I don't know if you all noticed how many empty seats were in the stands last night, but I did. The 1.5 mile and 2 mile races are too boring and NASCAR has too many of them. There were only 13 or 14 cars on the lead lap at the end of the race. In fact, the most exciting part of the race wasn't who had the fastest car. It was which cars had enough fuel to make it to the end. I am sorry, but that is not what racing should be about. After the race Kyle Petty, Kenny Wallace, Larry McReynolds, Rusty Wallace and Dale Jarrett were all lamenting the fact that too many races come down to fuel strategy and not to racing. The only analyst that seemed to enjoy it was former crew chief and car owner, Ray Evernham. Now come on. Are we supposed to take the word of a guy who left his wife for a buxom young woman who he "supposedly" was training to be a race car driver? Evernham found out the hard way that just because you stick your tool in a hole to loosen up a rear end, doesn't necessarily mean that the quick fix is going to work for very long. This is also the same guy who had been the crew chief for one of the greatest racers of all time, Jeff Gordon, but left Hendrick Motor Sports to become crew chief for meth head, Jeremy Mayfield. So I don't think I'll trust his judgement. The other analysts all seemed to be in agreement that NASCAR needs to do something about the problem. I am no expert, but to me it seems like that there are two easy ways to fix it. Make the races 10 laps shorter or 10 laps longer, or make the gas tanks a bit larger or smaller.
The big news out of NASCAR this week was that there would be a change in the qualifying format for next season. I was kind of excited about the news until I found out what the proposed changes would be. The "top 35" rule will be gone. That is the good part. Now for the bad part. The top 36 in qualifying will be set by qualifying speeds. The remaining seven spots will be determined by provisionals. NASCAR will come up with new provisional rules. The new provisional rules will assure that all the top drivers make the race no matter if they stink it up in qualifying. As far as I am concerned, why change the rules if this is the new rule. In the end, it is really not that much different than what they are doing now. The other rule change for qualifying is the order in which cars will qualify. This year qualifying order was set by a drivers speed in the first practice. Slower cars go first in qualifying while the faster cars qualify towards the end. Next year qualifying order will be determined by a blind draw, not practice speeds. This rule goes back to the old way that NASCAR used to do it.
Okay, now on to the standings. The race for the last segment is really close so it is anybody's ballgame. There are 12 guys within 65 poinbts of the lead in this final segment. There are five races left so plenty of time to make up 65 points. Here are the results and current standings:
Race-Norb 191, Cosmo 189, Jeff 187, Neil 184, Joe 181, Brian 180, Bauman 180, Brent 178, Al 174, Matt 174, Chuck 172, PT 164, Michael 164, Toby 160, Terry 158, Freddy 156, Jim 154
Segment-Neil 874, PT 868, Al 867, Brian 863, Jim 855, Bauman 847, Chuck 846, Jeff 846, Norb 840, Michael 839, Toby 824, Brent 812, Freddy 794, Cosmo 793, Joe 777 (Joe, you better hit the casino), Terry 760, Matt 752
Overall-PT 5463, Cosmo 5319, Freddy 5291, Chuck 5202, Michael 5162, Brent 5109, Toby 5061, Al 5035, Joe 4998, Matt 4981, Norb 4972, Jim 4931, Brian 4895, Bauman 4880, Terry 4857, Neil 4787, Jeff 4699
This week's race is at Kansas on Sunday. I will need your picks by 4 P.M. on Friday. Qualifying starts at 4:10 P.M. on Friday. This race could be interesting. After the spring race the track was resurfaced so all teams will be flying blind. However, NASCAR will be holding three practice sessions this week before the official race practice and qualifying. This is to lay some rubber down on the new surface and to give the teams time to analyze the new surface.
PT 5-2, 39-2, 24-2, 88-2, 9-1, 55-1, 20-1, 17-3, 48-2, 15-3, 29-2, 2-3, 16-3, 11-2, 99-1, 14-1, 18-1
Dennis 24-1, 11-3, 17-3, 15-3, 88-2, 9-2, 55-2, 56-3, 29-3, 39-1, 99-1, 14-2, 48-3, 16-2, 5-1
Toby 14-3, 29-3, 11-3, 88-3, 18-1, 42-1, 17-3, 48-3, 16-2, 24-3, 99-2, 2-3, 55-1, 39-1
Al 16-3, 17-3, 14-3, 99-3, 48-3, 18-1, 2-3, 11-3, 29-2, 15-3, 9-2, 24-3
Matt 5-3, 48-3, 17-2, 14-2, 9-1, 16-3, 11-3, 99-1, 39-1, 15-3, 88-3, 24-2, 18-2, 2-3
Freddy 16-2, 14-2, 88-2, 17-3, 9-2, 14-3, 48-3, 11-3, 18-2, 24-2, 5-2, 99-1, 29-1, 20-1, 2-1, 15-2
Chuck 16-2, 18-3, 20-1, 11-3, 22-1, 55-1, 17-3, 2-1, 88-3, 48-2, 29-2, 14-2, 99-3, 24-3, 9-1, 56-1
Neil 17-3, 14-3, 11-3, 2-2, 15-2, 42-2, 55-1, 9-1, 88-1, 29-1, 99-1, 18-2, 48-2, 24-3, 31-1, 1-1, 16-1, 56-1, 5-1
Jim 16-3, 2-3, 24-3, 29-3, 39-1, 15-3, 9-2, 18-2, 99-2, 17-2, 29-2, 88-2, 48-3, 5-1
Brian 88-3, 11-3, 48-3, 29-3, 15-3, 17-2, 16-3, 56-3, 24-2, 99-1, 2-3, 14-1, 5-2
Norb 11-3, 17-3, 18-3, 2-3,14-3, 16-3, 99-2, 56-1, 29-2, 39-1, 24-2, 88-2, 9-1, 48-2, 15-1
Bauman 16-3, 14-3, 18-3, 88-3, 15-1, 11-3, 24-3, 48-3, 29-2, 99-3, 17-2, 56-2, 5-1
Brent 14-2, 2-2, 88-2, 17-3, 9-2, 55-1, 11-2, 56-2, 29-1, 20-1, 18-2, 16-3, 24-2, 48-2, 5-3, 15-2
Terry 16-2, 48-3, 99-3, 14-3, 39-2, 5-1, 42-1, 24-3, 17-1, 2-3, 22-1, 88-3, 18-2, 29-1, 56-2, 15-1
Jeff 29-2, 88-3, 99-3, 17-3, 16-3, 24-2, 9-1, 15-1, 1-2, 11-2, 5-2, 2-2, 55-2, 18-2, 48-2
Michael 5-2, 48-3, 14-3, 99-3, 11-3, 88-3, 29-2, 9-1, 24-2, 15-1, 18-1, 2-3, 16-3, 56-1, 17-1
Joe 20-1, 39-1, 17-3, 2-2, 15-1, 11-2, 99-2, 88-2, 29-2, 14-3, 16-2, 24-1, 48-3, 18-1, 42-1, 55-3, 5-2
This week we will be touring the small country of Belgium. Belgium borders France, Germany and the Netherlands. Thus French, German and Dutch are the three official languages of Belgium. That must be very confusing. Belgium is known for beer, chocolate and lots of snow. Let the tour begin.
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| You can find the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and my waistline |
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| Belgiums most famous porn star, Eva Karera |
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| Charlamagne, the founder of France, was Belgian |
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| Belgian Blue Cow |
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| Former #1 Kim Clisjters. She is flexible |
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| Chocolate girl. How'd you like to give her Hershey a kiss? |
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| Belgian Malinois Shepard |
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| This Belgian may have the longest tongue ever. |
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| These Belgian waffles sure look good |
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| This Belgian waffle sure looks better |
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| Audrey Hepburn was born in Belgium |
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| Okay this is a stretch. Woman dressed in cabbage and carrots. Brussel Sprouts are basically little cabbages. Just add some of your cream to her and you will have cole slaw. |
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| European bikini car wash contest held in Belgium |
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| Belgian soccer fans in body paint. It' official, soccer is now my favorite sport |
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| More bikini car wash. This is one way to clean a belly button. |
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| Belgian beer |
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| The owner of team Red Bull is from Belgian heritage |
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| I have no idea. Just a hot chick in a bikini with a sash that says Belgium. |
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| Belgian draft horse. Used for pulling barrels of beer. That's my favorite horse. |
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| More car wash. You gotta love those crazy European contests |
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| Belgian relay team celebrating the fact that they didn't come in last at the Olympics. |
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| Grid girls at the Gran Prix of Belgium making sure that their rear ends don't get loose |
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| Dale Jr. now linked to Belgian actor van Damme. Due to my high moral standards I cut off the bottom portion of photo, otherwise you would have seen just how closely Van Damme and Dale Jr. were linked. |
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