Refresh My Memory

I'm just not good at this stuff and I can't remember. Can the Rowdy nation provide me some examples of when Kyle Busch booted another driver to win a race?

I'm not saying it hasn't happened. I'm sure it has. I just can't remember any specific instance.

• 20 Comments

Teammate Trouble

The wounds are still very fresh, so I'm going to keep this short.

I was counting the intervals all night between Carl and Kyle. Carl got off turns 3 and 4 better, but only for the first 10 laps of a run. After the "bump" (which I don't want to talk about), Kyle would have caught back up to Carl in about 5 laps if not for Denny Hamlin holding him up.

Kyle drove a clean race all day. He was extremely patient with loads of hard-racing lapped traffic. His team did an excellent job on pit road and his car was clearly the class of the field.

I hope Joe Gibbs sits down Denny Hamlin and explains the concept of teammate.

I think he's having a little trouble with it.

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One more thing. Did anybody ever see the "debris" that brought out the last caution? Because we could see every inch of that racetrack from our seats and nobody ever came out on the track to clean it up. I guess it just grew legs and walked itself out of the way. How convenient!

• 23 Comments

It Didn't Stink

All the perks aside, Watkins Glen was a really great place to watch a race. We didn't see a lot of passing with our own eyes, but the track has set up a lot of screens so you can always see what's happening on the rest of the course.

There are plenty of speakers and they are quite clear, so you can hear the commentating as long as the cars aren't going by.

Lastly, it was just neat to see the drivers doing something different. When we sat in turn 10, it was fantastic to watch the drivers snake through and see how each car took the turn differently.

We will definitely go back again, even without all of the access.

• 4 Comments

Victory Never Tasted So Good

I'm at a loss for words. I'll try to explain.

We had an unbelievable time at the Glen. We started off the day with a pace car ride around the track. We then spent some time with Kurt Busch before high-tailing it to the garage to stalk our respective teams.

I told Tom Peterson (The #18 windshield guy) that I would see them later in Victory Lane and that he should wave to me. He laughed and said he would look for me.

After the garage, we went to pit road for the pre-race ceremonies. That was about the time that eagle-eye Lauren spotted Rusty Wallace coming out of the porta-potty and took my photo with him.

During the national anthem, I had a hard time holding back giggles when a bawdy Said Head screamed "Take off your top!" to the lady who was singing it. Sam Hornish Jr's pit crew was super nice about us crowding them during all of that and most of them were giggling too. We ran into oodles of drivers there and the whole thing was just ridiculous.

So then we watched the race partly from the Centurion Boats Suite and partly from the Turn 10 grandstands before rushing back to Victory Lane. Unfortunately, we passed the speeding ambulance carrying Bobby Labonte on our way.

Of course, we had to start walking there before the race was over, so we didn't know that Kyle won until we were already packed in.

They didn't toss M&Ms into the air like I had been promised, but I did manage to grab Tom Peterson's attention in Victory Lane, which is when he gave me a swig of the Victory Champagne.

Un-friggin-believable. Oh yeah, and on Saturday we saw Jamie McMurray walking his dog with a pooper scooper.

• 12 Comments

I Thought We Beat this Thing

Once upon a time (last year, actually), the Black Sheep Vortex rained out nearly every event that Lauren, Kerry, and I attended. It rained 10 out of the first 11 times we hung out and the first 2 races we all attended together.

But I really thought it was over. I think I've been punished with rain cancellations enough for a lifetime. So it's very important that it not rain this Sunday. But I think, even if it does, that NASCAR should do us a personal favor and run the Cup race in rain equipment.

Haven't we earned that?

• 13 Comments
• rain, Watkins Glen, Black Sheep, vortex

I've been outed

I was hoping my absence hadn't been noticed, but today Buck, Bass, and Cutler made mention of my recent sabbatical from Rowdy.com.

It's not that I've been away. I've kept up with the podcasts and visited the site as much as possible. In fact, the other day I was watching the most recent episode of Jeff Gordon Theater when my new boss walked up quickly behind me and saw the clearly-non-work-related video on my computer screen. Since then, I've been laying low.

Apologies.
--Sadie

• 13 Comments

Enough Whining Already!

It was Ryan Newman on today's podcast complaining about the West Coast travel that finally set me over the edge.

What will it take to quit these drivers whining? I'm sick of it.

Do they forget about the leagues of young up-and-comers who would give their right arms to take their place? Do they forget about the old-timers who had to do all this without window nets or HANs devices?

What do you guys think? Is it just me or do NASCAR drivers whine more than other athletes?

• 14 Comments

Sadie Motorsports 2008 Entry

As always, Rowdy broke the news story. Yes, SMS is working on an entry for 2008.

We're looking at a few different drivers. Unfortunately, the loss of Dale Jr. to Hendrick set us back a year. But we've been speaking with a number of drivers and we're very proud of our lineup. Kerry has already signed on to drive 10 Cup races and we're close to inking the deal with Ward Burton as well.

As for sponsorship, the Black Sheep Pub has agreed to provide free hamburgers and sodas to our crew. Other than that, I really can't divulge any more information at this time.

• 14 Comments
• Sadie Motorsports, Ward Burton, Kerry, Black Sheep

Strong Feelings about Erin Crocker

I'd like to clarify my "strong feelings" on Erin Crocker. As a NASCAR fan anxiously awaiting the next woman in NASCAR, I was looking for a woman to come up through the ranks without exploiting her sexuality to do so.

All Erin Crocker proved was that she could sleep her way into the sport.

But now, she has an opportunity for redemption. Since her relationship with Evernham went kaput, she's got nobody on her side.

If she's able to make it in the Truck Series and prove herself while keeping her pants on, then she'll earn my full support.

I so desperately want a woman to root for in NASCAR. Keep your knees together, Erin, and I'll cheer for you.

• 21 Comments
• Erin Crocker, Women Racers

Another Wacky NASCAR Dream

Happy day-before-Christmas. I'm stuck at work today so I figured I'd regale the Rowdy nation with my latest NASCAR dream.

I hope nobody here is a psychoanalyst, because I'd hate to think what this says about me.

Lauren had already won the “Biggest Dover Fan� contest and we all had VIP tickets to the Dover race. But then there was a follow up dance contest. Everyone had a driver to choreograph and the three of us had Kyle Busch. Kerry wrote the funniest routine ever. It was brilliant. When it came time to perform, Kerry’s choreography was clearly the best and, even though Kyle made tons of mistakes, they just made it funnier.

The whole performance ended with that move where Kyle raised his elbows to be parallel with his ears and let his arms and head go limp. We were dying laughing.

We totally won that competition too.

• 6 Comments