I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that rain is causing weekend plan problems right now.  It is after all April.  Rain just seems to be throwing kinks in the weekend plans constantly right now.  Yesterday was supposed to start with the Race for the Cure and then heading up to Missouri to Lindsey & Grayson’s to help with their flower beds.  Instead, we had pouring rain that lasted off and on all day.  We did end up going up to MO for supper so the day wasn’t a total loss but it is still disappointing, nonetheless.

Last weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series was at Texas Motor Speedway.  The forecast was showing a small chance of rain all weekend.  Our hope was that 30-40% wasn’t going to hurt the race on Sunday.

We went down to DFW on Friday.  We stay in Frisco right next to IKEA and Dr Pepper Ballpark, which is home of the double-A Texas Rangers team the Frisco RoughRiders.  Our hotel room had a great view down into the ballpark.  It’s too bad they aren’t ever at home the weekend of the NASCAR race.

We spent Friday evening at my uncle’s house in Dallas.  It was a great visit with him & Rod and a great home cooked meal!  I took tons of pictures of their flowers & plants while I was there (of course).

On Saturday, we got up early and went to the Dallas Farmers Market.  We left there with several fresh vegetables & some berries.  We also left seeing all of the great flowers blooming and wishing we could go home and plant them all in our yards.  Saturday night, our group of 13 met at Babe’s Chicken House in Frisco for dinner.  For those unfamiliar with Babe’s, it is a restaurant where you pick your meat you want to eat (fried chicken, chicken strips, pot roast, chicken fried steak, etc) and then all of the vegetables are served family style.  (NWA Peeps:  Think Monte Ne Inn here in Rogers, except there are other meats to choose from besides fried chicken.)  This is our second year in a row to eat there.  It’s very good!

Sunday was race day (or at least it was supposed to be).  That 30-40% chance was pretty well 100% at the track.  We headed out there hoping the rain would stop and the track would get dry.  No such luck.  The race was postponed til Monday.  (Shelby, Mom, & I headed on home Monday so Shelby & I didn’t get to see the race.)

While we were at the track on Sunday, NASCAR 4-time champion Jimmie Johnson held a Q&A session at the Chevrolet stage.  The major topic of the questions was that he & his wife Chandra are expecting a baby girl in July.  His words…”I hope she comes during the off-weekend in mid-July.”

I recommend that you all watch the 4 part HBO series called 24/7 Jimmie Johnson: Race to Daytona.

For NASCAR fans, it gives us a glimpse into the psyche of Jimmie Johnson & Chad Knaus.  Until Dale Earnhardt Jr joined Hendrick Motorsports, I viewed Jimmie as an arrogant driver with way too much good luck.  He still has way too much good luck but I must say that after 4 NASCAR Sprint Cup championships in a row, his & Chad’s arrogance was confidence in what they could obviously accomplish.  (They need to get with Junior and pass on at least a bit of a confidence.  I guess that’s for another entry, though.)

For non-NASCAR fans, it gives you a glimpse at the world behind “racing in circles”.  Let me be the first to say that, if all NASCAR was was watching cars go round and round in circles, I’d be bored out of my mind and would not be a fan.  The goings on behind the scenes at the track and off the track are sometimes much more interesting than who is leading the race.  This series is giving a behind the scenes view of Hendrick Motorsports, Jimmie Johnson, & Chad Knaus as they prepare for the Daytona 500 (which is 2 weeks from today!).  Folks try to explain away NASCAR as not being a sport.  Just watching the first episode demonstrated that the drivers & the crew members work out a lot to prepare for the hard work that is driving a car for 3-4 hours during a race and also accomplishing 12 second pit stops.  Not many sports make a team member lose up to 10 pounds a game/race/etc.  That fact has always made me say Wow! when thinking of a driver’s stamina to race.

By the way…I loved the milk & cookies re-enactment with Rick Hendrick!  Rick always has the best stories to tell.

You can watch the series on Tuesdays at 9pm CST and on re-runs.  There are 3 new episodes left.

Here is the website for the show where you can see several clips of the show.

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.

NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup championship begins this weekend in Loudon, NH.  The season thus far has been building up to this point.  Points are essentially reset for the top 12 drivers as of last Saturday’s race in Richmond.  The next 10 races are all about the Chase drivers.

The drivers contending for the 2009 championship are…

• Mark Martin
• Tony Stewart
• Jimmie Johnson
• Denny Hamlin
• Kasey Kahne
• Jeff Gordon
• Kurt Busch
• Brian Vickers
• Carl Edwards
• Ryan Newman
• Juan Pablo Montoya
• Greg Biffle

As you can see by the above list, Dale Earnhardt Jr didn’t make it in.  I really haven’t yet figured out who I think has the best chance to win the championship.  Although, my gut says Tony & Jimmie are very good early favorites to win it all.  It will boil down to whoever can have the most consistent (good consistency, that is) finishes for the remaining 10 races.  Who are you rooting for to win?

The drivers spent the past couple of days doing a whirlwind media tour in New York City.  Here is a clip of one of the appearances.

Jeff Gordon won on Sunday, April 5, 2009 not only for the first time at Texas Motor Speedway but also for the first time since October 2007 (47 races ago, if you are keeping count).

This was the first race I attended with my new camera.  I wasn’t really sure how it was going to work given the high speeds.  (I was spoiled to the sport/action setting on my old camera.)  I think my pictures turned out ok for my first try.  Here are some my favorites (picture-wise and subject-wise).

I probably say this after every race when I share pictures but I love seeing the crew members lined up on pit road during the invocation and the national anthem.

Dale Earnhardt Jr started 20th and finished 20th in the race after having a little connection with the wall.

Jimmie Johnson started 9th and finished 2nd.  Jimmie & Jeff battling for the win made the last few laps pretty interesting.  Given the wind at the track on raceday, I’m surprised the drivers could keep their hats on riding around the track.  Jimmie’s trying a different technique by wearing his backwards.

We’ve been lucky to have a direct view down pit road and of the exit of pit road when we go to TMS.  From this view, pit stops sometime look like mass chaos with cars and crew members everywhere.

This is Max Papis.  I love this photo.  He’s so enthusiastic.

Boogity! Boogity! Boogity! Let’s Go Racin’, Boys! When I’m seeing a race in person or even later in the season when DW isn’t an announcer, I so want someone to yell this.

You can see all of the pictures I took at the race by visiting my Flickr photo album.