Talladega 200

Not much of a race for me. Got taken out going for the lead by someone up high, just before the mid point of the race. Tried to fix the damage but it wasn't enough. Decided to have dinner instead of dealing with the monotony of running at a slow pace here so I pulled into the garage and came back out right before the checkers flew.

Not sure what happened in that wreck, not sure if I really want to know but hey, that's restrictor plate racing for you. Sitting on cloud 9 one minute, in the garage the next.

Wow! definitively my car was not a top 3, and had damage too, but tons of good luck with that caution lap 50.
It was amazing running with many of you in draft.

GREAT RUN DAN, GREAT RUN!
Inches . . . that's how much I lost by!
I had fun racing tonight--it's always good when you feel competitive. But it was a bit dicey from the drop of the green flag. Guys were beat'n and banging from the get-go! I qualified 4th, then quickly dropped down to 6th--didn't like it there and dropped to the tail-end of the field. Why? Like I said, things were just too rough in the early going. I remember thinking there's gonna be a wreck soon . . . half a lap later there was one. Then after the yellow had dropped and guys were checking up for the pace-car there was more wrecking between turns 1 and 2. I wove my way through that, tip-toed down the back-stretch only to get nailed from behind on the entrance of turn 3! I thought, sonofabit--!
Anyway, the damage was minimal--lucky for me--and my car was strong on the re-starts. From the back of the field I could power around a host of cars in 3rd gear. Damn near every re-start was like that . . . once I got into 3rd gear I could smoke whomever was in the bottom groove until I got to the lead pack. And that's where the fun started.
For about 30, maybe 40 laps I kept trying to establish a second groove. But noone would run with me. Noone! Everybody stayed locked onto the leader like he was gonna up a leave us! I didn't know who the leader was--I was about 4-5 cars back--but I felt I could pass him on the outside if I had help. No takers. I kept easing off the gas, I'd make a charge, try to pull the sling-shot to the outside . . . and would hit a wall of air and would bog down. I don't know how many times I would make a charge like that. The result would always be the same, noone would follow me.
After a few cautions I decided to try to inside groove, forcing my way to the front. I was able to do this a couple of times, until I managed to displace Dan White from the lead. But his car was strong. I couldn't hold him off unless I had help, and Tom Malanga supplied it. As long as Tom stayed behind me I was fine! Thanks Tom!
So now Dan was facing the same lack of help on that outside groove like I'd been experiencing for more than 50 laps! But Tom got into a mild fender bender and Dan passed me! I think that's how it went. But we were side-by-side for a while. I was hogging that bottom groove and in the corners I tried to push Dan higher and higher up the groove--without being too much of an ass about it. I was trying to get every bit of 'side-draft' off his car and whatever push I could get from Antonio Torquemada's car behind me.
Anyway it literaly came down to the wire. What did I get beat by, less than a hundredth of a second?
What a race!

X

Well, Conor you SHOULD watch the replay. If you did, you would notice that I am the moron that took you and myself out of a race we both had a good chance on. It's amazing what a difference watching the replay makes. During the race itself I was mad because I thought you drifted high and ran into me: I don't know what I ate for dinner but there must have been mushrooms in it! I completely chopped down on you and I apologize for that. I know it doesn't help much right now but I am very sorry.
First, it was great, absolutely great to have that old wicked witch from Chicago back: Joe, I've missed you, it was great sharing the same banked tarmac with you :)
Love Dega, which makes my early exit all the more painful-- although, independently of whose fault (mine, mine, three times mine) it is kinda par for the course here: there is always an element of Russian roulette to it. At the start of the race I hooked up with Joe D, Dan W, and Tom M and we were just cruising. Then after a couple of pitstops I hooked up with my teammate Bob and we were doing well together. Unfortunately in my overzealousness not to lose his draft the mishap happenned. I hit walls inside and out, a couple of cars and she just died right there. On to Iowa, not really one of my best tracks but that's life.

No big deal Francesco. Like I said, it's plate racing. Can't see too well on the sides and keeping those cars stable on the high banks ain't easy. One little mistake can be very costly. I'm just kicking myself right now for flying across the track trying to save it. I should have just kept it below and spun around. Not only would that have brought out a caution, but would have saved our cars in the process with minimal damage. Oh well, it is what it is. Just hasn't been a good week for me.

Whatever.