NNS: California Speedway - Stater Bros. 300

Jess

RESULTS
1. Tony Stewart
4. David
7. Dale Jr.

Not long after the Cup race was over two of our guys were strapping into their Nationwide cars, ready to put another three-hundred miles behind them. It was a fairly ho-hum race, but what did happen was centered quite a bit around David and Kyle Busch.

I like Kyle - I like him a lot, actually - but that doesn't mean I don't get nervous when he's around one of my favorites. So when he suddenly appeared behind David going like a bat out of hell I held my breath a little. Thankfully I came to the conclusion that I might as well start breathing again because I would have suffocated if I'd continued to hold my breath the entire time those two were around each other! Kyle was trailing David and if he'd gotten any closer to the 99's rear bumper there would have been a huge crash. It was odd, though, because it took Kyle quite a while to attempt a pass, so I thought that either he was trying to draft with David, a fellow Toyota driver, or he was just being a buttmunch for some reason.

Whatever Kyle's intentions were, David didn't appreciate them! It didn't look like David wanted Kyle to get by and once Kyle did David got right up on his arse. Then he passed Kyle, Kyle tailgated him, Kyle passed, David tailgated...and so on and so forth until I was just about puking with anxiety, waiting for the spin.

That never happened but David didn't let Kyle go without letting him know how he felt - which he showed by driving down the track and giving the 32 a good slam on the door! The funniest part about that was Kyle seemed so offended and held his hand out the window like, "What?" Later ESPN played some of David's audio in which he was saying he was racing Kyle like he was racing him and that it wasn't fun when he (meaning Kyle) was wearing the other shoe, was it!

David got some breathing room after pit stops when the 32 crew lost Kyle several spots (that sounds familiar) and was then able to focus on more important things: like getting those five points for leading a lap. Stewart was basically spanking the rest of the field, so according to some audio from Stewart's team that ESPN played David had asked the 20's spotter to let Stewart make a decision on whether he'd allow David to lead a lap. A fair question - David's going for the championship and he's a Toyota driver. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up in the fleeting moment the spotter was talking during this clip, but I was furious when Stewart's answer was a short, nasty, "No." The spotter then laughed. Uhg!! What a freaking crap! True, as a racer you don't want to give anyone a freebee, but dang! And the way he said it, so holier-than-thou, really made my blood boil! It got even worse when during green-flag pit stops one of the pit reporters said that Stewart wanted to pit after the 99. Gee, so he couldn't lead a lap, right? Bloody hell, that's just rude!

So the race went on and by and by Kyle came creeping back up to the front. Eventually it looked just like the start of the race again with the red nose of the 32 stuffed up the Lucky Dog's nose. Ah-ha! That's it! Maybe Kyle was just trying to get a real good look at Lucky! The battle again appeared a bit heated but didn't last as long before Kyle got by and made a vain attempt to go after Stewart.

I was pretty nervous that Kyle would say something obnoxious about David but when asked about their racing together he didn't even flinch and answered calmly that the 99 was a really good car that seemed to have more horsepower than his Camry. He did admit that they were racing too hard with each other and also mentioned the retaliation...however he called it a "side-draft". Which I don't think it was. But either Kyle honestly didn't think he was getting on David's nerves or he didn't want to call him out for showing some emotion (though he did refer back to the infamous wreck with Kurt during the All-Star race). Anyway I appreciated that. David said nothing about Kyle during his interview.

For a while I was annoyed at both of them because it was really stressful for me as a fan to watch them lap after lap inches away from wrecking each other. They are two very emotional drivers and aggressive drivers - believe it or not, David can get pretty fired up out there! They are also two very talented drivers. After I got over that little pit of dread that I was feeling watching them race around together I realized that it just showed off what great drivers they are and I love 'em both very much!

Junior had a quiet day. I'm a little surprised he hasn't run better in his Nationwide races but maybe he's just shaking the rust off and getting used to the new package.

POINT STANDINGS
1. Tony Stewart
4. David -104