View From The Flagstand: Smoke Reigns in Cali

Tony Stewart won the rain shortened event in Fontana, California on Sunday. Even though only 129 of the scheduled 200 laps were completed, Stewart had the fastest car and looked destined to win rain or no rain.

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Dating back to last year's Chase, Stewart has now won 7 of the last 15 Cup races. That includes two of the first five this year for the notorious slow starting three time champion. His early successes this season can not bode well for Stewart's competition.

GREEN FLAGS

Kyle Busch led 80 of the 129 laps while starting and finishing 2nd. Dale Earnhardt Jr was 3rd. Kurt Busch scored his first top-10 for Phoenix Racing, coming home 9th.

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The only caution Sunday came out when the skies opened up with some California liquid sunshine on lap 125. The cars were soon parked and the race was ruled officially over in about 15 minutes.

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Why did NASCAR sit through a two or three hour delay at Daytona this year, late at night, as the track was repaired, yet called the race at ACS on Sunday at 2:30 California time?

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Auto Club Speedway. You would think that five grooves of cars racing at over 200 mph would be a little bit exciting, wouldn't you? You would be wrong. Why are they still racing here? Los Angeles will not support an NFL team, and after razing two other tracks in SoCa, you would think NASCAR would get the hint. You would be wrong.

View From The Flagstand: Keselowski Wins Bristol Again

Brad Keselowski raced his Penske Dodge to his second win in a row at Bristol in the Food City 500 on Sunday. He led 232 of the final 283, and the last 111, laps. The #2 Brew Crew seem to have regained the magic they once had at Thunder Valley when Rusty Wallace helmed the Blue Deuce.

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Keselowski dodged the race's only major wreck on lap 29, and eventually went to the point shortly before halfway. Drivers seem to win in spurts at Bristol. Will Brad's streak continue come August?

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MWR had three cars, Martin Truex Jr (3rd), Clint Bowyer (4th), and Brian Vickers (5th) finish in the top five on Sunday. EGR's Jamie McMurray (7th) and Juan Pablo (8th) stayed out of trouble on the tight half mile track. RCR had all three cars finish in the top eleven.

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Somehow Kasey Kahne and Reagan Smith were arguing over real estate on lap 29.... only 479 to go.... and wrecked each other along with pre-race favorites like Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, and Kevin Harvick.

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The half filled grandstands at BMS! What a shocker... just a couple of years ago the high banked half miler was the toughest ticket in motorsports. Now, tix are going for less than face value in the parking lots outside the track. Of course, high gasoline prices kept some fans from making the trip, but the real reason is....

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The "progressive" banking the track installed in 2007 has killed the short track, must-see, action at BMS. The track went from a single groove, to about two and a half racing grooves. The track went from 20 cautions every race, to four or five. The track went from using the chrome horn, and rattling someone's cage to pass, to cars without a mark on them after 500 laps at Bristol. The track went from edge of your seat action, to napping on the sofa instead.

View From The Flagstand: Smoke Show in Vegas

Tony Stewart survived several late race restarts Sunday in Las Vegas and hung on for the win. This is the 2011 champion's sixth victory in his last thirteen starts.

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Of course it goes to Smoke, after he led almost twice as many laps as the next highest lap leader. He lurked throughout, and didn't show his winning hand until some other pretenders had overplayed their cards.

GREEN FLAGS

Second place, Jimmie Johnson led the field at different points, but was no match for Stewart at the end. Greg Biffle finished third and is our new points leader. Dale Earnhardt Jr started fourth, finished tenth, and led 70 laps along the way. Clint Bowyer (6th) Paul Menard (7th) Jamie McMurray (8th) and Trevor Bayne (9th) all had much needed decent runs.

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Five of the eight cautions were for debris or fluid on the track... allegedly.

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The Busch Brothers Las Vegas homecoming was not a grand old time, as they both spun themselves out of contention. Kyle was 23rd, while Kurt DNFed with a 35th place finish.

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The Penske Dodges. Some of us were expecting Brad Keselowski to come out, guns blazing this year. He ran great at Daytona, now he, nor, teammate, AJ Allmendinger are in the top-20 in points. Certainly not too early to panic, but things could snowball out of control fast as they are lame ducks in those Dodges.

View From The Flagstand: Hamlin Handles Phoenix

We expected a little bit of a letdown after the spectacle that was the Daytona 500. Phoenix fulfilled our expectations, and then some. There was some hard racing back in the pack, but not so much for the leaders. My best compliments to this race would be, "I've seen worse"; "So glad its only 312 miles long"'; and "At least its not Fontana".

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Crew chief, Darrien Grubb was canned after winning the title with Tony Stewart last season. He has now teamed up with, fellow Virginian, Denny Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing. This dynamic duo currently sit atop the points after winning at Phoenix and posting a top-5 at Daytona.

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Kevin Harvick ran out of petrol on the last lap and still finished second. Greg Biffle was strong at the end and came home third. Hamlin's JGR teammates Kyle Busch (6th) and Joey Logano (10th) also ran well. Mark Martin won the pole and ended up ninth. Aric Almirola scored a 12th place run in his Petty Ford.

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NASCAR used four debris cautions to break up the utter monotony on display in the desert. I have no problem with this.

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There were no red flags this week, as Juan Montoya must have been reading Danica's new bestseller... 'Crashing for Dummies'.

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After bashing the Fox race announcers non-stop, I muted the telly and listened to the Motor Racing Network's coverage for this race. MRN is wholly owned by NASCAR. Not exactly 'fair and balanced'. It was an interesting experiment but I miss my Waltrips, so back to the Fox for me.