Well, another pretty exciting weekend to say the least. Did we get all of the drama and controversy that found its way to our doorsteps following Richmond? No, not by any stretch … but, still, Darlington continued to produce some good, hard racing for us as it always does, and overall I’d have to say that I’m pretty satisfied with the show that NASCAR gave us this weekend.
Over at www.doyounascar.com, I started the weekend off with our routine Fantasy Preview that I deliver every Thursday afternoon prior to any practice or qualifying sessions. Overall my picks didn’t seem to be too bad this week, but every now and again, my premature forecasts for a race winner can tend to nip me in the but, and this was one of those weeks as I predicted Ryan Newman to visit Victory Lane for the second time this season. This obviously did not happen, and it’s cases like this that allow me to understand if you need to get your fantasy advice from Frank over at the Fantasy Sports Outlook, or Mike over at Trouble in Turn 2, both of whom seemed to be a little more on point than me this week.
The action itself kicked off on Friday evening for Sprint Cup qualifying, in which Greg Biffle not only took the pole, but shattered the old Darlington track record in the process. From there, Joe Gibbs Racing continued their domination of the Nationwide Series as Tony Stewart won his fourth race of the season, and picked up his first career win at Darlington by taking the checkers in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200. For more on this, please visit DYN to read One More Down for Stewart.
From there, the action turned to Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500. The race was a little short on drama for those of us who were expecting a bit of fallout from last weekend’s racing, but all in all, they managed to keep the racing itself intact. Of course, I can’t imagine there’s a ton of happy campers out there seeing as Kyle Busch of all people won the race, but hey, what would this sport be if the catalysts didn’t get to rule the roost every now and again, right? For a full recap on the race, read Rating the Race: Darlington – Dodge Challenger 500, and as always, feel free to leave your two cents behind while you’re there.
Other than that, be sure to keep checking out DYN regularly. Already on tap for this week is a list of the top-ten drivers not currently locked into the All-Star race, the latest on Greg Biffle and his status with Roush-Fenway Racing, and results from Saturday night’s ARCA Re/Maxx Series race.
