Welcome, gay NASCAR fans! Congratulations to Sunday's winner, the DeVine 9 1/2's own Jeff Gordon! Jeff dominated Sunday during a race so wild that more than half the cars were caught up in a single wreck! After some slumpy weeks, our guys showed out big-time at the big T: We had four guys in the top 10. We now also have four guys in the top 10 in points; and in the race for the Chase, eight of our boys would be eligible. It was an especially great week for Jamie McMurray, who moved up five big ones to land at 10th. Go Jamie!
Qualifying was of fun on Friday, but the Busch on Saturday was delayed by rain for hours. It was way wrecky when it finally got rolling, and its a late-race crash involving Casey Mears -- who flipped on the track and slid on his roof as cars swerved to avoid him -- turned out to be the weekend's most frightening. Glad he hopped right out.
Happily, the weather Sunday was never in doubt, and the 160,000 present were treated to a gorgeous, cloudless Alabama sky. The invocation was by Senior Pastor Rick Ousley of a nearby church. The rev managed to throw in something like, "Lord, we know the Big One is coming, help us be ready." He also said something about the need to "sober up" -- two words seldom mentioned in prayer at racetracks until it's time to drive home!
The National Anthem came from Deidre Downs, the Alabama gal who's Miss America 2005. Honey, I wouldn't recognize Miss America if I found her in my shoe closet. It's so sad -- after watching Miss America religiously for decades, I gave up on it when it over to that horrible new format with limited talent and all those cheesy reality-show touches. Gross!
The starter was Adam Sandler. I was a fan many years ago when Adam did his hilarious "Studboy" bit on MTV's "Remote Control," but in the years since I get a real snarky vibe from this dude, and I did again Sunday. He appeared with Kasey because Kasey's car had an ad for the remake of "The Longest Yard," which Adam is hawking. He came across as really smug, like he could hardly care less about Kasey or the NASCAR race. I wonder if he even stayed for the whole race. On my favorite radio station, 1160AM in Atlanta, I recently heard former TBS/CNN star Bill Tush doing his Hollywood reporter bit -- he said Adam has a bad rep for nasty 'tude on the set.
Kevin Harvick sat on the pole, but he didn't sit there long as Jeff Gordon led the first lap. The first caution came out at lap 21: Kyle Petty cut a tire and bumped the wall. Jeff led at the restart. At lap 37, in what looked like it would be a real mess, Jeff Green cut a tire and went spinning on the track and then in the infield. Luckily, the other guys were able to drive around him.
In this week's version of Soul Aslyum's hit "Runaway Tire," Mikey paid the price for his boys letting one get loose on pit road. Jeff was leading and racing Jimmie Johnson; Tony Stewart, who picked up position by taking two tires, was third. At lap 48, Tony Stewart pushed Jr. past Jeff briefly, though Jeff got it back at the stripe. Before you knew it, Jr. had dropped back to 35th. Green flag pitstops took place; Harvick gave up the lead to come in, and Jeff took it over. But when Jeff came in, he hit the brakes too hard and lost a tire, so he had to get four, not two. This is bad? I would always want four at this monster track!
At lap 79, it was Ryan's turn to shine up front. Harvick, Jr., the lead passed around during this part. The next caution flew at lap 102 after Bobby Hamilton Jr. cut a tire. More guys led, including Elliott Sadler, who's birthday was Saturday! At lap 116, Kyle Petty's broke-down car brought out the caution. Mark Martin got to lead, but Jeff took it back at lap 126.
Then, at lap 132, there it was: The Big One, Dude. Twenty-five cars piled up in Turns 1 and 2 in a wreck that seemed like it would never quit wrecking. Guys from our team who got some of it were Ryan, Dave, Casey, Kasey, Mark, Brian and Carl. For Jamie, the whole thing was something in the mirror, thank goodness. In the replays, it looked like the #48 of Jimmie Johnson managed to move his tail back into Mike Wallace's nose, and that was all it took. Cleaning all this debris up took 45 minutes under the red flag. My girlfriend Janet called during the interruption and said she also thought it was JJ's fault on purpose.
Jimmie's shenanigans won him the lead when we restarted at lap 138. A debris caution came out at lap 165, and again at lap 171. After this restart, Jamie make some real big-dog moves for the lead, but was not successful. Even so, I'm glad we did our part by "Helping Jamie" with icy shots of Sauza Hornitos Tequila, yum yum! At lap 182, Mikey delighted his fans by snatching the lead from Jeff.
Another sizable crash happened at lap 186 involving six cars, including Jr. After the restart, Jeff held off Tony Stewart to take the green-white-checkers finish. Jeff's controversial victory over Jr. under yellow here last year brought out a hail of trash and a festival bad manners -- thankfully, there was none of that this year. Jeff's win delighted the fans, even here, deep in Earnhardt Country.
JAMIE ON TOP!
In the thoroughly heterosexual man-to-man sword-fight that is the FOX Sexiest Driver competition, Jamie was all over Kurt Busch last week. This week, the smackdowns are between Mikey and Jimmie Johnson (tied up even as I write this) and Elliott vs. Ryan (Elliott has the edge right now. This match-up with be a tough call for Gaytonans -- personally, I had to go with the fluffy curls and droopy-dog drawl of my Candyman, Mr. Sadler.) Use the link at the left to vote right now!
By the way, Google "Fox Sexiest Driver" and you'll see that Gaytona.com
is the third-highest link on the page! Tee hee.
That's it for this week, friends. I want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! I plan to travel to South Crazyland to visit with Mother DeVine and take in the Darlington broadcast on Saturday night. That should be festive! Let's all meet up down at the Track Bar!
Love,
Betty Jack DeVine
E ME at Bettyjack@gaytona.com
