nascar 2009 <> need to vent

in the early morning hours before race #2 of the young 2009 sprint cup season ... the snoozefest 500 from fontana ... i have this burning NEED TO VENT ... a week after datyona ... a week after what was supposed to be the great american race turned out to be the great american disgrace ... i still feel robbed

the preludes to this season opening sprint cup race were tremendous ... happy harvick "squirted like a hotdog outta the bun" to claim the bud shootout in dramatic fashion ... martin truax, jr and mark martin claimed front row positions for the 500 ... jeff gordon and kyle busch won the duel 1 and duel 2 qualifying races in daytona style ... then came the long, tedious raceday wait ... the ever present threat of rain made the wait feel longer and more nerve wracking ... these races seem to start later every year ... then just after the green flag waved came nephew jason's 3:45 pm text message "i'm in orlando and it raining" ... and the sph#$%cter tightened a bit more

then the ugly american race happened ... dale earnhardt, jr embarrassed himself missing his pit stall (too many "pink signs" he said later) ... gordon and steve letarte giggled at the blunder ... nascar embarassed itself penalizing dale, jr on pit road ... if nascar had instant replay ... that call just might have been reversed upon review ... earnhardt, jr embarrassed himself pulling a "carl edwards" move and taking out about a quarter of the field ... including the fastest car on the track, kyle busch ... and my "most points" pick in the pool, jamie mcmurray ... gordon told letarte he would offer commentary on the crash but says he wont so he doesnt hurt anyone's feelings ... nascar embarrassed itself not penalizing junior for causing the big wreck (aggressive driving) ... like they had penalized jason leffler 5 laps on pit road during the nationwide race the day before ... then nascar really embarrassed itself calling the clusterfuck this daytona 500 had become official with 48 of its most important laps still to be raced ... nascar's super bowl ... nascar's world series ... ended due to rain after just a 15 minute wait ... i felt empty ... i felt robbed ... i still do

the strategy for winning restrictor plate races ... stay out of harms way for 150 laps and be in a position to contend with 50 laps to go ... kevin harvick (winner 2 years ago) did that ... so did clint bowyer (with new team) ... tony stewart (with more than just a new team) ... martin truax, jr (the pole sitter) ... jeff gordon (with a long winless streak to end) and mark martin (the lovable old man with a hendricks engine) ... any one of them could have won the daytona 500 ... so could have matt kenseth or aj allmendinger or kurt busch ... but none got the chance ... for nascar's "super bowl" ... that sucks

personally ... i will forever remember matt kenseth's daytona 500 win as tainted ... not well deserved ... lucky ... bogus ... unfair ... disappointing ... a letdown ... fraudulent

there i said it ... now maybe i will feel better ... now maybe i can move on ... look ahead to one of the season's most boring races ... nascar needs a spark right now ... they need kyle busch to win today's race in a way only this young superstar can do it ... nascar needs kyle busch to sweep the race weekend (camping world, nationwide and sprint) in socal ... yikes ... fox coverage of this one doesnt even start til 5:00 pm ... meaning green flag will wave just about when east coast families are sitting down for sunday night dinner