Bruton Boasts While Burton Wins

Bruton Smith was at it again, boasting about his tracks and lobbying for a second date at Las Vegas. His verbiage sounded a lot more hollow, however, when one noticed that at the Texas 500 about half of the backstretch grandstands were closed off from spectators, replaced with mammoth sponsor signage. Even Bruton Smith isn't immune to the realities of a sport's erosion of popularity, which doesn't bode well for his case for a second Vegas date.

Meanwhile, Jeff Burton made history. He won the very first Texas 500 in 1997, and ten years later he became not only the first Winston Cup driver to win more than once at Texas, he became the winner of the first Texas Winston Cup race where the lead changed hands on the final lap. Worth noting is that in the ten years of Texas racing, Pocono saw two races where the lead changed on the final lap, Atlanta saw it twice, and Talladega saw it four times.

That it took Winston Cup this long to see racing anywhere close to what the IRL had put on with such frequency at Texas shows how wrong-headed NASCAR's rulesmakers have been over the years. They continue to look at downforce as the enemy when it is a major part of the solution. They ignore the need for the draft to kick in - not that this particular race saw any kind of drafting effect, just that the IRL proved long ago how much passing is helped by the draft. They continue to ignore the issue that to get good racing the cars need grip - so much grip as to stick anywhere and thus eliminate impediment to passing.

This Texas 500 may not be a ringing endorsement of any rules package other than reconfirmation of what NASCAR needs to learn but still hasn't, but it is interesting that the finish was so much more exciting than what we saw in the two Car Of Tomorrow races - worth mentioning because of recent scuttlebutt that the first serious design change to the COT may be in the pipeline. Of course if a major design change is coming, it is sure to be followed by another after that, and more after that, and one can easily see a scenario where the COT evolves back to what this Texas 500 raced.

Chevrolet continued to monopolize the series right now, leaving non-Chevy fans looking for scraps. Dodge fans can take heart from Juan Montoya's productive top ten, but should also cringe at the continued lack of competitive depth in the Dodge program and take note of the continued chaos that is the entire program's leadership, chaos that has wiped out the inter-team cooperation and thus the very depth the program needs. Of course Montoya's run saw another Swervin' move, this one against Tony Stewart, himself not exactly a repository of sane racing.

The ultimate irony of this Texas 500 is that everything has come full circle - the Texas 500 saw a first-lap melee, controversial driving, difficulty in passing, and Jeff Burton's win.