What victory celebration do you to see the most – Burnouts, donuts or???

This is a NASCAR All-Star Race cross-piece from Racedriven

Yeah, we are getting back to that good old Saturday Night shootout under the light’s with this coming weekend’s NASCAR All-Star race which not only includes the Sprint Showdown qualifier race and the Main event, the Sprint All-Star Race with its new four 25 lap segments, but a new element to this year’s All-Star event, during the preshow before the Sprint Showdown, fans will be treated to a Burnout and donut contest. This is something new, normally fans are treated to a burnout, donut or something once a driver wins an event, but not before an event, so this should be interesting considering I’ve never seen a burnout and donut contest before.  

So with the new element of a burnout and donut contest, I ask this question, what victory celebration do you to see the most – Burnouts, donuts or? Keep in mind it can be just about anything from a donut, burnout, a polish victory lap, to Tony Stewart climbing the fence or Carl Edward’s famous back flip.

I personally like a Polish Victory Lap that entails the driver turning his car around and driving in the opposite direction, which is clockwise on a NASCAR track which in most cases includes the driver holding a checkered flag outside the driver’s window. This lets the driver solute the fans in the grandstands and it doesn’t burn up there equipment.  Alan Kulwicki was the first driver to do a “Polish Victory Lap” following the Checker 500 on November 6, 1988 at Phoenix International Raceway. (Info on Polish Victory Lap: Wikipedia.com)

 

Grousing at the Nascar Media

I don’t know is going on with that girl over at badgroove.com but she just seems to have it in for NASCAR media this week.

First she slams Fox’s Broadcasting (and she agrees with Revvin’ Jim that DW should shut his trap more oft than not) in her article The Lady In Black Slaps Stewart. Fox Pisses Amy off (again) (I have to say though, that I love the gratuitous nephew picture though). ***

Then, she slams NASCAR.COM author Joe Menzer in her post Answering “The Questions That Matter” Amy Style.

And today she takes on Jenna Fryer’s article regarding Biffle replacing Stewart.

Maybe we should put some kind of care package together for her…she seems a bit grumpy.

Speaking of CARE PACKAGES…you should try your hand at the OnPitRow.com’s Rattles from the Catch Can quiz. You could win stuff. Me? I want the OPR mardi gras beads personally.

*** Ok I had to throw the nephew thing in…he’s a cutie…and I am determined teach him all about NASCAR When he grows up!

 

All-Star Week

I think this is the one time of year (along with a few others) that I enjoy being a NASCAR fan.  The All-Star race is slated for Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.  This is the one race during the year where there are no points to be racing for, but a cool, crisp, $1,000,000 payout.  That’s right folks ONE MILLION DOLLARS!  This is where the boys get to race for fun–well that’s how I see it.  I mean look at last year’s race the Busch brothers took each other out.  Who wouldn’t take out a family member for the all that money?  I know I would. 

This is also the week where the pit crews get to shine as well.  I really like watching the Pit Crew Challenge. Most of the time these guys do they jobs week in and week out without much fanfare.  They get their drivers on and off pit road in a matter of seconds which they make look easy all the time.  Of course there is nothing easy about working on pit road.  The winner of the Pit Crew Challenge gets bragging rights for the rest of the year, plus the driver gets the first pick in the pit selection for the All-Star race.

There are several events that will be surrouding the All-Star event including the inaugural Pennzoil Victory Challenge prior to the All-Star race.  Five drivers will compete in a timed-competition where they must demonstrate certain skills for a victory celebration.  The four skills to be judged are: a tire-smoking doughnut, spectacular donuts, precision driving into “Victory Lane” and of course speed.  According to Humpy Wheeler, “the burnout contest gives us a chance to hihlight what has become an exciting part of race day.  It also gives these drivers the opportunity to light ‘em up for the fans.”

One more thing…have you purchased your NASCAR Day pin?  I have and I am ready for NASCAR Day on Friday.  I will be wearing my Tony Stewart garb to work as well as my pin.

I, like the rest of my fellow NASCAR fans, will be enjoying the race on Saturday night with their beverage of choice.  Because if the All-Star race is any indication of balls to wall racing, then we will all have lots to discuss come Sunday morning.

 

 

 

Racing beyond those two guys

There is a lot more to racing than what has been the main hot topic among fans over the last two weeks, so, without mentioning it again, we are moving on.

NASCAR This Week offers two great entries today: “Burning Issues,” offers some of Monte Dutton’s random thoughts, something he never seems to run out of.

“On The Rebound ” highlights Greg Biffle, and his possible plans for the future, and is written without the influence of rumor mongers.

We always enjoy Trouble in Turn 2’s excellent interviews in Know Your NASCAR Bloggers. This week Mike interviews Luke Poland, of Thunder Lounge.

Rev’ Jim’s RantsnRaves is featuring a summary of the NASCAR All Stars this week. There is information on how each driver qualified for this years NASCAR Sprint All Star Challenge, as well as the driver’s history in the All Star race, and some interesting facts on some of the past All Star races. So far he has two parts posted, with more to come:

The NASCAR All Stars: Part 1 Features Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, and Jeff Burton.

The NASCAR All Stars: Part 2 Features Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, and Kevin Harvick.

More to come in parts three and four.

Thank you for reading NASCAR Bloggers FT Digest, and please, feel free to leave a comment.

 

 

Quick thoughts and links

First, a few search engine queries that have led folks to this site:

I-hate-Kyle-Busch

Drivers-hate-Kyle-Busch

Throw-beer-cans-at-Kyle-Busch

The first two I understand, because that is the emotions of driver fans playing out. Racing wouldn’t be as fun if it weren’t for those who take a strong dislike for a certain driver. I once “hated” Jeff Gordon, but I got over it.

Doesn’t anybody still “hate” Brian Vickers, though? Is there anybody who remembers how Vickers won his first race at Talladega in 2006? Am I being an ars for bringing up old baggage?

The last one, though, bothers me. It is a waste of good beer. Kyle Busch is wearing a helmet, so it won’t hurt him much. And, what if you missed Kyle and hit Junior? How would you feel then?

Busch-wrecks-Sadler

What race were you watching?

Stewart-reaction-to-wreck

Somebody was probably looking for some kind of dramatic reaction. Stewart was a disappointment, then, because he didn’t say a thing about the wreck. I looked on every site I could, and didn’t find anything, except that, by the end of the race the #20 team had the car running as good as, if not better than it was at the beginning of the race.  However, Elliot Sadler, took the high road and admitted responsibility for the wreck, which, by the way was very similar to the one between Busch and Earnhardt at Richmond last week, except, at Darlington, the damage to both cars was much worse.

Sadler also made a sincere and gentlemanly apology for wrecking Stewart, and he should be admired for that.

Now, a few new items from our bloggers.

Mike, from Trouble in Turn 2 has published his eagerly awaited race recap, “View From the Couch: Darlington“

Ovalscream has posted four new and excellent post-race items by the prolific Monte Dutton on NASCAR This Week:

“Sunday’s Post Race Report”

The winner and how he did it: Kyle Busch bounced off the wall repeatedly, prompting Jeff Gordon to say, “He didn’t win it on aerodynamics.”…read more

“Bad Boy Does Good In Darlington”

The fans who don’t like Kyle Busch left Darlington Raceway doubly frustrated Saturday night…read more

“Notebook: Stewart shoots par for Darlington course:”

Tony Stewart, who won the Nationwide Series race the night before, managed to make it slightly more than a lap unblemished in Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500…read more

And “He’s on top, which is something he has realized”

Dizzy Dean might’ve liked Kyle Busch. It was the St. Louis Cardinals great who said, “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.”…read more

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave comments, here, or on the linked sites, or both!

 

 

 

 

Darlington in the Books

Well, another pretty exciting weekend to say the least. Did we get all of the drama and controversy that found its way to our doorsteps following Richmond? No, not by any stretch … but, still, Darlington continued to produce some good, hard racing for us as it always does, and overall I’d have to say that I’m pretty satisfied with the show that NASCAR gave us this weekend.

Over at www.doyounascar.com, I started the weekend off with our routine Fantasy Preview that I deliver every Thursday afternoon prior to any practice or qualifying sessions. Overall my picks didn’t seem to be too bad this week, but every now and again, my premature forecasts for a race winner can tend to nip me in the but, and this was one of those weeks as I predicted Ryan Newman to visit Victory Lane for the second time this season. This obviously did not happen, and it’s cases like this that allow me to understand if you need to get your fantasy advice from Frank over at the Fantasy Sports Outlook, or Mike over at Trouble in Turn 2, both of whom seemed to be a little more on point than me this week.

The action itself kicked off on Friday evening for Sprint Cup qualifying, in which Greg Biffle not only took the pole, but shattered the old Darlington track record in the process. From there, Joe Gibbs Racing continued their domination of the Nationwide Series as Tony Stewart won his fourth race of the season, and picked up his first career win at Darlington by taking the checkers in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200. For more on this, please visit DYN to read One More Down for Stewart.

From there, the action turned to Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500. The race was a little short on drama for those of us who were expecting a bit of fallout from last weekend’s racing, but all in all, they managed to keep the racing itself intact. Of course, I can’t imagine there’s a ton of happy campers out there seeing as Kyle Busch of all people won the race, but hey, what would this sport be if the catalysts didn’t get to rule the roost every now and again, right? For a full recap on the race, read Rating the Race: Darlington - Dodge Challenger 500, and as always, feel free to leave your two cents behind while you’re there.

Other than that, be sure to keep checking out DYN regularly. Already on tap for this week is a list of the top-ten drivers not currently locked into the All-Star race, the latest on Greg Biffle and his status with Roush-Fenway Racing, and results from Saturday night’s ARCA Re/Maxx Series race.

 

Darlington is still Darlington, Kyle Busch is still Kyle Busch

What can you say about a driver who does everything “wrong,” has a few bad things such as penalties and lost lug nuts happen to him, literally wrecks his car, and still wins the race? That must be one heckuva driver.

Most fans, like him or not, agree that Kyle Busch is just that. His problem, they say, is his attitude. His attitude is that he doesn’t care what happens to the other cars on the track as long as it is his car that finishes first. He offers no apologies, takes racing as a contact, and needs to grow up. but he may very well be the best driver in NASCAR.

Although he may not be the most popular driver now, history tells us that he will gain fans, precisely because he is the best driver there is. It would help if he chose his words better, but as Tony Stewart and Darrell Waltrip can attest, that takes experience and a maturing process. That will come with continued success in racing, but we can’t expect a total personality makeover such as the one we have seen in his older brother.

To name a few, Dale Earnhardt, Tony Stewart, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, and Rusty Wallace all started out as very unpopular drivers among the fans. But as they grew into the sport, they grew onto the fans. Fans who hated them began to love to hate them, and many more just plain loved them as they all became very successful drivers.

A majority of fans don’t “love to hate” Kyle Busch, they just hate him. The love will come later.

The new pavement at Darlington didn’t make a whole lot of difference in how the track acts, once the race went past the opening laps. In fact, the Lady in Black took her toll early in the race, with Kyle Petty fatally damaging his car, and a wreck involving Elliott Sadler and Tony Stewart on the third lap virtually took Sadler out of the race and left Stewart’s pit crew with a lot of work to do throughout the rest of the day. Kevin Harvick, looking comfortable much later in the race, suddenly lost control of his car and hit the wall hard enough to end his day. Martin Truex, Jr, seemed to suddenly have a lapse of attention and ran his car straight through Denny Hamlin’s, while both cars were running well, and in the top ten late in the race. Greg Biffle, who really looked like he had the car to beat, had mechanical troubles while he was in the lead, and like his team mate, Matt Kenseth did Friday night, found a lot of criticism to throw at his pit crew.

But things that don’t usually happen at Darlington happened. Traditionally, nearly 90% of the time, the cars that start in the back don’t usually have much of a chance to make their way to the front. Carl Edwards broke that tradition by starting in the very back and finishing the race in second place. Matt Kenseth overcame woes that put him back in the field to manage a top ten finish. Even Tony Stewart, who had fallen back two laps, looked like he could have finished well, if only there had been a caution in time to put him back on the lead lap. His car had been repaired so well during the course of the race that by time the race neared the end, he clearly had the fastest car on the track. He had actually raced his way from being two laps down to being one lap down, and then to being the first car one lap down. The Black Lady did not choose to smile on him, however.

But what really shouldn’t have happened, from what we have seen in Darlington’s past races, was a driver who refused to race the track and drove all out to the win, even after he was penalized and had to restart from the back of the field just past the halfway point of the race. The car was beaten up badly from continuously hitting the wall, nearly every lap, the brakes were gone, but the driver was determined. Kyle Busch became the youngest driver to win at Darlington.

In case you missed the race, Diecast Dude has his weekly real-time race coverage posted on Restrictor-Plate This:

And here we go with another Saturday night special.  Can Dale Jr. end the drought?  Can Greg Biffle notch his first win of the year?  Who will Kyle Busch run over?…read more

Do You NASCAR? produces another great “Rating The Race” entry:

Kyle Busch paced the field by a couple seconds to earn himself the checkered flag on Saturday night for the Sprint Cup Series’ running of the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway to pick up his third win of the season,…read more

Rev’Jim adds his usual “Live on type delay” race commentary:

Only the third lap and already the race is eventful. Biffle took off from the drop of the green flag and takes the lead for the first lap, but Dale Jr takes the lead for the second. Going into turn one Stewart went too high and was collected by Elliott Saddler…read more

Last, but certainly not least, Jaynelle Ramon gives us her unique take on the race in “Fans may hate him, but Kyle Busch is just so darn good.”

There are a couple of other items from our Bloggers that may be of interest. Racedriven gives his thoughts on the IRL/Champcar unification, as we begin qualifying for the Indianapolis 500:

So, with last year’s IRL IndyCar Series Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti departing for NASCAR along with former series champion Sam Hornish Jr., and series champion and star Scott Sharp driving over in the American LeMans Series… read more

And Mike of Trouble in Turn 2 tests some energy drinks that are produced by the sponsors of several NASCAR teams:

In the last few years the energy drink market has exploded. The industry had three billion dollars in sales in 2005. With large marketing budgets and a young target audience, it made sense for the drink companies to gravitate towards NASCAR…read more

We hope everybody enjoys their weekend, especially to our Mothers, Happy Mother’s Day!

 

Ready for more?

We experienced a lot of anger last week at Richmond, but that was at a short track where beating, banging, chrome horns and hard racing is expected. If the fans of the sport experienced anger at that, we can expect even more from what happens at Darlington this weekend.

Why should we expect this? The track has been repaved for the first time since 1992 and by all reports it is faster. Faster doesn’t always mean better, and the action is likely to be hectic early on until the competitive field settles down some.

Darlington has always been a difficult track for passing anyway, and the repaving did not include widening the track. There will be mishaps, and we can be certain that whatever happens, fingers will be pointed and fans will get riled up. Richmond will soon be forgotten.

Several of our NASCAR Bloggers FT Digest bloggers have posted their weekly race previews.

NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog reports that, during practice, “Rookies Are Earning Their Darlington Stripes”

With the Darlington race this weekend there have been quite a few rookies earning their ’stripes’ early in practice.

Those who have earned their stripe include; JJ Yeley, Patrick Carpentier, and Sam Hornish….read more

Antonette of Unrestricted: My NASCAR Rants & Raves asks us four questions that will help us make our own preview. Be sure to leave a comment with your own answers.

If you like question and answer items, you may also want to check out Fast Laps, from On Pit Row. Steve and Charlie always think up stupid  thought -provoking interesting questions that could get you fired up about your opinion. While you are at that site, check out Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie for a chance to win a Daytona 500 50th Anniversary DVD.

Back to Darlington race previews, Trouble in Turn 2 always produces very well thought out predictions, stats, and information.

In most years Darlington is one of the most baffling tracks to figure out. Teams and drivers struggle with a good setup and by the time they figure it out, their tires are already worn out. The simple reason is that Darlington was such a unique track. The way the surface ate up tires made it extremely challenging and there wasn’t really an apt comparison found on the Cup circuit…read more

Diecast Dude doesn’t have a preview, but he does write an interesting piece on the word “Dude”

Taking this to NASCAR, there are so many individuals therein to whom a simple “dude” needs to be spoken in hope it will give cause for their catching the vision and seeing the world around them…read more

NASCAR This Week features two previews by Monte Dutton: The Greatest Track focuses on the track itself, while Notebook: A new challange for the points leader focuses on the drivers. Both articles are very well worth reading, as they are written by a long-time NASCAR fan and journalist. When Dutton writes about a track with as much history as Darlington, he is writing from first hand experience.

For honest, hard stats, Do You NASCAR presents Fantasy Preview: Darlington.

Rev’Jim predicts angry fans’ reactions by providing ready-to-use comments for use by angry fans:

“(Pick one: Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Biffle) Should have been parked and banned from racing for life for that move!”

“He hasn’t won a race all season, and suddenly he wins at Darlington? Give me a break! You say NASCAR isn’t fixed?”…read more

Thank you for reading NASCAR Bloggers FT Digest, and please feel free to leave comments on any of the above stories.

And remember, if something goes wrong for your driver at Darlington, “blame it on Busch.”

 

The Latest At DYN

I just wanted to take a quick second to let you guys know about a few minor changes I’ve made over at www.doyounascar.com recently:

- The addition of “Top Headlines” categories for each month. I’ve taken the ten most discussed topics that I’ve written about for each month, and have given easy access to them in the categories sections of the sidebar.

- I have added a new poll to the site after having it removed for the past couple of weeks. The current poll asks whether or not NASCAR should ever take wins away from drivers.

- The Chase Updates will now be done on a monthly basis rather than weekly.

- As you will see with tomorrow’s Fantasy Preview, these previews will now take on a more statistical approach.

- The “Big Ten” submissions will now post every Monday. The most recent of these was an examination of the top-ten stars in th waiting.

- And, as many of you already know, every Friday I convene with Bruce Simmons and Charlie Turner to post our three-way discussions in our Loose in Turn 3 segment. The segments cover three topics, with one of the topics posting to each of our sites. Be sure to head over on Friday to check it out!

 

Putting it behind us — some final thoughts on Richmond

What was done was done and it is time to move on to the next race at Darlington…almost. First a few final commentaries worth reading about last weekend’s eventful race.

Do You NASCAR?  thinks that maybe “Kyle Busch missed Smoke’s lectures about ‘give and take.’”

Kyle Busch outraged every single Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan when he spun him out during Saturday night’s race, which means that he now has approximately ten fans left out there (to include Darrell Waltrip)….read more

Actually I think ten is a little high. NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog says “Kyle Busch is a Jerk”

That is what Earnhardt fans are saying at least. To me this is how the whole thing played out at Richmond last night. Busch is a brash win at all costs 23 year old who got in over his head when he went into the corner under Dale Jr. More take than give. Dale Jr is a sensible racer who hasn’t won a point race in exactly 2 years and was trying very hard to hold onto the lead because he … read more

From the same blog, we are reminded that other things happened Saturday Night:

Saturday night’s race at Richmond was not just about the Busch/Earnhardt incident, there were other things going on too. As much as we have been caught up in the controversy that is Kyle Busch and what he did or did not deliberately do to Dale Jr, there were 41 other cars out on the track too - each with their own stories….read more

Monte Dutton always has something to say, and NASCAR This Week gives us this wonderful read:

RICHMOND, Va. - If the Dan Lowry 400 had been a movie, the title would’ve been “Oh, No.”

Here’s a facet of a stock-car race that no one should ever forget. Anything can happen. Several times…read more

Trixie’s Trailer Park gives us the insight of Txts20belle:

I wanted to post after the race, but was too…well what’s the word…amazed.  Before I get into the discussion on the “hit heard ’round the world” on Saturday, I want to congratulate Clint Bowyer for the win on Saturday!

Now on to what has probably been the topic of discussion on all the message boards, blogs, etc.  In case you missed it…here is the incident that has sparked quite a bit of discussion…read more

Moving on, finally, Diecast Dude of Restrictor-Plate This gives us a very well thought out article about blogging. It is perfect for the Digest, because he talks about the community among NASCAR bloggers, while discussing the battle between “mainstream journalists” and bloggers.

Since there’s nothing happening in NASCAR today and tomorrow except an all-teams test session at Lowe’s (note to Goodyear: this time, try bringing the same tires to the test session you’ll be bringing to the race), thought I’d take a moment to pretend I’m a sports blogger…read more

Thanks for stopping by NASCAR Bloggers FT Digest, and feel free to comment on any of these stories.