Category: General

The only thing missing from the Monday night Daytona 500 was James Taylor and Tom Cruise. We already have the Three Stooges as Grand Marshals..

However, as a movie drama the editing was botched. The lap 2 crash should have been put off till much later. Why would you cast a record champion, a rookie winner and an antagonist woman and have them out in just the second lap…? That doesn’t make hay for a good story.

But wait…! We get a fire explosion in the last quarter of the film! On top of that we get the most popular star into an “almost win” scenario at the finish!

What…!?

“And then… we flash forward from Victory Lane to the end of the season and the Earth implodes in December as the fire damaged pavement cracks open causing a world-wide chain reaction with John Cusack in a small plane…”

“Can we get George Clooney…?”

The Daytona 500 was hardly the start of the Sprint Cup season that NASCAR wanted. There was just too much drama leading up to the actual race and too much “weird” in the race itself. Rain stayed over Daytona setting the scene for a first ever prime time night event. It was a poorly written script as a movie which makes it comical as reality. We should have guessed when we saw Darrell Waltrip talking with the Three Stooges… (more…)

It is likely getting a cell signal out of Daytona this afternoon was a bit “iffy”.  After all, how many phones lit up from the speedway area when NASCAR called the Daytona 500 until Monday at noon…? How many ticket holding NASCAR fans suddenly came down with dengue fever and just can’t make it in to work on Monday? How many hotel stays are being extended…? Airline tickets re-scheduled…? Pizzas being ordered…?

Important questions.

The other question you’ll hear pre-race on Monday is “How will this affect how you run today…?” (more…)

Sunday morning – Daytona 500 Race Day! Clicking into NASCAR.com first thing to check on updates for today and what do we see…? A big sidebar advertisement for Nationwide Insurance with Danica Patrick standing there…  Ironic…? Good timing…? After all, she has gone nose deep into concrete twice in three days and steps back into a new car. That would seem to be a good selling point for auto insurance… Right…?

But this race, this season… It’s not all about Danica Patrick. Every garage, team and driver has a story that brought them here and they all want the same thing. There are also the stories of those who are shut out of the barn for the big dance. Take Michael Waltrip, for example… Re-entering the field during Gatorade Dual Day, he attempted to leave the inner skirt of the track and get on the banking but the sudden angle change was too much at speed and the car jolted up the track and into the wall. That put him at #44 and one spot off the grid after pre-season wrangling to have a ride to qualify with. Yes, MWR still has cars on the track for the 500, but Michael isn’t in any of them. (more…)

Really…? Gordon… What was that?

Throughout the race it was evident that tapping on the left rear of a leading car at speed caused an undesirable result. You didn’t simply take the wind off the back causing a wobble and a move… You caused a massive loss of traction and control which put the lead car in a situation of pushing into others and you put yourself in a position to lose your own control and get into someone else.

Yes, Gordon… We know you wanted it but you did exactly what caused some big cautions earlier in the evening at Daytona. You got into Kyle Busch’s left rear. Busch went low and threw up a massive shower of sparks. Your front end washed and went high into two others, including teammate Johnson… You went into the wall, on your side, rolled a few times to be upside down.

We’re glad you are OK. We look forward to good things from you and the #24 this season. We’ll also concede that when you made the move, your outside was clear but by the time you went up that Daytona pavement it was crowded with sheet metal at speed. All in all it was a bad call and a move you’ve spoken out about in the past when it was the #24 in the garage after being crunched by a rookie move. You had a shot and blew it.

On Kyle Busch… Time and again he showed skill, determination and strategy in pulling the 18 out of trouble and back into position. Love him or hate him there is no doubt this guy can drive. At introductions he was jeered and booed… Gordon’s move with just a few laps left seemed to take all that negativity from the grandstands and pack it out the door.

Defending Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart was in the prime spot at the restart. Stewart was run down by a train on the outside. From what seemed like nowhere, Kyle Busch put the dented nose of the 18 into the draft of the 14 and the two pushed around to find the front yet again. Stewart looked ready to climb the podium but Busch slid from behind Stewart at just the right time and spot to roll by Stewart with that dented nose just in front for the win.

Busch took a car that was beat up and about as aerodynamic as the hauler that brought it and pushed it into victory lane at the Bud Shootout. Stewart took the flag on the inside and practically side by side with all the 14 could give but it just wasn’t enough against Kyle Busch.

Hats off to Kyle Busch and the #18 team for a drive, an effort, and a move that kept the 18 competitive to the win.

Stewart has nothing to hide and should be proud of a great Stewart-Haas race and result with the #14 team.

Gordon gave us footage for the 2012 highlight real and put a teammate into the garage.

The Bud Shootout. A preview of the Daytona 500 or a one-off to drive passion in NASCAR fans? We’ll find out next Sunday. Let’s go racing!

Someone… somewhere… must have a drawer full of Goody’s Headache Powders…

Whoever it is that tracks car numbers for NASCAR must be on the edge of their sanity. As the Daytona 500 grows closer more new driver announcements and number assignments are coming to the forefront.  The dart board used by the NASCAR Car Numbering Committee (or whatever it’s called) must be filling up. Where do these numbers come from? Is it like some kind of Lottery…? And where is ESPN when that goes down? Football has hours of TV for the player draft (could ANYTHING be more boring to watch…?).

Where is the NASCAR Numbering Show…? Wouldn’t it be cool to have all the drivers together and each is called to the stage to carry away their assigned number on a big placard?

Whatever…  It seems NASCAR owns the numbers. Each team submits some kind of form request to use that number each year. They pay some kind of fee to get it. Then they have the paint scheme designed and incorporate the number into the car, the driver’s suit, the promotion, and on and on… (more…)

The hibernation is over and there is activity in the garages as Speed Week opens at Daytona. We’ll be able to see some action and maybe get a surprise ending. Who could have called it beforehand that a young driver on his second Sprint Cup start would roll over the Daytona checkers for the oldest continuous team in NASCAR? Certainly there are eyes on Trevor Bayne and the Wood Brothers #21 Motorcraft Ford but what of other drivers and teams shifting and shaking for 2012.

Hint – If you want the LATEST on who is driving what for whom, don’t check nascar.com… Go to Jayski’s.

A simple example… How long has David Ragan been out of the #6 and UPS pulling for the bulk of the season…? There is even a front page story (2/15) on nascar.com all about Ragan in the #34 for Front Row Motorsports… Yet check the “Drivers” link and there he is, in UPS brown, sporting the #6. Hopefully, the folks in charge of the NASCAR home website will get this updated before the halfway point of the 500. (more…)

We see the news stories every day. So much so that it becomes almost routine. A terrorist detonates a bomb killing themselves and many others… Gunfire in any number of areas… An IED (Improvised Explosive Device) detonates killing and injuring those nearby…

It has become background noise to those of us who have not been there. It becomes a brief on the evening news or a small headline tucked on the inside pages of the newspaper. It is not so for those who come back and for those families of the ones who do not. Some bring back scars in their own mind to dwell with them for years to come. Still others return incomplete… Injured and broken… Such is the case of Corporal J. B. Kerns.

Cpl. Kerns is from a small town in the southwestern area of Virginia. Afghanistan is a long way away and a completely alien landscape to the hills and mountain views of Ararat, VA, yet Kerns was on a third tour of duty when an IED changed everything. He survived but with the loss of much of his right arm and both legs. Dozens of surgeries and hours of rehabilitation now have J.B. Kerns standing upright and walking but with the knowledge it is not all flesh and bone that carries his weight. There is much left to do. There are special needs for a young man like this, who is only now on the cusp of his 22nd birthday. He is home on American soil and soon will have a home of his own specifically built with these needs in mind thanks to the help from a Community, A Star and a Speedway. (more…)