More Musings NASCAR Louden, NH Vickers, Gordon, harvick

Well, in all fairness, today it was reported that the info about Harvick and Burton's tires being fixed to depressurize was false. That was according to NASCAR and Richard Childress Racing. I hope that is the truth, and I will accept it as such for now. Also I am still steaming over Jeff Gordon telling Brian Vickers not to race him or pass him because he, Jeff, was in the Chase. I want 43 drivers to race, and I wanted Brian to win his first race yesterday. He might not have as he faded a little near the end, but boy that would have been great. I really felt for him, though. And it definitely validated for me why he is leaving the Hendrick organization (not that I had not understood earlier). It will be interesting to see how Casey Mears fares at Hendrick next year. I cannot wait to see how the Toyotas run. And I hope, Honda comes over, too, if Toyota succeeds. And I still have great admiration for Jeff Gordon's career. He seemed very competitive yesterday, and I did like the way he drove except for his radio comments about Vickers. Of course, I would love to have heard his reaction to Johnson and Busch' runs yesterday. I read the Penske log today. My heart aches for Kurt and Ryan. I hope changes are coming soon before it is too late to get a good jump on next year. I cannot believe the jack fell again on the 2 team. I am thrilled that Penske Racing won the IRL Championship, but I hope now more attention gets paid to the 2 and 12 teams. I look forward to seeing the 2 and 12 draft at Talladega. I may go. Still on the fence about going to Dover. Watching the weather. Will decide tomorrow or Wednesday. Just also want to comment how much I enjoyed Speed's "7 Days" segment on Nascar writer, Marty Smith. If you did not catch it-try to do so. Stay tuned.

NASCAR Chase Musings NH 2006

Strange to come into the Chase with neither of mine or my Mom's favorite driver in the Chase. Of course we were spoiled having our favorite drivers win the last two years. Now neither is even in the hunt. Of course we have other drivers we like and many of those are in the Chase. So we anticipated all week after the upset of Tony not making it in last week as to who we would cheer forward. Since over half of the drivers in the Chase are new to the Chase we anticipated what that would bring. We loved what we saw in the Top Ten with David Letterman, and also got a real kick out of the Top 5 on Regis and Kelly. I took away several things from those appearances-Hamlin can handle the pressure and the hype, Harvick is still a prankster (also showed up by forcing a pie in Hamlin's face at the track), Cutie Pie Kahne looks cute under any light, Kyle loves to talk, and Kenseth is in hyper competitive mode ("there's no more pies!"). Just from those appearances my ranking prediction for after the first race was Kenseth, Harvick and Hamlin. So I awoke with great expectations and excitement today. I eased into the day by watching CBS Sunday Morning, took a bike ride to the point on the island and watched Speed's Race Day. I had noticed Harvick was losing his cockiness coming to the end of the 26 races and during the appearances, but I saw his brashness come out fairly fast yesterday during practice. I knew he would be tough on the track today. But first, I was so sorry to see Jeff Green go into Kyle Busch so early in the race. I hope his young age and brashness will get him beyond this quickly. I want him to believe he can still win the Chase and hop right back into it-naivete may help him. Then there was Harvick dodging between his teammate and Hamlin. At that point, I knew the old Harvick was back. I was amazed at how well Denny held on to the car. Bravo, and bravo to his finish. But Kevin, it was just a little bit too early to pull a maneuver like that. As Earl says-that creates bad kharma. And Jeff Burton could have really been hurt as well. I doubt either Jeff, but especially Denny will forget that move anytime soon. It may come back to bite Kevin you know where in a future run. I am not a Johnson fan. I believe he and his team have gotten away with far too much in the past (even though I admire their creativity and talent). He is too cute, too Hollywood for me (not downright gorgeous like Cutie Pie Kahne who will look even better and better as time goes by). However, I would not have wished JJ's day on my worst enemy. What a bad birthday. I think his momentum is gone, but he may prove me wrong. Not sure about Kyle. Then there is Jr. I adore Jr. I want Jr. To win the championship so he can move on and do whatever it is he really wants to do-act, build and manage tracks in Mobile (what better place to build a track than where you have a city called Mobile), get married and have a slew of little racers, or create video games. He just looks so sad and lost to me and my Mom. We wish we could just hug him or find him a great gal. He really seemed in the doldrums today over his car's performance (or was it because every week his teammate-my almost neighbor has had a terrible time). For a while I thought Jr might win the race-now that would have been great. Jeff Burton was up front for a bit, Kenseth had a fair day-but he will do better next week, Kahne came back strong as he could with what he had, Mark Martin was kind of a non-event today (I think he needs to decide what he is doing next year in order to get on with it-he needs to do what he wants to do not what everyone else wants him to do-just do whatever it is-everyone will adjust like they did this year). Then there were the non-Chasers-Tony Stewart certainly ended up having a great day. The impact of not being in the Chase seems to have caught up with him. But I want him and all the other non-Chasers-to race as hard as they can. Do that for the fans, for the owners and the sponsors. Don't give positions to the Chasers! Make these last ten races worth watching for everyone. Don't try to take one out (unless it is payback), just RACE please and let everyone get the position they deserved by racing. Give us our money's worth. And Mr. Penske, I think you are wonderful, but you have two phenomenal racers who are floundering. It is not either driver's fault. They are doing the best driving they can with what they have. Changes are needed, and now is the time. So we ended up with Harvick in first place for the first time in his career-nice-not too surprising, but what's this about the tire pressure found out in post-race inspection??? And maybe it is a grey area in the rulebook. But for me it taints the race. So what happens now? I have high expectations for Dover. I look for Kenseth, Mark Martin and Kahne to be the strongest there. And I sure hope the other 33 drivers as well as the Chasers come to the race to win. I may have to take the ferry on over to Dover to see for myself. Or I may sit right here and watch the race. From the Jersey Shore where the above are strictly my own musings and opinions- Good Night!

Update Dakar, Miller 2

January was wonderful because of Dakar. Too bad Robby Gordon could not finish the race-hopefully he will go back next year. It was sad to see one motorcyclist die and also two spectators. But nothing deterred the racers from finishing. This is one of the best sporting events of the year. The scenery, the people along the way, the competitors make this a grand sporting experience. Thanks to OLNTV for their daily coverage. We did not miss a day! Mark your calendar for next January 1. If you have OLN on your cable, do not miss it. If you don't have OLN, beg your cable provider to get it for you. They also cover the TourdeFrance.
I spent a lot of this month writing letters for Kurt Busch. I was devastated by Jack Roush and his Newell Rubbermaid Sharpie and Diageo Crown Royal sponsors. Kurt should have been innocent until being found guilty. He was not drinking anymore than most of us would have at dinner. I do not believe he should have sassed the deputy, but I wonder how much he was goaded or just trying to proclaim his innocence. I blame the police and the sheriff the most. Just a bad set of circumstances all the way around. But I saw a clip of Kurt today. He seems so happy. I felt like last year from the beginning was drudgery for Kurt. I do not think he got the respect he deserved especially from Jack Roush.I honestly felt that Roush's goals were very different from Kurt's. I do believe Kurt wanted to win another championship. Instead it seemed as though just like Matt Kenseth the year before, Kurt was shelved to the back. It seemed as though Jack was pushing Bif and Mark as well as Edwards toward the end/middle of the year. I think his goal was to have every driver win a championship. That is a great goal for an owner, but not for a driver who has won one. Kurt is young, and will hopefully win a second quickly. I still believe he is one of the best technical drivers on the track.
My newest Nascar hero is Roger Penske. I hope Kurt moves forward, learns a lot from Roger and wins another championship this year or next. His brother may be in contention this year.It will be great if they both get in the Chase.
Our house was so happy when Kurt won the championship. What happened in 2005 at the end really ruined the season for us except for the fact that my Mom is a die hard Tony Stewart fan with Kurt as her second. I actually became physically ill when I heard Roush pull Kurt out of the car. From the minute I saw Kurt tell his side, I knew he was telling the truth. I never looked back and was right.
I am eager to see how McMurray does in the 26. I saw Jamie the same day I saw Kurt in December of 2004 at the NBC Experience in NY. Jamie did not even look at me when I spoke to him. He signed my autograph while continuing to converse with Matt Kenseth. Kurt on the other hand had a nice conversation with me and signed not one, but two autographs for me. He was so much more personable. Kurt had as long a line as McMurray had had earlier. Regarding McMurray, why did he go to Roush instead of taking Rusty's seat?? I am so glad it worked out as it has. Cannot wait to see the competition.
I read an interesting article in the NY Daily News the other day about Marco Andretti, son of Michael, grandson of Mario. It was a great article. I do think Dan Wheldon, Danica Patrick, Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish, Tony Kanaan as well as a few others are beginning to really revive the IRL. Mario Andretti will hopefully drive this revival forward as well. I look forward to watching IRL again this year. Thank goodness for PIP when the races are on at the same time.
More later.