A few assorted notes and observations from NASCAR’s Preseason Thunder this weekend:
Carl Edwards Picks a Lane
Carl Edwards is getting serious now. The co-leader in Sprint Cup Series points who lost the Championship to Tony Stewart by tie-breaker wants the title in 2012. To that end, he announced this week that he will not be competing in the Nationwide Series this year.
To be completely accurate — Edwards didn’t really “compete” in the series last year, thanks to NASCAR’s decision to limit drivers to collecting points in only one series. Edwards drove in and won races. He collected big checks. But he couldn’t compete for the Nationwide Series title. This year, he’ll turn that unrewarded energy toward the Sprint Series and another shot at the championship.
Busch Brothers Go Fast
The Busch Brothers are clearly ready to go in 2012. They turned in two of the three fastest times at Preseason Thunder. Kurt took the top spot with a hair over 206 MPH, which just barely edged out Regan Smith‘s time. Kyle was a fraction of a second behind in third place. Look for the Busch Boys to make some serious noise this season.
Danica Sighting
The NASCAR driver everyone loves to talk about made a solid showing at Preseason Thunder this week. Danica Patrick never broke into the top 10, but she hovered around in the low teens all weekend. That’s not at all shabby for a rookie driver. We’ll see how her performance on the test track translates into actual racing in just a few weeks. The Daytona 500 is now a little more than a month away. Is it too soon to let out a “boogedy boogedy boogedy”?
(U.S. Army photo)
