Motor Racing Digest

Rusty Jarrett MRD/CIA

Posted by: David Starr, Follow @DavidLStarr

February 18, 2012

As expected, the return of pack racing was the story of the night after one of the most exciting Budweiser Shootout’s in recent memory at Daytona International Speedway.  Kyle Busch survived several near spins to make a last lap pass to collect his first career Shootout victory. Busch edged Tony Stewart by .013 seconds, the closest finish in the history of the Budweiser Shootout.

But the focus after the race wasn’t so much on who won but how drivers felt about the return of the pack and the three big wrecks that took out most of the 25 car field.  Overwhelmingly…most drivers seemed happy to see the return the old style racing.

“I think this is pretty much exactly like it was before the two-car tandem,” said Matt Kenseth, who was taken out in the second big wreck of the night on lap 56. “This is kind of like what pack racing is, except we’re going quite a bit faster.”

Kevin Harvick was rather blunt after getting caught up in the same wreck that Kenseth was. “Man, you just can’t hit guys in the left rear,” Harvick told MRN radio. Harvick also pointed out the inexperience of several drivers involved in the early incident and preached the need for more patience.

But it wasn’t just inexperienced drivers making mistakes in the pack on this night. Jeff Gordon set off the final big crash of the night on lap 75 when he unsuccessfully tried to move eventual race winner Busch out of the way. Gordon went for a wild ride that ended up with his No. 24 car upside down and collected several others in the process. Gordon was surprisingly upbeat after the scary wreck.

“Great racing out there tonight,” Gordon said.

Anyone with a sane mind who watched the race would agree. NASCAR took extraordinary lengths – some would argue to the point of manipulating the sport – to break up the two-car tandem drafting, which drew the ire of many fans.

There should be no complaints about the racing we saw tonight. Fans can’t have it both ways; pack racing is more exciting to watch but the slightest mistake by a single driver can and will tear up a lot of race cars. That is just the reality of it, and it isn’t like tandem racing didn’t have its fair share of torn up race cars either.

As Stewart so eloquently said after the race, “it’s a yard sale every time you go to a restrictor plate race.”

Fans should be pleased the big pack restrictor plate racing, with two and three-wide racing is back. But they should also accept that in the closing laps the two-car tandem racing will still reign supreme as Busch and Stewart illustrated. It isn’t going anywhere. As long as drivers can still hook up for 2-3 laps and blow by the field they are going to do so.

In a way it is the best of both worlds.