Kasey Kahne wins his first Bristol Cup race while “Thunder Valley” still brings out the worst in drivers
By Lou Modestino
Kasey Kahne managed to dodge all bullets at Thunder Valley when he managed to win Sunday’s race, and he also came close to victory after finishing second at Vegas the previous week. Needless to say there were plenty of smiles from him and his crew when Kahne exclaimed, “My car was fast today, and I feel good where we are. It’s a different set-up. We also learned a lot at Vegas.” Crew chief Kenny Francis quipped, “I always wanted to win here at Bristol!”
Even though earlier odds favored Kyle Busch to win as he’s won five previous times at the Valley, second place went to him. He won the previous race by the narrowest margin only. Brad Keselowski ended the day with a third. “We struggled today, and all I want to do is to get back to consistency,” he said. And by the way, did you notice all the empty seats as the cameras paned the grandstands?
It was the usual bill of fare at the 1/2-mile banked oval – lots of pushing and shoving both on and off the track. The biggest dust up occurred between the usually cool Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin after the latter “gently kissed” the other’s car on the track. Logano came in 17th and Hamlin ended up 23rd after both wrecked. There was almost a wrestling match in the pits between Logano and both crews. Hamlin kept his cool and stayed in his race car. We can understand that because he was the recipient of a $25,000 fine for commenting on the Gen. 6 car that NASCAR didn’t like from the previous race.
Logano said,” I got dumped, no doubt about it.” Hamlin’s reply was, “I didn’t spin him out and he came at me in the infield.” Commenting on all that was Speed’s Bob Dilner, “That happens all the time here because that’s the way this place is.” From our perspective, it was Hamlin’s fault.
Tony Stewart is having a long run of bad luck which continued into Bristol, and he had another bad day. In the points battle, Keselowski leads the pack, JR is next followed by Jimmie Johnson.
There was a lot of talk about the preferred line around Bristol prior to the race by the talking heads. We got Johnson’s perspective on it when he said, “The best line is up top.” Prior to the start, color analyst Jeff Hammond said, “The lower groove has to be used because the rain last night washed away the grip.” Next weekend the Sprint Cup circuit heads to Fontana, California. In the early point battle, Keselowski tops the chart with JR and JJ right behind him.
Elsewhere, as the variety of motorsports action begins to be busy, Anton Brown won the big prize at Gainesville, FL at the Gator Nationals in the AA Fuel final. At Barber Motorsports Park, Will Power was the fastest driver in the Indy Car drills. At Sebring, FL Marcel Fassler won the 12 Hour race in his Audi. Down in Australia, Kemi Rikkonen won the F1 opener. Alonso, Vettel, Massa and Hamilton got the leftovers. Ryan Vilopoto chalked up another AMA SuperX win at Indy – his sixth of the season.
F1’s boss Bernie Eccelstone, always manages to get some ink and airtime, this time in the Sporting News. He claims that he’d like to lure Danica Patrick into F1. He admitted that it might not be possible because Patrick seems to be entrenched in her current commitment to NASCAR. It sounds like old Bernie is on a “fishing expedition”. We’ve heard that Patrick isn’t interested in F1 at all.
We recall that when Patrick was first running with the Indy Cars, Eccelstone was not very complimentary to her. Before the 2013 season began, she was creating a buzz everywhere and getting NASCAR a lot of airtime and press coverage both here in the USA and elsewhere. Could Bernie be jealous because the media isn’t talking about his Formula 1 brand? And what’s in it for Danica should she move to F1 anyway? Would she get one of the precious front line F1 cars? So many F1 drivers would kill to get one of those top seats.
It’s not likely that a seat would go to an American female driver. F1 is a closed club especially to Americans because the movers-and-shakers want to keep it that way. We base all that on the feeble attempts, over the years, on getting an American driver into F1. That was supposed to gain the attention of the American sports and race fans. Also, those F1 tickets are very pricey. In fact, overpriced. Consider that you can get bargains right now on tickets to any of the NASCAR races.
Racing and motorsports industry legends Jack Chrisman, Harvey Firestone, Masten Gregory, Brad Lackey, Bud Moore, RobertE. Petersen andAlex Zanardi will be this year’s Silver Anniversary inductees into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America at the organization’s 25th Annual Induction Ceremony that will be held on Wednesday, August 21, at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit. “There is no better way to celebrate our 25th anniversary than with an induction class that showcases a true variety of American motorsports with an international flair,” said Ron Watson, President of the Motorsports Hall of Fame. “This year’s Silver Anniversary group features a champion rider and drivers, a title-winning team owner, a legendary publisher and an industrial giant whose name still graces racing tires today.”
After a promising start to 2013, NASCAR’s Nielsen numbers are continuing their downward slide. That Sunday’s Las Vegas event posted a 4.4 overnight rating, a four percent decline over last year’s 4.6. That marks the second-smallest viewership watching the race in Sin City since the sport’s national TV contract first went into effect in 2001. Only the 2010 edition of the race, which competed against the U.S./Canada hockey gold medal game pulled in a lesser audience.
In FOX’s overnight numbers for the season, three races in are up a total of 14 percent. But that number can be deceiving, exclusively tied to the sport’s Daytona 500. The two races since, Phoenix and Vegas, have failed to improve on their 2012 benchmarks.
The final Nielsen numbers weren’t what NASCAR was looking for from Las Vegas. Despite a small bump from smaller markets, the final rating of 4.7 was ten percent less than the number FOX pulled for the Cup event last season. Overall, the 7.5 million in total viewership did make the race the highest-watched sporting event of the weekend, a strong consolation prize although the total audience was a total of one million less than a year ago.