Curtis Turner for 2016 HOF

Curtis Turner for 2016 HOF

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Penske Stuff, Irony, Mystery Debris Solution, Subliminal Message, and Other Miscellany

Hendrick Decals On Penske Indy Cars
 
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. Penske will be the lead Chevy team in IndyCar next season. Penske’s contract with Dodge also ends in 2012. The Queen of Hype will be driving for a Hendrick satellite team in the form of JR Motorsports next season in a full-time capacity. She has also threatened that she will be driving in the Indy 500 every year while she is in NA$CAR. Since she has managed to P.O. just about every team owner, engineer, strategist, crew chief, mechanic, driver, teammate, and pit crew in the garage through her temper tantrums, hissy fits, and inability to set up her own car, the only way she can get a ride boils down to somebody “buying” a ride for her and Slick Rick is the one who’ll be buying the ride.
 
Penske Has Sights Set on De Silvestro
 
Penske isn’t making any secrets about the fact that he wants Simona De Silvestro driving for Team Penske in IndyCar. Even with 2nd degree burns on her hands, she attempted to run the Indy 500, which shows the signs of a true racer rather than a prima donna, spoiled driver. I think she and Team Penske will make a good match.
 
The Joke is Jabber Jaws, Not on Jabber Jaws
 
When Shrubbery spun out towards the end of the WWE 600 at Charlotte, good old Jabber Jaws immediately made the excuse that somebody had run into the rear of his car. Then on the replay, it was clear that there wasn’t a car within 3-4 car lengths of Shrubbery when he spun. Then Jabber Jaws trying making up yet another excuse for him spinning. Let’s face it, Jabber Jaws has become as big a joke in the announcing booth as he was at the end of his driving career. He needs to retire before he embarrasses himself any more than he already has.
 
Double Secret Probation Fine
 
It seems that Newman was secretly fined $50,000 for punching JPM. These sorts of fine are nothing new as we saw with Hamlin being sold out by a card carrying journalist to NA$CAR during Twittergate and by one legal definition could amount to extortion.
 
Subliminal Message with Pocono Sponsor?
 
Is NA$CAR telling us that the race is going to last 5 hours and that it will be a snoozer by having 5 Hour Energy Drink as the race sponsor? Maybe it should become the official sponsor of the cookie cutter tracks since they all tend to be snooze fests.
 
Great Idea for Debris Cautions
 
Mike in Orlando came up with a great idea to make sure that NA$CAR is on the up and up when it comes to debris cautions.
 
How's this for a way to get rid of our friend: put a helmet cam on the guys in the safety truck that pick the debris off the track during cautions. The same kind of helmet cam that is occasionally worn by "over-the-wallers" during pit stops. When a yellow flag is thrown for debris, the helmet cam goes on and stays on until the safety guys can show us just what kind of debris (if any) there actually was on the track to bring out the caution. For me, these phantom cautions call into question the integrity of that specific race and NASCAR in general. When a significant portion of your fan base equates your (supposedly on the level) sport to professional wrestling, you've got a problem. And yes, it would be interesting to see how many times the feed from the cam goes out at an inappropriate time, like when there's no debris to be found...anyway, thanks for indulging me.
 
“Boys Have At It” Confusion
 
When NA$CAR announced their new policy allowing drivers to express a little emotion on the track, I don’t think they were considering it would result in millions of dollars of cars and trucks ending up being scrap metal. And it seems that one or two drivers have taken it to heart by wrecking, spinning out, and punting other drivers throughout all 3 of NA$CAR’s top touring series. It doesn’t matter if the other driver was a wet-behind-the-ears rookie or a seasoned veteran, these drivers have wrecked them all with one of the two really taking it out on the rookies and less experienced drivers. To make matters worse, NA$CAR has hyped this up in their ads and interviews showing wrecks galore, even wrecks that happened with the old COT with the spoiler. McDowell’s qualifying wreck at Texas, Cousin/Crazy Carl going into the fence at Talladega, Bowyer sliding on his roof at Daytona, Logano tumbling down the track at Dover, and all of these wrecks being used to promote a races at tracks where these wrecks never occurred. Not to mention the ads for the All Star Race preaching revenge, getting even, and havoc run amok. And yet when Newman and Childress both practice their version of “Boys Have At It”, they’re punished for it. So who’s really at fault? Newman and Childress for going along with the program that NA$CAR is advocating or NA$CAR for laying the hype about “Boys Have At It” on so thick that people have actually started believing it?
 
By sitting around with their thumbs up their backsides and allowing certain drivers to conduct a reign of terror on the track, NA$CAR has contributed to the problem and is an instigator of it via their controlled media. As has happened in the past, NA$CAR is saying one thing yet doing another. They want drivers to have bare knuckle brawls to get folks to watch on TV or attend the races and want the drivers to wreck millions of dollars worth of race vehicles so they can fill the coffers of the Ivory Towers without having to spend much in the way of advertising. They get their controlled media to hype things up for them at no cost to the Ivory Towers. Then in turn they fine the drivers or owners for “actions detrimental” for carrying out “Boys Have At It” when they go bare knuckle with 30% of the money going to charity and 70% lining the pockets of various executives and staffers. So while there’s animosity and ill will running amok in the garage and on the track, NA$CAR is laughing all the way to the bank while quietly instigating and promoting the violence and carnage that’s happening.
 
Isn’t It Odd
 
When Shrubbery was nailed for doing 128 mph in a residential area putting the residents of the area at risk, his car manufacturer said nothing. When Shrubbery gets “pruned” by a 65 year old man, they come out in defense of Shrubbery and want the head of the “pruner” be served up on a silver platter.
 
Advice for Richard Childress
 
Two words: Tonya Harding.
 

Jules the Engine Guy had some interesting observations regarding irony:
 
#1
Dodge makes a complaint about engines, saying Ford has an advantage.
Yesterday, in the order of the makes, Dodge, Chevy, Toyota and Ford is last. Dodge dominates too. Nothing against Ford but amazing how that works out.
 
 
#2
With the advent of the new fueling procedures and ethanol, tires now last for an entire fuel run. Are the tires better or is the mileage worse? Also interesting is that its a 50/50 toss up as to whether or not the teams fill the cars with fuel. We heard of Biffle, Kurt Busch, and now Tony Stewart having these issues. One make of car seems left out. The make that hasn't had a problem advertises that its line is the most fuel efficient.
 
 
#3
Cryal Busch (although he does not admit it) tries his damnedest to drive like Earnhardt Sr. He loves it when they make that comparison. So what does he do? He gets ticketed for driving an exotic sports car 3x the speed limit in the county where Earnhardt Sr lived. Then he gets his ass kicked by a man almost 40 years his senior. That man, Earnhardt's car owner.
 
Penske Going to Chevy for Cup?
 
2012 is when Penske’s contract with Dodge runs out and with the announcement that his IndyCar operation will be the lead Chevy team and his IndyCar teams were spotted with Hendrick decals on the rear spoilers, you have to wonder if Penske is already building the new cars without saying anything or if he’s planning to have some sort of alliance with Hendrick in 2012 in the form of possibly being yet another Hendrick satellite team. I’m just speculating here but the indications are pretty strong. So what say you Roger? Is your Cup operation switching to Chevy or not come 2012?
 

TV Ratings Deception
 
Don’t be deceived by all the hype of how Focks ratings had the biggest increase in the last 11 years. If you go back and look at where the ratings were before Faux King Brian took over and the high point, the TV ratings are still down by at least 25%. So while they may have gone up for Focks this season, they’re nowhere near where they use to be.

 

14 comments:

  1. I was wondering if Penske was going to chevy after the indy engine anouncement and it also made me wonder why chip went with hondas and not chevys

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  2. Mike
    As to the phony "debris" cautions. Seems like some fans actually want them now. Saw a post on another blog saying roughly: "Nascar is the greatest type of racing but they need to have a caution every once in a while to make it more interesting." Huh?

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  3. Anon 7:49, I'd say the fans wanting the phony debris cautions are probably from the Short Attention Span Crowd or from NASCAR's PR office since they're known to post things on various sites from time to time. Races aren't supposed to be manipulated like pro wrestling and that's exactly what the phony cautions are. Race manipulation. If they really want to see some exciting racing that can hold their short attention spans, then they should check out the dirt tracks or local short tracks where they have heat races and a main event.

    Spencer, with Honda cutting back in other forms of racing and Ganassi being somewhat competitive, they probably got a good deal with him. With Penske's Dodge contract running out in 2012 and the Hendrick decals showing up on his Indy cars, it's a pretty good indication where Penske is headed. Nobody in the Dodge camp has said anything about Penske renewing with them for his Cup operation and we should already be hearing some rumblings if they were renewing. It may come down to the wire before an announcement is made one way or the other. I may have take a trip to Penske South and look around.

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  4. Maybe another reason the Queen of Hype will leave is if Simona goes to Penski she will surely show the QOH up and she can't have that..go Simona...

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  5. "allowing certain drivers to conduct a reign of terror on the track"

    A very neatly phrased thought. Lovely.

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  6. Helmet cams on track workers seems like a good idea. I'd take it one step further. Almost all professional sports leagues have officials who belong to a union. NASCAR needs to hire an independant company of individuals whose job it is to officiate races and hand out supplementary discipline when necessary. Simply give this company the rule book and let them officiate it. This way, NASCAR removes themselves from the situation. NASCAR still has the power to add rules and make rule changes, however they then aren't accused of fixing races. I know NASCAR would never give up this kind of control to 'outsiders' who don't 'understand' the sport, but it makes perfect sense to me.

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  7. Simona has already proven she's a racer where as the QoH is merely a driver. Her fan base is growing while QoH's is shrinking. And with Simona in some cars with real power, she can run rings around QoH. Can't be damaging the swollen ego of QoH now can we?

    As it is, with QoH jumping ship to NA$CAR, Andretti won't be able to afford to run more than 2 cars because she's taking her sponsors with her and Andretti has depended heavily on them for his team finances. So the only way she can show up at the 2012 Indy 500 is for somebody to buy her a ride and with some sort of alliance between Penske and Hendrick, you can bet it'll be a Penske car but I don't think any Penske driver will set it up for QoH. She'll have to do it herself which means at least 2 cars in the wall due to the new aero packages and power plants.

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  8. Didn't Simona lead a bunch of laps in her very first IndyCar race? (I'm not sure I remember it correctly as we were dealing with flooding here at the time last year...) I've been very impressed with her from the start. I tried to like Danica, I really did, but hearing her complain that the guys need to respect her while she showed no respect to them annoyed me.

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  9. Hooray, a female driver I feel like I can cheer for -- Simona!

    I had wondered how many of those anon's posting pro-NASCAR ideas were NASCAR paid plants.

    I thought it was incredibly hypocritical of NASCAR to let the on track wrecking go, but it didn't surprise me.

    Love #3 for isn't it ironic -

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  10. Hey Mikie, you are right on. Have at it boys is a ridiculous attempt to incite fan interest. And what has it gotten us? Brad Keselowski's car darn near into the stands at the hands (white gloves) of Cousin Carl amongst many. I thought CA$HCAR was all about safety? Nope, wrong again. And also that double file restart junk is another way to wad a bunch of good stuff up. Its all about the bad boy image; heck we used to have it really in older days - and it was not manufactured or media hyped. It was on the track and it was good close hard racing. To Mike in Orlando: Love the idea on the helmet cam. And with the new spli screen trying to save the last few remaining fans, it will be so easy for CA$HCAN to do. Terry.

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  11. It seems to me the debris cautions come along after a long green flag run.The break wakes up the crowd that was starting to doze off.Or the concession stands have restocked from the last caution and need to get their overpriced products sold.$4 for a 20 ounce bottle of water,$6 for a cold hamburger etc.

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  12. FYI, Dodge didn't complain about the Ford engine - Tony Stewart did. That's probably the opening volley in a typical Chevy campaign to get one of their competitors engines banned or handicapped when they start to consistently beat the Chevys, something Chevy has been doing since they got the Chrysler and Ford Hemis banned in 1972.

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  13. Just to keep folks updated on the ticket give away situation, Daytona is cold calling businesses in Florida and giving away 30 ticket blocks of seats in an attempt to fill up the front straight seats. That tells me it's not just the economy that's bad, it's also the racing.

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  14. I agree with almost all of your points but one.

    Danica is very good at Indy, takes care of her car, and doesn't wreck. Additionally, she brings lots of sponsorship money to the table. She'll have no problems getting a ride at Indy for the next two or three years.

    I agree that's she's disliked but owners can tolerate her for one month. I doubt Penske will have her but I think that Chevy wants NASCAR drivers at Indy and will bankroll Hendrick, Tony Stewart or Panther Racing to get them there. So Danica's safe there.

    Johnson's wife will change her mind when Chevy throws a few million her way. Jeff Gordon would jump at an opportunity to run Indy one time. Stewart won't run but I wouldn't be surprised to see Newman give it a go.

    When Ford goes to Indy (and they will), Kenseth is just the type of guy to bring them a good finish and Allmendinger was always good.

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