52 replies to this topic

[Massa]

Brian Vickers goes to first on the scoreboard, Nail Yakupov goes first in the NHL draft to the Edmonton Oilers.

[Massa]

Casey Mears two-wheels it, but goes to the top anyway.  His time would have been around P18 in practice, however.

Mears won the Rolex 24 with Chip Ganassi Racing; Jamie McMurray has been driving with CGR in the Rolex 24 the last few years and scored a podium in 2011, he goes third on the timesheet now.

The New York Islanders have traded for Lubomir Visnovsky while the top spot trades drivers with names pronounced "K.C.," now it's Kahne on top.

[Massa]

Stephen Leicht made it out on track.  I was there, in person, for his very first Cup race at Pocono years ago.  I'm not sure people are going to care much in the future, no disrespect to Stephen.

Leicht's engine sounded awful, but he put it in the race.  Brian Simo or Scott Speed will fail to qualfiy, depending on Speed's time...

[Massa]

Bobby Labonte's up to second behind Kasey Kahne and ahead of Casey Mears, which means it is now time for Juan Pablo Montoya.  He's aggressive, even in qualifying...braking a little too hard it seems, but still, he goes to the top of the board.  Twenty-one cars left to go, though, so a lot left...

And NASCAR qualifies in reverse order of practice speed, so the fastest guys are still to come.

I'll be back with more after a break.

[Massa]

Okay, back.  Jimmie Johnson just took the top spot.  Still a few more to go.

That puts Kurt Busch out on track...third.  Top six are under 1:16.

Brian Simo failed to qualify, by the way; Scott Speed turned a pretty nice lap.

[Massa]

Marcos Ambrose just went P1 by a large margin.  You aren't surprised and neither am I.

The final car to go?  Jeff Gordon, the all-time road course win leader (five here, four at Watkins Glen).

He's had an awful season...and he'll start second on Sunday with Marcos Ambrose on pole.

Two poles in two weeks for Marcos Ambrose.  One over 200 mph, one under 100 mph, and they're the only two of his Sprint Cup career so far.

Ambrose, J. Gordon, Johnson, Biffle, and Truex are the top five.  Bowyer sixth as Kyle and Kurt Busch take the next two spots, followed by Kenseth and Newman.  Montoya twelfth, Earnhardt nineteenth, and Brian Simo failing to qualify.

[Massa]

Nationwide race is this afternoon.

Print out and play along at home with my ESPN Jacques Villeneuve Pronunciation Bingo Board:

[Massa]

Nelson Piquet, Jr. has won his first NASCAR Nationwide Series pole!  From NASCAR.com, an image of his really awesome colors:



The race is today around 3:30 PM GMT -5.  WATCH IT.

Your lineup: Piquet, McDowell, Fellows, Villeneuve, and Papis, none of whom have raced in Nationwide yet this year.

Brian Scott, Justin Allgaier, Sam Hornish, Danica Patrick, and Ricky Stenhouse are the rest of the top ten.

Should be a good one...watch for Villeneuve to wreck the three guys ahead.

[Massa]

'm jere at the TV with my laptopb the jeyobor is different than pn my Ma so I can't type well but I Will ngive you update.s.

[Massa]

Massa, on 23 June 2012 - 07:40 PM, said:

'm jere at the TV with my laptopb the jeyobor is different than pn my Ma so I can't type well but I Will ngive you update.s.

Hi Massa good to have you here for the race too hopefully I learn to type.

[Massa]

Okay my laptop screen gives me a headache I'm out.  YOU BETTER WATCH.

[Massa]

I'M BACK WHY AREN'T YOU GUYS WATCHING?!?!?!?  WATCH IT DANICA IS IN THIRD.

[Massa]

Piquet wins...

But more importantly, Jacques Villeneuve.

Roger Penske, why do you put this joke in your car year after year?  What's he done for you?  Torn all your cars up, that's what!  Montréal he spears Ambrose, last year at Road America he hits everyone and causes five or six wrecks, today he kept running drivers, his own teammate, off the road, and then punts Danica at the end there...

Every year this guy just drives into everything he can, and what a smug jerk in his interview.  "I don't care" and blaming Papis.  Look, Jacques, you must have chopped your nuts off with your hair because that's sackless.  Admit you ran into her if you're so honest.  "I don't care" well then be really honest and say "I ran into her and took her out of the race because I'm a chicken**** driver who uses up his brakes in the first three laps of every NASCAR race I've ever done such that I have to just bounce off of things to turn."

I wish Danica had pounded him...but instead she gave the best interview of her entire career.

GO DANICA.

[Massa]

So tomorrow around 3:00 PM GMT -5 the Cup race goes live.  Hopefully they run it a little cleaner out there; I figure they will, since they don't have Villeneuve out there to be a real Villeneuve.  If the guy had any of the talent he had in the 1990s, he wouldn't need to just push people out of the way.  I would love for Penske to fire him before his home race at Montréal; I hope Roger remembers that Alex Tagliani brought the Penske car home second last year while Villeneuve destroyed it plowing into things...I hope Roger also remembers that Tag is a complete class act...

I guess having a least favorite is fun, though, especially because Villeneuve is never going to win any race longer than ten laps.

Anyway, good for Piquet to win today.  It got a little bit lost in all the Danica/Villeneuve stuff.  He's done a decent job salvaging a new career post-Renault.  He's not exactly my favorite guy in the world but he drove a nice clean race today  Certainly represented the talent level of F1 a lot better than Villeneuve did, and better than Montoya's been doing in the big show.

[Massa]

Cup race is going on now.  Passively listening to the radio broadcast.  It's a long race.  Too long for me to talk to myself too much during.

[Massa]

But I guess A.J. Allmendinger intends to wreck Kurt Busch or something.  Allmendinger's a prick, but hey, Penske likes to take ex-Champ Car guys who are major jerks and put them in cars numbered 22 to just wreck everything in sight, and somehow keeps them employed despite them wrecking out of every race.

Oh well.

[Massa]

Boy these radio announcers are daft.  "We need a yellow to bunch them all up and get everyone back on the same strategy."

Why.  Why why why.  Different strategies are fun.  F1 is fun!  F1 is strategy!  I hope it goes green forever and ever.

[Massa]

Martin Truex, Jr. seems to have the strongest run going...I'd like to actually watch but I can't.

[Massa]

Kurt Busch is flying.

[Massa]

Still green.  This will be good stuff.  I wish I could see it.

Though those who can see it aren't seeing anything but commercials.

Still, I think we have 35 laps to go or so.

[Massa]

Fun fact: 1 in 195,000,000,000 people will win the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year.

[Massa]

Kurt Busch drove a hell of a race but used her up a bit too much and Clint Bowyer dominates to a surprise (but not enjoyable for me given my biases ) victory.

[Argento Reloaded]

Guerrieri who used to beat Petrov and Ricciardo is now enjoying nº1 at Indy Lights!