Posted on 02/21/2007 4:21:57 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Week 2, and it's Off to California with a banjy on muh knee..
What'll happen this week?
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It's gonna revolutionize commuting!
Look Ma...no fuselage
I love that! :)
Ain't that the coolest thing ya ever saw?
Clara’s favorite entertainment was NASCAR, football and baseball. She loved to watch her nephew, Jimmy Walker, race stock cars at Redwood Acres. Clara never missed a race. She was driven around the track on her 100th birthday and even had a special seat designated as her own. She always followed her favorite football player, Joe Montana, and race car driver, Jeff Gordon.
Sounds like she made everyday count.
Watch Fox News for the latest on the Nascar fan "white trash, red neck, not the people you want living next door, etc."
Once again, the 'Rats lower the standard of "how low can they go?"
What crap.
May she have the best seat in the hereafter for every race!
Well I'm glad to see I'm not old.
May she rest in peace, I agree with her on Joe Montana!
OUCH OUCH OUCH
With two races of the Nascar Nextel Cup series in the books, Dale Earnhardt Inc. finds itself in a deep hole. Out of the three teams at DEI, Martin Truex Jr. ranks highest in points at 38th. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Paul Menard find themselves 40th and 43rd in points. Does this company sound like it is made of championship caliber?
Even Brian Vickers, Boris Said, and Mike Wallace who have participated in only one of the two races are higher in points than all three DEI teams. With only two races complete out of a grueling 36 it is way too early to count DEI out of their drivers making the chase and competing for a championship. But with such poor results from the entire company, many fans are questioning why DEI is the only company so far behind. There’s only one answer: Teresa Earnhardt.
DEI suffered two blown engines on Sunday at the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway and when asked what the problem might be, Dale Jr. replied that the unleaded fuel had thrown them a curve ball. We cannot question the driving skills of the drivers or their motivation after their engine blows; this is obviously something that is out of the drivers’ hands. We can however question Teresa’s motivation and ownership skills.
Prior to Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001, DEI dominated restrictor plate races and it carried on in the next couple of years. But DEI has lost their dominance at the restrictor plate races, not having won a race at neither Daytona nor Talladega since 2004. Teresa has now got DEI playing catch up, as they are far behind Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing just to name a few. DEI has got to figure out the problem they had with the unleaded fuel at California Speedway. Not only did they have two engine failures on Sunday, but they also had two failures in testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in late January. So why is DEI struggling more than any other company to get the engine running on unleaded fuel? The answer to that: once again, Teresa has got this company behind, and I mean a couple of laps down. With the two engine failures at Las Vegas prior to the start of the season, Teresa had a whole month to get “her” company ready for California Speedway where they’d use unleaded fuel once again. Now to get to the point, what has happened to this company in the first two races of the season is unacceptable. And it is not to blame on the drivers; it climbs all the way up the ladder to the owner who is the leader of the company, Teresa. It is amazing to see how Dale Jr. actually kept his composure in his interview after the blown engine on Sunday. Martin Truex Jr. on the other hand seemed very frustrated and has reason to be especially after his embarrassing rookie year. So now fans ask, should Teresa give majority ownership to Dale Jr.? Let’s just say that the existence of DEI relies on Dale Jr. becoming the majority owner.
Teresa is holding the company back from reaching their full potential and racing with the elites of NASCAR. Earlier this week DEI tested the Car of Tomorrow and to no surprise all three teams were towards the bottom of the speed charts. Eight races this season will be in the COT and NASCAR is considering going full time with the car next season. Prior to testing, Dale Jr. himself said that DEI was way behind on the development on the COT, but who could fans blame for this? I think you know the answer by now.
http://mvn.com/nascar/2007/03/02/teresa-has-dei-playing-catch-up-once-again/
And there's a new rule..........next post
NASCAR may be on the verge of issuing a new rule: It will expand the top 35 to the top 41, meaning that, beginning with the sixth race of the year, the top 41 in owner points will now be guaranteed starting spots in the field each week.
And while the sanctioning body will no doubt announce that the expansion of the guaranteed spots is designed to reflect the larger fields its Nextel Cup races are attracting this year, the rule is certain to become known as the Dale Earnhardt Jr. rule.
NASCAR has to do something, right? It can’t have its biggest star and most popular driver floundering around in 41st place in points, in danger of missing a race because he’s not in the top 35.
The way Earnhardt Jr.’s season is going, that could happen. Thanks to a wreck and a blown engine, he is 41st after two races.
Next up is Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Earnhardt Jr. has had his troubles in the past. With the race expected to bring all sorts of trouble and obstacles thanks to a new racing surface, things do not bode well for Junior.
Then comes Atlanta Motor Speedway. He has always run well there, but if his engine can’t make it 75 laps at California, how is going to make 500 miles at Atlanta?
Then comes Bristol and the first “car of tomorrow” race. Junior has also been good at Bristol, but that race, with the new car, is a crapshoot, and his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team doesn’t exactly seem to be on the cutting edge of technology these days.
So what happens if Junior is outside the top 35 after Bristol? Does NASCAR dare put him in a position to miss a race?
Instead, maybe it has to tweak the rules a bit, adding concessions like:
The “son of a past champion” provisional
The most popular driver provisional
The ever-popular fan vote provisional
The Crazy (No.) 8 provisional
The red car provisional
The “driver who stars in the most commercials” provisional
The “driver who has won the Budweiser Shootout and the Nextel All-Star Challenge” provisional
The “driver in the last year of his contract” provisional
Or, “the driver who hangs out with the coolest celebrities and gets invited to the coolest parties” provisional.
If Junior doesn’t crack the top 35 on his own, one of those should ensure that he gets in the field each week, making his fans, and NASCAR, happy.
http://blog.scenedaily.com/index.php/2007/03/01/the-son-of-a-past-champion-provisional/
Pruett, road racers pace first practice session
SCENEDAILY - 6:14PM ET FRIDAY MARCH 2, 2007 -
Dave Blaney crashed the No. 10 Braun Racing Toyota after a suspension piece broke. DAVID GRIFFIN / NASCAR SCENE MEXICO CITY - Scott Pruett led Friday's opening Busch Series practice at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, turning a lap of 102.226 mph in the No. 41 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge.
Drivers with road-racing backgrounds dominated the top 10. Behind Pruett, who is also running the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race here, was defending race winner Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing) at 102.204.
Then came four road-racers, with Pruett teammate Juan Pablo Montoya third at 101.823, Carlos Contreras (Fitz Motorsports) fourth at 101.673, Adrian Fernandez (Hendrick Motorsports) fifth at 101.314 and Jorge Goeters (Brewco Motorsports) sixth at 101.218.
Seventh was Nextel Cup driver J.J. Yeley (Phoenix Racing), followed by road-racers Ron Fellows (Kevin Harvick Inc.), Boris Said (Evernham Motorsports), and Michel Jourdain (Roush Fenway Racing).
Dave Blaney broke a suspension piece and crashed his Braun Racing No. 10 Toyota along the frontstretch and will be forced to a backup car.
"It just turned right while I was on the straightaway on a high rate of speed," Blaney said. "They're swapping the engines in it [right now]. I'm not sure if we will [get out for final practice]. ... I got five or six laps."
Only 35 of 44 cars entered ran laps in the opening practice.
I really think, even with all that is going on at DEI, he will rebound. Too much talent, Jr and DEI, not too.
Was the rule change a joke or what?
TUNING NOT HP BROKE ROUSH PONIES 3/12/2003 Huntersville, N.C. — Immediately following Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which saw four of the six teams using Roush Racing engines fall from the race
;)
One more bad finish and push could come to shove.
Seems like piss poor R&D with unleaded gas in the engine shop.
Teresa needs to go sell her trinkets aside and let go of DEI!
Just pulled up this little tidbit on engine departments,
"The goal in our business is to raise our level of performance and improve reliability," says Jim Wall, director of engineering at Hendrick Motorsports, a Charlotte, N.C.-based racing organization with 550 employees.
Hendrick rebuilds 700 engines per year with an engine-department staff of 82.
This was LAST year and Hendricks has never lost multiple engines in one race either huh?
The problem will occur for Teressa when DEI goes bankrupt if Jr. moves on. And he would take the best with him. It's a huge power play in the making. I'm sure there is a golden parachute for her. Would have to be.
And part of the reason I can still pull for Jr, when my guys are not in contention, is the simple fact that I've never heard it from him.
Valor over Discretion... Or was it Give me Liberty or get me the Hell out of here...
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