Full Throttle

The source of the above quote could be from many that competed in Saturday night’s Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond. It could be either Dale Jarrett or Kevin Harvick who both stormed into their trailers after finishing 26th and 12th respectively. Rookie Kasey Kahne spun out of the race and slipped out of the Chase. The quote is actually attributed to eventual winner Jeremy Mayfield after breaking a 142 race winless streak and jumping 5 places into 9th and a spot in NASCAR’s version of playoffs. These are the final qualifiers for the Chase:

Rank Driver
1. +1 Jeff Gordon
2. -1 Jimmie Johnson
3. — Dale Earnhardt Jr.
4. — Tony Stewart
5. — Matt Kenseth
6. — Elliott Sadler
7. — Kurt Busch
8. +2 Mark Martin
9. +5 Jeremy Mayfield
10. -2 Ryan Newman

Among those on the outside looking in, are two former Champions, Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett. A rookie Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray who came up 15 points short ( Who’s partial team owner, Felix Sabates is pissed) and Kevin Harvick.

Here is a silly little prediction. In the 10 remaining races for the Cup at least 3 of them will fail to start with a full 43 car field. Don’t ask why, I just have a feeling a couple of the underfunded teams will fail to show.

If developer Gene Arganese has his way the now common practice of racing under the lights will be joined by lights and a roof. Norwich, Connecticut may soon be home to an indoor track under the banner of the New England Raceway.

Arganese is scheduled to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission Sept. 23 to seek an amendment to the town’s zoning regulations to create a commercial/entertainment zone.

If his application is approved, he would then be able to seek commission approval to designate tracts of land off Lathrop Road as part of the new zone, including the land on which the proposed New England Raceway will be built.

Arganese said this weekend he plans to bring in experts to help outline his proposal to the commission. In addition to the domed stadium, which would house auto racing events, trade shows, conventions and concerts, Arganese is proposing to build a hotel and retail stores as part of his $400 million project.

“I have looked forward to the day when our experts can present our proposal for the domed stadium that will provide year-round benefits to Plainfield and to other nearby communities,” Arganese said. “I believe we have a plan that is only economically viable, but environmentally sound.”

The article fails to mention the length of the track but I would imagine it may be something less than 3/4 of a mile. Can it work?

Debatable in my view. I have attended both Midget and Sprint car events held indoors and the smell from exhaust and smoke was evident, although not overly bothersome. The thought of 43 NASCAR type vehicles, whether Cup, Busch, or the Truck Series running indoors gives me visions of the EPA and other State health officials putting a stop to the plan. It would take a ventilation system of enormous proportions to clean the air to a reasonable level.

Another point to consider, this would be another in a long list of venues that are scrambling for NASCAR dates.

Pop Secret 500, sorry, suffering withdrawal symptoms. The more things change, the more they remain the same the more they change for good.

The lights were a hit as records fell and Elliott Sadler’s stock rose at the inaugural “Finish Under the Lights” Pop Secret 500 at California Speedway.

Driving the No. 38 M&M’s Ford, Sadler treated those in attendance to his second victory of 2004 and third overall, nosing out rookie Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) to set a California Speedway NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series record for closest margin of victory of 0.263 seconds. Mark Martin (No. 6 Viagra Ford) finished third.

“I am happy to win the first Labor Day race here at California. That means my name will be in the books for a long, long time,” said Sadler, who clinched a spot in the “Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup” by virtue of his victory. Sadler, who is in sixth place with 3,204 points, will have an easy ride this weekend in Richmond as he has already locked up one of the coveted 10 spots in the “Chase.”

With Mark Martin moving into the top ten the Chase may provide him another chance to grab a Championship that, so far, has been the only missing item from an otherwise steller career.
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Hmmm… look at all the blank space below this post. Sure looks like I haven’t been very attentive to Full Throttle.

Truth be told I’m not sure what to do with this place. It has been over six months since the Throttles inception and visitor traffic has been very poor. True enough, much of the fault lies squarely with me by not providing more original stories.

But I refuse to give up… not yet.

Plans are 1 Oct to move the blog off of the MBlog site and provide its own home. Along with the move to its own domain, or sub-domain, I will also switch from the current Movable Type configuration, to WordPress. It is much more friendly as far as spam management and the rebuild time for each entry is greatly reduced.

In the next few days I will be catching up on some of the racing news here and working to make the move as smooth as possible.

FONTANA - Greg Biffle pulled off a California Speedway sweep by winning the NASCAR Busch Series Target House 300 on Saturday, taking the lead with three laps to go and holding off a pesky Casey Mears.

Biffle, a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series regular for Roush Racing, also won the spring Busch Series race at California Speedway. He won both races in the same Ford Taurus, one that almost didn’t make it out of Michigan in one piece.

“It made a great duel because we kept swapping positions back and forth,” said Biffle, who won his fifth Busch Series race of the season in the No. 60 Ford for Roush Racing. “I had to block him. You usually don’t have to do that on 2-mile race tracks. Because I needed the bottom, that’s just the way it was, I needed the bottom. It was fun racing him.”

Biffle and Mears changed leads four times in the last 10 laps of the race. Battling for position, the two drivers came within inches of colliding coming off Turn 4 with two laps to go in the race.

“When you’re trying to win a race, I think both guys are trying to get every inch,” said Mears, the Bakersfield driver of the No. 41 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge. “I think the race was really clean. We never touched the whole time. That’s all you can ask for.”

“The guys have just gotten the car handling great,” Biffle said. “I couldn’t complain. The track was really slick in the middle part of the race and toward the end. My car was handling especially well at the end. That’s the only way I can keep up with Casey.”

Final positions are listed below the fold.
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