Backstretch Motorsports

“…they were just racing so hard there and you knew it was going to happen. I just took advantage of a misfortune right there.” — Clint Bowyer

“…he is going to need some security.” — Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the Jr.Nation’s feelings toward Kyle Busch

It just writes itself, this racing biz. Last night being the prime example. It was Richmond, the little track that provides — for it’s fans, for the drivers, for the teams — it provides good racing and it provides the “more than occasional” controversy.

Nobody is guaranteed anything — not even Dale Jr.

The Jr. Nation was on thier feet, cheering. Their man had taken the lead with just a handful of laps to go and seemed destined for the win. After all, this was the site of the last one.

Then.. it happened.

“It’s just a part of racing. I probably could have moved down a little lower getting into the corner and he (Dale Jr.) probably could have moved up higher — it’s just a product of good, hard racing. I apologize to those guys — they had a great race car tonight and they probably could have finished, if not winning the race, probably second.” – Kyle Busch on “the incident”.

“… t’s just great racing, and Kyle and these guys, what they are doing is putting on a show, and people shouldn’t be upset, because that’s what they pay their money for is to see a great race.” — Richard Childress

Richmond is billed as ‘racing perfection’, and living up to it’s PR hype, it is a track that lends itself often to the traditions of short track racing — including hot tempers.

But this is racing and that means Murphy’s Law comes into play — ‘if anything can go wrong, it will’… and it is as simple as that.

“Going wrong” is in the eye of the beholder , Dale Jr.’s fans are true beholders when it comes to their driver. They will be screaming for Kyle Busch to be drawn and quartered for the rest of the season.

But being true beholders, they should listen to their driver .. “Tony, Jr. (Eury) said it looked like Kyle got loose underneath me. That happens. I wasn’t good on the bottom so I moved up to the top to run as good as I could up there. He had been running the bottom, so I figured we would race that out. It got a great run around one and two, and he nearly got by me. He gave me room off the outside of two so, I wouldn’t say that was intentional going in to three. Because if he had wanted to, he could have just thrown me in the fence off two. We had been racing each other earlier and had no problems. I have done that before. That is what happens if he got loose underneath me.” — Dale Jr. in post race interview.

And they should remember, they are talking about Kyle Busch here, aggressor that he is.

“…if I went out there on that final restart and just gave way to the 88 car, then that would not be a true race car driver. For me, there’s nothing you can say, absolutely nothing. If I apologize up and down, even though it may or may not be my fault it would not make a difference. Dale got wrecked, he should have had a win tonight, quote, unquote. But I’ll say it again, it’s just unfortunate circumstances for him because he didn’t get a win, and for me because now I’ve got to put up with it.”

Could there have been more ‘give and take’ in this situation? That can be debated ’til the cows come home.

Truth is, some of the best racing of the season was witnessed last night, controversies and all.

Racing Perfection.