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Posted on 03/31/2008 4:09:36 PM PDT by WestCoastGal
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YES!!!!!!!
That’s all?
Oh man, I know you are on cloud 10 / 11 / 12 by now.......
Back home?
I’m at Diana’s in Ft Worth.
I guess I brought him luck :D
I got interviewed by his entertainment firm HAMMERHEAD which does the Shifting Gears show.
Got a pic with Marty Smith I asked him for one as he was running by and he stopped and came back and said well you should be in it too. I have tons off pics I will upload tomorrow when I get home.
I had the whole place to myself yesterday for N Wide practice. But, today was tough going. I had to run back and forth to the in and out section of the garage and also got lots of pics of inspection. lol
I have never seen anyone wreck like that in qualifying. He went straight to the wall and then over and over nad over and fire. Whew.
It was something just watching the drivers and teams on pitroad watching that and shaking their heads. They played it on the big screen a lot of times and then the pics of the bunch of Nascar guys looking at the wall.
woo.
GREAT for Jr!
Glad you had a good time!
Didn’t you hear me? :D
Really glad you got to be there for it.
The boy knew you were in attendance. When they said Dale Jr had it by 2/10th's he jumped up and started dancing, "I know WCG is dancin' right now!" lol
Just glad Mike Mac was ok after that high speed meeting with the wall - wow.
Tell that boy I was doing the jig :D
Here’s a good story on McDowell....Wait til you all see the pics I got, FR will probably crash again. I better put them on Rock You or Photobucket show.
:D
Friday, April 04, 2008
If it could happen to Earnhardt ...
FORT WORTH, Texas - Let’s be clear about this. Dale Earnhardt saved Michael McDowell’s life Friday.
There’s no reason to parse words about what happened in Samsung 500 qualifying. When McDowell’s No. 00 Toyota slammed headlong into the Turn 1 wall as he began his second qualifying lap, anybody who was paying even the slightest bit of attention had to have his or her heart go up in the throat.
The car got over on its top and started flipping, and you know that’s supposed to be a good thing because it dissipates energy. Still, as you’re watching it’s hard to keep from cringing.
When the car finally came to rest, after what seemed like forever, you just hoped for the best.
When McDowell climbed out and walked to the ambulance, you had to be amazed, relieved and I really don’t know what all at the same time.
A lot of people have worked very hard on developing and installing the steel and foam energy reducing barriers that line the walls now at NASCAR tracks. A lot of smart people have worked on improvements to the seats and other features inside the car that make drivers safer.
And NASCAR deserves credit for keeping safety as a primary focus as it developed the cars now used in Sprint Cup racing.
All of that might very well have eventually come to NASCAR’s top series had Earnhardt not died in the 2001 Daytona 500, but it was Earnhardt’s wreck that completely changed stock-car racing’s attitude about safety.
If it could happen to Earnhardt, it could happen to anybody. Drivers might not have said that out loud - some did - but they all felt it. So safety stopped being something that “scared” drivers discussed and became a priority.
I don’t think NASCAR was ever callous about safety. The early stags of the “car of tomorrow” project and “soft-wall” research began before Earnhardt died. But the death of the seven-time champion gave safety matters a priority they otherwise simply would not have had.
SAFER barriers have been up everywhere for about three years now and the more times they’re hit the more the people who make them learn about how to make them better.
Everything - the wall, the car, the in-car safety features - had to work together Friday to keep McDowell from being seriously hurt.
So, quite frankly, did good fortune (or, depending on what you believe, divine intervention).
Every bit of the development and improvement and innovation that’s been done since 2001 contributed to what happened - or what didn’t happen - here Friday.
OK Who has a link to the fantasy league? I know I have 10 points for sure.
Crash upstages even Junior
Most-popular driver wins pole, but plays second fiddle to McDowell and track’s barriers after extremely hard hit
DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
Friday, Apr. 04, 2008
The remains of Michael McDowell’s car is hauled to the garage area after his crash during qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway. Larry Papke/The Associated Press
David Poole’s blog | If it could happen to Earnhardt ...
Qualifying results | Unofficial scoring
Friday’s practice | Reutimann’s Toyota tops the chart
FORT WORTH, Texas – You know the harrowing crash that Michael McDowell walked away from Friday at Texas Motor Speedway was something if it made Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the pole for the Samsung 500 an afterthought.
Earnhardt Jr. ran a lap at 190.907 mph to earn the No. 1 starting spot for the first time since moving to Hendrick Motorsports, but that fact McDowell will be well enough to make his second career Sprint Cup start on Sunday was by far the most remarkable thing about this day.
McDowell, a 23-year-old driver from Phoenix, lost control in Turn 1 as he began his second qualifying lap and rammed head-on into the steel-and-foam energy reducing barrier protecting the concrete wall at the top of the 24-degree banking.
“I will count my blessings tonight and just thank God,” said McDowell, whose car whirled off the SAFER barrier, spun on its roof a couple of times and then barrel-rolled eight times before coming to rest on its wheels.
The front and rear portions of the Toyota were virtually ripped away, but the driver’s compartment of the new car NASCAR was developed with driver safety as a stated first priority remained intact. The wall also did its job, absorbing some of the impact as stacks of foam crushed behind the rolled steel tubes that make up the outside surface.
A few flames could be seen as the car tumbled down the track, but they went out quickly. McDowell started moving around as soon as it came to rest and emergency workers helped him climb out. He walked to an ambulance and was taken to the infield care center, where he was checked and released.
“I got to see the replay and it wasn’t very good,” McDowell said.
“That’s one of the worst wrecks I’ve seen for sure in a while. I’m not excited I had to participate in it.”
David Gilliland went out a few cars before McDowell and had a problem, dropping liquid on the track. A powder substance used to absorb fluid was put down, and as McDowell went into Turn 1 after running 182.933 mph on his first lap, a puff of white dust could be seen coming out from under the car.
“I came off Turn 4 on that first lap and it just felt a little bit off,” McDowell said.
When the car slipped, McDowell tried to correct it but the car snapped to the right.
“I knew when it turned back to the right it was going to be big,” he said.
“I wasn’t knocked out. ... …I felt every roll down the track. ... It wasn’t a fun ride, that’s for sure.”
Tony Stewart watched the crash from pit road where he and most of the rest of the 46 drivers entered in Sunday’s race were waiting to make their qualifying runs.
“That was the hardest hit I think I’ve ever seen anybody take,” Stewart said. “It makes you look at what all NASCAR has done and say they’ve done a good job. We’ve got a lot of people to thank today.”
The SAFER barrier was devised by a team led by Dr. Dean Sicking at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska. The project was supported by the Indy Racing League and, later, by NASCAR. The walls were first used at the 2002 Indianapolis 500 and by mid-2005 were up at all tracks where NASCAR holds Sprint Cup races.
“The way the wall wrapped around the car when it hit was amazing,” driver Martin Truex Jr. said of Friday’s incident.
Track crews replaced the foam stacks and welded patches across the damaged portion of the wall so qualifying could continue after a delay of one hour 12 minutes. Once qualifying ended, crews went to replace about 20 feet of the steel tubing.
The pole was eighth of Earnhardt Jr.’s career and his second at this 1.5-mile track. Carl Edwards was second at 189.487 mph with Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson rounding out the top five.
But the story of the day was McDowell’s crash and the fact that the only real after effect of it was that he said he was mad that he’ll have to use a back-up car Sunday.
All things considered, that was nothing.
Back in the day, we’d be mourning McDowell. Glad he survived.
Well Gal, you must have a BIG grin on your face tonight. How bout that Jr? Gonna be a fun weekend. Good to hear from you. We’ve got FReepers on the ground!
Just watched the three vids of that crash on Youtube. OMG. What a tribute to the safety features of the COT. I can't believe he walked away. Amazing is right.
Wow, that crash is un-bee-lee-va-ble! Than God he is okay!
Hope you have a great time!
Here is a good video of it:
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