BABY BUSH WINS NUMBER  2

         

      WHO"S GOING TO WIN THE BIG ONE TOMORROW


              500
OF BANGING & SLIDING MILES



THE ONE WITH THE BEST CAR WILL 

Pedro Martínez:

"GERRY": Restrictor plates, speed limits, and fake cautions, I am thinking that NASCAR has turned into pro wrestling in some ways.

At least it is still fun to pick a driver in a pool for money.

Walter Montego: ah, but restrictor plates in this one leads to the big one at the end, otherwise it would be about as bad as the racing in California or Vegas, just not as exciting when only a dozen or so are on the lead lap at the end

Vikings: What do you mean by as bad as racing in California? I've seen the race there a few times. Usually good races without a bunch of wrecks. Unfortunately they call these fake cautions just when someone is going to start lapping the field. If you're running 1 second faster than a car and a lap is taking 45 seconds, it takes about 45 laps to pass them. Just about 40 laps after no wrecks go by an amazing thing happens. Then they call a "caution" since there's been no wrecks to do it for them, and bunch the field back together for a "restart". How bogus is that? Yeah, a lot of fans like it and now the NASCAR people play to it, but for someone like myself I think it is just cheating and hurts any kind of integrity or pure sports of having the best machine and driver win that day. It really just gets to the lucky guy when a certain amount of laps are complete as to who the eventual winner is. And now they add extra laps when there's a caution at the end of the race. These "innovations" to NASCAR have done nothing to make it seem like an honest sport to me. At least pro wrestling had the integrity to change their sport to be called entertainment a few years back. Same thing with restrictor plates. Isn't the object of a car race to go as fast as possible? And why is it called NASCAR? These aren't stock cars any more. I would like to see an actual stock car race like say back in the sixties or early seventies or before when you could buy the car at the dealer and race it, with allowed modifications.

Oh yeah, some people just like to watch crazy people wreck cars at high speed. That's what restrictor plates are all about. NASCAR silences the drivers when they criticize it in public. I've never heard any of the drivers say they like restrictor plates, whether or not some of them happen to race particular well under the conditions. And don't tell me they don't censor drivers. Just ask Tony Stewart. It's all about money in today's NASCAR. Smaller tracks don't have such problems. Just look at Bristol and see how much fun everyone has. 3 laps down and you're still in the race. Not a chance on a large track without the bogus "Lucky dog", and the fake cautions or a real caution just about guarantee you'll never get back on the lead lap except by being the lucky dog.

I gave up on car racing years ago, but the year before Earnhardt Sr. died I started playing in a pool at a local bar. It was fun and I started to get into NASCAR. The personalities, tracks, and history of it. The year after Senior died is when NASCAR started making changes that in my view ruined it for me and anyone that cared about it. Now it is as it is, and I hope you have your fun. I did however get into today's race, though I don't at present know who my driver is. I made a call right now, but it wasn't picked up. I was out of town yesterday dancing the night away to trance music which is certainly more fun than watching billboards, er cars go in circles and had to send in my money in with a friend. I'm not the commissioner any more, but I still help the new commissioner with making the lineup charts and other things when I'm able to. My friend told me Thursday that he'd be watching the race today, so I might head over there. As you can see, it is hard to get away from it even if I find many faults with it. There's more to sports than the playing and watching of them. I no longer will turn on the television and watch a race by myself. I need people that want to watch and have an interest in the outcome to make it interesting for me.

Walter Montego: Comparing NASCAR to the WWE is bogus in that wrestling has pre determined winners and how they do it where there are no such conditions in racing. Every sport uther than baseball has been doing things to make it more competitive and that's all that NASCAR is doing, Is there censorship, yes there is also in football, basketball and most other sports whether you know it or not.
Maybe I am just not as much as a traditionalist when it comes to racing as I am with football and baseball, I am sure that is because I didn't watch racing much when I was younger like i did the other sports. I just look at the restrictor plates as another variable. You have short, medium, long/restirctor, long/non-restrictor and road track. of these my favorites are short, long/restrictor followed by medium. I tend to turn the t.v. on the other races as do many other people and lets face it without people watching on t.v. the money wouldn't be there.
I am not saying you are wrong, just pointing out the other point of view

Walter Montego: There is nothing FAKE about any kind of racing.Nascar has made it safe so driver,s stand a better chance of staying alive.Also the new car,s they have to drive are the same.Look at all the new team.s this year.No one is ever going to take control of NASCAR. Like most other sport,s It,s the gambler,s of the world that control them & ruined them.As we all no SPORTS has very big money it.:))))

"GERRY":


    


     KENSETH WINS THE 500


        

"GERRY": Right. And just what is a competition caution?
That's right, they've codified it into the rules now.

Walter Montego: Just go to Nascar .com & read the rule then you will no:))

"GERRY":

The pool uses a random pick for the first race of the year (Daytona), after that the order of picking is determined by how well you did the previous week. I had Jeff Burton in the Daytona 500. He ran near the top ten until just before the race was called on account of the weather, so I finished 28 with him. This garnered me 16th pick for the Auto Club 500 tomorrow as I was the 17th place finisher out of the 23 people that got in the pool. Whoever picks the winner, wins the pool money, but then has to pick last the following week out of those that were in the race the previous week, with new people picking after the previous week winner. So I finally get the list handed to me. 14 people had made their picks, with 1 not participating. When I have to pick this low, I mainly am hoping to pick a driver that will get me into the top 15 or 10 so that the week following will have me with a decent pick and fair to good chance of picking a winner. But today I was looking at Jr. and Newman still unpicked when it was my turn, with Burton qualifying 40th having been choosen already! I suppose Junior misses his Budweiser? Anyway, I picked him and will be rooting for him.

Walter Montego: Dale JR has to start driving like his father.He showed Vickers if you going to dive down on me your going to get spun.That was crazy they where both a lap down.And JR had a real run on him .But Vickers has never liked JR. That was in last week race:))

"GERRY": I remember that. The announcers got all bent out of shape about Junior doing that, but I blame it on Daytona's rules and their yellow boundary line. Besides when they replayed the action of it, they kept showing it in slow motion. Anyone can second guess a driver in slow motion after the fact. When they showed it in real speed, I am amazed that it wasn't worse than it was. I will however question Junior's judgment in driving that hard when he's a lap down, but all of them started driving hard after the hundredth lap and the threat of a rain out was becoming apparent.

Walter Montego: Yes i agree with you on that.

Kyle Bush won the Nationwide 300 Set a Nascar Record & is going to try & set a all time record in todays race

Walter Montego: Junior is,t doing very good in practise ,but i would like to see him do good today to.

Round of 16
First leg Second leg
Atlético - Porto 2-2 Report» 11/03»
Lyon - Barcelona 1-1 Report» 11/03»
Arsenal - Roma 1-0 Report» 11/03»
Internazionale - Man. United 0-0 Report» 11/03»
Real Madrid - Liverpool 0-1 Report» 10/03»
Chelsea - Juventus 1-0 Report» 10/03»
Villarreal - Panathinaikos 1-1 Report» 10/03»
Sporting - Bayern 0-5 Report» 10/03»

Chelsea - Juventus 1-0 the refery don t see the Drogba was outside. :(

Walter Montego: So how are you doing in your pool so far this year?

"GERRY": Not too well. After having to pick near the end, it can take some luck to get an early pick. Or, you get a good driver and he finishes poorly and back you go. This last race I picked 22nd. I took Joey Logano figuring the rookie might get into the top ten and help me the following week. He finshed 13th, so I'll have a half way decent pick next week. A few of the drivers ahead of him were not picked such as Reutimann (4th) and Bowyer (2nd), so this will get me a higher pick too. When it was my pick, I almost took Kenseth. He started 40th, but he's a good driver and proven as compared to Logano, but I went with Logano just on the hunch and he had a faster car in qualifying. I did not watch the race, but I have a print out of the race results and it looks like Kenseth only completed 6 laps and finished dead last!

I only picked one winner last year. We usually have 15 to 25 people in the pool. If you can pick two winners for the season, you'll break even for the whole year moneywise. Twice I've picked four winners for the whole season. Winning takes the whole pool, but you pick last the following week. Everyone else picks in the order that they finish in. When there's fifteen or so people, everyone usually can pick a good driver. 20 or more people and it starts to get tough for the people picking late. If you're one of those people likes a certain driver, it can get frustrating if someone grabs him before you do, but it makes the pool kind of fun that way especially when you do better at the finish than someone that picked before you. Picking last and winning has happened, but it's been awhile since someone won two races in a row. When I was the commissioner, I had a side pot and kept track of everyone's points that their driver earned each race. At the end of the year, we gave out money to the top three people in points. That was a lot of work and it's not easy for people that don't know numbers and charts like I do, so the commissioners since I resigned have just gone with a winner take all each race.

One year I had a separate pool in addition to the regular pool. Because of the inherent unfairness of picking in the regular pool, I decided to make a parimutuel type pool. Let people pick whenever they wanted and as many drivers as they wanted and bet whatever amount they wanted. So some drivers could have more than one person picking them, but then if he won the people would split the winnings based on their share of the pool. Just like horse racing is done here in California, though I took no cut out of the pool like the tracks do. This was quite fair, but for some reason it didn't catch on and people liked the pool that we already had going, flawed and all. :)

Walter Montego: Sound's like alot of fun ' but alot of work also Hope you get good pick's for this week end:))

of what really happened on that sad day in English football ever be known

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7995038.stm

Snoopy: A very sad day indeed

UEFA Champions League
Semi Finals
Man Utd vs Arsenal
Barcelona vs Chelsea
what are your predictions

joshbfd93:
2-0 to Man Utd
1-1 Draw

MadMonkey: at last someone with some sense

http://www.itv.com/News/Articles/Disaster-documents-to-be-released-779005184.html

What a great game of football tonight:

Liverpool 4 - 4 Arsenal (Arshavin scored all 4 for Arsenal)

MadMonkey: the kop mucked it up they arent gonna win GLORY GLORY MAN UTD great game though Arsenal should have won it

joshbfd93: It was a great game, and after Liverpool & Chelsea last week

to run the best marathon in the world

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8018972.stm

what is the most valuable sports team in the world right now? (in terms of how much it would cost to buy them)

Czuch: i don't know, but I know who is the best... The Philadelphia Phillies!!!! World Series Champs!

Czuch: hmm i would say Man Utd, but could be wrong

Czuch: Manchester United..1.4 billion

http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/13/nfl-cowboys-yankees-biz-media-cx_tvr_0113values_slide_2.html?partner=msnbc

awesome: id say man utd best football team on the planet

awesome: Thanks for the link... I knew somebody would just have to look it up and ruin the fun of guessing

I could have just come on and told the answer myself, if that was how it was meant to go

Anywho... from what I heard on the radio, Man U was worth 1.8 billion USD and the Yankees 1.5 billion.... but anyways, the correct one is in fact Man U!

Czuch: so thats about £1.9 billion im not sure of the exchange rate

Czuch: I just gave the link for you to see the runners -up...sorry if I should not have...

awesome: Its okay, I am over it... I just thought it would be fun for people to make a few guesses for awhile, but in todays internet, nobody does any guesses anymore anyway

World Cup 1966 winners honoured - The players and staff of England's 1966 World Cup-winning squad who did not get medals have now received them after a ceremony at 10 Downing Street.

Man Utd accept £80m Ronaldo bid - Manchester United have accepted a world record offer of £80m from Real Madrid for winger Cristiano Ronaldo.

Royal Ascot starts today

Probably the greatest Race meeting in the World

Do not think i will be there this year. Shame its only 10 minutes from my house and what a day out it is

MadMonkey:

I'd like to go to that,but I'm not sure I could meet the dress code.....

awesome: The only place they are strict is the Royal enclosure (where the Queen & family does), very strict there, nothing above the knees, no bare midriff etc...
The grandstand & silver ring just insist you are smart, and if you go on the heath, pretty much anything goes within reason

I use to go every year, and it such a great day. Its like a giant party when racing is over for the day.

Not many sober people about lol

USA beats Spain in soccer....

What? No pissed of Spanish fans I can mess with here?

Czuch: Lol. I'm not Spanish, but i think USA had luck and some merit, of course. Spain plays very well and is more strong than USA, much more. However, football is this, so congrats for USA, but i would like to see Spain against Brazil in final.

Undertaker.: Well, I believe we would not see the US beating Spain in a game of some importance.