The husband of actress Ashley Judd had his #40 Dodge NASCAR team shut down by team owner Chip Ganassi.

Lack of sponsorship was the reason given.

"If I keep going I run the risk of dragging the other two teams down. I don't want to do that," Ganassi told the Associated Press. "There's no money. It makes no sense to be running this out of my pocket. I had to put a stop to it."

Dario won the Indy 500 last year and was the IRL points champion before he decided to jump to NASCAR.

His first year has been rocky. The team was 41st out of 63 teams in the points standings.

Well, as at least his wife can pay the bills for him.

Car races with cars that look cool. Those are my favorite kinds of car races. So cool to watch.

I like races with lots of cars in them. There are so many, like, "- and they're headed into the turn!"

It's super great when car races are BOAT RACES! It's like, "SNEAK ATTACK!"

Textbook Racing: I Love Race Cars that are in textbooks, described in different languages.

I really wish I was older so I could have seen Old Timey Races.

That race isn't a car race at all! Those are humans, baby! Still good.

In the end, there can be only one.

Other than those, there are like 482 things about car races that exist. Do you have any "car race" stories? Anything that gets your jock? Tell it like it is.

In the spirit of disclosure, I'll note that Pamela and I have shared a few things in the intermittent intersections of our life, including the same university (Syracuse) and most recently, a hotel room at the United Astrology Conference. (Don't worry, Pam, to paraphrase Shakespeare: Discretion is the better part of valor.)

Pamela's North Node in Capricorn is on my Sun, so it's fitting that she was the one who lured me to UAC with a great room rate that we were able to split. The prospect of attending the conference was what motivated me to start Astrology Mundo on Mar. 17. I wanted to have a media outlet to report on the celestial proceedings once I arrived in Denver. Thanks for the cosmic push, Pamela!

Pamela is a forward-thinking Aquarian with Mercury in Aquarius on the world axis, at 15 degrees fixed. For non-astro types, this represents a powerful connection to the zeitgeist. As a result, I think her call-in radio show and podcasts are going to be a real success, not to mention the blog.

Even though she calls her blog Astro Chatter, there's nothing trivial about this conversation. I was really moved by her post on Memorial Day, Mercury retrograde, and the Indy 500, a subject I also blogged about, from a different perspective.

Unlike me, Pamela caught the absurdity of paying tribute to those who have sacrificed their lives for their country, most recently in the invasion of an oil-producing country, as race car drivers burn up the track and lots of gas at the Indy 500! You can read that post here: http://astrochatter.com/2008/05/25/mercury-retrograde-memorial-day-and-the-indy-500/

Welcome aboard, Pamela!

All weekend I would look forward to race time on Sunday at Springfield Speedway (Illinois). The quarter mile track ran stock cars, midgets and the occasional destruction derby. But the main event was always reserved for super modifieds. These were very loud open wheel and open cockpit cars built low to the ground. They would slide through the turns spraying dirt from the spinning wheels. I so wanted to drive one.

Photo Credit: Armin Krueger

The track wasn't much. No box seats, no skyboxes; we sat on bleachers. You went to watch racing. The speedway was constructed in 1947 and attracted a number of racers across the midwest. Once September came around my mom wouldn't let me go to the Sunday races because of school the next day. So I would open my window, listen to the roar of the cars while lying in bed, and imagine I was in the stands. Below is a shot of the track soon after it officially opened. The final checkered flag came at the end of the 1988 season. You can visit an homage web site here.

Photo Credit: Marvin Scattergood

Today's Indy car technology is amazing, racing around the track at speeds of well over 200 mph. Despite the numerous yellow flags and some stupid driving errors (sorry Danica), the final few laps could really have been exciting, as the announcers kept telling us. Scott Dixon easily prevailed.

I was never attracted to NASCAR in the same way as the open wheel cars. Most likely it has to do with all those Sunday evenings at Springfield Speedway. Thanks dad.

We left at 5:00 a.m. because we had been warned of the traffic getting in, and to get there early if we wanted any kind of decent parking. We were there when the gates opened at 6:00, and ended up getting ushered right under the track to park in the infield tailgating lot! At first we were thrilled, thinking we had great spots. Then as we sat in our car preparing for the day and watched all the tents going up and blocking all the cars in, and the beer coming out and already flowing freely at 7:30, we started to wonder. But we weren't daunted. We lathered up with sunscreen (I promise we did, no matter what you read later) and hopped out to go see the sights. Walking back under the track led us to the money-grabbers--I mean concession stands and souvenir stands. We got the required Indy 500 patch for Clay, rented some seat backs since our backs weren't thrilled with the idea of sitting on bleachers for hours on end, and bought a program. Headed back to our car to plot our course for the rest of the day. There was lots of stuff going on at the other end of the track, but we decided not to walk down there. We wanted to get to our seats so we could watch all the ceremonial stuff on the screens. So we ended up in our seats by about 10:30, so early that they didn't even check our tickets or our coolers, and Clay made it in with his prohibited glass bottle of root beer. While we sat there, watching the celebrities walk the red carpet on the screens, Clay snapped some shots of our view:

We were on the north end of the track, almost centered between turn 3 and turn 4. These four shots show our view from left to right. The cars and trucks that they used to drive all the important people around the track before the race (celebrities, military, pageant queens) were parked just across the dirt that you can see. The pits and the start/finish line were just around the curve of turn 4, just out of our sight.

This is us, pre-sunburn. Yes we got absolutely fried,

despite three coatings of sunscreen. Our problem was from the knees down, and all we can guess is that the sun reflected off the bleachers and up to fry us. Anyway, we got to see all of the famous people get driven around the track in the Corvette pace cars, and the military in the red, white, and blue Chevy pickups, and hear Florence Henderson sing God Bless America, some Dancing with the Stars chick sing the Star-Spangled banner, see the fighter jets fly over from right behind us, and here Jim Neighbors sing the Indiana song with an incredible balloon release, and for some reason Wordpress will not post my cool balloon picture. Finally we heard the words: Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines. Clay was a bit disappointed that we couldn't hear the engines starting because of all the cheering. We had decided to root for the two Chip Genassi Target cars because Clay does pest control service at the Target racing building in Indy, although they don't let him in the room with the cars, because he might steal their secrets! We didn't try to take many pictures of the actual race because, well, quite frankly it's hard to get a good shot of something travelling 222 miles an hour. But we got a couple, if you can make them out:

The first one shows the two Target cars in the lead. They stayed that way for a long time, until #10 finally dropped way back, but #9 held on and won the race!! So we won the tickets, and our guy won the race! How often does that happen!

We were definitely glad to have earplugs, especially when they were going full speed. But there were so many crashes or other problems that they drove a big chunk of the race under a yellow flag, which meant they had to go slower while the crews cleaned up the track. It wasn't until right at the end that they went more than 10 or 12 laps at full speed, so the race as a whole wasn't all that exciting. We watched our guy win, then fought the crowds back to our car, where we were blocked in by drunks for over an hour. We saw some very interesting sights during that time. We finally made it out of race traffic after two hours of sitting in the car, and were home by around 9:00, where we got a great report from Aunt Gertie on our girls' day, which was the icing on the cake for ours.

We ended up being very very grateful for Aunt Gertie, because the sunburn on our shins must have had some poison in it. We woke up Monday and could barely hobble around because of the pain, and we were fire red and swollen up. Gertie ended up bravely loading up our van with her three kids plus our three and taking them all back to Somerset with her. Britani got drafted, along with Brooke and Bree some, to babysit for two days (Thanks!), and after two full days of laying on the couch with my feet propped up, I met Mom and Stacey in Louisville Thursday (a pre-planned trip) to reclaim my children. Our legs are some better, but Clay is still fire red and my legs and feet are still very swollen, six days later. So, we all had a great day Sunday, but there did end up being a cost to the trip after all. Hopefully we will continue to recuperate, but we're still glad we went. Probably will never go again, but I'm glad I went once. Thanks again to Stacey and all the rest who helped care for my girls in Somerset!!!

Murray Webb 27 May 2008 Stuff

A new Kiwi hero

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I'm a lifelong Hoosier, which means I've had many opportunities to go to the Indy 500, hailed as our city's biggest spectacle. Tickets fell in my lap this year, so I made the trek out to the west side on Sunday.

The last time I went to the race, I wasn't of legal drinking age. Of course, that didn't preclude me from wheeling in a cooler of beer. Not surprisingly, I remember that 500 fondly. The track was a magical place where I could get sloshed, a veritable alcoholic oasis in the middle of a booze-barren wasteland.

This time around, being able to have a few beers at the track wasn't quite as exciting, since I can drink anywhere at any time. Consequently, I had a much more difficult time understanding the appeal of the big race.

Here's a couple things I didn't get:

-why there are 10,000 vendors selling ear plugs but no one hawking sunscreen. Seriously, my ears are fine, but my face looks like a cross between a lobster and a raccoon.  I could have used a little help.

-why the track's giant tenderloin is five times the size of the bun it's served on, rendering it impossible to eat. Give me a huge tenderloin with a huge bun or a normal-sized tenderloin with regular bun, but not this absurdity. Making stuff big is typically awesome, but the gimmick loses it's utility at some point. Ask anyone with ginormous feet. For a while, girls might be impressed. But eventually, they end up being more bothersome than a late-evening telemarketer.

-urinal troughs. If I wanted to see a swordfight, I'd go to a fencing match (or whatever the fuck they call it).

-why most race fans are allowed to procreate. As I was folding over my giant tenderloin in an attempt to eat it, I observed the following exchange at the Ribeye and Porkchop Sandwich stand:

Degenerate wearing cut-off sweatpants: I want you to make me one of them steaks rare.

Concession worker: (Pretends not to hear him)

Degenerate wearing cut-off sweatpants: Can you do that for me? I want it real red, like you just slapped the cows ass and...(drunk mumbling, not decipherable to anyone with an IQ over 15)

Concession worker: (Looks straight ahead, wondering if he will kill the guy by giving him an uncooked piece of Grade-F meat) Yeah, I can do that.

Degenerate wearing cut-off sweatpants: Yeehaw!

The worst part about this story is that immediately after Mr. Degenerate received his Slap-My-Ass-And-Call-Me-Sandwich, his 5-year-old daughter approached him for advice about where to wait for mommy. I've never seen anyone as doomed as this little girl. She might as well change her last name to Kennedy.

I take back what I said about selling sunscreen. There should be merchants outside the track doling out condoms. Or better yet, vasectomies.

The Country has been following the fortunes and ambitions of this sports star since the days before he had a car licence yet was racing - fast. And now he is the winning driver of the Indy 500, one of the most prestigious car races in North America and the world.

There has been much debate as to where this phenomenal achievement ranks amongst the annals of Kiwi sporting achievements. For me, it's up there, yet suprisingly for me (a list maker) I haven't placed it in a list yet. Quite possibly on the international scene, in modern times this is right up there with achievements. We'll see where this plays out in the media over the next few weeks. There's one thing for sure though. As this is right up there with the Monaco Grand Prix F1, Wimbledon, The US Masters, The World Cup (football) to name a few, there aren't many sporting peaks as high as these, and a Kiwi has just climbed to the summit and knocked the bugger off.

Within minutes of the achievement, the win was splashed across the web sites of the world. Here's a snap shot of what they were doing with this story.

Of course USA Today was onto it pretty quickly. But somewhat surprisingly the only other major US newspaper to go with the story was the NY Times.

The story was of course big here. Sorry about the blur, but the story I have blurred out was too disturbing, and out of respect for Sophie Elliot, I have done this. However this doesn't take away from the achievements of Scott Dixon.

A couple of days later and the story was still big news in the US, this from the Indianapolis Star a couple of days later. By now Scott is big news in the US, with media appearances being par for the course. He states that his main aim is to win the following race this weekend and then the Indy title this year.

Well done Scott, I know you will be showered with the accolades you deserve, this is a huge victory for you and a massive shot in the arm for racing fans back here in NZ.

One of the more curious aspects of this has been the rise in popularity of Emma Dixon, Scott's wife. It's natural that the world's media would be interested in her, as she is obviously a young attractive woman, whom more or less nobody knew about, and now the wife of the winner of the Indy 500. But in the finest traditions of the web, all manner of sites have been plastering her pictures all over the web.

That's one of the downsides of going out there for the race. You really need to have both Sunday and Monday open because rain could push you back to Monday. I usually schedule the flight out on Monday around seven to be sure I can see the entire 500 on Monday if it comes to that. Last year it almost did run into Monday with all the rain, but this year the weather was great. We took advantage of the nice day Monday to visit the Grissom Air Museum near Peru, Indiana.

I took a lot of photos at both the Speedway and on our other excursions. The first batch can be found at the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27124584@N06/sets/72157605311357361/

Anyway, the second flight went from Chicago to BWI (Baltimore) so I still had about a two hour drive home once we landed. My oldest son got to sleep but ol' dad had to do the driving to get him home. Fortunately he got enough rest to make it through the school day on Tuesday and play well in his baseball game at night.

The entire trip was fantastic, and though we had rain on Friday, we still got to see four races in four days and about fifteen minutes of IndyCar practice on Friday. Stone Temple Pilots put on a great, if a little simple, show while the rain came down and when you add great rock 'n' roll to awesome racing action, you get a fantastic weekend.

I'm already excited about going back in 2009, the 100th anniversary of the Speedway.

So what the heck is Mary talking about with the toilet you ask?
Mom's bathroom has a very low toilet and she has been so weak that she's having trouble getting up of it, which meant it was time to find a medical supply store and get this taken care of... Remember when I wrote about nurses and nurse's aides? Well blessed are your friends when they do something special for you. I knew I had a long day of work ahead of me yesterday and was stressed out about how to make a trip to a far away medical supply store, when my friend Karen took on this task and found exactly what we needed.
I met her last night at her Mom's house, then I drove out to Mom and Dad's house and Dad assisted me in assembling and installing this elevated toilet seat with great handlebars, that allow her to push herself up! So much better. The funniest part of all of this is that I was wearing a full black suit, leaning over a toilet trying to install it (you have to take off the seat and lid, put the booster on and then put the seat and lid back on top of that) and at the same time deciding it needed cleaning because you are seeing hard to reach places!
We got it done, Dad said he was proud of my toilet skills, and for once he wasn't talking about my 'potty' mouth!
Mom says it helps....
BTW, Dr. Rose (oncologist) told her to continue to eat and build up her strength and he needs her strong again to begin another round of chemo to fight the tumors that still exist! AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! Yuck. More to come I'm sure.
Toilet warrior, signing off for now.

Indiana’s been in the news the last couple weeks. First there’s the new Indiana Jones film that’s on top at the box office, there was the Indy 500 this past weekend, and then I saw the front page of New York Times yesterday morning and learned that director and Indiana native Sydney Pollack died Monday.

It seems like a fitting time to take a road trip to the Hoosier State. Though Pollack was not a screenwriter it’s worth paying tribute to this giant of a filmmaker who knew how to tell a story.

Before he headed to New York after high school in South Bend to study acting with Sanford Meisner he had spent his life in Indiana.  From acting in theater, to directing TV shows, to directing over 40 feature films Pollack was unusually gifted. I was a long time fan of Pollack’s and he directed some of my favorite films:

They Don’t Shoot Horses, Do They? The Way We Were Jeremiah Johnson Three Days of the Condor The Electric Horseman Absence of Malice Tootsie Out of Africa The Firm Sketches of Frank Gehry 

He was a two time Oscar winner (Out of Africa & Tootsie) both of which films also won Best Picture Oscars.  Another Indiana native producer/director Robert Wise also had won two best director Oscars for his films West Side Story & The Sound of Music. He also won two more Best Picture Oscars for producing both movies.

And to challenge Nebraska’s cool actor category (which produced both Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando), Indiana lays claim to Steve McQueen and James Dean. The list of entertainment icons from Indiana also includes Karl Malden (On the Waterfront), comedian Red Skelton, song writer Cole Porter, and TV host David Letterman.

Moving to the writing side, Kurt Vonnegut was born and raised in Indianapolis. Glenn Berggoetz writes, "It was at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis that Vonnegut gained his first writing experience. During his last two years there he wrote for and was one of the editors of the Shortridge Daily Echo, which was the first high school daily newspaper in the country. At this young age Vonnegut learned to write for a wide audience that would give him immediate feedback, rather than just writing for an audience of one in the form of a teacher." (Note also that Vonnegut also honed his skills at the Iowa Writers Workshop.) 

Theodore Dreiser from Terre Haute wrote the novel An American Tragedy that was made twice made into a film including the 1951 George Stevens' version (A Place in the Sun) staring Elizabeth Taylor that won 6 Academy Awards. It is a film that Mike Nichols (director of The Graduate) said if you wanted to learn how to direct you should watch 50 times.

To counter Dreiser’s somber look at the dark side of America let’s look at another film with Indiana roots. Playwright and screenwriter Steve Tesich was born in Yugoslavia, raised in Chicago and graduated from Indiana University. He won an Oscar for his screenplay Breaking Away based and filmed in Bloomington, Indiana and that became the 1979 sleeper hit staring Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Chrisopher Plummer and James Earle Haley.

Tesich’s script came at a time before we were jaded by sports stories and was released just three years after Rocky. The film captures much of what I’m trying to write about in Screenwriting from Iowa. That is that there are stories to tell beyond Hollywood, and people all over the world need encouragement to tell those stories.

Frank Deford reviewed Breaking Away for Sports Illustrated in 1979:

"It is the rare film that has understood the essence of sport so well as Breaking Away; or understood summer or growing up; or, for that matter, America and Americana. This joyous story about four young A&P cowboys and a bicycle race in Bloomington, Ind. cost a measly $2.4 million to make but it is better by far than all the ballyhooed, star-studded epics. Steve Teisch's screenplay is impeccable; Peter Yates' direction is nearly magic in its command and sensitivity; and the cast is perfectly chosen, an ensemble always in character. And if all this were not enough, Breaking Away also evokes a spirit these times yearn for.

"I'm sure that Teisch and Yates didn't set out to wave the flag, but there is something special here... the wonderful thing about Breaking Away is that you leave the theater very proud that America has both an Indiana and a Hollywood."

TV and film director David Anspaugh was born in Decatur, Indiana and also studied at Indiana University before going on to win two Emmy’s producing and directing Hill Street Blues and the quintessential Indiana film Hoosiers.

Matt Williams from Evansville, Indiana is best known as the creator and executive producer of Roseanne and co-creator of Home Improvement. But he also wrote for The Cosby Show and produced the Mel Gibson film What Women Want. He graduated with a theater degree from the University of Evansville and was awarded an honorary doctorate from there in 2003.

And the newest up and coming writer/ director from Indiana is James C. Strouse (from Goshen, Indiana) whose latest film Grace is Gone won the critics awards at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. His first film Lonesome Jim starred Casey Affleck and was directed by Steve Busemi. 

But I can’t pass up the opportunity to mention John Mellencamp from Seymour, Indiana who seems to embody a Midwestern spirit in everything he does. Going way back into the early 80’s with prefect sing-a-long songs Jack & Diana (“Two American kids growing up in the Heartland”), Pink Houses and Small Town to his classic thought-provoking album Scarecrow that addressed the farm crisis in the 80’s, to his more recent Our Country. Mellencamp embraced his Midwestern roots and we were better for it.

While his film connections are usually on the soundtracks of films he did star and direct the 1992 film Falling from Grace. Mellencamp was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Indiana University awarded him an honorary doctorate of Musical Arts.

On Sunday I spent a several hours driving on the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinenental highway in the country. (It goes through both Iowa and Indiana. And paid my first ever $4.+ per gallon for gas.) It's hard for me to make that kind of trip and not think of Mellencamp's lyrics, "Ain't that America Something to See."

It's something to write about, too.

P.S. Did you know that in the original Indy script that it was Indiana Smith? Doesn't have the same ring does it?  (Spielberg thought it sounded to much like Nevada Smith, a 1966 Steve McQueen film.) And isn't it hard to see Tom Selleck as Indy, who Spielberg originally wanted but couldn't get because of Selleck's commitment to Magnum P.I.?

Copyright ©2008 Scott W. Smith

Today was a travel day ... all day. (Tuesday). Our flight left Chicago O'Hare Airport at 8:30 AM, was diverted and landed in Wichata Falls, TX because of bad weather at Dallas. We were on the ground waiting for 4 additional hours just sitting in the plane, almost 8 hours on that plane in total. They did give everyone 1 piece of Dominoes Pizza after three hours of waiting, though. ;-)

Then on to Dallas where all of our flights were canceled. So we flew into SFO. That would have been fine, but for our luggage. It is now scheduled (we think) to go to Oakland sometime on Wednesday. Then they will deliver it to us.

We just got back from Target where Ginger got a shiny new curling iron and fresh make-up. She said she needed that to return to the real world on Wednesday. Hmmmm.....

Thanks for all the prayers, we are really rested.

Had a great time the past 3 days in Chicago and with our diversion on Sunday to the Indianapolis 500 where we witnessed first-hand ... the DANICA MARCH! Can't wait to see all of our California Family!

Oh, and here's a quick photo of the Nintendo Wii Fit Car ... didn't leave the race very "fit" at all, eh?

INDIANAPOLIS - There was plenty of rancor to go around at Andretti Green Racing in the aftermath of yesterday's 92d running of the Indianapolis 500. Tony Kanaan was sore with AGR teammate Marco Andretti. And Danica Patrick was positively peeved at Penske Racing rookie Ryan Briscoe.

When AGR's garage doors were drawn shut, you could probably hear the shouting in Gasoline Alley over the cheers for Scott Dixon's victory.

Kanaan took issue with Andretti for undercutting him as they entered Turn 3 of Lap 106. Kanaan was forced to back off and washed up into the marbles, causing him to spin out in front of the oncoming car of Sarah Fisher, who speared Kanaan's car.

Kanaan, who led 11 laps midway through the race, wound up finishing 29th while Andretti went on to finish third, marking his second top-three result after his runner-up finish as a rookie in 2006.

"It was a stupid move," said Kanaan of Andretti's dive-bomb maneuver in Turn 3. "I think teammates shouldn't do that to teammates. I'm sure he'll have an explanation for what he did. Halfway through the race with a bunch of traffic, why are you going to dive into me like that? I will wait to see what he has to say."

Told afterward that Kanaan called his move "stupid," a contrite Andretti responded, saying, "I don't know, maybe it was a bit last-minute, but I don't know about 'stupid move.' You know, maybe he didn't expect it to be coming, I'll put it that way. But, you know, we didn't touch. I really didn't take his air away, it was just a last-minute thing."

Meanwhile, Patrick was left fuming at Briscoe when he clipped Patrick's car as they exited pit road on Lap 171, knocking her out of contention. Patrick climbed out of her car, ripped off her gloves, and began to stomp off in the direction of Briscoe's pit box before an unidentified Indy Racing League official corralled her and helped her to cool down.

Asked what she intended to say to Briscoe, Patrick said, "It is probably best I didn't get down there anyway, isn't it?"

Patrick had struggled all day to wring some speed out of her car, at one point complaining to her crew over the radio "I am slow! I . . . am . . . sloooow," before she finally began to charge her way to the front - getting up to seventh before the pit-road incident ended her day.

"But from what I can tell it seemed like it was relatively obvious what happened," she said. "You just don't come out of your pit box and swing three lanes out. That's why there is a 'get-up-to-speed' lane and an 'at-speed' lane. I was at speed."

Said Briscoe, "It's a real shame. I just saw the replay, and it confirmed my thoughts. We were both out there trying to win the Indy 500 today, and when it's time to go, we have to go. But from what I can see, there was still plenty of room on the right side for her to get around and there are people pointing fingers, but that's not the way we are."

Danica, You are sending the wrong message about female drivers to the fans you are trying to court. Jackie Robinson showed dignity and self restraint in the face of pure evil and disrespect. You get rubbed a little and you show none of that and then you complain about the lack of respect you get. You don't even deserve to be in the same Paragraph as Jackie. You deserve no respect. You are no role model for girls/women. You are a cautionairy tale. "What not to do", "How not to act". All you are doing is making it harder for other female drivers. Current & Future. Sarah Fisher was knocked out of the Indy 500 by Tony Kanaan, maybe the best on the circuit, but you didn't see her stomping her feet or running down pit row after him. She took it like a MAN. Yeah, thats right like a "MAN". There is no "lack of a better word". That is the word to use. "MAN" Sad to say but that word is the word because of little b--ches like you that complain about how other people are always making mistakes. But you? You're perfect. Always. Right?

Dont get it twisted racing is about skill. Which you have yet to prove you have. But its mostly about luck. Ask any driver. That is if they would speak to you. Drivers need a lot of luck to win any race. Going 200mph around a track 100 times within a few feet of other cars doing the same is risky business. Just getting through it takes luck.

So when that luck runs out and someone is forced out of the race we men don't complain. Partly because we know about the LUCK involved. But Mostly because they trust each other. Thats right TRUST. Its LUCK that gets these drivers around the track and TRUST in each other that keeps them coming back each race. Without trust the whole driver, team, race, and season fails. The other drivers give each other the trust and respect they deserve. You give no respect or trust because you are a complainer. Once again blaming everyone else because you failed. You also don't respect yourself because if you did you would give it to others. Mistakes happen. You know this well. Just this last week you sent this guy to the hospital.

Danica, drivers like you get people killed!!! There has to be RESPECT and TRUST on the track. If there is none then drivers feel like they can do whatever they want. And when that happens people get hurt. Take a lesson from Sarah Fisher. Sarah who, BTW had every reason to be pissed at Tony Kanaan for knocking her out of the Indy. But decided to give him a hug and give thanks that everyone was O.K. This is coming from a driver that is running out of $money$ and may lose her ride.

BTW Danica, what exactly were you gonna say or do had you made it to Ryan Brisco's pit? And do you think he was gonna take it? What if he just flipped out and gave you a back hand? Would he have been out of line? Probably, but not by much. All I'm saying is watch your back. On and off the track if you're gonna act like that.

So Danica, don't act like a little girl in a big boys sport. Take it from the boys or the girls but get it together before someone gets hurt.