All kidding aside

Photo courtesy
NASCAR Media.com

Who is Chad trying to kid? Only having "light conversation" concerning his contract with Hendrick. First of all, his current contract runs through the 2010 season so why would there be table talk now ? Secondly, can you possibly imagine Knaus separating from the Hendrick empire?
Yeah Okay.... "I don't have a new contract, and we've barely had enough conversation for me to agree to anything." Like he'd even remotely disagree. Please Chad... keep it real... "you never know what will happen. There are so many what-ifs."
What if???
He and Jimmy can go on the road as a comedy duo.

The Morning After

The morning after of what many feel is one of NASCAR's worst seasons. On the other hand records have been set with Johnson taking four titles back to back and Hendrick getting the 1, 2, 3 punch. Disgusting to many and perhaps has cast a dark shadow over the sport. I'm just another NASCAR fan and I too am not pleased with the dominance by two drivers.. JJ and K. Busch. Two of the least popular drivers but possibly the best the sport has ever seen. It's like a bad hangover after a good drunk.

Pre-Season Promo

Local promoter and owner of Albany/Saratoga Speedway Bruce Richards has developed some super ideas to help fans, drivers, owners and sponsors. He set up this show at a local mall this weekend at no charge to the owners, he has dropped some of the entry fees for '09 and has several ideas for ticket give aways for the fans. He's no fool... all this in the face of bad economics, but he has a full entry field for the season, something other local Speedways can't claim, and has even added Saturday night racing for the Sprint Cars.

He and I had coffee together Saturday morning and he had several suggestions on photo ideas. One would be to set up a cut-out car for kids and adults too I suppose, to sit in and have their picture taken for a few bucks. Also have driver autograph sessions with photos.. nothing new to NASCAR tracks, but not seen very often at local tracks. I told Bruce I'm willing to try anything.

On a roll Matty... Vegas too?!

Timing

Unfortunately.

The only cool thing about Matt Kenseth winning the Daytona 500 is he started 43rd. That made it somewhat worthwhile. He had an amazing march to the front making it up into the top ten somewhere around lap 35 and Tony Stewart wasn't far behind him landing himself a respectable 8th place finish in his debut of Stewart Haas Racing. Team mate and employee of Smoke's, Ryan Newman didn't fare as well in 36th, but I expect to see good things outa that Hendrick powered Army #39 as the season goes on.

Speaking of Hendrick... chalk one up for Jr. Nice move Dale. Curious to see the jib jab about that. In my opinion it was just pure frustration. Nice crash though!!

All Nighter

With several Cup drivers competing in this years marathon race I am following it closer than I normally would. A.J. Allmendinger was leading late last night when he developed engine trouble... too bad for the kid. He has tons of potential but cannot get a break. Latest news is the Ganassi Team with Dixon, Pruett and Montoya is running up front. That's no surprise.

Tune in to the Speed Channel at 7:00 am for live coverage.

Future

Photo courtesy of
NASCAR Media.com

Thursday was NASCAR's (poor) state of the sport address.
It seems Mr. France took full charge as the reining head honcho and made it clear as Mike Helton sat on the bench.

I don't envy Brian's position right now as it just seems to be the repetitive barrage of questions by the hungry Media folk. He'll do the right things and make solid choices... at least we better hope and pray he does. Perhaps he and Barrack should have lunch.

Yes Mr. Esquire... I am a member of NASCAR Media and have written permission to use their photos.

A cold day in hell....

Nice photo heh... yeah well with the economy continuing to falter many of us may find ourselves using these again. I personally like this relic.



Daytona is so close!! Nice and warm there.

A Long Winter

My Golden Retriever "Chase"


The last post was three months ago. Like the rest of the world, I too have been going through many changes. I watch and read as NASCAR also rolls with the economic downturn with massive team layoffs and mergers. It's hitting nearly every market.

The construction industry is as slow as I've seen it in my 30 year career. As a self employed contractor with an established client base it's rare for me to be out of work, but this is proving to be a very long winter.

I fight and never give up and my constant perseverance pays off with finding small jobs. These are not paying the bills, but it keeps things going in a forward motion.

We will get through this.