Guest Author - De Powell

Watch out guys! It’s Kahne season! For those that had any doubt that Kasey Kahne was going to be a predominant force this year, the doubts should certainly be gone after his second win of the season at the Samsung/RadioShack 500 from Texas. This is the second time this season where Kahne both started and finished at the front. Not only did he accomplish this rare feat, he won by nearly five seconds, which as we all know is nearly unheard of. Kahne now sits in third place in the standings, and is certainly looking like he is planning on staying there to make the Chase this year.

Once again, Tony Stewart wins the award for leading the most laps. He has worked his way into the top five, not only by finishing well, but by garnering more bonus points than any other driver. If he continues in this way, it won’t be too many weeks until he is back in front. The entire Gibbs team looks stronger than they have in a long time.

Texas was good for the rookies as well. Two of the rookies finished in the top ten with Denny Hamlin in fourth, and Martin Truex, Jr. in ninth. Reed Sorenson and Clint Bowyer were in the top twenty, so overall, the rookies made a good show. With seven races under their belts, it definitely seems that the rookies shine better on this type of track, which is good news for them, as there are plenty of these tracks on the schedule.

Greg Biffle was looking more like the Biffle we saw last year, and had led over 40 laps when his day ended on lap 82. Kurt Busch got into Biffle and put him into the SAFER barrier. He hit the wall so hard that the race was red-flagged for ten minutes while they made repairs to the wall. An understandably upset Biffle essentially sent out a warning to Busch about giving and taking and let it be known that if he didn’t want to give, then he wouldn’t either. Busch on the other hand, said that he tried to get out of the way and didn’t understand why Biffle was so upset. I think it’s safe to say that Busch doesn’t have many friends left in the Roush garage, as he seems to be working his way through their entire roster, taking them out one by one.

For as long as there has been racing, there have been feuds between drivers. At times, crew chiefs and crew members get involved as well. But, girlfriends feuding was a new one for me. We didn’t expect to hear anything kind coming from Biffle, but what we didn’t expect was to see his girlfriend Nicole Lunders go over to the Pit Box of Kurt Busch to have a chat with Busch’s girlfriend Eva Bryan. It is not known what was said in the heated discussion between the ladies, and it didn’t get physical, but, the entire confrontation was caught on camera. NASCAR really doesn’t like it when there are activities that take place off the track, as the many fines and probations from the past prove, yet what can they do to someone that isn’t really considered to be on a team?

This week is one of the few weeks that the NASCAR drivers get a break. Next week they will be heading to Phoenix for the Subway Fresh 500 for the first night race of the season. I always enjoy the night races and the drivers always seem to enjoy them as well.

It seems that you all had opinions on the race this week. Topping the list was the girlfriend fight, but also about the respect or lack of it between the drivers. We’ll talk more about that next time. Keep letting me know what you think!

Til next week.....