Checkered Past

Write the caption - Oohhh, I'm so-o-o-o-o mad!

Welcome to "Write the Caption" on ThatsRacin.com. It's pretty simple -- we select a recent photo from the track and all you have to do is submit a caption by clicking on the Comments link (below). Click on the photo to make it larger.

Danica Patrick walks back to her pit stall after a collision with Ryan Briscoe knocked her out of the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 auto race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Tom Strickland)

A penny or two or three for more thoughts on NASCAR drug policy

Charlotte Observer colleague David Poole's wording on NASCAR's drug policy, in the "My 2 Cents" section of his column on ThatsRacin.com, is about as close to an indictment as I've seen on this touchy subject - so far at least.

Here's a little of what he said:

"It's clear NASCAR doesn't want the responsibility for establishing and enforcing a fair testing policy.

"It also is clear NASCAR officials really don't want to know some of the answers a real drug-testing policy might give them."

Here's that link again to more of it. And following is a modest sampling of what other writers are saying this week about the stock car racing and promotion company's drug policy, which currently relies on "reasonable suspicion," as opposed to random testing:

"... With over a 100,000 fans packed into the stands, and with many of those people sitting mere feet away from the racing surface, NASCAR officials just trust that none of these millionaire athletes have made bad decisions that day or the night before. And they base all that trust on the fact that not one of the drivers' employees - an employee who is relying on that driver to earn a living - has come forward.

"That's either the craziest thing I've ever heard or an unbelievable amount of respect for chain-link fencing."

- Josh Moon in the Montgomery Advertiser

"NASCAR should really be ashamed of itself.

"One of the most dangerous sports in America races from town-to-town throughout the year during its grueling season with the most laughable drug-testing policy in sports."

- Mike Finney, the News Journal and delawareonline.com

"You know something is really serious when the announcers on the TV shows, who usually are busy comparing NASCAR to God, say NASCAR has got to get its act together on this one."

- Norris McDonald, Toronto Star

"Very few secrets are kept in the garage area. Heaven knows NASCAR has caught its fair share of team 'creative engineering' via tips from members of rival organizations.

"And I'm certain that a couple of drivers who have been suspended from NASCAR for drug use were caught through information passed along by others.

"But it appears it's very difficult to pinpoint a drug user, even if that person is at the track. Fike got away with it, right? Well, at least he says he did."

- Steve Waid, scenedaily.com, The Sporting News, among other publications

"Unlike other sports, NASCAR has been fortunate enough to not suffer through scandals and strikes, and it has an obligation to protect its reputation — even if it means having drivers tested with greater frequency.

"The drivers are for it, the fans are for it - and this is one case where nobody loses if NASCAR gives the drivers what they want without argument."

- Steve Wilson, The Examiner

What a race and what a disgrace

Bob Henry

a.k.a. TR.com guy

I don’t find myself agreeing with people on television too often. It’s a very seldom thing actually.

Yelling at the TV during any 6 o’clock “newscast” has been banned at our place for years, and by mutual consent. Not that either of us formally acknowledge or always remain in compliance with any such ban, of course.

“This just in ... Jerks without jobs, or any wish or hope of such engagement with responsible society, have stalked, robbed and killed an elderly east Charlotte woman. ... Film at 11.”

"Public official who was elected to spend our tax dollars wisely is arrested in prostitution sting ... Here's Mandy with details! ... Right after this word from our sponsor."

That’s what we hear sometimes, whether that's what the news readers actually say or not, of course.

I’ve never tried to encourage or observe any such ban on yelling while watching sports on the tube either. Sports might even be fairer and easier game. And, yeah, I might actually mute the whole system whenever anyone tries to say anything like cootchity-cootchity-cootchity-coo when a race starts.

But that’s not just so I can save the wear and tear on my throat while yelling at our TV set.

All that said, I couldn’t have agreed any more with Dale Jarrett and whoever that other guy is who worked with him on ESPN2’s coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Phoenix International Raceway on Friday.

I should probably acknowledge that it was Friday night, way late in the time zone I live, along with a lot of race fans. Sorry if that runs counter to what NASCAR might have told you lately about where most race fans are. No disrespect meant, of course, to fans elsewhere.

As the TV guys told those of us still watching and listening, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin did, indeed, put on a helluva show. And Edwards and Busch kept it going till the end.

I sure hope a lot of you, wherever you live, got to see it.

A lot of people – some of whom call themselves fans – seem to really like trashing NASCAR, and the drivers and teams who run in any of that company’s various series, for “points racing” and “boring racing.” And I’m here to tell you as frankly as I'm able that I totally missed that "boring" thing Friday night. And that, this time, the TV guys weren't exaggerating when they talked about what was going on.

Bore me some more, I say. Please.

This is not to say boring never happens. I watched the Texas races, too. And listened to those guys pretending it wasn't boring.

My old man used to say this about some football games, baseball games or women: “They can’t all be jewels.”

But this one, at least during the stretch I’m talking about – and including the race for the win when it really counted - was a jewel. Far more qualified people than I can determine whether it was a ruby, an opal or a diamond.

But I liked it a lot. I hope you got to see it and enjoyed it as much as I did. And hats off to the guys who called it the way it was.

Wow, man! Who’s driving?

I’m a guy who "came of age" in the late 1960s and early '70s, a guy who has never been a big fan of those who had the dadgum gall to demand that everyone who worked for them get tested.

The purpose, of course, being to determine what and when they might or might not be – or might or might not have been – abusing various substances, whether those substances were legal or illegal.

I’ve kind of gotten over a lot of that since many of my employers along the way have insisted on such things. And it’s been to my dismay that - in spite of really pro-active policies in the NFL, NBA and the Olympics, to name a few - so many of the people in the sports I really enjoy have still managed to be such jerks and idiots. Not necessarily in that order.

Race fans would certainly like to think that all such people participate in those “other sports,” the stick-and-ball games, you know. But certainly not in stock car racing.

Sorry, but no.

All the politics aside, isn’t it just a no-danged-brainer that people who work around – and certainly those who drive or are engaged in the tire-changing and fueling of those race cars - ought to really be on their toes? At least all of the time they’re at the track? And way a lot?

I can’t imagine it as a left-wing vs. right-wing thing that some accountability really ought to be demanded by NASCAR in this area. And that some accountability really ought to be demanded of NASCAR here.

It seems kind of shame, at the very least, and maybe even “a detriment to the sport,” that someone would tell a magazine he has used heroin before climbing into a race car and running a NASCAR race.

This guy, who has finally and rightfully been banned by NASCAR, did not say he had smoked a reefer or two, that he had a couple of beers or had taken something that would help pump him up from what he viewed as his meager frame.

He said he used heroin.

And he was never caught by a professional sports league in which 43 or so cars fly by fast enough to kill people, many of them innocent bystanders.

NASCAR is a league whose leaders and PR people will tell you in a Daytona Beach second that it is a leader – no the leader - among professional sports, too.

If this guy hadn’t been busted, while using heroin in the pre-dawn hours on the parking lot of a big theme park, we might still be watching him race in NASCAR events – trashed or not. And some of us might still be rooting for him to win.

At whatever cost to him and his competitors.

Who do you call the loser in this scenario?

Larry, Moe and squirrely

In professional football, when an official catches an offensive lineman holding a defender, you hear a whistle, see a flag thrown and yards stepped off against the offending player’s team.

But many NASCAR fans will tell you in a heartbeat that pro football is a “stick-and-ball sport.” And that NASCAR is different.

Here, just one day removed from the National Stock Car Racing Commission’s ruling and NASCAR’s announcement regarding penalties for Messrs. Carl Edwards and Robby Gordon and their teams, some fans, writers and radio and TV personalities are hotly debating the issues.

The merits – or lack thereof – of the penalties, the appeals process and nearly everything else even remotely involved are getting a pretty full airing. And the airing will likely continue through the upcoming Atlanta race weekend.

I really like some of the stick-and-ball sports, football particularly. And I dearly love stock car racing. But I sometimes get a little troubled when I hear people arguing so passionately about how vital cheating is to the success – yea, the very fabric – of the sport of stock car racing.

Innovating, being creative and working in the gray areas would be the preferred terms, of course.

Here's another term to consider: Integrity.

What if, say, the National Football League’s rules didn’t specifically forbid an offensive tackle from reaching over and tying together the shoelaces of the defender across the line from him. Should that be a “gray area” to be exploited? Or should it at least be so until the rules are rewritten to expressly prohibit it?

If the same player on offense pokes his rival in the eye or even sticks his fingers up his nostrils and leads him around like a farmhand putting a halter on a stubborn calf, is that working in a gray area, too?

And, if the rules didn't specifically address those kinds of things, would the first guys who got caught doing them be applauded as innovators?

No, maybe not. But NASCAR is different.

All right, maybe these aren’t even fair comparisons. Tying shoelaces together is kind of Three Stooges. And gouging and nose-pulling? Those sound more like pro rasslin’ than any of the other, legitimate sports, don’t they?

Oh, wait ...

Redesigned and ready to rock 'n' roll

The new racing season has arrived and, with it, ThatsRacin.com today rolls out a new look and a number of new features.

We could say the racing site of tomorrow has arrived, but this is a lot different from NASCAR’s new car: This one actually handles and the changes aren’t aimed at taking us back to a happier time and place. This one actually looks fast. and moves us forward. And it open doors to more news, information, opinion, photos and videos than ever.

The fundamentals have not changed and aren’t going to. ThatsRacin.com will continue to rely on solid reporting and analysis, not flash, rumors or what anyone “hears” - you know, how Outlook chimes when an e-mail news release arrives in the ol’ in-box or real news shows up on someone else's site.

Many of the changes will extend ThatsRacin.com’s reach.

The main tabs –NASCAR, Other Series and FanSpace – are direct links to the specific coverage you’re looking for. NASCAR will remain the site’s primary focus, but as interest in other forms of motorsports increases, we’re not only going there with you, we’re going to help drive.

The “NASCAR” tab, on the left, gets you started with the day’s or race weekend’s news and info from America’s most-popular form of racing. ”Other Series” takes you precisely where you’d expect, to updates, photos and more on the NHRA, IndyCar, Formula One and Champ Car series.

“FanSpace” is not necessarily intended to be the place where race fans hook up online, but I suppose it could be. As the race season gets started, FanSpace is where you’ll find information about some of the off-track activities that make race fandom the fun it is.

As the season gains momentum, you’ll find more and more about driver fan clubs, appearances, race weekend concerts, festivals – like Charlotte’s Speed Street – and more. It’s also a place where we’ll be able to highlight the charity work so many of the good folks in all forms of racing do.

Fans will also soon be able to submit their photos and videos from the track or their race parties, which we’ll display in slideshows there. Plus, there’s a fun “Write the Caption” contest. And we’ll add more in the days and weeks to come.

There’s more to every story, of course, but “MORE” means a lot more with our new site. With fewer articles displayed on the home page, clicking on the “MORE” links will speed you to sections that are devoted to the in-depth motorsports coverage you’re found here in the decade since ThatsRacin.com joined the race. So don’t be shy with those. Hit ‘em early and often.

The navigation, which had always lived on the left side of the home page, has been simplified and moved to the top of the page. That opens space to display more of the features you want.

Our photo galleries are being expanded and we’ve added more video. Our popular team of bloggers is also growing and we’ve got a couple more surprises coming in that section soon.

We gratefully acknowledge all the help we’ve gotten with these changes from some pretty smart people because ...  well, it couldn’t have happened without them. Special thanks would be due developers Roger Kincaid and Dave Roberts. (Their boss deserves some credit, too, but he’s got the cash so doesn’t really need to see his name in lights.)

It is their sincere hope, and mine, that you like what you’ll be seeing here this season.

And we‘d be grateful for your feedback. Don’t like something? Want to see more of something else? Hit the “COMMENT” link right here or below and let us hear from you.

Meanwhile, enough of this off-season stuff. Let’s drop the rag and go!

Write the Caption - NASCAR style!

Welcome to the "Write the Caption -- NASCAR style" on ThatsRacin.com. It's pretty simple -- we choose a recent photo from the track and all you have to do is submit a caption by clicking on the Comments link (below).

This week, we start off with driver Michael Waltrip, pictured during qualifying for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 10 at Daytona International Speedway (Photo by Fernando Medina - US PRESSWIRE).

This just in - and just in time for a new season

By Bob Henry
ThatsRacin.com Editor

Well, we appear to have (somewhat) successfully negotiated the holidays, which means a new racing season is really on the way. It’s no longer just an idea or concept, like “the check is in the mail.”

This is a definite.

Yes, preseason testing of all sorts is cranking up at Daytona International Speedway, among other signs. One of those indicators is that the volume of news releases we receive here – from teams, tracks, driver and sponsor reps and television networks that cover racing – has started to pick back up.

We post nearly all of those we see in our Media Center section and readers should expect to see more of more of those as Daytona draws nearer and the season formally takes the green flag.

In the meantime, let’s look at some of the highlights from the off-season in-box.

Harold Holly arrives at RWI

Two days after Christmas, Rusty Wallace Racing announced that Harold Holly, former NASCAR Busch Series crew chief, has been hired to work with the owner’s son, Steve Wallace, and the No. 66 team in the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series season.

Holly worked extremely well during the 1999-2001 seasons with driver Jeff Green. They won 13 races and 11 poles, posted 56 top-five finishes and 72 top-10s. Oh, and they won the 2000 NASCAR Busch Series championship, too.

Rusty Wallace, according to the news release, is excited about it.

“I’m really excited to have Harold Holly on board,” he’s quoted as saying. “Harold should really be able to help take our team to the next level.”

Holly, too, is excited.

“Rusty Wallace is a legend in our sport, so needless to say, I’m excited about the chance to work with his team.”

That’s one of the things we love about the days and weeks leading up to a new season, whatever the sport. Everyone, on every team, is full of hope and believes their outfit can contend.

But I also believe that Holly’s efforts, along with those of new RWI general manager, Rick Carpenter, will be big positives in the younger Wallace’s 2008 racing season.

Yes, 88 pays better than, say, 8 on this one

Not a bunch to overlook the significance of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s new affiliation and car number, Atlanta Motor Speedway has announced the availability of “a limited number of the $88 tickets” for the March 9 Kobalt Tools 500 Sprint Cup race. And in the frontstretch Earnhardt Grandstand, no less.

“The race will help usher in a new era in motorsports when Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes his first competition laps in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at Atlanta Motor Speedway” the track’s PR office notes.

The tix can be had through the AMS ticket office and at Ticketmaster outlets.

I’m betting the people at the Hampton, Ga., track think it’s a good thing Earnhardt Jr. and his new boss, Rick Hendrick, didn’t go with one of those other – lower – car numbers. And there were a lot of them being bandied about last summer when the driver moved from Teresa Earnhardt’s company to Hendrick Motorsports.

Petty Enterprises still hiring

Petty Enterprises, which is – as a recent news release points out – “the winningest organization in the history of American motorsports, has announced the hiring of Derrick Finley as technical director.

Says Finley of the Petty shops: “Their legacy of success is unequaled. From top to bottom they have shown a commitment to return to the top. ...

“In crew chiefs Jeff Meendering and Billy Wilburn we have two of the brightest minds in the garage area. Both Bobby (Labonte) and Kyle (Petty) had several strong runs last year. Everything is in place to build on those finishes and have an even better year in 2008.”

If Finley and Robbie Loomis and a few others working in the organization’s new digs in Mooresville, N.C., are right about that, we know of a few million fans that will be cheering loudly.

Of course, whether those supporters are the “kind of fans” NASCAR's Brian France and others in the Daytona Beach offices are interested in keeping around remains to be seen.

Jeff Gordon filling in for Regis again

I posted one this morning that says Jeff Gordon is scheduled to make his 11th appearance as guest co-host on the popular daytime talk show “Live with Regis and Kelly” on Friday, Jan. 18.

I started to wonder if anyone really cared, but kept reading and learned that “Live with Regis and Kelly” is in its 20th year of national syndication and continues to wake up millions of Americans each day.

I don’t know whether or not they count viewers the same way NASCAR counts fans, but that sounds pretty impressive.

And who am I to argue with how millions of Americans wake up. I’m still kind of hung up on the whole argument over waking up most mornings.

Daytona gems being rerun

Speaking of television and reawakening – as fan interest certainly is with the season's approach -  ESPN’s public relations folks sent this one, informing us that ESPN Classic will be televising six of the best Daytona 500 races of all time every Monday at 2 p.m. ET starting Jan. 7.

I know, I know. A lot of race fans have voiced disappointment – to use the polite term – with ESPN’s first year back in the NASCAR fold. But, come on, they’re going to show some good ones. And we can get back to that debate about the sports network's booth lineup on race day some other time.

The 500s being re-aired will include the 1976 race, when David Pearson and Richard Petty wrecked while banging fenders on the final lap, and the 1998 race, when Dale Earnhardt finally won NASCAR’s biggest event.

And ESPN.com's NASCAR page will feature a poll that will allow viewers to choose their favorite Daytona 500s from the six. Then, the night before the 2008 version of the 500 – the 50th running, by the way - ESPN Classic will show the top-five races as chosen by the fans in their order of preference, starting at 10 p.m.

Thanks for reading and commenting, if you do shoot back. We’ll try and do some more of these compilations – from the world of NASCAR as well as other top racing series – as the new season arrives and gets rolling in earnest.

Thoughts racing about things to be thankful for ... or not

By Bob Henry

ThatsRacin.com Editor

It’s a formula as old as newspapers, maybe older: On or around Thanksgiving, sports columnists the print world over file their “what I’m thankful for” yarns. “I’m thankful for offensive lines that give the Brett Favres our of lives time to work the magic they do.”

Or “ ... for the Brian Frances who have the vision to ...” and so on.

The same guys are probably already working on their “all I want for Christmas” columns, which will wish in vain “for offensive lines that will allow a Panthers quarterback to survive long enough to actually play eight quarters in a row” or something like that.

We’ve got one of those guys here at The Charlotte Observer, which, of course, is part of the vast ThatsRacin.com complex in downtown Charlotte. We’ve also got a guy who takes the opposite tack and has written a column this week outlining what he’s least thankful for. Same deal, just with the negative spin. (You know how journalists are.)

Another time-honored newspaper tradition is to steal the ideas of others. And it’s a way of doing business that’s reaching new heights in this, the Internet age. Indeed, some sites would likely fold if they couldn’t go that route. Even if their owners like to claim they “broke” the pilfered piece that was originally reported elsewhere weeks or months before.

So I’m going to steal from both of those columnists’ approach and mix ‘em up in this post-Thanksgiving blog. I’d welcome hearing about the things in racing for which you’re the most or least thankful as well.

Beyond family, friends, doctors and nurses, and a great bunch of co-workers and co-bloggers, along with the occasional birdies and putts that actually fall ...

I’m most thankful for getting to occasionally stand in a speedway’s infield during qualifying and hearing the racket that a single car makes echoing off the walls, stands and all the rest. A close second is the sound – complete with its slammin’ Doppler effect at a big track like Talladega – as the full field comes around to take the green, then runs the first lap, the throttles all nailed to the firewalls.

And I’m a little less thankful for the way restrictor plates have muted that great sound.

I’m most thankful – even if restrictor plates are part of the picture – for how much safer racing has become since the 2001 season.

I’m least thankful it took that season’s losses to get to where we are today and that we’re still losing racers and fans at a shameful rate.

I’m most thankful for Andy Hillenburg, who has purchased the track at Rockingham and promised to bring it as far back as any human can in today’s overly corporate racing world.

I’m least thankful for an overly corporate racing world that’s produced mega-owners whose teams have cornered the best sponsors, talent and equipment and made a decent finish the only realistic hope for those whose pockets aren’t as scarily and sometimes even immorally deep.

I’m most thankful for the fact that it’s not worse than it is. Yet. NASCAR racing is still a far cry from CART or Champ Car or whatever they’re going to call it next. Those owners overran anyone and everyone who tried to level that playing field and now have a nice exclusive little club racing thing going for themselves. Even if they’ve got talented drivers and teams, the crowds in the paddock almost outnumber the fans in the stands and watching at home.

I’m least thankful that Formula One racing – whose owners and operators often make the NASCAR crowd look like saints – is pretty much the same mess as Champ Car, only much bigger.

I’m most thankful that the Indianapolis 500 is kind of rebounding from the dark years immediately after the IRL-CART split. Go just about anywhere on the planet and strike up a conversation about racing. Even if they don’t know from Daytona and Darlington – and they probably do – they know what the word Indianapolis means.

I’m least thankful that the IRL-CART split ever happened. (Please see above, “overly corporate” and add a healthy portion of that ingredient commonly called greed.)

I’m most thankful for the latest resurgence in drag racing. If ever there truly was a grassroots way to race, this is it. Always was and still is. Even with the megabuck owners and teams putting on the big show, there’s still plenty of room for Jack, Jackie and Mike and Michelle to climb into their cars and race.

One of the best things, too, about drag racing? If the one you’re watching is kind of boring, don’t worry. It’s probably over by now and there will be another one in just a minute.

I’m least thankful for that loud and costly debate and all the hand-wringing over Bruton Smith’s plans for a drag strip at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and public officials’ costly and embarrassing capitulation.

I’m most thankful that the and costly and embarrassing capitulation is only beginning and that the media feeding frenzy over it is also just getting under way. And not just because ThatsRacin.com will get lots of traffic as the drama plays out. Before this is over, there are going to be many, many ugly revelations about how big business and our governments interact. And I firmly believe that will be enlightening for the taxpayer/citizens who take the time to learn more about it.

I’m least thankful that the aforementioned media frenzy will likely detract a little from Bruton Smith’s plans for the track formerly known as Charlotte Motor Speedway. I agree with friend David Green that the Charlotte track has always been among the brightest stars in the American racing firmament. And I believe Smith will remake and relaunch the venerable speedway in a way that few of us can even imagine at this point.

Some of his plans will be revealed early next week, but I’m betting those plans will evolve right up until the grand reopening and that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet, no matter many how many tracks we think we’ve been to and how much we think we know about it.

I’m most thankful for all that Fox, ESPN, ABC, Speed, Motor Racing Network, Performance Racing Network, Sirius, XM and the rest of  'em do to make racing coverage available to so many of us. Just stop and think for a minute sometime, all the way back to when that three-paragraph brief in Monday’s newspaper or that month-old three-minute clip on “Wide World of Sports” was about all you ever to help you keep up with auto racing.

I’m least thankful for fans who breathlessly long for “the good ol’ days,” when they imagine the racing was always better, the men always bigger, braver and more innovative and so on.

I’ll grant them this: The belt buckles were bigger, as was a lot of women’s hair. But sometimes the races – just like today’s – could be super or stink. It just kind of depended. Yeah, there were some great ones and we all cherish those memories, even if they grew out of those three-paragraph briefs mentioned above.

Artist Sam Bass, for one, recalls early visits to Bristol “with 3,500 of my closest friends” and watching the eventual winner cruising around with a several-lap lead for the final 100 circuits.

And just admit it" Today, every now and again - and despite the numerous obstacles - we’re still seeing some pretty darned good racing out there.

I’m most thankful for the charities that are part of what we generally refer to as "the racing family." I sincerely hope that doesn’t require any further explanation.

I’m least thankful that I didn’t contribute more than I did in 2007 to some of them.

But I might have just stumbled onto the start of a New Year’s resolution blog for about a month from now.

Put the remote down and walk away slowly and no one will get hurt

By Bob Henry
ThatsRacin.com Editor

When I landed one of my first real jobs after throwing in the towel on the bands I’d played with way back when, the cheap motels, roadhouses and two-lane highways in Econoline vans, I thought it was going to help me get closer to one of my other loves. And it worked, to a point.

I became a warehouse and delivery guy in my very early 20s for the biggest auto parts company in town. In addition to the steady paychecks, I got to meet and eventually work with a lot of guys who ran at our area’s dirt tracks and drag strips. I’d always been a car guy and while it also meant I was the designated wheelman in the band days, that didn’t really satisfy the car Jones for me.

But I took the job in the late fall, so my getting to know more of the racers got off to kind of a rocky start.

In my first or second week, when I found the invoice for some brake shoes and cylinders that were bound for Buddy Odom’s shop just off Eighth Street, I couldn’t wait. Odom was one of the top guns at the three-eighths-mile clay track out on Highway 19. His modified was pretty innovative for the time and place and, even if he was horribly nearsighted – or maybe because - he never saw any reason to back off before the next guy as they approached a turn at full tilt.

I didn’t run, but walked pretty briskly back to the warehouse, pulled the goods and headed for the half-ton GMC truck I’d been assigned. And I drove – at the legal and posted speed limit, of course – out to Buddy Odom’s Garage.

As soon as Buddy signed for the parts, I introduced myself and started yammering about racing, telling him, among other things, that he was the man. Never mind the expression wouldn’t even be uttered in a golf tournament gallery or anywhere else for another 30 years.

As nearsighted as he was, Buddy Odom was also a helluva deer hunter. He looked at me as squarely as he was capable over the top of his thick old glasses, put a hand on my shoulder and told me this: “There’ll be plenty of time for that next spring. Right now, we’ve gotta go get some deer.”

And it occurs to me that if Brian France and his lieutenants ever met Buddy Odom, the straight-shooting dirt tracker must’ve had far less impact on them than he did on me. Because here it is, less than a week before Thanksgiving and the NASCAR season is only now approaching its end.

Why, I never ...

It would be easy to jump on the bandwagon and say something cute and even semi-nasty about the longest season in pro sports. You know, like the NASCAR season isn’t finally ending, it’s being put out of its misery.

That’s the popular route for a lot of weary NASCAR fans this late season. If you believe some of the posts on ThatsRacin.com’s forums and other boards, along with the rants of many callers on popular racing radio programs, NASCAR is S-O-O-O-O over. Or those folks are S-O-O-O-O over NASCAR.

Funny though, isn’t it, how the same people are back the next week, commenting on the most recent NASCAR race they’ve vowed never – ever - to watch?

I know, too, how fine a line I’m walking here. I regularly read the forum posts vilifying anyone who writes anything that even remotely sounds like any kind of defense of NASCAR, the Chase, the car of tomorrow, TV ratings, race attendance or any related topic.

And that’s fine. Opinions, noses and many other anatomical features are things we all have. And we appreciate the debate and sharing of opinions on our boards.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Yes, NASCAR has changed. A ton.

So, too, have the most other professional sports I follow, the place I work, my wife and daughter, the two best dogs on the planet and a lot of other people, pets and things that matter to me. And I haven’t touched a bass guitar in - literally – years, even if I do still occasionally grab the six-string acoustic from its resting place next to the windowsill in the living room. Which is to say that, yeah, I’ve changed, too. A lot.

Racing wasn’t my first love, but I figured out early on that my heart picked up a beat or two when I heard revving motors and spinning wheels. I found that I got a little more interested when the conversation turned to cars in general and racing in particular. Didn’t matter all that much what kind of racing, either.

I suspect if you’re still reading (thanks again, Mom), you’re that way a little, too.

Has NASCAR disappointed us? From time to time, yes. Do we agree with every decision the company’s leaders have made? That would be a firm no.

Let’s think about that parallel with work again for a minute, or holy matrimony, parenting and/or any of those other things that come under that heading of what we generally call life.

Has NASCAR provided us with some of our favorite, even most cherished memories? Yep. (I still get a huge kick out of hearing some poor guy who’s just won a race proclaim in Victory Lane how that checkered flag was the biggest and best darned thing that ever happened to him. And I hafta be a tad envious of that fly on the wall when he and his wife get back to their half-million-dollar motorhome to work out their understanding and definition of “best ever.”)

Does NASCAR currently put on the best racing show in these United States, maybe even the world? That’s debatable, but the NASCAR show is routinely very close to the top.

And might this NASCAR Nextel Cup season be followed next year by a better one from our varied points of view? I don’t know, but it might be worth watching to see.

So is it time to back away from the edge a little and maybe even start looking forward to January? Preseason testing will start at Daytona very early in that month and the shortest offseason in professional sports will just about be over.

We never know. It might not be perfect, but it might not be all that bad. And it could even range from decent to pretty darned good or all the way to great.

You know, the stuff of memories.

If your shop isn't on Papa Joe Hendrick Boulevard, it's over for you

If you had asked me going into Saturday night's Bank of America 500 how the Chase playoffs would play out, here's what I'd have told you: Johnson would run well at Charlotte, like he always does.

And, next week, at Martinsville, Jeff Gordon would run as well as he generally does there.

That would further separate the two Hendrick Motortsports drivers from the rest of the field and make the playoffs strictly a Hendrick show.

There are, at this writing, less than 30 laps to go and Gordon is leading at Lowe's Motor Speedway and Johnson is rallying from trouble. Oh, and trouble is about all the rest of the Chasers - except for Clint Bowyer - have had.

I still say it's a Hendrick show from here on out.

Anyone want to bet against that?