Post by racinchaplain on May 31, 2006 22:08:51 GMT -5
LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY
- Kasey Kahne broke Jimmie Johnson’s hold on the Coca-Cola 600 by
breaking his string of three straight ‘600’ wins. Kasey won his
third race of the season, and the first of his four total career
wins where he did not start from the pole. He led the most laps;
and his pit crew performed without even a hint of a problem on any
stop.
- Scott Riggs led the Evernham domination of qualifying by winning
the pole, with Jeremy Mayfield taking the outside spot. Kasey
Kahne, who has had the best Evernham car this year, started 9th.
Scott led the second most laps of the night, but fell short of the
win when he had trouble on his last pit stop. His car stalled and
the team still had the fuel can in the car as they pushed it out of
the pit box, resulting in a penalty, which took him out of
contention. He finished 13th.
- Michael Waltrip failed to qualify without having a provisional
starting position available to fall back on for the first time in
262 consecutive races. He has been in every race since November
1988, where he missed the Phoenix race. Michael secured a starting
spot in the race by purchasing the right to race in the #74 McGlynn
Motorsports’ Dodge, which was qualified by Derrike Cope. The car
was wrapped with a NAPA decal, which met the demands of Michael’s
sponsor. He finished 41st after having brake trouble on lap 116.
Darrell and/or Michael have been in every Cup race for the last 31
years.
- 25 of the 43, and the first 19 starting positions in the Busch
race were filled by drivers who were also in the Cup race. In
addition, the top eight finishers came from the 25 regular Cup
drivers.
- Tony Stewart and Jamie McMurray both crashed in the first nine
laps of the Busch race and were transported to the hospital for
check-ups. Tony suffered a second crash in the Cup race which
resulted in a broken clavicle. He fell two positions in the points
race to fourth position after finishing 42nd. He is now 231 points
behind Jimmie Johnson.
- Because of the tire problem last year at Lowe’s, NASCAR dictated
the use of 13 gallon fuel cells. The teams were therefore forced to
pit about every 35 laps, with only 17 minutes of green flag racing
per run. However, Goodyear brought a very hard compound tire, which
allowed the teams to only change two tires or none on many stops.
The result was a night of 14 or more stops, where teams pitted many
times with fewer than 15 laps between stops because there were 15
caution periods. This put a premium on teams and drivers not making
any mistakes entering, exiting and during the pit stops. More than
eight drivers made some mistakes during the race and they had to
move to the rear of the field, or go a lap down. Carl Edwards did
so twice, yet recovered to finish 3rd.
- What did the smaller fuel cell mean to the teams? Here is a
breakdown of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s night:
• 18 stops total
• Four four-tire stops
• Nine two-tire stops
• Five gas only stops
- Penske teammates, Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch, both spun out and
caused cautions. Ryan did not hit anything, but Kurt went straight
to the garage area, and finished 39th, 110 laps down. Ryan was
running at the end, but finished 35th, 31 laps down. They are both
now over 669 points behind the points leader, Jimmie Johnson.
PIT NOTE
The ‘chase’ for the Chase is only half way to the Richmond cut off
date, but it is almost assured of being limited to the top 10. Only
the top six are now within 400 points of the leader, Jimmie Johnson,
with 7th through 10th positions being 410 to 435 points behind. By
the rules of the Chase, all those teams within 400 points of the
leader will be in the Chase or the top 10, if there are not more
than 10 within 400 points. Jimmie’s consistency (9 top 10s in 12
races) has made it impossible for large gains to be made even by
teams that finish well each week. Unless he has a couple of DNFs
(Did Not Finish), look for the 10th place team to be over 600 points
out of 1st.
PIT NOTE:
The goal of being in the Chase is paramount to the teams. Settling
for less is a defeatist attitude that even the 21st team, Jeff
Green, (-679 points) will not admit. At the half-way point, teams
must re-evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. They must look
honestly at what it will take to get to 10th, with the ability to
overcome Jimmie’s lead realistically limited to those in 2nd – 6th
place. By honestly evaluating the immediate conditions and
possibilities, these teams will do away with “pie-in-the-sky”
rhetoric and focus on just making the Chase. If they are successful,
they will be only a maximum of 50 points behind with 10 races to go.
Rick Warren, the author of the best selling book, "The Purpose
Driven Life," and pastor of Saddleback Church in California, was
riding along in mid-pack, not even thinking about being in the Top
10 of anything when his book became a national phenomenon. It
brought wealth and notoriety literally overnight. At the same time,
his wife was diagnosed with cancer and has been in treatment (at
almost the identical time).
Here is part of an interview Rick gave, which gives a balanced view
of how all of us should face the good and bad circumstances that
generally exist in our lives simultaneously. Rick said, “People ask
me, what is the purpose of life? And, I respond, in a nutshell,
life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and
God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to
stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me. I
may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions
of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress
rehearsal.”
“God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in
eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that
out, life isn’t going to make sense. Life is a series of problems.
You are either in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're
getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that
God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is
more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your
life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not
the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ
likeness.”
“This past year has been the greatest year of my life, but also the
toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that
life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go
to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind
of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have
something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good
things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to
be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there
is always something good you can thank God for.”
“You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,
"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest
ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto
God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers
of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or
make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet
God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping
other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to
people.”
“You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For
instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15
million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a
lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't
think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you
to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to
do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two
different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians
9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would
not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary
from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative
we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the
poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I
added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I
started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be
able to serve God for free.”
“We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions?
Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt?
Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's
purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the
side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done
today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put
me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in
what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not
human doings.”
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
WHERE CAN I FIND COMFORT?
go2mro.c.topica.com/maaeQQwabqXsobcWBktbafpLP7/
MRO CHAPEL SERVICES
Now you can enjoy listening to live recordings of our Busch and Cup
track chapel services.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
go2mro.c.topica.com/maaeQQwabqWa3bcWBktbafpLP7/
THANK YOU! IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2006, MRO RECEIVED $1,121 AS A
RESULT OF YOUR PARTNERSHIP!
MRO and Office Depot have partnered to allow 3% of your personal or
company purchases to be rebated to MRO as a tax deductible
charitable contribution! Why not allow an existing business expense
(office supplies) to further benefit an organization that does so
much to help others? No matter if it is for your business or
personal use, MRO will get the rebate!
It is simple to register! By phone, call 800.424.8138 and ask to
speak with Gwen Howard or send an email to <a
href="mailto:gjhoward@go2mro.com">gjhoward@go2mro.com</a>.
*Quarterly donation statements will be provided by MRO.
FAN OUTREACH AT THE TRACKS
Raceway Ministries, along with MRO and our Ambassadors, provide
information and activities for the fans and their families
throughout the race weekend at all tracks that the NEXTEL Cup Series
frequents. Please check out the outreach efforts taking place this
weekend.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
go2mro.c.topica.com/maaeQQwabqWa7bcWBktbafpLP7/
MOTOR RACING OUTREACH ASSOCIATION
The Motor Racing Outreach Association (MROA) is designed to be an
organization of people and ministries committed to providing quality
care and trauma response who align themselves with Motor Racing
Outreach in accordance with our doctrinal statements, philosophy of
ministry, mission and vision to impact the world for Christ. Members
will come primarily from a common interest in motorsports, but can
also include persons and organizations from other fields of ministry
opportunity.
- Kasey Kahne broke Jimmie Johnson’s hold on the Coca-Cola 600 by
breaking his string of three straight ‘600’ wins. Kasey won his
third race of the season, and the first of his four total career
wins where he did not start from the pole. He led the most laps;
and his pit crew performed without even a hint of a problem on any
stop.
- Scott Riggs led the Evernham domination of qualifying by winning
the pole, with Jeremy Mayfield taking the outside spot. Kasey
Kahne, who has had the best Evernham car this year, started 9th.
Scott led the second most laps of the night, but fell short of the
win when he had trouble on his last pit stop. His car stalled and
the team still had the fuel can in the car as they pushed it out of
the pit box, resulting in a penalty, which took him out of
contention. He finished 13th.
- Michael Waltrip failed to qualify without having a provisional
starting position available to fall back on for the first time in
262 consecutive races. He has been in every race since November
1988, where he missed the Phoenix race. Michael secured a starting
spot in the race by purchasing the right to race in the #74 McGlynn
Motorsports’ Dodge, which was qualified by Derrike Cope. The car
was wrapped with a NAPA decal, which met the demands of Michael’s
sponsor. He finished 41st after having brake trouble on lap 116.
Darrell and/or Michael have been in every Cup race for the last 31
years.
- 25 of the 43, and the first 19 starting positions in the Busch
race were filled by drivers who were also in the Cup race. In
addition, the top eight finishers came from the 25 regular Cup
drivers.
- Tony Stewart and Jamie McMurray both crashed in the first nine
laps of the Busch race and were transported to the hospital for
check-ups. Tony suffered a second crash in the Cup race which
resulted in a broken clavicle. He fell two positions in the points
race to fourth position after finishing 42nd. He is now 231 points
behind Jimmie Johnson.
- Because of the tire problem last year at Lowe’s, NASCAR dictated
the use of 13 gallon fuel cells. The teams were therefore forced to
pit about every 35 laps, with only 17 minutes of green flag racing
per run. However, Goodyear brought a very hard compound tire, which
allowed the teams to only change two tires or none on many stops.
The result was a night of 14 or more stops, where teams pitted many
times with fewer than 15 laps between stops because there were 15
caution periods. This put a premium on teams and drivers not making
any mistakes entering, exiting and during the pit stops. More than
eight drivers made some mistakes during the race and they had to
move to the rear of the field, or go a lap down. Carl Edwards did
so twice, yet recovered to finish 3rd.
- What did the smaller fuel cell mean to the teams? Here is a
breakdown of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s night:
• 18 stops total
• Four four-tire stops
• Nine two-tire stops
• Five gas only stops
- Penske teammates, Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch, both spun out and
caused cautions. Ryan did not hit anything, but Kurt went straight
to the garage area, and finished 39th, 110 laps down. Ryan was
running at the end, but finished 35th, 31 laps down. They are both
now over 669 points behind the points leader, Jimmie Johnson.
PIT NOTE
The ‘chase’ for the Chase is only half way to the Richmond cut off
date, but it is almost assured of being limited to the top 10. Only
the top six are now within 400 points of the leader, Jimmie Johnson,
with 7th through 10th positions being 410 to 435 points behind. By
the rules of the Chase, all those teams within 400 points of the
leader will be in the Chase or the top 10, if there are not more
than 10 within 400 points. Jimmie’s consistency (9 top 10s in 12
races) has made it impossible for large gains to be made even by
teams that finish well each week. Unless he has a couple of DNFs
(Did Not Finish), look for the 10th place team to be over 600 points
out of 1st.
PIT NOTE:
The goal of being in the Chase is paramount to the teams. Settling
for less is a defeatist attitude that even the 21st team, Jeff
Green, (-679 points) will not admit. At the half-way point, teams
must re-evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. They must look
honestly at what it will take to get to 10th, with the ability to
overcome Jimmie’s lead realistically limited to those in 2nd – 6th
place. By honestly evaluating the immediate conditions and
possibilities, these teams will do away with “pie-in-the-sky”
rhetoric and focus on just making the Chase. If they are successful,
they will be only a maximum of 50 points behind with 10 races to go.
Rick Warren, the author of the best selling book, "The Purpose
Driven Life," and pastor of Saddleback Church in California, was
riding along in mid-pack, not even thinking about being in the Top
10 of anything when his book became a national phenomenon. It
brought wealth and notoriety literally overnight. At the same time,
his wife was diagnosed with cancer and has been in treatment (at
almost the identical time).
Here is part of an interview Rick gave, which gives a balanced view
of how all of us should face the good and bad circumstances that
generally exist in our lives simultaneously. Rick said, “People ask
me, what is the purpose of life? And, I respond, in a nutshell,
life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and
God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to
stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me. I
may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions
of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress
rehearsal.”
“God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in
eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that
out, life isn’t going to make sense. Life is a series of problems.
You are either in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're
getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that
God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is
more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your
life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not
the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ
likeness.”
“This past year has been the greatest year of my life, but also the
toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that
life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go
to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind
of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have
something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good
things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to
be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there
is always something good you can thank God for.”
“You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,
"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest
ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto
God and others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers
of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or
make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet
God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping
other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to
people.”
“You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For
instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15
million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a
lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't
think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you
to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to
do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two
different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians
9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would
not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary
from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative
we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the
poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I
added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I
started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be
able to serve God for free.”
“We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions?
Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt?
Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's
purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the
side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done
today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put
me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in
what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not
human doings.”
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
WHERE CAN I FIND COMFORT?
go2mro.c.topica.com/maaeQQwabqXsobcWBktbafpLP7/
MRO CHAPEL SERVICES
Now you can enjoy listening to live recordings of our Busch and Cup
track chapel services.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
go2mro.c.topica.com/maaeQQwabqWa3bcWBktbafpLP7/
THANK YOU! IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2006, MRO RECEIVED $1,121 AS A
RESULT OF YOUR PARTNERSHIP!
MRO and Office Depot have partnered to allow 3% of your personal or
company purchases to be rebated to MRO as a tax deductible
charitable contribution! Why not allow an existing business expense
(office supplies) to further benefit an organization that does so
much to help others? No matter if it is for your business or
personal use, MRO will get the rebate!
It is simple to register! By phone, call 800.424.8138 and ask to
speak with Gwen Howard or send an email to <a
href="mailto:gjhoward@go2mro.com">gjhoward@go2mro.com</a>.
*Quarterly donation statements will be provided by MRO.
FAN OUTREACH AT THE TRACKS
Raceway Ministries, along with MRO and our Ambassadors, provide
information and activities for the fans and their families
throughout the race weekend at all tracks that the NEXTEL Cup Series
frequents. Please check out the outreach efforts taking place this
weekend.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
go2mro.c.topica.com/maaeQQwabqWa7bcWBktbafpLP7/
MOTOR RACING OUTREACH ASSOCIATION
The Motor Racing Outreach Association (MROA) is designed to be an
organization of people and ministries committed to providing quality
care and trauma response who align themselves with Motor Racing
Outreach in accordance with our doctrinal statements, philosophy of
ministry, mission and vision to impact the world for Christ. Members
will come primarily from a common interest in motorsports, but can
also include persons and organizations from other fields of ministry
opportunity.
