FanHouse StevenWallace

One of the bigger stories of the weekend's Nationwide Series activities at Nashville Superspeedway, thanks to the fine folks over at Scene Daily, involved a potential move of Rusty Wallace Inc.'s two teams to Sprint Cup in 2010.

According to the story, team owner Rusty Wallace said that he'd like to make the move in 2010, but that a lot of things would have to line up for it to happen -- like equipment, sponsorship and other necessities.

But doesn't it seem a little perplexing that the former Sprint Cup champ would want to move an organization that has one total win in Nationwide Series competition to NASCAR's top level?

Sure, Denny Hamlin may have led gobs and gobs of laps during Saturday night's Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400. And sure, the race title was ridiculous to say (and from here on out, will be referred to as the Dan Lowry 400).

But boy did NASCAR need a race like the one race fans were treated to at Richmond. Throw together the entire weekend and its not looking too shabby all the way around.

First, NASCAR's newest bad boy in town Kyle Busch started things off nicely Friday night during the Lipton Tea 250 when dude got into with Rusty Wallace's probably-never-going-to-make-the-Sprint-Cup son Steven Wallace. The two did the post-race tango after beating and banging on each other during the final laps with Kyle Busch getting offended after his helmet was grabbed and Wallace calling Busch a "girl".

Priceless.

Then, Saturday night, Denny Hamlin was on his way to securing one of the most dominating Sprint Cup wins in a long, long time at his home track, until a tire started to go late in the event. Apparently, karma catches up to you after leading some 381 of 410 total laps.

Prior to Hamlin losing the race that was his to be won, those fans who watch just to see smashed up fenders and bent roll cages were treated to a massive pileup in Turn 3 that took Matt Kenseth from his Richmond misery and drop kicked Jimmie Johnson from a good finish. Those fans can check out the video here.

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon had one of those nights for the first half of the race that his haters love to see.

The No. 24 was a lap down early and struggling -- raising the haters' hopes for further Gordon bad luck. However, Jeff played the storyline well and brought his big core of fans right back into the race when he got a lap back and battled through the field to a ninth-place finish.

And then, there was Michael Waltrip showing his now-annual display of over-aggression after Casey Mears lost the No. 55 in his blind spot and sent them both into the wall. Waltrip then gunned the accelerator and pushed Mears into the turn one wall, drawing a "you're done for the race" penalty from race control. Remember, Waltrip slugged Lake Speed in 1995, had this YouTube gem in 2004 (1:35), and got into it with Jeff Green a few years ago at Darlington.

Once that all sorted out, it looked like Hamlin was cruising to a victory in front of the home crowd until the tire faded his chances. When Hamlin caused a caution and subsequently penalized, the race was between that Dale Earnhardt Jr. fellow and Busch.

The two made a little bit of contact going for the win, which kicked the most popular driver from the win and allowed Clint Bowyer to sneak in from nowhere past Busch for his second-career win.

While it wasn't the 2007 Daytona 500 finish, Richmond brought out storyline after storyline late in the event -- which is exactly what a race fan wants. By no means was Saturday night's finish predictable.

Carnage and controversy on a short track? Now that is.

Kyle Busch may be the hottest driver in all of NASCAR right now, but Denny Hamlin isn't letting his teammate show the familiar prowess at Hamlin's home track.

Indeed, Friday was very, very good for the driver of the No. 11 Toyota as he found himself in victory lane twice already -- first for winning the pole for Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series event at Richmond International Raceway and then for winning the Nationwide Lipton Tea 250.

Hamlin scored the pole for the Sprint Cup Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 126.198mph -- enough to fend off Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr. Patrick Carpentier qualified an impressive fourth while Reed Sorenson rounded out the Top-5.

On the Nationwide Series side of things, it was pretty much business as usual for Joe Gibbs Racing as Hamlin continued a 5-race winning streak for the team. Hamlin passed Kevin Harvick with just over 10 laps to go to secure the victory at the track roughly 20 miles from his home.

Teammate Busch, though, had the most fun of the night after getting in to a near-fight with Steven Wallace after the race. The two had banged back and forth for the closing laps and then had to be separated on pit road.

6:00AM is a little on the early side to get up and watch racing, but apparently not too early to roll out of bed and onto the couch and wait for the eyes to open.

It's also, apparently, not too early to get annoyed with race commentators. This morning, it's Rusty Wallace on my nerves.

I actually started getting annoyed with Wallace last night when I heard about the comments he made with respect to Dale Earnhardt Jr. firing Shane Huffman. Wallace said it was a mistake, that Huffman was a good short track driver. Then he called Junior out for qualifying 35th and basically said the car was junk no matter who drove it.

Wallace changed his tune bright and early in Daytona when, by lap 16, Junior had driven the #88 from the back of the field up to the 13th spot. They talked about what a great car the team had and Wallace even went as far to say that if Junior was on a list of available drivers to run at Daytona International Speedway, he'd sign him up.

Ya think?

'Course, Junior and his junk have fallen back to 22nd by now, so I probably shouldn't be talking smack either, but hey, I've downed three cups of java in the past hour and a half--I'm a little punchy.

I liked Rusty a lot better when he was behind the wheel of the #2. I liked the Miller Lite Dodge a lot better then, too, but that's another story.

Aw, what's that, Steven Wallace is out of today's race? Maybe he should consider driving for a team that doesn't have a crap car.