Young Guns

I was texting my dad yesterday and after I told him Ryan Blaney won he commented the tides are changing. It is so true the young guns are finally setting the world on fire. For me it's really cool I have my favorites and two of those age wise fit the young gun mold. However I feel a connection to most of the young guns. There all close in age either a couple years older or younger or were the same age. Having that common ground makes me cheer for them a little bit more then I did the older generation of drivers. I still want my 4 to win but if they don't it makes it a lot easier for me to handle because chances are if it's a young gun winning then I don't mind them and I don't mind seeing them win. It has been surreal to think that the drivers that were the young guns or big names when I started out are now all leaving the sport. It's weird how you just sort of adjust and move forward. I will be really interested to see what happens this year because I wouldn't be surprised if Chase Elliott and Erik Jones win before the year is up so playoff spots could get real tricky. Sorry I planned for this to be a longer post but it just kind of ended here so i'm just going to end this here.

Bubba Wallace

I thought it was super special that Bubba Wallace got the opportunity he did in the cup series driving such a famed ride. I am glad that he was able to have that opportunity and to raise the diversity banner even more.  I understand that he doesn't seem to mind having that conversation and carrying the flag for African Americans. At the same point though i think it's pretty stupid that we still in 2017 need to be having so much emphasis put on his skin color. Even Daniel Suarez, Danica Patrick and Kyle Larson haven't had as much focus on being a different nationality or gender. It's been mentioned but i feel like for me at least from the outside it feels different. To me it's almost mentioned as a side note to their story. With Bubba his skin color has been the story. I hate that he has had to deal with the racism thrown at him on his way up because quite frankly it shouldn't be that way. For me growing up in the same generation as Bubba I feel that like him I've been raised to treat all others the same it doesn't matter their skin color or anything like that. I hope for the sake of diversity in NASCAR someone gives bubba a full time cup ride next season. He has earned it despite not having a win in the xfinity series. If his team hadn't shut down over there I feel this year would have been the year. He had so many top 10 finishes and was having the best season ever it was only a mater of time. I understand it's a part of the sport but I hate to see guys like Bubba and even Alex Bowman and countless others not have rides due to sponsorship. I have always enjoyed watching Bubba his personality makes him at least to me very likable. Then again I feel a connection with the crop of young guns and guys who are my age or right around my age. More on that later I plan to do another post after this one about that topic. Bubba is a great guy and I have to agree with the stories I have seen I think NASCAR needs bubba even more then he needs NASCAR. He has so much going for him and I would love to see him get that full time cup ride. He and Ryan Blaney's friendship is so special and I would love to see both of them get to race each other every Sunday. I thought Bubba did a great job yesterday and I can't wait to see how he continues to improve in his next starts. I wish him all the best.

All driver broad cast

From the time I heard that they were doing this all driver broad cast I was excited especially since 3 out of my 4 favorites were in it. Let me tell you it did not disappoint. They kept saying hand it back to the professionals but they all sounded like professionals. They brought a light hearted engaging side that had me really drawn in. I am not a fan of Kevin Harvick's but he did a remarkable job as the lead announcer. I thought Joey and Clint brought just enough comedy to the broad cast as well. You could tell that all three were feeding off each other and adding in their own wisdom. Denny Hamlin probably had one of the hardest jobs because Larry McReynolds is a past crew chief so when he's talking about strategy he knows it because he's lived that situations or similar one when he was up on the pit box. However Denny did an incredible job of predicting strategy and I'm sure he had help from Larry but he made it come of effortless and smooth. Danica was so funny because she threw it up to the booth with Boom Goes the Dynamite which earlier in the week she said was bad news if she said it. Erik, Ryan Blaney and Ricky were excellent pit reporters. There was teasing about Erik and Ryan never talking and I admit there both pretty quiet so I was interested to see how it went over. They did great Chris Gabehart told Erik he sounded like a natural and I have to agree. He went into pit reporter mode and did a great job of being professional. I loved watching Blaney interview Keselowski because he clearly was excited as a fan and driver of that 22 car but despite the first moments in victory lane showing that he isn't a full time pit reporter I thought he brought it back and continued to give a great interview. Ricky did a great job as well with all the interviews with crew chiefs and handling the caution coming out in the middle of his interview. NASCAR keeps bringing in new and different ideas and I know a lot of fans don't like them and I don't always love them although I do like stage racing and think especially in today it added a lot of strategy that we wouldn't have seen without the stages that lead to a great finish. However the all driver broad cast was something that was so much fun. I would love to see them do it again I understand they can't do it to regularly because the professionals as the drivers kept calling them need their jobs and it was a quick turn around for the drivers from practice to the booth. However it was a blast and I would love to see it again. Great job all around to all the drivers. It was great to see them take on different roles and other parts of their personality shine and come out. Hope to see it again and job well done like Waltrip and Adam Alexander said I give all of you an A+