Hot dang, look, there's something new here! For those of you who may have noticed, I've been a little lax around here the last week or so but the nastiest flu you could imagine grabbed me and shook me a while.
Now that my thought process has returned from the barely above hallucination level of high fever to the slightly above hallucination level that is normal for me it's time to empty out some of those hazy thoughts.
"Now Let's Go Racing!"
Oh yeah, that's over. "Let's Go.... uhhhhh.... Whatever?"
This season, to wrap it up in as short as possible fashion, was a step up for NASCAR. I get a lot of (well, some) requests (still can't understand why?) for my annual season wrap up and report cards but you'll just have to wait a few more days until I can remember what happened this season. Bear with me.
I promise there will be lots of entertaining pictures, trivia, contests and other assorted reasons for you to keep coming back during the off season. Whether I like it or not, I've joined the ranks of capitalists and worship that monthly check from Rivals. And with that $43 I pulled in for Oct., three of you will be wearing all new, completely redesigned, fully collectible (I swear, they collect more dust than any other dust rag you may have) "Stooges Racing (R)" (that's in case NASCAR tries to use my logo) T-Shirts! Please hold the applause until the end! OK, the end.
I still owe like two or three photo galleries. Those of you who I owe, know who you are, please stand and take a bow. No wait a minute, I was apologizing... focus stooge. Ummm... oh yeah, I'll take the trash out in a minut...oops, the other apology. I WILL get your galleries up in the next few days. Even if I have to work overtime. Besides, the trash men don't come until Saturday sweetie.
Personal pause. For those of you who don't know me and don't want to know.... skip to the next mental fragment. For my few regs around these parts, just want y'all to know that by the end of this week most of my personal probs will be taken care of. If you want to be bored by the details AND talk some racing there WILL be a chat this Sunday evening and a new poll on the front page for you to decide what evening you would rather have the weekly chat. Please take a moment and vote. I swear my vote will be over the day after election day. And the only Chad I know used to drive the 97 car.
If y'all haven't watched Inside Winston Cup on Monday nites, first on SpeedVision, then replayed on the Fox sports network afterwards, you've missed a great show. Mike Waltrip, Kenny Schrader and Johnny Benson are the regular (actually Uncle Mikey is slightly irregular) "commentators" with Alan Bestwick and it is a hilarious straight forward recap of that weekends action. If you don't get either network in your area get someone that does to tape it for you. If you want me to, please forward a double tape GoVCR and two tapes to: Gary Mau.... no, I think maybe that's a little too capitalistic. Sorry! Any kind of VCR will do.
Owww, why'd ya smack me in the back of the head, honey?
Where was I? Oh yeah.... CONTESTS!!! I have to pass my ideas and rules by the crack team of legal professionals (two mail room clerks playing paper, scissors, rock) to see if they pass approval. I've been trying to come up with a contest that is fair for all and is also entertaining and simple enough for you to want to bother with trying to win the exceptionally valuable prizes (Owww, ok, ok, do you have to be reading over my shoulder?)... the mildly valua...owww... the typically lame stuff you win from a low dollar operation like mine. T shirts, koozies, ball caps. Whatever I can afford to buy after that months Rivals check (keep clicking lots of pages and banners!!! Another shameful plug! Hey I don't have nearly as many as they had in them last few TV broadcasts this season.) will be yours for the winning. And look for them Super prize giveaways where values can soar into the tens of dollars!
Anybody still reading? Knock on the screen and let me know if you're still here.
OK, I heard one knock so for that poor demented soul...
I have to give my buddy Jayski a plug. Way back... we both started our pages about the same time. At that time there were just under 200 NASCAR sites listed in Yahoo. I started a couple months before Jay and through the hard work of both of us we are now pulling about an average of a "lot of clicks". Now if you subtract my clicks from that average Jayski's average almost doubles. The reason being, he gets about a million hits and I get about a 1000. I want to tip my hat to brother Jay for his hard work, brilliant effort and the 990 clicks I get when he posts one of my stories. Thanks Jay. Got to love anyone that loves NASCAR racing and the Philadelphia Flyers. You da man Jay! (another shameful plug)
I'd also be remiss if I didn't thank Sue's Racin' News -n- Views for always giving me a plug. I hope you're feeling a lot better and send my well wishes. For those of you who don't know, Sue sends out a daily newsletter that is one of the best. She works hard gathering all the latest and deserves your a round of applause. Great job Sue! If you want to join her mailing list: http://victory-lap.com/.
I'd also like to thank the academy for their support.... no, wrong brain wave again. BRB!
OK, I had to run out to the kitchen and let my wife smack me in the back of the head. She left after the 4th or 5th shameful plug.
I will be doing a salute to DW in the next day or two as a gallery/story. He deserves it and besides, I found lots of pics to post. And since that poll on my front page that has been there since the presidential race began and has drawn a total of 27 people who voted about 4 times each says you like the pics.... well you're stuck with 'em now.
Everybody who wants to meet the stooge (and I would seek help if you are included in that category) I WILL be at the October Rock race in 2001. Start to save those vacation days and airline miles to be there. The first 1 (or so) customers through our doors will receive valuable prizes if you are unarmed and remain peaceful through the whole of our meeting. For those of you who I may have offended over the past 5 years, I'll be the short, fat bald guy with the Dale Earnhardt hat on.
I sure am totally undecided on this Bill France, Jr./Mike Helton swap. Kinda scares me. Does Brian have any small weapons and/or a large insurance policy on Mike? Does Mike have full time bodyguards? Will Brian find out he was adopted? Will Betty have the last say? Will Jimmy Hoffa's remains finally resurface from the depths of Lake Lloyd? Just what will the FBI records of the great NASCAR 40 year investigation show? Who was Worth McMillion? How did Benny Parsons win that championship? What was that monkey really doing in Tim Flock's car? Were Buddy and Buck the same person after a face lift? Why do they call it NASCAR when there is nothing stock? And just where am I going with this bit of ridiculous waste of time? Find out the answers to all of this and more, next season on "Days of Our Thunder", the next best soap since WWF Raw!
For those of you who have made it this far, congratulations you win the total loss of 10-15 minutes of your life. But I hope you might have chuckled once. I did a couple times while writing this and it's always nice to know that at least I crack me up. But right now I needed a chuckle, been a long year and thought about tossing it all a few times. I want y'all to know, I recently signed a 4 year contract with Rivals. I hope you like it here as much now as when you first stopped by my original page at Geocities. I've worked hard to try to find out what you like and give it to you. It's been a struggle at times. I've got many of you out there to thank for writing a story, sending some photos to share, requesting a story or photo gallery, posting and patrolling regularly on the message board and sending the well wishes, compliments, and complaints to me in a personal email. I listen to all, I appreciate all and do my best to answer all. You are the reason I keep plugging away here. You are all friends and family now. To go on would just get too mushy. The best way I can say it is THANK YOU!
In conclusion, I'd like to say.....Just why do they say "in case of a water 'landing'" in that pre-flight attendant speech? If it's in water, isn't it a crash? These are the questions that keep me awake at night. Now one more bottle of Nyquil and I oughta feel about right.