hello there again and heres ramblings for this week........

1st we start off this weekends action on the east coast,    with picture perfect weather from CT all the way down to VA we experienced 2 short track events,   cup and truck racing in VA and the kick start to our season here in the northeast,   but 1st we will recap the cup race at martinsville, 

 i can hear myself echo when i say it was a typical short track race,  16-18 yellows,  and a 5 lap dash to win the race,   it is all too common this day and age that we see a record about of yellows at a given race,   i can remembers the days that some races went 2-3 yellows,  north wilkesboro had a few races that only had 4 yellows<1 race did go caution free in 1994>  so what is the problem????   the problem is there is way too many cars on the track,  i can see nascar trying to please all of the sponsers involved but come on,    a single file restart has the 43rd place car entered the back strightaway while the leader crosses the s/f line,   i would not mind to see nascar limit the amout of cars on short tracks......      say 34 36 cars for short tracks  richmond on the other hand can get away with 38,    mile or bigger about 40 cars and the superspeedways 43......    some people do accually have an opinon about a 50 car field at daytona and talladega but that is not going to work either because there too close,   so no more that 43 cars would be the best solution at this point........

the racing at hand at martinsville was a tad bit better than in the past,  remember the had 4-5 races to work in the new cement in the turns, and it seems to be comming around,  when the new cement was 1st raced in, if you got out of the grove, you were going for a ride,  there was at least a shot of staying high this race and not lose much ground,  i think a couple races more and we will deffently see the "2nd grove"    martinsville is a type of track that you can mangle 3-4 corners of the car and still run pretty well, which was the case for dale earnhardt jr, 1st yellow flag of the day and he gets cought up in a wreck not of his doing, but he makes his way back up to 4th by races end..... there was a few moments of cringing, like kurt busch <doberman pincher> sliding into jeff burton,  but everything was cool,  relizing that he had gone into the 3rd turn too hot,  slide up to jeff burton and inadverintly spun him out,  with burton finished, race went on without repercusions or retaliation,  the heart breaker breaker of the race goes to the "CANDY MAN" eilliot sadler with the leaders in his sights with 25 to go,  he too was a victim of a going in the 1st turn too hot and sliding up, just barley brushing the wall, but the car was never the same after that....  heres where it gets interesting

before they took the green flag,  the 48 car had a hard time going threw tech, all i had to say was "here we go again, he breaking the rules again"  talking about chad knuss

the last yellow came out with 8 to go,  red flag and all,  and the track crew must have had a task ahead of them, matt kenseth lost his breaks and nosed his front end int othe 1st turn wall, with water and other fluids comming from  the car and the track a mess, nascar promply throws out the red flag,  now i do understand that the track cant be always perfect but as the cars took thye green with 5 laps to go, jeff gordon slided way high and losing his chance for the win......   i know the reason behind them tossing the red with 7 to go and i do agree with the 5 to go restart,  i dont think it would have made a different 1 was or another if it came out with 2 to go,  bottom line is the track would have been a mess either way,  other winner at matinsville was david star for the truck series........

going a bit away from the cup gossip scene there is a "mini flashback" i remember when i told someone to bring sunblock for this weekends race at waterford speedbowl and it is our regions kick off to the season for our local boys,   the flashback is in 1998,  and the story begins a week before the race at the defunct riverside park speedway,    i remember geting up 1 morning early in the week and saying there is no way im going to camp in this weather,  it was cool and extermely damp, no good when your sleeping in your s-10 blazer<hey i tried to hang around with the big dawgs>  when friday rolled around i seen the weather chanell and it said 85 degrees saturday and sunday <what?????   you got to be kidding me >  i thought it was a error so i left it be,    sure enuff 6 hours later ichecked and it was the same thing, 85 for both days so i packed my s-10 blazer with my fold up futon and pilliows and a couple of covers and i set sailed for riverside.....  it was probally the best wekeend or 3 days period because of the warm temps here in this area<its a newwwwwww record>   but the events inbetween races in the parking lot was unforgettable,    1 friend spilling beer on a  RV curcit box and the RV owner foaming at the mouth PRICELESS,   riverside park was only open for 1 more season then it got subsituted 2 rides when 6 flags bought the amusement and the adjacted speedway and renamed it 6 flags of new england,  its been 7 years strong and i had not been there since the last race in sept 1999,   but even that race had a once in a life time experince,  1 friend gave me a pass to sit in the upper deck<i never sat up there ever> but with it being the last race, it was a special time..... and i thank her for it..... 

in closing,   i like to send my condolences to the arute family with the passing of jack arute sr, who was behind the stafford motor speedways rise into a premiere racing facility ,  RIP jack

thanks again for reading and take care

scott