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I'm just interesting what's gonna be the result on Tumblr

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Dover (1) 2024

I missed all but the last 65 laps, which I caught on the radio—starting right the aftermath of the last caution. I enjoyed the HECK out of that half hour though. I mean, my guys did well, which is always a plus, but the final run between Denny and KL was SUPREME, and PRN does so well in making the on-track action come verbally alive. Historically my favorite races are the ones where KL runs second to JGR, so good deal of approval from me.

At the time, I was riding on the 5 route bus, and I am willing to accept that Larson ran out of time to overtake Denny because I got off the bus with 2 to go. I will take responsibility for this.

For all I didn’t see of this race, I had a great time with it!! 🥰

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Well, R.I.P. to the Subaru Legacy. 1989-2025

...And the world did not notice. XDDD I mean, *I* noticed. But no one actually owns a modern Legacy. They do not exist. No one has ever seen one in person. No one has thought, "I was going to buy a Camry, but I gotta check out the Legacy first!" I feel like at least with the Ford Fusion, people actually owned them when they left the lineup.

I should probably be attached to the Legacy name, being that I own a Legacy, but it's also... just a name? For multiple reasons. First, I'm of the personal opinion that Legacy sedans are just cars. Legacy wagons, on the other hand--that's a Subaru.

And Legacy wagons haven't been made in almost 15 years:

In that sense, the goodbye has already come and gone.

Their spiritual successor of the Legacy wagon is, of course, the Outback, which once upon a time was just a Legacy trim level, before becoming its own beast.

And its size successor, owing to the COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL VEHICLE SIZE INFLATION of the last few decades, is actually the Impreza.

Even though the Impreza has always been a "compact" car and the Legacy a "midsize," the 2024 Impreza is basically the same size (a little bigger, actually, but a little lighter; slightly less ground clearance) than the 2006 Legacy.

Remember when Foresters shared a platform with the Impreza and they were small and cute? Bygone days (green and blue are Foresters):

So really, the Legacy technically still exists--it's just called an Impreza now. Except they're hatches, not wagons (which are cool, but not as cool as wagons). Or they're sedans. But if you're a Subaru sedan and you're not a WRX or BRZ, I maintain you're just a car.

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Well if you and Tailfin want to have your names on a part of Petty history, I just saw that Thad Moffit (Richard's grandson) is selling name spaces on the deck lid of the truck he'll be running at Darlington later this year.

I don't this most people who see this post watch NASCAR Cup, much less Trucks, but if anyone is a Thad Moffitt fan, your time has come! https://dailydownforce.com/product-category/petty-family/

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Hello Whipple!

I hope you’re doing well! Here’s your ask for the week!

What are your favorite things about Lightning McQueen? What makes him a great character for you?

Hello! Again, I feel like this is one of those topics that encapsulates the entire point of this blog, so it's been answered likely hundreds of times in a hundred different ways all across this blog, in years' worth of posts.

One of the more recent posts that comes to mind is this one. But "hundreds of posts" is not an exaggeration! The that's my baby race car <3 tag is probably also a good place to start. But so would just going to June 2017 and scrolling the archive, because that's pretty much what this blog has historically been about!

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It’s amazing what circles of hell become enjoyable when they are attached, however peripherally, to things you like. For example, I do not enjoy air travel. It takes nine billion years and it’s logistically challenging and I always just think “I am withering away for fifteen hours straight.”

I’m currently flying across the country for a work conference—they are, somehow, always across the entire country—but my layover is in Charlotte. Charlotte is actually one of my favorite airports, though I’m not here often because this is in fact further from my final destination than when I started eight hours ago. 😭😭😭😭 South is not the direction I’m trying to goooo. But the airport itself is light and airy and has trees inside and little white rocking chairs and it’s just such a good little airport bean.

But it also makes me think of RACECARS and I am thrilled by the technical proximity of racecars, even though I saw zero racecars and did not leave the airport. (CLT is also a lot less aggressive about there being racecars out there than IND is.) It’s the knowledge that they’re OUT THERE, NEARBY, SOMEWHERE. IT SUSTAINS ME.

Too bad my connection back is a red eye through O’Hare. The flight is a lot more direct/faster, but ORD will forever be one of the top worst airports to me

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Talladega (1) 2024

I ALMOST FORGOT.

The one where:

😂 Due to ejections as a result of the wheel falling off last week and the illegal roof rails this week.

2. The one where Toyota strategically pit together and was about to force the rest of the field to bend to their will, up until JHN botched it and Toyota, in true, classical Toyota superspeedway form, ended up just taking out most of Toyota.

3. The one where Corey LaJoie finished the race with his wheels at a 90-degree angle to the racing surface (well, not quite, because of the 33 degrees of banking, but his wheels were on the wall and not on the ground), after wrecking and getting pinned there by another wrecking car. This is way cooler than the gosh dang "hail melon" because I only believe in doing cool things on the wall if you weren't on the wall on purpose.

Spring Dega is always kind of a 'meh' to me, but I need to remember that this race is special and blessed because it was supposed to rain all day and this race 1) started on time, 2) had no rain delays, 3) ran to completion. I really thought I was going to have to organize my shed during a rain delay today, but kitchen chores sufficed!

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Texas 2024

Pressed for time, short recap: The one where P2 was the Death Zone and cars wrecked or spun out of P2 on four separate occasions. Widespread carnage and pit road fiascos. (Also the one where the 5 lost an entire wheel but far later in the pit cycle than one might expect, given there's only the one lugnut.) The booth was struggling HARD today, from not having stats ready to getting tongue-tied to failing royally to vibe off each other. This is not something I particularly mind--I'm someone who historically prefer the "was this filmed in someone's garage" sensibility of Fox's coverage to NBC's relative polish--but boy, it was ROUGH. First Chase win since late 2022, which was so long ago I was actually rooting for him!

I mentioned last week I had to drive a panel van for a field trip this Saturday. Good news: I turned out I did not have to drive a panel van! Bad news: It was a Chevy Traverse, LOL. My nemesis. Weird choice of information to display/not display on the dashboard (no odometer or trip miles by default?). Definitely felt heavier and boatier than my car, but that's because it is. I also tend to be a fairly light touch on the gas pedal, which did not suit this car at all--it felt like we were absolutely lugging it on the uphills, though I assume there's more power accessible; I just wasn't giving it as much as it wanted, but rather what I thought it should need. But substantially less cabin noise than my car; I think of soundproofing as a "new car" thing, which held true here. I think this was partly the number of tall people stuffed in the backseats, but boy, I could not see anything out that rear window. Bring back fishbowl windows!

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going from my old car (a Dodge) to a car that puts all its stat points into safety (a Toyota) is still a little funny, even after I've had this car for going on three years soon, because sometimes I forget that my car has these additional little safety features. like tonight I got home and went to hop out of the car and I left my lights on, so the car beeps to remind me to turn them off. except I forgot it does that so I'm just sitting there like "what is it boy???" like he's Lassie about to show me danger

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Hey Whipple! I hope you’re doing well and that you’re having a good week!

Here’s your weekly ask!

What do you think Sally and McQueen do to hype each other up when they have a bad day or need an ego boost?

:)

This could also apply to Flo and Ramone.

I feel like this is another one where the best examples already exist in canon. It's already in the text. We see Lightning hype Sally up on some level (bringing back the town's neon as a thank-you, after she wistfully describes the town before I-40), and see Sally do it directly at the start of Cars 3, when Lightning is weighing his options after his major wreck.

I think they ultimately vibe with each other so well because they can both be incredibly mushy-heartfelt, but also find genuine expression in sarcasm. I say "genuine expression" because they don't always use sarcasm as a veneer or distancing technique--sometimes it's a way of pulling back or not coming across as too invested, sure. But it's also just the way that words come out of them sometimes, and it's loving while also being the tiniest bit abrasive; it's not necessarily trying to hide anything. Like, Sally doesn't throw some sarcasm into her hype message because she's afraid of having a heartfelt moment with Lightning as he watches endless Doc crash videos in a dark barn in primer. It's a love language in itself; she says it because that's I love you.

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Hey Whipple! I hope you’re doing good!!

No ask this week! Just wanted to say thanks for always giving such amazing insightful answers to the asks everyone sends you!

You’re a great person to have in the fandom!

That's very kind of you to say! Thank you! I don't know that I'd consider myself rightfully "in the fandom," unless watching NASCAR Cup and owning a car counts, but I did bring Lightning McQueen to a solar eclipse potluck this week, on account of him having seen the 2017 eclipse in Wyoming last time. I think he had a good time, mostly in the hands of my friend's 15-month old daughter!

Of all the fandoms I've been part of, I think Cars fandom absolutely has the most positive overall vibes and greatest generosity of spirit and genuine passion for and appreciation of both source material and especially the fanworks. <3 I feel like it's a fandom that's really here for each other, if that makes sense!

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Meme: Nine people you'd like to get to know better!

I was tagged by @snurtle! Thank you!

Last song i listened to: "My Girl" by Aerosmith, which I've always assumed was about a car, but I suppose could be about a woman.

Favorite color: Deep red, though for homegoods I tend to go with blues or greens; same with clothes, except clothing also involves a lot of purple. On a car? Blaze Yellow. This is an absurd color for a car and I love it:

Look at that little inner-banana! Who put that color on a car and was like, "Oh man, that's hot. That's cool." Me, that's who.

I also think this is a great and severely underrated green:

Currently watching: At this exact moment, nothing! But I did watch the first season of Northern Exposure with my father when he came to visit.

Sweet/savory/spicy: Either sweet or savory in their turn, but I'd probably go with savory as a snack preference, and due to not liking things that are TOO sweet.

Relationship status: Trying to make local friends, I guess? I say "I guess" because I recognize and believe in the importance of having local community, but I also have very low social needs, so the idea of having to know more people than I already know is exhausting. Especially because I have non-local (or no-longer-local; I moved two years ago) friends I already vibematch really closely so hanging out doesn't feel like a social expenditure, and whom I want to keep in touch with. To say nothing of my Friends on the Internet! But I think I'm going to try to see if I can befriend the Bike People, so I can learn more about bicycles.

Current obsession: Honestly, I'm too exhausted to even think about the word "obsession" right now. ToT But I've watched a lot of bicycle videos recently, on account of doing research pre-/post-bicycle purchase. Were I not too exhausted my answer would be "MY BLEACH FANFIC."

I'll tag those who I see in my recent Activity! @sigurbjorg, @tom09sblog, @thatonelightyear, @pywackett-barchetta, @starrshot

And anyone else who wants to do it. Feel free to tag me if you do, because I love reading these when people do them!

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Martinsville (1) 2024

Missed this one too due to a work event but I can’t be mad at a 1-2-3 HMS finish!

The person I was interviewing wanted me to be “more like Ezra Klein” (in response to my having shared rough notes/questions ahead of time) and ngl I spent most of the event thinking, “for someone who wanted ‘more like Ezra Klein’ it sure seems like he could have prepped himself to be more like someone Ezra Klein was interviewing!’” (That is, prepared to offer thought-out, succinct responses.) That is all to say I’m at a crossroads! Is Ross Chastain my Nemesis, or Ezra Klein?

I am very stressed and this/next week were supposed to be regular, catch-up-with-everything weeks, but now it turns out I’m ~chaperoning a field trip~ next Saturday from 9-4:30 (and I have to drive a stupid panel van. Whyyyyyy) and then covering for a coworker while she deals with a family emergency (which is certainly much more stressful and intensive than literally anything I am being asked to do) I am so tired I am so tired I am so tired I am so tired but I should be able to see Texas and whatever comes after Texas (Dega?) before missing Dover. TEXAS COME TO ME

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Richmond (1) 2024

Okay, I didn't actually watch this race, but I just watched clips of the overtime. RIDICULOUS BEHAVIOR, I approve. Stellar. Beloved.

But what I really came here to say is that I've spent 30 of the last 48 hours working. (DEADLINE, MET.) I haven't showered in three days; I am starving; I need to go grocery shopping; I desperately need to vacuum. I've only left the house once since Thursday, and it was to...

Go to the car wash??????

Because it was well above freezing this weekend! I was like, "Oh no, gotta get the salt off!"

I chose to go to the car wash over taking that time to shower myself.

All I can say is, I hope my car remembers these sacrifices.

Car! Are you reading this!

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COTA 2024

Did I technically watch this race? Yes.

Can I think of anything to notate for posterity? Well.

NASCAR races are generally when I do my cooking and cleaning, and I had a butter explosion in the microwave, so that was fairly involved and pretty memorable. I also have company coming!! Which meant I did a lot more cleaning than I usually do, so things are feeling very clean.

Other than that, ummmmmm, Kamui Kobayashi was here, which is always a net positive. CBell managed to turn 2 out of 2 Kyles in this race, neither of which were actually that big a deal but does give me some fodder to add to my completely baseless dislike of Christopher Bell. KyBu finally got a T10 is probably my main takeaway.

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"Vehicle" for the purposes of this poll refers to cars, bicycles, etc.

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We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

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Bristol (1) 2024

Absolutely bananas race from start to finish. The tire management race to end all tire management races, to a degree that surprised everyone--including Goodyear. Everyone loves tire falloff being part of the race strategy, and today was excellent for that, but everyone was still baffled by the degree.

KyBu's terrible, horrible, no good very bad year continues apace (sigh), but the 5 did a great job quietly running in the T10 all race before a loose tire violation put him to the back of the field--only to execute some miracle of tire management and pit cycles and end up P5 anyway?

Only the first five cars finished on the lead lap

54 lead changes sets a new short track record for NASCAR, displacing the earlier record of 40 (1991)

HMS led their 80,000th lap today, which I guess is a stat someone is keeping track of

Denny wins!