Sofa Sideline – Michigan

Well Dodge finally got its first win since
1977. Sterling Marlin took the checkered flag for the rain shortened event with
38 laps remaining. One has to speculate that the rules change may have helped
the Dodge teams, with four cars finishing in the top ten, but if you had to pick
a Dodge driver to get the job done – it had to be Sterling. He has run
consistently all year long, and it was just a matter of time before he got the
win. Congratulations!

Ricky Craven had a great day as well,
finishing second. Had the race restarted again, he may have given Marlin a run
for his money?? Rounding out the top five were; Bill Elliott third, Matt Kenseth
fourth and Johnny Benson finishing fifth. (Okay Johnny, your turn now.)

As a result of Jarrett blowing a tire,
scraping the wall and finishing 37th, and Ricky Rudd running on 7 for a few laps
before blowing up and finishing 42nd, Jeff Gordon is going to be hard to beat
with his Championship points lead growing to 298. The good news is that the rest
of the top ten could prove interesting right up to the last race. That is at
least something to watch here.

Okay, some observations of things we might
like to see before the season ends:

• Johnny Benson win – as he is the only
  remaining driver in the top ten who has not won a race this year.

• Ricky Craven win one – just cuz!

• Rusty not have any more bad luck or
  blow any more engines. (Let’s add John Andretti’s name here as well.)

• Bobby Labonte not lose a lap again
  before getting the set up right. (Geez, you ran like a bear at the end of
  the race, but too late!)

• Tony Stewart run out of gas again and
  winding up a lap down in 27th – again geez, for the Gibbs team.

• Steve Park try his hand in the
  announcers’ booth for a Busch race – maybe alternate with Tony. Park is well
  spoken and quite charming (had to say it).

• Wally Dallenbach, never, ever again
  say "I resemble that remark." It kinda makes you cringe.

• Liz Allison do some real reporting
  from the garage area – not that some "fluff" is not good, just not
  all.

• And last, but not least, we would like
  to see Rusty actually hit Mike Helton’s trailer with the golf ball – you
  have to admit, it was funny seeing him try.

Just a couple of other racing series
notes:

Congratulations to Ryan Newman for his
first Busch series win in Michigan on Saturday. Glad to see it happen!

Also congratulations go to Scott Riggs for
his fifth win this year in the Craftsman Truck Series, but you have to give a
hand to Kyle Busch (younger brother of Kurt) who, at the ripe old age of 16, had
a great run and lead for a total of 17 laps. Unfortunately there was a
miscalculation on fuel mileage, and he ran out of gas and had to be towed off
the track late in the race. Although that could not have been fun for Kyle, not
too worry, somehow we get the feeling you’ll be back before long!

Next week we all get to talk about the
"press conference" and from there it’s onward and upward!! Oh, there
is also the best race of the year to talk about – the Bristol night race. For
this one, I’ll be there live and in person – can’t wait!

That’s it.