Stewart should play it safe at Dover, Pocono
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This week's race is 200 less miles than the Coca-Cola 600, but Dover International Speedway is a very demanding racetrack. The good news is — unlike last year — the No. 20 actually has a little bit of a cushion in the point standings. I would be play it safe this week and play it safe next week at Pocono. Let Stewart start the race and get him out of there. By the time we get to Michigan — and especially Sonoma and Daytona, where we know he's really going to excel — he should be back at 100 percent. I'm sure they're going to evaluate his progress each and every day this week and see how he is by Sunday.
A big story this year and the last several years has been the Buschwhackers, the drivers that run both races. We had 27 of them at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Only one driver who wasn't in the Cup race, John Andretti, qualified in the top 20 in the Busch race. There's been a lot of speculation about why they do it. Is it the money? Probably. Is it to get more information for the Nextel Cup team and the Nextel Cup car? Probably. Is it because they just love to race? That's the biggest reason. Tony Stewart loves to race. It doesn't matter if it's a Busch car at Lowe's, a Cup race at Indy, an IRL race at Phoenix or a winged sprint at Eldora. He loves to race, and that's why he does it. How in the world can you hold that against him?
But as we saw this past weekend and a few races ago at Talladega, it's not all a bed of roses for a guy that does double duty. There are risks. Obviously, the news release after Saturday's Busch race said that Stewart was uninjured and was free to race on Sunday. There was probably some truth to it, but when you combine the licks that he took on Saturday and Sunday, it's made the difference in his medical status right now. I'm not a doctor, and I'm not going to say that if he hadn't wrecked Saturday night, he wouldn't be hurt right now. That would be a stupid statement. But I've got to believe that Saturday night helped contribute to what happened on Sunday.
| Speed Mail Larry |
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Larry McReynolds: That's just one of many advantages to having a multi-car operation. Let's say Morgan-McClure, a single-car operation, crashed out. They could have scuffed tires for Richard Childress. There's no rule against scuffing tires for other teams. The rule is that you lease tires, and they have to be turned in at the end of the race whether they're used or brand new. It's no different than you renting a car and letting someone else drive it for a couple of days. What they did was perfectly legal and has been done numerous times over the years by teammates and by cars that were not teammates simply because one team owed another team a favor.
FOX race analyst Larry McReynolds has more than 25 years of NASCAR experience as a mechanic, crew chief and broadcaster. He and his fellow Crew Chief Club members take you behind the wall at www.crewchiefclub.com.
"How to Become a Winning Crew Chief" is on bookstore shelves, or you may order your own autographed copy from www.DWStore.com.
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