~ The End : ( NASCAR 2007 ~
#21
04-22-2007, 09:49 AM
RE: 07 NASCAR CUP PREDICTIONS ?
Gordon lucky and good in tying Earnhardt for wins
Four-time champ's first victory at PIR is 76th of career
Mod Wiz should be very `Happy
[align=center]Four-time champ's first victory at PIR is 76th of career
Mod Wiz should be very `Happy
[/align]AVONDALE, Ariz. -- The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team has kept a flag bearing the Dale Earnhardt's famed No. 3 in its hauler since this past July, just awaiting Jeff Gordon's next Cup Series victory.It was a long wait, but the crew was finally able to break out the flag Saturday night after Gordon, getting a little luck and making a gutsy pass for the lead, grabbed that historic victory at Phoenix International Raceway.
The win by the four-time series champion tied Earnhardt for sixth place on the career victory list with 76 and was also his first on the 1-mile Phoenix oval, leaving only Texas and Homestead as active tracks where he has yet to find Victory Lane.
After ending the 26-race victory drought, Gordon stopped on the front straightaway to pick up the black, red and white Earnhardt flag, holding it proudly out the window for his slow victory lap as the big crowd paid homage to both Gordon and seven-time champion Earnhardt.
"It means the world," Gordon said. "Holding that 3 flag, it's certainly by no means saying we're as good as him. I learned so much from him. We wanted to honor him. We've been holding on to that flag for a long time."
One of the first drivers to congratulate Gordon in Victory Lane was Dale Earnhardt Jr.
"That means the world to me because I didn't want to come across the wrong way," Gordon said. "We wanted to show tribute and honor."
Gordon started from the pole and led early, but he spent most of the 312-lap race following Tony Stewart, who appeared to be on the way to an easy victory.
As the leaders began a series of green-flag pit stops late in the race, Gordon drove onto pit road at the end of Lap 283. As he drove slowly toward his pit at the end of pit road, a three-car crash brought out the yellow flag.
The timing was perfect for Gordon, who was able to finish his pit stop and head back toward the track before leader Stewart came back to the finish line, thereby keeping Gordon on the lead lap.
When all the other leaders pitted under the caution flag, Gordon stayed on track and took the lead. (
Once the green flag came back out on Lap 294, Stewart tried desperately to regain the top spot. As Gordon struggled to get by Martin Truex Jr., who had pitted before the yellow and was on the end of the lead lap, Stewart saw his chance.
On Lap 299, Stewart squeezed his Chevrolet between Gordon and Truex and somehow drove to the lead. But Gordon wouldn't quit, staying on Stewart's rear bumper and then driving under him to regain the lead for good on Lap 300.
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Lap-by-Lap
Tony Stewart made a gutsy move to take the lead, but Jeff Gordon wouldn't be denied in becoming the first driver to win from the pole at Phoenix.
[ul][*][URL=http://www.nascar.com/2007/races/lapbylap/04/21/phoenix/index.html]Complete story[/li
#22
04-22-2007, 12:05 PM
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Woodstock, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 5,264
RE: 07 NASCAR CUP PREDICTIONS ?
wahhhoooooo!!! that was an awesome race!! and great finish!! good move by gordon and his pit crew to get him out in first!! 
very excited here last night! lol
very excited here last night! lol
#23
04-22-2007, 12:14 PM
RE: 07 NASCAR CUP PREDICTIONS ?
[align=center]wahhhoooooo!!! that was an awesome race!! and great finish!! good move by gordon and his pit crew to get him out in first!! very excited here last night! lol [/align]
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[align=center]I love who was gett'in the beer 4 your party LOL
[/align][align=center][:-]Picture edited to comply with MCF Rules : )[/align][align=center]Adults only click attachment...left corner : )[/align][align=left]
[/align][align=left]1. click on attachment[/align][align=left]2. when opened `click on beer[/align][align=left]3. EnJoy your beer : )[/align][align=center][/align]
very excited here last night! lol [/align][hr]
[align=center]I love who was gett'in the beer 4 your party LOL
[/align][align=center][:-]Picture edited to comply with MCF Rules : )[/align][align=center]Adults only click attachment...left corner : )[/align][align=left][/align][align=left]1. click on attachment[/align][align=left]2. when opened `click on beer[/align][align=left]3. EnJoy your beer : )[/align][align=center][/align]
#25
04-22-2007, 12:25 PM
RE: 07 NASCAR CUP PREDICTIONS ?
ORIGINAL: wiz kidd
lmao! @ space yup how'd you know?? only it wasn't beer it was coke for me lol
lmao! @ space
yup how'd you know?? only it wasn't beer it was coke for me lol Ok Mod Wiz, you keep Coke on your lower shelf LOL
LOLI wish that I could have watched the race, but I was happy to listen to it on MRN
Radio, they do a great job ofcalling the race: )
Mod Wiz, you are doing great on your predictions for 07 Championship : )
It sounds like the drivers are gett'in use to the COT.
Thanks 4 the original beer pic : ) WoW...I want a `Bud : ) Honey go get me one again please : )
Wish the reader of this a Happy : )
`Space
#27
04-22-2007, 07:00 PM
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Woodstock, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 5,264
RE: 07 NASCAR CUP PREDICTIONS ?
i think this is gordons year...look @ the top 5's and 10's and now a win...i think he's only had one race where he's been out of the top 10 and he was 12th...awesome year going so far...hopefully it keeps going this way...he was in the top 5 all night last night..so i was glad when he won! on the edge of my seat for the last 30 laps great finish GO GORDON GO!!
great finish GO GORDON GO!!
#28
04-22-2007, 09:59 PM
RE: 07 NASCAR CUP PREDICTIONS ?
This soooo burned me!!! I thought the race was today (Sunday) and was thinking next week was the Saturday race! I've been waiting for Gordon to win all year and when I turn my back, BAM!
Oh well, glad he won and glad Jr. is starting his crawl back into the top 10.
Oh well, glad he won and glad Jr. is starting his crawl back into the top 10.
#29
04-26-2007, 08:07 PM
RE: 07 NASCAR CUP PREDICTIONS ?
[align=center]Updated:2007-04-25 17:24:53[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Car of Tomorrow Is Failing to Win Fans[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Much-Hyped Project Is Prving Unpopular With Drivers[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]By MIKE HARRIS[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]AP Sports[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]NASCAR's grand experiment, the Car of Tomorrow, took the next step last Saturday night in Phoenix, and it was not a big hit with many of the Nextel Cup [/align][align=center][/align][align=center]
Other than an exciting late-race duel between eventual winner Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, the 312-lap Nextel Cup race on the 1-mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway appeared to most to be a plodding affair.
The COT is the culmination of a seven-year project by NASCAR's research and development division, an effort to make a safer car and one that also provides better competition - passing and side-by-side duels.
The Phoenix race was the first COT event on a track longer than a half-mile and what the drivers considered the first real test of the aerodynamic features of the new car.
If this is what they have to look forward to as the COT continues to be worked into the schedule, nobody is going to be very happy.
"I could see the leaders almost the whole race, and it was like we all were just out there running the exact same lap times," said Dale Earnhardt Jr. "It was a parade. I was bored.
"No one could pass anybody else - we were all equal it seemed."
Greg Biffle, who finished two spots ahead of Earnhardt in 17th, wasn't too thrilled with the new car, either.
"I only saw what was around me, but it didn't look like a good race, really, to me," Biffle said. "I didn't see a lot of side-by-side, I didn't see the big everybody equal. I saw everybody sliding all over the place.
"And NASCAR's claim to fame is they want them hard to drive. Well, it's not that they're hard to drive, it's just that they're not like driving a race car. They're like giving us Pinewood derby cars and saying, 'OK, everybody, this is what you're going to race."'
Biffle said he thought the biggest problem was that the new COTs weren't racy.
"You couldn't race anybody - and that's what we want to do," he said. "It's our passion, it's in our blood - we want to race them."
Strangely, one of the drivers who complained the most was Denny Hamlin, who overcame a speeding penalty on pit road that set him back to 31st and ended up finishing third. To do that, he had to pass more than half the cars in the 43-car field at least once.
"To be as nice as I can ... it's frustrating," Hamlin said. "People will say, `But you went from the back to the front.' But, yeah, it took us 300 laps to do it when it shouldn't have.
"Our car was just that much better than everyone else's. ... I don't know how we're going to run these cars on bigger tracks without changes."
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition and a longtime crew chief, said it isn't surprising that drivers are complaining, because the COT is very different from the cars that have been raced in the top stock car series and been in development since 1981.
"We are satisfied with the progress that's been made by the teams," Pemberton told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The races were good, with fewer DNFs (did not finish) than we've seen historically, and the finishes were close.
[b]"And, from my viewpoint, there was more racing going on around the whole racetrack. I'm really pleased about what I see behind third place, the intensity."
Pemberton noted that drivers such as the 26-year-old Hamlin haven't been through major changes before, which makes it more difficult for them to adjust.
"We have a lot o
Other than an exciting late-race duel between eventual winner Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, the 312-lap Nextel Cup race on the 1-mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway appeared to most to be a plodding affair.
The COT is the culmination of a seven-year project by NASCAR's research and development division, an effort to make a safer car and one that also provides better competition - passing and side-by-side duels.
The Phoenix race was the first COT event on a track longer than a half-mile and what the drivers considered the first real test of the aerodynamic features of the new car.
If this is what they have to look forward to as the COT continues to be worked into the schedule, nobody is going to be very happy.
"I could see the leaders almost the whole race, and it was like we all were just out there running the exact same lap times," said Dale Earnhardt Jr. "It was a parade. I was bored.
"No one could pass anybody else - we were all equal it seemed."
Greg Biffle, who finished two spots ahead of Earnhardt in 17th, wasn't too thrilled with the new car, either.
"I only saw what was around me, but it didn't look like a good race, really, to me," Biffle said. "I didn't see a lot of side-by-side, I didn't see the big everybody equal. I saw everybody sliding all over the place.
"And NASCAR's claim to fame is they want them hard to drive. Well, it's not that they're hard to drive, it's just that they're not like driving a race car. They're like giving us Pinewood derby cars and saying, 'OK, everybody, this is what you're going to race."'
Biffle said he thought the biggest problem was that the new COTs weren't racy.
"You couldn't race anybody - and that's what we want to do," he said. "It's our passion, it's in our blood - we want to race them."
Strangely, one of the drivers who complained the most was Denny Hamlin, who overcame a speeding penalty on pit road that set him back to 31st and ended up finishing third. To do that, he had to pass more than half the cars in the 43-car field at least once.
"To be as nice as I can ... it's frustrating," Hamlin said. "People will say, `But you went from the back to the front.' But, yeah, it took us 300 laps to do it when it shouldn't have.
"Our car was just that much better than everyone else's. ... I don't know how we're going to run these cars on bigger tracks without changes."
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition and a longtime crew chief, said it isn't surprising that drivers are complaining, because the COT is very different from the cars that have been raced in the top stock car series and been in development since 1981.
"We are satisfied with the progress that's been made by the teams," Pemberton told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The races were good, with fewer DNFs (did not finish) than we've seen historically, and the finishes were close.
[b]"And, from my viewpoint, there was more racing going on around the whole racetrack. I'm really pleased about what I see behind third place, the intensity."
Pemberton noted that drivers such as the 26-year-old Hamlin haven't been through major changes before, which makes it more difficult for them to adjust.
"We have a lot o
#30
04-26-2007, 08:26 PM
RE: 07 NASCAR CUP PREDICTIONS ?
Stewart's Opinions Air in Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Posted Apr 26th 2007 12:33PM by Geoffrey Miller
By now, I hope you've heard all about Tony Stewart's all-out lashing of NASCAR's debris cautions, going so far as to compare NASCAR to professional wrestling. While it's hard to disagree with this point of "phantom cautions"-- we've seen time and time again cautions that at the least were very questionable -- I just wonder if this is what one of NASCAR's top stars should be doing during his off time. Maybe Tony needs to be following that line of "don't bite the hand that feeds you".
I totally get Tony's frustration with NASCAR, but why does he have to make it so public? In reality, his stunt to avoid the media at Phoenix was nothing more than for sheer publicity. You've got to remember that he is getting a paycheck for the radio show he does on SIRIUS -- where he lambasted NASCAR from -- and that ratings are going to skyrocket after revelations like this.
Tony is not just another racing columnist writing about how the sport should do this or that. He is an icon with NASCAR which makes his credibility in discussing the sport that much more astounding. And with that credibility comes a load of responsibility not to tarnish the reputation of a sanctioning body that has worked so hard to achieve some credibility in the mainstream sports scene.
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Earnhardt Jr. Gets .51% Ownership
Posted Apr 26th 2007 11:55AM by tallglassofmilk
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Lowes, NASCAR Videos, Talledega
In exchange for certain services, Lowe's Motor Speedway President and General Manager Humpy Wheeler is prepared to offer Dale Earnhardt Jr. .51% ownership in the speedway.
Junior discusses the offer and the running of the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on the anniversary of his father's birthday in this video from a press conference at LMS: [/align]
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Posted Apr 25th 2007 5:17PM by tallglassofmilk
You weren't expecting him to stay quiet for long, were you? Just because Tony Stewart didn't go to the media center after Saturday's race, doesn't mean he didn't have anything to say.
This week he saved his commentary for his own radio show so that the media wouldn't twist his words.
"... with my reputation in the sport and with my outbursts and everything we've become smart enough to know if it's something where I'm going to make as *** out of myself, we're better off to actually just leave than sit there and create even bigger issues than what we did by not going this week."
[/blockquote][center][b]Ag