By Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio. Heard Sunday mornings from 6-9am (eastern) on 220 FOX Sports Radio Affiliates and XM Radio Channel 142.

When you think of the old days of stock car racing, you’re drawn back to a time when if it didn’t work out on the track, the drivers worked it out with their fists. Well, those days are gone. All the rage this weekend was the shoving match between Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards. A shoving match, not a fight, not a bench-clearing brawl. No one got put in a penalty box or lost their teeth.  The real story this weekend wasn’t even NASCAR but its stepbrother ARCA.

Going into Sunday’s season finale race at Toledo Speedway the ARCA series had all the underpinnings of an incredible battle for the championship with Scott Speed and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in a close battle. Not to be outdone, Penske’s new young find, Justin Algaier, and the wily veteran Frank Kimmel had a mathematical chance of taking the crown.

When the flag fell, no one could have scripted the outcome. Speed, who started third and Stenhouse, starting fourth went at it tooth and claw from the get go. Stenhouse repeatedly bashed, pushed and did everything but throw a hand grenade at Speed to pass him. Finally, on lap 27, after Dexter Bean spun relinquishing third position, Stenhouse got into the back of Speed’s Toyota and, very much like the Geico kid, ‘Put him (Speed) in the wall’.

However, unlike the commercial and straight out of the movie Days of Thunder, it didn’t end there. Speed pitted, took four tires and immediately set out on a turkey shoot, the said victim being Stenhouse. He found him after Stenhouse passed Speed, who was lying in wait. What ensued was classic stock car racing retaliation 101. Speed wasted no time in driving straight into the left fender of Stenhouse’s Ford, kept his foot on the accelerator and all but destroyed Stenhouse’s car and like a chapter straight from Sun Tsu’s ‘Art of War’ totally crushed and ended all hope of Stenhouse taking the championship from Speed.

According to Speed, “He (Stenhouse) was on my bumper and he pushed me flat out until I hit the wall,” said Speed. “And then the car was completely un-drivable; it wasn’t even close. It was so bad from hitting the wall; I couldn’t do anything with it. Stenhouse started it and he isn’t going to win this championship with that attitude. That was ridiculous; that was the most blatant thing I ever saw in my life. Honestly, it’s just ARCA; that’s just how it is.” No doubt ARCA was thrilled with that statement, ultimately parking Speed.

Stenhouse, who knew Speed couldn't care less about winning an ARCA championship, did whatever he had to do to win but did not count on the well-calculated payback.

Like every great story there are always two sides, so Stenhouse and the Roush PR machine put a spin on the incident that a Moroccan whirling dervish couldn’t top.

According to Stenhouse, “I got under the No. 2 a couple times there and let him go because he almost wrecked,” said Stenhouse, Jr. following the race.  “Then I went over the rumble strips in turns one and two and that caused them to fade so I was trying to pump them up in turn three and got into the back of the No. 2 car a little bit.  After that he came back on track and got into the left rear of the Aflac Ford Fusion sending me into the wall and ending our chance for a win and a championship.  He’s a great driver but I just don’t think he drives with his head all the time. It’s a bad situation for both teams.  I can’t thank my Aflac team enough and all the guys on the Zaxby’s team that helped get us back out there.  That was pretty cool.”

Rumble strips? Pumping the brakes? Not hardly. The only thing Stenhouse was pressing was the accelerator, probably through the floorboard shoving Speed into the wall. ARCA’s viewer-ship numbers weren’t readily available, but if anyone other than Stevie Wonder was sitting in front of their television screens, what they had to have seen was a methodical, purposeful and open act of crashing someone to win the championship. Anyone can win by crashing their opponent. That is not the reason we race. Stenhouse should have been parked. But he wasn’t so Speed took the matter into his own hands.

Scott Speed may have done more than openly retaliate against Stenhouse, after all, he’s a Sprint Cup driver as of today with the Red Bull team. What he unwittingly may have done was to send a message to everyone in the sport that he’ll race clean, if that’s what you want, but he’s all too happy to take that trip into the wall with you if you intend to race dirty.

Perhaps Sunday night Speed had flowers, a card and a bottle of Dom Perignon waiting in his hotel room courtesy of Justin Algaier but if he didn’t, he should have.

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By Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio. Heard Sunday mornings from 6-9am (eastern) on 220 FOX Sports Radio Affiliates and XM Radio Channel 142.

The 2009 Rookie of the Year battle has already begun. Joey Logano and Scott Speed will go head to head in several series, including the Sprint Cup Series, before the flag falls at the 2009 Daytona 500 in February. We have seen both of these drivers win in other series and both have seemingly experienced a meteoric rise. That, like so many ‘overnight sensations’, would be a false assumption. Many in the industry who witnessed Logano’s rise through the ranks on the short tracks of America feel he’s a shoe in for the title. Mark Martin is certainly one of those having repeatedly stated, when Logano was fifteen, “He’s the real deal”. In fact, that message became so ingrained in the NASCAR lexicon that he now has the nickname, ‘Sliced Bread’.

However, a driver that emerged on the scene last year may spoil the aspirations of Logano. That driver is American Scott Speed. Scott Speed was unceremoniously dumped from the Formula One team, Toro Rosso two years ago amid physical altercations with the team director, open press arguments and name calling between himself and team principal, Gerhard Berger. This left the relationship in shambles, the remaining Formula One teams unwilling to look further at him and Speed stating that “there is not enough money in the world for me to stay with this team”.

Dietrich Mateschitz, the owner of Red Bull, felt he owed Scott Speed a chance to continue racing under the Red Bull banner and has made good on that promise. Speed had his choice of where to race and he chose coming back to America to take on NASCAR. To be sure, an active Formula One driver making that move is no longer a precedent, given Montoya’s shocking switch from a world championship team, McLaren, to Chip Ganassi’s NASCAR Dodge team. The difference is Red Bull had put Speed on a ‘training’ program with ARCA, which he leads in points, and the NCTS where he already has one win. He’s going into his Sprint Cup debut at Lowe’s Motor Speedway with a baseline of experience underneath him, albeit abbreviated. Speed is 25 years old.

Taking a completely different, and more traditional path, Joey Logano made his mark in every series in which he’s participated including the Nationwide series with top ten finishes and a win. He recently made his debut with Hall Of Fame Racing in Sprint Cup at Kansas, but did not achieve the results he wanted and it showed in his face. But will the switch to a Joe Gibbs run car in Atlanta make the difference? According to Logano, “We’re going to run the No. 02 Home Depot Toyota in Atlanta and possibly a couple more races. I feel like I’m going to be in a really good car”.

Meanwhile, as if no one was watching they raced each other in both the NCTS and ARCA races this past weekend. They both ran up front in both series and both had troubles that either put them out of the races or kept them from bringing home stellar finishes.  Logano lost a right-side window in the truck race losing him precious laps and Scott Speed had a tire go nuclear in the ARCA race but still holds the points lead by 85 points heading to the season final at Toledo next weekend.

Justin Allgaier, with no drafting help, drove to the outside of Logano which let Allgaier sail away with the biggest victory of his career and Logano who knew he had been schooled. “I don’t know; I did everything I could do; I just got beat,” said Logano. “He just schooled me. I learned a lot and I will do things different next time. That was a lot of hard work a lot of hard hours by all those guys. I’m just mad that I didn’t live up to it for them.” The self-inflicted pressure from Logano shows through.

Scott Speed had virtually nothing to say about his tire problems. In both instances these two drivers were up front and posturing for a potential win. It’s obvious that the two have taken different paths to achieve the same end. To win.

If you compare the experiences of the two drivers you find two starkly different personalities. One is intense, driven, self-critical and under pressure. That’s Logano. The other has exudes liaise faire attitudes, feels no pressure and paints his toenails now and again. We know who that is. Both have paid their dues rising to their present levels and both are inveterate competitors. The difference between Joey Logano and Scott Speed is that Speed has experienced pressure at a level that no other sport can produce, Formula One. In Formula One, the teammates hate each other, the drivers hate the team principals and the team principals consider the drivers nothing more than robots and expendable commodities. The threat of termination is a daily possibility. To Scott Speed his NASCAR experience to date has been a vacation.

Alternatively, Joey Logano has been placed under intense pressure that most 18 year olds, other than those serving in active combat, will ever feel. Logano said he didn’t feel that the Sprint Cup car he raced in Kansas was responsive and that the set-up felt alien. Speed said the Cup Car he tested was great, more fun than the ARCA car and more responsive than the trucks. What? That sentiment is totally opposite of most who are now racing this latest iteration of the Cup car. During the recent Lowes Motor Speedway test Speed set the fastest evening time among all drivers, except Jeff Gordon and that was less than a tenth of second difference. Logano was 49th fastest.

Logano certainly has the race craft to get into the top ten in 2009. He’s been successful at every endeavor he’s undertaken, but this is Sprint Cup, the highest level. Speed has already endured that pressure but doesn’t have the day-to-day experience in these heavy, but very competitive cars.

Get ready for a glimpse of the remainder of 2008 and perhaps a looking glass view of the 2009 Rookie of the Year battle.

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By: Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio

Go ahead and admit it. You love a good feud as much as the next guy or girl and surely as much as we do. Earnhardt vs. Busch, Carl Edwards vs. Busch or Robby Gordon vs. everybody. It’s in our nature as humans to slow down for the car wreck, fight or stretch our hearing just a little bit further for a good screaming match. Jerry Springer figured that one out a long time ago.

What we saw at the Camping World 400 at Dover, Delaware this past weekend wasn’t your traditional driver vs. driver feud. It was the best race of the year. Funny thing was, it was among the three Roush cars of Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. In fact, if Jamie McMurray hadn’t been taken out, chances are he would have been in the fray. The teammates tried everything known to man to best each other including switching lines, rubbing on each other and three-wide racing. In the end what was obvious is that the power plants were powerful and evenly matched.

But in the grand scheme of things the show Roush created was much more important. It was the first musket ball that found its mark. Who shot it? Jack Roush. Who caught the lead dead on? Toyota. Roush Fords finished in the first three spots while the Joe Gibbs cars blew up, came apart or couldn’t get out of their own way.

In Roush’s own words he stated last year that, "We're going to go to war with them, and they should give us their best shot because we'll be giving as good as we take," He added, "Toyota will bring changes in the way we conduct business. They have deep pockets … they'll try to put the rest of us in a catch-up scenario, and I'm trying to prepare for that. I expect to hand Toyota their head over the short term."  Indeed.

Roush has been on a two-pronged mission since 2004 when Toyota announced that they would enter the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and escalated that strategy in 2007 when Toyota stated it would enter the Nationwide, formerly Busch, and the Sprint Cup series. That mission involved a very public outcry that would have made Paul Revere’s famous ride, warning of the imminent British invasion, seem like the pitiful little pony that shows up at the rich kids birthday party.

The second part of this strategy is genius. If Roush could make enough noise and get the fan base to go along with it, then Ford might pony (no pun intended) up more technology, money or services in kind. He screamed often and loud and Ford wrote big checks. Why? It all stems from the deep pockets that Toyota does indeed possess. Although it’s a misnomer, the general perception is that everything Toyota enters they spend until they win. The truth is Toyota have been in Formula One for 6 years with a yearly budget upwards of $400 million and have never come close to winning.

Toyota struggled in the trucks and then began to win. They struggled in Sprint cup and Nationwide in 2007 and now, in 2008, they are winning in all three manufacturer series. Now comes the adjustment in the Roush strategy. Roush, Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge lobbied to hobble the horsepower that Toyota has found in the Truck series and the Nationwide Series. What’s up next? Is there any doubt that the next salvo fired will be at the Toyota Sprint Cup Series engines? Genius.

The other side of this Hatfield and McCoy story is that Toyota hasn’t taken the assault lying down. Lee White, once a friend and employee of Roush’s, is now the President of Toyota Racing Development, the racing arm in America for the Japanese manufacturer. Often Roush would accuse Toyota of cheating or down right espionage. When Carl Edwards was caught with an oil lid removed from the interior of his car, White stated, "I guarantee you the cover bolts didn't fall out, because if they fall, the engine leaks and you can't run," he said. "If you want something to fall off, you fix it so it can." The absence of the oil tank cover can allegedly give the car 240 more pounds of down-force.

Lord knows Lee White didn’t stop there. On the subject of NASCAR restricting the Toyota’s horsepower in the Nationwide series recently, White said that the ruling “could be more far-reaching than simply mandating Toyota adjust its Nationwide engine.” His words may be regarded as prophetic if Toyota catches it breath in early 2009. NASCAR could restrict the horsepower of the Toyota’s across the board. As it stands now Toyota has taken the big Chase hit with Busch, Hamlin and Stewart. That won’t stop Jack.

Dover was the proof that Roush’s strategy has worked, if only temporarily. The Ford’s even sounded different than the other marques. Toyota is now faced with stressing their power plants with the only thing they can, higher RPM’s and a smoother drive train. The drive train stress was evident this weekend with the mechanical failures suffered by the Joe Gibbs Racing, the default factory team for Toyota.

Make no mistake, this is a self-proclaimed war between Roush-Fenway and Toyota, but behind the scenes it goes further. The remaining manufacturers don’t mind if Roush is the mouthpiece, but concurrently they to are lobbying NASCAR to slow down the perceived juggernaut Toyota. That’s fine with them.

The biggest problem with this type of fight is that it looks great in the press, but it rarely comes to a resolution. Roush is gaining ground rapidly in the Chase and isn’t that the real end game? Jack Roush craftily got exactly what he wanted but the war goes on. It will be a very expensive war indeed.

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Race Day on Fox Sports Radio can be heard every Sunday Morning from 6-9am eastern time on 220 FOX Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and streamed live 24/7 at FoxSports.com

Rob D'Amico and also be heard every Friday at 1pm eastern on SPEED Radio at SPEEDTV.com Keyword: Radio Get the show archives here

By: Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio

Michele Rahal's Side

The first round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship at Louden, New Hampshire is one in the books and a dark-horse takes the win, if you can call Greg Biffle a dark-horse. That’s what the Chase is supposed be and Sunday’s Sylvania 300 race didn’t disappoint, at least as it shook up the points. On the other hand, it was still a race where cars couldn’t turn, splitters hit the ground rendering the cars uncontrollable and passing was still a restart process rather than battling side by side on track racing. The common catchphrase by all the commentators has now become ‘track position’.

Aerodynamics are paramount on tracks like Lowes, Texas and Atlanta but the negative effects of it should not be as severe as it is on one mile tracks, no matter what the configuration. The mechanical grip should be the dominant force that controls whether a car can turn and actually pass in the corners.  If you have grip coming off the corner then you have speed at the end of the straight, hence an ability to pass. This is still not happening and the New Hampshire race was more of the same.

Greg Biffle drove his heart out and beat an oncoming train across the tracks, the said train being Jimmie Johnson. It’s obvious that everyone has the same chassis to work with but those teams that have more money can make them work. Add to that the disparity that exists in horsepower from manufacturer to manufacturer and further exacerbate it with the ‘have and have nots’ and you end up with races that have not lived up to the hype.

It was great to see Greg Biffle win. It was sad to see a small bolt destroy Kyle Busch’s day. It was dramatic entertainment with dialogue between Dale Earnhardt, Jr and Rick Hendrick. Having stated this one would think that everything NASCAR wants to see happen to make a great race, but everything else in between was a continuation of the problems that have painfully existed the day the first COT hit the track.

It’s time to stop blaming Goodyear for its tires, after all, you can dress up a horse with new shoes, but it doesn’t make it run any faster.


Rob's Side

First it’s not the Car of Tomorrow. It’s here already and it’s called the “New Car”. Are there problems? Yes. Can they be fixed? Yes and they will over time, real competition time, not in Formula One simulators. The car hasn’t raced a full season to date and it has shown marked improvements.

The teams are finally beginning to find the correct direction for this car. Bob Osbourne, Carl Edwards crew chief, couldn’t get their car to handle this past weekend at New Hampshire. Things looked dismal. What did he do? He immediately went back to the hotel to pour over his notes and ultimately changed virtually everything. Bob shows up on Sunday morning and told Carl “we changed virtually everything on the car” and it’s going to work! The net result is that Carl, without even turning a lap to test it out, jumps in and takes the green then shoots out to an early lead ultimately finishing third.

Whining about the new car is like whining that the Chase is all wrong because a driver like Kyle Busch goes into the Chase dominating and comes out of the first round in 8th place. Whether or not that is fair is debatable, but the bottom line is that ‘it is what it is’. Work with it.
 
It’s disappointing that a $25 part takes Kyle Busch from the top spot but that same part could have failed on Reed Sorenson’s car as well. The positive in all this is that the chase is not like the NFL’s playoff system where a team is knocked out every week. Kyle Busch can come back next week and show us what he can do best when the car will let him.

This car was designed by NASCAR’s Research and Development Center for safety. The fact that it has taken the teams time to sort out the handling is irrelevant. They are all playing with the same rules, the same chassis and ultimately the racing will be better off for it.

My point here is to forget all the stuff you hear people saying about the “New Car” and look at the real stories in this sport. The teams will get this car right, Goodyear will catch up and the racing will speak for itself.

Has anyone given serious thought to the possibility that it may not be the cars handling at all, but the commitment of the manufacturers to deliver a competitive power-plant?
 

Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio know there are two sides to every story.

Michele’s Take:

A great deal has been written and said about the influx of open-wheel drivers invading the world of NASCAR. The musings have ranged from outright Xenophobic reactionary ranting to the outcry that these drivers are unjustly reducing the number of seats available to rising young stars, thus putting on hold their dreams of grabbing the brass ring.

Let’s put this into perspective. The drivers in question, namely Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Jacques Villenueve, Sam Hornish Jr., AJ Allmendinger, Patrick Carpentier and Scott Speed, have all had very different deals put in front of them in order to survive, much less thrive, in the ultra-competitive environment that we call NASCAR. Their resumes are indisputable, but their results leave room for argument.

Jacques Villenueve felt the sponsorship crunch early and this alone should have been a harbinger of things to come for the Ganassi fiasco, but it did no good. Chip Ganassi apparently felt his success in Grand-Am and IndyCar would place the Sprint Cup racing universe in order. It hasn’t. Villenueve will be back. Hornish is learning, but has a long way to go.

Alternatively, the Red Bull squad has seemed to put the progression of bringing drivers up to speed in correct order. Scott Speed is proving to be a contender in the highest order by taking him through the ranks on multiple levels, driving full time in ARCA and competing in several Craftsman Truck races this year. They seemed to have taken lessons learned from throwing Allmendinger in the deep end and applied them to a progressive path for Speed. Not so Ganassi.

Through the looking glass no one can argue that Montoya has moved into his position with a vengeance. He’s been able to take what can only be considered a mediocre team and been able to push into the top twenty when most would sitting out in the under 35 standings crowd. So the question begs to be asked, what happened to Franchitti? Why did he not have a more ironclad contract with Chip Ganassi? Why was he not brought along more like Montoya rather than face the embarrassing prospect of going sponsor-less and losing his ride mere months after being crowned the Indy 500 and IndyCar Series champion?

Ganassi stands out in this open-wheel movement because he believed that the star power of Franchitti would bring along bags of sponsorship money. Well that didn’t happen and wouldn’t have made on bit of difference if the money had shown up in a Brinks truck. If you don’t allocate resources in the appropriate manner, you aren’t going to have results. Montoya and his three crew chief musical chair fiasco by Ganassi hasn’t stopped the Colombian from dragging himself up through the field to deliver finishes that journeyman drivers shouldn’t have been able to accomplish. But that’s a testament to Montoya’s skill, tenacity and his aggressive nature.

Did Ganassi’s competition across the broad spectrum of racing with Roger Penske cloud his judgment? Perhaps. I firmly believe that Sam Hornish, Jr. will succeed because Roger Penske is a man who learns those lessons and applies them with military precision. Ganassi, on the other hand, seems disjointed and somewhat confused as to what to do. But Ganassi feels compelled to blame it on the economy; it’s a great excuse for failing a driver who obviously has the talent and motivation to succeed at this new challenge.

This story is a global one, not restricted to the parochialism that seems to permeate the pundits whose only experience in racing is NASCAR. Autosport, a definitive global publication on auto racing said this week that an unnamed source at Ganassi said to expect more “Wholesale” changes.

The naysayer’s will contend that these drivers just aren’t good enough and that NASCAR drivers are the best in the world. Sorry ladies and gentlemen, but if Kyle Busch washes out in his Toyota F1 test, then my point will be proven that they’re all great drivers. But it is easier for an F1 Driver to come to NASCAR than it is for a NASCAR driver to go to F1.

I only hope that Montoya’s lawyers had the foresight to give him an out clause. Franchitti deserved to be treated better than he was and should have had the chance to prove himself on performance rather than the ineptitude of an overzealous team owner.


Rob’s Take:

Does Rahal really believe that taking a 3500 lb car and driving it at the speeds that the Sprint Cup drivers do, takes less skill than that of an F1 Driver? I find that reasoning absurd, but that’s not what this debate is really about. Dario Franchitti walked into his deal with Ganassi’s team thinking he could match Montoya’s ability. Then there’s the question about Montoya’s ability. He’s not the most popular driver in the garage. Just ask Kyle Busch or Kevin Harvick. Beyond that, Montoya hasn’t proven that he can make it as anything other than an average in Sprint Cup as the statistics will show.

Is there an inherent problem in the Ganassi camp? Obviously there is, but has Penske done much better, obviously not.

I will be the first to say that I am an Allmendinger and Scott Speed fan. But they are young and they are adaptable. That is what is key here, not their star power. Dietrich Mateschitz owed Scott Speed a make good after putting him in a Formula One team that was doomed to fail, take a look at the travails of four-time Champ Car titlist Sebastian Bourdais this season. The question that has to be answered isn’t about Ganassi as much as it is about the manufacturers. What are the manufacturers really willing to do to ensure the success of their teams? Dodge apparently hasn’t done much, Kasey Kahne can’t carry the Dodge torch forever, but Toyota has without question shared the wealth of information. Let’s not forget the horsepower that Toyota is producing right now, I know Dodge is close to releasing their new engine package, but until then can these driver afford that?

Franchitti started off the season in the top 35 in owner’s points and steadily declined those points to where he rests now, at 41st. why would a team owner continue subsidizing an effort that is with question going backwards? Despite the argument that these drivers have taken up seats that could feed the sport with new blood, most of them have shown promise and are driving with sponsors. Franchitti attracted no sponsors and that has to be a poor reflection on his ability not his star power. Sponsors want results. He did not deliver.

You need to stand out in this sport and there are a couple of ways of doing that. One is the Kyle Busch approach, winning races and the other is to be somewhat of a character. Well I guess Kyle has the best of both worlds. Let’s take Michael Waltrip (NAPA) and Kenny Wallace (Jegs) for example, these guys are both very outgoing and outspoken, keeping them and their sponsors in the spotlight.

When the name Montoya is invoked, it conjures up images of crashing, brash moves and an inability to play well with others. That is not how you get ahead in NASCAR. Whether or not he has an out clause in his contract is a moot point given that he really has no place to go. Certainly it can’t be Childress, who is eyeing other drivers who fit the General Mills sponsorship role better than he. Could it be Joe Gibbs racing? Why would they go for Montoya when they obviously have a superstar in Joey Logano? He wouldn’t make the move to Penske if Ryan Newman leaves at that would be almost a lateral move.

He has no place to land; therefore, the only option available for Montoya is for Ganassi to up his Cup game. Will he do it? He seems to be making every effort to do just that with moving around critical personnel who can create that magic we call chemistry. Montoya has openly said that his team can make it happen for Ganassi. Franchitti did not deliver the results, the sponsorship, or the leadership that is required of a team that has the potential of Ganassi.

Sprint Cup racing is a performance based business and is not a second rate series that can afford to support those who can’t make the grade. Formula One is fast, exciting and glamorous, but it can’t be said that the drivers in Sprint Cup today couldn’t get the job done. They would need a Ferrari or McLaren to do it though. In Sprint cup, at least there are multiple teams with a chance of winning.

The demise of Dario Franchitti is that he just didn’t want it bad enough, not that his team didn’t want him. But it will be a shame to not see Ashley Judd, Franchitti’s wife, in the pits, running through a rainstorm as if she were starring in one of her films we’ve all learned to enjoy. Not to mention the sundress, oh that sundress.

Mr. Judd, you will be missed.

Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio DO NOT see eye to eye on the Juan Pablo Montoya vs Kyle Busch story and as we all know there are two sides to every story.

Michele's Take:

Yesterday at the Loudon, New Hampshire Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Sprint Cup race, Kyle Busch stared into the cameras once again after an on-track altercation on the last caution lap with Juan Pablo Montoya. This time, however, it was a very different Kyle. This Kyle took on the role of the innocent victim, the oppressed and downtrodden. The scene had an eerie Sybil-like look to it.

Juan Montoya had the nerve to spin him out on purpose.

So there Busch stood with that Alfred E. Newman look on his face as if the school principle were standing in front of him asking what role he had played in the schoolyard fight. Busch was spinning his side of the story like a whirling dervish about his role in the incident. “Let NASCAR take care of it” he proclaimed, he added, “I don’t know what his beef is”.

Well the beef appears to be one more example of how Kyle Busch races other competitors. Not the hard driving or brilliant skills that he uses, but rather the bullying tactics of rubbing and repeatedly bumping into people he feels should get out of his anointed way.

On Sunday he ran into the wrong person. Juan Pablo Montoya has bumped wheels with world champions at 200 mph, in an open wheel car and personalities like Kyle Busch don’t scare him. Kyle Busch finally met someone who simply said, “He (Busch) crossed the line”.

Depending on who you believe, Busch had repeatedly bumped and rubbed on Montoya leading up to the caution. When the caution came out, due to Clint Bowyer and Sam Hornish. Jr. colliding, Busch hit him again. Montoya gave him a gesture inferring Kyle’s IQ and Busch rubbed against him again. Then in front of God, America and all the television cameras, Montoya turned into the right rear quarter panel of Busch and took him out.

My bet is that everyone who ever hated Montoya has realized that he had finally slapped the school bully right in the mouth and they’re glad he did. I would be willing to bet that you couldn’t find anyone other than the Gibbs camp who had any sympathy for Busch. He had it coming and someone openly and unapologetically gave it to him.

What did NASCAR do about it? In terms of disciplinary actions of the past, they did virtually nothing. Montoya received a two-lap penalty. That’s it. Even NASCAR itself apparently thought that Busch had it coming, it was on a caution lap, no one in the way and no harm no foul. Not to mention it’s great press.

So what’s next? Will Busch retaliate? If he does he runs the risk of letting his competitors catch up to him in the chase. Trust me, Joe Gibbs has reminded him of that and the race at Daytona this weekend is no place to try and put yourself in the spotlight other than winning. Busch will do nothing at Daytona. The chances are actually good that he’ll leave Montoya alone from this point forward.

Chances are even better that Montoya has finally let everyone in the garage know that he won’t take any bullying from anyone. It’s about time.


Rob's Take:

In the beginning it was all about hard side-by-side racing at it finest. Two drivers with giant egos battling back and forth for position and there’s nothing wrong with that right?

Well until Juan Pablo Montoya decided to make a bone headed move and take Kyle and himself out of the race intentionally. Remember, this is all under a caution brought on when a collision between Sam Hornish, Jr. and Clint Bowyer brought out the yellow, but we'll get to that in another blog. Montoya's lucky that he didn't take another unexpected driver out of the race too.

Some people like Rahal believe that Kyle had it coming for his rough racing out on the track.

Isn't that what we are here to see? Two drivers, both with great talent, fighting for position out on the racetrack? Isn't that racing?

Yes, Kyle swerved his car towards Montoya and yes there was contact but at no point did Kyle take Montoya out of the race intentionally and under a yellow! Kyle just gave him a friendly reminder that if that is how you want to race then game on my friend.

We saw guys all day battle side-by-side, for example did you see pretty boy, ‘I don't do anything wrong’ Kasey Kahne take out Aric Almirola? But here is where it gets better. Almirola gets revenge the smart way. Later in the race he gave Kasey a taste of his own medicine and returned the favor spinning him with a little love tap. Now that's just ‘one of them racin' deals’!

Or did you happen to catch Hendrick teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon doing the exact same thing that Kyle and Juan were doing. Racing side-by-side beating, ####ing and swerving back and forth at each other.

So what's the difference? Jimmie Johnson, nor Jeff Gordon took the other one out under caution. The two drivers chalked it up as ‘one of them racin' deals’.

Do I need to remind everyone why we freeze the field when a caution comes out? It was at this track a few years ago when Dale Jarrett crashed in the middle of the track and everyone was racing around him to get back to the yellow flag. This put Dale Jarrett every other driver, including safety workers in danger.

There is a time and place for everything and retaliation under a caution is not the place.

What I wanted to see was Juan Pablo Montoya get out of his car and go grab Kyle out of his ride. Now that’s punching the bully right in the mouth, at the right time and place!

Or how about putting your money where your mouth is and kicking Kyle’s rear-end on the racetrack by getting a win. Oh wait, that’s to hard!