Sprint Unlimited/Budweiser Duels

First off, I've never been a fan of change when it comes to NASCAR and this year is no different. Sadly, change has hardly ever been good in this sport (new Chase rules anyone?). I miss the old format of the Bud Shootout and I don't particularly care for this Sprint Unlimited thing they've got going on now.

The Bud Shootout took pole winners from the previous year and pitted them against each other. Now, we've got some kind of bologna going on with there being "representation" of all the manufacturers in the sport. To me, it just sounds like a joke. Heaven forbid we upset our sponsors because their drivers don't know how to win poles. Ugh.

But anyway, Denny Hamlin won both the Sprint Unlimited and the Budweiser Duel he was in, so it's fine - I'm not entirely disappointed (though I may be a bit biased).

It gives me good vibes that Hamlin just might make a good showing at the Daytona 500 - if not win the darn thing. Neither Daytona or Talladega have been particularly good to him in the past, unfortunately. But that could all change this year (fingers crossed!).

I'm hoping that Hamlin can come back from a such a disastrous year last season and bring some real heat to this competition. I don't really want to get into the details about the reasons Hamlin missed his first Chase of his career last year but I am glad to see this rivalry between Denny and Joey Logano is over.

Honestly, it was all in good fun when it started. I confess it even made me giggle a time or two. However, when it gets taken out onto the track and people get hurt and seriously hurt at that, it loses all the fun.

I'm still a fan of Logano and the past is the past. End of story.

- Jay

New Season, New Start!

Though I don't watch races as much anymore, I am always on top of what's going on in the world of NASCAR.

I want to start writing in this blog again, but it probably won't be every weekend. I'm thinking I'll post when something interesting happens that I particularly feel the need to express my opinion on (which could be every weekend, who knows!).

I am probably going to the Sprint Cup race out here in California this year, so I will most definitely be posting about that.

I will see you when I see you but let us hope we have a very exciting year!

- Jay

Sprint Cup: AAA Texas 500 at Texas

It's been way too long since I've written anything on here and I apologize. I'm pretty sure (though not quite one hundred percent) I will keep up this blog next season. But I won't make any promises.

Anyway, moving along to this past weekend's race.

It was kind of an exciting show this past weekend. Between Gordon and Burton fighting on the track and Kyle Busch giving his opinion to an official about the speeding penalty he was handed, I'm not exactly sure which one I found more amusing.

I do have to admit I feel somewhat bad for Martin Truex and all the problems he went through on Sunday. It seemed that he could not just catch a break.

See you in 2010!

Okay, so I didn't start posting on this thing like I said I might but I just don't have the time. I haven't even got to sit down and watch an entire race in months. I usually end up recording the races and fast-forwarding through them, only stopping to see what went on during the cautions. School is just so ridiculous these days.

However, I plan on starting this thing again once the new season starts. I'll have a different set of classes by then and hopefully, not as much work to do; this has been, by far, my busiest semester. I might post about a race more or two before the season is over but I doubt it. We shall see though.

In case I don't, I'll see you in 2010! :)


- Jay

Updates

Thinking about picking this up once again and seeing where it goes. I might update about this weekend's races either on late Sunday or sometime Monday. No promises though.

Nationwide: Scotts Turf Builder 300 at Bristol

The Nationwide Series race at Bristol this past weekend was quite entertaining. Though there were less wrecks than what seems to be normal at this track, it still had an interesting result.I thought Kyle Busch pretty much had the thing won until his crew made that mistake of not catching the tire. It's kind of sad too; two of Kyle's crew behind the wall plus an official were trying to get Crew Chief, Steve Addington's attention that a tire had been missed, but alas, it just didn't get noticed in time, sending Kyle to the end of the longest line. (Video)

I've heard many people complain that Kyle acted like a baby after the race, throwing his HANS device when he stepped out of his car, but I disagree. I think he showed maturity by walking away at the end of the race and not giving an interview while he was pissed off. Yes, I know that he told his pit crew that "you all suck" over the radio, but you have to understand just how frustrated Kyle must have been and that by now, he has probably apologized to his crew.

But answer me this: If you had the fastest car on the track and you lost a race you should have won, due to a lousy mistake by your pit crew, would you not be upset by it? My guess is that you probably would be.

Joey Logano showed me a lot this weekend. Finishing 9th at a track where you only raced once before is pretty impressive. He jumped eleven spots in the point standings, placing him at thirteenth. If he keeps up this pace, he could very well be on his way to a championship (well, I can dream, can't I?).

Congrats to Kevin Harvick for getting his first win in Nationwide in his own equipment. It was well deserved and made for a fascinating race.

There's no Nationwide racing this coming weekend. Nationwide will be back full throttle on April 4th.


Official Results:

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER				LAPS
1	13	33	Kevin Harvick				300
2	2	60	Carl Edwards				300
3	7	29	Clint Bowyer				300
4	6	16	Matt Kenseth				300
5	14	12	Justin Allgaier *				300
6	4	18	Kyle Busch				300
7	30	66	Steve Wallace				300
8	19	99	Scott Speed				300
9	23	20	Joey Logano				300
10	9	38	Jason Leffler				300
11	11	198	Paul Menard				300
12	15	88	Brad Keselowski				300
13	20	11	Scott Lagasse Jr. *				300
14	34	28	Kenny Wallace				300
15	16	32	Burney Lamar				300
16	12	09	John Wes Townley *				299
17	40	07	David Green				298
18	33	87	Joe Nemechek				298
19	8	6	David Ragan				298
20	21	15	Michael Annett *				297
21	1	62	Brendan Gaughan *				297
22	29	40	Scott Wimmer				296
23	26	52	Trevor Bayne				296
24	41	61	Brandon Whitt				295
25	37	05	Casey Atwood				295
26	28	24	Eric McClure				294
27	27	136	Marc Davis *				293
28	3	27	Jason Keller				292
29	36	23	Robert Richardson Jr.				289
30	10	42	Kenny Hendrick				288
31	42	47	Michael McDowell *				283
32	32	234	Tony Raines				283
33	39	81	Kevin Hamlin				280
34	38	89	Morgan Shepherd				254
35	22	1	Mike Bliss				254
36	18	173	Kevin Lepage				96
37	17	01	Danny O'Quinn Jr.				81
38	35	196	Dennis Setzer				55
39	24	102	Andy Ponstein				22
40	31	91	Terry Cook				20
41	25	90	Johnny Chapman				10
42	5	10	Kelly Bires				5
43	43	0	Steve Grissom				2

Current Standings:

Rank	+/-		Driver	Points	Behind
1	--		Carl Edwards	690	Leader
2	+5		Kevin Harvick	576	-114
3	+2		Kyle Busch	566	-124
4	--		Brendan Gaughan*	512	-178
5	+1		David Ragan	493	-197
6	+2		Jason Leffler	488	-202
7	-5		Brian Vickers	467	-223
8	+3		Justin Allgaier*	466	-224
9	+3		Kenny Wallace	437	-253
10	+5		Scott Lagasse Jr.*	423	-267
11	-2		Jason Keller	422	-268
12	-9		Greg Biffle	416	-274
13	+11		Joey Logano	406	-284
14	+4		Joe Nemechek	399	-291
15	+7		Brad Keselowski	398	-292
16	-6		Michael McDowell*	396	-294
17	+11		Steve Wallace	390	-300
18	+9		David Green	364	-326
19	-6		Mike Bliss	363	-327
20	+1		Eric McClure	358	-332
21	-4		Tony Raines	355	-335
22	+8		Michael Annett*	348	-342
23	+13		Clint Bowyer	345	-345
24	-5		Morgan Shepherd	337	-353
25	+6		Brandon Whitt	328	-362
26	--		Kenny Hendrick	325	-365
27	-13		Dale Earnhardt Jr.	301	-389
28	+11		Matt Kenseth	299	-391
29	+5		Scott Wimmer	294	-396
30	-1		Danny O'Quinn Jr.	294	-396
31	-15		Jeff Burton	289	-401
32	-12		David Reutimann	273	-417
33	-10		Brian Keselowski	270	-420
34	-9		D.J. Kennington	267	-423
35	+3		John Wes Townley*	261	-429
36	-4		Ken Butler III*	215	-475
37	-4		Michael Waltrip	209	-481
38	+4		Robert Richardson Jr.	198	-492
39	-4		Tony Stewart	190	-500
40	+16		Scott Speed	190	-500
41	+5		Casey Atwood	189	-501
42	-5		Stanton Barrett	158	-532
43	+4		Andy Ponstein	140	-550
44	-4		Kertus Davis	137	-553
45	+3		Terry Cook	135	-555
46	--		Paul Menard	130	-560
47	+2		Johnny Chapman	123	-567
48	-7		Scott Gaylord	122	-568
49	+2		Dennis Setzer	120	-570
50	--		Burney Lamar	118	-572
51	-8		Mark Green	109	-581
52	-8		Mike Wallace	106	-584
53	-8		Denny Hamlin	105	-585
54	--		Trevor Bayne	94	-596
55	-3		Kelly Bires	94	-596
56	-6		Jeff Green	82	-608
57	--		Marc Davis*	82	-608
58	--		Kevin Hamlin	64	-626
59	-6		Donnie Neuenberger	55	-635
60	--		Kevin Lepage	55	-635
61	-7		Mike Harmon	51	-639
62	-7		J C Stout	49	-641
63	-6		Justin Ashburn	40	-650
64	-6		Derrike Cope	34	-656
65	--		Steve Grissom	34	-656
66	-7		Larry Foyt	0	-690
67	-7		John Borneman III	0	-690
68	--		Brad Teague	0	-690
69	--		Benny Gordon	0	-690

A New Beginning

Hey guys, what's up?

My name is Julianna, but I prefer to go by Jay. I'm eighteen years old and I love NASCAR.

Well, I decided to create this blog so that I would have a place to state my opinion, rant, scream and yell, etc. about whatever NASCAR-related thing that I want without wasting anyone's time doing it anywhere else, like MySpace since most of my friends dislike NASCAR and auto racing altogether.

Now, the name of this blog, DKJT Racing, are initials. The initials stand for my four favorite drivers: Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Tony Stewart. I just added the "Racing" part to make it sound cooler and more NASCAR-esque.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the blog and feel free to leave some comments or whatever. I promise to update the blog at least once a weekend once the season starts.

Here's to a rockin' 2009 season!

See you in February!

- Jay