Sam Ard Trophy For Sale, TMS Coverage, & Things

Sam Ard’s 1982 Dogwood 500 Trophy For Sale
　
Since the France family still refuses to do the right thing, Sam is having to sell off another of his trophies. This is the last time this trophy will be seen on E-Bay. Even though Dave Moody wrote a piece about Sam and Jo Ard’s situation, he’s the only person in the NA$CAR media to do so. Where are all these writers who talk about remembering the history of the sport and those that made it? Where’s the outrage for a man who helped build this sport that has to resort to selling off his memories to help pay for his medical bills that are a result of an accident under the guise, supervison, and sanctioning of NA$CAR? Where is the conscience of those that helped contribute to this situation? It’s pathetic really. There’s no morals or conscience when it comes to helping out the former greats of NA$CAR unless it directly puts a buck into the France family pocket.
　
If you want to help Sam out and do what the France family won’t, here’s the link for the trophy:
　
http://cgi.ebay.com/380331040573 　


UPDATE  THE TROPHY WAS SOLD


UPDATE 2: LOTS OF TWITTER TRAFFIC RETWEETING DAVE MOODY'S ARTICLE WHICH INCLUDES IT BEING SENT TO 2 NA$CAR HONCHOS, NA$CAR'S HOF HONCHO, AND BEING RETWEETED BY KYLE PETTY, HERMIE SADLER, AND SOME OTHER MEDIA FOLKS.  


Why Versus is Better than Focks

　
During the IndyCar race, Versus used the split-screen coverage to show the racing and run commercials. Focks preferred to show 5-8 laps of commercials before interrupting them for a few laps of racing. Versus commentators don’t make up excuses when Danica or the sanctioning body messes up. Focks commentators makes up excuses for everything. Bad tires, bad officiating, and poor performance of the Chosen Ones and cheerleads for one make of vehicle and certain drivers.. Focks uses all sorts of gimmick shots that can cause even sailors to get seasick. Versus keeps the gimmick shots to a minimum preferring to show the action on the track of groups of competitors. When Will Power had pretty much run away with the lead in the closing laps, Versus showed the racing that was going on in the back of the pack. Focks preferred to show single car coverage of Matt Kenseth running away with the lead. Is it any wonder why race fans voice their concerns and dissatisfaction with the poor coverage and commentary of Focks at The Daly Planet week after week during race season?
　
The National Anthem at TMS
　
For everything that was wrong at TMS this past weekend, the one thing that Eddie Gossage did get right was bringing in a US Army band to play the National Anthem. And Dale Jr, smack your crew chief upside the head for not paying the proper respects to the flag every time he doesn’t do it. Which so far has been every race this season.
　
Captain Thunder Interview of Jeremy Mayfield
　
Jeremy Mayfield did two interviews with John Nevins aka Captain Thunder in which Mayfield was able to give his side of the story without being interrupted or censored. There are some folks who wish Mayfield would just go away, which they’re entitled to. One very striking thing Mayfield pointed out during his interview had to do with one of the drug tests that were done by NA$CAR. He had a test run by an independent lab before he submitted his urine sample to NA$CAR for testing and had another test done afterwards by the same independent lab. Perhaps folks have heard of Lab Corp? They’re one of the top testing labs in the country. NA$CAR’s results came back positive while the Lab Corps results came back negative. So how could that be? Lab Corps has no horse in this race. They couldn’t care one way or the other just so long as their reputation remains intact. They don’t care about the results just so long as they followed the established guidelines and protocols called for by SAMHSA regarding drug testing. Aegis Labs on the other hand is contracted by NA$CAR so they definitely have a vested interest in showing that their “results” are consistent. Especially after they’ve already lost at least one false positive lawsuit using their questionable techniques. I’ve also proven that NA$CAR has fibbed on at least one occasion when their official spokesman stated unequivocally that there were no witnesses to Mayfield’s independent tests and yet Mayfield did have a witness that is known to me as well as a camera crew documenting everything Mayfield was doing.
　
I know folks have already made up their minds about Mayfield, even though under the basic premise of our laws that you’re innocent until proven guilty and it probably won’t change their minds, give a listen to the interviews and get Mayfield’s side on some of the issues that were brought up by Captain Thunder and his sidekick.
　 
http://captainthunderracing.com/　



How About Those Ratings for Texas?　

 According to USA Today, coming in at #32 in the weekly ratings was a repeat of “The Big Bang Theory” with 7.3 million viewers. Coming in at #33 in the ratings was the race at TMS with 7 million viewers just beating out #34 Family Guy and #35 a repeat of America’s Funniest Home Videos at about 6.5 million viewers. What happened to those 75 million fans that NA$CAR is supposed to have? Also, there’s a big disparity between the numbers being reported showing the numbers being up and what they truly were versus last season. Unfortunately I can’t find the article right now but it showed how the numbers were being jumbled around on this year versus last year and how the ratings were actually down.
　

Gimmick Shots From Focks at TMS
　
There were 160 gimmick shots for the Cup race .

In-Car Shots 22　
Ground Camera Shots 6　
Roof Cam Shots 60　
Rear Cam Shots 24　
Wall Cam Shots 48
　
The majority of roof cam, rear cam, and in-car cam shots were from the #18, #22, #29, #48, & #88.
　
Ms Terry DeBris at TMS　

When Matt Kenseth had an 8 second lead at Lap 209, Ms Terry DeBris, dressed up as a Texas Longhorn, was found to be grazing along the back straight thus causing Caution #4. But due to the poor lighting on the back of the track and lack of fans there, she wasn’t shown. Apparently she’s been taken away to the Ft Worth Stockyards by Eddie Gossage and is currently waiting to be bid upon.


Focks Faux Pas　

During the 1st Caution, Jabber Jaws said “You’re over 200 mph going into that turn”. Later during the race a roof cam shot of the #18 car with telemetry showed the car didn’t get above 195 mph.
　
On Lap 173, Mike Joy said “They’re NA$CAR’s two winningest drivers” in reference to Mr. Happy and Hambone Hamlin. NA$CAR’s winningest drivers are The King and The Silver Fox with 200 wins and 105 respectively.
　
Lap 192, Mike Joy said “Seating down the front stretch and back stretch sections are nearly full but for some sections down past pit road towards Turn #1”. An overhead shot from the blimp/helicopter clearly showed empty seats at Lap 11Lap 19, Lap 29, Lap 30, & Lap 114.

On Lap 211, Mike Joy said, “Hope that clears things up with 211 laps to go”.

　
How Come?

 As easy as it was to show the computer screen which covers speeding on pit road during the race at TMS, how come NA$CAR won’t allow a camera in race control showing the pit road speeds during the pit stops or hook it into a direct feed of some sort to Focks so they could put it on a scroll on the bottom of the screen? That would end some fan complaints regarding the drivers who are perceived to be speeding and if it can be sent via wifi to the teams, they wouldn’t have any grounds to complain when they do get nailed for speeding.

The Race　

Pretty simple really. Matt Kenseth got up front and ran away with it. Outside of the cautions, not a heck of a lot of action was shown on the track outside of some of the pack shots shown from the wall cams. One or two of the Chosen ones passing each other. Most of the race coverage revolved around Kenseth, Johnson, Shrubbery, Mr. Happy, and Busch the Elder with an occasional appearance by Dale Jr and Trevor Bayne. Unlike Versus, as mentioned earlier, Focks decided to show Kenseth all by himself during the closing laps of the race so if there was any mid-pack racing going on the home audience never saw it. A McRace at a McTrack with a McCar. With Fords sweeping the weekend and really running away with the Cup race, you can almost bet there will be some whining from at least one car manufacturer.

Up Next　

The plate disaster called Talladega. Will we have a repeat of the boredom that was Daytona or will there finally be a plate race that doesn’t call for 2 pots of coffee like a McTrack? Guess we’ll have to watch and see.