Pulling away from the pack.

An almost amazing thing happened today at Atlanta motor speedway. Johnny Benson almost took over the points lead in the Nascar Craftsman Truck series. But then tada he blew it or more precisely his truck blew it,spin out and that was that, chassis problems no more lead lap, no more points lead, go 7 laps down lose the championship. I guess an amazing thing did happen Todd Bodine despite being 2 laps down and finishing 25th actually gained 7 points on the 2nd place contender. With luck like that who needs to be good? With 3 races to go it is not over but close to it. So wait and see.

Poor Jeff Burton

What went wrong with Jeff Burtons motor? I may have missed it but I do not recall ever actually being informed of the final cause of death. Was it mechanical ? or was it something to do with No way a driver sponsored by The Cingular phone company is going to win the championship cup sponsored by The Sprint Nextel phone company?

The Whims of Nascar

Amazing Nascar on friday after the top speeds in practice were closing in on 200 mph again Robin Pemberton stated that he saw no reason for concern and there would be no change in the size of the restrictor plate. Ah wrong answer. Saturday morning teams arriving at the track were informed that the restrictor plate would be 1/64th of an inch smaller than the one everybody had practised with for 2 days. So much for no concern on the part of Nascar about the higher speeds obtained thru the repaving of Taledega Super Speedway. Unfortunatly for the race teams they are now without any information on how the race cars will perform with a smaller plate than the one they geared their cars for. Oh for sure 1 and all put a good face on the situation after all they have no choice in the matter, it is Nascar's ball, field,bat,hoop,goal post and they will take it and go home whenever they feel like it.

The Amazing Chase

The Chase for the Nextel Cup seems to have done wonders for the sport of stock car racing. It has taken an at best mediocre announcer Bill Webber and placed him before a national audience, most of the time Bill is unable to remember the names of drivers of the cars. His biggest claim to fame is his very polished fade to a break for commercial. The Chase has also greatly increased the number of cautions for commercial or at least it seems so. I have it seems seen many more cautions called for mystery debris, which is never actually shown. Or turns out to be a small piece of wrapper which surly would take out any car that happened to hit it. The Chase has also taken the other 33 drivers out of the eye of the media even if they should happen to be running up front all day. Which in the long view of things could prove to be bad for the sport as the sponsors of those cars that fail to make the chase on a regular basis start to place clauses removing their dollars after the 26th race if a car fails to make the chase. I mean why pay sponsorship money if you have very little chance of it translating into the nation exspsure that you are paying for?

New Hampshire

Johnny Benson wins his fourth race of the year. The race was Benson's from the start and he held off a few challengers late in the going to win his fourth race and close to under 130 points of Todd Bodine in the championship race. Ted Musgrave almost certainly took himself out of the running with his payback of the #14 truck under caution. It certainly looked to be just a racing incident but Musgrave explained it differently. Either way he blew it big time under caution and will probably not repeat as champion. Mark Martin experienced what it was like to have trouble in the race going to the rear of the field for takeing a jack for a lap around the track after a pit stop and then getting caught up in something he would have missed if not for the penalty. I was thinking Clint Bowyer was sure racing hard up front for being four laps down and holding up a number of truks that actually had a chance to finsh well when someone else felt the same way and spun him around and out of the way. It may have been a perview of the cup race on sunday with people not really giving anyone any slack and every inch of track being contested hotly. Good race hooray for Benson, and maybe a championship race that stays close to the end unlike the Busch series where Kevin Harvick all but has it in the bag and the cup chase which starts sunday which could be close or could be a run away.

The Chase to the wire.

An amazing run down to the chase for the Nextel Cup has been taking place this season. No one outside of the top 3 drivers is assured that at the end of the race Sat. night at Richmond that they will be in it. The points are so close it will only take a small miscue on the part of one of these drivers to land in 11th place. this should be an intense race to watch. Not only for the chase factor but the Richmond short track factor, how much if any leeway will the guys not in the chase or contention give those still fighting for it? What will the payback factor be? Is Carl Edwards or Clint Bowyer going to get even with ony Stewart for essentially taking them out of the hunt with swerve into Bowyer that also took out Edwards? Will Kenseth pay Gordon back for the rear bumper tap that cost him a win? How about the Edwards Earnhardt deal is that still on the burner? Only time and 400 laps at The bull ring will tell.

Fontana great run for Kahne

Kasey Kahne was on it for the race. Reed Sorenson missed it and Carl Edwards, and Greg Biffle are now left to contend for 11th place. Dale Jr. came ever so close to claiming his first win at Fontana but a 2 tire pit stop turned his car the wrong way and he had to fight traffic to get back up front. Jeff Gordon made a great come back from a pit stop gaffe with too few lug nuts dropping to 25th and fighting back to finish 5th. The pole sitter Kurt Busch once again had a car that they were not able to get a handle on and finished 1 lap down. Maek Martin recovered nicely from some early on poor handling to move up a spot in the top ten and once again Jeff Burtons car was adjusted out of contention. So no one dropped out of or moved into the top ten, there was some shuffling of positions and Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson traded 1st and 2nd place. Next week at Richmond things will be dicey from fourth place back holds the possibilty of dropping out of the chase with a bad run, talk about tension at a short track boy this one will be as taught as a piano wire for 7 guys.