Bad Boys:  Kurt Busch - On Friday night, Kurt Busch had a literal "run-in" with a traffic control person at the "Cars" premiere at Lowe's Motor Speedway.  Apparently, Busch was following a police escort when the traffic controller tried to stop Busch's car by stepping in front of it.  (maybe he wanted an autograph?)  Busch brushed by, grazing the man's knee.  The man's knee was checked out after he finished work about 15 minutes later.  Nothing further will happen as a result of the incident, as it appears no one knows who should do something about it - Nascar claims it wasn't their event, track security was not contacted, and the local authorities can't do anything without a report. 

Not to be out-done by his brother's second run-in with traffic control laws, Kyle Busch drug a Nascar official away from the ambulance after a caution flag. Casey Mears slid to start crash, which culminated in Busch violently crashing into the wall.  Busch was so disgusted with Mears that he pulled the official from taking him to the ambulance and threw his HANS device at Mears.  This happened in the same week Busch pled guilty to improper driving in Richmond, VA.

Bad Luck:  Tony Stewart crashed twice this weekend - first in the Busch race on Saturday, and then in the Cup race on Sunday.  At this time, he has a broken right shoulder.  Will this slow down his extracurricular driving activities?  In addition to his Cup duties, he has more Busch races on-tap, a Modified race in New Hampshire in July, and the Prelude to the Dream Late Model race at Eldora next week.  And that's just what he's told us about ...

Kevin Harvick, who has been solidly in the top 10, had another bad race, following his trouble at Darlington.  Harvick had a tailpipe that broke, which caused him to be stuck in the garage for several laps.

Is it me or does Jeff Gordon have the same undiagnosed mechanical problem every other race? 

Bad Endings:  The Indy 500 was a bad ending for the Andretti family - leading the race going into the fourth turn, Marco Andretti looked destined to win the race as a rookie.  However, Sam Hornish had other ideas and took the race at the line.

Scott Riggs was leading the Coca-Cola 600 when he had problems in the pits that probably cost him the race.  The only solice had to be that his teammate won (although that might be more like salt in an open wound).

Jimmie Johnson finished second in the 600.  Given his domination at Lowe's over the past few years, second has to feel strange.

The News Report:   Joe Gibbs Racing reports that rookie Denny Hamlin gashed open his hand at Lowe's Motor Speedway after testing yesterday.  He was reportedly engaged in a foot race around the hauler when he clipped a piece of chrome causing the injury. Hamlin pointed out that despite the injury, he won the race.  He will be able to race on Saturday.

However, I believe that this story has been cleaned up a bit for the masses. 

Here is what really happened:

Kyle Busch was celebrating his 21st birthday in the victory lane area.  Kyle's brother Kurt and his fiancee Eva Bryan baked Kyle a cake.  Well, actually they bought it at Food Lion. 

During the celebration, Greg Biffle's boxer, Foster, ran into the festivities chased by Nicole Lunders, Biffle's girlfriend.

Foster ran behind Kyle, pushing him face first into the cake.  When Kyle came up out of the cake, he spit cake down the front of Bryan's shirt.  An upset Bryan proceeded to yell at Lunders who had stopped chasing her dog because she was laughing so hard at what had happened.  Naturally, Bryan was even more enraged at all of this, so she grabbed Lunders' hair. 

Humpy Wheeler, the President of Lowe's Motor Speedway, was attending the Busch party.  He was shoved by Lunders and Bryan in their skirmish off of victory lane into Tony Stewart, who was walking by carrying his ####, MoJo.

Stewart caught Wheeler, but dropped MoJo, who promptly ran off toward the garage area.  MoJo caught up to Foster, and jumped on his back.  Stewart and Lunders, who had extracted herself from Bryan, chased the fleeing animals.  Kurt and Eva ran after Stewart and Lunders because they blamed them for ruining Kyle's party.  Kyle, meanwhile, was crying inconsolably in victory lane.

As Stewart and Lunders crossed the first garage, they ran into Kevin and DeLana Harvick and knocked them down.  Stewart yelled apologies and commented that Kurt Busch was chasing him.  Harvick had barely gotten back on his feet when Kurt Busch ran into the garage.   Harvick, upset that DeLana's white pants had gotten oil and grease on them, body slammed Busch as he attempted to run by.  When Busch tried to get up, Harvick grabbed his ear and wouldn't let him.  Eva decided DeLana could hurt her, and instead suggested that they go shopping for a new shirts and pants.

Foster and MoJo continued toward the Joe Gibbs Racing Haulers.  The crew members from the three teams had been packing up to leave.  Denny Hamlin was talking to Greg Zipadelli.  Stewart, who was getting tired, Lunders, Foster and MoJo ran by.  Stewart stopped, collapsed and gasped for breath.  He pleaded for help catching MoJo.  Zipadelli declined as he was watching his son and  daughter, but Hamlin agreed to give pursuit. 

Foster ran over to the #8 hauler, looking for Dale Jr's dog, Killer.  Apparently not finding what he was looking for, he ran on through the garage and then turned back to the Gibbs haulers.

As Foster raced by the Gibbs Hauler, MoJo jumped off his back.  MoJo saw a DLP HD TV playing a video clip of Stewart, so MoJo naturally tried to jump into the televised Stewart's arms.  At this point, Kyle Busch was stumbling around, still upset, trying to find his team.

MoJo's delusion became apparent when he pulled the TV out of its mounting and off the pitbox it was located on.   All this occurred as Kyle walked by.   

Hamlin tried to catch the TV and shoved Kyle out of the way, but the TV  gashed open his hand instead.  And the huge TV landed squarely on Kyle Busch's left foot.   MoJo lost his footing and landed on Kyle's head, screeching.

Stewart, having recovered somewhat from his run, grabbed MoJo and began lecturing Busch on how he was celebrating his 21st birthday in an irresponsible manner.  Or at least, Stewart was until he saw the blood from Hamlin's hand and fainted. 

Kasey Kahne had been watching in amusment while Stewart lectured Busch.  Kahne tried to catch Stewart, but ended up underneath him instead.  Kahne hit his head on the pavement and blacked out.

In the end, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Wheeler, Lunders, Bryan, Hamlin,  Stewart, and Kahne all ended up at the emergency room.  Doctors found minor bruises on the Busch brothers, Lunders, Wheeler and Bryan; Stewart had nothing wrong with him, Kahne was fine given his Talladega injuries, and Hamlin had stitches. 

All parties agreed it would be less embarrassing if Hamlin were the only one who reported injuries.  Nascar is now considering banning wives, girlfriends, pets and HD TVs from the garage area. 

Nascar finished its Texas weekend, celebrated 10 years of racing at the facility, and managed to continue the Busch Brother Bashing that had been going on for several races. 

Kurt Busch v. Greg Biffle:  Although the President had a taped greeting at the track, the majority of the Busch Bashing this weekend was betwen Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle.  Biffle's car had been strong during the first 50 or so laps, but he was cycled out of the lead due to pit stops.  As he was working his way back to the front, he came across Kurt Busch.  Whether Busch or Biffle was to blame for what happened next depends on your point of view.  Busch, who  was down a lap, end up running into Biffle's back bumper, causing him to crash.  Biffle blamed Busch for ended his day.  Biffle's girlfriend, Nicole Lunders, walked to Busch's pit box and had words with Busch's fiancee Eva Bryan. 

Kurt Busch vs. the Media? The news media wanted Busch's reaction to Biffle's wrech after the race.  Busch gave an explanation blaming Biffle for coming up in front of him and slowing down.  When another reporter asked him what happened, Busch snapped back at them that he had answered the question and stormed off into his hauler.  He later came back out and answered a few more questions.  Apparently the Penske PR people have not quite worked their magic with Kurt...

Clint Bowyer vs. Kyle Busch:  Late in the race, Bowyer opted to take 2 tires instead of 4 to gain track position.  As he was sliding backwards in the field, he began racing with Kyle Busch for position.  As they raced, Bowyer crashed.  Bowyer claimed Busch got into him, Busch claimed Bowyer did it on his own.  The tape is unclear.   Given that Bowyer is a rookie and Kyle Busch is,  well, Kyle Busch, both are probably at fault in some way.

Carl Edwards vs. Jeff Gordon vs. Tony Stewart?  Carl Edwards, who was in third place, was racing with Jeff Gordon, who was a lap or two down.  Edwards got out of shape, hit Gordon, hit the wall, narrowly missed hitting Stewart and then crashed into the inside wall.  Needless to say, he was out of the race at that point.  Reporters questioned Edwards and asked if Gordon or Stewart caused the accident, Edwards denied it  and said it was just him pushing too hard at the time.  After the race, reporters went to Stewart and asked him what he thought happened - Stewart said Edwards was driving too hard ("in over his head") and lost it, then commented he was glad Edwards was OK because it looked like a hard hit into the wall.  In other words, the drivers didn't have issues with each other, but the reporters tried to generate a fight.  No one appears to have taken the bait.

Busch Series Racing Notes:  Kurt Busch won his first race in the Busch series, and to celebrate, he did his "trademark" snow angel.  I admit it was somewhat charming at Bristol where it had snowed all weekend, but I'm not sure it should be his "trademark" celebration.

Reed Sorenson may be penalized after it appeared he threw a piece of his rollbar padding/insulation onto the track to cause a caution.  He then called in that there was debris in the corner.  The Fox cameras caught the piece of foam flying out the window - it didn't seem to be certain that Sorenson threw it, but he was penalized by Nascar for the infraction (he was sent to the end of the line and lost about 5 places).  Nascar may exact a point penalty as well. 

More interesting was a conversation that Kyle Busch and his crew chief had immediately after that accident.  Busch was warned not to throw anything on the track to cause a caution because they had caught Sorenson.  Busch replied that he didn't have anything to throw.  Seconds later he remarked it would be stupid to do it since he had an in-car camera. 

You'll remember that Greg Biffle eventually won a Busch race when someone caused a caution by throwing a glove onto the track.  Nascar never found out who caused the caution or lost the glove.   Hmm...

Ah, Martinsville.  The paperclip.  Two drag strips connected with two hairpin turns.  Whatever you call it, don't leave without eating a hotdog!  {Seriously, the teams nearly boycotted last year when the condiments and wrapper were changed. }   The race for the most part was uneventful - at least compared to last week at Bristol.  There were still some interesting storylines...

A crash on lap 2 took several cars out of contention for the win.  The groaning you heard across the country was due to the red #8 being involved.  By the end of the race, Junior had "crashed" again, managed to stay on the lead lap, work his way through traffic, and finish 4th after getting by Kyle Busch.  I don't know that there was much to salvage on the car when it hit the hauler - three of the four corners of the car were missing, based in, or dented and  half the brake fan system was gone.  Most impressive was that the team did not give up - which is a marked difference in attitude from last year at this time.

The lap 2 crash ended Robby Gordon's day.  Robby, one of few owner/drivers, was in the top 15 in points prior to the race, but due to the DNF is 27th in points.

Despite the multiple on track incidents throughout the race, there did not appear to be any Bristol pay-backs.  Jimmie Johnson commented on this after the race - his point was that if the media would quite playing it up, there would be more.  According to Johnson, no one will do it when they know the media is looking to pounce on it, so if they lay off, the paybacks will come.  An interesting theory to be sure.

The one feud that has started is Denny Hamlin vs. Mark Martin.  I'm not clear on what happened, but Hamlin expressed his displeasure with Martin due to two run-ins on the track - one at Las Vegas and one at Martinsville.  Martin has not commented at this point to my knowledge, and Hamlin acknowledged that he still respects Martin but whats to know why he has been singled out.  Knowing Martin, this will be a non-issue by Texas.

The Dodge teams continue to have some trouble with the Charger - their highest finisher was Scott Riggs in 10th.  The highest finishing rookie was Reed Sorenson in a Dodge (12th)

What happened to all the discussion of Roush Racing domination?  The highest finisher was McMurray in 9th, followed by Martin (13th), Edwards (16th), Kenseth (24th) and Biffle (31st).

Jeff Gordon has stalking at Martinsville down to a science.  He's won there 7 times  - and the last few has appeared out of nowhere at the end.  He likes to ####e it up - this time he got a flat tire early in the race, which caused a caution.  Conspiracy theorists point out that while Gordon got a caution with no debris apparent on the track, a couple other spins, tire-blow outs and debris went unflagged during the race. 

Does anyone else think that Jeff Gordon's two teammates cut him a break on the final two laps when he slipped on the speedy dry?  I think if any other two cars had been right behind him, he would have been shown the wall.

For a guy edging toward retirement, Mark Martin is sure charging up the points standings - he's currently in 2nd behind Jimmie Johnson.

Since it was Martinsville, I wondered how quickly Stewart would mention the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash in his victory speech.  It was practically the first few words out of his mouth.  In Oct 2004, his pilot, Scott Lathram was on the plane, coming to Martinsville to see Stewart before Lathram left for Iraq.  Apparently Stewart hasn't forgotten him - and still has information on his website to make a donation to Lathram's Memorial Fund.

I don't know which is more fun - watching Tony Stewart climb the fence after he wins or watching him spray Jimmy Spencer with a Coke during the victory lane broadcast.

My vote for one of the coolest trophys anywhere is the Grandfather Clock given at Martinsville, although I'm fond of the "brick" trophy at Indy and the glass palm trees at Darlington.

Daytona races generate cash, crashes and controversy.  This 500 was no different, and since I attended my first Daytona 500, here are my thoughts on what happened at the race.

Jimmie Johnson's Car:  Yes, this team has a history of hovering their foot over the black areas of the rule book (think Dover, Las Vegas etc).  And Crew Chief Chad Knaus tried a new trick and got caught.  So, the team was penalized - the team kept the car,  passed inspection and  won the race.  Knaus watched the 500 from home while his team celebrated all last night and most of today.  It is expected that a harsher additional penalty will be levied tomorrow (Read - more weeks to get caught up on his at-home projects for Knaus). 

It is interesting to me that the team got to keep the car - Nascar has taken cars for less.  In 2003, at Texas, Tony Stewart's car was seized by Nascar because it didn't fit the back window X template.  Stewart had to run a backup car - the car wasn't returned until much later - although nascar kept the sheet metal body  (and still has it in its impound shop).  Some speculate that Nascar suspected traction control, couldn't find anything and kept the car to save face.  Rumor has it that Stewart and Zipadelli got the engine and chassis of the car back months later after they mentioned to a reporter that Nascar took the car to provide an engine to toyota.  The reporter published the story, Nascar adamently denied it, and immediately turned over the majority of the car.  Nascar similarly impounded Kyle Busch's busch car a couple years ago.

So, should Johnson have gotten to keep the car?  Well, if the parts that were in violation were removed by Nascar, then why not?  That is typically how the situation is handled (and the illegal parts are set out for the rest of the teams to get a look at).  The complaints arose mainly because Johnson won - otherwise, this would be a non-issue.  By the way, Johnson gets to take home approximately $1.5 million for this one race.  Second place (Casey Mears still gets over $1 mil).

Tony Stewart's Daytona Daze:  Smoke may be an appropriate nickname this week - Stewart was on fire about the bump drafting going on at the track.  Apparently, the on-track antics during the Shootout continued to smolder in Stewart's mind, because he was not in the mood to put up with anything on Sunday (or Saturday).  Stewart is an aggressive driver - given a half-way competent car, he'll find a way to get it to the front.  On Sunday, Stewart had several near spins, passes through the grass, and bumps to and from other competitors.  He was upset about the bumping and ####ing that was going on. 

First, he had an incident with Gordon.  Gordon slipped up the track in front of Stewart and hit him.  Stewart had given him room, but the room stops at the concrete wall - Gordon (or his spotters) lack of clearance of Stewart's car damaged 2 potentialy winning cars.  After that, Stewart had problems with McMurray and Kenseth.  Kenseth bumped Stewart and Stewart then drove him down on the grass, resulting in a penalty for Stewart.  Kenseth then retaliated by driving up on Stewart as they left pit road.   Kyle Busch was later penalized for rough driving to Stewart - after Stewart complained to his crew chief about it.

Was Stewart wrong to run Kenseth onto the grass?  Yes.   Was Kenseth wrong to retaliate?  Yes.  Could there be more penalties tomorrow?  Yes.  Will this generate more drama for the next race thereby increasing ratings?  Absolutely.  I mean, did you know that Matt Kenseth had this much personality, let alone a temper?  First, he names his cat after the lead singer in Metallica, and now picks a fight with Stewart?   He may actually get an interview next week instead of Junior!   So much for just being a quiet cheesehead from Wisconsin...    Throw in the Kurt Busch-Jamie McMurray feud and things get really interesting. 

Note to Nascar:  Why not run a short track race immediately after Daytona - that way, the drivers can make things look "accidental" and, heck, we're going to have a car crash war regardless what track is next - why not do it when we expect we'll be wrecking the cars anyway, and are only driving 60-80 mph?