Cool Hand Luke Passes

Sad news, Paul Newman dies at age 83. Even at that age, the guy was too cool for school. Great actor, and great philanthropist. He never took a dime of the "Newman's Own" product line... something he referred to as "a joke that got out of control."

You were too cool Luke, you will be missed.

• 3 Comments

Why we missed the race...

We thought we'd be able to listen on headphones, but oddly MRN didn't broadcast on the local station. Nonetheless, Zach and I had a great day.

And after allowing Zach to man the camera, I found out that he's discovered girls.

Zach's interest went back to the game...

• 5 Comments
• Richmond, radio, MRN, Eagles

Mister Ed... the lost episodes

This scene was captured from the hilarious lost episode "The Bristol Stomp."

(This is the first installment of the "Mister Ed... the lost episodes" series.)

• 5 Comments
• Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Bristol, Mister Ed

Logano's Cup Debut in Richmond?

Reports from CBS Sports and Sirius are indicating that sources close to JGR are saying that Joey Logano will make his cup debut at Richmond in September. His ride will be sporting Gatorade as his sponsor.

If this was already mentioned on the podcast, I apologize for the repeat. I haven't had today's fix yet.

***ADDENDUM***
Okay, so I just listened to today's podcast... what can I say, I saved it for the gym tonight. Anyway, you probably already heard this story first on Rowdy Racing News. My bad. (Perhaps I should label this as an AddenDUMB.)

• 3 Comments
• Joey Logano, Richmond

How cool would it be?

Can you imagine being 23, making millions to drive fast? How cool would that be? Now imagine, after you win, hundreds... maybe thousands of middle finger salutes and beer cans being tossed at you.... How cool would it be to hold up 8 fingers, and then take a big, overindulgent bow, right back at them? That, my friends, would be fun. Especially knowing that I'd be going back to my trailer with a smokin' hot babe on my arm, and all of those lovely people with the middle fingers and a few less beer cans to recycle, are going to wake up tomorrow with a hangover and a job they hate.

Today, I'd feel bad about thinking that way... but not when I was 23.

"Watch out! Bah guy comin' through!"

• 6 Comments
• Kyle Busch, Watkins Glen

BREAKING NASCAR NEWS!

In a shocking development, to level the playing field, NASCAR officials have taken measures to reduce the I.Q. of Joe Gibbs Racing's head engine builder, Mark Cronquist. In a clandestine location, officials carried out this edict. Inside sources had no idea exactly what steps were taken, however there were reports of a delivery which included airplane glue and croquet mallets.

After returning to the JGR headquarters, Mark Cronquist issued the following statement, "Duh... Us people at Joe Gibbs are gunna cooperate with those nice men, in the hopes of making the races gooder. And... I love puppies."

Stay tuned...

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• 9 Comments
• Toyota, Gibbs, Mark Cronquist, NASCAR, cylinder bore spacing

When do you listen to the podcast?

Just curious. Since it's sort of an off week... even though there's plenty going on, I'm curious to hear when people listen to the podcast. For me, the Rowdy podcast has become my workout partner. After cardio, I hit the gym floor and start the show on my iPod. The Rowdy Podcast has also been broadcast (via my nifty "icyTunes" cooler with speakers) on the North Wildwood beach in South Jersey. Otherwise, it's simply while mowing the lawn or working. So when and where do other Rowdizens listen? If you had any odd locations, please share for a laugh.

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• 34 Comments
• Rowdy, podcast

Stewart & Newman together?

3 words of warning: Hide the twinkies!

• 3 Comments
• stewart, newman, Twinkies

Monster Weekend Pt.2 of 2

Sprint Cup Race Day at the Monster Mile!

"Daddy, are you awake?" Zach asks, with his 24 Pepsi car racing up my mattress. Ugh....I hit the gym regularly, 3 to 4 times a week, but man, I was sore from all the walking our first day. For anyone who has been to Disney World, you know what I mean. Some Motrin, a couple cups of coffee and a hot shower actually gave me the ability to walk on my hind legs for the day.

After packing, checking out and getting our gear, we were ready to roll. A lot more activity on Sprint Cup day. The crowd is big! Zach and I are used to tailgating crowds for Eagles' games, but the remarkable thing is how much further away the crowd extends. We make the long trek to the track and Zach is chomping at the bit to get inside. "We've got plenty of time and things to do," I tell him.

We roamed around a little, picked up a few gifts, took a few pics and saw the sights. I popped him up on my shoulders for Trackside Live on Speed. I think we got on camera, but it was hard to tell. I tried to delay Zach with a slot car race at the Dodge Tent (he placed 2nd to the 41 car who had the inside lane). But that's it, the gravitational pull of the track was overwhelming for my little guy...

We got inside with plenty of time. I realized I'd probably hear, "When is the race gonna start?" a few hundred times, but I understood. I'm sure I wore my dad out with "When's kickoff?" or the ever-faithful "Are we there yet?"

The first question he actually asked me was, "Why do people hate Kyle Busch so much?" Hmmm.... I explain his combined ability of being a talented driver, and saying knucklehead things in front of a microphone. "So why do you root for the bad guy?" Hmmm... "That's a good question," I said while donning my red #18 hat. I could have explained, sorta for the same reason I liked Rowdy Roddy Piper and Randy "Macho Man" Savage, but simply said, "Because I like how he races hard. I started to watch him when he was beating up the 5 car, and thought 'when he figures things out, he's gonna be really good.'" Hoping that Coach Gibbs will help him with the "knucklehead" part.

Our neighbors were great, Zach was a little concerned about the "fly over." He had been caught off guard and left gun-shy with some low flying F-16s that rocked Lincoln Financial Field, prior to an Eagles' game. Our neighbors offered to inform him which direction they'd be coming to put him at ease.

The pre-race festivities and introductions were fun. I am amazed how many fans Junior has... I can understand why, he's a good guy. No offense, I just can't bring myself to jump on a bandwagon so big. Fear not Junior Nation, Zach's got one leg on board though, he asked for an 88 hat. Then during the race he played the hat dance with the 24 and the 88 hats, leaving the race gods in turmoil.

During the race, I had a little pro working the scanner, he thought hearing Jeff Gordon actually talking to Steve Letarte was so cool. Big smile. We bounced through all of the victims of the wreck. And actually heard Shrub respectfully say, "A lot of good cars lost in that one." With the race leaders pretty set for most of the race, he hunted around for anyone in a hornets nest on the track and dialed them in to hear their spotter. He's learning quickly about the race within the race... pretty cool. Together we started figuring out approximately when certain drivers were going to pit and would dial 'em in to see what they were going to do and when. To be there, right in front of the pits gave us a lot to follow and around lap 300 we started to bounce around between the 99, 18 and 16 on the scanner. Pretty neat stuff. With Edwards coming in first and seeing where he was on the track after Busch got in and got out, we knew right away that the 18 crew had an awesome pit time. So glad we had the scanner.

Zach is extremely competitive and doesn't take losing well. So even though I explained that a top 5 finish was excellent at this track, and that his hero, Jeff Gordon, would surge up the points standings, seeing the 18 at the top of the scoring pylon drove Zach's head into my chest with tears in his eyes. The only thing that could have made this race better for me, was seeing the 24 car going to Victory Lane and the joy it would've brought to my son...

During the ride home, he began to understand how terrific a 5th place finish was for the 24, plus having 3 favorite drivers in the top 5! He hasn't stopped talking about his awesome weekend... however, he wants no part of the leftover bag of Pizzeria Combos we have in the pantry.

I want to thank Buck, Bass and Cutler and everyone in the Rowdy Nation who helped us to understand the sport better and for helping us to make this weekend one we will cherish and always remember.

Click here for Part 1...

• 2 Comments
• Dover, Monster, Rowdy, Zach, thanks, Buck, Bass, Cutler

Monster Weekend Pt.1 of 2

Wow! What a great first race weekend! Thank you to everyone who gave us advice. We've been anticipating this for 2 years and it lived up to expectations. As I mentioned, it was so cool to be watching NASCAR Now and Trackside Friday night, realizing we were going to be there the next morning. I haven't been that excited about a sporting event in a long time. Being a lifelong season ticket holder of the Philadelphia Eagles has spoiled me. It's fun to feel like a kid again. And to experience it through the eyes of my son made it even more of a treasure.

We hit the road 8:00 AM Saturday, music requested by Zach to set the mood, was some cranked up Audioslave - "Cochise" and "Show Me How to Live" (the kid likes to rock!) Zach was funny, we saw plenty of orange 20 fans on the way down the Jersey Turnpike. Zach made sure to wave his 24 hat to them. Big smiles from the other drivers.

We rolled into Dover about 9:30 and checked in at the DSU dorms. Nice alternative to our first choice to bring an RV (friends and family had bailed on us so I had to come up with another solution, DSU is a good solution, especially for kids). With my boy in all his 24 gear, we made our way to the Monster Mile.

Our first stop was to meet Turtledover at his site. TD, his dad Joe and their crew were terrific. They razzed Zach a little about his driver choice... all in good fun. But the heat was off him, as soon as I mentioned that I am a Shrub fan. We chatted some, they gave us some nice inside advice, a lug nut (possibly from the 24 car?) and some pretty cool gift bags. For those of you who missed out on these gift bags, mine had a Tissot watch! Thanks fellas.

The sight of the grandstands was exciting, and the sound of the cars taking practice laps added to our anticipation. The long walk through the driver gear trailers finally brought us upon "The Monster!" What a cool monument! Photos don't do it justice. We spent the next couple hours racing slot cars and rc cars, sitting in race cars and soaking it up. While we were doing this, the cup cars were so loud, we missed a call from Buzz Cutler... we were looking forward to meeting Buzz and Bass in person, but it just didn't synch up (sorry we missed you guys). So my focus stayed on Zach and what he wanted to do, which was to go into the track. We got our wristbands to "Walk the Mile" with Greg Biffle and went in for the Nationwide race.

Zach wanted to sit in the same seats we had for Sunday's Sprint Cup race. Section 245, row 21 on the front stretch and high enough to see almost all of the track. The bottom of turn 3 was hidden by the big screen and the Monster Bridge, but otherwise they were perfect. The Sprint Cup cars came out briefly, which was unexpected and exciting. The low satisfying growl of the engines while they whip by you is mesmerizing, in contrast to drag racing at Atco or Monster Jam, where the roar of the engines is so menacing you feel violated. When Zach saw the 24 car, in person for the first time, you could see he had goose bumps. Meanwhile, as did I, he became a fan of ALL of the drivers and their cars. We were also excited because we saw that the #20 GameStop car was going to pit right in front of us... how cool!

Then the rain came...

We waited for a little and then ran all the way back to the dorm SOAKED. Tossed our clothes in a dryer and watched the coverage on TV.

During the coverage I found myself, rapidly becoming a Joey Logano fan. Talented, fun, respectful and smart for an 18 yo. Shortly after a few interviews, they said, "We're getting word that NASCAR is planning driver introductions in 10 minutes." We're off!

I'll save the race coverage for the professionals, but I will say this... we were locked in on Joey Logano and he is good... really good! He gave Greg Biffle everything he could handle. Zach soaked up the race and learned a lot about how to watch a race. The boy is a fast learner and began pointing out cars racing within the race. I was impressed with my little man. Also, some poetic justice took place in that race, we had our scanner on Busch in the 32 Dollar General while he was driving by the first wreck of the race and he simply said, "Dumb-a$$es" referring to the first to victims of the Monster. Little did he realize how his Saturday evening would end. I enjoy watching him race hard, but am disappointed at the times when he lacks respect for fellow drivers.

After the race we walked the mile with Greg Biffle, his wife and his dog to benefit his foundation for abused animals. The banking of the track is awesome! How cool it would be to drive this thing! Zach walked with the "Biff" briefly, Greg asked him, "What's you name little man?" but Zach was in awe of him and frozen without words for the celebrity. However, shortly thereafter saw Greg's boxer, up ahead and couldn't wait to pet him as we had a boxer who had passed away a few years ago. What a great way to conclude our first day.

That night we went home to our dorm room happy, exhausted, and excited in anticipation of our next day of Sprint Cup action.

Click here for Part 2...

• 4 Comments
• Monster Mile, Dover