What a Beautiful Time of the Year!

If you live in Chicago, you got probably a lot of snow today, and if you live in Tennessee, you have been dealing with violent storms, and my prayers go out to all of you that have had a rough time with the weather this week. At last count, 55 dead in the tornadoes that swept the Southeast this week. My prayers for the people involved in all this terrible business.

But I'm so happy that February is finally here, that I'm beside myself with excitement. It is now very early Thursday morning here in South Carolina, and I'm going to get to see live Cup racing on Saturday night, Lord willing.

The Bud Shootout at Daytona is one of my favorite races of the year, because even though it's a non-points race, we actually get to see them running to the checkers for the first time. For a fan like me, it's the end of an excruciating long period of inactivity, at least racing wise.

The off season has been anything but boring, as usual to the average Nascar fan. Drivers chanced teams, teams changed manufacturers, and crew personnel changed on probably virtually every team out there. Some owners and drivers are raring to go, confident in their belief that they will go all the way this year. Others wonder how they will keep their heads above water at all. Many teams are still searching endlessly for sponsors, and praying that they can meet the payroll the week after the Daytona 500. Such is racing, and always has been.

I'm not much of one for making predictions, and at this point it would be foolish to make a prediction about who the eventual champion might be. I will hazard one guess though: The winner will be on a well financed team.

I worry about some of the small teams in Nascar. In a way, much has never changed. They used to call the drivers that drive for lower tier teams "stokers". I haven't heard that word lately. A stroker was a guy that ran races, as many as he could afford to, but knew he never had a real chance of winning. If he got a top 10 finish, he was pretty happy. For instance, back in the 1970's there was an owner/driver out there who not only drove the race car, but he also built it, fixed it when he crashed it, and drove the pickup truck that hauled it to the track every weekend. He wasn't the only guy in that situation. Most of these guys either hooked up with teams with more money and resources, or they quit. This one didn't really fit that bill. He eventually hooked up with a hot driver, and got out of the car and just became an owner. He now has one of the better operations in Nascar. Yeah, you guessed it. I'm speaking no other than Richard Childress, and when he stepped out the car, and Dale Earnhardt got in it, the rest is history, as they say.

I wonder about people like John Carter. Who is John Carter, you ask? John Carter owns a garbage disposal business in Toccoa, Georgia. He is also the part owner of a Sprint Cup racing team. In 2005, his driver, Kevin Lepage finished 9th in the Daytona 500. Kevin was obviously a stroker in that race, no one probably expected him to finish the race, much less place in the top 10. $307,138 dollars was awarded that year for his efforts. This year, John Carter will attempt another Daytona 500 entry, with Eric McClure as the driver. I'm pulling for him to make the race, because I'd love to see a long shot get a chance again.

Most of all, I'm just ready for the beginning of Speed Weeks again. I'm just ready to shake off the winter doldrums and hear the sound of the engines, smell the exhaust of hi-octane racing fuel, and basically just get it all rolling again!

What's the Future for DEI?

I've read an article about the DEI/Ginn merger, where former Ginn co-owner Jay Frye and crew chief Ryan Pemberton were talking about the pain of dissolving a team that had been around for about 10 years. When DEI basically bought out the Ginn operations, a lot of employees were suddenly without jobs.

Jay Frye is now with Team Red Bull, and even though he could have stayed with DEI, he decided to leave, because he didn't like the thought of having to fire so many employees while keeping his own job. I like Jay Frye's style.

Ryan Pemberton left DEI for different reasons. He didn't like the corporate structure of the company, and the "Wall Street" style of management at his new employer. Ryan spoke of the DEI mantra of preserving and continuing Dale Earnhardt's legacy, and quite frankly, Ryan said that's not what he was there for. I think he's right.

Ryan Pemberton is now with Michael Waltrip Racing, serving as David Reutimann's crew chief. Ryan felt like he probably could be working for a team like Rick Hendrick's, but felt that MWR is his place, because he felt like he can make a difference at a young struggling team, such as Michael Waltrip Racing.

I like Ryan's style too. He know's what he's good at doing, and he seeks out opportunities to do it.

My question is this: What exactly is Dale Earnhardt Inc. good at doing these days?

The first answer to my own question is this: DEI is good at marketing memorabilia for the late, great Dale Earnhardt. My second answer is that DEI is good at coming up with really cool sounding titles, such as President for Global Operations. I assume that Max Siegel, who holds that title at DEI, regularly visits the operations folks at DEI London, DEI New Delhi, DEI Shanghai, DEI Tokyo, and DEI Toronto. They do have operations globally, don't they?

Oh, and by the way, they also have some sort of race car team or teams too, don't they? Yeah, that's right! Dale Earnhardt Jr. used to drive for them! Now they've got Martin Truex Jr., Mark Martin, Aric Almirola, and Regan Smith and Paul Menard. They currently drive the 01, the 1, the 8, and the 15 cars. A 4 car team should make them a major contender on the track, shouldn't it?

Martin Truex Jr won a race last year, and that was the only race that DEI won in 2007. DEI has recently joined forces with Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt's former employer and friend, to produce engines for both operations. Some fans of Richard Childress Racing drivers Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, and Clint Bowyer are a little nervous about this joint endeavor.

I have to make this one observation: After Dale died on February 18, 2001, DEI became a launchpad for Dale Earnhardt Jr. When Dale Jr. left at the end of 2007, DEI ceased to be what it was, as far as a racing operation. Mark Martin is a great driver, and so is Martin Truex Jr., and probably so are the other drivers. What remains at DEI is not nearly as important as what has left DEI, in my humble opinion. Dale Jr. made DEI popular. He wasn't able to keep the performance up to what it was in 2003 and 2004, and he left. Dale wanted to race competitively, and that's exactly what his son wants to do, so he left a team that wasn't providing what he needed and went to one that promises to do all that he needs: Win.

Dale Earnhardt, in my humble opinion, was the greatest driver Nascar has ever had. When he died, DEI started to die, and now that the son is gone, it will continue to compete, but the spark is gone now. DEI is basically a marketing operation now. Racing is not the priority, selling memorabilia is. I hope DEI proves me wrong, but so far they are not coming close to doing that.

I think what DEI doesn't seem to understand is that this company was started by a racer. That racer is gone, but racing continues. Racers race. Period. When racers can not compete with what the owner gives them to compete with, they leave. The go race for someone else. That's what racers do. Dale Jr. left DEI because he could no longer compete on the level at which he accustomed to competing. If you read a history of his father, you will discover that Dale did exactly the same thing in 1981, and again in 1984. He left J.D. Stacy when he bought out Rod Osterlund, and then left Bud Moore when he was not happy with the equipment. Where did he go both times? Richard Childress. The rest, as they say, is history.

DEI? Just win races. Give your drivers what they need to win races. The marketing will be automatic if you just put them into victory lane. Fans love winners. They still love Dale Earnhardt too, but he hasn't won a race in 8 years. Put some winners in your shop, and you'll sell all the tee shirts you can produce.

Feeling the New Season Butterflies yet?

I am. I'm just excited to get the season going. My favorite drivers seem to be very happy about testing, and I am too, even though that part doesn't really matter much. I just like seeing the smiles on the drivers' faces when the get out of the car after a testing run.

I'm just excited to get the season going. In a very short time, Speed Weeks at Daytona will start, and I for one can't wait for the action to begin. We become so used to the week by week events in this, the world's longest sports season, that we feel a huge void in the off season. I know I do at least.

I'm not that big of a baseball fan, and the recent doping scandals have made me even less of a fan. I don't really care for the NBA, but I do enjoy an occasional college basketball game. My main substitute in the off season is football, and I enjoyed the college bowl games and the NFL playoffs, but this past weekend there was none of that. Thankfully, the 24 hour Rolex race was on tv.

I'm usually not much of a Grand Am fan, but this year, as with past years, the influx of Nascar drivers trying their hands at sports car racing made it a lot of fun to watch. I didn't get to watch the end of the racing on Sunday, as prior commitments and vehicle problems kept me out of the house most of the day, but when I finally got home last night, I enjoyed watching the highlights on the Speed Channel. Congratulations to Scott Pruett and Juan Pablo Montoya, by the way. Great win for both of them as the other drivers and teams involved.

Watching the action on the track got me really ready for some good old Nascar style stock car racing. I can't wait to hear the roar of the engines in February!

Did you ever think you'd see this?

I know that many of Dale Jr.'s fans, and many of Dale Earnhardt's fans find this pic a little upsetting, but I don't. It's just change, and it's been happening for about 50 years in Nascar.

Drivers change teams. It happens, and this is nothing unprecedented at all. For example, I know that most of you who have followed Nascar for a long time know that Kyle Petty did not drive for the family business for most of the early part of his career. One thing some of you may not know is that the King Daddy of them all at Petty Enterprises, yes, even King Richard himself didn't always drive for Petty Enterprises, and as a matter of fact, wins 199 and 200 came driving for owner Mike Curb in 1984.

Richard left the team his father had built decades before in 1984, after being embarrassed by some bad engineering at Petty. After one of Petty's wins, it was found that his engine exceeded the maximum cubic inch size then allowed by Nascar, and Richard packed up and left the only home he'd had in racing since 1959. He only drove for Curb for two seasons, and eventually finished out his career at Petty, but Richard's last two wins were not won while at Petty Enterprises. That's a fact, folks.

I doubt that many of us ever thought that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would ever leave that house that his Daddy built, and I know I'm one of them. This time last year, if you'd told me that Dale Jr. would be driving for Rick Hendrick in 2008, I'd have told you that you need to get a refund on that stuff your smoking, because it's really made your brains turn into mush.

Truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction, and here we sit, in January of 2008, and Dale Jr. is wearing a white shirt that says Hendrick on it, and amazingly enough, that shirt is tucked in! Dale Jr. will indeed driver the 88 Amp Energy Drink/ National Guard Chevrolet in 2008, and the old number 8 is now decked out in black with the logo of the US Army on the hood, with the primary driver being Mark Martin. Yeah, joined to Ford by the hip Mark Martin. Wow. What a year 2007 was.

Everything that has transpired, which would have seemed like some sort of science fiction movie a year ago, really makes sense now. Dale Jr. was not happy at DEI. Apparently he hasn't been happy for some time now. Mark wanted to retire, but he wasn't able to. I think he still wants to, but he just can't stand being totally out of the action. I can understand that.

The thing is that Dale Jr has really come out on top of this mix up, I think he's now driving for the best team in the business, has the best people behind him, and will almost certainly win races and championships for his new team.

DEI was started by the man that I still consider to be my favorite driver of all time, Dale Earnhardt. I can have respect for Teresa Earnhardt, while still feeling a bit sad over the events that have transpired over the last few years. DEI is no longer a priority for me, as a Dale Jr. fan. Dale is gone. Dale Jr. has left the building.

DEI will survive, but so will Dale Jr. and that's where my loyalty shifts now. Dale Jr. is the man.

I wish Mark and Aric Almirola well in the number 8 Chevy this year. I have a feeling they're going to need it.

Beginning to get the Fever!

There is so much to look forward to at the beginning of a new year, but I'm about as excited about the 2008 Nascar season as I've been in a long time. This will be a year of firsts, with all the races run with the new car package.

It was a bit refreshing to read some rare news from Nascar about their concerns about alienating some of the old fans of the sport. I think it's time to just let the racers race again, and if they have a disagreement, take it behind the hauler after the race and settle it there. I think it's time for racing journalists to go back to what they get paid to do: report on the racing, and stop making the sport seem like one big soap opera. I personally don't need to know what restaurant my favorite driver ate in, or who his girlfriend is. I just want to see him race, and when he's off the track, I want him to have some privacy and not be bothered by the media.

I want to see TV networks cover more of the actual races, instead of spending time showing me talking heads try to manufacture drama in the booth, when there's plenty of it happening on the track. I want the networks to show the action on the track, and not just the leaders, or the favorites. It's nice to know how a Ken Shrader or a Kyle Petty is running, not just a Jeff Gordon or a Dale Earnhardt Jr.

I want Nascar to take more of a hands off approach in letting drivers show a little personality. Let's try to keep it at least PG rated, for goodness sakes, but let the drivers speak their minds. Don't put a camera and a microphone in a driver's face the second he climbs out of a wrecked race car though. Let the driver calm down a little before doing the interview. We all have emotions, and sometime we tend to express them at inopportune times and regret it later.

I want the entire sport to get back to racing, not about manufactured for ratings drama. Going around a track at speeds of up to 200 mph, only inches from the cars around you is drama enough in my opinion.

Let the racers race, the reporters report, and the fans will enjoy.

Sand Bagging? Bet on it.

It was hard not to notice that in Monday's practice session, the 31 of Jeff Burton and the 29 of Kevin Harvick were consistently near the bottom of the speed charts. Did Kevin or Jeff seem upset by the results? Nope.

Richard Childress has somewhat of a tradition of not showing his full hand during testing. Dale Earnhardt sometimes seemed to just be riding laps when he was testing. I think he was. He made a few charges, at various corners or maybe on a backstretch or two, but usually lifted a little and coasted a while.

It's called sand bagging. It's not letting the competition know what you've got. Last year, Kevin Harvick did not exactly tear up the track during testing, but yet he won the Daytona 500. Kevin really didn't have the fastest car last year either, but he was in the lead when it counted.

Testing is not really a competition at all anyway. No points are awarded for the driver that runs the fastest lap. The only real reward, if you want to call it that, is more interviews from the media. Some drivers will willingly put the car on the edge, just to try to get a feel for true race conditions. Some will just test certain aspects of the car without really pushing it. Some will be just looking at tire wear. Some will be looking at handling. Some will be looking for straight line speed. It varies from driver, and from team to team.

If you're a RCR fan, I wouldn't worry too much. Wait for the green flag to drop, and maybe not even then, but with 10 to 20 laps to go, watch the Chevrolets of Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick. That's when you'll see what they've really got.

News Flash - Hendrick Cars Fast at Daytona Testing!

Ok, that probably isn't really earth shattering news to most of you who follow Nascar at all. But I think it's important to notice a trend that Hendrick Motorsports seems to have nearly perfected over the last year, which is basically dominating a sport that tries very hard to continually level the playing field. I know, it can be said that Chad Knaus cheats, or Steve Letarte cheats, or that Tony Eury Jr. cheats, or that any number of engine builders or fab shop employees cheat. True, they've all been busted for stretching the rules before, but the Car of Tomorrow, now just the car, is supposed to make that harder to do, right?

I'd say right and wrong. Nascar will definitely penalize any team that rolls a car through inspection where all the panels are not completely spec. Nascar is also mandating rear end gears, so a lot of the fun with trying a different gear will be out the window now as well. Chassis setups are more and more stringently policed, but Nascar give the teams a little leeway. Engines? Nascar keeps tightening the limits on those too. So, why does Hendrick seem so tough to beat?

Easy. I think in a manufacturing environment, it's called quality control. Any manufacturing plant, which is basically what a Nascar shop is, constantly tests their materials, their processes, and finally the quality of the end product. In my opinion, nobody does quality control better than Hendrick. Virtually every part that can be made in house is, and that way they're not relying on an outside vendor that might slip them some bad pieces. Taking raw metal and making a race car out of it is no small undertaking. Taking raw metal and making consistently winning race cars is infinitely more difficult.

Another reason for Hendrick's invincibility is the people working for him. From the sheet metal fabricators to the engineers sitting behind their computer screens, Rick Hendrick has managed to assemble an awesome amount of talent. The managers are top notch, and they keep everything organized, and very few mistakes slip through the cracks and makes it out the doors of the shop. Hendrick has constantly tried to recruit the best driving talent in the business, and that makes the conglomerations of raw metal come to life and perform at their best.

Rick Hendrick's folks are constantly testing virtually every aspect of their race cars, and trying to find ways to make them better. Better isn't always faster, in the short term, and longevity sometimes can make up for speed. Finishing first is the goal, obviously, but Hendrick cars and teams have proven time and time again that they can win races without always having the fastest cars on the track.

Testing of course, is just a measuring stick. Fast speeds during testing don't always mean that much. Time and time again we've seen cars that were fast during testing and practice, and even qualifying that didn't have what it took to win or in a lot of cases, finish the race. Many fans will totally discount the results entirely. I don't blame them.

To me the true test of how a team is doing during practice is the expression on the driver's face when he climbs out of the car. I've seen some grins and some grimaces the last week or so. Most the Hendrick guys are smiling though.