Sunny and warm in Phoenix as the Xfinity series kids take to the track. KHarv is in the booth for the tv broadcast. The stages are 60-60-80. Daniel Suarez hit the wall on lap 12 and is out of the race. He said he was hit from behind. He says he’s very disappointed in how some of those guys race in the back. Jeremy Clements who was also involved in the incident says Daniel was having a tire issue and went three wide. The Dash-for-Cash rules for 2017 have been announced on the tv broadcasts though I’m unfamiliar with them at this point. It’s a gimmick that holds little interest for me overall. Continue reading “2017 NASCAR Xfinity Cup Series Race Four Phoenix”
2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Three Las Vegas
Night Ranger? Doing the National Anthem? Seriously? Who knew they were still around? New album? Okay. Why does SMI seem to consistently dig up acts you didn’t know still existed for the anthem? I don’t typically keep track of who owns which track, though I know they’re in charge of Atlanta. I was fortunate enough to see Dierks Bentley in concert at an Atlanta race, though he didn’t do the anthem. Otherwise the people doing the anthem were either acts from the past or that group of guys singing to recorded background music. Awful in general. While watching television I’ve seen Luke Bryan and Darius Rucker do the anthem. Atlanta never gets anything like them. The other races I’ve considered attending were the same and were SMI tracks. What’s up with that? Why can’t they get quality anthem performers? Just saying. Maybe the majority of people don’t care enough about it for SMI to put in the effort. Continue reading “2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Three Las Vegas”
2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Two Atlanta
Sunny skies, cool temperatures and the lovely-voiced Ed Roland kick things off at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Nice to see talent singing the national anthem for a change. Ed and his current band did a very nice job, as I would expect. The boy’s talented.
Have to say I agree with DW. The 5 minute clock is just too short since they’re including pit in and pit out time. Two stops means they actually only have three minutes to work on the cars and while I believe the crews are talented – they aren’t Hogwarts students. Continue reading “2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Two Atlanta”
2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race Two Atlanta
Boring Xfinity race. Kybu wins
Chase Elliott was in the tv booth for the Xfinity race, but so was Michael Waltrip so we opted for the radio broadcast instead. I’m bummed because I wanted to hear Chase in the booth – though not badly enough to tolerate Michael Waltrip.
One of the guys on PRN said, during the Xfinity race, he thought the stages were really adding something to the racing, but advised the listeners that it was just race two and that they should withhold judgement of the racing until later in the season. So its okay for him to judge the racing and the addition of stages, but the money-paying fans should withhold their judgement. Seriously? You get paid to be there, but you think you should tell the fans how exciting the stages have made the racing, but tell them they shouldn’t make up their minds yet. Basically believe what you – who get paid to be there – say, not what they – who pay to be there – see. That is something most of the people paid to talk about NASCAR tend to do that drives me bananas. Don’t urinate on my head and tell me its raining.
He also said that the stages created a lot of storylines each week. That was one of the reasons he gave for his approval of the stages. Since I’m not a lazy/busy/desperate/paid journalist – just a fan – I can honestly say storylines mean nothing to me. I’m looking for good racing, not storylines. Continue reading “2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race Two Atlanta”
2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race One Daytona
The sun is shining for the Daytona 500. ‘Big Daddy’ Jeff Gordon will lead the field to green driving the pace car. Fun. The Thunderbirds are flying over the track. Nice! Gotta love the spectacle. It’s kinda funny to see him in a blue button-down with a tie and his red seatbelt buckled on. With pole-sitter Chase Elliott behind him, as well as outside pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr its a pretty nice Hendrick start to the race. There’s not a cloud is site as the cars do the parade laps. What a gorgeous day. MRN is saying the temperatures will get into the low 70s, though they’re in the mid 60s now. LaDanian Tomlinson waves the green flag starting the race. Owen Wilson gives the command to start engines.
I heard someone earlier saying we wouldn’t see the racing we saw from the Xfinity and Truck races. That would be a shame, because truly those have been the best races I’ve seen in several years. They were infinitely more exciting than just about any individual race in recent memory. I want more of the excitement I have had the pleasure of enjoying over the past few days rather than what has become typical Cup racing. Continue reading “2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race One Daytona”