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Tag Archives: Kurt Busch

Road to the Indy 500 in Pictures

It was a long cold winter in Indianapolis…

Credit IMS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The drivers grew restless…Scott Dixon fared the worst freezing his bits off at New Years…

 

Credit Scott Dixon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not Wade Cunningham, he sunned his bits on beautiful beaches along with pal James Hinchcliffe…

 

Credit Wade Cunningham

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Jakes spent some time making engine noises in the garage….*vroom vroom…blub blub blub…vroom*…

 

Credit RLLR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At preseason testing, Helio made friends with new teammate AJ Allmendinger by checking out his…assets.  I thought only dogs did that…

Credit Marshall Pruett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly for Helio, AJ had eyes for Hinch.  I guess AJ saw Hinch’s leggy pic with Wade.  Ah, bromance…

Credit James Hinchcliffe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JR Hildebrand resorted to disco moves to pass the time.

Credit Marshall Pruett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EJ Viso was crowned Venezuela’s tallest man.  Towering and stunning he stands…

Credit Andretti Autosport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hinch was at his breaking point.  He was seen interviewing Danica.   Unfortunately, she was stiff as a board during the interview.

Credit James Hinchcliffe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, it was time for 500 practice to start.  But not before Kurt Busch tested Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car.  Busch had his ear angle trimmed a few years ago in preparation for the test, though it was reported they still slowed him by .01 of a second per lap.

Credit Andretti Autosport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sebastian Saavedra got the party started with confetti.

Credit IMS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tristan Vautier’s car arrived with a Madonna tribute paint scheme…all white like a virgin.  (PS:  Madonna turns 55 in August…coincidence?)

Credit SPM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sebastien Bourdais showed up with a new competition tactic.  With his chrome car he would blind all his competitors in sunny conditions.  Bling-tastic…

Credit Dragon Racing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh no!  Rookie Connor Daly was the first to bang the wall.  I bet that’s not what he wanted to bang this month…

Credit AJ Foyt Racing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daly’s team owner AJ Foyt is like, “Eh…it’ll buff out…”

Credit AJ Foyt Racing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eek!  Pippa’s car was naked!  Luckily the old girl’s hips were covered the next day.  The 500 is a family event, no nudity allowed.

Credit Marshall Pruett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look closely, Dario Franchitti is telling EJ Viso he’s #1.  How sweet!

Credit Indy44

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fast rookie Carlos Munoz is taking the Flo-Rida line around the track.  ”…low, low, low, low…”.  Unfortunately, Munoz isn’t driving in Apple Bottom jeans and boots with fur.

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Oh hey look, it’s Jean Alesi’s Lotus chassis.  ”I promise I’m not slow anymore guys, I promise!  Can I play, please?”

Credit Lazier Partners Racing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katherine Legge decided to join the party in a last minute entry.  She’s a honeybadger now.  Shoes?  She doesn’t need any stinking shoes.

Credit SPM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now, here we are.  The 500 is in 2 days.  I bet all of these drivers are quite happy.  Less crazy, more racing!

Ross (@therossbynum)

Johnson Wins Record Fourth NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

credit Geoff Burke / Getty Images for NASCAR

The Brothers Busch won the first four segments of Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but Jimmie Johnson took the one the counted—the 10-lap dash to the finish—and continued to build his legacy, not to mentioned his bank account.

Speeding away from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne after a restart on Lap 81 of 90, Johnson won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series all-star exhibition race for a record fourth time, beating charging Joey Logano to the stripe by 1.722 seconds.

Kyle Busch, who won the second and third segments of 20-laps each, ran third, followed by Kahne and Kurt Busch. The elder Busch brother won the first and fourth segments and was first onto pit road before the final dash but exited fifth with a less-than-stellar pit stop.

Despite changes to his pit crew this week, Johnson’s over-the-wall gang performed an 11-second pit stop that got him out of the pits on the front row, beside Kahne, for the final restart. Ultimately, that made all the difference.

With the victory, Johnson broke a tie with teammate Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Sr. for most wins in the non-points race, won his second straight All-Star Race and collected $1 million for his efforts.

“To beat Jeff and Earnhardt, two guys I’ve looked up to my whole life—two massive icons of our sport—this means the world to me,” said Johnson, who started 18th after sliding through his pit box and drawing a penalty for a loose lug nut during Friday’s qualifying session.

“I really didn’t think we had a shot at winning tonight, starting (18th), but we had a great race car and worked our way through there and got the job done. Over time, honestly, it’s just dedication and drive from every member at Hendrick Motorsports, every member on this No. 48 team. We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished, but we know we’ve got to keep pushing harder and pushing one another.”

Kyle Busch thought he had the fastest car, but a slower-than-usual four-tire stop put his No. 18 Toyota on the second row for the final restart.

“We just didn’t get the best pit stop there at the end to get us out on the front row, and when you’re back behind cars, you’re getting beat up on,” Busch said. “It is what it is. We’ll just take this as a good learning day and hopefully bring back some speed like this to the (Coca-Cola) 600 (May 26).”

NASCAR’s luck with weather held Saturday night, with a large enough window to complete the race with just one delay.

With Kurt Busch leading from the outset, NASCAR called a caution because of rain after Lap 8 and red-flagged the race after 13 laps when the shower intensified. The drivers came to pit road, parked in their stalls and waited.

The rain didn’t come soon enough, however, to save reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski. On the second lap, transmission troubles sent his No. 2 Penske Racing Ford to the garage.

“Something just broke in the back half of the drive train, either the transmission or drive shaft gear – I’m not sure which one – but it’s one of those deals, unfortunately,” Keselowski said. “We’ll try to learn from it and move on.”

With Keselowski in the garage, the race resumed after a stoppage of 41 minutes 28 seconds. Kurt Busch pulled away from brother Kyle Busch to win the first 20-lap segment by .751 seconds.

Kyle Busch kept the second segment in the family, pulling away from Clint Bowyer after a restart on Lap 29—after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. bounced off the Turn 4 wall and knocked Mark Martin for a loop through the grass in the quad-oval.

Jamie McMurray led wire-to-wire to win the Sprint Showdown and transfer into the main event. McMurray, who started second, took two tires during the halfway competition caution after 20 laps and pulled away to beat Cup rookie Stenhouse to the finish line by 1.226 seconds.

Stenhouse transferred into the All-Star Race as the second-place finisher. His romantic interest, Danica Patrick, finished ninth in the Showdown but punched her ticket into the All-Star Race as the winner of the Sprint Fan vote.

“Obviously being out front is massive,” McMurray said during the break between the Showdown and the main event. “When I got by (polesitter) Martin (Truex Jr.) at the start of the race… I was trying to take it easy because I didn’t know with the track being green how quickly the tires would fall off, and even running at like 80 percent it was amazing what a difference just being in clean air was.

“I had a really good car in practice (Friday). I thought honestly the 56 (Truex) and I had the two best cars looking at times yesterday, and then the two tire stop was the right call for us. It got us up front.”

McMurray’s words proved prophetic. Being out front for the final 10-lap run was crucial to Johnson’s record run.

 

Jimmie Johnson dominates Martinsville for his eighth win at the track

[ via NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

Credit: John Harrelson / Getty Images

Jimmie Johnson made eight the easy way.

Leading 346 of 500 laps in Sunday’s STP Gas Booster 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Johnson racked up his eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at the .526-mile short track and the 62nd win of his career. For the second straight event at Martinsville, Johnson won from the pole.

Clint Bowyer ran second, followed by Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch.

The first repeat winner through six 2013 Cup races, Johnson regained the series lead by six points over sixth-place finisher and defending champion Brad Keselowski.

If a victory at a short track can ever be called a walk in the park, Johnson enjoyed a Sunday stroll from start to finish. At no point in the race did he run below fifth.

“I think the fact that we had just such a calm weekend was the biggest part,” Johnson said. “It’s easy to start chasing things here and get yourself off track. We always race well, and fortunately here you pit a lot and you can make big changes to your race car to get you in the ballgame.

“We’ve won races where we were just terrible to start the race, having no fun. (Crew chief) Chad (Knaus) is throwing spring rubbers in the car and the track bar is coming up or down, wedge in and out, all those huge, huge changes, and we get ourselves in contention.

“I don’t know where we were – someone said the worst I was on the track today was fourth [actually, fifth]. We just executed from the first laps in practice to where we were at the end of the race, and that was fun. We weren’t chasing a setup or track conditions or a variety of things that we’ve done in the past.”

Danica Patrick ran 12th in her first visit to Martinsville, her career-best Cup finish at an open-motor race track. Patrick was the top finisher from Stewart-Haas Racing.

NASCAR red-flagged the race on Lap 487, after the brakes failed on Kurt Busch’s No. 78 Chevrolet SS and sent the car hard into the Turn 1 wall. The car rolled along the fence, spewing flames from beneath the hood.

Busch had the presence of mind to trigger his fire extinguisher before the exited the car and climbed from the driver’s-side window apparently none the worse for the flames.

After the stoppage, Johnson led the field to a restart on Lap 493 with Bowyer beside him in the outside lane. But Johnson pulled away over the final eight laps to beat Bowyer to the finish line by .628 seconds.

To say that Hendrick Motorsports in general and Johnson in particular have a handle on Martinsville is a massive understatement. Johnson gave owner Rick Hendrick his 20th Martinsville victory, breaking a tie with Petty Enterprises for most ever at the paper-clip shaped speedway.

“There’s just certain tracks where the drivers that Hendrick has had over the past, as well as now—and just our race cars—it just really suits that,” said Gordon, who had a strong car on long runs but couldn’t keep up with his teammate over the short haul. “Qualifying up front really can be huge here.

You get a driver like Jimmie and a team like the 48—or ours as well, or the 15 (Bowyer)—you put them on the pole in that No. 1 pit stall (closest to the exit from pit road), and it’s going to be really, really hard to beat them.”

Bowyer’s winning chances suffered a blow during an 11-car incident on Lap 180. As caution flew for a crash on the backstretch, Bowyer ran into Jamie McMurray’s Chevrolet, which had checked up suddenly off Turn 4, and was clobbered from behind by his Michael Waltrip Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr.

Bowyer had been strong in practice but qualified 15th and felt the mediocre performance in time trials had hurt him.

“I qualified bad, got ourselves back there, got it wrecked—got it tore up on both ends,” Bowyer said. “You get up there, and you’re door-to-door with the 48 that’s been enjoying clean sailing all day long, you look at him, and it’s ready to go back to the next short track.

“Mine is all tore to hell and ready to go put a new body on it. You know what you’re up against. You want to say, ‘Bad luck,’ and everything else, but you make a lot of your own luck. We did a lot of things well this week but missed it in qualifying and ultimately paid the price.”

Patrick, who started the race at the rear of the field because of an engine change, restarted 20th from the outside lane on Lap 369 and promptly dropped five spots as cars in the inside lane freight-trained her.

But Patrick patiently and methodically drove back to the 17th position and was running there when Brian Vickers cut a tire and spun on Lap 448 to cause the 10th caution of the afternoon.

The yellow gave drivers a much-needed opportunity to pit for new tires. Out first after the stops, Johnson led the field to green on Lap 459 with Gordon beside him. Yellow flew again shortly when chain-reaction contact between Vickers, Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. sent Earnhardt spinning in Turn 4.

Johnson passed Earnhardt as the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet tried to re-fire and right his car, putting Earnhardt a lap down. Earnhardt finished 24th and fell from first to third in points, 12 behind Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

Notes: The 346 laps led are the most for Johnson in a single race in his career. Johnson also became the seventh driver in Cup history to lead 2,000 or more career laps at Martinsville. His total now stands at 2,327. … Despite fighting the handling of his No. 11 Toyota for much of the afternoon — and despite a snafu on pit road when he left before his left-front tire was mounted – Mark Martin salvaged a 10th-place finish subbing for injured Denny Hamlin.

 

Gaynalysis – Epic Watkins Glen

The Gaynalysis is just one gay NASCAR fan’s take on the race weekend.  You can read the straight recap of the Finger Lakes 355 at the Glen by clicking here.

credit: Kevin R Tengesdal

If that last lap didn’t get you up out of your chair – quit watching NASCAR immediatly.  Much like Saturday’s Nationwide Race – the early part of this race had the field spread out like a naked Randy Travis on a rural highway in Texas.

But that last lap will go down in history as one of the best ever – that tape will be played more times than that terrible “Call Me Maybe” song.  Kyle Busch took the white flag and made a power move into turn 1 -  but he got into some oil on the track and spun at the entrance to turn two.  Every driver mentioned the oil on the track – but Kyle did have a little help from Brad on that spin.

After the race Keselowski tweeted:

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) August 12, 2012

Brad Keselowski then took the lead and battled side by side with Marcos Ambrose who out drove Keselowski into the final turn and won the drag race with the Blue Deuce to take the checkers.

The road course was a test on driver and equipment.  There were 11 cars with mechanical problems .  Kurt Busch was involved in the most bizarre incident as the wheels literally fell off his career.

Credit: By Todd Warshaw, Getty Images for NASCAR

One of the scariest moment of the day came when something broke on Jamie McMurray’s car sending him into the barrier.  The “pattern” of the barrier was imprinted down the side of McMurray’s car…. a very hard hit.  It looked as if the #1 had been scuplted out of Play-Dough. Later, a similar fate fell to Jamie’ teammate Juan Pablo Montoya who started on the pole.  It wasn’t a great day for Chip Ganassi….. but least his kids didn’t pee on some ladies boots.

The weeks Q4G Shout-Out goes to Tony Stewart.  Heyyyyyyyyy Tony!  After an early penalty in the pits, Smoke drove the #14 back to the front.   They ran some laps under caution as a light rain fell.  While the track stayed dry – some of the painted curbs stayed at little wet and Tony spun and backed the #14 into the wall at the entrance of pit road.  The #14 team did a great job getting Tony back on the track – salvaging a top-20 finish.  Way to never give up!

I am sure the talk in the coming days will be from a ticked-off NASCAR nation thinking that NASCAR should have thrown a last lap caution for oil on the track.   If NASCAR had thrown the yellow flag, the ticked-off NASCAR nation would bitch about that.

I am glad the race finished under green – we got to see a battle that will be recreated by holograms decades from now at the NASCAR Hall of Fame

Podcast: Out of the Tunnel – Show #18

After the worst timed vacation week in NASCAR podcast history, The Out of the Tunnel podcast is back!

This week Hannah, Adam and I catch up on how the world changed since Junior’s win, we recap Sonoma, talk Matt Kenseth, has Kurt Busch been forgiven, we make some Kentucky picks, recap the points from Michigan and Sonoma plus Hannah gives us a NHRA update.

We also talked about the new Twitter contest Q4G is hosting and the fabulous Jeff Gordon Prize Pack you can win.

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Clint Bowyer Fends off Tony Stewart for Sonoma Victory

[ via the NASCAR Wire Service / by Reid Spencer ]

Credit: By Todd Warshaw, Getty Images for NASCAR

Clint Bowyer’s victory in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma was a surprise to the driver who chased him for more than 20 laps — Kurt Busch — but in retrospect, history may have been on Bowyer’s side.

“I just kept thinking, ‘He’s a dirt Late Model racer from the Midwest — there’s no way he can be able to run the road course,’ but he did,” said Busch, who finished third despite hitting a tire barrier in Turn 11 at the 1.99-mile track and breaking the panhard bar on his No. 51 Chevrolet.

With Busch’s car damaged and vulnerable to a pass during a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the event two laps beyond its scheduled 110 laps, Bowyer held off charging Tony Stewart to claim his first victory of the season and the sixth of his career.

Stewart passed Kurt Busch for the second position after the final restart and finished .829 seconds behind Bowyer’s No. 15 Toyota. Busch held the third spot, followed by Brian Vickers — doing spot duty in Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 55 Toyota — and Jimmie Johnson.

Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, pole-sitter Marcos Ambrose, AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano completed the top 10 in a race that began with a record green-flag run of 82 laps and featured a record-low two cautions.

After a look at Bowyer’s record at Sonoma, the road-course victory seems much less surprising than Busch might have thought at first blush. In six previous starts, the dirt-tracker from the Midwest had finished fourth three times and eighth once.

“He’s shown consistency, so it was a matter of time before he would get one,” said Stewart, who caught a break when the caution flag waved for the first time on Lap 82. Stewart’s crew hadn’t filled the fuel cell in the No. 14 Chevrolet, and the caution gave him a chance to pit for fuel and tires.

Credit: By Ezra Shaw, Getty Images

Bowyer did a majestic job of driving in the closing laps to hold off Busch, who harried him lap after lap until Busch hit the tires on Lap 102. Bowyer pulled away to a lead of more than one second before Kyle Busch and Paul Menard spun in Turn 7 to cause the second caution.

“Without a doubt I thought I could have pressured Bowyer into a mistake,” Busch said. “He was there for the taking . . . and I couldn’t do it when my panhard bar broke. The rear end was too unstable under braking. So I just look back at that one moment, and it’s just tough — but solid top three.”

Even though the contact with the tires took Busch out of contention for the win, his handling of the wounded car impressed Stewart.

“I was watching him, and it was — honestly — I don’t know how he kept it on the race track with how much the rear end was moving around on that car,” Stewart said. “I thought he did a really phenomenal job of just hanging on to what he had.”

Busch’s handling of defeat impressed Bowyer, especially after Busch came to Victory Lane to congratulate the race winner. The actions of the 2004 champion on Sunday were a far cry from the blow-ups that had resulted in probation and ultimately suspension for the embattled driver earlier this year.

“For him to come to Victory Lane spoke volumes about his character,” Bowyer said. “He’s a champion of the sport — you can’t lose sight of that. I know there have been a lot of negatives around him, but there were a hell of a lot of positives today for Kurt Busch.

“He had an extremely good run . . . That boy can drive, and when you give him the confidence and the direction and, sometimes, I guess, the discipline to get the job done, he’s certainly capable of it. He had me on my toes. He had me scared to death today, and things worked out.

“When you can beat that guy . . . you know, the two guys behind me were champions of this sport, and that’s big, to be able to hold them guys off.”

Notes: Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the victim of a last-lap crash and finished 23rd, dropping to third in the series standings, 14 points behind Matt Kenseth, who ran 13th . . . Greg Biffle took over second in the standings with a seventh-place result. He’s 11 points behind his Roush Fenway Racing teammate . . . Bowyer was the sixth straight driver in six years to score his first road course win at Sonoma and the eighth straight different winner at the 1.99-mile road course.

Podcast: Out of the Tunnel – Show 16

The Out of the Tunnel podcast is back live this week!

Hannah, Adam and I recap the picks from Dover and make some picks for Pocono.  I get all of my Kurt Busch thoughts off my chest and we talk about his future with Phoenix Racing.  Plus: The Indy Debacle in Detroit, 24 Hours of LeMans this weekend, Twitter and NASCAR’s new partnership, The Prelude in Eldora and some NHRA news.

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Dover Gaynalysis

The Gaynalysis is just one gay NASCAR fan’s take on the race weekend.  You can read the “straight” recap of the action from Dover by clicking here.

credit: Kevin R Tengesdal

Fans and media alike have been making much over how much green flag racing we have seen this season – almost wishing the wrecks to return.

They didn’t have to wait long – by lap 10 of the Sprint Cup race today in Dover 13 cars were involved in a Dega’ style Big One.  It all started when Tony Stewart got a little lose on the bottom and made contact with Landon Cassill slowing them both – Regan Smith was unable to check up and rear ended the #14 and the chain reaction started from there.

Some people say Dover is a “self cleaning” race track…. well, not so much. It took more than 18 minutes under the red flag and several tow trucks to clean the track.  The wreck damaged 12 cars: 83, 14, 78, 32, 79, 42, 38, 33, 13, 98, 36, 93

The excitement from the wreck coupled with a back-and-forth battle between Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson made the early stretch of this race vastly entertaining.  A missed adjustment on the #55 prevented Martin from staying up front all day.

Johnson’s teammate, Jeff Gordon, also made a few runs up front and led some laps -but issues on pit road yanked redemption from the #24′s hands.

Dover is not know as a track that is too hard on engines – but four cars ended up behind the wall smoking – Kurt and Kyle Busch, David Reutimann and Clint Bowyer.

While the start of the race was grand – the final lap were predictable as Jimmie Johnson ran away from everyone on the track.  The #48 team has the Monster Mile figured out.  Jimmie proved that he was the real “Rainbow Warrior” at Hendrick Motorsports. (the entire #48 team sported rainbow colored wigs on Sunday)

This week’s Q4G Shout-Out goes to Kevin Harvick.  HEYYYYYY Kevin!  After having some issues on pit road – Kevin made the crappy line he was forced into on the restart work…. it was some fine ass driving as Harvick brought the #29 home P2.

I can’t conclude this week’s Gaynalysis without addressing the 500 pound asshat that is in the room.  I am looking at you Kurt Busch.

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece “Narcissistic Kurt Busch is Narcissistic” after his meltdown in Darlington.  After hearing himself lose all self-control the elder Busch didn’t feel shame…. in fact, he demanded praise for his actions.

Kurt’s disrespect for the working media have been better documented than life of President Kennedy.  Last year Kurt lost his seat at Penske after blowing up on Dr. Jerry Punch and an ESPN Crew – this was only weeks after he had to be restrained from going after NASCAR.com reporter Joe Menzer and then grabbing papers from AP scribe Jenna Fryer and ripping them up.

So it was so surprise when Kurt decided to foul-mouthed exception with Bob Pockrass from The Sporting News.  When asked if being on probation affected the way Kurt raced he replied, “It (probation) refrains me from not beating the shit out of you right now, because you ask me stupid questions,” Busch said. “But since I’m on probation, I suppose that’s improper to say as well. If you could talk about racing things, we could talk about racing things, Bob.”

Video:

Kurt said on the radio in Darlington that he hated his job.  After being busted on the radio by NASCAR for speeding on pit road today…. twice….. he jumped on the radio to ask if anyone else wanted to drive and invited them to suit up.

I hate cliches as much as the next gay… but please Kurt, don’t go away mad – just go away.  Kurt Busch is one of the most talented drivers in the series – some of the moves he can make with his race car make my jaw drop.

But, much like his brother seems to have learned – it takes more than talent to keep a good seat in this sport…. and Kurt has burned too many bridges seats.

Narcissistic Kurt Busch is Narcissistic

credit: Tom Pennington / Getty Images for NASCAR

Websters Dictonary defines Nascissistic as, “having an undue fascination with oneself; vain.”

Ryan Newman attibuted Kurt Busch’s behavior to a “chemical imbalance.”  Busch addressed the media today for the first time since the incident in Darlington and not only did Kurt pleade his innocence… he explained that his actions are good for the sport.  Yes, it seems Kurt thinks that everyone in NASCAR needs to send him a thank you letter.

Busch said the fans cheered louder for the hyjink on pitroad than they did when the race winner, Jimmie Johnson, pulled into victory lane.  ”This is good for our sport,” adding, “This is WWE-type action….that’s when the crowd reacted the most, so you tell me if they’re wanting WWE.”

This is where his narcissism came boiling to the surface.  Look – we have all said things we wish we could take back – and when we later think about what we said or did in that moment of anger – we regret the actions and try to learn from them.  Most of us actually feel shame upon sober reflection of our actions.

When Kurt Busch watched the replay of his actions on Saturday in Darlington he felt no regret or shame – in fact, he gave himself a big pat on the back for giving the fans what they wanted.

Kurt tried to convince us that he never endangered anyone in the #39 pits.  ”Newman left his pit stall a good 10 seconds before I did, and I didn’t think there was any reason to think crew guys were in danger,” Busch said. “One guy has a problem with it, and it escalated from there.”

Busch hit the #39 car on pit road after the race saying he couldn’t see where he was going because he was taking his helmet off  - an excuse Ryan Newman didn’t buy and called a lie.  When Kurt was asked about Newman’s assertion he was a liar – the narcissitic Busch had to bring it all back around to KuBu.

“Newman and I were friends. We were great teammates (at Penske) and he needs to check his trophy case on that Daytona 500 trophy that I helped him get years ago.”  Yes Kurt – we would have forgotten you pushed Ryan….  thanks for reminding us about your greatness.

At that point of the interview – Kurt was not impressed with the homage he was due….. so he sarcastically ended the presser, “This is fun….. this is entertainment, right, guys? This is why you guys are all here suffocating me at the back of this hauler.”  Then the fun-having Kurt Busch turned and walked back into his hauler.

Kurt Busch talking about fun…. where have I head that one before?  Kurt is the funnest fun having fun lover in the fun garage.  He has more fun on the radio than any other driver.

Kurt Busch is an amazing driver…. but so are Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.  Beyond their abililty to drive Johonson and Gordon are team players.  They understand they are part of a team – and treat their crews with respect.

Time after time, Kurt Busch has proven he only respects one person…. himself.  He has an “undue fascination with himself.”

Darlington Gaynalysis – Everyone Loves a Parade

The Gaynalysis is just one gay NASCAR fan’s take on the race weekend.  You can read the “straight” recap of the Bojangles 500 from Darlington Speedway by clicking here.

"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.