Race Review

Dover, DE. Weekend

NASCAR Racing

Welcome Race Fans to Dover, De. Normally, I would be reviewing the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. This week’s review will also be an “in my opinion” kind of thing. The Cup race in my opinion was quite boring. So this week I’m going to talk about the whole weekend. We go to Dover every year for the June 1 weekend. Several years ago, I purchased tickets from a coworker. And liked the track so much, we’ve been coming back every year.
My Dover adventures are something I’d like to share with you sometime, but today I’d just like to tell you about the weekend. We get there in our RV on Wed. We have reserve RV parking in Lot 2, but there are also many other lots. Some fans come the weekend before the race weekend. I guess as a vacation. But we have the same spot every year. So it won’t matter when we get there. We still get the same spot.
The weekend starts when the Gates open on Thursday. The Grandstand Gate opens at 2:00, and Craftsman Truck practice is at 2:30. Final Truck practice is at 4:15. That’s pretty much it for Thursday. Most people don’t arrive until Friday. On Friday the Grandstand Gates open at 9:00 am, and Nationwide practice begins at that time. At 10:10 am Pole qualifying starts for the AAA Insurance 200 for the Craftsman Trucks. There were 36 Trucks entered, so they all got to race. Team mates 5 Mike Skinner and 23 Johnny Benson start first and second.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice came next at 11:30, with Nationwide Final Practice at 1:15. Pole qualifying for NSCS started at 3:10 p.m. 16 Greg Biffle and 2 Kurt Busch will start on Sunday on the front row. And the AAA Insurance 200 starts at 5:00.  51 Kyle Busch leads the first lap, but is the fourth caution when his truck blows up. He fixes the transmission and comes back onto the track, but is not a factor in the race. 22 Scott Speed, a Rookie wins the race. This is the third week in a row that a Truck driver wins for the first time. Two weeks ago, it was Matt Crafton in the 88, his 178th start. Last week it was Rookie Donnie Lia in the 71. He is a Rookie this year and it was his first win.
On Saturday the Gates open again at 9:00. We went to register for the NASCAR Foundation Walk that takes place after the Nationwide race. We got our wrist band and our t-shirt. Pole qualifying for the Nationwide Heluva Good! 200 is at 10:35. The front row is 60 Carl Edwards and 18 Denny Hamlin. Joey Logano makes his debut and will start 9th. There was a dedication for Bobby Allyson, followed by an autograph session with him. You older NASCAR fans know who he is. Final Cup practice was shortened by rain. And the Nationwide Heluva Good! 200 started three hours late.
18 and 32 Kyle Busch take off, leaving pole sitter 60 behind. The first caution comes out when 5 Landon Cassill gets into the wall. The second caution comes out when 24 Larry McClure gets into the wall. The third caution comes out when 27 Brad Coleman gets into the wall. The fourth caution comes out when 59 Marcos Ambrose gets into the wall. The fifth caution comes out when 11 Jason Keller and 6 David Ragan get together. The sixth caution comes out when 48 Jason Leffler gets into 32, and they both get into the wall. 18 Denny Hamlin wins the race.
The NASCAR Foundation Walk is a great thing. Several Drivers walk for their favorite Charities. Each person walking gets into one of these groups. And everyone walking can collect all of the signatures. I personally got the signatures of Michael Waltrip, Aric Almirola, Regan Smith, Ryan Newman and reporter, Wendy Venturini. I got J P Montoya last year, so I didn’t get his this year. It costs $30 to walk. It’s fun. And for a good cause. They gave us each a plastic bag with NASCAR popcorn and a bottle of water as we were leaving.
Now comes the race on Sunday. Best Buy Autism Speaks 400. 40 is Jeremy Mayfield. 21 is Bill Elliott. 70 this week was Jason Leffler from the Nationwide Series, but failed to qualify. As did Chad McCumbee in the 45 (Kyle Petty was at his daughter’s wedding). For some reason they didn’t say, Matt Crafton, fron the Trucks qualified the 7 for Robby Gordon. But Robby ran the race. 16 leads from the pole. 96 J.J. Yeley gets into the wall between turns one and two. 44 David Reutimann gets into the wall. The first caution involves twelve cars. 38 david Gilliland gets into 19 Elliott Sadler to spin him. Everyone is coming off turn two and straight into 19. 20 Tony Stewart rams into 19 and everyone gets into everyone else. 9 Kasey Kahne isn’t fast enough to escape as 11 Denny Hamlin slams into him as he is trying to get between 88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and 19. Also involved were 21, 43 Bobby Labonte, 15 Paul Menard, 07 Clint Bowyer, 29 Kevin Harvick, and 66 Scott Riggs. This happens on lap 20. 00 Michael McDowell leads a lap and then pits with everyone else.
The second caution comes out on lap 65 when 34 Tony Raines missed pitting and gets stuck on the top of the track. He is penalized for causing the caution. 19 and 11 are both out. 20, 29,66 and 88 come out after many laps in the garage. 9, 15, 21,07, 43  loose laps making repairs. 9 Kasey Kahne is the Lucky Dog. The third caution comes out on lap 75 when 78 Joe Nemechek gets into the wall. 96 J J Yeley is the Lucky Dog. There is Green Flag Pitting. 18 Kyle Busch leads when leader 99 Carl Edwards pits. 48 Jimmy Johnson leads when 18 pits.
The fourth caution comes out when 84 A J Allmendinger comes out of the pits and gets stuck on the apron. A wrecker has to push him around. 48 got caught for speeding on pit road. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya is the Lucky Dog. Then it gets really boring, with another round of Green Flag Pitting. 24 Jeff Gordon led. The fifth caution comes out on lap 243 for debris. 42 is again the Lucky Dog. 17 Matt Kenseth leads during another round of Green Flag Pitting. The race is very confusing. There are so many cars between lead lap cars. It’s hard to keep track of everyone. 26 Jamie McMurray led a lap, as did 12 Ryan Newman. at the end of the race, there were seven cars on the lead lap.
I won’t go into who passed who, because it was confusing as to who was on the lead lap and who got by someone on the lead lap. Boring is my word for it, and I was there! And Dover is never boring. But 18 Kyle Busch won the race. Enough said. The rest of the weekend was good. I’m still glad I came to Dover. And will be back next year. I just hope it’s a little more exciting.
Brought to you by Sheila Hawley

Visit my website:

http://www.ilovemynascar.com

In My Opinion

In today’s post I’d like to address Kyle Busch. The fans hate him. The Media loves him. One comment was that he “can go three-wide all by himself.” Why they admire that is beyond me. In my opinion, he’s a menace to racing. If he can go three-wide by himself, what does that leave for the rest of the field? You can’t get by him because he’ll go three-wide by himself and crash you out of the race. If you don’t let him by, again, he’ll crash you out. Is that what racing is really about?

The Media also says he’s matured. At twenty-three years of age, he’s still young. They say he doesn’t fly off the handle like he used to. I have to disagree. Case in point. The Nationwide race at Richmond. Steven Wallace was racing just as hard as Kyle was. Steven got into Kyle. Kyle then ran up to Steven and Steven moved over so Kyle wouldn’t crash him out. After the race, Kyle went to Steven’s car and stuck his head in the window. I guess to tell Steven he was unhappy that Steven got into him. Steven grabbed Kyle’s helmet and Kyle nearly fell over trying to get away. Now if he was more mature, Kyle wouldn’t have felt the need to discuss what happened on the track while Steven was still in his car.

Here Kyle is, beating up on the little guys in the second tier in NASCAR, and gets upset because someone got into him instead of the other way around. In my opinion, Kyle needs to grow up. The world doesn’t revolve around him. And I applaud Steven for sticking up for himself. Who does Kyle think he is, anyway? If he gets into someone, it’s “a racing incident” and there should have been more give and take. Only Kyle does all the taking, and none of the giving.

At Richmond in the Sprint Cup race, he took out Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Just a racing incident. Yet if you watch the replay, Kyle’s wheels were turning right, not left. Jr. didn’t turn down into Kyle. Kyle turned into Jr. When he starts to give instead of insisting on taking, then I’ll concede that he has matured.

As it stands, in my opinion, he’s a punk on an ego trip. And a menace to racing. Not the next great racer. I will not boo a racer, but I will cheer when anyone takes while Kyle doesn’t give and takes him out. In my opinion, he needs to grow up. The Nationwide drivers are just learning. And if he wants to race with them, he’ll have to accept that one or more of them will get into him. He’s not the only driver who wants to win. They all do. In my opinion he has to learn to give, like he wants everyone else to do.

Sheila Hawley

In my opinion-NASCAR

This is the off-season and everyone is looking back on the 2007 season. The good, the bad, the headlines. I subscribe to NASCAR Scene. In a recent Issue there were a few comments from the Media point of view. I am not part of the Media. I am just an avid Fan. So, my take is different than theirs. I would like to quote what was written and then give my opinion as a Race Fan.

“Many big developments, it seemed, were unpopular with fans, and even some competitors. That also seemed to be a constant theme in 2007: discontent.

While competitors bemoaned both the arrival of Toyota and the COT, NASCAR fans, some of the most passionate in all of sports, seemed increasingly disgruntled, as evidenced by the continuing decline of TV ratings and waning interest in this year’s Chase For The Nextel Cup.”

I fell in love with NASCAR in 1996 when I saw my first race. Winston Cup was the Sponsor at the time. While it doesn’t qualify me as a fan since NASCAR got started, it does put me back into the diehard fan base. In my opinion, Winston was what made NASCAR. They put NASCAR on the sports map. As a fan back then, what I liked best about it was it wasn’t football. And it didn’t try to be like football.

Personally, I love to watch racing. But I know there are some fans that like crashing. That’s why fans go to Talladega and Bristol. My favorite racing is side-by-side. And I don’t like the follow the leader yellow flag racing. So I would just as soon not see any caution flags. Just give me racing without the media informing me about points racing, cut-away cars and what the points are as we race (the race won’t end now, and the habit is only annoying.

The Chase, for me, is something unneeded. I want the Champion to be the best driver the whole season. I don’t need the media telling me only about the top 10 or 12 drivers. I like all the drivers and want to see them all. The media starts coverage of the chase with the second race of the year. And in my opinion, that just puts a damper on the whole coverage. Every driver out there is there to win the race. And a lot of credit for great driving goes unnoticed because the driver wasn’t in the top 12.

The theory behind a chase is that sports fans like playoffs. But in NASCAR, the superbowl is the first race – the Daytona 500. So, what’s the point of having a playoff? And what’s so exciting about a tenth place team getting a shot at the Title? In my opinion, if we continue with the Chase, going to the same ten tracks every year, the result will be the same every year. And what is exciting about that? Tony Stewart, Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon will be the ones to beat. Always. Because they are good at the last ten tracks.

So, in response to the Scene article, yes we are disgruntled. The COT may be a safe car, but I don’t want to watch IROC every week. Coverage of the races is terrible. The media only covers the top 12. There are too many commercials and not enough racing. If we are trying to be like football, why can’t the Networks treat racing like football? They wouldn’t go to a commercial during a play. So why do they say ” Wow this is great racing, we’ll be right back”? During the caution, we’re treated to pit stops, replays and pace laps. Why can’t that cleanup time be spent on commercials? Instead of coming back from a commercial to tell us what happened “while we were away”? Nothing should be happening “while we were away”.

Brought to you by Sheila Hawley

Visit my website: http://www.ilovemynascar.com