through curves that were wet. They did something similar at Texas Motor Speedway back in 1999. Texas had the same problem with water coming up through the track and even though they tried similar things as Fontana, they had similar problems with the cars wrecking. It was a very dangerous situation. Texas Motor Speedway did eventually correct the problem and now receives praise for it from the drivers who raced there when that happened.
Here are a few quotes from some folks who would know better than me about the track conditions:
Denny Hamlin: “There are 42 other drivers who agree we shouldn’t be racing today”. “It’s seeping a lot of water at the seems”. “I hit a wet spot and I’m not gonna be the last one I’m sure”. He was right. Casey Mears would also hit one and collect a few other drivers in the process.
Tony Stewart: “They really gotta dry it down in 1&2”.
Dale Jr.: “The track’s real dirty, everyone sliding around“. “The track ain’t ready today. It’s dirty and we rushed into this”.
Kevin Harvick: “The race track wasn’t really ready to start with”.
Dario Franchitti: “The seams are like ice”.
So if the track was that dangerous, why did Mafia Mike and his merry band of buffoons send these drivers out there to wreck cars and risk life and limb on a surface that is dangerous enough when it’s dry? It’s the almighty dollar folks. Unless the team owners and drivers put their feet down, you can expect to see a repeat of this sort of thing in the future. The job is dangerous enough as it is without having the additional hazard of a wet racing surface added to the mix.
As to the race itself, well, you can call it the Fontana Follies, 48 Hours of Fontana, or whatever you want to. The whole weekend was pretty much a mess except for the Truck Series. I will say one good thing and that’s about the fans who stuck it out in the stands waiting through all the rain and restarts, not to mention the restart that didn’t come til the next day. These fans were dedicated. I wish NA$CAR was.
This year, Fontana actually has an excuse for not selling out because of the weather. Of course, why they changed the name of the track to Otto Klubb Speedway, named after the former German racing great, I’ll never know. I guess they figure folks would forget that it’s still the same old track with the same usual snooze-fest.
One comment about the Camry of Tomorrow came out of Tony Stewart which was sort of surprising. “These things are so bad you don’t want to give it up track position-wise”. Goes rather well with his teammate’s (Kyle Busch) comment last year about the Uni-Car after getting the first win in it.
During the pre-race drivel, they were asking drivers for a name for their Gophercam. I thought Goofy would be a good name as it reflects the attitude and demeanor of the Fox crew pretty well. Only problem with that is they might have some problems with Disney and the dog of the same name. I did get an e-mail suggesting they call it Brian in honor of HRH since he’s really good at ducking and dodging things.
It appears to me that in getting back to basics, King Brian is continuing with the “fine” tradition of letting the National Anthem be slaughtered. That gal sounded like she still had a mouthful of Doritos while she was trying to “make it her own”. And like Daytona, we still have the same problems of not rendering the proper respects for the flag with folks gabbing, wearing hats etc. And Faux King Brian says that they’re patriotic? Then be patriotic and get these yahoos to render the proper respect due the flag and National Anthem. The one shot they had that was decent was one of a young fan with a Kenseth hat held over his heart. Now if a kid can render the proper respects, why can’t the adults?
Before Brad Garrett gave the command to start engines, he made a comment about a 2 year old being lost in Kyle Busch’s ear. Are you saying he has big ears Brad? I know some other fans have said that about him and his brother.
Before we even had the green flag, we had to wait on Mikey as his car dropped grease or oil on the track during the parade laps. So we had a delay in getting the race started. Up in the booth, the Commentating Clowns were busy spouting out their Vortex Theory. If the hot exhaust being put out by the cars would actually keep the rain away, then the over-abundance of hot air coming out of the booth should surely have kept it away. But because there weren’t any seats in the turns, the Vortex Theory was void according to DW’s logic.
Once the green flag did drop, what was being shown by Fox wasn’t that exciting. On Lap 11, Matt Kenseth had to pit because of garbage being caught in the front end of his car thanks to the design of nose of the Uni-Car. But as usual, the Booth Buffoons who pronounced the Uni-Car a success at Daytona, were quick with the excuses on the junk in the grill opening as being a fault of the track and not the Uni-Car. Funny how they said last year that the nose design would act like a vacuum cleaner sucking up all that garbage. How soon they forget. Or maybe it’s selective amnesia? You know, managing to forget things that are inconvenient while remembering things that are totally convenient.
While they were away at commercial, Denny Hamlin smacked the wall bringing out the 1st official caution of the race. The first thing out of the Network Nitwits was he had a flat right front tire. It wasn’t until Denny was interviewed later on that we found out it was from the water coming up out of the track.
Caution #2 wasn’t far behind. Casey Mears was loose, hit the water, spun, and collected Dale Jr., got hit by Sam Hornish Jr. and was flipped on his side. Then Hornish’s engine caught fire causing the rescue crews to move their backsides a little quicker. The race was red flagged for the first time while they cleaned up the debris. This was when they interviewed both Hamlin and Dale Jr. and got their comments on the track.
Down in the Hollyweird Motel, Myers the Mental Midget wasn’t paying attention to the replay when he said “We’ll get an update on Casey Mears”. They were showing Jr.’s car with the side torn off of it. Good catch their Chris. When they interviewed Hornish, he said he got into the back end of Reid Sorensen’s car and bent the hood up so he couldn’t see Casey’s car. All this could’ve been prevented if it wasn’t for greed.
On one of the several replays they showed of the crash, you could see where the track surface was weeping. The official excuse being served up was that the cars were pumping the water out of the seams. The track dryers were wheeled out and run around.
Before the caution came out, Mr. Happy was in the pits according to the Booth Buffoons. But afterwards, according to NA$CAR, he went into the pits after the caution came out. With all the delays they had, Fox could easily have checked out the videotape to show whether or not he was in the pits in time or not. But since they either were too lazy to or were under directives not to, they didn’t bother. Mr. Happy got sent to the back of the longest line for pitting too soon.
They showed a shot of Tony’s car on pit road and you could see by looking at it that the pits were wet. A great deal of concern for safety once again for the cars, drivers, and pit crews from Mafia Mike and company.
During this mess, they were cutting grooves in the track hoping this would solve the water problems and showed Buster Aughton (sp) checking out the track. Buster makes me feel slim and trim. One of the filler pieces they showed during the 72 minute (according to Mike Joy) red flag period was of Morgan Shepherd roller skating down pit road. Way to go Morgan. He looked pretty good on those skates.
When they finally got the mess cleaned up and did their jury rigging of the track surface, several of the Toyotas were spewing water out of the overflow. DJ, Kyle Busch, and JJ Yeley all had problems with it. Kyle’s was so bad he had to pit for water. They had plenty of that around the track. The graphic they showed about the delay was 70 minutes. I tend to trust Mike Joy more than the graphics guys.
Before they went back to green, Larry Mac was yammering away about Badyear Tires, the fuel supplier, and a few other things by corporate name and it got me to thinking. Does Larry Mac get any sort of kickback from all these corporate “official suppliers of” for him and DW plugging their names endlessly throughout the broadcast?
Once they got the green flag, Jeff Gordon had the lead but started having problems with debris in his grill (remember folks, the track causes the debris to get stuck there) and his Uni-Car was starting to overheat, So on Lap 35, he let his teammate pass him so he could get behind him and use the vacuum off the rear end of the car remove the debris and it worked rather well.
When we came back from commercial, we were under caution yet again. This time for rain. When they hit the pits, Kurt Busch was overheating. One of Tony’s crewmembers got his foot caught under the splitter and got knocked down when Tony pulled out. Folks, that splitter is dangerous and somebody will be seriously injured by it before the season ends. They rolled around the track and it was thought to be dry, so they restarted at Lap 48.
8 laps later, Jeremy Mayfield’s right rear tire went flat and he lost the tread on the track, so this brought out yet another caution on Lap 57. They cut to commercial and when they came back, it was just in time to see the green flag drop for the restart. 6 laps later, Front Row Joe spun when his left rear tire went flat. When your tire goes flat at 180 mph, it’s a Badyear. Badyear Tire and Blubber Company. Left rears, right rears, right fronts, going flat. You really have to wonder about the quality of the tire. Of course, we got an excuse offered up that the track surface was like that of the old Darlington surface and the sand that was on the track. They couldn’t figure out where the sand came from. Obviously, they haven’t explored the San Berdoo area very much or they’d know about the sand and the Mojave Desert.
They restarted yet again on Lap 66 and would only go 4 laps before yet another caution came out. Robbie Gordon got a little loose and Elliott Sadler spun a bit and put his right rear into the wall. McMurray elected to stay out to get some points, but when they restarted on Lap 74, McMurray didn’t keep the lead long. Teammate Greg Biffle took the lead away from him. In the announcing booth, the Network Nitwits were going on about Ford, Roush, Fontana, and Ford domination there. Off to commercial once again and when they came back, it was yet another caution for rain. They had a shot of the 28 car running around and it sure looked strange seeing it without any sponsorship on it. A suggestion for Yates Racing, paint it up to look like Fred Lorenzen’s old Ford until you find a sponsor. Give us old fans some nostalgia.
On Lap 87, the race was once again red flagged for rain. The Booth Buffoons said to check back in 2 hours for an update, which I did. Then they said check back in an hour, which I did. Then they said check back yet again in an hour. Well, at 1:30 am I had to call it quits and get some sleep. I’d find out in the morning whether or not they finished the race.
Day 2, 48 Hours of Fontana
When I got up Monday morning, I went flipping through the channels to see if they had finished the race while I was sleeping or if they were going to finish it. Luckily, they hadn’t finished it, so I had some time to kill trying to get my internet working again. No luck. It would have to wait until after the race. When we got back to seeing the track again, you could see that it was still weeping in Turns 3 & 4 and that the jet dryers were on the track.
We got a little more information about the nose on Robbie Gordon’s car and the penalty from NA$CAR. It seems that the Chargers they are driving are actually last years Avengers. No rocket science need to figure that one out. But the nose that was sent to Robbie was marked as being a Charger nose, which is what’s being run this year. The parts numbers on it are identical to the nose on last year’s Avengers. With Robbie running Fords last season, he wouldn’t know the difference. Chrysler even admitted that it’s their fault for sending him the wrong part. So if anyone is going to be penalized, it should be Chrysler. But as we know, Robbie will lose his appeal to the Kangaroo Court in Daytona. Don Hamm and I have a better chance of being elected President than Robbie does of winning his appeal.
Once they got going again, some of the cars who were great the night before were horrible the next day. Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer both had terrible handling cars and would be adjusting on them all race. They went to commercial and the green flag pit stops had started on Lap 123. On Lap 125, Kurt Busch ran out of gas on the backside of the track and had to coast into the pits costing him a lap in lost time. Luckily his car fired back up. His teammate had come in 2 laps earlier being uncertain of his gas situation, so he had no problems.
Caution #8 came out when Jeff Burton got into the trash and slid into the wall. It didn’t leave much in the way of debris or damage the car that badly, but it did knock his front end alignment out. We got back to green on Lap 138. Once again while at commercial, they had Caution #9. Mikey got into the garbage like Burton did and slid into the wall. Jr. was right about the track being dirty.
We’d have some lead changes. When Kenseth got the lead, we heard the cooing from the Network Nitwits about him winning there yet again. Newman would scrape the wall, but that wouldn’t bring out a caution. Weird how some drivers would scrape the wall and bring out a caution and other times it wouldn’t even though neither scrapings would deposit debris. Back to one of Faux King Brian’s basics. The yellow flag race manipulation to make things more exciting and help out the Chosen Ones.
Caution #10 came out when DJ lost the tread on his right rear tire. This isn’t the way DJ wants to end his career. Mike Joy spouted out “There’s so much side by side racing”. Funny, what Fox showed was anywhere from 1-3 cars at a time. When he said that, they were showing 2 cars nose to tail. Hard to believe there’s side by side racing going on at any point other than the restarts when everyone is bunched up.
Cousin Carl got the lead away from Jeff Gordon and about two laps later, they showed some debris on the track. Strangely, no caution flag was thrown. Must not have been one of the “back to basics” cautions that were needed.
Caution #11 came out when Jeremy Mayfield scraped the wall. Jimmie Johnson got the lead coming off of pit road and you could hear the Fox Cheerleaders going into overdrive with their cheerleading. Around Lap 235, Edwards would get the lead from Johnson and the next lap, Johnson got it back. Then the next lap, Cousin Carl retook the lead. This was about the time Jamie McMurray pull off a great save when his car got seriously loose.
At several points during the 1st and 2nd days of the race, DW had to mention the fact the TRD had their headquarters nearby, like that was going to make something magical happen for the Toyota teams. Plus what is his infatuation with Kyle Busch? The kid can race, but the way DW was carrying on this weekend, if he led the points for all three series after leaving Fontana, you could’ve heard DW wet himself all the way top the East Coast without the aid of a TV or radio. Enough with the cheerleading already DW. One comment DW made was about how Kyle would be a great driver for Junior Johnson. Obviously DW seems to forget a few things about Junior and his disposition when it came to drivers making remarks like some of the ones that Kyle has made. Kyle would need some “grill” work after which he’d be right as rain and more in line with Junior’s likings.
Cousin Carl managed to pull away from the two Hendrick cars that were after him. Gordon and Johnson would fight amongst themselves for second place. Caution #12 came out when DJ hit the wall on the last lap. But since the white flag had waved, there was no chance of a GWC finish and Cousin Carl got yet another win for Roush at Fontana. You can bet that everyone was glad it was over so they could get some well deserved rest. Of course, Fox sort of missed the boat showing the cars crossing the finish line, DJ’s crash, and didn’t really bother with a finishing order until later. Not much better than ESPN. And their infatuation with the trophy rather than what was happening on the track left a little something to be desired.
You can bet that the Ministry of Propaganda in Daytona and the official mouthpieces and apologists will be spouting their Kool Aid laden words to put positive spin on the wrecks and endangering of the drivers and crews during the week. The constant cautions, rain delays, commercials, cheerleading, and poor coverage once again made anything that might have been racing there into a continuation of Fontana’s fine tradition of snooze-fest.
While the mainstream media doesn’t seem to be
telling folks much about the good things the
troops are doing, doctors from the 948th Forward
Surgical Team from Shelbyville, Indiana, are in
the process of doing several complicated
procedures to save the life on a 8 month old Iraqi
girl who was born with several very severe
medical problems, including having part of her
rectum hanging outside her body. If this isn’t a
humanitarian effort, I don’t know what is. Saving
an innocent life, helping out a family who couldn’t
afford to have the procedures done, and winning
over the hearts and minds of this family and their
neighbors. Great job guys and I hope all goes
well with the future procedures.
The mudslinging is getting hot and heavy as there are few remaining caucuses and party primaries left. You could probably fertilize all of Texas with all the manure being generated in this campaign season. Check out the candidates and the facts, not the hype. Check their voting records, see if they’ve been voting the way you believe. Don’t take their political promises as gospel. Check out how they stand on the issues that concern you. Come November, we need to elect somebody who will lead the nation and not tear it apart based on party politics.
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Motherhood, Apple Pie, & John Wayne
Mad Mikie
Curmudgeon at Large
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