Alright, Ty Dillon outduels Kyle Busch to grab his first career NASCAR Truck Series victory in the Jeff Foxworthy Grit Chips 200 at Atlanta.

Wow, in a Truck race that saw most of the hype centered around Kyle Busch making his first start of 2012 and him racing against his brother Kurt Busch tonight. It was Ty Dillon that stole the show by making a late race pass for the lead on Kyle Busch to capture his first Camping World Truck Series victory at Atlanta. Ty Dillon now 3rd in points and only 9 points back. Also a tip of the hat to James Buescher, Parker Kligerman and Aric Almirola who rounded out the top 5.

A side note, in watching the Truck race, while Kyle Busch did led several laps in the race, he was nowhere near the strongest or fastest truck in the field and to me that means these Truck Series regulars have come along way in talent and racing hard. What a cool thing to see and that a Busch Brother didn't win this race. 

Big Brother 14: Week 7 sees a twist of fate with Dan and Frank joining forces and Britney evicted from the house. #BB14

What a twist of fate in the Big Brother house as houseguests scramble for new alliances after Frank won HOH and nominated Dan and Danielle for eviction. Of course the real drama in the house came after the POV competition where Jenn who POV, Frank was in a carrot suit and benched for the next two HOH competitions when Dan feeling the pressure, held his own funeral.

He had good words to say about many except Ian and Danielle. Interesting seeing Dan tell Danielle "when it comes to the game, your dead to me" as a way to throw other HG's off that they are still working together. Danielle shouldn't trust Dan at all, but I wonder about her and where is truly lies in terms of alliances and who she trusts. I was even shocked with Dan's funeral sort of speak.

Of course that was all part of Dan's "master plan" that forms an alliance between Dan, Frank, Danielle and Jenn after telling Frank everything including rating out Ian on how he had a part in masterminding Boogie eviction. This new alliance led to a blindside of the now dead Quack Pack and Britney going onto the block after Jenn pulling Dan down. Amazingly enough, Pandora's Box had no impact on the game even with Ian winning the second veto. Second veto, what a joke.

A side note: I felt bad for Ian, but what goes around comes around and now Ian needs to stop arguing with Frank and instead rebound. There is still 7 HG's left including him and anything can happen. And another note, Dan isn't the best player in Big Brother history, but he is good. However Dan will NOT win BB14 especially after the way he treated Britney. He couldn't even give her a decent answer. The jury makes the decision who wins...

In the end, Dan's plan worked to keep him in the house and so did Franks plan to get out Britney, as well as Britney was evicted by a vote of 4-1. Personally I really wanted to see Britney in the final two and see if she could have won this game. Now Britney goes from the Big Brother House and off to the jury to join Ashley who was evicted last week.

Now I wonder though, how long will this new alliance will last? And that alliance maybe be put to the test depending upon who wins HOH, an endurance competition and next weeks double eviction...

The tale of two different NASCAR Bristol Motor Speedway races: Irwin Tools night race was a classic Bristol, but the Spring race was a better race.

Classic Bristol doesn't mean good race and the Irwin Tools Night race was classic Bristol, but a bad race. Where was the passing?

(Photo Credit: Wikipedia - Bristol Motor Speedway)

As the buzz still continues to be centered around the "entertainment" that was the Irwin Tools Night Race last Saturday night. I've been thinking about this race all week long and I've actually have a unique prospective if you will.

I see this as 2012, the tale of two different races at Bristol Motor Speedway that saw a big difference between what Bristol fans want to see and what NASCAR fans including me want to see at the famous bullring.

On one hand, you had the 2012 Spring race at Bristol with the progressive banking that was filled with plenty of passing, lead changes and action all day long from the bottom grove to the top grove.

Of course there is always room for improvement and I believe that that race under the lights on Saturday night with a better Goodyear tire would have improved the racing even more while still having plenty of passing. The Spring race in my book was a good race to say the least. Its what Bristol should be known for.

But one the other hand, after SMI decided that fans weren't happy and made a drastic move to bring back the old Bristol racing from before 2007 by resurfaced the top grove, grinding down the progressive banking, the classic August Saturday night race under the light changed in fact into the old Bristol.

And the end result was what fans saw last Saturday night in the Irwin Tools Night Race, the old Bristol of racing on a one-grove racetrack, but instead of that grove being on the bottom, it ended up being on the top grove with drivers having to drive single file around the top of the racetrack on a thin grove. In other words, they created the short-track version of Talladega Superspeedway and demolition derby if you will.

Sorry Bristol Motor Speedway, but you went from good races with the progressive banking that featured plenty of passing and action in the Spring race to a single-file race with drivers racing along the top grove with very little passing, yes a demolition derby in the classic August night race.

Sure there was a few classic moments in the race including Tony Stewart getting wrecked by Matt Kenseth and then Smoke throwing his helmet at Kenseth's car, Danica Patrick getting wrecked and then letting Regan Smith know it and more. But it was still a bad race. I really hope the Bristol fans are happy with the old Bristol and single-file racing. What a disappointment.

Just one thing, I wonder if having the old Bristol back will do what the changes were suppose to do, bring fans back to the grandstands?

Well, last Saturday night didn't change much as I saw the same amount of fans that the speedway had in August 2011. Back as for next April, who knows. I know one thing, if NASCAR and Bristol want any shot at coming close to selling out Bristol twice in 2013, the races need to be both Saturday night, under the lights races and fans need major help with the very expensive hotel rooms. Otherwise come next April, there will most likely be 110k fans in the grandstands again.

Photo: Brad Keselowski honors the 2013 NASCAR Hall of Fame member Rusty Wallace at Bristol Motor Speedway. #NASCAR

The driver of the #2 Miller Lite Dodge, Brad Keselowski will honor NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2013 member Rusty Wallace with a retro #2 Miller Lite paint scheme in the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Personally as a Rusty Wallace when he was racing years ago, I think this is a pretty cool paint scheme to honor Rusty Wallace and I have several discasts of the original. Classic look. But I wish they grabbed the Miller Genuine Draft black and gold paint scheme more (second image below).

Brad Keselowski and Rusty Wallace next to the #2 Miller Lite retro.
Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR

Rusty Wallace racing another classic paint scheme at Michigan back in 1994.
Photo Credit: wikipedia.org via Flickr.com (CC permission to share)

Big Brother 14: Week 6 sees Mike "Boogie" and Ashley evicted at the hands of Ian in a classic double eviction night. Cool!

Damn you got to love double eviction night's or "Fast Forward" in Big Brother and earlier tonight was a classic as, as predicted Mike "Boogie" was evicted by a vote of 5-2. Yes Ashley and Frank voted to save Boogie. But during the interview and goodbye remarks, Ian revealed to Boogie that he was the mole, rated him out and masterminded sort of speak Boogie's eviction. I loved it and so did Boogie. Goodbye Mike "Boogie". Well at least he won $16k.

Once that was done, Ian picked up where he left off by winning HOH and nominating Frank and Ashley. Of course Ashley was part of the Frank/Boogie alliance. But the plan was killed again when Frank won POV again. Ian then nominated Joe for eviction and before the smoke had cleared, Ashley was evicted from the Big Brother house by a vote of 5-1. Yes Frank was the sole vote to keep her.

Ashley didn't know what hit her and even I was surprised Ashley was gone instead of Jenn. Now Ashley moves from the Big Brother house to the jury house and becomes the first member of the seven person jury. Wow what a night and just think Ian had a hand in sending Mike and Ashley home tonight.

Now Frank is playing alone and pissed. He is having words for just about everyone in that house including Ian, Dan and Shane. Welcome to Big Brother...and we don't even know who the next HOH is nor what the question mark meant.

NASCAR: Timothy Peters leads all 200 laps to win the Truck race on a two-grove Bristol Motor Speedway. Yeah, wow and yet a decent race.

Despite the Million Dollar project that only created a two-grove racing surface and several contenders including Cale Gale, Brad Keselowski and teammate Parker Kligerman, Timothy Peters dominated, leading all 204 laps to win the UNOH 200 Truck race at Bristol.

Wow, now I begin to wonder what the racing is going to be like on Saturday night for the Irwin Tools 500? My best guess, tough, tight, two grove, hard to pass racing. Keep in mind that the resurfacing project just removed the top grove, but it did nothing to improve the bottom grove. Fans and track owner wanted a one grove track to improve racing and attendence, but instead they got a two-grove racetrack.

Top Gear USA: Rutledge losses small car challenge and goes from driving a Scion iQ to a Peel Trident. Funny!!!

A small car challenge in Louisiana, oh brother. Adam chose a Fiat 500, Rutledge chose a Scion iQ and Tanner was stuck with a Smart ForTwo Convertible. Personally I wouldn't buy any of them considering I'm 6 foot 6 inches tall and 350 ibs. big guy. I've seen the Fiat 500 and that is tiny. Actually if I wanted a small car, I would look at a Mini Cooper S. Of course I use to drive a Suzuki Sidekick, that was good with 4x4 in the winter.

I have to say it was interesting seeing the But I believe the co-hosts driving these small cars off road or with animals in them in the Byu. But the best part was it watching Rutledge drive a really small Peel Trident around town getting coffee, groceries and later on to Atlanta Motor Speedway, classic. Damn that car is tiny, really tiny and no power. Just one thing, remember on Top Gear UK in season 10, Jeremy drove a Peel through the streets of London, that was cool.

Rutledge driving the Trident on Atlanta
Motor Speedway.
Photo Credit: Adam Ferrara's Facebook page

America, your winner of the first season of ABC's The Glass House is Kevin. Let's hope their is a season 2!!!

Congratulations to Kevin on winning The Glass House, what a season. But good job to Erica (runner up) and Andrea (third place), they both played really good games.

I was pretty impressed with the first season of The Glass House, its free limited feeds, tons of fan interactions, its competitive challenges and ultimately having the fans vote out a player while in turn sending one player back into the house. The only thing I was left wanting more of was actual shows instead of just online feed. A Wednesday night actual live show with voting results would have been better especially when to elimination. And of course seeing the entire challenge on Monday night. Now hopefully there will be a season 2 in the pipeline either as a winter edition or next summer edition.

This was a fun, engaging and entertaining season.

NASCAR: Justin Allgaier takes Montreal win from Jacques Villenuve in last lap pass, winning his first race of the 2012 Nationwide season.

One word to describe Justin Allgaier winning in Montreal, "speechless". Another word, "justice". Every year I seem to look forward to watching the Nationwide Series drivers racing in Montreal because its you know its going to be a wild race, but even I was surprised by this one. All throughout the race, I was watching Danica Patrick really battle hard with the leaders for a top spot position and really thought today might have been her day, but sadly no. At the same time, I was surprised by all of the pit strategy going on including Elliott Sadler pitting from the back as early as lap 2. I knew fuel mileage was going to be an issue.

But as the race wear on, I watched as #22-Jacques Villenuve continue to led the way and battle with his teammate Sam Hornish Jr. as well as even get desperate at times and punt Alex "Tag" for the led with several laps to go. It sure looked like that #22 was unstoppable in trying to win at Circuit Gilles Villenuve. But fuel mileage and a few late race cautions including two G-W-C finishes led to a hiccup on the final lap where Justin Allgaier would take advantage, moving Villenuve aside and driving away to take the victory in a wild Montreal Nationwide race. Congrats to Justin Allgaier, hell of a win. Damn can NASCAR put a Cup Series race in Montreal too?

And Jacques Villenuve was just left wondering what could have been. As you can tell I'm not a fan of Jacques Villenuve and I believe he got exactly what he deserved, no victory. I just can't feel bad for a driver that doesn't give a damn about his competitors and will wreck anyone to win. 

Big Brother 14: Week 5 sees Wil evicted from the Big Brother House, no surprise there. But what about the "silent six" alliance?

After this weeks eviction of Wil by a vote of 6-2, this marks the halfway point in the Big Brother season, but you wouldn't know it since there are still 10 houseguests in the house following "game reset" a few weeks ago. However while Frank, the outgrowing HOH didn't make any big moves in the house this week, there has been some movement within one of two big alliances as Dan, Danielle, Britney and Shane are seeing the "silent six" (with Mike Boogie and Frank) falling apart fast.

The move for Frank to not back door Dan was not the best move, but the right move for right now. However Frank telling Dan that he thought about putting him up this week, that was the wrong move---you don't tell a player in your an alliance with that you were thinking about putting them up. That will hurt later in the trust factor.

With that said, since the HOH competition is an endurance comp with temptation including $10k and safety (can't be nominated or evicted this week, great gift), the new HOH wouldn't be announced official until Sunday. So instead, I'm going to leave this with a weird prediction...

If one of the "quack pack" members including Ian, Britney, Danielle and etc win HOH this week especially Ian, you could see Mike Boogie or more so Frank being put up for eviction. But if Jenn, or Joe win HOH, Dan might be a target considering there moves last week. Ian is the wild card here since he has no ties to Mike Boogie and Frank, he might put them up.

Note, Ashley (and three others) was shown at the end of the show going for safety instead of HOH and Mike Boogie was going for $10k. This should be good as next week is a double eviction week.

NASCAR: Where does the 2012 Watkins Glen finish between Marcos Ambrose and Brad Keselowski rank all time?

Brad Keselowski leading Marcos Ambrose
through interloop on the final lap at Watkins Glen.
Photo Credit: John Harrelson, Getty Images for NASCAR

I've been thinking about the last lap finish of this past weekend's Cup Series race at Watkins Glen where NASCAR didn't throw a caution for oil down on the track from Bobby Labonte (caution should have been thrown due to safety) with two laps to go led to a wild last lap with Kyle Busch getting spin out by accident, Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose battling it out before Ambrose took the victory. It was a good race.

But that begs the question, where does it rank all time? Here's my top 5 list and I'm sure I'm missing several.

1. 1979 Daytona 500 - Yarborough vs. Allison wrecking and fighting in turn 3 with Richard Petty winning.
2. 2003 Darlington - Ricky Craven beats Kurt Busch to win.
3. 2001 Atlanta - Kevin Harvick nips Jeff Gordon at the line to win.
4. 2012 Watkins Glen - Marcos Ambrose battles it out with Brad Keselowski to win.
5. 2000 Atlanta - Dale Earnhardt nips Bobby Labonte at the line to win.

But don't forget about 2007 July Daytona where Harvick edged Martin to win, 2011 Talladega Johnson beats Bowyer to win, or the 2005 Atlanta Carl Edwards nips Jimmie Johnson to win his first Cup Series race. There are more amazing finishes, but keep in mind that all of the top 5 I listed above had amazing and memorable final laps especial Darlington.

Top Gear USA finds the best Police Car, a Chevrolet Corvette Z06, well at least when it comes to the chase itself. Awesome.

Interesting, which new vehicle out of Detroit would make the best Police car to replace the famous Ford Crown Fic--A Ford Interceptor, a Dodge Charger and a Chevrolet Caprice PPV? Of course Top Gear came back with the Ford Police Interceptor as the winner... But watching Tanner Foust driving that Chevrolet Corvette Z06 custom Police car was just so cool and to beat a motorcycle on that course, damn, that's power. Good episode.

Tanner Foust driving a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 on Top Gear USA
Photo Credit: Top Gear USA Facebook Page

Looking forward to Taylor Swift's new album "Red" and hearing her new song "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".

Taylor Swift's fourth album cover "Red"
Photo Credit: Big Machine Records via email

Personally as a Taylor Swift fan since 2006, I'm excited after yesterday's announcement that her fourth album "Red" will be released on October 22, 2012 and knowing me, I will most likely just pre-order the CD online when its available, but I do have to wonder if there is a deluxe version coming soon as well like she did with her previous album "Speak Now" that was a Target exclusive. But even more, it was the first single that caught me eye, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". One could only imagine what sparked that song to be written!

My Take on the Apple vs. Samsung trial: It’s really simple, this is a loss/loss situation and both companies will pay in the end. The end.

I’ve been reading several different tech sites which do including opinion articles and details on the on-going trial in California between Apple and Samsung. And for the most part, I don’t see anything good coming from it.

I mean the simplest thing here is, this Apple vs. Samsung trial is already a loss/loss situation for both companies as these two companies are going to beat the living hell out of each other including revealing tons of secrets about each other over the course of this trial. Hell they already are revealing so much. If Apple was smart, they would stop, cut their losses and walk away, same goes for Samsung, but there not. It seems like both companies are just out for pure blood and don’t care about tomorrow.

With that said, as a consumer, this trial isn’t going to change my buying habits or what companies I want to give my money too. I looked at Apple iOS last year for my mobile needs and found that Android was and is a better fit for me due to overall cost is less expensive, more features including USB port and external storage and options more options to buy the hardware and even apps.

So I will continue buying what I like and using the service I enjoy including using my budget (LG) Android Smartphone, (Acer) Android Tablet, Windows 7 Notebook and iTunes for music and a few TV shows. It all works for me and I have no plans on changing.

Big Brother 14: Wil is wrong to think that they have now become the most hated cast in BB history because the backdoored Janelle.

After earlier tonight's live eviction that saw Janelle backdoored, blindsided and evicted, I was reading Twitter and according to a feed, Wil seems to think that they have now become the most hated cast in BB history for backdooring Janelle.

Personally as a Big Brother fan for the last 10 years now (since BB3), I think he's wrong. While I'm sure some BB fans are upset that Janelle was evicted, I believe that fans like myself will look at this bold move as good game play and getting out a strong player and nothing more. However I also believe that this isn't the last blindside or backdoor fans see as Mike Boogie, Frank, Dan aand Britney are still in the house and it might take backdooring or blindsiding to get them evicted too. Welcome to the game of Big Brother.

Big Brother 14: Week 4 sees blindside with Janelle getting evicted, Frank gets redemption by winning HOH again.

I can't believe it, after the "game reset" last week that saw the coaches enter the game and no eviction. It was Danielle that came out on top in the HOH competition after lasting more than 3 hours in the endurance comp. But it wasn't her original nominations of Wil and Frank that Houseguests or BB fans for that matter would be talking about as the POV would once again be the deciding factor.

Once Danielle won POV and Mike Boogie suggested and pushed for Janelle to be put up. The wheels were put in motion with the forming of two alliances "Quack Pack" and "silent six", it would be Danielle making a bold move by saving Wil and replacing him with Janelle on the block. I have to imagine that once Thursday came around, Janelle knew she was going home. And that's exactly what happen as HG's voted 8-1 to evict Janelle with Joe being the sole vote to safe Janelle.

In the HOH competition, it was Frank winning HOH. So who will Frank nominate? Well that depends upon whether or not Frank (and Mike Boogie) stay with there alliance the "pack six". If he does, Joe and maybe Wil will be nominated and Joe should be the target. If not and that's going to hurt, Dan and Shane might go up, but I don't see that happen. I wonder what's going to happen next.

Note: These are not spoilers, they are results from live eviction show already aired and my predictions based on what I've seen on TV and BBAD.

It's official: Dodge is leaving NASCAR at the end of the 2012 season. And I’m disappointed!

The 2013 Dodge Charger next to
2013 Dodge Charger racecar
Great looking concept, but that's all it is.

Earlier today, SRT Motorsports announced today that Dodge will withdraw from NASCAR competition at the conclusion of the 2012 season. (Read entire press release including comments by Ralph Gilles, President and CEO)

Personally I'm disappointed. I've been looking forward to the 2013 season since Ford and Dodge showed off their 2013 Cup Series cars at the beginning of the season. Finally NASCAR has given these manufacturers or the manufacturers have demanded (which ever way you look at it) that these 2013 Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series cars look more like the showroom version. And Dodge in 2013 looked good with the Challenger and Charger.

But now some of the 2013 season has changed with Dodge is leaving NASCAR again. When I heard about that the announcement was coming, I was really thinking okay Dodge is about announce they were taking a year hiatus or 2013 off and then come back in 2014 when they had a team or two, an engine program and chassis', but nope. Instead in the press release they gave no really clues into the future and just we are leaving at the end of the 2012 season.

With that said, now the 2013 season looks like Chevrolet running the Camaro in Nationwide and SS Performance in Cup, Ford running the Mustang in Nationwide and Fusion in Cup and Toyota running the Camry in both the Nationwide Series and Cup Series. Interesting.

Speedlinking: Former houseguest Matt from BB12 gives his thoughts on the Big Brother 14 game reset.

What is speedlinking? Speedlinking in my opinion is a term in blogging used to describe an article that just shares one or more links and a personal comment below the link.

I thought I would share this article called "Big Brother 14 Reset: Thoughts From Former HG Matt Hoffman" on The Big Brother Network where former Big Brother houseguest Matt from BB12 gives his thoughts on Big Brother's latest twist, game reset. If your a Big Brother fan, this is worth a read.

After reading the article, I left this comment:

"Damn, I'm a blogger and I couldn't even have said it with that much punch. Well said Matt. Personally I've been a Big Brother fans since somewhere around season 3 (yes I remember Marcellas) and I like the twists every season, it adds a good surprise or two. However when it comes to BB14, I liked the twist of having the coaches come into the game because the coaches were really the only people playing the game and it was all about Mike Boogie, Janelle, Britney and Dan and not the newbies. But I didn't like the way it went down, there should have been an eviction first, then the coaches got the option or just Big Brother saying to the coaches, now your players, deal with it. Basically the end result was fine, but the way the twist happened sucked especially for Shane. BB just ruined good game play by Shane. By the way, it wasn't until Thursday that I realized that Mike Boogie and Frank really didn't know that Frank was going home. Wow, they really were that out-their, damn I would have loved to have seen that look on both of there faces when Frank was evicted. I wonder if its time for Big Brother to come up with a new format for BB15 without former players returning?"

Of course now that game has been reset and Shane's HOH was a complete waste of time, I wonder who the new HOH (already played) and who the player nominated? Sorry but ThinkingBrian.com isn't equipped to handles spoilers correctly and I don't want to give away too much to fans that are just watching the CBS Big Brother shows and not a feed, so please check out BigBrotherNetwork and BigBrotherAccess for BB spoilers.

Big Brother 14: Big Brother hits reset button on game following America Voting "yes" and coaches accept which saves Frank from eviction. Welcome to a new game.

As if the first three weeks of Big Brother 14 wasn't entertaining enough which saw one houseguest get expelled, a lot of drama and game play mostly from the coaches, three houseguests evicted (Jodi, Kara and JoJo). Big Brother throw a twist at everyone Thursday night that even I wasn't expecting. All week long, fans were voting on America's Vote on whether or not they would like to see the coaches join the game. But what fans and coaches didn't know was what the impact was going to be.

On Thursday night after America's Vote came back yes, Julie told everyone that the coaches had the option to enter the game in what Big Brother called a game reset. They had each coach enter the diary room and vote, but it only took one coach hitting the reset button to reset the game and after 3 of 4 coaches said yes (Boogie said no), the game was reset, and no eviction (which means Frank and Joe are save and Shane is screwed because he tried to backdoor Frank).

Now the new game was on and all the houseguests (vets and newbies) went into the backyard to play the first endurance HOH competition of the season. Who would be HOH?

Personally, I was okay with the coaches twist because it meant that former players could only win as coaches and a newbie would win BB14. However that proved to be a big problem as the coaches were really the ones playing the game for the houseguests in most cases. So when this newest twist came about, I voted yes 10 times online and hopefully with the four coaches playing the game now, the newbies would have to wake up and play too or be evicted. Of course that means a veteran has a good chance can now win BB14 and not just a newbie.

The only thing is, Julie also said if the coaches said no to coming back, an evicted houseguest would return by someway. I like the coaches coming in, but I also want to see an eviction (Shane's HOH week was worthless without it) and an evicted houseguest return as well. Then there should be plenty of drama, a full house and a few live double eviction weeks. That's what Big Brother is all about...expect the unexpected.

As for the houseguests, we all know what Dan, Janelle, Mike Boogie and Britney can do (Dan and Boogie each won a season), but I want to see a newbie win BB14. Right now, Shane, Frank and Ian are the ones to bet for sure and all for different reasons.
.
Oh yeah, game on.

Note: Had to update one paragraph to clarify that I like the coaches coming in so that it forces players to play, but that I also wanted an eviction too.