Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

Kyle Busch wins at Talladega! Man what a race! I love this track more than any other track on the circuit and not just because it is only an hour and a half from my house. If you have never been to The Talladega Super Speedway, you are missing one heck of a race. It may get boring at times but to tell you the truth, I only get bored with it when I am watching it on Television. There is no way you can get bored with it while in the grandstands.

The Rumble

Let me paint you a picture of my first experience at Dega. I’m sitting or better yet standing on the front stretch near the start finish line, the field just took the green flag moments ago. They are coming out of turn four for the first time at full song. Suddenly as they enter the tri-oval I feel and hear what can only be described as an earthquake. Its a low slow building rumble that gets louder and harder the closer that the pack of 43 cars get to me. For a first timer I have to admit that I was a little scared, I wasn’t sure if it was the cars on the track or if there really was an earthquake happening at the same time. What was it? How about 34400 horsepower pounding the pavement at once! It only happens in the tri-oval though, something to do with the banking and the grandstands I think. If you are ever going to go there for the first time make sure you get tickets on the front stretch between the center of the tri-oval to the start finish line. You will never forget it.

What I Thought Of The Race

OK, on to the race Sunday. I thought it was a great race! I was amazed at the way that the new car handles at Talladega, Did you see Kyle Busch among others, get out of shape and get sideways at over 200 MPH only to have that rear wing put them under control again. It was like magic! I was disappointed in one aspect, I thought that the new car design would allow the teams to pull away from each other a bit and sorta break up the pack some, I saw that you could pull out front in a two or three car group but it isn’t long until the drafting pack catches up with you.

The Big One

And of course you always have the potential for “THE BIG ONE” and this years spring race was no exception. There were a couple of times where more than a few cars got wadded up, including Tony Stewart getting squeezed five wide into Dale Earnhardt Junior. That one cost both of them the race, although Junior was coming on at races end, restarting 29th and finishing tenth. By the way, did you watch the Nationwide Series Race on Saturday and see Dario Franchitti get T-boned? He broke his ankle in that wreck. Ouch! Check out the video of his wreck here. After watching that, I don’t understand why the other driver didn’t try to steer away from Dario’s drivers door? While I am pointing you towards video, here is the video of the wreck that took out stewart and ended Juniors bid for his first win in a Hendrick ride.

All in all it was a nice race weekend with the rain holding off until well after the checkered flag. Maybe I will get to go to the fall race and be able to report to you all the fun I had there. We just couldn’t afford it this spring. Here is how they crossed the line.

Next week we are off to The Richmond International Speedway. Stay tuned here at Life On The Road for the preview shortly after qualifying. Until then keep the shiny side up and don’t feed them bears. Thank you for the work you do! As you well know, With out you, America stops!