A Tribute to Ten

Ten years ago to this day Hendrick motorsports suffered a horrific tragedy. Now on this day I'm doing my part to remember the people lost on that fateful day. I was not watching NASCAR very closely back in 2004 when the tragedy occurred. I have since learned about it and I have looked up articles and videos on the crash to learn more about it and the people lost. My best friend's family are big Hendrick motorsports fans and so I know this post will mean a lot not only to them but all Hendrick fans. The more I dig deeper into the stories the more my heartbreaks. I probably have read the most stories on Ricky, Jennifer and Kimberly Hendrick just because they were the youngest and the ones I found the most heartbreaking. They showed so much promise and had not got to live their lives as long as the others had. That's just who I read the most about Ricky's little girl also nick named Ricki in his honor is such a adorable little girl. I can't imagine being in her shoes and never getting to meet your father. I have a lot of respect for her mother Emily Maynard I know with the bachelorette recently and all a lot has been said and who knows how much of that is truth and what not so everyone might not agree. However to lose your fiancé and then find out your pregnant with his child and have to be a single mom at 18 years old. I can't imagine doing that I know at 18 I wouldn't have wanted to raise a child let along as a grieving mother. I feel so bad for John Hendrick's wife and oldest daughter Alesha to lose your sisters and dad or daughters and husband depending on the view point. I have 1 biological sister and 2 best friends that are really my sisters in every way except biologically and I can't imagine losing 2 of them and my dad. It had to be the worst time. Those are just the ones I know best that's not to take away the loss that Joe Jackson, Randy Dorton, Jeff Turner, Scott Lathram, Elizabeth Morrison and Richard Tracy's families feel. My heart breaks for them as well I just haven't read up as much on them so I don't have any stories so to say about them. I have so much respect for Rick Hendrick to move on after losing your son, your brother, and your nieces as well as valuable employees. Everyone lost out on that day but rick lost probably the most. I've never been a Hendrick motor sports fan when I really got into racing Kyle Busch was getting ready to head over to Joe Gibbs Racing. However even as someone who isn't a fan of theirs I respect what they have all overcome and I can't imagine getting through that. The last people I feel for when I think about this tragedy are obviously all of the drivers that were driving for Hendrick motorsports but especially  Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers. Jimmie was the one that has his win from that day forever tainted because of the tragedy. He has no idea what had been happening while he was driving and now he's told not to celebrate. I can't imagine what he must have gone through finding out and I'm going to tune in on the raceday show Sunday at 10 on FS1 because Jimmie is suppose to be doing a story on it. I also gained a little more respect for Jimmie when I learned that he went out and won the race the next week. I don't know how he could move on and do it so he really gained some respect through that. Brian I can't even imagine losing your best friend on your birthday. I lost a friend about a week after my birthday and it's changed how I see my birthday because I know in the back of my mind that my friend's anniversary of her death is coming up. Trying to move forward and celebrate your birthday with such sad memories also on that day. I don't know how you would do that your birthday is suppose to be a happy time but he can never celebrate it the same way knowing he also lost his best friend. The Hendrick plane crash was a terrible tragedy that forever changed the lives of so many. On this day especially but for their families every day we remember those lost. Rest in Peace  Ricky Hendrick, Jennifer Hendrick, Kimberly Hendrick, John Hendrick, Joe Jackson, Randy Dorton, Jeff Turner, Scott Lathram, Elizabeth Morrison and Richard Tracy. You were taken from this world far too soon my thoughts and prayers go out to all of the NASCAR community, Hendrick Motorsports and all of the families and friends of those lost. Please feel free to join me in remembering the people lost 10 years ago today in the comment section below.

RIP to all you are greatly missed

Chase Drama and other current NASCAR tidbits

So I have purposely avoided writing my predictions or thoughts about who is going to win the championship or who was getting eliminated. I didn't want anyone's fans saying I jinxed their driver. However there has been a lot of drama in the chase that I felt was worthy of a post. I was amazed during round 1 how many mistakes the drivers kept making. For the most part it didn't hurt a lot of them to much because everyone was making them. Now that were onto round 2 a lot of those pit road mistakes and driver mistakes seem to have settled down at least that I've seen. The drama last night after the Charlotte race was insane. I wasn't to surprised when I saw Denny and Brad going at it as if any of you remember they have had issues before but man oh man did Denny want to get to Brad. I was surprised however to see Matt go after Brad Matt is usually pretty calm that I've seen through my years watching NASCAR. However that just proved that any driver will go after it if they feel passionate about the situation. I do feel that Matt had a right to be mad as he was put in more danger with belts undone. However I refuse to pick sides as there are so many things that I'm sure we all don't know. It was a crazy amount of drama and I can't wait to see where it will go from here. Will there be any retaliations and what will happen at Talladega. The Talladega race is always crazy but now with four big stars needing a win to avoid getting cut and no one a full race above in points and the tempers from Charlotte race flowing it should be crazy. I think there is going to be a lot of the big wrecks at Talladega and I agree with the announcers I don't think we will know until after the race who made it in and who got cut.

 I felt bad for Tony last night getting hit by Brad when as far as I know he wasn't involved at all. I debated many times about writing a blog post on Tony's situation but felt it was such a controversial issue I wasn't sure that as a new blogger I wanted to take that on. However if there are people who want to see that I would consider making a blog post on that if I got your opinions. It would depend on a lot of things and I would have to take careful time so not to offend anyone. I would also have to consider the fact that the situation legally has been delt with. So does it really need to be talked about again or would it be better to let it go and let those involved continue to move on. However I will not even consider writing a post on Tony's situation unless I get some comments by people asking me to.

What are you guys thoughts on the new chase format I know there are a lot of people who feel they should just do a points all season which is how the nationwide series does that. I'm not sure how I feel the eliminations do add excitement and like Denny Hamlin pointed out if your consistent you would go on in either chase last years or this years. Joey and Dale last year proved 1 bad race and you were out so that hasn't changed to much either. So I guess I like this format but I can also understand how people want a season long champion which this isn't.

Speaking of the Nationwide series what do you guys think about Chase Elliot's rookie season. That kid has impressed me so much. I know a lot of people feel that Kyle Larson has been impressive in the Sprint cup series. However my personal opinion is that Chase Elliot has been even more impressive. He has won 3 times in a rookie season where he didn't even have a ride until late in the off season. He has a pretty good shot to become the first rookie champion. You can see his passion when the last two weeks he has not been pleased with himself although they were very decent runs.

Speaking on Chase leads me to my next part of this post the new young guns of NASCAR. The drivers in this group are all right around my age and so I like quite a few of them. They don't top my favorites but I enjoy watching them. Chase Elliot is one and I like how he has won and yet he hasn't had to ruffle feathers the way he did winning the first truck race. Ryan Reed impresses me for driving and continuing to live his dream and not letting diabetes stop him. He is such a inspiration and not a bad driver either. Bubba Wallace he always catches my eye because he is a good driver he drives for one of my fav's Kyle Busch and he has a fun personality. Ryan Blaney is always seeming to run with the cup guys and in the top ten when he's in the nationwide series and was in contention for the truck series title for a while. He really deserves a full nationwide ride soon. Erik Jones who also drives for Kyle Busch he has done so amazing 3 wins in just two part time seasons. I hope he gets his full time ride soon. He's also come into the nationwide series and not ruffled feathers just been clean and consistent with 2 top tens in his 2 races. Cale Conley is another who deserves a full time ride he comes in and seems to run top ten in a lot of the nationwide races he's in and also does it clean. There are so many other young guns some of my other personal favorites are Alex Bowman, Ryan Truex, Austin and Ty Dillon, Trevor Bayne, James Buescher and then obviously Joey Logano although he's always forgotten in the young gun talk since he has so much experience. There are so many other who i could post about who are just as deserving but these are my fav young guns.

Well that's enough for this post if you guys are reading my posts which I know some of you are I gave you a lot of material that you could comment about I would love to hear your thoughts on any of this. I do believe that you are able to comment by clicking the no comment button if your the first and then adding your comment but to my friends reading this you know who you are let me know if you can't comment so I can get that fixed.