how to handle the Buschwackers in order to make it more fair for the Busch regulars to compete. All 6 of the Busch regular teams. So, I may have finally come up with a way to discourage Buschwacking. Use the same qualifying system that’s being used in Cup. The Buschwackers qualify by themselves and the Busch regulars qualify by themselves. The Buschwackers get no points at all or any of the prize money. The Busch regulars get the points and the prize money. Since the Busch regulars would get points and be guaranteed to be in the race every week, this would help them land sponsorships and keep them racing. The Buschwackers would be taking their chances week to week as to whether or not they’re fast enough to make the race and the team owners would really question whether or not they want to field cars when there’s no money or points involved and run the risk of having to repair damaged cars when there’s no financial gain to running in the Busch Series. Maybe then the Busch Series could return to what it’s supposed to be. A training grounds for future Cup drivers instead of a testing grounds for the high dollar Cup teams.
One of the Busch regular teams, Team Rensi, has made the decision not to run the full season due to lack of sponsorship money. They won’t be racing at either Mexico City or Montreal. And why wouldn’t they want to race there you ask? Because those are the two most expensive races of the year for them to get to. I checked with Team Rensi and they said it would cost between $200-$250,000 per race to run at full strength. While $400-$500,000 may not seem like much when you compare it to a Cup team, that’s the difference between making several races or not making any races for a regular Busch team. And do the teams even get $250,000 in prize money per race? Not even close. Even if they got $250,000, they’d still be in the hole financially. So it’s a financial loss for them to go to those races. James Finch pointed this out when they first went to Mexico City and it still holds true today.
Which leads me into sponsorship. I wrote several years ago how NA$CAR would steal sponsors from the teams for their own benefit. They also re-direct sponsors to high dollar teams. I’ll give you some examples of some I know about in the last two years and a classic one. An energy drink was approached by a CTS team. The sponsorship proposal was a decent one. Instead of going with the CTS team, the energy drink was re-directed to a team in a different series. A bank was approached about sponsoring a new Cup team who submitted a decent sponsorship proposal. Instead of going to that team, they were diverted to a Buschwacker team which is owned by one of the high dollar Cup teams. Two national store chains were approached by that same new Cup team. Instead, they were diverted to a couple of Buschwacker teams. And folks wonder why teams can’t get sponsorship. It’s not because there aren’t sponsors out there who want to sponsor teams, it’s because sponsors are being hijacked and diverted to teams who are in favor with HRH or are taken by NA$CAR itself. The classic example being Crown Royal. They wanted to sponsor a car Jack Roush had. But because NA$CAR wanted the money that sponsor had, they wouldn’t allow them to sponsor the car that season. The official excuse being that NA$CAR didn’t allow liquor sponsors. So, they were the “official liquor” at the I$C tracks for a year before Roush got them. Then add in the strong-arm tactics used by the sanctioning body to force sponsors into becoming “official products/services” and to buy commercial time during the races. No business wants to be forced to cough up an additional $3-$5 million in addition to the $12-$20 million they’re already paying for a Cup sponsorship or $3-$6 million for a Busch or CTS sponsorship. It’s no wonder some sponsors leave and don’t come back.
No surprise that AJ Allmendinger has been replaced. If he didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all. Team Red Bull says he’s still their guy, but as we’ve seen in the past with other teams, that doesn’t necessarily mean his ride is still secure. Mike Skinner will be replacing him to help with troubleshooting the team and hopefully remedy their problems.
The cost of doing business for a team? Well, the credentials for a Cup team cost $94,000. Add to that the $2200+ for each inspection at the track. Not to mention the $20,000 to certify each Uni-Car. Oh yeah, they’re saving the teams money all righty. It’s sort of ridiculous that they’d charge the folks who put the cars together, hire the people, and do the actual racing in order for them to actually race. I think back to something my friend Rex White told me. He paid $10 for his official license. Now, it’s $6500 for a permanent hard card. Have things really increased that much since Rex raced?
I got an e-mail from Mike in Ontario Canada asking me why some teams get penalized during pre-race inspection and others may or may not get penalized during post-race inspection. It’s quite simple really. It’s a France family tradition that goes back to the very first race when Bill Sr. disqualified the race winner not because he cheated, but because he was a moonshine runner. Bill Sr. didn’t want that tainting the image of the new sport. Fireball Roberts was DQ’ed in 1955 not because he cheated, but because Bill Sr. didn’t want to loose the money that the Kiekafer team brought into the sport. They threatened to pull out if they didn’t get a win and wouldn’t you know it, they got the win the very next week at the expense of Fireball. One driver back in the ‘60’s bought a car from another well-known driver. When it was run by the well-known driver, the car was completely legal. When the other driver bought it, it was found to have illegal parts until he did a “favor” for the inspector. Then the car was legal and he was allowed to race it. One multi-time champion was told by Bill Jr. he could run whatever he wanted under the hood for a certain race and that there would be no post-race inspection on the car. He won and there was no post-race inspection. Another multi-time champion was told by Bill Jr. that he could win the Daytona 500, but he couldn’t win another race the rest of that season. He won the Daytona 500 and didn’t win another race the rest of the season. When the deal with the Childress modified rims came out, both NA$CAR and Childress were quick to deny the story. The very next week, Childress bought 300 rims to replace the modified ones at NA$CAR’s insistence. These are just a few examples of some of the favoritism and turning of a blind eye that’s gone on since NA$CAR began.
Here’s a little something JT in Kentucky sent me regarding the origins of the dreaded 3 B’s we hear at the beginning of every race on Fox. DW’s not as original as he thinks he is:
For Ron In Northern California, here’s a little something from Greg in Livonia Michigan:
To Ron, in Northern California,
You got that right. Hit um in the wallet. Cancel that subscription. As I did with the Detroit News and Free Press with all of their liberal anti domestic blah blah. Only problem is, they keep calling you to re-subscribe and sending free papers. And I have no use for them since the dog is already house trained.
Greg
Here’s another one of those things that leave you scratching your head. Robby Gordon won his appeal. He got back his points. He got his crew chief back. Sounds good so far. But here’s where you start scratching your head and it’s not because you have dandruff. Even though he won the appeal, his crew chief is on probation until December 31st. Plus, Robby’s fine went from $100,000 to $150,000. Say what? Yep, they increased the fine. And for those who are thinking he should appeal the increase in the fine and the probation on his crew chief, owners and drivers who have done this in the past have lost out and had the fine increased even more. So if you’re wondering why Robby isn’t appealing it, you now know why.
I had to laugh about this quote from Badyear : “But at the end of the day, we always err for safety.”
If they always err on the side of safety, why are so many tires blowing out? It’s not all the teams problems. When you’ve got a majority of the drivers in all 3 series complaining about the tires, then there’s definitely a problem with them. But then, Faux King Brian’s got your back since you’re a Brand Sense client. So what if the tires are junk.
Here’s another shining example of why you shouldn’t use common sense and a certain sanctioning body in the same sentence. They going to study Las Vegas Speedway and other tracks to see if installing SAFER barriers on the straight away walls and inside retaining walls is warranted. Huh? That’s a no brainer after seeing Jeff Gordon’s crash at Vegas. At least to us folks who have any common sense. And NA$CAR says their concerned about driver safety? You couldn’t prove it by this latest move. As was said over the weekend, the reason they haven’t done it is money, plain and simple. And as we’ve seen over the last few years, money, not the drivers’ safety, is the primary mission and focus of NA$CAR.
I’ve been asked why NA$CAR doesn’t take away a win from a driver who’s been found cheating. It goes back to the same reason as the SAFER barriers. Money. When Fireball Roberts was DQ’ed in 1955, it was about money as I mentioned above. It’s the same reason nowadays, only it’s because of the sponsors’ money. NA$CAR can ill afford to lose millions upon millions of sponsorship dollars by DQ’ing a driver. The teams can ill afford having their driver being DQ’ed for the same reason. Dollars to donuts that if somebody who wasn’t in Faux King Brian’s “good graces” (i.e. mega-dollar sponsor) won a race and was found to have something wrong with their car, you can bet they’d be DQ’ed. But not the mega-teams. Let an unsponsored, under-funded, underdog win a race and something is found wrong with the car and you’d see what happens. Anyone remember Morgan Shepherd having his car torn apart a couple of years ago because he as faster than some of the Chosen Ones when he qualified?
Folks from the 451st Civil Affairs Battalion have
been busy in Rabat Afghanistan giving the
civilians there much needed clothing, medical
and school supplies, and even treating their sick
animals. The town’s school was heavily damaged
by the Taliban and the 451st along with the
Afghan troops have started repairs on it. In other
parts of Afghanistan, the snow has been so bad
that the troops have gone in and helped the
villagers dig out. But this isn’t something you’ll
hear about on CNN or a lot of the major news
networks or see covered by the NY Times. So to
the folks of the 451st and the rest of our troops
helping out and showing compassion that nobody
else will show, a big thanks to you and a great effort in winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.
Motherhood, Apple Pie, & John Wayne
Mad Mikie
Curmudgeon at Large
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