jasonprice82

The Real World: NASCAR style

By Jay Hart

Oh, Jeff. Oh, Junior. Tsk, tsk.

So it turns out Jeff Gordon really was ticked at Dale Earnhardt Jr. for not helping him during last weekend's race at Talladega. And Junior, not wanting to upset the applecart, has apologized, and now all is good.

"Yeah, we're good," Junior said Friday. "We sat down and I said, 'Look man, I got nothing but respect for you. I'm the first guy here ready to cooperate. I'm the last guy wanting to make any problems or cause any issues.' "

This is good and all, but it's not much fun. It's kind of like an episode of "The Real World" - yeah, I still watch it for the train wrecks - where the angry guy makes a bad blonde joke and the blonde gets pissed and wants to beat him up, but instead explains to the angry guy how the words made her feel, and then they hug and say they love each other (even though they met yesterday) and the angry guy goes into the confessional to explain how his mom was never around when he was young so he didn't know any better and that now he'll be a better person in the future.

So what exactly did Junior do?

Well, he tried to win the race.

Can you imagine?

With only a handful of laps to go in last Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, where winning always - always - is determined by having a good drafting partner, Junior sat right behind Jeff. The two were going along pretty good when David Ragan got in their way, slowing them up.

Instead of sitting behind Ragan, waiting, Junior changed lanes.

Ohhh, but Jeff didn't. And when he saw Junior pass right by him on his left side, Gordon was livid, screaming over his radio that now he knows what Junior is all about.

Now, here's the thing: I get having a teammate and get how working together is the better recipe for success. Earlier in the race, Earnhardt Jr. did everything he could to allow Gordon to lead a lap for that all important five-point bonus. So Junior's not a bad teammate.

But at some point in the race, protocol gets thrown out the window, especially if you think your teammate is wrong.

Junior was going for the win. That's it. Yeah, it would have been great to have helped Gordon, too, but not to his own detriment.

You don't choose A when you know the answer is C just because your best buddy picked C and you don't want to make him feel bad.

Gordon chose the wrong answer. Ragan was 10 mph slower than everyone else. Earnhardt Jr. recognized it, made a split-second decision and changed lanes. He didn't know Gordon wouldn't do the same.

"From where I was at, I felt like I was making the wiser choice between the two of us," Junior explained. "After I moved in I couldn't lift and let Jeff try to get the spot. We were running too fast and guys were coming."

Gordon offered this explanation: "I wanted to be third, fourth, in the top five. I didn't really want to be up front. I was trying to position myself for the end, and he was trying to position himself. I mean, that is the bottom line. Where we disagreed is that he wanted to be in a different position than I wanted to be in. And that happens sometimes. It does. That is his thing. I am more clear about that going forward and I think he is as well. "

We are, too. Thanks for the confessional.

First of all I'm not really a Dale Jr. or Kyle Busch fan but the media that covers Nascar is pissing me off. I'm tired of all the Nascar writers defending Kyle Busch. It seems like the writers never see the same race as the fans see it. Perhaps they only watch the highlights or bits and pieces of a race then write about it. I wish the people who write and report the news for Nascar would get their stories straight. Instead it seems like they're getting paid by Nascar to force a driver onto the fans.
Lets go back to the Kyle Busch incident. Anybody that watches that highlight will see that Kyle Busch clearly TURNED into Dale Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocD
Now lets go further back to Friday night before the Dale Jr. incident...
http://www.livevideo.com/video/BumpsNotes/4B92074C94C841478D3D49394382610D/kyle-busch-steven-wallace-inci.aspx
Kyle Busch was quoted as saying "I don't care I'll wreck as many cars as I need to".
Kyle Busch reminds me of that person in high school that nobody ever liked because he was so arrogant about himself and ran his mouth all the time. Then someone would finally confront that person about it and he would run away then tell the teacher so and so is being mean to me. Kyle Busch is the perfect example of a girly man. He needs to be careful before he ends up getting hurt or hurting someone. What if the day came where short temper girly man's emotion got the best of him and caused an accident where a driver gets killed.
Another thing.. it's kinda fishy when Denny Hamlin stops on the race track to bring out a caution to get Kyle Busch in position to pass Dale Jr. I hate this team work and team mate thing in Nascar. It should be every driver out for himself.

There's 11 conferences. Take the Conference Champions and put them into a playoff of 16 teams. You have 5 at large teams. Decide the 5 teams for the at large through the BCS ranking with the top 5 teams that aren't in the BCS. Name each game in the playoff as a bowl game until you have the final game. Let the final game be swapped up between Sugar, Fiesta, Orange, etc. Also have different bowl games for teams that didn't make the playoff.

Falcon's owner Author Blank should be known as the worse decision making owner in NFL history. He continues to run the Falcon's organization down. Wait a minute I'm talking about the worse team in NFL history so how much worse can you get when no other team is worse than them.
There were plenty of warning signs about Michael Vick. In 2005 he knew he had genital herpes. He was getting treatment under the alias Ron Mexico. At the same time he was knowingly spreading herpes. Then he denied any wrong doing when first confronted about the dog fighting issue. Author Blank stood by his side through all that. It wouldn't surprise me if Author Blank stands by his side when he gets out of jail. He seems to have a fetish for Michael Vick.
It was a mistake to fire Jim Mora Jr. I wish him the best when he takes over the Seahawks. The Falcons signing Michael Turner is a mistake. A quarterback takes two or three years to develop. A running back produces right away. The best running back in the draft is Darren McFadden. Darren McFadden can take pressure off the quarterback issue and be the face of the franchise.
The Falcons made another mistake by hiring Mike Smith. He's only going to last until the Falcons can get some talent and a big name coach comes up that is willing to take the cash bait that Author Blank throws at him. Again the Falcons should have went for Marty Schottenheimer.