Hello, I Must Be Going.

Sorry. Things have been pretty crazy here on this end of the world.

Dover

Everyone on his best behavior, less from the penalties dealt out for Loudon than for the big pile up in the Busch race in Saturday though. ;)

Each track is as unique. Not simply for length, but shape, banking and surface can make each track as individual as each driver (making a Crew Chief’s life hell *chuckle*) Dover is an interesting track as it is the only one that is entirely concrete instead of asphalt. This is a benefit in that it’s tougher and it's temperature doesn't chnage as much over the course of a race, as well as standing up to season temperature changes better. It’s hindrance because concrete combined with steep banking on a short track chews up tires like bubble gum. There is no such thing as a two-tire pit stop. You take 4. Period.

Unless you’re Elliott Sadler. :D The difference in time between a two and four tire stop is usually around five seconds. The difference in places means a driver going into the pit’s 11th , such as Elliott, can come out with the lead.

Boo YAH!

It got him up front and from which he dropped back to 6th place by the end of the race, getting him back up to 11th place in the standings. I’m feeling better and better about his new CC all the time.

Dale’s day was…very, very frustrating for a fan. Like I have said, Tony Jr. can make a good car. Dale started in 4th place and was hanging in the top five getting as high as 2nd place when his brake pedal went to the floor with a vibration in the right front on lap 20. Bringing the car into the pits and checking the line cost him 7 laps (probably air bubble in the line). He made up one the hard way, racing it back (the guy is a damn good wheelman), but lost it again when there was a misunderstanding (benign) on Pit Road. I was confused as Dale’s car was so strong as to actually beat the leaders back a lap, that they didn’t trying staying out during the cautions to make a couple of them up. But then it was pointed out to me that he would have scarified performance and wouldn’t have made up enough to really make a difference in the season. The team just treated the rest of the race as a test session for next year. Very smart of them.

Mark Martin pretty much stayed in the top five all day, though a call to stay out during a late caution cost him the lead and dropped him back to finish 4th. He’s currently 4th in the standings, only 21 points out of first. *Yeah!*

Jimmie Johnson won which propelled him to the top of the standings, but Monday the word came down that his and his teammate Kyle Bush of the #5’s shocks had been confiscated.

Dun-dun-duuuuun!

Oooo.

When you jack the back end of a stock car up, or more pointedly the spoiler on the back end, it gives the car more down force allowing it to handle better, so we’ll have to wait to find out if Jimmie’s win stands.

I, Robot
I also saw this over the weekend. Had it been called anything else but this, it would have faired well as big budget popcorn summer blockbuster action film. It’s fairly meaningless but lots of fun. The problem being that beyond Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics, it has nothing to do with the Book “I, Robot” which is one of the seminal science fiction works. This book is a collection of short stories that is/are incredibly influential in the Science Fiction genre. Not only is almost every robot or android you encounter in SciFi been based on those in Asimov’s works, the main thrust of the research and design that goes on in RL robotics is inspired by Asimov’s literary creations. Also “I, Robot” opened up an fields of philosophical thought about beings that do not have what we perceive has a human consciousness, how we treat them and whether or not such a perception is in fact, true. Honestly, the book reads rather dry and for a modern audience it may feel a bit hokey at points. But the atmosphere is still slightly chilled and eerie, the stories still slightly disturbing and themes still very thought provoking.

This film was pretty much none of that, but it was still a jolly romp worth the rent. :) I feel a bit silly about being a snob about it when it came out…if they just had used another title it would have been a hit.

Tony Delay, Boobs and the Judgment of God. Right after this...