Kathy's Pit Stop

Kyle Busch wins in a mess of a finish

Kyle Busch held off Montoya and Hamlin to win at Dega, while the rest of the field, or just about, wrecked behind them in the final laps.  Because the caution came out on the after the white flag was thrown, the race was over.

Busch said he had to block to keep them behind him, which he was able to do.  As for the finish, it was a total mess with the caution and some drivers made out quite well with the way NASCAR scored them and others didn't fair too well, some of them didn't make  sense, but that's NASCAR for ya.

Congrats to Brian Vickers and David Ragan on their top 5 finishes and also to Casey Mears (top finishing HMS driver) for his top 10 finish.  It was nice to see Vickers and Mears up there for a change.

Oh and so much for the crew chief swap over at Ganassi helping BOTH teams, the 42 finished second and the 41 blew and engine on lap 5.  Hmm, seemed like it helped one, but not the other...did we really expect any different?  I sure didn't, he still only cares about one car and that's not going to change.

Your thoughts?

Tony Stewart gets his first Dega win

Tony Stewart held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. and David Stremme to win from the pole and his first victory at Dega.

The race was marred by two big wrecks, one early in the race and one late.  The early one injured Dario Frachitti, who was t-boned on the drivers side by Gunselman after Franchitti blew a tire, hit the outside wall and then came back down the track.  Franchitti was taken to the hospital and it was announced that he broke his left ankle and suffered minor contusions.  David Stremme, who ironically Franchitti replaced, will sub for Franchitti in the #40 for the Cup race at Dega on Sunday.  No word yet on how long Franchitti could be sidelined by his injury.

The other wreck could have been avoided, even though Lepage (the driver that caused it) doesn't think so.  Lepage was coming off pit road, not up to speed, when the field came upon him.  Instead of staying down below the yellow line, which would have been the logical thing to do, Lepage decided to blend back up on the track in turn one, which he said NASCAR told them that's what they are suppose to do.  Well, yeah, but not if the entire field is right there!  The first few cars got by him before he got all the way onto the track, but not all, Carl Edwards' Ford drove up on the back of Lepage and then all hell broke loose on the track, cars were going everywhere.  That wreck collected 14 cars, including six of the top 10 in points.

I just don't understand what Lepage and his spotter were thinking with the whole field going by the way it was, I mean it may have been different if he was up to speed, but he wasn't anywhere near up to speed yet and it just would have made more sense for him to "blend in" as they call it, after the field went by, he was already a lap down anyways.

Oh and also want to say congratulations to Joe Nemechek for getting the pole for Sundays race, never saw that coming.

Your thoughts?

Is Tony Stewart really leaving Joe Gibbs Racing?

Last years big Silly Season question was Dale Earnhardt Jr., this year it seems to be Tony Stewart, even though he has one year left on his contract.

Unless you've been living under a rock, the rumors started flying about Tony Stewart leaving JGR when they announced their move to Toyota last year, now the rumors have really heated up, could Stewart really be leaving?

When the latest rumor about Stewart being offered half-ownership of Haas CNC came out, it didn't take Stewart too long to speak out about it.

We've got multiple offers on the table right now, and there's a couple in particular that really have caught our interest.  We haven't made a 100% decision yet on what we're going to do, but we're going to look at all the options. And the options are exciting, all the way around.

Stewart did say that staying at JGR is still one of those options.

A wise person told me it never cost a dime to listen, so right now we're all ears.  Right now it's just a matter of figuring out what we want to do, and being smart. We've had a great run at Joe Gibbs Racing. It doesn't mean it's over. We're just going to look at everything that's out there.

Stewart said that JGR has been informed of the offers, including ownership, but he says that he has not asked to be let out of his contract early, despite some rumors that have reported he has.  This isn't to say that he won't, just that he hasn't as of yet.

Most know that Stewart wasn't thrilled with the move to Toyota and that Chevy wants Stewart back into their fold, so it really wouldn't be surprising to see Stewart leave Gibbs after all these years.  How he leaves and where he goes remains to be seen.

So far I've heard the half-ownership in Haas CNC and the fourth car at RCR, but as Stewart said, he's had multiple offers, so there are some that haven't been found out yet.

I guess the biggest question is that if he does the Haas CNC deal, could he bring that team around to being in contention week in and week out?  They haven't had a lot of luck finding the right drivers or sponsors, so could a big name like Stewart turn that team around?  And who would be his teammate?

If that happened and right now it's still a big if, being the old sentimental fool I am, I would love to see Bobby Labonte go to the second car and see old teammates back together again before they retire, just like they were back in the early days at Gibbs.

Your thoughts?

NASCAR needs to say no to Mexico City until Safer Barriers are put in

First, congrats to Kyle Busch on a hard-charged win.

Now, on to the safer barrier thing...oops, I forgot there are no safer barriers in Mexico City.  Why is this?  All the other tracks that NASCAR races at had to put them in, some even coming under fire for not having them on the inside walls, but at least they have safer barriers on the outside walls.

Two red flags because of wrecks and to fix the walls, the concrete walls, with no safety features, at that.  Luckily this was a road course and the speeds weren't higher.

I think NASCAR needs to say, "You want us to race there, put in the safer barriers," if they choose not to, for whatever reason, say "adios" to the Mexico City race. 

Your thoughts?

Crew Chief Switching Game - This Time it's Ganassi

After his public displeasure at the way his teams are doing, Chip Ganassi decided it's time to play the crew chief switching game, Montoya and Sorenson will be switching crew chiefs.  Ganassi thinks it's a great idea...

I really feel that these changes can be instrumental in moving Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to the next level. I have a lot of respect for both Donnie and Jimmy and the jobs that they do and they both agree that this move can be very beneficial to the entire organization. I have said all along that I believe us to be a championship organization and that Felix and I will do whatever we can to make us better. This is toward that end.

Honestly, I don't see how this will help anything.  We've seen crew chief switches in the past in other teams not really work, yes some have worked, but most don't seem to work out too well and ends up with either the driver or one of the crew chiefs getting fired.  Even if it does work, it won't have the instant results Ganassi wants, look at Edwards as an example, he struggled when his crew chief was switched, he's back up there now, but it wasn't instant.

Another problem I see is that these crew chiefs are the only ones that these drivers have had during their Cup career.  Granted I'm not a Montoya fan, but I do like Sorenson and think he has potential, unfortunately not with Ganassi, I foresee him being "replaced" by another open-wheel driver and if that happens, I hope he gets a decent ride in good equipment.

Equipment is where I think Ganassi is lacking, I don't think he's ever had all of his cars doing well at the same time.  I think he focuses too much on one team/car instead of the whole team/organization.  Back when Marlin drove for him, it was all about the #40 car, now it's all about Montoya, how does he expect for all his teams to do well when he focuses on just one?  Drivers can not do well if they don't have the equipment to do it in, hence Sorensons problem, that and he keeps getting caught up in wrecks.  And while I'm not a fan of the open-wheelers, I think Ganassi is expecting way too much of Franchitti in his first year.

Your thoughts?

Johnson Gambles and Coasts His Way To Victory

OK, he didn't coast, but he may as well have, he certainly backed down enough to save on the fuel.  While I'm not a Johnson fan, he and crew chief Knaus made the gutsy call and it won them the race and they had a good car to begin with also.

Some may say, quite loudly I might add, that Johnson slowed down too much in the closing laps and should have been black flagged for not going the minimum speed, but I think he was keeping minimum speed and while I'm not a fan, he won the race fair and square.

Second place finisher Clint Bowyer is the only other car that gambled on fuel, everyone else pitted in the closing laps.

As usual, I was following Harvick and wasn't too thrilled at the beginning of the race, way too tight in the center and loose off, they worked on it throughout the race though and did get the car better, not completely to Harvick's liking, but they got it better.  I thought he was going to have a great finish there at the end, they were discussing back and forth about whether or not to pit, at first they were going to gamble, then they decided with about two or three laps to go to pit next time for just a splash.  Well, Harvick was coming anyways, he was out of fuel...grrrr.  Running fourth at the time he ended up eighteenth and dropped three spots in the standings to fifth.  Hopefully they get a good car for Dega in two weeks!

Burton kept the points lead with his sixth place finish, not bad for spinning earlier in the race because of someone's blown engine.  His lead is eighty points over Kyle Busch who moved up to second in points.

And what was with the beginning of the race?  It's bad enough it was delayed because of stupid baseball, but then to miss the start of the race when the baseball game was on FX was just completely ridiculous.  NASCAR and FOX need to get their act together!

Your thoughts? 

Penalties and News this Week

It seems it's been a busy week.

Newman lost 25 points for being too high in post-race inspection at Texas -  While I like Newman, I was a little confused on the penalty, I thought all penalties with the COT going forward was suppose to be 100 points no matter what the infraction was, at least that's the way they had been handling it.  I don't know all that went on, but I know from past reading of this type of infraction that NASCAR allows the cars some time to "settle" and then allowed to go through again, at least that's what they did last year, but don't how much time, if any, Newman was given.  Still, if it was suppose to be 100 points going forward, this penalty doesn't seem to make sense.

Sauter back in the #70 at Phoenix - While Sauter is hopeful it will turn into more than a one week stint, it's kind of funny that Sauter is replacing the driver that replaced him.  Mayfield is officially out and Sauter is only slated for Phoenix, but unless they get a driver to un-retire, it might look good for Sauter to get back in the Cup Series.  I wonder who Mayfield will blame this time?

Bill Davis Racing sues former sponsor -  We all know it takes a lot of money to run in NASCAR, well this was one of Bill Davis Racings problems, their sponsor wasn't paying them.  Rockford-Montgomery Labs is the maker of 360 OTC, which Davis had sponsorship for not only his Cup car, but trucks too.  Davis' isn't the only suit against them either, World of Outlaws and the WWE have also filed suits again RML because of non-payment.

NASCAR Official killed in car wreck - One of the few female NASCAR Officials was killed when her truck rolled.  Brienne Davis was an engine inspector for NASCAR and had joined the NASCAR family in 2004.  My thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

Firestone interested if Goodyear leaves - While Goodyear has their contract through 2012, Firestone said they would be interested and would love to get back into the sport.  While I don't think NASCAR would allow this, it would be interesting to see more than one tire manufacturer back in the sport.  I know not all agree, that's just my opinion.

Bill France Sr. inducted into Business Hall of Fame - On Wednesday, J.C. France (grandson and Rolex driver) accepted the induction to the U.S. Business Hall of Fame on behalf of his grandfather.

Target may be leaving Ganassi - This is just a rumor, but is making the rounds again that Target, sponsor of the #41 Ganassi Dodge may leave at the end of the season.  Do you blame them?  I don't, I mean I don't blame Sorenson, I point my finger at Ganassi.  He's had a habit of focusing on one car, even though he's expanded, before it was the #40, then it became the #42 with Montoya.  If you don't give all your drivers good equipment, they can't perform to your liking, plain and simple.  Unfortunately, I think this is another nail in the coffin for Sorenson, he's the only non-open wheel guy on the team now and hasn't had good equipment since he started after being moved up after only one year in the Busch (now Nationwide) Series where he raced on some tracks for the first time.

Your thoughts?

Edwards dominates a boring Texas race

Carl Edwards, aka Flipper, definitely had his car dialed in, he led the most laps and won the race on the green-white-checkered finish.  Actually the finish was the most exciting part of the race, especially from about fourth on back.

The way the race went, you could swear it was a short track, granted there weren't tons of cautions, but only ten cars finished on the lead lap with lots of teams having trouble.

Obviously Edwards had no problems, but others had many problems, going from too tight to too loose or loose to too tight and that seems to be the problem a lot of teams were battling in todays race. 

Burton continues to lead the points, with Harvick in second, Kyle Busch moved up to third, Jr. stayed in fourth and Tony Stewart moved up to fifth in points.  Of the top five, Harvick and Jr. got lucky with how badly their cars were handling to stay where they did points, they finished eleventh and twelfth.  Obviously the cars got a little better near the end, but they both had the loose/tight conditions throughout the race, Harvick for the whole race and Jr. for about the last half of the race. 

I have to say that I was surprised Harvick kept his cool on the radio with how badly the car was handling, yeah he complained about it, but he kept it clean and communicated well with his crew.

The two biggest drop in points were Biffle, who dropped six spots to ninth and Jeff Gordon, who dropped five spots to fourteenth, Biffle had a strong run going until he had mechanical problems, but Gordon had the same trouble many drivers did with the handling of the car.