This week Adam was back to join Hannah and I to talk about the post race drama from Darlington.

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"Gay NASCAR" by Keith J. Varadi - 2009

In the early twenties, scientist at the Santorum Institute were the first to identify the phenomenon of gays loving a parade.  While their science was sound, their methodology failed to account for gay NASCAR fans watching Saturday night’s race from Darlington.

This gay, for example, did not expect to see a parade of race cars at a track known for the exact opposite.  “The Lady in Black” and the track that is “too tough to tame” had  been billed as the antidote to the plague of long green flag segments that have infected the sport this season.

Several single car spins and shards of debris brought most out the earlier caution flags – but at a track known for only having one racing groove, it wasn’t too surprising that the field got spread out like Kim Jong Il’s ashes on Ryan Seacrest.   Luckily, the rash of cautions that did fall came at the end of the race putting fans on the edge of their seats of glory.

The black cloud that has followed the #24 this season returned to Darlington – as Jeff Gordon developed three flat tires in less than 10 laps and wound up taking the car behind the wall.  Maybe the contract he signed with the devil to play blues guitar and race cars really gud’ has expired.

With less than 60 laps to go the field was under caution after last year’s winner Regan Smith spun at the entrance to pit road most of the drivers divas started to save fuel.  Fox devoted several minutes of live TV to showing Jimmie Johnson flipping a switch down, then flipping it up, then flipping it back down again, then up, then down – I haven’t seen such riveting television since my cable box locked up while stuck on CSPAN.

As the field spread back out after that caution there were some great passes for position – bringing some excitement to race.  Within a few laps a lose Jamie Mac slid up into AJ Allmendinger – bringing the caution back out.  While they were the only two to suffer damage – it did cause even more panic for the guys calculating fuel mileage in the pits.  I haven’t seen that many switches since I watch a Mitt Romney speech.

As the laps wound down Tony Stewart did everything he could to catch Jimmie Johnson who was en route to breaking a 16-race winless streak and bring his boss the 200th win for Hendrick Motorsports.
It looked like Jimmie was going to run away with it when with 7 laps to go Kurt Busch bounced of the wall several times before a flat tire finally spent the #51 across the apron – unable to check up, Ryan Newman got turned and was along for the ride as the #39 went hard into the outside wall.

But, the green/white/checkered finish didn’t throw the #48 off their game…. Jimmie jumped way out front on the final restart and never looked back.

The only real drama came after the race when Ryan Newman’s pit crew tried to attack Kurt Busch.  After Kurt spun he cussed out his team on the scanner in typical KuBu Asshat fashion and then proceeded to do a burnout through the #39 pit box.  Newman’s crew chief Tony Gibson said, “When you come ripping through somebody’s pit box like that, he could have took out five or six guys plus the officials pretty easy, I don’t know how somebody didn’t get run over, to be honest with you. It was a miracle nobody got hit.”

In my favorite quote of the season thus far Ryan Newman told Dustin Long from SI.com that he thought the elder Busch brother has a “chemical imbalance.”

The #39 crew was waiting for Kurt at the #51 hauler but Kurt was advised to leave his car on pit road.  He wound up hitting the #39 – and while Newman says it was intentional – Busch claimed he “slipped” while taking off his helmet.  ??A scuffle then ensued with a NASCAR official falling over the hood of the #51 while trying to break it up.  NASCAR is still investigating and will announce later in the week if there will be any fines issued – but Robin Pemberton from NASCAR indicated the official might have lost his footing and not be knocked over.

Seems like Kurt made need a few more sessions in anger therapy.

This week’s Q4G shout-out goes to Tony Stewart – Heyyyyyyy Tony.  The pilot of the #14 did his best to establish a new racing line at the one-line track……he really tried to make things work on the as a bottom – but in the end he had to spend most of his time on the as a top.  In the end he just couldn’t pull up tight enough on Johnson’s rear end.

I can’t lie and say that I wasn’t expecting more “hard racing” – but the final restarts did deliver a small fix – and in the end the race didn’t make me love Darlington or NASCAR any less.

Watch the incident on Pit Road between Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman’s crew.

Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Finally!

After months of frustration, Jimmie Johnson gave Rick Hendrick his 200th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, running away from the rest of the field on a green-white-checkered-flag restart that took the Bojangles’ Southern 500 one lap past its scheduled distance.

On Saturday night at Darlington Raceway, Johnson ended his own winless streak of 16 races, a drought of relative epic proportions for the five-time champion. The victory was Johnson’s 56th, breaking a tie with Rusty Wallace for eighth on the all-time list.

Hamlin ran second, followed by Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.

credit Todd Warshaw - Getty

Johnson won the 199th race for Hendrick, outdueling Kasey Kahne in last year’s Oct. 9 Chase race at Kansas Speedway. In subsequent months, the organization has been tantalizingly close to No. 200 — notably at Martinsville, where Hendrick drivers were running 1-2-3 before a late caution.

On Saturday night, in winning for the third time at the Lady in Black, Johnson finally put the question of the 200th win to rest. After pitting for the final time on Lap 299 of 368, however, Johnson had to save fuel to make it to the checkered flag.

All of Johnson’s 56 victories have come under the Hendrick banner.

“You’ve got to love that man,” Johnson said of his car owner during a celebration in Victory Lane. “He said, ‘Two hundred is great, but let’s go get 250.’ So that tells you where his head is. I love it. Oh, man, what a day!”

In the closing laps, with the outcome in the balance, Hendrick left the pit box and paced up and down pit road.

“I had to get away,” Hendrick said. “They said that we were going to make it (on fuel), but I don’t believe them, you know? Everything has happened backward for us. We’ve run so good this year and then had such bad luck…

“I’m kind of numb, but I’m glad it’s over. I think we’re going to win a few more now.”

Matt Kenseth finished sixth and trimmed the series lead of Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle, who came home 12th, to two points.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. remained third in the standings, 14 points back, after a 17th-place result. Hamlin is fourth in points, 17 behind Biffle.

Stewart, himself a car owner, had the highest praise for Hendrick, who picked up his first victory on a shoestring budget when Geoff Bodine won the April 29, 1984 event at Martinsville.

“I think it’s phenomenal, especially with the competition over here getting tougher and tougher,” said Stewart, who lost second position to Hamlin when his car temporarily lost fuel pressure coming to the final restart. “It’s getting harder and harder to win these races.

“Especially for it to happen in the Southern 500 — it’s such a historic race. It’s a pretty cool milestone.”

The co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, which gets engines, chassis and technical support from Hendrick Motorsports, chased Johnson in the late stages of the race before the final caution, but Johnson’s Chevrolet was simply too strong.

“I was trying to postpone (No. 200) for another week by trying to get to Jimmie, but I just couldn’t do it,” the reigning Cup champion said. “The closer I got to him, the tighter I got. That was one of the best runs we’d had, but still I wasn’t strong enough.

“He had plenty of car left. He was just riding, trying to save fuel. They won it in dominating fashion. To win a 200th race, you don’t want to back into it. They dominated and took it the way they should.”

Stewart also fields the No. 10 car for Danica Patrick, who started 38th and finished 31st, six laps down in her Darlington Cup debut. The night before, Patrick ran 12th in her first Nationwide Series race at the 1.366-mile track.

“She ran good lap times tonight,” Stewart said. “There was a period in the race when she set her balances at her best — they said she was within a tenth (of a second) of the leaders at that point in the race. So I’m really, really proud of her.”

Johnson, who led a race-high 134 laps, held an advantage of .8 seconds and was saving fuel, when Kurt Busch hit the wall on Lap 361. Ryan Newman checked up behind Busch, only to be turned into the wall by Aric Almirola. Caution flew for the eighth time to set up the two-lap sprint to the finish.

Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images for NASCAR

After the race, Newman parked his Chevy near Busch’s and exchanged words with the 2004 champion. Several of Newman’s crew members tried to confront their counterparts on Busch’s team, and the driver himself, but NASCAR officials restrained them.

The hard feelings stemmed from the aftermath of the wreck, when Busch brought his car to pit road for repairs.

“The 39 (Newman’s) guys were mad because Kurt burned out of our pit stall, and I don’t know if they were still there working or whatnot,” said Nick Harrison, Busch’s crew chief. “Their gas man came down there raising hell and wanting to fight Kurt.”

“It’s crazy, pit road,” said Tony Gibson, Newman’s crew chief. “Things happen, and everybody’s emotions run high. It’s a hot night. Everybody settles down and talks about it. We’re all good. We can’t control drivers. Nothing against the team — none of those guys. They didn’t do anything wrong.”

The race was an anomaly. In a track known for wild action, this year’s Southern 500 ran caution-free for the first 172 laps, through three cycles of green-flag pit stops.

By the time NASCAR called the first caution, for debris in Turn 2, Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet had emerged as the dominant car, having opened a lead of more than five seconds over Kyle Busch, who was running second when the yellow flag was finally displayed.

Monday while I was out in LA for the day job – I was able to stop by the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club and podcast theater to sit on the Wright Turn Podcast.

Comedian Darrel Wright hosts his weekly podcast with full video and audio – with several comics on air each week – it is one of the funniest NASCAR Podcasts on the net.

We talked all about Talladega and Danica’s incident with Hornish.  Once they wrapped up NASCAR talk with me – they had porn star Lexington Steel on for the second half of their show.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH/LISTEN TO ENTIRE SHOW

Follow the @Wright_Turn on Twitter!

This week Adam was not able to join us from his hotel in Northern California and I was barley able to patch in from my hotel in southern California.

With Skype, I was able to get Hannah on the line to talk about the pack returning to Talladega, Danica’s incident with Hornish and the now classic Tony Stewart interview.

The sound quality might be sub par – but at least the content is too!

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If that embedded player does not work for you (iPhone, iPad) you can download and listen to the episode with Quicktime by clicking here.

Poor Lotus was behind the 8-ball from the start, but midway through the offseason the parent company was sold and assets were frozen essentially crippling all activities of the company for weeks.  This certainly contributed to poor performance of the Lotus engine so far this year and the lack of engine supply.  Ironically, now that Bryan Herta Autosport (Team Barracuda-BHA), Dryer & Reinbold Racing, and Dragon Racing have left Lotus, there would seem to be an oversupply of the engines, but no one is willing to take them.  Simona de Silvestro and HVM Racing are the only full-time team left fielding a Lotus, although Fan Force United will run former F1 racer Jean Alesi in the Indianapolis 500 in a Lotus powered car.

Credit: INDYCAR/LAT USA

It should be noted that before 2012, many fans hated the “spec racing” of the series.  All entrants had the same engine and same chassis with the differences only being the drivers, crews, and teams.  Fans wanted multiple engine partners, differentiated cars, and some innovation.  No fan is wrong in wanting whatever it is that they want.  But, when the IndyCar series is viewed as a whole, is differentiation necessary to grow the sport?  This writer will argue…no.

When I became a fan of the series, it was the era of spec racing.  I do not have vivid memories of the early 90’s turbo beasts or days when the Indianapolis 500 was a place of innovation.  What I knew, and what I enjoyed were the Honda V-8’s and the Dallara “crap wagons” as they were so lovingly called by many.  When I close my eyes and think of an IndyCar, I picture the car that so many detested.  I’ve actually never understood why so many disliked the previous generation Dallara so much.  Regardless, it is understandable for the series to want multiple partners, like Honda and Chevy, to market the sport and sponsor events.  And honestly, the racing this season with the new engines and new cars has been excellent and a much needed improvement on road and street courses.

Credit: INDYCAR/LAT USA

If a casual fan, fan of another series, or a prospective team owner looks toward IndyCar at this time and reads the stories about Lotus, drivers with money that can’t get an engine, teams wanting to enter the series but can’t get an engine, and the possibility of having under 33 cars at the Indy 500, it all looks like an amateur circus show.  There has been poor planning by all.  The rules originally set forth for the engines that dictate mileage between races, the costs of the engine leases, and the percentages that were stated for each manufacturer to supply were quite ridiculous with good intentions behind each rule.  The series painted itself into a corner with only a mouse hole to escape from.  If this were a baking recipe IndyCar’s cake has exploded and splattered batter all over the kitchen.  Grab a chair and watch them try to clean up this mess.

Credit: INDYCAR/LAT USA

Just think, maybe Lotus, being the small car manufacturer it is, would’ve been better off with just 2 teams from the start with no obligation for more.  They could’ve focused on quality, not quantity.  And, since there have proven to be more teams wanting engines than originally anticipated, the cost of the engines could’ve been more, thus the demand would’ve subsided to a degree.  However, if the manufacturers were closer to breaking even on each engine lease, they would most likely be more willing to increase their supply to teams with the money.  The rules IndyCar set out didn’t allow for any of that.

At the end of the day, I believe IndyCar is still far too small and too much of a niche sport to deal with the issues differentiation of engines creates.  IndyCar hasn’t been unpopular because it didn’t have different engine suppliers.  IndyCar has been unpopular because over the course of many years it did not develop its drivers into stars, develop its races into exciting events, or promote the product correctly.  Despite Lotus’ disastrous foray back into IndyCar, Lotus shouldn’t be blamed completely for all the issues it has created.  The series itself created its own problems.

Ross (@therossbynum)

credit: Kevin R Tengesdal

Tupac returned to Cochella and The Pack returned to Talladega!

Gimmie pack racing you cried… and NASCAR listened – maybe too well for some the drivers taste…. but the two-dogs fu**in’ tandems were a thing of the past.

Brad Keselowski took the win by reinvinting a new way to win a restictor plate race – tossing the sling shot out the window.  The new line he ran in the final turn broke Kyle Busch off his bumper preventing the #18 from making a move to pass.  Brad never would have had the chance without a huge push from the Ass – or as Brad calls him…. Kyle Busch.

While most the race ran green – the show didn’t wrap without a few huge wrecks.  Fuel issues put Harvick on the apron as he limped back towards pit road when Armirola also ran the #43 dry…. but Harvick had the apron full. As Armirola tried to come back up on the track to avoid the #29 he caused a huge pile up on the banks.  Jeff Gordon took the biggest hit – adding to the Lohan-sized pile of bad luck the #24 is experienceing this season.

Kurt Busch was a hit all weekend with his Ricky Bobby themed paint scheme, fire suit and scanner chatter – but with 9 laps to go the #51 was spun through the front strech.  Instead of following the rules and taking it around the track – or waiting on a tow…. Kurt Busch drove the wrong way up pit road.  He should have been parked….. and I said the same thing when Carl did it in Atlanta… of course Carl had already been parked at that point.

Denny Hamlin and the #11 team introduced some new C-post destruction technology that Chad Knaus is very interested in learning more about.  The #11 car peppered the track with debris extending the final caution laps leading to a Green/White/Checkered Rainbow finish.

This week’s Q4G shout-out goes to Kasey Kahne.  Heyyyyyyy Kasey – you sure did some fancy wheel work to avoid the several messes in Alabama. As a special prize, you win dinner and a hot tub party with me. (dinner optional)

There was some danica drama in the Nationwide Race – on the last lap Sam Hornish Jr. was failing to steer his car with a deflating tire when he drifted up the track and blocked Danica near the start-finish line.  Feeling wronged, after the checkers, Patrick bumped Hornish – who was already having steering issues and went flying into the turn 1 wall.

Danica should NOT be suspended or fined…. she should get a nice talking too’ – but she hasn’t shown herself to be a dirty driver…. let’s see what her payback resume looks in a few seasons.

My bigger problem is with Danica’s entitled attitude – she was clearly pissed that no one would work with her in a break-out tandem.  She seemed so surprised drivers weren’t lining up on her rear end.  Sorry Rookie…. gotta earn a few more notches in your restrictor plate bed post before people will work with you like that.

All in all, I loved the race…. I will take big packs over two dogs f**ing on every given Sunday!

Lastly,  I was soo glad to read that Eric McClure will make a full rev

Credit: Tyler Barric/Getty Images

Executing perfectly a move he had saved for the right occasion, Brad Keselowski pulled away from Kyle Busch on the final lap to win Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at at Talladega Superspeedway in a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

Busch had pushed Keselowski to the lead on Lap 193 of 194 in a race that went six laps past its scheduled distance at the 2.66-mile track. The two cars ran bumper-to-bumper until Turn 3 of the final lap, when Keselowski entered the corner high and dived to the bottom of the track, separating his No. 2 Dodge from Busch’s No. 18 Toyota.

After he ditched his dancing partner, Keselowski pulled away to win by .304 seconds, a relative whipping at a track where wins typically are measured in thousandths of seconds.

The victory was Keselowski’s second of the season, second at the 2.66-mile track, the sixth of his Sprint Cup career and the first for Dodge at Talladega since Dave Marcis took the checkered flag 36 years ago.

Matt Kenseth, who led the field to the final restart on Lap 193, came home third, followed by Kasey Kahne and series leader Greg Biffle. Clint Bowyer, David Ragan, Trevor Bayne, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton completed the top 10.

Conventional wisdom says that the driver running second on the final lap has a much better chance to win a restrictor-plate race than the driver who is leading, but Keselowski had thought long and hard about what he would do.

“I had this whole plan if I ever got in that situation where I was leading,” Keselowski said. “I thought about it and thought about it — dreamed about what to do — and sure enough, going into (Turn) 3, it was just me and Busch. And I knew the move I wanted to pull.

“. . . I went into Turn 3 high and pulled down off of Kyle and broke the tandem up. That allowed me to drive untouched to the checkered flag. It wasn’t easy to convince myself to do that, but it was the right move. I’m glad it worked.”

After the race, Busch wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

“I got to Turn 3, and I got disconnected from him, got unhooked,” Busch said. “I hated that happened — thought we had a shot to win that thing. I’m not sure he (Kesleowski) did anything.

“If he did, he’s pretty smart, but I think our stuff just came unplugged.”

Keselowski’s victory ended a wild final quarter of the race, which produced four cautions in the final 45 laps.

As the field began a round of green-flag pit stops on Lap 143, a massive chain-reaction wreck in Turn 3 eliminated a handful of contending cars, including the No. 24 Chevrolet of pole-sitter Jeff Gordon.

Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

Contact between the Ford of Aric Almirola and the Chevrolet of Dave Blaney triggered the crash, which also collected Martin Truex’s Toyota, Carl Edwards’ Ford and Juan Pablo Montoya’s Chevrolet, among others.

“It was like a wreck at a stoplight,” Edwards said. “Everybody started checking up and hitting each other.”

With the herd thinned considerably, Paul Menard led the field to a restart on Lap 151. Hamlin, who had regained a lost lap as the highest scored lapped car when NASCAR called the caution on Lap 143, surged to the front, where he swapped the top spot with Brad Keselowski.

Kenseth restarted at the back of the field under a penalty for pitting too soon under the Lap 143 caution, but he quickly worked his way forward, wresting the lead from Denny Hamlin on Lap 167, with the Dodges of Keselowski and AJ Allmendinger lined up behind him.

Five laps later, Hamlin found an opening between Kenseth and Keselowski and took second, but a Lap 175 wreck that started when Casey Mears cut a tire, scrambled the field for a restart with nine laps left in regulation.

As the field crossed the finish line on Lap 181, contact from Keselowski’s Dodge sent the Chevrolet of Kurt Busch spinning into the inside wall at the entry to Turn 1. Kenseth led the field to a restart on Lap 185.

The green flag lasted only moments. As soon as the cars crossed the start/finish line, Hamlin ducked to the inside, and Allmendinger tried to block the middle lane. The nose of Hamlin’s car, however, was already inside Allmendinger’s bumper, and contact between the two cars started a wreck that ruined the chances of Hamlin, Menard, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart and Michael Waltrip.

Note: Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman both exited the race with oil pump problems and finished 35th and 36th, respectively.

via Jeff Gluck - SBNation.com

via Jeff Gluck - SBNation.com

Kurt Busch will be sporting a new paint scheme this weekend in Talladega.  He didn’t have a sponsor, so instead of running a plain white car – his girlfriend had an idea…. paint it like Ricky Bobby’s car from Talladega Nights.

Busch’s girlfriend is not arm candy!  Patricia Driscoll runs an organization called The Armed Foreces Foundation that does wonderful work to support our veterans.  She approached Sony Studios to get permission to use the paint scheme.

It took several calls, and Dricoll had to call the head of the studio to get permission – and then calls were made to get approval from Will Farrell and other creative people from the movie.

Once everyone signed off – the graphics were reproduced.  They will also play their repective roles from the movie - they plan to drop lines from the movie over the team scanners, which will include referring to crew chief Nick Harrison as Lucius Washington.

The car will also carry a number fans can text to support The Armed Forces Foundation.  ”We wanted to talk about PTSD and remind people you’ve got soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines in your community, and don’t forget about them,” Driscoll said, “Look out for these people, because everybody needs your help coming back from the war.”

Could Kurt win?  Phoenix Racing has won in ‘Dega before with Brad Keselowski – so it really is possible.

Busch said, ”I don’t want to have to get out and run to the finish line, and have to kiss a guy to do it.”  Neither do we Kurt – niether do we!

quotes and photos from Jeff Gluck at SBNation

Hannah wasn’t able to join us this week, she had to take her car behind the wall for repairs… and by behind the wall, I mean PepBoys.

Adam was able to dodge the Tornados in his area and join me for a short show.  We had to talk about all the drama in Richmond….. poor ole’ Carl, did Menard’s crew tattle on the #48 crew and we hope Jeremy Mayfield is officially out of our hair.  We review the points after Richmond and make some pics for Talladega.

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