Sunday, April 17, 2011

Madness and Mayhem at Talladega: Wrecks, 2 Car Draft and a Shocking End

If you ask a NASCAR fan about Talladega SuperSpeedway your going to get a few answers: 1) It's the craziest 188 laps of your life, 2) there's a lot of "Big Ones" and cautions, and 3) anyone can win it at the last few laps. Those are the words of truth, you watch this race expecting it to be like all the others, yet it comes out and shocks you like no other race. We get up early on Sunday morning's and grab our cereal, or lunch. Turn on the T.V. and grab our phones to tweet what is going on, each fan tells who they are cheering on and then we begin to tweet the madness that is NASCAR. Of course, we all tweet about the national anthem singer to say whether they are good or not. The truth is present that really twitter is a home-base for NASCAR fans to emerge and just enjoy the time together. Well today's race was a heart-racer for sure.

Once the engines were fired, the command given, the pace laps done, everyone was ready for the most crazy and intense 188 laps ever. In the beginning all the drivers paired up into the two-car drafting that we saw a while ago. DW and the other's called it "SPEED-DATING" which i find rather humorous, even though when people on twitter talked about it they then got spammed for it. As the race continued on, nothing major happened for a while, just a vast amount of changes and passes. Then Brian Vickers, driver of the #83 red bull toyota ended up having a hard wreck that put him in the garage for the rest of the race. What was about to happen next, made many fans jump up off their feet and go "WOW".

THE BIG ONE. At lap 90 multiple cars went flying up, down and all over the place on the track. Many drivers had small damage that could be fixed in a pit stop. As for David Ragan and Kasey Kahne it would end up going to the back of the garage. Ragan had a bit of fire, but Kasey Kahne drove down and his car caught fire and smoked black, thankfully the driver got out and was okay, but very frustrated.  Many fans on twitter could not believe the wreck, but were glad to see all the drivers okay. Kasey ended up coming back out and finishing the race and dropped to 18th in points.

The rest of the race was all about strategy and trust with your dance partner. Many shocking driver's came up, getting close to the last few laps hoping to get to the end and win, but many came up short. As the last few laps died down everyone was preparing for another BIG ONE. At Talladega it is possible for another one to occur in the last 10-5 laps. Instead of a BIG ONE, we had more of a BIG SHOCK. The winner at Talladega blew away fans everywhere. Who is the winner you might ask? No one else than Jimmie Johnson.

At the very few laps, Johnson came down with his drafting partner and was able to beat Bowyer out barley. A shock for many fans who thought Bowyer was gonna rip the win out. Three-wide at the end on that final lap, many thought Gordon, then Bowyer, but it ended up being Johnson. After the race, Johnson drove over and gave Dale Jr. the flag as a way of thanking him for all the help today. Overall the race was as intense as fans had expected it to be, with only a few cautions, the race was keeping fans on their toes everywhere.

In my personal opinion i was shocked by the way the race playing itself out from start to finish. my picks were the two red bull toyota's, even though they didn't get top 10's they still worked as hard as they possibly could. I could say in a lot of Fan's points of view that this race was pretty impressive and did keep everyone glued to the T.V. from start to finish.

Well this is the last race before we head off to Richmond on April 30th, our second night race of the season! I know I am excited for that race as much as the next fan is. Until next time, i will hope to blog about the next awesome race. Enjoy your week NASCAR fans and until Richmond i will tweet you all and hope we make some awesome picks for the next race.

ALL PICTURES THANKS TO GOOGLE OR NASCAR.COM
*If i screwed anything up, left anything out or anything of that sort i am sorry this is just a quick blog in a short form of reviewing the race since i was really bored. I apologize for any errors and also this is my opinion on some stuff, so no mean comments please and thank you*

Questions???
1) Do you think this win by JJ is going to start a streak of wins for him?
2) How do you feel about the 2 Car Drafting?
3) What do you hope to see in Richmond?

Thanks all for reading this!
-Laura

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www.twitter.com/Speedys_Sweet82

Friday, April 8, 2011

These streets will make you feel brand new Big lights will inspire you Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York

So i am finally blogging again! Hooray! But this time it's not NASCAR related at all. Instead it's a re-cap of my trip to New York City with my choir over our spring break. Also before i get started i'd like to apologize for no new NASCAR race updates, i have been busy and then missed last weekend's race... don't worry i will get back on it though in no time! :) Now onto New York............

You've heard the song "Empire State of Mind" by Alicia Keys and Jay Z. It's all about New York, hence my title for this blog! :) Well after much fundraising and more, we all came upon the day of leaving for NYC. Our choir teacher was ready to go and we were all super pumped to take such an amazing trip to such a wonderful state! We left Saturday April 2nd early in the morning and arrived in Newark around 5:30pm. Getting onto the coaches, we drove right into NYC going through the Lincoln Tunnel and then had dinner at a nice restaurant, we also toured Times Square and it was truly the start to one heck of a 5 days. Getting home late, we fell asleep and woke up the next morning to enjoy another fun day of walking around and seeing multiple sights.

We had a clinic with a choir teacher, got some great advice and some awesome approval for our pieces. Even though the traffic was crazy, we still got in  NYC everyday and spent as much time as possible. We ate at a variety of places like: Planet Hollywood, A italian place in "Little Italy", Pizza (Last Night). As for lunch, well that was on our own time, the last day my friend and I went to TRUMP TOWER and ate downstairs and had a blast!

We did a lot of sightseeing like: Empire State Building (86th Floor View), Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Julliard, Harlem, 5th Avenue, and so much more. Beyond that, we got a lot of free time to walk around and see things in their full view and of course go shopping. Fast walking, bumping shoulders, honking, and more is really only a small taste of what NYC is. We also got to sing at the largest cathedral in the world, that being Saint John the Divine. It was awesome, we also sang in central park to a guy who played the sax, then we got to sing after church on Sunday as well. Singing, Sightseeing, Laughing, Sharing Memories, and just enjoying time together was the key to this trip.


I can say this trip was a perfect getaway for me and many others, we all had fun and were able to get closer with our fellow choir friends. I cannot say thank you enough to my choir teacher, all the chaperones, tour guides, bus drivers, and symphonic members! I had so much fun with you guys and gals, cannot wait to do something like that again! :D New York City was a trip that made Spring Break so much fun, i would go back their any day again!

NOTE: All Pictures being posted are ones i took! Do Not Steal!
Thanks for reading this blog, it's short and sweet but it gives everyone a glance into what we did over the 5 days, also the weather was lovely except it rained one day! Anyway! :D Next blog to come will be over a driver and most likely a re-cap of Sat's night race in Texas! :)
XOXOXO,
Laura
P.S. Sorry for any typo's! Also no hate comments! :D thanks!
WE DID SO MUCH MORE THAN I SAID, BUT THIS IS A TASTE :D