// MotorSportsNews.Net(work)

Don’tcha wonder sometimes why they spell it PHOENIX when it sounds like PHEONIX ?

Don’tcha wonder sometimes why they run 600 mile races when they can do it in 312 ?

Don’tcha wonder sometimes when Gordo and Jr. will ever return to the winners circle?

Maybe Not: The downfall of Jerry Maybefield is about over. Ever since he had the audacity of spinning The Old Man (Dale Sr.) at Pocono a number of years ago, he’s had some awfully bad karma. It’s almost like a hex was put on him, ‘cuz ever since, his mojo just ain’t been working. Bouncing from one team to another, all the time going to less prestigious owners, about the only thing left for him is to drive for Captain Morgan Shepard’s ‘Racing for Jesus’ team. In that role, he can take in about 10 laps and then park it…..

Hissy fit: AssiGanassi threw a tantrum the other day, and strongly suggested that if his teams didn’t perform better, some of them are gonna get their walking papers. His teams aren’t performing as expected, and it appears that he doesn’t know how to fix the situation. In some instances, you’d expect the owner to start pulling his hair out, but in this case, AssiGanassi is already almost bald. Thus he’s resorting to scare tactics (not a very good way to inspire your employees). Of course, this is just about the opposite approach one would expect out of Coach Gibbs and his well-oiled machine.

BAM: It’s good to see that BAM has taken a few races off their schedule in order to regroup. Even though this is the early part of the schedule, a move like this takes courage, and is obviously the best approach for this fledgling team. Three cheers for the underdog…….

Chemicals: Well, they finally brought this subject out in the open. As the drivers all agree, mandatory drug testing should’ve been instituted years ago. None of the drivers have been subjected to random drug tests, and in this day and age, NA$CAR needs to wake up and step into the 21st Century. Chemicals have pervaded every form of sports, and whereas it has barely scratched the surface in NA$CAR, there’s no question that some drivers (or team members) might be tempted to bolster their spirits with an unapproved medicine. Odds are that the present set of drivers are clean, but I’m not so sure that all of their over-the-wall boys are clean and green……

Pre-race: I’m sorry, was there a pre-race show on FOX, or was that the remainder of the BoSox/Yankees game? I don’t know about nationally, but my pre-race programming was interrupted by the remainder of the rain-delayed ball game. They even said that it was being simulcast on both FOX and FX, so why didn’t they just cut to the racing and let the intense baseball fans switch to FX? Oh, maybe a lot of viewers don’t have FX….. Sounds similar to what some NA$CAR fans are up against, eh?? Bottom line: FOX seems to think more about pleasing their baseball fans than they do about their racing compadres.

Da Race: Actually, this was a good track (if one could disregard the sun in the drivers eyes), with good racing, and at 312 miles/laps, it was just right (especially at that time of night for the East coast crowd). This just proves that you don’t have to run a race for 500 or 600 miles in order to have a pleasing race. They coulda started the race a tad earlier, but I’ll reserve my whining for another issue.

Jr.: The early pit stop (lap 10) was the key to his success, because the gremlins were gnawing at the handling and a quick fix was the only solution. Eury Jr. nailed the fix, and Jr. steadily climbed back to the front, and remained there most of the night. Occasionally, flashes of a “W” danced in their heads, but that elation will be around a few more corners.

MattyBoy: The fickle finger of fate doused MattyBoy’s car with the “can’t drive this piece of crap” syndrome. It’s happened to many of the big name drivers (ask Gordo about the Texazz race), and it’ll happen again and again until they finally get this new car, er, tank, figured out. NA$CAR says no changes are imminent, but down the road they’ll start tweaking it into respectability. On the other hand, leaving it alone will place a lot of responsibility on the engineers, crews, and drivers, and keep this from being the IROC incarnated.

Big One: FlyinRyan upset the applecart when they broke a power steering line and spewed slippery fluid all over the track. Throw the Red. Coming into the pits, the 12 car spun in it’s own leakage, but Rocketman deftly did a 360 into his pit.

Gimme some 8’s: With 75% of the race completed, we were given the race we’ve been waiting for. Jr’s 88 was wobbling all over the place, and SirMark’s 8 was sucking in his fumes. 30 laps later, SirMark was able to pull it off, but not without a lot of excitement. It was the ‘race within a race’, and it pleased most of the Big E fans.

Fuel: Late in the game it appeared to be another fuel race. A few would gamble, and all others came in for gas and perhaps two tires. I really, really hate fuel races, but in this case it was the one to remember. Only JJ, Bowowyer, and Jburton stayed out, and at that point JJ had an exceptionally large lead on the 07 and 31 cars. So cut the camera to das Knaus, who was lying through his teeth when he told JJ to whoa it down to conserve fuel because he had a 20 second lead. Nah, it was more like a 9 second lead, but due to the situation, neither the 07 nor the 31 cars were trying to burn up the track in order to pass JJ. So we see das Knaus pleading to JJ to back it down, back it down.
JJ (of course) won the race, and proved in the post race burn-out that he probably coulda gone another 1 or 2 laps.

Blobonte: About half way through the race the Bobster was down a cylinder, and in 21st place. The amazing thing is that he somehow ended up in 12th (barely beating Gordo to the line) when the checkered flag came down. The only thing I can think of is that with 7 cylinders, the car wasn’t burning as much gas, thus he didn’t need that precious last pit stop and cruised past those that did. I could be wrong on this. But as you know, the TV guys don’t pay much attention to anyone outside of the top 5 or 6 when the end draws near.

Kudos: Big ones to das Knaus. He had the confidence, and made it happen. It’s just a shame that JJ has not one single sliver of an ounce of personality, thus won’t get the recognition that he deserves. Yeah, he’s a good driver, but otherwise he’s such a dweeb. Just my humble opinion…….

Heaps of 3’s all over yer Lowes store,
Racing Maniac #3, #88e