Thursday, August 30, 2007

Bowyer Happy to be Sitting 9th

He may not have any Cup wins, but Clint Bowyer is sitting pretty heading into this weeks race. He is currently in 9th place, 223 points ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. who is in 13th. The top 12 make the year end Chase.

Bowyer says he is aware of his place and will drive to keep his position. Bowyer to me is one of the pleasant surprises of the year.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Dale Jr. Appears To Be On The Outside Looking In - 8/28/07 Column

With two races remaining Dale Earnhardt Jr. is apparently going to fall short in his effort to make The Chase again this year. Is this becoming a yearly event, or with his change of teams taking affect next year will Earnhardt Jr. have a new lease on life?

He may have finished fifth at Bristol, but he still remains more than 150 points behind the 12th spot in the Nextel Cup Chase now held down by Kurt Busch.

In an interview following the race at Bristol, Earnhardt Jr. didn't seem that upset with the possibility of not being able to gain entry into The Chase he instead stressed the importance of winning a race this season and moving on.

I believe Dale Jr. deserves another pass for this season. Next season however Earnhardt Jr. is on the clock. Next year there will be no excuses. His Stepmom won't be looking over his shoulder and he will be part of a dream team with the best of everything.

Jr. fans don't get down with this disappointing season, instead expect big things to come and in the immortal words of Chicago Cub's fans, "Wait til next year."

Sunday, August 26, 2007

I Want To Hear From You

Feel free to send your questions and comments to me on NASCAR, The Chase or anything you are curious about. E-mail me directly at Rick.Limpert@gmail.com.

Edwards Gets Second Victory of the Year

Carl Edwards earned his second victory of 2007 by winning the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Saturday night. Edwards dominated most of the evening and defeated Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fifth, but remains in 13th, one spot out of The Chase. Two more races remain before The Chase Field of 12 is set.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Not A Misprint: Kahne Wins and ESPN Drops The Ball

Kasey Kahne held off a late race surge by Jason Leffler to win Friday Night's Busch Race at Bristol.

We saw Kahne celebrating in Victory Lane and that is all we saw of Kahne's victory as ESPN lost its satellite feed of the race with about 3 laps to go. After the race ESPN did reair the final laps so we had visual proof of Kahne's victory.

Drivers were pretty much in agreement that the improved resurfacing of the track is great for racing at Bristol.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Racing for the Chase



With his win on Tuesday Kurt Busch moved into the Chase, now sitting in 12th place.

It will be a mad dash to the Chase from this point on, Bristol should be real interesting.


Here are the drivers and their spots that could change either good or bad heading into this weekend.



8.
Kyle Busch
2881
+157
9.
Clint Bowyer
2779
+55
10.
Kevin Harvick
2773
+49
11.
Martin Truex Jr.
2757
+33
12.
Kurt Busch
2724
---
13.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
2561
-163
14.
Ryan Newman
2553
-171

Burton Must Remove "AT&T" from Car

It is not the most interesting story, but it is a story nonetheless. I'm just about sick of it and I don't even understand the whole thing, but a District Court Judge has now ruled that Childress Racing must take the AT&T logo off the #31 car starting with this weeks race at Bristol.

In short, Cingular, the sponsor Burton had on the car at the start of the year was "grandfathered in" and was allowed to remain a sponsor even though Nextel/Sprint are the sole telecommunications company allowed to have their logo displayed in any NASCAR arena.

Cingular merged into AT&T and now having an AT&T logo for the remainder of the year is too much for Nextel/Spring and NASCAR to handle. While Cingular was ok, AT&T is too much of a competitior for Nextel/Sprint ti have in close proximity.

It will be interesting to see what Childress Racing and Burton have on the car this weekend.