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NOTHING BUT NASCAR HERE! My first NASCAR Cup experience was the Richmond fall race in 1999. I've been a NASCAR and Tony Stewart fan since. Here's a look at him and NASCAR through a different set of eyes. Best viewed with Spread Firefox Affiliate Button

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Sunday, May 25, 2008

 

The fuel is a lie!

As I watched the Nationwide race last night, I didn't once again fall for the drama that the announcers try to build in to the race. "The top 12 cars don't have the fuel to go the distance", they'd say. "By our calculator, they're short 4 laps." Well, your calculators suck. Not only did they finish the race (and they almost always do), but the winner did 14 burnouts and 22 victory laps (I'm exaggerating, of course).

The teams know that if they run out of fuel, they ain't gonna finish in the top 25 or so, and they'll come and get fuel. Please leave the drama to the teams, drivers, the track, the weather, or whatever real life quandaries that actually might have some effect on the race conclusion. I don't mind your opinion, after all it's part of you're job (and worth a lot more than mine), but I'd rather you state it and move on. Put your calculators away up in the booth. If you were that good, you'd be on a pit box.

That said, Kyle Bush continues to show his talent as a driver. He also had a crew chief that somehow knew those old tires could hold off a charging Denny Hamlin. I'm sure that kind of tire strategy might end up in tonight's race.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

 

Glad that's over with

If you've read my past posts about this event, you'd know I'm not a big fan of the All Star event. I would dump it myself, but I'm sure I'm the minority on that one. I don't even give it the satisfaction of calling it a race. I'll admit, I watch it, but I would probably watch the Cup cars run anything and anywhere. I'm a NASCAR fan after all. I'm glad the Tony was racing a backup car and not something they had set up for a starter at any point. It appears that JGR had a few other agendas for the event. All three JGR cars seemed to be running an experimental engine package that, at some time during the weekend, expired. I'm not sure if they put another test package back in Tony's car to race with, but he was not doing too bad towards the end. Much like Darlington, where cautions are the rule and not the exception, a yellow towards the end would have benefited him greatly. Again, it didn't come. In an event billed as a winner take all as if they're gonna be wrecking every lap, they went pretty much caution free towards the end. Now let's get back to points racing!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

 

Here he comes!

It 's really nice to see Dover Speedway doing more things that will only really effect the true fans. I have seen them double the size of there sky boxes, which are just filled full of non-race fans. I watched the fall race in a sky box, and when it was time for Carl to do his flip, I was the only person in my box still there to see the race. Everyone else had left an hour or so before the race ended. These aren't race fans.

The new FanZone and Monster statue (which will be holding a full sized car) will probably never be seen by the high rollers, and that's fine by me. Us real race fans will enjoy it. I took this picture myself on Mother's Day.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

 

Give 'till it Helps

The NASCAR Foundation’s NASCAR Day program is May 16, 2008 and has become one of the most important and fastest-growing traditions in the NASCAR Family. In 2007, NASCAR Day raised more than $1.6 million from the combined fund raising efforts of NASCAR fans, NASCAR partners and companies worldwide.

Right now, NASCAR fans can show their support by visiting their local participating The Home Depot store to make a $5 donation and get their 2008 NASCAR Day collectible lapel pin. Pins will be available through NASCAR Day on Friday, May 16. Fans will receive a $5 bounce back coupon with their pin to use on their next purchase of $50 or more at The Home Depot.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

 

FanView Review

I rented one of these things at Richmond, and here's my take:

A lot of race views, but I’m trying to watch the race! It would have been the next best thing to the TV if I wasn’t watching from the stands, but I was. 5 stars for ease of use. I found the perfect combination of listening to the DirecTV channel of Tony Stewart as they covered Tony-specific stuff the whole race. They did seem to hype it up a bit, saying he was charging through the field when he was habitually in 10th the entire race, but that’s DirecTV’s problem, not the FanView. The problem with that is it lost communication with the DirecTV drivers with 30 laps to go. At that point it jumped to the MRN radio with Tony on priority scan, which was the next best thing. After reporting the “glitch” to the trailer I turned the unit in to (and receiving a receipt proving I turned it in), the Gentleman gave me a voucher for one free use of the unit good for a year at any upcoming race. I’m sure I’ll get it again based on that.

It wasn’t much more that a scanner other than that. I did use the stats button to track who was a lap down a few times to see who was pitting with Tony, info I would not have had handy without the FanView unit. Given the frequency list for the DirecTV driver channels, my scanner would have sufficed. Now at larger tracks where you can’t see much more of the cars except for what’s rushing by you in a moment (Pocono and the road courses come to mind), this thing would show you quite a bit of the racing you’d miss without it, including replays. If you’re gonna try one of these things (and I would if I were you), I’d get one early in the day before lines get long just before the race. They gave me a military discount when I showed them my ID. Rumor is there is a Sprint customer discount also if you show them your phone. If you attend 5 or more races a year, purchasing one might be an option to consider. It would pay for itself in fairly short order.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

 

Reflections of Richmond

Richmond as a whole was again a great experience. Great track and facility. I’d recommend it to anyone, especially for a first race. I’ve got to go see more of the races here. We really enjoyed it. We saw a few friends we’d only knew online and we hope to see again. We wandered through all of the trailers and concessions. We were on SPEED Trackside. We had great seats on the Start/Finish line. The weather was great during the day, and held throughout the race. Just a great day for a race that ended with a great race.Richmond just refuses to disappoint.

Tony had a lot to think about during the race. He asked for more forward bite, and they adjusted. He asked for more, and they made more adjustments. This went on for most of the race. And then the electrical problems started. Tony was as busy as an air traffic controller, monitoring gauges, flipping switches, and driving a car that just didn’t seem to perform. He could get to tenth, but it just wouldn’t climb any higher. Basically he finished 4th because 4 cars in front of him fell back, and he just wouldn’t give up on his car. After 4 adjustments, we finally got some good feedback from him, and he started to pass cars. All in all a very hard fought 4th place finish for the 20 car.

It was an old school domination of a race except for the fact that he didn’t lap the field. Denny had it won, but for the same reason I’m a N ASACAR fan, he didn’t. If you don’t stick around for the last turn of the last lap, you can’t be sure who won. I was waiting for him to get out of the car and lay down in traffic. Instead he got penalized for purposely bringing out the yellow. My call would have been to come in for tires after dropping out of the top 10, but I blow stuff up for a living, so throw my opinion where ever you’d like.

You’ve got to ask yourself, “Would Dale Sr. have raced Dale Jr. in the same position (with quite possibly the same results)?” The answer is a resounding yes. Was Kyle out of place under Jr.? No. Could’ve Jr. given him some more room? Sure. Why Wasn’t Jr. Protecting the low line, anyway? Who knows?

Who does Michael Walthrip think he is teaching someone a lesson at Richmond? In 42 starts, he’s got 0 top 5’s and only 2 top 10’s. He missed the last three races here. I’d think there’s a better driver out there to show someone the ropes at RIR. I’m glad they parked him.

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