NASCAR

Race 2: Dover

/ Trixie / 3 Comments

That’s two in a row for The Biff. So far my darkhorse has been kicking some NASCAR tail. I have to say I enjoyed the last part of the race with Carl, Matt and Greg battling for the win. That was some of the best racing I have seen in a long time. And I thought Mark Martin was going to be part of the fray as well. I am glad Greg Biffle won. I have always liked him as a driver. Well, what does this week have in store for The Biff? Let’s look…

  • 2007 Kansas winner-he won this race on fumes and a little bit of controversy, but he won nonetheless.
  • He has 1 win, 3 Top 5s, and 3 top 10s with an average finishing spot of 11.
  • In 2005, the year he finished only second to Tony Stewart in the final standings, he came away with a 2nd place finish at Kansas.
  • Over the last 6 races, he has 2 wins, 4 tops 5s, and 4 top 10s.  The only driver who has done better over the last 6 races…Carl Edwards
  • Tied with Jimmie Johnson for 2nd and only 10 points behind teammate Carl Edwards.

If you had to pick someone to win at Kansas, Greg Biffle would be a safe bet.  I am still going to stand behind him to give both Carl and Jimmie a run for their money. 

Looks like the one driver who looked to win it all isn’t going to unless, he pulls it out of his arse.  Before Louden Kyle Busch was one of the three favorites to run away with the championship, but not everyhting looks good on paper.  Yes he has won 8 races this year, but sometimes being the best in the regular season doesn’t always preclude you to being the best during the playoffs.  All one has to do is look at the New England Patriots last year.  Perfect until the Super Bowl where they suffered their only loss of the 2007 season.  Kyle went from 1st to 12 in two races with a 34th place at Louden and Sunday’s 43rd place finish.  I don’t know if he can muster that good of a run over the next 8 races to make his way up to the top spot.  He would have to light it up and pray those ahead of him crash and burn.  It just doesn’t look good.  He is going to have leap over several drivers who are having some of their best runs over the last 6 races.  If Kyle is resigned to the fact that he is not going to win the championship, all the other drivers better watch out.  I mean when you have nothing to lose…

I was lucky enough yesterday to help one of my fellow NASCAR fans.  It was rather nice to visit with someone who gets it.  I don’t always have that around me especially in the workplace.  Even though he is a Junior fan (fyi–I am not a big Junior fan), I will still continue to help him.  After helping him figure out hsi plan to graduation in a year or so, we sat and talked NASCAR for about 15 minutes.  it was great. I was telling one of my co-workers (who is not into NASCAR), the NASCAR family accepts everyone.  We don’t care who you cheer for, we just want you to cheer. 

Non-NASCAR notes from this past weekend…

  • Miami opened it up on New England.  I thought it was a typo on my phone when I was reading all the scores, but it wasn’t.  Can I just say I did my little happy dance on Sunday.
  • Dallas kicked some Packer butt on Sunday night.  The Boys have opened up the season 3-0.  But they did this last year, looked good at the beginning and then fizzled out.  Let’s hope we can keeping kicking some butt all the way to the Super Bowl
  • What’s up with Indy?  Ugh…
  • My Red Raiders just went to town on UMASS…56-14.  We are 4-0 heading in our Big 12 opener with Kansas on October 4.  I won’t get to watch my Red Raiders.  I will be on a plane heading back from Chicago, but you can catch them on ABC that day, beginning at 2:00 pm
  • Goodbye Yankee Stadium and thanks for the memories.  I don’t consider myself a Yankees fan, but I hate to see a historical landmark such as Yankee Stadium fade off into the sunset. 
  • Will the Cubs go all the way to the World Series?  Let me put it this way…I went to a conference in Indianopolis back in October 2006…who went on to win the Superbowl that year?  That would be the Colts.  Where am I headed next weekend for a conference?…Chicago.  You can draw your own conclusions.

I hope everyone has a great week..one more note, my thoughts and prayers go out to some good friends of mine who suffered a loss.  Hang in there guys and remember, Postman and I love ya!

View from the Suite

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

Sorry for not keeping up with NASCAR this week.  Work has been crazy and I have been sick as well, so I am thankful for this Labor Day weekend.

Yesterday my beloved Red Raiders kicked off their 2008 campaign.  This is the first time in awhile where we have gotten quite a bit of press.  We are currently ranked #14 in the AP poll.  There are high expectations for the Red Raiders being lead by Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree.  We opened up last night against Eastern Washington University and I was able to be at the game.  

Here’s the view of the field from where I was watching the game

 

Now I know you are thinking where in the world was my seat.  I can tell you it was in the nose bleed seats unless you consider sitting in the Texas Tech Athletic Director’s Football Suite a nose bleed seat.  That’s right, Postman and I had some pretty “suite” seats.  I was invited to be a guest coach for yesterday’s game.  This was my second opportunity to be a guest coach.  I was able to be a guest coach on the first game of the football season back during the 2003 campaign.  

 

I have to say I enjoyed watching the game from the suite.  I was still able to get a feel for the game festivities even from my seat.  I took several pics from the suite and I loved watching the Goin’ Band from Raiderland, who in my opinion, is one of the best collegiate bands out there.  The best part…their entrance onto the field.  When I was a student Tech was all that great in football.  The highlight of some games was watching our band.  No matter what, I love watching the Tech band.

 

 

And even I have gotten into the Michael Crabtree spirit.  Notice the crab hat I am wearing.  Yes, I look like a goober, but hey no look is too crazy for this Red Raider fan.  I also have the crab claws as well, but forgot to put them on.  That would have definitely completed my look.

One other thing…this was the cleanest my desk looked all week.  If you notice to the left on the shelf, you can see part of my Tony Stewart Pez Dispenser.  And of course, there’s my picture of Tony on the bulletin board “watching” over me.

I wanted to get something up before I get ready to watch the race tonight.  Jimmie has the pole and I am hoping Tony will get his first win this season.  He starts 14th.  In the spring race, he started 6th and finished 7th.  Go Tony!!!!  

Glen, Olympics and more

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

The Glen

  • Pit strategy hurt came back to bite Dale Earnhardt Jr.  It looked like he would have a good finish, but the yellow flag killed his day.   He finished 22nd.  This dropped him two spots in the points.
  • Ryan Newman’s car spun and couldn’t get refired.  Kudos to Sam Hornish for helping out a teammate even thought it looked like it was going to cost him a spot in the top 35.   But luckily he is still in the top 35.
  • Marcos Ambrose had an excellent weekend.  He takes the win in the Nationwide race on Saturday and finishes 3rd after starting 43rd.  How ’bout that Aussie!
  • Jeff Gordon finishes 29th–AT THE GLEN!  And there was no wreck invovled.  I am goign to assume Steve and the boys couldn’t get the car dialed in for Jeff.  This happened the year Jeff didn’t make the Chase.  Robbie and the boys were having trouble getting his car dialed in and we see what happened there.  I am sure I am not the only who has red flag warnings out for all to see.  In 2005 when Jeff didn’t make the Chase, he finished 14th at The Glen.
  • Tony had a good day.  This is second race in a row where he finished 2nd.  I truly thought he was going to win on Sunday.  I wanted him to win.  I know I am not the only Smoke fan who wanted him to win.  I don’t know if he had the car to get passed Kyle.  I am sure if he had it would have been a different story on Sunday.  But it’s one of those things where Tony may be looking at the bigger picture.  He is currently sitting in 7th place.
  • Kyle won his 8th race of the season and will have 80 bonus points going into the Chase.  Unless the wheels fall off the #18 team, Kyle may end up with the Championship.  But as you can’t count on anything NASCAR.  All it takes sometimes is someone to get hot and the other to get cold.  It ain’t over until the last checkered flag is waved at Homestead. 
  • When you think of the “big one” you think Talladega, but Sunday there was a big one at The Glen.  I still cringe every time I see the replay of Bobby Labonte hitting David Gilliland.  It was a big mess.  I am glad the drivers were able to walk away.  I haven’t seen anything about Bobby to see if he had any further injuries or if any.  It was one big cluster fuck (excuse my language).

The Olympics

  • I love watching the Olympic Games.  I am enthralled by the whole spectacle.  I prefer the winter games over teh summer ones, but I will still watch.  I find myself watchign events that I have never watched before (i.e. handball).  I do that during the winter.  I find curling a fascinating sport.  I root for athletes not only from the US, but others countries as well.  I guess it’s that Olympic spirit thing going on. 
  • If you didn’t catch the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final the other night, you missed an awesome race! I found myself whooping and hollering as if I was right there watching.  I am probably not the only one who was cheering those boys.  I have to say Michael Phelps is one finely chiseled speciman of an athlete.  If you dont’ believe, take a gander at the photo below.

  • Michael now has 3 gold medals for his quest for 8 golds in a single Olympic game.  He will go for two more tonight.  Go Michael!
  • I love the Visa commercials with the voiceover done by Morgan Freeman.  I always tear up at this one (warning this was videoed from someone’s tv, however it still makes me tear up)

More
  • I am tired of people throwing me under the bus.
  • I want to change careers.
  • I want to move to another city
  • I want one of my friends to know that I am here for her and that I don’t keep track of things.  
  • Little Smoke starts kindergarten two weeks from yesterday.  Cool thing though…the school district we are in supplies all school supplies except a box of kleenex and a nap mat.  I am so disappointed.  I was sooooo looking forward to buying school supplies.  I guess I will have to feed my habit in another manner.

The Glen

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

On the road…can’t wait to get on the road again…

The Cup boys are at The Glen this weekend for the final road race of the season.  I am not a big fan of the road courses, but they are fun to watch at times.  This also signals that time in the season where The Chase is growing bigger and bigger in some drivers’ windows and for some they may find themselves on the outside looking in.

If you look at the points standings as they now sit, I would say the first 4 spots, maybe even the top 5 spots are in the Chase.  However from 6 to about 14 are pretty much a toss up.  There is only 166 points separateing 6th place and 12th place.  One bad race and you may be out of it.  As of right now Matt Kenseth is sitting in 13th spot, however he is only 11 points out of the #12 spot which is currently held by Clint Bowyer.  You can’t count out David Ragan either for making the Chase.  He is 46 points back of Clint.  Ryan Newman is sitting in the 15th position 173 points back of 12th place, but I don’t know if Newman will be able to make that push towards over the remaining races.  At one time I really thought Brian Vickers was going to have a decent shot at making the Chase, but he is now 203 points out of 12th.  But as we have seen anything can happen over the next weeks.  I mean remember Jeremy Mayfield went into Richmond in 2004 out of the Chase.  He had to win the race and lead the most laps…and he did just that. 

Just like with anything in sports, it can sometimes be about momentum and who gets hot and goes cold and I think that is what it is going to take for a couple of the drivers to get themselves in position to make the Chase.  I think Matt Kenseth will be there after Richmond.  If anyone can make that push it is Matt.  He has earned 751 points over the last 6 races which is 7th best and he even finished 38th at Indy.  Even though Matt has an average finish at The Glen of 16.8 and only 3 top tens, I think he will have a decent points day on Sunday.  Keeping it under the radar is Matt Kenseth’s mode of operation.  David Ragan may be only 46 points from 12th, this will only be his second visit to the Glen with his Cup car. He finished last year in 32nd.  He too will need to keep his focus on the big picture.  He will need to drive his race and remember sometimes it isn’t all about winning.

As a Tony Stewart fan, I am hoping he walks away with the trophy this weekend.  I really hope that I haven’t dwelled on his lack of victories since last year.  I didn’t want to overload the circuits here in The Park.  It’s barely running on electricity as it is.  Tony is returning to the track where he last saw victory lane in the #20 Home Depot car.  Tony has four wins at The Glen, 5 Top 5s and 7 Top 10s with an average finish of 6.  Tony will be one of the favorites to cross the finish line in first and for this Tony fan I would love to see him come away with a victory for JGR.  Tony isn’t the only driver this year who has yet to see victory lane.  I as mentioned earlier in the week, if you had told me Jeff Gordon wouldn’t have a win by now I would think you had been inhaling too many gas fumes.  But folks, he has seen victory lane either.  It’s not as if Tony and Jeff haven’t been contending for the wins it’s just one of those things where the little things become big things and well there you go.  Like Tony, Jeff has been very successful at The Glen.  He too has 4 wins.  He also has had 6 Top 5s and 8 Top 10s.  He has an average finish of 12.4.  He finished 9th in last year’s race.  So he will definitely be there challenging for the win this weekend.

Like with any road race, we will see our fair share of road race specialists.  I am still on the fence about teams bringing in the specialists for these racers.  I understand the whole top 35th thing etc, however how can those who are less experienced at road racing learn to road race?  I guess it is just one of those things.

And finally…in case you have been living in a cave with no electricity, no television, no radio, no internet, Brett Favre is no longer a Green Bay Packer.  He is now a New York Jet.  But the drama surrounding the Favre situation is over, but I hope (fingers crossed) the media will back off a little.

The Bermuda Triangle

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

Thank goodness…no more races at the Bermuda Triangle..oops Pocono. 

I am not a fan of this track.  It’s too long of a race and it’s just a weird racetrack.  And for some reason there is always a threat of bad weather.  But after last week’s race, I was looking forward to some racing.  Sunday’s looked very familiar (Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin were on the front row again for the second week in a row) and I thought for a moment perhaps I had had a nightmare and we were all watching the Indy race.  But alas the boys were definitely at Pocono.  Unfortunately Saturday’s practice sessions were rained out. 

Even though NASCAR was going to throw a compeotion yellow at lap 20, the first caution happened rather qucikly.  The boys didn’t even get a chance to finish a complete lap befor Joe Nemecek spins Kevin Harvick.  This put Harvick deep in the pack and he was going to have to fight his way to the front.  As with Pocono, when you have your “oops” moment will depend if you can recover for a decent finish.  Shortly after Kevin went spinning, Kurt Busch decided to try it for himself on Lap 7.   By the way, Kevin finished 4th, but Kurt wasn’t able to recover and finished 38th.

Weather tends to play havoc at Pocono.  Just ask Ryan Newman last year during the spring shortened race.  And this time rain did force soem fo the teams to show their cards.  SEveral teams decided to come in and get tires and gas while others chose to gamble with the impending weather and gambled.  Those who gambled included the spring’s winer Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin.  Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart chose to come down pit road to get gas and tires.  The race is red flagged on Lap 131 due to rain showers.  After a 41 minute rain delay the boys were back on the track with Kasey Kahne leading the way.  There was still a threat of rain in the area, however it never played a factor after the rain delay.

I have to say it was interesting to see who was going to try and play the gas mileage game.  Who was going to blink?  Unfortunately both Kasey and Mark decided to go in for gas because they were not going to make it on fuel.  Once this happened Carl Edwards inherited the lead.  And he too was playing the mileage game, his crew chief was telling him to conserve fuel.   Unfortunately, the points leader ran out of gas and was unable to refire once he hit pit road.  He finished 36th.  Of course this is better than the finish in the spring where he finished dead last.  Yikes!

Congrats to Carl for his 4th victory this season.

Tony Stewart had a decent day.  He came away with a 2nd place finish after starting 20th.  Kudos also go to David Ragan with his 5th place finish.  Some other surprises…Jamie McMurray (9th), Travis Kvapil (16th), Chad McCumbee (17th), and Tony Raines (18th), and how about Bill Elliott finishing in the top 20 with a 20th place finish.

Now the boys are headed to the final road race of the year at Watkins Glen.  I am crossing all my fingers and toes this week hoping for a victory for Tony Stewart.  If you told me at the beginning of the year that Tony would not have win by Watkins Glen I would have called you crazy, but it’s true.  The same would be said for Jeff Gordon.  It’s not for lacking of trying on the part of the two drivers, it’s just one of those things in racing. 

One more thing…in case you missed it NASCAR made history on Saturday.  The boys in the Nationwide Series raced in the rain up in Montreal.  It was interesting to watch them drive in the rain with the rain tires and windshield wipers.  I am still a little bit confused about why some didn’t install the wipers.  I know when I am behind someone in traffic during a rain storm, I get their back splash.  But I guess there was enough visabilitiy for them.  Unfortunately the race was eventually called due to the rain.  Congrats to Ron Fellows!

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. 

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.