View From The Flagstand

What a far flung weekend of racing we witnessed, all from the air conditioned comfort of our sofas, and, or barstools. The Sprint Cup and ARCA teams were in Pocono, Trucks and Indy cars were deep in the heat of Texas, the Nationwide guys were in Magic City, Nashville, and there was a great Grand Am race in Watkins Glen. Not so proud to say that I saw parts of all those races on the telly, and did see the finish of each one. Dedicated, or just pathetic?

CHECKERED FLAG

Denny Hamlin led the most laps and dominated the second half of the race in route to his fourth victory of the season. His JGR team was stout throughout, and his teammates should have both had top-5 finishes.

GREEN FLAGS

JGR's Kyle Busch won the pole and finished second. Tony Stewart may have begun his annual summer storm, as he was a strong third. Kurt Busch (6) and Juan Montoya (8) both overcame problems for solid finishes.

YELLOW FLAGS

Joey Logano was on his way to a top-5 when he messed with the bull(y) and got the horn. Kevin Harvick held his line (forever) when Logano came down to enter the turn, and wrecked himself with a handful of laps left. Logano has been a virtual punching bag for a variety of drivers, including Harvick earlier this year in a NNS race at Bristol.

After Sunday's race Logano parked at Harvick's car to discuss the incident. A Home Depot crew member tried to hold Logano back, but Logano's father pulled the crew man away and told Joey to go get in Harvick's face. Logano had his say, and probably gained a little respect in the garage.

RED FLAG

With radar and meteorologists saying that a heavy weather cell was almost on top of the track, NASCAR elected to let TNT proceed with their hour and a half pre-race show instead of trying to start the race a little earlier,and perhaps get some laps in. It started to rain as soon as the engines were fired up, and, after a few parade laps, the cars were parked for a couple of hours.

Once the track was dry, a hole was discovered at the exit of pit road. The track has been sitting for ten months since their last event, and now when we're ready to race.... oopsie! We have a hole. No worries, we'll grout over it while millions wait. And, as further proof of our professionalism, we'll place four orange cones around the repair.... and leave them there, on the racing surface, for the duration! Look out NFL, we're gunning for you!

BLACK FLAG

A.J. Allmendinger! On the last lap, down the backstretch, Dinger decides to block his teammate, Kasey Kahne, all the way down into the grass. Instead of hitting AJ in the ass, as was warranted, Kahne lost it, and caused a huge accident. This killed a lot of good finishes and hard work. Allmendinger blissfully went on to a 10th place finish.