PIR, snapping winless streaks and tempers

Phoenix International Raceway. PIR. Second race of the season. Strange, I know, seeming we were just there last November. With the changes to the schedule, NASCAR finds themselves in Arizona once again. Fresh off his Daytona 500 win, Trevor Bayne didn’t have the weekend he wanted. He crashed his primary Cup car and for the first time in his career, he had to go to a back-up car, which he crashed in the race. The Nationwide race didn’t go over as well either. While running seventh, Bayne’s tire blew, wrecking the car and ending his day. Now, let’s…

Sweep.

What does this word mean to NASCAR? How about: when a driver wins all three races at the same track in the same weekend. Or: when a driver wins both races at the same track in one of the touring divisions. Think really hard. Who did this (the first one)? I’ll give ya a hint. 18. It’s not his age or the number of times they were asked if they wanted the Senior Citizens discount at the grocery store. It’s his car/truck number. That’s right Kyle Thomas Busch. Mr. Rowdy Busch. He did it at Bristol last year and it looked like he was going to do it again, until the…

24.

Again not his age or the number of times girls ask them to marry him. It’s the number that has been on his car longer than the 2011 500 champ has been born. (that’s 20 years for those of you who can’t count or are too lazy to.) Jeff Gordon! The original Boy Wonder, who is now sponsor by AARP. He snapped a 66-race winless streak for the 39-year-old driver. He survived the wreck fest, that may have made new…

Feuds.

Love this word. Feud. We’ve seen a lot of this since NASCAR said, ‘Have at it Boys.’. I think those were the drivers favorite words, except for ‘Gentlemen, start your engines’, being said by a busty blond who probably doesn’t know how to turn a regular car on let alone a NASCAR car. Anyways, back to the feuds. I’m going to throw four names at you. Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, and Brian Vickers (Leprechaun!). Can you put the right names together?………..I’ll make it easier for ya and do it. First: Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Is there or isn’t there? Kyle gets lose and gets passed by Rocket Man Ryan Newman and I think he may have gotten a little pissed at hit Carl, sending him down into the grass, bringing him back up and collecting some of the other drivers. I don’t know what exactly happened there, but I don’t think there is a few going on between those two. BUT! I think Busch should stay away from Edwards at LVMS. Second: Matt Kenseth and Leprechaun, I mean, Brian Vickers. This one is GOOD! The two of them get together. Just a little. The piece of sheet metal sticking out on Kenseth’s car looks to have cut down Vickers tire. Vickers spins, making 12 other cars kind crash into each other. While being interviewed, Vickers blamed Kenseth for racing him too hard. Kenseth came over the radio and said he didn’t touch him. Everyone makes…

Mistakes.

Like this one. The front tire changer on JIMMIE JOHNSON’S car dropped a lug nut, making him lose about 6 spots on pit road. Nice going. The weird thing about it was, Chad didn’t seem angry, just a little upset. Weird. I was expecting Chad to go Carrie on them and kill them with his mind and then somehow set something on fire, further killing him. What wasn’t a mistake was that Kasey Kahne, yes Kasey is being mentioned it here (yeah, big surprise, NOT!) stay OUT of trouble at PIR to come home with a 6^th place finish, his first since the fall of 2006, where Kevin Harvick swept both Cup races. I guess, all these tracks with older racing surfaces are worried about…

Repaving.

Yes! Another track is being repaved, BUT, PIR is being reconfigured. The dog leg, what ever that really means, is being made different. I don’t know how, but it is. So, PIR will never be the…

Same.

Will the chase contenders be different this year or different? With new faces in the top 12, will it be a different year. Or, since we are only 2 races into the new season, just sort itself out and we will see the cream rise to the top? This is where it gets tricky. New points system makes it a little harder to catch up to the leaders. With the guys who are normally at the top at the bottom, will they have a chance to rise to the top, or is it already too late?

Next blog will take your opinions and hopefully get some answers!

NASCAR fueds: are they or aren't they?

Everybody keeps talking about who is going to be the next feud. Just this season, we have seen quite a few 'feuds'. But the question is, are they really feuds or are they just drivers getting aggravated this each other on the track. First example: Brad Keselowski vs. Carl Edwards. It looks like Brad is pissing in pretty much every body's cornflakes these days. First 'sighting' of a feud? April, Talladega, 2009. Edwards into the catch fence as Keselowski goes to Victory Lane. Second sighting? March, Atlanta, 2010. Two offences here. Edwards with trouble after Keselowski spins him (i think). Keselowski flipped up into the wall, Edwards driving away. The most recent sighting? July, Gateway 2010. Final lap. Keselowski turned into the wall, causing a big pile up, Edwards going to Victory Lane. Is this a feud or is this just racing? They both said that they have no beef with each other, but after four offences , two for each, I'm thinking maybe it could be a feud. Brad has gotten into Hamlin for about half of last year's Nationwide season. That was a feud. Next person. Kevin Harvick. This one is a good one. Kevin has had 'feuds' with people ever since he started in the sport. Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano just to name a few. I am more up to code with the Harvick/Logano thing. Both offences I have seen, Kevin Harvick is the one who is guilty. The most recent? Pocono, June 2010. Joey has fifth. Kevin doesn't. Joey gives him room. Kevin doesn't take it and he spins him out. Joey comes back to finished 13th. Joey, not a very happy camper, calls Harvick the 'F' word and after the race, has to be retrained from getting at Harvick. Just a few months later, Joey accidently spins Ryan Newman and Ryan gets angry with Joey. Joey, only 20, calmly tries to talk to Ryan, but Ryan wouldn't listen. Ryan is a big guy, so naturally, he goes after the skinnier guys. Last Saturday at Atlanta, He spun Nationwide driver Trevor Bayne. Sunday night, Ryan Newman gets into Chase hopeful, Kasey Kahne, causing him to get into Kurt Busch. Kasey finished 32nd. Ryan ruined Kasey's chances of winning the race and getting into the Chase. The best 'feud' I have seen this season has to be between Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. You see these everywhere in the sport. I guess you can say it is what makes the sport interesting. What doesn't make it interesting is when a driver gets taken out by his team mate. Kasey Kahne and Elliot Sadler can account to that one. Kasey at Pocono in June and Elliott there in August. The offender? AJ Allmendinger. June. AJ pushed Kasey into the grass, causing Kasey to come up back on the track and wreck about four other cars. August. Kurt Busch starts an accordion effect through the field, AJ doesn't slow, causing him to hit Elliott. Elliott spins and goes spinning into the inside reattaining wall, his engine flies out of of his car. Feuds can make or break you. You have to choose whether or not it's going to do something with it or not.

Reuty's night

Just days after the birth of his frist child, Jimmie Johnson took the green flag in second. Jeff Gordon was about to make his 600th start. Landon Cassill was going to make his 2nd cup start. Kasey Kahne was hoping to finish in the top-five for the 4th time in the last five starts And David Reutimann had no idea what was in store for him. Jamie McMurray led the field to the green, but was quickly overtaken by none other than Jimmie Johnson. Surprise!! Jimmie would lead until grean flag pit stops where he makes a roookie mistake. His misses pit road. He loses the lead to pole sitter and evenual 5th place finisher, Jamie McMurray. That didn't stop Jimmie. he ran down 2nd and then ran down Jamie to take the lead back. Caution. Restart. Jimmie Spins. Caution again. Jimmie never really recovered from that. Went 2 laps down. Got a lap back. Hit the wall, went another 2 laps down. He's not the only driver high up in points that had problems that night. Points leader Kevin Harvick also had problems. Now, to about the last 70 laps. Your leader, Jeff Gordon. Your 2nd place car, David Reutimann*. Reuty wears him down for about 18 laps. with 52 laps to go, Reuty takes the lead. He never looks back. Carl Edwards finished 2nd, Jeff Gordon finished 3rd, Clint Bowyer finished 4th and Jamie MacMurray finished 5th. On a more serious note, Kasey Kahne, the 6th place finisher, came over his radio stating the he was dizzy and nauseous. It night have be Carbon Monoxide poisoning. But, after several tweets, his publicist said he was just fine. Congratulations to David Reutimann on his second career win!
*(Note: david Reutimann was in teh top-five all night. Plus he got that stupid asterik erased from by his 1st win!)

I'm getting really mad at Kevin Harvick right now

First off, welcome to my blog. i didn't get to say this when I first started because well, I forgot. Now on to the goodies, or with a title like this one, I guess you have to say baddies, if that's even a word. First order of business. Kevin Harvick won last night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. Second order of business. Jimmie Johnson crashed out with about 13 laps to go along with half the field. Third order of business. Despite being in pretty much all the wrecks last night, Kurt Busch managed to finish 7th. Out of the three business orders I mentioned, I am only happy about one. Can you guess? Yes, you guessed it. The one about Jimmie Johnson. What the hell is Kurt Busch's problem? I mean, he crashed out like 10 guys and he gets a top-ten out of it? and Kevin Harvick, you have a nice lead, i know it will go away once the chase starts, but the guy the finished behind you, the perfect haired, perfect everything Kasey Kahne, needed the win a lot more than you did. I mean coming in to last night's race, he was 20th in points and 174 points back. Well, I guess you already guessed the second place guy, huh? Yeah, my man, Kasey Kahne, finished second. That would make three top-five finishes in four races. It would have been four top-fives in four races, if his engine didn't go in last week's race at Loudon. all i have to say is thank god I beat my grandpa in our weekly bet. He has Jeff Gordon, the race's third place finisher and I have Kasey, the sexy runner-up guy. That's three out of four, should have been four out of four, but all well. Dale Jr. had a solid night last night, finishing fourth after winning the night before in the Nationwide race in the Wrangler 3 car his dad made famous. Rounding out the top-five was Kevin Harvick's team mate Jeff Burton. With 13 laps to go, Kurt Busch (surprise, surprise) gets in it with Jeff Burton, bundling up the rest of the field. Well, you can only imagine what happens next. Oh yeah, the BIG one! The 09, 2, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 20, 31, 38, 39, 42, 47, 48, 77, 78, 82, 83, 98 were all involved and two of your top-five finishers were in there. Now, what is going to happen next week? Can Kasey Kahne finally pull off a win? Can he get into the Chase? I guess we all have to find out next Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL Which is 264 miles from my current city! Food for thought. See ya!