Martinsville...some surprises and then some not so surprised.

HOLY CRAP SHE DIDN'T WRECK!!!

Well Danica surprised me completely, who would of thought that she would of only been in one little fender bender and actually have a top 15 finish? Sure the hell not me. She ran a decent race finishing 12th and on the lead lap. Now, do I think this will be the beginning of good things to come.... sorry, even though I was surprised she finished so well, I actually don't expect it to happen very often if at all again this season, but she shocked me this time, she can probably shock me again, I'm not holding my breath. (Someplace there is a picture on this page of her car crashed, that's how I expected her to finish last weekend, picture came from a USA Today post I found online, hope they don't mind me using it)

One thing that didn't surprise me though, Jimmie Johnson winning his 8th, yes count them 8 Martinsville grand father clocks. And he is the first repeat winner this season..Oh and he did take over the points lead, but not by much and its still very early in the season. Let's hope the trend doesn't continue, I really don't want to see him win yet another championship.

3 Hendrick cars did pretty well, 1 not so much. I would love to be able to ask Steve Latarte what the hell happened to the 88! They went from bad to worse. 3/4 of the way through the race they did find something wrong with the rear end part of the chassis, I hoped finding the problem would of rectified the problems, but seemed to get worse not better. Martinsville has always been a good track for Dale, chock this up for what not to do when they come back later in the year. I don't think this bad luck will continue into Texas though. Site of his first ever Sprint Cup points win(actually was Winston cup back then, don't get me started, in the off season maybe I will give my views on Winston cup vs. Sprint cup)

What can we look forward too in Texas? Well Greg Biffle has a great record here, winning this race last year and always competing well here, I'll have him as a fantasy pick this weekend for sure. I expect Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr. Kurt and Kyle Busch and of course our champion Brad K. to also do well and anyone of them could come out on top this Saturday night in Texas. I think you'll see Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr, just to name a few, fall back both at Texas and in the standings. In about another 3 or 4 races you'll see Paul Menard fall in the points like a rock, my prediction he will settle around 17th.

TRUCKS AT THE ROCK

You read it right, season number 2 of the trucks back at Rockingham Speedway. What an awesome thing to see. I really wish Andy Hillenburg could somehow persuade NASCAR to bring back the Sprint Cup cars, but I will be happy for now with the trucks racing there. I'm looking forward to this race for sure. And I believe the race is actually on Sunday. I'm looking for Ron Hornaday to whip up on the young guys, look for Brendan Gaughan and Johnny Sauter, and Todd Bodine(if he has a ride) to really put on school for the young guys like Parker Kligerman, Chase Elliott (if he's in this race) and a few guys I've never heard of. I'd really like to see Jennifer Joe Cobb do well and finish in the top 15. I wish she could find some major sponsorship and really show what she is made of. Also would love to see Johanna Long get a big dollar sponsor and teach the boys how it's done because I've watched her race and she is the real deal. She's won races in every form of racing she's been in. Unlike one female that is in cup, she will remain nameless, who has only won 1 race since she raced go carts....... hmmm wonder what neon green car she might drive?

The truck race this weekend is my race of choice to watch. And if you would rather listen to the race then watch it on tv or even mute the tv and listen to the MRN broadcast, I would say that would be the best way to hear it, we will have both Dave Moody and Mike Bagley in the booth and not in the turns, should be an awesome race to listen to. I really think these 2 will some day be in the booth full time.

Nationwide racing

This week it's a Friday night race for the nationwide series, and I would guess a cup regular will be in victory circle this weekend. Would like to see Brian Scott (3rd in points) do well, would be nice to have the home town boy win one. What happened to Elliott Sadler? He went from second in points last year (in the #2 RCR car that Brian Scott is in now, they actually just switched teams) to 9th so far this season, looks like Brian and Elliott not only switched rides, but switched places in the points. I think our points leader, Sam Hornish well do well this weekend, the Penske switch to Ford seems too agree with Sam completely with a 28 point lead over second place Regan Smith (driving the #7 JRM car) and what's happened to Brian Vickers? He's a drab 11th in points, I think we all expected him to do much better with several of the media picking him to win the Nationwide championship. As it is he's only 5 points ahead of Travis Pastrana in his first full season in NASCAR. It's an exciting season start in all three series. Hold on tight because Texas always has drama! At some point this weekend I'll tackle the whole NRA sponsorship and gun rights advocates to the gun control laws starring us in the face.....

Until next time .......

AFTER THE BREAK

Well I have to say I'm eating my words just a little bit, the race in California really wasn't bad. I was more then surprised at the results and the way the race was throughout the full 400 miles. This car has really helped the track in Fontana. Makes me even more excited to see how the season will pan out.

Dale Earnhardt Jr takes the points lead, Joey and Denny have another spat and Denny gets the worst end of the deal and Tony Stewart loses his mind and gets mad because Joey blocks him to try and win..... wow who would of thought Fontana could of produced all of that excitement? Surely not me and I've been very vocal over the years saying this is the worst race on the schedule.

First let me say this, I am in no way a fan of Denny, I think he is a pompous ass most of the time and he does just what Tony did, cries about everything when someone does to him what he did to them. I've never cared for cry babies and he is among the worst in my opinion. Saying all that, I don't like it when drivers get hurt, my favorite driver died racing at Daytona, I don't want anyone to get hurt racing, that's just not something I would wish on anyone. As you probably know Denny, for all intensive purposes broke his back in that crash with Joey Lagano and well be out for awhile. Stone say 6 weeks Dr Jerry Punch, a reporter with ESPN and yes an actual doctor said on Siriusxm after it happened that with an injury like this it could be 2 to 3 months before he could get back in the car. No matter which it becomes, either 5 weeks like Denny wants it to be or 3 months like Dr Punch said, he's going to have a long road to getting points back and wins to get in a hurry to try and secure a spot in the chase. Can he do it? Can he still win a championship even though he's going to miss a bunch of races? Technically yes he can, he has to be 20th in points and have the most wins to qualify for the chase and I believe he will be very driven to do just that. If anyone can Denny can. He's just that determined to win.

Now did Joey do anything wrong banging doors with Denny coming to the checkered flag? Did he do anything wrong blocking cry baby Stewart? I say no to either question, Joey was doing what he's paid to do, race up front and try and win at whatever cost. Joey has nothing to apologize for and actually gets a couple brownie points for pissing Tony off and taking the punch that Tony threw at him. Joey gained a fan right here, maybe he hasn't been the sliced bread everyone first thought, but I think he's going to be a big winner driving for Penske racing.

Now I'm still questioning why we pay so much attention to Danica "crash" Patrick, she's done exactly what I expected, nothing! She's at the bottom of the points, she's several laps down every week, yet tv and NASCAR are still making her sound like the second coming. Tv talks about her in every sentence they can force feed us.

Now what I'm very happy to see... Dale Jr having the points lead so early in the season, can we have a big HELL YEAH!
This guy is a half a step from walking the walk and talking the talk, he needs a win and soon. And the way they are running, it's bound to happen soon. You don't finish 2nd, 5th, 7th, 6th, and a 2nd and not finally win one, or two. He and Steve Latarte are rocking on the same page, and they are putting up the numbers to show it. This car agrees with Dale, and Dale is doing things he's never done, he's not running to his motor coach after practice, he's testing, he's involved with everything the team is doing to the car. If you watch during practice he has a tv monitor in his car why they are in the garage making changes to his car so he can watch what other cars are doing, he's got a cup holder with paper and pen inside his car so when he's sitting waiting to go on the track or sitting in the garage he can make notes on what the cars doing, you might not think this something new or its something all the other drivers are doing also, but it's something Dale had never done before.
His mind is in the right place, his heart is in this and he has the crew chief that's got him working the direction he's needed to go since he left DEI. With the way last season went and how this one started I think this is his year to go on and finally win the championship. Can he? Will he? We have 31 races to find out.

What do we expect from the race at Martinsville? Crash bang boom, will Joey get ran over by cry baby? Will we have another new winner? Well we have another different winner? Who's going to win that awesome Martinsville grandfather clock? Who's going to piss off another driver? Well it's almost race time, it's time to crank up race and the surround sound and see how today will turn out.

Until next time........