I didn’t stutter.

Lance McGrew has been named the interim Crew Chief on the #88 AMP/National Guard Chevy of Dale Earnhardt Jr. starting with the June 7th event at Pocono. Team Manager Brian Whitesell will handle the duties this weekend at Dover.

In addition, Whitesell and Rex Stump (Hendricks’ lead chassis engineer) have been assigned to support McGrew on a full-time basis.

Tony Eury Jr. will move to a key position within Hendrick Motorsports’ research and development group.

Read the release at Hendrick Motorsports.

There’s only one way to sum up the following headline: About. Damn. Time.

NASCAR has seen the light, and found the source. The annual awards banquet is coming to Vegas.

That should make Bruton Smith happy, as well as a large chunk of the NASCAR Nation who have let their voices ring with a distaste for the previous location in New York. A location which shunned NASCAR’s attempt to build a new track there, and turned its back on it.

It won’t save the bad jokes, but it’s a step in the right direction.

That’s right, it’s Texas Time. And when it’s Texas time, it’s Thunder Lounge time.

By now, you should know the drill. In case you’ve forgot, here’s the scoop.

Come on down to the infield when the sun goes down, bringing your party essentials of course. We’ll handle the rest, as we always do.

Have a shockingly good time. We sure will.

This is getting out of hand. Completely.

In case you’ve been in a hole since they ran the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta, let me catch you up real quick.

The scenario: All but 6 cars have made green flag pit stops, early on in the race.

The situation: A tire escapes from the crew of Marcos Ambrose’s #47 Toyota Camry, which quickly takes off and rolls across pit road, and along the “road” of that little flat track in the infield.

So here you have a tire rolling towards cars moving at 180MPH+. Needless to say, it’s a horror story waiting to happen.

In a quick response the Gas Man, Mr. Jimmy Watts, scans for cars coming down pit road, and then hauls the mail after it. NASCAR throws a caution, all but 6 cars are trapped at least a lap down, and the drama ensues.

No, it’s not smart to run into the infield grass when cars are running 180MPH+ on the track. It’s dangerous, and foolhardy.

After quickly scanning the situation (noticing that it was clear to make a dash not only across pit row, but also noticing that there wasn’t and cars wrecking into the infield grass), Jimmy made the dash.

Let’s get a few things straight. As I said, it wasn’t smart. Look at the situation though. A tire is rolling quickly towards the racing surface, and at the time there was no indication it wouldn’t make it. How many cars would it have tore up? Could it have possibly been booted into the stands? Into the infield campgrounds? A lot of people could have been hurt. So the one (Jimmy Watts) sacrifices himself (and his NASCAR credentials) to make an effort to stop it before a lot of people could have been hurt.

Before you call bullshit, I kindly remind you of an incident at Charlotte recently. Remember the tire that got bopped into the infield and hit that camper? Yes, it can happen.

Now, a lot of blame has been placed on Jimmy for causing the caution. Again, that’s bullshit too. NASCAR would have thrown one anyway because the tire was in the infield. Like it or not, the yellow laundry was coming out, regardless of whether Jimmy went after it or let it play out.

It was a quick decision to try and ensure the safety of all, by sacrificing the safety of the one. No, it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but hindsight is always 20/20 (or Logano/Logano if you prefer). At the time the tire was rolling, there was no way to know it wasn’t going to stop. By the time it was evident, Jimmy was all but on top of the tire.

While he did violate NASCAR rules, this is being way over dramatized. Not only in the garage, but in the media as well. The caution would have come out anyway. Period. So get over it, it was coming. Instead of nailing this guy’s ass to the wall, grow a pair and at least show a little thanks as this situation could have been much, much worse. If you want to hang someone out to dry, the tire shouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with. But things happen. The tire got away, a car knocked it and sent it rolling, and there you have it.

Quit busting this poor guy’s chops over it. It was reckless, yes, but it was also a self-sacrifice to potentially save someones life. It didn’t come to that, but it could have. Something which was unknown until he was well across the infield.

Update: March 10th, 2009

“DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jimmy Watts, a crew member for the No. 47 team in the Sprint Cup Series, has been suspended from the next four races (until April 22) for rule violations during this past Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Watts was found to have violated Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing) and 9-15-U (crew members must not go on the race track for any reason while the cars are racing or while the cars are running under the yellow flag or the red flag, unless otherwise directed to do so by a NASCAR official). Watts has also been placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31.

In addition, Frank Kerr, crew chief for the No. 47, has been placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31 for violating Sections 12-1 and 9-4-A (crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of the team).”

You know what? That’s just fine. The potential loss of human life is worth it. Hold your heads high, guys. While there are always consequences for our actions, this is by far the lesser of two evils. Don’t listen to all the arm-chair crew chief’s out there, they weren’t there. Sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing to do, and the toughest pill to swallow. Had Jimmy not went after it, and something happened, they would have been bitching that you guys sat there and did nothing. End result, they’re always going to bitch no matter what happens.

No racing, no real news, the world is going to hell in a hand basket and thanks to Ol’ Uncle Willie we’re all reminded that no matter how damn slick we think we are, there is but one true master of the art…

The image pretty much sums it up.

NASCAR, you’re f***kin’ up. With a ban on testing at tracks where NASCAR plays ball in any of the touring series (Cup, Nationwide, Trucks, and East OR West), you’ve forced these teams (who are going to damn well test anyway, and you know it) to travel that much further to run a car.

How dumb is that? Pretty lame, if you ask me. Although I bet Andy Hillenburg is chomping at the bit. Silly to add a half-mile right outside the backstretch? I think not.

What NASCAR has done
NASCAR has saved face, and created positive press. Does anyone really think this is going to save anyone any money? Are there tracks out there where the teams can go?

The answers to those questions are, “No”, and “You bet your ass”.

Teams need data to make their cars better. They get the best data from a car on a track, with telemetry.

Ever hear of Texas World Speedway? From their website:

“TWS is located on approximately 375 acres with direct access to Highway 6 south of College Station, Texas. In addition to the two mile “D” shaped oval with 22 degree banking turns with 8 degree banking in the front of the grandstands, TWS is a road racers speedway with a 1.8, 1.9 and 2.9 mile high speed road courses. These are the primary track layouts for TWS; however, there are other layouts that can be customized (for example, a 3 mile grand prix road course).“

Sure is a long drive from Charlotte.

What NASCAR should have done
Ban any and all testing at tracks other than Charlotte, Martinsville, Rockingham. Period. Sanctioned by NASCAR or not.

Let teams test all they want, whenever they want, but keep it close enough to home to make it cheap.

OK, the only real benefit there is Charlotte. There are several short tracks in the area they could test at, and (unfortunately) Rockingham is still fair game.

However, what makes up the meat of the schedule? Mile and a half cookie cutters. Where do teams spend a ton of time testing at? Kentucky. See where this is going? Now those will shift to more runs down in Texas. More fuel, further distance, more days away.

So NASCAR may have put on a good game face for the media, but all we have to say is, “Gentlemen, hit your buttons.”

You’re two days away from the biggest Halloween party on the planet.

You know how we roll, and unlike Wheaton, we won’t be rickrolling you on this one. Come one, come all, come often. Halloween was made for Thunder Lounge, racing, watching NASCAR and drinkin’ beeeeeer.

(Someday we’ll get back to covering the series, we swear. Until then, check out some posts from a few of the Lounge Lizards.)

October 31st: Thunder Lounge
Texas Motor Speedway Infield
Live DJ, BYOB
Party ’til the cops send ya home.

Thunder Lounge is not affiliated with Texas Motor Speedway. We just live there 12 days a year.

Look for more details in the next couple of weeks.

Forty two Sprint Cup drivers hated NASCAR’s experiment in stock car design after the Samsung 500 Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Jeff Gordon actually parked his car early - after an inevitable spin and wall wack - and insisted that crew chief Steve Letarte “fix the dang thing”. Gordon later returned to the track to taste the results of Letarte’s efforts. The leftovers weren’t much better and after a few more laps Gordon called it a day. Jeff said that they tried every possible set-up. Nothing works for the team. That is not a good sign.

Gordon’s teammate Jimmy Johnson finished second and led sixty-some laps. All-in-all that is a big improvement from recent results, but Johnson says the new car needs help. You can’t drive it in traffic, it needs more down-force. And this is a team that has tested the new car nearly every non-race day for the last two weeks. Hell, Chad - can I hear a hallelujah - Knauss is the crew chief! If they can’t figure it out ……?

Maybe Joe Gibbs Racing can. Not according to third place finisher Kyle Busch who said;

“Was it fun to drive? No. Was it hard to drive? Yes,” Busch said. “Did it survive the day? Yes. So was it a good day? Sure.”

Kyle was asked to talk further about the car and said:

“I’m not going to answer that question. Ask NASCAR that question.”

Ryan Newman finished fourth, but flunked the post-race rectal and will undoubtedly lose points, cash and crew chief attendance for a while. Presumably because they exceeded legality in the effort to fix the problems with the car. So much for the cheating solution.

The race winner was Carl “flipper” Edwards - for the third time this year. Carl doesn’t see the problem. At all. It isn’t so much that Edwards thinks that his new cars handle any better than his competitor’s rides. He just thinks the way that they are is OK. The same for everybody, a challenge to drive for sure but rewarding to master. He likes it.

NASCAR says they have no intention of making big - or even small - changes to the former CoT. That fact may make Carl Edwards the eventual champion of the first Sprint CoT Cup Series.

NASCAR’s annual silly season is off to an early start.

Last week the story was of Richard Childress Racing capturing the General Mills flag from the Petty #43 and planting it on the hood of a fourth RCR Cup car. Where there’s a car there must eventually be a driver and the speculation began that Petty Enterprises’ Bobby Labonte might make the move to that ride in 2009. The last few days have seen the names of Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr emerge. Earlier, others had speculated that Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman were possibilities.

Next up came the news that Kyle Petty was pulling himself or being ranked - you decide - from the Petty #45 and being replaced by young Chad McCumbee - at least for the Texas race. The #45 is well out of the top thirty five in owner’s points now and it feels like Kyle may be on the way out of the picture as a full time driver for the venerable team.

Then yesterday came rumblings from Florida, where Chip Ganassi is watching over his Indy Car investment and stewing about the performance of his three Cup teams. Chip isn’t happy with either Dario Franchitti’s or Reed Sorenson’s seasons so far. Ganassi talks as if he feels the problems are more team than driver related. But that wouldn’t make me feel all that comfortable if I were Dario or Reed.

The top thirty five qualifying rule puts more focus and pressure on the tail-enders of Sprint Cup. We’ve only had one race since the automatic qualifiers started being based on this year’s owners’ points. The sixth race of the year is now opening day for NASCAR’s silly season.