Monday, May 19, 2014

Charlotte and Iowa Weekend and My Immediate Life Plans Now

Hey folks! Here's my take on Charlotte and Iowa NASCAR weekend!  The schedule was a little bit changed up from usual as you'll see.


Friday night was the Truck race at Charlotte. Polesitter Kyle Busch won with 130 laps led, followed by, Matt Crafton, Brad Keselowski, John Wes Townley and Timothy Peters. Rounding out the top-10 were Johnny Sauter, Austin Dillon, rookie Ben Kennedy, German Quiroga and Justin Lofton. Joe Nemechek, who finished 11th led 4 laps. The race had 134 laps, so that shows how dominant Kyle Busch was. Some people think Cup drivers like him should stick to the Cup and not run in the minor league races because they dominate the Truck and Nationwide win lists.


Saturday night was the Cup All-Star Race, which was at Charlotte as well. The race had 5 segements, the 1st 4 of which were 20 laps each and the 5th was 10 laps for a total of 90 laps. My dad says it's a weird race. They also had the Showdown. which is a preliminary to the All-Star Race Friday afternoon. Drivers that haven't gained a spot in the All-Star Race by some other means, like winning a race since the last All-Star Race, being a previous winner of the race or NASCAR champion in the past 10 years can race their way in. The highest ranked driver in the fan vote that didn't finish first or second in the Showdown also makes it. Josh Wise was the fan vote this year. One year, 2012, I think it was, the driver with the most votes won the Showdown, so the next highest one in the vote was in. Clint Bowyer won with 19 laps led followed by A. J. Allmendinger with 18 laps led, Casey Mears, Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola. Rounding out the top-10 were rookie Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., rookie and polesitter Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Danica Patrick. Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger were the  one to race in due to their Showdown finishes. They used to have a pit crew challenge, but it had no sponsor last year, so they no longer do that. Another discontinued All-Star event's the burnout competition, but don't have the details on that one. Jamie McMurray won the 5th segment and All-Star Race with 31 laps led, followed by Kevin Harvick the 4th segment winner with 4 laps led, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and pole-sitter Carl Edwards with 18 laps led.  Rounding out the top-10 were Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Brian Vickers, Denny Hamlin with 5 laps led and Brad Keselowski.  Kasey Kahne was 14th after leading 20 laps and winning Segments 2 and 3. Kyle Busch was 21st due to a crash in Segment 2 after he led 11 laps and was the Segment 1 winner.  Joey Logano was 22nd as he was caught up in that crash.


Sunday was the Nationwide race, which was at Iowa. Sam Hornish, Jr. won with 167 laps led followed by pole-sitter Ryan Blaney with 80 laps led,  Regan Smith, rookie Chase Elliot and Elliot Sadler.  Rounding out the top-10 were Brian Scott, Michael McDowell with 3 laps led, rookie Ty Dillon, Trevor Bayne and Landon Cassill. Trevor Bayne has only finished outside the top-10 twice and once was 11th.  He had tire issues the other time.  His range has been 2nd-5th and he's currently 5th. His wife had a birthday the day before the race. I imagine she's with him in his travels now that they're married. He's within a race of the leader, so if he can manage a win or a few and remains asymptomatic on the MS front, he could be a championship contender.  I know this is an optimistic view, but I feel he wants us (his fans) to think like that.  He thinks positive, so I feel as a fan I should, too because I can.


Now, for a slice of my life. I'm possibly on the way to a job with ULTRA, a computer place in New York City that allows remote work.  They hire high functioning autistic people to do things like test software. We're going camping with some friends Memorial Day weekend, at least that's the plan now.  I'm helping with our church's girl's club's camping trip next month.

4 comments:

  1. I hope that your interview went well! Sounds like a great job!

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  2. They were unable to give me a job, but I think I could be a technical writer. My mom read some fan fiction I wrote and it's technical writing style.

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    1. That's cool! Figuring out what you're good out is sometimes the hardest part.

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    2. My dad thinks I could network somewhere, like a hospital. I don't care to work in one. They stink. When I was a kid, I had to be in the hospital some and I visited someone in the hospital at times throughout my life. My mom was the latest.

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