March 2008 Archives

Well, it's not technically the holidays that are belated, it's me.

Regardless, no Cup race this past weekend means it must be Easter. So happy Easter, everyone.

And to our Jewish readers, happy Purim. That one's belated, too.

That said, congratulations to Scott Wimmer for Saturday's win at the Pepsi 300. I guess that's belated, too.

But in the interest of offsetting all my lateness, I will make a prediction: The next race will take place in Martinsville.

Fine, want a real prediction? Mike Skinner to win the Truck Series race. He's pretty good there on the short track.

Also, watch for Chrissy Wallace to make her debut in the same race, with her dad, Mike as her spotter. And for those of you who have a problem with that, science has gone a long way to prove girls don't really have cooties.

And some breaking news (I'm good; what can I say):

World Racing Group on Monday announced that SPEED will be the exclusive television partner for World of Outlaws racing in 2008, which includes coverage May 23 of the three-hour Rite Aid Outlaw Showdown broadcast live from The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

“The World of Outlaws broadcasts in 2007 showed us how exciting dirt track racing can be on television,” stated Rick Miner, SPEED senior vice president of Production and Network Operations. “The success of the World Finals show from The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway gave us a gameplan for ‘08, as part of that plan we will be treating the five new super-sized events just as we do any other major motorsports event on SPEED, which should significantly raise the profile of World of Outlaws racing.”

(Courtesy of DrugStoreNews.com)

Jeff Burton, and Richard Childress racing had a day on Sunday at Bristol motor speedway. Some luck was involved but that won’t take any of the glory away from the 31, 29, and the 07. Joe Gibbs racing practically handed the race over to Childress. The Gibbs boys were dominating the race for most of the after noon, Tony Stewart led over 200 laps, while Denny Hamlin was poised for the win with 10 to go and ran into some fuel issues.  Kyle Busch looked good as well but experienced a gearbox failure causing him to finish 17th, he is still atop the points standings however.
Was anyone else frightened by that eerie voice that popped up from time to time during the race? That frog croaking was none other than DW. Hey Mr. Waltrip next time take the day off you are scaring the children. I love DW and all but he was in no shape to be on the air. I respect that he stayed the course but come on! Your job is to talk racing and you had laryngitis, maybe next time head back to the motor coach a little early sip some green tea and call it a day.
Are 48 fans starting to get worried? In my opinion they should keep sane with their mantra, “it’s still early”. They will get it together at just the right time and make another run at it. Same goes for the 24, who looks good but just cant get it to click at the right time. In other Hendrick news the 88 is still looking strong. We will see if JR gets bitten by the DNF bug again, but if not he is a sleeper pick to go far in the chase. His cars are strong enough to be top 10 every week, which combined with his natural racing pedigree, continues to land him in the top 5.
Dale Jarrett finished his illustrious career on somewhat of a down note but will hold his head high and walk into the sunset, handing the keys to the 44 UPS team to Dave Reutimann. On a side note my auto mechanic, Nicky Nero, who’s garage was literally right next door to the house I grew up in used to be Dave’s crew chief when he was racing up at the dirt track in Middletown New York. So naturally I will be a 44 fan from here on out. Good luck Dave.
So this brings us to our first off week of the season and for some it is a welcomed break. Teams are looking to regroup and get back on track, the short track of Martinsville.
Happy Easter Y’all! I will be back with any exciting news that breaks over the holiday.

Michael Clark (emsea)

Momentum is the impetus and driving force gained by the development of a process or course of events. With that said we could surely say that Toyota is feeling it! Sunday’s win for Toyota made them quite happy, earning their first victory in NASCAR’s top series. It also marked the first foreign manufacturer to hit victory lane since the 50’s. While I along with everyone else thought it was going to be Tony Stewart’s fate to send them to the Promised Land, it was indeed rowdy Kyle Busch. With his first win of the season, and first in Joe Gibbs stable, Kyle will be the answer to at least one trivia question.
As for Tony Stewart, he lived up to his name by “smoking” Goodyear in his post race interview. No not smoking the tires, smoking the manufacturer of said tires. Tony was not alone in his rant. While many believe that he went a little over the edge with his remarks (Goodyear being one of them) many other drivers believe that he was not to far off with his rant. The common theme of the post race interviews was comparing the Atlanta Motor Speedway to the good ole dirt tracks. Which may sound fine to you, but there is no dirt track that lets you go up to 200 MPH. these guys were gassed after the race. Some in car camera shots show how much battling the drivers had to do just to stay on the track and out of the wall. Race winner Kyle Busch had to overcome hitting the wall early in the race, and was seen “all up on the wheel” all afternoon. Dale Jarrett urged Goodyear to listen up to what Tony had to say. "We're talking about race drivers that have a huge amount of talent and very seldom complain about things like that." Said Jarrett who in other news will race the final race of his (full time) career on Sunday in Bristol. Thanks Dale!
Jr. and the 88 are looking poised for a good year (no pun intended I swear). After another top 5 finish (3rd place) Little e is sitting pretty in the standings at 6th. I wonder how the 48 team feels about this, his team usually waives the magic wand halfway through a race and boom! Right to the front they go!! But that does not seem to be the case for them this year. Chad Knaus and his boys will have their work cut out for them if they plan on defending their 2 consecutive cup titles.
And finally it would not be a blog entry without some Carl Edwards talk. Poor Carl is down to 17th in the standings after his DNF last weekend. What an unfortunate week for the 99, who just 7 days ago were sitting real pretty in first place. Winners never cheat and cheaters never win, but I guess if you are a sports franchise from New England, cheating is just what you do!! Oh snap yes he did!!!

Michael Clark (emsea)

When traveling through Atlanta over a NASCAR weekend, do not wait until your arrival to try to find a hotel room. You will wind up sleeping on the floor of the airport.

Side note: you will get into great conversations about car racing with pretty much everyone you meet. These are people who can name crew chiefs other than Chad Knaus.

Well NASCAR had a busy week deciding on the fates of two drivers this week one good and one well, not so good.
Forgive me if i sound a little giddy, but the past two weeks i have had my foot in my mouth and i can finally take it out. It seems that Carl Edwards and his Fenway boys were caught with their paints down, or at least with their oil tank lid cover off. This is unfortunate for Edwards being that his 100 point penalty has dropped him from the lead in the points standings to a lowly 7th place.. haha.. Did i just write that oh well!! It turns out that he also looses the 10 bonus points he earned last week as well. So now that i have somewhat washed the bad taste of my foot out of my mouth i can watch the race this week in Atlanta comfortably.. Although look for the 99 to bounce right back , he always runs strong at Atlanta.  No i am not predicting  a third back flip in a row  but i think he now has an agenda, or at least something to prove.
In other news robby gordon back his 100 points (both driver and owner). NASCAR took mercy on this single car team and robby is now sitting pretty in 21st place in the points. So robby enjoy your back rub and enjoy the fact that you are now well within the top 35 down from a stale 37th to the afore mentioned 21st. Lets hand it to NASCAR for getting both these situations sorted out right! At least in this humble journalists opinion!!


Michael Clark (emsea)

Just a couple things to check out today.

First, there's a good article at NASCAR.com on the importance of numbers in the upcoming Atlanta race. Looks like racing's giving baseball a run for its money in the "potentially meaningful statistics" category. It's nothing like "New York has beaten Chicago six of the last seven times when they've played on a Tuesday and it rained in the morning the night after a lunar eclipse," but it's gettin' closer.
"289: Laps led at Atlanta by Mike Skinner, more than any other driver who has not won at the track. Skinner has five top-10s in 13 starts at AMS."

Second, an interesting story I came across in the course of my day job. Turns out that having your car painted like a beer can inspires people to buy that beer. Go figure. Promo Magazine has a pretty interesting look into marketing products through NASCAR. Maybe the government should sponsor the #51 "Pay Your Taxes" Chevrolet. Maybe not.

So another week and another backflip! i am really tasting my foot now!! These Roush boys are starting to look tough.
Notice i never say Roush/fenway, i just don't like the way it rolls off the tongue. The 99 is looking like the team to beat right now but of course it is early. Greg Biffle is sitting pretty right now in 6th in the point standings, seems like new england is just where its at for dominating the landscape of sports right now. But it means nothing without a championship (can you say 18-1, oh snap!).
propers go to Travis Kvapil for having the most commonly misspelled and mispronounced name in the game not to mention an 8th place finish in his all white 28!! Someone please slap a logo on this kids hood so we can keep watching him race.
Dale jr almost got his first win in about 23 months but came in  just short with a second place finish. Jr just could not get it going on those restarts in the waning moments of the race. In fact i bet Jeff Gordon was pretty pissed off at his new teammate spinning the tires, which inadvertently caused Jeff to take a nasty nose dive into the inner wall. Jeff was heard after the race lobbing for SAFER barriers to be placed throughout the tracks that NASCAR competes at. He even said that owners should chip in for some of the bill. i guess that is the kind of talk you get from someone who was in a car that basically was cut in half on impact leaving his radiator and transmission mid track. Who wins the harder lick competition Jeff and his 24 or Tony stewert and the 20? Although Stewert walked, or should i say limped away on his own power he was seen grimacing and clutching his side while the safety team helped him to the ambulance. Don't expect him to miss any seat time next week, Tony is as tough as his mullet is long. 
Michael Clark (emsea)