Sifting through Saturday's sludge

Interesting. Traffic was noticeably light around the Kurt Busch merchandise trailer at New Hampshire International Speedway on Saturday.

Maybe all the fans already ordered their stuff on-line, being that he's like New England's "second son" and all. ...

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The Busch Series race, the Camping World 200, just got underway, and for a few moments it was pretty neat to see Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya racing for position.

There aren't two bigger personalities -- or more talented drivers -- in this field.

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As one press box pundit put it, things in the NASCAR are "subject to change without notice."

The Whelen Modified Tour found that out firsthand -- again -- as their New England 100 was shortened to just 85 laps in order to make room for the glitz and glamour that is racing in TV.

Donny Lia won, followed by Ted Christopher and Ed Flemke Jr.

Hey, the race was a dreadful, singe-file parade under caution for the most part -- but a race distance is a race distance. If you know you can't fit it in during that time slot -- or think it will be pressing it -- move it. Start it later or start it earlier.

It's not fair to local teams with shoestring budgets to sit around here for 3 days, only to not let them race what they think they're going to. They were told on lap 75, while cruising under caution, the race would end in 10 laps.

No word from NASCAR on whether or not the purse was also reduced by 15 percent...

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While writing this, we just had our first "start and park" for the Busch Series. The honor goes to Randy MacDonald in his No. 72 on lap 14. One lap later, the No. 89 of Morgan Shepherd headed to the garage.

I'm sure those guys are "really disappointed." For all the Cup money in this division now, they still can't stop those guys from showing up and running a few laps without any intention of even going a quarter of the way.

At least they can say they have full fields. NASCAR racing is more popular than ever!