The real race has begun
I promised a certain editor-in-chief this blog on Sunday. So, why is it now that I'm only getting around to writing about the recap of last Sunday's NASCAR race? Is it laziness, hatred of the sport… well, perhaps it's a little bit of the first. But mostly because Sunday's race was a lot of what we'd seen in the past month. Tony Stewart wins again (3 out of the last 4), Jeff Gordon comes close, but no cigar and Carl Edwards puts up decent numbers again.
Of course, there was a little tift between Juan and Kevin Harvick on the track, but it never got past a little shoving and in the end – they realized neither one was to blame. But in the end, not really a big deal.
The big deals on the other hand come when we look at the overall picture and mention the driver carousel.
First, there are only four more races left until the Chase for the Championship begins. When it reaches that point the top twelve drivers will have their points set to an even 5000, plus ten points for every race run. Then, it's full out chaos theory until Homestead at the end of November and we find out which of those twelve had it in him to win the chase. So, when you're watching the races over the next four weeks pay attention to those guys who are in 9-15 in the point standings (don't worry the broadcasters will be sure to tell you a few billion times who exactly is on the bubble.. and if you're like most of the NASCAR fans that belong the Earnhardt Nation you already know that Junior has slipped back to 14 th after engine troubles and may once again not make the chase.
Sometimes the rules just have to be ignored
So, today the Busch series ventured north up into Canada to visit Montreal. The double dippers flew between Pocono and Montreal, some arrived on time for the European-style qualifying for the Busch Series event at the magnificent road course (really, breath-taking track). But then it got really boring.
It was about 70 laps of boring, change-the-channel, road-course racing, but then something must have snapped in Robby Gordon's head as he was spun about by Ambrose as he attempted and failed to pass for the lead. Just moments before the caution had been thrown due to a crash in the backfield. NASCAR said that Robby needed to restart 13th, but Robby disagreed. He believed that since he was in second when the caution flag was thrown -- he should still be in second. But NASCAR claimed that he wasn't going at a cautious speed when the flag came out he should be put at the tale end of the longest line -- 13th.
But Robby believed he should be in second so he ignored NASCAR and his crew chief telling him to get into the right position. The green flag fell for the rest of the field, but Robby received the dreaded black flag for not being in the right position at the restart. But that didn't stop Robby, who would immediately spin out Ambrose after the restart, and then continue on pretending like he was leading the race -- despite still receiving the black flag each time by. As Robby later stated "They said 'here's the rule book,'I play by their rules. I guess this was one of those [exceptions for rare instances]." Just a bit too bad NASCAR didn't agree with Robby. The only thing that would have made this better would be Tony Stewart and his gigantic foot in mouth disease to be involved in the whole situation.
But the real race for the win was behind Robby where Kevin Harvick and hometown favorite Patrick Carpentier battled it out for the actual win. Harvick would come away with the win -- but our story doesn't end there.
Instead it ends with not one, not two, but three burnouts. One by the guy who won the race, one by the runner-up and one by the guy who thought he won the race. Yes, probably the most burn-outs you'll ever see in a NASCAR race.
Also, probably the most amusing debacle that could have occurred in the final five laps for NASCAR's debut in Canada. Hell, it was probably the most crazy set of events to occur in the final five laps of a Busch series or Nextel Cup Series race in a long time.
I don't think the Nextel Cup Series race at Pocono will be able to have quite the level of crazy in it tomorrow, but it still should be a good race. Pre-show starts at 1pm EST, which means that the race most likely starts at around 2:45pm EST on ESPN.