DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 27, 2008) – NASCAR announced today that it has placed Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards on probation for the next six races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as a result of their on-track incident last Saturday at the conclusion of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Busch, driver of the No. 18 car and Edwards, driver of the No. 99 car, both violated Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing; hitting another competitor's car after the race had concluded) of the 2008 NASCAR rule book.
The probation takes effect beginning with this weekend's event at Auto Club Speedway.
Prior to 2008, the typical penalty for such post-race encounters included a monetary fine and seemed much steeper, but this penalty falls more in line with NASCAR's pledge from the beginning of the season to let the rough side drag a little more in the sport.
And can you blame them? The biggest news from Bristol was Busch & Edwards, not anything else.
75 percent? That number works just fine for Carl Edwards.
Banging the Sprint Cup point leader out of the way for a win? Well, that works too.
For the third time in four races, Edwards has chopped into the bonus point lead held by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch via a race win in the Sprint Cup Series. Saturday night that win -- his sixth of 2008 -- came in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Jeff Gordon has had two weeks of racing in a row that he would just like to forget.
Combine that with a season of ups and downs, and 2008 has been nothing like 2007 was for the four-time Sprint Cup champion. Thankfully for No. 24, though, the annual late-summer Sprint Cup visit to Bristol Motor Speedway is on tap for Saturday night.
With finishes of 29th and 42nd the past two weeks at tracks Gordon is normally quite good at -- Watkins Glen and Michigan -- the points situation for the Hendrick Motorsports team has tightened up quite a bit. Prior to that two-race stretch, Gordon was nearly in the group of drivers who could have been considered locks to the Chase.
A flat tire and a poor handle on his road course car derailed those thoughts as now Gordon sits less than 100 points from the Chase for the Sprint Cup cutoff spot of 13th position. Gordon currently sits ninth in the standings, but he was as high as sixth two weeks ago.
To go along with his ugly stats of recent, Gordon has failed to win a Sprint Cup race in all of 2008's 23 events.
History, though, is on Gordon's side as the Sprint Cup Series prepares to line 'em up for 500 laps at Bristol Saturday night.
Carl Edwards talked a few weeks ago about how this part of the Sprint Cup Series was going to be fun.
Fun, he said, because the team no longer was going to be racing for points but rather simply for wins in an attempt to catch Kyle Busch's win total and bonus point lead as the series heads towards the Chase to the Sprint Cup after Richmond in September.
So much for better racing at Bristol--it wasn't anything better than B-O-R-I-N-G. At least not for the fans. And I certainly don't think the Thunder Valley promo masters got any new footage for their usually fantastic commercials.
The new surface made for easier passing, which meant no more beatin' and banging your way by. Passing was so much easier, that green flag passes during Saturday night's Sharpie 500 more than doubled that of the spring race at Bristol – from 991 to 2,147.
Tony Stewart: "Guys were running over each other to pass each other. It's the most fun I've had at Bristol in my career. I can't give it a better grade than an A-plus."
Unfortunately, it wasn't any fun for the fans. All that passing amounted to only two drivers leading 487 of 500 laps. A huge snoozefest for millions of fan who've been anticipating the excitement of Bristol night race all season long.
Jeff Gordon says that he isn't too worried about his team's performance on the near-eve of the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Instead, the Nextel Cup point leader and first guy to lock himself into the 2007 edition of the Chase says, the team is ready to go for New Hampshire.
"I am not a big believer in luck. I think you have to make your luck. You have to be well prepared and make the right calls and decisions," said Gordon.
Saturday night at Bristol, the No. 24 team didn't make the right calls and decisions, and Gordon wound up 19th. A combination of too many adjustments too early and ill-timed pit stop before a caution left Gordon struggling for track position late in the Sharpie 500. He would finish 19th.
For Gordon, it was his second lackluster finish in a row on top of his win-costing mistake at Watkins Glen with two laps to go. The point hasn't shriveled drastically because Denny Hamlin blew an engine Saturday night, leaving Tony Stewart in second, some 349 points back.
Could it be that Gordon is forgetting the type of role that bit his teammate Jimmie Johnson so hard back in 2004?
A few years ago before the Daytona 500, Larry McReynolds reckoned that track employees should install cots because fans are going to fall asleep.
Bristol Motor Speedway workers might want to take note for 2008.
There was no controversy, no turmoil and Carl Edwards ran a smart race and kept Kasey Kahne behind him long enough to take Saturday night's ho-hum Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Edwards led 182 laps to Kahne's 305 in a race that saw just nine cautions for 61 laps.
The real story, though, was the amount of excitement that Bristol didn't offer this time around.
Was it the newly-surfaced track? A harder Goodyear tire? The Car of Tomorrow?
It's tough to say exactly, but the truth is, Saturday night's race at Bristol wasn't worth calling home to momma about.
It sounds impossible, but in case you haven't heard, racing at Bristol Motor Speedway is going to be even better.
Jeff Gordon: "The track is spectacular. They did an awesome job. I didn't think you could make Bristol any cooler and any more fun but they have. The potential for more passing is certainly there. But here is the problem - when you have as little grip as we have because the tire is so hard, then you have to be careful. But the track definitely has multiple grooves."
Matt Kenseth: "I think you'll see a better race because there will be the possibility of running more side by side. Instead of being stuck behind somebody and having to beat and bang on them, you can just pull out and go around them and that's something we haven't been able to do here in the past. I actually think the preferred groove in (turns) three and four will be the high side. I think it's going to be hard to pass on the bottom, and I think the guy leading the race late will move to the top and protect that groove."
Elliott Sadler: "Now that you're giving the drivers a choice, we're not all fighting for the same real estate. Now, if you're going to block the bottom, that's fine, I'll just go to the top ...Now that you've given us more choices, there should be less beating and banging and stuff going on. But, this is a Saturday night Bristol race, so I think you'll see plenty of excitement."
Kasey Kahne has had a pretty darn good Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Friday afternoon, Kahne topped the Nextel Cup Series in qualifying and will start out front for Saturday night's Sharpie 500. Later Friday night, Kahne took home his first Busch Series short track victory with a win in the Food City 250.
And boy did the 250-lapper set a tone for the weekend.
Kahne won Friday night after battling three-wide with Ryan Newman and Jason Leffler with less than 15 laps to go, just before Newman blew a tire after contact and fell out. At the line, it was Kahne crossing first, Leffler spinning sideways, and David Reutimann third -- all of them close enough to fall under a blanket.
NASCAR had to rain on its own parade, but thankfully they didn't induce a downpour.
Jeff Gordon says that he isn't too worried about his team's performance on the near-eve of the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Instead, the Nextel Cup point leader and first guy to lock himself into the 2007 edition of the Chase says, the team is ready to go for New Hampshire.
A few years ago before the Daytona 500, Larry McReynolds reckoned that track employees should install cots because fans are going to fall asleep.
Kasey Kahne has had a pretty darn good Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
