Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Edwards Takes Marathon California Race
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

First the race was rain-delayed by several hours, then Michael Waltrip's car had an oil line come loose during the pace laps, all in all a sign of things to come, making for a very long day... or weekend.

Lap 21 action saw Casey Mears get loose through one of the 'weepers', and into the fence, taking out Dale Earnhardt Jr, Sam Hornish Jr and Reed Sorenson.

NASCAR and track officials then decided to work on the track in the form of cutting grooves in the asphalt to help dissipate the seeping water. Forty-five minutes later, they resumed action with Jeff Gordon out front and Jimmie Johnson a few seconds back.

Then, the rains came.

NASCAR officials strung the East-coasters along by saying the race would resume at midnight, then 1 a.m., then even 2 a.m... .all not to be.

Instead, the race restarted at 1 p.m. Monday afternoon with about 20% of the crowd still in tact. Out front, it was still Hendrick boys Gordon and Johnson with Kyle Busch nearby.

But, the 'big dog' of the day turned out to be Carl Edwards

After the delays, 'weepers' and a few more cautions, Edwards came away with his eighth career win after chasing down Johnson over the final few dozen laps.

The whole affair ended anticlimactically with little action for the final few hours. Others in the top five included Johnson, Gordon, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth.

Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman wound up tenth, now sitting second in the points, only six back of new leader Kyle Busch.

Over on the Nationwide side, the race was delayed from Saturday night to late Monday afternoon. The story there was Toyota, Toyota and Toyota. Tony Stewart led most of the race from the drop of the flag with fellow Toyota drivers David Reutimann and Kyle Busch nearby.

At the checkers, it was Stewart by several seconds over Busch, Kevin Harvick, Reutimann and reigning champion Carl Edwards.

Stewart now sits atop the standings, but is not slated to be full-time whereas Edwards is and currently sits third behind Busch.

The Craftsman trucks were able to get their race in on time on Friday despite most of the weekend's activities being rain-delayed. Kyle Busch and Todd Bodine dominated the race with Busch coming out on top for his first win this year.

Rounding out the top five included Bodine, Johnny Benson, Terry Cook and Ron Hornaday Jr.

From Rumorville
Among the many fines handed out from last week's NASCAR runs at Daytona, the largest and most significant was that of Robby Gordon. Gordon's last minute switch from Ford to Dodge led to a factory error in shipping him a nose piece that wasn't quite approved by NASCAR. The result was failing pre-race inspection, a change of the nose and an impressive eighth place finish for a one-car team.

NASCAR's response was a $100,000 fine, a loss of 100 points and a crew chief suspension of six weeks. Seems pretty severe for something that never even made it to the racetrack surface, eh?

Well, they have appealed, Dodge has written letters to NASCAR as has sponsor Jim Beam.

The biggest issue with the situation is Gordon's drop in points from eighth to 40th, certainly out of the top 35. What do you think of this situation? Drop me a line.

It became official late last week with the Indy Racing League and Champ Car open wheel series joining forces for the upcoming season. This is something most open-wheel race fans have been looking for over the past 12 years.

Pre-season testing starts soon and it will be great to see the larger fields and deeper talent pools.

Did you know?
What car manufacturer has won the most Cup races in NASCAR? If you guessed Chevy, you'd be correct. Over the past 60 years, the American (ha, ha) car maker has racked up 622 wins. Others in the forefront include Ford (583), Dodge (198), Plymouth (191), Pontiac (154), Oldsmobile (115), Mercury (95) and Hudson with 79 checkers. The only foreign manufacturer to land a win was Jaguar way back in 1954. Will that change this year? More than likely.

That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will have the results from NASCAR in Las Vegas and more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ