Nascar Sprint Cup Subway Fresh Fit 500 Sunday March 4 on FoX 2:30 PM ET

The Pit Crew

[advertising guy]

look for the bald guy hold’n up some Sheriff Joe pink chonies.....lol

[nascarnation]

Gotta love it!

Joe came here to Indianapolis last fall and did a fund raiser for Repub party, he’s totally awesome.

[A Cyrenian]

Is there any difference between Danica Patrick & Tiger Woods?

I think both get too much recognition that is not deserved. Look at "so and so". True, they didn't perform very well. And there are tons of other athletes doing better. But let's talk about Patrick/Woods.

I have had my fill on the talking heads.

What do you think, am I wrong?

[NYTexan]

Danica is there to sell tickets in the stands. That is all!

[SouthTexas]

Saw that and had to roll, last niece got married this afternoon.

[nascarnation]

When TW was in his prime, he was the dominant player of his generation. Nobody else was even close. The tournaments he played in averaged twice the tv ratings of those he didn’t play. So he earned the hype via his talent and ability.
Now people pay attention to see if he can come back from his ethical shipwreck and physical deterioration.

Danica won one race in Indycars because her engineer made a good call on fuel strategy and everything worked out.

So there’s a pretty big difference in my view.

[MtnClimber]

Cold and windy here today. This morning it was 10F and 30-40 MPH wind. So cold that at the Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival they postoponed the race sliding caskets across the ice at Barker Reservoir and also the polar bear plunge at the same reservoir.

Good to see MM get the pole. I almost picked him for this race.

[tubebender]

It was a glorious day here in Benderville today but it started off with a couple of glitches. First I didn’t notice the ice on my windshield and it ate a new pair of wiper blades. Then I pulled up to the mail box and the drivers window was frozen in the channel it destroyed the drive for the electric window. I know a guy who will fix it while I drive his Ridgeline...

[NormsRevenge]

Nice day here too! 70ish and more to come..

--

One of Matt Kenseth's stops in Los Angeles was to the famous Pink's Hot Dogs, where he helped in the kitchen. (Auto Club Speedway)

Kenseth tours country after Daytona 500 victory Made stops in Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco before Phoenix

---

Martin makes his mark with pole run at PIR
Earns MWR its eighth Cup pole; Stewart on front row for first time at Phoenix

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RACE LINEUP

Subway Fresh Fit 500 | Phoenix International Raceway

March 4, 2012 | Race 2 of 36

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED	TIME	BEHIND
1	55	Mark Martin	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	136.814	26.313	Leader
2	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Office Depot / Mobil 1	136.126	26.446	-0.133
3	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row / Farm American	135.998	26.471	-0.158
4	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's / Kobalt Tools	135.583	26.552	-0.239
5	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	135.547	26.559	-0.246
6	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Wix Filters	135.491	26.570	-0.257
7	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M Commercial Graphics	135.074	26.652	-0.339
8	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Rheem	135.014	26.664	-0.351
9	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	134.998	26.667	-0.354
10	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	Farmers Insurance	134.771	26.712	-0.399
11	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Wheaties	134.615	26.743	-0.430
12	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M's Ms. Brown	134.564	26.753	-0.440
13	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Office	134.499	26.766	-0.453
14	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	Stanley	134.449	26.776	-0.463
15	22	A.J. Allmendinger	Dodge	Shell / Pennzoil	134.278	26.810	-0.497
16	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	5-hour Energy	134.268	26.812	-0.499
17	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	Kingsford / Scott Products	134.058	26.854	-0.541
18	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	Smithfield "Allez cuisine"	134.048	26.856	-0.543
19	51	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction Services	133.939	26.878	-0.565
20	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Tarkett / Menards	133.814	26.903	-0.590
21	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats	133.764	26.913	-0.600
22	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	Burger King	133.665	26.933	-0.620
23	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	Ollie's Bargain Outlet	133.630	26.940	-0.627
24	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Subway	133.615	26.943	-0.630
25	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Filters	133.417	26.983	-0.670
26	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Best Buy	132.871	27.094	-0.781
27	23	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	North Texas Pipe	132.743	27.120	-0.807
28	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Miller Lite	132.709	27.127	-0.814
29	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	National Guard / Diet Mountain Dew	132.597	27.150	-0.837
30	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger	132.441	27.182	-0.869
31	13	Casey Mears	Ford	GEICO	132.251	27.221	-0.908
32	10	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	Accell Construction	132.231	27.225	-0.912
33	26	Josh Wise*	Ford	Morristown Driver's Service	132.081	27.256	-0.943
34	34	David Ragan	Ford	Barrett-Jackson	132.057	27.261	-0.948
35	249	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	America Israel Racing	131.685	27.338	-1.025
36	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Rick Santorum for President	131.516	27.373	-1.060
37	98	Michael McDowell	Ford	Curb Records	131.502	27.376	-1.063
38	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	AMFMEnergy.com / Pellet & Wood Stoves	130.596	27.566	-1.253
39	7	Robby Gordon	Dodge	Speed Energy	130.364	27.615	-1.302
40	33	Brendan Gaughan	Chevrolet	South Point Hotel & Casino	128.824	27.945	-1.632
41	93	Travis Kvapil+	Toyota	Burger King	127.845	28.159	-1.846
42	32	Mike Bliss+	Ford	U.S. Chrome / Southern Pride Trucking	118.060	30.493	-4.180
43	30	David Stremme	Toyota	Inception Motorsports	129.092	27.887	-1.574
Did Not Qualify
44	37	Timmy Hill*	Ford	Poynt.com	128.967	27.914	-1.601

+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie

[MtnClimber]

I did not get to see most of qualifying. Did not see Danica on the list. Will this be an estrogen-free race?

[tubebender]

That is strange? Was she hurt last weekend and is sitting this one out?

[happydogx2]

Danica’s running full time in the Nationwide and a limited Sprint Cup Schedule. Remaining Sprint Cup races:

Darlington on May 12th, Bristol Motor Speedway August 25th, Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 2nd, Chicagoland Speedway on September 16th, Dover International Speedway September 30th, Texas Motor Speedway November 4th and the penultimate race of 2012 at Phoenix International Raceway on November 11th.

If she runs well in the Nationwide perhaps she’ll get a couple more Sprint Cup races.

Gonna smoke-cook 10 pds of Pork Ribs on the Traeger today. First time for ribs on the Traeger. You might set out an extra plate in case things go awry.

Forecast to be 86 degrees in Phoenix today. Hot!

[nascarnation]

In formula 1, where there typically is a huge difference in performance between different teams, because everybody has different chassis and engines, the drivers are often judged by how they perform over a season compared to their teammate in essentially identical equipment.

I think Danica is going to find out that being teamed with Cole Whitt at JRM isn’t going to make her look too good.

[tubebender]

I guess I should pay more attention to Nascar. Thick fog here this morning but it will be gone by 10 when Church starts.

[NormsRevenge]

Danica is only running 10 Cup races, pHoenix ain’t one of them, but is running a full Nationwide schedule.

[MtnClimber]

She did not do very well in the Nationwide race.

[NYTexan]

[NYTexan]

[NormsRevenge]

OooPs. Running late Ping to the race track on FoX now and out the door beer run to boot :-]

[NYTexan]

Stopwatch started...