Martinsville

God I love this track!! I love the speed of the restrictor plate tracks and all that, but the close quarters racing on the famed paper clip track really get me excited. If NASCAR ever stops racing at Martinsville, it had only better be for an identically shaped track!! Also, if ever they stop racing at this track, it may very well be the day I stop being a fan of NASCAR racing. Bristol is cool too, love the short tracks, but sometimes the racing at Bristol is too much follow the leader and bump and run passing. Granted, plenty of bump and run racing at Martinsville, but it is almost more like a road course in that you really have to have your braking dead on to get you into the corner and setup your car to rotate the center and power off the corner. Some drivers will diamond the corners, others will hug that big yellow curb, others will go middle of the track or high-side, until the marbles get bad, and others will be all over the place, haha. Inevitably, some driver will launch his car over the curb and probably get 2, if not 4, wheels off the ground.

Right now I am watching the truck race as I post this message. I am really looking forward to the cup race tomorrow. I would love to go to that race someday!

Waltrip Team - Unscrupulous??

I have to think so... Last year at Daytona and the mystery substance in the intake manifold and now accusations by Jack Roush that Waltrip's team stole a sway bar. If stuff like this keeps popping up, you have to wonder. I am sure that others wonder. I wonder. How does this look to Toyota? It would be easy for the traditionalists in NASCAR and in the court of public opinion to try, convict, and execute MWR on this deal. There are many who don't like that Toyota is in NASCAR, stories like these certainly don't help them.

Kyle Busch is a BITCH!!

What a whiney little whore... Just watched him blow off the reporter on ESPN with real shitty answers after having another bad day. Grow up you little punk bitch, or get out of the series. I usually never like wrecks, but when he's in one, the cheering will begin!

Coach Gibbs was a moron for hiring that dufus. Sure, he can wheel a car, but good god, what a prima donna bitch!

Farewell Dale Jarrett!

One of the true good guys in NASCAR, Dale started his last points paying race at Bristol. He'll race in the All-Star race later this year.

Kind of sad when you see the older dudes leave, well, it is for me. The young guys just don't have the respect for the sport like the older guys do/did.

I think he does a real good job in the broadcast booth, but it'll be a little weird not seeing him on a weekly basis in the UPS car.

Enjoy your retirement, Dale!!

Post Bristol Follow Up

Is it just me or was anyone else really sad about DW losing his voice? Now if only Larry Mac and Chris Meyers would lose their voices too!!

It was a pretty good race! A couple wrecks, a couple of spins, and how about that fire out the back of Skinner's car? Jeez, the impact that he had to cause his oil cooler to bust didn't seem bad enough to cause the resulting fire, but...

Bummer about Harvick getting up into Stewart and spinning him around. Karma maybe over his shitty attitude last week? I am sure there was no intent from Harvick, after all, they are both good friends. Stewart is getting his back waxed thanks to Harvick this week. Maybe Stewart will wax something on Harvick as payback, haha. They have had run ins before, seem to remember Harvick coming out on the short end of the stick battling for a win at Indy a few years ago. Hopefully they put it behind them.

Nice to see RCR cars finish 1,2,3!! Easy for me to say because I am an RCR and Harvick fan. Jeff Burton is a class act and I always love seeing him win... One of the reasons is because they usually show Kim, his wife, flipping out on the pit box. It's cool seeing the family get behind their drivers. Some drivers win and their pretty ladies never show much emotion... More like thoughts of "hmmm, where can I spend the money", but with Kim, she gets all jacked up and emotional.

Junior is still impressing! He's about the only Hendrick car that is this year. Maybe they're putting all resources behind junior to get him his championship. Haha, did I really say that?? hahaha.

Hope everyone has a nice Easter weekend off. Maybe we'll get out here and write about some off week happenings. Maybe Harv and Stewart will make some news with a big public feud.

NHRA is on ESPN now, cool! I love drag racing too. Shit, I love all kinds of racing!!

Bristol Baby and More Tire Talk!

I love short track racing! Bristol and Martinsville are a couple of my favorite tracks. Wish we had a few more short track races each year. At least with short tracks, if ya crash, ya can usually get into the pits or garage and make something drivable. We might not see a sponsor anymore, but, you can drive it and keep up with the minimum speed. Short tracks are where guys can get laps back, even without that stupid ass "lucky dog" free pass.

In the last week there sure has been plenty of Goodyear bashing. I am really surprised that Tony Stewart showed up to race this weekend! I mean he spoke with such conviction shitty and useless the tires and, the tire company, Goodyear, are. Why not stick to your convictions and really make a stand, get out of the car, fly home to Indiana and dismount all the Goodyear tires on all your vehicles, just as you had promised. I heard Tony was less than helpful at the tire test at Las Vegas in December. Even by his own admission he was on vacation and didn't wanna be doing the test. Waaaaaa!!! Waaaaaaa!! People that make gazillions of dollars each year playing in sports or driving race cars should learn to keep their friggin mouths shut when it comes to whining about not getting enough time off. Day-by-day, week-to-week, when all is said and done in a year, you frickin whiners work less hours and days per year than the white or clue collar average worker. The average worker who is struggling to put gas in their cars and pay their mortgages. The average worker, who when he has to go on a business trip, isn't afforded the luxury to fly a helicopter from where he was working to the airport and be on a plane and in the air in 20 minutes. No, we'll sit for endless hours in airport terminals waiting for the next connection. Or, be the average worker and spend a couple weeks in a cheese line because your company is going through a slow down. Next time, stop stompimg your feet and pitching a fit about being at a tire test and give some useful feedback on tire tests. That feedback will have a direct correlation to the tire you race on Sunday, someday.

Watching pre-race on Speed and it looks kinda cold at Bristol. Cold being 50 degrees for them. 50 would be a friggin heat wave around this neck of the woods and we'd be out in shorts and t-shirts, haha.

Toyota Wins

That shrub sure can drive a car. Wonder if Jr was at all wondering, as he watched the rear bumper of the 18, if he made the right choice to go with Hendrick, hahaha. Kyle won the truck race, were it not for a shock failure in the Nationwide race, he likely would have won that. Then, he wins the cup race. 1000 miles of driving and two wins, not a bad weekend.

Good race overall! I like the way the new car behaves. They get slideways and it doesn't seem to snap around as the COY did. They don't seem to have as much aero issues. I always hated how you could get to within 10 feet of the car in front of you and cause him to slide up the track. That wing, splitter, bump stops, and radiator opening is messed up. But, I ain't no Engineer...

Wow, Tony Stewart is pissed at Goodyear! Did you catch his post race interview?? I bet the next 20 sets of tires he gets mounted by Goodyear will have issues, hahaha.

Tough luck for Edwards. Karma stuffs from last weeks violations, perhaps...

What's up with Jr's interviews these days? Is it me or is it he is just trying to tow the Hendrick company line and not be too animated in his interviews?? He seems like a monotone bot. Almost like he has a handler just off camera with a shock controller that is attached to Jr's sack and anytime he feels like just talking, he's gonna get his gonads lit up. He just doesn't seem the same. I dunno, maybe it's just me.

Gopher cam... Digger... Whatever, shut up!!!

Ok, the camera perspective is really cool, and I love speed shots like that. But enough with the friggin cartoon graphics, etc... What's next for FOX and cameras?? Next year they will call the cable cam above the field during NFL games the Underdog cam and there will be this cartoon Underdog flying around on the field. Hey, FOX??? STFU!!!!

Overplaying a shitty quality image over and over sucks. I'd much rather see the regular old work and if your digger cam catches something cool, by all means, play it again and again.

As of this writing, I am at lap 166 of the Atlanta race. I honestly think I have not seen it as often today as in the past races. I hope this is a trend and the new little fad camera is wearing off. Or, maybe, people like me are bitching about it enough and FOX is listening. I doubt it. This Atlanta race is a mover!! They are flying through this race!!

Las Vegas... Hit me!

Holy crap! The "hit me" in the title is a shitty Las Vegas related play on the enormous hit that Gordon took! WOWSER! Now, it is no secret, I am no Jeff Gordon fan, and I was happy to see he was out of competition, but upon seeing that hit, I was wondering if he was seriously hurt and would have felt bad if he did get hurt and I was cheering. I do applaud Gordon on his criticism of Bruton Smith on TV. All tracks should have the safer barrier installed on any wall that can be struck by a car in competition.

Now the safer barrier is not the end all of painful wrecks, ask Stewart! He got hobbled the day before in the Nationwide race. And then again in the Sprint Cup race. But, these cars are hauling ass around these tracks these days and the impacts are just as big!

So, based upon my title, and by my own admission in the first paragraph, I made a reference to gambling with the "hit me" stuff. I admit, the first few times I heard the announcers and pit reporters do it, it was cute. But after a while, I wanted to jam my fist down my throat and force myself to throw up from all the cuteness! About as annoying as the over promotion of the gopher cam. Cripes sakes! I sense another post!!

Robby Gordon Fine and Punishment

While I can certainly sympathize with Robby Gordon over the penalty NASCAR levied against him, I think the penalty should have stuck.

As car owner, you are 100% responsible for the car as it is presented to NASCAR for inspection. If the car is flawed in any way shape or form, and you get penalized, you should pay... Now Robby was trying to tell people there was "no intent" or "competitive advantage" from the part that was on the car. 1) You intended to race that car and the car was presented to NASCAR for inspection, that is all you need on the grounds of intent. 2) Competitive advantage is a moot point. The part was not a part allowed per the the NASCAR rule book.

NASCAR more or less caved in and gave back the points, but at the cost of $50,000. So he got a $150,000 fine for not following the rules... Why not just stick by the original fine and punishment?

Mind you, I could care less about Robby Gordon, I think he's an asshole, but I would be fair if I felt he deserved it. I think he does deserve the original punishment. This just opens more doors for other drivers to use the Robby Gordon defense.

California Raining

No California Dreaming if you were one of the fans stuck at that track. Holy shit! I cannot believe that NASCAR did that to the fans. I understand about trying to get the race in and doing whatever NASCAR can to get the race in on the day of the event. I understand fans were needing to fly home or go to work the next day. But, damn Sam! Those poor fans endured a long day of shitty weather.

I looked at the forecast and weather radar on Weather Underground and even me, an UNTRAINED weather professional, was able to look at the radar and see what was coming in from the shore and realize there was no way that they were going to get that race in.

Instead, they kept people in the stands buying meal after meal and beverage after beverage for hours upon hours upon hours of soaking rain. I imagine the track was also making a mint at selling rain gear too!

If they had called the race earlier and just given up and run the whole damn thing the next day, team owners and fans could have better opportunity to secure lodging and better conditions to spend their Sunday. We're hearing about all these drivers and even members of the media who have been battling the flu bug. Wonder how that all started?? Imagine the fans!!!

Shame on NASCAR for their greed and moronic ways!!

Blogging

I am sitting here watching the Atlanta race and decided to grab the laptop and post a message...

I suck at blogging!! I really do! I have all the greatest intentions to do it, yet, I friggin never do. I do on my personal site all the time, sometimes too much, haha. But, for whatever reason, I never post out here. I wish I knew why... I love NASCAR, you'd think that I would be a blogging emmer effer out here.

I have missed opportunities to write about Daytona, the debacle that was California, and the fast and furious action at Las Vegas.

I am going to make a concerted effort to post more messages and speak my mind on things regarding NASCAR. I may post a couple messages out of order to speak my mind