2008 Schedule

SPRINT CUP SERIES

Budweiser Shootout Daytona
Saturday, Feb. 9

Gatorade Duel 1 Daytona
Thursday, Feb. 14

Gatorade Duel 2 Daytona
Thursday, Feb. 14

Daytona 500
Sunday, Feb. 17

vroooooooooooooooooooooom!

Will someone we all know and like alot be setting up the fantasy race thingy?

I will try to remember to join this year, if someone we know and like a lot set it up again.......hello, Becky????

Dec. 22, 2007 57 days to go until the Daytona 500 for 2008

• 57 -- Janet Guthrie's car number for her last NASCAR start on July 27, 1980. She started 21st in the Coca-Cola 500 at Pocono and finished 28th, completing 134 of 200 laps.

Guthrie made 33 starts in NASCAR, the first 31 in the No. 68. Her 32nd start was the 1980 Daytona 500 in Rod Osterlund's No. 82; Guthrie finished 11th.

Becky's here for Christmas and I'll make sure she sets up the fantasy league before she leaves on Wednesday.

You are such a task master, LOL!!!

You didn't do your job ... I left and didn't set up the fantasy racing league ...

But it turns out that I can't set it up yet ... at least not the Yahoo one I've done in the past. I'll keep an eye on things and set one up as soon as they make it available for 2008.

I hope 2008 is a better season for Dale Jr than 2007 was ... don't think it could get much worse.

Let's hope not, or he may be looking for a new job. I'll try to remember to join this year.

Preseason Thunder

In preparation for the 50th Daytona 500 on Feb. 17, the first wave of Sprint Cup Series teams will test on Jan. 7-9. Jan. 10 will be a rain date.

The second group of Cup Series testing will be Jan. 14-16. Jan. 17 will be a rain date.

All Preseason Thunder sessions begin at 9 a.m. and end at 5 p.m., weather permitting. Each includes a lunch break from noon until 1 p.m.

Other testing dates for Preseason Thunder:
• Jan. 11-13 -- Craftsman Truck Series at Daytona
• Jan. 18-22 -- Nationwide Series at Daytona
• Jan. 28-30 -- Sprint Cup Series at Las Vegas
• Jan. 31-Feb. 1 -- Sprint Cup Series at California

The rest of the info ...

Since testing at Daytona has started, it appears that Yahoo has opened up the Fantasy Racing stuff. So, as promised, I created a group.

Go here to create your team: http://racing.fantasysports.yahoo.com/auto

Then go to where you can join a group. Here's the info you need to join the group I created:

Group ID# ........ 3292
Group Name ....... Harold's Place
Group Password ... powerofoi

If you have any questions or any problems, let me know.

Good luck to all.

I'm in thanks Becky. Now if only I could learn to spell my own name.

You should be able to fix it. If you go to your 'Team Info', it appears that you can change your name.

I'm in too. Will we need the info above or will we automatically be able to see how we've done when we login to Yahoo?

I think you'll automatically be able to see once you go to the Yahoo Fantasy Racing page. I believe you can see your team and the leagues you are in. You should only need that info (the group id/password) to join the group.

Yep, you're right.
Thanks for setting it up and the info.

That worked thanks.

Junior gets off to great start in first test in No. 88
Crew chief Eury Jr. admits pressure is there on team
By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
January 14, 2008
06:11 PM EST
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- At precisely 11:54 a.m. on Monday, in a seemingly symbolic move, the No. 88 Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. turned into a garage stall at Daytona International Speedway right in front of the Budweiser-sponsored Sprint Cup car now bearing No. 9 and driven by Kasey Kahne.

Kahne sped on past, moving down the road and taking Earnhardt's past with him.

Earnhardt Jr. climbed out of his new car, conferred with long-time crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and kept the media waiting. What was he thinking? How did his new ride for Hendrick Motorsports drive in his first test?

Junior -- as in Earnhardt Jr. -- wasn't saying. At least not to anybody but the handful of insiders gathered around him. He will speak at length to the media Tuesday, but left the talking Monday to Eury, the other Junior on the most scrutinized Cup team on the planet.

As with the other Junior earlier, Eury did nothing to downplay what he admits are "huge expectations" of the No. 88 team heading into their first season at Hendrick, the Sprint Cup behemoth that also fields the powerhouse teams of two-time defending points champion Jimmie Johnson and four-time champion Jeff Gordon, as well as the No. 5 of Casey Mears.

"Man, it's been exciting for me," Eury Jr. said. "As soon as we left Homestead in November [following the final race of last season], I was ready to go. That's when I kind of took over. I've just been trying to get the team together. We've got some things we've been changing around, just trying to bring the level of this team up to what the 24 and the 48 are. There's no doubt that they're the best teams in the Hendrick organization, and we're going to make the 5 and the 88 the same amount -- so we'll have four great teams.

"I've been pumped up. I think I've seen Dale Jr. more pumped up right now than he's ever been. He was down here for the first test [last week]. That's a sign of just how excited he was to get into the car. All in all, I think both of us are just happy to get this one test right here done -- and we're looking forward to February."

Fast times

The Juniors had reasons to smile after Monday's morning practice session at Daytona. Earnhardt's top lap speed of 184.646 mph (48.742 seconds) was second-fastest behind only a lap turned by Dale Jarrett (184.987 mph). It also was the fastest lap turned by a Chevrolet driver.

In truth, running fast in these practice sessions means next to nothing. To put it in perspective, Paul Menard, Earnhardt's former teammate at Dale Earnhardt Inc., posted the fastest times in one of the practice sessions a year ago -- and subsequently failed to run fast enough to qualify for the Daytona 500 when he returned a month later.

But in light of all the publicity swirling around Earnhardt's departure from DEI and his long-awaited arrival on the track in a Hendrick car, Eury said that in this case it meant something. At least to them.

"I mean, we're in the top five on the speed charts, so that's a good thing," Eury said. "We're just kind of doing our normal deal. We're not sitting here making qualifying runs, trying to be at the top of the sheet. We've just got a really good car, and we've got a little bit left in it. So we're pumped up." (Continued)



Find this article at:
http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/opinion/01/14/jmenzer.dearnhardtjr.daytona.test/index.html

I'm all joined up, hope we do well as a group.

NASCAR announces slight changes to rules
Associated Press

Updated: January 21, 2008, 5:22 PM EST

NASCAR will attempt to balance the competition for drivers outside the top 35 this season by grouping them together in qualifying.
It was one of a series of small changes NASCAR announced on Monday as it prepares for 2008.


As America's No. 1 auto racing series heads into a new season, chairman Brian France said he wants the attention to return to the competition after several years of tweaks to the 60-year-old series.

"We want the story lines of the sport to be the focus," France said.

NASCAR has gotten away from that of late, making adjustments to everything from the way the championship is decided to the name of its premier series, which is now called the Sprint Cup Series. It had been called the Nextel Cup Series since 2004, and was the Winston Cup before that.

To emphasize the desire to return the focus to racing, NASCAR was careful to make only slight changes this season.

The new qualifying procedure is designed to send all drivers not already locked into the field onto the track when the conditions are essentially the same. Previously, the order was set by a random draw and drivers could benefit by the time of day they made their attempt.

Under the new format, all the drivers will now make their attempt at the end of the session.

NASCAR also said it will provide tires for testing at non-sanctioned NASCAR tests. Sprint Cup teams will be given 200 tires.

On pit road, the crew will be allowed to push the car just three pit box lengths to get it moving after a service stop. And, the outside tires must now be hand-rolled back to the wall once off the car. In the past, the tires could freely roll to the wall.

NASCAR also announced it will donate all money collected through fines to the NASCAR foundation as a part of the sport's charitable initiative. The fines previously were put into the points fund that was split among the drivers at the end of the year. Fines usually average around $200,000 a season, but the amount was close to $1 million last year as NASCAR cracked down on violations.

Read this article at:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/7704064