NASCAR 2008

Leaving

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

I am NOT a morning person…let me repeat NOT a morning person.  So when I saw the news brief on Sportscenter about Tony Stewart I was like WTF?

Of course, this comes to no surprise however to me as a Tony Stewart fan.  The rumors started several months ago and now it looks like it has reportedly become fact.  It was reported by Marty Smith that Tony has been granted a release from Joe Gibbs racing and will move over to Haas CNC to become part owner and driver beginning next year.  Tony will formally announce his move today.

More to come later today…

How I really feel about all of this…

You can create this using Wordle. You can either paste something from a post or you can enter your site address and it will randomly create this word cloud. Notice how the words you use more are larger than the other words.  Guess I use Tony quite a bit. 

This one I just typed in my web address…once again notice the size of the word “Tony”

Coke Zero 400 and a little extra

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

I hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th weekend.  Like Tony, I too was under the weather. 

I want to touch on a couple of things before getting into Saturday night’s race.  Congratulations to the #20 Nationwide team for winning another race.  This time it was Denny driving the #20.That makes what 9 wins this season for that team with Tony leading with 5 wins for the #20.  

Looks like the #5 will be occupied for the next two years by none other than Mark Martin.  Mark Martin announced this past weekend that he will run a full time schedule in 2009 for HMS.  I guess Mark wants to give it one more shot at winning a championship before he makes his exit out of NASCAR.  Well, he has a pretty good shot over at HMS.  But as with any championship run it will be a challenge, but if anyone is up to the challenge Mark Martin is.  Postman was very excited about the prospect of his favorite driver making a run for the championship next year.  I think it is kind of funny that he will be doing it in an HMS car.  He is not a big fan of the #88 and don’t even get him talking about the #24.  He told me the other day #48 is growing on him (and I have to admit it too, #48 doesn’t rub me the wrong way as in year’s past).  But either way he will be rooting on Mark. 

Now on to the festivities…in case you didn’t know with the numerous annoncements throught the broadcast and with commercials…if a Coke Racing Family driver won the Coke Zero 400 everyone would get a free 20 oz Coke Zero.

I have to say I enjoyed the race for the most part.  Nothing out of the ordinary really upset me other than the fact that Tony had to come out of the car.  I have to give major props to J.J. Yeley for bringing home the #20 in pretty good shape.  In fact he was in the Top 10 late in the race, but several cautions prevented J.J. from giving the boys a decent finish.  The #20 finished 20th and Tony dropped 3 spots to 12th in the point standings.  I know drivers hate to come out of their cars and hand it over to another driver, but at some point you have to decide what is best for your team as well as the other competitors and that is what Tony was feeling on Saturday. 

From the get go, I thought this was going to be an HMS dominated race and for the most part it was.  But with everything that is Daytona, only one of the 4 drivers finished in the top 10.  Dale Jr. who lead the most laps finished 8th.  While Jeff, Jimmie, and Casey finished 23rd, 30th, and 34th repsectively.  I would have found it somewhat funny if Jeff had gone on to win the race.  I mean, here we have THE Pepsi driver winning the Coke Zero 400.  I wonder if the Coke Executives were having heart attacks when they saw the #24 that close to victory.  Do you think they sent a case of Coke Zero to Carl?  And what was up with Jimmie in the pits?  Every time he exited his pit stall he swung wide. There were times he was moving cars close to or on the grass.  I believe one of the broadcasters mentioned about the pit selection causing some of the issues.  If that is the case, Chad needs to make note of it.  Next time choose a different pit.

As always with Daytona racing gets pretty hairy within the last 25 or so laps and Saturday was no exception.  As well all have been told cautions breed cautions.  Starting with lap 131, when the 6th caution flew, we had caution 7 (lap 136), caution 8 (lap 140), caution 9 (lap 149) and caution 10 (lap 157) what seemed like back to back cautions.  Just when the cars would get up to speed and moving, another caution would come out.  Caution 10 of course caused the race to move into overtime.  Jeff Gordon brought the field to the green and the next thing you know, there goes Jeff heading for the infield.  No yellow was thrown until Michael Waltrip, Sam Hornish, Dave Blaney, Travis Kvapil, J.J. Yeley and a host of others decided to come together. 

Have viewing footage, it was determined that Kyle Busch was ahead of Carl Edwards when the caution flew.  Congratulations to Kyle for winning his first race at Daytona and his 6th win of the season.  Was it me or did I hear fewer boos and more cheers from the fans?   There were still quite a few of boos, but now there were more cheers than weeks past.

Way to go David Reutiman…what was it 5 Lucky Dogs?  You finished a respectable 21st and on the lead lap.

Elliott Sadler is off the market.  Apparently Elliott is now engaged and is planning on a wedding some time next year I believe I heard them say.  Congratulations Elliott.

One last thing…testing policy changes…not sure how I feel about this one.  If NASCAR is going to change their policies regarding testing they need to make it fair for all teams.  I don’t know if just opening up Pandora’s box will fix things.  Because once you open it up, it will be a little difficult to close it.  We will just have to wait and see.

Funny thing happened on the way to work….sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself.  I was heading down to the ladies room at work this morning and noticed there was something not quite right with my shoe.  I thought maybe there was soemthing on it and that is why it felt weird.  If only that were it…but no it wasn’t.  I looked down and saw the problem.  I WAS WEARING TWO DIFFERENT SHOES!  Yep…that’s right I have on a brown sandel on my right foot and a black sandel on my left foot.  It wouldn’t be so bad because I have a pair of brown sandels that look like the black one I am wearing, but I put on the nice pretty one that has a decorative strap.  It’s ok to point and ridicule and even roll your hinies off laughing…because if you can’t laugh about life, then why bother living.

Park milestone…I reached the 20,000 vistor mark sometime this weekend!  Thanks to all of my regulars and lurkers.  Here’s to another 20,000.

So Long, Farewell

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

Chip Ganassi Racing announced today they are shutting down the #40 team of Dario Franchetti due to sponsorship issues. I have to say this was a little surprising. I mean he has only been in the car this season and he didn’t even get a chance to run all the races. Franchetti missed 5 races due to an ankle injury plus he has failed to qualify for 2 races as well. The #40 is currently sitting 40th in owner points. CGR is committed to developing his Nationwide Series program for Franchetti.

But I can understand why CGR did what they felt they had to do. Running a race team isn’t cheap these days. I can also understand it from a sponsor’s side as well. A sponsor pays quite a bit of moolah to invest in a race team and expect to see their driver in victory lane or at least competing for wins every week. I am sure they don’t want to see their driver on camera for another spin or crash. You get coverage, but it’s the coverage they probably want to see. Is this going to be something the smaller teams will have to do in order to survive in NASCAR? Only time will tell.

One last thing…check this picture out of Tony and Matt…

 

For one this isn’t a very good picture of either driver.  The caption under the picture over at ESPN.com is “Neither former champion, Stewart or Kenseth, is safely in the Chase”, however I think maybe there should have been another, more appropriate caption. My hubby, Postman, thought it looked someone had just walked by both Tony and Tony and well, whiffed one.  I mean look at both of them.  They have that look.  I just thought it was a funny observation that I had to share.   

Post #492

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

I just couldn’t think of anything to call this particular post so I just went with some generic title.

I will however start on a good note for all us Stewart fans out.  Tony won another race for the Nationwide Series #20.  This is the 8th win for this car which has had 4 different drivers behind the wheel this season including Joey Lagano who got his first win this year.  It was wonderful to see Tony back in Victory Lane albeit in a Nationwide Race.  His victory came on an audible by his crew chief Dave Rogers who decided to take only two tires.   Unfortunately the great pit strategy on Saturday wouldn’t translate over to the Cup race on Sunday.

I really thought Tony would carry his momentum from Saturday over to Sunday.  But once again another heartbreak for Tony.  Tony started back in the pack in 28th position.  I don’t usually take stock in where Tony qualifies because one way or another he finds his way to the front and yesterday was no exception.  Tony took the lead for the first time after a caution on lap 138.  He came out of the pits in the lead just inches ahead of Casey Mears. 

And then Lap 271…

As Earnhardt is slowing down to come down pitroad, Jamie rear ends Junior as well as collecting teammate David Ragan.  This brings out the 6th caution of the day.  We knew there were going to be drivers short on fuel.  There was also the approaching thunderstorm.  This was probably going to be the “money stop” for teams.  Several drivers including Kurt Busch stayed out.  Stewart headed down pit road.  He was the first driver of the bunch to take 2 tires.  This put him back in 14th spot.  The final caution came out as Hornish and Bowyer have a meet and greet.  This was lap 280.  NASCAR brings out the red flag four laps later due to the rain and decides to call the race done and declares Kurt Busch the winner.  Tony finishes 13th after leading 132 laps.  Tony became only the 13th driver to lead 10,000 plus laps.  Right before they called the race TNT intereviewed Tony, you could see the disappointment in his eyes as well as disappointment in his voice.  Upside of this is Tony did move up to 9th in the overall standings.  Sometimes it just isn’t your day.

Here is the Top 10 from yesterday

  1. Kurt Busch
  2. Michael Waltrip
  3. J.J. Yeley
  4. Martin Truex
  5. Elliott Sadler
  6. Reed Sorenson
  7. Casey Mears
  8. Denny Hamlin
  9. Jimmie Johnson
  10. Bobby Labonte

Yep…that’s quite a top 10 there folks.  I am not saying they didn’t deserve to be there, because there are times when you have to roll the dice, but there are only two drivers in that whole top 10 who are even in the top 12 in standings.  Like Michel Waltrip said in a post race interview…”he is going to take his 170 points and call it a day.”

Couple of notes…

  • Ron Hornaday wins the truck race on Saturday night.
  • Congratulations to Patrick Carpentier for snagging his first pole.  He finished 31st.  Even though he finished pretty far in the back of the pack it is still a positive step forward. 
  • Tight race for that elusive 12th spot in the standings.  Matt is out of the Top 12 and Kevin Harvick is in, but Matt is only 15 points behind Kevin for that spot with Martin Truex and Ryan Newman biting at the heels.
  • Kyle again tangles with another driver on the track.  I am sure there was some beatin’ and bangin’ going on between the two.  Juan did intentionally spin Busch out and made no bones about it, but Kyle stood his ground.  I believe Juan was penalized two spots in the race finish for his spin (if not please let me know).
  • Casey Mears out of the #5 over at HMS.  While watching the race yesterday all I could think of was..Mears-Penske..Mears-Penske.  Sound familiar folks? 

One final note…I don’t usually make too many predictions/projections because I am usually wrote 99.9% of the time, but I am going to make one here.  I believe Tony has made up his mind about his future.  And I belive we will all know before the end of July. 

Any Which Way But Loose

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

Once again it’s a two for one day here in The Park. 

Postman noticed an article on ESPN.com last night and proceeded to share it with me.  I mean I give him credit, he does know how to keep me informed about my driver.  According to this article over at ESPN.com, multiple sources have said that Tony is looking for car sponsorhsips for his potential move to Haas CNC.   And another soucre close to the situation have Ryan Newman tagged as a possible second driver.  It seems Office Depot and Old Spice have moved to the top of the sponsor leader board. If this is all true as sources close to the situation have stated, then this fan will definitely go into debt supporting the Office Depot sponsor.  Next to NASCAR, office supplies are my other addiction.  Some people like to shop for shoes, clothes, etc…not me…put me in an office supply store and I am happy for hours.  One of my fellow workers even crowned me the “Office Supply Whore”.  So my main addiction NASCAR would certainly feed the other, slightly small-less annoying, addiction.  I mean I would have to support my driver’s sponsor which ultimately may leave me broke and standing on a corner looking for my next office supply hit.

As we have heard for pretty much the last few months, Tony may or may not be moving to another team after the 2008 season.  We know his contract with JGR runs through 2009.  We know JGR wants to try to keep Tony behind the 2009 season and perhaps would like for him to retire there.  We also know Tony is intereested in becoming a car owner.  Other than that, that’s all I want to know at this point in the season.

Has all of this talk of moving from JGR had an effect on his performance?  I don’t know.  I am sure it has some a little.  Uncertanity within a team can perhaps create some ill feelings among crew members.   I am not close to the situation so I could speculate on anything they may be occuring over at JGR.  I do know when you have someone who is leaving your workplace for other pastures, it is sometimes hard to be positive and upbeat knowing they will not be around to celebrate the fruits of your labor.   

I always have to chuckle when reporters use the phrase “according to multiple sources close to the situation”.  I know this something that occurs quite often in reporting.  But until I hear the words from Tony Stewart himself, and to be honest he is the closest to the situation, I will assume Tony is staying at JGR for next season. 

I believe once Tony decides on what he wants to do with his future, everything else will fall into place with all the other rumors, half-truths and conspiracies.  Plus no matter what Tony decides for his future, it is his to make and this fan will follow whereever he might land.

One last thing…I want you to know I gave it the “old college try” on Monday.  I honestly tried to sit down and watch “Talladega Nights”.  I did.  I sat threw the first 30 minutes or so of the movie.  I went into this watching experience with an open mind and I came to one conclusion…THAT’S 30 MINUTES OF MY LIFE I CAN’T GET BACK! 

What’s a Gal to Do?

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

I really thought this was going be the race.  Tony moved towards the front of the field after starting back in 39th place.  Late in the race Tony was able to get within reach of Kyle Busch and possibly get the win, but once again this Tony fan was disgusted.  Tony was thisclose and BAM!  Tony passed Jamie McMurray to move into 2nd place and the next thing I know Kevin gets into Jamie and collects Tony.  All three cars pull of the synchronized spinning combination.  If Tony had been a little further ahead of Jamie, we might perhaps be talking about Tony instead of Kyle.  

And you can tell the frustration in Tony’s voice with his post race interview with Marty Snyder. Marty…he told you that he didn’t want to comment until he saw the footage. What part did you not understand? UGH!!!

Tony was able to finish with a Top 10 and remain in the Top 12 in the standings.

Congratulations to Kyle Busch for his 5th win this season and his first road course win. Perhaps his decision to focus on his Cup championship run made a difference.

Kudos to Marcus Ambrose. This was his first Cup race. He had a good run all day until he got clipped by Elliott Sadler. Even though Marcus finished 42nd it was a good run for the Wood Brothers. Another kudos goes out to David Gilliland for his 2nd place yesterday. Part of me feels a little bad about the #19’s luck yesterday with the flat tire but the other part of me says oh well. Elliott finished 19th.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Scott Kalitta who passed away on Saturday during a qualifying run at the NHRA competition this weekend. Rest in Peace Scott.