[Racer Duck]

A windy day in Kansas starting the race .. then the rains came .. then we raced again .. then it got dark... the duck won (the Aflack duck, that is.)

Can anybody hear the announcers? I know my hearing is long gone, but why is it necessary to keep open mikes to the race engines while they're talking? I know I can do without that "ambiance"...

Battle for the Last Chosen: at the first caution, the 4 cars in the battle for the last Chosen spot were running 40, 41, 42 & 43. now it's a tighter battle - after the race they sit:

• 34th - Kyle Petty #45 2213 finished 21st
• 35th - Glenn Wood #21 2174 finished 32nd
• 36th - Bill Davis #22 2125 finished 15th
• 37th - James Rocco #10 1995 finished 13th

"I didn't do no such thing": Jeff Burton got caught on camera "working" on his car during the red .. then they broadcast his denial from the car when the race restarted .. seems he should have accomplished more than he did for the penalty he got.

Beer takes out Corn Flakes: just a tad too much aggression .. would have been OK in the COT, but these twisted Cup cars don't take kindly to a bump from the rear especially when the rear wheels are lifted off the track... yeah, Jr. apologized, but Shrub still finished 41st, 36 laps down.

Announcer's favorite: at 55 laps into the race, I thought the announcers were going to explode with glee: JJ had raced his way "all the way up to 6th!!!" but something must have happened .. they didn't talk much about him after that.... maybe it was because there was other action on the track that was even more exciting...

Another fuel pump cable failure: seems Jeff Burton couldn't buy a break .. after getting penalized for "working" on his car during red, his fuel pump cable breaks leaving him dead on the back straight. he finished 11 laps down in 36th.

Why so many caution laps? at one point in the race it took the emergency vehicles more than 1 pace lap to get to some debris on the track. on the restart after the red, 12 caution laps to clean up the biggest wreck of the day that took Matt and Truex out of contention, another failed restart and 8 more caution laps with 23 to go .. looked like the rain shortened race would finish under caution .. it did, but we did get to see a few laps of racing before the yellow flew again .. for the last time.

Right Call? sorry, but I have to disagree with those who said Zippy and Tony made the right call on the tire rub. I made my call BEFORE the crash. as much as the announcers wanted the problem to go away, it didn't .. and the result was Kurt got a damaged car, but was able to finish 11th; Carl wasn't so lucky 'cause he hit Smoke as he came thru the smoke and finished 37th after struggling to be near the top 10 all day; and Tony finished 39th with a badly damaged car that might have been able to be in the top 10 had they chosen to make a pit stop to fix the problem.

Gas or No? guess some were trying to make the case that Biff was out of gas and should have been moved back to the position he actually crossed the finish line in. JJ was the first to lobby the media for the "adjustment", and nobody could fault Clint for hoping... but NASCAR did state "the field was frozen" at the yellow .. all Biff had to do was cross the finish line unaided, which he did. later in his interview he said he had plenty of gas, he pulled down to the apron so he could drive with his knees while taking off his racing paraphernalia in preparation for the celebration and that his crew wanted to push the car into victory lane.

Stupid commercials: what happened to them? I drifted away during the red .. did they show them then? I really didn't miss them until I got to thinking about this post...

The Chase is shuffled again: with all the problems the Chase drivers had, it's nor surprising the standings are shuffled again. here's what it looks like after the Kansas race:

1. (+2) Jimmy Johnson 5506
2. (-1) Jeff Gordon -6
3. (+2) Clint Boyer -14
4. (-2) Tony Stewart -117
5. (+4) Kevin Harvick -126
6. (-2) Kyle Busch -136
7. (-1) Carl Edwards -142
8. (-1) Martin Truex, Jr. -158
9. (+2) Kurt Busch -177
10. (-2) Jeff Burton -186
11. (-1) Matt Kenseth -210
12. (0) Denny Hamlin -248

Unless Denny can come up with a couple wins, he's out of it. then there's 8 drivers within 100 points of each other .. a few good runs and they're back in it. but right now the race is between JJ, Gordo and Clint. it'll be interesting to see what Talladega deals them

....

Sorry for being so late getting this posted .. we raced Saturday nite after 3 long days of thrashin' and I was beat. it was our first race this season (and next to last on the schedule), but we did good .. outlasted a bunch of faster cars in too much of a hurry to get to the end .. we finished 10th out of 29 with no bumps, no scratches, no bruises. a good result anytime.