Nascar Race Picks: Uncle Max vs. The Tarot Deck—Darlington



Uncle Max’s Playoff Predictions (Mike’s will come on Sunday):

ELIMINATED IN ROUND OF 16:

Obvious ones: Michael McDowell (of course), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (spinning his way out), Bubba Wallace (too emotional)

Surprise elimination: Ross Chastain (two bad races and a wreck—the melons go bad)

ELIMINATED IN ROUND OF 12: 

Obvious ones: Brad Keselowski (still no wins), Kevin Harvick (too good to be true)

Surprise eliminations: Ryan Blaney (just a point or two short), Tyler Reddick (too many sponsors, not enough top-fives)

ELIMINATED IN ROUND OF 8:

Obvious one: Chris Buescher (RFK reaches its ceiling)

Surprise eliminations: Christopher Bell (payback from Ty Gibbs for Daytona?), Kyle Busch (and he’ll pout about it too), Martin Truex Jr. (no home track for Martin)

ELIMINATED IN CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND:

Joey Logano (rough day at Phoenix), Kyle Larson (good day, but not great), Denny Hamlin (comes home second)

AND THE 2023 CHAMPION IS:

William Byron!


TRUCK SERIES (2 wins)—off


Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES (2 wins) Hire a Hero 200: John Hunter Nemechek—…and the cosmic ballet, goes on.


Saturday Night CUP SERIES Crown Royal Southern 500:  The Tarot Deck (1 win) selects the Nine of Swords, 29th in points Austin Dillon.  FAVORITE: Wiliam Byron—in which he goes from constant contender to championship favorite. NEXT FAVORITE (1 win): Kyle Busch—tough to do it as a single car team—oh, wait, he has a teammate.  DARK HORSE: Chase Elliott—as always, all Dark Horses in the playoffs must be non-participants or have been eliminated.



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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2023 Donruss Cards, Pack 2 of 24



Pack 2: A piece of metal, a “test” of meddle, and never settle


FIRST LOOK: And we have our first memorabilia piece!  Looks like some sheet metal from one of Bubba Wallace’s cars.  Dang—I was hoping for his hipster mustache.


TO THE BACK: You gotta work for it!  Granted, it's much easier to work when you’re heirs to a vast convenience store fortune, but you gotta work for it!


SAY WHAT: “I’ve achieved everything I wanted in this sport, so screw it—I’m wearing white after labor day.


RATING: 7 tire marbles out of 10



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Musically Declined: Lonnie Hillard’s Race Tracks II, The Crew Came Through & Get Em Next Week



Stock Car Racing and Country Music—two pillars of culture in the Southern United States.  And the two have mingled throughout the years.  So put on your racing shoes, make sure they match your cowboy hat, and settle in for a look back at some of Nascar’s biggest stars turned Nashville wannabes!


The Songs: The Crew Came Through & Get Em Next Week


The Stars: Ronald, Donald & Kenny Allison (on Get Em Next Week)


The Clips:   




The Review: “The Crew Came Through” appears to possibly be an attempt at jazz…but once again the genericness (if that’s a word) comes through much stronger than the crew.  As for “Get Em Next Week”, well, at least its memorable…in the sense that the Allisons sound like slowed down Boomhauers.  Also please note that I’m only going to be posting clips of each track, so you won’t be subjected to three Alabamians whining about their luck for three minutes.


The Verdict: I’m starting to wonder if the Seinfeld-esque electronic bass in the background is the best part of this project.



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Spade Racing 2x4: Christopher Bell vs. Tyler Reddick, Late-August Report



Spade Racing has watched the 2020 Cup Series Rookie Class winnow down from six full-time drivers to only two entering their fourth season at the sport’s highest level: Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick.  We’ll keep following them, but here’s how things look going into Daytona race:

Pictured: Cole Custer's chances
of getting a Cup ride without
family influence

(NOTE: This edition is a week early due to next week being reserved for my playoff preview)


POINTS STANDINGS: Not much has changed here—Christopher Bell is still fourth in the points standings, while Tyler Reddick remains in twelfth.  It’s exactly the same as it was coming out of Pocono, which either means consistency or boredom.  Probably both.  Advantage: BELL


BEST FINISH: It’s still one win a piece for these two.  Both have strong finishes lately (including Bell’s third at Watkins Glen), but like the two silk worms in a race, they’re both in a tie.  Advantage: push


PERFORMANCE RELATIVE TO TEAMMATES: JGR continues its dominance—Truex & Hamlin are one-two, while Ty Gibbs continues his strong rookie run.  Bubba Wallace is in the driver’s seat to get the last playoff spot, but is still a disappointment compared to the mighty JGR. Advantage: REDDICK (barely).


FINAL SCORE: CHRISTOPHER BELL by a whisker.  And not one of those thick whiskers either—a really thin one that you miss shaving because its so light.


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Nascar Race Picks: Uncle Max vs. The Tarot Deck—Daytona/Milwaukee



With my Fantasy Football Draft happening Sunday afternoon, here’s my advice for what to serve:

—you can’t go wrong with the classics (chips & salsa, pizza, etc.) but remember—anything that CAN drip WILL, and YOU’LL be the one cleaning it up.

—a hearty dip like hummus or buffalo chicken is a great option, but DON’T FORGET THE DIPPING APPARATUS!

—split the difference between “healthy option” and “comfort food” with some veggies in ranch dipping sauce.

—sodas and water are a must, but go easy on the beer.  Nobody wants a repeat of the year your buddy got drunk and drafted nine running backs.

—if its a high buy-in league, don’t make it potluck (especially if you’re taking a big).

—if its a low buy-in league, potluck is fine as long as you take your friends’ lack of cooking skills into account—you could wind up with eight types of pretzels.

—if you plan to BBQ, do it before everyone arrives.  Nobody wants a stalled draft due to the burgers taking too long.


Sunday Afternoon TRUCK SERIES (2 wins) Clean Harbors 175: Corey Heim—hopefully Denny Hamlin doesn’t ‘copter in to take his win away.


Friday Evening XFINITY SERIES (2 wins) Wawa 250: Ryan Sieg—Gotta hava Wawa, gotta hava upset winner.


Saturday Night CUP SERIES Coke Zero 400:  The Tarot Deck (1 win) selects the Ace of Pentacles, 1st in points Martin Truex Jr.  FAVORITE: Austin Cindric—I mean, he HAS won here before. NEXT FAVORITE (1 win): Chase Elliott—yeah, yeah, I know.  DARK HORSE: Ryan Preece—might be a demo derby, but why not?



www.spaderacing.com updated four times weekly


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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2023 Donruss Cards, Pack 1 of 24


Pack 1: Starting kinda slow-y with animals and Joey


FIRST LOOK: Here we see the basic design for the “regular” cards for the year.  Pretty cool, although hamstrung by Nascar’s current obsession with the colors red, white, and black.


TO THE BACK: And here’s the back design.  Even with the 3D-effect of the graphics, there’s still a LOT of wasted white space on these cards.  Apparently stats no longer matter?


SAY WHAT: “Yeah, even I don’t understand what these animals are doing here.”


RATING: 2 pace laps out of 10



www.spaderacing.com updated four times weekly


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Track “Facts”: New Hampshire



Nascar races on all sorts of tracks, from short to long, oval to road course, concrete to asphalt.  Here’s a bi-weekly look at all the tracks of Nascar’s National Touring Series.


NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY


1.058 mile asphalt oval


Opened 1990


Lights?  No


Series: Cup, Xfinity


Nicknames: The Magic Mile, Where Will Power Lost It


THREE FUN FACTS:

1. Why is NHMS called “The Magic Mile”?  Nobody seems to know.  Just one of those Nascar mysteries that will never be solved, like how JJ Yeley got a ride with Joe Gibbs Racing.


2. If you’re mad about North Wilkesboro being taken off the schedule, 50% of that anger should be directed at this track.


3. This is the only track to give out a living trophy, as the Cup Series winner gets a large lobster as his prize.  No idea what happens to the lobster after the win itself, although I’m guessing its cooked and then preserved for display—unless a race shop want a pet crustacean, that is. 



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The Hero Card Project Part 8


Click here for Part 7

Another year, another season.  Another season, another batch of hero card requests sent out to Nascar Cup, Xfinity, Truck, and ARCA teams!  CLICK HERE to learn more about hero cards, one of my favorite things to collect.  This card arrived August 12th

A *personalized* autograph from Parker Kligerman at Big Machine Racing!




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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2021-22 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards, Pack 12 of 12


Join us (well, me) as we/I go through a box of 2022 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards.  Because there’s 12 cards per pack, each pack is split in two.



Pack 12 Part 2—Autograph fun, A Single Legend, and a Champion


FIRST LOOK: Nice autograph from Austin Dillon, even if it DOES kinda look like it says “AJ3”.


TO THE BACK: One legend and one “legend”—you know the breakdown.


SAY WHAT: “This goes out to all the haters”


RATING: 8 victory laps out of 10


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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2021-22 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards, Pack 12 of 12


Join us (well, me) as we/I go through a box of 2022 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards.  Because there’s 12 cards per pack, each pack is split in two.



Pack 12 Part 1—Grag, Lag, and no Need to Slag


FIRST LOOK: Here we see Noah Gragson.  He appears to be happy about something.  The end.


TO THE BACK: I know there’s lag time in printing, but really?  The 2018 Daytona 500?


SAY WHAT: “Sure I didn’t win a race, but hey—at least I got to run for a team that hired such luminaries as Michael Waltrip and Kyle Petty”.


RATING: 1 blown engine out of 10


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Nascar Race Picks: Uncle Max vs. The Tarot Deck—Watkins Glen



Sorry to keep this short yet again, but I have to get ready for my fantasy football draft!  I’ve been running it for almost two decades, and every year it gets a little harder trying to corral everyone to participate in-person or online.  Just a quick piece of advice to my fellow league commissioners—keep the pick time quick, or else it’ll turn into 1 minute and 59 seconds of rambling trash talk.


TRUCK SERIES (2 wins): —off


Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES (2 wins) Shriners 200: AJ Allmeindinger—will he be in a tiny car with a candy bazooka?


Sunday CUP SERIES Go Bowling at the Glen:  The Tarot Deck (1 win) selects the Star, Chase Elliott.  FAVORITE: Ross Chastain—a melon grows in New York. NEXT FAVORITE (1 win): Alex Bowman—heating up at the right time.  DARK HORSE: Daniel Suarez—winning his way in.



www.spaderacing.com updated four times weekly


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Visit the store https://www.cafepress.com/spaderacing


Buy the book 100 Stock Car Racing What Ifs Unauthorized


Does this track have lights?


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