Observations from the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

By Mike Smith (contact)

Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008 | 6:49 p.m.

Greg Biffle broke his 33-race winless streak to bring home the trophy at New Hampshire, which allowed him to jump six points in the points standings to end up in the third position. If there is a perfect time during the season for a team to find its momentum, this is it.

Carl Edwards mentioned last week that for every bad finish in the Chase, a driver would need to have two wins to remain in a position to win the Sprint Cup. If this is the case, then Kyle Busch has his work cut out for him. One of the most brutal aspects of this sport is that at anytime a relatively simple component on the car can cause big problems for a driver who has otherwise had a stellar season. He lost seven positions to slip to eighth in the points. I’m sure the No.18 team can overcome this setback, but next week’s race at Dover may be a difficult place to accomplish that given the track’s reputation for chewing up racecars. Then again, Kyle won at Dover in June.

In his first Sprint cup race, Joey Logano finished 32nd. I read an article this week that asked whether or not a driver should be starting his Sprint Cup career during the Chase where he could conceivably cause problems for the Chase contenders. Well, would you rather have him start his career at 200 miles per hour on the high-banked oval at Daytona Beach in February? Talk about risky. Logano obviously understands that he needs to stay out of the way and concentrate on getting some valuable seat time. Besides, that big yellow stripe on his rear bumper let’s everyone else on the track know what his skill level is.

One thing I admire about Tony Stewart is that he’s always hungry. No matter how many wins he has or how many championship trophies he has on a shelf at home, he always competes like he has something to prove. It was a great effort by Tony and his team in overcoming an altercation in the pits and a pit road speeding penalty to finish eighth.

Nevertheless, I do have a bone to pick with Smoke. Before the green flag fell, he criticized ESPN for paying too much attention to his verbal altercation with Greg Zipadelli at last week’s race. Hey, Tony, ESPN is just doing its job. It was reporting on what happened at the track. The heated conversation between Tony and his crew chief was news because that type of conversation was unusual for these two teammates.

The winner in the Carl Edwards caption contest will be chosen on Thursday. So put on your thinking caps and send in your ideas now.

Finally, I’ve put together a video, with the help of my friends at the Sun, of my favorite Kyle Busch cartoons from this season. You can view it on the StockcarToons page.

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