[Racer Duck]

NA$CAR: Let's start this off with something that's not Cup related but will have it's impacts in Cup. Over the weekend, NA$CAR announced that Nationwide Insurance will be the new sponsor of the "cup-lite" series (formerly known a "Busch"). As part of the announcement, they gave GEICO 2 years to get out of "cup lite"!

Seems Nationwide feels GEICO is their major competition and doesn't want them in the series .. so, $$$ hungry NA$CAR agreed. (Same story, 2nd verse) Of course, NA$CAR didn't talk it over with GEICO or Mike Wallace or the Phoenix Racing Team first: they showed their class by letting them find out about it via the press release.

Now think about this: Busch announced their intention to leave their 30 year sponsorship of the series because NA$CAR upped the ante to the $30M+ per year range; a price Busch felt was excessive (and I've got to agree.) After months of unsuccesfully "searching" for another sucker, NA$CAR finally dragged Nationwide in off the street and let them have it for $10M a year. (Any body see the logic in that?)

Net result is the largest TV advertiser for Busch races and one of the prime TV advertisers for Cup races is given the heave-ho because NA$CAR is dialing for $$$. And from my perspective, they're loosing .. big time!!!

Can't Start in Cup at Talladega! You'da thought from the pre-race rhetoric that letting Villeneuve start his cup career at Talladega was tantamount to giving a 2 year old a loaded .45 automatic. Normally sane, Gordo lead the charge. Franchiti, sitting comfortably in the press box after his previous day's ARCA race at the 2.66 mile colossus said "no way would he do it" (were those Ashley's words or his?) Montoya did a good job of walking the fence .. just said "just try to stay out of trouble." But Villeneuve had qualified 6th!!! Jacques said he and his team had talked it over and decided it would be prudent for him to move to the rear of the field for the start, then to "follow and learn". He said he didn't want to be the cause of a disturbance in the Force (Chase). So, how'd this brash Indy 500 and F1 champ fare? Just fine, thank you. Got "racy" a couple times, up into the middle of the pack, but dropped back; had some pushing problems so moved out of the low lane to the outside lane so he wouldn't push up into anyone (some vets have trouble learning this one); running the top lane and pushing caused him to slap the wall once, but only minimal damage; he finished 21st, last car on the lead lap. Said he "accomplished what he wanted to do": finish and learn. Maybe some of those who bad mouthed him need to learn from him .. it's certain, before long they'll be following him... (Oh yeah, Montoya followed his own advice and finished 15th!)

Boring, Boring, Boring: that's how many described the race. I, on the other hand, never dropped off once! This is what I saw:

• the "non-regulars" leading the race did a good job pacing the 1st half
• 3 packs of cars: lead pack of 26 cars, 2nd pack of 7 cars, and the Ford pack bringing up the rear (their "grand plan")
• 6 different leaders 10 laps into the race
• Mikey trying to drive with the driver's side of his windshield tear-off loose and distorting his view
• Robby Gordor, who started on the front row of the #2 pace pack of cars, gets to the front in a few laps and leads the race while others were still trying to figure out where their line is
• Dale Jr. showing early strength and taking the lead, then scooping up trash (rumored to have been thrown at him by the "other" army) - later in his OORI (out of race interview) he said "It was really, really boring" - I thought the lead dog always had the best scenery?
• Edwards making up 3 seconds in a flash as ABC cut to a commercial on lap 53
• the boring part for me was the endless commercials following the endless replays of Bobby Labonte causing the Big One...

And Happy makes 4: DEI-RCR's new Chevy R07 restrictor plate engine still has some bugs. 4 out of 7 of their teams agree! As fate would have it, the first to drop out was a Chaser: Jeff Burton. While he was blowing up, Front Row Joe was looking like he was gonna beat Jeff to the last place spot as his engine was mosquito fogging also. But Joe was able to keep his Chebbie going and finished 32nd, 39 laps down. Next to go was Truex, Jr. (Chaser #2), then the other Jr (Dale): DEI now officially out of the hunt. Finally Happy lost a cylinder but was able to limp to the finish.

Steve Hmiel, DEI's Competition Director, said all (3) engines experienced the same failure (because the hole in each engine was in the same place). He also said, their engine program is consistent: when they're good, they're all good and when they're bad, they're all bad. He summed it up by saying "we're not happy about it, but it shows everybody is getting the same stuff." The good thing, if you can call it "good", is that Menard's engine is just fine, though the car isn't. They're taking his engine apart today and are gonna go over it looking for signs of anything unusual that might indicate the source of their failures.

Contrary to speculation, all the DEI & RCR cars will have the same engines for next week's race (at Lowes) - just not R07 restrictor plate engines.

Draft Track: when is it gonna go away?

Teammates? I about fell out of my chair when the annoucers said Shrub had finally found his teammate (Johnson) .. in the back .. and was ready to "tow" him to the front. First thing I saw was Shrub getting in the inside line and JJ going to the outside line and dropping back a couple spots .. eewww, don't get close to me!

Kyle Petty's a "Class Act": Kyle continues to amaze me with his class. Even though he didn't have a good day, and even though he was out of the race early, he still made time during his OORI to publicly apologize to Dale Jarrett for running over him and causing his early departure from the race. The "I'm sorry" wasn't as classy as what came after it: "I'm 47 years old and should know better." I wonder, does he teach classes in "classiness"? If so, there's a bunch of drivers that need to take it.

What's Smoke smokin'? First he said he didn't want to be in the lead, then he spent most of his race efforts trying to lead. When he finally got in the lead, he tried to lead every lane every lap. The Dodge boys would have followed/pushed him to the win, but he wouldn't stay still long enough for them to help. They finally picked a lane and he chose wrong one, leading to a late race loss of 10 positions or so. He finally was able to get back to 8th .. but he could have won if he hadn't wanted to dance on every table.

The Big One: as predicted, it reared it's ugly head .. took out 2 chasers and 9 other cars. But it wasn't the new guy, or even a less experienced guy. It was the veteran veteran, Bobby Labonte, biding his time in the top 5... And Bobby is still in the dark about how it happened. Said they'd not had any problems with grip, but all of a sudden the rear end swung out and that's all she wrote .. when he looked at the car later, both rear tires were up. Mystifying...

In the 2nd Big One, Mikey collected Sadler and Smoke got a small reprieve (he'd have been farther back but the yellow froze the field.)

What's a Ford to do? The race was sponsored by UAW-Ford, the top Ford in the race finished 14th. Every other make was able to post a top 10. The Ford guy's plan seemed to irritate Kenseth as he asked "how much longer do we have to ride around?" The Big One got several of them...

Quote of the race: "I've never yawned in a racecar in my life and I yawned back there." - Jeff Gordon talking about running in the back - must have been very relaxing, the constant 9000 RPM drone...

Pit Road incident changes race outcome: at least that's what they're saying at Hendrick today. If Gordo's crewman had done his job right and pulled the excess air hose back across the wall, Gordo wouldn't have snagged it and dragged the impact gun out of the pit box and Gordo wouldn't have had to make a "pass-thru" penalty and he would not have restarted at the back of the pack and he would have probably been in the middle of the Big One, thus delaying his 80th win at least one more week. So what do you do to the guy who didn't do his job? Give him a raise?

The 2007 Chase .. after The Big One

1. (+1) Jeff Gordon 5690
2. (-1) Jimmy Johnson -9
3. (0) Clint Boyer -63
4. (0) Tony Stewart -154
5. (0) Kevin Harvick - 202
6. (+1) Carl Edwards -205
7. (+2) Kurt Busch -215
8. (-2) Kyle Busch -260
9. (+3) Denny Hamlin -262
10. (-2) Martin Truex, Jr. -300
11. (0) Matt Kenseth -318
12. (-2) Jeff Burton -336

The Chase is over for Kyle, Denny, Martin, Matt and Jeff B. - mathamatically it's possible, but not realisticly. Kurt, Carl, Kevin and Tony still have a chance but they gotta win or place high in every race 'till the end .. not likely. Jimmy and Clint are "possibles", but to my way of thinking, it's up to Jeff Gordon to loose this, his 6th Championship .. also not likely.

[clutch]

Whats Smoke smokin...LOL

I must say he looked pretty silly trying to lead both lines of traffic and when he finally came back to the outside the Dodges pulled past him on the inside as I laughed my butt off

Bobby causing the big one was quite mystifying....the car just turned left

One other obsevation I think should be noted was Casey Mears helping Jimmy and his respectable finish....only he was too polite when I think it was Stewart pushed inline in front of him and squeezed him out of the draft
Great observations as always RD

[Team Yates]

Duck,
You said Gordon's 6th championship, he is only a 4 time "chump", not 5.

[3fanforever]

I was very impressed with Vileneuve's decision to give up 6th and race from the back. That kept me watching for his car all day to see how he was doing. I thought he did great, given the circumstances he was thrown into and the pressure he was under. But I'm not letting NASCAR off the hook for letting him debut at Talladega, just because HE made the right decision and ran a good race. That was all him and his team and not NASCAR, unless they told him to do that, which I doubt. I think his wreck in the truck race on Saturday had allot to do with his decision on Sunday. He's a quick learner, and I think, eventually, he'll be a good driver, maybe better than JPM. Time will tell.

[PaulPosition]

Well, those truck drivers sure are a hefty bunch. Those races they have are crazy. Next is Martinsville, I think. Jacques in for a shocking ride.

BTW, someone posted the complete radio comms for Robby and for Jacques. The later is particularly interresting for anyone who wonders what kind of 'learning' Jacques had discussing with Slugger Labbe and the Spotter guy.
Poweracing.net Robby Gordon Scanner Replays Robby Gordon Radio Show Jacques Villeneuve scanner replay

[Racer Duck]

Originally Posted by Team Yates

Duck,
You said Gordon's 6th championship, he is only a 4 time "chump", not 5.

oops! guess I was already counting that chicken and the egg...

Originally Posted by 3fanforever

I was very impressed with Vileneuve's decision to give up 6th and race from the back. That kept me watching for his car all day to see how he was doing. I thought he did great, given the circumstances he was thrown into and the pressure he was under. But I'm not letting NASCAR off the hook for letting him debut at Talladega, just because HE made the right decision and ran a good race. That was all him and his team and not NASCAR, unless they told him to do that, which I doubt. I think his wreck in the truck race on Saturday had allot to do with his decision on Sunday. He's a quick learner, and I think, eventually, he'll be a good driver, maybe better than JPM. Time will tell.

wrong .. he is already a good driver .. he's an F1 Champ, one of only 9 since 1990 (tho with one race remaining it looks like there might be one more added to the list) and the only one to give NASCAR a try.

I'll not get into a discussion comparing him with JPM (not an F1 Champ), however, it remains to be seen which will be more successful in NASCAR .. his first start in Cup provided a better result than JPM's, so he's off to a better start.

[3fanforever]

Originally Posted by Racer Duck

wrong .. he is already a good driver .. he's an F1 Champ, one of only 9 since 1990 (tho with one race remaining it looks like there might be one more added to the list) and the only one to give NASCAR a try.

Calm down Racer Duck. I meant he would be a good NASCAR driver. Guess I was wrong to assume that would be understood. Sorry 'bout that. I'll be sure to try and type exactly what I mean in the future. I've never criticized him as a driver, nor would I, because I don't know much about him. If he hasn't raced in NASCAR or the NHRA, I haven't seen him race. But I do know he's got to be a good driver to be an F1 Champ.

[Nevadastars]

Originally Posted by Team Yates

Duck,
You said Gordon's 6th championship, he is only a 4 time "chump", not 5.

[SteelPhoenyx]

Originally Posted by clutch

Bobby causing the big one was quite mystifying....the car just turned left

I suspect that Bobby was at that point so bored with the race he fell asleep at the wheel and leaned down on the steering wheel causing it to go sharp left.