good job of filling in at the last minute. Hey TNT, maybe you should consider this a permanent position for Ralph. Over 1/3 of the race “coverage” was taken up by commercials, which isn’t a good thing. I think TNT could’ve done a few more driver interviews after the race to take it right to 6:00 PM, but no, that would make sense and we can’t have that in NA$CAR or its coverage.
An update on something that TNT missed at Sears Point. PJ Jones was the first one out of the race at Sears Point but TNT didn’t bother to update us on the reasons why. He lost the power steering belt on the pace lap, took the green, then looped in going into turn 7. To add insult to injury, he also turned the engine backwards when he looped it. So now you know that it wasn’t just a start and park deal.
Jules the Engine Guy checked in and using various math formulas for figuring out bore and stroke on an engine figured out that each cylinder on Carl Long’s engine was 0.0009 inches oversized. A human hair is 0.001 inches and we know how hard it is to see, much less measure a single human hair. So just how did NA$CAR figure out his engine was oversized? We’ll never know for sure. So yes, something’s still rotten at the secret R&D facility.
While not NA$CAR news, it does involve a current NA$CAR driver and a former one. Robby Gordon will be teaming with former Truck Series driver Bill Lester in the SAMAX Motorsports Daytona Prototype for the July 4th Grand Am race at Daytona. Jim Beam will be the sponsor on the car. That‘s going to be a long day for Robby. And who knows? Maybe something good will come out of this for Bill Lester too, since there’s a rumor that despite what happened to PJ Jones at Sears Point that Robby is considering running a second car at Watkins Glen for both the Cup and Busch races. So maybe we’ll see Bill back on the NA$CAR circuit for a race or two.
In F-1 news, I know, I normally don’t do F-1 stuff, it appears that the feared split that was coming between FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) and the FIA has been resolved. It seems that 4 concessions were made. The first was the firing or resignation of Max Mosley, which has been agreed to by the FIA. The second is that the head honchos for the Ferrari and Renault F-1 operations get the final say on Mosley’s successor and will chair the committee to hire his replacement. The third is that FOTA gets a bigger cut of the royalties and revenues from the worldwide TV licensing. And last but not least, a gradual reduction in costs over the next two years to a level that FOTA (read Ferrari) deems workable but no dollar figures were mentioned. Too bad some NA$CAR teams or the head of a rival to I$C couldn’t pull something like this and straighten the out the Ivory Tower Gang.
In reading over the statements from the Real King, Richard Petty, about the possible changing of brands, heck, he could switch the engines right now and nobody would know the difference since the cars all look the same. Back when the Japanese brand was getting ready to run with the old template racer, the Co-Owner of Motormouth Motorsports ran one of their engines in a Chevy as a test platform. Heck, the first cars they ran were Chevies with the Japanese brand decals on them and their Dodge engines with the repositioned oil pumps in them. Nobody really paid attention to it or caught it. Especially the lamestream media. It took one of the unwashed and unannoited to find it out and mention it. The King was asked about the possibility of running two different makes of cars in the same garage. It’s been done before. You have to go back a few years ago to the template racer and one of the independent teams which was running Dodges and Chevies at the same time. Eventually they phased out the Dodges and went strictly with Chevies, but it has been done in recent times. Back in the late 1960’s, The King had a major disagreement with MoPar and decided to run Fords. He had a garage full of MoPar cars gathering dust while he ran the Fords. Once they settled their differences, The King went back to running MoPar and the Fords ended up being museum pieces.
Recently, Roger Penske has said he plans on staying with Dodge/Fiat through the end of the contract with them, which ends in 2012. So what happens after that? Penske will switch to the Japanese named company. Right now, he’s getting information on them from one of their teams. So when the switch-over happens, he won’t miss a beat. That is providing, of course, that the manufacturer doesn’t pull out like they have in the past and that NA$CAR is still around as a major racer-tainment series and not just a warm up event like ARCA is right now for NA$CAR.
Right now, donations to Carl Long have passed the $21,000 mark. Roto-Reutimann is still the top donor at $5,000. Where are all these drivers who talk about NA$CAR being like a family and how they help each other out when they‘re in trouble? The bulk of the donations are from average race fans like us. If the Hendrick drivers donated $40,000 a piece, it would put Carl over the top and he could pay off his fine and maybe have enough money left over to buy a set of tires. But like NA$CAR’s PR, most of these high dollar drivers only pay lip service to helping each other out. Tony Stewart and Mr. Happy continue to help out Morgan Shepherd. So where’s the rest of them, like “The Mayor”? He talks a good game about helping out other teams and drivers and how they‘re one, big happy family in the garage area. But has he donated anything? Nope. If Shrubbery can donate $100,000 to Sam Ard and smash a priceless guitar into pieces, surely he could donate $10,000 to help out Carl. Being out of a ride, you’d think Ponytail could use his position to help raise some money for Carl. So where are all these drivers and team owners who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk?
Mike Mulhern wrote an interesting piece about NA$CAR and the secrecy going on with the engine and chassis dyno testing:
http://www.mikemulhern.net/index.php?q=mikestake/nascar-being-too-secretive-engine-data-teams-complain
You can bet that one manufacturer is getting the engine and chassis dyno data from NA$CAR. The one who paid $93 million to Faux King Brian for favors to be named later. This secrecy goes against the mantra that we’ve heard coming out of the Ivory Towers about parity in NA$CAR among the different brands. It’s more like parody. One brand has been given never before heard of concessions with their engines. Of course, we fans never heard what the concessions were but it was enough to set Jack Roush off a couple of years ago. Some folks took Jack’s anger over these concessions as anger over the foreign named brand being in NA$CAR. Jack may not have expressed himself in the most eloquent of terms but then Jack never has. If NA$CAR is really going to have the parity they keep talking about, then they need to be releasing the engine and chassis numbers to the teams as they did in the past. But then, it’s not unusual for NA$CAR to play favorites or to be secretive either. They’ve done it since the first days that the organization was founded. After all, it’s a family tradition and we all know how much His Royal Highness enjoys the France family traditions, especially when it comes to wielding the family power for their own benefit.
In light of Ford wanting to bring the new FR-9 engine to the track, you have to wonder just what all is going on with the engine downsizing that is supposed to occur next year based on the timelines that were released when the Car of Woe (COW) was shoved down our throats. 2010 is supposed to be when the engine downsizing is coming and yet not a peep out of His Highness and his band of merry henchmen. Could it be that the economy has forced the downsizing to be moved back or canceled altogether or will it rear it’s ugly head over the off-season and suddenly be sprung on the teams? It’ll be an interesting off-season all the way around between the teams shutting down in all 3 Series, Clone Car II, and the very survival of the Busch and Truck Series.
Mulhern also reported that The Burton was meeting with Mafia Mike at Loudon about the Truck Series. I wonder if this is going to be the only topic of discussion or will The Burton be discussing some other things, like second dates for two of his tracks or maybe even getting Mafia Mike to defect and run the rumored racing series that has been circulating for years that Bruton has been wanting to start as a competitor to NA$CAR. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what, if any, information is released about the meeting.
I’ve gotten e-mails from several folks about the TNT broadcasts and the fact that they haven’t had to use the Mute Button like they normally do when Focks broadcast what is supposed to be race coverage. And they all seem to be in agreement that TNT is doing a great job this season and that NA$CAR needs to drop Focks and E$PN and give the entire season to TNT if they can keep broadcasting like they have been so far. I hope the bartender at the Chart House can explain this to the Emperor of All Things NA$CAR in between him spilling “sodas”.
I don’t know how many of you read the Popular Hot Rodding article about the Superbird
but that brought back some very fond memories of when stock cars actually looked like the street models they were based on and the need for speed. Not to mention a few high school memories I won’t go into. While I haven’t been able to get up close and personal with a Superbird, I have been able to check out Dr. Don Tarr’s Dodge Daytona. Hopefully, if the good doctor brings it to a future event I’m at, I’ll have to see about getting some good shots of it and get some info from him about the car and it’s history.
Some folks in the lamestream media are still
going on about how the double file restart is the
greatest thing since chewing gum and sliced
bread. I’ll go back to the same question I’ve
asked before. Has it solved what’s really wrong
with NA$CAR? No it hasn’t. Expect more
distractions like the double file restart next
season as His Highness makes more tweaks.
Remember, he doesn’t change things, he just
tweaks them. Besides, how can you improve on
the World’s Ideally Most Perfect Car
(WIMP Car) and the world‘s best racing series?
During Exercise SHARED ACCORD, a six-day
medical assistance program coordinated by the
U.S. Air Force's 459th Expeditionary Air Medical Squadron (EAMDS) and three Benin Army doctors was conducted. On the first day, more than 500 civilians turned out for medical help. This would repeat itself just about everywhere they went. But of course, CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS didn’t bother to report it. So to our ambassadors of good will in uniform, a job well done.
Motherhood, Apple Pie, and John Wayne
Mad Mikie, Curmudgeon at Large
Gotta comment, question or want to say hey there...email Mike here
Want to chat with other race fans about this article and other NASCAR stuff?
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.
