The Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's is too long....almost 5 hours. Having said that, it was a damn good race. :p
Anyone have any thoughts about Michael Waltrip buying his way into the race by virtue of purchasing Cope's qualifying? His team rewrapped the car as #55, refitted it to fit his 6'5" frame and hit the track. Unfortunately for Michael, he lost his brakes fairly early on and did not come back out.
Which brings me to the next question. Later on in the race, Harvick lost his transmission due to heat build up from a cracked exhaust. Pulling in to the garage, his team had the tranny and the broken exhaust replaced in just 11 minutes and he was back on the track, but 27 laps down. Personally, I think any more than 2 laps down (which seems impossible to make up), take the DNF as part of your record, but pride and numbers won't allow that.
Should they be allowed back out if more than 2 laps down?

Absolutely they should be able to go back out if they can run a competitive speed and not cause problems for other people. I don't see any reason why someone should park their car if they have a readily fixable mechanical issue such as a transmission or electrical problem or something like that. Now crashed cars going back out is another story. I don't like that since wrecked cars tend to shed parts (remember Robby Gordon's hood flying into the stands at Daytona a couple of years ago). Also in the thrash to put the car back together it is easy to miss or overlook a damaged part that can fail once put under racing stress again, causing another crash as bad as or worse than the first wreck.
As far as Mikey goes, he is in a transition year waiting for Toyota. Dodge isn't helping his team at all, in fact Dodge just won a lawsuit to the tune of over $6 million against Bill Davis Racing. I just laughed when I saw Mikey DNQ, and knew he'd buy a ride, just like he bought his way into the first 5 races this year. He's not the first guy to do it and certainly won't be the last. I was surprised it took him as long as it did to miss a race. Really though I dislike Mikey. He never shuts up, you could loop a 1 minute recording of Mikey saying "NAPA, Aaron's, Dominos Pizza, Klaussner, Best Western, Coca-Cola" and not be able to tell the difference from listening to him talk live or give an interview.

That is true of every driver, though.
"Yea, our DuPontPepsiQuakerStateTyvekMonte Carlo was a little loose in turn 3, but if we hadn't have lost the drive shaft coming out of turn 1, I really believe that DuPontPepsiQuakerStateTyvekMonteCarlo would have won".
Every sponsor spends from $2-18 million a year PER team.
Mikey and Kenny Wallace have each made jokes about their sponsor-plugging, ie; "oops-hold on there, gotta show the label" as they swig from their drink. Mikey has apologized for doing the sponsorsponsorsponsor during interviews, explaining, it's the sport, gotta get it in there. Every one of them does commercials, public appearances and their trailers all have sponsor-based merchandise.
I really get more annoyed at that big screen in front of the commentators with some sponsor's logo glaring out.
I agree about putting out wrecked cars-shouldn't be done. Invariably after, there's 'debris cautions'. And, you don't see it on tv, because they're usually so far back as to not warrant air time, but some of those wrecks they put back out are minus a LOT of major parts-hoods, bumpers, fenders....they'd have lost in demolition derbies, but there they are going over 100mph with half a car left.

Today they posted a question on the broadcast, "do you think they should add a road-course race to the chase"?

Personally i dont like watching road course racing, (thats why im not an F-1 fan), but i do think that for the sake of the chase, they should throw a Sonoma or a Watkins Glen in there ...

Whats your take?

On the one hand, I agree. They do...what? 3 or 4 now as it is? So why not add one.
On the other hand, they're not completely in their element on road courses, it seems.
The cars don't perform well (according to listening to the radios online), there's more
silly mistakes (Jimmie Johnson did a find job though of saving his butt doing that 360), the tension between drivers is higher....
This weekend was the 100th road course in NASCAR's history-a small number compared to overall. Perhaps in a year or two they should add one to the cup chase.
Let's not forget the bulk of the drivers are under 40 with more than half under 35-there's not much experience there either.

But, wouldn't it be a great way for them to get some experience?
I just dont think they, (road courses), are as fun to watch as cars going 190mph inches apart ...
I also agree on the save by jimmy, perfect 360! ... but wasn't he "punted"?
p.s.
I'm in a pool and i have to make a trade ... who would you trade for jeff burton? ... jamie mcmurray / elliot s. / or vickers? :thumbsup:

I know of two, which are the other ones?

I'd go Vickers right now, McMurray and Sadler both seem to be going the wrong way.

I don't know about the road courses. I like them but the courses have already been Nascarized to a point where they aren't the way they used to be. Sears Point was reconfigured and shortened by half a mile about 6 or 7 years ago, and they dont use the entire circuit at Watkins Glen that the true road racing leagues use when they go there. I don't see a lot of benefit to them. I guess it costs less than plate racing, but they were also saying during the broadcast that Cal Wells spent an extra $400,000 on his road course program this year. That is a ton of money for a small team.

Considering what he did tonight after he won the race, I guess Tony's shoulder is better, eh? :lol:

What a borrrring race ... i usually like the superspeedways, but this was a real snoozzzzer.
Glad to see Tony win (i got him in my pool), ... it was funny watchin the chubby fella climb the fence though, lol

Sonoma, Watkins Glen and.... er ...well, hell, why'd the commentator last week say 4 during the season? Unless Busch series was included in that. *shrug*

Man, what is it going to take for Mike Helton and Brian France to grow a pair and park Tony Stewart for a race or two? Goodness, he blatantly uses his car as a weapon and takes two guys out of the race and all he gets is a limp slap on the wrist for a penalty. When NASCAR parked Kevin Harvick at Martinsville in '02 they set a precedent that if you blatantly use your race car as a weapon you better be prepared to miss a race. Yet Tony has done more bad than Harvick and NASCAR keeps doing nothing. A one lap penalty is not a penalty when it is that early in the race and the guy receiving the penalty still has a fast car. Especially when you consider his victims are relegated to also-rans for the rest of the race. It would be nice if they sat him out at Indy, that is the only way Tony will learn, but it wont happen.

Just watched the post race interview with Tony, and there he goes again talking about how everybody needs to learn about give and take, and how he does all the giving and everyone else just takes. He is right. He is the one giving drivers body slams down the straightaway every time he gets pissy. He is the one giving drivers the finger when they pull along side him to ask WTF is he doing? They are the ones doing the taking, taking a tore up race car and lousy finish home. While Tony doesnt do any taking, like not taking responsibility for his actions.

When he was on top of his game last year and took the championship, he was Mister Nice Guy and built a fanbase as a result. Now he's last year's news and back to his old ways...I think he gets a huge head when he's on a winning streak and becomes a bastard when he isn't, somehow thinking he's owed something for taking the trophy.
Not only should he be at least on a close watch, Home Depot should once again threaten to drop him and mean it this time. Even his crew chief looked exasperated.
Having said that, a 'serves him right' for Edwards little trick, even though it got him blackflagged as well. Gee, Tony, you should have moved over, eh?
I feel SO bad for Jr....twice in a row an end of the pack finish for things not his fault at all and they leave him down 7 spots to 11th....shoulda been a Busch brother.
His radio transmission defied how he was feeling, "Heh...I just blew the engine..."
He and his crew also made jokes about Tony and Edwards getting into the ring for a few rounds...that Edwards was in better shape but Tony would probably take him out in 3-4 rounds...funny stuff.

Ok, race fans!! Who's bringing home that trophy to drink beer out of?:lol:
Can Jr. pull of about 2 wins and the rest top 5's? Will Johnson again be only second best? Will Kenseth actually celebrate something?
Could someone please knock that Busch kid to the back of the pack?

Well the Chase field is set. I'm thrilled that Tony Stewart missed the Chase, although I'm sure the Stewart homer at my work will tell me all about how he got robbed or screwed. I'm glad my man Kenseth is going in as the points leader. It will be interesting to see who steps up, and who falls back. Harvick has been awful strong, and Junior has been good too. Hopefully Kenseth or Johnson will keep running strong enough to win the title that really is rightfully theirs.

Oh, and has anybody noticed the double standard NASCAR has for their superstars versus everyone else? First they park Kevin Lepage in the Bristol Busch race for bumping somebody under yellow after they wrecked him, then tonight they parked Jeff Green for bumping Jimmie Johnson under caution after Johnson wrecked him. And yet they don't have the balls to park Tony when he blatantly wrecks people at full speed.

with the current field, it will be hard to tell but if martin and burton maintain their consistency I think it will come down to them two.