July 6, 2009
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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As I sit here in the Daytona Beach Panera, across from Daytona International Speedway, and chow down on a bagel and diet Pepsi, I am thinking of several things from my fourth Daytona race weekend.
First...I am one very happy Tony Stewart fan. I had pretty much written off the win when, on the last lap, the field flew past my perch in Turn 4 and Kyle Busch was in the lead. That said I still had the foresight to turn to my host’s daughter and yell over the engines of the cars still filing past “This could get very interesting.”
I believe interesting is too mild a word for the finish of the Coke Zero 400.
The front page of the Daytona News Journal read “Tony KO’s Kyle”.
For the second Superspeedway race in a row, we have had the leader end up on another car’s hood, and the guy who put him there crossing the line first.
Thankfully, and for what it is worth, the #18 didn’t hit the fence like Carl Edwards had at Talladega…he just hit Kasey Kahne’s hood and windshield. It was spectacular to see, but in the end, everyone walked away and nothing was hurt except for Kyle’s car…and his ego.
For once, I will say it was probably better that Kyle didn’t talk to the media post crash. You know when it takes 3 or 4 NASCAR officials to restrain the guy and suggest it would be much wiser to get into a truck instead of going down to get physical with his former teammate, nothing good would be coming out in verbal form. Hopefully, when he calms down and takes a look at the replay, he’ll see that it was just a racin’ deal…almost exactly what happened at Talladega...and when you take the chance by blocking, yes, you might prevent the guy behind you from passing you…or, you might wreck yourself in the process.
As Kyle Petty and Ralph Shaheen said during the broadcast “[The first one] is fair...the second one, he had that comin’.
“Block me once, that is fine, block me twice, and you are going up in the grandstands or into the wall. The #18 made two swipes at him, one to the inside, and one to the outside.”
While we fans were celebrating a second points win for Team 14, the driver himself was more concerned for his former teammate…and wishing the ending could have been different.
“You know, you work hard to get to this level and you don't want to see races decided by guys wrecking coming to the finish line," Stewart said. "I mean, that's not what it's about. ..maybe I am being hard on myself, I don't know. But I just don't like the way that ended up."
He went on to add that he doesn’t pin the blame for the crash on anyone.
“It's nobody's fault, it's just racing," Stewart continued. "I mean, it's a product of the environment. It doesn't mean the environment is bad, it just means that's the way it is…he did what he had to do, and he defended his spot… it wasn't even that we tried to hold our ground, we just got on his quarter panel, and that's just how you suck up. As soon as he moved, I didn't anticipate him moving, and went across the nose.
The newer, more mature version of Tony Stewart showed he isn’t the rough and tumble racer he was for the first 7 or 8 years he was in NASCAR. Where once he would very likely have celebrated with burnouts and donuts and cheering and all night partying, Saturday, Tony showed more concern for his former teammate than you might have once expected him to.
“Even if it's 100 percent his fault, I still won't feel good about it," Stewart rationalized. "I think racers hold the integrity of the sport in mind, [and while] the outcome may go your way…it doesn't mean that you have to like how it happened.”
And he’ll reach out to talk to Kyle, and make sure all is fine between the two of them. “It is important to talk to him about it. His opinion matters to me. I'll have that conversation," Stewart concluded.
Now, to my second point from this race weekend: I know I keep saying this, but this weekend’s races are just another reason why I am so very glad that NASCAR takes safety so seriously. We piled cars up right and left Saturday night, starting with Mark Martin’s crash on lap 15 and ending at the finish line.
In every case, the men climbed out of the mangled sheet metal and walked away. This even holds true to the older version cars they use in the Nationwide Series. Kertus Davis’ fiery crash Friday night happened right in front of me. We saw the fire erupt underneath the hood of the car and were doing the “whoa, look at that!” to each other, but when the car stopped and the fire kept growing, we all started screaming “Get out of the car!” Thankfully, he did, and was fine…but as a fan, there is that line you have when an incident goes from “Cool!’ to “Please let him be safe”.
We weren’t the only ones running that range of emotion.
Watching the replay of the race from Saturday night, you could see the fans in the stands cheering as the crash happened, then stopping and watching as the ferocity of the crash unfolded…and finally, as the drivers got out and walked away, they all applauded.
The fact that Kyle was able to climb out, calmly remove his gloves, remove his helmet and HANS device, and then walk towards pit road after hitting the wall at 190 mph, then being hit in the rear by Kasey, and finally being hit in the drivers’ side door by Joey Logano, shows that we have come so very far in the ability to keep these guys as safe as possible.
And while you still have some fans out there who admittedly cheer when a guy is stuffed in the wall and don’t really care if he is OK or not, I think most fans have realized that this is a dangerous sport, and while it is OK to cheer the excitement the wrecks create, it isn’t OK to cheer in the hopes that the man inside of the car is hurt…or worse.
With that, it is time to get in my rental car and begin the drive home.
As a native Floridian, I discovered this weekend just what a wuss I have become by living up north for a decade. The heat and humidity of Florida summers used to not bother me much at all. Heck, I was in marching band in High School, and we used to have band camp in the middle of August in the center of the state.
“No trees, no breeze” was the motto.
This week, with temperatures in the mid 90’s and heat indices in the 100’s, I am wondering how I survived. And just trying to think about getting in a tin can of a car with just an air cooler in my helmet and temperatures reaching 140 or more around me while I am sitting in a Nomex fire suit covered from head to toe, I have the utmost respect for the conditioning of those guys racing around the track.
All the best to everyone. We’ll see you back here again next week.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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