HossC

The Sprint Cup moves to New Hampshire this week. Only four drivers set an early time in the second (last) qualifying session, including a quick one by Tony Stewart. With about seven minutes to go, Kyle Busch lined up near the end of the pit lane waiting for a cloud to cover the sun. He was soon joined by Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray. Jimmie Johnson blinked first, and beat Tony Stewart's time. Soon after, Kyle Busch bounced back from his rollover last week to claim the pole at Loudon, breaking the lap record by 1.633 mph in the process. Denny Hamlin made a late run, but could only manage third. Tony Stewart went out for a second run, but failed to cross the line in time to do a lap. It's interesting to note the difference between qualifying for NASCAR and qualifying for F1. The NASCAR drivers were all trying to cool their cars down, whereas F1 cars have pre-heated tires and need their brakes at a high temperature to operate at their best. Sitting around for several minutes at the end of the pit lane would kill the chances of an F1 driver getting a good time (and would probably be illegal due to the narrow pit exits). Jeff Gordon tried two timed laps near the end of the session, but they only got him to 11th (he was third in the first practice session). Ricky Stenhouse Jr was 23rd in the first practice session, and improved to 22nd in qualifying. I hope it's not going to be another of those races where he spends most of the time in a midfield position. Lizzy, I've obviously covered one of your drivers as he's got pole. Your other driver, Austin Dillon, starts right behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr in 23rd. 1. Kyle Busch 2. Jimmie Johnson 3. Denny Hamlin 4. Tony Stewart 5. Jamie McMurray 6. Joey Logano 7. Brad Keselowski 8. Clint Bowyer 9. Martin Truex Jr 10. Kasey Kahne 11. Jeff Gordon 12. Kevin Harvick 13. Kyle Larson 14. Carl Edwards 15. Matt Kenseth 16. Paul Menard 17. Brian Vickers 18. Kurt Busch 19. Aric Almirola 20. AJ Allmendinger 21. Marcos Ambrose 22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 23. Austin Dillon 24. Ryan Newman 25. Justin Allgaier 26. David Ragan 27. Greg Biffle 28. Dale Earnhardt Jr 29. Danica Patrick 30. Jeff Burton 31. Casey Mears 32. Josh Wise 33. David Gilliland 34. Landon Cassill 35. Cole Whitt 36. Alex Bowman 37. Reed Sorenson 38. Ryan Truex 39. Michael Annett 40. Eddie MacDonald 41. Mike Bliss 42. Timmy Hill 43. Morgan Shepherd The Camping World RV Sales 301 from the New Hampshire Motor Speedway is this Sunday at 1:00 PM ET. For the last time this year it's live on TNT (I can't believe you might miss it, Garrett ).

I think I've seen every episode of the modern UK series (2002 onwards), and I've watched the first four seasons of the Top Gear USA (just starting on season 5). The US series started out like the UK series, and even copied some of the challenges, but they decided to scrap the studio section and guests after the first two seasons. Because the commercials in the US version limit the runtime of each episode to around 43 minutes (compared to a full hour for the UK version), I think the change to the newer challenge-only format seems to work well, although I wish they'd cut the preview/recap either side of the breaks. The season 5 preview promises a trip to the Autobahns of Germany and a brief visit to the Scottish Highlands. By contrast, Top Gear Australia stuck with the UK format. It had the same music, very similar studio layout, guests and power laps. After two seasons on SBS One, the show moved to the Nine Network and some changes were made. The 'Star In A Bog-Standard Car' section ('Star In A Reasonably Priced Car' in the UK, 'Big Star, Small Car' in the US) was changed to 'Star In A Car' when they swapped the small car for a Ute. They also changed the presenters with only Steve Pizzati appearing in all four seasons. So far I've watched most of season 1 and season 4 (and the UK version of the 'Ashes Special' which was part of season 3 in Australia), and have enjoyed the shows. Australian cars are a bit of a mystery to me - they have some familiar cars from Europe, and are close to the car-producing countries of Asian, but also have a load of models that are unique. There is a huge rivalry between Ford fans and Holden fans which appears to be bigger than any brand rivalry I've seen in other countries. Only a few of these Australia only cars seem to make it abroad, e.g. Vauxhall have sold a rebadged Holden Monaro in the UK, and the Pontiac G8 was a rebadged Holden Commodore. UK and US viewers will notices that metric figures are used almost exlusively in the Australian show, with power output quoted in kilowatts rather than BHP, and distances/speeds in kilometers (these are probably more familiar to the rest of Europe). Other terminology is more British, with cars having bonnets and boots instead of the hoods and trunks they have in the US. Australians also drive on the correct side of the road . The Australian show retained the irreverence of the UK show (the US show sometimes seems a bit sanitized), so it's sad that it was cancelled after the fourth season finished in 2012. If you have the time, I'd definitely recommend checking out a few episodes. Just for fun I decided to look up the viewing figures. The third season of Top Gear Australia got around 1 million viewers per episode out of a population of around 22.7 million (2010). The later seasons of Top Gear USA generally got between 1.5 and 2 million viewers out of a popluation of 317 million (the electric car special in season 4 got noticeably less viewers). The latest series of the UK show got 5 million viewers for the first episode out of a population of just over 62 million (2012).

I mentioned in an earlier post that Top Gear USA had an episode where Adam Ferrara painted a 1973 Plymouth Duster like the General Lee (the video link is now dead, but you can see a clip: Well, after watching some of the later episodes of the American version recently, I decided to check out Top Gear Australia. I found two episodes where the General Lee and Dukes of Hazzard are mentioned. In the third episode of the first season each presenter has to buy a car from a junkyard for A$500. One of them chooses a Camry wagon and inexplicably decides to paint it like the General. As you can see, he didn't spend much on the paint job ... ... although it did include a flag on the roof! The driver was jokingly referred to as "The Duke of Haphazard" . In the fourth episode of the fourth season the presenters get a challenge to put a short stunt sequence together. I'm not too familiar with Aussie cars, but I think they started out with three Holden Commodores. The presenters then gave their cars very cheap makeovers to turn them into the "Striped Tomato" from Starsky and Hutch, the "Interceptor" from Mad Max and the General Lee. Of course, it was the General that did the jump. They also had a go at the roof flag on this car, but it wasn't as good as the first effort. The end credits of the sequence referred to the piece as the "Dorks of Hazard".

Thanks for the review, Roger. One of these days we're gonna have to teach you how to post pictures .

I'm afraid that I found today's race a bit of an anticlimax, even though it was on at a better time for me. I was just getting excited about Ricky being in the top ten when he disappeared from the Live Leaderboard a couple of laps before the first crash. I'd just started to wonder where he'd gone when I saw cars spinning all over the place with Ricky in the middle. At first I thought Ricky's car wasn't too badly damaged, but sadly I was wrong. It's a good job I'd already watched an entertaining British Grand Prix . You could've gone for a 3-course meal and not missed much. TNT showed around 10 minutes of commercials which were briefly interupted by two 30-second updates about the race. Next week is the last of this year's races on TNT (or Terrible NASCAR Television as I saw it called online ). Most of the remaining races are on ESPN.

Well you can't blame Ricky this time .

You have to feel sorry for TNT - not only did they have to interupt their Lord of the Rings marathon today, they also had to take some breaks from showing commercials to screen small parts of the NASCAR race! Is Jeff Gordon taking resposibility for the crash or was it Ricky Stenhouse Jr's fault?

The Coke Zero 400 has been postponed due to rain. They're going try again at 11:00 AM ET tomorrow (Sunday). It's a shame they can't race in the rain - they had some during the qualifying for the British F1 Grand Prix earlier today and it led to some topsy-turvy results. The weather forecasters are predicting a dry race, but a bit of rain would spice things up nicely .

I posted the results of the Kentucky race so they'd go before the qualifying lineup for Daytona. A combination of an exciting World Cup soccer match between Brazil and Colombia, and a "rain-abbreviated" qualifying session meant that I missed this evening's action from Florida. Nevertheless, I've read the review on NASCAR.com to find out what happened. Luckily there was no repeat of the nine-car wreck that occurred when a sudden rainstorm hit the Nationwide qualifying session (video and details here). Words like "chaotic" were used to describe today's qualifying, which used the new knockout format for the first time (the season-opener used the old format). Being a restrictor-plate track, the drivers tried some odd strategies including going very slowly until they could hook-up with a teammate. The strange qualifying behavior mixed with the rain led to an unusual lineup for tomorrow's race. David Gilliland took his third career pole just ahead of Reed Sorenson. The second row is filled by Landon Cassill and Bobby Labonte. Despite this, HMS managed to get three cars in the top ten with Jimmie Johnson in 5th, Dale Earnhardt Jr in 7th and Jeff Gordon in 9th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr qualified in a more promising 16th, although he was as high as 7th in the first practice session. It's not such good news for Lizzy this week with Austin Dillon down in 23rd and Kyle Busch down near the back in 39th, just ahead of his brother. Here's the full lineup: 1. David Gilliland 2. Reed Sorenson 3. Landon Cassill 4. Bobby Labonte 5. Jimmie Johnson 6. Matt Kenseth 7. Dale Earnhardt Jr 8. David Ragan 9. Jeff Gordon 10. Greg Biffle 11. Carl Edwards 12. Tony Stewart 13. Kevin Harvick 14. Kasey Kahne 15. Aric Almirola 16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 17. Cole Whitt 18. Marcos Ambrose 19. Martin Truex Jr 20. Ryan Newman 21. Paul Menard 22. Casey Mears 23. Austin Dillon 24. AJ Allmendinger 25. Trevor Bayne 26. Brad Keselowski 27. Michael McDowell 28. Joey Logano 29. Danica Patrick 30. Brian Vickers 31. Justin Allgaier 32. Michael Annett 33. Josh Wise 34. Clint Bowyer 35. Kyle Larson 36. Jamie McMurray 37. Denny Hamlin 38. Terry Labonte 39. Kyle Busch 40. Kurt Busch 41. Michael Waltrip 42. Ryan Truex 43. Alex Bowman This week's race may prove to be too late for me again, because the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola from the Daytona International Speedway is tomorrow night (Saturday) at 7:30 PM ET. It's live on TNT. For anyone who fancies some motorsport on Sunday, this weekend is also the date for the British F1 Grand Prix, and Silverstone is celebrating its 50th time as host. The stands were apparently packed like a raceday for the first two practice sessions today. Amongst those watching was three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti who was joined by his cousin, ex-F1 driver Paul di Resta. History was also made today as F1 had a female driver behind the wheel during a race weekend for the first time in 22 years. Unfortunately, Williams test driver Susie Wolff had her session cut short due to engine trouble. That could lead to problems at home as she's married to Toto Wolff, director of Mercedes Motorsport who supply the engines! The race on Sunday starts promptly at 8:00 AM ET.

I think Garrett's still planning to write a review for last week's race in Kentucky, but I've decided to post the results to preserve some kind of order. The race was won by Brad Keselowski who led 199 of the 267 laps. 1. Brad Keselowski 2. Kyle Busch 3. Ryan Newman 4. Matt Kenseth 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6. Jeff Gordon 7. Kevin Harvick 8. Kasey Kahne 9. Joey Logano 10. Jimmie Johnson 11. Tony Stewart 12. Kurt Busch 13. Marcos Ambrose 14. Greg Biffle 15. Paul Menard 16. Austin Dillon 17. Carl Edwards 18. Michael Annett 19. Martin Truex Jr 20. Casey Mears 21. Danica Patrick 22. AJ Allmendinger 23. Clint Bowyer 24. Justin Allgaier 25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 26. Brian Vickers 27. Reed Sorenson 28. Cole Whitt 29. Josh Wise 30. David Gilliland 31. David Ragan 32. Landon Cassill 33. Ryan Truex 34. Travis Kvapil 35. David Stremme 36. Alex Bowman 37. Jamie McMurray 38. Joe Nemechek 39. Aric Almirola 40. Kyle Larson 41. Mike Bliss 42. Denny Hamlin

Thanks for passing on the sad news, but you got his name slightly wrong: it's actually Bob Hastings. IMDb lists his date of death as 30 June 2014 and the cause as prostate cancer. He was 89. He played Barnes in 'Witness for the Persecution', ... ... Slick Doggins (spelling as used in the subtitles) in 'Coltrane vs. Duke' ... ... and Taylor in 'Sky Bandits over Hazzard'. You can see Bob Hastings' full filmography here.

The only other track I have with either "achy" or "breaky" in the title is Weird Al's parody of Billy Ray's song, so I'm gonna have to use "heart" . This one's not the sort of thing I usually listen to, but it was used on a commercial recently and I found it annoyingly catchy! The record company decided to replace Rizzle Kicks with Chiddy Bang for the US release, but the reviews from both sides of the Atlantic seem to favor the original, so here it is: Heart Skips a Beat - Olly Murs ft. Rizzle Kicks

I'm glad you finally started this thread, Ila. Daisy's outfits are often a good way to identify where screengrabs come from, so is there any chance you could include episode names where possible? Seeing as you asked for submissions, I thought I'd start with Daisy's first appearance from 'One Armed Bandits'. The other screengrabs in this post are also from that episode. This scene is very dark, and Daisy moves a lot, so I've had to tweak the image a bit. Daisy Duke: "She drives like Richard Petty, shoots like Annie Oakley and knows the words to all of Dolly Parton's songs." If I recall correctly, Cathy had a hand in sewing this iconic outfit together. This is the top that Daisy wears when she steals Rosco's patrol car for the chase around the Boar's Nest parking lot (the one with the flying piano). I originally had a screengrab from that scene, but you get to see more detail in this later jail scene. You can't really see them here, but she's wearing dark blue denim shorts. During her escape from jail, Daisy "borrows" Hazel's police uniform, but there are better shots of that combination in season 2's 'Officer Daisy Duke'. For the final scene at the orphanage, Daisy dons a red and black plaid shirt. It must've been cold because she's also wearing jeans instead of shorts.

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For anyone who hasn't seen the behind-the-scenes footage, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0GN3pDrVHI There were definitely flags on some of the cars. Here's another picture of the cars on the hauler that I found on dukescollector.blogspot.com. Also, take a look at the scene where Bo throws Luke's phone at the sign - the white corner of the flag is just visible. In the behind-the-scenes video (above), many items seem to have been blurred (I'm guessing it's mainly brand names for copyright reasons). In the picture below you can see this on the crew member's shirt and the Ryder truck in the background. To me it looks like they also blurred the flag and General Lee text on the roof every time they came into view. Finally, the behind-the-scenes video includes captions with various numbers relating to the filming popping up on the screen. I think this one sums up why we used to love the stunts in Dukes .

The NASCAR circus is in Kentucky this week with another Saturday night race. After a couple of weeks away from the front row, Brad Keselowski returns by taking pole. Joey Logano was fastest in the first two qualifying sessions, but could only manage second place in the one that counted. It's good news and bad news for Garrett this week. Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr were the biggest names not to make it out of the first qualifying session (they start 25th and 29th respectively). Jeff Gordon, on the other hand, was very happy to be starting up in third. Danica Patrick has been competitive again so far this weekend. She was second in the first qualifying session, scraped through the second in 12th and finished up with a starting position of 10th. She was also in the top ten of both practice sessions. As for Lizzy's drivers, they're both in the high teens with Austin Dillon in 16th and Kyle Busch in 18th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr got through the first session in 22nd and improved by one place in the second to start in 21st. That's an improvement on his practice positions. Here's the full lineup: 1. Brad Keselowski 2. Joey Logano 3. Jeff Gordon 4. Denny Hamlin 5. Kevin Harvick 6. Kyle Larson 7. Ryan Newman 8. Jamie McMurray 9. Kurt Busch 10. Danica Patrick 11. Clint Bowyer 12. Paul Menard 13. Tony Stewart 14. Matt Kenseth 15. AJ Allmendinger 16. Austin Dillon 17. Brian Vickers 18. Kyle Busch 19. Martin Truex Jr 20. Kasey Kahne 21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 22. Aric Almirola 23. Carl Edwards 24. Greg Biffle 25. Jimmie Johnson 26. Casey Mears 27. Marcos Ambrose 28. Justin Allgaier 29. Dale Earnhardt Jr 30. Cole Whitt 31. Reed Sorenson 32. Michael Annett 33. Alex Bowman 34. Josh Wise 35. Travis Kvapil 36. David Ragan 37. Landon Cassill 38. David Stremme 39. Ryan Truex 40. Joe Nemechek 41. David Gilliland 42. Mike Bliss The Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts from the Kentucky Speedway is tonight (Saturday) at 7:30 PM ET. Live coverage can be found on TNT.

brothers (The British actor/comedian/writer Rik Mayall tragically died a couple of weeks ago at only 56. At the beginning of his career, he and Ade Edmondson performed as a double act called 'The Dangerous Brothers') R.I.P. Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014)

I forgot to mention this on Sunday - whoever NASCAR employs to do their lap-by-lap feed still doesn't know the difference between "breaks" and "brakes". Just to make sure that Kyle wasn't saying he could get any breaks, I checked his Facebook page where it says "Loss of power steering and brakes can definitely affect a shot at a victory on a road course!" Y'all may remember this one from last year:

The only caution in the first 60 laps was on lap 31 when Landon Cassill's engine blew up. Were the drivers being "more cautious and generous" or were they just confused by the right turns? It was Brian Vickers who tagged Ricky Stenhouse Jr and spun him out. It's a shame because Ricky was still progressing slowly through the field.

Formula 1 returns to Austria this weekend after an 11 year hiatus. The reason I'm mentioning it is because the course isn't that different from this weekend's NASCAR venue, Sonoma. The Red Bull Ring in Austria is about 2.7 miles long with nine turns and a lap time of around 70 seconds, while the Sonoma track is about 2 miles long with ten turns and a lap time of 75 seconds. It'll be interesting comparing the two races. Sonoma is the first road course race to use the new knockout qualifying format, and it was split into two sessions. The first session was 30 minutes long, with the top 12 fastest cars making it through to the second session. Carl Edwards made a very late run in the first session to scrape 12th place just seven thousandths of a second ahead of Brad Keselowski. He ended up qualifying in fourth. As well as Brad Keselowski, several other big names missed out on progressing to the second session, including all four Hendricks cars, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Jeff Gordon seemed quite upbeat after being knocked out, and suggested that tires would play a big part in tomorrow's result. The road course format has shaken up the starting order a little, with Jamie McMurray setting a new lap record to take pole ahead of AJ Allmendinger. Rookie Kyle Larson did well to put his 42 car in third place. Danica Patrick was near the top of timings for a while, but ended up in 11th. I was surprised to see Clint Bowyer down in 25th as he was second and first in the practice sessions. Ricky Stenhouse Jr, on the other hand, qualified virtually exactly where he'd been in the practice sessions. Here's the full lineup: 1. Jamie McMurray 2. AJ Allmendinger 3. Kyle Larson 4. Carl Edwards 5. Kurt Busch 6. Kevin Harvick 7. Ryan Newman 8. Brian Vickers 9. Paul Menard 10. Joey Logano 11. Danica Patrick 12. Casey Mears 13. Brad Keselowski 14. Matt Kenseth 15. Jeff Gordon 16. Denny Hamlin 17. Dale Earnhardt Jr 18. Martin Truex Jr 19. Greg Biffle 20. Kyle Busch 21. Tony Stewart 22. Jimmie Johnson 23. Marcos Ambrose 24. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 25. Clint Bowyer 26. Austin Dillon 27. David Gilliland 28. Michael McDowell 29. Aric Almirola 30. Kasey Kahne 31. David Ragan 32. Cole Whitt 33. Josh Wise 34. Ryan Truex 35. Justin Allgaier 36. Alex Kennedy 37. Landon Cassill 38. Alex Bowman 39. J.J. Yeley 40. Reed Sorenson 41. Boris Said 42. Michael Annett 43. Tomy Drissi The Toyota/Save Mart 350 from the Sonoma Raceway is this Sunday at 3:00 PM ET. Once again, it's live on TNT.

The sun is shining and the World Cup is in full swing, so I thought the time was right for some Brazilian music. England are probably going home after the group stages, but Roth's team (the Netherlands) and Carlos-Argentino's team (Argentina) are leading their groups, and the USA are sitting in second ahead of Sunday's game against Portugal. If the weather's nice where you are, open the windows and enjoy ... Toda Menina Bahiana - Gilberto Gil

A couple of updates on recent stories: NASCAR team owner Gene Haas says his new F1 team will not be on the grid for the 2015 season, but they are committed to making it for 2016 - more here. Meanwhile, in a related story, Gene Haas has named Danica Patrick as a "dream driver" for his new F1 team. F1 teams all have two drivers, and he wants one with experience in F1 and an American driver. Danica spent several years racing open-wheeled cars in the IndyCar Series, so she'd certainly make an interesting choice. There hasn't been a female driver in F1 since 1992, but Williams' development driver Susie Wolff is set to drive in two practice sessions this year, and Sauber have said that they'd like their former IndyCar Series driver Simona de Silvestro to compete for them in 2015. More on the Haas/Patrick story can be found here. There's also news today about seven-times F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher. After no updates for several weeks, he has now been released from hospital in France nearly six months after his skiing accident. A statement says he "is no longer in a coma and has left intensive care". Other reports suggest that he's moved to a hospital in Switzerland (nearer to his family home). Although he is said to be out of his coma, very little has been released about his condition. I just hope that this is the beginning of some long-awaited good news. More info here.

I don't think so. It felt really odd writing the review last week . The commentators mentioned Father's Day so much before the race started that I thought I was watching the Hallmark 400 . I felt sorry for Travis Kvapil at the beginning when he had the side of his car ripped off trying to avoid Brian Vickers. Kyle Busch's main problem was a broken left rear hub. Garrett, now that JJ has three wins, do you think he can let Ricky Stenhouse Jr win one? For the last few races he seems to qualify over halfway down and not make much progress .

They used to say that all roads lead to Rome, but I think they all lead to Hazzard! Welcome back - I hope you get a chance to stop by on a regular basis. On a separate issue: why didn't you name your daughter Daisy? I'm a little disappointed .