A Little bit of a Format Change here

Obviously.  I was just getting a little tired of the old look.  I don't know if it will stay this way, and I'll probably be tweaking it over the coming weeks.

Once again, NASCAR is feeling the curse, or maybe blessing of rain, this time at the Auto Club Speedway in California.  It's a little past half way, and there's been some racing tonight, but not a great deal.  I suppose that's about par for the course at Fontana.

Now 3 of the Hendrick cars appear to have engine problems at the same time, so or at least 2 of them.  Fox TV is reporting that the 88 of Earnhardt Jr. and the 5 of Martin appears to be down a cylinder.  It appears that the 48 of Johnson is jumping out of gear.  I wonder what's going through Jeff Gordon's mind right now?

My biggest complaint with the California races is purely selfish.  I live on the east coast, so the race didn't even start here until sometime around 7:00 pm, local time.  I wouldn't mind it so much on a Saturday night, but it's Sunday, and I've got things to do tomorrow, all of which involve paying the bills.  Life was so much simpler when it was Rockingham in February, instead of Fontana.  But like I said, it's probably selfish on my part.  I hope the west coast fans enjoy the race!  I really do.

I'm still wishing that the race was at Rockingham though.

Conversations Overheard at the Waffle House

For those of you who don't have a Waffle House nearby, I feel sorry for you.  I happen to have one nearby and ate dinner there tonight.

While I was eating dinner, an older gentleman came in and sat next to me at the counter.  It was rather crowded, so that's not unusual.  The gentleman was talking on his Blackberry cell phone the entire time he was there.  Apparently he was traveling through the area, and was talking to his teen aged son, who apparently lives with his estranged wife.  This man was apparently trying to push on down the road tonight, driving all night, to go see his son in Louisiana.  I live in South Carolina, for those of you who don't know, so this man had a long drive ahead of him.  I heard him mention that he had not seen his son in almost 2 months.  Part of that time, his estranged wife was on the phone with him.  She apparently said that because he was out traveling all the time, it's his own fault that he hasn't seen his son in so long.  Obviously, I don't know all the details involved here, but what I listened to was a sad story.  By the time I left, the gentleman was in tears, his face wet, and his voice hot with emotion.  This gentleman apparently had taken a job that puts him on the road about 95 per cent of the time, far away from his home and loved ones.

I'm alone most of the time these days.  I lost a very dear friend and companion back in July of last year.  I don't mind being alone, but since I am alone most of the time, it's amazing what you overhear at places like the Waffle House.  

Tonight, on the other side of me, I listened to a conversation between a young couple, apparently engaged to be married.  The young man had just been laid off from his job, and now the wedding plans were on hold.  The lady was very distressed, as many young ladies are likely to be when the wedding of their dreams gets put on hold.

I left the Waffle House tonight full of food, but quite frankly sad.  I had a couple of tears in my eyes when I walked out the door.  I consider myself one of the lucky ones.  I'm going to begin a new job next week that quite frankly is well below my skill set, but I'm still anxious to have.  We all have bills to pay, we all have obligations to fulfill, and this job will help me to do what I need to do to survive right now.  I'll still be here, of course, and on my new site, JCNN as well.  

Be thankful for what you have, if you have anything.  Don't ever take it for granted.  As some say, the good Lord gives you things, and the good Lord can surely take them away in a big hurry.  If you have family, friends, people who are willing to look out for you, take a little time and thank God for them.

I'm lucky enough to have those things.  I hope you do too.  If you have them, or whatever you have, take time to be thankful for them.

Please, from one friend to another, never, ever, take anything in your life for granted.  Thank whomever you pray to for what's good in your life.

Thank you. All of you!

I don't say it nearly enough, but thank you for reading.  I'd like to thank you in Ithaca, New York, Jacksonville, Florida, Virginia Beach, Virginia, The Dominican Republic, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, New York, NY, Zurich, Switzerland, Las Vegas, Nevada, Mexico, Tampa, Florida, Greensboro, North Carolina, Tampa, Florida, Frankfort, Kentucky, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Chicago, Illinois, Cazenovia, New York, Detroit, Michigan, Wilmington, North Carolina, Scottsdale, Arizona, Meridian, Mississippi, Dallas Texas, Knoxville, Tennessee, Santa Clara, California, Warminster, Pennsylvania, Coolidge, Arizona, Minneapolis, Minnesota.  

That's just page one of my stats out of about 24.  Thank each and every one of you.  It's a new season, and I'm probably going to write way more than I should, but I'm going to do it anyway, since I have such nice readers like you.

Once again, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Can You Believe What You're Reading?

Not to mention any names, but there are some very suspect sites linked on Jayski.com today.  I've been linked a couple of times there, but mostly I just do my own thing and you read it.  That's the way it works.  I don't make money from this site.  If I could, I would, but like you, I'm a fan who just happens to enjoy writing about the sport I love.

I have read a few news stories in the past and led you astray.  I freely admit it.  Remember when Bobby Labonte was a sure thing to be driving the 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevy?  I wrote about that.  I was wrong.  I found out just how wrong I was about the same time you did.  I noticed something that day though.  A lot of the sites that reported that as a done deal suddenly withdrew the stories.  I didn't.  I made a mistake, and I still display it to the world.  If nothing else, folks, I'm honest.  When I make a mistake, I own up to it.  In other words, if I write it, I believe it's true.  I'm not always right, obviously, but I believe in what I write about.

It's a very young season, and there is much in the way of silliness to happen in 2009, but I will report what I believe is true, and what I don't know to be true, I'll simply report as a rumor.  I feel like I owe you, as a reader more than I gave you in 2008.  I promise I'll never lie to you, and if I report something wrong, I want you to give me a huge amount of crap about it.  

There is a site currently being featured on Jayski that is basically full of bull squeeze.  I've read it, and was stupid enough to believe it last year, and even though they've been totally wrong about basically everything in the past, Jay, for some reason, links to the site.  My site doesn't really qualify, since I'm a blog, not really a news site.  Once in a while though, I write a column that even Jayski can't ignore.  I used to be featured on Bleacher Report, but I got tired of all the editorializing there.  I came home to here, my own blog, and here it is, warts and all.

I'm not a NASCAR insider, and never pretend to be.  I'm like you, a fan, and express certain opinions here.  I probably know a few things that I can never say here, but you probably do too, if you've been a fan for a while.

I watch 99 per cent of the races on TV, just like most of you do, and I have to put up with Digger, and DW, and all the rest of it.  Actually, I thought the Digger deal was cute for about 10 seconds, then I got tired of it.  I get tired of DW after about 10 minutes, and that's only because I respect him for the driver he used to be.

I'm also officially tired of fan boards of any kind.  I still read a couple of them, on race days, but every driver's got his die hard fans, and he could shoot the President and the fans would still back him up on it.  It gets old after a while.  You think Junior Nation is bad?  Try the Casey Mears board or even Ryan Newman's.  Fans are fans, and God bless them all.  I'm doing my own site now, and I'm officially a fan of Smoke this year.  Yeah, go 14.  I wish him well and Ryan, his new teammate.

I've got a Fender Statocaster I'm trying to refinish.  Anyone got some suggestions?

Thanks, Dale Earnhardt.

The above photo is from Jayski.com

Thank you Dale Earnhardt for making this sport what it is today.  You, and people like Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison , Cale Yarborough and many others helped put NASCAR on the map.

Dale's gone, he died on this date in 2001.  I hope you will help celebrate the life of not only a great race car driver, but a great man.  To me, Dale Earnhardt was the best race driver God ever put on this earth.  I certainly don't know your personal feelings about that, but even if you didn't like him, you had to respect him.  Dale came from basically nothing and got almost everything there was to get.  Dale won 7 championships, and 76 races.  He finally won the Daytona 500 in 1998.  

Dale died near turn 4 at Daytona International Speedway on Februrary 18, 2001.  He died very near where his buddy, Neil Bonnet died in 1994.  When I say Dale Earnhardt was a hero, I'm not kidding.  Neil was a hero of mine too.

Light a candle, and if you're near Mooresville, NC, go to the DEI headquarters on Highway 3.  Or go to the shop of Richard Childress Racing in Welcome, NC, and light a candle there.

This day in 2001, we lost a great man.  Let's remember him.

A Little Shameless Self Promotion

Hi, folks.  I have a new site, called JCNN, which stands for Jimmy C's NASCAR Network.  It's a social network, which means that I post news articles and stories about NASCAR, or what ever else I feel is important to talk about, and you can comment on them.  There are message boards for you to use, and live chat as well.

You can set up your own page anyway you want, and post pictures, video, music, or whatever.  You can even write your own blog there as well.  It's a site that I've recently discovered, and I'm still learning my way around it, and cordially invite you to do so as well.  There will be little in the way of moderation, as long as members keep it within Ning's guidelines as far as profanity or pornography.  I'm not really going to moderate it that much, if at all, as long as all goes well.  We have a racing discussion forum, and can add separate forums for your favorite drivers, or even your favorite type of racing.  All you have to do is ask, and your wish is my command as far as that goes.  You don't even have to talk about racing at all, because there is a general discussion board as well.  On the live chat, I don't care.  Talk about whatever you wish.  Just keep it more or less PG rated, and I will never have a problem with it.

It's totally free, which is the great thing about it.  You can sign up in less than a minute and be on your way, uploading your own pics, video, music, whatever you like.  It's sort of a cross between Facebook, MySpace, and about 10 other popular sites.  Come on in, fix up your page anyway you like, and have fun.

It's easy, it's simple to join, and you can interact with other race fans, or even people who aren't race fans.  There is no preferred driver, because I'm not doing the site on any one driver or team.  All fans of NASCAR or any other racing series are welcome here.

It's all about fun.  We could all use a little more of that, I think.  Come on in!  Join JCNN now!

Put your Mind back in the Game!

OK, I've defended Dale Earnhardt Jr. here.  I like him.  I hope he wins, but he's not going to win unless he puts his mind back in the game.  Regardless of the wreck that everyone is still talking about, Dale Jr. made at least two mistakes that put him first of all at the back of the field, and later a lap down.  Supposedly Dale Jr. had a cold or a sinus problem, but those kind of mistakes that he made in the Daytona 500 will ruin a championship run.

You absolutely cannot miss your pit stall.  You just can't.  It's easy to do with 43 pit stalls on pit road, but having a pink sign and not having the foresight to change it to an easily distinguishable sign before the race is no excuse.  I'm not saying that's Jr.'s fault.  Tony Eury Jr. or someone on the crew should have seen that coming, if indeed all the pit signs were so alike.  All I'm saying is that missing your pit is an automatic tail end of the lead lap.  Experienced drivers should never, ever let that happen.

In NASCAR, every single point counts.  Finishing 27th in the Daytona 500 is not a good way to begin a season.  I don't know where Dale Jr.'s mind was on Sunday, but it wasn't really in the race car.  He's got the best equipment, the best owner, and some of the best sponsors in the sport, but he's going to have to pick it up if he's going to keep Rick, Amp, and the National Guard happy.  Sure they got a lot of TV time, but not in the way they wanted it.

It's attention to details that can make or break a winner in NASCAR.  One inch on the line of the pit stall, and having an official pointing and being ignored is a huge mistake.  The crew could have taken a little time and put Dale Jr. in the pit stall and not lost a lap.  They would have lost time, but not a lap.  Had they done that.

Here's hoping that Dale Jr. gets his head out of where ever it was and into the game.