Hello loyal readers and other folks. Well Duck and I are home from our family visitations. Our trip there was delayed due to flooded road closures. Course we had to stop several times to get reroutin’ directions, but, I do believe those people couldn’t help us because they didn’t even know where they were. LORD have mercy! We were just wore to a frazzle and Duck’s squirt bottle was empty so we stopped for the night at a little wide spot in the road motel by the curious name of the Bugsrump Motel. I inquired first to see if they had a TV hopin’ we could catch a race before turnin’ in, but, all they had for our viewin’ pleasure was the TV with a VCR and a poorly taped version of, of course, “A Bug’s Life”. When we finally got to our desired destination the next day Duck found out that Flippin” Carl won the Nationwide race at Dover, so I was on Duck’s doodoo list. Course that wasn’t the first time I’ve been on that list and I dare say it won’t be the last, if ya know what I mean, but it did make the visitations just miserable for this granny what with dirty duck looks pert near the whole time, let me tell ya that much right now, but, none of that is neither here nor there cause we are home now thank our good and gracious LORD, so, let’s just avoid the rest of the visitation news and get to the current task at hand.
This week we were treated to a trip to Charlotte for the truck race and the All Star event and then Iowa for the Nationwide race. Duck and I were both so excited to finally settle in on our divan with our race snacks on the crates. We were ready, let me tell ya that much right now. I had some left over potato salad and greens so I made Duck his own bowls and then mine and we began our race viewin’ weekend Friday night with Timothy Peters on the pole followed by Clint Bowyer, Austin Dillion, Brad Sweet and James Buescher. The rest you can look up. On a note of possible interest, again I made a poor choice for race viewin’ snacks apparently, but, without goin’ in to too much detail let me just say that was the first and last time I will offer those for that. Greens have a way of eventually affectin’ Duck which in turn affect me even though I am sittin’ on the other side of the divan. I must have forgotten that fact, but, that will not happen again. You can bet your belt on that one somethin’ let me assure you all! Anyway, with some unusuals up toward the front to start the race it was a fair race and not too long or short. We were treated to a former Formula One Champ Kimi Raikkonen (not a girl) debut in this race. The pole sitter crashed out around lap 62 and ended up in the 32cd spot. Sad for him I say! And since there’s more to cover I’ll cut this race report short and say you know who did you know what again! Rowdy Boy (he still gets booed as much as he is cheered which I think is just an ugly thing to do to any driver) won with Cute Clint finishin’ where he started, followed by Whitt, Buescher and that handsome Hornaday. I shouldn’t say this I guess, but I was pullin’ for Hornaday and so was Duck, actually, but he’ll get ’em soon. Of that this granny is sure. And if you’re interested Raikkonen finished 15th, Not bad this granny says! The rest you can look up.
Saturday was the hyped up, muchly anticipated, curious and no points Showdown and All Star race where winnin’ is is the only importance because of the BIG MONEY! With time on short supply for Duck and I today (we still need to unpack and so forth) David Ragan had the pole followed by Allmendinger, Menard, Brad Keselowski and Jeff Burton. As y’all know the 1st 2 places transfer to the All Star event and then the fans pick the 3rd transfer. So after the several segments Ragan finished where he started so good for him I say followed by Brad Keselowski, Marcos Ambrose (Duck and I just love his accent and he’s a real cutie to boot), Allmendinger and wide smilin’ Logano. JR finished 6th so good for all of them I say! Course that was Jr with no big surprise!
The All Star race is just excitin’ to even think about. Mercy sakes alive those boys will and do just have at it. They have nothin’ to lose and a million plus to win. Know what I mean? Course as you all probably know but I need to tell ya anyway Flippin Carl won and he did flip after tearing his car plumb up durin’ his burn and spin outs. Jack In The Hat wasn’t too happy about the car destruction but he can afford it and braggin’ rights are worth an awful lot. Course Carl can now afford to chip in on the repairs winnin’ over $1,200,000! Here’s an oh so GOOD for him I say! Needless to say Duck was as happy as he could be and so was I. I’m now officially off the Duck Doodoo List, for now at least thank our good and gracious LORD! No sense in sayin’ who followed that cause that doesn’t count for nothin”. If ya want to know look it up. Know what I mean?
And then yesterday we were treated to a rather quick Nationwide race at Iowa. That’s a little track with a lot of power and excitement. It was just the perfect endin’ to a very excitin’ race viewin’ weekend. Saturday and Sunday I stuck to popcorn and cold buttermilk for snacks. Better be safe than sorry with fresh air to breathe, if ya know what I mean. That race offered some new names and faces. The twin nieces of Derrike Cope threw their hats in the bullring and a former Formula One Champ Kimi Raikkonen (not a girl) was scheduled to run the #87 Nemco/Busch partnered car for this series debut but Joe drove the car. Could be Kimi (not a girl) was unhappy with his truck race debut on Friday at Charlotte but I thought he did right well, but, that’s neither here nor there. . Drew Herring landed the pole followed by McDowell, Austin Dillion, Flippin’ Carl (so Duck feels like he made up for the previous weekend’s lack of race viewin’) and Reed Sorenson. The rest you can look up. With just 250 laps at this short track, the race just zoomed by with plenty of jostlin’. In the end that little cutie Ricky Stenhouse, Jr won his first Nationwide race. Oh so GOOD for him I say! Flippin’ Carl took 2nd which actually put a smile on Duck’s beak thank our good and gracious LORD. Brad Keselowski, Reed Sorensen and curly headed cutie Elliott Sadler rounded out the top 5. The rest you can look up.
Now for the other stuff. Did any of you see the snippets of Kenny Wallace’s interview with Dale, JR and Steve Letarte? If not you missed some really fine viewin’. I was proud of the Cutie Kenny askin’ some pretty tough questions of the Hendrick duo. Why those two jumped right in there and answered those questions frank and clear. They know they have come a long way and are headed in the right direction. I could have watched those 3 talk all day long. I hope we get to see more of it in the comin’ days. I’m tellin’ ya. Those boys are on track for a win this season. I am so sure of that fact this granny has bet a jar of her secret and coveted beet and rhubarb jelly recipe with a certain silly someone behind the meat counter!
Well time for Cousin’s take on this weekend’s events. She did a read good job while Duck and I were gone so let’s see what she has to say. Take it away Grouch!
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Howdy young’uns and other folks too! What an action packed, fun-filled weekend of NASCAR racin’ we had this week, race fans! It all started off on Thursday night with the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge. I tell ya, I enjoyed watchin’ those boys show us what they do and how it is done. We had Denny Hamlin’s #11 FedEx Team boys and Jimmie Johnson’s #48 Lowe’s Team boys runnin’ in the semi-finals but, of course, the # 11 team took the trophy and the money for the second season in a row! Good job boys, I say!
Let’s git to this week’s racin’ comments cause, as you know, I’m a busy woman and don’t have time to waste! The Truck Series boys were back in action this week. I can’t say it was all that excitin’ of a race. They had the usual caution flags, there were ten or eleven in this race, dependin’ on whether or not you counted the last one at the checkered flag but it didn’t stop the race none. The cautions were for the usual happenin’s, like spinnin’ out or debris on the track. Kyle “Rowdy” Busch ended up our race winner, leadin’ the last seven laps. He won his 28th Truck Series race and is now tied for second all time with Mike Skinner and Jack Sprague. Good for you, Kyle and the boys, I’d say!
Movin’ right along, we had us a busy evenin’ with the Burnout Competition on Saturday, which was easily won by Kasey Kahne. Doesn’t he have the most beautiful blue eyes? Well, ain’t that right? “Bad Brad” was braggin’ about winnin’ the competition but he couldn’t git er done, maybe next season, Brad! Other drivers included “Rowdy”, “Sliced Bread”, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch and Regan Smith.
The Showdown race had four caution flags, the worse of which was when the #09 of Landon Cassill went spinnin’ out, slidin’ up the track and bein’ t-boned by the #64 of Derrike Cope, who had no where to go, for a hard lick in the driver side door. David Regan won the Showdown with “Bad Brad” finishin’ second, movin’ them up into the All-Star race. At this point in the day, granny grouch is fixin’ the snacks for the big race. I baked some homemade oatmeal cookies and had some milk to go with them, about half way through the race, they surely hit the spot! Know what I mean? I didn’t know whether to expect a good ol’ fashioned race or a exhibition match of the WWE, when this race got to goin’! And at this point, I’m also anxious to find out who won the Fan Vote, as if we couldn’t have guessed. Good for you, JuneBug/Junior, I say! As you all know there were four segments to this race. Greg Biffle won Segment 1 and Carl Edwards dominated the remainin’ segments for an all Roush Fenway Racing win. I was flabbergasted to see Ford take all, know what I mean? I have to give a shout out to David Reutimann for startin’ in the 18th position and coming home third, that was a good run for the #00 team, yes sirree! Mr. Five-Time started eleventh and finished eleventh, I guess that’s what you call a wash? I don’t think Chad was too excited, do you? Another shout out goes to all the drivers for behavin’ themselves durin’ the race. I guess they were all seein’ dollar signs in front of their eyes and couldn’t think of anythin’ trouble to git into! It looks like the Oval Office will be a quiet place this week! As you all know, unless you are livin’ in a cave, Carl “Flipper”/”Cousin Carl” Edwards is the MILLION DOLLAR MAN ! ! ! Congratulations to him and his #99 Aflac Team. I guess part of that prize money will be spent reparin’ the racin’ machine, after you hit the man-hole cover, Cousin Carl. To my way of thinkin’, there should have been a safety barrier of some kind around it. Know what I mean? I’m supposing that “The Cat In The Hat” will git over his wrecked race car. . . . .one day! As we say, that was one of them racin’ deals, Jack.
The last race of the weekend was the Nationwide Series race that was run in Iowa. I was confused with all these schedule changes this week, how about you? The Nationwide race bein’ run on Sunday? Don’t they know that it’s hard for us “mature” women to keep up with these young whipper-snappers? My good and gracious Lord! I was noticin’ where “Cousin Carl” and “Bad Brad” were the only two Cup series drivers in the Nationwide race. That also made this granny happy, I can tell you that right now! It gave one of the “Young Guns” a chance to win his first ever NASCAR race. I know’d you were about to win one, there Ricky, darlin’, so I’m doin’ my happy dance that it finally happened in Iowa, where you had all the trouble last year, but of course that’s neither here nor there, now! Just enjoy your win this week, hon! I couldn’t have asked for a better endin’ to a fun filled racin’ weekend!
Finally, this granny has to make a correction to somethin’ I said last week in my writtin’ about the Dover racin’. I said that Matt (Kenseth) hadn’t won a race in a while, but I got to thinkin’, this week, and realized that he did in fact win the race at Texas Motor Speedway, this season, which I reckon only proves that this old woman’s memory ain’t as good as it once was! I stand corrected and will be payin’ more attention to my facts before I go shootin’ off my mouth again! That’s all I have for you today, but I look forward to “seein'” ya back here next week for our report on the Coca Cola 600 and the Nationwide race, back at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Have a great week everyone!
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Well thank ya there Cousin, dear. I appreciate you takin’ care of racin’ business for me last week. I am sure you knew what was gonna happen to me when Duck found out about Flippin’ Carl’s win. And he did. I swear I do believe it was Bernice who spilled the bucket on that. Burns my bacon, if ya know what I mean. She was conveniently absent from the next 2 day’s visitations. Good for us ALL I say. I saw her mug in the crowd as we were pullin’ away. That’s the best way to view that woman, if ya know what I mean…seen for a split second and not heard. I’m just sayin’.
Next week it’s back to Charlotte. WOOHOO and pass the cider! Email, comment or don’t. We don’t care cause we’re very busy women! Grump and Grouch over and out!
