The Kez kicks it at home: The CarFax 250 Review

Brad Keselowski wanted nothing more than to win at his hometrack, Michigan.  He got that wish in dominating fashion.  Keso led 89 of 125 laps to take the CarFax 250 and is well on his way to his first Nascar championship, which could be also be his last in the Nationwide Series.  It's been discussed within Nascar about limiting the number of races that full time Cup drivers can race in the Nationwide series.  So Brad may be the last double duty champion ever.  He's also the worst. 

Brad's Cup career is off to a very shaky start.  In 22 races Keso has 4 DNFs, only 32 laps led, and a best finish of 12th (twice).  It's not a terrible start, but it is a pretty big chasm between Brad's Cup finishes and his Nationwide finishes.  Next year will be the biggest chance for Keso to succeed, as he will take over for Kurt Busch in the famous blue deuce.  If Keso can't perform in the# 2 Dodge, I think he could be on his way out of Penske Racing.  With that being said, I may be too quick to call Keso a Cup Bust after all the #12 team ran bad last year with David Stremme, and running both Cup and Nationwide does take it's toll on a driver.  Time will tell.

I am contractually obligated to discuss Danica Patrick, the world's most famous 4 laps down driver.  Patrick continued her streak of 6 straight starts of failing to finish on the lead lap.  This was a level playing field for her, since everyone was driving the COT.  Patrick still hasn't been able to master the handleing on a Nationwide Car, nor has she been able to communicate what the car needs to be better.  I feel like, if Patrick was running full time, that we would have seen some improvement by now.  At least more improvement then we have seen. 

I want to see more female drivers in Nascar but, is it just me, or does it seem like to you that women need to be pretty or they do not get a chance to run with competitive teams?  If so then that's not right because there are a whole lotta real ugly male drivers who day in and day out get their chance at victory lane - not that I'm looking mind you (or that there's anything wrong with that).  I better stop now because I'm opening up a whole big can of worms here.


Results and more after the JUMP!

It was interesting to see Joe Gibbs Racing struggle so much in the COT.  Well, struggle by thier standards.  Neither Busch nor Logano led a lap.  It was the first Nationwide Race in which Kyle didn't lead at least on lap since Phoenix of last year, which was the second to last race of the year.  It was the third time this year that Logano hasn't led a lap.

Nothing changed in the fight for the top 30:

Robert Richardson pancaked the wall hard and had to be taken to a local hospital.  He was released this morning - everything looked fine.

Next week we go under the lights of Bristol.  Bristol is one of my favorite tracks.  It's short track racing at it's finest.  You can expect to see some tempers flare.  It could possibly be the return of Edwards vs. Keselowski or is that Keselowski vs Edwards?  Tune in at 730pm to ESPN on Friday, August 20th for the Food City 250 from Bristol, TN.  Enjoy!