http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/ A racing discussion with John Newsom. en Copyright 2008 Wed, 14 May 2008 14:41:17 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Release.) The fact that McCumbee (one of the 2007 subs) is back is good news for him and his career, though I suspect he wants steadier work in the Cup series, not to mention a full-time Busch ride from someone. But the Terry Labonte selection disappoints me. It's clear he's going to be behind the wheel because (a) he's available (though he's technically retired -- long story) and (b) he has the much-coveted Past Champion's Provisional, NASCAR's version of the Get Out of Jail Free But In Reverse card. So why not Richard? He wouldn't cost Petty a dime (and they're cheap cheap cheap), and he's three years younger than James Hylton, who turned a 185 mph lap in Daytona practice last year. * The All-Star race continues to disappoint (entry list): There's only one Small Teamer, and that's Bobby Labonte. Maybe Robby Gordon or Carl Long will race his way in. * Some vintage Wood Brothers love. How cool would it be to see this on the track? How cool would it be to see the 21 in anything other than a shot of it dropping oil and sheet metal after a wreck? * Hey, it's not just Joe Nemechek's fault. * Post-post update: Bob Pockrass explains why Jon Wood won't be racing Saturday. You think NASCAR would pull this on Hendrick or Roush? ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/if_small_teams_8.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/if_small_teams_8.shtml If small teams ruled ... Wed, 14 May 2008 14:41:17 -0500 Lap 1: Yes, Shrub can wheel a race car. There's never been much doubt about that. But the way the guy won Saturday night was scary. He had the loose lug nut problem early, then bounced the car off the wall about every other lap after that. Jimmie Johnson has a knack (or used to, anyway) for starting out bad, working his way back through the field and coming out on top. KyBusch is pulling a page from that playbook. Lap 2: Dustin Long's story implies that there are Kyle Busch fans out there. I really, really doubt it. Unless, of course, I missed the new practice of throwing beer cans at someone you like. Is it like throwing AA batteries at right fielders? Kids today. More after the jump ... ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/five_laps_two_d.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/five_laps_two_d.shtml Five laps - Monday Mon, 12 May 2008 12:40:56 -0500 Here are your Small Team Standings after the Richmond race. Bobby Labonte (13th at Richmond) made up a ton of ground on Brian Vickers (28th). David Gilliland (41st) was your big loser and dropped from second to fourth. Look who squeezed into the top 10 -- Furniture Row Joe! But that's mostly because Mike Skinner hasn't raced since Phoenix. Vickers, meanwhile, your best-placed Small Teamer, is 17th in the real world. Your Small Team Standings after the jump. http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/if_small_teams_7.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/if_small_teams_7.shtml Wed, 07 May 2008 09:15:58 -0500 Lap 1 (the wife): So, who won the race last night: Me: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ...... Lap 2 (wife again, prying what's left of the Sports section from my hands): Kyle Busch won? Me: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ...... The interview continues after the jump. ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/five_lap_primal.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/five_lap_primal.shtml Mon, 05 May 2008 11:10:39 -0500 on Tuesday: Lap 1: Ah, Richmond -- the second-best race on the schedule. (First: Richmond in the fall, the race before the cutoff for the Chase.) It's also the place where Junior won his last race two years ago. He'll win Saturday. You just watch. Lap 2: Jeff Gordon's still a whiner. Boooo hoooo hoooo, Junior didn't help me. (More.) Let's face it, 24 fans: The Hendrick cars just don't dominate at the plate tracks any more. Two-Time's rope-a-dope hang-in-the-back tactic isn't sandbagging. It meant his car just wasn't that good. And, no, I can't explain why Casey Mears was had the best Hendrick finish. Can you explain how Furniture Row Joe ended up on the pole? More after the jump. ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/five_laps_frida_2.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/05/five_laps_frida_2.shtml Five laps - Friday Fri, 02 May 2008 10:10:10 -0500 Brian Vickers opens up a lead on the rest of the field after a wild 'Dega race that saw Brian Vickers get a top 5 and four (!) other Small Teamers (Kvapil, R. Gordon, Gilliland, Riggs) crack the top 20. One of those running well was *not* Bobby Labonte, who got caught up in that late wreck and got dropped to 34. David Gilliland (15th) passes him for second in the Small Team Standings. In the real world, Vickers climbed three spots to 16th and has a weak, but still possible, shot at the Chase. The Small Team Standings after nine races is after the jump: http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/if_small_teams_6.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/if_small_teams_6.shtml If small teams ruled ... Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:42:27 -0500 Lap 1: It's about time NASCAR took away a win for cheating (or, more technically, a rules violation. This case seems more stupid than intentional). The argument against doing that has traditionally been the fans and the sponsors and all the money that's tied up in both. The thing is, your bottom line might look better if folks didn't think the winner was cheating. I don't see much different between Peyton Sellers' bad shock and Carl Edwards' loose oil pump cover. Do you? More from Dustin Long here. Lap 2: Yes, it would great if Junior won this week. No, I don't think it's going to happen. (My bet is Richmond next week.) My hope is that Four-Time wins. Do you throw Amp cans at the 24 even though he's now Junior's teammate? (My bet is they'll throw Bud cans just for old time's sake. Some habits die hard.) More after the jump ... ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_talla.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_talla.shtml Five laps - midweek Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:35:35 -0500 Must have been something I ate, but I'm in a foul mood. Maybe it's the inane debate over NASCAR's drug policy. Remember, it took the death of the sport's biggest star for NASCAR to finally do something serious about safety. NASCAR is running the same play ("We're NASCAR and we know") with its substance abuse policy. Gimme a break. A grade-A rant is below the jump. If you're in a good mood, I suggest you go outside and enjoy the sunshine and read something else. That's what I'm going to do shortly. http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_going.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_going.shtml Five laps - midweek Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:10:10 -0500 Bobby Labonte has caught Brian Vickers for the lead among the small-team drivers thanks to a 12th-place finish at Phoenix. (Vickers was 25th.) David Gilliland (15th) was the only other Small Teamer in the top 20. Four other drivers swapped spots farther down in the rankings. Top 10 Small Team Driver Standings after the jump ... http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/if_small_teams_5.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/if_small_teams_5.shtml If small teams ruled ... Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:09:09 -0500 Lap 1: That wasn't one of the estimated 16.5 million major league baseball games scheduled for 2008 on my TV when I tuned in Saturday night for the race, was it? It was? Really? Did Fox delay the start of the race so it could finish the game? And then did Fox switch to the race before the ball game was over? It did? E-Fox. Story here. (P.S. to USA Today: This was not a repeat of the Heidi fiasco. Not even close. So why mention it?) Lap 2: Props to Chad Knaus for his win Saturday night. Not only did he draw a straight flush when he needed it, but also ... did you see him screw with Jimmie Johnson's head? Telling his driver that he's 20 seconds up instead of 10 seconds was a stroke of evil genius. More nonsense after the jump. ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_post.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_post.shtml Five laps - Monday Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:13:30 -0500 Lap 1: This ESPN piece about Aaron Fike is a great little piece of journalism. Props to Ryan McGee for doing such a nice job on the story. But I don't think this is the thing that will shake NASCAR to its proverbial core. Think about the whole safety saga for a minute. There was a collective sad shrug when Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty died less than two months apart in 2000. Dale Sr.'s death at Daytona in Feb. 2001 was the holy-hell-we-need-to-do-something moment. Same with drugs. A few nobodies (Aaron Fike, Shane Hmiel, Kevin Grubb) get nailed, and NASCAR continues to say everything's fine. If Jeff Gordon or Junior or Jimmie Johnson gets busted, game on. Don't expect anything to change until that happens. More rants after the jump. ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_preph.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_preph.shtml Five laps - Friday Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:10:10 -0500 Here's the story. See if you can read behind the lines.) The Small Team Driver standings after the jump ... ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/if_small_teams_4.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/if_small_teams_4.shtml If small teams ruled ... Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:11:39 -0500 Lap 1: Why is Michael McDowell not dead? That's a rhetorical question, of course, but that was one hard hit. SAFER barrier, HANS Device, COT -- take a bow. Lap 2: Yep, that was Jeff Gordon finishing 43rd. Sadly, because I'm a Junior fan, it hurts a little to see a teammate in distress. Not a lot. I mean, I no longer laugh hysterically when the 24 runs badly. Lap 3: When was the last time you saw TWO unsponsored cars in the same Cup race? And what does Robert Yates have to do to get someone to throw some money his way? Both of his drivers got much-better-than-you'd-think top 20 finishes. Lap 4: So Carl Edwards won again. Last time he finished first, it cost him 100 points and his crew chief. Either (a) Edwards was that good, or (b) the Roush crew has gotten better at hiding its work. I vote (a). Lap 5: I ran out of gas a lap from the finish. Seriously, though, did anything stand out about Sunday's race? Anything at all?]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_monda.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_monda.shtml Five laps - Monday Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:50:01 -0500 Lap 1: The weather doesn't look great at Texas today - showers in the morning, cloudy in the afternoon. The three people who are praying for sunshine: Patrick Carpentier, Burney Lamar and John Andretti. Eight others who are praying for rain include Sam Hornish Jr., Dave Blaney and Chad McCumbee. Persistent showers all afternoon mean that those three would be washed into Sunday's Cup race. Lap 2: Has time passed by Petty Enterprises? Uh, yeah. Memo to NASCAR.com's Bill Kimm: A team that that has fewer wins in 23 years (3) than Jimmie Johnson ripped off in four races late last season (4) is not in a "times have been tough" phase -- it's in freefall. More after the jump. ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_frida_1.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_frida_1.shtml Five laps - Friday Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:35:34 -0500 Lap 1: When Petty moved its shop to Mooresville this year, it was billed as the start of something new. Now it looks like the beginning of the end, or maybe the middle of the end. Kyle Petty missed Sunday's race at Martinsville, a place that should be called Pettyville because King Richard own the place. Kyle's going to skip Texas this week, too. Worse, General Mills, tired of backing a team that has won just three races in 23 years, is going to Childress next year. Dustin Long and I were talking last week about which team we thought would be the next to follow Morgan-McClure to the garage. The likely candidates (other than BAM, which isn't much of a team) are the Wood Bros., the Pettys and and Yates. I had Wood, Yates and Petty in that order, but now I'm not so sure that Petty won't be the first. Lap 2: Speaking of BAM, they're not coming to Texas this week. That's a death blow, because there's no way that team will climb back into the top 35, and they're not usually fast enough to qualify on speed. Three more laps after the jump ... ]]> http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_headi.shtml http://blog.news-record.com/staff/spotter/2008/04/five_laps_headi.shtml Five laps - midweek Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:55:58 -0500