Why Joe Gibbs Will Be Successful In 2008

Friday, February 8th, 2008 9:25am CST

Latest Nascar News And Info! By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.

If you’re new around here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Why will Joe Gibbs be as strong and successful in 2008 as they were in 2007? Simple. The differences are slim.

While we all would like to believe differently, and many have came to this unfortunate realization, it is the plain and simple truth.

Between manufacturers, there just isn’t that much difference between cars anymore. Yes, it’s something we’ve seen coming for a while, we’ve had 16 races to get used to the idea, we’ve had plenty of time prior to that to read the cards. It’s happening though, right before our eyes and a further continuation of nothing but a sticker change. Well, that and dropping a different motor under the hood.

The search for proof, like we need it, need go no further than this article on Robby Gordon to see the writing on the wall. That writing is also in bold, italic, underlined, and capitalized letters bigger than Paris Hiltons ego.

It was just a week ago that Robby Gordon announced a surprise move to Dodge.

In that time, a week, he has converted half of his current inventory of cars from Ford to Dodge. Robby currently has about a dozen cars, and growing.

Not to take away from all the hard work the folks in the shop have done, as well as the guys from Evernham that have been helping out, but compared to the time and effort to change the previous car from one manufacturer to another, this seems like a brisk walk in the park.

The time taken averages out to about one car changed per day. Not days, or what used to be weeks, one single day.

Coming around full circle, this is exactly why the Gibbs Guys are not worried about their switch of manufacturer.

They’re real good with motors, and they were already pretty darn good with the rest of it.

Read more of this article »

2 comments. Add your 2 cents!.

Filed Under: Denny Hamlin, Drivers, Joe Gibbs Racing #11, Joe Gibbs Racing #18, Joe Gibbs Racing #20, Kyle Busch, Nascar, Robby Gordon, Robby Gordon Motorsports #7, Sprint Cup, Teams, Tony Stewart

Trackback URL for: Why Joe Gibbs Will Be Successful In 2008

Thunder Lounge: On Pit Row

By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Tuesday February 5, 2008
5:07pm CST
Published on Thunder Lounge.

On Pit Row

I’d like to thank the guys at On Pit Row for a great 15 minutes this evening.

In case you’ve missed out on things over the past several weeks, your truly got the nod (thanks guys!) to redo the entire family of sites that make up On Pit Row. For reference, there are currently 3 specific sites. On Pit Row, Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie, and The Fast Lap.

First, their main site was well outdated and in need of major plastic surgery. Next, they had a blog over on a particular “pad” type of service, and finally they had a great blog at Thunder Lounge ™.

Lots of places to visit, and nothing really tied together with their site. We’ve taken those sites, and combined them under one roof.

Particularly pleasing is that you only need one page to find what you’re looking for. All of their content is now aggregated on their home page, so you can quickly find recent content across all three of their sites.

Continuing on, their RSS feed now also feeds content from all three sites as well and without any modification needed for subscribers on their old blog. Thanks to feedburner, all that was needed was simply pointing it to their new feed, and that was it.

Finally, why manage multiple user accounts? If you already have a great Thunder Lounge account, you can sign in to comment, and it will be good for any of their three sites under the onpitrow.com domain. What, you aren’t blogging at Thunder Lounge, nor have an account? Don’t get left behind as 2008 is going to be a massive year for Thunder Lounge.

Overall, On Pit Row has been greatly improved, and will now begin to lead the way in usable, relevant NASCAR media websites.

Moving onto this evening, Thunder Lounge made an appearance live On Pit Row. We’d like to thank the guys for the time, and look forward to the next go around.

Thanks, and enjoy the new On Pit Row.

Oh yeah, Hamlin, don’t let us down.

Read more of this article »

3 comments. Add your 2 cents!.

Filed Under: Denny Hamlin, Drivers, Nascar, Network News, Thunder Lounge

Tagged As: Bench Racing, Denny Hamlin, On Pit Row

Trackback URL for: Thunder Lounge: On Pit Row

Daytona 500: 12 Days and Counting

By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Tuesday February 5, 2008
3:36pm CST
Published on Thunder Lounge.

Denny Hamlin

2007 Stats
- Organization: Joe Gibbs Racing
- Car Number: 11
- Crew Chief: Mike Ford
- Sponsor: FedEx
- Points: 12th :: 6143 :: -580
- Starts: 36
- Poles: 1
- Wins: 1
- Top 5’s: 12
- Top 10’s: 18
- Winnings: $4,943,810
2008 Preview
- Organization: Joe Gibbs Racing
- Car Number: 11
- Crew Chief: Mike Ford
- Sponsor: FedEx

Ladies and Gentlemen… Welcome to the Chase.

Well, the portion of our little tid bits of information where we’re finally a scant 12 days from it. The next few days are going to creak by, so here we are with #12 in the final 2007 point standings to take your mind off the boredom.

So much for the Sophomore Slump. Well, I guess he had twice as many wins the year prior, and finished better in the Chase. If that’s a “slump”, watch out for Hamlin.

By most accounts, he should have been in contention and took it home a few more times than he did. After a little grumbling with the performance of his crew early in the season, Mike Ford got it sorted out and things picked up. In Hamlins eyes, however, they gave a couple away in the meantime.

Frustration. That’s the word to sum it up in 2007 for Hamlin. What? How could one be frustrated after a season that was better than at least 32 other drivers? Tell me! Tell me now! Easy. It wasn’t good enough for them. After running like a banshee, they flopped in the Chase. Call it pressure, luck, whatever. They choked. There hasn’t been anything on their mind but redemption in 2008, and that’s an easy guess.

2008 will be exatly that for Hamlin. A year for redemtion. Of course it’s on more accounts than just choking in the Chase. They also have to prove to themselves, their boss, their sponsors, their fans, the garage, and the rest of the world that the switch to Toyota wasn’t a mistake.

Note: information is accurate as of date published. Check Thunder Lounge for additional updates and information.

Read more of this article »

Share your thoughts!.

Filed Under: Denny Hamlin, Drivers, Joe Gibbs Racing #11, Nascar, Nextel Cup, Sprint Cup, Teams

Trackback URL for: Daytona 500: 12 Days and Counting

Some People!

By Marc, Thunder Lounge
Thursday September 6, 2007
2:48pm CDT
Published on Thunder Lounge.

To borrow, and butcher someone else’s phrase; You can satisfy some of the people some of the time, but you can’t satisfy all of the people all of the time.

What brought me to this not so startling conclusion is a couple days looking at NASCAR headlines and stories as we head into NASCAR final “regular season” event at Richmond.

Here is one example that is fairly accurate and representative of various sources that all play on the same theme, the new Chase with 12 teams admitted to the party has “ruined” Richmond.

“Chase playoff rules strip drama from race.” The gist of this article is based on a hypothetical:

“Had the series headed to race No. 26 at Richmond under the original Chase rules, four drivers separated by 38 points would go into this weekend’s Chevy Rock and Roll 400 battling for the last two spots.”

This is where I insert, “yeah but,” the Beloved One would be 161 points behind and not hanging by the thread of 128 points as he is now.

Put another way, a virtual certainty vice as least a thread of hope. And here’s another “but,” that offers a bit of drama, Junior has won three times at Richmond, including his last Cup win in May 2006.

It’s also appropriate to highlight the words of Tony Stewart at this point:

“It’s nice coming here [Richmond] and knowing that if it comes down to a fuel-mileage race this weekend that we can take a chance like we did at Kansas City and go for those 10 points versus not being locked in like we were last year and fighting at this time, so it’s definitely taken a lot of the stress and the pressure off, for sure,”

So, Tony is in a position to lay caution to the wind and go for broke in order to gain the 10 bonus points that go with it.

That sounds like drama and potential excitement to me. In addition Johnson and Gordon will not only try gain another 10 bonus points for themselves but have a wary eye on Stewart as well. If they can’t get the points they may try to block, by whatever means, Smoke from getting them.

Then there’s Tony’s teammate Denny Hamlin. He’s locked up a Chase spot but Richmond is his home track. He has two top-five finishes and three top 10s in three previous Richmond races. He finished second in May ‘06 and third last May.

If anyone thinks Hamlin will be stroking at his home tack, with nothing to lose, I’ve got a nuclear powered Vegamatic to sell you.

To reiterate my lede, “you can satisfy some of the people some of the time, but you can’t satisfy all of the people all of the time.” (But you can satisfy people for 16 straight years.)

And some people have so little ambition or imagination they have to gin up some phony tripe about how Richmond isn’t Richmond anymore.

Say, I have an idea… let’s just shut down Richmond. Then Fontana could be the end of the regular season. By most accounts the place already sucks, might as well add to its misery right?

But then the whiners would manufacture another reason wouldn’t they?

“It’s always something — if it isn’t one thing, it’s another.” - Roseanne Rosanna Dana

UPDATE: As noted the other day ISC had widdled down potential buyers for its now useless (to them) Staten Island site.

The decision is made, ISC confirmed it had reached a preliminary agreement to sell its land to ProLogis, the world’s largest developer of distribution warehouses. As Staten Island Advance notes distribution warehouses are “places that are also magnets for trucks” and “the entertainment value is nil.”

The feared flood of fans on race weekends will be replaced by a steady stream of trucks to the site, minus the fun and brand-name sponsorships. Former Borough President Guy Molinari who once worked as a lobbyist for the racetrack proposal, stopped short yesterday of saying, “I told you so.”

To which I’ll add, Buwawawahahaha, SOME PEOPLE, get exactly what they deserve. (read the rest of the Advance article, ISC warned these idiots what would happen and now it has)

Read more of this article »

Join the discussion.

Filed Under: Dale Earnhardt Junior, Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Marc Boland, Nascar, Nextel Cup, Richmond, The Water Cooler

Trackback URL for: Some People!