It was a night race at Texas speedway that I think is somewhere near Ft Worth. It was a good race. Only one incident took place, a blown tire that sent the car into the wall then sliding along the wall backwards with the brakes on. Much talk about the new cars this year. The drivers say they are "fun" to drive and "faster." I don't know what has been done to the cars this year that makes them so much better. My thinking is it's in the handling of the cars. Already, their speed is held back by the track itself, so they don't need much faster cars. Maybe they mean faster response to the pedal, like twisting the handle grip on a motorcycle, acceleration right now, which I think is already the case. I see the cars are going around the curves faster than before, especially notable at Martinsville and Bristol. The cars function on the half mile track like it's a one mile track. They go faster on the short tracks than ever before, and they do the same on the 2 mile tracks. I've noticed at 150mph+ they don't lose traction so readily when they touch anymore. I saw one guy pull it back when the rear wheels lost traction. I don't see that often. I've seen Kyle Busch bring the car back to traction after wrestling the steering wheel just right. His ability to bring a car back to traction has made him the driver I follow with the most interest.
Kyle Busch won Saturday night's race with a solid run. He was bearing down on it from the start to finish. He and his brother started the front two, both with the best times in the timing runs the day before. Perhaps one of the aspects of car racing that draws me to it the most is that infinite unknowns lurk throughout the course of a race. Nothing can be predicted until the first one crosses the finish line. Kyle Busch won the race with the best car and the best driving. It's not every race that a driver's car is up to stepping out in front of everybody else. The cars have endless variables in them that can either work right or go wrong. The drivers too. One of them had stomach flu and was unable to finish the race on account of it. From the first green flag to the checkered flag there is no knowing what will happen in between. It's like basketball and football, hockey, any competitive sport in that no two games are anywhere near the same. Jr Earnhardt was creeping toward the front of the pack, coming into being a serious contender, then shit happened and he was set back two laps in time lost getting a repair in the pit.
Here is Kyle Busch leading Truex Jr to the finish line. Busch won by simply outrunning everybody else. That's what it takes to win. Talking with the microphone when it was over, first words KB spoke was to point out the crew did it for him. They deserved the coca~cola to take a swig from for the camera as much as he did. The cars this year are beautiful in a whole new style of beautiful. I appreciate the beautiful designs of race cars, cars made to go 200mph+. The body shapes are designed with computer now for the least resistance in air flow. They fly like birds through the air and swim like fish in water, streamlined and light-weight cutting through the elements that become physical at certain speeds. I've noticed they have bigger flaps that turn up to help slow the car down when it needs to in a hurry. Bigger spoiler too, the wing that goes across the back of the trunk lid for better stability at high speeds. The drivers interviewed are excited about how much better this year's cars hold the road. I've noticed this year on the 2 mile tracks where they run between 150 and 200 the cars don't lose traction so much when they touch. It used to be, when one car touched another, look out.
"Is that where they drive and turn left, drive and turn left?'
"Yes, that's where they drive and turn left."
"Is that where they drive around in circles?
"Yeah, that's where they drive around in circles."
Like my grandmother said about merry-go-rounds,
"You get on and go round and round.
When you get off, where you been?"
Hey, y'all, it's a race. A circular track is a contained space
to simulate a straight line across Texas. It's simply a race.
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