Nascar Racing Online

Archive for August, 2009

First it was a Robby Gordon temper tantrum, then it was a speeding ticket on Pit Road, then it was driver error in the last set of corners that cost Ambrose another victory in Montreal.

Three races, three strikes - and I thought the third one was the charm.

You’ve got to feel for Marcos really, in the last three races he has lead 124 laps (60 today) while all three eventual race winners Kevin Harvick, Ron Fellows, and Carl Edwards have lead 12 combined laps.

I guess what they say is true; “The only lap you need to lead is the last one”.

… more after the jump …

Ambrose was quoted after the race as saying, “I just made a mistake at the end there and lost the race.  Any other lap, any other corner, I would have got it straight back. It just happened to be the last corner of the race. We had a drag race coming off the hairpin. Carl got position on me, and I had to try to make sure I [outbraked] him.  I feel pretty devastated, because I let my boys down. We came here to win, and anything less than that was a disappointment.”

You know considering what happened to him I think he held himself together pretty well.  He accepted full responsibility and didn’t blame anyone except himself for his misfortune.

I’ve got to give Marcos props for keeping his head held high after the race.  He is a class act, period.

I guess Carl couldn’t believe what was happening to him until he crossed that start/finish line, if it were me I’d probably be crashing out myself out of disbelief of what was happening in front of me.

You’ve got to give credit to Carl – I know some of you don’t want to, but lets face it Carl didn’t wreck Ambrose when he could have.  Carl raced Marcos clean and put enough pressure on him to force Marcos to make a mistake in order for him to take advantage of it.  Any way you slice it that’s good racing.

All you Ambrose fans out there I have a message for you, and with me being a Toronto Maple leaf fan you’ll know what I mean when I say, “Just wait until next year.”

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A representative for Ray Evernham has reported that Ray and Erin were married on Wednesday in a small ceremony at the Southpoint Hotel in Vegas.

No other details have been released about the former team owner and his old developmental driver who is now his wife.  NAtSCAR.com has a small article which can be found here.

For all of the crap that they went through when their relationship became public and how it became public I for one am going to leave them alone and wish them the best of luck for their future together.

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Hey everybody, who’s up for a little racing? You are? Too bad, because it’s an off weekend in Sprint Cup. Sure, there are plenty of other races going on around the country, but many of the big dogs are off this weekend, hanging out and doin’ nothing much at all. (Click here to see what your favorite drivers are up to this weekend.)

So here’s what you should do. Introduce yourself to your friends and family again. Do a little yardwork. Maybe knock a couple items off the ol’ honey-do list. Because the Chase is about to start up, and when that gets rolling, we’re all going into the bunker. Have a good one, everybody!

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When it  comes down to it, we as a general public are bad drivers.  Don’t think so?  Guess again, we are horrible.

But I’ve never been in an accident that was my fault you say.  So what, neither have I – at least not in my version of events.

Well then I’ve never had a speeding ticket you say.  You just haven’t been caught yet.

And so the debate goes on, but in the end the fact remains we are bad drivers and we would kill ourselves out there on the track as well as our competitors.

In the past month I’ve come across many examples of our bad driving habits that not only would kill us on the track but maybe one day kill us and/or others on our way to work.

More after the jump.

Here are my examples of wanna-be NASCAR drivers we wouldn’t want to see at the track:

The Parking Lot Petty:  this wanna-be can be found in most parking lots zooming up and down the parking rows with no regard for pedestrians or other moving vehicles including shopping carts.  I never really noticed this type of driver until I had kids and now I’m the ever watchful parent when in parking lots.

The Stop Sign Speed-er:  this particular moron absolutely refuses to stop at stop signs even when there is a car in front of them who stops.  What this person does is goes when the car in front of them goes or if there is no car in front of them they will slow down by about 5 mph before going through the stop sign.  I could go into great detail about my encounter with one of these idiots 2 weeks ago but he doesn’t deserve the time it would take talk about it.

The Tailgater Truex:  personally I can’t stand this NASCAR wanna-be as I have been hit by one in the past.  This particular tail pipe sucker can be found almost anywhere from city streets to parking lots but the most common place to find them is on the highway ‘drafting’ the car in front of them while flashing their headlights to get them out of the way.

The Messaging Martin:  this particular wanna-be is relatively new to the wanna-be circuit and the majority of these drivers are under the age of 30.  I’m an excellent multi-tasker, but even I won’t text and drive at the same time, the results can be fatal, yet I still see people doing it all of the time.  Have you seen the video of the bus driver texting while driving and causing a huge accident?  You should go to youtube then and find it, I feel sorry for the people in the cars involved in his texting mishap.

The Chatty Carl:  this wanna-be is the older brother of the Messaging Martin who talks on their cell phone while driving.  Most of us have been guilty of doing this at one time or another, I have gotten into the habit of pulling over and stopping while on the cell phone.  I don’t care if you have a hands-free device in your car or not, talking on the phone is a distraction whether you are holding your cell or not, period.  Pull over and save a life.  I have witnessed accidents caused by cell phone talkers as well as almost been involved in accidents both in the city and on the highway because of these Chatty Carls.

These are but a few examples of why we all can’t be NASCAR drivers, maybe I’ll give more examples in the future but I think I rest my case when I say that these people are prime examples of why we all can’t be NASCAR drivers.

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Kasey Kahne is excited to see … something at Bristol Motor Speedway. What could it be? You know, don’t you? (Thanks to Carol for the photo.)

After the jump, it’s pile-on-Kasey week, as he looks to Jimmie Johnson for an autograph.

Baker:
KK: Come on, man. Let me have some of your Chase points, I could really use them right now!

Gator gets clever:
JJ: Look, Kasey, nothing personal, but I never shake hands with somebody who has a Siemens stain on their shirt.

Randy gets double-clever:
Rock Paper Scissors: Kahne may have beaten Abel with a rock…but it appears as though paper isn’t working on Johnson.

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Sorry about not posting too much this week, but I was on vacation with my family and some friends.

I’ll be back later today with some stuff as I’m off to unpack our suitcases, do some laundry, get groceries, cut the lawn, and so on – man I’ll need a vacation once I’m doing all the stuff that needs to get done around here.

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Just like in the NFL and the NBA, NASCAR prizes potential over performance, and no impending free agent is inspiring as much frothing as rookie Brad Keselowski. A driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series and connected with Hendrick Motorsports for Sprint Cup, Keselowski is the pretty girl at the dance right now, with everybody vying for his attention.

Rumors first surfaced at Bristol that he was headed to Penske to take over the No. 12 currently held by David Stremme, rumors which must have delighted Stremme to no end. While many outlets are reporting that as fact, and indeed it makes a whole lot of sense, we’ll hold off on saying that’s a definitive.

Even so, the picture just got a whole lot clearer, as Keselowski announced that he’s bouncing from JR Motorsports in 2010. Junior has said that if Keselowski doesn’t drive a Chevy in the Cup Series, he won’t be driving a Chevy in Nationwide either. Penske is, of course, a Dodge house. Keselowski is walking away (at the end of the season, of course) from a team that’s currently in third place in the Nationwide standings, behind Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards.

Asked directly about his prospects for jumping straight into Sprint, Keselowski offered this beauty: "Man, that’s hard to say at this time. I really don’t have an answer for that. I wouldn’t say yes or no. I would say that time will tell." Wow! The four-cliché quad! Boy’s only 25 but he’s already a master of the non-answer answer.

My take: in absolute terms, I think Keselowski’s making a mistake walking away from Hendrick Motorsports. After one more year with Mark Martin, Keselowski could slide right into the No. 5 and take over the most prized seat in motorsports. On the other hand, he’s clearly ready to run right now, and who am I to tell a guy to put his dream on ice for another entire year? Plus, it’s not like Penske is necessarily a lifetime commitment.

Whichever way he goes, though, it’s clear: rookie time is over. He’s going to be expected to produce, big, from the very first "start your engines."

Keselowski says he won’t return to JR Motorsports [NASCAR.com]

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Hey, here’s a topic football fans aren’t sick of: Brett Favre! And here’s a topic NASCAR fans aren’t sick of: Dale Earnhardt Jr.! Why not combine ‘em together for a tough-guy Wrangler ad campaign? It’d be the nexus of overhyped sports stories!

Well, that’s exactly what Wrangler did, and Wednesday on ESPN’s Sports Nation, Colin Cowherd took on the question of which overexposed pitchman was actually more manly, and thus more deserving of the Wrangler brand. Here, check it out:

You know, I’m not what you’d call Colin Cowherd’s biggest fan, but he’s got a point here. Favre is a wimpy whiner, Earnhardt — win or lose (a lot) — is more of a guy’s guy. Sports Nation disagreed with Colin and me, which just means that a lot of people are wrong.

Boy. Danica one post, Favre the next. I just need to get Michael Vick in here somehow to hit the page-view trifecta. Maybe if Tony Stewart’s monkey fought some of Vick’s dogs …

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Kasey Kahne is making an appeal to Jimmie Johnson, who doesn’t seem to care much one way or the other. What’s happening here, friends?

After the jump, President Johnson debuts at the White House.

Furiousd:
"I do my little turn on the catwalk. Yeah, on the catwalk. I do my little turn on the catwalk."

Rick G:
Is Carl giving the clap to the President, or is he just using a hand lotion? 

Mel G:
EDWARDS: Whoa Clint! Did you have beans last night?!!

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All right, back again for another Midnight Marbles session where you can talk about whatever you like. Start with Denny Hamlin there. What’s he looking up at? Not the American flag, certainly, or he’d have that hat off and his hand over his heart. And Denny’s not the unpatriotic type, is he? Is he? Tell me he’s not, please.

Anyway, for the newcomers, this is the place where you can discuss any and all topics, NASCAR and non-NASCAR alike. Also, a reminder — I’m always looking for good new NASCAR sites and info to check out, so if you’ve come across a good story, photo or site recently, fire it off to me at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. Thanks, as always, for your support, and we’ll be back soon with more stuff.

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