Tony Rizzuti Blog: Rainy Days and Mondays

It raining here in the Queen City and its Monday. Oh how I miss The Carpenters. Did you know Johnny Sauter's favorite band is The Carpenters? True story.

Anyway, I am getting emails about my take on Bristol. So here we go.

I had no problem with Carl Edwards bump and run. In the history of Bristol, it is how that race is won or lost. Always has and always will be. Do I think its fair? Tough call. I don't believe in taking someone out for the win. What Carl did to me was fair game. And the fact that Kyle got the opportunity to repay him one lap later and couldn't move him, makes me even more sure of the finish.

I don't race in Sprint Cup, but I would think that if I got moved late in the race, all I would pray for was a chance to get back to his bumper. Now if I get there and hit him and he doesn't move or wreck, well, thats all I could do. To me, if I got there and gave the same back, regardless of what happens, we are square.

Now I say that sitting here steaming over a simulated computer race on iracing.com. I was just minding my business to get my rating up and got run over four times, killing my rating (more in another blog). I am beside myself angry and the guy tells me I was holding him up. Okay...I didn't hink I was, but even so, why take me out? Just pass me for crying out loud. The point is, if you were the one who got the short end of the stick...you will be pissed off (which is me currently). Kyle was mad and rammed Carl after the race. Uncalled for? Yes. Can I relate? Amen. With that said, I repeat, Carl did nothing wrong at Bristol (nor did I at Lime Rock).

So that brings us to Clint Bowyer vs. Michael Waltrip. This is a tough one for me, which may suprise you. I feel bad for all parties involved. So I will take it from each side.

Clint: He was needing a good race for his Chase chances. He couldn't see what happened but at the time, it looked like Michael caused the wreck. At that point in the race, MW wasn't as competitive as he was early on. So to Clint, I'm sure it seemed like Michael had made his bad day, everyones bad day. Now ESPN has the rights via NASCAR to air any commentary over the radio. But, Clint in the heat of the battle made his comment. Did he mean it? I don't know. But it probably made him feel better (see Lime Rock above..I cussed to my dog for an hour).

Michael: For the second time that night and third time overall, Casey came up and crashed him. MW slowed and nearly missed it before being plowed over by Kasey Kahne. Did Michael cause the crash? No. Did he slow too much after the contact, causing Kasey to ram him? Maybe - he admits as much on Outloud! But he didn't deserve the comment about NAPA and he's not the worst out there.

ESPN: They are in the entertainment industry and there objective to to get as many viewers as possible so that they can charge more for commercials, which in turn makes them money. Its a business. However, the group over there are racing people. They get it and want to put out the best show possible for the fan, while keeping with their objective. So, they get a report from one of their spotters about what was said. They play it back and for a race that at the time was lacking drama, they played the clip. Lets face it...it got people talking. The message boards were smoking with comments about their use of the clip during the race and in various other programming including Sports Center. Folks, it sold papers, as they say in the news world. Now in the end, it makes Clint look bad, Michael look bad and poor innocent NAPA look bad. But it got everyone talking...and it grabbed the emotion that is Bristol, right or wrong.

Well, I feel better now. I just needed some time to cool off. Luckily nobody was there to shove a camera in my face and ask me how I felt (I hate having to ask when I'm interviewing. Nobody really enjoys asking a crashed driver what happened.) But I will tell you this. If I race those same two guys again, I won't cut them any slack. I have a feeling Kyle won't either.

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