If you’re a regular reader of my blog I’m sure you’ve noticed the issues that I’ve encountered over the past few weeks. I was having hosting issues and this really icky spam lookin’ page was taking over my site. I’m happy to say that all of that has been resolved because I moved everything over to a new, fabulous hosting service. I can promise that from now on I shouldn’t have any outages.
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Anger is such a great motivator, so good that it has spurred me on to write this post this morning instead of waiting until later in the day. So Fast and Fabulous fans, you have a certain day job to thank for this wonderful Monday morning race rehash.
I was happy to see Carl Edwards win yesterday, but not nearly as happy as I would have been had Dale Earnhardt Jr. been able to take it away from him. Oh well, there’s always next week. It still amazes me that Carl can do those flips so well, it’s not like he’s a 5 foot gymnast. He’s like 6 feet tallk and built. *sigh* Uhm… where was I? Oh yea, so Carl won and that was cool, yet another not-exactly-expected win for this year’s Chase.
Please tell me I’m not the only won that’s tired of the ABC/ESPN race coverage? Seriously? Please! I don’t know what it is, but they just don’t compare to the Fox crew. The commenting is just so herky-jerky and lame. I’m not digging it all. I’m sure Rusty Wallace is a very nice person, but I can’t take it. I just can’t take it! Oh look — I’m not the only one! Oh and what was up with that montage of Dale Jr. fans talking about how they’d follow him wherever? I think we can file that in the “duh” file, ya know that’s why they’re his fans, because they LIKE HIM! gah!
Last night when I was trying to go to bed I was thinking about reasons why it may be hard for people to understand the appeal of NASCAR. I think it has something to do with the fact that in other sports like football, baseball or basketball it’s easy to see the emotions on the players’ faces and in their physical demeanor. In NASCAR we can’t see anything, the drivers are enclosed in their cars so it’s not until they get out of their car at the end do we really know how much it all meant to them or everything they were trying to do to win. You can hear it over the radio but still, when you’re watching on TV you don’t always get that.
One of the biggest reasons why I love football is of course for the physicality of it all. I love seeing a guy get knocked or catch a sweet touchdown pass. In NASCAR it’s just isn’t as obvious, but of course that doesn’t mean that it’s not there, you just have to look for it. And that’s what I’m always looking for. I want to see the emotion, the importance of it all. Before the race the drivers are always the saying the same thing but it’s not until they’re in the heat of the battle that the claws come out. Which is why I was excited to see Kyle Petty (one of the coolest “good guys” if there ever was one) get pissed and try to smack Denny Hamlin around after Denny wrecked him. That was good to see. I need to know that you still want it, that you really do care about all this, and that even though your team is kinda lame you’re still striving to stay in this game. I know that that’s a given that they race because they love it and want to be the best but I like to be reminded.
I know that this is incredibly late to be writing about now, but I still wanted to share my thoughts on Clint Bowyer’s win at New Hampshire last weekend. I was so excited to see him win, finally! He and his team totally deserved it.
I guess the only thing that kinda made it subdued was that he didn’t get to drive into victory lane since his car clunked out after all his burnouts. But whatever, that’s minor — overall it was great to see him win, just awesome. I like that guy. And I liked the fact that it shook up the Chase points standings. I don’t think people were expecting that from him, so it’s a good thing. I hate it when everything is predictable.
In other news…
– Kasey Kahne will be the new face of Budweiser next year and I’m not sure what I think about that. When I think of Kasey I think of a doll. He’s got a total baby face; he doesn’t exactly project rough and tough masculinity. And he’s not classy & cool like George Clooney who does the voice-overs on some of the Budweiser commercials. So I don’t know, I look forward to a commercial with the Allstate girls getting drunk at a bar and then accosting Kasey with Buds in their hands. hehe.
– At the 7-Eleven down the street from my apartment there’s a Budweiser display that has a cardboard cutout of Dale Earnhardt Jr. I don’t know how many times I’ve said that I should go in there and see if I can get it when the promotion ends, but I never do. I think that might be a bit much. But apparently Allstate has a set of commercials dedicated to fans who love Kasey Kahne so much that they play ping-pong with their own cardboard Kasey, or eat dinner with their cardboard Kasey. Scarrrry.
– I am a fan of Aerosmith, but I am so tired of seeing that damn video of them singing “Back in the Saddle” before every race. I seriously change the channel when it comes on ’cause I can’t take it anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I loooove Aerosmith — Joe Perry is one of the hottest guitarists ever — but they gotta change that song. ugh.
Speaking of Aerosmith, here are some photos from last weekend (and last week):
Steven Tyler said that Clint Bowyer would win at New Hampshire and he did.
Aerosmith lead singer, Steven Tyler, rides around the media center at New Hampshire International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Robert Meggers/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Clint Bowyer celebrates with his team after winning at New Hampshire International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Al Bello/Getty Images)
I’m happy that he’s happy.
Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas that he will pilot the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolets in 2008. (Hendrick Motorsports/Autostock)
Don’t mess with Jeff Gordon.
Jeff Gordon takes a break during testing at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Today’s big motor sports news is that Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced that his sponsors for next year will be the National Guard and two of Pepsi’s brands — AMP Energy and Mountain Dew. His new car number will be 88. So this was the most anticlimactic announcement ever. I’m just glad it’s all over and now they can just focus on racing and winning. That’s all the really matters in the end. I will say this though; the new car’s paint scheme is beautiful.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolets were photographed for the first time at Texas Motor Speedway on Tuesday. It was announced Wed. in Dallas that he will pilot the cars for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. HMS/Autostock
Yesterday Dale Jr. unveiled his candy bar. Yea, the Big Mo’ is coming to stores near you in January. I’m curious about what it tastes like. It’s got milk chocolate, peanut butter and caramel. Anywhoo… the cool thing about this is that there’s a sweepstakes you can enter for a chance to hang out with Dale Jr. and his crew:
To coincide the announcement of the Big Mo’bar, R.M. Palmer Company is launching the “Big Mo’ment with Dale Jr.” sweepstakes. Thousands of winners will be awarded great prizes, but the grand prize winner will be treated to his or her Big Mo’ment, which will include lunch with Dale and his JR Motorsports race team, a limousine tour of area race shops, suite tickets to a VIP weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and $250 spending money. Fans will be able to enter the sweepstakes by visiting www.BigMo-ment.com and typing in the entry code on the inside wrapper of the Big Mo’ bar.
“This is a great idea by the folks at R.M. Palmer to really spike the interest in the Big Mo’ bar, and give fans a chance to win great prizes,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “The grand prize winner will be treated like royalty. It will be more than a big moment. It will be a big weekend they’ll never forget.”
Dude, this is so cool. I’m on the teleconference call listening to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s announcement of his sponsors and car number for the 2008 season.
hehe… will share more later.
After yesterday’s technical difficulties all is back to normal in Fast & Fabulous land. I’ll soon be moving this site and my others to a new host in the hopes of avoiding yesterdays service interruption. Yay.
Anyway, on to the news. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports will be revealing the last pieces of the puzzle next week when they announce who the major sponsors of Dale’s car will be and the number that will be on said car. Rumor has it that will be a combination of the energy drink Amp and the National Guard. I guess the National Guard seems likely since they’re the ones that currently co-sponsor the #25 that next year will turn into whatever number Hendrick has been able to get it’s hands on. I’m hoping they grabbed the 88, that’d make the most sense, and for those numbskulls out there that got the #8 tattooed on their bodies it would be easy (in theory) to add another 8.
I love Ashley Judd, I love her whole family (one of my first concerts was in fact a Judds show). The woman is just plain cool. If Dario Franchitti does in fact make the switch from IndyCar to NASCAR I’m all for it if it means we get to see Ashley. She’s so fun; it’ll be great to get her perspective and opinions on the competition. She gives her opinion on things whether or not it’s been asked for and I totally dig that, like last weekend when she called out the No. 23 team of Milka Duno for being so slow on the track, which in Ashley’s words was putting other drivers in danger. She wasn’t way off base, the announcers basically agreed with her, without actually saying so though.
Oh and while I’m on the subject of IndyCar, there’s one driver that I won’t be so excited to see in NASCAR and that’s Sam Hornish Jr. He is so friggin’ boring. I feel like taking a nap every time I hear him speak. He seems so lethargic and devoid of any personality. He never seems that excited about anything. He could just be a quiet, low key person, which I totally get ’cause I’m like that, but still show me something!
In other news…
– In an effort to not be outdone by Tiger Woods, Jeff Gordon has posted a gallery of photos of his daughter Ella.
– David Stremme has been dubbed “Mayor of the Infield.” But just when he gets props for being loved by fans he’s supposedly losing his ride. How screwed is that? Apparently it’s so screwed that even Juan Pablo Montoya is sad about it… although I doubt he’ll cry.
Fun Friday photo — worlds are colliding!:
Carl Edwards meets music artist 50 Cent while at Sirius Radio for Chase Media Day. (Photo Credit: Sirius Radio)
