How many believed Friday’s post? On a Wreck-Free Sunday

OK how many people thought I had really packed it in as a bicycle blogger Friday? I mean with all the stuff about the Sprint-T and the Mini Sprint-T, the NASCAR racing, and the Formula E racing news I post here on Wreck-Free Sunday, I expected to see some comments about changing the direction of the blog.

And, to be honest I have actually considered seriously doing exactly that, cutting back to once a week or so and just posting about car racing so I wouldn’t have to read any more bike wrecks. I mean there are days…

So anyway I got to see the entire Martinsville Sprint Cup race today, they were on the pace laps when I turned the TV on after getting back from morning service. It was a typical Martinsville race in many ways, not so much in many other ways. I mean there was plenty of the “rubbin’ is racin'” action, but not many torn up race cars at the end. To give an example, there were no cars at the end running without front end sheetmetal because the bodywork had been beaten in around the tires keeping them from turning, or torn off in a wreck. In fact the field had the highest percentage of cars running at the end since I can remember, and about half the field was on the lead lap at the end of the race. Congrats to Kyle Busch for winning the weekend with both the Cup and Truck series races falling victim to his driving prowess.

Since I mentioned it at the top of the post, I haven’t done much with the Mini Sprint-T this week, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it. I have been thinking about it a lot. Mainly I have been thinking about how to do the front axle and spindles. I think the best way to do it is to represent the spindle from the back by using some square stock glued to a round disk the scale size of the back of the spindle with the length from the disk being scale for the kingpin bosses on the spindle with the gap between the two the same size as the axle tube so the spindle can be glued to the axle with a gap large enough to allow a furniture nail to pass through the piece and allow the wheel to roll (or at least to be turned like it was rolling). So anyway the back of the spindle is 5.5″ so the scale is 0.22″. The upper boss is 2.03″ so scale would be a RCH more than .080″, the lower boss is 1.22″ so scale would be just shy of .05″. The actual thickness of the spindle away from the bosses is .250″ so the .010″ stock would be scale. The .010″ stock is pretty flimsy though so I’m going to run a chunk of .060″ square opposite the spindle bosses to give the furniture nail something to turn in and the whole assembly some structure so it doesn’t break if I drop the model a bit. I mean sure it will break if I drop it from waist height, but it I fumble setting it down a little too hard it should survive without bending or losing the front wheels.

You know the more I think about it the better just writing about building models and car races sounds. I mean I can always go back to writing about bike wrecks later if I feel the need, but not reading about broken bodies and destroyed lives really sounds like a good idea right now. I will have to think about it for a while.

PSA, Opus

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Wow what a race on Wreck Free Sunday

The Superman car (sponsored by the movie Superman vs Batman) won the Sprint Cup race in Fontana today, and I got to watch the whole race because I was having an allergy attack and stayed home from church all day. I have been chugging coffee and tea and “other” beverages all day because if I stay hydrated I can see and talk, but as soon as I start drying out a little bit it’s like a gauze curtain has been dropped across my eyes. I mean it isn’t anything more than bothersome, certainly not so much as uncomfortable, just annoying. But I still don’t want to go to church in that condition. Weather.com reports that my discomfort is due to high tree sex activity in my area.

One of the things I did with my off time yesterday besides watching the 12 Hours of Sebring was to mock up the kit I’m building the mini Sprint-T from as an unchanneled body on top of the frame instead of the way the kit builds it with the frame covered by the body. I haven’t hung the wheels and axles on it yet, but the carbs on the Street Engine from the kit are just even with the top of the firewall, while the entire rear frame clears the bottom of the shortened pickup box that covers where the gas tank and battery would be on the 1:1 car. So if the kit was 1:1 I could put a slightly larger gas tank in the car.

Looks good, doesn’t it? I’m strongly thinking about doing the finished model like this
And while I’m thinking about it, this is $29 in raw stock, tax, and shipping fees.

There is enough flat sheet to make several frames, and a couple monocoque tubs, too. I have been thinking about that, using one of the engine kits to make a ¹/₂₅ V8 powered SCCA A/Mod Solo racer. The tricky part would be making room for real legs between the engine and the rear axle and keeping the weight and polar moments both down and maximizing downforce without a wing, and then putting the wing over the top like a sprint car or Supermodified. But that’s for later, after the mini Sprint-T is finished. As it is now I need to get 4 sets of Wide 5 wheels to make the wheels for the 3 cars (one car will have the race tires mounted, which will take 2 sets of wheels spliced together to fit the tire). Or 3 sets and turning some bar stock aluminum into wheel shells and the rims off of one set of wheels so the centers could be glued into the shells. Basically I would be doing a model version of this and this.

Speaking of wheels, I’m still debating the vendor for the wheels. I don’t have the skills to make a plug for making a mold to cast a set of wheels on my own, so those I have to buy. I can do things like turn raw stock into a reasonable replica of a straight axle with steering arms, 4 bar, and coilover brackets, because those are basically 2D cuts and glue them together to make them a 3D part. But I have never been any good at sculptures, complex 3D shapes are outside my skill sets even before I got my TBI. I might be able to do a simple shape with little surface detail, but a Wide 5 hub in scale with everything in the right place is way outta my pay grade. The best looking wheels I have seen so far are the W_1 from Ron Coon and the asawheel from VCG Resins. Either one will look great with the tires I have or the tires I want to get.

And these allergies are making me tired, so I’m wrapping this up.

PSA, Opus

I finally got to see the end of a Sprint Cup race this year, on Wreck-Free Sunday

And congratulations to Happy Harvick on his victory in Phoenix. I don’t know what it is about Kevin Harvick and Phoenix, but it seems the guy can’t lose there, even (especially?) when he doesn’t do well in practice getting set up for the track. They get it close with springs, shocks and swaybars during practice, then dial it in perfectly during the race just in time to win. I mean it’s uncanny how that happens.

In other news the raw stock for the various frames for the Mini Sprint-T just shipped, and is expected to arrive on Friday. I got 0.060″ square and round stock and some 0.01 sheet stock that will also be used to build the trunk besides building a lot of the frame. In scale it’s 0.25″ thick, but it’s the thinnest sheet stock you can buy and barely stands up to handling as it is. The other stock is 1.5″ square and round in scale respectively. I figured out how to do the bending for the round stock using a butane torch someone gave me years ago, so that part of the building problem is solved, now I just need to get some butane to fill it with.

Anywho getting back to the bending and getting everything the right size. What I will be doing is clamping one end of the stock on a form that is the right shape for the inside of the bends for whatever part I’m building and applying pressure at the first bend, then point the lit torch at the bend and lower it closer to the stock until the stock starts to bend, stopping and holding that distance until the bend is completed, removing heat and hold until set, then move to the next bend. I just need to find out what the inside radius for a 1.5″ tube on a mandrel bender to make the forms to bend the stock around. I think heavy paperboard or maybe balsa wood. It doesn’t have to be very thick, 0.060″ is just under ¹/₁₆“.

The round stock will also be used to make the exhaust headers for the SBC version of the Mini Sprint-T, so I really hope I bought enough for 3 frames and some left over. Otherwise I’m going to have to spring for another pack of product. Actually I will anyway because I don’t have anything to make the front axle from, so I will order the correct size for the axle, which is slightly large for the exhaust headers. So, that will be my next purchase for the Mini Sprint-T. Plus the other stuff I would need to model the exhaust headers.

It’s late now and I have to get up early tomorrow for “stuff”, so I’m calling this to a close.

PSA, Opus

It was a good racing weekend, on a Wreck-Free Sunday

Yes, I spent my off days watching NASCAR’s 3 major touring series on TV from Atlanta. This is where I like to watch cars, running in a controlled environment away from vulnerable users so they can go as fast as physics will allow. Then it becomes fun in both the visceral sense and the more ethereal mental sense. There is a kind of zen thing in making a car go as fast as it can around a turn, I can tell you from experience. That’s why I want to build the Sprint-T in 1:1.

I’m currently listening to a trance version of the Leek Spinning Song, and it’s pretty good. It’s almost like the Leek Spinning song needed an injection of bass and synths to make it good. Bad part is this version is only 3:37 instead of 1:00:00+. I’d would really like to get a couple of good beats going and on endless loop while I do my writing. Seriously I’m typing up a small storm right now. The right sounds and beats are like writing nitro for me, a musical shot of NOS to the keyboard. Now if I could just find the right hour or so YouTube video to play in background…

I’m a couple of days away from being able to get $11 in gift cards from that game I play on my mobile phone, or about 2000 points. When I do that I’ll have enough in my Amazon balance to get the plastic raw stock to make the frames for all 3 variations of the Mini Sprint-T. Yay! Progress! I’ll still need to get the rear axles, wheels and tires, and the vacuformed bodies.

If this seems a tiny bit disjointed I’m actually free-associating as I type with a 2½ hour trance track running. I’m thinking about the 1:1 Sprint-T and the 1:25 Mini Sprint-T and music and the service I was at this evening, and the fact that I’m on the Nominating Committee to pick the next board for the church (so that I don’t end up on that same board), and butterflies, and the aerodynamics of the Sprint-T and how they compare to an actual winged sprint car…

On that last part, one of the things I have been looking at is streamlining the tires, particularly the wakes off the tires. By its nature the Sprint-T will have a small frontal area. The trick is going to be not letting the air get too disturbed by things like exposed frame members and other bits and bobs hanging out in the wind. Some of that is going to be unavoidable because of the fact that the basic bucket was designed in 1922, when aerodynamics of road cars was still considered a black art, and I want the car to remain identifiable as a model T Ford with a ton of modifications. The other part is the aforementioned exposed frame members hanging out in the breeze so as to maximize d⁴ for the whole car, much like the raised rail sprint cars that inspired it.

But again, part of the appeal of the T-Bucket is the absolute minimum car it is, 4 wheels, an engine, enough body to keep a person inside when it’s going down the street, and only as much structure as is needed to keep all the aforementioned bits flying in close formation and pointed in the right direction for (hopefully) maximum performance. That means things like fenders or wheel fairings are not part of the esthetic. The sprint car is similarly an open-wheel race car without anything covering the tires . But part of the appeal of building a hot rod is making something new, even if it is derivative from other kinds of cars . So at least one of the Mini Sprint-Ts will have wheel fairings on at least the front wheels, just to see how it looks. And I might run it and one without through a water tunnel to see how the flow goes compared to fenderless. Because if the fairings don’t clean up the flow off the back of the wheel then they are just dead weight and can go in the trash. The only reason they would be there is to improve highway aerodynamics for gas mileage and maybe for downforce when racing.

And I think I have meandered enough through the labyrinth of my mind. I know where I’m going in there, but sometimes I see a shiny and go off in a different direction than initially planned.

PSA, Opus

Happy Daytona Day, on a Wreck-Free Sunday

Congratulations to Denny Hamlin on his exciting win of the Daytona 500. This was Toyota’s first Daytona 500 win, so double thumbs up for them. This win puts Denny first in line for the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

The congregation, at least the part of it that meets for morning service, has tasked me with helping the homeless people who used to hang out near our church. Specifically I was tasked with making living on our little plot of land easier for them with a suggested porta-pottie and garbage can for their use. I checked and as a church we don’t have the resources to support that kind of thing. Renting a portable outhouse runs into the $ hundreds every month. We might be able to afford the small charge for an extra garbage can so they don’t wind up leaving piles of trash on the property (like they did the last time we allowed homeless to live on property), but that would be the extent of it. Unless we get a whole lot more money coming in I don’t see anything we could do as a church besides asking GPD to not harass homeless people on property at night. But I will bring the subject up with the Board in 2 weeks. One thing I see as likely would be getting local shelters to send us a couple of people who won’t live in a shelter and letting them stay at night on our property on a regular basis. There would have to be documents made on some kind of waterproof paper that whoever we gave permission to would be able to present to GPD as proof that they were there by permission. I shall have to cogitate upon this further.

Something else I have been cogitating upon was how to build a scale Tri-Y header for the Mini Sprint-T. I had decided to run such a thing on the 1:1 version many months ago because that configuration would move the torque curve higher in the lower end of the RPM range and work better for the racing this car was being built for. If I was trying to make it optimal for SCCA Solo racing, and just barely drivable to get from one race to another between races I would build it with a Powerglide transmission and a semi-manual valve body that would allow manually shifting between low and high gear, and swap out the transfer gears in the QC between a lower gear for racing, and a very tall gear for driving between races. This would take almost 100 pounds out of the car, at the risk of making it really lazy on the street and run as fast as 110 MPH in low gear. I mean with the calculated race gear the car would hit redline at 150+ MPH in top gear but would only go 60 MPH in low. The downside would be cruising above 3000 RPM on the Interstate between races without changing gears in the rear end, just swap out the race tires for the street tires and go. That is clearly not a good option. So the way to make the car race and livable on the street and the highway is to go with the heavier 4 speed slushbox and accept the weight penalty, or accept a car that might as well not have a high gear on the street. But anyway, the Tri-Y header would let the car accelerate harder at speeds below the torque peak, and get better cruise economy, and now I have to figure out how to make them in scale for the Mini Sprint-T.

And it’s getting late and this was entirely too much technobabble about cars in a bike blog.

PSA, Opus

Sleep deprivation is a &(%$&, and the Feed

I signed off last night about 0500 after finishing the writing part shortly after 0430. Yes it takes me about 25-30 minutes to proof spelling and links and tag after I finish the creative part. And then it usually takes a minimum of an hour to shut the brain down so I can sleep, usually closer to two hours. I was wakened slightly after noon by a loud vehicle (I’m assuming it was a garbage truck) and Mrs. the Poet yelling at “bad cats” and quit fighting to get back to sleep about 1400 and checked the mail. I’m still bleary-eyed as I type this at 1700.

And I’m watching the Sprint Cup practice when this commercial for Marathon gas comes on with the jingle about a “full tank of Freedom”. “Freedumb” indeed. 😛

Speaking of Sprint Cup, some of the drivers are some of us. NASCAR drivers pedal from St. Augustine for bike safety Four hour ride, so about 100km away from the track. I’m betting that lap around the track lasted a lot longer than the 45-47 seconds it took during final practice today…

Ted was a bit busy today with all the news coming at him. Morning Links: Temple City shoots down safe streets on Las Tunas; ridiculous and sublime new bike offerings

Part 2 of Daily Ted. Formerly homeless man dies five weeks after Yorba Linda collision

And an incredible Part 3. Fontana bike rider killed in early morning collision; no details available Poor Ted, this is what happens when you have lots of subscriptions to local media sites, you get to report the bad news quicker.

Still in CA. BART Struggles to Balance Current Needs with Vision for Future BART gets people off the streets in S.F. making a huge impact on bike and pedestrian safety. So this might not seem to be a bike link, but it’s totally a bike link.

Up in America’s Copenhagen, DIY DOT to the rescue! Bike lane in danger? Cone power to the rescue! Riders replace the cones when they get knocked over, unlike plastic bollards that require equipment and chemicals most cyclists don’t carry on their bikes.

Also from Portland, someone said something Really Stoopid. GOP candidate promises to end gridlock forever by adding a lane to each freeway There are no words for how Stoopid this is. This guy has literally never heard of Induced Demand until this article posted and someone emailed him a link on the subject.

And crap infrastructure is never so bad that it can’t be made worse, even in Portland. City proposes shifting future downtown bikeway from Alder to Taylor/Salmon Changing a direct, mostly flat route to one that adds about a mile to the total trip and completely routes the cyclist away from retail and other commercial destinations.

FloriDUH! strikes again. Bicyclist injured in Charlotte hit-and-run crash I’m sorry, but what do you call it when a driver swerves into an occupied bike lane, hits a cyclist, and then leaves the scene without stopping? Aside from attempted murder or assault with a deadly weapon that is.

Continuing on the “Stoopid driver” theme for the moment. NYPD: Cyclist fatally struck by car, driver arrested Driver impaired by drugs, not mentioned if they were medication or recreational drugs. But still “Stoopid” either way. More Allegedly Stoned Driver Charged With Manslaughter After Fatally Striking Staten Island Cyclist The later link says the driver was on pot at the time of the wreck.

And infrastructure news from NYC that will flat-out floor you. It did me. Astoria Will Get Three Protected Bike Lanes Despite Local Drivers’ Objections Yep, bike lanes in spite of driver’s complaints, because too many people were getting killed or injured. and to the idiot that said “at some point traffic calming becomes traffic impeding.” boo, hoo, hoo. You were extremely lucky your death machines were not banned outright, because that was on the table.

Good infrastructure news from IA. Bicycle safe passing bill clears Iowa Senate committee This is the most radical concept in bicycle safety that I have seen in a long time. “Change lanes to pass”, like you would a car or tractor or combine. Radical, I tell you.

A mandatory helmet bill in VA is killed in committee. Why bicycling advocates are happy legislators killed a helmet bill Combined with the studies that show that mandatory helmets don’t actually decrease the rate of head injury, just move it to a different part of the head that isn’t covered by the helmet or by impacts that exceed the survival envelope of the helmet.

Crap infrastructure in VT. A VICIOUS CIRCLE? STATE WANTS SAFER ROTARY IN BRATTLEBORO Note the comment that all the problems are caused by bicycles. SMH.

From Jolly Olde, really they are calling this a hit-and-run and not assault with a deadly weapon or attempted murder? Cyclist left seriously injured after hit-and-run following row with driver Motor vehicles are the only weapon that an obvious assault would be called an “accident”

And this cyclist has a case for police negligence as they refused to take a report for his wreck that smashed his bike. Cyclist feels he’s had a rough ride despite lucky escape in road smash The bike was rendered unridable, that makes this a reportable wreck under UK laws. Both vehicles were not able to leave the scene under their own power, that raises the wreck to reportable status.

And I am finishing up too late for Gigi to even read it before she loses her internet at 0300 my time. I mean it’s almost 0300 right now and I haven’t even proofed, much less tagged.

Biting my nails watching the last race in the Chase on a Wreck-Free Sunday

I have a few minutes to watch TV before I have to go back to church for evening services. They had a rain delay while I was at church celebrating one of our younger member’s 14th birthday with way too much chocolate cake.

Now I just got home to see Kyle Busch on stage as the Sprint Cup champion, his first and Toyota’s first. There are a bunch of people wearing shirts that say “ChaMps” with the “M” being a red M&M candy. That he was even in the chase was amazing after the races he missed due to that Xfinity series race crash in Daytona where he broke both legs (OK one leg and the foot on the other leg, that’s still both legs out of commission), and was out for the first 11 races of the season. I’m really happy for both Kyle and Toyota, but a bit sad for Martin Truex Jr. running with the Furniture Row team out of Denver CO, instead of the normal Charlotte NC area, and a single-car team against other teams running 3 or 4 cars.

As they are expounding upon on TV this makes two championships for Busch this weekend as he won the truck series owner’s championship on Friday night. And now the “hat dance” has been replaced with the “t-shirt tease” as team members shimmy in and out of sponsor t-shirts instead of just swapping out ball caps. It’s a little slower than the hat dance, but the pictures look a lot better for the sponsor as the logos on the shirts are much more readable than they would be on ball caps and there are no other sponsors’ logos competing for eyeballs in your publicity pictures.

On other fronts I’m still trying to get the Sprint-T built for as little money possible and still get close to or meet my performance goals. Of the available engines the one with the lowest rated power and cost is the 4.6 liter Ford out of the Crown Vic police car at a rated 250 HP, and also the 2nd heaviest at just under 630 pounds equipped. The smallest V8 weighs almost as much as the largest engine on the list, the 502 in³ Chevy big block, by less than 20 pounds. This will result in a car that weighs in at roughly 1750 pounds with enough fuel on board to make a day’s runs on a Goodguys or SCCA autocross. But the good thing is that motor can be replaced by the 5.0 liter Aluminator without changing the frame in any way, reducing the all-up weight to just over 1600 pounds and 430+ HP.

Going next up the cost chain is a crate Chevy small-block 350 at roughly 330 HP and 575 pounds equipped. The 350/350 engine/transmission combination will make the Sprint-T weigh in at 1700 pounds +/-. The streetable combinations that can be upgraded from this are almost unlimited, as there are dozens of head, cam, and intake combinations that will both reduce weight and increase power with a possible power output of 500 HP at 490 pounds equipped. This will result in a car weight of 1600 to 1650 pounds depending on the head, block, and intake combination. This is potentially the fastest car of the pack, but also potentially the most expensive as the aluminum blocks and stroker cranks are “not cheap”.

Moving higher on the cost chain comes the LS series GM crate engines, with the LS3 based engines coming in at 415 pounds delivered, or 465 equipped (and a slightly heavier transmission), and up to 525 HP with a warranty, as much as 600 HP without a warranty. This also is potentially the fastest combination of the bunch, with also the potential of getting the best highway gas mileage because of the sophisticated engine management system developed by GM factory engineers to beat tight CAFE standards while also meeting strict EPA emissions standards.

Still higher on the cost ladder is the GM big-block crate engine series, with more than 640 pounds equipped, and potential power outputs of more than 1000 HP that are less streetable as power increases because of the difficulty of preventing tires from breaking traction. With the iron block and heads and the transmission that can handle the power, we are looking at almost 1800 pounds of Sprint-T, meaning the lowest amount of overall grip of any of the potential engine/transmission combinations. Also these are the highest cost base engines (before power upgrades) of the list. So the only way I’m putting a big block in the car is if I get a screaming deal on the engine and transmission, like free or “I’ll pay you to take this away”. Since the chances of that happening are only slightly better than I had of surviving my wreck I don’t think there will be a big-block in the car.

And now I have run out of words to share. I mean sure I could type some more but I would just be running on at the fingers. So rather than do that, I’m just going to sign off and hit publish.

PSA, Opus

My sermon was a big hit on a Wreck-Free Sunday

The sermon published in the last post went over well today, mostly because of an audible I pulled in the middle, opening up the floor to discussion after the paragraph full of questions before the offering. I tried to steer the discussion away from reminiscing about dead people repeatedly, but there were some of those that were pertinent to the subject. Overall the service went well with everybody paying attention to the videos during the service.

The Sprint Cup race out of Phoenix had a huge rain delay, they should have been finished before I left for evening service, but they were just starting engines when I got back from evening service. They are running through a series of green-flag pit stops so I’ll wait a few to say who’s leading. And after all the stops it looks like Harvick got out in front again, just past the halfway point.

While I’m waiting on the Sprint Cup race to be decided, I’m still working on the Sprint-T and the Mini Sprint-T. Like I posted last week, I found a place that does 3D printing for $50 a month and the cost of filament needed to make the parts, for as many as you want. I just have to get a 3D file for the Wilwood Starlight5 hub (the one with the 8 bolt drive flange) for the printer to use so I’ll have the hubs I want for the real car on the model. Anyone have a .dwg file for the outside of that hub?

And NASCAR just declared the race official after yet another rain delay, Junior won, and they have 3 Chevys and one Toyota in the Final 4. There was a chance for 2 Chevys and 2 Toyotas, but Carl Edwards was not far enough in front of Martin Truax. Nothing against Truax, in fact I really wanted him to still be in the Chase in Homestead. I just didn’t want to see that many Chevys in the Final 4, and I didn’t want to have no Fords in the Chase. If I had my ‘druthers, I would have had 1 Chevy, one Ford, and 2 Toyotas in the Chase next week only because Dodge dropped out of Cup racing a couple of years ago and Toyota has never won a Cup Manufacturer’s Championship or Driver’s Cup.

And it’s getting late so I’m putting this to bed and then me.

PSA, Opus

Picture post from Wapsicon 2015 and other things

I mentioned a while back that I spent a Saturday mid-day celebrating a certain web comic with others of a similar bent. One of the things we exchanged was something called a Munny World, a blank figurine with some wipe-off markers to decorate it. We were requested to use the markers to create a version of a Wapsi Square character and post it to the Internets.

The character I picked was Phix the Sphinx Librarian.

Also I finally got around to downloading some of the pictures from the State Fair. Here is Denny Hamlin’s show car.

I will be back tomorrow with my regular Sunday post.

PSA, Opus

What a day for a Wreck-Free Sunday

Well, this has been a busy day even by Sunday standards. As far as church doin’s are concerned we had morning and evening services as usual and then a Board Meeting. So about 4 hours of the day was church or church-related. Nothing much to report about that as today was Pledge Drive Sunday, the day when members are “encouraged” to meet the “doors open” part of the budget or more if they can spare it. That’s pretty standard and boring.

The interesting parts of the day were the time between the morning service and the board meeting while I watched the Mexican GP and the Sprint Cup race from Martinsville. There was a lot of drama in the F1 race even though I didn’t see much passing on the track not caused by a wreck or near-wreck of the car being passed. Most of the drama was caused by pit strategy, who was stopping for tires and when, and how long they took to change the tires when they did stop. Now that the F1 driver’s title has been decided for Louis Hamilton all he has to race for is the total wins record, and everyone else is racing for a job next season either with their current team or a new team that picks up the pieces when their current team possibly folds at the end of the season. F1 is the most expensive form of motorsport on the planet, and some teams lack the financial muscle to compete.

The Martinsville race was typical NASCAR short track beating and banging, with many cars finishing with less than the number of fenders they started with or missing other body parts. The incident between Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth looked a lot like “payback” for the Kansas incident where Joey took Kenseth out of the lead and ultimately out of the Chase. There were a lot of other incidents that looked like just trying too hard in too tight a situation, and that wreck that knocked Kurt Busch about 3 feet into the air was an extreme example of that. I don’t recall the other 3 drivers involved in the wreck, but Kurt’s car was the last in that chain to get hit as one car hit another, that hit a third, that was sent violently into Kurt’s car causing it to climb over the third car’s tire and continue to climb on a ballistic trajectory for about another tire diameter after that.

And after all the beating and banging was done Jeff Gordon won on his final start at the track and his first win there in a long time and first win all season. So Jeff is in the final round in Homestead and waiting for the next two races to tell him who else is racing for the championship.

And it’s time for me to wrap this one up because I have a lot to do tomorrow.

PSA, Opus