Bowyer Goes Off, Black Helicopters And A Four-Time Champion Comes Out On Top Sunday In Daytona

By: Pete MacDonald Photo Credit: NASCAR/Getty Images

It seems that just about everybody except Jeff Gordon bashed NASCAR for the group qualifying sessions on Sunday. People forget that it was changed to draw more interest into qualifying and the fact of the matter is this, we all tuned in so who is the fool in all of this? I like Michael Waltrip’s idea for group qualifying on the plate tracks, Practice Friday, Your practice times line up Heat Races for Saturday, Qualify 1-36 through the Heats and fill in 37-43 with provisional’s. NASCAR has always said they didn’t utilize heat races because they didn’t want to risk guys tearing up cars  up prior to Sunday, But isn’t that how it is now? I don’t get it.

It was nice to see Carl Edwards smiling again this weekend, Carl is the nicest guy you will ever meet in the garage area, period. Carl is locked into the Daytona 500 based off his speed on Sunday but I still think when this team gets to the intermediate tracks they are going to struggle, Hopefully I’m wrong.

    To the “black helicopter” theorists about Jeff Gordon’s pole winning run all I have to say about that is, really?! He ended 2014 just about as good as anybody, are you going to say the Sprint Cup Championship was rigged too if he were to win that?

As of Sunday night Reed Sorenson’s Xtreme Motorsports team has formulated a plan to get a backup car to Florida and prepped in time for Thursday Night’s Budweiser Duels, they were originally without a backup car.

Clint Bowyers rant after he exited the Infield Care Center on Sunday will no doubt go down as one of the best drop-the-mic interviews NASCAR will ever have. “There’s no reason to be out here. These guys have spent six months working on these cars, busting their butts on these cars. … It’s NASCAR’s fault for putting us out in the middle of this crap for nothing”,  said Bowyer who was very upset with Reed Sorenson after Sorenson attempted to block Bowyer triggering a multi-car pileup just minutes into the first qualifying session on Sunday.

NASCAR Executive Vice President Steve O’Donnell said there would be no fines forthcoming for any driver regarding their  voice of opinion regarding the qualifying format. “It’s their (drivers) job to challenge us” O’Donnell said on Sunday. I myself wouldn’t be surprised to see Clint Bowyer get fined due to him getting out of the car to confront Reed Sorenson without safety workers present.

Both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin’s times from Sunday were disallowed. Earnhardt’s for his car being 1/8″ too low on the Left-Front and Hamlin’s due to too much split in the track bar. Both will start from the rear of their respective Budweiser Duels on Thursday.

If Thursday’s duels are anything like Saturday night’s Sprint Unlimited there will be a lot of busy fabricators  in the Charlotte area come next week. The cars are just so equal now that people are willing to take a lot of unnecessary chances in order to make their way into “The Great American Race” come Sunday.

What is your take on this past weekend in the NASCAR world? Tell us over on the RacersGuide.com Discussion Forum! For questions, comments or concerns I can be emailed at info@racersguide.com or I’m on Twitter @PMacDonald51 Thanks!