The smoke cleared after the weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, and there were surprises upon surprises. After an exciting NASCAR Camping World truck race in which Kyle Busch just edged out Timothy Peters on the last lap, it was followed up with Busch dominating the Nationwide Series race. What happened on Sunday was different, if not pleasing.
It all started on Thursday for me. Arriving in Bristol on Thursday, the first order of business was setting up the camping trailer. Unfortunately, a freak accident happened and I somehow broke my ankle. I cannot tell you what happened. It happened too fast. My weekend was a long saga of pain. I made it to the track, but not without making things worse. I didn’t have credentials for this race, something I plan to have in the future, but I still could watch on television. I was within sight of the track even if I couldn’t get inside. It was a very frustrating weekend.
Carl Edwards had the car to beat and he demonstrated it all night. A good crowd, not a sellout as in years past, but good, saw Edwards the class of the field until his engine failure. That left the race to Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne to decide. What resulted was a colossal battle. In former days, before the track was changed to progressive banking several years ago, it would have meant a tap to the rear of the car, in this case Kenseth’s, and a drive by. It didn’t happen on this night. Kenseth and Kahne battled side by side for much of the last 50 laps, but little touching took place. Kenseth prevailed and rolled to his fifth win of the year and a probable first seed in the final playoffs that we have come to call The Chase.
It was a great show, but what was going behind the scene was the biggest story. Apparently Gene Haas, co-owner with Tony Stewart of Stewart-Haas Racing had made a decision. Earlier in July, SHR made a business decision to let Ryan Newman go because they couldn’t afford to run a four-car team because of sponsorship. Enter Haas. With Stewart on the shelf with the broken bones from a extra-curricular race, Haas made the decision to hire Kurt Busch for the fourth team that was impossible on a month before. One has to consider that either this didn’t set well with Stewart or that he was in on it from the beginning.
Regardless of what happens next (Stewart didn’t attend the news conference today to announce Busch’s hiring due to a doctor appointment), it appears that someone has a lot of explaining to do, especially to Ryan Newman. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, what will happen to Ryan Newman? The consensus is that he will end up at either Richard Childress Racing or Furniture Row, just vacated by Kevin Harvick who also left for SHR or Furniture Row to replace Busch. Furniture Row has a news conference on Friday to announce their driver, so that seems to be out. One also has to consider that Jack Roush has expressed interest in Newman. It’s all a little foggy now.
Just like it has been for several years, all this overshadowed the racing at Bristol. It was a good weekend. The racing was good and the crowd came back somewhat. The bigger story might be what happens next.
