Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic

Yet another restless night. Much of this is due to our restless dogs that feed off of each other’s behaviour. They must think it’s some sort of game to see which human will get out of bed first to quiet them down. I’m the winner!! Or loser??

Yet another pole for Newman! 42nd and his 7th pole at LMS. If nothing else… Ryan has made a name for himself for this. It’s been over 2 years since his last win, but it’s possible he’ll break that streak yet this season. Crew chief, Mike Nelson has come a long way in his rookie year. He had some big shoes to fill following Matt Borland. This Penske team is all about Engineers. Nelson was the teams engineer since it’s inception in 2000. With Ryan himself being an engineer as is past crew chief, Borland. One has to wonder if there is a conflict of the minds. Nelson and Newman seem to mesh well and they are listening to and getting garage ideas from Pat Tryson, the #2 Miller Lite crew chief, who is not an engineer, he has a B.A. in Business Administration. Engineer’s are a stubborn bunch and analytical to the extreme. I know this all too well coming from an engineering background myself, but I also have extensive business experience, so in most cases my engineering logic loses to risk because business is all about risk and so is racing. Without Tryson in the Penske garage it’s likely the “Logical” thinking would succumb to head butting as it did with Borland. I’d like to see the #12 Alltel team continue on this upward momentum into next season.