If Kyle Busch was hoping to avoid sounding sour about the finish of last Saturday's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona by not talking to the media after the event, he failed in his mission with his comments Thursday at Chicagoland Speedway.
In his weekly media visit, Busch revealed that he felt "dumped" by Tony Stewart, that he doesn't have feelings and that drivers that cause last-lap wrecks for the win should be penalized.
Of course, the comments about his incident with Stewart rang the loudest -- especially after Stewart said Wednesday that the two had talked about the last-lap crash that took the win from Busch and gave it to Stewart.
Still unclenching the teeth after that grinding multi-car wreck to finish the Coke Zero 400, here's the latest -- and greatest -- edition of Sprint Cup Notes & Quotes.
Busch, Stewart Wreck Avoidable
Just as there was after Talladega, there's been those this week claiming that restrictor plate racing is the reason why we've had big wrecks to end the last two plate races -- whether it was Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards at 'Dega or Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch on Saturday night at Daytona.
Where:Daytona Int'l Speedway Time: Saturday 8:00pm/EDT TV/Radio: TNT, MRN Radio Twitter: Updates at FanHouseRacing Forecast: 74 degrees, Partly Cloudy Distance: 160 laps (400 miles) Pole Winner:Tony Stewart 2008 Winner:Kyle Busch
The Storylines
Harking back to the DEI days of old, it's not hard to assume why Dale Earnhardt Jr. is finally coming to a track in 2009 where he'll have a legitimate shot to win.
Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona will mark the official midway point of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Naturally, it's a great time to review what we've seen so far from the Cup boys, their teams, the series and the tracks. First, we'll start with the not-so-hot performers: Motorsports FanHouse Grade: F
Dale Earnhardt Jr.- It's been easy to see why the season for driver No. 88 has earned a failing grade. He's been slowly -- very slowly -- improving of late, but still has no chance for the Chase in 2009 and has one track left with a great chance to win at -- Daytona.
After what the Charlotte Observer is calling a "loud confrontation" at a Manchester, N.H., hotel prior to last Sunday's Lenox 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, TNT play-by-play announcer Bill Weber won't be returning to the booth in 2009.
The network announced the move Wednesday, and also confirmed that Ralph Sheheen will continue in the replacement role for the final two TNT races this weekend in Daytona Beach and next at Chicagoland.
Sheheen did a bang-up job in his first coverage of a Sprint Cup race on Sunday, but the bigger question surrounds what exactly Weber did to force himself out of the booth for what will ultimately be half of TNT's NASCAR coverage.
It's quite easy to think that after the season's first two races, Jeff Gordon's 2009 appears headed in one direction.
A direction, that is, that will lead to his four Sprint Cup championship trophies earning a fifth partner on Gordon's mantle.
But lest we get caught up in the hype -- or is it desire? -- of seeing one of the sport's icons rise back to the top before realizing that the No. 24's disappointing 2008 started out in much the same fashion.
With the stars and cars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series set to take the season's second green flag Sunday afternoon, FanHouse bloggers Holly Cain and Geoffrey Miller debate the oh-so-touchy subject of NASCAR's presence at Southern California's Auto Club Speedway.
NASCAR's newly-revised drug abuse policy -- instituted with a heavier hand and heavier rules for 2009 -- picked up its first positive test following the sport's season opening events last weekend in Daytona Beach, Fla.
That test belonged to Paul Chodora, an over-the-wall crew member for Jeremy Mayfield's No. 41 upstart race team.
Former Sprint Cup driver Kyle Petty made some interesting comments last weekend at Daytona that were somewhat swept under the rug.
Of course, the factors of the race being the biggest on the circuit and the controversy that followed will often do that news stories of smaller value.
However, Petty's words indicated that there was obviously a healthy dose of tension between him and the rest of the leaders at the now-former Petty Enterprises -- including his father, Richard -- thanks to the business moves the team has made in the past year.
Are television viewers more important than full races? I think its a very valid question to wonder why NASCAR is so willing to push the snooze button later and later on Sunday afternoons with the start times of its Sprint Cup Series races.
It was just eight years ago that the Daytona 500 started at 12:30pm local time, while Sunday, it started after 3:40pm local time. The reason? Television ratings and commercial advertising rates go up the later in the day thanks to West Coast viewers and the "prime time" effect kicking in on the East Coast.
If Kyle Busch was hoping to avoid sounding sour about the finish of last Saturday's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona by not talking to the media after the event, he failed in his mission with his comments Thursday at Chicagoland Speedway.
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