Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic

Night shot of Lake George Village, NY… 7/31/08

Posting my own photo… yeah well it’s because I always post a photo from one source or another and night shots are among my personal favorites. Of course you have to be a photographer to fully appreciate why. These shots take time and patience… a tripod, a body of water helps and a full understanding of shutter speed and aperture are necessary. The results are usually very colorful despite it being dark…

Colorful… word of the day. And it’s been anything but a Black and White week…. suddenly Manny Ramirez went from Red to Blue in a shocking trade between the Redsox and the Dodgers. My 10 year old son’s favorite star and a devout Redsox fan has lost a piece of his young life.

My blog… this one, was flagged as a Spam Blog by Google Blogger and ultimately shut down or frozen in time until I could prove I am a human being. Interesting security measure, but what on Earth could cause such a thing? Well… apparently Google deemed me a human because NASCAR Eclectic was set free this morning.

Montreal…. a gorgeous city… very colorful indeed. The Big Apple of Canada. I’ve visited in the past and would love to return, but going across the border is no fun anymore. With the Nationwide crew in town Montreal is loaded with Americans this weekend… a contrast with the French and English.

I cannot leave out the drab. Gray is rather boring and the skies promise to be gray over the Pocono’s today. In fact it is raining there now and it’s only 7:30 am. There’s a chance that the NASCAR race will be delayed or possibly postponed because there is more of this forecast for tomorrow… but not as heavy. At the very least they will have a green track…. more color!

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Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

NASCAR hopes to put tire fiasco behind it with a couple of big races”

NASCAR is trying to get the egg off its face as it heads into the second race at Pocono this week.
Last weekend’s race was an embarrassment to NASCAR, and rest assured it won’t forget it, nor will the fans let it.

Due to uncharacteristic wearing of the Goodyear tires at The Brickyard, NASCAR was forced to exhibit the caution flag every 10 to 12 laps to get teams to come in and put new tires on their cars. The tires they had were not holding up on the abrasive racing surface.
Not the kind of racing anyone wants to see, or compete in either.
Jimmie Johnson (48) ended up winning in a seven-lap shootout at the end.
From a fan’s perspective, I wasn’t pleased with the race to say the least. But, speaking as a fan of the late Dale Earnhardt, who lost his life in a racing incident seven years ago, I must say NASCAR stuck out its neck to keep its drivers safe, and for that I have to give it credit.
You can’t have a car travelling at nearly 200 mph entering a corner on tires that have the cords exposed due to wear. So NASCAR did what it had to do regardless of the fallout and, as a result, not one driver was seriously injured or killed.
Now we have Pocono, the relatively flat, triangular racetrack that may cause similar tire issues as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. One thing in NASCAR’s favour is the teams have already run a race here in June with favourable results.
Most of the talk entering this weekend’s race will be about what happened last week.
Drivers to watch include Kasey Kahne, who won the race in June, two-time Pocono winner Denny Hamlin, current points leader Kyle Busch and former Cup champs Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, who all run well statistically at this track.
With all the drama leading into the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Pocono, I hope the NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Montreal doesn’t get overshadowed as last year’s inaugural event was a really exciting race.
With an entry list containing an abundance of aces, I don’t think the NASCAR Nationwide race will disappoint. In fact, it might even be the better of the two NASCAR races to watch this weekend.

Full article can be found at thespec.com
Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR

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Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

Well hello. I’m finally feeling better. Man, let me tell you being that sick is terrible - I just hope my kids don’t get it.

Anyway, enough about that. I just want to forget about the last 2 days.

Let’s talk about a few racing tidbits.

How about Indy first? O.K.

It sucked, didn’t it?

Come on.

Don’t hold back.

Let’s hear you!

Good.

Feel better?

My ears hurt now.

Now, I’ll tell you what didn’t suck about Indy. No driver was seriously hurt by a bad tire and to me that is the most important thing - preserving the lives of our favourite drivers is a far better thing to do than to let the show go on without any concern for the men (and women) who get behind the wheel of those cars.

I have been on NASCAR’s case in the past as being reactive in its nature as opposed to being proactive, and I see this as being a proactive move on NASCAR’s part even though from a viewer perspective it sucked, but at least you get to see Dale Earnhardt live to race another day - that would be Dale Jr, if you get my meaning here.

Trust me, NASCAR will not let something like the Indy tire fiasco happen again.

Now let’s move on to the Nationwide race in Montreal.

My favourite NASCAR Canadian Tire Series driver, Andrew Ranger, has just been asked to drive the #22 Fitz Motorsports Dodge, the same one that Patrick Carpentier drove in this race last year.

I had a chance to do a phone interview with Andrew a few months back and this is what he said to me about possibly racing in Montreal this year:

Q: Would you like to race in the Nationwide race in Montreal?

A: Definitely. I would like to race in that race. It is my hometown. I’ve raced there in other series like Champ Car and this year in NCTS, but I would like to race there in a Nationwide car.
Q: Have you been in contact with any Nationwide or even a Sprint Cup team about racing for them?

A: Yes, there has been some contact. I would like to race in Nationwide this year (but we have to wait and see).

We will see if he can capitalize on this opportunity - I hope he does.

Hey George Gillette are you reading this?

Watch him. You won’t be sorry, and he’ll probably bring Tide and WalMart with him as sponsors too.

O.K. let’s talk about Ryan Newman.

According to an ESPN radio affiliate station an ‘inside source’ close to Newman claims that it is a done deal with Newman driving the Stewart/Haas #4 car next year and an announcement will be made within the next month.

I’m tired of ‘inside sources’ aren’t you? I’m sure Rusty Wallace is too (heh).

Moving on.

A lot of people have been making a big deal about the number of Canadians entered in this weekend’s Nationwide race and much has been written, including here, about the likes of Patrick Carpentier, Jacques Villeneuve, Andrew Ranger, Ron Fellows, and the like, but have you ever heard of Ashley Taws?

Her story is inspirational and if she qualifies for this weekend’s race she will be the other driver besides Andrew Ranger that I will be cheering for. And since she drives the pink coloured Barbie car I’m sure my daughter will be cheering for her too.

CYA 2moro

Ashley Taws photos by Mark Jackson

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