Nov 14

Written by: The Commish
11/14/2011 11:36 AM 

The craziness started on Saturday, when the NASCAR Nationwide Series christened Phoenix International Raceway's newly re-paved and re-configured (or ruined) one mile oval featuring a distended dogleg with an elevation change and graduated banking to make the track 'more racy.'

When the race was over Sam Hornish Jr. had notched his first NASCAR win over Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards with Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. filling out the top five.  Trevor Bayne and Clint Bowyer were next followed by Ryan Truex, Justin Allgaier and Michael Annett.

Ron Hornaday was a decent 13th in a Turner Motorsports Chevy, Danica came home 21st after being caught up in a right-off-the-bat crash and Brian Scott thanked Steve Wallace for wrecking him early ... because that's what Wallace is really, really good at.

Oh, and Elliott Sadler got wrecked by Jason Leffler to end his slim championship hopes.

But the race was actually pretty good.  PIR did a great job of trying to lay down lots of rubber on the new surface to make sure there was more than one racing line.  And the widened backstretch, featuring lots of pavement where grass and gravel used to lay, allowed drivers to go waaaay below the yellow line in an effort to make a pass or just go faster.  It was pretty amazing to watch the cars move and jump as they left the banking, hit the tarmac, and then bounced back up to the track to rejoin the rest of the field.

And that, dear friends, gives me pause.  If I was a conspiracy theorist I would swear the ISC intentionally added the roller coaster elevation change and drew out the dogleg to make the track completely unsuitable for IndyCars. 

Sunday's race was another great, less-crashes-than-expected event with Kasey Kahne breaking his 81-race winless streak in beating Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton and Ryan Newman with A.J. Allmendinger, David Reutimann, Marco Ambrose, Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer filling out the top 10.  Jimmie Johnson was 14th, Kevin Harvick was 19th, Kurt Busch was 22nd after running out of gas late and Jeff Gordon was 36th.

Polesitter Matt Kenseth was a contenda until he got wrecked by Brian Vickers who denied malicious intent after threatening payback since Martinsville -- when Kenseth wrecked him.  The boys are still having at it.

Lewis Hamilton took the F1 win over Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button at Abu Dhabi but only because polesitter Sebastian Vettel punctured a tire on the very first lap and had to retire with suspension damage. Mark Webber, Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg followed with Rubens Barichello coming home 12th after starting at the back in what may have been his second-to-last F1 race.  Nice drive.

Only two more weekends of racing and it looks like the Super 7 Sweep championship battle and three of the four remaining by-series titles are still up for grabs.  Lineups for RD#42 will be due by midnight this Thursday.

Copyright ©2011 The Commish