God, I love California. And so does Kyle Larson.

            I only watched the last four laps of yesterday’s Nationwide race at Fontana. I followed on Twitter throughout the day while watching my bracket go down the tubes. I made a HUGE mistake. (People that don’t watch basketball should not bet money on March Madness). But, that is not the mistake I am writing about. I likely missed one of the best races NASCAR has put on in the Nationwide series in decades, if not ever. Kyle Larson flat out beat two Cup drivers. Two superstars, in fact. Good, clean, disciplined, racing was demonstrated over those last four laps by the young man. Yes, I know Kyle has a Cup ride. But, let’s be honest race fans; that 42 has not had a Cup driver in it for almost a decade now. When you manage to rear end a jet dryer, on a super speedway, under caution, Nascar Sprint Cup Driver, is not your profession. Kyle has been thrust into that car, and I think he’s going to do well. I don’t foresee any explosions on any tracks due to Kyle Larson.

            At any rate, I really loved what I saw yesterday. The patience exhibited by Larson over the final laps was exhilarating to watch. Not too many young drivers could have pulled that off. I remember Kasey Kahne was cruising along on his way to his first win years ago with Evernham’s organization, and just flat lost his car on the final lap. I am not sure what the official reason was, but I was always inclined to say his nerves were a part of it.

             I should have watched the entire race yesterday. If the Cup race is half as exciting as yesterday’s race, we fans are going to have quite a show to look at. I for one can’t wait. 

Bristol Intro Songs.......

Since FOX doesn't think we care about it.  Here are the songs that each driver chose to be introduced to yesterday at Bristol.

Bristol Driver Intro Songs: For several years, Sprint Cup drivers have chosen the song that is played when they are introduced to the crowd prior to the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Here is this year's list for all drivers:
#1-Jamie McMurray: Crazy Train/Ozzy Osborne
#2-Brad Keselowski: Everlong/Foo Fighters
#3-Austin Dillon: Cowboy/DJ Silver
#4-Kevin Harvick: Happy/Pharrell Williams
#5-Kasey Kahne: Bottom's Up/Brantley Gilbert
#7-Michael Annett: Standing Outside the Fire/Garth Brooks
#9-Marcos Ambrose: This Is How We Roll/Florida Georgia Line
#10-Danica Patrick: Timber/Ke$ha & Pitbull
#11-Denny Hamlin: My Name Is/Eminem
#13-Casey Mears: Do I Wanna Know?/Arctic Monkeys
#14-Tony Stewart: Back in the Saddle Again/Aerosmith
#15-Clint Bowyer: Boys Round Here/Blake Shelton
#16-Greg Biffle: Good Times, Bad Times (remix)/Godsmack
#17-Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: The South/The Cadillac Three (featuring Florida Georgia Line and Dierks Bentley)
#18-Kyle Busch: Can't Hold Us/Macklemore
#20-Matt Kenseth: Guitars, Gangsters & Cadillac Blood/Volbeat
#22-Joey Logano: Fuel/Metallica
#23-Alex Bowman: Counting Stars (Longarms Dubstep Remix)/One Republic
#24-Jeff Gordon: Best Day of My Life/American Authors
#26-Cole Whitt: God's Not Dead/Newsboys
#27-Paul Menard: Clean My Wounds/Corrosion of Conformity
#30-Parker Kligerman: Don't Push Me/50 Cent
#31-Ryan Newman: Down Home Boys/Cole Swindell
#32-Travis Kvapil: Ace of Spades/Motorhead
#33-Timmy Hill: Thunderstruck/AC/DC
#34-David Ragan: C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)/Quad City DJ's
#35-David Reutimann: Still Counting/Volbeat
#36-Reed Sorenson: Man of the Year/School Boy Q
#38-David Gilliland: Strokers Theme/Charlie Daniels Band
#40-Landon Cassill: Money in the Bank/Lil Scrappy ft. Young buck
#41-Kurt Busch: Ring of Fire/Johnny Cash
#42-Kyle Larson: Kashmir/Led Zeppelin
#43-Aric Almirola: Outsiders/Eric Church
#47-AJ Allmendinger: Bouncin' Back (Bumpin' Me Against the Wall)/Mystikal
#48-Jimmie Johnson: Radioactive/Imagine Dragons
#51-Justin Allgaier: War of Change/Thousand Foot Krutch
#55-Brian Vickers: Beast of Burden/Rolling Stones
#66-Joe Nemechek: Beer With Jesus/Thomas Rhett
#78-Martin Truex Jr.: Flyin Down a Back Road/Justin Moore
#83-Ryan Truex: Crave You (Adventure Club Remix)/Flight Facilities
#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Man of Action/Matthew Good Band
#95-Michael McDowell: I Am/Crowder
#98-Josh Wise: Intro/The XX
#99-Carl Edwards: Kickstart My Heart/Motley Crue
(NASCAR.com)(3-17-2014)

Perpetuating Stereotypes

 I have never been a Jimmie Johnson fan at all, but this week, I had to dig in and stand up for him. Johnson was one of several, mostly female, celebrities that took part in a campaign to encourage people to cease using the term "bossy" when describing female leaders. The goal being to get more young females to engage in leadership roles without having degrading terms thrown at them. Easy enough. You'd think. Nope. Not at all. Several race fans chose to 'fight back" via Twitter at Six Time. I am not going to quote nor name the accounts of the folks that chose to respond to Jimmie's tweet. Suffice it to say it was sad. Sad because NASCAR has done so much to attempt to rid itself of the less desirable aspects of its history. They have spent millions on various projects to fall in line with other professional sports. They have a Green program, a diversity program, and many other projects developed in order to become more mainstream. NASCAR can't control the opinions of its fan base, and Twitter can't, and shouldn't, censor the opinions of its users. But, to see fans upset over what they perceive as the "wussification" of the male athlete is ludicrous. There is a stereotype that already follows NASCAR fans. And to say that these tweets perpetuated those stereotypes would be a major understatement. This isn't my daddy's NASCAR anymore, but clearly, some of his cronies have Twitter accounts.