Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Right Sides Only

After a wet and wild weekend in Pocono, the racers stay up yonder way when they shake it down at Watkins Glen. If Pocono's backstretch seemed dangerous, get a load of the crash barriers at the Glen. Piles of old tires are considered state of art impact absorption at this road course. Same thing we used on the go-kart tracks decades ago.

Wrecking Ball

The Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska has confirmed, via his onboard 'black box', that Elliott Sadler's impact at Pocono is now the hardest ever recorded in NASCAR. Higher than Kyle Petty's 80 Gs recorded in 2003 at Bristol. They didn't release the exact number of G-forces to the public, but they stated that Sadler's is now the highest. Petty hit a concrete wall, driver's side first. Sadler plowed into a steel guard rail, with a dirt berm behind it, head on. More than 80 Gs?

Born to Run

Dale Earnhardt Jr makes his 500th start in a NASCAR sanctioned event this Sunday. He'll be making start 385 in Cup , and he has 115 in the NW series. Dale Jr actually has more NASCAR wins than Sr did at the same age, when you combine Cup and NW victories. Kurt Busch makes his 350th career start here at the Glen, also. Busch has four more Cup wins, and one more championship, in one less season than Jr has.

Born in the USA

NASCAR started as, and has always been a "Southern" sport. Right? Not so fast, a look at the entry list for Watkins Glen reveals only nine drivers raised in the South out of the 46 entered in the race. Three Virginians lead the way, Denny Hamlin, Elliott Sadler, and Jeff Burton. Two more from Florida, David Reutimann and Joe Nemechek. Although, I wouldn't consider either one Southern, as their families moved down here "from off".

Other Southerners include, Arkansas' Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte of Texas, David Ragan from Georgia, and North Carolina's Dale Earnhardt Jr. I won't look it up, but I'd venture a guess that North and South Carolina are one, two in Cup wins, and they now have one full time driver between them! Alabama is probably high on that win list also, and they have no drivers on the entry list.

Racing in the Street

The two road courses on the Cup schedule always bring out the so-called road racing aces. This week we have Ron Fellows, the best of these aces here at the Glen, in TBR's #36. No start and park this week, I'm sure. PJ Jones, on the other hand, probably will S & P the #07 for RGM. Max Papis in the Germain #13, and Patrick Carpentier in the #26 are two other fine ringers entered this week.

Glimpses from the Glen

Looking for help on your fantasy team? Jimmie Johnson has not won here. Twice already this year he has won on tracks that he had not previously.

Tony Stewart is riding a six race streak of finishing 1st or 2nd at the Glen.

Richard Petty had 11 straight top-2 finishes at Richmond back in the early 1970s.

Four winners here have rolled off from 13th spot at the start. Tied for second most after the 9 winners that sat on the pole.

Alabama's own, Bo Bice will sing the National Anthem, and give a concert prior to Sunday's race. Then, it's back to the State Fair circuit, fo Bo, fo sho.



25 comments:

  1. everyone knows that the only true Southerner in the sport now is Ambrose, Gene :P

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  2. Thanks for the history at the Glen, Gene.

    Maybe its time for the Shrub to run up front on a road course... Don't believe he's won a Cup road course yet, has he?

    Interesting stuff on the force of impact Sadler absorbed... More testimony in favor of the COT.

    tez, That's like my life long friend of Japanese decent claiming he's an Okie since his family immigrated from "Okie"nawa! LOL

    Thanks Gene!

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  3. D... I thought Shrub won at Sears Point (Infinion).

    T... It is the home of th Southern Cross, after all.

    G... Thanks for the ramblings!

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  4. Tez...Hemispheres? LOL

    D-Man...Kyle won BOTH Cup road courses in 2008, and an NNS roadie too that same year. Mexico City, I think?

    CR... I'm a Rambling Man...lol

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  5. Did I say shrub??? I meant blub... Yeah, that's right.

    Blub, Blub, Blub... Got it?

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  6. Sadler's impact was so hard, the berm actually MOVED a few inches right at impact. Thank God he was okay afterwards.

    As for the Glen, gotta go with Happy. He's on a roll and proved Chicagoland was a hiccup. Even if he were to win, I don't think he clinches a spot in the Chase but he comes awfully close.

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  7. D-One... you are crazy!

    Jon... it moved more than a little. It looked like a land mine went off right behind the point of impact!

    Happy huh? Gee, I wonder who you're picking next week, and the next week, and the...LOL!

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  8. Hey what do you expect? I'm from the land of fruit and nuts!
    (so's jon!) lol
    (so's Kristen!) LOL

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  9. ...so's JJ, so's Happy, so's Robby Gordon, so's Scott Speed, so's etc., etc.....

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  10. Gee, I wonder who the lone vote for Newman would be? lol

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  11. Han...Sportschump says to tell you that he's doing really bad on his fantasy team and wants his money back for his Lugnuts subscription!lol

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  12. CR.... LOL. I'm wondering who voted six times for Bowyer.

    ATH.... Refund! Refund! The Chump should read the race blogs over here to improve his fantasy picks.

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  13. your 'live traffic feed' says I'm in Surrey, BC....I think it needs a better GPS, lol

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  14. NASCAR Pulls Race From Atlanta Motor Speedway

    http://www.wsbtv.com/news/24524359/detail.html?treets=atl&tml=atl_break&ts=T&tmi=atl_break_1_11010108052010

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  15. Tez...yeah, that thing is whack. I'm going to kill the live feed.

    ATH... I believe Bruton is the one pulling Atlanta's race... to give to Kentucky.

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  16. Tez... it has shown about three different locations in BC in the last few days. The best thing about the live feed is that it shows what someone google searched for that led them here. You would not believe how many (women?) search 'kelly bires girlfriend' LOL

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  17. I get here either via your spinout facebook page or through that dashboard thingy in my profile, lol

    why take one away from Atlanta when the dull twins (Loudon and Pocono) still have 2 races each...makes no sense to me.

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  18. Just back from another area of the land of fruits and nuts and sounds like I missed plenty. No way JJ wins if Kurt is anywhere near him this weekend...

    You really should have retitled "Born to Run" as "Kristen's boys"...LOL

    Losing Atlanta may just be the tip of the iceberg I hope??

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  19. Tez.... Bruton had to give up a race to get one for Kentucky. He doesn't own Pocono, and only owns 50% (one race) at NH. So, Loudon must be making more money for him than either race at ATL.

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  20. KLV....I dunno, I'll bet that Kurt won't do anything until the Chase. Maybe he's decided that JJ will NOT win five in a row.

    Had to use Born to Run to continue the theme of the post. Where's Moseby when I need him?

    Hearing that Fontana lost a race so that Kansas can have a second one.

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  21. I am sure Kurt will take a shot at JJ anytime it wont hurt him and will hurt JJ - which could be easy to do on a road course. The big payback comes in the Chase - you are correct sir!

    UGH! Kansas is just as bad as Fontana...so any inside word on the chase races changing?

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  22. Chicago is getting a Chase race! UGH!

    Brilliant, NASCAR... lets go to Chicago (that was empty in July) during NFL season!

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  23. I thought the poor attendence was due to Chicagonites being drunk still after the NHL?

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  24. Tez... could be. they won't have to worry about winning the Cup for another 50 years.

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  25. Man the NASCAR schedule is a mess - I'd almost prefer NASCAR own all the tracks so they can move races at will.

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