Nighttime is the right time in PHX!!!

This is the picture of the 1960 Daytona 500 winning car. It is Junior Johnson’s 1960 Chevy. Notice that it is actually a 1960 Chevy!!!! Back in those days, they actually used production cars and applied the roll bars and other safety equipment mandated by NASCAR in those years!! Granted, the safety equipment was extremely spartan compared to NASCAR 2008.

I took this picture back in February when I went to the 50th Daytona 500. There were many things set up out near the garage area in what is now known as “The Fan Zone”. There were a few other former winning cars on display there. If you ever go to Daytona, you MUST go in the Fan Zone!!!! You won’t regret it!

Now to talk about “Phoenix under the lights”. It was a very exciting and competive race all evening. A couple of the Hendrick boys, Dale Jr. and Jimmie Johnson in particular, were very dominating during the race. It appeared that JR was going to be the first Hendrick car to win a Cup race this season, but the handling went away in waning laps of the race.
Instead, Jimmie Johnson got his #48 Lowes Chevy in a postion to take the lead and hang on to it for the rest the race. Thus putting to rest the notion of “who will be the first Hendick’s car to win”??? Also putting to rest the question of “how come the Hendrick’s boys haven’t won a race yet?” The question is not why haven’t the Hendrick’s teams won, but look how all the rest of the race teams have caught up the Hendrick’s domination!!!

Also look how the Toyota teams have responded to last years bad results!! The Gibbs boys have had extremely strong runs in all of the races…..but just can’t seem to seal the deal (except for the “junior varment from Las Vegas” )!! I am sure the “The World’s Greatest Race Car Driver”, SMOKE, aka Tony Stewart, probably is getting a little restless, since at the present time he is not the best Gibbs driver!!! Get over it Tony!!!!!!

Well this week the Cup drivers have the week off. It will be a time for the teams to regroup and get prepared for this next long stretch of critical racing. First up is Talladega Superspeedway, one of my favorite tracks!!! I love to watch restrictor plate racing at Daytona and Talladega!!! It is like a swarm of bees looking for honey. Things seem to be mudane for most of the race, then somebody takes a swat at the swarm and all hell breaks loose!!!!!! Pieces and parts get strewn all over the racing surface!!!

Can’t wait to see who has their “plate” program together…..could this be the week that the Amp/National Guard/Mountain Dew # 88 brings it home??????? Stay tuned!!!!!!!

THE STANDINGS:

1. CAROLYN——————–55

2. LOUELLA———————73

3. KAREN———————–76

4. SCOTT———————–85

5. LEON————————-96

6. RICHARD——————–97

7. LYNETTE——————-109

8. JERRY———————-124

9. ZEE————————-128

JIM————————-128

11. CAROLE——————–158

12. EDIE————————187