HossC

I missed the first eight laps, but I don't think I missed much action. After moaning about the paint scheme changes yesterday, I think Jeff Gordon's car is easier to spot than usual. Scott Speed's car looks almost all red from the side - coupled with his number, it's getting close to Lightning McQueen .

Robby and co. watch a NASCAR race on TV in 'Cale Yarborough Comes to Hazzard', but he's in hospital at the time.

Do you remember how confused Uncle Jesse looked when he was given a food processor in 'Welcome Back, Bo 'n' Luke'? I don't think the Dukes were into gadgets and modern technology.

I bet Roger would be wondering what had happened to David Ragan too . David Ragan's car is already shown on that page - what they forgot to say was that Danica's driving the #34 in the Nationwide race (if you look carefully there are differences between the car outlines). I only discovered the truth when I found this page: Danica Patrick to run in Talladega Nationwide race

I'm not sure why that didn't work for you. It shows up for me on IE, Firefox and Chrome (both in my post and the quoted bit of your reply). Here's a link to the NASCAR page where I found it, along with a few of the other cars: Paint scheme preview: Talladega

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't remember the Dukes having a TV set. I've looked through my screengrabs, and there isn't one visible in any of the Duke Farm interior shots that I have.

You cut that close, Garrett - I was about half and hour away from posting the starting lineup myself . It looks like several of the cars will have quite different paint schemes for tomorrow's race. Here's Jeff Gordon's: Personally, I wish they wouldn't change them so much and so often, but I guess the teams are more likely to listen to their sponsors than me .

It's probably about time I added the cars from the second TV movie. I didn't spot any Hazzard patrol cars in 'Hazzard in Hollywood' as most of the action takes place in ... wait for it ... Hollywood. We're now under Enos's jurisdiction, and the man himself drives an unmarked Chevrolet Caprice. The skirted rear wheel wells mean that it must be a 1991/92 model. We never get a good look at the black and whites at the liquor store hold-up. In reality, they're only likely to be Chevy Caprices or Ford Crown Vics, and the door handles/locks on the visible one are wrong for a Crown Vic. Combined with the open rear wheel well, this would seem to narrow it down to a 1993 or later Caprice. The lightbars look like the familiar AeroDynic ones we're used to. During the chase toward the end, the General drives through several movie sets. One of the movies being filmed involves these two patrol cars. The front end of the one on right is clearly a Chevy Caprice, but we don't get to see any more of it. My guess would be that they reused one of the liquor store hold-up cars, which would make it a '93 or later model. Here's a better view of the patrol car on the left. The lights identify it as a 1993 or later Ford Crown Vic. I think that concludes the list of patrol cars that appeared in the TV series and TV movies, unless anyone remembers one I've missed.

It depends whether you think they were deliberately breaking the rules, or just testing the boundaries. Taken from the British TV show 'QI', here's three examples of people spotting loopholes in the rules and exploiting them. The rules were changed later, but at the time these were all legal: 1) In 1771 cricketer Thomas White invented a bat that was wider than the wicket. He noticed that there were no rules defining how big a bat could be, so he turned up with a huge one in a match between Chertsey and Hambledon which today would be Surrey v Hampshire. In 1774 a new law was brought in limiting the width of cricket bats to 4.5 inches. 2) Other sportsmen have also exploited the rules. One was American footballer Lester Hayes, who played for the Oakland Raiders. He was defensive player of the year during the late 1970s, but this was due to the fact he covered his hands and gloves in an adhesive called Stickum. Hayes said: "Without Stickum I couldn't catch a cold in Antarctica." 3) A further example of actual sporting cheating with regards to exploiting the rules came from the 1951 St Louis Browns baseball team, who brought in a 3'7" tall player called Eddie Gaedel out to bat. He crouched over the plate, and thus the strike zone the pitcher had to hit was one-and-a-half inches high. The pitcher could not get anywhere near it so he pitched four balls, after which he walked to first base and was subbed. As I said previously, I'm used to F1 where they have very well defined rules, but also very clever designers who try to read between the lines. Do you think the punishment is right, or should it increased/decreased? Just because I'm always right, I don't want to discourage you from posting your opinions .

So that's what NASCAR are doing - trying to prevent competition - now it all makes sense . You want my opinion? I think NASCAR have shot themselves in the foot over this one. I've had a really hard time just finding out exactly what Penske did wrong (most sources just list the obscure code numbers of the rules they're supposed to have broken). To me it looks like the Penske team thought they'd found a loophole or gray area in the rules and chanced their arm a little. NASCAR, wanting to assert their authority, have come down hard with a disproportionate penalty (my view and the view of the vast majority of posts I've read online). They've now put themselves in a no-win situation: if the penalty sticks, a lot of people will think they overreacted (as usual, conspiracy theories abound!); if the penalty get reduced, every future penalty will be open to question and challenge. All this while they're turning a blind eye to drivers physically attacking each other. I'm not denying that Penske broke the rules, or saying they shouldn't be punished, just that the penalty was too much. How about a simple rule: turn up with an illegal car and you don't get to race that weekend. That way it's all over and done with and people can move on to the next race. If a car is found to be illegal after the race, wipe any points scored that weekend. Maybe you'll consider my views biased. In F1 it's usual for teams to innovate and constantly bring new parts to races. It's quite often the other teams that challenge the legality of new parts, and then it's up to the governing body to make a ruling. You have to remember that the illegal Penske cars didn't even race - it's not like they won a load of races before the infringements were discovered. However much you love NASCAR, you have to accept that they're not always right. As far as the NASCAR website goes, I still find it much harder to navigate than the old one (even though it works fine in Firefox). One time when I visited last week there was only one lead story, but it still kept scrolling across the screen. Last year I could go to the homepage on race day and instantly see a weather report and any other late-breaking news along with a countdown to the start. There were clear links to the lap-by-lap feed and the leaderboard, and everything used less space so I could get more drivers/info on-screen at once. They're certainly not the only people who've ruined their website with an "improvement". Photobucket is now far less usable than it used to be, and they keep screwing it up in new ways. Failblog had a major makeover last year, and have now made subsequent changes to make it nearly as good as it used to be! We must congratulate Mufn for upgrading HNet without taking a step backwards.

I read the first two or three dozen comments under the story in that link - every single one implied that NASCAR is losing the plot and its audience. The one that really made me smile was the suggestion that the only thing worse than NASCAR's penalties was their new website .

players The Ohio Players were a funk/R&B band who had most of their hits in the '70s (Funky Worm, Fire, Love Rollercoaster etc.). I don't want to make you jealous, but the only radio show I listen to regularly is hosted by a guy who used to date Sade in the '80s.

music Brandy the drink is a distilled wine, and is often drunk after dinner. Brandy the singer's last name is Norwood, but she doesn't use it in her stage name. I never had you down as an R & B fan, Roger. Maybe you're just live Raj in 'The Big Bang Theory': "Ah, one name. Like, uh, Cher, Madonna, Adele. All the women who rock me."

brandy I know the story of St. Bernard mountain rescue dogs carrying brandy barrels is apocryphal, but I still think of the two together .

I thought JPM was unlucky not to get his first oval win last night. He stayed out of trouble and looked strong until that late caution. Not quite sure what happened to Ricky last night. I think he pitted early near the start of the race, and never got back near the top 10. He seemed to be dueling with the #24 for quite a bit of the race. Garrett, I know you weren't happy about Tony Stewart spinning out Jimmie, but he did take the blame straight away and ask his team to apologize. I'm afraid I missed the Stewart/Busch incident. The G-W-C meant that the race finished really late, and I turned it off as soon as the checkered flag fell.

A bit of both if I'm honest . I remember him racing and I remember the crash. I double-checked the years and I couldn't remember what had eventually happened to the team boss and chief engineer. Incidentally, talking of punishments, there's been a high-profile story in the news on my side of the Atlantic this week. In a top-level soccer match last weekend, one of the players bit an opponent on the arm. The match officials missed the incident, but it was caught on camera. His club fined him an undisclosed amount of money and the governing body have banned him for ten matches (which goes into next season). The fine is unlikely to matter much as he earns over $150k/week, but it's been a major talking point over here. I think NASCAR needs to take a serious look at driver discipline as well as minor technical infringements.

Nelson Piquet Jr did about a season and a half in F1, being replaced midway through 2009. After he left, there were allegations that he'd deliberately crashed his car during a race in the previous year so that his team mate, Fernando Alonso, could win. At the following trial the FIA (F1's governing body) gave him immunity in return for his evidence. He claimed that his team boss and the team's chief engineer had come up with the plan and that he'd been pressured into it. The team boss and the engineer were both suspended from the sport, although the bans were subsequently overturned on appeal. Piquet Jr had talks with a couple of other F1 teams, but decided to move to NASCAR when he failed to get a drive. His father, Nelson Piquet, won the F1 World Championship three times in the '80s and entered two Indy 500s after he retired from F1.

I hope y'all will excuse me for playing this out of turn, but I saw the sad news earlier that country legend George Jones had passed away at the age of 81. R.I.P. George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013). Here's a duet with his ex-wife: Two Story House - George Jones & Tammy Wynette http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVL3p4DvWqk

The subject of this week's comparison was the song 'It's Not Unusual'. I've known the Tom Jones version for as long as I can remember. It was his second single, released at a time when he was virtually unknown, but it's become his signature song. NB. the song is from 1965, the video is from 1969. The cover version also dates from 1965, and is by an American soul/R&B group. Coincidentally, it was their second single too.

rascal

tire

This Matt Kenseth penalty seems harsh to me. I watch F1 where the cars usually have improvements and new parts for each race. Every designer tries to push the rules to the limit and find a loophole to gain some advantage. Occasionally a team is judged to have bent the rules too far and the offending part is banned. The last time I remember a driver/team being punished for illegal parts was several years ago. With Matt Kenseth it looks like his team's supplier made a genuine mistake (which admittedly should have been spotted), and the car had a single engine component that was marginally below weight without giving any advantage. The team gets slapped with a large fine, points deductions, and crew chief ban while drivers who fight and deliberately take out other cars get nothing. I can understand a zero tolerance approach to vehicle specs, but I wish NASCAR would be a bit more consistent and proportionate with their sanctions. Surely stripping Matt of the win and the associated points would be enough.

king

Well K-Duke, it looks like I'm stealing your whole song title again . This song dates back to 1957, and appears on my Bacharach and David album: The Story Of My Life - Marty Robbins In the UK it was a hit a year later for . It must be a popular title, because when I went to YouTube and typed "The Story of my Life", neither of these songs came up!

I'll stick with the title. This one is a big dance hit from 1992. For anyone my age it will also remembered (to quote Wikipedia) "because the song was used in ".It's My Life - Dr. Alban