Full Throttle

Say what you will about the debut of NASCAR’s CORN (Car of Right Now), and plenty will be this week, but the secondary story has to be the dominance of Joe Gibbs Racing Sunday afternoon.

Sure Smoke, was smoked by a bad fuel pump/pickup. But he led 257 laps before his BowTie went begging for unleaded. And that [essentially] sophomore kid Denny Hamlin had himself quite a day by leading 177 laps and staying in the top ten for 492 laps of 504.

By my count (via an “old school” abacus) the Gibbs boys toasted the field of 41 by a margin of 434 to 70 in laps led. That’s not to say the team’s performance would get anything beyond a free Cup O’ Joe in a Stuckey’s full of Gibbs partisans, just something to keep in mind for next weeks second round of “short track 2007.”

As for the other lede story, the CORN (thanks Kurt for the use of the acronym) performed fairly well if cautions are any indication.

Last August Bristol produced 10, but only one was for debris. Of the 15 Sunday 4 were for debris a gain of only two yellows for crashes. Not the carnage some drivers, or some of us “pundits,” had thought possible.

Most of the complaints centered around the car “not turning,” and some of that was evident by the usual suspects that normally live in the bottom half of the field.

But one has to wonder how even the top teams will do next week getting the car to turn. Turning left is a hell of a lot easier circling a cereal bowl than it is the much flatter Martinsville Speedway.

We’ll see. We’ll also see the true nature of CORN when NASCAR’s traveling Hippodrome rolls into a high speed aero dependent mile-an-a-half track with it.

RACE NOTES: Congrats obviously go out to winner Kyle Busch. He stepped up when Hamlin faltered and provided a stirring two lap shootout with Jeff Burton to the finish line. However, (always one of those isn’t there?) all was not roses for the #5 Team’s weekend.

Baby Busch has been awarded FT’s first ever Peddle Car Award