Martin wins the 1st one!

Martin wins the first one….

Here is what the chase points look like as of now…

1. #5-Mark Martin [5 wins], 5230, finished 1st at New Hampshire
   2) #48-Jimmie Johnson [3 wins], 5195, -35, 4th
   3) #11-Denny Hamlin [2 wins], 5195, -35, 2nd
   4) #42-Juan Pablo Montoya, 5175, -55, 3rd
   5) #2-Kurt Busch [1 win], 5165, -65, 6th
   6) #14-Tony Stewart [3 wins], 5156, -74, 14th
   7) #39-Ryan Newman, 5151, -79, 7th
   #83-Brian Vickers [1 win], 5140, -90, 11th
   9) #16-Greg Biffle, 5138, -92, 9th
   10) #24-Jeff Gordon [1 win], 5128, -102, 15th
   11) #99-Carl Edwards, 5117, -113, 17th
   12) #9-Kasey Kahne [2 wins], 5069, -161, 38th

#18-Kyle Busch, who missed making the Chase by just eight points, finished 5th in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. But the left front of the #18 M&M’s Toyota was too low in post-race inspection, and he could be penalized by NASCAR this week, usually announced on Tuesday afternoons We will see how this works out. NASCAR needs to start cracking down on points and penalties with this sort of stuff not just money.

I have had to watch the race via DVR and not live due to other things but one thing I have noticed is the aggression that was displayed by Juan Pablo Montoya, he drove all over Jeff Burton getting into 3 and 4, and he seems just a tad too aggressive yeah I know he wants to win but there is a fine line between racing and driving over your head.

Broke my heart to see the 9 car grenade an engine but hey better now than in 4 or 5 races from now.

A big tip of the hat to the 19 team for a top ten finish despite getting turned when the 20 car of Lagano ran out of talent and took out a bunch of cars.

And man what a parking job by the combo of Kurt Busch and David Ragan… that was almost funny,

Since we have had soooo much rain this week all the local tracks around here were closed due to the monsoon type weather we have had.

Versus channel has signed a deal with NASCAR to highlight the Chase drivers during the Chase next year with a half hour show.

Have a good week and …

Cya@the races!!!!

the dr.

RPM to Ford for 2010!

RPM to Ford in 2010!

In 2010 RPM will field Fords for drivers Kasey Kahne , Elliott Sadler, A.J. Almindinger and Pauol Menard, Paul Menard? Where did he come from? Well he comes from the “merger” of Yates and RPM. Actually it is a take over not a perger, but either way Ford will be the Car of choice for next year. All this leaves 2 drivers with out a ride, Bobby Labonte who has up til now drove the Hall of Fame racing Ford out of Yates shops, and Reed Sorenson who has been driving the 43 for RPM. Menard brings “daddy’s Money” to the table and since teams are only allowed 4 teams for 2010 someone has to go.

I think this will be a good move for RPM , yeah I am a Ford fan and I know I bleed Ford blue but really Dodge has been in trouble for a while, both with money and in racing, they say they remain commited to NASCAR but they just don’t have their act together with the new motor program, and with the new Ford motor coming this bodes well for RPM, who thru the past year has only lacked in the motor dept. now they will have the motors to go run down the big boys. You can read the press release here http://www.evernhammotorsports.com/main.cfm?pagename=article&articleId=11793

Ford has invested tons of money in the new motor program and now RPM can get the benefits of all this hard work Ford has done.

Kahne showed last week at Atlanta that the desire is still there to run good and win and I think you will see more of that tonight at Richmond. Look for the 9 car to be solidly in the chase with a few bonus points under his belt.

Cya@the races.

The dr.

Kahne Wins At Atlanta!

Kasey Kahne showed why they call it racing! he never gave up and took a solid top 5 car and won the race. Lots of drivers has issues early and some of the top teams were just junk, but some that were strong and fell back cam back at the end.

Kahne has said he wants to go race and take the same approach that they brought to Atlanta. Just win Baby!!

JPM who was very strong during the race brought home the target Chevy in 3rd and a strong showing I really think he is going to make the chase based on how he has come alive and has a great focus on making the points chase.

Harvick who had won the night before in the Nationwide race was really strong on long runs but it took him a while to get going , and with a 12 lap shoot out at the end it just wasn’t in the cards for the RCR driver.

Look at the 48 broke an axle leaving pit road, had to go behind the wall to fix it, but Vickers broke an axle too, and the 83 team changed their axle on pit road staying on the lead lap. Getting a 7th place finish, but still 20 points out of the chase.

david Gilliand looked good in the Wood Brothers car subbing for Bill elliott who broke 3 ribs playing on his dirt bike, guess Chase was whipping the old man!!!

there are 4 drivers locked in the chase …..

1) #14-Tony Stewart [3 wins], 3694, finished 11th at Atlanta
2) #24-Jeff Gordon [1 win], 3457, -237, 8th
3) #48-Jimmie Johnson [3 wins], 3404, -290, 36th
4) #11-Denny Hamlin [1 win], 3296, -398, 6th

these still have a way to go..

5) #99-Carl Edwards, 3162, -532, 37th (+105 points ahead of 13th)
6) #9-Kasey Kahne [2 wins], 3153, -541 (+96), 1st
7) #2-Kurt Busch [1 win], 3152, -542 (+95), 38th
#42-Juan Pablo Montoya, 3145, -549 (+88), 3rd
9) #39-Ryan Newman, 3138, -556 (+77), 9th
10) #5-Mark Martin [4 wins], 3126, -568 (+72), 5th
11) #16-Greg Biffle, 3125, -569 (+69), 10th
12) #17-Matt Kenseth [2 wins], 3077, -617 (+20 ahead of 13th), 12th

And on the outside looking in right now are …

13) #83-Brian Vickers [1 win], 3057, 20 points out of 12th, 7th
14) #18-Kyle Busch [4 wins], 3040, -37, 13th
15) #00-David Reutimann [1 win] 2945, -132, 4th

Will Kyle Busch miss the chase? I think he will squeak in and not be a factor, but I have been wrong before. I think Vickers will knock Kennseth out and make his way in, after the performance he and the Red Bull Team put in tonight he should be there.

One final note .. I have found myself wondering how Harvick could run sooo strong the night before and tonight he ran soo strong in spurts .. could RCR be on to something? or could NASCAR tech guys be missing something? In the Cup race tonight I think he just found the right set up but last night….. different story, I really think there is something that the tech guys are missing. he was just TO fast last night. But we shall see.

Way to go to the RPM #9 Bud car,Team and driver Kasey Kahne … he was at the right spot at the right time….

Oh yeah, the dr’s really has some pissed off neighbors, they could care less if Kahne wins they don’t like the 45 second horn blowing and the big bore weapons going off……a oh well they should stratt reading the dr’s blog at least then they would know why!!!!

cya@the races!!

the dr.

is NASCAR getting smart?

NASCAR has started to get smart…..

NASCAR lowers age limit for some series: NASCAR announced it was implementing a Learner’s Permit License for its NASCAR Whelen All-American Series tracks beginning in 2010. The license will lower the age-limit for NASCAR-sanctioned tracks’ entry-level division from 16-years-old to 14. The change provides an intermediate step for young drivers looking to make the move from non-NASCAR beginner-level racing series to running at their NASCAR home track. The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is NASCAR’s national championship program for its more than 55 sanctioned short tracks across North America. More than 10,000 drivers compete in the series annually.(NASCAR)

By allowing this it will keep some of the up and coming young guns like Chase Elliott , and the 2 Dillon boys ( both Grandsons to Richard cChildress )in a NASCAR ride. They ain’t completely stupid. But the way they are doing it is following along the NASCAR way, where they have complete control over the deal, they call it a learners permit… yeah right call it what it really is a conditional license. So that NASCAR can control who gets them and where they race . They are simply trying to keep the new and up coming young guns from going anywhere BUT NASCAR. Is it fair? Who knows but it is the way NASCAR has decided to do things….

the dr.

The dr goes LIVE on the radio!

The dr goes live on the radio!

Last night I had the honor of working( like you could call it that) with the announcer of Boyd’s Speedway http://www.boydsspeedway.com/index.php#

Steve Milling on his local radio show on WGOW 102.3 http://wgow.com/home.asp the Chattanooga State Motorsports Hour. It is an hour long radio call in show that covers all forms of racing. The regular co-host was sick so Steve asked me to fill in. I was over joyed to do it, it helped me check off another thing off my bucket list.

I need to lay out the day for you to help you understand what a day I had yesterday, first thing I started off my day by going to Memorial Hospital for arthroscopic knee surgery, (which I kept from Steve for fear he would not want me to do the radio show,) but I got home about 3 pm, from the surgery which went very well I might add, thanks Dr Hartley of the Center for sports and orthopedic medicine http://www.sportmed.com/ he got the dr all fixed up! I was never nervious about the radio show but I was about the surgery, anyway… I digress….back to the show, I showed up at the station about 6:30 and met with Steve and he filled me in on how the show would go, we watched as the show before ours finished up and when it did, Steve guided my crutch weilding self to the “booth” I had watch many shows thru the stations webcams so I knew what it looked like but to be there was very special to me…then the time came to go on the air! I slipped the headphones on and away we went, we covered sprint cars that will be coming to Boyd’s this weekend and the Ga Mini Sprints that ewill be there too… we took a few calls from area fans I actually answered a couple tech type questions and boom it was over! I could of done that all night long! It was greeat!

Steve Milling and the dr after the show.

Thanks to “Cowboy” Joe Varner for taking the photo.

Although it was one of the toughest days I have been thru in a long time it was worth every bit of it! Not sure if I was any good but man it was fun!

So should you need something to do next Wednesday night at 7 pm give Steve a listen and go out and catch him as he calls the races at Boyd’s there are 2 show’s left this season and you should try and catch one of them, I know I will be listening to both of them!!!!

cya@the races!

The dr.