The Winds of Fate

Race cars 004 

THE STORY LINES:

1.   JIMMIE JOHNSON WINS @ KANSAS:

2.   WALTRIP COULD ADD AMBROSE? (SceneDaily.com)

3.   ALMENDINGER IS OUT OF #84 NEXT WEEK: (NASCAR.com)

4.   STANTON BARRETT TO IRL: (SceneDaily.com)

5.   MIKE WALLACE TO DRIVE #33 FOR RCR @ TALLADEGA: (RCR PR)

6.   PAUL NEWMAN PASSES AWAY: (ABC News)

7.   PAUL MENARD MOVES TO YATES RACING: (AP)

8.   KYLE PETTY OUT OF #45? (Winston-Salem Journal)

9.   DEI STRUGGLING TO FIND SPONSORSHIP:

10.  ARMY MOVES TO #39 STEWART-HAAS CHEVY: (captainthunderracing.com)

“The three horse race” just distanced themselves a little further from the pack Sunday.  It appears the Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, and Greg Bifle teams are turning up the heat on the rest of the “Chasers”!!  Sunday they all, in their own way, showed dominance during the Kansas race.  It was an extremely exciting final three laps!!  With Johnson leading the race, Edwards made up about ten car lengths down the back stretch of the last lap.  Going into turn three Edwards drove it so deep and blew by Johnson by approximately 3 car lengths, but couldn’t keep his Ford off the outside retaining wall.  Edwards just hit it hard enough to slow his momentum and Johnson went back by him as they exited turn 4 heading to the finish line!!!  What a finish to the race!!!!

 

Several driver changes were announced or hinted.  A. J. Almendinger has been released from the #84 Red Bull Racing Toyota.  The team announced that Mike Skinner and Scott Speed will share ther ride for the rest of 2008.  Next year Scott Speed, the former Formula 1 and possibly new ARCA champ, will be the new pilot of that ride.  Paul Menard will take his Daddy’s money, Menard’s Home Improvement Stores, and leave DEI for Yates Racing.  Speaking of DEI, the Army sponsorship is leaving and moving over to the #39 Stewart-Haas Racing Ryan Newman Chevy.  That leaves DEI in a quandry over sponsorship money!!!  The #8 and #15  have no sponsorhip money, likewise the #01 has only a 12 race deal.  There is likely a change of driver for the #45 Petty Dodge.  It appears that there is a power stuggle going on in that organization!  VP of Operations, Robby Loomis, is intimating that Kyle Petty has driven his last race in the #45 Petty Dodge.  However, Kyle doesn’t seem to be going along with that decision!!  Lastly, there is a rumor flowing through the garage that Michael Waltrip Racing may be interested in adding Marcos Ambrose and his sponsor Little Debbie’s to his stable.

 

In conclusion, this reporter would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge the passing of Paul Newman.  Not only was Paul Newman an extrordinary actor, father, husband, entrepenuer, and philanthropist; he was an excellent race car driver in his own right and CART/IRL car owner.  To this reporter, there were several characters he portrayed that were memorable!  Newman played the title character in “Cool Hand Luke” and the phrase that resonates in my mind is “what we have here is a failure to communicate“!!!!!  His role in “The Hustler” and reprised again in “The Color of Money” were classic!!  Lastly his two pictures with Robert Redford, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, were classic Paul Newman!!!!Newman started the company, Newman’s Own, giving all the profits to charity!!! 

 

He was intrumental in starting “The Hole In The Wall Gang”, a non-profit camp for terminally ill children.  He gave to charity tens of millions of dollars in his latter years!  The Hole In Wall Gang idea was influential to Kyle and Patti Petty in forming THE VICTORY JUNCTION GANG CAMP.

Go rest high on that mountain, Paul Newman, your work here on earth in done!!

And Then There Was One!

108

STORY LINES FOR THIS WEEK:

1.  JOHNSON DOMINATES AT CALIFORNIA:

2.  WIN TOTALS; BUSCH-6, EDWARDS-6, JOHNSON-3:

3.  STREMME TO THE #12 PENSKE DODGE:

4. FRANCHITTI TO GANASSI IRL #10 TARGET TEAM:

5.  NASCAR NEW DRUG TESTING POLICY:

6.  UPS TO MOVE OVER TO #6 ROUSCH/FENWAY FORD:

7.  Jay Freye offered VP/Gen Mgr with Stewart-Haas Racing

8.  Richmond Entry List:    

 

IT IS CRUNCH TIME!!! 

 

It is one to go and the race teams that are on the bubble are REALLY feeling the presure to solidify their positions in the Chase.  One of the teams that is serving notice is the #48 Lowes team.  Jimmie Johnson and team thoroughly dominated the entire race at The Auto Club Speedway of Southern California, previously known as The California Speedway.  It appears that after Indy, they are hitting on all eight cylinders.  Johnson has been in the top five in almost every race since then, with the exception of one race that is.  Also the #99 Office Depot team is finding their stride once again like they did in the beginning of the season.  The runaway that the ol Las Vegas Wasel, commonly referred to as TLVW,  had going in the middle of the season has turned into a possible three horse race.  Although TLVW has had an unbelievable year in all three divisions of NASCAR, he has some serious competition just in time for the Chase.  For a while it looked like a foregone conclusion that TLVW would run away and hide with the championship, but both the #48 and #99 teams have come to life!!  That should make for some great racing, and good TV ratings I might add, for the Chase!  This reporter hopes that the championship is decided on the last lap at Homestead as it was with the very first season of the Chase.  That makes for great journalism and fantastic TV viewing!!!

 

There are a couple of sleeping giants that need to really have a great race at Richmond this Saturday night to secure their  place in the Chase.  Positons 6-14 in the NASCAR standings are still extremely tight and their finish at Richmond will either put them in or eliminate them from the Chase.  David Ragan, Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, and Kevin Harvick come to mind as teams that have to race the wheels off of their respective hot rods to get in the BIG SHOW!!!  Can we say PRESSURE?  The Rock and Roll 4oo @ Richmond International Raceway this Saturday night ought to be one whale of a show with may storylines unfolding. 

 

Richmond is short track on steroids!  It has all excitement of a short track race with high speed dessert!!  There is bumping and banging along side with side-by-side racing.    There is a special area there for the drivers to leave their  feelings and their anger before they get into the pitts!!!  But make no mistake, there will be drivers with their feelings hurt and their tempers a flaring when they leave the track Saturday night!!!That is exactly why it is a true fan delight and there won’t be an empty seat at the Henrico County Fairgrounds!!!   

 

A most news worthy items came of NASCAR out this week.  NASCAR is going to finally change their drug testing policy!!  It is about time that they came to the 21st century!  Especially inlght of Tyler Walker’s confession of SHOOTING UP HEROIN  before a few races in the truck series last year!!!  NASCAR CAN NOT HAVE THAT BEHAVIOR IN A SPORT  WHERE A MISTAKE CAN KILL YOU AS WELL AS THOSE AROUND YOU!!!!! 

 

Some of you folks are possibly trying to corelate the picture I have chosen to NASCAR and the race at California Sunday.  Well, the picture is of Times Square in NYC and the banquet at the end of the season is at The Waldorf-Astoria in NYC.  Only the top twelve will see these sights, since they are the only invitees to the banquet.  So you see, it is evey Cup driver’s desire to see the sights of NYC in December!!!

 

Unfortunately I will be “in the unfriendly skies” flying to Seattle Saturday evening, so I will miss the race live.  Thank God for DVR’s!!!!!!