HossC

Welcome to HNet, swinks. The only pinball machine I remember in Dukes was the one in the Boar's Nest (it's briefly mentioned in the Interior layout of the Boar's Nest thread). I'm sure you know this already, but some Googling has identified it as a Jungle cabinet (Gottlieb, 1972) with a Sheriff backglass (Gottlieb, 1971).

Beijing (Their Olympic stadium was known as the Bird's Nest)

I've never thought of Daisy Duke and ex-Pussycat Doll/X Factor UK judge Nicole Scherzinger as lookalikes, but Nicole's current brunette curls aren't a million miles away from Cathy's hairstyles. Here's a better view of Nicole with Lewis Hamilton after yesterday's race. Lewis Hamilton wasn't the only British motorsport champion this year. Just like NASCAR has the Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series below the Sprint Cup Series, Formula 1 also has feeder classes. GP2 has been running since 2005, and was won this year by Jolyon Palmer, who is the son of former F1 driver and major UK race circuit owner Jonathan Palmer. The first two years' champions were Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, and many other drivers have made their way into F1 from GP2. The winner of this year's GP3 championship, Alex Lynn, is also British. This series has only been running since 2010, but three of the previous four winners were driving F1 cars this year. Congratulations to Lewis, Jolyon and Alex. I hope to see Jolyon and Alex move up to F1 in the future.

Here's something a bit different. In conjunction with one of their sponsors, the Lotus F1 team were involved in setting a world record for a truck and trailer jump. To make things a little more tricky, an F1 car drives under the truck while it's in the air. There's a longer version of the video above and behind-the-scenes footage on www.emc.com.

Lewis Hamilton went into the final race with a 17 point lead over his teammate and championship rival Nico Rosberg. F1 tried the gimmick of double points for the last race this year, so even if Rosberg won the race, Hamilton could still be champion by finishing second. Hamilton looked quickest in practice and early qualifying, but in the final session he could only claim second on the grid behind Rosberg (Rosberg has had most poles this year). When the lights went out, Hamilton had a great start, while Rosberg was a little slow getting away. They continued to run first and second until just before half distance when Rosberg's hybrid electrical system failed, depriving him of around 160 horsepower during acceleration. From then on, Rosberg was a sitting duck for the other drivers. Hamilton controlled the race from the front, and won, despite second place Felipe Massa catching towards the end. I think everyone (including the drivers) would have preferred a wheel to wheel fight, but in the end, the right person won. Hamilton won 11 of the 19 races this year, and had to retire from three of the other eight due to mechanical failures. He now becomes the fourth British driver to win more than one World Championship. Lewis Hamilton finds a Union Jack for his drive back to the pits. On the way, he's congratulated on his radio by Prince Harry, seen here sharing a joke in the pits with ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell (who's dating Red Bull team boss Christian Horner). Hamilton gets a kiss from his girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger, who flew in this morning with Hamilton's father, stepmother and brother as a surprise. In the last picture Hamilton is looking happy with his friend Pharrell Williams. The flag Hamilton acquired had the words "Hammer Time" across the middle. This year, his race engineer became known for using the phrase "Okay Lewis, it's hammer time." on the radio to tell him to push hard before a pit stop. Lewis Hamilton in the center, with second and third placed Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas on either side. The man in the white shirt and black pants is Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. The 2014 Formula 1 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton.

For some reason NASCAR waited until Thursday to hand out the punishments to Ricky Stenhouse Jr's team (thanks to Garrett for letting me know). Ricky gets to keep his points from Homestead, but his crew chief, Mike Kelley, has been fined $50,000 and placed on NASCAR probation for six months starting Jan. 1, 2015. Ricky's car chief, Patrick Magee, has also been placed on NASCAR probation for six months. The infringement was apparently that "The Stenhouse team violated the rule that dictates that mounting hardware must not allow movement or realignment of any suspension/drive line component beyond normal rotation or suspension/drive line travel." - I hope that's clear! Considering some of the other punishments handed out this year, these seem quite harsh given that the offending parts were confiscated before qualifying, so played no part in the outcome of the race. For comparison, the Red Bull F1 team were penalized after yesterday's qualifying for today's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A post-qualifying inspection determined that their front wings were too flexible (they perform a deflection test), and their qualifying times were deleted. As a punishment, both have been sent to the back of the grid, although they're likely to start from the pit lane (F1 has a standing start) as this lets the team make changes to the cars. I haven't read anything about fines or probation, and the whole situation is dealt with before the race.

Hi jaymzbo. I belatedly answered the question you posed in another thread. As I said in that post, sometimes first posts can get missed by the time they're moderated, and I've only just seen this one. Welcome to HNet, and feel free to ask any more questions you have - you'll find that many have already been answered .

Jeff Gordon's crew chief, Alan Gustafson, has taken the blame for the late pit stop which resulted in Gordon finishing 10th at Miami Homestead. You can read the full story here. Tuesday has come and gone, and I'm hoping that no news is good news in relation to Ricky Stenhouse Jr's confiscated suspension parts. I wish NASCAR would deal with pre-race incidents with grid penalties or fines rather than leaving them hanging over until a couple of days later. Assuming his Homestead result stands, Ricky finishes the season one place and 22 points ahead of his girlfriend, Danica Patrick. Danica can still claim $10,000 from Ricky if she ever beats him at golf (from an article I found here). The only penalty I did see yesterday was the indefinite suspension of crew member Kelly Johnson for violating the sanctioning body’s Substance Abuse Policy. The article on NASCAR.com was very brief, but further Googling suggests he's the jackman for the #7 team (it looks like NBC Sports found the same source that I did ).

It was Democratic Congresswoman Jackie Speier of California who sent a letter to NASCAR and Stewart-Haas Racing demanding that Kurt Busch should be immediately suspended. As Garrett said, "whatever happened to being innocent until proven guilty?". I wonder how quickly Ms Speier would step aside if she was accused of something, but hadn't been charged. This kind of knee-jerk reaction by people who aren't even connected with the incident seems to happen more and more these days. Don't get me wrong, if charges are brought against Kurt Busch, the whole situation changes. The Kurt Busch article that Garrett originally linked to would seem to suggest that his ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll, isn't after money. Near the end it says "Driscoll, in addition to her job as a defense contractor in Washington, D.C., is head of the Armed Forces Foundation. She has nothing to gain by all of this negative publicity. She is a successful woman, she has her own money, a lovely home, an excellent job." As for Travis Kvapil, he was arrested for domestic assault in October 2013, and pled guilty (why do so many sports journalists incorrectly use the word "pleaded"?) in January of this year. He was given two years' probation, fined and sentenced to 72 hours of community service. NASCAR, of course, did nothing about it. Personally, I doubt that NASCAR were planning to do anything about Kurt Busch if he gets charged, but recent high-profile cases like that of NFL player Ray Rice may force their hand and make them do the right thing. When an organization thinks that physical confrontations in the pitlane are acceptable, it really isn't much of a surpise that their default reaction is to do nothing.

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe Hobie's been on the 'shine again .

Welcome to HazzardNet, jaymzbo. Sorry I missed your question when you posted it (first posts can sometimes slip through the net by the time they're moderated!). As Hobie said, the series ran from 1979 to 1985. According to IMDb, season 7 originally aired between September 21, 1984 and February 8, 1985, so I'd guess that most/all of the filming was done in 1984. Which episode was the Camaro in?

I read this morning that Glen A Larson had passed away on Friday after a battle with cancer. He was 77. If you're a fan of 'The Dukes of Hazzard', you'll probably also be a fan of TV shows that were created/written/produced by Glen A Larson. His first hit series was 'Alias Smith and Jones', before being involved with shows like 'The Six Million Dollar Man', 'Battlestar Galactica', 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century', 'The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries', 'Magnum, P.I.', 'B.J. and the Bear', 'The Fall Guy', 'Knight Rider', 'Automan', 'The Highwayman' and 'Manimal'. A full list of his work can be found on IMDb. Here's a reminder of how Glen A Larson's name appeared at the end of shows (left is 'Knight Rider', right is 'The Fall Guy'): R.I.P. Glen Albert Larson (January 3, 1937 - November 14, 2014)

Jeff Gordon had a very strong race and led 161 of the 267 laps, often by a couple of seconds. A debris caution came out on lap 248, and Gordon and Hamlin stayed out when pretty much everyone else pitted. There was another caution on lap 255 (Alex Bowman and Blake Koch had an accident), and Gordon pitted then, putting him back in the field. Sounds like you know more about JJ's problems than I do. If the commentators mentioned it, I didn't hear them, and the lap-by-lap guide just said "Lap 210: Jimmie Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, the competition director and VP of competition called by the tower to the Sprint Cup hauler after the race." Jeff Gordon probably should have taken the win today, but that would have been a bit of a farce for the Chase. After all, that would have been three out of the final four races being won by non-Chase drivers. Out of the four Chase drivers in the race today, I think Kevin Harvick most deserved the championship. At the lap 248 caution (where Gordon didn't pit), Joey Logano's car came off the jack before the left side tires were fitted, and it took his crew quite a while to get his car off the ground so they could complete the stop. Ryan Newman made great progress through the field, but didn't actually lead any laps. Other than Jeff Gordon, the only drivers to lead laps were Kevin Harvick (54), Denny Hamlin (50), Kurt Busch (1) and Blake Koch (1). Ricky Stenhouse Jr had yet another anonymous race. His only mention in the lap-by-lap guide was on lap 236 when the caution for AJ Allmendinger's crash gave him the free pass. I though he might make up a few places near the end, but he finished 22nd (after starting 22nd!). Kyle Busch ended the race 21 laps down after part of his drivetrain broke as he left his pit box during a stop on lap 117. The guys in the studio afterwards were falling over each other saying how great the Chase had been this year. Admittedly, if your driver was one of the four contenders in today's race, it was an exciting finish, but I'd have to say that I didn't read one fan comment in support of the current setup when I was looking around a couple of days ago. Even the ones who generally liked the idea of the Chase thought that it needed modifying for next year. Certainly as I watched the first half of the race it was hard to believe that Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski weren't still in with a chance. I'll qualify Keselowski's inclusion in that list by saying that he deserved to be there by his results on the track rather than his behavior off of it. Maybe next year NASCAR will give out more appropriate and consistent punishments, but I'll probably miss them while I'm watching the flying pig races . For anyone suffering from withdrawal next Sunday, why not get up early and watch the final F1 race of the year. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix starts at 8 AM ET.

The time has finally come for the last race of the season, and only four drivers are in with a chance of winning. I know Garrett was upset at last week's result, but there's a small consolation below. I hope ESPN don't end every commercial break with Jeff Gordon's crash at Texas like they did last week - it got really boring! Qualifying was split into three rounds this week, with sessions of 25, 10 and 5 minutes. Brad Keselowski was one of the first drivers out, and his time remained top of the leaderboard until the end of the opening session. All of the Chase drivers made the cut this week. The commentators said to watch Kyle Larson, but he could only manage 27th. Right behind Kyle was Tony Stewart. Danica Patrick was third in the earlier practice session, but she starts the race in 32nd place. None of the drivers who tried a second run managed to get inside the top 24. Brad Keselowski set an early fast time again in the second session, but was immediately beaten by Kurt Busch. Jimmie Johnson later managed to split them with his time. Ryan Newman was the only Chase driver who didn't get into the top 12, although Denny Hamlin had to make a second run to get fifth with 16 seconds left on the clock. Joey Logano scraped in in 12th. This is Marcos Ambrose's last NASCAR race - he flies back to Australia on Monday to prepare for V8 racing. He starts in 17th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr was 15th in the first session, but his initial 12th place was pushed down to 22nd by the end of the second session. Last week I think he finished one place higher than his starting position, and he didn't even get mentioned once on the lap-by-lap feed. The last session was short and uneventful. The usual suspects went out early and set fast times, but it was Jeff Gordon who finished up with pole position. The commentators said it's his first pole in Miami, and the 200th pole for Hendrick Motor Sports. Kevin Harvick was the highest Chase driver in 5th. Here's the final starting lineup (Chase drivers are highlighted in yellow): 1. Jeff Gordon 2. Kurt Busch 3. Matt Kenseth 4. Brad Keselowski 5. Kevin Harvick 6. Clint Bowyer 7. Kyle Busch 8. Denny Hamlin 9. Joey Logano 10. Martin Truex Jr 11. Dale Earnhardt Jr 12. Jimmie Johnson 13. Brian Vickers 14. Justin Allgaier 15. Carl Edwards 16. Paul Menard 17. Marcos Ambrose 18. Aric Almirola 19. Jamie McMurray 20. Greg Biffle 21. Ryan Newman 22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 23. Kasey Kahne 24. Austin Dillon 25. AJ Allmendinger 26. Trevor Bayne 27. Kyle Larson 28. Tony Stewart 29. Casey Mears 30. Brian Scott 31. David Ragan 32. Danica Patrick 33. Landon Cassill 34. J.J. Yeley 35. David Gilliland 36. Reed Sorenson 37. Josh Wise 38. Michael McDowell 39. Michael Annett 40. Blake Koch 41. Alex Bowman 42. Cole Whitt 43. Brett Moffitt Only 43 cars were entered this week, so they all made the race. The Ford EcoBoost 400 from the Homestead-Miami Speedway is this Sunday at 3:00 PM ET. It's live on ESPN.

castle (There's a Belle Isle Castle in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland)

This song is rather a contrast to Hobie's current listening material. I only heard the track for the first time last week, but I've played it many times since. Build Me Up From Bones - Sarah Jarosz The instrument in the video that looks like an eight-string guitar is apparently an octave mandolin. One of the first comments on YouTube says, "See Taylor swift. This is how you write a love song."

The new Snickers commercial in the UK features Mr Bean. It's a little early to be mentioning the festive "C" word, but here's department store John Lewis's seasonal commercial about Monty the Penguin. It seems to be the one that people are talking about this year.

For the penultimate race of the year, qualifying was split into two sessions: one of 30 minutes and one of 10 minutes. Jeff Gordon briefly had the best time of the first session, but ended up sixth. Kevin Harvick set the fifth quickest time, despite taking one hand off the wheel to shield his eyes from the sun. With the sun getting lower in the sky, many drivers put pieces of tape on their windshields to act a makeshift sun visors for their second runs. No one hit the wall or had a spin, but Tony Stewart's car did have a little wiggle on his way to qualifying 29th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr's second run moved him up from 35th to 16th, although he got pushed down to 18th by the end. Chase driver Carl Edwards made a late run, but couldn't improve on his 13th place. Ryan Newman was the other Chase driver to miss the cut - he'll start in 20th place. Once again, Joey Logano got a new lap record with the fastest time of the first session. The second qualifying session was uneventful. A couple of drivers went out early, but most chose to wait until the last few minutes to set a time. This week it was Denny Hamlin who set the fastest time to claim his third pole of the year. He'll be joined on the front row by Brad Keselowski. Kyle Busch's sixth place made him the only non-Chase driver in the top seven, just ahead of Jeff Gordon. Here's the final starting lineup (Chase drivers are highlighted in yellow): 1. Denny Hamlin 2. Brad Keselowski 3. Kevin Harvick 4. Joey Logano 5. Matt Kenseth 6. Kyle Busch 7. Jeff Gordon 8. Kyle Larson 9. Brian Vickers 10. Kurt Busch 11. Paul Menard 12. Casey Mears 13. Carl Edwards 14. Martin Truex Jr 15. Jimmie Johnson 16. Dale Earnhardt Jr 17. Clint Bowyer 18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 19. Jamie McMurray 20. Ryan Newman 21. Marcos Ambrose 22. Kasey Kahne 23. Aric Almirola 24. AJ Allmendinger 25. Austin Dillon 26. Ty Dillon 27. Justin Allgaier 28. Greg Biffle 29. Tony Stewart 30. Michael Annett 31. Michael McDowell 32. Danica Patrick 33. Reed Sorenson 34. David Gilliland 35. David Ragan 36. Josh Wise 37. Alex Bowman 38. Landon Cassill 39. Mike Bliss 40. Cole Whitt 41. J.J. Yeley 42. Joey Gase 43. Mike Wallace With 44 cars entered this week, Clay Rogers was the unlucky driver who didn't make the race. The Quicken Loans Race For Heroes 500 from the Phoenix International Raceway is this Sunday at 3:00 PM ET. It's live on ESPN. I don't follow the Nationwide Series, but I remember Garrett saying we should keep an eye on Chase Elliot this season. Still only 18 years old, he stands a chance of being crowned this year's champion at tomorrow's race. That would make him the youngest ever champion, and all in his rookie year. Sunday is also the penultimate race on the F1 calendar, with the action coming from Brazil. The drivers found the newly resurfaced Interlagos track slippery in practice today, and that could get worse with rain being forecast for tomorrow's qualifying session. The race starts at 11:00 AM ET on Sunday, so y'all can watch the F1 race and get something to eat before the NASCAR race starts .

I'd probably feel different about things if it was my driver getting a puncture so close to the end of the race. I'm sure you're right that Gordon was just taking the normal racing line, but he should have been aware that Keselowski was there. I haven't studied all the available camera angles, but it's possible that Gordon's injury was the result of an elbow or shoulder in the face which the perpetrator didn't even know about. It's quite easy to get hurt in a brawl without being punched! NASCAR obviously love the attention that this is getting, so why not change things around at Miami Homestead. Instead of a race, the drivers will line up and take turns to punch Brad Keselowski until this year's champion is decided. It would be a lot more environmentally friendly . I was surprised that Gordon didn't get fined for his language, but to paraphrase one comment I read, he shouldn't get punished for telling the truth .

After all the post-race action and comment, no one posted the final result (you can look away now, Garrett). 1. Jimmie Johnson 2. Kevin Harvick 3. Brad Keselowski 4. Kyle Busch 5. Jamie McMurray 6. Dale Earnhardt Jr 7. Kyle Larson 8. Kurt Busch 9. Carl Edwards 10. Denny Hamlin 11. Tony Stewart 12. Joey Logano 13. Greg Biffle 14. AJ Allmendinger 15. Ryan Newman 16. Brian Vickers 17. Paul Menard 18. Casey Mears 19. Martin Truex Jr 20. Justin Allgaier 21. Austin Dillon 22. Michael Annett 23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 24. Aric Almirola 25. Matt Kenseth 26. Cole Whitt 27. Marcos Ambrose 28. Clint Bowyer 29. Jeff Gordon 30. Michael McDowell 31. J.J. Yeley 32. David Ragan 33. Reed Sorenson 34. David Gilliland 35. Timmy Hill 36. Danica Patrick 37. Joey Gase 38. Kasey Kahne 39. Trevor Bayne 40. Brett Moffitt 41. Josh Wise 42. Alex Bowman 43. Landon Cassill I'm not sure what happened to Ricky Stenhouse Jr in the race. He was a lot further up the field in practice, but after making up two places at the start, he slipped back and spent most of the race in around 30th position. He finally got back on the lead lap with nine of the planned number of laps to go! It also looks like I jinxed Landon Cassill as he only completed just over a third of the full race distance!

I tried writing this reply last night, but I was too tired to make all of it coherent. I hope this makes more sense . I'm an outsider here. I've only been watching NASCAR for a couple of years, and do not particularly follow any of the drivers involved in today's incidents, although I have formed opinions on some of them. For anyone who missed the incident, it can be found here. The post-race brawl is here. I've just watched the video again, and I'd have to say that Gordon appears to come down the track more than Keselowski moves up (check the in-car view at about 45 seconds into the first video above). Collisions in Formula 1 are often investigated by race stewards either during or after the race (it's supposed to be a non-contact sport, and one of the drivers in yesterday's race got a seven place grid penalty for the next race after he hit another car), but I think this one would be called a "racing incident" - i.e. no action would be taken. The side to side contact could just as easily have resulted in a puncture for Keselowski or no serious damage to either car. I know Gordon had driven around the outside of Johnson a little earlier, but I'm still confused as to why he didn't choose the inside for the restart. Of course, spinning his tires on the restart didn't help either. Also, I think Gordon's pit crew made a bad call in changing his right tires first and sending him out before they'd changed the punctured tire, even though he was already too late to avoid going a lap down - it was all a bit messy. I can see why Gordon's emotions would be running high, but I can't condone any driver resorting to a fight. Watching the second video again, I'm not sure whether Gordon or Keselowski were actually going to fight until Harvick pushed them together, even though someone could be heard repeatedly shouting "kick his a**". I'm not quite sure what NASCAR can do about the fight, seeing as they did nothing a couple of weeks ago. Then again, they're not exactly famous for consistency. I look forward to seeing the outcome since Keselowski is on probation. Yet again, NASCAR will get loads of free publicity for their Chase. Either way, Brad Keselowski now has a reputation amongst viewers and drivers, and, as this incident proves, it may be difficult to shift. You can respect a driver who takes chances and goes for gaps when the moves come off - it makes for very exciting racing. If you can nail an overtaking move whilst giving the other driver just enough space, you're very talented. If there's a 50/50 chance you'll crash and take both cars out of the race, then maybe you're not good enough to be there. I've seen the same thing in F1. There was a young driver a couple of years ago who was fast, but caused several accidents, and even got suspended from one race because of a particularly bad one. Some drivers like him disappear at the end of the year, but to his credit, he's come back as a much better driver. The really talented drivers trust each other implicitly, and can go halfway around a twisting track with their wheels just inches apart. If you're being paid the big money, you should be able to do the job. Lizzy, like you, I was surprised at the language that Jeff Gordon used in the post-brawl interview, and that no one on-screen commented on it. I noticed that the word was bleeped when the interview was repeated a few minutes later. I know that broadcasters in the US seem to get in a lot of trouble for allowing things like that to go out. To summarize, I was all in favor of Brad Keselowski being parked for a race after his actions of a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not sure he did anything wrong this time. Garrett, as hard as it is to hear this, Jeff Gordon and his crew made mistakes before and after the restart, both on and off the track. I'm not blaming him either - as I said above, in F1 this would be a racing incident. The fight is a separate matter, as is the bad language. On the plus side, we had another non-Chase driver winning a race, so there are still no guaranteed entries into the last round.

All eyes are on Texas this weekend with just three races of the season left. So far Lewis Hamilton has been fastest in the first two practices sessions, but I guess y'all didn't come here to read about the Formula 1 US Grand Prix from Austin . OK, so just under 200 miles away in Fort Worth, there's just three races of the season left. This is the middle race in the Eliminator Round of the Chase. This week there were three rounds of qualifying, but the way the drivers went out one or two at a time, it looked quite like the old style of qualifying where everyone got one run. Jimmie Johnson set the early pace in the first session, and hung on to the fastest time until the end. Danica Patrick and Trevor Bayne were among the only drivers to set a faster time on their second run, although neither made it through to the second session. Brad Keselowski was the only Chase driver who didn't progress - he'll start in 26th place. The big news from the second session was that Tony Stewart set a new lap record at over 200 MPH. Ricky Stenhouse Jr was 10th in practice and 12th in the first qualifying session, but could only make 18th in the second session. Still, that's a few places higher than usual. Denny Hamlin became the second Chase driver to be eliminated for qualifying - he starts in the race in 20th place. Unlike the first two sessions, no one wanted to make the first move in the third session, despite it only being five minutes long. Eventually, Matt Kenseth was first out on track, and ended up setting a time that was good enough for pole on Sunday. He'll be joined on the front row by Jeff Gordon who was a massive one thousandth of a second slower! The good news continues for Garrett as Jimmie Johnson took the third spot and Dale Earnhardt Jr was 12th. For Lizzy, Kyle Busch gets a top 10 start in ninth. Here's the final starting lineup (Chase drivers are highlighted in yellow): 1. Matt Kenseth 2. Jeff Gordon 3. Jimmie Johnson 4. Kurt Busch 5. Kevin Harvick 6. Tony Stewart 7. Ryan Newman 8. Martin Truex Jr 9. Kyle Busch 10. Joey Logano 11. Carl Edwards 12. Dale Earnhardt Jr 13. Brian Vickers 14. Kasey Kahne 15. Paul Menard 16. Marcos Ambrose 17. Kyle Larson 18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 19. Greg Biffle 20. Denny Hamlin 21. Jamie McMurray 22. Aric Almirola 23. AJ Allmendinger 24. Clint Bowyer 25. Trevor Bayne 26. Brad Keselowski 27. Danica Patrick 28. Michael McDowell 29. Austin Dillon 30. Justin Allgaier 31. David Gilliland 32. Reed Sorenson 33. Michael Annett 34. Landon Cassill 35. Alex Bowman 36. Josh Wise 37. David Ragan 38. Casey Mears 39. J.J. Yeley 40. Cole Whitt 41. Brett Moffitt 42. Timmy Hill 43. Joey Gase There were only 43 drivers again this week, so no one had to go home. The AAA Texas 500 from the Texas Motor Speedway is this Sunday at 3:00 PM ET. It's live on ESPN. Unfortunately, the Formula 1 race is on at roughly the same time, so I'll probably miss a chunk of the NASCAR race. I hope it's not up to me to write the review this week .

magic (Animal Magic was a popular British wildlife show which was on children's TV when I was growing up)

You can, but the album is $15.99 (reduced from $19.99) and the postage is $32.50 to Europe (it's $6.50 in the US). If you'd backed the Kickstarter with a pledge of $25, you'd have got the CD and download with only a $10 postage charge to send the CD outside the US. Amazon's UK site are asking £16.99 for the CD with free UK postage (I'm not sure how much they want for postage to the Netherlands), or £7.99 for the download. The album is released tomorrow (October 28, 2014). The track listing is: 1. Merry Christmas 2. Christmas Time is Here 3. Santa Claus is Coming to Town 4. Cool Yule 5. I'll Be Home For Christmas 6. Even the Snow 7. Love 8. Sleigh Ride 9. Christmas Waltz 10. Johnny, It's Cold Outside 11. The Secret of Christmas 12. Coal 13. Blue Xmas 14. Holiday Season 15. Ponch & John 16. On a Quiet Christmas Morn 17. Silver Bells 18. Egg Nog

Thanks for the review, Garrett. I think you covered most of the important points. It was good to see Ricky Stenhouse Jr on the front row for the final restart after he'd been nudged out by Landon Cassill on lap 132. I think it was well worth the gamble not to pit at the last caution, and he may have ended up with a top 10 finish if he'd restarted in third instead of second. In the end, he nearly got pushed into the wall as they went three wide. Speaking of Landon Cassill, he's been running strongly in the last couple of races. It doesn't seem long ago that he was usually one of the first retirements at each race. The result was obviously a good one for Dale Earnhardt Jr, and it was intersting hearing him talk about how his father's clock had pride of place in their house when he was growing up. If the same situation had happened in an F1 race, I think the team would have told Junior to let Jeff Gordon past. Mercedes currently have the top two drivers in the Drivers' Championship, and like Rick Hendrick's drivers, they are free to race so long as they don't hit each other (which they haven't done since Belgium). However, if a certain end-of-season result was beneficial to the team as a whole, team orders would be given. I appreciate that the situation is different because each F1 team only has two cars, and each car within a team has the same sponsors. Still, with only two possible automatic entries for the final race left, Jeff Gordon is in the best position.