realignment is what happens when I take my car in to a garage to get the front end aligned when it pulls to one side or the other as a result of potholes or in your case, from palm tree hunting.
The Truck Series race at Charlotte was excellent. Lots of bumping and banging, side by side racing, and one very spectacular wreck mixed with some normal ones. Also another shining example of NA$CAR’s continuing efforts of having inconsistent rule enforcement. First off, the inconsistency with the rules. I know, I get tired of it too, but if they were consistent, it would be a miracle but everyone would be happy and NA$CAR wouldn’t get any print. The incident involved the Shrub, Colin Braun, and Brian Scott. Braun was positioned below Scott’s left side quarter panel. Shrub turned left into Braun’s right quarter panel causing his truck to turn into Scott’s truck and taking both of them, out. In a post race interview, Shrub said he was slowing down to allow them (Scott and Braun) to get away. This goes against what was shown during the race. Anyways, Shrub was sent to the back of the longest line for rough driving. This is where the inconsistency comes into play. How many laps did Jason Leffler get for his rough driving penalty? 5 laps. He wasn’t sent to the end of the longest line. In races past, drivers have been sent to the garage and told to park their cars for rough driving. So where’s the consistency in the rules? One again there isn’t any. At least not where one of Faux King Brian’s “pets” (insert felt pennant with an oval with a “T” inside it) are concerned.
Secondly, Mike Skinner's crash. It's bad enough when a driver hits one of the walls head on or rolls over. Skinner ended up sliding down the track after spending some time on the hoof of TJ Bell's truck and rolled back over on its wheels before stopping. A spectacular crash by any standards. The important thing about it was that Skinner walked away unscathed but was rumored to need some fresh underwear.
Of course when this whole thing happened with Scott, Braun, and Shrub, NA$CAR apologist and the co-owner of Motormouth Motorsports, immediate started making excuses for Shrub. The same way his brother makes up excuses for his poor performance and that of other Chosen Ones. And naturally, we had the usual Shill-a-thon from him throughout the race for all his sponsors and manufacturer from before the drop of the green flag to the drop of the checkered flag. Hey Speed. You want to get a larger viewer ship for the Truck Series races? Dump the Human Shill and bring in Schrader. No shilling, no excuses, no cheerleading, great analysis, and stories with a touch of humor. Besides, let Shrub make up his own excuses. He doesn't need a professional cheerleader to do it for him.
As to the All Star Race, well, after having someone on the inside tell me a couple of years back that the vote was rigged from the outset, why am I not surprised to see Joey Logano, whose been in Cup racing all of 3 months with few achievements except for a lot of damage to his cars, get the fan vote? The total number of votes for every driver whose name is on the list is never released. Why is that? Could it be that the deception would be exposed? Heavens forbid that NA$CAR would deceive its fans. It’s all just a continuing part of the hype program by NA$CAR to make Logano look like the next “Messiah” or “Face of NA$CAR” who will save NA$CAR from its continuing downward spiral in attendance and TV ratings. Until Faux King Brian and his Royal Henchmen listen to the fans, things aren’t going to change in the grandstands, on the track, or with the ratings. Joey may still be wet behind the ears but even he should question the fan vote win when he beats out drivers who are more popular and more experienced than he is. Can we say “keeping the Home Depot sponsorship happy” ?
As to the race itself, well, think back to all the regular races we’ve had with the Kit Car. Side by side racing only because cars can’t complete a pass, 95% of the passing is done on pit stops, and there’s no real racing until the last 10 laps of the race. It was great seeing Sam Hornish Jr. and Jamie Mac get to move on to the final competition. It was also great seeing Tony Stewart get a win. Smoke's win does two things. One is it shuts the media up on when he will get his first win as an owner/driver. Two, it makes Jabber Jaws look rather foolish when he congratulated Shrub on winning the All Star Race a couple of months ago.
Did anyone happen to notice how quickly the Booth Bozos jumped ship from one driver to another? Jabber Jaws and his parrot jumped on the Hornish and McMurray bandwagons during the Showdown. Then during the main competition and especially noticeable during the final 10 lap segment, it was the Shrub bandwagon, Jeffy bandwagon, Newman bandwagon, and Stewart bandwagon and it switched faster than His Royal Highness spills “sodas“. Dale Jr. barely got mentioned (twice) as he wasn’t in any real contention. JPM got his mandatory mention as the Diversity Program Poster Boy. Maybe Jabber Jaws and his parrot are trying to wean themselves off since the end of the broadcast season is approaching and they could have massive withdrawal symptoms til February?
BTW, was Joe Nemechek, Robby Gordon, Max Papis, and Derrike Cope there for the Showdown? If you didn’t pay attention to the race ticker or if you missed Robby’s interview on the live Speed show, you’d never know any of them were there. Once again, Focks Snorts only concentrated on a select few drivers. good thing Shelmardine and Long were on the pole and outside pole or we'd never have known they were there at all.
The restart folks seems to be talking about as being exciting is where Shrub came from nowhere to shoot between two cars making it 3 wide. I had to go back and look at it again and again to see if maybe there was something unusual about it and it could be that Shrub jumped the gun on that restart. For those who recorded it, take another look and let me know what you think. If he did, why wasn’t he penalized? We already know the answer. But take another look at it.
As this was supposed to be a Speed Channel broadcast, why did we have to be subject to the Focks “B Team” commentators and two appearances by Goopher? Why didn’t we have Speed’s “A Team” of Rick Allen, Phil Parsons, Krista Voda, and either Ken Schrader or Mr. Happy? After months of the countdown for the All Star Race on Speed, some folks were just happy to get it over with and weren’t caring about who was in the broadcast booth. If it’s a Speed “product”, it should have the Speed “branding” and personalities and not Focks. I know, Focks owns Speed and can ruin the Speed broadcast in any way they deem fit. It was decent that they had Krista Voda in the Hollyweird Motel in place of Moe Ron Myers. She didn’t have to force herself on the audience or force the material at us fans the way Moe Ron does.
I’m sort of surprised that there wasn’t some sort of conflict of interest or conflict period between Ric Flair and his WWE connections and Hermie Sadler and Jeff Hambone and their TNA Wrestling connections. That was the first time I’d ever seen Ric Flair run out of “Woo”. I don’t think Hambone was too happy having to say “Woo” in the Hollyweird Motel.
More Mayfield more often. It seems that Jeremy was spotted at the track and after talking to a few media folks regarding the problems with the drug testing and suspension, was asked to leave by NA$CAR. According to Ramses Posthole, an official representative from His Majesty’s Ministry of Propaganda, "No suspended driver or crew member is permitted in any area of the track where NASCAR business or responsibilities are conducted. This includes, but is not limited to, the garage, spotters stand, pit road, driver/owner lot, and hospitality areas“. Jeremy did comply and left the area. Apparently there was some sort of misunderstanding as to what areas were “out of bounds“. I guess that means the restrooms were out of bounds also since NA$CAR “conducts” some of their “business” in there too.
It seems that someone with inside information of
how NA$CAR operates and just what all they
bring to the track for their race weekends might
have assisted the folks of Long Island with their
efforts to keep the track from being built there.
What’s the old saying about keeping your
friends close, Your Highness? Will the folks of
the Meadowlands get the same “dog and pony”
show from his Majesty that the folks from Long
Island got? Stay tuned bat fans. Same bat time,
same bat channel.
Normally you don’t hear a lot about the “beautiful
people” or entertainers doing much to help out
our folks in uniform nowadays much less helping out the folks who have been wounded in the line of duty. It seems that a lot of big name folks got together for the Gumball 3000 to help out the Wounded Warrior Project. Folks like David Hasselhof, Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, and others from the entertainment industry went from LaLaLand to Miami to help out the Wounded Warrior Project. So my thanks to them for their giving to our folks in uniform who have sacrificed so much for the rest of us to stay free.
Motherhood, Apple Pie, and John Wayne
Mad Mikie, Curmudgeon at Large
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