Where to begin… First I guess I’ll express my surprise that it had been over a year since Carl Edwards had won a Cup race. I didn’t realize it had been that long, so good for him. The fun thing about Carl Edwards is his mom. She’s at all of his races and she’s the only NASCAR driver’s mom that I can spot instantly. Like if I saw her at the grocery store I’d be like “hey there’s Carl Edwards’ mom!” If it’s anybody else’s mom I have no clue, their son would have to be standing next to them for me to put it together. I don’t know what it is about her but she stands out. I think it’s her hair. She’s got great hair. Or, duh, it could just be that she’s always there. I dunno though… Some of those guys’ girlfriends and wives are always there and I wouldn’t be able to pick them out of a crowd. It could just depend on who it is.
Ok, I totally went off on a weird tangent there.
In other news…
– I’ve been watching “Fast Cars & Superstars” (on ABC) here and there. I have it Tivo’d so I can watch it whenever. I like the fact that they’ve done this show period, because it proves that there’s so much more to NASCAR than just turning a wheel. While it doesn’t go into the whole strategy part of it, I think people get a sense of the skill involved.
– How nice was it to see Michael Waltrip back in a Cup race? And he finished 10th no less! That was very cool. I’m happy for him. It feels like his whole season has been marred by his little off track accident and the Daytona 500 shenanigans, which is really sad. I’d like to see his team be successful. I know they can be it’ll just take some time. But I just miss the old funny & slaphappy Mikey that we used to see every week.
– Casey Mears. He’s a guy that’s steadily moving up the points standings every week. At one point this year, a few weeks ago I believe, he was in 34th place and now he’s up to 19th. Ya never know, if they keep this up we could see Casey in the Chase this year. That’d be very, very cool.
– Please tell me I’m not the only person who dislikes Marc Fein and Bill Weber? I’d trade both of them in for Mike Joy and Allen Bestwick any day. They’re sooo annoying. I don’t understand Weber, it seems like he’s yelling all the time. He’s just too loud. And Fein seems like he’s not listening to people ’cause his comments after they make a point never seem to match up. Ugh. Luckily we only have 4 more races of them until we’re on to the ESPN/ABC coverage.
– The topic of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s move to Hendrick Motorsports is starting to annoy even me. And I’m a big Dale Jr. fan. Maybe it’s because they seemed to extend the pre-race show for an extra hour and filled it with an interview of Junior and Rick Hendrick that shed absolutely NO new light on the situation. I’d rather they talk about Mikey Waltrip making it back into a race, or the Red Bull boys managing to qualify every week after a slow start to the season. Or why Juan Pablo Montoya seems to have stalled (which is totally fine by me) or what’s going on with Jeremy Mayfield (where the heck is he??).
– In case you’re thirsty for more speculation on the ramifications of Junior’s move to Hendrick, then you should check out this article “Is Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s big move good for NASCAR?” on Slate.com by John Swansburg. He digs my blog, so I’m giving him props. But really it’s a good article and you should read it.
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– I didn’t think it was possible to dislike a driver more than I do Juan Pablo Montoya. He totally beats out Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart in the lack of warm & fuzzies department. He doesn’t give off any kind of vibe that says that he cares about his fans or anything. I’m sure he appreciates them in general, but I have a feeling that any kind of success that he has is purely for his own ego and that’s about it. He doesn’t show you anything that leads you to believe that there’s something more to him. When I think of Juan Pablo I’m reminded of a scene in the classic television sitcom “Seinfeld.” Elaine ponders if there was perhaps more to Jerry’s rival Newman than what they had seen/knew; he simply replies “No, there’s less.”
– Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon must be stopped! I’m not saying this because I’m not one of their biggest fans I’m saying this because it’s incredibly boring watching them win every weekend. And I would think other fans would have to agree with that. It’s just lame. I love close finishes, which we’ve had, but what we desperately need is some serious overall competition. It can’t just be one team or one or two drivers that swap trophies every weekend. It’s getting old.
– In July NASCAR will launch the “NASCAR Cooks! Race Day Recipe Contest,” in which one lucky fan will receive party at their house with a special NASCAR celebrity… which is another way of saying that it won’t be a NASCAR driver… details below:
The contest will consist of fans submitting recipes, which must include at least one “NASCAR Cooks!” family of products, online at NASCAR.com, where online visitors can also download and vote for their favorite recipe. Finalists will be posted online and the winner will receive a party at their house for him or her and their 20 closest friends. The grand prize winner will receive a NASCAR viewing party and backyard tailgate with a NASCAR celebrity during an upcoming NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race.
Fans interested in participating will be able to download contest rules and an application online at NASCAR.com later this summer.
– In honor of Mother’s Day (which is actually on Sunday) the Nextel Cup series drivers’ moms will be the official grand marshal’s of the Saturday night race at Darlington. Casey Mears’ mom Carol will be in attendance and he’d like nothing more than to win one for her, says Casey, “I’ve told my mom before that I wouldn’t be where I am today without her, but it would be pretty special to tell her again this weekend in Victory Lane. She’s an amazing person and a great mom.”
All of the mom’s will gather before the race to give the command “Sons, start your engines!” Awwww.
– And now something for those IndyCar fans out there. There’s a headline that says “Danica feels pressure to win more races,” how about just winning one for a change?
Like I’ve said before the Indy 500 is on May 27th and this entire month will be dedicated to speculation about every angle, every possible outcome and analysis of every single driver in the field. My hope, my deepest sincerest hope is that Michael Andretti can pull out the win this year. It’s so annoying to have come so close to just fail again and again. I would say that even if Michael doesn’t win it, then it’d be great if his son, Marco Andretti did, but even that’s not good enough. Michael has to win it, period.
To say that I would love it if there was a full-blown feud between Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart would be a huge understatement.
When Montoya caused Stewart to spin out this weekend at Texas I was as giddy as a schoolgirl that just got asked to go to prom. The minute it happened I knew Stewart would be mad, pissy, and whiny and that Montoya’s days were numbered. Once you’re on the Stewart shit list you’re done.
It adds more excitement and anticipation to next weekend’s race at Phoenix. Of course I don’t want anyone to get hurt I do love it when people exact revenge on each other. While the incident at Texas doesn’t require serious revenge tactics, I think if Juan Pablo happens to come up behind Tony early in the race some unnecessary blocking would be in order.
On the other side of this debacle was the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car was ruined after Kyle Busch ran into the back of him while trying to avoid Stewart’s spinout. This of course made me so incredibly mad (just ask my friend who was watching the race with me, “they can’t hear you Valli,” he said).
Anyway, after some work on his car Junior went out again but then was off again. Busch’s car was still sitting in the garage with his team trying to get it back out on the track. So Busch leaves the track altogether. His team was able to get the car going again but without their driver they turned to Junior who was happy to take it back out on the track again so that the #5 team could gain some points.
Let’s all take a moment to sigh and think about how sweet Junior is.
Hehe, ok, ok, but the point is that that was a very nice thing of him to do and he didn’t have to do that, they’re not even teammates. You think little whiny baby Kyle would do that for Junior? I highly doubt it. Or at least I want to doubt it ’cause he’s just a big freak. Why leave?? You have nothing else planned for the rest of the day because you were supposed to be in the race, so why the big rush to go home?
It’s funny to me that Jeff Gordon is the current points leader for the Nextel Cup Series and yet nobody is talking about him, well some are but only to say that he’s probably not going to win the race this weekend at Texas.
That’s totally fine with me, I don’t want him to win, there are other people that need to win a race right now.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. needs to win one to keep his charge up the points standings going and to give his contract negotiations with DEI an extra sense of urgency. Not that it really needs it but DEI needs a slap in the face to realize that they need to just end all this damn suspense and just sign him, give him his majority stake and call it a day.
I’m sooo tired of all the media coverage surrounding the contract talks with Dale Jr., I rank it right up there with all the hype about Juan Pablo Montoya joining NASCAR. Big whoop.
In other news…
Because it’s Friday the 13th here’s a video of NASCAR crashes I found on YouTube. (Need something to blog about? YouTube baby! it’s gold!)
I’m posting this because:
1) Who doesn’t love crashes?
2) I dig Chris Daughtry (an American Idol alum, that’s his song “Crashed” playing in the background)
3) Because I have nothing else to talk about (but you still love me)
Associated Press writer Jenna Fryer interviewed Juan Pablo Montoya recently, here is an excerpt from the article:
Q: I understand Dustin Long of Landmark Newspapers picked you as the subject for one of his Esquire magazine-type interviews. It doesn’t come out until Martinsville, but give me an idea of how it went?
JPM: “It was pretty cool. The questions were very different from the things you normally get asked, so it was cool.”
Q: Yes, but didn’t he ask you about the last time you cried?
JPM: “Oh yes. I don’t remember the last time I cried. Probably back when (wife) Connie and I were boyfriend and girlfriend, many years ago. But I don’t know. I hate, actually, people who cry.”
Ok. My mother always told me that hate was a very strong word, so I should be careful how and when I used it. I’m guessing JP didn’t have that discussion with his mom.
So he hates people who cry?? I’m guessing that now includes his Busch Series Crew Chief Brad Parrott too right?? I mean that’s like saying you hate people who have emotions or breathe air. That’s everybody Juan Pablo!
Dear Juan Pablo,
Congratulations on winning your first NASCAR Busch Series race! Today’s race in Mexico meant a lot to you and Latinos everywhere. I know that you were really excited and anxious to get a win under your belt, but did you really need to take out your own teammate, Scott Pruett, to do it? Frankly this type of behavior is inexcusable. You just don’t do that type of thing. You had the better car, we all knew it, why couldn’t you have held off and passed him cleanly in another area of the track?
This taints your win and even though you said you didn’t mean to, this is going to follow you around for a while. Don’t you remember just last year when Brian Vickers made that bonehead move at Talladega that took out his teammate Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Yea, many people weren’t very happy with him after that.
Your own Crew Chief, Brad Parrott, was crying after the race because he felt so bad that you screwed over someone on your team. That alone speaks volumes, as it is something that I have never seen in NASCAR before today. You should feel bad, very, very bad! You made a grown man cry!
Ok, ok, so I’m sure this will all blow over in a couple weeks, but don’t think people are going to forget about this. Make sure the next time you win you don’t step on someone else to get there.
Sincerely,
Valli
