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.