Because the "bad" guys wear black hats...

All right, you fact-checkers, I know that Chad Knaus doesn’t get suspended EVERY year, but it sure seems like it.

Once again, NASCAR has brought out its favorite phrase in response to some new “innovation” from Chad Knaus of the Hendrick Motorsports 48 team.  Crew Chief Chad Knaus and Car Chief Ron Malec have been suspended for the next 6 races for actions detrimental to stock car racing.  This will leave them suspended through April 18th and on probation until May 9th.  Chad Knaus has been fined $100,000.  Losses of 25 championship points and 25 owners points were dealt to Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon respectively.

Jimmie Johnson will be going into this weekend’s race in Phoenix with -23 points.  As if finishing 42nd in Monday night’s Daytona 500 wasn’t enough of a mental hole to crawl from.

» Continue reading “Chad Knaus Suspended? Must Be February.”

Three dreams dashed in one wreck. Trevor Bayne, Danica Patrick, and Jimmie Johnson were three of the weekend's biggest stories.

Coffee, check.  Extra espresso shot, check.  More than five minutes of sleep after Monday’s Daytona 500, check check.

Good morning, kiddos.  Everybody semi-recovered from Monday’s mayhem?  I didn’t think so and neither am I so we’re all drifting helplessly in the same boat. 

Let’s talk Cinderella stories today, shall we?  Morgann, by what in the beard of Zeus are you talking about? 

Drivers that were favored to win the Daytona 500 but fell a little short and the ones I’m going to discuss fell a lot short on Monday night.

» Continue reading “Lap Two: One Wreck, Three Cinderella Stories Destroyed”

Social media nerd or just plain smart as can be? You be the judge.

You’ve got to give it to Brad Keselowski.  He knows the value of interacting with his fans, and I don’t know any driver that does it better.  This past Friday, Brad Keselowski teamed up with 3,000 of his Twitter followers (myself included), Reese Towpower, and Cooper Standard to run a Follow Brad on Twitter truck.  I’m sure that gained him some more followers even though we didn’t fare so well in the race.

But Monday night, Brad Keselowski took social media to a whole new level.  Never had any NASCAR driver posted anything online during a race.

NO!  Brad wasn’t driving at the time.  The field had just been redflagged for the extensive Colombian Catastrophe cleanup and the drivers had a little time to kill.  2.5 hours of a little time to kill.  Brad whips out his phone and starts tweeting away.  This stroke of social media genius netted him a cool 100,000+ followers in a matter of minutes and some serious TV time.

Here are a few of the offerings from down on the track by Brad Keselowski (@keselowski):

» Continue reading “Keselowski: Twitteraholic or Social Media Genius?”

All smiles that he is ok....thankfully.

It’s no secret to our fine readers here that I love to pick on Juan Pablo Montoya.  I’ve been calling him the Colombian Catastrophe for a while now.  Where there is trouble, JPM is not too far off.  At one point in the broadcast the announcers said that Juan Montoya and teammate Jamie McMurray were told not to damage anything.  I knew that it was only a matter of time.

I know that Juan Pablo Montoya is an amazing talent.  He has won the F1 Monaco Grand Prix.  He has a CART championship.  He just has not had good luck in NASCAR.  Tonight was no exception.

Never have I ever seen a freak accident such as I saw tonight.  JPM was coming from the pits in a hurry to catch up to the field under caution.  The jet dryers were up high cleaning the track.  Something broke in Juan’s car, causing him to spin and crash right into the fuel tank of the jet dryer.  The jet fuel ignited causing a potentially deadly fire.

» Continue reading “Colombian Catastrophe: Who Brought Marshmallows?”

This Wisconsin native was the "Big Cheese" in Daytona tonight. (photo credit: Chris Graythen)

The race technically ended on the twenty-eighth day but who’s counting, right?  This weekend’s Daytona 500 kind of ran together in one, huge blur of weirdness that started way back yesterday around noon.

And just ended about five minutes ago.  No joke.

In twenty years as a race fan, this was the most unusual of them all.  Rain was our problem on Sunday and fire was our problem on Monday.  Go figure, right?

Unless readers sat and suffered through the more than two-hour long caution for a strange, almost  God-like act at Daytona trust me when I say readers have no idea.

Until tonight I thought I’d seen it all at the track…until the jet dryer nearly burned the track down.  Thanks, Juan.

Oh yeah.  And Matt Kenseth won the 2012 Daytona 500 with an overheating car and nearly zero radio communication.

» Continue reading “Daytona 500: And On The 27th Day…Everything Happened.”

John King? Isn't he on CNN? (photo courtesy NASCAR.com)

‘Cuz I really wanna know!

Nothing is better than the first few races of the year for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.  I have absolutely no clue who the drivers are and what trucks they are in.  I spent a great majority of the race thinking that the 5 Truck of Paulie Harraka was Todd Bodine.

In my defense, there was NOTHING in the bonehead driving style displayed by Harraka to suggest otherwise.

It only seems fitting that an unknown driver would take the checkers at a rather violent NCWTS race at Daytona.  John King (who?!?) managed to hang on through flat running over Johnny Sauter to take the lead and the third and final green/white/checker attempt to finish the race.  This was John King’s eighth NCWTS race.  EVER.  John does owe this win to his teammate Timothy Peters.  Peters came home second to King, but first in our hearts with the Top Gun “Never leave your wingman” post-race interview.

» Continue reading “Camping World Truck Series: Come On, Tell Me, Who Are You?”

His name is Coverdale and there's a Dale in the 500. It's only fitting.

Yeeeeah, that’s a terrible song with an even more terrible-looking lead singer. 

Speaking of which, that reminds me I need to load up on my beverages of choice for this weekend’s racing festivities.

It’s a great weekend to be a NASCAR fan and even better reason to be me because I’ll be trolling Twitter all weekend long.

Why?  It’s officially time for the 2012 Daytona 500 so it’s time to put on your party hats because it’s on!

Yes, the BIG ONE will happen it’s almost guaranteed but that doesn’t mean the race will be “boring” otherwise because if you’ve been watching this week’s practices and duels, one will find it’s quite the opposite.

» Continue reading “NSCS Daytona 500 Preview: Here We Go Again…”

Robby Gordon is never shy about opening his mouth. Think NASCAR will listen this time? Probably not. (photo credit: NASCAR)

The man really has some valid points for as brash as he is with the media and Thursday he wasn’t shy at all about opening his mouth about how he felt about Michael Waltrip NOT making the Daytona 500 and his beef with the past champions provision that’s been in place for about a hundred years.

So speak…what’s on your troubled mind, Robby?  A lot these days apparently and that disturbs me because as our readers know, I worship the ground Robby walks on.

I also feel the man doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves in racing.  Yesterday, he spoke and this morning people are listening to what he’s saying. 

Now whether or not NASCAR actually listens to him (which they never have) is a different story but let’s take a look at what was on Robby’s mind yesterday.

» Continue reading “Daytona 500: When Robby Gordon Speaks…”

Well, if Tony Stewart raced both Duels he would have won them both but there are rules in NASCAR that says certain dudes who win everything (like Tony) can’t be awesome all the time.

But alas, Gatorade Duel #2 had a winner and here’s the lucky man…

He's not Tony, but he'll do...Congrats, Mr. Cheesehead. (Photo by Tom Pennington)

Oh yeah…this guy right here:

Yes, the man just can't stop winning. I know, sucks to be your driver and not mine. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)