Over The Wall

Sadler’s Crash I’ve been doing

Sadler’s Crash
   I’ve been doing this racing thing for a while now. I’ve seen Ryan Newman tumble across the infield at Daytona and wonder how is he going to get out of this car. I’ve seen Rusty Wallace hit the wall at Pocono when we blew a right front tire going into turn one and take a vicious hit and walk away. What I haven’t seen is a guy go thru the grass at 100 plus mph and hit a corner barrier and get out and walk away. I don’t know who needs to get the credit but it s a compliment to Nascar and the guys that built that car, that Elliot Sadler was capable of walking away from such a bad wreck. I think because there wasn’t a great angle of the wreck people don’t understand how hard he hit. When the car went by us on the roll back it was tore all up. I haven’t seen a motor laying on the infield in forever. It was a hard wreck and to be able to walk away is still amazing to me. So congrats to Nascar for a safe car. I would like to here from all the fans as to what is the worst wreck you have seen. Well, that’s all for now. Its off to the Glen.

The off weekend was a

   The off weekend was a good one for me and my family. We had a good trip at the beach and got to spend some time playing golf. We ended up staying about 6 days but had to get back to catch a plane to Gateway. We all know what happened at Gateway so I’m going stay away from that issue. What we have to do now is get focused back to running up front and finishing races. The last two races we ve had some unfortunate things happen towards the end but we still have a lead in the points and need to stay focused each week on finishing strong. As far as this weekend goes, I think we should be pretty good. We’ ve had a chance to win this race in the past and I would really like to have a chance this weekend. It’s off to Indy.
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Typical Daytona I’ve said this

Typical Daytona
                I’ve said this since day one and I’ll say it again, I m a fan of the speedway races. Last weekend didn’t end up the way it could have for our team but that doesn’t change my opinion of how the speedway races turn out. I think the racing is better and I like seeing the strategy that the drivers and teams put into running a speedway race. With about 20 to go we were looking good and then got caught up in the big one. I personally haven’t looked at the race tape to see what happened but I don’ t think there was anything we could have done. We ran good all day and were looking forward to a top ten run. The NNS series race was a little better finish for us. Brad continued his top 5 runs and added to his points lead. Those races are the ones that you love to go to if you need to make up some points and you hate to be at if you have a points lead. That is the position we were in. We got out front and stayed out of trouble all day so it finished good for us. It’s off to Chicago and hopefully we can get another win.
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Marcos This is a tuffy

Marcos
                This is a tuffy for me to talk about because I know what I want to say and I know what the rule is. Last week in the Cup series race Marcos Ambrose had the race won with a few laps to go. When he tried to restart his car he had trouble and fell off the pace. Ambrose cut his car off to save fuel to make sure he had enough to finish the race. By the time he restarted his car it was too late and he was off the pace. According to the rules you have to keep pace with the pace car in order to keep your position during a caution. I really feel for the guys on that team. It is so hard to win at this level and to lose a race because of that would be tough to take. Rules are rules and I don’t disagree, I just would have liked to see him win. It would have been good for the team and also the sport in general. Its going be tuff to come back from a win that got away. That’s all for now.
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Road Course Ringers There has

Road Course Ringers
                There has been a debate for years about whether or not the road course ringers should race with the full time Nationwide and Cup guys. In my opinion that is a horrible argument. The best drivers should drive on the best courses whether you’re a full time series driver or just a road course specialist. My advice to the drivers that argue this point is to get better on the road courses. We go to two different courses a year and if you know that is a weakness of yours then hire the ringers to help you figure it out. It sounds like to me that people are making excuses for weakness. On that same note, it’s even more impressive when a regular like Jeff Gordon can win repeatedly over the road specialist. He is just one example but there are plenty that can step up their game and run with the ringers. Just a thought. That’s all for now.
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Nashville Win The win in

Nashville Win The win in Nashville was just the start to what ended up being a long, long weekend. We started out Saturday by heading into Nashville at 4:00 pm. After that, we got all of our tires laid out and glued. As the race went on we knew we had the car to beat and ended up with a strong finish and winning the race. As soon as the race was over we headed to victory lane and then off to the plane. We arrived in Pocono at 3:30 in the morning and had to be at the track by 7am. Once we got to Pocono we had a few hours to set up and then it was time to rest for the race. Luckily we had the rain delay which gave us a few hours extra. After a sub par performance on Sunday we headed home to Mooresville. We got to Mooresville about midnight and were on a plane at 7:30 am. heading to New Jersey to visit the people of Verizon. We had to do some pit stops up at the headquarters. That facility was awesome, nothing but first class. All the employees were extremely nice and everyone enjoyed the pit stops, I hope. After that was over we headed home around 4:00 and our three day weekend was over. All and all it was a good weekend. It s not very often we get to runaround like that but when we do it gives us an idea of what the drivers do every week. Life in the fast lane, you gotta love it.
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Kurt Kurt Kurt The last

Kurt Kurt Kurt
                The last two weeks have been awesome over here at Penske. Sweeping the Charlotte races is something that doesn’t happen often. It was a long race and the 2 car was up front most of the day. Kurt did a good job of staying up front and keeping out of trouble. Along with that, his pit crew did a great job of getting him out of the pits in P1 after the last stop and from there on Kurt took over. As far as the other two teams go, the 12 had a decent run going until we got hit on pit road by the 18. I think the 18 was going to do four tires and changed it to 2 at the last minute and when he pulled out he didn’t even see Brad. So for most of the night we were fighting to get the fender fixed up and still managed to stay on the lead lap all night. The 77 got down some laps early but fought back to finish 17 and had a solid day in the pits. 
Heading in to Pocono I feel all the Penske cars have a good chance to run well. In the past we have always done pretty well there and with the success that the 2 car has had lately I don’t see why we shouldn’t run well. Well, it’s going to be a long weekend with Nashville Sat. night and then heading to Pocono for Sunday. Maybe we’ll get our third win of the season with Brad and keep the momentum going over here at Penske.
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What a win I’m not

What a win I’m not going to lie, I don’t think anyone gave Kurt Busch a chance to win with 10 laps to go including myself. After a killer pit stop the 2 car gained a few positions and put themselves in position for a chance to win. After that, it was all Kurt Busch. I think people forget how good Kurt really is. It wasn’t that long ago that he won the championship and has continued to win races ever since. This was a huge win for the team and Penske Racing in general. Even though there are no points going to the winner I think a million dollars will do just fine. This is the second time I’ve been able to be a part of an all star win. The first was as a coach/player in 2002 with Newman and now this one as a coach. It’s probably the best and most exciting win you can have when you come back from 11 spots back with 10 laps to go and win. Hopefully we can carry this momentum into next week and have a good run at the 600. 
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Big week of events May

Big week of events May is the busiest time of year for most racers. In the next two weeks we will have Nationwide races, Cup races, Pit Comp., All star race, Truck race, and All star qualifying all in a 10 day period. It’s a lot but at least it’s close to home. Over the last few weeks both of our teams have been prepping for the pit comp. and hopefully we’ll have a good showing this year. Yesterday we got back from our final practice down at JHE and we had some competitive times. The competition has always been a big favorite of mine and ever since 2007 I liked it even more. This year we will have two cars in the competition and I hoping to do well. As far as the races go, I can’t wait till the all star race. It’s always a good time with the intros and that race gets the blood flowing pretty good. I like Brads driving style for that race and the set up this year of the race should be fun. It’s off to Dover and a busy week ahead of us. That’s all for now. 
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Two for Two Wow, what

Two for Two
                Wow, what a good two weeks it has been. It’s never easy to win at any level of Nascar but to be a part of a team that has won two in a row is pretty cool. Last weekend was one of the best finishes I’ve been a part of. When the caution came out of I was thinking no way are we going to pit with two laps to go. As soon as I started thinking that Brad was on pit road and I was shaking my head going man, we might have just given this race away. It wasn’t 3 minutes later I was standing in victory lane still in amazement at how good Brad can possibly be. I think what really surprised me is that positions 10-16 didn’t stay out. Why wouldn’t you, what do you have to lose by staying out and trying to hold on for a few laps. Because everyone else pitted with us, it put us out 4th with 4 new tires and we had a very good shot at winning at that point. I don’t understand why more teams don’t stay out when they are at the tail end of the lead lap and there is going to be a green white checker. It never fails to see the whole field pit when half of them should stay out. If your running 1st or 2nd it is a little bit different, but when you are 16th out of 16th on the lead lap and everyone has pitted in front of you why wouldn’t you stay out and try and gain some spots. It’s just my opinion but it seems to happen every week the same way. Well, it’s off the hot Darlington this weekend and who knows, maybe we make it 3 in a row.
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