From the Crossville Chronicle – Crossville, TN Wednesday August 27, 2008
By Joe Dunn / joe@onpitroad.com
With two races left before the Chase, only two drivers are ‘locked in’, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. The Edwards – Busch 1-2 finish Saturday night at Bristol was a repeat of the previous week’s race at Michigan.
With clear skies and comfortable temperatures fans arrived at Bristol in droves. What is easily the largest temporary camping area in Tennessee the campers began lining up two weeks in advance to secure the ‘good’ campsites. The actual festivities in Bristol began on Wednesday as the Hooter’s Pro Cup series provided the opening act for the Nascar Craftsman truck series race. The big hype for Wednesday was the fact that Nascar Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson would start his first truck race. Johnson did manage to grab the lead by not pitting with the leaders on lap 42. He held that lead for 29 laps until Kyle Busch ran him down and Johnson faded to the back. His night ended on lap 109 when he lost control all by himself and collected Jeff green who was unable to avoid Johnson. Kyle Busch went on to win the truck race with series regular Todd Bodine in second.
In Friday nights Nascar Nationwide Series Food City 250, it was Brad Keselowski taking only his second series win, the first win came just a few weeks ago at Nashville Super Speedway. Clint Bowyer held on for second with Greg Biffle, Cale Gale and David Stremme rounding out the top 5.
Saturday’s Sharpie 500 was all Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards as the two combined to lead all but 1 lap of the race. Edwards started on the pole and lead all but 1 of the first 54 laps as Jeff Gordon was able to lead lap 48. Busch took the lead on lap 55 and held on until lap 470 when Edwards bumped him between turns 1 and 2. The bump caused Busch to chase the car up the track as Edwards swept by to lead the rest of the race and claim his 6th win of 2008. After taking the checkered flag, Busch drove into Edwards car in turn 2, but Edwards returned the favor turning the 18 car around at the exit to turn 2. Busch attempted to chase down Edwards into turn 4 but finally heeded the warnings of Nascar and turned into the pits. One thing that is obvious is the fact that these are the two top drivers in 2008 and one of them should win the championship. Dale Earnhardt Jr was saved from a standing drop by the wreck of Jimmie Johnson that gave Johnson a 33rd place finish. Earnhardt finished the race in 18th 2 laps down after going down a lap on the first lap of the race. On the start of the race Jr was penalized for passing two cars before the start finish line. The pass through penalty sent him down a lap and was never able to get the lap back.
Local Racing, The Advance Auto Parts Thunder series event scheduled for this Friday at Crossville Raceway has been cancelled, in it’s place the final points event of the season will take place along with a Special event. Along with the racing action the inaugural class of the new Upper Cumberland Dirt Racing Hall of Fame will be inducted.
Among those expected to be inducted are J Paul Smith, Lloyd Williams, Dave Bilbrey and Venable Tabor. Gates open at 5pm.
I-40 Dragway has rescheduled it’s ever popular Bounty Races to Saturday September 6 as VP Racing Fuels will guarantee a $1500 first place award. Other classes will include a $2,000 1st place for the Pro Torque Converters 4.90 index, $1,000 for the PRC Race Cars – Real Street, and $700 each for the Holeshot Wheels 6.0 Index, Mondello Tech Center 7.0 Index and the HVH Cylinder Head 8.5 Outlaw.
