Kathy's Pit Stop

The Shootout

Last night's Bud Shootout was a surprisingly clean one, no wrecks, only a bit of bumping and a lot of slicing and dicing throughout the field.  Jimmie Johnson came away with the victory, which really wasn't a surprise.

The surprises seem to come from cars that were expected to be strong in the race having troubles. 

*Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a favorite for the race and even though they supposedly fixed the problem during the break after the first 20 laps, he was never really in contention to win it. 

*Dale Jarrett, he was expected to be strong, but he also seemed to be having troubles.

*Jeff Gordon didn't seem to be as strong as everyone thought he would be, he went back and forth through the field and made a run at the end, but it was a little too late.

*Rusty was supposed to have a good car, they were happy with the drafting speeds and he was expected to do well, he was never a factor, I don't think he got up any further than 12th in the race.

*Ryan Newman finished a surprising second.  Not that it's a surprise for him to do well, but on their green flag pit stop, they only took two tires when everyone else took four.  I was trying to figure out what Borland was thinking, when the field catches up, they're going to freight train Newman, luckily for Newman he feel into 5th when the field caught up to him.  I thought for sure that he would just fall back with the two tires and they would do him in, but to my astonishment, he kept up and even moved up, finishing 2nd.

Spencer in the Craftsman Truck Series

I guess it makes sense, his driving style is more geared to the truck series.  In the trucks, you can beat and bang and not necessarily cause a wreck, I'm not exactly sure why, but those trucks sure do beat and bang a lot. 

Because of his driving style, Spencer doesn't seem to be well-liked among fans, although everyone did seem to cheer when he punched Busch.  With his driving style, he will fit better in the truck series, he can beat and bang and not necessarily cause a huge wreck, just don't do it at Daytona.

While he fits more in the truck series, I do have one problem with it.  He's going to Ultra Motorsports and going to be Musgraves "teammate."  Musgrave is my favorite and the reason I don't like it is I don't think Spencer is really "teammate" material, he's more suited for a one car team.  I mean, do you really think he'll work with Ted during the races?  I highly doubt it, I don't remember ever seeing him help someone out on the track during a race, I could be wrong, that's just my recollection.

One things for sure though, if he messes with Ted, he'll get it right back and Ted won't care what NASCAR does, he already feels as if NASCAR has it in for him anyways.

He better get it right

NASCAR has announced that actor Matthew McConaughey will be the grand marshal of the Daytona 500 and give the command to the drivers.  I'm sure Matthew McConaughey fans love it, but I don't really care who gives the command, as long as they say it right. 

I don't know about other fans, but it really irritates me when they just mumble "Drivers, start your engines."  It's the beginning of a race, put some excitement in it for cryin' out loud!  My six year old can do a better job than some of these people they've picked to give the command.

All I have to say is he better get it right.

Rusty Wallace to run Last Call paint scheme in Bud Shootout

Rusty is going to run his "Last Call" paint scheme in the Bud Shootout, so far this is the only race the scheme is said to be run in.  If it were up to me, I would run it all season long!  Fans have wanted Rusty to be back in black for a long time now and most of us prefer the black over the blue of the Miller Lite car.  I still remember the old Miller Genuine Draft paint scheme, which the "Last Call" scheme is similar to with the black and yellow/gold.

It's going to be hard at the end of the season to see him go, but he definitely will not be forgotten.

Picture credit:  Autostock and NASCAR.com - Picture 8 of gallery -http://www.nascar.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2004/08/30/rwallace_lastcall/frameset_exclude.html

It's almost here!

Finally!  The NASCAR season is almost here and I can tell you that, at least for me, it's been a long off-season.  I've been waiting as patiently as I can, but not patient enough if you ask my family, for the season to start back up again and the wait will finally be over on Saturday night with the running of the Bud Shootout! 

I know most fans have been counting down to next weekend when they run the Daytona 500, but I've actually been counting down to the Bud Shootout, which I consider the start of the season.  I can't wait to see the cars back on the track again!  It's hard to explain why you get hooked, you just do and you never look back.

Being a die-hard Rusty fan, I will be hoping he will win, but he's never really done well at restrictor plate races.  I know most will probably be going for Dale Jr., since they've been so dominate at the restrictor plates races, but you really can't count anyone out at Daytona, unless they wreck. 

While anyone can win it, I think the four strongest contenders to win the Bud Shootout are - Dale Jr., Gordon, Johnson or Stewart.  All four have done well at restrictor plate races and I think one of them will probably win it.

Teammates or not?

That seems to be the question these days about Penske South teammates Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman.

Last Fall they had a little altercation on and off the track at Martinsville, everyone thought they would talk about it, get over it and that would be the end of it.  Well, that's what we get for thinking!  Seems the little feud is not over afterall, "We're just peachy" was the statement from Newman when asked about how they're doing.  They still haven't discussed it.

The hard part, for me at least, is that I like both drivers, Rusty's been my favorite since I started following NASCAR and I liked Newman after he started.  I can see both sides of the situation, both drivers wanted that win and both drivers thought they could win it, but it wasn't the case, Johnson went on to win.

Watching them, even before the Martinsville incident, I noticed they were never really in a position on the track to act as teammates, one was always near the front and the other wasn't close enough to help, so when the time came when Rusty asked them to ask Newman to cut him some slack, the teammate bond was nowhere to be found.  Newman thought he was faster and had a better chance, so he went for it.

Now I only know most of what Rusty has said, Newman has been fairly quiet about all of this, but Rusty thinks he deserves some respect from Newman and feels as is he's not getting it.  Newman thinks he's between a rock and a hard place because as a driver, Rusty is a competitor, but he is also part owner of his car, making things difficult, according to Newman.  It may be a hard spot for Newman to be in, but Rusty's right, he deserves some respect, especially from his teammate.  Rusty said he wish he had the same relationship with Newman that he had with McMurray, who drives his Busch car, but obviously that isn't going to happen.

Will the feud ever end?  Obviously not if it's left up to Rusty and Ryan, they seem to be a standstill and I think Roger Penske needs to step in, put his foot down and make them talk, even if it means locking them in a room.  Enough is enough, they need to act like teammates, not enemies.

New qualifying procedure could mean less TV coverage

NASCAR's new qualifying procedures could leave some fans wanting more.  If you're a NASCAR fanatic, like I am, you just might be frustrated with the changes.  While the changes may help the teams save money on qualifying setups verses race setups, it gives the fans watching from home less TV coverage of on track activities.  Now the Nextel Cup Series will do just as the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series does, practice  (not sure if there will be just one or two sessions), qualify and then NASCAR impounds the cars until the race.

I don't know about the other fans out there, but this doesn't make me that happy, instead of giving us more TV coverage, we are getting less.  How will all of this really affect fans like me?  Let me explain...

Friday - I usually start checking early on any and every site I can for any new NASCAR news and any tidbits on how practice is going for the teams.  NASCAR doesn't post speeds until after the session is over and unless you subscribe to their Trackpass, you have to wait for times.  Then in the afternoon is qualifying and when I take over the TV, the kids can either watch it with me or watch something else on one of the other TV's.  Later the truck race usually comes on, although the first few are usually held on Saturdays.  This may change because at most of the tracks, qualifying might be held on Saturday instead.  I think practice may be moved to Saturday too, so we could be stuck with just the truck race on Friday's instead of qualifying and then the truck race.

Saturday - Start checking the news early on, watch Happy Hour and then the Busch race.  With Happy Hour gone now, that leaves us with the Busch race and any Cup qualifying that has been pushed to Saturdays.

Sunday - The Cup race.  Nothing will change here.

As you can see, from my point of view, we will have less TV coverage than before over the whole weekend.  I really disagree with them eliminating Happy Hour, not only for the fans, but some of the teams really benefited from that last practice session, now we may see more teams having to adjust a lot more during a race.

Honestly, I think they need to add more on track coverage.  Since they're getting rid of Happy Hour, why not show the practice session, that is before qualifying, on the Speed Channel?  I think it's only fair since Happy Hour was taken away.  Another idea is that I think the Speed Channel should expand their coverage of the truck series by showing qualifying on TV.  They have done a great job of promoting the truck series, but I think more needs to be done and showing qualifying is a start, at least to us fans. 

Don't get me wrong, all the NASCAR shows that are on are great, but what fans like to see most of all, is the cars on the track, at least this fan does!