Of Wrecks And Radios
posted by Tygrrius @ 12:35 PM
"I don't care, I'll wreck as many cars as I need to."
--Kyle Busch, May 2, 2008 (one day prior to the wreck heard around the nation)
Just a couple of follow-ups to entries from last week. I mentioned Kyle Busch's wrecking of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., on Saturday night and called for Fox Sports to bring some new talent to the broadcast booth for NASCAR events. One thing I didn't really get into was Denny Hamlin's involvement in the situation. Hamlin led something like 384 of 400 laps before one of his tires went down and he lost the lead. He also stayed on the track, apparently hoping to ride it out since the event was almost over, as he continued to lose positions.
Earnhardt, Jr., meanwhile, assumed the lead and pulled away from Kyle Busch and had a pretty good lead built up, one second and growing over Busch. Apparently hoping not to lose a lap, Hamlin stopped his car on the track long enough to draw a caution flag, and then quickly motored to pit road for fresh tires. NASCAR agreed that Hamlin only stopped to bring out the yellow flag, so they penalized him two laps. I originally attributed this as a dunderhead move on Hamlin's part, no doubt due to his being upset at losing a race that he otherwise dominated, so I didn't really get into it in my post.
However, I read some posts by other NASCAR fans the next day that shed new light on the incident for me. Hamlin and Busch are teammates, both race for Joe Gibbs. I didn't even think about that! By drawing the caution, Hamlin not only potentially benefitted himself (though negated by the penalty), but also his teammate Busch.
Hamlin's caution fake effectively erased Earnhardt, Jr.'s growing lead and put second-place Busch within striking distance. Whether intentionally or not, Hamlin set up the disaster to come.
Busch ultimately wrecked Earnhardt, Jr., sending him to a fifteenth place finish, but the end result for Busch was the same as it would've been if he'd raced Earnhardt, Jr., clean: second place. Innocent bystander Clint Boyer motored past both of them as the wreck occurred to take the lead, which he managed to hold as third place Mark Martin distracted Busch long enough for the race to finish.
For those who don't believe that Joe Gibbs Racing and/or Toyota has Fox Sports in their back pocket, I point out that Fox's articles about the incident at the Richmond race, including one titled "Kyle Busch: Public Enemy #1," mysteriously disappeared from their website on Sunday, replaced with a week-old article about Kyle Busch winning at Talladega. Their comment blogs, including at least 20 pages of mostly anti-Busch and anti-Darrell Waltrip remarks, were suddenly gone, too. Some of those have returned, though heavily edited.
Anyway, as I said on Saturday, though the wreck was deplorable, the instant cover-up by Darrell Waltrip and company in the booth is what annoyed me most. People attribute all of the criticism of Busch and Fox Sports to "Junior Nation" but guess what, he's not my favorite driver.
I respect Dale Earnhardt, Jr., but my favorites are Kyle Petty, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, and Juan Pablo Montoya. I'm not a card-carrying member of Junior Nation, but I still think he was robbed on Saturday (which happens) and, more importantly, that Darrell Waltrip continues to do a disservice to NASCAR viewers. I'm sure he'll continue to make excuses next weekend as well.
* * *
I'm still having fun with Pandora Radio, the Internet radio music service, so I created a public station in case any of you would like to hear what I'm listening to these days.
Ty's Without A Song Radio
I've also added this as link in the sidebar of The Film Frontier's Site B backup blog. You will have to create a Pandora login to actually hear the station, but it's free and easy to do. Plus, that will let you create your own station in case my selections are not to your liking.
--Kyle Busch, May 2, 2008 (one day prior to the wreck heard around the nation)
Just a couple of follow-ups to entries from last week. I mentioned Kyle Busch's wrecking of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., on Saturday night and called for Fox Sports to bring some new talent to the broadcast booth for NASCAR events. One thing I didn't really get into was Denny Hamlin's involvement in the situation. Hamlin led something like 384 of 400 laps before one of his tires went down and he lost the lead. He also stayed on the track, apparently hoping to ride it out since the event was almost over, as he continued to lose positions.
Earnhardt, Jr., meanwhile, assumed the lead and pulled away from Kyle Busch and had a pretty good lead built up, one second and growing over Busch. Apparently hoping not to lose a lap, Hamlin stopped his car on the track long enough to draw a caution flag, and then quickly motored to pit road for fresh tires. NASCAR agreed that Hamlin only stopped to bring out the yellow flag, so they penalized him two laps. I originally attributed this as a dunderhead move on Hamlin's part, no doubt due to his being upset at losing a race that he otherwise dominated, so I didn't really get into it in my post.
However, I read some posts by other NASCAR fans the next day that shed new light on the incident for me. Hamlin and Busch are teammates, both race for Joe Gibbs. I didn't even think about that! By drawing the caution, Hamlin not only potentially benefitted himself (though negated by the penalty), but also his teammate Busch.
Hamlin's caution fake effectively erased Earnhardt, Jr.'s growing lead and put second-place Busch within striking distance. Whether intentionally or not, Hamlin set up the disaster to come.
Busch ultimately wrecked Earnhardt, Jr., sending him to a fifteenth place finish, but the end result for Busch was the same as it would've been if he'd raced Earnhardt, Jr., clean: second place. Innocent bystander Clint Boyer motored past both of them as the wreck occurred to take the lead, which he managed to hold as third place Mark Martin distracted Busch long enough for the race to finish.
For those who don't believe that Joe Gibbs Racing and/or Toyota has Fox Sports in their back pocket, I point out that Fox's articles about the incident at the Richmond race, including one titled "Kyle Busch: Public Enemy #1," mysteriously disappeared from their website on Sunday, replaced with a week-old article about Kyle Busch winning at Talladega. Their comment blogs, including at least 20 pages of mostly anti-Busch and anti-Darrell Waltrip remarks, were suddenly gone, too. Some of those have returned, though heavily edited.
Anyway, as I said on Saturday, though the wreck was deplorable, the instant cover-up by Darrell Waltrip and company in the booth is what annoyed me most. People attribute all of the criticism of Busch and Fox Sports to "Junior Nation" but guess what, he's not my favorite driver.
I respect Dale Earnhardt, Jr., but my favorites are Kyle Petty, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, and Juan Pablo Montoya. I'm not a card-carrying member of Junior Nation, but I still think he was robbed on Saturday (which happens) and, more importantly, that Darrell Waltrip continues to do a disservice to NASCAR viewers. I'm sure he'll continue to make excuses next weekend as well.
* * *
I'm still having fun with Pandora Radio, the Internet radio music service, so I created a public station in case any of you would like to hear what I'm listening to these days.
Ty's Without A Song Radio
I've also added this as link in the sidebar of The Film Frontier's Site B backup blog. You will have to create a Pandora login to actually hear the station, but it's free and easy to do. Plus, that will let you create your own station in case my selections are not to your liking.
Labels: miscellaneous
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