I had hoped to announce the NASCAR Ron Thornton series, but I came up about $200 million short. Instead, the former Busch series and soon to be former Nationwide series shall be the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the next 10 years. Oh, so close.
Atlanta was a race we thought would be decided by a driver who had a great car, one who had a great pit crew, or one who was simply too desperate for victory to be denied. In the end, it was decided by two guys who turned their high-powered machines into bumper cars to force a green-white-checker...or two.
With an intense heat radiating from the track and an even more intense return to the track for Tony Stewart, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 55th annual Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
A curmudgeon. An old fart who sits in the wings like a Muppet and mocks those upon the stage. In this case, for me that includes the three in the booth and the three on the desk offered up by ESPN. I am sure even a certain green talking frog would not have been safe from my sarcasm.
With an impassioned driver’s meeting speech by Carl Edwards urging safety and throttling back during cautions at such a high-speed track, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 45th annual Pure Michigan 400.
The news of late has been enough to make a clown cry. In fact, we just lost one of our most treasured entertainers, by his own hand. We have the tragedy involving Kevin Ward Jr. and Tony Stewart still on our minds. We have Martin Truex Jr.’s girlfriend facing health challenges.
Surprising: Team Penske had an interesting day, with one driver taking the broom while the other driver went boom. Brad Keselowski, this week behind the wheel of the No. 2 Redd's Ford, took his broom to Victory Lane, sweeping both the Nationwide and Cup races and scoring his first lobster trophy at New Hampshire.
Surprising: In spite of the fits and starts of the race due to the rain, the Coke 600 was still the stuff of legends, from the anniversary victory for The King and Richard Petty Motorsports to the last call of Barney Hall of Motor Racing Network.
This Saturday we are off to Kentucky, a day early and an entry short. Well, early if you think of Sunday as the usual race day, and short as we will have 42 entries instead of the usual 43. Michael McDowell, who was 24th at Sonoma last Sunday, won’t be joining us.
There is no doubt about it; winning is big in the Cup series this year. Race enough to be deemed a regular, sit among the top 30 in points, and a win pretty much gives one a pass to the promised land. It is exciting and has that all-important unpredictability factor we love.
