Howdy, race fans. All three of NASCAR's national touring series are in Dover at the Monster Mile this weekend. RSO has picked up a new sponsor this week---Cowboy Wayne the Rodent Wrangler. Wayne is a specialist in gopher extermination. So if you have any pesky gophers popping up on your TV give him a call. Highlights and downlows? OK.
Congrats to Dale Earnhardt Jr. He makes his 300th consecutive Cup start this weekend. He has one win and four top fives at Dover in 16 Cup starts. Jr is also part of a remarkable streak at Hendrick. At least one HMS car has finished in the top ten in 77 straight Cup races.
Be patient, Nation, be patient
A few driver updates for Dover. Jeremey Mayfield gets a start in the #40 Dodge. While the 40's regular driver, Dario Franchitti, is scheduled to be in the Nationwide race Saturday. Jason Leffler will be in The HAAS Racing #70 this week. Robby Gordon will miss Cup practice and qualifying on Saturday, as he will be way out West in the Baja 500. Kyle Busch is pulling triple duty, racing in all three series at Dover. ChadMcCumbee is in the #45 for Kyle Petty as KP takes his annual seven race summer vacation. Just what we need in Charleston, seven weeks of Kyle holding up traffic on the way to his Isle of Palms beach house.
Craftsman Truck Series TV ratings on SPEED TV were up 41% over last year at LMS. Their year to date ratings are up 18%. I don't believe Mike Waltrip has been on every CTS broadcast this year, and the ones he has been on, I've noticed he's turned his schtick down a notch or twenty. Taking notes, F__TV?
The Monster Mash
Twenty of the 33 starters at Indy this year were foreign born. Not a great trend when trying to build your brand on American TV. Joe GibbsRacing, among others, are reaching out to Juan Pablo Montoya about filling a seat for them next year. No one can say that JGR hires robots to drive their cars. Paul Tracy was scheduled to test a truck for GermainRacing on May, 28 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Finally, the Cup race Sunday will mark the halfway point of their regular season, leaving 13 more to go before the Chase begins. So, here's a little RSO poll.........
What is the biggest surprise in the 1st half of the Cup season so far...
A. Dale Jr and Jeff Gordon being winless so far?
B. Kyle Busch's breakout season, and points lead?
C. Two JGR drivers have won races, and Smoke isn't one of them?
Hana nice points made. The monster can bring grown men to ther knees and first time winners to the front. It will be a good race to watch.
Surprise of the year is Toyota and Gibbs. I like Kyle, but have to wonder how Gibbs got to the front so fast?
Also Jeff not winning yet. They have not got a handle on the COT of 08. As for Jr. not a fan, but he is running good and finishng races. That said he should come play on the Dirt of Tony in ELDORA...Ahh.. The Dirt Only 5 days till Noah is flaggin for the Prelude..cant wait.
Tony Stewart's near meltdown this season is my pick for surprise of the year.
He strikes me as a guy who eats (a lot) when he's stressed. Has anyone seen a recent photo? I'm guessing they have to peel the top off the car to get him in now.
Han~Great RSO as always, I look forward to reading them.
Ditto: congrats to Jr for 300 consecutive Starts!
LOVED the KP vacation comment. ROTFLMAO!!!!
Kyle running all 3 races, wonder how many total miles with qualifying, practice laps and race. Guess he will need a extra padded seat for the Sprint.
Say it ain't so, Joe! (same thing I said when Toyota rumors were flying)
A. HMS what happened to your COT program since last year.
B. Who would have thunk it, Not HMS
C. HOW many championships would Tony have if he competed both halves of the season? 8-)
D. After last years start only the Long Shot bettors.
E. Operative Word - YET 8-p
Dave~ CRUEL ;^p me thinks he eats alot during the off season because he is bored. Then it takes the first half to get going but always turns on the heat in the second half.
Did Indy Champ Dixon accept Stewart's offer to race at Eldora? I haven't heard so I guess that's the answer...
What do you think of the new young gun Joey Logano with JGR? If he like Mark Martin says is the "real deal", do you think he may move right up to take Stewart's ride if he moves on? I hearing they may be courting Montoya???
Dave in Indy, trying to win friends among the Smoke set. Remember John Candy in 'Stripes', "The doc said I #### my aggression......along with a few pizzas."
elad....at least Busch is running those races at the same place. Robby Gordon is running 500 miles of off road jumps bfore flying back across the continent to race the next day. I look forward to reading your comments too, bro.
Han - Great article. I'm am new to the FOX blogging and posting so I'm still finding my way around. I am on the CBS autoboard alot along with a couple of other racing sites. As you saw in some of my blog comments I have been "around" for a while and I enjoy racing. It's always nice to chat with people who enjoy the sport. So if all of you on here can be patient and help a "newbie" out it would be appreciated.
My biggest surprise vote goes to Kyle Busch. I'm not really a fan (never was a Dale Earnhardt fan either but my dad was) but the kid can drive (reminds me a lot of Earnhardt). What the new fans don't realize is Jeff Gordon & Darrell Waltrip went through the same thing when they were young.
Gordon because he won pretty much right away and people didn't think he "paid his dues". And Waltrip because he won and was cocky about it. I believe that's why a lot of people liked Dale Earnhardt right away because of their dislike for DW and Earnhardt was not going to back down from him. Kyle Busch is from the same mold and you either like him or don't. As Dale Earnhardt once said, "as long as there's noise coming from the fans that's good". I may have parphrased but you get the point.
I'll end this long winded post with the point DW started to become a fan favorite with his non-fans, the 1989 Winston. That was the race Rusty Wallace (then a fan favorite) got into DW coming to the white flag in turn four and took away any chane for the win. The pit crews got into it after the race but I don't recall any fines or suspensions...bluejay
I guess I was too long winded to get everything on one post (LOL).
I look for "Concrete Carl" to continue his domintaion this week at the Monster Mile. Hopefully we'll see some great racing this weekend. Have a great day all...bluejay
D-One...I checked Scott and Tony's websites, and Eldora's, no mention of Scott accepting.
Logano is supposed to be the next big thing. The best new Cup driver since Jeff Gordon. He can drive, no doubt, but so can 25 other drivers out there every week. He does have great resources at JGR, and it would be no surprise if he wins his first NNS race Saturday. JGR also has another young gun coming along, Marc Davis, who turns 18 next month.
Blue...I remember all of those former 'most hateds'. DW was very easy to dislike. Agree on Carl. He's #1 on my fantasy team this week. Stop by anytime, bro.
Hanahan...fab RSO's again this week. Interesting rumor of JGR courting Mr. Juanderful...I would love to see that team! I wonder if Ryan leaves Penske if Helio will come up. My biggest surprise is how off Dodge has been, esp. Kurt. Let's hope Jr's 300th start goes better than Kenseth's did at Phoenix.
Thanks for reminding me to pick my fantasy team today!
The Baja 500 is very cool, and Robbie Gordon usually does pretty well in his truck. The dudes on the bikes are really impressive. Racing thru the desert at night on a motorcycle takes a special kind of crazy.
My answer is B. Kyle Busch switched to a new team with not many expectations, and he has exploded on everybody. In my humble opinion, he seems to be the biggest surprise for the drivers and teams. I remember Jeff Gordon when asked what he thought of Kyle's strong start responding, "Let's see him do it for an entire season."
kristen...thank you. Dodge has won 2 of the first 12 races. Kurt is the only top Dodge boy not to win yet. It has to be killing him to be running so poorly. Maybe Daytona will be his break through.
moseby...Humpy was a shocker also. Don't know if they're related. Wayne was in 'Saving Silverman'. The funniest movie Jack Black was ever in. I know that's not saying much, but it is a funny movie.
s2d...good choice. If someone had told us before the season started that Kyle would do what he's done, no one would have believed it. Looks like E Sad might be getting back on track, and he just renewed his contract with GEM. Hermie was in Memphis this week. Promoting a wrestling pay-per-view they're having here next Sunday.
ed...thanks for chiming in. Those 43 race cars going in circles for four hours use a drop in the oil bucket compared to all the millions of passenger cars that carry fans to thousands of baseball and football games.
If the next president gives me 10 billion dollars, I promise I will find the right people to come up with alternative fuel.
What I really find amusing is the people that criticize those who drive larger vehicles are usually the ones that fly on airplanes in business class, year-round. One trip in a plane burns fossil fuels to the nth degree of what driving a car to work.
Hey Hanahan!
Talking about off roaders I used to be pretty good friends with JN Roberts when we both lived in the Sierras in the early 80's. Now that was one good guy, but ready to do the craziest things at the drop of a hat... I didn't know about his exploits on a dirt bike since he wasn't a bragger. I was more impressed with his work as a stunt man in the movies... One crazy dude... We used to hang at the local lodge and imbibe adult beverages! Then the stories would fly... Ya never knew whether to believe some of them, but then someone else would vouch for it...
I found a video of him down in Baja...
IRL is already using ethanol...but I am not so sure there is a market value for a Showroom Stock Prius race....SMART Cars? Golf Carts? Just as an aside, even the so-called alternative fuel cars have to put their dead batteries somewhere to deteriorate for a thousand years, so what are we talking here?
BNut...If you could just get your west coast tree hugging buddies to let us throw up about 200 nuclear power reactors we wouldn't have as much of an energy problem. Ethanol still uses more fossil fuel to produce than it saves. I hope gas goes to ten dollars a gallon. Just to keep the streets clear for us important people who have places to go.(X^)>
H- Personally I don't hug anything but wenches at Frothy's, and the trees up here go for as far as the eye can see...but the difference is the trunk diameters have really shrunk in the last 50 years...more trees per acre, but about the same board feet. Bored feat? We have nuclear powered aircraft carriers here and subs too...but they shut down a Nuclear powerplant about 10 years ago because it was almost never on line. Hanford still has some, and there is a lot of natural gas too...just look at this blog response!
We have the technology to run steamersagain, but they use up water too...and soon enough the Hydrogen cars that only put out only water... I am not sure what sound a hydrogen fueled engine makes , but I am guessing it will be nothing like a gas burning high compression V8
I think "A". The real surprise is Mikey Waltrip is qualifying for the races. He doesn't do well as far as finishing but I guess we can't expect miracles yet.
I will go with left sides and hope to beat you out of the pits that way. Casey Mears keeps taking out his team mates because his spotter is looking for Frank walking around in the pits.
Alternative fuel sources for NASCAR is certainly a good idea. We have enough methane gas at the Rumpke Dump Mountain to fuel NASCAR cars for a year.
They mostly burn it off now so we don't have a powder keg go off with a big #### at the dump. Certainly would not be a good sight with all that grabage as fallout from the mushroom cloud..
Yeah, photo, that comment about Mikey was hilarious. I thought they had some sort of methane collectors they had installed at landfills? Thought I saw something about it on TV a while back.
Most do but for some reason here they like to burn it off rather than recycling it.
I grew up back in the day and my grand parents had a live stock farm ( cows, pigs, and chickens). Thinking back when gas was .15 cents a gallon, No one would have thought all that #### would be a good methane gas producer. We mostly sold it for fertilizer after treating it. I think that was what they did with it.
Good edition of RSO - As for the biggest surprise this year??? All are good choices, but for me it's choice A...neither Gordon or Jr. winning yet.
Oh by the way...I read another article yesterday on this website that the reason that Kyle Petty wasnt in this week's race was because his daughter was getting married. Otherwise...it's that time of year for his TNT stint in the broadcast booth.
Hi, Gerrel. I knew about Kyle's daughter's wedding. That is being a great father, but a bad employee. Kurt Busch was married during a season recently, and he didn't miss any seat time. Kyle said earlier this year that he would go drive for a better team if Petty Enterprises didn't want him. I doubt any other team would let him take off seven weeks in the middle of the season for any reason other than injury.
Did they have anything in the news up there about Paul Tracy testing at Chicagoland?
