Bristol is BACK! This race is exactly what the series as a whole needed! It's not the Bristol that Earnhardt, Wallace and Labonte clashed on, it's the new Bristol, with Kyle Busch, and Carl Edwards. Hands down Bristol was the best race of the summer. Why was the Sharpie 500 so important?
1) Good racing, it showed that even while a track is "multi-groove" it can still pinch nerves and make tempers flare. Multi-car wrecks, bumps and runs and taps and pushes. It's all back, but seemingly on a smaller scale
2) Clash of the Titans: The two sereies points-leaders, Kyle Busch and Edwards dukin' it out on the last lap and after the race. In case you missed what's being refferred to as "the bump heard 'round the world" Carl pulled a classic and textbook perfect bump-and-run on Kyle Busch coming out of turn 1 on the final lap. Edwards said he asked himself "would he do that to me? and the answer was 'he has before" so Carl slid Busch up the racetrack, not to the favor of Busch, who after the race colided with Edwards, and then Edwards proceeded to take the 99 Office Depot Fusion and spin Kyle around to loud cheers from the crowd.
3a) This is what the sport has been missing, and Carl admitted, basically, there is a true rivalry now between Kyle Busch and Edwards, light, and dark; good and evil, I think it' obvious to see which is which, but I'll leave that up to you.
Smooth Sailing: Clint Bowyer, even after involvement in the wreck with newley named teammate Casey Mears and Michael Waltrip, was able to push his 07 Chevrolet to a 7th place finish, he's back in the chase hunt. With a decent finish next week at Autoclub speedway, Bowyer should have no problem landing in the chase at Richmond.
Uh-Oh: once again, Clint Bowyer, after the aforementioned wreck, Bowyer stated, in a rather nonchalant manner, over the radio "Michael Waltrip is the worst driver in NASCAR, period...I can't believe NAPA signed back on" At the time, however, he had no idea Mears had just said in an interview that the 5 spotter said "Clear, clear, clear" when in fact, Michael was still close enough to Mears that he was not clear. Bowyer later apologized on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain. This is proof that the temper and emotion is back at Bristol
Time to pack it up: Kasey Kahne, after the devastating race for Kahne, being in the Mears/Waltrip collection, Kahne is over 60 points out from 12th, making the chase at this point will require a bad week from another bubble driver.
What in the world?: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. passed many cars on the initial green flag, although that's ok, to the outside, on restarts, a competitor must be in his starting position when they cross the line the first time. Earnhardt Jr was a lap down and was being rather aggressive to lead-lap drivers after his pass-thu pit penalty.
That's my take on the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motorspeedway. I'll have a brief reaction to silly season announcments later this week and any penalties that may be levied, specifically to Kyle Busch, as he was called to the NASCAR trailer for his shenanigans.
all images used with permission
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