Subscribe to this blog's feed« Forget the girls, Mark Martin has gone wild | Main | Europe, China on NASCAR radar »
December 01, 2006
Army vs. Navy
By Mark Young
During my browsing around the Internet looking for tidbits to feed my racing fix I stumbled across some excerpts from a Mark Martin interview on Sirius Speedway talking about the moves he has made and deals he was working on for the 2007 season. After reading Mike Harper's latest blog, http://blogs.thatsracin.com/turn3/2006/11/forget_the_girl.html#more I decided to chime in on it. It seems that Mark had contacted Dale Earnhardt Jr. regarding the possibility of running a partial Busch Series schedule in the #88 Navy sponsored ride but went on to say that the Army and the Navy nixed it. Now why in the world would two of our Nation's military branches say this is a bad idea?
The first thing that came to mind regarding the Army and Navy not agreeing to let this happen is who actually provides the sponsorship dollars? We the American tax payers do! I have had some issues with this considering the millions of dollars it costs to sponsor a team, but in the same sense it is a great form of advertising to potential enlistees. To have the opportunity to have an experienced winning driver behind the wheel of not one but two cars sponsored by our military, in my mind, would serve as a great sign of unity. Both teams involved are Chevrolet so we wouldn't have the manufacturer's B.S. to worry about. Why would there be any dispute at all between these two parties?
Could someone please tell my why this was not allowed to happen? I am not a big Mark Martin fan but thought the idea had a ton of merit.
December 1, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
Mark,
I seriously doubt the Army or Navy killed it. They'd race skateboards if the Army could figure out how to make them go. LOL, J/K Army. More likely it's from the head budget guys. Because it's hard to justify spending the 20 million or so on a good team when you're wasting a billion a month on a war and asking for more money for weapons. And, actually I tend to agree. I like that it shows the colors and it gets sailors etc. into the crowds but it's a luxury not a necessity.
My solution to honor the 5 services (yes I even included the "Puddle Pirates.") Would be to propose that during the season, at 5 different races, 5 Sponsors voluntarily dedicate their cars to one of the services. It could be different teams every time. But, these cars could run for points for say an "Armed Services Trophy" based on those 5 races. Kind of a race within a race. It's a win/win. Those sponsors would have so much more race exposure from the announcers and our warriors get some recognition. And, it adds another trophy to the Navy's showcase!
Posted by: Keith | Dec 1, 2006 8:55:51 AM
The thing is Keith that the money is already spoken for and earmarked for these teams. The #88 will have Navy on it all year. Evidently the two services could not agree on letting him drive both cars.
Posted by: Mark | Dec 1, 2006 9:03:32 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Advertisements
