Full Throttle

Brain France was working in the lab late one night
When his eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my Monster [Mile] from his slab began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise

Dover did the mash
Dover did The Monster mash
The Monster mash
It was a graveyard smash
Dover did the mash
It caught on in a flash
Dover did the mash
Dover did The Monster mash

Ok, which one of you smart-alecs gave Bobby “Boris” Pickett a ticket to the frontstretch grandstands? Come-on fess up!

Whoever it was Carl Edwards sends his thanks as he jumps five spots and trails leader Jeff Gordon by only 3 markers with his win at The Monster.

Topsy-turvy is the phrase of the day as a record 13 cautions flew, one for an ambulance crossing the track with an injured Waltrip crewman, 2 red flags made an appearance in the last 30 laps, a driver that was allegedly “hallucinating” and only 4 Chasers finishing in the top ten.

Just how crazy was it? Michael Waltrip finished just behind pole sitter Jimmie Johnson, who only led a single lap of 400, across the line for 15th position.

In keeping with the theme, Kurt Busch (28th) and Denny Hamlin (38th) have both been kicked into the “Chase Crypt,” history, toast. Done.

One more finish in the twenties by Kenseth and Harvick and they will be history as well.

More later….

What do you think you accomplished tonight?

Jacques: “We saw the checkered flag, which is good without too many incidents. We had pit stops and I worked with the spotter. That was very important — that was the key today. Talladega is a very different track and I expect it to be very different than here.”

Villeneuve qualified seventh on Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s 1.5-mile tri-oval, and was running 16th after 30 laps. But the Canadian star got into the rear of Brian Scott’s car on Turn 2 of Lap 46 and dropped back to 25th after pitting on Lap 48 so his crew could repair the damage. Villeneuve finished a lap down and never cracked the top 20 after the accident.

In the inter-race battle of former Indianapolis 500 champions Jacques Villeneuve and Buddy Lazier finished 21st and 24th, respectively, in their series debut.

DATELINE Dover Del: Tony “NASCAR is the WWE” Stewart must a had a bit of a smile on his face as he listened to the command to start engines prior to the Busch event. Rick Flair? Who thought that one up?

But I digress. (Hey stupid, you can’t “digress” before you start!)

If it’s one thing Robby Gordon knows its pulling 25 “G’s” from his wallet for performing the ever unpopular helmet toss. He’s an expert.

Tony Raines, take note, while your form was good and you did hit your target keep your checkbook handy come Tuesday. On the other side, kudos should be handed out to Robby, he took full responsibility for the incident. Then again, it’s easy to be magnanimous when another penalty gets you tossed for a race or two.

As expected Dale Jr’s. preferred crew chief is getting a head start on next season. Earnhardt crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and Junior’s cousin, will leave DEI early and start his new job at Hendrick next month.

You don’t have to smack me with a 2X4 to the nose to make me believe that wasn’t coming. With the team out of the Chase there’s not a good reason to stick around.

As a sidenote to this move, it’s a damn good thing Dale Jr. is out of the Chase. If he were in it and Eury Jr. still made the move the conspiracy nuts would have an entire “sedition smorgasbord” to eat from. As it is they got nothin’.

Well, almost. They still have phantom yellows and still claim sugar has been poured into Jr’s gas tank and it’s possible that will gain strength with Eury not around to “keep’em honest.”

Cue the music, (8) (8) (8) … STOP!

Oh hey look, crew chief Gene Nead has lost his seat atop the warwagon for Robby Gordon Motorsports.

Hardly surprising for team that shows little unless the weeks event is at a road course. On the ovals the #7 is mid-pack at best so Nead is gone and allegedly looking to the Woods Bros for another job.

Gordon reportedly is interested in Peter Sospenzo to replace Nead as crew chief of the #7 team. Sospenco has previously CC’d for Penske Racing, the #44 Chevys driven by Terry Labonte in 2005 and also Joe Nemechek during his stint at Hendricks Motorsports.

Most recently Sospenzo was employed at Ginn before the DEI merger and is party, along with Richard Labbe, to the lawsuit filed over his contract termination.

AN OBSERVATION: I’m sure you’ve seen the fans complaints, “why do teams recycle drivers?” Most often it happens with drivers that are, shall we say long-in-the-tooth, they get shuffled from team to team with little regard to their “use by date.”

I’ve never seen the same complaint about crew chiefs yet they get moved from team to team as if they were baseball managers. An MLB manager goes 7-32 and he’s gone and rehired somewhere else by the end of the month. A NASCAR crew chief goes 0 for 20 with no top tens he gets canned and is picked-up before the year is out by someone else looking for lightening in a bottle.

It makes no sense to me, where’s the new blood? Put someone new in that chair as the music stops.

G. C. Spencer, 82, died Thursday morning at the NHC Healthcare Center in Johnson City following a long battle with emphysema. He