Get POed, Get Anger Management, Get A Win
Tony Stewart has the reputation for being the most POed driver in the garage.
He gets POed faster than most.
And that anger management course he’s taken sure worked at Watkins Glen.
At Indy he got POed and got into it with photographer Gary Mook. After Indy
he got into an anger management course. And at Watkins Glen he got his third win
of the year.
No doubt some teams will be trying to provoke their drivers into slugging
photogs, then get into anger management courses – hey, gotta do what you gotta
do to win.
Seriously, Stewart’s week has been a remarkable tale of contrasts – he began
with one of his best qualifying efforts, then it degenerated into his worst
final laps in some time, then it got even worse with the Gary Mook brouhaha,
then came the mea culpa moment, and now he has a win that likely means a little
more than most, given the circumstances of the week.
The win also puts him back into contention for the championship – which
carries considerable irony as his teammate, former champion Bobby Labonte, is
seeing his slow fade turn into an outright collapse.
It was also a remarkable week for Ryan Newman. Not known for any special road
course savvy, he sure showed it at The Glen – and without power steering.
Coupled with Jimmie Johnson’s slow fade over the past few races, the rookie
battle is starting to become a real contest again.
It was also a remarkable weekend for A.J. Foyt’s racing teams. Super Tex’
grandson won the Infiniti Pro race at Kentucky and A.J.’s Winston Cup team – now
threatened by Conseco’s financial plight – had its best run perhaps ever at The
Glen.
A favorite for the win, Robby Gordon, had a decidedly up and down race but
showed great form – far more than his namesake Jeff, who finished out of the top
20 and was never really a factor for a decent finish. Robby’s run continued the
remarkable turnaround of Richard Childress Racing, and Jeff Green’s effort was
also impressive – though NASCAR may want to find the kreskins who had him pit
under green and then have Kurt Busch’s engine erupt, giving Green some great
track position on the ensuing yellow.
Speaking of Kurt Busch’s blown engine – yeah, I heard the wise guys razzing
about that and Busch’s butt-gesture last week. Tacky, guys, very tacky.
Meanwhile, Scott Pruett had a strong effort, but it may have cost Jimmy
Spencer his job – Spencer was relegated to a third-string car (presumably
fielded to earn it some owner points for next year) and was abysmal all weekend,
while Pruett gave the #41 its best run since the second at Bristol.
His teammate, though, is seeing his title hopes teetering with yet another
lost cylinder; that Sterling Marlin didn’t lose more than he did in points is a
lucky break, but he can’t count on that again if he falters. He comes up on the
race that returned him to victory lane in 2001, but he enters it with a rules
break for GM that may hurt him even more.
Ah, rules. This week Winston Cup teams will be at Daytona for testing of
possible changes for Talladega. Aside from the ridiculous smaller fuel cells
being tried this October, teams may also test with narrower (by some eight
inches) and lower (to four or even three inches) rear spoilers; the idea is to
reduce down force and drag and thus make the cars unstable enough that drivers
have to lift.
Just how stupid can NASCAR be? We saw last week with the larger greenhouse
test (and we saw even before that with the 5&5 rule) that if you take down force
and drag from the cars, you make the aero-push worse, you make the cars
impossible to drive (let alone race), you certainly don’t slow anyone down, and
you make it more likely that someone will lose it and hit the wall.
At Daytona and Talladega, reducing drag will certainly make the cars faster,
and the loss of down force will not make drivers lift – remember that rationale
for the 5&5 rule? – but will instead make the cars spin by themselves – how
long has it been since we saw a car lose it by itself at those places? Long
enough that the last such incident doesn’t immediately come to mind.
The proposed change certainly won’t seriously reduce the packs, because there
are too many good teams not to have these big packs – and reducing the packs is
wrong to begin with, because it involves castrating the best racing anywhere
(they’ve already done that by running the cars aero-clean) for a bogus
improvement in safety.
One has to question John Darby’s fitness for his job – in Speedway Scene’s
Brickyard issue there is a Mike Snow interview where Darby waxes poetic about
how pit stops will become a major factor at Talladega in October, never mind
that passing is impossible without the roof spoiler (there and elsewhere) and
fans can’t see the pit crews anyway. And since when are pit stops supposed to
supplant on-track combat for the win?
Maybe we should bring back Gary Nelson.
After a less-than-expected – this despite some exciting three-wide racing in
the final 25 laps – Michigan race, the IRL got back on track with a spirited
shootout at Kentucky. Sarah-mania got started with her pole run, but after she
led the first 25 laps she wasn’t that good in traffic – she did claw her way to
second late, but lost that spot before the final yellow and never challenged
after that; her effort was nonetheless her second straight top ten (I offhand
can’t recall her ever getting consecutive top tens) and a remarkable turnaround
in what has been an otherwise abysmal season.
Speaking of traffic, Tomas Scheckter has to be one of the best in traffic –
after his penalty on the start he got his lap back and ripped through traffic
pretty quickly, but was bitten by an epidemic of blistered tires and took Airton
Dare with him.
The point battle, as expected, came back to Sam Hornish, as Penske Racing
again showed insufficient muscle on the super speedways other than Indy – Gil de
Ferren and Helio Castroneves may have a victory shot at Gateway, but it’s
difficult to imagine them being all that strong at Chicagoland or Texas.
Mo Nunn, meanwhile, got the win. It was also Felipe Giaffone’s first win, and
it came in rather heated style – Giaffone and Sam Hornish slugged it out lap
after lap, at times hampered by slower traffic. Slow traffic appeared to seal
the win for Giaffone at the finish.
Buddy Lazier, meanwhile, finally got on the board, leading laps and battling
for the win after an appallingly bad season. If he can keep his new-found
momentum going he may salvage something this year.
All of it was overshadowed, though, by Jason Priestly’s bad crash during
Infiniti Pro practice. The story goes he got loose, the car opposite-locked,
then he punched the outside wall and caromed into the inside wall. His injuries
were quite serious, but as of right now (August 12) his condition is improving.
No doubt he will be on everyone’s mind come late August at Gateway.
So Winston Cup enters the Yankee 400 at Michigan, with a GM air dam break
that will likely make them run better – but it remains to be seen if the change
will really help their efforts this season.