Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Kurt Busch Dominates Pocono
Tuesday, August 7, 2007

From the drop of the flag, Kurt Busch had the car to beat at the big tri-oval known as Pocono Speedway. The ex-Cup champion had things go all his way, something not exactly happening for the Dodge driver for most of this season.
Of late, his stock has risen with good finishes, but for the past 51 races, he has gone without a win. That changed on Sunday afternoon when Kurt dominated the show, leading all but 25 laps of the 200-lap event.

Running to second was none other than ex-Chaser Dale Earnhardt Jr. By mid-race, the Bud car seemed to be junk. Then, there was a flat, which gave them the opportunity to make some other changes (front shocks) which turned around Dale Jr.’s day. The soon-to-be Hendrick driver rallied back to finish a very strong second to the man who took his place in the overall standings, 12th.

Both drivers will have to ‘get up on the wheel’ to become part of this year’s Chase with only five races remaining to decide same.

Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson rounded off the top five finishers.

Those drivers not exactly having a day to remember were headlined by Jamie McMurray, the victim of no less than three incidents, none of his doing, yet was finally crashed out late in the show with a 40th place finish.

Fellow Roush-Fenway driver Carl Edwards also had a tough day with pit-lane violations due to the consistent errors of his inept pit crew. It seems like every week, the poor guy is subject to stupid errors by his crew. Get on the stick guys!

The Busch race in Montreal was one of the biggest NASCAR debacles to date. There were numerous wrecks from impatient drivers, lots of torn up cars and seemingly more than one winner at the end.

What should have been one of the best races of the year became a late race demo-derby with drivers running amuck and NASCAR not having the guts (fill in your own word here) to make the right decisions as to penalties.

Several top guns, read hired guns, such as Patrick Carpentier, Ron Fellows, Boris Said, etc. led the race at one point. Busch regular and hot shoe when it comes to roadcourse racing Marcos Ambrose led a good portion of the laps, only to be denied a win.

Late in the race while Ambrose was leading, Robby Gordon passed him clean in one of the ‘esses’. Ambrose immediately retaliated by dumping Gordon in a yellow flag waving section of the track. Behind them at the same time was a mess kicked off by a revenge-full Kevin Harvick after punting Scott Pruett. The ensuing mess created a large multi-car wreck.

What does NASCAR decide to do?

Ambrose is put back to the lead, Gordon is sent to start in 13th and Harvick? Nothing.

Gordon disagrees with the call and repeated calls to his car to move back. He ignores the threats of not scoring him any more.

NASCAR re-starts the race with Gordon directly behind the guy that took him out. Do you want to guess what happened next?

Anybody that knows anything about Gordon could have placed a very safe bet he would retaliate and so he did in the very first turn.

He goes on to distance himself from the pack, crossing the finish line first with Harvick in second.

Final result? Gordon is set down to 18th place in the race, Harvick is handed the win and Ambrose is awarded 7th.

There were a lot of things right and wrong here. Gordon should not have been put to the back after Ambrose punted him in a yellow flag area. NASCAR should have never started that race with the two drivers right behind each other….certainly a recipe for disaster. They should have stopped the race, put Gordon in 13th or out of the race and restart the show.

By the way, they also set down Gordon for the Cup race on Sunday for his actions on Saturday leaving PJ Jones to compete in the car on Sunday where he finished 37th. I predict more fines will be announced this week.

Carpentier, Max Papis, Fellows and Stephen Leicht wrapped up the top finishers in a race they’ll be talking about for a long time.

Open Wheel News - The Indy Racing League wrapped up their final visit to the big Michigan Speedway with a long rain delay and wreck-filled race, including a scary upside down ride for points leader Dario Franchitti. Dan Wheldon touched wheels with the Andretti-Green driver, kicking off a multi-car wreck, ending many drivers days early.

Tony Kanaan managed to hold off his teammate Marco Andretti for the win with Scott Sharp taking the final podium position of the seven cars running at the end.

From Rumorville - It appears that the new business partner (George Gillett) with for Evernham Racing will be announced any day now. The rumors involving Budweiser joining forces with Evernham, Kasey Kahne and Dodge are close to becoming a reality. Criticism of Evernham becoming involved with Erin Crocker increase with every passing day, citing personal time interfering with the job at hand…running a three-car operation. More later.

A.J. Foyt deep sea diver? Well, not exactly. Living legend race car driver A.J. Foyt escaped injury when the large bulldozer he was operating fell into a lake, forcing the 72-year-old Texan to escape the upside down heavy equipment and call for help. Fifteen minutes later he was rescued, more concerned about retrieving his dozer than anything else.

Did you know? What NASCAR Cup driver has competed the most times without a win? In the lifetime slot, it is the now deceased J. D. McDuffie with 653 starts and no checkers. Currently, the answer would be Kenny Wallace with 336. Personally, I see no change in this department for the personable Wallace as he rides out the final few years of Cup competition.

That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the lefts and rights of NASCAR competition at Watkins Glen and more racing news from around the globe.