CHEERS to the change in the booth. Sure, maybe it was only because of a “loud, public confrontation” that we also learned may have been broken up by peacemaker Kyle Petty, but even in the absence of much notice or a suit from home, Ralph is sure to be a great addition to the race! (And seriously, what could have been so wrong in his hotel room, not enough hair products?) Rumor has it that both the bartender and the desk clerk at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manchester know what really happened.

CHEERS to The Pride of NASCAR: Wood Brothers. And I can’t imagine anyone else doing that interview but Kyle Petty. That group right there and the history they represent  is NASCAR at its best, and Kyle Petty interviewing the men that are the foundation of our sport is TNT race broadcasting at its best.

CHEERS to a staggering statistic: 20 of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers have raced for The Wood Brothers.

CHEERS to Stoley with his reflection on TV for the Ryan Newman interview! I think we should have all the interviews in front of the mirrored doors of the haulers.

JEERS to the looks of those clouds overhead. I wonder if we’ll be looking at Monday racing this week.

CHEERS to David Reutimann’s favorite movie, Stroker Ace. “Fastest chicken in the South!”

CHEERS to the theme of Lindsay on a boat. At least they didn’t make her fish this time, and she got to drive! Extra CHEERS to the TNT guys balancing on the bow.

CHEERS to Kyle Petty’s fishing techniques, and of course, practicing “catch and release”. And Yanni racing! If you want to see the whole entertaining piece, it’s here.

CHEERS to the question about using rain tires so NASCAR doesn’t have to postpone a race for rain and leave race fans (pardon the pun) high and dry. I wonder if the phenomenon of rain following the series explains at least part of the dip in attendance at tracks. Who wants to spend that much on a race trip only to have it either shortened by rain, or run on Monday after you’ve had to return home?

CHEERS to the Photoshop magic at TNT, and Marc, Larry, and Kyle in the photo with their bear friend sneaking up from behind.

JEERS to the competition caution planned for lap 35, but CHEERS to Marc’s understanding being the same as mine (but evidently not shared by NASCAR): If a natural caution comes out before that, no need for it. Why doesn’t NASCAR get that concept?

CHEERS to the Zippy/Joey interview. Those two are magic together, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen another driver so willing to be shaped and molded into greatness as young Mr. Logano. And we especially like Zippy in the big brother/father role.

CHEERS , also, to the pattern that TNT seems to have (intentionally or otherwise) of stacking a broadcast with one pit reporter’s work. Last week it seemed every sit down interview and field trip interview was done by Matt Yocum, and this week it’s Lindsay Czarniak.

CHEERS to seeing “little” Jimmie Johnson! And that was before he knew not to put the trophy in front of his face. It was nice to see those highlights, and especially with the accompanying race footage that had been called by Ralph Sheheen all those years ago.


JEERS to the person in charge of finding talent to sing the anthem. Something went wrong there.

CHEERS to Jack with his hand (and hat) over his heart, but JEERS to looking at a flag from underneath and thinking, “Yup, this looks about right.” I wonder when they figured out it was backwards.

CHEERS to THE Night Race. Indeed. “Racing the way it oughtta be.” Nothin’ better than Bristol at night.

CHEERS to the booth improvement at TNT. Ralph Sheheen has worked long and hard in the business and it’s nice to see him get that recognition. One nice side benefit is that his voice is (at least for me) so tied to lower series that inherently have more excitement, so just hearing him calling the race makes it feel more exciting already!

CHEERS , also, to managing a suit for the broadcast. Arriving just ten minutes before the broadcast, even! Very nice! And did you notice that before they knew he’d have a suit, partner Wally dressed down  so they’d match?

JEERS to trouble for Patrick Carpentier, especially so early in the race.

JEERS to remembering restrictor plates at Loudon and the nightmare that was. Well, nightmare for everyone that wasn’t Jeff Burton, anyhow.

JEERS to a slide putting Jamie in the wall. CHEERS , though, to Kyle’s assessment, “If you ever wanna hit a wall – if you ever HAVE to hit a wall – that’s the way you want to do it.”

CHEERS to a good reason for lines on the race track, not for drivers, but for blame when there’s a wreck.

JEERS to a spotter not believing an apology.

CHEERS to the tell-tale sign of a car started, and CHEERS to Kyle Petty playing the offense card for AJ Allmendinger, but JEERS to what seemed like a car sitting waiting for a yellow flag.

CHEERS to Steve Addington coming over to apologize, but JEERS to his driver who has no excuse for hitting a crewman in front of him. Can a driver see a guy coming down pit road? Maybe not. Can he see all of his own crewmen as they move about his car? Not usually. But should he be able to see a guy standing in front of his own hood? Always.

CHEERS to Mark Martin being good on every race track!

JEERS to a dual spin by Michael Waltrip and Elliott Sadler, but what made Robby spin? Nobody hit him at all. Just didn’t wanna be left out, maybe?

CHEERS to throwing it to Marty and not sounding angry! We love Ralph!

CHEERS to Martin Truex spending his 29th birthday fishing with his dad. What a cool thing to do.

CHEERS to the camera angle low on the 42 team as we see a red-legged crewman scamper by on a pit stop.

JEERS to backing up by mistake. It gave me an instant mental picture of a pull-down lever over the steering wheel with a PRNDL and David clunking it from one to the other and accidentally staying in reverse.

CHEERS to the good ol’ days and everyone NOT catching fire every time, and CHEERS to Kyle having a lock-out on EVERY gear.

CHEERS to birthday boys, Jeff Burton, Mike Skinner, and Junior Johnson, but I don’t like thinking about Junior Johnson being 78 years old already.

JEERS to more reports of crewmen in trouble.

CHEERS to Kyle Petty and Ralph Sheheen, moments away from being rock stars!

CHEERS to Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon racing like two champions should. It’s nice to see Kurt up front again, and who’d have ever expected me to say that?

JEERS to a locked up car in the wall, and all the parts at Menard’s useless to fix it.

JEERS to a bonehead from Las Vegas taking out three RCR cars in one stupid move. What is the problem he has staying in line on a restart? Every restart he thinks he has to go where other people haven’t thought to go, but here’s a newsflash, Skippy, they don’t go there because they’re smart enough not to!

CHEERS , I guess, to that on-board camera. We’d rather that hadn’t happened, but since it did, we were glad to see such fantastic footage of it up close and personal.

CHEERS to post-wreck interviews showing man after man able to compose himself and speak to the media amid his own disappointment. Imagine that.

CHEERS to Kyle Petty being in the booth even if I couldn’t disagree with him more. “People are gonna say this is Kyle Busch’s fault…” Yes we are. Because it was.

CHEERS to open mics earlier than Wally expected, “This will be a Kyle bash.” And Martin Truex handling his interview with more maturity than the punk in the 18 will likely ever have.

CHEERS to “Say ‘shootout style’ Wally!” And bigger CHEERS to Wally for refusing.

CHEERS to Jeff Burton, “We’ll go build some more stuff and come back... Nine races is an eternity in this sport.” Is there a more level-headed guy in the sport than Jeff Burton? “We’ve wrecked  here on single-file restarts, too; let’s be clear about that.”

CHEERS to “There’s a lot of people out there that would say that’s a wife’s job, too.”  In the absence of you-know-who, I’m wishing TNT had ALL the races! This group is fun!

CHEERS to messages not intimidating the other driver, but just ticking him off a little more. And sure ‘nough, Kurt doesn’t look especially threatened by that last message from Jeff Gordon.

CHEERS , also, to what looks like Kurt about to manage to take out teammates all on his own. I wonder if he’s tired of that little brother getting all the bad press.

JEERS to the crab walk on the 20. That’s never a good look for a race car.

CHEERS to Joey, though, wrapping up that spin just before he got to the commitment cone.

CHEERS to reasonably-full stands at the race track.

JEERS to windshield wipers on the pace car, but we like Wally’s answer, “Bugs.”

CHEERS to what looked like Kurt losing spots, but then he pushes Jimmie outta the way the same way he pushed Jeff outta the way. On purpose…?

JEERS to a Red Bull in the fence, and then being dragged away on a hook.

CHEERS to Sam Hornish working his way to the front to ride with his teammate in a match against HMS.

CHEERS to Clint Bowyer, the lone Childress survivor. I don’t know that it would offset the three wrecked cars, but Richard would probably feel a little better if Bowyer won.

CHEERS to “Every time we go somewhere and they drag out their back up car, they win. Just RACE your back up car!”

CHEERS to Tony in the lead!

JEERS to Ryan out of fuel, but CHEERS to the paint job on that 39 car. I’ve not mentioned this before, but it looks enough like the familiar 3 car without being intentionally so. When we see it, we’re reminded, but not torn up inside. It’s just a gentle memory revisited, and we like that.

CHEERS to no penalty for Ryan despite the jackman holding his jack and pushing the car out of the box. And CHEERS to the crew not giving up, chasing that car, squirting, pushing, chasing,…

CHEERS to Joey in the lead at a most crucial time! Like they said earlier, the money spends the same, the trophy sits on the shelf the same. A win is a win!

CHEERS to that “Five-dollar foot long” song staying in Carl’s head, too. And CHEERS for him pseudo-singing on TV, too.

CHEERS to “And this helps these guys that are trying to save a little fuel. This helps them to bring ‘em down pit road and cut ‘em off….. Obviously…. That was a stupid statement; that really was.”

JEERS to rain, but at least it was hanging around all day and didn’t take anyone by surprise. The clouds looked mean from the get-go.

JEERS to the sound being off after the rain came. What was that about?

CHEERS to David Reutimann, “Whatever you do, don’t walk away from your race car!” Great advice from one who knows!

CHEERS to remembering Kyle’s first win, and his rain-shortened wins, and recognizing that it's never too early in a career for a win. [edited for correction]

CHEERS to support from a multi-champ like Jeff Gordon telling Joey that it doesn’t matter how you get the wins.

CHEERS , also, to the “friendly push” from Jeff Gordon during Kurt Busch’s interview.

CHEERS to a fourth-place finish for David Reutimann, too!

CHEERS to a hug from Dad as soon as it was final.

CHEERS to Tony coming over to the old team to hug Zippy and congratulate the whole group. And CHEERS to Zippy for being so relaxed waiting for that final call that he was standing around blowing bubbles with his gum.

CHEERS to Joey Logano, the youngest winner ever in NASCAR Cup racing! Let the record-breaking begin!

JEERS to rain spoiling the Victory Lane celebrations, but CHEERS to all of those PR guys that dragged stuff around and into the garages for the photos to still be taken.

CHEERS to the post-race parade of race cars being pushed backwards down pit road. I wonder if the crews ever race that way.

And finally,

CHEERS to Greg Zipadelli being the best kind of crew chief. I think he’s often overshadowed by guys like Chad Knaus, but if you think about the history we’ve seen Zippy go through, the fact that he’s still sane is remarkable in itself. He was by Tony’s side through the worst of days, and by his side through the best days, too. Then he started all over again with a kid and all the pressure on him to live up to the hype. He handles himself without controversy, and without seeking the limelight. He just works hard, stays focused, and seems on his way to producing another champion for Joe Gibbs Racing.

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