Sofa Sideline – Post Race Thoughts
The winner of the Aaron’s 499 in
Talladega comes as no surprise as Dale Earnhardt Jr. once again takes top honors
and with Michael Waltrip, once again, bringing it home in second place. These
two cars have dominated the last three restrictor plate races, and it appears
the Chevy’s have had the advantage.
I find it amazing that the number 8 can
actually pull away from the rest of the field on a restart, where no one else
can. I guess Sterling Marlin pretty much summed it up when he spoke these words:
"We’ve got to work on our car. We
didn’t have anything for that 8. He had a rocket or something in that car. It
looked like that thing that guy shot through the Grand Canyon. No one was going
to outrun that 8 car. We weren’t close to him. He was in a league of his own.
Everybody is still bunched up. They just need to cut the spoilers off and the
valance off and make these cars drive better where you’ve got to get out of
the gas. It’s pretty wild the way it is. It kind of favors the Chevrolets the
way it is now. They’ve got a good package."
Even with new rules in place for this
race, the racing hasn’t changed much. The cars remain all bunched up, and when
someone makes the slightest mistake, the big accident happens. And it seems even
harder to pass. The cars run full throttle the entire race, there’s no room
for mercy and as we all saw, once again, late in the race, twenty-something cars
get taken out in one fell swoop.
My seat was on the front stretch, and
therefore, I wasn’t able to see much of what happened except via the big
screen in front of me. I watched Tony come through the second turn four across,
and thinking here it comes, when that’s exactly what happened. Sorry all you
‘Dega fans, I don’t think that’s fun.
Record-breaking crowd – you can’t
argue with that. But it is my opinion that somehow this race needs a
"fix" to where there is truly an ability to pass and run this race
without spending the entire time praying that you somehow make it through the
"big one!" I think it is a mistake to think that the way the race is
run now is the reason why the seats are full. The people come because it’s
Talladega, period. And they will always come; it’s a party place, the
campgrounds are filled to overflowing days in advance, and when the weather is
nice, that will always be the case, regardless.
This point is reinforced as evidenced by
what happened during the Busch Series race on Saturday. Jason Keller came home
with top honors, but there were only ten-twelve cars left on the track, with
just the top three able to run together and be competitive. Just fifteen laps
into the race, the "big one" occurred, and over half the field was
taken out. Needless to say, the remainder of the race was a "snoozer"
with so few cars left to compete. The damage to the majority of these cars was
so substantial, that few made it back on the race track. Those who did were
lucky – making just two or three laps, a driver was able to pick up something
like fifteen spots for the finish.
Other notes:
Yesterday Jack Roush’s condition was
upgraded to serious. After all that happened to him, that is truly amazing. Mr.
Roush met his guardian angel, Larry Hicks, on the night of his 60th
birthday. The circumstances surrounding his rescue – well it gives a person
chills just thinking about it. Mr. Roush has been blessed by the grace of God,
and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends as he continues to
recover from this accident.
Changes in the Petty organization – it’s
beginning to show more and more that the right changes have been made. Kyle
continues to improve; finishing tenth this past weekend, and Steve Grissom, all
things considered, ran a fairly decent race finishing in the top 25.
Mark Martin was running well until he got
caught up in the big wreck, and would not be surprised if he is one of the top
runners in California this week.
The "young guns" continue to
amaze us – Kurt Busch finished third, Jimmie Johnson, seventh, and Ryan Newman
raced for the lead for a few laps. Unfortunately for Ryan, something blew in the
motor and he was forced out of the race early.
Look for Kurt Busch to run well in
California. The Roush cars seem to like the wide-flat tracks, and don’t be
surprised if we see all four in the top ten at this race.
Jeff Gordon may not have that win yet, but
the consistent finishes are starting to come around. He wound up in fourth
place, and I’ll go out on a limb and make the prediction that we may see his
first win this week.
The word is that Joe Nemechek will be
driving the number 26 for Frank Kimmel this weekend, as Frank has a commitment
with the ARCA RE/MAX Series that day. Frank will be back in the car the
following week in Richmond.
Word from our friends with the ARCA RE/MAX
Series is that they will have their first ever, short-track track broadcast live
on the Speed Channel beginning at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. The race is being held at
Salem Raceway in Salem, Indiana where this series has been racing since 1955.
Word is it’s a big hit with the fans, and should be fun to watch!
That’s it for now.