The caption reads "Carl Edwards grabs first Cup Series career short track victory at Bristol while Jimmie Johnson has trouble, One week later, Jimmie Johnson would rebound and win again in California." Image by Action Sports Photography at Motorsport.com.
What an interesting headline going into one of the hottest races of the year, Richmond, racing under the lights and it’s the final race to make the chase, but unlike past years, this year’s race to the chase may all be all but over for the chase contenders. Most of the field has been locked in, its basically 11th, 12th and 13th that still don’t know where they will be when the Richmond race is over, but let’s face it, I said it at the beginning of the season and I will say it again, 12 spots for the chase doesn’t really work, could you image if there was only 10 spots open for the chase going into the Richmond, that would be a battle.
So before I get to Richmond, what about the highly talked about Bristol Nextel Cup race after the repaving… Let’s look at this, both the Truck Series race on Wednesday night with Johnny Benson winning and the Busch Series race with Kasey Kahne winning were both good races and going into the cup race, everyone was excited, this is going to be good.
Bristol, Cup race – After this race, I had mixed feelings, basically the Saturday night Cup race was like the days of the asphalt surface, before the concrete was laid in 1992, you know racing all over the track, high, low, in the middle, the Harry Gant rim riding days and the Darrell waltrip winning days. But what most fans remember now is the concrete days, one lane and the drivers must use there bumpers to make a pass, tons of cautions and the famous yet controversal bump and run move used by Jeff Gordon to pass Rusty Wallace.
Now with the new concrete and the varible banking, those asphalt surface type racing returned and that made some fans say its not Bristol, well its Bristol, but it’s the pre-1992 Bristol age where you can make passes in any lane without knocking others out of the way. Basically, all in all, I still enjoyed the race, it was good. Just consider a couple of this, by the time next August’s race comes around, the track will have aged and they should be running a softer tire, the races yet again could change, wait till then, you might be surprised…
In between these races, I've been waiting to hear more on the AT&T vs. NASCAR & Sprint court battle.
I will never understand this one, I can't even imagine when Cingular signed a sponsorship deal with RCR and NASCAR back in 2003, that they would be fighting for there identity a couple years later in 2007 just to put there AT&T sponsorship (AT&T purchased Cingular and the rights to the sponsorship) on the #31 RCR Chevrolet. From Bristol on, there is no sponorship decals on the #31, despite AT&T is still paying the bills. I want the #31 AT&T Chevy to say it on and off the track including the uniforms and transporter, this is wrong. I will talk more about this is a couple weeks in my article "My Take" on NASCAR Racing: Now and the Future."
Last night’s California Cup race, why are we here on labor day weekend, I don’t like this move at all, I haven’t liked this since NASCAR announced it a couple years ago, there in there biggest market and they can’t even sell the seats out (92,100 seats). Bottom Line, even though there was side-by-side racing, I just didn’t enjoy most of this race, combine that with the fact I live on the east coast, the time was bad too, racing at midnight, damn, I feel asleep.
What about the Busch race, after 1am east coast time and they were still racing, I was on a tape delay with my DVR, so I watched the American Lemans race untill 12:30am, then watched the busch race in its entirely and by the time it was over, I was too.
Finally looking at the race to the chase, it’s not over yet, 128 points back in 13th is Dale Jr., its going to take something big to put him in the chase period. With that said, foor dale Jr., its simple, do the same thing Tony Stewart did last season when he didn’t make the chase, go out and win, forget about points and win races. Now its on to Richmond under the lights racing and one of favorite , now that’s cool and then NASCAR comes my way to New Hampshire and I will be there either Friday, Saturday or Sunday…
So before I get to Richmond, what about the highly talked about Bristol Nextel Cup race after the repaving… Let’s look at this, both the Truck Series race on Wednesday night with Johnny Benson winning and the Busch Series race with Kasey Kahne winning were both good races and going into the cup race, everyone was excited, this is going to be good.
Bristol, Cup race – After this race, I had mixed feelings, basically the Saturday night Cup race was like the days of the asphalt surface, before the concrete was laid in 1992, you know racing all over the track, high, low, in the middle, the Harry Gant rim riding days and the Darrell waltrip winning days. But what most fans remember now is the concrete days, one lane and the drivers must use there bumpers to make a pass, tons of cautions and the famous yet controversal bump and run move used by Jeff Gordon to pass Rusty Wallace.
Now with the new concrete and the varible banking, those asphalt surface type racing returned and that made some fans say its not Bristol, well its Bristol, but it’s the pre-1992 Bristol age where you can make passes in any lane without knocking others out of the way. Basically, all in all, I still enjoyed the race, it was good. Just consider a couple of this, by the time next August’s race comes around, the track will have aged and they should be running a softer tire, the races yet again could change, wait till then, you might be surprised…
In between these races, I've been waiting to hear more on the AT&T vs. NASCAR & Sprint court battle.I will never understand this one, I can't even imagine when Cingular signed a sponsorship deal with RCR and NASCAR back in 2003, that they would be fighting for there identity a couple years later in 2007 just to put there AT&T sponsorship (AT&T purchased Cingular and the rights to the sponsorship) on the #31 RCR Chevrolet. From Bristol on, there is no sponorship decals on the #31, despite AT&T is still paying the bills. I want the #31 AT&T Chevy to say it on and off the track including the uniforms and transporter, this is wrong. I will talk more about this is a couple weeks in my article "My Take" on NASCAR Racing: Now and the Future."
Last night’s California Cup race, why are we here on labor day weekend, I don’t like this move at all, I haven’t liked this since NASCAR announced it a couple years ago, there in there biggest market and they can’t even sell the seats out (92,100 seats). Bottom Line, even though there was side-by-side racing, I just didn’t enjoy most of this race, combine that with the fact I live on the east coast, the time was bad too, racing at midnight, damn, I feel asleep.
What about the Busch race, after 1am east coast time and they were still racing, I was on a tape delay with my DVR, so I watched the American Lemans race untill 12:30am, then watched the busch race in its entirely and by the time it was over, I was too.
Finally looking at the race to the chase, it’s not over yet, 128 points back in 13th is Dale Jr., its going to take something big to put him in the chase period. With that said, foor dale Jr., its simple, do the same thing Tony Stewart did last season when he didn’t make the chase, go out and win, forget about points and win races. Now its on to Richmond under the lights racing and one of favorite , now that’s cool and then NASCAR comes my way to New Hampshire and I will be there either Friday, Saturday or Sunday…
