Easy now you ‘N’ASCAR fans… I’ll talk about Daytona in a minute. Please remember there are many more Motorsports series out there… at this point, some deserve top billing in my weekend summary over the ‘N’ word. So take a deep breath, exhale and just chill.

NOTHING was bigger this weekend than the NHRA season kickoff in Pomona… NOTHING AT ALL! OK, so maybe the Grammy Awards, but that’s it.

When it all shook out, winners were some of the usual suspects… Tony Schumacher in Top Fuel, Robert Hight in Funny Car and Greg Anderson in Pro Stock. But possibly the biggest victory of all was John Force getting back behind the butterfly and taking his ride to the semi-finals… he’s still not 100% but he’s as happy as a clam just to be back! In the meantime, what about that Tony Pedregon fire in Round 1… with John Force in the other lane, coincidentally? What an emotional 11 months it has been for the NHRA family. Tony is going to be just fine, but damn that was scary for all of us watching from afar… not to mention scary to John Force in the next lane and Tony himself in the fiery cockpit. The knees were burned out of his Impact Firesuit, but that suit was so good that it kept the flames from the actual flesh of his legs. After it was all said and done, he suffered burns to his hands and a bit of an emotional setback, but nothing to keep him from fighting back and preppin’ for the next race in Phoenix.

I also want to give big kudos to Tony Schumacher for dedicating his win and trophy to fellow Top Fueler Doug Herbert who recently lost his two sons in a tragic car accident.

Also racing in Southern California, for the last time in 2008, was the Supercross contingent… In the main class, Chad Reed grabbed the checkers first and is just putting a huge old gap on that points lead these days… what is this now, 4 in a row? And not just 4 wins in a row, but a California sweep as he won all 3 Anaheim races, San Fran and just this weekend, San Diego. However, this weekend wasn’t quite the runaway win as the other Cali races were… Reed was beaten by Kevin Windham in his qualifying heat, and then took a tumble in the main on lap 12, handing the lead to Davi Millsaps… but Reed charged back and passed Davi with just 3 laps to go in order to secure the top spot yet again… insert sigh of relief here.

“I am so happy to get this win,” said Reed. “I knew I needed

to catch Davi after I fell. I have never won all of the races

in California, and with this win tonight, I accomplished a

new goal. I get to leave the west coast with a big points

lead.”



Also widening his top spot in the championship chase is Jason Lawrence in the SX Lites West class… his closest competitor, Ryan Dungey, had a few crashes which set him back to a 6th place finish and bumped him to 2nd in the points with only 2 races to go in their season. Up next? Houston… Who wants Houston tix? Well, I will be doing an interview on Houston’s mega sports station 790 AM, The Sports Animal on Wednesday Feb. 13th at 10:45 a.m. Houston time… and with me with be two pair of Houston SX tix to giveaway… ya gotta listen to win… so get on it Houston Freaks!

* Houston interview has been rescheduled for FRIDAY FEBRUARY 15th at 10:30 a.m. Houston time… you can listen live on their website or if you are in Houston, why the heck wouldn't you be listening to the mega station anyway?  790 AM The Sports Animal


All right ‘N’ASCAR fans, did you get a show on Saturday night or did you get a show on Saturday night? How about that Budweiser Shootout in Daytona – Went to the old Bud Boy himself, Mr. Dale Earnhardt Jr… and there couldn’t have been a better way for him to stick it to his former team owner, step mamma, Teresa, than with that win in his new ride. How sweet it is!

On Sunday, the new COT (Car of Today) cars qualified for the big Daytona 500… on the front row, locked in, Jimmie Johnson (the polesitter)… but how in the world did the #2 spot get nabbed by Michael Waltrip? Enjoy it Mikey, that may be your one and only shining moment of ’08. Maybe I’m just bitter because he bumped out a guaranteed spot by Freak Friend Boris Said… nah, I just don’t like Mike.

In the ARCA race, Michael Annett took the first race honors. Hometown hero Alli Owens had a rough day as she spun twice… but is it a rough day when you get some air and think that is cool in a bizarre way? I really like this girl as she is a determined SOB that will soon have the boys on alert! Here is a link to the story on her weekend results.

On to the World Rally Series… they were in Sweden where Jari-Matti Latvala clinched his first ever WRC win! How about those bizarre conditions… there wasn’t enough snow, so the exposed gravel was pullin’ the studs out of the tires! The man, the legend, Sebastien Loeb was looking for his 100th win, but since he realized he would be denied of that glory before the finish, he just pulled off. Now is that good sportsmanship? Damn…

Speaking of Rally Racing, big news on the Dakar front… no terrorist threat can keep the race from running in the future, despite the cancellation of this year’s event. The 2009 race will be run in South America instead of Africa… click here for the full details and make your plans now – hey, it’s closer for those of us in the US of A… sort of.

On to Open Wheel, World of Outlaws raced at Volusia Speedway Park in the sunshine state and despite a pretty bad flu, Danny Lasoski came out the victor in Sunday night’s main. For the complete weekend and week’s results, including other wins by Craig Dollansky and Jason Meyers, check it out on the WoO site here.

Want more insight to the IndyCar-Champ Car proposed "IT'S ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME" merger? Well, first hit our audio link from Sunday night: Spanning the Freak Nation – Open Wheel journo Curt Cavin was on with us, as well as racing writers Damian Dottore and Louis Brewster with some NHRA insight that you can’t get anywhere else.

For updates on the Open Wheel situation, keep abreast of Curt’s blog here as news will be creeping in all week from Japan and Tony George.
Including that of a possible ISC sabotage of the merger? Huh…

In the meantime, KEEP YOUR FREAKIN' FINGERS CROSSED!!!!

Until next week, Freaks… C-ya!