With the NASCAR Sprint Cup series off last week, the Camping World Trucks and the Nationwide series had a weekend at Nashville all to themselves. Kyle Busch took his first Truck victory as team owner, and this time he didn't smash the Sam Bass guitar trophy. In fact, Busch offered to let Bass trash his winning truck, an honor that Bass declined. Kevin Harvick took two tires on a late caution and held off the field to take the Nationwide win. There was some extracurricular activity behind him, as Jason Leffler, running many laps down, took out James Buescher in retaliation for an earlier incident. NASCAR parked Leffler for the remainder of the event, and subsequently put him on a three-race probation. The Trucks are off this weekend, and the Phoenix Nationwide race last night ran too late for this column's deadline.
Speaking of Phoenix, the Sprint Cup cars run tonight, with the FOX broadcast scheduled to start at 4:30 Pacific time. For those of you who aren't Jimmie Johnson fans, you probably don't want to be reminded that he just took over the points lead and has won four of the last five Phoenix races. The other one, last spring, went to teammate Mark Martin. The Hendrick team has three of its cars in the twelve Chase qualifying positions, with only Martin out of the running after being put out of a couple of races. He'll be back. The Childress team also has three cars in the top twelve; Roush has two, and the other four spots are shared by Petty Motorsports, Penske Racing, Red Bull Racing, and Stewart-Haas Racing. Seven of the top twelve cars are Chevrolets, three are Fords, and Dodge and Toyota have one each.
Also, Phoenix is the first race where the top 35 in owner points will change. Up until this weekend, the top 35 were locked into the starting grid based on the final 2009 owner points. Now, it is the points accumulated in 2010 that will determine which cars are guaranteed a starting spot. The battles for those last few guaranteed positions are every bit as fierce as the battles at the top end of the points pyramid.
Mackena Bell ran her second K&N Pro Series race last Saturday at South Boston Speedway. She qualified well, in ninth starting position. She ran in the top 10 for the first two-thirds of the race, then dropped back, but was moving up again when she was taken out in an apparent retaliation move by Dustin Delaney. "It was a hard hit, probably one of the hardest I've ever had, and it's a shame we had to tear up a good race car battling for a spot in the top 20," said Bell. She was scored 23rd. If you want to watch the race, it will be broadcast this coming Thursday, April 15, at 3 pm Pacific time. Another local racer, Cameron Millard, made his season Late Model debut at All American Speedway in Roseville, California last Saturday night, finishing 16th.
Across the pond, the Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix provided some exciting racing action. I have to say that both the Australian and Malaysian races have been far more fun to watch than most in recent years. A wet qualifying session and some poor tactical decisions put three of the usually fastest cars at the back of the grid for the start. Both Ferrari drivers (Alonso and Massa) along with McLaren ace Lewis Hamilton put on excellent drives, charging from deep in the field with skill and bravery. Alonso put on a spectacular show, fighting a dodgy transmission throughout the race, as evidenced by the in-car video. It was all for naught, however, as his engine exploded one lap from the checkered flag. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel took command of the race at the green flag and for the first time this season his race car held together until the end. Teammate Mark Webber followed him home in second place, but seemed a bit disgruntled in the post race ceremonies and interviews. I think he was probably smarting from the opening-lap pass Vettel put on him.