Rating the Subway Fresh Fit 600: 4 Stars ****

The Sprint Cup Series played out in the desert Saturday night for the first scheduled night race of the season, even though Daytona turned into a night race. As has been the trend this season, everything came down to what decision was made on pit road with less than five laps to go. The entire race, however, was rather ordinary, but an exciting finish and more three-wide battles on a short track in the closing laps helped the Phoenix spring race move up to a 4 Star Rating.

As the night wore on, it was obvious how much the track conditions affected the handling of the cars. To begin the race, Juan Pablo Montoya established himself as the dominant car on the track. Through dusk, Jimmie Johnson took control of the race. And at night, Kyle Busch certainly had the car to beat. But, none of those drivers brought home the trophy Saturday night as Ryan Newman found himself on the front row for the final restart.

Congratulations must go out to the entire #39 team. Newman did not necessarily come out of nowhere, as he ran in the top 10 much of the evening, but to jump out to the lead from the bottom lane was surprising. The high lane had been by far the dominant line on restarts all night.

However, it is surprising somebody didn’t stay out with such few laps to go. Somebody like Scott Speed, Greg Biffle or Tony Stewart could have stayed out since they were running near the tail end of the lead lap anyway. Even if they didn’t win the race, they likely would have ended up with a better finish with such few laps left in the race.

Every season there is an odd trend that shows up during the first part of the season, and this year it is the extremely late cautions in each race. What’s even more remarkable is these cautions have, for the most part, been legit. Yes, there was the brake duct caution at Bristol, but that was a rather large piece laying on the track. Overall, NASCAR has done a much better job this year when it comes to debris cautions.

Finally, the extension of the race from 312 laps to 375 laps was a nice addition. Everyone always complains that the races are too long. I ask, what is wrong with a long race? These things only happen once a week.

Part of what makes NASCAR better than other racing series is the fact that nearly half of the races are 500 miles. Watching Mark Martin consistently pick his way up to the top 5 was a thing of beauty. Longer races allow for more variables to come into play, as they did Saturday night. If short races are what you want, there are plenty of small dirt tracks around the country. Sundays are reserved for the big time.

So, next week things get fired up in Texas where the speeds will be awesome and the new spoiler will have its first true test. Don’t expect much difference though. Maybe the leader won’t jump out to a huge lead each restart, but the setups look to be adjusted to compensate for the spoiler and now mandatory shark fin. Also, after Texas, things only get better as the race at that rather large track in the middle of Alabama looms on the calendar. Have a great week.