HTGTH 2009 Nascar Yahoo Fantasy League

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Great win for Tony Stewart today. I'm hoping ESPN will re-air the race tonight like they did with last weeks race. 


Update: Garry, ESPN Classic is re-airing the race tonight at 8:00p.m. C.T. 

Good win for Smoke yesterday. 

As I was watching the race yesterday, the program scheduled for ESPN Classic at the same time was the race that was supposed to have taken place on Sunday! 

Junior.....he should retire already.

[Drew]

Junior.....he should retire already.

Dale Jr. has some serious issues. Hendrick should go ahead and find a good road course driver to replace Dale Jr. for both races next year. And if he starts to show improvement in some non-NASCAR road races, than he can get back in the car and race Sonoma and Watkins Glen. The only problem is the sponsors would go ballistic!

[Drew]

Kevin Harvick wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway!

Harvick dominates at AMS for Nationwide victory

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Kevin Harvick passed polesitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the next-to-last lap and pulled away to win Saturday night's Degree V12 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his second Nationwide win this season and the 34th of his career.

Kyle Busch, who also passed Earnhardt on Lap 194 of 195, ran second and padded his Nationwide Series points lead from 192 to 221 on second-place Carl Edwards, who completed the race despite fracturing two bones in his right foot playing Frisbee on Wednesday. Edwards finished seventh, one lap down.

After pitting for the last time on Lap 125, Earnhardt saved enough fuel to make it to the end of the race but couldn't stay ahead of Busch and Harvick, who came to the pits for four tires and gas on Lap 181 and 182, respectively.

Brad Keselowski came home fourth, followed by Jeff Burton and Joey Logano.

"Kyle was a little better on the short runs there, but after about eight or 10 laps, this thing was just flat-out awesome," Harvick said of his No. 33 Chevrolet, which led 131 laps. "We cut it a little bit closer than I would have liked to there at the end. ...

"It was nice to race the No. 18 [Busch] head-to-head like that and have fun with him. I really thought everybody had to pit. Just a great night for the fans who came out to watch the race -- Dale Jr. on strategy, Kyle good on short runs and us good after about 10 laps -- so you had all kinds of that good Atlanta racing [Saturday]."

Earnhardt credited his crew, which included former crew chief Tony Eury Jr. in a consulting role, with a good call in the pits.

"We saved enough gas, and we finished closer to them two guys than we were on the race track," Earnhardt said. "So I guess it was the right call. We just didn't have enough at the end to hold them off. I tried to get going when they were coming. ... Hopefully we put on a good show for the fans out there."

Harvick held a lead of more than six seconds when NASCAR called the third caution of the race on Lap 124 because of debris in Turn 2, ending a green-flag run of 79 laps. At that point, there were five cars on the lead lap.

Busch, however, won the race off pit road after the lead-lap cars pitted for tires and fuel under yellow. After a restart on Lap 129, he and Harvick battled side-by-side for five laps, before Busch edged ahead and stayed out front until Lap 147.

Harvick's car, however, was stronger on long runs, and the driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet passed Busch for the lead with 48 laps left and began to pull away. His lead had reached more than seven seconds when he pulled into the pits on Lap 182.

Degree V12 300 results:      
1.    Kevin Harvick    Chevrolet 
2.    Kyle Busch    Toyota
3.    Dale Earnhardt Jr.    Chevrolet
4.    Brad Keselowski    Chevrolet 
5.    Jeff Burton    Chevrolet 
6.    Joey Logano    Toyota
7.    Carl Edwards    Ford
8.    Greg Biffle    Ford
9.    David Ragan    Ford
10.    Reed Sorenson    Chevrolet

Source: http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/bg/09/05/post.race.kharvick.wins.atlanta2/index.html
***************************

It was also good to see Dale Jr. win the pole for the Atlanta grand national race! 

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

I hope that translates into results in Winston Cup.

[Drew]

Garry, have you heard the news regarding Danica? What's your opinion?

ESPN: Danica coming to NASCAR, partnering with Tony Stewart

By Jay Busbee

Here's some bombshell news tucked in the midst of a college football-heavy Saturday night: ESPN is reporting that Danica Patrick is coming to NASCAR after all.

According to the report, Danica will run multiple events in NASCAR's Nationwide Series, the final step before the premier Sprint Cup level. ESPN's Ed Hinton cited an unnamed source who indicated Danica "all but certainly" will run in NASCAR in 2010, in both the Nationwide and trucks series, but will continue to run in Indy cars as well.

Further adding fuel to the fire, the source indicated that Tony Stewart is the "star candidate" to help in Danica's transition to NASCAR, which would seem to indicate that those visitsback in the summer weren't just a polite how-do-you-do.

Stewart offered the following quote: "I can pretty much guarantee at some point she's going to be over here." In and of itself, that quote doesn't mean anything; everyone reading this can "pretty much guarantee" that Danica will be racing in the higher profile of NASCAR. But Hinton is making the connection between this and his anonymous source's comments. Since he's got substantial history as a motorsports reporter, you've got to give him a bit more credit than you would a quick-hit reporter off the street. And there's more to the story:

"She doesn't have some misguided idea that it's going to be easy," Stewart added. "She wants to do it the right way. She has the intention of doing everything right." Danica, according to Hinton's source, would run a number of Nationwide races while not leaving Indy until she was certain success was probable in NASCAR. Interestingly, as Hinton notes, that's the exact same path to NASCAR Stewart himself took in 1998, running a full IRL schedule and 22 Nationwide races.

And, just to pin the "speculation" meter in the red, it's worth noting that Stewart-Haas Racing, Smoke's team, does not have a presence in Nationwide. Coincidentally enough, one Nationwide team just lost its driver -- the one owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior, Smoke and Danica -- now there's a NASCAR Dream Team. (Remember: speculation.)

Again, let's remember this whole story deserves to have a big SPECULATION label on it until we hear anything from the principals -- remember, Danica was supposed to be re-signed to Andretti Green Racing in the Indy League by now. And for a story of this magnitude, it seems odd that ESPN isn't splashing this everywhere, even in the midst of the inaugural college football weekend. But if this story does hold merit, and there's enough smoke here -- no pun intended -- to indicate a fire somewhere, this is absolutely the ideal way for both Danica and NASCAR to get exactly what they want -- exposure and experience.

UPDATE: Danica had this to say on her Twitter feed about 10:30 a.m. Eastern: "The rumors are flying about nascar!....I did talk to Tony and he is a great guy. We are looking at nascar as I have always said." So there you go.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/ESPN-Danica-coming-to-NASCAR-partnering-with-T;_ylt=An6lpauzCR90GQ16B8dIGnXov7YF?urn=nascar,187496

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

My opinion is that she will generate tons of excitement and press for NASCAR via some SPECTACULAR WRECKS! 

[Drew]

My opinion is that she will generate tons of excitement and press for NASCAR via some SPECTACULAR WRECKS! 

I think she will struggle big time and it will be a short run for her!

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

My opinion is that she will generate tons of excitement and press for NASCAR via some SPECTACULAR WRECKS! 

I think she will struggle big time and it will be a short run for her!

She stinks running the go-carts, what makes her think she can handle real cars?

[Drew]

She stinks running the go-carts, what makes her think she can handle real cars?

Your exactly right. She's not even at the top of the Indy level. She's won one race which was entirely a fluke and she doesn't even finish at the top of the point standings at the end of the year. What's really killed her supposed "talent" is when IRL and CART merged a couple of years ago. Now she has twice the competition to have to deal with every week. Does she not see how much Sam Hornish Jr. has struggled, and see how fast Dario Franchitti went back to Indy? The only thing that is promising for her is the backing of people and organizations like Tony Stewart and Chevrolet.

[Drew]

Sam Hornish has improved a lot this year.

He was my favorite IRL driver when he was driving the #4 Pennzoil Chevy.

Danica is too arrogant for someone with such little driving talent.  She gets into all these fights because none of the male drivers will dare lay a finger on her.

Sam Hornish has improved more and more every year but it has been a very difficult struggle. Like you said, Danica is arrogant and I just don't see her having the patience to learn the NASCAR technique of racing. She does use her "being a female" to her advantage and yes she knows that one can ever push back or punch back cause she's a girl and the media would crucify any driver who did.

[Drew]

Good win for Mark Martin on Sunday.

In a way, I'm pulling for Tony Stewart to win the Championship but with Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Mark Martin all with a shot, there's an excellent chance a driver of a Chevrolet will win the Championship.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Junior got wrecked by a Toyota driver.  He easily had another top 5 run going.

It's so cool to see Mark Martin win.  If he hadn't been racing those crappy Fords all his career, he may have had Jeff Gordon-like numbers.

Cryle didn't make the chase, I'm happy.

[Drew]

Junior got wrecked by a Toyota driver.  He easily had another top 5 run going.

It's so cool to see Mark Martin win.  If he hadn't been racing those crappy Fords all his career, he may have had Jeff Gordon-like numbers.

Cryle didn't make the chase, I'm happy.

Yeah, Dale Jr. had a good run but as usual...not a good finish.

Your right about Mark Martin and if he had been in a Chevrolet and organization such as Hendrick all those years.

Funny about Kyle not making the chase. He starts off hot and cools towards the end. 

[Drew]

Good win for Tony Stewart this past Sunday in Kansas. 

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Good win for Tony Stewart this past Sunday in Kansas. 

Haha, and here I come in, sounding like a broken record...

Damn that pit crew of Junior's!

Damn those faulty parts!

#(#@&(&(@&)!)!@#@$_%*$)_!!!!  I hate this year!

[Drew]

NASCAR reveals names of first Hall of Fame class

France Sr. and Jr., Petty, Earnhardt, Johnson honored

By Official Release
October 14, 2009
06:53 PM EDT

NASCAR on Wednesday announced the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame that includes: Dale Earnhardt, Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., Junior Johnson and Richard Petty.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel, consisting of members of the Nominating Committee along with 29 others representing NASCAR, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, major race track ownership groups, retired drivers, owners and crew chiefs along with motorsports media representatives, met in a closed session in Charlotte, N.C. to vote on the Induction Class of 2010.

The Hall of Fame will bring NASCAR's history to life and preserves that history in the appropriate environments. The facility will allow fans to have the opportunity to relive the sport's greatest moments.

The class was determined by the 51 votes cast by the panel and the nationwide fan vote conducted through NASCAR.COM. The accounting firm of Ernst & Young presided over the tabulation of the votes.

The Class of 2010 will be officially inducted in a ceremony on May 23, 2010 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.

The results of the voting for the final five chosen in this inaugural class proved competitive. Also receiving votes were David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison.

As part of the inclusive voting process, more than 670,000 NASCAR fans submitted votes online at NASCAR.COM as part of the fan voting process. This remarkable fan feedback once again demonstrates fans' passion and knowledge of the sport and its heritage. The fans voted Petty, Earnhardt, France Sr., Yarborough and Allison as their top five.

The nominees included many of the sport's legendary names:

Bobby Allison, Buck Baker, Red Byron, Richard Childress, Dale Earnhardt, Richie Evans, Tim Flock, Bill France Jr., Bill France Sr., Rick Hendrick, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Bud Moore, Raymond Parks, Benny Parsons, David Pearson, Lee Petty, Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts, Herb Thomas, Curtis Turner, Darrell Waltrip, Joe Weatherly, Glen Wood and Cale Yarborough.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame broke ground in Charlotte on Jan. 25, 2007 and will open May 11, 2010. The facility honors the history and heritage of NASCAR and the many who have contributed to the success of NASCAR.

Source: http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/features/10/14/hall.of.fame.first.class/index.html

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

More bad luck for Junior!

[Drew]

More bad luck for Junior!

Is this what your referring too?

McGrew to stay with Earnhardt in 2010
http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news;_ylt=AlcJVd8R45N_oq4DGITA3ZHov7YF?slug=ap-nascar-earnhardt-mcgrew&prov=ap&type=lgns

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

More bad luck for Junior!

Is this what your referring too?

McGrew to stay with Earnhardt in 2010
http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news;_ylt=AlcJVd8R45N_oq4DGITA3ZHov7YF?slug=ap-nascar-earnhardt-mcgrew&prov=ap&type=lgns

I wasn't, but it all makes sense!

My favorite track is up next.

[Drew]

My favorite track is up next.

Talladega baby!

Qualifying was rained out today but Sunday's weather forecast is looking very nice right now!