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If you missed the NASCAR race today in
Fontana, California, you really missed a great
finish.. Kyle Busch led 151 of 200 laps, but got
outrun by a couple of Chevrolets at the end.
With three laps to go after a yellow caution
flag, the drivers re-started with Bush leading
Jimmy Johnson into the last lap. Johnson got
around Bush but suddenly found Kevin Harvick
right on his rear bumper. On the backstretch Kevin
pushed Johnson's car into the last turn at a faster
speed than Johnson was ready for and the car
got loose. Harvick passed JJ on the high side of
the track and immediately went to the lower groove
to keep JJ from drafting on him. Harvick started the
race from the 24th spot and most of the announcers
had written him off despite running in the top ten most
of the race. It was the 15th NASCAR victory for Harvick
at the top echelon of the sport, and the win moved him
into 9th place in the points race. Harvick blew an engine
at Daytona on lap number 19 and finished that race in
the 42nd spot. He has slowly been working him way back
to the top, and today's win was all the more sweet as he
out-dueled the top two drivers in the sport at the moment
in Kyle Busch and Jimmy Johnson. Next week the drivers
will be at the short course race track at Martinsville.
Beginning in June of 2011 viewers will see
at new face at the news desk of the CBS Evening
News.. Katy Couric is at the end of her five year
contract (which pays her 15 million dollars a year)
and there is very little effort to re-sign her to a new
deal. Couric came to CBS News in 2006 after a long
stint as the morning hostess of the NBC Today Show.
In this format, she excelled at interviewing and adlibbing
with guests on the show. As a newscaster in a tightly
formatted 22 minute newscast, she is out of her league
and looked uncomfortable in her first couple of years.
CBS has lagged behind in the ratings for the evening
news programs and now seem ready to make the change.
Rumors around the hallways in New York seem to think
that Scott Pelley would be the immediate choice to succeed
Couric in the anchor chair. Pelley, a Texan who began his
career in TV news in Lubbock, worked in Dallas at Channel 8
as a reporter and weekend anchor before moving to CBS.
He now is one of the staples on the CBS program '60 Minutes'
and has experience reporting from Iraq and Afganistan. Pelley
was also the first to interview then President-Elect George W.
Bush immediately following the election.
I would like to submit another possibility for CBS to consider.
Harry Smith has been taken off the Early Show on CBS and now
is the fill-in for Couric when she is absent. Smith has a great voice and is the first to project that comfortable feeling that has been
absent from the CBS Evening News since Walter Cronkite was pushed out. I admit to being a bit bias on this decision as I worked
with Smith in Dallas and New York while I was with CBS News.
Harry is a good man, and he is one to work the story rather than
just looking good on camera. It will be a choice for someone,...but
just remember CBS.... third place in the ratings !! Smith can turn
things around for you...
While most of the hoopla last week at
Bristol, Tennessee centered around Kyle
Busch and his amazing talent,...there was
another happening you might have missed.
At the beginning of the Nationwide race on
Saturday, driver Jennifer Jo Cobb and car
owner Rick Russell. The owner wanted
Jennifer Jo to run two laps of the race and
bring the car in so it would be ready for this
weekends race at Fontana, California. This
is the latest move by low-budget car owners.
They qualify for the race and then just run one
or two laps to preserve their cars. Even last place
money is attractive as the last place car at Bristol
took home almost one-hundred thousand dollars.
Jennifer Jo told Russell she was willing to park
after one lap if given the assurance she would be
the driver this week in Fontana. Russell could not
do that and with ten minutes to go before the
start of the race, Jennifer Jo got out of the car and
told him to find another driver. She has received a
lot of mail and phone calls this week, most of it on
the positive side. She already has a new ride this week
with Rick Ware Racing and other car owners have
talked with her about the rest of the season. She
has tentative agreements with three different groups
of owners, and Jennifer Jo, the eternal optimist, sees
the arrangement as a good thing. She now will have
three different cars and three crew chiefs to work with...and
she says 'it will be good experience.' Good job Jennifer
Jo,...Don't let them chase you out of racing. Danica might
get more publicity, but Jennifer Jo is more of a racer
among the good 'ol boys....
Monday was a good day for a short ride
through North Texas.....if you didn't mind a
little wind (gusting to 40mph). I rolled the
Harley out of the garage for the first time in
about a month and called my sidekick, Rick,
to put it in gear. He has an Ultra-Classic and
swung by my house to pick me up... Rick
brought his wife along, but mine didn't want
to fight the heavy breeze of the day.. We rode
out U.S. 69 to Lori's kitchen and immediately
had lunch (first things first), and then proceeded
out main street to the east of Denison. We rode to
Carpenter's Bluff and Rick had to examine the
old rickety bridge over the Red River. On the way
back we rode down F.M. 1764 and then back west
to Denison. I had to mail a book at the local Post
Office (see book ad to the left of this posting) and
then we rode over to Texoma Harley-Davidson. Rick
was going to have his state inspection updated, but
did not have a current proof of insurance and it will
have to be another day. Rick and his wife headed for
home and I made a stop at the service station (Chevron)
to top off the tank before heading for home. Don't
forget,....April 2nd we will have another big shindig at
Texoma Harley-Davidson to celebrate the dealership's
annual Birthday Bash.. See ya there !!
First off,..I am NOT a Texas Longhorn fan !
As previous postings will attest, I went to SMU
and nobody dislikes the Longhorns more than students
of the Dallas school.... Having said that,..the
Longhorns got cheated at the NCAA Basketball
Tournament Sunday night.. Texas had a two-point
lead with fourteen seconds to play, and possession
of the ball. When they tried to inbound the ball
under their own basket, the Arizona man to man
press had them covered and the inbound player
attempted to call a time-out. The official said they
had exceeded the five seconds allowed to inbound
the ball and gave the possession to Arizona. The
Wildcats immediately went to their All-American
under the boards and he got a shot and a foul
shot... Texas still had nine seconds and got a
drive on the goal but it did not go in and on the
rebound a foul was not called. Thus Arizona won the game 70-69 and advances to the Sweet Sixteen bracket at Anaheim, California. Next up for Arizona will be a game against Duke,...that sounds pretty tough until you realize
the next game for Texas is almost a year away....
This is the tank Germany over ran most of
Western Europe with in the second World War.
Most historians of this conflict will tell you the
King Tiger tank was the most feared. While true,
only about 500 of the Tiger tanks were manufactured,
and over 6,200 of the Panthers were delivered to
the German Army. First appearing on the battlefield
in 1943, the Panther was formidable with its 75mm
high velocity cannon and two MG34 machine guns.
The sloped armor on the sides provided much more
protection than the Tiger's armor. (A design copied
from the Russian T-34 tank) The Panther was powered by a 350 horsepower Mercedes-Benz V-12
engine. Weighing in at 35 tons (70,000 pounds) the
Panther could still travel up to 37 miles per hour.
The real photo of a Panther is from a display model
at the village of Bastogne, Belgium, and the rest are
of my latest model.
Unknown is the latest movie by Liam
Neeson...who had the super movie out two
years ago by the name of 'Taken.' This time
he is to give a speech at an educational function
in Berlin, but an accident in a taxi gives him a
head injury. When he comes to in the hospital
all he can remember is his name,...but when he
returns to the hotel hosting the function,..there
is already someone else with his name...and with his
wife. This movie is a lot more intriguing than
'Taken' but I am usually the last to figure out the
plot in these kinds of movies and I had this one
figured out pretty early. The movie is shot in
Germany and the acting cast around Neeson
are mostly Germans. It is a good movie and I
would probably view it a second time when it
comes to HBO, but I don't think I would buy it.
