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Track Trash – It’s Rich, manby Racing Maniac ~ May 4th, 2008. Filed under: Track Trash. |
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Amongst the boring laps set down by DennyHambone, little tidbits of adrenaline were sprinkled every now and then at Richmond.
The Bobsy Twins, the Big One, Mikie’s carnage, and KidKyle’s ‘judgment error’ at the end of the race. But hey, it’s short track racing, and the inevitable is always guesswork. |
Re-up: So the Flipster re-signed with Roush. No surprise that they wanted to hang on to their franchise player. The most interesting thing regarding this was the teams trying to snatch him for next year. The first was Hendrick, which should make CaseOfMears feel extremely uneasy, cuz he’s obviously the odd man out. If I were da Case, I’d start looking elsewhere right now, cuz the handwriting is definitely on the wall. The second team was Gibbs, who might be taking the initial moves to replace Smoke. For a brief week or so, Smoke had the upper hand in the pre-negotiations …, but now JGR has grabbed the reins and may be taking proactive measures for 2009 and beyond.
Texas: No surprise that Eddie Gossage offered Jr. a hunk of money to race open-wheelers with Danica, cuz this is all about hype. But in my eyes, the pile of money was too small to be considered. And we’re not talking about KennyShredder or RoboGordo, who will race anywhere at the drop of a hat. So Jr., in his casual way of doing things, said ‘no thank you’. The whole situation woulda been win-win for Gossage, and lose-lose for Jr., so it was a smart decision.
Robo: Speaking about RoboGordo, he just went through another crew chief. The new one should take a lesson from the others, and try not to unpack his bags until they get a decent finish in the next few races.
Drugs: NA$CAR is finally getting their act together, and may be appointing someone to oversee drug testing in the big leagues. Remember, NA$CAR is a profit making organization, so they would tend to do be forced into making changes that effects their bottom line.
RCR: They’re looking for a driver for their 4th team, so sponsorship must not be an issue any more. However, there aren’t that many unsigned superstars available next year, so they may have to pick from one of the many tadpoles. Of course, Smoke would be a welcomed addition, but at this point it looks doubtful.
Da Race: To say that DennyHambone dominated 95% of the race is putting it mildly. Unfortunately, during the process, he also made the race pretty boring. He put a whuppin’ on SirMark, KidKyle, Jr., and anyone else that was strong enough to be up front. But then, destiny entered the picture. With a mere 20 laps to go, he began having a RF tire problem. It eventually went flat and he nailed the wall. After being dead in the water on the track, for some reason he decided to fire it up and nurse it to the pits. This move didn’t sit too well with NA$CAR, and they gave him a 2 lap penalty. Ah, yes. Another nebulous rule was drug out of the very secretive NA$CAR rulebook.
Bobsy Twins: One went North, and the other went South. Gordo started in the rear due to an ignition change, and soon became one of the many lapped cars. For a while, it smelled like he was gonna be dog meat all night, but they slowly started tuning the car to respectability. He eventually got a dog pass, and even got a tad racy at the end. JJ brought up the Southern exposure. After starting 12th, he dropped like a rock, dinged up his LF fender, then was able to surge to the front into 17th place. But being in the pack was gonna bite him where he sits.
The Big One: A huge fandango on Lap 230 started when DaveBlarney pinched JJYeleyBean. They both whoa-ed up, and da Flipster nailed JJY in the rear. In the aftermath, 11 or 12 cars were mangled (10, 17, 2, 39, 31, 48, 96, 70, 42, 00, 01 and 38). The worst part of it was when Patrick Carpentier became an unwilling participant in a wreck-fest. He got nailed several times, and looked like he was a human pinball. Thanks to the COT and other safety features, cuz he walked away from it.
Mikie: Not another stellar performance from Mikie. With 46 to go, CaseOfMears pinched Mikie into the wall. It must’ve lit Mikie’s fuse, cuz there was an aftermath with spewing sparks that sent Mears to the bone yard. As a benevolent gesture, NA$CAR parked Mikie for the rest of the evening.
Da real race: Everyone had hunkered down for most of the race, just biding their time. But when it got to ‘40 to go’, the racing started reaching a feverous pitch. Hambone was still in the lead, but Jr. and KidKyle were racing door-to-door for several laps. When Hambone eventually had his tire problem, he slowed, and Jr. and da Kid went 3 wide for the lead. Jr. got the lead, raising hopes that his 2-year draught was soon to be over. However, with only a few laps to go, da Kid got racy with Jr., slid up into him, and sent him sliding sideways. And with that move, many of Jr. Nation had a sickening feeling in their stomachs……and fire in their belly for da Kid. The announcers were wondering if da Kid would make it out of the track without being beheaded.
Bowowyer: So Clint bagged the W, the second of his career. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Did he WIN the race? No, it was handed to him, and the glory was not as sweet as it could’ve been. But any way you look at it, a W is a W.
Kudos: To Hambone for a great performance. To SirMark for doggedly hanging in there. To TwoTonTony for sneaking into a top five.
Upchucks: To KidKyle for pushing it over the edge. To Mikie for his temper tantrum.
Heaps of 3’s all over your local BB&T bank,
Racing Maniac #3, #88e
May 5th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
The Bush brothers always have a standard pat reply when they wreck somebody..Just racin bubba!! Just racin..Just one of those things that happen..
When they get wrecked they scream to the high heavens at the injustice of the racing world..It was done on purpose..
Nascar seems to have a blind eye when it comes to Bush 1 and the younger..If Tony Stwart had done what the younger idiot brother did there would be screams from the goof balls on Fox and Nascar.Start treating drivers equally or just forget it..
May 5th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
You earnhart jr, fans are idiots!!!! Can someone please tell me why NA$CAR’S “most popular driver” is someone of inferior talent? I am a “SMOKE” fan, that’s who should be the driver to have the title of “most popular”, but if not him, then someone with talent and the ability to show that they are not only competitive but a “winner”…. i.e. gordan, johnson, kenseth, edwards… and I don’t even like those guys (hate gordan, johnson and all hendrick organization, cheaters all the way to the top-forgot about rick cheating the government and having to go to prison???), but they show talent. And thats what Kyle shows talent, the incident was just a racin’ thang… NO DRIVER should lift to avoid a wreck going for the win!!!
Every driver is ***** worried about running into or upsetting earnhart and his “kool-aid drinking” “nation” fans that it makes me so mad every week, just last week at Talladega “THE BEST DRIVER”, “SMOKE” said over his radio, after jr. hit him, let jr. know he did nothing wrong…THAT’S B.S., would sr. have ever came over the radio and said that, I think NOT!!!
Everyone needs to quit trying to drive on egg-shells around this mid-level talent driver and being worried about the consequinces of his fan base if you do something to him.
Real race fans keep this in mind…….
LIFTERS ARE LOSERS!!!!!!!
May 5th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
This is in response to billwt, Im an Earnhardt fan and I aint no idiot!Jr is not an inferior talent, he is however a better and cleaner driver than your boy toy Kylie! See billy boy the thing we are talking about is racing, the object of the game is not to wreck yourself or somebody else! A real race fan would understand that billy boy! Yeah Smoke is one hell of a driver and I love to watch him race, he is in the same bracket as Jr. as one of the best drivers in Nascar today. But ole boy Kylie dont even come close to being in that same fraternity! See billy boy it takes more talent to pass someone clean than to put them in the wall, and you know pal ole Denny Hamlin helped Kylies cause by intentally causing a caution, I remember a couple years ago Jr needed a caution and caused one on purpose and got the same 2 lap penalty Denny did. If you see drivers walking on eggshells around Jr, I think you need to reinterpret that thought as just respect for a good clean driver, one they can trust at 190 mph in the first turn at Dega!Bet boy Kylie aint got that respect, hes no different than any other kid at 22 young and dumb, no room for that in Nascar, again a real Nascar fan would know that.. I bet you never been to a race in person billy, you seem like an armchair fan to me!
May 5th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Okay, I kinda agree with Bill W. T. in that the people complaining about Kyle Busch are people who obviouisly don’t “get” racing. No way Kyle did anything “wrong” to wreck Dale, Jr. I have heard the rumblings on some other sites that Kyle turned his wheels to the right to wreck Jr., but it just ain’t so. Anyone who knows anything about car control will tell you that if you’re below another car in the turn the tendency is to get loose and the rear wheels slide to the right. The corrective move is to lift off the throttle and turn the wheels INTO the spin (so, to the right). Most drivers in NASCAR’s marquee series can tell when their car is about to spin and can apply the correction almost exactly as the condition is starting. This is what Kyle was doing. Sounds like the Racing Maniac didn’t really get it, either, with the awarding of an upchuck…
I don’t agree, though, that Jr. is an “inferior talent”. He’s a very good seat-of-the-pants racer as is Kyle.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Hey Steven, you make some good points about Jr. being a good driver, but see my post above. Kyle did not wreck Jr. on purpose. The only way that wreck could have been avoided was if both Jr. and Kyle gave the other driver more room. Jr. actually came down the track on a lower line than he had been using, which looked a lot like he was trying to block Kyle (which is legal in NASCAR, but not in most open wheel series). In the last few laps of a race, no driver racing for first place is going to concede, and no driver is going to intentionally wreck another when doing so can easily take out BOTH cars. What Kyle said at the end of the race was correct, Jr. could have gone a little higher, and he (Kyle) could have gone a little lower. If Tony Eury, Jr., thinks it was a racing incident, that’s good enough for me.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I say hats off to Jr. for his comments after the race. No trash talk or ugliness just a “that’s racin’” attitude even though you know he was sick about it. BTW Kyle,Jr.,Tony,Jeff,JJ,Carl are all extremely skilled drivers even if you don’t like some of them.
May 5th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Way to go Bobby. Great comment. While we all have our favorites, let’s not forget that all those guys have a tremendous amount of skill, or they wouldn’t be there.