Revvin' and Rantin'

As you may have noticed, I have been unable to post anything lately, due to lack of internet access. T'herefore, we will try to take care of several different subjects, including some photos from the 2009 Good Times Auto Show in Old Colorado City, while we have the opportunity.

As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase qualifying season winds down to its final race, there is still plenty of drama. Of Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Juan Montoya, Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch, two will not make the cut at Richmond Saturday night, so we know these nine drivers will be giving it their all. Carl Edwards could also be included in this group, but, no matter what happens with the other drivers, he can clinch his berth with a mid-pack finish or better.

We know that Kyle Busch will truly make it an all or nothing run for his team at Richmond, so we will have to say the driver with the toughest task in trying to make the Chase is Brian Vickers. He hasn't had a top five finish at Richmond in a Cup car,. and he almost needs to have bad luck happen to one or more of the other drivers who are currently in the top twelve in points. We would like to see him in the Chase, because we think he could bring some additional excitement to the championship season. At the same time we would hate to see any ot the drivers who are currently in the top twelve not make the cut, so we are, as usual, emotionally conflicted.

Tony Stewart's team's performance seems to have fallen off some since his victory at Watkins Glen. They may already be feeling the pressure of the Chase. We should remember that most of the members of Stewart's pit crew have never experienced being on a winning team prior to this year. They are still working out some kinks and some glitches, and hopefully they will get all of their bad stuff out of their system before the final ten races. We should also remember that we expected this to be a team building year for Stewart-Haas racing, and they have gone beyond all expectations. Most of us doubted that Stewart would make the Chase in his first year as a team owner, but those doubts have been dashed, as not only is Stewart in first place for the qualifying season, but his team mate Ryan Newman has a very good chance of making the Chase as well.

Jeff Gordon is boring. There, I said it. Certainly, he and his team have done well to stay in the top three in points throughout the season, but that is expected of the 24 team. We predicted that his fire would be back this season, but it seems to be smoldering. We also predicted that he would win the championship this year, which he still could very well do, but not while he is content with finishing in the top ten every race. Not when he is competing against the likes of Stewart and Johnson. He could step it up during the final ten races, and we hope he does. I have to say, however, that if he was not already locked into the Chase, I would rather see a more exciting driver in the final twelve.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr won't make the Chase, but we have seen some improvement since Lance McGrew came on board as his crew chief. It was fun watching him race with everything going good for him at Atlanta. Nobody rides the rim so close to the outside fence as well and skillfully as Earnhardt does, and it was fun to watch him do so at Atlanta. If he and his team continue to improve, we could see him back as a contender next year.

Atlanta showed us that these new cars can race wheel to wheel on an intermediate track, and they can race for the lead on the track, under green flag conditions. That was probably the best race we have seen on an intermediate track this year, as the Sprint Cup car is coming into its own. I have a feeling the performance of the car will continue to improve, and soon we will forget all about the aero cars. The only problem is parity. As predicted, the parity built into the CoT, CORN, or Sprint Cup Car (whichever one choses to call it), has resulted in separating the good drivers from the mediocre. There are no tweaks a crew chief could make to give Reed Sorenson or Elliott Sadler a chance to compete with a Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, or Jimmie Johnson.

Speaking of Reed Sorenson or Elliott Sadler, Richard Petty Motorsports will be merging with Yates Racing next year. As the tentative drivers' roster implies, the drivers for Petty-Yates will be Sadler, Kahne, Allmendinger, and Menard in Yates powered Fords, and Sorenson will be looking for a ride. This means that Kahne, who was a Ford man before he was a Dodge man, will be back in Ford, Sadler has an excellent lawyer, Allmendinger will get another chance to rise in the ranks with yet another manufacturer, and Menard's daddy is a great sponsor. We will think positively about Sorenson, who would be an excellent replacement for Brad Keselowski at JRM in the Nationwide Series, and we think that this would be an excellent opportunity for him to get that Nationwide Series Championship that so narrowly eluded him a few years ago.

Kahne, we might remember, was the subject of a lawsuit by Ford regarding his contract as a Ford driver, when he first went to Evernham as a Dodge driver. The merger also means that he will have driven for four different Cup Series teams without making a move from one team to another.

Sadler, we may remember, drove for Yates before he drove for Evernham. The number 44, driven by AJ Allmendinger, was once a Yates car number, and will be again. Ironic how things turn full circle, isn't it?

We can't close without remarking on the excellent finish at Bristol a few weeks ago. We got to see two excellent drivers race each other for the win, in a clean but intense battle. Mark Martin is a class act, and races the way he gets raced. If you race him clean, he will race you clean. So shame on those fans who would have rather seen a wreck at the end of the race than the exciting wheel to wheel racing it was.

One more thing. I will be keeping the double file restart poll up until the end of the season, so we can see every instance of the restart at every type of track. I do believe I have the poll set up so you can vote as many times as you like. I will think of an additional poll to put up in the meantime, possibly about the NASCAR wives. The criteria for this poll will include more than being eye candy, as in how involved the wife is in the driver's career. However, there will be a slot marked "other" so you can write in your favorite eye candy wife. Eva and Nicole will be included because of their near cat fight in the pits a couple of seasons ago.

Until I get a chance to get on line again, enjoy the races!

Sprint Cup Off-Weeks Can Be Fun (Corrected)

It's almost like being in the off-season without the angst. Instead of three months, over which withdrawal symptoms set in, it is, after all, only one week.

The activity on most of the NASCAR fans forums has died down a bit, without a Cup race about which to speculate. What talk there is, is about the Mayfield Saga, great soap opera material if there ever was any. It pits conspiracy theorists against rationalists, and leaves the rest of us wondering how it got to be this way. Monte Dutton wrote a very concise and clear assessment of the situation on NASCAR This Week, entitled "Stinking Contest." Dutton points out what the whole thing boils down to in very few words:

It seems like middle ground is impossible now. Either Mayfield is an addict in denial, or he's the target of a vast conspiracy. Either he's Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Basketball Diaries" or he's Cary Grant in "North by Northwest." Now it's in the lawyer's hands, and they're going to hurl words like haymakers.

Personally, I wonder if Mayfield had accepted NASCAR's terms first, then began his quest to clear his name later, it might have been easier on both him and NASCAR. But, if you know anything about Mayfield's history, that is not the way he rolls.

While we are on the NASCAR This Week page, let me draw your attention to the Guest Column, written by yours truly. While I don't think I really deserve to be on the same page as Monte Dutton, I can't help but to feel honored by being there. An opportunity for shameless self-promotion never escapes me, however.

Can you believe that Kyle Busch has done nothing to piss anybody off this week? Wait, the Nationwide race hasn't been run yet. It will be run at one of my favorite tracks, Gateway. This is a 1.25 mile track similar in shape to the beloved Darlington Raceway. Though Gateway is similar in shape, the banking is flatter, and turns one and two,at the narrow end are more like turn three and at Pocono than turns three and four at Darlington. It should make for an interesting race, with Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, and Reed Sorenson being the only Cup drivers in the mix. For those who can't wait for Kyle Busch to do something to send them off in a fit of rage, it is a must see.

The Truck Series is always fun. It is also easy to lose track of, since it doesn't run every week. Kentucky Motor Speedway is the venue, and the local fans are very loyal. This is probably the largest stand alone crowd the series will see on its schedule, and the drivers will certainly put on a good show.

Kevin Harvick has let it be known that he wants out of the final year of his contract with Richard Childress Racing. The common feeling among sports writers is that he is looking for a seat with Stewart Haas Racing. That is not too far-fetched, as Tony Stewart and the Harvicks (aka Kevlana) have a long and tightly knit friendship. With GM pulling support from Kevin Harvick Incorporated, an association with SHR would give KHI better resources through their own association with Hendrick Motor Sports.

However, Stewart himself, though saying that SHR could field a third team, has not definitively said that they would field one in 2010. Childress has said that he will hold Harvick to his contract, and that Harvick's sponsor, Shell Pennzoil, is staying with RCR. Though this sounds similar to what J.D. Gibbs said about Stewart leaving last year, we are going to stick our neck out and say that Harvick going to SHR in 2010 ain't gonna happen. If we are wrong, then we are two for two on "important" silly season stuff, and we prove that we never learn.

Maybe, this weekend has given us a chance to get our writing chops back, and we can come out of our slump. There is always something to write about concerning NASCAR, and,though we usually like to find something about which nobody else is writing, we are sure to find many fun topics.

But whether we find something new to write about or not, we are going to have fun this weekend, and we hope that all our friends have fun as well. Even if Kyle doesn't piss us off.

Dover, Pocono, and more

Just in case anyone missed the Live on Type Delay post from Dover, we had it written, but just couldn't post it in a timely fashion, due to internet connection issues. We will try to bring it back next week, unless our connection problems persist.

Last Sunday, we were treated to one of the best races of the season so far. There was plenty of side by side racing throughout the field, and lots of lead changes, with twelve different race leaders. There were some cut tires, and a few dents and dings, but there was a lot of green flag racing to keep things interesting. With nine laps to go we got to see one of the best finishes we have seen in a while. Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart took two tires each and restarted first and second, while Jimmie Johnson took four and restarted eighth. In three laps, Johnson had moved up to third, in time to see Tony Stewart take the lead from Da Biff. The rest of the race was a head to head match between two of NASCAR's finest drivers. Johnson obviously had the better running car, but Stewart did everything he could to hold him off. finally, with a little more than two laps to go, Johnson got around Stewart by going almost to the wall, and Stewart settles for second, and the championship points lead. It was some great, and classy, racing--the kind we wish we could see in every race.

From that we move on to a race that many NASCAR fans feel predisposed to not enjoy. Pocono is a 2.5 mile speedway with three turns and the longest straightaway of all race tracks. During green flag runs, the field tends to get spread out wide so, for much of the race, there is not much to watch except for a single file parade of cars. Not to say the track doesn't require some amazing driving skills--it certainly does, as each of the three turns is a completely different animal. The cars enter turn one at a high speed, after that long straightaway, then have to let up to exit the turn safely. Turn two, however, is probably the most treacherous of the three turns, and the short straightaway between one and two is used to try to get in position for the short and narrow turn. There is no three wide racing in turn two. Turn three is actually longer than turn one, but it is flat, flat, flat. The entry is wide and the exit is tight. This is the turn that makes the most of a driver's skill and experience. Reflexes and reaction have to be lightning fast, as the driver has to brake in the middle of the turn and position himself to exit at the highest speed possible, so to be up to speed at the entrance of that long straightaway. This is where the drivers used to shift into overdrive, but, in order to save wear and tear on the engines in 2007, NASCAR mandated a rear end gear that would negate the effects of overdrive. We feel that the "money saving" effects of the gear restriction took away some of the racing at Pocono.

Pocono has become a track at which strategy is as much a "chess match," as Tony Stewart calls it, as the restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega. Many of the recent races there have been won through fuel strategy and other decisions in the pits. For those fans who like wheel to wheel racing to the finish, this is not the kind of race for them.

We like to imagine the racing at Pocono would be better if the race was shorter. Strategies would be different, saving the engines would be of less concern, and the racing would be a little more aggressive if the race were a mere one hundred miles shorter. Speaking from our own standpoint, we feel that three hundred and fifty miles would be ideal for a race at Pocono. Since the track is likened to a road course, in terms of the driver's skills required, we feel it should be treated as a road course. A 350 mile race at Pocono would step things up a bit.

Sunday, we will get our first look at NASCAR's new double file restart rule. The lead lap cars start in the front, while the cars a lap down will restart behind them. There will be no more racing to get a lap back, but the lucky dawg position will still be in contention, and restarts should still be interesting in the sense that there will be lots of action from the front to the rear. Unburdened by lap traffic, the lead lap cars will be free to race each other for the lead and position. This could be exciting, or it could be a flop. We shall see.

Sunday's race will also mark the beginning of TNT's six week coverage of NASCAR's Sprint Cup. There are groans from the fans, who do not like the way the TNT booth bunnies comment on the race. Rev' Jim will be able to judge for himself this year, as this will be the first time he will have to listen to the television broadcast, as he doesn't have Sirius Satellite Radio, and MRN no longer has a broadcast outlet in Colorado Springs.

The upside of TNT's coverage is that network's technology. We have always been impressed by their moving and synchronized cameras, that give the television audience a view of the race that is about as good as television coverage can get. With TNT's camera magic, we actually get the sense of speed that we would get by being at the race. This is a feature which we enjoy, and look forward to with much enthusiasm.

In other news, Roger Penske has purchased the Saturn brand from Government Motors. His dealerships include Saturn, so it was his logic that if he bought the company, he could keep the dealerships in business and save 13,000 jobs. According to an article on Scene Daily.com:

Under the terms in the memorandum of understanding, Penske would obtain the rights to the brand as well as certain other Saturn assets. GM would continue production, on a contract basis, of the Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook.

We have to wonder if there may be a Saturn in NASCAR's future, possibly replacing the Dodge brand?

This will be the second week in operation for the new Dale Earnhardt, Jr team, to which Rick Hendrick has allocated the best engineers he has, as well as veteran Crew Chief, Lance McGrew. We may see some improvement in the 88 team, or we may not. Although we feel that Junior is a top notch driver, we haven't seen him adapt to the new Sprint Cup car. We don't think any amount of brain trust can help him until he gets the hang of the characteristics of the new car. We think he is very capable of doing that, but that it will take some time. The new team will help, in improving the performance and the confidence of the driver, but it still may take a few weeks. As always, we could be wrong, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr could be the victor in Sunday's race.

Live on Type Delay: The Subway Fresh Fit race at Phoenix

The Digger cartoons are already running repeats. Perhaps they need a sponsor. We would suggest Riddex. Digger would be a great spokesrodent for a pest control company.

The guy who doesn't need a sponsor now is AJ Allmendinger. His ride is now sponsored to the Fall Richmond race. We have confidence that if Allmendinger makes it into the top twelve by then, sponsorship will be no problem.

Things are tough for up and coming drivers these days. Drivers like Joey Logano and Aric Almirola do not have the luxury of testing at NASCAR sanctioned tracks, as have others before them. Almirola's Earnhardt/Ganassi Incorporated ride has been suspended indefinitely, due to lack of sponsorship. Rumors are flying that Joey Logano may not finish the season in the JGR #20 car. Both of these drivers have a lot of potential--they just need a chance to get acclimated to the Sprint Cup level of competition.

JGR has insisted that they are sticking with Logano, and that his ride is safe. In fact, things are looking up for "Sliced Bread," as he gained his second career Nationwide Series race last week at Nashville, in impressive fashion.

Today's economic atmosphere in NASCAR would be a great reason to advocate that the Nationwide Series regulars stay in that series for a minimum of four years. Of course, that would be up to the teams owners, and not NASCAR. NASCAR's official description of the NNS is "A series in which up and coming NASCAR stars of the future match up against veteran NASCAR stars from the Sprint Cup Series."

Oh yeah, the race has started.

Mark Martin starts on the pole, with Kyle Busch on the outside. Right behind them are Kurt Busch in third, and Jeff Gordon in fourth, while Brian Vickers and Tony Stewart are in row three. Martin gets a good jump on the start and holds the lead.

By lap 37 Kyle Busch has fallen back to eighth place, while Mark Martin has led every lap. On lap 42, Tony Stewart threads the needle between the lapped Elliott Sadler and the third placed #24 car. This move requires a lot of trust, and this time it pays off, as Sadler moves up the track to give him room, and Gordon lets him by. DW remarks that Jeff Gordon wouldn't put a bumper into Stewart at this point of the race, forgetting that he said, during the Martinsville race three weeks ago, "Gordon doesn't race other drivers that way."

Caution on lap 54, as Sterling Marlin hits the wall and damages the right side of his car. Everybody pits, except Michael Waltrip stays out to lead a lap and get five points.

The restart is on lap 61, with Martin in first, Kurt Busch second, Denny Hamlin in third, Tony Stewart fourth, and Jeff Gordon is fifth. Stewart gets third from Hamlin a few laps later, but almost loses control of his car in doing so. He saves it, and pulls in line in front of his former team mate. Jimmie Johnson enters the top ten on lap 66, and is on the move. Six laps later, he is in eighth place. Martin Truex, Jr, who started in the 26th position, moves into ninth place on lap 78.

Kurt Busch is creeping up on the race leader, Mark Martin, on lap 92, and Tony Stewart joins the fray. Martin does some great blocking, forgetting that his fans believe that he doesn't race that way, and holds the lead, while Stewart takes second on lap 95. Kurt Busch takes second back on lap 102, and there is a caution for debris. Bobby Labonte stays out to gain 5 ponts for leading a lap, and Kurt Busch gets out of the pits first to take the lead. Martin will restart in second. Greg Biffle moves up to third, Denny Hamlin is fourth, and Jimmie Johnson is fifth, and Jeff Gordon is sixth. Tony Stewart will restart in seventh, having had a little trouble during the tire change in the pits. Restart is on lap 109.

The graphics going into the commercial, with Kurt Busch in the lead, plays up the "class clown" image Dirty Kurty has made for himself. Whether that is the real Kyle Busch or not, we really don't know. It just seems forced sometimes. It seems forced most of the time. But it's okay for one to reinvent one's self, and more power to him.

On lap 112, we have some wild stuff going on in a race for eleventh position, with Martin Truex, Jr, Kasey Kahne, and Johnny Montoya going three wide through lapped traffic. Exciting stuff there. Meanwhile Dale Earnhardt, Jr is having handling problems with his car and is losing positions. But the sun is setting, and handling characteristics are going to change. We will not give up on Jr, yet.

Stewart moves back into the top five on lap 124, and the top five are now Kurt Busch first, Mark Martin second, Greg Biffle third, Jimmie Johnson fourth, and Tony Stewart fifth.

Mark Martin is closing in on race leader Kurt Busch, but then, on lap 138, we get a caution as David Stremme loses it in turn two, and spins into the infield. Some drivers, especially the ones with the initials "D E J" really needed this caution.

Jimmie Johnson loses eight positions in the pits. That is uncharacteristic for the 48 team, but we are certain they will recover.

Kurt Busch and Mark Martin want no changes, Tony Stewart gets air pressure adjustments, Martin Truex Jr takes two tires only and gets off the pit road in second. Restart on lap 144 with Kurt Busch in first, Truex, second, Mark Martin third, David Reutimann fourth, and Tony Stewart fifth.

On lap 150, Jeff Gordon's car has developed a tire rub under the left front fender, after contact with Denny Hamlin. His prayers are answered on lap 152, as AJ Allmendinger spins and hits the wall.

Restart on lap 156, with Kurt Busch first, Mark Martin second, Martin Truex, Jr third, Tony Stewart fourth, and David Reutimann in fifth. Stewart takes third from Truex on lap 165. Kyle Busch has moved into the top 5, and takes fourth. On lap 167, Michael Waltrip gets loose in turn four, and collects Robby Gordon, who hits the wall and brings out a caution. Dale Earnhardt, Jr stays out and takes the lead. He will restart in the lead. Of the cars that pit, Mark Martin takes four tires, most of the others take two.

Green flag on lap 171, with Dale Earnhardt, Jr in the lead, Marcos Ambrose second, Jeff Gordon third, David Stremme fourth, and Bobby Labonte fifth. These cars stayed out during the caution. Lots of action going on. Kyle Busch takes third from Jeff Gordon, then second from Ambrose. Gordon takes third from Ambrose, and Earnhardt, Jr increases his lead to three seconds. Tony Stewart has the fastest lap time on lap 189 and has moved into fourth. On lap 212, Stewart battles Kyle Busch for second, and takes that position after a short, but exciting contest. Mark Martin takes third on lap 214. The Booth Bunnies say this is because Stewart and Martin have fresher tires than Kyle does. I thought Stewart only took two that last pit stop, but what do I or the NASCAR.com lap by lap reporter know?

The "Toyota Driver Seeker" commercial still makes me laugh, no matter how many times I have seen it. So does the Tony Stewart Old Spice commercial. My mind must be turning to mush. The aliens are winning.

Wow the live leaderboard on NASCAR.com has finally loaded. Those of you who may, like Rev' Jim, be stuck with a dial up connection know what an accomplishment this is. I started loading it at the beginning of the race. I had to refresh the page several times, and finally, two hours and one minute later, it is updating. Yaaaaaay!

Meanwhile Tony Stewart has been cutting steadily into Dale Jr's lead, and is about to become NASCAR's most hated driver, at least for now. The fans will get over it and go back to hating Kyle Busch before the race is over. By lap 219, Stewart is three-tenths of a second behind the leader, and Driver 88 is reporting that he has used up his tires.

Still we finally get to see some of Junior's ability as he holds off the hard-charging Stewart for several laps. Stewart begins the pass for the lead on lap 218, and finally closes the deal on lap 220. Mark Martin takes second right after that, and Jr begins the green flag pit cycle by pitting on lap 226.

On lap 230, it is Stewart first, Martin second, Kurt Busch third, Reutimann fourth, and Biffle fifth.

Greg Biffle gives up fifth to pit with 76 laps to go, and Jeff Gordon has to enter the pits again because of a penalty due to missing lug nut. Again, this is something very uncharacteristic for that crew.

Oh fun, just before they pit, Martin is racing Stewart for the lead. We know this is for funsies, as both cars will pit soon, but we know these guys have a mutual admiration for each other, and it is fun to watch them race, even though both cars are wildly loose.

Stewart and Martin both pit on lap 242. Johnson takes the lead, then pits on the next lap, letting Vickers lead a lap. With the green flag pit stops completed, on lap 246, it is Earnhardt, Jr, back in the lead, but with not enough fuel to make it to the end of the race. Don't worry, there will likely be a caution.

Greg Biffle is four seconds behind Jr in second, Mark Martin third, Tony Stewart fourth, and Kyle Busch is fifth, with Kurty The Klown, his brother, right behind him. On lap 251, Martin takes second, then takes the lead on lap 257. Tony Stewart has moved into third. Greg Biffle is fourth, and Kurty The Klown has moved into fifth, while Kyle, the other Busch, is in sixth. In the seventh position, Jimmie Johnson is running identical in time with the leader. Dale Jr has developed handling trouble, and is now running in eighth.

Tony Stewart has moved into second by lap 267, Kurt Busch is third, Kyle is fourth, and Da Biff is fifth. It still sounds funny when it is spoken out loud.No one can say "Da Biff is Fifth" twice real fast, let alone three times. The Rev' says "Da Biff ith fifth" on the first try.

Talk about being good on long runs, Mark Martin has posted the fastest times on laps 275, 276, and 277. He was two seconds ahead of Stewart on lap 274, and is now three and a half seconds ahead.

On lap 280, Reutimann has the fastest car, and has passed Da Biff for fifth. This is shaping up to be a great finish. Lap 282 and Jimmie Johnson is on the move in sixth.

If either Mark Martin or Tony Stewart wins this race, we will have tears in our eyes. It would be Mark's first win since 2005, or it would be Stewart's first win as an owner/driver, at the same track Alan Kulwicki got his first win as an owner/driver.

Caution with twelve laps to go, while Martin had a four second lead over Sterwart. Dale Jr, having been lapped by the leader on lap 297, loses control with the help of Casey Mears. I can't wait to hear the conspiracy rumors on this one.

All the leaders pit, and Mark Martin exits the pit road barely ahead of Kyle Busch, but the younger Busch got caught speeding exiting the pits, and has to serve a penalty.

Ryan Newman stayed out and will lead at the restart. There is some controversy about why he didn't pit. Did he have radio problems, or did he pretend to have radio problems? Anyway, restart with six laps to go is Newman first, Martin second, Stewart third. What a great restart by Martin. He passes Newman as if he is standing still, and immediately gains five car lengths on Stewart. Johnson moves into the top five, and takes fourth with three laps to go. Tony Stewart and Mark Martin are running at the exact same speed as Martin takes the white flag. Stewart will not catch Martin. I am crying, Martin wins, Stewart second, Mark Martin is third, Jimmie Johnson, who almost caught third place, and Da Biff ith Fifth.

Wow, a historic moment, and a great race for the old man. For some, life begins at fifty. Or maybe The Kid is only twenty five years old for the second time around.

Live on Type Delay: The Food City 500--after the fact

Bristol Motor Speedway has been a part of NASCAR history since 1961, and has been one of the biggest challenges for the drivers. Theoretically a short track, at a little more than a half mile in length, its high banks allow higher speeds than would be seen at a normal short track. Until its reconfiguration two years ago, those higher speeds would be at single file along the inside line, with the only method of passing being the fabled "chrome horn."

The reconfiguration was made on the theory that fans would rather see side by side racing, and the track became a multiple-grooved venue where the drivers could find a racing line either on the outside and the inside, or even in the middle. The prospect of three wide racing at the Roman Colosseum of NASCAR racing was exciting.

Now instead of one line of frustrated drivers having to spin other drivers and getting spun, we have two lines of such action. As the drivers and teams get a handle on the Sprint Cup car, which was reconfigured around the same time as Bristol, it actually makes the racing at the "World's Fastest Half-Mile" more difficult.

It is also difficult to write a play-by-play for Bristol, as things happen so quickly that there is no keeping up with the action while we are typing it. The laps roll by so quickly, at fifteen seconds, that we can mention a driver's name, and by the time we're finished typing it, something changes. Without help from the radio broadcast--PRN and MRN no longer have an on air venue in Colorado Springs--we are stuck with what we see on the television broadcast.

After Dave Blaney crashed early in the race, there was little for demolition derby fans to get excited about. Not to say there wasn't any beating and banging--there was plenty of that. At Bristol, as at any short track, the leaders often have to battle lapped traffic. So the air was filled with the cacophony of chrome horns.

Saturday, Kyle Busch looked like a sure winner in the Nationwide Series race, He dominated the race, never giving up the lead for more than a few laps. Late in the race, during what would be the final caution period, his pit crew let a tire roll out of the box as Busch was leaving his pit, incurring a penalty which gave the lead to Kevin Harvick and put Kyle at the end of the longest line. Harvick was Happy as he won his first race as an owner/driver, while Busch managed to work his way to a sixth place finish, and was very unhappy.

Today, in a different car with a different pit crew, Kyle Busch is, once again, dominating. As the laps wind down, there is little competition for him. Denny Hamlin is behind him, and behind him is Jimmie Johnson.

Although he is known as a short track ace, Jimmie Johnson has never won a race at Bristol. True to the form of a champion, a top ten finish isn't good enough. Today, Johnson looks good. If it was anybody else but Kyle Busch in the lead with less than ten laps left, Jimmie Johnson would be smelling victory.

Jeff Gordon's car doesn't look so good--it's bouncing and sliding all over the place, but he has skill, and he has been showing off that skill in every race so far this season. He has done the best he could with a car that obviously doesn't handle well, and that is pretty darn good as he is running in fourth at the end of the race.

Kasey Kahne has managed to fend off disaster, and will finish where he started--fifth place, while pole winner Mark Martin finishes in sixth.

So we get a GWC finish after Joey Logano's engine lets go. From similar situations in the past, we know that if Kyle is leading the race at this point, the only way to catch him is on the restart. Nothing doing, Kyle wins, mimes drinking a beer from a can thrown to--or at--him, and celebrates by doing a Polish victory lap the right way, without the clowning for which his brother is known.

Dale Jr performed well with a fourteenth place finish--well, because he went down a lap three times during the race, and managed to stay in position to get the free pass three times. Of course we are going to hear more criticism of his crew chief, Tony Eury, Jr, but Dale Earnhardt, Jr, as always straight spoken and honest, tells us that what the media reports (about Eury's suitability as crew chief) is nothing like reality.

Racing is never boring. If the fans don't like it, that probably means the race is a challenge, and therefore exciting, for the drivers. When we can imagine ourselves being in the driver's seat, we can get much more out of the race. We feel the urgency of Ryan Newman, Marcos Ambrose or Juan Pablo Montoya to finish high enough to ensure a starting spot in the next race, and we feel the relief as they did just that. We are in Denny Hamlin's head as he is planning on how to catch and pass his teammate to win a race that has become very important to him personally, and feel his disappointment as he sees the #18 car disappear into the distance with one lap to go.

Kyle Busch should make racing better overall, as the other drivers and teams figure out what they need to beat him. More drivers, Jeff Gordon in particular, and taking up his practice of never being happy with the car, to make his team perform better and work to make the car better. Whether the fans like Kyle Busch or not, he is good for the sport.

Rev' Jim's favorite races are at the short tracks, and this was no exception. It was short track racing, with side by side contests all around the track and all through the race. That's Bristol, and That's racing.

"Old School" Will Survive

While I was growing up, the Indianapolis 500 on TV was an annual event in our house. Names like Al Unser, Parnelli Jones, Jim Clarke, and Dan Gurney were part of my everyday language. I could read very well, and, by the time I was in the third grade, I had already graduated from Hardy Boys and Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, and was reading everything I could about the sport I loved and the heroes who drove those racing machines. Indianapolis and Formula 1 racing took most of my attention, although I also had an interest in drag racing, rally, sports car, and dirt track racing.

It was around the time I was ten that some of the sports programs on television began showing snippets and highlights of NASCAR races. And there were the NASCAR highlight newsreels at the Saturday Matinee at the local theater. The names of other racers--Lee and Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts, Joe Weatherly, Buck Baker, Tiny Lunde, Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, and Fred Lorenzen found their way to my list of heroes.

I became a diehard NASCAR fan long before I ever saw a race.

I finally got to see some local short track racing at a local track when I was 17, and, after that, continued to go to the track whenever I could afford it. I loved the sights, sounds, and smells of racing, where thirty or so cars seemed packed together so tightly on the little quarter mile track. Still, the sense of speed was there, and the fact that every car on the track looked like a wreck by the end of the race was evidence that every driver fought hard for his position.

In 1979, while on temporary duty at Dover AFB, as the Air Force was deciding whether I should go back to Germany or back to Colorado on a humanitarian reassignment, I got to see my first Big League NASCAR race. I don't remember who won (in my mind, it was Bobby Allison, but he was my favorite at the time, and, rather than look it up and correct my memory, I choose to keep it as it is) though I do remember that there were only five cars on the lead lap at the finish. I also remember the thrill of seeing all the big name drivers race in person, and the extraordinary sense of speed that I felt as the cars raced around the track. I will always remember that.

The reason for the short autobiography is that as I grow older, I become more nostalgic. I really do miss the old days, but I accept that NASCAR had to change. If it hadn't, most NASCAR fans would be waiting for snippets and highlights on the network sports programs, rather than being able to watch the races in their entirety on television. There also would have been a much longer list of drivers and spectators killed at races than there is now. So I accept NASCAR as it is today, and enjoy every race with the excitement of a first timer at the track.

Watching the NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown last night brought back plenty of memories and increased the sense of nostalgia. Here was some real beating and banging, hard core, old school racing bringing me back to my late teens. To me, this is real racing. Watching the race, I realized that "old school" racing is far from gone.

Here was the kind of racing that hundreds of thousands of race fans enjoy every Friday and Saturday night at their local tracks, all across America. Every driver is out for him- or herself, scrapping and scrabbling hard for every position. The purse doesn't really matter, nor does the trophy, the sponsor, or the team. The object is to win, plain and simple.

In these troubled economic times, when large corporations--including the "big" teams of the Sprint Cup--are being forced to cut back spending, the Saturday night circle burners persevere. With the same local sponsors they have always had, they are always ready to race. In the same two car garages they have always had, they build, tune, and repair their cars for the next race. Their budget is usually anything they can afford, beg, borrow, or steal.

Fewer race fans can travel to the big tracks these days, due to uncertain economic future and the threat to job security. But they still go to the local short tracks, and now, the attendance at these tracks will increase as race fans stay closer to home. The local short tracks will prosper during the current recession.

Old school racing isn't gone, and it seems now that it is here to stay. Those who complain that racing isn't what it used to be need only travel a few miles to see the kind of racing they claim to miss so much.

I feel certain that, no matter what the economic conditions happen to be, Old School racing will survive.

How 'bout them trucks!

Expect anything to happen in a Craftsman Truck Series race, and the race will always produce more than you could ever expect. Whether the race is for the lead, the win, championship points, or even just to finish in the top ten, the competition level is very high, and the level of excitement is at its peak.

For the last seven or eight races, the championship battle has been between Ron Hornaday and Johnny Benson, with the points lead changing between them several times. Hornaday went into Martinsville with a 39 point lead over Benson, but ran out of fuel in the final laps, giving Benson the lead by sixty-five points. He dominated the race at Atlanta, only to be beaten by his team mate, Ryan Newman, on the last lap. This put him 33 points behind Benson.

At Texas, last week, Hornaday again dominated, and won the race, but Johnny Benson took fourth place on the last lap and maintained a six point lead. This set the stage for Phoenix.

Phoenix International Raceway is often referred to as "the speedway that acts like a short track." (Richmond is the short track that acts like a speedway.) Turns one and two are wide and banked like Lowe's, while turns three and four are tight and flat, like New Hampshire. This produces a drivers' track, and you know the drivers of the Craftsman Truck Series have to love it.

Ron Hornaday sat on the pole for the start of the race, with Kyle Busch on the outside. This was believed to give Hornaday an automatic advantage over Benson, who started in fourteenth at a track where moving up through traffic is difficult. But, before the first lap was finished, Hornaday, trying to pass Kyle Busch on the inside in turn three, lost control of his truck and hit the outside wall, then slipped down into traffic, which, including Johnny Benson's #23 truck, caused more damage.

While Benson's truck sustained only minor damage, Hornaday's had to go to the garage so the rear track bar could be replaced, the front suspension completely rebuilt, and the body work repaired as much as possible. After a laudatory effort, Hornaday later returned to the track, thirty laps down.

So, we would expect that Benson would be able to pad his lead in the points some, which he did. Until sixty laps to go, when he misjudged the line TJ Bell was taking through turn three, and ran into the #7 truck, then the wall, causing major damage to his truck's suspension.

Meanwhile, Kyle Busch and Kevin Havick were having the time of their lives racing for the lead. They are the only two NASCAR drivers who have won at least one race at the same track in each of the three top tier divisions--CTS, Nationwide/Busch, and the Sprint Cup Series. And that one track is Phoenix. Lap after lap, Harvick challenged Busch, until finally taking the lead with forty-five laps to go. Busch reported that his truck's handling was very loose as he dropped back to second place. With twenty laps to go, Busch said he felt a tire going down, but disaster was averted as a caution came out following another accident. By this time, Benson had returned to the track, but behind Ron Hornaday. It was his spin that caused the caution. Busch pitted for tires, adjustments, and fuel, and restarted in twelfth place. After the restart, Busch moved through the field like a hot knife through "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." With four laps to go, he had passed Todd "Onion" Bodine for second place, but didn't have quite enough to catch Harvick, who won the race.

With Hornaday finishing twenty-fifth, and Benson finishing twenty-sixth, there are now only three points separating the two points leaders in the Championship battle. Benson barely holds the lead going to the final race at Homestead, and, if you can believe it, Todd Bodine is in third place, 145 points behind Benson. That means that if, by another strange twist of fate, Benson and Hornaday both suffer from a similar situation to that they had at Phoenix, Bodine could take the championship by finishing in the top three. Wow!

Other notes: Where the heck did this Brian Scott kid come from? Earlier this year, at O'Reilly Motorsports Park in Indianapolis, he finished 29th. Since then, his finishes have become steadily better.The young rookie, who drives the #16 Toyota has had a career best finish in every race in which he has participated. Friday night, he finished fourth. This guy seems to have a future in NASCAR.

On the other side of the coin is John Wes Townley, another young entry level driver. Bad luck seemed to plague him in qualifying this weekend. Friday, entering turn three, he lost the front right tire. I mean lost it--it came completely off the wheel. And today, during Nationwide Series qualifying, the exact same thing happened at exactly the same place! It seems as if Somebody is trying to tell Townley something like, maybe, "With a name like John Wes Townley, you should have a guitar in your hands, not a steering wheel."

I wonder if he can sing?

2008 regular season had its share of excitement and disappointment

NASCAR's regular season for 2008 ended with a great shootout between two of the best drivers in the sport. The entire season had its share of similar exciting moments, as well as some huge disappointments.

Dodge started out on a high note, with the Penske and Gillett-Evernham teams making a strong showing at the Daytona 500, resulting in a victory by Penske's #12 team and Ryan Newman. After that they sort of disappeared from the radar screen. Kasey Kahne and the GEM # 9 Dodge team had some brilliant moments, and it looked like Kahne could be a championship contender, but a late season string of bad luck over just a few short weeks virtually put that team out of the running.

Dario Franchitti seemed as though he was on the way to Rookie of The Year status, but an accident in which he broke his ankle, at Talladega, sidelined him for several weeks, and, though he had some promising runs when he returned, was unable to hold onto a sponsorship. Ganassi folded that team, financially unable to keep that team intact. Later in the season, Franchitti announced that he would be returning to the IRL.

Just prior to that, Reed Sorenson announced that he would be leaving Chip Ganassi racing to drive for Gillett-Evernham next season. This put another rookie contender, Patrick Carpentier, in a position where he may not have a ride next year. However, Gillett-Evernham has stated that if they can get full sponsorships for three of their cars next season, they will run four, which would include the popular Canadian. Gillett owns the Montreal Expos Major League Baseball team, and it is expected that he will be able to find sponsorship.

Silly Season has been the big story all season long. It began shortly after the third race of the season, at Las Vegas, when rumors sprang up that Tony Stewart's contract with Joe Gibbs Racing would be renegotiated, and that Stewart had received an offer from Haas/CNC Racing of half ownership of the team in return for leaving JGR and driving for them. These rumors turned out to be true, much to our consternation, but, in the end, we can't fault Smoke for taking what was to him the deal of a lifetime.

There were other rumors. Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex, Jr, Casey Mears, Bobby Labonte, Ryan Newman, and Mark Martin, among others, were all up for contract renewal. Which of these would stay with their teams, and which would go to other teams? Nobody was willing to talk until they saw what Stewart did. As it turned out, Harvick, Labonte, and Truex decided to stay with their respective teams. Mears would be going to RCR, and Martin to Hendrick, where he will return to full-time Cup racing as driver of the #5 car. And Newman, after expressing unhappiness with the performance of his Penske team after Daytona, will join Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing next year.

The biggest disappointment of the season could be the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. After much anticipation of the race at the most venerable of all American racing venues, the tires that Goodyear provided for the race did not hold up to the racing surface. It became obvious that the tires were designed for a car with much more downforce than the Sprint Cup car has, and, instead of grinding in to the asphalt, as is expected of the rubber compound, the worn rubber simply powdered and blew away.

Although the #24 team of Jeff Gordon has had some great moments this season, and the team is in the Chase for the Championship, the performance of that team has been somewhat lackluster, especially in view of their success last season. Poor pit stops, run ins with team mate Jimmie Johnson on the track, and completely missed set ups have plagued the team, and we have not seen Gordon, who is arguably the most gifted and talented active driver in the series, show much of his full potential. We don't think he is out of his prime, but if he could turn things around, we would be better convinced that it isn't time for him to retire. Before any Gordon fans get angry at that statement, consider that I often wish my favorite driver, Tony Stewart, would retire so I can pick a new one. However, as long as he is racing, no matter what make of car he is racing or team he is with, we will stick with him. We expect Jeff Gordon fans to feel the same.

The performance of the new car in its first full season in NASCAR has been good at some tracks, but not so good at others, most notably the intermediate tracks. This could also be attributed to the lack of compatibility between the tire and the car. The car seems racy when the contenders are running side by side back in the pack, but it cannot complete a pass on another car that is running in clean air. We hope that NASCAR, who has left it to the teams to figure out how to race the car, will give a little more leeway to the teams in creating different aerodynamic configurations for the car, though that won't solve all the problems. Goodyear definitely needs to come up with a new tire design.

Aside from silly season, the failure of the Dodge teams, and the disappointment in the racing at some tracks, the biggest story of the regular season was most likely the crash between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt, Jr while Junior was leading the first race of the year at Richmond. Busch tried to pass Junior on the bottom of the track, went into a turn too hot and slid up into Junior's car, spinning Junior and costing him the race. This permanently traumatized millions of race fans, and they will probably never get over it without professional help, even after Junior got revenge in the final race of the regular season. That just goes to show how emotionally involving racing is to the fan. That is what NASCAR racing does to all of us, no matter who our favorite driver might be.

All in all, there have been good races and bad races, moments of brilliance and stupidity, times of celebration and bitter disappointment. NASCAR has made a lot of changes since we first began watching it in the early 1960's, but in the end, it is still NASCAR racing, and is still the only motorports racing series that offers to the fan all that NASCAR has.

Live on Type Delay: Chevy Rock n Roll 400

This is not the usual flag-to-flag coverage we present in Live on Tape Delay, due to the fact that we committed the almost unforgiveable sin of oversleeping on race day. We managed to start watching just before Kyle Busch got his payback from Dale Earnhardt, Jr in retaliation for "the spin heard around the world" at Richmond last Spring.

That finally being over with, and done with a finnesse of which only Junior is capable of, we watch a race that only Richmond is capable of presenting. Three wide racing all around the track, some bumpin' some beatin' and some bangin' is what makes the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 rock & roll.

The seventh caution of the race gave David Reutimann the opportunity to take the lead by staying out while the leaders pitted. It didn't take long for Tony Stewart and the others who pitted to catch up to him, but he did very well by holding the lead for the entire segment. Shortly after the eighth restart, Smoke catches him and takes the lead, with Jimmie Johnson close behind him.

There is another caution with around forty laps to go, and the leaders pit again. Truex comes off pit road first, but he only took two tires. Jimmie Johnson, whose #48 team got him out first among those who took four tires, makes quick work of Truex, and Stewart is right behind him.The final caution occurs with thirty six laps to go, and the final restart is with thirty one to go.

We have to stop being so cynical of Jimmie Johnson's abilities. For the final 25 laps, Stewart and Johnson are racing hard. Johnson plays it smart and maintains the high line that gives him more momentum off the turns. Stewart catches him with ten to go, and this is getting very exciting. Stewart does gain the lead for one lap, but Jimmie is faster on the high line, and pins Smoke to the bottom. The race goes all the way to the final lap--a well fought race that Johnson wins. This was a great finish that fed us almost too much adreniline. We are as disappointed as Smoke that he couldn't catch Johnson at the end--a win here would have been awesome--but Johnson showed brilliance in holding the lead for the win, and it was a very good race.

Meanwhile we had more drama going on between the drivers trying to get that twelfth position for the Chase. David Ragan, starting the race only seventeen points behind twelfth place Clint Bowyer, got damage to his front splitter in an incident early in the race--something that should have caused him problems, but didn't. At times he was as much as seven points ahead of Bowyer, and for much of the race was running side by side with Bowyer. But a damaged car is just that, and it was only a matter of time before the handling problems multiplied and it became too difficult for Ragan to keep up, so Bowyer ended up safe within the Chase for the Championship. His victory earlier this season gives him fifth seed in the Chase.

Earnhardt, Jr had a good car, but not good enough. He did get a top five finish with the car that never really looked better than being top fifteen capable. This is another thing that impresses us about Junior, and we wonder what would happen if he ever got a really good car. This is Hendrick Motorsports we are talking about, and, for the Chase, maybe they can get things stepped up as far as equipment goes.

There doesn't seem much hope for Jeff Gordon this year. At times, the 24 team has been brilliant, but for much of the regular season, it seemed lackluster. We are still expecting some sort of change in that team during the last ten races of this season. It would be difficult to change crew cheifs at this point, because of communication concerns. But if Gordon and Letarte aren't on the same page at this point, what would it hurt to put someone else on the pit box for the last ten races?

The organizations that performed the best this season are the organizations that made the Chase. Hendrick, Gibbs, Roush-Fenway, and Childress each have three cars in the Chase. Gillett-Evernham was the only Dodge team that had a chance to be in the Chase, with Kasey Kahne, but that team, which had been as high as eight in the standings, ran into trouble earlier this season and never really recovered. We could probably expect NASCAR--who changed the eligibility requirements for the Bud Shootout at the beginning of the season to ensure that all the manufacturers were represented--will once again tweak the Championship rules to include all the manufacturers in the Chase next year.

Final thoughts:

The race was awesome, and so was the Home Depot ad that featured Tony Stewart literally handing the wheel of the Home Depot car to his replacement, Joey Logano.

Kyle Busch handled himself very well in the post race interview, and did not seem angry or disappointed that he was taken out of the lead by Jr. He didn't put any blame anywhere, and congratulated his team, happy to be going into the Chase seeded in the top position. We will see some more wins from him this year, because he has the right attitude, and the right team with which to do so.

The fans at Richmond are loyal, and, even after the weather postponement, the stands were very nearly full, as far as we can tell. Richmond is one of the best tracks on the circuit, and continues to deliver great racing even with the new car, where the racing at the intermediate tracks has often fallen flat. We feel that the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 is an excellent venue with which to end the regular season.

Beware! The Gordon is back!

When Jeff Gordon says he's going to "go for it," he usually means it. The gloves are off. No more Mr. Niceguy.

Showing his frustration a little, after the Watkins Glen race, and a lot after Sunday's race at Michigan International Speedway, Gordon indicated that he is tired of seeing the mistakes in the pits and bad car set ups ruin his chances to win a race. The last time he felt like this, Robby Loomis, who was his crew chief when he won his fourth NASCAR Cup Championship in 2001, lost his job. Now we have to believe that Steve Letarte is on his way out.

Gordon is not one, in spite of what some fans and media pundits may think, who is at the end of his career. He still has the fire, the desire, and the talent to win. That is why he is frustrated when it seems that his team and his teammates *cough*Jimmie Johnson*cough* are working against him. He is frustrated with points racing, because he is a winner, not a points racer.

And when Jeff Gordon is racing as a winner, he can out intimidate The Intimidator. If the late Dale Earnhardt was still with us, he wouldn't admit to that, but he wouldn't tell us we were wrong, either. Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and Matt Kenseth are still around to affirm that statement, and they have and they will.

What will Hendrick Motorsports do with Gordon as far as giving him another crew chief? Darion Grubb seems to be on his way to Stewart-Haas Racing, but that may change. We doubt if Hendrick will want to switch crew chiefs between the 48 and the 24 team, because, if you have paid attention to Jimmie Johnson's driving abilities and the kinds of errors in judgement he is constantly making,* most of the 48 team's success is due to the genius of Chad Knaus. The 48 team is once again in contention for the championship, and HMS won't jeopardize that position in favor of the 24 team. What we expect to see is a crew chief switch between the 5 and the 24 team. We haven't seen Alan Gustafeson work with Gordon, not that we can remember, anyway. Just having someone with a different attitude on the pit box may be what Gordon needs.

* We don't mean to imply that Johnson isn't a top-notch driver, but he still has a lot to learn. Every race he has lost has been due to driver error, not by any call Knaus has made. He has made some dumb moves. Trying to pass between Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart and making it four wide is only one error in a long list. How many times have we seen him give up the lead while trying to block another car? How many times have we seen him miss his pit box--a nearly habitual error of his. All we are saying is that without Chad Knaus it is unlikely he would be a two time champion this early in his career. Knaus has done a great job of covering for Johnson's mistakes and overcoming the Champ's drawbacks.

Whatever happens within the Hendrick organization, we look forward to watching Jeff Gordon race with his fire stoked. Even though we are quick to say he is the driver we don't want to see win, he is, in a backhanded sort of way, one of our favorites. It is a thrill to watch him race when he is focused on winning, and to see him race with everything he has makes the experience exciting.

The season can only get better from here on out.


The Gordon is Back

Trust is the key to happiness in racing

Those of you who are still regular readers of this blog have stuck with me while I've been going through emotional ups and downs over my favorite driver's impending "doom."

I hope that my readers understand that, in reality, I am not that emotionally unstable over Tony Stewart's move at the end of this season, when he leaves Joe Gibbs Racing and moves on to his own team, Stewart-Haas Racing. My purpose is to entertain, and broadcasting my feelings in the way it has been done on this blog is mainly to provide what we hope is entertainment.

In reality, though we still have some misgivings, we are looking forward to seeing how Smoke handles this new challenge. We don't expect immediate success, but we trust Stewart's competitive instincts, and his strong desire to be a winner, so we have to believe that he will turn his new team into a winning operation.

As you may have read in Sunday's "Live on Type Delay," we read comments on Trent Cherry's blog that discussed the possibility that Hendrick Motorsports would lease Haas CNC and Stewart-Haas racing with equipment not equal to that which HMS uses themselves. That is the thinking of football fans, not racing fans.

Racing is about trust. Every week, every driver's well being is dependent on the competition being good enough so as not to mess up his own chances to finish the race well. That would include the equipment the competition is using. Each team knows that there is less of a chance of being taken out by another car due to equipment malfunction or failure if the equipment is as good as their own. Any team leasing equipment to another team may not be able to control the other team's driving abilities, or the attitude of the team itself, but at least they can ensure that it would not be the equipment that causes a bad accident involving their own drivers.

Something else to consider is enterprise. HMS, for example, receives income from Haas in exchange for the equipment Haas CNC uses. If they are dissatisfied with the equipment they could always go to someone else, or, being owned by Haas Automation, they could easily build their own equipment. Haas does, after all, sell test equipment and high tech suspension components to most of the other teams in NASCAR. Is there anyone who would accuse them of selling substandard equipment? They could make Scott Riggs unbeatable with so much power, but, in order to sell equipment to the other teams, they have to be trusted.

So, we are looking forward to next season already, with eager anticipation that Smoke will succeed. Ryan Newman seems to believe Stewart-Haas will succeed as well, as the announcement that he will be joining Smoke next season has been made official. And all that is because of trust.

Nationwide Series puts on good show from Watkins Glen

It's been mentioned at Rev'Jim's RantsnRaves before, but these Nationwide Series races can be a lot of fun to watch. Saturday's Zippo 200 race at Watkins Glen was no exception, but it was exceptional.

Watkins Glen, as configured for NASCAR races, is less technical than the road courses at Sonoma, Mexico City, and Montreal. There are more passing points and the track is considered "racier" than other road courses in North America. At Watkins Glen, the drivers can be more aggressive.

There were a total of nineteen Cup drivers entered in the race--the four "claim jumpers" racing for the championship, and fifteen in the race to, according to Jimmie Johnson, "get more seat time" on a road course. Indeed, Johnson and most of the others, Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, and Jeff Burton, for instance, are drivers who have not performed well on road courses in the past.

Though the "European Style" qualifying didn't draw as many fans as it seemed to do in Canada, it still proved interesting in the final two sessions, as drivers continued to compete with each other during the four lap sessions to get the fastest time. After several changes in the provisional pole position, Dario Franchitti came out on top.

From the very start of the race, there was plenty of action. We know that there are many NASCAR fans who don't care for road racing, but if they missed this one, they missed a good one. The race actually looked more like a Martinsville race, with lots of pushing, shoving, and even some beating and banging.

The number of full course cautions through the teams off of any reverse engineered pit strategies, and this proved to be a factor in the outcome of the race. Before we get to that, however, there are a few events of note that happened during the race.

For example, around the halfway point, both Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch were penalized for pit violations and sent to the back of the field.It didn't take them long at all to get back to the front, and then Kyle did something that only Tony Stewart or short track frustration have been able to do in the past--that is to get race leader Jeff Burton so angry he went looking for retaliation. Busch attempted to pass Burton on the inside of a turn, but Burton was following his line, and clipped Busch's car, sending both of them spinning. They did not crash, however, and the race stayed green, with Busch taking the lead. Burton was on a mission, though, and was driving with an aggression which we have rarely seen from him. Busch knew what was coming, and try as he did to stay ahead, it proved to be difficult. The spin had thrown out the toe of his car, and it was not handling well enough for even a wheel man like Kyle Busch to hold the lead. Burton's retaliation was done expertly--a tap on the rear bumper to move Busch's car out of the way.

Let this be a lesson to all drivers--if you don't want to get beaten by Jeff Burton, don't make him mad.

Meanwhile, Joey Logano was disappointed in his own performance during the race, while running fourteenth, and he apologized to his crew chief, Dave Rogers, over the radio. Rogers replied with what has to be the "funny" of the race, saying something like, "One thing I never want to hear is somebody bad-mouthing my driver, even when it is my driver doing it."

Logano ended up finishing seventh.

Ryan Newman volunteered to drive the #22 car for Armando Fitz, without pay. Perhaps he was getting seat time in preparation for Sunday's race, or maybe he was getting used to driving second rate equipment, as he is expected to join Stewart Haas racing next year. Either way, he did well for himself, running in the top ten most of the race and finishing in twelfth place.

Jimmie Johnson was running second to Jeff Burton, with less than seven laps to go, but it was clear that he wouldn't have enough fuel to finish the race. The expected late-race caution never materialized, and it had been a while since most of the leaders had refueled. Marcos Ambrose was running third, and all he had to do was wait for Johnson and Burton to run out of fuel. Johnson ran out with four laps to go, and Burton ran out with two to go. Marcos Ambrose finally got his win.

Ambrose did a Kyle Busch style victory burnout, and Busch himself finished second. Brad Keselowski had an impressive sixth place finish, and Matt Kenseth proved that he can run on a road course, after all, by finishing third. Kevin Harvick, who was my pick to win finished fourth, and castaway Dario Franchitti got an impressive fifth place finish. Keselowski's finish placed him back in second place in the standings, 128 points behind Clint Bowyer, who still can't get the hang of road courses. Overall, the Nationwide Series regulars beat the claim jumpers and the experienced road course ringers, and that is something we like to see.

It's always great seeing a driver win for the first time in one of NASCAR's top tier series, and we knew that Marcos' time was coming. Now he really has something to smile about. It was a fun race, but it had to be seen to be believed. There was plenty of action throughout, and we have to say that NASCAR style racing fits in well with Watkins Glen. It is a shame it only happens once a year.

My Bad

I was thinking I had a notification subscription for Ron Fellows' podcasts, which had an item posted about them here.

So, I waited for an email notifying me when the next podcast was available, and never got one. Until Fellows won at Montreal last week, the podcasts were completely forgotten about.

So, during this time of selective amnesia, there have been three more podcasts posted at Sunoco's Canadian website. Since episode three has little about NASCAR and seems to be the dreaded infomercial I was worried about in the first place, I would suggest that episode be skipped, except for the talk about GM's role in NASCAR.

Episode 2 is a continuation of episode one, with more interesting discussion with TSN's (the network that broadcasts NASCAR races in Canada)Vic Rauter and some more great stories about racing.

Sunoco High Octane Audio with Ron Fellows Is an interesting program, and the fan can get a good idea of how much fun Fellows is as his tells of his own career and discusses racing in general. If you haven't listened to the program yet, please do--you will at least be pleasently surprised, and the discussions are rewarding for the serious race fan, no matter whom your favorite driver is. If you have listened to the show before, and like it, enjoy the new episodes.

I am not getting paid to plug this show. I simply like Ron Fellows, and I think his show deserves a listen.

On the verge of history

The NAPA 200 Nationwide Series race at Circuit d' Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, ran eight laps before it started raining. They ran under caution for several lap while the pit crew readied the rain equipment.

For the first time, NASCAR is using rain tires in competition. The teams also added windshield wipers. ESPN touts this as "history in the making."

We can't be sure that it's going to be good history. Even when lighter cars, such as the ones used in Grand Am or Formula 1 racing, run in the rain, the racing isn't much more than it is while running under caution. These cars will be even harder to slow going into the corners, as they are much heavier than what we are used to seeing in the rain. Even with rain tires, we will see a lot of cars sliding off the track.

You can tell this is NASCAR's first time racing in the rain. What was supposed to be a three minute stop took much longer. You can tell that they aren't very enthusiastic about running in the rain, and that is understandable, as very few drivers have any experience in the rain at all. Also, NASCAR will make the call as to when to change back to slicks, if the situation comes up, rather than letting the teams make the decision.

They are running more laps under caution. This also makes sense, as the tires, though new, have been in storage for seven years. The rubber needs to be heated some, so it can loose some of the stiffness of age. But it is still clear that NASCAR is not ready for a race in the rain.

At this point, I am curious as to whether they are just going to drive around under caution until the track is dry.

Scott Pruitt, Brad Coleman, Jaque Villeneuve, Max Papis, Patrick Carpentier, Boris Said, and Ron Fellows, as well as whatever road course ringers we may have missed, all have experience racing in the rain, and most of these drivers are near the front anyway. We may see some action from them, but from the NASCAR regulars, with the exception of Marcus Ambrose, perhaps, we will see a learning experience as they try to hold their positions, find the rain line, and try not to spin out.

Hopefully, we will soon see how this experiment works out. Keep in mind--making history isn't always a good thing.

Nationwide Qualifying was fun

I'm watching the Nationwide Series qualifying as I write this, and enjoying it. Mexico City and Montreal are the only places we have seen what NASCAR calls "European qualifying."

European qualifying is where the cars are sent out in groups of five to run the track for a set amount of time, in this case, nine minutes. That gives the drivers about six or seven laps in which to post their best time, and their best time will be their qualifying time. We like conventional qualifying, with single car runs, but European qualifying is very interesting.

It was no surprise when Carl Edwards took the provisional pole. He is good on road courses, and the Ford engine has a fourteen horsepower advantage over the Toyotas, and a seven horsepower advantage over the Chevies.

The first surprise was when Mike Wallace fell short of Edward's time by .01 seconds, then won the provisional pole on the next lap by making his Camry go around the circuit .02 seconds faster than Edward's Ford Fusion. I guess horsepower isn't everything.

The really big surprise was when Joey Logano, in his very first stock car road race, took the #20 JGR Toyota to the provisional P1. Crew Chief Dave Rogers has something good going on with that car, horsepower advantage or not.

Well, we knew these times wouldn't stand. The specialists were still to come, and Home Town Hero, Jaques Villeneuve got the crowd up and dancing, when he momentarily had the fastest lap. However, Scott Pruett was the one who eventually took the pole position when he beat Villeneuve's time two laps later.

That qualifying session was very enjoyable. I think it would make sense, for NASCAR and the track promoters, to feature European style qualifying at all the road courses, at least in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. It's almost like having another form of racing as a companion event. Qualifying in this manner is most of the excitement of a Formula 1 Gran Prix, and it could bring fans to the track for qualifying in NASCAR. The stands at Montreal this morning were nearly full for the qualifying sessions, after all.

How Silly is Silly Season?

Dario Franchitti has found himself without a ride. This was something that was predicted by many in the media, but it wasn't entirely because of non-performance. According to Chip Ganassi the costs of running the team without a primary sponsor was too high.

This will undoubtedly generate even more grist for the rumor mill. Certainly, there will be stories about Tony Stewart finding a sponsor and getting a ride in the #40 car. His relationship with Chip Ganassi is well known, as it is Ganassi who has provided Smoke a car for the Indianapolis 500 in the past, when Stewart was doing double duty on Memorial Day weekend.

Stewart is already rumored to be signing with Haas/CNC, where he will be part owner and drive a car for the chronic backmarker, and wave some kind of magic wand that will suddenly make a top forty team a top ten team. While he is doing that, he is also rumored to be driving for Hendrick Motorsports in the number 5 car, since it has been announced that Casey Mears will no longer be driving the car next year. That alone should generate more rumors concerning Mears in the #40 car next year, even if Stewart is supposed to be in that car next year, according to rumor mongers, who have yet to explain how Smoke will be in the #5 car if that is where Mark Martin is supposed to be for 2009.

If Tony Stewart isn't driving the #33 car for Richard Childress next year, that may be the ride for Ryan Newman, who is reportedly unhappy with his Penske South team and is looking for a better offer before he renews his contract. Of course, everybody knows that Newman will be driving for the miserable #77 team for Haas CNC after Tony Stewart buys it and turns it around with his amazing powers. Or, perhaps Newman may want to stay with Dodge and drive the #40 car for Chip Ganassi.

There are those who would argue that Stewart could make a winner out of Haas. They say that he would have a better chance of winning a championship because he wouldn't be competing with Kyle Busch. What would happen to Busch if Stewart was with Haas that would keep him from being competitive is unknown at this time. They say that support for the team from Hendrick Motorsports would provide Haas with better cars. Hendrick is already providing as much support for Haas as they can without violating the four car limit, building their cars and engines. The only way they could do more would be to release Chad Knaus from the #48 team so Stewart could hire him.

Stewart would also need to find other personnel, such as chassis specialists, engine tuners, and car chiefs, since Haas is presently lacking in talent in those areas. Since Haas Industrial Systems sponsors the Haas cars, there may be enough money to get the best talent away from the teams that have it, but that is doubtful, as Stewart is also rumored to be looking for other sponsors.

But wouldn't Chevrolet Racing Division provide a lot of support, as they want Stewart back in their stable so badly they would lay off all the workers left in their North American operations to afford it?
Or maybe they would opt out of their support contracts with Hendrick, DEI, or Childress in order to give Stewart all the support he would need to turn Haas around. They wouldn't be likely to put more money into a new team, as GM has reported a fiscal loss for the third year in a row, and is rumored to be considering the withdrawal of support from NASCAR.

Of course, there is the often forgotten rumor that Stewart may stay with Gibbs to finish his contract through 2009, and then retire. Or he could still sign for three more years with Gibbs, but that is only if he can put up with "that punk Kyle Busch."

Is all this confusing? Of course. Obviously, not all of these rumors can be true, but we would like to think that if Tony Stewart has enough power to turn Haas CNC around, he could also drive for Hendrick, Ganassi, Childress and Gibbs all at the same time.

"Silly Season" has truly earned its name this year.

Live on Type Delay: The Toyota/Save Mart 350

Say what you want about NASCAR road races, there is no other racing in the USA like it. These are 3400 lb cars speeding up and slowing down for multiple turns--twelve turns in the case of Sears Point, aka Infineon Raceway. Add to that the famous elevation changes at Sears Point, which has an effect on how the car handles going uphill or downhill. Elevation changes have a much more profound effect on the NASCAR machines than it would on open wheel cars, or even the Grand Am cars. Just watch the first lap, while the cars are still close together. That is truly one of the beautiful sights of racing.

Other than Bobby Labonte spinning out on his own early in the race, and the forward movement of Tony Stewart from the 37th position and Juan Pablo Montoya from the seventeenth position, there isn't really much to report during the first segment of the race. This is a part of the race where give and take is mostly even, as nobody wants to risk not finishing the race. The first car that won't finish the race is Brian Simo, who is black flagged as his engine begins smoking.

Kasey Kahne, who started the race on the pole, soon loses his lead. After some movement at the front, Jimmie Johnson takes the lead and leads by a fair distance for twenty-seven laps.

Pit stops begin on lap 24, then, on lap 28, David Regan knocks a part of the tire barrier across the track in turn 11, and brings out the first caution of the race. This is very fortuitous for Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, JP Montoya, Kevin Harvick, and Tony Stewart, who have already pitted. Jimmie Johnson and the rest of the lead pack pit, putting the aforementioned six in the top six positions.

Bad news for AJ Allmendinger, who was expected to do well in this race, who can't get his car started, and loses a lot of positions. Boris Said has some brake issues, and loses a lot of ground while his crew works on the problem.

After the restart, Greg Biffle overdrives a turn and spins out, Montoya has to check up, and Kyle Busch passes them both and takes the lead.

Drivers whose names don't come immediately to mind as road course drivers seem to be doing well in this race. Carl Edwards, who actually threatened to lead before the first caution is running well, and maintaining a top ten position. Jeff Burton, who doesn't really like road races is hanging near the top five. Marcus Ambrose, who we do expect to do well in a road race, is also staying near the top ten, in what is his first Sprint Cup start. Jeff Gordon, who we think of as a great road racer, is having handling problems.

Somebody needs to tell TNT that, when they are showing JPM's footwork, they should put that in the small window, and show the on track action in the large window, rather than they bass ackwards way they are doing it. See, I can complain about TNT just like the normal race fans.

We often forget that Jamie McMurray is a competitive road course driver, but he has come so close to winning before, only to be foiled by fuel issues or mechanical problems. He has been doing well and hanging out in the fourth position.

Once again, as we begin scheduled pit stops, there is a caution. Kurt Busch and Robby Gordon have gotten tangled up, and Max Papis, in the Haas/CNC #66 car gets involved. Seventeen cars have already pitted this time, including all three RCR cars, leader Kyle Busch, and Tony Stewart, who stalled his car during his pit stop, but still managed to stay in the fifth position when the field restarted.

Shortly after the race restarts, Juan Pablo Montoya gets spun by Marcos Ambrose, while they are racing for position. Being in the final 35 laps of the race, this is where the racing starts, and it is only the beginning of the craziness. One indicater of this is that NASCAR throws another caution because of this, in a situation similar to ones that remained green earlier in the race.

David Gilliland is having a great race, and has moved into the top three, after some excellent racing with Tony Stewart. McMurray catches Stewart during that racing and gets the fourth position. Kyle Busch is perfect, maintaining the lead, hitting all his marks, and gaining on the field.

Marcos Ambrose was running in fourth position, but is being shuffled back as everybody rushes toward the front. Elliott Sadler, with his Smoke Magnet turned up to full power spins Ambrose in the process.

Ambrose is out of the race, after breaking his transmission. Bad news again for the Wood Brothers team, whose day had looked so promising.

Great radio chatter--Dale Earnhardt, Jr is right behind JPM, who has made it back to the eleventh position after being back as far as 30th. He sees that he could be caught, and not wanting to race JPM for position, he tells his spotter, "tell Juan to go, he's the pro."

With ten laps to go, David Reutimann's terrible day ends, as he crashes into the tire barrier and brings out a caution. Kyle Busch still leads, McMurray is in second, and Stewart is in third. The reason we have missed what had to be some great moves is because TNT isn't covering the racing and my AM radio is not recieving any signal at all well, so again we are doing this without the benefit of a radio play-by-play broadcast.

Whether we get to see it or not, these last six laps should be good. Before the lap is over, Stewart takes second, then DAMMIT!!! DAMMIT AGAIN. Tony is leading McMurray and Gilliland, and Kevin Harvick comes in hot, passing David Gilliland and running into McMurray, who spins forward and hits Stewart, spinning him. DAMMIT. What is with all this bad luck? That really was a freakish chain of events that took Stewart out just as he looked like he could challenge for the win. Stewart is now out of the top twelve in points, and this really sucks. Before the race is over, I will just give it to Kyle Busch, and quit writing.

Or not.

We were given the time to take a few deep breaths. Just had to demonstrate that we can feel frustration, and therefore are human. Gordon is now running in third. Back in the field, a bunch of cars bunched up, and Stewart had a choice of either stopping or going through. He went through, and some cars wreck, including Scott Pruett. Caution, and we are looking at a red flag, while the mess is cleaned up, and a Green/White/Checkered finish. The TNT commentators do not place the blame on Stewart, and being biased as I am, I will agree with them. I would like to see that again though, because we are not clear on what actually happened there. Jeff Burton in tenth, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr, in ninth barely avoided the mess.

Since this won't be posted until Monday morning, due to circumstances that prevent me from going on line at this time, maybe we will get a chance to clear this up. This means I will have to watch NASCAR Victory Lane rather than 1,000,000 BC (not to be confused with 10,000 BC which is being released on DVD this week) on Sci Fi or Spiderman on TNT. Watching the replay on VL, it looks like Stewart did get into the back of the 41 car, but that was as the field was checking up while Denny Hamlin was spinning, so this will go down as a racing incident, rather than a case of Smokey frustration. As a Smoke fan, I know this to be the correct call, because if it was out of frustration, Stewart would have wrecked himself as well.

Kyle Busch is still in the lead, as the race restarts. David Gilliland is in second, and Jeff Gordon is in third. We are not counting on the race finishing under a green flag, at this point, however, as there are a lot of guys behind him racing for points. Something else has to happen.

Tony Stewart has actually done some great driving and is now in eleventh position as the white flag comes out. No doubt now that Kyle Busch will win, for his fifth Cup race of the season. Tony Stewart finishes in tenth, having moved up from nineteenth, where he restarted after that spin involving Harvick and Gilliland. This puts him back to eleventh in points. I feel better now.

Kyle pulls off the smoke trick, and the crowd is actually cheering him.

This is Busch's first road course win at the Sprint Cup level. He did win at Mexico City earlier this year, so it is not that big of a surprise. He came up to win after starting in the thirtieth position, so that is quite an accomplishment, considering that eighteen of the last twenty races at Sears Point (Infineon) were won from the top eight in starting positions.

In racing, success is measured by winning, and by good points finishes, rather than popularity. But if popularity is important, Kyle Busch is popular at Sears Point, at least, so he was successful by all counts.

Personally, I like road races, and I like the show the Sprint Cup cars give us on the road races. This was a good race, for the most part, and it kept us watching. It may have been boring for some fans, but this particular blogger will count it as a success.

We expected it, but it was a big deal anyway

When the Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl in 1998, I stepped outside and heard cheering. The sound of hundreds of thousands of fans celebrating the win of their team carries a long way, and, frankly, sounds quite overwhelming. Horns were honking, and fireworks were being fired.

After Dale Earnhardt, Jr won the Lifelock 400 at Michigan International Speedway, I stepped outside and heard nothing. I didn't expect to.

At the Busch series races at Pike's Peak International Raceway, the most popular driver was usually whoever was driving the Richard Childress racing #2 car--Dale Earnhardt, Ron Hornaday, and Clint Bowyer all drove that car at PPIR, and they were all popular while they were driving it. Of the current Cup drivers, Tony Stewart seems to be the most popular in the Colorado Springs area. I say "seems" because the Tony Stewart merchandise seems to sell the fastest around the Colorado Springs area. That is not a scientific guage, because it could be just one wealthy person with an awesome collection. But I do know quite a few NASCAR fans here, and most of them are Stewart fans. That makes sense, as Tony Stewart won his first major series race at PPIR with his IRL victory in 1997. Dale Jr is the second most popular, and Jeff Gordon the third, while Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, and Matt Kenseth seem to have quite a few fans here. My point is that there were not hundreds of thousands of fans around here to cheer for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Earnhrdt's first win with Hendrick really is, and should be a big deal. Even if it is met with a sigh of relief, rather than the roar of an entire city going wild in celebration, it could be marked as the beginning of a new era. Earnhardt Jr has shown that he can live up to the expectations of the fans. So what if it was a fuel mileage win? Jr and his team put the #88 car where it needed to be at the right time, and a win is a win.

Does it mean Jr Nation can stop hating Kyle Busch? Does it mean they will stop calling for Tony Eury, Jr's head? Probably not, in answer to both questions. Criticizing the crew chief, and calling for the drawing and quartering of the major rival are part of the fun of being a race fan, and we can assume that many fans among the Jr Nation will be unwilling to give up that kind of fun.

We knew all along that Dale Jr would win a race this season. With his talent, and the personnel and equipment provided by HMS, there was no doubt that he would win. Even for those of us who are not part of Jr Nation, it is a reason to celebrate, because it means, at least, an end to the question "Why can't Jr win?"

Live on type delay: The Lifelock 400

Bill Engvall, as a member of the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" is one of my favorite comedians. He is a genuine NASCAR fan, and he has among his jokes several good NASCAR stories. He gave the command to start the engines at the Lifelock 400, and it makes me wish that NASCAR could get him for their banquet at the end of the season.

Kyle Busch quickly takes the lead from the beginning of the race, but on lap three Dave Blaney has a problem with the rear suspension and spins out, bringing out the first caution. After the restart, Jimmie Johnson takes the lead. Edwards makes a move for second, but Busch holds him off. Dale Earnhardt, Jr holds a top five position, and Brian Vickers, who started eighteenth has moved up to fourth place by lap sixteen. That 83 car looks fast.

After the first seventeen laps, everybody except for Johnson, Vickers, and Matt Kenseth seems to be having handling issues, and things have settled down. Except Vickers and Kenseth are still gaining positions, and Johnson is checking out on the field. By lap 30, Kenseth has moved into fifth place and Vickers is running second.

Blaney, who had a broken axle, is back on the track twenty-two laps down, and the star-crossed Dario Franchitti has reported a broken valve spring. Vickers has made up most of the four second gap between him and the race leader, Jimmie Johnson. Johnson can't block him, and Vickers has the faster car. Vickers takes the lead on lap 33, after starting eighteenth. We have to wonder if his team remembers this is a marathon race. Franchitti's engine gives up just as Vickers takes the lead. He was about to be lapped, but he caused no interference for the leaders, as he had to pull off the track on turn four, and into the garage. Dario's day is done

Kenseth is still on the move, as the Fords are flexing their muscles, and has taken third place from Kyle Busch. Johnson and Vickers exchange the lead, then exchange again, almost reminiscent of Saturday's truck race, where the racing for the lead was a constant throughout the race.

Vickers pits from the lead on lap 37, as scheduled green flag pit stops begin, for fuel and tires only, no adjustments needed. Smoke is happy with his car, and just needs to free it up a little. He sounds impressed by the power plant. Earnhardt has an excellent pit stop, and should gain positions after the pit stops cycle through.

After the pit stops cycle through, Vickers is running away with the race in first, Johnson second, Kenseth in third, Busch in fourth and challenging Kenseth on lap 41. Edwards is fifth, Earnhardt, Jr is sixth, Kahne is running in seventh, Biffle in eighth, Jeff Gordon in ninth, and Tony Stewart is tenth.

So far, this has been a pretty good race. Vickers isn't really running away with it after all, and the field is catching him. Johnson is threatening for the lead again. If racing for the lead is what we like to see early in a race, we are loving this. By lap 56, twenty-nine cars are still on the lead lap.

First cool moments of the race happen as Kasey Kahne in the Bud car has been involved in a race for sixth place against Dale Earnhardt, Jr, for several laps. Matt Kenseth has taken second place on lap sixty-five, but Johnson seems to be losing the handling on his car. Unless something important is broken, we can be certain that Chad Knaus can fix it Kenseth, on the other hand, is catching the leader, who is still Brian Vickers.

Now Stewart is falling back, and is running in thirteenth. Martin Truex, Jr has entered the top ten, and Ryan Newman seems to have an overheating problem, as does his team mate, Kurt Busch. Newman's problem is now reported to be a broken drive shaft, and, just as the next round of green flag pit stops begin, Kenseth has pulled to within half a second of Brian Vickers. Another race for the lead, except Vickers pits first. Still no adjustments, just four tires and fuel. The other cars can be expected to have adjustments made on them. By lap seventy nine, the pit stops are already cycled through, and Matt Kenseth seems to have the lead. Vickers is second, Kyle Busch third, Johnson is fourth. Johnson and Busch are racing each other, so that position keeps changing. Edwards has been staying around fifth place.

Caution for Budweiser debris on lap ninety-two. We can expect to see some more pit stops here, and all the leaders do pit. This is a no brainer on any intermediate track, as it is always treated as a fuel mileage race, and you don't want to get caught on old tires if everyone else gets new tires. Edwards takes two tires only and comes off pit road first. They wanted to get him to the lead, because he has been having problems in traffic. The strategy may work for a while. Hamlin stayed out, and has the lead, but Edwards is in second. Hamlin pits before the green flag, however.

Edwards is now first, Kenseth second, Kyle Busch is third, Brian Vickers is fourth. Jimmie Johnson is fifth, asnd there is some exciting racing at the drop of the green flag. Edwards gets the lead, but has to deal with lapped traffic. Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers change positions several times, but as they put the lapped traffic behind them, the order settles down Edwards first, Kenseth second, Johnson third, Kyle Busch fourth, and Vickers fifth. Kurt Busch spins and brings out the third caution of the day, at just around lap 100.

We're on dial up, so we can't have a race buddy, but that seems to be a good deal for those who have DSL To make matters worse, my local station that carries MRN has suddenly lost its signal, so we're stuck watching commercials. This is really tough, if you like racing. I know they are under caution, but it is like being blind if you don't know what's going on during the pit stops. Jeff Gordon has taken seventh place, as everybody who was in seventh on back pitted.

After the restart, we have some five-wide racing going on back in the pack. Edwards is still in the lead, Kenseth is second and Kyle Busch is third. Stewart seems to be able to get back into the top ten, but that is as far as his car will go, Jeff Gordon is falling back. This is not his season. Stewart has moved into eighth, and David Regan has made it to the top ten.

Stewart is still moving up and takes seventh from Dale Earnhardt, Jr before I can type a top five run down. Kenseth takes the lead on lap one-oh-something. Another Dodge besides Kahne's seems to be doing well as Elliott Sadler moves into the top ten. Regan is running twelfth

More green flag pit stops around lap 140. After they cycle through, by lap 144, Kenseth retains the lead. Stewart and Earnhardt, Jr both seem to have good cars, and we should see a change in the top five, soon.

I guess it is a good thing my MRN reception is gone, because it will make for a shorter, and perhaps, more readable post. It will, however, be less detailed and less accurate.

During the commercial, around lap 150, Bobby Labonte spins out and brings out a caution. Ryan Newman returns to the track sixty-three laps down. Kenseth stops for two tires, as does Kyle Busch. Busch is the first car off pit road, but Jimmie Johnson stays out and takes the lead. Robby Gordon gets wrecked on the restart, and it is caution again.

This race is going by pretty quickly, and we like that. There are less than fifty laps to go, and there will be one more pit stop before the end. There will be different pit strategies that will make a difference in what happens during the last thirty-four or thirty five laps. The anticipation is exciting, even if the race itself might not be for some.

Johnson restarts in first, Jeff Gordon's day gets worse as he is penalized for too fast exiting pit road. Sam Hornish, Jr., who also stayed out is in second, and Kyle Busch is in third, Kenseth is in fourth. Stewart moves into fifth after a lap or two. Earnhardt, Jr has a good car, but not early in the run and he falls back to eighth during the restart. Hornish is making his second place position stick.
Sam Hornish actually races to the lead for a lap, then falls back closely behind Johnson. The way things are going now, there will have to be fuel stops. We don't believe anyone can make it to the end with the fuel they have, without a caution.

Cool moment #2 is a Kyle Petty quote. Just before the last restart, Johnson reported that he didn't have first or second gear. Petty was saying that Johnson may hold up the restart without the two bottom gears, but Johnson took off. "Like I was saying, if he doesn't have first or second gear, he has 85,000 horsepower in third gear."

Johnson takes four and fuel for his last pit stop, Kyle Busch does likewise. Greg Biffle takes right sides only but gets a penalty after running over his air hose. It wasn't Da Biff's fault, he was given instructions to go on the jack drop, and the tire changer was slow in getting back to the wall.

Most of the teams, even the ones that had pitted most recently on lap 148 know that they can not make it on fuel, they are all pitting. The Roush Fenway teams do seem to have been having diffulty executing their splash and two stops.

Well this is a whole new jar of pickles. Earnhardt hasn't refueled since lap 148 and may be short on fuel. There is a caution with a little over three laps to go. GWC restart, caution on the last lap, and Jr wins. Let me say that again JR WINS !!!

Beer cans are flying, people are booing and yelling curses at the winner. Just kidding. The celebration is going to be big.

Kasey Kahne finishes second, Matt Kenseth comes in third, Brian Vickers fourth, and Tony Stewart stays in the top twelve in points standings by finishing fifth.

Meanwhile, we get on with celebrating Fathers' Day. Happy Father's Day, Dad.