PPistone1

NASCAR Sprint Cup ddrivers are supposed to be the best in all of the sport - just ask them.

But when a race starts to wind down to the nitty gritty especially on a restrictor plate track like at Daytona on Saturday night, a bunch of kids in drivers ed would be an improvement.

After a very clean first two-thirds of the Coke Zero 400, the last 40 laps were nothing but an expensive demoltion derby with one multi-car accident after another marring what was shaping up to be one of the better races of the season, which I know isn't that tall of an order given the snoozers we've endured for much of this Sprint Cup season.

The last plate race at Talladega was one of the best races of the year but was also spoiled by the caution flag mania in the closing stages.

I know the plates make it difficult to pass and using the draft with a friend or teammate is about the only way to move ahead.

But why are these guys able to do it without tearing up equipment in the first 350 miles but then seem to lose their minds - and touch - at the end?

Certain people Saturday night deserve special mention. Brian Vickers, for running over just about everything else on the track with four wheels, and Jeff Gordon, who somehow kept his composure after being punted out of the front of the field on the final restart by Carl Edwards.

I am a proponent for ending the season at Daytona, the perfect place to begin and finish a year. Unfortunately that would mean capping the schedule, the season and the championship with a plate race.

Based on the behavior Saturday night, that would be a very bad idea indeed.

One down and one to go.

Thank goodness the first of two Sprint Cup Series road races os over with after Sunday's stop in Sonoma.

Nothing like a late afternoon nap on the sofa after trying to watch 3400 pound stock cars drone around a road circuit.

To be fair, I don't think NASCAR intended to originally add road racing to the menu back when Sonoma and Watkins Glen found their way on to the Sprint Cup schedule.

The sanctioning body was looking to expand the series' reach and into the lucrative northern California and Northeast markets. Unfortunately there weren't any oval tracks around twenty years ago so the idea to bring the circuit to the exisiting road courses was the only way to tap those markets.

But with tracks like Las Vegas looking for a second date and potential new tracks in the Denver area, Pacific Northwest and possibly New York down the road, I'm hoping NASCAR ditches the road racing stops when the time comes.

As for now, I have another afternoon nap scheduled in August when Watkins Glen rolls around.

When you walk into the Milwaukee Mile you step into an auto racing time machine. The place just oozes history and if you can think of a driver from just about any period, odds are they raced here.

NASCAR has been coming here since 1984 when the sanctioning body brought the then-known-as Busch Series up north. The first two years wasn't exactly a box office success so it took until 1993 before NASCAR tried again and since then, it's been a homerun.

The Nationwide Series race here Saturday night is usually one of the better races of the season and can get dramatic and crazy at times with several late race theatrics in its history.

But that craziness has been made all the more nutty the last several years when a contingent of Sprint Cup drivers suffles back and forth from Sonoma to compete in this race.

Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, David Ragan and David Reutimann lead this year's Calfiornia-Wisconsin travel brigade, a group that was to include NASCAR's biggest frequent flier mile gatherer Kyle Busch until he had a moment of sanity and decided to concentrate on the big Cup picture and stay in Sonoma.

I have no problem with Cup drivers racing in the Nationwide Series from time to time but someone has to explain the logic of these guys running for the Triple A championship and putting themselves through the rigors of a weekend like this one.

I'm not a road racing fan and feel I made the right choice on what race to cover this weekend. Unfortunately I'm not sure some others have their priorities quite figured out.