Saturday's Camping World 300 Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway somehow started with a 54 lap green flag run.
That all came to a grinding halt when David Gililland and Mark Green were caught up in a hard crash in turn two.
The incident, as the video below shows, that Greg Biffle tapped the rear end of Gilliland's car, which forced his car to lose control. Gilliland's car then hung the right rear of Mark Green's car. Watch below:
Both were head-on impacts with very little time to slow the car.
The key difference since then? HANS (Head and Neck Support) devices and the SAFER barriers that cushion the blow a race car takes instead of deadening it against a wall have obviously come a long way.
I'm sure Mark Green is still ticked about losing two race cars this week, but having him around, as well any other drivers NASCAR has helped with more safety restrictions is a darn good thing.
Kyle Busch finished second Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Daytona driving like a girl, according to Martin Truex Jr.
Truex was heated after finishing 11th in the Camping World 300 despite challenging for the lead late in the race. A block by Busch as Truex tried to take second place killed his momentum and opportunity to challenge Tony Stewart for the win.
"Kyle drives like a girl," Truex said. "I mean, come on. We're out here racing for fun. We had a hell of a battle. I had a lot of fun racing today with him, and then I had a huge run and he just blocked me. I pretty much knew he was going to do it. I had such a run and had to go."
It sounds like Truex is a fan of the movie "The Sandlot", in which one of the most familiar lines is "You play ball like a girl!".
Busch's comeback wasn't nearly as awesome:
"What else you going to do, man? " Busch said "Shoot, he's pushing me through the tri-oval, wanting to spin me out. I'm sorry I saved it and kept it in front of him. Grow up, bud. What do you want me to do, pull over? Next question."
Kyle's comeback lacked mainly because someone younger than someone else can't tell that other person to grow up. That just doesn't make sense.
Busch is 22 while Truex is 27.
If this turns into a nice rivalry, I can't wait for the short tracks. Who Will the Daytona 500? Find out at the Fanhouse Warmup: Daytona 500.
Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage. On Sunday, stop by for the live blog of the 50th Daytona 500 at 3:00pm/ET.
For as much as Toyota struggled with their entry into the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series in 2007, they've seemingly made that up already during speedweeks at Daytona in 2008.
Tony Stewart continued that success in his No. 20 Armor All Toyota Camry Saturday afternoon Daytona in winning the Nationwide Series Camping World 300.
Stewart led 46 laps -- just one less than teammate Kyle Busch who led the most -- en route to his third career win in the opening event of the Nationwide Series. The two Gibbs drivers were the class of the field all day long.
Toyota took three of the top 5 spots and took it to the field most of the day. Brian Vickers, who qualified for Sunday's Daytona 500 by virtue of his Gatorade Duel qualifying race, finished 4th after battling for and taking the lead after a late restart.
Incredibly, the largest wreck of the day only involved roughly seven cars in a long slide off of turn four. The hardest hit, though, was suffered by Mark Green who get hung in the right rear by a spinning David Gililland and slammed the turn 2 wall head on.
Stewart's win was the first time a driver has won the Nationwide Series race at Daytona from the pole.
Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage. On Sunday, stop by for the live blog of the 50th Daytona 500 at 3:00pm/ET.
NASCAR CEO Brian France made a rare media appearance on ESPN2's pre-race coverage prior to Saturday afternoon's Camping World 300 for the Nationwide Series.
He had some interesting things to say in the brief interview, and tried to echo many of his comments from the pre-season media tour about limiting change in NASCAR for 2008 and trying to go "back to basics" -- the three word description of nearly everything NASCAR is doing for this season.
Rusty Wallace, Brad Daughtery, Dale Jarrett, and Allen Bestwick shared the set and asked France a few questions. Here's some of his answers: On whether or not the next-generation car will be used in the Nationwide Series in 2009
Brian France: "I'm not sure. This is the right time for limited change on anything we're going to do. We've got a good rules package in the Nationwide Series."
On the identity of the Nationwide Series
BF: "My view, it's much like college football is to the NFL. The longer you stay, the more prepared you are. You're better prepared when you move to the Sprint Cup."
On looking at limited participation of Sprint Cup drivers in the Nationwide Series
Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage. On Sunday, stop by for the live blog of the 50th Daytona 500 at 3:00pm/ET.
In addition to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s well-publicized move to Hendrick Motorsports in the off-season, his personal team, JR Motorsports, merged operations with Hendrick for the Nationwide Series campaign.
That hasn't started off well at Daytona International Speedway.
Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 5 National Guard Chevrolet will start 19th Saturday afternoon in the Camping World 300 (1:15/ET ESPN2), but qualifying for the race has been about the only bright spot.
Prior to qualifying, Earnhardt Jr.'s No 5 was impounded Thursday night by NASCAR after they noticed illegal rear spoiler modifications. The crew had changed something about the decklid and spoiler after inspection on Thursday morning, and NASCAR wasn't happy.
Friday morning, the No. 5 was returned to the team minus a decklid and spoiler, forcing the team to unbolt the decklid and spoiler assembly from the team's backup car and transfer it to the primary.
"Everybody tries to get a little bit on the cars and the rules and get in the gray area," Earnhardt said in a television interview. "Our guys were trying too hard on a car that didn't need it. The car's pretty good. We all learned a lesson and probably deal with penalties next week, which is pretty much standard. We'll be all right."
In other words, Earnhardt Jr. is ticked that his team is going to be fined and penalized for a race car that before the infraction could have won the race.
Other pre-race rules infractions included Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann having his carburetor confiscated and drivers Cale Gale, Johnny Sauter, David Gililland, David Stremme and Kertus David having post-qualifying issues with their oil tank lids.
I was in the pits with a bad vantage point yesterday when Brad Keselowski went for a horrifically wild ride at California Speedway, so I didn't know anything had happened until I saw a NASCAR pit road official give the signal that the caution was out. That was my cue to jump over behind the pit box and check out the replay, which you can see here:
It looked like a bad crash for sure--slamming the wall ... riding the rails in a ball of fire ... landing on top of another driver's car ... but I wasn't panicked until I saw the paramedics rush down pit road. Then the broadcast showed all the emergency workers gathered around a car, but by that time there were so many people hovering, I couldn't get close enough to see which driver couldn't get out of their car on their own. Mom was watching at home and filled me in--and was sure to let me know it was all my favorite J.J. Yeley's fault.
Seconds and minutes seemed like hours waiting for word that he was ok. When the California crowd roared, we knew he'd gotten out of the car, and even though he couldn't walk on his own, there were huge sighs of relief all around.
Word then spread quickly through the garage and down pit road when Keselowski self-diagnosed his broken foot and he was airlifted to a nearby hospital. But X-rays proved negative--he will follow up with a neurosurgeon this week.
Brad Keselowski, the driver of the JR Motorsports No. 88, was removed gingerly from his battered race car Saturday night at California Speedway after one of the hardest NASCAR wrecks in recent memory.
Keselowski was placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance with noticeable pain in his legs. He was later flown to a nearby hospital for X-rays on his legs.
Keselowski, 23, of Rochester Hills, Mich. was battling with A.J. Allmendinger for 18th spot on lap 67 when Allmendinger appeared to move into the path of J.J. Yeley entering turn one. Allmendinger spun down the track and clipped the rear end of Keselowski, shooting the No. 88 Chevrolet head-on into the outside wall. Yeley then clipped Eric McClure, resulting in a four car crash.
ESPN2 telemetry the No. 88 impacting the wall at over 140mph. The impact lifted Keselowski's car into the air enough to allow Allmendinger to briefly get under the spinning, flaming race car. Allmendinger's No. 42 suffered a broken A-post on the right side of the roll cage.
NASCAR red-flagged the race for repairs to the SAFER barrier.
A.J. Allmendinger talked to ESPN2 after getting released from the infield hospital.
"I thought i was clear, but then I got clipped in the right-rear," said Allmendinger.
"I felt so bad for Brad because that was a big hit. I think he's going to be OK. I talked to him in the infield hospital, and he didn't cuss at me, so I think we'll be OK."
NASCAR CEO Brian France made a rare media appearance on ESPN2's pre-race coverage prior to Saturday afternoon's Camping World 300 for the Nationwide Series.
In addition to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s well-publicized move to Hendrick Motorsports in the off-season, his personal team, JR Motorsports, merged operations with Hendrick for the Nationwide Series campaign.
Brad Keselowski, the driver of the JR Motorsports No. 88, was removed gingerly from his battered race car Saturday night at California Speedway after one of the hardest NASCAR wrecks in recent memory.
