Nascar at Talladega

12:02 PM
Well, if you're going to recap any one race after missing the last few, there's no better to recap than Talladega. Sometimes I wish I hadn't chosen a field in IT. The Saturday night before Bristol, I was working until 2am. The Saturday night before Martinsville, I was working until 3:30am. Last Saturday, I completely forgot that Phoenix was on.


12:05 PM
Interview with Tony and Chris Myers talks about historic patience from him since he's finished 3rd, 4th and 2nd in the last 3 weeks. Yeah, historic patience. I suppose it's historic considering it's Tony, but spare me the hyperbole. With that said, Tony's off to such a fantastic start as an owner/driver.


12:14 PM
Why is the stupidity of Digger still on? There's been a lot of talk this week about Nascar ratings being down. You'll never convince me that the stupidity of Digger isn't affecting that in some small way.


12:33 PM
Well, the simple little step up to get into the bed of a trunk may be simple to Denis Leary, but it sure isn't to Howie Long, who thinks anybody who has a truck with a step is a pansy.


12:45 PM
DW, you were asked to predict whether Junior would make the Chase and you didn't answer a direct question. Don't be such a wuss. Do your job and make a prediction today. Don't tell us that you'll know more after the next 3 races. Of course you will. We all will. A big part of the job of the analyst is to tell us the reason that something happened. Another part of that job is to make an educated guess about what's going to happen tomorrow. It's Ok to say, "Well, based on Junior's performance so far, he's not going to make the Chase. Not by a long shot."

I'll predict where you won't, DW. Junior will not make the Chase. After he misses the Chase and finishes this season with only 1 win in 2 seasons driving for Hendrick, Junior will be seen as a monumental failure. There you go. There's your prediction. Yes, I've pretty much lost faith in Junior.


12:48 PM
Gas n Go.
Kyle Busch will finish higher than Kurt.

Kevin Harvick will be helped more by the crew swap, because he's a better driver than Casey Mears.

Danica Patrick should not go to Nascar. I'm just repeating myself, but the cars are heavier and the races are longer. I'm not sure Danica has the brute strength to wrestle the car around the track.

David Ragan is my surprise pick to win.

If I were starting a team today, my driver would be Jimmie Johnson.


12:52 PM
I keep saying it over and over. I think Kyle Busch's biggest problem with fans is because of DW overhyping him. Kyle brings it on himself somewhat, but you won't convince me that DW's fawning over him didn't help.

I never said anything about what Kyle Busch said after Bristol, but, what's to say? He's right. Dale Junior is so popular, but it's disproportionate to the amount of wins he has.


12:59 PM
The Chicken Dance promotion:

I used to think that Digger was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen. A new contender has emerged.


1:32 PM
DW said that he hates to see them have a big wreck like this so early in the day. I would think it would be better to be knocked out early rather than late. I would hate to sit in the race car for 2 hours and then get caught in a big wreck.


1:37
I think Mike Joy and DW are full of it about Gordon coming down. I don't think he came down at all.


1:41 PM
As Mark Martin said, the crews are experts at building the racecars. And the drivers are experts at tearing them to pieces.


1:42 PM
Well, that'll do it. Larry saying this is Junior's race to win will ensure that he'll get involved in a wreck. Mark Martin said it best when he said they just ran out of room.


2:08 PM
Mentioning Scott Speed, getting the lucky dog pass is what the crew chief was banking on by making changes to the car that cost him a lap at the beginning. How screwed up is a rule when crew chiefs deliberately break them and it pays off?


2:11 PM
Yeah, that was a really funny anecdote about Kyle Busch... um... what did he say again that was so funny?

Exactly.

BTW, in regards to the puff piece that DW did on Kyle at the beginning of the race, I guess DW thinks that saying Kyle helps kids in some fashion will help us all to pretend that Kyle is really just a good guy. Whatever.


2:13 PM
Man, what a save by Michael.


2:15 PM
He just needs 4 new tires.

And some new underwear probably wouldn't hurt.


3:05 PM
Logano looked completely over his head at Daytona, but doesn't look that way today.


3:35 PM
Speaking of Caterpillar, did you see they posted their first loss in years? I used to work there as a contractor and that's certainly not something I want to see. But, I find it interesting that now that I'm not there anymore, they posted a loss. Coincidence?

Well, of course it is. :smilewinkgrin:

Regardless, I've got friends there and I'd like to see them do well again.


3:44 PM
Hamlin and Kyle Busch have never worked together before, why would they start today?


3:49 PM
Did you guys see the Burger King spoof of the Hardee's commercials? For years, nobody cared about what Hardee's was doing and now Burger King has a funny commercial spoofing the Hardee's commercials. I wonder what Burger King is afraid of. It was very funny, though.

"We're at Burger King."


3:52 PM
I don't know when it happened, but somebody finally told Larry Mac to not talk about ask.com. Good call. :thumbs:


3:59 PM
They're putting 4 tires on the #88 car. What's gotten into this team? No pit road mistakes by the driver or the crew and now they're doing the right thing on pit road?


4:07 PM
The thing that's wrong about Carl's strategy is that what if they don't wreck? Then, you've lost the draft and you're not going anywhere. I really don't think there's going to be another big wreck because, with fewer cars, there's a larger margin for error. When you have a 40 car draft and somebody bobbles, there's nowhere for anybody to go. With 20 cars, there's actually room to do something if somebody bobbles.

It's good of DW and Larry to agree with me. :smilewinkgrin:

Carl needs to be watching Tony Stewart for the proper way to execute the "I'm going to be patient and run in the back until late in the race." Tony's running up front now because it's time to go.


4:24 PM
I'm really glad that Kyle Busch didn't save the car. We would never hear the end of it from DW.


4:29 PM
Larry Mac: Those guys in the front have to be on their p's and q's.

On? Or mind? I suppose it doesn't matter in Larry's world.


4:32 PM
So much for my prediction of no more big wrecks.


4:42 PM
Little nervous here, guys, but I'm losing faith in my driver, so I'm not that nervous. He'll find a way to lose this one.


4:48 PM
Wow. What a finish.

Keselowski did nothing wrong there. Carl Edwards' mistake was going for Keseloswki's fake to the outside. But, they're both doing everything they can to win.

Mike Joy said no debris went into the stands, but he's apparently watching some other race, because debris clearly went into the stands.


4:58 PM
Great line by Carl Edwards.

"Nascar puts us in this box and we'll race this way until somebody gets killed and then they'll change things."

To Mike's point, anybody who thinks that Carl Edwards got dumped is racing-retarded.

 

That's not a bad idea at all. I'll seriously consider it.

:laugh:

The judge also would have accepted "... has to have cartoon gophers."

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I was going to go into a piece about how I know there were women drivers in Nascar and then re-read the post.

JohnDeereFan wins the thread!