GBU: The Sprint AllStar Race!
The Good: Credit NASCAR with going back to the final 10 lap segment. That was some of the most exciting racing there’s been all season. A big congrats to Tony Stewart. He did what he’s been doing all season, putting himself into position to win races, and it was finally his turn. It was also great seeing Ryan Newman waiting for him in Victory Lane. You can tell that they are both enjoying themselves and have become great teammates. I think bot of the can win championships with Stewart-Haas.
The Bad: I really thought the race was kind of boring until the last segment. It seems that on these intermediate tracks the if you get up front you can drive a way from the pack for a while.
RCR also had a dismal night. It really seems that the Childress program is in big trouble and needs to make a bunch more changes. It’s really surprising since they have been so good for the past couple of seasons. The good news is they still have several drivers in Chase contention, so they shouldn’t panic too much.
The Ugly: Well, it really wasn’t very ugly unless you hate Kyle Busch, but the way he passed on the outside time and time again was amazing. I’ve said it before and will say it again, the man can just wheel! What was ugly was the number of people online blaming Kyle Busch for the wreck that took out Jeff Gordon. There really was no blame there, just three cars running where there’s only room for two, and anyone who really understands racing knows that those where three guys running for a million bucks, so non of them were going to give an inch.
Quick Hit: From Shaq on Twitter.
THE_REAL_SHAQ: “If con is the opposite of pro, then is congress the opposite of progress Things dat make u go uumh Did I spell uumh right?”
Shaq, I couldn’t have said it better myself!
The Wanda Sykes White House Correspondence Dinner: We All Miss the Point
So now people are up in arms over Wanda Sykes “performance” at the White House Correspondence dinner. In case you missed it, she said some stupid things in the guise of humor directed at Rush Limbaugh. Personally, I didn’t think it was funny, but she’s generally not my cup of tea. But a lot of people are ticked off at her, and there are just as many people defending her. Here’s the odd thing. The same people who are defending Sykes are calling for the firing of CBS Golf commentator David Feherty for publishing a joke about about Nancy Pelosi.
Oddly enough, I read about the Sykes story on Fox News yesterday and read the comments afterwords. “Typical Fox” was a regular comment. Yeah, it is, suck it up. And this is the real point that most of us are missing. The media doesn’t want to tell us the story. While Fox has a definite conservative spin, the rest of the media is to the left. Here’s another example. Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote a piece calling for the dismissal of Philly Inquirer columninst John Yoo. For those who don’t know, Yoo is the former Department of Justice attorney that wrote the memo that made water boarding ok. While Bunch stated the Inquier should get rid of him because of his views on torture, I think his real motive comes in the following paragraph:
“. . . Yoo was now a regular columnist, joining an increasingly rightward-tilting lineup that also includes the likes ex-Sen. Rick Santorum (at $1,750 a pop), Michael Smerconish, a moderate Republican who is also a forceful advocate for torture, Kevin Ferris and others.”
And this is the point we’re all missing. Sykes and Feherty both told stupid jokes, but now it’s a chance for the powers that be to use them to tell the people what they want and score cheap political points. There is a real double standard out their that we are all missing, and it’s affecting true discourse and dialogue. The only one in the media that I found actually gets this is Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News, who wrote a column basically stating what I am.
The real problem is that we can no longer trust the media. They are no longer governments watchdogs, but are the propaganda entities of the our political parties, and this Sykes/Feherty dust up is really all the proof we need.
GBU: The Southern 500!
The Good: Hendrick-mania. Hendrick and Hendrick affiliated cars dominated the late stages of the race, taking six of the first seven spots. The final shoot-out between Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson was fun to watch, but how weird was it to actually hear JJ throw in the towel. And speaking of Johnson, just the fact that he was up there shows that he’s still a championship contender and that Chad Knauss is still one of the, if not the best, crew chief in the biz.
And how about a great run from Joey Logano. He’s starting to show all of the promise that we heard of.
Great racing action all night, as the top 10 kept changing. Cars that were a lap down were all of a sudden in the top 10, and then vice versa. Great action, however . . .
The Bad: Too many cautions, and some that probably should have been. I couldn’t believe how many cars were in the wall where NASCAR didn’t throw a caution. Their had to be car parts everywhere.
The Ugly: Jeremy Mayfield getting suspended for substance abuse. I was always a big fan of his, but this is unacceptable, as NASCAR showed. Baseball and other sports, steroids and other “banned” substances are almost taken for granted, but those sports aren’t litterly life and death as it can be in racing. NASCAR has done such a good job with safety, as we saw at Talledega, that we take it for granted, but competitors never do. Which is why Mayfield should not be aloud back in the sports. It’s also ironic that earlier in the year he fired one of his crew members for the same thing. While we don’t know the whole story, and we might never know it, it’s really just a shame that such a good career should end this way.
CBU: Richmond
Better late than never folks!!!!
The Good: A great win by Kyle Busch. I know most people dislike him, but you gotta respect him. Three wins on one weekend, winning a charity race, the Nationwide and Cup races. The guy can just plain drive. And I also love that he’s having fun with the way the fans boo him. Heck, I think I may start to take a bow with him!
And how great is it to see both Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman running so well. Let’s here it for Stewart-Haas and all they’ve accomplished. Could Tony be running for a championship? I think it’s possible.
The Bad: What’s going on with Dale, Jr. I know everyone is asking this. The truth is that he is just having a bad season. It happens to everyone, so ease up on the guys.
What happened to Jimmie Johnson last weekend? Talk about a bad night, the winner of three of the four previous Richmond races wrecked, had a brake failure and got a speeding ticket. Not a typical night for the old 48.
The Ugly: Roush-Fenway. What the heck is going on there. We know it’s not the drivers, but after Matt Kenseth winning the opening two races of the season, the team has faded into the pack. Is this a new trend for RFR. After putting all five teams into the Chase in 2006, the team had a dismal 2007. I guess the RFR guys are just good in the even numbered seasons.
Kevin Harvick was having one of best runs of the season, his first since the crew swap with the 07, and then got caught up in a wreck and finished 34th. Can KH buy a break?
GBU: The Aaron’s 499 at Talladega
The Good: This was one of the most exciting races to watch in a long time as there was constant action. Cars were consistantly going from the back to the front to the back again. There were 57 lead changes and an exciting finish (more on that later).
It was also great to see a single car team in victory lane, and so many drivers not from the power teams in the top 20. A great day for the rookies as well with Brad Keselowski winning, and fellow rookies Scott Speed (fifth) and Joey Logano(ninth) finishing in the top 10. And how good is Marcos Ambrose. Another top 5 (fourth place) illustrates how good he can be once he gets some experience on these tracks. We will see him in Victory Lane at some point.
The Bad: The Big One times two. Let’s be honest, casual fans love the wrecks and that’s why they love restrictor plate racing, even thought most of them don’t know a restrictor plate from a dinner plate. Personally, I would rather see the kind of passing we did Sunday. The first of the Big Ones happened so early and took out so many good cars. On the other hand, it also played havoc with the points, so maybe that’s a good thing.
The Ugly: The Finish. Yeah, it was crazy to watch and Carl was great jogging to the finish. Also, he showed a lot of class in his post race interview. But we can all be in awe of this because there were no serious injuries. One thing I don’t understand is why no one really talked about Ryan Newman after the race. Carl’s car came down on his windshield, thankfully on the passenger side. I didn’t see an interview with him until Monday night. Of course, the crash also illustrated how seriously NASCAR takes not only driver, but fan safety. The fact that the most serous injury was a broken jaw (according to news reports) is really a testament to that. And you know NASCAR is now working on a safer catch fence.
Cherry and White Day 2009
Last weekend, Temple Football played it’s annual Cherry and White game on Main Campus. While a lot of people were upset the game was not held on the Ambler campus, I thought it was great having it on Main. Any chance to bring people on to the main campus to see how it has developed is great for the University.
As for the game itself, this is what we learned about out football team, absolutely nothing. If anyone tells you differently they really don’t know what they’re talking about, unless the person talking is a member of the coaching staff. If the Owls ran more than a dozen different offensive plays I would be surprised. However, it was great to see so many people turn out an support the program.
The really nice thing is that because there were no bleachers, I was able to basically sit on the sidelines and do what I love to do, take pictures. I have posted some of my favorites in this gallery.
I hope you enjoy them. Now, let’s kick Nova’s ass!
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: The Subway Fresh Fit 500
The Good: Mark Martin showing that being the youngest doesn’t mean your the best. It was so good to see Mark win again, for the first time since Kansas in 2005, seeing all he has done in the last couple of years. And how cool was it to see all of the people who came to congratulate him in Victory Lane, include the Cat in the Hat Jack Roush. I wondered what their relationship was given Mark’s retirement and unretirement, and I think that gives us our very positive answer.
Mark Martin in Victory Lane
And another great run by Tony Stewart. It’s only a matter of time until he puts his team into victory lane. Tony is class act, and a racer, and what he has done since taking over at HAAS CNC is nothing short of amazing.
The Bad: Lack of racing action. There just didn’t seem to be a lot of side by side racing last night. Usually, it happens back in the pack, but it didn’t even seem like that was happening last night. Even lap traffic was in a line. This is one thing I know we don’t have to worry about in ‘Dega next week.
The Ugly: Junior. Another bad pit stop put him back in a pack and he got wreck because of it, but the extracurriculars after the race with Casey Mears was unneccesary. Yes, Casey wreck him, but it didn’t look intentional and was basically a racing thing. And good for Casey not taking that crap once the race was over.
American News “Coverage”, Yeah, right!
Ok, so I need to vent. I was driving home from work, listening to the radio and they played a clip of a CNN “reporter” covering today’s Tea Party’s. The “reporter” asked on of the participants a question. When she didn’t like the answer, the “reporter” cut the person off, wouldn’t let him finished, then started going on about the event being Anti-American, Anti-CNN! and a ploy by the right wing? What a crock. This just proves how bad the so called media is and how they are truly the ones with an agenda. I just hope American’s see this for what is.
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: The Samsung 500
The Good: Jeff Gordon breaking a 47 race winless streak at the only track he’s ever finished last at. The bottom line, weather you like Gordon or not, he’s a hell of a driver and, to echo the thoughts of ESPN reporter Marty Smith, having Gordon winning is good for the support and makes great rivals. Let’s be honest, it’s as much fun to cheer for someone as it is against them (i.e. Kyle Busch, who I happen to cheer for).
The Bad: See above!!!
The Ugly: Carl Edwards final pit stop cost him a shot at winning the race. I’m not sure what happened, but you could see how ticked off Carl was about it. This just reinforces how much of a team sport racing really is.
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