Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

The Other Busch Wins Soggy New Hampshire
Monday, June 30, 2008

With many of this year's NASCAR highlights featuring young Kyle Busch's wins here and there, big brother Kurt Busch has been struggling for some success since his second place run at the Daytona opener.

Busch's crew chief Pat Tryson rolled the dice on track position and what tires or gas to take or not, yet wanted to be out front late in the race, just in case those ominous rain clouds halted the racing action. NASCAR officials parked the cars because of a light rain. The rain intensified, they called the show and Busch and several others lucky enough to roll the dice on not pitting wound up with uncharacteristic finishes.

They include second place 'rain man' Michael Waltrip, last week's non-qualifier J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex Jr and Elliott Sadler.

Tony Stewart led many of the day's laps, but taking on two tires on the final stop when most drivers took gas only found the orange and white Toyota finishing 13th.

Other 'up front' drivers for most of the day, yet 'caught out' on that last stop were Jimmie Johnson, Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon, all of whom wound up ninth through eleventh respectively.

The overall race was rather ho-hum, yet the final laps of Kyle Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya were more than entertaining and I'm looking for a way to have the footage as my desktop in a closed loop format.

The scenario was Kyle and Juan trading a little paint a few laps before their finale. You know... some squeezing, some bumping and you know neither one will back down from each other, especially surrounded by 3400 pounds of 'mean machine'.

Montoya had taken enough of Busch's shoving around and turned the young driver around on the back chute while under caution, unfortunately while the Toyota was spinning around, caught Montoya's car in the process.

Both drove away with bent cars and even more bent feelings, both pointing fingers at each other.

What have I been saying about the Kyle's shenanigans on and off track? Ye reap what ye sow... .or payback's are... ya know. This is only the beginning of many similar stories to come.

The Nationwide race on Saturday afternoon in New Hampshire saw Cupster Tony Stewart win his fifth series race this year in only seven starts. This is the same car that his teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Lagano have all won in this year.

Capping off the top five were the cars of Hamlin, Busch, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards. Clint Bowyer still tops the standings, some 182 points ahead of Dave Reutimann and Carl Edwards.

The Craftsman truck race at Memphis Motorsports Park was dominated by now series points leader Ron Hornaday. His rapid Chevy stayed out front for most of the race with Eric Darnell, Matt Crafton, Rick Crawford and David Starr rounding off the top five finishers.

Open Wheel News
The Indy Racing League race at Richmond International Raceway resembled more of demolition derby than an Indy car race by the time the checkers flew for Tony Kanaan as winner. A record number of cautions at nine and more than 100 laps wiped out more than half of the 26 car field out, the results of wrecks were a very bizarre scene to see. Helio Castroneves wound up second with points leader Scott Dixon third. The field moves on to the lefts and right of Watkins Glen this weekend. Can't wait... it should even the playing field between the ex-Champers and IRL regulars.

From Rumorville
This department is in overdrive these days with the first domino falling from the Hendrick Motorsport's announcement concerning Casey Mears contract ending after 2008. While the rumors are rampant, they range from Mark Martin in a one year shot at that elusive Cup title driving the No. 5 to the seasoned veteran sharing driving duties with Brad Keselowski to Tony Stewart driving the No. 5.

I don't know about the later... can you see Tony teaming with Dale Jr, Jeffey and Jimmie?

Many of the daily conversations this week involve Stewart still departing from Gibbs and buying into Haas Racing, those cars being the No. 66 and 70. Potential sponsors for this idea include Office Depot for Stewart and his hiring of Ryan Newman for the second car with Burger King helping to foot the bills. Stay tuned.

Did you know?
Kurt Busch's latest Cup win on Sunday was his first of the year and 18th career trophy putting him at No. 38 on the all-time list. The Penske driver has now moved into 18th place in points, up four spots from last week.
That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will review the Cup and Nationwide results from Daytona, the IRL action at Watkins Glen and more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ