Turn 3

Talladega All That and Then Some

By Keith Ott

Man, if you couldn’t find something to like during this race, then you seriously need to find you a new sport to follow. I found myself at the mercy of the almighty commercial when time arrived to replenish my beverage of choice. The action was so good I just couldn’t leave. It was an almost perfect race, which leaves us with…

The Big One – I almost thought they might make it through without TBO, but, true to form, restrictor plate racing comes with an almost certain guarantee of having one. Going that fast that close, for that long, only needs a tiny miscue and that’s all she wrote. Speaking of TBO in the Saturday event, I don’t care where NASCAR told Lepage it was ok to blend in. It was one of the dumbest racing moves I’ve ever seen. The crosswalk signal tells me I can cross the street; common sense tells me it’s probably not a good decision to step in front of a moving bus. To his credit Lepage did finally issue an apology.

Bump Drafting (Slam Drafting) – The new car excels at bump drafting, but, in my opinion it was getting way out of hand. There’s a not so fine line between a perfect bump draft and slam drafting. NASCAR won’t regulate it out of existence; it’s one of the only ways they can pass, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to be watching it closely.

Select Drivers…

Hamlin – Were Hamlin suddenly transfigured (I like Harry Potter) into a street sign, then, my hands down choice would be “One Way.” It would probably be easier to count the cars he didn’t push to the front and hang out to dry, than to count the ones he did. One of the ones he shouldn’t have was the 18. It’s always nice to be good to your teammates. But, what goes around comes around, and, had the race finished under green, he might have been hard put to find a dance partner.

Montoya – I’m more inclined to think it was the raciness of the car, and restrictor plate racing in general, rather than a CC swap that gave him a great finish. Then again, someone had to pilot the dang thing. Well done.

Edwards – He should have parked outside the track and done a flip just for making it out of there in one piece. He can take solace in the fact that there are a lot more 1.5’s than Talladega’s.

Menard – See Montoya (minus the CC swap) above.

TV Coverage…

The race was too good to even care about it most of the time. LOL, I missed the boogity’s, or maybe, all these years of training my selective hearing (I was married at one time) have paid off again. DW was of course betting on Mikey. He only said it like 50 times, but, at least he had a point. I’m still not sure how someone, who honestly sucks at other places, can drive these races that well. The gopher was limited in appearance, but they still tried to sneak in the evil Fox3d, for an accident we actually could see. It was like we watched it and then got the anime version. “Crank It Up,” with no commentary, may have been the best segment of the day. The action was so good words wouldn't have done it justice anyway.

Quickies …

Stewart – Nice haircut. It would have looked good in VL, but that’s plate racing for ya.

Sr. - Happy belated Birthday.  You would have loved being in this race!

Thanks for all the concern expressed about the tornados. All is well and back to normal for most. Those needing assistance are being cared for.

So You Still Dont Like The C.O.T. ?

By Mark Young 

OK People, if you watched or listened to the race on Sunday and walked away talking about how you still don’t like the C.O.T. raise your hand. Now put it down because nobody can see you. That was quite possibly the best restrictor plate race I have seen since the days of the wicker bill on the spoiler and the blade across the roof. Sure there are still people out there who think the plates should be gone but that isn’t going to happen so get over it. The C.O.T. might have just lost its rookie stripe. 

U WANT SOME?

I couldn’t believe my eyes on Sunday when I replayed the race. Two cars locked up in a draft were able to walk away, with ease mind you, away from a larger group of cars. The speed tracker on FOX showed a pair of cars (I think it was the #11 and #20) doing 205 mph going into turn three while the rest of the pack barely got to 195 mph. Now that’s real drafting!! 

What about the incident on the backstretch between Kyle Busch and Jamie McMurray? I have been talking about it since Daytona and Larry Mac Reynolds talked about it then, the side plates on that wing saved both of those cars from spinning out and wrecking 2/3 of the field. 

Paul Menard would have been on his roof when he got shoved into the infield grass late in the race. 

There were probably other things that I missed during the race that could give credit to the C.O.T. but I think you get my point. It took years to develop this car and even though it is an ugly duckling the darn thing works really well. 

There is a lot to improve on at the Intermediate tracks like Texas, Atlanta, and Charlotte, but I am quite sure that the Engineers with the teams will figure out how to get these cars to race batter. In my opinion it isn’t much worse than the parade laps we had with the twisted sister car. 

I for one have been in favor of this car for quite a while and on Sunday at Talladega.  I am still saying it is the right car to race.

Danica in a stock car?

By DAVID GREEN

We interrupt the Tony Stewart-to-Chevrolet feeding frenzy to offer some comment on the Danica Patrick-to-NASCAR debate which, if not for Stewart, might be our favorite topic of the weekend.

The Associated Press story posted Friday on TR.com has some interesting food for thought, including some of the most thoughtful remarks from drivers to make it to print in a while. For what it's worth from this viewpoint, I don't know if Danica could ever make a go of it in NASCAR. But, I hasten to add, I don't know -- nor does anyone else -- that she couldn't.

Heartfelt thanks to Jeff Burton and John Andretti for pointing out that different does not have to have superior-inferior connotations.

It's no surprise at all to hear reasonable, well-articulated observations from Burton. He summed things up nicely by noting, after he suggested the transition from open-wheel to stock cars is not an easy thing, "I’m not saying we’re better drivers. What I’m saying is it takes different stuff, a different driving style, to run well in these cars."

This is an example of an instance in which a label -- "open-wheel" -- is at least as misleading as it is serviceable. The cars in which Patrick has learned to race are radically different from the traditional USAC open-wheel cars from which Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and other current NASCAR stars migrated. Modern Indy cars are as divergent from a USAC sprinter as they are from a NASCAR stock car. The USAC machines would be more appropriately placed in the "stock car" category, even though they don't have fenders.

Hence, the success of drivers such as Gordon, Stewart, et al, in NASCAR.

Still, just because Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti have struggled in stock cars should not take anything away from their overall driving capabilities.

Which brings us to Danica. Andretti -- who, by the way, has won in both Indy cars and NASCAR stocks, just as Stewart has, and has also been to the final round in NHRA Top Fuel Dragster competition -- certainly has valid thoughts to contribute to the debate, but the most incisive thing he said in the AP story was to compare Danica to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Like her or not, respect her talent or not, root for her or rail against her, you have to admit it -- she's a star. Just like Junior.

Is she coming to NASCAR someday, or does she even want to? I have no idea. I'm only saying that, if she did want to and got the right opportunity, she has as good a chance to succeed as any other candidate -- and a lot of things to offer that only a very few candidates have.

Where There Is Smoke

By Mark Young 

The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is only nine races into a very long 36 event season and already the rumor mill hast started churning. Yesterday a story broke saying that through “sources of anonymity” they have learned that Tony Stewart is going to be leaving Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of this year. Now I know it is still April and there are a lot more rumors and even more gossip to follow but I think we have the beginning of a very ugly situation, one that we will all have front row seats for.
 

U WANT SOME?

Why do I think this is going to get ugly? Because the story focuses on Tony Stewart, the one NASCAR star that doesn’t mince words. He is going to tell you what he thinks before his brain processes the situation, but at least he tells you what he thinks and not what the public relations people want him to say. Look back to when Gibbs announced that they were leaving Chevrolet and switching to Toyota. There was the usual fanfare and press conference with all of the drivers on-hand to talk about how excited they were to be making the switch…..except Tony. Smoke said what the PR people had told him to say, and he played it off well.
 

Tony is deeply embedded with Chevrolet with his open-wheel sprint car teams as well as the track he owns, Eldora Speedway. Heck, we have all seen the Armor All commercial where he stands mesmerized in front of a shining black car……a Chevrolet Corvette, not a Toyota Camry. Tony has toed the company line, but at the same time has not come right out and sung the praises of Toyota either.
 

The rumors state that he is going to the Haas CNC team and will drive one of those two cars. The stories go on to say that he is going to be 50% owner of the organization as well, not a surprise to me. Tony has managed his wealth quite well and ownership only gives him the power to control even more of his own destiny.
 

This is only the beginning of a long drawn out ordeal. J.D. Gibbs stated yesterday that “Tony definitely has some options.” He goes on to say “The reality is he’s racing here through 2009, no ifs, ands or buts about that one.” Well as history has shown us before, if Tony wants something he usually makes a lot of noise about it until he either gets his way or something changes.

 

Fasten your seat belts my friends, this could be a bumpy ride.

Was It Worth The Cost?

By Mark Young 

Last week I posted about how I was in a way looking forward to the Nationwide Series race in Mexico City. I thought it would be a nice way to fill in the void of another off weekend for the Sprint Cup Series. As you can see by reading the comments of my fellow blog-heads, I was wrong. It is clearly evident that the only people who really want NASCAR in Mexico is NASCAR.

I want to premise this by saying I saw 17 laps of the race and even then it was only half heartedly due to being under the weather. The racing action was decent and seeing Kyle win his third NNS race in a row was nice. But the big question to me was where were the fans at? The seats that I was able to see were half empty (though NASCAR might say they were half full). Did they try to give thousands of tickets away again this year? Maybe the Mexico City residents had other things to do. 

I am anxious to find some site out on the Internet that can post how much money these teams spent last week. The last place team took home $40,000 on Sunday. Take that money and deduct fuel costs, lodging, tires, and all of the traveling costs to get the team and support personnel to Mexico.  I highly doubt than much, if any, money was made. 

These smaller teams had no choice but to suck it up and make the trip. It was an opportunity for the smaller budget teams to get some very valuable points because there was only a handful of Cup Series drivers there to hoard points and money. But without high-dollar sugar daddy sponsors these smaller teams took a hit on the economic side of racing and only hurt them more. 

IF NASCAR wants to expand the sport then why do they make the smaller, under-funded, less flashy, racing series pay the price? If you are going to expect them to make such a long trip to race then NASCAR should share the wealth. Don’t tell me that the Mexican government didn't pay NASCAR a good price to have a race there. Where did the money go? Share the wealth Brian……the little guy is choking.

About distractions and prize money

By DAVID GREEN

Two NASCAR-related news items caught my attention this week. One was the opening of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s new bar, Whiskey River, in Charlotte, and the other was a piece by a Los Angeles times writer about the complexity of NASCAR's prize money distribution.

First, let's let Whiskey River take our minds (apologies to Willie Nelson for that one).

There's nothing novel about a sports figure opening what the Brits would call a public house, or pub. I guess one of the first was prizefighter Jack Dempsey, whose New York bar is iconic. It was even a location site in the famous movie "The Godfather." But this may be a first for the Bible-Belt South. If somebody knows of another one, let me know.

Of course, Junior had his long-running sponsorship with Budweiser and it should come as no surprise to any knowledgeable NASCAR fan that he would become a bar owner.

It's also not surprising that there has been some sniping from the peanut gallery, not about the morality of a sports hero opening a bar but about whether Junior ought not be focusing on his day job, given that he has been winless all these races.

Is that a criticism to which all race drivers must be subject, or is it limited to sons of famous race drivers? Surely the two who have heard that complaint the most are Dale Jr. and Kyle Petty.

Kyle, according to his critics, spent too much time on side business ventures, such as his Boot Barn retail store, and music, which at one time seemed to have as much appeal for his as racing. These "distractions" held him back, many kibitzers thought.

This is one example of the paradox of modern society. Ever since doctors began to specialize in specific types of medical practice, it seems, there has been a prevailing wisdom that you had to focus on one thing to be very good at it. In contrast, some have attempted to elevate multi-tasking to an art form, or feel they are compelled to.

As for me, I never was so hung up on any one subject that I wanted to abandon all others. Perhaps that's why I never reached the pinnacle of anything. More likely, I think, it's because only a certain few are ever destined to reach pinnacles at any rate, and if 100 percent immersion is in fact required, then I don't want to reach any pinnacles. Someone else can have them, and welcome.

I always loved Elvis Presley's music, but I never for a second wanted to trade places with him.

As for the NASCAR payoff figures story, this is surely a sign of a newcomer to the land of auto racing. None of us in the long-in-the-tooth racefan category give much thought anymore to the idea that you don't always make more money than they guys you beat on the track.

Any discussion of race purses reminds me of a story Bud Moore told, about how he and the half-dozen or so other top team owners once badgered Big Bill France to increase prize money. France did, but the increase went to the bottom of the finishing order, not the top. When the irate winning car owners asked him why, France told them: "Because you sons-of-b-----s need somebody to pass!"

"You know what? He was right," Moore said. "Wasn't nobody going to pay good money to see six cars race."

Jim Hunter's assertion that the winner has never been paid less than a non-winning driver may be accurate according to official race reports, but in the old days of "deal money" between the promoter and driver or team owner, I bet that wasn't always the case.

As far as I'm concerned, the prize money structure is the least logical thing about auto racing economics. This, after all, is the sport in which, if you want to make a small fortune, you should start with a big one.

Hola NASCAR!!!

By Mark Young

Another off week for the Cup Series? I know these guys deserve some time off but twice in four weeks is not helping my need for speed. Well since the big boys are going to come out and play I guess we need to look elsewhere for racing. The NASCAR Nationwide Series travels South of the border to Mexico City to do a little road racing and I am a little excited……….

Now, those of you who know me, or have read my blogs in the past, know that I really don’t think that road racing and stock cars mix very well. In fact I still believe that they shouldn’t be on the schedule as a points race. But, since I can’t control the schedule, we have them so why not make the best of it eh?

Why am I coming around to road racing in NASCAR? Well I can pinpoint it to a couple of things in particular.

1. Hired Guns – Drivers like Ron Fellows, Boris Said, Scott Pruett, and others who make a living turning left AND right have been brought in by struggling teams in an attempt to gain much needed points. – This has forced the NASCAR regulars to treat road races a little differently by attending driving schools and testing on the tracks.

2. The Open Wheel Invasion – With newcomers Juan Montoya, Patrick Carpentier, and Dario Franchiti the heat is turned up on the regulars to step up their performance.

3. The Chase – In years gone by it seemed that little emphasis was put on the road races with the drivers who struggled at those tracks writing them off as mulligans. Now they need every point they can get.

So I guess I am being swayed into the here and now. Embracing road racing in NASCAR is not something I will do entirely, but I do however look at those events a little differently.
 

What do you think?

Johnson Wins FOX Strikes Out

By Keith Ott

 

The Fox network has displayed its true colors and has shown NASCAR fans exactly how important they consider racing, and racing fans, to be to the network. Racing took a backseat to a rain delayed (2hrs) baseball game because of market size. Well, I’m sorry Fox, but it was the wrong decision. If you’re going to show an event, you owe it to the fans to show it from the beginning. The baseball game was out of its time slot and could easily have been shifted to an affiliate to facilitate coverage of the race. It never should have re-started on top of another event. BTW, I don’t mean covering the guys jabbering in the booth. I can do without them. I mean covering the start of the event. The anthem, the invocation, the starting of the engines, the flyby, and the pace laps, are what sets the tone to go racing. As soon as the race was at that point, they should have discontinued the baseball to cover the event. NASCAR fans aren’t second class viewers. We deserved the full event and not cars coming around turn 4 to take the green. On a personal note, being a veteran, I found missing the Anthem and Flyby particularly offensive*. No fans anywhere are more patriotic and supportive of our troops than NASCAR fans are. We were cheated. So, Fox, maybe you should get your head out of your ass and decide if you really want to cover racing. If not, then pass it on to someone who will do the events justice.

       Now, back to the event, it was some great entertaining racing. There were lots of lead changes by different drivers and makes, some dings and dents, things blowed up, etc. It, like I said, was entertaining. I like the Phoenix layout. It’s unique, and provided better racing than we’ve seen at some venues this season. Tracks with personalities, their own, and not a clone of Phoenix’s, are exactly what NASCAR needs. Oh, wait, we had some, never mind. I’m not real happy about an 8:53 ET start. But, since it was a good event, I stuck it out.

  -  Johnson took a nice gamble for the win. Maybe that will quiet some of the negative talk. He never deserved it.
  - It was fun to watch Martin having fun. Best champion that never was. Amirola has the best mentor in racing.
  - DW can say Stewart is a second half driver all he wants, but he’s third in that teams line-up with zero wins. You’d think he’d be more motivated.
 

Those are my thoughts: Yours?

*LOL, my first page of notes consists of (sailor speak) Fox, (sailor speak)Fox, (anatomy speak) Fox, (adverbs/adjectives) baseball, etc.

The same, only different

By DAVID GREEN

Who was it who said or wrote, "the more things change, the more they stay the same"?

New race fans don't realize it, because they don't have the historical context in which to view today's world of motor sports, but to long-time fans, many things are so different now. Conversely, some of the issues of today seem brand-new to some, but others realize each "new" thing merely represents another turning of the wheels.

Today's hot topic: Drugs. Like my Baby Boomer comrade Bob Henry, I may be a little knee-jerk reactionary toward any proposed restrictions on my personal liberties. Like Bob, I also readily acknowledge that random drug testing for auto racing drivers is something that needs to be implemented.

Having said that, I wonder how much different it is, really, for Aaron Fike to be racing under the influence of heroin in comparison to Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly showing up at the track fresh from an all-night party, still reeking of the alcohol they consumed during the sleepless evening?

I'm all but certain that, during my dirt-track racing days in the 1970s and '80s, I raced against some guys who were something other than sober. Just as I did regarding other concerns of the day, such as the qualifications of the ambulance crew on duty or the questionable engineering of the retaining walls (or the absence of any), I shrugged, put on my helmet, buckled my belts and raced. No, I wasn't racing at 200-mph speeds, but not all tragedies occur at 200 mph, you know.

This latest generation of Cup Series drivers is hardly the first to be subject to questions about their abuse of a substance other than alcohol. Two decades ago, it was a drug test that led to the end of Tim Richmond's NASCAR career before AIDS rendered him physically unable to drive.

None of those musings add up to much of consequence. Given the high level of visibility of NASCAR racing nowadays, the level of corporate involvement in the sport, the media attention and the overall political atmosphere regarding drugs in sports (whether they enhance or impair performance), it seems more stringent rules are all but inevitable.

On a totally unrelated subject, I was struck by the big Chevrolet bowtie on Tony Stewart's dirt-track racing suit when Smoke raced at Paducah International Raceway a couple of weeks ago. Similarly, the 10-year anniversary Home Depot commercials show footage of Stewart in GM equipment. Surely the folks at Toyota have noticed. I guess they're OK with it.

Bobby Allison once lost a Dodge factory ride because he raced his own Chevrolet in an event the factory team chose to skip. A few decades later, however, his son Davey competed in a Busch Series Chevrolet while driving Robert Yates' Winston Cup Ford, with no apparent ramifications.

By the way: It appears that 19th century French writer Alphonse Karr is the one who gave us "the more things change, the more they stay the same" -- in case anybody is interested.

Life is, indeed, paradoxical.

The Time Is Now For Getting Tough

By Mark Young

By now we have all read or heard about Aaron Fike making statements that there are drivers and crew members in NASCAR who are working race weekends under the influence of drugs. And if you are aware of Mr. Fike’s comments then you surely heard Kevin Harvick go off on NASCAR calling them out about not have a pro-active drug policy.

If you think Aaron Fike is lying then you are unfortunately mistaken. Whether we want to believe it or not, drugs are EVERYWHERE. And NASCAR needs to pay attention to the mess that other sports are in and protect their own now by implementing a drug policy that has teeth.

Every person to hold a hard card (NASCAR credential that gives them access to virtually any place they want) should be tested at least twice a year for illegal drugs. NASCAR should have penalties in place for people who violate the policy and the most important one should be zero tolerance for drivers and over the wall crew members. Test positive, find a new career. No second chances……period.

The last thing that NASCAR needs is to be requested by a Congressional committee who wants to waste more of our tax dollars grilling Mike Helton and Brian France over why there are drugs in NASCAR. 

Brian France needs to get a pair, put people in a room and not let them out until a drug policy is in place that protects the drivers, the teams, and the fans from potential situations where someone under the influence could get themselves or someone else hurt or killed.