The Kyle and Dale Show

Who would have thought that the two most popular drivers in Cup racing are under achieving. One is not winning enough and the other is not winning at all.

Kyle Bush and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have pretty much been under the microsope since the beginning of their careers. At the mid point of the 2009 Cup Series season Kyle Bush is feeling the heat and Jr. has to buy a new set of sunglasses every week.

The finish of last weeks event at Daytona was a dissapointment to say the least. Then Bush missed an opportunity to be more endearing to the public with his press conference on Thursday. No one likes getting wiped out at 190 mph but how the public percieves Kyles reaction and comments is more than what we think, it is what Kyle thinks.

Being in a high profile or public position quickly seperates the men from the boys and Kyle is looking like a boy right now. Nobody has a harder head than Tony Stewart but at least he had misgivings in victory lane at Daytona and called Kyle earlier in the week to clear the air. Kyle is not a media darling but he might want to speak with his older brother Kurt for some pointers on what to do.

Daytona is over and done and it is time to move on. Kyle seems to have carried Daytona with him to Chicago. Kyle, if you want to be one of the best, forget about it right after it happens and move on.

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On the other side of the Nascar world, Dale Earnhardt Jr is scratching his head trying to figure what it takes to win a race or even catch a top ten. A new crew chief has not shown much improvment eventhough things do look a little better.

Could it have been a mistake for Jr. to bring Tony Eury Jr. with him to Hendrick Motorsports ? Earnhardt's results with Eury Jr. have not been that impressive even at DEI. Dale seemed to be in better shape when Eury's father was on his pit box. Changing crew chiefs during season is never a good sign but it could not get much worse for the 88 bunch.

Jr. knows that he will never drive out of his fathers shadow but the upside is that he understands this. Jr. is nothing like his father was and was not raised by him, it shows on and off the track.

Dale's struggles are well documented and how he deals with the pressure says alot about the man. Jr's season is pretty much a wash out as he is already looking at next year. Maybe nothing can really be done to turn the corner as the fourth car in the Hendrick stable seams to have a black cloud over it.

Do not count either one of these guys out yet. Kyle has his whole career in front of him and Dale is driving for one of the best orginisations in the history of Nascar. It is ironic that two of the most popular drivers in this sport are heading in different directions. One is struggling with winning and the other, with losing. They just may end up in the same place.

Door Slammers

Can't get two cars that are so much different but these guys have alot in common inclluding 190 victories and 6 Championships. Cale Yarborough and David Pearson.

Hall of Fame, 1983 Champ

Here is a real good look at Bobby Allison's Buick Regal ripping Pocono in 1983. This year Bobby won his first and only championship. Allison drove for well over 20 different car owners including himself during his career and won races for just about all of them. He is the Alabama Gang and the ultimate Barnstormer.

Allison is one of if not the best driver/ mechanic in Nascar's illustrious history. In his day it was not unusual for drivers to work on their cars. Bobby did this better than anyone as he could build a race car top to bottom. In his career Bobby did not seem to be concerned much about staying with a particular team or owner even though settling down in later years finally brought him the title.

When it comes to turning a wrench Bobby Allison was the man and anybody who worked with Allison knew what it meant to take the checkered flag.

Allison probably will not be part of the first Nascar Hall of Fame entrants but soon enough Bobby will be there.

Hammering the Banks

Just love this pic of Cale and company riding the three story tall banks at Talladega.

Even today there is nothing like a freight train of race cars thundering by at 190mph.

The Wood Brother's in action

Here are the Wood Brothers pitting Neil Bonnett at Pocono

Glen Wood is one of the 25 nominees for the Nascar Hall of Fame's first group of inductees.

The famed Wood Brothers refined the art of the pit stop and were among the first to use tire stagger to increase handling. The Wood's were so good that they were asked to pit Jimmy Clark's car for the 1965 Indianapolis 500. Clark won that race in large part due to the Wood Brother's fast pitwork.

They made history at Daytona in a bizare way in 1961. With their driver, Marvin Panch injured they picked Tiny Lund to drive their 21 Ford for the Daytona 500. Lund amazingly won this race without changing tires for the entire 500 mile distance.