Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Carl Edwards did a great job of reeling in the leaders to win the rain delayed Auto Club 500. After rain washed out the Nationwide race, Nascar tried to get the Auto Club 500 in but rain got it too. When the rain came Nascar and track officials could not make up their minds about track conditions and let fans sit it out. Some were really ticked off! How late did they wait before calling it?

WASH OUT

How about 11 P.M. west coast time? How would you have liked to have been in the stands after seeing 87 laps broken up by multiple rain delays. Its cold, wet and windy. You know in your heart that the race has no chance of starting again, but the uber fan in you won’t let you leave. Denial sets in, “They will get it going again” ” won’t they?” Many people had to go home because they had to work Monday, leaving the stand a bit empty. Some fans were really ticked off after sitting in the stands, or under them, waiting for track officials and Nascar to make the call. I for the life of me can’t understand why it took them until 11 P.M. to postpone it to Monday. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the California Speedway, oops, excuse me, its been renamed, The Auto Club Speedway is always the subject of scrutiny by other Non Nascar owned tracks, for not selling out and yet getting two race dates. I would bet that this was no sell out either, rain or no rain. But Nascar owns the track in a manner of speaking so they can do as they please. After all it is their sandbox. Whatever the facts are around the reasoning for waiting so late to call it, they lost a lot of money on that deal.

KEEPING IT SHORT

I didn’t get to watch it this week as the majority of the race was run when I was at work. I did get to listen to it though and I have to admit that I was not all that entertained as Dale Earnhardt Junior was some forty laps down to the leaders after getting wrecked on Sunday before the rain set in. Next week they are at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and again drivers I have to tell you that if this thing Isn’t sold out, There is plenty of truck parking near that track. The racetrack is just down the street from the Petro Truck-stop. The Nationwide Series is going to be there also so even if the Cup race sells out, I would bet you could get tickets for the Nationwide Series.

All in all the rain really takes me out of the race weekend. I would much rather watch it than hear it on the radio in a dump truck congrats to Carl Edwards, and chin up Junior fans. Its only two races out of 36, we have plenty of time and plenty more races to win.

Here is how they crossed the line.

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS	WINNINGS
1	9	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Dish Network	190/5	250	Running	340,500
2	1	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s	180/10	250	Running	252,336
3	2	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	DuPont Cromax Pro	170/5	250	Running	214,186
4	22	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Interstate Batteries	165/5	250	Running	154,050
5	4	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Carhartt	160/5	250	Running	169,841
6	11	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	150/0	250	Running	144,308
7	6	20	Tony Stewart	Toyota	The Home Depot	146/0	250	Running	158,061
8	10	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	147/5	250	Running	148,761
9	20	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	Budweiser	143/5	250	Running	133,616
10	13	12	Ryan Newman	Dodge	Samsung HDTV / ALLTEL	139/5	250	Running	143,625
11	39	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	130/0	250	Running	98,700
12	8	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	AT&T Mobility	132/5	250	Running	142,258
13	36	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	124/0	250	Running	92,800
14	24	6	David Ragan	Ford	AAA Insurance So. Cal.	121/0	250	Running	104,850
15	14	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	123/5	250	Running	104,350
16	16	8	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	Principal Financial Group / Mark Martin’s 700th start	115/0	250	Running	128,208
17	32	38	David Gilliland	Ford	FreeCreditRep ort.com	112/0	250	Running	111,508
18	28	7	Robby Gordon	Dodge	Jim Beam	114/5	250	Running	116,708
19	3	07	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	DIRECTV	106/0	250	Running	106,150
20	21	42	Juan Montoya	Dodge	Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit	103/0	250	Running	121,508
21	31	66	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	100/0	250	Running	104,708
22	18	26	Jamie McMurray	Ford	Crown Royal	102/5	250	Running	97,850
23	40	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Aaron’s Dream Machine	94/0	249	Running	101,758
24	27	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	U2 3D / Best Buy	91/0	249	Running	114,770
25	19	43	Bobby Labonte	Dodge	Hamburger Helper “My Hometown Helper”	88/0	249	Running	125,136
26	38	21	Bill Elliott	Ford	Little Debbie	85/0	249	Running	105,345
27	29	15	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Quaker State / Menards	82/0	248	Running	94,300
28	41	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	NAPA AUTO PARTS	79/0	248	Running	92,247
29	25	96	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	DLP HDTV	76/0	248	Running	93,500
30	34	22	Dave Blaney	Toyota	CAT Paving Products	73/0	248	Running	85,250
31	17	01	Regan Smith *	Chevrolet	Coors Light	70/0	248	Running	91,575
32	26	40	Dario Franchitti *	Dodge	Target	72/5	248	Running	89,875
33	37	44	Dale Jarrett	Toyota	UPS	69/5	247	Running	82,600
34	43	78	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	Furniture Row / DenverMattress.com	61/0	246	Running	81,450
35	42	34	John Andretti	Chevrolet	Front Row Motorsports	63/5	245	Running	81,225
36	30	28	Travis Kvapil	Ford	Yates Racing	55/0	242	Running	108,289
37	23	41	Reed Sorenson	Dodge	Energizer e2 Lithium	52/0	240	Running	108,064
38	35	45	Kyle Petty	Dodge	Wells Fargo	49/0	236	Running	80,600
39	33	70	Jeremy Mayfield	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	46/0	231	Running	80,480
40	15	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	AMP Energy / National Guard	43/0	203	Running	88,325
41	12	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Freight	40/0	193	Running	115,191
42	5	5	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	CARQUEST / Kellogg’s	37/0	20	Accident	98,110
43	7	77	Sam Hornish Jr. *	Dodge	Mobil 1	34/0	20	Accident	125,539

Hopefully there will be blue skies and little wind at Las Vegas next week. Hey if you get down there check out the cafe in the Silverton Lodge. It is called the Sundance Grill. I have eaten in a lot of fancy, expensive places in Las Vegas, but you just can’t beat the Silvertons Sundance Grill. They have a Grilled Chicken Fettucini Alfredo that is to die for! Trust me, I have lost count of the number of times that I have eaten it.

Stay safe out there and thank you for the job you do!