Rating the Irwin Tools Night Race: 5 Stars *****

Now that’s some good old-fashioned Bristol racing. The annual night race at The World’s Fastest Half-Mile was a slugfest that brought out the beating and banging that made Bristol Motor Speedway famous. The track changes worked. The Bristol night race gets a 5 Star Rating.

Denny Hamlin got the win in rather mundane fashion, but everything that happen up to the final run was stuff we hadn’t seen in the Sprint Cup Series in quite some time.

Sure, the finish at Watkins Glen was exciting, and Jimmie Johnson’s blown motor with five laps to go at Michigan prevented a matter-of-fact finish, but everyone got up on the wheel from the drop of the green flag Saturday in Bristol.

The bump-and-run returned to Bristol after track owner Bruton Smith decided to shave off the top groove of the track to create less racing space. His hope was to bring back a narrow groove that forced drivers to bump each other for position. Smith got what he asked for, although perhaps not in the way he envisioned.

Instead of the reconfiguration sending everyone hunting for the bottom of the track, the drivers spent all night fighting for the very top of the track, right where Smith took away the banking. But the passing dynamics that existed at Bristol before Smith installed progressive banking in 2007 still came back with a force.

It became impossible to pass on the low side throughout the night, so drivers had to nudge (or forcefully push) each other out of the way to gain a spot. That’s what gave us the most memorable part of the night.

Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart battled for the lead on lap 332. Stewart got a run on the high side, but Kenseth didn’t leave him much room. They started trading paint and eventually slid across the frontstretch and crashed into the inside wall.

Stewart jumped out of his car and waited for Kenseth to come around pit lane. As Kenseth came around, Stewart threw his helmet off the front of Kenseth’s hood and then turned around to salute the fans.

That’s the kind of stuff that has been missing from the sport of late. Notice that Stewart was not called to the NASCAR hauler after the race and won’t receive any penalties for his actions.

Some people will moan and groan that Saturday night’s race wasn’t “real racing” because there were 13 cautions and wrecks all over the place. That’s fine. Those folks can watch “real racing” at tracks such as Chicagoland, Kansas and Fontana. Saturday night’s race was fun, intense and has fans a lot more pumped up about NASCAR than any race this season outside of the Watkin’s Glen finish.

Hopefully the momentum from Bristol will carry on to Atlanta and Richmond to finish the regular season. All of a sudden the monotonous races from the first half of the season seem like they are far in the past.

That’s a good thing as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for its Labor Day weekend race. The points standings heading into the final two races before the Chase are as tight as ever, and that should make for exciting finish to the season.

Have a great week and blessed holiday weekend, everybody.

Rating the Pure Michigan 400: 4 Stars ****

For the second week in a row, the dominant Sprint Cup Series car at the end of the race had a problem that prevented it from driving into Victory Lane. But bad luck for one driver usually means a more exciting finish. The final race of the season at Michigan International Speedway gets a 4 Star Rating.

This week Kyle Busch gave Jimmie Johnson his bad luck as Johnson's engine blew up while leading with only five laps from the checkered flag. That left Greg Biffle and Brad Keselowski to battle for the win. Keselowski made the final couple of laps interesting, but he couldn’t catch Biffle, who got his second win of the season.

That finish comes after Keselowski spun Busch on the final lap last week at Watkins Glen.

Biffle is now back on top of the points standings and could be much more of a factor in the Chase than many people think. Unfortunately for him, Roush-Fenway Racing cars still haven’t shown enough consistency to challenge for a title.

Regardless, Biffle threw down a challenge in his Victory Lane interview.

“We’re going to make a run at the title,” he said. “I know they don’t talk about us a lot, but they will when we get to (Las) Vegas.”

Of course, the championship celebration is held in Las Vegas at the end of the season.

Along from Johnson’s problem, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon also had engine problems. All three of those teams run Hendrick Motorsports engines.  

But besides those issues and Biffle’s win, the race had a lot of action on the track compared to a lot of Michigan races and a lot of races in 2012.

Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, Regan Smith and Joey Logano all spent time up against the wall. The pit road wall speared Martin’s car as he slid down pit road following a spin caused by Bobby Labonte and Juan Pablo Montoya in Turn 4. It was an ugly looking wreck, but Martin and everyone on pit road was OK.

Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon also had engine problems that ended their day early.

Sunday’s race also had a lot of good racing that didn’t involve wrecks or mechanical problems. The cars can’t yet go four- and five-wide throughout the race the way they did before the track was repaved for this season, but the tighter groove made for tighter racing.

The middle of the field went three-wide on almost every single restart and barely made it through turns 1 and 2.

The cars looked like they were almost on railroad tracks during the first race in June at Michigan, but that was much less of the case this time around. The cars were more unstable and drivers could race much closer to each other than in June.

Hopefully that continues in future years and Michigan could crank out more entertaining races than boring races. At this point it has potential, and that’s more than could be said for several big, wide tracks with relatively new pavement.

Next week the Sprint Cup Series visits the revamped Bristol Motor Speedway for what could be a return of the bullring that made the track so popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Track owner Bruton Smith ordered the top groove of the track to be shaved down after the spring race to create a tighter racing groove. Either way, it is going to be an intriguing weekend.

The potential for explosive tempers at short tracks usually receives a lot of hype that rarely plays out, but this could be a weekend where the postrace show is nearly as interesting as the race.

We’ll see. Have a great week, everybody.

NASCAR adds fuel to fire of debris caution debate

After a month of less-than-thrilling races that ended with a questionable call to throw a caution for debris Saturday at Richmond International Raceway, NASCAR’s Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton made matters worse when he antagonized fans who wanted proof that there was debris on the track.

"Sometimes, some people are a little more needy than others and they want to see that for whatever reason," Pemberton said Tuesday. "And whatever their thought process and beliefs with the governing body (are), they think they need proof.”

You’re darn right they need proof, and Tony Stewart would probably like some as well. He was cruising to victory Saturday at Richmond but NASCAR threw a debris caution with 12 laps remaining. Kyle Busch beat Stewart out of the pits and went on to get the win.

The debris, however, was never shown on television and even people at the track that night debated what caused the caution. Some said it was a water bottle in Turn 2, some said it was a beer can and still others said it was a piece of metal lying in the groove on the backstretch.

In any case, NASCAR once again had to deal with the inevitable integrity questions that follow a questionable debris caution that decides a race. Unfortunately, Pemberton came off as a high-brow official of a corporation that could care less what people think.

Yet, NASCAR always touts how it is such an open sport and provides incredible access to fans at the races.

Lately, NASCAR has not been the hospitable host. It has instead looked like a rich jerk that can and will do whatever it wants.

Although those who love the sport try to avoid these uncomfortable topics, NASCAR is permeated with that type of thinking even by those not directly employed by NASCAR.

The TV coverage runs commercials through so much of the race that sometimes it is difficult for fans to maintain interest when the action is interrupted so often. And when they aren’t running commercials, the TV crews run promotional segments or other commentary that totally overrides the action on the track.

Another example is when Bruton Smith, although not employed by NASCAR, chose to change the turns at Bristol Motor Speedway based on a vocal 40 percent who voted in his survey to change the track.

I understand that money is king and the sport has to do whatever it can to stay financially sound, but it is doing it at the expense of its fans. In fact, it has been doing so for years.

The Chase, the demise of traditional race dates at Southeastern tracks to capture larger markets and the seemingly perennial changes to the points system has driven many fans away from the sport, whether NASCAR acknowledges it or not.

If this is how NASCAR officials want to run the sport, fine. It’s their show, and they can do as they see fit. But please don’t pretend like every decision is made to benefit the fans.

In reality, many decisions are made in spite of the fans, and Pemberton may have inadvertently exposed that truth by calling those same fans “needy” because they want to watch legitimate competition.

Bruton is changing Bristol, but did people really want it changed?

When the Sprint Cup Series rolled out of Bristol Motor Speedway in March, it left behind plenty of angst about the condition of the race track.

Fans from seemingly everywhere wanted the track changed back to the one-groove, bump-and-grind race track that Bristol was before it was repaved in 2007.

So, Bristol Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith announced Wednesday his intentions to grind off the top groove in the corners at the speedway to try and improve the racing action for the next NASCAR weekend in August. In theory, that will create just two lanes of racing and make it more difficult to pass on the outside.

Smith said the changes were made because fans supposedly overwhelmed him in unofficial surveys that they wanted the track changed.

However, Smith also said Wednesday the final results of those surveys showed that 40 percent of fans who responded wanted the track changed.

Wait, 40 percent?

I’m no math major, but that doesn’t sound like a majority to me. If Congress, or any legislative body, made decisions based on a 40-percent majority, we would have some very different laws and leaders in this country.

Let’s compare this situation to an election where the results came out 60-40. Logically, it would seem more people wanted Candidate A to be in office, but by the Bristol method the victory would go to Candidate B, who had just 40 percent of the vote.

Early voting apparently favored changing the track by a 75 percent majority, but we still don’t make decisions based on who votes first.

The 40 percent who wanted Bristol changed might have been a very vocal minority, but I’m not sure decisions should be made on who has the loudest megaphone.

Sure, attendance has been down at Bristol for several races now, and it was prudent for Smith to conduct surveys to receive feedback from fans. But, apparently most of them said leave it alone.

On top of that, nearly all of the drivers have said they wanted the track left alone.

"I've had driver after driver tell me 'don't touch it,' talking about Bristol, and that the last race was the greatest race they've ever seen," Smith said. "We are trying to satisfy both sides, and we believe we are doing the right thing. We've got to go with that."

So let’s get this straight. About 60 percent of fans wanted the track left alone and almost all of the drivers wanted it left alone, but the track still decided to make changes.

Under those theories, the “Fans spoke … we listened” tagline that will surely be trumpeted from the mountaintops surrounding Thunder Valley this summer doesn't sound genuine.

The fans spoke, but if Smith and his cohorts listened, they didn’t act on what the majority of fans wanted.

I’m not saying the changes to Bristol will be bad. This could turn out to be a great change that will appease both those who liked the old Bristol racing along with those who liked the new racing style at Bristol.

But, if Smith said he wanted to follow through on the fans’ wishes, the numbers say that he did the opposite and took actions that most fans didn’t want.

Maybe Smith knew the correct decision all along was to change the track and things work out beautifully. But, if these changes don’t make the racing better there is only one side to blame, and it’s not the fans.

Rating the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500: 4 Stars ****

Several drivers walked out of Martinsville Speedway in need of some Goody’s pain relief Sunday in a finish that was as wild as a finish at a restrictor-plate race. However, much of the rest of the race was dominated by a few usual suspects. The second short track race of the season gets a 4 Star Rating.

Martinsville produces racing that Bristol Motor Speedway would love to have back. The only way to make a pass is on the low side and usually that requires bumping the car in front out of the way. Sunday’s race had a lot of green-flag racing, but it also had upset drivers at the end.

The point is that short tracks can have it both ways. Bristol doesn’t have to immediately turn into a wreckfest if track owner Bruton Smith makes some changes to the track, but it could turn the track back to a fast-paced version of Martinsville.

Interestingly, the race at Martinsville would’ve had just five cautions and no major wrecks if David Reutimann hadn’t stopped to bring out a caution with four laps to go. That’s the same as the race at Bristol two weeks ago. That’s not to say one style of racing is better than another, but it does show that a one-groove track can have long stretches of green-flag racing.

Anyway, on to Sunday’s race where Ryan Newman shockingly found himself in Victory Lane. Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jeff Gordon Jimmie Johnson dominated nearly the entire race. Gordon led 328 laps, Johnson led 112 and both were involved in a great battle for the lead at the end before the green-white-checkered restarts.

So, Newman got a pretty large gift Sunday, along with drivers such as A.J. Allmendinger and Martin Truex Jr. All of those drivers ran most of the day between 10th and 15th, but they avoided the big pileup on the first green-white-checkered and came home with top-five finishes.

Many of the Hendrick haters will be thrilled with Sunday’s finish because Gordon and Johnson wrecked at the end and gave the win to somebody different. But, in fairness, this race did not end the way it was supposed to. Thankfully, it was due to a problem with another car and not because NASCAR wanted to spice up the finish of the race.

Up next is the first off week of the season for the Sprint Cup Series. A change in the schedule this year eliminated the early off week. Overall, the break comes at a good time. It actually feels like we have a significant portion of the season behind us, and now everybody can gear up for the next long stretch of races that will take us into July if the All-Star weekend in May at Charlotte Motor Speedway is considered a race weekend.

After the break the series will visit a couple of mile-and-a-half tracks with Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. If we don’t have a good idea of who the real contenders will be this season, those two weeks will go a long way toward helping answer those questions.

Have a blessed Easter, everybody.

Bruton Smith attempts to fix a self-inflicted problem with Bristol

As with many changes in the world of NASCAR during the past decade, the 2007 reconfiguration of Bristol Motor Speedway turned out to be a flop.

The World’s Fastest Half-Mile and host of two of the most anticipated races of the Sprint Cup Series season went from the role model of all short tracks to a wanna-be speed track.

Instead of the one-groove, beat-and-bang racing that made the track famous, the reconfiguration turned the track into a short version of nearly half of the tracks on the NASCAR schedule. Drivers could suddenly run side-by-side lap after lap. That was unheard of prior to 2007. If a driver didn’t hold the bottom of the track, he got freight-trained and sent to the back.

Now, not all fans hate the new version of the track and not all fans loved the old version. Even back in Bristol’s glory days when races were nearly sold out years in advance, some people complained that it wasn’t “real racing” just as they complain that restrictor-plate racing isn’t “real racing.”

The same can be said for the two road courses on the schedule. Some people think NASCAR should add more to the schedule and others never want to see a stock car on a track that doesn’t exclusively have left turns. Whatever real racing is, some people don’t like anything that is different.

In any case, it looks like track owner Bruton Smith is going to finally do something Monday Morning Crew Chief suggested a year ago in this story and put Bristol back the way it was before the repave. Smith has said he will use $1 million to fix the track. What can $1 million do to change a track? Only Smith and his cohorts know the specifics of that, but it is sounding like the progressive banking has seen its last race.

Unfortunately, NASCAR has caused or dealt with many changes in the past decade that many fans wish would be put back as they were previously.

Daytona International Speedway had to be repaved for the start of the 2011 season. The pothole during the 2010 Daytona 500 proved that. But, both the repaves at Daytona and Talladega produced two-car drafts that at times made for tame restrictor-plate racing, which was something many people didn’t think was possible.

All of a sudden the fans spoke out that they didn’t like the new drafting style and NASCAR worked to make the racing more like the old, big packs that made restrictor-plate races thrilling. Even then, most fans heard way more about how the cars cooling systems work than they ever cared to know. Plus Speedweeks felt like one huge test session because nobody knew how the races would look.

Fans also got NASCAR to remove the rear wing from the new Cars of Tomorrow and bring back the traditional spoiler. There have been several other examples throughout the decade of fans wanting a change to some aspect of the sport. NASCAR has addressed some, and left others such as the Chase format alone.

The sport has to change to some extent. That’s the way of the world, especially the car world. New cars come out every year with new innovations incorporated into the new model.

It is interesting, however, that most of the recent changes have been to return the racing back to how it was before a particular change was made. Even the 2013 Cup models are an attempt to return the look of the cars back to some semblance of the corresponding passenger car, as they were back in the day.

Now, whether Smith can bring back Bristol the way it used to be remains to be seen, but sometimes the best change is the one not made. That would saved several of the sport’s controversies during the last decade.

MMCC Power Rankings: Week 4

Sorry for the delay. I had a slight home emergency last night -- the refrigerator stopped running. Don't worry, though, it won't spoil this week's POWER RANKINGS.

1. Greg Biffle (Last Week 1) – Maintained his point lead simply by surviving. Several of the top points guys had bad days at Bristol.

2. Jimmie Johnson (7) – Johnson has become the only NASCAR driver to go from 17th to a Chase spot on a Tuesday after Hendrick Motorsports won its appeal.

3. Matt Kenseth (8) – NASCAR better watch out. If Kenseth keeps this up he may win the championship, and we'll have a whole new points system all over again.

4. Kevin Harvick (4) – Harvick was the worst of his Richard Childress Racing teammates on Sunday. Maybe this baby thing isn't such a good idea.

5. Martin Truex Jr. (10) – Sits fourth in the standings and doesn't even have a win yet. Maybe Michael Waltrip Racing is ready to challenge for a title?

6. Tony Stewart (6) – Not the run that I expected out of Stewart at Bristol, but then again, we can't let one March win spoil what is usually a June-July hot streak.

7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (3) –Wrecked Mark Martin last week and Jeff Gordon this week. Bobby Labonte better watch out at Fontana.

8. Denny Hamlin (4) – Hamlin has already scheduled a dancing lesson with Jeff Gordon to teach him how to dougie.

9. Brad Keselowski (18) – Apparently, Bristol's victory lane is no a wi-fi hot spot. Bruton, get on that.

10. Paul Menard (12) – Twelve of Menard's 19 career top 10s have come on an intermediate track.

11. Jeff Burton (15) – This Duke fan's bracket may be busted, but his ability to drive sure isn't.

12. Carl Edwards (5) – Edwards had the luxury of sitting on top of a pit box and eating Cheeze-Its while waiting for his car to get fixed.

13. Ryan Newman (16) – Apparently "Rocketman" got his nickname at Bristol. Isn't it time he lost it?

14. Brian Vickers (NR) – Welcome back to the sport Vickers; congrats on the strong run.

15. Clint Bowyer (19) – Maybe the move from RCR to MWR wasn't such a bad thing after all.

16. Jeff Gordon (9) – I'm a little dissapointed with how calm Gordon was after Earnhardt Jr. wrecked him, Terry Labonte woulda been pissed!

17. Kyle Busch (13) – Back-to-back Bristol races where Kyle has finished outside the top 10.

18. Joey Logano (14) – Never had an issue and still finished two laps down. Now that is a long day at Bristol.

19. Jamie McMurray (NR) – One of five drivers I didn't expect to see in the top 10 that was.

20. Juan Pablo Montoya (NR) – Another one of those drivers, but I don't expect JPM in the top 10 unless it's a road course.

DNF: Regan Smith – Caused a wreck that took out three of the top contenders in the race. Oh, what a race this could have been. Then maybe Bruton Smith wouldn't threaten to tear up the track.

Rating the Food City 500: 3 Stars ***

Six favorites crashed out just 26 laps into the race at Bristol Motor Speedway, but after that everybody played nice as Brad Keselowski picked up his second Bristol trophy. Overall, the fourth race of the season gets a 3 Star Rating.

Some people might go off the edge and say Sunday’s race was boring and lacked any kind of excitement, but the race wasn’t horrible. For those who like wrecks, hopefully they tuned in early. For others who like hard, clean racing, the final 450 laps were enjoyable.

Unless track owner Bruton Smith changes his mind and decides he doesn’t like the current style of racing, the old beat-and-bang racing is gone and it’s not coming back. The funny thing is the type of racing we saw Sunday would be considered intense and exciting at almost any other racetrack. People simply have different expectations for Bristol.

However, the race doesn’t get a rating higher than a three for a reason. Keselowski had the best car of the day and drove away for the win. Matt Kenseth tried hard to keep up, but he did not have a car that handled well enough at the end to really challenge for the win. The Keselowski-Kenseth battle was actually fairly similar to the Tony Stewart-Jimmie Johnson battle a week ago at Las Vegas.

Also, many of the promos for this week’s race included old footage of wrecks and overheated drivers getting angry at each other. But the only real angry battle between two drivers at Bristol since the reconfiguration in 2007 was Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards driving into each other after the checkered flag of the 2008 night race.

Other than Busch slamming the roof of his car as he got out after his early wreck, everybody else came back to the garage peaceful and ready to pack up and head home.

That has also been the case for the entire season to date. The drivers have been incredibly level-headed to open the season. Even after questionable incidents on the track such as when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin bumped at Las Vegas, the drivers kind of shrugged their shoulders and moved on. The same could be said after all of the wrecks during Speedweeks, as well.

I’m not saying we need to have drivers angry at each other all the time. This is a sport that doesn’t need sideshow spectacles to be entertaining. The point is this is the quietest start to a season in regards to drivers’ emotions since the famous “Have at it, boys” edict before the start of the 2010 season.

One of the most surprising aspects of the race at Bristol was how well the three Michael Waltrip Racing cars of Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr. and Brian Vickers ran, particularly Vickers.

Vickers hadn’t been in a Sprint Cup Series car since the final race of 2011 at Homestead before his Red Bull Racing team shut down. He ruffled a lot of feathers late in the season with rough driving, but he sure made the most of his opportunity Sunday in the #55 car.

Vickers led 125 laps and dominated the first half of the event. If the race had been 250 laps, he may have shocked the world and ended up in Victory Lane.

It will be interesting to see where his career heads from here on out. He has five more races this season in the #55 car and might drive his way back into a full-time ride again sooner rather than later.

So, next week NASCAR heads out to everybody’s favorite race on the schedule: the Auto Club 400 in Fontana, Calif. Last year was probably the best race at the track when Kevin Harvick passed Jimmie Johnson for the win on the final lap.

However, considering we haven’t had more than a 3 Star race yet this season, the chances of busting out the first 4 or 5 Star race at California aren’t very good.

In any case, have a great week, everybody.

Chad Knaus’ suspension again delayed, but why doesn’t Jimmie Johnson still have his 25 points?

Hendrick Motorsports got the expected answer from a three-person appeals board Tuesday over its appeal of NASCAR’s penalties on the #48 team from Daytona: The penalties won’t be changed.

NASCAR had penalized the team 25 driver and owner points, fined crew chief Chad Knaus $100,000, and suspended Knaus and car chief Ron Malec for illegal C-posts on the back of the #48 car that were found during the opening inspection for Speedweeks.

Owner Rick Hendrick then filed an appeal that was finally shot down Tuesday.
But that’s not all. Hendrick has one more option, and he will use it. He will file an appeal of the appeal one level higher with the final judge on this case, John Middlebrook.

Although the next appeal doesn’t appear to be any more successful than this last one, Knaus and Malec will both still be at Bristol Motor Speedway this coming weekend. They won’t officially serve their suspensions until the horse has been beaten, buried, exhumed and buried again.

However, there is one part of the penalty that has already been enforced: the 25 points. Sure, it is easy to reverse that on the standings sheet if the next appeal is successful, but it doesn’t make sense to take away Jimmie Johnson’s points when Knaus hasn’t paid his fine or served his suspension.

Let’s say the #48 team crashed early at Bristol this week and was on the bubble of the top 35 in points that guarantee a car a spot in the race. Those 25 points could potentially make a huge difference in whether or not the team had a guaranteed spot in two weeks at Martinsville, which is when the top 35 rule goes into effect for this year’s points standings.

If the appeal isn’t heard by the April 1 race at Martinsville, Johnson could be outside the top 35 in points. But, if the appeal is later overturned, Johnson could’ve been cheated out of a spot in the Martinsville race because of points he never should’ve been docked until the final appeal was heard.

That means Johnson could miss a race because only part of the penalties were enforced after Daytona. If Knaus and Malec aren’t required to sit out races immediately following NASCAR’s announcement of the penalties, Johnson shouldn’t officially lose those 25 points until all of the appeals have been heard.

Johnson would currently be tied for 13th in the standings without the penalties, but instead he sits 23rd.

Penalties similar to this situation could also really mess up the Chase if NASCAR penalizes a team near the cutoff race in September at Richmond. If a team misses the Chase by less than 25 points but then has the appeal overturned after the Chase starts, would they be given back a Chase spot and somebody else kicked out?

There have been controversies in NASCAR before, but imagine how large this one would be.

Even though these are very hypothetical situations that are unlikely to happen this time, crazy things happen in NASCAR and one day this one could jump up and bite NASCAR pretty hard.

Rating the Kobalt Tools 400: 3 Stars ***

Sprint Cup Series defending champion Tony Stewart capitalized on several late restarts to seal the deal in Las Vegas and assure everybody he will be a major factor in the championship again this year. Although he had a great battle with Jimmie Johnson at the end, the entire race wasn’t nearly exciting and gets a 3 Star Rating.

With so many quality teams in the sport, it is relatively rare to see two of the all-time greats get the chance to compete head-to-head on the track the way Stewart and Johnson did Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. With eight championships between them, the winner was going to know he beat the best competition on the track.

Other drivers tried to keep up throughout the race, but Stewart was solid as a rock and steadily moved to the front, while Johnson made his way to the front after starting 40th.

Johnson was actually involved in the two best battles on the track all day. He and Matt Kenseth had a terrific run in the first half of the race that usually isn’t seen at mile-and-a-half tracks until late in the race. Both battles were reminiscent of the Stewart and Carl Edwards battles at the end of last season.

For Stewart, Sunday’s win proves that he has certainly carried the momentum from winning the 2011 championship into 2012. With Steve Addington on top of the pit box this #14 team could have quite a run throughout the entire season, not just in the Chase.

The bulk of the race played out pretty much as expected. The big guns stayed at the front of the field throughout the day. However, most of the race was cleaner than expected. Minus two debris cautions and the two BK Racing engines overcooking their burgers, the Busch brothers had the only true incidents on the day. Kyle spun off of Turn 4 and Kurt wrecked coming out of Turn 2.

Other than the craziness at Daytona, the races at Phoenix and Las Vegas have been noticeably calmer than normal. Both races had large, multicar incidents last year as it seemed like drivers got acclimated to racing again for the new season. This year drivers have raced hard, but they’ve kept it clean. Nobody has even attempted a verbal throwdown in a post-race interview.

As far as the points standings are concerned, Greg Biffle took over the lead from Denny Hamlin, who had an awful day and finished 20th. This is the point in the season where the standings start to shake out and morph into how they will look for the majority of the season. Except for Mark Martin in 10th and Paul Menard in 11th, the Chase would be considered fairly normal with everybody who would receive a Chase berth.

Both Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano may be somewhat of a surprise sitting eighth and ninth, respectively, but these are two drivers who have run with a fully sponsored team in a large organization for several years now, and it is about time for them to consistently run near the front or go find another ride.

In any case, next week is Bristol and that is sure to stir everything up. Nothing cures a quiet start the season like a trip to Thunder Valley where a clean car at the end of the day probably means you didn’t drive it hard enough.

Have a great week, everybody.

Rating the Irwin Tools Night Race: 2 Stars **

The action at the Bristol night race wasn’t all that exciting, but the guy who won the race continues to shock the world as the #2 car got win #3 on the season. The story is incredible, but the race gets a 2 Star Rating.

Brad Keselowski’s win at Bristol was another I-can’t-believe-I’m-watching-this moment, and the #2 team is in the midst of one of the most remarkable mid-season turnarounds in NASCAR history. Plus, Keselowski broke his ankle to get it all started.

Keselowski sat 23rd in the points standings just six races ago at New Hampshire, where he finished 35th. Since then he has ripped off a jaw-dropping five straight top 10s, four top fives and two wins with a worst finish of ninth at Indianapolis.

We’ve seen drivers get on this type of hot streak before, and there is usually at least one each season. Last year all Denny Hamlin did was win during the first half of the 2010 season as he visited Victory Lane five times, and Jimmie Johnson has gone through stretches a few times in his five-year championship run where he is literally unbeatable.

But, most of the time these drivers and teams are already Chase contenders and have shown strength either early in the season or previously in their career to indicate a run like that is possible, but Keselowski had just two top fives and a fuel mileage win before he caught fire.

Now he has people talking that he might be a championship threat, rather than just a Chase threat.

Before this recent run of success, Keselowski spent much of the year between 22nd and 28th in the standings. That means he was consistently running races comparable to Marcos Ambrose and Martin Truex Jr. Now he is running with, and beating, drivers such as Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.

No matter what happens from here on out, Keselowski’s 2011 season will go down as one of the most shocking seasons ever.

As for Saturday night’s race, there were only six cautions, with three of those for debris. The cars of David Reutimann and Mark Martin are the only cars that had to go to the garage for damage. All of the other contenders had very clean races.

While this discussion could quickly turn into the new Bristol vs. old Bristol debate, the Nationwide race had nine cautions and many cars were torn up in wrecks.

Yes, the style of racing is drastically different at Bristol since the repave, but the best of the best race at the Sprint Cup level. Plus, with only a couple of Rookie of the Year candidates each year, the same basic group of drivers has been on the track together for the past four years or so. Keselowski and Joey Logano are the only two newcomers of consequence since the end of the ill-advised open-wheel invasion of 2008.

The current Nationwide group has a lot of drivers without much experience and they tore cars up like they were still racing on the old surface.

While the Cup drivers had to work hard in the car to pass each other because it was next to impossible to pass on the low side of the track, those battles only happen at a few spots throughout the field while everybody else settles into single file.

Anyway, next week the series heads to another fun night race; this time at Atlanta for Labor Day weekend. This race is even more special now that it’s the only time NASCAR visits during the season and there will be a lot going on with the points situation, the extra money on the line for certain drivers, and the fact that it’s the Labor Day weekend race. Have a good week, everybody.

Busch and Sadler truck battle might set up wild Cup race

The NASCAR fall weekend at Bristol got off to an early and rough start Wednesday night with the Camping World Truck Series race.

Kevin Harvick won the race, but that felt a little bit secondary to the action behind him throughout the night.

The race had nine cautions, but the big one -- and the one people will talk about for the rest of the weekend -- happened on lap 101 when Kyle Busch clipped the front end of Elliott Sadler’s truck, causing Busch to slam his right-front into the backstretch wall.

The race stayed green, and Busch limped around the track until Sadler came back around and he spun Sadler around to finally bring out the caution.

OK, so the two drivers had a dust-up at Bristol and Busch retaliated. That’s not terribly uncommon at Bristol, but Busch stoked the fire for the rest of the weekend by saying that Sadler wrecked him because he drives for Kevin Harvick Inc.

Unfortunately, Sadler actually drove the #24 truck owned by Joe Denette in this race.

Still, Sadler and Busch will both be in the Nationwide race Friday, and Busch and Harvick will be in the Cup race Saturday.

It’s unlikely Sadler and Busch would go after each other much more because Sadler is involved in the championship hunt in the Nationwide Series, but the Cup race could be another story.

Busch and Harvick have both been off of probation for a while now. And even though Harvick has said NASCAR told him to stay away from Busch on the track, talk is cheap.
If Busch starts to rough Harvick up, Harvick is almost certain to respond.

This could make for one of the best Bristol weekends in a long time. There have been a few moments this season where drivers really got upset with one another. Harvick and Busch at Darlington come to mind, and more recently the Greg Biffle and Boris Said incident at Watkins Glen. However, the biggest fireworks of the season could come Saturday night.

Harvick currently sits third in the points standings and Busch is already locked into the Chase. That means both drivers have very little to lose in the next three races, and they really have the least amount of pressure on them that they will for the rest of the season.

If both drivers are near the front toward the end of the race, we could certainly have a classic Bristol moment.

Bristol has been much tamer in recent years after the track was reconfigured, but Wednesday’s truck race may have brought back the edge to the World’s Fastest Half-Mile and could spice up the rest of the season.

Rating the Jeff Byrd 500: 3 Stars ***

The Sprint Cup Series dropped into Thunder Valley this weekend for the first short-track race of the season. The race had moments of good, hard racing, but nothing that will make anybody remember this one. The first Bristol race gets a 3 Star Rating.

Sunday’s race almost fit the 3 Star description perfectly: OK race, last 30-40 laps drag out and a late caution, or in this case many late cautions, causes all strategy to disappear.

Unfortunately, this race felt rather similar to the one in Las Vegas two weeks ago. Had Kyle Busch not blown an engine in the race at Vegas, the same two drivers may have fought for the win in that one, as well.

Yes, the race had 17 lead changes and 10 cautions, which included two seven-car pileups, but Bristol is turning into more and more of a shorter version of Dover than the Bristol everyone remembers. The three-car battle at the end among Busch, Edwards and Jimmie Johnson was almost intense, but Edwards and Johnson just couldn’t keep up as Busch won his second race of the weekend to take home both the Nationwide and Cup trophies.

I’m not saying the race should have come down to the final lap with cars side-by-side, but there have been countless races similar to this one.

Also, where was everybody? The stands were nowhere close to full. It will be interesting to see what the TV ratings say, and while there were still reportedly about 120,000 people at the track, this race had the most open seats of any Cup race this season and that number is down from the 138,000 who attended last year’s race. Did the economy suddenly get worse again?

Anyway, back to what actually happened on the track.

The three drivers who separated from the pack on the final run certainly deserved to be there. Right now, they are the best three drivers in the sport, and it was fun to see them go head-to-head. If this continues, we could be in for a repeat of 2008 where Busch, Edwards and Johnson won a combined 24 of the 36 races.

However, each race this season has come down to a duel between a few drivers that leaves everyone thinking this will be the group that battles for the championship. First it was Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch at Phoenix, and then it was Edwards and Tony Stewart at Vegas. Now, Edwards, Busch and Johnson will be the favorites until somebody new, or Johnson, dominates at California.

Speaking of California, that’s where the race will be next Sunday. Get ready for some five-wide racing – for the lap or two after a restart, and then enjoy the long green-flag runs that follow. Hey, at least that’s better than if they ran most of the race under caution.

Could Bruton bring Bristol back?

For the eighth time since the track was repaved in 2007, the Sprint Cup Series will head to Bristol Motor Speedway for another go-around on the World’s Fastest Half-Mile.

While the half-mile track may still be fast, it isn’t nearly as rough and tough as it was before the repave -- an issue that has caused much discussion among fans and people who work in the sport. Drivers sit on both sides of the fence. Some say they like the new progressive banking that has allowed drivers to run side-by-side through the corners, and others say they like it better the old way when the bottom lane was the only racing groove.

As for fans, they have spoken with both their mouths and their wallets. Yes, the bad economy has played a major part in the lack of recent sellouts, but some of that problem might be because the racing simply isn’t the same. It is now rare to see a driver punt the car in front of him out of the way to make a pass, because he doesn’t have to; he can simply try his luck on the outside.

Although people within the sport are split on the issue, it’s still the elephant in the room. Fans miss the old Bristol, and the intensity hasn’t been around the recent races as it was in the past. Sure, the buildup to last year’s fall race was fun, but who wouldn’t have wanted to see Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch beat and bang their way to the front instead of run side-by-side? Bristol is unique in the fact that many fans actually prefer to see single-file racing rather than side-by-side, which is what most tracks strive for.

But Bristol has never been similar to most tracks.

Other than the dustup between Busch and Carl Edwards at the fall race in 2008, there hasn’t been another “Bristol moment” since. Throughout the ‘90s and early part of the past decade, nearly every race had a defining moment that lives on in the highlights even today. Dale Earnhardt spun out Terry Labonte multiple times, Rusty Wallace put the fender to Ricky Rudd and Jeff Gordon did the same to Wallace, not to mention the day Kurt Busch and Jimmy Spencer got into it in the spring race in 2002.

Plus, after the race it was nearly guaranteed a driver would be upset enough with another driver that he would go and have a “discussion” on pit road or in the garage area.

Want to return to those days? There could be some hope. Speedway Motorsports Inc. CEO Bruton Smith owns Bristol Motor Speedway, and he has shown in the past he’s willing to fork out the money to fix a mistake. He repaved Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2006 after the diamond-grinding disaster that caused a record number of cautions. He also redesigned Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the 2007 season to add more banking and tighten up the racing. Why not do the same for Bristol?

A move to once again repave Bristol and take out the progressive banking would be welcomed by many fans, and if anybody has the money and power to do it, Smith does.

Rating the Kobalt Tools 400: 3 Stars ***

The wild and crazy start to the season finally settled down in the unlikeliest of places: Las Vegas. But, that was the case as Tony Stewart dominated the day but couldn’t close the deal. The first race of the season without a big wreck gets a 3 Star Rating.

After two weeks of beating and banging and pedal-to-the-floor action, Vegas came across as tame. Even though it’s a mile-and-a-half racetrack, Vegas usually still has pretty good, tight racing, but everyone spread out for the most part in a race that had several long green flag runs.

This isn’t to say it was a terrible race. There will be worse this season, but this was the first one that looked like aerodynamics came into play. Some teams really hit the setup on the nose, and others struggled to move through the field.

Hopefully, the new nose won’t make it difficult to pass on these types of racetracks, and overall, I think the change in the nose will have less of an effect than the change to the spoiler last year.

Congratulations this week go to Carl Edwards, the #99 team and the entire Ford organization. Ford dominated the weekend, but small mistakes plagued its teams during the race as both Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle had issues that put them deep in the field.

Kenseth had a tire go down early in the race that put him a lap down, and he never fully recovered and came in 11th although he had arguably the fastest car in the field.

Biffle’s team had issues getting fuel in the car throughout the day, and he ended up three laps down in 28th.

However, Stewart had the car to beat as he led 163 laps and dominated the race like Jeff Gordon in the ‘90s. But, a pit road penalty where he pulled the air gun out of the pit box put him at the back of the field.

To recover, his crew chief, Darian Grubb, made the decision to take two tires on the second-to-last pit stop. This put Stewart out front, and he was able to pull away from the field with just two fresh tires, but then he had to take four tires on the final stop while everyone else took just two. His car was good enough to climb back to second, but time ran out and Mr. Backflip cruised into Victory Lane.

Pit road penalties affected several drivers Sunday, including Trevor Bayne, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton. It has always been tough to get slowed down coming on to pit road at Vegas, so these miscues should have been expected, but they were no less devastating.

Finally, a few drivers who should be recognized for strong efforts include Marcos Ambrose and Ryan Newman. This was the first time Ambrose has had a chance to shine in his new ride and Newman has quietly snuck into fifth in the points standings with back-to-back fifth place finishes after he led the most laps at Daytona. Newman could be a legit contender come Chase time.

Next up is Bristol in a couple of weeks. That darn early season off week interrupts these two races, but at least that will change next season when Daytona is a week later and this off week is eliminated. So, hopefully this week’s momentary lull translates into some great action at the bullring in Tennessee. Have a great week.

Rating the Irwin Tools Night Race: 3 Stars ***

The annual night race at the bullring that is Bristol Motor Speedway returned Saturday night with a stadium that was ready to rock. Big time drivers fell out of the race like flies, and Shrub finally got his broom. This one gets swept into the history books with a 3 Star Rating.

Well, it finally happened. Kyle Busch had tried many times to win all three races in a NASCAR weekend. He even won the truck and Nationwide races in the same weekend twice but was unable to close the deal in the Cup race. This time, however, Busch dominated all three races, including going Dale Earnhardt on Brad Keselowski near the end of the Nationwide event.

That little situation set the stage for what many, definitely ESPN, thought would be a knock down, drag out type of race. Instead, it was rather mild. Jimmie Johnson jumped out to his seemingly mandatory lead at the start of the race and led for 171 of the first 172 laps before Busch completed his march to the front.

Johnson and Busch combined to lead 458 of the 500 laps in the race. However, the top five behind those two leaders continued to change throughout the night, with a few unexpected names showing up near the front, including David Reutimann, Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray.

McMurray continues to shine in the big time races this season. Four of his seven top fives have come in what could be considered NASCAR’s crown jewel events. He won both Daytona and the Brickyard, while finishing second and third in the Coca-Cola 600 and Saturday’s Bristol night race.

He isn’t yet in the Chase, but McMurray is putting together by far the best year of his career. To top things off, he now sits 13th in the points standings and 100 points behind Bowyer for the final spot.

Some people think the field is already set for the Chase, and realistically there is only one spot left in doubt. But, a 100-point difference is certainly not insurmountable. Each year at the end of the season, whoever’s turn it is to run second to Johnson for the championship runs well in the final few races and makes up ground to make it within reaching distance once Homestead rolls around.

This wasn’t one of the greatest races at Bristol, but people need to remember that not every race at Bristol is going to be terrific. The atmosphere at the track was amazing, but sometimes a race doesn’t come right down to the wire with cars crashing into one another. The Nationwide race took care of that this weekend. Saturday night’s race will be remembered for the historical achievement and that’s fine. Busch put together a weekend full of races that looked like old Jeff Gordon tapes.

Now we move on to the final off week of the season. Doesn’t it feel like we just took a week off? In any case, the next two races are usually two of the better races each season, and there is little reason to expect anything different this year.

Atlanta could really put on a show, as the cars will hit the track for the first time with spoilers under the lights on Labor Day weekend. Maybe we will get one of those fantastic Atlanta finishes, as well.

Rating the Food City 500: 4 Stars ****

After the first off-week of the season, the big boys got back in the saddle again at NASCAR’s coliseum: Bristol Motor Speedway. While the stands were not jam-packed for the first time in 55 races, there was still some pretty good racing on the track itself. The first short track event of the season gets a 4 Star Rating.

Once again, Jimmie Johnson and the #48 team brought home the trophy Sunday afternoon. That lucky horseshoe helped out again as Johnson was able to move past the cars in front of him on the final restart with 10 laps to go. It always seems like the #48 has four tires at the end of the race when many other teams only take two, and Sunday was no exception. Had the final caution not come out, Kurt Busch would likely have been standing in Victory Lane throwing groceries.

Right now every team that challenges the #48 team comes up short. Johnson has already has the best car on the track the majority of the time, and then always has the correct strategy at the end. Rarely does the #48 fall victim to somebody else having a better strategy at the end of the race, as they did when Johnson came up short on fuel at Michigan a year ago.

What’s scary is Johnson and Chad Knaus just seem to keep getting better and better as they go along. With Johnson’s win at Bristol, there are very few, if any, tracks where Johnson is not one of the favorites coming into a race. It is going to take one heck of an effort for a different team to when the championship this season.

People may not like it, but we are watching possibly the greatest run of success any team in the history of NASCAR has had, with the exception of Richard Petty and his 10 race win streak in 1967. If Johnson continues to add to his early season success this season, he will add that dominant year to his resume that Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon have. If Johnson is going to win like this, it would be cool to see him make a run at Gordon and Petty’s modern era record of 13 wins in one season.

Other positives from Bristol include it being the last race of the wing. There was only one champion in the wing era: Jimmie Johnson. Glad that’s over. Also, for once the leader of the race didn’t jump out to a huge lead after each restart. Yes it’s a small track at Bristol, but the second-place car was able to hang with the leader side-by-side on several restarts. In the past few races at Bristol, the leader would jump out to a big lead and the field would have to wait until he caught lapped traffic before reeling him back in. That was not the case so much Sunday, The leader only jumped out to a sizeable lead a few times, with most of those being Kurt Busch as, like Gordon at Las Vegas, he had the dominant car throughout the day, only to be nipped by Johnson at the end. If the spoiler fixes that issue, look out folks. This is going to be a fun ride.

Next week the series moves to the grand old track in Martinsville, Va. This track had some of the best racing of the season last year, and with plenty of drivers upset at this point in the season, this race could be a lot of fun. However, don’t bet against Johnson and the #48 team again this week. If he won at Bristol, one of his worst tracks, just think what he will do at Martinsville, one of his best tracks. In any case, it will be great to see the rear spoiler back on the car. Hopefully each team is able to pick up where they have left off and one team doesn’t figure it out long before everyone else, because that would almost certainly be the #48.

Rating the Sharpie 500: 4 Stars ****

The highly anticipated Bristol night race brought with it a little bit of everything this year. There were several long green runs, yet there were also several wrecks. Finally, as things came to a finish under the threat of rain Kyle Busch held off Mark Martin in a race deserving of a 4 Star Rating.

Once again, Hendrick Motorsports dominated most of the night, but in spite of all the laps led, they could not put a driver into victory lane. It is kind of amazing that every week right now there are two HMS drivers that take hold of both the lead and second place early in the event. Most often it has been Martin and Jimmie Johnson, and Saturday night’s race was no different. Thankfully, qualifying was not rained out because it allowed several drivers not in Chase contention to start near the front and also made big names have to come from the back of the pack.

Overall, when it came down to it, the usual suspects were up in the front of the field, but it took them a while to get there. It was nice to see guys like Michael Waltrip, Martin Truex Jr., and David Gilliland drive inside the top 20 for much of the race. However, one-by-one, each of these guys was taken out or had something go wrong on their car. The one exception was Marcos Ambrose. Wow, did he drive a great race or what? About midway through the race he broke into the top 5 and then was shuffled out after a round of pit stops. Then, later in the race he drove himself back to the front for a terrific third place finish. This guy is the real deal. Let’s hope he can continue to improve into next season.

Finally, if Bristol did not have the progressive banking, Martin may have laid the bumper on Busch at the end. But, the way that Bristol races now, there is more side-by-side racing throughout the majority of the event. As in everything, there are pros and cons, but I’m starting to warm up to the new Bristol.

Alright, next week is the final off week of the season. There are only four breaks in the entire schedule but it sure does feel like there are about twice as many on the schedule. But, with all of the rainouts it will be good for the teams to have a week at home. Then it’s on to Atlanta under the lights for the first time. They have qualified at night for many years and the high speeds on a cool track should make for a great race. That’s it for me until Labor Day. Have an enjoyable and safe two weeks.