What did Shannon Spake do wrong that she’s stuck with Larry McReynolds and Michael Waltrip on the desk. I was looking forward to watching – and listening – to her work, but I can’t deal with blathering buffoon one and two. Sigh. Oh well, poor Shannon! At least it’s sunny. Time to find out what’s on the radio broadcast.
Hmmm, KHarv and Adam Alexander. Well KHarv should make it interesting. I’m kinda looking forward to that – unless they’re stuck with Larry Mc stinking up the broadcast.
NASCAR seems to be doing the hard sell for the 500. I saw Roger Penske on CNBC leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I heard Daniel Suarez on NPR yesterday making me proud of him. There have been other things throughout the week. I still question whether marketing is more important than racing/skill/talent, but then I look back at the big events of the past year, and have to say maybe it is. Sad, but probably true.
Darn, Michael Waltrip will be the one stinking up the broadcast booth. Bleeccchhh! Back to looking for the radio broadcast.
The stages are 30, 30, 60 laps for this race.
Johnny Sauter ended up with 20 points last night due to winning the stages in spite of finishing 15th.
Morgan Shepard, Mark Harmon, Mark Thompson and Stephen Leicht are headed for the house not making the 40 car field for the Xfinity race.
Greg Biffle is in the booth on the mic for the race. Good for Mr. Awesome. This could be highly entertaining.
Kasey Kahne is in the JR Motorsports number 88 car.
Brandon Jones leads the field to the green flag.
Caution on lap 4 of 120 for fluid on the track. Jeff Green and David Starr are slowly making their way to the pits.
Benny Gordon brushed the wall and kicked up smoke, but continues.
Caution on lap 17 of 120 for a spin by Brandon Hightower.
Caution. Wreck on lap 23 of 120 involving lots of cars including Spencer Gallagher, Garrett Smithley, Cole Custer, Brad ‘It’ Keselowski got a little bit of it, Tyler Reddick, Michael Annett, Ryan Sieg, Anthony Kumpen, Clint King, Aric Almirola, Austin ‘Frankenstein’ Dillon, Jeremy Clements, Jeff Green, Ryan Reed, Ross Chastain, JJ Yeley, Ray Black Jr and William Byron. MRN is saying more than a dozen cars were involved.
Race is red flagged on lap 25 of the 30 lap stage and 120 total laps.
Now MRN is saying it was an 18 car wreck.
The caution flag is out after about 18 and a half minutes of red flag time and crews are frantically working on cars.
Awww Biff is leaving. He has a previous commitment. He’s going to do some NASCAR America. He’s got to go to a Sherwin Williams dinner.
The race is back underway on lap 28 of 120. The stage will end in two laps. Elliott Sadler leads the field to green. Kasey Kahne gives him a good push.
Wreck on lap 28 as the 18 and 6 and 33 hit the wall hard brings out the caution. Erik Jones, Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, Bubba Wallace, Justin ‘Dewey Alligator’ Allgaier.
Brandon Jones and Dewey Alligator hit the wall hard. The 21 (Daniel Hemric) went up into the 7 (Justin Allgaier) and turned him causing him to hit the 6 (Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr) and he bounced off the wall into the 18 of Erik Jones. Daniel Suarez got some of that also.
They just announced that the Daytona 500 is sold out. Justin Allgaier is out of the car and walking to the ambulance on his own power after that hard shot into the wall.
Harrison Rhodes, Brandon Hightower, and Scott Lagasse Jr were also collected in this one. We’re under the red flag again.
Justin said that was probably one of the hardest hits he’s taken in his career. One of his crew members were hit on the dirt track and is in the hospital.
Bubba is talking a lot and says he’s okay.
Daniel Hemric is having a Carl Edwards day waiting to take his sunglasses off aftger Jamie Little started talking. He’s says he hit fluid and it sent him up the track.
Daniel Suarez says it feels like they’re racing too hard, it’s too early.
Erik Jones is keeping his sunglasses on for his interview. He’s only 20, but I’ll be glad when he grows up, but then again, looking at ‘It’ that might not happen for more than a decade.
TV is showing lap 30 of 120. MRN is saying lap 29. There will be one more lap – a caution lap – to the end of the first stage.
TV is showing caution and the cars are moving. Brandon Jones said that’s the hardest hit he’s ever had. He doesn’t look good.
Stage ends with Elliott Sadler winning the stage. That red flag period was 29 minutes. Only 12 minutes and 7 seconds of green flag racing so far today.
We’ll be restarting on lap 35 of 120.
Thanks to Aric Almirola there’s contact between the leaders Brendan Gaughan and William Byron. Afterburner tapped the rear of Uncle Brenny, but Brendan saved it after a quick tap of Byron.
Caution out on lap 38 of 120 due to a flat right front by Benny Gordon after his visit with the wall. The 5 minute clock expired for Chris Cockrum so he’s gone to the garage. Benny will head to the garage now.
They’re hawking Atlanta tickets on tv now. I miss going to the track. I’m hoping to possibly get something together for the Darlington race. I’m happy as can be sitting outdoors during summer watch cars go ’round. I don’t tolerate cold well at all, so Atlanta in March is not an option since you never know what the weather will bring during March in Northwest Georgia.
I’m not sure they’re not trying to fix Benny Gordon’s car.
There was a 37 car wreck in a race in 1960. The field was 63 cars.
Restart on lap 42 of 120.
There’s that stupid fish-eye shot again. That’s so lame. Where’s Race Buddy when you need it. I miss the old days of Race Buddy with a camera on the action, as well as in-car cameras, without the race call and without commercials.
William Byron is slow having dropped back to 23rd from being up front.
They’re single file right now, they seem to be trying to get to the next stage without incident. Byron has come into the pits. He says none of his gauges are reading. He’s tried to reset it to no avail.
They think it may be a battery issue for William Byron.
They’re actually double file again on lap 58 of 120 in stage 2.
Wreck on lap 59 of 120 as Blake Koch and Brennan Poole hit the outside wall and bring out the caution. The 48 got bumped by the 22 sending him into the 11. The stage concludes under caution with Elliott Sadler leading. Elliott has won both stages.
Restart on lap 66 of 120 as Elliott Sadler brings them to the green flag.
Caution on lap 67 of 120 for debris, likely left by the 11 of Blake Koch who has lost the right front tire.
Brennan Poole is out of the infield care center and out of the race. He knows that ‘It’ got into him and turned him. He says its a place on the track where the car is light anyway.
Kids 12 and under get into Xfinity and Truck series races. Hmmm, but not Cup races. They get in free for the less expensive races, but not for the most expensive race. So we’re trying to keep costs down for team owners, but if you want to see their teams race we’re not bothering keeping down costs for the fans. It’s an idea – though contrary to NASCAR’s constant claim of doing things for the fans and it being a family oriented sport. And on the topic of NASCAR being a family oriented sport – the Monster Energy girls. Just saying.
Awww, Keelan is in the booth with KHarv. Kevin seems to really enjoy spending time with his son.
They’re back underway on lap 72 of 120.
Caution on lap 78 of 120 for Matt Tifft going around and hitting the inside wall. he seems to have lost his left rear tire. The outer part of the tire just came off on the track and sent him around.
We’re seeing the one to go signal on lap 80 of 120.
Restarting on lap 81 of 120.
Okay the television shot is too tight for too long. Looking at the front of 1.5 cars gets boring – or leaves you feeling like you’re missing something.
As I anticipated ‘It’ punked Ryan reed and he fell for it. Chump. He’s too young for these things. Pushed him to the front and dumped him in the middle where he fell like a stone. And Ryan moved down specifically to work with ‘It’.
Matt Tifft is a moving chicane with his torn up car.
We’re in a commercial break so the picture is small as it is and for some reason we’re stuck looking at the front of It’s hood. Bad camera/shot selection!
Aric Almirola dropped back through the field for some reason.
Caution is out for a wreck with 17 to go as Elliott hits the outside wall. Ray Black Jr, William Byron, Garrett Smithley all go around. Ryan Reed also went spinning. Frankenstein might have gotten him loose. Tyler Reddick was caught up in that.
Aric Almirola is having a steering problem. Kasey Kahne stayed out as did ‘It’. William Byron is overheating.
35 of the 40 car field were involved in wrecks. Kasey is one of the five not involved in a wreck so far.
So far this race has lasted 3 hours and five minutes according to tv. The Coca-Cola 600 lasted 3 hours and 44 minutes. 267 miles vs 600 miles.
Ty Dillon is lined up behind Kasey. Ben Rhodes is behind ‘It’.
The lights are off on the pace car. There will be 11 to go when we restart.
The five minute clock expired on Elliott and he has to take it to the garage.
Elliott says it was nothing intentional just bump drafting and caught it a little wrong and he couldn’t hold on to it.
Caution is out with three to go as the 9 of William Byron and the 07 of Ray Black Jr go around.
Restarting in overtime.
This race, and last night’s Truck race are why plate racing used to be my favorite racing. The tension that builds as the field goes around slicing and dicing and trying to make a way is so exciting. That tension has been missing for the past few years. I don’t know if the stages make this possible, or what, but these two races have been better than most of the races over the past three years. There’s actually been some passing that mattered.
Ryan Reed leads the field to the green glad with ‘It’ on the inside of him.
White flag is out.
Wreck on the final lap so Ryan reed will win. Kasey finishes second in the JR Motorsports All-Star car.
Dakoda Armstrong and Ray Black Jr involved in that wreck.
The PowerShares QQQ 300 is finally completed. Good race. Congrats to Roush Fenway Racing on breaking a losing streak.
Kasey said he was trying to back up to ‘It’ and ‘It’ kept backing up. He’s such a jerk.
Congrats to Scott Lagasse Jr on a sixth place finish and on the eighth place finish by Garrett Smithley.
Frankenstein says Ty ran out of gas. Poor Ty! Frankenstein says he ‘hate it about that one wreck’. He says he ‘thought he hit him square’. He says he guesses he’s ‘just not used to this package yet’.
Congrats to Uncle Brenny on a fifth place finish. Ty Dillon ended up finishing 19th.
NASCAR News:
- NASCAR seeks boost to steep decline with strong Daytona 500.
- Stewart enjoying new role, puts Le Mans on ‘bucket list’.
- Gibbs, Penske defend NASCAR as having bright future.
- Reed grabs Xfinity Series win in wreck-fest at Daytona.
- Suarez carries Mexican banner into NASCAR’s top series.
- Nature’s Bakery counters suit over Patrick’s sponsorship.
- NASCAR confiscates Austin Dillon’s tires prior to Xfinity qualifying attempt.
- Kelly Kovski still hospitalized with broken ribs, vertebrae after dirt track accident.
- World of Outlaws Statement Regarding Incident at Volusia.
- Busy Practice for Earnhardt Jr..
- Stadium Tickets for DAYTONA 500 Sold Out.
- New Camry, Similar Strategy for Toyota.
- Teamwork is the Mantra for Ford Racing.
- SHR Sponsor Lawsuit Continues.
- Chevy Owners Discuss Toung Talent.
- Back-Up for Blaney.
- Gordon to Drive Pace Car for Daytona 500.
- Logano Signs Contract Extension.
- Three Cars Fail Duel Post-Race Inspection.
- Elliott, Hamlin Duel Winners.
- Second Daytona Win for Reed.
- Jeb Burton to Race for JGL.
- Grala Gets First Truck Win.