International breakthrough almost spawns incident (cont'd)

That Perez is a quick study was proven when he spun Wallace out of his way on the back side of the course, under caution as the track dampened in the late going. NASCAR officials later told him he needed to learn to control his temper a little better.

I really wish the ESPN cameras had picked-up on whatever Wallace did to Perez as the two raced deep in the field to earn the inevitable free pass brought on by the caution-filled event, as later, Perez went way out of his way -- wet track aside -- to harpoon Wallace into one of his spins in the Turn 10 hairpin.

It's almost no wonder that Stephen either completely lost his mind -- or got door-slammed into the grass when Gonzalez shut the door -- on that late restart when he became akin to a bowling ball mowing down pins as he slid through the grass into Turn 1, ruining potentially great days for Stanton Barrett and Justin Marks.

But what seemed obvious, as it did for the rest of the international contingent, most notably young talent Andrew Ranger, was that they had their racing talent well under control.

Why NASCAR's different

Wins: Through Montreal

	2008	2009
Cup Series	8	4
Nationwide	6	6
Truck Series	3	4

When Marcos Ambrose succumbed to Carl Edwards' pressure-packed last lap run and made enough of a mistake on the final corner to lose the race to Edwards, it made an interesting occurrence on pit road under the last pit stop by Ambrose's team moot -- but it created an interesting conundrum and pointed out a huge difference between stick-and-ball sports and NASCAR.

On that last stop, as Ambrose's team changed tires, one of the tires that had been removed started to roll out of the team's pit box, but the NASCAR official working their pit stuck out two fingers and stopped it from rolling into the middle of pit road.

Can you draw a parallel to football, baseball or hockey -- like an official deflecting a potential touchdown pass, an umpire swatting a fly ball down the line into foul territory or a linesman's skate deflecting a puck into the net for a goal? Yeah, they all sound ridiculous.

But if I were Boris Said or Brad Coleman, who were each penalized for tires rolling out of their pit boxes, which weren't caught by the ESPN cameras, I think I'd want to know if an official was close enough to my tires to have reached out and stopped them, too.

Sounds like NASCAR ought to instruct its pit road officials to keep their hands by their sides, unless they're making a call, to prevent accusations of unfair interference in the conduct and outcome of races.

Good on you, Yank!

Totally lost in the international hysteria, Ambrose's last-corner bollix and the Keystone Kops closing to Sunday's race was the stunning sixth-place finish by Tony Raines. With the exception of getting over-aggressive on a wet hairpin and spinning out Wallace, Raines effort for the hard-working, can-do Front Row Motorsports team was pretty impressive.

Tough economy continues?

You've got to give Mike Bliss and Michael McDowell A-plusses for trying, as well as owners Joe Nemechek and Brian Keselowski for giving them a shot, but Monday's entry list for Atlanta's Nationwide race lacked both Bliss and McDowell, who were ninth and 10th, respectively, in the driver standings after Montreal. Of course, either driver could still show up in the field before the weekend arrives.

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

The bottom line is this when it comes to young Mr. Busch. On-track disasters -- whether they produce temper tantrums or not -- don't seem to affect his progress on the next day, and across the board in all three series he's better this year than last, so his eclipsing his 2008 record total of 21 wins (8 Cup, 10 Nationwide, 3 Truck) is a good bet, about now.

Busch took a less-than-dominant truck at Chicagoland's inaugural Truck Series event and raced Todd Bodine cleanly on his way to a win that put him ahead of his pace in that series for all last year, moving him to 14 wins: 4 Cup, 6 Nationwide, 4 Truck. Last year at this point Busch had 17 (8 Cup, 6 Nationwide, 3 Truck).

Just how good the kid is was proven at Montreal, a track Busch had never been on before and what's the most technical road course any series visits. An almost certain top-five was denied by Paul Menard's last lap torpedo attack in Turn 2.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.