It really makes me wonder....

In light of Carl's accident in Omaha... correction.. Greenwood :) (which btw-Carl's accident is big news in Omaha, it's crazy lol I'm just glad he's okay!)
It's made me wonder if owners are going to start saying okay you can't go race here or there. Last year Tony Stewart injured his shoulder in the Chili Bowl. Carl dislocated his thumb. Jimmie.. Okay Jimmie fell off the top of a golf cart so that's not the same but really it makes me wonder if owners are going to start not letting their drivers go off and do extra things.

I love Dirt racing!!

It was hotter than h*ll yesterday but it could have been worst I guess LOL. There was a breeze. SO the gates opened at 4:00 and by 4:45 I had Carl and Kenny Edwards autograph. I've always had mixed feelings about Carl. Is he really that oh gosh golly gee person. He is. He's super nice and I was surprised he wasn't as tall in person as I thought he was going to be. I mean I'm 5'3" so everyone is way taller
than me but he just seems so tall on TV and maybe he was slouching a little bit but he just didn't seem as tall to me. He shook all the guys hands and thanked everyone for coming out to the track despite the heat. He totally signed my ESPN magazine! WHOOT! His little brother Kenny is hysterical they are so funny together. He said he had put a sign on the back of his car that read, "Carl who?!?!" I've seen Kenny race a couple times at I-80 Speedway and he's really becoming one of my favorite dirt racers! I asked Carl about his bike ride. He was going to ride his bike from Columbia to St. Louis, he said it was a nice ride, it took him two days.
So after I get both Kenny and Carl's signature I move off to the side so I can take some more pictures. I'm standing next to their mom and it doesn't really connect thats who she is until I walk back to my seat. My mom goes, "So does she look as pretty and nice as she does on the tv?" I laughed and said, "Uh no it's hotter than h*ll and her make up is running down her face just like everyone else's."
Carl and Kenny were supposed to participate in this race at the very end of the night that would pit them against their dad *who hadn't raced in like 8 years* and two sets of Brothers from the Omaha Metro who have raced. The Kosiski brothers (the Kosisiki family owns and operates I-80 Speedway) and another set of brothers, but that race got canceled because of storms moving into the area (and the races were running long because one of the main features ended up taking 45 minutes or better due to all the cautions. They'd go like a lap or two then wreck.) SO finally it was Carl and Kenny's feature. Things are going great, I mean super great, Carl started mid pack in a 25 lap shoot out and in three laps had moved up to 7th spot. Then there was a caution. No biggie a guy got into the wall. Green flag drops again, and we're off racing, then on the backstretch there was this big wreck, like 5 or 6 cars were involved it was big. Kenny ended up getting front end damage and had to go into the pits for repairs. Carl's night was done, (sad I wanted live pictures of him doing his back flip.) Well he got out of the car and he was upset. He could have won, he's a racer period and wanted to win (and I wanted to see the damn back flip lol!) He gets out waves to the crowd and walks down to the pits. Well then the EMS guys rush his brother's trailor. (Carl didn't have one he was running one of Ed Kosisiki's cars so he was just using Kenny and Ed's trailors as his base. One of the fun parts of the night was to guess where that Office Depot fire suit was gonna pop up next lol) So the EMS guys go check him out, My mom and I were like well it's because he's "NASCAR GUY" and if he weren't he'd probably be okay. Turns out Carl may have broken his thumb in the accident. As a precaution they sent him out to Lincoln (which is 20 miles from the track. Carl keeps saying that I-80 is in Omaha but it's really not it's in Greenwood which is a tiny town about 30-35 miles outside of Omaha and about 20 or so from Lincoln lol They wanted him to have his hand looked at. I never heard how it came about if it was broke or not, but I'll let you know if I find out anything.) My mom and I were talking about how the whole conversation went: "Carl-I'm fine, it's cool. Geepers mom I'm fine. Nancy-Carl get in the rescue squad so we can have your hand checked out. Carl-I'm fine gosh. How many times do I have to say that. Various track workers- Mr. Edwards please get into the rescue squad and go have your hand checked out. We don't want Jack Roush to come down on us like the Wrath of God for letting one of his drivers get hurt at our track. Please. Carl-No, I'm fine, I'll call Jack tomorrow and let him know things are good. Track Workers: Carl get in the squad now or we won't invite you back and you won't get to take any more fans around the track in that two seater late model." We obviously don't know if that's how it went but it was almost 11pm when that happened, my mom and I were hot and tired so that's how we thought the conversation went in our mind Plus if he did break his hand at least it was in a legit racing incident not like Jimmie Johnson who was golf cart surfing
I'm just glad I took today off!! LOL It was a fun night even if I didn't get to see the back flip



Carl signed my ESPN Magazine cover!! :)

One of the really cool points of the day was meeting my "Line buddies" They were HMS fans (Jimmie fans!) and we talked about how cool it was going to be to have Jimmie and Junior one the same team and how innovative The Chad is and he just needs to stop getting caught being innovative :)


Edit... Carl is okay his hand is okay his thumb is dislocated, he was treated and released from an Omaha hospital (that two of my uncles are doctors at just a little side note. One delivers babies the other is a peds. doctor. but I just thought it was kind of a cool little side note.)

Junior to make announcement tomorrow...

Well folks it looks like tomorrow is going to be the day we find out where Dale Jr is going to go. It sounds like Junior will be going to HMS next year. According to Claire B Lang (Dialed In XM Radio, and Jim Utter (The Charlotte Observer) they have said that in order for Dale Jr to be able to make his announcement to go to HMS that someone from HMS has to announce that Kyle (We can all assume it's going to be Kyle, he's been complaining about not being happy and all this other stuff.) is leaving HMS. This could be done tonight via press release, or it can be done by an HMS PR rep tomorrow before Junior makes his announcement. And for the record.....I look just as good in blue as I do in red :) I will follow him wherever.

Close my eyes and leap........

If I could close my eyes and be anywhere other than where I live, it would have to be in Rossburg Ohio at Eldora. Tonight is the Prelude to the Dream race. I was at Eldora for a race 2 summers ago and I have to say it's a beautiful beautiful track. It's well taken care of and it's a wonderful track full of history. When I saw the Eldora track I stood one a bleacher, called my mom in tears and said, "Guess where I'm at? I'm at Eldora and in a few hours we'll be back to watch the race" My mom being the same die-hard NASCAR fan that I am thought it was great that I got to see Eldora. My dad and I were told that we missed meeting Tony Stewart by a day that was a bummer but still, this is one memory of a thousand that I will treasure forever. My dad and I take camping trips every summer. I'm now 26 years old and yes, I'm a daddy's girl. We take a big camping trip every year and this memory of seeing Eldora and seeing a race there is one of the best memories I will have of camping with my dad.
If I close my eyes I can remember every detail of that day. What I wore, what my dad wore. I of course wore my favorite Dale Jr t-shirt. Dad wore his BMW motorcycle shirt, it was a warm July day and the sky was so blue with just a few fluffy clouds in the sky.

My dad is a great guy who really encourages my NASCAR obsession. Well he doesn't do anything to hinder it LOL :) While camping in Pennsylvania he drove past the Poccono Track in a thunderstorm just so I could see it. He also on that same trip drove through Indianapolis just so I could see the Brickyard and take pictures of the hallowed racing place. It's great and since it's nearing Father's Day and the race at Eldora tonight I thought I'd share a special father/daughter moment that we had. My dad worked on dirt cars when he was in the Air Force. One of his buddies he had met through a couple guys that were on the base with him raced and so my dad and a couple of the guys would work on the pit crew over the weeknds if they were available to. So I guess I get my love of dirt racing and racing in general naturally. :)



And just to prove that my dad really thinks like me... He told me to go stand by the Coke machine with Tony's picture on it. I don't have a copy of that picture my dad has it but it was a fun day :) A little insight into my mind... I posed with the Matt Kenseth cut-out at Arby's two weeks ago LOL :) So when my dad said "hey Nik, go stand by the pop machine." I had no problem doing that! :)

Well it's been awhile....

It's been since the Allstar race that I've posted something... a lot of interesting things have happened to me since then... One of which was a very interesting email debate on myspace on if I was a Teresa Hater (Teresa Earnhardt) or not. I'm trying for the life of me to remember ever posting in a public venue my thoughts on her and the entire Dale Jr contract thing and I've got nothing. Hmmm....http://fricknfrackracing.blogspot.com/2007/05/junior-is-leaving.html
Yup checked that out nothing bad about here there... So yeah this person emailed me via myspace and asked me if I was a Teresa Hater... He was obviously a Teresa Earnhardt fan and kudos to him for that. I'm not I'm a Dale Jr fan period end of discussion. So that was a very interesting few days of emails. It was interesting to hear someone else's opinion. I love opinion debates I do. Bottom line though on this topic of Teresa Earnhardt versus Dale Jr people are going to have to agree to disagree over things because there are Dale Jr fans that are DIE hard Dale Jr fans and will follow him wherever he'll go and cheer for him. There are other fans that are D.E.I fans and will support whoever drives for Teresa at D.E.I does that make the people that are D.E.I fans any less of NASCAR fans than that of someone that follows a specific driver nope not at all . It's simply what makes the sport of NASCAR great! NASCAR is great because there are going to be debates over this driver being better than that driver. Or this team being better than that team. It's what makes the sport fun and interesting and I for one can't wait until next season to see how things shake up.

Do I think D.E.I will turn to a expensive museum like Tony Stewart said? Maybe, I certainly hope not because I think D.E.I is important to NASCAR.

Now on to racing.... The race is this weekend at Dover. And sadly it will be run tomorrow because of rain. Guess it's a good thing I'm already on vacation for tomorrow :) Happy Racing Monday to all racing fans out there. Who knows. Maybe Dale Jr will follow up his great 2001 win with a win tomorrow :) He's got a great starting spot. Starting 2nd. He was on the pole until Ryan Newman knocked him off the pole.

Let's go Allstar Racing!!!

I love the Allstar race! It's just great old school beating and banging racing. This year the Crew Chiefs got to jump in cars and race also. That was a fun race, lots of beating and banging in that race too. Andy Petre won the race with Chad Knaus finishing second. Not without effort mind you, Chad really tried and nearly got Andy a couple of times.

Martin Truex Jr got his first cup win in the Nextel Open. It's just a matter of time before he gets his first win during a points paying race. He's just on the cusp of getting it. D.E.I is getting their ducks in a row and it's not going to be to much longer before they are winning again.

Kevin Harvick won the Allstar race. Perhaps the most exciting part was when Kyle and Kurt Busch got into each other. Everyone wondered what would happen if the two of them wrecked into each other. Kurt really showed how mature he's become by taking the higher road and while he did comment on saying it would be a while before he'd eat Kellog's again, he was very cool and collected with the incident. All in all it was a good Allstar Race.

Junior is leaving...

It's official Dale Jr is leaving D.E.I at the end of this season. I can't say I'm surprised but yet at the same time I am.

However, I'm very proud at him for standing up and doing what is right for him. I'm a Dale Jr fan and I'm very proud to say that I'm a Dale Jr fan and I wish him a ton of luck wherever he decides to go next year.
He hasn't decided where he's going to go yet, he wants to talk to everyone who wants to talk to him. I think that is great! Here is the transcript, podcast and further down the page you can read Budweiser's statement

I can only imagine how hard it was for him to make this decision but he made it and in my opinion his father would be proud of him for standing up for what he feels is right. I wish him nothing but the best for the rest of this season and next season.

The Internet has been swirling with rumors of where he was going to go for the last couple of days. My personal favorite was that he was going to Hendrick Motorsports. Nothing against HMS, I happen to like Jimmie Johnson too but I just can't see him driving for HMS. The other one was he's going to start his own Cup team and run it out of JR Motorsports and lease HMS engines. PLUS he was taking Martin Truex Jr with him. Truex is still under contract until after the 2008 season.

So from this Junior fan.... Good luck buddy I think next year is going to be a very exciting year!

Holy cow!

I admit freely that there are certain drivers out there that I do not like for whatever reason and Kyle Busch happens to be one of them. I can tolerate his brother 90% of the time but Kyle I don't know, for whatever reason I just can't deal with him. It might just possibly be his age and inexperience or something like that but whatever it is I just don't really like him... Now... having said that... I'm so glad that he was able to walk away from this...
Kyle was running the Busch race today in Talladega and he was running in second place he was going to get around Casey Mears who was leading (Go Casey! WHOOT!) and Tony Stewart was in third place. Tony may have nicked Kyle's car causing him to bounce into Casey then he(Kyle) turned and hit the wall. His car was on it's side when it hit the wall, it looked like a horrible wreck and if that wasn't bad enough it slid on it's roof down into the grass infield where it there started to barrel roll and catch on fire. Luckily he was able to get out of the car and walk to the ambulance hit the infield care center.
I don't want any driver to wreck that bad. Sure I have hopes that their engine will go poof at times and then my boys can win but I don't like to see any driver flip over like that. That is too scary and while Kyle may or may not (depending on who you ask) be the most popular guy out there, the crowd went wild when he was able to get out of the car. Nobody wishes ill will on the drivers. They just want engines to softly putter out so their boy(s) can win the race.

Man I love Restrictor Plates!

It's Talladega weekend. Second plate race of the year. Plate racing is one of those things you either love or you hate. At least to me it seems that way. It just seems there is no middle ground. I LOVE it!!! I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT! I think my love for it goes back to the times of Big E who will be celebrating his birthday this weekend, so it seems fitting that his birthday falls on Talladega weekend. The man had 10 wins at that track, and his son has 5 and leads the way for most active drivers with wins at that track not to mention 4 wins in a row. I think it's time to make that a 6-pack myself :)

Dale Earnhardt made drafting look like a ballet on four wheels, you can see that still when you see Jeff Gordon and Dale Jr run on plate tracks. Jeff credits Dale for teaching him to race at Talladega.

Tomorrow I'll be sitting in front of my television wearing my Dale Jr gear cheering.

Very nice!

Now I'm not a Jeff Gordon fan by any stretch of the imagination but when he won the Phoenix race Saturday night he tied the record of wins set by the Late Great Dale Earnhardt. When the race was over and Jeff had won he took a victory lap around P.I.R. with a 3 flag. To me that was cool as hell. He was paying respect to a man who had a lot of influence on him as a driver and a person. I didn't get to see the race but I was sitting in the Karaoke Bar Saturday night watching highlights on ESPN. I'm woman enough to admit this that in the middle of the karaoke
bar I got teary eyed seeing Jeff drive around the track with that 3 flag. It was awesome. But perhaps the coolest event of the night came when Dale Junior went to Victory Lane to congratulate Jeff on winning the race. Not only did Jeff tie Big E's 76 win record, but it was also the very first time Jeff has won at Phoenix. To me that's hard to fathom that a guy with a record like Jeff's hasn't won at a few race tracks still. I really liked what Jeff Gordon said in an interview with NASCAR.Com

It means the world," Gordon said. "Holding that 3 flag, it's certainly by no means saying we're as good as him. I learned so much from him. We wanted to honor him. We've been holding on to that flag for a long time."

One of the first drivers to congratulate Gordon in Victory Lane was Dale Earnhardt Jr

"That means the world to me because I didn't want to come across the wrong way," Gordon said. "We wanted to show tribute and honor."

Now while I still may not be Jeff's biggest fan he did manage to really look good in this Earnhardt fan's eyes :)





Images came from Autostock.com
and Yahoosports.com

Well dang

Okay not really racing related but it's my blog and I can post about whatever I want to LOL...
Grant Wistrom is no longer playing for the Seahawks
Really makes me sad, I've been a Grant Wistrom fan since he played at Nebraska. I mean I'm glad the guy is at a point in his life where he can do whatever he wants. He hasn't out right said he' retiring from the NFL Maybe *fingers crossed* he'll go back to St. Louis or maybe the Chiefs. But it would be nice to see 98 out there making the sacks. Sure he didn't have that many this year but he came in to play when it counted.. who was there in the play off game when Tony Romo fumbled his play? GRANT BABY! He got the fumbled ball and ran before he was tackled. I'm at a crossroads I guess in my NFL watching.. For 10 seasons I've cheered for whatever team Wistrom played for now I'm like the woman without a country or at least a NFL team to cheer for. I'm stuck do I opt to keep cheering for the Seahawks? Or do I find a new team, or do I hope that someone from either KC or St. Louis will call up Grant and beg him to come play for their team?

A lot of hot air...

Jimmy Spencer... gosh I don't even really know how to start this without saying something I might regret later on. Hmm.. Basically in a nut shell Jimmy exercised his right to free speech Sunday on Speed's NASCAR Race Day. HOWEVER, what he said was harsh and hurtful to someone. The person that he was harsh and hurtful to was Kelley Earnhardt Elledge. What he said was harsh to her but also very harsh to women every where. He said she (Kelley) was egotistical for keeping Earnhardt in her name... Well a lot of professional women when they marry will not take their husband's name professionally or they will hyphenate their name. Case in point, Lesa France Kennedy who's family run NASCAR. I'm sure he wouldn't call Lesa egotistical. I read some really good articles by two journalists I really respect and admire. Marty Smith from EPSN.com
and an article from Lee Spencer(No relation to the giant bag of hot air Jimmy) from FoxSports.com
Personally I really admire all that Kelley has done for her brother. She's gone above and beyond the call of sibling hood to take care of Dale Jr, not just with the normal brother/sister stuff but going beyond that and looking out for him and helping him with his contract, helping him run JR Motorsports. Kelley is a very savvy, smart business woman and Jimmy Spencer doesn't know what he's talking about. He needs to just sit down and relax before he hurts himself, and or further embarrass himself by having foot in mouth disorder. Yes he does have the right to say what he wants, but he doesn't have the right to be rude, disrespectful, and hurtful to another human being.

well hmmm

Call it growing maturity (my birthday is tomorrow, I'll be another year older so yeah we'll call it maturity) I had a thought in my mind for a post about how some drivers are well just whiny and annoy the ever loving tar out of me (No I'm not talking about Jeff Gordon, right organization, wrong driver.) And how after the car is wrecked because that driver didn't slow down and ended up plowing into another car thus causing the massive mess to his car then storm away from the track leaving his team scratching their heads trying to find a driver for the final laps of the race. BUT instead I read this article
It totally made me proud to be a Dale Jr fan. This guy is paying it forward basically. He could have been very angry and said to hell with it and nobody would have blamed him for it at all. After all, he wasn't going to be getting any points or any other compensation for being a nice guy. He was just doing something he felt in his mind was right. It does make me wonder how the Monday morning meeting on the 5 team is going to at HMS. But that's a thought for another day. Back to Dale Jr. Sure some conspiracy theorist.. okay some NASCAR Conspiracy Theorists are going to say hmmm.. was Dale Jr using this time to "audition" for HMS? It wouldn't be the first time this question was posed. Marty Smith asked Jimmie Johnson on his XM Radio Show about Junior coming over to HMS. Jimmie said basically he thought that Dale Jr would stay at D.E.I. Which in case any one is wondering how I feel. I tend to believe he'll stay at D.E.I myself too. I think he's got one of the best people in the world helping him with his contracts in his sister Kelley. She's smart and very business orientated. I think that Dale Jr and Kelley are pretty much at this point where they can write their own ticket and get pretty much everything they ask for and I don't think that Max Siegal is a dumb guy and is going to let the 'cash cow' of D.E.I. walk away without a fight. So I think the chances of Junior leaving D.E.I are slim to none.

The entire event with him being the bigger person and helping out the very team who's driver took him out of contention for a potential win just shows how wonderful a person Dale Jr is and it makes this Bud 8 Fan proud to put on red on Sundays and cheer for that red bud car.

Well it's not completely bad...

Before I write my new views on the NASCAR Car of Tomorrow take a peak at how harsh I was in the past (okay last month lol) about it.
that's another place to read my opinions on NASCAR :) Oh while you're there check out what Don, Angel, and MommaE all have to say too :) The Go Fast Turn Left Team rock :)

Here's my current views on the Car of Tomorrow(Today?)

Race one with the Car of Tomorrow (or would that be Car of Today?) Is officially in the books. Young Kyle Busch won a historic day all around, 600th win for Chevy, first win in a COT car, the 200th win for Hendrick Motorsports and my favorite guy ended up with a top 10 finish so all in all it was a good day right?

I was really tough on the COT car a few weeks ago, and very snarky too in writing about it. But after seeing it out on track and seeing the car painted with all the decals it doesn’t look too bad. Even the wing didn’t look to bad. The only thing was.. How much of the cautions and stuff was COT car related and how much of it was just BRISTOL Baby! :)

There are still some bugs to work out with the COT car, I don’t think it “sucks” like Kyle Busch said it did in Victory Lane, I do think that there are some bugs that need to be worked out. Many drivers said that the car handled differently than the other cars and it was tough to find the balance between too loose or too tight, it’s going to be a big learning curve for drivers, crew and owners. The pit stops didn’t seem like they were that much harder or longer than normal, I think though that as time goes on we may see more incidents on pit road due to a rear tire carrier smacking into the wing while trying to go around it, or the front getting ground up a bit and when a car clips a pit crew member it could lead to even more serious damage than before, but those are risks those guys take on when they slap on their helmets and jump over the wall to service the cars. Look at the crew guy who was injured from Jeff Burton’s team. He was hurt a year or two ago came back and hurt again.

There are still a few things up in the air about the COT car such as how will it perform at Martinsville next week, how bad is it going to be if the front end gets messed up (like Junior’s did last spring at Martinsville.) What if two people wreck and their respective crews have to get new wings? Does NASCAR have enough wings on stand by to give teams multiple wings if needed such as crashes at happy hour, qualifying things like that. Will the inspection process go faster? How will it do at Talladega? All of those will be answered as time goes by and everyone gets more comfortable with things. It’s been suggested that perhaps NASCAR will mandate all cars be COT cars for 2008. Crew chiefs have said it would be better if they all went in 2008 instead of 2009 and it makes sense to this little arm chair crew chief to do that. The poor guys and gals in the shop are running themselves ragged trying to work on two cars so to me it makes sense to go all out next season, plus it will also help iron out the kinks.

Will the COT car help the smaller teams? Who knows? I think that eventually it will level out the field somewhat but your good crew chiefs, Borland, Berrier, Knaus, Eury Jr, Reiser, Richert, Letart, Francis, Zippy, and everyone else out there on a pit box worth their salt is going to eventually figure out ways to tweak the COT car and give them an advantage over everyone else, that’s just the nature of the beast. SO my final assessment of the COT car is, it’s okay, there is room to improve and tweak on but I don’t feel that it totally “sucks”like young Kyle does. I do still however have one big question.. Anyone know where I can find that great rendition of “Sweet Home Alabama” In the new Chevy Impala Commercial :)

****
Now that we are two races down with the COT car I'm convinced it's an okay car.. does that totally make me a sellout? Bottom line it is what it is, the car is here to stay and I enjoy racing and I could care less if they race bicycles or COT cars. As long as I get to see my boys (those would be Dale Jr, and Jimmie Johnson and a growing list of others lol) on the track every Sunday I'm one happy little camper.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas?!?!?!

Well it's snowed like crazy for two days where I live and let's just say I'm tired of the snow! I shoveled out my drive and sidewalk yesterday only to have to do it again tomorrow because it snowed again today. The plus side was yesterday and today were snowdays and I had two days of vacation from work that I wouldn't have gotten if it hadn't snowed.
But because of the snow I had a chance to sit down and think about NASCAR and their Car of Tomorrow and what I've come up with is I have a lot of questions about it and how it will run. BUT I think that the safety aspect of it is great. I have to wonder, is it going to drive like a Craftsman Truck and if that's the case will guys who've run in the truck series have an advantage? Will teams have to go to the file cabinet and pull out notes from several years ago and will those notes transfer to the new car?!? How will it perform at Martinsville? How will it perform if someone gets into you and you have to cut away the entire right quarter panel like Dale Jr last year at Martinsville. With the COT Car will that totally hose you?!?! I think after watching the test sessions from Bristol on Speed this week I think it's going to be okay, but I think the real test is going to be once the car gets out on the track at Bristol in a couple of weeks. Bottom line race fans, the COT car is here and it's here to stay and I would even venture a guest that it will run full time starting in 2008 instead of 2009 like NASCAR wants. I'm betting we'll see it sooner rather than later just because of the cost factor for the owners and how hard everyone in the shop is going to have to work at having two cars. It's going to be an interesting and historic ride.

Welll....

Because let's face it I need another blog thing like I need a hole in my head. Like Live Journal, Myspace and infield parking just weren't enough I've had this account for awhile, most likely I will not use it often at all just because I have all the other forms of blogging, but I figured what the heck I better try this out at least once :)