Congratulations to Dave Blaney!
Perfect, Dave Blaney scores Toyota's first Nextel Cup Bud Pole on Friday afternoon in Loudon for Sunday's 300 miler while post-qualifying inspection revealed that Brian Vickers COT car was an 1/8th of an inch too low in left front and since he is a go or go homer, his time was disallowed and he will go home. The next in line is Chad Chaffin and he will race on Sunday instead.
A couple of notables from New Hampshire includes Dale Earnhardt Jr starting in 6th, Jimmie Johnson in 10th, Jeff Gordon in 8th, all three with fill-in crew chiefs and on the flip-side, Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett and Kenny Wallace don't qualify and will go home.
While were on the subject of NASCAR in New Hampshire, NASCAR dropping the hammer down sort of speck on some Nextel Cup and Craftsmen Truck Series Drivers and Teams and the talk in the garage area continues to make news and add that with the announcement that Hendrick Motorsports wouldn't appeal on the #24 & #48 penalties, what a blow, but that just added to the opinions that continued on with Friday's press conference with Jeff Gordon saying that he is disappointed in NASCAR over the penalties, shocked was more like it.
Not to be out done, NASCAR continued to make news on Thursday with the Headline reading "NASCAR hits grand-slam by suspending Ted Musgrave for one-race after the on-track incident with the #21 truck at Milwaukee." That's my headline, but while I like to see that NASCAR finally gets it, they have also backed themselves into a corner with everyone including me asking what is the difference between what Ted Musgrave did at Milwaukee and what Kurt Busch did weeks ago at Dover?
There really is no difference here between the two and yet the penalties are completely different. There was a points and fine penalty that comes with it, but in both cases it shouldn't have been about money and points.
Bottom Line here, either NASCAR finally got it just to late or that Kurt Busch is a past NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Champion, think about it? I like to think that they just finally got it and if you park a driver for a race, they will get the message crystal clear, it worked for Kevin Harvick Martinsville years ago.
Since we are on penalties and not to harp, but what about the Kyle Petty/TNT language oops last week during the TV broadcast in Sonoma? See Yeah!
News Flash - SPEED to re-air Tony Stewart's dirt-track race at Eldora next Sunday (July 8th) at noon time. Can't wait to see this one as I didn't get a chance to watch it live.
