Happy President's Day! I watched a lot of racing this weekend on TV, so now I am stoked up and ready to go for some live and in-person action. The problem is that just about the whole freakin' country is covered with snow right now so it may be a long time before we get to see anything around here.
http://www.intellicast.com/Travel/Weather/Snow/Cover.aspx
I was very entertained watching the Daytona 500 and the two hour and twenty-five minutes worth of delays for the pothole didn't bother me too much as I just jumped over to the two hours worth of coverage from the Chili Bowl that I had DVR'd when Speed aired it again at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. This 500 saw more different race leaders than any other and with Dale Jr. making a frantic charge it made for quite an exciting finish. Watching Jamie McMurray's emotional victory lane interview put a nice finishing touch on the day and I really loved it when his wife stepped in and simply said "Hi". My son Kyle now lives in McMurray's hometown of Joplin, Missouri, but he did not report any dancing in the streets there last evening.
Every time I start to join the majority of racing fans by liking Mark Martin he goes and makes a statement that puts him back on my whiners list. In an interview that I saw on ESPN this morning Martin was stating that he didn't like the additional attempts at trying to finish the race under green because it causes more wrecks, "but that's what the fans want". No Mark, the fans don't want to see more wrecks, the fans want to see a race finish under a green flag. This is not the first time that Martin has painted the fans out as being blood-thirsty goons as it seems to be a regular observation of his after any restrictor-plate race where things didn't turn out so well for him. I have written on a couple of occasions here on the blog, and even more in my Hawkeye Racing News column that it amazes me how the Cup drivers seem to have no conscience when it comes to tearing up equipment while racing the final laps of the restrictor plate races, but on Sunday I thought they actually behaved themselves pretty good and the fans got what they wanted, and waited to see. A thrilling finish under green flag conditions. It was a great start to a very important year for NASCAR.
I thought Danica Patrick did pretty well for herself on Saturday during the Nationwide event. Anybody who expected her to be running up front and who are now bashing her for not doing so must have been delusional to begin with. I am interested to see how she does out in California this week and that is what people need to realize where the value of Danica-mania lies. Normally I would care less about the Nationwide race at California, heck I really haven't been that interested in the Cup race from there either, but now I am looking forward to watching both. One, because Danica is racing on Saturday, and two because I enjoyed watching the Daytona 500.
Sticking with Daytona, I almost turned off the Truck race after the first lap accident that wiped out the efforts of the two drivers I was most interested in, Landon Cassill and Jennifer Cobb. I'm glad I stuck with though! Yes, it was a demolition derby (that's not why I kept watching though Mark!), but when they were racing the action was furious including a thrilling finish (under green Mark) where ten trucks were within a half second of each other. Timothy Peters, a name that I wasn't really familiar with, took the win and yes, because of this race I will be paying more attention to the Truck Series.......at least for a little bit.
To the dirt now, Speedweeks wrapped for the Late Models on Saturday night as Brady Smith picked up the World of Outlaws main event at Volusia Speedway Park and he will leave Florida with the points lead over Josh Richards and Earl Person Jr. after the first two events. Actually they will all return to Florida for the next event on the schedule March 19th at Ocala Speedway. Brian Birkhofer bounced back with an 11th-place run on Saturday night that leaves him tied for 25th in the points. Not sure if that will be enough to convince him to follow the WoO series as a regular as he mentioned earlier in the week, but we'll see. Decorah's Tyler Bruening ran fifth in the second consi while Dubuque's Joel Callahan hit the wall just past the flagstand and tipped over onto his roof during the fourth heat race. Callahan escaped uninjured.
The UMP Modifieds were only able to get in one of their three scheduled nights of action at the North Florida Speedway in Lake City and it was St. Louis area driver Tommie Seets Jr. who picked up the win on Thursday night. Quincy regular Dave Wietholder ran fifth. The full feature results follow:
Thursday North Florida Speedway Results
1.#1s TOMMY SEETS JR 2.#182 RANDAL SWEENEY 3.#33 JEFF MATTHEWS 4.#72 RANDAL NEIHEISER 5.#05 DAVE WIETHOLDER 6.#1g DEVIN GILPIN 7.#18 DAVID MCWILLIAMS 8.#7 RICKY CULPEPPER 9.#115 ROBERT MOORE 10.#JEFF CULPEPPER 11.#25w RICKY WHITE 12.#25 HERB DONATH 13.#1b JOEY BRINSON 14.#94 JEFF BADGENT 15.#41d DORRAN SMITH 16.3l JEFF LEKA 17.#10X DAVE PONTON 18.#44 JOSH SANFORD 19.#5r DOUG RODGERS 20.#51 JEFF SWEENEY 21.40g JAMES SMITH 22.#12rRICK CLARK 23.#07 JEFF THOMAS 24.#12j JOE CARR
The coverage of the Chili Bowl was fantastic and I also enjoyed watching the delayed broadcasts of the Lucas Oil Late Model Series events from Bardstown and Portsmouth this weekend. One of the things I like to do is listen to the commentators to see if they slip up by saying something that reveals that they are more often than not adding in their comments in the production studio well after the event is over. Do they say something that they want to sound profound, like "keep your eye on so and so as he really likes to ride the cushion" of course already knowing that ol' so and so rides that cushion to the front to take the win? It cannot be an easy thing to do, trying to call a race as if you have no idea who is going to wreck and who is going to win. On the three shows that I saw this weekend, the only thing that I caught that would prove that the comments were laid in after the fact was when Ken Stout saw a car pulling into the infield in the background of the shot and said there's a another competitor pulling to the infield, but I'm not sure who that is right now. Of course if he would have been in a booth at the race calling it live, he would have had no trouble seeing who the car was that pulled into the infield. Not being critical here, like I said it cannot be an easy thing to do, but it's just another fun way to enjoy these delayed broadcasts of dirt track racing.
That's it for now, here are your All Florida Late Model points following Speedweeks
1 Scott Bloomquist Mooresburg TN 17
2 Josh Richards Shinnston WV 14
3 Earl Pearson Jr. Jacksonville FL 13
4 Dan Schlieper Sullivan WI 11
5 Billy Moyer Batesville AR 9
6 Don O'Neal Martinsville IN 9
7 Jimmy Owens Newport TN 9
8 Shannon Babb Mowequa IL 9
9 Tim McCreadie Watertown NY 9
10 Brady Smith Solon Springs WI 8
11 Dennis Erb Jr. Carpentersville IL 7
12 Darrell Lanigan Union KY 5
13 Mike Marlar Winfield TN 5
14 Dale McDowell Rossville GA 4
15 Ray Cook Brasstown NC 4
16 Brian Birkhofer Muscatine IA 3
17 Brad Neat Dunville KY 3
18 Eric Jacobsen Seacliff CA 3
19 Matt Miller Waterville OH 3
20 Tim Dohm Cross Lanes WV 2
21 Jimmy Mars Elk Mound WI 1
22 Rick Eckert York PA 1
23 Steve Francis Ashland KY 1
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