Coke Zero 400 Mayhem: Whose Fault Was It?

 

I don’t know if any of you caught the finish of the Coke Zero 400 (I miss Pepsi) the other night, but wow, it was a doozy. I’m a big Stewart fan, let’s start it out with that. And well, our family doesn’t like the Busch family in general. I’m just giving you the background before I start this article, so you can praise me for my impartial comments.

I started not liking them after Kurt won the series title, well, while he was winning the title. He was just too cocky; he thought he was the best there had ever been or would ever be.  Well that was bologna, but whatever, he has finally taken that attitude down a notch or two. Then his brother comes along, now I’ll say this, he is one hell of a race car driver. That’s irrefutable, but he’s arrogant, annoying, and major league immature.

Need an example? Ok, here’s one for 'ya. So, we’re in Nashville, and Kyle wins the Camping World 200. The trophy for said event is a one-of-a-kind Gibson Les Paul Guitar that was hand painted by Sam Bass. What does he do when he is presented with this awesome, there is only one of these on the planet, sort of trophy? Does he take it home and place it on his already over-decorated mantle. No, he smashes it.

That’s right, doing a lousy imitation of a washed up rock star he smashed the trophy. And just what does he have to say for himself when all of NASCAR Nation is in an uproar over his juvenile antics? 

"Everybody's (smashed a guitar) except race car drivers. Those sorry saps take it home in one piece. I'll break it up and share it with the team." 

And when it doesn’t break up just the way he had envisioned, to add a little salt in that gaping wound his next comment is, and again I quote  "It didn't break according to plan," Busch said. "We'll go back to the shop and cut it up into smooth pieces so everyone on the team can have one. Then I'm going to order two more for me and (crew chief) Jason Ratcliff."

That’s right boys and girls, if you have a big enough ego and a big enough bank account anything, absolutely anything can be replaced!

You should see my dad when he is telling someone the story, which he does every chance he gets, he's all red in the face, and I’m like  “Mom  he’s telling the Kyle Busch guitar story again, be ready to dial 911”.  My dad is the son of a racer, as am I (nothing professional) and he states unequivocally he has never seen anything so disrespectful, ever. 

Now that you have a faint idea how my family feels about Kyle Busch, let’s get down to business.

The Coke Zero 400. Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin were dominating the entire race, and Tony’s pit crew was awesome all day, getting him back to first every time he pitted, if he wasn’t first already. The whole race we hear and see how dominant Hamlin’s ride is, and while I’m rooting for Tony, I’m nervous of Hamlin taking the lead on this final restart.

For those of you who don’t know, this is Daytona, and if you’re at Daytona you’re drafting, and if you’re drafting you can go from first to worst in a heartbeat if you’ve got no one pushing you. Picture a deck of cards shuffling…you get the idea.

Anyway, here we go, they take the green, and Tony commands the lead, things are looking good, because all night long once he’s taken the lead, no one had really been able to challenge him for it. But that was on long runs. This was a very short run.

On the last lap, Kyle Busch gets a great run. I couldn’t tell if maybe Tony had gotten a little too far in front of the pack (that drafting thing again), or gotten loose and let off the throttle, but either way Busch takes the lead, and it looked as though he’d earn the win. Oh so comforting.

Tony stays behind him and makes his move coming out of the final turn. Tony fakes going to the bottom, Kyle moves down to block him, but by the time Kyle realizes he isn’t there (never was, Ky Ky, faked you out!) and starts to go high to block him again Tony already owns that real estate baby, his nose is where Kyle’s right rear should be, SHOULD BE but wasn’t…BUSCH IS SIDEWAYS, HE’S INTO THE WALL TONY STEWART WINS THE COKE ZERO 400!

Wow. Well what a finish, and of course the first thing that runs through my mind is, I hope no one got hurt cause there is a lot of twisted metal on the track, last lap of Daytona twisted metal.  The second thing that runs through my mind is here comes the media.

Why, you might ask? Well, because many a time Tony Stewart has been on the wrong end of the media shaft.  Usually relating to wrecks that could possibly be attributed to his "hot-headedness," which has sort of earned him the “Bad Boy of NASCAR” tag, in an era of NASCAR where the ratio of bad boys to pretty boys is about 0:42. So, when they showed the replay I was relieved.

It wasn’t Tony’s fault, he was racing and so was Busch. I really want to say it was no one's fault, but if it had to be blamed on anyone, it would more than likely be put on the shoulders of Busch.

Why? Well because if he hadn’t of tried that final block, I think he would have won.  If he had just kept the low line he ended up in trying to block Tony the first time and raced him, side by side raced him, he might have had the car and the talent to still pull off the win.

I would have liked to see that, now that would have been a finish! No matter though. I got what I wanted, Stewart won. He’s hot. First year as an owner-driver and he is kicking butt and taking names! And he’s starting to get hot just at the right time, the better he does the closer we get to “The Chase” the more likely it is that there is yet another championship in his future.

Be careful NASCAR, Stewart is back, and he’s better than ever.