Monday, April 21, 2008

A lot of action for a slow weekend

Drivers for the Sprint Cup Series took a weekend off though some of them made the trip south to Mexico City to take part in the Corona Mexico 200.
Kyle Busch kept up his hot hand by winning his third Nationwide Series race in a row, moving him to third in points. He is 66 points behind points leader Clint Bowyer. Busch passed Scott Pruett and was able to drive away from the rest of the drivers who seemed to be wrecking every other lap or so.
Then there was Boris Said who is a part-time NASCAR driver and ESPN analyst. Said got taken out by eventual second-place driver Marcos Ambrose in the last 26 laps of the race.
Said was really upset after getting out of his car. I don't really blame him for being upset. He was in the top five at the time and there were still plenty of laps left to race.
But Ambrose got into Said and they went into the grass and came back on to the track. While Ambrose was able to get around Said and go on, Said got his car damaged and was forced to climb out and look at his damage race car.
Then he stood there and waited for Ambrose to come by so that he could point at him and fake like he was going to throw his helmet at him. But he didn't. He climbed into the ambulance and went to the track's care center where all drivers in wreck are required to go.
Said was okay, and he was more than willing and ready to talk to an ESPN crew after being released from the center. I don't blame him for being mad. Hey, this is an emotional sport.
Said went on to say in his interview that he's going to go to Ambrose's crew chief and apologize for the car he's going to mess up. And then, Said went into Ambrose's pit and told his crew chief the same thing he had just told everyone on national television.
I don't think that's what I would have done. I would have done the interview and left the track. If in a few weeks if the guy that took me out was around me, and I didn't have a winning or good car, that's when I would choose to get some payback.
The problem now for Said is Ambrose knows it's coming and so does NASCAR. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if NASCAR talks with Said about his threatening comments. What he has to remember is he may get his revenge, but what if he takes another driver out while doing it.
But as far as drama, that made for an exciting afternoon.
As for Busch, he keeps being asked if he's going to run the full Nationwide Series. He is in the top 10 of all three NASCAR series. He is in second place and 80 points behind Jeff Burton in Sprint Cup and he leads Todd Bodine by 35 points in the Craftsman Truck Series.
It'll be interesting to see if he can stay this hot for all three series for the entire year.

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