Fast And Not So Furious 400

Another race is in the can.

With tracks such as Chicago, Loudon and Kansas being part of the “Chase”, we can expect the midweek news to continue to be more interesting than the on-track activity – i.e. “spingate” at Richmond. Although it was fairly obvious from radio communications from the 27 team that shenanigans were afoot at one point, in the final analysis I have to go with Paul Menard’s word above every one else’s.

Although I’m skeptical about the effect berating your co-workers in public has on productivity, it seems to be working for Kevin Harvick. The question is will it work for Kurt Busch?

Some of this week’s chatter seems to be about the fairness of penalizing a driver for someone else forcing him to break a rule (the 38 & 17). On the surface I can understand the 17’s position, but if Nascar made an exception for a non-teammate being the instigator, you can be sure the teams would take advantage. Even though Nascar has a means of dealing with (and sometimes implementing ) forced errors at Dega and Daytona, it’s not practical in this situation. With so many teams having working relationships with so many other separate entities – providing engines, chassis and tech support – most everyone is a teammate in some fashion.

Since the next race is at Loudon, Nascar has already begun to create “pre-midweek” controversy with the announcement of new Talladega rules – and just as the playoffs begin. You can read it here. (Nascar apparently has joined the rest of the racing world in saying “what the heck kind of racing is that?”) This one is destined to take our minds off Loudon if necessary. I hope I’m wrong. And given my prediction history, I’m sure I will be.

I’m not necessarily a Carl Edwards fan, but he sure gives a great interview, and  his appearance during the rain delay was informative and entertaining.

9.19.76: At Dover, Tommy Ellis ran his first Cup race.

If Ned was in the booth we’d know what’s up with Tommy Ellis.

By Gary Erdakos

Ref: racing-reference.info, Greg Fielden’s “Forty Years of Stock Car Racing”, Richard Sowers’ “The Complete Statistical History of Stock-Car Racing”.

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