I ordered the Prelude To The Dream on PPV and watched most of it. When I say most of it I watched all but the first hour and 20 minutes or so because it started at 4 my time and I didn’t get off work until five. I also DVR’d it but I didn’t have time to watch the part I missed. I was just glad they were able to fit it in because I had been watching the weather via the internet and it wasn’t looking good…but yey it happened. And it was great that Tony won at his own track AND guarenteed the Victory Junction Gang Camp $1,000,000 to go to VJGC 2: Kansas City. So it was a win win situation there. Robby Gordon blew me away coming in second considering he had never driven that type of car before or on a dirt oval before. He was an apt pupil though- he even said he watched Tony during his heat race so he would know how to work traffic and the track. Also congratulations are in order to Dave Blaney who set a new record for speed during his qualifying run at Eldora for the Prelude.
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There are some tracks NASCAR fans love and some they don’t. I, for instance, LOVE watching Bristol and Darlington. My friend…she hates watching Bristol and Texas. Me? I am not a big fan of Pocono. I have no reason…I think maybe its the shape or the fact that the race just seems so long…but I am not a Pocono girl. That isn’t to say that I didn’t watch it because I most certainly did. I watched every lap…(luckily there was a short red flag due to a thunder shower so I could have a potty break just like Jimmie Johnson. Yes seriously it was mentioned that he grabbed a bite and used the facilities).
Unfortunately it was a difficult race for team Home Depot. Driver Tony Stewart was feeling under the weather so you know that has to suck being stuck in a hot race car when you don’t feel so great (during the red flag Tony’s crew chief offered him up some aspirin and water…both of which Tony agreed would be a good thing at the time). Based on the radio communications I heard on the team audio on hot pass (again hotpass please don’t edit the communication PLEASE), Tony’s car seemed to be loose in some areas of the track and tight in others…leaving the crew to make changes to track bar and tire pressure during the pit. However due to some excellent pit strategy the team worked themselves up to be in the top five for a good part of the race- even at some point leading some laps. Then after a pit stop, Tony finds that there is something wrong with the one set of tires he got and has to come back in to get more tires…and gets nailed at 35 laps to go with a pit road speeding penalty under green (during the pass through on pit road a frustrated Stewart could be heard saying “Ask NASCAR if I was too fast that time?” Because of the speeding penalty- team Home Depot ended up way in the back- finishing 35th for the day and being knocked down to 12th in the standings. Yes 12th. That means Tony is now officially the bubble boy when it comes to the race for the Chase. Ahhh. Ok I feel better now.
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Also- congratulations are in order for Team Home Depot crew chief Greg Zipadelli and his wife Nan who welcomed their third child, a son, into their family on Wednesday. Different sources have the boy named either Tucker (hot pass) or Giani Gregory (various print media sources). Whatever his name I am sure he is a little cutie.
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I have decided that I would love to go to the race in Infineon in a couple weeks but unfortunately I can’t afford both tickets AND gas- which really sucks.
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Funny but true thing my BFF emailed me when we were talking back and forth about something NASCAR (I don’t remember exactly the context…maybe something about having someone take our picture together at the track or something): “Nascar peeps are like family: loud and obnoxious but mostly have your back.” Oh how true it is…and I love em for it!

Posted: June 9, 2008 at 3:54 pm
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Amy, this is a great overview, and you echo my feelings on a lot of things here. I like Pocono myself, but I just don’t think it translates to television well. It should be shorter.
I’m sorry I don’t always get around to your blog when writing overviews at the Digest, but I’m kind of limited as to internet access right now. Thank you for posting there. Keep up the good work.
By RevJim on 06.09.08 6:34 pm | Permalink
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