Not much magic at the Magic Mile

It didn't rain for most of the race. That's the nicest thing I can say about yesterday's NASCAR race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH.

Let me preface this by saying that I had a great time at last year's race (my first). Yesterday, there was some exciting jockeying for the lead between Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., before Tony Stewart blew to the front and held on for 132 laps. I like Smoke, who hasn't had a win all year, and it looked like he might finally go to Victory Lane. But in the last ten laps, all heck broke loose: Jr. got wrecked coming onto pit road, Clint Bowyer was dumped by Sam Hornish, then Juan Pablo Montoya intentionally rammed Kyle Busch under caution. The leaders came into pit road but a handful of scrubs stayed out and, before they could restart, the rain started pouring down. So instead of a win for Stewart, a Bizarro World second-place finish for Michael Waltrip and third for J.J. Yeley. (Kurt Busch ended up with a rain-shortened victory).

As Tony Stewart grimly joked afterward: "I guarantee you there's a crew chief down there that they're hiding sharp objects from right now."

One other thing: we left the track almost two hours after the race was called and still hit unimaginable traffic. C'mon, NHMS, you have to do better than just hiring more cops.