Thursday night Truck Racing! The trucks take the track on this Thursday night. The race was pretty good. Unfortunately Michael Waltrip was in the booth and under the mistaken impression that we, the audience, wanted to hear what he loves about … He never shut up!!! I know he’s from Kentucky and I wished he was visiting family instead of rattling on and on about what he loves…He loves that the infield at the track is big with lots of room for kids to play…he loves how hard the drivers drive…he loves ‘x’ pit call…he loves young guys in the truck series…he loves…it was never ending! He just wouldn’t shut up and everything he had to say was toooooooo long!!! What a nightmare. Can someone give him something else to do, PLEASE! He’s dreadful on television. Its weird he talks way more now than he did before he got the FOX studio gig. He gets more air time and he takes more air time. Nutso!!!
The Nationwide Series had an kinda wild and wooly qualifying session – a couple cars hit the wall and quite a few were loosey-goosey. Travis Pastrana qualified second! Yay Travis!
During the week Petty Kyle said Danica isn’t a race-car driver and there’s been a lot of chat online about that. I didn’t know that was a secret, but apparently no one had noticed until he stated the obvious. NASCAR might want to look at fining television talking heads for conduct detrimental. I mean, without NASCAR he might have to find a real job – maybe one at which he was talented, so it seems NASCAR ought to be able to throw a penalty flag when he ‘gets-all-out-of-shape’. Naaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh. An occasional nugget of truth leaking out the NASCAR realm won’t hurt anyone, right? Seriously though he mentioned she’s a marketing machine and that seemed to be the reason NASCAR gave her a license. Can she go fast? Sure. Though I’m pretty sure with that equipment and a few lessons I could also. Can she really race well? No, but she couldn’t in Indy Cars either. I know, I know she won a race. Joey Logano won a race early in his career also,
but until he did more that follow the crew chief’s orders to stay out when rain was coming he didn’t feel as though he’d won a race. Danica has proven she can win a race under the perfect storm of circumstances. She’s also proven that without special circumstances and a lot of luck, help, and attrition a win isn’t likely.
OMG Danielle Trotta! Noooooooooooo!!! Darling you are entirely TOO hippy for that combo. The red trapeze top is not, not, not flattering. I’m sure – I hope – it makes you look wider than you are. No Danielle. There must be professional stylists for broadcaster in Charlotte! Must be. Danielle please, please, please visit one for PROFESSIONAL on-air news people and please take his/her advice. Your writing is sub-par. Your delivery is amateurish at best. At least you could look the part!
I was just told Dave Moody said on SiriusXM that Petty Kyle apologized for the Danica statement on Trackside. I no longer watch Trackside – nor record it – since it became a clown show. I guess Mr. ‘Let’s Be Honest’ wasn’t being honest when he made that statement??? LOL. I’m sure he said something he thought would be edgy and controversial without really considering the actual ramifications of running his mouth. He’s like Bradley K – more mouth than sense. You have opinions. Good for you. You also have a responsibility to act like a professional in your work life. Both of them need to grow the hell up!
Nationwide Race from Kentucky. Overall kinda boring. This track is typically boring to me. When the Nationwide cars used to do a standalone race it was nice, but not the greatest race of the season. Now all three series are at the track. Quite often that seems to dilute the quality of the racing. I’m sure its all just coincidence, but the Nationwide race has not been as interesting as the Truck race last night. With 37 laps to go caution is out for rain. Earlier Bradley K got warned about doing that restart ‘stuff’ he always does. As usual he claimed innocence, but we’ve all seen him play those games. I think if he were as honest about his racing gimmicks as he is about what everybody else is doing he might receive some respect. Maybe. He’s wrong so often about so many different things that its difficult to believe a word he says.
Saturday night, rain, rain, rain in Kentucky. Eventually the race was rescheduled for tomorrow. Today is Martin Truex Jr. and Jeff Burton’s birthdays.
Sunday race time arrives sunny with rain in the forecast. A competition caution is scheduled for lap 30.
Hamlin loses a tire on lap 38 and slows around the track eventually losing the carcass which rolled in front of the leaders and was hit by Dale Jr. and Jimmie Johnson doing some damage to their splitters. Denny, after drawing the caution, gets the lucky dog and gets to stay on the lead lap.
KyBu spins on lap 43. He doesn’t hit anything and no one hits him.
Jimmie takes the lead on the restart.
Big wreck on lap 48! Kurt Busch in the 78 came up on Keselowski’s left rear bumper and Keselowski shot up the track in front of the field. Greg Biffle and Travis Kvapil had nowhere to go and slammed into the back of the 2 lifting it off the ground. Menard got a piece of Biffle’s rear end as he bounced off Keselowski, but kept going. Dave Blaney also got some damage in the incident. The field is red flagged at this point.
Steve Letarte says they have significant damage from Denny’s tire carcass and they’re going to bring the car down now, ‘take their medicine’ and get it fixed and try to salvage as many points as possible. Jur had lost quite a few spots on the restart saying his car was pushing bad. There’s splitter damage as well as front-end damage. Jr. parked the car facing is pit – instead of on the diagonal like the other cars. Jr. is going to stay on the lead lap as he gets the repairs done before the pace car gets around.
Caution is out on lap 89 in the midst of green flag pit stops. David Gilliland’s right rear tire let go. He put down some debris.
Caution on lap lap 147 catches Jeff Gordon on pit road. Denny hit the wall after his right front tire blew. Vickers also got caught on pit road not making the commitment line before the caution came out.
Caution on lap 197 for debris – probably from Bradley K’s car.
Caution is out on lap 241 Brian Vickers hits the wall. Looks like he might have lost a right front tire. Radio is reporting that Vickers said on the radio he blew it. Vickers said it was a hard hit and they blew a tire though they don’t know why.
Caution is out on 246 as Jimmie Johnson spins around on the restart. Kenseth didn’t come in for the caution and led the field to the green. Jimmie has dominated the race up to this point.
Lap 254 Stremme hits the wall and keeps going.
Matt Kenseth wins. Jamie McMurray ran out of laps chasing him down thanks to Clint Bowyer blocking for way too long. Jimmie came back for a ninth place finish passing cars like made.
In NASCAR news this week:
- The second longest start streak by a current driver will be broken this weekend. Bobby Labonte will not start the race for the first time since 1993 as a result of JTG Daugherty removing him from the 47 this weekend.
- Petty Kyle ran his mouth about Danica and got way more press than was warranted. He’s always trying to say something controversial. He didn’t. He recklessly stated the obvious. The comment should’ve been ignored and handled like the attention seeking maneuver it was.