by Mlissa | Jan 23, 2020 | Kyle Busch, Nascar, Sports
… Though you’d probably never know because I haven’t talked about it in, well, all of last season and my driver won it all. He’s the current Nascar champion.
I didn’t even watch most of the Nascar races last season.
Why not? Why did I end up taking a nap during most of the races I did watch? Because it’s become…tame. And boring. The leader would get out in front of the pack and runaway more often than not. The rivalry’s that the sport used to have are gone. The tension between drivers is just… Boring. Even when my driver won. Still. I found it boring and lacking any sort of real excitement. I mean, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have grown up and put their issues to bed and it’s been years since we’ve seen a good Kevin Harvick hood walking, jump and land a punch fight because tensions were high and there were wins on the line. Now… it’s just… It’s money driven. Keep the car clean. Keep the sponsors happy. Tow the line.
I’d rather see the knock-down, see the fire, see the spark. But, that’s just me.
I also haven’t been to a race in a couple of years. I didn’t want to pay that much money to people watch when I could go almost anywhere else within a 50 mile radius to find people doing stupid shit. Maybe not belly flopping in the mud after guzzling beer stupid, but ya know, sacrifices.
That’ll change this upcoming season, though. My son’s favorite driver since, oh… ’95, is retiring. Jimmie Johnson. So, we’ll be taking the 7 minute drive to Charlotte Motor Speedway a couple times to see him race in his final season.
The race watching has already begun in our house: Supercross began a couple weeks ago. And the Rolex 24 is this upcoming weekend from Saturday at 1:30pm until Sunday at 1:40pm. I plan to camp out in the living room, get TrackPass from NBC Sports Gold, and indulge. And bonus… Kyle Busch will be taking part in his first Rolex 24 in car #14, GT Daytona.
Plus, I stressed myself so much over the last few years with writing, or the lack thereof, that I didn’t take time for things I enjoyed (I didn’t even watch half the college football that I usually watch). I spun my wheels, did absolute shit to achieve any sort of meaningful progress for all my talk of mindset shifts and insights and whatever… None of it meant anything because I didn’t make any of the changes that needed to be made. I paid lip service, acknowledged some wrongdoing, wrong ways of thinking, but didn’t do the conscious work and it is work, very hard work, beyond journaling, to get through the internal bullshit and make real moves forward into a different mental and emotional place.
This year, though… 2020? Yeah, I’ve started actually doing the work. And it’s included taking some time away from the desk, to do things that make me happy. It’s mostly been reading, but I’m branching out to include other things… This topic is a post for another day, though. For now, just know, I’m taking time to smell the proverbial roses, and that includes bright, shiny cars with high powered engines.
You can take the girl away from Nascar, but you can’t take Nascar away from the girl…or something like that. That was bad, I know. Go on and roll your eyes. I did.
And yes, all this racing inspires other things that I’ll talk to you about at a later date, things like words…
Lissa
by Mlissa | Feb 19, 2017 | Nascar, Sunday Speeds
Howdy, y’all!
Nascar took to the track last night… OR rather, they were supposed to. The rain had other ideas… 
So, today, there will be racing! There will be 17 engines fired up and roaring around the track in Daytona at 11am! Next week is full of racing, too, starting on Thursday with the Duels at Daytona, followed by the Camping World Truck race on Friday night, the Xfinity race on Saturday afternoon, and the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
They’ve kinda change things up for this year, in terms of the races. Instead of one long race, they’ve decided to cut the races down into bite sized pieces. They call them stages. I call them shootouts.
But they’re heat races…
Short.
A little longer.
Longer.
Personally, I don’t think it’s going to work at every track. I think the super speedways, like Daytona and Talladega are going to have problems with this format. It takes 10 laps just to get up to speed! My gut feeling is that by mid-season, they’ll have to tweak the format some.
They’re trying to make it more enjoyable and exciting. I guess we’ll see.
They’ve also messed with the points system again so each of these ‘stage races’ will count. None of them are just ride around races. There are points in every part.
How many wrecks are we going to have?
This should be nothing if not interesting. And I could be wrong. Change isn’t bad and sometimes the whole system needs to be rethought and revamped. It’s going to be a long season and it can’t start until the green flag drops so…
Let’s Go Racin’ Boys!
~lissa
(The Clash image courtesy of NBCSports)
by Mlissa | Apr 25, 2016 | Kyle Busch, Nascar
Kyle and Samantha Busch, image courtesy of FoxSports, Nascar. Related artlcle: http://www.foxsports.com/nascar/shake-and-bake/dale-earnhardt-jr-kyle-busch-carl-edwards-samantha-busch-richmond-international-raceway-042516
Yes, I said Shit. I’ll say it again. SHIT!
Wondering why? Okay, a little background…
During the Nascar race yesterday in Richmond, on the last lap, Kyle Busch was about to win. He was THIS close. He was bumped and moved out of the way by his teammate, Carl Edwards, who went on to win. I sat here and I watched it and the first word out of my mouth was SHIT!
During that part of the race, the television cameras panned to Kyle Busch’s wife, Samantha, and her reaction was SHIT! You couldn’t hear her say it, but you could see her say it. Since then, she’s received such hate on social media…
Now, I’m not a practicing Christian. Hell, I’m not even sure I am a believer anymore, but she is and her faith has been questioned because she said Shit on television. Mind you, she didn’t know she was on camera. And she shouldn’t have to mind what she says at any time. It’s not anyone’s place to judge her, certainly not assholes who have nothing better to do than jump on her for showing some real and raw emotion, something the drivers aren’t allowed to do when a microphone is shoved in their faces as soon they exit the car, win or lose.
Other things have been said about her, too. It’s stupid. It’s ridiculous. And it’s pathetic.
Social media for some reason has given nameless, faceless people an outlet for their judgment, for their less than magical opinions, for their hate, their bigotry, their racism, their boredom. Get. A. Fucking. Life.
Samantha has apologized and some of the drivers have told her not to apologize, that she has nothing to apologize for. And they’re right. So she said Shit on television. It’s not the end of the world and it’s not the end of her faith. She’s a role model, yes. I get that. But does it mean she has to be void of emotion? That she has to carry herself above everyone else? Nope. Not a bit.
Be real. I love when people are REAL! I love when those in the public eye go off on the media or even go off on their fans or their haters… You know why? Because they’re finally showing something real, most times not staged or faked, but real. I don’t know y’all… It’s fucked.
The race was good. It was great actually. Even the ending. Yes, I wanted Kyle to win. I stomped and said Shit out loud when he lost. I felt it… Every Kyle fan felt it… Samantha felt it, too, and to an even bigger degree of disappointment. She was the one on camera. She was the one who was caught saying it. She’s the one getting shit for saying it, for saying Shit.
Those who sit in judgment, who profess faith yet cast stones, who use social media to tear down others because it makes you feel big and bad and important, who yell hypocrite… Fuck. You. Your glass house is going to shatter…
This post has nothing to do with anything other than it’s my blog and I can…
~lissa
by Mlissa | Mar 1, 2015 | Sunday Speeds
It’s the second weekend in the 2015 Nascar season and while I’m excited that we’re racing again, I’m very bummed still that Kyle Busch is out for a few months due to his accident in Daytona. He suffered a compound fracture in his right leg and a compound fracture in his left foot. He’s had surgery, is back in North Carolina, and at home recovering and resting, but the races just aren’t the same without him in the #18. (more…)
by Mlissa | Feb 23, 2014 | Daytona 500, self publishing
It’s here… The 2014 Nascar season. Speedweeks have been going on and there’s been racing on Daytona International Speedway since the end of January, but this is different. It’s always different. Today matters. Points matters. The engines firing matters. Pit stops matter. Where you end up when the checkered flag waves matters.
I’m a fan and if you know me at all, this is no surprise. I don’t like my driver’s teammates and I don’t like a lot of other drivers out on the track either. What I do like is good hard racing. Single file and falling in line don’t do it for me. I want to see squirrly cars and bumping and banging and rubbin’ is racin’ excitement. Yes it’s 43 cars going left around a track, but what people who don’t watch, who don’t pay attention miss, is the strategy, the radio communications, the teamwork or lack of. If you understand that’s what the race really is, then it’s more than just 43 cars turning left in turns 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Writing a book and pushing the Publish button is about strategy, communication, understanding of the market, teammwork or lack of, understanding of your own strengths, where the high line is and when it’s time to pull out and try another line… I sought some help the other night on this very thing and while I don’t like some of the changes I need to make, in the end, I’ll find myself and what I’m good at. I could do it the publisher way that I was taught for several years and see only mediocre results… Or, I could allow myself to be pushed and shoved and kicked out of my comfort zone and try things a new way. Being that I’m self-publishing more, I’m going to have to let go of what I was taught. This is scary shit, y’all.
Yesterday was my birthday. I’m 43. I’m no closer now to be where I want to be as an author than I was last year at this time when I turned 42. It’s time to shake things up. The books will be the same. Hot, naughty, sexy as sin men. Feisty, strong, curvaceous women. But the branding will be stronger, tighter. We’re going to have fun, even though there will bumps from behind, slams into the walls, maybe even a few tumbles through the air and landing on our heads as we try to figure out this new world. I was comfortable dipping my toe in, but I wasn’t making it anywhere near the new finish line. I wasn’t fighting for it or taking that bow at the end.
It’s time to change and change freaks me out.
I’m re-writing blurbs, changing keywords, looking differently at categories, and re-covering some books to match this new world to look sharper and hotter. We’ll be experimenting a lot, too.
Let’s go get that checkered flag!
~lissa
