An emotional rollercoaster
All-Star Showdown
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Race Trax:
News:
- Busch claims All-Star pole
- Biffle plans to stay at Roush
- Jarrett prepares for farewell ride
- Edwards picked to win All-Star race
Video:
Analysis:
- Spencer: What's next for Busch?
- What makes Charlotte special?
- McReynolds: Family affair
- Owens: The uprising
- Power Rankings: Who's on top?
Photo galleries:
Blog:
Fantasy:
Can you dig it?
Let's just start from Day 1 of Speedweeks when Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch got into trouble and ended up in the "Oval Office." Right away, that was a test of NASCAR's new policy of just how far they will let driver's go — would this become another $100,000, 100-point penalties or would it be one of those "Boys, this is practice. No harm, no foul so we are going to put you on probation"? The second scenario is exactly what happened and I think it was the right way to handle that.
Let me explain one thing though, according to NASCAR President Mike Helton and Vice President of Corporate Communications Jim Hunter probation means no second chances. When you are on a six-race probation like Kurt and Tony are, if you get into any kind of trouble — particularly with each other — there's probably going to be a suspension involved.
I think that's the next hurdle. They are going to give you a little more freedom but the penalties could be more severe if you get too far out of line. That's what they will hold over these drivers heads and I'm sure there's going to be a point this season where they'll say "Okay, we told you. Here's the penalty." Hopefully that won't happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does.
Once we get through the controversy Friday night, we get to the Budweiser Shootout Saturday night. I've said all along that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was going to be very successful at Hendrick Motorsports for a number of reasons: Resources, people, attitude, feeling you are needed and wanted, encouragement — all the things a driver really needs to be successful. I was anxiously awaiting the drop of the first green flag to see how he would do, and Dale Jr. did not disappoint. He won the Bud shootout and what a sigh of relief for him, crew chief Tony Eury Jr., Rick Hendrick and the entire Junior Nation. What a great way to start off.
That first race, even though it was a non-points races, was a great race and it told us that the Car of Tomorrow, the new car, was going to be a very racey kind of car. We saw some incredible side-by-side action, some banging and bouncing off the walls. It was a great race and offered a great finish.
That was really exciting.
Daytona 500 qualifying was something else. My brother Michael had practiced well going into Sunday and the Toyotas seemed to be a lot better this year than they were last year. Lo and behold if Michael didn't qualify on the front row.
I don't feel like I have to apologize to anybody when my brother runs well. If you check my record, if you follow me and listen, I don't go back in the field when he is running 29th, 30th, gone home or whatever and made excuses for him. If he runs up front, he gets his due. If he doesn't, we treat him just like everybody else that may not be having a very good day. Bottom line, Michael gets a mention when he deserves it. I hope you all realize that because I really get tired of people saying I talk about him all the time. If you count the number of times I mention his name during a race, they are very few.
But all three of his cars ended up making the big race. That was impressive, it's a great turnaround from last year. That was such a change from the year before, and I don't have to go into all of that because you know what happened in 2007 and he's paid for it dearly. Now he deserves to have some fun and have some success, and I think he is going to.
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Anyway, Sunday is over with and Jimmie Johnson is on the pole, Michael is on the outside front row, and here come the Gatorade Duel qualifying races. Both races were exciting, they offered good racing and a lot of storylines to keep track of — who's in, who's out? And at the end of the day, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin won each of their qualifiers, setting up for a great day of racing on Sunday.
But it's not Sunday for us yet.
The Craftsman Truck Series race Friday night with Kyle Busch out there doing his thing and Todd Bodine coming home with the win for the Bodine family. Brother Geoffrey Bodine was there, since he is a former Daytona 500 winner. They showed shots of Geoff when he had his horrendous crash in the truck race when he got launched in the catch fence and his truck getting completely obliterated, but he lived through it. I was pleased for Geoff because he has had so much input with the COT — he's done the driving, the testing, the engineering — so the Bodines had a good weekend at Daytona.
Saturday, it was kind of fun to watch Kyle Busch. I've said before that I thought he was the only guy who could go three-wide by himself, and I mean that literally. You watch that cat, he goes from the middle to the top and bottom quicker than anybody I've ever seen. And believe it or not, he is not out of control — I'm sure people around him think he is — you cannot make those moves without having control of your car, Kyle put a lot of excitement into the Friday, Saturday and Sunday races as he was a factor in all three races.
It was good for Tony Stewart to win for his boss, Joe Gibbs, who was in attendance and it was good for Toyota to get off to a good start in the Nationwide Series this season and win their first Daytona race in the Series.
Sunday comes along and by then my emotions were all over the place, and I want to share a few of the reasons why. I got to interview and hang out with guys that are legends in the sport, men that were my idols, guys I competed against when they were at the top of their game: Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, "The King" Richard Petty, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Pete Hamilton. These are all men who were winning races when I was just starting out in the sport, and I idolized every one of them, and I hadn't seen some of them for years ... so it was like a class reunion. You reminisce, share stories and it was just so gratifying. It was by far and away one of the best things NASCAR has ever done, bringing all the living former winners to Daytona for the 50th running of the Great American Race.
Top 50 NASCAR moments
I want to explain something to you all. On Sunday in our NASCAR on FOX prerace show I'm sure you saw that I got very emotional. We were talking about Dale Earnhardt and we were showing his wins, I was sitting there and it just came over me. I was not expecting to be touched the way I was. But when we came out of the piece and they said "what's your memory of Dale," the first thing I thought of was 2001. Sunday morning, Stevie was in the motor coach ... we don't have a race car nor a team but I am getting ready to go out and do my first race as a broadcaster. Stevie tells me "I'm not going to pit road today, there's no point." I told her "Honey, there is one reason I want you to go out there. Dale will be expecting his scripture." Since 1994, she had been putting scriptures in his car and mine, and I know how much Dale cherished those. "You gotta take him his scripture if nothing else."
She sat down at the table in the coach and looked through the Bible and really couldn't find one that was appropriate until she turned to Proverbs 18:10 — Look it up, it will give you comfort. When you read that scripture, and you know what happened to Dale, then you know where he is.
The reason that moment this Sunday was so emotional for me was because I was thinking how much Dale would have loved to have been here for the 50th Great American Race. He would have loved to have been there with all those former winners hanging out, and they would have all been ragging on each other and Dale would have had as much fun as I did. Because his Daytona 500 victory was so big for him, it just dawned on me that Dale's not here and I almost felt guilty that I was sitting here and he wasn't. I apologize, Steve Byrnes says "We're trained broadcast professionals," but right at that point I was just a marshmallow. I hope you forgive me and I didn't embarrass anybody or myself, but it was that kind of a weekend.
With all the guys sharing stories with each other and me being right in the middle of it, this was the most memorable Daytona 500 of my life.
Oh, by the way
The Daytona 500 itself was incredible.
I had been up since 9 a.m. doing TV all day long — I did interviews with Mario, Junior Johnson, I did the prerace show, I was out on stage with all the former winners, ran across the infield and flew up to the booth to announce the race. By that time, I just wanted to get the race started because there was just so much anticipation around the race — How would the Toyotas do? How would the Hendrick cars versus the Gibbs cars end up?
Play Fantasy NASCAR!
The race takes off and it was a thing of beauty. You had Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon racing against the three Gibbs cars, you got Jimmie Johnson starting from the pole position but he didn't have a very good day, the Dodges were amazing … and looking back through the week, there was no reason to think that they would be good, but at the end all it was Dodges.
Looking back at that final restart and Jeff Burton was leading. We were laughing up in the booth because they had Chassis-dynoed several of the race cars after the Gatorade Duel races Thursday and the Toyotas were about 15 horsepower better than the Hendrick cars and about 30 better than the Childress cars, so we all thought that Burton was a sitting duck. They dropped the green flag and Kyle tried to go around Jeff but he runs below the yellow line — which is a no-no. Busch's spotter came on the radio and said "You have to give back those spots," but I think he meant to say that one spot, not a bunch of them. That broke his momentum.
Because of that, he was not as fast as Tony Stewart at the end, but Stewart thought he was so he tried to pick up his teammate in the draft at the end, making them slower at the end. That allowed Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch to continue to push each other to the top spots.
It was pretty obvious in the final rundown though that you had to have a teammate to succeed Sunday, just ask Jeff Burton, he had nobody else to work with. That's why the Penske boys did good, so did the Gibbs Racing guys and the Evernham guys.
Speaking of the Evernham bunch, great job by Robby Gordon for switching to that alliance ... that proved to be a pretty smart move. The Dodges just surprised us by how strong they were at the end of the race. That's why I always say that the Daytona 500 is not like any other race, you have to show patience, you gotta work on your car and you gotta be right at the end of the day.
That's what the Penske boys were able to do.
Oh, by the way, too
I thought it was ironic that Mr. Robert Nardelli was there on Sunday. Mr. Nardelli of course was the former CEO of Home Depot, so I think he took great satisfaction in the fact that the guy the Dodges had to beat was Tony Stewart and the Home Depot car.
I've heard people in the auto industry say that Nardelli going to Chrysler was going to be the best thing to happen to them, and it would certainly be the best thing to happen to the Dodge guys in NASCAR.
Roger Penske, who claimed the $1 million bounty Nardelli offered before the race for victory, will totally agree with that.
One final Oh, by the way
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I did SPEED's Windtunnel Sunday night, so I was on TV from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. I may have overworked myself, I don't know, but I was having way too much fun and had too much to say. I just hope and pray that the work we did is recognized by the fans and that they enjoyed everything we did.
During Windtunnel, we had Roger Penske on the show and he talked about how he'd been coming to Daytona for 30 years and that was his first restrictor plate victory, and his first 1-2 NASCAR Cup finish.
Roger has won the Indianapolis 500 14 times, but he talked about how important it was to have won the Daytona 500. I read where Roger's wife said "This is a big win for Roger because he so much wants to be accepted and respected in NASCAR." Well, you win the Daytona 500 and you get immediate acceptance and respect … and this year you will immediately be getting a big check from Bob Nardelli.
That ain't too bad.
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