The black and blue hair is no more. Amanda said the new hair brought him bad luck so Spank-Boy is almost a hairless wonder and with about 18 drivers having qualified at this point Scott Speed is three-tenths off the track record and on the pole. I hope he stays there.
The Nationwide Boys are practicing and racing today. Leffler says the one thing he can promise is we won’t see any incidences like Leffler vs Buescher in Bristol… in the next three races (for which he’s on probation as a result of the incident in Bristol).
The Sprint Cup practice was more of a spin-a-thon than the Nationwide practice; Kyle spun, Smoke spun, Marcos spun, and Jimmie spun. They all caught the cars so they didn’t get damaged the way that Michael Annett and John Wes Townley got in the Nationwide practice.
Clint Bowyer is going to run the Nationwide race tonight. John Wes has been pulled from that car.
I’m sad to say AJ Allmendinger took the pole away from Scott Speed as the 30the qualifier.
For the Carl Edwards fans out there, he’s currently eighth qualifying after AJ got the pole.
So Carl won the pole for the Nationwide series with Kyle on the outside. Reuti-tooty is standing by in case Steven Wallace can’t finish the race. He has two broken bones in his foot from the wreck at Nashville.
Michael Annett brought out the first caution with a spin. He’s in a backup car after tearing up his car in practice today. He kept it off the wall this time.
Oh No, we’re under caution again around lap 30 because Clint Bowyer’s call just died on him. He’s gotten it re-fired, but he’s one lap down. Restart on lap 35. Clint is one of two cars one lap down. Everybody else is on the lead lap. Scott Lagasse Jr just nudged Harvick from behind. Traffic got backed up behind Kenny Wallace and when he got out of it, Lagasse bumped him.
In a totally unrelated note, it is Master’s Week in Augusta and Tiger Woods chose the tournament as his return to gold after the winter of his discontent (starting with the traffic accident at his house, followed by lots of questions, revelations of his many extra-marital sexual liaisons, his entry into rehab, and the cracking of his mask).
I went out with Paco and Miguelito to Los Bravos for Mexican food, specifically for Carnitas. Paco said he wanted to see me eat pork, and he loves carnitas, so we went to a place with really really yummy carnitas (usually – I’ve had a couple of bad experiences with them, but good overall). It was an enjoyable evening and we’re going to meet up for Cinco de Mayo next. Miguelito gets to choose the restaurant. We had margaritas since it was Thirsty Thursday and they had $2.50 Margaritas. Miguelito had a Texas Margarita and Paco and I both had Mango Margaritas. They were yummy and kinda strong. Miguelito found himself getting tipsy on his third sip or so and he knows its not a tolerance thing. Over the weekend he had four shots of Patron and a mixed drink with Tequila and that had little effect, but he was quickly feeling the Margarita. I felt it a little bit on my fourth big drink and slowed it down a bit (so much so that I didn’t finish it).
Caution is out on lap 73 of 200. Michael Annett headed toward the wall. He didn’t hit it, but he lost it. It appears he’s lost his brakes. You can see brake fluid on his tired when he came in and a fire burning behind the tires too.Â
01 (Mike Wallace) and the 66 (Steven Wallace) are involved in a wreck around lap 112 bringing out the fourth caution. Looks like Steven lost a tire and hit Mike when it went down.Â
Clint Bowyer got the lucky dog so he’s back on the lead lap.
Another caution. Bliss has hit the wall hard. There’s fluid running down the track. He’s got the net down, but the car looks dead. It’s lap 129 of 200. Somebody tapped him on the back and sent him out of control into the inside wall and then into the outside wall. The pace car is bringing them down pit road while they clean up the mess on the track. Apparently Josh Wise was the person who hit him from behind and caused Mike to lose control. Bliss has had a rough night. He was the first person eliminated in Go or Go Home qualifying in the Sprint Cup and now his night is over in Nationwide.
Lap 137 on the restart there’s a big pile up – the 73 Derrike Cope, the 99 Trevor Bayne, the 16 of Colin Braun, the 7 of Landon Cassill, the 10 of Casey ears, the 83 of John Borneman, the 1 of James Buescher, the 38 of Jason Leffler. Kyle slowed down on the restart and everybody backed up behind him and Clint ran into the back of James Buescher and lifted him and they just all piled up into each other. The 22 was restarting on Kyle’s inside, but was ahead of him going to the line. 12 cars involved in that wreck. Kyle is asking about what happens when the number two car beats the number one car to the line. Kyle was trying to make Bradley K beat him to the start so he’d get black flagged, but since there was a caution, we’re in a wait and see as to whether there will be a penalty – BUT – it looks like Kyle didn’t restart at the point where he should have and at that point the flagman threw the flag and the race restarted no matter what Kyle did, so it might not have been an illegal move after all. The flag has gone from red to yellow, but pit road is still closed.
Bradley K is now the race leader so Kyle’s crew chief Jason Radcliff is over talking to the NASCAR official. 13 cars total, Brian Scott, Clint Bowyer, and Reed Sorenson were also involved in this. When they asked Jason Radcliff about that restart he just started cackling and brushed the question off with an “I don’t know. I’m just worried about getting the car working right.” There are 60 laps to go right now. Jason Radcliff is still trying to get them to change their minds. Bradley K was leading when the caution fell. Kyle has marks on the wall that indicate the restart zone. He can restart after the first set of marks, or at any point to the second set of marks. After/At the second set the flagman will wave the green flag and the race has then started – no matter what the leader does. Kyle was counting on the fact that NASCAR “makes such a big deal about that at every driver’s meeting” so they would penalize Brad, who has been Kyle’s only real competition so far.
Robin Pemberton has stopped by the booth and said the same thing that Andy Petree said about the restart. Bradley K is asking his crew chief about the restart and his crew chief said they will discuss it afterward. NASCAR has gotten on the radio and said “Let’s have a clean restart now.” This time Kyle jumped ahead of Keselowski and it looked to Petree like he went too fast. NASCAR is taking a look at the restart to determine that. They’re going to black flag the 18 for jumping the restart. He heard about that on the radio and dropped back. The 18 is going to have to do a pass through pit road. If he had let the 22 back by immediately then he would not have gotten penalized, but he didn’t. He’s rolling down pit road now. Keselowski has a 1.2 second lead over Carl Edwards who has Joey Logano all over him. There are 49 laps left and Kyle is now in 19th position.
While Carl was battling with Logano Happy was catching up to them. Now that Moldy Bread has passed Michael Carl, he has to battle Happy. Happy is now in third behind Moldy Bread. Carl is behind Happy Harvick. Biffle is trying to chase down Paul Menard for sixth place. Moldy Bread took over the lead with 19 laps to go. Bradly K says, with 16 laps to go, “I just need a yellow. I’ll win this race with a yellow.”  Joey has not said a word for the past 30 laps. Johnny Sauter was the last car on the lead lap battling Brendan Gaughn hard for that position.   Caution is out with 13 laps to go; debris on the track. Moldy Bread says they suck on the short run. Johnny Sauter got the lucky dog, so he’s back on the lead lap. It’s kind of funny to hear the announcers/reporters saying what Joey said about the short lap and paraphrasing to avoid saying they suck. Justin Allgaier got turned around at the end of the pit road and now has a flat tire and pretty good damage on the left side. Kelly Bires hit Allgaier while coming out of his pit box. Logano hit Kyle – Kyle was coming into his box and Logano was coming out. Kyle says the transmission is done. Joey’s got pretty good damage on the right side. 8 laps to go as the lights go out on the pace car. Happy is the first car with four tires on that pit stop. Logano got a great start. Kyle just passed Carl three wide. Biffle is battling Kyle. Happy is coming in low. Kyle is trying to get around somebody. Bradley K passed with six laps to go. Kyle Busch is in second place behind Bradley K and Kyl just took the lead with five laps to go.  
Harvick just took thrid from Biff with four laps to go. Carl is in fifth with three laps to go. Menard is trying to pass Logano for sixth. Clint and Reed are battling for eleventh. Kyle has a big lead.  Kyle wins!  Happy is hitting hard for second and gets it from Keselowski and Brendan Gaughan in fourth. Radcliff told Kyle to “Burn that sucker down!” He’s now in third on the all time win list. Only Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin are ahead of him. Happy knows he had a good chance, but their line got bottled up. A very familiar story. Kyle burned up the back tire, so he walked over to get the flag. Keselowski has taken over the points lead by finishing third. Brad is trying to talk about the restarts, without getting too much into what Kyle did. He seemed to be trying to not call him out and get something started. Brendan Gaughan said he “loves restarts he learned from Ron Hornaday and Jack Sprague, two of the best.”
Let’s see what Kyle has to say:
He wants to apologize to Joey for what happened on pit road. He said he didn’t do a very good job and Joey probably could’ve won the race. He has kids from his sunshine home up in the stands tonight. He said he probably has ot pay for the quarter panel on the car. Jamie is asking him about the restart. She asked him what happened?  He said, “I don’t know. I just know I paid NASCAR back by winning.” He smiled and walked off to high five his team.
FINALLY the question has been answered. Â Reuti-tooty says he’s a fisherman in the Love Sponsafier commercial. Â A fisherman. Â He says he’s wearing waders and got the pole. Â I thought he was a hobo clown. Â A fisherman!