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The driver swap Saturday night at Milwaukee was a microcosm of all that ails the Busch Series. Joe Gibbs Racing forced Aric Almirola to get out of the car and put Denny Hamlin in it. They replaced their developmental driver, the real Busch driver, with the Nextel Cup driver in the middle of the race. So the Cup star swoops in and pushes the Busch guy to the curb. Hamlin goes to Victory Lane. Almirola goes home. As if we don't have enough Cup dominance in the Busch Series, now they're replacing Busch drivers after a race starts. Almirola was furious. Good for him. He should be furious. If a driver isn't angry about getting pulled from the car in the middle of a race, then he needs to take up another profession. It isn't like Almirola was stinking up the place. He qualified the No. 20 Chevy on the pole, led the first 43 laps and was running third when the team ordered him to pit under a caution for the driver exchange. Almirola stormed off and didn't talk to reporters. What was he supposed to do? Kiss Hamlin's helmet and wish him good luck? The team took a big gamble putting Hamlin in the car, knowing he would go a lap down. "Thank goodness he won," team president J.D. Gibbs said. "It would have looked bad if he didn't." Gibbs is one of the real class acts in NASCAR, a man of the utmost integrity and character. The entire organization is run on the idea of doing the right thing in every way. This time, it failed that premise. The team had its reasons for putting Hamlin in the car. Milwaukee is the home base of Rockwell Automation, the car's primary sponsor. Gibbs said the only reason Hamlin made the trip to Wisconsin was to let the Rockwell officials see their Cup driver in the car. However, Gibbs also said Rockwell honchos agreed for Almirola and Hamlin to split time in the car this season. Almirola has started six races. The plan for the Milwaukee race was for Hamlin to fly in from Sonoma, Calif., in time to start the race. That didn't happen, so Almirola started the race. Hamlin stayed at Infineon Raceway later than planned. He overslept and missed the morning practice session Saturday, so he needed to make some laps in the Happy Hour practice. When he arrived at the Milwaukee Mile, the helicopter couldn't find a place to land. Gibbs left the decision on a driver swap to the guys on the pit box. He told them, "If you think Denny can win it, put him in the car." They did and he did. Hamlin is an extremely talented driver. Almirola also is a talented driver, but he isn't as good as Hamlin. Not many are. That's not the point. The honorable thing to do was leave Almirola in the car. This team has little chance of winning the championship. The No. 20 Chevy is 404 points behind the No. 60 Ford of Carl Edwards (also a Cup star) in the Busch standings. Hamlin sympathized with Almirola, saying he felt bad about getting in the car. But Gibbs knows how it looks: a clear example of a Cup guy pushing a Busch regular out of a ride. Gibbs also knows the reality of finding the $5 million to $7 million a year it takes to compete in the Busch Series these days. "The truth is, if you don't have a Cup guy in the car sometimes, you can't sell it," Gibbs said. "When you commit to develop these young drivers, you pretty much have to do it out of your own pocket." In other words, it is so expensive to race competitively in the Busch Series now that it takes Cup drivers to make it profitable. I get it, but Saturday night was different. Almirola deserved to stay in the car, win or lose. Now that's class
The sore loser award of the season goes to Robby Gordon. Instead of congratulating Juan Pablo Montoya on his first Cup victory, Gordon whined. "He got lucky," Gordon said. "He's a good driver, but he didn't really win it. He didn't have the fastest car and got lucky on fuel mileage." Well, if all it takes is the fastest cars, let's just leave the drivers out of it and use remote controls during the race. As for getting lucky, Montoya was lucky enough to win an Indy 500, a CART championship and seven Formula One races. Robby hasn't done any of those things, so I guess he's just unlucky. Super Dario
One of the feel-good stories of the year in racing is Dario Franchitti. The personable Scotsman thought his IndyCar Series career might be over after last season. He didn't know if he had a ride and didn't know if he wanted to continue. Now he's the Indy 500 champ, a two-time winner this season, and the man with an excellent chance to win his first championship at age 34. Terry Blount covers motorsports for ESPN.com. He can be reached at terry@blountspeak.com.
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