Kathy's Pit Stop

Changes to the Bud Shootout leave some out of the running

NASCAR announced some major changes to the Bud Shootout today.  When Coors took over, Budweiser still wanted to stick around with the shootout, but changes would have to be made because Coors got the pole award, well today, the  new format for the Bud Shootout came out and I can guarantee that some will not be happy because it leaves out some good drivers while allowing some unproven ones to contend.

The way it will work is the top six teams in owner points at the end of the season from each manufacturer (Chevy, Dodge, Ford and Toyota) will fill the twenty-four car field.

For drivers switching teams, well, it all depends on what teams you're going to on whether you make it or not.  Tony Stewart and Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman, will not be in the race because of the owner points eligibility since they are both moving to a new team, it also seems that Clint Bowyer wouldn't make it either since he'll be moving to a new car.  On the flip side, drivers like Logano, who is taking over the #20 car next season, will be in, as will be whoever is announced to be in the #12 next season (possibly Stremme) and Mears, since he'll be in Bowyer's old ride.  This, of course, is all as the points are now, which can change, but it shows how things could go down. 

Since this new format is manufacturer driven with the six from each, it would also allow drivers that normally wouldn't make it, get a shot, like Michael Waltrip, since Toyota doesn't have a lot of drivers, but it would shut out drivers that are ahead of him in points because their manufacturer already reached their six car limit, somehow that isn't quite fair.

I applaud the fact that they kept the Bud Shootout, but I'm not so sure the new format is fair to the drivers, especially the ones that will be kept out.

Your thoughts?

Edwards wins at Bristol

Carl Edwards passed and held off Kyle Busch for the win, even though Busch led most of the race.  History seemed to doom Busch, the driver that led the most laps at Bristol had not been the winner of the last five Bristol races and the commentators brought that up early in the race and it seemed to jinx Busch.

Although there were eight caution flags and one red flag, the final three yellow flags were for debris, where only one of them mentioned what the debris was, in fact one of them they were told exactly where the debris was and as drivers went by, they couldn't see it, which really isn't a surprise, mysterious debris cautions seem to happen a lot in NASCAR, especially near the conclusion of the races.

The points got shaken up again, as some drivers in the Chase got caught up in others incidents.  Burton, Kahne, Bowyer and Johnson were involved in incidents, but Kahne was the one impacted the most, dropping out of the Chase after getting caught up in someone else's mess.  Burton got a DNF because of someone else's mess, but he remained in fifth in points.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't have a good race, he jumped the start and got penalized right off the bat and was never able to recover from it.  It was very loud around here with an Earnhardt Jr. fan when they mess up early and unfortunately, we had to suffer a lot of irate complaining.  Even though he didn't get a great finish, he actually moved up a spot to third in the standings, mainly because of Johnson's problems, who dropped a spot to fourth.

Although it wasn't Busch that won again, it was Edwards that won his sixth race of the season, which hasn't been that thrilling if you ask me, especially when it's only two drivers running away with everything.  It may come as a surprise to some, especially knowing I'm not a fan of his, but I was actually hoping Gordon could have gotten up there and got pass both Edwards and Busch, it just would have been nice to see someone other than Busch or Edwards win.

As far as the incident after the race between Busch and Edwards, to me, both we were wrong.  It's not that I don't think Busch shouldn't have been called to the hauler, he should have, but I think Edwards should have been called to the hauler too.

Your thoughts?

JGR given stiff penalties in Nationwide Series infractions

When it was heard about the possibly trying to cheat the dyno testing after the Michigan Nationwide race, everyone thought NASCAR would come down hard for the blatant cheating and they were right.

Seven members of the #18 and #20 JGR teams were indefinitely suspended, additionally, both crew chiefs were fined $50,000 and all crew members for both teams were put on probation.  Joey Logano and Tony Stewart were each docked 150 driver points and Joe Gibbs lost 150 owner points for each car.

I knew NASCAR was upset when they used the word blatant after finding out about what happened, so I figured the penalties would be steep and they were.  Why the teams did this is unknown, unless they weren't complying with Toyota engine rules that were handed down.

It will definitely be interesting to see how the cars do at Bristol this week without key members of the teams.

Your thoughts? 

Edwards sweeps Michigan

Carl Edwards held off Kyle Busch to get the win.  Late race cautions for debris kept closing the field back up, but Busch didn't have enough to catch Edwards.

Blaney took a hard hit into the wall and three of the Hendrick cars had trouble.  Two Hendrick cars were caught up in the same incident of three wide racing and apparently not enough room for one of them.  Johnson had to go in because his tire got cut and went a lap down, he eventually got back on the lead lap with the very last caution, but again spun before crossing the line and finished 17th.

Gordon wasn't as luck as Johnson, his tire went down a few laps after the incident with Johnson and he hit the wall hard, they tried to fix the car and get it back out, but they couldn't do it and Gordon ended getting a DNF and finishing 42nd.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., appeared to be doing well for most of the race, he even led some, but on the last restart he got into the outside wall and did some major damage to the car as compared to what is usually seen when a car slaps the outside wall, he ended up finishing 23rd.

Denny Hamlin also had an engine blow near the end of the race and Kasey Kahne also had engine problems, so there was a bit of a shakeup in the points, especially for the guys trying to stay in the Chase and those trying to get in.

Kyle Busch still leads the standings, as if that was ever going to change, followed by Edwards, Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. and Burton, all of those stayed the same, even with Johnson and Jr.'s problems.  The rest of the field got shaken up a bit, Tony Stewart moved up one spot to 6th, Biffle moved up three spots to 7th, Harvick moved up three spots to 8th, Jeff Gordon dropped three spots to 9th and Matt Kenseth moved up moved up two spot to 10th.  To round out the Chase standings, both Kahne and Hamlin dropped three spots to 11th and 12th.  Next week is Bristol, which could shake things up even more.

Congrats to Edwards for the weekend sweep.

Your thoughts?

Big wreck mars race at Watkins Glen

The race was going along fairly tame until the big wreck on lap 83, that collected nine cars.  McDowell and Gilliland got together and caused the big wreck, obviously something had been going on previously with those two since NASCAR wants to see both of the in the trailer.

It took over a half an hour to clean up the track, many cars were badly mangled, it looked more like Bristol then Watkins Glen.  Luckily for most of the drivers, they were checked out and released from the infield care center, all but Bobby Labonte who was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation.  Hope his injuries aren't too bad.

Once again, it took NASCAR officials a while to get to the cars, Bobby had already walked away from his car toward the pit area, it was obvious he was hurting.  I just don't understand what took officials so long to get to the drivers after the wreck, Bobby wasn't the only driver to exit his car before officials arrived.

Kyle Busch won the race again, like it's any surprise to anyone, looks like it's definitely his championship year.  Tony Stewart came in 2nd and Marcos Ambrose, who started 43rd, came home in 3rd, followed by Montoya and Truex.

Hopefully word will come down soon that Bobby is OK.

Your thoughts?

Ambrose gets his first Nationwide win

Marcos Ambrose, who looked to be the winner last week until a speeding penalty took the wind out of their sail, finally got his first win at Watkins Glen.  He may not have had the best car on the track for today's race, but their strategy paid off and he took the checkers.  He deserved it, he should have had that win last week, but the speeding penalty took that away and it was nice to see the team come back from that with a win this week.

It was also nice to see a Nationwide regular (non-Cup also driver) win a race and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.  Congrats Ambrose.

Other Nationwide only regulars that did well were...Keselowski, Logano, Leffler and Coleman.  Good job guys!

Oh, and what exactly did Keselowski do to Harvick in the early part of the race, I missed the incident and all I know is that Harvick said something about dumping the #88 next time he was near him.

Congrats again to Ambrose for his first win!

Your thoughts?

Rain and fuel strategy pay off for Edwards

The rain came again at Pocono and stirred things up, making pit and fuel strategy come into play.  Twenty cars elected to stay out when the rain came, everyone else pitted, it paid off for some and not others.

Edwards was among one of the ones that pitted and it worked out for him and he won the race.  It also paid off for Kevin Harvick, who looked like was going to have a horrendous day after getting spun by Joe Nemechek on lap one.  He struggled with the cars handling off and on all day and they finally got it good enough to move up, he pitted along with Edwards and brought home a fourth place finish and moved up two spots in the standings.

The pit/fuel strategy didn't pay off for all, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Johnson and Gordon all ran out of fuel before the end of the race.  Busch ran out with two laps to go, the trio of Jr., Johnson and Gordon all ran out on the final lap.  For Johnson and Gordon it didn't hurt them too much, they still crossed the line before getting passed, but Jr. got passed before crossing the line and finished in twelfth.

Congrats to Edwards for the win and also a shout out to Kahne for his seventh place finish even though he was one of the ones to stay out when the rain came.

Your thoughts?

NASCAR makes history with rain tires at Montreal

Well, we kept hearing it might happen, but it never did, until now.  The rain tires actually were used in a NASCAR race.  The crews got three minutes to get the rain tires on, if the teams chose to, they could put the windshield wiper on.  Most teams did put on the windshield wiper, but some elected not to, for whatever reason.  I honestly don't know why they all didn't use the wipers, but I guess it's a teams or drivers preference.

Of course, the rain slowed down the pace of the race and it was funny at first that it didn't appear that they were going much faster than under caution speed, but as the rain slowed, some drivers got more confident and picked up their pace.  Marcus Ambrose seemed fairly confident in his car and those rain tires and had a pretty large lead for most of the race, but a speeding penalty hurt him and put him down to third, and almost a lap down to race leader Ron Fellows.  Then the caution for heavy rain came, a couple cars wrecking under caution, the red flag and then they called the race.

Congrats to Ron Fellows and the #5 team for the great strategy, it go them the win and they deserved it.  I would have liked to see it go back to green and see if Ambrose could get the lead back, but for once I do agree with NASCAR on the call to call the race.  I do think that if they had gone back to green Ambrose probably would have won, but we'll never know.

Edwards took over second in points over Brad Keselowski, but not by much, it'll still be a battle with those two to see who can get second when the season is done, I think Bowyer is going to win the championship unless they really mess up.

As far as the rain tires, I think they worked as they were suppose to and the best they could, hydroplaning is always an issue with water on the track even with tires that have tread.  Many drivers complained as it rained harder about hydroplaning and visibility, especially under that last caution, which caused a couple of mishaps for Logano and Villeneuve.  I think the visibility issue was the main reason NASCAR called it, although I'm not completely sure of that, I think that if the rain had slowed down they probably would have been able to finish the race, but visibility wasn't improving at all throughout the race.

Your thoughts?