NNS Homestead: Retaliation is the Name of the Game
After signing in and putting his car on the grid before Saturday’s Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Busch clinched the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship. That was a mere formality. Two hundred laps later, he crossed the finish line .482 seconds ahead of charging Carl Edwards to win his ninth race of the season and the 30th of his career.
“It was a tough race, for sure,” Busch said. “We weren’t the best car here for a long time. All these guys made some great race calls — (crew chief) Jason (Ratcliff) and everybody else. That’s why we’re a championship team. That’s why we made it here tonight, because these guys can fight through stuff.”
So Busch gets his ninth win of the season and first championship, a well deserved one, but he wasn’t the story Saturday night.
The story was the continuation of the Hamlin/Keselowski soap opera with their on-track and off-track verbal exchanges from last weekend at Phoenix.
It only took Hamlin 34 laps Saturday to make good on his promise of retaliation, “a man of my word” he said, sending Keselowski spinning down the frontstretch in front of a roaring crowd.
“The sun was real bad at that point, and I really couldn’t see a whole lot,” Hamlin said, starting to laugh as his voice carried over the track’s public address system, drawing cheers from the fans.
“I feel great right now,” he added. “It was well worth it.”
The question now is what does it all mean?
It was fun while it lasted, it had the Twitterverse all a twitter, but does anyone think the same tit for tat would have happened 10 races ago? Or more importantly, next year.
I don’t on both counts, it was the last race of the year and both drivers had zero to lose.
If you didn’t notice, Carl Edwards finished second. Despite a strong run into the third turn on the final lap, his bid for the win fell just short.
Jeff Burton finished third Saturday, followed by Joey Logano and Hamlin. David Reutimann, Ryan Newman, Steve Wallace, Scott Speed and Matt Kenseth completed the top 10. Keselowski finished 12th.
Edwards was runner-up to Busch in the final points standings followed by Keselowski, Leffler and Mike Bliss. Justin Allgaier, sixth, won the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award. He was followed by Steve Wallace, Jason Keller, Brendan Gaughan and Michael Annett in seventh through 10th, respectively.
NOTES: Being the last weekend of NASCAR racing there are a lot of looky loos around Homestead.
NHRA car owner John Force and 2009 NHRA Funny Car Champion Robert Hight served as honorary grand marshals for the NNS event.
The most surprising “outsider” was head of Volkswagen’s motor sports program. Hans-Joachim Stuck, also one of the finest endurance sports car drivers of all time, reportedly will be meeting with with the sanctioning body in coming days.
His appearance, combined with VW having an assemblyplant under construction in Tennessee that is scheduled to build midsize sedans beginning with thein 2011 model year.
Could VW be the second “foreign” manufacturer in enter NASCAR?
I’m betting it’s very possible. UPDATE: I lose my bet, there will be no Fahrvergnügen in NASCAR. Hans Stuck has categorically denied the AP report that started the VW to NASCAR rumor. The interesting thing is why.
Stuck said he’s discussed NASCAR with Dr. Martin Winterkorn, CEO of the Volkswagen Group, the consensus is VW needs to be in a series where the company can “display our German technology and (NASCAR) is a marketing (platform).” “That’s not an argument (Winterkorn) can accept,” Stuck added.
Put another way, “push rod V8’s with carbs and no electronics, Screw you guys.”
I’d also wager a ducat, or two, on this being the midsized sedan.
Currently unnamed it goes under the moniker of “Volkswagen’s NMS (New Midsized Sedan).”
The new sedan will effectively replace the Passat for North America and feature a wider cabin and more rear seat legroom to accommodate American’s habit of long road trips and not so incidentally to fit our oversized rumps.
The final “outsider” this weekend is Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. He was seen kibitzing with both Scott Speed and Juan Montoya.
Vettel was at Homestead-Miami Speedway and planned to watch part of the second-tier Nationwide Series race from the spotter’s position.
“I’ll get an idea of how things roll over here,” he said.
Vettel, who had four wins and four poles this season, was signed with Red Bull Racing through 2011. So a possible defection was still years away.
“I think it’s not as easy as saying I’ll find a team and I’ll find money,” he said. “I think it’s very difficult here to get accepted and really get into the whole thing. If they don’t like you, you come here and you think you are the greatest and best ever, people can prove you wrong very quickly.”
Vettel held a Q and A session with Autosport prior to the NNS event, here’s a cople excerpts, first his impressions of NASCAR:
“It’s just completely different. The races are very different, the cars are very different, it’s always on an oval and you’ve got a lot of cars around you, you’ve got one guy on the radio, the spotter, always telling you which position you are, who’s behind you, next to you, left and right, and you’re much busier in a way. There are a lot of things to look out for, and it’s different than in Formula 1. It will be interesting to see the race live.”
Indeed, much different than F1 when the greatest danger of being closest eough to hit someone are the rolling start on first couple laps.
On driving a Sprint Cup car:
“Well to have a try probably yes and to see how it is in the oval. Speaking to Juan and other drivers, obviously the cars are much heavier, lazier, there’s a lot more movement whereas a Formula 1 car is very sharp and reactive and everything happens very fast - you have to catch the car quickly. Here you’re sliding and making a lot of movements with the steering wheel. To have a try in a test would be nice.”
“Obviously going into races it’s a completely different story because it’s one thing to control the car on your own, but another one to control it with 40 people around you and probably five or six ten centimetres away from your car. It’s not easy, and that’s another step up.”
“It’s not easy,” watch it Sebastian your F1 compatriots may cite that as a blasphemous act.
[...] Hamlin/Keselowski soap opera of Saturday had new players Sunday, but contained the same [...]