I'm back!!!

Yea, I was going to post everyday using my cell phone but do you realize how hard it is to type out the text messages? And it's kind of hard to write about stuff when you have no idea what's going on in the NASCAR world.

But I guess I didn't miss too much last weekend, I did listen to the first seven laps on the radio, which was of course till he blew an engine :(

Anyway, I wasn't the only Marlin fan around when I was gone!!!!! I was at a barn and they owner's husband is a Sterling fan. I was in her house standing in the living room and I see a #40 die cast, so I asked her about it and she said her husband is a Sterling fan! :) That was a pretty cool coincidence I thought. We had some opportunities to talk about NASCAR, and he told me today that Sterling had an all black car (but that's a different story), and where he qualified and stuff. I have never, ever met another Sterling fan outside of a race, although once I saw one at Wal-Mart, but they were in a car leaving. I dunno, I just thought that was kind of cool.

I have a lot of venting to do concerning the sponosorship issue. I'm also sad about Sterling almost for surely being part time next year (if you haven't heard, I'll explain later, and sorry for just dropping it like that, but we've all known for a while deep down). I'll get to that tommorrow, the truck race is on ;)

Qualifying

I missed it on TV because usually SPEED is about 5 mins behind, but yesterday it was on time. So I listend to it on the radio and watched PitCommand. The announcers said that it wasn't pretty, but he qualifyed 20th which is pretty good considering he was 31st in practice. No winner has ever come from further back than 13th though, but we might be able to squeeze a top ten out of this if he stays out of trouble. Too bad I won't be able to see it :(

NASCAR sues ATandT

It's AT&T, I know, but Blogger won't let me put the & sign.

So NASCAR filed a suit against AT&T for $100 million, and the right to ban all telecommunications companies other than Nextel in 2008. This suit makes pretty much no since, because as we know all Cingular did was change their name to AT&T, it's not a new company or anything. There's even talks of the Nextel cup changing to the Sprint cup, how is that any different from Cingular changing to AT&T?!?! In Nextel's defense though, they're not doing anything wrong, because from their business standpoint they want to get all the exclusivity they can. What's wrong is NASCAR allowing them to do this, and NASCAR getting into this. NASCAR should want as many sponsors to come into the sport as they can get, and by trying to band all other telecommunications companies, they're digging their own grave. This isn't the only time NASCAR has done something like this. Remember the Sunoco/Shell thing? On NASCAR's website Sunoco is listed as the official fuel of NASCAR. Guess how many other official so-and-sos there are? I counted 54. Now if Sunoco can try and take legal action against shell, does that mean the others can do the same? Pedigree is the official dog food of NASCAR, so if Purina One wants to sponsor a car, would Pedigree take legal action against them?

Think about it. 54 different categories is a lot, and if all the official sponsors try to gain exclusivity, NASCAR is going to only be left with those 54 sponsors, because no other sponsors will be able to come in.

So NASCAR, don't dig your own grave and ban sponsors, because if you do win this suit, then the other official sponsors will follow the same route and you'll be left with nothing.

Some things I failed to mention

So it seems that even with my detailed notes (yea, I take notes during the race) I missed a few things. It happens when you have to run downstairs to watch the race on TV but then back up stairs to watch Sterling.

One of the reasons he finished 20th was the pit cycle. He had to make a late pit stop and not everyone else did. I missed that not everyone else did because at that point I wasn't listening to the radio or watching TV. Also, when they tightened the car at the end it got super tight, instead of just kind of tight like they wanted.

Some bad news...

Really, it's not that bad. But I have to apologize, because next week I will not be able to write a post-race report. If I have any Sterling fan that reads this, then really that's probably why. So I urge you, my single reader that may or may not exist, to not abandon me! I'm going to be gone from the 23rd to the 30th without internet or TV access, so I won't be able to see what goes on with Sterling, or even see the race at all.

I DO NOT like to miss races, in fact this is the first race I've missed completley since I've started seriously following the sport. I won't even be able to watch the replay on Thursday! I'm trying to get it taped, but by the time I watch it everything will be old news.

I will be able to post my random NASCAR thoughts though via my cell phone, so you can still get your NASCAR fix, just no Sterling post race report.

But www.ginnracing.com provides one, not a great indepth LaMancha report...but it's something ;) Also, you can go to www.sterlingmarlinfans.com and look at the race post, where fellow Marlinites with TrackPass tell the rest what's going on.

So, I think you can manage. ;) But I apologize again, and if I do have someone who reads this every week (for the past 2 weeks I've done this) then I promise this isn't a normal happening. I HATE missing races, but I had no choice.

The Monday Report

You know, really all I can say about MIS is dissapointing. We had a good car, but the handling wasn't there, and you can't finish well with a car that's sideways. I think Slugger did the right thing by trying to tighten it up, even though it ended up to be the wrong thing. Maybe he could've tried something different after Sterling said it was worse after that, but what was he going to do, loosen it when it was sideways? Sterling drove his butt off I think trying to keep it from going sideways too much. He did the best with what he had, and was giving Slugger information.

So, dissapointing, but maybe next time the handling will be there and they'll be able to get a great finish :)

MIS post race

If only it had been this race that ended at lap 101, and not last week. Sterling got some TV time by being in the top 10 for a while. However, an ill-handling race car gave him a 20th place finish, putting him tied for 24th in points. Here's a rundown of what happend:

So he starts out pretty good, moving up to around 20th. The car was a little tight at that point. On lap 34 they pit and take four tires and adjust the car. They picked up a couple of spots and Sterling says the care is pretty free, and the car wasn't tightening up. What seemed at first to be no big deal ended up to only be the beggining of what would eventually give Sterling a 20th place finish. Under caution they tighten up the car and it's a good stop, he restarts 17th but falls back alittle before taking back the spots he lost. Lap 68ish there's a caution and Slugger elects to take 2 right tires. Everyone else takes four and that puts Sterling in 2nd for the restart.

This call probably is what saved Sterling from the wreck caused by Newman. I also think that it was a pretty good call, or at least it turned out pretty good. It got him much needed track position. After this restart though Sterling falls back to 6th. Not suprised because the car has been better on the long runs anyway. The car starts coming to him and he is able to maintain 6th until Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards pass him on lap 107. (so you see, if it had been THIS race that was rain delayed, we would've finished 6th ;)) Sterling says that the car is balanced in 3&4 but 1&2 are acting weird.

Green flag pit stop on lap 108. This is the stop where everything changes, and things go from good to bad to worse. Slugger tightens the car, because Sterling says it's loose. They take 4 tires and a wedge adjustment. During the caution on lap 114 Sterling's complaining that the car is free, but they elect to stay out. Sterling though was really complaining about how free the car was, but Slugger said that they really have to stay out, and tells him to "Believe in it,"

On the restart he quickly falls back to 9th...then 10th...then 11th...14th...15th...yea, NOT a good restart. Slugger tells Sterling that he needs to suck it up. But Sterling's saying that it's almost sideways. But TJ reassures Sterling that the car will come to him. It seems like TJ is right for a while, Sterling picked up a couple of spots to 14th. But on lap 134 Slugger asks Sterling if it's coming to him and Sterling replies with, "No, no no!"

So on lap 149 they make a green flag pit stop and tighten it up. But Sterling complains that "It's still sideways," Slugger says that it seems the more they tighten it the worse it gets. :\

They went a lap down and were in conention for the lucky dog for a while, but no caution ever came out. On their last pit stop they took two tires and fuel, which is what put them down to 20th.

After the race Slugger said that he was mad at himself for tightening it. Apparently there was no indication that it was loose other than what Sterling was saying. The more they tightened it the worse it got. He was also mad that they didn't get that top ten that they should have gotten, "It just sucks," Yes Slugger, yes it does.

Busch Race

I wasn't going to watch the Busch race, until I realized that not many cup guys would be in it. I really hate the Busch series, because if I want to watch the cup race then I'll watch it on Sunday! But this week, we got a break from the extended cup series and got to see the Busch Series.

Unfortunately, it looked like Carl Edwards was going to ruin everything by winning the race. But then Steve Wallace got into the back of him and both of them wrecked. Now, his interview kind of puzzled me. He was taking the high road saying that it was kind of his fault too, etc. But how come last year when Jr. wrecked him or whatever he waited in the pits and then nearly took his arm off by hitting the side of Jrs car? Maybe it was all Jrs fault that time, I dunno, I didn't see that race...I was watching REAL racing at the local short track :D

The big disappointment this week was that my favorite Busch driver, Regan Smith (his car is pictured above, I took it at Richmond), had lead the most laps until he had problems on pit road, putting him 2 laps down. Eventually he got back on the lead lap but was only able to finish 19th :( The best part was he had what Sterling's paint Scheme is this week, Waste Management and all! Oh, well...maybe another week.

Anyway, Steven Leicht won. I would have LOVED to see I busch regular winning a Busch race, something I have yet to see because every time I don't watch the Busch race, a busch regular wins...or so it seems. And last night was no different. With about 30 laps to go I fell asleep on the couch. It was like, 11:00 and I had a pillow and a blanket...can you really blame me? I was actually really interested in the race, but the couch took the better of me and I wasn't able to see the end.

Kvapil wins truck race

I watched most of the truck race at Michigan, it was pretty good. There was a lot of 3+ wide racing, and the top 5 were constantly going at it for the lead towards the end. In the last laps it was Kyle Busch and Travis Kvapil, and Kyle was really loose in front of Travis. I was just thankful that Kvapil ended up completing the pass on Kyle Busch, I was worried for a little he wouldn't, but even more worried that when he did Kyle would take him out! Luckily, Kyle's trying to get a job and it wouldn't look to good if he did that ;)

My man Rick Crawford (Yea, he's #14, but I like HIM not just his number) did pretty good there towards the end, and one of the last cautions he restarted 15th and ended up getting up to 6th. Almost a top five, but lost it by a nose :(

J.J. Yeley wins the pole!

We've got another first time winner this week--sort of. JJ Yeley won the pole this week at MIS, beating Jimmie Johnson by one-one-thousanth of a second! This is Yeley's first career Nextel Cup pole. I've never particularly liked Yeley, mainly because last year his ticker number was the same color as Sterling's, but it's exciting to see someone new wininng something. And anyone who can take a win away from Hendrick, even if it's only for poles, is worth rooting for. ;)

The picture, by the way, is a really bad one I took of Yeley when he was signing at Richmond.

Sterling's 1st practice and Qualifying

Not starting out as a great week so far. In 1st practice he ended up 39th out of 49 cars. He was 20th out to qualify, not a great draw but it could have been worse. It wasn't good enough to help us out any though, because he ended up 27th. I don't know what was up with the car, I can't even guess, because I missed his lap on TV, if they even showed it all. They also didn't talk about it on the radio, because they took a commercial break during his lap. BUT it's an improvement from last week, where he didn't even get a shot to qualify, so at least everything worked this week. That's a step in the right direction. ;)

The Sterling Marlin Saddle Pad

A hobby of mine is making English saddle pads, so when deciding on my next project it was only natural that I make a Sterling Marlin one.





The right view of it. The letters took FORVER!



The left side. The horse, Elvis, was getting curious about my cell phone.

Jr. is going to Hendrick!

Deep down I think we all knew it was going to happen, it's the obvious choice for a high-profile free agent who wants to win championships. The way I see it, Jr. going to Hendrick puts his fans in a strange position. Should they still throw things at Jeff Gordon? What is the proper teammate etiquette in that kind of situation? If Jr. goes to the #5 and keeps the sponsor, should they throw cereal boxes at him? I'm sure his fans that hate Jeff Gordon will continue to do so, but now throwing things at Jeff will be completely disrespectful to Jr., more so than it was before anyway.

And what about Jimmie Johnson? Does that mean they have to like him? I mean, is there really much of a reason to hate Jimmie other than he wins every other week? He's annoying, sure, but he's no Jeff Gordon. To me Jimmie was just the guy who the people (mostly Jr. fans) hate because he's Jeff Gordon's teammate from California, but now he's going to be Jr's teammate--from California.

But I also think that any Jr. fan that is really upset and mad at Jr. for moving to Hendrick shouldn't be called his fan. After all, a real fan will support their driver's decision, and realize that it is the best choice for them, even if it doesn't please the fan. It's Jr's career, not Jr's fan's career, so even though we all wish it had been somewhere else I think his fans are going to have to accept the fact that he's on the California team and support his decision. After all, it really was the smart choice.

A story for the Tuesday Blues

I saw this story somewhere and thought it was kind of funny. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I got it from, but I think it's from a Tennessee newspaper :

(Kyle Petty talking about a bad wreck at Indy)

“I was praying that I was alive, but I couldn’t move or open my eyes, and after what seemed like an eternity of this I realized that I wasn’t alive. So my prayer instantly changed and I started praying ’please God when I open my eyes make sure St Peter is standing there’. I was praying and I could hear people talking, and all of a sudden out of nowhere I hear Sterling (Marlin) talking.”

“And y’all might be from Tennessee, and y’all might like Sterling a lot, but if I’m dead and Sterling is dead, we ain’t in heaven. So then my prayers go back to ’please God let me be alive"

Keep in mind Kyle and Sterling are friends ;)

The Monday Report--Pocono

Okay, so after reevaluating the weekend, I've decided that I was just a little hard on Slugger...maybe. I don't think his biggest screw up was taking the 4 tires when everyone else took 2. In theory, it should have worked, because Sterling had better tires than everyone else and then could have worked his way faster through the field. Also the pit stop took longer than it should have, which made them start even further back. But if you've got a good car and everyone else took 2, then in theory you'd still have just as good of a car and he would have restarted higher and been able to still pick off more positions. Slugger was definitely too conservative when he knew the rain was coming, I'll stand by that.

But regardless of strategy, the reason we didn't get to see a halfway almost decent finish was because of the fender being screwed up. Aero is very important at Pocono, so it's really hard to pass people when your fender is crumpled up. Sterling didn't realize his fender was crumpled up, but Sterling did mess up a little bit by not telling Slugger when he hit the curb, but Sterling just thought his tire hit it and nothing else.

Still, I'm putting the majority of blame on Slugger. There was nothing they could have done about the fender, so it's not like the finish would have been spectacular, but it still could have been better if Slugger hadn't been so conservative with the rain approaching.

Pocono post race

Here's a little summary of what happend with Sterling during the race. I know we all watch all the post race shows hoping to hear them talk about Sterling, but they never do (even after Talladega where he was dominant), so this'll give those who aren't blessed with Track Pass a basic idea of what was going on with Sterling:

Well, that just sucked. The race only went 107 laps, and our boy finished 31st, dropping him to 27th (well, really a tie for 26th) in points. He started out pretty strong, going from 41st to in the 20s. As the laps went on, the car got better. But then the caution came, and after they pitted the car was terrible, WAY too tight, quote Marlin, "Tight tight tight tight," the tires were terrible. They lost a few spots, but it seemed like a blessing when the next caution came out, because they could fix the car, but instead this is what happend:

Slugger is talking to Sterling, and they're wondering if they should take 2 or four tires. Sterling says whatever Slugger wants is fine. Slugger syas they should probably take 2 for track position, and Sterling says after thinking says, "Yea, that'll be good," then, however, on pit road Slugger makes the last minuet decision to take 4 tires when almost everyone else took 2, and it was a long stop because I guess the crew didn't hear him when he said 4 tires. This cuases Sterling to start towards to back.

After the restart the car sucks. Probably because the fender got screwed up, which I'll explain later, but basically between that caution and the next round of pit stops, the car is doing bad.

But then another round of green flag pit stops and Slugger calls for 4 tires. This is a BAD call, because they KNEW it was going to rain, not even like a possibility, they knew it was going to rain. And they take 4 tires. Even if the car wasn't great, it was all right, and at this point when the race is going to probably be cut short, they need TRACK POSITION!!!! TJ was saying the rain was really, really close, so even if they did lose some spots, they've got a better chance of finishing well that way then trying to make thier way through the field with only a few laps left. So then the race is over and Sterling ends up a weak 31st.

It can't all be blamed on pit strategy though. Sometime between the the last caution and the green flag stop, the fender got real screwed up. They figgure it's when Sterling hit the curb once when Juan Pablo Montoya and Scott Riggs were battling hard for position. They got it fixed during their last stop and the car was a lot better then, so if it had gone green a little longer or they had started it again, Sterling would've defenetly picked up more positions.

So I think the theme to this race was strategy. Jeff Gordon won, he wasn't dominant throughout the race, but he had a good pit strategy. He took a risk for track position and stayed out under the last caution, Denny Hamlin, one of the most dominant cars, took 4 tires under the last caution, and consequently wasn't in the right place to win.

If you ask me Slugger needs to take more risks, but this whole week was lousy if you ask me. First qualifying problems, then a shortened race with poor strategy and aerodynamics. He was doing so good at the beggining, moving up so far, you wouldn't expect him to end up 31st, but I think that it all came down to strategy, although the fender didn't help at all. Or maybe the Pep Boys are just cursed!?!?

A little intro...

All right, so basically this is a blog about the NASCAR driver Sterling Marlin. It's a place where I can vent my frustrations, celebrate, or say my opinion about the weekend, without everyone telling me to shut up because they don't give a damn about Sterling. You see, I like to voice my feelings, unfortunatly I don't know many people who care about NASCAR or Sterling, so here I can just get it all out without anyone telling me to stop ;)


So, in case anyone who actually likes Sterling Marlin is reading this, I will try my best to talk about my prerace, qualifying, practice, and post race feelings. I'll throw in some NASCAR talk now and then, just to keep in interesting. I appreciate anyone who reads this, and if you can let me know you're there by commenting or something, then I'd really appreciate it :)