Hurricane Hanna to Affect RIR?

Hmmm? Whatsya all think?

• 11 Comments

The X-Files for 9/01/08

Due to the fact that the race actually put me to sleep, there will be no X-Files this week. And to think the brain trust at NASCAR has this incredibly boring track in the actual CHASE next year.

I guess Chad Knauss won. Good job! See you next week at a real track.

Yawn...

X:)

• 12 Comments
• The X-Files

Edwards, Busch On Probation...

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA (TICKER) —NASCAR penalized Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch on Wednesday, placing the Sprint Cup drivers on probation for the next six races.

The penalty stems from last Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway, where the series’ top two drivers bumped each other after Edwards took the checkered flag.

The probation will begin at this Sunday’s Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway.

~~~~~

I'm glad it wasn't anything more than a slap on the wrist...

X:)

• 18 Comments
• Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, penalties

Bye Bye Shootout....

You can probably find the article somewhere with all the changes in next year's Bud Shootout at Daytona. Essentially, the idea of a shootout between pole winners is over. It will be replaced by a manufacturer shootout of sorts. The top 6 teams for each of the four manufacturers will face each other in a 75-lap shootout. This means that Tony and Ryan are not in, and I don't think there will be any provisionals for previous winners of the race either.

Certainly, this is a bone from NASCAR to the manufacturers who are in desperate need to justify their NASCAR investments.

I'm kinda twisted by this one. For 28 years, the Bud Shootout (or the Busch Clash... what a great name!) was the hidden incentive, a great reward for winning a pole. I'm not so sure I like that idea going away. This one sounds interesting, I dunno. I still gotta wrap my head around it Iguess...

• 7 Comments
• The Bud Shootout, Busch Clash

Invisible Reed

It's just kinda funny. Pretty big news for the guy, leaves Ganassi and get's a ride over at GEM in the #10. Not one post. Is he really that invisible?

And Patrick? ...wonder what will happen to him?

• 13 Comments

The X-Files for 8/25/08

This is an especially long one today. I wonder why? The Olympic Games may be over, but the NASCAR games are just beginning! Oh, that is a LOVELY dress you're wearing today, Mrs. Cleaver!

'KING CARL AND 'KING KYLE
If you are a NASCAR fan, I don't care who your driver is, you gotta love this rivalry between Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. It has all the ingredients you need; Two drivers and teams at the top of their respective games, two drivers with mirror image personalities and a manufacturer conflict to boot. It's perfect.

It's not as if this is a real surprise. These two had separated themselves from the crowd as far back as April and it was inevitable that once the stakes started getting higher they would conflict over things like racing lines and track space. So sit back, crack open your beverage of choice and enjoy. This is the stuff that made NASCAR what it is today.

I just wonder if Bobby Allison ever thought to call Richard Petty "Mr. Ed"...

MICROCOSM AT THE COLLISEUM
For those who watched Kyle Busch drive off for most of the race on Saturday night and hated it, take some comfort. This race may very well contain within it a microcosm of Kyle's 2008 season. It goes like this: Move up steadily through the field and take the lead in spectacular fashion (he did kinda make Carl and Jeff look foolish when he came up, passed them both and disposed of the pesky Montoya in one fell swoop)). Then cruise and dominate to the point where people are pretty much handing you the Cup. Reset the field late in the going and get bumped and beaten by a late charging Carl Edwards.

Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon tried to break Kyle's confidence with psychology. Problem was, they also had to win consistently. That is something Carl's doing that they're not.

WHISKEY CHASER
Poor Kasey Kahne. Nothing he could do. Minding his own business and lady luck scoops you up two weeks in a row. But if Clint Bowyer makes the Chase, he has this race to point to as a real "ataboy" moment. Damaged by an early incident, Clint battled a tow problem that threatened to make it one of those long Bristol nights. While the damage was significant enough to keep him from racing for the win, he was able to fight the ailing #07, keep it on the lead lap and bring it home in 7th position.

Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon were both in a position to win late, but reason and cool headed crew-chiefs probably kept the two of them from getting too involved in the lead battle. After all, they each had a LOT more to lose than the two 'kings up front. David Ragan (spelled it correctly this week, you notice) has to feel like a winner considering how his weekend began with a crash during qualifying. If you told him he would come out of Bristol still on the heels of the 12th and final Chase slot, I think he would take it every time.

HOW IS THIS EURY'S FAULT?
I kept wondering how the unreasonable fringes of Junior Nation would twist this one. On the initial start of the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. kinda, sorta thought it was like a restart where he could pass on the outside. Umm, nope, not the case on the initial start of the race. And while the subsequent black flag and drive-through penalty hurt him tremendously, it wasn't as if the #88 team hadn't already dug themselves a hole with an absolutely horrible qualifying run that put him back into the 40th starting position.

Oh oh, THAT's the logic! If Eury hadn't given him such a piece of crap in qualifying, he wouldn't have had to try and pass all those cars illegally on the start. Now I get it...

BUMP & RUN PHILOSOPHY
I spent the better part of Sunday mulling the bump and run Carl put on Kyle. I was trying real hard to maintain objectivity, weighing other incidents from NASCAR's storied past and comparing the situation. Did I feel it was a cheap shot? Would I feel the same way if the bumper was on the other car, so to speak? It made for a Sunday filled with a lot of lower lip biting.

First, I recognize that I as a fan accept rubbing as racing. I was raised Earnhardt, as it were. In fact, part of what I like about Kyle Busch is this part of his game. The intimidation factor is big. I embrace that.

At the end of the day, I came up with three situations where I personally find the bump and run tactic acceptable:

1. within the last 5 laps of a race.
2. When the lead car is slower and is repeatedly holding up and/or blocking a faster car, and
3. If there is a previous history between the drivers that warrants such payback.

Well, we can eliminate #1. It was lap 469 of 500. There was some racing left. In the case of #2, I don't think Carl can claim he had reached that point where he was exasperated by Kyle's tactics. As for #3, Carl cited some incident back in a Nationwide race at Richmond earlier this year. This too I have a problem with. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think it is proper to bring over Nationwide baggage to Cup. The teams are different and the stakes are different. It's out of context in my mind.

If Kyle were in a truck race and saw Benson or Hornaday coming up from behind, oh yeah, hold on. You deserve some payback. Although I wouldn't expect it from him, you can bet that everyone could appreciate Dale Jr. putting a bumper to Kyle in the late going of a race given what happened at Richmond. But Kyle has raced Carl pretty damn clean this season, given him respect on and off the track, and it just seemed like a cheap shot to me. Would Kyle have done it in a reversed situation as Carl suggested? Probably, but we can't know for sure. It's kind of like making a case for a pre-emptive war...

NOTES
Holy Ashley Simpson Batman, was that a "guide track" I heard the kids singing to during the National Anthem? This tradition has gone on for years, and suddenly all the kids are in perfect tune, perfectly in time and perfectly miced. Nice try guys...

Perhaps the second best race of the weekend was watching Speed's coverage of the Friday activities. Cup drivers scurrying back from the Nationwide garage to get in their final Cup practice was a hoot! Usain Bolt, take note...

Expect NASCAR to hand down a fine and probation to Kyle Busch on Tuesday. The question will be whether Carl gets anything. Maybe $10K and $5K respectively. No points.

Aric Amirola certainly has days that should make DEI fans smile. He was fast all weekend and did the #8 proud with his top 10 finish. Bummer for me was that I HAD him in my fantasy picks, and traded him out for...

A.J. Allmendinger had the kind of race you DON'T need when you have a steely-eyed kid breathing down your neck for your ride. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately, the stats don't say it was because of Martin Truex Jr.'s tire bead failure that you're finishing 34th.

Speaking of bad luck, I'm not standing near Dave Blaney when there's a thunderstorm...

In a perfect world, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Scott Speed, and Cale Gale would slug it out for the 2009 Nationwide title without interference from any Cup interlopers. Wouldn't that be cool? Not going to happen, though, as Logano will be announced as Tony's JGR Cup successor today...

Thanks to all the fine Rowdy citizens who expressed the concern over Tropical Storm Fay's visit to Florida. I am fine. The storm hit abut everywhere else in the state it seems but here...thankfully!
X:)

• 13 Comments
• The X-Files

2009 "Doom & Gloom" List

Here's the revised "Doom and Gloom" list of cars with unsettled sponsorship for 2009. I added the #42 of Juan Pablo Montoya whose current sponsor, Texaco, announced they will not be back in 2009. Please comment and alert me to any changes in this list or anything I may have overlooked.

Cars needing sponsorship for 2009:

00
01
4(39)
6
7
8
12
15*
22
28
38
42
43
44
45

Known sponsors looking for a home in 2009:
UPS
U.S. Army

* John Menard will bring the Menards sponsorship with him wherever he ends up. Current speculation is he is talking with Yates Racing.

• 8 Comments

Texaco Leaving Ganassi

I'm guessing that this was posted here at some point yesterday. If so, my apologies:
~~~
Sirius Speedway has learned that Chevron-Texaco will not return as sponsor of #42-Juan Pablo Montoya's Dodge next season. The Texaco-Havoline brand is in the final year of its sponsorship contract with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, and a media representative for Ganassi Racing confirmed the move this afternoon.
~~~

Well, let's add another team to the mix in search of sponsorship for 2009. My guess is that Chip won't have too much trouble ggetting something in place for someone as marketable as JPM, but it is getting late. My other wonder is whether this would give JPM a contractual out if no sponsor is found. If so, the timing is pretty bad. Hell, it's bad all around....

Either way, I'll miss seeing the livery on the track. It is a NASCAR classic...

X

• 8 Comments
• Ganassi Racing, Texaco, Juan Pablo Montoya

The X-Files for 8/18/08

A storm is brewing here. It's on the horizon, the winds are picking up and the squalls are getting more frequent. Just another day in paradise...

KING CARL
The other side of the heavyweight card that is destined to be the battle for NASCAR supremacy is coming into form. Carl Edwards' dominant car and exceptional skill served notice to everyone at camp Toyota that they're not going to take this Kyle Busch thing laying down. Even with a bad qualifying run sticking the #99 back in the pack, Carl flexed the Roush muscle that has made Michigan the real "Blue Oval" on the circuit and marched to the front with ease. Once there, it was merely academic. No one had the speed or grip through turns 1 & 2 to match Edwards.

Both Edwards and Busch have now begun the Chase battle, although the actual Chase doesn't begin for a couple of weeks. With NASCAR awarding bonus points for wins, we can already see these teams taking this to heart, focusing on wins for the last part of the "regular season". So, as it stands now, Carl effectively trimmed 10 points off of Busch's lead. Ahh, the shifting paradigms of competition. With Bristol, Richmond and California between here and the Chase, look for a continued slugfest for bonus points between these two.

MIS JUST MISSES
The racing at Michigan International Speedway is sometimes overblown in my opinion. Sure, on restarts the cars fan out and get into some spectacular situations, But once the good is out of the tires and the effects of the aeropush set in, Michigan displays traits similar to it's sister track in California with long drawn out green flag runs scattering the field. Merciful debris cautions kept this one interesting and kept the real "NASCAR nap" from setting in.

Better yet, it didn't come down to fuel mileage, either!

GORDON JOINS THE "BUBBLE BOYS"
Jeff Gordon was already having a bad day. The DuPont crew was doing everything it could in the pits to put Jeff in a bad position. On the first bad stop, he went back to 13th. On the subsequent stop, he was relegated to the mess that is around 25th or so. Cars on the restart were fanning out and going four wide, and in all of that mess who does he find?

Teammate Jimmie Johnson.

Rick Hendrick experienced a team owner's nightmare as the two ricocheted off each other on the exit of turn four. Johnson chose to pit to repair the damaged #48, while Gordon gambled that his tire rub would go away. It didn't, he hit the wall and quickly joined the group of "bubble drivers" dangerously close to the cut off line for the Chase. We're talking about less than 60 points! That may change the way the #24 crew races down the stretch here, you think?

After the wreck, we saw a Jeff Gordon more frustrated than we've seen in quite a while. A line from the Rolling Stone's "Mother's Little Helper" started repeating in my head, you know the one that says "What a drag it is getting old". Not that Jeff is old - I am getting old! The days of a young Jeff Gordon having his way with a car, his way with the field, his way with lady luck are long gone. Like everyone else, he is mortal and only as good as the gear his crew puts under him. It happens. It happened to Dale, and it will happen to the likes of Carl and Kyle someday. Maybe because I remember Jeff as this fresh faced kid with caterpillar eyebrows who could do no wrong, his segue into mortality saddens me most of all.

REGAN'S RISE
I really thought he would pull it off today. David Regan' steady rise and growing maturity are paying big dividends for fantasy players and Jack Roush alike. Does anyone remember how much criticism this guy endured when he first took to the track in Cup? There was a race at Martinsville where he was a downright menace, almost taking the "weapon" moniker away from Johnny Sauter. But alas, the patience Roush has shown is paying off and now he is a mere 26 points out of the Chase. Pretty amazing.

At the end there, he had a better car than the runner-up Busch but just ran out of laps. Given how some of the other bigger names like Hamlin, Bowyer and Kahne seem to be struggling right now, Regan just may very well be the "bubble boy" to keep an eye on down the stretch. Watch him at Fontana especially.

MAGNETIC DISTRACTION
In what will probably be THE topic this week in NASCAR and on Rowdy.com, JGR's Nationwide teams were snagged in a bit of funny business, ok CHEATING surrounding the manipulation of post race chassis dyno testing. Now, this is to be filed under "S" for stupid. Someone at JGR placed magnets on the bottom of the accelerator pedal so that it wouldn't fully depress during the test. Like that wasn't going to get caught. Of course, this calls into question all of the chassis dyno numbers ever recorded by the JGR Toyotas, it calls into question whether the current tapered spacer size is adequately equalizing the horsepower of the makes and gives Jack Roush and the legions of Toyota haters plenty of ammunition - All of this just in time for the Chase! Woo Hoo!

There are plenty of articles on this out there from AP, Fox et al with great perspective and quotes. I tend to think that the risk of Toyota or JGR doing this is too great a risk for the reward, so the idea of this being a rogue move by a crewman rings true to me. Of course, we all know I like Kyle Busch and subsequently I like JGR and Toyota. Calibrate my perspective accordingly :)

A POINT ABOUT POINTS
Do you realize that with Carl winning yesterday and Kyle finishing second, Carl actually gained 5 more Chase points on KyLe than he would have had they finished in the same sequence in an actual Chase race?

NOTES
Red Bull's Brian Vickers had a great showing at Michigan by taking the pole. Dinger, on the other hand, had a terrible day at the back of the middle, ending up 28th. Although A.J. had some great showings this summer, I fear that his recent slump may put his ride in jeopardy. Come on Dinger, you can do it!

I hope they don't repave Michigan anytime soon. I love when race tracks get all rough and aged. This track needs new asphalt like a hole in the head...

Let's take Gordon's wreck, Blaney’s wreck and Johnson's spin through the infield and back them up 15 years. Gordo would have a concussion and Blaney and Johnson both would have flipped. How far we've come...

ESPN totally missed the boat on the pitstop sequence where Kyle Busch made up over 7 seconds and passed Carl Edwards and drove off. How did that happen? Was Kyle that much faster than Carl on the entry? Did Carl's guys miss some lugs? Were Kyle's guys like lightning quick? These answers remain a mystery to me...

When Denny Hamlin retires, he can start his own tour company with all the buses he has thrown his team under....

OK. I gotta brag. On the ESPN fantasy game, I picked drivers who finished in positions 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 garnering 809 points! Thank you Elliott Sadler for not letting me down...

For the record, Brad Coleman finished 38th, the last of the cars actually running at the end. Principal Mike Skinner only finished 3 positions ahead in his substitute stint in the #00. Advantage" Skinner, barely. We'll track these two teams for the next couple of weeks and see how it plays out...

We're under some sort of tropical storm watch down here, and the projected path just shifted a bit more towards us in Ft. Lauderdale. Looks like I may have to shutter up the house later. Wish me luck!

X:)

• 9 Comments
• The X-Files

My Drunk Cat

Ok, he's not really drunk. He was just there and I put my favorite beer in the pic with him. For the record, his name is Rocco (I wanted Marcos as in Ambrose, but the wife vetoed it), and the beer is a Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. Goes to show you that dogs and cats really DO get along...

X:)

• 8 Comments
• Marcos Ambrose, Rocco the Cat, Dogfish Head Brewery