A member of the U.S. Navy race team's crew slips and falls on the snow-covered tarp in the pit area at Bristol Motor Speedway during a delay in Saturday's Busch Series event. Photo by Ned Jilton II.
BRISTOL, Tenn. - For a brief time during Saturday's Sharpie Mini 300, Bristol Motor Speedway gave Lambeau Field a run for its money.
The World's Fastest Half-Mile did its best imitation of the NFL's famed frozen tundra when a swirling snow blanketed the surface early in the race.
The Busch drivers got in 32 laps before being pulled off the track. The snow started to stick almost immediately.
That's when things got a bit surreal.
Within moments, the adrenaline-fueled atmosphere of a NASCAR race on the high banks turned into a somewhat wacky winter wonderland. Mark McFarland and his crew had a wrestling match in their snow-covered pit area, slipping and sliding with gleeful smiles on their faces.
Meanwhile, as Carl Edwards' Busch crew built a snowman, a snowball fight broke out that encompassed the entire speedway, involving fans, drivers and pit crews alike.
"It's like being a kid, you know? You're playing in the snow," Michael Waltrip said during a TV interview early in the 79-minute delay.
Then, after a hit to the umbrella he was holding, Waltrip's usually implacable facade in front of the cameras dissolved.
"Golly! That was a rock!"
Even race winner Kyle Busch got into the act.
"It was a blast, throwing snowballs with the fans," he said.
The wintry covering did not last, though. Before Edwards' crew even had a chance to construct legs for their snowman to try a backflip of its own, the snow on the track melted and the drying process began.
LEAVE IT TO KLUEVER: Todd Kluever has had better days.
After hitting the wall during the lone Busch practice session of the day, Kluever wrecked twice during the race.
His first accident brought out a caution that turned into a delay during the aforementioned snow. Then, he lost it through the backstretch after making contact with Steve Wallace, bringing out the 13th and final caution of the race.
"I just don't have a lot of experience here," said Kluever, who finished 34th. "We had a really good car at the start of the race, too."
The last wreck upset Kluever.
"That car was good enough to get fixed and go to Texas and now it's killed," he said. "It's no secret we weren't very good and it's no secret he wasn't having a very good day, either. He just flat out run us over. It's pretty dumb on his part."
Johnson City's Brad Teague also wrecked during practice. He failed to make the race when the lineup was set due to points after qualifying got snowed out.
CLUB DREAD:
On Friday, J.J. Yeley cited his lack of success at Bristol in explaining why it's not one of his favorite stops on the circuit.
"Of all the races we've had this year this is probably the one I've been dreading the most, just because I haven't had a lot of success here," Yeley said.
His misfortune on the high banks continued Saturday. After starting the race on the outside of the front row, Yeley got caught in the biggest wreck of the day.
The caution actually was brought out by a pair of two-car collisions in turn two that occurred in a chain reaction. First, Paul Menard and Regan Smith got into each other up high. Then, Wimmer smashed into Yeley down low, ruining the back of his car.
Yeley finished 29th, but held onto second place in the points.
BEGINNER'S LUCK?:
The first Busch race in Matt McCall's driving career got ugly in a hurry.
McCall was responsible for two cautions within 20 laps of one another. In the first, on lap 122, he veered into the back of Busch regular Mike Bliss.
In the second, on lap 140, McCall got tagged by Joel Kauffman.
EXCUSE ME:
Kyle Busch might have won the Busch race, but his Nextel Cup practice ended on a sour note.
During the second Cup session, Busch's car got hit by Clint Bowyer's as Bowyer came back on the track. Both cars were damaged, with Busch's left front quarter brunt panel taking the brunt of the impact.
"He slid up on the racetrack right there right on the yellow line where you're supposed to be here," Busch said. "There's nothing I could have done except probably turned up the racetrack and wrecked myself doing that.
"It's a tough break. Now we got to fix it. It's too bad. This was a really, really fast race car."
THE LAST WORD:
"None of us can control Mother Nature. Maybe the government can, but that's just the way it goes."- Johnny Sauter, on the wintry weather
