This weekend NASCAR visits Southern California and races at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. But living in CA, I was wondering if they’d get the race in, considering the way the weather has been! Last weekend was a pretty torrential downpour and storms keep creeping down from Northern California. I have to pipe in about the rain… my wife ran the L.A. Marathon last weekend. I was watching remotely from home. The weather site I was watching said light rain all day on the website. But the videos of palm trees leaning over from the persistent gail force winds that brought down the most rain that L.A. has seen since the 40′s, or forced runners to DNF due to hypothermia doesn’t constitute light rain in my book! LOL. I’m just sayin!
I hope NASCAR has better luck with the weather!
Rain and Track Seepage
Friday’s practices at the Auto Club Speedway and such were delayed due to what is known as weepers, or little bits of leakage or drainage issues from under the track surface. Crews cut into the track surface to open up some drying vents.
Practice finally kicked it in gear, two hours later than normal. Of course that included a wreck from Kyle Busch that sent his team scrambling for their backup car.
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This coming Sunday will be the 10th year since Dale Earnhardt had his fatal Daytona accident. Words can’t describe the perspectives about that horrible day. I remember that day vividly, and what I went through.
Since then, fans of Dale Sr. have been pulling for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to follow in his dad’s foot steps and propagate the success that the Earnhardt name has generated. It’s not been such a smooth ride of late, but the true fans of the family, of the driver, have stuck it out.
We all know that Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had a decent track record with restrictor plate events. He’s not done so bad under the Hendrick banner either. But there are others that feel like his wins on the RP tracks have been orchestrated.
Black Helicopters Are Circling
David Whitley, a “National Columnist” put up an article over at Fanhouse that NASCAR is setting up a storybook win for Dale Earnhardt Jr this year, during the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s passing.
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The moment saw this bit, my day became a pocket of memories. Michael Waltrip will be paying tribute to his former boss, the late Dale Earnhardt, by driving a No. 15, Napa sponsored (Toyota I presume) car during Speedweeks and the Daytona 500.
As many long-time fans will recall, Michael drove the No.15 for DEI when Dale Earnhardt was the owner, before he passed away in 2001 from that terrible event at the 2001 Daytona 500.
Michael see’s this as
“another chance for me to celebrate Dale’s life and the fact that he believed in me like he did; NAPA Auto Parts believed in me to give me the opportunity to race a championship-caliber car like I did for Dale.”
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This article is an opinion on the performance of NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson and how consistently he has performed since his rookie year, no matter what points system or car type he’s been in. After I’m done, you just might understand why I’ve started see Johnson’s performance for what it is .
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I’ve always been a bit confused about a vocal part of the NASCAR fan base who have such a rage-on for Jimmie Johnson.
It’s amazing how people can dig up the hate on the guy. An acquaintance of mine had spouted his distaste for Jimmie after he won his fifth straight championship. According to his opinion, my peer declared that NASCAR made sure their golden boy won his fifth title and went on to declare that it was a crock of refuse. (But with the grittier word in place of refuse.)
NASCAR’s Golden Boy
But if you really have to know, NASCAR’s golden boy is Dale Earnhardt Jr., who accounts for over 50% of all merchandise sales of diecast, clothing & accessories of the sport. And as his performance has been declining, so too have been the sales, and NASCAR feels that pinch, whether you realize it or not.
If NASCAR were to actually back their “golden boy,” they’d do everything they could to get Dale Eanrhardt Jr. in the winner’s circle and out of his business suit where Dale Jr owns a lot of companies like television production companies, race tracks, race teams, real estate offices, bars and what not. They wouldn’t be applying so much parity to the sport to spread the wealth of winning if they had a “golden boy.”
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I heard this question on the SIRIUS NASCAR channel the other day and it reflected on whether or not Jimmie Johnson would get his 5th consecutive title in as many years and if so, would this make his achievement the greater achievement than say Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt achieving 7 championships?
I have a real hard time trying to gauge that one. 7 titles “from the day” are impressive and so far, untouched and as far as I can tell, will more than likely stay untouched for a while. I just can’t see Johnson taking the title for the next 4 years to achieve the status of overtaking that magic No. 7. But then again, I’ve been wrong before. (That’s assuming a consecutive streak.)
No, there’s nothing technical I can quote as to why Jimmie won’t win #5, but I can reference an athlete’s worse fear, and that is the dance with lady luck. Lady Luck can have an awful affect on one’s mental outlook after so many moments when you dance with her.
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This weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race is the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Below I have a few tidbits on the event, from TV times for various on-track events, stats on who has the best finishes and who has led the most laps.
Friday, June 25
- 11:30 AM ET First Practice – on Speed
- 3:00 PM ET Qualifying – on Speed
Saturday, June 26
- 9:00 AM ET Practice
- 11:30 AM ET Practice on Speed
Sunday, June 27
- 1:00 PM ET Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Live on TNT
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Jeff Burton is making his 500th consecutive start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, this Sunday in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, barring any complications.
This will put him as the 10th-longest streak in series history, and third-longest active streak (Jeff Gordon has run 596 consecutive races; Bobby Labonte has run 595 consecutive races).
Burton began this streak on March 24, 1996 at Darlington Raceway and in the process, has garnered 120 top fives and 222 top 10s.
Below are the 10 longest consecutive start streaks in the NASCAR series history:
Consecutive Starts – NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Driver – Starts
1. Ricky Rudd – 788
2. Rusty Wallace – 697
3. Terry Labonte – 655
4. Dale Earnhardt – 648
5. Mark Martin – 621
6. Jeff Gordon – 596
7. Bobby Labonte – 595
8. Ken Schrader – 579
9. Richard Petty – 513
10. Jeff Burton – 499
Welcome to the New DVD Release report from Cinema Static for the week of May 25th, 2010. It’s a rather mediocre week, but none the less full of some great releases! The big one being HBO’s, “True Blood: The Complete Second Season!” On Blu-ray there’s some long awaited Troma releases coming at ya, including “Class of Nuke ‘Em High”, ”Surf Nazis Must Die” and “Tromeo and Juliet!.”
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DVD MOVIE OF THE WEEK
My DVD Movie pick of the week is, “The Road.” A rather dismal film yet a film everyone should see! The performances are epic, and the story is spellbinding!
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DVD TV SERIES/DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK
My DVD TV pick of the week is, “Leverage: The Complete Second Season” which is a cool show that reminds me a lot of the A-Team. This is one of those shows that I watch through DVDs only.
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Check out some of the stats that NASCAR put out about Atlanta Motor Speedway:
.006 seconds: Margin of victory for Kevin Harvick over Jeff Gordon in the Spring 2001 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the closest ever in the track’s history.
1: Total number of drivers to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series race on the same weekend, which Carl Edwards did in the Spring of 2005.
2: The fewest cautions during the running of the 1977 Atlanta 500.
3 hours, 3 minutes, 3 seconds in the No. 3 Chevrolet: Dale Earnhardt’s record time for a 500-mile Cup race at AMS on November 12, 1995. (NB&P: OK, so tell me how wacky that is with the 3′s?)
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Here are some background statistics for this weekend NASCAR Sprint Cup Race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, for the Kobalt 500, for the number-centric folks out there:
In 2009,
The pole winner was Mark Martin, grabbing the pole at 187.045 mph (29.640 secs.).
The track qualifying record is held by Geoffrey Bodine at a blazing 197.478 mph (28.074 secs), on 11-15-97. Not sure we’re going to see that broken anytime soon!
The race winner was Kurt Busch, setting a pace of 127.573 mph on 3-8-09,
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