Looking to Daytona

Sears Point? Uh, swaim, I hate to break to you, ol' buddy, but that was Watkins Glen yesterday. :wavey:

I worked until 3am Sunday and was so tired after church that I slept through most of the race. I woke up with 25 to go, and although Master of the Obvious Brad Daugherty was in fine form, I tuned both of them out.

I'm abdicating my presidency of the BB chapter of the Anybody But Stewart Fan Club. To be president would mean I would have to root for Jeff Gordon, and I can't bring myself to do that.

It's time for Dale Jr to just bail and go get in the #5 car. :BangHead:

I don't have any problem whatsoever with Harvick getting upset about that incident. I also don't have any problem with Montoya standing up for himself, pushing Harvick away, etc. Harvick didn't know what had happened, and he certainly wasn't going to listen to anything Montoya said about it. However, my beef is with Jerry Punch. Throughout that confrontation, Punch was saying stuff like, "You don't want to get Harvick mad." Huh? Montoya is supposed to back down from Harvick because he's afraid of him? Montoya isn't afraid of anybody. What a dumb thing to say. Normally, I like Jerry, but he just needed to be quiet there. Besides, if Harvick is as much of a tough guy that Punch made him out to be, then he could have proven it by taking his helmet off and inviting Montoya to do the same.

One of the best races of the year.

 

So, Jr won't be driving a #8 next season. I don't think I care that much, but I think what it does is to show how bad of a relationship that Junior and Teresa have. She asked for a share of licensing revenues and while I'm sure it would be worth millions, it would also keep her in some sort of control over him. He should have left DEI 2 years ago.

 

I don't think anybody knows the answer to that question. He does have 17 wins, which means above average to me. Furthermore, it appears that the car owner doesn't have, and hasn't had, everybody pulling in the same direction, which makes it pretty tough to win in Cup racing against the likes of Hendrick, who is the current gold-standard in team ownership.

It speaks volumes that Rick Hendrick let Kyle Busch go so that he could sign Junior. Hendrick has achieved the status that Junior Johnson used to have. If you can't win driving for Hendrick, you can't win.

Did this come from Rusty or Daugherty? Because it sounds like something stupid that Daugherty would say. Before I talk about the number, I want to mention again what a terrible idea it was to put Brad Daugherty on the Nascar team. I started to watch some of it when they had Biffle on, and Daugherty started to go on about how Biffle and Doug Richert were so good last year and I started complaining to the TV that Biffle's best season was 2005 and that he was terrible in 2006. At that point, I muted it. Daugherty's an embarrassment on the Nascar team.

Anyway, if it came from either of them, I would discount it immediately as untrue. And, we know at least part of that is untrue already. RCR leases the #3 and Childress will pay that lease in perpetuity and never use it before giving it up. Junior himself said he wants an 8, so the #33 is right out. I suspect that Robert Yates still leases the #88, so that would be out too. BTW, this would be something they could check on, couldn't it? Even suggesting the #3 proves that those guys don't know anything.

I'm guessing the number will be #81. Where's DW when we need him? DW said back in June that Junior wouldn't have Budweiser as a sponsor and he was right, so I'm curious about what DW has to say about the car number.

 

It's just indicative of the fact that not everybody on that team, from the car owner down, is pulling in the same direction.

I wish I could say that Junior was a top-tier driver, but he hasn't shown it, for whatever reason, since 2004. Junior does have a lot to prove in 2008.

 

On the simracing board I'm on, fans complained bitterly about changing Bristol, even though the track had deteriorated to the point that the "racing" was pretty lousy. It was very apparent early on that the changes made the track so much better. There was 2-wide, and sometimes 3-wide, racing all around the track from the drop of the green flag.

I started to keep track of dumb things said by ESPN announcers, but I lost interest in keeping up with it because it would have meant arguing with the TV all night. During the pace laps, Rusty Wallace actually said, "I can't imagine what's going through the minds of these drivers right now." Uh, Rusty, weren't you a driver for nearly 2 decades? Didn't you win several races at Bristol? You, of all people in the booth, should know exactly what's going through the mind of a driver before a race. I can't imagine why he said that.

Andy Petree, who I thought was doing pretty good early on, is degenerating. About the only one who I find interesting week-in and week-out is Tim Brewer.

You're exactly right. None of those guys would have missed it. ESPN, with the exception of Tim Brewer, has brought out the C team amongst the 3 networks.

 

One of the greatest races of them all, the Southern 500, will be run this... um... wait, sorry, I guess I am awake after all. I was hoping that I was dreaming and that Nascar hadn't done the stupidest thing ever and killed the Southern 500. Modernize tradition, indeed.

:BangHead:

The race starts just in time for church, and ends late, but who cares about the Travesty 500 anyway?

:BangHead:

It's Labor Day Weekend and it's not Darlington.

:BangHead:

BTW, if you don't read a blog called "Tom Higgin's Scuffs", it's time you did. Here's a handy link.

Please excuse me, I have more head-banging to do. :BangHead:

 

Landing Joe Gibbs Racing was huge for Toyota.

If Tony Jr and Dale Jr can get the kind of equipment in 2008 at HMS that they got in 2004 at DEI, they will win some races.

Junior's sponsor will be Pepsi, and they'll be putting Mountain Dew and Amp logos on his #81 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.