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| Associated Press (click to enlarge)
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| NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) spins out of control near the end the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series LENOX Industrial Tools 301 auto racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H., Sunday, June 29, 2008. |
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What we learned: East Coast
Posted
at
8:32 pm
by Scott Whitmore
Sorry it took so long to get this posted ... someday maybe I'll tell you a sea story about today.
Anyway, how about that race? Wasn't it great seeing the leaders go side-by-side for lap after lap.
No, not Sunday's snoozer of a Cup race. I'm talking about the super stock feature race at Evergreen Speedway on Saturday night. Seriously, it may be the CoT, it may be the tires, but there is several times more action on our local short track in Monroe, Wash., than NASCAR's top series this season.
It doesn't say much when the Juan Pablo Montoya-Kyle Busch dustup and Jamie McMurray running through a pitting Dale Earnhardt Jr. are the highlights.
My opinion? Montoya's frustration at all things NASCAR boiled over on Sunday. He may gain some fans for taking a cheap shot at "Bad Boy" Busch, but unless there was something that Busch was doing worse than the replays shown on TNT, Montoya over-reacted -- big-time.
I loved that after Montoya admitted to dumping Busch, the TNT guys said they thought he should've be more tactful and used the "standard" excuse of needing to watch the replay.
I have not watched the Nationwide race yet, and caught just the end of the truck race on the SPEED replay Monday morning. The IndyCar race? Well, my old VCR could handle only so much.Opinions, we've all got them ...
I'm sure you don't just read me (the 12 of you who do), but here's a couple of other writers to check out:
1. Yahoo! Sports' Bob Margolis has some observations on the Cup race at Loudon: (CLICK HERE).
2. PA Sportsticker auto racing editor Scott Serrano has some ideas on who should drive the No. 5 car for Hendricks next season: (CLICK HERE).
3. CNNSI's Tom Bowles gives his 5-cents on New Hampshire: (CLICK HERE)Scorecard
Nationally I was .500 for the first time, ever. I was right that Tony Stewart would win the Nationwide race, and I can now pick anyone else in IndyCar after Tony Kanaan finally got his win in Virginia.
My pick, Mike Skinner, scored a top 10 (7th) in the truck race, and Matt Kenseth was caught on the wrong side of the pit window in the Cup race, coming in 18th.
Locally, I was correct that Lane Sundholm would win the bomber feature at Evergreen Speedway, but my picks of John Zaretzke (super stocks), Ricky Deitz (super figure eight) and Chuck Richard (mini-stocks) did not come true.Charging forward
1. Mukilteo, Wash., racer Carl Skerlong recorded his second straight podium finish in the Atlantic Championship race Sunday in Quebec. To read more about it, (CLICK HERE).
2. Nice to see Brian Vickers of Red Bull Racing continue to run up front in the Cup series. Vickers' team skipped pitting under an early caution, which gave him track position that may have given him a chance at the win, if the rain hadn't come.
3. I'll give another pat on the back to Tony Stewart for his media relations. Stewart took a tortured, overly-complex and overly-long question from a TNT pit reporter with surprising patience ... although you could see the disbelief in his eyes as the question kept going ... and going ... and going.Going backwards
1. Do I even need to put Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Racing here every week? The rundown: Montoya 32nd. Dario Franchitti 38th. Reed Sorenson's 6th-place finish came down to pit strategy, not his equipment ... but I guess you've got to have something to build on, right?
2. Same-same for the Car of Today/Tomorrow/Whenever. Daytona Part 2 is coming up this weekend, so get ready to see long lines of cars going around in circles. It's almost like Formula One, except there will actually be some passing -- when one line gets a run on the other.
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