LOS ANGELES, California — The Kyle Busch--Carl Edwards Bristol 500 bump and run to win by Edwards provided the main focus of electronic and print media post-race coverage. Carl got it right. If you give it out Kyle you have to be able to take it. However, you have to love Kyle's brashness. Early in the race the leaders had great difficulty lapping Juan Pablo Montoya. Kyle shot by all of the cars and moved from third place to first and said, "That wasn't so hard." Through September 10, Kyle has an amazing 18 victories in the top three NASCAR national series—8 in Sprint Cup, 7 in the Nationwide Series and 3 in the Craftsman Truck Series. That is a new NASCAR record for winning in such tough competition. Kyle and Carl are the two top Cup drivers in victories because of their ability to race the new Car of Tomorrow. It rewards drivers who can drive loose cars successfully. The Rick Hendrick replacement of Kyle, 23, for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 33, will go down as one of the worst trades in sports along with the Boston Red Sox trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees back in the 1920s. Maybe Rick needed a surrogate son to replace his late son Ricky, and Dale Jr. needed Rick to replace his later father Dale, Sr psychically. While fan-favorite Dale, Jr makes a significant percentage of his annual income from endorsements, "bad-boy" Kyle will have to rely on his on-track success for his primary annual income source. Kyle has the financial motivation, coupled with the deep down goal to prove Hendrick made a major mistake in releasing him to sign Dale, Jr. The ultimate bottom line is age. At 23 Kyle figures to have many more years of Cup racing than Dale, Jr, 33, has in his future. Kyle figures to race past Dale, Jr in total Cup victories, maybe even before Dale, Jr retires. Both drivers are good for NASCAR and the comparison of their careers in coming years will be interesting.
The August 19 USA TODAY sports section Quick Questions poll asked the following auto racing question: Who is your pick for NASCAR Sprint Cup champion? The poll listed four drivers. The top four came out Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.. Once the September 7 Richmond, VA 400 finished the top 12 in the Chase for the Cup was determined. That night Dave De Spain, host of the "Wind Tunnel" show on SPEED, made his pick on air for the top 12 finishing order after the next ten races. In order, De Spain picked J. Johnson, Dale E, Jr., Ky. Busch, Edwards, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin. I offer the following Cup finishing order—Johnson, Busch, Edwards, Harvick, Hamlin, Earnhardt, Burton, Stewart, Gordon, Bowyer, Biffle and Kenseth. ... Speaking of NASCAR, an AP story in July reported Democratic Party presidential nominee to be Barack Obama turned down a potential sponsorship deal in the Sprint cup series. The story reported that the car involved in the offer was the BAM Racing No. 49. ... If you want to read a great personality profile of Tony Stewart check the profile of Tony in the publication "Rolling Stone" or www.rollingstone.com/news/story. Titled "Where There's Smoke", author Mike Guy spent time with Tony following a Cup race in Phoenix and on board his seven-passenger Citation Bravo personal jet for his flight back home to Columbus, IN. You will get an inside look at what makes Tony tick.
The recently concluded Olympic Games in Beijing, China drew great television ratings, thanks in part to record-setting swimmer Michael Phelps. USA TODAY posed the question, Which counts more, most gold medals won (host China won 51 to USA's 36) or most overall gold, silver, bronze medals won? USA won 110 to China's 100. Respondents to the poll said most total medals (44%), most gold medals (40%) and 16% didn't care about medal count. An International Olympics Committee spokesperson quoted in the piece said, "The Olympic charter sees the Olympic Games as between athletes, not countries."
NASCAR & Riverside: Nice guy Riverside, CA drivers Josh Wise, 25, and David Gilliland, 32, raced in the same NASCAR Nationwide Series 250-mile race for the first time at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, August 16. Wise started 16th and finished 14th on the lead lap in the No. 22 Supercuts Toyota. Gilliland started 9th and finished 20th, down a lap, in the No. 27 Ford. There were 43 starters and 35 cars were racing at the finish. Other open-wheel veterans and their finishing positions were: Carl Edwards P.1, Tony Stewart P 3, Mike Bliss P. 6, Dario Franchitti P. 13, and Patrick Carpentier P. 33. At Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA, not too far from Riverside, the two local drivers started the 300-mile race next to each other in row 10 of 22 in their same Nationwide Series cars from MIS. Josh was 19th fastest qualifier and David was 20th. It was not a good day finish-wise for either driver. David lost seven laps and finished 31st of the 33 drivers running at the finish (RAF). Near the conclusion, Josh was in 15th position, down two laps as the first car not on the lead lap. He collected the outer wall and lost seven positions, finishing 22nd.
Josh enjoyed his best Nationwide Series result to date on July 26 at O'Reilly Raceway Park's 0.686-mile track just west of the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Josh started 7th in the Armando Fitz No. 22 Supercuts Dodge and finished a career-best 5th. He ran in the top five most of the race, which was only his tenth in the second-tier NASCAR national series. He passed and beat highly-touted young guns Cale Gale P. 6, Landon Cassill P. 7, Joey Logano P. 8, David Ragan P. 9, and Steven Wallace (Rusty's son) P. 10. Other young drivers behind the top ten were Shelby Howard, Brad Coleman, James Buescher, Chase Miller, Bryan Clauson, and Kelly Bires. Teenager/sports car winner Colin Braun did finish in P. 2 for the best finish by a young driver that day. Twenty-four of the 33 finishers ran all 200 laps. At the September 7 Nationwide race in Richmond, Josh drove Michael Waltrip's No. 00 Toyota. Former open-wheel Champ Car driver and Canadian stock car champ Andrew Ranger drove Armando Fitz' No. 22 Supercuts car vacated by Josh.
Scott Speed, a Formula One veteran of one and a half years for the less successful Red Bull Toro Rosso team, has made an impressive transition to ARCA stock car and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racing. Scott won a NCTS 2008 feature on the Dover, DE concrete "monster mile" track on his first attempt there. He has several ARCA victories and has ranked first or second in ARCA points. Speed (great name for a racing driver) is from Manteca, in the San Joaquin Valley of central California. He has tested a NASCAR C of T Cup car for the Red Bull team recently. He is ready to move to Cup and is an unusual character and interesting interview to boot. With Brian Vickers in the 83 car and improving A. J. Allmendinger in the 84 car, will Speed be in a third Red Bull No. 85 Toyota or will he be in the 84 car next year? Stay tuned.
Johnny Benson (No. 23 Toyota) made an excellent pass of Ron Hornaday, Jr (No. 33 Chevy) and won the ORP, Clermont, IN NCTS race Friday, .July 25. The Thursday, July 24 racing at the same ORP track was all-USAC open-wheel action. Chuck Gurney, Jr. won his first USAC National Midget Series race in his own Beast midget. Kasey Kahne finished second in one of his three Beast midgets in the race. Then Bobby east, who won his first NCTS pole position Friday, led all 100-laps of the USAC. Silver Crown race and beat Cup driver Ryan Newman. Kahne and Newman should be congratulated for proving that they are real racers. They returned to their open-wheel roots and raced for victory with current open-wheel stars. What made headlines however was driver Stewart reportedly shoving a USAC official on pit-road and pulling down his headset in anger. It seems Tony's S/C driver Tracy Hines was not allowed to leave the pits after making an emergency stop. Tony later apologized for his actions and was fined $10,000 by USAC. That's pocket change for deep-pockets Stewart and he paid it. What is interesting about Gurney, Jr. and East is the fact their racer fathers have been friends for decades. Gurney was born 1-14-83 and East on 12-17-84; ... the fathers had dinner together Saturday, March 5, 1983 together in El Centro, CA at Grasso's Italian Restaurant. The next day (Sunday, March 6) Chuck, Sr won the CRA sprint car main event at the Imperial County Fairgrounds dirt half-mile track. Two-month old Chuck, Jr made his first trophy presentation that day with his dad. Chuck, Sr. is his biggest supporter these days and both Chucks would've made the late BCRA midget racing star Gene Gurney, the grandfather of Chuck, Jr. proud.
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