Aug 30

Written by: The Commish
8/30/2010 8:15 PM 

Friday night's truck race at Chicagoland was typical as Kyle Busch won over Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday with Johnny Sauter, Justin Lofton, Aric Almirola, Matt Crafton, Austin Dillon and David Starr.  Bodine had a chance to do to Kyle what Kyle does to everyone else to get the win but since discretion is the better part of valor, (Todd's racing for the championship, Kyle isn't, and Kyle would've probably wrecked the No. 30 truck if he'd been bumped and passed) he settled for second.

Kyle's got 'em all scared now.  What a shame.

On Saturday the No. 01 Ganassi Riley/BMW beat the No. 99 Gurney/Fogarty in the DP race at Montreal with the No. 10 Dallara/Ford third in front of the No. 59 Brumos Riley/Porsche, the No. 90 Coyote/Porsche, the No. 6 Riley/Ford, the No. 75 Lola/Ford and the No. 60 Riley/Ford.  The win was a record-setting eighth of the season for Pruett and Rojas which also clinched the team's fourth career DP championship.  

Saturday afternoon saw the IndyCar series drivers put on a death-defying show of being in the right place at the right time at Chicagoland.  Dario won by getting out of the pits first on everyone's final stop by not taking tires.  That put him at the point and as we saw all night (and for more than a few seasons now) there is no passing when everyone is two or three wide and flat out all the way around the track.

Dan Wheldon finished second in front of Marco, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, Helio, Justin Wilson, Scott Dixon, Vitor Meira and Graham Rahal.  Polesitter Ryan Briscoe led the most laps but bobbled once, fell back and couldn't recover.  Danica and Sarah finished 14th and 15th with Will Power hanging on to the last FMFL points-paying position after having to pit for fuel with a handful of laps to go thanks to a rare mistake by Team Penske.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.  Having cars so equal in speed with aero characteristics that force a driver to hold position -- through steering only, since the pedal is always on the floor -- or risk losing a spot or six with no hope of recovery is a recipe for a) disaster and b) boredom.  

The Sunday ALMS race at Mosport was won by the pole winning #6 Cytosport Porsche Spyder over the #1 Acura and the #12 Lola/AER P1.  Fourth and fifth were LMPCs with the #8 Lola/Judd P1 and the #16 Dyson Lola/Mazda sixth and seventh.  

The Klaus Graf and Romain Dumas -driven Porsche led every lap in a race that was shortened by about 20 minutes after a GT car hit the Armco hard enough to make repair impossible in a timely manner.  

The doozy of the weekend was the NASCAR Nationwide race at Montreal where Boris Said won a drag race coming out of the last turn on the last lap to beat Max Papis, Jacques Villeneuve, Brad Keselowski, Paul Menard and Joey Logano.  J.R. Fitzpatrick, Parker Kligerman, Justin Allgaer and Trevor Bayne filled out the top 10.

Robby Gordon had to start at the back but found himself in the lead near race end.  He also found himself low on fuel, especially when they had to go to a green-white-checker; he finished 14th.  But that was better than polesitter Marcos Ambrose; the Aussie led early and looked to be in line for his first win but electrical problems knocked him out and he finished 33rd.  Carl Edwards led the most laps and also looked ready to win until his Fastenal Ford broke a track bar, leaving him with a 20th place finish after attempted repairs.

This was a great race with the expected amount of beating and banging and spinning.  And what a great story at the end:  Boris Said in a privateer Ford against Max Papis in a Kevin Harvick Chevy with Villeneuve right behind, waiting for an opportunity in a Toyota.  Mad Max had the lead with one to go and held it to the final turn where Boris pulled even and then it was a contest between Roush Yates and Earnhardt-Childress engines, with Said winning by a foot or so.

Yes, there should definitely be a Cup race at Montreal.  And equally yes, Boris Said (and Mad Papis) deserve full time rides in NASCAR.

Copyright ©2010 The Commish