Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
Race No. 3 in the “Chase for the Sprint Cup” at Kansas Speedway was similar to the previous two races. Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards were competing for the win, Greg Biffle had yet another Top 5 finish, Kyle Busch continued to have bad luck and at least one Chaser finished poorly.
Now, I could be wrong, but it does not look as if Kyle Busch will win the Championship, as many thought at the beginning of the summer. He added yet another not so good finish Sunday. (more…)
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Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
Loudon, N.H. last weekend was the site for the first race in the “Race to the Chase” — the 10 races leading up to the final 10 races — the “Chase for the Sprint Cup.”
The “Chase” begins in Loudon also — in Septemeber.
Both races there tend to be either boring from start to finish or boring with a little excitement toward the end. This first race to the Chase was pretty much the first option. It had no real excitement but was filled with lots of disappointments from beginning to end.
It wasn’t totally without surprises.
Surprise number one came when Patrick Carpentier qualified his No. 10 Dodge on the pole position for Sunday’s Cup race. (more…)
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Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Pocono races tend to be very uninteresting.
Anything you want to see typically happens early and maybe at the end. There isn’t usually anything “that interesting” in the middle, just a whole lot of racing. This weekend was no exception.
During Friday’s Cup practice session and qualifying, it was Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Dodge on top. Kahne picked up his first pole of the season; he was the only driver to top 170 miles per hour around the tri-oval that is known as Pocono Raceway.
“It was perfect,” Kahne said after taking his qualifying laps.
Kahne continued to call his car “perfect” throughout both of Saturday’s practice sessions in which he was in the Top Five. (more…)
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Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Memorial Day weekend is a big racing weekend for the race fans and the drivers. There are always several races going on during the weekend, particularly on Sunday. Two of the biggest and best known races are the Indianapolis 500 in Indianapolis, Ind. and the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, N.C.
The Coke 600 is also the longest race of the year. It starts in the day with the sun blaring down upon you and ends under the lights as the cool air breaths down your neck.
I know this well; I was there this weekend.
It is typically a very interesting race; anything and everything can and probably will happen. It just takes a little longer for most things to do so. This year’s race was no exception. (more…)
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Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Mother’s Day Weekend —another short weekend — proved to be almost as interesting as the weekend before in Richmond, though when the race was done the “Lady in Black” seemed to have been tamed.
Practice sessions and qualifying for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races were no indication of that at all.
Darlington has always been referred to as the track “too tough to tame.” It’s new surface had some thinking it was impossible to master.
Many drivers had contact with the wall during the practice sessions and qualifying. Some of the cars had minor damage; others had enough damage to cause them to change to a backup car. Some damaged both cars. (more…)
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Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Richmond was night racing in all its glory.
The first Richmond race is always the shortest race weekend; it doesn’t include any of the non-points races. Everything is done in a single day, with the exception of the Sprint Cup race.
The Nationwide and Cup series have one two-hour practice session each in the morning and both series qualify toward the middle of the afternoon. The Nationwide race starts immediately after Cup qualifying.
The Nationwide race began with Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Lipton Dodge on the pole, which was interesting (but not in a bad way) considering Lipton was the sponsor of the race — the Lipton Tea 250.
Despite Kahne’s great qualifying attempt, his race attempt didn’t fair so well. Kahne would only lead the first 17 laps before Carl Edwards, in the No. 99 Ford, took the lead for 126 laps. Kahne ended up in the wall, with help from another driver, on lap 158. He would finish the race at 14 and on the lead lap. (more…)
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Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
The Samsung 500 at the Great American Speedway — apparently the new name for Texas Motor Speedway — wasn’t the best race, so far, this season. Not much happened during the race.
That wasn’t the same for Sprint Cup qualifying two days before.
Michael McDowell, driver of the No. 00 Aaron’s Toyota, began his first lap in his qualifying attempt. As he turned into the corner, it appeared the car got loose and he over-corrected it by “hooking to the right,” said McDowell on The Today Show Monday. In doing so, he went straight into the wall.
Due to the tremendous amount of speed, once the car initially hit the wall, it flew up and barrel-rolled several times. “I counted seven,” (more…)
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Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Let’s hope not, because once again, Vegas was great racing.
Where weekend before where it was all rain, all day — Las Vegas was far from rainy. It was very much a typical race weekend.
Qualifying was Friday, as usual. The Cup drivers and fans got their first taste of the new way of qualifying (that is if you haven’t been watching Truck or Nationwide qualifying).
The top 35 in owner’s points qualified first and then all those who weren’t in the top 35 qualified at the end together. It makes it more fair for the teams who may or may not make it in, they say.
I agree with this. I think it gives all the “go or go-home” cars the same advantage (or disadvantage) — but that’s just my opinion. (more…)
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Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
The 2008 season has begun, finally!
Last weekend proved to be exciting. Friday night before Budweiser Shootout, during final practice, two separate wrecks occurred. Eleven out of 23 cars ended up needing to make repairs or were out of commission.
Teams, including two-time champion Jimmie Johnson and teammate four-time champion, Jeff Gordon had to go to back up cars. A few of teams, didn’t have back up cars for the Shootout. They had to get one down from Charlotte (or their respective towns) in time for Saturday’s inspection and night race, if they chose not to use either of their cars slated for the Daytona 500.
The last wreck, involving Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch, caused its own little bit of controversy and excitement. (more…)
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