Non-nascar friends

In an attempt to make nascar more interesting to my friends or at the very least more bearable to watch this week I've decided to do something different and turn the race into a drinking game so I can have some company during the race. So far the rules are you must drink every time an announcer makes an obvious sponser plug (like aaron's lucky dog or the aflac trivia question), says Kyle Busch/rowdy busch or any other nickname refering to him, or mentions the chase to the championship. You also must drink for each lap run under caution and it's double drinks if Kyle Busch caused it or was involved in any way.

This is probably a bad idea, and we reserve the right to add or drop rules throughout the race depending on how it goes, but this is my attempt to spice things up for my non-nascar friends.

My question for anyone who will answer is: What have you done to try and make nascar more accessible/fun for friends who don't necessarily share your same passion for the sport?

• 10 Comments

Another good finish for Scott Speed

After winning his first pole for tonight's O'Reilly 200 at Bristol Speed eventually finished a respectable 3rd, especially considering he's never raced there before. Despite only running a limited schedule in the truck series he's already scored a win and is quickly picking up top fives. I think the fact that he was able to survive Bristol and get such a good finish his first time out really highlights his potential for nascar success.

Great race for Scott and I hope he keeps up the good work! :)

• 10 Comments
• Scott Speed, Bristol, Craftsman Truck Series

PBR->Nascar?

Besides nascar my sport of choice is rodeo (specifically the PBR) and with all the recent complaints about the state of the nationwide series I think that the way the PBR organizes their top two tiers of traveling competitive series is interesting. In the bull riding world the PBR Built Ford Tough Series is the equivalent of Nascar Sprint Cup Series and the PBR Challenger Tour is the Equivalent of the Nationwide Series. After every 5 events there is an automatic cutoff and the bottom 5 riders in BFTS can be booted down to the CT, and the top 5 in the CT are likewise switched and promoted up in their place if they've done better in the last 5 events. This only works if both series used the same exact car.. switching a car for a bull complicates things.. But it could make things interesting if nascar had some similar system. Give the lesser known guys a chance to work their way up and make the guys at the back fight for their spot. I think it could be an interesting way to keep both series relevant while still reinforcing the superiority of one over the other. I'm not saying this is exactly the right solution to make nationwide a true feeder series, but hey it could help and be fun, and really now nationwide as it stands is a joke so I think something drastic wouldn't hurt.

• 3 Comments
• NNS, NSCS, PBR BFTS, PBR CT

Video Awesomeness :)

This has absolutely nothing to do with Nascar but everything to do with humanity in general, and it made me smile ridiculously almost the entire time I watched it so I'm posting it here with the hope of spreading some smiles.
:)

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Explanation: What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious -- few people are able to watch the above video without smiling.

----

and if that doesn't work try this
http://www.vimeo.com/1211060

• 9 Comments
• world, smiles, random videos, happiness, dancing, travel

Hendrick - Martin - Boo

I have to admit that after reading this article (http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/cup/07/04/mmartin.rhendrick.contract/index.html) I'm pretty disappointed with Hendrick and his decision to hire Mark Martin. There are plenty of young drivers out there looking for an opportunity to race for a top notch team, but no Rick went off and wasted his car on an old guy who should have kept his word and actually retired years ago. I know that Mark Martin is a pretty well liked driver and all but realistically his career is at its end. He has no long term future in the sport. This could have been a wonderful opportunity for a young guy with a long career in his future, but instead its a total waste of space and a bit egotistical. How many big name drivers does Hendrick need? Gordon, Johnson, Jr., and Martin is a superstar lineup if I ever saw one but there's a difference between good business practice and sheer boastfulness. Long term it would be so much smarter to invest the time in a new guy and really help develop his career. By 20011 Hendrick could have had a young driver with enough experience to seriously contend for wins and championships but instead will be starting from scratch.

And what does Mark think he's going to accomplish? I mean I'm positive that he will be given better equipment than Casey Mears was but he's still gonna be at the bottom of the Hendrick totem pole. He was never able to win a championship before, what makes him think that in just 2 years he'll be able to win it in an entirely new car? Not to mention who knows when he'll decide that the schedule is too long for him again. For years Mark whined and complained about the length of the schedule, he's only getting older and it's not gonna be any easier now than it was when he decided to retire the first time. Do you really think he'll be able to last 2 entire seasons without getting tired or burnt out again?

Whatever happened to respectfully and gracefully bowing out for the next generation? It seems to me that Mark should have taken some lessons from Rusty Wallace about leaving the sport with respect and dignity still intact.

• 7 Comments
• Rick Hendrick, Mark Martin

Same ol' wishy washy NA$CAR

Maybe some day I'll figure out the arbitrary rules used by NA$CAR to decided when to a throw caution... Untill then I'll just continue to assume that someone has their head up their butt and someone's recieving some kind of pay. With races like today nascar only provides support fo my conspiracey theory.

Bottom line: either thow the caution when the fist car spins and set em up for a green white checker
or don't thow it at all, cuz allowing one car to spin and then waiting a significount amount of time (significant time being measued by the amount of expleteives I can get out of my mouth and angry phone calls I can make before nascar finally comes to their decision) in order to allow the leader to pass the white flag and therefor make green-white-checker not on option is not fair to the rest of the competition.

Picking and choosing who gets to win based on the pathetic excuse of the lazyness/slugishness of the flagman is not ok.

• 3 Comments
• Talladega, green-white-checker, caution, annoyance

Note to DW..

Please shut up about Kyle Busch.
We know you like him and think that he's the modern day version of you, but you need to realize that he's one of the most hated drivers in the garage and there are always 35-42 other drivers to talk about.

And it's kinda funny that 2-3 drivers per race seem to 'mysteriously brake' right in front of your beloved Kyle, when no one else seems to have that problem. Get real dude!

• 6 Comments