Good mourning Gabbers, gawkers and others. Welcome to another racing update. Lets see here...I got a first in Pro Stock, a penalty handed out, Point Standings update, griping and general go fast type stuff. 

NHRA PRO STOCK

     First up we have our first female winner in Pro Stocks. They do that stage and stomp thing. Name? Erica Enders. She's from Houston Texas and she's 28 years old. Went to Texas A&M, Mays Business School. Didn't know going to business school could make you drive fast but it worked for Erica. On Sunday, July 1st Erica beat Greg Anderson down the straight away with a pass of 6.627 for 207.40 mph. Yep. Dats fast. 

Enders said of her win," I think that if I could have planned it I would have asked to run Greg in the final. You know that he made it very clear that he didn't want to lose to me. He's a very competitive guy and I love him to death but I couldn't wait to beat him." 

To make this win possible Enders finally got a competitive ride with Victor Cagnazzi last year. Times had been lean before hand. Victor teamed Enders up with Dave Connolly as her crew chief and this was his first win as a crew chief. I think this deserves an air wrench salute. VVVVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLL- VVVRRRLLLLLLLL-Zzzttt - Zzzttt - Zzzttt - VVVVVVVVRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. Oh yeah.

TNT STILL SUCKS

     Apparently the Twittersphere, blog-o-sphere and Facebook were absolutely lit up over the TNT Kentucky coverage. Supposedly 1/3 of the air time was commercials. The same ones over and over. Mac N Cheese or Mashed Potatoes seemed to be on every ones minds along with guys needing to know if the Viagra would make their 69 Camero go faster or if they could sail a boat better while eating mac N cheese, mashed potatoes and Viagra. I'm thinking a Coke Zero to wash it all down would be in order being that they are an official sponsor of NASCAR and this weekends Daytona race. So this weekend TNT will go to a split screen coverage. It will also be simulcast on Tru TV. Yep. Same network as that Lizard Licking show comes from. Never watched it but just the name sounds fun. 

PENALTY

     Richard Childress has his grandson Austin Dillon in the #3 car in the Nationwide Series. Austin won the June 29th race at Kentucky and the points lead too. But not for long. Seems his car failed post race inspection because it was sitting too low. Childress explained that the right rear jack bolt worked it's way loose because Kentucky is so bumpy and rough. He said he excepted the penalty and they would move on. Austin lost 6 valuable points and the points lead. His crew chief Danny Stockman Jr lost $10,000. Ouch.

SUBSTITUTION

     It was reported that Denny Hamlin woke up with a sore back on Monday and in order to concentrate on the Sprint Cup race he chose to stay out of the Nationwide car this weekend. Joey Logano will drive the #18 Sport Clips Toyota for Denny and Clint Bowyer will step into the #20 Dollar General Toyota. 

POINTS STANDING AS OF JULY

     1. Kenseth 2. Dale Jr 3 Johnson 4. Biffle 5. Hamlin 6. Harvick 7. Bowyer 8. Truex Jr 9. Stewart 10. Keselowski 11 Edwards 12. Kyle B

Except for Truex Jr and Harvick, every one in the top 10 has at least 1 win. Edwards in 11th and the first wild card spot has no wins. Kyle B has the 2nd wild card spot and 1 win. A lot has been happening this year to our last years top 10 guys.

     Jeff Gordon has been having a crappy year. That would be putting it mildly. At the opening Daytona 500 his motor blew by lap 81. At Bristol Gordon and Dale Jr scraped together and Gordon got the flat tire. At Fontana a pit stop penalty when his gasman falls outside the pit box with his gas can still connected to the car puts him down a lap in 26th. At Martinsville during the Green-White Checker finish, Newman pushes Bowyer making it 3 wide with Johnson, Gordon and Bowyer. Tracks not wide enough and out goes Gordon. With 30 laps to go at Kansas he's down to 7 cylinders. AND I COULD GO ON!!!! He sits 18th in the points with no wins and possibly no hope of getting a wild card spot for the Chase. Dude needs to find his lucky woobie or something.

     Kyle Busch has been having some nightmares as well. Last week at Kentucky it looked like his car was on a pogo stick bouncing around the track. He came in 10th but what a bummer since he led like 118 laps. He broke a shock mount when he scraped the wall. He's been doing that lately along with a few blown motors. 

     Kurt Busch has been driving for a small under funded team since he was asked to leave Penske last year. He's struggling with his demons and needs to start bringing Finch's cars back in one piece. Dude can't afford wrecked cars. Of course Kurt wants more than the cars have to give. Hopefully he can make it to the end of the season without any more anger issues popping up.

     Carl Edwards being last years runner up you'd think he'd be right up there in the mix. Not so far. He's got a death grip on 11th place with no wins. He needs some top 10's to stay there. Actually he needs a win by the end of the season because Kahne, Newman and Logano are tied for 14th and each has a win. Rule states that the wild cards for 11th and 12th go to the guys in the top 20 who have more wins. Stats will be used to break ties. If he stays in 11th or 12th he needs a win to secure his Chase spot. Can't do that without consistancy.

     Dale Earnhardt Jr has been Mr Consistancy of late. He's 2nd in the points and credits his crew chief Steve Letarte for calming him down, getting better info out of him to fix the car and for giving him confidence. Nuff said.

     Harvick and Truex have no wins but quietly sit in the top 10 just concentrating on finishing as close to the front as possible. Kenseth, Biffle, Hamlin, Bowyer, Stewart and Keselowski are all trying to be as consistent as possible as well. It's what gets you in the Chase.

BRUTON SMITH AKA $$$$$ Bags

     Mr Smith owns the Kentucky Speedway and fought long and hard to get a race there. Also owns Bristol Motor Speedway. He owns opinions too. This week he announced that NASCAR is boring and we need to do something to liven things up. His #1 proposal? Lets just throw random cautions to bunch up the field for those double file restarts he loves so much. His #2 proposal? Get Goodyear to bring a softer tire so they wear out faster. His #3 proposal? Bring back the convertible series.

The random cautions thing is just plain STUPID. Nothing like ruining the integrity of a sport by changing or rigging the outcome by throwing a caution because you're bored and want to see a Green- White Checker finish or just a plain old double file restart. Luckily the officials at NASCAR have my back on this one. Mike Helton said they had no plans to do such a thing. He said some times we have a hard enough time convincing the fans that the caution is legit already. THANK YOU MIKE HELTON.

The softer tire thing is a good idea IF Goodyear can bring one and it were safe. Each track surface and banking are different. The crew chiefs leave the air pressures low so the heat builds the tires back up during racing. Softer could be bad. 

Now the convertible series was back in the 50's when the cars were going half the speed they go now. So can you imagine a convertible other than an F1 or Indy car going 200 plus mph? 

If Mr Smith is bored, he needs to sell his race tracks, shut up, crawl back inside his wallet and join the other A.D.D. riddled individuals here in America and go look for another sport. I like my sport the way it is. Thank you very much.

THE DANICA

     Nothing much to report here. She came in 12th and minus a lap at Kentucky last week and moves up to 9th in the points just 185 points out of first. Strides are being made.

DAYTONA - COKE ZERO 400

     That would be 7:30 Saturday night ( 7-7-12 ). I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake for it but I'm going to make an effort. Maybe Juan Montoya will take out another jet dryer. Matt Kenseth was our 500 winner. To help with over heating NASCAR said they could adjust the radiator valve from 28 psi to 32psi. This will give the drivers another 15-20 degrees before the temps start rising. I don't think it will do much for keeping the guys from tandem drafting. They'll be doing a combo of both tandem drafting and side by side lines. Haven't checked in on the practice or qualifying but I was told at work Gordon is looking good. We shall see. 

With Stewart having EFI issues, Newman taking out Bowyer, Burton being MIA most of the season and Kyle only coming in 10th , I lost my #1 spot on the NASCAR fantasy league at work but I retained my #1 in Yahoo. Kahne and Kenseth saved my butt. This week I'm taking Kenseth, Dale Jr, Menard and Waltrip. Wish me luck.

Hope your 4th celebrations were tasty and you spent some time oohing and aahing at the big bangs in the sky. Take care this week and thanks for stopping by.........