Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Busch Wins Scrap Yard 499
Monday, April 28th, 2008

In what turned out to be one of the ugliest races at the big track, Kyle Busch wound up the winner of Sunday's Aaron's 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega.

Busch had been fast all day, even came back from being a lap down to take his second win of the season in NASCAR's premiere division.

Both of the 22-year-old driver's teammates, those being Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin spent time out front, but didn't quite put themselves in the right spot at the right time in this high speed game of chess.

Hamlin wound up third, yet Stewart landed in the fence more than once, landing deep in the standings back to 38th. The rest of the top five included some surprises such as Juan Montoya as runner up, David Regan and Brian Vickers.

The race started innocent enough with the three Gibbs Toyotas out front (Stewart, Hamlin and Busch). Then, crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr led for a while with a strong Chevy.

Ryan Newman had a shot out front, Jeff Gordon and Michael Waltrip sniffed around the top spot, but when the smoke cleared from at least two ‘big wrecks' (not to mention the final few lap melee), Busch was standing tall in the winner's circle.

Gordon was running second with a few laps to go, made a move to the outside, thinking the car behind him would go with him. They hooked up, but only briefly, leaving the No. 24 high and dry and into a less than stellar 12th place finish.

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson gave a big help to Waltrip in the closing segment, pushing the big blue and yellow NAPA Toyota out front, yet that was short-lived.

There was lots of jockeying around, often three and four abreast, five six rows deep with both driver and race fan holding their collective breaths not to see the big wreck, but they were inevitable.

The list of damaged cars is long and deep.

Have I mentioned I don't like these kind of races? It's just a crap shoot as to when the big wreck will happen and they usually do. The track has turned into a foot-to-the-floor-turn-left deal with little talent behind the wheel with the exception of who's going to help you and when. Just listen to the drivers in post qualifying interviews…they all say to a man, "It wasn't me, the crew set up a great car." I've heard other drivers say that a trained monkey could drive a stock car around ‘Dega‘.

But, the crowds are rabid, often standing on their feet rooting their favorite driver on to victory.

Many of your top drivers don't like the ‘plate' races, such as Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Sr. I know…some of you are saying, ‘what a minute…Earnhardt won a lot of races…why, he could see the wind!' Yes, he won races, but on many occasions interviews from the seven-time champ exclaimed his dislike for them.

Moving on, the teams will spend most of the upcoming week licking their wounds from the big bad racetrack as they prepare for the action track, Richmond International Raceway.

Points leader Jeff Burton left Dega with a slightly damaged car and a 17th place finish, yet good enough to keep him atop the standings. The Virginia driver now sits 22 ahead of Busch and 79 ahead Earnhardt Jr. as they enter round 10.

Tony Stewart led the most laps including the final one in Saturday's Nationwide race at Dega. There was one BIG wreck around lap 70 when Kevin LePage lost his mind in pulling up in front of a snarling 200 mph pack of cars. The end result was a 16-car fiasco involving Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer and a host of others.

The good news was no one was hurt, although Dario Franchitti suffered a broken ankle in an earlier incident involving Larry Gunselman, who also must have lost his mind (the impact occurred eight seconds after Dario was sitting still).

The Craftsman truck race ended with Ron Hornaday taking his 34th career checkers, this one in front of teammate Jack Sprague and youngster Colin Braun.

Open Wheel News
Indy Racing League driver Dan Wheldon won a snoozer race in Kansas in front of Tony Kanaan and teammate Scott Dixon, who led many laps. Manica dropped out with mechanical woes after touching the wall earlier. Helio Castroneves leads the points over Wheldon as they prepare for the month of May and Indy.

The Spanish GP saw F-1 ace Kimi Raikkonen win in flag-to-flag style over Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton. Kimi leads Hamilton in the big picture by nine points.

From Rumorville
The biggest news from this department has to be the rumblings from the Home Depot Toyota team of Tony Stewart. It appears not all is well on the home front with the Indiana driver. Sounds like he wants out of his current contract which is to expire in 2009 to pursue other possibilities such as owning his own team and not drive a Toyota, rather a Chevy.

Rumors continue to swirl around him buying part or all of the No. 66 and No. 70 teams, which could certainly use a shot in the arm of experience and money. No surprise to me here.

That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will review the action from Richmond's Cup and Nationwide action along with more news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ