Change of plans

I was going to write a blog about NASCAR and debris cautions and Tony Stewart's comments on his Sirius Satellite radio show Tuesday night but that has been beaten to death. Instead, after watching Nextel Cup qualifying today, I would like to offer this comment.

&^&^^%%*&^*%^^%&%&%*&^*^())((&&*%%$^$!!!

What the heck happened to the 21 car? Time wise they should have made the race, especially when you have a car that started on the front row driven by a past winner at the track, but no.... some teams wanted to do race runs in practice and since they are in the Top 35 in owner points a lot of faster cars went home. This just doesn't affect the 21 but also the 55, 83, 22, 84, 09 and 34. All of those cars were one of the 43 fastest in qualifying but they have all loaded up for the long drive back to Charlotte.

I will admit to being a fan of Ken Schrader, a peak at the links on this page should tell you that. But he was fast enough to make this race as were all the drivers listed above. I know that if all the cars were going to qualify the 7 teams that received gifts this week would probably qualify anyway but we don't know that for sure until they get on the track. In the case of the 55 car, it was 0.009 seconds between him making the race and going home. Written as a fraction, that would be 9/1000. Try doing anything in that period of time. In fact, the difference between Paul Menard, who made the race and Schrader, who is going home was a quarter of a second.

I understand why NASCAR changed the provisional rules when they did and why they did it. But times have changed when you have 50 full-time sponsored cars showing up every week and these rules need to be changed too. Maybe make it Top 25 in points, or let the "go or go home" cars all qualify at once. It's been reported Michael Waltrip has to return $300,000 dollars to NAPA everytime he doesn't make a race. So far he is up to $2.4 million dollars. Is the deal the same for the UPS and Domino's/Burger King cars?

Anyway, I'll probably still watch the race but not really pull for anyone to win. I just hope no one is hurt and whoever ends up in Victory Lane is someone who hasn't been there for a while.

Slight retraction about Red Bull

It appears that AJ Allmendinger wasn't totally responsible for the pit road woes Ken Schrader and the Wood Brothers team experienced at Bristol this past weekend. That said, I am still ticked at Brian Vickers for pushing the 21 car out of the way and nearly causing him to crash. If the burns he suffered were caused by a broken exhaust from that push then I have no sympathy for him. And I still think Red Bull tastes like cough syrup!

Not a fan of Red Bull

I tried their product once, tasted like cough syrup. Blech! And also not very happy with the drivers they employ in NASCAR. Vickers just about spun my boy Schrader out on the track. Fortunately, Ken was able to save the car after losing about 12 positions on the track. Then the 80-some laps off the pace AJ Allmendinger (or Wallmendinger as Mike Joy called him) kept getting in the way on pit stops and ended up costing the Wood Brothers at least 3 laps on the track including a 1 lap penalty for pitting outside his box. Now it is being reported that Vickers suffered burns after an exhaust part failed. If that failure was caused by his hitting the 21 car then I have no sympathy for him.

Welcome to my humble abode.

I have no idea who may or may not read this blog. Who knows, it may only be little old me but I guess it won't be the first time. Maybe some friends from various message boards may stumble across this and I promise that I will try to not embarrass you too much.

I guess this is where I tell you all about myself and what I hope to talk about on here. Well, I was born in the same small town I currently live in. My parents and grandparents are all deceased, I have a younger brother and sister and 2 teenage nieces and a young nephew along with a golden retriever named Angel. I was born the same year as the Ford Mustang and the original Terminal 1 at Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

I am tall, 190.5 cm to be precise, or 6'3" for those of you who live in the only country who refuses to use metric, right Kate? Maybe I'll upload a photo of myself someday, but I don't want to be blamed for breaking the internet. Mostly dark hair with a little red mixed in and even a little *gasp* gray! I remember my Grade 1 teacher telling my mom that she could tell my mood that my hair was more red when I was happy. Who knew I was a walking mood ring?

If you are wondering about the title of this blog, it is because I spend a lot of time on the highway, specifically the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway in Ontario or "the 4-0h-1" as it is popularly known. Especially the stretch between Highway 409 in the west end of Toronto to Kingston. My employment comes from driving an airport shuttle van taking people to and from the airport. I get to meet a lot of nice, generous folks, some nice folks and some others. I also get to see a lot of strange sights on the highway and if I get a camera phone I may share some of those photos with you.

I am a big, and big in a couple different ways, fan of hockey and stock car racing. Even though I cannot skate an inch, I love the game of hockey, especially the Toronto Maple Leafs who may one day stop wandering in the wilderness and bring Lord Stanley's Cup home to Toronto. And in NASCAR, my favourite driver is Ken Schrader. Did you know he was the first driver ever to win a race in all 3 national touring series when he won the third race ever run in the Craftsman Truck Series in 1995. An don't worry with NHL playoffs starting and teams still looking for playoff spots and all the fun in NASCAR I'll be sure to have a few things to say.

And finally, assuming I haven't bored you to tears yet, I am hoping to use this to document my battle of the bulge. I have always been heavy but it has gotten extreme in the last few months. The doctor has put me on high blood pressure medication that goes away when I lose weight. One of my co-workers who I would consider to be much healthier than me had a mini-stroke last month and needless to say, it scared the hell out of me. So to make a long, internationally copywritten story short I bought a scale on March 5/07 and was disgusted by the number I saw there. I then bought an exercise bike and resolved to lose a lot of blubber. So far, I am down 6.4 kgs from that original number and leaves me 0.5 kg shy of my first goal of 5. The ultimate being a somewhat svelte 100 kg (220 lbs for those in State College).