FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is at the track in Concord, N.C. for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 in full fan mode. He's hoping to avoid Kevin Harvick's motor coach driver from his location in the Ford Grandstand, Section I.
Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson and every other leader in Saturday night's Bank of America 500 proved one thing: NASCAR's biggest trump card to winning a race is still the clean air a driver gets, and the timing of that can pretty much guarantee a particular race's winner.
Of course, this isn't to rag on Jeff Burton or claim he secured an unjust victory because he certainly pulled out all of the stops with a great but risky call in the pits and holding off Jimmie Johnson for the lead as the laps wound down.
Instead, I'm just hoping that NASCAR is realizing how bitterly important the nose design on the Car of Tomorrow is, and how much it truly affects both the lead car and the trailing car.
For evidence, one only has to look so far as the laps led column from Saturday night's 334-lap race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Five drivers -- Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers and Jimmie Johnson -- led at least 42 laps in the event, with most of them coming on successive runs.
FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is at the track in Concord, N.C. for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 in full fan mode. He's hoping to avoid Kevin Harvick's motor coach driver from his location in the Ford Grandstand, Section I.
"In my opinion, the 01 (Smith) was forced below the line," Earnhardt Jr. said on Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
"The two did make contact – (Smith) was on the inside of Tony and he had no choice other than to move away from Tony and that sends him below the line and in my opinion, the 01 wins the race. I feel like Tony did what he had to do. In the car, everyone would have done what Tony did, everyone would have done what the 01 did. Neither one of them were wrong or right.
"What's curious is when are you forced? Show me some video. I want to know what's forced and what's not. I felt like that was being forced."
And can you argue with Earnhardt Jr.? His statement further exemplifies how confused drivers were on NASCAR's rule, and how they remain to be confused now even after NASCAR tried to clarify the rule this week.
FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is at the track in Concord, N.C. for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 in full fan mode. He's hoping to avoid Kevin Harvick's motor coach driver from his location in the Ford Grandstand, Section I.
He'll try to change it by painting his No. 18 Toyota pink for Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway -- and its for a great cause.
Busch, as well as Bobby Labonte's No. 43 and Elliott Sadler's No. 19 will sport pink paint schemes in the Bank of America 500 in support of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure grassroots breast cancer awareness group -- and I've got to say, the paint jobs look pretty good.
The cars will be sporting the new look thanks to the initiative from each team's respective sponsors making an effort to help promote awareness of breast cancer, and NASCAR having 40 percent of its fan base in women -- according to the press release -- is certainly a great place to do so.
Stanley Tools, M&M's, and General Mills are all also making contributions to the Komen foundation with Stanley pitching in $100,000, M&M's making a minimum donation of $650,000 and General Mills has already tossed $2 million into the cause in 2008.
FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is at the track in Concord, N.C. for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 in full fan mode. He's hoping to avoid Kevin Harvick's motor coach driver from his location in the Ford Grandstand, Section I.
It was a marathon affair, but Kyle Busch finally took home the second half of a Lowe's Motor Speedway Nationwide Series sweep early Saturday morning.
Busch started what was supposed to be a Friday night-only event as the defending track winner after he took the Nationwide Series race at LMS back in May.
Two rain showers -- actually, they resembled more of a large misting fan being turned on above the track -- stopped the event for roughly an hour and a half total and together with 13 cautions in 200-lap race pushed the finish of the race to well past 12am/ET.
The lengthy delays and numerous cautions weren't a factor for Busch as he led the event for 137 laps, though some drivers felt his pace on restarts at the front of the field were a big factor in two incidents that happened as the field took the green flag on the frontstetch.
ESPN telemetry, though, didn't necessarily show Busch had been brake-checking or otherwise causing a logjam of the field.
As the fans stream from the parking lots after the Coca-Cola 600, here's some final thoughts on the weekend:
Is Kasey Kahne for real? We've seen him run well and win at the 1.5-mile tracks often, but can he make 2008 a season to remember? Winning two-in-a-row at Charlotte is a great thing, but will the No. 9 be around in the Chase?
Kurt Busch Was Pissed. Busch cut down a right-front tire on lap 161 while having his best non-restrictor plate run of the year. He was in second at the time, but had led substantially before that. After the accident, Busch was irate over the team radio and here's some of the important lines I remember.
"Typical Penske Racing s***. I was loose, how in the (bad word) do I blow a right front tire?"
It continued for a while after that, with Busch trying to get an answer as to how it happened. There seems to be some frustration there, and you wonder if that means that the seat is getting warmer for Busch.
Track Position Is the Wonder Drug. I'm going to write more about this later in the week, but track position was the single-most important thing drivers could have Sunday night. For instance, Jeff Gordon ran similar lap times for much of the race while in 20th-place as the leaders did, but he couldn't go anywhere. That's the biggest thing NASCAR needs to work on.
Jeff Gordon may have had a car capable of running in the Top-10, but he simply didn't have the track position.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the car to beat until lap 296 when he blew a tire and slapped the wall -- while leading.
Somehow, though, the two Hendrick Motorsports teammates ended up fourth (Gordon) and fifth (Earnhardt Jr.) in the final standings of Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600.
Earnhardt Jr. truly had a car that was one of the top two or three in the entire field, and he likely had the best car as the race was set to begin its final 100 laps of the scheduled 400. Then, his right rear tire went flat as he prepared to lap Hendrick teammate Gordon while entering turn 3 on lap 296, and the No. 88 veered into the wall.
Luckily, Earnhardt had been using the high lane all evening so the impact wasn't as severe as it could have been. The team brought him to pit road many times under the subsequent caution, threw some new rubber on it, pulled out the fenders, and double-checked the suspension.
Junior rejoined the race around 20th, but the car just wasn't the same.
That's where his path aligned with that of Jeff Gordon's team and how to maximize their final finish.
Kahne scored his second consecutive victory in the Sprint Cup Series in the 600 to add to his Sprint Cup All-Star Race win from a week ago -- both of which came over 2nd-place Greg Biffle. Kyle Busch was third, Jeff Gordon fourth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. fifth.
It was a crazy night here in Concord and the race provided what we expect from 600 miles on Memorial Day weekend. What we expect, of course, is the unexpected.
Kahne was easily one of the fastest race cars all night long, but he and his team managed to pull out the win despite the event ending as a fuel mileage event after the the yellow flag didn't wave for the final 62 laps.
What a night it was here Saturday in Concord, N.C.
Kyle Busch scored the victory in one of the most entertaining Nationwide Series races at Lowe's Motor Speedway I've seen. Busch's ninth total NASCAR win in 2008, though, wasn't exactly the top memory.
Instead, it was Denny Hamlin taking on two-thirds of the JR Motorsports contingent present for the event.
You can read more into at the Associated Press piece, but the gist of the happenings was that Brad Keselowski gave Hamlin a little tap under the yellow from behind to let Hamlin know he was there, Hamlin slowed and swerved into Keselowski's left front fender bending it in, and then Dale Earnhardt Jr. then stood up for the car he owns (Keselowski) and bumped Hamlin in the door.
Busch ran first with those three behind him and appeared to be in danger of getting beat in the final two-lap green flag finish until a caution came out on the final lap before the teams could enter turn three. Instead, he held on.
When the cars came to a stop after the race on pit road, there was plenty of pushing and shoving and NASCAR officials trying to maintain order. It was as close to an all-out brawl as you can get, but tempers evantually settled, allowing for some tremendous quotes.
Today was simply an off day for all of the NASCAR teams in Charlotte, as there was no on-track activity at Lowe's Motor Speedway. In other words, if you had a boat on Lake Norman in nearby Mooresville, N.C., you'd likely have seen your fair share of drivers and team members enjoying the day.
Despite the fact that I've found myself a bit under the weather, we managed to kick up some dust today in and around the Concord area. Here's a look back on some of the sights:
For those who worried that the "Sea of Red" wouldn't change to a "Sea of Green" after Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s departure from DEI, there is nothing to be concerned about. In fact, I tried to see one person walking around today with a No. 8 Budweiser shirt on, and they were nowhere to be found.
For as long as I've been here, the main drive leading from I-85 to LMS was "Speedway Blvd." until this year, when it became "Bruton Smith Blvd." The name change came as a concession made the Concord City Council after they tried to challenge Bruton on his new drag strip and lost big time. That's a nice reminder to the Council about what not to do when working with a billionaire whose product has brought so much to your community.
Speaking of that new drag strip (horribly named zMax Dragway @ Concord) it's coming along quite quickly with many of the main buildings erected, the stands and suites coming to shape, and the track grading in progress. Of course when the first race at the track is in September...
Generally, when Bruton Smith says he'll do something, he's gonna do it.
So when Smith promised both the ownership group of Kentucky Speedway and the world at a news conference on Thursday confirming his purchase of the facility that Kentucky would have a Sprint Cup race date in 2009, you've got to believe it will happen.
But at what cost to other race dates?
The only obvious answer I've got is that next season, at least one race at a current track will be eliminated in favor of the event in the Bluegrass State.
There are now three race tracks left on the Sprint Cup schedule not owned by either International Speedway Corp. or Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc. Those tracks are Indianapolis (one race), Dover (two races), and Pocono (two races).
The final two in that list are both on Smith's radar for purchase with the primary goal of moving one of those race dates to Kentucky. If such a deal can't happen, Smith may move a race date from one of his current race tracks, though the track presidents from Atlanta and New Hampshire Motor Speedways have released statements that they are signing agreements with NASCAR for 2009 race dates on Friday.
Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson and every other leader in Saturday night's Bank of America 500 proved one thing: NASCAR's biggest trump card to winning a race is still the clean air a driver gets, and the timing of that can pretty much guarantee a particular race's winner.
Regan Smith
It's no outlandish statement to say that 
It was a marathon affair, but 
As the fans stream from the parking lots after the Coca-Cola 600, here's some final thoughts on the weekend:
What a night it was here Saturday in Concord, N.C. 
Today was simply an off day for all of the NASCAR teams in Charlotte, as there was no on-track activity at Lowe's Motor Speedway. In other words, if you had a boat on Lake Norman in nearby Mooresville, N.C., you'd likely have seen your fair share of drivers and team members enjoying the day.
Generally, when 
