Kathy's Pit Stop

Mother Nature not cooperating

Mother Nature seems to be messing with racing once again.  Cup's final practice has been canceled, hopefully the teams know the right adjustments to make to the cars for tomorrows race.

The Busch race is suppose to start soon, but it looks as if that will be delayed, hopefully they'll be able to get the race in, I would hate to have to wait to see them race on Monday.

Hopefully there is no rain in the forecast for Gateway tonight for the truck race.

Hopefully it stops raining soon in Talladega and they can get the Busch race in, I need my racing!

Despite surgery, Hornaday ready to race

Ron Hornaday suffered a ruptured appendix on Tuesday, had it removed and was home later that night.  I would have thought they would keep him an extra day, especially because it ruptured, but he was released that evening.

NASCAR has cleared him to race and Hornaday says he feels fine, although they do have Tony Raines standing by, just in case.

With everything they have to go through sitting in those trucks, let alone the possibility of wrecking, I'm not sure I would be OK with racing only four days after surgery.  Hopefully NASCAR and Hornaday made the right decision.

Chevy dominates qualifying

Chevy's dominated both the Busch and Cup qualifying with Chevy's taking up the five of the top ten spots for Cup and nine of ten for the Busch race.

Menard got the pole for the Busch series, is it really surprising since it's DEI power and Dega?  Harvick got the pole for the Cup race.  And it being the late Dale Earnhardt's birthday seemed to make it that much more fitting.

Earnhardt Jr. struggled in qualifying and was clearly disappointed in the qualifying run, he tried to be optimistic about the car being fine for the race, but there still seemed to be a hint of frustration there and maybe doubt.

Does it really matter though?  So many say where you start doesn't matter here because you go from the back to the front in a minute.

Appeal rejected

James Finch had his appeal rejected by the NASCAR commission, not only did the appeal get rejected, but they added another $25,000 to the fine.

To me, this is wrong, from everything I read, NASCAR approved the carbueretor before the race and then said it was illegal after the race.  Something just seems to be amiss here.

Finch's main complaint about this is that NASCAR hands down the penalties and has hand picked the people who hear appeals.  He had this to say...

The racing is great, it always has been, I’m just saying that they need to give up part of the sport and let somebody else referee the rules. If they want to do this right, get an independent commission to make an independent hearing and make the ruling. It’s kind of like having a highway patrolman pull you over and tell you you’re speeding and you say...I don’t believe I am...and he says yes you are...and you say okay, I don’t believe you but I’m gonna sign the ticket. Then 30 minutes later you go to the courthouse and he’s the judge. In the rule books it’s all minimum fines...they don’t have any maximum fines. In the NFL it’s five yards off sides for everybody every time. In NASCAR it’s according to who you are. In baseball it’s three strikes you’re out...NASCAR it’s according to who’s swingin’...just let ‘em keep swingin’.

I don't blame him for being upset, if there was something wrong with it, they should have confiscated it during pre-qualifying or pre-race inspection and then let them race or not and hand down a penalty for the infraction.  The way they did it makes NASCAR look bad, not Finch. 

Roush dominates Phoenix

It was a Roush weekend in Phoenix with Biffle running away with the Busch race and Kurt Busch winning the Cup race.  Both had strong cars that just pulled away from the field where no one could seem to touch them.

There were also strong runs by other drivers that normally haven't been seen in the top ten - Michael Waltrip finished second, with Burton third, Earnhardt Jr. fourth, and Vickers fifth.  The rest of the top ten finishers were Edwards, Kyle Busch, Sauter and Nemechek.

Both Rusty and Newman struggled all day with ill handling cars and just when they got it a little better, Rusty ended up getting caught up in Johnson's mess one more time.  Third time this year, if you count the Shootout.

Of course, Johnson says it was Stewarts fault, he said that Stewart stood on the brakes just to mess with him.  Come on, that's ridiculous.  Tony may be a hot head, but he's not going to make someone else wreck him and that's exactly what would happen if you stood on the brakes with someone that close behind you.

Johnson's car wasn't handling as well as he would like it and even with the ill-handling car, he was driving aggressively.  If it had been a Rookie driving like that, he would have been called every name in the book and then some.

What can't Johnson admit it when it's his fault?  He hit Stewart, not the other way around, it was Johnson's fault and he needs to learn to take responsibility for things, he'd be more respected by the other drivers and fans if he did.

Aspiring NASCAR star

On April 8, 2005, Trey Robb made his debut in the Sprint cars at Oklahoma City's State Fair Speedway, he's run two weeks in a row and now sits 11th in points.  What makes this so amazing is that Trey is racing guys that are two and three times his age, Trey is only 12 years old and racing with the big guys at the local track.  Why make the move at such a young age?  Trey's father summed it up pretty easily - because he's ready for it. 

Trey started racing at the age of 8, at I-44 Speedway, just south of Oklahoma City.  His first year out he raced in a class called Kid Sprints, powered by 100 cc motorcycle engines and a top wing.  Trey won Rookie of the Year, Track Champion and the Claremore and Ft. Cobb Oklahoma Fall Fling races and the Craighead Memorial.  His second year, he moved up to the Restricted Class and won Rookie of the Year, Track Champion and won the Craighead Memorial.  Third year he stayed in the Restricted Class and won Track Champion again.  At age 11, he pulled double duty and ran two classes, the Multi Class and the A Class, he won Rookie of the Year in both, placed third in points in the Multi Class and won Track Champion in the A Class.  In his four years of racing, he has won 66 "A" Features.

Asked what he would consider a successful Rookie season, Trey said he would like to finish in the top ten in points.  Will it happen?  Who knows, but he sure is going to try.  If things go well for him in the Sprints, they are looking towards USAC pavement midgets and eventually wants to make it into NASCAR, his ultimate goal. 

I wish him the best of luck in his racing career and maybe one day, we'll see him in NASCAR.

Sauter's penalty

Sunday, before the Cup race, we learned about the penalty for Johnny Sauter and the Busch race, it was big.  NASCAR decided that it was a blatant attempt to cheat and disqualified him, no points, no money, no anything.  Plus, monetary fines and suspensions could follow according to NASCAR.

According to Jim Hunter...This post-race inspection in finding the carburetor illegal falls in that category of 'blatant.'  I don't want to speculate on whether we would take away a victory, but if something is obviously designed to improve the performance of the car, we will do whatever we need to do.

So what exactly does this mean for the future?  Could they be setting a precedent here?  If I remember correctly, Sauter was one of the ones they set the profanity precedent with. 

One question that comes to mind.  Why was this not caught in pre-qualifying or pre-race inspections?  The cars were impounded after they qualified on Thursday, they couldn't touch the cars, so how did this illegal part get on there if it wasn't there before?  Did they miss it completely?  If they noticed it before qualifying or before the race, why let him race at all?

What 'parts' will fall into the category that will result in a disqualification?  Obviously carburetors, but what other parts will fall into this category?  I would be really interested in how NASCAR would answer this. 

They mentioned that they don't know if they would ever take a victory away, why not?  What if the race winner had an illegal carburetor?  They would take the points and money away, because of the precedent, but not the win?  How crazy is that? 

I know NASCAR is 'trying' to get tough to get everyone to comply, but I think they are opening a can of worms here.  Remember all the outrage when they set the precedent early last year and because of it they fined and docked Jr. 25 points because of the word "shit"?  What do you think would happen if they took points and money away from Johnson, Gordon, Jr., Wallace, Martin, Busch, Stewart, etc.?  Their fans would go crazy.  And if they didn't follow the precedent they set, the fans of other drivers would go crazy crying favoritism.

It will be very interesting the next time NASCAR finds parts that don't conform to their rules.

Biffle wins big in Texas

Greg Biffle went from the back to the front and ran away with the race, he definitely had a dominate car and that was in a backup car, imagine if he had ran his primary car which they said was faster.

Jamie McMurray finally had a good race and ended up finishing second, hopefully this is the turn they were looking for and he keeps doing well.

Jimmie Johnson, what can you say?  He seemed to struggle all day and just when you thought he was going to have a bad finish, they get the car hooked up and then they charge to the front and ended up finishing third, dashing everyone's hopes of gaining a lot of points on the leader.

Casey Mears finished a surprising fourth, I think the pitfall for him was the fact that he was strong on the start of a run and then he would fall off, still a good finish for him.

Sterling Marlin also had a good run, finishing fifth and making it where all the Ganassi cars finished in the top five.

Finishing out the top ten finishers where Waltrip, Busch, Rudd, Earnhardt Jr. and Wallace.  A good race for he DEI cars where both finished in the top ten.  Earnhardt Jr. faded at the very end and lost a few spots but still managed to bring it home in ninth.

It was nice to see Rusty get another top ten, especially after fueling penalty he got which put him at the tail end of the lead lap.  When that happened I didn't think he'd make it back up, but he did.  With the tenth place finish, it put him up to third in the standings, a gain of four positions.

Ryan Newman faded early and struggled all day long, the problem reported was that he would be tight one time around the track and then loose the next, so they fought all day.  If that wasn't bad enough, they had a tire get away on a pit stop, which put him a lap down.  Somehow they got the car running better and he got his lap back by being in front of the leader before a caution came out, he didn't have to use the lucky dog this time.  He fought his was up to sixteenth by the end of the race and I was worried he would drop out of the top ten in points.  Luckily he only dropped one position, to ninth, but he's only twenty points ahead of tenth, so they to get going if he's going to make The Chase.

The Gibbs cars were the big losers at Texas.  Hometown favorite Bobby Labonte got caught up in a wreck, not of his doing and had the car behind the wall for a long time and ended up finishing thirty-eighth.  Tony Stewart was doing good, then faded a bit and appeared to be on a comeback to the front when he engine blew, igniting a fire under the car.  Stewart got out as quick as he could, but did sustain burns on his right leg and arm.  He is said to be OK though.

Kahne wins Texas Busch race

Kasey Kahne's pass of Reed Sorenson before the final caution flag flew which set up a two lap shootout for the win.  Sorenson, who was on older tires couldn't hold off Greg Biffle, who passed him on the final lap, Sorenson ended up finishing third with Edwards in fourth.

Kahne did his usual and made his car work great on the outside and passed cars with ease during the race, Biffle ran a similar line and was able to pass Sorenson with relative ease on the final lap.  I think if there had been a few laps left, Kahne would have had a fight on his hands for with Biffle.

Edwards retains the points lead with Sorenson gaining a few points, putting him 76 points behind.  I think Sorenson did great, he may not have won, but it was his first race at the track.  If things keep going the way they are, it looks like it will be a battle between the Rookies for the Championship.

Thirty poles and counting

Ryan Newman got his 30th pole of his career at Texas Motor Speedway.  It may have not been the track record, but it's another pole to add to the others.  Now all he needs to do is turn these poles into some wins!