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-Michael
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
News and Notes March 3, 2011
-Start ‘N’ Park is happy to announce we’ve taken yet another bold step forward in the world of technology. For those of you who did not hear, we’ve joined Twitter this past week to bring you yet another medium to hear our thoughts about NASCAR. You’ll find on the left hand side of the page a link to follow us. The goal here is simple, this will offer us a forum to Tweet during races or when breaking news happens. So you might see something “those brakes bit Blaney again” (will make sense after reading below), or “two tires might not be the right call.” I foresee a great use when we’re live at Watkins Glen during the summer. As followers might know, 
me trying to live blog failed epically, so Tweets during the says will be easier and more to the point. “@jeffgordonweb just flicked us off for yelling obscenities” could be something you see. With these advances we want to thank those of you following us on blogspot, Facebook, and now Twitter. We do ask one small favor, if you like what you read, share us along and help us grow our fan base. The more people we having following along the less lame we’ll be, because if no one is paying attention we probably will just start and park some blogs. If we have a good following, pressure is on to perform, so the blogs and rants get that much better. So you’ll notice some little tweaks to everything to get it uniformed, better looking, and somewhat professional. Next phase should be merchandise, but let’s take it one step at a time.
-Disclaimer, I didn’t watch the whole race, caught some of the beginning and caught the end. So no in-depth analysis here. I forgot what Jeff Gordon win does for Greg’s mood, makes him much more tolerable to deal with at the office after a win versus every day. It was awesome to see Jeff pull that off and, I’ve said it before, I’m digging witnessing history here. Now that he’s hit 83 wins, two more put him alone is third place, and honestly David Pearson’s 105 wins see touchable. Please disregard Greg’s screams in the background as he probably is going to blame me for jinxing him.
-On the history topic, props to Kyle Busch for leading wire to wire during the Nationwide race, that was impressive.
-Props to Joe Nemechek for
becoming the second person to follow us on Twitter, I immediately take back any and all jokes I made at his expense.
-Over the weekend NASCAR announced two awards were already clinched after two races. Newport, New York’s own Andy Lally snagged the 2011 Rookie of the Year trophy and NASCAR also announced Jimmie Johnson had wrapped up the 2011 Sprint Cup Championship. What? That’s not officially yet? They want to wait until November to give it to him. Ok, strike that last one from the record, no one has clinched the championship…officially.
-In the news this week was NASCAR showing shock over Tommy Baldwin Racing announcing they’d start and park at Phoenix. No, we didn’t sue them for using our name, although I thought about it. It was funnier to hear that Robin Pemberton was “shocked” they would do that. Yeah? If that’s the case Robin, do I have some magic beans to sell you. Unless it’s Daytona or Talladega, they turn their tail and run faster than a spooked rabbit in my backyard. I looked over TBR’s illustriously crappy career and you’ll find this. Through Phoenix, the team has started 54 races and managed to run at the end of 15 of them. That leaves 39 races, or 72% of all races they’ve been in, in which they failed to finish. Bad luck? Nah, not even close. Let’s dig deeper into this steaming pile.
Here’s the results from their first year in business, if you can call it that, drivers listed in alphabetical order. Patrick Carpentier drove four races for them, failing to finish all four, reasons out: vibration, accident, engine, and transmission. I’m going to go out on a limp and say the accident happened before “handling” could come up. His best finish was 37th for those scoring at home. Michael McDowell tried his hand next, going for eight races and a best finish of 38th. Failed to finish all races, reasons: engine, brakes, brakes, overheating, brakes again, overheating, you guessed it brakes, and wait for it…overheating. Get Raybestos and Prestone on the phone! Go to NAPA! Robert Richardson, Jr. (who?) actually finished 18th and went the distance at Talladega, then was told he did too good and never raced again for them. Scott Riggs got to actually try racing eight races only failing to finish three races. Accident, electrical, and those pesky brakes again, knocked Riggs out of contention for 30th place, his best on the year was 25th. Last driver that year was Mike Skinner, who started five races, failed to finish them all because of engine, engine, transmission, vibration, and those f’ing brakes again, topping out at 39th place as his best. Do the math, that’s 26 starts and 20 DNF’s, with two of them being non-start and park reasons. Based on that year, I’m shocked they’d blatantly start and park, let’s see what 2010 has in store for us.
Year two, saw Mike Bliss behind the wheel for five races, only failing to finish two of them, both due to accident. But he was then fire for reasons unknown (doing good) and got to finish off his year playing valet for Phil Parsons’ Prism Motorsports car. They dusted off Geoffrey Bodine for a random race at Pocono where he parked after 23 laps due to the rear gear, 41st netted him $63,0345 or double Greg and I’s yearly salaries combined. They got Ron Fellows in there for a race at Watkins Glen, which he finished 40th after 46 laps due to the suspension failing, actually going to say they were trying this race but a DNF is a DNF. Casey Mears got in there for four races completing two, failing to finish two due to those lousy brakes. Seriously, there has to be a NAPA in the Charlotte area. Mears’ best was 26th place. Steve Park got a random race in and finished 13th at, you guessed it Daytona, and you further guessed it netted $100,400 which is roughly triple our salaries (this is building to something). Johnny Sauter got a year high 41st place finish behind the wheel of a TBR Chevrolet, starting four races, failing to finish all four because of brakes (….), an accident, electrical (probably need that installed in the car), and transmission. Where are we? Oh yeah, J.J. Yeley drove five races, failing to finish all because of electrical, electrical (can’t think of something else!?), transmission, ignition (that’s a new one), and, say it with me, brakes. He topped out at a 40th place finish. Which brings us to their current driver, and starting and parking all star, Dave “The Valet” Blaney (I wonder if that’ll catch on?).
He began 2010 with a bang with Prism Motorsports, then finished the year with TBR (in between moon lighting with Front Row Motorsports) he started six races, failed to finish three for electrical, brakes (done with you brakes), and transmission. For 2010, TBR started 29 races and failed to finish 18 of them, or 62% of the races made. Better than last year, but when you’re batting 60% chance they’ll start then park, DO NOT ACT SURPRISED WHEN THEY DO! I enjoy that one of the first pictures that came up in a search was the back end of the hauler, a familier site to fans as it leaves the track after lap 20.
With all that said, I do understand their plight of trying to race without a sponsor. Which is why once they crashed their primary car at Phoenix they parked it for that race. I still don’t like the practice, but do you know how much money they’ve won for completing 27% of the races they’ve qualified for? $10,325,909. I’m going to let that one set in. Over 10 million dollars won for showing up, going around for 15 or so laps, then packing it in. I say shame on NASCAR for allowing this, shame on TBR and Prism for exploiting this, because that money could be given to teams who try. I know, you’ll say the Hendricks or Roushs don’t need that, but hey, they show up and race every week. If they had to become start and parks, I’d bet good money they would just get out of the sport all together. I can’t imagine it’s fun getting everything and everyone to the track just to be done 15 minutes into the race. But hey, maybe deep down I’m just jealous I didn’t think of doing this sooner.
-Next up is Nationwide and Cup series from Las Vegas this weekend.
me trying to live blog failed epically, so Tweets during the says will be easier and more to the point. “@jeffgordonweb just flicked us off for yelling obscenities” could be something you see. With these advances we want to thank those of you following us on blogspot, Facebook, and now Twitter. We do ask one small favor, if you like what you read, share us along and help us grow our fan base. The more people we having following along the less lame we’ll be, because if no one is paying attention we probably will just start and park some blogs. If we have a good following, pressure is on to perform, so the blogs and rants get that much better. So you’ll notice some little tweaks to everything to get it uniformed, better looking, and somewhat professional. Next phase should be merchandise, but let’s take it one step at a time.-Disclaimer, I didn’t watch the whole race, caught some of the beginning and caught the end. So no in-depth analysis here. I forgot what Jeff Gordon win does for Greg’s mood, makes him much more tolerable to deal with at the office after a win versus every day. It was awesome to see Jeff pull that off and, I’ve said it before, I’m digging witnessing history here. Now that he’s hit 83 wins, two more put him alone is third place, and honestly David Pearson’s 105 wins see touchable. Please disregard Greg’s screams in the background as he probably is going to blame me for jinxing him.
-On the history topic, props to Kyle Busch for leading wire to wire during the Nationwide race, that was impressive.
-Props to Joe Nemechek for
becoming the second person to follow us on Twitter, I immediately take back any and all jokes I made at his expense.-Over the weekend NASCAR announced two awards were already clinched after two races. Newport, New York’s own Andy Lally snagged the 2011 Rookie of the Year trophy and NASCAR also announced Jimmie Johnson had wrapped up the 2011 Sprint Cup Championship. What? That’s not officially yet? They want to wait until November to give it to him. Ok, strike that last one from the record, no one has clinched the championship…officially.
-In the news this week was NASCAR showing shock over Tommy Baldwin Racing announcing they’d start and park at Phoenix. No, we didn’t sue them for using our name, although I thought about it. It was funnier to hear that Robin Pemberton was “shocked” they would do that. Yeah? If that’s the case Robin, do I have some magic beans to sell you. Unless it’s Daytona or Talladega, they turn their tail and run faster than a spooked rabbit in my backyard. I looked over TBR’s illustriously crappy career and you’ll find this. Through Phoenix, the team has started 54 races and managed to run at the end of 15 of them. That leaves 39 races, or 72% of all races they’ve been in, in which they failed to finish. Bad luck? Nah, not even close. Let’s dig deeper into this steaming pile.
Here’s the results from their first year in business, if you can call it that, drivers listed in alphabetical order. Patrick Carpentier drove four races for them, failing to finish all four, reasons out: vibration, accident, engine, and transmission. I’m going to go out on a limp and say the accident happened before “handling” could come up. His best finish was 37th for those scoring at home. Michael McDowell tried his hand next, going for eight races and a best finish of 38th. Failed to finish all races, reasons: engine, brakes, brakes, overheating, brakes again, overheating, you guessed it brakes, and wait for it…overheating. Get Raybestos and Prestone on the phone! Go to NAPA! Robert Richardson, Jr. (who?) actually finished 18th and went the distance at Talladega, then was told he did too good and never raced again for them. Scott Riggs got to actually try racing eight races only failing to finish three races. Accident, electrical, and those pesky brakes again, knocked Riggs out of contention for 30th place, his best on the year was 25th. Last driver that year was Mike Skinner, who started five races, failed to finish them all because of engine, engine, transmission, vibration, and those f’ing brakes again, topping out at 39th place as his best. Do the math, that’s 26 starts and 20 DNF’s, with two of them being non-start and park reasons. Based on that year, I’m shocked they’d blatantly start and park, let’s see what 2010 has in store for us.
Year two, saw Mike Bliss behind the wheel for five races, only failing to finish two of them, both due to accident. But he was then fire for reasons unknown (doing good) and got to finish off his year playing valet for Phil Parsons’ Prism Motorsports car. They dusted off Geoffrey Bodine for a random race at Pocono where he parked after 23 laps due to the rear gear, 41st netted him $63,0345 or double Greg and I’s yearly salaries combined. They got Ron Fellows in there for a race at Watkins Glen, which he finished 40th after 46 laps due to the suspension failing, actually going to say they were trying this race but a DNF is a DNF. Casey Mears got in there for four races completing two, failing to finish two due to those lousy brakes. Seriously, there has to be a NAPA in the Charlotte area. Mears’ best was 26th place. Steve Park got a random race in and finished 13th at, you guessed it Daytona, and you further guessed it netted $100,400 which is roughly triple our salaries (this is building to something). Johnny Sauter got a year high 41st place finish behind the wheel of a TBR Chevrolet, starting four races, failing to finish all four because of brakes (….), an accident, electrical (probably need that installed in the car), and transmission. Where are we? Oh yeah, J.J. Yeley drove five races, failing to finish all because of electrical, electrical (can’t think of something else!?), transmission, ignition (that’s a new one), and, say it with me, brakes. He topped out at a 40th place finish. Which brings us to their current driver, and starting and parking all star, Dave “The Valet” Blaney (I wonder if that’ll catch on?).
He began 2010 with a bang with Prism Motorsports, then finished the year with TBR (in between moon lighting with Front Row Motorsports) he started six races, failed to finish three for electrical, brakes (done with you brakes), and transmission. For 2010, TBR started 29 races and failed to finish 18 of them, or 62% of the races made. Better than last year, but when you’re batting 60% chance they’ll start then park, DO NOT ACT SURPRISED WHEN THEY DO! I enjoy that one of the first pictures that came up in a search was the back end of the hauler, a familier site to fans as it leaves the track after lap 20.With all that said, I do understand their plight of trying to race without a sponsor. Which is why once they crashed their primary car at Phoenix they parked it for that race. I still don’t like the practice, but do you know how much money they’ve won for completing 27% of the races they’ve qualified for? $10,325,909. I’m going to let that one set in. Over 10 million dollars won for showing up, going around for 15 or so laps, then packing it in. I say shame on NASCAR for allowing this, shame on TBR and Prism for exploiting this, because that money could be given to teams who try. I know, you’ll say the Hendricks or Roushs don’t need that, but hey, they show up and race every week. If they had to become start and parks, I’d bet good money they would just get out of the sport all together. I can’t imagine it’s fun getting everything and everyone to the track just to be done 15 minutes into the race. But hey, maybe deep down I’m just jealous I didn’t think of doing this sooner.
-Next up is Nationwide and Cup series from Las Vegas this weekend.
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