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by PB on Jun.09, 2009, under TSS Articles


TNT’s Debut Was A Good One-It was a Digger-free weekend in NASCAR land as TNT made its season debut Sunday at Pocono. The trio of Bill Webber, Wally Dallenbach and Kyle Petty took on more of a “living room” approach to calling Sunday’s race. Instead of overloading fans with graphics, pointless analysis and tech talk, the three did a good job of calling the race without going over the viewer’s head. Not to mention Race Buddy seemed to be a big hit.

Double-File Restarts Go Off Without A Hitch-As confusing as it appeared to be, the new double-file restart rule made it through its first race without any problems. The only foreseeable problem/flaw is when lap cars get waived by and can only pit after they have taken the green flag. That could cause problems at places like Bristol and Martinsville.

Pit Road Mistakes-Jimmie Johnson, Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. all had issues on pit road Sunday. Jimmie Johnson rebounded from his mistake while Dale Jr’s cost him valuable track position for which he never regained. Perhaps the best pit road action of the race goes to Michael Waltrip. Waltrip spun not once but twice coming on to pit road.

MWR Has Their Act Together-Michael Waltrip Racing could not have asked for a better weekend of racing. Marcos Ambrose soldiered to a 6th place finish while David Reutimann’s 3rd place finish was his second top 5 in three races. MWR development driver Ryan Truex, younger brother of Cup driver Martin Truex, scored his first Camping World East win Saturday driving for MWR at Watkins Glen. Ryan Truex’s win could be a sign of things to come as older brother Martin is expected to join MWR in 2010.

Not Your Typical IRL Race At Texas-Unlike races in the past, the conclusion to Saturday’s Bombardier Learjet 550k at Texas Motor Speedway was boring and uneventful. As is the case in NASCAR, It appears clean air is more valuable than fuel, tires or even a good handling race car. Ryan Briscoe dominated the race until teammate Helio Castroneves got out first on the final stop of the night. Once Castroneves got out in clean air he was gone.

Button Wins…..Again-Breaking News!! Jenson Button wins the Turkish Grand Prix. Is anyone else racing over there? Where is defending champ Lewis Hamilton? Where is Ferrari? Apparently, Formula 1 has bigger issues than people realize. And we were to believe it wasn’t going to get bad until 2010.

Johnny Benson Loses Ride-It was announced Monday that defending Camping World Truck Series champ Johnny Benson had lost his ride at Red Horse Racing due to funding. It’s actually the second time in the last 8 months Benson has lost his ride due to lack of funding. Prior to the start of the series finale at Homestead Benson was told by his owner Bill Davis that the team was shutting down after the end of the season. The move left Benson in a bit of a bind. The deal with Red Horse came together at the last minute and was destined to fall apart if sponsorship wasn’t found. That nightmare became reality Monday.

Kyle Busch Is No Guitar Hero-Kyle Busch is one of the most talented drivers to come along in quite some time. What’s sad is that his actions and his mouth often times overshadow just how good this guy is. Smashing the guitar in victory lane was childish and uncalled for. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time but in the end it was nothing more than a slap in the face of the sport and those who laid the groundwork for which we race today.

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