Seeing that #3 tribute on the track and eventually in Victory Lane was absolutely amazing. It represented everything that Earnhardt stood for: a winning tradition, family, friends, and passion. I would venture to say that the emotion was just as high as Junior’s Pepsi 400 win in 2001. Tony Eury, Jr.’s face and interview after the last lap said it all: to paraphrase, he said that they lost everything at Daytona, but to win tonight was just amazing. To be honest, I wasn’t ever an Earnhardt fan because I didn’t truly get into racing until around 2000, but that was something that just had to put a smile on your face and a tear in your eye. What a powerful night in Nascar.

That car isn’t just a car, though: it’s a legend. So much passion is attached to that number and was tragically taken from everyone that day in February 2001, but the history still lives on. The love for everything that car stands for still lives on. The admiration for “the” driver of all drivers still lives on. And now his own flesh and blood just won in his paint scheme from the 80’s. That’s simply amazing.

You know, though, it would be really easy for Junior to take on the #3 car forever, but tonight was it. He said in his Victory Lane interview, “This is it; no more 3 for me.” He ran it in a race at Daytona in 2002 and won and finished 36th at Charlotte in the same year, but tonight will be the end of the #3 saga for Junior. I think that’s very admirable to do that because if we saw that number on the track every weekend, it wouldn’t have as much of a meaning behind it. Nevertheless, I’m glad he drove it tonight.

What were your thoughts about the race? What about the new cars with the Mustang and the Challenger, as well as the new editions of the Camry and Impala? The new cars have been slightly overshadowed by this epic win, but feel free to comment on anything and everything!

‘Til next time,
Lauren B.
http://greenflagrestart.blogspot.com

There’s been a lot of surprises this season that no one would have ever imagined.  Tony Stewart and his crew are in a completely opposite position than they were this time last year.  Horrible finishes have burdened them this entire season, but they’re hoping to turn that around this weekend at Dover.  I’m not really sure a 16th place start is going to provide a win, but no one ever knows what’s going to happen there… or at any race, for that matter.  Also, Harvick has managed to stay on top of the standings this year.  It almost seems like he and Tony have switched places, but I’m sure Kevin is living up to his nickname right about now even though he isn’t too “happy” about his car’s handling at Dover.  It also looks like the Roush camp has also begun to get back into their old routine of good finishes.  It’s definitely good to see them up front once again. 

Add to the craziness, Danica’s worst career start in IRL.  I had the opportunity to visit the first IRL race at Barber Motorsports Park a few weeks ago, and her performance really was how she described it: terrible.  According to Nascar.com, though, she’s not blaming her part-time schedule in Nascar for the disappointing season.  I don’t know that I agree, though – unless you’re Tony Stewart, it’s difficult to go back and forth driving two completely different types of cars with different kinds of technology and different styles of tracks.  I guess I’m still sticking by my opinion that she’s not as good of a driver as everyone makes her out to be.  Looks don’t equal performance, people.

Anyway, though, we all want to wish Brian Vickers a speedy recovery.  There’s no telling when he will be back on the track, but he should take his time considering the seriousness of this condition.  His health is much more important than making the Chase (Red Bull even agrees), so many thoughts and prayers are going out to him right now. 

‘Til next time,
Lauren B.
http://greenflagrestart.blogspot.com

The next stop was at the Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) race shop and museum in Mooresville, NC. This is an older facility compared to the Stewart-Haas shop; however, from a historical perspective it’s an interesting place to see. The DEI facility is more of a museum than a race shop, so you’ll see some great displays, just not a whole lot of action going on. The DEI museum is a great place to see the history of Earhnardt racing over the last 30 years. For all of the Dale Earnhardt fans out there, I highly recommend you plan a stop here.

The next stop was Lunch at Lancaster’s BBQ in Huntersville, NC. Lancaster’s is another one of the must see places for a NASCAR fan if you’re in the area. Not only is the Barbeque excellent, this place almost qualifies as a NASCAR museum as it has so much memorabilia hanging on the walls and everywhere else one can imagine. NASCAR drivers and race team members eat at this place on a regular basis. Cameras are welcomed inside, just be considerate of the drivers and team members while they are eating.

If you go to Lancaster’s to eat, you’ll have to take the short drive to the nearby Penske shop. I’ll admit, I’m not a huge fan of most of the Penske drivers. That being said, I highly recommend making a stop here if you like NASCAR. The best part about this shop is that visitors can go up to a balcony overlooking the prep area for the cars. You’ll see team members and crew chiefs walking around and working on the cars. Don’t forget your camera as some of the best photos to be had are at this shop.

The final stop of the day was at Hendrick Motorsports, which is just a short drive away from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Of all the museums that I saw, this is by far and away the biggest. Im guessing HMS has at least 20 cars on display in their museum, everything from one of Tim Richmond’s early rides to Dale Earnhardt Jr’s latest car. The Hendrick shop’s are in two different buildings. One building houses the shop of the #24 and #48 cars of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. The other houses the #5 and #88 of Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Love em or hate em, the hardware in the shop of the #24 and #48 cars is impressive, these guys combined have won an amazing amount of races over the last 18 years. The sheer size of the Hendrick shops and museums is impressive. Even if you’re not a Hendrick fan, I would give consideration to visiting this complex.

One of the negative aspects of visiting these shops is that many of the shops are a considerable distance away from each other. While this does provide some scenic views of the North Carolina countryside, it’s easy to eat up your day driving around to only a few of the shops. Doing your homework for a day of sightseeing the shops is very important. Just a heads up, some of the shops are much more impressive than others. Again, a little research into the different shops is time well spent.

One way to make an efficient use of your time is to use a tour company to view the shops. One of the biggest advantages of this is that they know their way around and take care of the driving. Some tour companies have pre-planned tours and others offer custom tours of the shops. I was fortunate to have discovered a company called Garage Pass Shop Tours. The great thing about this company was that our tour guide, Stan, made up a custom tour based upon what we wanted to see. Stan has worked in and around NASCAR for a long time and has an amazing amount of knowledge about the sport. By having a tour guide we really got the behind the scenes knowledge of the different shops. Additionally, the tour was significantly more educational just by having Stan explain things to us.

NASCAR has deep roots in North Carolina and I can’t think of any other city that has so much for NASCAR fans to see and do. If you’ve ever been curious as to what the heart of NASCAR looks like, go take a tour of your favorite NASCAR team’s facilities to find out.

As I sat in the grandstands, I hoped that the race would be comparable to the Labor Day weekend race. Well, needless to say, it wasn’t. The race was the same-old Atlanta with long, drawn-out boring segments where the leader seemed to lap a car every couple of times he came across the finish line. There was even a time where I nodded off and almost fell asleep. I don’t know about everyone else, but the race really didn’t truly get interesting until the end of the race. The intensity seemed to have been kicked up a notch, which always makes things interesting… too bad it wasn’t until 30 laps before the checkered flag dropped.

Throughout the race, at least a dozen teams had issues with their Goodyear tires. What surprises me, though, is that Goodyear seemed to completely deny the claims altogether, basically implying that the drivers who had problems had a bad set-up. Goodyear Racing chief Stu Grant said, “It’s a tire the guys are happy to run on. They’re comfortable and they’re fast if the setup is good. The leaders are running great. If you look at (Kasey Kahne) and (Busch), their tires have looked great all day” (Jayski.com). It’s highly doubtful that 12 of the best teams in the sport ALL had completely bad set-ups. I listened to Tony Stewart on the scanner, and his tires were basically what held up his progression on the track throughout the entire race. Also, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Robby Gordon, and 5 others were affected. Of course, it’s important to have a set-up that’s a good combination that incorporates grip and speed and won’t blister the tires, but come on, Goodyear. Maybe something really was wrong with the tires? It just says something when Goodyear specifically tests tires at a track (ahem, Atlanta), yet there are still problems with them there.

Everyone’s been talking about Carl Edwards’ intentional move to wreck Brad Keselowski, so I’ll just cover it briefly. Carl usually seems to be a level-headed guy, so that’s probably why the media is blowing up this altercation between him and Brad. Two things, though: A) You really shouldn’t really wreck anyone because of safety reasons and B) if you’re going to wreck someone, don’t wear white gloves! It was obvious that Carl intentionally wrecked Brad because you could see his gloves moving side-to-side. It’s evident that Carl had a lapse in judgment, but he shouldn’t be suspended a race for it. If you really think about it and put all of the wrecks together that Brad’s caused in the last year or so, it probably wouldn’t even add up to amount to this specific incident. We’ll just have to wait until Tuesday to see what Nascar decides.

I will say, though, that I really like the fact that the races will end under the green flag and not under a caution. Kudos to Nascar for making the call to change that rule. If the really old rule was in place, the race would have finished under the caution flag after Carl and Brad’s incident. I know the fans who paid to attend this race definitely wouldn’t have been happy about that… this one, in particular.

Talk to you soon,
Lauren B.
http://greenflagrestart.blogspot.com

One of the latest changes in the Nascar rule book is that the lowest-finishing car that didn’t wreck out of the race will now be inspected by the officials at the conclusion of the race.  This change is supposed to encourage the start-and-park teams to put more effort toward actually participating in the race instead of dropping out after 30 laps.  There is more to this rule change, though, that might actually backfire on Nascar’s efforts.

This rule change can prove to be devastating for under-funded teams because of the monetary implications that accompany the inspection process.  Just think for a minute: Cup Series engine rebuilds can cost several thousands of dollars, most likely in the upwards of $30,000.  For under-funded teams, this can be fatal.  That’s like one person’s salary for an entire year!  The cost of rebuilding an engine, much less a car, is extremely expensive.  If that rule wasn’t in place, that money could have been used for research and development programs that could simply make the team more competitive. 

Not only does the money concern come into play, but also the question of whether or not the start-and-park teams will risk their equipment to actually enter into the field.  If there’s no way to be competitive with the other 42 cars, why even enter and risk being the car that gets inspected and possibly torn apart?  We might not have to worry about qualifying to actually get into the race if there aren’t 43 cars for the field!  That can lead to a whole plethora of new issues for another day and time, though.

You never know what can happen…  Nascar always keeps things interesting!

Talk to you soon,
Lauren
http://greenflagrestart.blogspot.com

Let me begin by giving you some background information on my Nascar history.  I have been a serious Nascar fan for about 10 years (I watched it a little bit before then), and was originally drawn to the sport because of a driver named Ricky Rudd.  He was my reason for being a racing fan because of his down-to-earth demeanor and by simply being a class act.  I loved his personality because he was one who would race with patience every week, but he would get fired-up when necessary…like with Rusty Wallace or Kevin Harvick.  Toward the end of his career, I knew that the probability of him winning a race with a one-car, under-funded team was much smaller than the bigger teams.  Of course, every race fan wants to see his or her driver win, but as long as I saw his name on the starting line-up, I was content.

I don’t really think that affected my attitude toward watching or attending any races, but it does get frustrating when the same drivers win each week.  So many people aren’t fans of certain drivers simply because of that factor.  Take the late Dale Earnhardt, Sr. for example.  You either loved him or you hated him; there was no in-between.  His passion made for many exciting races, wins, and championships, but he certainly had his fair share of nay-sayers because of the success he’d already had.  Say what you want, but some people are naturally jealous of others’ successes.  It happens all the time – in the work place, in the classroom, and even on the race track.  It’s almost inevitable.  What can happen, though, is that some people have the potential to start to lose interest in watching the races because it’s almost as if the winners are predetermined.  I’m not saying the races are fixed; that is definitely not the issue.  What I am saying, however, is that it takes the fun out of the anticipation of who is going to win. 

So, here’s my question for you: do you get bored seeing the same drivers win each week?  The Jimmie Johnsons, the Jeff Gordons, the Kyle Bushes… Does it take the fun out of watching the sport?  I’d love to hear your opinion on it, no matter if you agree with my views or not.  Feel free to post your comments!

Take care,
Lauren B.
http://greenflagrestart.blogspot.com

In line with the surprises was the also-unexpected massive hole in the Daytona track.  My speculation is that the hole was partially caused by the flood that overtook the speedway last year.  I could definitely be wrong, but the stagnate water that flooded the speedway surely could have weakened the track.  No one really knows, but this 18-inch gaping hole caused a total of 2.5 hours in a red flag setting.  No wonder the race didn’t finish until about 6 hours later. 

What an interesting opening weekend for the season!  It looks like the rule changes have made side-by-side racing better (so far), but we’ll have to see how the cars perform at smaller tracks where restrictor plates aren’t required.  It will be great to get into full-swing for the racing season, so definitely come back soon for more racing updates.

Take care,
Lauren B.
http://greenflagrestart.blogspot.com

To begin, history was made in the Nationwide Series in two ways. We’ll start with the female addition to the male-dominated sport. The Daytona Nationwide race was the first race with a female participant since a few years ago, but here’s the kicker: all the media grabbed on to Danica Patrick, but no one remembered that Chrissy Wallace was also making her first start in this series. It particularly rubbed me the wrong way when the ESPN ticker only mentioned Danica’s history-making start and conveniently forgot about Chrissy. Then, while watching the Speed Channel’s Nascar Live coverage, none of the commentators mentioned Chrissy either. Apparently all the media was too absorbed in Danica-madness to remember the other female entrant. Did Chrissy have a pre-race interview to ask her about her start? Nope. Did Danica have a pre-race interview? You betcha. She also got in-race video and audio feed, as well as about a katrillion interviews after she got caught-up in a wreck. It would have been horrible to be completely overshadowed when both of them were almost equally skilled drivers making their debut. Danica’s debut lasted more than Chrissy’s, but still – both of them need to have coverage; not one or the other.

As some of you know, I haven’t jumped on the Danica Patrick bandwagon and don’t intend to. Yes, it’s awesome to see a female driving; however, I’m not really a fan of how she markets herself. Participating in provocative GoDaddy.com commercials and posing in Playboy and Sports Illustrated apparently is a way to get fans, but let’s think about this for a minute. Nascar is one of the only sports that allows every family member to root for a different team without having to flip channels to find that team. This means that lots of little kids will watch the races, oftentimes choosing a driver and idolizing that particular individual. So, would you want your little girl to see Danica’s suggestive commercials or posters and think it’s perfectly fine to do that? I know I wouldn’t. Say what you want – I’m not jealous that she’s successful or is making a name for females in Nascar, but I just think that talent should get you fans… not your half-naked body.

Anyway, the second historic event was when Tony Stewart won the Nationwide race earlier today. This marks his 5th win in 6 years. Spectacular. His car was pretty much unstoppable all day long, so he was definitely the most deserving winner. It was definitely a crash-filled race, especially with the huge wreck involving Dale Jr. and Harvick that almost touched Stewart, but that’s just racing. That’s how it should be.

The possible entrants for the Daytona 500 seemed even more stressed this year than in the past. There were many different individuals who geared for the last few 500 qualifying spots from the Duel 150s, including Michael Waltrip and Max Papis, so it would definitely be a Cinderella story if any of those teams won the race. It was very emotional for Waltrip when he found out he was in the race, but it was so awesome to see that passion in his eyes. You can tell that he’s a racer for the right reasons. I also watched Max Papis’ interview on Nascar Live earlier today, and he is definitely one admirable guy. He seems so humble and appreciative to have the opportunity to race, so he’s definitely gained a lot of respect…or at least, a lot from me.

Before the 500 begins tomorrow, we’ve got to hit the truck series really hard. It’s just about time for the start to the 2010 Camping World Truck Series, so let’s see how it goes. If it’s anything like the Nationwide race, it’ll definitely be interesting.

As in any major sport, it’s not necessarily the person or team with the best record that ends up winning the championship. One common factor to look at is who is getting hot at the right time. Racing in NASCAR is a funny thing. If anyone sees a driver that has stumbled recently, I’d be concerned. It’s not easy for a team to just turn it on and field a car that runs well. A team that runs well towards the end of the regular season will have confidence, and very few things are more important heading into a playoff situation.

The other prominent factor that I see is a team’s ability to consistently put a string of top 5 finishes together. In other words, if a driver doesn’t have a streak with at least 2-3 top 5 finishes in a row by now, they’ll be hard pressed to do it in the Chase. The last key to doing well in the Chase is avoiding the big wrecks and or mechanical issues that can take a car out of a race. Simply put, most Champions have had a little luck somewhere along the way. Going back to last year’s (2008) Chase, it only took a couple of bad races to bring Kyle Busch crashing back down to earth from his meteoric rise during the regular season. Talladega is going to be a big wildcard. If someone is at the wrong place at the wrong time they can be taken out of the race and their potential Championship season is over. All the Chase drivers will be very nervous if they’re running in the middle of the pack at Talladega. Remember, nobody knows for sure who’s going to win the Chase. This year could end up being one of the better endings to a NASCAR season in a long time, let’s hope so.

One more thought before we go. Lots of fans have voiced their opinions and let it be known that NASCAR has lost some of it’s excitement with the introduction of the Car of Tomorrow (COT) a couple of years ago. Many of these same fans have also made it clear that they are thrilled that Kyle Busch did not make the Chase this year. For the record, Kyle Busch makes it really easy not to like him. Smashing a custom made Les Paul guitar valued at a couple of thousand dollars does come to mind. That being said, the one thing Kyle Busch has never been accused of is being boring. Love him or hate him, Kyle Busch brings excitement to NASCAR and the Chase would be better with him in it.