Joey Lagano's Nationwide post race Interview

Photo Courtesy of NASCAR.com

This weekend, Nationwides Media Team twittered from the race in Nashville so make you you follow them since they will be at it again in Phoenix. They got quite a few twitpics from the weekend which can be viewed here.

See below for the official Joey Logano Nationwide Series Interview from this weekend.

Joey Logano NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion Interview – Nashville Superspeedway
Eighteen-year-old Joey Logano captured his first Nationwide Series victory of the season and the second of his career in the Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Joey Logano: It’s big for me, you know it’s an awesome confidence booster for sure. You know, looking and saying hey I can do this, I am here for a reason, I can win races. That’s big, you know, just to reassure yourself that, and I’m sure this is all going to keep carrying on— you’ve got to build on this momentum and keep going.

Logano was able to hold off teammate Kyle Busch for the win.
Kyle Busch: He had a better car on the short run, we had a better long run car, and you know I want to thank Z-Line, NOS Energy Drink, Toyota, all the guys on this team they did a great job. It’s just a shame we weren’t able to get out there and win this thing. You know, it’s kind of frustrating but we finished second today.

Logano had a good feeling about the race from the start of the weekend.
Logano: You know the car was good right off the bat, we qualified great, we practiced great and you know it started going and Kyle got by us—the car just kept getting tighter and tighter on the long runs and Dave just kept adjusting it and adjusting it and we were really good on the short runs and then we kept tightening up as we kept going so. As you look at Kyle back there at the end of the race and you get that clean air back on my nose and I know he was tight so that kind of made it worse for him and it was good enough to hold him off. It’s cool to have Joe Gibbs race a one-two finish. That’s a big deal for all the guys at the shop too.

Third place-finisher Brad Keselowski was asked why he was happier than Busch, who finished a spot ahead of him.
Brad Keselowski: Highlight that as the question of the year. Do you have enough time for me today to answer that? Obviously you know he’s running two series so when you come to the Nationwide level as a driver like himself that’s you know as successful as he is, sometimes when you’re not winning you’re not happy.

The Nationwide Series will return this week to the Phoenix International Raceway. Look for the audio interview following the Basha’s Supermarkets 200 April 17.

The Busch Series and I don't mean Anheuser

AP Photo / Isacc Brekken

We may as well call it The Busch Series. The Busch Brothers have been on fire for the 2009 season. Every track that NASCAR has visited has resulted with one or both of the Busch brothers being in Victory Lane. In Daytona, Kyle won the 2nd Gatorade Dual - In Fontana, Kyle won the Nationwide race - In Las Vegas, Kyle won the Sprint Cup race & the Truck race - In Atlanta, Kurt won the Sprint Cup race and Kyle won the Truck Race. That's right...Kyle has won at every track that they have visited this year.

• Kurt Busch is currently 2nd in points, with 1 win, 1 top 5 and 1 top 10.
• Kyle Busch is currently 5th in points with 1 win and 1 top 5 (his Dual win doesn't count). Kyle is also 3rd in the Nationwide Series with 1 win and 1st in the Truck Series with 2 wins.

The Busch brothers aren't exactly fan favorites. I personally like Kurt and Kyle's talent is starting to grow on me. No matter what way you look at it, both of these brothers are extremely talented. How long do you think it will take for sibling rivalry to get in the way? That will make for an interesting season!

Third time was not a charm for Roush Racing

You know those bad days when it seems like a black cloud is hovering and wont let you go? Well, Jack Roush could probably write a book on that after the Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

It started on lap 6 with a fan favorite Matt Kenseth who won the season-opening Daytona 500 and last week's race at Fontana. Tonight his engine blew up and killed his chance of making history by winning the first 3 races of the year, which no driver in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has ever done.

Moving onto lap 72, where David Ragan also blew an engine.

On to the the final lap while running in the 4th position, the defending champion of the race Carl Edwards also blew his engine.

What is going on with the engines here?!

Edwards wound up 17th, Ragan finished 41st and Kenseth in 42nd. Almost sounds like the results of my fantasy team after tonight's race.

The Cat in the Hats saving grace? 2 of his 5 drivers finished in the top 10. Greg Biffle crossed the checkered flag in 7th and Jamie McMurray in 9th.

Pole winner Kyle Busch became the first driver in history to win the race from the pole position. Yet is he still considered a winner from the pole position when he had to go to the back of the pack since he changed his engine prior to the race? Again, what's with the engines?

Nascar Cribs

Early this year, CMT kicked off a new season of Cribs with a NASCAR edition. It featured Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Of the three, I like Kevin and Delana's house the best. On CMTs website, they have an extra footage video up, which I posted below. I learned from this footage that Kevin loves Goldschlager (ew!) and Denny has 2 roommates.

NASCAR Cribs must have been a hit. I read this morning that Martin Truex Jr will be filming a segment on Tuesday, March 3rd!!!

"I really enjoyed having the CMT people here," Truex said. "I've always been a big fan of Cribs, so to have my place featured on the show is really cool."

My question for you is if you could see any drivers home, which would it be? My personal request would be Jimmie and Chandra Johnson. My reason? To see Chandra's closet.

Kyle Busch Interview

Kyle Busch NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion Interview -- Auto Club Speedway Saturday night in Fontana

The following is a Interview with Kyle Busch following his victory Saturday at the Auto Club Speedway Saturday night in Fontana provided by Nationwide Insurance, title sponsor of the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

With his victory in the Stater Bros. 300 Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway Saturday night in Fontana, CA, Kyle Busch became the first driver in NASCAR history to win two series races in the same day. Earlier Saturday, Busch took the checkered flag in the Camping World Truck Series Race.
Kyle Busch: Both races weren’t easy, they were both tough. I would say that the Nationwide Series race was a little harder, there at the end especially cause Carl and Kevin and all the guys there they wanted to battle real hard at the end for the win and so, it always sucks really really bad when you lead the most laps and you have a dominant car and then you finish second so, I was not about to let that happen today. I tried my darndest to make sure that wasn’t gonna be the case, so we made that come true and we were in Victory Lane so. Both races were tough, certainly not easy, never is in this game.

Lined up between Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick on the final restart with 16 laps to go, Busch had a close call before finally cruising into Victory Lane.
Busch: I let it drift up the hill just a little bit and I got Carl loose. I never got into him just got him air loose, and fortunately I squeaked through there and Harvick and I battled down the backstretch and I got to turn three and I knew that if I didn’t put it on the top and put it on kill and get the move done there then it was gonna be hard to do, cause for some reason these guys get better at the end of races and our stuff always stays the same and so we knew that it was gonna be a battle there. Fortunately, you know, Harvick didn’t outdo us there at the end and we were able to win.

Harvick finished just one second behind Busch.
Kevin Harvick: I thought if I could get by Kyle and get clean air there on that restart, we might have something for him if we get in front of him but just a little bit too free and wasn’t quite able to quite clear him going into three.

To see a the video race review of Fontana, go to http://www.nationwide.com/series/home.jsp?WT.svl=B6a

Should Sprint and Nationwide be so closely intertwined?

I have been thinking about this for a while. We have been talking about it on Twitter but its really hard to tell you my true thoughts in 140 characters or less. When I was growing up, the BUSCH (sorry i still call it that to this day) series was almost like a JV, a college series of sort. It was a good chance to see some up and coming drivers that would one day race in the Sprint series. There was a sprinkling of "some been there done that" drivers who-while clearly out of the chase-would race a baby carriage if you put him near it.

Fast forward to 2009: 16 of of the 43 drivers were active Sprint Cup chasers in Daytona's Camping World 300. I think this is horrible! In this economy, I feel there may be a need to make some adjustments/provisions to its Nationwide race. I know from a ticket sales point of view this may be a definitive hell to the no..but think of it from a marketing perspective. The bread and butter of any race team is through its sponsorships....especially when they are just starting out. In this economy who would give a sponsor a bigger bang for his buck? Should they put their brand on a Carl Edwards Nationwide Car or a lesser known Justin Allgaier for example?

I just don't think that this is fair to the guys that are trying to make it into the sport. Some would argue that this gives Nationwide drivers a chance to run with the big guys. But, when freaking Kyle Busch and his stupid bow are being spoken about a history making three peat, the warm and fuzzy feeling of "keep your eyes on that guy" is lost. I also feel that with no provisions soon this will take away from the notoriety of a Nationwide Champion. A Nationwide Series Champion should have the pride of being "the one to watch" when they enter the Sprint Series as a true rookie. I predict that in a couple of years, these up and comers will lose the dollars to compete and the entire field will be one Sprint Series paid practice.

Tee Riddle has made an excellent point: What if Brett Favre or Tom Brady announced they were going back to play college football, or Alex Rodriguez said he was going to play high school baseball?? It would be viewed as ridiculous. Except in NASCAR.

Back in the good ole days, Martin Truex Jr with Kevin "Bono" Manion
who won back to back Nationwide championships in 2004 and 2005
Picture from view images

The Draw Party

Last night, we bundled up like little Eskimos and ventured out in 20 degree Florida weather to attend the Budweiser Draw Party. Luckily, through the radio station, we get VIP access so it is was an evening of good food, free beer and the chance to be up close and personal with the boys. You can see why this has always been one of our favorite events to go to. Although the weather made it unbearable to stay for the whole party, we enjoyed ourselves as usual. I am not sure if our lives can take the debauchery.

I wonder if Jimmie Johnson and Elliot Sadler changed identities. The usually well groomed Jimmie came with his beard still intact....and Elliot was clean looking like a pretty boy! Kyle Busch played nice with the crowd by throwing bags of M&Ms at the fans. I guess the "most hated driver" in Nascar is trying to make a few friends. Watching M&Ms being thrown is slightly different than last year when I watched multiple drivers take "target practice" with their selection flags, Darlynn's chest being the bulls eye.

Tomorrow nights race is going to be different and the lineup has a lot to do with it. I have been complaining since they changed the format. We have 2 rookie of the year contenders running in the Shootout, a driver that didn't race in the Cup Series last year and a few other drivers that do not deserve to be in this race. Meanwhile, last years Daytona 500 winner is not in the race, along with a driver that chased for the cup and a few other guys that in my eyes should be in the Shootout. Regardless, I am excited that we will be at a race tomorrow night.

Do whaaaaaa? Talladega Review take 3

First off, just as a general sigh of relief...all girls made it home from Talladega alive and very well. Actually our trip home was quite luxurious, but more on that later.

So, even as I was packing I was a little apprehensive....what the hell was I getting myself into?? I mean really? I grew up in Daytona Beach, I have seen the craziest of Spring Breaks....Club 3 in Daytona was scary enough....how bad could this be??

On a low note, I will tell you I was nauseous when Martin Truex Jr wrecked...the look on everyone's face from the pit box and the running towards the car was scary.... I am really glad that he was ok, that it wasn't his fault and noone had to pull a Rhianna...next week punkins next week!

Lets get on to the high notes shall we? The trip itself was quite awesome. We were fed and given libations till we couldn't see. The first night was the most fun. Can I tell you how happy I that we are on a motor coach that had an endless supply of Red Bull...I really needed the extra energy, especially for Talladega Blvd.....the most fun was at that tent that was at the place with the thing about the stuff...dont really remember how this was THE apparent meeting spot. But there Tool was and let the party begin...all was well and we were introduced to this person and that person.

Met some guy that did sales or something for DEI...apparently this is an inside sales job as he had the personality of a pin. Have you met me? I can make friends with a fork! I was proper and inquisitive (as dur I have been in sales and marketing for 14 years) and I tried to find a common ground with him to no avail...moving on!

Then we run smack dab into Reed Sorenson and his wing man...great eyes, nice enough but did you know reed is another word for instrument as in a tool? Just saying. His wingman did a horrible job trying to save him from the claws of Blue shiny jacket Pinky Tuscadero from Grease...god bless him...he was really nice.

Saturday was awesome, Napped and watched football and ate and drank....perfect! Sunday was the race and at the end of the day my time in dega was well spent, well remembered and impressionable by all .

I will give you my two cents about the race. As you know, by default Tony Stewart is one of my favorites...thanks to Uncle Pete. I am glad that he won, but I am sad that Regan Smith not only didnt win but NASCAR didnt give him second. Thats just wrong. This is racing and this is what the fans pay to see....but that is bullcrap. What will be interesting is how this event will be portrayed in the media.I believe that this is a blessing for DEI...why?? THIS IS the bees knees for PR!!! If they pull it off right, which I have 100% confidence that they will...they can put Reegs smack dab in the Nascar Spotlight on the map as the driver who didnt go out like Cryle Busch...he is a good racer, took it like a man and god narmit deserves a fantastic sponsor next year.

Ok, I have been officially been in Alabama too long!

"I smell a rat"

Even Kelly thinks Kyle is a rat. They sure are making Circus Monkeys out of these boys....

Mr Ed...

OH my- Mr. Ed. How did we, the queens of coming up with some of the best nicknames - NOT come up with this one?

Rowdy Busch VS Cousin Carl?

This past Sunday, a mere 6 days ago, an article came out about a potential rivalry between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. I remember reading this and laughing to myself being the Carl lover/Kyle hater that I am. Well, I just finished watching the Bristol race and I immediately thought about this article and had to find it online. Lets pull a few paragraphs from this article...... click here to read the whole thing

In fact, NASCAR could promote the hell out of it, a good-natured war of words and an almost WWE-like showdown between Cousin Carl, the Country Bumpkin vs. Rowdy Busch, the Vegas Villain.

Imagine the poster possibilities: Edwards wearing bib overalls with a hayseed stalk sticking out of his mouth staring down Busch, the new Man In Black with the wraparound dark sunglasses and black cowboy hat.

Good vs. evil, All-American boy vs. NASCAR's bad boy. It could be just what the Chase – which has taken its lumps the last couple of years – and NASCAR need.

SO, I hate to even go here but I have to sit here and wonder if NASCAR is capable of pulling off such a great publicity stunt. Carl, who did nothing wrong by any means when he "Bristol Bumped" Kyle to get the lead, ends up getting rammed after the checkered flag by Kyle. Then Dumbo had the nerve to call Carl Mr. Ed like (I admit, I laughed my ass off).

So, with what was written, how ironic were tonights altercations? Especially with Carls post race comment: "They keep talking about rivalries," Edwards said. "We might have one now."

Since Bono is still suspended (it isn't near as fun listening to MTJ without him) I found myself listening to Carl, Kyle and Regan Smith throughout the night. Carl and Kyle were not speaking ill of one another, in fact, they were talking about each others cars and what they had to do to get/keep the lead. Something smells fishy to me. I understand both of these boys have bad tempers but this was a little unexpected.

Personally, I would love to see this "WWE showdown"