... watching the Busch race today at the Autodromo (what a great course) when a car spun off into the grass - the first incident of the day. And OUT CAME A FULL COURSE YELLOW ! ! ? ? At the time, Juan Pablo and Scotty P. were running away from the field.

Those of you familiar with road course racing must have been shocked to see a full yellow - at least I was. But then again, it IS NASCAR. Gotta bunch 'em up - racing fans are too dim-witted to appreciate that a great driver with a great car should benefit from the lead he's earned. I know of NO other form of road racing that throws a full-course yellow for a spin, particularly when the cars continue onwards within moments. Even sprint cars will keep running if it's obvious that the spinning car will gather it up and continue to race without threatening other cars.

So I switched to flipping between "Air Force One" on local channel 35 and the race (on like seven channels).

Now Juan Pablo has had a mechanical problem that forced him to pit, moving him to the back of the pack. Normally, in a road course race, that would doom him to a mid-pack finish at best. But due to subsequent full course yellows (multi-lap yellows, despite the fact that the track was CLEAR moments after each incident), Juan is back in the running with 18 laps to go - currently in 5th.

So it seems clear he'll challenge Scotty for a victory. But what a weird way to run a race.

NASCAR - an acquired taste for sure. Egalitarian racing. Nowhere else ...

"RACE IS OVER" UPDATE: Well, JP's a great talent, but his reputation as a rough driver is also well earned. A hollow victory, after punting his teammate aside with about a dozen or so laps to go (not sure when it was, I missed it - Harrison Ford was throwing Gary Oldham off of his plane at the time). Great come from behind race, only to ruin it with a mindless bit of aggressive driving. He almost certainly would have cleanly passed him if he was a little more patient, but that's not JP's style. Maybe he'll grow up. Or maybe he's just channeling Dale Earnhardt.