Matt's Thread of Racing...

[NewYorkSpider]

I really don't like how Kevin and Delana Harvick are poking fun at Logano with tweets and shirts. I guess Delana made a shirt saying "I wear the firesuit in the family". What Lagano said on Sunday was wrong, but she doesn't need to start getting involved in this. I love Delana's tweet which said..." With age comes wisdom and respect". I remember a 28 year old Kevin Harvick doing this.

[YT]sI8AVtIXa3E[/YT]

 

[El_Citrus]

You have to admit, this is all entertaining as hell at least. I think Delana's taking the comment in stride, and probably a bit too far, which is probably why her and Harvick are a match for each other. Yeah, they're being immature about it, but I don't think I'm gonna take sides on this one and just sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch the fireworks.

Ah, the memories of Harvick doing a redneck jig on the hood of Rudd's car.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

It is entertaining to some point (Which is why I would love to see Logano wearing one of the t-shirts this weekend at Michigan). All these fueds are giving NASCAR more exposure. I just think it's funny with the stuff they're saying and doing. Harvick acted immature for the longest time.

 

[El_Citrus]

Some of it is definitely immature, but almost any feud is immature on some level. I mean hell, Johnson and Gordon were going at it because they got a little pushy with one another at Texas and Hendrick had to bring them in for a "Milk and Cookies" meeting. I think the way Delana took Joey's comment was funny, and I hope Joey has some sort of response that's tongue and cheek to show that he can play smart too, as you said.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

Denny Hamlin is a man on a mission. 5 victories already!? Would love to see him get to the 10 win mark. It's only been done once in the last 10 years. (Jimmie Johnson '07)

 

[El_Citrus]

He is tearing up the season so far, just like his ACL BADUMCHH! It looks like he's having the season Kyle Busch had a couple years ago where he was on fire. It's really looking like he's got Johnson's number, but we won't know until the Chase.

In other news, I'm scheduling myself for double knee surgery and buying myself a race team and heading for the nearest track......

 

[El_Citrus]

In other news, some new changes for the COT next year will introduce a new front bumper that will promote brand individuality and get rid of those splitter braces. Could possibly be seeing the Mustang in Sprint Cup in 2011.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

Jimmie Johnson wins his second straight. I feel a little bit scared. I don't know why people thought he was in a slump? He was wrecked out at Darlington and Lowes.

 

[El_Citrus]

He went ten races without a win. Clearly Johnson and Knaus wanted to kill each other and their cars were being built by Rusty McGee out in his backyard. The only positive towards a Johnson-dethroning this year is that we've seen plenty of guys go into the Chase with a ton of wins and not bring home the title.

I'm surprised no one spun Gordon yesterday, I figure someone will get payback on him eventually from his Bumper Car mentality at Infineon.

 

[El_Citrus]

Wow. That was a cool win. I'm not even a Jr. fan, but watching him drive the 3 car to victory lane was a memorable sight, and you could tell this ranks up there with him winning at Daytona in 01 after his father's death. Just wow.

 

[Alex The Great]

Holy Crap, Big Wreck!

 

[El_Citrus]

Now that's one of the reasons I love this sport. Seeing a guy like David Reutimann drive his car to the front and get only the second win of his career and doing so without the help of Mother Nature. Such an emotional win for those guys, and I'm happy for that team. Michael Waltrip Racing is slowly putting a high caliber team together. With enough time, I think they could compete for championships.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

Very cool to see David get his first non weather win. That team really deserved it. I would love to see him race his way into the chase. Truex Jr. seems like he's gaining ground with his new team.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I'm going to my first NASCAR race in 7 years in 3 weeks to Watkins Glen. I can't wait! Won't see the whole track, but it's a good beer drinking area. haha

 

[El_Citrus]

Awesome, NYS. Infield or grandstand? Big tracks like that, I'd rather be in the infield partying with the race on a big tv. You'll have a great time.

As for last night's Nationwide race at Gateway: Here we go again!

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I'll be in the stands just after turn 1 and just before turn 2. I'm going up on Friday morning and we'll be up there for everything. Grand-AM Race, Nationwide and the Cup race. I'll be sure to get pictures and post them on here. It's gonna be an awesome time.

That was a wild finish last night. I think Carl was a bit out of line again. He didn't need to tear up Brad's race car.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

Pretty good race today. I'm glad a guy like McMurray won. Now he's won 2 of the biggest events of the year and Ganassi has won the trifecta. I feel bad for Montoya. This is the second year in a row he's had trouble. I also feel bad for Biffle. Nearly won the Daytona 500 and had a car capable of winning here.

 

[El_Citrus]

I have to agree with you about Edwards. Nascar fined him, but now Kesolowski has no chance for payback after being flipped once and spun/t-boned on the last lap. I've heard a lot of people saying it's hypocritical to be mad at Carl for doing this and praising Earnhardt when he did it, but Earnhardt never played the nice guy card of the victim following an incident he caused.


Great win for McMurray. He's making a career out of winning the BIG races: His first one in the Coke 600, then Daytona, and now the Brickyard. He almost won the Coke 600 this year as well, which would have been the Nascar trifecta (Though some think Darlington counts as a Quadfecta). I feel so bad for Montoya, who's given away a Brickyard win for the second year in a row after dominating. He has to be sick to his stomach right about now.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I'm real surprised how well Keselowski has been handling the whole thing. Seems so calm when he does his interviews after getting wrecked.


McMurray hasn't won the Coca-Cola 600 yet. He won the fall Lowes race in '02. McMurray has done extremely well at the big races this season.

Daytona 500 - 1st
Southern 500 - 2nd
Coca-Cola 600 - 2nd
Brickyard 400 - 1st

That's not too bad.


I'm not looking forward to the changes Brian France has in store for us. I think the chase is fine. I would like to see them award more points for winning a race. Say like 220 for winning. Then you would have your 5 bonus points for leading a lap and leading the most laps. That would give you a max total of 230. I think it would make races more dramatic since you would have. You figure if the points leader is 55 points ahead of second place, then the points leader would have to really race if he wants to win the title.

 

[El_Citrus]

That's right, it's Casey Mears who got his first win at the Coke 600.

I didn't even know that McMurray finished 2nd at the Southern 500. Imagine if he'd won all four of those races, along with Talladega where he was passed 500 feet from the finish line.

Yeah, I'm not sure how I'm feeling about the changes to the chase. It seems like every year has seen a tweak to it, which is just starting to get annoying. Admittedly, an elimination format could see some aggressive driving from guys racing on the bubble, but it's not going to change anything drastically.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I'm not liking the rumors of an elimination style format. What if a driver like Dale Jr. is eliminated around the 5th race in the chase? Your ratings are gonna drop like crazy. Nobody is gonna wanna watch the last 5 races if their favorite driver is eliminated IMO. If anything, the only elimination style format I think I could bare is if a driver in the chase falls below 200 points of the leader, then he's eliminated.

I still like awarding the winner of races around 230 points. Look at 2003 when Kenseth won 1 race and Newman won 8. Could be looking at something a little different there.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I really liked Rusty Wallace's idea of a points system. Have 10 or 12 drivers make the chase, then have them on a separate points system them the other drivers. The 1st driver to finish ahead of the other 10(12), they would recieve 10 points. The lowest chaser would recieve 1 point.

 

[Soundwave]

Wow! That was a scary looking crash that Elliot Sadler was involved in. Glad to see him walk away from that one.

 

[El_Citrus]

That was the most vicious looking wreck I've seen from Nascar, and there wasn't even a good camera shot of the initial hit. Ten years ago, Sadler would have been dead. The motor was Completely. Separated. From. The. Car. Just, damn.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

It was good to see Elliott Sadler walk away from that. I'm sure this wreck was worse for him than the one he had at Talladega in '03.


I'm off to Watkins Glen in a few hours! Can't wait!