Weekend That Was: DIS (cont'd)

Isn't it funny how Kurt has evolved into the wise man on top of the mountain in that family?

Finally, you have the blowup between Stewart and Hamlin. Apparently their motto at Joe Gibbs Racing is that even on Lap 14 of any race, it's every man for himself.

Hamlin may have been guilty of checking up too quickly, trying to compensate for a tight racecar, but how about a little patience on Stewart's part? Why is he running up the back of Hamlin so early in the race, when Stewart even admitted that he already had noticed Hamlin was struggling with a tight machine?

That accident and the subsequent verbal tirade by Stewart made the least sense of all during a weekend when a variety of teammates put the Webster's definition of teamwork to the test -- and many failed miserably to live up to it.

(Near) daily double

Say whatever you want about Busch and the way he handles himself and his business off the track, but the kid can flat-out drive. He proved that again Saturday, when he nearly pulled off a rare daily double by finishing second in the Cup race after capturing the Busch Series race at the same venue earlier in the day.

The Busch race was supposed to go off Friday night, but was delayed to a 9 a.m. Saturday start after rains hit Daytona Beach during Cup qualifying on Friday.

And quite frankly, you can't blame Busch for being frustrated with the way he came up inches short of his second Cup victory of the season. At least he didn't storm away from the track without speaking his mind to the media, which is a step in the right direction.

What everyone wonders now is where Busch's Cup team goes from here. His lame-duck status at Hendrick and the simmering feud that seems to be developing between him and at least Gordon does not appear to bode well for the immediate future.

Qualifying mess

Friday's rains washed out Cup qualifying about 6:40 p.m., after 39 of 53 cars attempting to make the race had made their two-lap runs around the 2.5-mile track at Daytona International Speedway.

According to the current NASCAR rules, all qualifying is wiped out unless all cars attempting to make a race are able to make their qualifying run. It's at best an inadequate rule in need of tweaking, and at worst a really stupid rule in need of total overhauling.

It left Boris Said, among others, out of the race altogether when NASCAR set the starting lineup for Saturday's race based on this season's owner points and a few other seemingly obscure factors. Brian Vickers, for instance, got into the race because he won a race in 2006; Dale Jarrett and Bill Elliott got in because they are past series champions; and five others -- Scot Riggs, Dave Blaney , Paul Menard, David Reutimann and Kenny Wallace -- got in because they were among the highest in owner points among those credited for trying to qualify for every race thus far this season.

Said, meanwhile, was left on the outside looking in despite posting a lap time of 185.605 that had his No. 60 Ford sitting on the pole when the rains came. Jeremy Mayfield also missed the race when his time, third-fastest when the rains came, was wiped out -- and even Michael Waltrip was victimized after making a decent qualifying run.

Expensive show car

Said's team had put considerable effort into building a car for the final restrictor-place race for the current Cup car. Beginning with the Oct. 7 race at Talladega, the Car of Tomorrow will be used in all future restrictor-plate races -- meaning Said never will get to run the car he qualified in Friday in an actual Cup race.

"Now we have the most expensive show car ever built," Said said after learning that he would miss the race.

(I just wanted one line in this column with the phrase "Said said.")

Pit stops

• Shouldn't Clint Bowyer have found the time to make a side trip to a casino somewhere on Saturday? Driving the No. 07 car on 7/7/07 and working from pit stall No. 7, Bowyer went on to finish seventh, of course, in the Pepsi 400. At least it wasn't the Pepsi 777. That would have been too weird, not too mention far too long.

• Hope it turns out not to be true that Truck Series driver Aaron Fike actually had heroin and the tools to use the dangerous drug in his sports utility vehicle Saturday in the parking lot of the Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. But if it does prove to be true -- and police officers there who arrested both Fike and his fiancee obviously believe it is -- it begs the question: Aren't the rides in any amusement park enough of a thrill already?

• Not sure I like the idea of Michael Waltrip Racing sending the No. 55 pit crew to replace teammate David Reutimann's crew for Saturday's Cup race. The plan is to send the best of the three MWR team's pit crews to every race, even if it means subbing for one of the other team's crews that now and forever more has been labeled as inferior. It's a practice that Ty Norris, general manager of MWR, said the organization plans to implement the rest of the season, but what message does it send to the hard-working members of Reutimann's pit crew, who now only will get to work on Cup race day on those rare occasions when Mikey actually makes the race, too?

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.