Bristol: Post-Race Observations
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Well I’m finally getting to it. I just got too side-tracked last night by the whole Dale Earnhardt/Kevin Harvick/Richard Childress coincidence to get this post done.
So here it is 24hrs late.
I’m just going to do this in point form:
1. Even though Dale Jr is doing well so far this year, these pit mistakes are going to catch up to him sooner or later. A couple of races ago Tony Eury couldn’t tell Dale to pit because of too much radio chatter by everyone else, and Sunday Dale wanted to pit while Eury wanted him to stay out and by the time Eury listened to his driver it was too late to pit and he was stuck out there with old tires while everyone behind him were on new ones. If this team wants to compete for the Championship these mistakes have got to stop. Kudos for Dale Jr sticking up for his crew chief after the race though. I’m am slowly becoming more and more of a fan of his this year, and with classy moves like that I’m sure more people will too.
2. JGR needs to seriously look at those fuel pick-up issues. I honestly felt for Denny Hamlin after his race. The expression on his face and exasperation in his voice in his post-race interview said it all.
3. OK, time to voice my opinion about the Harvick/Stewart incident - that’s racing folks. There.
Stewart was trying hard to keep Harvick pinned and Harvick was trying hard to keep his position on Stewart in order to complete the pass coming off of the corner and bammo, Kevin gets a little low and his left tires drop on the apron which sends him into Stewart, who most likely didn’t realize just how far Kevin was up the side of his car.
Should Stewart have given Kevin a little more room on the bottom? Kevin did have 4 new tires after all. Sure Tony should have given him more room, but there were only a few laps left and if he could keep Kevin pinned low he could have possibly held onto his spot until the finish, or at least allowed Denny to get so far away that Kevin would not have caught him getting another win for JGR.
If I were Tony I would have done it just the way he did it.
4. Speaking of Tony, I’ve got to give him credit for his post-race interview - he handled it well. By the same token, I’ve got to give it to Harvick for ‘manning’ up for his mistake accepting full blame for what happened. What Harvick did is something that has become less frequent in NASCAR these last few years - drivers accepting responsibility for their actions. What has been happening in NASCAR though is nothing more than a symptom of what is happening in society in general as far as I’m concerned, but I digress.
5. Didn’t you find the Bristol race similar to a race at Dover? It just had that kind of feel to it for me at least. I still found it better than what some other think out there. You know, if a car just stays in the middle of the track at the new Bristol the cars behind have just as hard of a time passing as they did at the old Bristol. There were still a lot of bumpers being used out there on Sunday, but the CoT allows the drivers to keep better control over them so they don’t wreck as much.
6. With that being said, did anyone catch the pre-race show where they were talking about the bumpstops on the shocks? What Spencer, Sadler, Wallace, and Roberts were saying made sense. Based on what they had to say I agree, get rid of them, but I’m going to get a little more informed about the subject before I make a knee-jerk decision like that.
7. Congratulations to Jeff Burton on his win, he deserved it. He put his car in contention at the end and then let the chips lay where they lay. As a driver, that is all you can do.
Finally, Steve and Charlie at On Pit Row are having me on as a guest on their radio show on Tuesday. Catch their program at their site, as it is streamed live. I should be on at about 5:45 PM. See you then.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR
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