Feel Good NASCAR Story

Those of you who follow big-time stock car racing may be aware that this year's Busch series (kind of the Triple-A of NASCAR) has been filled with Nextel Cup drivers and teams, and until last night, no full-time Busch series driver had won a race. So far this year no full-time Busch team has managed to beat the Cup regulars and their well funded teams. Last night in Kentucky, a part-time Busch team with no sponsorship turned the sport on its ear and won the race.

David Gilliland, a former full-time driver on the NASCAR West Series, ran only his 7th Busch race with an unsponsored team and beat out a bunch of Nextel Cup regulars and the entire group of full-time Busch drivers. It was a real Cinderella story and was fun to watch.

Gilliland is coached by Jerry Nadeau, a former Cup driver who was severely injured at Richmond a few years ago, and as a result can no longer drive stock cars. Nadeau has been very high on this kid, and his confidence is well founded. The car was crew-chiefed by Rusty Wallace's former Cup chief, so they have some real talent in the pits.

Congrats to Gilliland, and look out Busch and Cup! Another West Coaster is on his way up the ladder.

One other note - hat's off to the NASCAR safety engineers. The race featured one of the worst single car accidents I've ever seen when Jeff Fuller hit a corner on an inside wall with the passenger side of the car at well over 100 miles an hour totally destroying the car (you really have to see the film to appreciate how hard he hit). Fuller was taken to the hospital, but will survive with relatively minor injuries. Amazing. A few years ago that would have been fatal.

Last week in Pocono, Jeff Gordon lost his brakes heading into turn one at 200 mph and had a huge impact on the outside wall, totally destroying his car. The telemetry showed that the impact registered 64 G's, and yet Jeff got out on his own and walked to the ambulance. The safety folks have definately made real strides in the sport.