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Nascar and Racing

Live From Lowe's: Sunday's Observations

Posted May 26, 2008 1:33AM By Geoffrey Miller (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Kurt Busch, Lowes Motor Speedway, Sprint Cup

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Geoffrey Miller is in Concord, N.C. for Sunday's Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He'll aim to eat as many elephant ears as possible while blogging away "Live from Lowe's" throughout Memorial Day weekend.

As the fans stream from the parking lots after the Coca-Cola 600, here's some final thoughts on the weekend:

  • Is Kasey Kahne for real? We've seen him run well and win at the 1.5-mile tracks often, but can he make 2008 a season to remember? Winning two-in-a-row at Charlotte is a great thing, but will the No. 9 be around in the Chase?
  • Kurt Busch Was Pissed. Busch cut down a right-front tire on lap 161 while having his best non-restrictor plate run of the year. He was in second at the time, but had led substantially before that. After the accident, Busch was irate over the team radio and here's some of the important lines I remember.
    "Typical Penske Racing s***. I was loose, how in the (bad word) do I blow a right front tire?"
    • It continued for a while after that, with Busch trying to get an answer as to how it happened. There seems to be some frustration there, and you wonder if that means that the seat is getting warmer for Busch.
  • Track Position Is the Wonder Drug. I'm going to write more about this later in the week, but track position was the single-most important thing drivers could have Sunday night. For instance, Jeff Gordon ran similar lap times for much of the race while in 20th-place as the leaders did, but he couldn't go anywhere. That's the biggest thing NASCAR needs to work on.


  • I love fuel mileage. How fitting was it, in times of $4/gal gasoline to have teams getting good finishes based on how efficiently they used their fuel? Kidding aside, watching the strategy of Edwards, Gordon, and Junior for the final 62 laps is as, if not more, entertaining than a side-by-side duel late for the win. It's a definitely a "you have to be at the track" thing, though.
  • Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Maturity Still Impresses Me. Most drivers -- like, uh, Kurt Busch -- would have been tremendously ticked off to blow a tire while leading and be taken out of contention. Never once, though, did Earnhardt Jr. get worked up or angry after hitting the wall with the best car in the field on lap 296. Instead, he stayed patient, helped diagnose problems, didn't draw any significant penalties while hustling around under yellow to fix the car, and even provided some comic relief by saying "Yeah, blew a tire. That's cool" after hitting the wall.

    That's the mark of a guy who has a future as the top dog on stage in New York.
  • Charlotte Bites Vickers. Again. Brian Vickers is going to win a race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, even if it kills him. I told my dad Friday night that Vickers looked like one of the top dark-horse favorites, and sure enough, he got out front early. Vickers would have had something for Kahne, I think, but a loose wheel sent the Red Bull Toyota flying into the turn 1 wall on lap 183.
  • To Keep the Wheel or Not? Speaking of that loose wheel, NASCAR immediately went to confiscate Vickers' bouncing wheel that sailed into the first row of the camping section.

    Now, I may be in the minority in saying this, but because that 80-lb flying wheel could have killed someone (as they have in the past), I would gladly give up the wheel if NASCAR can figure out a way from having that happen again. Would it have made a cool souvenir? Definitely. Would that souvenir been as a cool had someone at Dover next week been injured by the same thing because NASCAR wasn't able to find the problem? Nope.

    I don't mean to be a negative Nancy, but the truth is NASCAR cannot allow parts like that to find themselves into the stands. Hopefully, a tether of some sort can come out of it.
  • Juan Pablo Montoya Is Great Fun on the Radio. After his little skirmish with Tony Stewart early in the race, Juan desperately wanted to catch Stewart again to hit him back. As Stewart started to pull away, Juan kept trying harder until he nearly put his No. 42 in the wall in Turn 3. A laughing Montoya came over the radio and simply said "Woops, Too Hard" to which his crew chief replied, while laughing, "Yep, keep on digging".

Well, that pretty much wraps up the "Live from Lowe's" coverage for the weekend. The next race on my calender will be Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400 (err... Allstate) in July, and there's a possibility Chicago might sneak in there. As always, I'll be playing armchair Sprint Cup driver at the FanHouse in the mean time, too.

I hope you've enjoyed some of my coverage, as I've had a ball while being here. The race was chock full of several great elements of NASCAR, the weather was great, and the people of North Carolina impress me more every time. I'll definitely be back for my 14th-straight race next May. For the first time in a long time, I feel like NASCAR is starting to turn the corner, and become more much, much more fun again with a good cast of characters and many drivers that can win.

That, for me, is exciting.

Now, it's back to the Hoosier State. Enjoy your Memorial Day.

Tags: Coca-Cola600, CocaCola600, JeffGordon, KaseyKahne, KurtBusch, LiveFromLowes, LowesMotorSpeedway, SprintCup

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