OK, Saturday's Cup race wasn't nearly as exciting as the Busch race the night before. Who all agrees with me? Thought so.
Then the next question must be, why was the race so boring? Look at the finishing order, about half of the top 10 started deep in the field - shouldn't that have been good reason to be excited?They had to race their way to the front after all.
If it wasn't for Robby Gordon spinning himself out a couple of times, I don't know what else would have entertained me, except that this race was Denny Hamilton's second ever DNF in his whole entire career of racing. Wow, and he was coming on strong until his motor went South.
Don't blame the quality of the race entirely on the re-surfacing of the track, the track after all allowed for several different grooves and tons of passing, but because of this the cars were able to pass better and not get into each other to make a pass stick thus causing less spins etc. With the Chase coming down to the wire for those not yet locked in, and those near the bottom of the Chase list, everyone was more cautious out there Saturday night. Those who might have stuck their nose in certain situations might have been more conservative Saturday because they are either fighting to stay in the Chase, get into the Chase, or simply to stay out of Chase contender ways since they are not in the Chase hunt themselves.
You look at the Busch race on Friday, see how many Busch Chase contenders were fighting for the lead vs. those who are not Busch regulars. That is why the Busch race was more exciting, you had guys going for the lead, who aren't even contending for the Busch Series Championship, driving like they have nothing to lose, because they had nothing to lose.
That is the real difference between Friday's race and Saturday's race.