Over The Wall

Lots to talk about

  I ll start off by congratulating our front tire changer Ben Brown on his first child.  He had a baby girl, Harper Elizabeth Brown, last wed. and had to miss the shootout.  He'll be with us tomorrow for the 150's.  The baby girl was 6 pounds 10 oz.

  Now onto some racing stuff.  Whats up with all the cheating by the big boys.  It's one thing when you here about a low budget team that is trying everything they can to get every advantage they can.  Now you have some big name teams that are getting busted left and right.  Either way it shouldn't be happening.  I personally think some guys pride them selves on how much they can get away with.  The sad part is the driver and the teams suffer when they get caught cheating.  They should send the whole team home when a you get caught cheating and see how well liked they are around the shop when they cant go racing.  Not only are you letting your self down but hundreds of other people within your team.  You probably will never eliminate the cheating aspect but if you punish lots of people for a fews mistakes it might deter some people from trying to get away with cheating.  Well, thats about all from me.

The Chase

  When the chase first started a couple of years ago I imagine this year is what they had in mind.  Going into the last 4 races there are 9 drivers that have a true shot at winning the championship.  Since we are no where close to being in the chase the excitement isn't as much as it could be, but even yet its still pretty cool.  In the past few years the chase has separated with about 4 races to go, but this year is totally different.  I'm sure the TV ratings will be up from the past years and the interest in the chase will grow.  Early on there were a lot of fans, teams, and drivers upset at the new format, but given the last six races I don't see how you can complain.  I personally love the idea and think it should stay the same.  I don't think any changes should be made to get more people in no matter what the sponsors say.  Its the playoffs and the best teams deserve to be in it and the rest can wait and watch.  10 out of 43 isn't bad odds for making the playoff in my mind.  I'm not saying they might not consider a change in the way they give points, but I don't think any more than 10 teams should make it.    Well, it looks like were off to Hotlanta for the weekend so we'll see if we can pull something together for the last 4 races.  Thats all for now.   Oh by the way, we pitted in front of the 11 car this weekend and just about got hit on three different stops.  Gotta watch out for us Denny, you got a car surrounding you we got a cheap ass helmet.  If you remember last year Denny hit our jackman and put him out for two month's.  Just thought I would let you guys in on that.

Kevin Harvick making a statement

  Kevin Harvick has taken over the Cup series the past couple weeks and it doesn't look like he's going to let up.  Last year he was one of the top guys on my most overrated drivers list.  I think my top three were Harvick, Kahne, and Mears.  Well, I guess I was wrong about two of them.  The 29 bunch has got there stuff together and I find myself pulling for them over the other guys.  For a team that hasn't made the chase in two years there showing some of the chase veterans what its all about. 

  As far as the 48 bunch goes, well, i don't really know what to say.  Its easy to say they choke every year but thats not completely true.  Choking is missing a game winning field goal, not having a stretch of bad races.  I think there's alot that goes into making a team/car finish well and one person cannot be responsible for that.  There's still a long way to go for the Cup but this week wasn't a good way to start out.

  Now on to the 12 cars performance.  It wasn't the best we could have run at Loudon but it wasn't as bad as we've been either.  We usually run very well there and we had a good car this weekend.  Our pit stops were awesome all day and we usually gained spots in the pits.  I think the only time we lost positions was near the end when some teams took fuel only.  I guess the only cool thing that happened in the pit was the accident with the 16 car.  We were pitting a couple of cars in front of the 16 on the track, but our stall was right in front of there's.  When Ryan came into the pits, the guy that hold the stop sign for the 16 wasn't paying attention and didn't pull the sign up and Ryan drover right thru it.  You should have seen the look on the kids face when the sign almost got knocked out of his hand.  It gave me a laugh right before we had to jump off the wall.  I know how he feels cause it happened to me in 01' when I was with the 2 car.  Shake it off kid, it happens.  OK, enough from me.

Scanners a must at Richmond

By Trent Cherry

  If you've never listened to radio communication between a team and its driver, this would be the weekend to do it.  I'm sure some of the people reading this will be going to the race and have the chance to rent  a scanner or even buy one.  I suggest you do, especially this weekend.  With the chase coming down to a hand full of drivers, you know that tempers are going to be high, and that means radio talk should be good.  If for some reason the chase contenders aren't saying much during the race, just turn it to the Kurt's radio.  It's  guaranteed entertainment.  Anyone who has listened to a scanner knows what I'm talking about.  Even if your not going to be at the race I think there is a way to listen in on the computer.  Never done it but my buddies tell me they do it all the time.  Its worth checking out for this weekend especially. 

  As far as Cali goes, well it didn't.  The best part of the whole day was meeting Kelly Clarkson before the race.  After that it went down hill all night.  Pit stops were good and our first run of the night was good and then we went backwards.  And if running bad wasn't bad enough, we got in a fender bender on pit road with the 19 car.  He ran by his stall and slammed on the brakes, when he did Ryan ran right into him and put a softball size hole in the grill.  So that didn't help things but it sure wasn't the problem.  Hopefully we can get something together for Richmond.  Holla back.

A couple of thoughts

  Its been a while since my last post so I thought I would get caught up on some things.  Last weekend at Bristol was a good night for us.  We had a really good car and had great pit stops all night.  The only problem I have with Bristol is that you cant really gain spots in the pits towards the end of the race because all the lap down cars are between you and the guys your running with.  When you enter pit road the next guy back is 10 car lengths.  I wish Nascar would make all lap down cars move out of the way before the pits are open and let the lead lap cars get nose to tail.  Not that it would have made a difference but it would have made it better competition on pit road.  Besides that I thought it was a good race. 

  Looking forward to California.  This is one of the races I really don't look forward to.  Long flights, lots of jet lag, and we haven't run well this year at all.  Hopefully we have found some stuff in the last couple of weeks that can help us.  Being obvious that we arnt making the chase we can start to work on some things that can help for next year and take more chances with stuff this year.  This is the first time since I joined the team that we wont be in the top 10 at the end of the season and I think its a good reminder of how tuff this league really is.  Its a good reminder to everyone involved in the sport that making the chase is going to get harder and harder every year.  Its not a given that anyone makes it and nothing is guaranteed.  With all that said, I still enjoy watching the guys that are trying to make it race.  OK, that all for me.

Watkins Glen and 'Talladega Nights'

By Trent Cherry

Lets talk about then Glen first, then Ill get into the worst movie of the year.  Both the 2 and 12 had pretty good cars this weekend.  Actually we had a very good cars.  Everyone knows what happened to the 2 car but I'm sure there are some questions as to what happened with us.  On the last lap Ryan got hit from behind by Boris Said.  During his spinning  he went thru the bus stop and kept digging.  Nascar has a rule that you cant advance any spots and have to come to a complete stop if you miss the bus stop.  The rule is completely different if you are involved in a wreck thru the bus stop.  So any ways, after the race our scorer comes down and says that we finished 32.  Of course known of us knew what was going on.  So after a long meeting in the hauler with officials, Matt came back and told us we finished 8th.  What happened was, Boris Said spun us and kept on going thru the bus stop and never stopped.  Nascar ended up penalizing him instead of us, giving the 12 car the 8th spot and putting Boris back in the field.  All and all it wasn't a good day for Penske, I thought we had a winning car in the 2 and a top 5 in the 12.  What happened to the 2 car was just a bad deal.  I don't know what else to say about that.

  Now, onto the worst movie of the year.  Talladega nights was horrible.  I love dumb stupid movies and ones that make you laugh the whole way thru, but this movies was terrible.  I ve heard mixed opinions on it but I felt like I should have gotten a refund.  Will Ferrell is very funny in all his movies, but even he couldn't save this terrible script.  Do not go see this movie.  OK, its off to Michigan.

We need uncle Mo on our side

  Well, this weekend was better than I thought it could have been.  Only our second top 3 of the year and it came at a place that was unexpected.  Ryan has always done pretty good on road course tracks but I didn't expect this.  He drove a great race and the car and crew were right there with him.  We had a great car and the pit stops were good.  Now we need to go to Daytona and take momentum with us.  We are out of mulligans for the year so its time to get a string of these things going if we want any chance of making the chase.  Not only that, but we need help from some of the other drivers as well.  Its shaping up to be a real good ten races for the just a couple of spots.

Pocono Smoke

By Dennis Terry

Except for a bad right-front tire that caused us to go a lap down late in the race, our Bass Pro Shops team had a strong run going at Pocono.

Pocono proved me wrong and was exciting.

Tony Stewart also proved me wrong. Not only did he tough out a painful shoulder injury and finish the long Pocono race, but he finished third while still nursing a broken shoulder blade.

“Playing hurt” separates the men from the boys in any form of sports. Injuries always have a way of proving who is passionate about what they are doing who is just in it for the $$$.

Tony proved that he races for the love of racing and not the love of the money. That’s the John Wayne, Babe Ruth and Earnhardt mentality that NASCAR was known for back when smoking was still cool and only team owners had cell phones.

That was a time when our sport didn’t pay multimillion-dollar driver salaries so the best drivers were the ones who loved to race not just drive in circles and fly in private jets.

Our sport was once a sport where the drivers were men and the boys stayed at home playing video games. Drivers didn’t become the best in the garage just because they were cute little boys who looked good in commercials.

The hottest drivers were the ones who kicked ass every week and didn’t make up excuses when they let their fans down. They didn’t get fined by NASCAR for throwing helmets or cussing on TV because they did their talking with a big chrome bumper, a fat right foot and sometimes bare knuckles out behind Turn 4.

So, thanks to Tony Stewart for setting an example by his determination and not by taking the easy way out. Stewart’s determination is the fortitude of a champion, not just a bunch of smoke.

Snoozer Sunday

By Dennis Terry

Dover, Dover, Dover. I don’t know about you guys, but from where I was sleeping… I mean sitting, Dover was a big snoozer!

We had our typical 20-something finish, great pit stops and we worked on the car all race long. By the end of the day Martin was happy with the car and we were running with the leaders ... a lap down.

The bad part about being a rookie team is that we are still in a learning mode with each track that we go to.

Sure, the guys have a lot of Busch experience at tracks like Dover and Charlotte, and Tony Jr. and our Budweiser teammates help us out, but the only way we are going to be able to compete at the Cup level is to take what we have learned in the first races of the season and apply that to the next time we race at those tracks.

The second races of the season at Dover, Phoenix, Martinsville and Atlanta should be strong tracks for our Bass Pro Shops team.

Our pit stall at Dover was right beside of the 20 car, so we got a front-row view of the Stewart & Rudd switch-a-roo. Tony looked like he was in a lot of pain both getting out of the car and when he was walking around in the pits.

It looks like he is going to try to run the entire Pocono race despite his injuries.

You want to talk about a long and boring race? Well, the Pocono race is one of the longest Sundays of the year so be sure and have your Tivo batteries charged up.

I’m putting my money on Tony getting out before halfway. Tony is as tough as the come, so if any driver can prove me wrong it’s Tony ... but he won’t.

Tony gets the championship points as long as he starts the race anyway (as he did last week after only one green flag run), so I don’t expect him to risk aggravating his injury any more than possible, nor risk the embarrassment of falling asleep during another painfully long Pocono snoozer.

Short one

By Trent Cherry

What do you want me to say?  We sit on the pole, run top 5 all day and end up 14th.

We gained three spots in the standings, but lost 20 points in the chase.  So we basically didn't do crap.

Maybee DT has somthing better to talk about.

Holla back.