Matt Kenseth's take on Tony Stewart's helmet toss

   Upset that he and Matt Kenseth wrecked while racing for the lead in Saturday night's Irwin Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Tony Stewart provided a moment that will likely make its way to commercials everywhere the remainder of the NASCAR season.

   Stewart waited for Kenseth's car to come back around the track and launched a two-handed toss of his helmet that landed on the nose of Kenseth's car. Stewart vowed he would wreck Kenseth every chance he got the remainder of the year.

   Kenseth was asked about the racing at Bristol and the helmet throw after the race. His responses:

   Q: What happened with Stewart?
   Kenseth: I’m a little confused. I was running the top leading and he got a run and he went into turn one like I wasn’t there and just went straight to the fence. If I wouldn’t have lifted, like he chose not to do the next corner, we would have wrecked, so I let him have it and I got a run back, drove all the way alongside of him and we just kept going. I mean, I lifted down there or else we would have wrecked and he chose not to lift and wrecked us both, so I don’t know. He’s already had two in this series he’s pretty much taken us out of and I told him after Indy I was gonna race him the way he raced me and I did the exact same thing down there that he did down there – the exact same thing, except he didn’t give it to me. I guess he just wanted to do all the taking, so that’s where we ended up.

   Q: He said he's going to run through you every chance he gets.
   Kenseth: Yeah, that’s fine. Look, Tony is probably the greatest race car driver in the garage. I don’t really have anything bad to say about Tony. On the race track for years and years and years we’ve had tons of respect for each other and, for whatever reason this year, he ran me off the track at Sears Point and said he was sorry. It cost me seven spots in the finishing order and at Indy he was mad because he said I blocked him and I asked for five minutes of his time to clear the air and he wouldn’t give it to me and pretty much just got cussed out and knocked my whole side off and put us in position to get wrecked, so I just said, ‘OK, that’s fine. I’m just gonna race you the same way you race me,’ and he showed me how he was gonna race me down there, so I just did the same thing on the other end. So I don’t know. If you look at it we did the exact same thing, it’s just that he didn’t lift so I don’t really see where that’s 100 percent my fault or problem.

   Q: What did you think when you saw the helmet coming at you?
   Kenseth: I was expecting it. I’ve seen that for awhile. I was expecting it and it didn’t really bother me. It wasn’t gonna hurt it any worse.

   Q: Did the changes to the top of the track play into what happened or would you guys have raced like that regardless?
   Kenseth: I don’t know. I didn’t want to race him like that and I never like to really race people like that. If he would have just stayed around the bottom for two laps and passed me clean, I would have just probably lifted and let him up in line, but, like I said, the first shot he had he just went straight like I wasn’t even there and went straight to the top groove, and it was either lift or wreck him and I lifted, so he just chose to do the opposite at the other end. The top really came in for whatever reason. It’s so smooth up there that it built a lot of rubber and that was the only groove. It was pretty much a one-groove track because the top actually got really good at the end.


  

Earnhardt Jr. takes offense at Keselowski's comments

   Dale Earnhardt Jr. expressed his displeasure on Friday morning over comments Brad Keselowski made last weekend, which many in the media claimed were allegations of cheating at Hendrick Motorsports.

 

   Here is what Earnhardt was asked:

 

   Q: YOU KNOW BRAD KESELOWSKI BETTER THAN MOST BECAUSE HE DROVE FOR YOU IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES. IS BRAD (KESELOWSKI) A GUY WHO LIKES TO PLAY MIND GAMES A LITTLE BIT WITH SOME OF THE STUFF HE HAS HAD TO SAY ABOUT HENDRICK AND THE REAR-END/SUSPENSIONS LATELY? IS THAT EFFECTIVE IN YOUR MIND?

   Earnhardt: “No not really. I do know Brad (Keselowski) pretty well. Brad is a really good guy. He has a pretty good heart. He is a really great race car driver and I wish he would concentrate on that. I think he likes to talk a lot, but I think his true skills shine on the race track not really behind the microphone.”

   Q: TELL US ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOUR HIGH SCHOOL VISIT HERE IN BRISTOL AND HOW YOU THOUGHT THAT WENT. ALSO WE TALKED TO RUSTY WALLACE LAST NIGHT HE SAID BETWEEN HIMSELF AND YOUR FATHER SOME OF THE DRAMA THAT THEY CREATED WEATHER IT WAS FOR SHOW OR JUST AS A RESULT OF WHAT HAPPENED ON THE RACE TRACK WAS GOOD FOR THE SPORT. THAT KIND OF DISAGREES WITH WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT BRAD. WE DON’T HAVE AS MUCH OF THAT DRAMA NOW AS WE DID BACK IN THE HAY DAY.
   Earnhardt: “I mean I don’t disagree with Rusty (Wallace). I just…me and Brad are friends I don’t want any drama with Brad. I don’t particularly like the things he says lately about the company I drive for. I take offense to the claims and accusations. It’s just natural for me to do that, but we’re friends and I don’t want any drama between him. So, that is where I stand with that. I mean certain individuals and personalities, when they clash it’s great. It makes great TV and there have been a lot of great rivalries in this sport that have moved it along and taken it to certain levels. I don’t dislike that or disagree with it."

   To read what Keselowski said last week, go here.

How Earnhardt's death contributed to Rusty Wallace's retirement

   On Thursday night, many NASCAR media had the chance to talk quite a while with NASCAR veteran Rusty Wallace and the driver who now wheels the No. 2 Dodge at Penske Racing, Brad Keselowski.

   I have always been curious on how Wallace came to the decision to walk away and retire as a driver - while he was still on top of his career - and how unlike many others, he has never returned to NASCAR competition in any form. So, I asked Wallace about it Thursday night and his answer I found quite interesting. I'm not sure he had shared such details before.

   Here was his response:

   "There are many reasons why I quit driving the car. Really, I had accomplished all I could. I have just kept running and kept winning, but I had won at just about every track. That particular year I made the Chase. I remember going to Richmond - had a great race that day - and remember moving into second in points behind Jimmie Johnson. But there was one thing that was lingering in the back of my head while this whole thing was going on. And it was when Dale (Earnhardt) got killed. Mr. (Bill) France came up to me before Dale passed away and said, 'Rusty, how much longer you going to keep doing this?' He actually took his hand and did something - he told me in his office about a month before Dale died, he said he was watching my career. He said I was still getting it done, still winning. He said, 'I watched you go up, and you got to the very top and now you're teetering back and forth.' He said he thought I needed to hang this up and work for NASCAR or work with TV. He said, 'You can't prove any more. I don't want to see you get hurt.'

   "So, we were at the hospital the night Dale passed away and I looked across the room and there was Bill France and he looked me right in the eye and held his hands up like this (Rusty made a T with his hands and had the top hand teetering back and forth). It made me think. I ran the rest of the year. We put together a proper go-away - Rusty's Last Call. I thought about the next chapter of my career. Then I got a phone call from ESPN asking me to be an analyst for them and I said I need to do that. It was a great offer and it was a good time to do it.

   "When I go to certain tracks, like Richmond or Bristol, I wish I was out there. When Talladega happens, I go, 'Oh my God you can have it.' I think about it at different tracks."


  

Is Bristol in a no-win situation?

   Nobody many know what the racing will look like on the altered surface at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway this weekend but that won’t keep snap judgments from being made after the race as to whether it was a success.

   The problem is Bristol may be in a no-win situation.

   Already it looks very unlikely Bristol will have anything close to a sell-out on Saturday night and in the past, even when the March race under-performed, the summer night race still sold out or came close to it.

   So with the very public way track owner Bruton Smith went about ordering the changes to the track, if the crowd Saturday night is down from last year, does that mean the move was a failure?

   It will be very difficult to tell.

   Whether some want to believe it or not, the economy still drives many of the ticket-buying decisions in NASCAR right now. People have more disposable income these days, but it’s still a big decision on how to use it.

   Lower ticket sales could easily be attributed to economics, but that same argument was made for the lower attendance at the past two spring races and nobody wanted to hear that. The answer was only “fix the track.”

   The progressive banking added to the track in 2007 produced side-by-side competition in which passes could be executed without re-arranging a competitor’s doors and fenders and lately had reduced caution periods. Although, the results were different depending on which NASCAR series was competing.

   If the racing is deemed “great” on Saturday night, perhaps fans will overlook empty seats. Those who didn’t want a change, to be sure, will look to those seats as proof the changes didn’t increase attendance – which, in public comments at least, was what was said to prompt the change.

   Last week’s Sprint Cup race winner, Greg Biffle, called the reconfiguration “a shot in the dark.”

   He’s right. On Saturday night, we’ll see what – if anything – it hit.

Kyle Busch's crew chief fined by NASCAR

   On Tuesday, NASCAR announced it had penalized the crew chief of Kyle Busch's No. 18 Sprint Cup Series team, Dave Rogers, as a result of rule infractions at Michigan International Speedway last weekend.

   Busch's No. 18 Toyota was found to have improperly attached weight and race equipment that does not conform to NASCAR rules during a practice session on Aug. 18.

   Rogers has been fined $25,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until Oct. 3. In addition, car chief Wesley Sherrill has been placed on NASCAR probation until Oct. 3.

Harvick gets new (old) crew chief

Gil Martin, right, will handle crew chief duties for Kevin Harvick on an interim basis, multiple sources confirmed Monday. Above, Martin speaks with Elliott Sadler, left, during practice for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in February. (Todd Warshaw - Getty Images for NASCAR)

   Sprint Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick will have a new crew chief this weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway - his old one.
  
   Multiple sources confirmed on Monday Harvick's current crew chief, Shane Wilson, has been replaced on an interim basis by Gil Martin, who was replaced by Wilson. Martin is not expected to remain in the position on a long-term basis, sources said.

   Harvick is winless this season but remains in solid shape to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He is eighth in points - the Top 10 make the Chase after 26 races - and has three top-five and nine top-10 finishes in 23 starts.

   Wilson's role within the Richard Childress Racing organization remains unclear.

  

  

The state of NASCAR racing as Keselowski sees it

   Brad Keselowski has been vocal about the perceived advantage Hendrick Motorsports cars have this season, but on Sunday he took it a step further offering a big-picture look at how the quality of the racing has been affected this season.

   Keselowski's answers to some questions following Sunday's race were quite interesting.

   Is this a new era here at Michigan? All of kind of things happened in today's race.
   Keselowski: Well, I just think there’s big discrepancies in the cars right now. I think there are certain parts and pieces that are on the cars that are making them quite a bit different to where we’re seeing different paces throughout the field. I think there’s probably a half-dozen to a dozen cars that are drastically faster than the rest of the field and that’s disruptive the parity and created a lot of side-by-side action that, you know, is maybe good, maybe bad; depends on who you are. But I think right now in the sport the cars are perhaps the most separated than what we’ve ever seen. 
   I think if you look at qualifying, the difference between the pole and 20th was over a second. We haven’t seen that in over 10 years in this sport. I think there’s a major pace discrepancy now. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing but that’s just an observation to note and that creates more side-by-side racing which opens up the possibilities and potential for issues like you described.
   What were you saying about the cars having an advantage? What is the trick?
   Keselowski: There are parts and pieces on the car that are moving after inspection that make the car more competitive. Some guys have it, some don't. There's a question to the interpretation of the rule. Penske Racing errs on the safe side because we don't want to be the guys that get the big penalty.
   Obviously, there's a question to the interpretation; that as of right now, it's legal. But I'm sure that Roger doesn't want to be the one caught red handed. As a group at Penske Racing, we have not felt comfortable enough to risk that name and reputation that Roger has over those parts and pieces. Others have, which is their prerogative. I'm not going to slam them for it.
   But it's living in a gray area. Roger doesn't do that. There's certainly some performance there that we've lost. I shouldn't say lost, but haven't gained, because we choose not to do that. That's something that we have to continue to evaluate every week that goes by, that those components are permitted to be run. We have to make a re-evaluation of that internally to decide if that's the right way to go.
   But as it stands now, certainly that's part of the speed discrepancy through the field. Some of the teams haven't figured out how to make it work, some of them just don't feel comfortable risking the piggybank on it. It's part of how this sport works behind closed doors. We're still working our way through it. I'm not saying I have all the answers to it, but it's certainly part of that discrepancy that we were speaking to earlier.