Random Rabble: May 16

For those who can't get enough of me -- and I can't imagine there are many of you -- I'm covering Chicago-Detroit for SBNation's NHL hub. I'll have stories throughout the series. My take on Game 1 is here. At this point, I'm not sure I see anyone beating Chicago. The Blackhawks are playing at an exceptionally high level, and they have gotten the kind of goaltending championship teams need to get, no matter how well they're playing.

As for the Wild, anyone who follows me on Twitter knows I'm somewhat conflicted on what I've seen from head coach Mike Yeo. That said, he had to stay, for a number of reasons. I'm not sure it's totally fair to judge a second-year coach after a shortened season like this. The Wild made a slew of big changes over the summer, and the young players GM Chuck Fletcher set out to start acquiring when he arrived are just now starting to make a real impact.

That said, improvement is a must now for Yeo. I didn't think the personnel was handled exquisitely. It seemed too much faith was put in veterans, even when they were struggling. Not enough lineup changes were made during the playoffs when things were clearly going south. The power play never really got going, and it was 0-for-17 in the five-game series loss to Chicago.

Wisconsin racing legend and former NASCAR driver Dick Trickle died Thursday of an apparent suicide. I don't quote Wikipedia often, but here's the lowdown on Trickle's short-track career, much of which came in the Badger State.

A big turning point in Trickle's career happened at the National Short Track Championship race at Rockford Speedway in 1966. Trickle said, "The cars in that area were fancier and looked like they were ahead of us. The didn't treat us bad, but they sort of giggled at us kids with the rat cars. After two days, they look differently at those rat cars. I won and pocketed $1,645. Before, I questioned spending the money to travel that far. But if you could win, that was a different story." Trickle started the 1967 season by winning at State Park Speedway and ended the season with 25 feature victories including wins at Wisconsin Dells Speedway (now Dells Raceway Park) and Golden Sands Speedway (near Wisconsin Rapids).

He toured on the Central Wisconsin Racing Association (CWRA) tracks in 1971. The circuit consisted of larger asphalt track racing on most nights of the week.[9] CWRA regular drivers were able to run over 100 events in a year, and most did the tour with one car and one engine. Drivers would drive on Wednesday nights at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway, Thursday nights at State Park Speedway near Wausau, Friday nights at Capitol Speedway (now Madison International Speedway) near Madison, La Crosse, or Adams-Friendship, Saturday nights at Wisconsin Dells Speedway, and Sunday nights at Griffith Park. Tuesday nights were available for special events.

On Thursday nights at the quarter mile State Park Speedway, he won seven features and lowered his July 1 14.27 second track record to 14.09 seconds on the following week. On Friday nights he raced primarily at Capitol Speedway, winning most nights that rain or his car did not break. Trickle went to Adams-Friendship on July 23 and won the feature after setting the track record. He held the track record at six tracks: Adams-Friendship, Capitol, Wausau, Wisconsin Dells, and La Crosse. He raced at the newly opened third mile Wisconsin Dells Speedway on Saturday nights. By the end of the year, Trickle had won 58 feature events.

Trickle started his 1972 season by winning at Golden Sands Speedway near Wisconsin Rapids. Wisconsin's short track racing season starts in April. By May 13, he had twelve wins in thirteen events. He got this fifteenth win in twenty starts on May 27. Trickle became the winningest short track driver that year when he won his 67th race.

Trickle won numerous special events outside of Wisconsin in 1973, including a 200-lap feature at Rolla, Missouri in April, following by winning a 50-lap feature the following day at I-70 Speedway near Odessa, Missouri. In May he won a 50-lapper at Springfield, Missouri and two more features at I-70 Speedway. Trickle used his purple 1970 Ford Mustang to win at the Minnesota Fair and at Rockford Speedway in September. He had a total of 57 wins in 1973.

Trickle became well-known nationally during his NASCAR Winston Cup career. The old ESPN SportsCenter pair of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann always made a point to mention where Trickle finished. Maybe they liked his name or something. Olbermann noted the following on Twitter upon word of Trickle's passing.

Awful news: Dick Trickle is dead ... No sports figure Dan + I had fun with took it more graciously. In fact, gratefully.

Olbermann went on to credit Trickle for helping increase NASCAR's visibility on SportsCenter. He said the attention they gave Trickle eventually trickled down (pun intended) to the races themselves, whether Trickle raced in them or not.

His name probably made him famous more than his driving, but Dick Trickle was one hell of a race car driver.

Kyle Busch Parked For Being an Idiot

Before I throw out any comments, here's the video from Friday's Camping World Truck race at Texas.



Absolutely ridiculous move by Busch, and NASCAR struck quickly, parking Busch for the weekend's Nationwide and Sprint Cup races.

NASCAR immediately parked Busch and continued that process Saturday morning by invoking Section 9-12 in its rule book, which states, "A NASCAR Supervisory Official may direct a Competitor to cease competition, to leave the racing premises, or to bring the car to the pit and/or garage area for a specified number of laps, and/or a specified time penalty, for the balance of the Race, or future NASCAR Races, if it is necessary to do so in order to promote the orderly conduct of the NASCAR Event(s). Such a directive will be given only in extraordinary circumstances, as determined by the NASCAR Supervisory Officials. It will not be deemed or construed to be a disqualification, suspension or other "penalty" within the meaning of Section 12 and is not appealable under that Section."

Justifiable move, and probably the right one. There are some who want Busch parked for even longer. While I don't have a huge issue with that, I'd rather see NASCAR do something unique, and simply park Busch from Truck and Nationwide races for a specified period of time. He conducts himself differently in those series, especially now that he can't race for points in either one because he races for Cup points.

Want proof? Watch what he did in the Truck race at Bristol.



Kyle definitely leads the sport in "Using Race Car/Truck As Weapon." That's not a good thing.

Perhaps he'd learn by having to control his emotions at all times, instead of just when he's racing for points.

Jimmie Johnson Mad at Kurt Busch ... Why?

Usually, NASCAR drivers have a tendency to get a bit testy during and after short-track races.

When they go to a place like Pocono -- a 2.5-mile track with plenty of room for guys to stay away from each other -- the nerves are often not as frayed, unless an engine blows up or a tire goes down at a really bad time.

Sunday was an exception to this general rule.

At Pocono Raceway, while Brad Keselowski was pulling off an amazing win while driving with a broken ankle, Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson had a rather interesting run-in.

On the final laps, Johnson was battling with Busch for a top three-position when they nudged each other a couple times. Busch ended up keeping his spot and finishing third, behind brother Kyle and winner Keselowski. Johnson had to settle for fourth -- not bad since he drove the whole race with a bad clutch.

Afterward, Johnson confronted Busch on pit road, and the two exchanged words. They then shared thoughts on their feud to reporters.

"I worked him over for ten to 15 laps and had the opportunity to screw him over, and I didn't do it," Johnson told ESPN immediately after the confrontation. "I'm not going to run people over to pass them. It's not me."

"I was racing him flat out," Busch said in his own interview. "I didn't know you were supposed to pull over with five to go. We were racing clean, and he wants to come over and bitch at me?"

... in this case, he (Busch) might have a point. "Why can't we race each other and put on a show for the fans?" he said, the implication being that in real racing, paint must be traded and dents must be issued. Johnson has won five Cup titles by practicing a form of racing that's clinical in its devotion to efficiency. But it's in no way dirty, in the Busch brothers/Kevin Harvick/Tony Stewart make-room-if-there-ain't-room sense of the word.

So Johnson has had plenty of success with his style. But he hasn't exactly won over the hearts of NASCAR fandom with it;  Busch certainly echoed the sentiments of a large chunk of NASCAR fandom when he later said that he wanted "anyone but the 48" to win the race.

I watched the end of the race Sunday night. I have no idea what either driver did wrong.

I'm not a fan of Johnson's, though it's generally not his fault. He isn't my favorite driver, and he wins all the time. That's enough right there to generate some dislike.

However, it's hard to argue with his methods.

That said, he's barking up an empty tree on this one. Busch didn't do anything but race a guy hard for a spot. He probably said it best when he asked if he's just supposed to pull over. Is that the case? Is Johnson so spoiled by the respect he gets from other drivers -- teammates or not -- that he can't fathom someone actually making him earn the position he's racing for?

If Johnson's brand of NASCAR is one where Kurt Busch is perceived to have done some wrong in the final laps Sunday, then I want no part of Johnson's brand of NASCAR.

I'd rather have two guys trade paint and rubs for 10-15 laps and actually fight like they care about a spot. Obviously, we don't need people getting dumped over a spot in a race. That's dangerous and unnecessary. But Busch didn't dump Johnson. Not anything remotely close to that. Instead, they raced hard and clean for a position, and Johnson either has a warped vision of what this sport should be like, or he's pissed because he couldn't beat the 22.

You take your pick on that one. I'm not here to judge.

Is Indy's Magic Dying?

Good morning. Happy August.

I usually don't use this blog as a link dump service, but I found this column quite interesting, and I wanted to share it and get some thoughts.

Sunday was the annual Brickyard 400 Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis. It's the 18th year they've run this race, and it's become quite a tradition for NASCAR drivers, many of whom grew up loving the Indy racetrack, especially the Memorial Day spectacle that is the Indianapolis 500.

In these 18 years, however, NASCAR has actually lost some footing in Indy. Last year's crowd was estimated at around 140,000, a great crowd for virtually any event you can think of, but not real good at a track that seats 250,000 and was routinely filling all the seats for NASCAR.

This year's turnout was even worse, closer to 100,000. Again, it's a good crowd if we're not talking about a car race at the Brickyard. But it's terrible at the Brickyard.

ESPN.com senior writer Ed Hinton wrote a column after Sunday's race -- shockingly won by Paul Menard -- in which he took to task NASCAR's mere presence at the legendary track.

After taking shots at NASCAR for helping cause the IndyCar split that practically ruined the Indy 500, and at whoever sold the naming rights for next year's Brickyard race to Crown Royal, and at whoever decided it would be a good idea to stage a Nationwide race the day before next year's Brickyard race, Hinton threw in this bomb at the end.

The NASCAR community keeps swearing its everlasting love and awe of Indy.

Well, then, why have they degraded it, even stabbed it in the back?

If they worship Indy so much, then why did they stick a new Cup race just down the road at Kentucky Speedway, just a few weeks ago, to suck the discretionary dollars out of race fans along the Ohio River? This, to go with draining off fans via Kansas Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway, tracks built in the region since the Brickyard 400 began in 1994.

What say you? Has NASCAR stained the Brickyard? Have they -- practically -- sabotaged their own major event?

ESPN's first Sprint Cup broadcast of the season is the Brickyard 400. It's treated as a major event by everyone. But the fans apparently don't agree, as they've started to stay away in droves. No matter the reasons for this, it's NASCAR's duty to figure out why it's happening, and do something about it.

Hinton invokes the name of Humpy Wheeler, a great but retired track and racing promoter. It's someone like Wheeler who can resurrect the Indy race, but apparently that person doesn't work for NASCAR or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Kasey Kahne's Scary Wreck

It was an off weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but that doesn't stop guys from racing.

Carl Edwards was among the Cup drivers in the Nationwide race Saturday night in Nashville, and Edwards drove away with a relatively easy win.

(Insert rant about Cup drivers ruining the other NASCAR touring series here.)

While all that was going on, and other drivers were vacationing, Kasey Kahne took to the dirt.

And eventually the air.

Racing in Pennsylvania, Kahne went for quite a ride in a sprint car.



Kahne was able to walk back up the hill and acknowledge the crowd, so they all knew he was okay. Kahne later tweeted about the wreck, saying he hadn't flipped like that in a long time.

Oddly enough, Kahne can probably expect to avoid a similar ride in his normal job, as the Sprint Cup cars take to the Brickyard Sunday.

Richard Childress Tries, Can't Convert Kyle Busch Into Sympathetic Figure

Let's recap these events.

Kyle Busch is notorious among drivers and fans for a hot temper on the track, but also has a reputation for being one of the most charitable men in his sport ... almost always willing to help out other drivers' causes, as well as his own. Despite that work off the track, Busch is far and away the most disliked driver in the sport. It's not even really close.

Richard Childress, a 65-year-old man who owns vehicles in NASCAR's major touring series, is perhaps best-known as the man who was Dale Earnhardt's friend and car owner and now owns cars driven by the likes of Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer. He's also one of the most respected figures in NASCAR.

So when worlds collide, and Childress is the one allegedly instigating a physical altercation with Busch, what's a guy to think?

After Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race at Kansas, it was indeed Childress going all Nolan Ryan on Busch, who unwittingly was set to play the role of Robin Ventura.



We can't confirm that things went down the same way Saturday. In fact, it seems it was Childress who did all the work.

According to reports, the 65-year-old Childress approached the 26-year-old Busch in the garage area after the race, took off his watch, punched Busch in the face and then put him in a headlock.

NASCAR did their part to make it clear that Busch, who is on probation after trying to kill Kevin Harvick (possible exaggeration), did nothing wrong Saturday.

"We concluded that the driver of the 18 truck, Kyle Busch, did nothing to provoke or to cause the reactions, that in our opinion, would violate the probation," Helton said. "He did nothing that warranted the actions of Richard Childress."

Again ... Kyle Busch did nothing wrong. Nothing. Notta. He was the race-car-driver-gets-punched-in-the-face-by-old-man equivalent of an innocent bystander.

And yet people tweet stuff like this.

Oh, wait. That's me.

You get the point.

Busch is not the sympathetic figure here, even though NASCAR wants you to know he was attacked.

By a 65-year-old man.

And Childress knew what he was doing. This wasn't a heat of the moment thing, or he wouldn't have thought to take his watch off.

Yet Busch is still a jerk in the eyes of most NASCAR fans. If this can't cure it, nothing will.

Jimmie Johnson the Latest Driver Mad at NASCAR About Speeding Penalty

Every weekend, NASCAR stops at a track for a race or two or three in their major national touring series. Every time, there is a prescribed speed limit to be enforced on pit road.

This past weekend, the track in play was Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. It's a short track, and the speed limit on pit road in 30 miles per hour. The typical penalty for speeding is a pass-through, meaning a driver has to go through pit road at the speed limit while green-flag racing is going on.

Five-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, winner of five races at Martinsville over the last five years, was the latest big-name driver to suffer a speeding penalty on pit road and vehemently dispute it. It was a penalty that took Johnson out of contention for the win, which eventually went to Kevin Harvick.

Johnson, who was caught going 35.53 miles per hour in one of the timing loops on pit road, was clear after the race that he felt he was wrongly caught.

“I wasn’t speeding,’’ Johnson said. “There is just no way. People will say whatever. But with the match and the way we know (the location) of our timing lines, there is just no way. There is just no way. There is just no way. It won’t do me any good to have a conversation (with NASCAR). It isn’t going to matter. I guess I just can’t attack pit road like I know I can and like I did every single time before this.’’

Johnson is hardly the first driver who was taken out of contention in a race, and felt he wasn't really speeding.

In 2009, Juan Pablo Montoya was dominating at the Brickyard before a speeding penalty took him out of contention.

"If they do this to me, I'm going to kill them," Montoya said on his radio. "There's no way. I was on the green [dash light].

"Thank you, NASCAR, for screwing my day. We had it in the bag and they screwed us because I was not speeding. I swear on my children and my wife."

... co-owner Felix Sabates had a request about the speeding call.

"I just want [NASCAR officials] to show me he was speeding," Sabates said on the telecast. "If they show me, I'll be happy with that."

OK. After the race, Sprint Cup director John Darby had the specifics about Montoya's double no-no.

Pit road has eight zones where the speed is measured. The speed limit in the pits at Indy is 55 mph. NASCAR gives the drivers a 5 mph cushion.

Darby said Montoya was caught over the cushion in Zones 2 and 4. Officially, the speed was recorded at 60.06 mph in Zone 2 and 60.11 mph in Zone 4. 

Whoops.

A month earlier, 25 speeding penalties were assessed on exit from pit road in a Nationwide race at Kentucky. One of the most visible was Carl Edwards, who was penalized more than once, taking him completely out of contention.

There could be mistakes along the way, but it's hard to believe Johnson was somehow wronged and no one else got caught. Kyle Busch was obviously pushing the rules a couple times, but managed to keep his speed within the guidelines set forth by NASCAR.

Busch finished third, by the way.

It was an uncharacteristic mistake by Johnson -- whose five straight titles have been keyed by his ability to run out front and stay in contention on days where his car wasn't good enough -- at a track where he's dominated.

Way too early to say that it's a sign of things to come, but many NASCAR fans probably hope it is.

Dale Earnhardt's Greatest Moment

Friday is the tenth anniversary of the death of Dale Earnhardt. That moment -- during the 2001 Daytona 500's final turn -- shocked the sports world, and it helped bring on some serious changes to improve safety in stock car racing.

The fact that Earnhardt's death spurred those types of changes is interesting when you think about the fact that Earnhardt said something had to change during the very race where he lost his life.

(This was something noted during an amazing Earnhardt documentary on SPEED Sunday night. If it re-runs this week, DVR it. Very well done.)

Instead of looking back to the 2001 race, here's a peek back three years earlier, to Earnhardt's greatest moment as a driver.

For the longest time, he couldn't win the Daytona 500, which is the pinnacle event in the sport. That was until 1998.

And when he won, the NASCAR world celebrated. Even competing pit crews went crazy and wanted to congratulate the sport's biggest name on his biggest win.



The celebration finally made its way to Victory Lane, and it didn't slow down there.



Dale Earnhardt, Jr., has the pole for Sunday's Daytona 500. Expect the crowd to go crazy, especially if he's got the lead for more than just the race start.

NASCAR Shows True Colors

While the sport is marred by start-and-park cars stealing chances to race and win actual prize money away from teams that really want to race, by a racecar that doesn't allow for actual racing, television broadcasters who are more concerned with selling commercials than serving fans of the sport, and a great abundance of empty seats at races, NASCAR continues to drag its feet and waste its time on petty battles.

The latest attempt by NASCAR to mask its true problems was a pair of fines levied recently to drivers. These drivers -- not identified by NASCAR -- were accused of saying things publicly that could cause damage to the sport's image.

(Meanwhile, Phil Parsons and his race team continue to steal spots in races and prize money from people who want to race, all so they can park their cars on lap 20 and claim a vibration as the reason. This apparently doesn't damage NASCAR. Yes, this makes me bitter. Sorry.)

As the Sprint Cup Series prepares to run at Pocono this weekend, we have learned the identities of the two drivers: Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman.

Each were reportedly fined $50,000, though neither confirmed that amount Friday in separate media sessions. Newman hinted his fine was due to comments made after the spring Cup race at Talladega.

Newman said in April that winning was "a lottery, racing for a championship shouldn't be a lottery." He added the wreck-heavy races at Talladega "affect our championship because it's not racing."

He was one of a few drivers Friday who blamed the media for stirring up controversy and an easy willingness to criticize the sport. Newman suggested if he was left alone for a few moments after his wreck instead of being instantly forced to answer questions, he might have cooled down and not been so quick to pop off.

"When you get a microphone stuck in your face when the adrenaline's still rushing, don't expect everything to be positive," Newman said.

Newman, of course, could have said "No comment," or simply refused to speak, as driver Juan Pablo Montoya did Sunday after a controversial call by his crew chief took him out of the lead in the Brickyard 400.

Instead, Newman -- always, it seems, willing to give a quote -- spoke freely and willingly after his wreck at 'Dega, and now he is blaming the media for getting in trouble?

The bigger problem here is NASCAR. If they don't like what Newman said, they have the power to change how the superspeedway races are run. They're a safety hazard, and they are indeed a lottery. I've said that for years. You don't have to have the best car to win a restrictor-plate race. You have to have a good car and get a good drafting partner. It's not like winning at Martinsville or Bristol or Richmond or even Vegas.

You know, the real tracks.

Anyway, if NASCAR wants to penalize guys for being honest, they're going to have a long remainder of the season. I doubt Newman is going to stop.

For that matter, neither is Hamlin, who believes he was hit by NASCAR because of a conversation he had with SB Nation blogger Jeff Gluck on Twitter.

@dennyhamlin (to his fans): Truthfully I don't think It matters to the fans who wins the race as long as its a good "show". Even if it comes as the expense of competition

@dennyhamlin: I'm listening to your comments.. Ok if ur fav driver is out of contention and leader is on his way to winning with 10 to go. Would u like to see nascar tighten it up or let the best car win? Please reply.

@dennyhamlin: ok too many reply's to give a true count but its about 80% let it go 20% tighten it up.. thanks for the info. i was courious what u thought

@jeff_gluck: Personally I don't think they're not all being honest w/you or themselves. When the leader is running away fans BEG for caution

@dennyhamlin: big difference in legit and not.. im not saying dont throw a caution when a guy is in the way.. come on dude..

@jeff_gluck: And btw, I say "Tighten it up." I want to see an exciting finish...if cars get torn up, it just adds drama.

@dennyhamlin: i mean when a guy is in the wall.. and of course people wanna see a caution. Not a fake one tho.

@dennyhamlin: AND. fyi that debris caution caused over 500k in damage to 10 wrecked racecars at the end of that race. no big deal huh?

Gluck is advocating -- reasonably -- for the idea that NASCAR should "tighten up" races late with possibly fake cautions. It might be fake drama, but it's still drama, I guess.

Hamlin tried to poll his fans, but I think Gluck is right. Unless a fan's favorite driver is winning, they want a late caution and a green-white-checkered or two. That's good television, and it usually leads to good racing.

(Note: If Kyle Busch or Jimmie Johnson are running out front, virtually every fan of the sport wants a late caution to tighten up the field. It's a safe bet that most anyone who says they don't agree with this is a liar.)

Gluck told SI.com he regrets the way it played out, even though this wasn't his fault.

"They say drivers want to express personalities and show how they feel," he said. "I worry about that now. I thought it was a legitimate debate... that's what's alarming. Denny speaks up, I speak up about something, and instead of NASCAR taking a look at what could be changed, they shoot the messenger."

That's left Hamlin lighter in the wallet, joking, "I better play the lotto" to make up for lost cash. But despite the scrutiny, Hamlin maintains he'll still be using Twitter in the future -- albeit being a bit more careful about what he says.

"When I started this whole Twitter thing a long time ago, I said, 'I was never going to sell out.'" he explained. "I was going to always say what I wanted to say, this, that, and the other thing ... but the more followers you get, the more people -- especially up in that tower that start following you and seeing what you're saying. It goes out to a lot of people, and a lot of race fans. Out of 35,000 or so that follow me, 30 of them are true race fans that watch the sport week in and week out. So they are the heartbeat of our sport, and I guess they don't need me influencing them and saying that we need to work on a lot of things."

(To his credit, Hamlin plans to continue being honest. That's cool, and it could be costly.)

Sorry, NASCAR, but you're showing your true colors here, and the primary is yellow. What are they afraid of?

There is no reason to stifle honest opinions coming from veteran drivers who have the track records of Newman and Hamlin. The greater harm that can be done to the sport is to continue trying to sweep problems under the rug. Every time NASCAR fines a driver for honesty, they risk further alienating fans who see and understand the very real problems facing their sport.

Problems NASCAR is either ignoring or just can't figure out how to handle.

Start and Park Drivers Continue Quest to Ruin NASCAR

As we mentioned not long after the Daytona 500 in February, NASCAR has a major issue on its hands.

Every race weekend, there are numerous teams that show up at tracks for either a Camping World Truck Series race, a Nationwide Series race, or a Sprint Cup Series race, and they have no intention of even trying to compete to win the race.

The plan? Run a few laps, park the car, avoid using a bunch of tires, and collect the purse money for a last-place finish, which is enough to fund the team for another week.

In the meantime, these so-called start-and-park teams are taking spots in races away from legitimate operations that intend to run all the laps as long as the car is moving forward.

Sunday, the Sprint Cup cars ran at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, one of the hallowed grounds of racing. That apparently wasn't enough for a handful of cars who decided to park early for no real good reason.

Naturally, it's the same suspects as it is every week. But you're supposed to believe these problems were legitimate. Yes, NASCAR makes the teams give an excuse for dropping out, but there's no way you can believe these excuses when the same teams are pulling out of every race around the same time with the same excuses.

NASCAR scribe Jeff Gluck probed for some explanations as to why so many drivers cited fishy reasons for pulling out of one of the sport's major events.

TODD BODINE, finished 37th. Official reason: Rear gear. "We had a vibration in the gearbox, and it got to rattling so bad, I had to park it." Total laps: 52; total money: $134,675.

DAVE BLANEY, finished 41st. Official reason: Electrical. "We had a transmission problem in practice and it just kept getting worse. So we pulled it out." Total laps: 20; total money: $134,225.

JOE NEMECHEK, finished 40th. Official reason: Vibration. "In that first-lap accident, we got into the grass. We broke the splitter and knocked the bottom end out of the radiator. We fixed those, but we picked up a vibration we couldn't get rid of." Total laps: 33; total money: $134,375.

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, finished 42nd. Official reason: Overheating. "I got caught up in that first-lap accident. We must have stuffed some dirt into the carburetor. We tried to clean the carburetor, but it didn't work." Total laps: 19; total money: $134,125.

Look at all that money being flushed to these lame, no-effort teams.

Instead of trying to compete, the philosophy is to get in the race, and then get out as fast as possible without anyone noticing. For the first 19 races, FOX and TNT allowed the teams to hide their start-and-park ways, as announcers Mike Joy and Adam Alexander rarely -- if ever -- called out teams who pulled behind the wall early in the race.

ESPN's Marty Reid won't lie to the viewers. Instead of pretending the stands are full, or that all the teams in the race are actually trying to win, Reid is honest and forthright. Car No. 66 is a start and park. The grandstands are amazingly empty for such a huge event.

Thanks, Marty. If only NASCAR were this upfront about their inherent problems.

Maybe something would be done.

As for the start and parks, the solution is simple. No race team is so incompetent as to get a vibration, or a tire problem, or an engine issue, or an overheating in every race. NASCAR needs to put a limit on the number of times a team is allowed to run less than the full race and still get their prize money.

Either that, or a blanket rule needs to be put in place mandating that teams that fail to run at least a fourth of the scheduled laps doesn't get prize money. Ever.

Reality is that would undeservedly punish a lot of race teams, but it's time for NASCAR to do something. If they don't, the bottom line is that the sport won't grow, won't get better, and won't ever thrive the way it used to.

Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski Feud Creates More Track Drama

Does NASCAR finally have a real rivalry?

It thought it did a couple years ago, when Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards were battling for the points lead. But both fizzled and bowed to Jimmie Johnson in the Chase, and neither has been a serious championship contender in NASCAR's top series since.

While it's "just the Nationwide Series," Edwards may have another foil. This time, it's one of the sport's top young drivers, and it's not Busch.

It's Brad Keselowski.

The two have seen their share of battles on the track, with Edwards ending up in the fence last spring during the Talladega race, wrecked by Keselowski as the two raced for a restrictor-plate win. This spring, the two traded paint in Atlanta, before Edwards -- angry over an earlier incident -- bumped Keselowski and sent him airborne. Edwards was (rightfully) put on probation by NASCAR for the move.

While NASCAR has professed a "Have at it, boys" attitude to its racing this year, they simply can't be a party to one driver putting another in a dangerous position. As safe as these cars are, "on the roof" is a dangerous position on the racetrack.

Saturday night, the two came together at the end of the Nationwide race at Gateway. Instead of trying to describe everything that happened, let's just go to the video.



Edwards won the race, and Keselowski was left to whine about it afterward. Apparently, we're supposed to believe he was just racing Edwards, but Edwards was trying to take him out for no reason.

It's bunk.

While Edwards could have been a bit more apologetic for the aftermath of his bump (surely, he didn't intend for Keselowski to be such a sitting duck for unsuspecting competitors racing for the start/finish line), and he never should have done that backflip, he wasn't totally in the wrong on the racetrack.

Neither was Keselowski.

This was "Have at it, boys" personified. This was what NASCAR wanted when those famous words were uttered during Speedweeks. This is what makes for compelling television, even if the two mend fences and make nice.

Neither driver can claim to be perfectly in the right, nor can they say the other driver was totally wrong.

But in the end, the biggest sin was indeed committed by Edwards, who shouldn't have celebrated so boisterously -- even if it was his home track, so to speak -- after performing a borderline dirty move to win.

Hopefully, we see more fireworks from these two the rest of the way, because NASCAR needs more racing like this.

Jeff Gordon Has Every Right To Be 'Pissed' At Selfish Teammate

In the world of NASCAR, no one is a saint. If there is a racer in the Sprint Cup series who wouldn't wreck their own wife, girlfriend, mother, or even grandmother to win a race, they probably aren't going to be a Chase contender.

That's just the way it is.

Jeff Gordon spent years being vilified and hated by NASCAR fans. He once had beer cans thrown at his car after the unspeakable crime of winning a race at Talladega. He was evil in the minds of many race fans for a lot of years, until his teammate took the honor.

Four-time champion Jimmie Johnson is a great driver, and he doesn't appear to be an awful guy behind the scenes. He does the charity work, isn't afraid to get in line to help other drivers' charities (Kyle Busch, from what I hear, is WAY underrated in this regard, by the way), and is a soft-spoken face in a sport full of blowhards.

You'd think he could maintain a decent fan base without being hated, yet between his four titles in a row -- no one wants to root for the guy or team that ALWAYS wins -- and some recent dustups with other drivers, Johnson's pristine reputation has taken a bit of a hit.

April 19, Johnson was leading in the race at Texas, and all of a sudden here came Gordon. Despite his teammate having a much faster car, Johnson saw fit to try to block Gordon, causing unnecessary damage and friction. Gordon later wrecked, while Johnson finished in the top ten (shockingly).

There was talk of friction between the two, buoyed by comments by Gordon on his radio that indicated some issues with Johnson. Something along the lines of how Johnson "thinks he should be treated different than everybody else."

During the week, Johnson and Gordon downplayed any friction. Radio comments are often downplayed as out of emotion and the fire of the race. Once a driver calms down, things are usually different.

After Talladega, where Johnson bumped Gordon while Gordon was trying to get in position to draft off his teammate (or, at least that's what Johnson thought ... Gordon was obviously trying to pass because, again, he had a faster car), Gordon didn't comment on the radio (well, not that I heard). Instead, he waited until he climbed out of the car.



Frankly, Gordon has every right to be "pissed," or whatever he wants to be.

Over his four-year run atop the Sprint Cup Series, Johnson has enjoyed a lot of luck, and he has gotten a lot of help along the way. His teammates help him on the track, share information about the cars (as per Hendrick Motorsports procedure), and more importantly, they protected him throughout his championship runs.

If it weren't for Gordon, Johnson may never have gotten this opportunity with Hendrick, or the chance to work with ace crew chief Chad Knaus.

Gordon isn't asking for any favors on the track that he hasn't already given Johnson. The fact Johnson refuses to give up ground when he has an inferior car shows that he still has some to learn about the give-and-take of the sport, and what it means to be a good teammate.

That's unfortunate, because between Gordon and Mark Martin, Johnson has seen plenty of examples of good teammates in recent years. Too bad he hasn't picked up on too much of what they could have taught him.

Start-and-Park Issue Hits Cup Series

For a while now, the NASCAR Camping World Truck and Nationwide Series have dealt with the issue of start-and-park entries.

A start-and-park is someone who simply qualifies for the race, runs a handful of laps or until the first caution, then slithers off the track with a mysterious engine, transmission, or other random problem. They park the car, collect the prize money for finishing 40th or so, then move on to the next venue.

With economic problems and such, these lower series have faced the realities of start-and-park drivers by simply ignoring them. Yes, these are underfunded teams, but they would likely run the entire race if they could just find a sponsor for the car.

Of course, the first major problem with this philosophy -- besides the fact that these people aren't racing to try to win races -- is that start-and-parks typically have to race their way into the field, meaning they likely bump out drivers and teams who intend to run the entire race.

This issue has slowly crept into the Sprint Cup series, and may have come to a head last weekend, when struggling Prism Motorsports qualified two cars for the Auto Club 500, before pulling both off the racetrack.

One of them -- Dave Blaney's No. 66 -- ended up in inspection.

So why did the sanctioning body confiscate the No. 66 car before the engine had even cooled down?

“Because they can,” said Bill Henderson, crew chief of the No. 66 team and general manager for Prism Motorsports.

Henderson, who has just two cars for the team, was told the car will not be returned until next Saturday — long after qualifying is over. However, the primary car has the basics of racing — swaybar, shocks and springs — that the team simply can’t afford to duplicate on the backup car. Without those necessities, Henderson will not be able to race.

This has led to a more open debate about the start-and-park teams. It's a debate that is long overdue.

After all, it's more about the money than the racing. Prism got over $160,000 for its two-car, 83-lap cameo Sunday. That's more than Matt Kenseth got for a top ten finish (check the above link for more on this).

Sorry, but NASCAR needs to do something. The smaller teams need a way to fund themselves and stay alive, but it shouldn't come at the sake of competition. Sprint Cup races are supposed to be 43 cars, and the overall event is hurt when multiple cars aren't trying to win, or even run all the laps.

If a drug-out inspection process is what gets start-and-park teams to think twice, then NASCAR should look at doing it. Obviously, there is only so much that can be done, because engine failures and other catastrophic things happen, even to the top race teams. It just looks fishy when your engine or transmission crap out every weekend.

Real, Raw, Gripping Emotion

There are two sides to the extremes of emotion.

The first is the jubilation. The raw, seemingly unending happiness that comes with the greatest of accomplishments.

For NASCAR driver Jamie McMurray, the lifelong dream came true Sunday evening at Daytona.

McMurray, a driver who was out of a job for a time last fall, won the Daytona 500 in his first points race for new employer Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. McMurray was a victim of the numbers game at Roush Fenway a year ago. He lost his ride because of a mandated downsizing of the Sprint Cup racing team, combined with numbers that showed him woefully short in the wins department.

With his new ride, the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, McMurray didn't take long to prove himself.

If these plate races are like entering a random drawing, McMurray was the lucky winner Sunday. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone more grateful for his opportunity.



There is a flip side to this emotion, though. It's the feeling of losing someone you're immeasurably close to. For Brian Burke, this feeling became a reality nearly two weeks ago, when he got word that his son, Brendan, had been killed in a car accident while driving on a snowy road in Indiana. Brendan had been visiting Michigan State University, and was on his way back to his home base of Oxford, Ohio, where he attended Miami University and worked as a student manager on the men's hockey team.

For Brian Burke, a normally gruff and unemotional man in front of the camera, Sunday brought a whole new challenge. While he tried to put on a strong face for his U.S. Olympic men's hockey team -- he is the general manager of the team -- it's clear Burke is still hurting.

The hurt is evidenced by a great column from FanHouse colleague Lisa Olson, who spoke to Burke after his press conference in Vancouver.

"Born on December 8, 1988, eight pounds, eight ounces. Eight is a lucky number for people of Chinese descent," Burke said, his face aglow. "They kept rubbing his head, the nurses did. I said to one of the nurses, 'What's the deal?' and she said, 'Oh, he's a very lucky baby.' I said, 'Well, rub his foot because he's going to be bald for Christ's sake.'

"He was born with a lot of lucky signs around him," Burke said. "Just a magnetic personality even as a kid."

At Brendan's wake in Canton, Massachusetts, amongst the hundreds of mourners, Burke ran into one of his son's teachers. Everyone had their favorite story about Brendan; he had impacted so many people in so many different ways, and it warmed Burke's heart to hear them all. This teacher told him about an eighth grade dance, and a girl standing alone in the corner. Brendan walked over and asked her to dance, oblivious to (or maybe in spite of) his classmates' snickers.

"He didn't care what they thought, he just didn't want her to have a bad night," Burke said, beaming like a father boasting about a son who had won several Stanley Cups.

People wonder why we love our sports so much. A big part of sports should serve as an escape. Even those who can't escape reality sometimes need a temporary release. For Brian Burke, here's hoping the next two weeks are an opportunity for him to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He worked hard to build this U.S. team, and they have a chance to reward him with a medal.

If that happens, it will surely be another in a long line of emotional days for a man once viewed as being without emotions.

Shows what you get for judging a book by its cover.

Danica's Miscalculation

The NASCAR season opens for real this week, as Speedweeks hit a fever pitch at Daytona. The Sprint Cup drivers hit the track Thursday for the Duel races, which will determine the final starting grid for the Daytona 500 Sunday. They also serve as a last chance of sorts for the drivers who have yet to qualify for the race on speed.

(I'm not even going to try to lay the qualifying procedure out. Not sure I understand it myself. Click here for a primer.)

They are absolutely not the focal point of any media attention in Daytona. Instead, the Super Bowl of stock car racing is taking a backseat to the Go Daddy sideshow known as Danica Patrick.

With all due respect, Danica drove well in Saturday's ARCA series race at Daytona. She belongs in a stock car, and she will likely develop into a good NASCAR driver. In that respect, she is not a sideshow. None of what you're going to see at Daytona is a good thing. She isn't asking for the overwhelming attention she will get, and there's a good chance she'll be embarrassed by some of it.

However, the media has jumped on this like they jump on Brett Favre, Alex Rodriguez, and other needle-moving sports figures. They're all-in.

That means it will be a sideshow, unless Danica wins, which is extremely unlikely. That said, anything can happen in a plate race.

Patrick has announced she will run the No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for JR Motorsports Saturday, as the NASCAR Nationwide Series kicks off its 2010 season at Daytona.

It's not a mistake because she's taking attention away from the race. She's going to do that in every race she runs. It's not a mistake because she appears to be -- at least for one race -- taking a ride away from Kelly Bires, who was signed to JR Motorsports to replace Brad Keselowski (now with Penske Racing). Bires was scheduled to run the full Nationwide schedule, but now will miss the first race because the other JR car is being run by team owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

It's a mistake because Danica doesn't need to expose herself to this spotlight so early in her stock-car racing career.

The season-opening race is a big deal for everyone, from drivers to crew members to media. Because it's such a big deal, a ton of Sprint Cup drivers will run the Nationwide race to maximize sponsor dollars for their owners.

The same kind of spotlight isn't on the Week 2 race at California. The entry list will be less cluttered with Sprint Cup names, and Patrick would have her chance to get her feet wet against competition less hungry for a win. It's more the kind of race she'll see in her other Nationwide Series starts, and it's a better race for her to start with.

Daytona, with its high banks, high speeds, and high tempers, is not a good place to give a rookie her first outing.

Perhaps she will drive the wheels off the car, impress everyone, and score a finish higher than anyone expects. But the potential for her to be involved -- directly or indirectly -- in the kinds of incidents she doesn't need to get into is too high.

For my taste, it's just too risky to send the rookie out for this race. JR Motorsports could have and should have convinced Patrick to wait for California to make her debut. There, she could have run a solid race, won the respect of her peers, and learned the give-and-take of stock-car racing at that level.

Instead, she's going right into the fire, and it isn't the kind of risk anyone should be taking.

NASCAR Hall of Fame Day Reveals Current Flaw in Sport

There was some awesome NASCAR programming on television Wednesday. It was the day they announced the first induction class for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, a group that includes the likes of Junior Johnson, Richard Petty, and Dale Earnhardt. There are no arguments with these three, and founding fathers Bill France and Bill France, Jr., are very deserving, even if they could have waited on the younger France for the next class.

ESPN2 re-aired the hour-long special about Rick Hendrick, as the new DVD comes out commemorating his 25 years in the sport. It really gives you a great insight into the kind of man Hendrick has been, and why he is so well-liked across NASCAR. There is some super stuff on that special from Jeff Gordon, along with the always-hilarious pictures of him with that ridiculous hair and mustache.

Also re-airing was the two-hour long movie "Dale" on SPEED. It's a documentary-style film that chronicles Earnhardt's career in racing. The most interesting part -- for me -- was introduced by Steve Byrnes and features longtime rival Darrell Waltrip talking about racing against The Intimidator.



When was the last time you saw racing like that in NASCAR? Yes, there have been some great finishes over the last few years, but when you have 36 Cup races in a season, they should happen a lot more often than they do.

Instead, we get something like Daytona in July, and it turns into a week-long controversy about who we should blame for it.

Why can't something like that be just "two guys racing for a spot"? Why do we have to find a reason to fault one driver or the other?

Moreover, what the hell has happened to that kind of hard racing?

Juan Pablo Montoya made it clear after the first Chase race that he wasn't pleased with Mark Martin for what Montoya termed a "brake check" heading into a corner at New Hampshire. Montoya insisted on racing clean, it seems, and refused to wreck Martin.

Why?

Race for the damn win. That's supposed to be your job. Instead, everyone is so obsessed with points that the wins just don't matter anymore. And when someone comes into the sport with the mentality that it's all or nothing, people decide that he's a waste of a human being.

Is there risk associated with racing someone hard and going for a win? Sure. There's also risk in putting the racecar on the track in the first place, but that doesn't stop anyone from trying.

The mentality in NASCAR just isn't what it used to be. Yes, safety is important, and no one wants the COT to go away if it means a higher risk of serious injury among the drivers. However, there's no denying that racing has become largely boring. There is less bumping and rubbing on the tracks, and we certainly never see people (outside of Kyle Busch) racing for the win the way Waltrip and Earnhardt did on that fateful day in 1986.

If we can ever return to having that kind of desire, hunger, and intensity on the track, the COT might start looking like a "racier" kind of car, instead of the parade-inducing snore we have today.

Commissioner For A Day: NASCAR

Commissioner For A Day is an ongoing series which will spotlight possible changes to improve the sports we all love. Today, The Ciskie Blog tackles issues facing NASCAR.

When NASCAR started phasing in the Car of Tomorrow in 2007, it seemed like a really good idea. They trumpeted the safety of the new car, while also making it clear that the rules regarding the COT would make it easier for smaller teams to remain competitive.

In the third year of the new car, it's obvious NASCAR only got it half right.

Unfortunately, that's not the only major problem NASCAR is trying to deal with as they try to adapt their sport to a crappy economy that's affected race teams, race tracks, and race fans.

It's time to make NASCAR better. Here's the plan.

Take the COT back to the drawing board.

There is a new car model that will be used in the Nationwide Series starting in 2010. Reviews are positive so far, and perhaps NASCAR can use things that have been learned from that design to modify or overhaul the current Cup car.

It's bad enough that NASCAR seems to run 30 of its Cup races on 1.5-mile cookie-cutter tracks (no, it's not really that bad), and the COT generally sucks on those tracks. What's worse is when they try to race at Indy, Pocono, or Michigan, and the racing gets drawn out and relatively boring.

A good example of the problems facing NASCAR is last weekend's Brickyard 400. From lap 44 until around 110, it was a struggle to find any quality racing for position or green-flag passing. Oh, and pretty much that entire segment was run under green-flag conditions. That doesn't work for paying customers, television viewers, or broadcasters.

The car model is a big part of the problem. So is ...

Set up a rotation of racetracks on the Cup schedule.

Sorry, Long Pond. Pocono Raceway has not produced a compelling, interesting, entertaining race in years. It's time to try something else.

The same can be said for Auto Club Speedway in California.

There's no denying that these are important stops for NASCAR. Anything within a short flight of the New York and Los Angeles areas have an advantage, no matter how bad the racing is. Can the sport do better, though, than two stops at each during the season?

If you ask NASCAR fans, there are a few tracks they'll talk about as being perhaps not worthy of hosting races every season.

Others want more road courses, short tracks, or big ovals for their favorites to race on.

This idea is simple. You designate "untouchable tracks", places that will keep their races on the schedule every season, and will not have to worry about rotating off at any point. These tracks would be:

Daytona (2 races per season)
Las Vegas (1)
Bristol (2)
Martinsville (2)
Phoenix (2)
Richmond (2)
Dover (2)
Darlington (1)
Chicagoland (1)
Indianapolis (1)
Sonoma (1)
Watkins Glen (1)
Kansas (1)
Talladega (2)
Charlotte (2)
Homestead-Miami (1)
New Hampshire (2)

That's 26 races. 10 races remain in a 36-race season. The following tracks that currently host races are not on the above list.

Pocono (2)
Michigan (2)
Texas (2)
California (2)
Atlanta (2)

Let's not stop. There are some other tracks that could be worthy of hosting Sprint Cup events, just not every year. Among them:

Iowa Speedway
Kentucky Speedway
Road America
Rockingham

Also, account for tracks that already have one race, but could justify hosting two.

Las Vegas
Darlington

NASCAR has options. Instead of running the same schedule every year, and allowing its Sprint Cup dates to be handed out to the same, boring tracks, they can mix things up.

It's not about abandoning traditional stops. It's about letting some new tracks into the rotation to freshen things up.

One year, go to Kentucky instead of a second California race. The next year, maybe let California have two races.

There's no reason to send two races a year to tracks like California and Michigan that can't sell out races. Similarly, there's no reason to hold back Nationwide tracks like Kentucky that are getting great support.

It's an idea that would not be popular with the establishment, which is another reason to make it happen.

Start seriously discouraging Sprint Cup drivers from working the Nationwide Series.

It's simple. Drivers scheduled to run more than 20 Sprint Cup races in a season are not eligible to win the Nationwide points title.

The Nationwide Series doesn't need to be a minor league, necessarily, but it also doesn't need to be Cup Light. It operates at its best when Cup drivers compete part-time, and drivers like Brad Keselowski and Jason Leffler get a chance to shine.

Obviously, as long as points titles and races are won by Cup competitors, the series isn't ever going to reach its full potential.

Find television partners that give a crap about the sport.

When TNT airs races, they might be called by a relatively annoying presence in Bill Weber, but it's clear that they are all-in trying to have some fun covering the race. They let the fans into the broadcast booth with more interaction than any other NASCAR TV partner.

And after six races, they fade back into re-running bad movies and Law and Order.

Before them, you have FOX. They may have the best NASCAR play-by-play man on television in Mike Joy, but they employ two blowhard analysts in the booth, and their "Hollywood Hotel" is manned by one guy who is decent (Jeff Hammond) and a guy who usually looks like he's being tortured with this horrific racing duty (Chris Myers).

FOX's idea of innovation is an animated gopher, and they spend most of their races fellating Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

After TNT's "Summer Series", ESPN takes over. They like to show the points leaders, regardless of their position on the track, and they've taken quite a liking to in-car cameras and close-up shots that don't show any racing.

Maybe they don't think fans can see the car numbers, because their announcers are constantly referring to guys by their car number instead of just their name. Of course, any fan who has watched more than three races probably can figure out that Kyle Busch drives car No. 18.

Fans could get past boring play-by-play announcer Jerry Punch were it not for whoever it is in the truck that insists on showing all the closeups.

The fact that none of these problems have gone away in the time FOX and ESPN have carried races shows that neither network cares much for the product they are airing. Either that, or they're listening to the wrong focus groups.

Disastrous Day for NASCAR at Indy

No, it wasn't the 2008 debacle of exploding tires, explosive tempers, and 52 of 160 laps run on yellow.

Instead, NASCAR provided its fans with nothing interesting at all during Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. That might actually be worse in some ways than the tire controversy that came out of last year's race.

This isn't meant as a slam at Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, or Tony Stewart. All three are generally likeable drivers who have done nothing wrong. It's getting a tad old, however, to see the same drivers (under the same ownership flag) riding up front all the time.

(Yes, I know Stewart "owns his own team". What this statement avoids is that he's basically driving Hendrick cars, and his team is widely considered an extension of Hendrick's team.)

While it was refreshing to see Juan Pablo Montoya dominate the race Sunday until his stupid mistake on pit road, the reality is that things weren't any more exciting then. Montoya thrived in the clean air at the front of the field and built a lead that reached over seven seconds. Because there weren't many cautions in Montoya's run of 116 laps led, the race quickly disintegrated into a 190 mph single-file parade. There was no passing to be found on the track, and no real good racing for position. Double-file restarts couldn't save NASCAR because there were so few cautions.

Restrictor-plate races at Daytona and Talladega may make some fans queasy, at least they have the promise of last-lap fireworks to hang their hat on. You might wait four hours to see something interesting happen, but you'll usually get a payoff. The race at Indy became a really fast parade not long after the start, and it stayed that way for the remainder of the 160 laps.

Making matters worse, ESPN's crew is led by a NASCAR-loving veteran who has as much business doing play-by-play of Sprint Cup races as I do. Jerry Punch, by all accounts, is a prince of a man, and he is a big reason why NASCAR has the kind of media attention it does now. He sucks at calling races, because it's obvious he sees his job as more of a "traffic director" gig than a traditional play-by-play man. As irritating as Bill Weber was on TNT before he got suspended (or fired, whatever), he's better than Punch. So is FOX's Mike Joy, no matter how horrible the rest of the FOX team is.

Let it be known that no play-by-play could have made anything interesting out of Sunday's race. Johnson was going to win from the moment of the last restart, and there was nothing that anyone could do about it, especially when the race stayed green the whole time.

Reality is that ESPN has built some quality pieces, but Punch does not belong in his role. The sooner they figure this out, the better it will be for everyone. Right now, ESPN doesn't have the play-by-play guy to carry them through a bad race. With Hendrick Motorsports obviously holding the keys to success with the "COT model", and everyone else struggling to find out what they have, ESPN is going to have more bad races than good as we ramp up to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

In all seriousness, does anyone want to bet money on a non-Hendrick driver winning the Chase? I didn't think so.

Kyle Busch = Dead Freaking Wrong

Whether NASCAR fans want to admit it or not, Kyle Busch isn't a terrible waste of a human being. He's one of the first in line to help with fellow drivers' charitable efforts, and he's obviously attractive to sponsors, as he never has any shortage of them in his full-time Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series rides, or his part-time gig in the Camping World Truck Series.

He must have something going that's attractive to sponsors, besides just winning.

(Even before he was a big-time winner on either series, he had no trouble getting sponsors.)

However, attitudinal issues are keeping Busch from becoming a tremendously popular driver. Instead, it seems like he thrives off his "role as a villain". His tendency to behave like a petulant teenager came to the surface again this week, after a dramatic finish to Saturday's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.

Take a look at the videotape.



Busch did not comment after the race, and wasn't heard from publicly until Thursday, when he spoke to the media in advance of Saturday's Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

He probably should have kept not talking.

"NASCAR can take steps to look at it," Busch said. "If the second-place driver dumps the leader, then black flag his ass. He doesn't get the win. If he's up alongside the leader and dumps him, give the third-place car the victory."

Busch then was asked if he considered the bump with Stewart "a dump."

"Yes, it would be considered a dump," he said.

This is blasphemous. Busch might as well have blamed Dale Earnhardt, Jr., because he was just as responsible as Stewart was for the wreck. It's not Stewart's fault that Busch was, in the words of TNT's Wally Dallenbach, "mirror driving", meaning he was watching the goings-on behind him instead of just driving the 18.

However, I'm hardly an expert on racing, so let's enlist ESPN.com's Terry Blount to ask a few people who know more about it than I do.

"I would put more blame on the guy leading who was blocking than the guy who was behind," (Jeff) Gordon said. "It's not getting dumped if the guy got a fender inside you and you turn. You've got spotters. If someone is half an inch inside you, you expect to know it because of your spotters."

Kasey Kahne agrees.

"That's a long way from a dump in my mind," Kahne said. "They both were battling for the win. I certainly would not say he got dumped.

"Tony made a great move to get to Kyle's outside. To me it looked like [Stewart] was going to side draft off him to the line, but Kyle turned right.''

On the bright side, Busch is on to something. If a second-place driver purposely dumps the leader off the racetrack, that is indeed a move worthy of a black flag.

Unfortunately for Busch, that's not what happened Saturday.

KYLE BUSCH MAKES MORE WAVES

After dominating a long stretch of NASCAR Nationwide Series races and getting zero wins to show for it, Kyle Busch finally cashed in on his run of great racing Saturday night.

When he did, he decided that he didn't like the trophy -- a Gibson guitar -- very much. Or so it seemed.



Busch's smashing stunt made for some more controversy around the sport, as pundits weighed in on his celebration.

It seemed that Busch didn't have a lot of allies in the media. He was asked Sunday on pit road about this "controversy", and he seemed genuinely surprised that there was any talk about it.

Busch said the Gibson people seemed to get a kick out of it, and he (Busch) ordered two more guitars -- one for him and one for crew chief Jason Ratliff. He said the broken guitar was going to be chopped up, with pieces given to all the crew members. Busch noted that the crew doesn't get to share in a celebration like that normally, so he wanted them to have a piece of the trophy.

Wow. What an enormous jerk he is for doing something like that.

I apologize if I'm supposed to fake outrage over Busch's actions. I get that he's the spawn of Satan, put on this Earth just to torture NASCAR fans, especially those of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. That, however, doesn't mean that Busch is wrong in everything he does, or that Junior is always right.

In this case, Busch found a rather unique way to celebrate a race win. While he may have been doing it to be a "HEY LOOK AT ME!" kind of guy at the time, he found a way to spin it into a positive.

Not only that, but I'm sure guys like Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson appreciate the diverted attention.