Busch race exciting--Busch win boring

Kurt Busch wins the Pennsylvania 500 on Sunday in a ho-hum affair that saw him dominate the race.

Other than a slight misstep on a pit stop the Miller Lite Dodge had the  field covered.  Dale Earnhardt Jr., or maybe more correctly Tony Eury Jr. installed the DEI Magic Shock that propelled Jr. into a second place finish after stinking the place up for most of the race.

Sunday's race was a bit on the long and boring side; as opposed to Saturday's race in Montreal that was filled with passing, bumping and hard driving and feelings.  If next week's road course races at The Glen turn out to be as fun filled as the two outside the States, maybe NASCAR ought to start adding more right hand turns or more foreign races.

The Buzz ON PIT ROW is:

Should NASCAR drivers and/or owners be punished in one NASCAR series for actions that occur in another NASCAR series race?

The Fast Lap this week asks:

1) What should NASCAR have done differently, if anything, during the end of the Busch race in Montreal?

2) Should NASCAR re-evaluate the length of some of their races--especially at Pocono?

3) Five of the seven cautions at Pocono were for single car spins that didn't hit anything.  Was NASCAR trying to make a race out of this snoozer, or was there definite concern for safety?

4) Who deserves more credit; Pat Tryson for getting Kurt back to victory lane or Tony Eury Jr. for the "Magic Shock" replacement.

Let us know how you feel; about these questions, or anything else that happened during the running of the Pennsylvania 500.   If we like your comments we could use them on the air during Tuesday's ON PIT ROW.  Leave us a comment on the blog or call the show--toll free at 1-877-502-8255 between 5-7pm edt on Tuesdays.

Comments

[robert bourne]

Pocono has one to many races and it should be 400 miles...Your right the Busch race had way more action in it...

1...the whole thing was bizzare...I thought Robby should have lined up second until they read the rule about maintaining cautious speed under yellow..I don't agree with it under those circumstances but that is how the rule reads...Other than redflaging the race and then have a couple of officials block Robby's car I am at a loss

2 yes Pocono 400 miles and up Phoenix which has lots of action to 400 miles

3..trying to avoid a snoozer

4 pretty much a tie there both did well

[Bob (aka 4ever3)]

Should owners/drivers be punished ... Answer: yes! just because you are racing in a different division does not make you impervious to your misconduct in another division. NASCAR is a league with many divisions and their rules are blanketed over all divisions.

1) Option 1: Kept Robby in 2nd and warn him about contact with any car. Option 2: Red Falgged the race and put Robby in his place - this probably would involve bringing officials out onto the track or something else. They were under a caution falg anyway, so it would not have disrupted the action on the track at all.

2)No! Saving your equipment is part of the battle. Want to improve Pocono? Put more banking in it and make them run a restrictor plate like at New Hampshire.

3)Probably both. Track speeds are pretty fast there and you don't want someone cutting a tire from debris left on the track from a spinning car and then having the tire go down at the exact moment they are going into turn 1.

4) Both deserve credit for what they did, although it would seem to me that what Eury did is more expected by the Jr Nation than what Tryson did. Based on that I would have to give a slight edge to Tryson because Kurt wasn't expected to do as well as he did there.

[Rsheehan]

As far as the whole mess with Robby Gordon... where were the 'scoring loops'? If the track wasn't up to standard, NASCAR had no business running a race there. If the loops were in place (and they were spaced comparable to other tracks), why did it take NASCAR so long to determine where Robby should restart? The blame for the incident clearly needs to be shared between NASCAR and Robby Gordon. Robby didn't do the right thing, but as he said, he was a victim of a blown call. It happens in other sports, but NASCAR has made such a big fuss about their 'scoring loops' that one should reasonably expect an instant and irrefutable decision on the running order.

Pocono? Leave the race distance alone, but get me another short track on the schedule and stop going there twice.

Cautions? How much of a hazard does a piece of tape really pose? Is it any more hazardous than a hot dog wrapper from the stands at Martinsville? Get real, NASCAR.

Crew chief competitions? Eury took a pole winning car and turned it to garbage for most of the race. Tryson took a 2nd place qualifier and won with it. Give it to Tryson and the Penske team for whatever setup they used. Eury and his team took their best qualifying effort in nearly forever and squandered it. Nothing makes that worthy of accolades.

[Charlie]

We had Jeff Hammond on the show Tuesday. We asked what he thought happened to the #8, that was so strong in qualifying. It was Jeff's contention that the shock change was likely caused by a shock failure. He reminded us that parts do sometimes, just break.

I really appreciate all of your comments. We ran out of time this week and couldn't get to our blogger segment. It will, however, be a regular feature and we will plug your blogs when we use your input. Thanks again. You all really know what you're talking about.