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At least Kyle Busch is still alive....
Whoa! This is gonna hurt (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
mikemulhern.net
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
Just racin'?
All's well that ends well?
Maybe so. And what happened between Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch here late Saturday night while dueling for the win in the Coke 400 could have happened at any track on the NASCAR tour.
At least Busch could walk into the infield hospital.
Still, crashes like this one and Carl Edwards' at Talladega a few weeks back should be warnings to NASCAR executives. Busch's car, like Edwards, got airborne in the final moments on the frontstretch….and that's not good.
Drivers have been asking NASCAR, ever since Edwards' Talladega flip, to look at doing something to keep the cars on the ground.
If NASCAR has done anything, it's kept it quiet.
And the third time might not be as charmed.
Ryan Newman: "I think something should have been changed with the cars gettig airborne.
"It's relatively the same type of package (here as at Talladega), where you're running the same amount of speed. The corner speeds I think dropped down a little bit more here than at Talladega.
"Yeah, I wish there would have been some changes, or some developments, technology-wise, with the roof flaps in keeping the cars down. But I haven't heard anything, and I haven't been told anything.
"If we're talking about safety, we should be told as well.
"I am (pushing the issue). I talked about it in Talladega (where Edwards' car landed on Newman's roof, just as Busch's car landed on Kasey Kahne's roof Saturday).
"We need to do these things. But I haven't heard of anything being done."
Teammate Stewart was chastened in victory lane, with the crash putting a decided damper on the celebration.
Runner-up Jimmie Johnson's take: "We've all understood that you can be really aggressive blocking. And that time it just didn't just work for Kyle.
"The guys are racing; Tony didn't mean to dump him.
"Same thing with Talladega.
"It's just the product of restrictor- plate racing.
"Every time we run the restrictor plate tracks, there are questions about how we can keep from having the big wreck. And you just can't.
"When you run plates and we run wide-open all the way around the track, situations like this come around."
Tony Stewart (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
For Stewart the run was not only another win, another solid performance in his first season as owner-driver, another points-padding race, but also an evening where Darian Grubb's pit crew was positively brilliant.
"I don't think we ever really dropped out of the top-three all night," Stewart said.
"They did not miss a beat the entire night," Grubb said.
"I hate to see that finish that way. That's typical speedway racing. But we were able to get the fastest car out there and win."
Shaken?
"I don't know," Stewart replied. "I'm not shaken by it. It doesn't matter who it is -- you just don't want a race to be decided like that.
"It's just a bad situation.
"It's not bad because we're put in a bad position; it just is what it is.
"I just don't feel as much gratification from winning this race as I probably should, because I don't like the way the outcome happened.
"I don't want any part of earning a race because the guy that was leading the race got wrecked.
"I don't know that we did anything wrong. He's protecting his position, which he's got to do. He can't just sit there and let us make a move like that and not try to defend it.
"But it puts him -- it puts us, it put Kasey Kahne, behind him, in a bad position where it drove Kyle's car all the way up to Kasey's windshield."
All in all, Stewart this night, this season, has seemed much more comfortable with himself, more mellow perhaps.
"The last couple years it just seems like we seem to get it a little more, and we pick our battles a little differently," Stewart says. "Owning a race track and owning race teams has been a really big part of helping me understand the big picture.
"I still enjoy the same things; I just don't get as riled up…and I don't know why that is either. But I'm kind of glad. Hopefully you guys will let me put the past behind me. There's nothing I can do about what I've done before, and I think I've paid long enough.
Ryan Newman: Says he's still waiting to hear from NASCAR about improved roof flaps for Daytona and Talladega (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
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Definitely the wreck was
Definitely the wreck was scary...and hasn't gotten less scary than the 3000000000 times it gets replayed. Too bad the brilliant racing that lead up to the wreck doesn't get the same air time.
I respect Kyle for not talking to the media afterwards, in this case, I think it was the smart and mature thing to do. I'm also impressed with the man Tony has turned out to be.
Runner-up Jimmie Johnson's
Runner-up Jimmie Johnson's take: "We've all understood that you can be really aggressive blocking. ... It's just the product of restrictor- plate racing. Every time we run the restrictor plate tracks, there are questions about how we can keep from having the big wreck. And you just can't."
Tony Stewart: "He's protecting his position, which he's got to do. He can't just sit there and let us make a move like that and not try to defend it."
Why does no one cry "nonsense" on statements like this? What's causing many of the wrecks, and caused the last-lap wreck on Saturday, is drivers blocking. Blocking is reckless, dangerous and utterly destructive to the sport of stock car racing. All other forms of auto racing ban blocking and are quite rigorous in enforcing that ban. NASCAR actually has a rule that says that a driver is required to "hold his line." Just because NASCAR doesn’t seem to enforce it doesn’t mean that the drivers cannot adhere to it on their own initiative.
Ryan Newman needs to stop
Ryan Newman needs to stop waiting, because there is no such thing as improved roof flaps - the concept had failed.
Busch didn't block; Tony just wrecked him, plain and simple. To his credit Tony acknolwedged his role in this wreck. And this isn't about restrictor plate racing, because we've seen this just about everywhere - heck, last week people were screaming about Kyle Busch and the ten-car melee at New Hampshire.
Drivers do need to relearn the line between hard racing and dirty driving.
i'm not sure i agree that
i'm not sure i agree that improved roof flaps, or something aerodynamic might not help. i want to talk with jack roush about that stuff, and some other engineers too. i think part of the problem might be the rear wing --- when the car gets in a particularly situation i think the wing creates lift....where the old flat spoiler didnt.
well, busch did block -- just like donnie and cale back in '79...and we all know what happened then....i think the yellow line rule ought to be thrown out the last lap....but i am very, very worried that these drivers now seem to think they're invincible....do we need another driver to die before we see we've got a problem?
Disagree on Busch blocking
Disagree on Busch blocking and flaps.
I didn't see him block - what I saw was Stewart getting him loose off Four, him correcting it, Stewart on his bumper at an angle certain to send him head-on into the wall, and Stewart nailing him. Busch was holding his line even with Stewart on his back bumper; Stewart was beaten if he'd stayed behind him. Again I credit Stewart for acknowledging he didn't like races to end like this.
As for roof flaps, I don't buy that the blade spoiler was better as far as keeping them on the ground - I remember all those stories (not by you, but in places like the Observer, SCR, Circle Track, etc.) about how the spoilers were acting like lifting wings when cars spun around. Now the rear wing might aggravate the situation as well, but we had this problem with blade spoilers as well.
I'm not seeing any aerodynamic change that possibly can be made with these cars to keep them on the ground. In the now-16 seasons we've had roof flaps I have seen no reduction in incidence of airborne crashes - the very first season (1994) roof flaps ran, Daytona saw three very bad airborne wrecks (Andy Farr in particular drilled the wall in Four on his roof so badly it cracked the concrete, always a sign the speeds are too fast for the sport's own good), and these were followed by airborne crashes at Charlotte (Chuck Bown in the All-Star Open), and Michigan (Bobby Hillin almost landing in the Turn Two parking lot). And it's never gotten better - I remember that period through the late 1990s when Atlanta saw cars tumbling even worse than what we saw with Kyle Busch at Daytona, and I vividly remember Derrike Cope nearly landing in Texas' infield in the Truck race in 2000.
We also know via drivers like Rusty Wallace citing all the windtunnel time done that 194 MPH is the cut-off point for keeping them on the ground - my only nit to pick here is 194 seems high; 190 seems closer to the actual safety cut-off point for speeds.
If there is an aero change they can find to make roof flaps work I will be shocked - I'm not seeing it based on the history of this thing and how irrelevant it has been.
You mention the yellow line rule - that rule has no justification regardless of lap. Here I agree - throw that rule out altogether.
Mike, watch the replay from
Mike, watch the replay from Stewart's in car view a couple of times and see if you still hold that opinion. I thought Busch had blatantly gone up the hill to block him, also, until I saw that camera view on NASCAR Now. It looks like Busch was still trying to collect his car from where Tony raked across his bumper coming out of 4 rather than Busch blocking. You can see Busch's hands trying to save it from the camera ahead, and from Stewart's in-car you can see that he nearly dumped him. Unless Kyle speaks we'll never really know if his intent was to block, but it did not appear he had got the car all the way saved yet (from the in-car view) when he and Stewart collided. I think Tony knows something to that effect, also, or he would not have acted like he did after the race. Here's the video link:
http://www.nascar.com/video/race_chatter/2009/07/07/cup.day2.chatter.busch.nascar/index.html?MostPopular
It starts right at the 1:00 mark of the footage.
Sidenote: Anybody else notice the near tragedy when Stewart's crew jumped over the pit wall early as cars were coming sideways across the grass at over 100 mph? That would have made the wreck a sidenote for sure.
good work, dude. thanks for
good work, dude. thanks for the vid.....we'll ask tony today if he wants to amplify on that.
mm
Yeh but for how long as
Yeh but for how long as reckless as he is, he would cut off his own mother and send her into the wall thats the kind of person Kyle Busch is.
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