FOX Must Pull Michael Waltrip From Broadcasts. Now.

There is just something about an active Sprint Cup Series owner calling Sprint Cup Series races for FOX that is just wrong. If you're curious as to why this is, just watch a replay of Sunday's race from Bristol.

From the time Brian Vickers took the lead until the time he and his two Michael Waltrip Racing teammates finished third, fourth and fifth in the race, MWR was all anyone was talking about. Michael Waltrip, the newest addition to the FOX broadcast team, was bombarded with comments and questions from his fellow "broadcasters" about his cars and how they were running and what he was thinking. It was absolutely nauseating.

They might as well bring in Richard Childress and Jack Roush as pit reporters. All fans got was one-sided, slanted commentary about three of the forty-three cars that were racing Sunday. Sportscasters are supposed to be impartial observers, calling the action how they see it. They are not supposed to be people with skin in the game, who will have a clear-cut agenda for how they want the race to turn out.

With the lack of wrecks and racing action, all fans heard about was how Vickers hadn't started a race since Homestead last year and he wasn't in the right physical shape for Bristol, how Truex finished third at Bristol's fall race last year and top-five at Homestead last season and how Bowyer wasn't even on the radar, but he made a bad car good and finished well.

Reigning champion Tony Stewart was also involved in a wreck in the closing laps.

So why is it that we hear from all three MWR drivers about their top-fives and we can't be bothered to ask the current champ for an interview about what happened in his incident? If he drove for Waltrip Racing, Smoke would have been the first interview after the race was over.

FOX needs to wake up and stop drinking the Waltrip "Kool-Aid" and put Jeff Hammond back in the "Hollywood Hotel" sooner than later. There are people who don't like Michael as a broadcaster and many more who just don't like him period. So if they don't pull him soon, then they will only continue to lose ratings and viewers.

So what's it gonna be FOX? An annoying hasbeen driver in your broadcasts or increasing viewership and ratings? It's up to you.

What's Up With Bristol?

Bristol Motor Speedway used to be one of the toughest tickets in professional sports. The track's August night race used to sell out years in advance. The Tennessee bullring has always been a fan favorite.

So when the track reported only filling 102,000 seats on Sunday, the lowest turnout for the track since Nascar began taking headcounts in 2003, everyone was left to wonder: What's wrong with Bristol?

Track president Bruton Smith blamed the weather, saying early rain showers hurt walk-up attendance which, Smith said, accounts for "3,500 to 4,000 tickets." That may be, but attendance has never been the same since the 2007 season.

That was at the onset of the current economic crisis which has hurt attendance at all tracks, not just Bristol. Fans simply can't afford $80 tickets, hotels that offer rooms at obsene rates and are about an hour away from the speedway and gas prices that are approaching $5 per gallon across the nation. Despite what Obama and his chronies would have you believe, this recession is not over.

2007 also marked the year that Bristol was resurfaced and reconfigured. This was the year that Speedway Motorsports Inc put progressive banking into the track to promote more side-by-side racing and discourage the beating and banging that made the track so famous.

This is most likely the smoking gun. Fans want to see drivers beat, bang and lose their tempers. They want to see a bump and run for the win. They want to see Jeff Gordon shove Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt spin Terry Labonte for the win. If fans want to see three wide, side-by-side racing with almost no action, they'll get tickets for California or Las Vegas.

Bruton Smith has announced a plan that may involve returning the track to its previous specs in hopes of boosting attendance. He and his SMI team will make a decision by Friday about whether or not to change the track and that any changs will be made in time for Nascar's return to Bristol for the track's night race in August.

Smith also said that they are listening to the fans and what they want, which is great. But had they done that to begin with, they would have never reconfigured the track to begin with.

Keselowski Goes Back-to-Back at Bristol Bullring

Penske Racing recently announced that they would make the move from Dodge to Ford for the 2013 season, which left many people thinking they would be the proverbial "lame duck" team
this season.

But Brad Keselowki proved Sunday afternoon in Bristol that nothing could be further from the truth when he pulled his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge into victory lane for the second time in a row at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

Saturday night, Keselowski took to Twitter telling fans he had the best car he's ever had at the concrete half mile bullring. Very few fans believed him, which no doubt only fueled the Michigan native to prove them wrong.

Early on, the race appeared to belong to Keselowski's teammate A.J. Allmendiger. His No. 22 started second and he and pole winner Greg Biffle appeared to be the class of the field. But a caution on lap 24 shook up the race.

Regan Smith and Kasey Kahne were battling hard and when the drivers came off turn four, Kahne's spotter cleared him high. But Smith had a head of steam and clipped Kahne's No. 5 and put him in the wall after Kahne cut him off. The No. 5 Chevy slid down the track and then back up the banking in turn one, collecting contenders Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Marcos Ambrose.

Brian Vickers later took the lead and dominated the race with his teammate Martin Truex, Jr. Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr were also strong contenders. But as the race progressed, Matt Kenseth and Keselowski emerged as the two strongest cars.

Some controversy erupted when Kenseth twice beat the leader, Keselwoski, to the start/finish line, which can't happen. The leader must always get to the line first. But Nascar ruled that Kenseth was in the right because Brad didn't mash the gas in the designated restart area.

Some more trouble happened late in the race when Dale Junior and Jeff Gordon made some slight contact. While the bump was slight, it was enough for Junior's tailpipes to cut down Gordon's left rear tire, sending him backwards into the wall. Junior later took full responsibility for the incident and apologized profusely for wrecking his teammate, albeit unintentionally.

In the closing laps, Kenseth could keep up with Keselowski, but he couldn't catch him. The "Blue Deuce" pulled into victory lane for the second time at Bristol after winning the track's fall race last season.

So after winning back-to-back races at Bristol, Keselowski and his team will try and win back to back races by winning next week's race at Auto Club Speedway in Southern California. But it won't be easy, as the 2 mile SoCal oval is usually dominated by Roush-Fenway Racing. With four different manufacturers and drivers winning the season's first four races, it will be interesting if this parity will continue Sunday afternoon.

Dodge Unveils Sharp 2013 Charger, Brand Identity is Back in Nascar

A few months back Ford Motor Company unveiled the new Nascar Sprint Cup Series body style their teams will campaign in 2013. Drivers for the Blue Oval Brigade will still wheel Ford Fusions, but the body is a lot racier and sleeker than the one that will appear on track at Bristol this weekend. But the most important part is that the car also bears a greater resemblance to the cars the automaker will produce next year.

Following this announcement, Dodge unveiled their 2013 offering Sunday afternoon before the race in Las Vegas. It also bears an uncanny resemblance to the 2013 Charger that Dodge will crank out next year. That will also be the case for Chevrolet and Toyota when they pull the wraps off their body styles later this year.

Ask any Nascar fan what changes they would like to see in the sport and almost all of them will tell you brand identity between the four automakers. Fans want to know that the Chevy Dale Junior is driving is just like the one in their driveway. They want to drive Greg Biffle's Ford Fusion to the grocery store and pick up the kids in Brad Keselowski's Charger.

The automaker mantra in Nascar used to be "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" and that aspect has been lost since the car of tomorrow was introduced in 2007. But with these new cars that teams will be building in just a year's time, it is going to bring those good ole manufacturer rivalries back to the sport.

Toyota will continue to campaign the Camry, but they have yet to unveil their design to the public.

Chevy, on the other hand, confirmed that they will no longer run the Impala in the Cup Series. They have raced the Impala since 2007, but in 2013, they will campaign a body style similar to a new model they will be introducing to the American public. Supposedly it will be similar to the Commodore, a car that GM manufactures in Australia under it's Holden brand and styled like Pontiac's G6. The folks at GM are so intent on keeping the cover on their new ride that they will test a camouflaged model at the Nascar-sanctioned tests later this year.

The Most Important Part of Sunday's Race Was Lost in Tony Stewart's Celebration

Tony Stewart claimed his first victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday after last year's event slipped through his fingers because of pit strategy. It was a real accomplishment and an exciting finish to a great race. But in all the post race pomp and circumstance, the important part of Sunday's event was lost.

This was the first race at LVMS since Dan Wheldon was tragically killed in a vicious accident in turn two of the speedway. He was just 33-years old and taken from us in the prime of his career. All weekend long, fans left a tribute to the three-time Indy 500 champion in that fateful corner. Chip Gannasi's cars also ran a tribute decal for Wheldon during Sunday's race as a tribute to his former driver.

While Fox dropped the ball and did not do a silent lap 77 in his honor, fans took part in a tribute to Wheldon by tweeting #RIPDan77 on lap 77 of Sunday's race. The tweet was soon trending worldwide, which just shows how many fans still remember and still miss the driver known simply as "Lionheart."

As fans, we get so caught up with which drivers we like and which ones we hate, we lose sight of the fact that what they do is dangerous and they are risking their lives to entertain us. We love some drivers and hate others, but we should never take what they do for us for granted. Because sometimes they win, sometimes they lose and sometimes they don't come back at all.

There were tweets and decals and notes in turn two, but perhaps the best tribute to Dan Wheldon on Sunday was the fact that all 43 drivers made it to the finish line. Win, lose or draw, when nobody gets hurt, that's what is most important. Watching a clean, exciting and safe race is what fans should hold paramount.

Rest in peace "Lionheart." You are still, and always will be, sorely missed.

Tony Stewart Finds Redemption in Sin City

After finishing second in last season's Kobalt Tools 400 with what was clearly the dominant car, Tony Stewart was out to win Sunday's edition of the 267 lap event. And after finishing 16th at Daytona after leading just two laps and winding up 22nd two laps down in Phoenix after experiencing problems with Nascar's new electronic fuel injection system, a win would definitely lifted the spirits of the No. 14 team.

Kasey Kahne scored the pole in Vegas, but it was his Hendrick teammate, Dale Earnhardt, Jr, who led the first lap and the 42 that followed and showed that this might just be the week he snapped that pesky 100+ race winless drought.

Junior led a total of 70 laps, but was relegated to tenth after a run-in with Mark Martin off turn two. Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick all showed they were contenders. But as the race wore on, Smoke rose... to the front of the field that is.

On a late race restart, Stewart showed just how determined he was to get the win that alluded him last season. After starting third, Smoke made it three wide for the lead in turn one and came out ahead of the field off turn two. Just more proof that, love him or hate him, Tony Stewart is a race car driver. He's a wheelman, plain and simple.

Jimmie Johnson had a few shots at Stewart late in the event to try and score his fifth Vegas victory, but Stewart's was the dominant car. He held off the five-time champ and scored his first win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, making Darlington Raceway the only track the Indiana native has yet to claim victory on.

Fans could tell how much this win meant to Smoke because he lived up to his nickname after claiming the checkered flag. He burned his tires down to the cords doing donuts on the frontstrech before pulling into victory lane for a Gatorade shower.

Now it's on to the high banks of the Bristol Motor Speedway. This is the first short track race of the year and it's going to be anybody's race to win. Stewart will be a serious threat to win his second race in a row. Johnson, Carl Edwards and Junior will also be threats to score their first wins of 2012. Sunday's race in "Thunder Valley" is going to provide fans some of the most exciting, action-packed racing of the year. It's going to be fun to see who will conquer the "World's Fastest Half Mile."

Hamlin Scores Big Win in Phoenix

After being fired from Tony Stewart's No. 14 team with only a few races left in the year last season, crew chief Darian Grubb never wavered in his commitment to Stewart-Haas Racing and led Smoke to his third Cup Series title.

Grubb was quickly scooped up by Joe Gibbs Racing to replace Mike Ford atop Denny Hamlin's pit box. And it didn't take long for this decision to start paying dividends.

Hamlin appeared to have a car to race for the win in Daytona one week ago and he led the final 58 laps of Sunday's Subway Fresh Fit 500 en route to his first victory of the young 2012 season.

When the race began, Mark Martin led the field to the green flag before surrendering the lead to Tony Stewart on lap 2.

Clint Bowyer brought out the first two cautions when he blew out two consecutive right front tires on his 5 Hour Energy Camry, but after that the race went green for a while.

Kasey Kahne appeared to have the car to beat early on. He won the fall race at PIR last season for Red Bull Racing, so with Hendrick Motorsports equipment that is far superior to Red Bull's he was a lock to be a serious contender. That is, until he got loose off turn four, overcorrected and stuffed the right front of his Farmers Insurance Chevy in the wall. Kahen later said the wreck was 100% his fault and said that he was just excited about winning his first race for his new Hendrick team and that he just needed to calm down.

There were several engine failures throughout the day. Jamie McMurray, Jeff Burton and David Reutimann (having a great run for his scrappy, underfunded Tommy Baldwin team) all lost their ECR powerplants at different points in the race. Marcos Ambrose also lost his FR9 engine at the end of the race.

Another key to this race was fuel mileage. Races at Phoenix almost always come down to who can save the most gas to make it to lap 312. But drivers have never had to save fuel with electronic fuel injection before, so when Stewart (one of the best at saving fuel in a car with a four-barrel carburetor) shut his Chevy off to save gas, it wouldn't refire.

Speculation is that because this new EFI technology controls how much fuel goes into which cylinder electronically, it would be harder to refire. With a carburetor, there is always a continuous flow of raw fuel being sprayed into the cylinders, making the car easier to refire.

In the closing laps, Hamlin led Kevin Harvick by a few carlengths. Harvick, who had been one of the best cars all day, got to where he could move Hamlin up the track and make things interesting, but he ran out of fuel off turn two with just two laps to go. He still managed to beat Greg Biffle for second, but Hamlin was home free.

So now the traveling circus heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Carl Edwards will be looking to defend his lone win from last season and stop the No. 11 team, which is now on a role and could prove dangerous later in the season.