Kathy's Pit Stop

NASCAR comes down hard on Haas CNC

Everyone expected a penalty since NASCAR impounded the two Haas CNC cars, but I'm not sure they expected the severity of the points penalty that was handed down.

I think most people were expecting the same 100 point penalty that DEI got with their rear wing mount infraction last season, but NASCAR upped it a bit, at least on the points part.  NASCAR took 150 driver points and 150 owner points from both the #66 car of Riggs and the #70 car of Sauter, additionally both crew chiefs were fined $100,000 and suspended for the next six races, the car chiefs were also suspended for the next six races. 

If you follow NASCAR, or at least payed attention last season, this penalty seems a bit stiffer than the one handed down to DEI last season where 100 points were taken and only the crew chief was suspended.  I didn't find anything where they said the infraction was different than DEI's last year, but NASCAR obviously wants to send that message about not messing with anything having to do with the wing.

On the other side of penalties, this time in the Nationwide series, Tony Eury Sr. and two JR Motorsports crew members were penalized for the altercation after the race with Denny Hamlin and his crew.  Eury Sr. was fined $1,000 and placed on probation, two crew members were fined $1,500 and placed on probation, one of them is also suspended for one race.

Your thoughts?

Kahne takes Bud back to the Victory Lane

Kasey Kahne was strong all night, but it looked as if he was going to finish second behind Tony Stewart, but then Stewart had a tire go down, which relegated Tony to an eighteenth place finish instead of first.

Kahne joins five other drivers that have won both the All-Star Race and the Coca Cola 600 in the same season and Kahne was the first voted in driver to win the All-Star.  While the win was great and I'm sure they are happy about it, it also put Kahne up to twelfth in points and in The Chase for now.

I think one of the most disappointing thing that happened was when Vickers tire came off, taking him out of the race.  He had been complaining all race long about a possible loose wheel, they admitted the wheels had started working their way loose, but never came off until the wreck.  Something was amiss over there, either they didn't get the lugs as tight as they thought or there was something wrong with the threads, either way, it took a very good chance at a win away from Vickers.  Luckily, he wasn't hurt in the wreck and no one hurt by the tire when it hit the camper just inside the infield fence.

Your thoughts?

Humpy, Kentucky, a bit of NASCAR news this week

There's been a bit going on this week in the world of NASCAR.

Humpy Wheeler resigns - Humpy Wheeler will officially resign after this weekends running of the Coca Cola 600 as President and General Manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway.  From everything I've read about this, the timing and everything was not as Humpy had expected, I guess it was scheduled to announced later about his retirement, but a disagreement between him and Smith kind of pushed it up I guess, so it wasn't all amicable. 

Bruton Smith's, SMI, buys Kentucky - Smith said he will add more seats and try and get a Cup date for the track, although NASCAR said there is no guarantee.  It was also said that they may be in the process of buying another unnamed track that might help with that goal.  Rumors are floating around about him possibly buying Pocono and moving one of those dates, but Smith denied that he had been in contact with them.  This is NASCAR, so who really knows what's going on behind the scenes?

Ganassi makes another crew chief change - In another surprising move, Ganassi fired Jimmy Elledge and will bring up Brain Pattie to be the new crew chief for Montoya and the #42 team, less than a month after swapping the crew chiefs of the #41 and #42.  I was surprised to read that Montoya supposedly was told that they were wanting to "get rid" of Elledge and Montoya didn't want them to, he was happy with the way things were working despite the not so great finishes.

Tony Stewart is supposedly "getting closer" to knowing where he'll be next season, but they've been keeping it pretty quiet and he still is saying he has "not" asked to get out of his contract with Gibbs.  Until an announcement comes out, the rumor mill will still fly about where Tony will be, whether it be at Gibbs or somewhere else.

Your thoughts?

Kasey Kahne wins All-Star Race

Kasey Kahne was voted in as the fan favorite and he thanked the fans by winning the All-Star Race.  It was the first time a voted in driver has won, congrats Kasey!

Allmendinger and Hornish transferred over by having the top two spots in the Challenge.  Even though Allmendinger won the Challenge, it was a good bet that he didn't get any congratulations from Elliot Sadler, who had an early run-in with Allmendinger that took him out of the race. 

In the All-Star Race it seemed like Kyle Busch was going to run away with it, but they had engine troubles, as did teammate Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart had troubles in practice which started him at the rear of the field for the race, something was definitely amiss in the engines at JGR and they need to get that fixed before the 600 next weekend.

OK, rant time.  What was with DW last night?  He couldn't seem to make up his mind on who he thought was going to win the race, he jumped from one driver to the next, whoever was doing the best at the time.  First he was all Kyle Busch, then he jumped to Edwards, Johnson, Jr. and Biffle.  It seemed like whoever was the "hottest" at the moment was his pick, he just couldn't seem to stick with anyone, but he never did pick the winner of the race, Kasey Kahne.

Your thoughts?

No points, just money and bragging rights - All-Star Race

It's that time again, where the All-Stars of NASCARs Cup Series get to shine.  There are no points, so it's all-out for the money and bragging rights and it should prove to be an exciting race.

I was surprised to see Humpy give his pick to Edwards, not that he's not good, I just figured he'd go along with this years on-fire driver Kyle Busch.  Whether you like Kyle or not, he's got talent and not afraid to take risks to get the win, that in itself should make for an exciting race and maybe a lot of conversations after it.

While both of those drivers have a shot at the win, as do all the others in the race, my pick here will be as a fan and that pick goes to last years winner, Kevin Harvick.

Who's your pick?

Sometimes it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for

While NASCAR loves it's newsworthiness of it's "star" drivers and the news that even their aggressive drivers bring about, sometimes it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for.

These aren't your drivers that make the news week after week with their driving style or with their "star" power hype that NASCAR has hyped, these aren't the ones that NASCAR and the media push on us week after week.  Weekly, we hear about Dale Earnhardt Jr. (when will he win for HMS), Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch, just to name a few, these drivers are the NASCAR's media favorites right now, but sometimes it's the quiet ones you have to look out for.

These guys aren't in the media every week, even when their in the top, but you can't count them out.  Who am I talking about?  The RCR drivers of Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer.  All three RCR drivers are in the top 5 in the standings and other than when Burton was in first in points, not much has been said about them.

Quiet and consistent this season so far, I expect all three to be in the Chase again this year.  I guess they're just not the kind of drivers the media likes to hype unless Harvick is in a feud with some other driver, which he hasn't been in a while, he's not considered a bad boy of NASCAR anymore.  Sure, we heard that Jeff Burton was in the points lead, but a big deal wasn't made about it, not like when other drivers had the points lead, he's too quiet and not controversial enough for the media it seems.

Here are a couple of little known facts about RCR drivers this season (hopefully this won't jinx them) -

Jeff Burton is the only driver to complete every lap this season and leads all drivers with the most runs on the lead lap.  But you have to go to RCR for that information, the media doesn't hype that, but if it had been one of NASCAR's "media darlings", we'd all know about it.

Kevin Harvick has the longest running streak of no DNF's at 54.  He's run 54 consecutive races without a DNF coming into Darlington.  Additional, Harvick hold the record in the modern era (1972 to present) with 58 consecutive races without a DNF.  Again, you won't hear about it, the media only seems to jump on Harvick if he's in disagreement with some other driver.

While Bowyer doesn't have the long career and stats to compare with his teammates, he's been consistent and always seems to be there at the end of the race, again quietly.

So while the media commentators are going on about Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch during the race, take a look at where the RCR drivers are, more often than not, they're quietly moving up.

Your thoughts?

No penalties for Waltrip or Hamlin???

NASCAR said yesterday at the testing session at Lowe's that no additional penalties will be handed out for Hamlin or Waltrip. 

And NASCAR wonders why people think they are not consistent?  There was a precedent with both of these acts to hand down penalties, yet none are given.  In 2004, Earnhardt Jr. was penalized 25 points and $10,000 for intentionally bringing out the caution, he purposely spun so he wouldn't go a lap down....fast forward to Richmond, Hamlin stops on the track and brings out the caution.  NASCAR believes it was an intentional move, but yet isn't going to hand out further penalties for it?

Now, on to the Waltrip one.  NASCAR believes that he intentionally took Mears out, but thinks the hit Waltrip took in points because of being parked was severe enough?  He fell one spot on the standings for taking his anger out on the track and that was severe enough?  Why was Kurt Busch fined for intentionally taking out Robby Gordon in the 2002 All-Star race?  Both moves were "intentional" in NASCAR's eyes and in the fans eyes, so why the different reactions from NASCAR?

Is this another case of who you drive for or who you are?  Is NASCAR playing favorites again?  It sure seems like it, but of course there's no proof, other than there is precedent for them to hand down penalties, which they already said they won't do.

If it had been Kevin Harvick or Robby Gordon instead of Michael Waltrip, it's pretty safe to say additional penalties would have been handed down citing the precedent as the reason.

Your thoughts?

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?

Nationwide race pushed to ESPN Classic

For those fans wanting to tune in to tonight's Nationwide race from Richmond, I hope you have ESPN Classic.  The race was originally scheduled to air on ESPN2, but because of NBA playoffs, it's been pushed to ESPN Classic and ESPN360.com.  For those that don't have ESPN Classic on their cable or satellite service, the race is suppose to be shown in it's entirety (although recorded) after the playoff game.

NASCAR fans use to love ESPN for their coverage of NASCAR races and thought that when they started airing races again, it would improve coverage, unfortunately, ESPN cares more about other sports fans and NASCAR fans are not happy about it.  In this case, NASCAR fans are being pushed aside to accommodate basketball fans, ESPN use to care about their NASCAR fans, obviously other things are more important and there is really nothing fans can do about it.

For those of you fans that had plans and were planning on recording the race, set it to record it on ESPN Classic at 7 PM ET instead of ESPN2.  Fans that don't have ESPN Classic, but have ESPN2 will have to wait until after the basketball game to see the race.