Jeff Gordon is now the iron-man of NASCAR making his 789th consecutive start today. Congrats Big Daddy!
Congrats to Ryan Blaney on winning last night’s Xfinity race from Kentucky. I fell asleep on the race, but then again, it is Kentucky. That track puts on some boring racing.
Congrats to Ryan Preece on his first Sprint Cup start. Ryan is a modified champion.
Caution is out for the first time on lap 36 of 300 for Aric Almirola hitting the wall. Afterburner said, “That hurt” after hitting. NBC doesn’t seem to have a good camera angle of what actually happened. We’ve seen a shot after and before he hit the wall, but nothing of the actual wreck. Aric is out of the car, but seems like he’s hurting.
Sounds like someone has schooled Rick on the restart stuff. He seems to have the rules written down. I still don’t understand why they go through all of this while telling us it is unofficial and not what NASCAR will use when making judgments. So you have a long explanation of the NBC restart lines and pointers and speeds and then tell us none of this is what NASCAR or the drivers will use. So its basically visual noise to match the auditory noise of your babbling. Sigh! I am so looking forward to the return of Mike Joy and DW! February can’t get here fast enough. I have a fear though that the half season of not talking will result in ramped up babbling by Stevie and Burton. They just talk entirely too much! Also can someone tell Kelly Stavas she has a microphone and needs to stop yelling into it. Painful. Other than her constant shouting she’s doing an okay job, but the girls seriously needs volume control.
Landon Cassill brings out the second caution on lap 47 of 300. His car is smoking and they’re concerned he’s leaking fluid. They’d brought him into the pits earlier due to some smoke, but sent him back out. They believe it was a power-steering leak.
Oddly I find I’d rather NBC Sports have actual camera shots of what is actually occurring during the race, than imaginary lines for a restart zone. Gimmicks are fine, but I’m watching the race to actually see the on-track action instead of imaginary lines showing a restart zone that is only mildly relevant to the race. If someone starts before or after the restart zone, unless NASCAR sees it it won’t have happened anyway, so its really rather irrelevant.
Stevie, Burton and Rick Allen on the desk remind me of a bit the late Robin Williams used to do. He was riffing on the conversational content of inebriated people and it went something like this: Redundant redundant redundant redundant redundant redundant. Redundant redundant redundant redundant redundant redundant redundant redundant, Reeeeeeeeeedundant redundant redundant redundant redundant. Redundant! That pretty well seems to sum up the seemingly incessant babbling of those three. They never seem to say anything, or make any point, once. Everything is repeated – repetitively. Hee hee hee.
Smoke is now smoking due to a tire rub.
Caution is out on lap 60 of 300 for Tony Stewart, the front left tire went down and he hit the wall.
Caution is out on lap 119 of 300 for Alex Bowman hitting the wall in the 7.
Wow, Burton and Stevie are surprised Rick heard a driver shift gears in the car. They apparently believe he is a complete moron. I wonder if they realize that totally leaves the audience feeling like he’s not good enough to be doing his job, and if anyone doesn’t feel either of them are experts, it makes all three of them seem like the bumbling amateurs they are. Not a good move. It seems so many ‘color’ guys try to make the ‘announcers’ look stupid without realizing it calls into question their quality/abilities/expertise also.
Caution is out on lap 159 of 300 for KyBu hitting the wall during a commercial break. Looks like Kyle lost a right front tire. He’s headed to the garage.
Debris caution on lap 192 of 300.
On lap 200 of 300 Jimmie has a cut down left front tire. He was in third position when the tire went down.
Caution is out on lap 205 of 500 as Danica Patrick hits the wall. As she let her car come back down the track David Ragan had nowhere to go and hit Lil’ Dude at full speed sending him into the wall. It looks like she got clipped on the left corner by Newman and spun around. The red flag has been displayed. The right side of Thrilla’s car was peeled open during the crash with Danica flinging debris over a wide area of the track. Danica drove her car back to the garage. Thrilla from Unadilla had his wind net down signalling he was okay.
The 34 of Brett Moffitt brings out the caution on lap 212 of 300. Jimmie picks up the free pass.
And then there’s Burton’s constant arguing with everyone. Sigh. Bickering is not fun for the audience. It’s interesting, two people on the desk can disagree and it sounds like a difference of opinion. For some reason when Burton or Petty Kyle or Dale Jarrett contradict a person standing beside them, they sound argumentative. I’m thinking it might have to do with the timber of their voices, or maybe its the intent behind their words.
Danica walked to the infield care center after driving her car back to the garage. She said she got hit hard enough to knock the breath out of her. She said she wanted to get her carbon monoxide levels checked and had time to do so. She’s out of the race.
Caution is out on lap 238 of 300 for Justin Allgaier hitting the wall with a flat right front tire during the commercial – though it was a ‘non-stop’ commercial so we could at least see what happened, if not hear it.
NASCAR is saying the restart is under review. Greg Biffle was the control car with It on the outside of him. It would be funny if Penske’s whining about the restart zone resulted in Keselowski getting popped for it. The 2 is being posted for a restart violation. Brad Keselowski is being shown the black flag. Harvick is hanging back behind the 2. He finally came down pit road to serve his penalty for the restart violation.
There are 50 laps to go and now Happy Harvick is challenging Biffle for the lead and takes the lead from Biff with 49 laps to go.
Kharv runs out of gas with three to go while leading the race which allows Matt Kenseth to take over the lead.
Kenseth has enough fuel to win
Jimmie finishes sixth. Jeff Gordon finishes seventh and Kasey Kahne finishes ninth. Good job for most of Hendrick Motorsports. Junior hit pit road shortly after Happy and finishes twenty-fifth. Martin Truex Jr finishes eighth.
KHarv finishes 21st.
OH NO HE DIDN’T! ‘It’ said, “It’s an entertainment sport, not a fair sport apparently.” Dude!!! Seriously!!! Your team, Penske, were the main people who were kvetching about the restart rule not getting enforced. Keselowski has been getting away with these infractions for years! Joey has followed the leader doing the same since he’s been at Penske. Now, Kes gets caught and he wants to denigrate the sport? Seriously??? This is further proof that Brad Keselowski is not championship material. One of the many reasons I call him ‘It’. What a whiner! Pathetic.
KHarv refused to do an interview when he got out of the car. I’m sure he had nothing positive to say. Kudos to him for keeping his wrath to himself. Keselowski should’ve done the same, but he would have to find/buy some class to do so.
Kenseth is really happy about this win. It’s nice to see him so excited.
Forgot to mention Brian Vickers. He’s been on the desk this weekend and doing a bang up job. I first saw him on a desk last weekend with Parker Kligerman. They were both quite enjoyable. They sounded knowledgeable, professional and personable. Those three qualities in combination are sorely missing on most of the NBC Sports NASCAR broadcasts. They’re refreshing and I find myself looking forward to seeing them more often. That’s a huge change for me. I watch less NASCAR television now than I have since I discovered the pre- and post-race shows and the practices and qualifying. I hate the current qualifying, so I don’t often watch it. The annoying babble on the desk is such that I’ve cut down on watching practices. I find myself missing watching NASCAR. I love watching NASCAR, but the poor quality of the broadcasts are dampening my enthusiasm.
Richard Buck, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Managing Director, called in to Victory Lap to discuss the Keselowski penalty. He said last week’s decision/situation was different than the Keselowski penalty.
In NASCAR news this week:
- Bowyer Docked 25 Points.
- MWR Appeal Date Set.
- Replacement Tire Changers for FRR.
- Furniture Row Racing Moving to Toyota.
- Edwards Powers to Loudon Pole.
- Gordon Understands Harvick’s Reaction.
- Harvick and Johnson Move On.
- Kevin Harvick refuses to discuss Jimmie Johnson – or anything else.
- Kurt Busch crew chief in New Hampshire after appendectomy.
- Kurt Busch’s crew chief has emergency appendectomy.
- Gordon set to become NASCAR’s Iron Man at New Hampshire.
- Truex earns extension with Furniture Row, jumps to Toyota.
- Ryan Blaney wins at Kentucky; Bubba Wallace Jr. in post-race scrap.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. joining TV broadcast crew for 2016 Xfinity races.
- Florida Georgia Line to Perform at Daytona.
- Pastrana to Compete in Vegas Truck Race.
- Truck Series Set for 500th Race.
- 500th Truck Race to Dillon.
- Talladega Names Fall Sprint Cup Race Sponsor.
- NASCAR Notebook: No Penalties for Harvick, Johnson.
- Blaney Gets Kentucky Win.
- Jones to Race Full-Time for RCR in 2016.
- JGR XFINITY Teams Penalized .
- TaxSlayer.com Extends Earnhardt Jr. Partnership.
- Busch Too Low, Too Furious at Chicagoland.
- Michael Jordan tells Denny Hamlin something he ‘never admitted to anybody’.
- Sunoco Becomes Founding Partner of DAYTONA Rising.