Kerry Earnhardt
Kevin Harvick
Ryan Newman
Posted on 11/21/2005 4:45:03 PM PST by WestCoastGal
I've gone back and forth with it, but I think the negatives far outweigh the positives. I like the more simple points formula previously used.
I agree.
I wonder what the apparent dissolution of that team (34th in owners' points) means for the #4 Morgan-McClure team (36th in owners points). Does that give them a guaranteed start in the first 5 races next year, or will there be 9 teams instead of 8 that qualify their way in? Same question in the Trucks; the #62 finished 20th, which should either give the #02 (32nd in owners' points, but the 31st-place team didn't attempt all 25 races this past season) a guaranteed spot or have 7 teams instead of 6 qualify their way in for the first 4 races.
It sure will be fun figuring out who is driving which car next year, never mind figuring out whose trannies & diffs they use!! February will be fun!
I can't remember where I put my cheat-sheet, but I know Jayski's on top of the Cup guys and the folks at BGNRacing.com have the Busch Series pretty much covered. I put that out there because it's another indicator (or two) that the #77 won't be back and that Travis Kvapil is out of a ride.
39 isn't cold :-) -3, on the other hand (where I bottomed out yesterday), is cold.
Thought I was the only one for a while. :)
The north wind is still blowing, do you have a fence down or something?
The Chase does make the last few races a little more interesting, especially with Steveegg's analysis, but I feel it creates an illegitimate champ in some cases, like last year.
I tried to close the gate. :)
Freezing sleet type stuff here off and on. Last night was in the teens for sure.
I think it's interesting because Steve keps us tuned into where the drivers are supposed to be. ;)
Thanks for trying. I think Steve has a fence down or something.
LOL I was going to mention that but I figured Steve would call us wusses or something. :)
Kerry Earnhardt
Kevin Harvick
Ryan Newman
Quotes of the year
by Monte Dutton
Gazette Sports Writer
Date Added: 12/1/2005
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Some are insightful. Some are humorous. Some are wacky and inexplicable. For a variety of reasons, following is a collection of remarks made during the season just completed:
“That’s baloney, man. That’s what’s wrong with America now. Every time somebody screws up, we tell them it’s all right. You don’t pay your bills? You can file bankruptcy. You kill somebody? Spend 10 years in jail, and we’ll let you out. That’s what’s wrong with society now, man. If you do the crime, do the time. If you had the guts to do it, have the guts to take your punishment.” – crew chief Michael McSwain, telling the Richmond Times-Dispatch he was tired of hearing competitors whining after being caught cheating.
“It takes guts to keep your right foot down.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“Well, if you’re racing around him, normally you’re doing pretty good.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr., on Jeff Gordon
“What he did early on was recognize the fact that I knew nothing.” – Kurt Busch, talking about owner Jack Roush.
“I still want to buy the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association), and they want me to buy it. They just don’t know it yet.” – O. Bruton Smith
“You know, when Arnold Palmer came on TV with an old tractor and told me to buy Pennzoil, I bought that, and when Dale Jarrett advertises UPS, I can go along with that, too. But I don’t think having an 18-year-old, somebody who’s probably gotten five packages in his life and they were all ‘Girls Gone Wild’ videos, tell me what delivery service I should use would have much effect on me.” – Kyle Petty
“If a car is tight, I can only drive it as fast as it will go. If it’s loose, I can drive it as fast as I want to go, and usually that’s faster.” – Mark Martin
“That’s all we’ve got in Cup anymore. These races are just a series of short squirts.” – Mark Martin, bemoaning the increase in crashes and caution flags.
“These cars are always hard to drive. If they were easy to drive, you and everybody could do it.” – Tony Stewart
“If a driver isn’t bright enough to figure out that they need to take care of themselves when every economic incentive will disappear if they don’t, then we’ve got the wrong kind of drivers.” – Roush Racing president Geoff Smith, nearly six months before one of his driver, Kurt Busch, encountered trouble with the cops in Phoenix.
“Either way you look at it, it equivalates to money.” – Jeff Gordon, creating a new word when asked why so many Cup drivers also race in Busch.
“Basically, what we’ve got is a beautiful golf course, but the putts aren’t going exactly where we want, so we’re smoothing out the greens.” – Lowe’s Motor Speedway president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, announcing his “levigation” project.
“I love this kind of racing, (but) these guys sure change their personalities in race mode. They’re like Doberman pinschers with a hand grenade in their mouths.” – road racer Boris Said
“I stepped on that big motor, and it was like stepping on a cat’s tail, and it went right around.” – Mark Martin, describing a spin.
“He’s not happy unless he’s sideways, and he was … several times.” – Biffle’s crew chief, Doug Richert, after the same race.
“It’s been way too long since any of these drivers have had to fix one of these race cars.” – Mark Martin
“As soon as you have a caution, then you have a wreck. Then you have a wreck, and one of the cars in that wreck has something fall off it. Then that causes another yellow flag. Cautions breed cautions.” – Martin
“At some point in every race, he gets pit-bull mad. I just backed off and waited until I could get by him.” – Jimmie Johnson, referring to Tony Stewart, at Dover.
“I only second-guess myself. I don’t tell anybody.” – Rusty Wallace
“That’s the way racing is nowadays. It’s crazy. Everybody’s going all out. Anybody could get wrecked on any lap. You get through something like this and you just yell ‘woo-hoo!” – Michael Waltrip, after winning a qualifying race at Daytona.
“He’s certainly not the milkman’s son, is he?” – Mike Skinner, on Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“It knocked me in the air like I was getting hit in the butt with a rubber ball.” – Rusty Wallace, describing a Daytona crash.
“I’m nocturnal. The time didn’t bother me. I’m an old sprint-car guy. Usually, at this time of night, I’m loading up the car and heading to the Waffle House.” – Tony Stewart, after winning the night race at Daytona.
“In 1986, I was working with the Buick people. They put their thumb up on the side of the Buick Le Sabre and decided to give it to us as a race car. After two weeks, we decided if we cut the body off and put it on backwards, it would run faster.” – Larry McReynolds, on how the sport has changed.
“I hate fuel-mileage races where the fastest car doesn’t win.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“He’s an idiot. It’s no wonder Kevin Harvick’s wanted to kill him for so long.” – Tony Stewart, on Greg Biffle
“The track is about as unique as it gets. Last month (in the Pocono 500), my spotter kept saying ‘turn four,” so, after about the third or fourth time he said ‘turn four,’ I finally asked him, ‘What track are you looking at?’ Of course, he was talking about the final turn, which is usually turn four, but there aren’t four turns at Pocono. There are just the three.” – Ken Schrader [I did the same thing]
“When you’re a driver, and you’re struggling in the car and trying to get your car handling right, you’re looking for God to come out of the sky and give you a magical answer.” – Rusty Wallace
“I’ve been criticized enough where y’all can’t hurt me. You can’t write anything that’s going to make my day any worse. And you can’t all of a sudden tell me I’m smart and great and make me feel any better. Because I didn’t believe you when you said I sucked and I’m not going to believe you when you say I’m great. I’m just going to keep on being me.” – Michael Waltrip
“I don’t claim to have any answers or know the answers. We pay good money for good people to come in and build these things, but I can tell you when it don’t run, and I can tell you when it does run, and that’s my job and I’ve tried to do it.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
.
“These guys are going to wreck. You can bet your butt on that. You’ve just got to make sure you’re not around when they do.” – Dale Jarrett
“The world’s right, no, it’s wrong, it’s right, it’s wrong again.” – Michael Waltrip, describing what it’s like to flip end over end at Talladega.
“I’ve always said that, when I’m an old man, I’m going to bore my grandkids to death with racing stories, and I’ll tell them once a week how I shocked everybody my rookie year by winning the Texas race. They’ll probably be, like, ‘You told us that yesterday.’” – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“When he (Tony Stewart) crossed the finish line, I knew he’d won.” – Rusty Wallace, at Watkins Glen.
http://www.gastongazette.com/sections/nascar/story.asp?id=215
I thought the fence was GRRRRR's responsibility :-)
A trip down memory lane with the BIG E.......
DP: The previous Daytona, weren't you in an accident and you said in the ambulance, "But there are still fenders on the car"?
DE: Tires. "There are still tires on the car." I was getting in the ambulance and I looked back and I saw there were still front tires on this thing. So I jumped back out, went around and saw that all the tires were on it. I asked the guy in the car to see if it'll crank and he fired it off. So I told him ,"Get out of the car! Get out of the car!" And I jumped in and drove off.
DP: Do people underestimate your determination, your drive to win?
DE: Maybe more in the last year of my career. People think, "Well, he's won seven championships. He's 47 years old. Maybe he's going to start to slow down." I think they are underestimating me when they do that. I'm still as determined, as aggressive and as positive as I can remember being. Just don't get up against me when it's the wrong time because I'll put you where I want you.
DP: Why don't NASCAR drivers get tickets?
DE: Tickets?
DP: Speeding tickets.
DE: Oh, I thought you meant to the Bulls or something. I don't get any of those either.
DP: Michael just sends them to Jeff Gordon, he doesn't send them to you.
DE: I reckon. I just renewed my license back in April, and in North Carolina if you don't have any tickets, you just get your picture made and take the eye test. That's all you have to do, and I've done that for the last 15 years or so. I've not had a ticket.
DP: Free association. The color black.
DE: My black boots.
DP: Johnny Cash.
DE: I like.
DP: Richard Petty.
DE: The king.
DP: Fear.
DE: Budweiser.
DP: Fear, not beer!
DE: Budweiser.
DP: No, fear, f-e-a-r...
DE: Budweiser! No, I'll give you one for fear (pause) ... I don't have any.
DP: Dick Trickle.
DE: A great racer.
DP: Talladega.
DE: A great racetrack that needs to be raced on instead of restricted.
DP: Are you more nervous racing or watching your son race?
DE: I'm more nervous qualifying than either of those. But I'm probably more nervous watching him because of the confidence level. If I knew he was as confident as I am capable, then I probably wouldn't be as nervous. And it's not fear of him getting hurt but fear of him failing -- not being able to accomplish something going up against the competition.
Lot's more at the link......
http://espn.go.com/talent/danpatrick/s/2001/0219/1095124.html
Back to the banquet...........
Shame on you NASCAR for once again creating a controversy over something this ludicrous. Spokesman Jim Hunter was quoted as saying “Dale Earnhardt went to New York every year whether he won the championship or not. It meant a lot to him to represent the sport and we expect that from all our competitors.” Well, I have a news blast for you, Mr. Hunter. Listen up, and listen well. Dale Earnhardt was only out of the top ten twice in all his years of racing. He finished 12th in 1982 and 1992. His attendance was a given under the criteria of invitations. The era that featured an outspoken driver; one that the France family and NASCAR dared not toy with is long gone. This is why so many long time fans of this sport are dissatisfied, fed up, and considering abandoning continued viewer ship. How dare you cast Dale Earnhardt’s memory in our faces, and in your agenda to apply pressure to current drivers in the sport? I am far from appreciative of this calculated move to garner more press for your award show that was lacking in direction from the start. At the end of the day, all 10 Chase contenders were present. What do you really have to complain about? Get over it.
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Articles/05/120805Poe.asp
Some one is slacking!
......And this year, 4 drivers out of the top fifteen would have swapped places.
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* "Classic" Points Standings - Top 15...the old way, not the Chase after Homestead, race 36 of 36:
1) #20-Tony Stewart, 5199
2) #16-Greg Biffle, 4984, -215
3) #48-Jimmie Johnson, 4771, -428
4) #6-Mark Martin, 4676, -523
5) #99-Carl Edwards, 4597, -602
6) #2-Rusty Wallace, 4512, -687
7) #17-Matt Kenseth, 4451, -748
8) #12-Ryan Newman, 4409, -790
9) #19-Jeremy Mayfield, 4281, -918
10) #97-Kurt Busch, 4248, -951
11) #24-Jeff Gordon, 4174, -1025
12) #42-Jamie McMurray, 4130, -1069
13) #38-Elliott Sadler, 4084, -1115
14) #29-Kevin Harvick, 4072, -1127
15) #88-Dale Jarrett, 3960, -1239
(Jayskis.com 11-20-2005)
__________________________________
Edwards and Johnson would have been swapped, as well as Wallace and Newman.
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