Happy Monday! Anyone else fed up with Jimmie Johnson? March 22, 1998: Darrell Waltrip makes his 344th and final start in the No. 17, finishing 30th in the TranSouth Financial 400 at Darlington. The next week at Bristol, Waltrip begins a 13-race run in Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s No. 1. Waltrip makes the most starts in his Cup career in the No. 17, followed by 178 starts in the No. 11 and 161 in the No. 88. Waltrip finishes his career in 2000 with 809 starts, which is seventh-most all time. Picture yourself cruising in Tony's 2010 Camaro Coupe 2SS. It's a "Summit White", list price at over $35,000! Tony asked Will Castro of Unique Autosports to work his magic and add a few customizations! Buy a ticket for $50 – you'll be entered to win the Grand Prize including the Camaro, A VIP Trip to Stewart-Haas Racing and a personal meet & greet with Tony!!! 70 Early Bird prizes starting March 15th. Get 'em while you can!!!! Just go to www.smokescamaro. Bits and Pieces Sunday Update: NASCAR's Pearson Undergoes Surgery By Greg Engle CupScene.com Editor, NASCAR Examiner Pearson, son of NASCAR legend David Pearson, also suffered a broken hip and right hand when he was hit by Charlie Glotzbach with five laps to go in the 35 lap race. The car driven by Pearson spun in turn two, seemingly harmlessly, but as the car came back down the track he was hit by Glotzbach who was at near full speed, in the driver's door. Both men were knocked unconscious and the Glotzbach car briefly got fire. Glotzbach was able to walk away, gingerly and with assistance from his crumpled machine. Rescue workers however took about 20 minutes to extricate Pearson from his car cutting off the roof off and placing him on a backboard. By the time he was removed he was awake, alert and moving. More changes coming to the COT? The Sprint Cup car rear-deck wing, that much-hated piece of the race vehicle originally introduced as the Car of Tomorrow, will make one more run in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. When teams reassemble next weekend at Martinsville Speedway, the cars will be fitted with the traditional metal spoilers that sat on the back of NASCAR racers for decades before the COT ushered in the wing. The reappearance of the spoiler probably won't be the only significant and maybe not the most significant change in car body armor this season as NASCAR has ramped up its campaign against flying cars in the wake of Brad Keselowski's wild ride two weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Ongoing tests are directed at preventing cars from becoming airborne when they turn sideways or backward. Keselowski's flight at Atlanta caused particular concern among NASCAR officials because such problems are relatively rare at 1.5-mile tracks (although Atlanta speeds are seriously fast despite the track size). The switch next week from wing to spoiler is likely to have no measurable effect on holding cars on the ground. Wind tunnel tests and study of videotapes of airborne crashes indicate that the major cause of cars taking flight is the rush of air underneath the car, not the rear-deck wing. Among the solutions, according to long-time Ford Racing engineer Bernie Marcus, an aerodynamic specialist, might be slots in the rear area of the car so that, in an accident, air would have places to escape. "We tested last week in another liftoff test as a result of what happened in Atlanta," Marcus said Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway. "They're really reacting to it in a very fast way and a proactive way. They're looking at what we can do to prevent this from happening again. There are more things in the pipeline, and they probably will be introduced at some point. We're looking at options to somehow get rid of the air that goes under the car." Part of the problem in studying solutions, Marcus said, is that every accident is different. He said part of the problem in the Keselowski incident in Atlanta was that a section in the rear of the car had been damaged in a previous accident, allowing more air to collect in that part of the car when it turned. "That's the biggest challenge NASCAR faces with all these safety things," he said. "Every spinout is different because there are different angles involved." He said a third roof flap has been tested but that there isn't enough room on the roof of the cars to make that possibility workable. "All this is an ongoing thing," Marcus said. "In the past, NASCAR would react to accidents. Now they want to be more proactive. They have us involved a little more in looking further ahead. But every time you have an accident at a big track, cars can fly. That's just a simple fact of physics."(SPEED) Special scheme for Dale Jr at Martinsville: Dale Earnhardt Jr is scheduled to drive the #88 AMP Energy Sugar Free Lightning Chevy at Martinsville Speedway on March 28, 2010. Man Who Risked Life in Church Hill, TN, Fire Named Honorary Crew Chief: Without a second thought, Gary Meade rushed to the aid of neighbors at a Church Hill, Tennessee, condominium fire and rescued an elderly man just moments before an explosion turned the residence into a raging inferno. For his heroic act, Meade has been named an 'ExtenZe Local Hero' and will be the #37 ExtenZe Racing Honorary Crew Chief at Bristol Motor Speedway for the March 21 NASCAR Sprint Cup race. More info see www.ExtenZeRacing. Edwards: Harvick just a 'bad person': #99-Carl Edwards insists his issues with #12-Brad Keselowski go no deeper than incidents that have happened on the track and that they will address them during a meeting Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. Edwards' issues with #29-Kevin Harvick apparently go much deeper. "I have absolutely no respect for Kevin Harvick," he said before Friday's first practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. "I think he's a bad person. That's my opinion. I've told him. We've had our deal before and his actions through that interaction were so devious and underhanded and cowardly that, it's like, I just have no respect for him. When people like that question me, it makes me feel better because if those people were lined up patting me on the back I'd be on the wrong side of what's right and wrong. And I truly believe that." Edwards and Harvick got into a physical confrontation in 2008 at Charlotte Motor Speedway that ended with one of Harvick's friends dragging Edwards away in a headlock. Keselowski and Edwards are scheduled to meet on Saturday to speak for the first time since the wreck, which was magnified when Keselowski's car went airborne, flipped upside down and landed on its roof. Keselowski said last week he believed Edwards' issue with him went beyond what happened on the track. "It's no deeper than that," Edwards insisted. "It's only between him and I and what happens on the track." That's when Edwards lit into Harvick, who after their incident said, "Not a big fan. I think he's a fake." Edwards said he's not trying to be the good or the bad guy. "All those people that say whatever they say, know that if I have an issue with them I go speak to them," he said. "I don't go talk behind their back like little girls. That's what a lot of them do. I learned that wasn't cool in about the fifth grade. It's really simple. I treat everyone the best way I can possibly treat them. That's the way I was raised, but I stand up for myself. That's simple. If somebody doesn't respect that, then that's their problem. Doesn't really matter." McGrew and Dale Jr. on the radio at Bristol: Crew chief Lance McGrew didn't hold back the tough love with driver #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Sunday. The first snipe came after Junior complained about a loose car following pit stops during the fifth caution on Lap 205. McGrew replied, "Yes, but you're eight positions better than you were." When the seventh caution was called on Lap 324, the #88 was up to sixth and was busted by NASCAR for "excessive speed entering the pits" and was forced to drop back to 26th. McGrew coached his driver with a "lots of laps man, we can get this back." But Earnhardt sounded dejected on the radio. He was furious at the sanctioning body and its pit-road scoring system. "Well, anyhow. To get busted at Bristol for (expletive) speeding by what-the-(expletive Bristol Turns Out To be Confidence Builder For Kurt Busch By Sarah Farlee Associate Editor, CupScene.com) "Well, all in all, to come home third and lead a lot of laps at Bristol felt good," said Busch, who moved up to sixth in Sprint Cup points standings, 97 behind leader Kevin Harvick. "We had a car to beat early on in the race," added Busch. "As the race progressed we were there in the mix." "I felt like we had the effort today, we just came up short," said Busch, who added he was exhausted and disappointed after pouring his heart and soul into beating the 48 [Johnson]. Johnson came out on top – again. "We have worked so hard for this," said Johnson, who sits third in Sprint Cup points standings, 14 behind leader Harvick. "I thought we were in trouble there, but those four tires were everything." "It's about time, man," added Johnson, who picks up his first career win at the Tennessee short track. Busch, however, has had five wins at Bristol and regardless of the outcome he feels confident. "I'm confident we've turned the corner," said Busch, who adds the addition of crew chief Steve Addington just may have been the missing link he was looking for. Tony Stewart was looking for his first win of the season, but couldn't hold off Johnson at the end. Stewart said the final restart was the first time he was able to gain track position all day. "We got lucky on the restart," said Stewart who pitted for two tires on the final stop. "Matt spun the tires and we were able to get to second but couldn't hold off Jimmie." "I couldn't do anything; that was the best I could do right there," said Stewart of his efforts. "I am proud of our guys. They stuck with it all day and we got a top-five out of it." Greg Biffle's fourth place finish has him fourth in the points standings 24 behind Harvick. Matt Kenseth is only one point behind Harvick after a fifth place finish at Bristol. Carl Edwards was sixth, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was seventh, Jamie McMurray was eighth, Kyle Busch was ninth and Jeff Burton rounded out the top-ten. Other notes from the Food City 500: David Reutimann dropped a cylinder and parked on lap 113. Reutimann finished 38th. Kasey Kahne brought out the fifth caution 205 with a cut right front tire. Kahne was forced up into the wall, but only made slight contact. On the restart, Kahne scuffed the wall again, and made it to pit road without incident. Kahne finished in the 34th position 68 laps down. Kyle Busch made contact with the wall on lap 263 after a right front tire blew. Busch had been concerned about blistering tires. Busch said the issue was due to excessive brake usage. The day might have started rough, but Busch did battle back for a top-ten finish, he finished 9th. Busch was not the only Joe Gibbs driver with tire issues. Hamlin blew a right front, as did Joey Logano. Hamlin finished 19th, Logano finished 27th five laps down. Reagan Smith slammed the wall on lap 323. Smith had contact with Elliott Sadler two laps prior to a right front tire issue. Smith finished 36th, 170 laps down. Sadler finished 20th. Earnhardt Jr. Shows Steady Climb At Bristol By Sarah Farlee Associate Editor, CupScene.com Earnhardt may not have come out of the box strong, but a steady climb to the front of the field in Sunday's Food City 500 earned him a seventh place finish – and spot in the top 12. Hendrick is happy about the team's progress. "That team is really coming together," said Hendrick, who in the off-season vowed to fix the issues plaguing the No 88. "I'm excited about the rest of the year and we've made a lot of progress there." "They've worked really hard," added Hendrick. "Lance McGrew and Dale have great chemistry." That great chemistry between driver and crew chief was evident as Earnhardt's car kept getting better. There was only one slight glitch in the day. On lap 329 Earnhardt was busted for speeding, but was able to maintain focus and drive back to the front for a top-ten finish. "Dale had a great car," said Hendrick. "I think he would have been in the top-five or had a real shot at it himself had he been able to not have that speeding penalty." The top-ten finish gave Earnhardt a big point's boost, and a solid place inside the top 12. Earnhardt is eighth in Sprint Cup points standings, 153 back from leader Kevin Harvick. Several Take a Beating at Bristol By Sarah Farlee Associate Editor, CupScene.com The incident started when Greg Biffle made contact with Mark Martin. Biffle said he was unaware Martin was behind him. "I was having trouble with my radio," said Biffle. "That whole run I didn't have a radio and I didn't know he was on the outside of me and I ran him into the fence. I feel bad, but I didn't know he was there." Jeff Gordon, Martin's teammate, who was behind Martin was also collected in the crash. "We were just coming," said Gordon. "I was bottled up with a bunch of cars and I wanted to go to the inside of them, but wasn't sure if that was going to be a good decision or not." "I went to the outside of him and he came up and we all got collected," Gordon added. The crash instigated by Biffle and Martin collected Gordon, Marcos Ambrose, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Kevin Conway, Juan Pablo Montoya, Brian Vickers, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Newman and David Ragan. "I couldn't quite see who was holding everybody up," said Ragan. "It looked like somebody got into the wall." "I just couldn't get it off of the top and didn't have anywhere to go and we knocked the left from off of the car," Ragan added. Martin said mistakes happen, but that mistake cost Martin and his team a good run. "We had a car we could content for a win with," said Martin. "Mistakes happen, but that's a real hard deal for us. It was just one of those things." "I needed to go," added Martin. "It was time for me to go. I was going around the outside of him [Biffle] and he just came up. I was on the brakes but we were hung together when I saw he was going to shut me off." Cars with little damage managed to come out with decent finishes. Biffle was fourth, Edwards finished ninth, Harvick and Truex were 11th and 12th. Gordon, Vickers and Newman were 14th, 15th and 16th respectively. Montoya, Logano, Conway and Ragan finished 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th, all several laps down. Ambrose finished without most of his car in the 33rd position. Martin would finish 35th. Johnson Wins At Bristol By Greg Engle CupScene.com Editor Jimmie Johnson scored his 50th career victory and his first at Bristol Motor Speedway Sunday. Johnson was able to work his way up and through the top five and onto victory after a late race caution. Kurt Busch dominated the Food City 500 with Johnson hounding him the entire afternoon. Busch led a race high and career high 278 laps but came up short in the end. "I'd rather lose to any of the 41 cars out there than the 48 car.," said Busch who swept both Bristol races last season. "I thought we had them beat. I gave it my heart today, but came up short." Both Busch and Johnson took four tires during a caution with just over 10 laps to go. Four drivers, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart elected to take only two tires and started ahead of Johnson and Busch. With four new tires, Johnson was able to weave his way through and past Stewart and the Roush drivers while Busch was held off by eventual second place finisher Stewart. "We felt very confident we'd be able to get back up to the front, get a solid top five" Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus said of the call for four tires. "That's kind of what our goal was for the day, to come out of here with a top-10 finish, a strong run and build on for what we needed in the fall. It was a pretty easy decision in all honesty." The runner-up finish for Stewart was his best of the season to date. "It was a 10 -lap sprint to the end there. We were too loose the run before that and couldn't get the track position we lost there," Stewart said. "He (Darian Grubb, crew chief) left it to me, so whether I made the right call or not, I don't know. Darian and these guys did an awesome job. We got the thing tightened up a little bit to where at the end we could charge. It was hard. We struggled on restarts. Once the track got rubbered in, it was pretty good but we were terrible when there wasn't any rubber on the track." The three Roush drivers held on to take the next three spots; Biffle fourth, Kenseth fifth and Edwards sixth. "I thought we were gonna be fighting for the win," Edwards said. "But Jimmie got in there with four tires and shook it all up and ended up getting the win. That's the best we ran all day was sixth, so that's pretty decent." Dale Earnhardt Jr. overcame an earlier pit road speeding penalty to finish seventh, followed by Jamie McMurray in eighth. Kyle Busch also overcame adversity after he lost a right front tire and slammed the wall earlier in the day to finish 9th. Jeff Burton rounded out the top 10. The race saw two cautions for rain and weather threatened all afternoon but held off as Johnson scored the win that now puts him 10th on NASCAR's all time win list tied with Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson. Sunday also marked the final time NASCAR will race with the wings on their next generation racecars. Starting with next week's Martinsville race, Sprint Cup cars will revert to the older style spoilers. In all NASCAR raced with the wings 93 times; Johnson won 22 of those 93 races with the wing. Kyle Busch was second with 13. Carl Edwards was third with 11 "A couple cool stats and an awesome victory today," Johnson said "I'm just proud of what we continue to do. I mean, it's one thing to have some success, but to continue to do it year after year, to find tracks that really are our weakest tracks, focus on them, get stronger and better at them, is a cool thing to experience." "Very proud of the effort," he added. "Winning here, I think the guys we've got something for them for the rest of the year." Kevin Harvick, who finished 11th Sunday, holds a one point lead in the Sprint Cup driver's standings heading to next week's stop in Martinsville. Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud Matt McLaughlin · Frontstretch. Bristol The Key Moment: Chad Knaus' questionable call to outfit Johnson's No. 48 with four tires on the final stop paid off. Miraculous holes appeared before his Chevy like nothing I've heard of since Moses parted the Red Sea. In a Nutshell: Good ol'-fashioned NASCAR racing with prolonged side-by-side battles for the lead and throughout the top 10, fenders rubbing, tires smoking, and the fans on their feet. Yeah, this is why even us cynical old son of a bitches keep watching every week. Dramatic Moment: If your heart wasn't pounding for those final ten laps, you may want to make an appointment with a cardiologist. It was fun to watch Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards race side-by-side, lap after lap without contact after the mess at Atlanta. My guess is a whole lot more was said in the NASCAR trailer than fans will ever hear about. What They'll Be Talking About Around the Water Cooler This Week Before the usual merriment, tsunami of cynicism, and general written mayhem, I must pass along my genuine and sincere get well wishes to Larry Pearson, who was seriously injured in a savage wreck during the "Old Timers" event at Bristol Saturday evening. The former two-time champ in NASCAR's AAA series blew a tire, hit the wall, then got hit broadside in the driver's side numbers by Charlie Glotzbach. Both drivers were knocked out cold by the incident, but Pearson suffered the more severe injuries, including a broken pelvis. This "Legends" race is supposed to be fun, but the severity of the wreck was sobering. If competitors from days of yore are to put on a show for the fans at a NASCAR-sanctioned track, there ought to be rules in place to help protect them including requirements for full-face helmets, HANS devices, and the energy-absorbing foam between the roll cages and the door sheetmetal on these cars. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about! There was a lot of discussion if the extension of the SAFER barriers was going to ruin racing at Bristol, but Sunday fans were treated to a Goldilocks moment. The racing wasn't too hot, with an endless string of wrecks, nor too cold with single-file racing. It was just right. The track at Bristol has undergone countless revisions, but I think they've got it about perfect right now. Empty seats and vast tracts of them at Bristol, once the toughest ticket in all of sports to score? OK, it's time to hit the panic button. Among those who weren't in attendance were smokers who have been banned from the grandstands. This used to be called Winston Cup racing, right? As you reap, so shall you sow… Carl Edwards, possessing a wry sense of humor, stole a classic line from movie reviews after emerging from his closed door meeting with NASCAR officials, Brad Keselowski, Roger Penske, and Jack Roush. "We laughed, we cried…" Edwards noted. But something tells me that when the moving picture is coming to an end, newly-minted best buds Edwards and Keselowski are still going to get in a fistfight over the last handful of popcorn. At the site of the first "Car of Tomorrow" race (wherein winner Kyle Busch memorably said the car sucked) next week, the much maligned "new car" will debut in a new configuration minus its controversial rear wing, with that eyesore being replaced by a traditional "blade style" rear spoiler. But don't get too excited just yet: the newest of the new cars will still feature that cowcatcher front end that has proven to be such a disaster for side-by-side racing. You can put makeup on a gorilla, but it's still not going to look like Faith Hill… Do you get the feeling if it wasn't for the Edwards/Keselowski incident, the FOX pre-race show would have been sixty minutes of the three denizens of the Hollywood Hotel rendered fortunately mute, staring at each other muttering, "I got nothing… cue the gopher." And any discussion of great NASCAR rivalries without mention of the Richard Petty-Bobby Allison feud that dominated the early '70s in our sport is just a bunch of self-serving chatter. Those two cats flat out hated each other, seemingly at times more intent on wrecking one another than winning races. The fussing and feuding often continued off the track as well, in Victory Lane, in the garage area, and away from the track. It was two proud sons of the South refusing to back down an inch; and watching Allison and Petty heading for the checkers as the afternoon sun faded over the fourth turn, fenders bent, tires smoking, and steam coming out from under their hoods and helmets and was about the best racing this sport has ever seen. Having had an exclusive deal with NASCAR for over a decade and a half, wouldn't you think that Goodyear could finally bring safe, competitive tires to every track? Some unexpected fallout from the Carl Edwards/Brad Keselowski incident this week included Kevin Harvick saying Edwards was a "fake." Edwards responded that he felt Harvick was "a bad person." Jezum Crow, Auntie Em, I'm all for drivers settling disputes amongst themselves without NASCAR stepping in to slap wrists, but do they have to sound like two dumb kindergarteners fighting over a tasty cat turd in the sandbox? You've got to love Jeff Hammond's latest attempt at a column on the FOX sports site blasting internet writers for their take on the sport. This is the same guy who memorably appeared with Chris Myers in a hot tub during a pre-race segment, and he thinks we give a crap about his goat-roping abilities and offseason facelift so awful, he now looks Asian to complement his dime store tanning booth pigmentation? Yeah, that's entertainment – sort of like root canal surgery without anesthesia in a Third World country. Hammond seems to think it's high time that NASCAR internet writers have a Goldilocks moment and decide if they want "too hot" or "too cold" instead of "just right" (see above) when even his booth boy cohorts weren't quite sure what to make of Carl Edwards' move live on the air at Atlanta. Well, it does seem certain that most fans and internet writers would rather spend a night at the Bates Motel showering then spend another afternoon at the Hollywood Hotel listening to Hammond and his cohorts prattle on like a bunch of drunken men taken leave of their senses. I kid because I care. For those of you anxiously awaiting the debut of the new Ford Mustangs and Dodge Challengers in the Nationwide Series, apparently the rolling out of the new cars is on hold until July at Daytona – not next weekend at Martinsville as originally planned. Did I really hear Chris Myers, about the damnedest Yankee ever to be involved with the sport, use the term "Ya'll" in his signoff? Do you think presumably retired Ward Burton ever resents his brother Jeff ending up with the CAT sponsorship? Far be it from me to suggest the fates would favor the driver who chose the coolest song for driver intros at Bristol in the race, but Jimmie Johnson's selection of Led Zep's "Ramble On" was clearly the best. Tony Stewart, who finished second, selected Eastbound and Down (better known as the theme song from the original Smokey and the Bandit movie) as his intro tune. Now, let's see Stewart race a black car with a big screaming gold chicken on the hood, and maybe he'll win another race. (Mine is available if the insurance coverage is right, and he can sneak the 462 cubic engine through tech.) The Hindenburg Award For Foul Fortune Clint Bowyer hadn't suffered the indignity of a DNF since Darlington last May, but a blown powerplant ended his day early at Bristol. Kurt Busch had the dominant car all day, and just like Johnson, his team chose to go with four tires on the final stop. But the breaks just didn't fall his way in traffic, and Busch wound up finishing third. Joey Logano won the pole, but right front tire issues ruined his day by Lap 100. Marcos Ambrose had a competitive car, but kept falling afoul of the speeding cops on pit road. Maybe his tach is calibrated in the metric system? (For the record, Tasmania is a separate entity from Australia.) Mark Martin had a contending car before getting hit by Greg Biffle, his former teammate and (presumably) friend. Juan Pablo Montoya keeps threatening to win on an oval track but he, too, got caught up in Greg Biffle's mess. Kasey Kahne just couldn't keep a right front tire under his car. Camber is like war. Too much of it isn't good for children or other living things. Robby Gordon's team is now 36th in owner points, and will have to race their way into the field until such a time they re-enter the top 35 this season. Gordon has never been a great qualifier, so this is going to be quite a challenge. The "Seven Come Fore Eleven" Award For Fine Fortune Jimmie Johnson's car was great on short runs but not so good on long runs. But he got a nice short stretch to the checkers there at the end and scored yet another win. Given the radar screen, it's a near miracle NASCAR and fans on hand got to see the entire 500 laps of racing at Bristol. Kyle Busch won both Cup races here last year, but a blown right front tire just past the halfway point of the race put him hard into the wall. He still drove a severely damaged car to a top 10 finish (ninth). Tony Stewart was barely mentioned all day, or in fact for most of this season, but he powered his way to a respectable second place finish in the final laps. He might have forgotten how to shave, but Stewart hasn't forgotten how to drive when the chips are on the table. Greg Biffle caused the big 13-car wreck that brought out the eighth caution, but drove away relatively unscathed to a fourth place finish. My guess is the line of drivers waiting to congratulate him after the race wasn't too long… and most of them were swinging tire irons. Despite being sickened by flu and fumes, Jamie McMurray scored a top 10 finish. Sickened by the smell from the jet dryers? That's a new one for me. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had to overcome a pit road speeding penalty and a tiff with crew chief Lance McGrew on the radio en route to an all-too-rare top 10 finish. Justin Allgaier joined the ranks of Nationwide winners on Saturday, and was added to an even more select group of drivers… those Brad Keselowski hasn't wrecked trying to advance his position late in the race. This is the guy I want to pick my lottery numbers this week. Worth Noting · Joey Logano won his first career Cup pole on Friday. · Justin Allgaier's Nationwide win at Bristol was not only his first series victory, but the first by any Dodge pilot since Kasey Kahne won there in August of 2007. · The top 10 finishers at Bristol drove five Chevys, three Fords, a Dodge, and a Toyota. · Kevin Conway in 28th was the top finishing rookie at Bristol. This year's Rookie of the Year battle rivals Senior Citizen Tiddlywinks for drama and excitement. · Teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth are the only two drivers to score top 10 finishes in all five of this year's points-paying races. Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson are now the only two drivers with three top 5 finishes in those five races. All of Johnson's top 5s have been victories. · Jimmie Johnson's Bristol win was the fiftieth of his career, tying him for tenth on the "All-Time Victories" list with Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett. That's pretty respectable company to keep. · Tony Stewart's second place finish was easily his best of the season, and his best overall result since he won at Kansas last fall. · Kurt Busch (third) has strung together back-to-back top 5 finishes for the first time since Loudon and Daytona last summer. · Greg Biffle (fourth) is on his hottest roll since a period from Richmond to Sonoma in 2006, when he scored seven consecutive top 10 finishes. · Carl Edwards' sixth place finish was his best of the 2010 Cup campaign. · Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s seventh place finish was his best on a non-plate track since Bristol last August. · Jamie McMurray's eighth place finish was his best since he won at Daytona. · Kyle Busch's ninth place finish was his best Cup result in 2010. · Kevin Harvick's eleventh place finish was actually his worst of the season. And the way Bristol started out for the No. 29 team (qualified 33rd, ran near the back most of the day), it could have been a whole lot worse. · Jeff Gordon (fourteenth) has now missed the top 10 in four of five Cup races this season. · 2009 Chase contender Ryan Newman (sixteenth) has yet to crack the top 15 in a points-paying race in 2010. · Gibbs Toyota teammates Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Denny Hamlin have combined to score just one top 5 finish of a possible fifteen in the first five races of 2010. Maybe it's the floor mats? What's the Points? Kevin Harvick remains atop the standings, leading Matt Kenseth by just one point. If we were heading into the final race of the season, that would surely be "sumpin'" but as it stands, the numbers are just a statistical anomaly. Jimmie Johnson, who has won three of this season's five points-paying races, is third. Sorry, I don't get it. Don't bother trying to explain it to me. Consistency… yada, yada, yada. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. moved up five spots to eighth in the standings, and a lonely nation rejoices. Kyle Busch moved up five spots to tenth, but still had to endure a sitdown with Chris Pizzi, the most annoying non-rodent FOX has ever force-fed fans. Brother Kurt also got a nice bump, jumping from tenth to sixth despite those horribly yellow wheels. But Carl Edwards gained the most positions this weekend out of anyone, moving up seven to end up thirteenth – just 26 points out of the top 12. Clint Bowyer's engine woes dropped him seven spots to twelfth in the standings. Scott Speed dropped out of the top 12 and down six spots to eighteenth. Mark Martin was the biggest loser, falling nine spots to sixteenth. If you're really concerned about points this early in the season, I've got one word for you: "Prozac." Overall Rating (On a scale of one to six beer cans, with one being a stinker and a six pack an instant classic) – We'll give this one five icy cold bottles of Corona served by a fetching lass of a bartender with the morals of a minx. It might have been a full six pack if Goodyear had managed to bring a decent tire to Bristol. Next Up: Mr. Peabody, set the Wayback Machine for 1949 because the circuit heads back to the virginal short track at Martinsville next weekend. Gather your hot dogs whilst you may, because time, it is a fleeting… Song Drivers were introduced to at the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway: Holding a Pretty Wheel Amy Henderson · Frontstretch. Bristol Singalong: What Drivers SHOULD have Chosen It was one of the most anticipated events of the season so far. No, wait – that was the race. But Bristol Motor Speedway has something besides great on-track competition. As of last year, they might just be able to boast the greatest driver introductions in NASCAR. OK, OK, that's nothing much when you look at the grand scheme of things. But it's become somewhat of a mini-tradition already and a heck of a lot of fun to follow along with. Here's the deal: Bristol, unlike other tracks, allows drivers to select a 15-second clip of a song of their choice for their walk across the stage. In the face of three hours of intense focus and general mayhem, it's a nice, frivolous way to lighten things up before the green flag. It's also fun to see which song each driver picks; and many of them are perfect when considering their current circumstances. For example, Brad Keselowski's choice of Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down" was one of the best choices for this race (although several people, including some Frontstretch staffers, suggested different versions of songs referring to an unpopular bodily orifice). Other honorable mentions this time around include Elliott Sadler's selection of the theme music from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Kurt Busch using the theme from The Dukes of Hazzard. Jeff Burton nailed it with "Welcome to the Jungle," and Martin Truex, Jr. also gets brownie points from sponsor NAPA for using the "NAPA Know-How" commercial jingle (but not so much from anyone else for the 1980's escapee ditty.) That's a shame, because Michael Waltrip's 2009 selection of "Ain't as Good as I Once Was" may be the best choice of all to date. Some drivers, however, completely missed the boat altogether. Not that the songs aren't great on their own, but some of these guys really had a chance to make a statement. There are just songs that seem to fit their personalities better than a custom firesuit… and I'm hoping they'll put two and two together before August to make better picks. Consider these possibilities: For four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson: Santana's "Smooth." That's the one word that describes Johnson on-track, and also hints at the seemingly unflappable personality that is less of a truth than the driving style. His ability to remain "cold" in the race car is the reason that Johnson's team overcomes seemingly impossible situations, often snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. As an alternate choice, he could have always floated a kind of musical "bite me" to his detractors: Queen's "We are the Champions." 'Nuff said. Johnson's mentor, Jeff Gordon, was long the young phenom in NASCAR, and I'm reminded of him every time I hear the 1980's movie classic "Man in Motion" from St. Elmo's Fire. It's a reminder of a younger, hungrier driver, the one who reached his 50th win faster than Johnson and leads all active drivers in that category. It's also a reminder that the now 38-year-old is still hungry for a fifth championship and sole possession of third on that all-time list (he's tied with Johnson, the driver he hired, now). The teammate of Gordon and Johnson both, perennial Most Popular Driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., looks like he'd love nothing more than to get people off his back lately. So while it's not exactly a "pump you up" type of song, Five for Fighting's "Superman" is a reminder to fans that it's lonely up there on that pedestal – and it's not fun at all when everybody expects too much. Junior, like the comic book cape-wearing hero (at least he doesn't wear his underwear on the outside like the Big S), deserves the chance to reclaim his own identity, to be the person he wants to be… not the one the media and fans have created. For pugnacious Carl Edwards, how about Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting?" The selection speaks to Edwards' willingness to take on anyone, anytime, in his quest to knock Johnson off the champion's podium. The 30-year-old's mercurial temperament has vexed his teammates and opponents, and he's made it clear that he will not compromise if he believes he is in the right (which is all the time, apparently). So why not send the message that the competition had better watch their backs when he's ready to get a little aggressive? Meanwhile, Mark Martin and gangsta rap go together in my head about as well as Jimmy Spencer and Speedos. Meaning, they don't. Instead, the ageless Martin is better matched with "Take it to the Limit," the Eagles classic about giving it your all, one more time. That's what Martin has done in the last two seasons, against drivers half his age. Like the song, this 51-year-old is a timeless classic: Martin would have been great in any era. And finally, here's an honorable mention of sorts. While we may not see her in Cup introductions at Bristol in the near future, could there be a better song for Danica Patrick's someday Bristol debut than Meredith Brooks' "Bitch?" Listen to it sometime, all the way through. It's all Danica – not just the title. If music is a window to the soul, then drivers should be taking Bristol's introductions seriously. Well, maybe not, as Clint Bowyer (hunka hunka burning love though he may be) and Scott Speed (does anyone want to know what goes on in the Love Shack? Really?) showed this time around. But they should choose wisely. Like a well-placed bumper, it's a statement they can only make at Thunder Valley. And another thing… · Seriously, why aren't people talking, right now, about Jimmie Johnson being among the best ever to sit behind the wheel of a stock car? Johnson put an exclamation point on his stellar season to date by winning for the first time at Bristol, a track which has caused him consternation for 16 previous races (only three top 5 finishes to go with four outside the top 30 entering Sunday). It wasn't a perfect race car or even a genius crew chief that brought Johnson to the front in the final ten laps: it was his bulldog style and some old-school Bristol driving. · Speaking of Johnson, this was the only time I can ever recall seeing a one-man food fight in Victory Lane as Johnson, lacking anything else to throw in his joy, heaved the contents of the Food City props in celebration – a fake loaf of bread and a bunch of faux grapes, among other things. Too funny. · It was great to see a real Nationwide driver beat the Cup guys at their own game on Saturday. Justin Allgaier's win will probably go down on a short list of real Nationwide winners this year, but it's an important win for the series as well as the driver. Finally, I'm on vacation next week to make my first foray to Martinsville as a fan. I can't wait to see the action… but I think I'm scared of the hot dogs… Kurt Busch Bitterly Disappointed In Loss To Johnson Ron Felix/insiderracing It must be a great feeling, know that you can go out and win a Sprint Cup race at will. That's exactly what it looked like to the dwindling NASCAR fans, what few of them that are left. The grandstands at Bristol Motor Speedway looked like swiss cheese -- there were so many empty seats -- at Bristol, say what? Before the Food City 500 at Bristol on Sunday, Jimmie Johnson was so confident in his ability and his car's ability -- that he told his crew to get the champagne ready. How's that for an "In your face" attitude? Johnson held off Tony Stewart, who himself was under siege from Kurt Busch. It was Johnson's first victory at Bristol -- his third win this year and the 50th victory in 296 career races. Johnson is now tied with Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett for tenth on the all-time win list. "Yes, it has been one of the most difficult for us," said Johnson in Victory Lane. "It is so great to set some goals and go out and accomplish them as a race team. I am so proud of what we have done as a group. We've been off here (Bristol) over the years. We focused on what we needed to do and got it done today." Johnson made all the right moves on a final restart with 20 laps to go. He restarted seventh but most of the cars in front of him only took two tires and the seas naturally parted (so to speak) and he took the lead with seven laps to go and made it look easy. Johnson claims that it wasn't easy for him. "Man, we have worked so hard for this. I thought we were in trouble there but those four tires were everything and I was in the outside lane, which was helpful," said Johnson. "All those times we had all of the Lowe's executives here and we ran terrible and crashed on lap three and all that stuff, I wish they were here now. "This Chevrolet was awesome. About time, man. I am so proud of this team. I am so proud of us setting a mark and going at it and accomplishing what we wanted to." Kurt Busch, who had led the most laps, 275 of 500, and finished third, was bitterly disappointed in the loss to Johnson. "We were solid all day. We just got beat at the end on the luck of the draw on restarts. That's what our sport is about…luck on which lane is going to go," said Busch. "I don't' know, I'd rather lose to any of the 41 cars out there than the 48 car. I thought we had them beat. I gave it my heart today, but came up short. We did well at Bristol. It was a great day for our Miller Lite Dodge. It's a shame we didn't bring it home for a victory. "We thought four tires was the way to go. I'm really proud of Steve Addington. We gave it our best effort. I'm beginning to think the Busch Brothers can't drive that good; it's all about Steve Addington. I give him the credit. I gave it my heart today. To lose to the 48 sucks, but that's the way it goes. We fought hard. "These are tough to lose," Busch continued. "This is a track that I feel competitive on. We definitely had a car to beat today. We just ended up in the wrong lane for that last restart. We would have been better off if we had lost a spot on pit road and started up on the outside. It's just the luck of the draw. We had it won, but we didn't drive our car into victory lane. I poured my heart out, trying to beat the 48 and then to lose to them, that's what is upsetting." Greg Biffle battled his way to the fourth spot, Matt Kenseth was fifth and Carl Edwards took sixth place. Biffle was one of the driver that took only two tires on the final restart. "I didn't make the call, Greg Erwin did, but I think it was the right one," said Biffle. "Yeah, we could go back and do it over again with four and see what that does, but (we were) really, really fast. I was just too loose. If I would have been like I was earlier, or if the car had been driving like it normally did, I think I could have held them off –- I really do –- but I was just so loose I couldn't put the power down. The back end was sliding." Biffle and Mark Martin got together on lap 342 and the result was a 13 car pileup. I owe an apology to Mark Martin," Biffle said of the wreck."It sounds stupid because everybody makes an excuse, but I was having trouble with my radio. That whole run I didn't have a radio and I didn't know he was on the outside of me and I ran him into the fence. I feel bad, but I didn't know he was there." Rounding out the top ten were Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton. Unofficially Kevin Conway leads the Raybestos Rookie standings by 30 points (44-14) over Terry Cook. Conway has captured top rookie honors in all four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season. "We finished all 500 laps at Bristol which I think as a Raybestos Rookie to make it is an accomplishment to some extent," Conway said. "We dropped a cylinder really, really early on and then we ended up losing I don't know how many other cylinders [smiles]. It felt like an ol' Goody's Dash car. We finished. We just had to survive and hope that the motor would last." Cook made his first-career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start in Sunday's Food City 500. He was sidelined midway through the race with mechanical problems and was credited with a 37th-place finish. "First of all, we're very pleased just to be in the race," Cook explained. "We started having brake pedal fade on that long green flag run prior and I had to pump the brakes and pump the brakes. Maybe it's just our lack of not having run enough races to know how to cool the brakes but then on that last long green flag run the brake pedal went to the floor. "I was riding around the top trying to stay out of the leader's way and it got to the point where I had so little brake I knew I was going to get into a wreck or cause somebody to wreck or we were going to wreck one of our cars. We pulled behind the wall and kind of surveyed it but the brake pads were shot, the rotors were shot. It boiled all the fluid out of the calipers so at that point it was time to call it a day." The Sprint Cup Series moves to Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia -- next Sunday, March 28, for the Goody's 500, the sixth race in the Chase for the Championship. The race will also be broadcast live on MRN Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128. Jimmie Johnson was the winner at Martinsville in 2009 and has won five of the last seven races at the half-mile track. 48 Has Won The Head Game Jim Pedley | Managing Editor, RacinToday.com For Chad Knaus, it seems to be mission accomplished. It seems that his oft-stated goal of not just winning the mechanical battles against other Sprint Cup teams, but also prevailing in the psychological war, is all but won. At least that was sure the way it sounded late Sunday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway as contender-who- Kurt Busch – who led what was by far a race-best 278 laps and debatably had the fastest car at Bristol – seemed to have his hands wrapped firmly around the white-flag pole after finishing third Sunday. "We looked at the lap tracker today or Saturday's practice, saw the 48 was going to be the car to beat," Busch said. "They are every week. It's up to the best of us to knock him off the top. So it's rough. You know, they've won three times this year. Not that we need to deserve to win, it's just that they are winning every chance they're given." Oh, baby, that's the kind of sugar papa Knaus likes. Drivers, crew chiefs, crew members from other teams already on Saturday eyeing Johnson and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports car. Tracking Johnson in practice, discussing him in meetings, targeting him on Sunday. Surrendering small tracts of ground on the psychological battle fields. With every quick lap Johnson and team click off in practice and qualifying and during races, subcutaneous desperate feelings of hopelessness increase in 42 other garage stalls. And why not? It seems like every weekend it's the same thing: When the 48 team needs a great call from the box, a great setup from the boys back at the race shop, a great late-race pit stop, a timely yellow flag, they get it. Other teams notice that. You bet they do. They come to believe that it's going to happen again and it does. And it simply has to affect them. Has to. Thoughts of doubt and doom become self-fulfilling, you know? Knaus knows. As he sat in the traditional post-race press conference in Bristol after his driver won for the third time in five races in 2010, Knaus laid bare his feelings about tunneling deep into the collective psyches of the other teams in his series. He talked about it in response to being told about Busch's voiced frustrations. "I hope it frustrates them," Knaus said. "That's only momentum for us." While Busch sounded frustrated after being Jimmie-ed, other drivers seemed to feel something that is even more dangerous in sports – happy just to be close to the leader at the end of the day. Two drivers who want to win Sprint Cup races seemingly more than they want world peace sounded absolutely cool with top-six finishes behind Johnson. "I couldn't make my car wide enough to keep Jimmie behind us," runner-up and, hence, top non-Jimmie finisher Tony Stewart said. "His car was good no matter where he needed to go. Congratulations to Jimmie. I couldn't do anything with him. We got us a top-five there and I'm proud of our guys. It's fun when you can get a car to drive well here. It's feast or famine here at Bristol. If your car drives well, it's a fun, great day. If something's wrong or you have a problem and you get in the back, it's a day to forget. Glad we ended up with a good day." Said sixth-place finisher Carl Edwards, "It was pretty cool there at the end to have the top-three guys there in Fords. I thought we were going be fighting for the win, but Jimmie got in there with four tires and shook it all up and ended up getting the win. That's the best we ran all day was sixth, so that's pretty decent." Congrats, Chad and Jimmie. You have put the competition right where you want them in the psychological war – on the run at the one-sixth of the season point. NASCAR ON TV THIS WEEK
All times Eastern Well, that's all for today. Until the next time, I remain, Your Nascar Momma Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
"Don't come here and grumble about going too fast. Get the hell out of the race car if you've got feathers on your legs or butt. Put a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up there and eat that candy ass." -Dale Earnhardt - 1998 |
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