Catchfence

Hello loyal readers and other folks. First off I hope your Memorial Day weekend is turnin’ out to be a wonderful one filled with great memories. Let’s all remember that this holiday isn’t about great food or extra days off from work but rememberin’, acknowledgin’ and thankin’ all the men and women who have served our country to allow and keep us free. So many other people of this world are not as fortunate as we are. We all have family members and friends who have or are layin’ their lives on the line for us from our foundin’ fathers to our present day heroes. Thank you all for your loyal service past, present and future. Should be somethin’ we say everyday. Know what I mean? Now to the task at hand.

Oh my good and gracious LORD, what a race weekend we had at our return to Charlotte! Saturday was the Nationwide race. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr lead the field followed by Happy Man, Robot Dude, Rowdy Boy and Flippin’ Carl. The rest, if you’re interested, you can look up and you know what I mean. 200 laps, 300 miles of speed, Mercy sakes alive it was awesome and just the beginnin’ of an excitin’ weekend. Matt stepped in for that darlin’ Trevor Bayne who has been sidelined for a spell due to an unspecified illness and just to be on the safe side he sat that race out too. The race was excitin’ to say the least. Duck and I sure enjoyed ourselves, let me tell ya that much right now. Course Duck was hopin’ for you know who to win, but that just wasn’t meant to be. Nosirree. That rascal Robot and cutie Matt won the race! Good for him and the whole team I say! Carl came in second. Duck was at least satisfied with that performance. I’m not gonna hold my breath but I think he just might be maturin’ into a healthy minded duck race fan. I’m not doubtin’ Duck, I’m just sayin’ or hopin’ as this particular case may be. Anyway, what a mixed bag of feelin’s that must have been for Bayne’s team. They had to be excited with the win and grateful as a bear after huntin’ season, but, ya know they all were wishin’ Trevor had been behind the wheel. Course he is a young’un full of talent and that competitive drive and he will be back behind the wheel real soon. Duck and I predict great success for that boy. Yessirree Bob (whoever Bob is). Anyway Rowdy Boy (later I will tell ya what Duck and I have nicknamed that boy) finished 3rd with Stenhouse, Jr and Sorenson roundin’ out the top 5. The rest you can look up. Good for all of them I say!

Sunday came and brought the longest race of the year, The Coca Cola 600. Lord I love that race, Charlotte and Coca Cola too! So we strayed from our normal race beverages and that is exactly what we had for refreshments. Duck tends to guzzle and then burp a lot, but I didn’t mind one bit cause he burped on his side of the divan. That’s fair enough I reckon. We settled in with crispy fried chicken livers, crispy fried okra bits and cheered, woohooed and yelled as the green flag flew.

From the get go this race was amazin’, let me tell ya that one somethin’ right now. Oh the passin’ back and forth was excitin’! Brad K led the field at the green followed by Allmendinger, Flippin’ Carl, wide smilin’ Denny and Jeff Burton. The rest you can look up. Before lap 10 Duck’s hero took the lead. Lord have mercy the way Duck cheered was cute and impressive. Course he dumped the okra on the floor but we didn’t care, we just blew it off, put it back on the crates and by lap 25 Flippin’ Carl was startin’ to lap the field. He held that lead until pit stops but regained it not long afterwards. I can’t and won’t give you every lap detail but I can say JR was on a mission and movin’ on up and in case you’re interested that boy started 25th!

Lord have mercy there was so much action this granny doesn’t rightly know what to say next. I know Mister Rowdy boy spun out two times without any help and took a wild ride through the grass there and I know there were 14 cautions in all. Rowdy lead for a spell and Biffle had the lead late in the race but had to pit for gas which left Cutie little Kasey in the lead but Kasey ran out of gas which gave JR the lead. Boy howdy how the grandstands roared but with a green, white, checkerd finish and with fuel bein’ an issue JR ran out of gas, dadburnit. Oh how Duck and I yelled in dismay and all of sudden there was Happy who won the race. GOOD for him I say! Ragan, Logano, Mister Kurt Busch and AJ Allmendinger were the top five finishers. And in case you’re interested that adorable Aussie Marcos Ambrose finished 6th and JR finished 7th, an amazin’ feat considerein’ his fuel misfortune! The rest you can look up. Wow is all this granny can say about that race. Duck and I were spell bound and only left the divan to head outside for potty breaks. The Coca Cola was good, the snacks were good and the race was just amazin’ as I said earlier. That’s it in a brown bag more or leass. The rest you can look up and you know what I mean.

Now for the other stuff. Y’all know when this season began everyone was talkin’ about the mature, new and improved Kyle Busch. Course many people, Duck and I included, were askin’ “will the REAL Kyle Busch stand up?” And then he did! Y’all know the details endin’, thus far, with the pit road thingie with Kevin and now the speedin’ incident. His public apology was made and I must say he seemed sincere and embassed but Duck and I admit we wonder if that was a result of meditation, medication, Coach Joe, big buck sponsors, NASCAR or any or all of the above. It’s sorta like what Forrest Gump said…”like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Duck and I have come to call Kyle (good, bad or both) “The Great Pretender.” Time will tell, I guess, but that boy needs to get a good grip or he’s gonna really hurt himself and someone else. Remember his brother went through a brat stage and has finally grown up. GOOD, good and good for him I say! Course it could have been a smack in the snoot from Jimmy Spencer or a “boot to the butt”, so to speak, from an Arizona Sheriff, but whatever it was that boy is enjoyable these days and I was right proud to see him do so well yesterday, so another good for him I say.

And finally the Hamlin commercial…what would you do with a driver. Well if it were “The Great Pretender” I would take him out behind the shed and spank his behind several times! If it were Denny I would make him tell me where he got that amazin’ LONG oven and then have him clean my hen house. If it were that darlin’ Mark Marin I would just pinch his cute cheeks and enjoy his company and if it were Flippin’ Carl I would hide Duck. There’d be no livin’ with him otherwise.

Next up, JR. That boy had that race won and we all know it. Lord have mercy (even) Duck and I were on our feet just a woohooin’ all over the place. The fact that he ran out of gas is a tribute to his dedication to winnin’. He had to go for it and amazin’ly he finished 7th. I’m proud of that boy, Letarte and that whole team! I have repeatedly predicted a win for them soon and I stand by that!

So that’s it for today. Let’s see what Cousin Grouch has to say. Bring it on Cousin, dear.
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Howdy Young’uns and other folks too. The first thing I wanted to mention, on this Memorial Day, is a heartfelt “Thank You” to all of our men and women who have chosen to serve and protect all of us in our beloved Country. Your dedication and sacrifices are greatly appreciated, especially by the grannies out there, like me! God Bless You All, I say!

The Top Gear 300 race was run on Saturday this week (You never can tell these days, what, with all the schedule changes that they seem to be makin’, I think they just want to keep me confused!). This race wasn’t all that eventful as everyone pert near was behavin’ theirself. There were five caution flags for the usual debris on the track, a couple of blown engines, etc. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. started on the pole. The top five finishers were Matt Kenseth, “Cousin’ Carl Edwards, Kyle “Not so Rowdy (after this week)” Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Reed Sorenson. As you can clearly see, there are a few of the Cup Series drivers in the top five alone. I’m fixin’ to provide you with my personal solution to this problem, and who knows, maybe even some of NASCAR’s ticket sales problems, see what you think! I say eliminate the Cup Series drivers from the Nationwide Series ALTOGETHER. Oh yes, I’ve heard it said that “they” need the Cup guys there to sell tickets but I strongly disagree, I think if the young rookies were given a chance to show what they can do and the talent that they have, the ticket sales would go up on their own, even though we still have the problem of our bad economy. Why, we’ve got young’uns comin’ out our ears from a number of different series, who are talented and need to be seen and given “seat-time”, but it seems to me that the Cup guys are preventin’ that from happenin’ and therefore, we get races like the one we had this week, which was nothin’ to write home about, in my humble granny opinion. Chew on that for awhile will ya? I’m just thinkin’ of some ideas to help solve the problems!

The Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race of the season. I always look forward to this race to see who can make it to the end of the race since that matters the most, after all. “Bad Brad” (Keselowski) started on the pole. Before I get to that, did ya all hear the wonderful news from Michael Waltrip’s announcement – - – they are goin’ to make a movie out of his book, “In The Blink Of An Eye”. I am so excited for him I can hardly see straight, and that ain’t easy to do at my age! Good for you, Mikey Waltrip, I say! Gettin’ back to the race, there were fourteen cautions in this one. Again, we had the usual blown engines, blown tires, debris on the race track but in this one we had a VERY HOT driver, who was gettin’ hotter by the lap as his coolin’ system was not working right, his crew chief, accordin’ to Greg, was ignorin’ him. I can’t say that I ‘blame Biffle for bein’ upset when they were not sharin’ the solution plan with him. And what about Dale Earnhardt Jr.? I must confess that I was on the edge of the divan, ready to jump up and into my happy dance when I thought that the #88 was goin’ to rocket to the front and win the Coca-Cola 600! But as you know, that did not happen due to the fact that he ran out of fuel. As long as I live, which, at my age can’t be that much longer, I will never understand why that has to happen, strategy? I’ve heard that one before but where did it get Junior? I’ll tell ya, at the finish line with a stalled and out of fuel race car ! ! ! Needless to say Kevin Harvick won the race. I’ve nicknamed him “Where did he come from Harvick”. This is not the first time this season he has done this, know what I mean?

Well, somebody’s a ringin’ my doorbell, what on earth, on a Holiday? I hate when that happens, don’t you? That’s all I have for now. Next week we are off to Kansas for the Cup and Truck Series, then Chicagoland for the Nationwide Series. See ya all right here for our full report! You be sure and come on back, ya hear? We’ll even leave the light on for ya! Have a great week everyone!
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Thank ya again, Cousin dear! Sorry about not havin’ the yearly holiday cookout like we always do but Duck and I are still recuperatin’ from our trip from family visitations. You did a right good job reportin’, as always. Tell Bubba we said hello, if you would be so kind.

That’s it for now. Til next time, comment, email or don’t. Whatever is fine because we are both very busy women. Know what I mean. Grump and Grouch over and out!