The Cool Down Lap: Most of Saturday night’s drama had nothing to do with who won

The Cool Down Lap: Most of Saturday night’s drama had nothing to do with who won


(May 1, 2011)

RICHMOND, Va.—Most of the drama in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race at Richmond had nothing to do with race winner Kyle Busch.
Yes, Busch stretched his fuel mileage to the limit in beating Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin to the finish line. The way the race played out between the teammates was suspenseful, to be sure, but the real intensity unfolded behind them.
Richmond gave us a rivalry to watch next weekend at Darlington, an indelible image from Kurt Busch and an uncharacteristic meltdown from Martin Truex Jr.
First, the rivalry. Polesitter Juan Pablo Montoya saw his hopes for his first NASCAR victory on an oval track evaporate when contact from Ryan Newman’s No. 39 Chevrolet knocked Montoya’s No. 42 into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 104 of 400.
Montoya retaliated on Lap 237, deliberately spinning Newman and knocking him into the path of Kurt Busch, who plowed into Newman.
Montoya was screaming on his radio, but after the race he was out of his car and out of the track without comment, as Newman paid a visit to the NASCAR hauler to voice his concerns and to find out how the sanctioning body was going to handle the incident.
Hamlin, in this case a dispassionate observer, called out Montoya after the race.
“I watch the screen,” said Hamlin, referring to the Jumbotron in the center of the infield. “I don’t like it. Every time Montoya has damage, you see who did it, (and) they usually end up getting wrecked. You usually know that’s coming.
“You have to realize—Montoya, I like him; I think he’s a hell of a driver—but you can’t wreck everyone every time you get in an accident. Accidents happen. Guys make mistakes. Why hold grudges?”
Kurt Busch fought the handling of his car all night. Compounding the problem was contact with other cars and the outside wall. At one point, Busch suggested, in the coarsest of terms, that the futility of the Penske Dodges was akin to a monkey trying to have his way with a football.
“The Penske team looks like a joke,” added Busch, who earlier had called out engineer Tom German. “I’m sorry, our day was done when Tom German decided he was in charge,” Busch said on his radio.
Truex had a car that perhaps could have challenged Busch and Hamlin, but he didn’t get the chance to show it late in the race. A late-race pit stop was a disaster, and Truex had to bring his No. 56 Toyota back to the pits four laps later so the crew could tighten a loose lug nut.
Truex added to his misery by speeding when he left pit road, and NASCAR hit him with a pass-through penalty.
The typically mild-mannered Truex blew up.
“You’re fired, every (expletive) one of you,” Truex screamed on his radio, in what must have been crew chief Pat Tryson’s worst nightmare. Before moving to Michael Waltrip Racing, Tryson was crew chief for Kurt Busch.
As intriguing as Richmond was, Saturday night’s race may have been the appetizer for a main course called Darlington. Next Saturday, Cup drivers will race for 500 miles at one of NASCAR’s most difficult tracks. If tempers were frayed at Richmond, they may come completely unraveled at Darlington.
The bottom line is that there are fences to mend before drivers start knocking down the fences at the Lady in Black.
By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service