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My Two Cents

by Penny Aicardi

            I don’t know about you, but I hardly ever watch a Cup race anymore. I can’t take it. I inevitably fall asleep and then my family suffers the post-nap grouchies. Believe me, I can get pretty ugly when that happens. Granted there are times – like this weekend’s race at Talladega – that I’ll watch some clips of the race and try to stay up to date on what’s going on. But even so, when the Cup is in town (for me, that’s New Hampshire) I don’t stick around until Sunday.

            I’ve always been a fan of the regional series’ over the big show, but even some of our races can get a little, dare I say it, boring. Tri County, however, was not one of those times. The battle between Matt DiBenedetto and Austin Dillon was just amazing to watch, and the ending didn’t become predictable. They were using the bottom groove, the top groove, and even a middle groove at some points. They were racing door-to-door, three-wide, and even sometimes banging off each other. They were racing hard and the fans were loving it. There’s no doubt in my mind that I feel Matt DiBenedetto will go places. J.D. Gibbs sure knows how to pick them, doesn’t he? But those two drivers weren’t the only ones racing hard.

            In the beginning of the race, Alan Tardiff had his own battle with Trevor Bayne and then Matt Kobyluck. Kobyluck had to contend with DiBenedetto, who just shadowed Kobyluck for about 15 laps. There wasn’t enough room between those two to stick a piece of paper in there. It was great. I’d bet that in the last 50 laps of that race, the concession stands and bathrooms were pretty empty. No fan of the sport was leaving their seat for this one.

            The battle for third was as intense as the battle for the lead. Tardiff, Patrick Long, and Jody Lavender were three wide on the last lap fighting for that spot. Lavenders night didn’t end up so well when he spun coming across the start finish line and hit the pit road wall. After that, a rarity happened – a fight in the pits. Now, I wasn’t there to see it, but I heard that there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on before NASCAR stepped in. If I was a betting girl, I’d say the action after the race had something to do with that last lap accident. I haven’t heard anymore about it since that night so it must have gotten settled in the NASCAR truck.

            This race will definitely go down as one of the good ones. I hope the people that were there tell their friends about this series, because it has so much to offer in form of entertainment. You just can’t get this on television - oh, wait a minute, you can. SPEED will be airing the race on May 7^th at 3 P.M. Set your DVRs now so you don’t miss it.

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