Full Throttle

Saturdays Busch action promised alot. With a healthy dose of NEXTEL Cup regulars, a bumper crop - no pun intended - of Busch rookies and NASCAR’s “color of the week being ORANGE,” it could have turned out much worse for the 75,000 in attendence.

As it turned ou the fans saw a competitive race with 17 lead changes among 10 drivers, a phenomenal 3 lap stretch of three wide racing near the end and a “crash’em, smash’em ending involving 10 cars that had officials needing more than an hour figure out who finished where.

For a change the Cup regulars didn’t dominate with only winner Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick placing in the top ten. Of the Rookie of the Year candidates Burney Lamar trailed Stewart in 2^nd and Todd Kluever in his 3M Ford was also in the top ten (7^th). In a bit of irony John Andretti had the lowest finish of any, (Hmmm… cough), “rookie” finishing the day in 34^th.

From NASCAR’s perspective they had an excellent day. The newly deputized “Orange Police” only caught one violator of the new “rough driving” rule, Denny Hamlin, who was sent to the end of the longest line after jacking up the back end of Kyle Busch entering turn three.

The true test will come Sunday. The “Orange Police” may have their hands full with about 30 laps to go in the Great American Race. NASCAR “whistled past a graveyard” Saturday, they got away with one, I doubt it will happen late Sunday.

I suspect we may see even more silly rules be insitituted, for example this one: “Any infants in the Stock Car must be placed in a booster seat to afford them a clearer view of all the action.”

But I may be wrong, the drivers could actually police themselves and keep the Daytona Suits, and their over priced “Barney Fife’s” out of it.

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