Welcome, gay NASCAR fans! Congratulations to Sunday's
winner, Jeremy Mayfield! "HEEEEY, JEREMY!" Jeremy is
on the short list of drivers I'd gladly add to the
DeVine 91/2 if we had room! It was great to see this
cutie bag a win, and in such an enertaining event!
The Michigan race really showed that you don't have to
have a wreck-a-minute for a race to be exciting: The
final laps turned into a completely enthralling
fuel-mileage duel where, for lap or two at the time,
anyone seemed like a possible winner, even Tony
Raines!
This week, we had two guys in the top 10; in the
points now, we have four. Jeff Gordon is just outside
at 12th; Baby is at 16th. I LOVE it that NASCAR had to
come out and make assurances that they will not alter
the rules of the Chase to make it possible for Jeff
and/or Jr. to get in the Chase even if they are not
eligible! I mean, in what other sport would the
sanctioning body even have to answer that question?
You gotta love it!
Michigan looked beautiful on Sunday, and it was great
to see the track flying the flag of Canada. (That's
the country just to the north where they have figured
out how to take care of their citizens. Maybe it's
because they're not wasting all their money on a
lunatic international murder rampage based entirely on
flimsy lies.)
In my rush to get over to the pool -- thanks, Janet
and SuePie! -- on Sunday, I missed the first little
bit of the show, so let's pick it up about the time of
the second caution, which flew for the flat of the 0
car. When we restarted at lap 37, Kyle Busch was the
leader. At lap 42, the #42 of Jamie McMurray was
running in 23rd position. Kurt Busch came a-stomping
up through the field like he was going to get up there
and really show little bro how to do it right. But at
lap 55, Kyle came in under green because some paper
was stuck on his grill, and his water was a-boiling.
(This is a good time to mention that the theme of the
day was "blowing trash." It seems the wind was
whipping up all these hotdog papers, Misty cigarette
packs and condom wrappers, and they were getting on
the track and blocking the cars' grills. It happened
over and over. Really, I hadn't heard so much talk
about "blowing trash" since my last visit to the
penthouse bar at the world-famous Streamline Hotel in
Daytona Beach!)
At lap 58, Mark Martin was in 3rd, Kasey Khane was in
4th, Carl Edwards was in 5th, Jeff was in 9th, and
Ryan Newman was in 10th! Wish we'd finished out the
day that good! Pretty soon, Kasey had to come in for
trash on his grill, and he went a lap down. At lap 88,
we enjoyed seeing Jr. and Jeff rassle for 13th. At lap
88, it was Rusty's time to come in for trash on the
grill.
Our pole-sitter, Joe Nemechek, brought out the
next caution when he had a flat and hit the wall right
after Kasey took the lead. When we restarted at lap
80, the Viagra Ford was poking out in front. Then at
lap 82, the damage from those hotdog papers became
apparent when Kyle blew up, dropping oil that caught
up Elliott Sadler and Dale Jarrett. Hate it for ya,
Elliott!
The #38 car had more trouble when the boys
tried to fix the tore-up back end with duct tape but
left a roll of it hanging on the bumper! Wow, when
that tape came aloose it went flying, let me tell you!
Props to NBC/TNT for following the tape. Mark was the
leader at the restart, but then Kurt passed him at lap
87. At lap 92, we had five guys in the top 10! Go,
DeVine 91/2!
The announcers informed us that Mark was "yelling on
the radio" about trash on his grill and his water
boiling up. Shortly, caution was called for debris,
and when the cars slowed down he cleaned his nose on
Kenseth's tail. At lap 107, Scott Riggs was the
leader! Love me some Scotty, oh yeah! Next, Mark
complained about how the #29 of Kevin Harvick was
handling poorly. "Ooh! Ooh!" At lap 111, Biffle took
it away from Riggs. At lap 97, Kurt took it away from
Biffle.
Next, Johnny Benson blew up, shooting water like a
racecar fountain. At the restart at lap 134, Kurt was
the leader; Jamie was in 10th. The next caution, also
for a tire, put everyone in a quandry, as they were
about 10 laps from being able to make it to the end.
With 24 to go, Travis Kvapil hit the wall; no caution.
Then Carl took the lead! Around lap 182, guys started
coming in under green. Mark slowed to pit but missed
pit lane! (If we were catty, we would say, "senior
moment!" So glad we are not catty.) At lap 191, Carl
gave up the lead to pit. Jr. followed at lap 193. Tony
Raines was the leader. (Tony Raines!?) Then Tony ran
out of gas; Jeremy took the lead. Kasey came in with
three to go. With two to go, Mikey ran out of gas.
Then Jeremy took the checkers
! Proving yet again that they truly, truly suck, NBC/TNT cut away from Jeremy's
series of burnouts so we could watch more commercials.
When, oh when is NASCAR going to wise up and take the
TV contract away from these clowns?
JEFF SOUNDS OFF!
On Friday, USA Today reported some remarks Jeff Gordon
made basically trashing Jamie and Kurt for cutting new
deals for the 07 season. Jeff said if he were their
present team owners he "would be finding a suitable
replacement for them tomorrow. They would be gone."
Jeff also said some young drivers are overpaid.
Really? One could argue that most people in NASCAR are
overpaid compared to comparable positions elsewhere.
Jeff did not mention whether he thinks he is overpaid
himself -- bet not. Payment, of course, is just a
function of the market. You make as much money as you
can, whatever you do. And you certainly cannot make
one dime more than someone is willing to pay you. Just
to tweak Jeff's nose, I was going to reprint here the
"8 Reasons to Hate the 24" that I saw on a T-shirt in
Daytona Beach, but cannot remember them all. (Some
were "He looks like a girl. He talks like a girl. He's
not even Southern.") When I quoted some of these to
Mother DeVine, a major Gordon fan, she was not amused!
Well that's it for this week, friends. Should be a
great weekend of racing in the Bristol bullring with
trucks on Wednesday (Speed, 9 pm), Cup qualifying on
Friday (TNT, 6:10 pm), the Busch race Friday (TNT,
7:30 pm) and the Cup race Saturday (TNT, 7 pm). Let's
all meet up down at the Track Bar!
Love,
Betty Jack DeVine
E ME at Bettyjack@gaytona.com
