NASCAR came down hard against the 24 and 48 teams today, giving them identical penalties that befell the 8 team after Darlington: 100 points (owner & driver) lost, $100,000 fine, and a 6 week suspension for the Crew Chief. This was on top of both teams being unable to practice on Friday, and unable to qualify as well, forcing them to settle for the 41st and 42nd starting spots, respectively. Gordon finished 7th, while Johnson finished 17th in Sunday’s race at Sears Point.
While the COT penalties were identical to that of the 8 team, their effect is not. Gordon had led the points by 271, now it’s only 171. He is still up on 13th place by 700+ points, and still has the same amount of wins bonus at the Chase cutoff as he did before. Johnson falls from 3rd to 5th in points, but remains 366 points behind Gordon, and is up on 13th place by about 350 points. Like Gordon, Johnson also still has the same amount of wins bonus as he had before.
With 10 races until the Chase, barring a major injury keeping either from several races, they will make the Chase. The 8 car is on the bubble - they were in Chase territory when the penalty was applied, and had to climb back into place. The 8 is 96 points ahead of 13th - but would have been 196 and in 10th place.
A year ago, Angelo Esposito was predicted to be the #1 overall pick in the 2007 NHL draft. Since then, he slid down several charts but was still thought to be a top-10 pick. No one expected him to fall down the board as he did last night - falling all the way to #20 and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He is a center, and God knows the Pens are loaded at center with Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Talbot and Christensen, but GM Ray Shero stuck to getting the best player available when the Pens turn came. If he can transition to a wing as well as Staal did, combined with not having the pressure of being “The Guy” with the Pens (that he faced in Jr this past year), he will thrive in Pittsburgh.
In other news, my prediction of the other night turned out incorrect - it was announced yesterday that the Pens had re-signed both Roberts and Recchi. I had predicted that Recchi would stay but that Roberts would be lured elsewhere. Good and glad to be wrong in this case - Roberts brings a lot to the team.
With the 2007 NHL Entry Draft just 24 hours away (the first round is in prime-time on Vs, DirecTV channel 608, tomorrow evening at 7pm), and free agency not far behind, the question in Pittsburgh is whether 8 and 10, Recchi and Roberts, will stay or go. Both are unrestricted free agents, free to negotiate with any team after midnight on July 1st.
Roberts waived his no-trade clause in his prior contract to come to Pittsburgh from Florida at the deadline. He has said he wants to be close to his daughter in Toronto, and it was rumored he would only waive the no-trade clause for the Maple Leafs or the Senators. The NHL world was surprised when he landed in Pittsburgh, and many speculate that the Sens failure to get him cost Ottawa GM John Muckler his job early this week when he was fired. (The Sens beat Roberts’ Pens in the first round, 4-1, and made it to the Stanley Cup finals, but lost 1-4)
If Toronto or Ottawa is determined to shell out $, they should easily be able to beat what Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero is willing to offer.
As for Mark Recchi, the Pens brought him back for 2006-2007 at the $2.28M that his contract option would have been had it be exercised by Carolina after the Pens had traded him at the deadline. Carolina declining the option allowed Recchi to sign with any team he chose to do so with, even though he had just won the Cup with Carolina, and Recchi gladly took the Pens offer. Recchi had a strong season overall, but he struggled down the stretch. The question is, how much will Recchi be willing to take to stay in Pittsburgh? It is thought that he would have few other suitors, and his offseason home is still in Pittsburgh from when he was here the first time. Ideally he will retire a Pen, but there is yet some life in his legs.
Gut prediction: Roberts gone, Recchi back at a reduced salary.
John Daly of the Daly Planet expresses well what had bothered me yesterday but I did not take the time to write about, where TNT started the Van Helsing movie with near 15 minutes left on their NASCAR time slot.
He writes:
Basically, TNT did the mandatory interview with the winner, interviewed both DEI drivers, and then sprinted for the airplane. There was not a moment after the race where anyone except Larry McReynolds was “fired up” about what just went on during the race. If this had been an event that ran long on time, fans might understand. After a long rain delay like Pocono, leaving quickly is understood.
But, for a network like TNT who has only six NEXTEL Cup races in their entire schedule for the year, this was strange. When you add-in the fact that fifteen minutes remained in the scheduled time slot for this event, it becomes even stranger.
NBC was guilty of this last year, and some of the team are the same (Bill Weber and Wally Dallenbach, Jr., for example), of rushing off into the sunset, sometimes with barely more than the winner’s interview. In most cases, the race went past the scheduled allotment of time, and it was hurry up to get back to whatever other programming was on. As Mr. Daly notes, last week’s Pocono coverage makes one wonder who runs the operation over there, as TNT stayed with the rain delays much longer than expected, even though it was well past the original time slot.
DEI drivers Martin Truex, Jr., (2nd) and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., (5th) finished strong at Michigan, in a race where Truex led lots early, and Earnhard led once during green flag stops midway through. Carl Edwards broke a near-two-year losing streak in earning the win, with Truex some 2 seconds back. Truex beat 3rd place finisher Tony Stewart to the line by some 17 seconds. Only 9 cars finished on the lead lap, as Edwards lapped 10th place finisher Michael Waltrip (made the race and had a good finish, but is still 48th in owner points) coming to the white flag, and almost lapped Jeff Gordon (9th) at the checkers.
The finishes put both DEI drivers in the Chase, with Earnhardt finally overcoming the 100 point penalty after Darlington. Truex sits in 10th, Earnhardt 12th, with 11 races left to the cutoff. Truex’s runner-up finish continues an average finish of 2nd from two races to three, having finished 3rd at the rain-shortened Pocono race and having won at Dover.
Saturday made two weeks and a row at ODS - shorter card tonight, with a 30 lap Legends feature, 75 on the grand stocks, 100 on the late models, and 20 for the U cars.
Admission was the same as last week, $15 for adults. 5 and under are still free. It was Father’s Day Weekend, and this week, prizes were awarded to Fathers. One category was kids under 5 their with their fathers. (We met that category, but our normal sitting area of the into turn 1 grandstands kept us out of the mix) Another was someone there with their father and grandfather.
ODS has remained a good atmosphere, and there is plenty of space in the stands for more race fans to attend. You may want to do so now, as its future is up in the air. Get the racing in while you still can.
The Penguins Sindey Crosby took home all the hardware last night at the 2006-2007 NHL awards ceremony - he already had clinched the Art Ross Trophy as the regular season point leader, and took home the Lester B. Pearson Award (best player voted by players) and the Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP as voted by the writers). He won both the Pearson and Hart going away.
Continue reading ‘Crosby nets "triple crown" - Hart, Pearson & Ross’
Fred hasn’t even formally announced yet and he’s already pulled even with Giuliani in the polls for the GOP nomination. The other Republican candidates are quaking, and the Democrat candidates are sending attack-dogs out after Fred as well.
Fred has a dirty secret - his stances are well known, and they aren’t changing. That is one of the things that brings voters to him, and that is not good news for others who have problems with changing their mind over time.
Thursday marks the last step in the 2006-2007 season in the form of the Awards Banquet, where the winners will be announced for the major awards, and the trophies presented. It will be televised on the Versus network.
Next up after that is the 2007 Entry Draft, to be held in Columbus on Friday June 22 (Round 1 @ 7pm) and Saturday June 23. (Rounds 2-7 start @ 10am) The draft is quickly followed by free agency on July 1.
Fresh Cracks...