Excellent racing this weekend. Great side by side action. Even the Nationwide race was pretty good.

Congrats to Jimmie Johnson and Rick Hendrick on their first win this season. He's not the one I wanted to win though. I actually would have loved to see Mark Martin or Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the winner's circle instead. I missed the interview with Mark Martin after the race but you could definitely hear the disappointment in Junior's voice when they interviewed him.

Here are a few random thoughts that ran through my noggin:

-- I appreciate the network delaying the race so that we could watch the conclusion of the rain-delayed Red Sox vs. Yankees game. The key word in that sentence is conclusion. At first I was grumpy because of it and then I started really getting in to the baseball game.

I think it was the bottom of the ninth with 2 outs and a full count. Just as Papelbon was getting ready to throw a pitch they changed it over to the start of the race. There was absolutely no warning. I'm relaxed watching baseball and then my heart started racing because 43 cars were coming at me on the big screen television. I was all confused and highly anxious. I wanted to know if his pitch ended the game...uugh.

-- Matt Kenseth had some bad luck hitting the wall early in the race. He's really had an up and down year this year so far.

-- Bad luck for Ryan Newman who's car blew up, spewing oil all over the track bringing out a caution.

-- Elliott Sadler also had a bad night. He had a tire go down and hit the wall and had to go to the garage.

-- Give Mark Martin a good car and look what happens. He was so feisty. What a great race for him.

-- I’m not a big fan of races that end on gas mileage, including this one. But I really liked watching Chad Knaus talking with Jimmie Johnson those last 3 laps.

-- What happened to Kevin Harvick in the pits?! He was looking like he was going to have a great finish. That was disappointing.

-- Jeff Burton, my pick for the race, finished fifth.

-- Mr. Consistent (yeah, my man Clint Bowyer) was consistent again at Phoenix finishing second. He's the man. That's all I'm saying.

On a different note...

Ricky Carmichael was at the Moto X World Championships this weekend. He was in the Step Up competition. Step Up is where riders speed up a dirt incline to try to attempt to fly their motorcycles over a bar high up in the air, it's kind of similar to a high jump, only MUCH higher.

Yesterday during the competition, the bar was set at 35 feet in the air. On Carmichael's first attempt, he cleared it. And I mean he CLEARED it. He was actually the only one that was able to do it. He just couldn't stick the landing and he crashed. On impact, his chin hit the handle bars on his motorcycle before he was thrown off and put a gouge in his chin. He was taken to the hospital to get stitches and to make sure there were no other injuries. He was complaining of his jaw hurting (as you can imagine).

He did go back to the event afterwards to commentate the rest of the events. The entire time I was watching him compete I was wondering what Ken Schrader was thinking about this whole thing. Afterall, Carmichael is supposed to be jumping in a car and racing for Ken Schrader this weekend in the Camping World East Series at Greenville Pickens Speedway in Easley, S.C. What if he had broken his wrists in the crash?

All for now...

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