Dear Dorothy and Toto–Thank you for a wonderful experience there in Kansas, however I am glad we are no longer in Kansas.

I have tried for two days now to write about the Kansas race, but between work and this “injury” that has taken over my right side, I have had time to squeeze it in.   With regards to my injury, I have this mysterious pain on my right side just below the rib cage.  Nothing is broken and there is no pathology according to the doc, but it really, really hurts when I cough, laugh, sneeze, or do any kind of stretching.  Heck it even hurts when I lie in bed.  I guess it’s all muscular, but hey I got some decent pain meds out of the deal. 

Now on to Kansas…just when you thought the Chase couldn’t get any weirder…two rain delays and shortened race later.  The Chase standings are once again scrambled with my driver Mr. Stewart coming out with the short end of the deal.  I have to give Zippy props for making a good call before the 2nd rain storm hit, but letting Tony stay out negates the great call.  Zippy should have brought Tony down pit road and fixed the tire rub.  I really don’t know who makes the final decision to stay out, but come one now…how long have Tony and Zippy been “married”?  Instead, Tony’s tire goes down and gets rear ended by Kurt B.  I think it’s a racing deal with the Kurt thing.  Some times you can’t stop or avoid a slow car on the track.  All I know is Tony was not happy.  I would like to thank the media for letting Tony cool down and not try to get immediately after everything happened.  I have to say I am like Tony at times.  When I get mad about things I some times say things I would never say under much quieter times.  The media knows he is like this and I hate to say they want that sound bite, but that’s another topic for another day.

Congratulations to Greg Biffle on winning the race albeit a strange ending.  I would have loved to seen the green/white checker though.  You had Clint and Jimmie hot on the trail of Greg.  It would have been an interesting shootout between the three of them.  But as it turned it might not have been with Greg low on fuel.  There was a little controversy regarding the ending and some questioned if Biffle should be declared the winner of the race.  It is to my understanding once the yellow is thrown, the field is frozen according to the last scoring loop.  You must maintain a reasonable speed behind the pace car and you cannot pass under the yellow.  Greg in my opinion did just that.  Even though he went to the bottom of the track to keep his fuel going, he still maintained a reasonable speed behind the pace car.  It was as if he was crawling along the bottom.  Then Jimmie and Clint passed him under yellow which you cannot do.  I guess NASCAR made the right call according to the rules.  I wonder if they are going to look at that and make changes….only time will tell.

 I do have to give some kudos to NASCAR for trying to get the race in for the fans.  I know how expensive a NASCAR weekend can be on the old pocketbook.  If I was one of those fans in the stands I would want my money’s worth.  Should they have continued the race after the 2nd rain storm, I don’t know.  It was obvious after the rain stopped it would be a shortened race.  I think part of it may have been it was a Chase race.  That could have been played part in their decision, but who knows.  I guess that’s why I sit here in Texas.  They get paid the big bucks to make those kinds of decisions.  And yes I am aware that if the race was called, Tony would have won and be leading the points race coming out of Kansas instead of where he sits today which is 4th and 117 points back of Jimmie Johnson.  And once again Jimmie falls in a pile of cow doo and comes out smelling like a rose…crashes his primary car in practice, starts in the back, finishes third and is now back in the lead in the points.  UGH…

Other news while we all slept…

1.  Dario Franchetti makes his move to NASCAR and will drive the #40 car.  now?

2.  Scott Riggs will become the driver of either the #66 or #70 next year.  Could David Stremme be header over to GEM

3.  M&Ms will now sponsor the #18 and Kyle Busch next year.

I guess that’s all for now…oops..one more thing…I am looking forward to the COT at Talladega this weekend.  After seeing the coverage of how rowdy Talladega can be both on and off the track, I think I need to make a pilgrimage to a Dega race.  For those of you going to the race this weekend or have already arrived, drink a cold one for me.