something to be desired, from what Race Mama told me, there was a lot of decent action going on at Bristol that we didn’t get to see. But that’s no surprise. Why IBPN doesn’t go watch their coverage of races from yesteryear on their Classics channel is beyond me. Are they afraid they might serve up something that would raise the ratings on a continuing basis?
Two weeks in a row the ratings have been up for IBPN. I am amazed. Could they actually be turning things around or has the viewing on other channels really been that bad?
I don’t know if Gene Nead taking over the crew chief duties for the Co-owner of Motormouth Motorsports is a blessing or a curse, but congrats Gene. Hopefully it’ll get you the exposure you need to crew chief a championship Cup team.
The deal between Old Man Time and Jimmie Johnson really makes me wonder. Johnson didn’t need the points because he’s locked into the play-offs. Martin on the other hand needs every point he can get to stay in play-off contention. And you could tell on the radio that he wasn’t happy about it either. Sorry, but team orders don’t belong in spec car, I mean stock car racing.
Don’t be surprised if by season’s end Marcos Ambrose gets a Cup Series win. He’s been improving every week and going mostly unnoticed until recently. He’s a lot better and more versatile driver than some folks give him credit for.
Despite the gag order for everyone with a hard card still in effect in regards to the Mayfield case, word is still getting out of the garage area. The word is that Mayfield was set up and the NA$CAR is way too big to lose this case. Well folks, read the next paragraph if you really think NA$CAR is that big.
Despite the combined best efforts of NA$CAR and their controlled media, NA$CAR isn’t the big business they’d like us all to believe. International Speedway Motorsports (the public company related to NA$CAR) did not make the Forbes 2000 largest corporation list. #1 is General Electric with $182,530,000,000 in annual sales and is 231 times larger than I$C Motor$port$ with $787,000,000 in annual revenue. GE has assets of $797,000,000,000 (2826 time greater then ISC assets of $281,878,000). See: www.forbes.com/lists/
There is hope for I$C. If they do everything perfect and increase their revenue by $7.7 billion dollars that means selling a lot of t-shirts and die cast replicas, they could tie with San-AI oil for the 2000th place ranking. So when it comes to the big fish in the corporate sea, NA$CAR/I$C qualifies somewhere around plankton, which is what most whales eat. A big thanks to my financial guru for the numbers.
And for you folks who don’t think that folks in the racing business do much reading, right now the one book that is making the rounds in the shops and garage area is “Dirt Under the Asphalt”. Although the lamestream media hasn’t said anything about this book, the worker bees are enjoying it and even confirming some of the information that Jack Flowers wrote, especially some of the guys who have been around for some of the things that Flowers mentions. Jack Flowers is well respected in the garage area and actually amazed folks that he decided to put into writing what fans and folks in the race business have been talking about for years. This isn’t conspiracy theory stuff folks. It’s the real deal.
Could the real reason why Crusty is dissing the potential Keselowski move to Penske have anything to do with Stremme dating Crusty’s daughter and him having to foot the bill for another driver in his race shop should Penske dump Stremme? Something to think about.
For all of you fans who enjoy the bubbly from the two big beer companies sponsoring Cup cars, the price on your favorite beverage will be going up based on what was said on FNC last light. For all race fans, expect the prices on things like eggs, milk, beef, and pasta to go back to where they were before or even higher.
I got a good chuckle from Bill the Mechanic out in SoCal in regards to improving the quality of the TV broadcasts of racing:
I'd like to see Brian the Buffoon, The Booth Buffoons, the entire NA$CRAP management team, and the entire ESPN/ABC/FOX execs group, locked in a room, away from the track, and be forced to watch a race the way we have too, commercials and all. No cell phones, no twitter (whatever the hell that is), no distractions of any kind, just chairs and a big TV. They'd probably all be asleep in the first half hour. Oh yeah, almost forgot, NO alcoholic refreshment to dull the pain. Think it would improve anything? Naw, just wishful thinking.
That sounds like a solution I’d come up with. Great minds think alike I guess.
I thought I’d give everyone a heads up as I’ll be
heading out of town on September 4th for about
10 days, so no need to panic and wonder what
happened to me. It’s time for me to go visit some
relatives and attend the 6th Annual Vintage
Nationals down in Augusta Georgia, which has
become a family tradition here at the old
homestead. I hope to come back with some good
stories from the good old days of racing along
with some new info and opinions on what’s going
on with today’s racing. So for those folks who
aren’t going to the race that weekend or
attending the Wendell Scott Recognition Day
ceremonies in Martinsville, come on out to the
site of the old Augusta International Raceway
and have some fun and meet some of the drivers, owners, and mechanics who helped put racing on the charts.
In another of those stories you won’t hear about, our troops in the Zabul province of Afghanistan are out building bridges, community centers, schools, and treating sick villagers when they stop by various villages while on patrol. Despite what rumors have been spread by the Taliban, villagers are finding out that our troops aren’t the evil Satan they’ve been painted to be. They’re actually humanitarians as well as defenders of freedom. So to the troops in Zabul province, keep up the good work and know that your efforts are appreciated.
Motherhood, Apple Pie, and John Wayne
Mad Mikie, Curmudgeon at Large
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