I got to thinking about this by perusing the many MANY items up for bid in the National Silent Auction being hosted by and benefiting the Tony Stewart Foundation.   One of the unique items on the long list of items to be bid on- is a race package for the 2012 running of the Brickyard that includes access to the Tony Stewart suite (and lots of other goodies like cold pit access). Awesome because for me anyway that would be TWO things off of the bucket list- swanky suite and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Unfortunately its a wee bit too pricy for my blood…but that is okay because there is TONS of other stuff I could (and I have- so it’s easy to do) bid on. There are tons of autographed guitars (including a bitching Paul Reed Smith Custom Corvette guitar signed by Tony),  Cds (hey I have my eye on that Blake Shelton one- I am just saying), lots of Prelude stuff including two separate helmets signed by all the Prelude drivers (2009 and 2010), A helmet signed by the Indianapolis Colts (and a football in a separate auction), A ride in a two seater Indy car at Indianopolis Motor Speedway, 4 tickets and backstage passes to a Toby Keith concert,  lots of autographed WWE stuff,  some signed Tony Stewart Foundation shirts, there are even some cool things to bid on for those in the local Indianapolis area like golf, wine tasting, or behind-the-scenes tour at the Indianaoplis Zoo.  Of course there are NASCAR items- I already mentioned the Brickyard 2012 package, but there is also signed stuff from Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr- not to mention the Jeff Gordon Celebrity Bowl before the 2012 Brickyard.  It really is an EXTENSIVE list of stuff with bids starting at $14 for some stuff.

Bidding is easy – after you register all you need to do is text in (or call in) your bids.  It’s all helps the Tony Stewart Foundation help kids and animals and animals that help kids.  Bidding is open now through July 31st so check out the auction items, sign up and bid today!

Like I said I have already bid on something and I have my eye on the Blake Shelton CD, there really is something for nearly everybody and every price range on this Auction. So take part today!

By the way…if I had unlimited funding and could bid on anything- it would be hard for me to choose. I would love the Brickyard package…but the Stewart-Haas racing tour would be damn fun too. Luckily I don’t have to make that choice.

The Mobil 1/Office Depot Car on track at Dover. (Photo Courtesy of Glen Bure, for BadGroove)

Right off the bat Tony found out his “cautiously optimistic” hopes about his car would be dashed when he found the car to be so ill-handling that at one point during the race he described it like trying to drive a skateboard. Couple that with a major fueling malfunction on a pit stop just past the 100 lap mark (as in the car didn’t get ANY fuel because the new gas can failed to connect to the car’s fuel hookup).  Stewart soon found himself flailing around at four laps down while still battling handling on a car that didn’t seem to to like the rubber on the track.  It was enough to put anyone in a bad mood!  While spending most of his time in 33rd and 34th position he was able to bring it home in 29th place- yet still a miserable six laps down from race winner Matt Kenseth (who won his second race of the season).  Tony dropped three positions in the Chase points standings down to 10th.

Tony and Crew in the pits. (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images North America)

NOTES ABOUT DOVER:

• You can be pretty sure that Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch  aren’t going anywhere near each other anytime soon considering they are both on PROBATION.  Both drivers are in the top five in the championship points and neither driver is going to risk further action by the sanctioning body that might cost them points.  So all that pre-race “feud” hype was just that- HYPE.
• I am still not clear why Kevin Harvick was fined and put on probation in the first place. Those of you who have read me a long time know I love Kyle – but it was his actions that put people at risk- not Kevin’s.
• Is it a coincidence that while I was scrawling out this entry in my notebook (yeah I do it old school) that the shuffle mix on my iPod decided to play Adam Sandler’s “Piece Of Shit Car?” Okay it probably was coincidence but I think even Tony Stewart would admit that it was pretty apropos.
• Also in the apropos category- did you happen to notice the one commercial during the national broadcast for the race? It was for the fall race at Dover (I think) and had a bunch of drivers talking about Dover and at the end Tony says “Ouch!”  Ouch indeed my man, ouch indeed!
• The Tony Stewart fan in me has a little rant she needs to get out now: Ok, seriously what we have to do to get Tony and the crew some freaking GOOD luck this season?  Do NOT make me dig out the $2.00 bill that I’ve had since I was a kid and hunt Tony down to give it to him.  Sigh.

What’s a guy gotta do to get a little luck on his side:

Tony Stewart sits in his car during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images North America)

Does that face not look like it could use some GOOD luck?

Special thanks to Glen Bure who sent me these Tony Stewart pictures from Dover specifically for BadGroove’s use- ENJOY them- I certainly do!

Tony heading to the Driver's Meeting. (Photo Courtesy of Glen Bure for BadGroove)

Tony at Driver Intros...I wonder what he's saying? (Photo Courtesy of Glen Bure for BadGroove)

Tony standing on PitRoad before the race at Dover. (Photo Courtesy of Glen Bure for BadGroove)

Tony and Darian stand on pit road. (Photo Courtesy of Glen Bure for BadGroove).

Next Race is the non-points All-Star race this Saturday night (and don’t forget The Pit Crew Challenge that I LOVE).  The next points race is the endurance race at Charlotte Motor Speedway – The Coca-Cola 600.

Congratulations to race winner Matt Kenseth.

Notes:

• NASCAR on FOX got on my bad side during the post-race- Chris Meyer’s stated they would speak with Tony Stewart and then they NEVER did. URG.
• I don’t know what is going on with Tony’s team- but I can only hope that they are getting this bad stretch out of their system early so we can totally ROCK the rest of the season.  Not only is it: #goTonyGo but it’s #goTeam14go!
• So I felt a little bad for Carl Edwards- driving while not feeling so hot during the race.  That can’t be fun.  But then he threw his mom “under the bus” by blaming her cooking for it on national TV.  That made me wince.  I am sure he didn’t think about it before he said it- but wow…I think you probably owe your mom a HUGE mother’s day present now Carl.
• What was with everyone playing bumper cars in the pits during the race? That was crazy.
• Why is there no SAFER barrier on the inside wall where Mark Martin hit?  Texas should consider installing some.

Unfortunately it’s not like we can even relax next weekend- for it’s the race I watch every year through my fingers! It’s DEGA baby.

I admit that the whole twitter deal between Brian Vickers and Jimmie Johnson made the choice of introduction songs even more intriguing to me.  Jimmie Johnson recently started tweeting (@JimmieJohnson) and to welcome him to the tweeting world Brian Vickers (@BrianLVickers) and he decided it would be fun to let each other and their twitter followers pick each others introduction songs.  That alone right there should have made introductions more TV worthy.  Apparently there was some legal reason that they couldn’t show intros (that and the time constraint on the pre-race show, I suspect).  Anyway- in case you were wondering Brian Vicker’s got introduced to Shania Twain’s Man, I Feel Like A Woman and Jimmie Johnson got introduced to Sisqo’s The Thong Song.

Some songs choices that interested me were: Paul Menard picking Black Label Society’s Concrete Jungle. I don’t know if he actually likes BLS or if he just picked it because that is exactly what Bristol is…but I liked that choice. I also loved that two drivers picked Avenge Sevenfold songs  (Matt Kenseth picked Nightmare and Regan Smith picked Welcome To The Family).  Clint Bowyer’s choice of the Theme to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly cracked me up. And how fitting was Bill Elliott’s song choice of Devil Went Down To Georgia by The Charlie Daniels Band and Bobby Labonte’s choice of God Bless Texas by Little Texas.  The only driver who’s song didn’t seem to match the driver was Kasey Kahne’s choice of A Country Boy Can Survive by Hank Williams Jr.  It’s not that I don’t like that song- I do. But I don’t hear Hank Williams Jr and immediately think Kasey Kahne- it just didn’t fit Kasey in my mind. If you are interested in the complete list of driver introduction songs check out this article over on sbnation. Honestly I could probably go down the entire list and muse on for a paragraph per driver- but I won’t bore you there.

Now onto Tony:

Gratuitous Tony Picture. Tony Stewart before the race at Bristol. (photo credit: borrowed without asking from the Official Tony Stewart facebook page)

Tony Stewart was introduced to his standard Bawitaba by Kid Rock. Which I guess he must REALLY like it since he always uses it.  I still stand by my assertion that Tony needs to pick a new introduction song.  If he needs help all he needs to do is come here (or poll his fans) because  we got some great suggestions for Tony when I called for suggestions on the first post of this series! Those would be (in no particular order):  Real Good Man by Tim McGraw (which happen to be suggested by winner Claudia), Rough N Ready by Trace Adkins (I love Trace Adkins), When You’re Hot You’re Hot by Jerry Reed, Sound of Madness by Shinedown, Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple (hey Tony does like classic rock), Dirt Road Anthem by Brantley Gilbert and Colt Ford (suggested by our other winner Dudley- which is funny because I have been on a Colt Ford kick lately), #1 by Nelly, and Gasoline by Kicking Harold (which I had never heard before but I really like this song now that I have).  All great songs to be used as introduction songs for Tony Stewart…but I still like my choice of I Don’t Want To Stop by Ozzy Osbourne best (see The Music of Bristol Part 2) even though Tony told me in our second interview with him that he isn’t a big heavy metal guy.  Now if only we convince him to pick one of our songs just to mix things up a little bit! I mean seriously Tony- I like Kid Rock too, but we have some great suggestions for you to pick from here.

Anyway congratulations go out to Claudia and Dudley who were the winners of the contest I held as part of the Music of Bristol posts.  Their Goodyear Racing prizes are on their way to them!

___

I just wanted you all to know that the winners were picked randomly and not based on how many comments each entrant made (some people made multiple comments and that was totally fine- but they still only got one entry into the contest) or what song you picked. Basically I put your name on a post-it note (pink for the girls and white for the guys) and picked one of each out of my old 20 knit cap.

Here we are interviewing Tony Stewart at the Office Depot in North Las Vegas. (Photo Credit: Edelman)

So first we had our Tony Stewart interview (our third, Tony’s fifty billionth I am sure) on Thursday at the Office Depot Appearance in North Las Vegas.  As always, Tony was extremely generous with his time and gave us some great answers to our strange mix of questions. You can read our Quick Chat with Tony Stewart here.

Brad presents fans at a campground with some Miller Lite. Photo Credit: Me

On Friday it was practice, qualifying, and riding around in a golf cart delivering Miller Lite with Brad Keselowski to unsuspecting fans in the campgrounds at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  Yeah we still aren’t sure how it happened either, but we got to ride around in a six seater golf cart with a team of PR people and Brad delivering beer with a SpeedTV film crew following us (literally- they had their own golf cart).  Misty did a great write up of her chat with Brad in the golf cart called All In In Vegas, All In In Racing.  (What was I doing while Misty was sitting and chatting with brad in the golf cart? Why I was sitting facing out the back- 80s stationwagon style of the same golf cart thinking HOLY CRAP how did we luck into this event- because it was FUN).

Jeff Gordon watches as the crew makes adjustments after he spun in practice on Friday. Photo Credit: Me

Saturday was more practice for the cup drivers and a nationwide race.

Tony Stewart shares a smile right before climbing into his car for Saturday Practice. Photo Credit: me

Sunday was the big race. The Kobolt Tools 400.  You can read about my excitement and disappointment regarding the race in the Race 3: Las Vegas post.

Tony Stewart hi fives the pit crew of teammate Ryan Newman as he heads out towards the track to race on Sunday. Photo Credit: Me

And now for just some of the nearly 8 gigs of pictures from throughout the weekend:

We happened upon a Matt Kenseth autograph appearance while going to the MGM Grand for dinner on Thursday or Friday night. Photo Credit: Me

Kevin Harvick heads out to practice on Friday. I like the Black on the Bud car. Photo Credit: Me

Jack Roush and Bob Osborne watch Carl Edwards from a top the hauler on Friday. Photo Credit: Me

Chad Knaus and Danica Patrick watch and listen to Jimmie from on top of the Lowes Hauler on Friday. Photo Credit: Me.

Crew Chief Darian Grubb makes notes after coming down off the hauler on Friday. I love this picture mostly because of all the equipment behind Darian. Photo Credit: Me

Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson during driver introductions on Sunday. Photo Credit: Me

Thunderbirds flyover. Some dork forgot to take her camera off of landscape pictures when she took this so its a bit blurry. Photo Credit: Me

And now…as a bonus for sticking with me this far? I am going to embed a video that I found while searching youtube. How I came across this I don’t remember but I think I was searching for Tony’s postrace press for Las Vegas. Any way…the first five seconds are pretty darn adorable…and if you haven’t seen the video before it’s funny:

Via the team release Stewart said this about the team’s choice to come in for fresh tires during the late race caution that had the race going green with only two laps to go:

“Hindsight being 20-20, I probably should’ve stayed out, but we took a gamble and, really, what do we have to lose?” said Stewart, who now has 12 top-12 finishes in 18 career Sprint Cup appearances at the Texas track. “We really don’t have anything to lose. We’re eighth in points, so who cares? I’d rather take a chance on doing something to go forward than worry about losing spots and going backward.” — Team Release

However, I honestly think, the #14 Office Depot team had no option but to pit- having a majority of the field in front of him having fresher (more fresh?) tires from the pit stop before, where they elected to stay out.  As it was Tony restarted 16th and worked his way up to 11th in 2 laps! So obviously the fresh rubber was working- he just ran out of time.

And while Greg Biffle seemed to rule most of the race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, it would be Denny Hamlin edging out a hard charging Matt Kenseth for the win.

***

And now for the “DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA” portion of this post. WOW. How can people say this sport isn’t exciting?? All this drama and Tony wasn’t even involved believe it or not:

First drama one:  Kyle Busch gets held for two laps additional laps (after being held one lap for a pit road speeding penalty) for giving a NASCAR official the finger.  Now personally I think that the 2 laps was a bit excessive for flipping off an official.  I mean, seriously? That totally put him out of contention for even coming close to winning the race.  You can’t tell me that it wasn’t because he was caught doing this accidentally by ESPN, who flipped over to Busch’s in-car camera right as Kyle expressed his displeasure with the call, live as it was happening.  Now I hear that NASCAR is considering even MORE penalties for Kyle’s heat-of-the-moment gesticulation! Really? Think about this, I flipped someone off this morning…and you know what granted while I do this sometimes in fun or jest  sometimes I am really pissed off and it’s the only thing I can do to express myself.  Kyle is right- it kind of is trampling on his freedom of speech or um…gesture.  Yes,  I have already debated this stand with my father who is of the feeling that it was incredibly unprofessional and immature for Kyle to do.  While I do see that point- he was already punished for it by being held two laps in race so do we really need to trample on it further? Because if we do the consequences may backfire as drivers refuse to express themselves at all.  And no one wants to see that. It is the drivers and their personalities that MAKE this sport!

Ok…now onto drama number two: The Jeff vs Jeff battle on the backstretch.  For those that missed that little gem you can check out this video recap of the incident (you will also see dramas one and three mentioned as well).  Unfortunately ESPN didn’t catch the whole on-track altercation as they were distracted by Martin Truex Jr, who was gracefully spinning through the grass causing his third caution of the day.  From what I saw, it looked like Jeff Burton intentionally spun Jeff Gordon under the yellow. Gordon’s car hit the outside wall hard, pretty much destroying the car.  It was a hard impact- you could see pieces of car and what looked like SAFER barrier flying after the impact.  Burton’s car came to rest further down the track at the inside retaining wall.  Gordon was pissed. You could tell by the video of him in his car that he was pissed.  He then walked down the banking and towards Burton’s car which was parked against the inside wall.  Next thing you know Gordon is shoving Burton and the two go fist-a-cuffs for a bit, with some NASCAR officials jumping in between the two of them.  That was some EXCITEMENT right there!  Now from what I have heard and seen of it I think that there was some sort of incident on track, possibly even before the yellow flew between Gordon and Burton and Burton took out Gordon in a fit of frustration. I hate to say this but I LIKE it when the drivers go toe-to-toe out of the car when they are pissed off.  As I have mentioned before I do not advocate using (stock cars or otherwise) cars to retaliate- but get into a good, old-fashion shoving match there against the infield wall and I am all about that! It shows that this sport is intense when you have two respected drivers getting in each other’s face after an on-track incident.  Good for Jeff Gordon for sticking up for what he believes was right, that Jeff Burton wrecked him and under caution no less.  Bravo.

And for the final drama of the race- After the above mentioned wreck, it was decided to have Jeff Gordon’s pit crew pit Jimmie Johnson’s 48 car while the 48 pit crew packed up the 24 group’s pit box. Ouch.  However, whomever made that call- made a wise one.  Jimmie’s crew seemed to be falling apart at the seams all day, after repeated poor pit stops- including one four tire stop in the 16+ second mark.  Yeah I am sure there are some majorly bruised egos on the 48 pit crew…but one bad pit stop I can see…but FOUR bad ones? Really? You are a four-time champion’s pit crew…your driver is contending for his record breaking fifth consecutive cup title. Yes I am sure you are all under immense pressure…but FOUR? Really??  Jeff’s over-the-wall crew stepped in under what I am assume was Chad’s call and they did not just step in…but they stepped UP and were able to pit Jimmie with decent times.  That is what I call GOOD teamwork.   Just this afternoon Hendrick Motorsports announced that the 24 pit crew will be going over-the-wall for Jimmie Johnson for the last two races of the season.  This is good for Jimmie who I understand is in title contention- but wow- why punish Jeff because his pit crew is ON IT!  I mean his pit crew has been in the running for the fastest pit crew for most of the year! It seems like they are punishing Jeff Gordon for having a good pit crew.  Hopefully the 48 crew can figure out where the disconnect was and get it ironed out for the next two races for Jeff.

One final note about Texas- two fans were hurt during the race when a brake pad flew through the eighth story window of the Speedway club in the first turn. From what I was able to find out, it doesn’t seem like the injuries were life-threatening, thank goodness. I wish them a speedy recovery- no one wants to see anyone get hurt at a race!

Next race: Phoenix

Anyway, I recently received a 2010 Chase Playlist compiled to go along with the chase with songs picked by some of the drivers from this years chase (this was sent to be by a PR person- I didn’t compile it myself):

1. Not Afraid- by Eminem (Denny Hamlin)
2. Nothing Else Matters- by Metallica (Jimmie Johnson)
3. Walk The Line- by Johnny Cash (Kevin Harvick)
4. CC Rider- by Elvis (Clint Bowyer)
5. Jukebox Hero- by Foreigner (Carl Edwards)
6. Everything- by Buck Cherry (Greg Biffle)
7. Another Way To Die- by Disturbed (Matt Kenseth)
8. Love The Way You Lie- by Eminem (Denny Hamlin)
9. It’s Now Or Never – by Elvis (Clint Bowyer)
10. Say It Ain’t So- by Weezer (Kevin Harvick)
11. Enter Sandman- by Metallica (Greg Biffle)
12. Miracle- by Nonpoint (Matt Kenseth)

(yes I know that not ALL chase drivers were represented…but this is the list that was given to me).  Interesting choices don’t you think?

It got me thinking of songs I could add to this list…a 2010 Chase Playlist….here is what I would add:

1. I Don’t Wanna Stop- By Ozzy Osbourne
2. Shut Up and Drive- by Rihanna
3. Right Now- by Korn

So tell me what you would add or what songs remind you of your favorite driver ( in the comments) because honestly? I am looking for some new (to me) music!