Thank You Sirius Satellite Radio/Talladega Crash

As you may or may not know David Poole a media icon, in the world of NASCAR passed away early this week. Not only did David write for the Charlotte Observer but he was also a host on " The Morning Drive " radio show, broadcast on Sirius NASCAR Radio,Channel 128, Sirius-XM Satellite Radio. I want to give my thanks to Sirius Satellite Radio for introducing me to the world of David Poole, as his comments and insights on the world of NASCAR were both educational and enlightening. Although I often didn't agree with David's comments I always respected his opinion, as I felt he was one of the most knowledgeable media personalities there was when it came to NASCAR. God be with you and rest in peace David.

It took me a few days to form an opinion about the Talladega race and the Carl Edwards crash. I read a lot of articles and opinions on the crash, all the way from technical stuff about the aerodynamics of roof and cowl flaps, to people who just felt that tracks like Talladega and Daytona should just be demolished, never to be raced at again. A lot of people feel that the yellow line rule should be changed and this is the only change that I might agree with. The crash was caused by racers racing, Keslowski went to the outside to try and pass, Edwards went up the track to block, Keslowski dropped down and got his nose just underneath the 99. Carl moved back down to block and clipped Brad's right front corner, end result- BIG CRASH for Edwards, causing debris to be thrown into the grandstand, injuring 7 people along with a non-related injury(not sure about that one, your guess is as good as mine; maybe a heart attack?) If the yellow line rule was changed to allow the drivers to drop below the yellow line, if only on the last lap, there is a slim possibility that this crash could have been avoided.

All of the safety measures that have been put in place worked. The special seat, the restraints, the roll cage, the Hahn's device and all of the other safety features that protect the driver worked. Carl exited the car and jogged across the finish line. The cowl and roof flaps that keep the car from going airborne worked,if you watch the replay after the initial contact and Carl's car goes sideways and lifts up it starts to come back down but lands on the front end of Ryan Newman's car which shoots Carl's car up into the catch fence. The catch fence itself did what it was designed to do, it caught and absorbed the force of the car and threw it back onto the track.

They don't need to move the stands back, as with a lot of sports, fans have to know that the closer you sit to the action, the higher the risks. They don't need to lessen, the steep banking in the corners or slow the cars down, that would take away the racing that is Talladega. Restrictor plate racing at Talladega is high speed with the cars running in a pack. The drivers are professional drivers that are at the top of their game, they've raced all of their lives and know the risks. So don't change a thing other than maybe the yellow line rule, at least for the last lap.

I Love You Mark But I Can't Pick You For My Fantasy League

I'm really looking forward to this weekends race at Talledega mainly because it's always a crap shoot as to who will win. Although Mark Martin is the driver I root for the most, I won't be picking him this week for my fantasy cup league same as I didn't pick him last week. The reason being is, I have picked him twice and both times he either blew an engine or blew a tire. In my gut I really thought Mark would win last week at Pheonix so I didn't pick him so as not to jinx him and it worked he won. As a matter of fact it seems most guys I pick, no matter how good they are, don't do very good that week, so if I ever give any advice as to who to pick as winners do the opposite(lol).

Dale Jr. and Joey L. sure need a good run this weekend, things so far aren't looking good for either of them. I really don't like either of them because I think that they are both overrated, but I will still wish both of them the best this weekend. I hope Joe Nemechek has a good showing this week, he needs it also and being it's a plate race his chances are just as good as anyone else's.

By the way if anyone is undecided as who to vote for,for the Allstar race, A.J. is my choice and even though I really think that he will race his way in , I'm probably jinxing him by saying that, so to be on the safe side all of my votes are going to him.

Good luck to all the drivers this weekend and happy race viewing to all of us that have to watch it from our living rooms.

A Whining Whiners Whine

Is anyone else tired of all the whining in NASCAR ? Jr. nation whines about Dale Jr. not winning a race, come on people all the wine and cheese in the world isn't going to help him win a race. Jr. fans are whining because the famed number 8 is parked, Jr. doesn't drive the 8 car any longer he drives the 88, besides it's just a number, changing his car number back to the 8 isn't going to make him win races. People whine about the top 35 rule, save your breath I don't see that rule ever changing in the near or distant future. People whine about the new car, but I think if you look at the statistics the new car is much safer, and cheaper for both owner and manufacturer.
People whine about the start and parkers, these are just under funded racers who are trying to find a way into the big show. Now people are even whining about who gets to be Grand Marshall at races. In particular shock jock Bubba The Love Sponge Clem, who has been named Grand Marshall for the up coming Talledega Nationwide race. He's a high profile radio personality who happens to promote NASCAR and racing in general big time on his show. He owns and drives a late dirt model car for his own race team, has gotten his 6 year old son involved in racing(drives quarter midgets and is one of the youngest developmental drivers for Stewart-Haas Racing). Bubba personally knows a lot of Cup and NHRA drivers and to top it off he has a mega huge fan base that includes people from all over North America, so who better to have as a Grand Marshall at Talledega?
So I guess to be a true NASCAR fan one also has to be a professional whiner, I should know, I just finished writing a blog whining about whiners
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Joe,Joey And Kyle

Haven't posted for a week, so I have lots to comment on. First off congrats to Joey Logano for winning in Nashville. Wasn't Front Row Joe Nemechek awesome? He ran in the top 15 most of the race,pretty good for a driver-owner team, and gets ran into by Ricky Stenhouse, rolls his car a couple of times lands on the wheels and has enough control to be able to keep it out of the wall and drive back onto pit lane. It's just to bad that Joe can't afford to wreck cars, I would imagine that this will be quite a set back for Joe. I hope Joe can find some decent sponsorship, if I was putting out sponsorship money Joe is the kind of driver I'd want to have.

Speaking of sponsorship, if I was Kyle Busch's sponsor(s) I'd be pulling my sponsorship money in a hurry. What an idiot, having tantrums when he doesn't win races, even when it's his fault(Martinsville truck race). Demanding respect where none has been earned. He whined about fans having to much access to the drivers at the Nationwide race at Nashville, he stated that he was upset at all of the fans lined up at his hauler for autographs that had multiple items to sign(a few had suitcases full) well shouldn't his PR guy come out at the start and make the crowd aware that autographs are limited to one item per person? He says this on national TV, he's already stated that he doesn't care about souvenir sales-popularity. To me, that's like him straight out saying, fans are nothing more than pieces of dung. Aren't the fans the ones that sponsors are trying to get to buy their products? I was really trying to root for Kyle(a tiny bit) this year because he is a top of the class driver, but the past few weeks have put me in the same state I was last year, a "Kyle Hater " or even worse a"Kyle Busch, M&M's,Pedigree Dog Food, Interstate Batteries, Etc. Hater".

I wonder if Joey Logano will get a handle on the new car this year? He's on the verge of falling out of the top 35 in owners points but even if he does I don't think anyone should panic, he seems to always be able qualify real well. I think he just needs more time in the cup car, he needs to learn how to better communicate what he needs in the car with his crew chief. I didn't expect the #20 cup car to win any races this year, but I most defiantly didn't expect to see the #20 car on the top 35 bubble.

20 Team Needs Help

Part of Joey Logano's lack of success in Sprint Cup may be the driver crew chief combination. There is no doubt that Greg Zipidelli is a great crew chief, but maybe Zippy and Joey just can't communicate properly with each other. Zippy was with the same driver for 10 seasons and it's been 9 seasons since he had to work with a rookie. I think Zippy may have become so accustomed to what Tony wanted and needed to drive the car and win races, that he may be having a hard time understanding what Joey wants and needs.

Joe Gibbs needs to do something before the famed 20 car falls out of the top 35 in owners points. Looking at the performance of the 18 and 11 teams rules out the poor equipment option, so Joe probably has two options to try and figure out if the problem is driver or crew chief. He could leave Joey in the 20 car and pair him with another crew chief for five races and see if it makes a difference or he could take the same route as did Team Redbull with A J Allmendinger and put a seasoned veteran behind the wheel of the car for five races to try and figure out what the problem is.

The solution may be as simple as putting another crew chief with Joey or as severe as taking Joey out of the car and putting in a different driver with a different crew chief. I would rather not see either of these people relieved of their duties, but something needs to be done to help the 20 team.

Congrats to Jeff Gordon for his Sprint Cup win at Texas on Sunday and congrats to Kyle Busch for his Nationwide win at Texas on Saturday.

A Texas Weekend

I've always thought that if I could go on a fantasy all expense paid race weekend, I would go to the fall night race in Bristol,Tennessee. But I may be swaying towards the spring race in Fort Worth, Texas. Here's my reasoning:

Bristol has the cup race and the truck race, with the truck race being on Wednesday night and the cup race on Saturday afternoon. So Wednesday would be full with truck practice, qualifying and race.Thursday would have a cup practice and qualifying.Friday would have 2 cup practices and Saturday night would be the cup race.

Texas has the cup race and the Nationwide race,with Thursday being filled with Nationwide practice and qualifying. Friday would have cup practice and qualifying. Saturday would have two cup practices and the Nationwide race and Sunday would be the cup race. Not all that much different from Bristol.

My accomadations and seats at either place is where the differences start. In Bristol I think I would want to stay in a five star hotel, eat at good resturants and have really good seats(maybe even a luxury booth) on the front stretch with pit passes. At Texas I would rent a nice big RV and a stall on the infield. This takes care of accomadations, seats,pit passes and food(the RV would have a fold out BBQ and I'm big on BBQ'n). On the infield for the weekend, I think a person would have a better chance of meeting and interacting with more people than you would staying at a hotel. If you think about it you could arrive at the track on Wednesday night with groceries and beer and unless you wanted to, you wouldn't have to leave the track until Monday morning. I think that I would enjoy living in a RV, and kicking back with a whole bunch of race fans for the whole weekend. Besides that it's hot here in Alberta in August and I would imagine it's hotter in Bristol, where as we still have about a foot of snow here now and it looks pretty nice in Texas.

Congrats to "The Franchise" David Reutimann for picking up the pole this afternoon.

Sliced Bread And Butter

If Joey Lagano is sliced bread then A J Allmendinger must be butter, because he sure has been smooth.Looking at AJ's short Sprint Cup career he has improved phenomenally. His first year he struggled with not only being a rookie to Sprint Cup, but also driving for newly formed, Team Red Bull. AJ only qualified for 17 of the 36 races in 2007, but in comparison Brian Vickers, Red Bull's other driver only qualified for 23 of the 36 races and he's more of a seasoned veteran. The following year AJ failed to qualify the first three races and was taken out of the car and replaced by veteran Mike Skinner for the next five races. AJ must have been able to learn something from the vet Mike because upon returning to the car, his qualifying woes were no longer ,qualifying for the next 21 races before being let go by Red Bull because it seems Red Bull didn't have the time to develop a driver,but wanted one that would be an instant success (We see how that's working out). After being let go, AJ sat for 1 race, drove for Michael Waltrip Racing for 1 race and, finished off the season in the 10 car for GEM which is now Richard Petty Motorsports. Now only 6 races into the season he's put the 44 car not only into the top 35 in owners points, having to qualify his way into the first 5 races, but is also now in a respectable 15th place in overall points standings.

As it stands right now AJ only has sponsorship up to and including the Coca-Cola 600 and if none is found ,I wouldn't be surprised to see some shakedown-shufflearound moves done at RPM in order to keep AJ in the 44 car for the season.