Fontana

Helping my son with his homework and studying took precedence over racing, so I didn't get to see any of the race yesterday. So, these notes are incomplete.

But, on Sunday, we're at the palatial Race Guy mansion for the 2nd race of the Cup season at California. My feelings about this place are identical to those of Kyle Petty in the early 90s about Darlington. When asked about Darlington, he said, "Fill it with water and stock it with fish."

3:21 PM
Re: Kurt Busch and probation. The one thing that Kurt doesn't want to do is to wreck somebody while on vacation. Oh, wait, Kurt did wreck somebody at Bristol when he was on probation and he won the race, and Nascar did absolutely nothing. Nascar's going to come down "hard" on them for doing something while on probation. Kurt does a good job of keeping a straight face when talking about being on "probation".

3:54 PM
Yes, JPM, we know you didn't have track position. I don't need to tell you that the way you get track position is by driving your car up to the front and taking track position.

3:56 PM
Name the Gopher Cam. You can tell the drivers have the same thought I do. "Who gives a crap?"

4:09 PM
During the rain delay, we watched Who Wants to be a Millionaire on GSN. I don't know if you remember him or not, but this was the guy who burned a lifeline on the very first question. The question fill in the blank, "Duck Duck _____". He was thinking maybe it was "Duck Duck Duck Goose" and had to use a lifeline. I think just about anybody else would have folded after doing that, but he proceeded to blow through the rest of the questions until the million dollar question, when he walked with half a mill.

5:02 PM
So, there's this girl who won some Super Bowl contest and her "prize" was to sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing and sing the national anthem at a race? Seems like an odd "prize". And, she took sooo looong to :sleeping_2:

5:06 PM
What's that? Huh? Oh, right, the race. Must have dozed off there. Is she done? Good. Ah, I see why Shawne Merriman is a linebacker and not a quarterback. He throws like a girl. No offense, girls.

5:08 PM
Nice GSYE from Brad Garrett, but, the Kyle Busch ear joke needs to be taken out back and shot. Not terribly funny.

5:43 PM
Hamlin nails the wall. The Fox guys didn't mention it, but I will. How many times has soft walls made what looks like a hard hit be not so hard. Soft walls are the single biggest safety innovation in racing.

5:47 PM
Fontana has become notorious for all the trash on the track. It's even worse on Labor Day weekend, the weekend that they should be running the Southern 500 at Darlington. If Nascar was really serious about getting back to its roots, then they'd go back to Darlington on Labor Day weekend. Until that happens, Nascar's just blowing smoke at us.

5:48 PM
Harvick moves to the back of the field and I agree with DW, wondering why Nascar decided to do that while the field was coming to the green.

5:50 PM
Is there anybody who has worse on-track luck than Junior? :BangHead:

5:56 PM
There's that commercial where the guy shows Michael's 1990 Bristol car, here's the wreck that the guy is talking about. That's the worst wreck I've ever seen.

6:01 PM
Denny hit a slick spot, as did Casey. Maybe we shouldn't be racing today at all.

6:03 PM
Fox got a great shot of the sandblasted windshield and A post. Great work.

6:11 PM
Using that scene from Misery where Annie hobbles him is a chilling scene.

6:15 PM
They mentioned what happened at Texas in its 2nd race. At the time, Bill France Jr told Bruton Smith he better worry about fixing his track before worrying about a 2nd race. I wonder if Brian France is making that sort of statement to the owners of Fontana? I doubt that he is.

7:12 PM
Has DW ever actually watched a race at California before? There's always trash all over the place at the track. Why is this surprising?

7:16 PM
When has the vortex theory ever worked? This "vortex theory" is nothing but a vortex of hot air from DW talking out his posterior.

7:34 PM
I just realized that Dario Franchitti made the race. When will we have our Ashley sighting? I say it will be after 8pm.

7:36 PM
Wait a minute. They just got done talking about how you shouldn't take 2 tires unless you have to. Now, not 30 seconds laters, they're talking about how taking 2 tires might be a good test. Short-term memory, anyone?


And that's it. I was sick all week last week, and still recovering on Sunday, so I didn't take any more notes, though the race was postponed more than a half hour later. I woke up when it was pouring at about quarter after 8 and my wife said the race was postponed, so that was it for notes. I had hoped to watch the rest of it last night, assuming it would be rebroadcast, but that didn't happen. So, we'll see you next week at Las Vegas for oodles of gambling puns. I can't wait. I like gambling puns. Then again, I like boils.