For years this 1.366 mile track has been a staple for the sport, and NASCAR looks to continue that tradition. This track that many have nicknamed “The Lady in Black”,  “Too Tough to Tame”, always lives up to those  names.  In the fall of 1949, Harold Brasington had a vision just outside of Darlington, South Carolina that most men had only dreamed of.

[media-credit name=”Joe Dunn” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Many have questioned the unique design of the “egg shaped” track, it came to be when (Turns 3&4) were narrowed so they wouldn’t disturb the minnow pond just outside.

The first race was set to be scheduled on Labor Day of 1950, Harold wasn’t expecting many, he estimated at that time maybe 10,000 would show up for attendance. To his amazement, as well as the others in Darlington, S.C., over 25,000 showed up in attendance causing fans to literally stand on top of one another. 75 drivers set the field that day, and the driver that started P75, Johnny Mantz drove on to victory lane.

Home to one of the closest finishes in NASCAR history, Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven, took that honor in 2003 when Craven edged out Kurt Busch by only .002 sec, earning his 2nd career NASCAR Sprint Cup victory.

In 2004, the Darlington Raceway started a new tradition, having the race on Mother’s Day weekend. Along with this tradition, all of the driver’s mothers line up in the front of the track to participate in the pre-race ceremonies, “Gentleman Start Your Engines!”

The track “Too Tough to Tame” has definitely lived up to it’s name, and remains a NASCAR fan’s favorite. The question remains, who will learn to tame this track, and go dancing with the lady in black?

Anyone connected to the executive branch of Joe Gibbs Racing, (JGR), will be happy to tell you about the rewards from participating in the NASCAR weekend at the Richmond International Raceway. If you want some good examples of the rant portion of the weekend then ask Ryan Newman or Juan Pablo Montoya. Regarding the raves from Richmond, contact Denny Hamlin. I’ve never seen anyone so thrilled over a second place finish. With those thoughts in mind, let’s begin with:

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”276″][/media-credit]HOORAH to JGR for the one-two finish, from drivers Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, following last Saturday night’s Crown Royal Presents The Matthew and Daniel Hansen 400. The stats compiled by this organization at Richmond are simply amazing. Kyle Busch has won the last three, consecutive, spring races at the Virginia short track. Denny Hamlin has won the last two, consecutive, fall races at Richmond. The last time a non JGR driver won at this track was Jimmie Johnson back in 2008.

HOORAH to Kyle Busch’s second win of 2011. Not only did he dominate Saturday night’s race, leading 235 of 400 laps, but it was also a nice birthday present. Busch turned 26 years old on Monday.

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Also from the Richmond rewards department, HOORAH to Hamlin for winning Thursday night’s Short Track Showdown late model race presented by the Denny Hamlin Foundation. 90 percent of the proceeds, from this fourth annual event, will benefit the foundation’s long standing list of charities including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, St Jude Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital in Richmond. The remaining 10 percent will be donated to providing aid to the victims of the recent tornadoes that ravaged the southeastern portion of the country.

HOORAH to Denny Hamlin for winning Friday night’s Bubba Burger 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond. HOORAH to his crew chief, Adam Stevens, for scoring his first ever NASCAR win in one of their national series.

HOORAH to Hamlin for his second place finish in Saturday’s Sprint Cup race. This team, considered to be a pre season favorite to content for the championship, has endured a up and down, roller coaster, of a season so far and they desperately needed this top five finish. But WAZZUP with the bizarre numbers situation that left Hamlin still stuck at 17th in the championship points standings?

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From the Richmond rants department, WAZZUP with all of the fuel mileage issues from last weekend? This is NASCAR short track racing and issues related to fuel conservation were completely unexpected.

This Sunoco trend started Thursday night, during the Denny Hamlin Foundation late model event, when Hamlin won this event on the final lap after race leader Kyle Busch ran out of gas. Commenting on his Sprint Cup team mate’s fuel issues from victory lane, Hamlin said “I’m glad he ran out of fuel because that might have gotten ugly. If Kyle wouldn’t have run out of gas, I would have done everything possible to get around him.”

During Friday night’s Nationwide Series event, Hamlin’s crew chief told him to back down on his race speed. Crew Chief Adam Stevens called for 24 second laps, very slow at Richmond, to help ease a potential fuel problem. But Hamlin got a huge break when Ricky Stenhouse Jr slowed on the race track due to lack of fuel. Making the situation worse was the fact that Stenhouse couldn’t make it to the pit road entrance and the car came to a rest out on the track which brought out the second caution flag of the event. It also allowed Hamlin to duck into the pits for gas prior to the restart. Stenhouse later said “it was the most helpless feeling I’ve ever had.” The fuel miscue led to a 21st place finish and a slide from first to fifth in the points.

A WAZZUP also goes to Aric Almirola’s gas tank which went dry about the same time Stenhouse ran out of gas. The big problem here was a speeding penalty that was levied on Almirola as he was leaving pit road. He fell from third to 14th in the race’s final rundown.

Fuel issues really hit driver Carl Edwards hard during the Nationwide Series race. With 33 laps remaining, Edwards coasted down pit road with a dry tank. Following a rather slow pit stop, the car stalled and wouldn’t re fire. The crew pushed his car out of the pit box, while spraying the carburetor with ether. Next they were informed that they were going to be summoned back to pit road to serve a penalty for pit service outside of their designated pit box. A highly frustrated Edwards had to settle for a 25th place finish, five laps down.

The pit road penalty created a little confusion that was cleared up by NASCAR officials after the race. A public statement read: “we made a mistake with the #60 car. You can roll your car out of the pit box for three stalls without a penalty. You cannot pass the end of pit road in doing so.” Edwards, who is not competing for the Nationwide Series championship, was informed of the mistake afterwards but was more concerned over why the car ran out of gas to begin with.

It was also likely that he was more concerned with getting home to Columbia-Missouri where his wife was expected to deliver the couple’s second child at literally any moment. A GOD BLESS goes to the Edwards family for this very special time in their lives.

Even Kyle Busch was not immune to fuel issues during the Sprint Cup race. During the waning laps of the event, both crew chief Dave Rogers and team President J D Gibbs were on the radio telling their driver to back down on the lap times so he could make it to the end. It was later reported that their car was completely out of gas when it arrived at victory lane.

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A major WAZZUP, and the biggest Richmond rant of all, goes to the Ryan Newman versus Juan Pablo Montoya feud that we probably haven’t seen the end of yet. On lap 104 Newman got into the back of Montoya’s car which caused him to scrape the wall, damage his spoiler and spend a lot of time on pit road for repairs. By all appearances, this was a racing deal that certainly didn’t appear to be intentional. Newman asked his spotter if things had been squared with Montoya. He was told that Montoya’s spotter was “non responsive.”

It’s likely that Montoya was on the radio making one of his famous “it sucks” comments. Approximately 40 laps later, Montoya found himself racing behind Newman and used the opportunity to spin his race rival with a move that clearly was intentional. Newman was running in eighth at the time and a top ten finish was now gone. He finished 20th while Montoya came home in 29th. After the race, Newman made a short comment regarding Montoya’s “lack of class” and entered the NASCAR hauler to discuss the matter. Montoya exited his car and was transported out of the garage in a golf cart and never made a post race comment.

WAZZUP with that on track retaliation? Okay, I understand that it comes under the guidelines of NASCAR’s “have at it boys” policy. I also get that this feud provided a great deal of excitement in a race that was beginning to get somewhat tedious. I also get that incidents of this nature is often a big part of short track racing. But I’ve said it many times in the past: I do not like on track retaliation because it often creates safety issues and collects innocent victims. In this case the victim was Kurt Busch who had no place to go other than into the side of Newman’s car.

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WAZZUP with that accident involving Jeff Gordon who found himself hitting the only piece of Richmond retaining wall not covered by an energy absorbing SAFER barrier? Caught in the midst of a multi car accident on lap 300 Saturday night, Gordon was sent spinning into a crook of the inside of a solid concrete wall. The hit was vicious and literally knocked the wind out of the driver. He later said “that hurt, I pick the worst fricking places to hit the walls.”

I’ve always regarded the SAFER barriers as one of the most important inventions for race track safety. I don’t understand why any portion of a retaining wall at a race track, on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule, isn’t covered by these barriers.

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In still more WAZZUPS, regarding Richmond rants, there was the matter of Kurt Busch who just had a miserable weekend in Richmond. That process began with a 36th starting position and moved on to scraping the wall and then having to deal with major handling issues all night long. Then there was the matter of being caught up in the aforementioned Newman-Montoya feud. He wound up with a 22nd place finish and fell to sixth in the points standings.

Having said that, Busch does get a HOORAH for the best in car radio transmission during the Richmond race if not even the best radio comment of the entire season. Well known for his candid comments during moments of on track frustration, Busch came over the radio and said: “we’re like a monkey f****** a football out here.”

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WAZZUP with Martin Truex Jr threatening to fire his entire crew during the Richmond Sprint Cup race? After running strong, and leading some laps, Truex had to return to pit road following a pit stop to replace a missing lug nut. Then, with 33 laps to go, a slow stop had him leaving pit road too fast and he had to return to settle a speeding on pit road infraction. Truex came over his radio and said: “you’re all fired, every one of you.”

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WAZZUP with Tony Stewart and his post race comments regarding his race team? After spending a frustrating night night clawing his way to a ninth place finish, the co owner of Stewart-Haas Racing said: “we have a lot of work to do. We suck right now. I am embarrassed about how bad our stuff is. We can’t make our cars turn for anything. I mean, we have a lot of work to do right now. There are three organizations that are kicking our rear ends now something awful. It’s going to be a long year if we race like this.”

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Regarding some Richmond raves, a HOORAH goes to Jimmie Johnson for making chicken salad out of chicken do-do. Johnson spent most of the Richmond race dealing with severe handling problems that had him a lap down at one point. He also managed to lose control of his car just long enough to hit Joey Logano and bring out a caution flag. He even growled at crew chief Chad Knaus which is something we haven’t seen in years. But the team remained calm and Knaus eventually came up with the adjustments needed to turn a sure fire terrible race into an eighth place finish.

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HOORAH to driver Dave Blaney, and Tommy Baldwin Racing, for their rock solid 13th place finish at Richmond. The effort moves the team inside of the top 35 in NASCAR owner’s points which will guarantee them a starting berth in next weekend’s race at Darlington. That effort comes on the heels of team announcements that said they had secured solid sponsorship programs from Golden Corral Restaurants and Big Red Soda.

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The final comment of the week is a GOD Bless to driver Elliot Sadler who announced that his wife is expecting their second child. He also gets a HOORAH for a great line, during a SPEED Channel interview last Friday, when he said “I’m not sure if I had permission to announce that yet.”

Rubbing is racing but Juan Pablo Montoya had none of it Saturday night in Richmond. Never known to back down, Montoya was out for revenge after contact with Ryan Newman sent his pole-winning car to pit road for repairs and an eventual 29th place finish.

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]The two got together on the backstretch on lap 106 after Newman got into Montoya’s right rear. It bounced the No. 42 off the wall and damaged the right quarter panel and spoiler. Upon returning to the track, Montoya went in search of Newman to return the favor and the Stewart-Haas Racing driver knew it was coming telling his team “it’s not cool.”

On lap 236 Montoya succeeded and Newman suffered damage to the left side and rear of his No. 39 Chevrolet. NASCAR did not black flag Montoya nor called him to the hauler for the obvious payback, instead telling him to steer clear of Newman the remainder of the race. When the checkered flag flew Montoya hightailed it out of the track, avoiding reporters and Newman who went to NASCAR for an explanation.

Fireworks were expected, media were in place as well the cameras after Newman stated during the race things would be taken care of outside the car. Instead everyone was left with nothing more than seeing what was once a hot ballon slowly deflate instead of explode. Short track racing at its best as tempers flared but there was no expected confrontation. It would be easy to pass off Montoya’s actions as just the repercussions of racing on a short track, but there’s a little more too it.

First, it’s not the first time Newman and Montoya have had a disagreement over track space. But it was seeing Montoya leave without confronting Newman that was much different than the Montoya seen in the past. In 2007 at Watkins Glen he got out of the car during the race and engaged in a discussion with Kevin Harvick, which turned to shoving and helmet pulling, after the two spun in turn one. Harvick said at the time it seems Montoya is running over someone every week.

At Homestead in 2009, he repaid Tony Stewart from early in the race when the two went door-to-door. The hit was again blatant and obvious, much like what occurred Saturday night. He’s not afraid to insult others, even his own teammate as he did last year at Las Vegas, or go at it with his pit crew and crew chief. Montoya can get as red hot as the color of his Target Chevrolet.

His competition is well aware of it too. They know what they’re getting into when they go head-to-head with Colombian. But whether Montoya was justified in feeling angry about the contact from Newman it doesn’t mean he has much sympathy.

Third place finisher Kasey Kahne normally isn’t aware of other on track action unless it’s around him. Kahne though, said Saturday night in regards to the incident that things are going to happen in this sport and a driver just needs to be strong and focus on getting what points he can.

Montoya has only made the Chase once in his NASCAR career, 2009. During that season his crew chief had to continually remind him about the big picture. He’s more of a here-and-now type driver and wants to get what he can, when he can and forget about the rest. If that means he has to ruffle a few feathers then so be it, he’s here to win not make friends.

Montoya is in a position to make the Chase early in the 2011 season. He sits ninth in points following his finish in Richmond with four top 10s in the first nine races. Actions though like on Saturday could end up costing him later in the season not only in terms of the Chase but he still searches for his first win on an oval.

There’s no room for repaying every driver who rubs him the wrong way. Whether it’s Newman or champions like Stewart, Jeff Gordon or telling Mark Martin he needs driving lessons, Montoya isn’t going to back down and neither will his competitor’s opinion’s of his racing style.

“I watch the screen,” said second place finisher Denny Hamlin when asked if he had seen the incident.

“I don’t like it. Every time Montoya has damage and you see who did it, they usually end up getting wrecked,” he continued. “You usually know that’s coming. You have to realize, Montoya, I like him, I think he’s a helluva driver but you can’t wreck everyone every time you get in an accident. Accidents happen. Guys make mistakes. Why hold grudges?”

More importantly said Hamlin “Makes it tough to get in the Chase, too.”