At the track described as NASCAR’s ‘wild card’, famous for white knuckle racing, insanely close finishes and the infamous ‘big one’, Talladega Superspeedway’s Amp Energy Juice, run on Halloween no less, delivered on all accounts, for the most part.  Here are the surprising and not surprising tricks and treats from HallowDega:

Surprising:  What was most surprising was the length of time that it took to finally declare the winner after yet another close finish at Talladega.  With Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick exchanging handshakes as they waited for what seemed like an eternity to find out which one had won, NASCAR finally declared it was Clint Bowyer after reviewing and re-reviewing the videotape.  This was Bowyer’s second Chase win and he is now left to wonder what could have been since his penalty put him dead last in the Chase race.  After thanking Juan Pablo Montoya for pushing him to a great finish, Bowyer just had two words after finally being declared the victor, “Hell yeah.”

Not Surprising:  Kevin Harvick, with a bruised, beat up, and bear-bonded race car as a result of an early wreck, finished runner up to his Richard Childress Racing teammate.  As Harvick said, “We kept it 1, 2 in the right house and beat the guys we needed to.”  Harvick has now finished seventh, first, first, and second at this season’s restrictor plate races at Daytona, Talladega, Daytona and Talladega respectively.  Harvick is now just 38 points behind Chase leader Jimmie Johnson, tightening up the championship competition considerably.

Surprising:  At a track that he loves and where his father had such success, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. did lead laps early in the race to the delight of the crowd, particularly Junior Nation.  But surprisingly, Junior, usually so solid in plate races, made a mistake in the draft, clipping Jeff Burton in the corner and sending the veteran for a very wild ride.  Burton was so upset, knowing that he had a good car, that in spite of his hard impact, decimated vehicle and even a brief fire, he got out and promptly kicked his race car.  Junior also sustained significant damage, and although he was able to eventually return to the track, he finished a cursed 39^th in his The Legend of Hallowdega race car.

Not Surprising:  While Junior usually loves the restrictor plate tracks, one driver in particular just hates them, especially Talladega.  So it was not surprising to hear A.J. Allmendinger declare after flying through the air and hitting the wall upside down, “I hate this place.  I always have and I always will.”  Allmendinger admitted that he has never flipped before and will most likely seek the services of his chiropractor wife Lynne for his sore neck and back.  Allmendinger finished in the 32^nd position and time will tell if he will be at the next race due to the financial turmoil currently affecting his race team, Richard Petty Motorsports.

Surprising:   At a track known for the ‘big one’, a wreck that traditionally occurs at Talladega, often taking out at least twenty race cars and a major portion of the race field, it was surprising that the ‘big one’ just did not occur.  There certainly were a few wrecks along the way, but they were more isolated instances involving just a handful of cars.  The majority of cautions were for debris on the track rather than carnage from the dreaded ‘big one’.

Not Surprising:  Although no major wrecking occurred, there were the unbelievably frequent lead changes.  In fact, the race at Talladega this year yielded 87 lead changes, so almost every driver got their chance to be out front at one point or another.  It was also not surprising to see those infamous two-car breakaways that have also become a hallmark of Talladega, moving duos from the back to the front in the blink of an eye.  Both race winner Bowyer and runner up Harvick took advantage of the two-car hook ups with Juan Pablo Montoya and David Reutimann to thank respectively.

Surprising:   It was surprising how depressed Denny Hamlin was after a top-ten finish at Talladega.  Hamlin stated glumly, “I wish I could have had a better show.”  Hamlin’s depression was also surprising given the championship contender battled back from being a lap down to finish in the ninth position.  Hamlin is now just 14 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson in the Chase standings, yet still in a gloomy mood.

Not Surprising:   At one of NASCAR’s wildest and most unpredictable tracks, it was not surprising to see some non-traditional drivers lead laps and get good finishes.  Juan Pablo Montoya, who started on the pole, proved that he is quickly becoming a plate track ace with his third place finish.  David Reutimann, who studied at the feet of team owner Michael Waltrip, also had a great run, finishing fourth.  The youngster Joey Logano had a great ride, finishing fifth and scoring his first three top-10 finishes in a row in his Cup career. Reutimann’s Diamond Waltrip Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. finished sixth and Brad Keselowski did Penske proud with his top-ten placement.

Surprising:  It was a major surprise that after hanging in the back all race long and finally deciding to make their move to the front that teammates and four-time champions Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon were not able to seal the deal.  The two hooked up late in the race and charged to the front, leading a few laps.  But Gordon seemed to just get spooked, saying his car was “blowing up”.  He fell back, leaving Johnson alone in the draft, while he tried to diagnose his issues.  Although both drivers finished well, in the seventh and eighth spots respectively, Johnson was left shaking his head after the race, saying he still did not know what was going on with his teammate.

Not Surprising:  In spite of Gordon’s issues, Jimmie Johnson soldiered on, in spite of some damage that he sustained in one of the on-track incidents.  Johnson, apparently ditching the lucky horseshoe, credited his baby Genevieve’s Halloween costume, an angel with a halo, as his ‘Dega good luck charm.  Johnson maintains the points lead in the Chase as he continues his historic quest for a fifth consecutive championship.

With just three races left in the season to decide the winner of the Sprint Cup, the NASCAR aces will head deep in the heart of Texas.  The AAA Texas 500 will be held at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, November 7^th at 3:00 PM on ESPN.

Talladega has come and gone on Halloween and all that can be said is the fans got a good show. Whether it was racing is up for debate. At least the ‘big one’ never happened unless you consider A.J. Allmendinger flipping through the air at the end of the race.

One or more things are clear. The Earnhardt-Childress engines are the class of the field. Where once Robert Yates was the power king of racing engines, that program, now known was Yates-Roush engines, now takes a back seat. It may be in third place by now with Hendrick in second, for that matter. Not one Ford qualified in the top 15 while the Chevys, Toyotas, and Dodges looked down on them. Of course, racing and qualifying are two different animals with Matt Kenseth running up front until the end, but the end result is what is important and Earnhardt-Childress engines had cars in first, second, and third place followed by two Toyota Racing engines.

The racing, if that’s what you want to call it, was spirited. One driver called it luck that the big wreck didn’t happen, but five wide at times was flirting with disaster. And it didn’t happen. The end result was that Jimmie Johnson amazingly came out of this mess with a bigger lead. With Johnson and teammate Jeff Gordon laying back in the field for most of the race, the television network was able to hear Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, tell him it was time to go and the loyal teammate followed. It pushed the strong Hendrick engined cars to the front and in a position to win. Jeff Gordon thought he had am engine problem and got out of the draft, which proved false. That was probably the only thing that kept Johnson from winning. Gordon discovered that he didn’t have that problem and rallied back to a top ten finish.

That’s another problem. With NASCAR’s rule that once the white flag is shown that the field is frozen on cautions, it becomes almost impossible for the fan in the stands to know who won. Heck, even the TV guys couldn’t figure it out. So, we had two drivers who were running a race having to wait until film or digital photography to determine the winner or the finishing order. In fact, Johnson was listed as the eighth finisher for some time, one place behind his main challenger. After some investigation, Johnson was determined to be the seventh finisher with Denny Hamlin two places behind him. Hamlin instantly went from only two points behind Johnson to 14 points behind. The final determinations were probably accurate, but why not just have a green-white-checker finish so that the fans can actually see who won? I guess that would be too simple.

The argument is that we could have too many starts at a place like Talladega, but isn’t that the point? Why go through all the problem of shotgun starts and making sure folks see the race end without a caution only to have that happen in a case like this? It’s another example of faulty thinking and should be looked at for next season, but it won’t.

Regardless, Clint Bowyer, the guy who won the first race in the playoff system won his second race without penalty and the scoring dilemma continues to exist. Nothing like progress, right?

Well The Amp Energy Juice 500 is over. Hallowdega has given way to All Saints Day and the commercial rate on ESPN has gone back to normal.

The Amp Energy Juice 500 appeared to be an exciting race of side by side balls to the wall racing. With the top contenders not necessarily being chase drivers. Note that I said appeared to be. The reason for that is that there were no fewer than 29 sets of 6 – 8 commercials in the broadcast. Approximately every 3 minutes we went to commercial. We missed 2 restarts and 2 caution flags none of which did we get on replay. I think it’s just a shame they had to interrupt the parade of commercials to show us any of the race at all. Please note the sarcasm here.

ESPN and ABC are the absolute worst when it comes to broadcasting NASCAR. You either wait for the football game. You wait for the baseball game. You wait for tennis, yeah tennis. Or you watch commercials more than you watch the race.

The camera work for Talladega was horrible. Obviously most of the camera work was done from the blimp. Long range shots that made it difficult to identify cars made the race frustrating to watch. For instance, it was incredibly frustrating to try and figure out where your driver was in the line of hot wheels appearing Sprint Cup cars if he was driving a black car. The only easily identifiable black car in the field was the M&M’s Toyota and it was because from the normal camera angle that was used, it had orange polka dots on the hood.

Come on ESPN you are suppose to be the leader in sports coverage and this is the second time that you were obviously unprepared and ill equipped to deliver a suitable broadcast that was way over funded by the amount of commercials. You didn’t have Elliott Sadler’s wreck at Pocono and the entire Talladega race was horrible. There to date has not been a replay to show what actually triggered or happened to the 43 car of A. J. Allmendinger. Other than we watched him flip wildly and the slam the wall.

NASCAR for the last couple of years has been concerned about the drop in TV ratings and the drop in the number of tickets sold. They don’t seem to be able to come up with the reason. If I may be so bold as to suggest to them that they watch the same TV broadcast that their fans at home watch I think they might find the reason. The interruption of the broadcast of commericals for the race is minimal. No one wants to sit and watch the same commercials over and over and over. The third or fourth set people change the station. They turn to NFL coverage where there are 1/4 as many commercials.

People are not going to buy a ticket to come and see the type of racing that they see on TV. The race itself maybe excellent if you are there in person, but what is shown on TV is so broken up and follow the leader in appearance that it’s boring. Perception is reality. And the perception is that NASCAR has become a choppy half hearted manipulated show and not a race at all. The penalties to Bowyer after Richmond only served to solidify that. Without the penalties Bowyer would be 5th in the points and still mathematically in the hunt. With the penalty it’s all Harvick, Hamlin and Jimmie.

The appearance is that they manipulated the championship with the penalty. Especially since they claim they had warned the team numerous times. If that is the case why did you wait until the first chase race to penalize the team and take them out of contention for the championship? There was either someone you didn’t want in so you let it go so that Bowyer would get the last spot or you didn’t take him seriously until he won and you realized oops this messes up our plans. Note that I said it is the appearance. But again Perception is Reality. That reality hurts TV ratings and ticket sales. It hurts fan loyalty.

The race itself what we saw of it was exciting. There were many stand out performances. For instance, Jeff Burton in his 31 CAT Financial Chevrolet, Burton was lightening fast and would have no doubt been a contender for the win had he not got caught up in the accident with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr was well Dale Jr again. He was burning up the track and his competition. He was smooth. He was in control. He was calm and he was calculating. Then he misjudged Jeff Burton’s drop to the middle and caught him with a bump draft too far to the right. Taking them both out of contention for the win. But Dale Jr led 24 laps, more than any other driver. And he showed a lot of class when he exited his car and immediately went to the Infield Care Center to apologize to Jeff Burton.

Kevin Harvick’s dramatic run for the win in a badly damaged Realtree Chevrolet was inspiring. It certainly shows he has the never say die attitude of a champion. It also shows that his pit crew and team also have that same attitude.

Clint Bowyer has never given up. Not with the penalty. Not with the micro scrutiny. He has come to the front when he had the car and made every effort to win. His fight to the checkers attitude won him the Amp Energy Juice 500. He won by a bumper. He won in literally a photo finish.

Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon stroked their way to strong finishes. They waited around the back markers and played it safe all day long until Chad Knaus made the announcement it was time to go. Then they went to the front with Johnson pushing Gordon. When Gordon thought his engine was failing he quickly ducked out of the draft line so as not to take Jimmie with him when the engine let go. But it didn’t let go. The misinterpertation of the problem did however, end the shot at the win for both drivers.

The Sprint Cup drivers avoided the big one for the most part. Although the wreck on the last lap came close how close we really don’t know because we didn’t actually get to see it. But at least, this time Talladega didn’t become a million dollar junkyard despite speeds in excess of 200 mph. Perhaps this should be a point of reference for Robin Pemberton and NASCAR. The drivers are capable of more than you give them credit for. And when you let go, they take off and low and behold all is well.

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Congratulations to Clint Bowyer on an exciting victory and to RCR for having the class of the field once again at the super speedways. Congratulations to Kyle Busch on his Camping World Truck Series win. And most of all congratulations to Dale Earnhardt Jr on showing he is every bit as talented and classy as his Jr. Nation thinks him to be.

That said, to all the competitors in all the series thanks for giving us everything you have to give, you are our heroes. Most importantly, thanks to all the families who shared their loved ones with us so we could cheer our favorite driver and favorite teams. You are the true heroes of the sport and we are forever in your debt.