Busch and Vickers rumble, Johnson and Co. stumble and Helton offers a rebuttal

By Mike Smith (contact)

Monday, Aug. 17, 2009 | 9:32 a.m.

Saturday’s Nationwide Series race ended with an onslaught of verbal daggers between Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers after the two tangled on the last lap. In a lengthy post-race whinefest, an infuriated Busch called Vickers and “idiot” and criticized his go-for-broke style for killing whatever chance each driver had to fend off eventual race winner Brad Keselowski. Busch also bumped Vicker’s car on pit road after the race.

Then on Sunday in the Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Vickers won the fuel strategy war to bring his car across the finish line first. Busch, whose car was never to his liking during the race, finished 23rd. There is poetic justice in NASCAR.

Vickers’ victory came at the perfect time for the driver who hasn’t yet secured a contract for next season. He has stated that he would like to remain with Red Bull and now that he has given this racing organization its first win, I would hope his chances of extending his contract have improved.

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The finish was a nail-biter as the lead cars crept around the track on fumes. And it was great to see a different driver win a race. But I’ll admit that I would have preferred to see an American manufacturer win at the track that’s in the backyard of Detroit’s struggling auto industry.

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Gambling on fuel mileage dealt a bad hand to Jimmie Johnson for the second time this season at Michigan. If I were a betting person I’d bet that the No. 48 team won’t try to win on fuel mileage at the next Michigan race. This was a rare miscalculation by a team that usually doesn’t repeat mistakes.

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Where did Dale Earnhardt Jr. come from? Dale Jr. led six laps and eventually finished third on Sunday after a smart pit strategy gave him enough fuel to run hard in the final 39-lap segment. If it had been a 205-lap race he probably would have won.

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Next Saturday the Sprint Cup drivers are in Bristol where Kyle Busch has won two of the last four races.

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On Friday Dale Earnhardt Jr. voiced, with his customary honesty and straightforward style, that NASCAR needs to consider some changes if it wants to improve the quality of its racing. He suggested that tinkering with the COT should be part of this improvement effort. Well, when Dale Jr. speaks, people listen. It didn’t take long, less than a day, for NASCAR president Mike Helton to respond to the most popular driver’s comments. Helton said that changing the COT now would only set teams back from the progress they have made since the car’s introduction. His point makes perfect sense. At this time, when spending is closely watched, no one wants to go back to the drawing board and reinvest in changes that may or may not work. The COT needs refinement, just not at this time. Besides, changing this car is only part of the issue. The disproportionate number of flat, wide tracks should also be a piece of the improvement puzzle.

Helton also speculated that Dale Jr.’s struggles this season may have contributed to his current view of the sport. Perhaps, but it was another comment by Helton that really grabbed my attention. “And, oh by the way, I believe in the argument that the racing we’ve got on the race track now is as good as we’ve had in a long time, and a reaction from us could interrupt that,” said Helton on Friday. As good as we’ve had in a long time? Compared to what, the old car? Frankly, there isn’t much of a difference in the level of competitiveness between the old car and the new car. I had hoped that the new car, based on what fans were led to believe, would create more side-by-side racing and reduce some of the competition-killing aerodynamic issues of the old car.

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