100 Post Marathon #39

I am waiting for the NASCAR Race to start in Charlotte, but rain is holding things up right now. While we wait for them to dry out the track let’s take a look at some of my past NASCAR related posts.

First Up — Have You Ever Seen Them Together?

There was also A Different Look At The Race with commentary by NASCAR announcers.

And a new paint scheme:

And a crew that has more time on their hands now:

Dukes of Crawford

If you can…

To learn more about the 100 Post Marathon read here and especially here.

Staying away from politics for the day. I’m enjoying being a sports fan today, and it’s a great time of year to be a sports fan. NASCAR is in the chase part of their season with Talladega the next stop tomorrow. College and NFL football are both well under way, and the NHL started today with the Lightning losing to the Rangers in Prague.

Best of all my Phillies are in the playoffs and are up 2 games to none over the Brewers. Game three is on right now. The Phils are down 3-0 in the 6th but they have a runner on third with only one out. As I write this Howard scores Werth from third, 3-1 and two out.

Politics will be back soon enough, but for now I’ll take the Obama approach — If you need me, call me.

It’s time for game five between the Flyers and Canadians. I’ll be right here watching, except when I’m flipping over to the Nationwide Sprint Cup race and catching the updates from the Phillies/Giants game.

All three starting about right now. Life is good.

UPDATE 1: Montreal scores first (power play), San Fransisco scores first (thankfully only one…they sent seven to the plate). Thank goodness it’s still early in both games.

UPDATE 2: The Flyers tied it up, but Montreal went back on top 2-1. We’re in the first intermission. It’s still 1-0 in the Phillies game, and I got my schedule mixed up…it’s the Sprint Cup race tonight from Richmond, not Nationwide. Denny Hamlin is leading right now.

UPDATE 3: 3-1 or 2 Canadians. They’re reviewing a Flyers goal now. Phillies and Giants are tied at 2, and Hamlin is still in the lead in Richmond.

UPDATE 3a: Count it! 3-2

UPDATE 4: Umberger ties it!!

UPDATE 5: Hartnell gives them the lead!!! And the 2nd period comes to an end. The baseball game is still tied (in the 7th), and Denny Hamlin is still in the front of the pack on the short track.

UPDATE 6: It’s tied late in the 3rd period. It’s tied in the bottom of the 9th. And I missed a big wreck in the NASCAR race. And before I can get this typed Scotty Upshall scores! 5-4 Flyers with just under three minutes left in the game.

UPDATE 7: The Flyers add and empty netter. Final score 6-4. Philadelphia is going to the Eastern Conference finals.

The NFL Draft, NASCAR Nationwide Aaron’s 312 race from Talladega, and the Redwings/Avalanche quarter finals game two. The remote control is going to be smoking! I bet there’s a baseball game on somewhere, too.

I came home from work and turned on NASCAR qualifying at Texas Moter Speedway and saw this unbelievable crash. Rookie Michael McDowell was able to get out of the car, walk to the ambulance and come out of the care center with nothing more than a few bumps and bruises.

It hasn’t happened in a while, but I’m really not surprised that these two stories got mixed up.

Big George Helms had tickets for last weekend’s NASCAR race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but died before he got to use them. He still made it to the track, though.

On Wednesday, NASCAR said his Las Vegas victory was tainted and slammed [him] and his [] Racing team with its strictest penalty yet. [He] was docked 100 points — knocking him out of first place — and stripped him of the 10 bonus points he would have carried into the Chase for the championship.

At 6-foot-5 and 400 pounds, Helms wouldn’t have been able to fit into a race car. But after his death from a heart attack Dec. 28, loved ones decided to try to fulfill the 54-year-old’s dream of participating in a NASCAR race, and arranged for the former logger’s ashes to be driven around the track.

Rival competitors on Monday circulated a photo via e-mail of [him] doing a celebratory backflip off his car, and the cover is clearly not attached to the oil tank. It’s believed that by opening up the oil tank trunk, the air is able to circulate through the car and create as much as 10 percent more downforce.

Driver Mike Harmon taped Helms’ urn to the fire extinguisher of his Nationwide Series car during practice last Friday. He told ESPN he could hear someone squealing when he went through a couple of turns.

“I swear I did,” Harmon said. “I heard a noise I’ve never heard before. It happened just one time, through Turns 1 and 2.”

Earlier Wednesday, while he was awaiting word on his punishment, he said he wasn’t concerned with whatever NASCAR handed down because “it’s not going to change how I drive, so I’m not going to sweat it.”

That likely changed after NASCAR’s ruling, which is the toughest to date toward infractions on its Car of Tomorrow.

Mara Brodeur, a friend who accompanied the urn to Las Vegas, called Helms’ family afterward to describe how it went.

“It put tears in my eyes,” said Helms’ younger brother, Allen.

Because NASCAR does not typically strip teams of victories, the penalty did the closest thing to it.

And Helms will be at the track’s next race, in spirit anyway. His friends spread some of his ashes at the speedway before returning the rest to his mother.

It’s time for the 2008 NASCAR season to begin. Technically it’s already under way with Todd Bodine winning the first Craftsman Truck Series race, The Chevy Silverado 250.

There have been some changes. The Busch Series is now the Nationwide Series. Despite the name change, I fully expect massive quantities of Augustus Busch’s product to be consumed during today’s “Camping World 300 presented by Chevrolet”.

Other changes are the Nextel Cup has changed to the Sprint Cup, and the Car of Tomorrow is now The Car. Tomorrow will be the 50th running of the Daytona 500. Not bad for a sport that basically started with a bunch of good ol’ boys and moonshiners with time on their hands saying, “shoot, my car’s faster than yours.”

One thing I do admire about the NASCAR circuit, the fans, and the coverage of the events is that they unashamedly participate in and broadcast the prayer and National Anthem. Enthusiastically.

So, while Daytona is only about two and a half hours away, I’ll be finding some couch time today and tomorrow. (Do you have any idea how hard you good folks would have to hit the tip jar to score me a couple of tickets?)

I’ll be pulling for the Sammenhold/Mohamed/Dateline Ford.

. . .if you have 15 six packs of a major soft drink and drink two of them?

88 Pepsi

Here are photos of John Roberts, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and John Roberts, host of Speed’s NASCAR Race Day. Some claim that they are two different men. However there is no evidence of them ever have being seen together.

Coincidence? I think not.

The speculation over Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s future after leaving DEI can stop.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Wednesday he is joining Hendrick Motorsports, moving him one step closer toward the championship that has eluded him while driving for his late father’s company.

Rick Hendrick said Earnhardt will replace Kyle Busch on his star-studded roster of drivers. The decision ends five weeks of recruiting for NASCAR’s most popular driver, who became a free agent May 10 when he said he would leave DEI at the end of this season.

[...]

“It became apparent to me the man I wanted to drive for,” Earnhardt said. “He competes with integrity and most importantly, he wins races.”

This news, though not totally unexpected, will be hitting NASCAR fans like, well, a car into the wall.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will leave the company founded by his late father at the end of the year in a shake-up certain to ignite a bidding war for NASCAR’s most popular driver.

He told Dale Earnhardt Inc. on Thursday that he had decided to make the switch to another team when his contract expires.

The negotiations have been quite public. I expect most of the finger pointing, especially from Juniors’ fans, to be in the direction of his sister and stepmother.

Thank you for your coffee, seignor. I shall miss that when we leave Casablanca. ~ Ingrid Bergman

In The Bullpen (Chad Evans) U.S. Soldier Returns from Iraq and Tells ABC We Aren’t Getting the Full Iraq Picture — “As posted the other day, a Reuters panel concluded the very same thing; that we aren’t getting the full picture of Iraq. In most areas of news, violence overrides other events.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Immigration Compromise Dies On Democratic Obstinacy — “We have a historic opportunity to do something right for border security and immigration policy for the first time in generations through the control of the House, Senate, and White House. Just as they did with judicial nominees, the Republican Senate caucus has shown a lack of will to fight for its agenda — and they will inspire a similar lack of enthusiasm among conservative voters in November if they continue to run up the white flag every time the Democrats challenge them on core issues.”

The American Thinker (Thomas Lifson) Laws are not optional — “Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, has taken into his pretty little head the notion that he gets to pick and choose which laws to enforce. He flouted state law when he performed bogus “marriages” of homosexual couples, and now he has announced that he will flout any federal legislation that criminalizes assisting illegal immigration.”

Michelle Malkin COX & FORKUM VS. NBC/DATELINE — Michelle performs a bit of a bump draft on the NBC news-making department.

bRight & Early (Jim Lynch) New NASCAR Entry — Yes, I know this is my own site. I just want to make sure that visitors to this entry see my contribution to the NASCAR/Dateline story.