host of other problems plaguing the sport since His Royal Highness said he knows what’s best for the sport and proved every fan complaint to be right. Had they bothered to listen in the beginning of the Reign of Disaster instead of doing their imitation of an ostrich sticking its’ head in the sand, NA$CAR wouldn’t be in the dire straights it’s in right now. But we’re just race fans, what do we know? That’s the attitude in the Ivory Towers that got them into this mess. Now they’re attempting wholesale changes to try to get out of the mess they’re in.
One common theme during this year’s Magical Media Tour seems to be that, once again, “Everything is Beautiful in NA$CAR”. Gee, where have we heard that before? Another theme is, once again, “It’s the fans that drive the sport”. We’ve heard that tune before too. The same things that have been spouted the last couple of years are being recycled once again. We keep hearing there are going to be changes because of the fans, but it’s gotten to be like the little boy who cried “wolf”.
You have to wonder with the bean sponsor returning with Marcos Ambrose if Mr. Magoo might try to nail Marcos for running illegal gas in his car.
Still no news on the return of Johnny Benson and Ted Musgrave to the Truck Series. But Ted’s former crew chief, Gene Nead, has landed himself a job at Randy Moss Motorsports. Now if Ted can just get a ride and get the band back together, the Ultra Motorsports Bad Boys.
Interesting that they tested at Atlanta with the “bat wing” on the back of the cars. I wonder just how much of a difference there will be in the performance of the tires when they run the spoiler on it and how many tires problems they’ll have because of the difference in down force, aerodynamics, etc. Right now, there’s no firm date on dumping the bat wing. Some folks are guessing Martinsville and some are guessing Bristol. Remember how they forced the teams into the Uni-Car instead of following the original phase-in dates? Why aren’t they doing the same thing with the wing?
Along these same lines, how many folks remember the 2nd (or was it 3rd?) prototype of the Uni-Car that had the spoiler on it before they went to the accursed bat wing? It was tested on the track and tested in the wind tunnel, so there’s data on that version of the car. So why do they need to “re-invent the wheel”, or in this case a spoiler, when they already have existing data and testing information? You’ll notice one of the official excuses is to find a single manufacturer. There are several manufacturers for the old spoiler, which is what was originally tested on the generic race car. So why not go with those? They’re already in production and the cost is already known so teams could budget those into their programs. So why a single manufacturer? Money, plain and simple. There’s only one supplier for the Box on Wheels. NA$CAR. There’s only going to be a single supplier for the spoilers and you can bet it will be the same supplier as for the Kit Car and that the cost will be equally as outrageous. Yeah, they’re really saving the teams money.
What other cost will the teams incur with the switch to the spoiler? Well, they’ll have to totally re-do all of their PR photos for their manufacturers and sponsors. They’ll have to re-do all of the haulers to reflect the change for any of them that show the current bat-winged car in the graphics, like $100,000 a hauler. Big ouch on the wallet. Any individual deals a team might have with die-cast manufacturing or t-shirt printing are going to suffer because of the change to the spoiler. And of course there’s the financially failing Motorsports Authentics. They’ll have to re-do every t-shirt design which shows the cars with the bat wing. They’ll also have to re-do every die-cast to reflect the change. I think they were much better off when they had Mattel (Hot Wheels), Racing Champions, and several other companies making the die-casts. But that’s for another day. So the financial impact is going to be pretty big. The Noble Nincompoop should’ve stuck with the original design they had designed at the super secret R&D center instead of using the one which was bought and paid for by one of the car manufacturers to the tune of $93 million.
And where does this leave the bigger, wider tires that were being tested? That tire was being designed to go along with the bat wing configuration of Crusty‘s Old Toilet. Will Badyear and NA$CAR totally dump the program or will it continue? Do the teams have to eat the cost of the special parts they manufactured to test the bigger tires if the program gets dumped? Like Roush having to eat well over $3 million in cost trying to keep up with the ever changing specs on the Camry of Tomorrow when it was being built and tested by the teams before a finalized set of specs was issued. We fans never did get a final financial cost on what the teams spent on trying to build the Uni-Car with the ever changing specs that the Grandiose Goofball kept sending out from the Ivory Towers. So just what will be the final financial damage to the teams? We’ll never know. We can just guess when we see how many teams either fold or continue to merge to be able to survive financially courtesy of Fearless Leader, the Resplendent Dullard of Daytona.
To use the words of a friend regarding the working and support arrangements between RGM and BAM Racing, “The check cleared the bank”.
Speaking of checks clearing the bank, I wonder how much John Carter still owes Jeremy Mayfield for his team and equipment since he hasn‘t paid Mayfield?
Something a fellow race fan reminded me of when it comes to the larger restrictor plates is the fact that the cars will have a much faster closing rate. This means one car will be up on another one much faster than last year’s plate. Any bets we’ll have drivers with yellow and brown stains on the driving suits?
For those of you who are so inclined, on January 28th at 9:00 am, NA$CAR’s conjoined twin, I$C, will have a webcast on the I$C company web site under the Investor Relations section, to discuss the 4th Quarter financials and the annual review. This is your opportunity to find out just how bad a soaking they took during the 4th quarter and the entire year of 2009.
It was interesting watching the WWE the other night. Vince McMahon, head honcho of the WWE, used a line which he has said numerous times before. “Perception is reality”. Well, one of the Hapless Henchmen, Mafia Mike, has used the same exact line a number of times regarding the WWE on Wheels. It is little things like this that makes you wonder.
Vince McMahon gets in front of the camera and
from time to time will put on his wrestling tights
and become a participant in front of the fans in
attendance and for the home TV audience.
Fearless Leader, Faux King Brian, hides from
the fans, drivers, and team owners as much as
possible, only gets in front of the camera when
it’s an opportunity to pat himself on the back,
won’t even participate in the sport he’s
supposedly the CEO and won’t even watch the
races on TV. Who’s the better CEO? The one
who admits he’s the head of a sports
entertainment company or the one who’s turned
a sport into sports entertainment and won‘t
admit to it? You decide.
The USA is sending additional troops to help out in Haiti and not surprisingly some of the Cup teams are lending a hand. Even the IRL is helping out by auctioning off autographed helmets and the like with the proceeds going to help out the folks in Haiti. And yet, even with a fleet of aircraft and a charity behind them, the Beach Boy Bubbas remain hidden in the Ivory Towers and haven’t lifted a finger.
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