Your Daytona 500 Recap

Did you enjoy your President's Day weekend vacation? I enjoyed me the hell out of mine. As fknmclane mentioned earlier, we got together with a group of our RBI Baseball friends in my hometown of Los Angeles this past weekend. It was, to put it mildly, a lot of fun. I really can't describe most of what was said or done for the sake of common decency, but I will say that if any friends or family members of deceased child star Jonathan Brandis were within earshot of Rusty's Surf Ranch in Santa Monica, I sincerely apologize.

This weekend was also great, because it was the Daytona 500. In terms of excitement, I'd give this year's race a solid B+ rating. Nobody finished the race upside down and on fire, but the final 40 laps or so had a lot of drama and tension. Now is probably a good time to look back at some of the key points from my pre-race primer to see where I was a genius and where I was a complete idiot.

The Car of Tomorrow/The New Car/That Thing They Drive In: Pre-race, there was a lot of concern about how the New Car (formerly The Car of Tomorrow, err, yesterday) would handle in a restrictor plate race. Would it discourage pack racing and bring back the Slingshot? Would it be woefully squirrelly in traffic and cause several huge accidents? Would it come with XM or Sirius?

In retrospect, the New Car worked at Daytona. If anything, the large rear spoiler helped several drivers (notably Kurt Busch early) save the car after getting loose, where with the old car, they probably would have triggered a multi-car accident. And the racing was consistently entertaining all race long (a race that was relatively quick, timewise, because of the lack of cautions), with 49 lead changes (compared to just 13 last year).

Should we expect this every week? Let's wait and see how it handles at a mid-size oval like California Speedway this week. As Winston Wolf might say, let's not go around sucking each others...umm...private areas...just yet.

The Rick Hendrick Experience: In short, it wasn't good. Of the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers, only Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished in the top 25. His other three teammates (Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears) had various mechanical problems, pit problems and/or crashes that relegated to the bottom half of the final race standings.

Oh, What a Near-Miss Feeling...Toyota!: To say that this weekend was a bit bittersweet for Toyota is an understatement. Tony Stewart won the Nationwide race on Saturday driving a Toyota, with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch finishing second. Then, in the big race on Sunday, Toyotas lead 138 of the 200 laps...but not the one that matters. Still, it's a long, long way from last season, when Toyota was struggling to get any of their drivers in the field, much less make them competitive.

And oh yeah, Toyota also won the Craftsman Truck series race with Todd Bodine on Friday. Which basically is just an excuse for me to post this video of a bad, bad crash from the race. Everyone walked away unharmed:



Busch vs. Stewart, Round Whatever: In what had to be delicious ironing for Kurt Busch, he was able to act as a drafting partner to help Penske teammate Ryan Newman pass Tony Stewart on the final lap for the win, after Stewart chose to not block Newman by staying in the high line, instead ducking down to the low side in hopes that his teammate and Kurt's brother Kyle would help him out. But Kyle was too far back, and by the time he got to Stewart, the damage was done.

And give Kurt Busch some credit for not gloating about it after the race. It did show some class. Although the guy did have surgery one off-season to have his ridiculous jug ears pinned back, which is actually somehow a step below Charlie Weis' gastric bypass in my book.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 10:29 AM 0 comments  

YOUR FACE IS A LIVE BLOG: Chili Bowl PPV Broadcast

Forget the Patriots/Jags game. That's amateur hour. The real excitement is starting in a few minutes, as the first-ever broadcast of the final night of the 22nd annual Chili Bowl, the world's largest midget car race. The top drivers in the open-wheel world are part of the 270+ car contingent. Some NASCAR drivers are there too. Guys you might have heard of like Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne (Stewart is in fact the defending champion).

I'll be here all night, drinking some MGDs and watching as we progress through the night from the "I" feature all the way through "A" main. Needless to say, we'll be here a while.

Do yourself a favor and don't have the NFL shoved down your throat! Order the Chili Bowl on your PPV (you have another half-hour before the broadcast proper starts) and come back here and comment as I blog.
Pre-race - And you're looking live at Tulsa, Oklahoma! Man, that's a lot of people on the telecast. Glad to see that they have actual open wheel guys doing the broadcast. The "Prelude to the Dream" was great, but having the usual Fox NASCAR guys doing the call was a mixed bag - yeah, fans know who they are, and they know the drivers. But they needed someone with short track experience.

If you are curious, here is the line-up for tonight's racing: twin C mains, a B main and then the final A main. Here is who is locked into the various races based on the results of the past week of racing.

I know he is only 16, but somebody needs to Cole Witt how to put some bend into the bill of his cap when he does an interview. When you look like Opie Cunningham to begin with, the dorky, straight bill isn't a big help.

And I doubt he "waved" at Tony Stewart when he passed him for the final transfer spot. Although Tony might have "waved" his middle finger at Cole.

If anyone is curious, Tony Stewart can take a provisional as the defending champion if he doesn't qualify through the preliminary races tonight.

The first C main (like every race from here on out) is stacked. I'm very happy to see Randy "The Hurricane" Hannigan starting fourth - he's a racer from Northern California that I've watched a good portion of my life going to races in the Central Valley. I think of him as more of a sprint car guy, so it's good to see him doing well here.

The driver of "local" interest to me in the other C is Stan Yockey. That actually shocks me a little bit - he's been getting better racing in California in sprint cars, but this is a huge step up in class, and even making it to the C-main is a big achievement.

In case you are curious, here's Yockey getting slammed into at a race in Central California by Ronnie Day at the end of last season, suffering wrist and arm injuries. These guys are tough.

It's now 40 minutes into the broadcast, and still no racing yet. I know there were a lot of highlights to get through, but this is getting ridiculous.

Finally, racing...

C-Main No. 1: First race, first corner...and first flip. Welcome the short track racing on dirt.

Way to miss the crash with two of the five guys in transfer spots, because you're interviewing Crusty French Grimes. Especially since they were the two guys you were spending all of the first part of the race highlighting AND that you had your two in-car cameras in. This does not bode well for the coverage.

Also: Crash Gladys looks about as hot as the Tulsa Hooters Girls - 6 out of 10.

UPDATE: So Kruseman jumped the start and got shuffled to the back? Nice that Shane Stewart had to tell us this instead of one of the 28 people on the coverage team...

C-Main No. 2: And the coverage madness continues. Here's a hint: Joey Saldana is in the yellow Kasey Kahne team car. How hard is this to figure out? My favorite moment: "It might be Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - we'll have to get a better shot to see." This is said as we have a close-up shot of the car from head-on, where you can see "Stenhouse Jr." on the top.

Why the hell was McCarl racing so hard for the lead when he and Jones both had a transfer? Odd.

On the the B-main. So pumped to see Ron Shuman racing again.

B-Main No. 1: Shoe! Shoe! Shoe! They need to be making more of this - Ron Shuman hasn't raced in 10 years, and he's in the A-main. And Buckwalter got totally plowed into - again, thanks to the coverage team for not picking that up until after the fact.

And having seen him at the Oval Nationals in December...Brady Bacon is going to be good...real good.

B-Main No. 2: Brad Sweet got screwed. Pure and simple. And how can they not know who transfered out of the first B-main still? Amateur hour...

Pre A-Main BS: I think heading to the hammered fans in the cheap seats wasn't the best idea. Although why am I not surprised that the fat chick is a big fan of Brady Bacon?

A-Main: Ugh. You hate to see a kid's first Chili Bowl end before it even starts. But like they said on the broadcast, that can happen to anyone. Hell, I saw it happen to Dave Darland at the Oval Nationals this year - except he snap-rolled about five or six times instead of just hitting the wall.

My pick to win? Brad Kunz.

...and that didn't last long. Stupid Terry McCarl...no wonder they all hate him in Knoxville.

I can't express how happy I was to see Damion Gardner win. Beyond the fact that he's a Southern California guy, he's one of the most exciting drivers I've seen in a long time. Which is precisely why I didn't think he would win. Usually, his "excitement" leads to one big screw-up, and with 50 laps and a lot of traffic, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And I almost got it, too. His bicycle on that one restart was about as close as you can get to flip a car without actually doing it. That was his race-ending mistake...but somehow, he saved the car and kept going. Then things broke his way: the track never slicked off, he got enough yellow flags to stay out of traffic (where bad things usually happen to overly aggressive drivers) and Dave Darland held up Shane Cottle (who I think would have caught Damion and made it very interesting if he could have passed Darland for second).

So, that's the end of the 2008 Chili Bowl. I hope that anyone who was watching it tonight enjoyed it. And if this was your first time watching a short-track, open wheel race, I hope you liked it enough to visit your local track once the season starts and check it out live - TV is great, but like hockey, it really is a different experience in person.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 4:26 PM 2 comments  

Flying dirt, midgets and a big, hot steamy Chili Bowl

It might be hard to believe, but my beneath my suave, sophisticated exterior lurks a secret. Something so dark that only my closest friends know it, but because of the shame that it would cause me and the embarrassment it causes them, it's something that we never talk about. Since I've been doing this blog for several months now, though, this secret has been an anchor that is like an albatross on my neck, forcing me to mix metaphors just to explain it. But if you, dear reader, are going to be invested in this blog, I feel like the truth, however ugly or shocking, needs to come out.

Here it goes:

I am a redneck. I go to Dollywood for vacations. I get very excited about seeing The General Lee at Cooter's in the Smokies. And I love dirt track racing. I've been going since I was about four years old - it's one of the earliest memories I have, going to the local dirt track outside of Fresno with my dad and brother. And it's something that I've held onto ever since. Sprint car and midget car racing

Is part of it nostalgia? Perhaps, but the bottom line is that I also think it's the best form of racing that you can see as a spectator. Why?

The format: Do you try to watch NASCAR on occasion, but cannot sit through four hours of nothing much happening, just to get to the final 30 laps when all the interesting stuff is taking place? Imagine if the race itself was just those final 30 laps? That's pretty much what dirt track racing is. The typical format will have several short (usually 8 to 12 laps, depending on the size of the track) heats or qualifying races, and then a main event that is typically between 30 and 40 laps. So all the good stuff is compressed into compact, bite-sized packets of entertainment. Perfect for your short-attention span, YouTube-addicted, Internet-addled minds!
All action, all the time: The typical main event has up to 24 cars on a track that ranges in size from a quarter-mile to a half-mile long. So instead of lap after lap of cars strung out throughout the track, with no passing or excitement whatsoever, on a dirt track there is always action - with battles for position, leaders trying to get through lapped traffic, etc.
The atmosphere: Until you go to a race, it's hard to explain why it's so much fun. Consider it part sporting event, part county fair (which isn't surprising, since a lot of tracks are on county fairground sites). There's BBQ, popcorn and lots of cheap beer in the concession stands. The fans are very friendly, often with a mouthful of chaw or said beer. And the cars themselves: a sprint car can get well beyond 125 mph at a fast track, something that is always lost on TV. Add to that the smell of gasoline and burning rubber (and again, beer and chaw), and it's quite the sensory experience.
Big crashes: Anyone who says that they are fans of racing, but don't get excited for crashes is, quite frankly, delusional/a lair/Communist. Tell Boris to go back to the Mother Country, or to admit to himself that seeing a big crash is part of the thrill of going to a track. Obviously, part of the visceral thrill is the sigh of relief and the amazement when someone walks away from a seemingly vicious crash, and no one (except for some goons on YouTube, I'm sure), want to see people get hurt or killed. And there really isn't anything more spectacular than an open-wheel sprint car or midget car crash, as you can see for yourself. (Note: I have yet to see a crash video on YouTube not set to God Awful Nu Metal. If you have any taste in music, you'll want to turn down your speakers.)

Why do I bring this all up now? Because you might not know it, but this is one of the biggest weekends of the year for open wheel racing fans. It's the weekend of the 22nd Annual Chili Bowl, held in the former Convention Center in Tulsa, OK. This is the Super Bowl of midget car racing.

How big is this race? They expect more than 25,000 people to watch the finals on Saturday night, including many people who won't actually be able to see the track but will pay just to have a view of the scoreboard. There were, at last count, 274 entries for the race, all looking to fill 24 spots in the main event. Pretty much, if you are an open wheel driver in the United States, you are here. It's a veritable who's who of drivers, including people that even casual fans know. Tony Stewart is the defending champion of the race. Other NASCAR drivers such as JJ Yeley and Kasey Kahne will be there, too.

The exciting news this year is the HBO is going to offer live, flag-to-flag coverage of the final night of racing on Saturday as a PPV event, and NASCAR.com is going to offer live, streaming coverage of tonight's preliminary races start at 8 p.m. Eastern. The success of HBO's PPV of the "Prelude to the Dream" at Eldora last season apparently has sparked interested in more open wheel coverage, which is obviously great news for the sport.

I can't urge you strongly enough to watch the racing from the Chili Bowl this weekend. Like it or not, I'll be giving updates through the week, and may possibly be doing the site's first LIVE BLOG OF AN EVENT on Saturday. To give you a taste, here are some highlights from last year's action (note: same disclaimer about crappy Nu Metal from the last video applies).

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 10:59 AM 1 comments