Posts tagged DanLowry400 at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

It all started so innocently for Casey Mears Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. As he came off of turn four, he'd slide up to the wall and cross the start/finish line to complete lap 355.

Trouble was, Michael Waltrip was there, and when Mears came across the nose of the No. 55, Waltrip was none too pleased and displayed it by pushing Mears down the straightaway and into the turn one wall. Follow along below at 0:13:



For the blatant contact following Mears' incidental mistake, Waltrip was parked by NASCAR for the remainder of the race, relegating him to a 37th-place finish.

Mears said this week that he was happy with the punishment handed out, and NASCAR also said that they wouldn't pursue any further sanctions against Waltrip mainly because the penalty cost Waltrip quite a few points.

As I stated in the previous blog post, this effort out of Waltrip seems to be a near-yearly occurence after he gets into a disagreement with a fellow driver. He just simply overreacts, and in this case, used his car ultimately as a weapon.

All of this, of course, goes back to one question.

Do you think Waltrip is upset with the people he meets at autograph signings?

Sure, Denny Hamlin may have led gobs and gobs of laps during Saturday night's Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400. And sure, the race title was ridiculous to say (and from here on out, will be referred to as the Dan Lowry 400).

But boy did NASCAR need a race like the one race fans were treated to at Richmond. Throw together the entire weekend and its not looking too shabby all the way around.

First, NASCAR's newest bad boy in town Kyle Busch started things off nicely Friday night during the Lipton Tea 250 when dude got into with Rusty Wallace's probably-never-going-to-make-the-Sprint-Cup son Steven Wallace. The two did the post-race tango after beating and banging on each other during the final laps with Kyle Busch getting offended after his helmet was grabbed and Wallace calling Busch a "girl".

Priceless.

Then, Saturday night, Denny Hamlin was on his way to securing one of the most dominating Sprint Cup wins in a long, long time at his home track, until a tire started to go late in the event. Apparently, karma catches up to you after leading some 381 of 410 total laps.

Prior to Hamlin losing the race that was his to be won, those fans who watch just to see smashed up fenders and bent roll cages were treated to a massive pileup in Turn 3 that took Matt Kenseth from his Richmond misery and drop kicked Jimmie Johnson from a good finish. Those fans can check out the video here.

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon had one of those nights for the first half of the race that his haters love to see.

The No. 24 was a lap down early and struggling -- raising the haters' hopes for further Gordon bad luck. However, Jeff played the storyline well and brought his big core of fans right back into the race when he got a lap back and battled through the field to a ninth-place finish.

And then, there was Michael Waltrip showing his now-annual display of over-aggression after Casey Mears lost the No. 55 in his blind spot and sent them both into the wall. Waltrip then gunned the accelerator and pushed Mears into the turn one wall, drawing a "you're done for the race" penalty from race control. Remember, Waltrip slugged Lake Speed in 1995, had this YouTube gem in 2004 (1:35), and got into it with Jeff Green a few years ago at Darlington.

Once that all sorted out, it looked like Hamlin was cruising to a victory in front of the home crowd until the tire faded his chances. When Hamlin caused a caution and subsequently penalized, the race was between that Dale Earnhardt Jr. fellow and Busch.

The two made a little bit of contact going for the win, which kicked the most popular driver from the win and allowed Clint Bowyer to sneak in from nowhere past Busch for his second-career win.

While it wasn't the 2007 Daytona 500 finish, Richmond brought out storyline after storyline late in the event -- which is exactly what a race fan wants. By no means was Saturday night's finish predictable.

Carnage and controversy on a short track? Now that is.

NASCAR fans expected a wreck like this one week ago when the Sprint Cup Series visited Talladega Superspeedway, but at Richmond? Nahhhhh.

It all started on lap 230 when J.J. Yeley squeezed up the track on the backstretch in front of Carl Edwards. As cars behind them started to check up, Patrick Carpentier slammed the inside wall and ricocheted back into the pack of cars just a few laps removed a restart. The carnage begins in the video below:



The list of drivers involved in the mess included: Kurt Busch, J.J. Yeley, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Carpentier, Jeff Burton, David Gilliland, David Reutimann, and many others I'm probably missing.

The incident put the red flag out for a considerable period while safety crews cleaned the track and got the used up race cars on to the tow hook. Carpentier, who took quite a number of brutal hits, walked away unscathed.

It sure didn't look like anyone could get around Denny Hamlin until a flat tire pulled the No. 11 car back to the field.

And when Hamlin's frustrations showed his classless competitive nature, Clint Bowyer took advantage of the series of events to grab the lead and hold on to win the Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 in a green-white-checkered finish.

It was Bowyer's 2nd-career Sprint Cup Series victory, and probably one of the most unlikely wins he'll ever score. Regardless, though, his 13 laps led meant a heckuva lot more than Hamlin's 381 of the extended 410 lap event.

Of course, Bowyer's win will likely be overshadowed this week by a number of things, including:

Kyle Busch may be the hottest driver in all of NASCAR right now, but Denny Hamlin isn't letting his teammate show the familiar prowess at Hamlin's home track.

Indeed, Friday was very, very good for the driver of the No. 11 Toyota as he found himself in victory lane twice already -- first for winning the pole for Saturday night's Sprint Cup Series event at Richmond International Raceway and then for winning the Nationwide Lipton Tea 250.

Hamlin scored the pole for the Sprint Cup Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 126.198mph -- enough to fend off Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr. Patrick Carpentier qualified an impressive fourth while Reed Sorenson rounded out the Top-5.

On the Nationwide Series side of things, it was pretty much business as usual for Joe Gibbs Racing as Hamlin continued a 5-race winning streak for the team. Hamlin passed Kevin Harvick with just over 10 laps to go to secure the victory at the track roughly 20 miles from his home.

Teammate Busch, though, had the most fun of the night after getting in to a near-fight with Steven Wallace after the race. The two had banged back and forth for the closing laps and then had to be separated on pit road.