Coke Zero 400

[Matt Harper]

http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/cup/07/0...

What a race! Utterly brilliant performance from "The Smoke". I've seen a lot of cup races at Daytona and the 400 always seems to out-gun the 500 when it comes to on-track action.
Running the entire race under the lights must have a lot to do with it, but the whole atmosphere is different somehow. The entire crowd was on it's feet for the last 25 laps, despite the caution.
Great way to celebrate the holiday weekend!

Edited by Matt Harper on Sunday 5th July 17:14

[fastcaterham]

The ending was exciting don't get me wrong but a bit disspointing to see the resulting carnage. Lots of people already seem to be jumping on the "we need to ban blocking" bandwagon but what i want to know is where was Buschs spotter? I'm assuming the spotters at daytona are situated somewhere around the finishline so surely they could see Kyle wasn't clear of Tony and should have said something to prevent him coming back up across the nose of Tony and being spun.
Aside from that thought the racing was really good!

[Matt Harper]

I think you are being a little kind to Stewart. Busch blocked him twice in the run to the flag. Ist time he did it, Stewart yeilded, but when tried to get around him the second time - and Kyle moved down the track on him, Stewart looked to have nerfed him in the rear inside quarter - effectively turning him into the wall. As per the commentary, "Block me once, that's OK, but do it again and your going into the grandstand!".
Stewart dominated the race and having seen him win this race previously, due to sheer grit and bravery, it was clear from the white flag that he was either going to win it, or stuff it.
It was a shame that the race ended in a melee, but the close (albeit engineered) finish really had the entire speedway on it's feet

[fastcaterham]

Yes maybe your right but I'll be honest I'd rather of seen Kyle win than Tony for various reasons equally if I'd have been in Tony's shoes I don't think I'd of yeilded. The way I see it if your going to block sombody you make sure your actually clear of them first so that you don't get turned into the wall and that was what confused me slightly about Kyles move. If the spotter had told him he was clear of Tony then fair enough but trying to block when your not sure your even clear of sombody is one hell of a risk and you should be prepared to get turned. I'm sure it was probably half a dozen of one 6 of the other really.

[flemke]

fastcaterham said:

Yes maybe your right but I'll be honest I'd rather of seen Kyle win than Tony for various reasons equally if I'd have been in Tony's shoes I don't think I'd of yeilded. The way I see it if your going to block sombody you make sure your actually clear of them first so that you don't get turned into the wall and that was what confused me slightly about Kyles move. If the spotter had told him he was clear of Tony then fair enough but trying to block when your not sure your even clear of sombody is one hell of a risk and you should be prepared to get turned. I'm sure it was probably half a dozen of one 6 of the other really.

It happened so quickly that Busch's spotter wouldn't have had time to inform him and, with that much weight, on those tyres, at that speed, they can't change direction that well anyhow.

I'm a bit surprised that you would have preferred to see Busch win. There is no doubting the man's talent but, because of his rough driving, he is also the most disliked guy in the pitlane.

[fastcaterham]

Yes I realise there would of been nowhere near enough time for a spotter to say something along the lines of don't block. What I meant was in that situation would it of been easier for a spotter to say something like "alongside" and "still there" so as to inform Busch that the cars were still overlapping. Obviously then if a spotter had said that a driver would know that coming back across would lead to contact. I know thats what some spotters do and you seem to hear it a lot in indy car for example.
I know it all happened very quicky but having just watched it again on you tube I'm convinced there was just about enough time for a spotter to say "alongside" or whatever providing they were in a position to actually see it.
Then again I'm sat at home watching it on a nice big tv not on top of a grandstand in the heat of the moment so its easy for me to say.
Oh and I'm just not a Stewart fan for various reasons and do actually quite like Kyle even if I don't agree with everything he does. Still at the end of the day all my ideas are a bit late now anyway!

[onomatopoeia]

That accident was coming all the way from the back strech, the 14 was going to get a run off of turn four and the 18 was going to block. They all know that if they mis-time a block they are going in the wall, it happened to the 99 at Talladega and it happened to the 18 at the weekend. No way to stop it with those tracks as they are - take away the plates and you'll just get the same thing bout at 240 instead of 190mph.

[entropy]

I think Kyle's pride got in the way.

Probably something needs to be done about the chequers or wreckers mentality but unfortunately it will probably take a death or two before drivers give more respect to each other again.

[flemke]

entropy said:

I think Kyle's pride got in the way.

Probably something needs to be done about the chequers or wreckers mentality but unfortunately it will probably take a death or two before drivers give more respect to each other again.

It's in the hands of the regulator, which happens also to be the commercial rights holder, and the everything else.
When things get out of hand, one or more drivers will be sanctioned. Kyle Bush has been sanctioned before.
Short of things getting out of hand, there is and always has been some support for a tolerable (yes, what's "tolerable"?) degree of crashing, as in some people's eyes it adds to the show. D. Earnhardt Sr notoriously was allowed to get away with more than anyone else was, because he brought in thousands of fans who liked his style of dirty driving aggressive racing.