R.E.S.P.E.C.T... Find out what it means to me...

If there is one thing Tony Stewart, “Smoke”, does not do... it’s blow smoke...

You always know where you stand with Stewart.

You may not like where you stand, you may not agree with where you stand... but you always know.

I like that!

To be successful in NASCAR you need respect, and you need to be respected.

You need to respect your car, and the track. You need to respect other drivers space on track.

I have said this before and I will say this again, I love NASCAR road racing.

Watching the heavy overpowered, under tyred, under braked stock cars racing on the undulating kerbs of Sonoma is one of the highlights of my NASCAR year (next to the Daytona 500 and Bristol and this and that). Maybe it’s because I live on this side of the pond and over here we live on road racing, maybe it’s watching the Cup drivers put on a better road racing show than most of Europe can manage, whatever it is, it makes me smile.

By European standards a NASCAR road race is just not cricket. Do what Vickers or Stewart did over here and the MSA would take away your race licence and never give it back. Most European road racing is delicate, open wheelers that dare not go close to each other let alone touch or touring cars trying to do what the Cup guys do at Sonoma but in cars that are just not right. It’s like comparing American wrestling to Europe’s best ballet dancers. Delicate, I think not. Fun, you betcha!

The issue of blocking is one that is blighting some European racing. I have always liked that NASCAR have maintained oval grooves, spotters and the oval etiquette at the two road courses. The idea that there is more than one racing line, and just because you are on the inside for the first corner does not necessarily mean you are on the inside for the second is a principle that F1 is learning and the BTCC should relearn! With 18 laps to go, Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards showed us how it’s done!

Am I the only one who thinks it a bit odd that the track that creates the best old fashioned bump-‘n-run racing is... not Martinsville or Bristol but... a road course?

Talk about one extreme to the other, Sonoma last weekend, and Daytona under the lights this!

So from one of the tightest, hardest hitting tracks on the calendar to a restrictor plate track where success relies on working with others...

Dance partners anyone?