Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Bowyer Inherits Wild Win at RIR
Monday, May 19th, 2008

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Oh…excuse me. I was watching the All-Star Race and, well…you know.

After the months of pre-race hype, this year’s All-Star race was less than spectacular with Kasey Kahne winning by a comfortable margin over Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart. I was hoping, no expecting more of a 'gloves off' event, some door-to-door, beatin' and bangin', fists wavin' event. Instead, it was a so-so race with a unexpected, yet capable winner.

The first amazing part is how Kahne gained eligibility into this short-race, big-buck formatted main event.

He could have been among the top two qualifiers in the Showdown Race, but that went to a ‘loose’ A. J. Almendinger and a surprisingly fast Sam Hornish Jr.

Kahne finished fifth, but the fan’s vote went strongly to the fan favorite having him start scratch on the field.

After finishing 13th, 8th and 7th respectively in the first three rounds of the All-Star, Kahne’s crew chief rolled the dice with a ‘gas only’ stop during the final round of pitstops.

That put Kahne’s Dodge among the top five for the start of the final and most important segment. Johnson led briefly, as did Denny Hamlin, but Hamlin’s Toyota engine expired similar to teammate Kyle Busch after he won the opening round, going away.

Kahne got out front with only Biffle in the same time zone. Biffle’s Ford made one attempt, yet the car tightened up during the final dozen laps, not able to catch the Dodge at the line.

Kahne picked up a little over a million dollars for the evening, while Biffle collected about half with Kenseth taking $134,000 for his trouble, finishing in third.

The Friday night truck race started looking as if Rowdy Busch, a.k.a. Kyle Busch would notch yet another win among the truckers. Eric Darnell led for a while, as did Ron Hornaday Jr and Todd Bodine.

But, the action heated up late when Hornaday slipped up into Busch, taking both out of the equation. Then, Hornaday sliced off Bodine whereupon Todd returned the favor gently spinning the Chevy out of the way. NASCAR felt it was intentional on Todd’s part and sent him to the rear.

I had to laugh when Hornaday was interviewed as he said, "Imagine spinning someone out on a straightaway?"

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black... let’s turn the clock back a while ago when Hornaday did just that to then race leader Mark Martin in a truck race on a restart. How quickly we forget.

In the end, surprise winner Matt Crafton held off a strong charge by Chad McCumbee and Brendan Gaughan to finally notch that first illusive win.

Indy Car News
The field for the 92nd running on the Indy 500 is set. The final round of qualifying found ‘96 winner Jacque Lazier, A.J. Foyt IV and Marty Roth barely getting and making up the final row of the 33-car grid.

The same three women that made the show last year are in the field again, those being Danica Patrick, Sarah Fisher and Milka Duno.

It is a very diversified field, especially after the recent Champ Car/IRL merger. Ganassi drivers Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon along with Penske show Ryan Briscoe make up the front row.

This is a can’t miss race. Even if you are not a Indy car fan, you need to watch this race. Besides, it’s before what most readers will watch, the Coke 600.

The green flag is set to fly on Sunday for the 500 at 1 p.m.. Winners? I’m going to say, Dan Wheldon or Marco Andretti. We’ll compare notes next week.

Across the Pond
The biggest race of the year in Formula One is probably this weekend’s run around the streets of Monaco. Tight corners, running through tunnels and around hotel swimming pools in front of loyalty and super stars of various persuasions all add up to a great event. For me, the 19,000 rpm engines screaming through the tunnel is the most exciting part.

The Ferrari’s are tough right now, but I feel a different manufacturer will win this weekend. If history repeats itself, the action level is always up a few notches for this one. If there’s only one F-1 race to watch all year…this is the one. We’ll compare notes next week.

From Rumorville
I keep hearing more and more about UPS leaving Michael Waltrip Racing. It appears the big shipping company may move over to Roush with Carl Edwards or perhaps, Martin Truex Jr with ________? (Fill in blank)

Have you noticed some of the Sprint Cup cars ‘crabbing’ down the straightaways lately? Seems that some of the teams, like Roush and Penske have figured out by crabbing the body to the right helps the COT design to turn better in the corners. Problem is some of the teams have taken this idea to an extreme too far out of the grey area in the rulebook. We can expect some changes, read restrictions, on this idea soon. You can’t blame the teams for stretching the envelope.

Did you know?
The last place driver in the 33-car Indy 500 field will be awarded over $270,000 and the winner of the race will walk away with, drum roll... over $2.5 million! The purse has been increased throughout the field by $2.3 million over last year. Wow!

That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the busiest race weekend of the year. From the Coke 600 to the Indy 500, we’ll review the results along with more racing news from around the globe.

Holiday Note: I’ve known race fans to make a very long day (Sunday) of watching auto racing on TV from 8 a.m. for F-1, 1 p.m. for the Indy 500 with the Coke 600 to start around 5:30 p.m. or roughly 15 hours of racing. Imagine.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ