Richmond race a reminder of what makes short tracks so special
Despite being excited about going to Talladega this weekend, Kansas next weekend and all the races left in the FOX NASCAR 2016 schedule, it was sad to see our last short-track race of broadcast season end.
Heck for that matter, the overall NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule doesn't have the teams going back to a short track until Bristol's night race in August.
We saw great racing across the board on Sunday. Obviously the short tracks have been magical up to this point for Joe Gibbs Racing, as they have won all three with three different drivers.
I have been going to every Richmond race since it was reconfigured in 1988. I've never seen racing there like I saw Sunday -- ever. I think we had so many green-flag laps because the drivers had so many different options of where they could run. They didn't have to run all over each other because there were multiple grooves to find speed.
Everyone knows I have been pretty outspoken about there being too many night races on the schedule. I think moving the race to an afternoon race proved the validity of great racing doesn't only happen on Saturday nights.
The place got hot and slick, which got these drivers sliding around. You could watch a battle going on for second place, or you could look just a little further back and there were drivers going three-wide for fifth spot.
It was that way all day long.
It was also a very strong day for comers-and-goers. We had four drivers who led more than 50 laps. It almost became impossible to get a good feel for who was going to get it right and be the strongest at the end.
Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, his brother Kurt and Carl Edwards were all upfront until someone else took over.
We saw once again where some efforts by drivers were hurt on pit road, specifically Kurt Busch. I don't think anyone had anything for Kurt until his horrendous final pit stop.
Of course, one of the big stories going into the weekend was the lug nut issue and Tony Stewart being fined $35,000 for his comments about it.
Ironically lug nuts weren't an issue Sunday. I analyzed many replays and teams were tightening four lug nuts.
Did Carl Edwards do anything wrong at the end to take the lead away from Kyle Busch and win the race?
I can't say that Carl did.
I know it's a slippery slope when it comes to them being teammates. I do hate it for Kyle, but the reality is what we saw at the end of the race was what we saw in our sport for a long, long time.
To take the white flag, get to the driver's bumper, move him out of the way without wrecking him was a textbook example of the "bump-and-run."
