Track Trash – Picdanose

What an outstanding race (if you just watched the last 30 laps).

Surprise, surprise……Smoke quietly backed into a 2nd place finish, while da Flipster snatched victory out of the hands of the 48 team.

The only thing lacking was a Green/White/Checkered finish, which woulda put half the pack out of the race due to lack of petrol.

Games: Silly Season is upon us, and this year it’s gonna include the child’s game of Musical Chairs…..with one revision. Instead of just one chair missing, there will be several. There are more available drivers than seats for the ’09 season, so some of ‘em are gonna go home with tears in their eyes. Just like football and baseball players, the weaker ones need to have a game plan for their future, cuz you never know when the fickle finger of fate is gonna wipe your slate clean.

Pigtails: The latest rumor floating around is that CaseOfMears may replace Mr.Pigtail in the 45 car in ‘09. I was a tad remiss in not detailing that ever since Petty sold controlling interest to Boston Ventures, this may mean Pigtail is no longer in a management position. If so, he’s just an employee and might have lost his position of stature within the organization.

Montreal: If you watched the Busch race yesterday in Montreal, you were treated to a ‘first’ via using treaded rain tires for the wet conditions. You were also treated to another NA$CAR fiasco, the second in less than a week. OK, the 9 years old rain tires seemed to work, but the windshield wipers (only used on a few cars) weren’t effective at high speeds, and only were useful during the turns. However, the windshield wiper only worked on the left side of the windshield, and when they had to make a right turn they proved useless. Compounding that was a fogging problem on the inside of the windshield and the inside of the helmet visor. All in all, it turned out to be a dangerous situation.

Da Race: Is this race too long? YES !! As with many of ‘em, you could watch the last 50 laps and be quite contented that you saw the best action. Of course, trying to factor in a rain delay is a bit tough, but they could knock 50 laps off and not be too concerned about the outcry.

Games: It’s gotten to the point that midway through the race, you haven’t got much of a chance at guessing who’s gonna be up front at the end of the race. What with long races, the off-sequence pit stops, having to continuously tune the car to track conditions, some taking 4 tires, some taking two, you just can’t predict who might be in the running until perhaps the last 30 laps. For some of you this may be a good thing, but for others it’s a bit nerve racking. But the crew chiefs are earning every penny of their salary playing this game of chess. Some are good at it, and others are sorely lacking.

Gasp: It was entirely amusing watching the last 5 laps. You’ve never seen so many cars run out of gas on the last few laps. Fuel mileage appeared to be the biggest gamble of the day, and never have so many thrown the dice……and lost their shirts in the process. Of those running out of gas (2, 18, 24, 44, 48, 66, 88 to name a few), only JJ was able to get over the line without giving up valuable places.

SirMark: With an extremely stout car most of the day, this team encountered two near-disaster pit stops, and both can be squarely blamed on the lack of efficiency on the RF tire change. I’d hate to be that TEI employee. Betcha he’s gonna have a hard time sleeping for the next few nights.

Happy: What a tremendous effort the 29 team made today. After getting spun out by JoeNemo during the first lap, they climbed back into the saddle and eventually walked away with a 4th place finish. Outstanding effort !!

JJ and Da Flipster: The 48 fans probably had visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads for a while today. But when the chips were down, da Flipster almost literally rained on their parade. With storm clouds approaching, Flip turned up the heat and was pretty much in control for the rest of the race. The only questionable move was leading most of the front-runners into the pits just before the rain came down. It turned out OK, but it coulda been a really bad move. It was sorta neat seeing the Pied Piper lead the rats into the pits, though.

Gordo: I hate to keep playing a broken record, but I still say LeFarte oughta be thrown out on his ear. Gordo might like the guy, but this team needs a new leader in the pits. How long can they keep making excuses for him? What we need is for Gordhead to proclaim his undying admiration for LeFarte……which would be the kiss of death, and a sure sign that he’s gonna be terminated.

JamieMac: His pending oust must be giving Jamie some extra determination, cuz he’s beginning to shine. The last few races have been berry berry gooood for Jmac. Too bad he’s gonna be cut from the squad in a time period when there are far too many free agents.

Heaps of 3’s all over yer local Office Depot center,
Racing Maniac #3, #8e

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 15 99 Carl Edwards Ford Office Depot 190/5 200 Running
2 20 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot 170/0 200 Running
3 1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s 170/5 200 Running
4 21 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 160/0 200 Running
5 16 6 David Ragan Ford AAA Insurance 160/5 200 Running
6 30 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s 150/0 200 Running
7 7 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 151/5 200 Running 8 2
8 Mark Martin Chevrolet Steak-umm Burgers 152/10 200 Running
9 41 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal 143/5 200 Running
10 4 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 134/0 200 Running
11 5 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT 135/5 200 Running 12
12 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet AMP Energy / National Guard 132/5 200 Running
13 9 16 Greg Biffle Ford DISH Network Turbo HD 129/5 200 Running
14 6 12 Ryan Newman Dodge Avis 121/0 200 Running
15 17 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 118/0 200 Running
16 19 28 Travis Kvapil Ford Hitachi Power Tools 115/0 200 Running
17 34 45 Chad McCumbee Dodge Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil 112/0 200 Running
18 18 70 Tony Raines Chevrolet Haas Automation 109/0 200 Running
19 31 84 A.J. Allmendinger Toyota Red Bull 106/0 200 Running
20 37 21 Bill Elliott Ford Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies 108/5 200 Running
21 39 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Team USA 100/0 200 Running
22 33 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Cheez-It / CARQUEST 97/0 200 Running
23 14 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Express 94/0 200 Running
24 35 00 Michael McDowell * Toyota Champion Mortgage 91/0 200 Running
25 36 01 Regan Smith * Chevrolet DEI / Principal Financial Group 88/0 200 Running
26 26 77 Sam Hornish Jr. * Dodge Mobil 1 85/0 200 Running
27 29 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Best Buy / Garmin 82/0 200 Running
28 8 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 79/0 200 In Pit
29 40 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet Haas Automation 81/5 200 Running
30 28 44 David Reutimann Toyota UPS 73/0 200 In Pit
31 24 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 70/0 198 Running
32 25 10 Terry Labonte Dodge Charter Comm. 67/0 198 Running
33 11 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker 64/0 198 Running
34 3 38 David Gilliland Ford FreeCreditReport.com 61/0 198 Running
35 32 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 58/0 198 Running
36 27 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M’s 55/0 198 Running
37 38 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Johns Manville / Menards 52/0 197 Running
38 10 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 54/5 197 Running
39 43 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV 46/0 196 In Pit
40 13 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Texaco / Havoline 43/0 146 Out of Race
41 23 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row 40/0 138 In Pit
42 22 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet Energizer / Menards 37/0 137 Running
43 42 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 39/5 24 Out of Race