Saturday, August 28, 2010

Around the Racing World

NASCAR

A well-known NASCAR fixture over the past twenty years speaks up on Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick. Check out this very insightful Q and A between Jeff Gordon’s former crew chief Ray Evernham and SceneDaily’s Bob Pockrass…

http://www.scenedaily.com/news/articles/sprintcupseries/Ray_Evernham_weighs_in_on_Kyle_Busch_Brad_Keselowski_Jeff_Gordon_and_Kevin_Harvick.html

Holly Cain’s article for AOL’s Fanhouse entitled “NASCAR's 'Dirty Dozen' Take 'Boys, Have at It' to Heart” includes the following 12 drivers that she calls the ‘Dirty Dozen’ when it comes to their driving tactics… I’ll list them as she did, in alphabetical order (Kristen you're driver's on top!):


Kurt Busch
Kyle Busch
Carl Edwards
Jeff Gordon
Robby Gordon
Kevin Harvick
Denny Hamlin
Brad Keselowski
Joey Logano
Juan Pablo Montoya
Ryan Newman
Tony Stewart


(Looks like most of our favorite drivers are on Cain's list. She must be a Jimmie Johnson fan…)

With the exception of Robby, Joey and Juan these drivers are all front runners. What’s that say?

Here’s the link to the Cain article and the poll that appears just below it:
http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2010/08/24/nascars-dirty-dozen-take-boys-have-at-it-to-heart/


Poll Results
Who do you think is NASCAR's dirtiest driver?
Kyle Busch ------------ 31%--------1,224
Carl Edwards --------- 28%--------1,077
Brad Keselowski ----- 25%----------957
Juan Pablo Montoya -15%----------581
Denny Hamlin -------- 1%----------- 47
Total Votes -----------------------3,886


Oh yeah... One other thing-

Way to go Kyle! Four in a row!


Formula One

Want to take a spin? Here’s the track in virtual reality our own tez rates as possibly the best road course in the world. Belgium's SPA…





Indycars

I see that due to expanded entry lists over the final four races of the 2010 Indycar Series they’ve changed how the drivers shall qualify. Normally they average the speed of 4 timed laps to set the field. To save time these final races will use only 2 timed laps to determine average speed.

Here’s Danica Patrick on Indycar qualifying (as Gene would say, “Making excuses”) at Chicagoland…


Being from the west I have to say the last week here in Central Florida has been WET! We're over 10 inches of rain this month with a few days yet to go. Heck, that's a whole year's worth where I'm from! All while the daily temperature's been hovering around 90 degrees... I feel like a mold farmer!

I hope you're all having a good weekend!


10 comments:

  1. Morons voting for Kyle as the dirtiest. I'd love to ask them what are the two dirtiest moves Kyle ever made. Then compare whatever they come up with to two that Edwards made in the last 5 months! Both of which could have ended Keselowski's career, or worse!

    RE: the Danica clip... there's 48 seconds of my life that I'll never get back.

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  2. Spa was better pre 200.....4 I think, before they reconfigured the bus stop chicane anyway. I love driving this place in GT Legends :P

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  3. Gene,

    Here's a much more appealing "Dirty Dozen"... These are the guys who, for whatever reason and barring any colossal collapse by Clint Boyer, came the closest to it but won't be in the 2010 Chase...

    Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, David Reutimann, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, AJ Allmendinger, Paul Menard and David Ragan.

    The article about this dozen came from Speed TV's site at: http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-nascar-dirty-dozen-left-to-wonder/

    I tried to find a ballot count on any of the "Most Popular Driver" voting that Dale Jr. has won the last 7 years but couldn't. Thought maybe there might be a reverse correlation between that and the dirtiest driver voting. Couldn't find the count anywhere. Must be top secret stuff there at Hamburger Helper or the CEO's a big Junior fan! lol

    Glad you thoroughly enjoyed Danica's excuses!

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  4. When Kyle had "compassion" for that little rookie who spun him out last year at Bristol, it spoke highly of his tolerance. That would be like a veteran blogger jumping down the throat of a rookie blogger who just meant well when he or she wrote something totally asinine! Where did that come from?lol

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  5. tez...

    Speaking of legendary cars / racing, have you been following the historic car racing in California? I think when you were in Sonoma they had one (at least it was in June) and then two weeks ago they had another in Monterey, the Historics 2010 at Laguna Seca. Looks like a great weekend. The Monterey meet had over 600 vintage race cars going clear back to the beginning of time! lol

    Looking at the SPA track, that straightaway that runs down and then uphill is something...

    I was wondering how many spotters these drivers need since it appears they're running through forested ground on much of the course.

    Thanks tez!

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  6. Athens, it's like someone truthfully calling our rookie president Obama incompetent being shouted down as a racist. There's just no sense to it...

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  7. I don't think Kyle's a dirty driver at all. He's AGGRESSIVE, and takes chances, but would not do harm to another driver in the process. Carl Edwards is BY FAR the dirtiest driver on the circuit. TWICE in a five month span, he's tried to intentionally end the career of Brad Keselowski.

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  8. jon,

    I think the heart of the finger pointing that's put Kyle at the top of the dirty driver poll goes clear back to the time Kyle put Junior into the wall at Richmond in 2008. Do a You Tube search with the key words "Dale Jr Wrecks" and the most viewed incident by far is the wreck at Richmond that Kyle caused by turning Junior. Those people doing the looking are Dale Jr fans, the same driver that's been voted the "Most Popular" for 7 years running now... It's the same effect as seen on the voting for the best pit crew and I'd bet it's evident in other such polls.

    Junior nation, right or wrong, tips the scales in NASCAR.

    Thanks jon!

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  9. no, it was easier to follow when I was in NZ funnily enough. The Can-Ams came down to Teretonga one weekend in 2008 (I think it was...then or 2007 anyway) which was less than 2 hours away from where I was living. That weekend was cool, lol. we also got the Otago Rally coming through every August which had a historical lineup of cars too (Capris, Escorts and the like).

    F1 doesn't use spotters so I'd have no idea how many would be required, lol

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  10. tez it's easy to see I'm really a racing officianado! LOL No spotters???

    The closest I've come to an old-time racer was probably my neighbor's Cord (AKA the Flying Coffin)in California. If you've never seen one Google it (Cord Automobile). One look and you'll know where the nick name came from. They were built in the 1930s and are now quite a collector's item.

    Thanks tez!

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