NASCAR - Holy Harvick, Batman!

What the hell has Kevin Harvick found to beef up his cars? I don't like the guy much, but he's on a tear in NASCAR like I've nver seen. He's all of a sudden the Michael Schumacher of stock cars. He's already wrapped up the Busch championship. Won 3 Cup races in the last month. He leads just about every lap. It's incredible. If he has a couple more races like he did yesterday, consider him the champ.

Meanwhile, what is wrong with Jeff Burton? He and Harvick were playing tag all afternoon, swapping the lead back and forth. Yet, like 20 other races this year, Burton is a non-factor at the end of the race. I don't get it. Is it his car? His stamina? He's been ridiculously consistent all year, but fails time and time again to win. Granted, he grabbed a 7th place finish in NH yesterday, so let's not get all down on him. But, I'm not the only one who wants to see Burton in Victory Lane a couple of times before the year end.

Since I'm in the mood, let's jump on TNT's broadcast yesterday. As usual, they missed a couple of cautions while in commercial. But, perhaps the most annoying thing to me was that (since I recorded the race after lap 50 or so on Tivo) I had no idea why Jimmie Johnson was in the garage. Both TNT/NBC and Fox usually give you a bunch of race recaps during a caution period. You would think they'd show a few times what happened to JJ more than once near the end of the race. (While I personally love to drive New Hampshire International Speedway's road course, the Cup races on the oval are pretty boring. I almost skipped the entire race in favor of yard work, but figured that wouldn't be wise given it was the first race of the Chase. NHIS needs higher banked corners.)

I also missed BP. Hope he's OK. Not having him there means more of that annoying Bill Webber. Ugh. Shut.....up......now!!!

Three cheers to the guys on the Speed pre-race show. They paid due homage to Dave Blaney pulling off a nice 4th plce in Richmond last weekend. Both Blaney and Ken Schrader got ZERO attention for top-ten finishes last week because all anyone on TV cares about are the guys in the Chase. That's abunch of crap. Thank you, Speed TV!

NASCAR - Let the Chase Begin!

Well, NASCAR fans, get ready for 10 weeks of watching 10 guys race on TV...

I'm actually excited about the results of Richmond's race. I'm so happy Mark Martin and Jeff Burton made it. They are classy racers and busted ass all season to make it. I'm also thrilled Tony Stewart MISSED the cut. Yes, I know he's one of the greatest drivers in motorsports. But, frankly, Stewart acted like a complete ass for most of this season, intentionally wrecking Matt Kenseth at Daytona and Clint Boyer and Carl Edwards at Pocono. He also had a fair share of other incidents in which he was always the agressor. He acted like he rules the series. Well, kharma is a bitch, Tony and you got what you deserved.

Stewart's team also peaked too early this year. They had a ton of mementum from last season's championship, but you can't dominate that long in NASCAR no matter who you are.

Now, let's talk about Richmond. How pathetic was it that TNT virtually ignored the other 33 drivers on the track? This really aggravates me as a fan, and I'm even more ticked off because that's the type of coverage we're going to get through Homestead. Yes, I know there are 10 guys in the running for the championship, but that's no reason to pretend there aren't other teams - who rely on some airtime for their sponsors. So, I appeal to TNT to not repeat what we saw on Saturday.

To give you one example of what I'm talking about, Ken Schraeder - who rarely finishes well - scored a Top 10 finish. Did anyone know by watching TV? Only if they paid close attention to the ticker. What about Scott Riggs? His comeback from obscurity continued by a Top 10 finish as well. He might as well not have been there according to TNT.

Speaking of the race, I'm starting to wonder if the Race to the Chase is ruining NASCAR, at least leading up to Richmond. We witnessed the most tame Bristol in recent memory a few weeks ago. And we got the same thing at Richmond. (We can excuse California, because those races just plain suck no matter what.) The drivers are too cautious now and that doesn't make good racing. Let's hope the next ten weeks will be better. I'll be waiting for Talladega!

F1 - Farewell, Michael.

Michael Schumacher has been beyond the most dominant race car driver I've ever seen. Since I became an F1 fan in 2002, he seemed to transcend the pinnacle of auto racing. Admittedly, he's not the nicest guy in the sport - but then again, what F1 driver is? They're nearly all incredibly arrogant. Anyway, while he ammassed all but one record during his career, his god-like dominance helped bring F1 down, in the sense that (for example the entire 2004 season) the races became boring, high speed parades with MS winning by ridiculous margins week after week. Fortunately, that reign came to an end in 2005.

I don't think there will ever be a driver that could match Schumacher's numbers. In that sense, Sunday was a sad day when we found out this legend will retire at the end of this season. What's great, however, is that this season we're getting a close, dramatic battle for the championship. This is something we haven't seen in years and it's a great way for him to go out.

Good luck, Michael. It will be inetersting to see where you end up.

NASCAR - Goodbye California

I'm way behind schedule due to family health issues...

I don't have much to say about the race in Cali. It was just as boring as the first race this year, only there was a bit of drama thanks to the noose tightening on all of the drivers fighting for a spot in the Chase. Dale Jr. was right on when he said they should dig up this track and start over. It's too wide, too flat. I could barely stay awake to watch it and even missed about 40 laps while dozing off.

The only "excitement" was on the next to last lap when it looked like Reed Sorenson was about to break the long Ganassi-Sabates group win drought. Like earlier in the season, poor Reed ran out of gas at the last minute only to watch Kasey Khane blow by him for the win. I can't imagine how let down that kid must have felt. I was rooting for him, too.

And how about an "atta boy!" for Bill Lester? I really like Lester. He's a smart, classy guy and I still don't understand why some big name sponsors haven't stepped up to get him a ride. Yeah, I know he's "old" in NASCAR standards, but we know he can drive a car and he's got a magnetic, upbeat, infectious personality. Since this was only his third race of the year, he had to qualify on time. Unfortunately, he bit it on turn 4. You could see right away he was going to spin. His car was wiggling all over the track through the turns and I said to myself "He's going to wreck." Sure enough, he spun out. He tried to resuscitate his qualifying lap, but his tires were toast and the car was too loose. I don't know if he was just trying too hard to get in the show or he just had a bad car. Hey, it was a BDR car, so.... Lester should be on the short list of teams looking for a new driver next year if you ask me.

Robby Gordon... When is this guy going to have some luck? He was the first one out of the race and finished 43rd. 43rd!!!! While the Gordon team has performed much better than last year, they've been terribly inconsistent. He sits 26th in points and should be safely in the top 35 for next year. But he was in the mid-teens a couple of months ago. Disappointing for sure.

Jeff Burton race summary: Groundhog Day.

NASCAR - Shut Up About the COT

Since there's little interesting news going on in NASCAR at the moment (since the Chase is just about over), we now have people jumping on the "Car of Tomorrow is Butt Ugly" bandwagon. Today, The Sporting News' writer Lee Spencer posted a column stating the new car should be called a Bastardmobile. A couple of weeks ago, Jeff Gordon was whining about how the car looked as well.

Here's what Spencer wrote: "With its funky splitter on the front end and the carbon fiber wing off the rear, the COT is butt-ugly. NASCAR spent five years developing the car and apparently spent no time on its appearance."

"The car is so ugly NASCAR hardly endeared itself to diecast car manufacturers with this model — with the exception of cost. Every car looks identical to the rest, so diecast producers can implement a one-size-fits-all and simply slap on stickers in the appropriate places. Isn't that what they do for IROC cars?"

I'm sorry. I guess I missed it when the current cars looked really cool. News flash to Ms. Lee: like the COT, the current cars ALL LOOK ALIKE, TOO! The only silly difference on the cars today are fake headlight and taillight stickers and small grille differences. So don't come up with some BS that the COT is any worse. In fact, the COT actually looks more like a race car, as opposed to the ridiculous form NASCAR rides have now.



Just about every other series you look at - ALMS, DTM, Speed GT, Grand Am, etc. - all use production based cars; and all of them employ the use of splitters and rear, adjustable wings. Just because the COT dosn't look like some Billy Bob spiffed up his Oldsmobile doesn't make the new model look bad. The only thing NASCAR cars have in common with their street-based cousins today is that they have 4 wheels and a motor. The rest is a generic shell underneath. At least most other race series use the actual cars they're based on.

So, let's just get off this assinine idea that the COT is ugly and NASCAR should start from scratch. The idea is to build a SAFER car that performs more like a race car than a 2-ton brick with wheels. With all the sponsor graphics n these cars, who's going to notice the difference anyway?

Hey, look at the bright side. Now NASCAR rides might appeal to all those morons out there with non-functional wings and splitters on their Honda Civics.