by Jeff Hammond

Comment

Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race started off a little slower than I anticipated, but it didn't take very long for the guys to really start mixing it up. At first it looked like it would be a walkaway victory for Tony Stewart or Dale Earnhardt Jr., but then I saw a lot of guys kinda say "I don't want to play 'follow the leader' today, let's try something."

I was very much impressed with how two cars — especially the right combination — hooked up and drove to the front, in particular Jamie McMurray and Denny Hamlin. When those two got together, it looked like they had 100 more horsepower than anybody else.

With drivers tag-teaming to the front, it made it to where you had to pay attention to how the race was unfolding. You couldn't just say "Oh, you need four or five cars together to make a run up front." Instead, it turned into a situation where the right dance partners could easily make their way to the front.

The other intriguing part of Sunday's Cup race was the guys who made mistakes on pit road. After witnessing how guys weren't blending into a single-file on pit road, especially the situation where Kyle Busch got blocked from making a pit stop early in the race, NASCAR will probably want to address that situation. Again, later on in the race, Denny Hamlin and David Ragan almost kept Busch from pitting — which could have put him a lap down again — but he was able to fight his way to the inside line and get the service he came in for.

If this continues, I'm more concerned about the potential of guys cutting each other off, spinning cars out and injuring crew members. NASCAR should go back and let these drivers and teams know that they are starting to get sloppy again when they enter pit road. This was not a good thing that we witnessed Sunday.

NASCAR purposely came up with their rule of driving down pit road in a single file because they wanted to keep the competitors from injuring themselves and from hurting somebody on pit road.

Kyle Busch showed a lot of patience by not challenging these guys the first time on pit road — and it almost cost him. But it was his fortune that he got his lap back after the pit road incident and went on to win. Had he not been patient during the early incident, he could have wrecked his car — as well as several others — on pit road, which would have cost him his chance for a good finish, nevermind a victory.

No call was the right call

We got several e-mails after Sunday's race that sounded something like this one:

Edd U., from Independence, MO. — Why was Kyle Busch driving with two tires under the yellow line while leading near the end of the race? If it is against the rules, why wasn't something done?

Go back and watch the tapes folks, Kyle was pushed below the yellow line. I know some people are saying, "Well, he went down there to make the pass." No, I think he had the position and NASCAR felt the same way. Busch was alongside the car he was passing far enough that when the car went down, he had no choice but to go below the yellow line briefly.

As soon as everybody realized how far they moved to the left side of the track, they moved back to the right and Kyle himself came back to the right side of the yellow line. When Busch gained the position, he was still above the yellow line, and the only reason he went below the yellow line was to prevent an accident. That's why I think NASCAR made no call on that one.

Up in the FOX Sports booth, we even questioned it ourselves, but we went back and looked at it — just like NASCAR did — and we realized that they made the right call on this one, there's no conspiracies about it.

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Beyond the yellow line

At the end of the 188-lap race, you really couldn't ask for anything more. There were guys moving from the front to the back and vice-versa, there was beating and banging ... this is what Talladega is all about. When you tune into a Talladega race, this is what you were looking for.

Unfortunately, when you get a good Talladega race, there's always going to be a multi-car crash and we saw two of those on Sunday. But we also saw some really cool saves and some near misses along the way.

I know we didn't get a chance to race to the finish line all the way, but it was very intense up until the late wreck.

We definitely saw a vintage Talladega race.

Again, you hate this new race car, we see the potential in it — and that's what we saw this weekend. That's what's so frustrating about this car; there's certain racetracks the COT is very well suited for, obviously a newly resurfaced, smooth Talladega does what we are looking for.

There are a lot of plusses that came out of this weekend's race, and that's what NASCAR has been trying to sell with this new car. Unfortunately, it doesn't always carry over to places like Texas Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway, but therein lies the challenge of what we can do as we move forward in making this car more competitive.

You can have a competitive car at least at Talladega, and I think that's why NASCAR may be reluctant to listen to suggestions about what we need to change to make this car better for other racetracks. Unfortunately, we only run at 'Dega twice a year.

Boneheaded moves of the week

You hate to be critical about drivers, but two made really boneheaded moves this weekend — and both came during the Saturday's Nationwide race.

I'm sorry, I like Kevin Lepage a lot, but the wreck he created late in the event was not a move made by an experienced driver.

My analogy of what happened is very simple: What he did on the track is comparable to trying to merge onto the highway going 30 mph with four 18-wheelers going 95 mph right behind him. Is he going to pull up in front of those 18-wheelers? I don't think so.

Lepage can blame Carl Edwards' spotter, he can blame his own spotter, he can blame anybody really, but the last time I checked, he had a steering wheel and a rear view mirror in his race car and he didn't use those properly. Shame on him.

It's not like it's his first rodeo. Kevin should know that cars coming off pit road are about 100 mph slower than cars in the pack. If you think you can pull up right in front of them, then it's just like playing a game of chicken on the highway — sooner or later, somebody is going to hit you.

As far as the wreck that injured Dario Franchitti, shame on Larry Gunselman. Franchitti's wreck was happening, and from my vantage point, there was more than adequate time for Gunselman to get control of his race car to prevent hitting the No. 40 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge with that much force.

Whether or not Gunselman could avoid it, I'm not going to say that. But going the speed he was going I felt was uncalled for. Had he not had the time or been able to slow down, that's one thing, but that was a boneheaded move.

I do not have any sympathy for Larry Gunselman or his spotter because that wreck could have been minimized if not totally avoided.

Those were two boneheaded moves that resulted in one driver getting hurt — it could have been even more serious than just an ankle injury — and many, many cars damaged.

Not all bad

Besides those two blunders, it was all good at Talladega.

There were so many positives that came out of the race weekend. On Saturday we saw some guys in the top 15 that don't normally get there like Mark Green and Morgan Shepherd — who had a good, solid run.

When you go back and look at Sunday's Cup race we also saw some guys turn some heads. Robby Gordon had a decent finish after running the European Rally during the week, young David Ragan also had a solid outing, and Juan Pablo Montoya and new crew chief Jimmy Elledge definitely turned heads. Maybe the crew chief change over at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates was what they needed.

Also, an honorable mention should go to Franchitti's replacement David Stremme, who had a really strong run until the end of the race.

That's really what it's all about; can you come out of a race like you accomplished something. Several teams can feel that way as they head to Richmond this week.

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FOX race analyst Jeff Hammond led Darrell Waltrip to two of DW's three Winston Cup championships as his crew chief. They also teamed to win the 1989 Daytona 500.

For autographed copies of Jeff Hammond's book "Real Men Work in the Pits" plus magnets, hats and more, check out www.dwstore.com.

For photos and appearances, visit Jeff's web site www.jeffhammond.com.