Tuesday, July 28, 2009


"Four In A Row--More than Possible"
The defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship brain trust, explaining how they won a back to back Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Crew Chief Chad Knaus, driver Jimmie Johnson and owner Rick Hendrick had a fast car--no doubt. What won them the race is that they were able to capitalize on a pit road mistake (speeding) by 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya (the leader who led about two hours of the 2:45 race), that dropped him from the lead. If the Vegas sports books will let you make a championship tri-fecta box (for entertainment purposes, of course), Johnson, Stewart and Jeff Gordon in any order would be a safe bet.
Point leader Tony Stewart heads back to Pocono this weekend in the point lead.
We were kinda Twittered out with the live Tweeting during the race--and with our CBS obligations, we were kinda raced out on Sunday night. We did promise you the snapshot--and we delivered, albeit a bit late.
Speaking of the Twittering--NASCAR got awful defensive when some tweets suggested that they may have manipulated the reading on Montoya to knock him out of the lead. The sanctioning body's past history of secrecy prompted cynics to suggest that. That seemed to have enough "legs"; so much so that NASCAR actually tweeted the speed splits (@NASCARSays). We like transparency, and give NASCAR some props for doing this.
The crowd was down--about a third, if you trust the Indianapolis Star and other local media estimates in 'Naptown. While there were plenty of empty seats--and traffic did not reach the usual 16th Street gridlock--this is the biggest crowd NASCAR plays to anywhere they run--bar none.
Mayfield--what reputation he had is slowly being nuked by NASCAR's legal team. Every time I read something or hear the latest revelation, I feel like taking multiple showers because of the tawdriness of the whole affair. The more and more I discover, the more I remember that "Denial" is not just a river in Africa.
We're getting ready for the MidWest Tour and will rejoin you from Bruton Smith's Kentucky Speedway on Friday morning.

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