Robby Gordon at Talladega? Robby and Trevor Bayne had the fastest cars on the track and then suddenly no Robby. It seems that a right rear wheel bearing went bad in Robby’s car forcing him to go behind the wall. Since Robby and his sponsors don’t pay for commercials or pony up any mention money, there was no mention out of BSPN of what happened.
The Sunday Nap
The only real excitement during the Sunday afternoon snooze from Talladega came after the race when the #78 hauler caught fire after the fuel from the dump cans were put in a storage tank on the tractor of the hauler rig. The second most exciting thing was the cause of the first caution when Ms Terry DeBris decided to go topless to get some party beads from the fans in the stands during the first commercial broadcast. The sight of Ms DeBris topless caused a massive resurgence of consumed beverages and food stuffs from the stomachs of fans that saw the event. There’s still about 100 lbs of speedy dry under the stands absorbing the “recycled” food stuffs and beverages.
The rest of the cautions were typical of plate racing. Some of it bad luck and some of it caused by boneheaded moves.
While fan capacity wasn’t mentioned, it was pretty obvious by BSPN’s trying to avoid the showing of the grandstands that the track was nowhere near full capacity or even half full. When you can see the word “TALLADEGA” in the front dogleg seats, something is obviously wrong. Add to that entire sections of the front dogleg seating being covered by banners or being empty period. And while the back straight grandstands weren’t shown in their entirety except from a distance, it was pretty obvious from what they did show that they weren’t full. They could’ve kept the back straight grandstands closed and still had empty seats on the front side of the track. It’s not the economy that’s the problem. It’s the “product”.
You could really tell that NA$CAR’s exclusive MYOPIC-VISION© coverage was in full effect. Since neither Robby Gordon nor the Wood Brothers coughed up any mention money or money for buying commercial broadcast segments, BSPN was very reluctant to show the pair. On Lap 63, when Robby & Trevor were going for the lead the first time, BSPN immediately cut away to show some of the play-off contenders elsewhere on the track. I think that Robby Gordon got more exposure during this one race than he has all season combined. There’s supposed to be 43 cars with 43 separate stories but we all know whose calling the shots and writing the scripts for the networks.
And you have to wonder why all the use of the rear camera when all you can see is the front part of a hood and maybe the top of the front bumper and nothing else on the track? Especially during a crap shoot like Talladega. It worked fine to show Joey the Giraffe’s missing left front fender the first time, but to keep going back to it time and again sort of makes a special shot lose its luster. It’s nearly as monotonous as those Head-On commercials. Head-On, apply directly to the forehead. Repeat it about 20 times in 10 seconds and see how bothering it gets. This is how bad the MYOPIC-VISION© coverage gets.
Why does it take Mr. Magoo, chief NA$CAR official & inspector, about half a lap to call the first real caution for a blown tire (#20 left front tire) when we’re seeing it as it happens at home and it’s being shown on the track’s big screens and yet when the Dinger blew a tire, which brought out Caution #5, the caution was called immediately?
And why the delay in assessing a penalty on the illegally modified windshields on the 00, 56, & 47 cars (which was caught during a pre-race tech inspection) and yet Shrubbery’s car was immediately assessed a penalty at Pocono for being too low? And why was Jabber Jaws ushered away when the illegal windshields were detected? Was somebody afraid of an on-air tirade from Jabber Jaws?
There was also a lot of talk about team orders the entire weekend. If I want to see racing with team orders, I’ll watch Formula 1 racing. But this is nothing new in NA$CAR. It’s happened before and it’ll continue to happen. Whether it’s directed by a manufacturer or a team owner, team orders are becoming a fact of life in NA$CAR and it really becomes apparent during the Chase for the Chumps.
You could tell Bobby Labonte took a hard hit, which was Caution #8. It seems the younger Motormouth brother turned Bobby into Landon Cassill which then turned Bobby uphill into the wall. To add insult to injury, Busch the Elder had no place to go and ran into Labonte. When Bobby was walking to the ambulance, you could tell he was hurting by the way he was walking. Plus the fact that he kept his helmet and HANS device on. If Busch the Elder had a chance to win the play-offs, it went up in a pile of scrap metal.
Running at the back didn’t pay off either. Cousin/Crazy Carl & the Biff along with Johnson, Jr, and Jeffy tried that strategy and got burned for it. When Carl decided to head to the front, it was too late. When Johnson wanted to go to the front, Jr was content to stay where he was and said so on the radio thus costing Johnson or Jr any chance of moving up and possibly winning.
The best underdog story of the Sunday nap had to be Dave Blaney and his 5th place finish. Instead of running off to interview the play-off drivers, they actually interviewed Blaney. He was pretty happy about it even though it cost his sponsor some money feeding a bunch of kids for free. This was probably the most exposure the team got all season and it’s well deserved. You know Tommy Baldwin Jr has got to be happy as it helps him with his sponsor and the search for more sponsors, which are sadly lacking throughout all 3 of NA$CAR’s top touring series.
Lots of controversy being aimed at Jack Roush over team orders and the dumping of Jeffy by Trevor Bayne. Trevor didn’t appreciate being “strong armed” into dumping Jeffy according to what Trevor posted on Twitter and the last few days there’s been denials out of the Wood Brothers, Jack Roush, and Ford Racing itself regarding any team orders. So where did the rumor start and who started it? Or is this an attempt at trying to cover somebody’s backside with the denials? We’ll probably never know for sure.
The Truck Series race was pretty decent even though Mike Wallace and Ron Hornaday dominated it. It was Wallace’s first win in a number of years and he had passed on a wedding anniversary cruise to be there. So it was worth the effort. With Hornaday’s 2nd place finish, he’s moving up in the points standing and may very well make a comeback to win the Truck Series championship. Pay attention NA$CAR. You don’t need a play-off series for an exciting championship. The down side to Hornaday winning the championship is he may find himself in a position like Ted Musgrave did after he won the Truck Series championship. Without a job. Although Ted did get picked up pretty quick by Germain Racing but that was because Ted had sponsors. In the post-race interview, Wallace thanked Mr. Happy and his wife and I noticed a reaction out of Mr. Happy at the mention of both their names. It wasn’t a jump up & down reaction but a reaction none the less. Is all not happy in Happyland?
Dan Wheldon Foundation
With the death of 2-time Indy 500 winner and former champion Dan Wheldon, a foundation has been set up in his name to continue with his charity work and help out his family. A lot of memorabilia from sports figures across the globe have been donated. F-1, IndyCar, NA$CAR, NHRA, and Moto GP racers and drivers, football players, actors and actresses, current and former NFL players, and current and other sports celebrities have donated various items to be auctioned off. If you’re interested in helping out Dan’s family or want to make a donation to one of his charities, you can find info at www.danwheldonmemorial.com
Gotta comment, question or want to say hey there...email Mike here
Go visit our home page, called appropriately The Pits & check out our photos & pages. Our most popular page; Race Recon is where you get all the info you need to go to the races including local camping, hotels, bars, restaurants, tracks, golf & other important race weekend information. We also have attending a NASCAR Race tips, tailgating tips & recipes, stories, trivia, quotes & more! While you are surfing see if you are a REAL RACE FAN. Be sure to read the Fan Fables, LAIDBACK RACING’S adventures with the tailgating race fan at NASCAR tracks.
