FIVE LAPS: Friday at Texas
The weekend's almost here. Let's get to it.
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.
Lap 3: I hate to harp on Petty, but it just tears me up that the team is running on fumes. But let's face it: The teams that are winning (Hendrick, Gibbs, Roush, Childress) changed their business models to adapt to the changing economics in racin'. The teams that are losing (Petty, Wood Bros., all the other one- and two-car teams) didn't and are struggling. Ask Woolworths and Sears how clinging to their former successes in a different era worked out for them.
Lap 4: Three cheers for this valiant rescue effort!
Lap 5: NASCAR writer (and blogger) Brett Robinson takes a few laps at Talladega. (Via Mike M.) Robinson's post cries out for some video, so here's one. Here's another (that really, really, really needs to lose the awful music at the beginning; skip ahead to 2:30 where it starts to get wound up). My favorite all-time Talladega video, however, is right here. ("And Earnhardt is going for the lead!") It still sends chills up my spine.