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All day long, it was a case of Have or Have Not.

Of the Oyotas, the JGR’s ‘Have’ it, and the Mikey’s ‘Have Not’.

Jr. and Gordo ‘Have’ it, and JJ and Mears ‘Have Not’.

Flip, Da Biff and MattyBoy ‘Have’ it, and Ragan and JamieMac ‘Have Not’.

Need I say more?

Flipster: There’s a lot of controversy regarding the missing oil tank cover last weekend. Apparently, this IS a big deal. To be more informed on this subject, you might want to visit: stockcarscience.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/05/oil_tank_covers Reading this will confirm that a missing cover WILL give an advantage to that car. Bob Osborne holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Penn State, and he should have at LEAST put two bolts on this door if he really wanted to nail it down (or use duct tape for a belt-and-suspenders approach). Thus, the penalties are justified, and perhaps should have been more.

Robo: The partial reversal of penalties to the 7 car was quite unexpected, yet rewarding to the fans. Regardless of who you root for, anything like this should be dealt with fairly, and not via some black and white rule book. NA$CAR’s review Commission gets a huge ATTABOY for their decision on this matter.

Cookies: Although we might think that all 1.5 mile cookie cutters are alike, they aren’t. Each has a life of it’s own due to age of the asphalt, degree of banking, weather conditions, hot dog vendors, length of the race, and other variations. The setups might seem similar, but each track has a different twist to it. So let’s not be too harsh or chastise NA$CAR for having too many of these tracks. After all, NA$CAR only has control over the ISC tracks. But yes, we do need the next few tracks being built to be shorter.

Crowds: You looked up in the stands today, and there were a huge number of empty seats. Atlanta is not noted for warm weather in the Spring, so one could expect this. But it just points out that the fans are staying away from some tracks for whatever reason: high gas prices, the plight of the upside-down homeowners, high ticket prices, high refreshment prices, you name it…..

T-Mobile Cup: Yes, Sprint is in financial trouble. They’re laying off droves of employees, and are beginning to cut their prices to gain more customers. T-Mobile, the ‘low price provider’ might not want the competition (to drive prices that much lower), and it’s rumored that they may host a take-over of Sprint. Now, think of this…..why did AT&T suddenly consider reneging on their agreement to exit the Cup at the end of this year? Why? Because they could see Sprint’s problems developing, and just might be considering buying out Sprint when the price is right. Ah, big business. Don’tcha just love it??

Da Race: The race began with just a handful of cars that were tuned to perfection. The other cars were obviously not set up, and became sitting ducks. In the first 15 laps, 5 cars brushed the wall, and some others had the dreaded ‘tire wear’ problem. Bolting to the front was our ole bud Jr., and by the way he was driving, one could think that he was going to dominate all day. Not to worry, because when they started tuning the car during the race, it went away and he never regained the dominance he had.

Pathetic: Think of this. Das Knaus blew it in LV, in front of a myriad of Lowes employees. Then he comes to ATL, where the race is called the Kobalt 500 (tools sold at Lowes), and he stinks up the house again. I know, he seemed to pull a bunny out of the hat with a 13th place finish (last place without being one lap down….like he was earlier), but this is not even close to the standard they set for the past few years. Of course, they could run off a string of W’s and get right with the world, but with the Roushketeers again having fun, this just might not happen. We can’t place the blame on JJ, but das Knaus seems to have a chink in his armor……..

Saddles: What with Ray playing the absent owner role, we now see an improvement in KaseOfKahne in 2008, but a decided dive in Saddleburns’ performance. To say that Saddleburns had a bad hair day would slight his performance. After all, with 3 wall jobs within 40 laps, he certainly exceeded the number we would normally expect. I’m not saying he’s in the ‘A’ list of drivers, but he should be able to drive better than he has in the past few years.

Flip: The story was unfolding as the race went on. The Flipster was strong, and getting stronger. He finally got the lead and commanded the race. Visions of sugarplums (and another W) were dancing in our heads. But wait…..was that a whiff of smoke ?? Yep, and not long thereafter he was laying a strip of oil on the track and headed behind the wall. Bummer, dude.

Da Kid: Da Kid, Sagebrush, Rowdy. You can call him anything you want, but also call him a great driver. He’s gonna put his bro to shame within the near future, and we’re all going to shake our heads in amazement in the process. How stupid could Mr. ‘H’ be to let da Kid loose, and keep CaseOfMears ?? In poker we would laugh our heads off at such a dimwit move. Pound for pound, he’s the most exciting driver on the track at this point. And we hope it doesn’t go to his head……

Kudos: To Oyota and JGR for their first W. With the way they were driving, we thought it was just around the corner. To TwoTon for a quiet 2nd. To VickersVaporub for a solid 9th after being a lap down…twice during the race. To Blobonte for a 12th in the Pettymobile.

Heaps of 3’s all over yer Snickers bar,
Racing Maniac #3, #88e