Full Throttle

Happy Valley normally associated with Penn State University shouldn’t be be confused with Bristol Motor Speedway this week. For a couple of reasons.

First, Tony Stewart is not happy, no not happy at all after having his first win of 2008 in the bag and seeing it all go away courtesy of “Happy” Harvick. Harvick wrecked Stewart with two laps to go, setting up a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish.

Harvick apologized, but Stewart sent him an F-Bomb via his spotter. A then not so happy “Happy” Harvick quickly retorted, “remind Tony of Indy last year,” funny stuff even if it is a few hundred miles from the real Happy Valley.

Stewart’s radio program on Monday night should be a laugh riot, Harvick is his guest. Then there’s the little matter of Stewart is supposedly going to have his back waxed for charity.

Hmmm… let’s see. Sunday Smoke gets “waxed” by Harvick and Monday he gets waxed again. Wonder if Harvick will be the one pulling the tape, or the wax, or whatever the hell they use for that stupid procedure?

The second half of Toyota’s dynamic duo can’t be too happy either. For the second straight race Gibbs Racing had a power steering pump fail that resulted in smacking a wall. Hard. As a side note AGR probably sits about a 2 on the happiness scale about now.

Question: Whatever happened to the “near certainty” Hendrick Motorsports would be the end of NASCAR as the world knows it?

You know, the same people that claimed Roush would be the death of NASCAR after claiming 5 of 10 Chase spots, then were forced into switching their “allegiance” to HMS the last couple of seasons.

Will they now switch to RCR after that organizations first ever 1-2-3 sweep and having all three teams in the top twelve in points? It might be too early, but if RCR finishes they way they have started it’ll come. Trust me. It. Will. Come.

What’s already here is the latest BUZZ. The Bristol tarmac had hardly cooled to normal temperature and the Aric Almirola BUZZ had started. He’s now The Great Saviour of DEI. At least in a few quarters this evening.

Don’t get me wrong, the kid is a helluva talent, but lets be honest Bristol is just Bristol. Like Daytona that doesn’t resemble anything to come and shouldn’t be used as a gage, performance at Bristol shouldn’t be either. Nothing on the circuit matches it in terms of what to expect from a team or driver.

Given luck and the right equipment under him Almirola should have a long a successful career ahead of him but it’s a bit too early to get your firesuit in a bunch.

UPDATE: “Happy” wasn’t so happy after answering the same thing repeatedly by the same ink stained wretches: “I’ll answer one more ignorant question,” a testy Harvick snapped in the post-race media center session. “I got down on the apron. I lost the car. I hit the side of Tony. That was pretty much the end of it. If you can’t understand that, then I don’t know what to tell you.”