Nascar Racing Online

Archive for June, 2009

A little bit of Whelen fence-climbing from this past weekend at Loudon. Come up with a caption, won’t you, friends? Thank you ever so much!

After the jump, Mark Martin cleans up a bit.

The Hitman:
Mark Martin comes to the shocking realization that he has been winning races because somebody was greasing the shoe on his braking foot. Now the old man has a dilemma, wipe off the grease and be able to pound the brakes among the young whipper snappers again or pretend he never noticed and take the title he deserves.

Rise With Us:
"I told him I was gonna kick his ass, just didn’t think I’d get a piece of it on me, though."

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Join Jay Hart and Jay Busbee for a live chat during Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where Kurt Busch is the defending race winner.

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The field was set by Owner Points this week:

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED	TIME	BEHIND
1	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Old Spice / Office Depot	N/A	N/A	N/A
2	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	DuPont	N/A	N/A	N/A
3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools	N/A	N/A	N/A
4	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	N/A	N/A	N/A
5	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Aflac	N/A	N/A	N/A
6	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	N/A	N/A	N/A
7	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Ground	N/A	N/A	N/A
8	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	N/A	N/A	N/A
9	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Interstate Batteries	N/A	N/A	N/A
10	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Dewalt	N/A	N/A	N/A
11	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	Carquest / Kellogg’s	N/A	N/A	N/A
12	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	N/A	N/A	N/A
13	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	Budweiser	N/A	N/A	N/A
14	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Aaron’s Dream Machine	N/A	N/A	N/A
15	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Lenox Industrial Tools	N/A	N/A	N/A
16	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	The Hartford	N/A	N/A	N/A
17	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	N/A	N/A	N/A
18	47	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota	Little Debbie / Kingsford / Clorox	N/A	N/A	N/A
19	26	Jamie McMurray	Ford	Irwin Vise-Grip	N/A	N/A	N/A
20	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	National Guard / Amp Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A
21	07	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	Jack Daniel’s	N/A	N/A	N/A
22	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	TomTom	N/A	N/A	N/A
23	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	Best Buy	N/A	N/A	N/A
24	20	Joey Logano*	Toyota	The Home Depot	N/A	N/A	N/A
25	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	N/A	N/A	N/A
26	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Penske Truck Rental / AAA	N/A	N/A	N/A
27	43	Reed Sorenson	Dodge	McDonald’s McCafe	N/A	N/A	N/A
28	96	Bobby Labonte	Ford	Ask.com	N/A	N/A	N/A
29	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	N/A	N/A	N/A
30	44	A.J. Allmendinger	Dodge	Berlin City Auto Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
31	6	David Ragan	Ford	UPS	N/A	N/A	N/A
32	12	David Stremme	Dodge	Penske Racing	N/A	N/A	N/A
33	98	Paul Menard	Ford	Moen / Menards	N/A	N/A	N/A
34	7	Robby Gordon	Toyota	Robby Gordon Motorsports	N/A	N/A	N/A
35	34	John Andretti	Chevrolet	Taco Bell	N/A	N/A	N/A
36	09	Brad Keselowski	Chevrolet	Miccosukee Resort & Gaming	N/A	N/A	N/A
37	82	Scott Speed*	Toyota	Red Bull	N/A	N/A	N/A
38	171	David Gilliland	Chevrolet	TRG Motorsports	N/A	N/A	N/A
39	187	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	NEMCO Motorsports	N/A	N/A	N/A
40	66	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	N/A	N/A	N/A
41	36	Patrick Carpentier	Toyota	Tommy Baldwin Racing	N/A	N/A	N/A
42	37	Tony Raines	Dodge	Long John Silver’s	N/A	N/A	N/A
43	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Companies	N/A	N/A	N/A
Did Not Qualify
44	51	Dexter Bean*	Dodge	LiveWire Energy	-	-	-
45	127	Ted Christopher	Toyota	Kirk Shelmerdine Racing	-	-	-
46	64	Mike Wallace	Toyota	Gunselman Motorsports	-	-	-

+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie

Questions to consider:

Will Sorenson be able to translate his good practice times into a strong run?

Will Kyle Busch be able to carry the momentum from his win in Nationwide into a win today?

Will Denny Hamlin and the rest of the #11 Fed Ex team keep heading in the right direction as far as strong finishes go?

Will Dale Jr finally start clicking on the track with his new Crew Chief? 

Catch you all later today.

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Now this is how you end up a week, with a photo of Dale Earnhardt Jr. hanging with Vanilla Ice. I find absolutely no comedic potential in this photo whatsoever, and I defy you to do so. Defy you, I say! This is part of a fun post over at All Left Turns documenting NASCAR drivers out in da club; make sure you check out how lost Denny Hamlin and Elliott Sadler look.

That’ll do it for now; we’ll be around all weekend and hanging for the race on Sunday. For now, go check out the latest Weekender column and feel free to chat here about Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett or whoever. See you this weekend, everybody!

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Check this out! Kasey Kahne is actually the size of a cell phone! Who’d'a thunk it, huh? I guess the TV does add a bit of weight … and height … and mass … and everything.

Anyway, this here’s your Midnight Marbles open-commenting post, where you can hang and talk about whatever. And since we’re also throwing in some recommendations in these posts, today I’m pointing you in the direction of the fine automotive website Jalopnik. One of the Gawker network of sites, it’s got everything an auto-lover could, um, love, even if they occasionally take a somewhat dim view of NASCAR. Enjoy ‘em, and come on back here for plenty more. Have a good one, everybody!

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Mark Martin finds something on his shoe. Or maybe he’s stretching. Or maybe he just grabbed a quick nap. Who knows? You do, of course.

After the jump, Kid Rock meets our favorite drivers.

Doug C:
"Good job this year, man."
"Good job this year, man."
"Always good to see you, Dale." 

Shannon P:
Gordon offers his condolences as he mistakenly thinks he is being introduced to one of the many citizens of Michigan horribly affected by the economy. 

2muchblood … with a nice Gump callback:
Kid Rock: "Congratulations. How’s it feel it be a NASCAR driver?"
Jeff Gordon: "It’s an honor sir."
Kid Rock: "Congratulations. How’s it feel it be a NASCAR driver?"
Tony Stewart: "Thank you sir. It’s an honor."
Kid Rock: "Congratulations. How’s it feel it be a NASCAR driver?"
Dale Jr: "I gotta pee."
Kid Rock: "I believe he said he had to pee!"

… and "n88car" hits the Daily Double of "Didn’t Get The Joke" and "They’re Richer Than You, Which Makes Them Better Than You":
lotta jr hatin …lotta kid rock hatin….i bet it really rips you peoples mud pockets , that both of these guys could BUY AND SELLyour MONKEY [profane]

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Whooeee! Road courses! Where everybody’s skatin’ around the track like a greased-up ferret scootin’ around on a griddle bubblin’ with hot butter on the deck of a riverboat in a hurricane and … wow, cooking up homespun Southernisms is tougher than it looks. I think I broke something there. Anyway, it wasn’t a great race for wrecks — uh, I mean, if we actually watched races for wrecks, that is — but these’ll do:

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No sport offers up a more bewildering array of souvenir crap memorabilia than NASCAR, and They Make It digs deep into the corners of the Internet to bring all that strangeness to light. Today: rubbery NASCAR goodness for your feet!

The item: RacerTreadz, sandals made from race tires, $39.95 from www.racertreadz.com.

The deal: So you’ve got all these tires left over from races, and what do you do with them? Well, you could make them into coffee tables, of course, provided you like the stench of burnt rubber in your home. Or you could carve them up and make them into fine footwear! The problem, of course, is that you have to change them every forty miles or so, and if you’re in Indianapolis, they have a tendency to blast into pieces. (Note to the fine folks at RacerTreadz: that last sentence was in jest.) Anyway, the idea of running around on the tires of Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson may indeed be appealing to you, but be sure to certify that the tires aren’t from Michael Waltrip’s car. Those will walk you straight into a wall.

The hat tip: Reader Gary. If you’ve got some NASCARiana for us to check out, hit us up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. Get walkin’!

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I don’t even want to spoil the absolute perfection of this photo with any of my commentary. So I’ll just say this: it was taken at the Milwaukee Mile. Reader Carol sent it to me. Beyond that, let your imagination run wild.

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Can you believe there are only ten races left until the Chase? I know, it’s like we just got started! Golly, time sure does fly when you’re having fun. Anyway, for the next three months we’re going to do a weekly roundup of contenders and pretenders, who’s movin’ up and who’s bottoming out.

The field as it stands: Tony Stewart extends his lead on the pack, followed by Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards (up one spot), Ryan Newman (-1), Denny Hamlin (+3), Greg Biffle (-1), Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth (+1), Mark Martin (-3) and Juan Pablo Montoya (+2).

Movin’ on up: Welcome to the Chase Mr. Juan Pablo Montoya, who delivered on an anticipated strong road course performance. Also strong were Denny Hamlin, who’s gained back all the slots he lost in his disastrous Pocono flameout, and Marcos Ambrose, who pushed his way deeper into the top 20.

On the bubble: With his win, Kasey Kahne now sits a mere three points outside the Chase. David Reutimann fell farther away from the magic cut-line, losing one spot and several dozen points relative to the Chase. It’s a reachable goal for both drivers, but who’s going to sputter out and make room for them?

Bottoming out: After all the "Mark’s back!" talk of the last few weeks, Martin surrendered three spots this week, and now sits just nine points above the line. But at least he’s in; Jeff Burton continued his season-long free-fall to drop three spots to No. 15. He’s less than 50 points out of the Chase, but it seems like much farther than that.

Outlook: Everybody wants to be in the Chase, obviously, or they wouldn’t be driving. But these days, certain drivers seem to want it much more than others — or, at least, the people designing and setting up their cars are doing a better job of staying on point. Right now, Montoya and Kahne are looking like good bets to make the Chase; what will be interesting to see is how long they can sustain this level of performance. Also of note: Kyle Busch continues to linger in ninth place, and currently sits less than 50 points above the cut line. That’s the point where you can’t afford any bad luck, and that’s not a position you want to be in as we come up on single-digit races left until the Chase.

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