HossC

Kevin Harvick did spin Denny Hamlin, but it was just a slightly misjudged maneuver and not deliberate. Just as Hamlin's car was coming to rest, Dale Earnhardt Jr happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and ripped most of the side off his car as well as further damaging Hamlin's car. Dale Earnhardt Jr eventually made it back on track to complete a few more laps. I had to laugh when I saw his team had made an "88" on the side of his car with red tape to conform to NASCAR regulations about displaying racing numbers. Hamlin did wait for the rescue crew to get to his car before he got out, but then he threw his HANS device onto the track. I can understand Hamlin being upset at getting put out of the race at around one third distance, but there's no room for that type of petulant behavior. A large fine or race ban might be a good way for NASCAR to make it clear to other drivers that it's unacceptable to throw things onto a live race track (I say "large fine" because Harvick earned about $13 million last year, so he wouldn't notice a small fine!). Quite a few speeding penalties were given out last night, but that's probably because there's a 30 MPH speed limit in the pit lane at Bristol. Jimmie Johnson actually got caught twice! Jeff Gordon spent a lot of the early part of the race in the top five and led 17 laps. Garrett, I can't believe you forgot to mention Ricky Stenhouse Jr's result. Admittedly, he spent the first part of the race being magnetically drawn to the 21st or 22nd spot. Every time he gained or lost a few places, he seemed to end up back where he started. Then at one of the later cautions he took the wave around. After that he slowly and surely gained about ten places to finish in sixth, and that's almost like a win for me .

I love the way Nigel managed to find a wireless printer in 1992 - it didn't even need a power cord . Before YouTube, quite a few "big name" celebrities made commercials in Japan as they knew they were unlikely to be seen in the US and Europe. More recently, Hollywood stars seem to be coming to Britain to make commercials - here are some examples: Kevin Bacon has made a series of commercials for the cellphone company EE. The latest one finishes at a wedding dance, and sees Kevin look at the camera and say "Every time" as the DJ puts on 'Footloose'. I couldn't find that on YouTube, but you might be able to watch it here. The video below was the first commercial in the series. Snickers decided to follow their Mr T commercials (one of which was later banned for being offensive) with one featuring Joan Collins and Stephanie Beacham. They're still being shown, although only in edited form without Stephanie Beacham. Joan Collins is not new to the world of advertising - she made a very well-known series of commercials for Cinzano in the late '70s/early '80s. I don't know how famous her co-star, Leonard Rossiter, was outside the UK, but a run of popular sitcoms made him a household name at the time. I'll finish with a commercial featuring Bruce Willis promoting broadband. This one got banned because they forgot to mention that the offer only applied to existing customers!

One detail I forgot to mention in the preview above is that Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano set identical times (14.644 seconds) in the second qualifying session. I suppose it's more likely on such a short track. They set their times very close together, and afterwards the TV pictures had Logano ahead while the live leaderboard online had Johnson ahead. When this happens in Formula 1 (it doesn't happen often), it's the driver who set the time first who's in front at the start. When the lineup was finalized, it was Joey Logano who was given fifth, with Jimmie Johnson in sixth. At least they're both on the third row. For anyone who still craves a motorsport fix this Sunday, why not get up early (8:00 AM ET) for the Belgian Grand Prix. It's a great old circuit (one of my favorites), and with half an hour until qualifying, it's raining hard at the track. Unlike NASCAR, F1 cars can race in wet weather, so we may end up with a topsy-turvy grid and an even more interesting race tomorrow .

There's not so much to report this week. Qualifying at Bristol was split into two sessions, with the fastest 12 from the first session going through to the pole position shoot-out. The threat of lightning was only a couple of miles away, so all the mobile cameramen were taken off roof and out of the pit lane. Cole Whitt spun during the first session, bringing out a red flag. His time was still good enough for 34th. Aric Amirola and Casey Mears both hit the wall before they'd set a time, so will start from the back. I'd really like to tell you that this was the top five for the race, but sadly it's only the top five from the second practice session. Ricky Stenhouse Jr couldn't match this pace in qualifying, and starts 21st (back to normal ). Hopefully he'll be faster in the race - he was second here earlier in the year. Jeff Gordon was fastest in the first qualifying session, but Kevin Harvick just beat him to the pole. Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch will start just behind in third and fourth. Jeff Burton's driving Tony Stewart's #14 car for the second week in a row, and he will start in 25th, one place behind Danica Patrick. Here's the full lineup: 1. Kevin Harvick 2. Jeff Gordon 3. Carl Edwards 4. Kyle Busch 5. Joey Logano 6. Jimmie Johnson 7. Kurt Busch 8. Greg Biffle 9. Brad Keselowski 10. Marcos Ambrose 11. Ryan Newman 12. Kasey Kahne 13. Denny Hamlin 14. Clint Bowyer 15. Brian Vickers 16. Matt Kenseth 17. Paul Menard 18. Jamie McMurray 19. Justin Allgaier 20. Dale Earnhardt Jr 21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 22. AJ Allmendinger 23. Martin Truex Jr 24. Danica Patrick 25. Jeff Burton 26. Austin Dillon 27. Alex Bowman 28. Michael McDowell 29. David Ragan 30. Josh Wise 31. Brett Moffitt 32. David Gilliland 33. Ryan Truex 34. Cole Whitt 35. Dave Blaney 36. Reed Sorenson 37. J.J. Yeley 38. Michael Annett 39. Landon Cassill 40. Kyle Larson 41. David Stremme 42. Aric Almirola 43. Casey Mears Again, there were only 43 entrants, so no one had to pack up and go home. The Irwin Tools Night Race from the Bristol Motor Speedway is tomorrow (Saturday) night at 7:30 PM ET. This week it's live on ABC. Garrett, I hope you'll be watching this one, because I doubt I'll see all of it.

Mark, don't forget this sign from near Boss' door. I previously posted it in the Trivia Thread, but this thread seemed like a good place to repost it. In case y'all can't make out the small text, it's from Shakespeare's 'Henry V'.

I also thought it was some kind of extractor hood, although, like Mark, I was leaning towards welding rather than cooking. I found the one below by Googling "extractor hood for welding". The description says "Fume extraction canopies. Manufactured to order from 0.9mm galvanised mild steel. Ideal for welding and general fume extraction within industrial environments (not suitable for commercial kitchen extraction). Hoods can be supplied in a flatback design - enabling installation against a wall, or a symmetrical configuration i.e in the plan view the top spigot is centrally located." It looks like we may have to take away your award, Ila .

Now it is official - Jeff Burton will be driving the #14 car at Bristol this week. The announcement also said that Tony Stewart's plans for the rest of the season have not yet been determined. More info here.

The exterior of the Boars Nest was larger than the parts of the interior that we got to see, so there was room for a kitchen and a bathroom, but they would've had to have exterior doors, which isn't very convenient. We never got to see the "World's Best Tastin' Bar-B-Que", but I'd put it outside, possibly around the back to avoid the dust of the parking lot. There was a bar near where I used to live that had a barbecue in their garden every weekend throughout the summer (weather permitting).

I did get to see the race, so I'll take a stab at a review. Before I start, I'll admit that I was distracted during the first half because one of the 'Columbo' episodes featuring Sorrell Booke was on TV. You can see a screengrab in this post. For various reasons J.J. Yeley, Landon Cassill, Trevor Bayne and Martin Truex Jr all started from the back. Jeff Gordon led the field away, but Joey Logano took the lead on the second lap. Another couple of laps later and Kyle Busch hit the wall causing enough damage to require a visit to the garage. No refueling was allowed under the subsequent caution, and no one got a free pass. Jimmie Johnson pitted under the caution for four new tires as he thought he'd run over some debris. I had to laugh when I saw Kyle Busch's car being worked on in the garage. One of his pit crew, who was wearing a full crash helmet, was using a sander/grinder and hammer on the outside of Kyle's rear wheel arch while another crew member had his unprotected head just inside the wheel arch. On lap 21 there was a competition caution because of overnight rain. Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson both stayed out while nearly everyone else pitted. Within a lap of the green flag there was another caution as Danica Patrick's can spun around after clipping Jeff Burton's car (or possibly after being clipped by Jeff Burton). The wreck also involved seven other drivers including Trevor Bayne, Martin Truex Jr and Matt Kenseth. During the following pit stop, Dale Earnhardt Jr exited his pit box into the path of Kyle Larson, causing damage to both cars. The next couple of dozen laps were fairly incident free, although the racing was good as Jeff Gordon closed on Joey Logano and retook the lead. On lap 49, Jimmie Johnson reported that his gear shifter had broken, although this didn't seem to have an immediate impact on his speed. In fact, after some green flag pit stops, Jimmie Johnson had managed to take the lead by over six seconds. Because Ricky Stenhouse Jr was on a similar pit strategy to Jimmie Johnson, he briefly made it up to second place during this portion of the race. I'm trying to remember if he's led a lap this year. Jimmie Johnson finally made his green flag pit stop on lap 76. There were some rather comedic scenes as his team handed him some vice grips to fix his gear shifting problem as he was pushed off pit road. This was followed by a large amount of in-car footage as Jimmie Johnson spent a couple of laps trying to attach the vice grips. The issue was eventually solved on lap 108 when his crew managed to fit a new gear shifter. With Jeff Gordon in the lead, Jeff Burton headed for the garage on lap 82 because of an electrical smell in his car. Then, on lap 97, Kyle Larson hit the wall. The commentators mentioned the new rule about drivers not leaving a crashed car (brought in after the death of Kevin Ward Jr), but Kyle was told to get out because his car was on fire. Joey Logano led most of the next laps as there was some more good, incident-free racing. The leaders all came in for green flag pit stops around lap 140, and Jeff Gordon took the opportunity to retake the lead. They pitted again around lap 165/166, and had only just rejoined the track when Brad Keselowski hit the wall while leading the race. The caution put Jimmie Johnson back on the lead lap. As often happens, one caution leads to another, and this time it was when Brian Vickers got loose and hit Alex Bowman. Jeff Gordon complained about Joey Logano's speed at the restart. Yet another caution came out on lap 179, this time for debris. That put Danica Patrick back on the lead lap. Joey Logano led the restart on lap 184, but Jeff Gordon soon dived past. Kevin Harvick and Paul Menard also followed Jeff Gordon past Joey Logano, putting him back to fourth. That's pretty much how it stayed to the checkered flag, although Joey Logano managed to retake third from Paul Menard. With his third win of the season, Jeff Gordon retakes the points lead and Chase standings lead. Although Ricky Stenhouse Jr only finished 15th, it was good to see him nearer the front and on the lead lap for virtually the whole race. Here's the full result: 1. Jeff Gordon 2. Kevin Harvick 3. Joey Logano 4. Paul Menard 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr 6. Clint Bowyer 7. Denny Hamlin 8. Brad Keselowski 9. Jimmie Johnson 10. Greg Biffle 11. Ryan Newman 12. Marcos Ambrose 13. AJ Allmendinger 14. Jamie McMurray 15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 16. Kasey Kahne 17. Casey Mears 18. Danica Patrick 19. Brian Vickers 20. Aric Almirola 21. David Gilliland 22. Austin Dillon 23. Carl Edwards 24. David Ragan 25. Cole Whitt 26. Alex Bowman 27. Reed Sorenson 28. Josh Wise 29. Landon Cassill 30. J.J. Yeley 31. Kurt Busch 32. Travis Kvapil 33. Dave Blaney 34. Alex Kennedy 35. Joe Nemechek 36. Martin Truex Jr 37. Jeff Burton 38. Matt Kenseth 39. Kyle Busch 40. Michael Annett 41. Trevor Bayne 42. Justin Allgaier 43. Kyle Larson Next week it's the Irwin Tools Night Race from Bristol Motor Speedway.

Completely by chance, I came across this early '90s commercial for DHL earlier today. I don't think we've seen it before. (ETA. The original video was missing, so this may be a different advert from the one I first posted).

Just for a change, I remembered to watch the qualifying this week. Seeing as the Michigan International Speedway is in the Irish Hills, I'm gonna count this as my home race . There were mixed results for HMS this week. Jeff Gordon was only sixth fastest in the first session, but took the top spot in the second and third sessions to make it two poles in a row (and that's despite the extra weight of his beard which he says he forgot to shave!). Kasey Kahne is down in 15th, and both Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jimmie Johnson failed to make it to the second session with starting positions of 25th and 30th respectively. Joey Logano looked strong all the way through. He was fastest in practice, and second, third and second in qualifying. That puts him on the front row with Jeff Gordon. Ricky Stenhouse Jr was the penultimate driver to set a time in the first session, but his lap put him straight into third until Carl Edwards took the lead and pushed him down to fourth. I was hoping he'd repeat the performance in the next two sessions, but his provisional third place became 12th by the end of the second session. Luckily, he managed to improve this to 10th in the final session for his best starting position for quite a while. Last week's winner, AJ Allmendinger, takes Ricky's usual starting position in 22nd . Kyle Busch starts two places behind in 24th. In case anyone missed Garrett's post in the NASCAR News thread, Jeff Burton is driving the #14 car this week as Tony Stewart misses another race after last week's fatal accident. Here's the full lineup: 1. Jeff Gordon 2. Joey Logano 3. Carl Edwards 4. Brian Vickers 5. Brad Keselowski 6. Kevin Harvick 7. Paul Menard 8. Austin Dillon 9. Jamie McMurray 10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 11. Greg Biffle 12. Ryan Newman 13. Kyle Larson 14. Danica Patrick 15. Kasey Kahne 16. Kurt Busch 17. Justin Allgaier 18. Matt Kenseth 19. Clint Bowyer 20. Marcos Ambrose 21. Denny Hamlin 22. AJ Allmendinger 23. Aric Almirola 24. Kyle Busch 25. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26. Casey Mears 27. Jeff Burton 28. Ryan Blaney 29. David Gilliland 30. Jimmie Johnson 31. Ryan Truex 32. Alex Bowman 33. Josh Wise 34. David Ragan 35. Michael Annett 36. Cole Whitt 37. Dave Blaney 38. Travis Kvapil 39. Matt Crafton 40. Reed Sorenson 41. Alex Kennedy 42. Joe Nemechek 43. Landon Cassill There were only 43 entrants, so no one got sent home. The Pure Michigan 400 is this Sunday at 1:00 PM ET. It's live on ESPN.

There were other spelling mistakes on the show. If you look through The Patrol Cars In Pictures thread, you'll see that "US Marshal" was often spelled "US Marshall" on cars and uniforms. Bringing the discussion back to this thread, I've been calling Boss' bar the "Boars Nest" because that's what's on the sign, but really it should be the "Boar's Nest" (or possibly the "Boars' Nest"). I very much doubt that this was down to "Japanese people working on the show" - I spent over 10 years working in the sign-making business, and before the industry started to become computerized in the mid- to late-80s, most of the work was done by hand. Speaking from personal experience of working with these people, there were some amazingly talented artists, but good spelling was not always amongst their skills. Even the good ones occasionally let the odd typo through. Remember: bad spelling started long before Facebook and Twitter made it popular (or should that be compulsory? ).

I was curious to checkout the interior layout of the original Boars Nest, so I dug out my season 1 DVDs last night. So far I've only looked at the first three episodes, and the bar area was pretty dimly lit in the scenes I saw. What I did notice was how much bigger Boss' office appeared to be. He also had a large collection of stuffed animals on the walls and a very prominent gun rack. This one shows the view through to the bar area.

Medals Just after I posted "Torch" I realized I could have followed "Blow" with something like "Whistle" to tie it in to the famous "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together - and blow" quote from 'To Have and Have Not' as a small tribute to Lauren Bacall.

Torch

I enjoyed yesterday's race - I wish they had another couple of road courses like that on the calendar. It was also good to see that the person doing the lap-by-lap coverage at NASCAR.com has been reading my posts and learned the difference between "break issues" and "brake issues" . Danica was not only in her backup car yesterday, she also started at the back due to an engine change. She was making steady progress through the field when she hit debris from the crash. She's also had some good qualifying performances this year. Like Garrett has said in previous posts, she was probably thrown into the Sprint Cup a little early, but I think she's getting better and more consistent. Let's face it, it took AJ Allmendinger 213 starts over eight years to get his first Sprint Cup win yesterday.

Never believe what people say on Facebook! - many copies of the video are still available on YouTube, although some now require users to log in and verify their age. BTW. I forgot to mention in my previous update that Regan Smith will move to the back of the field because he's a replacement driver.

UPDATE: Stewart-Haas Competition Director Greg Zipadelli has announced that Tony Stewart will not race Sunday at Watkins Glen today. Regan Smith will replace him.

Sports Seeing as Fox Sports is Garrett's preferred NASCAR broadcaster. I nearly went with "news", but then realized that it had no connection with "fox" .

I've watched a couple of versions of what appears to be the same video footage (they're easy enough to find, but I didn't think it was appropriate to post links here). It seems strange that in one version you hear the sound of an engine being gunned as Stewart's car hits Kevin Ward Jr, yet in the other version the sound is heard before the impact. It's impossible for me to tell whether the engine being gunned belongs to Stewart or one of the other drivers. Either way, it was a pretty poor decision on Kevin Ward Jr's part to approach a moving race car wearing a mainly black race suit during a night race, even if it was under caution. To me it looked like Kevin Ward Jr made a deliberate approach towards Stewart's car; something you might get away with in NASCAR, but not in an open-wheel series. The main eyewitness who's being quoted on various sites is Tyler Graves, a friend of Kevin‘s. Sometimes it seems that incidents, accidents and assaults at sporting events aren't treated in the same legal way that they would be if they happened outside on the street. In this case it looks like police are investigating, but haven't felt the need to arrest Tony Stewart. Sheriff Phillip Povero said that Tony Stewart was "fully cooperative" and that "the incident is not being investigated as a criminal matter." While some sites start their coverage with lines like "NASCAR driver Tony Stewart's famous temper has struck again", I am going to wait for the outcome of the investigation. I'm sure it will be discussed on the pre-race show later today. None of the articles I've read give any indication as to whether Stewart will be racing today. They simply say that he's due to race at Watkins Glen. Just a small correction to Garrett's post: all the sources I've read say that Kevin Ward Jr was 20 years old. The initial confusion may be due to the bio on his website starting with the line "Kevin Ward Jr is just 17 years old and he is the pilot of the Rider Racing Engines Powered #13 360 Sprint Car."

I completely forgot about the qualifying earlier tonight (why can't it always be on Friday?), so the following is based on what I've read. Because the drivers have to turn right as well as left at Watkins Glen International, there were only two qualifying sessions. The first was 30 minutes and the second was 10 minutes. This week it's good news for Garrett and Rick Hendrick as Jeff Gordon made a late run in the second session to beat the favorite, Marcos Ambrose. Gordon said he only went out late because he'd made two runs in the first session and had to let the car cool down. Jimmie Johnson starts just behind Ambrose, and Dale Earnhardt Jr is down in seventh. For Lizzy, Kurt Busch will be right in the mix when he starts in fifth. Ricky Stenhouse Jr starts yet another race from the middle of the field, but 21st is slightly higher than his practice positions. Danica Patrick had what she called "a record horrible day" yesterday. She missed a gear in the first practice session and damaged her engine, and blew a tire in the second practice session resulting in a crash which caused a lot of damage to her car. Because of the crash she had to swap to her backup car, and because she had to change her engine, she will start the race from the back. Another name also jumped out at me this week. Former F1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr makes his Sprint Cup debut after previously racing in both the Nationwide and Camping World series. His father, Nelson Piquet, was F1 World Champion in 1981, 1983 and 1987, but despite qualifying in second place in the 1979 and 1980 US Grands Prix at Watkins Glen (the last two years that Watkins Glen staged an F1 race), he failed to finish both times. 1. Jeff Gordon 2. Marcos Ambrose 3. Jimmie Johnson 4. Kevin Harvick 5. Kurt Busch 6. AJ Allmendinger 7. Dale Earnhardt Jr 8. Matt Kenseth 9. Brad Keselowski 10. Ryan Newman 11. Joey Logano 12. Brian Vickers 13. Tony Stewart 14. Jamie McMurray 15. Justin Allgaier 16. Carl Edwards 17. Denny Hamlin 18. Cole Whitt 19. Kyle Busch 20. Paul Menard 21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 22. Casey Mears 23. Kyle Larson 24. Clint Bowyer 25. Martin Truex Jr 26. David Ragan 27. Aric Almirola 28. Greg Biffle 29. Michael McDowell 30. Kasey Kahne 31. Austin Dillon 32. Nelson Piquet Jr 33. David Gilliland 34. Boris Said 35. Ryan Truex 36. Alex Bowman 37. Josh Wise 38. Alex Kennedy 39. Reed Sorenson 40. Joe Nemechek 41. Landon Cassill 42. Michael Annett 43. Danica Patrick Tomorrow's (Sunday's) Cheez-It 355 At The Glen starts at 1:00 PM ET. It's live on ESPN.

Thanks for the update and another mention of the Dorset Echo . Duke is actually the car's owner name, not the groom's. Maybe people called Duke just end up buying '69 Chargers. I remember the guy who brought his General Lee to the Graham Norton Show Dukes of Hazzard Special was also called Duke, and he worked for the police, so I'm guessing he knew the laws regarding air horns. For anyone who hasn't see the Graham Norton Show Dukes of Hazzard Special (I think all the old links on HNet are dead), it's been re-uploaded to YouTube. There used to be a longer version, but this is better than nothing. Lee Duke, owner of the General Lee in the studio, appears right at the start of part 2. Warning: Parts of this show are a little risqué! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=676tfMecikw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r24stm0Jazs

In 'The Return of Hughie Hogg', Hughie persuades Boss to sign over all of his properties, and Hazzard becomes Hughie Town. What I'd forgotten was that Hughie gives Boss' office at the Boars Nest a makeover, complete with white piano and chrome/glass furniture. I thought I'd post a couple of screengrabs to remind y'all of the alternative interior .

Welcome to HNet, Keith. That's a great looking car you have there .