|| *Comments on the 2012 Tums Fast Relief 500:* View the most recent comment <#460> | Post a comment <#post> 1. David posted: 10.27.2012 - 9:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well, they sure took their sweet time, didn't they? Great run for Vickers. 2. ch posted: 10.27.2012 - 10:48 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Using 2013 Qualifying rules (top 36 fastest then by owner's points)... 36th - #38 Gilliland (Last to time in on speed) 37th - #93 Kvapil (28th in Owner's Points) 38th - #36 Blaney (35th in Owner's Points) 39th - #33 Leicht (37th in Owner's Points) 40th - #30 Stremme (38th in Owner's Points) 41st - #87 Nemechek (42nd in Owner's Points) 42nd - #95 Speed (43rd in Owner's Points) 43rd - #19 Bliss (45th in Owner's Points) DNQ - #37 Yeley (50th in Owner's Points) DNQ - #91 Sorenson (51st in Owner's Points) So to recap, under the 2013 system, Mike Bliss and the #19 Humphrey Smith Racing team would have made the race while Reed Sorenson and the #91 Humphrey Smith Racing team would not have. 3. ch posted: 10.27.2012 - 10:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sorry, it would be Riggs and the #23 who would start 36th. He had the same time as Gilliland, but is lower in owner's points so Gilliland would start ahead of him. 4. cjs3872 posted: 10.27.2012 - 11:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well, as bad as things look for Brad Keselowski, there's one good thing about him qualifying so far back in the field, and that is that his pit stall is somewhere near those that a number of the start-and-parks are, as well as those that may not be competitve among those that are running the full race, so that he may not have that hard a time getting in and out of the pits. After all, if he's pitting in the vicinityof teams that have no intention of making pit stops and running all day, that might be better for Brad than qualifying around 15th-20th might have been, so qualifying 32nd may actually have been a blessing in disguise for him. That being said, he sure put himself at a deficit qualifying 32nd, though ex-teammate Kurt Busch once won this race from 36th starting position (in 2002), but with Jimmie Johnson starting from the pole (oddly, though his race record is great at Martinsville, his overall qualifying record isn't actually that special) and Denny Hamlin also starting in the top five, this is predictibly going to be a tough race for Brad. Also, Martinsville is not the type of track Brad figures to do well at, because of his aggressive style, which usually works against a driver like Brad at Martinsville. Brad's probably going to lose the point lead, and hopefully doesn't fall further behind Johnson than he leads by now. See, one reason why Hendrick Motorsports, and particuarly Johnson, keeps winning the championship under the Chase format, is because most of their chief competition treats races like Martinsville and Loudon as "throw-away" races, races they just try to get through without getting too bad a finish, while Hendrick's teams try to win. Why do you think Roush has not been able to win the championship in years he should have (2008, 2011)? A good reason is because he has never put a great deal of emphasis on his short track program because of how little it means in terms of the championship, especially now since there's just one short track in the Chase. I do not know how good Matt Kenseth is going to run tomorroow (he qualified sixth), but I can almost guarantee he'll run better there with Gibbs than he ever did with Roush. Just look at Mark Martin. His best Martinsville cars came when he drove the #5 for Hendrick Motorsports, because Hendrick Motorsports actually treats all races with the same focus, unlike Roush or even Penske. The reason is simple. Every race pays the same amount of points, whether it's Martinsville, the road courses, or the Daytona 500, and as long as other teams treat certain races in the Chase as throw-aways (such as Martinsvile), Hendrick is always going to be the favorites, meaning Jimmie Johnson will always be the favorite because Johnson is Hendrick's only championship driver, and the only one Hendrick Motorsports wants to win championships. 5. NicoRosbergFan posted: 10.27.2012 - 11:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Penske actually has a lot of short track focus. Brad just sucks here and at Richmond, so you can't tell. 6. cjs3872 posted: 10.27.2012 - 1:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) NicoRosbergFan, where does it say in my last post that Penske treated Martinsville or the short tracks as throw-away races? I said that most of Hendrick's chief competition treated certain races as throw-away races, while Hendrick treats all races the same way. In the case of Roush, those races would be the short track races, for Stewart-Haas, those would be the races on the concrete tracks, Bristol and Dover. If there was such a thing for Penske, which I don't think there is, but if there was a category of track that I believe Penske would treat in the "throw-away" category, it would be the restrictor plate races, though Penske won one of them this year. Roush treated them as throw-aways for years, but dominated on them this year. It's no surprise that Hendrick dominates, because I believe he modeled his organization after Roger Penske's IndyCar operation, which was racing's dominant team when Hendrick started in 1984, and there are a lot of similarities between the two. And as for your statement abot how Brad doesn't run well at Martinsville, I mentioned that in my last post, and just as importantly, why he doesn't do well. He's a very aggressive driver, and agressive drivers do not usually fare well at Martinsville because of the style of track that is, aggressiveness generally works against you. At Martinsville, you have to be conservative, patient, intelligent, and race only when you have to. Most of Martinsville's all-time winners fit this mold. After all, the all-time winners at Martinsville are Richard Petty (15 wins), Darrell Waltrip (11), Jeff Gordon and Rusty Wallace (7 each), and Fred Lorenzen, Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, and Jimmie Johnson (6 each). Of those drivers, only Wallace, Earnhardt, and Yarborough can be classified as aggressive drivers, and even they raced more intelligently as the years went on. All the others were known as conservative, patient, and intelligent drivers, rather than aggressive drivers. It is for that reason why I think that we may see Matt Kenseth gracing victory lane in the next 2-3 years for Joe Gibbs, because he fits the profile of the kind of driver that typically does well at Martinsville, and that Joe Gibbs, unlike Jack Roush, puts a great deal of emphasis on Martinsville, in no small part, due to the fact that I believe it's the track closest to Washington (where he's probably the most beloved sports icon) if Dover isn't, and always has put a lot of emphasis on Martinsville for that reason. 7. Bronco posted: 10.27.2012 - 1:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Vickers has swept all the three practices, and when you combine that with his front row start for tomorrow, it makes him a legit threat to win the same race where he caused 5 cautions last year. "Why do you think Roush has not been able to win the championship in years he should have (2008, 2011)?" In 2008 Carl scored top 5s at both Loudon and Martinsville so they weren't the cause of him losing the championship, rather it was his crash at Talladega and ignition problem at Charlotte. Last year however Martinsville was essentially the turning point of the chase since Tony came back from almost going a lap down to win the race while Carl rallied just to finish 9th. 8. David posted: 10.27.2012 - 1:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Vickers has swept all the three practices, and when you combine that with his front row start for tomorrow, it makes him a legit threat to win the same race where he caused 5 cautions last year." What a difference a year makes... 9. cjs3872 posted: 10.27.2012 - 3:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bronco, that may have to do more with the driver than the car. Edwards might have finished up there in spite of his car and his team's outlook on Martinsville, rather than because of his car. Remember that Jamie McMurray was a teammate then, and he did run well at Martinsville, but that apathy toward Martinsville may really have shown since McMurray left. And I dont think Vickers will be a threat to win for one reason, and that was evidence at Bristol. Remember that when he battled Carl Edwards for the lead late, he almost got clear of him, but was afraid to move up, but when Denny Hamlin got that same opportunity a few laps later, he slammed the door in Edwards' face. Had Vickers ben a little more aggressive, he might have won that race, and not Hamlin. I don't think Vickers will take a chance, because of what happened at Martinsville last year. That's why he was so passive in trying to pass Edwards, and you know others will, at some point, take advantage of that in some way. Vickers may finish in the top five, but I don't think he'll take the necessary chance to win that a full-time driver will. 10. Paul posted: 10.27.2012 - 3:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) cjs, don't forget that aside from Mark Martin, McMurray is the only Roush driver to come close to winning a road course, when he was leading late at Sonoma '07 before running out of fuel with a couple laps to go. Like the paper clip-shaped tracks, the road courses are another type of track that Roush puts on the backburner. 11. Paul posted: 10.27.2012 - 3:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And another thing about Roush's road course program, take a look at Kurt Busch. He was irrelevant on the road courses while at Roush. Then when he joined Penske, he won a Nationwide race at Watkins Glen in '06 and '11, finished 2nd at Watkins Glen in the '10 Cup race, and won at Sonoma last year as well. Heck, he had his best run of 2012 at Sonoma this year driving for the unsponsored Phoenix Racing team. I think Kurt's post-Roush road course record shows that he is capable of winning on the road courses, but due to Roush's lack of attention towards his road course program, wasn't able to show his skills during his Roush years. Matt Kenseth doesn't have a great road course record, but I wouldn't be surprised if he has better runs on the road courses next year at JGR. 12. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.27.2012 - 3:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I shouldn't post this as I am a major jinx to teams I follow, but I actually have a good feeling about tomorrow for the 2 car. All the media hype all week is about how JJ has 6 wins here and 1800 laps led while Denny has 4 wins and 1100 laps led while Brad has a best finish of 9th and has led 2 measley laps here. This was to be the weekend where they pass Brad who subsequently crumbles under the pressure of his first Cup title fight. Then qualifying happens. JJ, the "immune to pressure" guy, the 5 time champ wins the pole and Denny, the guy who "knows how to win the title non" since he has already lost one also qualifies up front. Meanwhile, poor Brad qualifies a lowly 32nd. Everything is going to script so far, isn't it? 13. murb posted: 10.27.2012 - 3:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Vickers is looking like a completely different driver this time around. He seriously has a shot to win tomorrow. Good points about Roush's "throw away races" guys. I too agree that it is one of the reasons that he hasn't won a championship since 2004. Remember, they actually used to be pretty good on short tracks. Obviously, it helped that they had someone like Kurt Busch, who was a great short track driver, but really, the whole organization seemed much much better on the short tracks overall in the 1990s and early 2000s. Even Kenseth did well, as he won at Phoenix and Richmond in 2002 (and he could have won at Loudon in July of that year), and he even ran decent in some of the Martinsville races in those years. And before that, Jeff Burton was great on the short flat tracks as he racked up several wins at Loudon, Martinsville, and Richmond. So it seems to me like ever since they've lost key guys like Mark, Burton, and Kurt, they've sort of just given up on the short tracks and have treated them like throwaways. In my opinion, I think they just don't put effort into them because the guys they've had the past few years (Carl, Biffle, and Ragan) aren't good short track racers. And because of that, Kenseth has suffered too, even though he has shown in the past that he can be pretty good on those types of tracks. I too expect Kenseth to have great short track success next year once he climbs into that 20 car, especially considering that his two new teammates are two of the top five short track guys in Nascar. 14. Paul posted: 10.27.2012 - 3:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Tempers flaring at Martinsville following the Truck race. Crafton's mad at Hamlin, Brian Scott's mad at Piquet, Piquet and Coulter shake hands after a great side-by-side battle for 2nd. I love it! 15. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.27.2012 - 3:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I wonder if we will have another screwy finish similar to what happened here six months ago. 16. 18fan posted: 10.27.2012 - 3:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) That was some great, vintage Martinsville racing at the end of the Truck race. 17. Red posted: 10.27.2012 - 4:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Stat of the week: Kevin Harvick has finished between 10th and 16th in 84% (16/19) of his starts since the beginning of June. I know RCR takes pride in consistent mediocrity, but even by their standards that's pretty ridiculous. In the Chase, Kevin has been even more lifelessly repetitive, with finishes of 12th, 11th, 13th, 11th, 16th, 11th. RCR is undoubtedly the dullest team in NASCAR, and possibly in all of professional sports. Are they even trying to win races? Sure doesn't seem like it. 18. 12345Dude posted: 10.27.2012 - 4:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Amazing Truck Race. We need more tracks like this. We need more tracks like this. NASCAR has finally learned this....12 years too late. I guess the nationwide and truck schedules are going to be full with different kinds of tracks. Including a lot of short tracks and it looks like they will be running at Eldora. 12 Years Too Late NASCAR. 19. Mr X posted: 10.27.2012 - 4:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) TGIM!! (Thank God its Martinsville) I've been a bit busy in recent weeks to make posts, just been trying to keep up with the comments and races. Anyway here are my up to date points standings as of Kansas, the top 15 without the chase, and the top 13 with it. Top 15 as of KS-Race #32 without Chase Driver-Points Total-Bonus Points-(Difference) 1. Jimmie Johnson-35834-790-(Leader) 2. Brad Keselowski-35157-389-(-677) 3. Greg Biffle-34149-413-(-1685) 4. Matt Kenseth-34076-368-(-1758) 5. Denny Hamlin-33954-642-(-1880) 6. Clint Bowyer-33675-195-(-2159) 7. Martin Truex Jr.-33000-252-(-2834) 8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.-32015-275-(-3819) 9. Kasey Kahne-31578-130-(-4256) 10. Tony Stewart-31545-281-(-4289) 11. Kevin Harvick-31432-128-(-4402) 12. Jeff Gordon-30454-202-(-5380) 13. Kyle Busch-30370-594-(-5464) 14. Carl Edwards-27986-106-(-7848) 15. Ryan Newman-27829-9-(-8005) Top 13 as of KS-Race #32 with Chase Driver-Points Total-Bonus Points-(Difference) 1. Brad Keselowski-48007-127-(Leader) 2. Jimmie Johnson-47734-194-(-273) 3. Denny Hamlin-47221-145-(-786) 4. Clint Bowyer-46977-29-(-1030) 5. Kasey Kahne-46813-9-(-1194) 6. Martin Truex Jr.-46448-0-(-1559) 7. Matt Kenseth-46201-81-(-1806) 8. Tony Stewart-46136-24-(-1871) 9. Kyle Busch-46041-161-(-1966) 10. Kevin Harvick-45731-11-(-2276) 11. Greg Biffle-45699-51-(-2308) 12. Dale Earnhardt Jr.-43848-16-(-4159) 13. Jeff Gordon-30454-202-(-17553) Keep in mind that under this system Jeff missed the chase and Kyle made it in. All of the bonus points you see under the chase standings are after the six chase races, with the exception of Jeff Gordon. If Jeff made the chase as the 2nd Wild Card in 12th he would be sitting 7th in points currently with 46281-13-(-1726). If Kyle missed the chase he would be sitting 13th with 30370-594-(-17637). For next year I am possibly planning to offer 50 more bonus points based on fastest laps during the race. Now that NASCAR shows loop data they show which driver set the fastest lap every time, and they show which drivers ran how many fastest laps during the race. This would give some more added incentive to run as hard as you can. You would simply take the number of fastest laps a driver ran divided by the number of laps in the race multiplied by 50. For example in this race last year Jeff Gordon set the fastest time on 62 seperate laps of the 500 that were run. 62/500*50=6.2 bonus points. This would increase the max point total to 1800 from 1750. 20. RCRandPenskeGuy posted: 10.27.2012 - 5:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) All right Brad and Paul, if there was ever a time to have something good up your sleeve in terms of pit stategy, this would be it!! This will be the most I am looking forward to when it comes to watching a Chase race. Martinsville hasn't changed over the years. *nostalgic feeling* I look for Vickers to have another strong race. That #55 team has got it hooked up on the short tracks this year. He won't win, but anything has to be am improvement over how he drove here last year (probably the worst race I've seen anyone drive, including Geoff Bodine's 4 spins at Loudon in '97 and Brad K at Sonoma 2010). 21. Paul posted: 10.27.2012 - 5:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Just a heads up to anyone watching the race on TV tomorrow, there WILL be a lot of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. mentions throughout the race tomorrow. If you're like me and don't care to get frequent updates on the returning driver, I recommend you avoid watching the pre-race show and tune in to MRN Radio to drown out the TV. 22. cjs3872 posted: 10.27.2012 - 6:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul, the irony was that, if anyone had a right to be mad at Piquet, it was Joey Coulter, because of how they beat and banged on each other the last three or four laps for second place, but not only were they semingly not mad at each other, they actually congratulated each other on their finishes in a display of sportsmanship and respect that is reminiscent of the way it used to be, not the way it is now. On the other hand, Brian Scott was mad at Piquet for doing the same thing, but other than overdriving the corner when he made those divebomb passes, Nelson Piquet, Jr. to me, did absolutely nothing wrong. He didn't run over the guys from behind, he tried to pass them by going AROUND them. Sure he overdrove the corners, but I didn't see anything wrong in that, and in fact, Piquet brought life to an otherwise lifeless race. Scott's actions of half-spinning Piquet on pit road is another example of why he's losing his ride with Joe Gibbs Racing, because he's upset over how he was raced (wah, wah), when he's done the same thing many times. And of course, it difficult to count high enough the number of cars he's crashed needlessly, so he's the last person that should be upset at anyone else's driving. And Red, there's two points to your statement about RCR. First, their equipment and team is just not competitve enough to run with the front runners, and having Jeff Burton and Paul Menard as teammates simply is not helping, because neither is able to give Harvick what he needs, despite how well all three Childress cars are running this weekend, especially Burton, who will start in the second row. That's why Childress wanted to hire Kurt Busch to drive a fourth car, because Childress knows Busch is capable of giving him what Burton and Menard can not. Remember that's what was holding Busch back at Penske for a number of years, nobody capable of running well enough to be of any true assistance. Also, I still think that Childress is not really emphasizing his Cup effort, because he's paying more attention to the efforts of his grandsons, which is working. In turn, his Nationwide and Truck Series teams have really benefitted. Austin Dillon been in the championship hunt in the Nationwide Series until last week, when I think we could effectively eliminate him from the hunt, and Elliott Sadler is still leading the points in that series. And Ty was leading the Truck Series until his problems virtually haded the championship to James Buescher. In fact, at the time he had his problem, Dillon had a 12-point lead with the trucks running as they were. But now, barring a disaster, the Truck Series title was effectively decided today, with James Buescher gaining a 21-point lead, and as well as he runs at the 1.5 mile tracks, he could conceiveably clinch the championship a race early. All he would need is a lead of 42 points after Phoenix, which is doable, though not likely. And of course, if this weekend continues as it has been going, the Cup championship could also be decided. If Jimmie Johnson wins and Brad Keselowski has as bad a day tomorow as Ty Dillon had today, I think it will be time to call the engraver to engrave Johnson's name in the trophy a sixth time, though there will be no early clinching scenarios in the Cup series. In fact, if Johnson gains maximum points and Keselowski finishes 25th, which could easily happen the way Keselowski's going this weekend, though I don't think it will, Johnson would have a lead of over 20 points on Keselowski and probably Hamlin, as well, which would effectively wrap up the title. If Johnson gets maximum points the fewest he'll lead Hamlin by is 17 points, and that margin may be over 20, as well, which is half a race, if not slightly over half a race with the start-and-parks taken into account. 23. David posted: 10.27.2012 - 6:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "He's a very aggressive driver, and agressive drivers do not usually fare well at Martinsville because of the style of track that is, aggressiveness generally works against you. At Martinsville, you have to be conservative, patient, intelligent, and race only when you have to." "And I dont think Vickers will be a threat to win for one reason, and that was evidence at Bristol. Remember that when he battled Carl Edwards for the lead late, he almost got clear of him, but was afraid to move up, but when Denny Hamlin got that same opportunity a few laps later, he slammed the door in Edwards' face. Had Vickers ben a little more aggressive, he might have won that race, and not Hamlin. I don't think Vickers will take a chance, because of what happened at Martinsville last year. That's why he was so passive in trying to pass Edwards, and you know others will, at some point, take advantage of that in some way. Vickers may finish in the top five, but I don't think he'll take the necessary chance to win that a full-time driver will." Uh, cjs, I respect you as a poster, but I think you just contradicted yourself. 24. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.27.2012 - 6:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Glad I'll be at the race so I can avoid the TV gushing over Jr. I just have to deal with his annoying fans cheering like hell everytime he laps an S&P. 25. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.27.2012 - 6:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Feeling even better about tomorrow. Cjs, who has counted Gordon out of the cha$e at every step, is counting Brad out. I'm only half serious, love ya dude! 26. Spen posted: 10.27.2012 - 6:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not really a contradiction. He did say "and race only when you *have* to." Meaning, don't wreck yourself for 13th on lap 2, but when your fighting for the lead near the end of a race, go all out. 27. cjs3872 posted: 10.27.2012 - 7:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) David, what I was saying was that Brian Vickers, if he does the same thing in a batle for the lead as he did at Bristol, would be too passive in order to win. I didn't contradcit myself, because if he runs a conservative race, which he certainly can from the front row, may very well be in contention to win. I never said he wouldn't be in contention. What I said, or implied, was that Vickers would probably not do what it takes in order to win, which is why I said he wouldn't win. And DSFF, I was saying that, if the weekend continues the way it has been going, Jimmie Johnson could not only take the point lead, but also lock up the championship for all intents and purposes with a maximum point day, just as James Buescher may have done in the Truck Series today, going from a 1-point deficit to a 21-point lead, and never did anything special to do it, but rather benefited from another's problem. Johnson could do the same tomorrow. But then there's one other possibility, and that is any potential factor this storm coming up the Atlantic coast may be in this race, because while Snady is out to sea, it's so big that it might impact the race, though I don't believe it's forecast to at this time. But if it makes an unexpected jog west (which I hope it doesn't do since I'm in Baltimore), it could impact the race. 28. David posted: 10.27.2012 - 7:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Of course I'm wrong again. It always happens that way. 29. BON GORDON posted: 10.27.2012 - 8:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Vickers will be strong, Johnson will lead laps, Hamlin will emerge as a Top contender, hell even Dale Jr. will be fast tomorrow, but in the end after seven years of near misses and disappointments Jeff Gordon will win his 8th career race at Martinsville. I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach. Everyone better look out because the Jeff Gordon of old WILL emerge tomorrow. It's his last best chance to win and he knows it. 30. murb posted: 10.27.2012 - 8:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah, I'm not counting Brad out yet. He and Wolfe have been incredible at finding their way to the front after mediocre qualifying runs. I'm expecting them to do the same tomorrow, just as long as they don't get caught up in someone else's mess in the early laps (I bet Brad is thanking his lucky stars that GoDaddy Girl isn't racing this weekend, lol). Sounds like it was a good Truck race. I probably should have watched it. I've just really been uninterested in NNS and Trucks as of late. Cup has been the only thing I've been watching. Brian Scott makes an ass of himself again? Unbelievable. No, wait. Believable. Also, Piquet is a future Cup star just as long as he leaves Turner, who will either be a minor league team forever or will be gone from the sport entirely within five years. The perfect place for Piquet I think would be Hendrick/JRM. Let's face it, Cole Whitt really isn't looking like anything more than a Kevin Grubb/Lyndon Amick style career NNS-er. You could put Piquet in Whitt's car at JRM. And then, a few years down the line when Jeff Gordon is ready to retire, boom, you've got his replacement. 31. Paul posted: 10.27.2012 - 8:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I really don't see what the big deal is with Cole Whitt. In the 2010 K&N Pro Series East season, Cole had no wins and finished 4th in the points in a fully sponsored Red Bull car, while Darrell Wallace, Jr. drove an unsponsored non-Cup affiliated car to 2 wins and a 3rd place points finish. If he couldn't win when his cars were among the strongest in the field, I don't see how he's supposed to win when he's in JRM's outmatched Nationwide equipment. 32. cjs3872 posted: 10.27.2012 - 10:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I just looked at the pit road map on Jayski's site, and it's just as I suspected. Brad Keselowski caught a big break by qualifying 32nd, because he's pitted around a few start-and-parks, as well as other non-competitve cars, such as the #32 and #34 cars, and possibly the #47, as well. Ryan Newman caught a similar break, though he selected to pit in that area, which is just by the start-finish line. That means that, if he runs better than he's practiced and gets into contention, Keselowski's not going to have as much trouble getting in and/or out of his pits. Certainly from that standpoint, things could be a lot worse in reagrds to pit selection from his 32nd qualifying position. 33. Dave #38 Fan posted: 10.27.2012 - 10:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) vickers could make things interesting for the chase drivers. they're racing for points, and after last year's debacle here, vickers knows that a win will be the only thing that will clear his name. 34. Paul posted: 10.27.2012 - 11:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) cjs, that's a good point about pit selection. I think a lot of people overlook the fact that the better you qualify, the better chance you have of getting a good pit box, such as ones with openings in front of or behind it. Geoff Bodine was asked in an interview about a year ago whether starting positions matter, and he said that they do, especially on the short tracks, because the better you qualify, the earlier you get to choose your pit box. As for Brian Vickers' Martinsville debacle last fall, that's all in the past. The fact is is that every driver if they're in the sport long enough has a race where they're running into people and "rattling cages" left and right. Jeff Gordon had one at Sonoma '10; Jimmie Johnson had one at Talladega '05; Juan Pablo Montoya had one at Sonoma '11; half the field at Bristol '02 and Richmond last fall; heck, listening to the radio transmissions, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was upsetting a lot of drivers at Martinsville last fall, but it wasn't talked about because, well...he's the cash cow of NASCAR. Everyone got a good laugh out of it and the whole "Vickernism" thing (myself included), but after seeing how clean he's raced this season (not to mention his lack of aggression that may have prevented him from passing Carl Edwards at Bristol), Martinsville '11 is a distant memory. 35. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 12:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "(not to mention his lack of aggression that may have prevented him from passing Carl Edwards at Bristol)" Too late. It's already been mentioned. I can't wait for tomorrow. Incidentally, by David Smith's PEER metric, Brian Vickers has a 0.219 rating at Martinsville. 36. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 12:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) While I'm at it, I may as well post the Martinsville PEERs for the 12 Chasers. Brad Keselowski - 2.200 Jimmie Johnson - 6.864 Denny Hamlin - 7.045 Clint Bowyer - 2.273 Kasey Kahne - -0.455 Martin Truex, Jr. - 1.136 Tony Stewart - 2.000 Jeff Gordon - 5.182 Matt Kenseth - 1.523 Kevin Harvick - 3.023 Greg Biffle - 0.091 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. - 3.591 37. cjs3872 posted: 10.28.2012 - 12:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) But Paul, the irony about the whole pit selection thing is that it could work in reverse for Brad Keselowski. Because he qualified so poorly, he could end up getting a very good pit stall unintentionally because he's pitting around a number of the start-and-parks, as well as other cars that figure to be uncompetitive, such as the #32 and #34 cars, and possibly the #47, though the #47 team have been competitve at times on the short tracks. In other words, Brad may end up profiting because he qualified so poorly because the other cars around him, in terms of pit stall location, may not be in the race for very long, or may not be on the lead lap in the second half of the race, where as Brad, as poorly as he's run all weekend, could still be on the lead lap in the second half of the race. Now whether or not he'll be able to take advantage of such a potential break remains to be seen. 38. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 1:09 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) That's true cjs, but you also have to remember that there were very few, if any, start-and-park cars during Geoff Bodine's career. Maybe when he first started out in the early '80s there were because the depth of talent was very small at that time; not that it would have mattered since he was just getting started in Cup and even in his first few years at Hendrick, was never a serious title contender like Brad is. This whole "qualify bad and select a pit box surrounded by start-and-park and mediocre cars" situation that Brad stumbled into I think is more the exception and not the rule. Also, he was 13th in final practice, slower than 7 of the 11 other Chase drivers. His pit selection may end up working out for him because of the lack of competitive cars around him, but unless he can get his car up to speed, which I think he can, his pit stall doesn't do him much good. 39. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 1:18 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) During the Truck race today, did anybody else think Scott Riggs looked a lot like Jeff Gordon out on the race track today? I kind of mentioned this on the Truck Series race page, as well as on a YouTube video showing post-race interviews. The way that he started mid-pack in a truck that wasn't very good, made constant adjustments to the truck all race long to make it better and put himself in position for a good top 10 finish, laid back on restarts to avoid rubbing fenders with anyone, and let his competition beat themselves (Dillon, Harvick, Peters) and took full advantage of it all reminded me of the way Gordon does things. He didn't do anything to cost himself a good finish, he didn't race anybody too hard if they were faster than him and risk beating their trucks up, and he took full advantage of other drivers' misfortunes to score a 5th place finish in his first full race since last November, for a team that had never scored a top 10 in a non-restrictor plate race (I know the Truck Series doesn't use restrictor plates, but for all intents and purposes, Daytona and Talladega are "restrictor plate tracks"). And because of that, it reminded me of the way Gordon drives, albeit in better equipment and against stronger competition. 40. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 1:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not to mention the fact that like Gordon, Riggs was very calm in his post-race interview and thanked his team and sponsors, then let out his ecstatic emotions over his Twitter and FaceBook pages. 41. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Is anybody watching Vettel work on his third consecutive flag-flag win? This would be the second time Vettel has won 4 straight Grand Prix,the other being when he won the last 2 races of 2010 and the first 2 of 2011. 42. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:16 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I was pleased to see Gordon was 4th,2nd and 3rd in practice, but i'm a bit perplexed as to why Vickers is the dominant car this weekend. 43. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:29 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Burton qualified Top 5 for the first time since last year's World 600. 44. Mr X posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:35 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "41. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.12 - 6:11 am Is anybody watching Vettel work on his third consecutive flag-flag win? This would be the second time Vettel has won 4 straight Grand Prix,the other being when he won the last 2 races of 2010 and the first 2 of 2011." Yep, I've stayed up till 6:30am to watch the amazing Sebastian Vettel become the first driver since Ayrton Senna in 1989 to win three straight races leading wire to wire. Unfortunately for the rest of the competition Red Bull has everything locked up for the third year in a row I think, after losing the exhaust blown diffuser for 2012 Red Bull has once again developed a better car around the new rules and with Vettel at the helm are wiping the floor with everyone, which is somewhat depressing as the competition earlier this year was more exciting, but even more depressing as a fan of the iceman is the lack of straight line speed from the Lotus. 45. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Vettel is amazing, but put him behind the wheel of a car NOT designed by Adrian Newey and lets see what he's made of. Vettel's 2008 Monza win was behind the wheel of a Torro Rosso that was indeed a Adrian Newey designed and Red Bull supplied chassis. The real driving Genius is Alonso,but Alonso has been driving a 3rd rate car all year and is still only 13 points out of becoming the youngest Triple World Champ. 46. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Gordon said earlier this week that Bad Brad would prevail over Johnson and Hamlin for the title, adding that Brad K. doesn't crack under pressure and also noted that Brad had a performance at Kansas that was just as impressive as Jimmie J's comeback in that race. I find it very interesting that Gordon favors Brad so much. 47. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The weather is beautiful here. I was expecting a cold day, but it is perfect. 48. cjs3872 posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul, I think we're in agreement that Brad kind of sytumbled into his fortunate break as far as pit selection is concerned, but also while there weren't as many start-and-parks in Bodine's day, as those with very little money actually tried to run the distance and see where they finished, there still was a strategy in picking pits if you were down the qualifying list, because if you could pick a pit in the vicinity of cars that wouldn't be competitive, you could still get an edge. And of course, if I remember right, Brad ran the entire spring race making just three or four pit stops, so if the cautions fall just right, he could strategze his way up front, but all indications thus far say that his car may not be good enough to stay up there. And JG24FF, I think Jeff is speaking from his own experience that he thinks Brad might pull through, though I doubt it, considering that I expect Jimmie to have a double digit point lead after today's race, unless something goes wrong with his car. If something does happen and Brad keeps the point lead, I think he may very well pull through. But then again, we saw what happened two years ago when just the specter of Johnson and Knaus was enough to get Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick off their games. And isn't it ironic that just at the right time, Jimmie Johnson wins the pole, and just at the right time, Sebastian Vettel suddenly gets hot in arguably the most competitive season in F1 in decades. Call me a cynic, but I smell some foul play going on in F1, like more cheating on the part of the Red Bull F1 team. I think they've gotten to where they are, in no small part due to cheating in the last three years, and I think they're at it again. Virtually every other team has acused them of cheating, but nothing has ever been done about it, except for some rule changes, because like Ferrari, key members of that team have the top officials in their pocket. 49. cjs3872 posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sad news. With all the buzz about concussions in racing, I just learned from Jayski's site that 2-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin, one of the sport's most popular figures over the last 25 years, has something called Parkinsonism, which from what I read is a form of Parkinson's disease, the same thing from which Muhammad Ali suffers from as a result of all the blows to the head he took in a 20-year professional boxing career. Apparently it's not the full-blown Parkinson's, at least not yet, but the fact that Marlin, who only recently retired, is now suffering from a form of Parkinson's disease, should really be a numbing thought to those long-time fans of the sport, as well as the drivers and others in the sport, and a call to NASCAR to put forth more effort into the long-term dangers of multiple concussions. We know what the effects have been on boxers and football players. But Marlin's situation is one of the first of it's kind that I've heard of among racers. There have almost certainly been others that have suffered, or are suffering from the long-term effects of multiple concussions, but the news of Marlin's situation should ring LOUD bells for NASCAR to get a system in place to try to combat the concuission issue before it really gets serious. Sure there heve been other drivers that have had to retire due to head injuries, such as Bobby Allison, Ernie Irvan, Jerry Nadeau, and to a lesser degree, Ricky Craven, but this is one of the first instances that I can remember of the long-term effects of multiple concussions being felt by a name racing driver. Certainly Sam Ard and 1965 Daytona 500 winner Fred Lorenzen are going through their own battles, but I'm not certain those were, or are concussion-related. Lorenzen's might be because of age, as he may be having the onset of Alzheimer's disease, and Ard has been battling similar issues in recent years, but I can't say for sure that those are head injury-related. 50. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 12:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A noticeable number of Brad fans here, way more than before. C'Mon Brad. I want him to win this title so bad I can hardly stand it. Walking past the Sprint stage, they had the trophy on display. I just stared at it and dreamed. 51. NicoRosbergFan posted: 10.28.2012 - 12:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) To help, cjs, I am big-time follower of Fred. I'm even friends with him on Facebook. He has said that his illness IS the same kind that football players get-- concussion related. 52. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 12:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I just learned about Lorenzen yesterday on his driver page. It's a rotten shame. One of the main reasons for his initial retirement in 1967 was because of drivers like Fireball Roberts getting injured or killed. I always thought Lorenzen was underrated when compared to the likes of Roberts and Curtis Turner. 53. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 1:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "This is a crazy race. Anything can happen on these short tracks." -Clint Bowyer Funny he should say that... 54. Eric posted: 10.28.2012 - 1:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) cjs3872, Nascar should have really done something about concussions much earlier this year because Michael Waltrip in February of this year mentioned he suffered at least 10 concussions as a NASCAR Driver to USA Today. When Michael Waltrip admitted that, there should been a concern. NASCAR can't use the excuse Michael isn't well known on him.While Michael is not well known for his racing abilities as a cup driver outside of plate racing, he is a well known person in the cup garage thanks to him being on commercials, NASCAR shows and being a winning car owner in the cup series. 55. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution came out earlier for David Stremme blowing a right front. Denny Hamlin was caught speeding on pit road and gives up 3rd place. Paul Wolfe decided to just change left side tires to gain track position and because he noticed the left rear tire wore easier than the right side tires during practice. 56. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ESPN: "Let's constantly have College Football injury updates blaring in red and taking up half of the screen." 57. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution for David Gilliland. 58. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I've given up on BSPN. Their goal is to show as few cars as possible, and if it were up to them, only the 12 Chase drivers and maybe Kyle Busch would be in this race. I'm listening to MRN as they do a great job and watching the Panthers/Bears game. Caution out for David Gilliland blowing a right front. That's the second blown right front tire in this race and both times the drivers (Stremme and Gilliland) suffered minimal damage. 59. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "I'm listening to MRN as they do a great job and watching the Panthers/Bears game." Glad you're seeing it my way. MRN always does a great job. 60. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sounds like Jimmie's not happy with the way Vickers passed him. 61. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) lol, Jimmie is getting roughed up a little bit. He and Vickers hit about 5 times. 62. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sparks are flying between Vickers and Johnson. 63. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) David, I'm watching the Panthers game too! They actually look okay today. 64. joey2448 posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hey what's happened with Jeff Burton? He qualified fourth but he's running, like 25th... 65. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle Busch spins!!! 66. Smiff_2 posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Great racing so far! Why can't we come here 4 times a year? xD 67. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) My fault, JG24, I didn't make myself clear. I'm just listening to the race, and thrilled that Jeff Gordon is leading (but of course I expect him to). 68. BON GORDON posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) BAD call to stay out last time for the 24 team. However i thought a lot more drivers would have stayed out with him. Now he has to pit under this caution and lose valuable track position. Luckily hes got a great car. 69. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Gordon came into today's race only needing to lead 90 laps to surpass D.W for sixth all-time. 70. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kurt Busch, Bobby Labonte, and AJ Allmendinger are all having great runs inside the top 15. 71. Mr X posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Nice to see that the EGR cars are running well, and if Jeff Gordon leads 7 more laps today, which looks likely, he will have led 3500 laps at Martinsville. 72. 18fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 2:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Gordon's got the car to beat today. The question is how does Gustafson screw it up. 73. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Denny sped AGAIN? Ouch. 74. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Panthers are beating the Bears? I'm gonna have to go to Virginia every Sunday for the rest of the football season. 75. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes! The Panthers are kicking all the Bear ass!! 76. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Gordon was hearing a popping noise... Not again... 77. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Gordon has officially passed D.W for sixth in all-time laps led. 78. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kurt Busch's inevitable spin on the day. 79. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Top 10 before halfway. Just keep that nose clean. 80. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The technical teammates (Harvick and Busch) have gotten off to an awesome start here. Any regrets yet, Childress? 81. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Truex got black flagged for changing lanes too early. 82. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The last time we saw Clint Bowyer and Johnson and Gordon in close proximity here, it ended in disaster for all three. 83. Mr X posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think we may finally get a long run here. 84. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Bears have taken the lead. f**k. 85. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I take it most you guys aren't familiar with the midwest. Up here, they're not referred to as "the Bears", but rather "Da Bears". Remember that. Last year's Martinsville winner Tony Stewart just got lapped. 86. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well Paul, I live 20 minutes from David Pearson, so that should tell you that I'm a "Redneck" Southerner. 87. 18fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Gordon is falling back quickly. 88. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 3:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Gordon is as good as done. 89. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Could Gordon's engine be getting ready to fail? He said he heard a popping noise earlier... 90. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Gordon's car is just extremely loose. 91. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I don't know about that...looking at NASCAR.com's leaderboard, Gordon is running 3-4 MPH slower than everyone else on the track. 92. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Gordon's car is just extremely loose." I hope to dear heaven that that's the only problem. 93. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) No worries pals, as after the pit stop Gordon is back to form. 94. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Apparently Jeff Burton drifted up the track and almost hit the wall. 95. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bowyer stalled his car leaving his pit box. 96. joey2448 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DAAAA BEARS!!! 97. Mr X posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) For Gordon's sake this race better not go green to the finish. 98. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Gordon is complaining on the radio that he needs more rear grip. 99. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Denny is done!! 100. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Uh oh, Hamlin. 101. dimka11 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hamlin broke 102. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) He got it back under power. He had to switch batteries or something. I'm still not gonna count him out. 103. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Nope. He looks like he's done. 104. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Denny is done!!! 105. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Okay, now I'm gonna count him out. 106. New14 & 88Fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Something major's wrong with the 11, this will really hurt their championship chances. 107. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Why is the 11 stopping, then going? 108. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) He has some kind of weird electrical problem. Now he's brought the caution out because he stopped. Denny's title hopes=over 109. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Poor Poor Dennis and I do mean Dennis. 110. 18fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some battery problem is what the problem is with the 11. He is lucky he didn't get run over. 111. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Good for Gordon though, because his car is diabolically slow as compared to his earlier run. 112. New14 & 88Fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sounds like either an electrical issue or something power related, whatever it is Denny's day is done and his championship hopes aren't looking much better. 113. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The luckiest driver in Nascar history takes the lead through a pit stop once again. 114. Mr X posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) My main worry for Gordon was fuel mileage, but that is now off the table with a restart with just 100 to go. 115. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Now Denny's behind the wall. 116. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The good news is that Jimmie isn't nearly as good as Bowyer and Gordon are. And Brad is now in the top five too. 117. joey2448 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well there goes my pick to win....from here on out, it's all Jeff Gordon for me! GO 24!!! And Keselowski! Keep the points lead! 118. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This is the true meaning of irony. The very track that was to be Denny Hamlin's salvation, ended up being the place where his championship hopes vanished. 119. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Check that, Brad is in 9th. 120. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Harvick is having engine problems... 121. joey2448 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Seems the trend is that a driver loses points at a track where they're supposed to gain points.....Everyone thought Jimmie would win Dover, but it was Keselowski that won. Today everyone thought maybe Denny would win, but he's out.... 122. Mr X posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Richard Childress's organization is pathetic right now, he needs to get his priorities straight, and we're back to commercial. 123. Mr X posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I like the sound of Gordon vs Johnson. 124. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow, Tony Stewart is a couple of laps down in 27th. Quite a few of the Chasers are having bad days! 125. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jimmie Johnson spins Montoya...What the hell is wrong with Johnson? 126. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jimmie wrecks Montoya after almost wrecking himself with Mears. 127. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow! another horrible Johnson mistake. 128. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) lol, And Montoya will wreck you if you just barely rub up against him. There's no telling what he'll do if you full on wreck him. 129. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow, Bobby Labonte is still on the lead lap? 130. TeamPlayersBlue posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jimmie Johnson just had the balls to do what every single race leader this year should of done to MonToilet. 131. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Good to see Bad Brad being Bad Brad. 132. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Is Brad about to crack the Top 5? Did anybody give him a chance as such a good finish? 133. NicoRosbergFan posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And Hendrick probably threatening Jeff's career if he passes Johnson. 134. 18fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Harvick blows up. 135. Mr X posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Damn. 136. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Brad stays out!!!!! 137. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Two tires for Gordon!! 138. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Gordon is 25% company owner, his career can't be threatened. 139. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Could Keselowski WIN? 140. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 4:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This is gonna get intense. 141. joey2448 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Brad stays out and Jeff and Jimmie pit! Oh this is gonna be soooo good with guys coming up through the pack with fresh tires! I expect to see some awesome M'ville racing! Buckle down boys! 142. Dave #38 Fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 88 stayed out too. 143. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think Keselowski's about to steal another victory. 144. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ...Or not. 145. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Johnson wins and Gordon drops like a rock on the last restart. Why am I not shocked? 146. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Great runs for Aric Almirola and Bobby Labonte. 147. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Good to see Gordon get f**ked by all the stupid pointless cautions and outside line restarts. My god this race sucked the life out of my season. 148. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bobby Labonte Top 10 149. NicoRosbergFan posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Pure Bullshit from Hendrick Motorshits. Did anyone notice on that run around lap 450 that Jeff ran about 10 laps straight around 2 tenths faster than Johnson, and as soon as he caught Johnson, he magically couldn't get around him? 150. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not too excited about the result of this race. 151. NicoRosbergFan posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race proved to me that there is manipulation in favor of Johnson going on within that team because Jeff was so much faster than Jimmie the first 450 laps he should have won sleeping. 152. ledskynyrd193 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This has to be the first time I ever rooted for Kyle Busch there at the end... you suck johnson Johnson 153. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Johnson = Luckiest most fortunate driver in Cup history. Gordon = the most duped and unfortunate Champion of today's driver's. 154. Bronco posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Junior and Edwards were poised for top 10s before Sideways Sam did what he does best. Aric Almirola sweeps the top 10 at Martinsville and equals his best career finish. 155. BON GORDON posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah cause of course Gordon was stuck on the outside. Cautions yet again hurt Gordon. Im pissed as hell. He couldve at least got second but of course not. Another trash finish. This place owes Gordon. 156. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Can RCR just dump Jeff Burton in favor of Bobby Labonte? The guy just finished 9th driving for JTG Daugherty "Racing" while the other guy is running 25th in RCR equipment. 157. hyperacti posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This is another race that Jeff Gordon should've won. Sigh. 158. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 'This place owes Gordon." At least another two wins. 159. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) What really hurt Gordon is that Junior had a terrible restart right in front of him. I agree with Andy Petree, I don't know why so many cars, including Gordon, pitted on that last caution. What the hell does Gordon care? He's not going to win the championship, so why not go for the wins? Ugh. 160. Jarrett88fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Keselowski's gamble didn't hurt him as he finished in the same position he was running in before staying out. Still, Gordon had a better car than Johnson when his car looked like it rotated better through the center from about lap 430-475. Hamlin is finished and Bowyer lost points so it is a two man duel for the final three races. 161. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Gordon purposely puts himself in position to lose and fail so us RacingReference Gordon fans have something to bitch about. Today was worse than the spring race. 162. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow, they're actually interviewing Almirola! I was fully expecting them to skip him and interview just the Chase drivers. 163. Cooper posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) So proud of Brad Keselowski. What a performance. I've never seen him drive so hard. Brad made a great call to stay out. This championship is still in play and I hope the #48 team is ready to battle. 164. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Hamlin is finished and Bowyer lost points so it is a two man duel for the final three races." This will be fun. Just like last year. 165. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) So if Jimmie wins the title...will Keselowski's popularity skyrocket even further? 166. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "So if Jimmie wins the title...will Keselowski's popularity skyrocket even further?" Actually, I think it will only skyrocket if he wins the title. If he loses, he'll look just like Edwards, Harvick, and Hamlin as having tried and failed against the #48 team. But if he wins, he may become the most DESERVING popular driver because he would have beaten the "Legion of Doom" (my new nickname for team 48). 167. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well, that kind of sucks. I'm happy for Jimmie as a person, but I'm just so damn tired of seeing him win. I'm still going with Brad for the championship though. Overall, this is the first time this year that I've really seen the 48 outrace the 2. And like Brad said in his interview, they beat them at Chicago, so I think the 2 team will come out on top at Texas barring a problem. Tough break for Denny and the 11 team. Their championship bid is basically over. But I have to commend Denny for his handling of the situation. If it was a couple years ago, he would have been sulking. You could tell he was disappointed, but his whole "you just have to suck it up" mentality is a huge improvement. It's too bad Jeff got hosed on that last restart behind Jr. I still would have liked to have seen what would have happened if that caution for Harvick hadn't come out. Because I think Jeff could have won had it gone green. ARIC!!!! Great job again!!!! He deserves that top five after having the fastest car last week. If he keeps it up, I think he could be a surprise Chase contender next year. Certainly, they'll be playing third fiddle behind Roush and Penske. But he's getting better and better with each race. 168. 10andJoe posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) NRF - The conspiracy board, is thataway. 169. Jarrett88fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "I agree with Andy Petree, I don't know why so many cars, including Gordon, pitted on that last caution." Paul, it is because the 48 team was the pied piper by virtue of being the leader and whatever they did would dictate the actions of the rest of the field. Baring a repeat performance of the 2009 Texas November race for the 48, they are going to finish 2nd-5th at Texas and go to Phoenix with the win to their back... 170. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Seeing the outro of the race...I know I've complained about this before, but again: WHY, oh WHY did ESPN pick Kid Rock? 171. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "WHY, oh WHY did ESPN pick Kid Rock?" Because Kid Rock represents all of us NASCAR fans and all NASCAR fans look up to Kid Rock because he's what we imagine ourselves being: Rich, famous, have lots of women, and can be shirtless in public without people complaining. 172. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "I don't know why so many cars, including Gordon, pitted on that last caution." I agree. Bowyer was gonna stay out, but Pattie made him come in at the last second for who knows what reason (and once again proved that even though he is one of the best crew chiefs when it comes to set ups, he leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to strategy). Speaking of Bowyer, am I the only one who thinks that he may end up with at least one championship at the end of his career? When he was at RCR, I kind of thought he would always be in the wingman position (a la Jeff Burton or Greg Biffle). And once he moved to MWR this year, I wasn't sure how he would be given the shakey past that that team has had. But he is really thriving. He reminds me so much of Terry Labonte. And speaking of the Iceman, one other guy who reminds me of him is the guy that currently drives that famous 5 car. Seriously, that had to be Terry driving that car today, right? Kasey unnoticeably ran 3rd all day, and could have had a shot to win if he had gotten just a little bit of a better restart. 173. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) He'd only represents us if we're all stereotypical NASCAR fans. I'm sad to say he probably DOES represent the overbearing majority of NASCAR fans... 174. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kasey may be the closest thing to Terry because of his driving ability and personality. Clint has similar "Terry Labonte" driving abilities, but his personality, especially now that he's at MWR, has turned me away from him. The way he acts in his interviews and commercials just comes off as fake and forced to me. Whatever, he's still better than Truex. At least he hasn't insulted the fans on Twitter. 175. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I don't need to be Kid Rock to get lots of women lol I'm an adamant music lover and I can tell you this much about Kid Rock: He isn't a musician and doesn't come anywhere near being an "Artist" as all these commercial music morons are so labeled. You want good music? Short list: Coil,Sleep Chamber,Killing Joke,Depeche Mode,Death,New Order,Sisters of Mercy,Type O Negative,Death in June. 176. 18fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Really proud of the effort by Kyle and the 18 team. I've been harsh on them the last couple months for their pit stops, but they had great pit stops all day, and they got a 2nd place finish with a 4th-6th place car. 177. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "You want good music? Short list: Coil, Sleep Chamber, Killing Joke, Depeche Mode, Death, New Order, Sisters of Mercy, Type O Negative, Death in June." Yep. those all sound like good, wholesome music. *rolls eyes* 178. Spen posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Murb: I don't know about a championship, but I have been thinking the last few weeks that Bowyer is the most likely candidate to finish second to Johnson when he wins his seventh title next year. 179. joey2448 posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Post 171, Paul....Hahaha that's exactly what I aspire to be! I still hold a lot of confidence in Brad for these last three races. I think he has the advantage, if not Texas, than definitely at Phoenix...Homestead will be good. 180. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) JG24, Sisters of Mercy is the only group I've heard of that you mentioned, and that's because they have a song on Grand Theft Auto IV. Great song though, "Dominion". 181. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) God f**k jemmie Johnson I feel annoyed as f**k right now and sick to my stomic and worse hes the points leader I knew he was gonna a hand full hear but having to see that pos win is a bitter pill for me to take 182. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Yep. those all sound like good, wholesome music. *rolls eyes*" HaHaHa! Hey, I listen to Elvis Gospel too. 183. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Okay guys, here's the thing. If you don't like who won the race, do what I do: Change the channel, close all of your NASCAR-related websites (except this one), and take your mind off it. It really works. 184. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Short list: Coil,Sleep Chamber,Killing Joke,Depeche Mode,Death,New Order,Sisters of Mercy,Type O Negative,Death in June." Killing Joke? Hell yeah!!!! Depeche Mode is okay, and New Order is pretty good too. I don't know why they picked Kid Rock. If this was 2000, then I would understand. But come on. The guy hasn't been relevant in a really, really long time. And I don't know why they need a "spokesman" to hype all of this stuff up. Why can't we just have the cool vignettes and stuff that CBS and TNN and the old ESPN and Fox and NBC used to do before races? They never needed a "spokesman". 185. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul, Dominion is the first song off of Floodland, and the whole album is tight as hell. please look it up. 186. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 5:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) That was about as good as it could have got for Brad. He never ran better than 7th all day and that was at the end, so staying out gained him a position. I think we all knew the 48 would win and take the points lead, but it is a very slim lead. Outstanding job by the 2 team. And while I certainly want Brad to win the title, I also don't wanna see the 48 win another one. Too many cheating penalties throughout their existance (and really all of HMS' existance). The fact they already have 5 is bad enough. Would be nice to see justice served for once. Overall a kinda disappointing Martinsville race, even in person. Just not much racing. Not like we are acustomed to. And what the hell happened to the Panthers? 187. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "And what the hell happened to the Panthers?" Cam Newton threw an interception that ultimately cost them the game. Damnit all! 188. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ...I just noticed that the DNQs, Mike Bliss and J. J. Yeley, have their numbers reversed. Bliss is credited as attempting to make the race in the #37 and Yeley is credited for driving the #19 when it was the other way around. 189. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Okay guys, here's the thing. If you don't like who won the race, do what I do: Change the channel, close all of your NASCAR-related websites (except this one), and take your mind off it. It really works." I usually get over it anyway. The fact of the matter is, I've never heard of ANY of those bands that you mentioned, JG24. I like Boston, the Beatles, Coldplay and other songs from various artists. 190. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Nice to see we agree with eachother DSFF 191. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "The fact of the matter is, I've never heard of ANY of those bands that you mentioned, JG24. I like Boston, the Beatles, Coldplay and other songs from various artists." Depeche Mode is pretty damn legend and so is New Order, but Coil and Sleep Chamber and Death in June are pretty underground. 192. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Chevrolet has clinched the Manufacturer's Championship for the tenth straight year. 193. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) JG24, I'll look into that. "Would be nice to see justice served for once." Like I said before, the #48 team is NASCAR's Legion of Doom. And since Brad is going up against the L.O.D., and carries an American flag whenever he wins, I guess that makes him the Justice League. "Overall a kinda disappointing Martinsville race, even in person. Just not much racing. Not like we are accustomed to." So I guess BSPN has some sort of excuse for showing a bad race. MRN sure did make the race sound exciting though. Every time a car spun around they actually make it sound like a big deal, while BSPN seems relieved because now they can show some commercials. "And what the hell happened to the Panthers?" They suddenly realized "Hey, we have a shot at beating a division leader. We don't want to change the outcome of that division, so we better let them score 14 points in 6 seconds." As Denny Green would say, "They are who we thought they were." I'm mad that they blew it because this gives Da Bears a 1.5 game advantage over the Vikings. 194. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Good I'm a Chevy guy and I like metal Metallica Slayer along with nirvana(love them)along with soundgarden and Alice in chains 195. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kenny, those are my kind of bands. And JG24, the bands you like are so underground, that they're six feet under with dirt covering them, as evidenced by their names ;). 196. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "And JG24, the bands you like are so underground, that they're six feet under with dirt covering them, as evidenced by their names ;)." Love it. 197. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Damn Kenny, are we the same person? Metallica is my favorite band. I also love Slayer as well as AIC and Nirvana. 198. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well Paul hears my top 5 all time faverot bands 1 Metallica 2 Nirvana 3 Guns n roses 4 System of a down 5 Alice in chains I also love metal like slayer(as I said before)slipknot lamb of god satyricon dimmu borgir and the oldest I like is the beatles black sabbath led zeppelin and of course ozzy :D 199. cjs3872 posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well, to answer NicoRosbergFan's conspiracy heories, some of which I think are true, I don't think Jeff Gordon was ever going to pass Jimmie Johnson at the end, because he would have elected not to pass, or have been told not to pass. But also, even if Jeff Gordon wanted to pass Johnson when he caught him, traffic was in the way, so he didn't have room if he wanted to try a pass, and unlike Johnson, would not have forced the issue. The reason I said that he may have had no intention of passing Johnson was that the first time he caught him, he seemed to lose almost a second of one corner, t the fact that he was able to make that back up proves he was faster, but had no intention of passing him because that would have cost Johnson three points, instead of one. Had they been battling for second place, I think Gordon would have passed Johnson and been well on his way. Now as for the decision to pit or not to pit, I disagree with murb's assessment that Clint Bowyer should not have pitted, as well as the others up front that followed Johnson into the pits. Anyone who watched the race knows that making the pit stop, especially for left side tires, was the right call, because there was considerable wear on the left rear tire, so pit stops had to be made. Had Gordon or Bowyer not stopped, they would probably ended up like Dale, Jr. did, so pitting for them was the right call to make. Brad decided to gamble for a couple of reasons. First by staying out, he got the extra championship point for leading, something that hasn't yet been brought up. But he was quickly beginning to slide back, but the last cautuion for the twin spins in turn one was a huge break for Brad because it allowed him to cool his tires, while being frozen in order under the caution flag. If not for that last caution, Brad might have ended up out of the top ten. And as for the restart thing, that's why I say NASCAR should get rid of the double file restarts. In fact, I'd rather be in third place (or maybe even fifth place) than in second place at Martinsville, because it sure worked out that way. What they should do is to line up single file late in the race, if not for the entire race on restarts, so that the field actually lines up in true race order and that there may not be possible advantages that weren't earned. In fact, I'm surprised we haven't seen a guy that looks like he's going to be second after pit stop all but stop toallow one car to pass him, thus puting him in third place, which is a much more advantageous position for the restart at Martinsville. But next week, being on the outside will most likely be where you want to be on restarts because of the momentum of the banking at Texas. And as for the championship, I suspected it would become a two-way battle between Johnson and Keselowski after Martinsville, though Keselowski's position surpruses me, because I thought he might be 10-14 points behind Johnson, based on how badly he was performing even in the middle of the race, when he was in 20th place, but being two points out puts the two on equal ground. But again, with next week's race being a 500-mile race on a high-speed track, nything could happen, and I still think there's a chance that one of them cold have engine problems, especally Keselowski because with Dodge bowing out, they may give it everything they've got, and it might be too much one of these races, and he might experience engine trouble. And the ESPN guys were surprised at the fact that Keselowski was able to pass Gordon the end, though Gordon's battle with Clint Bowyer had something to do with that. If what I suspect is true about Gordon possibly being told not to pass Johnson or the win, could he have let Keselowski go by to send a message to HMS? I don't think so, but it may be an intriuging thought. 200. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Short list of bands you may have heard of that iv'e seen in person: Black Sabbath twice Marylin Manson twice Korn Slayer(in a small very hot club) Slipknot twice The Cure Ozzy Osbourne twice Godsmack Machine Head twice Disturbed twice Type O negative twice(Co-Headlined for Ozzy in 1996) I'm not particularly fond of some of these bands(Disturbed,Godsmack,Machine Head). 201. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I like the following bands on that list Manson Korn Machine head Godsmack Disturbed Type O negative(R.I.P Peter Steel) 202. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 6:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) JG24 and DSFF, are you guys sure you're from the South? Because the bands that you guys listed are some of my all-time favorites. I guess Kid Rock doesn't represent all NASCAR fans, northern or southern haha :). cjs, that's pretty heavy to think that Jeff may have let Brad go to send a message to HMS, especially considering how on NASCAR Now the other day he said that he was pulling for a HMS car, whether it be his or a teammate's, to win this championship. I don't think that's the case because he did race Brad side-by-side for 7th place coming to the checkered flag, but that is an intriguing theory to say the least. He would have every reason to be mad because I do believe he was told to not pass the #48 car, even though they were approaching lapped traffic. 203. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul, Southern people are as intelligent and culturally diverse as any you find in the world.Too bad stereotypes about us being "inbred slave owners" persist even to this day, so the average person thinks very little of the talents and minds of The South, for which I love so very much. We invented Pepsi and Coca Cola and we also have Nascar and Jimmy Carter to be proud of too. 204. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Here's my top 20 favorite bands: 1. The Beatles 2. Alice in Chains 3. Nirvana 4. The Who 5. Creedence Clearwater Revival 6. Black Sabbath (both Ozzy-led and Dio-led) 7. Rage Against the Machine 8. AC/DC 9. Lynyrd Skynyrd 10. Guided by Voices (greatest Indy band of all-time) 11. Slayer 12. System of a Down 13. Soundgarden 14. Metallica 15. Grateful Dead 16. The Doors 17. Slipknot 18. Audioslave 19. Led Zeppelin 20. Guns 'n Roses 205. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'm a Southerner and an old rocker at heart. I still love Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Jethro Tull, and a large number of old bands. I'm also not much of a fan of country music-at all. I wouldn't say I'm stereotypical. 206. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) JG24, sorry if I offended you with that comment. I haven't had many interactions with southern people in person before and I'll admit the stereotypes of you guys is believed by many people up here. Personally, I think you guys get a bad rep. And hey, at the very least you guys created a sport that I love very dearly, so I thank you for that. 207. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Most Fastest Laps from this race: Jeff Gordon 99!!(and he finishes 7th?) Denny Hamlin 62 Jimmie Johnson 60 Clint Bowyer 44 Kasey Kahne 29 Brain Vickers 25 Kyle Busch 21 Dale Jr. 10 208. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Haha, Denny entered this race 20 points out of 1st place, and he leaves only 5 points ahead of 6th place Jeff Gordon. If Brad wins this championship and Gordon can at least finish top 5 in points (something he hasn't done in three years), I'll be satisfied. 209. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) You mean Brian Vickers, though I did laugh seeing him called "Brain Vickers". Just like Rusty calls Trevor Bayne "Trevor BRAIN"... 210. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul,I was never offended at all, so no apology was necessary. 211. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think Cale Yarborough said this, and it's not exact, but here it is. "All Yankees, secretly inside their hearts, want to be Rebels." I'm from south central Kansas, so I guess I'm a northerner. 212. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Just like Rusty calls Trevor Bayne "Trevor BRAIN"..." I'll give Rusty a pass since he suffered a few concussions in his racing career. It wasn't as bad as when Krista Voda called Trevor Bayne "Travis" in victory lane at the Daytona 500. 213. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Brain Vickers" That is one of them there "Type O's". 214. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Maybe JG24 is putting "Brain" Vickers in the same category that DSFF puts "Brain" France. "All Yankees, secretly inside their hearts, want to be Rebels." Can I be a Rebel in the winter time and a Yankee in the summer time? 215. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Or Bill Weber repeatedly calling Ricky Craven Ricky RUDD after he won his first race at this very track. 216. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Or at Atlanta '05 when Larry McReynolds referred to Casey Mears correctly, and a couple seconds later D-Dub-Ya called him "Kasey Kahne". 217. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "I'm from south central Kansas, so I guess I'm a northerner." Nah man, you are definitely a "Southerner" since that's where a lot of Southerner's moved to during the horrid and overlooked Yankee Subjugation of the South called "Reconstruction". look it up and get an idea of what Southerners had to endure for a decade. 218. ch posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor Corrections: 10 - TMone, We Drive Sales Fast 15 - Pink Lemonade 5-hour Energy / Avon Fndtn. 20 - RedBeacon.com 30 - Swan Energy Inc. 31 - EnerSys / Odyssey Battery 33 - Circle Sport 36 - Mohawk Northeast 91 - Humphrey Smith Racing 219. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Reconstruction was one of the biggest failures in this country's history. I'd hate to live in an area with people from a different country occupying my area (since the South seceded from the Union, they were technically a different country). The country had already been divided since the late '40s/early '50s. Throw in the 1860 presidential election, the South's secession, the Civil War, Lincoln's assassination, and a failed "Reconstruction", and you got yourself over 150 years worth of division (though not nearly as bad today as it used to be) within a country. 220. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I saw Kid Rock in person at the height of his popularity in 2000 when he was on the Summer Sanitarium tour with Metallica. Although I don't particularly like his music, I thought he put on a good show. Conversely, Korn, who was also on that tour, kinda mailed it in. I've only beeen to 5 concerts, 4 Metallica shows and one Black Sabbath (original lineup!) concert. I guess its cause I spend all my money going to races :) The bands I have seen. Corrosion of Conformity (they nailed it!) and Metallica (blew my 13 year old mind). Days of the New (were awful), Jerry Cantrell (great set, awesome artist), and Metallica (they played The Thing That Should Not Be!) Godsmack (right after their first album came out, they were really good) and Black Sabbath (the original lineup, still kicked ass) Powerman 5000 (that band headed by Rob Zombie's brother, they were alright), Kid Rock (see above), Korn (see above) and Metallica (first 4 songs were off their first two albums, set the tone for an awesome night) Gojeira (think I misspelled that, they are a French metal band, growlers, talented but I don't care for growlers), Lamb of God (oddly enough I have never gotten in to them) and Metallica (they played Phantom Lord!) 221. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cjs, glad to see I'm not the only one who felt like Gordon wasn't trying to pass JJ. That quote from Cale was a classic. I have no issue with Yankees in general, just certain ones like noted smart mouth Yankee bastard Geoff Bodine. 222. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) COC I love DSFF your in in NC where are you I'm in Randleman(and sadly I haven't meat Richard Petty thou :() 223. 10andJoe posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) >We invented Pepsi and Coca Cola and we also have Nascar and Jimmy Carter to be proud of too. Well, three out of four isn't bad... Also, when it comes to bands, I'll just toss these out there: Stryper, Guardian, Petra, DeGarmo & Key, Skillet, and Mannheim Steamroller. 224. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 7:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "since that's where a lot of Southerner's moved to during the horrid and overlooked Yankee Subjugation of the South called "Reconstruction". look it up and get an idea of what Southerners had to endure for a decade." History is right up my alley, so you don't need to tell me about Reconstruction. "Reconstruction was one of the biggest failures in this country's history." So was Andrew Johnson. Things would have been so much better, in my opinion, if Abraham Lincoln hadn't been assassinated. 225. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 10andJoe, when you say three out of four, are you leaving out Jimmy Carter or Pepsi (I'm a Coke guy)? Also, when I first heard Skillet, I thought they were Three Days Grace. Just sayin'. 226. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Andrew Johnson was the WORST President America ever had. In my opinion. This coming from someone who would consider themselves the EXACT opposite of a political expert. 227. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "'We invented Pepsi and Coca Cola and we also have Nascar and Jimmy Carter to be proud of too.' Well, three out of four isn't bad..." I was going to make a wisecrack about Jimmy Carter, but decided against it. "and sadly I haven't meat Richard Petty thou" Thou hath not met Richard Petty? 228. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "So was Andrew Johnson. Things would have been so much better, in my opinion, if Abraham Lincoln hadn't been assassinated." True, Andrew Johnson did make things worse, and it didn't look good for the South to have a southern president screwing things up so soon after the Civil War. 229. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Andrew Johnson was the WORST President America ever had." I'm not a political expert either but I have to agree, even though every president since Eisenhower has been very questionable to say the least. 230. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ^^ I've met The King and The Silver Fox! 231. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I aways thought that W was the worst president this country ever had 232. JT_Racing posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This site used to contain the greatest amount of objective input from NASCAR fans, and I always enjoyed the posts from mainstay users. Now it has become no better than NASCAR.com with all of the preposterous conspiracy theories about how Rick Hendrick and NASCAR both want Jimmie to win and/or Jeff to lose. Brian France has even publicly stated that Jimmie winning is bad for NASCAR, nice try. As for Jeff, the man is a living legend, but guess what: he's 41 freaking years old and past his prime! For the life of me, I cannot understand why fans of this sport fail to give respect to one of the greatest drivers of all time in Jimmie Johnson. Then again, I remember hearing all of the same garbage and complaining back in Jeff's heyday, and it's still pathetic. 233. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I remember seeing an ESPN race a while ago where on the starting grid crawler thing, they had him listed as "Brain Vickers". Also, don't forget Rusty's favorite driver David Gillyand. I'm into all sorts of different music. I'm actually a guitar player and come from a pretty musical family on my mom's side, so growing up my main core of stuff included Zeppelin, Hendrix, SRV, etc. But now, I listen to just about anything that isn't Top 40. Unfortunately, there really aren't that many bands/artists coming out nowadays that really peak my interest. For example, I really don't care for stuff like Nickelback or Three Days Grace. But there are a few new school bands that I really dig. The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Arcade Fire, and Queens of the Stone Age, just to name a few. 234. rtcrules posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson were two of the worst presidents ever. As a liberal minded person, whom refuses to label themself a Democrat, W said some stupid stuff but he wasnt awful. History will look back on him as average. 235. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Schroeder51, I've always felt that the presidents leading up to Abraham Lincoln were the worst in history because their collective "work" led to the American Civil War, along with Andrew Johnson who only made things worse in America's rebuilding post-Civil War years. That said, here's my five worst presidents: 1. James Buchanan (1857-1861) 2. Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) 3. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) 4. Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) 5. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan each divided the country prior to the Civil War; Johnson divided the country during its rebuilding process in the aftermath of the Civil War; and Grant (and it pains me to put him on this list since he ironically led the Union Army to victory in the Civil War) trusted too many people who turned on him, and caused a lot of corruption within the U.S. government. To this day, I believe that people re-elected him in 1872 only for his role in the Civil War, because he was not a good president. 236. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) con-spir-a-cy/ Noun: A secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful. The action of plotting or conspiring. the-o-ry/ Noun: A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, esp. one based on general principles independent of the thing to be...: "Darwin's theory of evolution" A set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based: "a theory of education"; "music theory" It's easy to use the term "Conspiracy Theory" to devalue and smear a credible observation,I don't understand why something that has it's place is only used to discredit people when they actually have an argument. 237. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I agree rtcrules. As bad as George W. Bush is looked at, he isn't even close to being the worst president in history. A lot of his unpopularity has to do with the amount of political coverage in the news today. Had the media covered politics in the 19th century the way they do now, we would be looking at Bush as "Well, he wasn't great, but he was certainly better than [insert name of just about any 19th century president." The only 19th century presidents that I can truly say were better than Bush are Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln. 238. rtcrules posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And as far as music, you can never go wrong with Pearl Jam, The Who, The Smiths, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Cake, and The Black Keys, which are the best thing to come from my hometown in my lifetime ;) 239. BON GORDON posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) WOW We are talking about the worst presidents and favorite bands. Well my personal opinion is that Warren G. Harding and Andrew Johnson were the two worst presidents. Of course my personal favorite band and should be everyone's is Bon Jovi. Livin' on a Prayer, It's My Life, Bad Medicine, Have a Nice Day, and the list goes on. Very underrated band. Has been getting snubbed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the last few years. 5 number one hits. Has sold 130 million records worldwide. Three number one world Tours (1988- New Jersey Tour, 2008-Lost Highway Tour, 2010- Circle Tour). Jon Bon Jovi is a great singer in my mind and is like Jeff Gordon as far as longevity is concerned. Anyway Jeff Gordon earns his 413 Top 10 and led 92 laps today which moved him past Darrell Waltrip into sixth all-time in laps led with 23,133. 240. Baker posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 1. Jimmie Johnson 2287 2. Brad Keselowski 2273 3. Clint Bowyer 2219 4. Kasey Kahne 2209 5. Denny Hamlin 2193 Johnson takes the lead. Kyle Busch even with a 2nd finally falls out of the championship hunt. Bowyer, Kahne and Hamlin are racing for playoff lives next week. I'm sick to see Johnson have the lead after today when he wins and Keselowski goes 6th after Kese has run so much better the first 6 races. Keselowski is the better driver #48 team is the better team. Sucks that Kese is going to lose to an arrogant asses like Knaus and Johnson 241. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I don't think there's anything wrong with people who question large governing bodies, whether they be the Federal government or NASCAR. This isn't a communist dictatorship like North Korea or China. We have every right to question the decisions that NASCAR and teams like HMS make. If none of us did, we would look like brainwashed fans who do as we're told and just accept everything in NASCAR for what it is. There's a reason why we haven't accepted Dale Jr. and Danica as the "saviors of NASCAR", and it's because we think for ourselves, not what NASCAR and the NASCAR media tries to make us believe. 242. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "I've always felt that the presidents leading up to Abraham Lincoln were the worst in history because their collective "work" led to the American Civil War" Interesting. You could also say the same thing for the presidents whose "work" led into the Great Depression (Coolidge, Harding, Hoover). As far as GWB goes, he definitely wasn't great. I'll leave it at that, lol. RTC, Great choices!!! I also love The Who and The Smiths. Radiohead and Cake are great too. And Bon Gordon, I'm not particularly fond of Bon Jovi's music, but I do have a ton of respect for them as a band. As you said, their longevity is undeniable. And every time I've seen an interview with Jon, he seems like a great dude. Back to Nascar for a minute. I was just looking at the Crew Chiefs list for this race, and Ryan Pemberton is still listed as the Crew Chief for the 36 car. What's the deal with that? Obviously he's with JRM and Danica on the NNS side, but I didn't know he was still gonna be with TBR in Cup. 243. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) BON GORDON, Harding wasn't a good president, but aside from not doing anything during his 2-year presidency, I don't think he did anything memorable, good or bad, during his presidency. He was like Casey Mears during his 2-year tenure at HMS. He didn't really do anything, good or bad. He was just kind of...there. 244. rtcrules posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul, Id cross Andrew Jackson off the list and put in Tyler. Tyler never did anything remarkable good or bad but he did what he set out to do in one term and never ran again. Which in itself is remarkable. As far as Jackson, ask any Native American and you'll get your answer on him. 5 Worst: 1. Buchanan 2. A. Johnson 3. Pearce 4. Jackson 5. Nixon Also, this is what I love about this site. We all come here with 1 common love of racing and can all go off on some random conversation and go back to racing next week. 245. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) murb, I can't speak with great confidence because I didn't know Pemberton was still with the #36 team (unless that's outdated), but if it's true, maybe it's just another part of the deal between TBR and Danica. Danica is the reason why TBR is running two cars, and maybe that's part of the reason why Pemberton is with her team now. Also, if he really is still with the #36 team, maybe that's part of the reason why that team has been start-and-parking a lot lately. It wouldn't be fair to Pemberton if he had to crew chief two cars every weekend that run the full race. Again, I don't know what the situation is, but if that's the case, that's my take on it. 246. Spen posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) We've sure got a lot of rockers here. I'm a good deal more "old school". Here's a list of my favorite bands/singers in no particular order: 1. Sammy Davis, Jr. 2. Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show 3. The Coasters 4. Jay and the Americans (my dad was their drummer for a while) 5. The Eurythmics 6. Steely Dan 7. Cyndi Lauper 8. The Lovin' Spoonful 9. Toto 10. Louis Prima & his Orchestra 11. Anne Murray 12. Dusty Springfield 13. America 14. The Mamas & the Papas 15. The Righteous Brothers 16. The Shirelles 17. The Hollies 18. Peter, Paul & Mary 19. Donovan 20. Bread 21. The Moody Blues 22. The Kingston Trio 23. B.J. Thomas 24. The Guess Who 25. James Taylor 26. The Grass Roots 27. Eddy Arnold 28. Paul Revere & The Raiders 29. Santana 30. Petula Clark 31. Helen Reddy 32. Les Paul 33. The Rascals 34. Judy Garland 35. Gene Pitney 36. Creedance Clearwater Revival 37. Fleetwood Mac 38. Herman's Hermits 39. Elsie Lovelock 40. Tom Jones 41. The Animals 42. Spike Jones & his City Slickers 43. Johnny Mathis 44. The Carpenters 45. Glen Campbell 46. Bobby Darin 47. Roy Orbison 48. Brook Benton 49. Linda Ronstadt 50. Connie Francis 51. Dean Martin 52. Kenny Rogers 53. The Four Seasons 54. Ray Charles 55. Billy Joel 56. The Beach Boys 57. Ricky Nelson 58. Neil Diamond 59. The Ames Brothers 60. The Temptations 61. Doris Day 62. Enrico Caruso 63. Madonna 64. The Beatles 65. Gene Austin 66. Patti Page 67. Frankie Laine 68. Dinah Shore 69. Nat "King" Cole 70. Sammy Kaye & his Orchestra 71. Elvis Presley 72. Henry Burr 73. Perry Como 74. Frank Sinatra 75. Harry Chapin 76. Dean Freidman 77. Hoyt Axton 78. The Band 79. Barenaked Ladies 80. Blondie 81. Belinda Carlisle 82. Celtic Woman 83. Tennessee Ernie Ford 84. Buddy Holly 85. Little Richard 86. The Mavericks 87. The Nylons 88. Jim Reeves 89. The Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band 90. Bond 91. Enya 92. Wilson Phillips 93. Al Stewart 94. Meat Loaf 95. Buster Poindexter & his Banshees of Blue 96. The Stray Cats 97. The Association 98. Big Daddy 99. Blood, Sweat & Tears 100. Johnny Rivers 247. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah, that's what I was thinking Paul. If it's correct, it must be a part of that "partnership" between TBR/Danica/SHR/JRM. But I don't know. Let's not forget that not only is he the Crew Chief of the 7 car in NNS, but he is also JRM's Competition Director. All I can say is that I don't envy him. I can't imagine having to Crew Chief two cars in one weekend (one of which for Danica) and then also overseeing an entire operation. 248. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Herbert Hoover was a pretty bad president as well it was under his administration that the Great Depression occurred. 249. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) rtcrules, that's fair. I agree that Andrew Jackson was a bigot and hated a lot of people (even those close to him in his own party). But aside from that, I thought his presidency, minus the Native American situation, was very good as he embraced a lot of Alexander Hamilton's ideas by supporting corporations (before they held so much power) and helped expand the U.S. economy. You do have a good point about John Tyler though. I didn't put him down because he was supposed to be the savior of the Whig Party, but contributed to that party dissolving because he didn't do anything, and was actually kicked out of the party as a result. And I agree. This board unites a lot of people with a love for auto racing, and creates great conversations, both NASCAR-related and not. Last week we had over 500 comments and about 1/5 of it was football-related. 250. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.28.2012 - 8:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Richard Nixon would be in the top 5 of Worst presidents ever along with Dubya Bush. 251. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The board here really is fun. I think it's the comradery and civilness that makes it what it is. A lot of us disagree on a lot of things, but we're all actually civil towards each other in disagreement. Seriously, if you guys have ever seen other racing boards/forums online (like Nascar.com), you know what I'm talking about. Their close-mindedness and the way they talk to each other is ridiculous. 252. JT_Racing posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "This isn't a communist dictatorship like North Korea or China. We have every right to question the decisions that NASCAR and teams like HMS make." Paul, I completely agree; should you wish to voice an opinion that HMS wants Johnson to win while keeping Gordon down, that the Earth is flat, or perhaps the moon is made of cheese, it is well within your rights brother! 253. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'll just say one thing: I wouldn't want to be President. That's the biggest responsibility you can have in this country. Everything you do, you're going have at least half the country and most of the world hating you and picking apart everything you do. I sure wouldn't want that much on my shoulders. Ah what the hell, I'll go ahead and list my top 50 bands. As I said, I'm a real old-school rocker; I know most of the big names as well as some of the lesser known acts of that time period... 1. The Beatles 2. Led Zeppelin 3. The Rolling Stones 4. The Who 5. Pink Floyd 6. The Doors 7. The Moody Blues 8. Queen 9. Jethro Tull 10. Deep Purple 11. Jimi Hendrix 12. Cream 13. CCR 14. Black Sabbath 15. Yes 16. Thin Lizzy 17. Electric Light Orchestra 18. Genesis 19. The Kinks 20. Budgie 21. David Bowie 22. King Crimson 23. Procol Harum 24. The Move 25. Lynyrd Skynyrd 26. Blue Oyster Cult 27. Fleetwood Mac 28. Judas Priest 29. Buffalo Springfield 30. Emerson, Lake & Palmer 31. Rush 32. Neil Young 33. T. Rex 34. Crosby, Stills, & Nash 35. Elton John 36. Supertramp 37. Nazareth 38. Spooky Tooth 39. Rainbow 40. AC/DC 41. Van Der Graaf Generator 42. Santana 43. Mountain 44. Caravan 45. The Allman Brothers Band 46. Uriah Heep 47. Hawkwind 48. Alice Cooper 49. Free 50. ZZ Top 254. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Oh, I'll agree, murb. This place is different from most corners of the Internet. On most places (especially Youtube) people just start arguments just to piss people off and send them into a frenzy. I actually hate Youtube even though I visit that site frequently due to it being pretty much stock-full of every moron on the planet. 255. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I love YouTube I love reading the comments and of course the top comments verry funny and amouseing place :) 256. BON GORDON posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Spen #94 on your list is another personal favorite of mine. I love Meatloaf, the food and the singer. Bat Out of Hell was an amazing album and so was Bat out of Hell 2 with the great song, I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't do That). 257. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I disagree. Youtube is SO full of immaturity it's not even funny. I swear sometimes I think the average of Youtube users is 12. It really gets to me seeing comments from people resorting to such childish insults such as "yeah, like I ****ed your mom last night!" and "You are a waste of sperm!" 258. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Lol ;D 259. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) murb, I used to go to the NASCAR.com comments pages, and I finally left because of how immature a lot of the commenters were. Thankfully I found this site, albeit on accident. I searched for driver statistics and this site came up. Soon I discovered there were comments pages on every driver/race/track/owner/crew chief page and I was amazed by how insightful the comments were and began commenting myself this past summer. After I went about a year and a half having lost interest in NASCAR, going from the 2nd half of '09 to the 2011 Daytona 500 (thank you Trevor Bayne for making me love NASCAR again), I started going to race pages during that time span that I missed to gain knowledge as to what happened while I was "away". I want to give a shout out to DSFF for his comments on those pages (no offense to any fellow commenters during that time) because I always thought his comments were the most insightful. From discrediting Michael Waltrip's career, his many nicknames for certain drivers (Dale Mears, Diva Hamlin, John Wrecks Weekly), his analysis of which drivers were underrated and which were overrated, and of course our mutual Brad Keselowski fandom (though I'll bow out of the running for Brad's biggest fan), I feel like I know a lot more about that year and a half than I would have had I been watching myself just from the comments page. And of course we have cjs, who knows more about the history of motorsports than anyone else on this site. For that, I consider him to be the "Chris Economacki" of this site. But getting back to your main point murb, I think it's the civility of this comments page that makes me love coming on here and talking NASCAR/non-NASCAR stuff with you guys. 260. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Speaking of politics, am I the only person who is horribly depressed about the upcoming election? Obama? Romney? Seriously? This is the best the American political system has to offer? The guy who has proven for the past 4 years he is useless in office against the guy who you just know would steal from his own mother. These next 4 years are gonna be rough. 261. Schroeder51 posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Oh, you're not alone, DSFF. I wish there were more than two political parties in this country that had a shot at winning elections... 262. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Paul, I completely agree; should you wish to voice an opinion that HMS wants Johnson to win while keeping Gordon down, that the Earth is flat, or perhaps the moon is made of cheese, it is well within your rights brother!" Okay, now you're condescending me. I wouldn't argue that the Earth is flat or that the Moon is made of cheese because those have been proven to be untrue. I don't argue against facts, and the fact is the Earth is round and the Moon is made up of rock and soil (which unlike cheese, is not edible). I will however "conspire" that HMS told Gordon not to pass the #48 car because of the shady behind-the-scenes dealings that have occurred within that organization ever since the #48 Chad Knaus-led team took over. From Knaus taking over a large part of the competition side of HMS after the '04 plane crash (which happened 8 years and 4 days ago); his cutting off the information sharing with the #24 team following Talladega '07 when Jeff passed Jimmie for the win (not that it mattered since Jimmie still won the title); and the fact that Knaus wasn't suspended earlier this season after his C-post violation at Daytona, which was supposed to be 4-6 weeks, but became zero because Rick Hendrick is good friends with NASCAR Competition Director John Darby, who made the final ruling of Knaus' penalty. If you think about it, HMS is a lot like Ferrari in Formula One due to the teams' history of violating the rules, yet get away virtually scot-free because of their close relations with people in the NASCAR offices. You can't prove to me that HMS didn't tell Jeff Gordon not to pass Jimmie when he had the fastest car, and the history between those two teams (the #24 and #48, not Jeff and Jimmie) suggests that something was said because of the championship implications that could have resulted from Jeff passing Jimmie. 263. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) JIM Hellwig for President in 2016. (Please post this Webmaster Pretty Please) 264. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Thanks Paul. I try to mix my personal analysis with some humor (basically remembering my childhood obsessions over stuff like The Ultimate Warrior, the Ninja Turtles, Ren and Stimpy, etc) and nicknames that aren't totally original (I did not come up with John Wrecks Weekly but I will take credit for "Swervin Stenhouse", he reminds me of Ernie "Swervin" Irvan so much). I also try to back up what I say with reasons. As for Brad, it has been such a case of happenstance. I always like to pull for the unheralded guy to get a shot. When they gave Brad a one off shot in one of the best Trucks in '07 after years of struggling in his family's fading equipment, I wanted him to do well. He won the pole, dominated, got dumped in the end, but showed an incredible amount of grace afterwards. Then he got a shot in Jr's cars and I hoped he wouldn't flounder. He didn't and, to this day, remains the only driver not to be chewed up by The Turnover Machine (my new name for JR Motorsports). When HMS merged with them, I hoped it would lead to some NWide wins. It did. When he began running a limited Cup schedule in '09 I hoped he would learn a lot, and post some respectable results. He one upped the shit out of me with his stunning Dega win. All the while he never disappointed my attitude wise like other "breaths of fresh air" like Denny, Carl, and Denny again cause I can't overstate how much he has disappointed me. It's been a hell of a ride, and I can't wait to see what it has in store. 265. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A question for you DSFF if your favorite wrestler was running for President would you vote for him. 266. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) All I know is that I have lost a ton of respect for Jeff Gordon after this race he could have ignored those team orders and blown right by Johnson but chose to be a huge Ass-kissing coward instead. 267. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'm with you on that one DSFF. On one hand you have an underachiever, and on the other you have a guy who seems so distant from reality and comes off as fake. Turning this into a NASCAR analogy, it would be like JGR having to choose between Joey Logano (underachiever) and Carl Edwards (fake) last year. They went with the underachiever, but ultimately they chose the lesser of two evils in Joey Logano. Jerry Garcia once said "Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil", and that's exactly how I feel about these two candidates. 268. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'd vote for Hellwig cause 1) he can't do any worse and 2) it would be entertaining as heck to see what he would do next. He would be to political office what Ernie Irvan (and now Stenhouse) ws to NASCAR races. 269. BON GORDON posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I do believe Gordon's days of winning championships is over because of Chad and the #48 team not being team players and Rick Hendrick's love affair with the #48 team. If what your saying is true which I don't believe is then I'd be extremely upset at Gordon. I wouldn't listen to team orders. Screw that, I'm thinking of myself. Why would someone just roll over and help someone else. Especially Johnson who isn't a team player and only cares about himself anyway. Gordon's too competitive. He would've won that race had no cautions come out. Johnson isn't easy to pass at Martinsville at the end of a race there, even if you do have a better car than him. 270. 18fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 9:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think Gordon would've had a hard time passing Jimmie because Jeff had a very hard time passing lapped cars all day, which was evident when he was chasing Bowyer. 271. BON GORDON posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Calm down Benjamin Lowe. There's no proof that Gordon let Johnson win. None, zero! He's never gonna wreck Johnson but he will bump and move him. If he had a chance at the end he would've. Stop with these stupid conspiracies. When a driver doesn't do what everyone else thinks be should do then it's seen as weak and letting the other guy win. Jeff Gordon is the most respectable guy out there. 272. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I mentioned this before on the Kansas page, but sometimes not obeying team orders can cost a driver his job. Take the '99 Truck Series championship for example. On the last lap of the season, Mike Bliss passed Roush teammate Greg Biffle for 5th place, and Biffle lost another position from Jimmy Hensley who followed Bliss. This cost Biffle 9 points, and he wound up losing the championship by 8 points to Jack Sprague, who won that race. Had Bliss stayed behind Biffle, Biffle wins the championship by 1 point and might move up to the Busch Series one year earlier. I'm not saying that Gordon would be fired from HMS for costing Jimmie the championship, but implications against him would probably be in his future if he were to interrupt the "#48 Dynasty". 273. cjs3872 posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul, the cutting off of information in 2007 is a large reason why Jimmie won the championship, because after the fall race at Charlotte, it looked like Gordon had the championship won, lock, stock, and barrel, and even controlled much of the first half of the following race at Martinsville, but Jimmie took over and Gordon did not run very well after that until Homestead, but oit was too late for him by then. However, let's say that Gordon was told not to pass Jimmie (which I think he was, and judging by the comments of others, there are others who think so, as well). I don't think Kasey Kahne would have been given that same directive because he's still on the very fringe of contention, while Gordon is clearly out of contention. And I don't really think that he intentionally let Keselowski by at the finish, though I do find it strange that Keselowski edged by on much older tires. And by the way, the reason I know a lot about the history of certain sports and sporting events is because I try to pay attention to the history because I believe to look toward the future, one sometimes needs to look at it's past. That's true about racing, as well as baseball and football, especially the World Series and the Super Bowl (Benjamin Lowe would know that since he commented on almost all of the uploads I did regarding the Super Bowl before they were taken down). And JT_Racing, you say that Brian France says that Jimmie winning the title this year would be a bad thing for NASCAR. I'm not sure how you figure that, especially considering it would be Jimmie's sixth, and of course, that would mean that he could match the most treasured record in the sport as soomn as next year, that of the seven championships held by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Sr. If Jimmie wins his sixth title this year, that means that next year could hold an enormous amount of anticipation, as stock car racing's most storied club may get a third member as soon as next year, that of seven-time champions. And the anticipation towards that achievement would do nothing but help the sport. 274. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DSFF, have you ever checked out Warrior's public speaking career? His radical beliefs, while somewhat unbelievable, are pretty hilarious to listen to, especially when he goes to northeastern colleges and has to deal with the liberal objectiors in the audience. Jesse Ventura is interested in running for president in 2016, so there's still a chance a wrestler (not to mention fellow "conspirator") could be in the Oval Office. 275. Peter posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Man did you Kyle Buch try to give JJ a cheap shot in the final turn? Man what a jerk! 276. cjs3872 posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 18fanm, one reason why Gordon has trouble trying to lap slower cars is because he's always been conservative in traffic. If Gordon has a weakness, that's always been it. He always tries to make sure he can pass someone cleanly before trying to lap a car, and would almost never have made the risk that Jimmie Johnson made with Montoya and Travis Kvapil that almost cost him the race. But in truth, Johnson did not win the race today, but he won it on Friday when he won the pole, which gave him the #1 pit stall, and that pit stall is what won him the race, because he moved from fifth to the lead with a little more than 100 laps to go, and he won the race at that instant. And except for when Brad Keselowski's team stole some track position (and one championship point) late, Johnson was never headed again. 277. cjs3872 posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Peter, what happened was that, for some reason, Jimmie Johnson slowed way down in the turns after that final restart, almost to make Kyle run into him. What he did was when he exited the corners, he slowed down and moved down to where Kyle was running so that Kyle would hit him in the back end, thus propelling the car forward. Either that or he was brake-checking Kyle off the corners on the final lap or two. 278. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) cjs, did you create another YouTube account after you received two violations? I didn't know you had one until a couple weeks ago when you said you had to get rid of it. If so, what's your username? 279. JG24FanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "If Jimmie wins his sixth title this year, that means that next year could hold an enormous amount of anticipation, as stock car racing's most storied club may get a third member as soon as next year, that of seven-time champions." Why is this the automatic Holy Grail of Cup series accoplishments? Is it because the public at large would automatically see this as the biggest achievement or is it quantifiably the greatest of all accomplishments? My personal "Holy Grail" achievement very predictably is Jeff Gordon's 4 straight Soouthern 500 wins, an achievement that saw Gordon win with two different start/finish lines and back-back Winston Million victories, including the Great 1997 win that completed the third and last thus far Triple Crown(Daytona 500 World 600 Southern 500)if you want, the Title completes the only "Grand Slam" in the history of Cup. 280. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I've been out for a while, and I missed plenty of good conversation. First off, Romney over Obama. That's all I'm going to say. Second, the worst president ever was probably "Old Hickory the Redskin Hater" Andrew Jackson, because of his cruelty to the American Indians (including his ignorance of the court case Worcester v. Georgia), and his starting of the "spoils system". Third, this site is so far ahead of racing discussions on other sites, it is hilarious. Here, 99% of the posts that are at least one paragraph long are intelligent and thoughtful. And they get noticed, too. And if someone disagrees, they voice their opinion in a mature and calm manner. On NASCAR.com, there are too many meaningless, stupid, and impulsive posts. And YouTube is just pathetic. If someone disagrees with an opinion, or if someone makes a mistake, the response is, at best, an insult along the lines of "dude, you are so stupid, you a---hole!!. And that's MILD. 281. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well said Paul. Before I came to the site, I thought I knew a lot about motorsports. But I can honestly say that I've learned a ton more from posters like DSFF and CJS and all of their knowledge. The Hendrick - Ferrari analogy is perfect. HMS has constantly pushed the envelope in just about every aspect over the years, much like Ferrari has in F1. However, I really don't buy into the whole "Rick's Love Affair With The 48 Car" thing. Jeff has been there for 20+ years and is like a son to Rick. So I don't think that Rick is deliberately trying to use Gordon as the "Rubens Barrichello" to Jimmie's "Schumacher". If anything, back when they hired Jimmie, the plan was for him to be the "Barrichello" to Jeff's "Schumacher". I also just want to make one thing clear. I really like Jimmie Johnson. He's a clean driver for the most part (even though Montoya may disagree), and off the track, he is a great guy/family man/philanthropist. That being said, I really don't like Chad Knaus at all. In my eyes, he is the reason why so many people dislike the 48 team. Personally, I've just never liked his shady running of that team, or his obsession with being the best. Now, when I say "obsession", let me explain. It's one thing to have drive and determination to be a champion (Dale Earnhardt). But Knaus seems like he is literally obsessed with it. To me, he seems like he has no life outside of his race team. If you're a competitor, it just seems like a really unhealthy way to go about things. Also, if I was a pit crew member, I would NOT want to work for him. He seems like he's an insane leader in that respect. One thing that I heard he does is that he makes his pit crew guys be clean shaven every weekend, just so they come off as most professional. What the hell? Are you the Yankees or something? Throw in all that with his constant cheating/suspension stuff that has happened, and I really think he is the reason why they are so unpopular. I don't blame Jimmie at all for any part of their unpopularity. He's just taking advantage of all of it, as he rightfully should. 282. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) It's funny, I'm just gonna miss being able to vote in this election. But if I was, I too would not vote for either Romney or Obama. It's nothing personal on either of them. It's just the fact that I think this country would be much, much better off if someone neutral (not Republican or Democrat) came in to shake everything up. Because clearly, the Republicans and Democrats fighting and attacking each other all the time is getting us anywhere. And yeah David, I totally agree about Nascar.com. Basically, that site is made up of stereotypical (idiotic redneck) Nascar fans, to put it in a nutshell. YouTube also has its moments of idiocy, but I'd rather talk about stuff on there with people any day over sites like Nascar.com. 283. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) One time on NASCAR.com, someone was discussing Junior Johnson's "Yellow Banana". He posted: "jr johnson brought a grossly modified yellow ford (the banana car) to the track once....he was told don't EVER bring it back ....and he didn't ...cause he knew what lay in store" And I posted: "Didn't need to worry about bringing it back. Fred Lorenzen crashed the car while leading on the 139th lap." Then he posted: "oh yeah..I forgot ....in 1965 ,I was twice your age ..see ya later" To start off, I am about 95% sure he got the year wrong. It was 1966. Second, he responded by questioning my age, and for what? Just because I stated a correct fact. 284. murb posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) *Isn't getting us anywhere. 285. Silence Dogood posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Give a call to Bobby Labonte! Running well for a good portion of the race and coming home in the top ten (in a joke of equipment that is JTG racing), give this guy a good ride and I bet you he turns some heads. Hell, replace Burton with Bobby, I bet you he'd turn in better results! 286. Spen posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow, politics and music in the same day? My two favorite non-racing subjects! Paul: Grant also got an edge in 1872 by virtue of the Democrats writing off the election, and supporting third party candidate Horace Greeley. Greeley was as close as the 19th century got to a new age hippie freak, which didn't sit too well with the general public. Worst presidents of all time, IMO would be: 1. Buchanan 2. Harding 3. Grant 4. Pierce 5. Benjamin Harrison As for your list of 19th century presidents who were better than Bush, what about Polk? Yeah, we can certainly quibble about the 'rightness' of the Mexican war, but he did accomplish everything he set out to do, and ultimatly got the country moving in the right direction. I'm also quite fond of Cleveland. I certainly agree with DSFF about this being an uninspiring election year. I'm voting for Romney, but I have absolutely zero faith in him. Really, the only 20th century elections that I think had worse choices than this were 1920's Cox vs. Harding, and 1968's Humphries/Nixon/Wallace squabble. 287. 18fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 10:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The thing that we've been talking about with the NASCAR.com boards applies to the ESPN.com boards for both baseball and football. There's a bunch of "Your team sucks" and that stuff and there's way more of that than there is actual conversation about the game that's going on. On all other boards I see the posters make personal attacks on each other. On this board we attack the argument, not the person. It is really fun to read this board and post here, because of the wide variety of topics we discuss, racing and non-racing related. 288. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think the maturity displayed on this website is what allows us to go off the racing path and discuss other things like football, politics, and of course The Ultimate Warrior. And yes, I have listened to his recent speeches and rants on YouTube. They are insane and I agree with practically nothing he ever says (except his take on Hulk Hogan which is dead on). Yet I can't quit listening, it is like "what will he say next?". Swervin Hellwig. Speaking of The Ultimate Warrior, anyone else remember when he made his big comeback after his first hiatus from WWF at WrestleMania VIII, and how everyone was so excited until he came out. He had been off The Sauce (steroids) for so long he was so much smaller leading to the rumor, which I believed for a while, that the original Ultimate Warrior had died from complications from The Sauce and was replaced by a new guy. Anyways, he came out to save Hulk Hogan in his main event match against Sid Vicious (one of the worst main events ever) and for some reason Papa Shango (remember him?) was out there. What a lame ending! Worst of all, it was part of a "co main event" with Ric Flair and Macho Man Randy Savage that for some reason was placed halfway in the event. The match was excellent with an awesome storyline as Flair, a known real life womanizer, was after Mrs Elizabeth (who wound up dying in real life at Lex Luger's house, is there any worse way to go out?) who was with real life jealous nutcase Savage. That should have been last. Also, one of the greatest psychological matchups ever, Jake The Snake vs The Undertaker was like the third match. What the hell? Anyways, we can discuss things like this cause we know there will be no immature flaming from others. 289. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #287: Amen, 18fan. 290. Kenny posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Obama 2012! 291. What?? posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I was at the race with my wife and we sat in section DD row 47 on the sprint tower and it was cold, we put out coats on after about 2 hours. The sun was out for the first part of the race then it cooled of when the cloud cover came back and the winds picked back up. I noticed that around 5 trains passed during the race and the hotdogs were not as good as the TV announcers play them up to be, the french fries were good though. I had no radio or scanner so when #11 stopped on the start/finish line I thought he must a been mad at NASCAR or something. A guy beside me filled me in on what was wrong with Denny's car. I believe the #11 would have won the race if he wouldn't have had problems with his car, he came from the back very fast early on in the race. Brad K could never get his car to handle to his liking, he finished way ahead of how he looked on the track. #27 was the hardest guy for people to get around when passing, he was a total D#%KHEAD to deal with from start to finish. Brad K and Jr. would let people pass without holding them up much, #14 held up Brad K for a few laps but then let him go by which I figured it's because Brad is a fair race car driver and the other guys have taken notice to that. A lot of Jeff Gordon fans were out today, I kinda got sick of hearing them cheer for him, then later on in the race I was cheering for him because I didn't want the 48 to win and Gordon was the only one besides the 15 that could keep up with Jimmie. The race was good, I hoped that there would have been more beating and banging, We walked out of view of the track when Jimmie was burning out on the back stretch wall, and within 10 min we were in out car on the highway. Didn't wait in line at all! Got back home at 8 pm. 292. Evan posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'll divide this comments page into three things. Race -I did catch the final 70 laps or so. Johnson pretty much dominated, but Keselowski still trails him by 2 and I just think that the 2 team is going to have to outfox the foxes to win this thing. But it was pretty well evident Johnson was going to win this one but Phoenix, Texas, and Homestead still loom and Johnson just has a victory at Phoenix and possibly Texas, that's it. Homestead-Jimmie's either thrown in the towel,or been in protection mode for his title wins. Election -Obama or Romney. Romney or Obama. Both are too extremely far to the left or right to endear themselves to me. Obama has had to deal with Republicans bashing his policies and the war in Iraq still looms like a cloud over ANYONE that gets in there. Romney has potential for his experience in being rich and handling money(but unfortunately that endears him to the rich) and has good ideas but he has the typical Republican attitude which is "hindering" or "editing" progress. Romney also has come off as being out of touch(he looks too much like a gameshow host and he is trying to make planned parenthood, Romney's never had to struggle with joblessness, homelessness, he grew up rich and none of that ever came across his mind. Bottom Line:Neither of these men will turn it around, it will take years to get America back to promise and we may have to go through several US presidents to get things back. But advice, is don't lose hope and dreams. Dreams and hope are things that no one not even the gov't can take away. But everyone needs to realize to get this country turned around, everyone regardless of standard of living, rich, poor, middle are going to have give up a little. But I say get active in your community, volunteer and communicate with your leaders so you can believe you still have a chance in this world. People have gotten so lazy and out of touch with their own goverment, that's the whole issue, if the majority does not care, the gov't won't care. That's my two cents. I care, I want a future for myself and my family. 293. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I am watching Game 4 of the World Series, and I do not have a good feeling about the Tigers. I honestly think the Giants will complete the four-game sweep tonight. 294. Paul posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Warrior is dead-on about Hulk Hogan. I don't know how much of it is true, but the majority of wrestlers from that era (Warrior, Honky Tonk Man, Bad News Brown, Doink the Clown, etc.) have expressed their negative feelings towards the Hulkster and his selfish ways, so there is some truth to what he says. Regardless, his YouTube videos are awesome and at the very least inspire you to be an honest, hard-working person. As for the Wrestlemania VIII, that was basically a cluster**** of a show. A lot of key things that were planned to happen didn't, either because someone messed up or didn't show up. The biggest one occurred in the main event when Hulk Hogan dropped the leg drop on Sid Justice (though I often refer to him by his WCW name of Sid Vicious) and covered him. Well, Papa Shango was supposed to interfere and cause a disqualification (which doesn't make much sense because either way, Sid loses. Then again, Hogan can't EVER lose, so he might have had a say in the finish), but missed his cue. Sid improvised and kicked out of the pin following the leg drop, becoming the first wrestler to ever kick out from the leg drop. Then his wimpy manager Harvey Wippleman attacked the Hulkster and caused the DQ. Afterwards, Papa Shango came out a good five minutes too late, beat up Hogan, and then Ultimate Warrior came out after a 7-month hiatus to make the save. Unfortunately, he was off the 'roids after he stopped using them when they became illegal the year before, and was noticeably smaller than when he last appeared, leading to rumors that he had died and they replaced him with Kerry Von Erich (who somewhat resembled Warrior, especially with the hair and build). To make matters worse, they made Warrior start wearing a skin-colored shirt with abs painted on them to make him look bigger, which only made him look silly. While the main event sucked and shouldn't have been the main event, a lot of other things went wrong on that show. The WWE had a "no blood" policy at the time, but Ric Flair bladed anyways and was fined for doing so (for some reason Bret Hart wasn't, even though he bladed too). The Road Warriors were supposed to be on the card and challenge for the Tag Team titles, but they left for a few months and had been written off even though they returned for Wrestlemania. And of course, Flair/Savage should have been the main event. It was a better wrestling match between two of the best, plus it was for the World Championship and thus should have been the final match. As big as Hulkamania was during the '80s, it was dying by 1992, as evidenced by how the fans cheered when Sid eliminated Hulk from the Royal Rumble a few months earlier. Even though he was Hulk Hogan, his match against Sid didn't deserve to be the main event, and the quality of the match showed. And yes, Jake Roberts vs. The Undertaker was a battle we may never see again. Maybe the two most psychological wrestlers of all-time going one-on-one, and they're put in the second match on the card. Ugh. 295. David posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And the Giants are your 2012 World Series champions. 296. 18fan posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I hate to watch the Giants win, being from Southern California, but they definitely deserved it this year. 297. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sweep. How bout that? A Romo in sports that can close the deal without collapsing in an epic and hilarious fashion. 298. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.28.2012 - 11:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Jake/Taker match was something to behold. Wish Jake didn't become so consumed with substances cause he had a LOT to offer the sport. And I am glad you mentioned the '92 Rumble. That was epic, the greatest wrestler ever being the greatest wrestler ever. Man I love YouTube. 299. cjs3872 posted: 10.29.2012 - 12:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul (#278), yes I did create (or in this case, replace) my YouTube account. What happened was that I received two strikes from my Super Bowl uploads (it would have been three had I not reacted as quickly as I did, and a third strike would have meant termination of my account status). Nine were taken down, but in two sweeps, instead of one, which resutled in two strikes, instead of just one. So a couple of days later, I decided to delete my original YouTube channel and effectively replace it, which also apparently resulted in the strikes also getting removed. It's now cjs83172, instead of cjs3872, but most of the same stuff will be going up. In fact, the 1973 Indianapolis 500 is already back up. The obvious exception is the Super Bowl films, which I probably won't try to re-upload for obvious reasons. Even the NFL Films Legacy Series, which had been up all year, was allowed to stay up with no objection from the NFL, which was the party responsible for what happened to the Super Bowl films, and thus my deleting my original channel. But I have no immediate plans to re-upload the NFL Legacy Series at this time. 300. cjs3872 posted: 10.29.2012 - 12:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) JG24FF, the reason that there will be a great deal of anticipation next year if Jimmie wins the championship is that a title this year will make six, one away from the record of seven, held by two certifiable legends, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Sr., and of all the records bandied about in NASCAR, the one that carries the most lasting impact is the seven championships jointly held by Petty and Earnhardt. I can remember back when Dale won the 1993 title, and the biggest story in NASCAR, if not all of motorsports throughout most of the 1994 season was Earnhardt's quest to tie Petty's mark of seven titles, which as few as three or four years earlier (in 1989, '90, and '91) was considered an unreachable recrd, so it was a year-long storyline to the 1994 season. Of course, Ernie Irvan's crash at Michigan ended the story of the championship, because Earnhardt could coast the rest of the way to the record-tying seventh title. And with apologies to all the other records that Petty set, or the ones held by other drivers, the Holy Grail of NASCAR records is the seven championships jointly held by Richard Petty and Dale, Sr. Now if he were to win a sixth, and eventually a seventh title, it would almost certainly not carry the weight of the seven titles of Petty and Earnhardt, but that's not part of the discussion. What this is about is the achievement of winning seven titles and the great record that it is, not just because of the record itself, but also the particular indiviuals that share that record. Certainly, Jeff Gordon's four consecutive Southern 500 wins was probably his greatest achievement, something noted by Darrell Waltrip on the night of the 1998 season finale at Atlanta, as well as four consecutive spring race wins at Bristol accomplished the same four years as his Southern 500 winning streak, or his six consecutive road course wins, as well as his unprecedented streak of four consecutive crown jewel race wins in 1998-'99, but I was talking about a career milestone that Johnson may be pursuing next year. And mark my words, if Johnson wins the title this year, there will be a great deal of anticipation next year as Johnson will have a chance to tie the most celebrated record in the sport, that of the seven titles held by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Sr. 301. jabber1990 posted: 10.29.2012 - 1:40 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) im from Southeast Missouri does that make me a northerner? and even though the controversial war in Iraq is over the war wasn't over, if the brits were still there I think it would have been easier but, they werent 302. Rusty posted: 10.29.2012 - 1:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Man, this place has become majorly off-topic. A place about the Martinsville race is mostly discussion about bands, US presidents, the World Series, Tony Romo being a chokejob artist and overall complete joke of a QB, etc. Not that I can judge, I've hardly paid attention to NASCAR since football season started. With basketball coming, it will get even worse. With that said, I watched some of this race since my Bucs had already played (and won :D ) on Thursday night. Martinsville has become a pretty predictable track lately. If JJ or Denny doesn't win, it is almost a shock. Brad did well to stay within two points after Jimmie's strongest track. I think Bowyer has an outside shot, but losing 8 points to JJ hurt his cause today. I think the title ultimately comes down to the 2 and 48 at Homestead with Jimmie getting one title within Richard and Dale. 303. jabber1990 posted: 10.29.2012 - 1:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) however I probably would have fought for the south in the Civil War, they had a good reason to fight and unlike most people I know the Civil war wasn't fought over Slavery, that wasn't even an issue, Lincon was a biggot, and he was in favor of slavery so why would have done a war to end it? a good friend of mine told me that however Lincon did sign the Emancipation proclimation as a tactical Decision as oppose to a Moral one 304. jabber1990 posted: 10.29.2012 - 1:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think it was John Gibson said he'd love to see Jeb Bush run, but sadly just because his name is "bush" he wont 305. Flywheel posted: 10.29.2012 - 1:48 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) IF cjs has "knowledge", I'm Danica Patrick. CJS has unproven theories. Paul, unless you have proof that Bliss got canned because of his pass, I'd suggest you cram it. 306. rtcrules posted: 10.29.2012 - 2:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I always liked Wrestlemania VIII but it could have been better. It was supposed to be Flair/Hogan in the mainevent but because of the steroid charges they didnt think Hogan was even going to be at the event so the Sid/Hogan match was kinda thrown together late. In the mainevent Sid wasnt suposed to kickout, Harvey Whippleman (sp?) got involved cause he thought Sid was going to kick Hogan's @$$. Harvey was being a good company soldier. Sid was canned right after that. Flair/Savage was a match I enjoyed but the reason Flair got fined and Hitman didnt was because Bret did a lot better job at cutting himself and he told the doctors it was a ligit accidental cut. Flairs cut was shown cause the cameramen didnt know it was coming and Flair couldnt hide the blade so he just threw it off to the side. And the Hitman/Piper IC match was epic. The Warrior. Ugh. He spends too much time getting high with RVD. And in Bret's book, he thought both Hogan and Warrior were spoild and selfish but they were drawing better with Hogan and getting paid a percentage of the gate which made Hogan better to work around. Though Hogan refused to drop the belt to Bret at Summerslam 93 which Hogan later denied when they worked together in WCW. 307. rtcrules posted: 10.29.2012 - 2:57 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "im from Southeast Missouri does that make me a northerner?" Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland were border states that never left the union but had units on both sides so it wouldnt have been unreasonable for you to fight with the CSA. And it is correct, contrary to popular belief the war wasnt about slavery it was to force the southern states back into the union. Abolishing slavery was a great thing to come out of it. And so many men were needlessly killed cause the weapons had made the Napolionic(sp?) style of war obsolite and neither side figured it out for a couple years. 308. Sean posted: 10.29.2012 - 2:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'm not interested in discussing politics, bands, or this pretty mediocre race (by Martinsville standards, which is still good by any other standard), but THIS: "I disagree. Youtube is SO full of immaturity it's not even funny." is truth, and it's so much worse when you've become a "celebrity" or "Internet star" as I unfortunately and accidentally became. I won the 2010 Ultimate Typing Championship at the SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin. I won $2,000. I got virtually no real world publicity for it, but unfortunately this kind of exploded on YouTube far more than I would have liked (over a million views) and the comments are some of the most disturbing things I've read in my life. Oh, most of the nerd jokes are fine. I fully realize a profile of my life (slovenly, bespectacled, bearded appearance, socially inept, spelling bee champion, math league champion, literary magazine editor-in-chief, Ivy League student, typing champion, web designer, obsessive archivist, ratings compiler for a Scrabble group - and yes, I did skip the truck race at Martinsville instead participating in a Scrabble tournament on Saturday) reads like some kind of nerd bucket list or something. The hundreds of virgin/nerd/neckbeard comments don't bother me much, but the people who go on and on making racist assumptions that some random Asian gamers must be faster because they're Asian (how many of them were typing at age three or hitting 100 wpm at age ten like I was?), or making just gross comments about how "winning $2,000 can buy lots of women" or cracks about how I'll "never finger a woman like I finger a keyboard", or how random people are faster because "124 wpm is slow" (hello, people, did you realize that that final text was including every key on the keyboard including crap like @#$%*&^(%^&*(?), or worst, people making cracks about how my biggest hobby other than typing was "raping" (and comments like that appallingly got 50 or 60 likes, not marked as spam). It's the same 10 or 15 comments over and over and over and they're all seemingly offensive. I had certainly noticed the shit on YouTube a long time ago, but it gave me a whole new perspective when it was pretty much all directed at me. Dammit, I should have sandbagged and let Nate win (even though he isn't close to the second fastest American, and I have raced against probably a couple hundred people online who are faster than Nate). But I did really need the money, being unemployed at the time (aside from my work on my own site). People think politicians are bad? YouTube commenters are SO MUCH FREAKING WORSE. Come to think of it, some of our Presidents 30 years from now will probably be people who made gross, obscene, anonymous YouTube comments as kids... Oh, I also have a YouTube account (username arenasnow). Pretty much all my videos are videos on various typing sites (because in addition to my thousands of hecklers from around the world, I also have hundreds of fans, which half amuses me and half exasperates me especially when every one of them asks to learn my "secrets"), but I also am trying to keep running playlists for every NASCAR, CART/Champ Car, and IRL/IndyCar season (every video that has been uploaded to YouTube for each, although I know there are a few accounts for users who upload races that I am not subscribed to yet). I'm not going to try to do Formula One playlists because I know how quickly most F1 videos get yanked. 309. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 3:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hogan was always very easy to work with. The Honky Tonk Man, who has had negative feelings towards Hogan for years, once said "Hogan could touch you and you wouldn't even feel it." Hogan understood the business and was always very easy to work with because he knew that everyone had to wrestle 4-7 times a week (depending on their schedule, but it was often closer to 7 times) and working too stiff with them would lead to injuries and real-life feuds. Warrior on the other hand, or at least at the beginning of his career, would really hit his opponents. His feud with Andre the Giant in '89 may have led to him changing the way he worked. I remember a match between the two where Warrior picked Andre up for a body slam, but in the process got a hold of Andre's "family jewels" and accidentally squeezed them as he slammed him. Naturally, Andre is very upset and punches Warrior as he's running back and forth across the ring in preparation for his signature body splash on the opponent. Also during their feud, they worked a lot of matches where one of the key "spots" was Andre falling against the ropes and getting his arms tangled between the top and middle rope, and Warrior hits him with a running clothesline. The first few matches they did it, Warrior would hit Andre right in the sternum while running at full speed. Andre, who was having enough back problems as it was, finally couldn't take it anymore, and during a match stuck out his fist and caught Warrior right between the eyes as he charged at him at full speed. The story goes that the next night Warrior was lightly jogging towards Andre when he hit his clothesline because he remembered what had happened the previous night. After he was hit, Andre whispered in his manager Bobby Heenan's ear "He's learning." And if you watch the Hogan/Warrior match from Wrestlemania VI, it looks like Warrior's not even touching Hogan when he hits his clotheslines. It sounds silly, but sometimes you have to get hurt to learn how to work in the wrestling business, and I think having Andre's fist hit him between the eyes taught Warrior how to wrestle after that. As for the Hogan/Bret Summerslam '93 deal, from what I heard Bret say (and keep in mind that Bret often holds grudges for extended periods of time, as he just made up with Shawn Michaels two years ago for something that happened in '97), Hogan was supposed to drop the belt to him at Summerslam '93, and they even did a promotional poster for it featuring the two going at it in a game of tug-of-war. The story goes that Hogan refused to wrestle Bret because he didn't like the idea of losing to someone of Bret's size and didn't think Bret could draw money. Hogan wound up losing the belt to Yokozuna two months earlier at King of the Ring '93, and ended up leaving the company about the same time as Summerslam '93. Apparently they worked well together in WCW, but Bret still has hard feelings towards Hogan for that incident. 310. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 3:21 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sean, I just watched that video. Man you were just in the zone on that first one with 163 words per minute, then "struggled" on the second one to have 124 words per minute. Don't pay any attention to what a bunch of immature YouTube posters said about you. The fact of the matter is that you typed 163 and 124 words per minute in the Finals for the 2010 World Typing Championship, and only you can declare yourself as the 2010 World Typing Champion. I was always one of the best typists in my typing class in high school, more so on accuracy than on speed. I don't know what my highest WPM was but I know it was less than 50 WPM. Being a fast typist may not be a skill most people strive to have, but the fact that you have a skill that not many people have is something to be proud of. 311. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 3:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) It's almost certain that both Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose will be back at RPM next season. Almirola stated after the race "I feel like I'm close to getting it done," and "I want to be there." He tied a career best 4th place finish at Martinsville, which he first did back at Homestead 2010 while in place of the departed Kasey Kahne. I said last week that if Almirola is back at RPM in 2013, that it was due to his great run at Kansas. Now, he has the great run last week PLUS a great finish this week on the record. I think for the past two weeks along, because they've happened late in the season (which is always a good sign for next season), not to mention the fact that there's really no one else they can put in the #43 car, it looks like RPM will maintain its driver lineup in 2013. 312. Biscuits In A Red Bull posted: 10.29.2012 - 4:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I want Johnson to get some bad luck because it'd be nice to have a new champ - Keselowski. 313. joey2448 posted: 10.29.2012 - 5:16 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow guys, I just took some time to read through all the comments....interesting stuff. And completely random, haha. I agree that if Jimmie were to win the title this year, next year would be all about whether or not if he can tie The King and The Intimidator for the record for most championships. Even though I don't want Jimmie to win this year (Go Brad!), it would certainly be a major event, even though his seven titles wouldn't mean as much as Petty's or Earnhardt's, because of the "Chase". It would still be pretty awesome to see something that's only happened twice in the history of NASCAR. Reading these comments make me so glad I found this site! 314. joey2448 posted: 10.29.2012 - 5:37 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow, Sean, I just read your post (308) and watched the typing championships video, and I gotta say that's damn impressive. Congratulations sir! And yes, you're right, just ignore the trollers on YouTube. 315. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.29.2012 - 7:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think the most Cataclysmic event In Pro Wrestling would have to be when Chris Benoit went completely Insane by killing his wife, his son and himself. This incident would send the media into a frenzy that would last for weeks, and would forever tarnish Benoit's good name. In the views of many people Benoit had turned to the Dark Side. 316. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.29.2012 - 7:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) While we are on the subject is it okay if I talk about one of the more tragic events in pro wrestling history which took place on May 23 1999. What happened on that day was Owen Hart was supposed to descend from the rafters of the Kemper Arena in a superhero like fashion into the ring but something would go horribly, horribly wrong and Owen would fall 80 feet into the ring below and die almost instantly. 317. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.29.2012 - 7:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Funny thing about youtube is that you can act spoiled and childish all you want but if you download something that is in their mind illegal they will lose their minds and shut down your account in an instant. Pure hypocrisy if you ask me. 318. David posted: 10.29.2012 - 9:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "and yes, I did skip the truck race at Martinsville instead participating in a Scrabble tournament on Saturday" Really?? Haha, that's your own choice. "305. Flywheel posted: 10.29.12 - 1:48 am IF cjs has "knowledge", I'm Danica Patrick." Flywheel, learn to retaliate without wrecking yourself. "im from Southeast Missouri does that make me a northerner?" Nope. "Man, this place has become majorly off-topic. A place about the Martinsville race is mostly discussion about bands, US presidents, the World Series, Tony Romo being a chokejob artist and overall complete joke of a QB, etc." Is that a criticism or a mere observation? Where else can we discuss these topics? 319. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 10:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Good Lord. A few years ago when I was applying for jobs, a few places, for reasons I don't understand, would have me go to a website that would test my typing wpm. I was happy to get a score of like 72 or something. I thought that was good. I'm sure if I practiced I could get to 85 or 90. But 163? DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!! Respect to you sir. That is mind blowing. As for skipping the Truck race to compete in a Scrabble tournament? NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!! Just kidding. I've actually never been to a Truck race (which Ivplan to change for next year's Rockingham event). I am to Scrabble what Matt Kenseth is to Sears Point. Once again, respect sir. Benjamin, the two incidents you spoke of are the two biggest black eyes for the wrestling industry, two genuinely tragic situations that affected the industry in ways that can't be measured and are still very much being felt today. The Owen situation effectively marked the end of the Attitude era. By that point quality was being thrown out the window, it was alll about "how outrageous and over the top can we get?" It happend cause of Stone Cold's rocketship ascent to national stardom, which in short was attributed to him being a "foul mouthed, beer drinking, middle finger showing badass". The truth is he was a guy who played the good soldier for so long in WCW for so long only to constantly be shit on then fired after a string of injuries causing him to be very angry which he showed in his on screen persona (basically how he was feeling in real life) which became something the everyday person could relate to. This guy got screwed, got pissed, then just started wrecking everything in his path, including his own boss, knowing he would gladly dump him in a second with no remorse if he wasn't contributting to the bottom line. Throw in the perfect timing of him exploding right around the Montreal Incident with Bret Hart (I refuse to refer to that as a Screwjob, Bret was wrong) in which Vince defiantly refused to show any public regret and actually constantly mocked him afterwards, and a phenomenon was born. Fast forward to May 1999, and the underlying subtexts were being ignored, it was all about the "outrageous" aspect of it. This led to the "um, why were you doing this?" moment when they decided to lower Owen 70 feet into the ring like it was a circus or something. The harness malfunctioned immediately and one of the few truly all the way good human being in the industry plunged to his death in front of a huge crowd who thought it was just another outrageous stunt. As for Benoit, that is one of those deals where we will never truly know. Very few signs were shown before of an underlying psychosis, but he was also a very quiet guy who internalized mostly. Yet he was one of the most respected wrestlers within the industry, somebody I enjoyed watching a lot because he poured every ounce of what he had into every match. Then to spend an entire weekend coldly and emotionlessly killing his wife, son, then himself in a systematic manner is beyond disturbing. The best guess is something just flipped in his head, most likely aided by a ton of head trauma, and the fact that like every other wrestler in the world he was on The Sauce. Trying to figure that one out, to determine the cause, is like trying to crack the world's most disturbing riddle. Still tough to think about to this day. 320. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:09 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Speaking of WrestleMania main events, Hogan, the Warrior, and WrestleMania VI. Does anyone else feel that was one of Hulk's greatest actual wrestling matches and by far the most asthetically pleasing Mania he ever headlined? This is odd cause the Warrior was never known as a great in ring performer, most of his matches up to that point were just 30 seconds of him throwing a few clotheslines, shaking the ropes, then doing a splash (Honky Tonk Man anyone?) But that was actually a really good match. Looking at his other main events at Mania, the first two were nothing special, more gimmicks than anything (I pity the fool who thought is was a good idea to have a main event with Mr T wrestling). And while WrestleMania III may have been the most iconic moment in WWF history with Hulk bodyslamming Andre and pinning him in the biggest changing of the guard match ever in front of 93,000, the match itself really sucked. Andre's body was pretty much done by this point, and Hulk contributed practically nothing when Andre really needed him to step up his game. As for the rest, his main event with Savage was really good, underrated with a decent storyline behind it. The WM VII match with Sgt Slaughter was throw off by the US actually going to war with Iraq, forcing the show inside, and clearly rattling Slaughter (playing an Iraqui sympathizer at the time, a stroke of genius until a real war broke out. The Hoosier Dome match against Sid has already been discussed, and the less said about his impromtu match with Yokozuna and the circumstances behind it the better. One of the situations where I feel bad for Bret. That had to be the worst WrestleMania ever, at least WM 13 was saved by the epic Stone Cold - Bret Hart match. Anyways, anyone else feel WreslteMania VI was Hulk's best match on the big stage, surprising considering it was him and The Ultimate Warrior? 321. Talk4Tar posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Anyways, anyone else feel WreslteMania VI was Hulk's best match on the big stage, surprising considering it was him and The Ultimate Warrior?" Been saying that for years. One of the few times Hogan stepped up, instead of letting his usually marginal abilities make the match flop. Of course, in saying that, I must bring up Starrcade 97, one of the best built up matches in wrestling history... And then WCW's horribleness took over and the match was garbage. But it could have been a classic, if Hogan had been on his game. 322. Sean posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) No, I meant I didn't watch the race on television. I couldn't make it to Martinsville from Syracuse. It's not like I was planning on going to Martinsville and instead chose not to... I don't get SPEED, so I'd have to find a torrent online and often there aren't any for the truck races anyway... 323. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 12:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Actually I see a surprisingly high number of New York license plates at Martinsville. You are just lazy :) This led to one time before the race, a few years ago before they put the new huge and much nicer restrooms in at Martinsville, and all they had was a few tiny rooms with floor troughs and about 4 stalls, I was pissing next to some dude who blurted out "I can't believe I drove all the way from New York to piss on my feet". Btw, you are to typing what the Micro Machines guy is to talking. 324. Scott B posted: 10.29.2012 - 12:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Stat of the week: Aric Almirola is the highest finishing Ford for the first time (actually it's also the first time in his Cup career he scored manufacturer's points for any brand). Together with the laps he led last week, he's probably secured a return to the #43 next year, which was iffy just a few weeks ago. Also on the manufacturer's points, Aric's teammate Marcos Ambrose has been the top finishing Ford twice this season. Those are the only non-Roush drivers to have the top finishing Fords so far this season. It'll be interesting (to me, at least) to see how that changes in 2013 with Penske changing manufacturers and dropping their own engine program in favor of being Roush/Yates supplied. Oh, and there are at least TWO people in the world who like NASCAR and Guided by Voices. Who'da thunk it? ;) 325. 18fan posted: 10.29.2012 - 12:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle Busch will run the Truck race at Texas on the one-year anniversary of him being parked. 326. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 1:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Oh, and there are at least TWO people in the world who like NASCAR and Guided by Voices. Who'da thunk it? ;)" Glad I'm not the only NASCAR fan who's heard of them, let alone likes them. Just for that reason, you're alright in my book Scott :). And yes, surprisingly enough, the Hogan/Warrior match from Wrestlemania VI was Hogan's best Wrestlemania match because he showed that he can lead a match and make it good, rather than rely on his opponent to work the match and then he can his little "point the finger, three punches, big boot, leg drop, flex" routine. I actually watched that match with Scott Hall and Larry Zbyszko commentating during the match. Scott knows a lot about wrestling psychology and questioned Hogan dropping drown to avoid a full speed Warrior at two points in the match, saying he didn't understand why a guy as big as Hogan would avoid contact with someone the size of Warrior. That match provided one of the most unintentionally funny moments in wrestling history when Warrior started shaking like he had a seizure, shook the ropes, and then did a Chief Jay Strongbow-like strut across the ring as he began to make his comeback against Hogan. Pure comedy gold right there! Bret Hart was wrong about the "Montreal Screwjob" at Survivor Series '97. It was his last day with the company before he went to WCW, and since he was the World Champion, he had to lose in his final match. The problem though is that he had to lose to Shawn Michaels, whom he hated. He refused to lose to Shawn because he lost to him at Wrestlemania XII a year and a half earlier, and believed that Shawn faked a knee injury coming up to Wrestlemania 13 so that he wouldn't have to return the favor to Bret. It didn't help that coming up to the Survivor Series, Bret told Shawn that "If they want me to drop the belt to you, I will", which Shawn replied "Okay, but I can't say I'd do the same to you." Then a meeting took place involving Vince McMahon and his "top advisers" (all wrestling personalities, not just random suits with faces like he has today) about how the match was end. One of the advisers was Jim Cornette, who mentioned a few different scenarios to Bret about how he could drop the belt. One option was losing it Friday night in a non-televised event in Saskatchewan (I think), to which Bret preposterously replied "I don't want to lose to him in Canada." That'd be like President Obama saying "I don't want to lose this election in the United States of America." Well then Cornette asked him he would drop it Saturday night in Detroit, to which Bret replied "Well we've already advertised me wrestling Shawn in Canada." I couldn't imagine having to work with these two during this time. The champion is leaving the company and refuses to drop the belt in Canada because it's his home country, or the U.S. because he had been advertised to wrestle Shawn in Canada. There was nobody to root for in this debacle. In one corner you have a whiny take-his-ball-and-go-home ass****, and in the other you have the champion who refuses to drop the belt before leaving and making more money somewhere else. It was like the Kyle Busch/Kevin Harvick feud. There was nobody to root for and all it did was create headaches for people. 327. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 1:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Meanwhile in NASCAR-related news, Drew Blickensderfer has resigned from RCR as Jeff Burton's crew chief and will take a job as Marcos Ambrose's crew chief beginning this weekend at Texas. Ambrose's previous crew chief Mike Ford will remain at RPM for the remainder of the season before taking a job somewhere else. Right now, he's rumored to be going to BK Racing next season. Luke Lambert, who currently crew chiefs Elliott Sadler in the Nationwide Series, will move up to Cup to crew chief Jeff Burton for the final three races and in 2013. Lambert crew chiefed Burton to all 5 of his top ten finishes last season, and helped Burton finish a terrible season on a high note. If anything can save Burton, it'll be having Lambert return as his crew chief. I still think Bobby Labonte could do a better job of driving, but alas we can't always get what we want (Rolling Stones reference). Having Lambert move from the #2 Nationwide team leads me to speculate that that team may not be back next season. They haven't discussed replacing Sadler with anyone and are losing a sponsor too, so this may be the final nail in the coffin for that team. 328. rtcrules posted: 10.29.2012 - 2:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I will agree that the Warrior/Hogan match from Wrestlemania VI was Hogans best job of leading in a match. But its still not a good match. Just because its an "iconic" match doesnt make it good. Another "iconic" match that I never cared for is the ironman match from Wrestlemania XII. Both matches are great the first time you see it but they have no rewatchable qualities. Great matches are like great movies or great races, you'll never get tired of watching them. I could watch Savage/Steamboat from III, Austin/Hart from 13, Roysl Rumble match from '92... there's a lot. And DSFF, the WWE will claim the war was the reason they moved Wrestlemania VII indoors from the LA Collisium but they moved it in from poorer then expected ticket sales. Have you seen any videos of WCCW when they would do shows at the Cotton Bowl? By WCCW standards there are a lot of people there, but by Cotton Bowl standards that stadium is empty. There would have been more people at Wrestlemania VII but there would have been a lot of empty seats and that would have looked real bad. 329. Dusty posted: 10.29.2012 - 2:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I wonder how ESPN and Speed are going to contort Texas as being the main 'wild card race of the chase' as they have said about every chase race so far? 330. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 3:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Does anyone else think those Texas Motor Speedway commercials are just embarrassing? Advertising the race as if it were a circus is both false advertising because if anything, the Texas races are very predictable, and it no longer looks like a sport. You don't see NFL or MLB commercials advertising their games as anything other than what they are, which is a game between two teams facing off to see which team can score more points than the other team (although NFL commercials love advertising the big hits that reward 0 points). The marketing for NASCAR races have turned them from a sport between 43 of the world's best stock car drivers doing battle on the high speed asphalt tracks, into nothing more than a stunt show with circus-like attributes. 331. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 3:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Actually, I take back what I said about WrestleMania VII. That was a total mail in by Hulk. Just watched the last 10 minutes of it on YouTube along with the build up to it and Slaughter was really on his game. Hulk was just going through the motions. I wonder if he was mad cause he didn't get to beat the Warrior for it. Considering he spent most of his career trying to get that win back, first through The Renegade (remember him?) in WCW then actually getting The Warrior to come to WCW in the late 90's in a HORRIFICALLY FRAKING AWFUL storyline that led to a HORRIFICALLY FREAKING AWFUL pay per view match (watched it at a friend's house, Thank God I didn't have to pay for that garbage which they had to replay the following night cause the signal got lost for some folks). Hulk took wins and losses way too seriously. Everybody knew he was always gonna win, it just sucked the life out of Hulkamania prematurely. I'd argue his loss to the Warrior in WrestleMania VI bought him at least another year or two. And I also watched the second part of the WrestleMania VIII match against Sid. Another mail in, only it was against Sid so it was unsalvageable. The clusterbomb of an ending was fitting. The guy who really saved the day to some extent was Harvey interfering (great move by him and he was one of the best weasel managers ever, although Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart was the king of this). My favorite part? Papa Shango, when he finally comes out, is already 3 minutes too late, and he is in the aisle way doing his stupid little voodoo dance. Get with the program dude! Hard to believe he would eventually become The Godfather. Then the Off The Sauce Warrior comes down and it mercifully ends. Btw, speaking of YouTube posters and how they are mostly immature flamers, but there are a few funny ones, somebody posted something to the extent of "The only thing that would have made this funnier is if, while running to the ring, The Warrior tripped and fell into a pile of dog shit". Lol and amen. 332. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 3:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And yes, I have been very annoyed by TMS' commercials. They know the racing there is gonna suck, so they just create this circus diversion. They can't even show highlights from past Texas races races cause they have no highlights. The only place anything memorable has ever happened there is in victory lane. There is the famous embrace between Dale Jr and Big E after his first win, then Arie getting flung into the landscaping by AJ Foyt which was just awesome. I think that should be the TMS tradition. The winner gets to be smacked upside the head then thrown into the fake flowers by the legend himself after every race. C'Mon, would the drivers not love this? Getting flung around by AJ Foyt would be an honor. 333. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 3:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Haha that would at least make it intriguing to see who would win because the winner would have the honor of being A.J. Foyt's personal bitch in victory lane. It might be the only time I root for Denny to win this season, as he fits that role perfectly. And just to add another twist, we could give those handguns that shoot off blanks to A.J. and let him pistol whip the winner. Imagine the dialogue by A.J. if Carl Edwards wins. "So Carl, I hear you got big guns (muscles). So do I!" *WHACK!* Yes it sounds barbaric, but it would at least encourage people to watch and would be good for ratings. Damn, now I want to see that! As for Sid, he was actually pretty good when against smaller wrestlers like Shawn Michaels and Brian Pillman. He was the prototypical "Goliath" to the other wrestler's "David". But he sucked in "big vs. big" matches, such as against Hogan at Wrestlemania XIII and against Undertaker at Wrestlemania 13. 334. Rusty posted: 10.29.2012 - 3:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) RCR taking away Elliott Sadler's crew chief while he is in a championship battle with 3 races to go is a pretty big slap in the face. We know he is out the door after the season is over, but with 3 races left and a championship are you seriously going to change crew chiefs? 335. Rusty posted: 10.29.2012 - 4:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I just read that Lambert won't actually take over the 31 team until 2013, so I take back that previous comment. 336. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 4:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rusty, sorry I made a mistake. Shane Wilson will take over as Burton's crew chief for the final 3 races, and Luke Lambert will take over starting in 2013. He will remain as Sadler's crew chief for the remainder of 2012. 337. Dave #38 Fan posted: 10.29.2012 - 4:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Elliott Sadler and Luke Lambert have really worked well together this year, I was hoping that Lambert would be moving with sadler to joe gibbs racing next season, as their current nationwide crew cheifs, Adam Stevens, Matt Lucas, and Kevin Kidd, have not impressed me. 338. Daniel posted: 10.29.2012 - 4:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Texas entry list: -Danica Patrick in the #10 -Trevor Bayne in the #21 -Kelly Bires in the #79 339. murb posted: 10.29.2012 - 5:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Glad to see that Childress finally realized, "Wow, the 31 car has sucked all year." Jeff and Luke did pretty good with each other at the end of last year, so hopefully in 2013 they can regain some of that magic. I never knew why Richard broke them up in the first place. I may be mistaking, but this will be Ambrose's third Crew Chief this year (Todd Parrott, Mike Ford, and now Drew Blickensderfer). I'm not expecting the third time to be the charm on this one, because Blickensderfer has never impressed me as a Crew Chief. He won those two races in 2009 with Matt Kenseth, but really hasn't done anything noteworthy at all other than that, except for a few NNS wins with Carl Edwards. 340. murb posted: 10.29.2012 - 5:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Adam Stevens, Matt Lucas, and Kevin Kidd, have not impressed me." I actually think that Adam Stevens is really good. Elliott will probably drive the 18 NNS car, so that's most likely who they'll pair him with. But yeah, Lucas and Kidd have never impressed me either. 341. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 5:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) murb, I think RCR moved Luke Lambert to his Nationwide program because he wanted a competent car to go along with his #3 with grandson Austin Dillon. Elliott Sadler proved to be very consistent in 2011, but he couldn't win or even contend for wins. After seeing how well Lambert worked with Jeff Burton, I think he could trust Lambert to make Sadler relevant in 2012 and ensure that he would be the dominant RCR Nationwide car this season. I think it really helped Austin to have a teammate who's not only a veteran that can help him on and (to a lesser extent) off the race track, but would be competitive enough to where Austin wouldn't have to be the number one guy on RCR's Nationwide team during his rookie season. With both Austin and Sadler being championship contenders, I think RCR is comfortable with Sadler leaving and must feel that Austin has learned as much as he can from him, and has a chance to prove himself to being the number one guy at RCR in 2013, and might even be the number one guy in the whole Nationwide Series next year. 342. Eric posted: 10.29.2012 - 5:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I don't know how much longer Ambrose will be RPM since going through 3 crew chiefs in a year is a lot. I think RPM is part of Ambrose's issue since they are not a top notch team. I would be surprised is Ambrose will be racing with RPM in 2014 because I don't see things changing for Ambrose in terms of next year. The only reason Richard Childress is giving the 31 Luke Lambert is the fact he wants the 31 to be in good shape for being competitive when he his grandson Austin will take over the car in 2014. 343. 18fan posted: 10.29.2012 - 5:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The only other notable thing that happened at Texas was the Gordon-Burton fight on the backstretch, and it was really just Gordon shoving Burton. 344. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 6:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I love how in the year where NASCAR declared "Boys, have at it", they actually do have two guys going at it and they broke it up. Weak. And just for the record, Gordon also grabbed Burton into a headlock before the officials intervened. I think that classifies that incident as a "scuffle". Speaking of Texas Motor Speedway commercials, remember the one last year? They spent weeks advertising another Gordon/Burton fight, which was a once in a lifetime occurrence, and they advertised Kyle Busch one year after his infamous pit road meltdown, and the dumbass wasn't even in the race because he couldn't control his temper in a meaningless Truck race. Another example of false advertising by the Bruton Smith Circus Act. 345. Talon64 posted: 10.29.2012 - 7:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jimmie Johnson picks up his 59th career Sprint Cup Series victory and 4th of 2012 (just 2 in all of 2011), but his first in 13 races (3 runner-up finishes over that span). Johnson now has 4+ wins in 8 of his 11 full seasons in Cup, averaging 5.4 wins per season since 2002. To put that in perspective, he's one of 17 drivers with 5 or more wins TOTAL over that span! Johnson currently leads the series in top 5's (17), top 10's (23), laps led (1551, his most since 2009) and average finish (10.1) a feat that he has yet to accomplish in his career. Jeff Gordon's actually done it during Jimmie's career, in 2007 when he led with 21 top 5's, 30 top 10's, 1,300 laps led and a 7.3 average finish. Johnson picks up his 7th career win at Martinsville, his most at any track, which ties him with Jeff Gordon for 3rd most all time. He's also closing in on becoming the 8th driver to lead 2,000+ laps at Martinsville (1,981). Johnson improves his career avg fin at Martinsville to 5.5 in 22 starts (15 top 5's, 19 top 10's). It's his 11th career short track win but first since Bristol back in 2010. Kyle Busch now has 10+ top 5's for the 6th time in 8 seasons in Cup, his 4th in 5 seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing. His 60 top 5's since 2008 rank him 3rd, while his 90 career top 5's since 2005 ranks him 5th. It's his 4th top 5 in 7 Chase races, but he only ranks 6th in points scored due to finishes of 28th and 31st. It's his 4th runner-up finish of the season (2nd to Jimmie Johnson's 5) and the 21st runner-up finish of his career. 2nd is Kyle's best finish in 16 Martinsville starts, but it's his 4th top 4 finish in the last 7 races and his 7th career top 5 there (16.8 avg fin). Kyle has 26 top 5's in 48 career short track starts, versus 37 in 139 starts on tracks 1-2 miles long. Kasey Kahne picks up his 3rd straight top 10 and his 4th top 5 in 7 Chase races; has no finish worse than 15th. He's been outscored by Jimmie Johnson in the Chase by just 20 points, but loses an extra 9 points due to Jimmie's bonus points for regular season wins. Kahne needs 1 more top 10 to equal his career-high for top 10's in a season, 19 back in 2006. Kahne gets just his 2nd top 5 and 3rd top 10 in 18 career Martinsville starts (20.7 avg fin); it's his first top 10 there in 12 races. Aric Almirola ties his best career Cup finish in 4th, just his 2nd top 5 and 5th top 10 (3 in 2012) in 68 career starts. It's the first top 10 for Richard Petty Motorsports in 9 races (5th for Marcos Ambrose at Bristol). 2 of Amirola's 3 top 10's this season have come at Martinsville, his first two in 8 career starts there (27.0 avg fin). In fact, 3 of his 5 career top 10's have come at short tracks, with the other being at Bristol back in 2008. Clint Bowyer picks up his 40th career top 5 in his 250th career Cup starts. But 9 of them have come this year alone, after having 31 in his first 6 full seasons in Cup (average of 5.2). It's the 3rd time in his career that Bowyer's led 100+ laps in his career (all 154+), but the first time he hasn't won when doing so. It's Bowyer's 6th top 10 in 7 Chase races, including his 3rd straight finish of 6th or better. Bowyer equals his best finish at Martinsville in 5th, just his 2nd top 5 but his 8th top 10 (including 3 in the last 4 races) in 14 career starts (14.0 avg fin). Brad Keselowski qualifies a season-worst 32nd, but comes back for his 6th top 10 and 5th finish of 6th or better in 7 Chase races and his 15th top 10 in the last 17 races. It's his best finish at Martinsville and 3rd top 10 in 6 career starts there (12.2 avg fin), including in each of the races this season. Jeff Gordon picks up his 5th top 10 in the last 6 races; his 92 laps led are his most in 27 races, since he led 329 laps in the April Martinsville race. Gordon ended up leading the most laps at Martinsville this season at 421 and has now topped 3,500 career laps led there (3,515). It's his 32nd top 10 in 40 career Martinsville starts (7.1 avg fin), including 18 in the last 20 races, but he has now gone win-less in his last 14 races there. Brian Vickers finishes in the top 10 for a 3rd straight start, his 5th in 8 starts total this season (13.2 avg fin). Vickers had 7 top 10's in 36 starts in 2011. Vickers had previously owned the most Martinsville starts without a lap led among active drivers but led his first laps there in this race (27). He also picked up his 3rd top 10 in 15 career starts at Martinsville (19.5 avg fin). Bobby Labonte picks up just his 2nd top 10 of the season and 4th top 10 since 2010. In fact, Labonte ranked 5th in top 10's from 1995-2005 with 176 but only ranks 30th since 2006 with 19. It's Bobby's first top 10 on a short track since 2007, and his first top 10 at Martinsville in 12 races (14th in 40 starts, 18.4 avg fin). Greg Biffle gets just his 3rd top 10 in 7 Chase races, but all coming in the last 4 races. Biffle joined Keselowski in qualifying a season-worst (30th) but battling through for a top 10 (10th). It's just Biffle's 3rd top 10 in 20 career Martinsville starts (21.4 avg fin) and his 20th top 10 in 61 short track starts (16.6 avg fin). Kurt Busch finishes in the top 20 for hthe first time in 8 races, and his first in 3 races for Furniture Row Racing. Landon Cassill has back-to-back top 20 finishes for the 1st time this season. 346. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.29.2012 - 7:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Peak of Pro Wrestling would have to be Wrestlemania X-7 (which I attended) taking place at the Astrodome in Houston Texas. The card was stacked with all of wrestling's top talent with the main event Featuring two of the biggest names in Pro Wrestling as Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock faced off for the WWF Championship. It was a great match with Stone Cold coming out victorious in the match but it was also the beginning of the end for the Stone Cold Character as he would join forces with Vince Mcmahon following the match. It was also the beginning of the end for the Pro Wrestling boom as the WWE had purchased their rival wrestling promotion WCW a week prior to this show ending the Monday Night wars between them. With no competition left and with a monopoly on the wrestling business The WWE became complacent the quality of their shows began to go downhill and it really was no longer that much fun to watch anymore. 347. murb posted: 10.29.2012 - 8:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Those are good points Paul. Like I said, as a lifelong Burton fan, I'm just happy to see that they finally did something. If you ask me this change should have been done two or three months ago. Ambrose's future with RPM? It's hard to say. If he has another mediocre year in 2013 like he had this year, I could definitely see him as being on the hot seat. Don't forget, they've got Michael Annett in their stable, and he has had a fantastic year in NNS. So if Ambrose flounders again and Annett has another successful NNS year, Annett might be the odds on favorite to take over the 9 car in 2014. Where would that leave Ambrose's Nascar career? I don't know. In other RPM news, I read that they are really close to a new deal with Aric Almirola for him to remain as the driver of the famous 43 car. He has really stepped it up the last two weeks. The only thing I'm worried about is that his good runs have been coming at a time of uncertainty for his future. So I really hope that this isn't one of those classic "contract runs". Hopefully, once they get this new deal done, Aric will continue to progress as a good little Cup driver instead of becoming fat and lazy with a new contract and nothing to worry about. 348. JG24FanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 8:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "And mark my words, if Johnson wins the title this year, there will be a great deal of anticipation next year as Johnson will have a chance to tie the most celebrated record in the sport, that of the seven titles held by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Sr." I was watching Rockingham in 1994 when Big E locked up his greatest Championship by beating a very inspired Rick Mast to the line, and afterwords Chocalate was crying and the rest of the team were celebrating thier Legend,and Big E smiling his Devil-May-Care smile with his Win/Title double. I don't know if I would have the same anticipation for Jimmie J, considering Dale was my favorite driver at the time and Jimmie is just Gordon's road-block to me now. But his seventh wouldn't hold the nagnitude that his five straight have already had.Because(even with the Chase)something like 5 consecutive Championships will never happen again, and it's safe to say that back-back title's is even a stretch.Which is what I beleive Nascar wants with the point system(Brian France double-talked this one)instead of another potential #48 dynasty or anymore back-back championship winners . 349. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 8:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) murb, I think Michael Annett is going to have to win in the Nationwide Series next season for him to move up to the Cup Series. Ambrose isn't great, but he always has a shot at winning, or at least running very well, on the road courses, short tracks, and now on the superspeedways now that the Fords have an advantage with their superior cooling system. If Annett can continue to improve and move up from being a weekly top ten driver into a weekly top five driver, then it's possible he could move up to Cup. Until then, he just has to keep getting better. I like what I've seen from him this year on a team that assembled only a month before the season started and is likely to finish 5th in points (the highest driver who isn't a weekly top five contender), and I hope that he and that team only continue to improve. The best thing for them would be to align themselves with Roush's #6 Nationwide car and driver Trevor Bayne. They're looking at being single-car teams next season and should work together more closely in 2013. Having Penske join the Ford foray next year will help, but they need to work together because they have already established themselves as the top 2 Ford Nationwide programs. 350. JG24FanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 9:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dramatic stat of the race: 21 consecutive(10 years)Top 12 finishes at Martinsville for Jimmie J. 15 Top 5's and 19 Top 10's(17 consecutive)with 7 wins and 1981 laps led. A little less dramatic stat of the race: 20 consecutive Top 20 finishes at Martinsville for Jeff Gordon. 14 Top 5's(11 consecutive)18 Top 10's with 4 wins and 2350 laps led. 351. JG24FanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 9:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) More stats: Jeff Gordon has been running at the finish of 40 consecutive Martinsville races, a streak that started with an 8th place finish in his debut in the 1993 spring event. Jimmie Johnson has been running at the finish of 21 consecutive Martinsville races, which is the second longest all-time(?)to Gordon's 40. 352. JG24FanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 9:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Tony Stewart has been running at the finish in the last 22 Martinsville race. Ken Schrader had a streak of 21 like JJ. 353. BON GORDON posted: 10.29.2012 - 10:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hey I just want all the racing reference bloggers/fans who live on the east coast to know that I'm praying for their safety. Superstorm Sandy is threatning everyone from Maine to New York City. I live in Pittsburgh and it's raining extremely hard right now and the wind gusts are picking up. Just hope this passes without too much damage as well. 354. murb posted: 10.29.2012 - 10:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well said, Bon Gordon. Stay safe everyone!!! 355. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 10:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Anyone else watching MNF? How bout that Randy Moss TD? Is it 1999 again? 356. 18fan posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Does anybody else remember when Moss mooned the fans in Green Bay while he was playing for the Vikings? 357. Paul posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 18fan, yes I do! Packer fans are known for mooning the opposing team's bus as it leaves Lambeau Field after a home win. Moss just gave them a taste of their own medicine, only he still had his pants on. Of course, Joe Buck tried to ruin it by proclaiming it as being disgusting (I hate that guy). 358. cjs3872 posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well BON GORDON, I live in Baltimore and it's been rough all day. However, by some miracle, as of 11:11 PM, power where I live has not yet gone out. But I could see that the effects would be felt in laces like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Buffalo. The effects have even been felt in Chicago, if you can believe it, where winds are whipping up the Great Lakes. And JG24FF, sure Jimmie Johnson's five consecutive championships is a record that will probably never be approached again, but what I was saying is that the seven championships is the career milestone against which all others are measured in NASCAR. But here's a possible irony for you. If Johnson wins this year's title and does not win one of the last three races, he'll have 59 career wins at the time of his sixth championship. When Dale Earnhardt, Sr. won his sixth championship in 1993, his career win total at the end of that season also stood at 59, so Johnson, if he wins the title this year without winning another race, will have the exact same number of wins at the time of his sixth title as did Dale, Sr. That means if he wins the championship this year without winning again, and wins exactly four races and the championship next year, he'll also match the number of wins Earnhardt, Sr. had at the time of both his sixth and seventh titles, as that woyuld give Johnson 59 wins at the time of his sixth title and 63 at the time of his seventh, which was exactly how many wins Dale, Sr. had at the time of his last champoinship in 1994, because when Dale, Sr. won at Rockingham on the day he clinched his last title, that was his 63rd career win. Something to think about. And murb, with his last two performances, Aric Almirola has virtually locked up the seat in the #43 car for next year, even if his ride was in jeopardy, which I don't think it was. A dominant run at Kansas and a fourth place at Martinsville. But what's happened with Marcos Ambrose at the #9 car mystifies me as he'll be on his third crew chief this year. But should it be surprising? Even when Kasey Kahne successfully drove the #9 after Richard Petty got that team, he always focused on the #43 car, which I've dubbed the "family car", so it's natural that Almirola would do better than Ambrose, though his runs the last two weeks were surprising, partucularly his run at Kansas. But I disagree with your assessment that Michael Annett has had a great season in the NNS this year. He's probably the most improved driver in the Nationwide Series this year, but he hasn't put that car in the first group of cars, though it's clearly up near the front of the second group of cars. He's had a very good season, but not a great one. And as for what you said about Annett's team probably joining forces with Trevor Bayne in the #6 NNS car next year. That would still be odd to many people, simply because of Bayne's ties to Petty's long-time rivals, the Wood Brothers. It certainly would be odd to see those two factions team up, though it must be said that Kyle Petty did drive for the Wood Broithers for four years, even scoring his first two wins for the Wood Brothers, including becoming the last driver to win a speedway race while lapping the field, which he did in the 1987 Coca-Cola 600. 359. Eric posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 18fan, I remembered Moss mooned the fans in Green Bay. It is not one of may favorite moments as a Green Bay Packer fan. I saw it live on my television screen. 360. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Good, glad to see I'm not the only one who can't stand Joe Buck. From his horribly dry and boring commentary style to his high horse moments, ugh. And Benjamin Lowe, you are absolutely correct about WrestleMania 17. It was the WWF's last hurrah as a cultural phenomenon, as well as Stone Cold's last decent hurrah. Bad character decisions and his badly fading health forced him to take a smaller role, and wrestlers like The Rock, HHH, and Kurt Angle couldn't carry the load like Steve did. 361. Eric posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul, I never mooned any football players despite being a Packer fan. It is not part of my nature. I admit not all Packer fans are well behaved. I went to 2 Green Green Packer games including a home opener. The home Opener I went to was at Milwaukee County Stadium. None of the people I went with mooned any NFL Players matter of fact. 362. Eric posted: 10.29.2012 - 11:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DaleSrFanForever, You need to add me to the list of people that can't stand Joe Buck. I never can figure out why Fox hired him. 363. Paul posted: 10.30.2012 - 12:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) cjs, you say that Richard Petty has always put his main focus on the #43 car. But what about 2009? Kahne won 2 races and made the Chase in the #9 car, but Reed Sorenson had only 1 top ten finish and finished a disappointing 29th in the points. He was beaten by two other teammates who weren't supposed to be in their rides. Elliott Sadler had to sue his way into staying in the #19, and A.J. Allmendinger, who was supposed to be in the #19 car, finished 24th in the points while driving a car that wasn't intended to drive the full schedule, but did anyways because he did an admirable job in RPM's 4th car. I don't RPM truly focused on the #43 until Kasey announced he was leaving the team about halfway through the 2010 season. Through the first 16 races on 2010, Kasey had 4 top fives and 5 top tens to A.J.'s (who replaced Reed in the #43 car) had just 2 top tens. Over the final 15 races that Kasey was at RPM, Kasey had 3 top fives and 4 top tens to A.J.'s 1 top five and 6 top tens. A.J. would have another top five finish in the season finale after Kasey had already left for Red Bull. Also, after 16 races, Kasey was 18th in the points and A.J. was 22nd; but by race No. 31, A.J. was 20th and Kasey was 21st. I think RPM began to shift their focus over to the #43 soon after Kasey announced he would be leaving, because then it was clear that their best driver wouldn't be there in 2011, so they decided that rebuilding the #43 would be their number one goal. It paid off as A.J., although he didn't win a race last year, had a few good runs and was a frequent top 15 driver, finishing the year 15th in points, which was the best points finish the #43 had posted since '98 when John Andretti finished 11th in points. Now this year, Aric Almirola has been green for most of the season and is just now showing that he can run up front in Cup. The fact that RPM swapped crew chiefs between the two teams when the #9 was outrunning the #43 I think proves that they were looking to get the #43 up to speed at the cost of the #9. Todd Parrott has worked very well with both Ambrose and Almirola this year, while their results with Mike Ford have been sub-par. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if RPM and Roush work together in the Nationwide Series in 2013, even though Trevor Bayne will drive for Roush in Nationwide and for the historical rival Wood Brothers in Cup, because RPM will need to work closely with a fellow Ford team to keep up with the multi-car teams. And I don't think the rivalry between Richard Petty and the Wood Brothers is anything more than nostalgia at this point. Remember, Richard was one of the first to congratulate them on pit road shortly after Trevor won the Daytona 500. I don't think their past rivalry has any bearing at this point. I agree with your point on Michael Annett. He may be the most improved Nationwide driver this year, or at least a close 2nd to Elliott Sadler who has rediscovered victory lane this season. I mentioned before that by being in 5th place in the points, Annett is the best driver who isn't a weekly top five contender, as he recently surpassed Justin Allgaier for 5th place in the points. I think he's done a very good job this season driving for a brand new team that formed only a month before the season, but I wouldn't classify it as great because he hasn't been a weekly top five or win contender. That said, I'm glad that he's been having a very good year and I think that with Penske joining Ford and having someone like Trevor Bayne as a satellite teammate next year will only continue his progress in the Nationwide Series. 364. murb posted: 10.30.2012 - 12:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) You've got good points CJS, but I just look at the fact that the 43 NNS team didn't even exist until about three weeks before Daytona this year. It was seriously a last minute deal. Obviously, he hasn't been nearly as good as the four in front of him, but I still think that that team has shown that they are one of the five or six best NNS regular teams. And yes, Annett full on gets my vote for "Most Improved NNS Driver For 2012". To me, every week he seems like he gets better. They've already announced that he will be back for another full run next year, so I only see him going upwards. As for Ambrose, I just don't think he is having as good of a season as he did last year. Yeah, he won Watkins Glen, but that's it. Last year, he won Watkins Glen and was a contender to win a few oval races. But this year on the ovals, he's looked like a rookie all over again. I don't know what's going on. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, since everyone has bad years. But if it continues into next season then I'd look for him to be out of that car by 2014. 365. Paul posted: 10.30.2012 - 12:15 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Eric, I didn't mean all Packer fans, such as yourself, partook in this mooning practice. Obviously there are good fans and bad fans for every team in sports, and unfortunately sometimes the worst fans are the ones who get labeled as being that team's stereotypical fans, and makes all the good fans look bad. I'm reminded of a quote by Charles Barkley, who's from Alabama, when he described the rowdy fans of Alabama and Auburn, when he said something along the lines of "There are a lot of good people in the state of Alabama, but they often get overshadowed by the renegade rednecks from our state." I think that about sums it up. Damn, DSFF. There's another thing we agree on. If not for our different regional backgrounds and our differing opinions on Jeff Gordon's historical ranking, I'd think we were the same person lol. 366. Paul posted: 10.30.2012 - 12:22 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wrestlemania X-Seven not only marked the end of a great era in wrestling (The Attitude Era), but it was arguably the greatest Wrestlemania of all-time. With matches like the memorable hardcore match between Raven/Kane/Big Show, Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit, the street fight between father Vince and son Shane McMahon, the 3-team TLC match, Undertaker vs. Triple H, and Steve Austin vs. The Rock, it may have had the greatest wrestling card of all-time. So much greatness on that show, and so many matches that will never happen again, whether it be because of injuries, cut-backed schedules, or death. Oh, and who could forget about that Gimmick Battle Royal that the Iron Sheik won? I'm a big Sheikie fan and seeing him do nothing for the whole match and then get the final elimination was simply awesome! In his words, he made the other wrestlers humble. 367. cjs3872 posted: 10.30.2012 - 12:48 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul, just because the #43 car didn't have the greatest success when Kasey Kahne drove the #9 for the organization didn't mean that Petty didn't put that much focus on it. I believe he will always focus more on the #43 car than any other car in his organization because that's his car, hence my calling it the "family car". It was just that the #43 team had been insuch disarray for so long that more emphasis tha usual had to be put on it to bring it up to the other team's cars. As for the drivers in that car, I think the results speak for themselves. Reed Sorenson wasn't that good and A.J. Allmendinger was only marginally better. Allmendinger proved that with his disastrous tenure at Penske Racing. and remember that Kasey Kahne and Kenny Francis have won together for four different organizations, Evernham, Petty (after Gillett-Evernham merged with it), Red Bull, and now Hendrick Motorsports. And you also mention the rivalry between Petty and the Wood Brothers, but that has always been a friendly rivalry, as Petty and the Wood Brothers have always been friends, and their friendship was one reason why Kyle drove for the Woods for four years. That friendship between Petty and the Woods was never more on display than after last year's Daytona 500, when Richard Petty not only was the first one to congratulate the Woods (I'm not sure Jack Roush, who supplied the cars, ever congratulated the team after the race, though he did shake Trevor's hand, but not until after Bill Elliott did), but he was the one that actually showed Glen Wood where victory lane was. And let's not forget that Glen Wood and Richard Petty were both in the very first race ever run at the Daytona International Speedway, which was the 100-mile qualifying race for the convertibles. In fact, Wood was the pole sitter for that race. But Petty and the Wood Brothers, while for many years were each other's toughest competitors, were always, and still are friends. And an ironic twist about the Petty-Wood Brothers rivalry is this. Before Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 last year, the last victory for the Wood Brothers was in the 2001 spring race at Bristol with Elliott Sadler. The car that finished in second place that day was none other than the #43 car, with John Andretti driving. Sure it's nostalgic today, but the rivalry between Petty and the Wood Brothers will forver be a part of the sport's history, but one that's forgotten by most because many fans never actually saw it in action, which was why I think that 2001 spring race at Bristol may go down as one of the most nostalgic races in the history of the sport. Certainly for those that watched that race, seeing the 21 and 43 cars at the top of the pylon reminded long-time fan of the way it used to be in virtually all of the sport's big events. 368. Spen posted: 10.30.2012 - 1:22 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul: Don't forget that in 2009, it was "Richard Petty Motorsports" in name only. It was really George Gillett Racing. Until the end of 2010, Petty was a figurehead only. And Gillett didn't put any emphasis on the #43 while Sorenson was driving it (heck, Sorenson was driving without pay for the second half of the year. That's how little Gillett thought of him, and the team.) Then in 2010, after Allmendinger was put in the #43, it started becoming higher on the priority list. Mainly at the insistance of Robbie Loomis, who made some major behind the scenes adjustments to ensure that the #43 became the top team at RPM. (Which according to Kasey, was one of the many reasons why he left the team.) Of course, now that Richard is back in control, it's unsurprising that the #43 would be top priority. 369. BON GORDON posted: 10.30.2012 - 1:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Random and off topic but the other day I was watching a great NASCAR documentary which I'm sure most have you have seen called, The Time of Their Lives. In this documentary it discusses two of NASCAR's greatest stars whose lives were cut short, Tim Richmond and Davey Allison. I've always wondered how much different this sport would be if these men were still alive today. Surley they both would be long retired by now but I want to know what their numbers would look like, who would be the better of the two, would Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt have the championships they do, would Jeff Gordon even be part of Hendrick Motorsports? I know thses questions have been asked before but I'm curious in what you guys think. I honestly have no idea how to answer these questions. I am fairly sure they would both be champions, with ten laps to go in a race I'd take Tim Richmond hands down, and Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt would not be seven and four time champions respectively. 370. Paul posted: 10.30.2012 - 1:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) cjs, I disagree with you saying that A.J. only did marginally better than Sorenson in the #43. Sorenson was one of only two RPM drivers that drove their scheduled cars in '09 (the other being Kasey in the #9), as Sadler threatened a lawsuit if his remaining two years weren't honored and A.J., who was supposed to be in the #19 that Sadler ended up driving, was put in a last minute car that wasn't scheduled to run the full schedule, yet did anyways. The season started off great as three RPM cars finished in the top ten in the rain-shortened Daytona 500 (ironically, Kasey was the only one not in the top ten). A.J. scored his first career, and only top five of the season; Sadler scored his most recent, as well as only top top five of the season, and Sorenson scored his only top ten of the season. The fact that Sorenson, who was supposedly in RPM's number two car, scored only 1 top ten and finished 29th in the points, and A.J., who was in RPM's number four car, scored 6 top tens and finished 24th in the points in a car that wasn't planned for the full schedule, proves that either the driver of the #43 was a massive underchiever, or that the #43 wasn't RPM's main focus in 2010. Personally, I think it was a mixture of both, as I think that RPM really mainly focused on the #9 because they had a great driver in Kasey, and #44 because they really wanted A.J. to succeed in a car that wasn't planned for the full season. Maybe they focused on the #43 car at the beginning of the season, but I'd hate to think that they focused on it all year and could only finish 29th in the points, even getting beat out by a driver they didn't want in Elliott Sadler. A.J. moved over to the #43 in 2010, and in two years posted 3 top fives and 18 top tens, which averages out to 1.5 top fives and 9 top tens per season, compared to Sorenson's job of getting 1 top ten in his lone season at RPM, not to mention the fact that A.J. twice sniffed victory lane in the #43, at Dover '10 and Watkins Glen '11. A.J. also finished in the top 20 in points both seasons, 19th in 2010 and 15th in 2011, both times he was the highest finishing RPM driver in points. Another interesting fact is that A.J. led more laps in 2010 (181) than Sorenson has in his entire Cup career (151). So I strongly disagree with your notion that A.J. was only marginally better than Sorenson while driving the #43. And about A.J.'s disappointing tenure in the #22, I truly believe him when he says that he put too much pressure on himself to run well with one of the sport's best teams, doing things like run into a stalled Ryan Newman on pit road at Daytona (not entirely his fault, but I think it could have been avoided), and making two stupid mistakes at Pocono (hitting the outside wall while ENTERING a turn and cutting through the grass while making a turn) that ended his day. Also, he was getting better towards the end of his tenure, posting back-to-back 9th place finishes before being suspended for failing a drug test. Had he not put so much pressure on himself to succeed driving for one of his heroes Roger Penske, I think at the very least, he would still be there and would have been in a better mental state. Also, I disagree that the #43 was in disarray for so long, or at least by the standards of Petty Enterprises of the 2000s. Bobby Labonte finished 21st in the points or higher in all three years he was in the #43, and became the first driver since John Andretti in 2000 to finish in the top five in the #43 car, which he did 3 times in 2006. I only brought up the rivalry (though I didn't use the word "friendly" like you did) between Richard Petty and the Wood Brothers because I was responding to you saying it would look odd for many fans to see RPM work with a Woods driver in Trevor Bayne next year in the Nationwide Series. I can't speak for all fans because maybe there are some older fans from the '60s and '70s who would see the irony in two teams who were once the best in the sport teaming up together, but speaking for myself, I don't think there's anything odd about it because like you said, the two sides have been friends for years. And you mention the 2001 Food City 500 being a nostalgia race with the top 2 finishing cars being the #21 and the #43, I'll add two more items of nostalgia to the mix. Elliott Sadler, the driver of the #21, set a record for lowest starting position for a Bristol winner in series history by starting 38th en route to victory, breaking the previous record set in 1999 by Dale Earnhardt, driving the #3, another legendary number. Not only that, but Sadler, driving the #21, became only the third driver to win at Bristol while having a backstretch pit stall. The first two drivers were Earnhardt, driving the famous #3, and Davey Allison, driving the famous #28. 371. Paul posted: 10.30.2012 - 1:43 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) By the way, is it true that George Gillett was never at the race track? I can't recall ever seeing him before and I saw NASCAR RaceHub clip from 2010 where Jimmy Spencer cued the production crew to show a picture of him, only for them to show a blank picture and Spencer said "Oh wait, he's never at the track." It's a shame that Sorenson wasn't getting paid the second half of '09 (I knew his salary was very small, but I had no idea it was non-existent), while his teammate that the team didn't even want was probably the highest-paid guy on the payroll. 372. joey2448 posted: 10.30.2012 - 2:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "And JG24FF, sure Jimmie Johnson's five consecutive championships is a record that will probably never be approached again, but what I was saying is that the seven championships is the career milestone against which all others are measured in NASCAR. But here's a possible irony for you. If Johnson wins this year's title and does not win one of the last three races, he'll have 59 career wins at the time of his sixth championship. When Dale Earnhardt, Sr. won his sixth championship in 1993, his career win total at the end of that season also stood at 59, so Johnson, if he wins the title this year without winning another race, will have the exact same number of wins at the time of his sixth title as did Dale, Sr. That means if he wins the championship this year without winning again, and wins exactly four races and the championship next year, he'll also match the number of wins Earnhardt, Sr. had at the time of both his sixth and seventh titles, as that woyuld give Johnson 59 wins at the time of his sixth title and 63 at the time of his seventh, which was exactly how many wins Dale, Sr. had at the time of his last champoinship in 1994, because when Dale, Sr. won at Rockingham on the day he clinched his last title, that was his 63rd career win. Something to think about." Csj3872, I enjoy reading your posts, but I believe this paragraph could've been about 5x shorter. Everything you said here could've been said in about one sentence. Lol, just sayin'... 373. cjs3872 posted: 10.30.2012 - 3:02 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well, Spen kind of answered why the #43 was so far dwon the ladder in 2009, which was why when Robbie Loomis got back into things at RPM, that the #43 became the top priority, since Loomis himself was Richard Petty's last crew chief and the man that turned that team around in the mid-90s into a team that could contend for wins. And as for Kahne being the only RPM driver not faring well in the 2009 Daytona 500, that's not a big surprise, since he has never really done that well at Daytona in the 500, with no top fives and no finish better than seventh, though he has twice finished second in the Firecracker 400. And certainly Elliott Sadler considers not winning that race to be the biggest disappointment of his career. And Paul, you mentioned that Bobby Labonte had a fairly good season in 2006 in the #43 car. Remember that was the same year that Robbie Loomis returned to Petty after his six-year stint as Jeff Gordon's crew chief, though he was not the crew chief himself. But the team soon fell into disrepair after that with the ill-fated merger with George Gillett and Ray Evernham in 2009 and Petty nearly losing his team late in 2010. Certainly the last two seasons have seen a rebuiliding of Richard Petty's team, to the point where, at times, both of his cars have been contenders at various times. Certainly they have, to some degree, benefitted from their alliance with Ford and Jack Roush, so it remains to be seen what will happen with Petty's outfit with Roger Penske rejoining the Ford ranks next year. 374. NicoRosbergFan posted: 10.30.2012 - 5:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) As a Redskins fan, I hate Tony Siragusa. 375. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.30.2012 - 7:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I was Also at Wrestlemania 25 which also took place in houston and it featured a dull as dishwater main event between the Geoff Bodine of the WWE in Triple H and Randy The Snail Boredom it was a very underwhelming show with the exception of two things the first is the Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels Match where everyone in the crowd was on the edge of their seats the entire match and the other moment would be where a drunken fan crashed into my lap and then apologized for doing so in a funny little moment there. One last thing does anyone here thank that Jimmie Johnson is the John Cena of NASCAR and John Cena is the Jimmie Johnson of the WWE. 376. David posted: 10.30.2012 - 10:18 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "But here's a possible irony for you. If Johnson wins this year's title and does not win one of the last three races, he'll have 59 career wins at the time of his sixth championship. When Dale Earnhardt, Sr. won his sixth championship in 1993, his career win total at the end of that season also stood at 59, so Johnson, if he wins the title this year without winning another race, will have the exact same number of wins at the time of his sixth title as did Dale, Sr. That means if he wins the championship this year without winning again, and wins exactly four races and the championship next year, he'll also match the number of wins Earnhardt, Sr. had at the time of both his sixth and seventh titles, as that would give Johnson 59 wins at the time of his sixth title and 63 at the time of his seventh, which was exactly how many wins Dale, Sr. had at the time of his last champoinship in 1994, because when Dale, Sr. won at Rockingham on the day he clinched his last title, that was his 63rd career win. Something to think about." To start off with, that's technically called a coincidence. And two, it seems like everything in this paragraph is stated three times. Hahaha. BON GORDON, is it possible that you mean "The Ride of Their Lives'? Because I have seen that. It's a great movie. 377. Paul posted: 10.30.2012 - 11:14 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Benjamin, I've always considered Carl Edwards to be the John Cena of NASCAR considering their close friendship and resemblance towards one another. That said, both Cena and Jimmie are quite the characters off screen, but come off as very boring on it. cjs, didn't Petty's merger with GEM have a lot to do with the cost of the COT? I think that's also the reason why DEI merged with Ganassi and why HOF Racing merged with Yates (who would then merge with RPM in 2010). 378. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.30.2012 - 11:37 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I pretty much quit watching wrestling after they bought WCW. I tried to pick it up a few times since, but just couldn't get into it. John Cena is quite simply not a main event guy, yet he is always up top. I think the JJ comparison is a valid one cause both were the dominators of an era that saw attendance, TV ratings, and overall interest fall off badly. And it is funny you mention the HBK vs Taker match. The only two WrestleManias I have watched since 17 were which ever twoo had the HBK/Taker matches. I have a friend that throws WrestleMania parties every year (which usually conflicts with the Martinsville spring race). The only two I made it to were the two where they fought, and they were both FREAKING AWESOME. Just blew everything else on the card away. I actually felt bad for those that had to go on after them. 379. Paul posted: 10.30.2012 - 11:48 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) In fact DSFF, both of those Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels matches from Wrestlemanias 25 and 26 were voted match of the year by the majority of wrestling websites. I wasn't watching much wrestling at that time and never saw either match, which I'm a bit bummed out about because the 2nd match was Shawn's retirement match and Undertaker has basically gone into semi-retirement ever since. The re-match actually was the main event, but for some reason they had Triple H vs. Randy Orton be the main event the first time, which from what I understand was a very underwhelming match. I've watched wrestling on-and-off since about early 2008. I used to watch it every week, but now my interest just doesn't hold onto it for very long. I'll watch it once, my interest will go up, then I'll watch it the next week and I'll lose interest for a while. It's too much of a soap opera nowadays, kind of like NASCAR. 380. Bronco posted: 10.30.2012 - 12:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Worth noting is that Dale Jr would still be in the top 10 in points even after taking the past two weeks off. Also it looks like Steve Addington's team completely collapses in the chase once again just like from 2008-2011. Right now Tony is looking like the most vulnerable to finish 11th in points. 381. cjs3872 posted: 10.30.2012 - 3:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Actually Bronco, I wouldn't call the #14 team's performance in the Chase a collapse, considering that they weren't really running that well prior to the Chase, though the Martinsville run was a dissapointment. The truth is that Stewart as, for the most part, not run very well since April or May. Sure he won two races early in the year, but he was still running the setup from late last year when Darian Grubb was setting up the cars. Stewart was still winning with those setups, but since they started using Steve Addington's setups, they have run poorly as often as they've been running at the front. Also remember that one of Stewart's two wins since was that dramatic last lap finish in the Firecracker 400 for his fourth win in that event. This makes me wonder if the Danica Patrick situation is also weighing that team down already, because the #39 team hasn't done very well, either. If anyone can be considered a disappointment in the Chase, it would be the #16 Roush team of Greg Biffle, because they've hardly been factors in any of the Chase races, and they were leading the championship when the points were reset. If there's any eal disappointment in the Chase, it would be Biffle, not Stewart. Even Matt Kenseth, who's leaving Roush at season's end, has won twice, and even Carl Edwards has been competitve, but Biffle's been M.I.A. in the Chase. 382. Paul posted: 10.30.2012 - 3:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Speaking of Kenseth, how resilient is he in that #17 car in the Chase? He started out very poorly with parts falling off his car at Loudon and Dover that eliminated him from championship contention right off the bat, then comes back and wins Talladega and Kansas. He's now 8th in the points, only 2 points out of 7th, and is in reasonable distance from 6th place. But it's not just how he's been running lately despite being the lame duck driver at Roush, but his attitude lately has just been incredible. He has every right to be upset with his team with how they've run so far in the Chase, but instead has taken the high road, and it really paid off as his team delivered by giving him a winning car at Talladega (he seriously could have won every plate race this year) and making adjustments to his car at Kansas throughout the race that made him go from having a top 15 run to winning the race (though it did help that some of his key competition were taking themselves out of the race). His attitude and performance in spite of his team and his lame duck status during the Chase has really impressed me, and I think it will pay off as he joins a more friendly atmosphere at JGR (ownership-wise at least) next year. As for who will finish 11th in the points, I think it's obvious that it'll be Kevin Harvick. He was D.O.A. (dead on arrival) when the Chase started. With no top tens and only 12 laps led (all at Talladega) during the Chase, he is the only Chase driver who has done nothing except show up to the race track since the Chase has begun. Throw in his engine failure from Martinsville and his 17-point deficit from 10th place, and I think he's a lock for 11th place. I realize that his teammates aren't that great, but I think he did this to himself when he requested a crew chief change after ONLY managing back-to-back 3rd place finishes (the best finish of his career) the past two seasons. Personally, I think Harvick has an inflated picture of what he is, and what he is is a very good driver that's only as good as his car and team. He's like Ryan Newman without the college degree. 383. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.30.2012 - 3:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Impressed by Kenseth, but not surprised. If you were to look up "maturity" and "professionalism" you would see Matt's picture. Roush quite frankly doesn't deserve Matt, glad he'll end his career with a fellow class act, Joe Gibbs. As for Addington's collapse, I wouldn't necessarily blame him for those. Look at his drivers. He had the Busch Brothers for two years a piece. Those two simply wear teams down. Very hard to work your guts out for 10 solid months just for the guy who drives your cars to spend 3-4 hours yelling about what a piece of shit it is. With the exception of KuBu in '04, the Busch Brothers melt down and collapse. Period. That is just who they are. As for Tony, this gets lost in the light of his dazzling late season runs in '05 and '11, but he isn't a consistent late season threat. He has had some collapses in career, including his history altering Summer '06 meltdown. 384. BON GORDON posted: 10.30.2012 - 3:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes I meant Ride of Their lives. I was tired I guess last night. 385. George posted: 10.30.2012 - 4:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I see that NASCAR just released a self-congratulatory press release about yet another "green initiative". Would it be too much to ask that Idiot Bastard France and his staff quit pandering to weenies who wouldn't set foot inside a track if you paid them, and focus on improving the RACING? 386. BON GORDON posted: 10.30.2012 - 5:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Whats funny is that I never really watched or cared for wrestling my whole life but my little brother watched it and I would watch it with him. I always made the comparison between John Cena and Jimmie Johnson. Dont know why, just did. 387. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.30.2012 - 6:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) You Know In many ways Danica Patrick is NASCAR'S Version of Chyna or Sable and Johanna Long is NASCAR's Version of Trish Stratus. 388. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.30.2012 - 6:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Johanna would be Lita. Actual talent, original, stood out for reasons other than sex appeal (which she had, but it wasn't the center of her appeal), not the best on the microphone. 389. cjs3872 posted: 10.30.2012 - 6:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well BON GORDON, considering that you, along with me and many other posters on this site had to deal with the possibilities concerning Superstorm Sandy, which is still wreaking havoc in places like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and even Chicago, that's understandable. Amazing as it sounds, I never lost power where I live, and I live in Balitomre, which is actually not that far from where the center of the storm made landfall. Now I was watching the final table of the World Series of Poker for about seven hours last night and into the overnight hours, which will conclude with the final three players tonight, and last night's coverage didn't end until about 3:30 AM this morning, Eastern time. How I was able to watch it, I don't know, because it was a miracle that I didn't lose power, but I did. And by the way on Race Hub, they were again talking about the point system and whether or not it should be changed to allow one bad race in the Chase not to count against a driver, because of how virtually impossible it is to catch up. I still say that they should increase the importance of the front running positions by increasing the point intervals between the top ten positions by making it 2 points per position from 5th-6th through 10th-11th, 3 per position from 2nd to 5th and 5 from first to second. That would make it possible to make up ground if you had a bad race. Just look at the ground Jeff Gordon would have been able to make up with those three consecutive top 3s after Chicago, because he could have gained something like 10-14 extra points in each of those races over what he did gain. I also think that could make the racing more intense for those front positions than it is right now, because right now, it's not worth it to race someone hard for a top five position and risk losing that spot and potentially ending up with a finish you can't come back from. I've said it before, if I had a driver in third or fourth place and he had the next place car in front of him and the end of the race is near, I'd tell him to just stay there and not risk the position you're in for one measly point. But if it were three points, or the value of three positions back in the pack, I'd more than likely say, go for it. And by the way, Corey LaJoie got what was coming to him, as he was pemnalized 25 points for a tech infraction (illegal carburetor, from what I heard) and is no longer the K&N East point leader, a distiction that now goes to Kyle Larson. Brett Moffitt now moves to second, with LaJoie dropping to third in points in that series, with almost no shot at the championship now. Goes to show you that dirty driving will come back to haunt you, sooner or later. 390. Eric posted: 10.30.2012 - 6:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Who do you think will be driving a Star Wars: Episode 7 car? I am asking this because Disney acquired Lucasfilms and announced Star Wars Episode 7 will be in theaters in 2015. 391. Paul posted: 10.30.2012 - 6:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DSFF, the Lita/Johanna Long comparison is perfect. Plus, they're both native Floridians; Lita from Fort Lauderdale (though she currently resides in Sanford, North Carolina) and Johanna from Pensacola (which is about 15 miles away from Alabama) Benjamin, I would say Danica is more like Sable because they each have sex appeal (though Sable was much hotter than Danica, and still is), an neither have much talent for the amount of hype they receive. Chyna's character wasn't centered around sex appeal, but she too wasn't as talented as she was hyped up as being. 392. 10andJoe posted: 10.30.2012 - 7:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) >10andJoe, when you say three out of four, are you leaving out Jimmy Carter or Pepsi (I'm a Coke guy)? That'd be Mr. Peanut being left out. ;) 393. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.30.2012 - 8:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah I think your right there on the Johanna/Lita comparison though Trish was a very talented performer. 394. David posted: 10.30.2012 - 8:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Who do you think will be driving a Star Wars: Episode 7 car? I am asking this because Disney acquired Lucasfilms and announced Star Wars Episode 7 will be in theaters in 2015." Oh no. I always liked the saga the way it was, and never went for that "Expanded Universe" garbage. Seventh, eighth, and ninth episodes, with Disney producing them, can only lead to disaster. 395. BON GORDON posted: 10.30.2012 - 9:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) If jeff Gordon still races he should drive The Star Wars #24 Chevy. He raced the Episode I car in 1999 in the Busch Series. He also raced The Revenge of the Sith car in 2005 at Talladega, flat out dominated and won the race. The force was certainly with him that day. And CJS I'm glad to hear you're ok and that you have power. It's cold and rainy around here but that's it. Still have power and there are no bad floods around our area, thank goodness. 396. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.30.2012 - 10:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I too am glad to hear you are alright and with power cjs. When I heard about how bad Maryland got hammered I thought of you. As for the thought Gordon driving the Star Wars 7 car in '14 or '15, I have a few thoughts. First off, like others have said, doing another Star Wars is a terrible idea, but one that will absolutely be done because it is pretty much guaranteed to make a s**tload of money even if it is terrible and adds nothing to the classic original 3, just like the recent 3 prequels did. Secondly, I cannot believe this entire 20th year celebration of Gordon and Dupont is gonna go by without a single race being run with the throwback rainbow scheme. I know they only have about 12 races with him, but they couldn't squeeze in the old rainbow scheme just once? At Homestead they will have the 20th anniversary car which will be this year's Dupont scheme only the black will be silver. Pitiful. A huge wasted opportunity. 397. cjs3872 posted: 10.30.2012 - 11:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) In fact, as mentioned BON GORDON, not only do I have power, but I never lost it during the storm, so I'm one of the extremely lucky ones, especially when you look at what happened in New Jersey and New York. There are even tens of thousands that lost power in Michigan (possibly near Detroit) and they had to close Lakeshore Drive in Chicago due to the wind-blown waves in the Lake Michigan. So yes, I'm extremely lucky. 398. BON GORDON posted: 10.30.2012 - 11:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I agree 100% DaleSrFan. They shoulda done more for his 20th Aniversary. That rainbow car on the race track would give me chills. I'm almost certaim however that he will race that rainbow paint scheme one more time before his career is over. Maybe his final race. Or 25th aniversary if he's still around. I think Gordon like Mark Martin will have a difficult time retiring reguardless of his two kids, Ella and Leo Benjamin. 399. murb posted: 10.30.2012 - 11:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) YES!!!! THEY TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT BACK THE RAINBOW SCHEME!!!! The last time they ran it was in 2004 at the All Star Race, and it ended up in a wadded up mess. So maybe they're gun shy about it or something. 400. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 12:28 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Gordon should have brought back the rainbow paint scheme at Chicago when he brought back the mustache and ended up hitting the wall while running in the top five. Now that would have been a good way of celebrating his 20th season, by bringing back some 20 year old memories. 401. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.31.2012 - 7:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) If you want to see how bad the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is I suggest checking out Red Letter Media's Review of that Trilogy which points nearly all of its flaws and is really hilarious to watch. 402. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.31.2012 - 7:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Jr is the David Flair or Dave Shula of NASCAR. 403. Benjamin Lowe posted: 10.31.2012 - 7:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Glad to see you made it out of the storm in one piece CJS. 404. jabber1990 posted: 10.31.2012 - 11:18 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) NASCAR? Rock Music? Politics? Star Wars? people commenting on stuff I say? what site is this? this place is awesome! 405. David posted: 10.31.2012 - 11:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "what site is this? this place is awesome!" You said it. 406. David posted: 10.31.2012 - 12:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Alright, another season is finished using my awesome points system. 2003 took longer than 2002 because I started getting disinterested midway through the season. Then, the day before yesterday, I decided to pick up where I had left off, and I did the last 16 races in less than three days. I just now finished the Ford 400. Now for the top 20 using my system, with comparisons to the actual standings: 1. Ryan Newman - 1521 (+5) 2. Matt Kenseth - 1388 (-1) 3. Jimmie Johnson - 1381 (-1) 4. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. - 1346 (-1) 5. Jeff Gordon - 1335 (-1) 6. Kevin Harvick - 1226 (-1) 7. Tony Stewart - 1203 8. Bobby Labonte - 1170 9. Kurt Busch - 1108 (+2) 10. Bill Elliott - 986 (-1) 11. Michael Waltrip - 899 (+4) 12. Jeff Burton - 878 13. Terry Labonte - 845 (-3) 14. Jamie McMurray - 838 (-1) 15. Rusty Wallace - 808 (-1) 16. Robby Gordon - 802 17. Jeremy Mayfield - 786 (+2) 18. Mark Martin - 743 (-1) 19. Sterling Marlin - 734 (-1) 20. Greg Biffle - 689 If you want to know where a particular driver placed in the final standings, you have only to ask. 407. Schroeder51 posted: 10.31.2012 - 1:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) No offense David, but had that been the actual points system used in 2003 I would have been REALLY mad seeing Ryan Newman win the title as a result of having so many wins as a result of fuel mileage, considering Newman also had a LARGE number of DNFs that year. 408. DaleSrFanForever posted: 10.31.2012 - 2:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The problem in 2004 is that they ran the "throwback" rainbow scheme way too soon. It had only been 3 and 1/3 years since we had lest seen it on a regular basis for 8 years. So it didn't have that big of an impact at the time. Plus there was not a huge deal made about it. Jeff didn't even wear a throwback uniform, he had the one with the flames on it. But this year, 12 years removed from having seen it outside of that one forgettable night, they could have capitolized big time. But they fell flat. That silver car they will run at Homestead does nothing. Looking at the races DuPont has sponsored this year, they should have run the rainbow scheme at Atlanta, the track where it all began for Jeff in Cup with that very rainbow scheme, and at Kansas, since he won the first two races there, they should have run his '01 and '02 blue with pink flames scheme there. I just see a huge money making opportunity lost this year, something you rarely hear in conjunction with "Jeff Gordon". 409. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 2:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DSFF, not to mention the fact that they were advertising Atlanta as Jeff's 20th anniversary, yet nothing special was made about it. It was like a married couple celebrating 20 years, and their 20th anniversary was celebrated the same way every other year was. There was nothing special about it other than the number. Who knows, maybe if he had run that rainbow paint scheme, Denny would have been psyched out and choked the lead on the final lap at Atlanta. I feel this year has just been a wasted opportunity to run some memorable paint schemes. Instead of bringing back the rainbow and flames cars, they gave us a Farmville car, a TMNT car, and a silver car for Homestead. Nobody's going to remember those cars a year from now, but we would always remember the days when he brought back the rainbow and flames cars. In short, this is not the way you celebrate one of the greatest careers in NASCAR history. 410. Bronco posted: 10.31.2012 - 3:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "As for who will finish 11th in the points, I think it's obvious that it'll be Kevin Harvick. He was D.O.A. (dead on arrival) when the Chase started." I disagree. Barring any mechanical failures or wrecks, Harv will finish between 11th and 16th in the next 3 races like he's been doing all season and will probably cling on to the top 10. Martinsville was his worst finish of the season and only the THIRD time he's finished outside the top 20 all season long, which is the kind of consistency that got him into the chase to begin with. His two next worst finishes are 25th at the spring Talladega race and 23rd in the summer Daytona race, so while he hasn't had any stellar finishes he hasn't had any truly bad finishes yet. The same could probably be said of Paul Menard. I pick Biffle to finish 11th, that team has easily been the most disappointing of the chase. It's pretty bad that because of the chase points system, we can guarantee the 12th and 13th place finishers in points six weeks early. 411. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 3:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Speaking of 13th place, this will be the second time Kyle Busch will finish the year as the highest non-Chase driver in points, which he also did in 2009. Aside from his rookie year, he will have finished the highest of the drivers who missed the Chase in both years he missed it. I find it really sad that someone who is arguably the most naturally talented driver has missed the Chase in 3 out of 8 years, 38% of his Cup career. I realize that he had a lot of bad luck in the summer, such as having three straight engine failures under caution and getting spun out of the lead at Watkins Glen on the last lap, but I still think that a more mentally strong driver, such as Jeff Gordon or Matt Kenseth, would have prevailed from such adversity and brought themselves together and made the Chase. Just look at Kyle's attitude when things went bad for him at Richmond compared to Jeff's attitude. Jeff had a terrible race car for the first half of that race, but stayed calm, the team made some significant adjustments, and we went on to drive his heart out to a 2nd place finish. Meanwhile, Kyle has a top 5-10 car for the first 3/4 of the race, his crew chief makes a bad decision to keep him out under caution instead of pitting (Chad Knaus made the same mistake, as did a few other crew chiefs), and Kyle went straight to the back and wound up losing a lap, then lost his cool and could make up the lost ground to Gordon, even after a few other Toyota teams intentionally pitted to let him pass them, and missed the Chase. 412. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 3:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I disagree Bronco. Even taking away Harvick and Biffle's worst Chase finishes (33rd for Harvick, 27th for Biffle), Biffle still winds up with the better average finish, with 11.7 to Harvick's 12.3. Plus, Biffle has led in two Chase races, including the 1.5-mile track Charlotte, which is very similar to Texas this weekend, while Harvick has only led at Talladega. That along with Biffle's 3 top ten finishes, one of which came at Charlotte, is why I think Biffle will at least hold off Harvick for a top ten points finish. If anyone is in danger of falling out of the top 10 in points, it's Tony Stewart. SHR has just been off for the past few months, which I think has a lot to do with the shuffling of crew chiefs and trying to obtain sponsorship for next season. While Stewart has 3 top ten finishes, he also has 3 finishes of 20th or worse, which is the most out of all Chase drivers. Add in the fact that he's only led 3 laps on a 1.5-mile in the Chase, and I think that if Harvick is going to jump into the top 10 in points, I think it'll be Stewart that he passes. 413. Talon64 posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bronco, I've beem meanging to ask this for a while but... Is there any Roush Fenway Racing driver you like other than Carl Edwards? 414. BON GORDON posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I disagree. Stewart struggled a ton at Martinsville but isnt gonna fall out of the Top Ten in points. Those spots are secure for Harvick and Dale Jr. Harvick sucks this year. He couldn't finish in the Top Ten in a race if his life depended on it and Jr. missing those two races killed him. Not to mention he's not running great either. Stewart is inconsistent but will get enough points. Hell, fifth to tenth in points isnt separated by that much and there's still three races. 415. David posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "No offense David, but had that been the actual points system used in 2003 I would have been REALLY mad seeing Ryan Newman win the title as a result of having so many wins as a result of fuel mileage, considering Newman also had a LARGE number of DNFs that year." No offense taken. But let it be known that Newman also had six more top-five finishes than Kenseth (In fact, Newman took the points lead from Kenseth with a top-five when he finished fourth at Talladega and Kenseth finished 33rd with an engine failure), which probably was one of the major factors in the championship. And besides, Kenseth coasted home the last 15 or so races of the season, because in real life, he had the title all but locked up. 416. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I agree Bon Gordon, I do think that Harvick and Junior will finish 11th and 12th in the points, respectively. But I was replying to Bronco's notion that Biffle will finish 11th in the points, which I disagree with. I think that if anyone currently in the top 10 falls out, it'll be Tony Stewart because of how many bad finishes he's had in the Chase. I don't think Harvick will reach the top 10, but if he does, I think passing Stewart is the most likely scenario. 417. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kenseth is still the last driver to clinch the Cup championship before the season finale, which he did the week before at Rockingham. I still think it's funny that he wound up finishing 43rd at Homestead and only finished 90 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson, when it should have been at least 200 points. I'm guessing that he had an experimental engine package for that race since he had nothing to gain, but it's still a memory that sticks out in my head. Also, I know that a lot of Newman's 8 wins that season were fuel mileage wins, but compared to the rest of his career, that year stands out as a HUGE outlier, as he has only won multiple races in a year one other time, which was the following year in '04. Newman's '03 season has to be one of the biggest outlier seasons in NASCAR history. The only one I can compare it to is Chad Little's '95 Busch Series season. Little had 6 wins that season, but never won another race before or after. 418. Jim Davis posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Looking at the races DuPont has sponsored this year, they should have run the rainbow scheme at Atlanta, the track where it all began for Jeff in Cup with that very rainbow scheme, and at Kansas, since he won the first two races there, they should have run his '01 and '02 blue with pink flames scheme there." Much as I would love to see the rainbow scheme on car, driver, and crew alike the problem seems to be that DuPont sold its automotive finishes division some years back. Asking DuPont to promote a product that doesn't exist any longer is a bit much. It's unfortunate but in racing, unlike football and baseball, color schemes serve a more important function than simple identification and aesthetics so throwback schemes aren't often practical. I'd love to see a throwback Family Channel scheme on the 16 car but who would that benefit? The Family Channel is long gone. 419. BON GORDON posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'm kinda worried about my guy, Gordon. Yes he's sixth in points but not that far in front of Harvick. Texas and the repaved Phoenix are not tracks Gordon runs great at. He ran fourth at Texas earlier in the year but he seems to struggle in the fall race at Texas. And the way he ran at Charlotte a few weeks back isnt promising either. He hates the repave at Phoenix and lucked into an 8th place run earlier in the year. He's never won at Homestead but seems to usually run 4th-9th there even when he struggles on 1.5-2 mile tracks during the season. 420. David posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "The only one I can compare it to is Chad Little's '95 Busch Series season. Little had 6 wins that season, but never won another race before or after." That should be my next season to convert. :) 421. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) But Jim Davis, this wasn't the case in 2005 during Mark Martin's "retirement" tour. Even though he was no longer sponsored by them, during the season he drove various paint schemes that were based on his '89 Stroh's Light car, his '90 Folgers car, and his '94 Valvoline car, yet he still had Viagra on the hood of those cars. And when Steve Park ran an ARCA race in 2010, his car was painted like his '01 Pennzoil car, even though his car number wasn't #1 and Pennzoil wasn't his sponsor anymore. Even if DuPont doesn't make the same products that they did during Jeff's rainbow and flames years, I think they still could have painted his car the same way that those cars were. 422. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "He's never won at Homestead" Technically he has, since he won a Busch race at Homestead in 2000, in what was his final Busch Series race. By the way, that's how a Cup driver should be utilized in the Busch/Nationwide Series. He should run some races for a start-up organization (Hendrick was just starting their Busch program in '99) and help that team get results and notes on the cars and tracks, then step aside and let the Busch Series regulars and young guns take over using the information that the Cup driver gave. I know sponsorship pretty much dictates how the Nationwide Series works (funny how the Truck Series doesn't seem to have that problem), but I think that is the ideal plan to have in a lower NASCAR division. 423. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 5:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ^ Just so you know, I was referring to Jeff's Busch starts in '99 and '00 while driving for Hendrick's start-up Busch team. 424. BON GORDON posted: 10.31.2012 - 6:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) True Paul but Nationwide and Cup Series arent the same thing in my mind. Less competition and less horsepower. 425. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 6:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I know Bon. I was using the ESPN way of gathering statistics ;) 426. BON GORDON posted: 10.31.2012 - 6:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Haha. Lets combine all the wins from all three series as well. 427. jabber1990 posted: 10.31.2012 - 9:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think I know what the problem with NASCAR is NASCAR is just so big, its a multi-million(billion) dollar corporation, it cannot run as a small sport with the number of fans and the amount of money into it lets look at sponsors and advertising spring signed what? a $200 million deal with NASCAR to be "Sprint Cup Series" so at the end of the day who is paying all the bills? 1.5 mile "cookie cutters" have been added to the schedule because they hold more seats and in theory more seats=more revenue you are the president and CEO of ABC industries, you have invested at least $20 million in the #1 Sprint Cup car where are you going to want your name displayed? at a small 1 mile track with 80,000 seats? or a a 1.5 mile cookie cutter with 120,000 seats? also, you must keep the car safe the cars are faster than they ever been, NASCAR cant have people dying, its just bad publicity, the cars are also safer now than ever before, 10 years ago, Micheal McDowell, Elliot Sadler, and even possibly Danica Patrick would all have been seriously injured or worse, these cars are designed to smack into the wall at 185 MPH (im sure that wasn't the plan, but...)yes, Junior had a concussion, but there is more to the story than they are telling us, also, one of the biggest names in the sport had an injury from an on-track incident...sound familiar? yes, every OTHER sport in the world. if Danica Patrick, or Jeff Gordon (both of whom are world-wide names) got a concussion from a crash then we would be having the same discussion back on the subject of Danica, did she get where she is by sex appeal? possibly, I dont know her background, is she pretty, I think she is but I have no idea how much of that is makeup and hollywood trickery (in interviews, not commercials) i have seen pictures of Maryete Dufault (please correct my spelling) whom is a former Barker Beauty, I think the cope Twins are very pretty, and everyone tells me that Johanna long is very pretty, and dont forget about Chrissie Wallace, shes very good looking (like many Missouri girls I know)and everyone I listed (exept for Dufault) seem to know how to drive a racecar, there was something that drew talent scouts to Danica, it may have been the fact shes from Northern Illionis where there is alot of racing, are there prettier women out there any any I listed, I will bet on it, are there women out there who are more talented than Kesolowski, or Busch (either one), or Jeff Gordon 13 years ago? ill bet so, where are they? who knows, possibly in Washington, Idaho, Nevada, or just not behind a wheel of a racecar, we wont find that person till the economy gets better when there is just more money for a company to invest into a raceteam, with NASCAR decreasing in popularity, as well as the actual cost of running 1 car for one race (even at your local dirt track, or the local go-cart track that you decide to build in your backyard) there will be a point when it'll be normal to have Females and Minorities at a NASCAR race, but unless the economy improves (which it wont till it fails completely, which is a terrible thing to say) we wont find a minority or a female in the sport without an unlimited supply of money behind them (see Menard, Danica, Wrecks Townley, im sure there are a few more) I could be 100% wrong on this, I did only fail out of a community college filled with Democrats who were being paid to be there by the state, and failed at the army for being weak, and plus im 22 im not smart enough to know what im talking about (my mom told me that) and I failed economics and now I drive a truck (ironic isnt it) so if im wrong please tell me 428. JG24FanForever posted: 10.31.2012 - 10:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This is me! from 4 years ago,and yes, I look like a little boy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEwR_JgM3RE I'm the one in the #3 hat. 429. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 10:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) jabber1990, I'd say you're wrong about Maryeve Dufault being the only female driver of the ones you listed that can't drive a race car, as neither of the Cope twins can either (or at least Amber can't, Angela has actually gone through a few races without an incident). At Iowa last year, both of them spun out on their own in very slows cars (Amber was in a car that made only one start, Angela drove the #44 that Jeff Green normally start-and-parked). Then at Loudon this year, Amber couldn't figure out how to enter the corners properly, single-handedly cost Kevin Harvick the Nationwide race (nothing wrong with that, but his constant bitching for the next week wasn't worth it), and embarrassed SR2 Motorsports to the point where I think Benny Gordon willingly drove the car unsponsored the following week just to give the team some credibility, even though it had been a "buy-a-ride" car for the previous 3 months. And most recently Angela, in a 2nd SR2 car, piledrove into Joe Nemechek BEFORE taking the green flag and dropped fluid all over the race track as a result of her radiator being cracked, causing a 9-lap caution period. Based on what I've seen from them, they do not belong in the Nationwide Series. I'd take my chances with JWT before I give one of the Cope twins a try in my equipment. Also, if you haven't already, take a look at Danica during her pre- and post-race/wreck interviews and compare her to how she looks in her commercials and photo shoots. Her entire image is based on what she looks like with makeup on. I don't find her the least bit attractive without makeup, and her poor attitude only makes her look even worse. With the popularity of Iowa, return of Rockingham, rising interest in road courses, and recovery of North Wilkesboro, one can only hope NASCAR is looking at returning to the popular, smaller attendance tracks to put on the circuit. With the decline in attendance at some of the bigger "cookie-cutter" tracks, I think NASCAR is looking at adding more smaller tracks on the schedule in hopes of increasing fan interest and attendance. The best intermediate tracks are the ones with identities. Darlington is the "granddaddy of superspeedways", Atlanta is the very difficult to handle, Charlotte is the prototype of "cookie-cutter" tracks, Michigan is now the fastest track, and Kansas is now very fast and has just one groove. All of the others can be replaced (except Kentucky, unfortunately) should attendance continue to drop because they really have no replay values. That is why I like DSFF's idea of having A.J. Foyt beat up the winner at Texas because at least then there would be something unique about the track. I don't know if NASCAR is looking at replacing their intermediate tracks, but if they are/do start looking, those are the tracks that they should keep because they at least have unique characteristics about them. 430. Paul posted: 10.31.2012 - 10:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) JG24, dude you were flying out there! It looked like most of the people were out there for a Sunday drive, and you were disrupting the peace with your "Ironhead" style driving. Quick question: Did you turn that guy at 1:28, or did he spin in front of you? Also, has anyone ever told you you sound like Terry Labonte? That voice is going to come to my head every time I read one of your posts haha. 431. jabber1990 posted: 10.31.2012 - 11:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I wrote a "fan Fiction" once about when Sprint Cup series returned to North Wilkesboro Cole Trickle was on the pole and I forget who was in second when the Green Flag Flew DW:Boogity Boogity Boogit- Larry Mac: Shut up Darrel, just shut the hell up then turn 1, lap 1 Ricky Bobby got into Lightning McQueen bringing out the first Caution the race was a wreckfest, 432. NicoRosbergFan posted: 11.01.2012 - 5:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) JG24, you're like me when you get to one of those places, hell on wheels. You obviously applied what you see in F1 and GP2 based on how you drove the track. The one time I went to NASCAR Speedpark I lapped the field twice on one of the tracks. 433. NicoRosbergFan posted: 11.01.2012 - 5:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) ^You're even close to my age. 434. Bronco posted: 11.01.2012 - 11:37 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Bronco, I've beem meanging to ask this for a while but... Is there any Roush Fenway Racing driver you like other than Carl Edwards?" I like Stenhouse and I'm eager to see what he does when reaches Cup next year. Not since Brad Keselowski in 2010 has there been a driver that reached Cup after actually earning the ride due to being competitive in Nationwide. Not only that, but I think its amazing how Rickt came from being a caution machine in the first half of 2010 to being the race and championship winning driver that he is now. That being said, I'd still rather see Sadler win the championship since he isn't getting a Cup promotion next year, and it would make up for the Brickyard screwjob from this summer. I was a fan of Erik Darnell when he drove in trucks and Nationwide, mainly because I liked his Northern Tool + Equipment paint scheme. I hate that he lost his sponsorship and his ride since I think he was on the cusp of greater things. As for Biffle and Kenseth, I'm not a fan of either since they are both the anti-Carl Edwards, with no personality or character whatsoever. They're still talented and I respect both of them but I'll never be rooting for either one in the closing laps of a race. 435. 10andJoe posted: 11.01.2012 - 12:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) -Clint Bowyer's 250th Cup start. -Scott Riggs' 200th Cup start. 436. David posted: 11.01.2012 - 2:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Good news, all. Officials at the Circuit de Trois-Rivieres in Quebec are expected to announce that the NASCAR Nationwide Series will run there in 2013. 437. Nick posted: 11.01.2012 - 5:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wooooo Bobby getting it done at Marty! 438. Talon64 posted: 11.01.2012 - 5:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) "As for Biffle and Kenseth, I'm not a fan of either since they are both the anti-Carl Edwards, with no personality or character whatsoever. They're still talented and I respect both of them but I'll never be rooting for either one in the closing laps of a race." Kenseth only comes off as having no character because of his dry sense of humor, but he's one of the funniest drivers in the garage if you get his humor. Biffle is kind of meh though. But to me, at least Kenseth and Biffle come off naturally. Carl's "character" comes off to me as forced and fake imo, which is probably the one thing I can't stand in a driver. Kurt Busch's fake act when he went over to Penske drove me up a wall. Even if a guy's a jerk or a brat I can still respect them because they don't hide it, like Harvick and Kyle Busch. And if they've got enough redeeming qualities then I can still support them, like Tony Stewart in his early days in NASCAR. 439. Benjamin Lowe posted: 11.01.2012 - 8:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) You Know I should put Jeff Gordon in the stone cold Stunner for his actions last Sunday at Martinsville it would teach him a lesson that he should go for the victory instead of being the good soldier and staying behind his teammate and let him win. 440. Paul posted: 11.01.2012 - 9:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Benjamin, it's not worth it if he takes away points from Jimmie, who's a championship contender, especially since Jeff is now out of contention. If Jeff passes Jimmie, wins the race, and costs his teammate the title, Jeff has 87 wins and Jimmie has 5 titles. But if Jeff stays behind Jimmie, Jeff has 86 wins and Jimmie has a good shot at 6 titles. Jeff loses nothing by not going for the win against his teammate, but could take a title away from his teammate if he passes him. The odds just don't justify the means in this case. If Jimmie wins this championship by 3 points or less, he'll have his teammate to thank. 441. BON GORDON posted: 11.01.2012 - 9:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Oh enough Benjamin. You werent in the car so you dont know. He's not gonna wreck his teammate to win and i know if the race stayed green till the end at Martinsville Jeff wouldve attempted to pass Jimmie. I should give you the cold stone stunner or whatever it's called. No more of that. Jeff's a beast. 442. Bronco posted: 11.02.2012 - 5:39 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) "But to me, at least Kenseth and Biffle come off naturally. Carl's "character" comes off to me as forced and fake imo, which is probably the one thing I can't stand in a driver." Having personally met Carl at an autograph session the week before the Bud Shootout this year, I can tell you and anyone else for that matter, that Carl is a genuinely nice guy and is very fan friendly. He stayed way longer than he was supposed to just so that all the fans would get to meet him, and he was happy to sign literally anything you could give him. Not sure how why everyone seems to think he's fake. Kurt's another one of my favorites, mainly because its hilarious to listen in to his radio chatter. I just hope he doesn't have a falling out with FRR next year and leave NASCAR completely. 443. Benjamin Lowe posted: 11.02.2012 - 7:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) You Know I am quite a character heck I could even consider myself to be The Ultimate Warrior of this comment page. 444. DaleSrFanForever posted: 11.02.2012 - 1:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Look, I was there at Martinsville and watched the closing laps "battle" for the lead before the final caution. Jeff had NO intentions of passing JJ even though he absolutely could have. He would get to the 48 then back off noticably. Funny thing is, Jeff once again playing wingman is driving them both down historically. But the fact is Jeff was going to let JJ win. 445. Paul posted: 11.02.2012 - 2:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Jeff once again playing wingman is driving them both down historically" This is corporate racing at its finest. It used to be "every man for himself" and "may the best man win". Now it's "don't step on anybody's toes" and "help your teammates out". I don't blame Jeff for doing what he did because he's just playing the game properly. So don't hate the player, hate the game. And hey, at least he didn't intentionally pit so that his teammate who was a lap down could pass him, like a couple Toyota drivers did at Richmond. 446. DaleSrFanForever posted: 11.02.2012 - 5:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Oh I hate the game. I hate the game very much. The last two Richmond fall races have absolutely disgusted me in the way they played out in the end, ironically both were going against Jeff. Luckily this year, unlike '11, even with the bullshit political shenanigans, Kyle still failed and Jeff made the playoffs, making Kyle's yearly fail, which had begun to become a little boring and predictable, sweet to watch again. 447. cjs3872 posted: 11.02.2012 - 5:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes DSFF, I noticed that watching he race unfold. Ironically, when that caution came out that set up the strategic move that put Brad Keselowski up front, had Dale, Jr. not pitted, Jeff probably wins the race, anyway, because he would have lined up third and passed Jimmie on the restart, of if one more guy further back had stayed out, Gordon would have lined up fifth with Jimmie fourth and passed him because of how big an edge the inside is there. But if Jimmie wins the title (and I thought you would have responded to this by now), next year will be a year of major anticipation, as Jimmie will try to tie the most hallowed record in the sport, that of the seven championships of Richard Petty and Dale, Sr. True it won't mean the same as Richard's and Dale's seven titles, but it would go in the record books just the same. And an interesting note. Everyone compares Hendrick Motorsports to the New York Yankees. Well, knowing that, there's an ironic twist in the comparison because Gene Monaghan, who had been the Yankees trainer since 1973, the year George Steinbrenner bought the team from CBS, resigned from that position last year and joined Hendrick Motorsports in that very capacity. Monaghan had worked with players such as Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Lou Piniella, Dave Winfield, and Don Mattingly, as well as the Yankee greats of the past 17 years and was a big help to keeping them healthy enough to win 18 A.L. East titles, 11 American League pennants, and seven World Series in his 39 years with the team. Now he's part of Hendrick Motorsports, considered by most to be NASCAR's equivalent of the Yankees. 448. David posted: 11.02.2012 - 6:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Earnhardt Ganassi Racing won't be using Earnhardt-Childress Racing engines in 2013. I can't say I blame them. 449. DaleSrFanForever posted: 11.02.2012 - 6:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) JJ winning 7 or 8 titles would be a lot like Barry Bonds breaking Hammering Hank's home run record. Very little fanfare or celebration, and due to the lingering cloud of suspected (or in the 48 team's case, outright evidence) rampant cheating, not acknowledged as the true record. The old asterisk. Seriously, how many people consider Bonds the home run king? People think of him as King of The Sauce. Same with JJ. Thanks to the shenanigans of Cheating Chad, even if he win 8 or more, he still won't move onto The Mount Rushmore of drivers, just the product of a corrupt system. 450. David posted: 11.02.2012 - 6:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, Phoenix's grandstands have been sold out for the AdvoCare 500. "Nationwide Series remaining in Canada? UPDATES: The Nationwide Series has perhaps not left Quebec, Canada for good, it could end up in Trois-Rivières, and, starting next year. Discussions were initiated, according to sources, with representatives from NASCAR to maintain a Canadian race on the schedule. The mayor of Trois-Rivières has appointed the chairman of the Grand Prix, Dominic Fugere to conduct these talks. Also, there was some discussion of holding a Nationwide Series race at Mosport next year, but the track does not currently meet the criteria necessary for a NASCAR race. NASCAR has not disclosed the Nationwide schedule in 2013, which suggests that negotiations are ongoing with various promoters.(Montreal Journal, article in French, translated with Google Translate at edited)(10-24-2012) UPDATE: There is a big announcement scheduled for Thursday in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. City officials, along with GP3R CEO Dominic Fugere will announce the addition of the NASCAR Nationwide Series to the city's annual GP3R Grand Prix Trois-Rivieres. The race will be held on the Circuit de Trois-Rivieres, a 1.521 mile street course. It will be the first-ever street course race for the Nationwide Series. Last year, IndyCar's Firestone Indy Lights and NASCAR's Canadian Tire Series were the co-headliners in Trois-Rivieres.(Frontstretch)(11-1-2012) UPDATE 2: The Government of Quebec supports the efforts of the leaders of the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières in their attempt to attract a NASCAR Nationwide Series race in 2013. The Minister for Tourism, Pascal Bérubé, confirmed the news at a press briefing Thursday. The Director General of GP3R Dominic Fugere will travel to Texas this weekend with a small delegation, including the mayor of Trois-Rivières, in an attempt to convince NASCAR the facility is able to accommodate a NASCAR race. 'We are early in the process, but it is one minute to midnight, recalls Fugère. I know all the tracks where the Nationwide happens and I can tell you that we have nothing to envy to those places. In a radius of 160 km, there are 5.3 million people and 22,000 hotel rooms, which is much more than Martinsville, Virginia, a city that receives nevertheless a step in the Nationwide Series.'(LaPress.ca)(11-2-2012)" That was a direct copy-and-paste from Jayski concerning the possible new date in Quebec. 451. Paul posted: 11.02.2012 - 6:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) FYI, be careful copying and pasting information on this comments page. Any symbol, such as a quotation mark or a hyphen, that's of a different shape will appear as "??" when you post it here. I still don't think "Hammerin' Hank" gets the credit he deserves. He played 23 seasons which, even in a less contact sport like baseball, is still damn impressive; was named to the All-Star team in all but two of those seasons (his first and last seasons); and did so for teams that only made the post-season in 3 of his 23 seasons (including the 1957 World Series). Maybe it's because he played in smaller markets in Milwaukee and Atlanta, maybe it's because he never hit 50 home runs in a season. In a way, he's sort of like the Bart Starr of baseball, except it's more in terms of stats than championships. As great as he was, Hank Aaron never seems to get the credit he deserves. And when you factor race into the equation, it only adds more confusion to the situation, considering how little diversity there was in the MLB back in his era. 452. cjs3872 posted: 11.02.2012 - 6:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Now that I won't argue with, DSFF. Like I've said many times, Jimmie's championships have never truly carried the weight of those that came before him, because they came after the points were reset for the final ten races, because I'm not sure he'd ever win a full season title, because he just makes too many mistakes, and a guy like Jeff Gordon or Matt Kenseth would have him for lunch in a full-season format, because they usually run up front and, most importantly, they don't make mistakes. For instance, Johnson's made careless mistakes in each of the last two races. Obviously the one last week at Martinsville (spiining out Juan Montoya while leading) didn't cost him, but crashing one of the two best cars at Kansas did cost him, though not as much as it should have. I would not equate his record as ill-gotten as Barry Bonds' home run record, but there as some definite cheating going on. But remember that I still consider Babe Ruth as the true home run KING, even though Hank Aaron broke his record of 714 career HRs in 1974, because Ruth outhomered entire teams by himself. I considered Aaron the same way I do Bonds now, and that's as the all-time HR leader, not the all-time HR king. Ruth will always be the all-time HR king in my mind. Just the same way that I can't equate Johnson's six titles, or seven if he gets there to what Richard Petty and Dale, Sr. did with their seven championships. I think we agree on that, and that was never my point. What I said was that there's going to be a lot of attention given to the fact that, if Jimmie gets his sixth this year, that every year after that will have a great deal of anticipation for Jimmie possibly joining the 7-time champion's club. But you're dead-on when you say it won't mean the same because it won't, and the same goes for anyone else who does it in the Chase era. It's much easier to win a title over 10 races than it ever will be for 36, r however many is run over a full season in future years, which is why Jeff Gordon's four championships witl always trump Jimmie's titles in my mind, even if he were to get 10 of them, because Gordon's were earned over a full season. At least Tony Stewart got one of his three titles over a full season (2002). 453. Paul posted: 11.02.2012 - 6:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes, Babe Ruth is the Home Run King. It wasn't just because he out-homered whole teams by himself, but he also wasn't in the best shape, and yet still earned 714 home runs. Every player nowadays strives to be in great physical shape, yet the overwhelmingly majority of them will never sniff Ruth's home run total. Being in great shape may help, but if you can't play, you can't play. And while most of today's baseball players are in better shape than the great players from the past, they simply aren't good enough to be measured among the greats like Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle, Gehrig, and Aaron. And as far as the possibility of Jimmie Johnson tying Petty and Earnhardt's record 7 Cup championships, just remember that both Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw each have 4 Super Bowl rings. Bradshaw was a lot like Jimmie in that he was very mistake-prone, but always played his best in the post-season; whereas Montana was a lot like Petty and Earnhardt because he was always on his A-game, no matter if it was Week 1, Week 9, or the Super Bowl, and rarely made mistakes. So while both Montana and Bradshaw each have 4 titles, nobody will ever say Bradshaw was as good, or even in the same league, as Montana. I think Jimmie's legacy will be much the same way. 454. DaleSrFanForever posted: 11.02.2012 - 7:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Maybe its the Braves fan in me, but Hank is undoubtably the Home Run King. Babe definitely ranks higher historically and is the most iconic baseball player ever, possibly the most iconic athlete ever considering how revered baseball was in relation to other sports all the way until the mid 90's. What Babe doesn't get enough credit for is his pitching. His pitching alone would be HOF worthy and legendary in and of itself, but it is overshadowed by his home runs. Check his stats sometime. Simply incredible. 455. David posted: 11.02.2012 - 8:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "FYI, be careful copying and pasting information on this comments page. Any symbol, such as a quotation mark or a hyphen, that's of a different shape will appear as "??" when you post it here." That I figured out on my own. Currently, I am working through 2004 with my points system (I've done seven races so far), and I got to tell you, it looks a lot like the first half of 2003 (i.e. Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. pulling away). Speaking of 2003, using my points system: - As mentioned before, the winning pass in the points came at Talladega, when Ryan Newman finished fourth and took the championship lead by two points. Newman's winning at Kansas the next week and Kenseth's 36th-place finish didn't help matters much for Kenseth. - Proportionally, Kenseth never had the enormous lead he had in real life. This was probably due to his lack of multiple wins. - The highest ranking rookie was Jamie McMurray in 14th, after making a late-season rally from 24th following the race at Pocono... - ..but his rally was nothing compared to the charge made by Jeremy Mayfield. After the August race at Michigan, Mayfield was 29th in the standings. Over the last 13 races, Mayfield finished in the top five four times and in the top ten eight times, and gained 12 positions in the rankings. - The highest-ranking winless driver was Jeff Burton in twelfth. And now, the question that has been burning in your minds and keeping you in suspense: - MIchael Waltrip stayed in the top-10 for 34 straight weeks. 456. Red posted: 11.02.2012 - 9:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "I'm not sure he'd ever win a full season title, because he just makes too many mistakes, and a guy like Jeff Gordon or Matt Kenseth would have him for lunch in a full-season format" Jimmie has already scored the most points over the full season twice (2006 and 2009), and almost certainly would have done so in 2004 had he not suffered three DNF's with experimental engines in mid-summer. This year, Jimmie would currently hold a 14 point lead under the full-season format, and would more than likely be cruising to the title. In 2008, the #48 team did a lot of R&D early in the season, and still only fell 16 points shy of Edwards for the full-season points title. It's very realistic to say that Jimmie would have already won four championships with the full-season format (04, 06, 08, 09), and would be in the driver's seat for his 5th in 2012. I know it's fashionable for everyone to diminish Jimmie's accomplishments, but most of these arguments don't hold much water. Honestly, the nostalgia bias is out of control on this forum. Now I'm not saying JJ is Petty or Earnhardt, because he's not even close. But jeez, can we at least acknowledge that he's been the dominant driver in Cup for a full decade, and appreciate how big of a feat that really is? For those of you who claim the #48 only turns it on for the final 10 races, consider this: Since the Chase's inception in 2004, Jimmie Johnson has more REGULAR SEASON wins than anyone else has TOTAL wins. The fact is that he's been great in the regular season, and even better in the Chase, just like Joe Montana. Instead of hating greatness and trying to tear it down, why not appreciate it while it's happening? We will have plenty of time after JJ retires to debate where he ultimately stacks up historically. 457. cjs3872 posted: 11.03.2012 - 12:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) But Red, Tony Stewart was over 300 points ahead of Johnson in 2009. Now you and I both know that under a full-season format that Stewart would never have blown such a lead, and in 2006, he scored fewer than five more points than did Matt Kenseth over the entire season. Now under the gun, Johnson would have almost certainly committed an error that would have cost him in a points race that tight, because for a driver as great as Johnson is, he certainly commits more than his fair share of errors when under the gun, or even when he's not under the gun. And if he doesn't commit errors, his crew chief sure commits them, either through cheating or questionable pit calls which Johnson's on-track mistakes trying to catch up only magnify. Usually he overcomes them because his car is faster than everyone else's, but there are times when his mistakes even catch up to him. That's why I don't think he would have nearly the same championship success under a full-season format than he would under the Chase system when only 10 races count toward the championship, despite what everyone else says. But saying that, there's no doubt that his decade of dominance, partially aided by Hendrick Motorsports' pecking order, as well as Chad Knaus' information hiding, is very impressive. And as long as he has the most underhanded crew chief in the history of the sport, he'll continue to win championships, because Knaus will see to it that no other HMS car can threaten the #48, by hook or by crook. And we saw that on display again this year when the #88 mysteriously struggled as the Chase was looming because Knaus "stepped on the garden hose of information", but once Dale, Jr. had to sit out two races, the information began to flow freely again, hence Regan Smith's great run at Kansas. 458. ch posted: 07.16.2013 - 8:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor for the #30 should be Swan Energy for consistency. 459. Anonymous posted: 03.19.2015 - 3:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Baseball, huh? Babe Ruth was nothing but a fat old man with little girl legs. Also this was Bobby Labonte's last top 10 finish to date. 460. Nascar Lead Lap Points posted: 05.12.2016 - 7:15 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor Update #33 Comfort Inn & Suites/Ingersoll Rand ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: