Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie

Live Blog - NASCAR Awards Show

Watching NASCAR's year end awards banquet and show from the Waldorf in New York City is, to me, a painful experience.  But doing what I do, I feel compelled to watch it. That's kind of funny actually because I don't always feel compelled to watch the races.  Anyway, since I have to do this, I was hoping that some of you would join me in my pain. 

Steve and our producer/photographer Beth Anne have promised - under threat of me making their email addresses public on MySpace - to show up at some point and I have dropped pleading hints around the NASCAR blogosphere as well. 

So with the help of this great Cover it Live software we'll try our best to resurrect Joel, Tom Servo, Betsy and Crow of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fame and totally de-construct NASCAR's most ludicrous night.

Contest! Win a Clint Bowyer diecast

I am so bored with what is passing for NASCAR news this week that I decided give stuff away.  Yep - we're having a little contest at the Bench Racing blog and ON PIT ROW.  I just don't know what to call it.

Here's the deal.  Our resident photog - Beth Anne - took this picture at the Brickyard last summer.  The pic is of someone's shoes and the winner has to identify the wearer.  OK, the shoes were - reportedly - on the feet of someone involved in the Nextel Cup Series.  That's not much of a clue, is it?  Maybe this will help - the answer is not Dave Marcis.

For prizes we will scour the ON PIT ROW prize dungeon (my basement).  Actually, first prize is a beautiful, limited edition 1/24th scale die cast of Clint Bowyer's #07 sponsored by Direct TV's Hot Pass. To win it, just be the first to tell us who is wearing those shoes. Want to know about Direct TV's Hot Pass?

Each week during the 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, NASCAR HOTPASS™, only on DIRECTV, will put race fans behind the wheel, in the pits and around the track with their favorite NASCAR drivers and teams, by offering a variety of features allowing fans to follow five different drivers during every race. Each of the five dedicated driver channels will offer multiple camera angles, real-time statistics, in-car audio communication and a dedicated announcer team. The new HOTPASS service, combined with race day telecasts and nascar.com coverage, will give fans the most comprehensive and powerful NASCAR experience possible.

Check it out, Direct TV's Hot Pass.  And even if you are not the winner of the Bowyer die cast, we will pick the twelve, best, wrong answers and send those folks something from the ON PIT ROW booty barn.  Good luck.

Talladega Championship wildcard with a twist

The UAW Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway fulfilled it's wild-card status.  There was the expected Big One crash that took out ten cars - including three Chasers.  When the day was done, several championship contenders were effectively eliminated.  Just what most predicted would happen.

Three or perhaps four drivers remain in contention for the 2007 Nextel Cup championship.  Jeff Gordon, with his 80th Cup race win, and Jimmy Johnson are separated by 9 points at the top. Clint Bowyer is seventy some behind and Tony Stewart - at 154 back - hangs on by the most optimistic of threads.

The rest are done.  Some by virtue of the Big One and most of the others by a surprising spate of DEI/RCR engine failures.  I didn't see that engine deal coming.  Jeff Burton, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick saw Chase chances go up in smoke (Harvick's was a matter of time).  Dale Earnhardt Jr. smoked his DEI  power plant again too in perhaps a fitting last race at DEI with Tony Eury Jr. as his crew chief.

The race didn't live up to the what was anticipated.   The early laps were a single file parade - far from the three and four wide racing pictured by many - including me.  It got more racy with about fifty laps to go, but never really excited.

At the end, the Hendricks drivers who had cagily stayed back for three quarters of the contest, were the cars to beat.  Again.

Picture credit: Butch Dill/Associated Press

Kansas looks to be NASCAR's Land of Odds

NASCAR  people are quick to name several "wild card" races in The Chase for the Nextel Cup.

But, at least for one year, it looks like Kansas must be included in the list.  What a strange journey this one was.  Two red flags for rain, restart crash after restart crash and to top it all off an ever changing "last lap".

And if those weren't enough you had to wait to see who NASCAR would declare the winner after Greg Biffle either did, or did not, maintain the proper speed behind the pace car as the race was ending under caution with darkness closing in fast.

Biffle said he still had fuel in his tank.  What was he saving it for?  Jeff and Jimmy said Biff wasn't under power at the finish.  When all was said and done, Biffle was given the victory and the points for the Chase drivers took a dramatic turn.

There should be lots of opinions this week on these:

The Buzz ON PIT ROW is:

Who should have been credited with the win at Kansas?

The Fast Lap this week asks:

1)  Should the race have been restarted after the second rain delay?

2) Should Tony Stewart have been fined for his expletive on ESPN during practice?

3) Should NASCAR allow Jacques Villeneuve to attempt to race at Talladega?

4) Where is the "No-hope" line at now--150 points behind--175--or 200 behind Jimmy Johnson?

Let us know how you feel about these questions, or anything else that happened during this Goofy week in The Chase.  If we like your comments, whether we agree or not, we may use them on the air during Tuesday's ON PIT ROW.  Leave us a comment on the blog or call the show--toll free at 1-877-502-8255 between 5-7pm edt on Tuesdays.

Photo: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images/NASCAR

Strange race in the Land of Oz

Well that was pretty weird. Greg Biffle held on to win the third race in the Chase to the Nextel Cup at Kansas Speedway.  But it was a long, yellow-brick-road style trip, to get there.

Jimmy Johnson, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon want to believe that Biffle's win will be taken from him.  They claim that as the race ended under caution, the #16 ran out of gas and could not maintain adequate speed to the finish.  Bowyer and Johnson actually passed Greg before the checkered flag.  The following quote of NASCAR's Ramsey Poston by Lee Spencer should put the controversy to bed.  But it won't.

"In the opinion of the tower, the 16 maintained reasonable speed and won the race,"

Mix Biffle's arguable win with the stories of the terrible finishes of seven of the twelve Chasers - and the various causes of those bad results - and we are back to blogger's heaven for a few pre-Talladega days and nights.

The land of Kansas City Barbecue finds two driver's championship hopes cooked fully well done. Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth are 248 and 219 points behind leader Johnson.  Baste 'em with a nice hot sauce.  They're cooked.

If you like your ribs on the rare side, Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton are close at 177 and 186 back.

How they got there will be the fodder for the early week.  Then we'll all turn our eyes on 'Dega - and likely more weirdness.

Embarrassment of wealth ON PIT ROW style

The Pit Crew's trip to Indianapolis Motor Speedway netted us a ton of interview material and photos.  The problem with that, and I'm not complaining, is prioritizing the use of the stuff.

ON PIT ROW is only a two hour show.  We usually have about 20 minutes of show allocated to  NASCAR related interviews.  Trying to fill all of that live on a Tuesday can be tough.  These people are swamped with obligations, from testing and sponsor commitments to, oh yeah, that family thing.

With significant talk time from ten different drivers,  we have to pick what to use this week - and shift other content to later shows.

Tonight we have Kasey Kahne, Clint Boyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Not bad, huh?

Tune in live from 5 to 7 EDT if you can.  If you can't get us live, check the schedule at www.onpitrow.com or listen Thursday night to a re-broadcast on www.RaceTalkRadio.com from 7 to 9 EDT.

The driving forces behind Race Talk Radio, Dennis Michelson, Lori Munroe and Mike Harper particularly have been great to us.  Several past ON PIT ROW shows are archived here.  Thanks to 4ever3 for the suggestion of putting this link up.  I'll make it more prominent in the next few days.

Remember you can call the show and participate live  by calling 1-877-502-8255 during show hours.  You never know who you might get a chance to talk to.

The questions for our weekly Fast Lap segment are up every Monday here at the Bench Racing blog and over at the Fast Lap blog at the Thunder Lounge.  Jump in.  Argue with me.  Tell Steve he's an idiot.  I do.  We have some good commentary this week from Bob and Robert so far.  I'm pretty sure they  made tonight's show.

Anyway, thanks for listening, reading, posting and inviting Steve and I to be part of your NASCAR thing.  We're having a blast.

Update:  Well the live radio gods frowned on us - sort of - last night.  The Dale Jr. audio that was fine Monday night, now needs to be cleaned up in editing so we substituted some nice Aric Almirola stuff.  Then my trusty sidekick Steve forgot to adjust the volume on the Clint Boyer sound bite and you'll get to hear LOUD DISTORTED SCREECHING, instead of Clint, blowing me off.  Hopefully, the screeching from the recording covered up the cursing from the co-hosts.

Picture credit: Beth Anne Heisler - ON PIT ROW