Monday, March 1, 2010

View From The Flagstand

Considering the neon, the thick smoke, the caution lights that would not stop blinking, the Vegas View was hard to bring into focus. The Western swing is over, and the boys are homeward bound. Atlanta, hear me calling.

CHECKERED FLAGS.....

Jimmie Johnson made it two in a row in Vegas. After stalking Jeff Gordon all day, JJ finally took the lead late, as Gordon took two tires while Johnson went with four. Kevin Harvick is leading the points, finished 2nd to JJ, and also won the NNS race on Saturday.

GREEN FLAGS.....

Matt Kenseth (5th) , Clint Bowyer (8th), and Greg Biffle (10th), along with Harvick, are the only drivers with top-10 finishes in all three races this year.

YELLOW FLAGS.....

EGR drivers, Jamie McMurray and Juan Montoya had a run in, and ran into the wall. JPM fumed as J Mac took the blame. JGR teammates, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin are both being outran weekly by JGR sophomore, Joey Logano. Hamlin has yet to finish in the top-20.

RED FLAG......

Danicamania. At least for the next four months, anyway. Would someone tell NASCAR that the Indy Car Series (where Danica races full time) TV ratings are as low as Keith Olbermann's, and their live crowds are not too lively either.

The USA Today had this about Danica's stock car prowess... "...Patrick progressed in her third...start....surging from 37th....to run as high as third...". No mention that it was due to her being out of sync during green flag pit stops. The networks are just as bad, fawning all over someone who wouldn't give NASCAR the time of day unless it was making her some bank.

BLACK FLAG.....

HMS. NASCAR better hurry up with some more new rule changes. We ended a boring season a few months ago with three HMS cars at the top, now, already, we are right back to the same old, same old.


21 comments:

  1. the other thing they missed with the #7 was, at that restart when she did pit out of sequence, some guy did the same thing and restarted directly in front of her; Cousin Carl. By the time Edwards got into the lead, he was over 20 seconds in front of Patrick...that is an eternity in motorsport!

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  2. Cant you just black flag JJ, MM and JG? Junior needs his time in the sun yet...and it appears it aint coming too soon. LOL

    Harvick looking good this year as is Kenseth - there might be some others to challenge sooner than later. Kurt couldda been in it but all the carnage with wrecks he couldnt avoid at Daytona and Vegas took a huge toll on the team. He is gonna need a big win to rally I think.

    Anyone think Danica might not return for second half of season? Wishful thinking...

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  3. Tez....I wasn't paying THAT much attention to her...LOL!

    I didn't watch, but I heard the morons, led by their King, DW, went nuts over her on SPEED's Trackside Friday night.

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  4. Kristen...Black flag those three, and Jr still is back in 12th place..LOL!!!

    RCR and RFR both seem to have rebounded from last year. I guess there will be no surprises in the Chase this year...Just like two years ago, all 12 from the mega-teams. Sad.

    If not for the sponsor dollars, I could see her not coming back. She had NO idea how hard this would be. A little testing would have went a long way.

    Why is she 'discovering' things during races? Like Harvick showing her the line, halfway through the race. Can't Jr at least show her that stuff BEFORE the race? {{{insert snide comment about Jr himself not knowing the line here}}}.

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  5. Nice View again. Reutimann was pretty ticked at McMurray after that crash. Maybe he does feel extra pressure to perform well after winning the 500.

    It'll be interesting to see just how much the NNS t.v. ratings drop in a few weeks at Bristol...

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  6. I dunno Rootie Tootie could make the Chase or another MWR car...might surprise us yet.

    No idea why she is so daft about racing. I heard Jr has been told to stay out of it and focus on himself - perhaps worried if he gives her all his secrets she will win before he does? LOL

    I think Harvick and others are liking schooling her...not sure he was showing her the line with the purest of intentions.

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  7. Wow a Keith Olberman reference. Does this mean that Rachel Maddow is the Danica of MSNBC.
    I avoided trackside on purpose when I found out who the guest was. I could only imagine how the boogity retard reacted.
    I'm not sure if some moisture might not have been the gremlin in the caution lights.
    Thanks for the view Gene.

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  8. Gonger....Even without her at Bristol, I bet the TV hacks mention her name 20 times! The Bristol NNS race is must-watch TV. Plenty of action!

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  9. Kris....I suppose one of the MWR cars could make it, I like those drivers.... it's the owner that's over-saturated.

    She seems daft because driving an Indy car is like driving a go-kart.... which she grew up doing. If Milka Duno can out-qualify some past winners at the Indy 500....how hard can it be?

    Yeah, the announcers were trying to sell Harvick "helping" Danica. Didn't seem sincere to me either. I've probably gave the same "help" to some blue hairs on the Interstate...LOL

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  10. SoCal....LOL, I figured that K.O. might have the lowest ratings on TV... John MacEnroe had the lowest ever on his short lived show. Unlike K.O., John's was watchable.

    I think I heard something about DW getting her autograph on TV...what a can of ham!

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  11. Right on this week. If someone like Regan Smith cycled up to the top 10 they would not get a mention. Mike Wallace was only mentioned because he happened to be battling Danica for position.

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  12. Initially, I wasn't paying much attnetion either...I just recall them saying how she was going to restart behind Carl, then Carl was leading and I went "I haven't heard them go over Danica's pitstop in super-slow mo with a million replays, wonder where she is?" and that's how I found out, lol

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  13. Gene, great view as usual. I'm SURE Harvick, Edwards, et. al., were giving her the one-finger salute.

    Socal, LOL@Rachel Maddow being the Danica of MSNBC. (Are you SURE she's a woman??) Speaking of that network, WHO watches it, anyway? Or who watches CNN?

    It's all the lamestream media kissing her @$$, anyway. So old and tiresome.

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  14. JM...Two years from now, when GoDaddy is out of NASCAR, no one will even miss Danica.

    Tez....I noticed that they hardly ever play her audio during the race.... don't want her to sound too clueless.

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  15. Jon...I have to watch msnbc every now and then... for a laugh! Olbermann and Maddow worry about Fox News and Limbaugh WAY too much. They should worry about their own unwatched shows.

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  16. Hey Han - It's been a while. I have you in my favorites now so I hope to keep up. Don't know if I have to create an ID or anything but it's good to read your thoughts again. Don (aka bluejay39)

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  17. Bluejay....What is up, bro? Yeah, you ought to fly around here more often. It's not hard to create an ID here on blogspot. Check out the Lugnuts site in my favorites to the left there. Lots of ex-Fox patriots are posting on there.

    Stick around, bud.

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  18. Hoping for Harvick to get the win and hang on to the points for as long as he can.

    I'm surprised you didn't mention the Kardashian car getting towed in after only a few laps run. They still got huge bang for their buck.

    Her group may be onto something though. When sales start going through the roof at Wal-Mart for the stuff in middle and Southern America, they'll see how powerful the NASCAR machine can be with products.

    I can just see it now while parents shop for a birthday gift for their teenage daughter, "Honey, isn't that the stuff that was on that pink car? She'll like this, right?"

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  19. Give me a break. Danica needs to apply for coverage in Playboy and hang up the helment. Other than Daytona, I haven't seen much in excitement on the tracks lately.

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  20. Fireball...Damn! That stuff will fly off the shelves at Wally World.

    You think Bliss scraped the wall on purpose, and brought out the caution... just to make sure the sponsor got their money's worth?

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  21. Photo...She wouldn't even raise their circulation (was that a pun?).

    Hopefully Atlanta will be exciting.

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