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California Observations

Bob Margolis

Thoughts, questions and observations following Sunday's Auto Club 500 at California Speedway:

  • After dominating all three races this weekend, am I the only one who thinks that Jack Roush's group has made the 1½- and two-mile race tracks its primary focus given that NASCAR runs more races on those tracks than on any other type?

  • Just a reminder: The No. 20 Home Depot team also got off to a slow start last season. Don't count Tony Stewart and Co. out just yet.

  • Was there any doubt there would be a late-race caution? Enough already with the green-white-checkered finishes.

  • I'm still not sure whether or not I like the fact that the top 11 finishers in Saturday's Busch race were full-time Cup drivers. Both Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman said earlier this weekend that they don't consider themselves Cup drivers – rather, they are just race car drivers. That sounds good, but …

Next weekend's race in Mexico City might change my mind.

  • Speaking of Mexico City, I'd love to see a road course race early in the Cup season, too. Wouldn't you?

  • Those watching NASCAR races on television end up missing much of the action. While Greg Biffle was running away with the win late in the Busch race, the real battle to the checkered flag was between Newman and Edwards for second. The director chose to keep the camera on Biffle rather than giving the audience a split screen and also showing the action between Newman and Edwards.

  • Wasn't it a great save that Stewart made early in the Cup race when he almost slid into the side of Biffle?

  • Speaking of those two, isn't it ironic that the drivers who finished 1-2 in the points last season were the first two drivers out on Sunday?

  • I wonder … did they have as many cautions for debris back in the '70s or '80s?

  • I'd like to echo the sentiments in a recent Yahoo! Sports "From the Marbles" entry about star power and NASCAR. Whoever is in charge of bringing in the big stars for these races hasn't been doing a very good job. Maybe that's because it's up to the tracks themselves. Or maybe it's because NASCAR isn't the hip-hop crowd (yet). Have NASCAR races become the "Tonight Show" or the "Late Show" – just another opportunity for entertainers to promote their latest project? And is that a good thing?

  • Some may think it was the Roush cars or the Roush/Yates horsepower, but I think it was the extraordinary work by the No. 17 car crew during each of the green-flag pit stops that really put Matt Kenseth in the winner's circle.

  • I sure hope Sunday's performance was a fluke and that Bobby Labonte's Dodge will be running back in the top 10 at Las Vegas in two weeks.

  • After missing the Daytona 500, Scott Riggs bounced back nicely with a top-20 finish. The guy driving his old car, Sterling Marlin, finished 32nd.

  • I can't think of any crew chief that started out his career with a win and a second-place finish other than Darian Grubb, crew chief of the No. 48 Chevrolet.

  • It seems that it doesn't matter whether the Dodge teams are running the Intrepid or the Charger; they still struggle with their car's balance. Kurt Busch said after the race that, to him, there's no real difference between the two cars.

  • It's not NASCAR, but with all the recent focus on women in racing, it's important to point out that the current points leader in NHRA drag racing's premier class (Top Fuel) is a woman. Melanie Troxel won the first race of the season and finished runner-up in this weekend's race at Phoenix.

Postscript:

I'll be reporting later this week from Mexico City, covering the second running of the Mexico 200. Last year's trip was a real adventure and ended up being a lot of fun. For me, the race itself was one of the three best Busch races of the season.

With so many Cup drivers running full-time in the Busch Series and with all the road course ringers, this year's edition should be even more competitive and more entertaining.

Even though there isn't a Cup race next weekend, don't make plans for next Sunday – unless they include watching the Busch race on television.