Turn 3

Did the media miss the real story?

By Mike Harper

I love politics. If I’m not focused on racing, I’m focused on what’s happening in the political world. Call me a sucker for a good debate, but I enjoy listening to the opinions of politicians, pundits and the many voices found in the media. I also enjoy political strategies. I’ve been around long enough to notice successful or failed political or public relation strategies. It’s a game within a game.

This past weekend at Dover showed me that even in NASCAR, public relation strategies could be set in motion and put to the test. In this circumstance, I must ask if there was a strategy put forth by Richard Childress Racing to keep the focus on Bob Dillner’s SPEED Channel report from New Hampshire. If there was, then I’m darn impressed.

It’s kind of like NASCAR’s version of ‘Wag the Dog." Let me explain.

First and foremost, I’m not accusing RCR of anything. I’m only asking questions because I do find what happened at Dover to be very interesting.

Going into Dover this past weekend, two specific stories clouded RCR. The first was the Bob Dillner report about an issue during post-race inspection at New Hampshire the weekend before Dover. To be fair and honest, Dillner never accused RCR of cheating. He only reported information that was given to him. The accuracy of the report is debatable.

The second and in my eyes the more important issue surrounded a lawsuit against RCR by an ex-employee, who alleges RCR of wrongful termination, defamation and breach of contract. In the lawsuit the ex-employee also accuses RCR of cheating by claiming "Inserts were placed in the four outside corners of the cylinder head where the manifold is attached." According to David Poole’s report on ThatsRacin.com, "When tightened, the bottom of the bolts hit the inserts, leaving room for air to get between the intake manifold and cylinder head. Such air would get to the engine beneath the restrictor plate, which is designed to limit the flow of air. More air means more power, at least in theory."

The way that I look at it Dillner personally never accused RCR of cheating, however there is in fact a lawsuit in Mecklenburg County superior court doing just that – cheating.

Now to be fair, I could care less if RCR did what the ex-employee is accusing them of doing. If RCR played the game and got away with it, then so be it. That’s racing my friends. But I do find it funny that we didn’t hear any questions at Dover about the lawsuit or more about this story because the focus was on SPEED's Bob Dillner.

To me it was obvious the RCR drivers went out of their way to keep the attention on Dillner. During practice, after races and even in Victory Lane the issue regarding Bob Dillner was brought up. Not instigated by the media, but by the drivers themselves.

Sadly, we all fell victim to it. I chuckled every time an RCR driver brought it up. I was even interested in how Harvick angrily confronted Dillner in the garage area, but at the end of the day the ball was dropped on asking and following up on the lawsuit.

Do I blame RCR? Heck no. Call me a fan. In the world of public relations and opinions, you do what you’ve got to do. In fact, if they did go out of their way to keep the spotlight on Dillner instead of allowing the media to question them on the real cheating accusations filed in court documents, then I would say someone deserves a raise.

I just believe as more and more money is being spent in the world of NASCAR, the temptations of pushing the envelope get greater and the need to have a plan for damage control becomes a necessity to remain competitively and financially strong.

Without a doubt, RCR positively dominated Dover in more ways than two.

Fireworks in Toledo leave Simko and St. Denis suspended

By Mike Harper

Jack Landis won the 18th running of the Great Lakes Chevy Dealers/Budweiser Glass City 200 ARCA Late Model race at Toledo Speedway on Sunday afternoon, but the win has been overshadowed by an on-track confrontation between driver’s Michael Simko and Don St. Denis.

At the re-start after a lap 112 caution, St. Denis sent Simko crashing into the wall. During an interview on Monday with cable news channel MSNBC, St. Denis said, "I seen him turn to the bottom of the race track, so to avoid him I jumped on the brake pedal. I couldn’t slow the car enough, I ended up tagging him in the left rear quarter panel sending him into the wall."

After the crash, Simko exited his car and as St. Denis’ car approached him under the caution, Simko ran and jumped through St. Denis’ windshield and then threw his helmet at the driver side window. Simko was then instructed to leave the racing surface by a track official. When St. Denis jumped from his car, he bolted towards Simko and the shoving match began. The two were separated and were retired for the day.

After St. Denis made his appearance on MSNBC, an apologetic Simko was able to share his side of the story via a telephone interview with the same cable news outlet. "I was coming to the green flag, entering turn 3 and the next thing I know I was going for a ride," said Simko. "I hit the wall at a severe rate, got out of the car and saw the damage to my car, and I just….I don’t know what came over me."

The video of the incident circulating the Internet on Monday and the one shown on MSNBC doesn’t show the actual incident that caused Simko’s reaction.

When Simko was asked if he thought St. Denis was targeting him Simko replied, "I don’t think he was appreciative that I passed him, to be honest with you. But I absolutely am apologetic for every one of my reactions. It was totally uncalled for."

Simko closed the interview by saying, "I apologize to Don. I apologize to all of ARCA and to all the fans. This is not acceptable and I take full responsibility for it."

ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) released a statement late Monday afternoon regarding this incident saying, "As a result of their unsportsmanlike actions during Sunday’s Glass City 200 ARCA Late Model race at Toledo Speedway, drivers Michael Simko and Don St. Denis have been suspended from further participation in ARCA sanctioned racing events for an indefinite period of time. The suspensions were issued for violation of ARCA Rulebook Section 3, #10: Conduct or actions detrimental to the sport, unsportsmanlike driving, fighting, and/or taking part in any demonstration which impedes the orderly process of an event shall be subject to penalty."

A Scare at RCR and Other Notes:

By Keith Ott

Points lost; The win reversed?  A national reporter has confirmed through an unnamed source, who has a friend with a relative, who might know someone who knows something, that Burton failed post race inspection.  Not Burton’s car.  It was clean.  However, Burton’s right leg was allegedly found to be 2” longer than his left giving him a “Performance Advantage” pushing down on the gas.  NASCAR denies any advantage and Burton gimped to his trailer refusing to comment.

  Kidding aside, it was a GREAT win by Jeff.  One fewer pretender to the throne in “The Chase.”  It also might have been the bright spot in a tedious event.  I was about to rename the title hunt from “The Chase” to “Crash for the Cup.”  I even snuck in a catnap and only knew I’d missed something when I looked at the position scroll.

Driver elimination?  “The Chase,” is a playoff and I’d like it to go down to the final two.  Kyle Busch is my first elimination.  He’s 10^th in points and should go back into the flock and assume whatever position his point total allots him to.  The great playoff teams don’t always win playoffs (Ask Indy, Seattle etc.) and unfair things can happen during them.  They go home.  Dust yourself off.  Keep the chin up and come back stronger.  No hard feelings, Kyle.  You’ll be back.

  Is Tony Stewart NASCARs Nostradamus?  Example 1: Stewart says during an interview that if the rookies don’t show more patience there’ll be wrecks.  We get Pocono.  Example 2: Stewart says during an interview that non-chase drivers could influence the chase.  We get Dover.  It’s uncanny.  Pit road interviewers of Stewart need to be asking more pertinent questions.  Lotto numbers, stock quotes, the price of oil etc..  Stuff we can really use.

  Kenseth definitely made the wrong choice during the final pit stops.  Or, rather Robbie Riser, who had the info, did.  While I applaud the “Go for the win” mentality, this is a Chase car and gambling isn’t always wise in “Big Picture” racing.  It did provide us with some great racing that may or may not have happened if he had pitted, but that gamble cost them 36pts (from 2^nd to 10^th).  Maybe he finishes worse or even wrecks if he pits (you can’t tell when you change history).  But, he wasn’t happy and if he loses by less than 36pts this will be the event I point to.

Ok, I’ve spoken my piece…The floor is yours.     

Things that make you go 'Phew!'

By DAVID GREEN

One race down, nine to go, and no end of mudslinging accusations and snide remarks. What a start to the third Chase to the Cup.

There's already much debate going on over the Bob Dillner "expose" of RCR's trick wheels on Turn 3 colleague Mike Harper's latest piece and in other forums. And then there's the litigation between fired RCR engine builder Anthony Corrente and the Childress team.

Finally, there's Jeff Gordon's angst because lame-duck teammate Brian Vickers won't go in the tank every time the 24 cars approaches to attempt an overtaking maneuver.

Maybe it's just the stomach flu I'm battling these days; then again, maybe some things in the racing world really are sickening.

As for the attacks on RCR, I'm afraid I don't have enough information to even form an opinion. I don't know what Anthony Corrente's beef is. The major point of contention seems to be over illegal modifications to a restrictor-plate engine, but the RCR team hasn't exactly been monopolizing top finishes in plate races recently.

The notion that RCR folks wanted to know "how engines were constructed at Joe Gibbs Racing" strikes me as a "well, duh" presumption. Presumably, Childress didn't hire Corrente because the Gibbs team's cars were underpowered, and he (Childress) wanted the same inferior powerplants in his cars.

Presumably, unless Corrente is bound by some sort of non-compete clause in his contract with Gibbs, he would have been willing to build the best engines he could build for his new employer, just like he did for his previous one. Seems like it would've done no harm to answer questions from his new employer and fellow employees about just how he intended to go about doing his job.

I'm waiting for lots of information regarding the wheels on those RCR cars. I still don't understand how we've established that any wrong was done, how it might have been done, or why it might have been done. I don't engineer or build championship-winning racecars, but then again neither does Bob Dillner, and until he can explain this to me in terms a fellow layman can understand, I'm not sure that he has a story.

The Observer's David Poole defends Dillner for protecting his sources, but this is an aspect of journalism that has cost the industry much of its credibility in recent decades. Too often, the public -- which, journalists are quick to affirm, have a "right to know" -- suddenly don't have any right to know exactly where the information is coming from. Therefore, their hands are tied in any attempt to evaluate the validity of the information. We're all simply left to choose whom we believe.

Easy enough to figure out how that's going to go. If you pull for RCR or its drivers, Dillner and Speed are the bad guys for lying about your favorites. If you've got something against RCR or think Kevin Harvick is a smart-aleck, then you accept at face value the vague report that Harvick's team may be cheating. The rest of us don't know what to think.

Then there's the "ugly teammate" issue. I have a well-established prejudice in this matter, but for those with short memories or first-time visitors to this blog, I'll repeat my position: Racing is not a team sport, at least not in the traditional American sense. It has been part and parcel of grand prix and road racing in Europe for years and it certainly has been more prevalent in NASCAR than many stock car racing fans would like to admit.

But it has never been considered acceptable, not until this era of mega-team racing. Somehow, nowadays everybody is supposed to be "a good teammate." And this brings us to Jeff Gordon whining about how Brian Vickers "raced him hard" for a top-three finishing position.

I've been very, very cool toward young Master Vickers ever since his cold-blooded dumping of Mike Bliss a couple of years ago at Charlotte in the race that used to be called the Winston Open, but I sure don't see anything wrong with Vickers trying to finish as high as he could in the Sylvania 300, never mind if it was Jeff Gordon trying to take the position away.

I think I'm gonna throw up again. And I don't think it's stomach flu.

Bradshaw rides off into the sunset, Dilner stuck under the spotlight

By Mike Harper

Hall of Fame Quarterback, Terry Bradshaw announced today that he’ll end his business partnership with Armando Fitz at the end of the 2006 season and I’m not surprised.

According to the news story about FitzBradshaw Racing on ThatsRacin.com, Bradshaw said, "my schedule is making it harder and harder to fulfill the necessary race team sponsor commitments for personal appearances, and it’s time for me to move on."

While the reasoning of his decision to end his NASCAR Busch Series venture was very diplomatic in nature and truthful, I don’t believe it’s the sole reason he decided to leave the sport.

In my opinion, Bradshaw has grown extremely frustrated during his tenure in the Busch Series over the fact that the big Nextel Cup teams with their drivers are allowed to race in the Busch Series.

In an interview earlier this year with a NASCAR reporter, Bradshaw said, "Dealing with NASCAR, dealing with the Cup teams and all of the money those teams have and we're sitting here begging, borrowing, stealing trying to stay afloat. They might as well turn the Busch Series over to the Cup teams and let them have junior races and big-boy races. Thank God Super Cuts has stayed with us."

Bradshaw has been one of the most vocal against the current Busch Series structure and it’s a frequent topic of discussion during interviews. "For the Busch people this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life," Bradshaw told the reporter. "Then you have to compete with people who have millions of dollars. They come down and take your money, take your points and don't even run a full race season."

I believe the level of stress that a Busch Series team deals with regarding their entire operations from funding, driver talent and sponsorship retention would be overwhelming especially when competing against well-funded Cup Series teams within their own series. Bradshaw, who has other irons in the fire from a career standpoint doesn’t have to subject himself to the increased stress levels of the Busch Series and in my view, decided to withdraw from NASCAR because the competitor inside him, was unable to compete on a level playing field.

In Bradshaw’s own words, "They (NASCAR) won't be happy until every Cup owner has a Busch team and the rest of us will be sitting at home talking about what it used to be like. It's a frickin' struggle." That said, Bradshaw is heading home and it’s a shame that NASCAR let him get away.

It’s been a bad week for SPEED’s Bob Dilner. I would highly recommend reading David Poole’s comments about this story if you haven’t done so.

I’m a firm believer and supporter of the NASCAR media. In my years of following and covering the sport, I’ve come to trust specific reporters. On the short list, Poole, Dutton, Woody and Lang are writers/reporters I trust. Dilner is also on my list.

While at the track, I observe them as I do the drivers because I think a person can find out the real character of a person by simply sitting back and watching them work. There are some media people who I would never trust because after seeing the type of person they were at the track, caused me to scratch them off my list. No, I won’t name names, but you’ll never hear me talk about them or utilize them as a source in my regular contributions.

Monday morning, I went on a radio show and used Dilner’s information because I trust his reporting. When you see it on SPEED, you believe it to be the real deal. Did I regret using the information? No. Did I need to correct the story by saying it was an incorrect story? No.

What I did was add to the story that NASCAR and RCR denied it. In my opinion, when NASCAR uses a statement like "It was one reporter’s unsubstantiated fantasy" to describe what happened, causes me to think, "why they are taking such a harsh tone?" It could’ve easily been denied in a low-key manner without all this hoopla. Instead, it’s grown legs and has become the big story of the week.

Kevin Harvick is claiming a plant from another team started this and basically Dilner fell victim to their evil plan to disrupt RCR’s winning ways. I could easily see this happening over the fact that Dilner was making the entire story up.

I agree with Poole, we may never know the truth behind this story. I also believe Dilner was reporting on what he thought was an accurate story. I’m just one guy, but I’ll say this, I’ll continue to trust Dilner and SPEED because they’ve proven in the past to be trustworthy and in my eyes, they’ve earned it.

Did Stewart Bump His Head?

By Keith Ott

Stewarts comments at the close of Loudon border on the ludicrous, IMO. Here they are:

"I finally have the answer to the question people always ask: 'If you could change one rule, what would you change?' I'd have made this race a two race deal. I'd have had the rest of the field run their own 200-mile race and then I would have had the top 10 guys run their own 200-mile race." -- Tony Stewart

So, we would have a 33 car race with all of the major stars not competing. I guess this eases his conscious that none of those 33 would influence El Chase-o. Of course it never occurred to him that, with the #20 the best car of those 33, that 11th pays an extra million and winning gets you a race purse. No way! Not Mr. “Altruistic” Stewart…Give me a break. Fans come to see 43 of the best race each other. Sure stuff happens, but it happened in all 26 previous events. The good, the bad and the downright ugly is what got these 10 into the playoffs. Keep them all racing together. It’s not like Mr. Stewart lost any sleep banging around influencing the racing before. He’ll get over it.

Part Deux would be the 10 car IROC-like event. Except they’re not identically prepared cars. How boring could it get with 10 cars spread out over 1 mile plus. How potentially greater could the teammate influence become? Nope 43 guys racing hard is the name of the game.  Always has been; Always should be.  Close title contenders in past days were never separated from misadventure.  To do so now makes as much sense as a soup sandwich. If Stewart feels bad he’s free to stay in the hauler and watch from the stands.  Heck, he can come up to Turn 3.  He can even bring the damn monkey.  I've seen stranger in the stands.

Again, JMO

I just thought I'd repost this link to the old points system for those diehard old points guys.  Sorry Bob, it's from that other site...not to be named. I'm surprised it's still up and updated. They must not have clever talented editors such as yourself to monitor these things...

http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2006/data/standings_whatif.html

Spartanburg honors Cotton Owens

By DAVID GREEN

Modern NASCAR Nation's attention this weekend was focused on New Hampshire International Speedway and the first weekend of the Chase for the Cup. On Saturday, in Spartanburg, S.C., the Chase was an afterthought, if it was thought of at all.

Instead, the focus was on 82-year-old Everett Douglas Owens, known since his childhood by his nickname -- Cotton.

Cotton Owens is one of a number of racing heroes in a town that was once as much the epicenter of stock car racing as Charlotte is considered to be today. On Saturday, the town celebrated Cotton Owens Day with a festival at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium.

Owens was one of several young men from Spartanburg who began dabbling in auto racing after they finished military service during World War II. Owens had gotten the bug before the war, when he attended a race for midget cars at Duncan Park, a municipal facility with a baseball stadium, in the 1930s.

That race was promoted by a fellow named Joe Littlejohn, who in 1939 would open the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds half-mile dirt oval across town. Owens, then a teenager, was among several who watched races at the fairgrounds track from the vantage point of one of several trees that loomed over the board fence surrounding the facility. Littlejohn was one of the men who joined with Bill France to form NASCAR in December 1947.

Owens had no such lofty ambitions, but not long after his discharge from the Navy, he was very much interested in stock car racing. He and friends Bud Moore, Joe Eubanks, Harold Ballard and John Tinsley joined forces to put together a 1937 Ford modified in 1946. Owens drove the car in its first outing, at a dirt track in Hendersonville, N.C. He won his very first race, a preliminary heat, and finished second in the feature.

Owens' driving career suffered a setback early on, when he suffered serious injuries in a crash at Charlotte in the spring of 1951. His face hit the steering wheel of the car, resulting in numerous facial injuries, and eventually, vision problems led to his retirement from driving.

But, before the physical effects of the crash took their toll, Owens won countless modified races and nine events in what is now the Nextel Cup Series, including a victory in 1957 at the Daytona beach and road course. He also won the pole for the second Daytona 500 in 1960.

In 1966, he and young sensation David Pearson gave their hometown a championship team, with Pearson driving Owens' white-and-red No. 6 Dodges to 15 victories and the first of his three Grand National championship titles.

It was not an altogether new experience for the "Hub City." Moore was chief mechanic for Buck Baker's 1957 GN title and Joe Weatherly drove Moore-owned Pontiacs in his back-to-back championship seasons in 1962-63. Also, 1960 GN champion Rex White and one of the top drivers of the 1950s, Jack Smith, migrated to the Spartanburg area before their racing careers were finished.

But the '66 title was special because both the driver and the car owner who were celebrated as champions were Spartanburg's own.

Forty years later, on a warm September afternoon, the Memorial Auditorium grounds were packed with visitors who came to celebrate the heritage of what has grown to be a national sport.

Numerous vintage racecars were on display, along with shiny street vehicles -- most of them Chrysler products, in a nod to Owens' long-time affiliation with Dodge. Also on hand were many of Owens' peers, including Moore, Pearson, Glen Wood, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Junie Donlavey and others, who joined in sharing memories of Owens. The stories and memories flowed freely.

Much of modern NASCAR Nation has largely forgotten Spartanburg, or never knew much about it in the first place. But Spartanburg has not forgotten Cotton Owens.

Playing musical sponsors pays dividends

By Mike Harper

In 2004, the U.S. Coast Guard enjoyed a win from their Busch Series driver Justin Labonte. The next season, Labonte delivered two top 10 finishes and ended the 2005 season 17^th in the Busch Series standings, trailing series champion Martin Truex Jr., by 1,652 points.

Even though Labonte delivered a race win to the U.S. Coast Guard during his tenure as their driver, this one of five branches of the U.S. armed forces decided to move to a different race team in 2006.

The U.S. Coast Guard joins many other NASCAR sponsors that decided to jump to a different team to improve their position in the sport. In all accounts, the Coast Guard’s move to Richard Childress Racing in 2006 can be viewed as a huge success story. After 28 events this season, the Coast Guard racing team has 19 top five finishes including seven wins. Instead of trailing the Busch Series points leader by more than a thousand points, they lead in the standings by over 600 points.

In my opinion, this must be one of the greatest sponsorship turnarounds in history.

While many sponsors struggle at times to find their footing with winning teams in NASCAR, some will make bold moves to change teams. One sponsor that comes to my mind in the Nextel Cup Series that decided to make a change is the Lowe’s Home Improvement sponsorship.

Lowe’s at one time called Richard Childress Racing home. They sponsored the No. 31 driven by Robby Gordon before moving their sponsorship to Hendrick Motorsports. Today, Lowe’s enjoys greater success with driver Jimmie Johnson and HMS over their days at RCR. It’s another example of how sponsors can find greener fields in someone else’s garage.

Valvoline and M&M’s are other examples of successful moves to other teams in the Nextel Cup Series. In the Busch Series, the Navy is trying their luck by moving to JR Motorsports this season from FitzBradshaw Racing. Also, the Marines have announced that they will be moving their sponsorship next season.

Often we hear from NASCAR owners when drivers are released that this is a performance based business and the driver wasn’t performing. In the case of corporations and their high dollar sponsorships, when they decide to move they’re stating the same exact thing except it’s directed towards the NASCAR owner. In not so kind words, the sponsor is firing the owner.

This brings me to current sponsorships that I see either leaving the sport or moving to a different team in the future. You can’t tell me that Tide is happy with the continued performance of the No. 32 car. I understand their contract is up at the end of this season with PPI Motorsports and I believe they will leave for a more fruitful garden.

Caterpillar is another sponsorship that I believe could find a new racing home at the end of next season. It depends on how Bill Davis Racing does with their new Toyota relationship next season.

The McDonalds sponsorship may find new life in the Nextel Cup Series in the future as their main competitor Burger King hits the Cup level next season with Michael Waltrip Racing.

Kodak announced at the beginning of this season that they would return next season, but will they? Also, Cingular has a decision to make about their name. NASCAR won’t allow them to use AT&T, so what happens with them?

What will happen with the AAA sponsorship with no Mark Martin in the No. 6 and no sign of a bright young driver to take over the wheel? AAA could jump to another car at Roush Racing or jump to a different NASCAR series with Martin.

The National Guard is rumored to jump from Roush Racing to Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 25 car next season. It’s hard to believe that this will be a successful move given the recent history of the No. 25 team, but it worked for Lowe’s.

In my opinion, there’s a history of success from sponsors playing musical chairs and I wouldn’t be surprised to find some owners the victims of sponsorship hopping at the end of this season.

Let’s have some fun! In your opinion, from any time in NASCAR’s history what sponsorship move from one team to another would you consider being the most successful move of them all?

My Richmond Thoughts

By Jason Jarrett

It had been a while since I had been to Richmond before this past weekend but it was good to go back. The racing had a different look to it but I really cannot pinpoint exactly what was different. I think the biggest difference is that I have been watching it on television for the last 5 years. A live event always has a different look to it. I would say that the racing was good and from my view there was a lot of side by side racing. I know the TV can’t show every battle but there was some good racing at RIR.

The 88 car was better than the end result showed. At one time he actually was in front of the leader but did not catch a caution before Kyle Busch was able to pass him and put him down a lap. He did stay with Kahne for that entire run but by the time the caution came out some other cars had been lapped so that even took DJ out of position to get the free pass. There are many stories like this within every race but I feel like this week I wanted to point out that the 88 was a better car than the ending credits show.

Another thing I am starting to notice is that Butch Hilton is doing a really good job of building the moral of the team back up. I can see it in the crew’s faces on race day. They just look better now than they did a month ago. Butch is also doing a good job of working on the cars to make DJ comfortable and it has been showing. At Michigan they kept adjusting on the car and making it better and were able to get a top 15. Last week, they went with the fuel mileage plan and it worked out for a top ten finish. I believe when you start heading in the right direction you start getting some good breaks. I know and they know that nobody thinks that 15^th or 10^th is great but everyone should know that they are doing a good job and heading in the right direction.

Scott Wimmer really impressed me the other night as well. Not just because he qualified well but I was able to watch him in the race for a while. These are the kinds of things I notice: At one point, dad passed Scott and stayed in front of him for maybe 15 or 20 laps. Well, I noticed that Scott started pulling back up to the 88 and eventually passed him back. That told me this: Scott paid attention to the different line that dad was running and changed his line to make it work for him as well. All of those guys are good out there on Saturday night or Sunday but being able to make adjustments like that are what separate some of the drivers at the top level.

Tony Stewart not making the chase is a big deal and I want to be someone that acknowledges the fact that Tony did his interviews and took the disappointment like the professional that he is. He mentioned that it was not just one race that made the difference and said that there was no lack of effort from his team. People are quick to criticize Tony but he is a great champion and his composure after the race Saturday was a testament to that.

Richmond is a great place to lead into the chase. I am someone that opposed the format at first but now can say that it is working. There will be some excitement in the coming weeks as the teams fighting for the championship continue to battle and the teams needing some good things to happen continue fighting for every position they can capture.

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TNT Missed A Good Race

By Mark Young

Not to steal any thunder from my blog brother Kurt Smith in The Infield, I feel really compelled to write about the abysmal TV coverage of the race on Saturday night.  Granted it was the last race before the Chase and there was plenty of drama because of it but I think that we as race fans were royally ripped off.

I would have posted this sooner but figured for the sake of the boss man pulling my post due to censureship I needed to wait and cool off a bit.  This telecast had to be the worst one I have ever seen.

To start with let's talk a bit about the over-coverage of the Chase contenders.  If I was a sponsor of one of the 40 other cars there that night I would be contacting TNT (NBC's generic sibling) and express my outrage at the complete lack of coverage not only of their cars but of the race in general.  I am really anxious to find the statistics showing how much airtime was spent actually covering the race on Saturday night.  The last half of the race was missed because of all of the commercials that we had to endure.  The remote control at my buddy Dave's house was a smoldering mass of melted plastic because we used it so much.  I guess I should thank TNT in a sense for all of the commercials and so should ABC because we spent as much time watching the Ohio State vs. Texas game as we did the race.  It is absolutely ludicrous to run four sets of commercials in a 20 minute time span.  TNT was on the air for four laps then commercials, then another five laps and another set of commercials and what for?  A bunch of interviews from drivers after the race who have ten more races to look forward to.

What about Dave Blaney?  What about Ken Schrader?  What about Scott Riggs? I think they all had great finishes but then again I am not sure because TNT didn't bother to give us a rundown on the final results of the race!!!  It would have been really neat to hear what those three guys had to say after very good runs but NOOOOO.  We had to stick a camera in Tony Stewart's face right after he got out and ask him how he felt about not making the Chase and we all know it is because everyone expected a curse-ladened tirade.  They were just looking for him to blow up, I am glad Tony held his tongue and took it like a man.  No offense to Denny Hamlin's parents as they have a lot to be proud of, and so would I if I were his father, but come on people we heard them talk before the race and during qualifying.  Same thing with Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr.  They both had crappy runs and were lucky to make the Chase but there was more to that race than 11 guys.

Was it too much to ask for five minutes out of TNT's precious time to talk about the race that had just finished instead of the ten races yet to be run?  I hope the ESPN/ABC guys took some serious notes and remember what was aired Saturday because I am sure there are many fans like me who will remember this next year.