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CBSSports.com's Brian De Los Santos and Pete Pistone provide analysis on three weekly racing topics.
We welcome your question submissions. If you have a question or hot racing topic you'd like to see discussed, post it here .
| 1. mikeyfan1599 asks: Kyle Busch vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- good hard racing or should Kyle have backed off and let Junior win? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Pete Pistone |
 Of course Kyle shouldn't simply have "let Junior win," but he didn't need to wreck him either. It was an avoidable accident. If that had been Mark Martin or Jeff Burton in the exact same position as Busch, the wreck never would have happened, I guarantee it. They'll drive right to the edge and no further. But Busch pushed the issue, which I'd probably be fine with (as I consider NASCAR a contact sport) if not for the fact he got in Steven Wallace's face the night before for more or less the same slip up in the Nationwide race. Wallace overdrove his car fighting for position just as Busch overdrove his car into the corner trying to overtake Earnhardt. Of the two, Busch's mistake was much more egregious. He wrecked Earnhardt, Wallace merely nicked Busch. If Busch is going to get on his high horse with Wallace, then he needs to lead by example. However, I'm doubtful Busch will change his ways. |  I don't believe Busch should have let Junior win, but after watching the tape 100 times, I do think he could have backed off some in that situation. There was no way two cars were going to make it through that turn racing side-by-side and Busch's problem throughout his career is that he doesn't know when to back off some when it's necessary. It has nothing to do with the fact that he happened to be racing Dale Earnhardt Jr. but everything to do with being smart which as talented as he is, is something Busch -- in my opinion -- still doesn't demonstrate as often as he'll need to in order to become a championship-caliber driver. |
| 2. Section_725 asks: Was the penalty for Michael Waltrip too extreme or did NASCAR do the right thing? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Pete Pistone |
| Waltrip was peeved after Casey Mears ran him up into the wall and he has admitted as much. I'm not sure he deserved to be parked for it though. A five-, 10-lap penalty? Sure, but to sit him the rest of the race? It's not as if he wrecked him, just took him for a little ride to show his disgust. But I understand the safety concerns. I'm just wondering how consistent NASCAR will be in doling out punishment for obvious retaliation. Would they have parked Tony Stewart? While we're talking penalties, the two laps Denny Hamlin got held for stopping on the track was deserved without question. It was obvious he stopped simply to bring out the caution and it ended up having a huge impact on the race. | NASCAR did the right thing with Waltrip as well as Denny Hamlin, when he stopped on track to bring out the caution after his tire went flat. In Waltrip's case, I honestly am surprised there wasn't a penalty to follow after the way he drove into and rammed the rear bumper of Casey Mears after their tangle with the wall. Obviously Waltrip's frustrations with the way his season has suddenly nosedived got the better of him. As for Hamlin, he said the two-lap penalty was a "slap in the face" after his disappointing exit from the race, but in reality, even Denny realizes what he did is wrong on any level of stock car racing. |
| 3. What are your expectations for a repaved Darlington? Who would you consider the favorite? | |
| Brian De Los Santos | Pete Pistone |
| I love Darlington, but usually the racing isn't very good on newly surfaced tracks. It often takes two or three years for a track to get back its identity. We'll likely see record speeds for the track, but I'm not expecting much side-by-side action, though I'd love to be proven wrong on that account. As for a favorite, Darlington is unlike any other so I'm not sure if Carl Edwards' intermediate track success this season will carry over here or not. If speeds are up, engine power is going to come into play and, right now, nobody can top the power Joe Gibbs Racing is providing for its trio of drivers. Perhaps that means Tony Stewart finally breaks into the win column this season. | I'm not sure what to expect this weekend at Darlington except high speeds, based on the testing that went on there after the repaving job a couple of months ago. We saw speeds in excess of 200 mph during that test and with the already narrow Darlington racing groove plus the new Sprint Cup car's well-documented handling issues on mid-sized tracks and now the increased speeds, we have a recipe for a big unknown Saturday night. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson would be my picks under normal circumstances at Darlington with their past success at the track, but given their struggles and this new equation I'm leaning toward Carl Edwards to win for the fourth time this year. |
