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New Hampshire International Speedway always makes me nervous.   This year, maybe more so than ever.  The track has seen more than its share of carnage through its history.  Loudon may have been the track that most needed the soft-wall technology of the Safer barriers.   With long straights and sharp, relatively flat corners, the New Hampshire miler will be especially tough on drivers for teams that don’t have the New Car’s special handling requirements figured out.  Missing the set-up could hurt.

The Loose in Turn Three experiment continues this week with Do You NASCAR, Bruce’s NASCAR Bits and Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie each fielding a topic to chew on.  Here’s the Bench Racing hor dourve of the week….

After what we saw at Infineon Raceway, is there still a place for “road-course ringers” in the Cup Series?

Charlie:  If you run a top tier Cup team, your drivers better be able to at least hold their own on the road courses. Your best teams need drivers that can do it all. The ability of most of the regular Sprint Cup drivers to handle the road courses has improved so much that it would take the perfect storm of circumstances to have a non-regular win ANY Cup race.  Only if you have a team that is on the edge of top thirty five contention - or is out of the top thirty five all together - would trying to catch a specialist’s lightning in a bottle be worth disrupting your group’s chemistry.

Bruce:  No.  Only if you’re a 30th and worse team with driver proven to be inefficient on road courses would you even think about it.  Any time a team brings a ringer in, it’s a slap in the face to the regular driver, even if he appears on board, you’re killing his opportunity to accrue valuable driver points.  Everyone either has the talent, or can be taught the skills, if the team really wants to invest in their driver.
 
TZ: Of course any team that’s on the bubble for the top-35 in owner points should consider using specialists at courses like Infineon or Watkins Glen. But, to throw a wrench in your guys’ theory that it’s reserved ONLY for those teams, what about teams like the no. 8 DEI car? You’re already limiting his Cup experience to a measley 8 races this year, so there’s no real logic in making sure that he gets in there at the road courses. Then, there’s also occassions when that teams are well within the top-35, yet have no real loyalty in a multi-year sense to their driver … guys like a Dave Blaney. In this instance, lingering After what we saw at Infineon Raceway, is there still a place for “road
course ringers” in the Cup Series?

That’s what we think.  How ’bout you?  Leave your feedback in the comments section.  After doing that, head over to DoYouNASCAR.com for TZ’s topic for the week…..

After a lackluster 2007 season, can the no. 16 team keep it together long enough through the next 10 races to keep Greg Biffle in Chase contention?

Then check out Bruce’s Bits for this one…
 
Should NASCAR and Sunoco make a concerted effort to convert the sport over to a less fossil fuel centric sport?

Photo credit:  BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW

I chose David Ragan to win the Coca Cola 600 during our picks weekly segment ON PIT ROW this week. What was I thinking? Admittedly that segment of the show is pretty “off the wall”. It isn’t meant to be serious fantasy racing analysis. It’s more about who can “out stupid” whom. Looking at NASCAR’s Loop Data this week makes me think maybe I have a lock on that for the 600. Ragan isn’t even on the sheet!

Now I will admit to being influenced by the Sprint Showdown - the qualifier for the Sprint All Star Race. David finished a strong third, just out of the last transfer spot. Then Sunday I got to watch him - in person - start from the back of a 35 car field and work to the front for third place finish in the ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Toledo Speedway. Plus I talked to him in the infield at Toledo. He’s a nice guy. But 200 laps at the Glass City half mile isn’t even close to 400 at Lowes. I may have over-bought.

If not Ragan, who?

Once again, Jimmy Johnson is the overwhelming leader of the Loop Data stats. If Dave Ragan is a stretch - and he is - then Johnson is a steal if you get to pick him. But J J has looked the part at many other races in 2008 too, only to disappoint. His Driver Rating of 120.2 - nearly 26 points better than second place Kyle Busch - is a big number. He has Series best stats in nine other Box Score categories including Ave Finish of 5.0, Ave Position 7.5, 246 Fastest Laps and 1956 Laps in the Top 15 for 88.6% of the last six Lowes races. Johnson’s 990 Ave Points Gained is 100 pts better than the next highest total - the 899 for Carl Edwards.

The Loop stats for Lowes are a bit strange though. As stated, Kyle Busch has the second best Driver Rating, but his Ave Points Gained per race is only 596 - almost 400 less than Johnson’s total. The Shrub will start from the pole and he has been one of the best this season but the Loop stats don’t point to consistency at Charlotte. His Ave Finish is only 23.5.

Carl Edwards’ Driver Rating, despite the second most Ave Points Gained per race, is even lower than Busch the Younger’s at 88.6. Carl has been strong on the intermediate tracks this year and I expect he’ll do well at Lowes too. Five top tens in his six starts are a good indication.

Veteran Mark Martin has the number three DR at 93.2 and he’s a four time winner at the N Carolina track. There hasn’t been much talk about Martin in 2008. He could make some noise this week though.

Kasey Kahne, winner of the Sprint All Star race and two time Lowes winner has a Driver Rating of 92.9 and has led the most Loop Laps with 338 to Johnson’s 298. If the Thursday ruling on suspension settings by NASCAR doesn’t throw the #9 teams setups off too much, Kahne could be the pick this week.

You can throw a Loop blanket over the next dozen contenders. The only stat of the bunch that jumps out at me is Bobby Labonte’s Ave Points Gained - 812 from the 13th overall DR ranking position.

I haven’t seen enough from the #9 to pick Kahne for a 600 mile race. To me it’s between Johnson and Edwards. I’ll go with Jimmy, the big stat advantage and the five wins. Carl could get his first Lowes win, but I have to see it first.

Dark horse pick - Kurt Busch.

Kevin Harvick was - by all statistical evidence - the right pick for last weeks Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway. It didn’t work out.  Picking winners in NASCAR racing often doesn’t. You can begin to doubt the viability of the stats.

But the drivers who rated right behind Harvick for RIR were two of the most dominant and - as it turned out - controversial guys in the event.

Denny Hamlin led 381 of the 400 race laps but finished 24th - due to a tire going down under green and his attempt to draw a caution. The controversial part came of that try for a yellow flag.

Kyle Busch finished second. He got there by - some say - driving through Dale Earnhardt Jr while going for the win. There has been plenty of hash and re-hash on that subject.

Harvick had a dominant position in the NASCAR Loop stats for RIR. The spread between drivers at Darlington Raceway is tighter and there are only three races in the Loop database for the Lady in Black.

Fantasy Picks for the Track too Tough to Tame

Some weeks ago, Steve and I interviewed several of the NASCAR internet community’s most knowledgeable writers for our first 7 Post Podcast.  We asked each of our guests who their pick would be for Darlington in May.  Most chose Greg Biffle.  Goodyear had just completed the spring tire test at the South Carolina track.  The news that Biffle had topped 200 mph on the back stretch was big.  Maybe that was an influence on the picks.  Or perhaps those blogger folks are pretty smart too.

Gregg Biffle has the top Driver Rating of 126.1. He is the top dog in Fastest Laps with 141 and Laps Led at 346 or 31.3% of the last three races at Darlington. Greg has the second most Laps in the Top Fifteen the third best Ave Running Position of 5.2. Top those numbers with three top tens and two wins and The Biff looks good this week.

Jimmy Johnson looks good every week, doesn’t he? Second best Driver Rating, Fastest Laps, Laps Led and the top Ave Finish of 2.3 make it so again. JJ has two top fives and eight top tens.

Hamlin has only raced twice in Loop races at the Lady. He has the third best DR of 119.2 in those two and two top fives and four top tens all together. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Busch has only one top ten ever and a Driver Rating of 85.7 which is 13th.

Darlington has been good to Ryan Newman. Ryan is fourth in DR with 116.4 and number one in Ave Running Position of 4.951. Five top fives and six top tens show his consistency at this track.

Jeff Gordon has gained more total Loop Points per Darlington race than anyone else - 540 compared to Biffle’s 498 - and has the best Ave Finish - 1.7 - and Laps in the Top Fifteen - 1091 for 98.8%. Gordon is also a seven time winner here. Yikes!

Earnhardt Jr, Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne all have similar DR’s - 99.6, 98.8 and 97.8 respectively. None of the three has ever won at Darlington. The only Loop stat that jumps out is that Junior has zero Laps Led.

I’m going with Jeff Gordon as my fantasy pick. That Ave Finish stat of 1.7 and his top Ave Points Gained combined with his history at the track and the fact that he is, well, Jeff Freakin’ Gordon finish the self-argument for me.

If you want a driver outside the Loop stat top ten, take Jeff Burton.Steady Jeff has two wins, eight top fives and fourteen top tens at Darlington to support his 2008 success.

My dark-horse pick is Bobby Labonte - hopefully in that Speed Racer-painted #43 again.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Is Tony Stewart going to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and if he is, what does that mean for the rest of 2008?  Those are the big questions that the NASCAR community is dealing with this week.  What seemed like just another rumor ON PIT ROW a week ago has grown to ominous status since Talladega.  The latest evidence seems to have Stewart heading for a different - likely Chevy powered - organization. Mike Mulhern has a good read on that and the other dominoes ready to fall in the 2008 silly season.

Stewart has the fourth best Richmond Loop Data Driver Rating going into the weekend in Virginia.  His 102.2 trails his red-hot teammates Kyle Busch at 109.00 and Denny Hamlin with 111.3.  Stewart is a three time winner at Richmond while the others are win-less.  Get this - Stewart’s career Ave Finish at RIR is a very good 11.3.  But Busch and Hamlin have averaged 6.2 and 6.5 respectively.  The scenario bodes well for Joe Gibbs Racing but be honest.  Do you pick Tony over the two youngsters?

Kurt Busch has the fifth best Driver Rating at 100.8 and has a win and six top tens.  But Kurt’s 2008 looks like a write-off year for the Blue Deuce.  I pass.

Dale Earnhardt Jr captured his last Cup Series win at Richmond two years ago and he has three wins total here.  Junior sits tenth in the Loop with a DR of 89.9 - do you sense a quicker drop off than most weeks?  Earnhardt trails four big names who have had, more or less undistinguished first nine races this year.  Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne are Richmond winners.  Greg Biffle is not. The best Ave Finish of the bunch is Newman’s 10.0.  The most impressive Loop stat of the group is Kasey Kahne’s 249 laps led in the last six races.

Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Burton and Carl Edwards are all well back in the Loop pack, although Gordon and Johnson have led 305 and 213 Loop laps respectively.  Johnson swept the races last year and Gordon (2) and Burton are RIR winners.  This has not been a good track for Cousin Carl.

Any one of those drivers could win this race.  So could Martin Truex Jr,  Mark Martin or Clint Bowyer.  I just can’t pick  those guys if I base my choice on Loop stats.

The stud this week  is Kevin Harvick.  Happy leads the Loop Driver Rating at 121.2 - ten points better than second place.  In fact he tops out in more than half of the Loop Box Score categories.  His Ave Position is 5.6 and Ave Finish 5.5. Harvick had 259 Fastest Laps, 2267 (94.5%) Laps in the Top Fifteen and 599 Laps Led - 25% of all of the laps run the last six races. No driver is even close.

Kevin Harvick has been very steady this year.  This looks like the week to break through with a win.  For a dark horse I’ll take Virginia native Elliott Sadler.  Those GEM cars are looking better lately and home cookin’ can’t hurt.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Jimmy Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus used a fuel mileage strategy and guts to win the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Johnson may not have dominated the race in the truest sense, but he did lead the most laps and more importantly for him and Hendrick Motorsports ; he got the monkey off the team’s back before the off week. Mark Martin, pole sitter Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. were the only other drivers to lead laps during this first trip to the desert for 2008.

Denny Hamlin’s third and Kyle Busch’s tenth place finish were the only Toyotas in the top ten, while you have to look to 12th place Bobby Labonte as the top finishing Dodge. Carl Edwards’ fourth place finish led the Ford contingent and saw another Roush-Fenway driver, Greg Biffle, land in the top ten.

In other NASCAR news; former Craftsman Truck Series driver, Aaron Fike admitted to using heroin on race days before getting into his race truck. This is a “Pete Rose type revelation” considering that Fike had previously denied using drugs during race events. And this leads us into…

…this weeks BUZZ ON PIT ROW is:

Should NASCAR change its drug testing policies, and if so, what should they be?

photo credit: Icon Media Sports,Inc.

Texas Motor Speedway has a famous, and pretty funny, billboard ad campaign featuring different NASCAR drivers. The Dale Earnhardt Jr version created enough controversy early this year to cause a change in the ad copy. The original took a shot at Teresa Earnhardt and that was determined to be too tacky. A shame really, that they changed the original. It was funny and people ought to be able to laugh at themselves and the circumstances that they create. Not my call though. Too bad.

There is a Tony Stewart version too. Tony’s says ” Reason #20 - road rage“. Not as funny or clever as the Earnhardt Jr ad, but maybe it is descriptive of Smoke’s state of mind going to Texas. 2008 has been a mixed bag for the Home Depot Toyota.

Stewart is in sixth place in the Sprint Cup standings which is good. He is the only member of the Joe Gibbs Racing trio without a victory and that is not so good. Tony has led 289 2008 laps, second only to teammate Kyle Busch and he trails only Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman in total earnings. We don’t need to take up a collection.

Maybe Texas Motor Speedway will be the venue where Stewart breaks the 2008 ice. He has the top Loop Data Driver Rating of 109.3. Stewart also has series best stats of 437 Laps Led - 21.8 % of all laps in the last six Texas races - 195 Fastest Laps and 88.9% of his laps run have been in the top fifteen (1786 total). But Tony has never won at the Texas mile-and-a-halfer. In fact he’s had only two top fives, to go with six top tens in eleven tries at TMS. For once, the Loop Data leader does not look like a prohibitive favorite to win.

Editor’s note: Stewart did win at TMS.  Here’s the story.

Loop Stats may not tell the story this week

Speaking of favorites, the guy who usually resides at the top of the 2007 stats, Jimmy Johnson, shows up second in Driver Rating for TMS. But this is one track JJ’s stats don’t make competitors cringe. At 104.1 he trails Stewart by more than five points and, for a change, has no series leading stats. In eight races Johnson has six top tens, three top fives and one win.

Matt Kenseth is right on Johnson’s heals with a Loop DR of 103.2 and has 5 top fives, including one win, in ten races at TMS. Matt’s Ave Loop Finish is a series leading 6.5 and that goes with the top Ave Mid Race Position of 5.5. Look for Kenseth up front Sunday.

Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin is the fourth rated TMS Loop driver. Hamlin has finished in the top ten in three of his five Texas starts and has a career ave finish 9.8. The Toyotas have looked strong in the super speedway races. Hamlin is the only driver in the field with a win streak to protect. He should be strong here.

Dale Earnhardt Jr has good looking stats at the Texas track including a win and six top tens in ten starts. His Driver Rating of 97.2 is right behind Kurt Busch’s 98 flat, but I like Junior better in the Hendrick Chevy than I do Kurt in the slumping Penske Dodge. In nine starts, Busch has six top tens but remains winless and looked mostly bad so far this season.

According to Fox Sports.com, Martin Truex Jr has an Ave Finish of 6.6 while the NASCAR Loop has him at 9.4 and a Driver Rating of 95.7. Either way Texas has been one of Martin’s best tracks. He has flirted with the top ten in points this year, but has just one top ten finish. I can’t see picking him over the other top Loopers.

Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards round out the top ten in Loop DR. Of the three, Edwards is the scariest to see in your mirrors with two wins on somewhat similar tracks and a strong early run at very similar Atlanta Motor Speedway. That said, both Biffle and Gordon will win sometime before too long and this could be the week.

Does it sound like I’m waffling in my analysis? I am. I don’t like what the Loop stats are saying this week. What - or rather who - I like is Jeff Burton in the RCR #31 Chevy. All three RCR drivers are grouped with DR’s of 83.0 to 85.6. Kevin Harvick is the highest and Clint Bowyer the lowest. Right in the middle, almost where you would expect him to be is Burton at 83.1. But he sits on top of the 2008 Sprint Cup standings and has one win, three top fives and four top tens in six starts this year. Burton is also a two time winner at TMS. Mark it down, Burton to win.

Watch Dave Blaney and Brian Vickers to emerge from the field. Both are fast at fast tracks and maybe just due for the wind to change for them.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

One of the questions I asked of the six guests we had ON PIT ROW last night was:

“Who is your pick to win at the re-paved Darlington Raceway in May?

Now, with the race more than six weeks away, and six of the most opinionated folks you’d ever want to assemble being asked, I thought I’d get a big variety of answers.

What I got was Greg Biffle.  Last night was all Biffle - all the time, at least for Darlington.

All Cup drivers are fast.  But Biffle is one of the ones that I think of when we come up to a particularly fast track.  The fact that Greg was one of the Goodyear tire testers at this weeks Darlingon tests - and one of the first to hit 200 mph on the backstretch there - may have contributed to the prominent position he held in the frontal lobes of the brains of my guests last night.  I don’t know.

Somebody may have picked a driver other than the “Biff”, but I don’t recall if they did.  I stopped making notes after like three in a row.  The funny thing is, I didn’t give my pick, which I had prepared prior to the show.  It was Biffle.  Mass hypnosis, blogging style.

Who would be your pick to win the spring race on the Lady in Black?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Getting ready for two straight short track weekends with trivial facts about the track in Thunder Valley.

500- Scheduled laps in the race this Sunday

257- Laps led in the spring race last year by Tony Stewart on his way to a 35th place finish

94 - Total number of Cup races run at Bristol Motor Speedway

90 - Laps run under caution during the 2007 spring race

77 - Number of races won from a top 10 starting position

57 - The number of Bristol Cup starts by Ricky Rudd without a win. Ever.

50 - Where you start might mean something - 50 winners started in the top four

42 - That’s how many starters there were for the first ever race at Bristol

41 - Different pole winners, with 19 drivers having done it more than once

38 - Where Elliott Sadler started from and won in 2001 - the farthest back of any winner

37 - Most Bristol wins by manufacturer goes to the Bow-tie boys

36 - Number of different winners

22 - Top fives all-time by Rusty Wallace

21 - The number of years where a Bristol winner has gone on to win the Championship

21 - Junior Johnson won more races at Bristol than any other owner, including 8 in a row

19 - The number of cars that finished that first ever race - out of 42

17 - Country singer Brenda Lee was 17 when she sang the anthem at that first race

14.908 - First ever sub 15 second lap turned in by Ryan Newman in 2003 - still the record

12 - Most wins by a driver goes to Jaws, hissownself, Darrell Waltrip, including 7 straight

10.3 - Greg Biffle’s average finish - best of the active best

9 - Most Bristol poles, by Cale Yarborough. Also the second most wins at the track, held by Cale, Earnhardt Sr and Rusty. Jack Roush leads active car owners with 9 wins, too.

5.5 - Jeff Gordon’s average start in 30 races - nobody’ even close

5 - Wins by Gordon and Kurt Busch. Also the number of different drivers to win for Junior Johnson

4 - Consecutive years that Jeff Gordon won the Food City 500

3 - Times Jeff Burton has finished second

2 - Wins by Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin

1 - Win in 55 starts for Terry Labonte

.533 - Miles around the bowl

Zero - Chance of a caution free race

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Survival at Atlanta Motor Speedway last week, in a NASCAR sense, had to do with driving within the limits of Goodyear’s questionable tire choice. Kyle Busch mastered the task, as did Carl Edwards, before mechanical gremlins ate his chances. Even the loudest critics of the tires – Tony Stewart, Dales Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Gordon – used the combination of patience and talent necessary to bring their cars in with top five finishes.

Surviving Bristol will be a different story. It’s strange really. Bristol Motor Speedway has a history, maybe more than any other track, where certain drivers excel repeatedly. Darrell Waltrip had twelve wins in Thunder Valley, and is the historic king of the track. Three others were nine-time winners - Dale Earnhardt Sr, Cale Yarborough and Rusty Wallace – and there are several five-time winners including current contenders, Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch. If you scan the list of winners at Bristol, you don’t find many names outside the top-tier of NASCAR competitors. The recent winners, since Kurt Busch’s run of four out of five from 2002-2004, are; Dale Jr, Harvick, Matt Kenseth twice, Kurt’s fifth and the hottest drivers of 2008, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. What makes this odd is the prevailing feeling that to survive Bristol’s biennial wreck-fest, you have to be lucky. There has to be some truth to that, given the tight confines of the half mile bull-ring, the speed that the thirty degree banking allows and the fact that there just aren’t many single car wrecks. So, why do the same names consistently show well at Bristol? Why doesn’t the luck – both the good and the bad – spread itself around a bit more? Matt Kenseth has won two of the last six Bristol contests so his top Loop Driver Rating of 111.4 is not a surprise. Kenseth leads in eight other categories as well. Notably he has an Ave. Mid Race Position of 5.3, so maybe running upfront helps avoid the wrecks but the front runners at Bristol are dealing with lapped traffic the whole race. Not much help really. Matt has also led nearly a quarter of all laps in the last six Bristol meetings – 23.5% for a total of 706. Jeff Gordon has the next best Driver Rating at 103.1. Gordon is one of the five-time Bristol winners but his only win since 1998 came in the 2002 night race. He must be doing something right lately though, to be ranked number 2. It’s my oft-stated opinion that Jeff Gordon is always a good pick. These numbers and the fact that Jeff has been in position to win every race since Daytona make it obvious this week. Greg Biffle has never won at Bristol. His driver Loop Data Rating of 102.7 is third best but NASCAR’s traditional stats have him number one, career-wise at the Tennessee track. In ten starts he has six top ten finishes and three top fives. But get this – he has completed, amazingly at Bristol, 100% of all laps in the races he’s entered. There’s that combination of skill, patience and luck you need at Bristol. Biffle’s been good in 2008 too, sitting second in points and contending every week. The wins are coming. Kevin Harvick has quietly moved into third place in the Sprint Cup standings and he ranks fourth in Bristol Driver Rating at 99.2. He has spent 74.5 % of his time at Bristol in the top fifteen and has finished half of his fourteen races at Bristol in the top five.

Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr come next with DRs of 97.7 and 97.5. Both drivers are Bristol winners and both overcame there rubber induced frustration to finish top three last week at Atlanta. Junior as the better overall stats at Bristol with a series best Ave. Finish of 6.5 compared to Smoke’s 14.0. But Tony has run up front for 1085 laps to Junior’s 708.

Gillette-Everham Motorsports drivers Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler are top ten Bristol Loop drivers, coming in with DRs of 94.2 and 92.9. Kahne has led 305 laps to Sadler’s 113 but Elliott is the one who won a Bristol race. Kurt Busch had a miserable 2007 spring race but he is unquestionably one of the masters of Thunder Valley, with five wins – all since 2002. His current Loop DR of 92.8 reflects that poor 2007 finish. He has nine top tens and five wins in fourteen total races and has led 535 laps. Kurt should contend Sunday.Steady, fast, Jeff Burton and the spectacular Kyle Busch are tenth and eleventh with Loop DRs of 90.5 and 90.0. They are followed by Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and Bobby Labonte. Jimmy Johnson is sixteenth. Of those drivers, only Edwards has won at Bristol before. Bristol races have a reputation as wild-cards, much like Talladega and the best car often finishes thirty laps down. At Bristol it’s best to be lucky and good. Biffle is my pick this week, on a hunch for sure. For a dark-horse, I’ll take Jeremy Mayfield – our Tuesday guest ON PIT ROW - a former Bristol winner driving a Hendrick powered Chevy and deserving of a bit of good luck too.Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Hey, I hear Tony Stewart didn’t like the Goodyear tires that he had to use at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday. Is that right? Well how’s this for unhappy, thanks to Mike Mulhern...

“The first thing I’m doing when I get home is dismount anything that has Goodyear on it, and putting Firestone or something else on it so I feel a lot safer.
“If the rest of this year goes like this, there will be a lot of drivers going into retirement, because no one wants to run like this.”

Ah, the first retirement threat of 2008 by Tony Stewart. Now the season can really get under way.

Dale Earnhardt Jr didn’t think a whole lot of the skins that Goodyear brought to AMS either. More from Mike…

“Goodyear doesn’t like to hear people bashing tires, and I don’t like doing it….but I’m not going to put up with this,” Earnhardt said flatly. “And I don’t think any of the other drivers are either.
“There’s a big difference between complaining and stating the obvious.

Nobody was happy with the Goodyear tires but Smoke and Junior still managed to finish second and third respectively. Greg Biffle survived to finish fourth after, supposedly, his crew chief answered repeated bitching about his car’s handling by telling him to slow down.

Race winner Kyle Busch figured that tactic out all by his lonesome, apparently.

“Just babying it around the bottom of the track was what I had to do all day. If I missed it, it slowed us down so much those guys behind us would close up. I had to make sure I hit my marks, smooth and slow.”

Kyle wasn’t crazy about the tires either, but he took what he had and came home with the first ever Cup Series win for Toyota. In doing so he led the way for Joe Gibbs Racing, taking a higher road than his older more experienced teammate, Stewart.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

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