Track Trash – The Winston ‘09

What a great race evening, and capped off with the final 10 laps of exciting racing. Each segment had its exciting moments, but the last 10 laps were head and shoulders above the rest. Unfortunately, I’m starting to think about next week’s Coke 600. It can’t be this exciting. Matter of fact, it’s so long that it tends to get boring for the most part. My advice is to watch the last 50 laps (if you can time it that closely).

Gimme a break: This one might’ve slipped under your radar. Charlotte Motor Speedway has renamed its Fall race. Instead of “The Bank of America 500”, it’s being retagged as “the NASCAR Banking 500 only from Bank of America’” BoA went on to say “The new race name speaks to fans and demonstrates how we’re delivering valuable products…” Boy, is their corporate leadership out to lunch, or what? This is the worst garble-dee-gook I’ve come across since listening to the clap-trap that Nancy Pelosi dishes out. I seriously doubt that Humpy woulda let this fiasco get this far.

Drugs: From NA$CAR’s standpoint, you’re guilty until proven innocent. The worst part about it is, they don’t warn you in advance about what they’re looking for. So here was da Biff a few weeks ago with very sore ribs. He had a prescription, but was afraid to take it because no one would tell him if the RX contained some bad mojo drugs. Someone oughta sue NA$CAR. They’d probably win, but no doubt would wipe out their 401K in the process. One final thought: da Biff is one smart cookie, but when it comes to Jerry Maybefield, he’s gotta be a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

Showdown: Not a bad race in itself, but nothing to write home about. Good to see Hornish and JamieMac perform.

Driver Intro: There was no question who made the most impression at the driver intos. Everyone did their thang, then KidKyle popped out, gave a wise-acre peace sign, and blew everyone away. However, one has to question the choice of Joey as the write-in candidate to transfer to the big dance. There’s no way that he’s that popular with the fans. Matter of fact, more than a few fans booed the choice.

New Rules: During the bid dance, new rules mysteriously came out of the woodwork. Instead of track position given via the electronic sensors buried in the track, NA$CAR opted to go with track positions at the end of the previous lap. It’s stuff like this that gives NA$CAR another black eye.

1st 50: Jr. again convinced his followers that although he’s popular, he just isn’t getting the setups that he needs. How can the other Hendrick drivers run so well, and Jr. not?? They get the same hardware, but there seems to be one crew chief that should be replaced. How long are they gonna keep their heads in the sand? Anyway, JJ won the 50 lapper, mainly because he got out front and stayed in the fresh air.

1st 20: KidKyle took two tires at the end of the 50 lapper, got out in the fresh air, and won this portion.

2nd 20: JJ seems like a pretty bright driver, right? He musta had a brain fart, cuz he had to ask das Knaus what segment they were in. This should be something you have committed in your brain, but apparently not so for JJ. Shortly after this segment started, Hornish lost it, and pushed da Biff into the wall. Not long after that, JJ did a wall job and effectively took himself out of the race. Later in that segment SirMark did a small wall job. When Gordo got the fresh air, there was no holding him back.
Final 10: There’s no question that this is the way all races should end… with the final 10 or 20 laps being run strictly under green (and yellow laps not counting), and the slower cars in the rear of the pack on restarts. This final 10 lap segment was by far the most exciting, and lived up to all the hype about this race. On lap 1, DennyHambone spun out JJ (sorta putting him out of his misery, if you ask me). Then we see KidKyle busting through two cars in a three wide move that got the crowd excited. Then Rocketman got into da Kid, who punched Gordo, who spun and did a nasty wall job. Shortly after that Newman’s tire blew, taking him out of race. It was exciting to see Tony quietly move to the front and eventually take the lead and the W. And not a scratch on his car, either.

This race will probably go down as one of the top 5 most exciting races in 2009. Talladega, the Twin 150’s, and a few more will fill out the other slots, but the format they came up with for this race was better than most of the past All Star races.

Kudos to Tony, MattyBoy and the Blue Deuce.

Heaps of 3’s all over yer local Office Depot,
Racing Maniac #3