Friday race – ARCA . The starting lineup was determined by owner’s points since practice and qualifying were rained out yesterday and heavy fog precluded action on the track this morning. The kids managed to do 49 of 50 laps without a caution. A couple of cars wrecked hard on the last lap. Corey LaJoie won the race by luck. He was wandering around in second place, way behind the leader, when the leader’s car broke and he had to pit. LaJoie was supposed to start at the back of the field for an unapproved adjustment according to Phil Parsons, but instead started behind Chase Elliott. He followed Chase through the field until Chase had a tire issue. It was a relatively boring race in spite of Rick Allen’s yelling as though the racing was hot and heavy. Boring, like Pocono can be, but short, so endurable. That Corey LaJoie is lucky. Sadly I think he thinks he’s good. Oh well. Frank Kimmel is still leading the points. Frank finished second.
Saturday, practice time. it’s raining in Long Pond, Pennsylvania right now. The forecast, according to Johnny TV, is for rain this morning, then it should move out quickly. So I checked out the forecast for myself and quickly doesn’t seem to be in the moving out cards, but maybe AccuWeather is wrong. Though maybe he’s speaking of a specific cell moving through that will provide enough time to dry the track and get practice in. The schedule is packed at Pocono Raceway today though. Practice this morning for Cup cars, Truck qualifying, then the Truck race. That would be a big break between bouts of rain. So, The 10 is on now. Booooooooo. The 10 gets boring really quickly hough that’s better than gorilla head & petty kyle babbling on and on, but seriously, I miss the days when the crew on the desk were fun and interesting and informed enough to actually have something to say during a rain delay! What does SpeedTV have against quality talent? SHRUG.
Truck race at Pocono. Congrats to Ryan Blaney! I’m bummed for Todd Bodine who was doing well until spinning toward the end of the race.
Nationwide in Iowa. CONGRATS Drew Herring on your first Nationwide Series Pole!!! I was appalled that the ESPN crew did not speak to the pole winner in the Countdown show, but instead allowed Austin Dillon to rattle on badly about nothing. There was a nice piece in the pre-race show on Joey Gase and his car dedicated to his Mom who died recently. He donated her organs and a guy who got one of her kidneys was at the race. It was sweet. I’m still at a loss as to why we didn’t bother to speak with a first time pole sitter, but okay.
Penske loaded the field by having both It (Brad Keselowski) and Joey Logano join series regular/championship contender Sam Hornish in the field. He seems desperate for the owner’s championship. It’s kinda weird. Why this year? He seems to have little concern for Sam winning the driver’s championship though consistently sending in the varsity squad who seem to snatch victory from the championship contender. He seems all-in in support of AJ Allmendinger, but not as supportive of Sam these days. Maybe the bell has tolled on Sam’s NASCAR career. I just find it weird he’s extending AJ every opportunity possible in spite of the fact he admitted to taking pills given to him by a stranger – though he’s so far neglected to actually tell the truth about the entire incident and admit he did something way wrong. I mean he did go through the road to recovery, and since he’s not an MWR employee he wasn’t immediately fired, but actually saying, “yeah, I illegally ingested a controlled substance and I apologize” – so far we’ve not seen that. We’ve heard about his recovery though he’s never admitted to wrong-doing and since Roger Penske has his back he’s never had to do so. Until he does though he’s a shady character to me. He’s getting the ‘benefit’ of admitting guilt (help with his problem), without actually admitting guilt.
Unfortunately Marty Reid was back and sadly he was joined by Ricky Craven in the booth. Talk about a snooze-fest! Ricky just does not have the personality for that particular job. He’s fine as a boring talking head – they’re supposed to be boring – but on a race broadcast, not so much. Of course Marty seems to be under the impression no one watches the races anyway since he said “At least we know one person is watching this.” after reading a tweet from Kyle Busch. Since the tweet concerned Drew and the pole and they barely bothered to mention that Drew had the pole, I don’t know how he jumped to that conclusion, nor why he thought it appropriate to indicate no one watches the race broadcasts. Then again why Marty has this position is a mystery to me. He doesn’t seem to know anything about NASCAR, the Nationwide series, or broadcasting, but he seems to get a paycheck for it anyway.
So far the racing has been boring this weekend. The two Pocono races were quite ho hum – which is saying a lot for both ARCA and the Trucks. The Iowa race the same. It leaves me less than excited as race time draws near.
After lots of rain yesterday morning, Sunday morning is bright and beautiful in Pocono.
So far, lap 55, the Sprint Cup race has had more stuff happening than either of the others, but still a bit of a snooze. Stinkhouse, Kenseth and JPM wrecked on lap one. Denny Hamlin hit the wall on lap 15. David Gilliland hit the wall and had a fire under the car on lap 53. Several cars have been popped for speeding into and out of the pits. Newman and Carl Edwards say their tach is set incorrectly.
Due to pit strategy lots of folks stayed out, Jimmie will restart 14th. Kasey Kahne leads the race after passing Brad Keselowski who inherited the lead on the pit stops.
Jimmie hit the wall on lap after a right front tire blow out. It blew a panel off the car. Hard hit and he’s got some damage on the car.
NASCAR FINALLY warned Keselowski about laying back on the restart. He was able to get ahead of Kasey with that move, but he has been warned. Whomever (crew chief or spotter) said they knew Jeff Gordon was laying back giving him no choice – though there was no one in front of him at the time.
Caution is out for Stremme on lap 95 – another blown right front tire. Gilliland’s right front also blew. Keselowski’s team have warned him not to abuse the right front.
Goodyear is looking at the tire issues. They are indicating there’s a bead issue though not due to braking.
Caution is out on lap 103 for Aric Almirola spinning out due to a left rear tire down. Timmy Hill spun while trying to check up due to cars in front of him checking up for Aric’s spin and the caution waving.
Caution is out on lap 110. Danica got loose, turned and Jeff Burton and Paul Menard had nowhere to go but into the side of her. Travis Kvapil was collected in the incident also.
Keselowski’s team is trying to trick their way into a win. Sad. Brad really is a better driver than that using gimmicks and tricks to try to steal a win. Seriously, professional drivers, stealing a win is shoddy – unsportsmanlike – uncool.
Caution is out on lap 149 of 160 for debris in turn two. Kasey had a 7.6 second lead over Jeff Gordon.
Jeff Gordon gets the lead on the restart.
Caution is out on lap 156 for a spin by Matt Kenseth.
Jeff got a big jump on the restart. Kasey got a big run on turn one. Kasey went by him in the tunnel turn. White flag is in the air. Kasey continues to gap Jeff Gordon to win the race!!!
Jeff Gordon finishes second on his birthday, Kurt Busch finishes third, Newman finishes fourth, Dale Jr finishes fifth. Good day for Hendrick Horsepower!
Jeff Gordon is disappointed with his second place finish. He sounded like he’s on the verge of tears. He’s sounded bad all day thought. I’m wondering if he’s in pain today, because he’s really sounded weird (sick) in every interview I’ve heard today.
Jimmie finished 13th after everything. He said he hit so hard it knocked a spark plug wire off and was running around on seven cylinders for a while before they figured that out and got it fixed.
Junior was hoping they brought a better car here this time but they didn’t. He said they threw everything at it and they gave him a good car and he finished fifth. He said the weather (the rain out yesterday) put them behind.
Today is also Kurt Busch’s birthday. He’s 35 today.
Happy Birthday Big Daddy! Happy Birthday KuBu!
I didn’t watch Race Day, but I’m watching Victory Lane. Petty Kyle is hoarse and sounds worse than usual. He apologizes for his voice, but seriously, Dude! Stay at home when you’re not capable of performing your duties to your usual low level! Don’t make your co-workers ill and give the viewers a break.