So You Don't Like My Color Purple?

My good buddy from the great state of Tennessee and I have been bantering back and forth on our blogs over the past week. We have discussed snow, NASCAR, NASCAR predictions, more snow, and finally the color of my freakin' blog! When I first started writing, I made it red and black because I am a Georgia Bulldog fan. So what does my old ass friend say? "Dude, the red background and black lettering is killing my eyes!" Oh yeah? Like its my problem you tired ass can't read so well. But no, being the good friend I am, I changed to help the senior citizenry of the blogging world. I went with a purple background and white lettering. So now I'm getting grief from this color combination! Saying it reminds him of Grimace from McDonald's, by the way, what exactly is/was Grimace? I was also accused of now being a Matt Kenseth fan now that Crown Royal is his primary sponsor! Now that is just down right blasphemous! I do have to say though, me and Crown Royal were really good friends back in the day. The problem now though is that well, me and the brown liquor just don't get along. So, in honor of my buddy, let's how you like this color. Oh yeah, if you don't, well I think you know what you can do. HAHAHA!

The Daytona 500. The Pothole 500. The 500 That Will Never End. Whatever you want to call it or say about it, in the end, it turned out to be one helluva show. Thanks to some forward thinking men or women in NASCAR, the race fans got to see not one attempt at a green-white-checker finish, two. Just before Speedweeks started, NASCAR made a "rule change" stating that now as long as the leader had not taken the white flag, that the boys would get up to three attempts to finish a race under green. Who knew that it would be put to the test right out of the box. What the race fans got was a new winner in the biggest race of the season for the ninth straight year, which by the way, was a popular win amongst the drivers, the resurgence of a fan favorite, for at least one race, and one helluva finish. The finish got me thinking about what were the top finishes in the fifty-two runnings of the "Great American Race". So here we go with my top 10. Feel free argue, disagree, agree, and generally discuss at will. Oh yeah, this year's finish did not make the cut.



10. The Dale and Dale Show, 1993

Dale Jarrett holds off Dale Sr.. The race was made most famous by Dale's father Ned calling the race and "coaching" him to the finish. This was also, Joe Gibbs Racing first win in the Winston Cup Series and the first of three Daytona 500 wins for Jarrett.
9. Father Knows Best, 1988

Bobby Allison leads his son, the late Davey Allison to line for what had to be the best father-son celebration in victory lane. The other memorable moment was the spectacular wreck that had Richard Petty flipping wildly down the frontstretch and into the catch fence.

8.Ole BP Plays A Little Possum, 1975

David Pearson appears to have the field covered on his way to his first 500 win. Benny Parsons running a distant second hooks with Richard Petty, who is a lap down, and runs down the Silver Fox. Then with two laps left Pearson wrecks and opens the door for Parsons.

7.A Snowstorm and a Fight, Just What the Doctor Ordered, 1979

With much of the east coast buried in snow, America got acquainted to NASCAR. What they saw was great under card of a race and a main event fight down on the infield people still talk about today. Many people credit this race with putting NASCAR on the map. It was the first race broadcast in its entirety. People though, remember the fight between Donnie Allison, Cale Yarborough, and later joining in to the aid of his brother, Bobby Allison, more so than they remember Richard Petty winning the race.

6.Swervin' Ernie Irvan Avoids the Mayhem, 1991

With some crazy pit road rules that would have made the Truck series rules of last year seem tame, Ernie Irvan, dodged wreck after wreck, the last of which came with two laps remaining when Dale Sr. and Davey Allison got together on the backstretch, and claimed his only 500 victory.

5.The Ultimate Cinderella Story, Derrick Cope Takes Home the Prize, 1990

Dale Sr. had the field covered all day. When a late race caution came out, all the leaders pitted except Derrick Cope. With the great track position, Cope was able to hang with Sr. even though he had older tires. On the last lap, Earnhardt cut a tire and allowed Cope to claim the '90 500.

4.The Day Racing Stood Still, Michael Waltrip, 2001

I put this race fourth because of a few reasons. It had a finish, some would say a spectacular finish, some would say a sad finish. Looking back now, I see it both ways. This was also my first Daytona 500 attended live. I remember it like it was yesterday. The track, the smells, the noise( the cars sounded like a freight train coming by you), and yes the finish. The finish was set up when on the backstretch with 27 laps remaining a huge wreck took place that took out many contenders. With the laps running down, Michael Waltrip and his teammate Dale Jr. were running out front, followed closely by Dale Sr. On the final lap, Dale Sr, radioed to his drivers, MW and Jr. were both in the DEI camp, to stay high, I got'em covered down low. Goin' into turn three MW and Jr. drifted high with Sr. in tow. Sr. then ducked low goin' into four and the rest is history as they say. MW beat Jr. to the line by a car length, in a finish many soon will never forget.

3. Harvick and Martin Battle to the Strip, 2007

Mark Martin was running a part time schedule for DEI that year. On the last lap, Kevin Harvick, using the outside line and little help from Matt Kenseth, pull even with Martin at the end of the backstretch and then takes the lead going into turn three. Martin fights back on the inside and reclaims the lead coming out of turn four. Just as they are coming out of four "The Big One" happens. Harvick and Martin drag race to the line with Harvick winning by .02 seconds, the closest finish since the first Daytona 500.

2. Lee Petty wins the inaugural Daytona 500, 1959

Lee Petty and Johnny Beauchamp were the only cars left on the lead lap when the checkered flag flew. In a race that had no cautions and 59 cars entered, it all came down to three days of waiting and some newsreel footage. Both men thought they had won, but in the end, Big Bill France got some assistance from the print news with some photographs and with the tv media to finally declare Petty the winner.

1. Lettin' the Fur Fly!, 1976

Richard Petty and David Pearson, the two winningest drivers in stock car history waged an epic battle in 1976. Petty was leading on the final lap when Pearson slingshot past Petty on the backstretch. Petty tucked in behind Pearson and then tried to return the favor coming off of four. Instead he hooked Pearson and sent he and Pearson careening off the wall and spinning wildly into the infield grass. Mere yards from the finish line, Pearson was able to keep his engine running and coasted across the finish line to win his only Daytona 500. Petty finished second by virtue of he and Pearson being the only two on the lead lap at the white flag.



So there ya go, this is my top 10, I'm sure I have left one, two or more out, but damn, its 11:30 and my head hurts!

Predictions Sure To Go Wrong

Well I'm a little late getting these in, since by now they've started the Daytona 500 and there has already been a wreck! But anyways, here goes:

Number of Times JPM and Smoke "go at" each other:
37- y'all didn't forget about the All-Star race did ya?

How Many Times we are gonna have to hear about Danica-mania?
Too damn many times to even wanna try to count!

How many times Dale Jr. will win this year? (This one is for me, he is my guy ya know!) 3- I think that is an appropiate number, don't you? :)

Rookie of the Year:

Are there any rookies even entered this year? Can Logano re-enter for this year?

Most over- hyped story(ies) of the year?

Three way tie and in no particular order: 1) Danica Patrick, 2) The"drive for 5" JJ style, and 3) Can Jr. make a comeback?

2010 Chase drivers, also no particular order:

JJ- of course

The Rainbow Warrior

Old Man Time, Mark Martin

Cuz

The Busch Brothers

Smoke

Kasey Kahne

Matt Kenseth

Junior

The Biff

Jeff Burton

I just don't think Hamlin is gonna make it, if you've never had knee problems, you really don't know how bad it can be for you. One good crash and that leg is gonna HURT! This ain't football, you can't just get a shot and numb it up, the NASCAR drug police wouldn't like that too much.

Cup Champion:

Smoke- he is the only one that I think is smart enough to realize, its not the equipment, hell, half the field is in Hendrick equipment! I think its raceday prep and raceday decisions that make the difference. Smoke's just got "it"... I think.

Daytona 500 Champion:

The Blue Duece

Overachiever of the Year:

Sam Hornish

Underachiever of the Year:

Junior, I got faith, but he'll never live up to expectations, just how it is.

Well that's all I got, if anyone has any others they want answers to, just holler, I'm sure I can give an opinion and I'm sure its gonna be wrong. :)

What The Hell Happened To All The Bread and Milk?

Back in August of 2008 my beautiful bride of six years comes to me and says, "Honey( yeah right! She actually said, "hey you!") what do you think about moving to the beach? I replied with the standard, " sure, if you want to, I'm all in!". Well, February of 2009, I left High Point, NC in a Uhaul with all of our worldly possessions heading east bound on I-40 to Wilmington, NC. What we left behind were all our friends and family, an unsold house, and what we thought was bad winter weather. One of the reasons for the move, other than the wife having a new job, was the idea that it would be summer year round! Well, we found out this past Friday night that we were sadly mistaken! By now everyone knows that the east coast of the U.S. has been hammered with some nasty winter weather. Until this past weekend, we on the coast had been spared. When we would call back home or watch tv all we heard about was all the snow and ice that was falling or had fallen. Saturday morning, we were on the receiving end. Now granted, we did not get 8" or a foot of snow, we got a whopin' 3.8"! Holy crap! Shut down the city, all holy hell is gonna break loose! They had to BRING IN salt trucks and scrapers from Raleigh and really all for nothing. The roads were fine and all the snow stuck mainly to the grass, trees, and beach. Yes that's right, the beach! I decided to take a drive out to the beach to see what it would look like. Apparently, I wasn't the only one with that idea. On the SECOND WEEK of February, the beach was packed! People up and down the beach, taking pictures, building snowmen, and generally walking around with mouths and eyes wide open. It truly was a cool scene, just one I hope I don't have to see again for a really long time!

P.S. On a side note, my wife moved to Wilmington in November of 2008 to start her new job, I stayed behind to try to sell the house, yeah right!, and tie up some loose ends. The third week she was down at the beach, they got a dusting of snow, back in High Point, where it snows generally every year, it was a balmy 60 degrees. I just had to laugh, here it was we were moving in part to go to better weather and damn, if it didn't follow us!

Back In the Saddle Baby!!!!!

Well, I took a little time off from my obligation of telling the world what they should know according to me. To be honest, hadn't really given much thought to bloggin' in quite some time. That all changed when my dear friend toomuchcountry texted me the other day saying I should put some predictions together for the upcoming NASCAR season. I responded that I would and went to work on putting my thoughts together to put out into cyberland. Well then the darndest thing happened over the weekend. Damn if it didn't snow here at the beach. For those that don't know, I live in Wilmington, NC and well the closest we get to snow is watching it on the Weather Channel. So now instead of just one blog, I am gonna do a two parter. The cool thing about it is that after some careful thought I was actually able to connect the "snow storm" we had here at the beach with NASCAR. So Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!!!!!!!