Full Throttle

The headline is an attention getter isn’t it?

It’s also a verifiable truth. Smoke spent Wednesday evening racing at Skagit Speedway looking for a little fun: “You go to work and you go to play,” Stewart said. “This is all about fun for me.”

Unfortunately (for Smoke and the fans) the fun was left for 18 year old Travis Rutz as he captured his second win of the month while Tony smacked the wall on the first lap of the first heat race, sending his car end over end.

Check EBay, some of the larger pieces of Stewart’s 360 Sprint Car may be available for purchase at a later date.

“In 27 years of racing that’s the first time I’ve had a hole in my memory after a wreck,” Stewart said. “I can’t remember anything from about the middle of Turn 2 until we got out the back gate. Obviously we didn’t want the night to end this early, but Kasey’s a whole lot better at these things than me.”

Kasey is fellow NASCAR star Kasey Kahne who was also on hand for the charity event. Proceeds from the race went to the Kasey Kahne Foundation ($144,000 dollars was raised), a charity Kahne started about a year ago to benefit critically ill and underprivileged children and their families.

Kahne started from the five hole and finished fourth in the 30 lap main event. “It feels great being here,” Kahne said. “It’s always great being home and I love racing at Skagit Speedway.”

Skagit Speedway, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Sprint Cars, NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle

This is funny. Chase Haters™ won’t think so, but it is. The Fast Machines David Lamm points to a story that shows imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The NHRA, who is far, far (nearly outta sight!) ahead of NASCAR in terms of the female side of the “diversity” issue, has decided to imitate the Chase. Their version: Countdown to the Championship.

Chase Haters™ are given permission to hold your collective laughter. Now, if you care to laugh at the PGA’s version, feel free, ’cause its, well, it’s a laughable sport! (duck here come the brickbats!)

At a time when many NASCAR driver/team relationships are diverging in many directions, and some “other” relationships are only wink-wink-nod-nod, hinted at, here’s a relationship that combines Brian Vickers with Stacy Keibler of WWE and “Dancing With The Stars” fame. (who happens to have the nicest, um, er, well nevermind, just take my word. It’s the nicest one in the business!)

4ever3 wrote a piece asking where NASCAR will be getting drivers in the future. I left a fairly long comment but this is one example where I believe some of them will come from. Crossovers from other auto racing disciplines.

Roger Penske, who owns teams in the Indy Racing League and Nascar, said Saturday that he was working on a plan that would allow his I.R.L. driver Sam Hornish Jr. to race in some Nascar second-tier Busch Series and lower-level ARCA events next season. That would be in addition to a full I.R.L. schedule for Hornish, who won the Indianapolis 500 this year.

Ray Evernham has nothing on the Cyprus dudes in the preceding post. Here is his explaination on possible fallout from “more than 60 image-conscious sponsors paying the bills to keep Evernham Motorsports in NASCAR’s premier series.”

“I do worry about those things,” Evernham said. “Obviously what people are saying, maybe it makes our partners nervous or whatever. I’ve got to just keep showing people that my personal life doesn’t affect this business. My son battled leukemia for 2

Sometimes it doesn’t matter squat what you do, someone’s always going to be pissed off:

The FIA has launched an investigation into the prize-giving ceremony at the Turkish Grand Prix following an official complaint from Cyprus.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat presented the winner’s trophy to Felipe Massa on the Istanbul podium and was introduced as the president of the Turkish Cypriot

out?li?er /?a?t?la??r/ Pronunciation Key - Spelled Pronunciation[out-lahy-er] Pronunciation Key - noun

1. a person or thing that lies outside.
2. a person residing outside the place of his or her business, duty, etc.
3. Geology. a part of a formation left detached through the removal of surrounding parts by erosion.

That’s me, number one and a bit of number two. As for number three, some of you may think I’m a rockhead, so that may fit, in a round-about way also. Why? Let me give you a list of what’s “inside” first:

The Spotter who seems to agree with Dustin Long that Bristol was a “yawner.”

Diecast Dude: Sorry Dude I’m not one that you are agreeing with. Bristol wasn’t an exercise in the art of “tedium.”

Bob Pockrass: I agree, there wasn’t a “Ryan Newman-Dale Jarrett flare-up” this year. Also concur Denny Hamlin finished sixth with “barely a scratch on it.” That’s generally true every year of those in the top five. That’s how they got there, they weren’t beatin’ and bangin,’ they were winnin’ or damn close.

Ed Hinton called it a “kinder, gentler Bristol” and says BMS president Jeff Byrd went through parking lots apologizing to people after the race. He’s also quoted as saying, “It happens to us,” Byrd said dejectedly, “about once every 10 years.” Chase? Could be, it also could be just an abberation and the latest meme the press has found to plump up and add to their column space.

That’s a short list. The other four or five sites that expressed similar thoughts I failed to place in the aggregator archive file. (convenient huh?)

Anyway, I don’t buy it, at least not much. Yes Bristol was on the tame side compared to past years. In Hinton’s column he quotes Dale Jr. saying drivers were showing more respect and many times moved over as he came through the field.

I’ll concede the Chase may have had a part, but look at the standings. Mark Martin had a miserable day yet is still in the top ten and 90 points from dropping out of it. The bottomline is everyone within the top 11 can make the Chase. 12th on down are history and most of them have been for weeks.

I suspect some of the on track antics of a couple drivers in the last few weeks may be having more of an impact, has produced a more “respectful” environment and manifested itself Saturday night. With NASCAR wielding its version of a Sword of Damocles in the form of points reductions for on track bad boys someone looking for immediate revenge faces a possible double whammy.

If it were me (wishful thinking) and I had a mind to use the chrome bumper Saturday, knowing I’d still be in the top 11 even if I crashed myself the thought of that double whammy would weigh heavily on the final decision.

So call me an outlier all you want, I’ll wear the crown proudly, with silver clusters. (and with distinction I might add) I’ll even accept definition number three thrown my way. So throw all the rocks you want, they’ll just bounce off my rockhead.

UPDATE: David Poole falls along the same general lines as I have. It’s the Chase, but it isn’t. ” The problem is, therefore, the system. Specifically, the problem is still the same as it always was. It