My NASCAR Race Blog

For once a night race that kept the viewers awake! No falling asleep for this one or you missed one hell of a finish!

I loved TNT’s Wide Open coverage: fewer commercial breaks and many commercials at the bottom of the screen while you could still watch the race in the top 2/3 of the screen. Nice job, TNT.

I hated to see Jeff Gordon get spun on that last restart. I was really hoping he’d find a way to pass Kyle Busch and win his first one this season. I mean, it’s great that he’s sixth in points, but no wins is going to put him way behind Busch and Edwards when they line up for the start of the Chase. At least he had a good car this week; haven’t seen him this excited about his car all season.

What can you say about Kyle? You may not like his attitude, you may not like his racing style, but the kid can drive and the kid can win races! His green car really stands out on the track, making it easy to spot him working his way up through the pack.

Now it’s on to Chicagoland for another night race!

Tags: Carl Edwards Jr., Chicagoland, Daytona, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch // Add Comment »

Boring. Oh, so boring. Just a day wondering and worrying about Jeff Gordon’s issues with his car. I didn’t expect him to do well; he never does in Texas. But last place? No way! How can that team be doing so poorly this year with the COT when it seemed like they had it figured out last year? Hopefully they will do so soon, before they fall so far in the points that there is no hope of being in the Chase.

So, we got to enjoy seeing Carl Edwards do another one of his trademark back flips. Maybe Denny Hamlin needs to hire Carl as his personal trainer. Carl didn’t seem to be too affected by the heat of 500 miles in Texas. No fainting there!

I heard DW mention that Kyle Petty would take another ride with another team if offered one! That doesn’t sound like he willingly stepped down from driving his car for the Texas race, not that it qualified with another driver anyway. So what’s going on with Petty Enterprises? Does Kyle have so little say in the running of it that he would consider driving for another team?

Tags: Carl Edwards Jr., DW (Darryl Waltrip), Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Petty, Petty Enterprises, Texas // Add Comment »

I read several articles last week, prior to the Martinsville race, about Mr. Martinsville. How Jimmie Johnson currently held that title, previously held by Jeff Gordon, and so on. So, did Denny Hamlin become the new Mr. Martinsville, since he won on Sunday? Not given that Gordon finished second and Johnson fourth.

Other items of note at Martinsville:

• Kyle Petty not qualifying. Has Kyle lost some of his drive for racing? He does a great job as a commentator behind the television camera. Perhaps it is time for him to think about letting someone else drive full-time for Petty Enterprises?
• Kyle Busch shows (once again) his lack of maturity in the Craftsman Truck race Friday night.
• Those Hendricks Teams seemed to have Martinsville figured out – they finished second, fourth, sixth and seventh!
• We are all just holding our breath, waiting for Junior to post his first win with the 88. It is nice to see him having so much fun racing this year, although he still has a tendency to complain (whine?) when his car is not running just as he thinks it ought to be.
• Jamie McMurray finishing so well that he’s now out of the “go or go homer’s” next week! Great job, Jamie!
• Matt Kenseth needs to develop a little subtlety. Revenge is sweet, but not if NASCAR penalizes you two laps for it!
• Stolen swaybar or just a mislaid part? Roush vs. Toyota? More to come with that saga, I am sure!

Tags: Dale Earnhardt Jr, Denny Hamlin, Hendricks, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Kyle Petty, Martinsville, Matt Kenseth, Petty Enterprises, Roush, Toyota // 1 Comment »

What to say about Bristol It might have been a good race, if I could have seen it all. Instead, I missed the first 188 laps and by the time the race did show up on FOX, I was so frustrated that I really did not pay that much attention to it. Not until the last thirty laps or so. It seems that FOX decided to broadcast basketball instead of the LIVE race that they advertised. There was no warning, no scrawl at the bottom of the screen, no mention of it at all until about 3:00 p.m. (ET). I called Comcast and they said they had no control over it, that it was a FOX/ESPN decision and that the race would appear at 3:30. I made one phone call and sent three emails to the different networks and stations voicing my complaint. And Bill went online and got in a queue of 75 to voice his complaint to one of the networks. I imagine the boards and phones lines were swamped with irate NASCAR fans.

It was good to see that there were no tire issues at this race. Frankly, I was tired of hearing about tires, tires, tires, no pun intended. It does seem as though Goodyear messed up with the tire they brought to Atlanta, but just as many drivers seem to think that it is more of a down force issue than a tire issue. I believe Goodyear probably got the message, since many drivers other than Tony Stewart voiced their complaints. If it had been just Tony, it would have been easy to ignore. But can we now just get back to racing?

And thankfully there seem to have been no infractions found during the post race inspections. Isn’t that the first race this season where there will be no fines and/or penalties announced on Tuesday?

It was nice to see Burton’s family with him after the race, joining in all the celebrations. That is why I like to watch NASCAR. Of course I watch it for the racing, but also for the familial ties that are so evident amongst the drivers.

Now, if Jeff Gordon could just get some more good finishes. With his DNF’s this season, it’s amazing he’s 14^th in points!

Tags: Bristol, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, tires // Add Comment »

Finally, twenty-four hours after the race was slated to begin, we have a winner at California!  Carl Edwards Jr., whom we got to see do his signature backflip from his in-car camera.

Edwards was dominant in the last segment of the race, passing Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, who finished second and third, respectively.

Gordon was definitely a dominant car throughout the race, yet in the post-race interview Jeff stated that his car “blew up” on the last lap.  He still finished third!

Now to watch the Nationwide race, which airs at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2.  Carl Edwards Jr. is one of several Cup racers who will also be driving in the Nationwide race.  I wonder how that will affect their performance?

Tags: California, Carl Edwards Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson // Add Comment »