Motor Sports Weekly News

Story and photo by: Drew Hierwarter

First off, congratulations to Brian Vickers and the Red Bull crew for the victory.

 

I have often expressed my view in this space that there’s no such thing as a boring race, just some that are better than others. The races from Michigan are consistently among those that are, shall I say, less than thrilling.

 

I watched Sunday’s race from the comfort of my living room sofa and I had several long periods of, well, inattentiveness. Okay, I’ll admit it, I fell asleep!

 

As has become the norm at Michigan, the last 40 laps or so was a fuel mileage contest. Drivers were going only as fast as they needed to maintain their position, but not so fast that they ran out of fuel. In my mind, this is not racing.

 

Nationwide Series driver and TV commentator Kenny Wallace has a solution. He suggested that NASCAR should shorten the race by 25 laps, or lengthen it by 25 laps. Either would move the finish of the race out of the normal fuel window and remove the need for teams to gamble on mileage.

 

He also suggested that NASCAR throw one of their famous “Competition Cautions” with 25 laps to go. Let everybody come in to the pits and fuel up and then they can all race hard for the finish.

 

No less than Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was openly critical of the new car in front of the assembled press in Michigan. Saying that he appreciated the new car’s safety features but he wishes NASCAR would make some changes to make the car race better. NASCAR responded to the criticism by putting it all off to Earnhardt’s frustrating season.

 

A NASCAR Sprint Cup crew chief, who shall remain nameless, was being interviewed during the pre-race show when he made the statement that; “. . . Michigan is not like any of the other mile-and-a-halfs on the circuit.” Uh, that would be because Michigan is two miles!

 

On the last lap of Saturday’s Nationwide race, while Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch were battling each other for the win, Brad Keselowski took advantage of the situation and blew by both of them to steal the victory. After the race Busch expressed his displeasure with Vickers actions on the track and the two exchanged words that were not suitable for family TV. When interviewed about the incident Vickers was told that Busch called his actions on the track “stupid” to which Vickers replied on air; “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize this was the Kyle Busch Show. I guess I was supposed to just back off and let him win.”

 

On Sunday night’s Wind Tunnel TV show hosted by Dave Despain, guest Mark Martin dismissed Kyle Busch’s attitude to simply being 25 years old. He suggested that, in time, he will learn to control his emotions. He then admitted that at some point in his career he has felt everything that Busch has felt but he learned to control it early on.

 

I agree with Despain’s opinion that it would be a shame if Kyle Busch does not make it into the Chase. The Chase needs a bad guy.

 

It would also be a shame if Martin fails to make the Chase.

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 7:49 am and is filed under Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup, Toyota, Earnhardt, NASCAR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.