NASCAR Auto Club 400!

The Generation 6 NASCAR Sprint Cup race car delivered on Sunday. The race was brilliant!



Get well soon Denny. It may have been a great battle but we don't want our gladiators hurt in the fight.



You have got to love the passion these guys have for their racing.



A great NASCAR race then...

Long may the action continue!

NASCAR at Talladega!!!

The last restrictor plate race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season was a good'un.

The "big pack" was definately back with the "tandem draft" of the last few years now gone, replaced by old fashioned big pack bump drafting!

Dale Jr is complaining... Get over it! That was a good 'plate race!




This is the end of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, again from Talladega... pity they did not get to race back to the line.



And finally the end of the Nationwide Series race... A great last lap slingshot... maybe the tandem was not all bad...




Whether you like the "tandems" or the "big pack", if there is one thing NASCAR can still do, it's put on a great show at Talladega!!

To me the best balance for the Cup Series is a combination of the "big pack" but with the ability to race one-on-one, slingshot if you will, on the last lap for the win...

Don't want much do I?

2011 BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT RACE DAY!!

Lineup -

1.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.		7.	Clint Bowyer		13.	Juan Montoya		19.	Matt Kenseth
2.	Tony Stewart		8.	Ryan Newman		14.	Jamie McMurray		20.	Mark Martin
3.	Carl Edwards		9.	Derrike Cope		15.	Jeff Burton		21.	Kyle Busch
4.	Denny Hamlin		10.	Michael Waltrip		16.	Kevin Conway		22.	Joey Logano
5.	Kasey Kahne		11.	Greg Biffle		17.	Kurt Busch		23.	Jimmie Johnson
6.	Bobby Labonte		12.	Jeff Gordon		18.	Kevin Harvick		24.	Regan Smith

The season starts here...


GREEN GREEN GREEN!!

"Have at it Boys"... and Girls... Fathers... Wives...

I am not the world biggest Pocono fan. I find the track too flat, the staightaways too long, the turns too single groove.

However thanks to the 2 wide restarts, Sundays race went from another fuel and tire strategy race to a good'un.

Due to its comparative lack of banking Pocono is never going to be a 2 wide every lap type of track, but there were some good 2 wide battles. However the 3 wide and 4 wide racing at the end was better still. It was interesting to watch how hard certain drivers fought for position, knowing when and where to battle, and when and where to concede.

So the car action was good, however anybody who thinks racing is about cars is only watching half the show. Sport of any kind, racing and NASCAR in particular is about the people. On Sunday we once again got to see the person inside the 20 car. An incident involving one driver going for a line which the other driver was always going to make hard for him to take, turned into a pushin' and a shovin' and a shoutin' match on pit lane involving not only the drivers, but the crews, and the families as well.

While I am not sure what Logano thought was going to happen (didn't I say that last week about Mr Kyle Busch) when he went 2 wide with Harvick, what he did afterwards was great. Being able to vent his frustration in the way he did is exactly what NASCAR is about, and again NASCAR need to be applauded once again for letting it happen. Whether Logano senior should have been involved is debatable. To me he needs to get out the way and let his son do the driving and talking. Joey is the man with the steering wheel, he is responsible for his actions, and the actions of his crew, and his dad should keep out. Did I say debatable...

The way I look at the Harvick / Logano incident is this...Pocono has several strips of new tarmac thru the turns and when single file the drivers were using this tarmac and its grip to get round the track as quickly as possible. Now try going 2 wide, only one driver is going to have the new grippy line, while the other is on the old slicker line. This can't make overtaking easy. To me the 29 / 20 incident occurred because they were both trying to take the turn on the newer tarmac, and collided. I wonder what Pocono would be like if they resurfaced the rest of the turns?

What about Allmendinger... what was that about?? To me of all the open wheel drivers to cross over to stock cars in recent years, the top two have to be JPM and 'Dinger. In his first year the now driver of the 43 car had to qualify for every race as he didn't have a guaranteed starting spot, and he did it, every week. He looks like he has learnt the art of stock car driving better than most converts and races well. That went out of the window at Pocono. Moving over on someone to attempt the block is level one of stupid, putting them on the grass is something else, now remember he did it to his team mate!?!?!

So all of this added up to another exciting finish. You can criticise the three G-W-C attempts or the 2 wide restart rule but once again it created excitement and headlines.

On another note... am I the only one who thinks the late models used in the Prelude to the Dream are ugly??