Friday, September 11, 2009

Pump Up the Volume

Heading into the Italian GP at Monza, Jenson Button has very little momentum on his side. But really that’s okay, because his closest rivals in the F1 championship have not taken advantage of the Brawn GP driver’s recent struggles. Wild race results at Spa with Raikkonen piloting the Ferrari F60 to the top spot on the podium, and chasing him all the way to the finish line was (this is not a misprint) Giancarla Fisichella in the suddenly fast Force India car. Fisi took the pole, but let the flying Finn steal the win away from him. I understand those were Force India’s first ever championship points for finishing in second, but they truly let a GP win slip through their fingers.

Monza is another low downforce track, so will that play into Force India’s strengths and give them another chance at GP glory? Will Red Bull Racing make the title chase interesting? Will a suddenly motivated Raikkonen bring home a win for the tifosi?

Stay tuned, those questions and more to be answered this weekend.

As for the dudes with the roofs and fenders, the Sprint Cup festivities return to Richmond for the final dust-up before the Chase Challenge for Special Drivers takes effect. Four drivers have the luxury of knowing they’ll be chasing for the title, but there are eight spots left to be filled. The Rowdy One in the 18 car alone should be worth the price of admission (or in my case, the price of watching from my couch), and my guess is that he’ll repeat his earlier RIR victory with another chance to bow and wave to the crowd. The other dude to keep a close eye on is Matt Kenseth in the 17 car. His wife is expecting a child, the pressure of making the Chase is bearing down on him, and he must fend off the #18 wild child …. Will Kenseth be The Iceman or Mr Crash-n-Burn? Let the games begin!

Should be fun to watch every time the 17 and 18 cars get even remotely close to one another on the track. Or what if the 6 car should happen to bump the 18 car? Might a Roush car maybe do a tap dance with the 18? Cue the spooky music and stork’s conspiracy theory.

Oh yeah, and there’s football too! College football grinds into Week 2 and the NFL is set for Week 1 of their season. Bears vs Packers in prime time on Sunday Night. Time to fire up the ol’ Weber grille and get back dedicated to my cholesterol diet.

Bears 27
Packers 10

3 comments:

  1. Brad, Giancarla Fisichella was pushing Raikkonen to the limite and it was not a fluke as word around the garage before qualifying was both Force India cars would be fighting for pole, Well one did but the other was not.

    This really is story of the small team vs the greats with money to burn. The head guy said watch for us next race to prove it wasn't a fluke. All I know is I want to see a race where all the teams have it right and see some real racing for once.lol

    Cheers2You

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  2. Great stuff, BC.

    I look for Martin and Harvick to give Kyle a run for the win tonight. Harvick appears to be on some kind of late season roll.

    Bears by 17? In Green Bay? Will both teams, together, even score 17?

    The Bears do have the steal of the century (so far). To get a decent QB like Cutler is a good thing....but to actually find another pro team dumb enough to take Orton....that is salesmanship. I think that proves that the country is on the way to recovery...businesses spending money on things they don't really need.

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  3. There was an entire exchange in the media center about team orders and would Denny pull over and let Kyle win. He said he would give him second but not first. Carl said if he is asked to do something he would - so it appears helping a teammate in that fashion isnt far fetched but I would prefer to see Denny wreck someone to help Kyle - more entertaining than pulling over...

    Good Stuff BC!

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