It’s rare when you see a driver wreck his girlfriend and even rarer when a television camera cable falls onto the track. But that was the Coca-Cola 600 in a nutshell, which gives us no shortage of material for this week’s edition of winners and losers.
Coca-Cola 600 winners and losers
There were no shortage of winners and losers in what was an unpredictable Coca-Cola 600.
Streeter Lecka
Winners
Richard Childress and Kevin Harvick
Rarely, if ever, do breakups go as amicably as the one the Richard Childress and Kevin Harvick are currently going through. The two have placed their hurt feelings aside and if any bitterness exists, it hasn’t been displayed publicly. Of course, maintaining that harmony is decidedly easier when you’re winning races, which they’ve done in two of the last four weeks.
Tony Stewart
You know Tony Stewart is having a rough year when it’s the end of May and finishing seventh represents his high-water mark of the season. But in a race that victimized many a driver, it could be seen as a positive sign that his luck has perhaps turned for the better, as he narrowly escaped being swept up into the Danica Patrick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. domestic spat.
In addition, with Ryan Newman finishing in sixth, the team Stewart co-owns placed two cars inside the top the 10 for the first time since Daytona. It may not be cause for celebration, but at least it’s not the angst the organization has felt for much of 2013.
NASCAR
In a tough spot where no matter what decision was made, and knowing criticism would abound, NASCAR handled the intrusion of a television cable falling onto the track with aplomb. The race was halted for 30-minutes, teams were given the OK to repair any damages that may have occurred without having to forfeit their position and what seemed like an obvious calamity was anything but.
Losers
Fox
It’s hard to decipher what’s worse: A) Fox having an equipment failure that injured 10 fans and could have easily affected the outcome of a sporting event or B) The blasé attitude of the network in the immediate aftermath even as reports begin circulating that some spectators were hurt. Perhaps the most galling moment was when Darrell and Michael Waltrip suggested the racing would be better as a result of the mishap.
Kyle Busch
Whether it’s an engine going bad (Charlotte), a tire going flat while leading (Darlington) or triggering the Big One (Talladega), no driver is going to be more excited to see the calendar turn from May to June than Kyle Busch.
The free fall has been so precipitous that since winning from the pole last month at Texas, Busch has plummeted from second in points to 11th. And a year that at one point was looking quite promising, has quickly transformed into a replay of his disastrous 2012 season.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Since revealing in January that the two were dating, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Danica Patrick have frequently been asked how they would handle competing against one another. Both have been steadfast saying they would race each other no differently than they would anyone else.
But while he may not have been entirely to blame -- the replays were inconclusive -- Stenhouse was getting the brunt of the media glare Monday for starting an accident that collected both Patrick and defending Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski. And far be it for me to tell someone how to handle themselves in a relationship with their significant other, but being the catalyst for a wreck involving your partner doesn’t seem the wisest of moves.
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