CBSSports.com's Brian De Los Santos and Pete Pistone provide analysis on three weekly racing topics.
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| Pete Pistone | Brian De Los Santos |
| Do you agree with Juan Pablo Montoya's penalty for wrecking Kyle Busch? Should Busch have been penalized too? |
 I am actually quite surprised NASCAR was as lenient as they were on the whole situation. Both drivers should have been penalized laps, money and probably points when you look at what the sanctioning body has done in similar situations. It's one thing when drivers show their emotions on pit road or in the garage after an incident when they're out of their cars. But it's quite another when it's done on-track as was the case with Busch and Montoya in New Hampshire, an act that could have easily taken out other innocent bystanders. Montoya even admitted he did it on purpose in his post-race interview. I guess NASCAR is just happy with any headlines that don't involved legal issues these days | Though I don't think the replays told the whole story, based on the evidence available, Montoya had to be penalized. And that's my stance anytime someone so blatantly runs into another (which is why I still can't understand why Denny Hamlin wasn't penalized for running into Brad Keselowski in a Nationwide race a few weeks back, but I digress). Montoya also didn't help his cause by openly stating he did it on purpose. I don't know if NASCAR had plans to penalize him before he made his comment, but after that, it was a no brainer -- loose lips sink ships. Sometimes NASCAR will let an incident slide, but when a driver actually admits to wrecking another on purpose, it reacts. As for whether Busch should have been penalized, nothing I saw showed anything deserving of a penalty. I think he penalized himself by needlessly pitting and putting himself in that position in the first place. |
| NASCAR is considering the idea of unlimited testing. Good idea or bad idea? |
| Good if you're a powerhouse team but certainly bad for the have-not operations in the garage area. The idea of limiting testing to seven NASCAR-sanctioned sessions at a pre-determined schedule of tracks was done in hopes of leveling the playing field. But of course all it did was chase the big-moneyed teams to places like Kentucky, Milwaukee and Nashville to test at non-sanctioned tracks, giving them an advantage anyway. Now it looks like teams will be able to test anywhere they want -- tracks on the Cup schedule included -- as many times as they want, meaning the budgets for 2009 will be that much larger and teams already struggling financially and to keep up competitively will fall even further behind. | I'm on the fence. There are great reasons for it and there are great reasons against it. The positives would be that teams could get a much better handle on the troublesome new car with the ability to test at all the tracks instead of a select few. In theory, this would create better racing on the track -- at least among the power teams. The negatives are that the great divide between the haves and have nots would surely grow exponentially. The power teams could test anywhere and everywhere at anytime. The financially strapped teams would have to pick and choose. I see unlimited testing as the death knell for the smaller organizations, eventually paving the way for franchising. |
| Joe Gibbs Racing dominated the Daytona 500 only to lose on the last lap. Do they seal the deal Sat. night? |
 Joe and J.D. Gibbs have to hope their drivers learned a valuable lesson in the 500 when they didn't work together on the final laps only to watch teammates Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch hook-up on their way to a 1-2 finish. The JGR stable and those potent Toyota engines will dominate again this weekend in the third plate race of the season, just like they did at Daytona back in February. And I think Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin did learn their February lessons and will have everyone else chasing them across the finish line Saturday night in what will always be for me the Firecracker 400. | I imagine the JGR trio will be in the mix Saturday night, but I can't discount anyone at the plate tracks anymore. The days when Hendrick and DEI stables were dominating the restrictor-plate races are over. The last four drivers to win at Daytona (Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman) all come from different organizations and are all first-time Daytona winners. I wouldn't be surprised if the Penske duo of Newman and Kurt Busch team up to pull it out again. Busch, especially, is an undervalued restrictor-plate racer. He has seven top-fives in 15 starts at Daytona, including third-place runs in the past two summer events. |
| Previous Feud of the Weeks: June 24 | June 17 | June 10 | May 27 | May 13 | May 6 | April 29 | April 23 | April 15 |
