Hello there loyal readers and other folks. This past weekend we were treated to another race weekend Duck and I have come to call a “splitter”, not to be confused with the splitters on the race vehicles. Nosirree! Our race viewin’ pleasure was split, yet again between 2 tracks in 2 states. So, understand? It’s just easier to describe it that way for Duck and I. At my age easier is always, well, easier. As we settle in for just such a race weekend I merely look at Duck and say “splitter” and no other words are needed. Know what I mean?
The first race was the Campin’ World Trucks in Texas Friday night. We truly like the trucks. It’s such an excitin’ series filled with some cagey veterans who are battlin’ with young guns. This was another of those night races, which Duck and I like well enough. Saves me some mess in some ways. I try to plan our day’s meals around the race startin’ time so we just need snacks rather than try to pile a full meal on the livin’ room crates. Most times, but not always, the cleanup is easier too, which is neither here nor there. With the snacks in place we cheered and quacked as the green flag flew. James Buescher, Joey Coulter (the cool down lap Rowdy Boy donut receiver in the head lock Childress/Rowdy Boy hoopla of the previous weekend’s news), Austin Dillion (head lock master Childress’ grandson), Steve Arpin and Rock’em Sock’em Sauter led the field to the green. For those who are interested, and I certainly was, Handsome Hornaday started in the 13th spot.
Duck and I enjoyed it. It was 168 laps of fast, so what’s not to like? Jostlin’ all over the track! Yessirree we like the trucks and it seems as though these trucks always offer up some unexpectedness. Know what I mean? And that race there did exactly that. A few engines gave up the ghost and on lap 66 Bodine and Starr tangled endin’ both their nights and Todd’s hope of winnin’ 3 years in a row at Texas. Then on lap 90 Matt Crafton and Austin Dillion got together endin’ Matt’s night and takin’ away little Austin’s chance for a win. Matt was hot under his firesuit’s collar thinkin’ it was little Austin’s fault, but, after he reviewed the video of the incident he realized he was the fault maker there and cooled down a bit. Oh the passions and perceptions of racin’! Finally with a restart and only 3 laps to go and lookin’ at a green/white/checkered finish leader Rock’em Sock’em led the field and immediately jumped in front of Handsome Hornaday to block him, a move that is a BIG no with the powers that be. Yessirree! Rule is you can’t do that before crossin’ the start/finish line so Sauter was black flagged and Hornaday took the win. In Victory Lane Ron said that was a “good way to steal one”, but, Ron honey, rules aren’t meant to be broken in NASCAR unless you’re NASCAR. Course sometimes they’re bent, but it depends on who’s doin’ the bendin’. Know what I mean? Anyway that was Ron’s first win of this season and his 48th Truck Series win so GOOD for him I say! Kligerman, Mayhew, Ickler and Coulter rounded out the top 5. Course Sauter was bent and the worst person to feel that way towards is yourself, but maybe the fact that he still holds the points lead by 20 points over Cole Whitt eases his self inflicted bentness. And for those of you who are interested, Hornaday, Dillion and Crafton hold 3rd through 5th in the points.
Saturday we changed states and headed to the hills of Pennsylvania for the ARCA race. Beautiful place, it is, but the weather was somewhat ugly. At times it was hard to see who was doin’ what. The fog made it seem like we were lookin’ through, well, fog! I know some of you loyal readers and other folks don’t follow this series, but Duck and I watch every chance we get cause in some ways it’s like steppin’ back a few years to the Cup races, bein’s that most of those cars are old Cup cars. ARCA has a lot of seasoned veterans competin’ against young NASCAR hopefuls, so it’s a good way to get to know some of the stars of NASCAR’s tomorrows. Know what I mean? Brennan Poole was on the pole, followed by Ty Dillion (another of head locker’s grandsons), Krafty Kimmel, Chris Buescher and Grant Enfinger. There is also a newcomer female racin’ in this series Johanna Long to make 2 females drivin’ in this race, the other bein’ Maryeve Dufault. She’s also a pretty little somethin’ who has had some good success in the south and another female who may just give Miss Danica a run for the big money eventually so good luck to both of them I say! So as the green flag flew Duck and I quacked and cheered but the first part of the action didn’t last long. The first caution came at lap 19 and lasted for 12 laps. Then almost as soon as they took the green rain was fallin’ so the race was red flagged but soon they were back to racin’, thank our good and gracious LORD! Buescher was the leader at this point with teammate head locker’s grandson in 2nd. There was a lot of jostlin’ goin’ and on lap 57 George passed the leader, but the fog was steadily getting’ worse so ARCA called the race on lap 59 makin’ George the winner. Good for him I say! That was George’s first win in the ARCA Series and the 4th win this season for Childress Racin’ so good for that owner and teams too I say. Just maybe that helps makes the $150,000 fine and probabtion for the little ol’ wine maker easier to deal with. I’m not bein’ ugly here, I’m just sayin’. This granny is hopin’ so at least. Know what I mean?
Next up in this race weekend was the Cup race. We stayed at Pocono. What an excitin’ place to race and watch! Kurt Busch had the pole which shows the fire isn’t out under that hood or helmet. That boy has been producin’ some momentum of late so good for him, his team and owner I say! I was right proud and excited for that boy. Showed a lot of stuff to a lot of naysayers, let me tell ya that one somethin’ right now! So as Duck and I cheered and quacked at the green flag Kurt, Menard, Dupont Dandy, Hamlin and Ragan Smith led the field. For Flippin’ Carl lovers like Duck, he started 6th and for JR lovers he started 21st. The rest you can look up.
There was dicin’ up front from the get go. Hamlin grabbed the lead on lap 2. Carl was movin’ up right nicely to Duck’s viewin’ pleasure. I was happy for him. Makes my viewin’ pleasure much easier. Know what I mean? And Kurt was stayin’ in the top 5 real well. I was pullin’ for the boy. I truly was and by lap 14 Juan-toya found his way into the top 10 and on lap 22, due to pit stops, he had the lead. By lap 24 JR was in the top 5. It was just typical Pocono Cup racin’ excitement and jostlin’! Flippin’ Carl had engine problems somewhere after a 1sh quarter of the race was completed. He never recovered from that. Duck was just devastated as you can imagine. He was rather quiet from there on. At least I didn’t have to endure the usual ho hums and loud sighs from him when his idol isn’t doin’ to well. Anyway, with the race bein’ 200 laps and with a lot of Monday work to do around here I will shorten this here report to say the whole race was excitin’. Fuel was another factor to this race. Seems like all these boys were pitting pretty often for gas. But we all know the last lap is the one that counts even though there were some pretty amazin’ movers and shakers in the bunch, Kurt bein’ one of them. But a green/white checkered landed Jeff his 2nd win this season. GOOD for him I say. Kurt finished 2nd followed by brother Rowdy Boy, same champ Jimmy and Kevin Harvick. GOOD for all of them I say! With the excitin’ finishes Kurt and JR have been havin’ they are showin’, thus far, that this granny is correct in predictin’ wins for them both real soon. I can’t wait. Nothin’ more a granny likes than I told ya so’s. And for those of you who are interested JR finished 6th and Flippin’ Carl finshed a disappointin’ 37th with only 50 laps completed. The rest you can look up. Duck went quietly to his room followin’ the race. I cleaned the snacks from atop the crates and I grinned at most of the race results as I drifted off to sweet slumber. I can tell ya that much right now.
Now for the other stuff. Seems Rowdy Boy just manages to stay in the news one way or another. Seems his car failed post race inspection cause the right front was determined to be too low for NASCAR’s rules. Penalties are usually announced on Terrible Tuesday, as Duck and I call it, but seems the powers that be were in a hurry. The crew chief, Dave Rogers was fined $25,000 and 6 Championship Owner points and 6 Driver Championship points were taken away. Whewee! That’s a lot of penalty money bein’ handed over this season to the powers that be and interestin’, let me tell ya that one somethin’ right now.
Also it seems the Happy/Rowdy thingie ain’t quiet a done deal. Seems there was some more pushin’ goin’ on early in the race. This time, however, it was Kevin pushin’ Kyle. At least they weren’t sittin’ on pitroad. Course they were duly warned, but then that has already been done over and over again. Right? Oh the sagas of racin’! Cleverly (I hope) I say, I know who’s got the wine so I guess Coach Joe needs to furnish the cheese. Know what I mean?
And finally has Todd Bodine been released? What in Sam Hill is goin’ on over there? I mean to keep lookin’ for more news on this. Seems crazy even to me!
So that’s all I’ve got under my bonnet this here Monday mornin’. Let’s see what Cousin Grouch has to say. Bring it on Cousin, dear:
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Howdy young’uns and other folks too! Well, we had us a rather short racin’ weekend, what with the Nationwide Boys takin’ a weekend off, seems to me the weekend was shorter than usual but that’s neither here nor there! The Truck Series Boys provided us with some good racin’ entertainment, Friday evenin’, as they were racin’ in Texas. That’s that BIG state, don’t ya know, with a BIG track to boot! In this one we had a total of ten caution flags for the usual kind of stuff, debris, spinnin’ out, hittin’ stuff or not, nothin’ major like, thank our good and gracious LORD! I surely thought that our buddy, Johnny Sauter, was gonna win this race as I was hootin’ and hollerin’ for him. You know he’s the driver that always says NASCAR doesn’t want him to win. Well, land sakes, Johnny, you’re supposed to know the rules and know that you cannot advance your position on the track, on a re-start, until after you cross the Start/Finish line. From what I’m hearin’, that very subject was discussed in the Driver’s Meetin’ this weekend! As much as granny would like to defend ya – ya leave me no grounds, young man!
I hear tell from Ray Dunlap’s reportin’ that there was a firin’ that took place after the race Friday night. Rumor has it that Todd Bodine was released from his drivin’ duties on account of his havin’ three DNF’s (did not finish) so far this season. If you are interested in further details, you’ll have to look it up yourself because that is all I know at the time of this writtin’. Anyway, before I forget I’ve got to issue this week’s “Atta Boy” awards to the drivers that done well this week, since the Cup boys were in Pocono, the regulars in the Truck series had another chance to shine, and did they ever. I’ll say! Finishin’ 2nd thru 10th are: Parker Kligermann, David Mayhew, Brian Ickler, Joey Coulter, Ricky Carmichael, Ryan Sieg, Miguel Paludo, James Beuscher and Justin Lofton. Good job, Boys, this granny is proud of ya!
The Sprint Cup race was held at Pocono, or “The Tricky Triangle”. This race only had five cautions, if you were to count Greg Biffle’s spin out action, which did not cause a caution flag to fly, which by the way is still a mystery to me. However, my conspiracy theory is that there was an HMS driver in the lead at the time, we could not disrupt his “possible win”, as luck would have it, it accomplished just that – – the win! I guess Jeff Gordon needs to send a case of his fine wine to the “NASCAR Officials” for all the fine officiating!
I would be in error, not to mention the actions at the beginnin’ of the race between Kyle “Rowdy” Busch and his good buddy Kevin “Happy” Harvick. I couldn’t make up my mind which driver was more of an instigator – – I’ll let you all decide for yourself. In my humble opinion, I sure would like to get back to some good ol’ racin’ like we had back in the day, minus the scuffles, of course!Finally, can you explain to me what is happenin’ with these schedules? The Truck Series qualifyin’ was not telecast this week – – or at least this OLD woman couldn’t find it! Then they had practice for the Cup series, then the Truck race on Friday night. But only the Cup qualifyin’ on Saturday, with the rest of the day off? Don’t they even stop to consider that this granny has to plan her farmin’ chores around my racin’ viewin’ schedule? Thank you for allowin’ me to state my gripes and complaints, I do feel better now, I’ll say!
That’s all I have for this week. Next week the boys will be at Michigan International Speedway for the Cup and Nationwide series. The Truck series does not race again until July 7, 2011. Be sure to come back next week for our outstandin’ reportin’ on these races, ya hear? Have a great week everybody. Granny Grouch, out.
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Well thank you again there Cousin, dear. Right nice reportin’ as usual. Lots of interestin’ right turns this weekend. I swear this could be a long runnin’ daily soap opera: As the NASCAR World Turns Or Don’t. So there you have it loyal readers and other folks. Email, comment or don’t. You know the rest. Grump and Grouch over and out.
