Tony Stewart

A Sunday Drive

/ Trixie / 2 Comments

I have to admit I wasn’t looking forward to the Pocono race.  I am not a big fan of this race.  I guess because it can somtimes turn into a snoozefest, but yesterday wasn’t the case.  This race had a little bit of everything for everyone.

Yesterday’s race was the first broadcast for TNT.  TNT will broadcast the next 6 races up to the Brickyard where ESPN will take over the rest of the season.  Now I didn’t have any expectations for TNT.  I am not a fan of their broadcast, but you have to bear the good with the bad sometimes in life.  I have to admit I do like their Pride of NASCAR Series.  Yesterday’s installment was Bobby Allison.  It was a nice segment.  There were some audio issues during the race, but all in all not a bad broadcast.  One sticking point, I think they over did it a little with promos for The Bill Engvall Show, Saving Grace and my favorite of the TNT shows The Closer.  I am sure Fox does quite a few promos for their shows, but for some reason it felt like ever single time they went to commercial there was a promo. 

Now onto the race…

Kasey Kahne was the man to beat yesterday.  He had the fast car and it showed even in the face of adversity.  Around lap 70ish, Kasey made a pit stop to get 2-tires.  I guess they didn’t let the crew guys in on this because they thought it was for 4 tires.  Kasey took off with only 3 lugnuts on and had to come back around to the pits.  This mistake put him back in the pack.  Luckily it was early on in the race so he had some time to make up the ground he had gained early on.  And sure enough there he was around lap 97, in about 7th place. That right they my friends tells you what a good car Mr. Kahne had.  Congratulations to Kasey Kahne for winning his second race in his last 3 races and he did it from the pole.  As I recall in 2006, Kasey liked to start on the pole and go to victory lane.  I think if it weren’t for a early crash last week at Dover Kasey would have been a contender. 

Kyle Busch the points leader took a big hit yesterday in the standings with his 43rd place finish.  Sunday was the third leg of his “Bermuda Triangle” trek to three different race tracks.  He made history by doing this trifecta, however it didn’t yield any wins.  His best finish in the three races was at Texas with a 2nd place finish in the truck race Friday night.  Yesterday’s mishap I don’t believe was a result of all that traveling, I just think it was one  of those too many cars not enough real estate things.  We can’t also forget Kyle was also at Eldora Wednesday night for The Prelude.  I am sure Kyle is catching up on all that sleep he missed over the weekend.  I for one I’m tired just thinking about all that mileage.  Of course he got to travel with style…it’s not like he had to fly Southwest Airlines to all the destinations.

Now there were lots of drivers who had fantastic days, Brian Vickers (2nd), Bobby Labonte (11th), A.J. Allmendinger (12th).  Kudos to both Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick for their finishes of 8th and 13th respectively.  Kurt spun and had damaged to his splitter, but was able to come back and race his way to a top ten finish.  Same thing for Kevin, he had to start the race at the back of the pack right before the race started due to a battery change.    Greg Biffle looked like he was going to have a great day at Pocono (just like Tony), but he too got nailed for a late speeding penalty which ultimately ruined his good run.  He did however finish 15th which was way better than Smoke.

Now a few words about Smoke.  Once again,  Tony had a car that could win the race.  In fact he was up front leading everyone for a time and I thought this might be the race he would see his first win of the season.  But alas, it was not to be on Sunday.  He was nailed with a late speeding penalty and ended up back in the pack.  He finished 35th.  Guess who finished in front of Tony?  The #19.  Perhaps that was why Tony got caught speeding, he saw Elliott coming and wanted to get way ahead of him–just kidding to all you Sadler fans out there.  UGH!  What does this Stewart fan have to do to get the mojo workin’ for Smoke?  Maybe he just wanted to have his first win of the season in Michigan this week.  I mean talk about a great birthday present!  How ’bout Smoke?  Win one for Trixie!

 

Bermuda Triangle?

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

Kyle Busch will be attempting all three races this weekend.  This may not sound unusual, but all three series are in different locations so it will be a challenge to see how all that traveling will affect his on track performance.  But if anyone can pull it off, it would probably be Kyle.

First stop–Texas Motor Speedway.  Too bad I won’t get the chance to head on over to TMS tonight.  If I didn’t leave 6 hours away I probably would head out after work.  Also running in conjunction with the trucks this weekend are the Indy cars.  Not a bad way to start a race weekend.

2nd stop–Nashville–where he will try to keep to win yet another race.

And finally–Pocono on Sunday where he will be going back to back wins this weekend.

Whew…I just get tired thinking about how much he will spend flying to each desination.

Yes, I did.  I am now an offical member of the Kyle fan club.  It’s not too bad.  I have been a member of Tony’s going on my fourth year.  I good some pretty cool stuff with my membership fee ($35).  I got a key chain, autographed information card (you know the ones you can pick up at the track), mouse pad for my office, one of those wrist bands with his foundation website on it, a koozie, a lightweight fleece blanket, t-shirt, but most importantly little packets of M&Ms.  Not bad for my $35 bucks.

I am hoping Tony’s luck will change this weekend and he comes away with a win at Pocono.  If I can’t I really want him to win at Michigan…why?  IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!  That’s right the boys will be racing at Michigan on my birthday.  For those who might now that is also Father’s Day.  So to all those father’s out there, THANK YOU.  It’s kind of cool that all of you want to celebrate my birthday with me!

UPDATE…KYLE BUSCH FINISHES 2ND AT TEXAS.  He started at the back of the pack and came in second.  One race down and two more to go.

Got Dirt?

/ Trixie / Leave a comment

There was plenty of dirt to be had last night in Rossburg, Ohio home of Eldora Speedway.  Last night Eldora Speedway hosted the Prelude to the Dream.  Once again I ponied up the money to watch this event on pay-per-view since I wasn’t able to make the trek up to Ohio. Last year’s event was a blast to watch so I was expecting it to be the same this year and it didn’t disappoint.

Several of your NASCAR favorites were there (sorry Junior Nation, Junior wasn’t one of those in attedance).  You had the likes of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, along with Red Farmer, and two drivers from the NHRA , Cruz Pedregon and Ron Capps willing to step out of their prospective comfort zones to spend time getin’ all “dirtied” up for a worthy cause.  The proceeds were to benefit the Tony Stewart Foundation who regularly donates to the Victory Junction Gang camp.  This year Tony wanted to raise $1 million to kick start the 2nd Victory Junction Gang camp that will be located in the Kansas City area. 

Now on to the festivities…

I consider myself to a well informed blogger, but sometimes I just know things.  First we had a qualifying session where Dave Blaney beat out everyone for the pole and set a new track record at 15.436 seconds beating the old record held by none other than track owner Tony Stewart.  I don’t know what this was for to be honest.  I am going to assume it was to set the order for the three qualifying heats or the feature main.  I really don’t know.  So if any of my regular readers know, please explain.  Anyhow, once qualifying was over, there were three qualifying heats.  The top three transferred into the feature main, but I think everyone that was invited to the Prelude was in the race.  I was so confused by it all.  But even so there was quite a bit of racing…and not just driving around in a circle.

The first heat was the most action packed with JJ Yeley spinning and collecting Mark Martin and Aric Armirola.  Unfortunately that was all the racing Mark would be able to do.  They were unable to repair his car and get him back for the feature main.  The winner of the first heat was Clint Bowyer which is no surprise here.  He owns his own dirt track team and in fact owned the car Jimmie JOhnson was driving last night.  The second heat had what I called some of the heavy hitters.  Heat 2 lineup: Bobby Labonte, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kenny Wallace, Bill Elliott, Cruz Pederegon, Kasey Kahne.  As no suprise to anyone, certainly not me, Tony Stewart won the 2nd heat.  The third heat winner was Robby Gordon.

Once the qualifying heats were over, it was on to the big race.  It was a 30 lap shootout for all the marbles.  There were only two leaders in this race, Kevin Harvick who lead lap one and Tony Stewart who lead the other 29 laps.  Even though Tony was giving a clinic on how to run on dirt, it was fun to watch.  I enjoyed watching Robby Gordon race.  You would have thought Robby raced quite a bit on dirt, but not the case.  He has raced on dirt, but not in a circle.  Last night was his first time to drive on a circle of dirt.  And where did Robby finish…that would be 2nd place.  Not bad for a first timer.  Robby wasn’t the only first timer at the Prelude.  Two-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson was on hand driving one of Clint Bowyer’s cars.  I couldn’t understand why he was driving a white car.  I mean a white car on dirt.  Doesn’t sound like a good combo to me.  I am pretty sure the car didn’t stay completely white after the race. 

Kyle Busch also raced, but didn’t do fair as well as he did last year.  He almost won last years event.  He still drove like he stole it though.  He did hit the wall during his qualifying heat, but the car’s crew was able to repair the damage car to get him ready for racing for the feature main.  He wasn’t just standing by either, he had hammer in hand pounding out sheet metal.

The racing was good, but the best part of the event were the drivers.  You could tell these boys were having fun.  This race wasn’t about points or a championship.  It was all for fun!  You got to see them in an environment where the racing was about having a good time.  The drivers were smiling and laughing with one another.  To me, this is what racing should be about.   Another highlight of the evening was driver introductions.  It was funny to watch them trying to get the drivers corralled–kinda of like herding cats.  Some of them looked like they had no clue they were being introduced to the audience.  They were to busy talking with other drivers, etc.  I can tell this wasn’t your typical NASCAR driver introduction.  The only resemblence to a NASCAR driver introduction were the boos I heard when they introduced Jeff, Jimmie, and Kyle.  Even in Rossburg, Ohio, these three get majority of the boos.

I don’t know if I mentioned it but Tony Stewart walked away with the trophy last night and Kyle Petty walked away with a $1 million check from Tony Stewart. 

I would have to give major props to Tony Stewart for all the work he has done with regards to the Victory Junction Gang camp.  I believe this is the 3rd million dollar check he has presented to the Pettys.  Say what you want about Tony, but he truly gives of himself with regards to his foundation as well as Victory Junction.  I don’t know Tony personally, I only know what I read about him.  I do know majority of us see Tony for his on track personality, but last night was what the real Tony is all about.  So if you didn’t get a chance to watch this year’s Prelude last night, check out when they show it on Speed later this year.  I definitely say it was worth my $25.

Don’t Go To The Concession Stand

/ Trixie / 2 Comments

That’s right folks!  You don’t want to go to the concession stand because you might miss something.  That is what could be said of today’s race.  

The race wasn’t even in it’s 20 lap and BAM…it was a gigantic meet and greet coming out of Turn 2.  From what I could tell of the numerous replays Fox showed over and over, Sadler came down while passing the #40 and was clipped by the #38.  Next thing we all know, Elliott decided to make his own demolition derby.  Tony had no where to go but into the side of the #19 car along with several other cars.  I know it looked like Denny didn’t slow down, but to be honest going at those speeds that car probably couldn’t get whoaed up in time.  Of course, I saw other cars running around Denny able to whoa up, but I wasn’t driving his car.  For me the race was pretty much a wash.  Tony did come back into the race about a 100 or so laps down, but none the less back on the track.   Tony finished 41st and fell three spots in the standings to 11th.  Oh in case we are keeping score this year, this is the 2nd time Sadler has been involved in a crash that has taken out Stewart. On a lighter note the hood on Sadler’s car was pretty much intact for him.  He was planning to auction off the hood to his car from today’s race to raise money for autism.  

The race for me was pretty much a snoozefest and it wasn’t because Tony was just driving around the track, I really thought it was a snoozefest.  In fact I did take a nap some time during the race.  The race was pretty much dominated by three different drivers–Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, and Kyle Busch not necessarily in that order with several green flag runs.  Congratulations to Kyle Busch for his 4th win of the season.  Carl finished 2nd with Carl’s teammate finishing 3rd after having voltage issues.

In case anyone wasn’t aware Dale Jr. has gone 74 races without a win.  Of course this statistic didn’t escape the Fox broadcast.  This little tidbit was flashed on the screen at 1:41 pm Central Daylight Savings Time.

One last thing..

Little Smoke was busy playing in the house today because it was way too hot for him to be outside (it reached over the century mark today).  He decided to build a race car using some interesting items sitting around the house.  Please notice the “paint scheme”.  He is such a wonderful little boy who is very creative and will tell you that Tony Stewart is his favorite driver…just ask.  Apologies to my dad who just happends to be a Junior, but there will be no Junior fan in this household. He was so excited when Fox was interviewing Tony before the race.  He stopped what he was doing to watch.   Looks like this #20 faired better today.

 

Kyle Strikes Again

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

When you are hot, you are on fire. Kyle Busch will lead the field to the green on Sunday. This is the second pole in a row at Lowe’s for Kyle. And look who he will be with him on the front row…Kasey Kahne, last week’s All-Star race winner.

This will be the first Coca Cola 600 for the COT. I am interested to see how the COT will perform under the conditions of the 600. This race is about being able to make adjustments througout the entire race. The race begins during the day and ends under the lights. This is the longest race of the year and the COT has yet to impress me on this size of a race track. I know teams have been struggling with the COT this year. It seems some teams try to adjust the cars just a little during the race, but it seems to make them worse. I am hoping some of the teams were able to get some valuable data from last week’s All-Star race. If the race is anything like the the All-Star race where the person who is a lead drives away from the field, I may have to change the channel.

As with every race, I want Tony to be up front and challenging for the win. Tony has one win at Lowe’s back in 2003 at the spring race. Last year he finished in the Top Ten in both races at Lowe’s. This is the time of the year where Tony turns up the intensity. Tony rolls off Sunday 31st. I am not worried about him though. Tony isn’t always the best qualifier. It will be fun to watch him work his way to the front. I mean it is 600 mile race, not a 6 mile race.

Will Jimmie return to victory lane at Lowe’s this year? Jimmie hasn’t seen victory lane since the fall 2005 race. Of course that’s probalby what we will hear about this weekend, how Lowe’s is Jimmie’s house, blah blah..and of course someone will mention the fact that Junior STILL hasn’t won a race in the last two years.

One more thing…as we enjoy all the fesitivities, parties, BBQs this weekend, take time and say “Thank You” to a veteran or an active serviceman or servicewoman, because without the sacrifice, we would not be able to enjoy this weekend. 

Stock Car Science and Happy Birthday

/ Trixie / 1 Comment

I heard about a really cool website yesterday while listening to Sirius Speedway while headed home yesterday.  It’s called Stock Car Science. Professor Diandra Leslie-Pelecky basically, explains the science of NASCAR in terms even someone like me could understand. I wasn’t interested in science in school, but if this site had been around during those formative years perhaps I would have liked science back in the day. Case in point…the whole yaw thing that has been in the news of late. She has also written a book entitled The Physics of NASCAR.

So if you get a chance, surf on over and find out more about the Science of NASCAR.

One more thing before I forget….

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TONY STEWART!

 

Saturday Racing

/ Trixie / 4 Comments

I didn’t get to catch much of the race on Saturday night.  I had to work during most of the day so by the time I got home it was about 5:30 then my brood needed to run to the grocery store to get the breakfast stuff for my Mother’s Day breakfast Sunday morning.

By the time we got home there was about 50-60 laps left.  All I know is that it was a good thing I was out shopping when #19 got into Smoke.  I am sure I would have been cursing at the television set despite the fact that I like the #19. 

Congratulations to Kyle Busch for his 3rd win this season on the Cup side. 

I have been surfing out there on all the NASCAR sites both in the media and those who are listed here in the Park.  There are different camps regarding Kyle Busch.  There are those who think he is a punk ass and should be taken out to the wood shed and those who think he is a great driver (yes, I have see positive posts about him).  I consider myself to be right in the middle.  I do think he needs to be taken out to the wood shed and have an attitude adjustment, but I really do like him as a driver.  This boy can drive.  I about fell out my chair last night while talking to my dad.  Let me preface here…die hard Earnhardt fan (more Senior than Junior), but a fan none the less. He actually agress with me on Busch.  He even mentioned how Rusty Wallace drove and behaved early on and now look at how we all view Rusty.  I think the same thing can be said for Smoke and yes, even Dale Sr.  I think he will come into his own as he continues on through his Cup career and yes, he might even pull it back during interviews, but hopefully not too much.  I kind of like his style.  That’s the reason I am a fan of Tony.  He says what he feels and pretty much does what he wants.  He’s a rebel. 

Speaking of Smoke…I am listening to him on Sirius radio right now.  He is a guest DJ on the Elvis channel tonight.  Plus he will be broadcasting live from Graceland as well during his own show tonight.  I wish I could listen to the show tonight, but have lots of laundry still to clean.  This just gives me one more reason to like Smoke–he and I are both huge Elvis fans.

Well, the boys get a weekend off from points racing this Saturday night, but the gloves I am sure will surely come off for that $1 MILLION DOLLARS.  I believe the Busch brothers took each other out last year.  It’s a million dollars people.  It’s every one for themselves!