Gotta love Thunder Valley
There are plenty of reasons behind why NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Bristol Motor Speedway remain one of the toughest tickets in all of racing to acquire.
The 160,000-seat racing cathedral in the mountains of East Tennessee always provides some of the craziest action of the season and last Sunday was no exception. Just when it looked like Denny Hamlin was going to give Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota their second straight victory, his teammate Tony Stewart ends up the victim of a two-laps-to-go crash with Kevin Harvick. Forced to handle a green-white-checkered overtime session, Hamlin was foiled by a fuel pickup problem as the Richard Childress posse finished 1-2-3 with Jeff Burton going home with the checkers.
You could see the frustration on the faces of Hamlin, Stewart, Harvick and well, almost everybody else amongst those who played a role in the finish. On the other hand, you had Burton take a popular win. It's been known for some time that he's emerged as the voice of the garage and a fan favorite as well. While many partisans likely hated the fact that their favorite driver got upended in the final laps, chances are they don't hate that Burton won.
Such are the extremes in emotion that go with the outcome of a close race. But due to its very nature, Bristol always sees those contrasts amplify. Frustration ticks upward at Bristol. Jubilation, the same thing. It's one of the most unique shows in racing and one of the best. Bristol exemplifies the very aspects of the sport that allowed it to morph into a nationwide phenomenon and a tradition for untold numbers of families across the South. Again, there's a reason why that even though it's 160,000-seats strong, Bristol remains the toughest ticket in racing today.
Sunday was also a good day for three drivers in particular. Although 1999 Cup champion Dale Jarrett was forced to finish his final NASCAR points race in 37th, he still received a lot of well-deserved kudos on a fine career from his fellow drivers and from his father Ned, who waved the green flag to start his son's last points race.
I also have to give a thumbs-up to Dale Earnhardt, Inc.'s Aric Almirola, who certainly knocked off the rust in his first race since November 2007. Almirola, who began his substitute schedule of 12 events for normal No. 8 pilot Mark Martin last week, drove to an eighth-place run on a track that not many people would like to drive after such a long layoff.
Finally, a shout-out to Sam Hornish Jr., who managed to climb into the top 35 in owner's points with his 29th place effort at Bristol -- which locks him into the next Sprint Cup race in two weeks at Martinsville, Va. As ESPN.com's David Newton notes, that's not as thrilling as his Indy 500 win in 2006. But at least Hornish has the edge over his fellow open-wheel expatriates. Reigning IRL/Indy 500 champ Dario Franchitti is now part of the "go-or-go-home" crowd as he's in 39th on the owner's chart, while former Champ Car star Patrick Carpentier is 46th. Ouch.
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We're now ten days away from the start of the IndyCar Series season in Homestead, Fla., but plenty of teams and drivers are still getting in some last-minute testing before the season begins.
The transitioning teams coming over from the Champ Car World Series will take part in their first of two Open Tests starting today at Sebring International Raceway in Florida. Five teams were expected to take part in the two-day test session at the 1.7-mile road course, but Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing has announced that they won't be there due to a shortage of parts for its two new Dallara chassis.
NHLR and their drivers Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson are still expected to be at the Homestead-Miami Speedway test next week, which is also meant for the new IRL squads -- NHLR, HVM Racing (driver to be announced), KV Racing Technology (drivers Will Power and Oriol Servia), Dale Coyne Racing (drivers to be announced) and Conquest Racing (drivers Franck Perera and Enrique Bernoldi). Meanwhile, Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon and Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe will also be doing some testing today. They'll be in Richmond, Va. putting in laps for Firestone.
Finally, word came yesterday that Michael Andretti's promotions group has signed a letter of intent to purchase the assets of the Toronto Grand Prix, which was canceled for 2008 after last month's unification of American open-wheel racing. Andretti Green Promotions, an offshoot of Andretti Green Racing, has some time to think about going through with the deal, but if they do, I think we can safely assume that one of Canada's biggest sporting events will be reborn in 2009 as an IndyCar Series race.
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I didn't watch Sunday's Formula One season opener at Melbourne, Australia, which was won by Lewis Hamilton of McLaren. But after reading about Sebastien Bourdais' stellar debut on Sunday, I certainly wish I had decided to get out of bed in the early morning and watch the show.
Bourdais, whose four straight Champ Car titles finally got him his long-overdue shot at F1 this year with Scuderia Toro Rosso, roared from the 17th starting position and was running in fourth position when his engine blew up just two laps from the finish.
His finish has STR boss Gerhard Berger saying that the Frenchman has proven himself worthy of F1, but Bourdais had proven that to plenty of American fans long before Sunday. He was an absolute terror in the Champ Cars and was in a class by himself. I'm tempted to trot out an analogy involving Tiger Woods here. That's how good Bourdais was in his five-year American racing career. He deserved to be in F1 much sooner than 2008.
The Edmonton Journal's Dan Barnes saw Bourdais' march through the field in Melbourne as a victory and a "rude awakening" for the smug elitists that rule Formula One. While I'm pretty sure most F1 owners/bosses can spot true driving talent quicker than most people, I agree with Barnes' assertion that everybody who didn't snap up this guy sooner were basically made to look like fools on Sunday.
I'll be sure to watch this week's Grand Prix in Malaysia. Having a chance to see Bourdais work his magic again is worth staying up late (Sun., 2:30 a.m., SPEED) and brewing some coffee for the race.
