The three “R’s” at New Hampshire Motor Speedway were rain, wrecks and red, as in the flag that brought the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 to a premature ending. With 14 laps to go (as it turned out), the drivers who finished first, second and third—respectively, Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip and J.J. Yeley—were running 18th, 20th and 21st.
Races this year have been, by and large, predictably unpredictable, so why not expect more of the same this week when the Sprint Cup Series makes its final stop of the season at Daytona International Speedway, flagship of the NASCAR fleet, for the summertime night race? It’s back to the beginning in more ways than one. In the first race of the season, Tony Stewart dominated only to be outrun at the end. In the 17th race, in New Hampshire, Stewart managed to dominate and lose again.
What’s wrong with one of racing’s marquee names? Certainly nothing in the Nationwide Series, where Stewart has won five times in seven tries. If not for a variety of freak occurrences and strategic blunders, Stewart might have five Sprint Cup victories.
He’s lost because his drafting partner wasn’t as good as Ryan Newman’s partner (in the Daytona 500, where both partners were named Busch), because he didn’t have enough fuel, because he had a flat tire with three laps to go and, most recently, because he inexplicably pitted for fuel and tires with clouds hanging over the speedway that pelted it with everything but cats and dogs. Somewhere along the line, he must have been beaten fair and square.
It seems as if every race seems primed to bring Stewart back from the doldrums. His chronic misfortunes in the Daytona 500 have never plagued him in the night race, which he has won twice. Meanwhile, up at the top of the point standings, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr. keep padding along, even though none of the three was particularly strong in New Hampshire, or at least not in the latter stages.
Earnhardt had a potentially good finish ruined by—guess what?—a freak occurrence. Attempting to pit, Earnhardt’s slowing Chevrolet got run over by Jamie McMurray’s Ford. Spotters get blamed for more wrecks these days than blown tires.
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