Aug
2
Written by:
The Commish
8/2/2010 12:16 PM
My Sunday nights are routinely enjoyable as every weekend, after watching ALL the stock car, open wheel and sports car races, I watch the SPEED report, and then Wind Tunnel, as I update scores and perform some routine site maintenance while taking in the news, commentary and opinions related to all the race results.
This past weekend was a doozy, as evidenced by the rock 'em sock 'em action in all four races, the resultant game standings changes and the feedback from Tunnelheads on chat and through the phone calls to Dave Despain.
We'll start with the last race of RD#27, the usually somnambulistic Cup marathon at Pocono. Jimmie Johnson led the most laps and Jeff Gordon was strong all day but at the end it was Greg Biffle in victory lane, giving Ford its first win of the season -- and the first since Talladega last fall -- over polesitter Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Happy Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Wonderboy, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Martin Truex Jr. and JJ. Neither Busch brother scored in the top 16 although Kurt got lots of TV time after being tapped into a spin by Jimmie Johnson that destroyed the Blue Deuce and almost killed Elliott Sadler.
Yes, it could have killed him. Sadler checked up when the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge went out of control and got hit from behind, sending he and his No. 19 RPM Ford head on into an Armco barrier that was backed up by tons of Pennsylvania loam. There was no video of who hit Sadler and only a tease clip of the actual contact but that tease showed a bunch of formerly firmly packed dirt flying up and out after Elliott's irressistable force hit the immovable object.
But things did move. Sadler's car was destroyed, the engine and lots of other front end parts completely separated from the chassis and we can only guess the bounce was how it wound up back on the track, where the cameras caught Elliott painfully climbing out and laying down on the ground to catch his breath.
Sadler went to the infield care center and was released. His biggest complaint after surviving the hardest impact he'd ever experienced was the pain from the shoulder belts that held him relatively stable when he hit.
He really should have been hurt far worse, which is a testament to the COT's enhanced safety features, so good on NASCAR.
And therein lies a problem. NASCAR has done so much to make the cars safe that, in my humble opinion, the drivers no longer have enough fear for their own safety.
The "have at it boys" philosophy may be doing wonders to help the sagging TV ratings but I think its also damaging the credibility of the sport. Racing is supposed to be a non-contact sport. Rubbing is one thing but smacking into a competitor to advance your position -- regardless of whether its on lap one, the white flag lap or any lap in between -- is a mistake; a very dangerous one at that.
My two broken record suggestions for NASCAR: 1) park an offending driver if he intentionally wrecks someone, and 2) weaken the front end structures of the cars, so the aerodynamics and ability to cool the engine will go south if the driver decides to bump draft.
This really has to stop before a driver, drivers or spectator pays the ultimate price for such lunacy.
Kyle Busch ran away from the field in Saturday's Nationwide race at Iowa, a track that may turn out to be the only legacy Rusty Wallace will be able to boast of after he's hung up the microphone and finally abandoned the combover. Harvick, Jason Leffler, Brad Keselowski and polesitter Trevor Bayne filled out the top five with Matt DiBenedetto ninth in the No. 20 JGR car, Carl Edwards 10th and Paul Menard 16th.
That Iowa track, kind of like Richmond on steroids, is simply a great facility. I've never seen a bad race there, not even with IndyCars, and it definitely deservers a Cup race.
The Camping World Truck Series made its first appearance at Pocono and Elliott Sadler, in a Kevin Harvick Chevy, took the win over Kasey Kahne (in Kyle's No. 18 Toyota), Matt Crafton, Aric Almirola and Justin Loften with Mike Skinner, Austin Dillor, Timothy Peters, Denny Hamlin and Jason White sixth through 10th. Todd Bodine finished 12th, Johnny Sauter was 14th and poor Ron Hornaday finished 29th after a late race crash disappointed almost 1500 Super 7 Sweep players who were banking on him getting another victory and scoring some FMFL points. Rats.
Across the pond, Mark Webber took over the F1 World Championship points lead in winning the Grand Prix of Hungary over Fernando Alonso, a very pissy Sebastien Vettel -- who lost his chance at the win as a result of a driver through penalty for not paying attention while behind the Safety Car -- and Felipe Massa. Vitaly Petrov, Nico Hulkenberg, Pedro de la Rosa, Jenson Button, Kamui Kobayashi and Rubens Barichello got the rest of the FIA points while Michael Schumacher could only muster an 11th place finish after blocking Barichello so blatently, and dangerously, that he received a 10 place grid penalty for the next race.
Copyright ©2010 The Commish