NASCAR 2009

Bad Medicine

/ Trixie / 2 Comments

I was so busy this weekend between T-ball, T-Rexs, Tourney brackets and Tony Stewart, I am exhausted. 

Let’s talk about Martinsville.  I think I like Martinsville a little bit better than Bristol.  Denny had his #11 Fed Ex car in the zone yesterday.  He lead 296 laps of the 500 lap race yesterday.  He just had the car dialed in all day.  But as we all know the best car or the one who leads the most laps doesn’t always win the race.  Plus he had history working against him yesterday.  I mean it was the 25th anniversary of the first win by Hendrick in the Cup series.   But it did look like Denny was going to spoil the whole Hendrick party.  But Jimmie Johnson loves this track.  Up until yesterday he had won 4 of the last five races.  With yesterday’s win it is now up to 5 of the last 6.  We used to say Lowe’s was Jimmie’s house, I am beginning to think Martinsville is Jimmie’s house.  No matter what happeend yesterday it seemed to be in the cards for a Hendrick driver to win yesterday.  All four teams finished in Top Ten.   I do have to say Johnson made a bold move on Denny in the waning laps of the race to take the lead from Denny.  It was the kind of racing I like.  Two drivers fighting for the lead and respecting each other and not taking one out.  Would I have jumped up and down if Jimmie had made the move on Denny and they both went spinning?  Hell yes I would have because who was in that third place spot????  Tony Stewart!  But unfortunately the two drivers did what they do best race cleanly.  Denny showed some class in his post race interview.  Kudos Denny.  And what was the deal with Robby Gordon?  Every time I looked up (well, it seemed that way) he was cuasing a yellow flag to flown.  Hey Robbie…green is our friend, yellow bad.  Two thumbs up for Stewart Haas Racing–both Ryan and Tony finished in the Top Ten.   I know this really didn’t have to do with the race, but did anyone see Ingrid’s new do?  OMG—she cut off quite a bit of hair!

The rest of my weekend was quite busy.  First up for me was to see if I could gain some ground on Postman in our NCAA Bracket Challange.  I certainly didn’t want to wear the University of Texas shirt to his birthday party.  Please note I am an alum of Texas Tech Unversity and well, we don’t like UT.  I was only 2 points behind him and I would have been able to make up some ground only if Michigan State and Connecticut lost as well as Pitt winning it all.  But if you followed the tourney, you will find that Michigan State and Connecticut and Michigan State are in the Final Four and well…Pittsburgh’s fate.  Same fate as me…dead in the water.  That’s right folks I cannot overtake my Postman in the bracket challenge.  Only 1 of my 4 picks for the final four made.  Go North Carolina!  So this is what I will be wearing (or something similar) to Postman’s party.  Sorry folks, I must go through this “humilation” by myself.  No sympathy shirt wearing to make me feel better.  I made the bet and lost. 

horns1

Little Smoke and his team the Diamondbacks had their first t-ball game on Saturday.  We won 28-4.  I know that is a high score for t-ballers, but we dominated the other team…well as much as a t-ball team can dominate.  We are only allowed to score 7 runs/inning.  The other team never got us out in the traditional sense.  Little Smoke went 3 for 3 with 1 RBI.  A ball was hit to him in the outfield, but he didn’t let it get by him and in t-ball that is everything.  Still needs a littel work on the baserunning and throwing, but all in all not bad for his first game.  Wish us luck tonight…we play the Yankess.  And as I recall, the D-Backs beat the Yankees in the 2001 World Series.  Sign of good things to come?

If you need to make a dinosaur I am your gal.  Little Smoke needed a dinosaur model for school this week.  Of course as we all know this project becomes bigger than it really is and it can take on a life of it’s own.  And naturally, Little Smoke wanted his model to be a T-Rex.  In case you are not up on all the dinosaurs, he is like the Michael Jordan of dinosaurs.  So I spent most of yesterday while he was at two birthday partys constructing the model, he helped paint the thing though.  Bascially Little Smoke and Postman were the designers and well, I was the free labor.  But I think it turned out pretty good.  Take a gander and tell me what you think.

t-rex1

Week in Review

/ Trixie / 3 Comments

I have been somewhat flying under the radar these days. I have beent rying to get back to what I do here in The Park and that is write more meaningful posts about NASCAR. I have had several drafts of posts ready for posting, but by the time I think about posting them it’s too late. I am working on a post that may ruffle some feathers, but sometimes you have to step back and take a look at the bigger picture. I have been thinking about NASCAR lately among other things so without further interruptions…here are some little nibblets to keep you wanting more.

1.  What the heck is the deal with the weather here in Raiderland? Did some decide to shake of the snow globe that encases my reality? Yesterday we were sunny and gorgeous and now…we have hit our high for the day and it is only 8:15 am in the morning. Expected precipitation…snow. That’s what I said S-N-O-W! Luckily I work indoors and will be nice and toasty…Postman, well, he will be outside most of the day. But as I always tell him he knew the oath when he signed up for his gig.

2.  Can I just say I DON’T LOOK GOOD IN BURNT ORANGE!!!  For those of you who frequent The Park know I am an alum of Texas Tech University.  Our colors are Red and Black.  So you are thinking where does the burnt orange come into play?  It doesn’t.  I don’t own any kind of burnt orange object.  The only time you would EVER see any burnt orange in my household would be if I put an orange on the grill and left it there to burn.  But, I am NOT one who backs down from a bet.  Postman and I did out NCAA tournament brackets to see who could out play each other.  We wavered on what the loser of the challenge would have to do.  The “prize” I wanted to use was the following…if I won, he would have to wear a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt to his birthday party next month.  Please note, Postman is and will always be a Dallas Cowboys fan, HATES THE STEELERS.  But if he won, I would wear a #88 shirt on raceday and to his birthday party.  I am not a #88 fan.  I thought it was a fair trade.  But he wasn’t man enough to put his brackets against mine with that bet.  So, we decided the loser of the challenge would have to wear a University of Texas shirt to his birthday party next month.  Why the party?  Well, we are both alums of Tech, several of our friends are alums, and it needed to be in public were ridiculing could take place.  I am screwed.  Memphis lost last night.  If you know about the brackets, I had Memphis all the way through the final 4.   I am going to need some serious help or I will be donning that shirt.

3.  Little Smoke starts his first season of t-ball this Saturday.  I am excited about all of this.  I think he is doing ok considering he just started palying this game about a month ago.  His team name–Diamondbacks.  Whew–we dodged a bullet there…don’t know if I could get behind his team if it had been Y-A-N-K-E-E-S.  As it is deemed in the state of Texas, every little boy will play some sort of football in his life.  Little Smoke will be old enough come fall and he WILL be playing football.  Let’s just hope his team isn’t Steelers.

4.  Work–same old stuff…different day.

5.  What’s up with moving to the TTU vs Baylor football game to the DFW area?  Are you freakin’ kidding me?  Apparently, TTU and Baylor have agreed to play the next two football games in Dallas.  In 2009, we will play at Jerry World aka New Dallas Cowboys stadium and then in 2010 at the Cotton Bowl.  If you know Red Raider football, you know every single time we have been to the Cotton Bowl we lost.  Of course, they were all bowl games.  Perhaps we might win since this will be a regular football game.  But you never can tell with our REd Raiders.  I don’t like this idea.  So we might get a little bit more money swung this way and we might have more people at the game, but seriously folks, I am not going to travel 6 hours to watch TTU play.  Can’t afford it.  I might look into the 2009 game just because the game will be played at Jerry World, but then again with the cost of things probably not.  Even though I love football, I would rather pay money to go to a NASCAR race at TMS.  I would get more bang for my buck.

5. I would like to say THANK YOU to Kurt Busch.  With his 11th place finish and Kevin Harvick’s bad day at Bristol, I jumped into the lead one of the fantasy leagues I am in.  But as you know that could all change this weekend.  I am going with Jeff Gordon as my pick this week.  I think it is a good pick.  Even if he doesn’t win, I know he will give me a good points day and to be honest that’s what it is all about.  Getting a lead and maintaining that lead until the finish line.

6.  Can you believe Chevrolet has not won a race so far this season?  That’s right…Ford has two wins, Toyota has two wins, and Dodge has one…Kenseth, ,Kenseth, Kyle B., Kurt B., Kyle B.  Maybe the Chevrolets can pull one out this week at Martinsville.

7.  I am not an #88 fan.  I make no bones about it.  I am working on a post about #88, but I am still doing a little research and hopefully I will have posted next week.  I have some opinions about #88 and that’s what they are OPINIONS, but as with anything dealing wtih the #88 you tread very little and very respectfully and that’s what I plan to attempt.

8.  I would love to be headed to TMS next week.  I miss going to TMS.  I love the roar of the engines as they come off Turn 4 towards the green flag.  I miss all the interesting people down in the pits, but times are tough and well, race tickets aren’t in the budget this year.

I think that is about it for the week.  Nothing all that exciting on this end of the world.  Have a great week!

Bristol Baby!

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

I have been watching quite a bit of March Madness yesterday and today. My brackets have taken a big hit today. But as long as I beat Postman at the end of it all I am ok with everything. I did take some chances with a few of my picks and one of them I am worried that it will come back to bite me back in the butt. But here’s hoping—UPDATE–WTF–I KNEW IT! OUCH!!!! UGH!!! Next time I will NOT, I repeat NOT pick Ohio State.

Now back to regular programming…this week the boys are in Bristol for a little short track racing. Congratulations to Mark Martin for his second pole in a row. Now if he can just get that bad racing karma away from him I think he could make a good run on Sunday. I am looking forward to getting back to racing.

I must now head off to bed…my brackets have been destroyed! I need some adult beverage to ease the pain.

The Week from H-E-double hockey sticks

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

I have a been a bad blogger this week.  It’s not for lacking of trying to post something or lack of blog worthy items, it’s just been one of those weeks.  I can pinpoint it to the time change, full moon, and the cold front now hovering over my part of Texas. 

I don’t understand this whole spring forward-fall back thing.  Why do we still do it?  Does it really save money or enrgry, etc?  I just think it’s some of conspriacy, but I am still working on finding out what that conspriacy is all about.  If you know please let me in on the secret.  Also I actually same the loss of the hour on Sunday morning.  I was up because I was watching a M*A*S*H marathon.  It was 1:59 am on my cable box and then poof it read 3:00 am.  Yep…I saw the one hour disappear like that and I have been suffereing for it every since.

I have a few things about Atlanta.  I did  not really enojoy the race.  Well…I was up until the tire incident.  All I have to say is “DOH”!  I know he thought he was trying to do his job and was tryign to the right thing, but he wasn’t.  His actions greatly affected, in my opinion, the outcome of the race.  The drivers had almost cycled through the green flag pitstops.  But as well know almost doesn’t count except in horseshoes and hand grenades.  His actions put most of the field on the tail end of the lead lap and others down a lap.  It took several of these drivers majority of the race to make up ground.  Would NASCAR have thrown the yellow flag if he hadn’t go out there?  NASCAR has always been adamant about safety.  It’s there nuymber one priority.  If he hadn’t run out there would NASCAR have thrown the yellow after cycling through the green flags?  It looked like the tire was going to stop in the infield.  But we can play the “what if” game.  NASCAR had no choice.  You need to keep your head in the game when it comes to things like this.  On the bright side, this pit crew guy may end with a Trixie at the end of the year.

With the tire incident aside, I don’t know who was going to be able to stop Kurt Busch.  The #2 had it going on at Atlanta.  It looked it was going to be a close finish with Jeff Gordon and Kurt, but Kurt’s car was just that much faster.  I think if there had been maybe two more laps Jeff  could have passed him.  Either way kudos to the older Busch brother.  I saw a little bit of the victory lane celebration.  Did Kyle come over and congratulate his older brother like Kurt did to Kyle in Vegas?  Just curious, if he didn’t then that was not a classy move, but if he did woo hoo!  And man if mark Martin didn’t have bad luch he wouldn’t have any luck at all.  He gets the pole for the race and looks like he was going to make up some ground and the BAM another race in the toilet.  He is hovering near that 35 thing, but I am not counting out Mark.  All he needs to do is get into the Top 12 to make a run at the championship.  Of course, he is going to have to race his tail off until then to make up for all this bad luck.  I feel bad for Mark because I would liek to see him challenge for the championship.  But sometimes very good athletes never reach that championship milestone, just ask Dan Marino.  It doesn’t make Mark nay less worthy for the Hall of Fame, but I know it would be something he could notch on his belt.

I really don’t know what I am going to do this weekend without my racing.  I may just get rested for all the March Madness that will begin with the selction show on Sunday and continue of the next three weeks.  I love this time of year.  I mean just look at yesterday. It took 6 overtimes for Syracuse to beat Conneticut last night.  The #1, #2, & #4 seeds in the Big 12 tourney went down yesterday.  My beloved Red Raiders somehow managed to come back from a 22 point deficit against A&M to win on Wednesday.  Unfortunately that wasn’t the case last night against Missouri.  They were tied at halftime, but Missouri took it to them in the 2nd half. 

One more thing…I am a very capable woman.  I know how to change a flat without any assitance from a man (thanks Daddy).  I can change out a battery.  I am not afraid to grease on my hands or under the fingernails.  So when I went to get into my car yesterday after work, I noticed my left back tire was low.  It wasn’t flat, but it was low enough to where I need to pull out the can of “fix-a-flat”.  That stuff is wonderful.  It’s easy to use because they put the dirctions right on the can along with illustrations so I pretty much was able to take care of this little problem.  That’s not what got me a little riled up.  Two co-workers—count them two—were in the same parking lot standing there and visiting with each other.  Neither one of them acknowledge the fact that I was have car issues.  Nothing.  I know there wasn’t much they could have done, but at least they could have asked if I needed assistance.  I would have politley told them “No, I have everything under control, but thanks for asking”.  Am I wrong to feel this way?  I guess I come from a different generation.  Oh well…I will remember this little incident and next time they may need assistance I won’t be so quick to help.

Have a great week off from racing because we head to Bristol and Martinsville and I just love me some short track racing!

Racing-Las Vegas Style

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

Note–I was going to post this on Tuesday, but came down with food poisoning and didn’t get back to it until today.

I love racing at Vegas.  I know some of you out there may not, but for some particular reason I like the racing.  What I don’t like is all the Vegas references the announcers use to try and be funny.  It’s gets quite annoying at times, but besides that I enjoyed the race.  I was a little concerned for my fantasy teams.  I made some last minute additions/substractions hoping for a great day.  Can we say, and I hate to use the cheesy Vegas reference, but I crapped out.   That’s right folks, I had a Matt Kenseth kind of a day.  I started out great in the first two races and blew up 7 laps into the damn thing.  Oh well, the only saving grace…this was the second week in a row I picked the winner of the race over at On Pit Row’s One and Done Fantasy Game.  Thank you Kyle!!!  I almost made the change becuase Postman saw the Toyotas were having engine issues.  But I stayed with my pick.  This was Vegas and this was Kyle Busch.

I felt bad for Matt yesterday.  He was coming into Vegas riding on a two race win streak and looking to make history by winning th efirst three races, but the racing gods had other ideas.  We were just seven laps in and BLAM…Matt’s engine blew.  Of course Matt would not be alone in the engine blowing department, two other Roushketeers also had engine issues–Ragan and Carl.  Then what happened to Mark Martin–that’s two races in a row Mark has gone to the garage for engine issues.  Tney interviewed him after the race and of course Mark was gracious and said thank you to his crew, yadda, yadda, yadda.  You and I both know Mark would not throw people under the bus, but I would have loved to seen Mark just lose a gasket yesterday.  I would have loved for him to say, “Damn, I came back to drive full time and all I can get is this piece of s***(oligatory bleep) COT.  I know Mark is a passionate driver, but sometimes I just wish he would show it a little more.

I really don’t know what happened to Tony.  All I know is he finished 26th.  Not a good day for Mr. Stewart.

I have to say when Kyle Busch first came into NASCAR, I did not like him at all.  The level of dislike for Kyle was along the lines of my dislike for Jimmie (which subsequently has died down somewhat) and Junior (yes, I said it and I don’t care if Junior Nation knows it…I am not the only one out there).  But over the last few years I have become a Kyle Busch fan.  In my opinion, I think he is the shot in the arm NASCAR has needed for quite some time.  He is brash, bold, and not afraid to speak his mind.  He knows he is good and he is always a threat on race day.  It’s the kind of driver I like and that’s probably why I have gravitated towards being a fan.  He can sometimes step right into it, but he isn’t afraid to step into it.  That’s what makes him interesting to watch.  He kind of reminds me of someone.  I think there are others like me out there.  And to top it off, he can back everything up with his racing.  Last year Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were the two drivers to watch.  The question at the beginning of last season was which driver made the better move or had better success with their new team.  Of course I don’t have to answer that question, but it was Kyle Busch.  Sure he floundered during the Chase, but Junior didn’t exaxtly tear it up either in the Chase.  I am looking forward to see how Kyle does this year.  I think he learned some valuable lessons from last year’s Chase and I don’t expect him to make the same mistakes again. 

The boys are headed on to the ATL this weekend.  I need to start looking at my fantasy teams and think about my picks.  Hopefully I can make a recovery after last weekend.  I am leaning towards Carl Edwards for the One and Done league, but I will decide once we have qualifying. 

Have a great week!

California Dreamin’

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

Matt goes all last year without a win and how does he start off 2009? Two wins in a row. I was very happy yesterday since I picked him to win for one of my fantasy racing leagues. It was a little bit of gamble since both Jeff G. and Jimmie run well at California and off course you can’t forget that #18 car or any of the other Roush drivers, but sometimes you have to go with your gut. Thank you Mr. Kenseth.

Congratulations to Mr. Kyle Busch. He made NASCAR history this past Saturday with two wins in the Truck and Nationwide Series on the same day. He tried to get the threepeat on Sunday, but came up a little short..oh by the way he finished third.

I hate to admit it, but I was flipping back between the race and the Oscars. Even though I hadn’t seen any of the movies except Wall-E and The Dark Knight. I wanted to see Hugh Jackman and also to see if Heath Ledger was going to win best supporting actor. Plus California is not my favorite race.

Looks like Dale Junior had another bad weekend. This time it was mechanical and not self inflicted. Dale Jr. is now sitting 35 in points. The season is still young so he will have a chance to work his way back up the standings, but he has definitely dug himself into a big hole. I am sure Mr. Hendrick will make sure Junior is heading back up the points standings.

I am proud of Stewart Haas Racing. Tony has finished 8th in both races and is now tied with Kurt Busch for third place in the standings. I wish Ryan Newman was having a better time of it, but give it some time, Ryan will be back. I hope Ryan starts to have some better luck beginning next week in Vegas. I mean if anyone needs some lady luck it’s Ryan. He has 1 top 5 and 4 top 10s. Perhaps Ryan call roll the dice this weekend and hit the jackpot.

While looking up things for my post, I noticed some interesting things about the Top 10. Jimmie is no where in sight. He is currently 19th. Of course, this means nothing to this team. It was few years ago where people had Jimmie counted out for the championship…what was he in 8th after Talladega. And of course we all know how that turned out. I think this season is going to be the most interesting in awhile.

Good luck in Vegas boys.

Daytona…short and sweet

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

Sorry for the short post for now. I was a little jaunt to Ruidoso, NM this past weekend. It was definitely relaxing. Did a little sand surfing, snow tubing and hot tubbing. Mix in a little hissy fit…from Little Smoke, and not Junior, it was a great getaway.

Congratulations to Matt Kenseth for winning this year’s Daytona 500 even though it was shortened because of rain. I was able to listen to quite a bit of the race on Sirius. It wasn’t the same as watching it from the recliner, but I was able to get my Daytona fix.

I saw the little “hi, how are you?” between Vickers and Earnhardt. Enough already people! It was a racing deal in my personal opinion. They were BOTH trying to get their lap back. I have quite a bit to say about the matter (I have seen the clips on ESPN), but I want to see things for myself. I tivoed the race. I may post later on in the week once I recover from my little mini vacation.

I have to give kudos to Tony for finishing 8th yesterday in a back up car. Ryan Newman didn’t fair as well…he finished 36th. I bet Newman is just glad to get out of Daytona. And a WOO HOO to Tony for his win on Saturday!!!!

On to California boys!