee in a high profile business like Nascar. Crocker should have immediately resigned, and driven for someone else, anyone else, while she was involved with Evernham.

Maybe someone else will sign Crocker. Maybe she will pan out as a good driver someday. But she will have a very long way to go to undo the damage that she has done to the future of female Nascar drivers. At this point, no up and coming female racer would want to be tagged with being "the next Erin Crocker", and that's a shame.

Brickyard Race Report: Pudge kisses the bricks

It was a reasonably entertaining race at Indy this week. More for the spectacle and history than for the exciting racing.

Stewart seemed to have the best car from the get-go, and continually drove to the front with ease. So there was little drama about who was going to win the race. Harvick got around him on a restart with about 20 laps to go, but everyone knew it was only a matter of time before Stewart recaptured the lead.

The winning pass happened with about 15 laps to go, and featured some unnecessary bumping. It would have been amusing had Stewart wrecked both the 29 and himself in the process, especially since there was absolutely no reason for it.

But alas, there was no wreck, and Stewart rode around unchallenged to win easily.

Stewart was his usual boorish self in the post race interview. Making some crazy out-of-the-blue attack on the "commentators" for not being suitably impressed by his lame fence climbing skills. The guy wins an elite Nascar race, and the first thing he does is bitch about getting credit for climbing a fence. Typical Stewart. Whenever you find yourself trying to find something redeeming about him, he opens his mouth and reminds you what a miserable guy he really is.

Montoya had a good race, finishing second. JPM seemed happy with that after the race.

ESPN's coverage was pretty good. Better than TNT and NBC, but what does that say. Their multi-colored squiggles that supposedly show the air flow around the cars was kind of ridiculous. It looked like they hired someone to doodle on the replay with Crayolas. Their camera work is good though.

Rusty was incomprehensible as always. It's amazing that someone who drove for so long could provide so little insight. His commentary usually consists of blurting out a confusing non-sequitor, right after his classic "I tell ya what..."

On the other hand, every time I see Dale Jarrett as a commentator, he has something interesting or amusing to say.

TNT blows up

Chicago was the last race of the year for TNT, and it couldn't come fast enough. Their coverage of Nascar is excruciating.

The prodcution of the race is often bad, as it was with the partner NBC. My favorite moments of any race would be when they would have the camera trained on one car for 5 minutes, showing no action, and I'd hear Wally Dallenbach talking about how he was watching some great racing action out the window of the booth. Action that I wish I could see too.

Kyle Petty sounds really good in the booth. He has the perfect mix of being informative, telling interesting stories, and knowing when to speak. Wally also does a good job.

The main problem with TNT is Bill Weber. I have no idea how this guy ever got a broadcasting job. He was reason enough to never watch "Countdown to Green", and then they promoted him to the main guy in the booth.

He sounds like he knows nothing about racing. He has horrible canned, pre-planned topics that he forces on the viewer at the worst possible moment. The most annoying aspect of Weber is how he forces a phony laugh at inapporpriate times. For example, they will show a replay of a car breaking loose around a corner, turning sideways, almost crashing and causing a horrific wreck, and then the driver miraculously saving it. Wally will say something like, "Whoa! That car was sideways coming off of turn 2!" And then you'll hear Bill Weber let out a crazy giggling cackle, as if it was really humorous that the car almost crashed into the wall at 180 mph.

Mercifully, ESPN/ABC have jumped back into Nascar, taking races away from NBC/TNT. Hopefully the next contract will pull the plug on TNT once and for all, or at least move Bill Weber on to something else.

Chicago Race Report: Windy City snoozefest -or- How to fix boring racing...

This race was so boring that even Kyle Petty in the broadcast booth felt compelled to comment, "this hasn't been the most exciting race".

Tony Stewart led a single line parade of cars around the track for most of the day. No one ever came close to passing him, despite a few restarts at the end of the race. Matt Kenseth was able to get to his bumper briefly, but the old aero-push quickly dropped him further back.

Stewart did his patented fence climb after the victory. Patented, even though it was completely stolen from Helio Castroneves. And who cares, except Stewart often makes a big deal of how he "did it first" (in Nascar). What I wouldn't pay for a structurally unsound chain link fence one day.

The horrible racing action points out one of Nascar's recent problems. In recent years, Nascar had the bright idea to try to expand as much as possible, as fast as possible, into the far reaches of the US.

The thinking went something like this: Gee, we have thousands of potential race fans in Texas/Kansas/Chicago/California/Phoenix, let's build a giant track that will accomodate 100,000 fans. More fans = More popularity = More money.

So we had sellouts in Texas, then we got two races in Texas, bringing about 200,000 fans to the races. Nascar was gushing over how great this was. Similar stories in all the other tracks I mentioned including Chicago. All these tracks are large wide ovals.

In Nascar's obsession with stuffing paying fans into large oval tracks, they took races away from Rockingham, and a race away from Darlington.

Then, a funny thing happened. Nascar totally forgot about the TV viewers. The racing at those cookie cutter ovals is godawfully boring. There is rarely passing, rarely exciting action, it's mostly follow the leader races like Chicago this week. Any new viewers of Nascar who tuned in to watch the Chicago race would probably not be eager to ever watch another race. There are too many tracks like that on the schedule now.

The fans in attendence may enjoy their experience, but the fans watching on TV are extremely bored, and they are turning off the Nascar broadcasts in record numbers. Rockingham never drew large crowds, but the racing was awesome and unique to watch on TV. There was action, passing, tire strategy, all day long. Same with Darlington.

In today's climate, a track like Rockingham could never be built. Martinsville could never be built. Bristol, the shrine to Nascar action, could never be built. The formula for today's tracks is to find a giant city, and build 2 mile tri-oval near it.

Although you get 100,000 attending a race, you are turning off millions of TV viewers from watching these races on generic tracks. When I check the TV schedule and see the race is from Kansas, I start thinking of what else I could be doing that afternoon. When it's Bristol, Martinsville, or Darlington, I clear my calendar.

How to fix things? Take a race away from Texas. Take one or both away from Pocono. Any cookie cutter track can only handle one race a year, if that. Give a race back to Rockingham. Find other exciting tracks to run. Mandate that any new track have something interesting or unique about it, whether that is a short track, or progressive banking, anything.

The more fans you draw to TV broadcasts, the more fans will seek out a way to attend a race. Bore the TV audience, and you'll soon be left with 100,000 seat grandstands that are mostly empty.

Daytona Race Report: Kyle and Tony, with teammates like them, who needs enemies?

Great race last night. Lots of exciting action, and cars could actually pass now and then. Jamie McMurray somehow got through a sea of Hendrick cars to nip Kyle Busch by 3 inches at the finish line.

After the race, Kyle Busch was his usual classless self. He loves to get on TV and make some rude and inappropriate attack on something. Winning the first Car of Tomorrow race, the first thing out of his mouth was how his car sucked, and how much he hated it, managing to disrespect Nascar, his crew, and Hendrick in the process.

Last night, his first comment was how he didn't have any teammates out there. Busch, Gordon, and Johnson were running all over the top 5 for the last 20 laps of the race. At times, everyone got in a different line. I'm not sure what Busch was whining about, unless he expected Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson to push him for the last 20 laps so he could win.

Busch certainly was in no hurry to help Gordon or Johnson, he looked like he was driving in the every man for himself school. And that's fine. But for him to backstab his teammates after the race, as if they somehow didn't help him enough is just bush league. Or "Busch league", since Kyle Busch has made a name for himself by being a selfish, whiny, immature baby.

Luckily for Busch, he's entrenched in the Chase, otherwise I have no doubt that Hendrick would dump him right now. No one needs a cancer like Busch in their garage. It will be interesting to see if Busch continues to cause trouble, how much Hendrick can take. Junior can't come fast enough.

Another great "teammate" is Tony Stewart. Early in the race, when no one should be risking a wreck, Tantrum Tony closed on teammate Denny "My Pit Crew Sucks" Hamlin and ran right into him in the corner. Both cars crashed bad enough to ruin their nights.

In the interviewed, Tony blasted Hamlin for "stopping" in the corner. Uh, right Tony. Hamlin is driving all by himself through a corner, you plow into him from behind, and it's Hamlin's fault. Stewart is always quick to cry about it being too early to race stupid, yet Tony wrecked two Gibbs cars for no reason at the beginning of a 400 mile restrictor race.

Since nothing is ever Tony's fault, he had to be sure to blast his teammate on national TV right after.

If any two drivers deserved each other as teammates, it would be Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch.

Daytona Busch Report: Steven Wallace Is an Idiot

The race was boring, follow the leader. Kyle Busch led most of the way and no one came close to making a run at him. That's a bad omen for the racing tonight.

One of the few accidents was, predictably, Steven Wallace. This kid tears up Daddy Rusty's race car week after week, usually destroying other more skilled drivers' cars in the process.

In his post-crash interview, Wallace gave his usual incoherent, bizarre, obnoxious, and clueless interpretation of events. He said that he cut a tire down when he ran into the wall, then he strangely added, I'm paraphrasing here, "I had been seeing everyone else brush the wall, Junior brushed it, then I when I hit it, it cut a tire down." Uh, ok Stevie, so you thought it was ok to hit the wall at Daytona, because you saw Junior do it? You're smart!

Seriously, this kid speaks as if Rusty dropped him on his head one time too many. At least Rusty speaks clearly when he spouts his confusing and rambling nonsense. The younger Wallace has the same befuddlement about using the English language, but he delivers his gibberish in a childlike, mush-mouthed babble.

Stevie continued his defense of his horrible driving skills by concluding, more paraphrasing, "Well, you know what they say, at Daytona you either run up front, run at the back, or you wreck." He's learned the cliche that you're supposed to say after you get caught up in someone else's wreck, except Wallace was in a wreck of his own making. Again.

Everything about Steven Wallace screams, "I'm a profoundly ignornant spoiled brat with questionable driving skills. It sure is fun to have my rich daddy provide an endless stream of quality race cars for me to wreck each week."

Daytona: Qualifying Stupidity

Nascar butchered Cup qualifying today, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

53 cars showed up to qualify, spending a huge amount of money trying to get into the race tomorrow. Qualifying for the "go or go homers" was kind of exciting, as they battled each other for every 1/100th of a second.

Fan favorite Boris Said had an awesome run to put himself first, and possibly on the pole. Michael Waltrip had a rare great qualifying effort, and it looked like he would also get his NAPA car into the show for a change.

Then...The rains came. Who could have predicted that Florida would experience pop up late day thunderstorms? Well, practically everyone.

The stupidity of starting Cup qualifying at 4 PM, right before a scheduled 7:30 PM Busch race is mind boggling. With that schedule, even a 2 hour rain delay means that qualifying would have to be scrapped, and that is exactly what happened.

So Boris Said's time was washed out, he goes home. Waltrip goes home. The field is set by points, where the rich get richer.

Nascar should have started qualifying at Noon or 1 PM, to give plenty of time to get it in before the evening Busch race. The 4 PM time was bowing to the almighty TV gods, not taking into account any sort of plan for a weather delay, or the fact that there would be a huge field trying to qualify.

In the end, TV viewers were robbed of any drama. Fans are robbed of seeing deserving drivers like Said get into the race. Race teams are robbed of time, money, and sponsorship by spending huge resources on their speedway cars, then not even getting a chance to get into the race.

Nascar needs to take qualifying more seriously, today was a fiasco.

Cheating is good

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are the latest teams to get caught in the inspection drag net on the "Car of Tomorrow". They are losing their crew chiefs for 10 races.

The Daytona 500 brought the topic of cheating to the forefront again, after Michael Waltrip was caught with one of the more blantant attempts at cheating in recent years.

My question is, what exactly is "cheating"? According to everything I read, Gordon's car fit the Car of Tomorrow templates, but Nascar didn't like how the nose looked on the car, so they considered it a violation. Nascar is the judge, jury, and executioner, so they were given the same penalty that Tony Eury Jr. was given earlier this year for playing around with Junior's spoiler.

I've heard some media reports that the nose on Gordon's car was no big deal, and others that said that it was a blatant attempt to get around the rules. Either way, it seems confusing.

Or maybe it's not confusing. Maybe Nascar is finally saying that it doesn't want crew chiefs doing anything to the Car of Tomorrow. Any sort of improvement or tweaking within the specified templates will be considered cheating.

Is that a good thing? If that's the new rule, then what exactly can crew chiefs do to the car's body? Nothing? Are they left to only deal with the engine package? Nascar already mandates springs and gear now, so it's getting to the point where I'm wondering what's left.

Not to mention that Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Toyota all fit the same template now. The only difference is the shape of the front grill. How long before that is mandated too?

It seems like Nascar is headed to a point where they supply the exact same cars to every team, the only difference will be the engine, and the decal that says "Chevy" or "Toyota".

Personally, I like the idea of stock car racing, not IROC racing where all the cars are identical.

And I like that crew chiefs try to find obscure, innovative, or sneaky ways within the rules to gain an advantage. If two competing cars fit the template, but one crew chief has discovered a slight edge by tweaking the nose, why shouldn't he get to enjoy that advantage?

For all the screaming about cheating, I think fans are going to be sorry when Nascar gets to that day where nothing can be done to improve the car's. So be careful what you wish for.

Junior in '08

There's been a lot of crazy talk about Junior's move to Hendrick. The most asinine comment I heard was that this was somehow a "sell-out" by Junior. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I'm not a Junior fan. I root against him actually, just because he already has a huge following. But, even though I don't root for him, he seems like a great guy who has his priorities straight. The power struggle with DEI points out more than ever that his head is screwed on right.

Junior is the most popular driver by far. No one, not even Gordon, is close. He is the face of Nascar, let alone DEI. He has contended for championships at DEI. Lately, Teresa Earnhardt is running DEI like it is a glorified souvenir store. They are losing ground every week to fellow Chevy shops like Hendrick, Childress, and Gibbs.

Junior was obviously upset by that, and wanted DEI run like a championship race team. He also realized that DEI/Teresa was making huge money off of him, and he was not even getting championship equipment in return.

DEI survived Dale Sr.'s death only due to the emergence of Junior. What has Teresa done for DEI? Nothing. Junior had enough, and wanted controling interest of DEI this time. Makes sense, since he is 99% of DEI.

For some bizarre reason, Teresa said no. As if she is more important to DEI than Junior. It's crazy greed, arrogance, foolishness, or all three. If Junior re-signed with DEI, he'd be nothing more than a guy generating souvenir sales, and driving around in a top 10 car at best. Meanwhile, Teresa lines her pockets from wherever she is on race day. The beach maybe? Who owes who? Does Junior owe Teresa anything at this point? Or does she owe him for keeping DEI afloat as she remains an "absentee owner"?

Junior going to Hendrick was never about selling out, or money. The money would have been the same at DEI. Junior made it clear that he has had enough of being a cash cow for Teresa, who cares nothing about winning. Junior wants to win, period. If DEI/Teresa refuses to give him that chance, then he's going somewhere else.

It was a tough, smart decision, that I have great admiration for.

So, I hope DEI (including Junior) does terrible in 2007, and when Junior drives for Hendrick in 2008, I'll be rooting for him to win the championship. The best scenario would be for DEI to take such a nose dive that Teresa sells it off, takes her ill-gotten cash, and goes off to tan somewhere.

New Hampshire Race Report

Kind of a boring race this weekend. I don't know if it was the Car of Tomorrow, or the usual issue with the one-groove flat speedway, but the racing seemed non-existant. The cars seemed mostly to fall into line, and it looked like one of those classic "aero-push" races where cars couldn't close on the car they were chasing.

Most cars last pitted with somewhere around 40 laps to go. Truex was the class of the field, but he came out of the pits in 2nd place. Gordon came out 3rd, and the surprise leader was Denny Hamlin, gambling on 2 tires.

I was expecting some good racing at that point, figuring that Truex would be all over Hamlin, but lap after lap, they maintained the same running order: Hamlin-Truex-Gordon. And no one was even coming close to making a move.

Gordon managed to finally get around Truex with less than 10 laps left, but then couldn't get to Hamlin fast enough. Hamlin bobbled a couple times on the last lap, allowing Gordon to pull to his rear bumper, but that was about it.

So the finish was mildly exciting, but not enough racing action to justify the day.

Driver notes:

Hamlin - Good to see him get a win, although he came across as somewhat of an ass in recent weeks, blaming his pit crew on national TV.

Gordon - Ho hum, more points. In spite of his large point lead (less after the -100 deduction for that nose), it will all vanish when the Chase starts. I have a feeling Gordon is already spending all his time preparing for those 10 final races.

Truex - Glad he didn't win. Teresa Earnhardt and DEI are the bad guys in the Junior fiasco, and I'm rooting for DEI to go down the drain, at least until Teresa sells it off. Truex will re-sign at DEI, and maybe Kyle Busch will too. You can have him.

Jeff Green & Johnny Sauter - How did these two clowns get in the top 35? Sauter caused at least one wreck, as he does every race.