Monday, May 30, 2005

That's Racin!



600 Miles is the longest race of the season in Nextel Cup Racing. For Jimmie Johnson, who won the Coke 600 for the third straight year, it took 599.9 miles to figure out how to get the lead, and beat Bobby Labonte to the finish line by about 6 feet. What a fun night of racing, which included a record 22 cautions. Not a record for the track in Charlotte, not a record for the year. But rather, a record for the history of the sport. Never has a race involving the top level of stock cars seen so many yellow flags. Nevertheless, despite the ponderous pace, the race left many a incident.

Johnson wins again

Junior with another major error in judgment which I am sure is not his fault if you ask his legion of fans. Not his fault, just like Las Vegas with Brian Vickers, or the big one in Talladega...


Tony Eury -- Dale Earnhardt Jr's uncle and former crew chief -- was none too pleased with his nephew Sunday night after Earnhardt wrecked teammate Michael Waltrip in the Coca-Cola 600.

"I don't know what his problem is with Michael, but it'll be fixed [Monday] -- I'll guarantee it," an irate Eury said. "He acts like he's friends with [Waltrip], but every time he gets around him on the racetrack he ends up wrecking him."




Above, David Letterman and Danica Patrick after the finish of the Indy 500

Danica takes 4th, some dude wins …seriously, isn’t that how it was covered yesterday? I will admit I only watched because of the chick, but when a guy wins the race, isn’t he the story? Is it really necessary to show Danica’s mom again instead of covering the winner?

Sandomir with his review of the broadcast

Other Links:

Rangers sweep (sort of) the ChiSox

Here, find Chan Ho Park’s Career Stats …You will see that in 2005, Park has his lowest ERA as a Ranger, and his 2nd highest win total ALREADY! In fact, his 5 wins equals his win total of 2003 + 2004! Not saying he is that great this year, but he is much better than he was…

Park wins again!


Park is 5-1 for the first time, and that includes his seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers when he won at least 13 games five consecutive seasons.

Using Showalter's words, Park "kept grinding." He recovered from a fourth inning that saw him give up the tying home run to A.J. Pierzynski and two more runs against the bottom of the order.

Park was his crispest in the sixth inning, wrapping three ground ball outs around a two-out single. For the day he threw 105 pitches, only 58 for strikes. It was not close to the sharpness he had in seven shutout innings in his last start against Houston.

But even when he isn't sharp, Park knows he is the best pitcher he has been in three-plus seasons in Texas. The Rangers have won eight consecutive games. Park has two of those wins.

"I'm more confident," said Park, whose five wins are one more than he had last season. "I wasn't as confident as my last outing, but I was keeping the ball down. A quality start is good enough for me."


Lebreton on how it is all fitting together

Adam Morris on Chris Young





FC Dallas wins in DC …Highlighted by two magnificent plays by Carlos Ruiz. One, resulted in a penalty kick, the other will go down as maybe the finest goal ever scored by a Dallas soccer player. This goal was world class!

Click Here to see Ruiz goal of the year nominee

Early Entrant to NBA Draft who is doing a bit

Eklund claims this could be the week for the NHL

Star Wars wacky shirt

Mom arrested for hiring stripper for son’s party

Amazing Card Trick

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bob,
I am/was a Jr fan.
I have no idea what's going on at DEI, but on one hand I have to support Jr., and on the other hand, it's hard to justify Jr.'s actions last night.

Let me surprise you and say that was the most bone-headed move I have seen Jr do in the many years I have been a Jr. Fan. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever to wreck Michael Waltrip, his own team mate for crying out loud!

After the wreck, Mikey even was clueless as to what Jr. was trying to do and accomplish. Everyone knows you don't bump draft in a corner.

I have no idea what the major malfunction is with DEI, I have no idea why the big shakeup with the pit crew chiefs, I just have no idea at all what's going on. It's frustrating.

I feel bound in some way to be a sincere, true fan of the 8 team. But today, all I can say is after what I saw last night, it's difficult.

Lew

Anonymous said...

I am so happy in my pants this morning.

Today the Rangers have won 8 in a row and are on their way to 1st place. The starting 5 are looking better than we all thought they would, and the bats are looking better and better as the month has progressed.

AND, This is the week that "maybe" the NHL comes back. And we will start talking free agents.

Anonymous said...

Red Flag?

By the way Bob, I have a question. Why was the red flag thrown with 8 laps to go? There should have been a yellow flag thrown, but it's my opinion they wanted to STOP the race completely to give Jimmie Johnson the most chance to pass Bobby LaBonte for a win. As you know, at the time of the Joe Nemecheck wreck, there were 8 laps left. They had thrown a record number of yellow caution flags all night. But because of the chance of Jimmie Johnson winning (he had newer tires than LaBobte,) Nascar had to stop the race instead of clicking off laps under caution, to make sure JJ had as many laps as possible to try an win the race for the bribery king Rick Hendrick.

I guess they have to let Hendricks teams win EVERY race. I am wondering about the entire future of Nascar. By the way Bob, the track IS LOEW'S Motor Speedway. The Loews car won the Busch Race, and they had to have the LOEWS car win the Cup race. Hendrick is such a crook.

Lew

Observer said...

I recommend Kevin Drum on Robby Gordon, who had the nerve to complain about Danica's supposedly unfair competitive advantage being a woman in the race.

Dylan said...

Bob,

Of course Danica Patrick's 4th place was covered more than normal... it was a friggin' first! She came in, led the Indy for, what, 18 laps? Then she came in fourth, the best finish by a woman... yeah... it was a much more important story than the win by Johnny Englishman...

And, if a man had been leading in the last 10 laps, like she was, and was leading because he took a gamble on gas, like she did, then you can bet your ass that the fourth place finish would have been covered at the end of the race. Maybe not as much as Danica's, but it would have been covered.

That was the most important sports story of the day.

Anonymous said...

My poor Nashty. I thought the Spurs would take it in seven but it looks like a sweep. The Suns looked totally rattled in Game 3. Defense wins Championships.

IRL needs Danica Patrick like stories desperately. Nascar is kicking their ass in ratings and popularity.
Key factors in winning races is
1. Having a faster car
2. Skills of the driver
3. Having a good crew and chief.
Down the list some is weight differential of drivers.
Robby Gordon and other IRL drivers should worry about being over 200 lbs against a slim 100 lbs Danica if raced against her. Her and her car weigh 6% less than his car (about 1500 lbs) and himself would. That's a lot over 500 miles in terms of speed and gas mileage.
Here's a solution for him and any other drivers like Robby.
Grow some balls and stop whining and lose some weight, LARD ASS!

Observer said...

The rainout paid off. Buehrle pitched great, though he was left in a few batters too long, but it was close enough that the White Sox were able to come back. So now we're tied for first and about to play six games against the Tigers and Royals while the Angels play the White Sox and Red Sox.

Anonymous said...

My Nashty and the Suns extend the series. Parker a little off from the field (5 of 17) and Duncan a lot off from the free throw line (3 of 12) and the team was 44.2% and only scored 106. Not enough against this offense. Coulda shoulda ended it here but Suns got to play their style of game with their 26 fast break points. Amare had a big game and the Suns refused to go out in a sweep like a biaatch!

Disco