Happy new year to one and all. There is nothing like a change of the year number to breathe a little fresh air into life. New goals, new challenges, and a blank sheet of paper. Obviously 2008 was a bit of a challenge for me in a couple of ways. My career path took a couple of dips and dives. Around Thanks giving of 2007 I was going to leave RGM for Wood Bros., only to have an 11th hour change of heart. (Seriously...Wood Bros.???....What was I smoking???) I was glad that I stayed at Rob's and…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on January 2, 2009 at 1:50pm —
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I learned something yesterday. If you spend 150 bucks at the beer store, you get a free T-shirt. I guess I went a little overboard. If anyone is in Charlotte and is jonesing for some good beers, check out Brawley's Beverage on South Blvd. (http://www.brawleysbeverage.com/) They have a superb selection (don't go there to buy Bud Light Lime, OK...they have it, but don't waste their time), and since my family is coming down next week, I wanted to make sure they drank well. So now you know where…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on December 21, 2008 at 11:03am —
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I am proud to report 2 major achievements that were attained just today. The first was that I took tuna sandwiches to a whole new level. For lunch today I mixed cucumbers, onions, and feta cheese into my tuna with some mayo and plastered it on an onion bun with some muenster cheese...Brilliant...The other achievement of the day is probably more profound, but less tasty. I am pleased to announce that TheHotPass.com has taken $100 from THP store sales and donated it to the Jamie McMurray…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on December 14, 2008 at 8:58pm —
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I am pretty sure that I am finally getting caught back up in life after the Thanksgiving 30 hour driving weekend last week. What a nitemare. Two years ago I said I would never travel again for Thanksgiving, so i guess I lied to myself.
Anyway...Here are the final 2 weeks of the 25 Days of Robby Items. We'll get that wrapped up by the 19th so everyone can get their Christmas gifts.
It's the middle of the offseason now, and…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on December 7, 2008 at 10:00am —
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So we finally made it to the end of the season. The last race was a bit anti-climactic as the 48 was never really in danger of losing the championship, and the race for the 35th owners points position was not really all that close either. Congrats to the 7 car team for keeping their driver in the top 35 and the guaranteed spot in the Daytona 500. With a new year always brings renewed optimism, so 2009 could be happy hunting for the 7. Time will tell.
Before I delve any deeper, just…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on November 23, 2008 at 9:21pm —
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My appologies for being so late again with the post. Being back in the working world is tough I guess. My appolgies for to the THP users for this being so Robby-centric, but Robby's is the only cup team I've ever worked on, so my oppinions have been shaped from my experiences there.
Want to get some buisness out of the way before I touch on some of the craziness that has gone down in nascar world this week. First of all, THP store has been so successful that we are are going to make…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on November 15, 2008 at 5:23pm —
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Most of the time I just write about food, but I figured I'd take a stab at writing something technical. But first, since I consider myself a tiny bit of a writer, I'd like to give a shout out to Michael Crighton who died this week. He obviously wrote Jurassic Park among other books, and produced E.R. (which I have never watched). I think Jurassic Park was the first book that I read twice. I was about 12 or 13 when that came out, so it was right up my alley. Then Jeff Gordon drove the Jurassic…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on November 6, 2008 at 8:46pm —
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All appolgies for the late post this week...I just spent 5 hours in line with the whole early voting deal, after a long night of Halloween partying, so I am a bit spent. Not as spent as the people who travel with the cup teams, though. It's a long season and the end is finally in sight. Usually there is a sense of relaxation that comes at the end of the season that is similar to the last day of school. However, I fear that the state of the economy and the knock on effect on some of the less…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on November 1, 2008 at 4:36pm —
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After a quarter of a year and atleast 500 games of Mario Kart (Wii of course) I finally got off my ass and got a job. I am working for TRD as a seven post guru now. TRD just opened a new facility north of Charlotte to support Truck, Nationwide, and Cup teams (and Grand Am), and it's pretty nice. Basically, any Toyota team will be able to schedule time on the seven post or other test rigs in the facility, and it's my job to support them. So, now I have worked with or for every manufacturer in…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on October 23, 2008 at 8:53pm —
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On Wednesday I woke up at 5 in the morning, jumped in the Mini and headed north on I-77. I got off the highway and headed west on NC Rte 421, the Junior Johnson Highway. I blasted through the shadow of the old North Wilkesboro Speedway, and miles later found myself entering the Benny Parsons Highway. As romantic as this sounds, I wasn't looking for a passport to a bygone racing era or Junior Johnson's moonshine still. My destination was the Johnson County Tennessee Court house in Mountain City,…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on October 17, 2008 at 10:53am —
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So I was going to go over to Lowe's last night to watch qualifying and try to do some more networking, but it rained just enough to wash out the entire day. With Charlotte being the home track for alot of teams you usually see some small budget teams or new drivers in a 3rd or 4th team car try to qualify, and it's a shame that they didn't even have a chance yesterday. It will be sad when the franchising comes into play and you can't build a car in your garage and try to qualify. It is one of…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on October 10, 2008 at 2:21pm —
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So the Charlotte race is next week. If anyone from the Planet would like to take a peek at The Hot Pass store and buy some awesome gear first hand, or take me out to lunch and pick my brain about life, love or the pursuit of happiness, I will available.
I live 6 miles from the track, so I'd be happy to drop by your campsite as well.
Drop me a message if anyone wants to meet up.
Added by Fatback McLosaw on October 2, 2008 at 3:27pm —
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Many of the fans in NASCAR land get really excited about Talladega, as the race is so action packed. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a snoozefest from an engineering point of view. The body rules are so tight that there is little room for development of an awesome low drag package. There are surely gains to be made by making adjustments to the underbody, but these are really hard to measure. One way that the well funded teams try to find these gains is by straight line testing. The install a bunch…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on October 2, 2008 at 3:24pm —
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First off, I just want to thank everyone out there who has supported "The Hot Pass" store. It has been fun to find and offer the official gear, and I hope you have had fun recieving the items. They are unique pieces, and I hope everyone that wears the stuff to the track feels like a little more of a badass that they circumvented the merchandise trailers and gotten the good shit. I have some great items on deck, so keep your eyes peeled. If anyone has requests for specific teams or sizes, send…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on September 25, 2008 at 8:20pm —
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Dover...One of the coolest tracks on the circuit in my mind. I was not very lucky at the nickel slots in June, but I still like Dover. You will notice on TV this weekend that there are bridges that cross over the track. One of the neatest experiences is walking out of the track on Saturday and watching the Nationwide cars zing off of turn two all pitched sideways as they dissappear under your feet.
The first Dover is always interesting for RGM as the Baja 500 is usually the same…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on September 18, 2008 at 8:34pm —
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In the same way that anyone has watched the slow decline of an addict, everyone on the planet has been waiting for rock bottom to hit and to start seeing some upward momentum. So, perhaps, the rainout on Friday was the breath of sunshine in the dark forest for the Robby faithful. We only had to qualify on time for the first 3 races that I was an employee in 2006 and we made all them. Each one was nervy and anytime you have to cut a lap, you have the chance to "trip on your dick" as they say in…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on September 13, 2008 at 11:10pm —
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So it looks like weather will be a factor for the race this weekend, but there are enough challenges at Richmond sans hurricane, that it will be an interesting weekend. First of all the race is an impound, so there is only on practice, then qualifying and the race. You can change a few things like grille tape, trackbar, jackscrews, and other normal pitstopish adjustments between qualifying and the race, but that's it. So, it can be a miserable weekend if the car is not 90% of the way there off…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on September 4, 2008 at 11:28am —
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Maybe I messed that up a little bit, but those are the first words out of about everyone's mouth on the cup circuit after you land in Fontana. In N Out is the unofficial burger joint of the cup series for all of the west coast races, and is usually the 1st stop if not the 2nd and 3rd stops for the team guys. Can't beat the fries there....mmmmm..mmm...I think the people who live in CA get a little knumb to In N Out, but it's like crack cocaine to the eastcoaster's.
I digress....So…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on August 27, 2008 at 10:58am —
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So this week is the Bristol night race, which is obviously a fan favorite, and I think most of the team guys will tell you that short track Saturday night racing has a special appeal, considering thats where many of the guys cut their teeth.
This is obviously the same track that the COT debuted on, so the teams have had a fair amount of time to come up with decent setups. The first time we went to the race, it was a bit of a nitemare. It was the first time the COT had gone through…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on August 21, 2008 at 3:02pm —
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So what does an unemployed NASCAR engineer do with themselves. They go on vacation. Last week I drove about 3000 miles round trip from Charlotte to Massachusetts to Wisconsin and back to visit friends and family. When I left on Monday morning I saw the last couple of haulers (20 and the 99) on their way back to their respective shops from Pocono. They were definitly in teardown after the race, so they were a little later than the rest. Then on the way home from Wiscnonsin on Wednesday I saw the…
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Added by Fatback McLosaw on August 15, 2008 at 9:10am —
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