This week Bristol. This race is usually boring. Sometimes the noise is described as 43 cars in a blender and the action reminds me of watching a blender. It’s interesting for a couple minutes, then you realize you have better things to do.
Caution on lap 23 during the commercial break – Kasey & Regan Smith had contact which caused an accident that included positions 8 – 15. Caution caused by contact between Kasey Kahne and Regan Smith. Accident including Kasey Kahne, Regan Smith, Marcos Ambrose, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick. KyBu is behind the wall and very angry. Kasey’s car lost a lot of the driver’s door causing the blue insulation/foam to end up on the track. NASCAR has said the competition caution scheduled for lap 50 will happen as soon as the track is cleared after this wreck. Everybody went behind the wall except Harvick and Smith.
Caution Lap 115 Schrader hit the wall.
The sun is coming and going. At lap 177 we head to commercial. Everybody but Carl Edwards from the earlier wreck is back on the racetrack.
DW said hello to and sent his prayers to Dale Inman and his wife Mary. As usual, no explanation as to why. Usually Mike Joy elaborates, but he didn’t on this one.
Carl is walking around with a headset on @ lap 203. They’re hoping to get the 99 back on track.
Caution Lap 340 Stremme hit the wall. Hamlin and Harvick are battling for position and Larry Mc says there’s no love lost between those two anyway. They were predicting a caution if Hamlin kept holding Harvick up.
Caution (during commercial break) lap 130 – Jeff Gordon spun out after his left side tire went down and he spun into the wall. Gordon and Jr. were racing side-by-side and he and Jr had some contact and his left side tire hit Jr’s exhaust pipes. The 24 is being pulled off on the hook.
Caution is out with 23 to go as we go to side-by-side commercials – we’re looking at the 14 – once the audio is no longer commercial audio we’ll find out what happened. Smoke hit the wall after contact with Brendan Gaughan. Tony passed Gaughan and Gaughan come up into Smoke. Not sure why.
BooBoo just got a penalty for ‘too fast entering’.
The announcers keep seeing the 17 beat the 2 to the line on restarts though NASCAR hasn’t called it yet.
There are a lot of empty seats with 12 to go. Looks like, if this race sold out, it cleared out relatively early.
Keselowski wins. He mentioned people saying he won the race last year due to the timing lines. They added additional timing lines for this race. He said he proved that wasn’t true last year. Actually, he didn’t. He obviously won due to the timing lines last year. He proved he had a good car this year and was capable of driving that care to a win. Just like a mistake would not have negated the good things he did last year. A win this year does not prove he did not win due to the timing lines. Those of us who watched the race know how he won last year.
BooBoo is so funny. He said he doesn’t trust the timing lines. He had all green lights coming in and had red lights on the way out so if he was speeding it was on the way out. He said he was really sorry for what happened with Jeff Gordon.
Jimmie says his race wasn’t too bad. He said he got stuck on the inside behind the 16 which caused him to lose 3 or 4 spots, or else he thinks he would’ve been fifth or sixth.
Unofficial Results:
1) Keselowski
2) Kenseth
3) Truex
4) Bowyer
5) Vickers
6) Burton
7) McMurray
8) JPM
9) Jimmie
10) Menard
11) Harvick
12) Newman
13) Biffle
14) Smoke
15) BooBoo
16) Logano
17) Allmendinger
18) Kurt Busch
19) Almirola
20) Hamlin
21) Retimann
22) Gaughan
23) David Ragan
24) Smith
25) Mears
26) Gilliland
27) Kvapil
28) Bobby Labonte
29) Cassill
30) Yeley
31) McDowell
32) Kyle Busch
33) Schrader
34) Blaney
35) Jeff Gordon
36) Ambrose
37) Kahne
38) Stremme
39) Edwards
40) Nemecheck
41) Riggs
42) Sorensen
43) Wise
Petty Kyle says if you didn’t like today’s race you don’t like racing or NASCAR. I wonder what it is like to be God and have infinite wisdom. I wish he’d create a debating society so he could go off and argue to his heart’s content knowing he’s always right about everything.
Speaking of Petty Kyle: The Speed desk is not better because of his presence. His name is Petty. That’s doesn’t make him an expert on NASCAR (or anything else actually). He’s a former driver. So is Kenny Wallace, who also has a famous family name. The difference is that Kenny Wallace seems to love racing, love the fans, love NASCAR, love his job, love his family and love his life. At no time does Petty Kyle display any of these qualities. He seems to feel only disdain (or hatred) toward racing, NASCAR, the fans, his job, his family and his life. He needs help desperately. He’s stuck in a dark place and displays the worst he has to offer.
It’s sad that he represents all of the negative qualities of a great racing family. His behaviour isn’t atypical – a look at the Hall of Fame bios of Richard Petty and Dale Inman give you a good picture of the complicated concoction that is the Petty family. All the families I know have many of the same dynamics, but typically their public faces display the positive side of the family. Unfortunately the only Petty we see and hear on a weekly basis is a prime example of the negative side of being human and of being a son and of being a Petty. Many of us shared those qualities, but most of us usually avoid proudly and publicly displaying our negative qualities.
Unfortunately, the son of The King is a brat who has never grown up, never lost his teenage angst, and never made the Petty name something he could be proud of. He constantly touts Adam. Sadly it appears that the racing future of a family fell on the shoulders of one young man. That wasn’t fair to the young man and sadly he did not live a long life. While he did not have to bear the full weight of the burden of being the future of the Petty Racing dynasty, it is always sad when a young person dies. It is sadder that Kyle seems to have only had one child. His every breath appears dedicated to mourning his dead only child. I imagine his pain is immense. But I seem to remember reading he had other children who are alive and need a father. Petty Kyle has never really buried his son. He drags him around with him everywhere, everyday. Wearing that black striped 45 cap displays his choice to stop living because his son stopped living. Very sad. I hope he gets help at some point in his life. I hope he knows real joy; personal joy; self-loving joy. I hope he does not let pain rule his life and ruin everything he touches.