About Me:
Currently Playing The Role of Duncan In Leading Ladies, 14 Falcons has received several honors on Fox blogs. Most Popular Discussions By Number of Comments, April 1, 2009, Most Interesting Blog, June 16, 2008 and six other occasions. Lisa awarded him Bes
About Me:
Currently Playing The Role of Duncan In Leading Ladies, 14 Falcons has received several honors on Fox blogs. Most Popular Discussions By Number of Comments, April 1, 2009, Most Interesting Blog, June 16, 2008 and six other occasions. Lisa awarded him Bes
About Me:
Currently Playing The Role of Duncan In Leading Ladies, 14 Falcons has received several honors on Fox blogs. Most Popular Discussions By Number of Comments, April 1, 2009, Most Interesting Blog, June 16, 2008 and six other occasions. Lisa awarded him Bes
Thursday, February 26, 2009, 09:55 PM EST
[General]
LAS VEGAS -- IRWIN Industrial Tools, a Newell Rubbermaid company and maker of the most reliable and versatile locking tools, the IRWIN VISE-GRIP, announced today that Dr. Bryan Fox of Chesapeake, Va., was selected as the winner of the "Tell Us Your IRWIN VISE-GRIP Story" promotion. Dr. Fox, an orthaepedic surgeon for the United States Navy, was honored for using an IRWIN VISE-GRIP to perform spinal surgery during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
As a result, Dr. Fox will be awarded a VIP Experience this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he will meet NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jamie McMurray and the No. 26 IRWIN Industrial Tools VISE-GRIP Ford team. In Sunday's third event of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, McMurray will be sporting the IRWIN Industrial Tools paint scheme, the first of eleven this season Fox also is receiving an IRWIN VISE-GRIP custom-branded chopper valued at $25,000 built by East Coast Custom Cycles.
A member of the U.S. Navy for more than 25 years, Dr. Fox found a unique use for his VISE-GRIP as a spine surgeon on the battlefield in the Middle East. In the heat of battle, Dr. Fox needed to perform emergency spinal surgery on a soldier who had a combination of screws and rods that had been implanted into his infected spine. Complicating the medical challenges at hand, Dr. Fox did not have access to the specialized tools necessary to deal with the soldier's different spine implants. Dr. Fox did, however, have access to a pair of VISE-GRIPs. He sterilized his VISE-GRIP tools and used them to remove the rods and screws from the soldier's infected spine, effectively saving his life.
"As a lifelong fan of IRWIN VISE-GRIP tools, I'm thrilled to be selected as the winner of the 'Tell Us Your VISE-GRIP Story' contest," said Dr. Fox. "IRWIN VISE-GRIP tools allowed me to save lives on the battlefield, and I firmly believe that VISE-GRIP tools are the most reliable and durable tools available. If you can't fix it with VISE-GRIPs, duct tape and a bigger hammer - it can't be fixed."
"IRWIN's 'Tell Us Your VISE-GRIP Story' showed us the creative ways our loyalists use their VISE-GRIPs outside of traditional workshop functions. Bryan's emergency battlefield spine surgery story serves as a great example of how our fans use the product in inventive ways to solve a variety of challenges every day," said Curt Weber, director of product marketing for IRWIN Industrial Tools. "We are excited to reward Bryan for his commitment to serving others and his loyalty to IRWIN."
For years, IRWIN has received hundreds of unsolicited stories from professional tradesmen, contractors and do-it-yourselfers about the unique ways they've used a VISE-GRIP product outside of its traditional use to solve various problems either in a pinch or as a permanent solution. From July-October 2008, consumers were asked to share the different and exceptional ways they have used VISE-GRIP locking pliers or wrenches to solve various problems in the workplace or at home.
When it comes to Vegas, everybody at Roush Fenway Racing seems to perform. Carl Edwards followed up a Fontana win with a victory there last year, giving the team a series-best six wins.Greg Biffle finished third to earn his first top-five and third top-10 in five starts, while David Ragan was seventh in just his second start. Jamie McMurray was 25th but has a pair of top-10s.
Defending race champion, Carl Edwards, has had a quiet start to the season. He has run well finishing 18th at Daytona and 7th in California while sitting 9th in the point standings but he has not been running up front often so far this season. Expect that to change at Las Vegas as he has the win last season as well as a 6th place finish in his last two starts at Las Vegas. Edwards is one of the best high-banked superspeedway drivers in the series averaging a 10th place finish over the last 15 races including three straight wins to end the 2008 season. Look for the #99 Aflac Ford to be a contender this weekend in the Shelby 427.
The 2009 season is starting just like the 2008 season finished for Jamie McMurray. McMurray has had strong cars in the first two races of the season but has suffered from just plain bad luck. He was running at the front of the pack in the Daytona 500 when getting caught up in the mess created by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Vickers relegating him to a 37th place finish. He has again running with the main pack in California when he began to suffer a brake problem finishing as the last car on the lead lap in 16th position. If McMurray can shake his bad luck this season he could be a contender in the Chase for the Championship. Hopefully that luck will change this week as he ranks in the top 5 on our PreQ forecast. Keep your eye on the driver of the #26 Irwin Industrial Tools Ford.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 05:20 PM EST
[General]
Roush Fenway has four drivers in the top nine in the standings - joining leader (Matt)Kenseth are Greg Biffle in fifth, David Ragan in eighth and (Carl) Edwards in ninth - and Jamie McMurray has shown strength in races. Can this surge continue? For his part, Kenseth obviously hopes so. No driver has ever won the opening three races of the season, but Kenseth feels optimistic about his chances. Normally viewed as somewhat more pessimistic and hesitant to make predictions about the future, the 2003 Cup champion clearly has high expectations for the coming week.
"I've thought ahead," Kenseth says. "I feel real good about Vegas. ... It feels pretty unbelievable to win the first two races - especially Daytona, to be able to come out of the box and run competitively here. ... I don't know why, I was more confident coming into this year than I have been in a (lot of) seasons. I just feel great about the group we have assembled. Everybody's having fun, everybody's loose, and everybody's performing at the same time. And I think (crew chief) Drew (Blickensderfer) has given the leadership and the start that they kind of need, and (team engineer) Chip (Bolin) has all the extra time to work on the cars and keep up with the engineering and the date and sift through all that stuff, and they've been able to work great together so far."
Kenseth became the first driver since 1997 (the season before he broke into the Cup Series) to start the season with consecutive victories and only the fifth driver in the sport's history to accomplish the feat.
Edwards is the reigning champ at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and, seeing that Roush Fenway drivers have won three of the last six races there, chances are very good that Carl could repeat!
"We only get to go to Vegas once a year. Last year was a blast. We won the race and I want to go back and win another one there. The Victory Lane is in the Neon Garage Fan Zone. It's an 'event' when you win that race."
Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 09:40 PM EST
[General]
Roush Racing - I'm not a big fan of Jack Roush but his team was awesome yesterday with Matt (Kenseth) winning and Greg Biffle fourth and Carl Edwards seventh. In addition, Jamie McMurray was 16th and David Ragan finished 17th.
He may not read my blog. But I'll peruse his when he writes about Jamie or Carl. Sorry though Hoosier, it's Roush Fenway Racing. Here is more on how the Roush drivers fared at Fontana. This compilation is taken from different articles on the Roush site as cited.
Matt Kenseth held off a charging Jeff Gordon in the waning laps of Sunday's Auto Club 500 to become the first diver in over a decade to start the NASCAR Sprint Cup season with consecutive victories. Kenseth was able to not only keep his No. 17 Carhartt Ford Fusion out in front of Gordon, but he was able to eventually pull away as the laps counted down.
The No. 17 team gave Kenseth the lead on pit road on three separate occasions during the race, the final coming under caution on pit road on lap 213 when Kenseth came in for four tires and one final adjustment. The Cambridge, Wis. native never looked back, holding off the No. 24 car, while following up last week's Daytona 500 victory with his third career win at the Auto Club Speedway and his third there in that past four races.
"This was a great effort by this No. 17 team," said a Gatorade-soaked Kenseth in the media center after the race. "Just a great team, great crew, great engines. You really need everything to go right to win these races. Our car handled really well all day, and we had excellent pit stops. Our fourth one from the end we were a little bit off and I started complaining and then all of sudden they got me three or four spots every stop.
"The pit stops were really important to our outcome," added Kenseth. "Their adjustments were really important. We were a little off, and I don't even know what they changed. (Crew chief) Drew (Blickensderfer) and (engineer) Chip (Bolin) came up with changing a couple of things and got it just good enough at the end. It wasn't easy, but it was just good enough to hold them off."
Greg Biffle and the No. 16 3M team headed to Auto Club Speedway looking for their first win of the season and Biffle's fifth at the track. Their presence was quickly felt after Biffle posted top five speeds in both practice sessions and qualified fifth. The 3M Ford Fusion was one of the fastest cars on the track all night and looked poised to win until a late-race pit road mishap took the team out of contention. Biffle fought back to finish fourth, his second straight top-five finish at the track.
"This was a pretty fast car," said Biffle. "I just screwed it up. It was so hard to pass out here, and I was trying to give my guys every advantage I could. I stopped in the box, I wasn't out of the box, but the guy pulled the hose around, and we had this problem before. It's just me stopping too deep in the box and caught them off-guard and ran over the hose. And this box is super-long anyway. But they didn't do anything wrong, it was my fault. The guys know I'm feeling bad, but they're trying to keep me cheered up for next week. They know we can win at Las Vegas. I'll keep working on it."
Carl Edwards and the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion team didn't have the weekend they had hoped for at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. After struggling to find speed during the weekend's practice sessions and qualifying a disappointing 25th, the Aflac team faced an uphill battle heading into Sunday's Auto Club 500. Throughout the 250-lap event, the team adjusted on the No. 99 to improve the ill-handling conditions that Edwards reported. By the time the checkers waved, Edwards had made his way up to seventh place for a solid finish.
Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion always looks forward to racing at Auto Club Speedway because it is statistically one of his best tracks. Unfortunately, the Crown Royal team was challenged with braking woes late in the race which found the team leaving California with a 16th-place finish Sunday evening.
A caution for rain came on lap 171, and the race restarted just seven laps later with McMurray and his No. 26 Ford still locked into the top 10. As the team rallied to challenge for track position, concern came across the radio when McMurray told his team that there seemed to be an issue with his brakes. McMurray spent the remainder of the race fighting to hold on to track position.
David Ragan had a fast UPS Ford, but contact with the wall and long green flag runs worked as a disadvantage in the end. Ragan qualified 13th, but battled a tight-handling Ford throughout the 250-lap event. As if the handling woes weren't enough, contact with the wall under green cracked the splitter and pushed in his right-front fender. His team made the necessary repairs over the course of two pit stops, but when it was all said and done, Ragan was a lap down to the leaders. He raced his way into the "lucky dog" position to be back on the lead lap, but the caution never came leaving him with a 17th-place finish.
The Daytona 500 may be the biggest event on the stock car calendar, but performing well in the Great American Race has about as much carry-over to the rest of the NASCAR season as a preseason game does in the NFL. Over the remaining 35 Sprint Cup races of 2009 the circuit will make only three more stops at restrictor-plate tracks -- once more at Daytona in July and twice at Talladega. So, in theory, you could be one of the worst plate racers in the series and still be hoisting the championship trophy at season's end.
Abstract:
Sports Illustrated - Inside Nascar - Lars Anderson Tells You Who He Picks at California
Story:
So now the circuit moves to California Speedway, a two-mile oval, in Fontana for Sunday's Auto Club 500. Because of the offseason testing ban that NASCAR instituted to save teams money, most in the garage expect the beginning of the 2009 season to closely resemble the end of '08. This means, in all likelihood, the drivers to beat on Sunday will be -- surprise, surprise -- Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch. But there are five other drivers that I think have a shot at surprising the favorites at Fontana and then again at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 1.
1. Mark Martin. On the day before Daytona 500, I sat down with Rick Hendrick in his motor coach that was parked in the infield for a 30 minute talk. But no matter what subject I broached, Hendrick always steered the conversation back to the 50-year-old Martin, who signed a one-year deal with Hendrick this offseason to make one last push at his first championship before he retires. "He has energized our whole organization," Hendrick said. "He's got the energy of a 20-year-old. And I tell you what: He's going to surprise a lot of people this year. I think it's going to be a great story."
2. Tony Stewart. Stewart had an impressive debut in the 500 for Stewart Haas Racing. He finished eighth at Daytona, expertly riding the draft to the front of the field. But now we'll find out just what kind of juice Stewart has under the hood. California Speedway is all about horsepower and handling. Stewart Haas Racing essentially is a satellite team of Hendrick Motorsports -- they get their engines and chassis from Hendrick -- and on Sunday we'll get our first peek at what Stewart's team is capable of doing with Hendrick's tools.
3. Kasey Kahne. If you just look at the result sheet from the Daytona 500, Richard Petty Racing jumps out as the surprise team of the race. This offseason Petty Enterprises merged Gillette Evernham Racing to form Richard Petty Racing. Expectations for this team were low in the garage, as it didn't boast a single driver that advanced to the Chase last season. But then on Sunday, Petty had three drivers rip off top-10 finishes: A.J. Allmendinger (third), Elliott Sadler (fifth), and Reed Sorensen (ninth). I would argue that these impressive runs were more a result of the top contenders getting knocked out of the race in the Big One, but still, this team was one of best stories to emerge out of Daytona.
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Little E had a nightmarish 500. He made two mental errors on pit road, costing him valuable track position, and then banged into Brian Vickers midway through the race, triggering the Big One. Earnhardt has been roundly blamed as the instigator of the crash ... and he'll be the driver under the most pressure on Sunday.
5. Jamie McMurray. McMurray was the driver during Speedweeks at Daytona who most caught my eye. In practice sessions, in the Budweiser Shootout, in his qualifying race, and in the 500, he consistently ran in the front and showed as much poise on the track as anyone. Though he finished 37th after getting caught up in a wreck, McMurray, to me, looks like he's finally ready to make a serious charge at qualifying for the Chase this season.
So who did Lars pick? You can read the full article to find out here:
Thursday, February 19, 2009, 11:32 PM EST
[General]
The Real Nationwide Points Standings
Bleacher Report Blogger Jory Fleischauer is taking a run at the same thing J J and I have been known to try. Anyone know where JJ is by the way? I have to say I like Jory's first report of the season. Kenny Wallace in 5th baby!
Jory writes, "I shall present the true Nationwide standings on a weekly basis. No driver that is competing in a full Sprint Cup season is allowed to accrue any points towards the Nationwide championship."
His top five are.
Jason Keller 143 - Last Week: Keller was the only Nationwide regular to score a top ten finish, coming home ninth.
Joe Nemechek -19 - Last Week: NEMCO Motorsports came back after a two year absence to score a top fifteen finish. Whether or not Nemechek does run a full Cup season dictates his championship eligibility.
Michael McDowell -22 - Last Week: In his debut with JTG-Daugherty Motorsports, McDowell gave the team a solid top fifteen run.
Kenny Wallace -23 - Last Week: Making his eighteenth Nationwide start at Daytona, Wallace equaled his average finish of the track of fifteenth.
Brendan Gaughan -25 - Last Week: Making his first Nationwide start in eight years, and second ever, Gaughan had a solid showing, coming home with a top twenty finish
You'll have to give his blog a hit to see the rest of his top ten.
Kenny is pumped after his finish in Daytona. He is in excellent shape compared to last year.
"We came out of Daytona unscathed in 16th place," Kenny says. "I always want to be better than that, but it wasn't a bad finish. It started out a little rough, but Chris Rice, made some good chassis calls and then at the end we took on two tires. We ended up decent and accomplished what we set out to do.
"I have to say that I'm way better off than I was last year. I missed the Nationwide race at Daytona and was 44th or 45th in points. Now this year, I'm 15th because we led a couple laps, so I'm much better off than last year!"
What was Kenny doing in New Orleans on Bourban Street this week? You can see his excuses here.
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