Pigs Fly and Tony Stewart Is A New Man

At the expense of sounding like a broken record, if someone had told me Tony Stewart would be sitting atop the points with two wins in July, I would have said they were crazy.

Perhaps crazy like a fox.

Stewart winning a race was not unimaginable, but certainly was there no indication he would be where he is today. Plus teammate Ryan Newman is sitting in the Chase as of right now.

As unimaginable as his position is right now, just as unimaginable were his post race comments where he nearly apologized for Kyle Busch’s encounter with the retaining wall. That does not sound like Terrible Tony at all. Perhaps ownership has its upsides.

I was also amazed at Smoke’s appearance after he got out of the car in Victory Lane. Not only was his hair neatly cut, it appeared that he had shaven just moments ago. While many thought he was sitting in his car collecting his thoughts before the Victory Lane celebration, I think he was shaving.

The double file restarts started by NASCAR several races ago set up the final laps at Daytona. Had it not been for that, the eventual winner might have been Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin. As well documented by now (and it is Monday morning as I write these words) Kyle tried to block Tony one too many times.

If memory had served Kyle as well as it does me, he would simply have to remember the Talladega race where Carl Edwards tried to do the same thing and started a huge crash, leaving Ryan Newman in the same seat as Kasey Kahne had at Daytona.

This writer’s point of view is that Smoke did nothing wrong and Kyle bears the full responsibility of what happened. Many could argue, and probably will, that NASCAR because of its restrictor plate racing program bears responsibility. While that argument has merit, it has nothing to do with what happened Saturday night. All drivers strapped in at Daytona knew what they were in for and how to do it. Racing to the finish is often door to door and drivers drive out their mirror as often as they drive out the windshield.

Until we hear Kyle’s comments about the events (which might be published by the time this article posts) much of what will be discussed and written about is conjecture. I think Kyle Petty pretty much nailed the thoughts of most. When you race to block at Daytona, as well as many other places, you may find yourself in a most peculiar position. Shame on you if it happens.

Thanks to typical Daytona antics, the points situation went topsy turvy. Mark Martin is out of a Chase spot as is Clint Bowyer. Dale Jr. took another hit virtually eliminating him from the Chase and Kasey Kahne and Juan Pablo Montoya are now sitting in the hot seats.

Martin is by no means done with the Chase but time is running out for David Reutimann, Jeff Burton and Bowyer. But a couple of DNFs coupled with a couple of top five runs could change up positions 11-16 is a real hurry.