Vroom Goes the Tiger with Red Wings

Hatred at 200 mph

Why did M&M's have to feature Indiana Jones on Kyle Busch's car? I hated having to root against such a classic film icon.

It took me awhile to even try to post the NASCAR update because the sport's most hated driver won the race at Darlington... after egging the crowd on like an idiot in the pre-race ceremonies. I did almost feel sorry for his mother, who was there since the race was over Mother's Day weekend. The moment Busch stepped out to be introduced, the crowd booed like I've never heard it boo before. Paced around the track on a pickup truck during driver introductions, he decided to enrage the crowd even more by flipping the bird, wiping away fake tears, and generally doing to immature things an arrogant 23-year-old would normally do when he thinks he's awesome.

Let's not forget how he whined about being wrecked at the Nationwide Series race the night before, vowing to pay back Brad Keselowski, right, for "wrecking him" when it was clearly a racing incident. Is it a coincidence that Keselowski drives for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.?

The Sprint Cup race at Darlington was said to become a wreckfest, much like the Nationwide race before it. However, only eight cautions flew at the fast, newly repaved track in which Greg Biffle destroyed the previous qualifying record with his pole sitting run. It looked as if it would be wrecks galore when only two laps into the race, Elliott Sadler (19) got loose off a turn and rammed Tony Stewart (20) into the wall.

On lap 11, another caution flew for Sam Hornish, Jr. and after that it was green flag racing for 124 laps.

Greg Biffle was the car to beat but, unfortunately like at Atlanta and Talladega, another race was handed to Kyle Busch as the most dominant car had troubles (Carl Edwards blew up at Atlanta and Tony Stewart wrecked at Talladega). In this case, Biffle's engine went sour and he ended up 43rd.

Despite wishes of Busch's failing brakes to completely fail or for one of his journeys against the wall to finally take him out, Busch still won the race. As he did donuts, no one in the crowd cared.

The impressive part of this rather dull race was the performances of David Ragan, left, and Travis Kvapil, right. Ragan has certainly become the most improved driver of the year. He's consistently a top 15 car and finished fifth at a track that eats up younger, not as experienced drivers. He's also made it into the coveted top 12, the drivers that make the Chase for the Championship. Let's see if he can hold onto it and continue his impressive performance. As for Kvapil, if this man doesn't get a sponsor soon, I don't know what he has to do to get one. He finished seventh at Darlington. Again, Kvapil has improved greatly while driving for a team that hasn't performed well since 2005. He's gotten his #28 Yates Racing Ford into the top 20 in points but is yet still unsponsored.

With Biffle's engine failure and subsequent chewing out of Roush Fenway Racing, rumors began to abound about him replacing Tony Stewart in the #20 Toyota. Biffle, left, has yet to re-sign with Roush and would be a free agent after this season. If Biffle doesn't re-sign, it would also solve Roush's problem of having to scale down from five teams to four teams after the 2009 season. We'll have to see as the season goes on what happens with Biffle and Stewart and where they'll race next year.

Night racing in May continues as the 17th brings the All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. As a non-points race, we'll see if Junior pays back Kyle Busch or see what other idiotic things Busch decides to do.

Mind Your Ps and Ds

The Stanley Cup Finals are nearing its endpoint as the Western and Eastern Conferences decides their respective champions. The Western Conference has pitted the hometown favorite Detroit Red Wings, left, against the Dallas Stars. The Red Wings have owned the Stars as they lead the series 3-0 and prepare for a sweep. On the other side of the country, the Pittsburgh Penguins continue their dominance and lead the Philadelphia Flyers (who beat my beloved Capitals in the first round) 2-0 in the series. It looks as if it'll come down to a Detroit/Pittsburgh game, leaving Ohio as the state caught in the middle. Hey, at least the teams won't have to travel very far.

Tigers Lose Their Roar

The Detroit Tigers, with starting pitcher Nate Robertson on the right, are still struggling to win games. They sit in last place in the American League Central Division, 4.5 games back from the Minnesota Twins. Yes, that means even the Kansas City Royals are ahead of them in the standings. But they shouldn't feel too bad. The sport's biggest budgeted team, the New York Yankees, are also struggling as they sit in fourth place, 4 games behind the Boston Red Sox. To add to the insult, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Baltimore Orioles are ahead of them in the standings. Can you believe Tampa Bay is only half a game out of first? Maybe for once the American League East won't come down to a Boston/New York showdown like it has for the past few years.

The National League's first place teams all have the same exact record - the Florida Marlins, left, Chicago Cubs, and Arizona Diamondbacks share 23-15 records among them. I guess the Marlins are celebrating the news of their new stadium and proving to their fans that they should be a team to watch... as long as the team's owners don't scuttle everything at the end of the season like they're so fond of doing after World Series wins.

~ Chris, guest blogger