All Purpose NASCAR Thread

The debacle continues at Yates ... now both crew chiefs have quit, effective immediately. Tommy Baldwin goes back to Bill Davis and no telling where Slugger Labbe will end up.

 

Exactly what did the "informal alliance" between Childress and Bill McAnally entail? Given the results, it was probably nothing more than helping pay her salary and maybe some help finding sponsorship. Certainly didn't seem to extend to either cars or engines; getting either from the RCR shops could only have helped.

For the record, it's not like that team has been more overwhelming this year without Fisher than last year with her. The same #20 car has just one top-five this year and finished 17th (out of ... um, that would be all of 20 cars) last weekend. Not suprisingly, the only one of his three cars that's any good is the one with the NAPA sponsorship.

Fisher led a few times in West Series races, but not at the finish, and seemed to be on the verge of figuring stock cars out. She was supposed to run a Busch/ARCA schedule for the same oddball McAnally/Childress "program" this year, but that evaporated. If Childress really wanted to develop a driver, he'd have used the 2 Busch car.

Speaking of that "program," anybody heard from Allison Duncan lately? ???

 

I think its going to be 1000 degrees for Sunday's Brickyard.

I hope for his own safety that Tony Stewart is laying off the Twinkies, Funyons and Jolt Cola this week.

 

Some of you have told me Friday is a free night for a couple drinks. Anyone know a good bar we could all meet at on Friday night, if that's a good time to get together? Invite your media friends.

Suggestions for Friday, please...

 

Too bad the On the Road: Final Four thread doesn't seem to be around anymore.

I'd recommend Slippery Noodle (www.slipperynoodle.com), a blues bar near downtown (assuming you don't mind going into downtown). We had a great time there.

 

That place is legendary. Just don't try driving a pace truck home from there.

 

I'd like to take this moment to congratulate Kurt Busch on his fine display of driving skills in happy hour today. So much for the inside of row 2.

 

Bad tires at Indy? Damn you Michelin!

Tires have been a big issue here this weekend.

And though a tire puncture caused Busch's wreck in the first post-qualifying practice session (not Happy Hour), Busch did brush the Turn 4 wall in Happy Hour later on.

 

Tires are what kept my honey from fending off Johnson and Kenseth and Martin ... etc. GO DALE JR.

On a serious note, what a boring end to the race.

And can the guys (Bestwick, Parsons, etc.) please give us a break on Randy Dorton and Hendrick and Johnson's sentimental reasons for why this win is just so special. If it were the first time since the crash, then that's different. But how long will it continued to be an issue?

Solid finish for Mark Martin.

Will Jimmie Johnson collapse down the stretch, and will Matt Kenseth be the 2006 Chase for the Cup Champ? For the love of God, don't let a Hendrick car win the championship.

 

What a boring race all day. We had it on here at the office, and I think we all would have dozed off had we actually watched much of it.

*Yawn*

 

It wasn't any better in person.

 

It really wasn't.

My most indelible image of the weekend had nothing to do with the race at all.

It was noticing that in the NASCAR Miller Lite billboards (can't find a pix), Kurt Busch looks like he was lifted off the album cover from Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express.



Or is it the Man Machine album cover?



"We are the robots!"

That, and trading in-race PMs with several other SportsJournalists.commers!