In-between daydreams of being a World War One flying ace or presenting himself as Joe Cool, Snoopy has on occasion tried to reconnect with his family.  An actual meeting was once arranged at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm where he was born, this being cause for great joy... up to the gathering taking place.  A dejected beagle came home, tossed his suitcase into his doghouse, and in reply to Charlie Brown asking how it went sighed , "The anticipation far exceeded the actual event."

This nicely sums up last night's All-Star Race.  it's difficult to garner much enthusiasm for yet another race where save for pit stop strategy and engine failures lead changes were scarcer than Rob Zombie night on American Idol.  Making matters worse was how the entire format was built to reward the need for speed in relatively brief bursts, yet precious few bursts were to be found.

The only element that kept the evening halfway interesting was Kyle Busch, after giving every indication he was going to wafflestomp the entire field, falling victim to whoever in Joe Gibbs Racing's engine program said, "Hey, let's try this."  Didn't work, as he and Denny Hamlin found out during the event and Tony Stewart found out beforehand.  Had Shrub not suffered mechanical woes, it's difficult to imagine anyone having caught him during the final two segments unless his team would have completely missed on their in-race adjustments for changing conditions.  Which Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards' did, primarily by not making any adjustments thus not staying on top of things.  That duly noted, at least they made their way up front once, as opposed to Jeff Gordon who went through another weekend of Steve Letarte missing on all eight cylinders and last year's dynamic duo of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus faring not much better.  While obviously the latter pairing shouldn't be messed with, I wonder if perhaps Letarte and Alan Gustafson might be better served along with their respective drivers by changing places.  It's not happening with the current arrangement on the #24 or #5, and it's not getting any better.  Why not try something different?

It was a treat seeing the unbridled joy on Kasey Kahne's face as he emerged victorious from his car.  He couldn't have looked happier than if someone had mentioned those three desperate middle-aged women stalking him while compiling quite the auto repair bill had all found steady dates.

The aforementioned duly mentioned, overall it was yet another visit to racing doldrums land.  Whether NASCAR cares to admit it or not, this has become the norm.  It should be raising warning flags to all parties concerned, yet with the exception of an occasional driver's comment all other parties concerned are skipping along on their merry way singing a medley of "Everything Is Beautiful" and "Only Game In Town."  Not and not.  Boring is boring no matter how it's portrayed.  As to the latter, should next week's Indianapolis 500 which is already enjoying far greater attention than it has for years courtesy of series unification, Spiderman's twinkle toes, and much to Bob Margolis' annoyance Mrs. Hospenthal winning a race present open wheel as its best -- lead changes a-plenty and multiple multi-car battles for same -- NASCAR will look that much worse by comparison.  Especially if the Coca-Cola 600 later in the day is a get out front = stay out front snoozapalooza.

It's got to get better than this, gang.

Sorry I'm late; had a domestic engineering emergency (clogged drain).

Anyway, the first segment of the Sprint Showdown has just concluded.  At the current rate, there will be no cars left to transfer to the All-Star race.  Sheesh, what a bunch of reckless wrecks.

Second half is about to start.  I'll be posting comments in the Comments section rather than the body of the story.  Come join in the fun!