How many of you cheered, clapped or just smiled when Juan Pablo Montoya gave points leader Kyle Busch a punt at the end of the Lenox 301 at the New Hampshire International Speedway? For those that were not paying attention when the last caution came out Busch and Montoya appeared to have a disagreement on where they were scored. It appeared that Busch crowded and hit Montoya on purpose. So Montoya punted Busch, hitting his right rear corner and actually spinning Busch’s Toyota directly into his own path where Montoya hit the car causing pretty significant damage to both cars.

“On the restart, I got around the outside of him in Turn 2 and he just went wide like I wasn’t even there,” said Montoya, a former open wheel driver. “Then we touched each other and I got beside him to the next corner, and he starts banging on me like he was trying to wreck me. I said, ‘OK.’ I went into the corner and the wreck happened. I slowed down and tried to say, ‘What are you doing?’ The next thing that I started to see was that he was hitting me.” Montoya continued, “He runs good, yeah. He has great cars, yeah. But I thought we had a decent car today and I don’t appreciate when people race me like that.” He then admitted to doing it on purpose, something that many drivers like to call “steering issues” or “brake failure”, so his honestly was refreshing. “He hit me under caution, he hit me under green and I retaliated,” Montoya said after the meeting called by NASCAR officials. “Did I go too far in retaliating? Yeah. I think they are giving me a penalty and it’s OK for what I did. The only thing I told them was that they are always saying be very careful not to do anything under caution,” Montoya said. “The only reason I did that was that I was just defending myself.”

Busch on the other hand appeared run down and weary. With car owner Joe Gibbs reportedly very close at hand Busch said, “I didn’t turn down into him and just barely touched his quarter panel, “ he said. “Then I got by him in three and four and he ran me up the racetrack in the left rear. Then we came to that caution flag and he thought he beat me to the caution flag and I was just trying to get around the car in front of us there and touched him on the door. He just turned left and spun me down the front straightaway. I don’t know what his beef is but, obviously, NASCAR should probably fix it.”

Now, I do not condone this behavior at all. Spinning someone out in anger during a caution period is dangerous and stupid. NASCAR’s reaction was to give Montoya a 2 lap penalty which dropped him to 32nd place, Busch finished 25th, well off of what has been expected of him lately. No further penalties are expected. I can’t help but think that Busch was unhappy with his less than stellar performance at Loudon and got a little bit fussy over it. So Montoya took a page out of Busch’s team mate, Denny Hamlin’s book, “You throw a stone, I’ll throw a brick” book and wrecked Busch. As I said earlier, Montoya’s honesty is refreshing and that actually had me smiling. Busch’s answers were pure nonsense and we all know it. Busch knew what happened and how it came to be. Why can’t he admit it? The guy just can’t make any gestures towards getting people to be able to stand him. Sooner or later it will hurt him, if it hasn’t already. I wonder if Busch will treat Montoya differently. I wonder if he’ll pay attention. I also wonder if they’ll draft their way to the front at Daytona Saturday night. I hope so because Daytona is no place to retaliate for anything and NASCAR will have to really come down hard on any driver who decides to take that chance.

Anyone who watched the Sprint Cup race from Infineon Raceway yesterday is aware of the story line. Tony Stewart charged from the 39th starting spot to the front (second). His good friend, and owner of a Nationwide Series car that he occasionally drives, Kevin Harvick was also charging hard to the front as the laps wound down. Harvick, running in fifth place, dove hard into the hairpin turn passing David Gilliland for fourth place but went into the corner way too hard, getting into third place driver Jamie McMurray who in turn hit the second place car of Stewart. None suffered real significant damage but they certainly lost a lot of spots on the track.

Stewart never really said anything on the radio. He just got back in line and charged from about 20th to finish 10th in the last laps. It was an impressive move on his part. The biggest beneficiary of this wreck were the guys not really involved, David Gilliland and Jeff Gordon who came away unscathed and with top five finishes. “We came from 39th and ran second. I think we as a team did a really good job,” Stewart said after the race. “We weren’t good enough to win. Kyle was better than us. Jamie (McMurray) was better than us. We had a good opportunity getting up to second there, but that was about it.”

Harvick, who ended the race in the 30th finishing position said, “The Shell-Penzoil Chevy was really fast all day. I made a mistake late in the race and drove the car in too deep and wheel-hopped it. I feel bad for involving the No. 26 and the No. 20. Hopefully we can turn things around next week at Loudon.” With the relatively poor finish Harvick fell from the top 12 in points.

What really got me was the reporter from TNT trying to get Stewart to react to the wreck that he was involved in with good friend Harvick. It was very apparent that Stewart had been crowded by the media after the race and that the television camera person was under direct assault from some unknown forces. Yet the reporter, who I believe to be Marty Snider (edited) jumped right in and asked Stewart “what happened?”. Stewart tried to be diplomatic and say that he really did not know what happened and that because he had not seen a replay he wasn’t going to comment. The reporter then said something along the lines that “this is the second time Harvick has wrecked you.” Stewart was quite curt saying that, “ I told you, I haven’t seen the tape.”
Then as the reporter tried to follow up Stewart said that, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” While all this was going on it appeared that they were in a mosh pit as the camera was jostled, turned sideways… it was bizarre.

Now many of you may want to comment on Stewart’s behavior, but I saw nothing wrong with it. Regardless of how much money they make and their requirements to cooperate with the media they’re under no obligation to let someone fan a fire, or ‘make a story’ over a racing incident. Stewart basically said I am not commenting on it until I see what happened. Isn’t this what everyone wanted him to do? Lets not forget that he and Harvick are good friends and I don’t believe that there was any ill will with Harvick’s move. As many race car drivers like to say about themselves and others, “He ran out of talent.” Maybe the reporter could just ask Stewart, “How are you going to wreck him, Tony?”; maybe “Tony, are you still friends with Kevin? It sure doesn’t look it.”

As far as I am concerned the reporter might as well as asked Stewart, “Are you going to punch Harvick in his face for wrecking you? It cuts out all the drama that the television network likes to promote. I don’t think that kind of drama is good for the sport at all… I hope that people realize that sometimes reporters need to make the news, not just cover it. Sometimes I am embarrassed at the lengths these guys go through for a ’story’

Finally, Dale Earnhardt Jr. did something he has not done in over two years. He won a Sprint Cup, points paying race, at the Michigan International Speedway Sunday. Did he deserve the win? That is a ridiculous question…in my opinion. Now, I want to start this off by saying I am NOT, REPEAT, NOT a member of Junior Nation. This is not an entry to my blog that is being made because he is the greatest, nor the worst, driver out there. To me its about the monkey finally being off his back. No one wanted to count his win in the twin 150 at Daytona as a win for new owner Rick Hendrick. Perhaps he has passed the monkey off to good friend Tony Stewart or teammate Jeff Gordon? They both are looking for their first wins of 2008.

Now conspiracy theorists want to cheapen this win because strategy played a part and there could be discussions regarding the rules. Matt Kenseth questioned whether or not he illegally passed the pace car after the race Kenseth said, “I knew there was some weird stuff going on. I know he drove past the pace car by 10 car lengths and then he dropped back and shut the engine off – and I didn’t think you could pass the pace car. I was just trying to figure out what in the heck was going on. It was definitely different.” NASCAR’s Jim Hunter said Earnhardt needed to keep a “reasonable speed”. Of course Kenseth saw it differently. There’s nothing wrong with going down on the apron. It’s everybody’s idea to save fuel…but I didn’t think you could pass the pace car,” he said after the race. “The leader would stand on the gas and go 10 car lengths ahead of the pace car and shut the motor off. I thought it was confusing and I had to stay closed up.” This is a non issue in my eyes. He played the game until they told him to stop.

Now I also heard this morning and read in a few spots that NASCAR should not have thrown the yellow flag out and that was why he won the race. I also heard people say he did not ‘deserve’ the win. What?!?! The conspiracy theory went on to say that they did not throw a yellow at Michigan Saturday when Ron Hornaday was spun on the last lap. Sunday Michael Waltrip and Patrick Carpentier were wrecked on the front stretch with damaged cars. Hornaday was spun and almost went into traffic but was able to get going. These were two separate incidents that had nothing in common. NASCAR made the right call Sunday, Saturday I am not as sure, especially as Hornaday’s truck spun back up onto the track in the path of others. I also believe that NASCAR would have thrown out a yellow rag Saturday if that happened on any other lap than the last one.

Lets face it folks, Earnhardt has been through a lot in the last year. It was just over a year ago he announced he was leaving the company that bears his name. With that announcement came a lot more attention, criticism and praise from his fans, the media and his peers. None of it really stopped once he announced where he would race. Attention quickly went to what his car number would be (would the evil step mother sell the No. 8?), who would be the sponsors be? Who would come over to work on his crew? Frankly it became quite ridiculous as everyone tried to speculate what was going to happen last year.

When it finally all came together in Daytona this January everyone seemed relieved to finally be racing. Let’s be honest folks and give credit where credit is due. This season, in 15 races, he has been in the top 10 11 times, and has 7 top 5 finishes. He was involved in two wrecks that were not of his making (California and Dover) and was battling for the win when he wrecked at Richmond. In his cup career Earnhardt has never done this well at this point in the season and he is truly a championship contender. Does it really matter how he won the race? Is it different when someone takes two tires instead of four? I for one don’t think it matters because if your driver is not Dale Earnhardt Jr. and your favorite driver won the race in the same fashion you would have celebrated the win. Be a good sport and let the Junior Nation celebrate their win without crying foul… you all sound like bad sports when you do…

For the record, my favorite driver, barely made the top 20 yesterday…

Check back every Monday for new entries to my blog. My weekly column is available in the e - edition of Gater Monday night or in print the next day.

Two years ago in the 2006 season, Kasey Kahne led the Sprint Cup series with six wins and was a participant in the Chase. Last season was dismal for him in comparison as he finished 19th in points with only 1 top 5 finish and 8 top 10 finishes, less than half of what he had the prior year. Kahne was having a decent season in 2007 and was only 2 points out of the magical number 12 spot in points when they left Darlington in May. Kahne, who was not eligible for the All Star Race because he did not win last season, had to either race his way in or be the winner of the fan vote. When Kahne failed to qualify in the ‘open’ he prevailed on the fan vote. He took that second chance and capitalized big time winning the million dollar race. A week later he won the Coca Cola 600.

Kahne came into Pocono barely in the top 12 in points after a disappointing weekend in Dover where he was caught up in team mate Elliot Sadler’s mess. He left Pocono solidly in the 12 member field. Right now he’s the hottest thing out there, much hotter than Kyle Busch. When I spoke to Kahne prior to his qualifying run on Friday at Pocono he said, “The car felt pretty good in practice, I am just not sure we’ll have anything for (Jimmie) Johnson.” He certainly did have something for Johnson, edging him out for the pole.

During the race Sunday Kahne was clearly the dominant car and it looked like the only thing that could stop the No. 9 car from winning would be the dreaded curse of Pocono, bad luck. The track seems to have a knack for the unexpected. The race was red flagged for rain, on the back stretch! I t never really rained on the fans in the grandstands! When the cars stopped leader Jimmie Johnson apparently got out of his car and ran towards the portable toilets. As I was grabbing for the door of one I noticed him and let him go in front of me. I mean… how funny would it be if Johnson had to wait outside while I did my business? I guess I felt like I could wait a bit longer than he could. I then began to ponder what would have happened had there not been a red flag. There were many hours of racing to go… think of this next time you fans want a race worn fire suit…as a souvenir.

Kahne was slow on the start and Jimmie Johnson led the first few laps until Kahne reeled him in. There was a problem on one of Kahne’s early pit stops and he had to come back in to get lug nuts replaced sending him to the back. After the race crew Chief Kenny Francis blamed himself for the mistake but he also said that he had confidence in Kahne and the car. He also said, “It was time to go.” Kahne chimed in, “There was no waiting, we had to go. I don’t know, it’s just kind of it’s difficult at times but when the car like my car was so good today, and the longer the race went, the hotter the track got, the slicker the racetrack got, the better our car got, so that just made it easier.”

What did I notice? Clearly the best car won the race. But, the worst car did not finish last, but almost. Sam Hornish Jr. was an absolute terror out on the track being involved in 3 separate accidents before finally retiring to the garage. The last place car was your points leader, Kyle Busch. Perhaps traversing the country in a jet to race in three different races was not such a good idea. Where was Ray? Ray Evernham was not at Pocono this past weekend. I’m sure he would have enjoyed celebrating with the team. Lastly, the Pocono 500 was a typical Pocono race, long green flag runs with strategy, fuel mileage, track position, and wrecks all playing out during the race. The one thing that can’t be described was how damn hot it was there all weekend. It was like Bristol in August. I was melting out there!!

Lastly, why does Pocono get such a bad rap? The races are boring? This version was pretty good by my standards. Not as good as the one where Jeremy (WHO?) Mayfield dumped the late Dale Earnhardt for the win, but good none the less. The race was what you should expect at Pocono. We’ll have to see how Kahne does at Michigan this week where he is expected to do well and has in the past. It could also be an opportunity for Kyle Busch to prove that Pocono was a blip.

One always wants to believe in the concept of justice. The wrongs will be righted by the leagues of justice. NASCAR officials must make decisions during a race almost immediately in order to move the racing forward. Generally these decisions that are made during a race are cut and dry. Entering or leaving pit road too fast, speeding down pit road, entering when it’s closed, etc. I can recall sitting on pit road with NASCAR officials while they tried to straighten out scoring while under caution. They almost red flagged the race to get it straight. They had just implemented no racing back to the yellow flag. NASCAR addressed this issue by installing ‘scoring loops’ on the track.

More serious rules infractions such as cheating the rules result in various reactions by NASCAR. Recently at Lowes Motor Speedway officials confiscated the cars of two teams for unapproved parts. They are keeping the cars and announced this week that they’re losing 150 points and their crew chief along with the car chief for 6 weeks. In addition fines of $100,000 were levied. It is the largest penalty levied by NASCAR. “If it was something we had done one time and we’re trying to get by with something and it was affecting the car, I’d say yeah, we were doing something wrong,” Riggs said at Dover. “But it was something that had been on the car all year that NASCAR had seen. All of a sudden, somebody else from another team saw it, didn’t like it. And since the other team didn’t like it, NASCAR decided it didn’t like it.”

Penalties to other teams were also announced by NASCAR. Three crew members from Brad Keselowski’s Nationwide team were penalized for their actions after the race at Lowes Motor Speedway. Scroll down and look at how I felt about that whole deal. Some where even suspended for a race. Apparently they were ‘physical’ with officials on pit road as they tried to get at Denny Hamlin and his crew. Is this a travesty of justice because Hamlin was not penalized for his admission of damaging another competitor’s car while under caution? Such actions have been frowned upon for years but recently penalties for wrecking someone occurred when it was done on pit road so perhaps this is all making perfect sense to me.

I thought that Keselowski has continued to handle himself and his position quite well. So did his boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr. “I was very proud of him and how he dealt with that situation,” Earnhardt said at Dover. “It’s a very difficult situation when you’re criticized by an accomplished driver in the sport. When you’re in the Nationwide Series and one of the Cup guys criticizes you. I had the same situation happen a couple of times and you want to go in there and get those guys respect and you want to race them and you want them to respect you and appreciate your talent and see your talent. Brad is doing a great job of that. In struggling with Denny (Hamlin) and maybe not having a friendship there, he made a lot of other people respect him for how he acted and how he handled that situation.” But Hamlin continues to discuss respectful racing. During the rain delay for the Nationwide race at Dover Hamlin spoke about how the Nationwide drivers need to earn their respect and act accordingly. Then I hear a replay of Tony Stewart’s radio show on Sirius and he is basically defending Hamlin and how you have to give and take at these races.

There’s a fine line between being respectful and ‘rolling over’. My take was that Hamlin was the one not being respectful of a better race car. He said afterwards that he was looking out for leader and team mate Kyle Busch. I am sorry but not one driver at Joe Gibbs should be discussing respect. They’ve all had their issues recently with being hot heads and running their mouths. If this was Mark Martin or Jeff Burton this would not even be discussed here. Why? Because I respect their positions, behaviors and they led by example. Hamlin, Stewart, and Busch? Not so much.

The penalties to the Nationwide crew were appropriate. You can’t go at the officials, they are there for a reason and cooler heads must prevail. I am clearly not defending Hamlin but if Keselowski just gave him a tap and stayed behind Hamlin rather than deciding to tap him and then drive up next to him to wave hello then Hamlin could not hit him. What I am getting sick of is hearing about how guys need to respect one another. It seems like every time a driver says that he’s the one ‘dissing’ another guy… and they sound hypocritical…

There’s my position… discuss amongst yourselves by commenting below!!