RIP: Jason Leffler

From ESPN: NASCAR driver Jason Leffler died after an accident Wednesday night in a heat race at a dirt car event at Bridgeport Speedway.
The 37-year-old Leffler, a two-time winner on the NASCAR Nationwide Series who had the nickname "LefTurn" above the driver's side window on his race cars, was pronounced dead shortly after 9 p.m. ET, New Jersey State Police said.
"NASCAR extends its thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to the family of Jason Leffler who passed away earlier this evening," NASCAR said in a statement. "For more than a decade, Jason was a fierce competitor in our sport and he will be missed."
Bridgeport Speedway immediately suspended racing for the rest of the night after Leffler's accident at the 0.625-mile, high-banked dirt oval.
After losing his NASCAR ride, Leffler had been racing dirt car events most of this year, including the 410 Sprint Car race Wednesday that promised a $7,000 prize to the winner. On Sunday, Leffler finished last at Pocono in his lone NASCAR Sprint Cup start of the year. He ran just eight laps in a start-and-park ride.
From Long Beach, Calif., Leffler made 423 starts in NASCAR's three national series but won just the two Nationwide races and one Truck Series event in a career that began in 1999. He also made three IndyCar Series starts, finishing 17th in the 2000 Indianapolis 500.
A statement from Indianapolis Motor Speedway called Leffler "one of the most versatile race drivers in America, showing his talent by competing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during his career."
"He also displayed the skills that would help him reach the top levels of the sport by winning four USAC national series titles while winning on tracks throughout the Midwest," the statement said.  http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/9378864/nascar-driver-jason-leffler-dies-accident-dirt-car-event-bridgeport-speedway?autostart=false
He was one of my son's favorite drivers and he will be missed.
RIP to Jason, and prayers to his family, friends and fans.

Dale Jr. Out For Next 2 Weeks In NASCAR

This is interesting: From ESPN: Dale Earnhardt Jr. will miss the next two races with his second concussion in the past six weeks, all but ending the championship chances of NASCAR's most popular driver.
The first concussion, suffered in a crash during an Aug. 29 tire test at Kansas, went undiagnosed until Wednesday, when Earnhardt was examined in Charlotte because of lingering effects from Sunday's crash at Talladega.
Earnhardt said he didn't report symptoms he was having after the Kansas crash for fear of being taken out of the car for the start of the Chase for the Cup.
"I remember everything about that accident, everything after that accident," Earnhardt said. "But I knew I didn't feel ... you know your body and how your mind works. I knew something was just not quite right. I decided to push through and work through it. I had concussions before and knew exactly kind of what I was dealing with. I felt pretty good after a week or two, definitely 80 to 90 percent after the Chase started. By the time I got to Talladega I felt 100 percent, really good."
Hendrick Motorsports said Earnhardt will sit out races at Charlotte and Kansas; Regan Smith will replace him in the No. 88 Chevrolet.
A source with knowledge of Earnhardt's business told ESPN that his salary from Hendrick to drive the car will not be affected by his missed races. Also, the money paid by his primary sponsors (Amp Energy this weekend and National Guard at Kansas) will not be affected in his absence.  http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/8489668/dale-earnhardt-jr-concussion-2-races
This just seems strange on so many levels.
First, Junior really ripped into NASCAR after the Talladega race and it makes me wonder if this is just a cooling time off for Earnhardt.
Further, Earnhardt's crash wasn't that hard, especially compared to other cars in the field and other crashes for Earnhardt.
Finally, why 2 weeks right off the bat?  Why not take it a week at a time and see how it goes?  If RG3 from the Washington Redskins gets a concussion on Sunday, he was already cleared mid-week to return to being a NFL for this week's game.
So, it's nice to see Regan Smith gets some good equipment to finally race in and A.J. Allingdinger will be back in racing as he will drive the 51 car for the next two weeks.

NASCAR/Nationwide Steals Another Victory

Tonight, NASCAR stole another race from a driver when they threw a phantom yellow flag near the end of the Atlanta.  At the Indy race earlier this year, Elliot Sadler was penalized for jumping a start even though he was he was being pushed and the leader wasn't up to speed.  This time, Kevin Harvick was the victim of NASCAR's theft.
Harvick had the car of the race.  He led around 150 laps or so and was completely dominate.  His leads were often more than 7 or more seconds over second place.
Then with about 13 laps, Brad Keslowski was caught throwing out a half full bottle of Vitamin water or some kind of sports drink out the driver's side window.  Right after he did that, NASCAR threw the caution flag for debris on the track.  NASCAR claims the water bottle was not the cause of the yellow, but when ESPN looked for the debris, all they could find was a small piece of debris tight against the wall- not causing any problems for the drivers, but may have caused a problem with any ants who may have wandered into the area.
Regardless, the caution came out and wiped out Harvick's big lead.  The next restart, Harvick again took a big lead but that was wiped out by a crash that involved Danica Patrick and James Buescher, among others.
The red flag flew for about 10 minutes.  Then when the final restart happened, Harvick and Ricky Stenhouse battled for the lead and Stenhouse took the lead and held on to win a race that Harvick probably should have won.
NASCAR is starting to lack creditability this year.  From boring races to stolen races to boring drivers, we are slowly seeing the popularity of NASCAR declining and if they don't watch out, we may be seeing NASCAR go the way of Indy cars.

Stupid Congress Interfering With NASCAR

The U.S. Army is pulling out of NASCAR because of threats from Congress to make it law that the military cannot sponsor sporting events.
From ESPN: The U.S. Army will not return to Stewart-Haas Racing next season, citing a reallocation of its marketing budget that does not include a presence in NASCAR.
SHR said Tuesday it is pursuing a new sponsor.
"The U.S. Army has been a great partner of Stewart-Haas Racing since the team's inception," said Brett Frood, executive vice president of SHR. "It has been a mutually beneficial relationship, with the U.S. Army introducing training regimens that improved our pit crews while instilling the mental, physical and emotional strength of the U.S. Army....
 The decision to leave NASCAR comes as Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota and Rep. Jackson Kingston of Georgia are pushing an amendment that would prohibit military sponsorship of sports.
McCollum lost a House vote a year ago to end military sponsorships of NASCAR, professional wrestling and fishing, but is trying again to have the approximately $80 million in sponsorship cut from the defense budget. http://espn.go.com/racing/story/_/id/8146859/us-army-pulling-nascar-end-season-not-return-stewart-hass-racing
I think this is money well spent because NASCAR and other sports give a lot of publicity to the military.  Each week during the NASCAR season, the Army brings in trailers used to help in recruiting and to promote goodwill with the public.
In addition, Ryan Newman, the driver of the Army car and Dale Earnhardt Jr. who drives the Army National Guard, makes appearances on behalf of the Army and National Guard and they also have military members in their pits, get to meet the drivers and crew and gives away free tickets to the military in which the military members are grateful.  Now, all that is in jeopardy.
In drag racing, the Army sponsors Tony Schumacher in the Top Fuel dragsters.  They say this about sponsoring Schumacher:  Since the 2000 U.S. Nationals, the U.S. Army colors have adorned the Top Fuel dragster of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher. A seven-time world champion, Schumacher holds numerous NHRA records including the national elapsed-time record and national speed record for both the quarter-mile and 1,000-foot distance.
In 2012, the Army Racing family will again be comprised of Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown with his Matco Tools dragster. Together, they are focused on being the best in the Top Fuel Class and proudly race in honor of the more than one million Army Strong Soldiers around the world .  http://www.goarmy.com/army-racing/nhra-top-fuel.html
This a case where the Congress is micromanaging the military.  Obviously, the military thinks there is a benefit of sponsoring otherwise, they would not be sponsoring the cars.
Should the military be sponsoring sporting events while they are laying off service members or do you think the military should stop sponsoring sporting events.  Please take the poll on the left to show us what you think- thanks

Matt Kenseth Leaving The 17 Car At the End Of Season

This was a shock- Matt Kenseth is leaving the Rousch-Fenway Racing and will be a free agent at the end of the season.  Currently, Kenseth is first in points in the Sprint Cup series.
From ESPN: NASCAR points leader Matt Kenseth, one of the longest-tenured drivers in the series, is leaving Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the season.
He will be replaced in the No. 17 Ford -- the car he has driven for all but one of his 452 career starts -- by Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kenseth's long relationship with Ford will apparently come to an end.
Why? Good question. The team offered no answers in the sudden divorce of one of NASCAR's longest active relationships. Only Jeff Gordon, with Hendrick Motorsports since 1993, has been with his team longer than Kenseth has been with Jack Roush.
"I'd like to thank Matt Kenseth for his many years of loyal service," co-owner Roush said Tuesday. "Matt has been an integral part of this organization for well over a decade, and we are extremely appreciative of his accomplishments and contributions to the team, and will always consider him a part of the Roush Fenway family."
Kenseth and teammate Greg Biffle are ranked first and second in the Sprint Cup Series, clearly poised to make a run at the championship. Kenseth opened the season with his second Daytona 500 victory, and has 11 top-10 finishes through 16 races.
Kenseth did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Tuesday, but tweeted about his departure.
"I'm very thankful to Jack Roush for the opportunities he's given me over the past 14 years. Together we have enjoyed a lot of success," he posted. "And as a team we are committed as ever to the remainder of the 2012 season and chasing a 3rd sprint cup title for Jack and RFR."
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/8097532/matt-kenseth-leave-roush-fenway-racing-end-season
So, where will Kenseth end up?  If I was a betting guy, I thik he will end up in the 20 Home Depot car.  While the current driver, Joey Logano, is an ok driver, he is not beating the #48 car, the Loews car driven by Jimmie Johnson.  Home Depot is probably not that happy that Loews is beating on most weekends.
For some reason, Kenseth has not found full time sponsorship this year, despite the fact that he won Daytona and is leading in the points and gets a lot of air time on TV.  Considering that Rousch has troubling finding sponsors,  it's more likely that Kenseth will not have a problem finding a sponsor next year and Rousch will eventually go the way of the dinosaurs. 
So, good luck to Matt at his next ride and it will be an interesting off season to watch the merry-go-round of drivers.

Most Irritiating Moment On NASCAR TV, Besides TNT

As usual, TNT just screws more and more.  The announcers don't listen to each other, poor camera shots and on the last restart of the race, a green-white-checker  restart, what did we see at the beginning?  A large building- probably a grandstand, instead of the cars.  Great shot guys.
But the most irritating part of TNT and the other network's broadcast ticker on top of the screen showing what place everyone is in, especially late in the race.  Do we really care, with 15 laps to go what place the start parkers are in, two hours after they dropped out of the race?  No, we want to to the top 20 places or at least those on the same lap, like on a road course.  Throughout the entire race, we see the drivers who have dropped out of the race or are 5 laps down, must we still see them at the most exciting time of the race?
Other than David Mayhew and his family, do we really need to know during the last 20 laps of the race, that he dropped out with 87 laps to go?  Or do we want to see if there was a pass for 5th place or where the top drivers are?
So, to the networks, towards the end of the race but down on the drivers you show on your place ticker to the top 20 or those who are within a lap or two of the leaders.  The way you do it now is irritating as hell.
Update: Also about TNT, the last lap big crash that took out several drivers, including Dale Jr., and how many times did they show the crash, about 2 times and the quality of the shots were horrid.  So, what the hell happened?

Ohhh, Too Bad Danica!

From ESPN: The crew chief for Danica Patrick believes the Nationwide Series driver is being put in bad situations because competitors don't like losing to a woman.

When Austin Dillon got Patrick loose during Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Michigan, forcing her to spin out for the second of three times, Tony Eury Jr. radioed to his driver, "They hate that you're running this good."
"I've heard comments made, 'Well, why is the 7 running so good? The girl is getting better and better,' " Eury said after the former IndyCar star finished 18th in a race she was in the top 10 most of the day. "It's to the point where she's running with the competitive guys.
"We all have egos. We don't want the girl to outrun us. It's a fact of she's getting put in some situations where she doesn't need put into because they're taking advantage. If she's loose, they'll get up under her right rear or whatever."
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/nationwide/story/_/id/8061544/tony-eury-jr-says-drivers-hate-losing-danica-patrick
I'm sorry, but Danica Patrick is an average to below average Nationwide driver who has the best equipment in Nationwide.  She has an excellent sponsor and excellent crew, including Tony Eury Jr. 
In addition, the main qualification for Patrick to get a ride in NASCAR is her bikini-body painting-sexy commercials.  The Sprint car drivers were happy to get rid of Danica because the focus was on Patrick and her image of being a slut.  She did win 1 race in Indy cars but she basically a middle of the racer in Indy cars.
So, for Danica or Tony Jr. to complain about Danica deserves respect, she has to earn it.  Today, at the Michigan race, she spun 3 times, 2 of which her fault.
To Tony Jr.: The drivers don't like to lose to anyone, including men and women.
And BTW, Danica was not the first female across the finish line today.  Johanna Long finished 16 while Patrick finished 18.
That's not how you gain respect.  You get respect by driving hard, winning and not spinning out 3 times in a race.

So, This Is What Kurt Busch Got Suspended For?

Here is the video in which Kurt Busch got suspended for 1 week.  Yeah, Busch got screwed.

Kurt Busch Suspended For 1 Race, Probably Out Even More

From ESPN:
Kurt Busch's future with Phoenix Racing is in jeopardy after NASCAR suspended the 2004 Sprint Cup champion for this weekend's race at Pocono Raceway.Busch was suspended for threatening comments made to Sporting News reporter Bob Pockrass following Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway.

Busch was already on probation for a May 12 incident with Ryan Newman in a Sprint Cup race at Darlington. His suspension runs through June 13, meaning he will be eligible to return for the June 17 race at Michigan.
In a statement, Busch said: "I accept NASCAR's decision. I put them in a box, they had to take action and it's my fault for putting them in this position. I apologize for the comments I made to Bob Pockrass."
Phoenix Racing owner James Finch isn't so sure the driver will return immediately after serving the suspension, saying he will sit down with Busch over the next couple of days to see if they will move forward together.
"If he's going to kill himself I'm not going to be in the airplane with him,'' Finch told ESPN.com by phone. "If that's what he's planning on doing, I am going to get out.'
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/8008870/nascar-suspends-kurt-busch-pocono-weekend
So, what did Busch do to get the suspension?:
Busch's outburst on Saturday began when he was asked if his probation impacted the way he handled a racing incident with Justin Allgaier.
"It refrains me from not beating the sh-- out of you right now because you ask me stupid questions,'' Busch told Pockrass, an interview captured on video by Speed. "But because I'm on probation I suppose that's improper to say as well.''
Umm, ok, it's not like he actually was going to kick that writer's butt for asking a dumb question. But because NASCAR expects Busch to wear a tuxedo, wear white gloves and talk with a British accent
Meanwhile, Danica Patrick takes out Sam Hornish at Talladega and nothing happens.
No wonder NASCAR is going down the tubes.

The Old Man Wins Another Pole

Mark Martin is probably the oldest athlete in a major league sport such as football, baseball, tennis basketball, soccer etc.  Today, Martin will start on the pole at the Dover, Delaware race track.  This is Martin's 3rd pole in 10 races so far this year, more than any other Sprint driver.  What makes even more remarkable is that Martin is running a part time schedule and this will be his 10th race out of 13 races this season.
Even though he has missed 3 races this season, after 12 races he is 26th in place, beating some regular drivers like Bobby Labonte, Casey Mears, David Ragan and Landon Cassill.  He trailing Kurt Busch by 3 points, Jeff Gordon by 26 points. and A.J. Allmindinger by 12 points.  Just think where Martin would be int he standings if he didn't miss any races?  He probably would be in the top12 because he is only out of 12th place by 114 points.  Martin is one of the highlights of the NASCAR season in a season full of boring races, Danica Patrick, Dale Jr., little side by side racing and very few restarts because of the lack cautions.
So, it nice to see Mark Martin still be at the top of his game and also at the top his sport at the age of 53.  AARP members certainly are proud of him.

Indy Cars Vs NASCAR, Who Is More Exciting?

This past Sunday, the Indy cars ran the Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR ran the Coca Cola 600 a few hours later.  Whose race was more exciting?
Without a doubt, the Indianapolis 500 was far more exciting than the Coca Cola 600 and that seems to be the trend the past couple of years.
In Indy car racing, they run close together, they are not afraid to pass and they are not afraid to take chances.  Their restarts are far more exciting than NASCAR and the Indy cars no longer have Danica Patrick.
This past Indy 500 race featured a last lap crash for the lead, a record number of lead changes, a couple of hard crashes with no one hurt and a lot of side by side racing.
In the Coke 600, we had 1 spin out and 4 manufactured debris cautions in 400 laps.  There was no side by side racing except for the first lap after a caution, no late drama and only 10 cars on the lead lap at the end of the race.  The race had Danica Patrick, and the only thing she showed was that she doesn't deserve to be a NASCAR Sprint car driver.  She only beat the start and parkers and those with mechanical problems and she had a superior car to many of the poorer teams.  Her goal of the race: to finish.  Hell, I could have finished the race in my 2002 Ford Taurus.  But for some reason, she was stilled praised for her "effort".
But now, even the NASCAR beat writers for ESPN have noticed that the races are becoming boring.  From ESPN: Ed Hinton, ESPN.com: C'mon. It wasn't even close. Any fan out there who watched both races knows it was Indy by a landslide. A record 35 lead changes among 10 drivers in open-wheel -- well, semi-open-wheel -- cars should have NASCAR hearing footsteps in the competitive racing department. NASCAR R&D had better work fast toward closer racing, because clearly, IndyCar R&D has found the formula. As 500 winner Dario Franchitti said, most IndyCar races are like that. It's just a matter of getting fans to watch the other races. 
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/7982516/nascar-turn-4-charlotte-indy-rearview
So, what are some solutions the drivers and writers have proposed?  Shorten the season.  Yeah right and who are they going to cut?  All the drivers and writers want is to work less instead of improving the product.
Whatever the solution, NASCAR needs to find the fix very quickly.  Sponsors are fleeing NASCAR and some of the best drivers are not even being sponsored for the entire year.  Matt Kenseth comes to mind.  Fans are turning off the TV and they are not going to the races.  I don't know how many times I have fallen asleep this year watching a NASCAR race this reason because the race is so boring not because of the beers I drink.
One reason why the races are so boring is that the drivers are much better than in years past but also the drivers don't want to take a chance anymore.  They would rather be cautious and try and to get the best finish possible without taking chances so they don't blow their chance to make the NASCAR Chase. 
As the NASCAR radio guys said this past week, this is the new NASCAR, get used to it.  And that sucks.
I think I'll take Indy cars over NASCAR if they go head to head, they are far more exciting and there is no Danica Patrick.

Today Sucks For A Lot Of NASCAR Fans

Today is going to suck for a lot of NASCAR fans as today is the annual All star race in Charlotte, NC.
What sucks is that the race will not be on Fox, ESPN, TNT, ABC or other major cable or regular TV station.
Instead, the race is going to be held on the SPEED channel.  Here in Las Vegas, the SPEED channel is on cable 329, on of the extra cable TV stations, along with well known stations such as the Hallmark,. BYU, EWTN, INSP and Centric.
So, while the race on SPEED, I suspect many NASCAR fans will not be watching the races unless they happen have the station, go to a viewing party, go to a bar that has the station or in Las Vegas, go to your local.casino.
Great for SPEED but sucks for most  NASCAR fans.

No Free Tickets For Teachers

For at least the past 5 years, teachers have gotten free tickets to the NASCAR races at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but for some reason, this year, LVMS and their sponsors are not donating any tickets.  I wonder why?
I can think so several reasons:
1.  No one one wanted to sponsor the tickets this year.
2. Last year, they offered Sprint Cup tickets, but ran out of tickets before all the teachers got tickets, so they offered free Nationwide tickets.  I saw rude behavior and talked to a ticket seller and apparently some teachers gave them crap for them giving the teachers supposed inferior tickets.
3. The teachers in the community, because of the union, are being perceived as being greedy.  The union wants raises even though the district is running about $20,000,000 in the red.  Because of this, whoever sponsored the tickets didn't want to get get bad publicity for giving tickets to us greedy teachers.
4.  The union is involved in a tough negotiating with the district and it is possible the District said it didn't want to help distribute the ticket.
I know it is probably not the fault  of the LVMS, they have been more than generous to teachers over the years.
It could be any of these reasons, none of the reasons or a combination of the reasons, I really don't know.   I know it is probably not the fault  of the LVMS, they have been more than generous to teachers over the years.
All I know, I won't be going to the races this weekend because I just cannot afford the price of the tickets for a family of 4, but that's life.  All I can say is thank you to LVMS for the 5 years I did get free tickets and I'll still enjoy NASCAR week here in Vegas.

Danica Wins Nationwide Daytona Pole

From ESPN: In about 24 hours, Danica Patrick went from her biggest crash to her biggest moment in a stock car.
The former IndyCar star won the pole Friday for the season-opening Nationwide Series race at Daytona, becoming the first woman to secure the top qualifying spot in NASCAR's second-tier series since Shawna Robinson at Atlanta on March 12, 1994.
It came a day after she wrecked on the final lap of a qualifying race for the Daytona 500.
"It's a good turn of events," she said.
It also set off a flurry of Twitter traffic that included words such as "Dansanity," "Danimosity," "Danimite," and "Dantastic."...
Patrick turned a fast lap of 49.250 seconds around the high-banked speedway, averaging 182.741 mph.
Defending Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne qualified second, followed by Elliott Sadler, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Austin Dillon.
And there was little, if any, animosity about the qualifying results -- err, Danimosity.
"I think it's got a good shot for No. 1 on SportsCenter," Bayne said. "That's always good for our sport. We look for these kinds of moments. NASCAR keeps talking about star power, and these are the kinds of moments that are going to help our whole sport. Not just Danica or our team, but our whole sport. The more eyeballs, it's all better for us. ... Even though we're just a second-place guy at this point, it's really cool. I think it is good all the way around."
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/nationwide/story/_/id/7612340/danica-patrick-wins-pole-nationwide-race-daytona
I'm not a fan of Danica Patrick, but she certainly having a pretty good Daytona- other than her wreck she did not cause, she ran up with the leaders in the Daytona 500 qualifying race and now wins the pole in the Nationwide race, beating many veterans of Daytona, including her car owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So, let's see how she does this weekend.  I might have to bite my tongue and say she belongs in NASCAR.

So, Who Has Entered the Daytona 500?

Most web sites reporting on the Daytona 500 and other racing events talk about who is racing, but they rarely, if ever, mention the other teams and drivers who try and enter the race every year.
Here is the entry list of the Daytona 500 from CBS
012 DAYTONA 500 ENTRY LIST 
No. 1  Jamie McMurray, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix SabatesNo. 2  Brad Keselowski, Penske Racing
No. 5  Kasey Kahne, Hendrick Motorsports
No. 6  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Roush Fenway Racing
No. 7  Robby Gordon, Robby Gordon Motorsports
No. 09 Kenny Wallace, RAB Racing
No. 9  Marcos Ambrose, Richard Petty Motorsports
No. 10 Danica Patrick, Tommy Baldwin Racing
No. 11 Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 13 Casey Mears, Germain Racing
No. 14 Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
No. 15 Clint Bowyer, Michael Waltrip Racing
No. 16 Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway Racing
No. 17 Matt Kenseth, Roush Fenway Racing
No. 18 Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 20 Joey Logano, Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 21 Trevor Bayne, Wood Brothers Racing
No. 22 AJ Allmendinger, Penske Racing
No. 23 Robert Richardson Jr., R3 Motorsports
No. 24 Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports
No. 26 Tony Raines, Front Row Motorsports
No. 27 Paul Menard, Richard Childress Racing
No. 29 Kevin Harvick, Richard Childress Racing
No. 30 David Stremme, Inception Motorsports,
No. 31 Jeff Burton, Richard Childress Racing
No. 32 Terry Labonte, FAS Lane Racing
No. 33 Elliott Sadler, Richard Childress Racing
No. 34 David Ragan, Front Row Motorsports
No. 36 Dave Blaney, Tommy Baldwin Racing
No. 37 Mike Wallace, MaxQ Motorsports
No. 38 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports
No. 39 Ryan Newman, Stewart-Haas Racing
No. 40 Michael Waltrip, Hillman Racing
No. 40 Juan Pablo Montoya, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates
No. 43 Aric Almirola, Richard Petty Motorsports
No. 47 Bobby Labonte, JTG-Daugherty Racing
No. 48 Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports
No. 49 JJ Yeley, Robinson-Blakeney Racing
No. 51 Kurt Busch, Phoenix Racing
No. 55 Mark Martin, Michael Waltrip Racing
No. 56 Martin Truex Jr., Michael Waltrip Racing
No. 78 Regan Smith, Furniture Row Racing
No. 83 Landon Cassill, BK Racing
No. 87 Joe Nemechek, NEMCO Motorsports
No. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports
No. 93 David Reutimann, BK Racing
No. 97 Bill Elliott, NEMCO Motorsports
No. 98 Michael McDowell, Phil Parsons Racing
No. 99 Carl Edwards, Roush Fenway Racing
http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/19681720/34864521

NASCAR Season Starts Today

The NASCAR season begins today with the Bud Shootout, starting at 5:00 Pacific Time and 8:00 Eastern.  Twenty 25 cars are entered into the race, with Martin Truex Jr. on the pole.  The race can be seen on Fox.
It's already been an exciting off season with the driver changes (about 10) and crew chief changes.
Already, Tony Stewart crashed in practice and Jimmie Johnson was caught illegally altering the car to give it an advantage. Look for some suspensions and heavy fines for that.
So, at 5:00, I will be watching the Bud Shootout- it's going to be a fun race because they are only racing for pride and money- no points.

Danica Patrick Joins NASCAR Full Time

Yep, this says pretty much it about Danica joining NASCAR full time.
Complain, complain and then being taken out by a weaker car and then complain some more.

Great picture from grandpa johns. For more great pictures: http://grandpajohn.blogspot.com/

NASCAR In Vegas This Week

This week, NASCAR invades the Strip of Las Vegas as it is NASCAR Champion's week. Cars will be set up along the Street and Fremont Street all week. On Thursday, 12 drivers will drive their cars along a small part of Las Vegas Blvd- Tropicana to Spring Mountain, with Jimmy Johnson doing a burnout at the end to celebrate his winning the Sprint Cup.
For a more detailed schedule: http://www.lvrj.com/hottopics/motor_sports/champions_schedule.html
And yes, I will try and make it to the Strip on Thursday.
So, if you are a NASCAR fan, come out and enjoy the festivities.

Jimmie Johnson Makes Things Interesting

Late last night, my lovely wife, Cathy and I were discussing the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship and how Jimmie Johnson can lose it. I suggested that perhaps if Johnson crashed in each of the races, then he will lose the cup.
Well, after 3 laps today, Johnson crashed hard. He may return later, but it sure makes things interesting in NASCAR.