U Want Some Racing

By Mark Young

The 2012 NASCAR season has officially begun and the racing world is buzzing. “How is Jr. going to do?” “How about them Fords?” are questions I get a lot this time of year. And every February every team out there is optimistic. Is it fake? Is it real? Nobody will know for several weeks but one thing is for sure, Daytona is on Sunday!! And that means it’s time to make some predictions.

THE WINNER – Now that the 2-car tandem racing has been broken up, for the most part, that means there are no longer standing team orders as to who guys MUST race with. This is a good thing for Dale Jr. He doesn’t have to stick on Jimmie’s rear bumper riding around in the back and have no chance to win because Jimmie sucks at plate racing. With that in mind I really think Jr. has an excellent chance to break the winless streak. Other cars that I think are fast right now and cannot be forgotten in the equation are the 24, 14, 18, 16.

THE DARK HORSE – Picking a dark horse for the 500 is always a shot in the dark. Obviously I think we have to throw Kurt Busch in there because of driving for an underfunded team. Another restrictor plate dark horse would be Marcos Ambrose who raced well on Saturday night.

WRECKS – There will be a lot of them I think and it will be a matter of where in the pack they take place in order for us to know who it will effect. The only safe place is up front, unless you are the one who gets tagged.

ATTRITION – NASCAR announced changes to the pop-off valve on Wednesday meaning the cooling system won’t spit water out until another 10 degrees or so. I am not so sure this will help the situation. Guys are going to try to tandem for position often and it is going to drive these engine builders nuts.

DANICA – The media will be all over her but that is to be expected. How will she race? Well don’t let her qualifying effort fool you. Greg Zipadelli built her a car that will be very stable in the draft. I think that if she can stay out of trouble, and not cause any trouble, that a top 15 finish is not out of the question.

There you have it, my predictions for Daytona. No surprise to anyone I took Junior but I like his chances. Dark Horse is Ambrose and the tow trucks will need a full tank of gas.

Here’s to a great Daytona 500……………..U Want Some?

By Mark Young

Holy Crap!! What a weekend in Daytona to kick-off the 2012 NASCAR season!! Speed, crashes, roll-overs, fantastic saves,overheating and Fords on the front row………Here are a few bullet point comments and random thoughts I had from the weekend.

1. The Shootout was a damned good race. Yeah, the aero package is tricky, big deal. These guys are supposed to be the best of the best. This is what it was like in the 80′s boys……except they had even LESS downforce.

2. Kyle Busch drove his ass off. That boy deserved the victory. Two fantastic saves and a great move to beat Tony…….

3. Hey Kevin Harvick……your comment after the wreck made me laugh. “These guys gotta remember there are two pedals in these cars” Dude……really? You drive an automatic now? SMH.

4. The rules to qualify for next year’s Bud Shootout have changed!! They listened to me!! (yeah whatever). Pole positions now matter again……good.

5. The Fords were fast as hell in qualifying mode on Sunday……none of them were showing overheating issues like the rest of the cars. They didn’t race realy well on Saturday night though. Guess we will see on Thursday.

6. Danica was slow in qualifying trim. That makes sense, that car is set up to draft and be stable, not straight line fast. She will be fine.

7. Who doesn’t want to see Kenny Wallace make the 500? Come on HERMINATOR!!

8. If the C-Posts on the #48 were wrong and NASCAR says penalties are coming…….why not penalize Knaus now? Bench him!! JMO.

That’s all I got for now peeps……what do you think? I’m sure I missed something.

By Mark Young

The 2012 NASCAR season kicks off unofficially on Saturday with the running of the Bud Shootout, formally named the Busch Clash, and because of how NASCAR’s greed has made a mess of things with “Official Sponsors” should simply be called “The Daytona 187.5″

Back in the day winning a pole position on qualifying day used to mean something. Sure the team got to pick their pit stall first and their sponsor got a lot of TV time (normally before TV started thinking nobody rooted for the little guy), but they got something more. The pole winner was instantly invited to participate in the following year’s Bud Shootout. The race where all of the prior year’s pole sitters and prior Champions of the event could go at it.

It ain’t that way now. Just like the demise of other sponsorships that meant something individually like teams or manufacturers, NASCAR’s greed has ruined a great race. Not wanting to leave out any beer company from writing them an annual check, Brian France and the suits in Daytona schemed up a deal and offered Coors Light the chance to be the official beer of NASCAR!! What does Coors get out of the deal? Why they get to become the Pole Position Sponsor!! But at the same time NASCAR didn’t want to upset Anheuser Busch with this move so they told Bud they could still have the Shootout………OK fine.

Someone in the Marketing Department forgot something. How can you take the Coors Light Pole winner and make them eligible to run the Bud Shootout? Sooooooo, the brainacs changed the rules. Winning the pole means nothing more than pit stall selection and they get a cool little flag. Now, to keep the beer Gods happy the requirements for the Shootout have changed. Now the top 25 in points from last year is in as well as past shootout winners and past 500 winners are in. Why not just let everyone try to qualify and race?

The Bud Shootout has lost all of it’s luster to me except one thing…….IT’S STILL THE FIRST RACE OF THE YEAR!!!

What say you friends?