Racin' in Whine Country

The Racin' takes place at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma California.This track has 10 turns, is measure in kilometers and there are 110 laps which add up to 218.9 miles, or 352.21 kilometers if you prefer. There are 52 cars attempting to make the race this week.

This is the first road course for the COT (Car of Tomorrow). NASCAR has the attitude that they own this COT and they are merely allowing the the race teams to use it. Given that, there are certain areas that they will allow the teams to work with but there are other places that are a definite "don't even think about touching that" area and the teams have already been warned that the "cheaters" as the Beloved Kilo calls them will pay a stiff penalty.

Today I must hang my head. As you know I decided that to help Kilo and his driver #31 Jeff Burton out I would root for #24 Jeff -Whiner- Gordon. Well, now he can be called Jeff "Cheater" Gordon. His car did not pass the inspections today. His team had touched one of those "don't even think about touching that" area. Gordon, who is the leader in points was not the only car to fail inspections today. #48 Jimmy Johnson, who is currently 3rd in points. Neither driver will be practicing today. They will find out soon if they will be allowed to practice tomorrow. They will be starting this race at 42nd and 43rd. Penalties will be placed upon these teams Monday or Tuesday. All I got to say is go Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson! Kilo I expect a big thank you.

Technorati : Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR

Lets Resurface that Wall Building Idea-Together

As you are all aware, NASCAR is a big deal here at Spark It Up HQ. Bristol is in our backyard and Kilo has killed off many braincells there I'm sure. He is keeping me and his readers updated on the resurfacing that is taking place there in between races this year.

When we are not talking racin', or what is growing and needs attention in the garden, Duncan Hunter is certainly one of the next topics of discussion. ( Yes, Ladies I do live a charmed life!) Here is my take on putting those three ideas together.

Kilo showed me the photos of the changes on the Bristol race track. My first comment was " Wow, if they can do this in 12 weeks just imagine the wall that we could build in that same time!" The racetrack is banked at 38 degrees, the wall is basically up and down. The track is measured to the smallest fractions, who cares if the wall ends up a bit higher then planned. The track must be baby bottom smooth, the wall- who cares if it is rough and chaffs the skin? It is after all meant to deter illegals from coming across the border.

Perhaps we should call upon the Amish to help us out with this wall building task. The women all bake and cook and get ready for a weekend picnic while the men prepare their tools. Everyone who can help shows up at a certain time and they all dig in and do what they can. Insta-barn, or insta-house.

I say women, get those aprons on, grab a few things from that garden. Men locate those tools, practice digging a couple post holes in your backyard- you can always plant trees to appease those greenies who will be complaining that the wall stops some alien beetle or rodent, or that we cut too many trees down to build the wall.
Lets Elect Duncan Hunter and then have a wall building weekend and create one heck of an American made, Insta-wall. Americans digging in and doing a little something to save the sovereignty of this great nation that is built on the backbone of Americans digging in and doing a little something.

Technorati : Bristol, Build the Wall, Duncan Hunter, NASCAR, gardening

Dale Earnhardt Jr joins Hendrick Motorsports

Dale Jr joins team Hendrick...Thats right race fans...Dale and Jeffy are mates! Big ego problems in the future.

Jeff Burton's New Colors

They have finally changed the logo on Jeff Burton's ride. After the long and ugly court battle, the judge ruled NASCAR could not prevent the AT&T logo. You can read about that here. So the little Cingular man is gone! Burton finished 4th in the Challenge last week. He is sitting 5th in the points chase.

Virginia Racers donate $120,000 to Virginia Tech

Last night my favorite Nascar driver Jeff Burton, along with his brother Ward, Elliott Sadler, and Denny Hamlin, presented Frank Beamer a check for $120,000 to support the Virginia Tech Memorial Fund. Additionally, Richmond International Raceway president Doug Fritz presented him with a check for $40,000.

"I've long admired and respected what you guys do, and I come
here tonight admiring and respecting and very much appreciating
everything that NASCAR has done for Virginia Tech," Beamer said in
addressing the drivers, crew chiefs and team owners.

Jeff Burton added:

...the check was an effort by several people to do
something to help the victims, their families and the school with
what are certain to be lasting issues.
"When you get down the road, things have a way of losing
momentum," he said. "We're just trying to give some money to
something that can help people in the long term.
"People will be dealing with this for a long time."

Nascar takes a lot of heat from those who know nothing about the sport or the drivers. When it comes to charity there is no other sport that steps up the way the Nascar family does.
LINK

I Am Woman, See Me Change My Mind!

"Wise Girl has abandoned Jamie McMurray to support Elliot Sadler. Well at least he is from Virginia. Who knows who she will root for next week...geesh." ~Kilo

Kilo finds it particularly funny that any Nascar driver I pick ends up at the back of the pack and sadly he is not wrong. If you take a look at his Nascar widget (on the right) you will see that my pick of last year, Jamie McMurray, is now in the top ten and my pick for this year, Elliot Sadler, is no where to be seen. Geesh is right!

Given this great luck I am having, I have decided, and trust me this is very painful to say, that I am now gonna pick Jeff Gordon to win the race at Richmond this Saturday night. He happens to be number one in the points standings and Kilo's driver Jeff Burton who has been driving through "impossible to get through" wrecks for over a year finally ran out of luck and was caught up in one this last week thus dropping some points. He is now 200 points behind Gordon in second place. So, I will expect to see Sadler up front and Gordon coughing on all the exhaust he is breathing. Hey Kilo, you were wondering what it would take to stop the run Gordon is having- maybe I just found it- see how much I love ya!

Technorati : Elliot Sadler, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR, racing

The King and the General

Attorney General Bob McDonnell was at the NASCAR event at Martinsville this weekend. A great picture of The King Richard Petty and our own Attorney General Bob McDonnell. The AG has announced he is shooting to be our next governor and attending NASCAR events is a great way to reach people. Keep up the good work Bob!

Car of Tomorrow vs Cake of Tomorrow

Yesterday the Car of Tomorrow (COT) raced at Bristol. I guess it is now the car of today....or yesterday? I don't know. Die hard NASCAR fans, myself included, have not been thrilled with the COT but the race at Bristol proved those thoughts wrong. The race yesterday had 160,000 fans in attendance. There were 14 lead changes among 10 drivers and 15 cautions for 90 of the 504 laps. Time of the race was 3 hrs, 16 mins, 38 secs with a average speed of 81.969 MPH. The margin of victory was 0.064 seconds with Kyle Bush taking the win. My driver Jeff Burton finished 2^nd . Burton could have tapped Bush out of the way, but being a class act he raced clean for the points. He now sits in 2^nd place in the points and is only 3 points behind the leader Jeff Gordon (Picture here)

The COT impressed me. I saw drivers and teams working their butts off. They will race them again this week at Martinsville. I am looking forward to it. There is one thing - They need to paint the wing on the car to match the scheme. As my friend Alton said it reminded him of the young kids cars today and all they needed was boom de boom stereos. I agree.

The Cake of Tomorrow is awesome. Wise Girl outdid herself with this one. Yes, she did move up a notch or two. I think the car and the cake are both winners.

Technorati : Bristol, Bristol Motor Speedway, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, NASCAR, Race, Racing

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Kilos Favorite things

If you were going to ask for a list of Kilos favorite things you would discover these four things very near the top: NASCAR, Jim Beam, coffee and chocolate. I'll not tell you where I am on that list but I am certain when I finish with this I will move up a spot or two. I am going to mix all four of these things together to create one happy man!

Nascar Cake of Tomorrow

1 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ C strong coffee
½ C Jim Beam
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter (cut into pieces)
1 C granulated sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 C mini chocolate chips
2 C flour
1 1/2 teas. baking soda
¾ teas. salt
¼ teas. pepper (Im thinking of using cayanne pepper here instead)
1/8 teas. ground cloves
3 eggs plus one egg white
2 teas. Vanilla

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325°. Butter a 10-inch springform pan, dust with 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and place on a baking sheet.
2. In a saucepan, whisk together the coffee, Jim Beam, butter and 3/4 cup cocoa powder over low heat. Whisk in the granulated and brown sugars. Let cool. In a small bowl, toss the chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon cocoa powder.
3. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, pepper and cloves. Whisk the eggs, egg white and vanilla into the cooled coffee-chocolate mixture. Whisk in the flour mixture. Fold the cocoa-dusted chocolate chips into the batter.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out just slightly moist, about 1 hour. Let cool. Dust with the remaining 1 tablespoon cocoa powder before serving.

Now don't you wish you were going to be watching the Bristol race with Kilo and me? It is hard to tell which will be better, the cake or the racing in those new cars of tomorrow? I can't wait.

Technorati : Chocolate, Coffee, Jim Beam, Nascar, Recipe

NASCAR....I Love Racing!

Check out my spiffy new widget on the sidebar. Cool Huh! You can get one here. The One Bad Wheel.Com site was found by Wise Girl. It is a great site for Fantasy Racing, Driver Stats, Track Stats, Race Stats, Webmaster Tools, History & Trivia, and a NASCAR Blog. It is easy to navigate so give it a look. The widget installed easily and comes in many different designs. The site owner asks that you email him if you use one and he then adds you to his blogroll. We are counting down to Bristol!

Technorati : Bristol Motor Speedway, NASCAR, Racing

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Jack Smith RIP

Local icon Jack Smith passed away Thursday. He was the founder of the Food City supermarket chain. His sponsorship of the Food City 500 NASCAR event at Bristol started in 1992.

In 1955 Smith opened his first store in his hometown of Grundy, Va., and so began his storied career in the grocery business. Now more than 50 years later, Food City stands at the top among supermarket chains serving the Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee Tri-State region and boasts nearly 100 stores. Smith built his chain upon the premise of providing superior customer service - a principle that still rings loudly throughout the Food City chain today. Food City joined Bristol Motor Speedway in 1992 and is celebrating its 15th anniversary as sponsor of the spring Nextel Cup race, The Food City 500. Food City, which also sponsors the Food City 250 Busch Series event in August, recently extended its sponsorship through 2010. (LINK)

His leadership will be missed.

Technorati : Food City, Nascar

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Crap Shoot at Las Vegas

Las Vegas Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Type: Length: 1.5 miles Shape: D-shaped oval

This Sunday's NASCAR race at Las Vegas looks to be a real crap shoot. The drivers are not happy about the changes to the track and the conditions that this redesign and resurfacing will produce. I will let you in on a secret though- Kilo and I are pretty pleased with our drivers!!! Elliot Sadler (19) starts the race in 3rd and Jeff Burton (31) starts in 5th. 6 of the starting 7 cars are Dodges, with Burton the first Chevy. Only Dave Blaney (22) will be driving a Toyota this race- oh, hold the phones- Darrell Jarrett (44 )is starting last place on a champions provisional- those are gonna be running out soon and then he will really have to drive.

Tony Stewart (20) who is starting 25th is very critical of the new Goodyear tires. I am willing to bet that he will not stay in the middle of the field but will find a way to get to the front and then maybe he will be a less whiny. I am still thinking he will win the championship, bad tires, slick tracks and wreaks will be tossed aside to take that final run.

Burton had a great quote on how this race will play out: "It's really slick. The track has a tremendous amount of grip, but you can't take advantage of it, because the tires have to be built the way they are so they'll live. That's the problem with new racetracks. You build a new racetrack with this much banking, and you can't build a tire that can fit it. So you've got to come with a tire that can live, which means it's a challenge to get the thing to drive well," Jeff Burton said.

"You just don't have overall grip. So the first thing you do is try to get it so it won't spin out. Well, then the front won't turn. If the front won't turn, and you've got too much wheel too it, you'll still spin out. Then you try to take that out of it, and it's too loose. It's just hard to hit a balance, and for drivers it's a huge challenge."

I am expecting lots of wrecks especially coming out of turn 4, frustrations with Pit Road which is now visited more frequently with these smaller fuel cells, upset drivers who are whining about this and that, and someone will be smiling at the end while standing in the winners circle and talking about how they love this track and those harder tires. I just have two things to say- Hey Kilo, look who is in third place-hehehe, and boogity boogity boogity- lets go racing boys!

Technorati : Nascar