NASCAR's 2010 "All Star Race"

I would have liked to have watched Indy 500 Qualifying and the ALMS race from Laguna Seca but I don't have Versus here in Brunswick and I don't have an internet connection most of the time other than a tethered Blackberry. Instead, I watched NASCAR's "All Star Race." My thoughts from an afternoon, evening, and night of a NASCAR overdose:

• SpeedTV coverage keeps calling the NASCAR All Star Race "Racing at its Purest.". Is it really? I don't think it is racing at its purest. This All Star Race still has segments and mandatory pit stops designed to fabricate drama and excitement. Instead of 100 laps split up into segments, if they wanted pure racing they should have just held a 100 lap race and let the teams stop when they wanted to, change the tires they wanted to, and add whatever amount of fuel they wanted to.

• Maybe I'm feeling cantankerous because my sinuses are raging, but... I watch racing for racing, not burnout contests and not over-the-top driver and team introductions. I've got an idea... How about they do away with the burnout contest and scale back intros and spend the money to put SAFER barrier all the way around the track. Do I really need to say anything else. Too much money is being spent on extraneous crap and not enough on the racing. It is ridiculous that a track that is making as much money as Charlotte is spending can't put SAFER barrier all the way around the track. Crashes don't just happen in the turns, they happen on the straights, too.

• TV folks know the first segment was a snoozer. DW: "Now folks don't get upset..." The majority of this race was boring to watch. The 48 dominated the first 3 segments and the racing wasn't all that good behind him. The last segment was good, but do we really have to sit through 90 laps of stale racing to see 10 laps of good racing?

• Good to hear from Keselowski about the #12's power steering issue: he wouldn't complain, just said "time to man up and go to work." I'm not a fan of Brad Keselowski, but I appreciate how he handled this situation. He really could have complained about the power steering but he didn't, he put his head down and pushed on. If he keeps that kind of attitude and matures a bit, I could be persuaded to look at him more favorably.

• Just got to see the end of the NASCAR race on the replay. Outstanding job by the #2 team to patch that thing back together for the win. On the other hand, 2 weekends in a row with uncharacteristic mistakes from Jimmy Johnson. It seems he is human after all. The Penske team did a truly great job of patching up a damaged race car; that car was pretty beat up in the first 3 segments but they fixed it up and adjusted things during the 10 minute break and Kurt Busch was able to storm through the field in the fourth segment. Jimmy Johnson put his left front on the apron and spun trying to catch Busch, but to be honest I don't know if he could have or not. As far as the Kyle Busch/Denny Hamlin business goes, I don't think Hamlin did anything wrong; he didn't force Busch into the wall with contact, but it was a race for "all of the marbles" and he did close the door on the outside very hard. If it was a points race, it would have been a different situation; I don't think Kyle Busch would have done anything different. He would have closed that door just as hard as Hamlin did.

Mac McCormick III