Kyle Bush and Jeff Burton

Do any of you recall the previous weekends post race festivities and Jeff Burton pointing the finger at Kyle Bush (repeatedly) in his post race meltdown? So what's then to be said of last week's mishap when Jeff Burton, on old tires, and with plenty of racing experience, seemed to forget about those old tires and try to race hard at the end only to lose his grip and take out Bush. Retaliation perhaps, but more than likely a very similar "mistake" and eerily, well no, exactly what Burton previously accused Bush of doing to him. I guess Jeff Burton really does "race people the way he gets raced" OR perhaps that was retaliation? You know, these are4 the best drivers in the world and they do know how to make real action look like a "mistake." If any of you like boxing, you may think of the way a weaker opponent will constantly "tie-up" his stronger fo and not let his stronger opponent through any long combinations. Well, it is often during those "tie-ups" when the weaker opponent will use his head to soften the upper eye and brow of his stronger opponent and thus opening the door for swollen eyes and blood. Anyone ever put any though to Evander Hollyfield's constant head-butting of Mike Tyson when he tied Tyson up before Tyson finally lost it and bit Hollyfeields ear off? I digress, but hopefully you got my point. If not, for those of you who know baseball well, think of what leads up to a hitter charging the mound? Is it simply being hit by a pitch? Was he hit by a pitch for something his team did previously? Maybe the pitcher's team was hit by a pitch and so the pitcher retaliated. But maybe before that, the batter was crowding the plate and the pitcher had no choice but to "brush him back."

The point here is this, when you are dealing with the very best of the best in sport, "mistakes" are often really not mistakes, especially when it comes to veteran drivers.

Also, as much as you would like to think so press people, drivers do not always tell you the truth.

Marcos, Jimi, Road Courses

Well it wasn't a quiet weekend. For those of you who light short track beating and banging, you must have loved the rough driving that we saw this past Sunday in Sonoma. Did anyone catch Jeff Gordon punting people left and right? Do you think he wants to win badly?? Along those lines, I felt horrible for Martin Truex who has been working his way into The Chase for weeks now and because of Gordon, now faces that challenge much more difficultly.

Yeah, Jimi won! Yippie. Yeah, I am sick of him ,but ya can't knock the well rounded talent. He has won on a road course and a dirt track (Prelude to a Dream) racing against THE BEST drivers in the world. He is a 4 time Champion for A LOT of reasons one of which was on display Sunday. Despite having a top 5 car, Johnson was not the best on the track, Ambrose was and that was clear. As the end neared, Johnson was running increasingly loose so he decided, along with his crew chief, not to press the leader and in return making his car worse and potentially wrecking it, but rather he simply decided to stay back and keep enough pressure on the leader so that he could be there when and if the leader made a mistake.......which we all know ended up being the case and Jimi won....again.

I sympathize with Ambrose who is a great race car driver and a very humble and genuinely nice human being. He got some bad advice and it hurt him. However, Johnson simply deployed the tactics of a champion and by being there, he gave himself the best chance of winning. Think of how many cars Kyle Bush has destroyed by not deploying this tactic. How many more top 5's and 10's Bush could have had if he had chosen to be patient like Johnson.

Paul Gozzo

Denny, Denny, Denny he's the man...

...if Jimi can't do it, Denny can.

right?

I don't think so.

There is the regular season and then The Chase.

Although Denny does have great consistency and has finally learned how to win, I am still predicting that his teammate, Kyle Bush wins a Cup Championship before Hamlin. However, I am predicting that neither wins this year's championship but rather it will be won by none other than Jeff Gordon who is going to get hot at the right time and even play a little rough, especially on green/white checkered finishes, if he has to.