My Vote for 2009 Champion

Yep, I'm talking about my boy Dale Earnhardt Jr.  I think he can do it all in 2009.  Think I 'm kidding?  I kid you not.

Dale Jr. has been trying for this chapter in his career all his racing life, and this year, his second with one of the best teams in existence, Hendrick Motorsports, might be his best chance.  Dale Jr. and Tony Eury Jr., cousin and crew chief either have it figured out or they don't.  I'm betting that they do.  I'm guessing that Dale Jr. does what his fans want him to do this season:  Win.  And win big.

Hendrick Motorsports has given Dale and Tony a plan for how to win in 2009.  Between these guys, they can figure out the details.  They've both been racers for too long not to figure it all out by now.  I say, look out for Dale Jr. in 2009.

He's going to win races.  Eventually, he'll win championships.  He's too good to lose.  He's going to do great things in 2009.

I believe it.  I suggest you do too.

Paris? Berlin?

I'm getting some strange hits on the blog lately.  Paris, France?  Berlin, Germany?  That's strange.  I appreciate them all, but where are these hits coming from?  I want more hits from South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Virginia, and places like that.  That's the roots of NASCAR.

It's a good time to get prepared for a world of changes in NASCAR for 2009.  Bobby Labonte will be in the 96 Ford, not the 43 Dodge.  A lot of other drivers will be in different cars.  Try to spot Scott Riggs, or try to identify the UPS car this year, if you haven't been in the loop.  (Hint: The UPS car will be a Ford this year)

A new feature on the blog is the ability to follow this blog.  You can be the first, or the second to try it out.  I don't know exactly what it does, but you can do it.  I followed another blog member's blog, just to see if I could.  It's Dan Scott's blog, and Dan is a talk show host at 104.9 FM in Clemson, SC.  Dan has been battling with losing weight, and I wish him all the best.  My best answer for losing weight is stress.  Stress about losing your home, or not having enough money to pay your doctor's bills or feed your cats.  That's stress.  Do it, and I can pretty much guarantee you will lose weight.  I've personally gone from about 205 to 170.  Stress.  It works.

I live in the middle of NASCAR's traditional territory, but no one around here talks about NASCAR on the radio.  Is that a niche that needs to be filled?  If so, I could probably do it.  Besides my wonderful writing skills, I also have a pretty good radio voice.  I've been an amateur radio operator since 1994.  I could do a one to three hour show on weekends, talking about NASCAR in all it's glory.  I'm here for you, guys!  Let me know.

It's Daytona speed weeks time, and I'm jazzed as I can be.  Let's get this show on the road, boys and girls!  Let's get it on!

Getting Ready for the Big Show

As I write this, February is only a matter of days away, and the arrival of February can only mean one thing:  It's time to head to Daytona for Speed Weeks and eventually the grandest spectacle in NASCAR, which of course is the Daytona 500.

At the latest count, there are 54 cars vying for the 43 available starting positions in the 500.  Bad economy?  What bad economy?  Though the Daytona 500 is indeed the biggest race of the year, and subsequently has the biggest purse of all the races, the fact that 54 teams are attempting to make the field in 2009 shows that some small teams are taking advantage of recent team shut downs and mergers to toss their collective hats into the Daytona ring.

It's been announced that Kirk Shelmerdine, who began his NASCAR career as a crew chief, will attempt not just the Daytona 500, but all 36 races in 2009.  Shelmerdine will drive the 27 Ford as an owner/driver in attempting to qualify for the Daytona 500.  Who says the days of owner/drivers are over?  Just look at Robby Gordon.  

Another owner/driver is a man we have not heard much about lately.  Jeremy Mayfield will reportedly attempt to qualify an as yet unnumbered Toyota in February.  Derricke Cope and Joe Nemechek will also attempt to qualify in cars they own.

Another surprise, at least for me, was seeing car owner John Carter on the early entry list.  By all accounts, Carter, a northeast Georgia businessman, had ceased operations late last year. Apparently, however, the 08 Dodge lives, and making yet another attempt to qualify the car will be none other than James Hylton, who ran his first race in 1964, the year after this writer was born.  James Hylton was 29 years old at the time.  I'll let you do the math, but don't count Hylton out.  He's nearly qualified at Daytona in just the last few years.

In other news that I personally consider to be surprising, JR Motorsports Nationwide series driver Brad Keselowski will attempt to race in his first Daytona 500, piloting the 09 Chevy with Miccosukee Resorts and Gaming as a sponsor.  The car is owned by James Finch, and while Brad is in the car, Hendrick equipment will be used.  It's reported that Keselowski will attempt several Cup races in the car this year, and when Brad isn't in the car, the team will switch to Dodge and other drivers.  This is not unheard of in NASCAR, but it's a phenomena we have not seen since the 1980's.  I personally want to wish that team well, and I feel that Brad Keselowski has a bright future ahead of him as a Sprint Cup driver.

There will once again be two Labontes attempting the starting grid in 2009.  Bobby Labonte, in his new ride in the number 96 Ask.com  Ford, has owners points as the new driver for the Hall Of Fame Racing team.  In a rather unprecedented move, HOF switched from Toyota to Ford, and has aligned itself with Yates Racing, which means that the 96 car will have some of that famous Yates/Roush horsepower under the hood in 2009.  Brother Terry will attempt to make the field in the MSRP Motorsports owned Toyota.  Remember, Terry Labonte does have the 2nd most recent champion's provisional, so he has an excellent shot at making the field.  It will be nice to see both Labontes on the track again.

One other owner/driver who will be attempting to put his car in the field is Norm Benning, who we last saw in a Cup race in 1993.  Kelly Bires will attempt the race, as will Mike Wallace, Mike Skinner, Carl Long, and the most famous head of hair in all of NASCAR, Boris Said.

One other driver I'm happy to see at Daytona in 2009 is almost winner, and 2008 Rookie of the Year Regan Smith, who will be qualifying the number 78 Furniture Row Chevy.  Regan's ride basically dissolved after the 2008 season at Dale Earnhardt Inc., which is now Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.  One of my greatest fears going into the 2009 season was that last year's ROTY would not even have a ride in 2009.  Smith has some good skills as a driver, and I wish him well.

It's time to buy your favorite driver's new hat and tee shirt, a truck load of your favorite beverages and snacks, and as Larry MacReynolds says, pull on those belts one more time and get ready for NASCAR, 2009.  It's just around the corner, and it's time to get it on!

They All Died Too Young

Since this is mostly a NASCAR based blog, I can't help but lead off with a few NASCAR drivers that died far ahead of their time.  Of course there's Dale Earnhardt, but I get tears in my eyes when I think about Davey and Clifford Allison and what their lost lives mean to the NASCAR world.

Had Davey and Clifford lived, there is no telling what the sport would be like today.  I doubt that anyone who was a fan of the sport in the early 1990's doubts that Davey Allison would have eventually won championships.  We'll never know about Clifford, who lost his life only a few months before we lost Davey.  

In the year 2000, Nascar took a very tragic double hit when Kenny Irwin Jr.  and Adam Petty lost their lives.  Irwin was a hot young driver in the Cup series at the time of his death, and Adam was just getting started.  Adam was the 4th generation from Petty Enterprises to get into racing, and his death effectively snuffed out the hopes of the Petty name continuing to be what it once was in racing.  We of course will never know what Adam Petty might have meant to racing.  He died at such a young age that his true potential was never realized.  

NASCAR stars obviously aren't they only people who sometimes die at an early age.  Ronnie Van Zant, front man for the band Lynyrd Skynyrd died in a plane crash while still in his 20's.  Perhaps Ronnie's most famous performance was the live rendition of the song "Free Bird", which was performed at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.  The song was basically a tribute to Duane Allman, who in my opinion might have been the greatest guitarest of all time.  Duane died in motorcycle accident in Macon, Ga, back in the early 1970's.  Just a few years later, Van Zant died in Mississippi.  They both died way too young.  But then, so did Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison.  So did Stevie Ray Vaughan.

What would the music world be like had Jimi Hendrix lived?  What would the NASCAR world be like if Dale Earnhardt was still with us?  Neither are questions we can answer for sure, but I'm guessing either way, it would be a better world.

Will NASCAR ever be as Fun Again?

Since I've never been a prognosticator, I'm not really going to attempt to answer my own question, and I'll leave that up to you to do.  NASCAR has such a rich history of personalities, that today's almost seemingly homogenized race car driver seems almost boring to me.  There are a few exceptions, of course, but when one watches a typical interview with the average driver, one can fall asleep.  We know there will be the gratuitous sponsor mentions, as well as thanking the team and owner, and perhaps the car manufacturer.  How often, though, does a driver really say what's on his mind?

In my perhaps not so humble opinion, NASCAR needs more 'characters' than it currently has.  When I use the term 'character', I'm really talking about a guy who's willing to speak his mind, and maybe stir up trouble a little.  Love him or hate him, Darrell Waltrip was probably the all time master at being a 'character'.  Even when he was a young driver, Darrell was always good for an interview before or after a race.  Darrell would say something that either made the audience laugh out loud or make their blood boil.  Fortunately for us, DW has not lost that ability.  Even in the booth for FOX he provokes us in similar ways, just like he used to do as a driver.  Darrell Waltrip, thank God people like you are still around.

Kyle Busch is much the 21st century version of DW.  Kyle makes people mad practically every time he opens his mouth, which is actually a good thing for the sport.  People love to hate Kyle Busch, and I have to salute him for keeping it real and keeping the sport interesting.  I'm obviously not a Kyle Busch fan, but I salute him for having the guts to wear the black hat for NASCAR.

If you want to see frankness from a driver, you can still look to interviews with Kevin Harvick.  Like Dale Earnhardt, the driver he replaced at Richard Childress Racing, you can still count on Kevin to give it to you straight.  When Kevin's had a bad day, he won't sugar coat things for you.  If he's annoyed with another driver, he'll tell you about it.  That's what NASCAR needs right now; the truth, and straight from the mouth of a p.o'ed driver.

I hope that NASCAR does not become so generic that we can't tell the drivers apart anymore.  NASCAR is unique in that there are relatively few players on any given Sunday, and we get to know them all, by how the drive and the personality, or lack thereof, they exude in front of the TV cameras.  I would give anything for a return of Bobby Allison, Junior Johnson, Neil Bonnett, Tim Richmond, and others that used to give the sport so much of the special flavor that we as fans loved.  Personally, I think that NASCAR will be just fine as long as we have drivers like the Busches, the Earnhardts, the Harvicks, and even the Johnsons and Gordons.  

I'd just like to see more personalities on display though.

It's the off season? The News in NASCAR keeps Flooding In!

How about Steve Park, or you may be asking who the heck is Steve Park?  He used to be a teammate of Dale Earnhardt Jr, but he was involved in a series of devastating accidents back in the 1990's and on into the 21st century.  Steve currently drives in the NASCAR East series, and is gearing up for another season in that series.  Steve drives for the NDS team and is sponsored by Waste Management Recycle America.  For those of you who don't remember, Steve Park used to drive the 1 Chevrolet for DEI and won a very emotional victory for DEI at Rockingham, the very first race after Dale Earnhardt passed away at Daytona in February 2001.  Jimmy C and the gang here wish Steve Park well in all his future endeavors.

Rookie of the Year for 2008 in the Sprint Cup series Regan Smith has found another ride and will be driving the 78 car for Furniture Row Racing.  (Regan, I still think you beat Tony Stewart in that race last year.)  In 2008, Regan, who hails from Cato, New York, finished every single race in which he competed, which is a great statistic for a rookie.  The staff here at Jimmy C.'s NASCAR World wish Regan Smith well, because we predict that this young man is going places in racing, and will probably finish up front in a lot of events he enters.

In other news, I find it increasingly interesting just where this sport came from and where it is now.  In 2009, there will probably be only a handful of drivers in the Sprint Cup series from the south.  Our past champion from the last 3 years is Jimmie Johnson, which sounds like a southern name but isn't, unless you count southern California as a place in the south.  Johnson actually calls California home, as does his boss and teammate Jeff Gordon.  Kevin Harvick and Casey Mears also were born and raised in California.  How many drivers will be in the Sprint Cup in 2009 from the south?  

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is from North Carolina.  Mark Martin is from Arkansas, so that sort of counts.  Brian Vickers is from North Carolina as well.  Bill Elliot of course is from Georgia.  Reed Sorenson is from Georgia as well.  Most of the rest of the drivers from the NASCAR Sprint Cup series are from places like Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Washington, and even Tasmania and Colombia!  I for one am very happy to welcome rookie Marcos Ambrose to the series in 2009.  The good natured Marcos is always good for a smile and a wink in his interviews, and I believe that bringing some good Australian sense into the sport will be good for everyone involved.

In some ways, this departure from the south is not always a good thing.  Drivers who have never breathed in red clay dust probably don't have as deep an understanding for this sport as did some of their elders.  Not that breathing in clay dust is a healthy occupation at all, but back in the day, especially before 1972, NASCAR drivers regularly drove on dirt.  Such is not the case now.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. has never driven on dirt except in his back yard.  I don't know that it's such a good thing for drivers not to have that particular skill.  For one thing, you master the art of car control driving on dirt.  Your car might be completely sidways coming out of a turn, but you are in control.  I learned some dirt driving skills back in the late 1970's and into the early 1980's on dirt roads in northern SC.  Please don't tell my parents!  The ability to hang the tail of the car out and still maintain control is what I still consider to be a vital driving skill.

Late in the 1970's, I drove an empty Ford pickup truck down steep and winding roads at full speeds, and I recommend you don't try this at home.  In other words, the back of the truck was unloaded, which meant I was driving with a severe loose condition, but the ability to hang the tail out while driving on dirt saved me from some embarrassing consequences.  I don't know what the statute of limitations is or was on that particular crime, but I got away with it.  I've never repeated that particular crime though, or any others.  It didn't involve sex or murder, but it might have involved controlled substances.  Like I said, don't try this at home.

For whatever it's worth, I got away.  I'm not saying I was right doing what I did, but I didn't go to jail, which was probably a good thing, especially at the time.  It was the ability to drive fast on dirt that got me out of what could have been a real predicament.  I'm not proud of it, but it did happen.

These days, I rarely drive over the speed limit.  I just don't take risks anymore that involve my livliehood.  It just doesn't make sense.  Mostly I write and read a lot, and try not to make mistakes like I made in my more youthful days.  Making a living in illegal ways is not for me.  At least not anymore.  But learning how to drive fast on dirt was a definite benefit.

Bobby Labonte to Drive the 96 Ford in 2009

So reports our most reliable source, Jayski.com.  The 96 is the number "owned" by the Hall Of Fame racing team, formerly owned by two Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks, who are no longer associated with the team.  HOF Racing has aligned itself with Yates Racing for 2009, which means they will have access to Ford engines supplied by Yates and Roush for 2009.  The team will reportedly be run out of Yates Racing shops in Concord, NC.

Labonte's sponsors will likely be Texas Instruments DLP products, as well as Ask.com.  Bobby Labonte also is a past champion, so he will have up to 5 provisional starts in 2009, in order to get the 96 car into the top 35 in points by race 5.  Labonte finished 21st in points in the Petty-Boston Ventures 43 in 2008, so getting the car into the points probably won't be much of a problem, especially for a guy who really wants to drive competitively in 2009.

Remember, Labonte has won 21 races and the championship in 2000.  He won all those races and the championship with Joe Gibbs Racing, but a relatively young driver can do great things.  I say relatively, since Bobby Labonte is younger than I am, which means he's younger than dirt, but old enough to know how to drive.  In my opinion, if Bobby Labonte can put the 96 Ford inside the top 15 in 2009, he will have done his job, and done it well.

In other news, Robby Loomis, former crew chief for Jeff Gordon, has been named executive director for raciing for the new GEM-Petty team.  Loomis will oversee the operations of the 9 car of Kasey Kahne, the 10 car of AJ Allmendinger, the 19 car of Elliot Sadler, and the 43 car of Reed Sorenson.

The 2009 racing season is about to start, with the Bud Shootout in a matter of weeks.  It's good to see Bobby Labonte secure a ride for 2009, and I wish him the very best of luck.  Even if the 43 ride that Bobby's had for several years wasn't the most successful, he can tell his grandchildren that he did indeed drive the car.  That's more than about 99.99 per cent of the population can say.