Welcome, gay NASCAR fans! Congratulations to Baby E, who bounced back from his late-race Atlanta crash to win at Phoenix, his fifth victory this year. In the Chase for the Championship, Kurt held steady in the lead as Jeff climbed one to 2nd, Jr. jumped two to 3rd, Mark fell one to 5th, Tony stayed boring at 6th, while Ryan (7th), Elliott (8th), and Matt (9th) successfully defended their positions. In the race to be 11th and pick up that $1 million bonus, fabulous Jamie is staying hard -- he's 215 points in front of 12th place Dale Jarrett! Go Jamie! Kasey (13th) and Kevin (14th) held their spots, while Mikey fell one to 18th.
The race Sunday was rushed up due to impending rain. Consequently, NBC missed the prayer, the National Anthem, the flyover and the start. Rain seems like particularly bad luck in Phoenix! I was out that way some years ago and found the countryside very lovely -- almost like Florida, however, without the glory of the sea.
Ryan was on the pole. There was some good racing as Jr. chased and eventually caught Ryan. At lap 73, Jr. put Kevin a lap down. Ouch! At lap 105, the caution waved when Matt's tire came off and rolled around on the track. There was no "tar far," however. Soon there was a red-flag delay of 21 minutes as a light rain fell and the workers dried off the track.
One time during the day, Kasey said the floorboard was hurting his little foot, and so they pit crew made him up a big tape ball to cushion his heel! Poor Kasey! By the way, Kasey's granny was on his pit box Sunday for the first time! Hey, granny! At lap 116, Ryan was in under green for a flat tire. The third caution was when the #14 car tagged the wall. The fourth caution was for a big slidey wreck that involved many cars which were nonetheless saved by excellent driving. The fifth caution was for a Scott Riggs incident.
After while, Elliott lost a tire and hit the wall pretty hard. At lap 167, we were cheering for Kasey as he tried to catch the #8. At lap 222, Kurt ran out of gas. Jeff was in under green when Terry Labonte spun -- and you know why? Because BIFFLE GOT 'EM! The eighth caution involved Johnny Sauter. With 38 laps to go, Robbie Gordon, running 2nd, lost a cylinder and started to fall back. We had high hopes for a Jeff Gordon victory until Jr. passed him and held him off, even after a late caution for debris.
A REAL NBC MOMENT
We got an especially good hoot out of this: During one of the many, many commercial breaks Sunday, NBC ran a Nextel promo that showed some highlights and ended with the tag line: "Miss a lap -- Miss a lot." And you know what WE, the TV audience, missed while that was running? A restart -- that's what!
BRAWNY COMMERCIAL
I hope everyone gets the chance to see that outrageous new Brawny commercial that ran on Sunday. It looks exactly like an old "filmed" commercial from the 1960s or '70s and is styled after "The Dukes of Hazzard." "The Petty boys" -- Richard and Kyle (at the wheel) are out racing along country roads when they attract the attention of a porky lawman! They duck down a dirt lane and use Bounty towels to clean up their ride before the sheriff roars up! It's classic -- don't miss it!
A WORD ABOUT THE LATE UNPLEASANTNESS...
If you're followed this Web site at all, you know that we here at Gaytona are good Democrats who worked hard to get rid of Bush and are appalled by the election results. I want to make it clear that I think BUSH CHEATED, just like he always has. I have one suggestion for you, which was born out of my own revulsion at the prospect of having to listen to stunningly ungracious Republicans "rub it in" about the results. I am responding to ALL such conversational attempts with the following: "I will not discuss politics with anyone who voted for Bush." Period. The End. Move On. NEVER again give them the satisfaction of a political conversation with you.
AND AN ENDORSEMENT
I did not enter this game with a bucket taped over my head -- I realized full well that Republicans outnumber Democrats in NASCARLand. Even so, I was really disgusted to see the organization throw its big-ass weight so fully behind Bush. I lost all respect I ever had for Darryl Waltrip, who prissily pretended on CNN that he was going to talk only about his support for Bush, not what he didn't like about Kerry -- then turned right around and trashed the man.
According to what I have read, Jeff Gordon was the only Chase driver who did not declare his support for Bush: He said he was keeping his vote a secret. This, taken together with the fact that Jeff was the only one of last year's top 10 NOT to show up on the White House lawn when summoned to a photo op there earlier this year, leads me to make a late-season endorsement: These final weeks of the season, I'm pulling for JEFF GORDON for champ. GO #24! (However, in the spirit of fairness, I have to add: I think that NASCAR so controls these guys lives that they were probably forced to say they were for Bush. NASCAR even sells advertising space on the drivers' butts. After all, don't forget that Bush and the Congress gave NASCAR a tax break of more than $100 million -- just in time for the election.)
That's it for this week, friends. See you down in South Crazyland for the South Crazyland 500. Let's all meet up down at the Track Bar!
Love,
Betty Jack DeVine
E ME at Bettyjack@bellsouth.net
