Nascar and Racing Darlington

Whether it was jeers from a large contingent of Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans during driver introductions or a plethora of lug nut problems, Kyle Busch wasn't close to being contained Saturday night at Darlington Raceway. Busch, 23, drove to his seventh-career Sprint Cup win in the Dodge Challenger 500.

Busch's win in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 secured him as the youngest winner in the history of the 58-year-old speedway.

In the prerace ceremonies, Busch was heckled by Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans angry about last week's incident between the two at Richmond. Busch played right along as he waved his hands, cupped his ear to hear the crowd, and pretended to cry on his pre-race ride along tour. ThatsRacin' even says he flipped off a crew member from the No. 88.

All of that, of course, was before the green flag. Greg Biffle led the field to the green and proceeded to lead 95 laps before suffering a loose wheel and then a broken timing belt.

What: Dodge Challenger 500
Where: Darlington Raceway, Darlington, S.C.
When: Saturday May 10 (Green Flag Approx. 7:20pm/ET)
Distance: 367 laps, 501.3 miles
Weather: Sunny, then isolated showers after 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 60. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
2007 Winner: Jeff Gordon
Predictions: Keep Reading






Say Hello to the Lady - This will be Darlington Raceway's 58th consecutive year of hosting a NASCAR race after it all began when Harold Brasington decided that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway wasn't the only place in the world race fans would go to.

Darlington Raceway has apparently not lost a single bit of its dangerous edge.

At least three backup cars rolled off Sprint Cup haulers Friday afternoon after no less than 9 drivers had an incident in the practice sessions leading up to both qualifying on Friday night and Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 400. For the third week in a row, the cars will be impounded immediately after qualifying until the race.

Most notably of the four drivers heading to a backup car was Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson, who used his primary No. 48 in the early session, and then in the final practice, spun again. The damage to the backup will be repairable, though.

Additionally, Reed Sorenson and Paul Menard will head to a backup car before the qualifying session.

The wrecks came Friday on a weekend schedule for the Sprint Cup Series that differed quite a bit from the norm. Instead of simply practicing and qualifying on Friday and racing Saturday at Darlington, the teams were given extra track time Thursday afternoon and evening after the legendary speedway was repaved over the off season.

Last week's winner at Richmond Clint Bowyer, Kyle Petty, Denny Hamlin, David Ragan, and Robby Gordon all got a piece of the wrecking action as well on Friday. Numerous other cars earned a "Darlington Stripe" after scrubbing the wall. Hamlin ended the final session with the top posted lap speed.

Qualifying starts at 5:00pm/ET Friday live on SPEED.

Remember that time when Jeff Burton was the pitter-patter of every fan's heart?

He had just won at Texas and was sitting a nice second in Nextel Cup points. Average finish? Fifth.

The Jeff Burton from the late 90's was back, and back in style. Second in Nextel Cup points and looking ready to take the top spot from Jeff Gordon.

So what exactly happened then?

Man, I've gotta get me some satellite radio. First, Smoke blows a lid, and now Junior is making waves.

On Junior's XM Radio show "Dale Jr. - Unrestricted", the hottest free agent in like, ever, talked up some more about the infraction at Darlington.

Junior's No. 8 Chevy was found to have illegal wing brackets in pre-race inspection for the COT race. NASCAR was none too pleased and took away 100 points from Dale Jr. and suspended his crew chief Tony Eury Jr. 6 races.

Originally, DEI planned an appeal on the huge penalty, but suddenly dropped it. Thursday night, Junior elaborated.

"Well sometimes you can go get your appeal and actually get a worse penalty and there was a possibility, there were some discussions about forcing the eight car to have to qualify into every event...Taking away our top 35 exempt deal where we were automatically locked in the field, so we were worried that if we went to appeal and it didn't go, you know somebody said a cross word and upset somebody or something didn't go right it could become a worse penalty and decided to drop it and just take our lickings," said Junior.

Interesting. For Junior to publicly state something like that, you'd think that NASCAR was wanting to throw the whole tool shed at the No. 8 team.

After my first up close look at the COT, I can understand how NASCAR is so picky about that wing and the brackets. Not only are they the base of the entire template system, but the brackets themselves are some large, large pieces and if altered or different from the legal versions, a significant aero advantage could be gained.

I'd rather have myself locked in the field, too, Junebug. Good call.

HT: Jayski for owning sateliite radio.

(Photo by Streeter Lecka, Getty Images)

The difference between what NASCAR says and what the people at DEI say is very cut and dry.

NASCAR trumps all. Easily.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team was penalized earlier this week for an unapproved mounting bracket on the COT wing. Tony Eury Jr. is appealing the $100,000 fine and 100 point loss in both driver and owner points.

Eury offered this explanation.

"It's not a deal where you're trying to screw NASCAR every way you can. This was an honest mistake," said Eury Jr.

He earlier added that the bracket was one used on an earlier version of the COT and was unintentionally put/left on the No. 8 machine before Darlington last week.

NASCAR's Robin Pemberton disagreed, more than just a little bit.

"It was just wrong. I can't weigh in whether I thought it was intentional. There's no such thing as an old piece. This car isn't that old to have a lot of old pieces laying around," said Pemberton.

That's a pretty damning statement for Eury Jr.'s explanation. "No such thing as an old piece" would leave me to believe that the No. 8 team is trying to find an excuse for trying to bend the rules.

At first, I thought the penalty didn't exactly fit the crime. However, Larry McReynolds mentioned yesterday on SPEED's Nextel All-Star Challenge practice coverage that the bracket for the wing is one of NASCAR's most precious areas.

Not only can the brackets dramatically alter the angle of the wing for downforce adjustments, but the new template checking system in inspection is based on those brackets -- allowing for a minor inconsistency at that point to mask large ones at other points on the car.

Denny Hamlin's had enough. And, apparently, his crew chief Mike Ford has, too.

Crew chief Mike Ford made several changes to the crew after Sunday's pit road mistake at Darlington Raceway, the latest in a series of blunders dating to last season that have kept Hamlin out of Victory Lane.

Hamlin was second heading into a late stop, but fell to 16th after two lug nuts were knocked off on a right front tire change. He rallied to finish second, but felt he should have won.

The No. 11 Fedex crew deserves some backlash from their miserable performance on Sunday.

[Ford] moved the rear changer to the front and brought on a new front tire carrier. He replaced the rear tire changer with an employee at Joe Gibbs Racing that has been training for the position and moved the gas man to jack man.

He made a temporary change to the gas man and will continue to look for a long-term fix.

According to this Jayski chart, the guys that got moved around include Dennis Terry (former front tire changer), Barry Cook (new front tire changer), Chad Edwards (former front tire carrier), and Scott Wood (new jack man). The new additions to the squad aren't known.

When Jeff Gordon's mom saw that her son's car was overheating with a lot of laps left Sunday at Darlington, she bolted. As did Gordon's dad, sister, and nephew. The race couldn't be won, right?

"They bailed on me. Man, I had my mom, my sister, my nephew, my dad and I can't wait to call them when I get done because my sister's never been to victory lane nor my nephew and they always come to Darlington being the Mother's Day weekend and I cannot believe that they left," said Gordon.

Maybe they were worried about traffic?

Gordon's day did look a little bit sour when the No. 24 Chevy was spouting steam under caution. Somehow, it lasted, and Gordon held on for his third win of 2007. His family, Darrell Waltrip, and much of NASCAR nation felt that his engine would blow.

"It was very cool to have mom-to-be [Ingrid] in victory lane. But yeah they bailed on me. I can't wait to call them when I get done here and chew them out," said Gordon.

I wonder if Jeff's mom would have done that if he played Little League baseball when he was growing up?

With Jeff Gordon's Dupont Chevrolet steaming under caution, this year's new format of the Chase to the Championship finally paid dividends.

Caution was out with 23 laps to go when Gordon's car, which had been overheating all afternoon, ran second behind Jimmie Johnson. The field had just been to pit road about ten laps prior and half of that was run under green. Johnson, and half the field, pitted for fresh tires.

Listening to crew chief Steve Letarte, Jeff Gordon stayed on track and inherited the lead. He would go on to win his 78th career race over 2nd place Denny Hamlin.

Gordon's pit crew had removed all of the grille tape from the No. 24 in successive pit stops late in the race to aid the heating problem. Bits of rubber and other debris were lodged in the radiator to prevent adequate cooling, however, and the engine continued to boil. Letarte, however, must have been looking ahead.

It's a cloudy Sunday afternoon in Darlington and you've gotta know that the old-time NASCAR fans are jumping for joy. Because of last night's rain delay, what has become a typical Saturday night race at the "Lady in Black" looks more like the time when Sunday was the only time that NASCAR raced at Darlington.

Today's rain-delayed Nextel Cup race started at 1pm/ET.

As FOX's Mike Joy said going to an early break in coverage, "it's like stock car racing used to be".

The past two Saturday night races for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series have had that decidedly old school look to them. Caused by successive rain delays, both races have started at 1pm/ET on the following Sundays.

With NASCAR's current television package, most races now start after 2:30pm/ET on Sundays-- mainly to draw in more Pacific coast fans.