Horsepower and exhaust - Boogity, boogity, boogity! Let's go racin'

Finally! Time for some racin’ has arrived!

Hundreds of drivers are fighting it out for the Golden Driller at The Chili Bowl in Tulsa this week.

And word comes from Dana Tomes, Barboursville’s Brett Rowe will be driving for Faith Motorsports with Morgan Shepherd in the Nationwide Series in 2011.

And NASCAR is changing the rules.

Ah, the sound of horsepower and the smell of exhaust is in the air!

There are some names we know at the Chili Bowl, and there are some names missing there this year. We know JJ Yeley, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Jason Leffler are in the field. We also know Kasey Kahne isn’t entered as a driver, and neither is Tony Stewart, although TStew is the virtual Grand Marshal.

I feel I must give a shout out to Cameron Hagin of Hagin Racing, Broken Arrow, OK. He started Tuesday in heat 3 on the outside of the 2nd row. He’s being sponsored by Raypro. Oh, by the way, did I mention he’s a rookie? Yep. We’re looking for big things from this young man.

Dana Tomes sent along info about Brett and Morgan running two cars from Faith Motorsports in NNS 2011. They will be trying to run the first five races this season. Points transfer, NASCAR approvals and working hard to lock in to at least the first five races can get a wee complicated.

In a perfect world, the points Morgan gained in the partnership with Richard Childress will transfer to him, and the #89's points will move to Brett's ride and number, when NASCAR says so.

Speaking of Morgan Shepherd, here’s a nice story on NASCAR.com today about him:
http://www.nascar.com/news/101214/mshepherd-christmas-trip/index.html

Now, on to fickle NASCAR. Decisions to be made, lives to change. Imagine this, NASCAR changing the rules. Again. And the drivers will have to make choices. Do I want a NNS title or a Sprint Cup title?

It’s about time! I’ve said for several years now, it’s not right to have Cup drivers in the NNS barreling through the competition for the sake of another trophy.

I liken it to NBA and NHL players being allowed to compete in the “amateur” ranks for the Olympics. It’s just not right.

Don't ban them from the series, just don't let them take the top prize.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. The sponsors want to see their product name get more exposure. And if their driver wins the title, it's one more lugnut on their wheel. That’s the “reason” for having marquee drivers in what is essentially the minor leagues. I can understand that logic. Economics in NASCAR have been on the skids for a few years.

Big name drivers put fans in the stands. While there are empty seats at pretty much all the tracks, there are still more than 100,000 people there buying tickets to the races. Does that happen in basketball or baseball? How about football? OK, soccer maybe.

While it’s fun to see your favorite driver in the seat two times in a weekend, that’s not the reason I like the NNS or the Camping World Truck Series. I think it’s good to see them fight it out, hoping to get noticed by not just the fans and gain a following, but also being seen by more team owners and thus, get a shot at moving up to the Cup.

There WILL come a day it’s not about Jimmie Johnson. Or Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart or, dare I say, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

I’ve always said, “train your replacement, so some day you can retire.”

While honing their skills against Cup drivers has advantages, those drivers don’t get a chance to win the trophy. And if they can’t win the NNS or NCWTS top prize, they can’t have that AND the Cup in their resume. To me, that would be mark of a true champion.

Seriously, I was so pulling for Biffle in the Chase this year. It’d be great to see him have all three series titles. And anyone with a crew called The Pit Bulls has to be awesome to start.

The other issue in my mind is, if you run two series or even all three in one weekend, that’s a lot of seat time and time spent driving at insane speeds. Realizing they are young men, well, with a few exceptions, which adds up to fatigue and concentration issues which could lead to mistakes that otherwise might not happen.

Too much to think about. Money. Big name players. Speed. Titles. And that’s not even getting near the subject of expanding the 12-man, 10-week Chase.

The only good thing I know is The Chili Bowl is here, which means Daytona isn’t too far away.

Trick my garage?

If I had an unlimited budget and was going to trick out my garage, I could let Garage Mahal and the DIY Network have free reign. Of course, I’d be more than happy to volunteer my space if it was their dime, too.

A couple in the Charlotte area (the mecca of racing on the east coast), had their ho-hum garage cranked up a notch or 800 by the network’s show and host Bill Goldberg. (Hey, didn’t he wrestle?)

Anyway, the show airs Friday, Dec. 3 at 9:30 p.m. on DIY. That would be Comcast 133, DirecTV 230, Dish Network 111 or Suddenlink 104.

Now, you might want to TiVo that and watch the NASCAR Championship Awards program on SPEED. It’s on at 9 p.m. Friday, and will feature Rascal Flats and that Jimmie Johnson guy.

Back to the garage, the renovated space includes: grandstand seating, surround sound, checkered floor, race-theme wall murals and power screen garage doors.
Oh, yeah. That would be sweet.

And the show will feature a look at Braun Racing and Great Clips Racing in Mooresville by tour guides Kasey Kahne and Jason Leffler.

The question: Garage Mahal at 9:30 p.m. or NASCAR awards at 9 p.m.? Hmmm.

Thank goodness for TiVo!

At least he had to work for it this time

Props to Jimmie Johnson. He won the NASCAR championship. Again. Again. Again. Again and, again.

At least he had to be on top of his game to do it this time.

And once again, I say...

Kevin Harvick was regular season champion and what does he get for that? Same thing Tony Stewart did for the same feat. Nothing. A big, ole nothing.

But that doesn't mean I can't have a little fun at Hendrick Motorsports HQ. All in good fun. The friends I went to the All Star race with are HMS fans. Laura was in 7th heaven there! And on Sunday, it was just the best for her!



This time next year, will we remember who won the race? Only when commentators tell us. Here's a hint:


Cousin Carl. He knows duck! He knows Jack! He knows how to win at Miami Homestead! Honestly, Roush guys gave him the car to beat all day.

But nobody will remember that.

Just Jimmie. Jimmie Johnson. 5-time NASCAR champion. All hail to Jimmie.

But Harvick was the one tagged to replace THE driver, The Intimidator.

Follow the bouncing drivers. . .

I’m making a sign to post next to my television this weekend:
Kahne 83
Almirola 9
Almendinger 43
Ambrose 47

You can’t tell the players….Of course the only one to really watch is Kasey. The others are just “on the track and let’s see what happens.”

My first thought was Petty-man, are you out of your mind? It’s even questionable if Bud will sponsor Almirola, he has to be approved by the company.

Next, having watched “Petty Blue” a few times in the last week, didn’t Richard run Petty Enterprises out of business once already? Not to mention fire his own son, Kyle. So right there, you're questioning his ability to reason.

Which is another drama all to itself. Petty – Evernham – Gillette – Roush. That’ll be another sign to post when it gets sorted and the checks are signed. And let’s not forget the 4-Cup-Car rule. But who knows, NASCAR may change it’s mind again on how many cars a team can field. It’s been known to happen mid-season, near-end-season. Heck, mid-race!

Both these story lines are playing out fast and twisting like Watkins Glen.

Now, opinions are like, well, hearts. Everyone’s got one. So, here’s mine.

It’ not KK’s fault the equipment fails.

It’s not KK’s fault the car doesn’t finish.

It’s not KK’s fault he’s not in the Chase. OK, that last one may be a little bit his fault. But I blame the equipment. Seriously.

Kasey doesn’t built the engine, Kasey doesn’t build the car. He has to work with what he’s given. And since he's leaving the team, why give him the good stuff?

Didn’t we have this conversation when Mark Martin was leaving Jack Roush? I think we did. And with Junior and his equipment at Hendrick, although everyone else fielding Hendrick parts seems to be doing just fine. But I digress.

Back to Kasey Kahne (Whoo! as my friends and Nature Boy Ric Flair say).

Kasey’s job is to drive the car. Plain and simple. It's the owner's job to give him the tools he needs to win. If anyone understands that, it should be Richard Petty, at least from what I saw in Petty Blue.

Was Kassey sick at Charlotte? My opinion is yes. Sick of being dealt the cars he was dealt. He attracted the sponsor, Bud. When he announced he was leaving RPM, so did the sponsor. I think Kevin Harvick will do just fine with Bud on his car. Again, I digress.

Let’s keep watching and listening, it’s going to be like the weather. Don’t like it? Stick around, it’ll change soon enough.

Everybody sing! Weeeee are the champions...

The next 10 weeks should prove to be fairly interesting.

While he may be everyone’s darling. Everyone’s favorite to win a 5th straight title. America’s sweetheart (besides, of course, Sandra Bullock). Jimmie Johnson seems already being crowned. Already being bestowed the title of History’s Greatest Driver. Heck, they’ve probably already put his name on the trophy.

Cue Freddie Mercury; wave your arms back and forth. “Weeeee are the champions, my friend...”

More like, “We’ll keep on fighting, ‘till the end...” at least for 11 other drivers.

With 17 consecutive weeks on top of the NASCAR point standings, I wouldn’t count Happy Harvick out of the running.

OK, I don't have photos of me with Happy or DeLana, although I do follow them on Twitter. Here's a shot of me with car owner Richard Childress and my BFFs from California, Laura in the middle and Roberta on the right. (Yes, it's blatant self-promotion, but gosh, we had fun in All-Star Week.)

Harvick has been Mr. Consistent this season, otherwise his name wouldn’t have been on top of the board week in and week out for so long. Happy’s posted 11 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes in 2010. Not exactly slouch.

And after all, don’t series officials squawk about consistency, consistency, consistency?

But what does Kevin (and DeLana, let’s be real about it) get for this.

That’s right, nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Same thing that happened to TStew last year. Lead the standings all season long and get nothing. Not even a certificate. Only personal satisfaction.

Hoist that over your head in Victory Lane and pose for pictures.

At least give the guy a big, fat check with lots of zeros. Or maybe a trophy in honor of Big Bill.

Naturally, I’d like to see Tony win it all again. It wouldn’t be consecutive, but three IS a nice number.

Odds are pretty good for Richard Childress and Jack Roush this year, with three drivers each in the Chase. You realize, that’s half the field.

So let’s talk Roush for a minute. I’m thinking Greg Biffle. The Biff. Champion in the Busch Grand National Series and the Craftsman Truck Series. That would be pretty sweet for him to add a Sprint Cup title to that. And, in my humble opinion, he deserves it. My Netflix list has sent me Driven To Win lately. Biff was an unlikely sort to come to NASCAR. A little older than most, although he’s not old by any means, just older than most in the field today.

And he likes dogs. Big dogs. So he can’t be all bad. I met him at PetCo (where the pets go) during All-Star Week during a driver appearance. He autographed a few things for me and the NASCAR Pets calendar looks over my desk, October signed by the Biff. Yes, I'm wearing a Tony Stewart shirt here. And yes, again, blatant self-promotion.
But I digress.

Some people pick drivers by their colors or sponsor. I go by the pet. Which still doesn’t explain Tony Stewart, who at the time I came to racing, had Chihuahuas. And a monkey. Now, it’s cats. Siamese cats. I’m not fond of small, yippy dogs, nor do I especially like cats.

But I like Tony and never, never count him out when it matters. He has that determined look here and it was just for a million bucks at the All-Star Race, where he was defending his title from 2009. I was there then, too. Got a great burnout shot, the one on top of this post.

There you have it. My musings on the Chase. Happy, the Biff and TStew. Anybody but Johnson. Sorry Laura my west coast BFF, anybody but Jimmie.

Let the Chase begin!

From Bristol to You (Tube)

Well, here are my first tries at posting video.

I mentioned them Thursday in all about Bristol. And the Nationwide race is happening, so there's a little racing fix for the weekend.

In the one video, Jimmie Johnson was down a bunch of laps and had some issues keeping up with the pack, even on a restart, and there were a good number of those. I'm not saying the entire Bristol Motor Speedway was cheering and smiling, and even laughing, but certainly everyone around me did.



The next videos are Kyle Busch. C'mon, he'd just won the third race of the weekend, give the 20-something some credit. I didn't see him hung in effigy like last year. And some young men tried to come back to West Virginia with us. They had consumed mass quantities of adult beverages. But they knew West Virginia didn't have a beach within its borders.

Well, folks, there you have it. My first attempt at video with my camera. I hope you enjoy them.

Have to give KB props...

Love him or hate him, you have to give Kyle Busch his due. Winning the Camping World Truck Series, Nationwide and Sprint Cup races, at Bristol last weekend, hats off to KB.

The other story of the Bristol night race was Jimmie Johnson finishing up, oh, 85 laps down. That converts to what, more than 42 miles behind everyone else? It's only a 250-mile race! But at the outset, Jimmie was hot! There was a glimmer of hope for Tony when he finally passed for the lead, but it didn't last long.

JJ's had some issues since winning back to back at Sonoma and Loudon. He's finished outside the top 10 since way back in June. He's fallen like a paver block from a home improvement store, plummeting from 3rd to 9th in points. Yikes!


This shot is early in the night and I must say, JJ and Smoke were slugging it out for the lead.

Not long after, Juan Montoya tapped Jimmie and that's all she wrote. I shot some video of him waaaaaay behind the pack after a restart. But these things take forever to load. It will come in a different post. Maybe with the Kyle Busch burnout, for good measure. But they do take for-ev-er to upload.

Now, I will admit, my driver Tony Stewart had issues at Bristol, too. He had some choice words for his crew during the evening. He violated two of Coach John Wooden's three rules for success - 1. Always be on time (he obviously made the driver's meeting on time); 2 - never use profanity (he loses there) and 3 - never criticize a teammate (lost out there, too). And here's the crew trying to make the car right.


We have a break from Cup action until my birthday weekend, Labor Day Weekend, when the action moves to Atlanta.

So TiVO of Bristol and a truck race will have to suffice this weekend.