NASCAR UPDATES & OTHER FAST STUFF 2-19-17

KEEP ON TRUCKIN’

Found me a saaaaaa-weet Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters concert on You Tube. HEY THERE and Welcome Gabbers and others to my NASCAR Updates & Other Fast Stuff.

It’s 64 degrees outside right now. In February. Yup. You heard me right. It’s 64 degrees here in PA in February.

My son sent me an unusual Valentine text. It said for me to have a Happy Valentines Day and then he slipped in that there was a new addition under construction for August of 2017. I pondered on this for a minute or 2 and then I texted back…”OMG!!!!! On my birthday?” He texted back that he didn’t know but OMG….YEAH!!!! In case you missed this crazy messed up texting…..I’m going to be a Grammy….AGAIN!!!!! Can’t wait…( =

Ordered all my sweet potato, tomato and pepper plants for May. I’m trying purple sweet potatoes this year. I want to try the straw bale method. I’ll have purple tomatoes, purple potatoes, purple carrots and purple red beets. Year of purple. I’m even thinking of planting celery and bok choy. Got to try something new every year.

So what of the land of Left Turns?

RAIN POSTPONED THE CLASH

Our Saturday night race is now a day race. The rains just wouldn’t let Daytona alone so The Advanced Auto Parts Clash will be at 11:35 am with qualifying for the Daytona 500 to come at 3:00 pm. If anyone has a Sunday only ticket for qualifying they can add $30 and get to see The Clash.

COURTNEY FORCE

Courtney Force was to be the pace car driver. Not sure if she can stay for today or not.

Qualifying for the Daytona 500 will be a single car lap. The 12 fastest will move on to the next round of single car laps. The fastest 2 cars will be pole and 2nd place starting spots. On Thursday is the Can Am Duals. These 2 races will determine the rest of the field qualifying order.

DALE JR HAS CANDLE LIGHT REMEMBRANCE DAY FOR DAD

The Dale Earnhardt Jr Museum and retail store was open to fans to come in, sign the guest book and share their stories and memories of Dale Earnhardt Sr. It is the 16th year since his passing. From 5 pm to 7 pm candles lit up the building in his honor.

Dale Jr has a Facebook page. More details are there.

RUMOR MILL FOODER

So last month Carl Edwards announced his immediate retirement from NASCAR to go spend more time with family and doing things he loved. He was very vague about it and nobody really could believe he’d walk away from a high profile ride with another year on his contract. You can include me in on the I don’t believe it there has to be some conspiracy here theory.

Motorsports writer Gordon Kirby says that Edwards was paid over $15 million to sit out for 1 year and that he’ll be back in a Team Penske Ford next year with Logano and Keselowski as the 3rd driver on the team.

Team Penske Racing denies this rumor. I don’t know what to think but this does sound plausible. The being paid to sit out part is something I was thinking at first. But then again with all the changes to NASCAR this year, maybe he decided he couldn’t deal with it all. I don’t blame him.

RACING TIRE

MORE NEW RULES………AGAIN

NASCAR is expanding their concussion protocol. If a driverwhose car is damaged bad enough that he has to go behind the wall or to the garage, he will have to go to the Infield Care Center for a check up. The Infield Care Center physicians are required to use a SCAT – 3 diagnosis tool in their evaluation of the driver. This should help in not getting misdiagnosis. The drivers get prerace season check ups so there will be a base line to compare to.

ALSO……NASCAR is getting rid of the penalty system of P1 thru P6 and replacing it with just 2 penalties. Regular infractions in inspection or lug nuts and stuff like that that will result in small penalties like starting the race in the back or loss of pit choice.

And then there’s the Humungous penalty. These will be loss of points, fines and loss of crew chief for a few weeks or even kept out of the race.

I really didn’t read the whole way through it all. I’m so overwhelmed with ALL the FREAKING changes. I guess with a sponsor like Monster Energy that has all the kiddies who are hyped up on their product we have to keep things moving at the speed of sound to keep their interest. Maybe NASCAR should hand out special super dooper powerful cell phones for the kiddies so they don’t miss anything on the internet or at home while they peek over the edge at the race every so often.

I AM NOT HAPPY with all the changes. I can’t believe that sponsors sat in those brain fart sessions and said……Oh yeah, I vote to pay high dollars to have my logo on a car that will be disqualified from a race for some stupid infraction or it needs a front quarter panel after a wreck and you won’t let them fix it. I’m totally ok with seeing it loaded into the hauler amid the roar of the racing motors on the track.

And the 3 segment thing sux too. How will they make the All Star race different or special? We’re seeing that format every week.

NOPE. Not happy. Very disillusioned. Not sure I even want to watch any more. It’s not the sport I grew up with in the least. I don’t mind changes but the changes are too wide and broad sweeping. Too much too much too much. I’m at a loss for words. And I think that’s where I’ll leave it for now. I’m not sure I’ll watch The Clash. I have a friend in the hospital that got hit head on by a pickup truck Super Bowl night when she left work. She’s quite messed up as is the case when your motor is on your lap. So I’ll go see her. NASCAR has a motor on it’s lap too right now.

And I’m outta here…..=^!^=