Remember our special Monday Night edition of the Daytona 500?

Ooooookay, so everybody remembers what happened the Monday night of the Daytona 500 after it finally took place, right?  How can anybody forget the towering inferno that was the poor jet dryer? 

If you haven’t heard (because you live under a rock) here it is in a nutshell:  yellow flag, Juan Pablo Montoya racing back to catch the field, rear end broke, jet dryer in his path filled with 200 gallons of jet fuel.  End of story.

Robin Pemberton (vice president of competition) kindly reminded the drivers about their speeds around safety vehicles under cautions. 

Here’s another idea on how to protect your workers and drivers, Robin:  how about drivers not racing back to catch up with the rest of the field under yellow?

» Continue reading “Exploding Jet Fuel + Fire = A New Rule I Don’t Like”

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.”

These two dudes may be all smiles but their boss Chip sure isn't happy. (photo credit: SPEED TV)

Lipstick and Lugnuts found another blunt and less than satisfied personality in racing yesterday and his name is Chip Ganassi. 

Gosh, did he make me laugh. It was at the expense of his 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup campaign which…ummm…really sort of sucked all season from start to finish.

However, when Chip Ganassi opens his mouth people listen. 

Let’s just say he wasn’t too happy with his NASCAR Sprint Cup series finishes of 21st and 27th in the points. 

» Continue reading “Sprint Cup: Chip Gets A Firm Grip On Pathetic”

Happy 36th Birthday, Juan Pablo Montoya!

Look out because the Columbian Catastrophe is celebrating a birthday today on this glorious September 20th who is also celebrating the big 3-6 this year just like Jimmie Johnson did on September 17th!

Let’s not forget Juan is the 2000 Indianapolis 500 champion along with the 2000 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.

Want more?  He’s also the 1999 CART Rookie of the Year and the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Rookie of the Year as well.

Happy Birthday, Juan!

Okay ladies, I don’t totally hate his guts just so you know.

His smile is okay and he has really white teeth.  There you go.  Happy now?

» Continue reading “You Say It’s Your Birthday: Happy Birthday, Juan Pablo Montoya!”

Sigh.  My boys have come home to play in my backyard (or should I say Brickyard haha!) this weekend and I couldn’t be more excited.  I have mixed emotions about the Brickyard 400 believe it or not.  Yes, even as the most loyal IMS attendee on the planet this place forces me to down a few Tylenol from time to time.

I’ve seen my favorite driver Tony Stewart win here twice, the first time being my very first Brickyard 400 and I was also in attendance for the Great Tire Debacle of 2008 which  gave Jimmie Johnson his second Brickyard 400 title in three years.  So it’s been a roller coaster ride for sure.

However, this weekend is not about reflection.  It’s about looking forward to this weekend’s race because after the checkers drop on Sunday, IMS is in for some major changes for 2012.  Who am I putting my money on this weekend?  Who wouldn’t I touch with a ten-foot pole at IMS?

IMS Fun Fact:  Churchill Downs, Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl, the Roman Colosseum and Vatican City all can fit inside the IMS oval, which covers 253 acres. (IMS Official Site)

» Continue reading “2011 Brickyard 400 Preview: Back Home Again in Indiana”

Jimmie had more drama this week than an episode of Jerseylicious.

Jimmie Johnson has had a rough week.  He was blasted on Twitter over his nomination for athlete of the year.  He had an exciting race at Loudon with a pit crew snafu as well as an encounter with Juan Pablo Montoya.  Needless to say, these incidents are the perfect reason for me to get on my Monday Morning soapbox.

Twittergate:

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are good that you’ve heard of a little drama on Twitter when Golden Tate might have just learned his first lesson in social media.  Tate, a WR for the Seattle Seahawks, objected to Jimmie Johnson being nominated for Best Male Athlete at the ESPY awards.  Here is a screenshot of the tweet heard ‘round the racetracks as it may be.

» Continue reading “Motormouth Monday: The Jimmie Edition”

Greg and Nicole Biffle are the most recent couple to give birth to NASCAR babies blooming all around the track in the last year. (photo courtesy of www.bleacherreport.com)

I’m proud to say (and more so admit) Greg and Nicole Biffle have inspired me to enlighten NASCAR fans about the most recent “baby boom” in NASCAR racing, namely the Sprint Cup series with the birth of their first child yesterday. 

Fans who have tuned into the races on a regular basis the last year have noticed an incredible amount of baby bumps in the pits during opening ceremonies.  NASCAR is a family and strives very hard to involve their fans in everything that goes on in the sport.  When drivers get married and start families away from the normal, everyday racing activities the fans feel like they’re a part of an extended family. 

The closeness in NASCAR also rings true when drivers and their families fall on hard times as well.  Ask Trevor Bayne how many well-wishes he got when he found out he was sick this year almost immediately after the Daytona 500.  Even more so, ask any NASCAR fan how much February 18, 2001 impacted their lives and how strongly the entire racing community pulled together on the darkest day in our sport’s history.

So Lipstick and Lugnuts is taking this opportunity to wish all the recent and brand new NASCAR “Mommies and Daddies” out there best wishes.  Congratulations!

» Continue reading “NASCAR Baby Births: Must be in the Water”

Let's get this yakkfest going with some Garage Gossip. Party on with your bad selves. You know you love your racing gossip.

Good morning, everybody!  I hope you’ve had a chance to inhale that first cup of coffee because we have a lot to cover today in Garage Gossip. 

Tons of rumors are flying around in NASCAR and IndyCar about tracks losing races, tracks getting races back, crew chiefs leaving teams, drivers signing extensions and even some Dan Wheldon news.  So grab a cup ‘o java and let’s get this yakkfest going.

Let’s start with the IndyCar series.  After last weekend’s Marco Andretti win what more could there possibly be to talk about in the IZOD series, right?  Wrong.  There’s plenty for everybody to go around a few times.

How can there possibly be more NASCAR news too?  Especially after all the on-track meltdowns and post-race sarcasm there can’t possibly be anymore dramatics. There are plenty, trust me.

» Continue reading “Garage Gossip: Is Zippy leaving JGR? Is IndyCar losing the Milwaukee Mile?”