Checkered Past

Aye, Jimmy, we hardly knew ye - Now, meet David Green

Folks familiar with the blogosphere here at ThatsRacin.com already are aware that Jimmy Ballard, a.k.a. the mayor of Rantville, has abandoned his post. And many of us will miss him.

Judging by the comments on Jimmy's blog, those applauding his departure are in the minority. You can count me among the undecided if you're polling. I like Jimmy a lot, for several reasons.

First of all, he lives in Texas. San Antonio, in fact. That's my hometown and I remember the Alamo every day. The former mayor speaks his mind, another quality my people have always appreciated. He sometimes reminded me of guys on the college newspaper, trying to slip foul language past the student editor and the faculty adviser, meanwhile forgetting what the story was supposed to be about. But that didn't bother me all that much. In fact, I never - ever - urged Jimmy to tone it down, figuring that was his butt he was showing, not mine, in his blog.

Honestly, I cringed more often at blogs about "Star Wars" sequels and "Family Guy" than I did his word choices. This is a racing site, after all. But I never complained to him. Remember, I'm the guy who wrote a blog early on about my daughter's cat getting run over one morning.

The decision to split was Jimmy's and, while I tried to dissuade him, his mind was made up when we spoke on Wednesday. His stated reasons appeared in his farewell blog. But we'd already taken a green flag on altering and expanding our blog lineup, which he was, until Wednesday, welcome to remain a part of.

In a blog the other day I touted the anticipated arrival of Tom Higgins, a NASCAR historian and former dean of the motorports press corps. He and I haven't gotten together yet on what he wants to call his blog, but "Damned Good" already comes to my mind. I firmly believe Tom will help add to ThatsRacin.com's relevance to many of the people NASCAR seems so intent on leaving behind. Those of us beyond our 20s who really don't care all that much for rap music and who do care - passionately -about the sport's roots and future.

Those of us who might prefer a TV program that deals realistically with the sport's real issues, without the celebrities, sprarklers and spokes-strippers that we're being force-fed.

So we wish Jimmy Ballard the best in his studies and his future and hope we'll see him at the races sometime. Now, let me introduce you to another of the folks we're talking with about contributing to ThatsRacin.com's Inside Line blogs.

He's David Green.

Yeah, that's a name you're familiar with, one he shares with a former NASCAR Busch Grand National champion and the winner of last weekend's Busch race at Pikes Peak International Raceway. While he's not the same one, this David is also a racer, which I think is one of the nicest things you can say about a person. He's also, like the other David Green, from Kentucky and they're both tremendously nice guys.

David has raced Late Models, on dirt and asphalt, and has run a few ARCA events. He's also covered nearly all forms of racing for newspapers, other print publications and web sites and is now making an honest living, as a teacher.

He and I aren't yet sure precisely what role he'll play here, but I like what David has to say and believe you will, too. So check it out.

Now and then, more than just a regional sport

By  David Green

A story posted on ThatsRacin.com today cites Rusty Wallace as a driver who helped fight the stereotype that NASCAR was a regional sport - a Southeastern U.S. regional sport - that was "populated by country boys with thick Southern accents who had names like Cale and Coo Coo."

The truth is that ever since Big Bill France formed this mechanized circus, it has had much greater geographical diversity and widespread popularity than the national media have recognized.

Consider:

- The first race in what is now the Cup Series was won by a guy from Kansas.

- The second champion was from upstate New York.

- The winner of the first Southern 500 was an Indy-car driver (they called them Championship Cars or "Big Cars" back then) from California.

- One of the first big-time team owners was a fellow named Kiekhaefer from Wisconsin.

- NASCAR's first really big-name superstar, arguably, was a guy from the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst, Ill., named Lorenzen, who had neither a Southern accent nor a distaste for conversations with reporters.

- Of the first 15 winners of the Daytona 500, there was nobody from the Carolinas not named Petty or Yarborough. There were representatives of California, Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania (technically Italy, but he was a naturalized American citizen) and Massachusetts.

All this, before Rusty Wallace was old enough to have a driver's license.

No question, Rusty deserves all the credit in the world for helping grow NASCAR racing to its present stature. But when he broke into NASCAR in 1980, he had much more than hillbillies to contend with. And that would have been the case pretty much at any time through the sport's more than half-century of existence.

In the '50s, there would have been the likes of Hershel McGriff (Oregon), Marvin Panch (California), Ralph Moody (Massachusetts), Paul Goldsmith (Indiana) and others, in addition to the Southern contingent. In the '60s, it would have been Fred Lorenzen, plus Dick Hutcherson and Tiny Lund (Iowa) and Darel Dieringer, who hailed from the home of The Greatest Spectacle in
Racing (Indianapolis). In the '70s, there were Pete Hamilton (Massachusetts), Dick Brooks (California) and Dave Marcis (Wisconsin) -- as well as Canadian Earl Ross, eh? Over the years, there were infrequent appearances by guys named Foyt, Gurney and Andretti.

When Wallace first got to NASCAR in 1980 -- in a car owned by Pennsylvania native Roger Penske, by the way -- "Coo Coo" (Clifton Marlin, Sterling's dad) was all but gone from the scene, but "Cale" (Yarborough) was going strong, as were Southerners Petty and Earnhardt. So, too, were Marcis; Darrell Waltrip, from the border state of Kentucky; and Bobby Allison, a native of Miami (more accurately described as a sixth borough of New York or the northernmost city in Latin America than a part of the Deep South). And there was a cat named Tim Richmond, who won top rookie honors in the Indy 500 the same year Rusty made his Cup debut, from Ohio.

It's true that France, a native of Washington, D.C., formed his organization in a Southeastern U.S. location. It's true that there was considerable influence on the sport's origins from moonshine-hauling drivers, the souped-up cars they drove and the talented mechanics who built them -- and
that just about all those folks were from Georgia, the Carolinas or Virginia.

It's true that NASCAR's first landmark venues -- Daytona, first with its beach-road course and later with the international speedway, and Darlington -- are deep in the heart of Dixie.

It's true that there was a long period in recent history during which most of the Cup Series races were in the Southeastern U.S., with a handful of visits to places like California, Michigan, Delaware and Pennsylvania. However, in the early years races were held all over the country. NASCAR's
push to add new markets nowadays is, historically, a return to some of them rather than a first overture.

It's obvious, when you scan a list of the winners of races through NASCAR's history, that drivers from Southern states have won more than their fair share. A trio of Carolina boys named Petty, Pearson and Yarborough pretty much made that a certainty all by themselves. It's also true that for every Jim Roper, Bill Rexford and Johnny Mantz, there are a dozen or more Lee Pettys, Curtis Turners, Junior Johnsons and Tim Flocks.

So, just as is the case with most every stereotype or cliche, there's more than a grain of truth to the notion that NASCAR was identified with the Southeastern U.S., and is just now shedding that identity. But perpetuating the stereotype is not only historically dishonest (or at least factually
flawed); it also does a great disservice to the Southern drivers who fit the stereotype only in terms of the place of their birth and the manner in which they pronounced their words.

Drivers who "would rather face the consequences of a flat tire in Turn 4 at Darlington than a reporter with a notebook or a camera"? David Pearson and Dale Earnhardt, maybe. But Tim Flock? Richard Petty? Darrell Waltrip? No way.

The South can take great pride in the part it has played in the development of NASCAR racing into the wildly popular form of sport that it is today. Competitors with "thick accents" and "names like Cale and Coo Coo" are most certainly an important part of the mosaic, and Southern race fans deserve great credit for the way they supported it over the years.

They should also know that the great Southern stereotype is more a creation
of the media than it is a complete and accurate truth. And so should everybody else.

You can't slow 'em down

I haven't found anyone yet who acts surprised by David Poole's note we posted Tuesday, the one about Buddy Baker running some 200 mph laps at Daytona International Speedway the day before. And why should they?

Sure, Baker is 64, but so what? Red Farmer has quite a few years on Baker and he's still racing with and often beating people his grandchildren's ages. Paul Newman, too, has 80 years on him and can still get around a track pretty quickly.

Bruton Smith is no spring chicken and he's as scrappy as any 20 year old you'd consider messing with. Smith would grudgingly acknowledge, too, that Bill France Jr. is getting on in years but is about as ornery as ever.

Another guy who gets around quite well - albiet in a golf cart - and has little or no regard for the years is Tom Higgins, The Charlotte Observer's former motorsports writer. Higgins tells a good story about Baker, too. Heck, Higgins knows a couple dozen stories about Baker and literally hundreds about NASCAR and it's characters. You could make that thousands when you factor in the hunting, fishing and golfing yarns, along with those about the other subjects with which he's familiar.

Seems Buddy Baker was at Talladega, working with a couple of the Penske team's drivers. A driver from another team, one just about as well-known for his behavior as he is his driving, walked past. It's a guy who, as Higgins puts it, "has quite a mouth on him."

"Hey, Baker," the young gun said, "Think you could run the speeds we do here now?"

"I don't know," Baker deadpanned, fondly recalling the days when engines and cars ran unrestricted at Talladega. "We never ran this slow when I was racing here."

Thank you, ladies and germs. (Cue the rim shot and canned laughter.)

Like I said, Tom Higgins has a million of 'em. And he'll soon start sharing them with ThatsRacin.com readers. It will take us a few days to get him wired and hooked up, but watch ThatsRacin.com's Inside Line blog space for his arrival.

I believe you'll find it entertaining and then some.

Oh, yeah? I think my driver could beat your driver

Our friend Keith is absolutely correct. It's time for a new topic. So why don't we revisit the tried and true Who's The Better Driver Debate? But let's leave out the usual suspects and talk about women.

Danica-mania is, of course, still gripping sports departments nationwide. ESPN, The Associated Press and others scrambled like nobody's business last weekend to report thoroughly and breathlessly that Ms. Patrick had spun and wrecked mid-race at Milwaukee. Which, I suppose, is understandable. The Formula One media did the same thing - up until this season anyway - when Michael Schumacher so much as smoked his tires. (Bridgestones, not the Indy-offending Michelins.)

Sarah Fisher, too, has been getting some ink and bears responsibility for the burning of much videotape. Kathrine Legge, a Brit with a big right foot, has won a couple of Toyota Atlantic races, too. Allison Duncan is another good one.

Ashley Force, John's daughter, is making waves in the NHRA. Angelle Sampey has been doing so for years.

And there's Eric Crocker, the former World of Outlaws winner that Ray Evernham has taken under the same wing many credit with a degree of Jeff Gordon's success.

There are likely others, current and past, that ought to be mentioned and/or brought into the discussion.

There's no doubt that Danica Patrick has gotten the most press of the current crop. That's gonna happen when you lead the Indianapolis 500 late in the day and have David Letterman as one of your team owners. And I don't doubt for a second that she knows what she's doing. She's learning, too, every time out.

But I think Erin Crocker could beat her in a match race in just about any kind of car, just so long as it's on an oval. Otherwise, my money would be on Patrick.

But you know who I think could give any of them a good run for their money?

Louise Smith, Sara Christian and Ethel Flock Mobley.

Those three showed up for "'Big Bill" France's second Strictly Stock race in Daytona, about a month after the first one that was ever held, in Charlotte in 1949. They went door-to-door with the Red Byrons, the Flock brothers and the rest of the stars of stock car racing's early days.

Ehtel Flock Mobley, in fact, beat two of her three better-known brothers in the race.

Those, of course, were the days well before driver-development programs, developmental racing series and diversity programs. If you wanted to race, fine. Just don't ask for or give any quarter if you wanted to hold your own. And they held their own just fine, coming out ahead of many a man.

Know what else? I'll bet you a horse collar any of the three of them could hold their own in the contests that often followed races of that colorful - and sadly, bygone - era.

God bless Jack and defiance

Jack Nicklaus played what he swears will be his last competitive round at St. Andrews on Friday, fittingly in the British Open that he's won twice.

I think everyone believes him and respects his decision. Golfers legendary and ordinary saluted the game's greatest on Friday.

Also fittingly, there was more tribute paid this week on that hallowed ground, as play on golf's greatest stage stopped, in honor of the victims of last week's terrorist attacks in London.

We salute those victims as well.

And we'll further appropriate this space to salute and promote in some small way the defiant spirit good people show through this link right here.

Hit the links below when you get there, have some fun, get mad if you wanna and post your own.

Plans to ferry fans hit rough water already

Just, please, get me to the race on time.

Is there any worse feeling  - in a race day context - than sitting in your car, stuck in traffic, listening to the start of the race on the radio? Or hearing that unmistakable and wonderful sound from a few hundred yards away?

No, there's not. Unless you're trying to be fashionably late, of course.

Gotta ask: If you've been to a NASCAR race anytime since 1950 and have seen what most of us wear when we go to the track, why are you even worrying about "being fashionable" to begin with?

Figuring out and beating traffic on a race morning, though, is an art unto itself. I'm still doing stick figures while others have moved on to the more complex portraits, landscapes and still lifes, and into their assigned parking spaces and grandstand seats.

But proposed tracks in the New York City area and near Bremerton, Wash., could put a new, maybe even sadder twist on the tragedy of poor race day planning. NASCAR and sister company International Speedway Corp. hope to enlist ferryboats to help get fans to the track.

How bad would it be to still be a couple hundred yards from shore and to hear 43 guys mash the gas as the green flag - still well out of your site - waves?

Hopes of using the boats might have already hit some rough water though.

John Annese of the Staten Island Advance talked with three councilmen who are -  how shall we say? - not on board with the thinking in the big offices in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Two of the borough's three councilmen say the city should spurn overtures by NASCAR track developers to use Staten Island ferryboats as mega-shuttles to the proposed speedway here. The third is uncertain about the idea.

International Speedway Corp. - which wants to build an 85,000-seat NASCAR track on nearly 700 acres of industrial land on the West Shore - has started talking with the city Department of Transportation to see if it can charter out-of-service Staten Island ferryboats on race weekends to handle fans.

"At this point, it's an absolute insult that, after all this time, they're going to suggest borrowing the Staten Island Ferry. No way!" said Councilman Andrew Lanza (R-South Shore).

"It just proves to me, this late in the game, that they are unwilling to meet the legitimate concerns of Staten Islanders when it comes to NASCAR," he added.

Councilman Michael McMahon (D-North Shore) expressed similar sentiments.

"I hold the Staten Island Ferry boats somewhat sacrosanct for Staten Island commuters, and to take those boats and ply them out into uncharted, untested waters where who-knows-what is going to happen, is to me just totally unacceptable," said McMahon.

"I would do everything in my power to stop the Staten Island Ferries from being used for anything other than bringing Staten Islanders back and forth to Manhattan," he said.

Annese found shock and surprise at ISC.

Michael Printup, project manager for ISC, said McMahon and Lanza's comments surprised him.

"I can understand wear and tear, but it's potentially just six days a year. We're not going to overtap what the Staten Island Ferries currently provide in terms of services on Saturday and Sunday," Printup said. "These are boats that sit idle on the weekend."

The city ferries, which would leave from Whitehall Ferry Terminal, could cut down significantly the number of private ferries and cruise boats ISC would need to transport more than 30,000 fans and employees to and from the track, company officials say.

Printup said ISC would pay for use of the ferries.

"We'd be employing current management, we'd be employing current pilots, boat captains to navigate those areas, deckhands," Printup said. "We're not the experts here. We would obviously be renting or paying for the services of the Staten Island Ferry."

Ferries have also been mentioned as race weekend possibilities where ISC wants to build another track, in Washington state. This is ISC's second round in the Pacific Northwest, where rising costs and growing public opposition doomed an earlier attempt to lock in a track site.

The issue of traffic - and studies related to race traffic - might currently be considered a sore spot in Kitsap County, where the 900 acre track site is situated.

Consider this commentary from the News Tribune.com, which says in part:

Note to Kitsap County public employees: Your responsibility is to the folks who pay your salary – the taxpayers – not to private interests that want to build a racetrack near Bremerton.

That may seem a little elementary, but apparently it’s a message some Kitsap County employees need to hear.

One of those employees, a traffic planner, told a county commissioner that he gave away what are supposedly the county’s only copies of documents related to traffic around the proposed site of a NASCAR track. The recipient: the Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council, the private nonprofit corporation trying to bring the track to Kitsap County.

Do the traffic documents bolster or damage the case for siting a racetrack near Bremerton? That would be nice to know, since the public is probably going to be asked to pony up millions of dollars in subsidies for the $250 million track.

I couldn't agree more, particulary with the writer's emphasis in that last sentence. The conclusion, too, deserves a tip of the sweaty old golf cap:

This kind of subterfuge is not in the public’s interest. Nor is having work performed by county employees handed over to a private corporation and not made available to the public.

As for those documents, here are two more words of advice: Make copies.

The economic development council supposedly has the only copies of the disputed documents. Can’t a secretary there make copies and send them back over to the county so the records request can be honored? When council director David Porter was asked that question Monday, he declined to answer “in light of the attorney general’s investigation.”

Here’s another idea: Send that planner over to the council’s office to retrieve the documents in person. He can take a Kitsap County deputy with him if he needs a little muscle. Those documents are, after all, public property.

"Public interest" and "public property." It's good to see those terms given precedence over the interests and property of a private company that could easily afford to build its own new speedways. The ISC and NASCAR pitch to the taxpayers in either location should be simple and far less costly:

"Buy a ticket and come see us" would suffice.

But they could say this, too: Try to get to the race on time, however you're coming.

Timing couldn't be worsefor Kenny Wallace, his teammates

There's nothing formal or official out there yet, but it's pretty obvious that serious sponsorship troubles have come up for Kenny Wallace and his teammates in NASCAR's Busch Series.

A news release about it was posted in ThatsRacin.com's Media Center sometime Thursday evening. A similar missive was also on the team's web site.

As both pointed out, "The No. 22 car is currently fifth in NBS driver and owner points standings, only three behind fourth place and 135 points ahead of the sixth-place driver."

That would make now an even-lousier time to have the financial rug pulled out from under a race team. Wallace, team owner Greg Pollex and the rest of them deserve better.

As hard as finding a new sponsor at mid-season might prove, a lot of us are hoping they can and will keep going. They've run too well this season to have to park now.

There is no "I" in team,or in C-O-N-T-R-A-C-T

Pop always said to be real careful what you sign and I wish I'd listened more closely. Maybe Jamie McMurray wishes he'd heeded similar advice right about now.

The driver, currently seventh in the Nextel Cup standings, has accepted a generous offer to take over the No. 6 Fords after Mark Martin steps away. But McMurray's current bosses, Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates, want to hold him to their contract, which runs through the end of the 2006 season.

Which means he'll take over way after Martin leaves, a year after. And that can be a long time in Nextel Cup years.

I don't have the numbers to prove it, but I think lame ducks seem to do OK, whether you're talking Nextel Cup racing or national politics. But I'm not sure either party in this mix would shy away from a settlement, which might allow both to start fresh, pull together and do all those other things teamwork would imply.

It's just that the numbers have gotten so big on driver contracts that it would take a lot of wanna on someone's part to part ways with that much money.

But I'd bet - a much smaller amount - that a deal will get done well before either the 2006 season or McMurray's current contract can expire.

Also in contract news: In Washington state, where International Speedway Corp. hopes to build a new race track, some county workers have signed confidentiality agreements. It's all part of a larger effort to keep the multimillion-dollar public-private undertaking under wraps.

Last year, rising costs and growing public opposition forced ISC to abandon a Snohomish County (Wash.) track site. The France family company, a sister to NASCAR, now has an option on 900 acres near the Mason-Kitsap county line.

Here's part of what Emily Heffter of The Seattle Times reports in Thursday's editions:

Kitsap County economic development officials have been exceedingly careful to keep their negotiations quiet, urging employees in e-mails not to volunteer any information about the county's interest in a track and even offering a script of vague answers to common media questions.

The county anticipates a proposal from ISC later this month. ISC officials reached last night referred questions to Grant Lynch, who has headed the search for a track site in the Northwest. Lynch could not be reached for comment.

Economic Development Council Director David Porter said he routinely asked Kitsap County employees to sign non-disclosure agreements before helping him gather information for his pitch to ISC about a track in Kitsap County. Over the past two years, records show, 13 county elected officials and staff members signed the agreements.

Sorry, Mr. Porter, but I think making county employees sign any kind of agreement to keep their mouths shut should be a rare exception rather than routine.