Life as a Virtual Assistant - Lightening Your Load One Smile at a Time: California: Fontana

The California natives ruled at the Pepsi 500 in Fontana, CA on Sunday, October 11, 2009.  Once again, Hendrick Motorsports proved why they own the Auto Club Speedway.  I guess this is apropos for the company who is celebrating its 25th Anniversary.  After Jessie McCartney skipped a line or two of the National Anthem (practicing the national anthem before you perform it in front of a bunch of rednecks might be a good idea), grand marshal Kelsey Grammar gave the "Gentlemen, start your engines!" to begin the first Sprint Cup race to come to Southern California.  Jimmie Johnson quickly overtook pole sitter Denny Hamlin to get out front.  The only other real contender for first place for most of the race was Juan Pablo Montoya, who started his typical aggressive first place bid around lap 25.  It began to look like it was going to be a pretty boring race between just Jimmie and JPM, with the rest of the field left in their dust.  However, the last 50 or so laps turned into a nail-biter.  You know that the points are close when you get a caution for debris, another caution 4 laps later and then another caution on the restart of the last caution when so many cars get bunched up together and cause "the big one".  Unfortunately for Dale Jr, his streak of bad luck continued, as he got accidentally turned by the guy behind him and started "the big one".  Jr was actually having quite a spectacular day, too.  I felt bad for the dude.  This Jeff Gordon girl was on the edge of her seat hoping Jeff could pull ahead of Jimmie when they began their last restart with only 3 laps to go.  Unfortunately, Jimmie got a great restart and jumped ahead of the pack again.  JPM challenged Jeff for 2nd before Jeff edged him out at the end.  With Mark Martin finishing 4th and Tony Stewart finishing 5th, four out of the top 5 finishers for the Pepsi 500 in Fontana had Hendrick Motorsports engines in them.  It was a good day for HMS.  But, both Jimmie and Mark need to watch out because Juan Pablo Montoya is quickly heading their way.  The next Sprint cup race will be on Saturday, October 17th at 7pm EST on ABC in Charlotte.  See ya there!

Top 5 Finishes at Pepsi 500 in Fontana on October 11, 2009:

1. Jimmie Johnson (#48)
2. Jeff Gordon (#24)
3. Juan Pablo Montoya (#42)
4. Mark Martin (#5)
5. Tony Stewart (#14)

Points standings after Race #4 in Cup Chase:

1. Jimmie Johnson = 5728
2. Mark Martin = -12 pts
3. Juan Pablo Montoya = -58 points
4. Tony Stewart = -84 points
5. Jeff Gordon = -105 points
6. Kurt Busch = -121 points
7. Greg Biffle = -188 points
8. Carl Edwards = -192 points
9. Denny Hamlin = -219 points
10. Ryan Newman = -223 points
11. Kasey Kahne = -306 points
12. Brian Vickers = -351 points

Heather Chavez, Real Estate Virtual Assistant - Second Self Virtual Assistance: When There Isn't Enough of You to Go Around!

First of all, congratulations to Mr. Matt Kenseth for the second win in the first two weeks of NASCAR's 2009 season.  This was a much better win than last week's rainedout.  Next, my man, Jeff Gordon, was soooo close to his first win since October 2007.  I was hoping not only to be able to witness Jeff's first win in 16 months live and in person, but I was ready to be done with all the talk of how Jeff has never gone this long without a win in his career.  Both he and Greg Biffle, arguably, had the best cars of the race.  The stands weren't as packed as I had seen them in the last few years, but there were plenty of people on hand to watch the race.  TV's House doctor Hugh Laurie gave the "Gentlemen, start your engines" speech (after performing with the As Seen on TV band that included James Denton from Desperate Housewives performed with Hugh Laurie in the Band on TV before the race.  Former NY Giants player Jason Sehorn and his wife, actress Angie Harmon, were there to wave the checkered flag.  We had to sit in the (shudder) sprinkles of what Southern California calls "rain" that drifted through the area (causing four of the five yellow flag delays in the race), but it was a fun day for any NASCAR fan.  Really, it was literally a sprinkling of rain.  I was beginning to think that what NASCAR laughably determined to be "rain" would cause us to watch 250 laps go by at 55 mph for the first 50 laps of the race.

I am the lone Jeff Gordon fan in my NASCAR family of Jr fans.  I get a lot of heat about loving "the enemy".  So, I have to say that watching Jeff run a hell of a race on Sunday was right up there with Jr coming on over to the winning Hendricks team last year.  I didn't have to say anything about the race.  I'm not a gloater.  I really don't have to be.  However, I can't say that I was happy to see Jr fall prey to a bad break when he dropped a cylinder just over halfway through the race.  It's always hard to watch a good driver have a bad race.  And, listening to him run after trying over and over to fix the problem during Yellow Flag pit stops was quite excrutiating.  It sounded like a wounded animal limping around the track.  And I took no pleasure in watching him get lapped (even by my own guy) in a sea of crap-talking Jr fans (not to insinuate that ALL Jr fans talk crap...just my group of friends).

I'm happy at the way Jeff Gordon's year is taking shape so far.  I'll be watching FOX on Sunday at 3:30pm ET to see how he does in Las Vegas.  Go #24!  Let's just hope his pit crew works on their skills that were so seriously lacking on Sunday (every pit lost Jeff 2-3 positions).  They need to take notes on Kenseth's pit crew.  Now THAT'S a crew that knew what they were doing!

Top 10 Results of Auto Club 500 from February 22, 2009:

1 - Matt Kenseth (#17)

2 - Jeff Gordon (#24)

3 - Kyle Busch (#18)

4 - Greg Biffle (#16)

5 - Kurt Busch (#2)

6 - Denny Hamlin (#11)

7 - Carl Edwards (#99)

8 - Tony Stewart (#14)

9 - Jimmie Johnson (#48)

10 - Brian Vickers (#83)

Heather Chavez, Second Self Virtual Assistance

Please contact me about all your virtual assistant needs.  Second Self: When There Just Isn't Enough of You to Go Around!