A Few Errant NASCAR Thoughts

Personally, I think the “Let the boys race philosophy that NASCAR has adopted this year has meant better racing.  I’m not too happy about the current Brad Keselowski vs. Carl Edwards feud, because it seems to be coming very dangerous, but overall, I’m pretty happy with the racing I’ve seen this season.  Some of the Carl and Brad stuff is a little over the top, and I just pray and hope that nobody gets hurt in this quarrel.

Can Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s luck get any worse?  He had a decent top 20 going at Indy, but got caught up in Juan Pablo Montoya’s debacle with trying to make up spots because of going with four tires instead of two.  I’m not faulting Juan, he should have won that race, but pit strategy raised its ugly head and effectively ended the day for both drivers.

I make no apologies for being a Junior fan.  I’ve been a fan of his since 1998.  I was a fan of his father, whom I still refuse to call Dale Sr., even though that may be technically true.  To me, the father was Dale Earnhardt.  The son will always be Dale Jr.  I’m happy with that, but I’m getting tired of the ‘senior’ tag, though I know it makes it easier for the media types to designate between the two.

I miss the Dale Jr. Pit Stop.  I still read it from time to time, but I haven’t been able to get my password to work on there in almost a year now.  Jim, if you read this, have mercy on me!  I only get online a couple of times a week now, and never on Sundays, but I miss the prayer before the race, and the check in after the invocation.  It was fun seeing people from all over the country, and even all over the world joining in the fun of watching the race and talking about it.  Happy days, all over for me now, I guess.

I’m glad that NASCAR seems to be at least one major sporting event in the country that respects God, our country, and our military brothers and sisters who protect our freedom.  Where there’s NASCAR, there seems to be hope for our country, and our world.

Is it just me, or has Kyle Busch mellowed out a little this year?  I’m actually finding myself enjoying his commercials this year.  For the most part, Kyle’s face after a race is a perfect mirror for his emotions.  When he doesn’t win, he shows the disappointment, very visibly.  That’s not a bad thing.  It’s way better than the tantrums of yesteryear, or the on-track retaliation.  Maybe engagement is agreeing with our favorite driver to dislike.  I have to admit, I dislike him less this year that I ever have.  That’s not exactly glowing praise, but it’s a lot better than my opinion of him last year.  We just have to take this a race at a time, I suppose.  Kyle is still a spectacular driver, but like his brother, eventually anyone can mature, it would seem.  Personally, I’m glad to see it.  I don’t like to hate anyone, but two years ago, I hated Kyle Busch.  This year, I find myself only feeling a slight dislike for him.  Every day in every way, we’re all getting better and better!

Are you excited about the count down to the Chase?  I am.  I can’t wait to see who’s in, and who’s out.  I don’t know that I like the idea of knockout racing, and I’m still not exactly sold on the Chase itself, but it is what we have.  It is what it is.

As I write this, I’m watching the Nationwide race at Iowa.  That is a great track.  I’d love to see the Cup guys on this track one day.  I’d also like to see them racing at Kentucky, but, well, you know, that’s how it goes.

Does it irritate you that many convenience store workers have no grasp of English, and an even less grasp of mathematics?  I just went down to the local gas station and the dude tried to charge me $29.95 for a 16 ounce Pepsi.  I argued with him for a while, but gave up when it became apparent that he didn’t speak English.  I walked away, and bought one for a buck at the store across the street.  Dale Jr., Jeff, Jimmie, Mark, your street level sales staff suck.  Why put someone on the counter of a store that doesn’t even understand the most common language in this country?  I’m not saying that we should all speak English, but it wouldn’t hurt in a retail environment.  Screaming at me in your dialect really didn’t help your overall sales model.  Just saying, dude.

I know that the above mentioned drivers didn’t really have a part in this.  It could be Pepsi, Coke, whatever.  It’s just kinda sad when you can’t understand the guy who’s trying to sell you something, because he doesn’t speak my language at all.  I know, I know, I should make myself bilingual.  Right.  I was born here, and it is necessary that I learn how to speak Spanish, Hindi, and whatever other languages that are spoken in the local BP gas station.  Bull bumkis.

The dude in the BP station was pretty smooth.  He even offered to pour the Pepsi over a Styrofoam cup full of ice.  Oooooohhhhhh.   How could I resist?  Somehow, I managed.

While I was walking out the door, I was treated to what can be called a profusion of Hindi curses.  I didn’t mind too much.  I’m more or less a Baptist.  Or maybe a Methodist.  I went to an Episcopalian school too.  Does that count?

Elliot Sadler is out of t he 19 car at the end of 2010 and going to exactly where?  Mark Martin is in the 5 car for Rick Hendrick, but will he be there in 2011, or will Kasey Kahne be in that car?  Some of you feel that Dale Earnhardt Jr. should be the sacrificial lamb in this deal, because he hasn’t performed up to expectations thus far.  Should Rick Hendrick let Dale Jr. go to provide space for both Kahne and Martin in 2011?

If I had the answers to any of these questions, I’d be living in Palm Beach, and you’d never hear from me again.

Bobby Labonte will be driving the 47 Toyota which will be vacated by Marcos Ambrose at the end of 2010.  Ambrose will reportedly be driving either the 9 or 19 car for Richard Petty Motorsports, which may or may not be a lateral move.  I’m still trying to figure out the advantages and disadvantages involved with this move.

It’s August, and it’s time to roll!  Let’s go!

The World’s Most Popular Sport, or Does NASCAR Need the Red Card?

Of course I’m talking about football, as it’s called in the rest of the world.  Here, in America, we call it soccer.  The World Cup is happening in South Africa, and that’s a pretty great thing.  From what I understand, the USA just advanced to a round in the Cup that they haven’t been able to do since 1930 or so.

I don’t really understand soccer.  I played it in high school, during PE.  It turned out that I was a much better goalie than I was a field player, because I could never overcome the instinct to catch the ball with my hands when it came hurtling towards me.  Only goalies can do that in soccer.  I grew up playing with an oblong ball with my friends where the entire idea was to catch the ball with my hands.  I played with a small stitched ball that I caught in a glove.  I played with a rather large orange ball that I bounced off the floor and used my hands to propel it towards a hoop 10 feet high.  In other words, I grew up playing typical American sports as a kid.  Here in the South, at least when I was a kid, hockey was rarely seen or heard about.  Basically, it seems to me that hockey is just like soccer, except it’s played with sticks and much more violence.  The players are on skates.  To me, that makes more sense than kicking a round ball around for 90 or so minutes and ending up with a 1-1 tie.

There is a famous line in some movie that states “There is no crying in baseball!”  Apparently that is not so in soccer.  Teams that lose, or players that make a mistake routinely throw themselves on the ground, put their hands over their faces, and cry.  I suppose that’s acceptable for the world’s most popular sport.  Heck, it sometimes even happens in American sports, but not very often.  Here in America, you’re more likely to see a person cry because they win, rather that being the loser.

But \football, or soccer, as I call it has it’s uses.  Soccer uses a yellow card to denote a foul.  If it’s a really bad foul, the player is shown the red card, which means expulsion from the event.  And supposedly the next event as well.  Should NASCAR use the red card?

Actually, NASCAR does.  It’s called the black flag.  But it’s just to get a guy to pit when he has committed a horrible crime like leaving equipment outside of his pit stall, or for running to slowly on the track.  The black flag can also be used to call in a driver who has committed an egregious foul upon another driver.  NASCAR can park a driver for bad behavior, NASCAR can do pretty much any darn thing they want to.

Think about it.  NASCAR basically can and has done, but rarely, the same thing that football, or soccer does.  They can park a guy for the rest of the race.  Kevin Harvick got parked one time for something he supposedly did in the Busch series, and it cost him a Winston Cup race start.

In effect, NASCAR always has the option of imposing what soccer would call the red card.  Should they?  If a driver is out to wreck another driver, I’d say that NASCAR has that right  Park the guy, sit him out for a week.  Let him know that he needs NASCAR much more than NASCAR needs him.

What do you think? 

It Hurts And It Hurts So Bad

Marcose Ambrose lost the race at Sonoma at Infineon last week because he shut down the engine to save fuel.  To be more accurate, he lost the race because he couldn’t get the engine fired before about 7 cars passed him.

I feel for Marcose.  He’s got to feel so close to getting a win, which he was at Sonoma, but so far away because of his dismal finish, which compared to other drivers was a great finish.

Take Dale Earnhardt Jr. for instance.  He was probably pretty happy with an 11th place finish after struggling with the road course and his car all day.  Ambrose is an accomplished road racer, so his disappointment must have been almost palpable after Sunday’s race.

Ambrose’ day is coming.  He’s far too good a racer to not win in the near future.  Watkins Glen is coming up, and that’s probably the next best chance that Ambrose has to get into victory lane in the Sprint Cup.

Marcose Ambrose, you’re ship is coming in.  You were that close, but you failed to collect the cigar.  You’ll get there, and it might be this year, or next year, or the next, or even the next.

You’ll get there though.

I’ve got faith in you Marcose.  You’re a winner that just hasn’t won in Sprint Cup yet.

Things That Irritate Me, But Don't Let That Bother You

It looked to me that Kevin Harvick wrecked Joey, but not intentionally at Pocono. What irritates me? Joey Logano’s dad. If the boy can drive a race car, let him stand up for himself. And he did. Kevin is Kevin. Joey is Joey. Why make it more complicated than that?


NASCAR broadcasters in general irritate me. Why throw in your two cents just because you have that much in your pockets? Just because you’ve got a microphone in front of you doesn’t mean you have to say some of the inane stuff that you say.

I’m so irritated by people on the news trying to explain Dale Jr.’s problems on the track. Lance McGrew is a great crew chief, I’m sure, but he and Junior rub each other the wrong way. That is what they call bad chemistry. I say bring Pops (Tony Eury Sr.) in and let’s get some of that old magic back. Heck, Pops works for Dale Jr. now, so I don’t see that being a problem, at least logically. But Pops doesn’t want to do the full Cup series tour, and I understand why, because it’s just hard to watch it all on TV, and I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to travel the insane schedule that Cup follows, and I don’t blame Pops. Face it though, Pops was the best crew chief Dale Jr. ever had.

I get irritated by FIFA World Cup Soccer. Of course, the rest of the world calls it “football”, and I suppose that that’s an accurate term. Men strike the ball with their feet, chests, foreheads, and sometimes their noses, which provides the most enjoyment, because then they bleed a little bit. Oh get off of it people. I’ve personally had a broken nose at least 3 times in my life. It’s not pleasant, but it’s not that bad either. Could those idiots quit blowing those dad gum horns for at least a minute? I suppose not. The stupid horns are ruining it for me. If they sounded like the sound of an 850 HP racing engine…… Well, that would be a different story.

I’m irritated by most rap music. I say most, because there are a few songs that get under my skin, and Lord help me, but I just can’t help myself but I have them ringing around in my brain for a few weeks or months. I really despise the music that preaches hate for police or authority. Some rappers are a little more mellow though, and actually do some funny stuff. I don’t mind that.

Kyle Busch irritates me. Maybe not quite as much as he did last year, but he still irritates me. He’s a very annoying young man. I know he wants to win every race he’s in, but you can only carry stuff like that so far. Kyle needs to learn how to control his emotions and talk to the TV and radio crews. Kyle needs to learn a little about humility. One day, Kyle may maybe be the grand old man of NASCAR, much like Mark Martin or Bill Elliot are today. He’s got a long way to go though.

You Said What?

Down here in the South, we have a special way of saying things sometimes. The same is probably true for the rest of the country, as well as the rest of the world, but here in the South, we seem to really do things differently sometimes.


I used to play, and still have friends who hit a little white ball with a stick called “goff” or “gawf”, depending upon how many beers the player has had. I think the real word is “golf”, but it seems that if you pronounce it that way, you’re either from the North or totally sober.

I used to have a boss in North Carolina who once said that he was basically a “farfarter, I put out fars all day.” I think he meant “firefighter”, but with bosses, who knows what the heck they’re talking about sometimes?

NASCAR certainly has it’s share of Southern residents involved in the sport, though not in many of the driver’s seats anymore. Many of the crew chiefs, and even some of the owners are as Southern as they can get. Many of them have managed to lose the Southern accent, but often you will hear some things that must be almost incomprehensible to people, say, from the great state of Minnesota.

“This dang ole back end keeps tryin to tarn on me!” “Just keep ‘er up thar, bud. Keep a hittin yore marks!” “OK, guys. Four tars and a half round a wedge in the rot rear.” “Keep a gittin it!”

I’m certainly not being critical of these folks. Heck, I’m about as Southern as I can be. I particular love hearing Bill Elliot talk. Now folks, when you hear Awesome Bill talk, you know exactly what a North Georgia mountain boy sounds like. I really miss Ward Burton, because he exemplifies the sound of Southern Virginia. “Mah name is Wah Button.” I miss that so much.

No, folks, I’m the last person to be critical. People have complained over the years that Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jr. were pretty much speaking a foreign language, or so it sounded. I understand that accent perfectly, because I’ve got the same one. I’ve lived most of my life within 100 miles of Mooresville, North Carolina, so to me, it’s the way most people talk around here.

“I’ll be dad gummed” is one you hear often during NASCAR races. I can forgive Larry McReynolds for saying it, because he’s from Alabama. But Ole DW? Darrell is from Owensboro, Kentucky, which is right across the river from Indiana. Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman are both from Indiana, and I’ve never them “dad gum” anything.

I enjoy how some drivers seem to be becoming “Southernized.” Kevin Harvick, who is from Bakersfield, California, does not have a Southern accent, but occasionally he will pronounce a word or two with a distinct Southern flavor to it. Part of that is from living in North Carolina for quite a few years, but I give most of the credit to his wife, Delana, who is a pedigreed Southerner. Way to go, Delana!

Sometimes I wonder how driver Jimmie Johnson and his crew chief Chad Knaus can even understand what anyone says in their transplanted home state. To me their not hard to understand, but in the NASCAR of the 1970’s, I doubt that they would have had the success that they’ve had.

Most of the crew wouldn’t have been able to understand most of what they said!

Denny Hamlin Has Arrived

It would seem that the winner of the blade battle is Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin. At least so far. 5 wins since NASCAR restored the blade, or the rear spoiler, if you will, cannot lie.


It’s curious why JGR seems to have such a handle on the blade and nobody else can seem to figure it out after all this time. I think I have the answer though: Denny Hamlin has arrived.

“All we do is win” has been the number 11’s battle cry over these 5 wins. The team is on track. The cars are great. Right now, the driver’s great too. It would seem that Denny Hamlin has experienced a few sophomore seasons, and he has finally come into his own.

It’s not a matter of whether you like Denny Hamlin or not, but he’s a lot like Kyle Busch or Jimmie Johnson in the last couple of years: You cannot deny what he’s done. He’s a winner, and he seems to keep on winning. When it comes right down to it, winning is pretty important, if not everything.

Denny Hamlin rubs some people the wrong way, but so does every driver.

That’s what NASCAR is all about. It’s favorites and least favorites. That’s the way it’s always been.

What Makes A Great Driver?

Since this is an opinion column, what you are going to read here is totally my opinion and nothing else.  I’ve been watching this sport for quite a while, and I’m more than happy to give you my opinion.  I’d be interested in hearing your opinion too.

In the old days, most NASCAR drivers came from the South, and literally grew up racing.  Some started in go carts and eventually graduated to full sized race cars.  Some came from other areas of racing, driving various types of open wheel race cars, and made occasional forays into NASCAR.  Some got  hooked on stock cars, some just dabbled in the sport.

Since about 1990 or so, NASCAR has experienced an invasion of drivers from other parts of the country who have made it big in the sport.  Jeff Gordon came to NASCAR from California by way of Indiana.  Tony Stewart came directly from Indiana, as did Ryan Newman.  Juan Pablo Montoya came all the way from Colombia.  Guess what?  It’s all been good for the sport.

A great driver obviously must have talent.  Talent is why you and me aren’t currently employed driving in NASCAR’s top series and earning millions of dollars and flying around in our own private jets.  Talent isn’t always the only part of the equation however.

A truly great driver must have somewhat of a personality that people either love or hate.  Richard Petty was a great driver just on his wins alone, but he was and is an genuinely nice guy, always happy to sign autographs for the fans.  Dale Earnhardt was a rather polarizing driver, who while he was alive angered many fans and also grabbed the admiration of many others.  Since Dale’s death in 2001, he’s mostly been remembered in a positive way, as the man who changed the sport forever.

There are a few young guns in NASCAR who could certainly be considered potentially great drivers.  I would include Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch in that list.  I would include Kasey Kahne.  History will dictate just how great these drivers will be remembered when their driving days are done.  All three of these drivers exhibit a ton of talent, and Kyle Busch alone has enough personality for all three.  There are certainly other drivers who may eventually be known as great drivers as well.  I’ll leave that list up to you.

Trust But Verify

Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that there are far fewer reporters than there are editors.  The Columbia School of Journalism cranks out scores of qualified journalists every year, yet most of them seem to be trying to change the world rather than simply reporting the news.

I readily admit that I write an opinionated column, not news.  I could provide statistics all day and discuss them with you, but I don’t.  I give you a fan’s opinion here, nothing more, nothing less.  It’s my site, so I can do what I want, within reason.  This is a site that your kids can read if they want to.  No bad language is tolerated here, mostly because I consider NASCAR to be a family sport.

There are plenty of places that you, the NASCAR fan can find stats and whatever you want.  I don’t do that here.  I won’t apologize for it, because this is just what I do.  www.jayski.com can tell you pretty much all you want to know about anything regarding NASCAR.  Jay does it better than I ever could, so all you get here is my opinion.

That being said, I have noticed that there are quite a few ‘journalists’ out there who apparently consider themselves editors with editorial license.  That’s a shame, because I would rather hear the raw news, not some reporter’s spin on things.

This obviously happens not only in the NASCAR world, but also in the political world as well.  It’s a shame that people will behave as sheep and believe everything that some airhead on TV tells them.  All I can say is that I believe that if you want to be well informed, you should read widely, think about what you read, and never, ever believe the first thing you hear on TV.  It’s just not healthy, folks.

Try to understand that most reporters are not very objective, and that they will try to spin news to reflect kindly on their personally favorite subjects.  Reporters will also put a little negative spin on stories that deal with people they don’t like, or have been taught not to like.  Way to go, Columbia U.!

In other words, you get lied to every time you watch TV.  I’m sorry, but it’s a fact, but any so called facts you hear on the news, especially in late breaking stories should be taken with a grain of salt.  It’s easy to do when your purpose in life is to change the world, not simply report the news.  This can also be said of most of the newspapers in the country.

Your local TV newscaster or newspaper columnist might be trustworthy to you, and if you trust them, you’re lucky, especially if they really tell you the truth.  Around the area that I live in, I can’t trust anyone who calls themselves a journalist.  Even the weatherman lies to me.  Just joking.

There is an old saying:  “Trust, but verify.”  In other words, do your own research.  Find the facts for yourself.  Don’t trust anything a talking head or so called reporter tells you unless it’s a fire or a traffic accident.  Even then, don’t trust them.

Trust, but verify.

Random Thoughts Before Charlotte

Is It My Imagination Or What?

First of all, I want to apologize for not posting more lately.  I’ve had some problems which I’m not able to discuss here, but I hope that I’ll be back on a regular basis soon.

Am I imagining things or has Joe Gibbs Racing figured out the spoiler much faster than anyone else?  Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch have won most of the races, it would seem since the re-introduction of the spoiler.  So far, the Hendrick guys haven’t been able to get the handle on the spoiler, so the fact is that the JGR guys have shakes things up a little.  That’s not a bad thing.  Let’s light this firecracker!  We’ve  now got some legitimate claims to end Jimmie Johnson’s  claim to his 5th Sprint Cup title.  Jimmie and Chad Knaus are the most incredible team in recent history, but it would be interesting to see another JGR or RCR team break the streak.

Kevin Harvick still leads in points after the 12th race of the season, and he’s only won one race this season.  That’s how the points system works, folks.  It’s not wins, it’s top 5 and top 10 finishes.  That’s how championships are won.

What the heck is going on with the 88 team?  Dale and Lance snipe at each other on the radio and Dale has a horrible finish at Dover.  Is there a new crew chief in Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s future?  Dale is obviously not the easiest guy to work for.  It’s hard to figure out why a guy who has won so much in the past is running so poorly in the last few years.  I’ll let you experts figure it out.

It’s almost time for the races at Charlotte, and I’m looking forward to it.  I’ve been to the 600 a few times and it’s incredible.  If you really want to see a really good race, go to the Coca Cola 600 at Lowes Motor Speedway.  The race starts under the sun and ends at night.  It’s the longest race of the season, and you will not be disappointed by the quality of racing.  This is old home week for the teams and the drivers, because most of them all live in the Charlotte, NC area.  Drivers and crew will all have lots of friends and family there, so they’ll be putting on the show of the year.

Don’t worry about Hendrick.  Sooner or later Jimmie or Jeff or Mark, and hopefully Junior will be winning races again.  If you’re a Junior fan, lookout, fireworks are going to happen.

It's Time For NASCAR TV

First of all, congratulations to Kevin Harvick, who ended the longest winless streak of his Cup career last week at Talladega.  Is it now fair to call Kevin a super speedway specialist, since his last two wins have come at Daytona and Talladega?  Just kidding.  Kevin Harvick is a great race car driver, and I think we all knew he was going to win this season, it was just a matter of when.

Now, to the meat of this article.

The NFL has it’s own channel, though I’ve never seen it.  It costs extra to get the NFL channel, assuming it’s even available on your cable or satellite network.  There is also a golf channel, which I used to get on basic cable (Charter).  I think it’s time for a NASCAR only, 24-7 channel.

Sure, SPEED TV does a great job with it’s NASCAR coverage.  To a certain extent, so does ESPN.  But don’t you think that NASCAR has gotten big enough to have an exclusive TV channel?

I’m certainly not faulting SPEED TV or ESPN, but they’ve both got bigger rows to hoe than just NASCAR.  ESPN does a brilliant job of trying to cover virtually all sports on the planet, and that’s certainly no easy job.  SPEED covers not only NASCAR, but also everything from motorcycle racing to monster trucks.  They do a great job of it too, but for the true NASCAR purist, I think it’s time for a NASCAR only channel.

The NASCAR channel could do live updates on news several times a day.  You know, kind of like a televised version of Jayski.  I don’t know what they do about the current contracts that FOX, ESPN, and TNT have for televising the actual races, because I think it’s important that people without cable or satellite have the opportunity to watch at least some of the races.  Right now, only FOX and ESPN, through ABC can do that.  I think it’s important to bring the sport to the masses.  Perhaps NASCAR could reserve the right to simulcast the races on their own channel as well.  Or, they could put together their own crew and broadcast the races the NASCAR way.  Either way works for me, as long as Mom and Pop can sit and see at least some of the races with that Channel Master antenna on the roof.

The NASCAR channel should be basic cable.  Enough advertising could be sold to fund the network, just through the myriad of NASCAR sponsors.  Team sponsors could jump in on the deal just to sweeten it and get extra exposure on a NASCAR exclusive network.  There is a hardcore base of fans who would probably watch that channel all day and all night too.  You know who I’m talking about.  Yes, you!

Other than the news updates, the NASCAR channel could fill time by broadcasting earlier races, from all it’s various series.  Go back to the 70’s or 80’s, and there is a wealth of good stuff there.  Televise races live from the various regional series and give these drivers a little exposure.  It’s all good.

The NASCAR channel already has a core group  of veteran race broadcasters.  Remember MRN?  MRN stands for Motor Racing Network, which is owned by International Speedway Corporation, which in turn is owned by the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing.  Recognize that name?  Of course, it’s NASCAR.  I love listening to the MRN guys on the radio, and they would be great on TV as well.

It’s time for NASCAR TV.  We, the fans, well, we really want it. 

Really bad.  I know I do.

Things I Wonder About

Things I Wonder About


Do people recognize that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the most popular driver in NASCAR because of his looks and personality rather than his record as a driver?  He’s proven himself as a driver, but he hasn’t delivered much in the way of wins in the last few years.  Dale’s a great guy, but it’s rather unreasonable to expect that he will deliver his father’s numbers in races wins or championships, because probably no one will, except maybe Jimmie Johnson.  The problem is, Jimmie’s just not a very interesting person.  That’s probably Jimmie’s secret to success, and Dale’s problem is that he talks, just like his dad did. Both Dales make great news, Jimmie Johnson just doesn’t.

Do the news people understand that most of the American public is tired of the entire Tiger Woods story? Let the dude play golf, which he is really good at, and then we’ll talk after the Masters Tournament.

Does Richard Childress understand that Kevin Harvick is probably the most talented driver in his stable?  If I were RC, I would do everything I could to keep KH under the corporate banner.  Kevin Harvick is a very talented driver, and has the perfect personality to replace the driver he replaced, who is of course, the late Dale Earnhardt.  I know Kevin has been frustrated, but Richard needs to step up and give Kevin what he needs to get the job done.  Kevin has been doing that for himself in the Truck series and in Nationwide, but for some reason, Richard isn’t giving Kevin quite what he needs in the Cup series.  Kevin is a great driver, and he deserves the best of the best.

NASCAR has gone through great lengths to make the sport more fair, more accessible, more competitive.  Do you think NASCAR will issue me a hard card out of the goodness of their hearts?  I kind of doubt that.  It would be really cool if they did, though.  I love NASCAR and I cannot lie!

Has anyone noticed that Reba McEntire has almost the same eyes that Dale Earnhardt did?  I have.  For years, Reba has reminded me of Dale.  It’s just something about the eyes.  Next time you see pics of them, look at them and tell me I’m wrong.  Maybe it’s not the eyes, it’s the expression with the eyes.  Reba reminds me of Dale Earnhardt every time I see her.  Not many people can look like Dale did when he was focused.  Reba can.  I don’t know that anyone can ignore that stare. Reba has that stare.  Long live Reba.

Ever noticed that the Weather Channel people can be wrong more than half of the time?  I’d like to have a job like that.  Oh wait!  I already do!


Happy week, everyone!

That's Bristol, Baby!

I think it is clearly evident that we now have a great driver that defines the NASCAR era since the year 2000.  That driver is, ladies and gentlemen, none other than Jimmie Johnson.

Fifty wins.  That’s a lot in the decade of parity in stock car racing.  Why is Jimmie Johnson not NASCAR’s most popular driver?  I’ll leave the answer to that question to you, the ultimate experts.  What?  No, I’m not being facetious by saying that.

If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re a NASCAR fan.  You may have been a fan for 6 weeks, or for 40 years.  You may not know much about the sport, but if you watch the races every week, you already know more than a lot of people who should know better.  Fans drive this sport, and always have, and if you’re a fan, you’re the dude or lady in the driver’s seat.  You, the fan, have the ability to call the shots simply by making your voice heard, and NASCAR is listening.

Getting back to Jimmie Johnson, because I digress, which I often do, I’d like to say that JJ is a great driver, and he and the science project named Chad Knaus, who is Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief, are truly achieving magic numbers in the sport of NASCAR.  Jimmie has won 50 races in only a few over 200 starts.  OK, maybe more than a few, but you get my point.

Personally, to me, Jimmie Johnson is just a blank page, in terms of personality.  He is the perfect driver, because he always quotes the company line, always praises his sponsors, and never says much of anything to start arguments.  Yes, and I’ll say it here, Jimmie Johnson is the greatest boring driver ever.  He really is.

In this sport, boring is not a bad thing, because Jimmie Johnson is married, has a child on the way, but he’s apparently never cheated on his wife, had a child out of wedlock, never did drugs, or beat up a hooker.  Actually, I’d say he’s probably a pretty good guy, though I don’t know him personally.  But, in a world where celebrity is everything, Jimmie Johnson is pretty boring.  That’s where we are as a culture, I suppose.

Give us some meat to chew on, and we’re happy as fans.  Do something to prove that you’re human.  I laugh at the detractors of Jimmie Johnson because what they hate can be explained simply.  He’s just a nice guy.  Don’t you just hate that?

A tip to the wise:  Buy some Jimmie Johnson merchandise.  It’s the cheapest it will ever be, and if you don’t, one day you’ll be sorry.

News of the day:  Tiger Woods gives an exclusive interview to ESPN.  Enough already.  Tiger Woods didn’t sleep with my wife.  He doesn’t owe me an apology.  Get over it, people!  Tiger said he screwed up, and he admits to it!  What else does the world of golf want?

Why does Jimmy C know that his wife didn’t sleep with Tiger Woods?  It’s simple.  Jimmy C doesn’t have a wife, and if he did, he doesn’t know where she is.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Off Week Reflections

Though this space is not devoted to Dale Earnhardt Jr, I have never been shy about being fan of Dale’s, and I can definitely say that I  am a proud member of the Junior Nation.  OK, maybe not the various websites or message boards out there, but I am a proud Dale Jr. fan.

That being said, what the heck is going on with the 88 team this year?  After a little show of brilliance at Daytona, Dale Jr. appears to be mired back in the back once again in 2010.  Business as usual, you could say.

As a fan, it’s terribly disappointing.  The Junior detractors gleefully say that the 88 team’s 2010 performance just backs up what they’ve been saying all along, which is that Dale Jr. is overrated, and basically has way less talent than the blind Junior followers think he has.

I still say, and will continue to say that any driver with 18 Cup wins and two Nationwide (Busch) series championships under his belt has to have more going for him than having a famous daddy.  Folks, you simply don’t get those numbers without talent as a driver, and there’s no way you’re going to convince me that I’m wrong about that.  I would say the same thing about Jimmy Spencer, if he had the numbers to back him up.  But Jimmy Spencer doesn’t. 

I like Kyle Petty too, but he does not have numbers as favorable as does Dale Jr.  The fact is, Dale Jr. has just had some really horrible luck, and there are obviously still some major problems on the 88 team as a whole.

It’s beginning to appear that the move to Hendrick Motorsports just isn’t working out for Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Perhaps I will be proven wrong in the next few weeks, and no one could be happier about proven wrong than I would be.

Speaking of drivers needing to turn their fortunes around, how about Kevin Harvick?  Kevin his charging hard, getting good finishes, and currently leads in points.  The only thing left in Kevin’s turnaround is a win, and that can’t be too much longer in coming.

This weekend the NASCAR traveling show moves on to one of my favorite tracks, Bristol.  With little to watch over the weekend but basketball and the F1 face in Bahrain, or where ever the heck it was, I’m ready to seem some good, hard short track racing.

Taking The Good With The Bad

There has been a tremendous amount of controversy concerning the incident at Atlanta between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski.  The details have been reported many times in many other places, so I won’t bother going over the details.  Suffice it to say, Carl Edwards punted Brad Keselowski, and Brad wrecked in spectacular fashion, with the car flipping upside down, and Brad was obviously peeved at his colleague for his efforts.

The wreck was eerily similar to Carl Edwards’ wreck at Talladega last year, which, of course, occurred at the hands of Brad Keselowski.  I’m not talking about who was at fault there, because we all have opinions, but it appeared that Brad had the line at Talladega, and Carl was trying to block on the last lap of the race.  Remember, however, that last year we saw this spectacular crash on the last lap of the race, with both Edwards and Keselowski going for the win.

At Atlanta last Sunday, the crash occurred near the end of the race, but not on the last lap.  Carl Edwards was 150-something laps down, with no hopes for a win, but he definitely was trying to take Brad out.  In that, Carl Edwards was hugely successful.

Carl Edwards was parked for his part in the wreck, but he basically had nothing to lose.  Brad was driving a lead lap car, so Carl’s actions cost Brad quite a bit.  Had this incident happened last year, Carl would likely have been parked a race, fined, what to most of us would have been a huge amount of money, and placed on probation until the Chase portion of the season, if not for the entire year.

This year, of course, is different.  NASCAR has said they were going to relax the rules, and we, as fans, for the most part cheered.  We were all happy to see NASCAR letting the drivers race, and that’s pretty much what we’ve seen so far this year.  Carl Edwards’ actions at Atlanta were a little over the top, and he got penalized, a little bit.  Three weeks of probation?  In a way, I don’t see much wrong with that.

In other ways, however, I see a lot wrong with this situation.  Carl Edwards, many, many laps down, used his car as a weapon to take out a lead lap car.  I doubt that even Carl envisioned Brad’s car flying through the air, possibly ending up in the catch fence as did Carl’s car did last year at Talladega.

Remember the fall race at Talladega last year?  We were introduced to a young woman who happened to be sitting in the front row at ‘Dega in the spring race, and caught a piece of metal in the face when Carl Edwards’ car shredded itself in the catch fence.  Drivers getting hurt is one thing, but fans getting hurt is NASCAR’s worst nightmare.

We wanted to see a kinder, gentler NASCAR as the rule makers in the sport.  We apparently have been given exactly what we wished for.  Now, we all have to live with the bad as well as the good.  We’re seeing better racing, but at what cost?

Hopefully, NASCAR’s new attitude won’t cost a fan’s life.  I applaud what NASCAR is doing, but risking hurting fans by relaxing the rules is in no way going to help this sport.  I know, any one of those 43 cars could have flipped upside down during the Atlanta race, because NASCAR still has those stupid, dangerous wings on the cars, but hopefully that will all change at Martinsville.

Cautious Optimism

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his first pole position since 2008 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the Junior Nation is jacked up.  They ought to be, because maybe this means the 88 team is finally getting the wheels back on the track.

Poles do not make race wins, however.  Dale Jr. has won at Atlanta before, so he knows how to do it.  For all of those who think Dale Jr. is a shoe in to win the race today, I would advise against it.  Not that cautious optimism is wrong, but don’t be horribly disappointed if Dale Jr. gets a top 5 or top 10 finish today.  Either of those would be fine.

Dale Jr. needs a good finish today, because even though he finished well in 2 out of the 3 first races of the season, he needs to finish consistently in the top 10 if he’s going to be a contender this year.  Whatever handling problems seem to plague the 88 team need to go away, and they need to go away fast.  Hopefully, the return of the spoiler will alleviate at least some of the handling problems.

Personally, even though he’s starting from near the back of the field, Kevin Harvick is one of my favorites for a win at Atlanta.  Harvick has been there basically in all three of the first few races, and he’s due, and you can tell he wants it pretty bad.  Of course, I wouldn’t count out either Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, or Mark Martin, because they’ve all looked pretty good in practice this weekend.

Even though Greg Biffle is going to a backup car, he showed that he has maybe the winning line down, and that’s up high on the race track.  Greg could win this race as well if they can get the backup car working right.

This might be the week that Martin Truex Jr. breaks out of the doldrums as well, because in Happy Hour on Saturday, Martin seemed to have something going on with the car.  Personally, I’d like to see Truex get his first win for Michael Waltrip Racing.

Today’s going to be exciting, folks.  Atlanta always is.  I pray we have a good race and everyone walks away safely today.

Answering Reader's Questions

As part of the routine of writing on this site, I often am asked questions by readers.  Sometimes they come as comments posted here, but more often than not, they come in the form of an e-mail, which, of course is OK by me.  My e-mail address is jimcinsc@gmail.com.

I’m not an expert on anything, and I can only tell you that anything you read here is purely my opinion.  With that in mind, I decided that maybe I should put some of the questions and answers here, where all can read.  I only use the reader’s name and location if they consent.  So far, all the folks I’ve corresponded with have not had a problem with that.

So here goes.  If you like this type of stuff, let me know, and I’ll be happy to do more of it.

Jayson from Milford, Delaware asks “I saw on TV that Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya were friends.  What was that stuff at Vegas all about?”

I can only say that I don’t know exactly what kind of relationship that Jamie and Juan have, but I think it was a racing deal.  Jamie would never have taken out his teammate on purpose.  Jamie McMurray not only took out Juan as a contender in the Las Vegas race, but he also took himself out.  I think it was a total accident, and Jamie apologized for it.  It was a big blow to the Earnhardt-Ganassi team, but they will recover and both will probably be strong contenders at Hampton, GA this weekend.

Sarah from Lansing, Michigan asks “What is going on with the 24 team?  I thought Steve Letarte was supposed to be a genius, but that last call for 2 tires instead of 4 hurt Jeff (Gordon’s) chances of winning.  I’m so sick and tired of seeing Jeff lose races because the team can’t get it together.”

Sarah, all I can say is that Steve blew that call.  They had 35 or so laps to go, and they needed most of a full tank of gas, so they had time to put on 4 tires.  I know that Steve Letarte is beating himself up over that call, but he was trying to keep Jeff out front, and he did, but we all know what happened after Johnson, Knaus, and company put 4 fresh Goodyears on the 48.  When I saw that the 24 only took 2 tires, I knew that the race was pretty much over.

Steve Letarte is a good crew chief, and the fact that he’s been with Jeff Gordon for so long says a lot.  Chad Knaus, on the other hand, has an almost paranormal ability to make the right calls in the pits.  Is Chad a better crew chief than Steve?  Statistics sort of prove that, at least over the last few years.  Jeff will win more races.  He should have won on Sunday, but he didn’t.  Jeff Gordon will win some races this year.

Jonathon from Gallup, New Mexico asks “Do you think the COT (Car Of Tomorrow) is good for NASCAR?  If so, why?”

Jonathon, my personal jury is still out debating that particular question.  The COT is a safer car, for sure, and I’m always for safety.  As dramatic as crashes are, I never want to see a driver get hurt, or God forbid, killed.  I think all true fans of the sport feel the same way.  I do think that the COT has made for some lousy racing lately, however.  The wing was a horrible idea, and the sooner we get back to the rear spoiler, the better.  Personally, I’m not a huge fan of NASCAR’s penchant for evening up the playing field to the extent that they have.  I’d like to see innovative crew chiefs figure out ways to beat the competition on the track, just like they used to do back in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s.  To me, the COT was NASCAR moving one step closer to the old IROC series, where each competitor was given a car that prepared just exactly like all the others.  IROC is dead.  There’s a reason for it.

Bring back the spoilers, relax the rules a little, and NASCAR will be just fine.

LJ from Medford, Oregon writes:  “You stupid redneck Dale JUUUUUNIIIOORR  lovers are idiots.  That boy can’t drive a racing car.  The sooner you stupid (expletive deleted) figure that out, the sooner you will find a driver who ACTUALLY can drive a tractor, much less a racing car.  All this love for the Jr nation is totally stupid, dude”

LJ, you know what?  I’d like to find out how many tractor races you’ve won.  If you’ve won 2 championships in the 2nd level tractor racing series, and 18 tractor races in the premier tractor racing series, you and me can talk.  You don’t win the races that Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won without the ability to drive.  He’s won the Daytona 500, dude.  He’s won at Bristol, Richmond, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Chicago.  LJ, that dude knows how to drive a tractor!  Go fix your mommy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and have a good day, dude.

Finally, Rich from my home state of South Carolina asks:  “Why do you write?”

It’s really simple, Rich.  I don’t know how to do much of anything else.

Let me know what you think, or ask me your own questions either by commenting here, or you can leave me an e-mail at jimcinsc@gmail.com.

Dale Jr. What's The Deal, Dude?

After finishing 2nd in the 2010 Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 32nd at California, many laps down from the leader.

I have purposely not read the message boards.  I’ve not even read most of my e-mail, because I really don’t  want to prejudice my opinion because of what other Dale Jr. fans say.

What I saw on Sunday was a driver with an ill handling car, who broke his left axle on a pit stop, and the pit crew wasn’t ready to deal with it.  During qualifying on Friday, I saw a guy with a fast car but no brakes, and that basically screwed his attempt to get a good starting position.  What the heck is going on with the guy that’s supposed to be getting major attention by the engineers, and the owner of the car, Rick Hendrick?

Crew chief Lance McGrew was very vocal about it, even over the radio on Sunday.  Not being ready to go with a replacement axle was a huge mistake.  Broken axles are not very common during a race, but it is a part that can be replaced on pit road, and apparently, the 88 crew wasn’t ready to deal with that particular circumstance.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. made the switch to Hendrick to run with the best equipment, the best possible personnel, and win races and championships.  What’s wrong here?  Seriously, I want you to tell me.  Has the driver just forgotten how to drive?  Is there a mismatch in crew chiefs?  Do they need to fire them all and start all over again?

Let me know what you think.  Your guess is at least as good as mine.  For a driver like Dale Earnhardt Jr., this is not going to work.  This situation has to improve drastically.

California, Version 2010

I think I forgot to mention it last week, but congratulations to Jamie McMurray for winning the Daytona 500 in only his first points race for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.  I watched Jamie during speed weeks, and was surprised by how strong he seemed to be right out of the box in that number 1 Chevy.  He got a great win, and he deserves it.

Back to the present.  Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson for his win at California’s Auto Club Speedway, and though I’m not shocked that Jimmie Johnson won at California, he probably is.  The timing of that last yellow flag was perfect for Johnson.  Had it not been for that fortuitous series of events, it’s doubtful that he could ever have taken away the lead from the Richard Childress Racing duo of Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton.  Though Harvick charged hard in the last laps, a brush with the wall ended all hopes of frustrating Jimmie Johnson’s 48 team’s resurgence to dominance.

For one of the first times in several years, I was impressed with the quality of the racing at Fontana on Sunday.  I don’t know whether it was the tire that Goodyear brought to the track, or if it’s because the teams are starting to get a handle on the new car, but the race at California was worthwhile for a change.

NASCAR and track officials seemed to get a handle on the weepers that perpetually plague this track in the February race, and a wet track never really was a factor for a change.  I still don’t know that California really should have two race dates every year, but I have to say that I enjoyed the race I saw on Sunday.

Jimmie Johnson’s win was meaningful, because Sunday marked Jimmie’s 48th win in the Cup series.  Jimmie Johnson has won 48 Cup races, all of them in the 48 car.  That’s a milestone, because JJ’s first win came back in only 2002.  If I’m not mistaken, that first win also occurred in California.  For those of you who follow statistics, you have to think about a few things.  It’s possible that Jeff Gordon, who has won a ton of races and 4 championships, might have passed his peak as a driver.  Jimmie Johnson is younger, and he’s already won 4 championships as well.  Has Jimmie peaked yet as a driver?  I really don’t think so.  Jimmie might have a few more championships left in him.  Jimmie Johnson is the only current driver that could seriously compete to equal or even surpass Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt in Cup championships.  That’s food for thought.

I give at least 50 per cent of the credit to crew chief Chad Knaus for the 48 teams success.  Sure, Jimmie is a very talented driver, but Chad is an uncommonly exceptional crew chief.  The relationship between Johnson and Knaus is one of the best I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been watching for a long time.  I don’t know that Richard Petty and Dale Inman even had as good of a driver - crew chief relationship as Jimmie and Chad have.

Many would say that Jimmie’s victory at California on Sunday was a fluke, just a great piece of luck, and they would be correct in saying that.  Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson have that going for them though.  Part of it is instinct, part of it is pure luck, but the 48 team has it, and however they do it, they get the job done.

I haven’t read any estimates of the total attendance at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday, and I don’t have much of a feel for it, except that I do know that FOX seemed to avoid camera shots of the grandstands during the race, which tells me all I need to know: 

Many Californians missed a pretty decent race on Sunday.  It’s a shame, but there are valid reasons why, and I’m going to lay it all out for you in a future article here.  I have my theories about why major metropolitan areas seem to not generate great numbers for NASCAR events.  I’ll share them with you at a later date, God willing.

This week, it’s on to Las Vegas.  From Daytona to Southern California to Nevada is a brutal tour for the NASCAR teams’ logistics departments.  So many miles to travel in so little time.  My FDNY hat’s off to all the car hauler drivers, the team hauler drivers, the owners and drivers’ motor coach hauler drivers.  These guys are running a marathon every February, and they do it all very, very well!

I’ve got a lot more thoughts about Sunday, and I will share them soon.

Things I Hope I Live To See

I hope I live to see Mark Martin win a Sprint Cup Championship.  Hopefully, that will happen in the next ten or twenty years.

I hope I live to see Michael Waltrip drive on North Carolina public highways without having a wreck for at least a year.

I hope I live to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. get married, settle down, and have some kids.  I really think that would help him find his place in life, and on the race track.  I would really love to live to see Dale Earnhardt III win 8 Cup championships and 201 races.  But I probably won’t live to see that happen even if it does happen.

I hope I live to see cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer, AIDS, lupus, and a myriad of other ailments.  I’d like to see a ten minute cure for a bad back as well.  I’d really, REALLY like to see that bad back thing happen, like, well…… NOW.

I’d like to see Colin Braun win multiple Cup championships.  I just like the guy.  I’d also really like to see Marcos Ambrose win a Cup race, because I just can’t wait to hear him in victory lane.  That Aussie accent just fascinates me, and I’d love to hear him really excited for once.

I hope I live to see some driver, any driver, even approach Dale Earnhardt’s passion and charisma in the sport of stock car racing.  There’s some potential out there, but I haven’t seen that spark yet.  I hope I live to see a driver as hungry as Dale was back when he broke into the sport.  I’ll know him when I see him.

I hope I live to see Jimmie Johnson get all the acclaim he deserves, which is being the first driver ever to win four consecutive Cup championships.  Jimmie wins four in a row, but what is the NASCAR world talking about?  Danica Patrick, who won an IRL race in Japan, and has never won anything in a stock car?  If I were Jimmie, I’d be perturbed.  A female friend told me not long ago that Jimmie Johnson is better looking than Danica’s husband.  I have to defer to a female’s opinion on that.  What I really like about Danica is her personality.  She’s a small woman, but she’s willing to take the gloves off and mix it up when she’s mad.  I’ve never seen Jimmie do that.  Who would be willing to give Jimmie Johnson some free boxing lessons?

I hope I live to see a world in which the sanctioning body of NASCAR lets the drivers drive, the crew chiefs make the cars faster, and fix things to where the best car wins, and only the fastest 43 cars get into the race..  Probably, that will never happen, at least in my lifetime.

I hope I see live to see that gopher on FOX TV disappear forever, and I really hope I don’t see him in the afterlife.  If he’s there, I’ll…… Huh.  Never thought about it before, but can you commit suicide after you’re dead?  If Digger is there, I’ll find out.  I’ll let you know by haunting the crap out of you about it.

Speaking of  haunts, I really hope the Ghost Hunters guys will find Casper the Ghost and take some photos of him.  A white sheet saying “Boo!” would be so cool!  Especially if the word “Boo!” was in a comic balloon over the sheet’s head.  Now, THAT would be some good TV!

I hope I live to see Paul Sr., Paul Jr. and Mikey repair their familial relationship and restart the American Chopper series, with a return to making motorcycles, not idiotic family soap operas.

I hope I live to see the day when NASCAR is America’s number one sport, because it is, after all, the only sport where people die playing the game, at least on a regular basis.  People say football is like a battle, but NASCAR is all war, every week, from February until November.  These guys may be friends off the track, but on the track, they have no real friends.  On the last lap, everyone is an enemy.

I hope I live to meet each and everyone of you who reads this column, because you’re all very important to me.  That probably won’t happen either, but even if I never met you, it was real.

Hopefully it will be real again soon.

If you’ve got anything you’d like to see, I will welcome your comments here.  Just click below in the space provided, and you can add to the list or tell me I’m full of it on one  or more of the suggestions I made.  Any and all comments are always welcome here.

Sports Figures and Apologies

All the big news of the day, it would seem, revolves around Tiger Woods’ first public appearance since the very strange events that took place on Thanksgiving evening last year.  His statement was carried on most of the major networks, including, of course, ESPN, ESPN2, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, and FOX News.

Tiger Woods is one of the most popular sports figures in the country, if not the world.  Woods is to golf what Michael Jordan is to basketball, or possibly Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt are to NASCAR.  For fans of golf, and even for those who aren’t, Tiger Woods’ name is known in pretty much any household which also contains a television.

I’m not going to analyze Tiger’s apology to his friends here.  He apologized to his friends and his family, and he also mentioned regret that he had let down his fans.  I thought he seemed pretty sincere about that, and I am more than willing to let it go at that.

The fact is, Tiger Woods doesn’t owe me an apology for anything.  Chances are, he doesn’t owe you an apology either.  My life has not changed in any way because Tiger carried on with women to which he was not married.  That’s not my concern.  I miss seeing Tiger Woods playing golf, because he is obviously one of the best players in the world,  but what he does off the golf course doesn’t really matter to me.

To people with kids who might be or have been fans of Tiger Woods, I can understand your concerns, and perhaps Tiger’s apology will help your child understand that it’s OK to admire great athletes, but sometimes even the rich and famous have problems away from the cameras.  Athletes may be the very best in their sport, but they might be a lousy father, or mother, or husband or wife.  Celebrity in and of itself only means that someone has been noticed, and the closer we look at people who’ve grabbed our attention, the more likely that some unsavory character flaws will emerge.

Jeff Gordon went though a somewhat similar event a few years ago.  Jeff and Brooke Gordon seemed to be the perfect couple.  They had plenty of fame, plenty of money, and somewhere, something went wrong.  NASCAR fans, whether they were Gordon fans or not, were somewhat shocked when all the allegations were flying.  The details of what broke up the marriage are not known by but a few people, but obviously Jeff Gordon showed that he was indeed human, and even Jeff Gordon can make mistakes.  Gordon now is remarried and has a child and another on the way, and the breakup with Brooke seems like it took place a million years ago to most fans.

Gordon’s situation got much less universal attention than Tiger Woods’ current mess, but in the NASCAR world, the Jeff and Brooke show was huge news at the time.  Most of us who have been fans for more than a few years remember it, but I doubt that few people who were Jeff Gordon fans before the breakup with Brooke jumped ship.  Whether that will be the same with Tiger Woods, only time will tell.

Tiger Woods should apologize to his family and his friends, and maybe even his sponsors, because they are the people he really let down.  As a casual fan of golf, my only thought was that golf will be less interesting if Tiger isn’t around for the tournaments.  The fact that he had so many affairs was surprising to me, but at the same time, I doubt it will change my opinion of his talents as a golfer.

Parents, if you’re offended by what Tiger Woods did, that’s fine.  If you’re worried that your kids will be adversely effected by Woods’ actions, then explain to them that Tiger is human, and he did wrong.  Don’t count on your kids finding role models for life on television.  Why not try to be the life role model for your kids?  So, you can’t play sports.  So what?  You do the right thing, your kids will notice, and hopefully they will decide to be like you and do the right thing when they are adults.

If your kid wants to be a great athlete, by all means show him the best and let him or her watch and learn.  If your kid wants to be a great golfer, show them tapes of Tiger Woods.  If your kid wants to be a great basketball player, she them tapes of Michael Jordan when he played for the Bulls, or UNC.  If your kid wants to be a great stock car driver, show them tapes of Petty, and Earnhardt, of Pearson, of Allison, of Yarborough, of yes, even Johnson, Gordon, Stewart, or whomever you consider to be a great driver.

Please remember that however great your favorite athlete is when he’s playing his game, he might not be so great away from the field or the track.  If your favorite athlete screws up in his personal life, remember, that ought to be personal.  Just because a guy has a zillion dollars, it doesn’t mean that he’s better than you or me, at least on a personal level.

We are all, each and every one of us, human.  Or at least you are.  I will reserve the right to reveal my true identity later!

The State Of NASCAR: February, 2010

We’re now only one race into the 2010 NASCAR season, but I’ve already seen some encouraging signs that the sanctioning body is on the right track as far as making the racing better and giving the fans a better experience, both the fans at the track and those watching at home on TV.

Before the Daytona 500, NASCAR announced that it was relaxing its rules on bump drafting on the restrictor plate tracks.  True, that’s only 4 races a year, but I believe it shows that NASCAR is finally willing to bend, at least a little, when it comes to changing policies to make the racing more interesting.

NASCAR has also announced the return to the spoiler, forsaking the ugly wing that seems to cause more problems than it solves.  Hopefully, teams that have been frustrated in their attempts to set up the handling on the current incarnation of the race car will find some more familiar ground with the spoiler.  Better handling cars should make more teams competitive in the future.

They Daytona 500 was a good race, when you take the pothole problem out of the equation.  The race itself was up for grabs until the last turn on the last lap, and that’s the way it out to be.  Daytona was just plain good racing.

In my maybe not so humble opinion, the sport has suffered as of late by too many restrictions, too many attempts to even the playing field, and by basically abandoning what makes this sport fun in the first place, which is, of course, good, hard racing.  If the racing is good, finding fans will never be a problem.

In such uncertain financial times, it’s not surprising that many fans simply cannot afford to travel to the race tracks as often as they did in years past.  Hopefully, the economy will recover, and fans will find their way back to the tracks, spend some of their disposable income on souvenirs, and the sport will recover the audience that it seems to have lost in the past couple of years.

NASCAR has the potential to return to its previous greatness, and even surpass what it has been in the past.  The potential is there, but the product has to be good enough to make the fans want to buy tickets and tune in every weekend for the races.  It appears that NASCAR is headed in the right direction, and one hopes they will continue to do so.

Daytona 500 Time. It's Finally Here!

In just a few hours, The 2010 Daytona 500 will kick off, and if you're like me, it's the most exciting time of the year.

The NASCAR season is just kicking off, and I can't wait to hear the command to start engines.  It's Daytona, the biggest race of the year, and there is just nothing quite like Daytona in February.

Who's going to win?  I don't have a clue, but I'd put my money on guys like Tony Stewart, or Greg Biffle, or Kevin Harvick.  Maybe even Jimmie Johnson, because JJ and Chad can seem to do no wrong. 

Personally, I'm pulling for Dale Jr., because another win at the Daytona 500 would take the no-win monkey off his back so fast, it would make your head spin.  Dale Jr. is due, and he's already won this race once.  Dale Jr. has the equipment and hopefully the right people behind him, so who knows.  It would be a great shot in the arm for not only Dale Jr. and the 88 team, but for NASCAR as well.

This is a day of celebration, NASCAR fans.  Let's scream at the TV, enjoy a few of our favorite beverages, at least in moderation, and let's get excited!  The 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season is upon us, and let's get fired up!  I am, and I invite you, no matter who your favorite driver is, to get fired up too.  Cheer your driver on to victory lane, and let's get this puppy started up!

Early congratulations to whomever wins the Daytona 500 later today.  The field is so tight, that just about anyone can win, if they're in the right place, at exactly the right time.  That's the way it ought to be every week in this sport, and often is.  Today is all about why we love racing and why we devote so much time and attention to it. 

Today, the Daytona 500 will hopefully show us something:  Racing at its very best.

Some People Ought To Know Better

I was listening to my local sports talk radio station yesterday, and late afternoons the station runs a popular talk show out of Charlotte, North Carolina.  Since the show does originate in Charlotte, the host does pay some lip service to NASCAR, but 99 per cent of the time, the show is devoted to stick and ball sports.
The other day, however, the host went on a rant about Danica Patrick’s 6th place finish in Saturday’s ARCA race, and basically said that ARCA is a nothing series, more or less a sandlot league.  The impression that he was trying to make was that even racing in the ARCA series proves nothing, because ANYBODY can race in ARCA. 

My friends, that’s just not true.  I understand the host’s frustration over the whole Danica phenomenon, because quite frankly, it’s being a little overdone in the media.  But to act like ARCA is just some little dinky racing series is just idiotic, and quite frankly, this host ought to know better.  Danica Patrick is not the first woman to race in NASCAR, not by a long shot.  She’s obviously not the first open wheel driver to cross the bridge to race stock cars.

ARCA is not the most elite series in stock car racing.  The most elite series is obviously the Sprint Cup.  But nobody just soups up the old Chevy in the backyard and goes ARCA racing.  Virtually all of the drivers in ARCA have raced their way up the ladder, beginning at their local bull rings, graduating on to regional series, and beyond.  These folks are in ARCA because they’re all winning race car drivers at other levels.  Danica Patrick did not become a Indy Racing League driver because she had a pretty face.  She grew up racing, and was good enough to eventually reach the big leagues in open wheel racing.

The arrogance that seems to pervade the mainstream sports media where stock car racing is concerned is pathetic.  Many prominent radio personalities simply scoff at the very idea that stock car racing is even a sport.  “Anyone can drive a car around in circles,” they say.  “Even my grandmother can do that.  It’s not a sport.”

I’ve got a newsflash for those sports talk show hosts who just don’t get it.  Not only is stock car racing a sport, it’s even more than that.  Racing is the most brutal sport of all, because people actually die driving race cars.  When is the last time you heard about a professional golfer suffering a broken neck on the 13th green at Augusta National?  Turn 4 at Daytona International Speedway has claimed the lives of more great professional athletes than pretty much any other sporting venue in the country.

It’s much like the old saying:  “Don’t criticize what you don’t understand.”  I don’t understand all the nuances of the NFL, but I still like to watch it.  Heck, I even watch curling, even though I don’t really get it.

Many racing haters say that stock car racing is just some stupid, redneck, hillbilly sport.  That’s simply not true anymore.  Judging by the readers of just this site, I have way more hits from California and New York than I have from North Carolina.  Sports personalities, especially popular ones in Charlotte, North Carolina ought to know better.  They do know better, but spouting ignorance such as what I heard the other day is more than pathetic.

It’s actually embarrassing.

Budweiser Shootout Starts the 2010 Season Off With a Bang

Saturday night’s Bud Shootout was an interesting race, and for me, at least, entertaining as well.

The racing itself was good, what I would consider to be an improvement over last year’s race.  There was quite a bit of passing, especially back in the pack, and the larger restrictor plates appeared to allow greater throttle response than in past plate races.  This all adds up to more exciting racing.

Kudos have to go to NASCAR as well for retracting the rules for bump drafting.  Any driver who gets pushed too hard into a corner is gong to complain about it, but it just makes for better racing when the drivers are free to bump and bang a little.  Drivers at the Sprint Cup level are among the best in the world, and if they couldn’t handle a little physical contact, they would be doing something else for a living.

The bottom line is that the changes that NASCAR has made for racing at Daytona appear to promise a good Daytona 500 on Sunday.  A better race means fans see a better product, and that’s really the most important priority.

Congratulations to Kevin Harvick, who, after being sick much of the week, pulled out the win on Saturday in a car in which he had not driven one practice lap.  Perhaps Richard Childress Racing will turn a corner in performance in 2010 and get back to victory lane in the points racing.

One major disappointment was the performance of the 88 Chevy, driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr.  After running strong for a few laps, the 88 car faded back and Dale Jr. was complaining about a problem that plagued his team’s efforts in 2009.  In Junior’s words, the car was “wrecking loose.”  Though the Shootout is only the first race of the season, and fortunately carries no points considerations, the Junior Nation has to be somewhat dismayed by the handling problems on Saturday night.  It’s not time to panic yet, however.  Dale Jr. will be starting on the outside pole on Sunday, so he’s definitely got the horsepower to get to the front.  Hopefully crew chief Lance McGrew and the team will get a better handle on the handling problems by Sunday.

With the Budweiser Shootout out of the way, and the twin qualifying races coming up later in the week, it finally feels like the long off season is indeed over. 

I, for one, couldn’t be happier.

I'm Loving Me Some Daytona

I regularly listen to a local sports station, WCCP FM which is based in Clemson, South Carolina, and is the official radio station of the Clemson Tigers.  Feel free to Google it.  They’d love to have you listen online, if you don’t happen to be in the Upstate South Carolina area, and chances are you’re not.

A particular radio host who’s name is Walt Deptula, is on from 3:00 until 5:00 PM Eastern time.  Walt is a walking, talking sports encyclopedia.  If you ask Walt if he watched the basketball game between East Utah State and Northern Michigan, Walt will say “Of course.”  Walt watches everything, as long as it’s stick and ball sports.  You know, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, etc.  Walt’s not a big fan of NASCAR, but he does talk about it from time to time, whenever there’s big news in the sport.

Walt does talk about basketball a lot though.  Remember Dick Vitale?  You know, he’s the basketball color guy that says “Yeah, baby!” and is very entertaining to listen to, or at least some people think so.  Dicky V has a love relationship with Duke University, which usually has a great basketball program, and no matter what game Dick is calling, he inevitably brings Duke into the conversation. 

Walt Deptula regularly has a contest on his show where callers can call in and guess about how far into the basketball game Dick Vitale will mention Duke University.  Walt calls this contest “Dick Vitale’s I’m Loving me some Duke.” 

Well, I’m loving me some Daytona right now.  February, for quite a few years now, makes me get all tingly inside.  With some tickets going for as low as $55.00, I’d be there in a heart beat, because I’ve never actually watched a race at Daytona International Speedway, at least in person.  I’ve been to Atlanta, Charlotte, Darlington, Talladega, and some other tracks, which were all awesome, but Daytona is basically the Super Bowl of NASCAR.  On Valentine’s day, Daytona is the place to be for any NASCAR fan.

The off season is over.  It’s time to get back to some high octane racing fuel, the deafening sound of 43 racing engines screaming, making your eardrums bleed.  As General George S. Patton once said about war, I’ll say the same thing about NASCAR:  “God forgive me, but I do love it so.”

If there’s any way you can get to Daytona in the next couple of weeks, I would encourage you to do so.  Ticket prices are probably lower this year than they have been in decades.  Daytona International Speedway is an awesome place to see, even when you’re the only person inside the track.  Imagine being there with a hundred plus thousand of your friends and neighbors.  Imagine them all screaming, encouraging their drivers on, calling them home for the win, which may be the win of a lifetime.  It may be the event of a lifetime for you or someone in your family.

Do You Feel The Need For Speed?

I know that I do.  It’s racing season, and things are starting to get cranked up in Daytona.  For me, at least, I can’t wait.  I love speed weeks.  I can’t say that enough, because speed weeks gets my blood flowing.

It’s like a spring thaw.  Florida was hit with some of the coldest temperatures they’ve had in years, if forever.  California has seen some of the worst  rainstorms and snowstorms in decades.  In other words, doomsday is near at hand, right?

NASCAR  has the perfect solution to this bad weather, bad feeling that winter leaves behind.  The Budweiser Shootout, the Twin races, and the actual Daytona 500 are just around the corner.  We’ve got a ton of racing in NASCAR just around the corner, and it couldn’t come soon enough for me.

It’s been an unbelievably long off season, at least for me.  It seems like it’s been years since the guys were on the track.  I know it hasn’t been that long, but at the tender age of 46, I still believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.  When I get older, maybe I’ll stop believing in the tooth fairy.

To me, February is the real Christmas, at least as far as racing goes.  No, no, I still believe in Christmas on December 25th because that is the day of the birth of my savior Jesus Christ.  But February 14th will have special meaning for me this year, because Valentine’s day coincides with the Daytona 500.  I’m hopelessly romantic, and though I’ve got no sweetheart to spend Valentine’s day with, I will be wired and fired up for the Daytona 500.

For me, Daytona is the best part of the year.  Gas fumes, burning rubber, can it get any better than this?

I don’t think so.

I’ll be back lots with more thoughts as Speed Weeks gets under way. 

Whoever your favorite driver is, I wish him or her well this season.

What Makes a Great NASCAR Driver?

Probably every fan of any driver has a different template as to what it takes to be a great driver in NASCAR.  Does it take a racing pedigree?  Does it take a famous father?  Does it just take a boat load of money?

Many drivers followed in their father’s footsteps to become racers.  Many guys, such as Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and others have been around race cars since they could crawl.  Climbing into a race car one day and going for the checkered flag was as natural for them as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were for most of the rest of us when we were kids.  When I was a kid, I was fortunate enough to live in a place, where besides the hated hours I spent inside a school classroom, I had the opportunity to walk in the woods, ride my bicycle, and my friends and I would play endless hours of football, baseball, or shoot hoops out on the driveway.  Video games were still in their infancy, and quite frankly, boring to most of us.

On Saturday afternoons, we would gather in the living room and watch college teams play their various sports.  We always looked forward to ABC’s Wide World of Sports, and once in a while, we saw snippets of NASCAR races from places like Darlington, Daytona, North Wilkesboro, or Riverside.  I was born in 1963, so those of you who are old enough remember what NASCAR coverage was like back in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s.  Quite frankly, there wasn’t a lot of it, even here in South Carolina.

I read the newspapers when I was a kid, and always looked forward to reading the sports page on Monday mornings to see who had won yesterdays race.  Many times, NASCAR events were covered on the evening news as well, but to me, NASCAR was a world away, a world that seemed like a great place, but one which I had never actually experienced.

Probably, most kids in North America grew up in similar environments back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s.  I grew up in a distinctly middle class family, and my father went to work every morning, and my mom stayed at home and took care of the house, and, of course, the kids.  Many of my friends had mothers who worked full time, but that was probably the exception, rather than the rule in rural South Carolina in those days, especially for a white middle class kid like me.

As usual, I digress.  Many kids throughout the South, and indeed, all over the continent, grew up with a garage that did not contain the family car.  No, this garage housed a race car.  In some instances, this race car provided a target to throw money at with little in the way of return, at least financially.  Yet some homes had a garage with a race car sitting inside of it that generated the income which put the food on the table, and kept the lights on inside the house.

Such was the case in the humble Earnhardt home in Kannapolis, North Carolina back in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Like many Piedmont area cities back then, the local cotton mill was king.  Virtually everyone in neighborhoods in many of these southern cities worked at the local mill.  Ralph Earnhardt worked in the mill, just like all his neighbors, but went racing nights and weekends.  Ralph got so good at racing that he eventually gave up his day job to race his cars and build cars for other racers full time.

Ralph had a son named Dale, and of course the rest is history.  But Dale was a race car driver’s kid, and many of his father’s races were run in places like Columbia, South Carolina, or Myrtle Beach, and his father not only drove the race cars, he had to haul them back and forth to the race tracks.  Dale went to as many races as he could, but obviously couldn’t go to all of them.  Ralph would arrive home in the wee hours many mornings while Dale was asleep.  Dale would rise early, while his parents and his brothers and sisters were still sleeping, and go out to the shop, just to look at the race car.  If the car was banged up, or covered with mud, he knew his dad probably hadn’t had a good night.  If the car was relatively clean, he knew his father had probably won last night’s race.

Many of today’s drivers could tell you similar stories.  Dale Earnhardt sacrificed marriages to race.  Will Dale Earnhardt ever be named father of the year by most of his kids?  Probably not, but that was Dale Earnhardt’s passion:  Racing.

When Dale Earnhardt finally made it to the big time, which of course means NASCAR, in 1979, he was broke, basically homeless.  A couple of years later, after winning Rookie of the Year in 1979 and winning his first Winston Cup Championship in 1980, he was rich beyond his wildest dreams.  Dale Earnhardt went on to win six more championships, and a total of 76 races, amassing fortunes that no one could spend in a lifetime or two.

It sounds like a cliche, but drivers who succeed in this sport are driven.  It’s not always how much talent you have, it’s how you use it.  It’s never so much what you’ve been given, but how you use it, and how much fire in the belly motivates you to get there.

Anybody can drive a car fast.  Heck, even I can do it.  But it’s what motivates you to get to the point that you can clothe yourself, feed your family, and keep a roof over your head that really matters.

Right now, I’m not doing so good in that arena, but I’ve got heroes like Dale Earnhardt to study and hopefully, I can follow his example.

I’m hungry, just like Dale Earnhardt was at one time.  I want to succeed.  I don’t want to simply survive, I want to win!  I think I now know exactly how if feels to be a wannabe NASCAR driver.  Losing is not an option.  I’m here to Win!

Your thoughts and opinions are always appreciated here.  If I don’t respond, don’t worry, I do read them all.  I read them and think about them too, as an added bonus!

As always, thank you for all of your support!

NASCAR To Bring Back Spoilers to Sprint Cup?

One of the most intriguing stories that I’ve seen over the last few days is the possibility that NASCAR will remove the infamous wings from Sprint Cup cars as soon as this year.  Possibly, the spoilers could be back, but it is unknown whether this will only be for certain races or if the sanctioning body will remove the wings altogether in the future.

Personally, I find this news to be encouraging, and I believe that most of the drivers and teams would much rather deal with spoilers than wings on the rear of their race cars.  In the preseason promotion at Daytona International Speedway televised by SPEED TV yesterday, several drivers, when asked, seemed to be whole heartedly in favor of the return to spoilers.  Some of the drivers questioned included Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Many, if not most of the Cup teams have had a difficult time getting a handle on setting up the handling for the winged cars since their introduction at the beginning of the 2008 season.  Personally, I’ve felt that the wings have been a hindrance to NASCAR’s never ending quest for safety, not only for the drivers, but also the fans.

We all remember the scary rides that Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman took at Talladega last year.  In Newman’s case, his car did not hit the catch fence, but had his car flipped upside down closer to the wall, it would have been easy for his car to have landed high up on the fence.  In Carl Edward’s case, his car did disintegrate when it hit the fence, and though the fence kept most of the car out of the crowd, at least one fan was badly injured by pieces of flying sheet metal.

Cars landing in the fence are nothing new at Talladega or Daytona.  One has to wonder, however, if the wing, which provides such tremendous down force on a car moving in a forward direction, does not also provide a tremendous amount of lift when the car is going backwards?  Keeping the cars out of the grandstands has to be NASCAR’s primary concern at any track, and it seems to me that the wing is clearly counterproductive to that goal.

The word being circulated by those in the know about NASCAR’s consideration of bringing back the spoilers has been centered mostly on the competitive advantages rather than possible safety gains.  Which ever way you look at it, bringing back the spoiler will be in NASCAR’s best interests to provide a better product for its fans in 2010 and beyond.

Besides, I’ve always thought those wings look rather silly, and as petty as that opinion sounds, it’s also part of what has to be the ultimate goal for NASCAR, which is of course producing happy fans who feel they’ve gotten their moneys worth.  To me, the COT, as it was known, was ungainly compared to the pre COT car, which I consider a thing of beauty, if not a true work of art.  I own several die cast models of pre COT cars, but I’ve not really been motivated to spend money on any COT replicas, mostly because they just don’t have the eye appeal that many of their ancestors had.  Putting a spoiler back on the new car will make it look better, at least in my opinion.  Spending money on merchandise is a tradition for NASCAR loyalists, and has helped the sport explode in popularity over the last fifteen or twenty years.

A Few Random Thoughts About the 2010 NASCAR Season

After the 2009 season, what do you think of your favorite driver?  If he happened to be Jimmie Johnson, you probably couldn’t hope for a better season for 2010, except to wonder if JJ can keep the streak up for a fifth season.  If you happen to be a Jeff Gordon fan, what do you think about his chances of one upping his teammate and winning the fifth championship he’s been trying to win since 2001?

What about Mark Martin, the man who’s come so close but never been able to seal the deal?  What about Kyle Busch, the man who starts so strong, but finishes out of the running?

What about Dale Earnhardt Jr, the man who keeps falling short of the media’s expectations?  Will this be the year that Junior wins some races and seriously contends for that first Sprint Cup championship?

What do you think about the state of NASCAR in general?  Has Jimmie Johnson’s four consecutive championships turned fans off from the sport?  Has NASCAR become too predictable?  Can Brian France, Mike Helton and company find ways to put more posteriors in seats in 2010?  Can the TV networks recover from ratings losses experienced in 2009?  What do you think?  After all, your opinion is every bit, if not more valid than mine.  I’d love to hear from you!

I’m having mixed feelings about what has been probably been the hottest off season topic in NASCAR, and that, of course, is the addition of the feisty lady of IRL into NASCAR’s ranks, namely in Nationwide and ARCA for 2010.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m talking about Danica Patrick.

Personally, I like Danica Patrick.  Of course, I’m a relatively healthy male in my mid 40’s, who appreciates not only a nice looking lady, but even more a woman who has the intestinal fortitude to drive some of the toughest rides around.  I think that Danica will be good for NASCAR, and personally, I’m hoping she sticks around for the long run.  I’d love to see Danica Patrick in Cup, eventually, because whether or not she succeeds as a stock car driver, she will have an impact on the sport.  Danica will keep the media and the fans buzzing, and that’s not a bad thing.  I’m hoping that Danica will take some of the heat off the never ending media blitz that seems to constantly surround her Nationwide team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.  I believe that Dale Jr. might be able to concentrate on his own job as a driver more if someone else was getting all the interviews for a change.

In this never ending experiment called television broadcasting of NASCAR events, what big changes, if any, will we see in 2010?  We already know of one big change at ESPN, with Dr. Jerry Punch being replaced as the play by play man in the booth by Ralph Sheheen, and for me, that’s a very positive move.  Jerry Punch’s abilities to develop stories and interviews in the garage and on pit road are legendary, and I feel that Jerry Punch will be much better utilized in that role than he has been in the booth.  Ralph, Dale Jarrett, and Andy Petree will be a strong team that will hopefully be able to convey the magic that is a NASCAR race to the viewers.

More than anything else, I hope 2010 is a safe year, not only for the drivers, but also the crews, the officials, and especially the fans.  Race weekends can be and should be celebrations, and I hope all of you who are reading this will attend at least one racing event this season, or at least have an opportunity to do so.  Going to a racing event weekend does not mean that fans have to get falling down drunk though.  Unfortunately, that is one of the stereotypes that often make the highlight reel on racing weekends, and I know you all know what I’m talking about.  A fan at Infineon jumps a fence and asks Matt Kenseth for an autograph under a red flag condition on the track.  A fan is escorted out of Talladega for throwing beer cans over the fence.  You get my drift.   Have fun, folks, but don’t do anything that’s going to embarrass your grandchildren when they’re watching ESPN 50 years from now!

The 2010 season is nearly upon us, and personally, I can’t wait!  I say that every year, but I’m really needing that dose of high octane, heart pounding moment when the engines fire up, and the cars go around the track.

Reality In the Year 2010

Reality obviously means a lot of different things to different people.  For some, reality means TV shows that show people competing against each other on a far away island, or trying to convince a panel of judges that they can sing or perform some other stage act.  Reality might also mean a serious health problem, lack of money to pay the rent or mortgage, or losing a job you thought would last a lifetime.

Reality in NASCAR can be just as difficult to define as it is in anyone’s normal, everyday life.  NASCAR drivers are measured by an infinite number of yard sticks, but most agree that the number of wins or championships a driver has achieved is usually concrete evidence of a driver’s ability, and his standing in the sport.

Reality also means that many drivers who have never won a major championship or many races in the sport’s elite series have also had a huge impact on the sport.  Take Mark Martin, for instance.  Mark has yet to win a Sprint Cup championship, but is one of the few members of the so called ‘old school’ class of drivers to whom many other drivers are compared.  Mark generally behaves as a gentleman both on and off the track, and that simply cannot be said about some other drivers, young or old. 

Take Morgan Shepherd.  Can you name a race that the man has won in NASCAR?  I can’t either.  Morgan, however, has made his mark in the world, and in life by helping people less fortunate than him.  If you want to know what a true living angel is, look no farther than Morgan Shepherd.

Kyle Petty has won a few Cup races, but Kyle will long be remembered for his efforts to help children at Victory Junction Gang Camp far longer than his driving ability will be remembered.   Kyle says he was inspired by his son, Adam, who died tragically at New Hampshire in 2000, but truth be told, I think Kyle has always had it in his heart, and to me, he’s one of NASCAR’s greatest people, ever.  Kyle has truly given back, not only to the sport he loves, but to people that could have never experienced such joy and fun, were it not for his kindness and generosity.  If NASCAR gave out an award for person of the decade, I would nominate Kyle Petty.

In other sports, I just heard today that two NBA players who play for the Washington Wizards drew guns on each other in the locker room on Christmas Eve, either before, during, or after a game.  We’re talking teammates here.  Such seems to be the culture of the National Basketball Association.  Can you imagine Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon squaring off with pistols in the garage at your favorite NASCAR venue?  Merry Christmas, NBA.  I have not watched an NBA game in well over a decade, and don’t plan to for several decades in the future.  The NBA just exemplifies why I think NASCAR is the greatest sport in the world.  NASCAR is about family and loyalty.  Normal, everyday family members don’t draw guns on each other over a gambling debt, or for any other reason for that matter.  If NASCAR is like “Leave it to Beaver,” and the NBA is like “The Sopranos,”  I’ll take the happy family any day.  Am I old fashioned?  Why, yes I am, and pretty proud of it. 

There’s enough drama in life and on CNN and MSNBC without having to hear about pistol standoffs on ESPN.  Through my own super secret methods of readership demographics analysis, I’ve determined that most of you would consider me an to be an old guy anyway.  I don’t mind.  Everyone has that older uncle or friend of the family that nobody likes to talk about!  If that’s my niche in your life, then so be it!

2010 not only is a new year, but also a new decade.  NASCAR will go on, and just next month the show will get cranked up again at Daytona.  It feels so good to say ‘next month’ and not ‘next year.’  I, like most loyal NASCAR fans sometimes start to get bored near the end of the season when it looks inevitable who will win the Cup.  For four years in a row, Jimmie Johnson has been NASCAR’s champion, and he has deserved it.  But it does get old after a while, unless you’re a huge JJ fan.  Should Jimmie Johnson win the whole shebang in 2010, I’ll give him and the 48 team kudos yet again, because it will be again well deserved.

Personally, I hope we see a dark horse, a long shot, in other words suddenly shoot to the top of the charts in Sprint Cup.  It’s not that I don’t wish a record breaking (again) 5th consecutive championship, because Jimmie and crew are pretty likable guys, it’s just because I think it’s time for NASCAR nation to get excited again.  For whatever reasons, Jimmie just doesn’t create the excitement that 4 consecutive championships deserve.  NASCAR is a fan driven sport, and if the fans aren’t excited, then the sport needs something different.  It’s just that simple.  NASCAR needs some new heroes, and I doubt that Jimmie Johnson could slay a dragon or catch a bullet with his teeth and fit that description for most fans.  Jimmie Johnson is a genuinely nice guy who just doesn’t attract a ton of attention.

On another note, but one that is pertinent to the subject of reality, don’t look to your sports heroes or to so called reality TV for a dose of what the media calls ‘reality.’  Reality is everywhere.  You don’t have to travel far to get a big heaping dose of it, actually.  I haven’t written much here lately, in part because I’ve been spending a lot of time in a hospital, trying to help care for an ailing family member.  Many of you who read this know how this is, and for those of you who don’t, unfortunately you probably will one day.

A local sports talk show host has a son who has been in and out of hospitals and treatment centers for much of the last couple of years.  As I understand it, the boy is only in his teens, and never has really had a chance to have a life, because he’s been hit so hard by a disease neither he nor his father had ever heard of, until it hit this boy.  Recently on the host’s show, he remarked that he didn’t think much of reality TV shows.  His comment was along the lines of this:  “If you want reality, go spend some time in a hospital.”

I was struck by that comment, and now I indeed know it’s true.  I’ve spent a lot of hours this past week seeing what happens even in a small town hospital.  Battles between life and death are literally being waged not only daily, but hourly.  That, my friends, is reality.

By all means, please, please support your favorite NASCAR drivers and other sports heroes, whether they be football, baseball, or even, yes, the NBA.  Do your part in supporting your teams.  Support your favorite athletes or teams with all you heart, but remember to do one other thing, if not for me, then for yourself.

Support those who have helped you be who you are, whether it be family, friends, a mentor, a pastor, or whomever. 

Help them when you can, because sooner or later, everyone will need some help.

That’s reality, my friends.