Nascar at Pocono

We'll get right to it.

1:04 PM
I was too young to remember anything about the 1972 Olympics, so this is what I remember of Jim McKay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFWt_Dt4ces&feature=related

RIP

1:07 PM
We opted out of watching the Hour and a Half of Nonsense. If you watched it, did you hear anything useful, or was it nothing more than time-filler?

1:10 PM
Before we turned off the nonsense, I saw them talking about Nascar 09 from EA Sports. As you know from reading this nonsense that I write, my computer game is simracing, specifically Nascar Racing 2003 and F1 Challenge 99-02. The Nascar Racing series of games was created by a company called Papyrus that's now out of business. They went out of business after releasing the gold standard of stock car sims, Nascar Racing 2003, aka N2k3.

You might think that a bunch of simracing geeks like us would welcome a new game, but that's not necessarily true. Those of us who still love N2k3 look down our nose at any Nascar sim that EA makes because their stuff is more like an arcade video game than a true simulation. I don't have the first clue whether this is true for Nascar '09 because I haven't done any research to know what it's like and I have no intention of buying it anyway.

Oddly, the same sim community, including me, doesn't look down its nose at F1 Challenge 99-02, even though EA made that one. I can't explain it other than to say I think EA got it right with F1 cars and were way off the mark with stock cars.

BTW, Papyrus didn't go out of business because they made bad games and nobody bought them. In 1998, they released a game called Grand Prix Legends, which is a sim of the 1967 F1 season. After 10 years, that game still has a huge fan base, as evidenced by the modifications that have been made, which include the following mods: 1965, 1966, 1967, Thunder Cars, etc. If you care, here's a link to the Wikipedia page about GPL.

Papyrus' stuff was very good, very popular, and both GPL and N2k3 are still considered the standard by which other sims are judged.

1:12 PM
Uh, Kyle, I guarantee that you didn't watch your father running at Pocono in the late 60s. Nascar's first race at Pocono was in 1974.

1:13 PM
Pocono is one of my least favorite tracks. It's not that I don't like the track, because I actually like it just fine. A lap here takes about a minute, so you know the race is going to take a minimum of 3 and a half hours and once you add cautions, it's going to be over 4 hours.

1:16 PM
What's up with Larry not telling us what car number each of those drivers he listed is driving? Who is this guy and where's the real Larry McReynolds?

1:20 PM
Overhead shot of Kyle Busch in his car that's called cool by Wally. What makes this shot cool? Doesn't look particularly cool to me.

1:24 PM
Ahh... actual race analysis of Smoke sliding up in front of Tony Raines in T3 and how Raines slowing down allowed AJ Allmendinger to try and pass him. I remember making a comment last year that Wally and Kyle were very good together as analysts and how they reminded me of the gold standard in Nascar analysis, Ned and Benny. Through 7 laps, my opinion of Wally and Kyle hasn't changed.

1:26 PM
It's lap 8 as we go to commercial. Since they dropped the green flag, how many times have they showed Kyle Busch? None. Fox would have shown him 2 or 3 times by now.

1:28 PM
Uh, Jillian, lots of girls can catch a football. As my wife pointed out, Jillian Barberie in the Nutrisystem commercial is apparently for men to get their wives/girlfriends to join. Yeah, I'm sure that will work out.

Guy: Honey, why don't you join Nutri-system?
Wife: Are you saying I'm fat?
Guy: Uh, ummm...

No good can come of this.

1:31 PM
Papa John's has a whole wheat crust? If you're shooting for healthy eating, which is what the whole wheat crush implies, is Papa John's really the best alternative?

1:34 PM
Well, the Kyle Busch drought didn't last too long. But, he is the points leader, so I can see why they'd show him. As predicted last week, Wally and Kyle aren't fawning over him.

1:37 PM
An excellent point by Kyle about when shifting is a good idea at Pocono.

1:38 PM
Kyle coming up with a great point about a 2nd ignition for Darlington and using it when the tires get worn. Wow, more analysis. I'm not used to analysis. I'm used to hype and hyperbole, not expert analysis.

1:47 PM
What a surprise. A caution for debris. I'm guessing we won't see the debris.

1:48 PM
Kahne won the race off pit road because not one word about it being because of his pit road location? I asked this a few weeks ago, but should I take that as a shoutout of some kind?

1:53 PM
Larry Mac: "Scott Riggs, in that 66 car..."

When I commented on this, my wife, who wasn't watching at the time, asked why I said something because she wouldn't know what car Riggs drives. The thing is, the 66 car was onscreen when Larry said that.

Way to go, Larry!

2:05 PM
Webber: "I think the race has officially started." No, Bill, the race officially started when they waved the green flag. Where have you been?

2:23 PM
Did I say anything about this race putting me to sleep? Yeah, a nice little catnap.

2:24 PM
Webber, and everybody else, is quiet for a bit while we watch Kahne leading the race. He must have got the memo that you don't need to talk every second of the broadcast.

2:32 PM
Jeff Burton comes across as very mild-mannered, but he's not always mind-mannered on the track, taking a swipe at David Ragan after Ragan bumped him trying to miss the cone.

2:37 PM
I guess Kyle Busch got in a wreck while I was sleeping.

2:42 PM
What a great point by Kyle about the coolbox. A few weeks ago, I made fun of somebody on the Fox crew, probably DW, for saying how important the coolbox is. Kyle points out that the cool air isn't the biggest thing that's needed, but the fact that it's fresh air that makes the coolbox so important.

3:00 PM
Yeah, Kyle, the race hasn't been too bad so far.

3:13 PM
Fireman Bubba: Hey, JJ, you see that 42 car's on fire?
Fireman JJ: Yup.
Fireman Bubba: You bring any hotdogs?
Fireman JJ: Naw. Djyou?
Fireman Bubba: Naw. I got some marshmallows.
Fireman JJ: Sweet. Let's go cook some up.

Somebody else moseys over and puts the fire out.

3:22 PM
When they come back, they'll say, "Montoya's car caught on fire and he's out." I mean, what more detail is there than that?

3:23 PM
Jeff Gordon as mentor in Nascar '09. He's going to teach us how to cut our own hair and then get hair plugs.

3:25 PM
Here's another example of somebody, Clint Bowyer in this case, taking responsibility for their on track mistakes. Denny Hamlin should take notes.

3:27 PM
Isn't there a driver safety issue involved in putting out the fire on a burning car? Whatever, Nascar.

3:31 PM
My wife said the following. "You know what I find enjoyable? Not listening to Darrell Waltrip."

I couldn't agree more.

It's nice to be Darrell-free.

3:49 PM
Should I be surprised that Elliott Sadler's only led 3 races this year? I'm more surprised to find that he's actually led any races this year.

3:50 PM
Good for Kyle Busch to apologize to McMurray. BTW, notice the difference between Wally and Kyle and DW. DW would tell us how awesome it was for Kyle to apologize and how mature he's become, etc. Wally and Kyle said nothing about it because there's no real reason to point it out.

4:06 PM
Kyle is an excellent analyst. The cliche is that great players make their teammates better. Kyle and Larry Mac just had a great discussion about car setups and adjustments. Kyle's asking the kind of questions that are right in Larry Mac's wheelhouse. Kyle's making Larry look better in one race than the entirety of his work he did with Fox this year. Great stuff.

4:26 PM
Was Charlie Sheen asking Michael Jordan out on a date? I still don't understand how Jordan winds up in these kinds of commercials. Anybody remember that commercial with Jordan and Kevin Bacon? Richard Simmons making out with Harvey Fierstein in a Turkish prison on Christmas Day couldn't be gayer than that commercial was.

4:48
You can't blame Blaney for getting penalized for speeding on pit road because he couldn't tell how fast he was going because he was out of gas, but you can actually blame either him, or his crew chief, for running out of gas in the first place.

4:54 PM
It is sad for Greg Biffle that he got nailed on that pit road speeding penalty. Don't know about you, but I've got tears in my eyes.

5:03 PM
I think Carl Edwards not coming in was absolutely the right call. Even if the red light hadn't come on. The penalty for getting it wrong and coming in right when the light was coming on was too great to risk it.

5:07 PM
Great shot of Edward's flat left rear by TNT. Then they got another great shot of the pit road light turning red right before Edwards avoids the commitment cone. TNT is turning in an excellent broadcast today. Great work.

5:09 PM
Yes, I have enjoyed this race, Kyle. Not only has it been a pretty good race, the broadcast of the race has been even better.

5:20 PM
My wife asked me earlier why Kasey Kahne's running better and I said, "They found something. It was either engine, or setup, or aero, or something else, but they found something." Now, we find out that they used the Atlanta race as a test session and learned a bunch of things that are working for them now.

5:24 PM
Good race and the best broadcast of a race all year. Kudos to Bill Webber, Wally Dallenbach, Kyle Petty, the pit crew and everybody behind the cameras.