NASCAR 2008

Smoke

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

You would think I would be able to keep up with articles written about Tony Stewart or other tidbits concerning him, but the last few weeks has been super crazy. I wish I could get back on track with all my NASCAR stuff, but between gettting a 5 year old ready for his adventure into kindergarten, maintinaing some kind of saneness at work, and pretty much trying to herd my “cats”, I am tired. But I was able to get into the garage to have some repair done and was able to surf a few of my haunts out there in the blogosphere.

I have to give credit to Karah over at Diary of a Track Bunny for sharing this Rolling Stone article about Tony Stewart

Definitely worth reading…and while you are over there take a gander at her site. This is one of my favorite sites to visit.

Bristol

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This post is going to be Bristol style–short and fast.

  • Congrats to Carl–might be the only driver to catch Kyle
  • Carl “bump and run”–not as good as Jeff G or Dale Sr., but very effective
  • Kyle vs Carl–something NASCAR has needed, definitely a rivalry forming
  • I bet #88 will remember to wait to pass other cars until he gets to the start/finish line this week
  • Casey Mears to RCR in the 07 for 09.  Clint to the 33
  • Tony finished 8th
  • Joey officially going to be in the #20 in ’09
That’s about it for Bristol.  Sorry for the short post.  We had lots of things happening here today.  Little Smoke started his first day of Kindergarten and he had a rough day of it.  But tomorrow is another day…
Have a great week!

Slip Slidin’ Away

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

In case you missed the Bristol Craftsman Truck race was on last night.  I know, it’s weird to watch racing on a Wednesday night, but I did catch most of the race.  If you are a reader and/or lurker of The Park, you know that I am not a big fan of Jimmie Johnson.  However, I wanted to see how he would perform in his first truck race of his career.  Jimmie drove teh #81 for Randy Moss Motorsports last night.  Jimmie qualified 9th and was doing pretty good.  He was at one time leading laps in the race until Kyle Busch over took him.  Unfortunately Jimmie finished 34th last night.  I am sure he would have finished higher if not for this little action move.

Whether you like Jimmie or not, I have to give him major props for trying to save the truck. That was some damn fine driving Mr. Johnson.

I do have to say I was a little creeped out when they kept saying Jim Johnson. I guess we are so used to Jimmie and not Jim that it just unnerved me. That would be like the announcers calling Tony, Anthony. It’s just wrong.

Congratulations to Kyle Busch on another win. What does that make now across all three series? Eight million? Seriously, though, he has 17 wins across the three series (8-Cup, 6-NWS, 3-Truck). Say what you want, that boy can drive.

Michigan

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I didn’t watch much of the race yesterday.  I have to get the homestead ready for our caseworker’s walk through on Tuesday.  She is prepping us for our certification/licensing review that is upon us.  This is something as foster/legal risk to adopt parents have to go through.  I did have the race on in two rooms–our bedroom and the livng room.  I would occassionally look up from time to time in between moving things from our bedroom to the office as well as tryign to get a 5-year to clean his room.  Let’s just say, I think hearding cats would have been much easier for me yesterday. 

In this whole cleaning process, I had to crate up my Tony Stewart shrine and move it to the office.  I know…I should be allowed to have some kind of mourning period today, but I will perseveer thorough the trauma.  Look at it this way, it will allow me to make room for all the NEW Tony Stewart items I will be purchasing in the near future.

Congratulations to Carl Edwards for not only his win yesterday, but for the weekend sweep at Michigan.  He really did have the car to beat yesterday.  I don’t know if Kyle could have caught him.  He definitely had a car that could have, but catchign Carl and passing Carl were two different things entirely.  Kyle Busch finished 2nd and clinched the number one seed for The Chase yesterday however.  In fact the top 5 in the standings didn’t change positions from the previous week.  It looks like those five are solidly in the Chase, but with NASCAR things aren’t settled until that checkered flag flies.  There were a few in 6-12 position that took big hits yesterday–Jeff Gordon (from 6th to 9th), Kasey Kahne (from 8th to 11th) and Denny Hamlin (from 9th to 12th).  Clint Bowyer is still out of the top 12 sitting tied for 13th with David Ragan.  I have to say I am impressed wtih David Ragan.  He is giving everything he has to get into the Top 12.  Yesterday increased his chances to getting that 12th spot.  He finisheed 3rd.  Both he and Clint are only 26 points out of the 12th and final spot.  For those on teams on the bubble now is the time to step it up and just race balls to wall.  There are only 3 races left until the Chase.   

I know Tony still has won a race this year and I am handling as best as I can about not seeing the #20 Home Depot in Victory Lane. If Tony is going to make a push for his 3rd championship he is going to have to get across the finish line in first place.  That’s just the way it is this year.  With the way both Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards have been running this year, you are going to have put together a string of wins to beat these guys.  That’s the bottom line…

Now…I was a little stunned when I heard of the cheating incidents over at JGR with the #18 and #20 in the Nationwide Series.  Of all teams in the garage, JGR and cheating just doesn’t like something they do.  It was discovered that shims (1/4 inch magnet) were placed under the gas-pedal stop. What does this mean? In essence, shims were used to keep the gas pedal from being fully depressed, thus limiting the engines’ output thus affecting the results when going through the dyno. Penalties will probably be assessed on Tuesday.