1st, thanks, its just a hobby but I do enjoy it (please check out the other albums I have posted), my camera is a Canon Digital Rebel (6.3megpix), the lens is a Canon 75-300 telephoto, I have it set on the auto-program setting which does most everything in auto and allows me to take rapid fire shots (4 shots in something like 2 sec, I forget just what that spec is), I have a 2gig compact flash card which gives me 470 to 520 photos (on long trips I do bring a portible 20gig storage device that my flash card can plug into and download all the files then all I have to do is reformat the card in the camera and fill it up again), no flash was used.

one thing I did forget to include in my report was on the way home we came across many of the team haulers drive back down south (93s/3s/495s) my duaghter took some pix of them with here point and shot digital camera.....and I plan to post them here or maybe inthe "things we see from our HHR" thread (title was something like that)

well my next trip is Talladega in a few weeks, the Arca race and maybe the dirt track races or two on the friday, another Truck race on Saturday and the Cup race on Sunday....my brother has the tickets btw

 

Boston Red Sox owner in talks to buy part of Roush
This could get interesting.

Earnhardt Jr. hit-or-miss at Dover
How will he fare?

Coast Guard ending RCR sponsorship
Budget cuts

Gordon team determines lucky number is 8.7
Playing the numbers game[/url]

 

wow...the John Henry/Red Sox/Roush news is the 1st I've heard...maybe if it happens the local papers/tv news will give a little more attention to NASCAR beside the crappy fake southern accent when they talk about NASCAR the 3 or 4 times out of the year....that being the Dayton 500 the 2 NH races and the last race of the season...

early this year I was doing a twice a week NASCAR report on a local Worcester AM radio station, then they changed their format and my spots got the axe...it was the only NASCAR report with some detail in the central Mass as far as I knew

 

wow another wild turn of events....Kasey is taken out after 4 laps and Kyle blows an engine about 1/2 way thru the race....Jr still seems to be having a hard time getting the set up for a complete race, but this week he decided to not give his team a "pep talk" like he gave them after NH, maybe that will make a difference this time....Jeff Burton finally makes it to the winner circle after about 150 races or something like that and it couldn't happen at a better time and the battle with Kenseth to get the lead was exciting, then Kenseth runs out of gas with a lap to go ...Harvick had a OK day and Jeff Gordon seems to be hitting his marks also at the righ time....Jimmy Johnson held his own for the race and Mark Martin and Denny Hamlin had solid runs to keep themselfs within striking distance

Kansas this weekend....a cookie cutter track should be a place where all the chase drivers can do well, but it will be up to the crew to give them a car that can roll clean through the turns....

heres how it all worked out point wise

1 Jeff Burton 5351 Leader
2 Jeff Gordon 5345 -6
3 Matt Kenseth 5333 -18
4 Denny Hamlin* 5333 -18
5 Kevin Harvick 5297 -54
6 Mark Martin 5276 -75
7 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 5249 -102
8 Jimmie Johnson 5215 -136
9 Kasey Kahne 5169 -182
10 Kyle Busch 5127 -224

 

Well yes I'm back...and already packed for the next race at Martinsville this weekend...

non-stubby photos can be view at http://rides.webshots.com/album/554785411eezZnR

been busy at work the past week so I'm finally able to get in here and post my take on the race weekend

Got to the camp ground Friday afternoon...set up camp and headed over to find trackside....as Stubby told you it was inside the track and you had to have a in-field ticket to get to the set....oh well....Saturday we walked over the the track and got tickets for qualifying and the truck race....the weather was just right, sunny with a few clouds and no humidity !!!! qualifying went off as expected, but a rookie pulling off the poll with a 191+ mph speed was too cool...the truck race was very good, lots of 3 and 4 wide racing some minor crashes....no big ones, but with the new smooooooth surface the truck/cars didn't seem to get out of line much like in the years past due to the track's surface being bumpy....Mark Martin won the truck race with some minor controversy...seems Cue-ball (aka Todd Bodine) felt NASCAR made the wrong call about him passing below the yellow line ( a no-no at Talladega and Daytona ) and something about NASCAR fixing the win for Mark Martin...Saturday night was fun, went for a walk into the free camping areas but it was very normal and no wild partying like last year....Sunday was another great weather day..maybe a bit cooler than Saturday....did the rounds for the drivers doing their signings....then headed to our seats for the race....and what a great race it was, the 1st time they went into the turns and it was 4 wide the place just went nuts ! the passing was great, the green flag pitting was great....watching Dale Jr work his way to the front the 1st time was impressive...and then seeing him do it again after getting a flat and going down a lap just proves that this kid (hell he's 32 now but still) either learned at lot from his Dad or its in his DNA....now let me just say this, Talladega is Dale Jr country, the place holds 160K people more IMO, but at least 100k of them are there to see Jr race and win...so when Jr got to the front with 10 to go the party was stating to kick in...yeah most felt it was Jr's race at that point but in the worse case it was gonna be a great points day when we saw the chase points leader pit because he had a flat with 5 to go....when Jr went by leading the pack at the white flag the place was going crazy.....once they went out of our view all eyes turned to the big TVs as we watched in horror Jr getting taken out.....oh my GOD, it was like telling a room full of 1st graders that Chistmas was not gonna happen this year, I personally slipped and fell 3 rows down from our seats and missed Jr limping to the finish line....(last night I finally watch the race on my Tivo and was impressed by the broadcast not showing or pointing out without great detail the fans that were throwing full cans of beer on to the track, if you thought it was bad a few years ago when NASCAR called Jeff Gordon the winner over Jr...this was 10x worse)....well Vickers became the new flogging boy of NASCAR with his mistake...I was impressed with Jr's "oh well" attitude, but Jimmy Johnson was pissed, that really hurt his chances to gain a lot of ground on Burton....well thats it for now...work is calling me...

 

Great rundown...especially about when Jr was taken out. I'm sure that was devastating for all those fans to see. Sounds like you and Stubby had a great time together.

 

Thanks for the info. I haven't followed NASCAR much since Dale Sr. died.

I was wondering what all the fuss was about Vickers and the extra security for this weekend, now I know

 

oh the other thing, the interview with Mark Martin after Talladega justifies how great this race was, Mark has always hated to race at Dega but his words really hit the nail on the head, "This was a great race" he said with a smile ! now this might be because he finished and gained a lot of points to end up in 2nd in points...and he won the truck race the day before.....also the race this past Saturday after hitting the wall FREAKING hard he got up on the window to wave to the crowd, and the quick interview after he got out of the care center..."I'm having FUN !"

in the words of Carl Edwards....Crazy Old Man.....

 

Mark Martin can be an up and down guy. Some days he's happy as a clam...others he's real negative. Good to see him in such a positive frame of mind. And, I love that crazy old man thing...that commercial is a hoot.

 

How bout ol' Sterling!! 11th at Lowes..... I love it!!!