Queers4Gears.com

NASCAR and MotorSports – From a Queer Perspective

Monthly Archives: February 2012

48 Team Penalized for Infractions at Daytona

The 48 team of Jimmie Johnson heads to Phoenix for race number two of the season with a total of -23 points after NASCAR penalized the team by docking them 25 points. After starting the season with a 42nd place finish in Daytona and securing two whole points, that’s not a good start to championship number six.

Crew chief Chad Knaus and car chief Ron Malec have been suspended from the next six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races and placed on probation until May 9th. Knaus was also fined $100,000.

NASCAR says that the 48 car was found to be in violation of Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4J (any determination by NASCAR officials that race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules detailed in Section 20 of the rule book or has not been approved by NASCAR prior to the event); and 20-2.1E (if in the judgment of NASCAR officials, any part or component of the car not previously approved by NASCAR that has been installed or modified to enhance aerodynamic performance will not be permitted – unapproved car body modifications).

Podcast: Out of the Tunnel – Show 5

Hannah is back – and you’re gonna be in trouble… Hey now, hey now Hannah’s back.

On this week’s show we talk about Hannah’s trip to Daytona – the insanity that was the Daytona 500:  The Pack, The Rain, and the Fireballs.   Plus, Brad Daugherty hates Twitter, and a news anchor in San Diego hates Danica.  All that and more……

Click play to listen:  

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

if that embedded player did not work for you – you can download the show by clicking here.

The Out of the Tunnel is sponsored by Audible.com.  Listeners of the show can get a FREE audio book download by visiting:  www.audibletrial.com/OutOfTheTunnel

 

Gaynalysis: The 2012 Daytona 500

The Gaylnalysis is just one gay NASCAR fan’s take on the race weekend.  You can read the “straight recap” of the Daytona 500 by clicking here.

"Gay NASCAR" by Keith J. Varadi - 2009

Juan Pablo Montoya redefined “The Big One” during Monday’s Daytona 500.  No longer do you need a huge pack of cars get wrecked to qualify as a big one… now you only need one race car – and a jet dryer.

Everyone said it, “in all my years of racing – I have never seen anything like that.”  It was indeed surreal.  It was End Of Days kinda stuff.  After more than 24 hours of rain delays this huge fire made me wonder when the brimstone would start falling.

JPM was racing solo down the back stretch to get his lap back when something broke on the #42 and the Target car turned the jet dryer into a target….scoring a direct hit.  JPM hit at the worst possible angle and within moments 200 gallons of jet fuel became a waterfall of fire on the banks of turn three.  Luckily Juan Pablo and the driver of the jet dryer were OK.  It could have been so much worse.

The race was red flagged for almost two hours and we learned that Brad Keselowski is the only driver who had his phone in his car – as he began tweeting pics from the back strech where all of the cars had been parked.  Speaking of twitter – we also learned that Darrell Waltrip finds @TheOrangeCone’s twitter account to be annoying.  Hello Pot, meet Kettle.

There was one early lesser “Big One” on lap 2 when Jimmie Johnson, Danica Patrick and Trevor Bayne got caught in the mess – taking three of the top possible story lines out of contention.   Then the race settled down until the handful of last lap cautions – which based on the pace of Speedweeks was expected.

All of these drivers showed us that they are the best in the world.  They ran in tight pack all day. The new NASCAR rules package worked and the two-car tandem was a thing of the past.  No one seemed to have enough power to break away from the train.

The oddity didn’t end with the #42 car slamming into the Jet Dryer.  In the early going, Ryan Newman lost a tire on pit road coming to an stop short of his pit… AJ Allmendinger got the short end of the stick when he slammed into the back of Newman and had to take it into the garage for radiator repair.

There were also three cars that developed fuel pressure issues.  While this wasn’t a problem with the new EFI injectors on top of the engine – it was a problem with the high pressure fuel pumps required to feed those new injectors.  It should be interesting to see what the NASCAR technical group has to to say once they get a chance to do an autopsy on those parts.

The attempt by NASCAR to pump excitment into the middle of the race fell flat.  They had offered a 200K bonus to the driver that led the lap at the midway point – hoping to stir the type of “go for broke” racing you see on the closing laps of the race.  The only driver who jumped out of line and went for it – won it.  Martin Truex, with a push from Hamlin passed Greg Biffle to score the huge cash bonus.  But it failed to generate the type of racing NASCAR was hoping for – making it the most expensive flop since they moved Leno to 10pm.

This week’s Q4G Gaynalysis Shout-Out goes to the track workers at Daytona International Speedway.  HEYYYYYYYY Y’ALLLL!   Damn you did a fantastic job of cleaning up what looked like the debris feild of a Michael Bay production.   After taking a huge kick in the nards after the “pot hole” incident – you planning and disaster planning was apparant – and appreciated.  Of course, in order to soak up all that jet fuel – I think there was more sand on the track than there was at the first race in Daytona.

I also am awarding a second shout-out to NASCAR fans.  After missing the race on Sunday, so many fans called in sick to work and packed the grandstands on Monday.  And then, to top it off, they kept their seats during a two hour red flag and staying there well past midnight to see the end of the race.  NASCAR has the greatest fans in the world of Sport!

Congrats, of course, to Matt Kenseth – for holding off Dale Jr to win the 36 hours of Daytona.

Next week Queers4Gears will be LIVE at the races in Phoenix. Be sure to follow us on facebook and check back here for the latest updates!

Matt Kenseth Holds off Earnhardt Jr., Survives to Win Bizarre Daytona 500

credit Getty Images for NASCAR

Finally, nothing out of the ordinary happened.

In a Daytona 500 that featured the first postponement in its history, a ball of fire from a racecar vs. jet dryer collision under caution and a surfeit of wild action in the closing laps, Matt Kenseth won his second Daytona 500 when the tandem of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle couldn’t catch the race winner in a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

Earnhardt made a slingshot move around Greg Biffle to run second in the 54th running of the Great American Race at Daytona International Speedway. Biffle came home third, followed by Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton, as a late caution necessitated two extra laps beyond the scheduled 200.

Paul Menard, Kevin Harvick, pole-sitter Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and Mark Martin completed the top 10.

Earnhardt hooked up with Biffle and pushed the No. 16 Ford after a restart on Lap 201, but the pair could not make headway against Kenseth who moved to the front of the field and stayed there.

Earnhardt expected Biffle to pull out and make a move, but the move never came.

“I was waiting and waiting,” Earnhardt said. “It looked like he might have been trying to make a move on the back straightaway, but nothing materialized there. Then we came off (Turn) 4, and I kind of waited till the last minute for him to have his opportunity to try to pass Matt, and nothing was happening, so I just pulled out and went around him.”

Kenseth had plenty of power at the finish, despite problems with the cooling system that plagued him early in the race.

“We had a lot of problems — it was spewing water,” said Kenseth, who notched the 22nd NASCAR Sprint Cup victory of his career. “I have to give a lot of credit to (engine builder) Doug Yates and the guys at the engine shop. We had great horsepower.

“I could get a pretty good start on the bottom and either Denny or Dale Jr. could push me for a while and then they just couldn’t stay attached and I would get away from them just in time to get in front of Greg, and the two of us together could make some unbelievable speed. I have to thank Greg. We worked together really good all day long. He had a really fast car all day as well.”

A multicar wreck on Lap 188 thinned the herd considerably, taking out a handful of competitive cars. Jamie McMurray spun wildly near the entrance to Turn 1, and the chain-reaction collision wiped out the cars of Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne and Aric Almirola and damaged the machines of Edwards and Tony Stewart.

Another melee on Lap 196 set up the overtime. After contact from Joey Logano’s Toyota, the Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. caromed into Stewart’s Chevrolet, turning the defending Cup champion sideways and igniting a pinball-style wreck that also involved Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman.

A strange weekend that saw the first weather postponement in the history of the Daytona 500 got downright bizarre during a round of pit stops under caution late in the race.

credit Getty images for NASCAR

Juan Pablo Montoya brought his No. 42 Chevrolet to pit road under caution on Lap 160, complaining of transmission issues. His car fell victim to a strong vibration when he returned to the track, and Montoya slid out of control at the entrance to Turn 3 and slammed into a jet dryer, which was against the outside wall, blowing the track.

The collision ignited the jet fuel in the dryer and set both vehicles ablaze. Montoya and the driver of the service vehicle both escaped the wreckage, but the latter — Duane Barnes, from Michigan International Speedway — was taken to nearby Halifax Medical Center for further evaluation.

“Something failed in the rear of the car, and the car just spun into the jet dryer,” Montoya said after a visit to the care center. “I left the pits and felt a really weird vibration, and I came back in and checked the rear end and (they) said it was OK, and I got into the backstraight and we were going in fourth gear but wasn’t going that fast.

“Every time I got on the gas, I could feel the rear squeezing. When I was telling the spotter to have a look how the rear was moving, the car just turned right.”

NASCAR red-flagged the race as safety vehicles arrived on the scene and track workers attempted to put out the fire.

“There’s going to be a big speed bump heading into Turn 3,” crew chief Steve Letarte told Dale Earnhardt Jr., fearful that the blaze would melt the asphalt. “I will be shocked — shocked — if we can get this race restarted.”

Letarte was wrong.

Safety workers cleared the scene by hoisting the remains of the jet dryer on a tow truck with a boom to prevent further damage to the asphalt. After a stoppage of two hours, five minutes and 29 seconds, the event resumed just before midnight ET.

credit Getty

The race was barely one lap old when contact from the front bumper of Elliott Sadler’s Chevrolet turned the No. 48 Chevy of five-time champion Jimmie Johnson hard into the outside wall near the exit from the tri-oval.

Unable to avoid the wreck, David Ragan plowed into the side of Johnson’s car. Neither Johnson nor Ragan was able to continue; they retired from the race in the 42nd and 43rd positions, respectively.

The cars of defending race winner Trevor Bayne, Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch were severely damaged in the melee and all three headed to the garage for extensive repairs and later returned to the track.

“The steering’s off,” Patrick said, as she brought the No. 10 Chevy to pit road. Her crew repaired the rear suspension, but Patrick was 62 laps down when she reappeared on Lap 66. She wound up 38th in her Sprint Cup debut.

Notes:    Martin Truex Jr. won the $200,000 bonus for leading the race at the halfway point . . . The top four drivers when Juan Montoya hit the jet dryer were Dave Blaney, Landon Cassill, Tony Raines and David Gilliland, none of whom had come to pit road with the rest of the lead-lap cars. Irreparable damage to the track or an ill-timed rain cell could have made a winner of Blaney. . . . Edwards and Kyle Busch had to restart from the rear when the race resumed for removing tear-offs from their windshields under the red flag.

[ credit Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service ] 

The Out of the Tunnel Podcast – Show #4

You Can Win THIS!!!!!!

Hannah is still in Daytona – so you are stuck with me this week.  She will be back next week to tell us all about her trip to Speed Weeks.

On tonight’s show – I fill you in on the details on how you can win a Nationwide Series Championship hat signed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and a really cool Nationwide Series Umbrella, ella, ella.

You gotta listen to the entire show to find out how to win :-)   One must first listen to my take on The Bud Shootout, The Gatorade Duels and upcoming Daytona 500 before finding out how to win. Oh,  I also get a little excited about The Celebrity Apprentice.

Luckily, the entire show is only about 10 minutes long – so it won’t take up too much of your busy life!  You have to listen to win!

Click play to listen:  

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If that embedded player does not work – you can download the show by clicking here.

The Out of the Tunnel is sponsored by Audible.com.  Listeners of the show can get a FREE audio book download by visiting:  www.audibletrial.com/OutOfTheTunnel

 

 

Gaynalysis: Bud Shootout Weekend 2012

The Gaynalysis is just one gay NASCAR fan’s take on the race weekend.  You can read the “straight” recap of the Bud Shootout from Daytona by clicking here.

"Gay NASCAR" by Keith J. Varadi - 2009

NASCAR got its Packback!

To everyone (including me) who has been bitching about the two-dog-f**king style of tandem racing that developed at Daytona and Talladega over the past two years….. NASCAR shoved a big jar of STFU in our collective mouths!

Seeing the big clusters of cars packed tightly together all night was fantastic.  But with the good comes the bad.  There were four “big ones” during this short race.

The scariest moment of the night found Jeff Gordon upside down on his roof for the first time in his cup career.  The huge wrecks ruined the nights of Dale Jr, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson – and a ton of other fast cars.

I did see several comments online from fans who were not a fan of these huge packs – because of the crashes.  Granted most of these comments were from car owners.  Admittedly, I may have less sympathy for the car owners because I am not the one writing those checks – but in my mind, it was worth the price.

NASCAR has done in incredible job with the safety innovations in these cars – and while racing will never be 100% safe – the only thing damaged in the “big ones” tonight was sheet metal.

We are coming off one of the most action packed seasons in recent memory and NASCAR picked right back off where Tony and Carl left-off in Homestead.  The return of the pack style of racing is going to be great for ratings.

I have a tendency to build things up in my mind – and then when the moment arrives and it can’t possibly live up to the hype I have built – I get let down.  NOT TONIGHT – the Bud Shootout exceeded my expectations in every way.

This week’s Q4G Shout-Out can only go to Kyle Busch.  Heyyyyyyyyy Kyle!  He won this award before he won the race when he saved his car from spinning in an astounding way….. TWICE!   This was his first race back in the M&M’s car since he was parked last year in Texas for wrecking Ron Hornaday.  M&M’s had pulled their logos from the #18 for the last two races of 2011.  It also appears the “media coaching” Kyle received off-season worked….. he was hardly recognizable from the @OldKyleBusch in victory lane.

Outside of the racing the weekend was full of drama.  It was one crazy Friday.  To start the drama NASCAR announced it had asked Phoenix Raceway to rescind their invitation to PGA star Bubba Watson who had been asked to drive his “General Lee” on a parade lap before the race at PIR.  Watson recently bought the car at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Phoenix and is Twitter-BFFs with Denny Hamlin.

NASCAR made the right call.  They have been working for years to remove the “southern only” image from the sport and having a car with the Rebel Flag painted on it being paraded around before the race would not help the cause.

For the record, I am huge “Dukes of Hazard” Fan – I had quite the crush on Bo.  I also consider myself a child of the south and I understand people that say the General Lee only represents a TV Show – and nothing more.

But the bottom line is that image is everything. Right or wrong – that flag comes with a boat load of baggage.  Baggage NASCAR doesn’t need.  It would just give ammunition to those that want to bash our sport.

I would rather we keep the focus on the “product.”  The 2011 season was incredible and if The Bud Shootout is any indication… 2012 will be another season for the books.  Why distract from this?  Let Bubba drive the pace car!

Shortly after the General Lee flap – the most unusual story ever broke.  Now I know this is going to be hard to believe – but Chad Knaus got caught cheating!  I havn’t been this surprised since I learned that buttery spread wasn’t actually butter!

The #48 got pegged by NASCAR for having an illegal C-pillar.  Race officials said it would have given Johnson an aero advantage.   The sheet metal was cut off the car and the Lowes team had to weld new C-pillars on the car.   NASCAR will announce the penalty on Tuesday – but the general feeling in the garage is that Knaus will not be suspended.

Before I close the first Gaynalysis of 2012 – I want to send the thoughts and prayers from everyone here at Q4G to Chris Myers and his family.  Chris lost his son in an car accident late last week.  RIP Christopher!

 

Busch Survives Spins – Wins Bud Shootout

[ credit NASCAR Wire Service - by Reid Spencer ]

Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Image

Kyle Busch rallied from two near-disasters to win Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway with a slingshot move past Tony Stewart a few yards from the finish line at Daytona International Speedway.

The victory was Busch’s first in the season-opening exhibition race contested in two segments of 25 and 50 laps. His winning margin over Stewart was .013 seconds.

Marcos Ambrose recovered from a pair of wrecks to finish third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin.

Stewart had just taken the lead on Lap 74 of a scheduled 75 when a violent wreck in Turn 4 sent Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 Chevrolet barrel-rolling through Turn 4 and sliding on its roof toward the entrance to Turn 4.

Gordon was following Kyle Busch on the backstretch, and contact between the cars turned Busch’s toward onto the apron. Busch made a dramatic save for the second time in the race, but Gordon slid up the track into the Chevrolets of Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray.

As all three cars contacted the outside wall, Jimmie Johnson’s Chevrolet nosed beneath the right rear bumper of Gordon’s car and turned it upside down.

The wreck left 11 cars on the lead lap and sent the race to overtime.

Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

A close call for Kyle Busch on Lap 48 strung the field out, leaving a 10-car pack fighting for the lead. Busch’s Toyota twice turned sideways off the bumper of Johnson, and twice Busch saved the car from calamity despite running onto the apron in Turn 2.

The complexion of the race changed dramatically on Lap 55, when a chain-reaction wreck that started with contact between the cars of polesitter Martin Truex Jr., Ambrose and Joey Logano clobbered those three vehicles and eliminated Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth.

The resulting fourth caution of the race bunched the field for a restart on Lap 62, with Greg Biffle in the lead, followed by Hendrick Motorsports teammates Gordon and Johnson and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Stewart.

The race was barely eight laps old when contact from David Ragan’s Ford turned Paul Menard’s Chevrolet and ignited a multicar wreck that also damaged the cars of Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Waltrip, Jeff Burton and Gordon.

Earnhardt, who had led the first three laps, had just regained the top spot on Lap 8 and was out in front when the wreck erupted behind him. The crash sidelined Menard, Ragan and Waltrip and knocked Hamlin and Kahne off the lead lap. Burton also fell of the lead lap during the first 25-lap segment when he pitted under green with a cut tire.

“Everybody was real racy and I just got into the back of Menard,” Ragan said after exiting his car. “You get a good run, and you’re pushing a little bit, and I guess he was pushing whoever was in front of him. And when you’ve got the meat in between the sandwich, you usually get wrecked.”

McMurray was at the front of the field when NASCAR called the competition caution after Lap 25. Gordon, undeterred by minor damage to his car, was second, followed by Harvick, Kyle Busch and Ambrose.

 

Podcast – Out of the Tunnel Show #3

Show number three is in the books.  Please bare with some of our technical issues – we plan to have everything perfect by Homestead.

This week Hannah and I talk about Kasey’s knee surgery, the odd sponsorships of HendrickCars.com, our Racing Shows are back, the Red Bull cars find a home, Hannah gives us an NHRA recap and there’s gonna be a new short track in Daytona.

Plus, Adam Lovelace joins us on the line for our race picks!

Click the play button: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

if that embedded player does not work for you – Click here to download the show…

The Out of the Tunnel is sponsored by Audible.com.  Listeners of the show can get a FREE audio book download by visiting:  www.audibletrial.com/OutOfTheTunnel

 

Top Gear US – Hitting the Redline

credit The History Channel

After a break, the second half of the Top Gear season kicked off tonight on the History Channel.   If you havn’t yet checked out this show – you need to watch.  If you watched in the first season and didn’t get hooked, give it another chance – you need to watch.   Hell, even if you only love the BBC version of this show – you need to watch.

The BBC version of TG has a cult like following – so many of the TG faithful were not willing to give the American hosts a chance.

I do think the show had a slow start out of the gates in the first season.  Most of the BBC “snobs” were bashing Top Gear US before the show show even aired.    There were also folks who had no idea what Top Gear BBC was – but they also didn’t know to they needed to check out the History Channel for a car show.  It also took some time for the American producers and hosts to make it their own.

I think it took a season for Rutledge Wood, Tanner Foust and Adam Ferrara to find their groove.  The chemisty is now in-tune and the three play off each other – ribbing, prodding and humiliating each other at every turn.  You can tell they genuinly like each other and cut-up just like they would if the cameras and pop-tops were off.

(I think I just aged myself with that pop-top reference.  Kids, a pop-top is the removable tab on alumnim cans that we had when I grew up.  You would pull the sharpe tab completely off the can – they were like little razor blades and everytime I went to the pool or beach I feared slicing my foot open by stepping on one.  You may have heard this term, pop-top, in the Jimmy Buffet song “Magaritiville.”)

(OK, I may have just aged myself with that Jimmy Buffet reference.  Kids, Jimmy Buffet is a singer/songwriter that your Mom and Dad listen to when they would get drunk and screw.)

As a car guy, Top Gear is the most fun you can have on TV.  The formula is simple:  take three grown-up men acting like giggling teenagers, throw in some really fast cars, crazy stunts and funny writing…..

If you are not watching Top Gear US – you need to watch.

The show comes on the History Channel every Tuesday night at 9pm.

Click here to see clips and learn more about the show.

 

Not That You Asked, Adam’s 2012 Wishes

Queers4Gears contributor Adam Lovelace lays out his best wishes for the 2012 racing season:

  • A safe season for all racing series first and foremost!
  • Huge, major sponsors for Queers4gears.com so we can go to every single race!
  • I wish you all would listen every week to the Q4G Out of the Tunnel podcast. In fact, listen now right here: CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW
  • Dale Earnhardt Jr wins races and the championship even. Hey, I can wish big.
  • I hope Danica Patrick out performs and shuts up the haters. I hope she wins races.
  • I wish for less haters everywhere, not just racing.
  • I hope the Busch brothers get another big helping of humble. They need it. I’m not hating, just wishing.
  • I hope Queers4gears founder, Michael, starts being stalked by Kasey Kahne.
  • I wish Indycar would race on more ovals, or that the road courses were more competitive. Either one.
  • Every ARCA race televised! The ones they do televise are generally NOT the best ARCA races to watch. You are missing some good racing not seeing the short tracks. SPEED is a channel; they should show more racing of all types.
  • I want to listen to Sirius NASCAR online. It is 2012. I listen in the car for about 20 mins on the way to work and 20 mins on the way home. You know what lots of folks have access to during the day? Computers and mobile devices! I could listen all day. In fact, I pay extra to listen online, but one of the few channels I can’t get online? You guessed it.
  • Speaking of Sirius NASCAR, how about live qualifying and practice? Why not?
  • While I’m at it, how about some kind of app available to ALL smartphones? Again, it’s 2012. Keep up.
  • I wish the following would be banned from all tracks: the word boogity, all politicians of any persuasion, confederate flags (let’s move on), and Lee Greenwood songs.
  • I wish the Daytona 500 was still the day before a holiday. It was much better that way.
  • No rainouts, for any series.
  • More Friday/Saturday night races.
  • Autoclub Speedway should be reconfigured. While that’s being done Bruton Smith should remember what he did in Vegas and bring that to Kentucky Speedway. I think it greatly improved the racing.
  • I wish for all races to end two or three wide at the finish line.
  • I wish for all championships to be decided on the last lap of the last race of the season.
  • I wish for more first time winners. I love seeing drivers and teams get their first win.
  • I wish for more sell out races for all series.
  • I hope this two-car tandem racing in NASCAR is coming to an end. I’ll take the pack racing anyday.
  • Side by side commercials all the time. I love that feature and I see more commercials that way. Seems like wise marketing to me!
  • And, a shameless plug for myself, I wish someone from the racing world would call me. Offer me a job. I have many skills you need.
  • I hope you all have a wonderful new year and enjoy the 2012 racing season!!

Follow Adam on Twitter (@aclovelace)