Garrett Duke

Hmmm those are good questions and thoughts. Perhaps Jesse should send in his secret recipe for them to use. LOL. People criticize NASCAR? How rude! LOL. I guess they probably do use a lot of fuel, but what choice do they have? They run out of gas, no one's going to be watching the race for very long. Sadly, I heard the other day, that the NFL draft was on TV the other night and it got higher ratings than any race (except for the Daytona 500) does on Sunday. NASCAR is losing veiwers...I don't understand why. My opinion...they should shed with the chase and go back to the old way of doing it where they have to work and earn every point to get the championship as they did before the 2004 season. I understand why they did the chase format, but really dislike the whole ten extra points per win and getting rid of all the points going into the chase. I am not saying that is why I think the viewing has gone down, just saying the one thing I wish they would change. Though it will never happen... Well the race is tomorrow night at Richmond...another Saturday night race and I am excited. Anyone else? LOL. I love night racing! And this will be short track racing at that...no more Talledega and looking for the big one. Kyle Busch has got the pole for the race...can't remember who comes behind him. Seems like Johnson may be in third and Gordon fourth. Not a hundred percent sure on that, though know they start around that area and next to each other. I don't want to state the obvious, but I really want Gordon to break out of his run of bad luck and break his winless streak and get his first win of the season. Who y'all want to win?

Bo 30 Luke 23 Daisy 1 Jesse 30 Cooter 13 Enos 3 Jesse tied it up again to give a point to Bo

*Pulling my motorcycle to a halt in a wild weeded area to keep it hidden, I casually glance at my watch to find that I am five minutes early to meet Roger. I find myself smiling, for once, I am on time for something. Slowly I climb off my bike and carefully walk around before I reach the area of where I am to meet Roger at. Not seeing him. I find a large tree to lean upon where I can stay hidden and out of sight and yet have good view as to see if and when Roger will show up as to meet up with him.*

I've never been to the newspaper website before. I get my NASCAR info from NASCAR.com and from Yahoo! NASCAR's page. There was several articles on the Yahoo site about Gordon and Johnson and then Johnson taking responsibility for it. I really hope that it all was the mistake he said it was and that this is the end of it between the two. Hopefully they will talk...that they will remain friends through it all and work through it. Talledega is a dangerous track...ask Carl Edwards. LOL. I thought it was neat that he took the girl that got hurt from his accident last year at Talledega back to the race and then met up with her and signed his racing helmet to give to her. I don't really think I heard anything about the fuel or the ethenol. I've heard awhile ago that they were working on things to go greener or something like that so maybe that was what it wtas about and I really didn't read it. I don't know, but you know more about it than I do. It will be interesting to see what that will do.

Bo 29 Luke 23 Daisy 2 Jesse 30 Cooter 13 Enos 3 Daisy gave a point to Bo

*After finishing distributing the money to the listed charities, I return home where I quietly enter the house and get in the restroom to take a shower and get ready for bed. Once done, I get to my room to find that it is now five in the morning. Sighing heavily in exhaustion, I set my alarm to go off at eleven in order to wake me up in time to get dressed and ready and to meet Roger by noon. Lying down, my thoughts return to the afternoon's events and all that I had done and thinking of all that I should have done differently. As the night's dark sky slowly shifts lighter, I close my eyes and allow sleep to fall over me.*

Well Roger...I missed Gordon's post race interview, but I have read what he had said on articles on NASCAR.com. I just got done reading another article there that Johnson is now taking full blame for what had happened. According to Jimmie Johnson that he had went down the track in an attempt to draft together, but Gordon was going too fast for that and it ended up looking like he was trying to block him. Being the HUGE Jeff Gordon fan that I am, it did make me upset to see the move that Jimmie Johnson did on Gordon on Sunday. I think it only makes it worse that they had their dust up between them last Monday at Texas when they were fighting for the lead and Johnson purposely hit Gordon out of being frustrated with him. Jimmie Johnson is my second favorite driver, but I have to say it is making me upset to see him race Gordon as he has the past two weeks. Gordon was mad at Johnson after his move on Sunday and I really don't blame him. It was that move that pushed Gordon back to get into that multi-car wreck with Jeff Burton. Though I am hoping that their friendship and teamship will work through this and be stronger than this. I am really hoping this is the end of it and that this won't be a new "rivalry" as the media is trying to hype it up to be. Gordon and Johnson can have their rivalries, I just don't want it to be each other. . .

Meanwhile... I tiredly reach the top of the stairs before coming to a halt in front of Kristy's closed door, thinking of her angry words and the hurt look she had shown me only minutes ago. First I had upset Roger in some way and then Kristy. Shaking my head, I slowly turn away from her door and walk into my own room and tightly close the door behind me before I walk over to my bed and slowly take the heavy thick bag of money out from under my coat to toss it on the bed. After tossing my leather coat onto the cluttered floor, I tiredly sit down on the bed next to the bag, staring down at the bag, half in awe and half in distaste. Awe in the fact that I had walked into the bank and had the nerve to do it on my own with the help of Roger as my get away driver. Distaste at the large costly mistakes I had made in the process. "How could I be so dumb?" I hear myself ask aloud in order to interrupt the thick silence that surrounds me. Years ago in Knoxville, I'd have helped my gang pull off stunts like this and ten times worse without making a mistake. And yet tonight I was thoughtless and careless to put not only my own future in jeopardy, but also Roger's. 'No wonder why he's upset. Probably lucky he didn't run me over with his car. . .' Shaking my head I slowly open the draw string to empty the thick bag of the money onto my bed and for a long moment I stare blankly at it, lost in thought of my own actions. Only to create anger and hatred towards myself to ruin such an awesome opportunity by my own mistakes and stupidity. As of now, we're both free and I've got the money lying on my bed to distribute to Roger's charity places, but for how long will that last? Sooner or later the guy who had given us chase will take what he saw or knows to the law who by then will already will be as mad as all get out when they find their bank broken into. How long will it take them towards me as their numero uno suspect? Or Roger? Sighing heavily, I know I can't allow the law to turn to Roger for this. It wasn't his idea nor his mistakes that had cost us. I deserve to be locked away in jail for the mistakes I had made, not Roger. Staring at the money, lost in thought, I am abruptly hit with an urgent idea to send my looking at the neon numbers of my alarm clock. One thirty in the morning. Sighing heavily I quickly begin to count the money which takes me twenty minutes after recounting them. Grabbing my cell phone, I quickly turn it to the calculater to begin to divide that number by the number of charities that Roger had listed to me the other day before I begin to sort the money into piles. A pile per charity case. Finishing, I steal another glance at my alarm clock that now reads two twenty, I force another deep breath as I hop to my feet and put my coat back on. With coat on, I quickly grab some socks out of my drawer to begin filling the socks with a pile of money each before I grab a Sharpie marker to write the business name and the amount of money on it. Throwing the marker on the floor and shoving the socks into my pocket, I silently walk back out into the dark hall to slip quietly down the stairs and back out into the chilly night. Glancing up and down the street, I silently get onto my motorcycle where I slowly roll it back onto the road without starting it. Onto the street, I start the motorcycle to quickly race down the street. Roger may or may not like my new idea, but if we are not to be caught with the money, it seems only logical to me to distrubute the money now when most of Hazzard is sleeping. Come morning when Hogg and Rosco find the bank broken into and their witness comes forth with what he saw, I will be clean of the money and the people we give the money to can have it slipped away for themselves. A few minutes later, I find myself in front of the quiet and dark orphanage with the playground remains empty of kids. Smiling to myself, I let my bike remain on, while I run up to the front door, opening the screen door, I bend down and shove their sock into the gold slip in the wooden door that was made for newspapers. Silently closing the door, I run to my bike to continue on my way to the next stop. . . (Sorry for the length of the post...)

Between the River and Me - Tim McGraw

It is interesting to hear who goes with Ford, Chevy, and so forth. Seems like people go for a certain type and stick with it. My grandpa only drove Ford trucks. But that is about as far as I know how it goes in my family. LOL. Though to get back to NASCAR...I found it interesting to hear from Brad Keselowski that next year instead of driving the number 12 car that he is driving this year, he will be driving the blue deuce...er the number two car...Meaning next year he will be driving Kurt Busch's car and Kurt Busch who just resigned with Penske Racing will be driving number 22 Penzoil (Penzoil has sponosored Kevin Harvick til the end of this year). (Keselowski, Hornish Jr, and Kurt Busch are teammates for Penske Racing) I just don't understand why, since they are staying in the same organization, why they are changing cars and all that. Oh well, as long as it's not Gordon and Johnson or Jr, I'm not going to worry or complain too much about it. Also found it interesting some of the back info they gave before the race yesterday about Talledega. Always knew it was big and fast, but didn't know that it was the (Think they said it was 2.2 miles.)biggest out there and that France Sr built the track putting the start/finish line at the end of the oval / pits to be different than all the other tracks. Also found it interesting that Richard Petty pulled himself out of the first Talledega race due to it being so dangerous...though am not sure I understood that correctly, but that is what it sounded like to me when they were talking about it. Well the next race we are back to some Saturday night short track racing at Richmond! Really enjoy the Saturday night races...though think i may have to record it since I may be busy...anyway, it will be good to be back short track racing on a Saturday night. (Can't believe it'll be May already! Which I find sad, because after May NASCAR will move to another TV station like TNT or ESPN with different announcers. NASCAR switches TV stations four or five times throughout the season...I have to say the announcers at FOX are by far my favorite. My opinion of course. ) Me bicker, Roger? *surprised look* I don't bicker, I just stick up for my driver! HA HA! Though I do admit, I do tend to get too tense or whatever the correct term is when it comes to the races. I should learn to post comments about the races on Monday or Tuesday, to have a day or two to cool off as to not express my disappointment or frustration of the race...or perhaps one day soon, my excitement when Gordon does actually when the race. LOL But I just can't seem to help myself but to go and post and talk about the race right after it is over...

I was wondering how Uncle Jesse got so many points so quickly. If it was Boss I'd assume he stole 'em from someone, but we all know Uncle Jesse wouldn't do a thing like that...

Well...I guess you're right. I can relax now. LOL. What is done, is done. It was Talledega and stuff like that could happen to anyone, which is probably what makes it so exciting. It also makes it so that anyone can win and so forth - so unpredictable. I do tend to get way into the race and how Gordon does and so forth. That's just how I am I guess. Martin did pretty well, which is good for him. As I said, I'd be happy with fifth. Heck I'd be happy with a top ten or fifteen at Talledega. As I said, Talledega is unpredictable...just was frustrated/disappointed with the ending few laps of it when I posted my race summary.

I'm sorry, but I don't see what is so funny...though I'm glad for you that you supposedly find it amusing. I'd be happy if Gordon finished fifth where Mark Martin finished...much better than his twenty-second finish.

In the Driver's Seat - John Schneider (My mom just got me The Dukes of Hazzard CD that "In the Driver's Seat" is on...she got it at an antique store. LOL!)

As for points...here is the unofficial points after the Sprint Cup race. Points will become official tomorrow after post race inspections and all that - so they could change. (The top twelve) 1 -- Jimmie Johnson 2 +2 Kevin Harvick 3 -- Greg Biffle 4 -2 Matt Kenseth 5 +1 Kyle Busch 6 +4 Mark Martin 7 +2 Kurt Busch 8 -1 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9 +2 Denny Hamlin 10 -5 Jeff Gordon 11 +3 Clint Bowyer 12 -4 Jeff Burton Hope y'all's favorite driver had a better week/race than mine seemed to have.

Well the Talledega race just got over...guess we can all sit back and take a deep breath now. Huh? LOL. What an exciting finish there at the end...I think Jeff Hammond said that Harvick won it by 12 1000 of a second or something like that. All I know is, it was CLOSE! LOL. I was hoping for McMurray to win it, but going 115 races without a win is a long time, so I guess it was good for Harvick to win it. Other than that, that I would chalk this up as one of the worst races of the season and am glad to have it done and over with. LOL...sorry, just how I feel right now. Was OK with it. Gordon stuck in middle pack all day for the most part and then with six laps to go Jeff Burton gets into Bobby Labonte and runs right into Gordon to tear his car apart. I guess Gordon is the lucky one. He was able to go back out there and finish on the lead lap. I think he came out twenty - second. If that wasn't bad enough, on the next double file restart, Johnson has a little miscue with his spotter and goes up early to get run in from behind by Greg Biffle and runs into the inside wall, hard. Which took him out of the race completely! Which makes me feel a little better for Gordon since he did finish on the lead lap...but still, my top two drivers get wrecked right there at the end! Such a disappointing finish for me...All this is of my opinion of course which is clouded by the fact my drivers wrecked. Here is the top eleven that finished the race after Talledega: 1 Kevin Harvick 2 Jamie McMurray 3 Juan Montoya 4 Denny Hamlin 5 Mark Martin 6 David Ragan 7 Clint Bowyer 8 Kurt Busch 9 Kyle Busch 10 Mike Bliss 11 Carl Edwards

Thanks for the info SleepysRose. I'll have to check them out.

Labor of Love - Sammy Kershaw