Auto Club 500 race In California recap

Well after many delays we now know that Carl Edwards had the car to win the Auto Club 500!

After a long delay due to rain the race finally got underway! About two and a half hours after the race was supposed to start we finally got the race underway only to have the #55 car driven by Michael Waltrip drop oil all over the track. The green flag has yet to wave. They have to clean the track up as well as the track is weaping (water is coming out of the cracks in the track) so they are also drying those. A half hour later we finally go green flag racing!!!

Jeff Gordon took the lead right away by about two seconds. We got our first caution on lap 14 when Denny Hamlin in the #11 FedEx car hits the wall in turn three. He hit pretty hard. He had to go straight to the garage. On lap 17 Jimmie Johnson took the lead after pit stops. On lap 20 Jeff Gordon retakes the lead.

On lap 20 the caution comes out again for a wreck. Casey Mears hit the wall then slid down the track right into his teammate Dale Jr. Dale Jr. then slide into Reed Sorenson as well. Then out of the blue Casey was almost stopped against the wall and here comes Sam Hornish Jr. hitting him from behind and actually flipping Casey's car so that the driver's side was against the track. After both cars stop Sam's car catches fire. Luckily everyone made it out fine. Sam and Casey are both out of the race. The red flag comes out for the clean up. The cars were stopped for over an hour! Here are some quotes from the drivers involved:

• Casey Mears: "A couple times I hit the water and right about the time I crossed that seam, I don't know if that's what caused me to get loose."



• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "We were just sitting there trying to chill. The track's real dirty and everybody's sliding around. The track ain't ready today. The track's dirty, and this was a bad move."



• Sam Hornish Jr.: "There was nowhere to go either way. I couldn't see anything and couldn't steer the car, either."



• Denny Hamlin: "I think there are 42 other drivers out there who would agree; we should not be racing on that racetrack right now. I hit a slick spot and the car just took off."

I guess NASCAR desided to finally listen to these drivers when they said the track was wet. They ended up drilling into the track to get the water out.

Finally on lap 25 we got the race underway with Jeff Gordon leading. On lap Jimmie Johnson took the lead so that he could help his teammate get some debris off his nose. Reed Sorenson also comes back out on the track! On lap 38 Jeff Gordon takes the lead back.

Then on lap 39 there is a caution thrown for rain in turn 4. Most the leaders are pitting now. That hands the lead to John Andretti. Then he pits and Dale Jarrett assumes the lead. On lap 46 Dale pits and Jimmie Johnson takes the lead.

The green flag was thrown again on lap 47 and Jeff Gordon takes the lead. On lap 56 Jeremy Mayfield cuts a tire and the caution comes out for debris. The race restarts after pit stops are made on lap 59 Jeff Burton leads them only to have Jeff Gordon pass him again. Dale Jr. has also rejoined the race 39 laps behind.

On lap 70 Elliott Sadler spins and brings out the caution for the sixth time. On lap 72 Jamie McMurray leads the field to the green after all the leaders make thier pit stops. On lap 73 Greg Biffle takes the lead from Jamie. On lap 81 the rain falls again! By lap 85 NASCAR red flags the race.

Nascar had hoped to run the race last night but at 2am ET Nascar officially postponed the race. It was 15 hours 49 minutes later and the race was yet again underway.

On lap 90 Jimmie Johnson leads the pack to the green flag! On lap 122 Kasey Kahne takes the lead as the leaders start to make the green flag pit stops. On lap 123 Kasey pits and Kurt Bush inherits the lead. Lap 124 Kurt runs out of gaas on the back stretch and Carl Edwards takes the lead. He then pits but maintains the lead. On lap 126 Jimmie Johnson regains the lead.

Caution comes back out on lap 134 when Jeff Burton smacks the wall to bring out that caution. On lap 137 Kyle Busch takes the lead under caution after many drivers make pit stops.

On lap 150 Michael Waltrip spins and hits the wall bringing out the caution yet again. The leaders hit pit road and Robby Gordon stays out to lead a lap. When Robby makes the pit stop Ryan Newman takes the lead. On lap 155 Matt Kenseth takes the lead. Then on lap 158 Jimmie Johnson is able to ease past Matt for the lead again. That only lasted two laps and Carl Edwards then takes the lead back.

On lap 167 Dale Jarrett looses the tire tread from his right rear tire to bring out the caution. Everyone makes thier pit stops and that puts Jimmie Johnson back in the lead. Thanks to a fast pit stop Jeff Gordon takes the lead on lap 170.

On lap 179 Carl Edwards passes Jeff for the lead back. On lap 210 Kevin Harvick takes the lead as drivers start to make green flag pit stops. Then on lap 211 the pit stops cycle through and Carl Edwards resumes as the leader.

On lap 219 Jeremy Mayfield slaps the wall bringing out caution flag numer 11. Everyone hits pit road and that puts Jeff Gordon in the lead thanks to the position of his pit. On lap 122 Jimmie Johnson takes the lead yet again.

On lap 237 Carl Edwards takes the lead for the final time.

Here are the top 10 in points:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Ryan Newman
3. Tony Stewart
4. Kurt Busch
5. Carl Edwards
6. Kasey Kahne
7. Kevin Harvick
8. Jimmie Johnson
9. Greg Biffle
10. Jeff Burton

Next week we are in Las Vegas!

Take care!

Fines from Daytona

Well the fines were handed out to day and Dale Junior and his National Guard Nationwide team was fined. The crew chief Chad Walter has been fined 25K and suspended for the next 6 Nationwide races. He was also put on probation for the rest of the year. Junior was also docked 50 driver points (which is fine cause he's not running that full time anyway) and Rick Hendrick was docked 50 owner points.

There were plenty of other fines for those you can check out the links below:)

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/bg/02/20/daytona.penalties/index.html

This was a fine from the Cup series as well!

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/cup/02/20/daytona.penalties/index.html?eref=/rss/news/headlines/cup

Daytona 500 Race Recap....

Well as you can see Ryan Newan driver of the #12 Alltel Dodge for Penske Racing won the 50th Daytona 500. It was a great race. No he didn't lead that many laps but he lead the lap that counted. Here is what happened throughout the race.

Lap one was lead by Michael Waltrip. He lead till lap 3 which Jimmie Johnson lead. Then on lap 4 Denny hamlin took the lead. He lead till lap 6 when Tony Stewart took over. I found this radio conversation funny. This happened on lap 10 after Kevin Harvick radioed into his crew that he thought they were blowing up......

Kevin Harvick: "This is absolutely amazing. We run all week, we haul ass. They
drop the green and our car won't run."

On lap 15 Denny Hamlin took the lead back from Tony Stewart. He held that until lap 18 when Jeff Gordon took the lead. On lap 20 Denny Hamil retook the lead. He kept the lead until lap 39 when Dave Blaney (an Ohio native) took the lead. That lead was very short lived though cause on lap 40 Jeff Gordon took the lead back. At lap 41 Kyle Busch takes the lead after a round of green flag pit stops. Then on lap 49 Denny Hamlin claims the lead again. He kept that till lap 55 when Kyle took his lead back. Lap 65 Denny Hamlin retakes the lead only to loose it again to Kyle Busch on lap 68. On lap 76 Reed Sorenson took the lead. This was during the time that everyone was making green falg pit stops so he lost it quickly. On lap 77 Reed pits and hands the lead to Kyle Busch again.

Lap 80 we get our first caution for debis. Everyone again pits except for Reed Sorenson so he took the lead back. During that caution Dale Jr. radioed his crew to let them know that his shifter ball fell off his shifter. He was needing a new ball or something to put on there cause it was sharp and hurting his hand.

On lap 86 Kurt Busch took the lead from Reed Sorenson. On lap 108 Matt Kenseth took the lead only to loose it to his teammate Greg Biffle on lap 109. Lap 110 Kyle took the lead back. On lap 121 Kyle made his green flag pit stop and gave up the lead to Greg Biffle again. That was short lived though cause on lap 122 Greg Biffle made his green flag pit stop. He gave the lead to Michael Waltrip, only to have him make his pit stop a lap later on lap 123. That gave the lead to Ryan Newman. Kurt Busch was also penalized for speeding on pit road and had to serve a drive through penalty.

By lap 124 green flag pit stops were through and Kyle Busch claims the lead. On lap 145 Kenny Wallace is forced to go to the garage cause he couldn't go the minumim speed on the track. He was one of the drivers that raced his way in on Thursday.

On Lap 150 we had another debris caution. On lap 152 pit road opens and everyone pits. Since Clint Bowyer crossed the finish line on pit road he was credited as the leader. On lap 153 the pit stops are through and Greg Biffle won the race off pit road. Just one lap later Jeff Gordon took his car to the garage. His right-front bracket was bent.

On lap 158 Kyle Busch took the lead yet again. Then on lap 161 the caution comes out for the third time. This time it was due to David Ragan hitting the wall hard which also collected his teammate Matt Kenseth. Both cars went to the garage!

On lap 162 Dale Jr. takes the lead as all the other leaders pit and he stays out. On lap 169 Matt Kenseth comes back out and Kasey Kahne takes the lead. On lap 170 Tony Stewart takes the lead only to loose it on lap later to Dale Jr. He then one lap later on lap 172 looses the lead again to Tony Stewart. Then Dale Jr. tries to take the lead back but Tony Stewart edges him out.

The caution came out again on lap 176 when Jimmie Johnson spun coming off of turn two after Sam Hornish Jr. tapped him. That wreck also collected Martin Truex Jr. as well. Again everyone pits except for Dale Jr. He reclaims the lead for one lap. On lap 181 Clint Bowyer took the lead from Dale Jr.

Then on lap 183 Clint Bowyer went spinning after being clipped by Juan Pablo Montoya. Clint just spun but didn't have any damage. That handed the lead to Ryan Newman. On lap 188 Jeff Burton took the lead from Ryan. On lap 189 Kevin Harvick tapped Dave Blaney and sent him into the wall.

Then on lap 197 Casey Mears tries to block Tony Stewart and Casey ends up in the wall. Lap 197 is when Tony Stewart took the lead and lead all the way till Ryan Newman passed him on the back stretch. Ryan's teammate Kurt Busch drafted with him and gave him that push to pass Tony Stewart.

This is the first time since 2001 that teammates finished first and second. Michael Waltrip and Dale Jr. did it back in 2001.

This was also the tenth anniversary of Dale Sr.'s only Daytona 500 victory. To honor him all the teams stood on pit wall and held up three fingers during the third lap.

That about does it for this 50th Daytona 500!

Take care!

Daytona Nationwide Race Recap

Ok here is my race recap. Hope it is good enough!





The winner ended up being Tony Stewart. It was a good race. There were a few race leaders. The different race leaders were as follows (laps lead): Kirk Shelmerdine (1), Denny Hamlin (1), David Ragan (2), Brian Vickers (2), Martin Truex Jr. (20), Tony Stewart (46), and Kyle Busch (47). Kyle Busch had led the most laps by one lap. Steve Grissom only lasted 3 laps before he had to retire his car. David Stremme was the next car to go. They think that it was engine or transmission problems. He did have trasmission problems yesterday during practice. Mark Green and David Gilliland were involved in a wreck together 53 laps into the race. Marcus Ambrose was able to make it 103 laps but after blowing two tires and loosing most of the back right side of his car. Stanton Barrett, Kasey Kahne, Steve Wallace and Jason Keller were involed in an accident when Brad Keslowski got loose on lap 109. Junior was all over the track. There were times when he was up front then he would fall back! He ended up being 3rd. I think that is a great finish. This was the second time that Junior had driven a JR Motorsports car!



Tomorrow is the 50th Daytona 500!

Take Care!!!

Daytona 500 Lineup

Here is the lineup for the 50th Daytona 500!

http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2008/1/data/lineup.html

Gatorade Duel #2

Congrats to Denny Hamlin and the whole #11 FedEx team. He won the 2nd Gatorade Duel race. That will secure him a 4th place starting spot in the 50th Daytona 500! This makes the first race that Toyota has won in the Cup Series!

Duels race #1

In only his second race with his new Hendrick Motorsports AMP Energy/National Gaurd team he wins two races! Way to go Junior!!! That will have him starting 3rd for the 50th Daytona 500!

Daytona Engine News

Looks like all the Hendrick cars are going to be changing their engines! Junior was able to find something that was engine related. The other drivers have been complaining of the same problems as well. It is a lifter failure.The head engine builder said that they think that it is a bad batch of parts. There are 5 Hendrick engines that are being changed 5, 24, 48, 66 and 88. This means that they will all be in the back of thier Duel race now!

*The 07 also changed thier engine as well.

Weather update....

It started raining early this afternoon. It is supposed to change back to snow around 9pm tonight. We are still under a winter storm warning until 1am tonight. On a good note though the driveway is almost cleared off again! Hubby said that the roads this morning were terrible though!

Snow pictures!

Here are some of my snow pictures. The first one I was trying to show the depth of the snow. The second one was the snow falling. Notice that I did go out and shovel the driveway once. An hour later you can't even tell! The third picture is the ice that had formed in my hair! It was ice that formed from the snow that was falling. Hubby is still not home. I made him take my car this morning since I didn't have to work. At least my car has full coverage his doesn't. I'll check back later!

Take care!

It's snowing already,,,,

I just looked out the window and it has already started snowing. I just came home at 8:20 and it was n0t snowing at all. They are saying that we could have thunder and lightning with this storm as well. This is not going to be fun at all!!!!


***Update***

So they just said on the news that we have about 1/2 inch already and it isn't even part of the snow storm that is still yet to come! Yippee!

Duels starting line up!

Per NASCAR.com

Gatorade Duel #1

Gatorade Duel #2

These are the races that are qualifying races for the 50th annual Daytona 500! These will be ran on Thursday afternoon!

Take care!

Winter stinks!

Well we may just be in for our first major snow storm of the season. They are calling for 5-7 inches of snow for us tonight into tomorrow. Man I guess I picked the right week to take off of work. They are saying that rush hour in the morning will be nasty. This weekend we had high (40-50mph) winds and this morning we had wind chills factors below 0. They are saying that the temps are too cold even now to pretreat the roads. They have pretreated anyway but they aren't sure that it will help cause the temps are so low. They are telling hubby to be on stand by. He may have to take tomorrow off instead of his normal day off Weds. The main snow fall is suppossed to come later in the morning. Let's hope that they are wrong again. Although it would be cool to see that much snow here. Wait I would be the one to have to shovel. Forget that!!

Take care!

All is well in my NASCAR world!!

Last night Junior was able to prove that he still does have the talent and drive to make back to Victory lane! Thanks to his Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson who gave him the push that he needed Junior was able to cross the finish line ahead of Tony Stewart who was leading until the last lap. This was Junior's first race with his new Hendrick team. His #88 Amp Energy/National Gaurd Chevrolet.

I have followed Junior for as long as he's been racing. Last year was a hard year for him. I think that I can speak for all his true fans when I say, we missed that smile. Ya he smiled and was happy at times but his true smile was missing and has been missing for some time. That smile and confidence that has been missing is back.

I don't think that I ever relized how well the Hendrick teams work together. Last night I seen how well they work together though. When Junior broke away Jimmie, Jeff and Casey (when they were near each other) went with him. As well as Junior followed them when he was near them.

So what does this win mean to us Junior fans? Well to me it shows that the Junior we love to root for has his confidence in himself back. I don't think that it ever really left but I think it maybe got lost a little last year. Now no the Budweiser Shootout isn't a points race but it showed Junior, his new team, his new car owner and all his fans that the talent he has is still there. Of course I picked him to win last night but I truely thought that he really would win. Rick Hendrick hired him a great driver last year.

It was also great listening to Junior's in car radio to hear Rick Hendrick come on before the race started then again after the race ended. I know that is one of the things that Junior was looking for, a owner that was around at the track. It shows that Rick cares about his drivers. I'm not saying that the owners at DEI don't care but I think that being at the track and on the radio is a comforting feeling for those drivers.

Last night was the first of hopefully a lot more wins to come! He was interviewed this afternoon on the qualifying show and he said that he was most looking forward to going home for a few days and celebrating with his mom and his sister. Kelley was and instrumental part of him being with Hendrick and for him having the #88. Kelley is not only his sister but his business manager as well. She also works at JR Motorsports with him. He's close to his family so I'm not surprised that he wants to hurry home to see the joy that I know they will have on thier faces as well!

Take care!

Line up for the Bud Shootout...

1. Kurt Busch

2. Mark Martin

3. Micheal Waltrip

4. Jamie McMurray

5. David Gilliland

6. Reed Sorenson

7. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

8. Kasey Kahne

9. Martin Truex Jr.

10. Tony Stewart

11. J.J. Yeley

12. Denny Hamlin

13. Kenny Schrader

14. Bill Elliott

15. Dale Jarrett

16. Casey Mears

17. Greg Biffle

18. Jimmie Johnson

19. Dave Blaney

20. Carl Edwards

21. Clint Bowyer

22. Jeff Gordon

23. Ryan Newman

Media Day Highlights

Here are some notes from Media Day in Daytona here per NASCAR.com.

Junior:

• He is the driver of the Amp Energy National Gaurd Chevrolet.
• They were showing his Victory Lane interview after he won the Daytona 500 for his intro, he laughed at himself. He said that was the first time that he had ever watched it. He was laughing at himself for worrying about the long string of confetti that was clinging to his neck.
• Winning the Daytona 500 was the best day of his life so far.
• He said that he looked forward to always coming to Daytona in July. He said that he never went to the Daytona 500 till he raced it. Even when he was in the Busch races he would fly home after the race on Saturday.
• He said that last year was frustrating for both him and his team. He said that the frustration is something that he and his team (from last year) are going to have to live with for quite a while.
• He said that he has less stress in some area's and more stress in others.
• He said that he knows that he has it made this year, he has a great car, team, owner, equiptment, sponsor's but he still feels the stress of having to prove himself.
• He wants to make his fans proud again.
• He says that he feels sorry for those drivers that have to keep getting asked how he will do this year. He said that he is friends with most of these drivers and hates that they should be in the spotlight yet they ask them about him.
• He said that he feels very lucky to have had everything come out the way it did for him this year. He feels lucky, fortunate to have wonderful people like Kelley looking out for him and very grateful.
• Ricky Rathman was doing the interviewing and he said that he has picked Junior to win the Daytona 500 this year. Junior just giggled.
• He said that he loves that he is involved in the candy buisness (Big Mo candy bars). He said that Palmer came to him wanting to get a mainstream candy bar. He said that the only other big sport candy bar is the Baby Ruth. He hopes that Big Mo can be that good. If so that will be the first mainstream candy bar for Palmer. He said so far it is exceding expectations. They are selling about 4 times better then he thought they would

Tony Stewart:

• Ricky was interviewing him as well. He said that he like Ricky interviewing. He said that he hates media day (what a shock). He said that they always ask him the same questions...."What do you want to accomplish this year?" He said his answer is "I want to run around in about 30th position, stay out of trouble and be consistant that would make me happy." He said he likes to see their faces. He said you ask him a stupid question you'll get a stupid answer.
• Someone from the chat room asked him when he was going to cut his hair. He said that his grandpa always had this saying "mind your own buisness" (then he laughed). He said that he was in Charolotte the last two days and tried to get his hair cut but he only trusts this one person cause he has too many calicks, but he finally found out yesterday that she was in Mexico on vacation. He said he plans on cutting it.
• He also said that he wants a tattoo.

J.J. Yeley:

• He got a tattoo two weeks ago. Right before the California testing. He has angel wings with Faith in between them (for his daughter). It is on his left arm. He said it didn't hurt. Ricky's friend did it for him. He doesn't plan on getting anymore though.

Kasey Kahne:

• He loves the free beer from Budweiser.
• He said that Budweiser sent over (to his house) a cool fridge for him to keep his Budweiser in. It keeps it 22 degrees which is just perfect for him.
• He is still doing Allstate commercials as well as some young guns, dodge and one Budweiser commercial
• He said that he likes working with the Allstate girls. He said that they are great to work with.
• He thinks that this year will be much better then last year. They made a lot of changes in the organization.

Elliott Sadler:

• He went to his forst Daytona 500 when he was 4 years old.
• He said that was his favorite Daytona 500 of all time.
• He said that the best Daytona memory is yet to come, when he wins it.
• He thinks that he is a boring person.
• He spent most of the off season at hom in Virginia with his family and friends. He was a couch potato most of the time. He did go hunting a few times but other then that he did nothing.
• He too thinks that this year will be a much better year for he and Kasey as well

Denny Hamlin:

• He can't wait to race the Toyota's. He thinks this is Toyota's year.
• He said that if the Gibbs cars go winless this year it will be a miracal.
• He also said that he thinks that all three Gibbs drivers will be in the chase this year.
• He loves that Joe Gibbs is back. He said he will be good for the teams.
• He said that he is still in awe that he is racing in the Daytona 500.

Carl Edwards:

• He said that he has a hard time knowing how is in the cars at the begining of the seasons.
• He doesn't feel like at testing that thier engines were up to par. Since they don't have the engines yet he likes that Daytona has bumps on the track. He hopes they never repave it.
• Jack doesn't like that he does the back flips but he won't make him stop either. He said that he only does backflips when he wins. He doesn't practise them.
• Back 40 Records is his record company. They are releasing Omaga (sp) this summer. That will be the first record for the company.

David Ragan:

• He was having fun doing the Media tour.
• He thinks that his team can win races this year. He even thinks that he could make the chase.
• His dad ran a few Daytona 500 years ago.
• His best Daytona 500 memory was when Dale Sr. won. He was at home watching that.
• He is glad that he's not a rookie this year.

Aric Almirola:

• He was at the media tour but he won't be in the car till Bristol.
• He says you can tell who in the media is a NASCAR fan and who's not. He was getting people asking him how it feels to be racing in the Daytona 500. He won't be in it Mark Martin will.
• He said when he was 11 he and his family visited DEI as fans. He said that you could only see certian parts of the shops and now he can walk all over. He is amazed that he is there!

Martin Truex Jr.:

• His sister got married on New Years Eve. He and Sherry went back home for that.
• Ricky asked him if he has been able to stay out of trouble this year at Daytona. (referring back to his trouble last year during testing). He laughed and said that he was able to stay out of trouble.
• Ricky asked if there was some place that he visited all the time and he said not really. He said that he was taknig Sherry out for Valentine's day but he's not telling where!! They laughed about that. He said that he wants to take her out without being mobed by the fans.

There were a few others that were there but they were sick so they didn't talk much. Casey Mears, Jeremy Mayfield and Kurt Busch were all sick. Hope that you enjoyed my post!

Congrats to me!!!!

I'm so happy that I have to tell everyone that will listen (or read lol). We had our kick off meeting for work. That is when they recognize people from last year. For the first time I was recognized. Yep my boss of all people gave me a $100 IOU. He still needs to get my gift card but still. He appreciated the fact that I moved across town when he needed me at another building and he appreciated me taking control of our Value Assurance Process binders. I'm so excited. I just had to share my excitement!!

Take Care!!

Quick note!

Ok so there is this story that broke last week about billboard signs around the Texas Motor Speedway. They have signs promoting the races this season. They have ones with Dale Jr., Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. So Kelley (Junior's sister and buisness manager) called the speedway president and asked that thier billboard get changed. Kelley and Junior are very respectful people. They still have friends and family that are at DEI and they respect the company that their dad built. This was the sign that was origonally put up.

Sorry but that is comical! The new sign is supposed to read Reason #88: New Car Smell! I can see why Kelley and Junior would want that down.

As for the NASCAR season it starts this week! Thursday is the drawing for the starting positions for the Budweiser Shootout. The Budweiser Shootout is Saturday night. Only 5 more days till the season starts. Man this has been a long off season.

Take care!!!