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Kevin Harvick Wins The Bud Shootout 2nd Year In A Row!

Congratulations to Kevin Harvick, his fans and RCR for his impressive performance last night winning the Budweiser Shootout. Carl Edwards dominated the first part of the race, leading all laps of the first segment. Edwards, Tony Stewart. Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and Kasey Kahne had the best cars, but Harvick snookered Biffle and Kahne into staying out on old tires with a couple feints before hitting pit road. Biffle ended up getting taken out after the green white checker by Jeff Gordon, taking Edwards and others with him. Since the white flag had already flown, that froze the field with Harvick in the lead, Followed by Kahne in second, McMurray in 3rd.

Click here for final results

Dale Junior's woes at HMS continued with an ill handling car for most of the night. Perhaps seeing how the RCR cars ran tonight will make him wonder what it would be like to drive for the man his dad drove for. ;)~ But, it's a long season, and his 500 car, different from his Shootout car, is starting on the front row, so perhaps things will work out better in the big race.

I just loved seeing a real live race! It's been a while.... gets the blood moving! Took a while to get used to multi-tasking again - posting, watching the TV, watching TrackPass and dealing with my son who came in to watch the race with me - I missed some things, but I'll be recording the replay tomorrow and fill in some of the blanks. Hope to be more dialed in for the 500! (Y)

Had fun crowd today. Some were missing, but hopefully they'll be here for the 500. See any of 'em wandering around, tell them their missed! Drop emails to your buddies! We had 1,600 comments today with several lucky members away at the race, but we can always squeeze more in! (Y)

Have a great time with race chat in our NASCAR forum!

Leftturns190

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I Preferred Dale Earnhardt Junior To "Jeff Gordon Junior"!

In 2007, to the dismay of a lot of his fans, Dale Earnhardt Junior announced that he was moving to Hendrick Motor Sports, owned by his self proclaimed "2nd daddy" and would be driving a white #88 car starting in 2008 . Rick Hendrick claimed he would make Junior his "top priority", and a dubious Earnhardt Nation sat back and hoped for the best. However, beyond even our worst fears, it's been a total disaster! Junior's throwing away the last of his prime years with an owner who hasn't (and in my opinion never will) supported him. What more do we all need to see before it becomes apparent that Rick's only concern for Junior is the sponsorship money he can bring in to support his Golden Boys, Jimmie & Jeff? And beyond that, it's just not in Junior's DNA to be an HMS corporate drone, whether he presently desires to be one or not! It's time for Junior to clue in that he needs to make a move and get back to what worked for him!

By the middle of his first season with HMS, 2008, it became clear that Junior was FAR from Rick's "top priority". After Junebug and Tony Eurey Jr. started beating Jimmie and Jeff week in and week out, Rick became alarmed that there would be no "Fourpeat" or "Drive for 5". So, in mid season Rick took the #88 team's ONLY engineer, Darion Grubb, and had him work on the #48 team who already had three! Junior's performance immediately dropped, and Jimmie's and Gordon's simultaneously went up! Imagine that!

Everyone: the media, Rick, his drivers, his crew chiefs, even the competition say what makes HMS so great is their engineering edge over their competition. Junior and TEJ named that as one of the reason's they were so excited to go there! Rick, Jimmie, Gordon, Knaus, LeTarte are constantly bragging about it! The competition is constantly lamenting it! So, after Junior started beating the Chosen Ones on the track every week, "POOF" the engineering support gets taken away from his team! Then the media ponders what's wrong with Junior all of sudden? Hello!

So, you'd think drop in performance the 2nd half of 2008 would prompt Rick to put more resources back into the #88 team, right? Wrong! Rick proudly announces that he's doing all he can do to make Tony Stewart's new team successful, and that he's giving Darion Grubb, Junior's engineer, to Stewart HAAS as Smoke's crew chief! Now I'm a big Smoke fan, and I'm happy for him that he acquired such a talent as Grubb for his CC, but come on! Rick said that Junior was going to be his top priority! How can he go around in interview after interview bragging about what a great guy he is for giving Smoke Grubb and other engineering support, and even more insulting to Junior, bragging about how when Jimmie struggled he brought in more engineering support for him, and not have the obvious dawn on him that if that was so positive to Smoke & Jimmie, it was also equally negative to Junior whom he took it away from?

No one is that clueless, especially not someone as smart as Rick Hendrick! There's now way to not realize that if giving the support to Jimmie and Smoke was a huge positive, taking it away from Junior would equally be a huge negative! Rick just demonstrated where his priorities lay, and they weren't with Junior! After a strong first half of the season, the #88 team's performance steadily dropped, and though they ended up making the Chase, they finished 12th in the points.

So, that's how things lay when the 2009 season started off. Darion Grubb gone to SHR and Junior's left with minimal engineering support for a team that's not even driving the same chassis as his teammates at the time! It's been disclosed that Tony Eurey felt like he was being run out of the shop and not given the support he needed. Insiders have since come out and supported that there was a lot of fact behind that feeling - that Tony Jr. was isolated at HMS and not allowed to bring in his own people and was resented by a lot of the HMS personnel he had to work with. This was the atmosphere of the #88 team starting the 2009 season, reduced effectively to a one car team driving different cars than their teammates with no engineering support!

But hey, Rick will get on the ball and do something about it right? I mean Junior being his "#1 priority" and all! Nope! No need! Rick's a clever man! He knows he has a built in fall guy to take all the blame for his lack of support. I mean EVERYONE knows that it's always the crew chiefs fault, right? So, as the team trudges through the first half of 2009 with poor performances, the cries got louder and louder against "that idiot crew chief Tony Eurey Jr."! All the while Rick sits back and offers the team no support other than cashing Junior's sponsorship checks! Then, when the cries turn to a roar by mid season, Rick announces his sudden concern for Junior, and fires Tony Eurey Junior, letting him take all the blame for Rick's failing to support the team! No wonder the man's such a good car salesman! One can see why Slick Willy admired him so much and gave him that nice little pardon!

Now prior to that, Rick didn't think the #88 team's crew chief needed any engineering support, but I guess that only applies when the crew chief is named Tony Eurey Junior, cause he replaced Tony with FIVE engineers! (Three with the engineer label, and two with the co-crew chief label.) Now, if it was all TEJ's fault, why all of a sudden did the #88 team need all this engineering support? With no fall guy to blame everything on, was Rick finally paying attention to his "#1 priority" and going to give it the support he should've been giving it a year and a half earlier? So we Junior fans hoped! However, it soon became apparent that five 4th stringers weren't half as good as one great crew chief! HMS has a lot of resources and depth of personnel, but being on the bottom of the totem pole on a four car team, the #88 was got whoever wasn't nabbed by the three more established teams. It's also apparent by his past behavior that Rick's not going to make the effort required to change that. Even with some slightly positive moves made this off season, they fall way short of what's needed - a top crew chief for starts! The only thing Junior actually had before Rick fired TEJ!

Junior needs to wake up and realize that HMS just isn't the place for him! I know Rick has renewed his pledge to make Junior his #1 priority, but please! Been there done that for a year and a half! Junior has to clue in that anyone who would do what Rick did to him for so long has proven he'll NEVER really support him! Junior would be naive to trust him at this point! This whole "Junior to HMS" deal smelled bad from the start. Out of the Evil Witch's cauldron and into the HMS "Death Star"! HMS was the enemy of Earnhardt Nation! They were the "Evil Empire" to us RCR/DEI guys, and we all held our noses and hoped for the best when he announced he was moving there. But it's just not working! He'll never fit in! HMS's polished, corporate atmosphere is far removed from the blue collar, family orientated culture Junior grew up with. He doesn't fit in at HMS. They're not his kind of people. He's not respected there. He's trying to go against nature: trying to make a circle fit in with a bunch of square-holes!

He's never going to win a Championship HMS! He'll just sink into mediocrity, and as has already started, some of his fans and of course his detractors will start talking about how he just can't drive anymore. Most fans don't understand that it takes a lot more than just a driver and a crew chief. If the team isn't performing, fans think first to the CC, then to the driver. Well, changing cc's didn't work because that wasn't the problem! A lack of support from the owner was and is! And guess who that owner is going to blame next for his failings?? The driver! From the look on his face and the tone of his voice in interviews over the last few months, it looks like the owner might've already convinced Junior that it IS the driver's fault!

Wake UP Junebug! You have a legion of fans who still believe you're a great driver, but you have to stop acting the fool! Look around and see what a lot of us saw a year and half ago! You're not getting the support you need! You need to pay more attention to what's going on with your team off the track! A driver just can't show up and drive the car - he has to stay on top of his team and make sure he's getting what he needs to be successful! No other top driver would tolerate being treated like this! Stop trying to be "Mr' Nice Guy" and/or an HMS drone! It's way past time to stand up and do something about your situation!

Junior with his white cars is trying to distance himself from his bad arse "driver in black" father. He's said as much in several interviews in recent years - that he wants to be the guy in the white hat in contrast to his father's black hat reputation. Well, I for one liked Junebug a lot better as Dale Earnhardt Junior! His trying to be Jeff Gordon Junior isn't working and is making me ill!!

It's time to get back to your roots and your people Junior! I know there are contract issues, but surely something could be worked out to move the #88 car to a JRM Cup team, or HMS satellite SHR. Heck, you have the money to buy yourself out of a contract! Blow things up and go with my dream: a black #33*RCR car owned by someone who actually WOULD treat you like he was your "2nd Daddy - Richard Childress! You two are the solution to each others problems - you need an owner who will do his best for you, and Richard needs the sponsorship money for his cars! RCR is your kind of culture, and your kind of people! Your old racing family from the DEI days would flock there for you!

Where ever it may be, Junior needs to make a move before it's too late. JRM or SHR is certainly doable, even at this late date. Being satellite HMS teams, contract details could be worked out and Junior could at least have control over his own situation. Times a ticking, and so is the patience of a lot of his fans!

Sorry, I know this was a long rant, I probably should've waited to post this until after I had a chance to edit it tomorrow, but I hate editing my own stories! Just be thankful I didn't get into what I feel about the whole Whanica deal! It just keeps getting worse and worse for Junior at HMS! It's time for it to end!

leftturns190

*Now don't get mad at me Clint Bowyer Fans... I'm a fan of his too. Clint back to the 07 and Mears down the road.

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League - The Chase Week Ten!

Four In a Row Champ Crowned While Hamlin Wins Homestead!

Denny won the last race of the year, but Jimmie Johnson secured his 4th in row Championship with a 5th place finish. Congratulations to the drivers and fans of both teams! Jimmie’s not a driver who draws the most enthusiasm from the fans, but he and Knaus certainly are an impressive duo! Fan or not, we’re witnessing history in the making! Some of us hope we can put that history in the the history books and move on to another driver now.

Congratulations to you Jimmie fans though - Speedy, Cars2448, Seahawk… the #48 team certainly deserved it, and I was impressed to see they came to race today and not just points race!

RCR was very impressive today. Three cars in the top ten for most of the day, with Burton finishing 2nd, Harvick 3rd, and Bowyer finishing right out of the top ten in 11th. Hopefully they can carry that momentum over to Daytona!

It was a blast sharing this season with all of you! Thanks for all the fun! I hope most of you will hang around during the off season to discuss what NASCAR will have in store for us next season! If not, hope you have a great Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year and we’ll see you for the Daytona 500!

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League - The Chase Week Nine!

Jimmie Johnson extends his points lead winning at Phoenix

Jimmy Johnson won the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, extending his lead over Mark Martin by by 35 points to 108 total. Jeff Gordon, and every other Chaser other than Martin, will be mathematically eliminated once Jimmie Johnson starts the race at Homestead. Mark Martin, however, has a chance if he can win, lead the most laps, and Jimmie Johnson finishes 26th or worse. That scenario is certainly not out of the realms of possibilities. Mark has an average finish of better than 10th over the last 5 years, while Jimmie has an average finish of almost 18th. Mark should be a strong contender for the win, and if Jimmie has any trouble at all, Mark could be the Champion!

Anyway, congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and his fans, and to his crew chief Chad Knaus of course. It might make some of us grumpy that it looks like they’re going to hog the Championship for a 4th year in a row, but we are indeed witnessing history, and perhaps a few years from now, non Jimmie fans will be glad they were able to witness the event.

Speedy was at the race watching her boy win, so hopefully we can get her to write up a race report on her experiences!

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League - The Chase Week Eight!

Ironic: Snoozefest At Texas Puts Some Excitement Into Chase!

Well, for me, the Cup race at Texas was pretty boring. However, with Jimmie Johnson wrecking after it appeared he had the Championship all but locked up, it sure added a little more suspense to the Championship race.

Congratulations to Kurt Busch and his fans for his win.

Jimmie Johnson's point lead is down to 73 over Mark Martin and 112 over Jeff Gordon. Still a good lead, but considering that Mark and Jeff gained 100 points on Jimmie and a track he was expected to excel at, it shows that anything can happen between now and the last lap at Homestead.

We're going to Phoenix this weekend. That's always been a great track, IMO. So, hopefully we'll get a good show there to make up for the less than stellar races we've had the last couple weeks.
 

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Results Week Eight:

Congratulations to Ghostdog for moving to the top of our league! WTG!!

Others in the Top Ten are Leisure40 in 5th, Didi in 8th, followed by USMC88fan in 9th. My girl, Becca5, is one point out of the Top 10 in 11th. Congratulations you guys, keep it up!

It was not a very high scoring week for anyone. None of the 3WA posters broke the 400 mark, but 3 were in the top ten in week eight scores: Peace6 at 379; Becca5 at 370; and Ghostdog at 365.

Should be fun at Phoenix next week. Jimmie, Gordo and Mark are all real good there, so should be an exciting race!

Please keep Karfil, Kountrypapa and of course our troops in your thoughts and prayers, and have a great time with race chat in our NASCAR forum!

Happy 234th birthday to the United States Marine Corps!

leftturns90

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League - The Chase Week Seven!

Jamie McMurray Wins Wreckfest at Dega!

Congratulations to Jamie McMurray and his fans for his 3rd Career Cup win in the Cup Series!

Jimmie Johnson increased his point lead by a wide margin. After playing it safe and running in the back most of the day, Johnson made a late run to the front and pulled off a 6th place finish. He was helped by two late wrecks taking out a large percentage of the field and a timely stop for fuel, enabling him to stay out while most others had to pit for fuel. With his closest Chase competitors finishing 20th or worse, Johnson has now extended his lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup to 184 points over Mark Martin, who finished 28th.

The most dramatic scene of the day was a dramatic wreck in which Ryan Newman’s car went airborne and gained extreme height before slamming back down on it’s roof. At the first view on TV, it appeared that he had slammed straight onto  the pavement, which would have most likely made his head part of the asphalt. But on replay, we were able to see that he had in fact came down on the front part of Kevin Harvick’s car, which softened the blow. Even still, the roll bars were crushed down, and his head became entangled in the roof and the safety crews had to cut him out of the debris. Between the fortunate bounce off of Harvick’s car, and that no fire erupted, Newman was very lucky to be able to walk away from the wreck.

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Hamlin Wins In His Home State!

Denny Hamlin wins the Tums Fast Relief 500 at the Martinsville Speedway. Congratulations to his team and his fans!

However, Jimmie Johnson stretched his lead to 118 points over Mark Martin with his 2nd place finish - ahead of all of his fellow Chase drivers that were within striking distance of him. Things are looking very good for him at the moment, but there’s 4 more races left, including Dega where Johnson had a DNF at his last visit! So, anything can still happen! Another bad race at Dega, and if HMS mixes things up and gives him one of Junior’s cars a time or two, he could easily lose his big lead!

Speaking of Junior, he’s still being vocal and dropping not in the slightest bit subtle hints that he is VERY displeased with his situation. Does he have plans to leave at the end of this year? Going to SHR or bring JRM to Cup could still work within the confines of his HMS contract. Some of us are really hoping that happens. What do you all think?

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League - The Chase Week Five!

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and his fans for his win at Fontana. He now has a 90 point lead over his competitors, after fellow Chasers Mark Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya has bad days….  JPM in particular.

Will Jimmie escape the race luck race or two, or is he going to run away with it this year? Will be interesting to watch!

Below is the points positions of the Top 12… hard too imagine anyone farther back than 6th having a chance at a comeback, but you never know!

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League - The Chase Week Four!

Congratulations to Jimmy Johnson and his fans for his win at Fontana. That team just knows how to turn it on when it counts in the Chase races!

Dale Junior, Greg Biffle and several others had their good runs ruined by getting wrecked late in the race, but Tony Stewart made an amazing comeback after going a lap down after having problems on pit road. Tony got his lap back on the wave around, and lucked out with a quick caution getting him back on cycle with the leaders. Tony then managed to race his way to a 5th place finish, keeping himself in the Chase for the Cup!

Fantasy League

Leisure4o is still occupying the top spot in our league. He had a weaker score this week of 300, but is still averaging a very strong 416 points per race average - still at a game winning pace. So, with 6 races to go and 2 Mulligans left, he's in good shape!

We have 3 others in the Top Ten right now - Ghostdog in 9th, and Didi55 and Red_M tied for 10th, with my boy "ronthedog" right behind them!

Ghostdog received the highest score this week out of the regular posts, with 459! Congrats Ghost! :

The next highest scores were Karfil and rookie Bubbahughes at 434; Catchevy31 at 420, cars2448 at 416, and Diddi55 and Speedy at 410! WTG guys! Those are the scores you need to put up to win the game!

I had my first race without 2 or more of my drivers getting knocked out, so I'm real happy, even though I only scored 379. That was about what I was shooting for with that team, so though I'm still holding up last place pretty much, I at least managed to get a score up on the board that matched my picks! When 7 of your previous 9 drivers get knocked out of the race early, you appreciate these small accomplishments!

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League - The Chase Week Three!

Tony Stewart Wins The Price Chopper 400 At Kansas!

Congratulations to Tony Stewart and his fans for his win at Kansas yesterday!

This win pulls Tony within 67 points of the points leader, Mark Martin, who finished 7th.

Here's the top ten and a little more:

Complete results

Standings - unofficial

A lot of you did very well with your fantasy picks - I know Didi scored 468! Way to welcome him back! I think I might have to help you guys out in the future - I've found I have a great talent at picking who's going to wreck or have mechanical problems.

I'm glad to see there's still at least 8 cars in the running still, nice to not have a runaway and keep things interesting to the end hopefully!

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League - The Chase Week Two!

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson, his team and his fans, for his win at Dover International Speedway in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 400! Jimmie is now in 2nd place in the standings, only 10 points behind the leader Mark Martin.

There was very little passing in this race, which was a disappointment to some, but at least we got to see a fancy feat of automotive aerobatics when Joey Logano flipped his car 7 times. Everyone but the Soviet judges gave it a 10 point score! Sliced bread was rattled, but unscathed. His car was toast however. He said that the ride was much wilder than any roller coaster he’d been on, so I guess he won’t be celebrating at Disney Land this week.

Congratulations again to Jimmy and his crew chief Chad Knaus…. they’re going to be hard to beat this year! Will it be 4 in a row?

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League - The Chase Week One!

Mark Martin Wins The First Race of The Chase!

Congratulations to Mark Martin and his fans for his impressive win today at Loudon! He now has a 35 point lead in the points over Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya 20 points further back.

Great race, though some of our other favorite drivers had a rough day…. mine sure did!

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Final Results!

Sign up for Season 3 - "The Chase" for the 3WideAlley.com Fantasy league!

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 12 Results

Kasey Kahne Wins The Pep Boys Auto 500 At Atlanta

Congratulations to Kasey Kahne fans for his win at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Pep Boys Auto 500 in the NASCAR Sprint cup series. Kasey was very strong on short runs, which gave him the edge in a late race restart over strong contenders Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya who were faster on longer runs.

Pretty exciting race over all! It was nice to see some new faces running up front, like JPM, Reutimann and of course Kasey Kahne. Hotlanta looked pretty hot and slippery even at night! There was a lot of “dirt tracking” going on as most drivers complained of being very loose. Some of us Junior fans were disappointed with his17th place finish after running in the top 5 earlier. However there was encouragement for us Kevin Harvick fans who had an excellent run. Harvick had the fastest car by far on long runs. If not for the late race restart, Happy would most likely have finished 1st rather than 2nd. Congrats to Harvick fans, hopefully this is a sign there performance is back!

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Crikey! Kangaroo Man Hops Last Corner Giving Edwards The Win!

Carl Edwards wins the Nationwide Series NAPA Auto Parts 200 with last lap pass!

After dominating the field for almost the entire race, Marcos Ambrose lost the lead on the last corner of the last lap after committing his first mental error of the day. Coming into turn 14, Ambrose cut the corner and hopped the curb, giving Carl Edwards, who was hard on his bumper, the opportunity to get by. Carl kept the pressure on Marcos the last couple laps, it was hard to tell whether Carl had stepped it up, or if Marcos had slowed the pace down playing it safe on the wet track. So, perhaps it was the slower pace that threw off Marcos' timing or if it was Carl putting on the pressure! Perhaps it was both!

In any case, it was a great race.... if you threw out all the boring caution laps! This would've been a great race to have recorded so you could skip the long and frequent breaks in the action! Congratulations to Carl Edwards fans for a well deserved win!

Unofficial Results NASCAR.com

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 11 Results

Kyle Busch Wins The Sharpie 500 At Bristol

Congratulations to Kyle Busch fans for his win at Bristol in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Saturday night. His win brought him within striking distance of making it back into the Chase. He now has two more races and 35 points to make up on the 12th place driver - currently Matt Kenseth.

It was a rough weekend for Clint Bowyer, who was hoping to make the Chase. After running in the Top ten or better, he was involved in a late incident and finished 21st, leaving him over a 100 points out of the chase… tough to make up in just two races!

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 10 Results

Brian Vickers Wins The Carfax 400 At Michigan

Congratulations to Brian Vickers for his win at Michigan Sunday. He was fast, and still did a great job saving fuel. Jimmie Johnson ran out of fuel leading the race…. again! The brilliant Chad Knaus might have a chink in his armor after all: fuel mileage calculations!

A pretty good race weekend over all! Dale Earnhardt Junior ran pretty well all day, for a change, and was a big threat for the win being the the first driver who could go all the way on fuel… for sure. Junior’s Nationwide series driver gave us on of the most exciting finishes of the season on Saturday, when he passed Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers on the last lap for the win! Hopefully these are good omens for Junior fans!

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 9 Results

Tony Stewart Wins The Rain Delayed Heluva Good! At The Glen!

Congratulations to Tony Stewart, his team and his fans for his win at the rain delayed “Heluva Good! at The Glen!”

Marcos Ambrose came in 2nd, his highest finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series so far.

It was a very good race, aside from some bad luck with the #88, #24, #29, #31 and other teams. Jeff Gordon, Sam Hornish and Jeff Burton were involved in a horrible, hard hitting wreck, but all walked away without major injuries. Aside from the teams who suffered misfortune, it was a pretty exciting and entertaining race - it’s unfortunate that because of the rain delay, some of you couldn’t watch it live.

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 8 Results

Hornaday Wins 5th Straight, Brad Beats Kyle, Hamlin Wins 1 For Grandma!

Camping World Truck Series

Ron Hornaday won his 5th race in a row - a record for the Truck series, and a feat that has not been accomplished in any of NASCAR’s top series since both Richard Petty and Davey Allison both won 5 races in a row in 1971! Since the race was held at Nashville Superspeedway, his owners, Kevin and Delana Harvick, were unable to celebrate in victory lane because Kevin had to practice his Cup car for the Pocono race.

Rick Ren, Hornaday’s Crew Chief, also set a record for the most wins by a crew chief in the Truck Series!

Nationwide Series

The best race of the weekend, and one of the best races of the year, in my opinion. Great battle at the end between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch, with Brad prevailing in the end. Lot’s of side by side racing, rubbing and passing! The Iowa Speedway is .875 miles long, and is kinda like a slightly smaller Phoenix Raceway. Very fun track and they put on a great show!

Sprint Cup Race

An emotional win for Denny Hamlin, who had just lost his Grandmother, who he was obviously close to, a couple days earlier. Taz3 provided some interesting facts today: Denny’s Grandma passed away at 91 - Denny led 91 laps and made his final pass for the lead on lap 191. Interesting how the numbers work like that a lot in our sport.

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 7 Results

Montoya Too Fast: Jimmie Johnson Wins The Brickyard 400

After dominating most of the race, Juan Pablo Montoya got busted speeding on pit road and was forced to come back down pit road putting him back to 12th. Due to the tire/aero characteristics of the COT at Indy, it was very difficult to pass, even if you were much faster than the car ahead of you, so the penalty effectively ended JPM’s chances for the win.

It was a heart breaker for JPM, but a great break for Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin who battled each other to the finish with Johnson prevailing for the win. Congratulations to the #48 team and their fans!

Goodyear gave the teams a tire that would last a fuel run, but with the lack of passing, the race wasn’t all that exciting. Perhaps the “heat races” last year with the tires that only lasted 20 laps weren’t so bad after all!

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Hornaday Wins Kentucky While His Boss Runs Out Of Gas At Gateway

Kevin Harvick Inc. won the Truck Series race at Kentucky, but threw away the Nationwide Series race at Gateway by running out of gas in a car that led the most laps in the race, costing Harvick a likely win which instead went to Kyle Busch. Congratulations to Ron Hornaday for the Truck series win.

The ARCA Series race had the most exciting finish of the the three major stock car races Saturday night, with Parker Kligerman beating out Grant Enfinger after several laps of side by side dueling to the checkers.

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 6 Results

Mark Martin Gets His 4th NASCAR Sprint Cup Win in 2009!

Congratulations to Mark Martin for his win Saturday night in the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland! His 4th win of the season made a nice Birthday present to own Rick Hendrick, whose birthday was the next day! It was a very exciting shootout at the end! A great race, even though many of our favorites didn’t fair well. If the Chase would start right now, Mark Martin would be leading the series with his 40 bonus points, but right now he’s barely in the Chase and needs to keep at it for 8 more races to make it in.

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3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 5 Results

Fireworks & Smoke as Tony Stewart Wins At Daytona!

In an exciting finish, Tony Stewart wins the Coke Zero “Firecracker” 400 at Daytona.

Coming to the checkered flag, it was Kyle Busch with Tony Stewart right behind him, who was being pushed by Jimmie Johnson. Then Tony went low for the pass and Kyle came down and blocked him, Tony then went to pass high and got a nose past Kyle and when Kyle misjudged and came up to block, he spun himself in front of the field, slammed the wall and got airborne. He then got hit again in the rear by Kasey Kayne and then T-boned by Joey Logano. Tony Stewart drove on to victory.

Read more on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 4 Results

Joey Logano Wins His First NASCAR Sprint Cup Race at Loudon!

Joey Logano, Joe Gibbs Racing, won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Loudon, New Hampshire, in the rain shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301. Joey was already the youngest driver to win a NASCAR race, in the Nationwide series, and is now the youngest driver to ever win a Cup series race. Congratulations to Joey and his team, especially his crew chief for orchestrating the fuel mileage strategy that got them the win.

More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 3 Results

Teenage Girls Screaming With Joy: Kasey Kahne Wins At Sonoma!

Kasey Kayne, Richard Petty Motorsports, won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series SaveMart 350 at Infineon Speedway, Sonoma CA. Tony Stewart finished second and Marcos Ambrose finished an impressive 3rd place. Dale Earnhardt Junior had a strong performance cut short by an unfortunate accident late in the race- also taking out my C driver in the Fantasy League, Ron Fellows. Lot's of you had great fantasy league scores, congrats! I hope one of you can win the game this year!

More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum

Congratulations to Ron Hornaday and KHI for their victory with the #33 truck on Ron's Birthday at the Milwaukee Mile!

More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum

Mark Martin Wins Michigan!

Greg Biffle & Jimmie Johnson Race Each Other For The Checkers & Then Run Each Other Out Of Gas! Mark Martin Wins Michigan!

Seasoned Patience Prevails Over Youthful Exuberance:

An exciting shootout between Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle ended with a fizzle after they each ran out of fuel fighting for the lead. While they slowed out of gas, Mark Martin, 50, blazed by and took the checkered flag! Congratulations to Mark, his team and his fans for playing it smart and snatching the prize from the "youngsters"!

More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Team Week 2 Season 2. Results

I thought a B driver was going to win today, but I picked the wrong one: Brian Vickers. Thought for sure after his strong showings here at both races last year, and his speed in practice, that he'd get the win. Well, "as sure" as one can be in regards to predicting race results that is! In any case, Vickers said his car on race day was nothing like it was during practice. They finally got it back to where it was on the last pit stop, and blazed through the field from 19th to 9th, but it was too late for any  chance to be a contender for the win.

I went with Joey Logano for my C driver, even though I was reserving him for a later race, because he was so strong in practice (for a c driver) and thought he'd play it smart and get me a Top 15 finish. After the start of the race, things were looking good: he moved up to 17th very quickly and was faster than several of the cars in front of him. So, I was feeling pretty good, but I guess my estimate of him "playing it smart" was off as "Sliced Bread" decided to become the meat in a 3 Wide sandwich! That left him with a banged up fender, and he started falling backwards and eventually went a lap down. Like Vickers team, they got the #20 car back in shape, but too late to get more than a 25th place finish. Not bad for a C driver, but not the Top 15 I was hoping for.

I picked Carl Edwards as my A driver because he's real solid here. And though I thought Vickers had a better chance to win, I thought he'd be good for a Top 5 or better, and maybe the win - especially if fuel mileage came into play - having those gas filled Rousch sway bars is a bonus in fuel mileage races).  Well, the #99 turned out to be not quite a Top 5 team , but fuel mileage came into play and and Carl gained a few spots and finished 4th.

So, all in all, not a bad day for points in my fantasy team, 391, but not the 470 plus I'd hoped for. I've played big drivers for the first two races, so bombing last week and not doing as well as I'd hoped for this race is going to make it tough to win the game, but we had lot's of good scores from other regular members this week, so hopefully one of us from 3WideAlley can pull it off and win the big trophy for season 2! :hi5:

Share your reasons for picking who you did and how it all worked out for you! Have a great day with race chat in our NASCAR Forum or read more about it on the News Page!

leftturns190

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Season 2 Week 1 Results

Tony Stewart Wins 1St Sprint Cup Race As Owner At Pocono!

Tony Stewart, through fast driving and amazing fuel saving techniques, won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points race, the Pocono 500! Congratulations to Tony, Stewart-HAAS Racing and all his fans! Tony teammate, Ryan Newman overcame carburetor problems and made an impressive comeback with a 5th place finish. Smoke increased his lead in the points to 71 over Jeff Gordon, and the Rocketman moved up to 4th place in the standings.

More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League results Week 13 And Season One Final Results!

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and his fans for his win at Dover!

More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum

The Fall Guy - sent packing as cover for Rick Hendrick's failings as an owner.

Hendrick Drops The Ball - Tony Eurey Jr. Gets The Blame!

Well, we've heard since before Daytona that the #88 team was lacking the engineering support it needed. So, after months of poor performance, Rick finally gets around to doing his job as an owner and provides the team with a couple engineers and support staff like he was already giving to the #24 and #48 teams! How does he get out of the embarrassment of getting busted dropping the ball for NASCAR's most popular driver? Fire Tony Eurey Junior and blame it on the crew chief!

Brilliant! This is America, and everyone knows few read beyond the headlines!

 While everyone's focusing on Tony Jr. getting canned, Rick will quietly make the changes to the team that should have  been done long ago! Who would understand a bait and switch game  like this better than a car salesman?

Well that might fool some, but if it was just the crew chief who was the problem, then why not just replace the crew chief? Rick Hendrick, by adding the engineering support now, is admitting that he's the one who dropped the ball! To not give that support, which was widely discussed as one of the leading problems on that team for months, and to wait until he fires Tony Jr. from the job is pretty low!

Look at it this way: If Rick thinks the new crew chief is going to need all this extra help that he didn't think Tony Jr. needed, he must have thought Tony Jr. was a much more capable crew chief... so why not just simply keep the more capable crew chief AND add the extra support? Only logical answer is that Rick wanted the team to fail so he could break up the two Juniors and then have more control over Dale Jr. !

I think it'll be fun to listen to the Tony Eurey Jr. haters try to rationalize THAT logic!

If we are to assume Rick had honorable motives in regards to the Juniors, he must've thought Tony Jr was way better than Knaus and Letarte, because he has been giving THEM the engineering support all along that he 's now only giving to Tony Jr's replacement! Rick evidently thought only Tony Eurey was capable enough to not need the extra engineering help the other cc's needed! Gustafson (the #5 team crew chief was running the Knaus set-ups, so he was getting all the extra help by proxy - only Tony Eurey was on his own!

Tony Eurey Junior is a great crew chief, and some of us won't forget that, nor will a lot of us fans of the Juniors forget how Rick treated them!

leftturns190

More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum

Maybe another way to think about the two Jr’s by Chevytech

David Ruitimann Gets his First Cup Win In The Water-Logged 600 At Lowes Motor Speedway

Congratulations to David Ruitimann and his fans for getting his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win in the Coco-Cola 600 at Lowes Motor Speedway. This is also the first Cup win for Michael Waltrip Racing, and the first Toyota win in the Cup series by a driver not employed by Joe Gibbs.

After being completely rained out on Sunday, the scheduled start, the race started at noon EST and was called after NASCAR determined that further effort was unwarranted. Some of us feel like they should stick to it till they get the whole thing in, especially when there was still daylight and lights on the track. JJ3peat has a poll in the right side bar for that, so place your vote!

The Nation-wide moment of silence requested by the President (not ordered as Fox reported) was very special. NASCAR red flagged the race and it was a very poignant moment as all the drivers, teams and fans joined the rest of the Nation in a moment of silence honoring our servicemen and especially those who died for their country.

God bless our troops and their families!

More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum.

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League results Week 12

Tony "Smoke" Stewart Gets His 1st Win In His Own Car In NASCAR's Million Dollar All-Star Race!!

Congratulations to Tony Stewart and all his fans! What an exciting finish! I might have to seriously reconsider my position that the races should end on longer runs, cause that was FANTASTIC racing at the end! Ryan Newman brought the excitement to new heights with his THREE WIDE PASS (almost) of Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon. Too bad it didn’t work out, but dang, what a move! Newman was on a tear and it looked like he was going to win it all, but then we rebooted with 5 laps left and his boss man Tony turned it on! Congrats to Kenseth for making such a strong effort!

More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum.

Mark Martin Wins The Southern 500 At Darlington!

Congratulations to Mark Martin and his fans for his impressive 2nd win this year with Hendrick Motor Sports! More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum.

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League results Week 11

Kyle Busch Wins The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal 400 Race At Richmond

Congratulations to all Kyle Busch fans for his win at Richmond on his Birthday. The only other driver to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup race on his birthday was Cale Yarborough. More on the News Page or discuss it at our NASCAR Forum.

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League results Week 10

Happy Birthday Dale!!

We miss you and will ALWAYS remember you!!

Dale Earnhardt's Driver/Stat page

Brad Keselowski Gets His 1st NASCAR Spint Cup Win!

Congratulations to Brad Keselowski for his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win at Talladega in what will go down as one of the most exciting finishes in NASCAR history!

Talk about it in our NASCAR Forum or read More on our News Page.

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League results Week 9

Wood Brothers Racing by ChevyTech

The Wood Brothers Racing Team was formed in 1950 by brothers from Southwest Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains . Walter and Ada Wood owned a family farm in Virginia . They had five sons (Glen, Leonard, Delano , Clay, and Ray Lee) and one daughter (Crystal). The sons worked with their father as mechanics, farmers, and lumbermen. Glen Wood cut timber and hauled lumber to local sawmills. The boys had a talent for auto mechanics and spent much time at their father’s garage. With each brother serving as a mechanic, they formed a racing team. Full story

Discuss it in our NASCAR Forum!

Mark Martin gets his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win for Hendrick Motor Sports at Phoenix!

Talk about it in race chat in our NASCAR Forum or read the details on your NASCAR News page.

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Results Week 8 Phoenix

The Marines Invade Atlanta!

Our buddy 88USMC reports to us on his experience at the last race at Atlanta Motor Speedway! A must read! Full story.

Congratulations to Jeff Gordon For His Win At Texas Motor Speedway!

You could tell that the old Jeff Gordon was back from the start of the season, and he erased any doubt with his win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway today! Gordon ended a 47 race win less streak and got his first win at Texas in 17 tries! Why he couldn’t have won when he was at his best track last week when I had him on my fantasy league team is beyond me! I mean I rooted for him, sorta kinda!

Anyway, even to those who don’t exactly root for Jeff Gordon, he’s a huge asset to the sport and it’s nice to see him get his mojo back!

More on the NASCAR News Page.

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Results Week 7

Jimmy Johnson Wins The Goody's 500 At Martinsville

After getting passed by Denny Hamlin late in the race after Denny pulled off a brilliant move on a restart, Jimmie fought back and knocked him out of the way and retook the lead for good! More on the News Page, or talk about it in our NASCAR Forum!

Week 6 Fantasy League Results

Kevin Harvick Wins His First Race in a KHI Car!

Kevin "Happy" Harvick wins at Bristol getting his first win racing for his own team! Congratulations! Read more on the News Page. See Kevin Harvick's Driver Profile.

Kurt Busch Wins the Kobalt Tools NASCAR Sprint Cup Race At Atlanta

Congratulations to Kurt Busch for his Sprint Cup win at Atlanta. Another very strange race after a tire rolled across pit road and the out on the midfield with a crew member from the #47 team in hot pursuit. This action drew a caution from NASCAR and trapped a huge percentage of the field a lap down as it happened in the middle of a green flag pit run. Of course! It’ll be interesting to talk about it all in the race chat forum this week!

3WideAlley.com NASCAR Sprint Car Fantasy League results.

For more news on the Atlanta race, see our NASCAR News Page.

Kyle Busch Wins The NASCAR Sprint Cup Shelby 427 at Las Vegas

Congratulations to Kyle Busch for winning the Shelby 427 at Las Vegas. It was a very strange race with motors blowing up and unusual suspects wrecking or taking themselves out of the race through blunders. NASCAR set a record for Sprint Cup cautions for this race I believe! I'll be posting the NASCAR Sprint Cup Fantasy Team numbers on Tuesday... it'll be interesting to see who survived the carnage! All in all, though surreal at times,  it was a fun race chat in the forum today. Thanks for coming!

Full race details on the News Page.

For the 3WideAlley.com NASCAR Sprint Cup Fantasy League Results Week 3, click here.

Matt Kenseth Wins again at Fontana! two NASCAR Cup Wins in a row!

Great win for Matt Kenseth in the Auto Club 500 at Fontana, CA! Two in a row, what a fantastic way to start the season! Some of us had a rough week: Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans, for instance! But there's next week! All in all it was a pretty good race for Fontana. It did rain a little, but it didn't drench the track and NASCAR got the race in!

Have fun celebrating this week Kenseth fans! Those who didn't fair well, better luck at Vegas! More on the News Page, or discuss it in our NASCAR Forum!

3WideAlley.com Fantasy League Results: Click here!

-Congratulations Matt Kenseth for winning the Daytona 500!
See News Page for details.

-Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch win Gatorade Duels at Daytona!
Congratulations to both! See News Page for details.

-Kevin Harvick wins the Bud Shootout!

What a sweet win! I had pretty much written him off as he was riding in the back with what I thought was a hurt car. Then, he shockingly gets up front, only to then wiggle and fall out of line! What a letdown! But wait! With an amazing power move 3 Wide up the middle, he gets up to the leader again and then drives high and takes the lead right as the caution flag come out for a wreck! Fantastic! Congratulations Happy, Rick and RCR!! Chevy wins the first manufacturer shootout!

Happy Harvick's driver page.

leftturns190

Lawrence “Neil” Bonnett by ChevyTech

July 21, 1946 - February 11, 1994 

Neil Bonnett was one of the most likeable drivers in NASCAR Winston Cup Series history, earning 18 series victories during his 18-year career. Among his 18 wins were back-to-back victories in NASCAR’s longest (miles) race the Coca-Cola 600 (1982,’83). Bonnett also won back-to-back Busch Clash races at Daytona International Speedway (1983, ‘84). Bonnett’s highest finish in the series points was in 1985 when he finished fourth and his teammate, Darrell Waltrip, won the championship. He was an original member of the Alabama Gang that includes the Allisons and Red Farmer. Outside the cockpit, Bonnett developed a career as a television commentator for race broadcasts and hosted his own show,” Neil Bonnett’s Winners” on TNN: The Nashville Network. Bonnett was fatally injured in a crash during practice for the 1994 Daytona 500.  Full Story

The Beginnings of NASCAR Part 3
By Lone Star 

Part 3... In 1948, France fearing that he would lose out to a promoter in North Carolina, staged a 200 lap. 150 mile points race at a 3 / 4 mile dirt track in North Carolina. It had a purse of $5,000 for 33 street-legal family sedans built after 1946. Full Story

Fantasy League:

Sign up for the 3WA Fantasy League at The SporntingNews/com! 

More info

leftturns190

On The News Page:

In a preseason filled with mergers another was announced Tuesday as Yates Racing and Hall Of Fame Racing announced they have joined operations. The new alliance will campaign Fords and have driver Bobby Labonte behind the wheel of the No. 96. More

-Bud Shootout All Messed Up!

Site Features

3WideAlley.com NASCAR Fan Club Forum

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3WideAlley.com NASCAR News:  Member articles are now being added to the news feeds. There's some good stuff! Go here for more!

2009 NASCAR Stock Car Fantasy League: Our league is up and running! Daytona's coming soon, so sign up now!  

NASCAR Driver Pages: Anyone who wants to contribute to a NASCAR driver page, Cup, Nationwide, Truck, or lower series, please contact me. It'd be great if we could get members to "adopt a driver" and find good images and info about them to load to the site. Credit will be given on the driver page to everyone who contributes!

Are you an Artist? I want to create a logo for the site. I have some ideas, but I'm not good with "electronic art", or any other form for that matter! If you have some skills, please contact me!