For this past weekend’s race at Darlington I was in La La Land (aka Los Angeles). I was at my sister’s house celebrating Mother’s Day.
The great thing about the race being delayed until Sunday was that I was able to watch the race with my nephews. I had never done that before and it was fun explaining to them who I liked (Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, Clint Bowyer) and who I didn’t (Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart).
When they asked why I didn’t like Kyle Busch, I said it was because he whined a lot, a problem that my nephews — ages 10 and 8 — could relate to. It suddenly occurred to me that this was a great opportunity to show them how important it was to control their anger, to not whine but to instead articulate their frustrations in a more productive way. Hopefully by seeing my distaste for Busch and Stewart they’d understand that it’s not cool to whine about every little thing that goes wrong for them. Sometimes you just have to take it and move on.
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Casey Mears was so totally robbed today. I know that it was an accident but he was in position to make a run for the win at Talladega, and finally winning his first NEXTEL Cup series race.
His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson accidentally him out when Casey tried to come down Pit Road. Apparently there was some miscommunication between the teams regarding their pit strategies.
This was all very reminiscent of last year’s fall race at Talladega where then Hendrick driver Brian Vickers spun out Jimmie on the last lap for the win.
And then today, not long after that crash involving Mears and Johnson, Kyle Busch crashed out from a chain reaction accident that also involved Johnson.
All I have to say is with teammates like these who needs enemies?
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?
Even though Kyle Busch won, Sunday’s race at Bristol was great. I loved that it ended in a green, white, and checkered; you didn’t know who was going to win it until the very last lap.
There were other reasons to happy with this race:
– A.J. Allmendinger finally got to race in the NEXTEL Cup Series! He finished in 40th after starting in the 43rd position. So he wasn’t exactly a contender but at least he got to participate, and in that really pathetic sense he won! But really, I am happy that his Red Bull team got to compete. Now if Michael Waltrip can get his act together maybe we can get all of the Toyota teams on the track at the same time.
– Everybody can stop talking about that damn Car of Tomorrow. Bristol was the debut for the new, somewhat ugly car that ups safety and headroom for the drivers. I don’t know about you but I don’t like that “wing” they’ve added to the back of the car, it just looks odd and out of place. I can appreciate the value of adding safety features for the benefit of the drivers but anything else is over my head. I can’t really have an opinion about its effect on the competition since I’m not the one who has to drive it every weekend. But I can say this: Please, no more montages, specials, cut-away cars about the Car of Tomorrow. We got it! We know what it is, what’s different, what’s good, what’s bad, we’re over it! Move on!
– Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished in 7th place after starting in the 31st position. This is such a huge boost for his team and for my sanity. Hopefully they can keep this momentum going into Martinsville this weekend and continue his move up in the points standings.
– While watching some of the Busch race coverage at Bristol I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was extremely weird to have Brent Musburger covering NASCAR. He does basketball, football, heck even golf, but NASCAR? Uhm, no. It just doesn’t seem right to me. It’s not that he’s bad at it so much as it’s just not what he’s known for. It’s like if they moved Dick Vitale from covering college basketball to women’s gymnastics. Ok, maybe it’s not that severe, but you get my point.
– Here’s another reason why my nickname of “Teddy Bear” for Casey Mears is on point:
Roger Mears, father of Casey Mears, drives his son’s motor coach from race to race during the NASCAR season and is a familiar face at the track. However, the former off-road racer won’t be so easy to find this weekend in Martinsville. Roger Mears, who celebrated his 60th birthday last Saturday, will be at the Barrett-Jackson auction — also known as the “World’s Greatest Collector Car Event” — in Palm Beach, Fla., from March 28 to April 1. The younger Mears, driver of the No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, arranged for his father to attend the event as a birthday present and even slipped a blank check in with the ticket. “I still don’t know what to say,” said Roger Mears, who rarely misses SPEED Channel’s Barrett-Jackson Car Search program and plans to make the trip south with his brother, open-wheel legend Rick Mears. “It’s a pretty amazing thing to do for your dad. I was speechless.”
Isn’t that sweet? Good job Casey.
I finally watched the NASCAR Awards Ceremony last night. I Tivo’d it on Friday, when it originally aired.
All of my worst fears came to life. Jay Mohr, part-time comedian/part-time actor, was the host and Bill Weber, NASCAR on NBC host, was the announcer. Yea I don’t get that either. Why they needed two people to do the job of one I will never know.
Jay Mohr. Jay, why do you do it? Why do you host the Awards Ceremony when you know that all of your jokes, no matter how funny they are, will always bomb? I don’t know what it is but those people do not want to laugh. Maybe it’s just because there aren’t a lot of people in the audience that it just seems like his jokes are falling flat. For Jay’s sake I hope that’s it but really I’m thinking it’s because NASCAR peeps aren’t really used to being roasted at their own shindig.
The funniest moment of the night was courtesy of Kyle Busch. Because he finished tenth in the standings he was the first from the top ten drivers to give their speech. When he went to thank his girlfriend Erica for her support over the year, he used his brother’s wife’s name, Eva, instead. Needless to say every driver after that ribbed Kyle by making it a point to use the correct name of their significant others.
The awkward moment of the night was brought to us by Jewel. Like I predicted she didn’t sing any songs that had to do with racing or winning or feelings about winning. No, instead she sang “Stephenville, TX” and “Foolish Games.”
Here are some sample lyrics from “Stephenville, TX:”
Housewives told to recapture their youth
By wearing floral print and suede
Fixing their hairdos with PC, chemical-free hairspray
Martha Stewart taught ‘em to make on TV
I was raised a farm girl
Now, I’m too far from home, all alone on the road
Trying to figure out who I am now that the stardust has turned to sand
And the sand has turned to stone — I’m the star making machine
So I think you can understand why I was cringing all the way through the song (and then through “Foolish Games”, where she sings about a love gone awry). I love the song and Jewel in general but not so much at a stock car racing awards ceremony. I mean this is like Mariah Carey singing “Vision of Love” before a NHL hockey match. It just doesn’t work for me.
In terms of the fashions on display I was very disappointed. There wasn’t much to look at, all of the ladies seemed to opt for black, except for Kevin Harvick’s wife, Delana who wore a green Vera Wang gown. You can’t go wrong with Vera.
You’ve gotta check out the video of the “yellow” carpet at the event. The correspondent asks the women who they’re wearing and you get some interesting answers. I recognized two designers Vera Wang and Ungaro, the other ones I have no idea. You have to remember these women don’t have stylists like Hollywood A-listers do. Yes they have a ton of money but they’re not spending all their time shopping on Rodeo Drive.
Jewel performs at the NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship Cup Series Awards Ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, Friday, Dec. 1, 2006. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)
Mark Martin, left, jokes with host Jay Mohr after accepting his award for finishing ninth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship Cup Series at the awards ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, Friday, Dec. 1, 2006. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)
First let me apologize for being so slow on the draw with these entries. Work is work and there’s been a lot of it lately. Mix that in with a couple days off and you’ve got a recipe for a backlog of work to be done.
Anywhoo… There’s been something burning in my brain ever since last weekend’s NASCAR race at New Hampshire. In a previous post I mentioned the fact that I have a healthy distaste for the Busch brothers. The annoyance I feel for Kyle in particular has only grown since his lame comments after winning the race on Sunday.
Ok. Here’s the thing, Kyle wins the race and you’d think the freak would be so happy that he wouldn’t have anything on the planet to complain about considering the fact that winning races is supposedly the only thing that matters (aside from winning the championship of course).
But no, people, no, Kyle managed to find something to whine about. Apparently he’s not getting enough attention from the media. When he was talking to Allen Bestwick in the winners circle at the very end of the interview he says something to effect of “I guess I have to win in order to get any time on TV.” Bestwick had a great comeback that unfortunately I can’t remember right now.
The point is Kyle is a total tool! Why does he always have to get some little jab in there? I’m sure that really makes the networks want to talk to his conceited, big head. Wasn’t he on Oprah? Isn’t that enough? Jeez.
