Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports, & Lowe’s on their 4th championship in a row!

From Marty Smith (ESPN) on Twitter:

Just asked Johnson to be honest with me about where he stacks up among the greatest ever: “This puts us up there. No doubt.”

Hendrick teammates Mark Martin & Jeff Gordon finished the season in 2nd & 3rd, respectively.

Dale Earnhardt Jr finished the season 25th.  This season has been a bumpy season for Junior & team.  Lance McGrew was finally named the official crew chief (removing the interim designation) a while back.  I really think Lance, Junior, & the 88 team can do great things together.  I’m very optimistic about 2010!

Brad Keselowski’s last race with JR Motorsports was Saturday.  He will be joining Penske Racing & driving the #12 in the Sprint Cup series next year.  Good luck, Brad!  Kelly Bires will be joining JRM next year.  I’m very excited to see how he does for JRM.

Today is the first Arkansas Razorback football game of the season.  The Razorbacks are taking on the Missouri State Bears at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.  Go Hogs Go!

Some Exciting Former Hog News:

• Former Hog baseball player Craig Gentry has been called up from AA Frisco to the majors – the Texas Rangers.  Northwest Arkansas has been fortunate enough to keep up with Craig’s progress through the Rangers organization because Frisco plays the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.  Good luck, Craig!

Brad Keselowski has helped Dale Earnhardt Jr make JR Motorsports a weekly contender in the NASCAR Nationwide series.  Brad has 5 wins in the NW series and got his first Cup series win in April at Talladega.  Penske Racing announced Tuesday that Brad will join them beginning in 2010 and will drive the #12 Penske Dodge in the Sprint Cup series.  Congratulations Brad on this great opportunity!  Just remember that Rick Hendrick & Hendrick Motorsports isn’t out of reach!

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals have 3 games left (with only 1 win needed) and they will have clinched a Texas League playoff spot for the 2nd straight season (in only 2 seasons in existence in NWA).  Good luck Naturals against the Tulsa Drillers this weekend!

The house buying process is moving along.  The inspection was yesterday.  It went as expected (& hoped) and now I’m waiting on the appraisal to come back to know which item(s) I may need to fix before I can actually close.  After the appraisal results, I’ll basically be waiting on repairs and the bank to finish up their process.  My real estate agent said yesterday that closing by the end of the month is still very possible.  I hope so!  I’m ready to have the keys in hand and be able to start painting and flooring.  (I’m sorry to say I’m not going to be able to move in right away because it needs some polishing but it shouldn’t take too terribly long, hopefully, to get some fresh paint on the main level’s walls and carpeting cleaned & repaired.)  I’m also ready to cook my first meal in the kitchen!

Congratulations to Brad Keselowski & JR Motorsports on their 3rd win of the 2009 NASCAR season this past Saturday at Michigan!

I got my Razorback football season tickets in the mail over the weekend.  First Fayetteville game is Sat Sept 19 against Georgia.  I’m still waiting on my tickets to the Southwest Classic (Arkansas vs Texas A&M) in Dallas at the new Cowboys Stadium.  I can’t wait for football season!

Until next time…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oIqkaZU8sY

Carl decided to pull a Ricky Bobby and run to the start/finish line after his car was left unable to do so after its wild ride.

Congratulations to Brad Keselowski on his 1st NASCAR Sprint Cup series win (in just 5 tries).

Dale Earnhardt Jr finished second.  Based on his excitement in Victory Lane with Brad, I think he was very happy with 2nd and ecstatic to see Brad win the race.

Finally, my condolenses go out to the family & friends of David Poole (longtime NASCAR journalist).  I always enjoyed reading the articles he wrote for the Charlotte Observer.  One of my favorite articles I’ve read about Dale Earnhardt Sr was one he wrote about Sr’s lucky penny.

I’m heading to a birthday party for a good friend this afternoon who turned 30 on Friday.  Happy Birthday, Megan!

For Christmas, I signed Shelby up to take a sewing class.  Because I haven’t sewn since junior high, I decided to sign up & go too.  Our first class was supposed to be last Thursday but snow put a wrinkle in those plans.  The class should start this Thursday and then be every Thursday evening for the next 6 weeks.  I’m pretty excited about it.  I’m not sure that I’m interested in learning how to sew clothing.  I’d love to know how to make curtains and quilts, though.

Next weekend, I’m heading to Tulsa for a little girls’ weekend.  My sister Lindsey, Hayley, Kelly, & I are heading to Tulsa to see Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, & Darius Rucker in concert.  I’ve seen Dierks twice before but have the opinion that one can never see Dierks too much.    I haven’t ever seen Brad or Darius and am really excited about both of them.  Although, I do need to listen to Darius’ country CD a few times this week because I’m afraid he won’t really be playing anything Hootie.  (Although, he might surprise me.)

Kelly & I are thinking of taking a road trip somewhere south in late February (assuming the weather cooperates with us).  Right now, we’re actually considering heading down to San Antonio for a few days.  We’re still in the early stages of figuring out where and when but it has me excited nonetheless.

April will find me in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, specifically Texas Motor Speedway, for NASCAR.  We’ll be taking our annual trip to the Sprint Cup series race on April 5th.  After the trip to TMS Penni & I had in November, it definitely won’t be as interesting.  I keep telling Shelby that I’m counting down to her 18th birthday when she will be old enough for pit passes.  I will get to see Brad Keselowski in the Cup race, though, which I’m excited about.

As of right now, I’m heading to Charlotte, NC for the Coca-Cola 600 in late May.  I don’t have plane tickets or race tickets but I’m pretty sure everything is headed in this direction.  Penni loves going to this race, and I decided this would be a good non-Texas NASCAR race to attend in 2009.  It looks like we are going to have several friends attending with us so that will be cool.  If anyone else wants to go, let us know.  The more, the merrier!  It’ll be cool to meet some new people and enjoy a lot of NASCAR at the same time.

Friday was the longest day of my vacation.  We were at the track for 12 hours or so.  Friday included two Nationwide series practices, a Sprint Cup practice, qualifying for both the Nationwide & Sprint Cup series, and finally the Craftsman Truck series race.  Plus, SPEED TV was filming Trackside Live and we watched that for a while.

The photo above is of the tunnel we walked through many times over the course of the weekend to get to the track infield from the grandstand and back.  It is really weird walking through that when cars are driving at full speed overhead.

Jeff Gordon won the pole for the Sprint Cup series race.  The above photos is of his crew pushing the pole winning car into Victory Lane for the Coors Pole Award ceremony.

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of Junior’s winning banner.  I pass it each time I’m at the track and have, thus far, resisted.

Brad Keselowski qualified on time for his first Sprint Cup race.  He was driving the Hendrick Motorsports 25 GoDaddy.com Chevy.  I’m glad that I was there to witness his first Cup race (more on his finish on Day 6).

Driver introductions for the Craftsman Truck race were a bit unorthodox at Texas Motor Speedway.  Instead of coming out onto a stage to wave to the crowd, the drivers actually came down out of the crowd and onto the track.  As you can see in this picture, track workers led 3 drivers at a time down the stands and then out onto the track into their respective Chevy truck for their ride-around.

Click here to see all of the photos I took on Friday.

I took this photo at JR Motorsports last October when I was in Charlotte for the fall NASCAR races.  Brad Keselowski drove this car at Fontana, CA Labor Day weekend last year.  Well, I guess I should say “wrecked” instead of “drove”.  Brad was asked about this car this past weekend in Cali.

“Dale’s got it out on his property there,” said Keselowski, who lives in an apartment on Earnhardt Jr.’s property. “Every once in a while, we’ll get in a golf cart or a four-wheeler and drive by it and see it.”

“It’s a good conversation piece,” Keselowski said. “It’s actually out back in the woods. It’s on a hill and there’s vines and stuff growing through it. It’s cool because Dale left it completely intact. Every single piece other than the radio is in it. It’s really cool to see.”

Brad Keselowski won his first NASCAR Nationwide series race in Nashville, TN on June 7, 2008.  He won his second on Friday night in Bristol, TN.  His Bristol win, besides being the second of his career and this year, is the 4th win this season for JR Motorsports.

Around the Web:

• Foxsports:  Late bobble costs Bowyer, lists Keselowski
• NASCAR.com:  Keselowski uses Bowyer’s slip to capture win at BMS
• SceneDaily.com:  Bowyer’s Bobble Boosts Keselowski to Nationwide win at Bristol
• SI.com:  After starting 37th, Keselowski wins Bristol Nationwide
• SpeedwayMedia.com:  Keselowski Scores 2nd Win of Season at Bristol, Closes in on Points Lead
• ThatsRacin.com:  Offered Penske’s No. 12 Dodges in Sprint Cup, Keselowski Declines

I’ll, of course, be taking my laptop with me.  (We should have internet access in the hotel room.)  Whether or not I use my laptop, I’ll have my cell phone and will be twittering along the way.  Feel free to follow along with me this weekend.  I’ll have lots of stories and photos to share when I return, I’m fairly certain.

Who’s gonna win this weekend?  Well, I’m rooting for one of the JR Motorsports teams – #5 driven by Mark Martin or #88 driven by Brad Keselowski – in the Nationwide series race on Saturday.  On Sunday, I’m rooting for the #88 driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr.  All of these teams have a great shot at a win.  (Junior actually won the June race in Michigan so I’m sure he can defend his win.)

Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

At this point in 2007, Jeff Gordon was leading the Sprint Cup standings (and was 344 points ahead of 2nd place).  He & Jimmie Johnson were tied for the most wins so far with 4 a piece.  After today’s race, Kyle Busch leads all drivers this year with 8 wins and is leading the standings by 242 points.  Both of those stats are alarming to me.  First of all, I expected Kyle to do ok in his first season with Joe Gibbs Racing.  I figured he’d have 1 or 2 wins and probably make the Chase.  Instead, he has 8 wins and is a sure thing for the Chase (if not the championship).  The 242 point differential between Kyle and 2nd place is a big surprise to me.  Jeff Gordon had 4 wins at this point last year but was farther ahead of 2nd place than Kyle is with 8 wins.  This makes me think that it may be any one’s ballgame once the Chase starts.  Kyle has definitely had some great finishes this year (very reminiscent of Jimmie Johnson at times in 2006 & 2007 when nothing seemed to stop the team from a top 5 or win).  Unfortunately, he has a handful of very poor finishes (including Martinsville, which is a Chase track).  He will more than likely need no stumbles (or bad luck) in the Chase to keep his roll going and end up 2008 Sprint Cup Champion.

Until today, Dale Earnhardt Jr was 2nd in the Sprint Cup point standings and had been gradually shrinking Kyle Busch’s points lead.  Unfortunately, a 22nd place finish dropped him to 4th in the standings behind Carl Edwards and teammate Jimmie Johnson.  Junior isn’t known to be a great road course racer so I’m happy with the finish.  I’m just a little upset he lost all of the points he had been gaining.  The series is on to Michigan next weekend where Junior won the spring race.  Did I mention I’m going to be there in person?  I’m hoping for a repeat performance of his win in June. 

A belated congrats to Ron Fellows.  Ron was driving a JR Motorsports car last weekend in Montreal and brought home the 3rd NASCAR Nationwide series trophy for JRM in 2008.  (Mark Martin & Brad Keselowski have both taken home trophies this year.)  Now, it is Landon Cassill’s and Junior’s turns to win one for JRM.