34 down, 2 more to go

That’s right the 2008 season is winding down.  With only two races left, it’s Jimmie’s championship to lose.  Carl did cut down some of Jimmie’s lead in Texas, but Jimmie and Chad have been here before.  I have to admit since Talladega I haven’t been all that excited about the racing.  I guess it’s because Tony isn’t a contender and he is closing out his career with Joe Gibbs.   I am looking forward to next season.  It’s going to be interesting to see how both Tony and Ryan run under the Stewart Haas flag.

I am a little bummed that Kyle Busch didn’t make a better showing in this Chase.  I mean he was hotter than habanero pepper and the next thing you know he is out of Chase contention.  I still wonder what the Chase would have been like if it weren’t for his bad luck at the beginning of the Chase.  I think I would be more into the Chase and it would definitely be more exciting.

Since the season will come to an end in a couple of weeks, I can finally get back to spending time with my friends and family who I have ignored since February as well as all those projects that need my attention.  I have to say it’s been one interesting season.  For the past two years I have held the Trixies to honor those events that have shaped the past NASCAR season.  I am now in the process of reviewing the season and I hope to have them up sooner than I did last year, but you know how life can get in the way.  In case you missed the 2006 or 2007 Trixies, you can stop back by The Park and take a gander.  If you have any suggestions for the 2008 Trixies head on over and leave me a note.

Have a great week!

 

 

You Too Can Be Fast And Fabulous!

Hey race fans- just wanted to let you know that you can win a $25.00 BP gas card from TheFastandTheFabulous.com.

Just fill out the form located here.

And while you are there poke around- it’s a great racing blog!

 

Another silly season change

Earlier this week, I went to visit one of my favorite blogs, and was nearly traumatised to find what could have been disturbing news:

Trouble in Turn 2 is no more. Mike, the beloved blogger of that site has moved to One Bad Wheel.  One Bad Wheel, many of you know, is an excellent fantasy and statistics site, and many of us feature the widgets from that site on our own sites. Mike’s features, commentaries, previews and reviews will add even more reasons to visit one of the best NASCAR related sites on the web.

Rev Jim’s RantsnRaves offers an overview on other things that have happened during Silly Season–click here to read.

 

Never Saw It Coming

Well…the best kept secret is official…well sort of. I got a NASCAR alert via my email just a few minutes ago.

Never saw it coming…wink wink!

 

Indy Wasn’t That TIREsome

So did everyone miss me? Sorry I had to disappear for a week or two. Not only am I a fan of NASCAR, but also an American Idol fan and spent a few days in Cincinnati meeting my favorite Idols and watching a fun concert. American Idol and NASCAR? Who ever thought that would be mentioned in the same sentance? Anyways, I’m back and ready to get back to blogging!

The word of the week for the Indianapolis race was…TIRES!

The durability of the Goodyear tires did not last long against the abrasiveness of the track and the new Car of Today (aka Car of Tomorrow) which called for a very interesting and circus-like event.

In 2005, AP explains that F1 and Michelin learned this lesson, “when three-fourths of the field refused to compete in the United States Grand Prix because of tire concerns. Indy took a hit, the race never recovered and F1 isn’t currently racing in this country.”

“The difference between NASCAR and Formula One is Formula One thinks of it as a business — they don’t think about the fans, they don’t think about the show, here they do. NASCAR will do whatever is possible to put the show on in the best way possible.” said Juan Pablo Montoya.

There were caution flags every 10-12 laps for the safety of the drivers. 52 of the 160 laps were run under caution. The longest green flag run was 13 laps. Even Goodyear had an emergency shipment of tires that were reserved for Pocono sent to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in case teams ran out of tires.

After all the tire dust was cleared…literally, Jimmie Johnson was victorious against close heat from Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin.

And there’s nothing more delicious than kissing rubber covered bricks and then kissing your significant other, but if my man just won me a hefty paycheck, I’d kiss the butt of a horse!

“Every lap. Every lap I was concerned about it,” Johnson said. “Every corner, for that matter. You could almost feel the tire life being taken out of it, if you leaned too hard.”

Other drivers were also not happy with the tire debacle:

“It’s embarrassing and it’s disappointing. I’ve never seen anything like this,” four-time Indianapolis winner Jeff Gordon said.

“Didn’t see much of a race,” Matt Kenseth said. Yeah you didn’t Matt because your tire blew up the entire back half of your car. If Sunday’s race was supposedly no one’s fault, someone better tattoo this statement to the back of his non-existent back window.

“It’s just unacceptable at this level,” Brian Vickers said.

“Ridiculous” was the word out of Ryan Newman’s mouth.

Don’t worry boys…we still love you!

I’m sure worse could be said from the drivers about the race, but if they want their cars to pass inspection their lips are probably glued. Even Tony Stewart was surprisingly calm about his comments on the whole situation, what kind of peyote was he smoking? And why doesn’t he share?

So is it NASCAR’s fault or Goodyears fault? After all, Goodyear is the only provider of tires for NASCAR (through 2012 none the less) and NASCAR should have possibly taken a more pro-active role in the situation.

If Goodyear made parachutes and I jumped out of a plane with one of their parachutes, I’d be dead. So to completely blow off the fiasco and pen it as water under the bridge would be complete anarchy.

In April, Goodyear tested tires with three drivers: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brian Vickers and Kurt Busch but the Car of Tomorrow had never raced at Indy and the weight stability shifted more toward the right side of the car with less down force.

“It’s just the package. Something’s different about the package, and we kind of need to understand that.” Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales for Goodyear said.

Um so why wasn’t this understood back in oh, I don’t know…APRIL!

When it really comes down to it though, I say sh*t happens and Sunday’s race was no exception. If I had to choose between watching a boring 400 mile race or watching monkeys scramble around like chickens with their heads cut off, then I’d vote for the monkeys and chickens…they were probably luckier than that bird that ended up flying under and out of Jeff Burton’s car on one of the re-starts.

NASCAR did end up apologizing for the circus that was the Indianapolis race and are working on a solution to the problem to avoid history from repeating itself.

If anything good came out of this race, I didn’t have to take a shot of liquor every time they mentioned Kyle Busch…and I stayed sober.

 

NASCAR Goddess of Fortune Stands by Her Man (Tonight)

For all the great driving, great teams and great cars out there this year, there is only one who has all that AND great luck — Kyle Busch. And that is why he’s kicking everyone’s keister this year.

More than anything else, luck — the only quality no driver can master, purchase, nor even sufficiently woo — has determined the fate of the 2008 NASCAR season. Winnie, the NASCAR Goddess of Fortune, is one hot and fickle lady; she deals it out how she sees ‘em – a view which is inscrutable to the rest of us.

Let us consider the following turns of Winnie’s Wheel this year:

- Last year the Chevvies of Hendrick Motorsports could do no wrong; flip that coin this year for them. Now Joe Gibbs Racing is king, ruling both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide roosts. And Toyota, a car that could win no races last year, can’t stop winning them this year.

- The Number 20 car this year is probably the luckiest car ever. It wins no matter who’s in the driver’s seat.

- Green seems to be an especially lucky color this year, especially festooned on Kyle’s green Interstate Batteries No. 18 Toyota. The AMP cars of Dale Earnhardt Jr. (second in points) feature green designs.

- Remember those unlucky Goodyear tires, which Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart derided with such heat after Atlanta? A bad, bad tire they said, not safe for plebian road driving, much less a Sprint Cup race. Yet somehow Goodyear’s bum luck passed on to the cars themselves, derided now as terrible to drive — like cement blocks without wheels — safe but mostly responsible for the bad fortunes of so many drivers this year.

- Jimmie Johnson gambled on fuel strategy to win his only race of the year at Phoenix. Similarly, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s only victory of the season was due to a lucky gamble on fuel (astonishingly lucky; his car ran out of gas as soon as it crossed under the checkered flag). Of course, fuel strategy looks great when it creates a win. Carl Edwards’s fuel strategy turned out to be bum luck at Martinsville, losing the race on the last lap when he ran out of fuel.

- Michael McDowell was very lucky to walk away from that crash at Texas, smacking the wall at full spin and then tumbling over and over and over and over and over. Everyone says it was the generic car that saved his ass, but I think he watches the tape and crosses his heart for Winnie.

- Perhaps the most consistently unlucky driver this year has been Tony Stewart. Despite having arguably the best team and the best car out there, a crapstorm of bad luck has fallen on Tony: accidents, flat tires, broken parts, bad weather, even the flu. Smoke is surely this year’s Job, crying “How long, oh Lord!” as he sits dejected in his stalled Home Depot car. I hope Clance is correct in her most recent astrological prognostication, and Winnie spins Tony’s fortunes around the other way.

- Jeff Burton was hot early in the season but of late the dice have gone cold, resulting in finishes of 15, 13, 12, 37 in his last four races.

- Kurt Busch was astonishingly lucky to win at New Hampshire. This was no mere matter of preparation meeting opportunity, as he said after the race: Tony Stewart’s bum tire (it blew with three laps to go) plus bad weather put Kurt in the catbird seat where previously he was in 22d place in the standings. His luck was so weird that the race finish was like an episode from “The Twilight Zone.”

- Kasey Kahne, who was too far down in the rankings to qualify for the All-Star race, had lucky hunky-enough looks — an accident purely of birth — to get the popular vote for placing in the race anyway, won it, and has gone on to race as fiercely as those piercing blue eyes of his.

Drivers are a superstitious lot; they know how much Winnie plays in their eventual fortunes (or lack of them) to hedge all of their bets. Why do you think that so many of them trot out such jaw-droppingly beautiful wives and girlfriends to the races? Why else? They’re good luck charms, rubbed every which way both the night before and just prior to getting into their cars on race day as an appeal to Winnie.

Individual drivers have unique superstitions. A sick 6-year-old girl gave Dale Earnhart a penny, which he glued to his dashboard as he went on to win first Daytona 500. David Reutimann always puts his gloves on the same way — left hand first, and hi 6-year-old daughter tapes his heat shields if she’s at the track. David Ragan picks up pennies off the ground and puts them in his left shoe because his dad does that.

Other drivers have superstitions to ward off bad luck. J.J. Yeley makes sure black cats never cross his path. If he sees one, he’ll drive the other way.
$50 bills have a cache for bad luck; Humpy Wheeler signed and gave one to Dale Earnhardt Jr. before qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600; Earnhardt rejected the bill and went on to qualify sixth. Kyle Busch didn’t take the bill and made sure nobody on his crew did, either, and won the pole in the race.

What has all of this to do with great cars, great teams, and exceptional racing talent? Nothing. But it seems to have everything to do with what makes racing so addictive. Winnie the NASCAR Goddess of Fate is the penultimate track bunny, standing by her man in ways that no amount of skill will ever come close to.

Perhaps this hearkens back to the whiskey-running nights of NASCAR’s roots, where runners in jacked-up ‘39 Fords rubbed a rabbit’s paw swinging from their rear-view mirror as they raced up and down and round moony Appalachian roads, chased by stern black cruisers. Hot car and consummate skill were less than half of the equation back then, and drivers knew it. They got through because Winnie (or Tammie back then) sang them through on their car radios.

If Winnie loves a racer, he can do no wrong. She hovers over the fortunate as they race like a Faith Hill, angelically opening ways through the press of roaring metal, turning the wheel just right or left to avoid catastrophe. And for the unlucky she reveals her other side, standing in their way Gretchen Wilson all jacked up for a butt-kickin’, legs wide, hands on her hips, her eyes glowering through the darkness out back of trashiest redneck roadhouse beyond the last lights of town.

Who can woo Winnie? I doubt anyone can. It’s her race. She picks her winners. Maybe she’s stay with Kyle, or maybe she’ll jump in someone else’s car. The rest of the boys are right now performing their ablutions to her, stroking these soft curved rabbit’s feet, whether it hangs from their rear view mirror or is tucked inside the panties of their fantastically beautiful loves.

We have no way of knowing which way Winnie will turn her wheel at Chicagoland. We suspect that her romance with Kyle will continue. But she’s a moody dame. She is what makes racin’such a thrill.

(note: this post also went up today on my blog over at Clance’s wonderful Church of the Great Oval networking site. If you haven’t been by there, check it out. It roars.)

 

DYN Gears Up for Wild Weekend at Daytona

Daytona is by far the most recognizable track on the NASCAR schedule, and they’ve certainly let us know that this week, as there’s been a ton to talk about as we’ve made the transition from Loudon, NH to start gearing up for the Coke Zero 400. Here’s just a few highlights of what we’ve had going on over at www.doyounascar.com, just incase you missed any of it:

Monday – Moss Motorsports Set to Debut #81 Truck at Kentucky – Randy Moss scheduled a Thursday press conference at Daytona to announce his plans to debut Moss Motorsports on July 19th at Kentucky Speedway, with details still to be determined.

Tuesday – Why Mark Martin Could be the Key to the Silly Season Domino Theory – Learning that Mark Martin was out of the #8 car at DEI next season and that he could be making an announcement this weekend at Daytona, DYN covered the bases. We presented multiple paths that Mark could head down for 2009, and also layed out the groundwork for how the rest of Silly Season would play out for each scenario.

Wednesday – Only a Matter of Time Now for Dave Rogers – With all of his recent success this season as Crew Chief of the no. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series, DYN states why we will see Dave Rogers working in the Sprint Cup Series again no later than 2010.

Thursday - Race Preview for Coke Zero 400 at Daytona – DYN has modified our typical fantasy preview segment to bring you in-depth coverage of this weekend’s favorites – and, not-so-favorites – to win the race. We still offer our fantasy projections for the race and even have video coverage of last year’s finish in the Pepsi 400.

Friday – With Ganassi Folding the #40 Team, What Will Become of Some of the Others? – Our weekly “Loose in Turn 3″ segment revolves around the folding of Chip Ganassi Racing’s #40 car, and focuses in on whether or not it will go onto effect some of the other teams such as Yates Racing or Michael Waltrip Racing.

Once your done checking those stories out, be sure to keep coming back throughout the weekend as we will continue to follow all of the action throughout the racing weekend.

 

Add more fun to your NASCAR Experience!

The Church of The Great Oval has had a Yahoo Group for a few years. We have decided to expand, and have moved to a more exciting, more interactive Site. We can make our experience more fun, with forums, pictures, video and music. You can even make your own page, and promote your own blog, website, or skills and hobbies. This is a big step for us. Rev Jim, who is our Official Choir Director will have unlimited means to get us singing our hymns!

We hope to see you all there!  

 

Almost an All-Stewart Weekend

Tony Stewart came into this NASCAR weekend with all eyes on him, as rumors continued to circulate throughout the media regarding his status in the no. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing machine next season, despite being under contract until the end of 2009.

He finally gave the writers another context in which to use his name for their headlines on Saturday when he dominated the conclusion of the Camping World RV Sales 200 to earn his fifth Nationwide Series win of the season, despite running in only seven events in the series. The win also continued the stretch of dominance that JGR has had in the Nationwide ranks in 2008, and made Tony the 22nd different winner at New Hampshire in as many races.

On Sunday, things picked right back up where they left off prior to Tony’s Nationwide win when Sirius Radio announced in their pre-race report that Stewart leaving Gibbs at the end of the season was a “done deal.” There have yet to be any solid reports either confirming or denying such statements, but the report seems to have taken much of the focus away from Haas CNC Racing and placed it on Hendrick Motorsports. Apparently, the notion of an all-star cast involving the likes of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Tony Stewart could very well be in the works.

Halfway through Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301, it appeared as though Smoke had every intention of keeping his name well within the headlines. After starting all the way back in 28th, Tony had made his way up into the top-five a little over 100 laps into the race, and took the lead on lap 142. Stewart then led a race-high 135 laps, and appeared to have his first Cup victory of the season well within his grasp until Mother Nature and Mis-Fortune teamed up to rear their ugly heads at Tony just one more time. Instead of getting the win, Stewart was relegated to a 13th place finish, continuing the same string of bad luck that he’s been faced with all season long.

Hopefully the no. 20 team can get their season back on track and turn things around next week at Daytona – site of the first Tony Stewart fence climb!

 

I Will Become The Kyle Busch of the NASCAR Blogging World After This…

So I am going to grow some kahona’s and ask the question that probably should dare not be asked…

So if you were living under a rock…and I’ll admit it with the hum dum of my cousin’s high school graduation/party these past weeks, I have been MIA with my NASCAR obsession lately…you should have known by now that Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke his winless streak this past weekend with a win in the Michigan Lifelock 400 Race.

Of course, some wins don’t come without controversy because now some media outlets are reporting that some of the drivers were upset that on the last few laps of the race that Jr. was running past the pace car. Race Officials warned Jr. about staying behind the pace car and he continued to drive past the pace car for a second time.

So my gut is telling me, Jr. didn’t get punished because he’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. That’s it!

As Jr. said post race, “It is what it is”

So now here’s where I will probably piss a lot of people off, mainly because I don’t like seeing “0 Comments” after each post, so feel free to yell at me, but I have to ask:

What is the hype about Jr. except for his huge marketability and his last name?

I will probably be considered a “new fan” considering most of you have probably been watching NASCAR since before I was born, but I would like to hear what the veteran fans have to say about this and maybe give this “newborn NASCAR fan” a different Point of view.

Read more of my thoughts here.