Live from Martinsville

[Cazzie]

At Martinsville for Cup qualifying and Truck race. Too late for Truck qualifying, had to work a 5K Run/Walk in Danville this AM. Have my son's wireless laptop. Have tickets in the Clay Earles Tower for tomorrow with my bud Larry planning to take camera tomorrow since I have a decent camera and lens for a car race now. Should have brought it up today, would be a cinch to get inside the garage after the truck race. Have to remember that next year.

Go Denny Hamlin and Rowdy Busch!

Caz

Perfect weekend for racing, little windy today though.

 

[Cazzie]

Jamie Mac on staub.

Denny 5th, held the pole for a long while. #29 in 5th row, #48 way back in 9th row. Taking chikin tomorrow. :>)

Gonna go get a couple of those famous $1.25 Martinsville hot dogs (brought my own water to drink). Tellin' ya, ain't no cheaper good food at any sports venue, period.

Caz

 

[Cazzie]

Been back since around 6:00. great truck race, Johnny Sauter nipped Rowdy on the final lap to win. Hope the Cup race has as much action tomorrow. Looking so forward to it. Pix of Cup race Monday.

 

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Sounds like your having a good time! Look forward to the pics!

Also I saw the end of that race. Nice bump an run on the part of Johnny Sauter - and then Kyle could not get back to him.

Interesting commentaries on the Cup prerace show. Childress drivers have the mentality of junkyard dogs - as exemplified by Harvick. Harvick had Jimmie Johnson's name on his car and uses 4848 as a PIN to remind him of what his "mission" is. Denny has still not gotten over losing the championship at Homestead last year - it's affecting him - along with the engine thing.

As for the Cup race today you should look at it this way - if Denny wins enjoy a victory beer - if Denny loses cry in your beer - either way you win cause you get beer! :ernae:

-Ed-

 

[eddie]

Been back since around 6:00. great truck race, Johnny Sauter nipped Rowdy on the final lap to win. Hope the Cup race has as much action tomorrow. Looking so forward to it. Pix of Cup race Monday.

Lookijng forward to it Caz, sounds great! I wish this car was on the track!

 

[Panther_99FS]

Harvick and the Chevy #29 sure have been fast....

 

[eddie]

Harvick and the Chevy #29 sure have been fast....

It was something to see him work his way to the front, he wasn't going to be denied!

 

[Panther_99FS]

Too bad about Junior though....He *seems* to be working better with Steve LeTarte....

 

[eddie]

He'll get there Panther, he seems to have the old attitude we haven't seen in a while.

 

[Cazzie]

It was a day of sunburn, elation, frustration, outright anger at the Gods of racing, etc. etc. etc.

And in the end it proved once and for all, that damn chikin ain't from squat!

Debby had a top five car; a possible winning car, but he was ferked out of the running when he took the final pit under green. He got back on the track and had not completed a lap before tge 78 car hit the marbles and the turn 2 wall! Just terrible piece of sh!t luck for my man this year.

And then I thought Ky;le jad the car to beat, butnyet another cay=ution bunched the fiel and put the 24 and 48 cars wrapped arounf him. Gordon passed him first, then JJ, the JJ pased Gordon, the race was his for me at that moment with 28 laps left, but everybody had to pit once. Debbt did his and pooped. JG and JJ came in under caution and came out smelling like roses. Boithe rioses fased, both car were caught speeding on pit road and had to do a drive through. Hooray, that left Rowdy, Jr. Clint Bowyer, and Harvick as odds on favorites with 10 laps left. Rowdy got a good jump, but so did Jr, and two laps later Jr. passed Rowdy, the stands went bezerk! So my allegiance switched to Jr., he was due. However I have been paying attention to Harvick for the past 30 laps and told everyone he had the fastest car on the track. No one believed me. But on lap 487 Harvick caught Jr. And passed him standing still. Jr. fell back and Rowdy caught and pasted him for 2nd on the final lap. It was a great race, except that only Rowdy from my camp stayed in the hunt

I tell you though, Clint Bowyer had the best car in the race, throughout the race. But bad breaks kept him muddle in the field. When he had a clear track, he was zoom, zoom, zoom. Smartest driver at Martinsville today was Juan Pablo, he drove a very clean and premeditated race and he was around unscathed in the end, finishing4th.

But I am wearing the spoils of a NSACAR race in bright Spring, my face is so red, I need to find a tribe to pow-wow with. I lost a pair of really good sunglasses, either rifled from the top of my hat while I was taking pictures or I just plain lost them from the back of my hat! Poo Happens!

And here's where the misery gets worse. I get home, my computer fires up, I insert the SD car for the races pics and all come up, then the frikkin' screen freezes. A shut off and reboot only sent the brainless POS into a constant recycle and nothing I could do would get it to boot. In times past, this indicated a bad HD sector.

So there'll be no race pix until I can get my programs back. As fate has it, I still have this old 12 YO Gateway on W98SE with an Ethernet card that allows me to get online and chat with you guys. But until my computer gets back in running order, I'll be stuck with this Dixie Cup attached to a string.

Caz

Caz, gonna take a powder and go to bad, been a roller-coaster of a day. Stick the fork in me and turn me over, this side's done.

 

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Harvick is on a roll that's for sure! We'll see how long it lasts but given that he did well last year he is probably a real contender. I wouldn't mind Harvick winning a title for Richard Childress but I don't want it to come at the expense of JJ.

JJ sure strooed up that last caution. He had a good car perhaps good enough to have beat Harvick but entering (pit road) too fast was just dumb. He did get 11th and beat Hamlin by one spot.

For the benefit of Wombat - Ambrose sure got "LEARNED" today didn't he.

From 19th on the grid, Marcos Ambrose climbed as high as 11th in Martinsville on Monday before a one-time driver punted the Australian into the fence.
<!-- // .story-intro --> In a dramatic race that saw Kevin Harvick go to victory lane for the second time in 2011 and a fiery crash between Martin Truex Jr and Kasey Kahne, the only Australian in the NASCAR Sprint Cup suffered at the hands of a regular start-and-park driver.
Marcos Ambrose made an aggressive move to rejoin the queue of cars in the inside lane, upsetting NASCAR Sprint Cup start-and-park driver Michael McDowell.
McDowell then sent the #9 Ford Fusion spinning backwards into the outside wall on lap 125, intentionally wrecking Ambrose and ruining his race.
"It was a disappointing day, I think the contact was uncalled for," Marcos Ambrose said.
"We had a strong car but we never had a chance to really see what it could do.
<hr size="1"> Should start-and-park drivers be banned from races? Leave your thoughts in the comment box below.
<hr size="1"> "The guys never gave up, and kept at it all day long.
"It's a bump in the road, we'll keep our chins up be ready to go next week."
Ambrose soldiered on several laps down and took advantage of attrition to finish 29th and pick up valuable points.
McDowell was unapologetic after the crash, telling his team, "I'm not going to take it.
"I've got one race a year and I'm going to make it count."...

I don't like start and park but today's race for McDowell was not a Start and Park. Why Ambrose thinks McDowell should have let him in line is beyond me. Ambrose has to learn that even drivers like McDowell deserve respect (maybe their team owners don't) if they don't get it - well Marcos - see what happens? If your gonna drive NASCAR Marcos use your head and don't get stupid only 125 laps into a 500 lap race. Even Harvick said he couldn't believe that kind of aggression so early.

This should be a link to the action.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CEsQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.nascar.com%2Fvideo%2Fpost-race%2Fhighlights%2F110403%2Fcup-mar-high-one%2Findex.html&rct=j&q=nascar%20ambrose%20mcdowell&ei=6xKZTeTwF8bTiALupcydCQ&usg=AFQjCNGSxuB4GsGuu1sOnHNtVaPTG7pJxQ&cad=rja

-Ed-

An edit the quote was from A Speed website article.

A Further Edit: Jr just simply has so much class - maybe too much to ever win a championship but I really want to see him winning again.

 

[Panther_99FS]

Caz,
Didn't ya' have any SPF on :ques:

 

[Panther_99FS]

Of course if it was Robby Gordon who had driven Ambrose into the wall, R. Gordon would have been penalized....

Selective judgement by NASCAR (Michael McDowell) shows it's head once again today...

 

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Don't agree Panther. Robby would not likely be penalized for taking Ambrose out - we'll see if any ruling comes out tuesday though. The rules are different now - did you watch the video? Also it's a short track not like Atlanta where like uh Carl Edwards said in his own words "I've just killed Brad Keselowski" - when he drove through his left rear quarter panel at near 200mph. Huge difference between the kind of criminal acts of a Carl Edwards and what McDowell did at 95mph. No doubt NASCAR considers stuff like that. NASCAR isn't as inconsistent as they used to be although they are not perfect. To compare the enforcement of a rule today versus even 5 years ago is completely invalid - rules and standards change. I expect them to be consistent within year but not necessarily between years.

-Ed-

 

[Cazzie]

Caz,
Didn't ya' have any SPF on :ques:

No, but I had a designated driver!

It's not so bad this morning, I think it will be more flaky than peely. I shall not shave for a few days, that's for sure.

Sorry about the errors, the font on this gateway is way small and I was tired and post-drunk last night. I am almost sure the problem with my tower is the HD. My buddy George is off tomorrow and Wednesday, he has the tools to be sure. If'n tis, he also has the latest Symantec Ghost Copy and I'll get a new HD and have a Ghost copy done. Know it works, done it three times to other computers.

Washing now, when the first load is in the dryer and the second load in the wash, I need to go run some catch-up errands (trash and recyclables). Returning, I'll have to do the repeat wash dry cycle, only fold one load and put them away, then it outside to pick up downed limbs from Saturday's winds. Have to pick up both boys at 3:00 and take one to the Orthodontist.

"The road goes on forever and the party never ends."

Caz

 

[Cazzie]

Hey All,

Don't agree Panther. Robby would not likely be penalized for taking Ambrose out - we'll see if any ruling comes out tuesday though. The rules are different now - did you watch the video? Also it's a short track not like Atlanta where like uh Carl Edwards said in his own words "I've just killed Brad Keselowski" - when he drove through his left rear quarter panel at near 200mph. Huge difference between the kind of criminal acts of a Carl Edwards and what McDowell did at 95mph. No doubt NASCAR considers stuff like that. NASCAR isn't as inconsistent as they used to be although they are not perfect. To compare the enforcement of a rule today versus even 5 years ago is completely invalid - rules and standards change. I expect them to be consistent within year but not necessarily between years.

-Ed-

Ed, y'all know I detest the ground RG walks on, but without incompetent sh!ts like him and McDowell, Martinsville would be a total bore. Ever since they redid the track three years ago, it's become a two-groove track, nothing like the old days. If you noticed they passed on the outside at will, though the inside is still the preferred line. In the old days, one had to pass on the inside, that was the only groove (Harry Gant "Mr. Outside" being the only exception. Notice how well Kyle did in the Truck race and the Cup race. In the past, Rowdy was middle of the field at best in the Cup race, but now that he has two grooves, he's groovy. Boy amazes me how fast he drove that last lap, caught up with, and nearly passed Jr. for second.

Caz