Over The Wall

Funny story from Texas

  Before every race our team like to throw the football and just hang out.  Occasionally some of the drivers and other crew members will come over and throw with us.  It s a good way to just relax and warm up before a race.  So a couple of weeks ago at Texas we were throwing the football and this guy walks up behind me and grabs the ball.  He said," let me show you how to throw this thing."  So the first thing that came to my mind was, who the hell is this telling me how to throw a football.  A lot of times fans will jump in the box and want to throw and you just have to play along with em until there gone.  So I thought it was just a fan messing with us and didn't think anything about it.  5 throws later he was still there, the only difference this time was the guy could really throw a football.  More and more people started gathering around to watch and finally after about 10 throws this guys thanked us for letting him throw and took off.  Another guy on our team came over and said that was pretty cool getting to throw football with Roger Stauback.  So I turned around and looked and the team that he owns was pitting right behind us and there he was just sitting there doing an interview.  About that same time, the guy I was throwing with walked over and asked who the old hag was throwing the ball to him.  When he found out he just started laughing and went over to introduce himself.  I guess not everyone gets to throw football with a legend so that was pretty cool.

Montoya and Patrick

By Trent Cherry

Ill start by saying this weekend was one of the worst I've experienced at the track.  We were bad and couldn't get anything going all day.  Frustration is setting in and it's getting harder and harder to try and keep everyone up.  It s like the old saying goes, when it rains it pours, and its pouring now. 

OK, enough about our bad year, i want to talk about the whole Montoya and Patrick thing.  I'm not a big race fan outside of Nascar, but  I do know this.  Nascar has done a great job in keeping a fan base and expanding the sport into one of the biggest spectator sports in the world.  Whether you like or dislike what Nascar has done in the past years, they keep fans coming back and people in the seats.  Here's where Ive got a problem.  All the media keeps writing about is how these two drivers (Montoya and Patrick) could help the image of Nascar.  Whats wrong with the image of Nascar now.  Anyone who wants to try and make a race can come with a car and make a qualifying lap and see where they stand.  People thing because this sport is dominated by white males that it needs a face lift.  It is what it is, and if others want to try and make it in the sport I'm all for that.  But don't tell me that Nascar needs Montoya and Patrick to help rejuvenate the image.  I think what Bill Lester is doing is great for the sport.  He is putting in his time and learning to be a driver.  Its not going to be handed to him so that Nascar can have an African American in the sport.  If he makes it its because he's one of the best 43 drivers in the world.  Same with Montoya and Patrick.   OK, thats it for now. 

The weather needs to cooperate

By Dennis Terry

Sunday was a long-wet-cold and miserable day at the track. Race delays are the worst nightmare for those of us who do pit stops on Sunday and also hold an office job Monday-Friday.

All of the over-the-wall guys on the Bass-Pro-Shops pit crew are “Sunday Only” crewmen like myself (except for our rear tire changer) and when it became apparent that we would be back to Atlanta on Monday we were all scrambling to call work and make arrangements for our Monday absence.

Shortly after Sunday’s race was called, the DEI teams headed back to the airport for our 45 minute flight home. It is somewhat of a hassle to fly all the way back home to Charlotte, but a good night sleep at home in my bed is always worth it.

DEI really works hard to help us spend as much time with our families as possible. I really appreciate that and I’m glad I’m not spending tonight in an Atlanta hotel listening to fans party all night.

Unfortunately, Monday is not looking very sunny and there is a good chance that the Golden Correl 500 is going to be a Tuesday race. That will be one more of my precious few vacation days down the Atlanta drain.

DEI does have a good contingency plan in place for Monday. We have 4 crewmen from each team staying in Atlanta tonight and those guys will be at the track first thing in the morning to prep the car. The rest of us will be waiting at the airport for an 8:00 am departure if the weather is accommodating, but until we get the “all clear” (nice pun huh?) we are planning on playing scrabble and watching the weather channel in the DEI hangar.

One last thing, please keep my buddy Patrick Bell in your thoughts and prayers. He is a private pilot who suffered a heart attack at the track airport this morning shortly after he landed.

The bigger weapon (Kyle Bush or Jammie Mcmurray)

  All in all it was a good day for us.  The car ran good, the pit stops were awesome, and the finish was nothing to hang our heads about.  So I'm not going to give a race recap and bore everyone.  All I want to know is who is the bigger weapon, Kyle Bush or Jammie McMurray.  These two cats were all over the place Sunday and even three days before at the 150's.  I think Kyle is just young and dumb and I think Mcmurray cant control the car he has.  It was only a matter of time until McMurray wrecked someone and I hate it had to be our teammate.  It was painful to watch because you just knew he was going to take some one out.  Oh well, at least he took himself out of the race as well.  That's all I got. Holla back.

Kurt vs. the cops

  I m sure by now all race fans have heard about the whole Kurt Bush thing.  I think, like most of the pit crew guys, I heard early Sunday morning that Kurt Bush would not be driving the 97 for the rest of the year.  The first thing I thought was what in the hell could he have done to be pulled for the next two races.  So as the day went on the stories got better.  One minute he was driving drunk the next he was hitting a cop and so on.  I dont know what went on and I really don't think anyone but the cop and Kurt really know.  I will say this about the whole situation.  Everyone says that drivers get special treatment and that they think they are different because of there status and income.  I can agree to that a little bit, but on the flip side cops are not much different.  They were a uniform and demand respect from everyone whether there in the right or the wrong.  Many times this year we have been threatened by cops if we don't abide by there commands even when there wrong.  Most of this happens when we are leaving the track and have to  catch a flight or we just want to get in the track and they want to send us around in circles just to show that they have the power to do so.  So before everyone jumps on Kurt's back about what did or did not happen, just realize he s not the only one in this situation that might be seeing how much he can away with.  I don't know all the facts and I don't really care, but sometimes a badge and uniform can be as bad as a fire suit and big salary.

Add insult to injury

  As if it weren't bad enough that we ran bad all day, with 5 laps to go we were the fastest car on the track by a lot.  We hung around the mid 20's trying to get our car right all day and couldn't.  So with about 10 laps to go we end up starting up front because we were the first car a lap down.  Next thing I know Ryan's leading the pack and nobody is coming close to catching him.  I guess its a good thing but I couldn't help get mad over the whole situation.  Its nobodies fault its just the way things ended up.  The track changed, the car changed, and most important Ryan was out front in clean air.  So may bee we learned something and can take this to the next mile and half track.  I guess I'm a little spoiled in the fact that we usually run so good at 1.5 half tracks and now we are struggling.  I guess this is what makes the sport interesting.  We ll head to Phoenix and see what happens there.

Lost a good chance

  Beside the fact that we ran like crap, we blew a good chance to gain some needed points.  We finished up around 23 or so and lost some more ground on the leaders.  Not only that, but the fact that the 20 and 48 were not all that good.  So if we could have stayed up front we could have gained some points.  We struggled all day with the car being aero tight.  I m no driver so I don't really know how that feels but you cant really fix aero tight.  We cranked on the track bar and wedge all day and couldn't get it right.  It reminded me of Kansas this year.  Nothing we did was getting the car to where it needed to be.  Oh well, it s all water under the bridge now.  We are 107 points out and three races to go.  We got to do some serious points catching up and were going to need some help along the way.  This one is going to hurt for a while.  I guess you got to let it go and move on to Texas. 

Give credit where credit is due

  Whether you like him or not, JJ has dominated Charlotte for the last few years and he did it again.  I guess dominated isn't exactly the right word but he won.  JJ was all over the track for most of the night and when it counted he was up front.  When he came down pit road during the next to last caution and everyone else stayed out we knew he was up to something.  He got on a different pit strategy than the rest of us and his tires ended up holding on for him.  It was a good call and paid off.  As far as the points go we had a good night.  We lost two positions but we gained about 60 on the leader.  Pit road was crazy all night, Robby Gordon just about killed 10 people when he blew up his motor and decided to run across the infield and pull his car into the first opening where our pit stall was.  There were fans all over the opening and here he comes wide open into the opening never checking up.  Some of the 20 car guys who where in the front of the opening helped to clear some of the fans and camera guys out of the way.  Any ways, it was a long night but we made up some ground on the leader and that's what we went there to do.  This week at Martinsville it should get real good.

Not much good came out of Kansas

  Besides running pretty bad and finishing in the middle of the pack we lost our jack man for a couple of weeks.  On our 4Th stop of the day our jack man Mitch Lash got his right ankle run over by the 11 car during one of the pit stops.  As he was coming down on the handle the 11 car cut into our stall to get into his and rolled over Mitch's ankle.  Infield care said it was a major sprain and they didn't think it was broke but they were sending him to the hospital for xrays.  Although that was a downer it had nothing to do with how we were running on the track.  It just wasn't a good day for the team.  We couldn't get the car the way Ryan wanted it and we didn't have the track position to get in clean air to see how the car could run.  I guess if you look at all that went wrong yesterday it could have been worse than 23rd.  Nothing we can do about it now except look ahead to this week in Charlotte.  We need a strong finish to make up some points.

Newmans the man

  I'm not gonna lie, when we got passed with a few laps to go I sat back down and thought, well second ain't bad.  Next thing I know I here our spotter say outside outside.  I was thinking, shit, were gonna end up third.  I look up at the crowd and there going crazy.  Then I see Newman come out of turn four with the lead.  I should know by now that he is capable of doing something like that but I figured with Tony being the one that passed him he would have a hard time getting by.  I think highly of Tony as a driver and figure he is one of the hardest guy to pass and Newman did it.  It was a great win for the team and puts us out to a good start with 9 race left to go.  Finally we got some momentum heading into a race and Dover is a place we can run good at.  The next nine weeks could get very interesting.