Darrell Wallace Jr. won his first NASCAR Truck Series pole. He became the youngest pole winner in the top three series. He led more than half of the race, before losing the lead to his boss Kyle Busch who went on to win the race.
Denny Hamlin won his second pole in a row. He looks ill. There was video of his stepping out of the hauler and his pain was obvious in the way he gingerly stepped down one-sided.
Kyle Busch led most of the laps in the Nationwide Race only to take four tires during a late caution while everybody else took two. Joey Logano, one of the cars taking two, won the race. It wasn’t a particularly exciting race.
The sun is shining with blue skies at Dover. It’s 85 degrees during opening ceremonies. It’s been hot in Dover the entire weekend – typically running 10 or more degrees hotter there than here in Atlanta, Georgia. There are a LOT of empty seats visible from the camera shots. A lot in the main grandstands and a frightening number in the ancillary grandstands. Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. lead the field to the green flag. Denny says there will be good days and bad days with his back and today is a bad day. Kenseth said, before the race, he was going to win the Cup race today. While leading the race he blowed up. He won’t win this one. Keselowski has Paul Wolf back so he’s smelling himself. Lap 168 of 400 Travis Kvapil’s engine blowed up just after restart. Clouds are moving in and the crew chiefs are starting to check the radar. Rain is predicted tonight in the Dover area. According to MRN there are showers about 40 to 50 miles from the
racetrack though it appears to be a small cell.
Gilliland and Newman get together on the backstretch and Gilliland gets out of the car steaming over to Newman.
After leading the majority of the race, Jimmie had the misfortune to start in second beside Juan Pablo Montoya who played games on the restart and basically didn’t start causing Jimmie to reach the line before him and get a pass through penalty with about 11 laps to go in the race. Tony Stewart passed JPM to win the race. Jimmie got off to a normal start and held back to let JPM catch up, but JPM didn’t/couldn’t resulting in the penalty. Robin Pemberton said there was no issue because Jimmie beat JPM out of the box then wouldn’t give JPM the position back. JPM screwed Jimmie for an incident earlier in the race when Jimmie had a faster car and was trying to get around JPM who wouldn’t get out of the way. Jimmie battled him for a while, then tapped the bumper a couple of times to get around him. The screwjob on the restart looks an awful lot like payback. I look forward to the upcoming ‘Instant Karma’ for JPM. Typically in NASCAR what goes around
comes around. JPM should probably keep this incident in mind.
Overall another boring Dover race. Several cars had engine issues including Kenseth, McMurray, and KyBu.
This is the last race of the season for FOX. I’ll miss FOX. I always miss the FOX broadcasts. I love Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond. I enjoy Steve Byrnes in the pits. I typically like the way the broadcasts look, though this season with all the high and wide shots I found myself quite frustrated quite often. I don’t have HDTV, nor a wide-screen television so those overhead shots are less than illuminating for me. The cars are the size of ants and I can’t tell what’s going on without getting very close to the screen and guessing. As usual I’ve taken to turning down the audio on television and turning up the MRN broadcast. Larry McReynolds destroys the flow of the race broadcasts. Then there’s the nightmare that is Michael Waltrip. Michael’s contribution to the broadcast has turned out to be much, much, much worse than I imagined. When it was announced he would join the broadcast team I thought he would not add anything to the show.
What I’ve found over the span of his participation is that he not only doesn’t add anything besides noise, he also takes a lot away from the broadcast. The racebreaks are too frequent, too long, and too repetitive. The grid walk is usually a chance to speak with MWR drivers and crew members, harass Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon, make leering comments about women on the grid, and speak with anyone else he happens to encounter. It is tacky at best, inappropriate at worst. The only good thing about the grid walk is that Michael is off the desk in the segment before. Then there are the repetitive commercials. I HATE the ‘I ate the bones’ commercials. Chris Meyers is mediocre and requires a strong NASCAR presence on the desk with him. Michael Waltrip is not that strong presence.
Unfortunately TNT has the next group of races. It’s unfortunate because they tend to have the crappiest crew on television. The only positive aspect of the TNT broadcast in the past has been the Race Buddy coverage of the Sprint Cup races. Petty Kyle should find a job in which he can spend all of his time arguing with the Twitter-verse and away from NASCAR. He is anti-NASCAR in almost every situation and his contrary ways are totally unprofessional and off-putting. I love that Richard Petty still has a presence in NASCAR. That’s all the Petty we need, unless one of Richard’s daughters has a kid who is interested and talented in racing. Petty Kyle’s NASCAR world died with his son and all that’s left is bitterness. His bitterness has no place on television or in NASCAR. Adam Alexander typically yells like a maniac through the shows. He’s terrible at banter and worse at filling time or changing gears. He should avoid live broadcasts. Usually the
camera operators are out of position to actually capture the on-track action. Wacky Wally Dallenbach is a phenomenon. If he were the quirky element of a professional show it would be tolerable. He seems out to lunch, more often than not, yet he’s typically the most together member of the broadcast team – which says nothing about the so-called talent. That crew/team needs a total overhaul. Usually by the second week I’m counting down to the ABC/ESPN section of the season – though I hate Brad Daugherty Michael Waltrip seemed to pattern his on-air work after Daugherty. Brad’s bias is so strong it invalidates everything he says and makes him a total waste of air. Rusty is only sightly better when his son isn’t racing. Nicole, on the other hand, has become a very enjoyable talent. I’m always thrilled to listen to Ray Evernham and totally look forward to his appearances. There’s no one better in the pits than Dr. Jerry Punch. Jamie is slowly
improving in the pits. So I’m already looking forward to the shift away from TNT and back to FOX (with the hope that FOX dumps Michael Waltrip & Larry McReynolds – only).
I still love NASCAR!
In NASCAR news this week:
1. Jimmie Johnson visited tornado damaged Moore, Oklahoma. The area was hit by an EF5 tornado which followed the path of the 1999 F5 tornado. His wife Chandra is an Oklahoma native. They toured the damage and passed out supplies to residents. He donated his winnings from last week’s Charlotte race to the relief efforts.
2. Another wreck without SAFER barrier. Jeff Gordon is the latest driver to endure an old school wreck. Jeff Gordon hit the walll in Charlotte during the Coca-Cola 600. The location of his impact was concrete wall – not SAFER barrier. Denny Hamlin suffered compression fracture of his vertebrae after hitting a concrete wall in Fontana, California and was out of his car for several weeks.
3. Dover International Speedway’s CEO explained the reduction of penalties against JGR and the 20 car. The comment leaves the issue as inexplicable as it was when announced. While the panel, according to McGlynn, acknowledged the crew chiefs’ responsibility for every aspect of the car, and felt that responsibility justified the $200,000 fine. They reduced the points penalties and suspensions to basically nothing, less than a hand slap. So they are responsible, unless someone else signs affidavits saying it wasn’t the crew chiefs’ fault? Ummmmmm, so ‘it’s not my fault’ in an affidavit works? That sets a desperate precedent in my opinion.