William Byron Encased in Styrofoam



Shortly after Alex Bowman’s back injury—which happened shortly after Chase Elliott’s return from a broken leg—Hendrick Motorsports has taken precautions against any further driver injuries by having William Byron placed in a large box, surrounded by styrofoam.

“We feel this is the easiest way to keep William safe”, an HMS spokesman said this morning.  “We take him out only for the super-important stuff, like racing, qualifying, and doing sponsor appearances.  Otherwise he spends his time surrounded by packing peanuts and blocks of styrofoam.”

With two Hendrick drivers injured in the first third of the season, the team isn’t taking any chances.

“We’re looking into a way to keep our drivers in a sort of bio-stasis from Monday through Friday”, the spokesman said, “that way there’s less of a chance of injury.  I mean, Josh Berry can only race one car at a time—believe me, we’ve checked.”

Byron, after spitting out several packing peanuts, said he didn’t mind being stored-away, as the crew at least wheels him from his motorcoach to the garage on a hand-truck.

“William is adjusting real well”, the spokesman said, “and we’re still working on a way to convince Kyle Larson that he’s become allergic to sprint cars.”

GET WELL SOON, ALEX!



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



Editor’s Note: Uncle Max is out with a bad case of the flu this week.  He texted me his picks below in-between coughing fits.


TRUCK SERIES (1 win) off


Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES (1 win) A-Game 200: Justin Allgaier—A-Gator.


Sunday CUP SERIES Geico 500 :  The Tarot Deck (1 win) selects The Six of Cups, 16th in points Chris Buescher.  FAVORITE: Chase Elliott—Monster Mile Mustache Magic.  NEXT FAVORITE: Ryan Blaney—payback for last week.  DARK HORSE: Daniel Suarez—what is “Delaware Destroyer” in Spanish?


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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2021-22 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards, Pack 5 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 5 Part 2—From the Aughts, Making up Spots, and Laughing Lots


FIRST LOOK: I remember Carl Edwards’ first race.  And his first win.  And his many near-misses at the championship.  And now, they’re all flashbacks.  Hmm, maybe I should lighten up a bit.


TO THE BACK: While its nice to see that Chandler can rocket through the field, why was he starting back there to begin with.  OK, ok, sorry—I really DO need to lighten up.


SAY WHAT: “Laugh at the pink all you want—*I* have a Cup ride next year.”


RATING: 7 race setups out of 10


Musically Declined: Kyle Petty, The Other Guy



Kyle Petty—racer, philanthropist, commentator, and musician!  Kyle’s musical exploits have been going on since the 80’s, but just how good are they?  Let’s take a look back at the songs of Nascar’s favorite long-haired scion.


The Song: The Other Guy


The Star: Kyle Petty


The Clip: https://youtu.be/U0q238rLcrM


The Review: Its a decent enough song that matches Kyle’s voice well enough.  Too bad the rhythm sounds like a knockoff of “I Can Help” (covered earlier by Darrell Waltrip!).  And if Kyle was trying to be a serious musician (remember, RCA was going to release his album) why was he recording 2:38 songs?  Kyle Petty’s a lot of things, but he is DEFINITELY not punk.


The Verdict: An OK song if you ignore how much of a ripoff it sounds like.



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The Hero Card Project: Part 3



Click here for Part 2

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.  Here's what came in from April 11th through April 17th

Some autographed cards from SS-Greenlight (including some doubles)

Combined shipment from allied teams Legacy MC & GMS Racing

Three cards from AM Racing

Here's what came from Truck Series stalwarts Niece Motorsports

Matching multi-sponsor cards from Trackhouse

Five cards from Kaulig (strangely Dinger-less)

The Wood Bros. with their Motorcraft card

Two autographed cards from Spire


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



Sorry but I gotta keep this short—there’s a massive meeting this afternoon at work and, well, I’m not too optimistic about it.  Here’s hoping there’s good news!

Beyond that, well, it was another winless weekend for me, so here’s hoping I can rebound at Talladega.  Sometimes it takes a random crapshoot to turn around a bad run of luck.  Like the time I lost $800 playing blackjack at the casino, then I won it big in roulette.  Sure, I was still down $200 for the weekend, but the buffet vouchers more than made up for that.


TRUCK SERIES (1 win) off


Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES (1 win) AgPro 300: Sam Meyer—his breakthrough win has to happen sooner or later.


Sunday CUP SERIES Geico 500 :  The Tarot Deck (1 win) selects The Tower, Michael McDowell.  FAVORITE: Alex Bowman—HMS domination continues.  NEXT FAVORITE: Chase Briscoe—no middle finger, no problem.  DARK HORSE: Austin Dillon—joining Kyle Busch as an RCR winner in 2023.


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The Hero Card Project: Part 2 (special 4/10/23 edition)


Click here for Part 1

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.  All six packs of these cards came in the same day, April 10th!

Xfinity Series stalwarts JD Motorsports sent in some
autographed cards

The first Cup hero cards are from 23XI Racing, who
included a folder for protection!

RCR sends in hero cards for its four driver and its owner

A nice collection of cards from SHR (though strangely
none for Chase Briscoe)

Three hero cards from Team Penske


Hero cards from JGR's Cup operation



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Track “Facts”: Mid-Ohio




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.


MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE


2.4 mile asphalt road course


Opened 1962


Lights?  No


Series:  Trucks


Nicknames: Home of the Keyhole, The Ohio Track That’s Not the Cleveland Airport


THREE FUN FACTS:

1. This track’s most-famous feature is “the Keyhole”, a hairpin turn that…doesn’t really look like a keyhole.  Its kind of like how “The Pass in the Grass” wasn’t really a pass, or how Pontiac was never really Driving Excitement.


2. Nascar first began racing here in 2013 in order to be closer to the headquarters of Nationwide, which sponsored what is now the Xfinity Series at the time.  Maybe it would’ve made more sense to go to a square track to replicate their super-dull “window” logo.


3. “Mid-Ohio” has come to be used to describe the greater central-northern Ohio region around the track, which is a pretty cool contribution to local culture.  Especially since all most race tracks contribute is heavy traffic and a place to sell overpriced sodas.


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The Hero Card Project: Part 1


 

Another year, 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.  Here's the first batch of hero cards to come in, all arriving from April 6th thru 9th:


The pole position goes to Andy Hillenburg's ARCA team with
some autographed hero cards

Next we have some more autographed cards, this time from
Xfinity Series team Sam Hunt Racing

Two identical hero cards from Hattori Racing Enterprises



Here's a slew of autographed cards from TRICON Garage

Three cards from Truck Series team MHR



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



Well, inventory is finally over at work.  If you’ve never been through it, imagine counting every grain of sand on a beach, only trying to do it while people keep bumping into you while you count.  That’s pretty much it.

With all the extra work I’ve been putting in, I’m long overdue for a vacation, and I can finally see it just over the horizon.  I’m planning on taking off a week in late-April or early-May, although thanks to my sudden collapse in my March Madness pool, my vacation fund is a bit light.  So it might wind up being a “staycation”, or just a chance to hang out with family members I haven’t visited in a while.  Either way, at least I won’t come back with a sunburn.


Friday Night TRUCK SERIES (1 win) Long John Silver’s 200: Ross Chastain—an easy win for the race’s lone ringer.


Saturday Night XFINITY SERIES (1 win) Call811 250: Josh Berry—but shouldn’t this race be 811 laps long?


Sunday CUP SERIES NOCO 400 :  The Tarot Deck (1 win) selects The Queen of Pentacles, last week’s winner Christopher Bell.  FAVORITE: Martin Truex Jr.—a feel-good win for the New Jersian.  NEXT FAVORITE: Ross Chastain—a feel-good win for the Floridian.  DARK HORSE: Bubba Wallace—a feel something extreme win for the Alabamian.



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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2021-22 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards, Pack 5 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 5 Part 1—Dated Brad, A Gibbs Lad, and 2021 was BAD


FIRST LOOK: While its impossible to predict the future, there’s more outdated cards than usual this year thanks to the sea-changes happening this offseason.  I mean wow—RCR going back to TWO Xfinity teams!


TO THE BACK: …yeah, but to be fair, its much easier to “do what you love” when your granddad owns an organization that does what you love.  Then again, maybe he’s right and I should’ve gone into accounting or selling sewing machines.


SAY WHAT: “See? SEE?  I was a Cup champion!  2021 was just an aberration!”


RATING: 8 hot laps out of 10


Musically Declined: Kyle Petty, Old Habits



Kyle Petty—racer, philanthropist, commentator, and musician!  Kyle’s musical exploits have been going on since the 80’s, but just how good are they?  Let’s take a look back at the songs of Nascar’s favorite long-haired scion.


The Song: Old Habits


The Star: Kyle Petty


The Clip: https://youtu.be/vlaIr91GKo0?t=16


The Review: Here’s the odd thing: We often think of racers as the epitome of macho cool.  And we usually think of Kyle as an introspective smart-aleck.  But here, singing a sensitive song about heartbreak, it really seems to match his voice quite well.  But who are the “friends” who are going to help him get over his lost love?  Kenny Schrader?


The Verdict: A surprisingly good take on a weepy country ballad.



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Spade Racing 2x4: Christopher Bell vs. Tyler Reddick, April 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 the Bristol Dirt Race:

Bell, unknown, & Reddick


POINTS STANDINGS: Christopher Bell is 3rd in points on the back of four top-five finishes.  Tyler Reddick, meanwhile, is much further down in 13th with three top-five finishes.  Yeah, I don’t really get this points system either.  Advantage: BELL


BEST FINISH: Tyler Reddick has a win.  Christopher Bell does not.  And no, “moral victories” like being the top Toyota team don’t count.  Advantage: REDDICK


PERFORMANCE RELATIVE TO TEAMMATES: Bell is the top JGR driver so far—an impressive feat considering that all three of his teammates are in the top-20 in points.  Reddick’s teammate recently said he should lose his job, so there’s that.  Advantage: BELL


FINAL SCORE: Despite not winning a race (yet) this season, CHRISTOPHER BELL notches a close win over Tyler Reddick, making this the first competition this season NOT won by a Chevy.


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