NASCAR-lition Derby

I'm usually all for an action packed crash fest. Hell, that's why I love Daytona and Talledega. There's nothing better than close racing. Not knowing when the slightest mistake, driver error, or an unexpected mechanical malfunction is going to cause the next melee is part of the thrill.



But when it get's predictable, well that's just silly.



It wasn't anyone's fault really. Track President Humpy Wheeler levigated for the May Race and it caused a crash fest when the drivers couldn't negotiate the newfound speed via the new found grip.



So Humpy re-levigated the track hoping to smooth it out a bit for the drivers and take the racing back to pre-levigated levels.



Somewhere in all of of Humpy's hard work, Goodyear decided to bring in a harder, less sticky tire to hopefully slow the cars down a little bit by giving them less grip. One problem. The track was so smooth from the levigating that even these tires stuck to the track and harder tires don't dissipate heat as well when they do get really hot and that causes blisters, which blows tires. Combine that with extreme camber setups(leaning the tire to gain grip in cornering) and low tire pressures (to adust the car's handling characteristics) and you will see tires start to pop.



So Saturday night, every 20 laps or so it became predictable someone was going to blow a tire and the caution would come out.



Every driver that I have any notion of pulling for either blew tires or had other problems. At one point when Kasey Kahne was leading my wife said to me that I could pull for him now. I said, "Why he's gonna wreck anyway." 20 laps later....well you know.(he blew a right front tire for you non NASCAR types)



I certainly didn't want Jimmy Johnson to win at Lowe's for the 4th time in a row(5 of 6)(No Offense Jimmy). I just don't really like him a lot.



I was pulling for (in no particular order), Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Elliott Sadler, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Scott Wimmer, Dave Blaney.



With all the mayhem now two days past, Humpy Wheeler is setting out on another project to get the racing at Jimmy Johnson Motor Speedway back to racing condition. He's starting from scratch and RE-PAVING it.