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June 29, 2006
A Few Nascar Related Items
I don't have enough to say about any of these things to deem them worthy of their own entry...
*Turns out Mark McFarland's injury he received during the wreck in the Busch race in Milwaukee is indeed much more serious than it was originally thought. An MRI showed that McFarland suffered a dislocated shoulder, which caused some damage to the muscles in his shoulder. While his shoulder is back in it's socket, he can't raise his arm, which significantly limits his mobility, which is why he not only can't race this weekend at Daytona, but also the following weekend at Chicagoland. Martin Truex, Jr. will fill in for him in the #88 for both races. Right now they're saying that McFarland will be back in the car after that, but I'm not sure there's a guarantee that will happen. Some of the baseball players who have had dislocated shoulders, have needed a lot longer than two weeks to recover.
*I had been thinking that both of the cars that Red Bull Racing would be fielding in the Cup series would be sponsored by Red Bull. However, apparently only the car that Brian Vickers will be driving will be sponsored by Red Bull. The second car will be sponsored by an outside sponsor that is still undetermined, because apparently sponsors want to see who the driver is going to be before they sign on. That's a lot different from Domino's/Burger King, who stepped up to sponsor Michael Waltrip Racing's #00 car without knowing exactly who the driver would be. I wonder if the sponsor of that second car will be an existing Nascar sponsor who will move over to RBR or a sponsor new to the sport. Bill Davis Racing also needs to find a sponsor (and driver) for their second car for next season.
*Jeff Gordon announced his engagement to model and actress Ingrid Vandebosch at a croquet event he held in Sonoma for friends and family. Michael Waltrip said on Inside Nextel Cup that he and his family were at that croquet event. That probably comes as a surprise to some fans of Michael's since the prevailing opinion among some is that Jeff and Michael don't like each other. Obviously that's not the case if Jeff invited Michael and family to be there when he announced his engagement. I figured they were friendly on some level because Jeff was one of a handful of drivers who showed up at the Hootie and the Blowfish concert as past of the Operation Marathon festivities in Las Vegas last year. As busy as Jeff is, there were probably quite a few other things that he could have done with his time, but it really said something to me that he showed up to support Michael at that concert.
*Hall of Fame Racing is thinking about adding a second car. It doesn't sound like there's a solid time table but I would expect that they would try to get that second team going sooner rather than later. Single car teams have a really hard time being successful these days so I think it's essential for the future of HoF to add a second car as soon as they find sponsorship. It's also possible that they might make a driver change next season. I think Tony Raines has done a solid, if not spectacular job for HoF, but I imagine they might want to see what a driver with a more successful track record might be able to do once their program is established.
*Todd Kluever plans to race both Cup and Busch full-time next season. He will be taking Mark Martin's place in the #6, as well as continuing to race the #06 in the Busch series. I guess I would like to see Roush Racing keep Kluever in the Busch Series full-time and only make a few Cup starts in '07. I'm just not sure that he's going to be ready to race Cup full-time in '07 and the expectations for him will be very high considering who he's going to be replacing.
*Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s sister, Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, is Junior's general manager at JR Motorsports. Does any other team have a female general manager? I couldn't think of anyone. If JR Motorsports continues to develop and expand, she could one day end up being a woman of power and influence in the garage area, more so than she is already. Nascar needs more females in high-level positions, in areas other than marketing, PR or events planning.
Posted by silverdsl at June 29, 2006 09:12 PM