Sick and Champ Car

Hello all. Not much happening here. I've spent the past two days home sick, and I could easily be home in bed right now. And the worst aspect is that I don't feel abominably bad, just kind of bad. If I'm going to be sick, I might as well be sick, you know, where you know there's no way in hell you could go to work. I hate this "I could, technically, go to work" feeling. So, I'm here, feeling like crapola wearing my glasses as I was just not up for putting in the contacts this morning and just waiting to go home.

I was going to write this great entry on Tuesday about how and why Wayne "Whine" Gretzky is NOT the greatest hockey player of all time, but being sick I didn't have the energy and I'm not even sure I have it now. So, for now, you'll just have to take my word for it. He's a pansy-ass and no way he deserves the accolades he gets. I even had a link to a great story of the "Top 10 myths and lies in sports," but damn FoxSports seems to have moved it or deleted. Damn!!! Trust me, it proved my point with all sorts of numbers and shit.

And for those of you paying attention, Champ Car had its last race of the season on Sunday. My butt was firmly planted in front of the TV between 4:00 and 6:00 to see our new Champion crowned. Two drivers were going for the Championship, teammates Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira. Sebastien basically had to keep his nose clean and he'd win the Championship (he had to finish something like 11th even if Bruno won the race), but instead he went for it! He kicked some serious butt and at one point even had 17 seconds on Bruno (hanging out in 2nd), but then he had to scare the crap out of me and spin going into a turn. Thankfully there was enough run-off room at that corner for a double-bottomed tanker, so he gassed it going into the spin, kept the car running and off the wall and got going again, now with a 5 second lead over the Whiner (so-called, because he can't give an interview w/o whining. He can win the fucking race and he'll whine about something.) and them built his lead back up until he ran into some backmarkers who apparently weren't aware the freaking leader of the race was right behind them. He made his way through the traffic though and went on to win the race and cement his run to the Championship with a champion-caliber drive when all he had to do was play it safe! He kicked butt all year long (winning 7 races, fully half of the races run) and had something ridiculous like 13 of 14 front row starts. He had a brilliant season and I think he's a very worthy Champion and next year will be a fabulous contest as Cristiano DaMatta returns from a two-year hiatus in a crappy Toyota in Formula One to his seat at Newman-Haas Racing. I'm geeked for next year!

And of course, the highlight for me is that Oriol Servia finished tenth in the overall Championship – the best ever finish for a Dale Coyne driver. I was so happy for Oriol and Dale. Dale's been in the sport for many years but has always been a second-tier team as he does not get the sponsorship deals needed to run a top-level effort, but Oriol put forth an unbelievable year and even got a podium at Laguna Seca (first podium for Dale's team since my beloved Pupo, i.e., Roberto Moreno did it at Michigan in 1996). So, all I have to say is:

Congratulations,
Oriol
&
Dale!!!!

Oh, and Sebastien, too!