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.