Passion Of Racing

Emotion. A budding Rivalry. Side by Side Racing. Overtaking galore. And this isn’t Formula One. Bristol lived up it the hype and produced a fantastic five hundred miles of racing last night.
Carl Edwards notched up back-to-back victories and has closed within thirty Chase points of Kyle Busch. We were treated to a gruelling battle between two of Nascar’s best throughout the race. Between them they lead all but one lap.

It took a classic Bristol ‘bump and run’ move from Edwards to get past Busch, something the championship leader didn’t appreciate it. But this is all a part of the racing. After the race, Busch gave Edwards a few thumps. The race winner responded in kind, spinning the #18 to the delight of the crowd. There is a fantastic rivalry building between the two, exactly what we need going into the Chase.

You have the guy people love to hate in Busch - the brash, confident racer who takes no prisoners, drives for a foreign manufacture (yeh, American's care about that) and tipped Junior out of a race winning situation earlier in the season (a serious faus-paux.) In the other corner you have the poster boy Edwards. A charming, likeable guy with a smile on his face and rarely a bad word to say about anyone.

Post-race, Carl was classy as ever. He’s right, you give as good as you get and still maintains respect. What Busch did after the race was wrong, but after five hundred miles of racing, who wouldn’t get emotional. That’s what we like to see in the racers we follow – a desire to win, that second is not enough.

I know that from my sim-racing experience. Where after a full distance race at Sepang, my brother punted me around at the final corner on the penultimate lap. We shouted, argued and didn’t race for a month after that. Why? Because we care about racing, we are passionate. It’s fantastic to see that Nascar has that.