Sofa Sideline – Burton Brings One Home for Tommy in New England
Ward Burton picked up his second win this week, and to make it even sweeter,
at the "hometown" track for crew chief, Tommy Baldwin, Loudon, New
Hampshire! Burton passed race leader, Matt Kenseth, with ten laps to go to pick
up the win. Kenseth had a tire go down and ended up finishing way back in 33rd
position. Tough break for Kenseth.
Jeff Green managed to hang on to finish second; his best ever since moving
into the Winston Cup Division.
Rounding out the top ten; Dale Jarrett, 3rd; Rusty Wallace, 4th, Ryan Newman,
5th; Todd Bodine, 6th; Robby Gordon, 7th; Kurt Busch, 8th; Kevin Harvick, 9th;
with Elliott Sadler finishing in 10th place.
There were many complaints from drivers regarding the surface of the track –
which some say started coming apart during Saturday’s practice session.
Turn 4 was particularly hazardous. Elliott Sadler spun out on lap 60; Kyle
Petty hit the wall on lap 104. Tony Stewart was running fourth, when the car
suddenly shot up in to the wall. The angry Stewart refused to go to the infield
care center, instead walked back to his motor coach to temper his anger. The
resulting finish; 39th.
Jeff Gordon radioed in, "The track has fallen completely apart, I mean
there’s nothing but gravel out there," said Gordon.
Several laps later, after slapping the wall, Gordon called on NASCAR to stop
the race. He said, "All I did was get like a foot wide and the thing went
straight into the wall. It was like I was on ice; pure ice."
Bobby Labonte said NHIS "ought to be charged with impersonating a
racetrack."
NASCAR attempted to check track conditions, sending Gary Nelson out in a
safety vehicle to assess the surface. Nelson said that he did not believe the
track was separating, but that the tires were not sticking to the surface.
Okay so regardless; let’s get it straightened out! Hailing from Upstate New
York makes one very aware of the importance of this race track to the fans in
New England. There is a huge base up there, and the last thing we all need to
hear is that the drivers hate the track and don’t want to come back. The races
at NHIS sell out well in advance of the race date; you can’t even get yourself
on the waiting list, so problems like what happened over the weekend need to be
addressed quickly or the customary rumblings that this track might lose one or
both Cup races, might actually happen.
Other notes:
Dale Jarrett did not pass post race inspection; the height of the car
determined to be 1/8 inch too low. The team was fined $20,000 along with 25
points being taken away in both championship and owner points. It’s about time;
the only problem being is that, once again, the ruling seems to be arbitrary.
Halfway through the season is not the best time to begin to play by the rule
book; probably would have been more appropriate at the start of the season. It
smacks of favoritism; others "got away with it" so to speak earlier
this year.
Regardless, it’s out there now; got to stick to it now!
IRL star, Al Unser Jr. checked into a rehab center this past weekend in an
attempt to overcome his purported alcohol problems. As a result, no charges were
being filed against him for his actions on July 9th and subsequent arrest.
This series is rapidly growing; evidenced by the large crowd on hand at
Nashville Superspeedway this past weekend as well as other venues this season.
Alex Barron picked up his first win after just eleven starts with the IRL. Our
congratulations go out to him.
This is a great group of people, so hopefully there will be no more bad
publicity for the series that has plans to become "bigger than NASCAR"
over the course of the next few years.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series had a "barn burner" finish at Berlin Raceway
in Marne, Michigan over the weekend. Track regular, Fred Campbell picked up a
ride and managed to beat series star, Chad Blount, to the finish line. Three
time champ Frank Kimmel suffered through most of the night with handling
problems, but finally got it dialed in enough to come back and finish in third
place. Working the race in Nashville didn’t lend itself to seeing much of the
race on Speed Channel, but sources who were on the scene stated, "It was,
by all accounts a great race."
Next up for Winston Cup, along with ARCA RE/MAX – Pocono Raceway in Long
Pond, Pennsylvania. The Busch Series heads west to Pikes Peak just south of
Colorado Springs, Colorado.
That’s it for now.