“As much as I’d like to throw some twist on Jimmie Johnson’s 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship, I won’t. I can’t. He had an awesome year.

I’ve watched the NASCAR point standings under the old (non-chase format) along with the current NASCAR point standings. Either way you want to play it, Jimmie Johnson wins.

Under the current points system he beat Matt Kenseth by 56 points.

Under the old points system he beat Matt Kenseth by 4 points.”

“I conducted a very unscientific observational poll Sunday during NASCAR Nextel Cup driver introductions at the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

I wanted to observe which NASCAR drivers got the biggest fan response. Here are the results based on my location in the stands.

Cheers

Some type of positive cheering:
Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle, Michael Waltrip, Kyle Petty, Martin Truex Jr., Kenny Wallace, Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman, Dale Jarrett, Ken Schrader, Joe Nemechek and Denny Hamlin.

Big Cheers

These drivers received positive cheers much louder than the previous drivers:
Ward Burton, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Bobby Labonte.

Big, Big Cheers

The drivers in this category received loud and boisterous cheering:
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Terry Labonte.

Bigger Cheers than Big Jeers

A combination of Cheers and Jeers but with much louder Cheering :
Jeff Gordon.

Bigger Jeers than Big Cheers

A combination of Cheers and Jeers but with much louder Jeering:
Jimmie Johnson.

Only Jeers

Drivers that received only booing:
Kyle Busch and Robbie Gordon.

Big, Big Jeers

These drivers received loud and boisterous booing:
Kurt Busch and Brian Vickers.”

We spent about 10 hours at Texas Motor Speedway yesterday. Watched NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series qualifying. Plus, the Craftsman Series truck race.

Qualifying Reports

The Roush teams really struggled. Jamie McMurray’s qualifying lap was a disgrace. I didn’t hear why it was so bad, but it mirrors his season.

The temperature at the track was cold and half the track was in shade once qualifying got underway. Right out of the shoot, the first 7 qualifiers got faster one after another. All the drivers are still talking about how much grip the track has.

It was really interesting to note which drivers garnered cheers from the crowd. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Elliott Sadler all recieved mostly positive reaction from their fans. Kasey Kahne had all the women standing up with hands in the air. Pointing at his car and mouthing words of adoration. They really went crazy when he got the pole. The track was completely in shade by this time.

Out rolls Brian Vickers. I was thinking he might lay down a fast lap since Johnson and Gordon both qualified well. Then, the pessimistic side of me thought that surely he is getting low quality cars from the shop. Wasn’t the case. The kid laid down a lap that I think was almost over 1/10th second faster than his competition.

Truck Race

The truck race was good. I wish I owned some warm clothing though. :) It was really chilly. I was rooting for Johnny Benson, who was running in the top 5 most of the night, and then something happened and he eventually took it behind the wall. Bummer.

Clint Bowyer was super strong all night long. I thought that Kyle Busch might have something for him on the final GWC restart since Kyle had been blazing fast the first few laps of the previous restarts. But, nothin’ doin’. Bowyer held him off and won the race.

Back to the track

I’m running out right now to go watch final practice and then the Busch Series race. Lots of Bushwhackers running. I reckon’ it will be a good time.”

Tonight was NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway for round 2 of NASCAR racing in the Lone Star State. I sat with my father, brother, nephew and several hundred other people watching the boys (and girl) of the CTS speed around the track.

It is the coldest night so far this fall season, about 50 degrees. A bit nippy for a Texas boy (even if I did grow up in the Ohio snowbelt.)

I finally decided to shuck off my tightwad ways and rent a Track Scan scanner for the entire weekend. At $37.89 for the four days I’ll be using it, I’m embarrassed to have not ponied up the cash years ago. Just listening in during tonights qualifying brought a new level of insight and enjoyment to the experience. All the drivers (except for Matt Crafton’s “f’ing piece of s%$*” tirade) said the track had alot of grip and the pedal was to the floor all the way around.

Those words give me hope for a great weekend. Clint Bowyer even set a new track record for the Craftsman Trucks.

We’ll be at Busch and Cup qualifying tomorrow midday. The CTS race tomorrow night. The Busch race on Saturday. The Cup race on Sunday. I’m already dreading the traffic out of there on Sunday. But, having been set straight by Marc this time last year, I think I will stick out all 500 miles.”