Quick Talladega Review

Talladega is almost always good for a big wreck that takes a good chunk of the competition out of the race. Last week's race was no exception. By lap eight we had the likes of Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, and Mark Martin among others in the garage trying to salvage all they could and get back out on the track. There were plenty of near wrecks and great saves of which a couple by Kurt Busch and Michael Waltrip are worth mentioning both drivers were well on their way into the wall and saved it just in time. The next significant wreck came with only 6 laps to go and took out Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and pole sitter Juan Pablo Montoya who at the beginning of the race was a favorite to win. There were others involved in this wreck as well. The one thing you have to remember about Talladega is it's not over until they cross that finish line and coming out of turn four I had all but giving it to Carl Edwards. That is until Brad Keselowski went low and held his ground when Carl Edwards tried to block him. That slight move sent Carl for the flight of his life. Carl ended up flipping into the fence and into 3 place car Ryan Newman. There were a few fans that got hurt but are recovering just fine and all drivers walked away. This wreck sparked all kinds of conversations last week about restrictor plate races things like should they take the banking down or maybe get rid of the double line? So I'm posing the questions to you. What if anything do you think they should do to places like Talladega or even Daytona to make it "safer" for all involved?

Ok now on to Richmond. I've always been a fan of Saturday night races they seem faster, more exciting and you never know who will be leading at the end. Going into this race many people including me pegged Denny Hamlin as an obvious choice to win. Sadly yet again Denny couldn't get it done there at the end. He is close and a Richmond win is in his future it just wasn't in the cards this weekend. Instead his team mate Kyle Busch took a commanding lead in the last laps and won.

Keep your eye on:

Stewart Haas Racing: These guys are so close to getting the first win. Both Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman are up front every week and it's just a matter of time before they end up in victory lane! I am so excited for these guys they have been working their tails off to prove that they have what it takes and they are doing a great job and will soon reap the benefits of it all.

Crew changes for the 07 of Casey Mears and 29 of Kevin Harvick this week made quite a big difference in their performance. RCR decided a few weeks ago to swap entire crews, aside from spotter and driver, on these two teams to see if they could improve their track performance. Keep an eye on them these next few weeks to see just how much difference this crew swap will make for them.

Rumor has it that Richard Petty Motorsports will be switching over to the new dodge engines soon and as a fan of one of their driver this cannot come fast enough! I sit watching week in and week out and just wonder why on earth they think they are saving by using the old dodge engines. I understand that I don't know what they know BUT it would seem to me that the amount of cars that they are messing up every week would outweigh the cost of the new engine. Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing if the new engine will help those guys out on the track its seems to be working well for Penske so far this year so I'm hoping we can get those guys back up front where they belong.

Alright that's it for this week, be sure to check out the new videos from both these races here:

Talladega Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwVQhq85L...

Richmond Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-72qgiPpA...

Next week is Darlington on Saturday night!