St. Louis Cardinals outfielder, former pitcher, Rick Ankiel

and three time Champion Jimmie Johnson:

TWINS????

In The Groove is dedicated to bring you, the all-knowing Fox Sports Bloggers, a peek at the Highs and Lows of racing randomness. Welcome.

The High Groove

With Easter upon us this weekend, we are running full throttle in The High Groove with the theme of giving back and supporting our NASCAR Community.

Running first in the High Groove is Elliott Sadler.  Sadler was sporting his beautifully designed Autism Awareness helmet at Texas, which will be worn at every race this month.  Autism awareness is a cause very near and dear to Sadler, as his niece was diagnosed with autism in 2001.  The helmet will be put up for auction on Sadler's birthday, April 30th, to raise money for autism-related charities and further research.  If you would like more information on the auction, please visit www.SadlerFoundation.org.

Running second in the High Groove is Benny Parsons' Rendezvous Ridge.  Instead of popping open the champagne to celebrate Gordon's win, how about popping open some wine?  (Merlot is always my choice).  The vineyard is donating $5.00 per bottle of wine sold during the months March, April, May and June, 2009 to the Greg Biffle Foundation.  Even if you don't make a purchase, by visiting www.rendezvousridge.com you will get to reminisce about the late and great Benny Parsons.

Running third in the High Groove is, well, The Greg Biffle Foundation. The foundation was founded in 2005 by Greg and his wife Nicole to "create awareness and serve as an advocate to improve the well-being of animals by engaging the power and passion of the motor sports industry."  In addition to the Foundation's website, you can visit Ebay.com here on the 16th day of every month when the Foundation lists various items, including autographed items, for auction to benefit the Foundation.

The Low Groove

P1 in the Low Groove is Bruton Smith for getting his way.  How many of you saw the Championship Banquet being moved to Las Vegas? Most of you, that is how many.  We saw it coming years ago.

P2 in the Low Groove is, unfortunately, the fact that Kyle Busch is a copy-cat.  Did you see him perform the Unwind Lap after the Nationwide race?  No, don't jump in and say, but he couldn't do his burnout - the sealed engine rule remember?  Well, true.  However, surely Rowdy is more creative than that?  He even had to make a comment that he was NOT copying his brother with that celebration, he just wanted to show some love to the Turn One fans.  Really.

P3 for the Low Groove goes to the mechanical issues, bad pit calls, two tires instead of four tires, running over air hoses, lug nuts popping off, and snappy loose cars in the race at Texas.  Michael Waltrip Racing was the biggest victim, as Reutty was on the pole then running in the top 10, along with Marcos Ambrose. Then... boom. Carl Edwards, Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, and countless others were also showing signs of greatness on Sunday, but it just didn't come to fruition for these guys.

And for the checkered flag we have In The Groove's thought for the day ... in percentages, how much would Morgan Shepherd's performance improve with a full time sponsor, more than five people back at the shop, and a skilled pit crew?

Quote of the week: "I thought he was past his prime." (3rd place finisher Greg Biffle giving his thoughts, jokingly, about Jeff Gordon winning at Texas)

Happy Easter Everyone!

In The Groove is dedicated to bring you, the all-knowing Fox Sports Bloggers, a peek at the Highs and Lows of racing randomness. Welcome.

The High Groove

Running first in the High Groove is Jamie McMurray. Jamie McMurray brushed off Juan Pablo Montoya Friday morning in Martinsville and didn't care to listen to anything he had to say about their incident the prior week. Seems "Cupcake" is now more like the new Klondike bar with a thicker shell. Should we now call him the Klondike Cupcake? Bite me JPM!

Running second in the High Groove is Incredible Pizza Company for their "The Incredible Heroes" campaign. Incredible Pizza is the incredible sponsor for the Nationwide Series entry of CJM Racing's number 11 Toyota, with driver Scott Lagasse, Jr. The Incredible Heroes campaign is recognizing incredible people throughout the 2009 Nationwide series and coincides with cities along the racing circuit. The most recent recipient is a Dallas/Ft. Worth area gentleman who saved a man's life from his vehicle, which had crashed and was engulfed with flames.
Want to read the full story? Click here.

Running third in the High Groove is Marcos Ambrose. My love affair with this Aussie just gets stronger as this year progresses. I would say that this love affair is one-sided, but it would not be true. Ambrose respects and loves this sport and its fans, and gave a lot of his time this past weekend to us through Speed TV's Trackside program Friday night and Raceday on Sunday morning. I know now what fizzed up, screen, and tin tops are. Oh, and using some newly found Martinsville muscle, Marcos drove his butt off with NO brakes at 40 laps to go, plus no new tires. His finish position at this rough and tough short track? Fourteenth!

The Low Groove

P1 in the Low Groove is Kyle Busch's lack of maturity after the truck race yesterday. Running from the track? We are sorry that you had a bad weekend overall at this track, but Grow Up!!

P2 in the Low Groove is, unfortunately, Dave Blaney. Why is the Buckeye Bullet out there only running 50 laps of a 500 lap race? Yes, he led a lap. And? That's another $69,665.00 into the fleeing moth fund for Prism Motorsports.

P3 for the Low Groove goes to Obama, for sounding like Mr. Bill France. "It's my way or the highway."

And for the checkered flag we have In The Groove's thought for the day . . . will Jamie McMurray succeed in gaining access to his frozen accounts and pay his taxes by April 15th?

Quote of the week:  "Welcome to tear down, boys."

Can't sleep and I'm going to be inside all weekend with the rainy weather.  Ugh.

But, on to bigger and better things.

The storm is brewing, here, as is Smoke's desire to win as the first owner/driver since Ricky Rudd did it.  So, I thought I pass along some information about Tony Stewart heading into this weekend's race at Martinsville.

Tony has led a combined 1,193 laps at the paper clip track.  He has two wins here, his last win there coming in 2006.  He's due.

Additionally, here is some stats comparing his season thus far to his stats for the first five races last year in the #20 machine.

2008 Season:

Daytona 500 - finished 3rd; Auto Club 500 finished 7th; UAW-Dodge 400 finished 43rd (accident); Kobalt Tools 500 finished 2nd; and Food City 500 finished 14th

2009 Season:

Daytona 500 8th; Auto Club 500 8th; Shelby 427 finished 26th; Kobalt Tools 500 finished 8th; and Bristol, Food City 500 finished 17th

That has been three 8th place finishes so far this season.  Not too shabby.

Tony hasn't qualified worse than 15th this year and is standing stout in the seventh position in the points.  He hasn't had to use a champions provisional.  He's getting it done on the track and didn't have to sweat out qualifying this weekend either way. 

I just wanted to make one tiny clarification if I may.  A lot of people came out last year stating that he would fall flat on his face moving over the Haas.  He hasn't.  Now, a lot of people are stating that he is only succeeding because he is running HMS engines.  Well, yes, he is.  But come on now, wouldn't you?  Wouldn't you, really, continue Haas' alignment with Chevy and HMS engines if you could?  Wouldn't you accept 50 percent ownership in a team where, by all accounts, he has as much of a say as to what happens in that organization as anyone?

Thought so.  So, back off, and give him proper respect.  Because, regardless of running a "satellite HMS team" or not, Smoke still has IT.

Good luck this weekend, Smoke, hope you can have that hot dog in Victory Lane!

From,

Your Faithful Fans

A new weekly series (maybe) dedicated to bring you, the all-knowing Fox Sports Bloggers, a peek at the Highs and Lows of racing randomness. Welcome to In The Groove.

The High Groove

Running first in the High Groove is Andy Kane, the winner of the contest to name Kurt Busch's backwards victory lap. The winning name? "Unwind Lap." Thanks to KLVALUS for giving us the heads-up on the contest.

Running second in the High Groove is Tony Stewart and the Tony Stewart Foundation for donating an undisclosed amount of money to cover surgery costs for a three-year old Shih Tzu with a broken back, and the cost of the dog's special "wheelchair" to make up for losing the use of his hind legs.

Running third in the High Groove is the Indy testing out at Barber Motorsports Park here in Alabama over the past weekend. Great weather, great speeds, and check out the great pics of Dario Franchitti's hair nowadays. Dude! Hopefully, our State officials, the track officials, and the entire experience of 20,000 fans showing up throughout the weekend will convince Mr. George to bring an Indy race here, soon!

The Low Groove

P1 in the Low Groove goes to Paul Menard this week. Daddy Menard, can you pretty-please stop the cash flow? Cut it off! Immediately! I know he apologized, but punting Morgan Shepherd in the Nationwide race at Bristol is just uncalled for. Hey Paul - Mr. Shepherd doesn't have unlimited resources like you and you messed up like one-third of his inventory. You've had your 15 minutes of LAME. But, he'll be praying for you, I'm sure. Additionally, Mr. Shepherd's news release about his Bristol weekend didn't even call Menard out. Bummer.

P2 in the Low Groove is NASCAR. Making changes to the All Star Race. Will it never end? I know, the answer is NO.

P3 in the Low Groove goes to Clint Bowyer for appearing on a show called The Biggest Loser. Why? Just because. It is ironic, isn't it?

In The Groove's thought for the day.... do the drivers Google themselves?