Curtis Turner for 2016 HOF

Curtis Turner for 2016 HOF

Sunday, December 25, 2011

What Does NASCAR Get For $15,231,323.00?‏

By John "Dawg" Chapman

What does NASCAR get for 15 million, 231 thousand, 323 dollars?
Not much as it turns out. That's how much prize money the Start & Park
teams took home in 2011 for showing up so that the starting formation
would look the same on TV for the parade lap.

I've heard it said that a part of the TV deal, was that NASCAR would
start 43 cars. I doubt this is accurate, but for some reason NASCAR
seems willing to reward the teams that show up, with no intention
of adding anything to the show.

My question is, do you think NASCAR's getting their money's worth?
Remember we're talking $15 million, 231 thousand, & change. What's
the difference if 43 cars start, & we're down to 37, or so, after 30
laps. Or if only that number started the race?

I've heard all the excuses for allowing this to go on.

First thing people throw out is that these teams are going the S & P
route to keep their teams together, until they can come up with the
money to race. Fair enough, I can understand that, but at what point do
they have to say it's not working? Over the last three seasons, Phoenix
Racing, Phil Parsons, have started 88 races, not counting the ones they
were unable to qualify for, & been running at the end in 5 of them.

Over this same stretch Joe Nemechek (a driver who's skill I admire)
has started 102 races, been running at the end in 7, 5 of them in '09.
Joe was the most successful S & P owner this season. Qualifying for all
36 races, plus running Kevin Conway in 3 more. Joe was able to finish
just one race out of the 36. In these 3 races, Kevin ran a total of 4,
count 'em 4 laps, while winning $234,238. or an average of $58,559.5 per lap.
It would have been $78,079 if he hadn't gotten a little crazy, & run that second lap.
Good work if you can get it.

Another excuse I've heard is that these teams provide employment
in a tough economic environment. OK, things are tough all over. Suppose
that people were hired to build roads that no one was ever going to drive on.
That would provide employment also, but would you consider it money well spent?

I do have to kind of admire Joe Ruttman for showing up at The Rock
in '04 without a pit crew in James Finch's car. I mean at least he was
honest about it. Why would he need a crew? He was allowed to start.
Ka Ching, then was parked by NASCAR on the first lap. Mission
accomplished.

As I said I can understand the strategy, of hanging in, while trying
to put things in place to be able to compete. I just have to wonder,
at what point does it become a business plan?

Both Front Row Racing, & Tommy Baldwin have used the S & P
at times due to economic necessity, but are now racing full time.
More power to them, the only problem is that due to funding, &
the mega-teams. Both programs are mired mostly in the 30's.
Dave Blaney was in line for a good finish at Daytona, until
he was wrecked by Kurt Busch. He steered clear of Kurt at
Talladega, & was able to pull off a third. Got interviewed on
TV afterward. Had to have been a real boost for the team,
as well as Golden Corral, whose Kids Eat Free, promotion
kicked in.

Front Row has both of their cars, the 34, & 38 locked in for the
first 5 races on the new season.

Tommy Baldwin also has the 36 locked in, & is trying to get
the 35 up to speed. I do find Geoffrey Bodine a curious choice
but sounds like he's bringing a little money, & for these teams
money not only talks, it screams.

Kevin Buckler's TRG Racing has come up short, finishing
the season 36th in owners points. Any time teams that really
show up to race, fall out of the top 35, as the 71 did. They
are then subject to being out qualified by the S & P cars.
Thus making it likely that they stay mired below the magic
35th place. Making it that much harder to come up with even
a one race sponsor, much less landing a full season deal.

I'm not meaning to imply that the cars that come to race are in any
better than the S & P teams, quality wise. In fact Joe Nemechek, if he
were to get a little backing, could easily be a solid mid 20's place car.
He regularly qualified well, up among cars with much better backing.
He didn't get the nick name Front Row Joe, for nothing.

For the 71 team next season, finishing 46th shouldn't really be a problem
because of 4 qualified teams going away. At least 2, the 33, & 6, probably
will keep their points & run Daytona. The 33, probably with Austin Dillon,
& the 6, maybe with Ricky Stenhouse. That would leave the slots from the
2 Red Bull cars. So the 71 & 7 should move up based on their finishes.
But this being NA$CAR, & NA$CAR being all about $$$. These spots will
go to the highest bidder, rather than to the next in line. Kevin & Robby
could well end up with them, but they're going to have to pay.

With the shrinkage next year, there will be more opportunities for S & P
teams. Cars are available at bargain rates. Plenty of drivers, with Cup experience,
& skills to get them in the field, & who can blame them?

That begs the question, how many S & P teams are too many?
Next year, instead of 6, we could see 9 or 10.

Here's what I'd really like to see happen. NASCAR could cut the field to 40,
& the 3 less cars would never be missed. Then make the same payout that they
had when the field was at 43. The last thing I'm trying to do is to allow
NASCAR, or Bruton to put more money in their pockets.

In a season when we've lost 4 quality cars, do we really need 4 more field
fillers running around, even if they could get them all to race?
As the field gets weaker, the top 35 rule makes less, & less sense.
The timing is perfect to dump this turkey.

If another of the cuts were to be the past champions provisional,
well I could live with that too.

For an average race this should give them around $200K to work with.
Graduate the money to raise the purse on the bottom third, to help the
teams that need help the most.

Even better would be a pay structure with a straight graduation from
1st, to last, but I'm we'll probably never see that.

For example, at Talladega, Michael Waltrip finished 9th. His payout was
$83,500. Carl finished 11th, his was $128.866. Some of this pay structure
is a holdover from the days when NASCAR promoted 60-70 races a year, & was to induce the top cars to show up. How long ago did that ship sail?

To make sure the money goes where it does the most good, ANY car that falls
out before half way, without a verifiable reason would have their payout cut
by half. In other words, it would no longer be cost effective to S & P.

I want to see the payouts raised, I just hate to see someone like Kevin
Conway who in 3 races, ran 4 laps total, & in each, collected within
500. of what someone got for running the entire race. That's just wrong.
In a perfect world, I'd love to see all cars start that be capable of
winning.

Racing is not a perfect world. Never was, never will be. I'd just like see
NASCAR help the teams that are really trying & stop subsidizing the ones
that just show up to take the money & run. Run for home that is.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Random Ramblings

By John "Dawg" Chapman

Overall I think this season ranks as one of the more interesting in recent
years.

Week to week, the actual racing wasn't always spectacular, but the variety
of winners was quite refreshing.

Starting with Daytona, just like last year, we were treated to another
"feel good" surprise winner. While most everyone else was focusing on
Trevor Bayne. I must confess, I was focusing on the Wood Brothers.
This is a team that I greatly admire, for a variety of reasons.
Their history, the fact that they haven't resorted to starting, &
parking, & they haven't given up. What's not to like? The same goes for
Trevor Bayne. I've said that the racing wasn't always exciting, & that goes
in spades for the plate tracks, Daytona included.

If not for a rule infraction, David Ragan probably would have been the
winner. It was like Trevor just ran out of anyone to push, & sort of had
the win thrust upon him. David's ill advised move, is right up there with
Marcos Ambrose's fuel conservation move at Infineon. If David hadn't
changed lanes early & had won. He & UPS would have both basked in
the glow of a big win. He'd probably still have UPS, his ride, & a lot of
hardworking people at Roush, would still have their jobs. Funny how
things work out.

From The Department Of Meaningless Statistics
(I think modeled after Monty Pythons Department of Silly Walks.)

After every plate race, the talking heads are quick to point out how many
lead changes there were. This is usually followed up with articles from
outlets with a vested interest. Such as nascar.com, & NASCAR's TV partners.
All this really tells us is with this tango style racing, anyone can be pushed
to the lead. That is, if they're not scared to be up front. Come on guys, give us
a little credit here. We're not as gullible as you think we are. If you're going to tout something, make sure it has some relevance.

Thinking of rather meaningless things, brings my next topic to mind.

Andy Lally wins Rookie of the Year!

Last years winner was Kevin Conway. No slight on Andy intended.
He's a strong driver with a great resume in sports cars. Kevin managed
to log laps, & bring his cars home in one piece, though usually 4-5 laps down.
I do have one question. Who'd they beat out to win?
Thirty seven year old Dale Junior has a girlfriend & it's considered news.
I don't know about you, but I find this just a tad on the strange side.

Way to go, Furniture Row.

I really don't care what NASCAR says, or how much they hype it.
The Daytona 500 will never be the biggest race, as far as I'm concerned.
it will always be the Southern 500. This is the granddaddy of them all.
At the track too tough to die. Despite NASCAR's best efforts to kill it.
They took it's date. They took it's race, (at least they got the name back.)
This track is about as far from Cookie Cutter, as you can get.
This was my feel good story of the year. Well done guys.
We had a number of races decided on fuel mileage. Put me down as one
of the fans who think these fuel mileage races SUCK! NASCAR, (& they're
not the only ones) have been known to resort to a caution when they feel
that a race needs help. I'd dearly love to see them be honest,& up front about it.
Why not just throw a competition caution with 25 laps to go if it looks like fuel is going to be an issue.

 
Make it a timed stop. Give them 25 seconds, for final adjustments, fuel,
& tires. Then line them back up in the order they were running. Anyone
exceeding the time limit would go tailback. This would take out the fuel
& tire strategy. Then the race could be decided the way all races ought to
be decided. They could just race, & may the best car, & driver win. Sure
it's contrived, but with phantom debris cautions, the Chase, & the Top 35 Rule.
We're pretty much conditioned to contrived by now.

For the second year, we had a driver, out with a mysterious medical
condition. Last year Brian Vickers, this year Trevor Bayne.
Thankfully, both were resolved satisfactorily.
 
Speaking of Brian Vickers, Usually when a driver knows in advance that
he's losing his ride. The remaining time becomes an audition.
Brian appeared to have been auditioning for a ride in a demolition derby.


I expect that the Busch Brats, have been at this sibling rivalry for a very
long time. This season they seemed to be in a "can you top this"
competition. Back in the day, when the "Battling Bodines” were going at it.
They kept it in the family. If the Busch Brats were on that program, I think
the TV ratings would go up enough that sponsors would be coming out of the
woodwork, everyone would still have rides, & jobs. Instead they took their
frustrations out on everyone around them. How'd that work out guys?
Personally, I think Sprout won, but Baby Face is out of his ride. By mutual
agreement, he hastens to add, go figure.

One thing that struck me is that Dr. Jerry is a much more tolerant person
than I am. Was it just me, or did anyone else sense just the slightest note
of insincerity in Richard's apology? As a watch collector, I did admire his
attention to detail.


Note to NASCAR collectors, items from teams the Busch Brats have
been fired from could make an interesting collection. For as talented as
they are, they sure get around. Baby Face's Shell 22 stuff is probably on
super close out. Your chance for a good buy, from the good bye.


I seem to remember a song lyric, about "One being the loneliest number." If
Earnhardt- Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (what a mouthful, somebody's
not pulling their weight in that outfit) doesn't get their act together. They & Jamie
might find out how lonely it really is. They've made some changes, I just hope
they're enough. Next year could be very important for them.
I really admire the teams on limited budgets that show each week, to
actually race. Usually for not much more prize money than the S & P
teams take home for their 20 laps or so. I'd love to see these teams form
some kind of alliance along the lines of the old RAD, (Richard Childress,
Andy Petree, & Dale Earnhardt.) To share information, test results, etc.
This would allow all of them to do more with less. The big drawback to
anything like this actually happening, is the top 35 rule. As long as this is in
place they'd have a tough time working together. With such an alliance in
place, it should give them a better shot to out qualifying the S & P teams.

Junior wins most popular driver award. The Sun came up in the east,
this morning. Neither was much of a surprise.

Well, the Crew Chief Silly Season chips have mostly all fallen.
Still hearing rumbles about Zippy. Seems a little late for this to happen,
but as we saw with Darien Grubb, anything's possible. Be interesting to see how things shake out for all the new combinations.
As of this writing, the hot rumor is that Baby Face maybe picked up by
RPM. Haven't read too much about this from the King himself.
After what he's been through with his last partner, I'd hate to see
anyone thrust on him that he doesn't want. Richard's so straight laced
that he didn't even run the Busch Beer contingency sticker on his car,
& was thus ineligible for the Busch Clash for pole winners.
He & the elder brat would seem an odd mix. One other thing to be
considered is Ford. He dropped the brand like a bad habit when he
was the their defending Champion. Sometimes something that didn't
seem all that important at the time could come back to haunt him.

Well, I've done it. Missed another Snowball Derby. After I promised myself
this was the year. Guess I'll have to fall back on the Cub fans annual
refrain, "wait 'till next year". Bummer.

 


Sunday, December 11, 2011

The Hot Seat

By Dawg Chapman



Unless you're like the guy in the insurance commercial, & live under a rock.
Just why this guy would need insurance always puzzled me, but you get
the idea.

Then you know that as of this writing, a winning Cup seat just become
available, on very short notice. This came about because of a mutual
agreement between Penske, Shell, & Kurt Busch. This strikes me as pretty
significant, because it's probably the only time Bush has been agreeable the
entire season. In a few short months, I'm going to agree to pay my taxes.
It's pretty much the same deal, I expect.

This has to be considers a real serendipitous stroke of luck. Just when some
name drivers had pretty much given up hope of landing a quality ride for 2012,
& were sifting through the available rides. Looking, I'm sure for something
that offered a glimmer of turning into something more than another year of
just hanging on in Cup.

The names most often mentioned are David Reagan, Brian Vickers, David
Reutimann, & Sam Hornish Jr. It's a shame that Clint Bowyer had settled for a seat owned by in his words, "the worst driver in NASCAR." Hmmm, I wonder if there's anything like the "10 second rule" applying to NASCAR contracts? Maybe it could be annulled like a marriage that was never consummated. I really like Clint, but I'll
be unable to pull for him as long as he's driving for Super Shill, but I digress.

One thing that I noticed, was that Elliott Sadler's name was never
mentioned.

I do have a few fantasy picks, & I'm sure you probably do too.

I'd love to see Bobby Labonte, in a good car again. This isn't a put down
of the 47, but as a single car team, they have lots of room for improvement.
Getting out from under Super Shill's umbrella is a good first step, but there's
a lot more steps to be taken before they get to where they want to be. I doubt
Bobby's got time to make the trip. Terry got a similar chance with Hendrick,
late in his career & picked up a second Championship, as a result. Who knows,
maybe lightning could strike twice?

Another good choice, & my personal favorite, would be Robby Gordon.
After 6 Busch years, (sort of like dog years) having Robby on board,
would seem a lot less difficult. Robby's been plowing pretty rocky ground
the last couple of years, & might have a different outlook on being a
little more of an organization man now.

One spot that's empty in Robby's crowded trophy case is for the Indy 500.
If an Indy seat were part of the deal. This could be the perfect win, win
situation for all involved. Another plus that Robby could bring, would be
a ton of very loyal, hard core fans. Way more than any of the other drivers
being considered.

It's no secret, that I think Dave Blaney has been on the short end of
the stick, his NASCAR entire career. I'd dearly love to see what he
could do in a top ride. Again, no disrespect to the 36. I'm happy that
Dave's got a full time ride, that is actually able to race, but...well, you
know.

At this time, it looks like David Ragan his the inside track on the ride,
& of the drivers most mentioned, he's probably the best choice.
One thing is certain, he'll never embarrass the organization, or the
sponsor the way Kurt did.

Whoever ends up in the seat next season, is going to find it a
"hot seat." They're not going to measure up to the criteria that
Shell wants in a driver, so it's sounding like they will be on a one
year contract.

When you consider the alternatives, any driver that's offered the ride,
will jump at the deal. But they need to consider it a year long try out,
& a year like they had this year won't cut it.

Another driver who's in a pretty hot seat, would be Kyle.
I really think both of the Busch Brats should be looking for work
now, but neither his sponsor, or owner was willing to take that
step.....Yet.

I've said several times that "I don't see Kyle as a candy salesman."
One more embarrassing temper tantrum, & Mars/M & M may well
come to the same conclusion.

You can conact Dawg HERE

Monday, December 5, 2011

Yes Virginia, There Is A Consequence

By John "Dawg" Chapman


Well, the already long NASCAR unemployment queue just got longer by one
person.

While my heart goes out to the hundreds of crew, or more correctly, former crew members, & their families who are looking at not only a bleak holiday season. But most probably a pretty bleak future in their chosen field as well. We've all heard the phrase, "you'll never work in this town again", for many this could be true.

These are people who have worked incredibly long, & hard to put the very best car, or truck, on the track each & every week, & have done it for pride, rather than just for a paycheck. While some of these skills are transferrable to other jobs. It will never be the same. These folks are unemployed, through no fault of their own.

The same can't be said of the latest person to join that sad line. Kurt pretty much volunteered, to join. I'm going to have a really hard time working too much sympathy for him. He does have something few others in line possess. He's got talent, but that's not it. Everyone in line has talent, or they wouldn't have been there in the first place. What he has is a very fat wallet to soften the blow.He's not going to have to worry about the house, & car, payments. The kids orthodontist, or all those other things that most of his neighbors in line have to deal with.

This whole deal reminds me of the Billy Joel song, Somewhere Along the Line.

"I knew that there'd be hell to pay,
when the fun falls through,
& the rent comes due.
Somewhere along the line"
 
The difference between Kurt, & the guy in the song, was that the song Dude, (& no, I'm not talking about Mr. Penske) knew that the day of reckoning was coming. I seriously doubt that Kurt had figured that out. When you've always gotten a pass, why would you expect anything else? He will have his own unique worries to deal with.

Do I think that Kurt will never have another steady Cup ride? No I don't think that at all. Of all the words that have been written about the brothers Busch. No one has ever questioned their talent. Do I think that he's just left his last really competitive ride? Obviously, the jury's still out on that, & it's way too soon to tell, but I do know this.When "A" company signs on as sponsor, the driver becomes the face of the company.Without a solid sponsor, all that is available to any driver is the "shirt tail" rides. I'd say at this point, it's pretty much a coin flip.

The net, is like print books. Once it's out there, it's pretty much always  out there. If anyone cares to look, it can be found.You can bet that when Kurt, or an owner approaches any corporation for sponsorship. That corporation is going to look at everything they can find on him, as they would, & should for any driver.What they'll find on the social networks, is not some bleeped out network footage. Sanitized for the kiddies, but exactly what he said, & what he said,was way beyond what most corporations want to be associated with. I expect these things are far from done, biting him in the butt.

As of now, Kyle has a distinct advantage, with his deal because his current sponsor, Mars/M&M is not a public company, so the family can make a decision & not have to worry about blowback from stockholders. Kurt's not so lucky.

Either way, I think we can safely say, for Kurt. "The fun's fallen through and the rent's come due."

We tend to focus on the drivers, & Crew Chiefs, because we have names & faces, but don't forget about all the other NASCAR folks in line ahead of Kurt.

The off season might indeed be short, but for these families, there's no new season coming up. With highly specialized job skills, in a very weak job market, it could be a long cold winter.

 
You can contact Dawg HERE

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Tony Bought Zippy A Corvette by John "Dawg" Chapman

As a thank you, after his second NASCAR Championship in '05. Tony bought
then Crew Chief, Greg Zipadelli a Corvette. A nice gesture indeed.

For his third, & perhaps his finest he gives Darien a pink slip. I'm not talking about a pink slip, as in car title. This pink slip as in the kind every worker dreads finding in his pay envelope. Oops, kind of dated myself, in this day of direct deposit didn't I? Trust me, you didn't want to find one. The more I learn about this deal, the less I understand. There has to be more to this than meets the eye, & we may never know the whole story.

Earlier this season Bobby Hutchens was let go from his job as director of
competition. With the season that Stewart-Haas had to that point, I can kind of
understand this move. We all know that Steve Addington has come on board as Tony's new Crew Chief. As of now, no announcement has been made about the director of competition.

Normally in sports, when someone gets fired. The next person brought in has some time & latitude to turn things around. The St. Louis Cardinals won the world series about the same way Tony won his Championship. Pretty average to below average season. Killer post season. Tony La Russa elected, (as opposed to being fired) to retire on top. Both La Russa's retirement, & Darien Grubb's firing, are fairly unprecedented.

As neither of these teams need turning around. Both Mike Matheny, the Cards new manager, & Steve Addington are stepping into Championship spots. They better hit the ground running.

Speaking of thank you gifts, kind of makes me wonder what Tony's going to give to Jeff Burton. In the closing laps at Phoenix, as Carl was trying in vain, to run Kasey Kahne down for the win. Tony was also trying to catch Jeff Burton for 3rd. The announcers made reference to this, but it wasn't shown on screen. On the crawl at the conclusion we could see that Tony was able to move into 3rd, thus maintaining the 3 point separation he had going in.

From writers who were there, we later found out that Jeff, loyal Chevy team member that he is. Had allowed Tony to get by, thus gaining what ultimately proved to be the Championship winning point.

I'm not going to rag on this, it's up to each fan to decide how they feel about it. Ford kind of opened this door at Talladega, so I suppose it was tit for tat. I must admit to being a little uncomfortable with the way things came down at Talladega, as well as Phoenix.

The manufactures have their own Championship. Chevy won again, this time clinching at Kansas. I do wish they'd stick to their own Championship, & leave the drivers Championship, to the drivers, but I suppose that's too much to ask in the $$$ charged world of NA$CAR. Oh well, I can always dream.

At Talladega, the maneuvering certainly didn't help Jeff Gordon, but it didn't cost him the Championship either. At Phoenix Jeff Burton's help, or interference, depending on your outlook. Most definitely cost Carl the Championship. Tony still needed to win, & to his, & Darien's credit he did. But given Carl's finish, without that all important point, winning wouldn't have been enough.

Either way, it was by far the best Chase that we've seen. As good as it was, it still wasn't enough to win me over.


You can contact Dawg HERE.

Sanity?, RGM 2nd Hummer, Lotus, Cotton Owens, & More


RGM Fielding 2nd Hummer for Dakar Rally
 
Robby Gordon is fielding a second Hummer for the Dakar Rally with 2011 Dakar Champion Nasser Al-Attiyah as the driver.

Sanity?
 
You have to wonder what Stewart is thinking by firing his championship crew chief Darian Grubb. When was the last time a Super Bowl winning football team dumped their coach? When was the last time a race team owner fired a championship winning crew chief? It really makes you wonder if maybe Tony needs to be taking some medication.
 
Of course, by hiring Addington, he’s hiring a crew chief who is use to being abused and berated by the likes of the Busch brothers. So that is one plus in his favor.
 
Maybe Darian should go have a chat with another Floyd VA native Jeff Agnew about being his crew chief on Jeff’s Truck Series team? It may not have the glory of being a Cup team but they’d get the support of a lot of the county’s 14,000 residents.
 
Jimmy Clark's 1965 Lotus Type 38
Lotus Advantage for DW12 Car
 
It seems that with the rear weight problems that seem to be occurring with the DW12 car that IndyCar is testing, Lotus may have a decided advantage. They produced an engine that is lighter than both the Honda and GM engines. This could give the returning Lotus a handling advantage on both the ovals and road courses. As it stands right now, the GM and Honda powered cars don’t seem to do that well on the oval tracks because of the weight issues and lack of thrust. So this could make Lotus the king of the oval tracks.
 
Speaking of Lotus, it was announced that Simona Di Silvestro will be sporting the traditional Lotus colors next season. That should bring back a few memories for those of us who remember the glory days of Lotus with Jimmy Clark at the wheel.
 
DROP AND GIVE ME 20 MAGGOT!
Perfect Crew Chief for Busch Brothers 
 
Considering the amount of abuse the crew chiefs for the Busch brothers have taken, I think I’ve figured out who would be the perfect crew chief for them. Retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey. He wouldn’t take any lip off of either of them and would break them down into nice, polite, civilized human adults instead of their current status of spoiled brats. I can just hear him telling Schrubbery, ”Drop and give me 20 maggot!”. He might not win a race as a crew chief but he’d win some hearts and minds in the garage and the grandstands.
 
The Hype Has Already Faded
 
The championship hasn’t even been decided a week and already the hype is fading from not only the lamestream media but also NA$CAR’s controlled, Kool Aid drinking media. What does that really say about the significance of not just Stewart’s win but of NA$CAR overall?
 
Interesting Coincidence
 
We had 5 championships in a row won by a convicted felon team owner. This season, the championship was won by a convicted felon team co-owner who bought cars from the convicted felon team owner.
 
And while the convicted felon co-owner was serving his time, who was given stewardship of his team and made some major mistakes in paying personnel and their federal income taxes? The same convicted felon team owner that he buys generic race vehicles from.
 
Another Coincidence?
 
With the comparisons of NA$CAR being like the WWE on the rise since 2003 and having WWE Hall of Famer Sgt Slaughter as the Grand Marshal for the Busch Series race at Homestead, you really have to wonder. By having Sgt Slaughter as the Grand Marshal, it confirms to some folks that NA$CAR is “in bed” so to speak with the WWE. The scripts for the races being too close to the scripts being used by the WWE.
 
If you look at Tony Stewart’s wins in the Chase for the Chumps, it’s much too close to the classic Hulk Hogan script. And the Homestead race was even more like the classic Hulk Hogan script. Tony started good then went back to 40th after some repairs were made. And like Hogan after being beat down by his opponent, Tony makes the miraculous recovery and goes on to win the race in much the same way Hogan would suddenly finds a reserve of strength to come back and beat his opponent in the ring.
 
So you have to wonder. Will Vince McMahon be the Grand Marshal for the 2012 WWE, I mean 2012 Daytona 500?


Good Luck Dustin Long
 
I don’t know how many folks have read Dustin’s work over the years but the paper he works for just decided to downsize and eliminated his position just like a lot of other newspapers have done. While he still has his job writing an occasional article for Sports Illustrated, he won’t be going back to his normal newspaper reporting. I may not have always agreed with what Dustin wrote, just like folks don’t always agree with me, but he did a good job of reporting and was innovative with his own fan council, Backseat Drivers Fan Council, in using their ideas and opinions to show what the fans truly thought about what was happening on the track unlike the NA$CAR fan council which is nothing more than a marketing research operation. Hopefully a major news operation will snap Dustin up so he can continue with his reporting of NA$CAR and use his ideas to really get a true feel of what race fans think.
 
A Little Bit of History
 
I don’t know how many folks have watched the movie “The Last American Hero” with Jeff Bridges, a movie based loosely on the life of Junior Johnson, but go back and have another look at it. You’ll see Jeff “driving” the #00 car. The car is actually Busch Series Champion Sam Ard’s car.
 
And speaking of Sam Ard, he and his wife are still in need of help. If you can help them out with donations or can do some repairs on their house, it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Going Bananas
 
I hope the Charlotte tourism folks aren’t thinking that Chiquita moving into the office building next to the NA$CAR Hall of Fantasies is going to get them off the hook financially with the Charlotte taxpayers. Do they really think the Chiquita folks will go bananas over being next to the HOF and spend all their free time visiting it? Plus the tax breaks that Chiquita will get, rumored to be between 50%-90%, isn’t really going to endear them to the Charlotte taxpayers either although it will result in some jobs with the company. Know matter how you slice it, the HOF is a financial disaster for the taxpayers of Charlotte and will never see any black ink.
 
RCR Auctioning Off #33 Team Equipment
 
With the #33 team officially shut down, RCR is using Iron Horse Auction Company to sell off the equipment from the #33 team. This is also the same company used by Jeremy Mayfield to sell off his race team gear and equipment along with some personal property. I hope RCR isn’t planning to get a lot of money off of the Camry’s Of Today they’ll be selling. No other racing series uses them and Mayfield was only able to get about $8500 for one of the generic race vehicles he had for sale. That’s less than what teams get for the old “Twisted Sister” cars which usually pull in at between $10,000-$30,000.
 
Racing Great Battling Cancer
 
Both Cotton Owens, legendary owner & driver, and his wife are both battling cancer right now. So if you can add them to your prayers or keep them in your thoughts it would be appreciated.
 
IndyCar Viewership & Attendance Up 2 Years in a Row
 
While NASCAR has been beating their chest over the fact that their races TV ratings were up but nowhere what they were in 2008, IndyCar’s viewership was up 28% overall. Race attendance was up 22%. Compare this to what we’ve seen NA$CAR do this past season with attendance being off at the majority of its tracks and ratings. Up 3% for BSPN/ABC, 16% for TNT, and 9% on Focks.
 
The attendance figures for NA$CAR that have been released can’t be trusted as we’ve seen races claimed to be sell-outs had ¼-½ their seats empty plus tracks removing seating or changing their seating to give fans more room. Bruton reports an 8.8% decrease in attendance through September 2011 when compared to the same time in 2010 according to the SEC filings. I$C has an 8.7% decrease in attendance in comparison to the same time in 2010.
 
“INDYCAR had one of its strongest years in growth on TV and in live audience in 15 years on the last year of our current car. We believe that the new car along with Honda, Chevy and Lotus coming into the IZOD INDYCAR Series will help the sport show positive momentum for 2012” said Randy Bernard, IndyCar’s head honcho. I predicted that IndyCar’s new car, the DW12, would increase their TV ratings several months back and it seems to be reflected in Bernard’s opinion. I guess we’ll see what happens next season.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Silly Season by John "Dawg" Chapman

When I hear the term Silly Season, I tend to think of Adam Sandler, or
Jim Carrey movies. Maybe Happy Gilmore, or Liar, Liar, now that's what I think of as silly.



This years so called Silly Season on the other hand, reminds me more of
Nightmare on Elm Street, any of the Halloween movies, of maybe The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Particularly for anyone unfortunate enough to be involved, with the exception of Cousin Carl, it's been much more scary, than silly.



After Carl re-signed with Roush. That left Clint Bowyer as the top prospect. I have to admit that I was surprised when he didn't re-sign with RCR. After flirtations with several teams, I again have to admit to being shocked, when it came out that he was going to Michael Waltrip Racing. The top free agent going to a third tier team. What's up with that? Either he’s completely sold out, for money. Giving up on contending for wins, & making the Chase, or this was absolutely the only thing out there. I expect it was the latter. Joining this team, puts a driver on the fast track to mediocrity. Just ask Martin Truex. The scary thing about this is that his departure won't leave a vacant seat to fill.



While I'm thinking of Super Shill Racing, right on the heels of getting all their crew chiefs, & car chiefs tossed for the rest of the season. For yet another cheating incident, (I wonder when this is going to become too much of an embarrassment for the Japanese?)


They drop a bomb on the only driver to ever win for them.
Letting David Reutiman know by phone, (what a classy move) that he was
being kicked to the curb. This was apparently sponsor related. If Mikey is having sponsor issues that's really scary for everyone else. I think he even sleeps in the chicken suit. With only 3 races left, David's got about as much chance landing another Cup ride for next year, as I do. This is about like your prom date calling & telling you she's going with someone else. Just as you're starting the car to pick her up.



While he's in no danger of losing his ride, Matt Kenseth is losing his
sponsor, & as yet doesn't have anything else nailed down. This is about as scary as seeing someone in a hockey mask come up behind you as you wait for a bus on a dark corner. Matt not only made the Chase, but was in the thick of it, until Martinsville. Former Champion, multiple winner this season, great driver, all around nice guy. This just shouldn't be happening.



David Ragan isn't so lucky. UPS has decided to cut back from being a
full-time sponsor, & is switching to Carl. He's probably looking at dropping down to the Nationwide series at best. He says he "want's a competitive ride, wherever it is." Sorry David, these are all pretty much nailed down even in Nationwide.



Red Bull announced that they were going to use those wings, to fly out
of NASCAR. That's two cars gone, one of them would have had an open seat. Jay Fry has been trying to put something together to save the team, but if it hasn't happened by now. I don't expect it to. I'm not privy to any inside information, but I haven't even heard a whisper of anything working for Brian Vickers. If he did have any nibbles, Martinsville can't have helped his case.



Another scary aspect to this is that deserving Nationwide drivers like
Justin Allgaier, Brian Scott, Ricky Stenhouse, as well as Trevor Bayne,
have no place to go.



It wasn't long ago that Roush had to cut a team, because of the 4 care
rule. Now they will be down to 3. One of them unsponsored, as of now.
Childress from 4 to 3. Red Bull from 2 to gone.



Look out NASCAR, check out that guy behind you. He has real long fingernails, is wearing a hockey mask, & carrying a chainsaw.



This can't bode too well for you long term.



Dawg



You can contact Dawg HERE jj905@centurytel.net

 

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Homestead Press Conference Transcript

For those of you who missed Faux King Brian’s Homestead press conference, here are the official transcripts regarding the press conference. You’ll notice that instead of getting to pat himself on the back for the poor job he’s done this season, he spends a good chunk of his time being questioned about the Double Secret Probation Fines that have been issued and does a poor job of defending the the Double Secret Probation Fines. One little fib. he states there has been nothing in place to punish people saying bad things about NA$CAR. There has been something in place since the days of his grandfather Bill France Sr. It's called "blackballing" somebody. More recently, when KuBu made some comments about the officials when he was driving the #97 car, his hard card was pulled which meant KuBu had to sign in every time he went to a track. A member of the television media questioned some decisions of NA$CAR and was KuBu's sign-in buddy as his hard card was also pulled.

So put on your hipwaders and have your air sickness bags at the ready.

 


BRIAN FRANCE: Good afternoon, everyone. I would say a couple of things that I've said before in previous get-togethers with the media. That obviously we think the season has gone very well. TV ratings, attendance, still some issues, depending on what market you're talking about.


Obviously, the economy continues to weigh heavily on the sponsorship component of our sport. We rely more on sponsorships than anybody in sports, so that obviously has an effect on us.

But the quality of racing throughout the year, the emphasis on winning that we keep adjusting to, I think is undeniably it is paying dividends. I would also say one thing about that. There was some wisdom or conventional wisdom some time ago that if you put more on the line, you put more emphasis on winning in Motorsports, that that wouldn't make a big difference because they're all out racing as hard as they can every lap, and it wouldn't make that big of a difference. And that's not true. We now know that's just not true.

When there is more on the line, you're seeing every weekend Tony Stewart and Carl, and everybody elevate and their entire teams are elevating their performance and the competition gets better when that happens. You saw that last year with Denny and Jimmie.

So naturally we're going to continue to look at the point system in a way that -- and the other portions of how we regulate and conduct the events, with an emphasis on just that.

But one more thing as this weekend unfolds, and naturally we're all excited because we're fans too, to watch and see what happens on Sunday. But the other thing that is happening in the marketplace is some really, really good things.

We held a Green Summit for the first time in Miami Beach yesterday. Had a number of companies that are doing some really, really great things in our industry - they're environmentally smart and productive - share their experiences. And we had a lot of new companies that were interested in what NASCAR was up to in the space where their technologies and their emphasis is. So they joined us as well.

My hope is that we'll continue to march down that road and get better and smarter and we'll attract more companies as a result of that.

Then just this morning, we awarded a $250,000 check to the Homestead Hospital in the Neonatal Care Center, trying to invest in the hospital as part of our NASCAR Foundation, and my mother and so on was there to present that.

In addition to an exciting weekend, the industry is really celebrating the fact that they're here in South Florida and doing some great things. So, with that, I'll be happy to take some questions.

Q. Brian, in particular light to your comments about the winning. Eight years ago Matt Kenseth won the championship before the Chase, had one win for the season which seemed to cause an uproar, and thus the Chase format was developed. Carl has an opportunity on Sunday to again win a championship with only one race week win in the entire season. Why should that be looked on any different as what Matt Kenseth did in 203?

BRIAN FRANCE: Because we didn't change the point system because somebody had one win or a few wins. That was never the emphasis. The emphasis was that we could create bigger moments if we had a more playoff style atmosphere as opposed to a complete consistency model in the years past. And we've achieved that goal, not all the time because it's obviously out of our control.

I would tell you the one win that Carl had might make the difference though. He only leads by three points. The one win in Las Vegas may well make the difference tomorrow. I don't know.

Clearly we cannot make winning the only thing. There are 43 teams racing at every weekend. So this is not -- however, we can make sure that we emphasize that. We can make sure that we reward that. And we're pretty happy that that translates into better racing.

Q:Not taking anything away from Jimmie's great accomplishments of five straight there. How much do you think an uptick of interest that there's been to have a new face fighting out for the championship this year?

BRIAN FRANCE: I don't know. But I do know that this will mark the end of one of the historic runs in all of sports with five consecutive championships. I would have never thought I would witness that.

Jimmie it's just a marvelous achievement, and Carl and Tony both are very popular, so they're creating new moments and we'll have to see how it all plays out.

Q. There's been an uptick in the television ratings. I'm wondering is that what you expected? Is that a slow surge to what you think will be more? Is it less than you thought it would be? What are you working on in the off-season that would be your main goals for next year?

BRIAN FRANCE: We've always said that ratings go up and down because of many, many things. The things we can control are showcasing the racing, telling our story, and giving the drivers some big moments to race for. That will help us. You never know how it all percentage- wise what really matters the most.

But we know that that's the NASCAR we want. We want to see these elevated performances, and they're just fun to watch. We want to see what's happened. I'm confident if we do that, and do a lot of other things, we will have better ratings and better attendance.

Q. NASCAR has fined, at least four times that we know of, drivers for disparaging remarks they've made, and NASCAR did not go public with those fines. Other leagues do. They do publicly say you can't talk about the officials. You can't talk about this or the league. Why does NASCAR take the position that these matters should be private and not public? Are there others that we don't know about?

BRIAN FRANCE: There could be. That's why they're private, right? Well, let me tell you what we've done in the last couple of years. In the last couple of years we've taken a position that drivers are going to be able to speak their mind and criticize the sport way more than any other sport would allow. So let's start with that.

However, there have to be some limits. We thought those limits were being exceeded in the last couple of years because you can't denigrate the sport. You just can't do that. We're not going to accept that.

You know what is interesting, almost every driver has come up to me at one time or another and said I'm glad you did that, because I don't like it when somebody just says something that is irresponsible about the sport.

Let me say one other portion of this. They are perfectly fine to criticize anything we do, any call we make. They can say they don't like it, they disagree with it. We didn't make the right call. That's fine. But we're not going to let anyone denigrate the sport, and that's going to continue.

Whether we make the fines public or private, we didn't see a benefit to making them public. If there is some benefit to that, we'll take a look at it. But that is the reasoning behind the penalties.

Q. But don't you think there is harm when it comes out after and fans take the stance of why did they do this in secret? What else are they doing in secret? In fact we're talking about secret fines today instead of your big game seven moment?

BRIAN FRANCE: That's up to you to what to write and be interested about. I can only tell you that I take every question. I never say no comment. I've explained it. If there's a better way -- sort of this idea that there are a bunch of things going on behind the curtain. We've never been more transparent. We've never had more of anything, and that is the way it should be.

If there's a benefit to announcing them to the public and the media, we'll take a look at them. We just didn't see a benefit at the time. Maybe there is a benefit.

Q. How much did the Kyle Busch situation at Texas concern you? How do you balance boys-have-at-it in retaliation with what appears to be a non-definitive line?

BRIAN FRANCE: That's not accurate. It was very concerning to all of us. There was a swift and very is he penalty on that as you know. There is a line and the drivers, and they may walk around and say sometimes that they're not clear about it, but they know the line.

We have these conversations with them all the time. What you've got to remember is this is a contact sport. So you're going to -- we thought a couple years ago that we were overregulating the events. We wanted to give more authority back in the drivers' hands, and that's been good for NASCAR.

But there is always a limit. You can't do anything you want. We will look at it. We talked to the drivers. If they're close to the line, we have a conversation that day. If they go over the line, we'll deal with that too.

So this idea that there is no -- nobody knows where the line is, not true. Not accurate.

Q. Brian, corporations all across the United States have been raising funds for the last years or so while you guys are looking for sponsorships. What is NASCAR doing to get corporate treasurers to open up the purse strings and become sponsors at a time when NASCAR really needs the employment?

BRIAN FRANCE: If the President of the United States is not getting them to do that, I'm not sure what we're going to be able to do to figure that out. But having said that, obviously we just held a green summit. We were doing things that attract new companies, new technology to validate in our sport. We're renewing a lot of companies, and some companies -- and it happens all the time, every year for us, will pull back their sponsorship or commitments or leave all together.

That is just the reality of having hundreds of companies involved in this sport. But we're working harder than ever with the teams and their business groups to tell the NASCAR story and the value that it brings to sponsors. We're having success with that.

I think if you ask the individual team owners, we've never had a more offensive strategy doing it together to bring in as many new companies as possible.

Q. After the test you ran this week in Daytona, what are the goals you're looking for for Daytona in February, and is one of them a virtual complete elimination of the tandem drafting? Is that one of the things you're after?

BRIAN FRANCE: It is one of the things we are after. We would prefer to eliminate tandem racing in the manner it exists today. There is no question about that. We are working on rolling back the clock to traditional Daytona, Talladega races. We'll have to see how that goes. I think the majority of fans would like to see that and so would we.

Q. You mentioned that you answer every question and you don't duck anything. There was a time when your grandfather and your father attended every race. They did these press conferences almost every Saturday or Sunday behind the hauler or whatever. We don't see you very often. We wonder why is it that you think the sport that you're not needed at every weekend or just why are you not around more often for these press deals?

BRIAN FRANCE: I frequently say, and I've said this before, if I thought that I was the last one out of every event and I turn the light off on the way out that that would grow the sport in some way, I would do it.

What we have is a different sport than it was 10, 15 years ago, and that's real clear. I don't publish my schedule, but it's pretty busy. We feel like we're managing the sport. We know we're managing the sport the best way that we need to to grow the sport.

Q. Could there come a time in the future where all the penalties are transparent? That they're all black and white so it can be reported as normal rather than just finding things out on the internet secondhand? Secondly, Bob earlier mentioned the Kyle Busch incident. Can you explain to me other than Brian Vickers' situation last week where he was not under caution as Kyle Busch was with Ron Hornaday at Texas, why Brian Vickers, something wasn't done about him when he, in fact, just came out of nowhere and plowed into Matt Kenseth for no apparent reason other than retaliation?

BRIAN FRANCE: Well, there is something being done about that. We're having a conversation about that, and they are very different circumstances. One was on a mile and a half track, a lot faster. One was under caution, which is very significant different.

Racing accidents under green are always subjective. Even though you may say this one wasn't, but typically there is always a debate about who went where. Ron Hornaday was racing for a championship, and you know we value that greatly.

So there are lots of differences. It doesn't mean though that we didn't think the line was almost met or somewhat close, whereby, we would have a conversation to explain that. We will be having a conversation with both Brian and Matt regarding really what happened in Martinsville the week before, which is a short track.

A lot of contact happened in that particular race. Like I said earlier, there is a line. The drivers know where the line is. If we should be guessing about that for some reason, we're happy to sit down and walk them through it.

Q. Ricky Stenhouse is probably going to win the Nationwide championship tomorrow. The decision NASCAR made to limit drivers to one championship run, has NASCAR gotten what they want out of that or is that policy going to be reviewed at any point?

BRIAN FRANCE: All policies are reviewed, but I think it's worked the way we want it to. We want to showcase the young drivers in their own series and still have the participation with drivers with a lot of experience. That's exactly what we've gotten.
I think it's been good for the young drivers to get some different notoriety. The honor and prestige of winning a championship and the money that comes with that and all the rest has been a good thing.

Q. Going back to the driver fines things. When you say you don't see a benefit to that, can you explain why there is no benefit to that? It would seem like if you're punishing somebody for disparaging the sport, you would want to let people know we're punishing this guy because we don't like what he said. In this room, you're monitoring social media, all the fans want to know more about it and want to understand why. It just feeds to the perception that you're an autocratic regime that doles out punishment in a capricious manner. Why would you not want to tell people here's why we're doing it?

BRIAN FRANCE: Sure. I'll explain it. We went for 50-something years and never had a system to fine anybody for disparaging remarks in the sport. We're the only sport on the planet that had that. So we simply really in the last couple of years changed that policy because we thought we needed to.

. So it's a new policy. It's not something that's been around for a long time. But like I said, we're happy to look at that in the off-season. See what benefit there would be. When it comes to social media, nobody is investing more, doing more, encouraging the drivers and everybody in the industry to participate on social media. Say what you want and all the rest.

So, you know, we ought not look at one policy and try to define how NASCAR approaches things.

Q. What's the primary benefit to not telling people? BRIAN FRANCE: The way we looked at it, what would be the benefit? The drivers know exactly what we're after. We have these annual meetings with them, right? And then we have semi-annual meetings with them, and we meet with them every weekend at the track. We have formal meetings in the off-season.

So they know exactly what we expect out of them. When they don't handle that, the only way we can control that is obviously a fining system. But look, don't panic over this. We'll look at it in the off-season, if we need to change it, we'll change it. Not a big deal.

Q. You mentioned earlier about the Chase format and that you're always adjusting. Is there a good chance that the Chase format will be tweaked yet again for the following season?

BRIAN FRANCE: It's possible. I don't know. We take those ideas throughout the year. We really look at them as carefully as we can. Then what we do is we run them past the team owners and drivers and other -- everybody else in the industry in the off-season before we would do anything, and that's exactly what we did last year going into this year.

We looked at all kinds of things and settled on this as a nice step forward to simplifying the point system. Hopefully getting what we have, which is a more competitive Chase, and we'll look at it again. I don't know where we'll end up.

Q. As far as the Chase goes, it's been a really exciting Chase. As far as when you came up with the idea of the chase and then you tweaked it. Did you expect that kind of result what do you feel about the future?

BRIAN FRANCE: I actually expected more years like this, frankly. I couldn't imagine somebody as incredibly dominating as Jimmie has been in a five-year run, so you have to give him an enormous amount of credit.

But our expectation is that given the balance of things that we have 43 cars at every event and given the nature of auto racing and how it unfolds and some of the traditions that you have to obviously respect, I think the current system and more tweaks will always come and we'll just have to see what they are.

Q. We're here for the first time actually, so we're growing interesting in NASCAR covering, and I would like you to talk about the growing of NASCAR in other countries than the USA, like Brazil with Nelson Piquet and Miguel Paludo?

BRIAN FRANCE: I think it's great. I was in Mexico City Wednesday and Thursday working on that very issue. We've got an Hispanic driver from Mexico running in the truck race this weekend. Our diversity program focusing on that.

So any time we are able to attract a talented driver, Juan Pablo being an example or anyone else, I think that broadens up the sport. Makes us more relevant to whatever home country that they're from, and we view that as a very good thing.

Q. Specifically in terms of what Brad said as far as EFI goes, what was it about that that NASCAR thought crossed the line? It wasn't a case of what Denny did in impugning the integrity of the sanctioning body, but more or less expressing opinion on the technological direction of the sport at that particular point. Could you at least elaborate on that?

BRIAN FRANCE: I can't elaborate on that because we didn't issue a public fine on that. You can read into what people say just like I can. When you cross a line that denigrates the direction of the sport or the quality of the racing, we're not going to accept that. Not going to accept it.

Happy to have any other criticism, any other complaint, happy to hear them all. If I own a restaurant and I say you know what, the food in my restaurant is not very good, we're not going to accept it. It's as simple as that.

Q. In light of that, will you be issuing a secret fine to Jaime Allison of Ford Motor Company for saying almost the exact same thing as Brad Keselowski did this week?

BRIAN FRANCE: Jaime Allison doesn't participate in NASCAR. I mean, he does in his corporate role, but come on.

Q. Sort of following up on that. One of the problems with the EFI, the electronic fuel injection topic, I think is the economy's bad and it's going to be expensive or be another expense. I think that's what Brad was talking about and we've been talking about in here and engine builders have been talking about. It is an extra expense at a bad time. Is it something that could be postponed for another year or so? Does it have to be right now?

BRIAN FRANCE: Well, we announced it several years ago. These are not the things that you can just pull off the shelf and put them back on and off. We have agreements with suppliers that have to be met.


You've got to remember why are we doing that? Because we want to be more relevant to the car manufacturers and other green technologies as well. We always said that we will do that in a balanced way. We're not going to be like some other divisions around the world that are heavily emphasized on that on technology.

But we're going to have to do more than we did in the past. It's not because we feel like doing it or want to put additional costs on anyone, but because they're accepting a lot of money from the car manufacturers, and that's what's under the hood on cars today, and we have to be mindful of that as we make policy.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Cost of Progress, Follow the Money, & Assorted Odds & Ends

NA$CAR EFI Versus Carburetor: The Cost of Progress

Just to give folks an idea on what the costs are of a team converting from a Holley 850 cfm carb to NA$CAR’s obsolete EFI (actually TBI) system, I went to my sources on the cost of the antiquated fuel injection system being passed off as new technology and checked the Holley web site. The carb which is currently being used cost the teams about $600 a piece. The mandated obsolete fuel injection system that NA$CAR is forcing down the teams throats, and only available from NA$CAR, will cost the teams $25,200 each. That’s 42 times what the carb cost. Don’t get me wrong here. NA$CAR “technology” does need to advance to the 21st century. And fuel injection is one of those items. But not obsolete 1980’s technology. Manufacturers are moving towards direct fuel injection systems and turbo charging their engines. And as to the cost, I’m using Holley as an example once again, there are competitive systems built by Holley that come in well under $25,200. They come in well under the $15,000 range. Why aren’t teams given the option to use these systems? If it’s going to save them a buck in these hard economic times, I’m all for it. But then I keep forgetting. If they bought from Holley or another manufacturer, the wallets of NA$CAR wouldn’t be lined with team money like they are from the model car kit they currently sell to the teams (batteries not included). Based on Rick Hendrick’s figure on what the Kit Car cost him and add in the cost of the fuel injection system, the cars cost over $500,000 a piece. A half million dollars. That’s more than a lot of drivers from the 40’s, 50’s, & 60’s made in their entire career. That’s more than what most folks pay for a fully furnished house and two cars and still have lots of money in the bank.
 
And along these same lines, when was the last time you were able to buy a car or truck with something other than a 5 speed transmission in it? Some manufacturers have 6 speed manual transmissions available in their vehicles. So if NA$CAR really wants to keep up with the times and be technologically savvy, shouldn’t they also make the move to at least a 5 speed transmission?
 
And why all of the sudden the move to this obsolete fuel injection system anyways? Was it because NA$CAR wanted to be current with their technology? Or is there another reason? In a recent interview, Bad Brad Keselowski stated that the move to the antiquated fuel injection system was little more than a PR move by NA$CAR as a part of their veneer of “going green”. The system doesn’t give the cars better gas mileage. As a matter of fact it’s about the same as the current carburetor that’s being used. Folks were worried that we’d end up having a whole new type of fuel mileage races because of fuel injection. Based on what Brad said it doesn’t appear so. The system that’s being used will give better gas mileage IF you’re driving at 65 mph. It wasn’t really designed for racing. It was designed for street use. So don’t worry about the dreaded gas mileage races because of fuel injection.. I’m sure Brad will get a Double Secret Probation fine for his comments and has probably received several rather nasty phone calls from Mafia Mike about speaking the truth.
 
And what will the teams be doing with all these carbs they’re going to have to remove? Make paperweights out of them? Sell them as scrap metal? Maybe they can get $25 a pop selling them to another racing series that’s still using carbs. Or you might find them on E-Bay. Or maybe in the classifieds. “Free to a good home. One Holley 850 cfm carb with only 600 miles on it. Treated with kid gloves. Send an SASE to Fred Fumducker PO Box 850 Podunk Center Iowa”. And what about all the test equipment that’s used with the carbs? This whole move is, once again, going to cost the teams a fortune. And it comes at a time when even the mega-teams are hard pressed to find sponsorship much less the back markers. At the rate things are going, NA$CAR might need to change their name to better reflect the cost of ownership to the title of a movie. The Billionaire Boys Club.
 
Follow the Money 
With the 2012 election season moving closer and closer, the Beach Boy Bubbas are doing there usual with political donations. Here’s what they’ve managed to dole out so far to try to curry favor with some politicians:
 
FRANCE, BRIAN
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32120 NASCAR/MOTORSPORTS 6/6/2011 $10,000 Republican Party of Florida
 
FRANCE, BRIAN Z
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32120 NASCAR/CEO 6/30/2011 $5,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte
 
FRANCE, BRIAN Z MR
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32120 N A S C A R/CHAIRMAN & C E O 6/10/2011 $2,500 National Republican Congressional Cmte
 
FRANCE, BRIAN Z
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32120 NASCAR/C.E.O. 6/30/2011 $1,000 Adams, Sandy
 
FRANCE, JAMES C MR
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32114 INTERNATINAL SPEEDWAY CORP/CHAIRMAN 3/16/2011 $5,000 National Republican Congressional Cmte
 
FRANCE, JAMES
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32120 INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CORP/CHAIRMA 7/6/2011 $2,500 Buchanan, Vernon
 
FRANCE, JAMES C
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32120 DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY/C.E. 6/30/2011 $2,500 Adams, Sandy
 
FRANCE, JAMES C MR
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32114 INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CORPORATION/ 7/8/2011 $2,500 Gingrich, Newt
 
FRANCE, JAMES C
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32120 INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CORP./AUTO R 3/31/2011 $2,400 Haridopolos, Mike
 
FRANCE, BETTY JANE
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32118 NASCAR/EXECUTIVE SECRETARY 6/30/2011 $1,000 Adams, Sandy
 
HELTON, MICHAEL G
ORMOND BEACH,FL 32176 NASCAR/PRESIDENT 7/5/2011 $5,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte
 
HELTON, MICHAEL G
ORMOND BEACH,FL 32176 NASCAR/C.O.O. 6/30/2011 $1,000 Adams, Sandy
 
HELTON, MICHAEL
ORMOND BEACH,FL 32176 NASCAR/EXECUTIVE 6/6/2011 $500 Republican Party of Florida
 
KENNEDY, LESA
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32114 INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY/EXECUTIVE 6/6/2011 $10,000 Republican Party of Florida
 
KENNEDY, LESA D
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32114 INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CORPORATION/ 8/31/2011 $5,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte
 
KENNEDY, LESA
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32114 INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CORP/VICE-CH 7/6/2011 $2,500 Buchanan, Vernon
 
KENNEDY, LESA D
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32114 INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CORPORATION/ 6/30/2011 $2,500 Adams, Sandy
 
KENNEDY, LESA D MS
DAYTONA BEACH,FL 32118 INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CORP./PRESID 3/23/2011 $2,500 National Republican Congressional Cmte
 
These are the ones I’ve been able to find so far. I’m sure there are probably others that the Federal Election Committee haven’t published yet.
 
BTW, Faux King Brian’s donations were made from Florida where he is a registered voter and not North Carolina where he is supposedly a resident. Funny, in order to vote in Florida you have to be a resident. I guess Judge Mullen was wrong. So far this year, NA$CAR has spent $70,000 in lobbying money as a part of the Recreation/Live Entertainment Industry. Jordan Jiloty is their lobbyist.
 
Phoenix Race Coverage 
If you can call it that. The lamestream media is touting the 3.3 rating for what was supposed to be the Cup race at Phoenix. That doesn’t even come close to the 4.7 rating back in 2006. And it sure is awfully strange how Red Bull Racing got so much coverage throughout the race. About the only time we’ve really seen them this season has been when Vickers has managed to wreck or Kahne was able to get into the Top 10. It’s just a coincidence that the team still hasn’t been sold and NA$CAR would be down 2 more full time cars on the track if the team completely folds up because no buyer is found. NA$CAR would never act as an agent to help get that team sold because their owners in Japan want it to happen (sarcasm).
 
And BSPN didn’t go out of there way to avoid showing the aluminum in the grandstands. Despite having removed a section of grandstand, they still couldn’t pack them in even though PIR touted the race as being a sell out.
 
GM Confusion
 
When NA$CAR asked GM about running the Camaro in the Busch series, GM said no because they didn’t want their car associated with the generic design of the current race vehicle. And yet GM has introduced a generic bodied Corvette for racing in the NA$CAR Grand Am Series. So could GM please explain why they aren’t running the Camaro in the Busch Series again, please?
 
Don’t Drink the Kool Aid 
It’s taken at least 3 changes to the Chase for the Chumps, numerous “tweaks”, race manipulation, and a new points system in order to create something akin to excitement with the 10 race play-off system. Alan Kulwicki and Bill Elliott on the other hand created real excitement during a 36 race season coming down to the final race where leading the most laps in the very last race of the season created a championship win. So the 5 lb spider monkey in the room that is NA$CAR and it’s controlled media will be beating their chests long and hard before, during, and after the Homestead race about how exciting the season has been while ignoring the 300 lb gorilla in the room that is the fans’ dissatisfaction with the whole mess that Faux King Brian has created.