Desert Dust-Up

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Desert Dust-Up

As wild as Martinsville was, and as mundane as Texas turned out to be, I get the feeling that this weekend’s race at Phoenix could be in another class altogether.

The track is new, though they’ve all seen it and raced on it. The setting is bucolic, and it’s a great place to race and to watch. It’s tight, it’s oddly shaped and Turn 4 is where lead-footed drivers meet their concrete limit with regularity.

It’s a racy little place, and once you get there through the desert and the cactus and the creosote and sand, you don’t want to leave. I’ve seen open-wheel cars race there, stock cars too, and I love every minute of it.

Chances are we’re going to see a little bit of follow-the-leader and a whole lot of, ‘I got this…y’all come along if you got the stones’ kind of racing once they figure out where the fast lines are.

If you were to put a double sawbuck on a driver to win, who would it be? My $20 would be on the 14. I might even make a side bet that the 99 will be in the top five. I’d bet there’s a new point leader headed to Homestead, and I would bet that Jeff Gordon earns No. 200 for Hendrick Motor Sports, if Stewart doesn’t win it.

I would also bet that if you looked a little bit, you’d find a Tex-Mex/Mexican restaurant that you will remember for the rest of your days. That’s a sucker bet, by the way.

We’ll let that sink in for a while and hit it again come Friday. Y’all be good, now!