The first thing that upset me with the start of the new season, while not NASCAR’s fault, was the long touted 100 hours of live SPEED TV coverage from Daytona. The first two hours of Friday’s coverage were horrible since some highly paid audio engineer left an open infield mic feed that overrode the announcers. It wasn’t until the third hour that I was able to hear the announcers. While NA$CAR has no direct control over the telecasts it still reflects back on the sport that such ineptness took two hours to correct. The picture in HD kept cutting out and I had to switch to the non HD feed to see what was going on. The most disturbing part of the coverage was the useless insertion of the idiot Rutledge and the beach scenes.
SPEED, after finally getting their act together, covered the final Shootout practice and in steps the usual NA$CAR inconsistency. Terrible Tony and Rowdy Kurt tangled on the track with Busch getting the worst of it. Tony drove his car toward pit road and here comes Rowdy crashing into the side of Tony’s relatively undamaged Toy not once but three times. Why was Terrible Tony called to the Oval Office? NA$CAR’s spokesman, Jim Hunter, admitted the accident was Just Racin’. It is obvious Tony wouldn’t deliberately take himself and another car out in practice and why was Busch trying to block him in a practice situation? NA$CAR should have, but didn’t, park Busch for the Shootout. Had this been the first such incident I could see them being lenient but the simple fact is, this has seemingly become a habit with Busch where Tony is concerned.
The saddest part, for me, was I was just beginning to warm up to Kurt.
We finally get to Saturday night and Fox takes over for the telecast of the Bud Shootout. Unlike E$PN, they didn’t listen to us. They still had the useless, clueless Chris Meyers and the idiotic Hollywierd Hotel. Putting that aside, they did a fair job of covering the actual race and didn’t distract us with useless graphics or gimmicks. Mike Joy is a pleasant relief as booth anchor. Now if we could just get Larry Mac to come down two octaves they’d be the best announce team in racing. The race itself was an excellent and exciting kickoff to the 2008 season and Kevin Havock was a pleasant addition to the Hollywierd Hotel.
I freely admit that I am not a member of The Junior Nation and, if memory serves me, this is the first time he‘s been in one of my headlines. The reason has nothing to do with Junior but the media obsession with him and the fanatical attitude of too many of his supporters. Having said that, I offer my sincere and heart felt congratulations to him on his win Saturday night. You could tell from his voice, his smile and his eyes that a tremendous load has been lifted from his slender shoulders. Rick Hendrick’s obvious joy with Junior’s performance has to be a big morale boost to Junior that he’d not experienced with his former absentee owner. Seeing all three of his teammates celebrating in Victory Circle with him gives every impression of his being accepted into the fold of the Hendrick racing family and I think it’s fair to say, “Welcome home Junior.”
While Terrible Tony, in his new shoe, ran well and had the potential for the win, it looks like Hendrick is still the team to beat. The four Hendrick cars all finished in the top six and they have to feel they haven’t lost out with their competition. Mikey looked strong for a while as did Dave Blaney in their Toys. Jamie McMurray gets the big save award of the night. While all this is interesting there is a much bigger story to look at.
As Paul Harvey says, “And now, the rest of the story.” Junior’s win will be the talk of the week but the real story is the new car. Here is where I can give NA$CAR due credit. At least five of the cars in the Shootout were backup cars that essentially had no super speedway tweaks and they all were competitive. Jeff Gordon took his Darlington COT from last year and had a shot at the win. Johnson was in last years Richmond car and had a shot at the win. One of the backups was a Martinsville car. With the old cars this simply could not have happened and, love or hate it, this is the car of the future that simply can’t help but save the teams money in the long term. As long as NA$CAR holds tight to the reins of body tweaking we are going to see some real racing where the driver, not the car, determines who wins. And that, my friends, is how it used to be and truly is one return to basics. The return of the slingshot move is a welcome addition to restrictor plate racing that has been too long missing. So I have to say KUDOS to NA$CAR and their R&D team.
Saturday night was the first time I’ve watched SPEED’s Victory Lane show. What a striking difference there. The fans in the background weren’t waving, shouting, jumping up and down, screaming, etc. They seemed to actually be listening to the hosts and guests. Why do they continue to allow all that nonsensical behavior on their other shows like Trackside? It was quite pleasant to watch the team interview Junior and Rick without all the distractions and the genuine joy that Junior showed was well worth watching. Come Sunday morning and the Go or Go Home show and the raving maniacs are back but, fortunately, there aren’t that many screaming idiots and I can hear what’s being discussed for a change.
When I first came to NASCAR as a fan the CUP Series was called Grand Nationals. Then it became The Winston Cup and the Sportsman division became Grand Nationals. After Winston I had to adapt to Nextel and now I have to adjust to calling it The Sprint Cup. With Sprint/Nextel in serious financial trouble what will I be calling it next year? Here’s an idea. Let’s call it the Bill France Cup presented by Sprint. If Sprint drops out and a new sponsor comes on the scene it would still be the Bill France Cup presented by _____. I’ll give Tony George credit. The Borg Warner Trophy at Indy hasn’t picked up a corporate name and that in and of itself makes it, to me, more valuable. Richard Petty and DW never were Nextel or Sprint Cup champions. They both won Winston Cup Champions with Richard also being a Grand National Champion. This commercialization phobia is way out of hand. I don’t care if Coke is the Official Soft Drink of CA$HCAR, I’ll still drink Pepsi. In the end, all this commercialization of the sport will end up biting them in the butt as Budweiser, Busch, Craftsman sponsorships have or will disappear. The value added benefit appears to have diminished and the exorbitant demands of CA$HCAR/I$C has exceeded any sense of reason. Too many sponsorships that should be on the cars end up in the senseless Official Cow Dung of NA$CAR stable.
The senseless top thirty five rule makes Daytona qualifying pretty close to senseless. Save the teams a ton of money and cancel the twin 150’s that, while exciting, are long ago out lived and useless. In qualifying, Jimmie Johnson proved that last years success wasn’t a fluke and, again, puts the Hendrick brigade at the front of the pack. Many expected the Gibbs Toys to be front runners but the surprise outside pole went to Mikey and Joe Nemechek probably just removed him from his greeting card list. Boris Said qualified his Ford ninth but has to race his way in instead of being secure in his starting position. The Childress cars were less than stellar in qualifying with Kevin Havock being the highest at thirty third. Patrick Carpintier was the fastest of the new open wheel guys in eleventh. Travis Kvapil was the second Ford in the top ten with four Toys and four Chevies rounding out the top ten. Of all the changes made by King Brian the one he failed to make was eliminating the outdated qualifying procedure at Daytona for the 500.
So, here we are. A new season starts with
Junior’s move to Hendrick looking like sheer
brilliance on his and Rick’s part. They Toys,
especially MWR, have shown great strides and
are probably headed for future dominance of the
sport which I still find troubling. I’ll be watching
the Duels on Thursday because of the
excitement factor but wish I could be out in my
yard instead. The bottom line for the new season
in my view is the new car will bring us real racing
and weed out the real from the wannabe drivers.
It may even give Front Row Furniture and Robby
Gordon Racing a real shot at some wins.
As per my usual, this is my opinion based on my
observations. You may disagree but never be disagreeable.
May God bless you and yours, all who serve to protect and defend, this great nation and all victims of terrorism. Please be extra cautious in looking out for those little ones who so depend on you for their welfare.
America is Mom, Apple Pie, John Wayne and NASCAR racing.
Never forget 911 and always remember: We are the Land of The FREE Because of The BRAVE. Freedom is not FREE.
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