NASCAR's One Billionth Blog

DALE EARNHARDT JR. Q & A

2006-07-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet, met with media following Friday's practice at New Hampshire International Speedway. Dale Jr. enters the race weekend third in the Nextel Cup point standings:

What do you think about Juan Montoya’s jump to NASCAR?

“It’s pretty cool. It’ll be cool to see how he does.How difficult do you think it will be for him adjusting to these cars?“I’ve never been in a Formula 1 car, so I don’t know what he’s up against really.”There’s a good chance that Jeff Gordon could tie your father in victories this week. What would that mean to you if that happened?“That’s a pretty good accomplishment for anybody. I’d have to shake Jeff’s hand, because any time you tie my daddy in anything, it’s something to be proud of.”The fan base for you and Jeff is kind of like the Yankees and Red Sox. How do you think the fans will react?“I really don’t know.”Saw a lot of springs coming out of the trailer in the first practice. How’s your car today?“Ahhh, it’s alright. I mean, it’s OK. It’s sort of frustrating trying to get it to where it will run in practice.”What’s the challenge of this race track? What’s the key to having success here?”“Turning in the middle… about like everywhere else.”You’ve run against Jeff Gordon your entire career. How do you compare (Jeff and your dad) as race car drivers?Well, dad was really aggressive, and Jeff wasn’t very aggressive. It seems like he’s getting more aggressive as he’s getting older. Jeff is really, really smooth, where dad was sort of barbaric with the race car. They were very different in their driving styles.”Are you going to watch the Busch race from your pit box tomorrow?“I don’t know, I haven’t decided.”I know you’ve done it in the past. What do you like about being on top of the pit box?“I don’t like it up there. I get mad, get angry, I want to drive. I want to tell people what to do, so I try not to put myself in that situation. (Pause) I usually watch it from the bus or somewhere. When you’re on the pitbox, man, you either want to be driving the car or tell everybody what to do, and it’s hard to sit there and maintain your position, know what I mean? It’s hard to stay in your place as the owner, so it’s sort of frustrating to be out there. It pumps the guys up to be out there, but at the same time they gotta know it’s frustrating at times.”There was so much retaliation at this track last fall. Do you think that will happen again?“I can’t remember what happened here last year.”Robby Gordon throwing his helmet… Michael Waltrip…“Oh yeah, that seems like two or three years ago.”Do you think we’ll see that again?“I don’t know. That sort of stuff ain’t really characteristic with this race track, so I don’t know. We’ll just have to see.”What’s going on with the race car right now?“I’m just hot as hell, man. I mean, I don’t know, they got this air cooler box that ain’t worth a damn. It won’t work. When we qualify, they take all the stuff that dissipates the heat in between the exhaust and the chassis off the car, so it’s just frustrating. We’re not real fast, and it’s just frustrating as hell. I just want to run better. (I’m not frustrated) at any one person… just at the race car.”Did you guys get all you want out of the Indy test? You guys left after a day…“Well it was raining real hard, and I told (Tony Eury) Junior when we got up in the morning that if it was raining that I would come pick him up, but I was going home. We had a pretty good day on Monday. Junior felt good enough about that to cut the test short, but (the weather) didn’t look great for Wednesday either.”There’s been a big rumor about Danica Patrick might be considering running here. You know what it’s like being a media star. What do you think it would be like for her if she came over?“It would be tough for her, but that probably has no bearing on her decision with whatever she wants to do with her life. If she wants to drive stock cars, if that’s what she wants to do, no media pressure or anything like that is going to deter her decision. Obviously, she’s got a good idea of what it would be like, because she’s probably had a lot of pressure on her so far from the media. Ya know, she probably would have a tough time with the schedule because their schedule is so short. I believe she’s already commented on the schedule as being a turn-off, and it is to pretty much everybody else. I think she’d have fun, and she’d probably have a better time or an easier learning curve than Juan (Montoya) would, but Juan with his experience and his draft-knowledge of race cars over the years and his success, he’s not going to have any trouble. He’s been in a different world. I think the biggest thing Juan is going to face is the change in the culture itself.”What did your dad think of Jeff Gordon?“They had a great respect for each other, and had a few business deals together. They worked together off the race track. They had a great relationship. They were really good friends actually.”Do you think he would be pleased to see Jeff move in on his win mark right now?“Yeah, sure he would, but it still ain’t first. Y’all act like it’s the big 200. How many did Dad have, 71 wins? Something like that?”Seventy-six wins.“Seventy-six. Yeah, well, when you look at the success Jeff has had, it’s really no surprise.”

JEFF GORDON UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

2006-07-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevy which is getting booed by race fans more and more these days.

JEFF GORDON CORNERED BY MEDIA

2006-07-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

The media corners Jeff Gordon for an interview at the track.

MATT KENSETH IN CAR ACCIDENT IN INDY MONDAY

2006-07-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

QUESTION TO MATT KENSETH MONDAY AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY:
HOW HAS YOUR TEST BEEN SO FAR?

“We didn’t really get too much accomplished. On the way to the race track I got ran into by a student driver. That was the start of my morning. I was at a stop light and Biffle was following me from the airport and he always runs into me, so I thought it was him joking and it wasn’t, it was a student driver and instructor who just pile drove into the back of me, so that was exciting. I didn’t even stop. They wanted to stop and fix it, but I didn’t care if the bumper was laying on the ground or not. It was a rental. I would rather pay for it than mess with that, so, anyway, we got here and ran a couple laps and didn’t run too good. Then we took the second car out and I wrecked that right away, so it’s been an eventful 24 hours. The beginning of our test hasn’t been very good to answer your question.”

MONTOYA GOING STOCK CAR RACING

2006-07-09T13:27:00.000-07:00

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates announced today (Sunday) that Formula 1 ace Juan Pablo Montoya will drive the No. 42 Dodge in 2007. Montoya captured the 2000 Indy 500 in a Ganassi-owned car. No driver has ever gone straight from F1 to Cup in the history of racing. Montoya is expected to make a number of starts toward the end of the 2006 season to prep for 2006.

Oh yeah, Ganassi is paying Montoya a huge amount of money. Contract details were not released, but it will be a dump truck load of money.

JEFF GORDON'S NO. 24

2006-07-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Up close and personal with Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevy. Fans enjoyed booing it when it was being pushed around inside the garage area at Daytona.

Shouted one fan: "Get that #&@* outta the way, will ya!"

WORLD'S BIGGEST LOGO

2006-07-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

Ground level on the tri-oval grass at Daytona International Speedway. Please don't step on the Pepsi 400 logo!

WRITING ON THE WALL

2006-07-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

In the hours before the Pepsi 400, race fans are allowed on the track and many of them like to scribble a message on the outside retaining wall near the start/finish line at Daytona International Speedway.

STEWART'S NO. 20 ROLLS INTO INSPECTION

2006-07-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Tony Stewart's Pepsi 400 winner shown here hours before the race being rolled toward one of four inspection areas. Stewart has won the Pepsi 400 the last two years.

TONY STEWART WINS DAYTONA

2006-07-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Tony Stewart won the Pepsi 400 Saturday night in Daytona leading 86 laps. He leaves Daytona with two wins this weekend -- the IROC Round 3 on Thursday night and Saturday's 400.

RACE FANS CRAM DAYTONA

2006-07-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Race fans streamed into Daytona International Speedway all day Saturday to watch the Pepsi 400. At left, fans mill around the grassy tri-oval area. At right, fans sneak a peek at drivers and teams from FanWalk.

BORIS SAID SHOCKS NASCAR, WINS PEPSI 400 POLE

2006-07-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

Boris Said reacts on pit road after winning the pole postion for the Pepsi 400. Said said: "I was like a monkey driving a space ship."

OLD CHAMPIONS GATHER

2006-06-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

Hall of Famers Ray Fox, Richard Petty and Bobby Allison share some old stories in a recent meeting during race week at Daytona.

MAX PAPIS TESTS IROC CAR

2006-06-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

Max Papis has had a busy race schedule. In the last 5 weeks he's raced in the Indy 500 and last week was in the 24 Hours of LeMans. On Thursday he's gonna win the IROC Round 3 on the Daytona road course. Here he is testing an IROC car at Daytona.

JEFF GORDON STOMPS GRAPES IN WINE COUNTRY

2006-06-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

Jeff Gordon, after winning at Infineon Raceway today, snapping a 19-race losing streak:

“I knew this team was something special. We just haven’t had a chance to really show it. They gave me such an awesome racecar this weekend that I had to get them this win. If we didn’t win with this car, we can’t ever win. What a great day, you know. Just kept working on it. We weren’t the best all day but we got that track position. It was great. It was awesome. Man, I didn’t know if we were ever going to win another one of these races. I’m speechless. What an amazing moment this is, a very special weekend for me and this race team to get back to victory lane.”

(Courtsey of Wix Filters)

BORIS SAID SAYS......

2006-06-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

Boris Said, driver of the No. 60 Sobe No Fear Ford Fusion, qualified fifth for tomorrow’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race. Said, who has formed a business relationship with Jack Roush, plans on qualifying for at least three more races this season including next week at Daytona, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen. He spoke about his goals before Saturday’s practice session at Infineon Raceway.

BORIS SAID – No. 60 Sobe No Fear Ford Fusion – YOU ARE KIND OF BECOMING THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF PERSEVERANCE WITH YOUR EFFORTS TO BECOME A FULL-TIME CUP DRIVER. “Yeah, I mean my whole life people have always told me no. You’re too poor or you’re too old or you’re too ugly or whatever, and that’s always been my motivation. I’m gonna succeed at this and I had to start my own team to try to do it. Now I’m kind of controlling my own destiny. Yesterday was one of the most nervewracking days because not having any points to fall back on, it wasn’t so much me if I screwed up and went off the track and didn’t make the race, but just the effort we’ve put in the last two months with this team and putting it together. There was more to it than just driving for somebody else. To qualify good, it’s like the weight of the world is off my shoulders and now I just can’t wait to go race.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE ARRANGEMENT YOU HAVE WITH ROUSH RACING? “We’re buying some cars, leasing some back-up cars and leasing motors from them. A lot of people can do that, but the biggest thing he offered us was to share his black book – to help us with setups and help me at Indy and help me at Daytona. That kind of information is priceless and the trade for that is I’m opening my books to all of his guys and trying to help them in their road racing program, including all these young guys coming up the pike. I think it’s a good trade for both of us.”
YOU TOOK SOME GUYS TO ROAD ATLANTA RECENTLY. “Jamie, Greg and Matt went to Road Atlanta and then I actually came here and spent two days one-on-one with Carl Edwards. I would think we’ll do more with the other guys before Watkins Glen and then before the Busch race there we’ll do a bunch of stuff with Danny and Todd again.”
SO WHAT’S THE LONG-TERM PLAN FOR THIS TEAM? “We’ll do four or five races this year. We need to build up our inventory. First, we’re gonna try to wait until there is more Car of Tomorrow stuff, so we don’t have to have that extra expense of building cars that are only good for one year, so next year we’re hoping we get to do 10 or 15 races. That’s kind of what we’re looking for because we’re basically looking for sponsorship.”
WITH YOUR EXPERIENCE TO DATE DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE CLOSER THAN EVER OF REALIZING YOUR GOAL OF BEING A FULL-TIMER ON THIS CIRCUIT? “Yeah. When I get on a road course, I know the absolute limits of the car and my limits and on an oval I don’t because I don’t have the experience. But everytime I get in I’m getting better and better. Driving the number 9 Busch car the last few weeks has been a big help and last week I had a lead lap finish, 14th place, so I think I’m really starting to get it. I think all of that is gonna help me when I get to Indy in another month and that’s something I’m looking forward to more than anything in the world this year.”

TONY STEWART PLAYS POKER AT DAYTONA

2006-06-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

The 2005 Nextel Cup Series champion played about 90 minutes of poker with media and some of his friends from the circuit. To the right of Stewart in the photo is NASCAR vice president of communications Jim Hunter.

"Hunter never lays down," Stewart said.

Stewart hosts card games with his friends on race weekends. Hunter plays with Stewart "3 or 4 times a year."

TONY STEWART ON THE COUCH

2006-06-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

Tony Stewart surrounded by print and radio media at Daytona on Tuesday. He was in town to promote the upcoming race weekend in Daytona Beach.

TONY STEWART VISITS DAYTONA

2006-06-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

Tony Stewart dropped in at Daytona International Speedway Tuesday to pump up ticket sales for next week's Pepsi 400.

Here he addresses the media about the upcoming Nextel Cup Series race.

KASEY SPEAK

2006-06-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)NOTE: Kahne scored his circuit-leading fourth victory o. f the season and the fifth for Dodge at Michigan International Speedway since Dodge rejoined the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup circuit in 2001. Dodge has won more races at Michigan than any other track and is tied with Ford with five wins each at MIS since 2001.

“I was happy either way, whether they started the race back or not. I thought we had a good shot. The team has done a great job this season and they give me a car capable of winning every week. I made ‘em work a little harder this weekend, but everything worked out. They did a great job with the car and that’s the fourth time we’ve won with it this season. “We had a great car. We had a problem early on with debris. We got some debris on the car and it overheated. We had to pit. I was trying to pass Jeff Gordon, racing with him and then we just had to pit and get it off the nose and go from there. We fell back to 38th and started battling back from there. Kenny (team director Francis) took two tires one time and passed some cars on pit road and the pit crew probably passed 10 cars with pit stops. It was a great car to drive and a great team to work with.” COMMENT ON YOUR NEWFOUND PATIENCE “You do need patience on these type of race tracks. The air is such a big deal and if you put your car in the wrong spot against another car or certain areas in the corner you can spin yourself out in a second. You do need patience, but at the same time you need to charge up there. We knew the rain was coming. I knew it would be here sometime around lap 100. We did all we could to pass cars. I think I was four-wide at one time and three-wide another time. My spotter said that wasn’t being patient, but I was like ‘well, it was open. I really couldn’t tell it was four wide.’ It worked out and we’re just happy to be in victory lane.” COMMENT ON YOUR BACKUP CAR “It wouldn’t have been good if we’d had to get the backup out because we had no time on it. Things change. It’s probably a great car. I don’t even know which car is back there. Kenny would know. (Told it was the California car). It ran fourth there. It’s a good car, but we knew what we had with the car I was driving yesterday and just needed to make the repairs to it. It wasn’t too bad. It was bad enough it took a long time to fix, but it wasn’t bad enough to pull out there spare. We knew where that car was, and that’s the car we wanted to race.”

Text courtsey of Dodge Motorsports
Photo courtsey of Getty Images

BIFFLE TO BEAT; HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL

2006-06-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Who's gonna win the race today?

Take Greg Biffle. He's a horse at Michigan. His last three starts, he has two wins a sixth place finish.

It could easily be a Roush sweep.

And, it's Father's Day, so give the old man some special loving!!

KASEY KAHNE WINS MICHIGAN POLE (SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?)

2006-06-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

( Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

Comments courtesy of Dodge:
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)
NOTE: Kahne captured his fourth pole of the season, beating Jeff Gordon by a whisker.
“Our Dodge Charger was really good today. That was a great run, and we’ll be starting out front on Sunday. I’m looking forward to it. This will be a great track to keep those Chargers up front. It’s so close to Detroit. It should be a lot of fun. I was worried when Jeff Gordon went out. He always qualifies well and I’ve seen him get the pole here before. It ended up close, but we were able to get it. I was sweatin’ for sure. We were a little free in turn three and then I got right back in the throttle. It carried a lot of momentum and stayed right where I wanted it on the track. It was better than it was in practice. I was happy Kennis Francis and the guys made a few adjustments, and it went the right way. It was a good run for us. When you see the 24 going last and the 16 and 18 and a lot of good cars going late, but the track had stayed really close. I was hoping the sun wouldn’t go down or anything like that and it didn’t. It was really a pretty fair test for all of us. I was waiting on Jeff. It was maybe he will and maybe he won’t, but I was definitely nervous.”

THIS IS THE CHARGER YOU’VE WON WITH THREE TIMES THIS SEASON. WHY IS IT SO GOOD? “I don’t really know. They built it during the off season, the guys at Evernham Motorsports, and we’ve just had some great runs with it. We’ve been up and down in all of those races. We’ve probably fallen back to 20th or in that area in all of those races and fought our way back. It’s very sensitive to being off. You can get it off, but you can also get it right back. Small adjustments really work on the car. If you can keep it in that area, that good side of things, it’s fast. That’s what we’re looking for on Sunday. We should have a great starting spot, and we’ll just make fine-tune adjustments throughout the race and hopefully we’ll be there at the end and have a shot.”

HAVE YOU PUT MORE EMPHASIS ON QUALIFYING? “We really haven’t. We made one run today, one lap in qualifying trim during practice. We worked on our race setup the entire time and got the car comfortable. We wanted to keep working on it, but we ran out of time. We figured out the changes we needed to put us in the ballpark when it came to qualifying from where our car was in race trim. We made one run and ended up on top and ended up on top in qualifying. It’s a really good group of guys.”

COMMENT ON POINTS RACE “When I came into this season, I put down some things I was going to work on, and I gave it to the team. One of them was to bring home the cars in one piece and the other was communication with Kenny Francis and my guys on the team. So far we’ve been able to do a good job with that. We’ve been able to make the cars better every weekend and bring most of the cars home. If we keep doing that we should end up in the top 10. If we get sidetracked or I start wrecking cars, we’ll probably miss it. We’ll just keep trying to do the same things we’ve been doing.”

COMMENT ON ROAD COURSE RACING “I tested last week with Boris Said one day, and I feel like I learned some things. I feel like we can run in the top 15 and keep the car on the course. That will be the big thing. I don’t feel like personally I can go there and win the race. I don’t think that I’m good enough road course driver yet to do that, but I’ve made gains. I think we can finish in the top 15 and with a little luck maybe better than that. The key will be to keep it on the road and bring the car home in one piece.”

COMMENT ON YOUR CONFIDENCE IN THE TEAM “It goes back to preparation, and my team has done an awesome job ever since we hit on some things in off season testing. We’ve been able to fine tune and come back to them. I think the communication is there and as long as we keep doing that stuff we should keep showing up with great racecars.”

WHY THE BLACK HATS?

2006-06-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

Jeff Burton, left, and Ryan Newman, right, buck the NASCAR trend of wearing Nextel's yellow hats? Why? Because their sponsors are competing wireless phone companies. Cingular and Alltel were involved in NASCAR racing before the arrival of Nextel, so they were grandfathered into the series. When they take "official" NASCAR photos, they were NASCAR hats.

(Photos courtsey of Getty Images)

NEWS ABOUT ERIN CROCKER

2006-06-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

ERIN CROCKER RETURNS TO MIS IN HOPES
OF BUILDING ON SEVENTH-PLACE FINISH FROM A YEAR AGO

LOCAL FAVORITE JOHNNY BENSON ON HAND TO PROVIDE GUIDANCE

BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 14, 2006) - One would think that a driver who had finished seventh at MIS just a year ago would need no further help on the two-mile oval, but Erin Crocker’s drive for racing keeps her wanting to build on the result which made her the second-highest female finisher in track history.

As a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Crocker also plans to run a limited schedule in the ARCA RE/MAX Series in 2006. In preparation for the June 16 Hantz Group 200 during MIS’s ARCA testing session on May 23, she was accompanied by Michigan native and fellow NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Johnny Benson in the garage. Though she acknowledges a certain recognition of how to run well at MIS, the humble Crocker maintains that there is always more to learn.

“Evernham Motorsports and Ray Evernham have done a lot to help me,” said Crocker. “Sometimes it’s hard to relate with a crew chief who’s never been a driver, so it’s just good to have a driver coach. Johnny’s been nice enough to come out here and help as a mentor.”

Count Benson as a believer in the young Crocker. The Grand Rapids native who calls Michigan his home track and has made 24 starts at MIS (including five top-five finishes) would normally have to make a much more thorough explanation to a young driver like Crocker if called upon. However, he already believes Crocker understands how to succeed and that he might not need to help her so much at Michigan.

“I think the experience that I have here will help some, but I can probably help her more come race time,” said Benson. “She can go fast, but she just needs a little bit of help with some race stuff. They’re throwing her to the wolves, going from the dirt cars to this type of cars to the trucks. That’s just a huge, huge jump, a bigger jump than I’ve ever taken. I think she just needs that little bit of a foundation and once she gets that, she’ll be fine.

“As long as they get some people to help her out, which is kind of what I’m doing, this will be a good thing for her and for the sport. For her to come and get some success will be good for racing. She’s got a lot of desire and I think she’s got a lot of talent too. She’ll have to get through that learning process the best that she can and with as much help as she can.”
Even as seasoned drivers like Benson and others continue to realize Crocker’s potential not only as a female driver but as a driver in general, a certain novelty still surrounds her status as one of the only females in the top levels of motorsports. Crocker understands that there are two sides to the coin, which drives her to succeed.

“I’ve gotten used to (the recognition), but like I say in every interview, there are positives and negatives to being a female in this sport,” she said. “If I do well, it gets recognized right away but if I do badly, it also gets recognized right away.”

If Crocker knows how to benefit from teaching and learning experiences (likely as she owns a bachelor’s degree in industrial and management engineering), then her racing career should carry some exciting moments in the future. Crocker admits that both the ARCA and Craftsman Truck Series have helped her immensely, and it appears that she understands what to learn from each different style of racing.

“ARCA’s been an excellent training ground,” said Crocker. “The top levels of NASCAR right now are really, really competitive, and the ARCA series is a great place to learn because it’s not too cutthroat or anything. Honestly, it’s a confidence booster for me to come over here and run well at any time.”

With a veteran on her side, a solid team in her back pocket, and the clarity of mind to understand what it takes to win in different types of racing, Erin Crocker seems to be ready to engineer her own success behind the wheel of any vehicle.

BUSCH BANTER FROM KURT

2006-06-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

KURT BUSCH ANSWERS SOME MEDIA QUESTIONS FROM A TUESDAY TELECONFERENCE:

Q. In regards to what is often referred to as "silly season," where drivers and sometimes sponsors switch rides, last summer you announced you would be leaving Roush. In terms of being bombarded with questions about that decision week after week, looking back, how difficult was it to cope with that, and in the same vein, during the next few days, weeks and months ahead, how difficult is it going to be for Brian Vickers and Casey Mears, who are in sort of a similar situation, until they announce their 2007 plans?
KURT BUSCH: You know, it is interesting. This has come about lately, some of the drivers that you see in the NEXTEL Cup, different types of motorsports as well, are always confronted with, am I running well enough, is it my own self, is it the team, where are things wrong and why should there be a change.
So Brian, he's made the announcement that he wants to switch teams or he wants to go in a new direction. I don't know the details. I don't even know if he signs for three or four more years; I don't even know if his contract ends this year. What I do know is that he's trying to position himself for a position where he thinks he can go and win races. He's with a very competitive team. Is he high enough on the ranking order? Who knows, because we see the success that Jimmie Johnson has, Jeff Gordon, as well as my little brother, Kyle Busch, over there. Why isn't Vickers running well; who's to know. So he's looking around for other opportunities to try to win races, because we all believe that Brian Vickers is very talented.
So he's got now with the media and the questioning that's going to come about on why he is switching, where is he going. And the advice that I did give him at Pocono is to know in his mind that things are going to be a bit out of the ordinary in the next upcoming weeks and months and that when you jump in the race car, that's when you get to the fun and drive that car as far as you can and try to pick up a win.
Q. Ryan Newman was in town next week, met the Governor and was in the capital of Lansing, and he was asked how his relationship with you was, and he said it was pretty excellent; that you guys are working as a team; you have no issues. Although, there's a lot of work to be done. How do you rate your relationship with your new teammate, and secondly, what's the difference or the main difference between running for Penske and Roush?
KURT BUSCH: On the first part of the question with the team communication and the camaraderie, I think everybody is doing a superb job, and the way that the information is being shared. Secondly, out on the racetrack with Ryan, it's definitely something where the two of us can help each other, whether it's a restrictor plate race at Daytona or Talladega, we've strapped in real well together; or a short track, if one of the car is faster than the other, we let each other go by. You know, those things go a long way and one little small thing can add up to be a big difference. And whether you're running for a win or helping a guy get a Top 10 finish.
So far, everything has gone very well working with Ryan Newman. I feel like he's a great teammate and the two of us will definitely be able to make one another better as we continue forward. And the second question, it's just the family atmosphere around Penske Racing and the way that he runs a tighter ship, not everybody wearing the white collared shirts, but everybody here is smiling and having fun, and it's definitely an atmosphere where it's easier to work in.
Q. Looking at where you are in the standings, you moved up the spot to 17, and we've got 11 or 12 races left. Is the sense of urgency, has that become focused in your mind as far as it looks like the Top 10 drivers are going to go this year and the 400 points count?
KURT BUSCH: Yeah, I believe you're correct in the 400 points. You definitely have to race to the Top 10, and the Top 10 guys will be in. And so we look at it where there's still plenty of races for things to go wrong and things to go right. Hopefully we're on the right side of things with our team because we have had our share of bad luck and misfortune, so when we are able to put a good race together, just like we did this past weekend at Pocono where our crew won the checkers realtime award for the least amount of time on pit road, we raced well and are competing in the Top 5 all throughout the day. So if we can continue to do that and position ourselves, we can make this Chase, and we'll have an opportunity to do that in these next upcoming races to see what we have.
Q. As stated earlier, you have one win at Michigan. Your teammate, Ryan Newman, has two. How much help or is there any help coming from that side on what you should do with the Dodge there?
KURT BUSCH: There's been a tremendous amount of help with getting the aero balance correct and with the general, I guess you could say, setup characteristics. Both of us have won there. We each know how to get around the racetrack. But when we sit down and talk about it, he let's me know things he's done in the past, and I let him know of some small things that I've done and the two of us can make each other better. So I believe the team communication is going very well, as well as the driver communication to help us both do better.

ROOKIE WINS AT POCONO & STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW

2006-06-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

· Denny Hamlin led six times for 83 laps to win the WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race award in the Pocono 500. Hamlin claimed the WIX Filters Lap Leader award for the first time this season. He also led the most laps in the event, the first time this season he has accomplished the feat. The Pocono race is the fifth event this season where he has led at least one lap. Hamlin has now led 184 total laps in 2006.

· Hamlin won the Pocono 500, scoring his first NEXTEL Cup win in 21 career starts. He is the first Raybestos Rookie to win in 57 races at Pocono.

· Hamlin has racked up three top-five and six top-10 finishes this season. He moved up to ninth in the NEXTEL Cup Series championship standings.

· A different driver has now claimed WIX Filter Lap Leader of the Race in each of the past four races.

· Greg Biffle leads Tony Stewart (5-3) in the WIX Filters Lap Leader standings.

· Hamlin quotes: ““I knew right from the get-go that we had a very, very strong car, even in practice we were a top two or three car. We just needed to fine tune it and do something really small to make it a race-winning car. I knew when we took off and started pulling away that we had a really strong car. We were just going to have to keep up with the racetrack. We took tires and no adjustments on that first stop to just try to see where the racetrack was going to go. It pretty much stayed consistent and just tightened up just a little bit so that kind of played into our favor. Of course then we had our tire issue and I thought our hopes had pretty much gone down the drain because after we got back on the racetrack and it went green after we had that damage it just felt aero unstable. It disrupted the car quite a bit and just didn’t seem as fast as what it was. The whole crew just kept adding pieces to the car it seemed like on every single stop. They just added a couple more pieces because it knocked all the crush panels out to try to make it better. Each piece they added made the car a little bit faster and we finally got it back to where it belonged there at the end of the race.”

DAVID DONOHUE: MARK'S KID, IROC TESTER

2006-06-10T20:25:00.000-07:00

This is reprinted from the Daytona Beach News-Journal:

The International Race of Champions crew is at Daytona International Speedway converting its fleet of oval race cars into road course machines.
“It’s been quite a while since we had to make a right-hand turn with these cars,’’ IROC president Jay Signore said Tuesday.
Fourteen years to be exact.
The IROC racers, which will run Round 3 over Daytona’s 3.56-mile road course on June 29, have a real sportscar feel since their last visit in Speed Weeks in February.
All the cars are now outfitted with headlights, brake lights, windshield wipers and a much larger rear spoiler.
“We’re looking for more downforce and balance,’’ Signore said. “It’s been a while since we raced a road course. We’re not in bad shape as far as handling. The biggest part of this test is to solidify the brake balance on the cars. This test is a little bit of chassis and a lot of brakes.’’
Signore has added road racing specialist David Donohue to his test-driver roster, joining Dave Marcis, Jay Sauter and Jim Sauter.
“There are plenty of areas to pass, with the IROC cars in particular because they are so heavy, the braking areas get longer than what we see with sportscars,’’ Donohue said. “They will be spending more time on the brakes and that will create passing opportunities. It will be a lot of fun to watch.’’
Donohue identified five critical areas of the course where this summer’s IROC race can be won or lost:
1. Finish line
“That’s where you win or lose the race. It’s painfully obvious to anyone inside or outside of racing.’’
2. Chicane
“The chicane on the back straightaway is a key area. You are basically full throttle leaving the chicane to the start-finish line. Since the cars are identical, everyone will accelerate the same way. That makes it important to get a good exit out of the chicane. One of the key passing areas on the whole track is braking into the chicane. The speeds on the straightaway won’t be nearly as high as when these cars run just the oval course. Drafting will play a part, but not be as important because these cars won’t be at full throttle for very long. When you run the oval, your car is flat-out all the time and you’re trying to keep momentum. On the road course, you’re really trying to set up a pass when you are braking. Passing on the straights will be dictated by how you get off the previous corner.’’
3. Turn 6 (where the cars leave the infield course and get back on the banked track in NASCAR Turn 1)
“You need a good exit off Turn 6. If you are running equal in terms of braking into the chicane with another car, this may be where you can get a nose up on him. The problem with Turn 6 is that it’s one lane going into the turn, certainly one lane when you get to the middle of the corner. You might see a lot of action down in Turn 6 as drivers fight for position as they set each other up for the chicane.’’
4. The east and west horseshoe turns
“You have to be really clean in the horseshoe corners. The tendency is to get overambitious because they are slow corners, painfully slow corners. You are used to running at high speeds, not this slow through these turns. You have to avoid getting overanxious and try to get more out of a car than what it has to give you. It’s really easy to spin. You also feel cocky because you are going so slowly. These cars are so heavy that once you get them sliding, it’s really easy to have them slide too much. If you lose a lot of speed, somebody will overtake you or you can spin sideways or backwards and you’re out of the race. You don’t have to stay single-file but if somebody gets under you, you need to use your better judgment and decide whether to run the outside line or just let him go. I think you’ll see a lot of trading places in these areas.”
5. Turn 1
“The last key area of the track will be braking into Turn 1. Turn 1 is a big passing area. Again, it will depend how well you get your car off the chicane on the other side of the track. Depending how you drive out of the chicane will dictate how well you get into Turn 1.’’

EARNHARDT JUNIOR SPEAKS & WE ALL LISTEN

2006-06-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

Dale Earhardt Jr., driver of the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet, met with media following Friday's practice at Pocono Raceway. Earnhardt is fourth in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings heading into this weekend's Pocono 500, with one win, four top-fives and six top-10s.

HOW WAS THE CAR IN PRACTICE?“We’re pretty happy with it. Spent most of the practice in race trim, but we’re satisfied with where we’re at.”IN REGARDS TO TONY STEWART COMPETING THIS WEEKEND, POCONO WAS ONE OF THE TRACKS YOU RAN WHEN YOU HAD YOUR BURNS (AFTER A SPORTS-CAR CRASH IN 2004). WHAT IS IT LIKE TO RUN THIS PLACE IN PAIN?“It’s not too bad. The straightaways are real long. I had a relief driver in John Andretti, but I got out more because my car was handling so bad. I was like, well, if it’s going to drive this bad, I might as well get out (laughing). It didn’t bother me that bad. I think if there’s a race that Tony can stick it out if he wanted to, this would be one of those tracks. Or it might still be a wise choice for him to get a relief driver. It’s up to him.”WHY WOULD THIS BE ONE OF THOSE TRACKS TO STICK IT OUT?“Long straightaways… you can relax. At Dover you’re always in the corner, and always on the G forces, and you always have a lot of pressure on that side. He’ll have long straightaways here, so he can relax a little bit.”EVEN THOUGH HE’S NOT UP TO 100%, IS TONY ANY LESS COMPETITIVE?“No, he’s always competitive. Even at 80%, Tony is still better than half these guys out here.”WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE SHIFTING/NO-SHIFTING HERE AT POCONO?“Take it or leave it. Either way, I don’t really care. Everybody’s got to do it, so it’s not better or worse for anybody.”YOUR TEAM HAS QUIETLY CREEPED UP IN THE POINTS. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?“We’re just trying to be consistent. When I’ve got a 10th-place car, I try to finish 10th. We’re really just trying to be smooth, be consistent on the times and laps, and I try not to push the car real hard and put myself in bad positions. We’ve had a little luck on our side, a little convenience on our side, and a couple of other things too, but for the most part the cars drive good. I go out there and get what I can out of them, and it seems to add up pretty good.”DO YOU CONSIDER THE TUNNEL TURN HERE ONE OF THE TOUGHEST TURNS OF ALL THE TRACKS?“No. I think every corner at Sonoma has it beat. Every corner at The Glen’s got it beat. It’s really not that hard of a corner. It’s just real fast. You lift to go through there and get back on the gas real quick. It’s not really that hard. I don’t know if there is a right way. People say I never go through there right, I always go through there 100 different ways every time I go through it, and I never can seem to repeat myself. I don’t know if that makes it hard. It’s not hard, it’s tricky.” IS IT POSSIBLE YOU CAN REMAIN UNDER THE RADAR JUST BY DRIVING CONSISTENTLY?“We’ve wanted to have consistency our entire career. From the start of this season until now, we have been consistent. I’m real glad about that. We’ve got a win. We’ve got a lot of 11ths and top-10 finishes. That’s what I wanted, so I’m real happy. Things couldn’t be better.”ARE YOU HAVING MORE FUN THIS YEAR THAN YOU DID AT THIS TIME LAST YEAR?“I always have fun. I don’t really go without fun too long (laughing). It’s good the racing side has gotten better. Obviously I enjoy it when we run better and get some wins and stuff like that. I’m having fun this year working with (Tony Eury) Junior, and still be able to have Steve Hmiel too. It’s like icing on the cake. Sometimes when you get two guys, there are so many variables. Junior, Steve, the team, all those guys over there, the cars, it’s hard to get just one of those things in your life, but to have it all is pretty cool. I’m very happy and very lucky and very fortunate that these guys can stand me enough to work on the car all year and be around me all year. They’re just a great group, and I’m real fortunate to have an opportunity to drive for them again.”TWENTY YEARS AGO TIM RICHMOND WON BOTH RACES HERE. DID YOUR DAD TALK ABOUT HIM AT ALL AS A RACE CAR DRIVER?“Daddy thought he was one of the best he’d raced against. I said it before, if Tim had lived and competed for many more years, Daddy wouldn’t have seven championships, for sure. That’s an obvious statement. He was just amazing to watch. Just a great race car driver. A lot of people said he didn’t really have a lot of knowledge about set-ups, but when he had a great car, he got everything out of it. As raw talent goes, he was one of the best.”AFTER THE FRUSTRATIONS LAST YEAR, WHEN DID YOU GET A SENSE THAT THIS YEAR WAS GOING TO BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT?“Probably in the off-season, we were going around the shop, checking in, talking to the guys, seeing the looks on everybody’s faces, seeing how positive the attitudes were around the shop… it’s just a good effort. We’re all friends, and most of these guys – not all of them but most of them – have worked at DEI for awhile, so we all know each other really well. We just sort of found our place in the sport I believe. We’ve gotten over the initial bang of coming in, getting involved, and all the hype and expectations. I think as times change, people change, things come and go, and next year might be totally different. But this is probably the best group – as far as having an assembled group – this is the best I’ve had from top to bottom. The team being really strong and deep in talent, I think this is as good as I’ve ever had.”HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE MORE CONSISTENT AT TRACKS LIKE THIS WHERE YOU HAVEN’T MAYBE DONE WELL IN THE PAST?“I’ve run pretty good here in the past. I ran second to Bobby Labonte. I ran third once. I mean, I haven’t run that many races here. It’s just hit and miss. This place is tough. We just try to get the best finish we can. I try to finish in the top-12 every week. A 12th-place average puts you in a pretty good position when you’re trying to make the Chase. That 12th-place average would be great.”WAS IT HIT OR MISS TODAY IN PRACTICE TODAY?“I was real happy with my car, real happy. Car drives easy. The car is better than I am right now. I need to get out there with the rest of the field for about 30 laps and get up to speed. This track is sort of like a road course, it takes awhile to really get acclimated. Every time you come back here, it takes about 15 or 20 laps to sort of get back in the rhythm and know how far you can push it all the time.”WITH SO MANY GOOD TEAMS AND DRIVERS – LIKE PENSKE, GANASSI, HENDRICK, ROUSH, YOU HAVE ONE WIN, STEWART’S GOT ONE WIN SINCE AUGUST – IS IT JUST THAT TOUGH OUT THERE?“There’s just a lot of talent and a lot of depth throughout the series as far as competitive teams. A lot of young drivers are coming in with good teams. There are a lot more capable people out there now, that’s probably what is.”

WEEKEND Q&A WITH JEFF GORDON

2006-06-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS, WEEKLY TOP-10 BEHIND THE HAULER CHAT (Courtsey GM Racing)

Q. On problems with his car:"We have had some things happen to us and they're all things that we at Hendrick Motorsports outsource, nothing that we're building. We're putting a list together through convenience or saving a buck here and there where we outsourced it to maybe focus on some other things. We're putting that list together so we don't continue to have these problems. Right now we need to be focused on dialing the car in, working on setups, making the car go faster, not needing to worry and focus on one little thing here and there that can cost us positions like what happened to us in Richmond and Charlotte. What happened in Charlotte, the 48 was about six to 10 laps away from having the same problem. It's an issue really throughout the garage because it's a company that builds things for all of us. It's not the company's fault. It's what we're doing now with the cars that are putting more stress on that part so now we got to go back and research a little bit more."
Q. How frustrating is it that little things like that keep you from getting over this hump?"We're much more concerned with the competition, with going faster and trying new setups and making gains there with downforce. Those little things are going to happen. We're definitely putting a team of people on that to make sure those things are happening but our primary focus is still just speed. We're really getting there. I'm glad we're under the radar because when we hit it, we're going to hit it big and everybody is going to say 'Wow, where did they come from?' We're not going to talk about it. We're here to go out there and do it. We're working our butts off, this whole team is, to put that out there on the race track. For us what might seem like only three or four positions on the track to everybody else are additional steps in the right direction."
Q. Do you think you are ready to win a championship this year? Do you think you are you equipped to do so?"Team-wise I think we're definitely ready. We've got a great team - the morale of the team, the way everybody is on the same page, the pit crew. Everything focus-wise, communication-wise is there. We just got to get that competition and performance up a couple of notches and we'll absolutely be ready to win a championship. It's a lot different now with the Chase. Right now is like experimental time. There might be guys out there wining races and running faster. Our job is to catch up to them and pass them when it comes time for the Chase."
Q. What is your timeline for that? Is it this week?"Trust me, if we could have figured it out yesterday we would have. We're not putting a timeline on it. We're just working as hard as we can to get there. There's no doubt there are some guys that have gotten ahead of us. It's our job to get out there and catch 'em and find those things that we need to beat them. It doesn't matter to me when it happens as long as it happens before the Chase or right as the Chase starts."
Q. What are you looking forward to in going to Pocono?"That's the exciting thing right now is going to the tracks and being more competitive and trying new things that should make us better. For the longest time I've loved going everywhere. The last couple years I've dreaded going places like that because we've been so far off. It's no fun to go places that you know you can run good at and be doing all you can to try and get in the top 10. When we start getting ourselves up in the top five and battling for wins, you're going to see us excited about going to every track. Pocono has always been one of my favorites. I love the shifting that we typically do there and the three different corners. I enjoy that. I'm looking forward to that. Right now we've got some exciting things happening with the team and I'm really looking forward to going everywhere."
Q. When you are running 24th during a race, what is going through your mind? What is the mindset of your team during those situations?"The thing you've got to understand is track position is so important. Like last week, we stayed out and we took off and ran away from the field and we led the whole time. Obviously you know that clean air is extremely important. Downforce is important and we proved that our car is much better than a 24th-place car. It's all about fine-tuning on the car to try to make it better. You've got to tune the car for passing in traffic then you've got to make the car (better) for getting out front and being in the top five. These cars change so much. When you're in the top it's just unbelievable. Last week we were dealing with a tire, a new surface and some different things that we've had to deal with in the past and track position was even more important. That's what the most frustrating thing about last week is that we finally got ourselves in a solid position, the car was feeling good and we were looking forward to those last two runs. I think that we had a shot at getting up at fifth or sixth but we were definitely an eighth place car at the time."
Q. What do you think Kyle Busch's issues are? Is he immature or has he not learned what racing is all about yet?"I think Kyle (Busch) is a tremendous talent and he just sometimes gets a little impatient. He knows that they have a good team and good cars and that frustration kicks in a little bit when you're not able to go out there and show it. He's young and maybe a little immature but it's just that he's wanting all of it right now. He's got to have more patience and kind of understand that nobody is out there trying to get him. Everybody is out there trying to get all they can and he just needs to respect that and understand that. I think he's going to be a tremendous talent and super star of this sport and things like what happened last week are only things that are going to give him more experience and hopefully learn from that situation and move on and be better."
Q. Have you talked to him at all?"We tested together this week but we didn't talk anything about that situation."
Q. How much has Mr. Hendrick talked to him about the situation?"That's why I haven't had to say anything is (because) Rick has talked to him. Nobody carries more respect than somebody like Rick Hendrick. When he sits down and talks to you, it gets your attention. I know that he's been talking to Kyle."

I THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING

2006-06-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

Travis Kvapil and the Tide Racing Team to
Appear on CBS Soap Opera Guiding Light on June 28
Driver Helps Make Dream Come True for Beloved Character Reva Shane Lewis

NEW YORK, N.Y. & HICKORY, N.C. (June 6, 2006) -- 2006 Emmy Award-winner Kim Zimmer and the CBS soap Guiding Light hit the track today with NASCAR driver Travis Kvapil and the Tide® Racing Team when the show taped on location at the Hickory Motor Speedway in Hickory, N.C. The soap also plans to tape tomorrow at the team’s race shop which is also located in Hickory.

The storyline revolves around Zimmer’s character, the strong-willed Reva Shayne Lewis and her battle with breast cancer. Thanks to the encouragement from her doctor Colin McCabe (played by Paul Fitzgerald) and Kvapil, Reva gets the chance to take the wheel of the infamous Tide Ride in an attempt to prove that her diagnosis will not stop her from living out her dreams. The scenes shot at the Speedway and the race shop will air on Wednesday, June 28.

Zimmer and several of her cast mates first met the Tide Racing Team last September at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. Everyone had such a great experience that the idea of working the race team into a storyline was proposed. Several months later, the project came to fruition when Zimmer’s character was diagnosed with breast cancer. In the story, Reva remembers a list she made as a young girl that contained 10 items she wanted to do before she died. Driving a race car was one of them.

“I’ve never done anything like this,” said Kvapil, who took Zimmer for a high-speed ride around the track to experience the thrill of NASCAR. “I was given a script with lines to memorize and when it was time to roll tape, Paul and Kim really went out of their way to put me at ease. We got through all of the takes without any major hiccups. It was awesome. Kim really seemed to enjoy herself and Paul wants to come to a race so I think everyone at Guiding Light is hooked on NASCAR. I am sure hooked on them. I can’t wait to watch the episode.”

Kim Zimmer created the unforgettable character of Reva Shayne on Guiding Light in 1983. A four-time Emmy winner, Zimmer won the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in April 2006. A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zimmer and her husband currently live in New Jersey and have three children.

About Guiding Light
Guiding Light, the longest-running show in broadcast history and the recipient of four Daytime Emmy Awards in 2006, is a Procter & Gamble Production. The show tapes in New York City. Ellen Wheeler is the Executive Producer and David Kreizman is the Headwriter. The show can be seen weekdays on the CBS Television Network. (Check local listings). For photos please visit www.pgpphoto.com.

About PPI Motorsports
PPI Motorsports based in Hickory, N.C., fields the No. 32 Tide/Downy Chevrolet driven by Travis Kvapil in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. Since joining the series in 2000, the team has earned two wins, three pole positions, 10 top-five and 26 top-10 finishes. The team also owns multiple titles and victories in off-road and open-wheel racing. In 2005, PPI Motorsports celebrated its 25th year in racing.

ROUSH TALKS ABOUT SUPER TEAMS

2006-06-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

JACK ROUSH
ROUSH RACING FINISHED 1-2, CHILDRESS FINISHED 3-4, HENDRICK FINISHED 5-6 AT DOVER. IS THIS DOMINANCE ON THE BIG TEAMS OR IS IT PARITY OR IS IT ENTERTAINMENT? “It’s both, I think. The thing that it takes to make this programs run is great sponsors that bring the money and then great people that will organize the cars so that they’ve got the speed and drivers that can drive it. Organizations that have got that mix the best right now is the larger teams. I don’t think there’s anything in sight that’s going to back to one man, one car and one team and the sort of thing that you might’ve looked at in a simpler time. But the big organizations have got the most understanding of what the problem is and are most able to deal with the changes that NASCAR brings with interpretations of rules as they come. NASCAR has done a great job on parity with templates now that hardly ever get mentioned. These cars aero matched. The engines, they pay real close attention to, have got virtually the same speed. If you just figure out and have people that understand what the cars need and you figure out and you apply in numbers so then you’ll have a good result. And that of course is what Chrysler and other manufacturers have brought to the truck series with the way they’ve been able to standardize those cars between manufacturers. The Chevrolet teams, with having the most teams, have got several organizations do a nice job, but I feel kind of lonely with Ford. We’re trying to get Robert up to speed and get him going and get the Wood Brothers to do what they might. But it’s pretty lonely here. Yeah, the Gibbs organization, the Childress organization, the Hendrick organization and mine are able most days to do things that the smaller teams can’t and I think that’s life as it should be.”

ROUSH, STUFFED PEPPERS, NYX

2006-06-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

Jack Roush drivers Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray took first and second at Dover.

More important, I made a wonderful batch of stuffed green peppers tonight. Man, it was good. Sides were a baked tomato plus summer squash and onions. Not a carb on the plate. Now to spice things up a little, I topped the green peppers with crumbled blue cheese.

I mixed ground beef with a little chopped garlic, dried onion, one egg and a splash of A1 Spicy Steak Sauce. One lb. of of ground beef is all I needed to fill three big peppers. The 13 year old boy loved it. I made him more a kid meal by heating up some french fries.

As far as the stock market, I got some NYX -- New York Stock Exchange -- and I hope to turn it over sometime this week. The news the that NYX is going to merge with a big exchange in Europe is exciting stuff! They say we'll have 24 hour trading in a matter of two years.

Talk about spicing things up!

HAULER CHATTER WITH DALE EARNHARDT JR.

2006-06-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

The media ganged up on Dale Earnhardt Jr. at his race hauler this morning and peppered him with all manner of queries (courtsey, GM Racing):

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS, WEEKLY TOP-10 BEHIND THE HAULER CHATQ. Your former teammate Michael Waltrip failed to qualify in Charlotte. What is going wrong there?"I don't know. I don't know much about the team."Q. Do you ever talk with Michael about what is going on with them?"No." Q. Last year at this point you were 15th in points. What's different this year?"Tony (Eury) Jr. He's a big difference. All the guys at our shop have a real positive attitude compared to last year. He has a lot to do with that too. We've got a lot of good people making things happen for me but Tony Jr. sort of straightened the whole deal out and that's a big deal."Q. What are your three favorite tracks?"I don't know. There's so many out there I like."Q. Were you surprised at Kyle Busch's penalty?"Yeah. I don't know. I thought mine was severe for cussing in victory lane. That was nowhere near as bad as what he did. He did what he did. I didn't really see any reason to penalize him for it. He threw his HANS device, big deal. I didn't see any reason to penalize him. Just tell him not to do it anymore and that should have taken care of it."Q. Why do you think there is more tension on the track today?"I don't know. I don't think there is for me." Q. Does more tension have to do with the higher competition level?"I don't really feel more tension. I just think some personalities clash and some don't. I don't really have a whole lot of problems on the race track with anybody. I just try to get out there and do my thing. It's pretty easy to do that."Q. This will be the third year of the Chase for the Championship. In comparison with this year and last year, are you feeling a little better about how to race for points and getting into the top 10?" No not really. We're human and we're going to make mistakes. I don't think you can be perfect. My car drives better this year than it did last year so I'm not on that edge as much. I've won championships before and I've run good in the title chase before so it ain't like I learned how to run in the point system any better than I did last year. I'm really not on that edge like I was last year. I'm really not on that edge a lot like last year with the car and (we) got bit a bunch." Q. Are you getting the consistency you want week in and week out or are you still looking for it?"I think I am (more consistent). I'm really happy. I had a way better car than we were able to finish week in Charlotte. We were fourth at Darlington and a win at Richmond. We had a bunch great finishes and a bunch of great cars this year. I really feel like we have gotten more consistent. We're doing a better job right now than we've done before. I think we're doing it better now than we've ever done it."Q. What would be a comfortable position for you to be in five or six races from now?"Fifth I guess. I don't know. Just being in the top 10 is what is important. I don't really know what is comfortable. I guess first (place) 500 points ahead of second is really comfortable." Q. At the Richmond test you mentioned June being an important month for you. Can you expand on that?"We're going to Sonoma, Pocono, Michigan, a bunch of race tracks where we have been hit or miss or miss all together. We need to be able to get through that stretch with some satisfaction and confidence in how we ran. I'd like to get some good runs in Michigan. I like that track and I've run good there before but I haven't got the good finishes I think we should be getting. Pocono, I think we can go there and do OK. We've been top five there before. Sonoma, I've had some great race cars but I just seem to find a way to ruin them. Hopefully we'll do a better job when we go back there." Q. What's your biggest challenge at Pocono?"I don't really have one, just to save it one piece. I don't know. If the car drives good you'll do OK."Q. How is Martin Truex Jr.?"I think he's doing fine. He's really good today (Friday). He seems like he's really doing well today (Friday). I think he's done good. He's got to continue to take everybody's advice because it never fails; nobody knows more than a rookie right? He's got to continue to take people's advice and listen to people that are around him and not get so frustrated I guess because he wants to run better. He gets frustrated real easy. We just got to keep him from getting frustrated and shutting down any lines of communication he has with his crew chief, me, Tony Jr. or people in the organization that make his lap times faster because that's really all he wants in the first place."Q. Is that something he needs to work on?"No I think he is doing fine. He's just very competitive and competition will kill you. So you just got to continue even in the face of bad practice, you need to have a good all positive attitude."Q. On Tony Stewart Injury:"We do have a responsibility to show up and drive Cup cars every week. As a businessman, you have a responsibility to make sure you show up on time for your job. At the same time, who is anybody to tell Tony Stewart what to do with his time? If he wants to drive race cars, he should drive race cars, if he wants to fly kites, he should fly kites. What ever he wants to do, he ought to be able to make that choice himself. I can't be upset or fault a guy for doing what he wants to do and that is his decision. He knows the repercussions probably better than any body else, better than you and maybe even me. He knows the risks and repercussions when he climbs in a car and I don't think you can get down on him too hard for getting injured in the non-Cup stuff. He loves racing. It is what he loves to do, it makes him happy." Q. On NASCAR allowing one race a season to be thrown out at driver/team discretion for instances such as Tony:"No that isn't any good. I don't think they should do that. That is too much fine-tuning of the system. " Q. Should decision whether a driver can or can't race be taken out of driver's hands?"Sure, a Dr. should be making that decision. NASCAR can bring somebody in to make their own conclusion but Tony is working with Dr. Petty and he is everybody's buddy. He is everyone's friend. But, I have been hurt and he never cut me any slack and I don't see him cutting Tony any slack. "I had the same injury and raced the next day and finished third. Tony can race, but this is a tough race track, it isn't like the one I ran on. With the load he will feel out there, it isn't any injury like, if you it the wall, it is going to make it worse. It is already broken, I don't think he can break it again, that is done. He already broke it off, it is the tip of his shoulder blade and one he already broke it off, but what hurts the most is when you are leaning in the corner. The weight when you are going around the corner, slings you in the seat puts pressure on it. But he can handle it, he'll be all right, I don't think he will get out."Q. Did Budweiser tell you that you can't run any other races""They done it. I got a deal where I can only run "X" amount of Busch races and blah, blah, blah. That's the sponsor's decision more for continuity with me driving the red car every week. They want consistency for the fans seeing me in a red car. They really don't want to see me in a Taco Bell or KFC car. Bud would rather have me in a red Bud car. That's why I don't really get the opportunity to run more."Q. Did they do that after your accident?"No. We've had that contract." Q. What about your interests and Dale Earnhardt Incorporated?"Well everybody has an interest. But that's Bud side of it, which is understandable. DEI don't want me going and driving for somebody else and helping them out. I'd like to drive Harvick's Busch car if he asked me but I doubt I could. I'd like to drive my own Busch cars but I don't know if that's a possibility through my commitments and contracts with DEI. You get yourself in a couple of spider webs and it's hard to get out of." Q. What was it like this time last year for you when you were going through the crew chief change?"That side of it was miserable swapping the crew chiefs, sitting in an office with Pete Rondeau. Telling him that we didn't need him to be our crew chief anymore was one of the hardest things I ever did because he deserved to be there. I was being a little bit selfish because I wanted Steve (Hmiel) to come in there with his experience to tell me what was wrong instead of being just a spotter. I needed him to get down in there and say 'Hey man you're not driving it right' or that we didn't have a good enough car. I needed his help to really find out where my team was." Q. Did you know then that you wanted Tony Jr. for the next year?"I wanted to work with Tony Jr. again but we were both just being hard headed about it. Heck, if I would have went out and won 10 races with Steve in a row who would have blamed me for staying with him. I thought that was a possibility and could happen. We talked to other crew chiefs about hiring other crew chiefs. We talked to other guys. One of them is really successful right now. A lot of what ifs. I'm glad to be with (Tony) Junior, man. He's going to get his credit down the line one day in the books for being one of the best and I'll stick with him." Q. Is Tony Eury Jr. an old school crew chief with no engineering degree?"He doesn't have the engineering degree but he's got something a lot of them don't and that's common sense. Sometimes engineering really comes down to is having common sense, figuring something out. He does a great job with staying on top of what's happening in the garage and the latest technology. He rarely ever gets behind. If anything he's right on par with a lot of guys like (Chip) Ganassi and these guys that do have a lot of engineering background and a lot of engineering help. My engineering department is pretty good. We don't put enough money into it." Q. Is it hard to split time and focus between being a team owner and a driver?"No, it is not hard to focus just hard to not let the ownership side of it affect the driver side of it or vice versa. It is real easy to drag anger to the other side. If the Cup car isn't running good and I am angry about that, it is hard to drop that when I go be the owner for the Busch team. Or when the Busch car has a bad Saturday, it is hard not to be angry about that and bring it to my race on Sunday. That is probably the hardest part, keeping the temper down."

TONY STEWART SPEAKS TO MEDIA AT DOVER

2006-06-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Tony Stewart interview from Dover Speedway (Courtesy of GM Racing):

QUOTES REGARDING HIS FRACTURED RIGHT SCAPULA AND RICKY RUDD'S RELIEF ROLE AT DOVERHow is the shoulder?"It's been better. The big thing is just taking care of the injury and let it heal and go about our business again. It's a typical bone break. It's going to take six to eight weeks to heal. There are little things you can do to help accelerate that. But you've still got to spend your time taking it easy and keeping your arm in the sling and being easy on the muscle and the bones. If we could wish ourselves back healthy, then I'd already be healthy again, but unfortunately it's just one of those bad timing situations where we got one of the toughest tracks on the schedule this weekend. If we get through this weekend without any problems, then for Pocono, we shouldn't have any issues. I think having that extra week to heal up even though it's only two weeks into it, having the treatments that we're taking should help the bone get a little head start healing and hopefully get us ready to get back in the car again."Have you ever been injured like this before?"It's just part of racing. I've been racing 27 years. It seems like everything kind of happens in patterns. You'll have a string where you have some bad luck and you'll have strings where you'll have a lot of good luck. In the 27 years that I've been racing, this is one of the more substantial injuries that I've had. If you think about how bad it could be, this really isn't that bad of an injury. Really we've had a pretty good string of good luck with everything. It's not something that's going to take us out of an opportunity to run for the championship, which is great with this format. We've got to do our work this weekend. The hard part is just not knowing when we're going to get that first caution. I hope that happens on lap two and I hope we're not it and I can get out early, but the big thing is just trying to get out of the car early enough to where we're not continuing to aggravate the injury. The longer we can be out of the car, the more opportunity we have to get it in better shape for Pocono next weekend."How much racing can you do at Dover?"Probably until the first caution. We've got Ricky Rudd lined up to go out for us. It's a shame because this Powerade car looks awesome. When I saw it at the shop it broke my heart to know that I'm not going to get to run it the whole weekend. But you know Ricky will do a great job in it though. It's a shame because it's a promotion that we were really looking forward to and I was really looking forward to running this Powerade car."Dover's such a physical race track. With this kind of injury it's not feasible to make it 400 miles. The best thing to do is get an early caution. The first caution that we can get we'll give Ricky a chance to get inside the car. Once we do that, it's basically in his hands and I'll just stay on top of the pit box and do whatever I can to help out."So, you've got to take this weekend kind of easy."Yeah. It's hard to do, because you want to be in the car the whole time, but I think we've all come up with a plan on what to do this weekend. It's just a matter of getting me out of the car as quickly as possible without aggravating the injury anymore and giving Ricky time to get in and get buckled in safely and hopefully not lose a lap. We'll just do everything we can this weekend to do that smoothly. The good thing about 400 laps at Dover is that if we've got a good enough car, which I think we'll have, it'll give him plenty of time to get back to the front." With the points right now, how far do you push it? Do you pick a lap where you're going to come out?"You can't afford to just come in and just pick a number when you want to come out. This is a situation where we don't have that luxury. We have to go until we get that first caution flag. The only time that we can really do that driver change is during a caution where we got enough time to not lose a lap. We still have to be smart and plan the strategy on how fast we're going to be able to get Ricky in the car and just go from there."How involved were you in the paint scheme of the Powerade car and how do you like it?"I love the paint scheme. It's a beautiful car. I like black anyway. It's beautiful. It's going to be hard to sit there and watch Ricky drive it. They don't even let me see the paint schemes until it's time to unveil them, because I'm like a little kid. I get so excited. I let the cat out of the bag too early, but if I were going to design it, this is what it would look like. It's a beautiful car."Realistically, how long are you going to drive on Sunday?"Probably until the first caution. Hopefully that will be early and hopefully we're not the caution. I think we're going to be in good enough shape by the weekend that if it goes 50 or 60 laps, I don't think we'll have too much trouble doing that. It's definitely going to be uncomfortable."You think you've already made up your mind that you don't want to run the whole race at Dover?"I don't think it's a matter of whether I want to or not. I don't think it's going to be feasible to run it. It's such a physical track. With it being concrete, it's a bumpy race track. With the load that you have on that corner of your body, it's just impossible to think. When you're healthy, it's a long 400-mile race, let alone when you're dealing with an injury."Being as competitive as you are, what will you do once you're out of the car?"I'll be on top of the pit box watching. You know, everything that Ricky does is still going to earn me points since I start the race. That's the thing about our sport. We all play hurt. We all play sick. We don't call in and get sick days. We all have to at least start the race, so that's the hard part about it. Even though I'm not going to be in the car doesn't mean I'm not going to care about what's going on with that race car. If Ricky's got a question and there's something I can help him answer while we're going on during the race and I can be there to help, then that's what I'm definitely going to do." How far down the road will it be before you're in the car again full-time?"I think after Dover, we're probably going to be all right. We run Pocono and then Michigan, and those are two tracks that aren't very physically demanding. The thing with Dover is that it's one of the more physically demanding tracks we go to. Timing-wise, it was just bad timing. But we've got Al Shuford who was the trainer that was with us during Double Duty at Indy (in 2001), so the good thing is that we've already started treatments and started doing ultrasound treatments that help the bone grow faster and heal faster. So, we're already doing everything we can. It's just a matter of not re-injuring it in the next six or eight weeks." When you came out of the car, it looked like it really hurt. Did it? Does it still?"Yeah, it still does. It's a bone break. I mean, anytime you break a bone it's sore and it's not going to not be sore in two or three days. This is a six or eight week healing process. But you know, there's all kind of things they can do to numb the pain up, so we can at least drive the car and do what we need to do."Can you still win the championship even with an injury like this?"Sure. We're not in the last ten races just yet. You know, those last 10 weeks are what wins you the championship, so as long as we can just stay in the top-10 in points right now, we can definitely win it."Will you curtail any of your extra-curricular racing, be it in the NASCAR Busch Series at local tracks? "Injuries are a part of the sport. They can happen anytime you get in the car. I mean, you can wreck on the interstate driving to the track. Everybody can speculate on what is too much or not enough or this and that, but it's just an unfortunate deal."Ironically, the last time you had an injury was before heading to another difficult track - Bristol (spring 2002). If this was Pocono you'd probably be able to stay in the car longer."Yeah. The good thing is that we've got Pocono next week. With the treatment that we started on Tuesday and will continue during the week, through the weekend and all of next week, so by the time we get to Pocono next week, we shouldn't have any problems. The good thing is that Michigan is the next week after that, and that's another track that's very wide and big and smooth and gives you plenty of time to rest. So, I think we're going to be in good shape. It's just the timing of it being around Dover was the bad part."

NASCAR LEGEND RAY FOX TURNS NINETY

2006-05-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

Ray Fox turned Ninety years old Wednesday and celebrated the big day with NASCAR vice chairman Bill France. Fox had a storied stock car career as a mechanic and car owner. In the photo on the bottom, Ray is presented his birthday cake by Bill France. In the photo on the top Ray shows his surprise when he walks into the Bill France Room atop Daytona USA located next to Daytona International Speedway. Below the photos are a short list of Ray's accomplishments in the sport. You can buy the Ray Fox biography at www.amazon.com. Just do a Ray Fox search in Amazon's book department. He needs to sell a bunch of books!

FOX FACTS Ray Fox first caught the "racing bug" as a boy watching the racing greats of the 1920’s at the Rockingham, N.H. board track. Ray moved to Florida in 1946 from New Hampshire where he was involved with midget racing before World War II. 1946-1952 Barnstormed around the south racing modifies with friends Marshall Teague and Fireball Roberts. 1955 - Built a 1955 Buick for Fireball Roberts to race in the 160 mile Daytona Beach Race. The car led every lap and won the race. 1956 - Won NASCAR Mechanic of the Year award. 1957 - 1959 - Worked with Smokey Yunick lending his expertise to Paul Goldsmith’s Chevies and Pontiacs and Fireball Roberts’ Pontiacs. 1959 - Built a 1956 Ford modified for Fireball Roberts. It sat on the pole for Daytona Speedway’s first modified race. 1960 - Built the 1959 Chevy which won the 1960 Daytona 500 with Jr. Johnson driving. (Ray built the car in 7 days!) 1961 - Built the Pontiac which took David Pearson to 3 superspeedway wins in1961. The car won the World 600 at Charlotte, Dixie 400 at Atlanta and the Firecracker 250 at Daytona. Ray became the first car owner to win 3 superspeedway races in a single year. 1963 - Fox built cars sat on the pole 17 times and won 11 Grand National races. This was called "the year of the little Chevy that Ford spent a million dollars trying to catch". Fox’s cars with Jr. Johnson and Jim Paschal driving, start side by side on the front row for Daytona’s Firecracker 400. It is believed to be the first time team cars start on the front row for a superspeedway race. 1964 - Ray and "old man" Buck Baker score Baker’s third Southern 500 win at Darlington. 1965 - A Fox-built ’65 Dodge, with LeeRoy Yarbrough at the wheel, sets a world closed course speed record for stock cars with a blistering lap of 181.818 mph. (The first stock car to run over 180 mph.) 1966 - Earl Balmer win one of Daytona’s 100 mile Daytona 500 qualifying races driving a Ray Fox Dodge. 1967 - Buddy Baker wins the World 600, his first Grand National (Winston Cup) victory, driving a Fox Dodge Charger. 1968 - Blackie Blackburn earns the biggest payday of his career as he wheels Ray Fox’s Dodge to a win in Daytona’s Permatex 300. 1969 - Ray Fox is instrumental in developing the aerodynamic rear window design for Dodge Charger 500 model. It makes the car more competitive on the NASCAR circuit. 1970 - Fox builds 3 Dodge Daytona winged cars for the Grand National circuit. Tiny Lund’s #55, Fred Lorenzen’s #3 and Lorenzen’s #28 "wing things" all are competitive. 1971 - Ray builds a 1971 Plymouth for Cale Yarborough to drive in the Daytona 500. Cale also drives the car in the1972 Daytona 500 finishing 6th. The car later wins the1973 Talladega 500 with Dick Brooks at the wheel. Ray’s cars won hundreds of races in the sportsman, modified and Grand National divisions. He was the first car owner to have cars win on every super speedway. He is responsible for the careers of Jr. Johnson, David Pearson and Buddy Baker. Some of the other drivers, who have warmed Ray’s seats were: Herb Thomas, Paul Goldsmith, Jim Paschal, Earl Balmer, Jim VanDiver, Darel Dieringer, Bunkie Blackburn, Tiny Lund, Fred Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts, Cale Yarborough, Charlie Glotzbach, Buck Baker, Wally Dallenbach, G.C. Spencer as well as Indy car driver Art Pollard and Grand Prix driver Innes Ireland. He retired as an engine inspector for NASCAR in 1996. He is an original member of Daytona Speedway’s Checkered Flag Committee, as well as a member of the NMPA’s Hall of Fame, TRW/Western Auto Mechanics Hall of Fame, Jacksonville Speedway Hall of Fame, Daytona’s Oceanside Rotary Hall of Fame and most recently the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at Talladega, Alabama. Ray is President of the Living Legends of Auto Racing, Inc., an organization of over 600 members, based in Daytona Beach, FL, whose purpose is to preserve the history of auto racing both past and present.

STEWART WILL RACE, RUDD WILL RELIEVE

2006-05-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

From Joe Gibbs Racing:

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C., (May 30, 2006) - Joe Gibbs Racing driver Tony Stewart will not require surgery for the fractured right scapula he sustained in an accident during Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
Stewart's No. 20 Chevrolet suffered a right front tire failure on lap 33 of the 400-lap race, sending the No. 20 machine into the SAFER barrier on the outside retaining wall of turn one. Stewart was running in the 25th position when the accident happened.
"Tony sustained a non-displaced fracture at the tip of his right scapula," said Dr. Jerry Petty, a neurosurgeon who has consulted with many NASCAR drivers. "It is a non-surgical injury that only time and rest can heal."
While Stewart's fractured right scapula won't require surgery, it will limit his participation in this weekend's Nextel Cup event at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.
Veteran NASCAR driver Ricky Rudd has been secured by Joe Gibbs Racing to serve as the relief driver for the No. 20 team this weekend at Dover. Rudd, a winner of 23 Nextel Cup races - four of which came at Dover - will practice and qualify the No. 20 Chevrolet while Stewart will start the 400-lap race. Rudd will be on standby in the pit area to relieve Stewart at any point during the event. By starting at Dover, Stewart will receive all points toward the Nextel Cup driver's championship.
"Tony's injury is unfortunate, and we are going to do everything we can to get him healed up quickly," said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. "Tony is as tough as they come, but we aren't going to take any chances on making his situation worse.
"We're very appreciative of Ricky Rudd for being able to drive the No. 20 car at Dover. He's a proven winner who will allow us to stay in contention for the championship."
Stewart is currently fourth in the championship point standings, 231 points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson. Stewart is a two-time Nextel Cup champion, having won the title in 2002 and 2005.
"Tony's our driver and we'd love to have him in the car, but we want him to be 100 percent, not just for one race but for the rest of the season," said Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for the No. 20 team. "We'll do what we have to do until he heals up. This is a strong race team that's no stranger to adversity, so I know we'll make the best of this situation at Dover and in the weeks to come."
Al Shuford, a certified athletic trainer formerly with the NFL's Carolina Panthers, will work with Stewart to get him ready for his limited participation at Dover and what is expected to be his full participation during the Nextel Cup race weekend at Pocono (Pa.) June 9-11. Shuford joined Joe Gibbs Racing in October 2000.
"Basically, we're just going to work with Tony to make him comfortable," said Shuford. "As Dr. Petty said, Tony's injury is something that only time and rest can heal. But we can help speed up that timetable with a rehabilitation program specific to his injury and his profession."

EVERNHAM & RIGGS DISCUSS OUTCOME OF 600

2006-05-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

RAY EVERNHAM Owner, CEO Evernham Motorsports, in a post-race interview after the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway (courtsey of Dodge):

ARE YOU SURPRISED HOW MUCH KASEY HAS IMPROVED SINCE LAST YEAR? “Not really. When I hired him I knew he was a smart racer and it would just take a little time. This is a tough sport. You go up and down in it, but he studies hard, and he’s committed to doing the things it takes to win races and communicating with the guys. They’ve been working hard. He comes to the shop every week and he and Kenny talk about what they’re doing.” COMMENT ON SCOTT RIGGS’ NIGHT “I was a little upset as a car owner should be. You see the guys work so hard. That crew works really hard. Mistakes in the pits have taken them out of a couple of races and a mistake tonight, again a mistake we shouldn’t have made. We’ll just have to get to the bottom of it. The good news is that Scott Riggs has shown he can drive a racecar and win races. They should have been in position to win tonight. We’ve just got to sit down tomorrow and stop inflicting wounds on ourselves. It would have been good to run in the top five, maybe 1-2 tonight, again a huge disappointment. The one thing I am going to go to the NASCAR trailer about is the car didn’t carry the gas can out of the pits, the gasman did when they were pushing the car. I really don’t understand the call on that, but I imagine it’ll get explained to me.” SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools/Cars 2 Dodge Charger)“We made a couple of mistakes in the pits early, but we were able to overcome those. There at the end, that late in the race, it ran out of gas on me and then to get called in for taking equipment out of the pits you just can’t recover from that that late. We ran out of gas coming down pit road and then the guys were pushing me out of the pit box. They said they brought their equipment out of the pit box. I don’t really know what happened. All I know is we had to come back in and go to the tail end of all the leaders. There were so many cars on the lead lap tonight with so many cautions it was hard to get back up through there. “The car was better once we got that set of left-side tires off. We had one set of left-side tires that were terrible. We were trying to adjust around it. We put rights on it and nothing would help. Finally we came back in and changed those lefts and all of a sudden we had a good racecar again and drove back up to the front. “I’m not sure if we ran out of gas. Something went out and I had to flip all the fans and turn both batteries on. They had to put gas in it to get it to come back to life. We’re not sure what happened. It shouldn’t have been that close on fuel. We just couldn’t overcome that. “Kasey was saving gas there (when Riggs passed him for the lead). He wasn’t getting quite as good gas mileage as we were. He was pretty tight, and making me even tighter behind him. When I started driving in the corner and pushing him up the racetrack a little bit, I got by him and got gone. The 48 was trying to run me down. Jimmie was coming pretty fast, but we were able to maintain our distance on him, about two seconds. We ran out of gas coming down to our last pit stop. I look forward to Dover. The guys were apologetic about what happened tonight, but I told them as long as they gave me good cars like that every week we can’t keep having things like that happen to us. We can’t keep making mistakes every week. We’ve got to get better and have a little better luck and we’ll finally win one of these things. “Our confidence is up because we know we can run well. At the same time we’re still putting a lot of pressure on ourselves not to make mistakes and then we make mistakes. We just need to pull together as a team and not point fingers at each other and make sure we all stay confident in each other and remember we are a team. It takes every single one of us and we don’t need anybody getting down. We need to keep this momentum going. Evernham as a whole I feel great about it. I think the 19 has turned the corner. He had a good run tonight. We had a good car tonight and Kasey is on top right now. “This is the same car we had at Texas, and it was good there. We were coming, running Kasey down there and Kasey ended up winning. We made some mistakes there late in the race. We know the car is good and we know we’re doing a good job of dialing it in where it needs to be. It takes everything. It takes the whole race to be good and get a good finish.”

THE CAPTAIN WINS INDY

2006-05-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Roger Penske for winning his 14th Indy 500 with driver Sam Hornish Jr. (Yes, I watched the whole race and I thought it was funny how Rusty Wallace and Scott Goodyear were stepping on each other in the announcer's booth). Penske magic.

Now, on to Concord, NC!

RICKY RUDD SIGHTING -- SPORTSCARS

2006-05-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

Nextel Cup veteran Ricky Rudd, who hasn't raced since the end of last season, surfaced at a sportscar test session at Mid-Ohio. Here is the press release from the race team Rudd may race with:

On the heels of this morning's announcement that legendary racer Al Unser Jr. will co-drive the No. 8 GlycoMax Porsche Doran with brothers Burt and Brian Frisselle in next weekend's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, NASCAR star Ricky Rudd turned laps in the Synergy Racing Daytona Prototype at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course today with an eye toward competing in future Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve events.

Rudd, heralded as one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers, compiled 23 NEXTEL Cup Series victories during his career, including a record 16 years in-a-row with at least one win. Rudd was also the 1992 Crown Royal IROC Series champion. On Wednesday, Rudd turned laps in the No. 8 GlycoMax Porsche Doran at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, which will host the Rolex Series next month, for the EMCO Gears Classic presented by Key Bank, on the weekend of June 23-25. No deal has been announced for Rudd to drive in any 2006 Rolex Series events.

Rudd was joined at Mid-Ohio by 2005 EMCO Gears Classic winner Elliott Forbes-Robinson, who is an instructor at the course. Forbes-Robinson teamed with Butch Leitzinger last season in the No. 4 The Boss Snowplow Pontiac Crawford for Howard-Boss Motorsports to score a dramatic victory as Leitzinger passed leader Scott Pruett in the No. 01 CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley late in the race.

"I love the track," said Rudd. "I've always enjoyed road courses and I really like the new surface at Mid Ohio, even though this is my first time here. I've always been fascinated with Grand-Am. Right now, I'm just trying to get rid of all of the habits I learned in NASCAR, because these cars are so different from stock cars. I am lucky that Elliott took me around the track today because there's really nobody better to learn this place from than him."

The Virginia native is also no stranger to other Rolex Series circuits, as Rudd posted a season-best runner-up NEXTEL Cup finish at Infineon Raceway last year. The Infineon circuit was also the site of Rudd's last NASCAR victory, which came in 2002. The Sonoma, Calif. venue will host to the Rolex Series in 2006 for the season's penultimate race on the weekend of August 24-26.

The No. 8 machine is regularly co-driven by Burt and Brian Frisselle, sons of former IMSA champion Brad Frisselle. During a media teleconference earlier today, the Synergy Racing team announced the addition of two-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr. to the driver lineup for next weekend's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen.

THE BIG CLAW AT TALLADEGA

2006-05-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a peek at the construction work going on right now at Talladega Superspeedway. All the asphalt in the turns has been removed and will be completely replaced before the next race in the fall.

More photos when they become available.

DIET BULLETIN!! BIGGER THAN ENRON TRIAL!!

2006-05-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

After 15 days of limiting carb intake, I have lost 7 lbs of fat. That's 7 lbs of Godwin that we'll (hopefully) never see again. I just got off the scale.

I did have a small bowl of elbow noodles tonight. I hope it doesn't make me balloon up.

Man, could I use a big chocolate bar right now.

DAVE MARCIS VISITS

2006-05-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite people in racing was in Daytona Beach for a recent visit, Mr. Dave Marcis (at the left). He says he's more busy today "retired" than he was as NASCAR's leading independent racer.

Good to see you Dave!

Stocks: Anybody get in on the MasterCard IPO today? Sweet deal!

JEREMY MAYFIELD ON PHONE WITH MEDIA...

2006-05-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Mayfield talked to the media today via a teleconference call. Here are some of his remarks:

WHAT’S THE OUTLOOK FOR THE 600 ON SUNDAY AT LMS? “Last Saturday night was the best car I’ve had in a year and a half, two years maybe. The thing was really, really good. We had some trouble on lap 15 or 20. We had a plug wire mess up on us. I had to finish the first 40 lapper without going a lap down on seven cylinders. We were still running fast on seven cylinders, so I knew if we ever got it fixed we were going to be in good shape. We got the thing fixed between the 10-minute break and went back out and obviously got in a wreck with Kasey and stuff, but up until that point we don’t think we ever got a chance to show how good our car really was. We ran a few laps under caution and came back out and a melee happened. We’re real excited about coming into this week. We feel like we’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for in our cars. We feel like now we know the balance and what I need. I feel like the guys will be able to repeat that week after week.”

HAVE YOU LEARNED ANYTHING NEW THIS SEASON? “Yeah, a little bit. It seems like I learn something every week in this business. Whether it’s on track or off the track or during the race you come up with little things that might help. A lot of this becoming a racecar driver, it would be like teaching somebody to play football or basketball. You can teach me all day long and I could go to every camp there is and I’m probably not going to be a professional basketball player. Then you take Michael Jordon for example. I doubt if he could ever become a good racecar driver. You look at it that way and compare it to other sports and you’ll see that talent does play a big role in this deal.” WHAT’S THE OUTLOOK FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? “I think a lot of the tracks coming up are definitely our type of racetracks, and I feel like that after Saturday night, Saturday night put a new light on what’s going on with our team, and I feel good about that. I feel like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and we’ve got the numbers we like and the balance numbers I like. We should be able to run good from here on out. I don’t see any hiccups along the way. That’s something we’ve been searching for all year now, and we hit on it the other night. We feel like we definitely know which way we’re going now.” YOU QUALIFIED FOR THE CHASE THE PAST TWO SEASONS. ARE YOU OUT OF IT THIS YEAR? “I wouldn’t assume that quite yet. You never know. We’re not going down until it’s over. By looking at the way the points are now you could easily count us out, and I wouldn’t blame anybody if they did. We’re not going to race like that. We are going to let it all hang out, which we’ve been doing, but we’re going to turn up the wick a little bit and see what happens. I think it would be cool if we could come back and be a contender for getting in The Chase or even getting back in the top 15 would be a huge accomplishment. I’m not going to say we’re going to be in it, but we’re not going to give up. I can tell you that.”

PORK CHOPS IN THE WOK...

2006-05-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

I cleaned the wok last night and it was still next to the sink in the drying place. On deck Monday night was pork chops. Wok, pork chops. Wok chops?

I figured what the hell. I tossed in some extra virgin olive oil, fired that thing up and went and retrieved the chops (lean, no bone).

I put some rib rub on them and when the wok was good and hot (not toooooo hot) I tossed them chops in there and sizzzzlllleeee.

I cooked them about 5 minutes on each side and served it up with steamed veggies and fresh sliced tomato.

A classic no carb dinner. Dolan, you're a genius! (Does anybody remember that TV ad?)

Wok chops? Doland, you've done it again!

NEXTEL CHALLENGE = STIR FRY

2006-05-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

After watching the Nextel Challenge All Star race Saturday night, I had the urge to make stir fry Sunday night.

Why?

It seemed like a natural to throw a bunch of junk into a round cooking pan and stirring it up. ...

It's actually an easy recipe. This time around I started with 2 lbs of chicken breast, cut into thin strips. Then, I went to the fridge and pulled out an assortment of veggies. Tonight it was Vidalia onions, 1 zuchinni, 1 yellow squash, 1 onion , broccholi and fresh mushrooms.

I tossed it all into my wok with some extra light virgin olive oil and garlic powder (not garlic salt).

Cook it on medium heat and stir it up every 3 to 5 minutes (that's why they call it stir fry).

I also made up a batch of yellow rice.

Yes, yes, yes I fell off the carb wagon today. I had a small serving of rice but the real damage was done this morning when I had 3 pieces of toast. I'm such a bad boy.

See what non=points NASCAR races do to me. This week business as usual.

STOCK PICK FOR MONDAY
Get yourself some shares of Mastercard. It goes on an IPO Monday morning. Buy Buy Buy!!!

NO CARBS & AIN'T TALKING ABOUT INDY!!

2006-05-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

I'm on the low/no carb diet deal....

I have avoided rice, pasta, potato and bread. I'm eating a lot of meat, cheese, salad and eggs. So far, so good.

Before I buy anything at the store, I give the food labels a hard look. You would be surprised at the amount of carbs in 2 lbs of hamburger --- NONE.

I've lost maybe 5 lbs. to date. In order to speed up the process, I need to start walking -- a lot. For Father's Day maybe somebody will get me a Pod so I can listen to tunes as I move through the day.

Tonight: Pork chops and Broccoflower -- a hybrid of broccoli and colliflower. Interesting stuff.

For the truck race tonight, sign me up for hometown hero Mike Skinner. He needs to post a win. Lowe's Motor Speedway would be a good place to do it.

Stocks: Look out for the MasterCard IPO next week. It's gonna be huge.

ALL STAR PICKS AND STOCK CRASH

2006-05-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Humpy Wheeler, president at Lowe's Motor Speedway, has picked Carl Edwards to win Saturday night's Nextel All Star Challenge.

The race is so goofy, anybody can win it. Throw in the new asphalt surface and hard racing tires and I think either 1. Veterans, or 2. Crazy young drivers who don't know any better are the favorites.

The hybrid would be Matt Kenseth, a use-your-head former champion, who can push a car when it needs to be pushed.

I make him my No. 1 pick for Saturday's show.

The other guy I really like is Tony Stewart, who drives the Home Depot sponsored No. 20 Chevy. How sweet would that be for the Home Depot guys for Stewart to win at Lowe's?

Rounding out my top five:
Kyle Busch
Ryan Newman
Jeff Gordon

Where's Jimmie Johnson you ask?

He generally uses the all star race as a practice run for the big prize -- the Coca-Cola 600 a week from Sunday.

Stocks to stock market:
Ouch! I took a beating across the board today. Good news? Thursday and Friday should be nice buying opportunities, if you have any money left.

See you all tomorrow.

GREG BIFFLE'S BURNOUT

2006-05-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

Greg Biffle had a damn good burnout going after winning the Dodge Charger 500 at Darlington. Ironic that Biffle, in a Ford Fusion, would win the Dodge Charger.

Why do car manufacturers sponsor races? Does anybody know the answer to that question??

Photo Courtesy of NASCAR

CROWDING MICHAEL WALTRIP

2006-05-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

The media was all over Michael Waltrip at Darlington when he announced he had signed Dale Jarrett as a Toyota driver in 2007. Michael just doesn't look very happy to me. How about you?

Photo courtesy of NASCAR

HAPPY MOM'S DAY ALL YOU MOMS

2006-05-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to all moms out there -- thank you for carrying us for 9 months! Holy Cow! I couldn't imagine doing that. You should all get a bar of gold for bringing babies into the world. Way to go mom!!

Tonight's dinner: Threw some boneless steaks on the George Foreman grill; steamed some aspharragas (I really should know how to spell that); heated up some ready-made garlic-flavored mashed taters; sauteed mushrooms, garlic and onions. It's a meal!

I am now on the low-carb deal. I eat only one carb a day (bread, rice, noodles, potato). So far so good. I have lost about 5 lbs. Now I need to start walking to burn more calories. One step at a time!!!

Hope you all have a good Momma's day!

DENNY'S SMOKE AFTER WINNING DARLINGTON BUSCH RACE

2006-05-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

Denny Hamlin kicks up a little smoke after his win Friday night at Darlington Raceway.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR

DALE JUNIOR'S PLUME @ RICHMOND

2006-05-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

This is the best tire burn I've seen in two years. Dale Earnhardt Jr. must have been pretty darn happy.
Photo Courtesy of NASCAR

M:I:III

2006-05-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

Went and saw Mission Impossible III with my kid Casey. I give it 3 stars out of a possible 4. Lots of action. Very realistic.

Most of all, the popcorn was good and the theater was a chill box, nice since it was 92 degrees in Central Florida this afternoon.

I talked to one of my buddies at DEI today and he says, "Look out for that 8 car. Now that they have a win, it's Katie-bar-the-door."

Dale Jr. could be a real threat in the next three stops -- Darlington and back to back weekends at Humpy's Place up there in Concord, NC.

Stocks?

Don't forgot about Brown & Brown (BRO). Buy it like popcorn at the movies!

Yours Truly,

Me

GODWIN'S DAY: WET LINE, NO FISH

2006-05-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

I needed a break today, so I went to the Flagler Beach Pier for solace -- and that's about all I got. It was a picture perfect day (as a matter of fact, I took a few pictures). The sky was partly cloudy. The water was clear and blue. I saw two big rays, which popped the lines of several fishermen around me, several schools of mullet. They were catching blues, pompano and even a cobia.

Me?

Nothing. I lost a shrimp to a hungry crab. We were out there a good four hours and I got no action. Oh well.

I forgot the race was tonight. That was a pleasant surprise. Something to watch tonight.

Looking for a stock pick this week? I got a good one for you boys and girls. Brown & Brown, a small cap insurance company, with a solid growth trend. It's under the symbol BRO. They are having their annual shareholders meeting Wednesday morning at 9 and I'm guessing the stock will pop that afternoon.

BUY BUY BUY BUY!!!!!

Oh, and bye.

I DUMPED POWERWAVE; LISTENED TO KASEY

2006-05-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

Oh, the power of earnings conference calls.

I learned a big lesson today kids. The Powerwave conference call was at 5 p.m. and the stock dropped in aftermarket trading.

Oh, shitobeezeee!!!! That's what I thought to myself. I figured I was gonna take a 10-15% loss on this stock when I bought it last week and it kept dropping, dropping, dropping.....

I tuned into the conference call via the Internet, and much to my surprise as the CEO and CFO were talking the after-market price started to go up. Hmmm....

I have never traded after-market and after reading about 15 disclaimers, I jumped on the PWAV gravey train and sold my lot at 11.90. Not bad. Actually made a tiny bit of money. Tiny. Still, that's better than suffering a loss.

Keeps the heart pumping.

Kasey Kahne was on the conference call and I didn't ask a question, because he answered the question I had right off the bat. Here is the transcript from the first part of the call:

Kasey, first off, have to ask you how you're doing after that rough ride Monday at Talladega and are you all set to go for this weekend?
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to Richmond and getting to go out and test tomorrow, we're going to do some testing tomorrow for Charlotte. It should be a good week. We just got in the wrong spot in that crash. They decided to go five wide on lap nine, and I think it was, you know, way too early to do anything like that. I don't even know if you're supposed to go five wide there ever such that, you know, you just lose air on your race car and stuff. There's a few guys that decided to do it and we took -- we were one of the 14 cars that were in the wreck. I just got hit in the door, and it basically knocked the wind out of me. And I just needed a minute to catch my breath because of asking for a minute they thought I was hurt when really I was just asking them if I could just, you know, just give me a minute and then we'll be fine. But you know (inaudible) said I was going to the hospital and different things which wasn't true, I never did and don't plan on going. I feel great.
Q. Are you feeling okay today, are you sore at all, and have you been cleared to test?
KASEY KAHNE: I feel good. I'm not sore at all. Actually my left hip and my shoulder and my elbow, they are just a little bit, you know, bruised just from hitting something or getting hit hard. I mean, that's it. So I feel really good and I've been a lot sore after other wrecks. I need to get cleared tomorrow, I'm meeting with Dr. Petty in the morning and I talked to him this morning, everything sounds good and just get clear before I can test. Yeah, I have to get cleared first.
Q. So there's a possibility you could test tomorrow?
KASEY KAHNE: I will test tomorrow.
Q. Okay. Do you worry at all that that's going to leave you too sore for Richmond?
KASEY KAHNE: No, I'm actually not that sore at all. I'm just a little bit sore, which you get when you wreck, and I've been a lot sorer in my racing career and raced that way. It's not a big deal at all.

TALLADEGA REDEAUX

2006-04-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

Darn old Mother Nature. Now I got to run to Daytona Speedway and talk to David Green and John Andretti, who will be tire testing Monday, then shoot back home to watch the end of the race.

Mercy! It's gonna be busy.

I stand by my top five.

Tomorrow: Meatloaf recipe (if I can find the time!)

STILL SICK FROM MR. FROSTY

2006-04-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

I'm still reeling at the Microsoft downturn. Can anybody cheer me up??? I feel like a kid that didn't get toys for Christmas.

I believe when the stock rebounds a bit, I'm gonna sell off and start buying Apple.

Top picks for Talladega:
1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
2. Tony Stewart
3. Mark Martin
4. Jimmie Johnson
5. Jeff Gordon

Good luck with your pools.

GODWIN READY TO JUMP OFF ROOF

2006-04-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Oh Lord,
I took a beating today in the market. I was heavy into Microsoft, which tanked after missing its numbers yesterday. I lost $3 a share. Oh, the pain.

And just for good measure, Sirius gave me a little groin kick and Powerwave poked me in the eye. All in all, not a good day to be trading. Today wiped out all my gains over the last six weeks. Ouchers!!!

I'll reboot and regroup Monday and try to get some back but right now the dirtiest four letter word in my vocabulary right now is MSFT.

GODWIN ASKS; JIMMIE JOHNSON ANSWERS

2006-04-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

These are the questions I asked Nextel Cup driver Jimmie Johnson during a national telephone news conference on Tuesday:

IN ADDITION TO YOURSELF, WHO ARE THE TOP 4 DRIVERS WHO UNDERSTAND DRAFTING?
"Thank you. The No. 8 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.), the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon), the No. 20 (Tony Stewart) and……I've got a long list. More than four."

OKAY, GIVE ME THE TOP 10
"Okay I would say the No. 2 (Kurt Busch), Elliott Sadler is very smart with it as well. Michael is very, very good with the drafting. McMurray does a great job in the draft. He's always up there in the draft."

ARE THERE GUYS WHO ARE REALLY GOOD AT DRAFTING, BUT ON ANY OTHER WEEKEND YOU DON'T GIVE THEM MUCH THOUGHT?
"Oh definitely. The plate racing is a different type of racing. There are guys who really specialize in it and maximize the four opportunities a year they get. It doesn't make me look at them any differently as a driver; we all have our strong points and strong tracks. There are certain guys that come to the plate race and you know you're going to have to deal with them for the win."

WHEN YOU WON THE DAYTONA 500 THIS YEAR, DID YOU REGARD THAT AS A MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT?"Oh, without a doubt. It had been on my goal sheet for a while to win a plate race. It's so tough. When I look back at the 500, there are so many different things that could have gone on (like) help from a different car and being in the right lane. There are so many variables out of your control that you can't do anything about. I've been second or third on the last lap numerous times and come back around and finish fifth or seventh because I've made the wrong me. At the 500, everything came together. There were some smart decisions on my part, but a lot of racing luck and a lot of decisions made by other guys around me cycled me to the front at the right time and I got the win. I know I had a great car and I did a great job and everything worked itself out, but there are no guarantees that if you have the best driver and the best car that you're going to win that race."

KEVIN HARVICK?

2006-04-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Kevin Harvick finally broke through and won a race. Good for Richard Childress Racing. I think it's funny the bossman was in Africa hunting and wasn't there to see Harvick sweep the NASCAR weekend at Phoenix.

Just taking it nice and easy this Sunday. Hope you enjoy yours.

Gman

GODWIN'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET (FOOD CATEGORY)

2006-04-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

I'll tell you my dirty little secret in the kitchen. It's called having a Schwan's delivery guy show up at your door every other week.

This is an unpaid endoresement for Schwan's, which every adult (male or female) should have in their cooking arsenal.

Tonight, I'm taking the Schwan's shortcut. I'm heating up some ribblet deals and they are some kind of good.

All of their stuff is high quality, frozen food. Meats, veggies and complete dinners. And Schwan's has some of the best ice cream on earth. A gallon of ice cream in the freezer is like a little tub of happiness.

Every other week I buy pre-cooked spicy chicken wings, BBQ ribs or pork chops, and various other freezer stuffers.

There's always a downside, right. The downside with Schwan's is that the food is a little pricey, but hell, they bring it right to your door. I don't buy more than $40 or $50 worth with each visit by the man in the big, yellow & blue truck, but nights like this (feeling kinda lazy) it's nice to know I can heat up some finger licking good BBQ ribs. Timer goes off in 20 minutes. MMMMMmmmmm... that's good!!!

HOw did you do in the stock market this week? I made a couple of bills and re-invested the profits into CBS, which had a nice little end of the day pop today (Friday). Slowly but surely building up that portfolio. I wish somebody had told me about this 20 years ago. Man, it's some kind of fun.

Back to the kitchen to prep a side dish --Thai noodles. Sounds exotic? It's one of those deals in a bag you mix with water and heat. No problemola here my friend.

The race at Phoenix Saturday night? I like the Busch boys. How funny would it be if they crashed each other out while fighting for the win?

Others to watch: Tony Stewart and Dale EArnhardt Jr. And for whatever reason, I like Ken Schrader this week. He may be a big spoiler. I don't know. It's just a feeling.

TONY STEWART AND WALL STREET ZING

2006-04-18T19:14:00.000-07:00

Wow!

What a day on Wall Street! I bet Hurley's Pub was packed tonight with traders who had pockets stuffed with money. Oh man, I wish I had been there today. Since I started trading in March, 2005, I have never seen such a pop. 195 points up on the Dow. S&P 500 topping 1,300.

What am I looking at?

Anything in the energy sector. As crude oil prices head up, anything to do with energy is going to follow. I got Energy Partners (EPL) and I decided today I'm gonna ride my shares a few days and see if I can hit a gusher.

I would also look at tech. I think Powerwave is due for another run. That's PWAV for you folks that play the game at home.

Time to make some money. Crazy money!!

AND.....

I talked to Tony Stewart today. Got one question in on a national conference call. Here's the question and answer:

ME: Gibbs Racing, have you seen the whole team elevate this year?
TONY STEWART: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's just amazing sometimes. I miss Bobby as a teammate. Bobby was a huge, huge, huge leader in our organization the whole time I was there.
You know, it just shows a lot of times chemistry-wise it's amazing what happens when you change the chemistry a little bit. Having two young guys come in that have fresh ideas, that have fresh attitudes, see what we've been able to do so far this year, how well we work together, it's really an exciting time for us at the shop.
I feel like we've really taken our program to another level. It's not been because of me; it's been because of the two young guys coming in, the attitude -- their attitude has kind of spread through the shop. It's really just kind of given everybody a new fresh attitude and approach to what we're doing this year.

NASCAR GREEN BEANS

2006-04-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

In honor of NASCAR taking Sunday off for Easter (how thoughtful), I am going to share with you one of my favorite recipes, and throw in Monday's HOT, HOT, HOT, stock pick, because I enjoy each and every one of you out there in CyberLand.

Today, we'll celebrate with Phat Daddy Green Beans, long a tradition in the Kelly Household on Easter and Thanksgiving.

You need:
2 pounds of green or pole beans
"Fatback" or thick slicked bacon
Garlic salt (yes, I am condoning the use of garlic salt for this recipe)
One big ol' crock pot

First, you get your teen-age girl to snap the ends off the beans. For those of you without a teen-age girl -- CONGRATULATIONS!!! (just kidding, honey). Rinse those beans off real good under cold water and put them to the side for a minute. Next, either cut up your fatback into small cu bes or take 4 slices of thick sliced bacon and spread them at the bottom on your crock-o-pot. Why at the bottom, you ask????
Because fat floats to the surface of water and all those fat juices will pass through your greenbeans and make them incredibly good (not good for you, but good tasting).
Now toss in those snapped beans, fill the crock with cold water and get the bigger shaker of garlic salt and shake it at least six times or until it looks like the top of the water has a layer of snow on it.

Put the cover on the crock pot and turn that baby on high and it let it cook all night and all day Easter (I guess you can use this recipe next Easter because you are wwwwaaayyyy tooooo late for this Easter).

Cook those beans until they are tender. I usually turn the crock pot down from high to low the next morning.

I'm telling you, it's like stepping into Aunt Bea's dining room on Easter day in Mayberry.

"Aunt Beaaaaa, them is good beans!" Andy Taylor will say.

Bonapettite!

As for Monday's hot stock pick, I'll actually give you a two-fer, the two I'm looking at.

The first is Energy Partners (EPL) and the second is the NY Stock Exchange (NYX). I'm counting on both having a good run this week, 10 to 15% gain over the next several days.

Buy on rumor, sell on fact. You should make enough money to buy enough beans to feed the neighborhood next Easter.

I'll see you at the ticker tomorrow.

2006-04-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to all!

GODWIN'S GOT NOTHIN'

2006-04-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

The day was uneventful.

Went to Lowe's to buy a hedge trimmer. It's still in the car.

Washed the car. (I hope water didn't leak on the trimmer)

Made hamburgers.

I love being on vacation from work.

I guess this is how Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr. spend their idle time. I should have been a NASCAR driver. I'll shoot for that in my next life.

Maybe I'll have more to share tomorrow (which is actually already today)

GODWIN'S PREDICTION: BIG FIGHT IN PHOENIX

2006-04-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

The next time Sterling Marlin and Ryan Newman see each other, there's gonna be a big ass fight.

You read it here first. Tuesday, April 11, 2006, @ 6:45 pm

Newman hates to be crashed out. Marlin hates when people talk about his hairpiece. This could be the battle of the ages.

Next quick dinner recipe: Kelly's Surprise

GODWIN'S SPRING CLEANING

2006-04-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day and I got spring cleaning fever.

It started innocently enough -- just mop the kitchen floor (two teen-agers, two dogs -- you get the picture).

That led to mopping all the floors. They looked good, so I decided to vaccuum. But there were some spots (dogs, kids), so I got out the steam cleaner and did my office and parts of the livingroom and dining room.

After mopping and vacuuming, I ended the session with a quick dusting. Whew!

Sterling Marlin wears a hairpiece???? You learn something new every day.

GODWIN WEATHER REPORT

2006-04-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's raining like crazy outside. Lights are flickering. Lightning flashing in the sky. Satellite up and down. I know it's bad because the dogs are under the bed quivering.

After we were evacuated in 1998 because of wildfires. That sucked. So, now, bring on the rain. Rain better than fire!

Went fishing today. Caught a small trout off the Flagler Pier. Tossed the little guy back in the water. I still smell like dead shrimp.

I need a beer.

2006-04-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

Here's another angle from my "one on one" interview with NASCAR vice chairman Bill France. I'm in the blue shirt and ballcap. France was pretty funny. He said building a racetrack in New York City was tough. "It's not like trying to build one in Bunnell, Fla." Bunnell is a little town north of Daytona Beach.

URGENT: GODWIN'S DOG BITES GODWIN

2006-04-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

My dog Jessica turned on its master this morning.

I went to answer the door, and she was all hyped up like she had lapped up a gallon of Mountain Dew. She was barking, jumping, snarling, you know, crap like that, stuff that dogs do when they get pissed off about something.

The guy at the door was delivering me some spring water. Now, you should know this about me: I live off of spring water. Spring water and coffee. I could not make it through the day without having an ample supply of those liquids in the house. And not just any coffee. I drink the Dunkin Donuts regular ground. I can't drink homemade coffee with supermarket brands. Yuck!

At one point I would only make coffee at home with spring water. Lord, that cost a fortune. I had to cut that out after about 3 months.

Did we stray off subject?

So anyway, I answer the door, try to slip out with keeping the dog at bay, and the little bitch (that is correct termology for a female dog and perfectly acceptable in this use) lunged at me and broke skin on my left calf. OUCH! Bad dog!! Bad, bad dog!!

She has never done that before and we had words about it after the incident. We didn't talk most of the day. Finally, after peeing in the rug at my workplace, she came looking for a head scratch. We have reached a detente' and I hope it never happens again. If it does, there's gonna be big trouble.

My top five for Texas: Bet the house on Greg Biffle. If he has flat or gets into the wall, the next four are: Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and Junior.

J. Gordon is a longshot because he's never won at Texas. Weird huh? Is that weirder than getting bitten by your own dog? I think not.

Clear high, clear low

2006-04-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

This is a photo from the 1970 Firecracker 400 victory lane. Donnie Allison on that day. I'm the kid in the blue shirt under the Daytona sign. My how time flies!

GODWIN GOES DOWN THE CRAPPER

2006-04-04T17:44:00.000-07:00

First things first. The photo above is courtesy of Ford Motor Co. They found it in their archives for me. Thank you Ford Folks!

Next, how about those Gators! Somebody made some money if they picked UF to go all-the-way. Nice.

It wasn't so bright on The Street.

Sad day boys and girls. I went and bought me some Powerwave (PWAV) and the thing sank to the bottom of the crapper faster than a penny. It dropped so fast this morning, I could not even sell it. Now I'm gonna have to do that agonizing waiting game and hopes it comes back up a point (maybe 2) before I sell it to minimize my loss.

You just never know kids. You just never know.

I was so distraught, I went to the kitchen and cooked dinner. Again, this is a no-brainer dinner the most dumb-assed husband could put together. I call it "slapping meat around" because there is little or not thought involved in the process.

Got some nice, lean pork chops from Harris Grocery (located in Bunnell, FL, great place to buy meat products). Hit them with a couple of shots of hot sauce and some garlic powder (NOT garlic salt), and put them under the broiler, 7 minutes on each side. Broiled up some french fries and steamed some broccholi and viola! Dinner is served!

No racing news to speak of except this, which I thought was neat:

DAVIDSON, N.C.- This weekend, NASCAR Busch Series Rookie David Gilliland, driver of the #84 Clay Andrews Racing Chevrolet, will be on one of motorsports biggest stage. Gilliland will be competing during Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in front of thousands of fans. Meanwhile, Gilliland’s high school golf teammate, Tiger Woods, will be competing on another national stage, The Masters in Augusta, Georgia.

“I guess it’s a pretty big weekend for both of us,” said Gilliland. “I’m preparing for another big step in my career at Texas. Tiger is looking to place himself in the record books again. I’m sure we’re both excited for different reasons this weekend.”

Gilliland was a high school teammate to Woods growing up in California. Gilliland went to school with Woods from sixth grade up through his sophomore year at Western High School before Gilliland moved. Gilliland played two years of Varsity Golf with Woods.

“I was never his partner on the course,” recalled Gilliland. “You know, I was playing golf for a different reason. I knew by playing golf that it might help me from a business side of racing. That was my whole purpose of being on the course. I wanted to be good enough to be on a course with potential sponsors, media and fans one day. It’s really why I first started to play. I’m sure Tiger had a different reason to be out there then I did.”

“It was still cool,” continued Gilliland. “He set a bunch of records back in high school. I think everyone knew he was going to be good back then. He was good at different things, like ping pong. Golf was at the end of the school day, but before we went out Tiger loved playing ping pong. Yeah, he beat me at that too (smiling).

“It’s one of the reasons that I quit playing golf. I want to be the best at everything I do. I’m a winner. I want to win this weekend. I want to win championships. I just couldn’t beat Tiger at golf or ping pong. He was winning everything and shattering records too. It was frustrating. But, I guess if I can do on the track what Tiger has done on the golf course I’ll be pretty successful. He set the bar pretty high in his sport, and hopefully I can do the same in mine. We’re not on the same team anymore, but I know we’re both chasing success this weekend.”

Clay Andrews Racing is building a reputation as one of the fastest-growing teams in the Busch Series. They have acquired a 28,000 state-of-the-art race shop in Statesville, N.C., and owner, Clay Andrews, has appointed winning personnel. Motorsports professional Rich Gautreau is the general manager and veteran crew chief Billy Wilburn lead Gilliland in 2006. Former Nextel Cup winner Jerry Nadeau serves as the team’s consultant. The team is running a partial schedule in 2006 while looking to secure sponsorship for the long-term future.

-- Courtesy of Jeff Dennison; Moore Consulting Group

OK, I'm out.

GODWIN MONDAY: PLAYING NICE

2006-04-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

The boys played nice Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. There was bumping and banging on the track but no cussing or fighting or pushing after the race.

And, what in the world happened to Jeff Gordon on the last restart? I thought he'd go up there and slap Tony Stewart around. Instead, his Chevy looked like it racing on Vasoline. He was a no-go on the restart.

On to Texas Motor Speedway. I've got to dust off my 10-gallon hat. As far as tonight's game, I like UCLA but I have a feeling those Gators are gonna win it. Is there anybody out there in the universe that picked those two to be in the final???

This was a eat out/take out day. Went to Panera's for lunch. You got one of those in neighborhood? Boy, that's fancy lunch eating. Plus, they have free WiFi (at least the Panera's in Ormond Beach "The Birthplace of Speed." Then, it was Taco Bell for dinner. I feel like a traitor to all those folks out there looking for a good a home-cooked meal. I'll rebound tomorrow.

The team that controls the boards will win the game tonight. That's a Noah-brainer.

Gman, out!

GODWIN'S STINK: Martinsville picks

2006-04-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

My top five for the Nextel Cup race at Martinsville Speedway, well, this is real guesswork for me. For whatever reason, I like Bobby Labonte in today's race. Maybe because he starts 13th?? Jeff Gordon has won like 6 of the last 9 or something ungodly like that. Labonte, Gordon, then rounding out my top five would be Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman and Scott Riggs, who is my darkhorse/sleeper pick.

But, like I said before, I got no feel for Martinsville, that crazy little paper clip shaped track. I'm watching the truck race now and they are slipping and sliding all over creation.

Stock Market: I took my little profit from Apple but I think it's gonna go up five or six or seven points this week, so I'm gonna buy back in and keep my fingers crossed Steve Job posts some big numbers when they do their quarter report at the end of the week. Come on Steve-oh!

And, Powerwave looks like a real buying opportunity. Just think about it -- you got all this new wireless hardware floating around and they are updating the electronics on a daily basis. PWAV owns most of those towers out there with the transmitting do-dads on them.

Gonna go get a Philly Cheese steak sandwich for dinner and watch Florida lose to George Mason. Should be fun.

See ya on the flip side.

GODWIN GETS BITE OF APPLE

2006-03-30T16:50:00.000-08:00

Listen, I am not bragging.

I picked up some Apple Computer stock last Friday at 60.60. It dipped all the way down to 57-something by Tuesday and I was ready to jump off the roof. Wednesday it bounced back past my purchase price. Today it's at 62.50.

I think it's gonna keep edging up with the quarter earnings report due Thursday (I think). Steve Job is gonna blow away the numbers, the stock is gonna get a big pop that day or the next. I'm trying to decide whether to sell tomorrow (Friday) and take a little profit then jump back in and let it ride again next week, or just stay on the horse all next week.

Decisions, decisions! I'm leaning on taking my profit off the table and that will pretty much get me back even after the Tim Hortons disaster. OUCH! I'm 1 for 2 on IPOs this year. Cleaned up on NYX, but took a slapshop on that donut chain.

All those folks playing the short game, I guess got steamrolled by Apple this week. No ill will here for the shorts. I'm sure they have made a pile of money since February when AAPL started its slow decent from its high water mark.

Wife picked up a roasted chicken tonight for dinner, so no recipe inspirations. Not much going on in the world of NASCAR. Kurt Busch will you please call me!

NASCAR Got It Right

2006-03-28T18:47:00.000-08:00

NASCAR today fined Jeff Gordon $10K for shoving Matt Kenseth on pit road after the Nextel Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. That is pocket money for a guy like Gordon, so it was no big deal on the grand scale of things.

It made for good TV, nobody got hurt and Gordon got a little splash of "bad boy" added to his personality. I've heard people say Gordon is made of plastic because things don't seem to bother him, but he can get upset like the rest of us.

I thought all this goody-two-shoes stuff about him in the early and mid and late 1990s was fabricated, but the fact is, he's a pretty nice guy. It only took me about 12 years to figure that out, and I've interviewed him like 50 times.

His push Sunday is probably the most abrasive thing you'll ever see him do to another driver.

As for stocks..... I need the shorts to get off Apple. You shorts need to get what you can until April 6, because I think the company is going to report BIG for the quarter.

As for cooking, how about this stir fry dish:
First, if you don't have one, get a wok. Now run down to the grocery store and get a couple pounds of chicken tenderloin and grab some of your favorite veggies. My last stir fry I used a bunch of regular cabbage, onion, mushrooms, a green pepper and a tomato that was close to being rotten (I kid you not). I also used fresh garlic and a couple of hits of hot sauce, but those are optional.

Set the wok on medium heat, add in some olive oil (I like light olive oil), and toss all the ingredients in there at the same time. Put the cover over it and come back and stir it every 10 minutes or so. I think my last batch took about 25 minutes to cook. DON'T USE SALT! Salt robs the chicken of all juices. Sucks the juice right out of it.

I also cook up a cup of white rice which only takes 15 minutes to prepare. This takes a little timing, so don't let your idiot husband do this dish. This does take a little effort.

In summation: NASCAR got it right with Gordon, Apple will surge back in less than 2 weeks and don't let your husband do stir fry because it takes some effort in the kitchen.

Who said that? Godwin said that!

Godwin Is Right! Busch Wins!

2006-03-27T14:11:00.000-08:00

Hey, I got it right! I nailed it! Kurt Busch wins at Bristol! How many of you had that in your pool?

How about Jeff Gordon pushing Matt Kenseth after the race? I have never seen Jeff "get physical" before. That was cool! Gordon was smart. He went over there to Kenseth with his helmet on. No wonder he's a 4-time Cup champion.

I don't think Gordon will get much more than a hand slap from NASCAR this week, if anything. A push, a shove, no cuss words, no threats. It was no big deal.

Stock news:
I'm still burning over my Tim Hortons IPO failure. It dropped another dollar today. Determined to get that money back, I made a few bucks on Pacific Ethanol today and now I think Apple is ready for a breakout week. I hear there are a ton of people out there playing Apple short. I hope to break their hearts this week. I think Apple goes up to 65 by week's end. Go Steve Job!

Cooking update:
Gonna share my favorite stir fry dish with you real soon. Again, it's easy to make, something hubby can do -- if you can get his fat ass off the couch for 15 minutes. That's all it takes.

2006-03-25T15:14:00.000-08:00

Oh, the tasty shrimp of my dreams!

Godwin's Steamed Shrimp

2006-03-25T14:44:00.000-08:00

Drats! Snowing in the Tri-County Area. This delay is ruining my afternoon Busch Series nap. I have actually been productive today, catching up on family paperwork matters, such as paying some bills, getting the checkbook up to snuff, etc., etc.

I don't pay much attention to NASCAR's "Second Series" anyway. I root for the gray haired Green boy. Jeff? No. Mark? No. David? Bingo! He is one of the greatest guys I have ever met. You can be a good racer and a nice person. He proves it.

My top five for Sunday: Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Elliott Sadler and Mark Martin.

They are tossing snowballs on pit road, so I will lob you a very special steamed shrimp recipe, a true original from the Kelly Kitchen ("Stop your bitchin' cause it's from the Kelly Kitchen")

I got three shrimp eaters in my house. The boy won't eat the saltwater critters (he did once time, but it cost a friend of mine $50, who paid up on a dare). So, I get 1 1/2 pounds of FRESH and WILD shrimp that equals about half a pound per person with daddy getting a few extra. If you can't get it fresh and wild, don't get it. Frozen shrimp sucks. The freezing process sucks the good taste right out of a shrimp.

Every place in these here parts sells their fresh and wild shrimp in plastic bags, so I make this as easy as possible on myself -- I dump all the seasons and spices and such right into the bag with the shrimp and shake it up. I use a good dose of Crab Boil and about half as much garlic powder. I have been known to thrown in seven or eight fresh garlic cloves (is that the right term?) and hit the whole bag with a shot of hot sauce. Once you got all the ingredients in there, shake it like you mean it!

I let it sit in the bag for about 15 minutes then toss them into a steamer. DO NOT BOIL! You steam shrimp. You don't boil shrimp. You steam the shrimp about 5-6 minutes or until they are as pink as the Easter Bunny's nose. (Huh?) OK, until they look pink.

Serve with drawn butter or shrimp cocktail sauce and some cole slaw and that's a meal my friends. I did that last night and it was mmmmmmm........ GOOD!

Godwin & The Donut Hole

2006-03-24T16:23:00.000-08:00

There was money to be made in Tim Hortons, if you had the insider trade deal going. It opened at 23-something and took an immediate jump to 32-something. I stupidly thought it would keep climbing, but........

Needlesstosay, Horton Heard A Who. That was me saying, "What the F*****????" And in the spread of like 3 minutes I lost about 150 smackers. Ouch! When you are micro investing, that's like a month setback. I'll get it back next week, but I just hate losing a trade. It gets me aggravated to high heaven! One of these days I'll have enough in the account to get in on the inside of these IPOs. It's just easy money -- off smucks like me today. OUCH!

Racing?

I talked to Robby Gordon on the phone. He was driving from Charlotte to Bristol and he was very upbeat. "There's snow on the ground, and that means, I'm in the race." After the top 35 got their positions after today's snow out, the remaining eight positions went to the highest ranked drivers in points this year and of course Terry Labonte, who got the past champion's provisional. I'll have more Robby Gordon thoughts Sunday night, since I did the interview on company time. They get first shot at my stuff.

I am looking forward to my racing nap Sunday. Game plan: watch the first 50 laps, fall off to sleep then come back to life with about 75 to go. With my DVR system, if something happens, I can go back and take a peek at it.

I got a great shrimp recipe that I will share with you this weekend. It's so easy, even your half-assed husband who is anchored in the easy chair can make this and feel like a professional chef. I kid you not.

Until tomorrow.....

Godwin This!

2006-03-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Repost
Tim Hortons is going public Friday and I'm gonna belly up to the coffee and donut bar and buy as much as my tiny speck of portfolio can handle. I'll let you know how that works out! Pass the cream and sugar!

Warren Buffet, you know, Jimmy Buffet's uncle, won't have to worry about me out tradin' him for another 10 years. It's gonna take me that long to get the hang of this deal. I can't get in on the intial sale of Tim Hortons stock, so hopefully, it will have a nice run Friday.

My youngest kid is in a school beauty pageant tonight. She's a sophomore and knows she doesn't have a chance to win but thinks it will be a fun experience. That's me and the stock market. I don't know what I'm doing, but it is fun to participate.

NASCAR, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jarrett, them Pettys and the rest will have to wait for me tomorrow.

I'll tell you how it goes tonight. Keep your fingers crossed! Does Harvard care about high school beauty pageant winners? If so, "Go Baby Go!".

I Feel Like Hell

2006-03-22T17:35:00.000-08:00

To all my stock car/stock buying/chicken grilling brothers and sisters, I'm a little under the weather. After years of BEING the pain in the neck, I now HAVE a pain in the neck. It goes back to April 1, 2004 (no, this is no joke) when my wife and I were sitting at a red light and a woman from England smashed into the left side of my rear bumper. My head was tossed around like a rag doll. Anyway, since then, I've had more and more neck/neuro problems. To make a long story, longer, the last two days have been tough on the the old man. Neck hurts, head hurts. So I haven't been in the best of moods. If you post, please be kind.

I haven't paid much attention to racing the last two days, but I'm supposed to chit chat with one Robby Gordon on Friday. Apparently, the number seven is very important to him. I'll find out more about it and tell you Sunday night. This is an interview I'm doing for my regular job at the News-Journal in sunny Daytona Beach, FL.

Not much else happening. I'm gonna put my big, melon head back on the pillow.

Ta-ta!

Let The Best Man Win

2006-03-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

Kasey Kahne?

Good job young man. I never thought a Dodge, either the 2004 or '06 model, would be a winner this early in the season. I guess those boys at Dodge R&D have found a little something something to make the Charger competitive.

A win from the pole?

Never thought it would happen. And how about Carl Edwards? All the good luck he had last year has him backed into the bad luck corner.

Good job picking Bobby Labonte, dufus.
Yeah, Labonte was one of my top five on Saturday. It's too bad his engine went KABOOM! His teammate, Kyle Petty, was solid top 15. Things are looking up at Level Cross, NC. I think those boys are starting to show some life.

Back to regular work Tuesday. Uhg. But before I go, a shout out to my accountant Danno, who worked his magic once again, plus gave me a stock tip. Unfortunately, I can't find the little piece of paper he wrote it on. I'll let you know when I find it.

12 month pick of the day: Sirius Satellite Radio. Up to 4 million subscribers and growing like a fungus between the toes of a gorilla. Positive cash flow expected by 4Q. Take a look at it.

Until tomorrow............

Where Is Everybody?

2006-03-18T13:44:00.000-08:00

Well, that's a bummer. I create the World's One Billionth Blog and nobody cared enough to join me in celebration. Still, I will keep my promise made yesterday. I will give you five drivers for the Nextel Cup race today at Atlanta. Remember, I'm not there, I am here (to the ladies at the Pink Pony: sorry, no extra cash pouring in from the Sunshine State this weekend. I'll try to double my efforts with my next visit).

Anyway, my Top Five Guys in today's race. Are you paying attention???
1. Jimmie Johnson (he's just too hot to ignore)
2. Greg Biffle (ready to win)
3. Bobby Labonte (how about a feel good story)
4. Ryan Newman (fastest driver in NASCAR today)
5. Kevin Harvick (this guy really needs some wins)

And a darkhorse pick: Joe Nemechek (nice guy, due for a good break)

Just to pat myself on the back, I picked Toyota to win the Atlanta Truck race and guess what? "The Onion" came through for me. Todd Bodine. I appreciate him making me look like I know what I'm talking about here.

As for the chicken wing recipe, here goes:
Get some Texas Pete Wing Sauce and dump about half a bottle over a couple of dozen whole chicken wings. Now dump a bunch of garlic power -- not GARLIC SALT -- garlic powder in there and let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours. Throw those wings on a hot grill and you got yourself some kind of good to eat. AAAEEEE!!! (That's Cajun callin' for "That's good!") Now to be fair, my buddy Ken gave me half the recipe (the wing sauce). I came up with the garlic powder part.

You got some solid pool picks for the NASCAR race and an easy BBQ recipe. What more do you want??? For Godsakes, I spent the whole day (OK, 4 hours) doing yard work. I'm one old, tired dude right now. I need a Bud Light and I need Duke to keep winning in the tournament (know what I mean??)

Remember. This is a work in progress. I'll be covering many topics as we go along. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., stocks, NASCAR Nextel Cup, cookin', understanding females and a lively discussion on the difficulties of having one foot bigger than the other.

2006-03-18T13:33:00.000-08:00

That's me, in the middle of the mob, with the cap on, getting a "one on one" (huh?) interview with Bill France.

One Billionth Blog Created Today

2006-03-17T19:08:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here watching the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway (I'm not there, I'm here, in my livingroom) and I had my laptop, well, on my lap, and I decided this would be the perfect time to create the World's One Billionth Blog. Topic: Racing (and other things that float through my brain, that is, if I don't fall asleep during the telecast).

Anyway, it's good to be here. I hope Godwin Kelly's World Of Racing and Other Oddities becomes a good Cyberspace Neighbor (man, a whole lotta mailboxes on this street). Racing is self explained. The oddities will range from backyard BBQ recipes to blond jokes and to the stocks I'm trading that day, most you will surely avoid!!!!

I will tell you that as I type this I am fully clothed and sober. You may not be that lucky on my posting.

Who will win tonight's race? A Toyota of course. Who will win Sunday's Nextel Cup race? Let me know what you think. I will return Saturday and give some names so you can score in Sunday's pool.

The dog needs to go out. I'll be back tomorrow to continue this Internet Journey with a really good chicken wing recipe. I just thought of that while watching Mike Skinner's truck spit up a ball of flame. Mike's OK. He looks a little pissed off. I would be a little pissed off too if my Tundra had just been charred.