Why I watched…

It was Bristol. Even though I cringed through the announcing, Saturday’s Nationwide race was a good one to watch as Kyle Busch beat out Kyle Larson by about 3 feet at the line for the win. It had hits, it had spills, it had thrills…and now we got to do it all again with the likes of  Tony, Jimmie and Junior and all the rest. And not a Rusty or a Brad to be heard from.

The race…

We heard from Tony Stewart…for nine laps. He cut a tire, found a wall, and then pegged his way to a 31st place finish. It could have been much, much better, but at no time was Tony last.

No, by the time Tony had his wreck, Mike Bliss had already found the garage. Bliss had ran three laps. Out of 500. Engine woes is the official reason. It might be just me, but if you can not build an engine to run 1.5-miles, 7920 feet, 95,040 inches, then for the love of God you should stay parked. If you have not leased at least three sets of tires, you should stay parked. If you do not have an entire pit crew, in proper gear, you should stay parked. If your war wagon consists of two lawn chairs and a cooler, you should stay parked. If Joe Nemechek can run 490 laps to wind up 29th, then you should, too…or stay parked. Unless you wreck.

Jeff Gordon was leading, with Matt Kenseth second, when Four-Time got two timed by an old tire leaving his attempted pass a dive bomb into the wall right in front of One-Time. Both wound up behind Nemechek in the final results.

We don’t hear much from Dave Blaney, but he was running steady in 15th with 180 laps remaining when he lost a tire and gained a wall. Jimmie Johnson did the same, though he did claim 22nd,  a spot ahead of Denny Hamlin. He found the wall, again and again and again over the final laps. It was the only way he could turn. If you ever played a NASCAR game on your computer, activated the invincible mode, and kept the throttle down, then you too know what it is like to drive the Hamlin way.

Ever run over the car in front of you in playing that game? Hamlin did, too! Denny got upset with Joey Logano and turned him into the wall. Logano finished last on the lead lap, in 17th, then tried to say “howdy” to Hamlin post-race. One Hamlin crew member pushed Joey, and one of Logano’s guys pushed back, then one of Joey’s boys got grabbed by the neck, who demonstrated what he thought about that in no uncertain terms, and we were off to the rodeo.

Oh, as for the race, with about five to go it remained anybody’s contest. In the end, Kasey Kahne managed to drive off with Kyle, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, and Clint Bowyer packed up behind him to provide a spirited finish.

Rating the race…

You wanted racing, we got racing. You wanted torn up cars, and thanks to worn out tires we tore up some cars. You wanted some pushing and shoving, both on and off the track, and you have to be a happy boy or girl as we got some of that. You wanted a race where we did not know who would win until near the end, and Bristol delivered. You wanted a television broadcast that was entertaining and informative, where the announcers added, not distracted, from the action, and thanks to FOX we were rewarded. A damn fine way to spend a Sunday. I give this one a...9/10.

Bristol, TN- For the first time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, Kasey Kahne drove his way to victory lane at Thunder Valley. After taking the lead from Brad Keselowski with 45 laps to go, Busch took off and never looked back.

“Absolutely, this is a big win. I love racing for Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick the opportunity he gives us, this whole team was flawless again today. Last week, today, this whole season so far. It has been a lot of fun. Great Clips, I’ve been with them for a long time. We have won a few races together it was great to win a (NASCAR Sprint) Cup race with Great Clips. They were out cutting hair a couple of days ago. It’s been a good weekend, Farmers Insurance, Chevrolet SS, Pepsi Max, but everybody has done a great job. Just racing Brad (Keselowski), Denny (Hamlin) was tough and Jeff (Gordon) and Matt Kenseth was really good there. I don’t know what happened to those guys. It looked like Jeff (Gordon) might have had a tire problem. It was a big win I’m really happy,” Kahne said in Victory Lane.

“I just feel like for myself it’s a really big accomplishment to win here. This is a tough place. It’s been a tough track for me at times, just for this whole team to step up and do it together we have prepared pretty hard this year and it feels good to win. Trucker, our truck driver, he lost his dad last night so this is for him. I have a great friend in Washington, JJ Arnett. He lost his dad about three weeks ago. So, this is in memory of him, Jerry Arnett. We had a lot of fun with him; he took care of us, got us out of a lot of trouble. I just want to thank all those guys and everybody that supports this team. This engine was unbelievable again.This is a tough track to win at, and we pulled it off today. This whole team stepped-up, and did an unbelievable job. The pit stops were flawless; the adjustments to the car; the preparation Friday-Saturday, and prior to that. The engine in the car is unbelievable. I had a great day. This is a lot of fun. I have always wanted to win a Cup race here. To finally do it feels really good.”

Tempers flared after the Food City 500 between Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano.Although, Joey Logano would not discuss what he said, Hamlin did. “He said he was coming for me,” Hamlin said. “I usually don’t see him, so it’s usually not a factor.” The fued between the former teammates started in February after the Daytona 500, in which Hamlin said had nothing to do with Sunday’s race in Bristol. “It didn’t have anything to do with that,” Hamlin said. “You’ve really got to control your car and he slipped up into me. Really, he would have been in the garage with no radiator in it if I had not checked up twice. I meant to run in to him. I didn’t mean to spin him out, but his day was fine. We finished bad and he finished bad. It’s even.”

Kyle Busch finished second, followed by Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer.