Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Bowyer Inherits Wild Win at RIR
Monday, May 5th, 2008

After Kyle Busch got into leader Dale Earnhardt Jr during the final laps of the Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday night, the door opened for third place runner Clint Bowyer to move into the top spot and go on to a second career win.

Busch had thrown his car into turn 3 a little too hard, drifted up into Earnhardt, punting the fan favorite into the wall backwards. The crowd went nuts as Busch contemplated his method of leaving the racetrack without being pelted with various objects, or worse… from the fans.

The final restart saw Bowyer pull away as Mark Martin fought with Busch for second place. The wiley veteran nearly pulled it off, coming up less than a half-car short at the line as Bowyer took the checkers.

The final standings saw Busch come up second, Martin third with Tony Stewart and Martin Truex Jr rounding out the top five.

Busch chalked up the incident with Earnhardt as a 'racing deal', sorry that he may have taken a win away from him….kinda…sorta.

Earnhardt commented about the problems Busch would have in leaving the track…that he drove hard…had a top three car (which he did) and got wrecked.

If Busch thinks he's been 'booed' before during driver introductions, he's in for a rude awakening when the occasion arises this weekend in Darlington.

There are a few rules in life….you don't yank on a junk yard dogs chain (remember the song?), you don't pull on Superman's cape and you DON'T wreck the crowd (series) favorite…Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The underlying story of this race was hometown favorite Denny Hamlin leading 381 laps (a new record) before succumbing to a right front flat tire.

Hamlin's heartbreaker was felt throughout the partisan crowd, especially after winning the Nationwide race the night before.

We can't leave this race without speaking of the 'big wreck' Richmond style which took place very early in the race. It started with J.J. Yeley, Dave Blaney and Carl Edwards…just racing. When the rest of the pack tried to avoid spinning cars, all heck broke loose into a 14-car melee.

Of note were the badly damaged cars of Kurt Busch, Patrick Carpentier, Jimmie Johnson, David Gilliland and Matt Kenseth among others. It was ugly and unavoidable, just unusual to see a 'Dega-like' wreck at a short track.

Note:

Michael Waltrip's on-track behavior after Casey Mears made contact with him late in the race was disgusting. Mears moved up and into the series tallest driver by accident. Waltrip mashed the gas and pushed Mears down the front chute and into the fence. NASCAR parked him, but I'd like to see a healthy fine as well. Totally inexcusable! At that point Waltrip was using his car as a lethal weapon, by stuffing Mears back into the fence. Did he really think Mears did that intentionally? No way. We're talking one of the most mild mannered drivers on the track... in fact, maybe we should nickname him Clark Kent.

The Nationwide race on Friday night at RIR was a battle between long time leader Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick. Has it not been for yet another bad pitstop by Edward's crew, he would have been out in front of Harvick in the closing laps. But, it turned out to be a moot point as the top three drivers refused to pit while most of the remaining top drivers stopped for fresh sneakers.

When the green flag dropped, Hamlin rocketed into the lead, going on to take the win in front of Harvick, Busch, David Regan and Steven Wallace.

By the way, did you catch the shenanigans going on between Kyle Busch and Steven Wallace at the end of the Nationwide race? Funny stuff.

Busch goes over to Wallace to confront him about the final lap incident, which wasn't much of anything. Busch made the mistake of sticking his helmeted head close to Wallace's open window, whereupon Wallace reached out and grabbed the opening in Busch's helmet. Busch yanked back, motioning Wallace to 'com'on out'. The crews broke it up before Wallace even got out of the car. Later Busch commented that Wallace was a boy in a man's sport and if he wants to play rough, he'll return same. Let's see ... Kyle is a ripe old 22 and Steven is a feisty 19. Funny stuff.

From Rumorville
There are reports of Bobby Labonte staying with Petty Enterprises for next year and beyond, but I don't buy it. I still think he'll move over to the fourth Cup car at Childress for next year. How about you? Drop me a line.

Hot off the rumor mill is the possibility of Martin Truex Jr going over to Penske with UPS on the quarter panels... Heard Carl Edwards associated with UPS as well. The silly season is well under way and we're not even halfway through the season.

Did you know?
Clint Bowyer earned $226,550 for his surprise win on Saturday night? And how about ole Mark Martin, I mean Mr. Part-Time Super Driver? The guy is driving on a part-time basis and consistently comes home with a whole car and top finishes. Martin nearly took second before settling with a third and $174,108. I've never seen a more prolific driver in a fill-in role be as successful as he is.

That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will review the results from Darlington and more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ