While the front tire changer was recovering from the lug nut problem, his counterpart at the rear of the car had already moved to the left side and had removed the lug nuts just as the car came off of the jack. Believing that the two tire pit was completed the driver took off and came perilously close to running over his front tire changer. With the car now back on the track the left rear tire minus its lug nuts came off, rolled down the backstretch and actually outran the pace car.
Meanwhile the driver’s team owner and dad, Rusty Wallace, had to sit in the ESPN broadcast booth while maintaining his television decorum. But you can bet he was seething inside.
Yet another double WAZZUP goes out to Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin who managed to contact each other on the track for the third time in the past nine weeks. While making a pass Hamlin managed to strike the side of Keselowski’s door who, in turn, reciprocated with a hit on Hamlin’s rear bumper. Apparently Keselowski didn’t feel like he had extracted enough revenge and decided to ram Hamlin’s bumper again. This time he caused Hamlin to spin in front of oncoming traffic. It was a miracle that there wasn’t a multi car crash. In fact, a HOORAH goes out to Matt Kenseth for doing an amazing job of defensive driving while avoiding Hamlin’s spinning car.
In the aftermath there were several opinions, heard several times in the past, regarding Keselowski’s aggressive driving style. That included Hamlin who, during a live television interview, said “I’m just glad that I’m signed up for next week’s Nationwide Series race. There’s a lot of guys who feel like they owe him one and might try to cash in their chips. I’m going to make sure I’m first in line at the pay window.”
That leads to a HOORAH to NASCAR who summoned Keselowski to their oval office Sunday morning prior to the Sprint Cup race. The topic of that meeting covered the difference between aggressive and destructive driving and was reportedly hosted by the NASCAR Czar himself: Chairman Brian France.
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HOORAH to Kevin Harvick Inc for the fantastic Friday night they enjoyed in Phoenix. First off Kevin Harvick won the Lucas Oil 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in his self owned truck.
Making the night even sweeter was the fourth place finish by KHI driver Ron Hornaday Jr. The finish was enough for the veteran driver to officially clinch his fourth truck series title.
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The final WAZZUP goes to ESPN racing broadcaster Dr. Jerry Punch. We all know that Jimmie Johnson has been given the nick name “Superman” by the media. It’s actually very accurate and well deserved. But during Sunday’s broadcast of the Sprint Cup race, while Johnson was in the process of spanking his competition, Punch kept using the “Superman” reference over and over to the point it actually got annoying.
The final HOORAH of the week goes to your truly because I managed to stay awake during the broadcast of Sunday’s race. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t pretty but I hung in there and made it to the end of the race.
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