I do believe in the saying, "silly season". The stuff you are seeing now is just amazing.
I would have bet big $$ that Robbie Loomis would never leave #24 and Hendrick. Man, they dropped him quicker than a decent pit stop time. And this was immediately after Jeff Gordon said, "Oh, no, we are not getting rid of anybody." That was from Thursday (IIRC) to Monday. The shake up with DEI is just amazing to watch, though.
Do you read Jayski site stuff - the links to articles in particular? One of them (forget who) said, "Whinny DEI crew chief gets his way, again" - or words to that effect. I was curious and followed the link to article - the car Dale Jr drove last weekend was taken from the #15 team's stable. I missed that during the race.
Watching "Nascar Fast Forward" today (my son thinks I have 'real issues' about my Nascar watching, btw, but I watch.) Anyway, re-watching the race I catch the part from BP where he says, "If you look close at that #8 car you will see the roll cage in blue paint - that's because this car was "borrowed" from the Waltrip team."
Wow. Strange things happening over there at DEI.
Strange things all over the place - another Parrot for the CC of the #88 car.
Had to laugh at the Power Ranking comment on the #88 car - "Random fan hired / fired as crew chief."
Funny, but sad.
DJ is the MAN, IMHO, of course.
Just as a side note: I have been to the last three Nascar Truck races here, but decided to give it up this year - because of lack of traffic control leaving the race.
Last years Nascar Truck / Champ Car race: approx 80,000 in attendance - 4 hours to get home.
Last years Nextel Cup race: approx 150,000 rabid fans in attendance - 1 hour to get home.
I live, as the crow flys, about 15 miles from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Traffic control for the big races - Busch / Cup is great. Sucks for the Truck series.
So I vowed to never go to another Truck race again.
Last Thursday, my lovely neighbor walks over and says, "I've got two tickets to the Truck race this weekend, I know you and your son like Nascar, do you want them?"
No, but thanks for asking.
Then she shows me the tickets - VIP Suite tickets. My son see's them as well and is now pulling on my shirt.
We'll damn, never been in a VIP suite before!
Man, what a night! Food / drink on the house. I don't know who got the better of them - Dad with the brat / chicken wings / beer or the boy with the Coke and cookies.
By chance, the suite attendant asked, "is everything ok?, need anything?" I replied that the view was great - looking directly down on the track, about 500 ft. past the start / finish line, "but it's not the same - I can't hear 'em or feel 'em. The A/C is nice but I prefer to hear the engines."
The man replied, "well go up on the roof then!"
My boy was headed for the door before I could get out of my chair.
On the roof - standing next to the spotters - OMG - the boy was in pig heaven. And Dad was not far behind.
Great night for Dad and son with Nascar.
LVM
The "whining crew chief" would be Tony Eury, Jr. He built that car from the ground up for #15 when he was the crew chief. Now he is the crew chief for #8, and he wanted it there. He built it, it is his creation, I'd say he has a convincing argument.
Wow, no double wow!!
That neighbor is a keeper. The both of you had to be in seventh heaven. I do wonder why they don't put seats in front of those suites like at the football games. I used to be able to watch some of the Rams games at Anahiem stadium from up there.
But ON THE ROOF, that has to be the best ever. You get some idea what the spotters see on the track. I have often thought I would not want that job. You can go from a hero to a goat in seconds.
On the 8 car switch, I e-mailed Carol at That's Racin regarding her Cheers & Jeers column because she started the thing about Tony Jr stealing the car. I wrote that he built the car so it should go with him. The 8 is the future of DEI not the 15 anymore. She wrote me back saying "hogwash" and that she would have more on this story Friday in her column. BTW there is another blue car in the 8 shop!! There are people known as DEI insiders who pay to watch cameras in the shops. [I'm not one, but they pass along the info]
Those tickets must be at least $500.00 each. My son took me to the inaugural race and we had starting line grandstand seats and use of the VIP suite. I think they were $375.00.
On that trip we rode the bus out and back. That sucked big time. The next one we took a cab and got a late start. He would have dumped us in the desert but there were four of us. We gave him a $100.00 tip because we were his only fare that day. LOL
Damn good "side note".