DW: NASCAR did what it had to do with Fontana debris cautions
Well, our 2015 version of the West Coast swing is in the books, and I just have to say it was awesome. Kevin Harvick gets two wins and a second-place finish in the three races we just ran. The racing was fun and good. The crowds were phenomenal. All three tracks — Las Vegas, Phoenix and Auto Club Speedway — fed off of each other. They co-promoted together. I talked to all three track presidents and they told me ticket sales were up. We saw a sellout Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, so I think NASCAR has come up with a great plan for early-season racing out West.
It's funny the transition we've seen in Auto Club Speedway over the past few years, and I mean that in a very good way. When we were first going there, the racing wasn't all that exciting and became pretty predictable. These last few handful of years, however, have brought us exciting racing and some incredible finishes.
The fastest car doesn't always win, and Sunday was a perfect example of that. In only his second race back from suspension, Kurt Busch was by far the fastest car in practice and, obviously, also in qualifying when he won the pole for Sunday's race and then in the actual race itself. He led the most laps Sunday with 65 and had a chance to win until that caution shuffled everything around.
I know Kurt's disappointed. A win slipped away. A chance to put himself in the Chase field in only his second race back from his off-track issues evaporated. He can't let himself dwell on that. Two weeks ago he finished fifth. Sunday he finished third. He and crew chief Tony Gibson are a perfect match. That No. 41 camp is giving him fast race cars, and as a driver that's all you can ask for. So Kurt has to continue to focus on the positive. He jumped five more spots in the points and, with only two races, compared to everyone else's five this season, Kurt has already vaulted himself to 28th in the points.
Now I know the conspiracy theorists marched out in force after that race saying that NASCAR didn't want Kurt to win so they threw a caution to keep him from doing it. When there is any doubt about whether they should or shouldn't throw a caution, they are always going to err on the side of caution. Put yourself in their shoes. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
If they don't throw a caution and someone were to get hurt because of not waving the yellow, then everyone comes down on them for being reckless and uncaring about driver safety. When they do throw a caution and a certain fan base's driver is negatively affected by it, then they supposedly are rigging the outcome.
I'm not here to defend NASCAR. Personally, I didn't agree with the decision in the Daytona 500 or this past Sunday at Auto Club Speedway. As I've always said, I'm old-school. We raced back to the checkers or raced back to the caution no matter what. There never was any thought of "freezing the field." Do I always agree with their decisions? Heck no, but I stand by them. They are the sanctioning body. These are split-second decisions that are made sometimes. From the vantage point of the safety worker, something that looks like a piece of lead might be a piece of tape, or vice versa. In that moment of time NASCAR simply doesn't have the time to calculate whether a caution will prevent one driver from winning a race while helping another driver to win a race. Again, I don't like what they did, but I understand why they did it and will stand by it.
So the fastest car didn't win the race Sunday. There's no shocking surprise in that. We see it all the time across the entire history of our sport. Brad Keselowski won Sunday, but he had at best a top-five car. He got up near the front a few times, but he was 10th or 12th most of the day. Brad will tell you they stole that race but they stole it by doing something that no one else did. Like Brad said in his postrace comments, if it wasn't for that last caution, there was no way their rolling of the dice was ever going to work.
Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon gambled by staying out. Why not give it a shot? Brad went against all them and took four tires. Remember, when they restarted he was 14th with no guarantees there was going to be another caution, but there was. He took the lead on the final lap in Turn 2 and led the last mile and a half of that race. Yes, it was the only lap he led the entire race.
That's how it goes in racing. Crew chief Paul Wolfe made the call for Brad to come for four tires. There were folks at the time saying it was a dumb call. If they hadn't gotten that last caution when they did, there's no saying that Brad would have had enough time to get up there to take the lead. Now all the Monday morning quarterbacks are saying what a genius Paul Wolfe is for making a gutsy call.
That's the part I like. I love the strategy involved in racing. Just go for it. If the best you have been all day is a top-10 car and you simply decide to play "follow the leader," then all you are going to do is follow the leader to the checkers. How else are you going to win unless you do something no one else does?
So the Western Swing is behind us and it's on to one of my most favorite racetracks, Martinsville Speedway. I love that joint. I've been blessed to win there 11 times. I know they call the track the paperclip, but maybe after all the "supposed" hot dog controversy last week, maybe they should rename it "The Hot Dog" since if you really think about it, it's shaped like that.
Yes, it makes me chuckle to think the biggest thing folks are talking about heading to Martinsville this week isn't really the fact that it's our first true short-track race of the year, but for the first time in nearly 70 years their famous red hot dogs with chili will not be produced by Jesse Jones Southern Style Hot Dogs. It became such a thing that Martinsville Speedway track president Clay Campbell had to take to the airwaves, stating, "They'll be as good as they've always been. If they weren't, my grandfather would come back to get me and Bill France Jr. would be after me, too. So we're not changing it to where fans will notice any difference whatsoever. The color, taste and texture will still be the same." If that doesn't put the "Great 2015 Hot Dog Controversy" to rest, just know they also served 750 of the new hot dogs to the media at Daytona, and no one noticed the difference.
Who to watch for this weekend? Kevin Harvick is the first that comes to mind. He loves the joint and has won there in the different series over the years. By the way, if you missed it Sunday, he kept his string of first- or second-place finishes alive when he came home second to Brad Keselowski. Obviously, the Hendrick cars are the dominant organization at Martinsville, having won there 22 times, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. getting his very first grandfather clock there last October.
Everyone is excited to see how young Chase Elliott does in his very first NASCAR Sprint Cup race this weekend. He'll be in the No. 25 NAPA Chevrolet. I know there are those who think, "Why throw that young man in a tough place like Martinsville for his debut?" But I just think he is going to surprise you. He's a great little short-track racer and I think you combine that with the history that Hendrick Motorsports has at Martinsville Speedway and it really makes a lot of sense.
Here's some way, way, way back Martinsville Speedway rookie trivia for you. The best-ever finish by a driver making his NASCAR Cup debut at Martinsville Speedway was Ray Erickson. The year was 1949. He started fifth in his No. 5 Mercury, which is ironic since Hendrick has the No. 5 these days, and finished third. Red Byron won the 200-lap race with Lee Petty finishing second, three laps down. Here are a couple other cool facts. Martinsville was a dirt track then and the purse was a whopping $3,800. Ray made $400 by finishing third, by the way.
So keep your eye on young Chase this weekend. You can take it to the bank that Denny Hamlin will be good there. Don't overlook Martin Truex Jr. as he is on an incredible roll this this year. Martin finished eighth Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, which marked his fifth consecutive top-10 finish. To put the roll Martin is on right now in perspective, he only had five top-10 finishes in all of 2014.
In fact he, Joey Logano and Harvick are the only three drivers to all have top-10 finishes in the first five races this year. That's the first time in the entire history of NASCAR that three drivers have started a season off with five straight top 10s. So that's a pretty phenomenal record in and of itself.
So we have a rookie driver and rookie hot dog making their debuts at Martinsville Speedway — the only racetrack that has been on the NASCAR circuit from the very beginning of our sport. I would wager that both have very, very bright futures, and it all starts Sunday where our smallest track gives out one of the most coveted trophies in all of motorsports: a grandfather clock, a tradition that started back in 1964.
