by Darrell Waltrip

Updated: September 7, 2007, 7:34 AM EST 24 comments

add this RSS blog email print

Michigan may not have been the most exciting race I've ever seen at that track. But when you figure that they ran it on Tuesday after a monsoon all weekend, it was surprising to see how many folks showed up to watch. It really wasn't a bad race. So, obviously, that's where I saw all the rain.

We had great racing at Bristol, but it just wasn't for the lead. I can't get too excited about all of this loop data, registering passes on straightaways and in the corners. Quality passes and the number of passes made around the track is interesting to some folks; it's just not really interesting to me. I'm not diminishing the value of it. I guess it proves something. If you're into that kind of technology, well, it might be pretty exciting. All I look at is who is leading the lap at the start/finish line, and it was pretty much two drivers — Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards.

Bristol was different, and it's been hashed out on XM and Sirius Satellite Radio for the last two weeks. It's still exciting. It still takes a man to sit up and drive 500 laps around that joint. I don't care what they do to it. From a driver's perspective, when you win at Bristol, you feel like you've accomplished something that you haven't accomplished at many other places. You've conquered what is now the concrete bowl.

Last weekend, I saw all the fire at Gateway and California. Did you notice how many crashes with fire there were? There was a serious wreck in the Craftsman Truck Series race. The thing got up on its side and caught on fire. On Saturday night, Brad Keselowski crashed hard into the wall in Dale Jr.'s Busch car. It reminded me of Bill Elliott's 1998 crash at California Speedway. The same thing happened to Bill. He got hooked in the right rear, and it shot him up the wall. That was before SAFER Barriers.

Every time I see a driver sustain a wreck like the No. 88 Busch car had and the driver is shaken up and bruised but not broken up, it's amazing to me. Keselowski hit the wall with incredible force at over 200 mph going into Turn 1 at California, and he's going to race this weekend at Richmond. It speaks volumes about how far driver protection has come in six or seven years. The SAFER Barrier, the HANS Device and the seats are amazing. NASCAR keeps saying that the Car of Tomorrow is much safer than the current car, but I don't see how they could have a safer car than the one they've got now.

Of course, Ricky Rudd's wreck in the No. 88 Cup car was a little bit different. It was one of those impacts that twists you in the seat, and the seatbelts can put a lot of pressure on your shoulder, which apparently separated it. Head-on crashes result in the worst injuries. For the first time that I can remember — and I've been in this sport since 1972 — Rudd won't race because he was injured. He won't forget his 900th start because it was a big milestone, but it was also a sad night because he won't be able to make his 901st start in his home state.

In 1990 at Daytona, I was attempting to make my 500th consecutive start, but I got hurt in practice. It was unfortunate for me, and Rudd's injury is especially unfortunate for him because he's on the verge of retiring. I hate to see a guy who has done all he's done and been around this long — he'll turn 51 next Wednesday — suffer an injury like that. But he's a tough guy, and he'll bounce back.

Ask DW
AskDW Subject: Comment/Question: Name:  Email:  Hometown:

In addition to fire and rain, the song "Time in a Bottle" comes to mind. The Michigan race started at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. The Bristol race started after 8 p.m. ET on a Saturday night, and the California race started after 8 p.m. ET on Sunday night. I'm still a big believer that inconsistent starting times are one of the things affecting TV viewership. There are other factors, but a more consistent starting time every week helps fans know what time the race is going to come on his favorite channel.

Oh, by the way

Anybody in the top 12 could win Saturday night. They've all had success at Richmond. Clint Bowyer hasn't won a Nextel Cup race in his career, but he won the Busch race in the spring at Richmond. It's going to be a heck of a battle between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick. Jeff Gordon always runs well there. Carl Edwards is on a roll, Jeff Burton is good in his home state. Outside of the top 12, Kasey Kahne will run well, based on his Bristol run.

With the Chase competitors pretty well decided, it could be a really great Richmond race. The top eight guys are locked into the Chase while Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. just have to crank their engines. The deficit from 13th to 12th is so large that I just don't see how Dale Jr. can overcome it so everybody will go there and race hard, which will be different than what we've seen in the past. It'll be a real scorcher. Hopefully the weather will cool off a little bit. After California, it'll take the drivers all week to get hydrated so they can go again.