The Poll Question

I ahven't had a poll in a while, but I think we need one. Also, I had to draw a line somewhere. Right now, I really think you need to be within 100 points to win this championship. I stretched it to the 102 back that SupplySgt sits, but I think everyone from there back is a long shot. Heck, as far ahead and teh way Carl is picking this year, we're all long shots. But I just wanted to see who we all thought woudl be able to pull of the 2012 championship since we're on this off weekend.


It's an off week....


It's a good time to get a lot of things done in the shop, build a few cars... and in the olden days, this was about the time of the year where the new models would begin coming in from the factories to the race shops. All of these photos from a guy named Dr. John Craft, who worked for Holman-Moody in the 60s.

The '67 Fairlanes arriving at Banjo Matthews hsop.






And this is how Holman Moody received their Torinos from Ford.....










Points and Congratulatory Remarks


So we don't really have a good intro to give this week so just the points as we go into this off week.


First off, lets have a look at the overall points, and below that, the segment points, which are really just the results of the New Hampshire race.


Overall:


1) carlm54stl 2033 Leader
2) JuniorCar 1989 -44
3) Leprechaun93 1946 -87
4) Cowboy6622 1944 -89
5) SupplySgt 1931 -102
6) bblackstone 1905 -128
7) zjerry 1886 -147
8) 02 Earnhardt 1877 -156
9) 03JGMonte 1856 -177
10) lougreen03 1850 -186
11) montecarlo3831 1840 -196
12) butch049 1815 -218
13) 77GP 1747 -286
14) silverfish33 1711 -322
15) STUMPMI 1655 -378
16) adgm2005 1435
17) RocknSS04 1142
18) SuperSportSteve 928
19) 01 Monte SS 908
20) Ricks 2006 SS 520
21) 06 Mistre SS 428
22) Teacher 306
23) yutzybrian 211
24) nichols2k 175
25) MnteCarloSS47 124
26) monte06ltz 92
27) Racebound2 83
28) Possum 77
29) 04chevyboy 76
30) Emily666 61
31) SS Means Super Sexy 60
32) mousehousemoparman 54



Segment 3



1) JuniorCar 126 Leader
2) MnteCrloSS47 124 -2
3) SupplySgt 122 -4
4) zjerry 117 -9
5) Ricks 2006 SS 117 -9
6) 02 Earnhardt 115 -11
7) Leprechaun93 115 -11
8) butch049 114 -12
9) nichols2k 113 -13
10) STUMPMI 110 -16
11) Cowboy6622 110 -16
12) adgm2005 109 -17
13) 03JGMonte 109 -17
14) 77GP 107 -19
15) montecarlo3831 107 -19
16) carlm54stl 101 -25
17) lougreen03 95 -31
18) bblackstone 95 -31
19) silverfish33 91 -35


Also, since this is an off week, I compiled a few stats for you guys.... win counts and such things as that.

So here are members with wins and how many...

carlm54stl: 4 wins (+1 non points paying win)
JuniorCar: 3 wins (+2 non points paying wins)
03JGMonte: 2 wins
bblackstone: 2 wins
adgm2005: 2 wins
zjerry: 1 win
77GP: 1 win
montecarlo3831: 1 win
silverfish33: 1 win
Ricks 2006 SS: 1 win
lougreen03: 1 win



And if any of you veterans of the series out there are interested, here is how the points looked after 19 races last year...

2011 Standings after 19 races

Look at how tight that battle for the poitns lead was at this point last year....


1) JuniorCar 1843 Leader
2) Cowboy6622 1842 -1
3) 77GP 1836 -7
4) montecarlo3831 1835 - 8
5) RocknSS04 1778 -65
6) lougreen03 1748 -95
7) KidSpace 1735 -108
8) zjerry 1689 -154
9) BocaReject 1009
10) silverfish 412
11) carlm54stl 374
12) 03JGMonte 344
13) nichols2k 252
14) Teacher 116
15) Nocturnx 85
16) odessadude 73
17) dustybird3 34

Look at how many less points we all had last year!! Anyone in the top 10 this year could have been the points leader last year.


So what is on my mind?


AJ Allmendinger

I don't know what the deal is with this guy. I'm thinking whatever NASCAR did is probably going to stand, and whether gets back in the sport or not, his name is forever tarnished. Michael Shank, his owner during the 24 hours of Daytona, said Allmendinger is welcome to drive his car is comes down to it.

AJ has been having a tough time. His "last best chance" at Penske hasn't been what he hoped for, and he is going through a divorce.... it's tough for him right now.

Carl Edwards

This guy is just falling apart, I think. 2011 and 2008 were career years, then 2012 and 2009 were slumps. Edards shoudl be back to full strength by 2014 though, and I'll be ready. I just think he performs better in contract years when he needs to get the money going again.

Hendrick Motorsports

They are going to one of their best tracks, Indianapolis, and they are on top of the sport right now. Nothing can touch a Hendrick car! Well, maybe that one Toyota...


Chevrolets and Indianapolis

Chevrolet is looking to make it 10 in a row ni the Brickyard 400. A Ford hasn't won since 1999. Chevrolet has way more wins here than anyone else too with 13. Plus, after this we go to Pocono, where the Chevrolets are really strong htere was well, then Watkins Glen, which is tough to judge.


Renaming this race???

It will be the "Crown Royal presents the YOUR NAME HERE 400 at the Brickyard", part of the companys campaign to honor military heroes by giving them a race named after them.



So what is on your minds as we take a week off, gentlemen?

 

I still think we should reset & do a chase like nascar for the final 10 races & i think Edwards is gonna miss the chase this year i dont really see him getting a win within these few remaining races

 

Well we reset 4 times all year.... we have Segment winners. Resetting for the chase plus resetting for a sgement doesn't make a lot of sense to me.


I've played around in my head with a few ideas of how to do this. I've thought about structuring our points system so the "winner" of our races gets 50 points, 2nd place gets 49 points, third place 48 points, 4th palce 47 points, etc., etc.. maybe bonus points for winning a race.


Something that needs to be factored in is how much time it takes for me to figure this stuff up. The current system is easier for me to add up and keep track of. Plus, it rewards you more for picking high finishing drivers by giving you a lot more points, for instance, winning a race by picking 1-2-3 rewards you more points than winning a race by picking 7-8-9.

I'm editing in a few classic NASCAR pictures that reflect an off week.

 

I wouldnt even do a last segment just restart everyone in the top 10 at zero with 5 bonus points for each win, itll deff make the end more interesting & may get more ppl to take risks for wins

 

I'll just have to respectfully disagree....



For one, I do'nt think 5 bonus points is really enough... maybe 10 or so. If we reset the points, I don't think that would be fair to the people leading the points. I don't think we should punish Carl for building such a big points lead by just whipping it out. If we look at some of those guys about 8th on back who are just so far out and just "reset" the points ofr them, is that fair to the people up front who have built up such a gigantic lead on everyone else?

I have these same questions for NASCARs real chase system.

Here, we reset our points three times a year for four segments. And on top of that, we have overall. I think those two things combined make it so that we have a lot of winners, plus those people who fall behind get a chance to run for something even if they're many points out of the overall lead.


Maybe in the coming weeks we can discuss this and get some others opinions on it. Even if we made a chase, I would like to have some way of rewarding the person who scores the most points over 36 points paying races.

 

Bob Osbourne, crew cheif for Carl Edwards , is going to step down now for health reasons but work in the shop. I think the new crew chief will either be the shot in the arm the team needs or they will collapse even farther than they already ahve.

 

I think its the end for the 99 this year, itll take a few races for em to get on the same page

 

So what your saying:

Anyone whos not in the "Top10"...

Should just not bother playing anymore?

That would certainly deter anyone from ever playing again..Dont you think..???

Because that would certainly cut me out...Just when I was beginning to actually enjoy being here.... So, I guess when the chase starts...im outa here...

 

That's why we don't reset. You've got to run hard all year! We've got a 4th segment, so we're fine.

 

Don't you just hate it when those crew guys don't get the windshield clean for you?


Dale Earnhardt Cleaning Windsheild Under Caution


The story, according to Chocolate Myers, his gas man at the time, is that Earnhardt came on the radio to the crew chief and said he needed to come in and pit. The crew chief said he didn't want to give up the track position, so Earnhardt responded "I'm going to be off the radio for a minute." This is what happened.