May 2008 Archives

So another weekend at Lowe's and another trip to victory lane for Kasey Kahne, but this time it counted. I tell you what, it was nice to see the Bud car in victory lane. It has certainly been a while since that paint scheme was doused with the foamy suds in the winners circle. Kahne and the 9 were not the most dominant car Sunday night, but their patience paid off for them. The 9 used some of the knowledge from the all-star event to their advantage, by letting the track come to them. Over the course of 600 miles, the longest race on the circuit, the track goes through several changes. As the sun gos down on the western horizon of Charlotte the track temperature goes down. This is a gradual process that takes many hours, so just because you qualify well during the daylight does not mean your car is going to dominate when the night closes in.  Kahne and co. knew this going in to the interminable race, and it showed in the final 100 or so laps. They were the best when it counted and thats all that really matters. Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades my friends.

Another top five for the 88! Even when things go horribly wrong for the national guard team they end up in the front of the pack. Jr smacked the wall in the waning stages of the race looking like he was going to end his day in the top 15 if he was lucky. But the way things cycled through the  Jr.and the 88 ended up with their 5th top 5 of the season.

Kudos to the 44 and Dave Reutimann for a solid weekend. Dave scored his first top 10 of the year and if my gut feeling is not just heartburn, then I think big things await in the future for Reutimann  and the UPS 44! You know Dave has got to be a great guy, I mean DW is always praising him on the air. If DW gives the thumbs up then so do I. I think this is a great story brewing here, and i hope that the 44 can dominate the asphalt as well as Big Brown does the slop!

In other news i will be attending the Pocono race weekend armed with a press pass looking for the scoop. It is my bachelor party, so my friends and I are renting OK Go's tour bus from them and doing it up rock star style. Of course I will be blogging my heart out throughout the course of the weekend. It seems fair that my buddies party all day long on the tour bus while I am out there working the garage doesn't it? So if you see a bunch of Yankees in a tour bus who look like they have no business at a NASCAR event, that is probably us, so come over and say hi, and who knows we may just give you a beer or you could end up in the next entry on DOTYAWARD.com!!

Kasey Kahne owes many things to his boyish good looks, but this one takes the cake. Kasey owes about $1,000,000 dollars to his loyal fans. We should not underestimate the power of the female NASCAR fan base. Although i have only empirical evidence of this. One can only assume that the driver of the #9 bud car was voted in by the ladies. Hey maybe it was the votes of those three pesky women that aimlessly chase Kasey around in those catchy Allstate commercials that  put Kahne into the All star event on Saturday night. It definitely was not his effort in the Sprint Showdown. The winner and runner up in the showdown get their chance at the All star cash prize, along with the winner of the fan vote. Kahne finished fifth in the showdown, a good run but not enough to get him into the show. A.J. Allmendinger raced his way in as well as former open wheeler Sam Hornish Jr. So a congrats to them because that was all the highlights they would have on Saturday night under the lights.
Kahne seemed like a non factor through the first three segments, the first of which was dominated by first quarter driver of the year Kyle Busch. Busch led all 25 laps of the first segment and about 17 or so in the second before he ran into some engine problems that basically ended his night. I must give DW some propers for being the first to diagnose the engine problem from way up n the booth. He made a hesitant  call about noise that the 18's engine was making then second guessed himself, stating "maybe i should wait for him to come around one more time, but I didn't like the sound of that 18 last time around". Waltrip was right on and a lap or so later his diagnosis was confirmed by the radio banter of the 18 team. Carl Edwards looked good as well, winning the second segment. but his car went away from him after the "halftime" break.  But in the end it was not about the Alllstate girls, or Kasey's boyish good looks, it was about the pit strategy of crew cheif Kenny Francis. Francis told Kahne "just get to the halftime and we will do the rest". Francis then elected to go for the track position opting to go with no tires, putting Kahne into the lead for the final segment. And that my friends was all she wrote!
Greg Biffle finished second, leaving him with about $800,000 bucks less them Kasey. But he did win the victory celebration contest with some fierce doughnuts and thick cloudy burnouts. I am sure the Biff would trade whatever trophy he received for those Million dollar doughnuts Kasey was leaving at the start/finish line at The Lowes Motor Speedway. Second place is truly first looser!

Michael Clark (emsea)

About 10 days ago i stated that KyB was my lock for Driver Of The Year so far. Well it turns out that this prognostication was made with pinpoint accuracy. It was announced last Tuesday that Rowdy did indeed win the 1st Quarter driver of the year award. That being said it was one of many reasons why KyB is all over the news and blogs this week. We all remember his infamous spin out of dale Jr with 4 to go in Richmond. His post race  remarks were just as memorable, and quite hilarious. Busch said that he saw the crowd giving him the #1 sign (referring to the middle digits the fans were waiving at him after said nudging of Jr.) even though he was in second place at the time. He then went on to say that the crowd must have indulged in one too Many of Dale Jr's Budweisers, or maybe they were just too Amped up. These references were clever puns at Jr's endorsements. Thats the way to make light of Jr Nation loathing you, make fun of it. Busch said that he was not thinking about the fact that Jr has not won in 2 years, it is not his job to help a fan favorite win, it is his job to win it himself. Right on Kyle! I do however think it was Bushleague (no pun intended) for Denny Hamlin to intentionally cause a caution to help out his teammate who was running second at the time. This caution allowed Busch to restart on the back bumper of the 88 leading to the derailing of the Jr victory train.

Busch follows this controversial week with an impressive win at Darlington. I gotta hand it to the kid, and yes he is one of the few drivers that i can officially call kid, he drives the wheels of the car every week. He must have hit the wall at least 6 times on Saturday night, but still drove right to victory lane following some burnouts of course!

Kyle Busch 1st quarter driver of the year! we can only assume that things would have to go terribly wrong for him to not be holding the award over his head come November..

Michael Clark (emsea) 

Well, actually, you can, but the season's longest ARCA Re/Max Series race (six sets of tires allowed) does last for a good long while. And it was nice to see the track at Rockingham, NC (The Rock, get it?) open for business again.

So congratulations to rookie Joey Logano who not only looked good for the whole thing, but managed to keep his cool after pitting with only 10 laps left. Maybe we'll see him on the DOTY podium one of these days.

In fact, another driver (warning: segue coming up) who won his first ARCA Re/Max Series race—at Nashville—was Q1 Driver of the Year winner Kyle Busch. It says it on his site; it must be true. Congratulations, Kyle. Keep up the good work!

And on a final note, Full Throttle (a Coca-Cola brand) is taking over sponsorship of the National Hot Rod Association's premier professional drag racing series. It will be the energy drink line's first major sports marketing deal. Full Throttle will take over the sponsorship from Powerade (another Coke brand) in 2009. As part of the deal, Coke will extend its NHRA partnership through 2013.

And there you have it. All the news that fits in my head.

Oh, and Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there. And to all you fathers, sons and daughters, it's on Sunday and you're welcome for reminding you. Try to get something nicer than vacuum filters this year, please.

Kyle Busch crushed the competition on the track and in the ballots as he won 1st quarter DRIVER OF THE YEAR 2008.

Busch won a total seven races in NASCAR’s top-three series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series.

The driver of Joe Gibbs Racing’s #18 M & M’s Toyota Camry was a little surprised upon hearing of his media accolade. "To be honest, I don't know what to say,” Busch said. “Completely unexpected. We've just been going out and driving as hard as we can every week and really having alot of fun doing it. We go out and race for wins and race for trophies, but to also get this kind of recognition for what we've been doing is pretty special."

Although he leads in the Cup standings with a second place this past weekend in Richmond International Raceway, voting only considered results through the previous event at Talladega Speedway.
Busch, who just turned 23, has two Cup wins (Atlanta and Talladega) plus one pole, three victories in the Nationwide Series, and two Truck wins.
Barry Schmoyer, President of the Driver of the Year Foundation, said “I can’t remember when a driver has been so successful across the board in three series simultaneously.”

In the voting Busch took 14 first-place ballots, and none lower than a third
place totaling 142 points. Cup rival Roush/Fenway driver Carl Edwards’ three wins earned him one first-place vote and a total of 72 points.

Danica Patrick, who drives for Andretti Green Racing, whose record-setting first win in top level IndyCar Series for a woman, garnered two first place votes and totaled 51 points in third place.

Ashley Force, daughter of the 1996 DRIVER OF THE YEAR beat her famous father, John Force last week in Atlanta in NHRA’s funny car division was fourth in the voting with 49 points.

A total of 17 drivers scored points in the first quarter voting, including fifth place Jason Meyers, in the World of Outlaws who won three of the first six races.

In its’ 42nd year, the DRIVER OF THE YEAR title is unique. A panel of 17 leading journalists from across the U.S. and a fan vote on Speedtv.com determine the winner. In quarterly voting, points are awarded on a declining 9, 6, 4,3,2,1 basis. Gordon will receive a trophy and a Tissot wristwatch to be presented at a later date.

Kyle Busch is looking like he was born with a steering wheel in his hand. Coming back from a lap down last week at Talladega for the win. The most memorable moment of the race was in the waning laps of the race when Kyle went "slideways" into Jamie McMurrey, almost ending both their days early. Busch was aided by the dynamics of that magical wing on the back of his #18 Toyota. Busch cruised to victory after race favorite and former Driver of the year award recipient Tony Stewart's race day was ended in metal bending fashion.

How about Juan Pablo Montoya and the 42 team taking it up a notch on the big restrictor plate track, with a second place finish!! way to go JP. I am sure this is the way it was supposed to be when you made the switch from open wheel racing. It took a year or so for him to get his bearings, now JP is looking confident in his stock car. This is bad news for the rest of the field, if Montoya can drive this good on a consistent basis. We all know what he can do on the road courses, and he has shown some signs of life on the short tracks as well, add restrictor plate dominance and we will have a championship caliber team...

I am sitting here watching the pre-race for Richmond on speed channel and am psyched up for the Saturday night race!
"hey uh huh one more Saturday night!"- bob weir

Michael Clark (emsea)