Well here we all are.. March 28, 2008 it's the start of a new NASCAR Season...
A brief recap along with the promise to make a bigger effort to at least post to this place once a week :)
So Let's start at the beginning.... *Because let's face it that's always the best place to start.*
Speedweeks....Two words.... DALE JR..... :)
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Dale Jr fan. I'm now a Hendrick Motorsports fan because I'm a Jimmie fan and I'm also a Dale Jr Fan so NOW I'm a happy girl.. Junior got his first win of the year with HMS at The Bud Shoot Out. This proves that it wasn't the D.E.I. Cars at the restrictor plates... It was the man in the seat :) (I'm totally biased as a card carrying member of the Junior Nation) He then followed that win up with a win in his Dual at Daytona.Not a bad way to kick off the start of the new season :)
The 500 was won by Ryan Newman and the Penske Team. It was a 1-2 Penske finish. Newman winning and the #2 Miller Lite Dodge driven by Kurt Busch taking the second place spot. In my opinion it wasn't the most exciting 500 but it wasn't a bad race either. On a non-racing note... Trisha Yearwood totally kicked ass singing the National Anthem. She was freaking AMAZING!!!!!
After time in Florida we (and I mean that as a collective thing as 'we the fans' I personally sat at home ) headed west to catch the 24 Hours of Fontana.. I mean the race at Fontana. It rained and it rained and it rained. Dale Jr and Denny Hamilin got in a wreck early and were out. The race was red flagged several times then it was going to start late Sunday night then it was decided it was going to be ran on Monday. Carl Edwards was able to get his car dialed in correctly and won the Monday race.
After the 24 Hours of Fontana teams headed to Vegas.... Vegas baby! For such an exciting place it was a really boring race. Carl flipped his way to victory again. Making everyone go, whoa! Roush-Fenway did their homework in the off season!
From Vegas we hit Atlanta. The race at Atlanta wasn't very good at all until the last 30 laps. The last laps were some of the most amazing racing that had happed all day. Kyle Busch got Toyota their first win (really it was just a matter of time. Toyota was GENIUS going after Gibbs Racing! I'm not knocking Red Bull Racing or Micheal Waltrip Racing but the guys at Gibbs can drive anything and Toyota was smart in going for a big team that was established in the sport.)
Kyle Busch showed a lot of class (and again in my opinion this is my blog so I can totally put my opinion in wherever I want lol. I'm not a fan of Kyle Busch. I just don't like him there is something about him that rubs me the wrong way. Having said that I never thought that I'd be pulling for Kurt to beat his brother during the weekend either lol. But Kyle said something over the radio after the win at Atlanta that made me smile...."The 18 is back in Atlanta Boys!" Remember how awesome it was a couple of years ago to see Bobby Labonte in the 18 car battle with Jimmie Johnson for the win and Jimmie ended up barely winning? It was a 1-2 JGR finish in Atlanta with Tony trying his hardest to do better than his teammate. After that, Tony threw Goodyear under the bus leaving people to wonder... is Tony tired of not being the top dog? Or being out raced by a young brash kid (who reminds a lot of people of a younger Tony ) and Tony doesn't like that? Who knows.
Bristol Baby! I love Bristol it's one of my favorite tracks. And how cool was it to see Jeff Burton win? (Sure it would have been cooler to see Dale Jr win but Jeff Burton is very cool and it's cool to see just how excited his wife is for him.)
What have we learned from the first few races of the season? The car of today is still very much a work in progress. They changed the car, now they need to think about making the tire different. Also people are wondering what has happened to Hendrick Motorsports.... I can totally answer this question though.......Everyone else just came up to HMS level. They got tired of being out classed by HMS and they stepped up their game. Now HMS is going to up their game. They are going to a track this weekend that they have kicked some major butt at while going to Martinsville this weekend. Both Jeff and Jimmie have won there several times and Dale Jr has typically done well there too. Could this be the weekend that we see a Hendrick car in Victory Lane or will we see back flips? Anyway you slice it... It's Martinsville and it's going to be a good race!
