Hurricane Haley Hits Daytona

NASCAR's change of its 2020 schedule has moved the Firecracker 400 weekend from July to early September, making 2019 the last Independence Day weekend for the time being at Daytona.   We suspect the date will return to its tradition sooner instead of later a la the Southern 500.    But amid all that an unwelcome semi-tradition returned - rain.   It affected the Chicago 400 last week and plagued the Firecracker 400 weekend as well.


The weekend began with an interview with NASCAR President Steve Phelps where "he doubled down on his support of the 2019 (Winston) Cup rules package" and stated "We are looking for the most entertaining racing we can put out there."

It has led to the usual griping about the racing not being "racing," with a Clint Bowyer quote about how at Michigan he passed a car then four others passed him back.   Ryan Preece then added, "It's not what we grew up doing.....(we were) throwing a car into a corner harder, not driving in as hard, using the brake, letting it roll and pick up the throttle sooner.....(where now)...We're wide open....it's not easy because you still have to find the balance of your car but that's what it is."

It's impossible to take Clint Bowyer's opinion seriously because he's objecting that rival drivers are passing him. This is what competition entails. As for Preece, he won twenty two times (for team owners Jan Boehler, Eric Sanderson, and Eddie Partridge) on the NASCAR Modified Tour, where the cars are far more secure to the track and thus open throttle able than regular fendered racecars - though an interesting caveat is in twenty three starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the tour's Daytona, he has seven top fives, five other top tens, 244 laps led - but is winless. 

It brings to mind a scathing review of F1 and Indy 500 champion Jimmy Clark in Chris Economaki's bio LET 'EM ALL GO!

"....of every Formula One race that Clark competed in, you would find that he never passed anyone. He started on the pole in a Lotus and he left.

"When he was forced to battle wheel to wheel with someone, he invariably lost. I saw that at Riverside. Dan Gurney was driving Rollo Vollstedt's car and he beat Clark who was at the wheel of a superior machine.***  In 1963 (at the Indianapolis 500) Clark should have blown Parnelli Jones off and won the 500, but he didn't.

"Clark in my view was never comfortable with someone alongside him....to me he could not handle racing face to face with someone on the racetrack."

This has been manifestly true of a great many road racing drivers and also more than a few oval trackers -  I've never been all that impressed for one with Bill Elliott, who certainly is a Hall of Fame champion but who always seemed to have a lower limit of combativeness on the racetrack.   It bears repeating that not only did the 1998-2018 period of NASCAR showcase that the tracks with more horsepower and throttle response produced far lower incidence of passing than the plate races, but that a high number of quality drivers such as Rusty Wallace, Alan Kulwicki, Ricky Rudd, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Juan Montoya, Marcus Ambrose, and more recently Kyle Larson never won a "plate" race, where talent is ostensibly smothered. 

The reality remains talent isn't being smothered, it's being exposed for what it is and what it is not.



That real talent comes from passing and repassing was showcased in the rain-plagued Firecracker 400 weekend.

It began when Brad Keselowski cheap shot William Byron - during practice - then afterward gave a confusing response stating he was angry at blocking and at crashing in a bevy of races the last few seasons.  "I'm not going to lift," Keselowski stated.   

Payback proved to be a Dani Beck when Kevin Harvick - famously benched for a race after a cheap shot in a Truck race in 2002 - after getting tagged off Two by Keselowski later let Keselowski have it - and the fans cheered.   

But the big mess came when Austin Dillon stormed into the lead, threw a massive block on Clint Bowyer, and Bowyer hooked him a la the Sterling Marlin-Bobby Allison crash at the similarly-flaky 1986 Talladega 500.

The end result was Justin Haley, who'd stayed out when everyone else pitted, got a win nobody - least of all him - thought conceivable, especially as he'd been pretty much MIA all race.   He is the first first-timer since Chase Elliott last season and the biggest upset winner maybe since Keselowski himself at the 2009 Winston 500.

The biggest upshot of the whole thing is the bizarre win is payback to NASCAR for its indefensible yellow line rule that cost Haley the 2018 Firecracker 250.  

And controversy was still circulating the day later over his team, Spire Motorsports, owned by the sport's largest driver agency and which put Haley in its #77 basically because Haley is one of their clients.  The term "cash grab" has been used to describe Spire's tactics because the team was purchased from the remains of Barney Visser's former title winning team, and yet Spire didn't field an actual team, instead getting Premium Motorsports to do so.  The company's co-founder Jeff Dickerson purchased the franchise because no one else tried to buy it.

Is there conflict of interest here?  Frankly it seems no one knows with certainty, a point shown as Dave Moody recounts how Big Bill France raced in his sanctioning body's events and series sponsor RJR also sponsored Travis Carter's car in the 1990s - and it crosses over to Indycars where Marlboro sponsored races and the series as well as individual racecars, most famously Emerson Fittipaldi.


And suddenly the 2019 Winston Cup season, already by far more competitive and interesting than seasons of the last fifteen-plus seasons, gets more interesting.

*** 1967 Rex Mays 300, Riverside International Raceway. Gurney won after leading 68 laps; Clark fell out after 25 laps with a burned valve.

Winston Cup Enters 2018's Second Half

NASCAR's 2018 season blasts into its second half and the old cliché about the more things changing the more staying the same got some confirmation in a demolition derby of a Firecracker 400 weekend, and it also may have offered answers on where the season is going.     

NASCAR's ridiculous yellow-line rule cost Justin Haley the victory in the Firecracker 250 and led to an interesting question on social media by Brad Keselowski, whose question about having two or four tires below the yellow line illustrated the EIRI clause that has forever dominated the NASCAR rulebook and also illustrated that no matter how Steve O'Donnell calls it, he can't justify this rule.    This helps explain why so many question the sanctioning body's credibility, because the rules put in place too often are there only to justify more control, not to address actual problems.   The blunt reality remains there never should have been a yellow-line rule.

Why has Ricky Stenhouse only won twice in Winston Cup?   His Gurney Ernie Irvan antics in the Firecracker 400 showed why, right down to drivers openly calling him out a la calling out Ernie Irvan back in his day.    That the uncompetitive Roush Fords led as much as they did in the Firecracker was something of a surprise, and we doubt it will carry over to greater muscle down the road this season.

So what to make of this going forward?   Some takes -



---   It's now manifestly clear to everyone, including the Race Stream Media that treated Chevrolet as though it were on the brink of winning again, that Chevrolet's program is fundamentally flawed.   For all the hype about Hendrick Motorsports putting three cars in the top four in qualifying, the Chevrolet class was still clearly behind the Fords and Toyotas.    For Hendrick Motorsports in particular - especially Jimmie Johnson - the failure in the Firecracker, despite showing some legitimate power, indicates whatever progress is being made with this racecar is weak at best, and the Chevrolet program is simply screwed up.    We frankly doubt Chevrolet will win again in 2018; there simply is no reason right now to think Chevy can get this thing turned around.

Which begs the question - what exactly has gone wrong?   Part of it is this Chevrolet more and more looks like a terrible racecar.   The bigger part is the engineering effort clearly has no answers, and one should start questioning the competence of the engineering leadership in Chevrolet's racing program.   Tied into the engineering is inter-team cooperation - Chevy teams claim their is genuine cooperation between them, but MRN's Dave Moody has noted either information isn't being properly used by Chevy teams, or someone in the Chevy camp is not giving everyone everything needed to make these cars better.  I suspect the latter is the case; if it weren't the Chevy effort would be much farther along by now.

---  The young guns of NASCAR were hyped by the sanctioning body despite having little evidence of potential accomplishment, and even with Erik Jones' surprising Firecracker win the young guns overall have simply not shown much firepower.    Jones' effort the last three races has gotten notably better with top-tens at Sears Point and Chicagoland before the Firecracker win; the same cannot be said for Chase Elliott, with just six top-tens overall, just three in the last nine races, and only nineteen laps led overall (compared to 64 by Erik Jones just at Texas earlier this season).    It holds my view that Elliott is not a budding superstar but the next Mike Skinner - an overhyped hack with the greater issue that he's been shoved down the sport's throat.

There needs to be a lot more out of the young guns to justify the hype from the start of the season.

---  The Firecracker was one of those rare good paydays for the smaller teams with top-tens by Brad Daugherty's two cars, Archie St. Hilaire's Ford, and Ron Leavine's Chevrolet.   Jay Robinson, Mark Beard, and the Gaunt Brothers also had respectable days.   The funniest irony is the "independents" accounted for most of the nine Chevrolets that finished in the top-ten.

So it went with the Firecracker 400 weekend.

Hot As A Firecracker At Daytona

The first half of NASCAR's debut season with Monster Energy sponsorship saw surprises galore and the second half kicks off in basically the same fashion.   For Daytona International Speedway competitive rejuvenation could not be limited to February.

Things got off to a messy start, though, as rain stopped the Firecracker 250 for the Xfinity Series after just eight laps on Friday night - leading to the bizarre spectacle of racing being interrupted by the speedway's odd decision to schedule an ultimate fighting card in the infield; intended to follow the conclusion of the 250, the fight card wound up finishing up the night while the racing resumed the next afternoon.

The wait was worth it as newcomers swerved Joey Logano out of the lead and William Byron fought off Ryan Reid, while a lot of others got the worst of it at the end.   Seeing Byron taking down the Cup guys in the Xfinity Series was a huge shot for the series, a series struggling with lack of TV money the same way the Trucks (and other NASCAR touring series) have been struggling.

NASCAR, though, still needs to work on deciding the outcome when the leaders have room to race to the flag - with writer Jeff Gluck expanding on this.

It was impossible not to feel a sense of cynicism when Dale Earnhardt Jr. - in his last Winston Cup run at Daytona - conveniently won the pole, and that isn't fair to Junior, who is not his dad and has never had the negative qualities that made his dad controversial (a fact swept under the rug for the last decade-plus by fans and media); Dale Junior is his own man and as such has carried himself with a level of professionalism that is refreshing and necessary for a sport that bizarrely obsesses itself with an ostensible lack of personality.    His Daytona effort ended with Kevin Harvick's blown tire.

Joey Logano's version of the 24 Hours of Daytona ended the same way in the 400 as it did in the 250 - in a wreck, this one with Kyle Busch, who nonetheless stayed on the lead lap to the end.   Combined with Martin Truex's involvement, and it illustrates there is a problem of lack of competitive depth for the Toyota squadron.   The Toyotas have been well behind in overall results of the three marques and with just two teams - JGR and Barney Visser's two cars - the Toyotas are suffering compared to Chevy and Ford.

Not that the Toyotas lacked power, as shown in terrific combat for the lead for Stage Two bonus points.    If Toyota had two more organizations in their fleet their depth would unquestionably benefit the entirety of the fleet.

The resurgence of Ford showed in Speedweeks and it showed again in a fittingly thrilling finish to a highly competitive race, and Ricky Stenhouse offered a sense of validation for his spectacular Winston 500 win, while David Ragan offered some validation for himself and his team.   The most brilliant drive, though, may have been Darrell Wallace Jr. - a pitiful qualifying effort turned into a solid draft to the front and suddenly Richard Petty's #43 was in the hunt, and even battling Ryan Blaney's #21 in a NASCAR Time Tunnel moment.

Kyle Larson's swerve to chop off Stenhouse can be best described as ill-advised and the result was a late red flag.   Darrell Wallace Jr. was one of the cars involved after he pitted under a previous yellow.   To rally to finish fifteenth under the circumstances isn't something to be ashamed of; it certainly showed Wallace can race - big time - and it also leaves Petty's organization with a dilemma once Aric Almirola returns - one that a rumored merger with an existing team can solve.

Also earning respect were Chris Buescher and Corey LaJoie, quietly racing to the top-11.   But the biggest validation may have been Michael McDowell, whose wildcard victory bid fell just short - an illustration of the competitive depth the sport has needed and needs to sustain.  


******


Some of the big picture takeaways -


Ford is the strongest brand in the series with the most depth.   Chevrolet got stronger than expected results from RCR while Hendrick is clearly no longer the juggernaut - and one has to start wondering whether Chase Elliott is improving because we're not seeing it right now - he runs good, but contention for the actual win is conspicuously missing of late.

RCR isn't the only struggling former juggernaut that has shown rebound - Stenhouse's win continues the resurgence of Roush Racing.   Now they and the other Fords have to beat the Penskes on the non-plate tracks.  

Stewart-Haas Racing appears to have slipped; while still stout SHR's fleet hasn't been the juggernaut some thought they'd be - and more and more the scuttlebutt is there will be a driver change at the expense of the inept Danica Patrick.

The next restrictor plate race won't be Talladega in October - the Xfinity Series debuts the restrictor plate and drag ducts at Indianapolis in three weeks, and suddenly an expected Kyle Busch runaway for an Xfinity Series race isn't a sure thing between the stronger drafting effect shown in testing and also the rise of William Byron into star status.  

The sport's rejuvenation in the competition is needed and welcome, but also needed is a culture change away from the circle the wagons mindset that has long plagued the sport. The recent controversy over the Truck Series created by Kevin Harvick and several others is a step in the right direction, but some dissenting analysis always remains a necessity.

So it goes with fireworks unable to match the spectacle of the Firecracker 400.

NASCAR Entering The Firecracker 400

NASCAR ended the first half of the 2016 season with a surprising result at Sears Point and now it enters the second half across the country back at Daytona. 





Tony Stewart's win was unexpected given he hadn't won in three years and frankly looked like a driver with one foot out the racecar for good.   But like Jeff Gordon in 2015 he goes out with at least one win.  

Stewart's win will be the headline story entering the Firecracker 400 weekend and the sport as usual has a number of issues to look at for this race as well as some bottom lines established in a season considered pivotal in some circles with the rule changes made to bolster sagging popularity.

A look at the varied angles entering Daytona -

Will the rain actually stay away this time? - the Firecracker weekend has been plagued with rain two straight seasons now.


Stewart-Haas gathers momentum against Hendrick, JGR, and Penske - Since Martin Truex exterminated the competition at Charlotte, SHR has won two of the last three races, a surprising development with the switchover to Ford for 2017.   Speaking of Ford, SHR's future nameplate allies Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano have combined for three wins to go with two Hendrick wins, both by Jimmie Johnson.

This leaves JGR's Toyotas with seven wins and the Barney Vissar #78 with the Charlotte win, though the rule changes at Charlotte curiously have seen a bit of a slip for JGR ensue. 

And with those four, it's left nothing for anyone else.  Kyle Larson turned heads with three top-fives and 103 laps led in Ganassi's #42 Chevrolet, but is 20th in points despite finishing in the top-15 more frequently in recent races.    That's been it as far as any kind of darkhorse.  RCR, Roush, and Petty are going nowhere and the season shows no evidence any darkhorse will emerge. 



The Five Best races this year prove NASCAR's low downforce package can't be called a success - The five best races this year in chronological order - The Nextera Truck 250 at Daytona, the ARCA General Tire 200 at Talladega, the Toyota Truck 250 at Kansas, the Indianapolis 500, the Rattlesnake Truck 400k at Texas.   In all the battle for the lead was huge, at times unusually physical.  Daytona's Truck 250 saw its most competitive running (26 official lead changes) since 2002.  The ARCA Talladega 200-miler was almost a continuous sidedraft war for the lead.  The Indianapolis 500 exploded to 54 lead changes, the fifth straight 500 to hit 34 and above and the second in four years to break 50.  The Trucks at Kansas and Texas were side-by-side for the lead for prolonged stretches, and Kansas in particular was a physical race where the leaders crashed on the final lap. 

For good measure Indy Lights at the Brickyard saw a spirited fight for the lead in the Freedom 100 and ended in a photo finish, this for racecars running at speeds much closer to what NASCAR runs there than what Indycars hit.   And ARCA's Daytona 200 was a calm race but also saw a surprising and spirited 13-lap sidedraft fight for first.

And the common denominator to all of these races - the racecars are secure to the racetrack; they do not have more power than what the track can handle relative to how much grip the cars have; they have enough tire to race hard on without having to "catch" the car. 

NASCAR has promoted the hell out of its low downforce package and in the last month has worked on the undersides of the racecars to attack chassis "skew" and reduce downforce more.   And it hasn't worked.   Driver praise of the feel of the racecars tries to obscure the obvious - the racing just isn't there.   The one memorable Cup race so far was Dover, thanks to a surprisingly forgiving tire, one that evoked memory of the bias-ply days when the drivers had more tire footprint and teams didn't need "skew" or excessive camber and all the other tricks for grip necessitated by a radial tire that refuses to be forgiving. 

The upshot is also that since the finish of the 2015 Daytona 500 the racing at the plate tracks hasn't been as good as it should be, either.   The 500 this year was lethargic until Kevin Harvick blasted Denny Hamlin into the lead on the final lap.   The Winston 500 was better, but it was too hard to pass and too hard to push-draft there as well.   The Xfinity series at both tracks likewise was less than competitive by Daytona-Talladega standards.

It all shows NASCAR - yet again - has it wrong.


With 200 MPH the cars are not staying on the ground - Talladega saw three cars get off the ground and a lot of gnashing ensued about it, with seemingly no one noticing this is happening with the speeds over 200 MPH again.   People are still spooked over Austin Dillon's crash at the Firecracker - at about 3 in the morning - and they should be; so why is NASCAR letting the cars reach 200 again?  Haven't we seen that 190 is enough?


The most competitive NASCAR series is the Truck Series - And the Truck Series is seeing the emergence of a new star in William Byron.  Driving for Kyle Busch, Byron started slowly with mediocre or worse efforts at Daytona and Atlanta, then exploded after a third at Martinsville to seize the Toyota Truck 250 at Kansas - 

NASCAR's newest rising star - William Byron

Following Kansas Byron stormed to wins at Texas and Iowa and has led 299 laps so far.  


Meanwhile another Kyle Busch Toyota broke through at Gateway in Christopher Bell, who started the year bending over backwards at Daytona and has been curiously erratic between one win and four other top-tens amid two wrecks and one engine failure.

Christopher Bell's star-crossed season started with a bang at Daytona.


The series has also seen old pros Johnny Sauter in Maury Gallagher's Chevrolet and Matt Crafton in the Duke Thorson/Curb Motorsports Toyota grab victories; for Crafton the season has been doubly bittersweet after the fire that gutted the primary Thorsport race shop in mid-season.


The Xfinity Series trudges on - Bled dry by nearly two decades of Cup driver pillaging of its purses, the former Busch Series nonetheless this year saw two surprises - Daniel Suarez's shocking upset of Kyle Busch at the Michigan 250 and Sam Hornish's win at Iowa.  Returning to JGR on an emergency basis, Hornish cleaned house at Iowa for his first Xfinity win since 2014 at this same track.  

Hornish's win was one of a surprising five by non-Cup drivers in the Xfinity series this year.  Erik Jones has two wins so far while Elliott Sadler in the mess of Talladega in April has the win Brennan Poole was supposed to have.   Other than that it's more Cup more of the time.

And for Funny Comedy Gags, consider John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher's imitation of a hockey game at Gateway. 


So it goes entering the Firecracker 400 weekend.

Frustration At The Firecracker 400

Daytona racing has a history of enormous competition, but when it goes wrong it becomes incredibly maddening and at time scary. The 2015 Firecracker 400, coming a week after the amazing MAVTV 500 Indycar race at Fontana, showcased some of the same issues as Fontana but also other issues specific to NASCAR.

Observations from the ugliest Firecracker 400 in years -


* - The cars regularly broke 202 MPH, and once again nothing good can really come from 200 MPH, though Indycars are far safer at 200 than stockers.   The idea that Indycars somehow lose something when the power is restricted to 200 MPH or that NASCAR loses something with restriction to 190 is baffling, especially when in 2001 the entire sport openly acknowledged - Rusty Wallace gave it specific utterance at that time and has repeated it since - that 194 MPH is the cut-off point for keeping the cars on the ground.  

The complaint about restrictor plate racing will come up again, as usual ignoring vicious melees at non-plate tracks, such as the Watkins Glen series of melees including last year's Ryan Newman-Michael McDowell melee, bad crashes at Charlotte over the years, and so forth (Indycar has this same myopia about the lethality of crashes in its "plate" races as opposed to melees on its street circuits, crashes that usually out-do superspeedway wrecks as we saw with Dario Franchitti and more recently with RC Erenson in the Indy Lights race at Toronto).

Worth nothing for context is that this past Friday at Stafford Speedway, CT there was a huge crash in the SK Modified race that took out the leaders (notably Ryan Preece)  and there have been numerous such incidents in a Stafford season where the racing has been unusually competitive.

As relatively uncompetitive as this Firecracker was, it was still superior racing to most non-plate races, and as with the California Indy 500 at Fontana it showcased that the sport needs pack racing - albiet to a point.  The real issue for NASCAR is Brian France's ridiculous opposition to push-drafting - it stopped the blocking that has become more of a problem in racing of late, and it created more outright passing than anything else can; push-drafting would have opened up far more in the way of passing and thus opened up the competition level above what it was here, and this was even more true with the Firecracker 250 for the Xfinity Series, where uncompetitive racing and resultant frustration led to melees that left the finishers all with weak racecars.   

80 lead changes, seen at Fontana, is a lot better than the 22 seen in this Firecracker.




* - The real cause of the Dillon crash was Kevin Harvick, and he's done this before, notably last year's above-mentioned Newman-McDowell crash at the Glen.   Harvick has led over 1,200 laps but hasn't cashed in that much on winning.


* - The Hendrick cars have the season pretty much to themselves.   There is no non-Hendrick challenge anywhere outside of Stewart-Haas Racing, and the only challenger there is Harvick.  Kurt Busch has surged since coming back so he can still offer some challenge.   Outside of him, the rest of the field is racing for fifth at best - only seven of seventeen races have been won by someone other than a Hendrick or Harvick/Kurt Busch Chevrolet.

The upshot of the Austin Dillon crash is it is an illustration of his career - racing for nothing and hitting the wall.


* - Aggravation at Chevrolet's dominance has been a long-standing gripe within NASCAR dating to the 1960s and surging with the 1970s comeback of the Bowtie Brigade, and it appears Chevy's success is driving away other brands in other series, with Indycar potentially losing Honda after Chevrolet returned to the series only a few short seasons ago.   Sanctioning bodies need to rethink whether Chevrolet is as good for their series as they might think - certainly racing needs a lot more success from non-Chevrolets such as Honda and Toyota and (call this a subtle lobby all you want) any comeback Dodge might contemplate.


* - The worst of the non-Chevrolet lot is Ford.   When Penske Racing is off - and it's been curiously off outside of two wins this season - then the brand has nothing.   Roush Fenway Racing is worse than an also-ran, it is a cancer now, between failures at engineering and a driver roster inferior to some of Roush's customer cars.   It is no accident that once again Richard Petty's #43 looked stronger than the Roush cars, and it may be Petty needs to switch manufacturers and thus not be dragged down further by the Roush alliance.


* - With all this, the potential for a first-time winner this year looks strikingly weak.   Nobody with Roush or RCR looks like they know which way is up, and even with some respectable darkhorse runs at Daytona nothing developed to indicate anyone can seize a first-time win.   If anything, some of the drivers tagged for future potential are only getting worse, notably Danica Patrick.   Kyle Larson curiously does not seem to be taking any next step, and that's it as far as drivers who might get a first win.


*- Interesting off-the-track point is made by longtime NASCAR writer Mike Mulhern.   The talk of a franchise system in NASCAR comes after a $1 billion deal by Nike for the NBA, and it leads him to ask a question worth pondering - "Could NASCAR do a deal like that without franchising?"   Stay tuned there.




So what's next? Kentucky for NASCAR, Milwaukee for Indycar, and the sport has to plug on and try to get something better.

Daytona: Welcome Home, Richard

There are many reasons why the heart grows fonder. In racing the passage of time has that effect perhaps like no other sport.   Seeing Richard Petty's #43 return to victory at Daytona International Speedway, regardless of the rainy circumstances, showcases what he means to racing, because where Daytona has showcased the excellence of David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, and others and they have more than proven themselves as genuine competition heroes, Petty's absence from winning was still wrong.

Richard did what others have not done - made an entire sport his showcase and made it a positive one.   His rivals in Pearson, Cale, the Allisons, Buddy Baker, Isaac, Benny Parsons, AJ Foyt (his equal and then some in Indycar racing), Fred Lorenzen, and others all need no  justification as Hall Of Fame racers and people who made racing excellence for all involved; indeed together they grew the sport at least as much as the Frances and others involved in its gestation such as the Vogts, Joe Littlejohn, John Holman and Ralph Moody, the Wood Brothers, the Ranier family (Lorin still wields influence on Jamie McMurray's Chevrolet and that car runs strong as a result), Clay Earles, the Mattiolis, and more than can be remebered off-hand here. 

Yet Richard Petty was able to go an extra mile in integrating with all involved as well as going the extra mile to win.   He combined guile with aggressiveness and at his best he was amazing to watch wheeling that blue and red Dodge through traffic for the lead.  

For all of its faults, racing offers enormously in terms of competitive virtue, and the 2014 Firecracker 400 offered some excellent racing as the battle for the lead was a true battle.  The criticism that racefans want to see the wrecks got examples for certain, notably Kyle Busch's set-to with nineteen others near what was the race's end.   The battle between Kurt Busch and Petty's driver Aric Almirola was as good a bout of racing as the sport has seen in 2014; even more impressive has been Almirola's surge after a patch of poor results that was at times ugly.   He resurrected himself at Kentucky until a mid-race melee swept him up, and now he's taken the next step.

Of course there's the next step beyond that - winning again, and again.   Pocono has a Petty history as do Michigan, Atlanta, Martinsville, Charlotte, and Talladega.  Almirola now has to take that next step, but now we can see he has that ability.   And now we can say - for one week anyway - racing order has been restored.


Welcome home, Richard.

Brian France's Deja Screw

Matt Kenseth wins the Daytona 500.

Brad Keselowski wins the Winston 500 at Talladega.

Kasey Kahne wins the World 600 at Charlotte.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the Michigan 400.

Tony Stewart wins the Firecracker 400 at Daytona.


If you think you've seen these outcomes before in recent years, you have. It's been a deja vu season in NASCAR with outcomes identical to 2008 and 2009. But if it's been deja vu, it's also been deja screw, as we're seeing the outcome of bad ideas all season again.

The Firecracker 400 was ugly. The racing was grossly inferior to what transpired the night before (and using a Shank Shaughnessy-ism it shows the truth of the song lyric "treat me like you did the night before") in the most competitive Daytona race in the history of NASCAR's second-tier stock car series.   Making it even better was the rally of the wrecked car (and all-but-wrecked career) of Kurt Busch to the win while the Richard Petty #43 and the RCR #3 fought it out in the battle for the win ending in the #3 wrecking (as happened with some frequency in Dale Earnhardt's career at Daytona).

While the Firecracker 250 was awesome the 400 was only memorable for Tony Stewart's perposterous rally after being over half a lap down, needing a mid-race yellow to catch back up, then seeing himself and Kyle Busch using sidedrafting to stop what were the otherwise-unstoppable Matt Kenseth/Greg Biffle tandem from winning.   With NASCAR insisting on the small spoiler and giving only a minor concession to allow radiators to cool the cars, the drivers had to breathe the cars instead of race, and they were obviosuly not handling, especially with the top line never coming in all night.  The result was an abysmal race.   A huge number of cars were torn up, but this is to be expected of competitive racing.

The fact remains Brian France's hatred of tandem racing hurt the quality of competition in the Cup series; that he refuses to get it shows his lack of qualification for his job.

Further showing the absurdity of NASCAR is the two crashes involving pit road.   First came Jeff Gordon sideswiping Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne, spinning them into the parked car of Brad Keselowski.   Why NASCAR insists on closing pit road when the yellow comes out and throwing everyone in at once remains mystifying.   Pit incidents like this didn't happen before March 1989 (the month NASCAR began closing pit road under caution); drivers dove into the pits when they wanted to when the yellow flew; pit crowding was far less frequent.   NASCAR began closing the pits under yellow because of scoring/pace car issues at the 1989 Atlanta 500. 

The second incident was the ten-car wreck near the end when Kenseth and others slammed on their brakes to enter the pits at the mandatory speed limit.   Wrecks like that (involving Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon most notably) have happened before when leaders slow to enter the pits under the speed limit; I'm amazed they don't happen more often.   The better alternative (in addition to leaving pit road open when the yellow comes out) is not to have pit speed limits; Kenseth et al should have been able to dive into the pits at speeds under their control - once again we have a scenario where NASCAR's mania to control the racing makes things more unsafe.

Before the weekend Brian France gave another of his dissembling state of the sport addresses and the ensuing racing proved anew why he's been wrong about his job and his view of racing.