New Hampshire and Dover create tight points chase and sheds some light on future of the Busch Series.

With two rounds in the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship complete, I would have thought by this point (after two races…) the chase picture would have looked more spread out considering what happened last season at first race with the lap 3 wreck and most contenders falling or crashing out early, but that wasn’t the case at all and no one expected to see Clint Bowyer pickup his first career victory and in such dominating fashion. When you looked at the other chasers after New Hampshire, just about everyone had really good runs and nothing really changed expect for Bowyers position moved up to fourth in the points.

However the opposite happened in Dover, I truly believe that that racetrack is the Monster Mile, it threw everything at the chase drivers including what some would say the kitchen sink, first the crash with Hamlin and Petty were Hamlin just looked like he ran over Petty and including the little fight sort of speck in the garage area, but the second thing, the huge crash coming off turn 2 with 15 to go with Busch breaking a frontend piece or blowing a tire, that created this huge mess and tight look in the championship.

However the final laps of this one were very exciting with first the third place battle with Dale Jr. finally passing his teammate Mark Martin (never thought I would say that…teammates) and second the lead battle of Edwards vs. Biffle with Carl Edwards and Roush-Fenway Racing winning the race, but it really should be no surprise that he won as he has dominated in most cases this season on concrete tracks.

Just one question, with no more concrete tracks left in the season, how will Edwards fair in the rest of chase and who will win the championship? First for Carl Edwards, he’s the dark horse this season for winning the championship, he’s got that car just right, as for who my picks are to win the championship, that’s easy, I would say either the two-time champion Tony Stewart or the defending Nextel Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. Both have great records all season long and this is really Tony Stewart’s time to shine as he always does and for Jimmie Johnson, his victories this season combined with the creative crew chief on the pitbox calling the shots, he’s right there in it.

Staying with Tony Stewart for a moment, last month I wrote a piece called “Could this really come true: Joe Gibbs Racing to Toyota?” just days before Gibbs Racing made it official and the reason I bring that up is first I asked the question of what isn’t JGR getting from GM in terms of support? And second, is Chevrolet ready to loose Tony Stewart? First JGR got everything from GM in terms of support they needed, that never should have been a question, but the second is what the bigger story here is, I believe Tony Stewart should be in a Chevrolet period and despite the fact that for 2008 and 2009 he will be driving a Toyota, in 2010-2011, look for Stewart to be driving a Chevrolet once again, but I just don’t know where.

Finally, on last nights WindTunnel, one of the guests was Darrell Waltrip and most of the time I enjoy listening to what he has to say on the topics except if has anything to do with removing a Cup date from NHIS, but last night he said something that struck me, being changing the Busch cars to Pony cars… he said they shouldn’t, simply because when ever NASCAR has changed the Busch series to be different from the Cup Series, it didn’t work, but the answer he gave sounds good to me, DW said that the Busch Series should use old Cup Series cars, as much as I hate it in terms of staying with old cup cars, he’s right, the owners are going to have 100’s of old cup cars and really no place to sell or use them, maybe except for the ARCA Series. Recently Frank Kimmel has been driving and winning in a used Matt Kenseth Cup car, he didn’t even repaint it, but just put decals on it and off to the races.


Tony Stewart's 2006 Modified Tour car.
Image was taken by me with a Kodak EasyShare DX6490.

One other thought from me on the Busch Series, NASCAR has to use a car they already have in production, my pick would be a 110 wheelbase modified tour car… it would be a mix of old cup cars and/or modified tour car pictured above…Think about that.

Was this the best season in Big Brother history?

It’s been just about a week following the somewhat shocking season finale of Big Brother 8 and while I am already heavily into the new season of Survivor which is in China this year, I am already looking forward to the next season of Big Brother with the 9th installment.

At the beginning of the summer, I started watching Jessica, Eric and somewhat Dustin along with the twists to see how things played out and while Dustin turned out to be more power hungry once he got the head of household, I was impressed with Jessica and Eric though to the end. Also at the beginning I had made a couple of predicts that were right on at times, but one predict that was completely false was the alliance of Dick and Daniele and that it wouldn’t last, boy was I wrong as they did it making it to the final two

When I look back at the season that was Big Brother 8, there had been times that I said wow that’s a good idea and other times of what is CBS thinking. When looking back you have start with the nemesis twist that while it did produce one or if not the best alliance in Big Brother history with the father-daughter team of Dick and Daniele, it was really no different then seasons past, but on the opposite side of the game, the America’s Player twist was thinking so far out of the box and while I have to give credit to CBS for it, at the same time it was something I hated and with that it also created one fan to get involved with fling a banner over the house a couple of times. The America’s Player twist basically didn’t let Eric had a voice on who he nominated nor who he voted to evict and that’s wrong.

Basically I would have liked to have seen just what Eric could have done if he wasn’t the America’s Player, he is one of the smarted players in terms of Big Brother knowledge to come into the house I have ever seen and after watching him, he can sell just about anything to anybody. In the end, Eric completed over 20 tasks earning $40,000, what a payday if your counting...

I will say this bold statement, if Eric wasn’t America’s player, the final two would have been different, it wouldn’t have been Dick vs. Daniele.

Besides the twists, this season was the first to add the Showtime 2 live feed from the house for 3 hours a night and I found that to be great to watch. In past seasons I would only watch the CBS stuff each week, but once you watch the feed even if it’s the sho feed, you learn so much, strategy changes hourly and so do alliances. The talk is amazing and shocking at the same time. However I also learned that life in the Big Brother is boring at times as well.

I do remember in past seasons seeing houseguests having something to do namely a board game or something, you can only talk about the same old strategy just so many times and other than that and of course beer pogs or quarters, all they would do is sleep and for feed watchers, watching houseguests sleep sucks.

Specking of alliances, this one you needed a score card for, first you had the Mrs. Robinson alliance with Kail, Zack, Mike and Nick during week one and two, but that went out just as quickly, then the LNC and the LNC 2 and the to the final four alliance/LJC, just so much. One thing I was really surprised with was how much the house hated Jen from Day 2, she cried over her house photo and that was what killed her in the game.

Viewers also saw two romances in the house and while the whole Nick-Daniele thing was interesting to some, to me it was the relationship between Jessica and Eric. That one reminded me of Survivor All-stars with Boston Rob and Amber, they were a powerhouse and had alliances with a couple of people though out, I just wonder if it will turn out the same as Boston Rob and Amber as they got married not to long ago.

In the end, this wasn’t the best season of Big Brother and while at times it was a difficult season to watch, it wasn’t the worst. Well that’s a wrap for another season of Big Brother and I am looking forward to next season and congrats to Dick for winning Big Brother 8.

Finally as I look ahead to next season, I would hope to see the Sho live feed return with a showing for at least three-four hours a night like maybe 11pm-Midnight to 3am EST, board games for the houseguests to play. A little bit better competitions and a new house, I wonder if they could move the location of the house, but mainly a some new interesting twists with America voting, just no America’s Player. One idea might be putting a non-player into the house to live among the houseguests and can’t be voted out…

I leave you with this, I couldn't possibly put everything in this final piece, if you are a regular reader here, you already know most of my thoughts on this season as we went, but if no, just search keyword Big Brother 8 or its in the 2007 July though September archives. I'm out.

From the garage to the pits: The Best Seat in the House in New Hampshire.

A garage and pit hot pass, media parking, access to the media center, victory lane and one incredible seat high atop the #29 Shell-Pennzoil RCR Racing Pitbox for the day is what makes up Shell’s Best Seat in the House for the Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire International Speedway last Sunday.

This is just the experience that this NASCAR fan and blogger took in for the first chase race and what an experience it was. It’s a day like no other for this blogger with a walk though the infield tunnel and up into the infield and down though the parking and campers right into the Cup Series garage area were the seen is a buzz with activity that all leads up to the huge 300 lap race. Walking though the garage with passes and camera in hand and Cup cars being prepared, there it is, the #29 Shell-Pennzoil RCR Chevrolet in its small garage being prepared with its race setup and testing every nut and bolt including once raising the rear-end and supporting it with jack stands and running the engine in drive to test all componients, what a sweet sound that V8 engine is and then its gone, off to the first of three inspection stations.

From there Down around the garage to the what is referred to as the claw to check the templates and then though the height stick and finally on to pitroad for final inspection before placing the car in its starting position on pitroad, meanwhile the rest of crew is going between the hauler, the garage and down pitroad setting up the pitbox and laying out the numerous sets of tires used all in preparation for this one race. During this, the driver is busy off on media and sponsor appearances though out the speedway including up in the suites.

All this time, I explored first in the garage area grabbing photos of the crews working on the cars and then it’s off for a tour of the media center. It’s interesting walking though the media center checking out all of the broadcasts, writers, announcers and more and on the way out getting lunch and an ice tea. Finally on pit road for what is going to be a long exciting day.

Once on pitroad and I’ve grabbed photos of some pit boxes and the 43 car starting lineup, the crowds in the grandstand started to fill-in and its finally 1:30pm. It’s driver intros and just as soon as it’s over with the trales, stage and trucks disappearing, all of the drivers are in there cars. As of the now, pit road is so crowded with thousands of people with hot passes and the #29 crew filling up tires once more, filling the fuel cans and laying out four tires and two cans of fuel for the first pitstop.

Gentelmen start your engines as I take position in the #29 pit just as the green flag flies. Once the first caution flies (which was the competition caution at lap 35), it was the first of many pit stops for the #29 team. However the #29 crew and driver had a lot more going on this day besides just running a race, as it was the first chase for the Nextel Cup Championship, they were also on Directv Hot Pass and were the ABC-ESPN In-car race reports. Shortly after the first pit stop, I would climb the latter on the #29 pitbox right behind the crew chief Todd Barrier. I only stayed up on the pitbox for a short, but it was worth it as the Shell pit was busy with a potential sponsor. Once on top of the pitbox, you can see the entire frontstraight, down into turn 1 and 2 and on the opposite side turns 3 and 4.

What a pitbox, a total of seven TV screens with five being up top with live timing and scoring, Directv and ABC’s NASCAR coverage. In front of me was Todd Barrier and on the other side was a crew member and Kevin’s wife DeLana with one working lap times and the other working pit strategy.

Unfortunately while driving in the top 10, Harvick cut a tire down and had to pit early, but rebound for a while. Once again the #29 pit crew fired off four tires and fuel in less than 14 seconds and Harvick’s off. From what I got to hear on the scanner, Harvick and his crew chief were busy with trying to fix the frontend turning problem for some of the race and being ABC’s in-car reporter.

Following lap 200 it was time for the last pit stop and once again four tires and fuel in less than 14 seconds. Unfortunately Harvick would finish 17th, first car a lap down while his RCR teammate Clint Bowyer dominated the entire field and leading the most laps to capture his first Cup Series victory. In celebration, Clint smoked everyone with huge donuts and off to victory lane.

All in all, what an incredible experience for this huge NASCAR fan and blogger, oh yeah did I mention my father who is also a blogger came with me and as we headed out though the infield tunnel and outside the speedway, we left as we came in with huge smiles.

I would like to thank Shell-Pennzoil with there Best Seat in the House program including Sam and Judy, Shell’s PR company Edelman PR, driver Kevin Harvick, owner Richard Childress and the entire #29 RCR Racing team for letting us be in the pits, we both had a great time and what an experience.

My Take: Dale Jr. will be driving the #88 Mountain Dew, Amp Energy & National Guard Chevrolet for Hendick Motorsports in 2008.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s new colors and car number were revealed at the Dallas Convention Center (Hendrick Motorsports/Autostock photo)

What a year it’s been in the Cup Series if you are a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan which would include my father and I. We started the season off at DEI with hopes of winning races and a golden championship. Then as soon as its started we (the fans) were already hit with contract talks, that’s something to distract a driver and the first of what would be four major announcements sort of speck including first Dale Jr. announcing he is leaving DEI, second joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, third announcing in press releases that he wouldn’t carry either Budweiser or use the #8 next season.

Now we come to today and after months of speculations by the media and fans, today it was announced that Dale Jr. would be driving the #88 Mountain Dew, Amp Energy and National Guard Hendrick Motorsports Chevolet in 2008.

The number is a welcome sign as its double-8’s which one 8 could mean his grandfather Ralph Earnhardt and the second 8 could mean his father Dale Earnhardt number that he used in his early career. It’s the perfect pick for him along with the long history the #88 has including victories with Darrell Waltrip and Dale Jarrett and its his number in the Busch Series.

For the sponsor that some say is worth between $20 to $25 Million Dollars is going to be broken up into two paint schemes with a red number 88. Both cars pictured above looks cool, Dale Jr. had a lot of input and despite a little green on one car, they both look great. Personally I like the Blue and white paint scheme with National Guard on board the best.

Well now all of the speculation has come to rest and its great, now it’s really time to go racing and for Dale Jr. to finish the 2007 season strong with going out and winning races and don’t forget we still have a champion to crown.

If you would like to get caught up on Dale Jr’s past announcements that I have wrote including some of my predictions and updates, check out the list below.

- Leaving DEI.
- Joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.
- Thoughts on him using the number 81
- And the latest including using the number 28 or 81

So what about Budweiser and the number 8, well I understand some might not care, others including myself might be interested in knowing there plans for 2008 as first Budweiser announced that they have signed on with GEM to be a primary sponsor on Kasey Kahne’s #9 machine next season. The car will be red with Bud logo on the hood with on exception, that the logo is more than just Bud. And second for the number 8 will stay at DEI and will be driven by Mark Martin and Aric Almirola with the U.S. Army sponsorship. Enjoy.

Sights set on New Hampshire for first Chase to the Nextel Cup Championship race on Sunday.

Picture taken by me last June at NHIS Saturday event.

The sights are set on tomorrow's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race in Loudon, New Hampshire for the Sylvania 300 as it's the first Chase for the Nextel Cup race.

Congrats to Clint Bowyer on grabbing the pole for the 300, the other chase contenders are starting well throughout the field including Martin Truex jr. will lineup second right behind Bowyer with 3rd is Kurt Busch, 4th is Jimmie Johnson, 6th is Tony Stewart, 8th is Kevin Harvick which he is also the defending winner of this race, 11th is Carl Edwards, 12th is Kyle Busch, 14th is Denny Hamlin, 18th is Jeff Gordon, 23th is Jeff Burton and last, but could be the spoiler for the championship starting 30th is Matt Kenseth. Let's hope for a better start then last year.

Tomorrow's race also marks something big for this racing fan as I will be attending my first Cup Series race and what a place to do it at, I have been going to New Hampshire International Speedway since the late 1990's (1998-1999) but for mainly either Friday's action with the Nextel Cup qualifying and a Busch East event or Saturday's action for Cup practice followed by the Modified Tour and either a Busch Series or Truck Series race. All I can say is I'm excited and look back here next week for my post article on taking in the NASCAR experience.

Looking beyond as next week promises to be huge for NASCAR with two big announcements, first on Tuesday is Kasey Kahne's sponorship announcement which should be Budweiser, the speculation is Bud Light will be on the car, who really knows, either way Budweiser made a good choice after departing as Dale Earnhardt Jr's sponsor at season's end.

Specking of Dale Jr., on Wednesday in Dallas, TX, he is set to make his final announcement on his move from DEI to Hendrick Motorsports next season of his sponsor and car number. Speculation is that the number could be either #81 or #88 with his sponsor being a PepsiCo product - Mountain Dew and Amp Energy Drink for half the season and National Guard on his car for the other half of the season. There is even more out there that DuPont will be involved in someway. Anywhich way, on Wednesday morning, everything hopefully will be made official.

Well I'm off to NHIS to the race.

American Chopper: OCC Intel Chip Chopper

Photo from Flickr

Originally uploaded by medcteam.

It's been a while since I have blogged on one of my favorite television shows American Chopper. I just found a couple of photos of the Intel Chopper that was unvealed at Embedded Systems Conference in Silicon Valley, I really have no idea what ESC is, but the Intel Chip chopper is interesting to look at. On really don't know about the extra large front end with I believe a big front tire, itjust looks a little off in terms of looks, I see where they mounted the on board Intel hand-held computer is a plus, right on the trees. Plus I have to give credit where credit is due on the paint job, but I still return to the front end with the big front tire just throughts me off in the looks category.

Open Wheel racing vs. Road racing in the United States, what a difference…

This time it’s all about the IRL Indy Car Series vs. the Champ Car World Series (formerly known as CART) for Open wheel racing and the American LeMans Series vs. the Grand American Road Racing series in what is commonly referred to as Road racing at least in my eyes.

Starting with the Open wheel racing, the IRL Indy Car series this year has been not all it should be and it’s really not surprising. Thoughout the season, I have picked and watched the races that I wanted to watch which included the Indianapolis 500, ironicly enough the Chicagoland race yesterday was one of the best races all season long only second to the Indianapolis 500 and I will say this, I am proud to say that after a late race shootout, Dario Franchetti has won the race and more importantly the 2007 IRL IndyCar series championship and that’s perfect in my book. What a way to cap off a season for Dario, first the Indy 500 and then the championship…perfect. I have to say that my predictions for this season was a little off, including after the first race, I thought this season would be a wash with a Penske vs. Ganassi duel in victories and Penske would win, it turned out to be Ganassi vs. Andretti-Green Racing and in the end, Ganassi Racing was beat by for an interesting thing, themselves. I like the caption on Motorsport.com under the photo on the right, "It's been a crasy year!"

As for Champ Car, I stopped all together with them as that series continues to race outside of the US, as of now, Champ Car is done in the United States with how boring there races are, although next season could have something…

What about Road racing with first being the American LeMans Series, what a series you have here, LMP1, LMP2, GT1 and GT2, this series does have a could of concerns sort of speck, it’s really unknown to me why there is an LMP1, a LMP2, why not combine both classes or at least give Audi back at least half of what ALMS took away from them at the beginning of season in the amount of fuel and something else. There needs to be competition for the overall victories between Audi and Penske Porshe’s. One thing I have noticed is Corvette racing running unopposited and from one article I read, that wouldn’t happen in 2008, GM-Chevrolet has three choices for 2008, unless another competitor manufacturer enters the GT1, they wouldn’t compete and that would leave Corvette to either GT2 or withdrawal from the entire series. Bottom Line, why not have either two classes being LMP and GT or three classes being LPM1, LMP2 and GT, either way I hope Corvette Racing continues in 2008 even if they are in GT2, besides GT2 is very interesting to watch.

Finally it’s on to the Grand American Road Racing Series that has two classes being the Daytona Prototypes and the GT classes. It’s interesting to watch, but the calls from the officials are terrible at times.

One thought for Road racing in this country would be combining both series at three races being in the 24 hours of Daytona, 12 hours of Sebring and 24 hours of LeMans with two separate championships (one for each series), that would be exciting to watch.

If you look at Open Wheel Racing and then Road racing in the United States, one thing that some may not know is both have similar histories, the IRL and Champ Car was created after a split of the series years ago and ironicly the same can be said for Road racing as a split creates Grand-Am and the American LeMans series, but that’s were the similar histories end as there is only room for one large open wheel series here and on the other hand, maybe two road racing series

The latest on Dale Earnhardt Jr’s year that is including using the #28 or #81 at Hendrick Motorsports in 2008!

What a year its been in the Cup Series if you are a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan which would include my father and I and its not over yet. We started the season off at DEI with hopes of winning races and a golden championship. Then as soon as its started fans were already hit with contract talks, that’s something to distract a driver and the first of what would be four major announcements sort of speck.

The first announcement came earlier this year in May when Dale Jr. called a press conference to announce that the contract talks have been stopped and he would be leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc.. Beyond that there were no details including his new home, number (except for that he would like to keep the number 8 if possible…). From there all that followed was more and more rumors and speculations of just were he would end up and one included RCR driving either the #8 or #33, interesting.

A month later (June), Dale Jr. called a second press conference to announce were he would be driving in 2008 and beyond, beyond being 5 years… His new home would be the man who said “There’s no room at the inn.”, yeah Hendrick Motorsports. As you could expect that was meet with mixed responses, he would become Jimmie 's and one of the most talked about men in the Cup Series, Jeff Gordon’s teammate. In the end, from my look at it, I’m not to thrilled with Dale Jr. being Gordon’s teammate, but Hendrick Motorsports is the best and that’s just were he should be. Perfect match.

Following that, speculation would continue to run ramped with all eyes on his number and sponsor and then welcome a press release stating that DEI wouldn’t let Dale Jr. use the #8 in 2008 and beyond, later it came out the DEI’s owner wanted part of the revenues involved in the number 8 and that was that. I have also heard some about Teresa owning naming rights to Dale Earnhardt Jr., he needs to get full control over that more than anything else. A couple days later, the news story broke that Hendrick Motorsports had put in trademark application for the numbers #38, #51, #58, #81 and #82 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office throughout July and August.

Since than Hendrick Motorsports has released a driver lineup, in 2008 Casey Mears would move from the #25 team to the #5 team with Kellogg’s as a sponsor which to me is a good move and that would put Dale Jr. with the #25 team (New number) with Tony Eury Jr. signing a multi-year deal as his crew chief. Eury Jr. had always wanted to work at Hendrick, what a match. So the latest says that Dale Jr. will be driving the #81 with his sponsor being a PepsiCo product (most likely being Mountain Dew) half of the time and National Guard the other half.

To top it all off, just released that Hendrick that filed one more number with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office being the #28. David Poole reported that Yates did not have the number 28 and “It’s his if NASCAR lets them have it,” Yates said. Welcome the leading number in the Dale Jr. number search, #28, that works for me with the number 81 as his second choice.

Now all Dale Jr. fans can do is wait for the final press conference were Dale Jr. will hopefully announce his new car number and sponsor. I'm thinking... for the number, #28 (that would be perfect) or the #81 as a second choice. The sponsor, hearing it would be a PepsiCo Product – Mountain Dew for half the season and National Guard for the other half. As for color, with either black with some green or Dale Jr. said he would like a white car (some of his major victories has ben in a white car including Daytona 500 and 2001 Pepsi 400 at Daytona), may be with a little red mixed in. That works for me.

Hearing anywhere from 2 weeks to the first week of November for this final announcement and just remember there is a racing season going on here too and even though Dale Jr. isn't in the chase, he can still do what Tony Stewart did last year after not making the chase and just go and win races, that celabration in its own. What's Next?

What does it take to get a game in the Big Brother 8 house?

What an interesting and action-packed night where two houseguests and my two favorites were evicted, but before I get into the night that was for America, what about the week that was?

What a title that I have come with, not really, Eric said, as a matter of fact, a couple of houseguests have said this all week long and I have to say what a weeks its been, purely boring, why doesn’t Big Brother gives these houseguests some games, you can only play quarters or what ever so many times and talk about the same s*** over and over again and to top it off, last night, lets just say watching Daniele sit in the same chair for most of the week with only her close changing just stinks.

If Big Brother is looking for something big to happen even if they give the HG’s 10 beers, they will not see it. In past years, I do remember the houseguests getting some type of games or something to do, it’s no fun watching houseguests sleep and considering the fact that I only subscribe to the After Dark feed on Sho, that is terrible, what is up with this season?

Let’s move past a lot of that and considering before the show I wanted Jameka and Zach to go to the Jury House, well you know…

Finally the live eviction show and I was shocked by the outcome and in other ways, no, boy I understand that this is a game, but what a way to put it, the final four alliance has been kicked to the curb just that fast and I have to say so will the new alliance between Dick and Daniele with Zach work and for how long. Up till now, I have been surprised with some of the outcomes, but tonight wow, I now can honestly say that one, Zach really does know how to play this game and if he needs to, he can and does win competitions and here I thought he couldn’t do much except tell stupid stories. Two, Dick and Daniele can’t say that they keep there promises and three, damn.

So here’s how it went down, after a vote of 2-1, Jessica was evicted and then it was off to the backyard for the remaining houseguests with a little before and after HOH competition were Dick won and America told Eric to get Daniele nominated, yeah like that was going to happen and just that quickly Jameka and Eric were nominated and on through the veto competition and meeting were Zach won and let’s just leave it at that. By the time the night was over, Eric was walking out of the Big Brother house without his stuff. I believe Eric in what he said to Julie and all I can think is here’s this guy who knowledge of Big Brother is huge and what a hand he was dealt, he did good, plus he walked away with $40,000 and maybe something more and on the other hand, I believe his game would have been different with the America’s Player and so would have Jessica’s, like I said before, America’s Player should have been an option.

At the this point, Jessica and Eric have been evicted and now I a look at the final four, Dick, Daniele, Zach and Jameka, maybe Daniele should win, other than that I am looking forward to next season with hopefully a better look to the game. I’m out, what’s next?

Bristol, California and the race to chase, is it over?

The caption reads "Carl Edwards grabs first Cup Series career short track victory at Bristol while Jimmie Johnson has trouble, One week later, Jimmie Johnson would rebound and win again in California." Image by Action Sports Photography at Motorsport.com.

What an interesting headline going into one of the hottest races of the year, Richmond, racing under the lights and it’s the final race to make the chase, but unlike past years, this year’s race to the chase may all be all but over for the chase contenders. Most of the field has been locked in, its basically 11th, 12th and 13th that still don’t know where they will be when the Richmond race is over, but let’s face it, I said it at the beginning of the season and I will say it again, 12 spots for the chase doesn’t really work, could you image if there was only 10 spots open for the chase going into the Richmond, that would be a battle.

So before I get to Richmond, what about the highly talked about Bristol Nextel Cup race after the repaving… Let’s look at this, both the Truck Series race on Wednesday night with Johnny Benson winning and the Busch Series race with Kasey Kahne winning were both good races and going into the cup race, everyone was excited, this is going to be good.

Bristol, Cup race – After this race, I had mixed feelings, basically the Saturday night Cup race was like the days of the asphalt surface, before the concrete was laid in 1992, you know racing all over the track, high, low, in the middle, the Harry Gant rim riding days and the Darrell waltrip winning days. But what most fans remember now is the concrete days, one lane and the drivers must use there bumpers to make a pass, tons of cautions and the famous yet controversal bump and run move used by Jeff Gordon to pass Rusty Wallace.

Now with the new concrete and the varible banking, those asphalt surface type racing returned and that made some fans say its not Bristol, well its Bristol, but it’s the pre-1992 Bristol age where you can make passes in any lane without knocking others out of the way. Basically, all in all, I still enjoyed the race, it was good. Just consider a couple of this, by the time next August’s race comes around, the track will have aged and they should be running a softer tire, the races yet again could change, wait till then, you might be surprised…

In between these races, I've been waiting to hear more on the AT&T vs. NASCAR & Sprint court battle.

I will never understand this one, I can't even imagine when Cingular signed a sponsorship deal with RCR and NASCAR back in 2003, that they would be fighting for there identity a couple years later in 2007 just to put there AT&T sponsorship (AT&T purchased Cingular and the rights to the sponsorship) on the #31 RCR Chevrolet. From Bristol on, there is no sponorship decals on the #31, despite AT&T is still paying the bills. I want the #31 AT&T Chevy to say it on and off the track including the uniforms and transporter, this is wrong. I will talk more about this is a couple weeks in my article "My Take" on NASCAR Racing: Now and the Future."

Last night’s California Cup race, why are we here on labor day weekend, I don’t like this move at all, I haven’t liked this since NASCAR announced it a couple years ago, there in there biggest market and they can’t even sell the seats out (92,100 seats). Bottom Line, even though there was side-by-side racing, I just didn’t enjoy most of this race, combine that with the fact I live on the east coast, the time was bad too, racing at midnight, damn, I feel asleep.

What about the Busch race, after 1am east coast time and they were still racing, I was on a tape delay with my DVR, so I watched the American Lemans race untill 12:30am, then watched the busch race in its entirely and by the time it was over, I was too.

Finally looking at the race to the chase, it’s not over yet, 128 points back in 13th is Dale Jr., its going to take something big to put him in the chase period. With that said, foor dale Jr., its simple, do the same thing Tony Stewart did last season when he didn’t make the chase, go out and win, forget about points and win races. Now its on to Richmond under the lights racing and one of favorite , now that’s cool and then NASCAR comes my way to New Hampshire and I will be there either Friday, Saturday or Sunday…

What type of DVR do you have and what’s on it?

What an interesting age we live in, a couple years ago just before Christmas, I noticed that my cable company (that shall be nameless) had combo cable box and DVR which I can tape two recordings including two digital channels and watch another pre-recorded program and the deal was for around $13-14 per month and nothing to purchase, so I figured why not get one. So basically up till now I have had my problems with it a couple of times, you know software deal and for one reason or another had to call tech support. Basically you can’t get really upset because if you have a problem, just bring it to one of there centers and exchange it free of charge, not bad and while you are out, get some other stuff done too.

But recently I have grown tired with it and although it works fine, I would like some upgrades, one being software and others including more tapings than 24 hours worth, something around 40-80 or bigger. So as it stands now, I am exploring the small options of something different and really there’s only one, Tivo… Let me get this straight, I can’t get away from at least $12.95 to $16.95 per month expense, plus I now would have to purchase a new box (ah… new box, what a concept…) and you have to get the dual tuner, so what is a person to do.

So what should I do considering I tape regularly and that includes two digital channels at once, well that puts the series2 DT out of reach, but that leaves either a Tivo HD or a Series3 with something called a cablecard, I wonder if that would be an option around Christmas? Wonder what that cablecard costs? As it stands for me right now, I am going to stick with my current cable DVR, but it would be nice to consider upgrading.

This all leads me to this question, Are you using a DVR and what type is it? Does anyone know what a cable card costs?

Now, I’ve been asked (by a posting on TVSquad.com), what do I have on my DVR?

That’s easy, it all depends on the day/week and season, but over all… Anything from Big Brother, Survivor, Burn Notice, Living with Ed, The Girls Next Door, Ice Road Truckers, Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, a couple of Real Estate type shows, American Chopper, Overhaulin, NASCAR shows, Automotive show to movies that I taped off of movie channels. Like I said it all depends on the season, day and week.

How about everyone else, what’s on your DVR?