Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

How fitting that Dale Jr’s ‘Chase For The Chase’ ended with a blown motor. It just symbolizes his entire season perfectly. I’m kind of glad that he didn’t finish the race with the car intact, the way he ended the race leaves more of a mark on the company than the driver. It was the company’s motors that let loose this year that caused Jr to fall in the standings. Now I don’t deny that Jr made some mistakes this year, but his mistakes didn’t take him out of races like those blown motors did. That is the fifth motor in competition that ‘dun blowed up’ on Jr this year and if memory serves me correct it is also the fifth motor of Jr’s to blow up since he announced that he is leaving DEI for Hendrick Motorsports.

OK, conspiracy theories aside, it is still a little too coincidental for my liking that only Jr’s motors blow up while no other RCR/DEI engines do. Maybe Jr’s team does something different to the motors once they get them, but you think they would have figured out the problem by now, and they haven’t. According to this week’s Sports Illustrated they still haven’t pinpointed the the problem(s) that caused Jr’s motors to expire while on the track.

Here is another tidbit of info that is interesting too; the Wednesday before the ‘heavily attended’ Labour Day California Classic, Jr blew up another motor while testing.

I wonder if Jr is getting the ‘recycled’ motors while Truex and Menard are getting the ‘fresh’ ones. By recycled I mean just that, each motor is used about 15 times before it is retired. Now granted, all moving parts are replaced after each race, especially the valve train, but they still use the block and heads again. Maybe Jr is getting the motors that are closer to the 15 uses mark rather than his teammates.

Anyway, I guess now Jr can just concentrate on winning 13th place in the standings, and maybe show them Chasers a thing or two by out scoring them in the points for the final 10 races just to say I told you so, unless of course this happens.

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Gary Knapp

Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic

Dario Franchitti’s luck ran deep in the final Indycar race at Chicagoland yesterday. If you missed the end, let’s just say the luck of the Scottish was hovering over him. With only 7 points separating him and Scott Dixon from the Crown and a 2 lap shootout. Scott clearly had the advantage, that is until the last 1/2 mile when his ethanol burned it’s last vapor and Dario went by to take the win and the ‘07 Championship.

His wife, Ashley Judd was prancing around the pits like a little kid hugging and kissing every person she could get her hands on. It was comical in a way, yet emotional I’m sure. I wonder… if Dario does end up in a stock car next year will NASCAR let her break the pit rules to run around in loose fitting cotton dresses and practically barefoot? He is one lucky guy!

Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic

Richmond always delivers and last night’s race was no exception. The guys are driving the wheels off of the CoT… finally. And can those things take a wallop!! ABC kept the commercials limited and was not nearly as bad as ESPN.

Jr. did a fine job, but maintains the 13th spot. I like that number personally and it almost seems fitting for Jr.’s new and yet unannounced car #. It has always carried an element of superstition and associated bad luck, but some label it “The Lucky 13″. It’s available and only used in the NCTS by the Willie Allen . Nah… no one would want to see Jr. with 13 on his car… it would forever remind them of the year he almost made the Chase and anyway I think Teresa has rights to it now since Ginn had it. Well, at least he’ll have that 13th spot at the banquet table.

Be sure to tune into this years “Dancing With The Stars”… the lineup includes Indycar extraordinaire the Dario Franchitti . Actually, the Helio is quite accomplished and no stranger to the limelight, but somehow seeing a racer dancing is a tad strange… of course Jeffyboy got away with it on Live with Regis and Kelly.

I’m hoping that Pattyjo and I can make it to Loudon next weekend. Things are so crazy here that I may not be able to get away for 2 days. I should be able to make a decision by Tuesday. We really need the much deserved break and it’ll be an awesome race. Geez… it’s only a 3 hour drive from our driveway… we could leave at 4:00 am Sunday and be back in time for bed for my early wakeup on Monday. I really want to do the whole weekend gig though and be part of the audience for Raceday as well as attending the Truck race on Saturday. May have to sacrifice.

Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic
Last night we took the family to an annual event in the village of Hudson Falls, NY called “Sandy Hill Days”. It’s fun for all with craft vendors, a flea market and rides, oh and the typical foods. At the flea market I hit gold!! Below are pics I found online of the items I bought for a total of $25.00. In order it’s the 1/24th scale #3 inaugural 1996 Japan race and then the 1998 Daytona 500 win 1/64th scale with autographed card and last the Black Gold #3 1995 Richard Childress diecast with autographed card….. I kid you not!!
$25.00 total investment!!

Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic

Yes, JJ took the pole away from Big Daddy but not without a tongue lashing later. Actually, that wouldn’t surprise me. The HMS power up front… now that’s something new. NOT!! With Shrub taking the Busch [AT&T] race and these two clowns on the front row for The Nextel [Sprint] race it’s turned into a weekend of Hendrickism. I think I’ll start a 12 step support group for those of us that suffer from this horrible disease. The opening intro to the meetings from said afflicted would be “Hi, my name is Wilbur and I have Hendrick’s Disease.”

The 12 steps are:
1] We admitted we were powerless over Hendrick dominance-that our lives became unmanageable.
2] Came to believe that the powers of RCR, DEI, JGR, RYR, Evernham, Penske and all other teams could restore our sanity.
3] Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the pit Gremlins as we understood them.
4] Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of why we spend our days hating Hendrick.
5] Admitted to the Great Oval in the Sky, to ourselves and to a Hendrick lover the exact nature of their wrongs.
6] Were entirely ready to have Brian France remove all these defects of character from these fans.
7] Humbly told them to remove their shortcomings.
8] Made a list of all persons they had harmed, and became willing to help them make amends to them all.
9] Made direct face to face contact with all Hendrick fans wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10] Continued to take personal care to never become one of them and when we got close promptly admitted it.
11] Sought through other non-Hendrick fans to improve our conscious contact with the Gremlins, as we understood them, asking that they please focus all of their efforts at the Hendrick Camp and help them with the power to carry that out.
12] Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to all Hendrick fans, to persuade them to come over to the other side and practice these principles in all our affairs.

May the Gremlins be with you.

Footnote; Dale Jr. is exempt.