What we learned: Race Day U.S.A.

Published 4:38 pm Monday, May 26, 2008

Whew! That was a lot of racing for one day.

There is a ton of stories on Sunday’s races in the “National/International racing” section, and I’ve also got Saturday’s results from Skagit Speedway (CLICK HERE) and the Northwest Tour race at Yakima (CLICK HERE).

Speaking of Saturday’s Northwest Tour race in Yakima, congratulations to Evergreen Speedway drivers James Mugge and Jeff Knight, who finished second and third respectively.

Sunday started great for me, with Lewis Hamilton winning the Monaco Grand Prix.

That makes me 3-for-6 on picking Formula One races. Unbelieveable. I didn’t get to see much beyond a few highlights, as I was saving up my VCR for the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600.

Sadly, the F1 race would be my only correct predication on the weekend.

My Indy 500 pick, Tony Kanaan, spun out after avoiding teammate Marco Andretti, and Kevin Harvick, my choice to win the Coca Cola 600, never really contended and wound up 14th.

Polesitter Scott Dixon drank the milk at Indy and Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw, Wash., won for the second weekend in a row at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C.

In fact, Sunday was again a good day to be a Washington state NASCAR driver as Kahne and Vancouver, Wash., native Greg Biffle repeated their 1-2 finish from last weekend’s All-Star Race.

On Saturday, Kyle Busch won the Nationwide race at Lowe’s. My pick, Clint Bowyer, finished sixth.

Of course, that race was highlighted by a rumble in the pits after the checkered flag flew, as the crews of Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski went at it over some on-track bumping.

For the record, my take is Keselowski should not have rear-ended Hamlin during the caution, and Hamlin should not have knocked in Keselowski’s front quarter panel in response.

Hamlin had taken exception to Keselowski racing him close, so he was a bit primed to respond. Hamlin really came off poorly in this deal, because — really — what else should Keselowski be doing but racing him close?

Which leads us nicely to …

1. Chip Ganassi is the team owner for Indy winner Dixon and Dan Wheldon, who started second but finished 12th.

Dixon and Wheldon are 2-3 respectively in the Indy Racing League standings, and Ganassi’s Grand Am Rolex Series team of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas are leading in points.

2. Indy winner Scott Dixon earns points in my mind because he interrupted his post-race TV interview to call his wife over for a kiss and hug, then he thanked her for supporting him before thanking his crew, owner and sponsors.

3. Kasey Kahne won two straight, the non-points All-Star Race last weekend and then the Coke 600.

I didn’t think the momentum boost he received would be that important, but he definitely ran a strong race and his Dodge looked solid on Sunday. Perhaps more important for the rest of the season was the fact that teammate Elliott Sadler wasn’t that far behind Kahne, finishing eighth. Add in Bobby Labonte in 11th and Sam Hornish Jr in 13th and maybe Dodge isn’t done for the season after all.

4. Wunderkind Joey Logano had his 18th birthday on Saturday and is now officially legal to race in the Nationwide Series.

The PR folks at NASCAR are so happy.

1. Chip Ganassi needs to spend more time with his NASCAR teams. He fired Juan Pablo Montoya’s crew chief without really talking to Montoya, then assigned the No. 42 team a new crew chief — Montoya’s third of the season — who had no Car of Tomorrow experience.

That whole deal was such a PR disaster that Ganassi had to fly from Indy to Charlotte on Saturday to soothe Montoya’s feelings.

But the problems in the Ganassi NASCAR garage go deeper than hurting Montoya’s feelings. Like the fact that Montoya, who has yet to prove he can win a race on an oval, is the team’s top Cup driver, and the drivers who’ve made starts in the Nationwide Series have been terrible, and terribly hard on equipment, too.

2. Denny Hamlin sounded like a spoiled brat in his post-race comments about Keselowski on Saturday. Hamlin didn’t like that Keselowski was racing him hard, and made a point to say such behavior wouldn’t be tolerated in a Cup race.

This isn’t the first time that Hamlin has made it sound like he deserved special treatment. Recall that last year, while Hamlin was part of the Chase, he and Kyle Petty had an altercation. Hamlin thought Petty should get out of his way on the track because Hamlin was a Chaser and Petty was not.

Of course, Petty was racing for owner’s points so that he could get locked in to the first few races the next year, but that’s besides the point. I don’t know about you, but I want every racer racing hard every race.

Say that five times fast.

3. I’m sorry, Danica Patrick, but the scene of you marching up to some other driver to slap their visor is getting a bit old.

Yes, it plays well on TV and I’m sure the fans at Indy really loved your march up pit road, but take a page out of your teammate’s book.

Earlier, Tony Kanaan had just wrecked after a close drive-by from another teammate, Marco Andretti, and was obviously upset. But, Kanaan kept his cool and even took the opportunity to apologize to Sarah Fisher who was caught up in his spin-out through no fault of her own.

There is no doubt in my mind the team meeting over the Kanaan-Andretti incident — out of the public’s eye — was, shall we say, spirited. But the situation was dealt with appropriately: internally.

I suppose I’d feel differently if it looked like Ryan Briscoe, the driver who ran too hot out of his pit box and hit Patrick, had done it on purpose. But it was clearly an accident, and you can yell at Briscoe all you want, call him whatever you want, but what’s done is done.

There is a time and a place for everything.

4. Do I really need to add Hendrick Motorsports to this list every week?

Jimmie Johnson looked good at lap 500 of Sunday’s race, but then blew an engine and didn’t finish. Jeff Gordon was down in the standings most of the race, but gambled on fuel strategy to come in fourth. He was followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., who led a lot of laps but who also hit the walls a few times.

Not exactly confidence-building stuff.

If the Chase started next week all three would be in it. But the Chase does not start next week, and there are a lot of drivers and teams that are starting to figure the CoT out.