October 30, 2005

And what was so great about that?

October 26, 2005

See?  I'm smiling!

Short tracks usually bring this out in me.  But the grin gets bigger when my favorite drivers win.  If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll realize I cheer for a great many people.  But, JG has always been my baby and Ricky Craven is a local favorite.  Then again, I began to follow Martin Truex Jr. when he won races at Loudon in the Busch North Series way back when.

So, this past weekend was a sentimental success for me.  Ricky Craven #99 Superchips Ford for Rousch drove to a win in the truck series.  Each of his wins in the Cup and this win in the trucks was won on heart.  The pit strategy wasn't supposed to work.  He didn't have the strongest truck.  He had the most determination that day.  Ricky wears his heart on his sleeve.  He honestly loves to race.  He loves to win.  I love to watch him getting misty eyed simply because he had a good day.  Here's hoping Ricky will see many more good days in the near future.

While Clint Bowyer demonstrated why he's being bumped up to the Cup series by pulling off a nice Busch win at Memphis, coming from the back after wrecking his car in qualifying, Martin Truex Jr. maintains his points lead.  Just a few more weeks.  See?  Still smiling.

And then the tear jerker.  Jeff Gordon driving the #24 Dupont Chevy for Hendrick Racing won the Cup race on Sunday at Martinsville.  One year ago we wondered what was wrong when Jimmie Johnson was told to take his winning car straight to the garage after taking the checkers.  Tragedy had struck.  However, the Hendrick organization refused to bow to adversity and Jimmie repeated his win the following week.

Hence, when Jeff and his entire crew turned their hats around to remember Ricky Hendrick on Sunday, it brought it all back.  The 10 people on that plane last year were racing folk.  And a win means more than anything to them.  So what more fitting memorial?

Final note:  Poptart...do you think the nickname will stick to Steve Latart?

Next week...Atlanta.  And who's gonna win the Truck Championship? Who knows.  Who's gonna win the Busch Series?  Bowyer is closing in! Who's gonna win the Cup?  Anything goes! And usually does.

Catch ya'll later.

October 19, 2005

And then we realize it doesn't get any better

We've spent the past few weeks complaining and whining a great deal. Which usually isn't very productive, but it makes us feel more important.

But, looking forward to this weekend, I realized it didn't matter one bit. The Chase has been restarted, more or less. Short track racing has returned. If there is a kind of race that will bring a great deal of entertainment to the fans, it's one at a short track.

We'll be at paperclip shaped, flat Martinsville this weekend. The trucks will lay some rubber down (oh boy, oh boy!). That points race is as close as the Cup. Setzer and Musgrave will be battling all the way to Homestead to settle this thing. Cool!

The Cup boys...we will get to see the infamous glowing brake shot, the bump and run shot, the squeezing through pit road shot and the attempting to punch out a fellow competitor shot at the end. No car will arrive at the final inspection without scratches, dents and even without front ends.

Nobody will be giving an inch. With the points as tight as they are, the Rousch Armada will scatter in the wind, hoping their teammate's ship gets lost in the night.

Hendrick will race with a heavy heart. This is the anniversary of the tradgedy. If there's one thing we know about the Hendrick boys, adversity brings out the best in them.

Tony...don't look now! Jimmie is on the upswing. Do you hear an ominous dum-dum-dum-dum in the background? You may have nowhere to hide.

Newman. Hmmm. and Rusty. hmmm...Anything can happen.

And it probably will!

But above all, the Chase in On! and that is a mighty good thing.
 

October 16, 2005

So much was right, so much was wrong

I did see a race last night, for 20 laps. And those final 20 laps had all the intensity and drama required of a Chase race. The points sit so tightly, the Chase is now completely up in the air again, as it should be.

But what about the other 5 hours of the broadcast? Horrendous. No race was run. It was a crapshoot. Your tires would blow in 25 laps. The only way you stayed alive was if somebody else's tires blew before yours did. Disgusting.

Meanwhile, nobody is willing to shoulder the blame for this. Tony Stewart sat in pit road after the race next to his demolished car trying to tell us it wasn't anybody's fault. Humpy Wheeler resurfaced the Lowe's Motor Speedway last year. Goodyear brought the wrong tire to the track in May and returned in October with a compound that had been tested and had failed. NASCAR tried to "fix" the situation mid-race by regulating tire pressures...

Clearly everybody involved knew this race was a bad idea many weeks before the Green flag flew. NASCAR knew it, Greg Biffle knew (his head is still ringing from testing last month), Humpy Wheeler knew it, even the fans knew. And we still did it.

What does that say about one of the most competitive sports in America where "Safety First" has become their credo?

As usual, I and many other people on this planet knew that what we got this weekend was crap. How to fix it? Oh, I've got some wild ideas about NASCAR controlling when and how tracks are resurfaced, but I doubt that it would ever happen or work.

I guess it comes down to I can't be happy all the time. But I know one other thing: the complaining will be loud and angry.

October 15, 2005

Newman

His dominance in the Busch Series over the last five races is the perfect example of why something must be done about the Buschwackers! While the Chase drivers bully their way to the front on Saturday (or Friday), the story of the Busch Series Championship gets pushed out of the way.

Five in a row is spectacular! But I'm sure the sponsors of Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. are grumbling...

Like the irritating postman Newman, Ryan is taking all the light off the stars of this series.

Truex Jr. Widens Lead in Busch Championship

October 12, 2005

levigation

It's a really cool sounding word, ain't it? Sort of like some new technique a magician might use. At least everyone hoped a magic trick had happened at Charlotte when the mysterious levigators appeared during the off-season. But it was nothing more than a whole lot of smoke and mirrors.

Charlotte was "levigated" last fall, after the final race of the season. I've heard a lot about levigating. So, I thought I would look it up. Basically the word means to polish. There's some more technical things about turning aggregate into a fine powder utilizing liquid, or some such thing...but I'm no technician. So, they polished the track.

Does that sound like a good thing on a racetrack? Aren't the cars supposed to be looking for grip? No wonder everybody slid all over the place in May. And what did Humpy do after the Cup drivers complained about the track? He levigated it some more.

If you can't fool them the first time, maybe a second attempt would bring about the proper response. But no. Testing a few weeks ago resulted in more wrecked cars and more grumpy drivers after the "corrections" were made to the track.

So, where does that leave us this weekend? I'm afraid in the wall. 22 was the record number of cautions during the 600 in May. I know we're attempting 100 fewer miles this time, but can anybody say 23?

And when NASCAR tells the drivers the track is ready for competition this weekend, just pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Catch ya'll later!

October 6, 2005

Talladega--a track of the past

Come the day of the race at Talladega all anybody can talk about is "The Big One", those spectacular crashes where cars fly through the air, shed parts in all directions, collect other cars in their wake and find a final resting place. Inside that piece of automotive technological wonder is a human. And despite all that we hold a NASCAR Nextel Cup driver up to be, in that moment the driver has no ability to control his destiny. In fact it is often thought that the wreck we just witnessed might have been that driver's final wreck.

There is a concensus among the competitors these days: there is nothing NASCAR can do to the cars that will stop this kind of racing at Talladega. Many say it is the result of restrictor plates. But the plates are a result of the track. So, how can this 180 mph demolition derby become a part of NASCAR history?

The answer is a simple one: Get rid of the track. But why is the solution so difficult to arrive at? The answer to that question is simple as well: Money.

The fact is Talladega is a hugely successful venue. 140,000 tickets are sold to each event. The TV ratings are some of the highest of the year. America's bloodlust is answered when the cars come to this track and to Daytona.

So, in whose hands is the solution? It's not in the hands of the fans. We're stupid. If there was a 1/4 mile track in your next door neighbors backyard where the Cup boys came to compete, but only went 55mph, we'd buy tickets. It's not in the hands of the drivers. They're not too brilliant either. If you give them a car and a track to drive on, they come. (Maybe your neighbor should invite them).

It's in the hands of NASCAR. The sanctioning body ultimately has the power to pull a venue from the schedule. They have the ability to get a venue to reconfigure the track because it's too dangerous. Look at Texas and NHIS for examples. But what's the likelihood of this?

You see, NASCAR wasn't given all the cards in the deck either. They are worshipers of the vast bank account. If money is going in, they're happy. Sad, but true.

So, we're at a stalemate. What needs to happen? I'm sorry to say, but a top flight driver needs to have a wreck that results in death. It's the only thing that kicked NASCAR into "safety" mode when Dale Sr. died. But NASCAR stopped a hair short. They softened walls, strengthened cars...but they haven't come to the conclusion that when the drivers have no control over the vehicle they're in, it's a safety hazard.

This week we go to Kansas. It's a cookie cutter. Aero rules. But we'll see a race where a driver has the ability to avoid trouble, if he's of a mind to. C'est la vie.

Until then...
 

October 2, 2005

Rants

One of those things that I absolutely abhor in a blogger. But this time, I can't restrain myself.

Three times during the race today WHDH Channel 7 Boston cut into the NBC broadcast of the third race in the Chase to the Cup to tell me that the Red SoX were about to clinch, or had clinched, or were now celebrating the clinching of the Wild Card spot in the MLB playoffs. Whoopie! I grumbled during the race, but when they finally chopped the race coverage off as the cars took the final yellow, I lost it. They didn't even have the decency to wait until we knew where everybody finished! Or how the points were sitting! Sort of like cutting off the 9th inning of a playoff game. Pathetic.

However, I'm not terribly surprised. When Fox took over NASCAR coverage several years ago, I suffered an entire baseball season where I saw only portions of races because the damn Red Sox took precedence.

The Boston Sports Media has said it more than once; Auto Racing isn't a real sport. Today proved that that opinion in Beantown still reigns.

I've sent the following gripe off to the fine people at WHDH:

I have one question. Would you cut into a Boston Red Sox playoff game with the news that the New England Patriots had won a regular season game? Or would you wait until a commercial? Or would you wait until the coverage of the Playoff game was complete? Yeah, I thought so.

I was watching the 3rd race in the NASCAR playoffs, as it were, when I was interrupted THREE TIMES by non time sensitive announcements regarding a regular season Red Sox Game. I did not get to see the finishing order or find out what the points positions were. I had to wait for a cable show to find out all that.

If I was a Red Sox fan, I would be watching the game. Bad call, guys. It just continues to underline the fact that the Boston Sports Media deems motorsports to be beneath their notice.

This is how NBC takes over the coverage of the Chase? How very disappointing.

I'm taking the problem to the streets. Let my voice be heard!

October 1, 2005

Sometimes the offending member of the team is sent from the track in shame. Sometimes NASCAR and the collective members of the competitors say, "WOW! That was clever. Wish I thought of that...." Such is the case this week.

Last Sunday we held out breath when Jimmie Johnson's #48 1st place car failed to meet the height requirement after the race. It's roof was too high. Then the gasp got louder as 2nd place Kyle Busch's #5, and teammate to Johnson, measured similarly. But wait! After a few seconds, the cars were measured a second time and now they were miraculously within the limit. How? They had some nifty shocks in the rear of the cars that actually pushed the tail of the car in the air after compression and would settle shortly after. It wan't anywhere in the rule books. So, NASCAR grimaced and sent the Hendrick cars on their way. Car owners and crew chiefs throughout the garages grinned and thought what clever people Hendrick has working for him. Ingenuity.

Now, today! After qualifying yesterday the #29 Kevin Harvick mobile was inspected and found wanting. The trunklid was not secured or vented as required and the shock doors were not closed. This resulted, once again, in allowing Harvick's tail to ride higher than is permitted, giving him better downforce. But this time the crew chief to the #29, Todd Berrier, had his hard card removed and told to go home this weekend; an immediate suspension. Fines and points deductions will be handed out on Tueday. This was deemed cheating.

And what was the difference? Quite simply, somebody had thought of it before. There was already a line and chapter in the vast rulebook that forbade these particular creative manipulations of the car. You can bet there will be a new rule in that book next week regarding shocks.

See? It's not about being honest; racing is about being first.

Catch ya'll later!