I love the short tracks

When we hit the short tracks, folks, it is my favorite time of the year. Back in the day, I loved it when we had North Wilkesboro, Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond all right around each other. It was like our own version of the short-track circuit.

But like all things, nothing stays the same. North Wilkesboro went away. The schedule evolved and the short-track races became more spread out. I am thankful that we still have Bristol and Martinsville together in the spring. It’s just that the racing on the short tracks is always exciting and fun to watch. There’s pushin’ and shovin’ – sometimes on and off the track.

Bristol may not be as frantic as it once was, but golly there is still great racing there. I thought our entire NASCAR on FOX team did an outstanding job of covering all the great racing Sunday. When you are on a half-mile racetrack with 36 degrees of banking and you can get cars running three abreast through the corners and down those little short straightaways, well that’s just amazing.

That’s a tribute to the drivers for being able to control their cars that well. It’s a tribute to the teams giving their drivers cars that handle that well. We didn’t see a lot of unnecessary contact on Sunday. Certainly Greg Biffle and Mark Martin getting together late in the race triggered a mighty big accident, but other than that it was a pretty clean race.

Now there were tire problems. A number of cars had tire problems and got into the wall. You have heard me say this many times over the last couple years, but I am still amazed at the resiliency of this car. All three of the Joe Gibbs Racing cars hit the wall hard. All three cars were able to come back and race. In fact, Kyle Busch even gained a top-10 finish.

He wasn’t the only one Sunday that was able to recover like that. Others were able to race and be competitive. If nothing else is said, this race car has to be recognized as a tough ol' bird. With this car, unlike others, running into the wall doesn’t always put you out of the race anymore. And trust me, that’s a good thing.

There was a lot of emotion inside the track Sunday – well, for that matter, all weekend really. The determination of the No. 48 to win that race was a thing of beauty. If you had a chance to listen to them on the radio all through the weekend, you could easily tell those folks were on a mission. They even got to a point where the car was exactly like Jimmie wanted it and he radioed in to his crew chief Chad Knaus and literally told the boys to “ice down the champagne.” Now folks, this was on Saturday, no less.

So they knew then they were going to be pretty good on Sunday. Don’t forget that for all the races Jimmie has won in his short career, winning at Bristol has always eluded him. So that was a lot of the motivation. This wasn’t a runaway or a foregone conclusion by any means.

Kurt Busch on Sunday had the No. 48 car covered. That No. 2 Penske Racing car actually was the car to beat, not the No. 48. Kurt ran up front all day long and that car was flawless. He and new crew chief Steve Addington are hitting on all eight cylinders now. Sure the first couple races were iffy as they got to know each other in race conditions. I mean that’s to be expected. The chemistry in the last three races has been spot-on and that’s going to be a powerful combination as we get further along into the 2010 season.

For Kurt, unfortunately, it was like a flashback to Jeff Gordon’s race in Las Vegas earlier this year. Both guys had dominant cars all day long and were the ones to beat. But they both looked in their mirrors and that No. 48 was right there waiting to pounce.

Now Jimmie Johnson is an unbelievable driver. He doesn’t have to prove anything to me or anyone else ever again. His body of work in his short career speaks volumes. Where the head games are being played, I believe, is in the pits.

Chad Knaus has all those other crew chiefs so torqued that they spend a lot of their time worrying about what he is going to do and not what they need to do. Like so many of these races are coming down to, a late-race caution has all these other crew chiefs worrying about what Chad is going to do.

“If I take two tires, will Chad beat me by taking four? If I take four tires will Chad beat me by taking two? If I take two tires will Chad beat me by taking no tires?” That right now is the head game going on in the pits. He has these guys second-guessing themselves to death. So to me, Chad is in these guys' heads right now. That, to me, goes a long way in explaining all their success late in these races.

Going back to Kurt for a minute, we had gotten a report that when he came on pit road there late in the race, Steve called for two tires. The report we got was that Kurt overruled him saying, “All the way around,” which means four tires. Well, unfortunately, that decision cost him the race.

That’s why Kurt was so upset after the race. That combined with the fact he was in the wrong lane on the restart cost him another big Bristol trophy. When Matt Kenseth didn’t take off, Kurt was trapped in that inside line while Jimmie shot through a hole and away he went.

Folks are also talking about the conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his crew chief Lance McGrew. After getting as high as fifth spot, Dale Jr. got a speeding penalty on pit road and was sent to the rear. So naturally he was hot about that. Lance was trying to calm him down and get him refocused on coming back through the field and getting a great finish. One of the comments Lance made to Jr. was, “Don’t lay down on me.” Well, that lit Junior’s fuse because he interpreted that Lance was calling him out. Junior didn’t like that.

There are a lot of folks bashing Junior because of his conditioning. His teammates are workout fanatics with Mark Martin leading the parade. Jimmie works out all the time and even Jeff has been working out religiously to help ease his back problems. So for Lance to say that to Junior really wasn’t a good button to push on him.

Trust me, as a former driver, I know that sometimes things like that will either tick you off or motivate you. But let me tell you from first-hand experience, a ticked-off Earnhardt behind the wheel usually equates to a pretty good result. Let’s face it, actually because of the penalty, he was in the back, missed the big wreck, came back up through there and got himself a top-10 finish. The news gets even better as he is sitting there in the top 10 in points. So overall, Sunday was a good day for the No. 88 crowd even though there was some drama along the way.

I felt sorry for Marcos Amrbose and a number of guys who had great runs going but didn’t get the great finish to back it up. Kevin Harvick didn’t have a great car but he salvaged another great finish. He is still the points leader. Sure by one point, but he’s still on top.

It was a great call on Kenseth crew chief Todd Parrott’s part to only take two tires. See, on short tracks only taking two sometimes is a great call because you have to anticipate there being more cautions along the way. Not only did he get his driver track position, but that then turned into a better finish than they would have had. So that was a smart call.

Oh by the way

I have been in Charlotte all this week and was over at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the spoiler test Tuesday and Wednesday. Folks, the wing is gone and you aren’t going to believe the difference in how that car looks. Trust me, you are going to love that car. With that ugly wing gone, this almost looks like a real race car now.

The drivers and teams are loving it. They say it handles better so everyone is pretty pumped up about it. So kudos to NASCAR for making the change. Sure it took a lot of complaining to make it happen, but I have said all along I think the racing will be better. I’ll just tell ya, that thing has no alibi now. It’s not ugly anymore.