NASCAR - The UAW-Ford 500 - from Talladega - on ABC, Sunday 10-7-07 at 2:00pm ET -- Race #30 of 36

NASCAR/Jayski ^

[glock rocks]

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The UAW-Ford 500

Sunday 2:00 pm on ABC
from Talladega Superspeedway

SPEED Pre-race show at 1:00 EasternESPN Pre-race show at 1:00 Eastern Green Flag 2:15

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Please pray on this day, and every day, for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty, and for the families awaiting their safe return.

[tubebender]

How was your Qualifying today? Mine was just as bad...

[glock rocks]

Atrocious as well. Two in the top 20. Barely. Yeee.

[tubebender]

No one in our league scored a point!?

[LasVegasMac]

It’d sure make jerky easier to make too.

Bingo!

Just waiting for the temps to drop a bit.......

[tubebender]

There are currently 228 meat slicers on eBay...

[SouthTexas]

Have I died and gone to NASCRUD Purgatory..

It appears we all have.....

[NormsRevenge]

Man, what an arse whupp’n..

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Waltrip leads go-or-go home drivers in qualifying
Villeneuve to start sixth; Busch, Ragan fail inspection
By Mike Harris, The Associated Press

http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/10/06/talladega.quals.recap.ap/index.html

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Michael Waltrip led a charge of “go-or-go-home” entries to the top of the grid Saturday in qualifying for the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

The top 35 cars in NASCAR Nextel Cup owners points are guaranteed a spot in the 43-car field each week and it was the drivers who had to make it on speed and worked strictly on qualifying in Friday’s practice who dominated in time trials for Sunday’s race, the superspeedway debut of the Car of Tomorrow.

Waltrip, who has struggled through a generally miserable season, managed to make the race lineup for the third consecutive week, but only the 11th time this season, as he earned his fourth career pole and first since June 2005 at Pocono.

He turned a lap of 189.070 mph on the 2.66-mile oval, with Dave Blaney second at 188.838.

“I felt confident yesterday we would make the race,” Waltrip said. “I wasn’t thinking about the pole. Honestly, it’s more important to me that we have all three [Michael Waltrip Racing] cars in the top eight.”

All of those eight were drivers who had to qualify, including former Formula One champion and Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve, making his Cup debut, and Waltrip’s teammates David Reutimann and Dale Jarrett.

Rookie A.J. Allmendinger, Boris Said, Scott Riggs, Sam Hornish Jr. — another open-wheel driver and Indy 500 winner hoping to make his Cup debut — and Jeremy Mayfield qualified ninth, 10th, 11th, 13th and 15th, respectively, but were bumped out of the field by drivers in the top 35 in points.

It was a big day for Toyota, which has had little to crow about in its first season in the Cup Series.

Waltrip, Blaney and defending race winner Brian Vickers swept the first three positions for Toyota and Camrys took six of the top eight spots, although Jarrett, who was eighth, will have to start 43rd under NASCAR’s somewhat strange qualifying format.

Jeff Gordon, a three-time Talladega winner, including the April race this year, was 45th fastest of the 51 qualifiers and will start 34th. But he said the qualifying results weren’t surprising.

“This is just what we expected because those guys who had to qualify spent their time working on speed, while we were working on race setup,” the four-time Cup champion said. “They’re taking the risk, putting a lot into it and we’ve given up some speed to get ready for the race.

“I think we’ll be just fine in the race,” added Gordon, who is second to reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson heading into the fourth of 10 races in the Chase for the championship.

The other 11 Chase drivers didn’t have great days in qualifying, either.

Two-time champion Tony Stewart was fastest of the group at 187.057, placing him 11th on the grid. Martin Truex Jr. will start 13th, Denny Hamlin 18th, Johnson 19th, Jeff Burton 21st, Clint Bowyer 23rd, Matt Kenseth 25th, Carl Edwards 31st, Kyle Busch 36th and Kevin Harvick 37th.

The 12th Chase entry, Kurt Busch, qualified 25th but will start 41st after both his Dodge and the Ford of rookie David Ragan, who will start 42nd, were found to be too low in post-qualifying inspections.

All cars were impounded by NASCAR after qualifying and will have to start the race the way they ran Saturday.

Waltrip, who said he got plenty of drafting practice here last month in testing, wasn’t concerned about that.

“I told my guys last night, “If we get in, we’ll have a chance to win,” the two-time Daytona 500 winner said. “I think we’ll definitely be ready to go.”

There was a lot of focus on Villeneuve, whose only NASCAR race experience came in a Craftsman Truck event two weeks ago in Las Vegas.

Some drivers have criticized Villeneuve for making his first Cup start at Talladega, a restrictor-plate track known for huge packs of cars racing in close proximity producing multi-car crashes.

Once he made the field, though, the Canadian-born driver said his goal Sunday is “just staying out of trouble. There’s been a few finger points, so we have to be even more careful.”

[tubebender]

Are you having nightmares about tomorrows race? I hope I am home for the start...

[af_vet_rr]

Have I died and gone to NASCRUD Purgatory

No, it's called Toyota put together a qualifying setup that probably won't last past 20 laps.

Keep in mind that most of the guys in Toyotas were "go or go home" types, and so rather than work on a race setup, they had to work on a qualifying setup, because they don't get in automatically. Qualifying setups don't last very long. That's why Jeff Gordon and some of the others qualified so low (Jeff was 45th fastest I believe). If you qualify automatically, better to get a racing setup.

On an unrelated note, they had an interesting little bit on Speed, they were showing Jeff Gordon's being upset at NASCAR letting in Jacques Villeneuve, as well as some comments other drivers made, and they had an interesting little run-down: except for Johnny Sauter, all of the "big wrecks" in the past 10-15 years were caused by veteran NASCAR drivers. Don't ask me what that means - I would guess that it was because rookie drivers were usually way in the back and the big wrecks have to occur towards the front of the pack (else they aren't big), and usually front of the pack drivers are...,yep, veterans.

[NormsRevenge]

I look forward to the outcome.. and hanging on to a Top 20 finish this year.. OOOch.

[af_vet_rr]

The 12th Chase entry, Kurt Busch, qualified 25th but will start 41st after both his Dodge and the Ford of rookie David Ragan, who will start 42nd, were found to be too low in post-qualifying inspections.

You know, if NASCAR ever got serious about people breaking the rules, they could start booting people who fail the pre-race inspections because of deliberate actions (i.e. cheating, and I'm not saying Busch or Ragan cheated - NASCAR is being mum on whether their violations were deliberate or not).

NASCAR wouldn't have to come out with penalties for drivers/owners/crew chiefs if a car was caught cheating pre-race, because the Chad Knauses of the world know they would be in a world of trouble if their car failed and they were unable to race that race.

[NormsRevenge]

I’ll be darned, Jacques Villeneuve qualified 6th,, maybe a little new blood is a good thing after all.. we’ll see soon enough.

[NormsRevenge]

UAW-Ford 500 Starting Lineup

Pos.	No.	Team	Sponsor/Make	Time	Speed
1	55	Michael Waltrip	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	50.648	189.070
2	22	Dave Blaney	Caterpillar Toyota	50.710	188.838
3	83	Brian Vickers	Red Bull Toyota	50.726	188.779
4	78	Joe Nemechek	Furniture Row Chevrolet	50.809	188.471
5	0	David Reutimann #	Burger King Toyota	50.812	188.459
6	27	Jacques Villeneuve	unicef Toyota	50.878	188.215
7	49	John Andretti	Paralyzed Veterans of America Dodge	50.991	187.798
8	43	Bobby Labonte	Cheerios Racing/Pillsbury Food Service	51.131	187.284
9	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge	51.138	187.258
10	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge	51.176	187.119
11	20	Tony Stewart	Home Depot Chevrolet	51.193	187.057
12	45	Kyle Petty	American Spirit Motor Oil Dodge	51.256	186.827
13	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet	51.259	186.816
14	96	Tony Raines	DLP HDTV Chevrolet	51.274	186.761
15	88	Mike Wallace	M&M's Ford	51.293	186.692
16	12	Ryan Newman	alltel Dodge	51.301	186.663
17	18	J.J. Yeley	Interstate Batteries Chevrolet	51.355	186.467
18	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Ground Chevrolet	51.428	186.202
19	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe's Chevrolet	51.447	186.133
20	16	Greg Biffle	Dish Network/Starz Ford	51.480	186.014
21	31	Jeff Burton	AT&T Mobility Chevrolet	51.496	185.956
22	42	Juan Pablo Montoya #	Texaco/Havoline Dodge	51.501	185.938
23	7	Clint Bowyer	Jack Daniel's Chevrolet	51.532	185.826
24	7	Robby Gordon	Camping World Ford	51.540	185.797
25	17	Matt Kenseth	DeWalt Ford	51.544	185.783
26	8	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Budweiser Chevrolet	51.544	185.783
27	38	David Gilliland	M&M's Ford	51.560	185.725
28	41	Reed Sorenson	Target Dodge	51.588	185.625
29	25	Casey Mears	National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet	51.611	185.542
30	15	Paul Menard #	Menards/PEAK Chevrolet	51.633	185.463
31	99	Carl Edwards	Office Depot Ford	51.672	185.323
32	66	Jeff Green	GARMIN Chevrolet	51.703	185.212
33	40	David Stremme	Coors Light Dodge	51.745	185.061
34	24	Jeff Gordon	DuPont/Pepsi Chevrolet	Owner Points
35	26	Jamie McMurray	Irwin Ford	Owner Points
36	5	Kyle Busch	Kellogg's/CARQUEST Chevrolet	Owner Points
37	29	Kevin Harvick	Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet	Owner Points
38	1	Aric Almirola	U.S. Army Chevrolet	Owner Points
39	70	Johnny Sauter	Radioactive Energy Chevrolet	Owner Points
40	21	Ken Schrader	Motorcraft Ford	Owner Points
41	2	Kurt Busch	Miller Lite Dodge	Owner Points
42	6	David Ragan #	AAA Travel Ford	Owner Points
43	44	Dale Jarrett	UPS Toyota	51.029	187.658

[glock rocks]

Ya remember at the Winston where they’d turn the pack end-for-end and start again?

Yah.

[tubebender]

Inverted start?

[glock rocks]

Yah, that’s it.

[tubebender]

With your talk of BBQ’ed port left me a little bummed and hesitant to tell you I had to settle for Corn Beef and Cabbage, Snow Peas with butter, Boiled Potatoes and Chunk Pineapple on a bed of Lettuce and Cottage Cheese. Dessert was Tapioca Puddin. Libation was a Bloody Mary...

[glock rocks]

BBQ’ed port

I don't drink wine, Tork.

[glock rocks]

... or port.

[glock rocks]

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