Bowyer wins in Richmond - What a race!

Last season people thought Bowyer lucked into The Chase or it was just fluke, but whether you like him or not, he's there when it counts, including last nights Richmond race.  Bowyer slipped by during the Earnhardt Jr./Busch incident to take the lead and won in a green-white-checkered finish.

Everyone thought that the hometown boy, Hamlin, was going to win, but as any race fan knows anything can and usually does happen.  Hamlin had a tire going down and instead of pitting to get it fixed, it eventually went flat bringing out the caution, I'm sure the way they planned.  The only problem is that Hamlin stopped on the track to bring out the caution (big no no - you can't stop on the track to bring out the caution), when he could have limped around and NASCAR black flagged him for two laps.

With Hamlin out of the way, that left Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch in the first and second position and you knew they were going to fight hard for the win.  That's also when it got real loud around here.  Last night was not the night to be near any Jr. fan after the incident with Busch.

My take on the incident was that it was just a racing deal, both were racing hard for the lead.  To listen to some Jr. fans, Kyle did it on purpose, others say Kyle should have backed off if he got loose.  In my opinion, it looked like both were getting loose racing side by side and that's what led to the wreck.  Saying a driver should have backed off when going for the lead and the win is a bit ridiculous, if drivers did that, races would be exciting because there would be no fighting for the lead.

While I changed the channel after the race, to avoid any further noisy reactions to the interviews, I read about Jr.'s post-race interview and it sounded like he handled it with class.  Unless the little snippet I read was wrong, Jr. basically said he didn't see the replay yet and that he was told Kyle got loose, although he was clearly disappointed.  Maybe some of his fans should take a hint.

The big wreck happened on lap 229 and what a wreck it was.  Carpentier car was hit multiple times after hitting the inside wall, luckily him and all the others in the wreck were unhurt.  They brought out the red flag to clean up the mess.  With the hits Carpentier took, it shows that NASCAR has come a long way in the safety of the cars where he was unhurt with all the vicious hits he took.

While there were others individual and two car wrecks, the other mentionable one was the Mears/Waltrip incident.  While it appeared to be a typical short track incident, Waltrip didn't seem to see it that way.  After the wreck, when the cars should just drive to pit road after the incident, Waltrip had a different idea.  He was obviously pissed and accelerated and drove Mears for a little bit before going off into the pits.  That was enough to get NASCARS attention, they parked him for the rest of the race.  I realize he was mad and thought it was all Mears' fault, but his reaction was childish and dangerous.

Congrats again to Bowyer.

Your thoughts?