show in preparation for his new job at TNT as a pit road reporter now that Adam Alexander moved from the Truck Series pit road reporting to the play by play announcing on TNT. Sort of an interesting twist for those two.
That had to be the strangest sounding duet/harmony I’ve ever heard for the National Anthem. I mean they’ve got a Joint Reserve Base right there in Ft Worth, Ft Hood isn’t that far away, and Texas A&M isn‘t that far away either. Surely they could get a military band in there. Plus there’s SMU and TCU and both have bands. But no, that might actually sound the way it’s supposed to and actually make a dent in the empty grandstands. I’ve got to say shame on Johnny Benson, The Bunion and his wife, Nelson Parkay Jr., and Timothy Peters for not rendering the flag it’s proper respect even though the National Anthem may have sounded unusual.
Johnny Benson was filling in for Shrubbery. Maybe that’s why he didn’t respect the flag. Just following his example. But with Shrubbery’s 2nd truck team folding up, wrecked truck aplenty, and construction monies still owed, you have to wonder if the team will make it to the end of the season. Ken Schrader stepped in for Mr. Happy in the black, unsponsored #2 truck. One truck that really stood out was pole sitter Austin Dillon in his #3 truck with the “Dubya” logo on the hood. It took until Lap 133 before an explanation was given for the “Dubya”. And folks wonder about start and parks in the Truck Series. Well, when you have a total purse of $528,371.00, it doesn’t take long to figure out why. First place paid out $66,025. Last place paid out $8,025. That might cover the cost of the fuel for the hauler to and from the track and maybe pay the crew. And folks wonder how teams can make it in the Truck Series. Some high dollar sponsors is the only way the bigger teams make it. The #60 team switched to running Bow Ties from the Ovaled T and seem to have replaced Stacey Compton with former F1 driver and Truck Series rookie Narain Karthikeyan.
One problem which continues to plague TMS is the bumps over the tunnel between Turns 1 & 2. Now if the trucks are having problems with them, you have to wonder how much worse it’ll be for the Cup teams. Austin Dillon did a pretty decent job leading the field until the first caution on Lap 18 when Shane Sieg’s truck started smoking. And because there are some caution lights facing towards the fans, the Human Shill said that “TMS is always doing something for the fans”. If they‘re doing so much for them, how come the grandstands were so empty? I think more people turned out for the Pocono ARCA race. During the pit stops, one of the crewmembers on the #73 crew came close to being crushed between the bumper of his truck and the front end of the #81 Zachry truck. An old joke came to mind about Zachry disease but I’ll spare you it.
After the restart, most of the coverage til around Lap 60 was on The Bunion. Also by this point, 9 trucks were in the garage. The Germain truck had a 4.7 second lead over the rest of the field. Of course, had it been Jason White, Rick Crawford (who was missing), or Jennifer Jo Cobb, you can bet Ms Terry DeBris would have appeared on the back straight dressed up like a cowgirl shooting some 6 shooters in the air. But as it wasn’t one of them, 93 million other reasons kept the race under green. And naturally, even though there was plenty of action going on, the Human Shill had to make mention of the wave around rule which had nothing to do with what was happening on the track. Since he had to make mention of it, caution #2 came out on Lap 76.
Johnny Sauter got the free pass and when he pitted Mr. Magoo, who was officiating his pit, wouldn’t allow him to get fuel. Luckily, somebody who could see properly and knew the rules got it straightened out which prompted the Co-Owner of Motormouth Motorsports to say, “The great thing about NA$CAR is they correct their mistakes”. Really? You mean they corrected the mistakes about Tim Richmond? They corrected the mistakes about Wendell Scott? They corrected the mistake about Bobby Allison’s missing win?
Once they restarted on Lap 82, they went 5 wide with only 10 trucks on the lead lap. Of course, they wouldn’t stay green for very long. Lap 85 brought about Caution #3 when the 01 truck moved up the track and got into the 81 who in turn got into the 7. The 7 would’ve come out OK except that when he reached the bottom of the track, the 87 truck got him which put him back up the track and into the wall.
After the mess was cleaned up and the green flag dropped both The Bunion and Hornaday pulled away from the rest of the field. After 10 laps of battling, Hornaday got around him and pulled away to a comfortable lead. And even though we’d been seeing the “Dubya” on the front of Austin Dillon’s truck for most of the race, we finally heard an explanation of why it was there. It seems that former President George W. Bush had given a speech and an outdoorsmen’s convention and Richard Childress thought it would be a nice way to honor him. After coming back from commercial Caution #4 was under way. It’s seems Carmichael in the #4 had “something break on his front end”. Apparently, either Faux King Brian or Focks has issued a directive that says that the announcers can’t say that a tire blew out. It’s now something breaking on the front or rear end of the truck. It doesn’t matter if you see and hear the tire blow out with your own eyes and ears. It’s never the tire’s fault.
Once they restarted, The Bunion was once again in the lead. Around Lap 155, Crafton and Dillon got together causing a tire rub on Crafton’s truck. Naturally, the Human Shill said that Crafton sure could use a caution right about now. And like one of Bill Weber’s cruise ship magic acts, a caution came out for Jason White whose engine had gone south on him even though he wasn’t laying down any oil. Once they got rolling again, “a piece broke on the front of the 81 truck” which put him right into Crafton’s truck and gave us cautions #5 and set things up for the 85 th GWC finish in the Truck Series according to Ray Dunlap. Then off to commercials they went and barely made it back in time for the final restart. Skinner got into the back of Hornaday causing him to drop back and the Bunion took off like a shot and took the green flag. Austin Dillon got his best finish ever in 3rd, Schrader brought Mr. Happy’s truck home 5th, Hornaday finished 9th, Benson 10th, and Jennifer Jo Cobb finished 14th.
During the entire broadcast, if you followed
closely, you noticed that the Co-owner of
Motormouth Motorsports was making excuses
for one brand of truck during the entire race. The
same brand his Cup team runs. Do we really
need his excuses for the performance of any
driver who happens to drive that brand? To me, it
seems like Focks is trying to turn the Truck
Series into an extension of their Cup coverage
and is really trying to drive fans away from the
best racing under Brian’s Big Top. So a word of
advice to Focks. Don’t fix what ain’t broken.
This past weekend was the 66th anniversary of
the D-Day invasion at Normandy. Hopefully you took a few minutes to remember it and the thousands of brave men who gave their lives in bringing down one of the worst tyrants in history who was responsible for the deaths of over 20 million people.
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