[Racer Duck]

It was a short track COT race, what did you expect?

Wondered about Jeff Gordon's green driver's suit: would it be lucky or not? Don't think it was.

Speaking of uniforms, did you see Sauter's Radioactive Energy crew? in bright yellow!!!

I felt so sorry for the Sheriff who screwed up the Pledge of Allegiance.

And how about 32 consecutive sellouts for Richmond! That's 120,000 seats times 32!!! (You folks with the calculators can figure out how many noses that is.)

Wouldn't ya know it: the first race for ABC and they can't even get the race leader covered for the 1st lap. Who knew what happened when Johnson lost the lead going into turn 3? Then they didn't have a camera on the first contact! Two strikes and the race has hardly begun....

One thing I did like was the little window showing the driver's name when they isolated on a car .. it also included the team's name.

I bet no one expected Jr to be the primary focus of the race. Or that he'd be wired with in-car telemetry. They had camera's everywhere they could get them. And we followed every gain and loss with micro precision -whether we wanted to or not. The announcers were giddy with 45 laps to go and Jr was putting on a show, first with Gordo and then with Tony. All for naught 'cause with 20 laps left in the race, Harvick locked up his place in the Chase - Jr was out! Shortly thereafter, the RCR/DEI engine let go... not a dry eye in the house. "...for some reason they (engines) don't last in my car .. ran in the top 5 all year .. just have to finish races." NOTE to Rick: "build better engines, 'cause I'm gonna stress 'em!"

What's with all the fiery crashes lately? Add JPM to the list of "Hot!" drivers. I saw one journalist is calling for NASCAR to "investigate" .. that's useless over-reaction.

Did ya hear Tony sing? Yep, wasn't real loud, but he was singing in that Chevy commercial. Wonder if he'll sing for 'Yota?

Ya have to wonder what was going on in Tony's pits when he lost a total of 5 positions in the final two pit stops!

Did anybody figure out what Tony was "not" talking about in the post race interview?

Congrats to Ragan, Sauter and Kahne on their unexpected Top 10 finishes! Too bad ABC didn't think so highly of them .. oh yeah, this race we focused on Jr. .. I forgot! Maybe next time guys...

Going back to commercials (what else is there?), the trophy for the worst commercials of 2007 has got to go to Wendy's and that fellow wearing the red wig.

Did you notice the florescent yellow stripes on the Lowes crew's uniforms. In the post race semi-darkness they literally jumped off the screen!

And what was with the white and yellow ball caps that every one was wearing after the race? Each one had the logo for the person wearing it, but this is the first time I've seen EVERYONE with the same color and design!!! Is this a new conspiracy by NA$CAR to make everything the same for everyone?

And so another racing season has come to a close .. now the playoffs. Looks like Jimmy has one-upped his boss and is now 2 wins ahead.

[jks812]

I also had no idea what happened that caused Gordon to not lead the first lap.
I also agree that they showed to much of Jr. There were other guys doing just as good and better, could have showed them some.
Yes Wendy's has got some of the stupidest commercials on tv right now.
I think it was a big ol pile of crap that they didn't at least talk to Ragan. For once he ran a very good race and finished 3rd. I thought they always interviewed the top 3 finishners. Guess that's not true if you finish 3rd and you're not named Gordon, Stewart, Earnhardt or Johnson. I mean Jr finished 30th and they interviewed him.
I'm not sure, but I think all the yellow and white hats were the drivers that are in the chase.

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by jks812

I also had no idea what happened that caused Gordon to not lead the first lap.
I also agree that they showed to much of Jr. There were other guys doing just as good and better, could have showed them some.
Yes Wendy's has got some of the stupidest commercials on tv right now.
I think it was a big ol pile of crap that they didn't at least talk to Ragan. For once he ran a very good race and finished 3rd. I thought they always interviewed the top 3 finishners. Guess that's not true if you finish 3rd and you're not named Gordon, Stewart, Earnhardt or Johnson. I mean Jr finished 30th and they interviewed him.
I'm not sure, but I think all the yellow and white hats were the drivers that are in the chase.

that make sense...

[oncea3fan]

dominos desert oreo thing with the bread is the stupidest thing I've seen

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by oncea3fan

dominos desert oreo thing with the bread is the stupidest thing I've seen

yep .. it ranks right at the top also, for a single .. but we have to wait to see if it makes it to a series...

[PettyBlue]

Come on guy's you are talking about Mikey's sponser here.Show some respect for a great team.

[nascarfan24]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

Shortly thereafter, the RCR/DEI engine let go... not a dry eye in the house. "...for some reason they (engines) don't last in my car .. ran in the top 5 all year .. just have to finish races." NOTE to Rick: "build better engines, 'cause I'm gonna stress 'em!"

Jr. doesn't stress out his engines. I'd think that'd be obivious after the engines have been going out left and right! If he was over stressing them, he'd figure it out pretty fast!

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by nascarfan24

Jr. doesn't stress out his engines. I'd think that'd be obivious after the engines have been going out left and right! If he was over stressing them, he'd figure it out pretty fast!

Jr stated he turned one about 10,200 rpm about a month or so ago in practice, so when it poped in the race, he wasn't surprised.

go talk to every engine builder in NASCAR: they'll tell you nobody can build a legal Cup engine that reliably turns that many rpm. Maybe 5 or 10 years from now they might be able to, but not in 2007.

[oncea3fan]

if he's turning 10k plus on the tach, he/the team should have fixed the problem with another gear, I thought nascar locked the gear choice down to keep teams from over spinning thier engines what happened to that rule ??

is jr. doing something to blow the engines to make a reason for leaving. heck if ain't happy then move on no excuses needed

[Racer Duck]

I believe Jr's faux pax with the over limit rpms had to do with a spin. gears only work if there's a sufficient load to keep the rpms in check; spinning releases the load and allows the rpms to exceed the limit.

but I think Jr's problem is he tries to get more from the car than it sometimes has to give .. a lot like his dad in that respect. and I remember hearing something to the effect that he's not using the DEI/RCR engines, but the older DEI engines. that may be the source of the problem.

the point is, Jr is hard on cars. if you've listened to some of his radio talk during a race when the car isn't right (which seems to be most of the time), you have heard him complain the car/engine won't do what he wants it to do.

but without actual knowledge of what's breaking and why, it's all speculation.

[Nevadastars]

Sounds like HMS will need to put a rev limiter Jr's. car that he cannot tamper with.

[BringBackWilkesboro]

Here's an observation I had about a huge flaw in the race coverage. I could have guessed going in that ESPN/ABC's focus was going to be filled with Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr, it's only natural when a popular sports network comes in to cover a sport they clearly have no interest in. But the Dale Jr coverage was completely un-necessary and at one point, under false pretences.

First, the constant Jr/rest of the field split screen was a complete waste in itself considering Kevin Harvick was in the top 10 all night and Earnhardt needed him to be 36th or worse.

But then, inside 30 laps to go, Rusty Wallace tried to manufacture drama by saying he thought Harvick's brakes could fail at any moment while Earnhardt was battling for second. They were playing it out as if Harvick would fall out and Jr would be in the chase, when in fact, it was already impossible for Jr to get into the chase. He needed Harvick to finish worse than 36th AND lead the most laps (a fact they touched on themselves earlier in the race, but somehow completely ignored late in the race for the sake of drama), and at that point with only about 30 laps left, he had led none, making it impossible for him to get in. I also don't like how the announcers failed to mention how Jr in no way deserved a shot at the championship, but again, that's to be expected. They wouldn't want to say anything negative about the sports most popular driver.

Race wise, I thought it was very good, but it was the usual suspects at the front until the end (and congrats to David Ragan and Johnny Sauter for getting up there and mixing it up.).

[LSC9901]

ESPN - Entertainment and Sports Programing Network

They are and always have been more about entertainment than actual broadcasting of events.

[Quality88]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

ESPN - Entertainment and Sports Programing Network

They are and always have been more about entertainment than actual broadcasting of events.

The majority of their people must be WWE rejects

[PenelopePitStop]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

What's with all the fiery crashes lately? Add JPM to the list of "Hot!" drivers. I saw one journalist is calling for NASCAR to "investigate" .. that's useless over-reaction.

I'm glad you mentioned that. I thought I was the only one who noticed the number of fires over the past few weeks. Very scary stuff! Thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt.