Thursday, April 23, 2015

Bristol Weekend

Hey folks!  Here's my take on the Bristol race weekend. The Trucks were off this weekend.






Saturday was the Xfinity race. Joey Logano won, leading every lap, followed by rookie Daniel Suarez, Chris Buescher, polesitter Erik Jones and Ty Dillon. Rounding out the top-10 were Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Brian Scott, Brendan Gaughan and Elliott Sadler. JJ Yeley was the only driver to crash out, on 206.


Sunday was the Cup race, which was rain delayed three times. The start was delayed, then there was at lap 22 and another late in the race.  Polesitter Matt Kenseth won with 47 laps led, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Ryan Newman. Rounding out the top-10 were Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson with 90 laps led, Justin Allgaier, Danica Patrick and Austin Dillon. Kurt Busch led 98 laps and was 15th. Carl Edwards led 86 laps, but then fell 4 laps down, finishing 24th. Trevor Bayne, the hometown boy as he's from nearby Knoxville finished 28th after he went down a cylinder. Greg Biffle led 6 laps and finished 30th, 7 laps down after a green flag pit stop right before a caution.Kevin Harvick led 184 before finishing 38th, 43 laps down after a race incident. Brad Keselowski wrecked his teammate Joey Logano and they finished 35th, 22 laps down and 40th, 59 laps down. This race was renamed in honor of Steve Byrnes, who died of cancer Tuesday, but he was able to watch the race 2 days prior that was in his honor to the end anyway.


Come back next week for my Richmond recap.





Friday, April 17, 2015

Texas Weekend

Hey folks! Here's my take on the Texas night race weekend. The Trucks were off this time.






Friday night was the Xfinity race. Erik Jones won from the pole with 79 laps led, followed by Brad Keselowski with 56 laps led, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. with 25 laps led, Regan Smith and Austin Dillon with 1 lap led. Rounding out the top-10 were Darrell Wallace, Jr. with 3 laps led, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Brian Scott with 26 laps led. Dakota Armstrong led 7 laps and finished 16th. Brendan Gaughan led 3 laps and was relegated to 33rd by an accident on lap 167. Rookie Cale Conley crashed out on lap 165.




Saturday night was the Cup race. Jimmie Johnson won with 128 laps led, followed by Kevin Harvick with 96 laps led, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Joey Logano with 19 laps led and Brad Keselowski with 27 laps led. Rounding out the top-10 were Jamie McMurray with 9 laps led, Jeff Gordon with 3 laps led, Kasey Kahne with 6 laps led, Martin Truex, Jr and Carl Edwards. Kurt Busch led 45 laps and finished 14th. Justin Allgaier crashed on lap 257 and was done for the day, which left him 39th.  Michael Annett wrecked out on lap 246 and was 40th. Joey Logano, Martin Truex, Jr. and Kevin Harvick have been top-10 every race this year. Trevor Bayne has been finishing better, 18th on the lead lap the last 2 races. This weekend, NASCAR heads to his hometown track.


Come back next week for my Bristol recap.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Religion and Aspergers

Since we just had Easter and there's no race on Easter, I decided to go into religion and Asperger's. Aspies are often truth seekers, which figures into this topic. As a Christian Aspie, this is something quite interesting to me.




Christian Aspies is where I'll start. Since this is my kind, it's easier for me to talk about and I'll even include some of my own experiences. It has been said to be like Mr. Spock goes to church, in many cases because Aspies are sometimes very logical and often feel like aliens. There's an Aspie Christian named Brant that has been a Christian radio DJ and all credit for the Mr. Spock mentioned goes to him. I've never felt alienated from church, but some do. Church can be difficult for people on the spectrum, like Christmas Eve services can cause sensory issues to come into play or the crowd at a big church could cause anxiety, if the person happened to have social anxiety. Some Aspies have been rejected at church, but I haven't experienced that since I was a kid. Our pastor now knows I'm different, but he seems to accept me, greets me and such. He talks about my smile on occasion. One thing about my personal experience that fits with very religious Aspies (more on this later) is I've memorized a lot of Bible verses. I even recited Isaiah  53, once for Sunday School at my childhood church and then last year, when my current church had a share night.  There's general stuff on Aspies and religion, too.




 People on the spectrum have different religious views. Some believe in reincarnation. Pagan and occultist Aspies are a significant group. I know a boy with Asperger's that doesn't believe in God. Some Aspies are very religious, some are atheists and others have no thoughts on religion , but these types are said to more rare. The nature of Aspies means whatever an individual believes, they tend to be staunch beliers. The very religious often focus on prayer, good moral values, reading, memorizing and quoting religious texts. Religion can be treated in a pick and choose way, unless it becomes a special interest. If it become a special interest, the normal rules of special interests apply and the person will seek evidence of religion. Aspies can grasp spiritual concepts and have a relationship with God, even if understanding relationships is harder.  Perfectionism and legalism about religion may show in the religious Aspies. The atheists are very vocal about why religion is false, often. The atheists may have had a bad experience with religion, like being rejected at church and are now skeptical of religious belief, due to what is viewed as hypocrisy. Aspie thinking causes this.


Come back to see my Texas race weekend recap.