Nascar at Michigan

Here's a new one. Ever had a plane delayed because of a fox on the runway? I flew on 4 different flights to go to and from a job interview last week. On one of them, we were delayed because the previous plane that had landed had hit a fox and a crew had to go out and clear the fox off the runway.

I could say more, but you didn't come here to read about my flight ordeal of last week, you came to read about the race at Michigan.

1:09 PM
I've often wondered why Nascar wouldn't race on Mother's Day, but never had a problem racing on Father's Day.

1:13 PM
My wife commented on the updated "Born to be Wild" song that just played. She doesn't like it and I don't care for it either, but, frankly, I never liked the song "Born to be wild" in the first place.

1:17 PM
Junior sounded pretty locked in on the task at hand.

1:25 PM
I want to believe that Hendrick Motorsports is going to have a big 2nd half. Junior's been carrying the HMS banner this year and if HMS has a big 2nd half, he'll have the biggest 2nd half of all. I read a piece last week about Dale Jr and HMS and all the testing that they're doing. Junior said that he's tested 7 times in the last 2 months, and had never tested more than 7 times in a single season before this one. Those kinds of things bode well for the team, I think.

1:38 PM
With all the problems with wrappers at Michigan and California, shouldn't the tracks be able to do something about this?

1:39 PM
Michigan has always been a good track for Ford. Not sure why, but if I had to pick a winner today, I would pick a Ford.

1:54 PM
There's just good racing today. Wally and Kyle haven't said anything dumb, and, in fact, bring analysis to the table. There also isn't any Kyle Busch fawning for me to rail at. It's a much more pleasant race to watch.

2:03 PM
Larry's going to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Ha! LOL!

2:20 PM
Junior winning on fuel mileage? That would be kinda weird for an Earnhardt to win on fuel mileage. But, at this point, we'll take 'em however we can get 'em.

2:26 PM
More excellent analysis from Kyle on pit stops and brakes.

2:28 PM
A beer can. You know that Nascar was scouring the track trying to find something, anything, that could justify a caution.

2:35 PM
I'm curious what you guys, especially swaim, think of Petty Enterprises getting bought. I think it will wind up being a good move and is the first step to getting Petty Enterprises back up front.

2:37 PM
We're halfway already? This is typically one of the shortest races on the schedule for 2 reasons. It's only 400 miles, but, more importantly, it usually has long stretches of green flag racing. Hard to believe we're halfway.

Wally's right, this is a good race. I mean, there just hasn't been much for me to say, there's just good racing here today.

2:40 PM
That Domino's commercial where the guy does 30-minute abs waiting for his pizza? Just a little creepy.

2:46 PM
Restarts at Michigan are fantastic because of the 3wide and 4wide we get.

3:07 PM
I completely agree with Kyle and Wally. When that 1st win happens, it's going to open the floodgates on wins.

3:31 PM
Raining hard here and the rain brings out one of the problems with satellite TV. The rain blocks the signal. I'm getting nothing right now.

3:40 PM
At this point, there are going to be far less updates. My mom and sister brought back my oldest son from his visit to grandma, so there won't be many, if any, updates.

3:53 PM
52 laps? That's a long way to go.

3:56 PM
I don't think Junior's going to make it.

3:59 PM
*sad sigh* Hornish's spin. Worst. On. Track. Luck. Ever.

4:05 PM 6/15/2008
No chance Junior's going to win.

breathing harder now

heart racing

YEAH!!!

There's your win, baby!

Finally!

I'm in disbelief.

On her way back home, my wife called and that call happened to be right after Hornish psun. I told her that Junior found another way to lose. It's not his fault, of course, but circumstances just kept popping up to keep him out of Victory Lane.

I still think the Hornish spin was "bad luck", but the last spin on the last green flag lap was "good luck". Not only did Junior win (finally!), but I suppose I can't use the "worst on-track luck ever" line anymore. But, giving up using "worst on-track luck ever" for a win? Seems like a fair trade to me.

 

I'm inclined to say he's the best Nascar analyst on TV, but the problem with saying that is that I was so weary of Darrell Waltrip's nonsense and hyperbole (such as comparing Kyle Busch to Tiger Woods) that anything other than that is an incredibly welcome relief. IOW, the bar has been set so low that even if Kyle was bad, he's not as bad as DW, so he gets seen as better than he is.

With that said, I do think Kyle is a fantastic analyst. Since I haven't heard ESPN's new team of Punch/Petree/Jarrett yet, I can't say that TNT's team is the best, but I can say that if I could choose to watch 1 network broadcast a race, I would choose TNT everytime. I'm even starting to like Bill Webber now, who finally got the memo a couple of years ago that nobody tunes into the broadcast to listen to him.