First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with Nancy and her family (Sherry and Sandy's daughter/in-law) who's husband passed this morning. We wish the best for all of them in this difficult time.

As for the racing, it was a mixed bag of struggle and strife. We tried out the new version of Bristol which demonstrated how no matter what improvements are made to a thing, the AI will always act like assholes. Practice was boding well with humans running pretty much out front in times (I want to point out I had a 15.115, just ahead of the 15.24-something Sandy had even though we didn't get to save the times). Qualifying came and me, Darrel, Chad ran top 3 with Sandy at the back per his wheel not functioning properly.

Almost immediately there was a caution though we opted to wave our typical restart on account we were likely to never have a clean start.

No humans were harmed in the making of this wreck. Things got cleaned up and at this point humans were towards the front with several cars a lap or more down. One of these was Denny Hamlin who felt it necessary to aggressively beat me to the green. If I wasn't stuffed in his grill, he may have passed me illegally.

Miraculously, I was not hit again as I came back up the track and walked away with minor damage. Denny Hamlin would later wreck out. Too bad.

Next caution came several laps later as Chad's car broke loose in the corner. He too would only suffer minor bumps and bruises from this one. After another round of caution laps, we got going again. But as Bristol would have it, not for long.

This one came as it looked like Harvick tried to duck into the pits but wasn't even close to clearing Sandy who sent him right up the track. Fortunately Sandy would mostly walk away unharmed, but he could have gone without this.

Back under green and after restarting in a gaggle of lappers and lesser back markers, I was bounced high off the corner wall and spun inside. This one hurt a bit more but I was able to make some repairs before the pace car came back.

Getting close to 1/3 and Almirola would bounce off of Nemechek and Johnson before smacking the inside wall good. To his defense, it looked like Jeff Gordon had a run in up causing a stack-up.

More yellows and more wrecks. Chad this time as his car, once again, got loose. He still managed to avoid major catastrophe, but at this point, it was starting to add up.

After returning to green for a little bit, the stacked field still couldn't get away from itself to spread out. Ambrose in the foreground bounced the wall and came across Johnson and company. In the background you can see another gaggle of cars tearing into each other and the wall making this another...caution.

Here we see Sandy demonstrating extreme drifting techniques through the corner thanks to a little lean from Carl Edwards (escaping-top).

Truly unending mayhem tonight as Trevor Bayne got knocked in typical fashion coming off of 2 and not giving room for other drivers. It spilled out into even more destruction for others:

That was one of the last major accidents and we were just passed halfway. But we weren't done yet.

As a little get together between Biffle and Mears turns into a massive impact. Under this caution, things went completely south for Chad...

While he managed to recover from getting Rick Rolled, his engine had had about enough and just gave up the ghost around lap 57. Shortly after, we were able to get a decent number of consecutive green laps in. Darrel and I were up front and finally managed to pass the lappers and settle in for a bit.

There was still one more wreck left for us at Bristol and would claim the number 021. The 95 got hip checked coming out of 2 and ran way low along the back stretch. This caused him to have a horrible approach to 3 where he smacked straight into his offender. Sadly it would put them both right into a mangled pile directly before Sandy where he had no choice but to form a team merger. If you were wondering, this didn't make any of them run faster.

At this point, we ran down the last 20 or so laps to the end without much incident. Darrel and I managed to avoid killing each other or wrecking with other drivers to take 2nd and 1st respectively.

Hopefully we will see Scot next week at California where we should all stand to perform a little better than the cluster that is Bristol.

Results

Session: Practice

DRIVER

TIME

Weather: Cloudy, 46 °F, Southeast 9 mph

Session: Qualifying

P	#	DRIVER	TIME
1	013	T Nadz	15.233
2	061	D Hamilton	15.236
3	055	C Ferguson	15.249
4	4	K Harvick	15.590
5	9	M Ambrose	15.662
6	5	K Kahne	15.681
7	24	J Gordon	15.683
8	41	K Busch2	15.686
9	48	J Johnson	15.723
10	27	P Menard	15.739
11	88	D Earnhardt Jr	15.759
12	2	B Keselowski	15.795
13	15	C Bowyer	15.809
14	1	J McMurray	15.832
15	78	M Truex Jr	15.842
16	18	K Busch	15.860
17	66	J Burton	15.864
18	13	C Mears	15.881
19	55	B Vickers	15.896
20	99	C Edwards	15.900
21	14	T Stewart	15.902
22	32	T Kvapil	15.959
23	35	E McClure	15.993
24	34	D Ragan	16.015
25	31	R Newman	16.021
26	11	D Hamlin	16.035
27	38	D Gilliland	16.052
28	47	A Allmendinger	16.053
29	87	J Nemechek	16.055
30	52	B Labonte	16.062
31	95	M McDowell	16.069
32	40	L Cassill	16.136
33	20	M Kenseth	16.166
34	77	D Blaney	16.177
35	21	T Bayne	16.230
36	43	A Almirola	16.261
37	22	J Logano	16.264
38	16	G Biffle	16.287
39	10	D Patrick	16.292
40	30	D Stremme	16.326
41	98	J Wise	16.498
42	17	R Stenhouse Jr	16.536
43	021	T Bear	--

Weather: Clear, 65 °F, South 1 mph

Session: Happy Hour

P	#	DRIVER	TIME
1	013	T Nadz	15.325
2	055	C Ferguson	15.522
3	021	T Bear	15.589
4	061	D Hamilton	15.754
5	18	K Busch	15.832
6	99	C Edwards	15.862
7	24	J Gordon	15.878
8	4	K Harvick	15.898
9	15	C Bowyer	15.987
10	20	M Kenseth	16.003
11	78	M Truex Jr	16.007
12	22	J Logano	16.012
13	16	G Biffle	16.014
14	13	C Mears	16.074
15	2	B Keselowski	16.076
16	14	T Stewart	16.080
17	41	K Busch2	16.087
18	34	D Ragan	16.103
19	52	B Labonte	16.110
20	43	A Almirola	16.142
21	9	M Ambrose	16.150
22	66	J Burton	16.155
23	1	J McMurray	16.160
24	27	P Menard	16.165
25	38	D Gilliland	16.180
26	40	L Cassill	16.197
27	88	D Earnhardt Jr	16.199
28	32	T Kvapil	16.200
29	77	D Blaney	16.243
30	11	D Hamlin	16.267
31	55	B Vickers	16.283
32	5	K Kahne	16.299
33	10	D Patrick	16.353
34	87	J Nemechek	16.353
35	48	J Johnson	16.363
36	21	T Bayne	16.393
37	31	R Newman	16.468
38	30	D Stremme	16.478
39	35	E McClure	16.500
40	17	R Stenhouse Jr	16.649
41	47	A Allmendinger	16.708
42	95	M McDowell	16.723
43	98	J Wise	23.095

Weather: Clear, 63 °F, Southeast 1 mph

Session: Race

OFFICIAL STANDINGS

F	S	#	DRIVER	INTERVAL	LAPS	LED	POINTS	STATUS
1	1	013	T Nadz	67.487	100	28	180	Running
2	2	061	D Hamilton	-5.56	100	69*	180	Running
3	9	48	J Johnson	-6.63	100	1	170	Running
4	17	66	J Burton	-7.02	100	0	160	Running
5	8	41	K Busch2	-9.25	100	0	155	Running
6	20	99	C Edwards	-9.47	100	0	150	Running
7	6	5	K Kahne	-9.48	100	0	146	Running
8	15	78	M Truex Jr	-9.67	100	0	142	Running
9	42	17	R Stenhouse Jr	-15.51	100	0	138	Running
10	13	15	C Bowyer	-15.68	100	0	134	Running
11	14	1	J McMurray	-1L	99	0	130	Running
12	7	24	J Gordon	-1L	99	0	127	Running
13	16	18	K Busch	-1L	99	0	124	Running
14	26	11	D Hamlin	-1L	99	0	121	Running
15	22	32	T Kvapil	-1L	99	0	118	Running
16	18	13	C Mears	-1L	99	0	115	Running
17	36	43	A Almirola	-1L	99	0	112	Running
18	39	10	D Patrick	-1L	99	0	109	Running
19	37	22	J Logano	-2L	98	0	106	No Fuel
20	33	20	M Kenseth	-2L	98	0	103	Running
21	38	16	G Biffle	-3L	97	0	100	Running
22	34	77	D Blaney	-4L	96	0	97	Running
23	25	31	R Newman	-4L	96	0	94	Running
24	21	14	T Stewart	-5L	95	0	91	Running
25	19	55	B Vickers	-13L	87	0	88	Running
26	29	87	J Nemechek	-15L	85	0	85	Running
27	31	95	M McDowell	-21L	79	0	82	Accident
28	43	021	T Bear	-24L	76	0	79	Accident
29	11	88	D Earnhardt Jr	-36L	64	0	76	Piston
30	10	27	P Menard	-40L	60	1	78	Accident
31	4	4	K Harvick	-42L	58	1	75	Accident
32	3	055	C Ferguson	-44L	56	0	67	Accident
33	32	40	L Cassill	-46L	54	0	64	Retired
34	28	47	A Allmendinger	-46L	54	0	61	Accident
35	30	52	B Labonte	-46L	54	0	58	Accident
36	35	21	T Bayne	-46L	54	0	55	Accident
37	5	9	M Ambrose	-54L	46	0	52	Accident
38	27	38	D Gilliland	-56L	44	0	49	Retired
39	24	34	D Ragan	-56L	44	0	46	Retired
40	12	2	B Keselowski	-78L	22	0	43	Retired
41	40	30	D Stremme	-87L	13	0	40	Accident
42	23	35	E McClure	-98L	2	0	37	Retired
43	41	98	J Wise	-99L	1	0	34	Retired

Caution Flags: 12 (56 laps)

Lead Changes: 8 (5 drivers)

Weather: Clear, 62 °F, Northwest 3 mph

Pitstop Frequency: 2x

AI Strength: 92%

PENALTIES

LAP	#	INFRACTION	PENALTY
14	055	Unsafe pit exit	Go to end of longest line
17	055	Speeding in pits	Go to end of longest line
24	055	Failure to pit	Go to end of longest line
25	055	Passing the pacecar	Held for 16 seconds
38	055	Passing under yellow	Held for 1 seconds
39	055	Entering closed pits	Go to end of longest line

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Nascar Sprint Cup Championship 2014 - 4 Bristol