[Racer Duck]

Ahh, restrictor plate racing: the real crap shoot.

And the controversy starts before nary a car hits the track: Martin Truex, Jr's car is declared illegal and confiscated by NASCAR, forcing the #1 team to roll out the backup car. But his teammates (Menard and Martin) secure the front row for DEI, forcing Dale Jr. to start 3rd beside “Front Row Joe,” a GOGHer

Announcer/Camera synchronization: are they kidding? As we're going to a commercial break during the first caution of the day, the announcer says “While you were watching Junior go for the lead...”, but we'd just been treated to 8 or so laps of watching Jeff Gordon circling the track in the middle of the pack! Not the first time I've complained about the disconnect between what the announcers are talking about and what we're seeing

Who's that guy in the black car with yellow flames? Took me a while to figure out who it was, though it wasn't hard to see the car. None other than 6th place finisher Robby Gordon. John Menard got his money's worth this race: pole on one car and 6th place on another.

3 laps aren't enough! Same caution, track's clear, commercials over, and ... we gotta go around one more lap before going back to green.

Meanwhile Boris is held on pit road... For pitting before the pits were opened, the penalty is “restart at the end of the longest line.” But Boris was held on pit road for the pack to pass .. effectively a one lap penalty!!! I saw later where he wasn't scored wrong, but I'm sure there were plenty of people upset by what they saw.

An indication of things to come: Shrub is the first off pit road on both of the first 2 cautions. In fact, as the race wore on it wasn't unusual to see the #18 pick up spots on pit stops. That team is MOT-I-VAT-ED!!! Congrats to Kyle & crew on a great race.

A scuffle in Mark's pits! Did ya hear about it? I don't think it was mentioned “on air”, but seems two of Mark's pit crew had a difference of opinion about each other's ancestors or something. Anyway they started brawling in the pits during the race. Tony Gibson (the crew chief) had to get down off the pit box and separate the two. Don't know if NASCAR will fine them, but they should.

Kissing babies and hugging pretty girls re-scheduled! Poor Tony, he looked like he should have been in bed .. a hospital bed. But ya gotta give the guy credit: he tried. And his replacement, one Mr J. Yeley, did pretty well for being called in at virtually the last minute: he wheeled the #20 around like he owned it, kept the fenders clean and drove a good race. Unfortunately somebody just didn't like the 20 being on track and smacked it near the end of the race. Still Mr. J .. uh .. Tony finished a respectable 20th.

Talk about being roughed up: don't know what Ryan Newman did, maybe it was all those “haircuts” or something, but it appeared to be payback day. Every time he started getting a good run going someone would spin him. But he kept battling back. And ran in the top 10 several times after each incident. But the 3rd time was the charm: though the team fixed the car, he wasn't able to get back any of those 13 laps he lost in the 3rd wreck. And none of them were his fault, or anything to do with him except he was in the wrong place each time. Some would say he was snakebit.

What's a guy to do? He qualified mid pack, but worked his way to the front. Was running 2nd for a while and seemed content to ride along in the Place spot giving an occasional push to the leader. Then disaster: wrecked on lap 124. But it probably wasn't going to be his day anyway 'cause on the caution at lap 110 he came in 2nd, suffered thru a 20 second pit stop and came out 14th. Who is he? David Gilliland, of course!

Speaking of weird pit stops: with 35 laps to go (well within the fuel window to make the end of the race) the crew chief tells the gas man to “pack it in”. As a result, David Ragan suffered a major loss of spots. Wonder what was going thru Jimmy Fennig's head?

A record tied!!! Yep, Rooty tied a record for the most free passes (5) in a race. What's so strange is all of his were consecutive (he came from 5 laps down!).

A wreck waiting to happen .. and it did. Don't know what was going on inside the #48, but all day that car looked evil: the rear end stepping out at odd times. He even narrowly missed his teammate (and car owner) several times on pit road. Though the late wreck didn't take him out, it did mess up a possible top 10 finish. A credit to JJ for horsing that thing to a lead lap finish at 23rd.

Not exactly the finish I was expecting... I really hate it when the race ends under caution. The GWC is supposed to fix that but seems to turn the drivers into raving maniacs causing all sorts of havoc. So a pair of brothers bookended the top 4. and the guy who was the odds on fav to win and who was leading admits he pulled a boner in giving up the lead. To quote him “I'm more mad at myself – I shouldn't have gone to the top...” Even veteran champions screw up once in a while .. as Jeffy freely admitted.

Speaking of commercials .. yes I was, back up near the top .. how did you like that window in the middle of the screen near the bottom? I thought it was interesting, but wonder if folks watching on a small screen could even tell what was going on in that little window?

The commercials that caught my eye this week included:

• The Army car vs Army vehicle – Army.com with Mark Martin
• 2 tickets to Acapulco – Coke Zero
• Twinkle twinkle – Fritos
• “Hmmm, how long is this race? 400 miles!” - Subway with Larry McReynolds
• Adventure Pizza – Poppa Johns

Spotlight drivers: (in no particular order)

• Paul Menard – grabbed his first pole and drove a good race, though bad pit stops shuffled him back in the pack
• David Gilliland (see above)
• Ryan Newman (see above)
• JJ Yeley (see above)
• Robby Gordon – getting pretty good on those slick tracks
• Matt Kenseth – this 3rd place finish officially ends his slump.
• David Reutimann – “Never say die!” - 5 lucky dogs and finished 21st!

Quote of the race: “That's more sideways that teacups at Disney!” - Kyle Petty