An insider dissects Richmond, Stewart's possible move and more

Heading into Saturday's race in Richmond , an anonymous NASCAR insider shares his thoughts about the latest vibes in NASCAR nation:

I love going to Richmond . It's a great race for the fans, and it's an enjoyable race for the drivers. It's a good short track; I like the fact that you can get side-by-side there. It's two wide, great racing all the way around, and it's always easy to get beside someone ... although it's really hard to complete the pass. That can be very frustrating, but that's just part of it. I think every track has its challenges; but even though it's great that we can run two-wide at Richmond all the way around, I still wouldn't want to race there every week. Even though I think that running four-wide at Talladega is great, I still wouldn't want to race there every race, either.

Richmond , as of right now, is unique on the circuit. But when people say we should build another one elsewhere, I hope they mean a Richmond -style race track. Just don't make the blueprints of Richmond and duplicate it, because we don't need two tracks that are the same. We need more variety.

A great race track that I think they did a tremendous job with is the Iowa Speedway . Iowa is a better Richmond , in my mind. It's a little bit bigger, 7/8 of a mile, but it's short enough that you can get in there and you could race. We've been there testing, and I've run the second groove in a test; I know you could run it in a race.

What Rusty did with that race track, they took the best qualities of Richmond and then they fixed the worst qualities. One problem with Richmond ... one reason you get guys stuck side-by-side is turn three, and coming out of two, in particular, it gets so tight over there that the guy on the bottom -- is that the banking falls away so quick you can't complete the pass. When you get stuck side-by-side with someone, it's typically because the guy on the bottom doesn't have enough room to keep his speed. Well, they fixed that in Iowa . In Iowa , you come out of all turns with a little more banking, so you don't get loose, and I think they did a fabulous job with it.

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I don't know what Tony Stewart 's doing; he hasn't told me yet. But Tony loves to race, and he wants to win, so I don't think focus will be a problem this season if he leaves Gibbs. And if he wants to be a car owner, I don't think you can hold that against him. I hate that in our sport, if you try and leave a team because you're not happy or because you want to do something different, you're looked at in a bad light. Sometimes, moving on is a part of life; people get divorced and marry someone else because they're not happy. I think that if Tony wants to be a car owner, and Gibbs doesn't want to sell him part of that team, than go ahead and let him be a car owner. I don't think people should think poorly of him because he wants to do that.

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Kyle Busch should have been black flagged for his pass below the yellow line at Talladega . To me, it's a black and white rule. There's a very bright line going on the bottom of the race track, and if you pass somebody under it, it's very obvious that you did. NASCAR had said on many occasions that, "Gentlemen, this is a black and white rule. There is no gray area. There is no interpretation. If you go below the yellow line, you will be black flagged."

If somebody went under me above the yellow line, and I just turned hard left and just ran them down below it, and it was apparent, then that's not someone's fault. But if they stick their nose under the yellow line ... to me, it's still black and white. If the car on the bottom goes below the yellow line, it goes below the yellow line. And another thing; the only reason Kyle Busch hated Talladega [before Sunday] was because he wasn't any good. The only reason he hated it was because he always wrecked!