Garrett Duke

Thanks Roger! Well I actually do have some NASCAR news today...some may consider this good and others will consider it bad. LOL. Jimmie Johnson's wife, Chandra, gave birth to a baby girl on Wednesday (mom and baby are doing fine). She was due on Saturday when Jimmie is suppose to be driving at ChicagoLand and if she gave birth on Saturday he would have had Aric Amerilo (Sp? LOL) drive for him. But since she was born on Wednesday, Jimmie will be racing on Saturday. They have yet to either put out a name or pick out a name, don't know which. If they come out with it, I'll let y'all know. I am looking forward to seeing pictures as well as to learn her name! They are saying there is a baby boom in NASCAR this year. Elliot Sadler and Carl Edwards' wives gave births to their first child (Sadler - a boy, Wyatt. Edwards - a girl -Anne). Now Johnson's wife gave birth to their first child. Ingrid - Gordon's wife, and Montoya's wife is due in August (Gordon's second child - suppose to be a boy - and Montoya's third child), and Jamie McMurray's wife is expecting their first child later this year as well. I for one am glad and excited for Johnson...one that he is now a father. He will make a great dad I am sure. Plus glad to see that he will be racing on Saturday night. I am sure Aric would do a decent job in the 48 car, but it would just be wrong to see someone other than Johnson driving it. I am highly hoping that Ingrid will give birth during the week as well so that Gordon will be as lucky to be drive every race this year. Know in '07 he had Mark Martin on reserve for when Ella was born, but I think she was born on a wed or thursday as well and he weas able to race. So hopefully he can have the same luck twice - to have a healthy and happy child and be able to race. It would be even more wrong to see anyone other than Gordon drive his 24 car! Can't be more exciting than this...new babies and NASCAR! (Sorry, had to say it since I do work at a day care! LOL)

Talk about stolen kites and bing games?! Sound like Hogg's up to one of his no good schemes again. Just another day in Hazzard.

Well this weekend's race is another night race at ChicagoLand Speedway in Joliet Ill and I am once again excited and am looking forward to it! (I surprised ya, I know I did! ) But am even more so since ChicagoLand is the closest track to where I live (five hours away!) and is a track that I have been to before...once. Sadly though, it wasn't for a race. I have yet to go to a race, though would love to go to one! My grandpa took me and my cousin to ChicagoLand Speedway several years ago and gave us his two tickets to ride in one of Richard Petty's Driving Experience cars! I was so excited and would love to do that again. Went three laps around the track in Dale Jr's old Bud car (my cousin got to ride in Stewart's old Home Depot car) going as fast as they do (my cousin asked his driver and he said he went 200 mph) and close to the wall and everything! It will be a day I will always remember, that is for sure. So for that reason, ChicagoLand Speed way is one of my favorite tracks (like Bristol is for I've been there for Dukefest before). Not much news so far...sounds like the president or vice president is talking about some pretty big changes for the chase next year, though don't know what as of yet. Am hoping them to be good ones. Ones that will better it. I am not a big fan of the chase, but I am willing to bet that I better grow to like it or accept it, it will be here for the long haul I have a feeling. I think the concept is good, just don't like how they do the points and the wins. They make it so that you need to win all the time to win the championship, which is what they all want to do, to win, but I think there is a lot to be said when I driver can string along a series of top five finishes and so forth as well. Sad when you go into the chase leading the field by four hundred points only to be sent down to second or third in the chase due to someone else having more wins than you. All of my opinion of course. This season seems so far seems to be a year for drivers to be upset at one another. I don't remember a year where so many drivers left upset at one another...especially team mates! Sure it has to do with their new "boys have at it" attitude and the double file restarts and so forth, but it seems like every race someone is upset at another. AJ Allmindinger got upset at his car owner Richard Petty when Petty tried talking to him after AJ's accident. Kyle Busch got upset at Juan Pablo Montoya after his incident. Only to add on to the list of upset drivers. Guess it gives the media plenty of things to talk about. I am just glad that it is no longer them talking about Jimmie vs Jeff or the people Gordon got upset at Sonoma a few races agao...guess it helps distance that. LOL. Well I am sure I bored y'all to death now with my babbling, but felt the need to post something here. Mid week I always seem to feel like talking about the next race or something associated with NASCAR.

Bo 31 Luke 35 Jesse 30 Cooter 5 I know that I said earlier that I was done with this thread and at the time I was serious about quitting it due to not being on line every day and at seeing it all go around in circles it seems. But I have been asked to return and at seeing how behind Bo is, well, I can't stay away much longer. Bo looks to be in need of some support here and I can't stand to let him down any longer than I already have. So if y'all, will have me back, I'm back to voting or playing this game. If not, well y'all can disregard my post or vote here and continue onward without me. But I am hoping y'all will forgive my abrupt departure and accept me back...pretty please????

Congratulations Lizzy!

Kite flying in the park seems to be a hot activity that you may enjoy as well, Roger. Sorry to say that there is no money to be stole flying a kite as there is in your bingo games.

Knitting inside an air conditioned building may be Roger's best option to stay cool in this summer heat!

Go ahead and brag while you can, Roger, but one day soon, the Cubs will beat your Pirates and I will no longer be crying.

Dale Earnhardt Jr finished second in February at the Daytona 500 which is his best finish of the season so far in the Sprint cup Series. (which was the same track they were on yesterday).

Everytime the Cubs lose, I want to cry.

I really like Toby Keith. Are you singing his "I wanna talk about me" song, Roger? That is one of Toby Keith's great songs!

Wow! Did anyone watch last night's race at Daytona? What an action packed race...no one could have said that it was boring, because it was anything but boring. Then again, I can say that, because Gordon missed getting wrecked out by all the accidents that had occured durring the last half of the race. If he was, I might feel differently. Only half the field was able to finish the race after all the accidents...especially after the big one that involved twenty cars! Gordon just missed that as he swerved and drove around it on the apron of the track - it started right before him. But it took out Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and a lot others. Mark Martin was involved, in fact when he pulled his car to the pits, his car caught on fire and a couple of crew members from Jimmie Johnson's pit crew pulled him out. Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch getting together was what started it several car lengths ahead of them. Juan Pablo Montoya got into race leader Kyle Busch (another accident) to take out Kyle Busch...Kyle went up the track as Juan went down and they connected to spin Kyle into the wall and out of the race. Kyle was mad and had a few sarcastic remarks afterwards for the media. Sadly my fantasy team didn't fare so well since I only had one driver (Dale Earnhardt Jr) that finished the race. Oh well I guess. LOL. They had over 45 lead changes throughout the race...Gordon led several laps and was in the lead with only a few laps remaining but lost the lead. He ended up finishing third, Kasey Kahne second, and Kevin Harvick won his second race of the season. Here is the top ten that finished 1. Kevin Harvick 2. Kasey Kahne 3. Jeff Gordon 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr 5. Jeff Burton 6. Carl Edwards 7. Kurt Busch 8. Reed Sorenson 9. Mike Bliss 10. Scott Speed (Several of those drivers were involved in accidents as well...) Here is the unofficial points as of now: 1. Kevin Harvick 2. Jeff Gordon ( -212...am excited about him climbing three spots in points since last week. He was really competitive last night. Looking more like the old Jeff Gordon. ) 3. Jimmie Johnson 4. Kurt Busch 5. Denny Hamlin 6. Kyle Busch 7. Matt Kennseth 8. Jeff Burton 9. Tony Stewart 10. Greg Biffle 11. Dale Earnhardt Jr (finally in the top twelve!) 12. Carl Edwards Would love to hear what everyone else thought of the race last night and of the fireworks. Would have enjoyed it better if Gordon got the win he is deserving of (my opinion, of course), but am glad with third and that he was able to finish the race. There was a lot of good race cars out there that got taken out of the race...McMurray and Allmindinger to list a couple of them. I thought it was a fun and exciting race once it got started since it was rain delayed for a while last night, then went into over time with a green-white-checkered finish - they were still wrecking each other when the race finished. It was a crazy race, but a good one for a hand ful of drivers. That will be the last race on the old track, they are starting to repave Daytona starting on Monday so come February they'll have a new track to race on. Also enjoyed Darius Rucker's performance before the race as well. What y'all think?

Well, I am honored to hear that your expert thinks I know my NASCAR. So when do I get classified as a NASCAR expert? LOL Seriously, I do find it an honor to hear that and did make me feel good. Now if only you can get him to sign up here... Race starts at 7:30 tonight...am excited for it. Restrictor plate racing is always fast and exciting. Daytona is always fast and exciting. Dale Earnhardt Jr won the Nationwide Series race last night at Daytona. Wish I could have seen it. He drove his dad's old car. The highlights at the end of the race looked pretty exciting. Hopefully he can carry the momentum into tonight's race...he can come in second after Gordon. LOL. Any of you get to watch it? Tony Stewart won last year (think I may have said that already). They'll have some pretty good fireworks at the end if I remember right. Hopefully it will be a fun and safe race and all our drivers will have great finishes!

Well, I don't know how many if anyone reads all my ramblings here, but I guess I will continue with them until someone tells me to shut up. LOL. Well the Cola 400 is Saturday night...another night race. Khee...am excited for it. Then again, I look forward to every race. But as I posted earlier, I like night races. Not only does it give me an entire day on Sunday to do something or nothing, but they are also racing under the lights. Which is different than normal. It is also Daytona...hopefully they got the track repaved or fixed from the Daytona 500! Last thing anyone wants is to be dealing with pot holes as they did at the 500. I think they said they were going to repave the entire track after this race, so the next Daytona 500 they'll get a fresh track to race on. Not only am I having a hard time grasping that it is already July, but even more so having a hard time believing that the NASCAR season is already half over. I try to be optimistic to see that they still have half a season left, but still, it also means it is also half over. Perhaps I'd feel better if Gordon had a win or two to his name for this year or if he was being more competitive as he was at the beginning of the season. He is fifth in points, which is good, but don't feel as if he is championship caliber as of yet this year. Hopefully I am wrong. I am sure a lot of people are looking forward to the season to be over with and consider it to be a long season. But to me, it can't be long enough. LOL. December through Janruary has got to be the longest months for me! (Y'all think of why? LOL) It also means that we only have around seven races left until the chase starts. . . Anyway, they're racing at Daytona again on Saturday night. Dale Jr, Gordon, and Stewart are a few drivers that is known to be good at this track. Tony Stewart won the race here last year (he seems to get better as the weather gets warmer.) So it will be interesting to see where all our "favorite" drivers will end up on Saturday night.

Does anyone know any times for this? I tried looking up on line and couldn't find it and my computer was having troubles bringing it up. If anyone knows or could help me with this, it would be very much appreciated.

I always find that kind of ironic as well, but then again, Dale Jr has been voted as the most popular driver for the past seven years now. The announcers and the media don't talk about him half as much as they did when he was winning so much and was doing great behind the wheel. Back then, that was all you heard about, Dale Jr. It got old real quick and found myself not liking Jr at all. But now I have to say, he's my third favorite driver. I think with his name and who his father is, Dale Jr will always be well talked about and followed no matter where he is at in points or on the track. Which is kinda sad for the other drivers who may be deserving of that attention. Kinda like Danica Patrick and all the attention she is getting in the Nationwide Series race when she has yet to finish better than thirty-one in her several starts. Who else would get that much attention driving like that? As for what it will take for him to join the elite once again, I think he needs to continue to finish strongly within the top ten or five as he has in the past couple of weeks. He needs to start winning once again. I still don't understand why he hasn't done that yet. Driving for Hendrick he has the best cars under him with the best engines under the hood with the best equipment and all that. Just like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Then again, Mark Martin drives for Hendrick and he has done nothing this year. In fact, am surprised to see Martin in the top twelve as of now. As for Jr. he needs to find whatever is missing in his team or within him that is making him come up short. Perhaps him and Lance McGrew need to get on the same page or better communications. Lance McGrew seems to be a pretty good crew cheif, but also have heard Jr talking pretty harshly to McGrew when he got upset or frustrated with the car. I think Jr is a good driver and he has it in him to win, we've seen him do it week in and week out for awhile there. He had a pretty bad accident a few years ago that I heard was a lot like his dad's accident, so maybe he still has that fear within him that is holding him back. Whatever it is, he needs to figure it out, deal with it. Perhaps he needs that one win to boost his confidence, his teams confidence to point him in the right direction.

I meant that I wasn't aware that the rule had changed (about only being able to post/vote once a day) and then had sarcastically said it would help your favorite character progress by posting twice in one day. Didn't mean to confuse anyone. As for me, it don't matter one way or another how many times anyone posts. I was just kind of wondering what was going on and all. This thread is getting nowhere and just decided to step down and watch y'all have at it, because obviously by me posting for one person it is probably not helping matters any. Didn't mean to upset or confuse anyone. I am sorry for my part.

Well, did any of you catch the Loudon race yesterday for the Sprint Cup Series? I was sure to watch it. That surprise any of you? LOL. As a whole, it was a pretty good race and for the most part a pretty clean race. There was a couple of instances of events that weren't so clean, but it was a lot more clean than what Sonoma had been where everyone left upset at one another. Was relieved not to see any retaliation from last week's race come yesterday to Gordon or to anyone else. I know NASCAR is trying to get more viewers and more fans back that they lost over the years and one way they are trying is by this year have the attitude of have at it boys. In other words, the drivers are to police themselves. Guess they had a lot of complaints of them stepping in and stuff like that - fans wanted it to be like it had been. Which it does make it more interesting and exciting at times. But between that new prospect of the sport and the double file restarts as well as the green-white-checkers rules that NASCAR has implanted within the past year, year and a half it has caused a lot of hard racing which has left a lot of drivers with hot tempers and agrivated at one another. A lot of teammates upset at eachother this year and so forth and the season is only half over! (Sorry for getting sidetracked! LOL. Just commenting on why I think all this fighting and everyone getting upset had started from.) Anyway, Loudon yesterday. Was a good race and it even helped me in my fantasy team (which I thought I was doing horrible at!) But Jimmie Johnson (who I didn't have on my fantasy team for Loudon) won his fifth race of the season yesterday with Tony Stewart coming in second, Kurt Busch third, Jeff Gordon fourth, and Kevin Harvick fifth. (The top five drivers of the race.) Dale Earnhardt Jr had a pretty good race to finish eightth at yesterday. They made a statement yesterday how the past few races Earnhardt has gotten better and it has been tracks he is normally not as good on. Well Saturday night's race is Daytona and Jr is known to be good at Daytona so it will be interesting to see if he can keep it up on a track he is good at and see what he can do. Am glad to see him progressing. (He is now three points out of the top twelve!) Here is the points after yesterday's race: 1. Kevin Harvick 2. Jimmie Johnson (-105) 3. Kyle Busch 4. Denny Hamlin 5. Jeff Gordon 6. Kurt Busch 7. Matt Kennseth 8. Jeff Burton 9. Tony Stewart 10. Greg Biffle 11. Mark Martin 12. Carl Edwards and again...Jr is 13th and only three points behind Edwards. Had to feel bad for Jeff Burton yesterday...was leading at the end of the race, but didn't go in on the last caution (at that point. It was towards the end of the race and they just pitted not that long ago. Everyone did.) So Burton stayed out, but Johnson and everyone else went in and got fresh tires and gas so when they got out there, Burton was pretty much a sitting duck. He finally lost control of his car and spun him and Kyle Busch out. He had it won, I think, until then. Burton is another driver I feel that is like Jeff Gordon where they have a good car and has the desire for the win, is competive, yet the win just keeps eluding them due to one reason or another. They get close yet never get it yet this season. Anyone else watch the race? What y'all think of it?

Well just thought I'd say something because I thought of you while watching the Cubs game on Saturday when they said they were playing the Pirates on Monday...tonight. It does get discouraging to have your team always in last place. Being a Cubs fan, I can rightfully symphatise for you, Roger. Been there plenty of times. Haven't caught much games this year, but it seems like they are either really good or really bad. No in between. Guess they are lucky to be where they are at in standings right now, but if they are wanting to make it into the playoffs this year, they really need to pick it up. Guess placing their rotation from 25 man roster to 24 due to Zambrano's tantrum may hurt 'em a bit, though am glad to see them stepping up and facing up to Zambrano's tantrum to let him know it won't be allowed. Well Roger, you must be into baseball as a sport in general. I mainly just follow the Cubs and see where they are going and as I said, I haven't seen that much games thus far this year. I don't have cable and I always forget to turn on the radio to listen into it, though find it easier to watch than to listen to. I am a visual person. Same with the races. Hope your Braves are doing well for you...and for my cousin, he likes the Braves too.

Unicorns are mystical animals that has a horn on their foreheads and looks like horses, but are not known to be on the Dukes of Hazzard.

(Well if people are going to post more than once, then maybe we should make it official that it is ok to post or vote more than once since that isn't the original rule? I don't know. Just a thought. On my end...sorry to disappoint Bo since I had so stubbornly been voting for my favorite Duke boy, but I'm not being much help on this thread but slow it down. So to his dismay, I am going to say that I am dropping out on this thread. It isn't going anywhere but in circles. Y'all have fun. Hopefully someone else will pull Bo through without me. )

Ryne Sandberg is my favorite baseball player.

Bo 29 Luke 28 Jesse 28 Cooter 15 (Not that I am aware of, but I guess that is one way to help your favorite character progress faster than the others. )