Brad Parrott Gets Some Relief (Finally!)

I've been waiting for this news for so long! Brad Parrott, after four months of abuse by Juan Pablo Montoya, has been moved to the #41 Busch Series team. This rumor sprang up a while ago after Montoya had been rudely disrespecting Brad on his crew chiefing decisions but then never came to fruition. However most rumors have a grain of truth to them and I’m glad this was one of those! I think Brad will feel much better being on the 41’s pit box.

But now I feel bad for Brian Pattie. I wonder how they will fit Montoya’s inflated ego into his Busch car?

Todd in the News

It was nice to see Todd Kluever’s name out there recently since he so often gets overshadowed by his Roush teammates and ignored on the racetrack (since everyone is too interested in planting the camera on Buschwackers instead of *gasp* Busch regulars). There is an article on That’s Racin’ called Cup ride denied, Kluever chopping away in Busch Series by Chris Jenkins, and it sums up quite nicely what Todd has been through. It breaks my heart because it makes it painfully clear that Todd is getting screwed over at Roush – not “good” enough for a Cup ride so you get degraded to a part-time Busch ride.

I believe that Todd has lost all hope of driving the 6 car that was supposed to be his or getting a ride with Roush in general, since they have enough problems as it is with having to cut one team out of their organization by 2009. “I’ll be honest: I don’t think Roush-Fenway has any idea who drives what next year,” Todd said. “It definitely doesn’t get transmitted to us.”

If anything this article makes me dislike Geoff Smith (Roush’s president) even more with his nasty comments about Todd having to improve his performance and doesn’t have the “star qualities” that David Ragan has. First of all, Todd has been doing fine in a Cup driver-filled Busch Series and part time as well, where he can’t get the tight chemistry with his team that is so important these days. Secondly, “star qualities”? What is that supposed to mean and how exactly is David Ragan more of a star than Todd? Todd is a sweetheart, beautiful (for a lack of a better term, for “handsome” doesn’t do him justice), looks far younger than he is and I’d wager that he’d be just as good or better than Ragan, who is 25th in points and has a bad reputation as a hazard on the racetrack.

Personally I want Todd to leave Roush and find a better team that will appreciate him, but then there is also that fear that he may go down the same road as Brandon Whitt and be rideless. It just infuriates me that Todd is being treated as the filler in the races that Greg Biffle doesn’t want to run.

Despite his worries about his career, Todd is doing wonderful things during his time off like the Kluever Ride To Cure Diabetes he hosted on Sunday. It was a charity event close to Todd’s heart, for his brother Tim was diagnosed with diabetes when he was just a child. Over 100 motorcycles—including Todd’s Harley—participated and ended up raising just $500 shy of $20,000, which will be divided between American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Working at an assisted living facility I know several diabetics and how difficult their lives can be, so I salute Todd for having a big heart and creating awareness.

Infineon Raceway - Toyota/Save Mart 350

RACE WINNER: JUAN PABLO MONTOYA

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 13th (started 3rd)
- For calling himself not much of a road racer, Dale Jr. did a great job today. Much of his race was spent behind leader Robby Gordon and even when he dropped to lower positions he remained in the Top 5. It was only after the last pit stops of the day that fuel strategy bit the #8 team and sent him back in the field.

- Quotes:
“No question we had a top-five car today. It's the best car I've had here (at Sonoma), and I also drove better than I think I ever had before on a road course, so I'm damn proud overall. We weren't the fastest car on the restarts, but after four or five laps, we could out-run almost anyone. I felt really racy and it was exciting to make a lot of passes on guys that are considered some of the best in the world. It's frustrating to end up without a finish that shows how good we were. But we did what we had to do. We had a two-stop strategy for the day - and we stopped on the laps we believed were the best strategy. We really didn't think any of those guys who stopped before we did could make it to the end on fuel.”

Kurt Busch.: 22nd (started 14th)
- Kurt’s first race with Pat Tryson was looking to be a good one until eventual race winner Montoya got into the back of him in Turn 11. I should have known that Montoya couldn’t make a clean race at a road course, and it just had to be Kurt that he took out. Because the caution didn’t fly Kurt had to scramble to get back onto the track and lost many positions.

- Quotes:
“Some guys could make it on two stops. Some guys could make it on three. We were on a two-stop strategy and it ended up being three. It wasn’t good for us. We could have made the car a little better. We’ll come back at The Glen with a stronger Dodge Avenger. We got tagged in turn 11 by Montoya, a Formula One winner and a NASCAR winner. That doesn’t happen every day.”

Martin Truex Jr.: 24th (started 18th)
- Martin ran a fairly quiet race except for a strange move climbing up the hill after pit stops. It basically looked like he had a lapse of attention and casually slipped his leftside tires into the sand. The car hardly wobbled at all and steered back onto the course. Martin is now 11th in points.

Dale Jarrett.: 26th (started 16th)
- DJ was running a fairly decent race until he became a little too aggressive and tried to stick the UPS Camry’s nose into a rapidly shrinking hole. Johnny Sauter gave him little room and Dale jumped the 44 into the air, leading to an impressive amount of air but a bad break for DJ. To make matters worse, the car stalled and the entire field passed him before the caution came out.

- Quotes
“We just struggled all day. It was the same thing all weekend; we just couldn't get any forward bite and just couldn't get it off the corners. We weren't very good (on the road course), we have some work to do in that area.”

Casey Mears: 27th (started 38th)
- How would you like to run an entire race without power steering? That is what Casey had to do today. Can you imagine? That poor guy…he must have been in a lot of pain by the time the checkers flew! But I’d say that he did a great job staying on the lead lap. Unfortunately he dropped to 20th in point standings, tied with Montoya. It was disappointing coming after his streak of great finishes, but I’m confident he’ll rebound at Loudon.

Brian Vickers: DNQ
- Really, really disappointing, but based on his practice times we saw it coming.

David Reutimann: DNA (Did Not Attempt)
- I don’t want to talk about this anymore.

Michael Waltrip: DNA

Other Notes:

- Oh man, stop the presses, Juan Pablo Montoya has won his first NEXTEL Cup race. I’m not a big fan of his, but I expected him to be a lot more excited than he was (that’s all I really ask…even if I don’t like a driver I appreciate some joy). He hollered in the car a little bit but when he went into Victory Lane he hardly showed affection toward his wife and absolutely no thanks to his crew. It left me feeling a little gypped.

- MWR’s road ringer and PCP did not quite work out as well as Michael would have hoped, I’m guessing. While PJ Jones finished 12th, he got virtually zero attention, which was a failure if Burger King had anything to do with Jones getting into the car. Not to mention that David seeing someone else bring his car to its best finish of the year is just wonderful for his confidence. Terry Labonte seemed to be adequate at first but plummeted late in the race. I believe Michael could have done much better…

- I’m not sure what I think of the New Car on its first road course. While it was exciting to watch them jockeying for position it was very hard to pass without getting dirty.

- An amusing irony developed, starting with Kyle Petty praying before the start of the race, being a good Christian and all that nice stuff. That all came crashing down when TNT aired a replay of his incar audio after Matt Kenseth spun him out. Kyle screamed, "What the FUCK was that?" very loudly and demonically before it faded away into the awkward silence of Bill Weber and Wally Dallenbach. I laughed, of course.

- Quotes from Race2Win

More Thoughts on D. Reut's Sonoma Situation

Spurred on by Rusty Wallace’s comments during the Busch race, my mind has been filled with David Reutimann. Specifically, David’s hesitation as he gathered up his emotions during an interview so he could speak about how badly it hurts to be taken out of the 00 and away from his team. Even more particularly, my reaction – which was close to tears – to that expression of pain on his face. If I didn’t hate this deal before, I really despise it now.

PJ Jones just barely squeaked into the Cup race at Sonoma. I was fairly happy for MWR because it’s a quick fix and got quite a bit of exposure since all three MWR cars made the field – the first time since Daytona. But isn’t it sad that only one of the drivers is a full-time MWR driver? To be completely honest, I think the only reason Dale Jarrett is in the 44 this weekend is because Michael doesn’t have the gall to replace him and that UPS wouldn’t have it anyway. David is an easier target. Passionate but quiet, not very popular yet but reasonably well-liked. Most of all, he won’t badmouth Michael publicly.

Why did Michael do this when he knows how sensitive David is? He sucks up to David by saying on his TV shows what a great driver he is and how proud he is of him, but what confidence does replacing David for a race show? Did Michael feel so bad about replacing himself with Terry Labonte that he felt he needed to bring someone else down with him?

This move is nothing but bad news for both MWR and the fans. MWR won’t benefit because hello, David is the fulltime driver and so is Michael, coming off their best finishes of the season (how ironic). David needs as much practice in the New Cars on road courses as he can get, and even first practice and DNQing would have been better than nothing. Instead of bringing the MWR drivers and their teams together, Michael is allowing them to be ripped apart. David is devastated. His spotter and cousin, Shawn, is royally pissed off. His fans, the passionate D00 Crew, are in an uproar. What was Michael thinking? A quick fix. He took one cookie before supper and not a whole plate after supper.

Team Red Bull is an organization that I have been immensely impressed with, especially since they are brand new to NASCAR. Their entire team – whether you are a driver, crew chief or crewman – are a close knit bunch, in it together. They triumph together and they fail together, but as long as they never rip apart they get stronger every day. I don’t know if MWR is too proud or too panicky, but they’d do a lot of good for themselves if they followed that lead.

David is talent. Pure talent and pure class. Rusty mentioned that teams are already looking at him (whether he was bluffing or not that should be a wakeup call to Michael) and I’m not surprised. I love Michael and MWR, but I also love David and want to see him be successful like he was born to be. I want David to do what he feels like is best for him, be it at MWR or not. He won’t lose this fan.

The Milwaukee Mile - AT&T 250

RACE WINNER: DENNY HAMLIN … ER… ARIC ALMIROLA …ER …DARIC HALMIROLA?

Scott Wimmer: 2nd (started 3rd)
- Oh Scott…first of all, that win is coming. He says he doesn’t know if it is or not but it is!! I know it, I feel it.

- The #29 was a threat from the beginning. Scott and the whole team did a great job at keeping the car near the front and it was so fast after it ran for a while. Unfortunately, Denny Hamlin had such a fire under his behind on the short run that the cautions at the end really screwed Scott’s chances for the win. A two-tire pit call put Scott up front near the end of the race and he got a great restart, fending Jason Leffler off and stretching his lead. However this all came crashing down when the caution flew. During the subsequent restart Scott did a fine job at holding Leffler at bay until the 38 drove him up the track like a sucker (okay, okay, they were racing for the win, but I was still furious). This, of course, left a hole wide open for Hamlin, who shoved through, took the point and never gave it up. Another caution waved and Scott valiantly tried to chase the 20 down with a handful of laps to go – he was even faster than Hamlin on the last lap – but there wasn’t enough time left. Scott proceeded to down himself a little bit in his post-race interview. Apparently his crew chief told him on the last restart he had a bumper and knew what to do with it to get the win, but I’m glad that Scott chose not to follow that advice. Scott’s above that. At the end of the night, he may be second best at his home track, but he’s first in class.

David Reutimann: 7th (started 8th)
- A great run for D. Reut despite things looking very hairy where he was racing all night! I couldn’t be more proud of him…and I couldn’t be more upset for him. For once the ESPN booth paid attention to him (and I do not think it was a coincidence, as Allen Bestwick was wonderfully commentating!), but instead of putting a smile on my face it nearly made me cry. Remember how I was upset over the Sonoma deal, replacing David with PJ Jones? ESPN had done one of those special little interviews that they show throughout the race, and one of them was David explaining this situation. He that that although he understands it from a business view (to me, however, it looked as if he was still disapproving), personally it’s really hurting him to be forced to step out of the 00. It wasn’t just that he said that, but the expression on his face…it ripped my heart out. David wears his emotions on his sleeve and this was no different. Like he said, he signed a contract for an entire season. It was just broken. To further upset me, Rusty Wallace went on a surprising rampage on how good David is and that if Michael Waltrip isn’t careful many other teams are looking at David! My jaw dropped. Was he just bluffing to make Michael look worse than he already does, or is he speaking truth? Honestly I believe him. But I think an entire entry is more appropriate for the rest of my thoughts, for I’m thinking a lot about this…

- Because of Dave Blaney’s absence, David is now 2nd in driver points, a miniscule 776 points away from leader Carl Edwards.

- Quotes:

"We weren't very good all night. We almost went a lap down at one point. I'm very disappointed on how bad we ran early on. We kept beating on the thing and kept changing stuff. Finally, at the end, we got it where we could hustle a little bit and drive it. We were able to come back to the front a little bit but just ran out of time. I think we were better than a lot of the guys in front of us, but the yellows hurt us a little bit. All in all, it was a good effort. We ended up a whole lot better than I thought we would."

Todd Kluever: 18th (started 23rd)
- I’m sure Todd was hoping for a better finish, being another Wisconsin native and having the rare opportunity at not being bullied by a field of Buschwackers. He had an incident with Ron Hornaday, which isn’t surprising because well, it’s Hornaday. Todd had the position coming down the straight and Hornaday simply cut him off. If he thought he was intimidating Todd he was sorely disappointed, for Todd held his line and left the 77 spin across his nose. Todd basically stayed steady in the low 20s and high teens for the rest of the night, thankfully avoiding any more wrecks.

-Quotes:

“I’m a little disappointed in our finish, I thought we had a better car than that. Eddie [Pardue, crew chief] and the guys did a great job. I can’t say enough about them. We unloaded and weren’t real good at all. It’s really cool to have a team that when you’re not real good off the truck, they put their heads down and dig real hard. That’s what they did. I’m real proud of them. But, I thought we had a car that could run better than that. We had some contact with the 77 there and I feel like I had the spot going into turn one and he was trying to come down on us. So, we knocked the front fender and had to pit off sequence, which put us last there on the restart. Then it just happened to be that restart where we had the longest green flag run of the night. I ran as hard as I could. I was passing as many as I could, but just ran out of time. We didn’t need that caution to come up at the end and we would have been all right. We could have been on the lead lap without that caution, maybe a top-10 car. It was an unfortunate night. But I’m real proud of my guys and hope to do better in New Hampshire.”

Other Notes:

- Well! I think I’d be pretty stupid if I didn’t mention the unbelievable events that commenced around the #20. It all started when Denny Hamlin slept in and missed half of second practice for Sonoma. I won’t even go into how juvenile that is…set your alarm clock! Then, after Carl Edwards and David Ragan were already on a plane to Milwaukee, Hamlin was practicing in Happy Hour! Um, okay, this was a recipe for disaster from the start. While Hamlin was on the plane to Milwaukee, Aric Almirola qualifed the #20 Busch car on the pole! Fast forward to the prerace ceremonies and Hamlin’s helicopter was just arriving, but couldn’t land because there were cars parked on the helipad. Therefore, the Rockwell team put Aric into the car and told him he would stay there as long as he wanted to. Hamlin stormed into the pit area with a clear scowl on his face and proceeded to complain (seeming to forget he started this mess in the first place by sleeping in). Interestingly enough, after the Lap 57 caution involving Todd and Hornaday, Aric was taken out of the car and replaced by Hamlin. Now, I could understand this if Aric was running poorly. Unless Joe Gibbs Racing thinks leading 43 laps and currently in 3rd place is a poor showing! The ESPN booth went crazy. They couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe it. Hamlin lost a lap with the driver change and Aric walked off and left the track, dejected and undeniably livid. Well, Hamlin bullied and beat his way back onto the lead lap and won. Oh wait. Aric won. Yeah. Right. Media members were denied explanation until the very end, when we got two different stories. the crew chief said – after an awkward pause – that it was a “group decision”. Hamlin said it was Rockwell and that he didn’t want Aric to get out of the car. You know what I think? I think Hamlin had a tantrum and got his way. If he wanted Aric in the car he would have let him stay in the car, not wave his arms around with a murderous expression. Now Aric Almirola has his “first win” with Denny Hamlin, who ESPN has the nerve to call a “relief driver”?? As DW and Larry McReynolds would say, “Have you ever?” “No I never!” Ridiculous.

- On a happier note, the racing was excellent. The ESPN coverage (am I really saying this?) was excellent (no doubt because of Allen) despite the bimbo Shannon Spake, who very professionally said, “Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum…” I’m sorry but, oh my God who hired her? And then her scanner’s batteries went dead, as she announced loudly. Nice job.

- All quotes from Race2Win

It's Daddy Jeff Gordon Now

Yes, it has finally happened: Ingrid Vandebosch gave birth and Jeff Gordon is now a proud pappa!

They picked a beautiful name – Ella Sofia – for a no doubt beautiful baby girl.

I’m very happy for both of them. Congrats Jeff and Ingrid!!

Kurt Gets a New Crew Chief!

Yesterday it was announced that Pat Tryson will take over as Kurt Busch’s crew chief starting immediately! This is very encouraging, for Pat is a well known, winning crew chief and I believe that’s just the extra confidence Kurt needs to get into Victory Lane. Troy Raker did a wonderful job for having no previous experience, but it seems that Kurt had some trust issues with him and would use him as his punching bag when a pit call went wrong or the car did something unexpected. Frustrations no doubt were starting to boil over and get a little tense on both sides. I’m hoping that Kurt and Pat will look at each other and say, “We know we can win.”

Troy now heads back to be an engineer, and I think he will enjoy being a little less stressed!

Michigan Internat'l Speedway - Citizens Bank 400

RACE WINNER: CARL EDWARDS

Martin Truex Jr.: 2nd (started 8th)
- Martin’s string of great finishes continues! This was another one he almost won. He led 54 laps on 5 separate occasions. He even got involved in a mid-race crash! At the end of the race he was gaining on Carl until he got tight and scraped the wall a bit. But regardless, finishes like this are exactly what the #1 Bass Pro Shops team needs.

Quotes:
- “It was a great day for us. Got to thank all these guys on this Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet. They working hard since we started and we are finally getting the results we wanted. We had an awesome car all day. We got shuffled to the back of the pack there and it took us a long time to get to the front. Then once we got there, I kind of lost track of the adjustments on the car. We were back in traffic there for a while and it kind of threw us off on our adjustments. We just got a little tight there at the end. I think I might have been just a little bit better than Carl (Edwards, race winner) and I got as close as I could, then I got tight and brushed the wall. From there our effort was to save a little bit of fuel and get to the end. I am just really proud of my guys, they are giving me great cars and it is showing. We're doing all the right things. We're not having any bad luck. I'm just trying to win races man, that's what I'm here to do. Whatever the circumstances are, that don't matter. I love Junior and he's moving on and I'm happy for him.”
Race2Win

- The team’s consistent climb up the points continues. Martin is now 10th and 11th in owners points.

Casey Mears: 4th (started 13th)
- The past few races for Casey have been a lot like Martin’s. The #25 National Guard Chevy wasn’t as dominant as the 1 team, but again, they need solid finishes to carry them toward the Chase. Supposedly Casey wasn’t feeling his best either and asked for TUMS or Rolaids at one point during the race.

- Quotes:
“We had a good, solid day. We just stayed out of trouble on that backstretch there when they had that crash, fortunately dodged that. We just keep clicking them off. (Crew chief) Darian (Grubb) is making great calls, we have good race cars. Just good, solid days and that's what we really, really need right now. Just happy with the team's performance. We had a top-three, four, five car right there pretty much the whole race. We just needed the track position and once we got it and got on that strategy, I'd run Tony (Stewart) down at times and then he'd pull away. It seemed like we're pretty equal there. It was a good day for us. I'm happy. Obviously we want to win races but considering where we're at in the points it was a great day for us. "It was a good car all day, a good effort by the National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet guys. We just keep clicking off top fives and top tens.”
Race2Win

- Casey moves up to 19th in points.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 5th (started 23rd)
- After announcing his plans for next year, a lot of people would call Dale Jr. a lame duck, but Sunday’s finish was anything but shaky. He even had a tire going down on one of the restarts. However, it became a break that was amazingly lucky – the #8 car slowed dramatically and dropped back. Moments later, right where Junior was driving, a huge wreck was started by Ryan Newman that would have surely damaged his car. At the end of the race, Junior was really strong but ran out of time to make up even more positions.

- Quotes:
“It was a good day for us. I have to thank Tony Gibson and my crew. I got real loose in the middle part of that race and the guys made some adjustments that got me going again. So they deserve all the credit today. The Budweiser Chevrolet ran great. Martin had a good day, awesome day for DEI. I am just really proud of everyone. Just an awesome day, a really really good day. I was a lot of fun out there, but man, when it gets loose, it is a handful. But they made the right adjustments.”
Race2Win

- This finish puts Junior currently in the Chase at 12th in points. He is 13th in owners standings.

Michael Waltrip: 10th (started 18th)
- No, your eyes do not deceive you! That is a top-10 for Mikey! And it wasn’t just luck, or pit strategy that got him there. The #55 NAPA team ran in the top-20 all day and the top-15 for the majority of the race. The car was excellent! Buddy Sisco did a great job and Mikey looked fine up there riding the high groove. Unfortunately, right at the end he got tight and bumped the wall, causing him to lose a couple spots. But I’m not complaining! Michael can still drive and those Toyotas are good cars with good engines. The difference between now and a month ago are team melding and organization.

- Quotes:
“It’s really great for our team to have run that well all day today and my guys did a great job on pit road. I messed up there at the end; otherwise I think we could have picked up a few more spots. I just got real tight there at the end and I was trying to pass (Kevin) Harvick and got up into the wall. My guys are a little rusty, but you would have never known it. Today was a hot day and I haven’t gotten to race this much in awhile, but I felt just as good at the end as I did in the beginning. But once the checkers fell - then I started feeling bad - hot, tired and glad it was over.”
Race2Win

- Mikey moves up to 51st in points and 48th in owners points.

David Reutimann: 15th (started 40th)
- Your eyes do not deceive this time either! To put a cherry on the cake, the two MWR cars in the race got top-15 place finishes. David struggled mightily in the beginning and fell a lap down. As the car got better, he was fighting for the free pass. Luckily, pit strategy came into play. Green flag pit stops were under way when Tony Raines pulled a kamikaze move over Elliott Sadler and spun, bringing out the caution. Reut hadn’t pitted yet and ended up in the top-20, where he remained for the rest of the day. During the last run, he picked off positions and reached his best finish of the year by far.

- Quotes:
“Today was a lot of fun. That was the most fun I’ve had all year. For as horrible as were in practice, and as bad as we struggled early on, I think it’s a pretty good day. The guys kept fighting. We got back on the lead lap when we needed to and kept making good changes. We just got too tight at the end to keep moving forward. We made a good call to put fuel in it so we didn’t have to stop there at the end.”

From Mikey: “I’m so proud of David. I saw him get lapped early in the race and then I never saw him again -- I kept wondering where he was at. To get tenth and 15th with our Toyotas is just great.”
Race2Win

- The #00 team moves up to 41st in points.

Kurt Busch: 25th (started 10th)
- Kurt ran great all day but was busted when the team left a loose lugnut during green flag pit stops. The car shook going into the turns. After that, the car went towards the free side and became hard to drive. It was a shame and I’m sure Kurt wasn’t too happy with the way things shook out.

- Quotes:
“We had a good car that ran in the top five most of the day. We had to come in on lap 166 to change a loose lugnut, and the car got really loose after that.”
Race2Win

- Kurt stays 16th in the standings.

Brian Vickers: 41st (started 16th)
- As is the norm for Brian, he ran great. When he broke the top-10, I knew he had a car that was capable of winning the race. But when Ryan Newman came to pit road because of a cut tire and went 3 laps down, I got a bad feeling he was going to race extremely hard to get those laps back. And he did, ruining the day for many drivers. I believe that once you’re over 2 laps down, you should be sent to the end of the lapped line, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. On one of the restarts, Newman barreled haphazardly along with the leaders and raced free pass-eligible Jeff Green like he was going for the win on the last lap. Coming off of Turn 2, Ryan was above Green. Green got slightly loose and at the same time Newman turned left in front of the #66 when he wasn’t clear. He ripped up Green’s front end and spun, which then caused a massive chain reaction down the field as people slowed up. Brian, who was running near the top-5, got hit from behind and sustained a huge amount of frontal injury to the car. Needless to say, I was furious to the point of tears. Newman was racing like an idiot and should have had no place running with the leaders. I know he was frustrated because of his tire problem, but that gives him no right to be completely careless of his competitors. He of course blamed it on Green and said he “ran out of talent”. Bull! Eventually the #83 Red Bull team got Brian’s car back on the track, but he was so many laps down and too slow to really do much.

- Quotes:
“I don’t really know what happened - there was a lot of smoke and other cars wrecking out in front of me. I came out of turn two and just had nowhere to go. I tried to slow down and somebody checked up in front of me and then I got run into from behind. I don’t really know -- it was just one big crash. It’s really unfortunate because this Red Bull Toyota was really, really strong today and we were just pacing ourselves and taking our time out there. We had one of the fastest cars on the race track and we were going to have a good day.”
Race2Win

- This drops Brian to 39th in points and 40th in owners points (2 spots!). He is now 210 points from 35th.

Dale Jarrett: DNQ
- Just barely missed the race.

Other Notes:

- It was good seeing Carl win again, especially so his motorhome driver, Tom Giacchi, can shave that beard he’s been sporting since 2005! It was also nice seeing someone new win this year.

- During TNT’s prerace show, they did a wonderful tribute to Benny Parsons. I miss that man so much. Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach, Marty Snider and Matt Yocum all talked casually together about him afterwards. It was so good to hear and very touching.

Kentucky Speedway - Meijer 300

RACE WINNER: STEPHEN LEICHT

Scott Wimmer: 3rd (started 25th)
- In those last 20 or so laps, I really thought we’d be celebrating Scott in Victory Lane, but it just wasn’t the night. He had an awesome car there at the end. Unfortunately, he had an incredibly hard time passing then-leader Brad Coleman and as he recollected himself for another go, Stephen Leicht shot around him and Coleman. After that, it seemed as if either Scott had used everything up or just rode, realizing nothing more could be done. Very disappointing and frustrating! He didn’t look as giddy after the race and even apologized to the Holiday Inn crew for giving bad setup information during the start of the evening. I know I’m probably paranoid, but I’m just worried that every time he’s in position to win that he’s expected to win. I’m afraid when he’s expected to win and doesn’t, that’s another chip away from his job. He’s so talented…it would be such a shame if only a win would prove that.

David Reutimann: 16th (started 14th)
- His car was tight at the beginning of the race, but the #99 crew did a good job of adjusting it. David drove all the way to 3rd and it sure would have been nice if ESPN gave him attention once in a while. But bad luck smacked again when Steven Wallace ran into the back of leader Carl Edwards on a late restart. Carl spun and somehow kept the car on the track…and kept driving! Good car control by Carl, but it caused a huge backup behind him which David appeared to have some trouble in. And again, it’s just like ESPN to puke up because Steve caused another wreck and completely ignore the other victims of his lapse in sense. Apparently, the left rear wheel kept coming loose too. The team soldiered on for the remainder of the race and grabbed a decent finish.

- Quotes:
“I felt like we had an excellent car. It was tight at the beginning of the race. Then, we made good changes to it and it got better and better. We were in a position where we needed to be and for some reason the lug nuts on the left rear (tire) came loose. We had to come in and put wheel spacers on to make it stay tight. Then, late in the race it was coming loose again. It's disappointing. Things were going according to plan before that. We still needed one more stop to tune on it a little bit more and throw something at it. I felt like we were on track -- we made smart changes and it got better every stop. Then we had that problem again.”
Race2Win

- D-Reut remains 4th in points and 9th in owners points.

Todd Kluever: 23rd (started 32nd)
- It was kind of a cruddy day for Todd, but despite being 2 laps down his finish wasn’t anything to really throw a fit over. The team just kept at it and avoided the wrecks to get more cars behind them. It would have been great to see Todd perform better at a race where Busch regulars get more of a chance, but it could have been worse.

Other Notes:

- Although I was disappointed that Scott didn’t win, I was happy for Stephen. It looked like he was going to keep his cool in Victory Lane, but once he hugged his already crying father, his own tears started to flow. I love emotional wins like this!

- I had a bad feeling that Steve Wallace was going to cause some problems. On the infamous restart, I said, “Wow, Steven got a really good start.” Only moments later, Carl was spinning and smoke billowed everywhere. It’s funny – ESPN praises Steve constantly to suck up to Rusty, but when he pulls a stupid move they just sit around in discomfort. Rusty sounded disgusted and furious with his son, who had almost wrecked his uncle Mike earlier in the race. In Carl’s post-wreck interview, he was a class act and you could tell he was holding back because he didn’t want to say anything bad knowing Rusty was in the booth. I think he went too far in admitting fault to the wreck, but Carl is good like that. Steve, from what the broadcast said, blamed it all on Carl blocking him.

- Shannon Spake was back and as senseless as ever. Her pit road reports are weak and her Victory Lane interview with Stephen was rudely done. Hello, he’s celebrating with his team and family! It’s called having some tact, but Spake probably doesn’t even know what that word means.

No D. Reut at Sonoma

Another domino (cough) has fallen at MWR looking ahead to next weekend at Sonoma. Instead of David Reutimann sitting in the 00’s seat it will be road ringer PJ Jones.

To be honest, I already hate this move. My heart just sank. At least with Terry Labonte in the 55 we know it will race! But Jones could DNQ just as easily as David, and I really haven’t been impressed by this guy in NASCAR. What sticks out in my mind is at Sonoma in 2005, when he got into the 45 and angered Kyle Petty enough that he went after him when the race was over and had to be restrained by Richard Petty! This was alarming coming from a guy like Kyle and I’ve never forgotten it. But I think the first thing that I thought of after the initial shock and irritation over this current announcement was that Jones wrecks. Quite a bit, if my memory is true. That’s all MWR needs…a wrecked car by a substitute driver.

I also wonder how David is supposed to learn about the New Car on road courses when he isn’t in one? It makes me think another announcement might be in the making, along the lines of “PJ Jones to sub for Reutimann at Watkin’s Glen”.

It makes me question if this has anything to do with Burger King. I’ll admit I have my suspicions with them because I don’t know them like I know Domino’s and because they gave David a freaking interrogation before agreeing to sponsor the car, like he was some criminal. Is BK more interested in David or just being on TV screens?

So instead David will be in Milwaukee for the Busch race, which is great for all the fans there and will likely be less stressful for David since he doesn’t have to worry about two cars or catching planes. I hope he can get the win…it must kill him to step out of his Cup ride he was so proud to get into and leave Frankie and all his guys, even for one weekend.