MRO's Did You Know Newsletter

Did You Know, June 29, 2011

Infineon Raceway

- Kurt Busch gets the first road course win of his career at Infineon Raceway. For three weeks in a row, Kurt has won the pole but not the race. The win is the second this year for Penske Racing, which is the only team racing Dodges. In this era, teams with fewer than three cars are deemed too small to effectively compete; much less with a manufacturer that has only two teams racubg their cars. Penske and Dodge are the most surprising story of 2011.

- Seven changes in the Top 10 in points after Sonoma. With only nine races left before this year’s Chase, the certainty of who will be in the Chase was severely tested at Sonoma. Dale Jr. was the latest victim of Top 3 drivers having problems in the last three races. Carl Edwards lost 34 points of his lead three weeks ago; then, Jimmie Johnson lost a position with his 27th place finish at Michigan, and Dale fell four spots with a 41st place showing this past weekend. Dale was a victim of someone else’s spin in Turn 11 and blew his engine before he could transverse the over two miles of the course with a hole in his radiator from the crash. Kurt Busch picked up two spots with his win, while Hamlin and Stewart fell out of the Top 10 with crashes in Turn 11 ending their day.

- Kurt is the eleventh different winner in 2011. Three of the winners are not in the top 20 in Points. While Trevor Bayne is not running for the Cup Championship, Brad Keselowski is 22nd, 12 points out of 20th and Regan Smith is 28th, 59 points out of 20th. Both will miss the Chase unless they are in the Top 20 after Richmond. At this point, for Hamlin, the 4th winner not in the Top 10, a win does not assure a driver of making the Chase.

- Jeff Gordon finished second after struggling most of the race. Jeff moved from 15th to 2nd in the last 20 laps.

- Points leader, Carl Edwards, finished 3rd after cancelling his participation in the Nationwide race and staying in Sonoma for the final two hour practice. Carl was scheduled to fly to Road America for the Nationwide race; however, his practice was so bad that he needed the extra Cup practice at Infineon. He ended up with a Top 3 finish.

- Montoya was involved in three different spins and crashes, and he passed the most cars in the race. Montoya is the most experienced Road racer in NASCAR. He had a fast car, but his impatience with other drivers on a course that only has two distinct passing areas cost him a Top 3 finish, if not the win.

PIT NOTE

Tony Stewart does not liked to be blocked (a driver moving over in front of a faster car instead of holding the line and allowing an attempted pass) on the race track. He let Brian Vickers (one of Tony’s best friends) know it when he intentionally spun Brian. After repairs, Brian came back on the track and actually slowed for Tony to catch him going into Turn 11 so he could intentionally ‘pay back’ Tony. Tony ended up stuck on top of the tires and had to be lowered by a tow truck. He went to the garage to make repairs and came back but decided not to ‘pay back’ Brain again. Both drivers quickly acknowledged the intentionality of their actions. Brian said that Tony was wrong and that he was blocking. However, Tony said he was going to do the same thing to any driver (including Ryan Newman who drives his other car) if they blocked him at any race. Tony said that as long as NASCAR is following the ‘boys to have at it’ principle, he would enforce his own judgment on blocking.

Tony’s response would be called ‘road rage’ if it happened off the race track. Ultimately, it cost Tony a position in the Top 10 in points, a win at Sonoma, and a destroyed race car. It could keep him out of the Chase and the Championship. However, at that moment Tony saw it as the ‘right’ thing to do. Currently, he has voiced that it is the ‘right’ thing to do every time it happens.

A lot of issues could be addressed from this story, and a lot of moral implications could be made. However, when I think of Jesus relating to mankind while he was on earth, ‘rage’ was only seen when he was dealing with people who were ‘blocking’ the Truth. At the temple, he upset the money changers’ tables because they were making ‘his Father’s house a den of thieves.’ He was also enraged when the religious leaders made being right with God an issue of what man did, instead of what God had done. Jesus had no patience with these people because they claimed to represent and point people to Life in the Lord. But, in fact, they denied the grace of God that gave eternal life to all you believed the Promise that God would send a Savior, who was Jesus himself. These people were blocking the understanding of scripture to create a system that required people to do certain things at the Temple while paying the priest. Instead of the priest showing people how the Law was impossible to keep and allowing it to then show how only faith like their father Abraham had would give salvation, they used it to control the people.

Sadly the majority of people still do not understand the ‘proper use of the Law.’ They use the scripture to teach morals and make the Bible into a ‘play book’ to be coached by. They end up bringing condemnation on people instead of life, for “without FAITH, it is impossible to please God.” The proper use of the Law drives people to faith when they hear the Good News.
Please don’t block the Holy Spirit by thinking you can please God by doing even the things that we are commanded to do. Any of our efforts will always come up short of perfection and that is still sin. Jesus lived the Law perfectly with every breath he took, and then he gave up his Spirit with his last breath and suffered every drop of the wrath of God that should have been ours. That is the Good News.

Around the Track

We wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to a website, www.FaithAroundTheTrack.com. Their mission is pretty simple: to let people know it’s all right to be a Christian race fan.

They are focusing on three core areas, and one of those areas is FAITH. They hope to develop stories and other features, and grow this site into a place where people can read blogs, testimonies and stories about Christ in lives of race fans etc.; and if the Lord allows, a seed to be planted.

Their other two web-sites are www.FoodAroundTheTrack.com and www.HistoryAroundTheTrack.com.

Around The Track Online is owned and operated by Laura Darling and Steve Post. You can view their bios on-line.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!!

PRAYER REQUEST

- Team MRO, MRO Board of Directors, MRO Association Members and Shop Study Leaders.

- Safety for drivers, crew members etc. this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

- Fan Outreach efforts taking place at Daytona International Speedway.

- Please pray for the upcoming Bible/Shop Studies scheduled during the week of July 4-8, 2011.

Roush Racing
NASCAR Technical Institute (Women)
Motorsports Authentics
NASCAR (Men)
NASCAR (Women)
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Hendrick Motorsports
Joe Gibbs Racing
Richard Childress Racing
Richard Petty Motorsports
Penske Racing