What? Again? Seriously? Seriously.

If you are surprised by the suspension of Chad Knaus for 6 weeks, raise your hand.

Yeah. Didn’t think so.

Now, this is just fun to say for the non-Jimmie fans.

The #48 heads into Phoenix -23 points in the standings.

Just couldn't resist. But I'm a Tony Stewart fan.



The crew chief of 5-time Sprint Cup series champion Jimmie Johnson has a history of infractions and suspensions. Points and money obviously don’t really seem to matter to him and the deep pockets of Hendrick Motorsports.

On Sunday, he didn't look like a man who was probably pretty sure he was getting fined and maybe suspended in three more days.

And reputation, well, obviously that doesn’t matter, or does it? Chad’s rep is for pushing the envelope up to the edge, just enough to stay in the parameters of the rule book.

Oh, didn't he sit under the tutelage of, gasp, Ray Evernham, who is now in the employ of Hendrick. If I were a conspiracy theorist... According to Scene Daily, Chad Knaus has been handed penalties nine times since 2001, both monetary and points-wise.

Yes, that’s quite a reputation…for cheating.

Tell your driver to crack the back of the car into the wall if he wins in case it’s too low? Seriously? Gotcha!

So, he won’t be on the box for 5-time for the next six weeks. Remember, Johnson won the Daytona 500 in 2006 without Chad. He can do quite well without the legend that is Chad Knaus.

Here's a couple of photos from the Daytona trip last weekend. Mike Helton doesn't look like a man who's gonna put the hammer down on Chad Knaus, again.

More from Raintona

As the song says, "I've seen fire and I've seen rain..."

And that pretty much sums up this year at Daytona. I saw the rain in the red rain poncho (Red Raining Hood). I only saw the fire on TV. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Joke of the day: How many NASCAR drivers does it take to start a fire? Juan. It's only funny because everyone walked away.

Just in case you missed it.


And they helped clean it up with Tide. Somehow appropriate. When DW won the Daytona 500 and did that infamous dance, he was in the Tide ride.

So, on to other thoughts.

It was amazing how the rains held off on Sunday until race time itself. Fans got through a 3-song concert by Lenny Kravitz; driver introductions and the parade lap.



It's good we honor our men and women in uniform at NASCAR events. After all, it's said racefans are the most patriotic fans in the country. This young man has already been to Afghanistan 2 times. He was set to escort the 33rd driver in the Nationwide race lineup, Benny Gordon. Gordon went on to finish 12th.

There had been no rain in seemingly forever, friends who live in the Sunshine State said. Hence the name, Sunshine State.

I really didn't see sunshine that day. The day before, yes. Beautiful weather for the Nationwide race, won by James Beuscher. Seriously? James who? His team members were shocked by the win, and were overheard saying so, with certain expletives.


My race friends and I went on the tour, so to speak. We posed with the Dale Earnhardt Daytona 500 win statue. We also visited the Sprint Cup garages and found the "big boys" out to meet and greet. Like Ryan Newman. In the photo here, he was talking with 3 military men just back from Afghanistan. God bless them all. I certainly wasn't going to barge in and ask him to sign something while he was talking with them.


Well, there are more tales to tell from Rain, er, Daytona. Those will be left for another blog post another day.

Daytona without the 500

I did everything at the Daytona 500 except see the Daytona 500.

Pit road, garages, driver meeting, fan zone, stood on the checkers, met Richard Petty and Leonard Wood, saw the pre-race Lenny Kravitz concert, was on the infield for driver introductions, thanked every military man and woman who passed by me in the parade trucks going to pick up the drivers, went to Victory Lane and watched a good bit of the Nationwide race on Saturday from Tony Stewart's pit.

In the area outside the track, I visited the Streamline Hotel where NASCAR all began, and drove my rental Mustang on Daytona Beach.




But after driver intros, the rains fell and so did my tears.


So, I flew back to West Virginia on Monday and watched the Daytona 500 from the warm, dry comfort of my living room.


But believe me when I write when DW tells you to crank up the volume, it really doesn't compare to the chest-rattling, breathtaking, ear-splitting sound of 42 cars with massive horsepower passing by at nearly 200 miles per hour.

That being said.

It was still a great week. Except for not seeing the actual big event.

As my friend Jeff said on Monday afternoon, "find that silver lining." Yep. I do.