Kathy's Pit Stop

Harvick wins Shootout!

Kevin Harvick won the Shootout on Saturday night, his win made him the fourth driver to win consecutive Shootouts.

After hearing he was sick and had absolutely no practice time in the car, I have to admit I wasn't optimistic about his finish, but he was apparently feeling a lot better and the car was running great, which is an improvement over last season.

He won when the field was frozen in a green white checkered finish, but I think it would have been hard for anyone to get by him. 

Ironically, Jeff Gordon pushed Biffle a little too hard in the corner after the restart, which brought out the final caution that ended the race.  The reason I said ironically is because he was the most vocal in the past about pushing and bump drafting in the corners, which made NASCAR come up with the no bumping in the corners rule in the first place before they relaxed those rules for this season.

Congrats to Harvick for the win and hopes of a better season this year!

Your thoughts?

Let's go racin!!!

It was a long off season for me, too long and I'm looking forward to the Shootout this weekend and the 500 next weekend!

Although I wasn't posting, I was still following all the news during the off season and I was surprised about all the rule changes.  Some good and some don't make any sense to me, but I'm just a fan. I'm hoping all this winter weather everyone has been having won't affect the beginning of the season too much.

Since there were a ton of rule changes, I wont' list them all, but pose this question to all my readers....

Which rule change surprised you the most?

Championships decided

Championships are all done now...congratulations to Ron Hornaday, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson for their titles.  We may not be fans of all of them, but they earned the most points during the season and won, so they deserve our congratulations.

Also congratulations to Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin for their race wins this weekend.

Montoya and Stewart even added some excitement during the Cup race with their little skirmishes on the track, which led to neither of them having stellar finishes, but at least it gave us some excitement.

Now all we have left is the banquets until the season starts up again, except this time it's just two banquets instead of three.  NASCARS brilliant (insert sarcasm) cost cutting move combines the Truck and Nationwide banquets and only the top 5 from each series gets to sit at the table.  Of all the cost cutting moves they could come up with, I think this one definitely isn't a good one, I think the top 10 from each should be celebrated as before and each series should be able to have their own banquet.

Your thoughts?

Johnson bounces back

After last weeks problems Johnson bounces back and wins at Phoenix.  Now all he has to do is finish 25th or better no matter what Martin does to win the championship.  Is it possible that something could happen at Martin win it all?  Yes, but with Johnson's luck and I'm sure they will be conservative also, Johnson's championship is just about sewn up.

The only real excitement came in the Nationwide race and afterwards with the Hamlin/Keselowski incident.  These two apparently don't like each other much, Hamlin's dislike of Keselowski was quite evident with his after the race comments.  Actually I think it's kind of comical considering the way Hamlin has been on the track, he really doesn't have room to be talking about anyone else, but it does give us something to discuss at the watercooler aside from the boring racing of late.

Also, congrats to Harvick for the win in the truck race and Hornaday for winning the championship for the truck series!

Your thoughts?

Busch wins and Johnson has some bad luck

Congrats to Kurt Busch on the win, their fuel mileage strategy paid off where others fell short and also congrats to the person who picked him and won a million.

Other than the accident on lap 3 and the typical who can make it on fuel, there wasn't much excitement during the race.  Johnson being caught up in the lap 3 wreck was a surprise, not because things like that can't happen, it just seems like things like that just don't happen to him.  His car was damaged pretty bad and spent almost two hours behind the wall fixing it, he ended up finishing 38th.  Mark Martin finished 4th and is now 73 points behind Johnson with two races to go. 

I still think it's too late and the championship is Johnson's, if there were more than two races to go maybe, but I think Johnson has got this won.

Your thoughts?

Wow! What an ending!

Congrats to McMurray for the win, he was at the right place at the right time when the final caution flew.

Dega has always brought us the big one, but this time we got two of them within a couple of laps of each other.  The first came when Newman got flipped and landed on top of Harvicks car.  There were a lot of tense moments for fans during that red flag, saying Newman was OK, but it seemed to take forever for them to get the car turned back over and get him out.  What did he think?  Well, he puts it all on NASCAR and you really can't blame him.  I mean how many times are they gonna change the restrictor plates to make the races "safer" and then things like this happen?  I wouldn't be surprised if there are changes made again using NASCAR's wisdom.

The second big one had Mark Martin flipping, although he didn't flip over and over again like Newman and actually landed right side up.  Mark tried to be good natured in his interview and laugh it off saying it's the way it is in racing, but you could tell he wasn't happy.

Unfortunately for Mark, Johnson lucked out and didn't get caught up in anything and although he didn't win, he increased his points lead over Mark.  Like I said before, unless something happens, which it didn't, Johnson would probably win the championship again. 

Your thoughts?

Hamlin wins and Johnson increases points lead

Denny Hamlin held of Jimmie Johnson from the last restart to win at Martinsville.  While Johnson came in second, he still increased his points lead and it seems everyone but him is saying he's won the championship. 

It was a wreck-filled race with 14 cautions, the last coming on lap 145, which set up the final laps and Hamlin and Johnson side by side.  Hamlin was able to pull away, but Johnson was right behind him in the end.

Johnson's lead is 118 points over Mark Martin and while Martin is good, I don't think he can do it, I think the championship has already been won by Johnson, he's just too good in the races left to see him having enough trouble to give Martin the lead.

Congrats again to Hamlin for the win.

Your thoughts?

Johnson wins again...it's his title to lose now

Johnson wins another one and is now 90 points ahead of Martin in 2nd and 135 ahead of Gordon in 3rd.  It seems like once again it's Johnson's title to lose now, unless he has some really bad luck or the magic hands of Knaus fail him. 

Gordon gave up a good fight on that last restart, everyone around here thought I lost my mind when I was rooting for Gordon to pull ahead and away.  I haven't lost my mind, I'd just prefer to see Gordon win than Johnson, unfortunately Gordon used up his car fighting with Johnson and Johnson was able to pull away.

Hoping next week will be a bit more exciting.

Johnson wins and takes over the points lead

Jimmie Johnson pulled off the win and took over the points lead with it and others saw their Chase hopes crash, literally.

I'm not a fan of Johnson or Gordon, but I was actually pulling for Gordon on that last restart, I would rather have seen him win that Johnson. 

There were quite a few wrecks this time, at least it seemed that way, even one that brought out the red flag.  Kahne definitely had his share of bad luck, but I think the worst from this weekend would have to be Hamlin, wrecking in both races this weekend.  He totally surprised me when they interviewed him after the wreck in the Cup race, I think that's the first time I've heard him take the blame and not put it on someone else.

The Biffle/Logano thing in the Nationwide race was interesting, obviously there is no love lost between them or even Logano's father, since he got his hardcard pulled after confronting Biffle.  I would loved to been able to hear that conversation.  I'm just not a fan of Logano though, I gave the kid a chance, he's good, don't get me wrong there, but his attitude is what I don't like and I have never really liked any driver who has had that kind of attitude.  Having a passion is one thing, acting like you're God's gift to racing is quite another.

As for the Chase, I'm still pulling for Tony to get it all, still possible even though he's 84 points out, but it is doable and if anyone can pull that kind of thing off, it's Tony.

Your thoughts?

Stewart wins!

Tony Stewart kept his Chase hopes alive with the win at Kansas.  With that win, it puts Stewart in 4th, 67 points behind Martin who is still in the points lead.  I guess the biggest question is...is it too late or does he have a chance at the championship?  Martin's lead over Johnson is only 18 points and 51 points over Montoya. 

It's still a possibility with good runs for Stewart to pull it off, which is what I'm hoping, although the consistency of both Martin and Johnson will be tough to beat, Stewart can't afford any mistakes.  If Stewart can't win it, I'm hoping for Martin to get his first championship. 

As for my driver, I just can't wait for this season to be over and hopefully a lot of improvements for next season.

Your thoughts?