Over The Wall

Q and A session

   I ve been getting a lot of complaints sent to me via email these past few week about the content in my blog.  So I thought about what i was going to write about this week and I figured I'd try something new.  I'm gonna let this blog act as the mail box for a Q and A session about anything you want to know about.  There is no topic off limits.  I will try and give you an answer that is what your looking for without getting my self fired.  Everyone wants to know who makes what and what the gossip mill is around pit road.  So in a effort to try and handle what you guys want to know I figured I would give you the floor.  If its something I just cant answer Ill try and give the best possible answer.  I ll be checking the blog often to try and respond as soon as possible. DT will also be checking in on the blog to help answer questions as well.  So he s fair game as well.  Ask away!

HAAS CNC: Better or Worse???

By: Dennis Terry

Recently Haas CNC announced that for 2008 they have signed Scott Riggs to replace Johnny Sauter and I wondered if that was going to be a good move for the team. 

I had the impression that Sauter was an up and coming driver and the only negative opinion I had of him was his girlfriend's crazy interview on Speed a few months back.

Riggs on the other hand, has been pretty mediocre his entire career.

Then on Monday Haas made another announcement that Jeremy Mayfield would immediately replace Jeff Green as driver of the 66 car this year and probably for next year too.  Once again, I realize that Green hasn't exactly set any NASCAR records, but Jeremy seems to make a bad impression wherever he goes.

Mayfield "rattled Earnhardt's cage" (that's Sr.) in Pocono to win the race in 1999 and he had the cool "Haaaay Jer-O-meeeeey" commercial, but that's about it.

So, I'm thinking that Hass probably made an even trade at best.  What's your take on this???...

Good move?

Bad move?

or Who cares and who is Haas CNC?

DT

Something to build on

  I guess the last couple of weeks I've been the negative Nelly on the blog.  What people don't realize is that this is not just a recreational activity to me and my teammates.  This is what we love to do and the difference between being close to winning and actually winning are as far apart as me and DTs weight.  So my point is that just because we ran good and came up short doesn't mean everyone at the shop is celebrating.  We need a win and we need one bad, once we get back into victory lane I think we will have more to follow.  So I offer my apologies to those who think I'm being to negative. 

  Now, onto the race at Martinsville.  We didn't have the car to be up towards the front as of the last practice session.  The thing that I really love about working with our guys is that everyone keeps on digging even when the car isn't perfect.  All race we hung around and kept good pit strategy.  The driver kept digging on every run and the next thing you know we got a chance to win.  If you put your self in enough situations like the past three weeks eventually you will win one.  I give Hendricks a lot of credit, they at the front at the end of every race.  They put themselves in position to be successful and most of the time they are.  There was one negative to the race yesterday.  I don't know if TV covered the Gordon/Newman incident on the front strait or not but I lost a lot of respect for Gordon on that particular incident.  Let me say this, I personally think that Gordon is the best driver in cup at the moment and has been for the past decade, but what he did on Sunday was a little bit immature.  After we passed the 24 with 8 to go the caution came out.  As we were coming around under caution the 24 came up and nailed us in the side of the car under caution.  According to Nascar rule he should have gone to the back of the line for that incident.  Of course nothing happened and the race went on.  What bothered me is that Gordon has moved more people out of the way than any other diver in cup history, including the 3, and he wants to complain and hit us under caution when it happens to him.  Come on Gordo, its racin and it happens.  Its off to Atlanta and see if we can get another pole and maybe a win.

Trent's Wrong Again

By: Dennis Terry

Trent and I often disagree about things. 

Sometimes we're both right, sometimes we're both wrong, but most of the time it's just because we don't like to agree!

This is probably one of those cases.

I hate that Newman and the Alltel team couldn't seal the deal Saturday night in Charlotte.  I was pulling for those guys like everyone else.  If not for any other reason than just getting to see a non-Hendrick team in victory lane at Charlotte.

It's always better to go up in smoke trying to win the race with your foot on the floor and your ass on the edge of the seat than it is to settle for second.

Gordon stole a win from Newman in Pocono and I was looking forward to seeing him take one from Gordon.

From my perspective, it looked like Newman was giving it 150%... as he always does.  Driving on the edge of control and trying to win the race by staying in front of Gordon.  Problem was, the track was still slick with oil.

Maybe it was a flat left rear, maybe something in the car broke, or maybe Newman just lost it.  Doesn't really matter... I think it was the oil. 

The thing is, winning in this sport is tough... VERY TOUGH.  Newman had a shot to win and the only way he was going to close the deal was to keep a very fast Gordon behind him and you can't do that worrying about flat tires or possible oil on the track.

That was indeed, a tough cookie to swallow, but finishing in the back is still better than racing in the back and it was good to see Newman up front again.

DT

The pitty party continues

  I don't really know what to say about this past weekend.  It was a pretty good race for the team and we almost got our first win in 2 years.  It was as high and low as I've ever experienced in a 60 second period since I started racing.  Oh well, its not the first time this has happened to a race team and I'm sure it wont be the last.  I guess we just go to Martinsville and see what we can do there.  Thats all I'm gonna say for now, I'm still sulking.

Bruton's Bluff

By: Dennis Terry

That was quick!!!

I totally expected the Concord City Council to eventually cave in to Bruton Smith's threats to build a new Lowes Motor Speedway and leave Concord a ghost town, but it was a big surprise to me that City Council would give in so quickly and easily.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. 

Bruton's little bluff hit that community hard... very hard!  For those politicians who aren't BILLIONaires the thought of getting voted out of office quickly outweighed any morsels of integrity that they may have originally had.

I know everyone doesn't agree with the whole drag strip rezoning issue to begin with and neither do I, but I believe that if you are voted into a City Council position you should work very hard to make good decisions on behalf of your town.  You should also have the integrity to stand by those decisions once you have taken a stand.

Taking a stance and voting one way one week and then reversing that vote the next week shows very little credibility in my book! Besides, there has always been something about ultimatums, like Bruton’s, that turns me into a very stubborn person... just ask my wife.

The civic and community leaders who brought on this debacle have certainly sold Bruton what little bit of backbone that they may originally had.

By backing down to Bruton so quickly, City Council has proven that they either made an incredibly stupid and thoughtless decision to begin with OR that Bruton changed their minds about their vote and City Council decisions don't apply to big money and big business.

Whatever the case, Bruton's bluff has shown that the City of Concord has the wrong decision makers in place.

DT

Lots of action on Sunday

  If you were to tell me that we could finish 5th at a speedway and to take it or leave it, I would take it.  The problem is that I really thought we had a chance to win that race.  With eight to go we are in P1 with our teammate behind us.  Unfortunately we didn't hang on and we finished 5th.  Its a good run for us but victory lane is what we need to get things going again.  I give lots of credit to Kurt Busch, he and Ryan were on the radio non stop during the caution and Busch told Ryan where ever he was going he would be stuck to his bumper.  Sure enough he didn't leave us at anytime during the last 8 laps.  I'm sure there were times that he could of dropped down and got in line with some one else, but he didn't.  Props to Mr. Busch.

  In other news, our front carrier got plunked again.  Here's the scoop.  On our third stop of the day the 8 car let a tire get away and it rolled right into our pit.  As soon as the tire got in our pit our car was coming in.  So naturally our tire carrier is looking down pit road at our car to judge when to go off the wall.  He didn't see the tire from the 8 car rolling right in front of him and jumped off the wall.  As soon as he jumped the tire went under his feet.  Scotty landed on the tire and hit head first on the pavement.  The tire he was carrying went flying into pit road and Ryan couldn't get on the brakes any harder.  Fortunately when Ryan hit Scotty he wasn't going fast enough to hurt him but it could have been alot worse.  Scotty got up and continued the stop and we ended up loosing only a couple of spots.  We had trouble pitting behind the 8 all day.  The second stop of the day Ryan ran over the jack of the 8 car because the jackman was standing in the middle of the pit box not paying attention and didn't realize that we were getting ready to pull out of the stall.  We ended up cutting down a left rear and had to come back in and get left side tires.  It was a long day but it ended up OK.  Its off to Charlotte.

Bruton Smith... Seriously???

By: Dennis Terry

I really had a great blog planned for this week.  I wanted to discuss the pros and cons of NASCAR spending hours to dry the Kansas track only to end the race early because of darkness.  Ending the race early was the right call (it was VERY dark).  Spending hours to dry the track after the monsoons that we had earlier is certainly questionable. 

I also wanted to gauge fan opinion about Biffle's win.  Because there was not a “green, white, checkered” finish, Biffle was able to finish the race even though he ran out of gas on the last lap and barley made it to the finish line.  Luckily, Biffle isn't in the Chase, so his controversial victory really doesn't affect the championship points standings (not much anyway).

BUT, after reading about all of Bruton Smith's latest shenanigans on Thatsracin.com I had to add my two cents.

First of all, in case you don’t know, Bruton Smith is a Billionaire business man who has made his fortune selling cars and building race tracks… among many other lesser known ventures.

Remember, I said, “Billionaire”, that’s with a "B".  Now for those of you who are financially and mathematically challenged… a billion dollars is ONE THOUSAND MILLIONS.  So, get together one thousand of your closest millionaire friends, only then can you truly appreciate Bruton's wealth.

Anyway, Bruton wants to build an NHRA drag strip on his property by the Lowes Motor Speedway and the dirt track outside of Charlotte in Concord.  That's great!!!  I love drag racing.

The problem is, a lot of the neighbors who live close to the Speedway are concerned about the noise.  Rightfully so, too.  Not everyone wants to listen to dragsters every weekend.

To protect homeowners from Billionaires like Bruton, State, Counties and Cities have zoning regulations and permit requirements that developers must obtain BEFORE construction projects like Bruton's drag strip are built.

Bruton is a smart man, he has developed hundreds of projects like this around the country and he knows what the zoning requirements are, but he chose to begin construction anyway basically saying that he doesn’t have to play by the same rules that everyone else. 

As is the case with most of Bruton's antics, this is pretty much just a very cleaver publicity stunt, conveniently right before the Charlotte race.

The City of Concord has voted to shut him down (rightfully so), until the proper permits are issued and the adjacent property owners have their due process of a hearing and an opportunity to voice their concerns.  In response, Bruton is throwing a tantrum and threatening to shut down the entire Lowes Motor Speedway project and build another track somewhere else unless the City of Concord caves to his demands.

I know that eventually the City with give Bruton his way, but I say they should take a stand, call his bluff and throw him a going away party.  Maybe his billions can by a new speedway and drag strip, but wouldn’t it be nice if the City of Concord would say that he couldn’t buy their politicians?

Now, I'm curious what you think about Bruton???

DT

The season cant end fast enough

  Its tough watching everyone else race while we are sitting there packing up our gear just a few laps in.  I really wish the season could just hurry up and get over with so we can start looking forward to next year.  I guess its a bad attitude about everything but there's only so many bad pit stops, blown motors, wrecked race cars and bad luck that I can take in one season.  Its gets hard getting on here and having something to write about when every week it seems as if something else has happened to us that keeps us from a good finish.  The one good thing is that the cars are running well.  We just need to finish.  At any rate, the 2 car seams to be doing pretty well.  There still far back in the points but you never know whats going to happened with 7 races to go.  I guess I ll just have to wait it out and see what happens.  Thats about it for now.