Personal note…I can’t believe I went by I didn’t acknowledge April 12.  No it wasn’t my birthday…that’s June 15 or my wedding anniversary that’s June 9…but the anniversary of The Park.  I can’t believe it has been 4 years already.  What started out as a way to just share my randomness in my life as well as my passion obsession, has turned into a place where I have meet some wonderful people who love to blog just as much as I do.  At one point I thought about giving up on The Park, but it has become a part of me.  I may not have the traffic or the readers so people do with their blogs, but I like to think I can brighten someone’s day out there with my efforts.  Thank you to all those who stop by and comment and for all those lurkers out there.  I hope you continue your travels through The Park.

I was planning on posting my thoughts about the race at Talladega on Tuesday, but with the sudden passing of David Poole, I wanted until today.

As I have mentioned here before I like racing at Talladega.  I like the sitting on the edge of your seat kind of racing and Sunday was no exception for me.  Of course the face of the race took a different look on Lap 7 when the Big One happend.  I mean it took out several of the race contenders in one fell swoop.  it shows how one itty bitty wiggle/bobble can cause a massive pileup.    This race took out Jeff Gordon, the points leader as well as Mark Martin who had managed to climb to 13th in the points standings.  I felt bad for Mark. He was gaining  momentum and to have it all taken away just plain SUCKS.

I make no bones about the fact I am not a fan of Dale Jr.  I won’t go into all the horrendous details and detailed explanation of why, but on Sunday I found myself wondering where he was on the track.  It wasn’t because I was thinking of becoming a member of Junior Nation…the reason I picked him as my driver was for one of my fantasy leagues.  I was in the lead coming into Talladega and I wanted to maintain my lead as well increase my lead, plus Junior was still on the block for me to pick so why the hell not?  I mean I am not a fan of his, but I am not going to let that come between me and winning.  I mean look at the numbers at Talladega for Junior.  His best starting position is 3rd and well his best finish is first and he has done that 5 times.  It’s all about winning in my book.  And with the finish on Sunday I am have maintained my lead and stretched it out. 

Now on to The Crash…

We all know the best part of the race usually happens within the last 25 laps.  This is where those who have a possibility of winning begin to make their moves and find their drafting partners or better yet who they call follow to the front until they can pull out to take the lead.  Just like they did in the Nationwide race on Saturday, Newman and Junior hooked up nose to tail as they made there way to the front.  Plus you couldn’t count out David Ragan either since he was just about in the same spot after the last restart on Sunday as he was on Saturday.  But as we all know, this is Talladega…anything can happen.  Since Tony had a rough go on Sunday and to be honeset I thought he was going to make it interesting near the end, but as luck would have it no.   But there was the other SHR car driven by Ryan Newman.  If Tony couldn’t get the first win for Stewart Haas Racing, it was perfectly fine and dandy that Newman get it.  I was thinking Dale would make his move around Newman sooner than he did on Saturday, but the next thing you know he comes Carl Edwards being pushed by Brad Keselowski.The two of them passed the Newman/Earnhardt Express like they were standing still.  There was Carl I grimmaced.  He pretty much rode around all day until he needed to make his move…of course this was nothing new.  I have seen other drivers do this as well.  You have to do what you have to do to WIN. 

In my opinion, the incident between Carl and Brad was a racing deal.  Brad held the bottom line and did not go beyond the yellow as he was instructed by NASCAR during the driver’s meeting.  If he had gone below the yellow when Carl came down on him, it would have cost him the victory (see Fall 2008 Dega race).  It was a horrific accident.  Every piece of safety equipment did it’s job from the fence to the Hans device.  Carl was able to walk away and make his way to the start finish line.  I believe if Newman’s car had not been there when he started flipping I don’t think he would have ended up in the fence.  From what I could tell he was headed back down to the track surface when he hit the front of Newman’s car which accted like a catapult.  Eight fans were injured because of debris from Carl’s car.  This begs the question…should NASCAR car look at ways to prevent something from this happening in the future?  That I can’t answer.  NASCAR considers safety of the drivers, crewman, and fans priority number one and I am sure NASCAR will be disccussing these things in the near future.

Congratulations Brad for your first win in the Cup Series.  I think you have a might bright future in NASCAR!