SB Nation User Blog: 4ever3

Tales from the Volleyball Court

4ever3 — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:55:15 -0000

I know, I know, just what does this have to do with NASCAR, right?

Well, something and nothing at all.

Let me explain.

For those of you who don't know I do a lot of coaching; volleyball in the winter and baseball in the summer with a little bit of flag football thrown in there during the spring.

Yep and I'm still married.

Anyway, the reason why I haven't been around here in a few days is because my girls volleyball team had a tremendous last two weeks and are now playing in the City Final.

In the quarter finals we went down 2 games to none and came back and won the best of 5 in three straight. Then in the semis last week we went down 2 games to 1 in the best of 5 and won two straight to get into the Championship game being held tomorrow night.

We also participated in a tournament last week and finished third, oddly enough beating the team we are facing in the finals. The two teams that finished higher than us in the tournament play in a higher division - go figure.

What makes this even more special for us is that our Junior team is also playing in their Championship game tomorrow too. I think that says a lot about the girls who go through our program and the dedication they've shown the coaches these last few years.

Another thing to note is that this will be the third Championship game in the last 5 yrs for the Jr coach and the 3rd Championship game for me in the last 4 yrs - one was a boys team as I coached them instead of the girls when their original coach took ill and had to retire the day before the season started. Wow.

Wish us luck and I'll be back posting on a regular basis on Wednesday.

I've been working on several editorial pieces these last few months and now that the racing season has officially ended I'll have a bit more time on my hands to finish them as well as transcribe an interview or two that I've done. I really like the article I've been working on lately and I'll post that as soon as its done!

There might also be a pretty big exclusive announcement made here within the next few days too! Stay tuned!

Oh, and what does this have to do with NASCAR? We're trying to build a Rick Hendrick-type of volleyball dynasty.

Danica Joins JR Motorsports to Run a Limited NASCAR Schedule Next Season

4ever3 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:06:21 -0000

Well my prediction about Danica joining NASCAR came true, but in all honesty it was more of a forgone conclsuion than a prediction.

I was wrong however about her not debuting until the April Texas race as it appears that she'll be in the Feb. Daytona race instead. My Texas race prediction might not pan out either as she will be racing Indy cars in California later that weekend, but it really wouldn't be that much of a flight between the two places if she really wanted to do it.

Nothing in her press conference really stood out to me, as everything that was mentioned was already 'leaked' by sources or speculators close to the situation.

I think this is something that NASCAR needs right about now to drive up fan interest. Danica, along with more consistent start times, will bring back the TV viewers - maybe not as much in previous years, but certainly enough to stop the hemorrhaging in the TV ratings.

Clips From The 3rd Annual Stewie Awards

4ever3 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:49:50 -0000

Perhaps the next best thing to the NASCAR Awards ceremony are the Stewie Awards.

I love the laid back nature of the awards.

Sirius/XM was kind enough to provide me with a few YouTube links of the show so I could put them up.

Tony Stewart Kissed in Vegas: It's the 3rd Annual Stewie Awards Live on SIRIUS XM

Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart Discuss Their Feud at the 2009 Stewie Awards on SIRIUS|XM

Jimmie Johnson "Stair Racing" Story at the 2009 Stewie Awards on SIRIUS XM

Mark Martin on Coming Up Short in the NASCAR Chase at 2009 Stewie Awards on SIRIUS|XM

My Speculation: Look For Danica Patrick Driving Stock Cars In April

4ever3 — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:14:31 -0000

Danica Patrick made her announcement today about her immediate driving future.

Drum roll please ...

Danica will be driving full-time for the next 3 years in IndyCar with Andretti Autosport (formerly Andretti Green Racing).

No NASCAR announcement.

Yet.

In a post announcement interview with USA Today Patrick had this to say about her possible involvement in NASCAR;

"Like I said this morning, if I can run both (series), I'd like to. Whether or not that's going to happen or not, it's definitely not too late and it's definitely a possibility." - Nate Ryan, USA Today

And add this to the early November Cathy Elliott penned press-release from NASCAR where Elliott concludes from details given to her from an undisclosed source that, "After years of speculation and conjecture, it appears that Danica Patrick will finally make the move to NASCAR. It’s reportedly a part-time arrangement, including both Nationwide and ARCA races. Patrick will also continue to compete full-time in what has, to date, been her series of choice, the IRL."

Hmm ...

Perhaps the most convincing evidence to date about Danica's possible foray into the world of Stock Cars comes from photo evidence that appeared on her own website danicaracing.com and then mysteriously disappeared from the face of the Internet except for some keen-eyed guy over at The Sporting News via NASCAR.com who managed to capture the photo and placed it with his article (click the link to view the picture).

Danica is wearing a fire suit in the photo - nothing wrong here right? Maybe if yor are just a casual fan you wouldn't catch it right away, but if you are a die-hard Indy fan or NASCAR fan and know the difference between the two series you would have caught the fact that on the fire-suit there is a Chevy symbol and what appears to be Nationwide Series and Jr Motorsports logos along with her normal GoDaddy.com logo.

If you go to Andretti Autosport's site you'll find a picture of Danica in her IRL firesuit and that has Izod and Honda logos on it.

Hmm ...

As of the time this article was written Dancia has not entered into the ARCA race scheduled for February 6th at Daytona. I believe the official entry deadline is Dec. 1st with testing starting Dec. 18th. The entry fee is also a hefty one at $150 000.

I would expect that if Danica and her team decided to enter the Feb. ARCA race they would be allowed to do so even after the official deadline. I mean imagine the media attention the ARCA series would get by having Danica in their line-up? But I don't think she'll be there.

My speculation about Danica racing in non-open wheeled machines is this; she will be racing in stock cars this year and it will be for Jr Motorsports, she will be racing in both ARCA and in Nationwide, and her first race will probably be on April 16th when the ARCA series races at the Texas Motorspeedway.

This makes sense because both of NASCAR's top two series will be there on the 17th and the 18th and Texas is pretty close to Danica's home in Phoenix Arizona. Also, if the sponsorship works out right she could race in both the ARCA and Nationwide races that weekend while having Dale Jr and Rick Hendrick there to help her out.

Its a perfect fit, and Texas is a bit safer start than Daytona for anyone who has never raced these types of cars before.

So there you have my bold prediction; look for Danica mania to strike the world of stock cars in April at Texas Motor Speedway.

Quick Pole For You - What was the biggest NASCAR story this season?

4ever3 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:40:40 -0000

Based on the email I got from my last post, I'll put this out to you as a poll. Why people email me instead of posting a comment is beyond me though - is it not easier to comment than to email?

Poll

What do you think was the biggest story in NASCAR this year?

Jeremy Mayfield's legal battle with NASCAR

6 votes

Tony Stewart's break-out season as owner/driver

9 votes

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s less than remarkable season

2 votes

Mark Martin's Championship run

7 votes

Jimmie Johnson's record breaking 4th consecutive Championship

14 votes

Other

1 votes

39 votes | Poll has closed

Quick Review of Some of This Year's Most Talked About NASCAR Stories

4ever3 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:23:46 -0000

Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson holds his Tiffany-made Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup trophy 103 floors and 1,454 feet above Manhattan on Tuesday -- Jimmie Johnson Day -- in New York City. (Photo Credit: Empire State Building) via www.nascarmedia.com

Another NASCAR season is in the record books and Jimmie Johnson is left at the top of the heap. Not only is Johnson a four –time winner of NASCAR’s biggest title, but he won all four in consecutive years.

Only three other drivers (Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Jeff Gordon) have ever won 4 or more Championships but none of them have ever done it in four straight years.

What an amazing feat that Johnson and his crew have accomplished by winning their record setting 4^th championship in a row – we witnessed history in the making this year that’s for sure.

Other big stories this NASCAR season included Tony Stewart’s break-out performance as an Owner/Driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s lack-luster performance, the ‘Big Ones’ at Talladega, and Mark Martin’s almost-Championship drive.

Tony Stewart started this year as a new car owner driving for himself with expectations of maybe making it into the Chase and maybe even being in contention for a win or two at the end of it. Well his performance this year was of Championship caliber heading into the last ten races of the season.

Stewart led the points for a good part of the season and notched himself 4 wins and 15 top 5 finishes on his way to 7^th place in the standings. Stewart was also NASCAR’s 2^nd largest winnings earner with just over $6.8 million won.

One person who didn’t perform up to expectations this year was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Certainly Earnhardt had higher expectations for himself and his team, as did his fans, and car owner Rick Hendrick. Junior’s frustration over his year was seen in interviews late in the season which sparked an out-cry from his fans who never really have witnessed a slump such as this in Junior’s career - although I see it more as bad luck rather than a slump.

Junior’s driving ability hasn’t changed, and his team doesn’t have bad equipment either, but he has been the victim of some bad luck on the track and off; I mean his crew was involved in a car accident on the way to the track on race day while they were in Phoenix. I don’t care who you are that has got to play on your mind just a little bit for the rest of the day. And that was the way Junior’s season went.

Speaking of driving ability, it doesn’t matter how good you are once the ‘Big One’ happens at Talladega as you are more than likely to get caught up in it somehow. Carl Edwards went for a huge scary ride back in the spring and then Ryan Newman and Mark Martin had somewhat less scary flips but still breath holding none-the-less in the fall. What is the answer to stop these types of accidents? It varies between drivers and so-called NASCAR experts, but to me if they have to slow down in the corners they’ll be less likely to get air-borne when they touch. The only way to do make them slow down is to get rid of the banking in the corners.

You know it was that flip that probably caused Mark Martin the chance for the Championship. I know, Johnson had issues at Texas and Martin made up a bunch of ground, but imagine how much better it would have been if Martin wasn’t in that accident at Talladega and finished in the top 10? He had Johnson mired in the back of the field with two laps left and he was looking at a possible top 5 finish if the cards played out right. Personally I think it was this race that caused Martin his chance at his first Cup. It was the first time he ever flipped a car too.

Martin still had a stellar year and certainly would have won the Championship if it weren’t for the rock solid performance of his teammate Johnson.

Once again Martin is left saying, "Wait until Next year" and given the performance of his team this year I can’t wait for next year because I honestly think Martin will win his first ever Sprint Cup Championship in 2010.

Kyle Busch NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion Interview – Homestead-Miami Speedway

4ever3 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:56:03 -0000

"Oh yeah baby! Wahoo! What! Wahoo! Icing on the cake, whoa! I love you guys, that’s why we won." --- Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch would also get some ice cream and a candle for that cake, as he picked the perfect way to win the 2009 Nationwide Series season. With the championship clinched when he took the green flag in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Busch would also go on to grab his ninth victory of the year, barely holding off Carl Edwards on the last lap.

Busch:
It was such a fun deal. Fun to watch and fun to be apart of at the end. Glad we were able to hold them off and come out here and win this thing. This is another race track that I can mark off my list of venues I haven’t won at. I’m really excited to be able to do that. I felt like I wasn’t the best driver here tonight but, the guys gave me a car capable enough of wining.

Now Edwards pitted under the final caution, took on four fresh tires, restarted eighth and made it a dramatic charge in the last 11 laps. But just as it has been all year long, Edwards didn’t quit have enough to beat Busch.

Carl Edwards:
I was closing at a rate that was going to take about three more laps to really get him. So there in the last corner I just drove her way down in there just to see what that looked like to see how close I could get. I couldn’t get by him without probably touching him so I didn’t have enough time but made a good charge.

Busch led 73 laps in the Ford 300, Edwards 53 and the man who came home third Jeff Burton was out front for 49 laps and at one point had the look of a winner.

Jeff Burton:
I’m really disappointed with finishing third and that’s a good thing to be. That’s good to be disappointed with third and that’s where our program has been in the past and that’s not where we’ve been lately and it’s good to be there again.

Joey Logano was forth across the stripe fifth was Denny Hamlin who made good on his promise to spin out Brad Keselowski. Which he did only 35 laps into the race.

Denny Hamlin:
I feel great right now, it was well worth it. The sun was bad at that point and I’ll use that as my catalyst or excuse but the fact is I wasn’t going to give him an inch and I thought after I went down pit road I’d won the race, I’ve never seen so many crews applaud and get the thumbs up on the way by. It just shows how many cars that he’s torn up in the past. The teams they feel a little redemption anyway.

Keselowski who had already bounced off the wall himself downplayed Hamlin’s retaliation for their latest run in last week at Phoenix.

Brad Keselowski:
He just got me in a corner panel and I put together the spin-slash-save combination of my career … that was pretty cool. I was pretty proud of that at the time and that really didn’t hurt us that bad, we lost the track position.

But you could see it coming, couldn’t you?

Keselowski:
I don’t know if you could ever see something like that coming but it really didn’t make a difference, I had already killed my car and killed my chances of having a good run so it was my own fault.

And what did he think of Hamlin’s excuse that the sun got in his eyes?

Keselowski:

That sounds good, that’s good. I’ll remember that one, that’s good.

The six to 10 finishers at Homestead were David Reutimann, Ryan Newman, Steve Wallace, Scott Speed and Matt Kenseth. Kyle Busch wound up winning the Nationwide Series Championship by 210 points over Carl Edwards, with Brad Keselowski winding up third. Jason Leffler was fourth grabbing the fifth and final spot at the head table for the annual awards banquet was Mike Bliss. In the process of taking the title, Busch had 11 second place finishes to go along with the nine wins which added up to 25 top five and 30 top 10 finishes. Not to mention he lead 32 of 35 races for a record smashing 2,698 laps. The 24-year-old driver also set a new mark for points scored in a single season 5,682.

Busch:
Really it’s a great accomplishment to be able to set out and get this series most points in a season. I mean that just shows you the consistency we had, the amount of wins we had, the bonus points that we had with being able to lead the most races, the most laps in some of those races. When all things fall into place and work together, it just seems like sometimes nothing can go wrong.

It was a big year on the Nationwide Series for Joe Gibbs Racing as they made a total of 14 trips to victory lane, as Joey Logano also won five times. Now team president, J.D. Gibbs, normally a very thankful guy, found himself, however, uncharacteristically greedy in the closing laps at Homestead, admitting their newest champion, might be rubbing off on him.

J.D. Gibbs:

Man at the end of this race is kind of like you’re running, how do we lock the championship down. It’s like oh my gosh we have to win, we have to win or I’m not going to be happy. Thankfully I’m happy. I felt like Kyle.

A full set of the pictures taken at the Homestead-Miami Speedway can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationwide/sets/72157622736752711/

Congratulations to this year's NASCAR Champions

4ever3 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:26:33 -0000

Here are some pictures of the Champions - I'll have a full opinionated post tomorrow.

Sprint Cup Series

Jimmie Johnson holds up four fingers to signify his unprecedented four consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR) via www.nascarmedia.com

Nationwide Series

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series and the Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his 30th win in 173 NASCAR Nationwide Series races. (Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR) via www.nascarmedia.com

Camping World Truck Series

Ron Hornaday Jr. celebrates winning his fourth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship after the Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR) via www.nascarmedia.com

Canadian Tire Series

2009 Championship NASCAR Canadian Tire Series team with Champ Andrew Ranger to the right of the trophy (Photo Credit: Getty Images for NASCAR) via www.nascarmedia.com

NASCAR's Championship Weekend Is Here - Who will win it all?

4ever3 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:23:01 -0000

Oops, this was supposed to be posted Friday. I must have did something wrong when I set the publish date. Sorry.

NASCAR’s Championship weekend is finally here. All three of NASCAR’s top series finish up this weekend.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series crowned Ron Hornaday as their Champ last week, but the 4-time Champ is still looking to sew-up the Owner’s Championship this weekend so if you think ol’ Ron will be strokin’ it out there Friday night you’ve got another thing coming.

As far as the NASCAR Nationwide Series goes all Kyle Busch has to do is essentially start the race and the Championship is his and don’t expect him to be strokin’ it either as that cat goes for the win all of the time. In fact he might even be more dangerous out there than usual as he’s got nothing to loose by giving it all or nothing for that final race and win of the season.

The bigger story on Saturday will be the Denny Hamlin vs. Brad Keselowski saga that reared its ugly head yet again last weekend. Hamlin bumped Keselowski to get by him and Keselowski returned the favour, but then he went and hit Hamlin a second time in the rear corner of the car instead of the middle of the bumper where it’s safer, and sent Hamlin spinning; Hamlin, who had a top 5 car all day long, finished outside the top 10 as a result.

After the race the war of words ensued with Hamlin promising that he would cash in the chips that he owes Keselowski next race, which is this Saturday.

But perhaps the biggest story this weekend will be whether Jimmie Johnson will win his record setting fourth consecutive Sprint Cup Championship. Certainly his odds are good but look at what happened to him at Texas just two weeks ago; he got taken out early in the race and eventually finished 38 th giving up a ton of points to teammate Mark Martin.

It is essentially a two man race for the Chase Championship right now as Jeff Gordon will be eliminated once the Green Flag flies. Martin needs to gain 108 points on Johnson to win his first ever Championship.

So what does Martin exactly have to do to win it?

Best case scenario is that he wins the race, leads the most laps to get the extra 5 points, and has Johnson finish 26th or worse without leading a lap.

I know sounds impossible right? Well not quite. According to NASCAR.com Martin has gained 108 points or more on Johnson 9 times in 266 races of head to head competition. Using that stat as a benchmark would mean that Martin has a 3.3% chance of winning the Championship. Slim, but still a chance. I’m sure Martin and his team will throw everything but the kitchen sink at Johnson and not give up the fight.

I guess the big picture here is not whether or not Martin or Johnson wins the Championship it is the fact that their car owner Rick Hendrick will have the top two cars in the Chase at the end it all and if Jeff Gordon holds off Tony Stewart Hendrick owned cars will sweep the top 3 spots of the Chase.

That’s impressive.

What I would love to ask Mark Martin

4ever3 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:06:33 -0000

Mark Martin (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR) via www.nascarmedia.com

If I had a chance to interview Mark Martin this week the question I would love to ask him would be "If the points were a bit closer and you had to move Jimmie out of the way to win the Championship would you?"

I stress the move part and the absence of wreck.

I know if I were Mark I would say yes because he has never won a Championship and Jimmie has won 3 already.

What do you think Mark's response would be?