Little Trees 300

Little Trees 300

Saturday afternoon at Lowes Motor Speedway was damp and somber following a two hour rain delay and the loss of Blaise Alexander in the ARCA Race Friday night. During the race delay the buzz in the garage was safety. You couldn’t get through an interview without a driver bringing up their thoughts and concerns regarding the safety of the cars. I also suspect fear was also hovering in the minds of those about to take the track.

Thoughts of safety and fear were still evident once the race was underway. We didn’t see the usual crash fest that we normally see in the NBS in fact I was impressed when it took them over 50 laps before the first caution. And that was the single car wreck of Tom Hubert’s No. 54, GC Toys, Chevy that blew an engine and hit the wall after spinning in his own oil.

The race had two dominating drivers, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth. Burton’s No. 9, Gain, Ford was by far the class of the field in the first 100 laps of the event. Burton led a total of 82 laps all in the first half of the race. Then came Kenseth’s No. 17, Visine, Chevy. Kenseth led 98 of the second 100 laps of the race.

Unfortunately for Kenseth, he led all but the last 2 laps in the second half of the race. At the end of Lap 197 Matt Kenseth being chased by Greg Biffle in the No. 60, Grainger, Ford. Kenseth’s No. 17 got loose in the center of turns 3 and 4 and while his car was upset and out of shape Biffle drove right up underneath the rear of Kenseth’s bumper and took the air off his spoiler. The result of the wiggle and loss of air on the rear spoiler caused Matt Kenseth to spin out and smack the wall. Biffle took the yellow and white flags. After he slowed Biffle commented on his radio, “Not the way I wanted to do it, but that works.”

Biffle would have had the win all he had to do was pass Kenseth low after he got out of shape, I didn’t see any reason for Biffle to take the air off of him and send him to the wall.

By the standards set recently in the series the Little Trees 300 was tame. There were only six cautions for a hand full of laps, there were no major exchanges of anger. Maybe all the ill will left with the month of September.

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