Saturday, March 17, 2007

Singings & So-ons from the Truck & Busch Races in Georgia


The Crow Holler 300 is now available in a GIANT limited edition print from WesFreed.com . (If that link don't work, try the Wes Freed link over to the right there...)

We'll do this quick and dirty today, as Aint Dixie is savin' up for the really fun stuff in the Cup Race tomorrow. Rankin' Rob says Quentin Tarantino is giving the command, and the boys back at the shop cain't hardly wait! We reckon he's going to be promoting his new joint venture with perennial Willard's Garage favorite, Roberto Rodriguez, called Grindhouse . And it looks, as the saying goes, "Hotter than Georgia Asphalt in July."

For flavors sake, I'll add that as I type this I can hear cars roaring around Richmond International Raceway, which is 1.5 miles from Willard's Garage. Must be having a Richard Petty Driving Experience there today, as it sounds like stock cars. When the Indy Cars are there it sounds more like gigantic mosquitoes.

CRAFTSMEN TRUCK SERIES: American Commercial Lines 200

The Invocation : was given ably by Rev. Tom Summers of the Carver Road Baptist Church of Griffen, Georgia. He specifically asked for God to grace the pit crews, and then I could have sworn he asked that God get "all the Glory" for the race.

How odd.

Our National Anthem : was performed by a Miss Holly Summey. I Googled her & couldn't find anything, so we reckon she's just some local gal with nice pipes. Cute little blonde thing with a turned up nose. Looked like most all of the NASCAR wives and pit lizards, but she did a fine job singing. She was a hair flat in a lot of places, but not so bad the average person would notice. She did use TEN!! count 'em TEN!! notes on the word "wave" - which really makes me mad, as y'all know, so:

TWO STARS from Dixie
-and-
THREE AND A HALF STARS from Cecil, who apparently got distracted by her comliness.

The Command : was given by American Commeercial Lines CEO, Jerry Linzey, and lemme tell ya, people... (excuse me while I giggle first....) - Mr. Linzey really tried hard to put some air in it, and he shouted it out fairly well in a tenorish voice, but he lisped like a sleepy drag queen, Bless His Heart. Wethinks Jerry might be a fairy. And that's all good- cuz you know what we love at Willard's. There is little more pleasant to the ear than the drawl of an effiminate Southern man.

So THREE STARS for Jerry's, "Driversth! Sthart yer engines!!!!!"

And on a somewhat separate (??!!??) note, it's always nice to have Michael Waltrip in the booth announcing the truck races - his commentary is always entertaining. As is Todd Bodine insisting on calling Phil Parsons "Philsy". We love that.

+++++++++++

BUSCH SERIES: Nicorette 300

Invocation: Bill Brannen, AMS Chaplain. Nothing special, really. Thank you Lord Baby Jesus and all.

The National Anthem: sung by The New Life Inspirational Gospel Choir, which was a whole bunch of black college kids from various schools. and whose motto is "To magnify God, edify the believer and evangelize the world, beginning at home!". Okay. Thanks, Kids! Nice job! I feel magnified, edified and evangelized.

Their arrangement was oddly Ivy League in tone, but there were a few shouty hot-doggers in the group who couldn't help showing off their Gospel chops a bit, despite the very WASPY arrangement, and overall it was cool. A tad uneven tonally, but you're going to get that when you have 10 or 20 people singing into 3 or 4 microphones at the same time.

THREE STARS from Willard's.

And a question: they seem to try to employee black singers a good bit for the National Anthem - which we have no problem with at all, as long as they don't get too notey. We don't like it when white folks get too notey either. But do y'all think NASCAR tries to go out of their way to hire black singers & entertainers whenever possible? As part of this almost desperate push for diversity? It just seems to us that sometimes they're trying too hard & being painfully obvious about it. Like in the winner's circle at any given race, I swear to God I think they deliberately place black folks right behind whoever the winner is, so when the clip gets shown on newscasts across the US people can say, "Wow! There's a black guy at a NASCAR race!"

THE COMMAND: was given by the Parsons family, as the race was dedicated to B.P. Very nice, and very touching. Phil resolutely said, "BP, this one's for you.", then the family all shouted "Gentlemen! Start your engines!!" in unison.

It was very nice, and very moving. God bless them all.

9 Comments:

Blogger Racefan57 said...

yes..it was nice to see the Parsons Family

have a great race day!!!

7:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello Willie!

Nice tribute to BP!

9:08 AM  
Blogger The Dixie Butcher said...

Thanks for joining us, fellas. Big Gracias! Check back, Rankin' Rob will likely check in too, with some smart-alecky comment or other. Why we love The Rankin' One. :)

He's probably still recovering from the Busch race, since he was there in person and all... too many $10.00 Budweisers.

10:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I actually laid off them racetrack beers, just trucked in a few of my own. Brought the little rose bud home a Penelope Pitstop t-shirt from the Race Girls stand. I had a bum steer about Tarantino, but the Cup command was pretty good from that Kobalt dude. Small wonder the Kobalt car won the big race, no?

Hay Pee looked pretty stout, driving that Handsome Harry Gant line. I noted that to my companions Saturday, well before D. W. used in today. And if you are Ward Burton, at least you can say you are ahead of Mikey in the points. Feh. On to the Car Of Tomorrow.

8:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've had more of both Waltrips in the booth than I can stand. Just when I think DW can't say anything dumber, he surprises me every week. And 20? years of listening to Mikey's 10min sponsor jabber is my limit. I'm full. No more Waltrips. You know it's bad when I look forward to NBC's coverage just so I won't have to hear a grown man say boogity boogity boogity. Please, please, please get Kyle Petty, Wally, or Warren Wallace from that Geico commercial. Anybody, really, would be an improvement.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

1:21 AM  
Blogger The Dixie Butcher said...

Whoa! Hey boys - yer jumpin' the gun on Aunt Dixie a bit - that's cool, though- I'll be mouthin' off about The Big Race later today & hope you'll add even more comments for y'all to riff on. You do it so much better than I - it makes my day.

Jay, my friend, I'm with you on D.W. Bless his heart, I think he inherited Dr. Nick after Elvis died, cuz each year I do believe they're upping his prescription. I don't mind him being on board with The Lord Baby Jesus, but Celine Dion? Holy Pete! That old man needs an intervention.

Warren Wallace. HOLY FUCK THAT'S GENIUS!! I am in love with that kid!! I want him. Yes, you're dead right - he needs to be a commentator. I bet he can read better than all those guys (except my beloved Brad Daughty ) at ESPN, too.

He has to keep the toothpick, though.

And we can thank all of our fine & very clever friends at The Martin Agency in Richmond, VA for that commercial. I'll do a piece on them one day - they do some of our favorite race day ads.

Warren Wallace & the Cavemen on FOX. That'll work. Screw the lizard, though.

Good call on the Harry Gant, thing Rob - and no small wonder you beat DW to the (not Jerry) Punch-although that's probably where DW heard it first.

I'm looking forward to the day Hay-Pee we be moppin' up the track with the likes of Jimmie J. and Kyle Busch.

Jay- sorry, but I just can't be a Mikey Hater, but you're entitled to your opinion, of course. I'll do a piece on him one day, too. The Boy is a mess, but he's kinda an "our people" kinda mess. I just can't bring myself to hate a closet homosexual who emulates the Andy Taylor character from The Andy Griffith Show. It could be worse, he could be imitating "Lonesome Roads" from "A Face in the Crowd."

8:07 AM  
Blogger RevJim said...

Thank you so much for stopping by Rev'Jim's and leaving comments. It helped introduce me to your entertaining, hilarious, and informative weblog. I love it. Hope y'all don't mind if I add you to my link list? If nothing else, so I can keep up on y'all's musings!

2:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just to let you all in on a secret. The kid on the Geico commercial, his name is Lauren not Warren. Lauren Wallace is the man.

1:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nascar.com has said, that since Nationwide Ins. is taking over the Busch series, Nationwide has the right to kick out the Gieco Ins. Comp. Gieco can not and will not be grandfathered in. Say bye bye to Lauren Wallace. Boycott Nationwide Ins. for Lauren Wallace.

8:54 AM  

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