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.

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.

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 :(

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. ;)