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Front Page-»Bristol observations
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Bristol observations
Thoughts, observations and random comments from the Food City 500 weekend: It's true what they say about Bristol – it's the track that separates the men from the boys. It wasn't a coincidence that the early incidents during the race involved younger drivers like Kyle Busch, Casey Mears, Jason Leffler and Carl Edwards, and that Bobby Hamilton Jr. caused the race's biggest wreck.
Kevin Harvick broke the Roush/Hendrick grip on victory lane this season while also ending a 54-race win drought for RCR. This was also the first Childress win at Bristol since Dale Earnhardt won there in August 1999. Harvick's hadn't won since the Brickyard 400 in 2003. Robby Gordon still is having troubles. He either doesn't qualify or he has engine failure. Although Gordon has expressed support for John Menard's engine shop, rumor has it he has already talked with Hendrick Motorsports about using their engines for the time being. Kudos to Hamilton – who isn't known for his humble attitude – for his candor after causing the big wreck that involved 14 cars. "I'm sure I'm a pretty good S.O.B. right now with everybody," Hamilton said. "I just screwed up and I'm going to tuck my tail between my legs and head back to Nashville.'' Speaking of wrecks, the head-on crash between Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch was very, very scary. Both drivers walked away, although Busch seemed a bit unsteady at first. They were, of course, wearing HANS devices. Although he now has to wear one, Tony Stewart still isn't a big fan of the HANS. Publicly, he says it fits him just fine. Privately, he'll tell you differently. This was the most uncomfortable race for him with the device. He still thinks it's not the answer. There's no place like Bristol. Fourteen-story tall grandstands, 162,000 fans and non-stop racing action like no other stop on the circuit. The fans love the bullrings like this track, Martinsville and Richmond. I hear this is exactly the kind of track ISC would like to build in New York City. Overheard during the morning broadcast of the F1 race in the media center (in which a Toyota driver finished second): "Yeah, that's cool. Just wait until Toyota puts their Solara on this track." Memorable moment: Jeff Burton pointing his finger at Jimmie Johnson after the driver of the No. 48 car spun Burton, causing the head-on wreck between Burton and Busch. Did I already say that wreck was very scary? If so, it needed to be said again. About halfway through the race, many of the cars looked like late-model modified racers, with fenders missing, hoods missing and bent and bashed fenders. It was typical Bristol racing. By the way, it looked great! Can we now refer to Travis Kvapil as "rookie sensation" after a strong bounce back from his disastrous run at Atlanta two weeks ago? His seventh-place finish is even more impressive considering that the group of six drivers finishing in front of him included three former Cup champions and six previous Cup winners. Jack Roush and No. 16 crew chief Doug Richert had a very animated discussion about pit strategy during the race. I would love to have been a fly on the wall during the continuation of that talk after the race. On the same subject, Bristol marked the second consecutive race that No. 16 driver Greg Biffle – who clearly had the dominant car in the late portion of the race – has seen a sure victory evaporate during the final laps. Dale Jarrett's much-needed fifth-place finish puts him into the top 10 in points for the first time this season. He's now eighth. The other Dale also had a pretty good race, but he's still a long way from having a good season. One high note – Junior did have a new flashlight introduced this week. The Dale Earnhardt Jr. Focus Grip Max allows race fans to follow driver No. 8, whether at trackside, traveling in the car or using it around the house. Wow! Looking into the future at the Chase, 25 drivers already are more than 400 points behind points leader Johnson. Quote of the day: "The only thing hard about having back-to-back short track races is that if you have a problem with somebody today, you're going to remember it next week there [Martinsville]," Tony Stewart said. Did you hear that, Bobby Hamilton Jr.? Co-winners of the Hard Luck Award of the Race: Carl Edwards and Rusty Wallace. Edwards needed to show the world that he can do it on the short tracks, but he didn't get the chance after being involved in an incident just five laps into the race, forcing him to sit while his team replaced a radiator. He returned to the race and finished 26th. "That's a big lesson to be learned," Edwards said. " That's 495 laps of just pure lesson-learning there. We're not gonna hit anything at Martinsville." Wallace, meanwhile, was in contention for the win until encountering tire troubles. "I had 'em covered all day long until the tire went. It just blew out," he said. "It was a great car. It was flying all day long. It was perfect. We lost that right front tire and lost a couple of laps. Then we had some kind of mix-up on pit road. The 25 was sideways out there, and I was avoiding him. I thought I had it won, I really did. We had a fast car. Stupid stuff happens. That's about it." Thanks for that great acceptance speech, Rusty.
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