Chicago Post Race Report

Tomorrow...

Up to 19th in practice

Well he went from 41st in second practice to 19th in final practice. Not something to be extatic about, but better than 41st anyway. I predict he'll work his way up and hopefully the team will adjust it to move it in the top ten and beyond. I just hope his day goes better than Rick Crawford's did today (Truck driver, #14, My guy...he crashed :()

Let's go Sterling!

Sterling starting 37th

I didn't get to see qualifying, but I guess I didn't miss anything :( He'll start 37th, or I guess 36th because Kurt has to go to the back. Either way, it's disappointing but he was 46th in practice, so I'm not surprised. According to the Ginn PR thing they put out, the car felt pretty good actually, but they were losing a few tenths somewhere. I also heard that Sterling said on MRN that they got something from the 13 and the 01, but they didn't have time to put it in :(

At least he didn't wreck or have any major issues though. And he didn't the top 35 provisional. So that's something. Hopefully it'll be a fun race of watching Sterling work his way through the field. Let's just hope that his spotter does a good enough job of keeping him out of trouble. If they could unload fast then that wouldn't be a problem...but oh well.

Dale Jr. and Bud no more

Today Hendrick Motorsports announced that Jr. will NOT be sponsored by Budweiser in 2008. "We have agreements in place with sponsors for the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, which prevent us from having a relationship with Budweiser,"

It's rumored that Budweiser will sponsor Kasey Kahne. Evernham confirms that they have had talks with Bud, but Budweiser has also talked with other teams. Kahne would fit in well with the demographic. It is also rumored that Bud will end up with one of the Busch brothers. If Kyle goes to DEI, then I think that this is a very likley scenerio.

But who will sponsor Jr.? Rumor has it that it'll be VISA or Pepsi. I don't really care, but I hope it's not Pepsi, I like Jr. but I HATE Pepsi. I guess we'll just have to wait and see now. I just hope that nobody got a Jr. Budweiser tattoo.

Sponsorship woes

When I found out that the number 13 and 14 cars were unsponsored at New Hampshire, I was at a barn where I had been staying at for a week. One of the owner's is a Sterling fan, and he was telling me about qualifying. I asked him where he qualifyed and I thought THAT was bad enough (41st, if you don't remember), "But the worst part is he was in an all black car," That certaintly was the worst part.

The reason for this? Ginn felt that it would make it clearer to sponsors that they needed them. While this is true, it also made the team look bad, like the team nobody wanted. Why would anyone want to give $12 to that?

I don't see why Sterling and Joe can't find sponsors and guys outside of the top 35 can. At least Sterling and Joe are garunteed into the show every week. And if not for some bad luck they would both be way higher in the standings. Unfortunatly, not many big important company people WATCH NASCAR so they wouldn't realize that Sterling has had some good runs this year.



I'm mad at Waste Management for bailing out. I don't know how much they've decided to leave, hopefully not completley. But if you noticed last week the quarter panels on his car were bare. Normally, Ginn would just put the Ginn logo on it, but I guess again he wants to show that there's room.

Jay Frye said about a week and a half ago that they were coming close on a sponsorship deal for Sterling, but I haven't heard anything else on that since. Hopefully it didn't fall through. I wish the Panasonic thing had worked out, I REALLY liked that car.

I was mad about the whole situationa and I still kind of am, but really it's just kind of sad. Sterling wants to go out with a bang, but how is he supposed to do that if they can't find a sponsor? I just hope that he isn't kicked to the curb because of all of this. So if anyone knows somone that's really high up in a super rich company, then maybe you could pull a few strings?

Where will Kyle Busch land?

Kyle Busch could land in a pile of horse manure for all I care, but since I guess he's an important person in the NASCAR world, I'll talk about him. I haven't read any rumors about him, so this is all just coming straight from what I think.

I think that Kyle Busch could very well switch manufacturers, so I wouldn't automatically eliminate all non-Chevy teams like we could do with Jr. I also think that he wants to be top dog at an organization, I don't think that's a good idea from an owner's standpoint, but I think that's what Kyle wants. We know he couldn't go to Roush, because the inn is all ready overbooked there, so count them out. I wouldn't suspect him to go to a Toyota team, because he also wants to win races, and we all know how impatient he is. He's not going to want to wait for a team to develop, so that eliminates all the Toyota teams, Haas, Hall of Fame, Robby Gordon's team, Morgan McClure, and probably Ginn. I know that many people suspect he's going to Penske (okay, so I've payed a little bit of attention), but I don't think so. Penske is probably going to add Sam Hornish Jr. in the near future, and I don't think they'd be ready to take on two teams so quickly. Evernham is way over his head as it is, he doesn't need a Busch to complicate that even more. So what does that leave us with?

DEI-They're looking for a replacement for Jr, and they've shown with Martin Truex that they can play with the big boys. And how ironic would it be if he ended up in Jr's old ride?

Gibbs-I don't know if he'd quite fit in with the other drivers, but look where Jr. ended up! I'm not quite sure that Gibbs wants to take on another team right now, but I could be wrong. Gibbs is a top team that can deal with Hendrick, the kind of place that Busch probably wants. He might not want to be teammates with Tony though, because then he'd be in the same place that he was at Hendrick.

RCR-Kevin Harvick doesn't want him as a teammate, but I think it's a real possibility. I don't think that Childress would be at all "afraid" of Busch, in fact, Childress has taken in similar drivers (Kevin Harvick) and honed their ability. They're a top team and I don't think Busch would be seen totally at the bottom. He'd probably feel a little left out though, because I think that the Burton/Harvick combination is a really strong one. I expect that Childress will try to get Busch, and I don't think Busch would mind driving for RCR.

TJ let go

As many of you probably know, Ginn has layed off quite a few employees latley, and I have just been informed that one of them was our good friend TJ. TJ was Sterling's spotter, and a damn good one at that. This year he kept our guy out of countless wrecks and helped to encourage Sterling. Not only did he tell Sterling when he was clear, but was never short on jokes and "good jobs" either. You could easily tell that Sterling trusted TJ and that they had a good relationship. I'm pretty upset with the decision to lay him off, because it was obvious to me that TJ was a great guy and a great spotter. He will be replaced by the spotter from the #4 Busch team, which got shut down (or "opperations suspended"). He better be damn good, because with the luck Sterling has, he needs a good spotter to help keep him out of those wrecks tend to come his way. Not that Sterling doesn't know how to keep himself out of trouble, but behind every great driver there's a great spotter.

TJ, you will be missed! Good luck with whatever you do in the future!

Tragedy Strikes NASCAR

The husband of Lesa Frace Kennedy, ISC president, was killed today along with at least four other people in a plane crash. Dr. Bruce Kennedy was piloting the plane when he reported smoke in the cockpit, he tried to land at Orlando Sanford International Airport, but the plane crashed in a Sanford, Florida neighborhood. The plane crashed into a house and ignited a fire in a neighboring house. Three people were injured that were in the house, including a ten year old boy who sustained serious burn injuries.

Thoughts and prayers go out to all envolved.

A full story is on NOL:

http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/07/10/kennedy.plane.crash/index.html

Fike Arrested

This is a link to the story on NOL if you haven't all ready heard: http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/truck/07/09/afike.drug.charges/index.html

Basically, he was arrested for possesion of heroin and drug paraphernalia. The police searched his car after he tried to drive off when he was stopped by park security and hit the officer with his mirror.

I'm sure that Fike will be suspended, and I hope it's for life. This was really, really, stupid on his part, I don't feel bad for him at all. He threw away an opportunity that so many people would die for, by doing something that's a completley stupid thing to do regardless of your career or success. Obviously, he doesn't appreciate the wonderful opportunity that he was given, and deserves any penalty NASCAR, or the law, gives him.

Post Wreck Report (Daytona)

Another frustrating week, once again we had a great car but no finish to show it. Starting the race from 29th was bad enough, I thought maybe that would be all the bad luck. Sterling missed a few wrecks and things were looking good. He was in the top ten and staying there. Sterling said that his car felt good wide open, but in traffic it was tight. Still he managed to get to the front. The pit stops were good, everything was going great. He was even getting on TV. But then he got the TV exposure for the wrong reason. The Marlin nation saw exactly what we had been dreading, but an oh too firmiliar site. Sterling was sideways after hitting the wall. The tire went down and ended our day. He would've been fine too, had he not hit Rudd, which caused him to go back into the wall. Slugger was going to try to get the car back out, but they eventually decided that it would be too dangerous, and so Sterling finished a very, very dissapointing 40th. This week it wasn't like, "well, maybe he would've gotten a top ten if he hadn't wrecked (or whatever)," No, this week he was going to get a top ten. And it sucks, and like Sterling said it's hard to swallow.

We didn't drop any in points though, thanks to Reed crashing. We actually passed Reed, but Gillilands good run left us in 28th.

I guess 07/07/07 isn't lucky for everyone :(

Could it be in the numbers this week?

I've been known to be pretty superstitious, although I've gotten a lot better about it. Still, I like to look for things in numbers, that might point to something. 07/07/07 could be a good date for Sterling, and here's why:

• It's the luckiest day of the century, and boy does he need some luck
  
• The last time he won a pole was for this race, which was on the same date (07/07/01)
  
• 7+7 is 14
  
• from weluvsterling on the SUB bored, "the pepsi is being run on ...07/07/07....sterling has won it 1 time...if he was to win it sat night it will be his 2nd win in the pepsi...2 x's 07 will be 14...his car #....dw won the 500 in his 17th try driving car #17...on the 17th of feb"
  
  

Let's hope that this logic works! It worked for DW, so it should work for Sterling, right?

I hate the rain!!!!

A breif period of rain stopped qualifying after JJ Yeley nearly spun out, however qualifying soon resumed as the rain passed. Everyone was optimistic that the session would get in. Unfortunatly, they were off by 14 cars. After all but 14 drivers had gotten their times in, the rain started and this time it didn't stop, so NASCAR decided to cancel qualifying and go by points for the race. That decision really sucks, because at the time Sterling was 9th fastest, and the second fastest of the non go-or-go-homers. The GOGHers are all in qualifying trim, and Sterling being in race trim means that he probably would've passed them pretty easily and gotten to the lead. But no, it just had to rain, and now Sterling will start 29th and Jeff Gordon will be on the pole. As bad as that sounds, I can't help but feel terrible for the Said heads. Boris was on the provisional pole at the time, and now he won't even race.

I think that NASCAR made a bad call here. Quaifying was almost over, instead of canceling it completely they should have waited until today to finish. It's an impound race anyway, so there's no pracitce to get in, and it's a night race so there's plenty of time. I hate it for the guys that actually would've qualifyed their way in but now have to go home because of rain. Mikey will have to sit out another race, even though he was most likley going to be in the show.

Part time in '08?

Several sources, including Sterling himself, have said that there is a strong possibility of Sterling cutting back to a part time schedule next year. Basically Sterling said that he doesn't want to stop racing completely, because he loves it, but the travel's getting old.

Jayski is reporting that they've heard that Sterling may go to Furniture Row Racing next year :0 I hope that doesn't happen because I'd hate to see him driving for such a bad team. Ginn is bad enough, but dropping down to a third teir team.....that would suck. I mean, with a part time schedule we don't get to see him in every race anyway, and then with FRR we'd probably only get to see him qualify. I know that Sterling can qualify his way in when he has to, he's proven that this year, but you can only do so much with 3rd rate equipment. Also, FRR get's their stuff from Ginn! Sterling all ready gets 2nd rate Ginn equipment, and that's bad enough. Imagine that crap he'd get at FRR!

It's Sterling's choice and I'll support his decision no matter where he goes, even if it's Micheal Waltrip Racing, but I hope that he stays with Ginn. It all depends on the sponsors though, so they'll have to wait and see how it shakes out. Right now, sponsors aren't looking good so let's hope for a strong run at Daytona so they notice him! If Sterling leaving Ginn means going to a 3rd teir team, then I'd much rather Sterling stay with Ginn.

There's also the number thing. This is from an article on NOL, "Frye said those plans included Smith in one full-time Nextel Cup car, either the No. 13 or No. 14."

So where does that put Sterling or Joe? Mark Martin is going to stay part time in the 01, so would Sterling share a ride with him? I doubt it, because I think they want on of their development drivers in that spot. So would Sterling get a new number and just give up the owner points he worked hard to earn to stay in the top 35 to Smith? That sounds familiar, doesn't it? (For those slow one, Joe Nemecheck ;)) What if Joe leaves? I haven't heard anything about that though, but I think it's possible. I'm kind of doubting that we'll see Sterling in the 14 car next year though, but believe me I want him in that car, but I guess we'll just have to see.

New Hampsire post race

Yea, sorry it's taken me so long to write this, I got kind of lazy.

So Sterling ended up a dissapointing 24th at New Hampshire. He started the race 41st but was able to steadily work his way through the field, up to 28th before he got put a lap down. Luckily just before Tony Raines was going to be put a lap down the caution came out and Sterling got the lucky dog. Sterling told Slugger that the car was jitterbuggin. After the pit stop Slugger told Sterling that there was a lot of build up in the right front, and to let off the throttle a little bit. However Sterling said that when he let off early "bounce, bounce, bounce," He restarted 28th and didn't get too far until the next caution. This time they took 2 tires which put Sterling restartin in 13th. Sterling complained, however, that it took about 10 laps for the car to get going. Also on that stop Sterling ran over something on pit road, I think it was an air hose from the 07 pit, but there was no damage to the car.



After the restart Sterling was doing pretty good, and had good lap times, although at first he fell back a couple spots. Slugger told him, "You're doing a helluva job, lap times are good," and throught the green lap period both Slugger and TJ were pretty encouraging, telling him that his lap times were good, etc. At this point the car was seemed like it was pretty good, because the lap times were so high.

On lap 194 they had a green flag pit stop where they took 4 tires and gas but no changes. Unfortunatly, they lost 4 seconds on that pit stop. When the caution came out Sterling said that it was taking long to get going. After the restart Slugger told Sterling that, "The car don't look nothing like it did earlier," Sterling response, "Tight tight tight," During this green flag period Sterling fell back a bit, and the car was really bouncing.


When the next caution came out the pit for 2 tires and picked up 7 spots. The car was still jitterbuggin but Slugger told Sterling to, "race like hell," They restarted 13th, and unfortunatly I can't remember if he fell back or not, but I think it was pretty much the same. But then the caution just had to come out. Slugger said, "That'll help us," but I don't know why he thought that when all day Sterling had been complaining about how the car was taking a while to get started. Then on the final restart he fell way back for two reasons. First off the car was taking forever to get started up again, like it had been all day. But also Sterling got "Pabloed," of course, when this happend I decided that I was going to watch TV for a bit and left raceview, so I didn't see what happend. Sterling also apparently said some...chocie words...about Juan Pablo, which I missed. Slugger told Sterling to pay the 42 back, but unfortunatly Sterling never got that far and finished 24th.
He's still 28th in the points, but only 3 points behind Reed Sorenson.

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 :)