The Biff Bounces Back...Streak To The Finish from the Sylvania 300 at Loudon

Way to go Greg!!! Hats off to Greg and the #16 Team for an impressive win at Loudon this past Sunday.

Am I alone when I say this but wasn't it nice to see someone else win a race, especially one of the drivers that has not been talked about all that much during the regular season and now into the Chase? Biffle has been flying under the radar this season and was like a submarine getting into the chase, he is silent and deadly. Out of the 12 drivers in the Chase, he is the most under rated. I am sure eyes have been opened after this race and they now realize that the Biff is not playing around anymore and is going for a Championship.

Some of my observations from the race:

1. Break out the Tissues: For all of your Kyle Busch fans out there, however many that there really are, how did it feel to see a driver that won 8 races during the season, had such a demanding lead coming into the Chase and now fall from 1st to 8th in just one race? It just goes to show that anything can happen in this sport and no matter how good of a driver you are, you can not help mechanical failures. Kyle is not out of the Chase one bit and will be surely back next week ready to redeem this ugly incident at Loudon.

2. Oh No Joey: For such an impressive driver at the young age of 18, how in the heck does he get a POS to drive during a cup race? Do you mean to tell me that Hall of Fame Racing could not give this kid a better piece of equipment? Are you trying to keep this kids spirits down? Don't you get your equipment from JGR? Someone needs to break out the calibration tool and use it on the #96 Team Crew Chief and owners. Don't worry about it Joey, you have the talent and persistence to take a horrible day like this and turn it around into something positive.

3. Fizzling Rocket: What is going on with Ryan Newman? He starts 17th and finishes 36th. His teammate, Kurt Busch, who started 20th and finished 6th definitely had the right set up. These two teams always seem to share their set ups with one another. Is it because Newman is leaving at the end of this year? Does Ryan have a short timers attitude? Maybe Penske should start docking his pay for his performance, do you think that would get his attention? Ryan is an outstanding driver but I just think that these drivers that are going to be with different teams next year, just really want to get this season over with and move on, this is just an assumption but stats always speak for themselves.

4. Stewart remembered his Ridlin: We saw a totally different Tony this weekend compared to his blow ups last week. He was very calm on the radio the entire race and even when his pit crew made two mistakes, he never once snapped at them for the errors. We even heard him joking on the radio during the race with Zippy, a big time 180 from last week when Tony chewed Zippy up one side and down the other. We all know this is a very emotional sport and the pressure of getting into the Chase just adds to it but lets face it, yelling and screaming will not get you no where. I am wondering if Joe Gibbs put Tony in a time out last week?.

5. Worst Hands Move of the Race: Allstate might have the Good Hands move of the race but this week we have a tie for the Worst hands move and the award goes to the two drivers, DRUM ROLL PLEASE........Robby Gordon for punting the #10 and Michael Waltrip and his little antics he played with Dale Jr. Okay so Robby was fighting to stay in the Top 35 in owners points but what in the hell was Mikey thinking driving that hard and aggressive with one of the Chase drivers? Yes, it is a race and everyone is entitled to try and win even though they may not be in the Chase but you have to draw the line somewhere and Mikey truly stepped over it. Tisk Tisk Mikey, maybe you can make a NAPA commerical out of that one.

Yes, it was an entertaining race this week and not as boring as most have been this season. We can see the attendance, despite being the first race of the chase, is still down and lets not try to blame it on the weather now folks, that is just a poor excuse. Diehard fans will show up no matter what the weather is like.

Next week we visit the Monster at Dover. Who will be victorious and who will fall prey to the Concrete Monster?

Gas Prices + Economy = Missing Races

Is anyone else out there enjoying the rising gas prices? I live in Connecticut and we are ranked as the 2nd highest for gas prices. An average gallon of unleaded is around $4.28 here. It is unbelievable that the prices are this high. It has made me rethink on how I do things in regards to traveling. I usually go up to Loudon for at least one of the races but this year I am having to cancel, it is just too darn expensive. It is not NASCAR's fault and I don't hold anything against them, it is our wonderful government.

The picture above is what I am planning to purchase very soon. It is a Honda Reflex. You have probably read numerous articles that the sales of scooters are rising and heck when you are getting 85 MPG, you can do the math. Now, I am not getting rid of my car by no means but this scooter will be my way back and forth to work which will save me big time money. They are not cheap but you can pick up a used one for a great price.

Can you picture a parking lot full of these scooters at a NASCAR race instead of all of the trailers? It is going to make it difficult for tailgating but just imagine how easy it will be for traffic before and after the race. We are seeing it week in and week out on TV on how the attendance is falling for the races and it is just because people are cutting back and opting to stay home, cook out and watch the races on their big screen TV's. Heck, that is what I have been doing and I can even DVR the race if I am not home and watch it later.

It is truly sad to see all of this happening to us but it wasn't something that just came out of the blue and hit us hard. We have been seeing this trend happening and instead of our government doing something about it, they just sat back and hoped it would correct itself and now we are all paying for it. I am seeing more and more people walking and taking public transportation. I drive home after work and I can see fewer cars on the road. Our government is way behind the power curve. I have no doubt that our economy will recover, we had this problem back in the 70's under the Carter administration and we turned it around so who is to say we can't do it again. Whoever the next president is going to be is going to inherit a headache, I hope they bought plenty of tylenol.

Just a point of view here and I am not going to get into politics but there is a trend building here, we started to see the gas prices go up back in 2006 and that is when the democratic party became the majority in the house. Jimmy Carter was President back in the 70's when we went into a depression and he was a democrat. The upcoming election shows that most likely our next president will be a democrat. See what I am talking about? I am not pointing fingers, we should of been building refineries over 10 years ago but alas, we are WAY behind the power curve.

It is a sad day when a diehard NASCAR fan can not even go to a race that is only 2 1/2 hours from his home. Yep, I am talking about me. Remember, this is not NASCAR's fault, it is those guys sitting up on the hill that give themselves a nice raise each year while others are living out of their cars because they can not afford their homes anymore.

WAKE UP GOVERNMENT!!! YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU!!!

Is the economy effecting your NASCAR plans? Lets hear it!