Pulling away from the pack.

An almost amazing thing happened today at Atlanta motor speedway. Johnny Benson almost took over the points lead in the Nascar Craftsman Truck series. But then tada he blew it or more precisely his truck blew it,spin out and that was that, chassis problems no more lead lap, no more points lead, go 7 laps down lose the championship. I guess an amazing thing did happen Todd Bodine despite being 2 laps down and finishing 25th actually gained 7 points on the 2nd place contender. With luck like that who needs to be good? With 3 races to go it is not over but close to it. So wait and see.

Poor Jeff Burton

What went wrong with Jeff Burtons motor? I may have missed it but I do not recall ever actually being informed of the final cause of death. Was it mechanical ? or was it something to do with No way a driver sponsored by The Cingular phone company is going to win the championship cup sponsored by The Sprint Nextel phone company?

The Whims of Nascar

Amazing Nascar on friday after the top speeds in practice were closing in on 200 mph again Robin Pemberton stated that he saw no reason for concern and there would be no change in the size of the restrictor plate. Ah wrong answer. Saturday morning teams arriving at the track were informed that the restrictor plate would be 1/64th of an inch smaller than the one everybody had practised with for 2 days. So much for no concern on the part of Nascar about the higher speeds obtained thru the repaving of Taledega Super Speedway. Unfortunatly for the race teams they are now without any information on how the race cars will perform with a smaller plate than the one they geared their cars for. Oh for sure 1 and all put a good face on the situation after all they have no choice in the matter, it is Nascar's ball, field,bat,hoop,goal post and they will take it and go home whenever they feel like it.

The Amazing Chase

The Chase for the Nextel Cup seems to have done wonders for the sport of stock car racing. It has taken an at best mediocre announcer Bill Webber and placed him before a national audience, most of the time Bill is unable to remember the names of drivers of the cars. His biggest claim to fame is his very polished fade to a break for commercial. The Chase has also greatly increased the number of cautions for commercial or at least it seems so. I have it seems seen many more cautions called for mystery debris, which is never actually shown. Or turns out to be a small piece of wrapper which surly would take out any car that happened to hit it. The Chase has also taken the other 33 drivers out of the eye of the media even if they should happen to be running up front all day. Which in the long view of things could prove to be bad for the sport as the sponsors of those cars that fail to make the chase on a regular basis start to place clauses removing their dollars after the 26th race if a car fails to make the chase. I mean why pay sponsorship money if you have very little chance of it translating into the nation exspsure that you are paying for?

New Hampshire

Johnny Benson wins his fourth race of the year. The race was Benson's from the start and he held off a few challengers late in the going to win his fourth race and close to under 130 points of Todd Bodine in the championship race. Ted Musgrave almost certainly took himself out of the running with his payback of the #14 truck under caution. It certainly looked to be just a racing incident but Musgrave explained it differently. Either way he blew it big time under caution and will probably not repeat as champion. Mark Martin experienced what it was like to have trouble in the race going to the rear of the field for takeing a jack for a lap around the track after a pit stop and then getting caught up in something he would have missed if not for the penalty. I was thinking Clint Bowyer was sure racing hard up front for being four laps down and holding up a number of truks that actually had a chance to finsh well when someone else felt the same way and spun him around and out of the way. It may have been a perview of the cup race on sunday with people not really giving anyone any slack and every inch of track being contested hotly. Good race hooray for Benson, and maybe a championship race that stays close to the end unlike the Busch series where Kevin Harvick all but has it in the bag and the cup chase which starts sunday which could be close or could be a run away.

The Chase to the wire.

An amazing run down to the chase for the Nextel Cup has been taking place this season. No one outside of the top 3 drivers is assured that at the end of the race Sat. night at Richmond that they will be in it. The points are so close it will only take a small miscue on the part of one of these drivers to land in 11th place. this should be an intense race to watch. Not only for the chase factor but the Richmond short track factor, how much if any leeway will the guys not in the chase or contention give those still fighting for it? What will the payback factor be? Is Carl Edwards or Clint Bowyer going to get even with ony Stewart for essentially taking them out of the hunt with swerve into Bowyer that also took out Edwards? Will Kenseth pay Gordon back for the rear bumper tap that cost him a win? How about the Edwards Earnhardt deal is that still on the burner? Only time and 400 laps at The bull ring will tell.

Fontana great run for Kahne

Kasey Kahne was on it for the race. Reed Sorenson missed it and Carl Edwards, and Greg Biffle are now left to contend for 11th place. Dale Jr. came ever so close to claiming his first win at Fontana but a 2 tire pit stop turned his car the wrong way and he had to fight traffic to get back up front. Jeff Gordon made a great come back from a pit stop gaffe with too few lug nuts dropping to 25th and fighting back to finish 5th. The pole sitter Kurt Busch once again had a car that they were not able to get a handle on and finished 1 lap down. Maek Martin recovered nicely from some early on poor handling to move up a spot in the top ten and once again Jeff Burtons car was adjusted out of contention. So no one dropped out of or moved into the top ten, there was some shuffling of positions and Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson traded 1st and 2nd place. Next week at Richmond things will be dicey from fourth place back holds the possibilty of dropping out of the chase with a bad run, talk about tension at a short track boy this one will be as taught as a piano wire for 7 guys.

Can't kill me off till homestead is over

You know having had a stroke and been what I thought was recovered it came as a big shock to realize that it is not recovered but recovery, (as in ongoing never ending) oh well, so I missed a few racses. At least I got back to see Jeff Gordon get even with Matt Kenseth for the Bristol stomp. And it was a masterful "intimidator" type of move over I'm coming through get even, and he played the innocent so well afterwards, I did not intend to wreck him, ya right,when you drive into a guys bumper at 155 mph even coming out of the corner you mean to wreck him. True Matt did check up and did block Gordon sevral times before that so quit your whining you were in the wrong car at the right time and not going to win the race anyway. Not enough gas.

The Next Hot Thing

I wonder who in the eyes of the television world is going to be the next hot driver? For awhile it was Kevin Harvick the driver of the 29 car. Then they pitched Kyle Busch the 5 car, then we had Greg Biffle the 16 car and they were hot on Carl Edwards the 99 car and Denny Hamlin the 11 car oh don't forget Tony Stewart the 20 car was supposedly unbeatable for awhile. And we could go on and on and on. In the view of the television people if a guy is running well 5 laps into a race he is having a good run that day. I realize these guys get paid to talk and inform us with their expert opinions, but jezz they need to give it a rest, half of the time they can't really tell where a given driver is on the track at any given time and at times I think they are making it up as they go along because it seems like they create things out of thin air. They certainly had Jeff Green wrecking the heck out of Tony Stewart until they actually looked at what took place. Tony Stewart driving down a bit and Jeff Green coming up at the same time. And then that poor kid in the truck race the 15 that got into it with the 9 he was sent to the scaffold for running into the 9 when actually the 9 drove down into him. Oh well just a rant, these guys make pretty decent money to broadcast the races and at times it seems as if they are not really present at the same race i see.

What a rookie can do with video games!

Well being flat on my back in bed with all the symptoms of a stroke relapse was not enough to keep me from marveling ar Denny Hamlins accomplishment at Pocono on Sunday. It is probably a good thing that he had a flat tire and spun out. 11 pit stops and still he shamed the rest of the field.This is one kid to keep an eye on for years to come, he will be a force to contend with.

Following his best instincts he wins.

Following his best instincts as a seasoned Nextel Cup driver Matt Kenseth driver of the #17 Dewalt Ford Fusion failed to heed his crew chiefs call and come to pit road for tires. This lead to his retaining track position and his eventual win over Jamie McMurry in Sundays race at Dover Int'l Speedway.
http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/mkenseth00/cup/index.html

http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/jmcmurra00/cup/index.htm

Robie Riser was quoted after the race as saying "if it had not turned out well they probably would have been in the trailer fighting". It just goes to show that there are times that the guy doing the actual driving of the car knows the best thing to do, or maybe Matt paid attention to what had taken place the day before when Carl Edwards pitted from 5th place to take on new tires with the certain belief that he would be able to over take the 4 cars ahead of him in the Busch Series Race. And to his disbelief Jeff Burton was able to hold him off with ease.
http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/jburton00/cup/index.html
All in all it was a good raceing weekend for the fans of all 3 of the Nascar events.

THE MONSTER MILE

Well well well, I see that Kyle Busch the driver of the #5 car for Hendrick motor sports was fined $50.000 and docked 25 driver points and placed on probation until Dec. 31 2006, for his little dust up at Lowe's on Sunday. Maybe they, the NASCR officals have got his attention. A member of his crew Don Richardson was also fined $5.000 for having an improper credential, so how did he get on the track without the proper credential?

Jeremy Mayfield lost 25 driver points and Ray Everham 25 owner points and the crew chief Ted Andrews fined $35.000 for the # 19 car having the roof height too low at post race inspection. Jezz make sure you have plenty of air in those tires after the race.

Last year when Greg Biffle cruised to a win at Dover there were only 11 cars left on the lead lap, but then The Biff was really cookin then. He is doing better now but no where up to last years pace.
There will it seems be a new trophy for this race or at least that is what this article seems to be saying.
http://www.doverspeedway.com/track/news/article.php?dir=200601&id=386
Dover INT'L Speedway
Banking/Turns: 24%
Distance 1.0 Miles
Shape Oval
Race #12 of the season.
And everybody is there. The Nextel Cup Series, The Busch Series and The Craftsman Truck Series. A very good race weekend for fanatics like me

Lowes Coca Cola 600

The Coca Cola 600 was a much better race than I figured it would turn out to be. It seems that I was not the only one hoping to see a different winner than Jimmy Johnson this year. Don't get me wrong Johnson is a fine driver and deserves to be where he is at, he worked hard to get there. It looks as if Tony Stewart may have seriously hurt his chances to repeat as Nextel Cup Champion this year, the accident on Saturday night combined with the accident on Sunday lead to a fractured shoulder and Rickey Rudd being called in to act as a co-driver in case Tony cannot complete the race at Dover this coming week.
Kyle Bush will more than likely feel the wrath of Nascar this coming Tuesday or wednesday when the penalties are handed out. His little tussle with a nascar official and his walk and throw on the track may cost him points and money, not that the money makes a difference it's the points that count.
Good for Ray Everham and all of his cars this weekend they had there stuff together.

Lowes Motor Speedway

That was a kind of fun Busch series race. Although Tony Stewart, Jaime McMurrey, Matt Kenseth and Casey Mears probably have a different view point. McMurrey wrecking out within the first 2 laps and then Tony Stewart hitting the wall like he did and perhaps not helping his chances in the Nextel Cup race on Sunday with a bad ribcage. Matt Kenseth had fun until his engine gave out on him and then Denny Hamlin's crew did not help him by wiring the battery backwards and toasting his whole electrical system, and he had a pretty good car at the time. Dale Jr's driver Mark McFarland seemed to have tired of going around the big circle and decided to go around in small circles of his own. And poor Mark Martin did not stand a chance from the star of the race, bad luck day for him. What is going on with the track bar deal? Are they breaking on their own or is there some gray area being pushed to far? Kevin Harvick made an excellent come back and stayed way out in front in the points lead and Jimmy Johnson didn't do to bad a job of comeback himself.
I see where Mike Waltrip bought his way into the 600 miler on Sunday. He made some type of a deal with the 74 car of Derrick Cope . It seems Cope and the 74 are financially strapped and will probably make more guaranteed money by letting Waltrip and Napa auto parts drive the number 55 in Sundays race then by competing themselves. Well it should be a good Nextel Cup Race on Sunday, at least I am hoping.

Craftsman Truck Series at Mansfield

Can you believe David Starr's crew chief asking Jack Sprague to moveout of the way from 2nd place? If the # 11 did not have enough to get around the 60 how did he think he was going to get around Ron Hornaday in Kevin Harvicks # 33?
Well a track record for cautions 17, it is a good thing the drivers were all pretty calm or there would have been quite a few more, it did not look as if paybacks were too big of an issue today.

Craftsman Truck Race

The cautions are incredible. Just a little over halfway and we are working on a record number of cautions for this craftsman truck series race at Mansfield Ohio race. It looks like the 30 Todd Bodine and the 9 Ted Musgrave made a bad call on pit strategy and will not make it back to the front.

Pole Positions Do Not Matter

So Scott Riggs got the pole for the 600 miler on sunday and Matt Kenseth for the Busch race in saturday. So far the only driver that has done halfway decent from the pole position is Kasey Kahne. Riggs will probably wreck out before the race is past the halfway mark and Kenseth finish no better then 5th.