The Official Race Thread

[Little Whiskey]

Heyyy, at least I got the Hamiln part right.

Baby steps, my friend.

ya i think you said "Ham somthing. i know it had ham in it." well that doesn't count!!

[FavreChild]

Some rookie I did not know; I think his name had "Ham" in it. Hamlin, maybe? Gosh, I hope that's close.

Hey, I'm pretty proud of my memory skills. You will note that the above post was not edited to insert the correct name. I was just playing a little CYA in case I was wrong, that's all...

[Little Whiskey]

okay, what ever you say. you really know who won the race but can you tell me the number and sponser of the car??


anyway, you can have the next two weeks off. Michigan might be boring to the casual fan. Sometimes its a good race sometimes it is not, however roush cars usually dominate this track so McMurray should finish well. the following week is a road course. (see they don't just turn left) it can also be a boring race. However in three weeks it is Daytona. i expect full attention for the Pepsi 400!! I will expect a full recap on the following monday for that race. so mark your calander now. 7-1-06

come on zig, we only have two weeks left to get you a driver!!

[HarveyWallbangers]

No flash, just performance
By Lee Spencer - SportingNews

What can you say about a driver who is so damn dominant that NASCAR had to change its points system to protect the other competitors?

A lot when that driver is Matt Kenseth. Kenseth isn't flashy or flamboyant. He doesn't race to buy a bigger vacation house or a faster jet. He'd rather spend his down time in his native Wisconsin than on a St. Barths beach. He races for the sheer joy of competition. And, he races to win.

Kenseth practically coasted to the 2003 championship, topping the standings after a record 33 consecutive races and eventually finishing 90 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson. When NASCAR introduced the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup in 2004, Kenseth entered the postseason fifth and finished eighth, the third straight season Kenseth finished in the top 10.

Shame on the idiots who counted Kenseth out last season after he finished 42nd in the Daytona 500 and didn't finish two more of the first 12 races. Kenseth's No. 17 team dropped to 24th after 14 races, but Kenseth and the Killer Bees went on a tear in the next 14 races -- they won once and finished in the top five seven times and squeezed into the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.

But that run took its toll. A roller-coaster Chase performance -- six finishes in the top fives and three of 26th or worse -- resulted in a seventh-place finish.

The 2006 season has been different. He has improved his qualifying considerably in the last two seasons. This year, he has an average starting position of 15.4, and he has led laps in all but three races. After his Daytona dogfight with defending series champion Tony Stewart -- and 15th-place finish -- Kenseth has not been lower than third in points.

Much of the team's success comes from the core relationship between Kenseth and crew chief Robbie Reiser. Reiser's selflessness led him to step out from behind the wheel of his family's Busch ride in 1997 and plug Kenseth, a 25-year-old fellow Cheesehead, in the car. The combination is the longest tenured in the Nextel Cup garage and shows no signs of getting stale.

As with any marriage, Kenseth and Reiser have experienced their ups and downs, but their personal agendas never have outweighed their desire to race.

Their dedication to racing -- and each other -- is what separates this team from the rest of the field and what will make Kenseth a contender for many years.

[Little Whiskey]

Great Article Harv. Kenseth is often found still running some the local tracks around WI and out east on some of the weekends off. its kinda like seeing your fav Pro baseball player playing in your beer league softball game. He is a down to earth guy

[Little Whiskey]

Sorry for the all you nascar fans out in PR world. I have neglected my duties to write the race recap for michigan. But since i was unable to tune in i felt less than qualified to write the recap. I was hoping that FC didn't heed my advice and watched so she could have let us know what happend. but she didn't or did, i guess it depends how you look at it. the long and short of sunday's race at michigan was rain. Kahne won by beating Edwards out of the pits and the race was shorted due to rain. if you subscribe to the conspiracy theories you would buy into the fact that they called the race even though it only rained for 15-20 minutes. Kasey was sponsered by the movie "Click" which stars Adam Sandler, who "coincidently" was the Grand Marshal for the race.

Any way this week they travel to Sonoma, the first of two road courses. You had better be a true die hard to watch this week. I personally don't care for the road courses but i will try to make time between trips around the lake to tune in. If you are in Milwaukee both the Trucks and Busch cars race on the mile this weekend.

[Little Whiskey]

The first road course race of the season is over and it was a pretty good race. J. Gordon pretty much lead the whole damn thing. strongest car on the track. Terry Labonte finished third and if anyone but gordon restarted behind him, he might have ended up winning. terry decided to stay out instead of pitting the last time and ended up finishing on fumes. Tony stewart had a great bit of karma repayment. early in the race he decided that he was going to try and intimidate borris said, and in the end ended up finishing towards the back (29 i think) He is a little punk and needs to be put in his place. if nascar isn't going to do it a fellow driver has to. after he just about wrecked Borris he proceeds to flip him off as he passes.

Next week is the second race at daytona. make sure you check this race out. a great race for everyone new to Nascar. FC, your two week vacation is over, i will be looking foward to your recap after the fourth. remember they race on sat. night.

A non-nascar note. I was watching speed news and they were showing the highlites from the GT race in ohio. (similar racing to Grand Tourismo, the video game). A driver was forced into the grass and drove over a culvert, which launched his car into the air and landed nose first. His car proceeded to flip end over end multiple times. he ends up walking away. hard to believe.

[FavreChild]

LW, I have been OOC lately, but saw somethin' on the tele about your boy JG.

No, I have not been a good fan lately - not even close. But do make sure to send me a reminder about what I am supposed to watch on 4th of July weekend. I am clueless - but I will not break a promise. Just please remind me of what I am supposed to do....

[FavreChild]

Oh yeah....LW, this is for you. I did remember to "watch" the race, although I will not pretend I watched it through and through like a football game. First of all - and this is not an excuse - they kept interrupting and/or using a reduced screen size to break in with severe weather alerts here. So it was really hard to see the running order and other things going on sometimes. Secondly, what the hell is with all the commercials? Yeah, yeah, I know - NASCAR is a business. But they really need to get that split screen like Indy.

OK, so certainly everyone knows that Tony Stewart won by passing that Said guy with only a few laps to go (or NASCAR people know that, anyway). I am just reporting it to demonstrate that I saw it happen. But I think Stewart was a big favorite and let a good chunk of the race, if I am not mistaken. But the race basically ended under caution - I do not like that. It's very anti-climactic. I guess a lot of the fans didn't think so, though, 'cause it looked like a big celebration at the end. I guess that's what happens when you race at night and people can get all cranked up in the stands.

I remember there was a big crash with, I dunno, maybe seven laps to go? It took out five cars, including LW's boy Jeff Gordon - although he was in no way responsible for the crash. Was it my imagination, or were there some members of the crowd cheering when it became clear that the rainbow car was out? Or was I hearing LW from afar?

Um, let's see...what else? I think McMurray finished 7th or 8th. Before that last big crash, he was up to 4th or 5th, but the rest of the race he wasn't too high in the running order.

So, yeah...that's about all I have to say. Does that meet with your approval, Little Whiskey? What do I need to work on for next time?

What *IS* next time, by the way?

[Little Whiskey]

bravo...bravo...bravo. i am doing the golf clap while i am typing this. i am very impressed. however there is one little thing you need to work on...gordon is NOT my guy!!!! never has been....never will be!! it was probably me you heard cheering from the great north woods. I think i even woke my son up after that. my wife was not very happy, as i was dancing and shouting around the living room!! but the other two things that made me very happy was the fact that kenseth finished top 5 (he is showing that he is becoming a contender even on the restrictor plate tracks) but also that Johnson had trouble as well. Hated to see bobbie labonte involved, but way to help out the number 17 bobbie. Kenseth is currently 8 points behinde Jimmie for first place.

ya i know the commercials suck. it seems that fox is cramming more and more of them in to pay for the big contract they just signed for the nascar progamming. unlike other sports the race usually does not stop, so there is not a great time to put in a commercial. for instance they were at commercial when the Gordon wreck happened. then everyone pitted so they didn't even show a good replay. pissed me off. follow that up with the fact that my power went out with two laps to go (damn storms could wait another 5 minutes!!) and then to find out they finished under caution due to debris!!! the conspircy theorist are coming out for this one. from what i understand stewart was being challanged for the lead when the caution flag flew. and since they were on the last lap (leader took the white flag) the green white checker rule does not apply. however it should. no excuse to finish under caution. either you run the green white checkers, or else you race back to the finish on the last lap. simple as that. if gordon or busch would have won that race, we might have seen them showered with beer cans again!!

actually this race, imo, was kinda boring for a usual restrictor plate race and they never had the big wreck. that usually thins out the field a bit so you don't have a boris said finishing 4th. however, i was hoping he could have held stewart off for the win. I thought he should have at least gave him a little bump as he past, since the incident last week at infineon.

next week they travel to chicago. 1.5 oval very similar to Mich. and Vegas. could be good could be a blow out

[FavreChild]

Thanks, LW!

OF COURSE I know you hate Gordon - I'm just giving you the business.

Yes, I wish Said would have held on for the win, too. It was a crappy finish...but at least I SAW the finish. There you go.

[Little Whiskey]

OF COURSE I know you hate Gordon - I'm just giving you the business.

ya i know!! just trying to return your serve. so are you tuning in for chicago?? i believe they race on sunday this week. unfortunatly i will be driving near that hell hole on sunday. so i leaving early to avoid the traffic. but that means i will most likely miss the race.

[Fosco33]

I'm not a NASCAR fan but I did pay attention to this league about 5 years ago when I lived in S. Carolina for a summer.

So, I just read the race recap of Chicago. How the fuck can NASCAR consider itself a real sport if the officials basically turn their heads on straight up cheating (that could have killed someone)? Feels closer to WWF than the NFL, IMO.

If I were Kenseth and lost both points and roughly $200,000 in wages, I wouldn't just be looking for revenge during the next race - I'd be hunting the prick down - period.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I watched most of the race, and I was disappointed, but that was pretty much just racing. Kenseth has to get tougher though. These guys seem to not care if he's mad at them. Gordon and Stewart have both basically kicked him in the teeth in post-race interviews after wrecking him in a race. He's a great racer, but he needs to grow some balls. Gordon and Stewart are pip squeeks.

[Deputy Nutz]

I missed the race, what happened.