Racing News Digest - All Forums

Nascar Fanatic on NASCAR Fans - What Say You? Jimmie Johnson's Dominance Good Or Bad For Sport

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:43:25 -0500

I am curious what others have to think about Jimmie Johnson's pure dominance in this sport.

Now I am not a Jimmie Johnson fan, but I am not talking about being a fan or not. Maybe think about the question if it was your driver having pure dominance in NASCAR.

I can see the argument that some people may tune out the race because they just figure Jimmie is going to win. Why watch when you know the outcome?

On the other hand, Johnson makes a good point in this statement -

"I don't understand why people would have a problem with it,'' he said afterhis 46th career win, which tied him with Buck Baker for 13th on the all-time wins list. "Everybody tunes in to watch Tiger (Woods) win. Everybody tunes in to watch (Roger) Federer do his thing on certain (tennis) courts. I'm just doing my thing. I think there's a lot of fans out there that are excited to see what this 48 car is doing, and a lot of people are happy and rooting for us to win a fourth.''

Now you know Johnson fans are turing out in droves to see him hopefully win another championship.

I don't want to see him win another one, but I always like to "be there" when records are set or something along those lines.

So what do you think? Good or bad for the sport to have 1 driver or even 1 team (Hendricks) dominating the sport?

Nascar Fanatic on Finally, The Camping World Truck Series Is Returning

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:27:33 -0500

Doesn't it seem like forever since we got to see the Trucks racing? Granted, I believe it has only been about 3 weeks now, but it will be a month when they race this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

And granted, it would appear that Ron Hornaday has the series all but captured.

But still, I am ready to see some more truck racing!

canyouhandleit on Bail Out Your Favorite NASCAR Driver

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:18:06 -0500

In North Carolina (or close to it)?!

Then don’t miss the 2^nd official Jail and Bail this Wednesday, Oct. 14^th! http://www.speedtv.com/feature.....os#Brienne

Bail out your favorite NASCAR driver by raising money for the Brienne Davis Scholarship Fund. Appearances by Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Juan Montoya, Brian Vickers, and more! If that’s not enough, Rutledge Wood will also be thrown in the slammer with Kenny Wallace & Jimmy Spencer as attorneys! The night will feature a special performance by Rodney Atkins.

Can’t Make It?

Who from this list (http://www.speedtv.com/feature.....os#Brienne) would you bail out?

Nascar Fanatic on Promises Of 40.8% Returns Lures NASCAR Drivers And Others Into Ponzi Scheme

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:20:02 -0500

I did not stutter. I read that promises of up to 40.8% returns on thier money is what lured them in.

I am sorry, but that would tell me that I need to run. 40.8% in this economy or any economy should be good enough reason to send up red flags and make you run as fast as possible.

And it is not just NASCAR drivers that were targeted. Police departments were also targeted in the $5.4 million scheme.

"Basically, the Ponzi scheme made investors believe that they could get them a guaranteed return on their investment up to 40.8 percent and they got them to invest their money and then used their money for their own personal gain. Our investigation is still in the process of collecting evidence and sorting through the different computers and everything else we found," FDLE agent Wayne Ivey said.

Ivey said Grand Am driver Henri Zogaib and Ormond Beach businessman Paul Bellanca worked together to convince clients to invest in iron and ore products through their two companies. Zogaib was able to gain credibility with NASCAR officials through his association with Grand Am racers and teams, the FDLE said.

One police officer invested $500,000 into this scheme. His life savings, all of it. That's right, he put all of his eggs in one basic. And now he has nothing.

Oh, I am sure that someone is going to try and put some blame on NASCAR as well. I don't even care if NASCAR supported or endorsed these guys. Everybody should know that you are not going to legally make 40.8% back on your money. Come on, it's the Obama era, jobs are trying up, companies are struggling and your trying to get rich.

WAKE UP

Now, I do honestly feel bad for anyone that lost money. I don't really wish that on even my least favorite people in the world. But come on, get a grip and stop trying to get richer. If it is to good to be true, then it is just that.

I don't think I would even jump on board right now with anyone saying I could possibly get 15%. It's not going to happen.

Get some coffee going so that you wake up and have a smell.

I really wonder if people will ever learn. I am sure I will get bit by some investment some day. Hopefully it is a legit investment and not some ponzi scheme. I can garauntee you one thing. All of my money will not be in the same place.

I hope these guys running the scheme get the same sentence or worse than Madolf did, but the victims have to take a lot of the responsibility here. They chose to invest with something that was probably (more than likely) off the books. They choose to possibly have thier whole life savings go to 1 investment.

Just ticks me off that there are people lower than gutter slime like these frauds and ticks me off that people are so earger to get rich(er) that they leave themselves completely open.

Nascar Fanatic on Chat Rooms Are Open Again

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:53:48 -0500

Well for quite awhile now the chat rooms here have not been operational.

They are back up and running so check them out. I had a problem with the new software that was running the site. I could not get the rooms to load up. So I stopped thinking about it for a couple of months and then went back to take another look.

Long story short, they are fixed. I do not have a link on the front page for them yet because I want to do a little more testing. But I am sure they are working just fine.

Please check them out. You do have to be a registered user. These are permanant chat rooms and those disposable ones that you find on race day all over the place. These are rooms that you can come back to time and time again.

With in the chat rooms you can do many things -

1. Customize the appearance of the rooms to your liking (and it will be the same way when you log back in later)

2. Send private messages to other users.

3. Along with sending messages, you can also IGNORE users.

4. Share a file with other users (open at your own risk).

5. View other users profiles

6. Create your own room, either public or private (password required). Created rooms will not remain if unused for 1 hour (I think it is).

7. Chat rooms are open 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Use them for what ever you want. Meet up with friends. Sporting events. They are yours to use!

Come check them out. Hoping for a good turn out.

LINK TO CHAT ROOMS

Nascar Fanatic on Site Upgrade

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:28:33 -0500

I did a bunch of site upgrades tonight to this website and these forums. A whole bunch atually.

These forums recieved a complete upgrade along with the software running this site.

In theory you won't be able to tell I did anything.

But I am posting this here so that if you experience any problems with ANY part of the site, I would appreciate it if you let me know.

Thanks,

Mike Pratt

Nascar Fanatic on Rain Forecasted This Weekend At New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:00:32 -0500

Once again mother nature wants to toy with NASCAR this weekend. I would bet there are a bunch of people (probably not NASCAR fans) that would say Mother Nature is punishing NASCAR for all thier global warming green house emissions.

I am laughing really hard right now by the way.

Pretty soon it may become Sprint Cup Boat Racing.

The weather forecast for Concord, NH on Sunday includes a 50% chance of rain all morning and then that turns to a 60% chance by 2 pm. Great. 60% isn't all that bad and if your playing the odds, then we will probably be alright. I have also seen 30% chances of rain dump water from the sky all day long.

The good news for the guys on Sunday is that it will be about 67 degrees. That is alot better than it is doing here in Michigan.

The forecast is pretty much identical of the Nationwide series on Saturday, just a hair warmer. So that will could possible affect practices and qualifying for the Sprint Cup Series as well.

Sprint Cup practice today at Noon -- Rain is moving into the picture.

Take a look at the radar on our New Hampshire Motor Speedway page.

Camping World Truck series is at Memphis tomorrow. Looks like the sky's will be clear, but they will be racing in temps up to 99 degrees....OUCH.

Memphis Motorsports Park page.

Camping World East Series is also at New Hampshire tonight. 60% chance of rain and thunderstorms.

Nascar Fanatic on TV Coverage :(

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:14:38 -0500

Well I can definitely understand taking issue with that. Kind of pointless huh?

In car camera or broadcast camera....pick one, don't tie up both with the same person/different views.

This is understandable if they did it for a very very short amount of time. Give Smoke as much TV coverage for his fans as possible, especially since this was going to be his first points win for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Also, I have seen that combo of camera angles used before and it is pretty neat when they apply it to a bad handling car or like when Kyle Busch is driver of a wicked loose fast car.

Kind of take a lap with a driver. Show him driving the hell our of the car and on the split screen see what it looks like is actually happening with the car.

But in Tony Stewart's case i don't believe that is what was going on. So if they kept those camera angles on split screen for very long then yes...boring.

But, Smoke fans had to have loved it. Plus, at least it wasn't Jimmie Johnson or Kyle Busch. Nothing against those 2 in this post, but they get a lot of camera time as it is.

jeffreyj on TV Coverage :(

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:00:15 -0500

Just out of curiousity, who were the camera's on?

Nascar Fanatic, what stirred me up about the split screen was that the larger of the two screens was an in-car camera of Tony Stewart just driving the car (nothing to be seen other than a man setting there with his hands on the steering wheel). The other camera was on the leader (Stewart) which is understandable at the end of a race. Had they shown a battle for fifth place, or some such, in the split that would have much better than what we got.

You make some valid points about split screen; to each his own I suppose. The problem as I see it: they don't just split the screen down the middle, they put two very small windows on the screen bordered by a bunch of unnecessary graphics.

Nascar Fanatic on TV Coverage :(

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:59:07 -0500

Hi Jeffery and thanks for dropping by.

I am curious what "action" you are referring to as far as you feeling like you missed out on.

All to often we hear fans (myself included) gripping about wanting the camera off the leader and instead back in the pack where the action is. So if the broadcasters can give us simultaneous views of what is going on, I think that is great.

If I could I would probably have my TV split into 4 (I only have a 37'' HD) so that I could see all kinds of angles at once. The real cats meow would be to have the ability to zoom in on one angel if I wanted to.

I have to be really honest and say I don't know exactly what you are talking about and I asked my wife if she remembered. But we both kind of agree that we were paying attention to NASCAR's TrackPass real close at the end there to see where our driver Ryan Newman was going to finish.

So, I either missed what you are talking about or I lilked and did not give it much thought.

Just out of curiousity, who were the camera's on?

And the more I think about it, the more I think I will take split screens anyday over watching the leader with a 5 second advantage over the rest of the track. Even if the leader was in one of the split screens, at least there would be something else to check out.

Nascar Fanatic on Salem Speedway action

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:51:54 -0500

Great pics. Looks like it was a great time.

Last night Jeni and I were looking for a "hometown" track to attend while were are in Bedford, VA starting WED for the next week and half.

We didn't have much luck finding anything online CLOSE to Bedford.

jeffreyj on TV Coverage :(

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:29:08 -0500

I think it is very unfortunate that TNT insisted on ruining the last couple of laps of today's race by splitting the screen.

Had I known that's how they would have ended the race in the beginning I wouldn't have sat through the entire thing just to be disappointed in the end. Why even bother having a wide-screen HD TV if the producer is just going to put the action in a tiny little box anyway?

I was so looking forward to watching the races on TNT after watching FOX's garish and obnoxious on-screen production value thus far this season (that I chalked up to being some young kid who received a special effects machine for Christmas).

Alas, If this is what is to be expected, I'll spend my time doing other things, and know that NASCAR and its race broadcasters drove me away from the sport I loved because it's just not enjoyable to watch anymore.

/rant

bryan on Salem Speedway action

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:37:31 -0500

The USA Mods were at Salem Speedway last night. Pics and results are up at my site.

http://www.grangier-photo.com/.....60609.html

Nascar Fanatic on Life Has Been Busy - Time For Vacation

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:02:20 -0500

Life has been pretty busy around here for me. Recently the company that I work(ed) for (Alltel) was bought out by Verizon. In the process of that buy out we were told that our switch was eventually closing down and we would all have to move to the Southfield area (near Detroit) to work in one of the switches down there.

Well, none of us are convinced when that day comes that they will have room for all of us (4 switches being closed down). So when an opening became available in Southfield, about half of us applied for it (me included). My co-worker got the position.

Now, with only one of us (me) in the switch here, things have been VERY busy.

One reason is that we have a HUGE project going on for the Michigan Internation Speedway. We are adding a ton of voice and data capabilities there. We are hoping this will be ready for next weekend, and in all reality it should be.

Now, that has meant that I have been working like crazy lately. And don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I really enjoy the $$$$$ that comes with the overtime, and as much of a pain in the rear end the work is, it is kind of fun and I am learning a lot.

The bad side is that I think I have seen my kids for about a grand total of 2 hours this week. That really sucks.

Good news. We go on vacation next week. Heading to VA to visit my parents and sister. My parents are going to keep our kids for 2 nights while my wife and I get away for a couple of day to Virginia Beach. Sit in the sun or rain and sips on some drinks. Just relax with nothing to do except maybe get off our rear ends and go get something to eat. 2 days of quiet.

I am sure 95% of our conversations during those 2 days will be about how much we miss the kids....LOL.

Oh yeah, so things on this site might be really slow starting next WED night. That's when we head out. Return on June 21st.

Nascar Fanatic on '58 Chevy

Sat, 30 May 2009 10:50:08 -0500

Very nice. I have ben wanting a profect along those lines but I think I am looking for a truck. I don't know why but I really like trucks.

The problem, I would have no idea what I was doing. But that's the whole points. To learn something!