Spinning mad
It was more than a little shocking - downright stunning, if you want to be picky about word choice - to see Dale Earnhardt, Jr. actually get booed following his win at the Busch Series CarFax 250 race Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
He's the driver of the No. 8, both for Budweiser in Nextel Cup and occasionally for Menard's in Busch.
Now just like his late father, he can rankle a few feathers when winning is on the line.
What made the showing all the more surprising is that Junior doesn't run in the Busch Series nearly as often as most of his Nextel Cup brethren do. As his main sponsor, Budweiser won't allow him to try.
But since the chance to run twice was available on the same track, Earnhardt took advantage.
If you read the print edition regularly, you know I'm not a huge fan of Cup guys taking most of the slots in the Busch race. A total of 23 Cup drivers were part of the field at the CarFax 250 on Saturday.
That's just wrong. Guys who are looking for a break in a Cup car need to pull off what David Gilliland did. He won at Kentucky in May. He's in the driver's seat of the No. 38 Ford Fusion today, replacing Elliott Sadler, who moved over to the No. 19.
The Busch guys are just learning what's necessary to win. The Cup guys need to stop pulling the rug of opportunity out from under them.
And maybe, just maybe, sideshows like the one Earnhardt, Jr. and Carl Edwards pulled in Victory Lane at Michigan will end up being just that - a sideshow that doesn't merit the press that it did.
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