NASCAR's Snoozer in Bama

Toyota and their teams really turned things around drastically this week-- or was this a one time qualifying aberration? There were lots of surprises at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. Toyota and Michael Waltrip taking the pole, all the Go or Go Homers that qualified in front of the field and rookie Jacques Villinueve starting sixth. With all of those oddities you would think the race couldn't get any goofier. Wrong--wrong--wrong. This race actually started out rather racy and showed some potential until two strategies took over. First the Hendrick Chasers decided to hang back and watch what transpired and the rest of the field decided to form a conga line and dance their way around the top of the racetrack for a good portion of the event. The middle portion of the race started to resemble the early laps of an Olympic Short track cycling race. Seeing how slow you can go without loosing the lead draft is not most fans idea of a good race and the strategy employed by Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson will not endear them to any fans other than their most ardent followers. While successful, we can only hope that NASCAR makes sure its not something we will see in any kind of regularity. It's time to head back home to Charlotte while pondering these: more....