[Racer Duck]

WOW! What a finish!!! Not what you expected, was it? Me neither. But I can't say I'm unhappy that Jeff Burton won. I especially liked what he said in a post-race interview: “You put yourself in a position to be able to take advantage of the breaks when they come.” All too many times drivers (and fans) forget that part of racing.

Jarretts on both sides of the green flag: I guess I'm an old softie, but I really appreciated seeing Ned Jarrett being the honorary flagman for the start of his son's last NASCAR points race. Ned is one of my favorite people in the sport and I know how much it meant to him to be accorded that honor.

DW silenced .. almost! I have to admit I kinda missed DW's banter during the race .. and my toe didn't hurt either! I thought his abbreviated comments were some of the best in the race. Too bad the other “mouths” don't feel the same way. I guess they think they're getting paid to spew words and that's what they do .. even though sometimes what comes out are untruths or nonsensical. Most of the time it's just bird cage lining.

I'm sure I missed something... At one point in the race (while I was distracted by a friend coming over) I caught parts of a “special” and I believe I saw it was about DE Jr. The thing that caught my attention was the announcers making a point about 32 wins. Now, I knew DE Jr. didn't have 32 wins, but there it was on the screen!!! When I looked it up, only 2 current Cup drivers have 32 wins, and neither of them's last name starts with an “E”, nor are they a “Jr.” So, what did I miss? It's really got me puzzled...

Extended Yellows... When Robby spun early in the race, no debris, or rubber, or anything else, but for some reason it took 8 laps to get back to green. And it wasn't the only long yellow; one of the last yellows also went way too long. I guess in “race central” they're having a tough time getting to the restroom and back in anything less than 5-6 laps... Note to track owners: install a Port-a-Can's outside race central.

Speaking of Yellows... At lap 120 Fox broke for a commercial .. then the yellow came out. Seems NASCAR and Fox still aren't synchronized: the yellow is supposed to come out first.

Speaking of Commercials... Here's this week's picks

• Men get hit with lightening 4:1 over women (Mountain Dew)
• Mikey and the parrot (NAPA)
• Hank the Clydesdale with Danny the Dalmation (Budweiser)
• and #1 this week: Remote controlled race cars (Toyota)

How many of you have ordered your “Digger” T-Shirts? Hmmmm, wonder if Fox is getting enough commercials to pay the bills?

Sprint Mobil Monster Moment... Somebody tell the graphics folks at Fox if they're gonna show a replay, at least put the banner somewhere else besides over the action!!!

Did ya notice... As Tony was catching the pack for the first time, when he was about 5 car lengths back, Fox decided it was time to go to a commercial? Was that to protect the back runner's fans from seeing their star go a lap down? I think the trailing star was Kyle Petty at that time... In fact, I think Kyle was the trailing star for most of the race. (Maybe he has another plan for getting into the Chosen...)

Spotter spotlighted: the good and not-so-good. Was pleased when they ran the replay showing the value of a spotter in getting his driver thru the carnage of a wreck. In Mikey's case his spotter helped him get thru, while Bobby's must have been AWOL 'cause it looked like Bobby was unaware of the situation until he got there – then it was too late.. Spotters earn their pay on a short track 'cause things happen quick, but their primary responsibility is getting their driver safely to the end of the race. Mikey's did, Bobby's didn't.

Franchitti has the baton! I think Juablo has passed off the “Vile Open-Wheeler” baton to Dario. Of the ones I'm aware of Dario was involved in an altercation with Paul Menard as well as putting Jamie in the garage. And there were several other incidents that didn't result in a wreck or spin. Maybe his car wasn't handling well, but everytime the camera included him in the picture, it got really scary!

15 to go and 43 cars on the track! Speaks well of the CON's ability to take a lickin' and keep on tickin.' Though, I'm sure, several of the 43 were closer to limping than racing...

Eury Jr. bumbles into a good move? DE Jr. wanted to come in for tires, TE Jr. said “stay out”, DE Jr says “I can't hold them off with these tires” (he was in 5th, I think), TE Jr. said “well .. OK .. oops! Yer past the entrance...gotta stay out now.” After the race DE Jr. said he “decided” to go with TE Jr. because he'd gotten him where he was in the first place... How long is DE Jr. gonna keep protecting his wishy-washy cousin of a crew chief?

Harvick: Move of the Day! Running 2nd with a few laps to go, hits pit road for tires, restarts 5th. Good move? Yeah, except ya don't go out and wreck the leader on your new tires 'cause ya can't keep yer car in yer own lane! At least he admitted he lost it and apologized on TV. Tony was disappointed and “reserved” afterwards. Sure would like to be a fly on the wall when they meet. Wonder what Happy's gonna do to “repay” Smoke??? (Yeah, I meant to say it that way, not the other way around.)

Some final thoughts:

1. Coach is Back! Good to see him on the pit box. What a difference he makes to JGR! But they have some “technical” issues to resolve:
   • Kyle on the loss of power steering: “need to get them parts somewhere else.” (2 weeks in a row JGR has had power steering failures.) Wonder if that was meant as heads up to 'Yota or something else?
   • Denny on the poor restart at the end of the race: “...our cars won't pickup fuel...”
2. RCR shows POWER! No doubt about it, RCR is the dominant Chevy shop right now. Their 1,2,3 finish is proof.
   • Richard Childress gets in a dig at NASCAR & Sprint: in the post race interview he said “was great to see Jeff and AT&T winning the race!”
3. Gilliland 9th, Almirola 10th. A couple young guys keep their noses clean and finish well.
4. DE Jr. is HMS best producer so far in '08. He's doing what he was supposed to do, but the rest of them are not showing so well. Wouldn't be surprised to see him being their top dog this year.
5. Biffle moves into 2nd, barely ahead of Harvick & Burton and only 30 points behind Shrub. This is getting exciting!

So, that's my observations from the first short track race in '08, all 506 laps of it!.

BTW: did you hear the announcers say in 2 weeks we'll be in “Martinsville, the shortest track in NASCAR”? Somebody better tell them both Bristol and Martinsville are 0.500 miles each .. that makes them equal in length.

[loco4pablo]

My Observation was.... why the hell did they have DW in the booth?!?! Just send him home, he doesn't have that much insight that they can't miss him for a week. I might be wrong but doesn't Fox own the Speed channel? Well why didn't they send him home and but either Kenny or Spencer in the booth and send DW home? It was annoying listening to him talk like a frog for 3+ hours.

[LSC9901]

According to my info Martinsville is 0.526 miles and Bristol is 0.533 miles. Not a whole lot of difference but technically they are right.

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

According to my info Martinsville is 0.526 miles and Bristol is 0.533 miles. Not a whole lot of difference but technically they are right.

then I stand corrected. I guess that 37 feet is pretty important after all.

[Bryan88]

Yeah, that was a great finish and an entertaining race overall. Glad to see Burton was able to hold on and take the checkered flag, he may not have been the fastest, but like he said he put himself in the right position. It's too bad that DJ wasn't more competitive in his final race, but it was great weekend for him nonetheless.

Man it seemed like only a handful of cars were even competitive for the win, what was it like 14 on the lead lap, JPM was one lap down and everyone else was at least 2 laps down! Really it seemed like only 9 or 10 cars were good enough to stay out of danger of going a lap down.

Anyways, great job for RCR! Bad day for JG racing, their cars had 1,2,3 potential. Denny and Tony should have went in, Dale Jr was the only one that didn't really get hurt by the decision to stay out (he was 4th and finished 5th), however that was more a result of Tony and Denny's problems. I also want to mention Greg Biffle and his 4th place finish, great showing for him and now he is in 2nd in the standings, great to see! Lastly you have to give it up to #38 Gilliand and especially the #8 Almirola, I love seeing someone other than the usual suspects have a top 10 run.

[bob101]

Fox started at Atlanta not showing how many laps back people were except for 2-3 times a race.

This week they even went further than that. 3/4 of the time in the last 100 laps the crawler at the top of the screen only went back 10 places.

Good luck finding out if you driver was passing anyone back in spot 20.

Also rans used to be guys who made a few laps and always finished last or nearly last.

Nowdays it appears "also rans" are guys who don't finish in the top 10.

[3fanforever]

I thought it was a nice touch to give DW his old Mountain Dew car. Should have ended DW's day right there, though. But that was good.

I thought it was a much better touch to let Gentleman Ned wave the green flag on his son's last race. Now that was really good.

No boogity boogity from DW, but they did their best to fill in. Not good at all.

The boys in the booth sure did their best to make most of the race sound exciting. Then it got going. Then it got going good. Glad it ended with good ole' Bristol style racing.

DW couldn't talk, so we didn't have to hear him singing the praises of Shrub all day. That was good.

Aric Almirola had a great day, taking all things into consideration. Well done, young man, you done good!
Oh, and good for David too!

Junior once again beat Gordon and Johnson. All is good.

Junior and TEJ weren't on the same page about pitting. All is not good.

1,2,3 for RCR. That was good for Richard and Chevy. They needed that.

It was fun watching Kim Burton at the end of the race. She cut loose with some real emotion watching Jeff take the lead and win. That was good stuff.

[Bryan88]

Originally Posted by bob101

Fox started at Atlanta not showing how many laps back people were except for 2-3 times a race.

This week they even went further than that. 3/4 of the time in the last 100 laps the crawler at the top of the screen only went back 10 places.

Good luck finding out if you driver was passing anyone back in spot 20.

Also rans used to be guys who made a few laps and always finished last or nearly last.

Nowdays it appears "also rans" are guys who don't finish in the top 10.

I think they said in regards to the crawler that they were having computer problems or something to that effect.

[bob101]

Originally Posted by Bryan88

I think they said in regards to the crawler that they were having computer problems or something to that effect.

They said early in the race that it was affecting the display on how far back you were from the leader but stressed over and over how the running order was correct.

In the last 100 laps it kept flashing "TOP 10" followed by the running order of the top 10 and it would start over again with the top 10.

I don't think it had anything to do with the informatino they were getting from NASCAR as they said earlier, just they thought it was more important to give you the top 10 more often than the rest of the field.

[jks812]

After they ran the top 10 then they started over and showed all the way through. At least they did a few times.
I also agree that Almirola did a good job yesterday. Didn't they say that was his 1st time there?
I don't think Kevin meant to wreck to Tony. I liked Kevin's statement about him and Tony would work it out but didn't need the idiot up there getting involved. At first I thought he meant the announcers.
I thought it was awesome that Burton won, and RCR got 123.
Enjoyed it even more that a chevy won and it wasn't HMS.

[cdublxi]

I noticed the "Top 10" thing too. At least ONE DEI guy was in the top running order though.....

My man Truex needs to step it back up!

[Bryan88]

Originally Posted by jks812

I liked Kevin's statement about him and Tony would work it out but didn't need the idiot up there getting involved.

I didn't and it just confirmed what I already knew about him, he is a hot-headed moron. That was a tasteless comment and his true colors shined through.

[PenelopePitStop]

What I didn't get was the interview with Burton's wife. Don't get me wrong, I love Burton, but I don't think I've seen that during post-race coverage. Filler?

[Bryan88]

Originally Posted by PenelopePitStop

What I didn't get was the interview with Burton's wife. Don't get me wrong, I love Burton, but I don't think I've seen that during post-race coverage. Filler?

Yeah I think they needed a little filler, because I can't remember that happening before. I didn't really mind it, so no big deal to me though.

[jks812]

Originally Posted by Bryan88

I didn't and it just confirmed what I already knew about him, he is a hot-headed moron. That was a tasteless comment and his true colors shined through.

I took it as him saying he and Tony would work it out and didn't need anybody else running their mouths and making it worse. And alot of the time thats what happens.