Jimmie Johnson celebrates his win in the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500

One can almost feel sorry for Mark Martin, until one remembers that he’s a racer in one of the most popular and well paid motorsports in the world and has a great life. Just because you don’t win it all, doesn’t mean you should hang your head. Mark has had a tremendous year and unfortunately for him, he has been racing against a better overall package the last few years. Jimmie and his No.48, along with his team, have consistently been the best for four years running and it doesn’t look like they plan on making any changes, so there could be a difficult few years for his competition ahead.

One could make an argument for Jimmie Johnson being the best to ever sit behind the wheel of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car. Jimmie is best when closing on the line of his goal, which is usually the line of a NASCAR competition, and now that he has gotten his bearing and line on the track back, the 2009 Sprint Cup Series could be over. He might have let off the gas a bit in Texas, but now he’s back on the pedal and his line to the Chase finish line appears to be clear ahead of him.

Jimmie will come to Homestead Miami Speedway confident and only really needing to stick to his lines and stay out of traffic that could possibly take him out of the race and it should be good enough for the win. This is Jimmie Johnson were talking about and he’ll come out and see if he can win the race, not play it safe. Legends are legends for a reason and Jimmie isn’t someone to play it safe or he wouldn’t be out on a NASCAR track. This doesn’t mean he’ll be reckless, but I do expect him to try to win, if the chance shows itself.

“Image: Zuma Press”

Post from: EveryJoe

Jimmie Johnson Closing on the Finish Line

Undefeated:

• Alabama
• Boise State
• Cincinnati
• Florida
• Iowa
• Kansas
• South Florida
• TCU
• Texas

Winless

• Ball State
• Eastern Michigan
• Florida Atlantic
• Miami (OH)
• New Mexico
• Rice
• Western Kentucky

Really, I think the big surprises here are that there are no major surprises. Few people would have put Iowa on the undefeated list when predicting records at this point in the season, considering that they played Penn State, but once again, the boys at Happy Valley choked.

I guess South Florida on the list is a little surprising too. They haven’t had a totally easy season. Cincinnati has (sorry, I know ya’ll love ‘em, but I’m not sure they aren’t totally overrated). Next week, they play one another, so that will end for one team.

WR Mardy Gilyard has been important for the Bearcats so far this season. Can they continue to charge ahead as they meet harder opponents on the field? Image: Newscom

I’m hoping that Cincinnati proves they deserve to be ranked so high, but I don’t think South Florida will just roll over.

As for the winless list…well…let’s just say that Michigan is happy to not be on it.

Post from: EveryJoe

2009 Midseason Undefeated and Winless

I digress. Let’s check out the AP Top 10 this week:

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. USC
4. Alabama
5. Mississippi
6. Penn State (actually, they’re also #5, it was a tie)
7. BYU
8. California
9. LSU
10. Boise State

All of the top ten teams are still undefeated, but that’s not surprising since many of them had super easy games the past two weeks – or no game at all (Mississippi already had their week off).

I have to start at the bottom with Boise State at #10. I predict a win against Fresno State, with a score of roughly 51 – 34. Ok, that game was tonight. So, they remain undefeated – more on that when we review Week Three. Also significant: #20 Miami beat #14 Georgia Tech 33 – 17 on Thursday night. Again, we’ll talk about that more in a few days when I review the entire weekend, but damn. Where did this team come from?

So let’s see. #5 Penn State has a gimme, and #8 California should have too hard of a time at Minnesota. #4 Alabama plays North Texas at home. *shrug* And poor Washington is about to feel the wrath of #3 USC. Even #5 Mississippi is just playing Southeastern Louisiana (who?), and #9 LSU is playing Louisiana-Lafayette. Errr….scratch what I said about people playing real teams.

We aren’t totally without decent match-ups. #1 Florida finally plays someone we’ve heard of at least when they host Tennessee tomorrow afternoon. Can Kiffen and his boys pull off the upset? Highly unlikely, but you never know. Stranger things have happened. I think that it is more likely that Florida will run all over them. We’ll see I guess.

#7 BYU hosts Florida State later that evening. Now, if you would have asked me at the start of the season, I would have said that this would be an interesting game. Florida State has proven, however, that they were highly overrated coming into 2009. I mean, at least they won last week. There for awhile, it looked like they were going to lose to Jacksonville State.

Then there’s #2 Texas, who hosts Texas Tech this week. Texas Tech is 2 – 0, but they’ve played North Dakota and Rice…so they might as well be 0 – 0. What makes this game interesting is that last year, Texas Tech stop the Longhorns at the last second with a Michael Crabtree touchdown. This year, though, they have a brand new quarterback after losing Graham Harrell, and of course, Michael Crabtree is making NFL headlines instead of NCAA headlines. Texas? They still have Colt McCoy. Either Texas Tech is going to prove themselves in this game, or they’ll prove that their first two games really were just against horrible opponents. Texas is out for blood, having been denied the National Championship because of this game last year, so my prediction is that Texas will put them in their place.

McCoy and the Longhorns want a little revenge after last year. Image: Newscom

That covers the top ten, but there are a few other games worth mentioning. #19 Nebraska travels to #13 Virgina Tech, with kick off at 3:30. I think Nebraska has really been a sleeper team so far. Granted, like most programs, their first two weeks were basically not even games, but their offense is pretty strong. I’m looking forward to both teams showing what they got.

I’m also interested to see if Notre Dame bounces back from their loss last week to Michigan. They play one of their rivals, Michigan State, this week. Now, Michigan State isn’t the bottom of the barrel, but they aren’t good by any stretch of the imagination. Ya’ll know as well as I do, though, that college football is all about momentum. Notre Dame was thrown for a real loop last week, so we’ll see if they can spring back.

To be honest, not many games interest me this week. Penn State will be lucky if I roll out of bed in time to watch the kick off, and most of the top ten have easy weeks, once again. I know the major debate in college football is whether or not to have a playoff system, but maybe more important that this is the debate of changing scheduling rules. I mean, when a horrendous team plays a top-ranked team, it just looks bad for both schools.

Post from: EveryJoe

College Football Week Three 2009 Preview

Image: Newscom

It isn’t a bad decision. McCoy should go high in the NFL draft, even if his year isn’t as good at last year, guaranteeing him millions of dollars a year in annual income. If he gets hurt…well, I guess there’s a reason college players still get degrees. McCoy’s policy would pay between $3 million and $5 million n the event of career-ending injury. The premium is through the roof and the chances of such an injury are slim, but I bet the policy will help him sleep better at night.

Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford, last year’s other Heisman contenders and the other two top quarterbacks in the country, also have insurance policies for their senior years.

Post from: EveryJoe

McCoy and Other College Players get Insured

Apparently, Kindle was texting while driving, and when looking at a message, he lost control of his car and crashed into an apartment building in Austin. The crash caused just under $9000 worth of damage, but no one was hurt. Sources say that after the crash, he pushed his car out of the building and drove home.

Sergio Kindle, Image:Newscom

That’s not against the law in Texas, apparently. He hit a stationary object and didn’t hurt anyone, so he’s only required to file a report, which he did (or will be doing soon, according to his lawyer). His insurance will likely cover the damage, but he’s also offered to pay for it out of pocket.

Kindle was checked by team doctors after the accident and was suffering from a concussion, but they concluded that he didn’t have to go to the hospital. Spokesman John Biano says that he told coaches the next day about the accident. This isn’t the first time he’s had trouble on the road – in 2007, he was suspended for three games for drunk driving.

Moral of the story? Don’t text while you drive, kids. It’s stupid, dangerous, and potentialy lethal. Kindle got lucky he wasn’t hurt more and didn’t hurt someone else.

Post from: EveryJoe

Texting in Texas Leads to Crash

Jeff Gordon finally celebrates after 47 losses in a row

The win allowed Gordon to increase his points gap in the Sprint Cup to 162 points over the second place driver, who just happens to be Johnson, and gave him his 82^nd career victory in Sprint Cup, which puts him in sixth place on the list for career victories in the popular series.

Gordon will probably be buying his crew a drink or two after the race, it was their efficiency and skill that allowed him to get out of the pit first under caution on lap 305 to take the lead. The race restarted on lap 309 of 334 with Gordon pulling away from the field, but around lap 319 Johnson started to pull Gordon back in by about two seconds, but he was only able to get as close as three or four car lengths by the time Gordon crossed the line.

The pit stop turned out to be the achilles heel for Carl Edwards, who was in the lead when he pitted, but restarted 11^th on lap 309 after spending an unusual amount of time in the pit and eventually finished 10^th. Edward’s teammate, Greg Biffle, also fell to pit problems, despite having one of the faster cars, when he had problems with lug nuts on his tires during his pit stop, but managed to finish third. The third Roush teammate, Matt Kenseth, also had a slow pit stop due to lug nut problems, and ended up in fifth place.

Tony Stewart once again had a strong race driving for Stewart-Haas, running fast for the majority of the race, without any real pit problems and finished fourth in the grid. The sixth through tenth places were taken by Mark Martin, Juan Montoya, Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, and the before mentioned Carl Edwards.

Image: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Jeff Gordon Wins Samsung 500