Don't get me wrong here. I'm not knocking Jimmy since he won fair and square by the current rules. My question revolves about the rules themselves. From what I've been reading, The Chase has lost most of the meager support it may have had. Only King Brian seems enamored with it and, for the present, Champ. Jimmy Johnson. Turn the tables on him next year and see what his opinion will be.
Love or hate them, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart dared speak their minds and look at the uproar. Kyle won the first COT race and called it a piece of crap. Tony dared compare the current state of CA$HCAR to wrestling. Were they right? That depends on your perspective. At least they expressed an opinion that didn't follow the company line. For that they deserve a degree of admiration in this otherwise bland, PC state of CUP racing.
As I read about car owners complaining about the cost of racing, I'll be honest, it makes me want to bitch slap someone. I forget which one it was, but one team built a new COY (Car Of Yesterday) to run the final race at Homestead. Had they won the race they could not have recovered the cost of that new car which, as I remember, ended up wrecked. Am I supposed to feel sympathy for such idiocy? I think not and do not. Knock it if you will, the COT (2008 Car of Today) should eliminate such insane behavior. Finally, I am no longer the lone wolf promoting the fact that the COY was not anything resembling show room stock and the COT is a solution to long standing, high cost car construction and testing problem. I have read several articles, posted at Jayski's, over the past week acknowledging the fact that we lost all semblance of factory stock over twenty years ago and the COY had become a twisted sister freak of a monster costing way too much to field.
Comparing the COT to IROC is totally unfair. In IROC all the cars are set up the same by the same crews. The engines are all specked and the drivers have no spotters. With the COT the crew/car chief/(dirty word) engineers have options with the chassis setup, wing angle and splitter setting. IROC did not allow any of that. The only similarity is the control NA$CAR has over the body tweaking which is twenty years overdue.
Other observations are that the top thirty five rule has to go. A few (Kyle Petty) support this back door franchising but this goes contrary to all that made NASCAR what it once was. Drivers like Ricky Rudd, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Childress, Bill Elliott, Darrell Waltrip, Ronnie Thomas, etc. got their start by building their own cars, towing them and racing them until they caught the attention of funded team owners. They didn't have fancy haulers, backup cars and paid pit crews. Back in the day, I remember Ronnie Thomas showing up at Bristol and failing to qualify on the first round. Richard Petty loaned him an engine and he qualified in the second round. That can't happen today. Carl Long, Kirk Shelmerdine and Morgan Shepherd are the lone holdouts on this traditional approach to entry at the CUP level. Sadly, their efforts fall short of sensational.
The Richard Petty/Darrell Waltrip past champions provisional has to go. At most, only the defending champion deserves that option. While speaking of champions, it irritates my last good nerve to hear a broadcaster or read a columnist refer to the Daytona 500 winner as the Daytona 500 Champion. He's not the champion, he's the winner. The Champion is crowned after Homestead, not each or any particular race. What ever happened to the old adage, "Words have meanings."? Just look at all the word games they play with our illegal invaders and the terrorists killing innocents around the world.
Speaking of word games. What is it with the rash of invocations and Anthem squealing's where words are mispronounced and so called singers totally disrespect our Anthem. I am proud that NASCAR and it's track promoters recognize our great nation and the troops and make efforts to acknowledge our religious foundations and patriotic leanings. But it irritates my remaining good nerve that the promoters somehow think having rock stars brutalizing the Anthem is a good thing. Sadly, R E S P E C T is a word
loosing all meaning in today's liberalized society.
I wish I could say I'm looking forward to next season but, unless drastic changes are made it looks like it will end up being another snoozer of a season. We won't have an Allison vs. Yarborough fight on the back stretch. We won't have ole DW jawing Bill Elliott into clutching out of a championship. We won't have ole Ironhead intimidating any an all he gets near. We won't have upcoming drivers towing a self built car to run
competitively and gain attention. We won't have the fastest cars making the race as it should be. We will have cloned drivers talking more about sponsors than their cars, the race or themselves. We will still have King Brian sticking his head in the sand and saying that failing TV ratings and fan attendance is just a passing trend. The only hope I see is that the COT proves out to be what was intended and we'll actually see more side by side racing. Will that come to fruition? Only time will tell and all we can do is hope. My hope factor is on the downtrend and it's chance at resuscitation looks pretty bleak.
This is one man's opinion based on my observations and intuition. You may disagree without becoming disagreeable.
Please be sure to ensure the safety and
well being of those innocent little ones.
They had no choice in being born into this
upside down world we live in so please do
all you can to protect and them and instill
family values. I don't envy you the chore.
May we never forget the horrific events
of 911 and the nineteen demented
terrorists who want us destroyed as a
people and a nation. God bless you and
yours, our great nation, all who serve to
protect and defend and all victims of
terrorism. [Note: A few have written that
this inappropriate in a racing column. Since when is our tradition of national pride and our defense inappropriate? Solution: Don't read my rants and you won't be offended. Better yet, run for Congress where you can proclaim to support the troops while voting to defund them. Sounds like a winning solution for losers.]
For personal reasons of belief, I do not celebrate Christmas. Having said that, the vast majority of our troops serving abroad do and this has to be a very lonely time of year for them. (My twenty one years of Naval service let's me fully relate along with my nearly twenty years of single life.) For those of you who believe in The Season, please
make that extra effort to let those under appreciated men and women know you care and support their worthwhile efforts at protecting us from terrorism and radical Islam.
Never forget: We are the land of the FREE because of the BRAVE.
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Mercifully, the 2007 season is over. For the second time in four years, Jeff
Gordon got screwed by The Chase. A 300 plus points lead turned into a twenty
point deficit to his protégé. While King Brian wished all twelve in the
chase were within twenty points of each other going to Homestead it didn't
and couldn't happen. Sadly, Gordon doesn't have the testicular fortitude to
stand up and say The Chase sucks. With the demise of Dale, Sr., Gordon is
the reigning spokesman for the drivers and he simply follows the PC support
of the reigning idiocy of NA$CAR. Jimmy
