Tony Stewart

Race 1: New Hampshire

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

The race for the elusive Sprint Cup has begun with Greg Biffle making his move right out of the box.  I was excited about watching this year’s Chase.  I wanted to see if Kyle Busch could keep on his winning ways.  I also wanted to see if Jimmie could pull off a third straight championship.  Or if a newcomer would make his way to the top spot at Miami.  I think this has been the first time in awhile I have been excited about the Chase. 

So when it came Sunday morning, I was getting everything ready to sit down and watch the race and then it happened–I realized I had to head to the grocery store to get food for the next two weeks.  I forgot to do my shopping on Saturday–ugh.  I was hoping to get back in time for the start and I did, but grocery shopping was the reason I didn’t watch much of the race–it was football.  And it was even the Cowboys playing, it was my other team the Colts.  I did flip back and forth, but you can’t get a feel of the race doing that.  Any way…

I did see that Kyle had a rough go of it from the drop of the green flag.  I know some of you out there love what has happend to him over the last few races, but as a watcher of NASCAR I am not.  Kyle has dominiated the season thus far and I really want to see him compete for the title.  That’s the drawback of the Chase.  You can go into the Chase having one of the best seasons of your racing career then have it all wiped away.  I guess that’s the way it is in the playoffs, just ask the New England Patriots.  But this is the first race of the Chase.  It’s doesn’t matter where you start, but where you finish the season that matters.  Kyle does have a chance to redeem himself this week at Dover–he won the Spring race and he is only 74 points from the top spot at the moment.

Congratulations to Greg Biffle! He was my dark horse pick to win it.  I am pumped about him winning the first race.  Maybe this is a sign of things to come from the #16 team.  He jumped from 9th place to 3rd place in one race.  He is only 30 points behind Jimmie and Carl.  Things look good for Greg this week at Dover, he won the pole at the spring race as well as a third place finish behind fellow Chasers (Kyle and Carl). He also has a record of 1 win, 4 top 5s, and 7 top 10s at Dover.

Who else may have a chance to come away with a win at Dover this weekend…

Carl–he finished 2nd in the spring behind Kyle.  Carl has been in this position before behind Kyle, but if Kyle doesn’t get things back on track, Kyle will be seeing more of the #99 in his front view window.

Matt–he finished 4th after starting in the 21st position in the spring.  Matt is 177 points back from the top spot, but this isn’t an unusual spot for Matt to be in.  He too will need to put together some pretty good runs and hope the others have bad ones to make it to the top

The Three Js (Jeff, Jimmie, and Jeff)–all three have the potential to come away with a win here.  They finished 5th, 7th, and 8th respectively in the Spring

I am sure Dale, Kevin, Tony, and Denny would have found themselves in a better finishing spot in the spring if not for the spin by #19 on lap 20. Looking at Tony’s chances for a win on Sunday, this fan has to be optimistic. He has 2 wins, 9 Top 5, and 12 Top 10s at Dover. He probably could have had a better finish than 41st in the spring if not for the horrible accident. He is only 73 points back and if he wins and the others in front of him have a rough go at it, then he’s right there.

Jimmie, who happens to be my pick to win it all, finished in 2nd on Sunday and is now tied with Carl Edwards for the top spot. Maybe this year my predictions will have some punch to them unlike last year where I picked Tony to win it all and Kyle as my dark horse. Of course, we all know neither one of them didn’t win the Championship, but hey it wasn’t too far out in left field especially with Kyle. Tony finished 6th while Kyle finished 7th. Not bad, but maybe this year will be the one I get things right.

Good luck in Dover boys…hey Tony watch out for the #19!

2008 Chase

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

And so it begins…here are your 2008 Chasers!

  1. Kyle Busch
  2. Carl Edwards
  3. Jimmie Johnson
  4. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  5. Clint Bowyer
  6. Denny Hamlin
  7. Jeff Burton
  8. Tony Stewart
  9. Greg Biffle
  10. Jeff Gordon
  11. Kevin Harvick
  12. Matt Kenseth

I have to admit I haven’t really watched much of NASCAR over the last few weeks.  I know that is kind of hard to believe, but I have had quite a bit going on in my life right now especially at work.  There are days at work I feel like I work for NASCAR with the every changing procedures, policies, etc.  UGH!!!  Anyhow, I have gone on a little fact finding mission this afternoon.  I thought I would focus my post race post on the The Chase.  I didn’t really watch all that much of the race so I don’t feel like I could make any sound judgements about the race. 

I am excited about this Chase and not because Tony made the Chase.  He is sitting 8th right now 80 points back of Kyle Busch.  In my opinion, I don’t think you will be able to win the chase unless you win a few races.  That’s just the way it is.  There are those out there who think it will be a three man race and yes I will include myself in that group, but I am going to step back and leave those three out of it for a moment.  Let’s take a look at the other 9 drivers in the Chase.

  • Dale Earnhardt Jr.–He is having a good year, well compared to last year.  He is sitting 4th in the points and has a win.  I just don’t know if he will be able to make a challenge for the championship this year.  Over the last 6 races, he has had 0 wins, 1 top 5, 1 top 10.  He is going to have to light it up in order to catch his teammate Jimmie as well as Kyle and Carl.
  • Clint Bowyer–He barely made it into the Chase as it is.  Yes he has a win and he is sitting 5th right now, but he has struggled over the last several races. Over the last 6 races, he has had only 3 top 10s.  There was a point during the race at Richmond he was out of the top 12.  I just don’t know.
  • Denny Hamlin–I really haven’t followed Denny too much this year.  I know he is Tony and Kyle’s temmate and you would think I would have kept up with him, but he is just not appealing to me.  He does have one win at Martinsville earlier in the year and he does pretty well at New Hampshire.  If he can get a good jump early on, he might be able to challenge for the top spot.  Definite wild card here.
  • Jeff Burton–He has one win this season at the spring Bristol race.  I never count Jeff Burton out in a race until he has either crashed out or is too many laps down to catch the leader.  Like Denny, I think he will be a wild card during the Chase
  • Greg Biffle–I have always like Greg as a driver.  He isn’t afraid to take chances to win a race.  He has a good season this year.  Back in 2005, he lost the championship to Tony by only 35 points.  In 2006 and 2007, the Biff finished 13th and 14th respectively.  Now he is sitting 9th.  In 2005, he started the Chase in second spot, but that was before all the bonus points played into the Chase and seeding.  Greg is right there.  He just needs that little push to get over the hump and he will be able to challenge the Three Amigos.
  • Jeff Gordon–I just don’t know. One week it looks like Jeff is going to challenge for the win and the next well…his car is just crap.  Jeff didn’t forget how to drive.  He is a 4-time champion.  I just think this car has him all mixed up.  I don’t know if Jeff will be able to turn it around in the last 10 races.  Over the past 6 he has had no wins, 1 top 5, 3 top 10s, and a rare DNF. 
  • Kevin Harvick–Next to Carl Edwards, he has the best run over the last 6 races.  3 top 5s and 6 top 10s.  He hasn’t won a race this season, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t just open up can and win a few.  I like his chances in the Chase.  He is definitely one of my two darkhorses. 
  • Matt Kenseth–Like Jeff Burton, you can never count out Matt in a race unless he has crashed out and/or too many laps down.  He isn’t known for his qualifying efforts, but that doesn’t matter.  He quitely makes his way up through the field and then the next thing you know he is either challenging for the lead or leading.  He along with Jimmie Johnson has made the Chase every single year.

And finally (last but defintely not least), Mr. Tony Stewart.  I hate to say it, but I just don’t know if Tony can get it together for the last 10 races.  It pains me to say, but he has quite a bit going on.  He is preparing to run his last 10 races wtih the team he has known for the last 10 years.  He has exciting things coming up for 2009.  And to be honest, his attention is focused in too many areas at the moment.  I know what it is like to be at your old job awaiting to head to the new job.  You want to do the best you can at the current job, but how can you now get excited and yes distracted with the new opportunity presented ahead of you.  That’s where I believe Tony is at the moment.  You could tell the frustration level has reached the maximum boiling point.  That was evident after the race on Sunday.  The win was right there.  He could taste it along with his fans, but Jimmie Johnson out raced him.  That’s it.  He is going to have to get on one of his famous hot streaks if he is even going to challenge for the championship. 

Now…who do I think will make it to the top to win all the marbles?  This has been somewhat a difficult thing to pin down.  Kyle looks to be the safe bet as well as Carl, but Jimmie is peaking at the right time and we all know when Jimmie gets in the zone, he is pretty much unbeatable.  Last year he won 4 of the Chase races.   Even in the 2006 Chase when most of us thought he was out of it after Talladega, he finished no further back than 9th to win the whole thing.  So with that information in front of me, I am going to have to take Jimmie Johnson to win it in 2008. 

It’s a toss up between Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick as my dark house.  They both have the potential to just bust out during the last 10 races, but I am going to have to go with The Biff on this one, but only by a small margin.

Now, let’s sit back and watch The Chase all unfold.

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!!!!  

Smoke

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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.

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.

Glen, Olympics and more

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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.