The death Saturday of NHRA drag racer Scott Kalitta during the final round of qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., overshadowed a lot of what happened this past weekend.
The general reaction in the pits at Evergreen Speedway was that Kalitta died doing what he loved to do, and that he would not have wanted to be anywhere else.
I don’t dispute that, but having seen the video footage I hope everyone involved — the NHRA and the track — take a good hard look at the safety measures that were in place.
The run-off area seemed to be very, very short and the last-ditch safety fence looked to be inadequate.
Every driver — professional and hobbyist — should understand the risks they take on the track, and prepare accordingly. Still, it is something I don’t think anyone can, or should, get used to.
My condolences to the Kalitta family.
I finished up with a local and a national winner in my picks this weekend.
Evergreen Speedway super stock driver Jeff Knight got his first feature victory on Saturday.
Johnny Benson made it three wins in a row at the Milwaukee Mile in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck race.
The difference between the two? Well, Knight didn’t dump anyone en route to the win, and in the replay I watched this morning the same can’t be said about Benson.
Other than those two, I went 0-fer on the weekend. Tony Kanaan (IndyCar), Robby Gordon (Sprint Cup) and David Stremme (Nationwide) were involved in wrecks; locally, Nick Gunderson (super figure eight) broke and recorded a DNF, Bob Edwards (mini-stock) finished eighth, and Jim Foti (bombers) came in second behind another Evergreen Speedway first-time winner, Joe Kneeland.
1. Rowdy Busch made it back to victory lane after a two-week absence. In a change from recent weeks, after winning Sunday’s Sprint Cup road course race in Sonoma, Calif., he gave a lot of credit to his crew.
2. Saturday’s racing program at Evergreen Speedway went off like clockwork. The crew was helped out by there being just a few cautions in the features, but even so the final checkered flag fell at 10 p.m. and I was in my car headed home fifteen minutes later. The racing — from heats to mains — was pretty good, too.
3. Everett, Wash., racer Jayme Barnes won the Thursday night opener and the Saturday finale of the 37th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway. By taking the final checkered flag — and the $25,000 check — Barnes became the first local 410 sprint car driver in more than a decade to win the Dirt Cup.
4. He may be my Dad’s favorite driver, but I’ve got to acknowledge the way Tony Stewart handled a post-race TV interview question.
The TNT reporter asked Smoke about the wreck he was caught up in — caused by Stewart’s good friend Kevin Harvick — but Stewart brushed the question off, saying he couldn’t comment without seeing a replay. The reporter rephrased, but asked the same question, and Stewart bristled, basically saying: What part of what I just said didn’t you understand?
I know the TV guy was doing his job, trying to generate “good copy,” but I’m glad Stewart didn’t just sit there and repeat the same response.
1. How to put this? I’ll just say it: the Cup races with the Car of Tomorrow have been pretty boring. I know there are some in the media who’ve termed the racing this year as “compelling” and “exciting,” but I can’t agree.
Because this is just the first full season of CoT races, I would be more forgiving and patient if NASCAR would admit they’re working on improving it for next year.
2. The Brotherhood of the Cup was out in full force at the Nationwide race. Carl Edwards nudged Clint Bowyer aside en route to the victory, and later apologized to Bowyer for doing it.
Still, I’ve got to wonder how that situation would have played out had either party to that bumping been a Nationwide Series regular.
The Cupsters of late have not looked kindly on the drivers of the “lesser” series racing them hard. I’m guessing there would have been some snide comments.
3. Does anyone think a top-5 finish in Sonoma was enough to save Casey Mear’s ride at Hendrick? The hot rumor floating around the Cup garage his weekend in wine country was that Mears has been told he’ll be let go at the end of the season.
I wonder how much support the 5 car gets in the Hendrick garage, compared to the three J’s: Jimmie, Jeff and Junior. Still, Mears has been disappointing this season — and I thought he’d have a breakout year.
Silly Season should be a lot of fun this year.
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