Random Thoughts

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August 31, 2006

What Does Living In Sin Have to Do With Getting a Ride?

I'm really sick of hearing about Ray Evernham and Erin Crocker. As unprofessional as the relationship may be, and as many negative consequences as it might bring, aside from the natural curiosity that everyone has about a hot piece of gossip, I think their personal life is none of my business. However, there was one item in a recent article on motorsports.com by D.C. Williams about their relationship that caught my eye. I'm going to quote a few paragraphs so that I don't take it out of context:

I'm willing to bet there are at least a few Bible-thumping, dance-disdaining and assuredly anti-fornicating Southern Baptists in and around Evernham's Statesville, N.C., shop who are at least slightly disturbed about questions arising over Evernham's personal life -- especially given that he and his wife, Mary, have yet to divorce (though having 'separated' after the 2005 season and filing divorce papers in August).

What would Evernham say to those church-goers, some of whom are NASCAR fans and who strongly believe in the sanctity of marriage? Is it their business? Is it Daimler-Chrysler's if at least some decide to forgo a Dodge purchase as a result of their being turned-off by the automaker's poster boy? What if a thousand potential Dodge, Chrysler and Mercedes purchasers were to undertake a boycott in this current domestic car-sale environment? Ten-thousand?

According to one NASCAR team owner, a few months ago he turned down a very talented, all-but-on-his-knees driver pleading for a job because the driver was "living in sin." Is everyone except drivers exempt from that belief?

I'd like to know exactly what "living in sin" means? Was this owner upset because a driver was living with a woman who he wasn't married to, such as is the case with Steve Park who apparently lives with his girlfriend Jessica. Or does that refer to a driver who's cheating on his wife, like Ray alledgedly is with Erin? Or is it small things about that driver's morals and values that the owner doesn't agree with that they consider "living in sin?" Of course drivers need an unblemish image for sponsors and many fans, who are often conservative in their beliefs as the article above alludes to. And an owner can choose to give or not give a ride to whoever he wants. But it strikes the wrong note with me when someone is judged on the basis of things that have nothing to do with their performance on the track. Of course if someone engages in destructive behavior like excessive drinking, using substances on the banned list or criminal behavior, I can understand why an owner might pass on that driver. I just hate that a driver might not get a ride because of their decisions behind closed doors away from the track that have no bearing on how they would drive the car.

It's very different in baseball. Of course players aren't sponsored, but unless it's a major offense like drug use, criminal behavior or something that effects what they do on the field, teams, and often the fans, aren't so concerned with what the players do away from the stadium. Recently, allegations were made against Paul Lo Duca, of the New York Mets, that he cheated on his wife with a much younger woman, and also that he might gamble on horse racing to the point where he's amassed a significant amount of debt. The story made headlines for a few days, and there was some mild interest from fans, but there really wasn't much outrage. In fact, most of the fan's ire was directed towards the media for making LoDuca's personal life an issue. No one called for the Mets to release Lo Duca, and eventually the story just faded away, which is something that the Ray/Erin saga shows no signs of doing in Nascar.

Fact is, no matter how much Nascar, the teams and sponsors, would like fans to believe that all the drivers, as well as everyone else in the garage area, is squeeky clean and do no more than drink milk and cookies while playing scrabble with their families when they're away from the track, that's not reality. There are drivers who like to party hard. There are surely drivers who are in messy relationships, probably even some who have or are cheating on their significant others. There are drivers who have more serious skeletons in their closet. Some of those things might upset or disappoint me, but I accept that the drivers have faults just like any other human being. Besides that I also don't expect them to have the same morals or hold the same opinions as I do. Diversity and differences is what makes this world a more interesting place.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:12 PM | Comments (1)

Michael Waltrip: The Hair Report

Everyone else is talking about it, so why not me too?

Yesterday Michael Waltrip taped an episode of Blow out with celebrity stylist Jonathan Antin.

This is Michael before he got his haircut. Perhaps a little apprehensive?

And this is Michael afterwards. Yikes, it's short! Smiling on the outside, crying on the inside after seeing that pile of hair?

I have to admit I liked it long a lot better because he's a little off-beat, so I think wild and crazy hair suits him. Both myself and my husband also think he looks younger with longer hair too. But it's not my hair so my opinion really doesn't count - I think he should have it any way he wants it. He's said before to people that he likes his hair long, so I'm guessing that the short style won't last all that long, but I guess we'll see.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:31 PM | Comments (1)

August 30, 2006

Photo of the Day - Clouds

Somewhere in the Sky over the Southern U.S., July, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

Someone just cooked their goose.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

The Future Continues to Look Bright for David Reutimann

Last week at Bristol, Michael Waltrip said that his first choice as the driver of the #00 next season is David Reutimann, pending the approval of the sponsors, Domino's and Burger King. That bit of news came as a surprise to some since Scott Wimmer had recently been rumored to be almost signed and Travis Kvapil has also been in the mix. Turns out it was a surprise to David as well, since Michael told him only the day before as they were on their way to a meeting with executives from Burger King to discuss David racing the car. Davis said,

"We just started talking about it. He let me know I was the choice, he wanted to try and put me in the car if the sponsors agreed to it and today was my chance to try to make that happen. I didn't know going in that was going to be the case, which I'm glad he didn't tell me. I wouldn't have slept the two weeks leading up to the deal."

It's interesting because Michael was very vocal about the possibility of signing Jeremy Mayfield for the #00, so open about it that I suspect that Michael was a lot more confident that Jeremy was going to sign with MWR than he'd probably admit to now. But with Reutimann, Michael has played his cards very close to the vest, as he often seems to do when it comes to business decisions, until it's pretty close to happening. So until recently when David emerged as the front-runner, Michael had only mentioned him in relation to the Busch car. How quickly things can change, and in a good way if you're David!

Another thing that I found pretty interesting is that it turns out the #00 has long been associated with the Reutimann family on short-tracks. Not only did his father race that number, but David did as well in Florida. Michael wasn't aware of that until he saw some photos recently. David said,

"At some function, somebody had a photo album of me and some of my cars when I was racing back in Florida, the Reutimann red, white and blue 00, and I don't think Michael was even aware that was my family number. He was like, 'Is that David in the 00?' And Michael said, 'That's got to be an omen.' "

I guess it'll sound strange to some, but I do put weight into things like that and see them as possible omens or signs. It's intriguing to me that it struck Michael in that way as well, though I don't know how serious he was with that comment and whether he was just joking. But it does seem like there's something that feels right about David continuing to race the #00, a number that's been in his family for so long.

Based on David's comments, he doesn't want to count his chickens before they hatch, so he's not assuming that this is a done deal by any means. He said,

"It's flattering just to be talked about and it's something that may or may not happen. It's just a big thrill and a good situation to be in. I'm taking it all in and trying to learn as much as I go. The media has been great and I owe them a lot."

And it's true that it might not happen - BK and Domino's might decide they want a driver who has more Cup experience. But David is right, it's definitely a great situation for him to be in. He'll be racing the #99 in the Busch Series next season for sure, and if this season's results are any indication, there's a good chance that he'll be contending for the Championship in that series. And he's being given serious consideration for a Cup ride as well. Even if David doesn't end up in Cup next season, he'll almost certainly be promoted to Cup in 2008 or 2009. So his career is very definitely going in the right direction and that has to be a good feeling.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)

In the News: Michael Waltrip (8/30)

This weekend the Cup and Busch Series head back to Fontana to race at the California Speedway. Before watching David Reutimann race the #99 Aaron's Dream Machine on Saturday, and racing the #55 NAPA car on Sunday, Michael Waltrip will be quite busy. There's an appearance on The Best Damn Sports Show, which will air tonight night at 9 p.m. on Fox Sports, but this morning Michael was scheduled to get a hair makeover from Jonathan Antin, a West Hollywood hair stylist to the stars, and star of his own show on Bravo, Blow Out. Apparently this will be filmed for a future espisode of Blow Out. There will surely be lots of media coverage besides since Michael is also going to give Antin a ride in a street-legal version of the #55 through the streets of West Hollywood. I have to admit that I love Michael's hair long, as I think the longer and wilder it is, the more it suits him, so I'm hoping he doesn't get too much of the length cut off.

I commend whoever booked Michael on this show, since it's a great way to get him some exposure to an audience that might normally not be familiar with him. However, there's been a couple of comments made in relation to this that bug me a little. First, the Mayor of West Hollywood, John Heilman said,

"We are encouraged that NASCAR is attempting to change its image. This is an opportunity to provide greater acceptance and understanding among all NASCAR fans."

What in the heck does that mean? That Nascar fans need a makeover? That Michael needs a makeover? That's ridiculous. Michael is very image consicious and looks great all the time. And I don't think that I need a makeover either. I might not be into trendy clothes or spending hundreds of dollars to get my hair styled, but I think I keep myself looking pretty good, as do most fans.

The other comment that bothered me is one that someone posted from a press release that I don't have a link to. But the release said that Michael's hair is the most talked about on the curcuit. And indeed it is. There's been a "Mikey Mic'd" segment on another haircut Michael got and fans often do debate and comment on the various ways he styles his hair. But I can't help but wish that there was something else about Michael that was most talked about instead of the way he styles his hair. Like his ability behind the wheel for example. Michael's a two-time Daytona 500 winner, which is no small feat, yet many seem to shug that off like it's no big deal. Or how about all the awesome things that Michael's doing to build Michael Waltrip Racing and Waltrip Racing World? He's very intelligent and has a great business sense, but many don't recognize that either.

Other than Lee Spencer that is. Surprisingly Spencer said of Michael in a column about the drivers who will be racing Toyotas in Cup next season,

There is not a better front man in NASCAR than Michael Waltrip. Who else could sell major sponsors on a multimillion-dollar vision that existed solely on paper? Once the 150,000-plus-square-foot Michael Waltrip Racing World project, an interactive motorsports complex, comes to fruition in 2007, those who doubted his business acumen won't again. Critics who question Waltrip's performance this season don't understand the difficulty of making the transition from one organization to another. Waltrip's own team for 2007 is in place with veteran crew chief Larry Carter leading the charge.

Some fans took issue with Spencer's comments about Dale Jarrett, because she wondered if DJ's best years as a driver are behind him, but I really liked what she said about MIchael. For one thing she makes note of all that Michael is accomplishing as an owner with a vision for success. I'm continually impressed by the way Michael is able to attract major sponsors to MWR, and also with what he's doing with Waltrip World. But I also like that Spencer recognizes that Michael's lack of strong results on the track have a lot to do with going from DEI to Bill Davis Racing, and not because of Michael himself. So many think that Michael isn't a good driver and that's why the results haven't been good this season, when in reality Michael's had slow cars and a tremendous amount of other issues that have been barriers to him getting the kind of results he's capable of.

Speaking of Michael and DJ, a very lucky fan won the Dale Jarrett Shootout Contest to win an opportunity to partner with DJ at the Dale Jarrett Shootout on September 26. Not only will DJ obviously be there but also Michael and other golf loving drivers such as Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Petty and Elliott Sadler. Oh how I wish I lived in North Carolina and could go to that event if if was open to spectators!

Posted by silverdsl at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

Kevin LePage Fined for Using His Car as a Weapon

Not long ago, fans were up in arms because Carl Edwards got angry about being spun and used his car as a weapon against Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at the conclusion of the Busch race in Michigan a couple of weeks ago. Some were going so far as to call for Nascar to park Edwards for at least one race, if not more, particularly since he had not long before retaliated against Tony Stewart under caution on pit road at Pocono. Ultimately Edwards was fined $20,000 and placed on probation, but many fans are still irate about his actions. Fast-forward to Friday night's Busch race at Bristol, which unfortunately I didn't see, when Kevin Lepage retaliated against Mike Skinner under caution, because he was upset that Skinner got into him. That earned Lepage a $10,000 fine and being placed on probation for the rest of the season.

Where's the outrage over that incident? Now, I have no idea if TV showed this incident, as they sometimes don't follow what happens with the less popular drivers, but even if that's the case, now that the penalty has been announced, I would think that there would be some mention of this incident somewhere, yet there's been nothing. No one seems to care. I suppose that's to be expected because Lepage is far from a "name" driver and Skinner really isn't either, even though he's a well-respected veteran. But to me a driver using their car as a weapon to relatiate against another driver is always wrong and especially when it happens under caution. Lepage is just as wrong as Edwards was, who was just as wrong as any of the countless other drivers who have let their emotions get the best of them and sent a message in this way.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)

Random Thoughts on Current Events

I don't often discuss current events in this space, though I do read multiple newspapers every day, listen to the news on the radio and try to watch the news on TV as often as I can as well. But today I had a few thoughts about a few things that I figured I'd throw into one entry.

*Apparently in spite of the DNA evidence showing that he didn't have anything to do with the death of JonBenet Ramsey, John Karr still believes that he killed her, according to the Boulder County District Attorney, Mary Lacy. Right from the start, Karr seemed like a wacko, nutjob to me. Who confesses to murder on TV? And when his family members, including his ex-wife, started saying that they thought he was with them on every Christmas, including the one on which the murder occured, I had a feeling this was going to turn out to be a highly-publicized deadend. And so it was, unfortunately for the Ramsey family who surely were hoping to finally have found some closure. Karr clearly has a sickness, in that he's obsessed with JonBenet and her death, as well as that of Polly Klass, and might be into child porn as well. Disgusting. But that's a far cry from being a murderer. What's incredible to me is that it even got to this point. It's not yet been revealed exactly what was in those emails that Karr sent to the Professor of Journalism Michael Tracey that made the authorities in Boulder so interested in him, it must have been pretty compelling for them to risk exactly this happening. From what I've read this isn't the first time that Tracey has implicated someone as a suspect who had nothing to do with the case, so it's going to be interesting to see if there's any backlash directed towards him.

*Last week an apparently mentally ill man in Queens, NY went on a shooting spree in which he shot at random red cars, killing one person and injuring four, because he thought members of the Bloods gang were after him. Yesterday a man in California went on a hit-and-run spree, killing one and injuring 12 because he thought the Devil was coming to get him. Scary stuff. I guess there's always been incidents in which someone who's mentally ill goes off their medication and attacks people, but it seems like there's been more in recent times than I can remember in the past.

*The FAA has acknowledged that there was only one air traffic controller on duty in the tower at the Lexington Airport when the doomed Comair plane crashed. Apparently the controller turned away to perform other duties as the plane was taking off, so they probably never saw that the plane was headed down the wrong runway, though I don't know if they could have done anything to stop the disaster even if they saw it unfolding. What's amazing is that the FAA had only the one controller on duty in violation of their own regulations which had stated in 2005 that there should be two in the tower at all times. I also read that the recordings from the plane showed that the pilot noted that the lights weren't lit on the runway but that he thought nothing of it, another lost opportunity to abort - since apparently that runway was meant only for daytime takeoffs, which is why it wasn't lit. Lastly, it was said this morning that the flight crew got confused and intially got on the wrong plane for the flight, so that would lead one to wonder if they were confused about other things as well at the airport, especially in light of the recent repaving work that had changed the approach to the runways?

*On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ernesto turned into Tropical Storm Ernesto as it headed over Florida. It's not expected to cause much damage, though it could strengthen into a hurricane again and effect North and South Carolina, depending on the track it takes. There's also Hurricane John waiting in the wings. Ugh. While the media has been covering the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I feel as if there's not a lot of talk about it, at least not in this area, maybe because it's so far away. But there's still a tremendous amount of work to be done in Louisiana, Missisippi and the other areas hit by Katrina. Many places, including New Orleans will never be the same again and a lot of the residents and remaining businesses are struggling. The prospects for New Orleans returning to the vibrant city it was before the hurricane sound pretty bleak, at least in the near future.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

Photo of the Day - Cape May

Cape May, New Jersey, August, 2006. I really need to start taking notes about which houses and B&Bs I'm taking photos of and on what street, because I find when I look back at the photos it's hard to remember which some are. What I love about this one, besides the purple color, is that there's that nice big porch, but also that enclosed area on the right. Plus the pretty flowers in front. I wish I had a house like that!

Posted by silverdsl at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2006

It Gets Better...

I went over to the forum on Truckseries.com to see if there was any talk about HT Motorsports, and there was. Two people who run the site, including Charles Krall, indicated that based on their conversations with those on the team, including Chad Chaffin, it is indeed true that the #59 team is becoming a Toyota team. On top of that apparently Jim Harris told Krall that they have a major announcement scheduled at New Hampshire, which likely revolves around sponsorship based on what the other admin of the site said.

I'd love to think that maybe Steve Park took one of the sponsors that was going to sponsor him at Bill Davis Racing to HT Motorsports and they're going to be adding a second truck, one for Chaffin and one for Steve. But I have my doubts about that. They're still a small organization and in spite of how they're trying to improve I would think that it might be hard for them to manage to successfully field two teams right now.

It's pretty crazy but it looks like Steve might have missed out on two Toyota rides this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)

HT Motorsports to Switch to Toyota?

From Jayski's this morning:

HT Motorsports to Toyota? Hearing that the #59 HT Motorsports truck with driver Chad Chaffin is switching manufacturers again – this time Toyota. That will be three for the season; started with Dodge, switched to Ford and now Toyota.(8-28-2006)

I really hate to say that Steve Park made a mistake when it came to how he handled leaving HT Motorsports, but I wish that he hadn't told them that he had a deal in the works for another ride, and that he would have to leave the team by a certain date. Doing that closed the door to staying with this team, which is unfortunate. I guess there might not have been any other choice because they might not have been too happy if they built a program around Steve, only to find out that he had been working on a deal for anther ride the whole time, but it would have been nice if when the deal with Bill Davis Racing fell apart, that maybe he could have stayed in the #59. Suddenly now that Steve is gone from the team, it looks like they're putting together a lot of the pieces that they need to in order to be a more competitive team.

My issues with the #59 were always that they had no manufacturer support, no primary sponsor, and that they seemed to have far fewer resources than other teams, which made it really hard to field competitive trucks. However, in the past couple of months they've picked up some primary sponsors and if this item on Jayski's is true, they've aligned themselves with a manufacturer with a lot of success in the truck series. In addition, since bringing Chad Chaffin on-board, they've changed crew chiefs, which suggests a willingness to make personnel changes in an effort to try to improve. Off the track, they've also completely redesigned their website, which indicates that they want to market and promote themselves, their sponsors and their driver. I suspect they're still short on resources in comparison to other teams, but if some of the moves they've made recently add up to improved results on the track, maybe they'll have a little more money coming in, and they'll be able to hire some additional personnel.

Of course there was no way of predicting that things would play out this way. Steve was sure that he had a ride with BDR, so he didn't think he needed to keep his options open with the #59. And there's no predicting how the #59 team will do in the future, even if they hook up with Toyota. But I feel like this is yet another missed opportunity for Steve. Another situation that didn't work out for Steve, but if it had he might still be racing right now and feeling very optimistic about what the future results on the track might be. He even said once that he felt that the #59 team was one that could be capable of winning races - too bad if that happens it's not likely to be with him.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:33 AM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2006

Photo of the Day - Late Summer Flowers

Cape May, New Jersey, August, 2006. I wonder how many years these same flowers have been blooming in front of one of the Stockton Houses in Cape May?

Posted by silverdsl at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)

Carl Pavano Has Two Broken Ribs He Hid From the Yankees

It's always something with Carl Pavano. Every time it seems as if he's close to returning to the New York Yankees and actually making himself useful by pitching for them on the major league level he re-injures himself. It's truely incredible how fragile he seems to be. This time while rehabbing from having bone chips removed from his elbow, Pavano was in a car accident in West Palm Beach which caused him to suffer two broken ribs. Some might wonder why they didn't hear any news reports about a car accident with a Yankee player and that's because Pavano kept the accident quiet and hid the injury until now, almost two weeks later. Apparently Pavano thought he could pitch through the injury and that it would get better on it's own, only it didn't, and he had to finally go to the Yankees medical staff. So it was discovered today that he's got the two broken ribs. Pavano is still scheduled to make a rehab start in the minors on Wednesday, as it's thought that he can indeed pitch through this, but with how delicate he seems to be, who knows if that will really happen?

Some see this as more evidence that Pavano doesn't want to pitch on the major league level. But I see it as the opposite. Pavano dearly wants to get back to pitching in the minors and he wants to prove to the naysayers, including those on his own team, that he can contribute, stay healthy and pitch well. So he opted to try to hide his injury so as to not let down his team - again. He's not the first player to try to hide an injury and play through it, and he won't be the last. It's just unfortunate when players do stuff like this because it often ends up backfiring, as it might have in Pavano's case.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)

Scott Wimmer Has No Ride for 2007

Last week Scott Wimmer was being mentioned as a lock for the #00 car at Michael Waltrip Racing, something that apparently doesn't have much truth to it, as Michael Waltrip talked about David Reutimann being a front-runner for the #00, and Wimmer said yesterday,

"I really don't have anything locked down for next year. As a driver you always worry about when everybody else has a ride locked up and you're kind of without anything."

I feel bad for Wimmer because I think he's likely a better driver than he's been able to show in either the #22 at Bill Davis Racing, or the #4 for Morgan-McClure Motorsports. But several years of subpar results on the Cup level, not to mention the whole DUI mess, have likely hurt the way he's viewed in the eyes of many in the garage area.

What's also unfortunate is that it sounds like Morgan-McClure, an organization with a very long and successful history in Nascar, until recently, is on very shaky ground. As a single-car organization that has struggled to make races this season, even with sponsorship, I can't imagine how they could keep going next season without sponsorship.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:02 PM | Comments (0)

Stephen Leicht Won't Race Cup for RYR in 2007 After All

For a few months it seemed likely that Robert Yates Racing was going to promote 19-year old Stephen Leicht to the Cup series as the replacement for Dale Jarrett in the #88, but they've since wised up and come to the conclusion that everyone else has long ago - he needs more time in the Busch Series before he's brought up to the Cup level. In addition, CitiFinancial will stay with Leicht as his sponsor in the Busch Series. So that begs the questions - who's going to drive the #88 and who's the sponsor going to be? Will RYR even field a second car in 2007? I think they need to if they're going to reverse the tailspin that they're in, but it seems like there's quite a bit of uncertainty as to what's going to happen to that car. I think a veteran like Ward Burton, Steve Park or Ricky Craven would be ideal for that ride. All three have had success on the Cup level, and could help David Gilliland as he adjusts to racing Cup full-time, as well as RYR overall to rebuild. Only problem that I could see is convincing a sponsor to go with a driver who hasn't raced on the Cup level for a while, which is the case for all three of those drivers.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)

4th Cup Team for RCR in 2007?

Jayski is reporting that Richard Childress Racing is considering expanding to a 4th Cup team with Holiday Inn as the sponsor next season. I have no idea how seriously to take this rumor seeing as how just about every organization in the garage area has been making noise about expanding for next season, but so far I don't think any of them have actually come up with anything concrete to indicate that's actually going to happen. In fact, DEI has backed off of their plans to expand to a 4th team in '07, saying that they couldn't get the driver they wanted and everything else they needed to put that team together, so instead they're going to focus on the three teams that they'll have next season and add the 4th in 2008. Which sounds remarkably similar to what they said last season when they couldn't find a driver or sponsor for the #15 after Michael Waltrip left, taking NAPA with him.

I think that even though it's in an organization's best interests to have more teams than less, it seems to be very hard to successfully put a solid team together. First of all, there's sponsorship. Primary sponsors aren't so easy to find these days, though RCR might have one lined up. Then there's drivers - seems like while there are a number of drivers with Cup experience who are available, for a variety of reasons they don't seem to have much interest to teams and sponsors, which makes me wonder who RCR is going to get to drive their 4th car? Given RCR's recent ressurgance on the track, this is probably a good time for them to expand, but for other organizations if their other teams are struggling, adding another team might spread their resources too thin. And there's a whole host of other variables to consider, many of which I'm probably not even aware of. So while everyone wants to add a team or two, it remains to be seen whether any of those organizations, RCR included, will actually follow through with their plans.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2006

Photo of the Day - Pink in Cape May

Cape May, New Jersey, August, 2006. Yeah, that's a pink house! Had a great time in Cape May this weekend. The weather wasn't the greatest - it was cloudy for most of the weekend. But there wasn't much rain and we had fun relaxing at the Bed & Breakfast that we stayed at, exploring the area, shopping and eating at some yummy restaurants.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Waltrip Finishes 16th at Bristol!!

I was away this weekend so I couldn't watch Saturday night's race at Bristol, which was won by Matt Kenseth. But thanks to a friend who emailed me the results on my cell phone, I didn't have to wait until I got home to find out the good news that Michael Waltrip finished 16th! The vast majority of people are surely more interested in what's going on with the drivers in, or trying to make, the Chase for the Championship, but the story of the night for me is how well Michael did! I'm so beyond thrilled for Michael and his team! Yeah, it's only 16th, not a win, not a top five, not a top ten, not even a top fifteen. But it was Michael's best finish of the season! That's something to be excited about! The vast majority of this season has been absolutely miserable for Michael on the track, and contrary to popular belief, I know that he does care about racing up-front and winning races, rather than just plugging his sponsors. So finishing 30th or worse week after week, no matter how hard he worked on or off the track to make things better, was probably depressing for him. So I'm really happy that lately things have started to look up.

Of course it's the addition of Tommy Baldwin, Jr. as crew chief that's changed things for the better for the #55 team. It's incredible what a difference one person can make. Most importantly, Michael now has cars he can actually race with. That's what's best of all is that I feel like it might be possible for Michael to get a top ten or even better before the season's out, and that was something I thought was highly unlikely just a few weeks ago. Not because I doubted Michael - I believe very strongly in his ability behind the wheel - but because the cars seemed putrid week after week. I'm not sure the cars are as competitive of those that are fielded by Hendrick or Gibbs, but they're certainly good enough to where Michael can actually make his way through the field and race his fellow drivers - maybe we'll even see him up front at some point this season and not have it be due to staying out when other drivers pitted. It sure is nice to see Michael be able to race and not just ride around in back, and I hope that means that he's able to have a little fun out there.

What's also awesome is Tommy's attitude. He seems to not only be very confident in Michael and the team, but he's also very optimistic. Apparently he said at the end of the race when Michael thanked him for helping him get his best finish of the season, Tommy said that it was his best finish so far, that there were 12 races yet. So that's 12 more opportunities for Michael to get an even better finish - and I think that he will! That he has someone on the pit box who so clearly believes in him is huge for Michael, and I'm so happy for him that he's getting this opportunity to work with Tommy, even though it's only for the short-term.

I guess maybe I shouldn't get too excited because I might be disappointed. The team hasn't been good this season, and it's possible - I think likely - that Tommy could get taken away from Michael and end up working with Jeremy Mayfield in a 3rd car before the season's out. But for now things are really looking up for Michael and the #55 team, which makes me very happy!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

David Reutimann to the #00?

If Michael Waltrip has anything to say about it, David Reutimann will be the next driver of the #00 Burger King/Domino's car for Michael Waltrip Racing next season. But it's not entirely up to him, nor is it up to Dale Jarrett, who also would like to see David in the #00. Instead, the final decision on who the driver of the #00 will be, will be made by BK and Domino's at a meeting on Tuesday. Apparently Michael said on Friday at Bristol, that while he's talked to other drivers such as Travis Kvapil, David is his top choice for the ride. Michael said that he and DJ feel that David would be an asset to them as teammates.

"We have the experience, we think, to race well and we can both qualify good. We've done it for our whole career. But David, with his inexperience and his youthful enthusiasm, he'll be really fast in practice and he might be able to show us where we need to be. Then, when the races start, hopefully we can get him where he needs to be."

I just hope that Michael can convince BK and Domino's of that. The problem is that while David can clearly get results on the track, based on how he's contending for the Championship in the Truck Series and how great he does every time he races the #99 in the Busch Series, he's not a name driver, and that's important to the sponsors these days. He's not a young gun, while he has loyal fans, he doesn't have a huge fanbase like some drivers do, he's not considered "hot" by female fans, there's not a lot of buzz about him, and he doesn't have a "big" personality like Michael or Brendan Gaughan have. David said,

"They don't really know me from anybody, they know I run the truck series. We'll hang out with them a little bit and hopefully they don't throw me out. Maybe they'll like what they see and maybe want to take a chance on me. And I would love a chance."

I hope he gets that chance. Fact is, if Michael thinks that David is his best choice for the #00, then BK and Domino's should listen because he's the one who's most familiar with what it will take to make that program successful. There's no doubt in my mind that David will be able to get results in the #00. I'm sure there will be an adjustment period as he learns the ropes of racing Cup full-time, where there is a ton of pressure, expectations and obligations, a lot more-so than in the Truck Series. But I've been extremely impressed with the way he's raced this season and I think that he would be an asset to MWR's Cup program in the long-run. I just hope that the sponsors will realize that too.

Travis would be a decent second choice for the #00 but I think if they're going to put Travis in the car, they may as well put David in. Travis has had more success in the truck series than David has, but Travis has done nothing on the Cup level, though it's really been through no fault of his own since he's been in such lousy rides since he's come to Cup. So I think in a lot of ways he's just as much of an unknown in terms of performance as David is, because no one really knows how well he'd race in a competitive car. Travis seems like a nice guy, but he also seems pretty laid-back personality-wise. I can't really picture him pushing pizza or burgers in commercials, and that's something that I can see David being more comfortable doing, maybe with Michael in the commercials with him. If Jeremy Mayfield was still in the mix, and thank goodness he's not, I could understand why the sponsors might want him over David, but when it comes to a choice between Travis (or a similar driver) and David, that if Michael wants David, that's who they should go with.

My only concern would be with David racing both Busch and Cup full-time next season. I think that's a lot for any driver to manage with, let alone a driver who doesn't have a tremendous amount of experience in either Cup or Busch. I guess MWR was really counting on being able to find someone else for the #00, then move David up in '08 once he had more experience in the Busch series and that's why they signed him so quickly for the #99. And it's probably too late to shift those plans too dramatically without upsetting Aaron's. But maybe there's some way to have Michael, DJ or another driver race the #99 in a few races to take some of the pressure off of David.

In any event, I hope things go smoothly with the meeting with the sponsors and no matter what driver they want Michael to put in the #00, we find out who it will be for sure soon. I'll have my fingers crossed for David that it'll end up being him.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)

Wha?

On the heels of being announced as Cup drivers for Bill Davis Racing next season, naturally Jeremy Mayfield and Dave Blaney were falling all over themselves being complimentary about BIll Davis, just like every single other driver is when they join a new organization (it's like they're all handed a script). But Blaney made a comment that I find a little puzzling. He said,

“He’s not a wealthy guy who has other businesses, like some of the other owners. He built this team from next to nothing with a lot of hard work, attracting sponsors and building it block by block.”

This is Blaney's second stint with BDR. So how is it that he missed Davis's "other" business, Bill Davis Trucking, that he's had for more than 30 years? The trucking operation might not be a huge business, in comparision to some of the businesses that some other owners have, like Roger Penske's Penske Corporation, but it most certainly is a business that surely has provided some funding for his racing operations. I understand the overall point that Blaney is trying to make that Davis might have had a harder time building BDR and that he might not have access to as much money as other owners do, but it's not like he has nothing either.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)

48 Die in Plane Crash in Kentucky

Such a sad story from Lexington, Kentucky in that the plane that crashed today, killing 48 people who were on-board, took off from a runway half as long as the runway that's normally used for commercial aircraft. So essentially for some unknown reason, the plane took off from the wrong runway. This weekend Jim and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary a little early, well, there was a couple on-board the plane who didn't even get to celebrate a week together as man and wife, as they had just been married last night and lost their lives on the plane on the way to their honeymoon. The whole thing is just awful.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2006

Photo of the Day - Cape May

Cape May, New Jersey, September, 2005. I'll be here for the next couple of days.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2006

This Might Not Bode Well...

... for either Michael Waltrip or Steve Park. What, and how can that be? Let me tell you. In today's "The Mayfield's" column on Nascar.com, Jeremy and Shana Mayfield had the following exchange:

Jeremy: We're still talking about exactly what's going to happen. Of course, we're doing the announcement and something on Trackside. I'm not sure if I'm going to be there all weekend because I'm going to go and practice the Super Late Model car on on Saturday at Hickory and race it on Sunday. So I've got a little racing I've got to do.

Shana: Jeremy might do the TV deal Friday night. We're not sure yet, but we should know by Thursday. He wants to do any and all the media that he can right now to keep him out there in the public eye. And he might have something else going on, too -- for the rest of the year, starting in California, so there's a lot going on.

Jeremy: Yeah, we've got some really good things coming together.

Shana: I have a feeling Jeremy will be back at the racetrack in a racecar before the year's out.

Jeremy: It's possibly related to what's being announced Friday, but it may be something else, also -- like a Busch or a Truck opportunity that I might do.

I might be able to do a few more races than I thought, if any of that comes together.

Bill Davis has pretty much already confirmed that he's signed Jeremy for next season to race his second Cup car, so unless something major happened to change things very recently, Jeremy is going to be announced tomorrow as Bill Davis Racing's newest driver. Which could very well impact Michael, and possibly Steve, if there was still any hope of him getting a truck ride with BDR this season, on the basis of what was said in this column.

Why? Because Jeremy and Shana seem to be implying that Jeremy will be back on the track as early as California and that it would be for the rest of the season. If it's in a Cup car, that will effect Michael tremendously since he's getting all his cars, equipment and most of his personnel to run his team from BDR. Jeremy also mentions the possiblity of an opportunity in the truck series - if BDR were to field a truck for Jeremy, even part-time, I can't imagine they'd also be able to field a truck for Steve this season, even if sponsorship were to be found. Of course I'm completely speculating here - I could be jumping to conclusions, reading into things, and be absolutely wrong. Until tomorrow, I won't know absolutely for sure that Jeremy is signing with BDR, even though it would be a huge shocker if he didn't, and it's possible that whatever organization he works with for the rest of this season won't be BDR. But right now I'm a bit concerned.

Michael has the most to lose. He's just started working with Tommy Baldwin, Jr. as his crew chief, and I would think that if Jeremy comes on board, Tommy would stop working with Michael and start working with Jeremy. Which would be very unfortunate because in just the few weeks he's been working with the #55 team, Tommy's had a huge impact on the team. The results have been better, the communciation is significantly better, and there seems to be a spark of excitement with the team that hasn't been there since earlier in the season. Michael seems happier and more confident, and how could he not be those things when Tommy seems to believe in him, works so well with him, and has given him cars that he can actually race with?

In addition, if Jeremy comes on board it comes into question whether BDR will continue to provide Michael with the cars and personnel that they have been. Which would mean that Michael Waltrip Racing might have to start building their own #55 cars and Michael might have to find himself a new crew. In some regards this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing since until recently BDR hasn't been providing Michael with cars that are very competitive - MWR might very well be able to build cars that are at least as good, if not better, than what BDR was providing him with. But there is the question of whether they're prepared now to do more, or all, of the work on the cars than they were doing previously. Although there is the possibility that MWR was prepared for something like this to happen. When the #12 truck team was shut down, the official reason that was given was a lack of sponsorship. However, when Joey Miller spoke to Claire B. Lang on XM, he said that it was because they needed more personnel to work on the Cup program. The crew that worked on the #12 team could be used for the #55 team, if need be.

But the fact of the matter is that if Jeremy is in a Cup car for BDR at any point this season, now or down the road, BDR's focus will be on him, not on Michael. Jeremy is the future of BDR, whereas Michael is gone at the end of the season. While Toyota surely wants Michael and BDR to remain on good terms so that they will work smoothly together in 2007 and beyond, that doesn't necessarily mean that BDR will have to continue to provide cars, equipment and personnel to Michael if there's any way they can get out of the rest of the contract, and even if they can't, there's no guarantee about how competitive the cars will be that they give him. I highly doubt that BDR cares whether Michael gets back into the top 35 in owner's points or not, but they will care about building Jeremy's team into the best that it can possibly be.

As for how this all effects Steve, it was said by Mike Brown, the general manager at BDR, that they wanted to put Steve in a truck, but they couldn't because of a lack of sponsorship. In the column, Jeremy mentions something about a possible opportunity in the trucks. Well, if BDR puts Jeremy in a truck, even if it's only for a few selected races, I can't imagine them being able to field an additional truck for Steve as well, even if sponsorship were found. In all likelihood, the chances of a different primary sponsor being found and the deal being saved was slim anyway, but I think Jeremy in a truck would spell the end to any hope of seeing Steve in a BDR truck, at least for this season. What would be interesting is if Jeremy ends up in a BDR truck, and that may not even happen, is who the sponsor is. Will it be an existing BDR sponsor? The sponsor who will be on Jeremy's car in 2007? Or would it be the mysterious second sponsor that was supposed to be on Steve's truck in addition to the fuel sponsor that Nascar disapproved?

Again, to be clear, this all complete speculation on my part. If BDR fields a Cup car for Jeremy, it might have no effect on what they do with Michael. Jeremy may never end up in a BDR truck, and even if he does, maybe something will turn up for Steve at BDR anyway. And maybe Jeremy won't race anything for BDR until 2007. But I'd be kind of surprised if Jeremy sat out the entire rest of the season when there's an opportunity for him to start working with his new organization and start preparing for next season.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:48 PM | Comments (1)

Mike Mussina Placed on the Disabled List

Just days ago, the New York Yankees were downplaying the extent of Mike Mussina's strained groin, today he's on the disabled list. When I saw this scroll by on ESPN, my eyes just about popped out of my head. Mussina's been pitching so well this season and after stuggling with arm aches and pains the last two seasons, it seemed like he was on his way to an injury-free year. Not so. Mussina and the Yankees are still talking as if this is no big deal, that they're just being cautious and that putting him on the DL will allow them to bring up someone to strengthen the bullpen. They're also saying that Mussina will only miss one start and that's it. But a DL stint is never a good thing and strains can sometimes be unpredictable. I hope that Mussina heals quickly and really does come off the DL when they are predicting he will!

Mussina isn't the only Yankee who's ailing. Alex Rodriguez was sent "home," (to his hotel room) when he showed up with a sore throat. I would guess that the Yankees don't want him infecting the rest of the team with whatever it is that he has. On top of that, Jason Giambi's left hamstring is sore, and he'll be the DH for the next few games. Just what the Yankees need in the midst of a West Coast road trip.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

Random Thoughts on the Bristol Truck Race

*Mark Martin won last night's truck race at Bristol Motor Speedway from the pole. What's pretty cool is that he's now won at Bristol in all three of Nascar's highest levels - Trucks, Busch and Cup. I like Mark so I'm happy to see him be successful. However, more often than not, when Mark races in the Truck Series, he completely dominates the rest of the field and it doesn't make for a very exciting race up front, because there isn't much racing for the lead. So far this season in the eight truck races that Mark's raced in, he's won four, including last night, and came in 2nd twice. I'm wondering what's going to happen when he races a truck full-time next season? As much as I like Mark, I don't want to see the same driver in Victory Lane every race. But it's not like Nascar can tell his team or Mark to stop being so good.

*I was thrilled because Michael Waltrip was in the booth for last night's race! I don't know how true it is, but I've heard that his days of being in the booth might be numbered because he might race the #12 truck in a few races that are companion races to Cup races. As much as I like seeing Michael race, and as much as would enjoy seeing him race a truck, I love when he's in the booth working the truck races. Michael is so enthusiastic about the racing and he gets just as excited about what happens on the track as any fan at home does. So as much as I'd love to see him try to win one of these truck races and join the elite group who has won on all three of Nascar's highest levels, I would miss having him in the booth.

*There were two Waltrip trucks on the track last night. I refer to them as Waltrip trucks because technically they're D.W.'s trucks, as he's listed as the owner, but the responsibility for making decisions regarding the trucks seems to have fallen to Michael Waltrip Racing. At any rate, Joey Miller made his last start in the #12 truck and was able to finish 19th, which is okay, especially considering he's a rookie, but not tremendously impressive. I had been hoping that he might be able to finish really strong so that he might attract the interest of another team who might want to put him in a full-time ride. As always, David Reutimann was in the #17 truck. The night started off badly for him since a lugnut problem forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop. That put him at the back of the field but he and the team were able to rally and David ended up finishing 10th, which kept him 3rd in the overall points.

*Chad Chaffin finished 11th in the #59 truck fielded by HT Motorsports. That's the truck that Steve Park used to be in. As nice as it is to see that team have some success, since they're so small and work so hard, it's sad to see the postive results come without Steve behind the wheel, particularly since yesterday was his birthday. Truck racing at Bristol is always exciting and it was very disappointing to me that Steve wasn't a part of it. Seems like since Steve left the team, things have started to look up for them in terms of finding additional sponsorship and some improved results. So it's a shame that he can't be a part of that.

*Brendan Gaughan did a number of interviews yesterday on XM, Speed and elsewhere in which he talked very enthusiastically about his team, and his chances for success. Sherwin-Williams was featured on the truck, and Brendan said that they normally do very well when they have a new sponsor on the truck. Well, unfortunately for Brendan, while they didn't do poorly, he wasn't able to finish any better than 17th, in spite of starting 3rd. I guess this is going to sound silly, but sometimes I feel like Brendan jinxes himself. Not too long ago I popped in on the forum on Travis Kvapil's site and someone, who might be a relative of Travis's, was talking about how many drivers are superstitious and they don't (except for Steve Park) talk about the deals that they're working on for new rides until they're really a done, done deal, because they feel that if they do that it will jinx things and the deal will fall apart. I thought of that last night in terms of Brendan because I feel like sometimes he predicts grand results and they often fall short. Of course every driver is optimistic, and they should be, but there's something about the way Brendan does it, maybe because he's always so excited, that makes me feel like the bar is sometimes set a little too high, so Brendan puts a lot of pressure on himself and his team.

*Todd Bodine continues to led in the points standings with three wins, nine top fives (including a 2nd place finish last night), and 13 top tens. Johnny Benson, who trails Todd by 153 points, also has three wins and nine top fives (also including one last night), but has one less top ten than Todd. I'd love to see Johnny as the series champion at the end of the season, but I think Todd is going to be very hard to beat. Todd actually had a very cool guest in his pit last night - Eric Clapton. Apparently he's a friend of the Germains and had never been to a race before. It sure was surprising to see him there!

*Even though the race up-front wasn't very exciting, I didn't find the overall race to be boring. It's Bristol, where there's bumping and banging and trucks are wiggling and sliding all over. Sure, I'd much rather see a heated battle up-front with multiple trucks contending for the win, but I thought there was plenty of action throughout the track to hold my attention.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:03 AM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2006

Kelly Sutton's Truck Team Folds

Besides me, those that were employed by the team, and relatives of her's, I doubt that anyone cares too much that Kelly Sutton's truck team has closed up shop. Most think very little of Sutton's abilities behind the wheel, but I've long admired her for racing on one of Nascar's three highest levels despite having Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a disease that effects the central nervous system. When people with MS experience flare-ups, it can be extremely debliliating and make even simple day-to-day activities that those without MS take for granted be extremely difficult, let alone getting into a truck and racing it each week. Unfortunately Sutton's results have never been good on the track, so it's not entirely surprising that her team is closing down and auctioning all their equipment. It's very expensive to field any truck team, forget about a competitive one, so it's hard to keep things going forever when there's likely not a lot of outside money coming in.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

Funny Stuff

You know what totally cracks me up? When I see someone take a post of mine word-for-word off of one forum and post it as their own on another forum. I just saw that now. I guess I should be flattered or something. I've also seen posts of mine re-posted by others word-for-word, with the person posting it not claiming it as their own, but also not clarifying who said it and where, so it's totally out of context and no one knows if I know what the heck I'm talking about. And as a fan I'm almost always only posting my opinion and speculation, rather than anything I know for sure. No one ever figures that I, or anyone else whose posts they ste... copy-and-paste, will ever see it, but I bounce around to a lot of different places.

Some fans get really angry when posts of theirs are copied and pasted from one forum to another without permission, but it's really something that comes with being on a message board, that there's really no way of preventing. So as noted, I find it more humorous than anything else.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2006

Photo of the Day - Sculpture

Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey, May, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

Carl Edwards: Is a Weak Penalty Any Penalty at All?

The penalties Nascar handed out to Carl Edwards today for his actions towards Dale Earnhardt, Jr. after the Busch race in Michigan on Saturday are so laughably weak, that it's a wonder they even bothered. A fine of $20,000 is like pocket-change to a driver like Edwards who makes millions each year. And in Nascar being on probation means absoutely nothing - Edwards can do just about anything he wants and no one will blink an eye. On Monday Claire B. Lang played comments from a variety of Nascar officials on "Dialed In" on XM in which they all said how displeased they were with Edwards for his post-race temper tantrum. After listening to what they said, one would have the impression that the penalties that would be assessed to Edwards would be harsh, but instead Edwards was penalized less than Junior was for cursing! This in spite of Edwards using his car as a weapon to retalliate against Junior. Edwards didn't even lose any points! Ridiculous!

I have no idea what Edwards said the two times that he and Junior were called to the Nascar hauler to discuss this incident over the weekend, but he must have smiled extra-big and done quite some spin job. It's just astonishing to me - it's one thing to say that retaliation during races is part of racing and let the drivers police themselves. But when it comes to drivers using their cars as a weapon against each other under caution, or in Edwards's case after the race is over, it shouldn't be tolerated. That's not to say that I think that Edwards should be parked a race - other drivers who have done similar things haven't been parked. But at the very least he should have been fined a significant amount of money and there should have been a loss of at least 25 Busch points, if not more - after all, he didn't just stop with hitting Junior with his car, but also confronted him in Victory Lane.

I just don't understand what Nascar's reasoning was in making this penalty so light, particularly after giving the impression that they were going to come down hard on Edwards. Some feel that if it were a different driver the penalties would have been harsher. I do think had it been Kyle Busch, who has a long history of acting out, Nascar would have been harder on him. But I think that most any other driver also wouldn't have gotten much more than a slap on the wrist. This isn't the first time they've backed away from really sending a message that they won't tolerate certain actions by teams and drivers, even when it's seemed like they might. Maybe they don't truely want to completely discourage incidents like this because they know it makes for good TV, and it keeps the fans talking? Whatever the reason, it's unfortunate because it likely won't do much to make Edwards fear the consequences if he allows himself to lose control of his emotions again in the future.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)

Gibbons Says he "Overreacted"

I'll say! Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons wasn't pleased with his pitcher, Ted Lilly, when Lilly argued about being taken out of the game to the point where he refused to hand the ball over to Gibbons. But instead of waiting until after the game to discuss it with him like most managers would, Gibbons opted to follow Lilly into the tunnel between the dugout and the clubhouse, where ugliness ensued. According to witnesses, Gibbons shoved Lilly and it likely only because of the intervention of other players and coaches that it didn't escalate into a fist-fight. That kind of behavior is ridiculous - a manager needs to be able to calm his players down and solve problems, not make things worse. Some feel that Gibbons behavior is justified because Lilly showed him up on the mound - I don't agree - there's never any excuse for a manager going after one of his players physically. Worst of all is that this isn't the first incident of this nature involving Gibbons. A couple of months ago former Blue Jay Shea Hillenbrand claimed that Gibbons challenged him to a fight after Hillenbrand wrote something Gibbons didn't like on a clubhouse blackboard.

Of course a day later all parties are saying the right things about how they worked everything out, but I wonder if they did really. The kind of ill will that can lead to a fist-fight doesn't always go away so quickly. Neither Gibbons nor Lilly will face any disciplinary action from the team, probably because they're hoping this will all go away as quickly as possible. But I think the team needs to take a hard look at whether Gibbons is really the right man to guide the Blue Jays and whether he manages in the appropriate manner. Two incidents of a similar nature speaks to a pattern of behavior, and it's not a good one.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)

Ron Hornaday, Jr. Gets a Primary Sponsor

Starting with tomorrow night's race at Bristol, Ron Hornaday, Jr.'s #33 truck will feature Allstates Employer Services (AES), as the primary sponsor through the rest of this season and next season as well. That's excellent news because Kevin Harvick had said earlier this season that if Kevin Harvick Inc. didn't find a primary sponsor for the #33 truck, that they probably wouldn't be able to afford to field it in 2007. I've been amazed that despite having won two truck races this season, being 9th in points, and being a two-time Champion of the series, that Hornaday hasn't had a primary sponsor this season. That's really concerned me about the health of the series overall - if a team that is regularly racing up front and ending up in Victory Lane can't find a primary sponsor, then what are the chances of other teams being able to find and keep primary sponsors? So I'm very happy that the #33 team now has a primary sponsor, not just for this season, but for next as well. Hopefully a few other teams in need of sponsorship will find some as well.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

Not a Done Deal for Ward Burton

Ward Burton may very well end up signing with a team and we'll see him back on the track in 2007, or sooner, after a two-year absence, but contrary to the rumor that's spreading like wildfire on racing websites and message boards, he's not officially announced anything yet. Somehow Jayski saw or was sent a link to an article on Lastcowboys.com, by a writer who has written extensively about Ward in the past, which said that Ward had officially announced that he had signed with a Toyota team and would be racing some races for them before the end of the season. Ward remains very popular with race fans, so immediately a lot of people got very excited. Only one problem - this article isn't based on fact.

I was suspicious immediately because there was blank spaces left for details like the team name and what track would be the one Ward would be making his return at. In addition, in spite of the article stating that Ward had officially announced this new deal, there were no official quotes from Ward, his new team or anyone else. Turns out there's a good reason for that - there is no new deal, at least not that anyone is aware of. This article wasn't actually ever meant to be seen publically. The writer had pre-written a number of articles that reflected Ward signing with a variety of teams, a Toyota team included, to save himself time in the event that Ward really did get a new deal. But as the writer himself said on a Ward fan forum, he's heard nothing to suggest that Ward actually has signed with a Toyota team. And as Jayski noted, Ward himself said not too long ago that he hasn't had any discussions with any Toyota teams about a ride. Of course since the last time that Ward spoke publically he could have talked to any number of teams, including some that are affiliated with Toyota. He may even have a deal for a new ride in the works - but the article on Lastcowboys.com isn't based on anything factual.

The problem is that a lot of people believe that it might be true, even though the article has since been removed and Jayski updated to note that Lastcowboys asked for the link to be removed. Unfortunately, either the writer didn't do a good enough job of explaining to Jayski that he actually didn't have any information to indicate that Ward had signed with a Toyota team, or Jayski didn't care, as he's probably well-aware of how much extra traffic an item like that might generate, because it's not been fully explained what the circumstances are related to this article.

Problem is, a lot of people have trouble distinguishing between speculation or rumor and fact. I'm astonished by how many people believe just about everything they read on online or take someone's opinion or speculation about what could potentially happen as fact. It's actually scary sometimes. That's not to say that everything should be dismissed as fiction, and the only worthy information is that which comes from official press releases, but I wish that some fans would take a step back sometimes, question whether what they're reading really makes sense and fits in with the known facts, and take things with a healthy grain of salt. Some rumors definitely end up coming true, or at least have some measure of truth to them. But others may be grounded in someone jumping to conclusions, making assumptions, be based on an error, like this one was, be otherwise inaccurate... or completely false. As I've probably said a million times before, anyone can post anything, anywhere, at anytime online, and there's often no way of fact checking it. Again, that doesn't mean that everything that's posted on a message board or on Jayski's is bogus, far from it, but particularly with stuff that seems to come out of left field, sometimes it's a good idea to hold off on celebrating (or crying) until more information comes to light.

As for Ward, since the available driver pool seems to be so small for next season, I'm sure he has been talking to some teams. But will he have a ride in 2007? I'm not so sure. It definitely could happen as Ward is an accomplished driver and a fan-favorite. However, it seems to me that a 45-year old who hasn't raced on any level, let alone the Cup level, in two years, might be a hard sell to some teams and sponsors. It happens to younger drivers as well, but being out of the spotlight seems especially deadly to the careers of older drivers - out of sight, out of mind. Maybe we'll see Ward racing again soon - it will certainly make a lot of fans happy - but I don't think it will be as soon as some think after having heard about this rumor.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2006

Photo of the Day - Georgia Sunset

Sea Island, Georgia, July, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)

Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!

I'm both astonished and excited beyond belief because the New York Yankees completed a five-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox with a 2-1 win this afternoon! How awesome is this?! WIth the Red Sox pitching problems I figured the Yankees had a good chance to take the series, but never did I imagine they would sweep - so much has to go perfectly for a sweep to happen - but it did! Yay! So the Yankees are now 6 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox. How quickly things change - not long ago the Yankees were five games back and many fans thought the season was over. Not so, not by a long shot!!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)

Driver by Driver: Michigan II

1. Matt Kenseth - For a while it looked like it was Junior's race, but Matt took the lead around halfway and it was pretty much all over after that. This win assured Matt a slot in the Chase. I've never really liked Matt very much so I can't stay it thrills me to see him in Victory Lane, but this team is strong this season.

2. Jeff Gordon - Said after the race that he wished there was a few more laps so he could have shown that he could pass Matt cleanly for the win.

3. Tony Stewart - Second top five in a row, fourth straight top ten - another exceptionally strong team.

4. Kasey Kahne - After wrecking on the last lap for two straight races heading into Michigan, a top five was exactly what Kasey needed. However, Junior also had a good day so Kasey wasn't able to make up much ground on 10th place in the points. I'm really pulling for Kasey to make the Chase but this team will have to make no mistakes and have finishes like this in the remaining races in the Chase to have any hope of doing it.

5. Mark Martin - Had a loose car for much of the race, but the team did a nice job of making changes to make the handling better. By the end of the race Mark had one of the fastest cars on the track, but it was too little, too late.

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - For a while it looked like Junior was going to win this race until a problem with a lugnut caused a long pit stop that cost Junior 17 spots on the track. Although Junior did a nice job of racing his way into the top ten, that pit stop erased any chance Junior had at the win. It's things like this that make me think that while this team is good, and obviously Junior has a lot of talent behind the wheel, they aren't a Championship team. Junior and his team must be almost perfect if they want to not only win races, but make sure that Kasey doesn't overtake them for the final spot in the Chase.

7. Greg Biffle Ford - Greg still entertains slim hopes of making the Chase and finishing 7th did help, as he was able to move up to 12th in the points, but even if he continues to race well in the last few races before the Chase it probably won't be enough. A stretch of subpar finishes heading into this race really did this team in.

8. Reed Sorenson - Reed had a good car for most of the day. Only his third top ten of the season.

9. Denny Hamlin - Fought a loose car all day but managed to hang on for his 11th top ten of the season. Truly an outstanding season so far for Denny, particularly considering he's a rookie. I think it's too soon to predict exactly how good he might end up being, but so far it's looking like he might have a very successful and long career ahead of him.

10. Elliott Sadler - With how lousy the #19 has been for most of the season, most were predicting that Elliott would fare no better than Jeremy in this car. But I thought that Elliott and the #19 team would go into this race highly motivated, energized, and with something to prove. And they did prove something - that this team is capable of much better results than we saw with Jeremy behind the wheel. Next week they might revert back into racing around at the back of the pack, but I'm thinking that this won't be the last time we'll see the #19 in the top ten this season. Hard to believe but this is the first top ten for this team this season.

11. Kevin Harvick - While battling Matt Kenseth for the lead early on, Kevin spun but luckily for him the damage to his car was minor. He re-started 39th and worked his way back up through the field to finish 11th.

12. Robby Gordon - Another drive who rebounded from early trouble. Spun due to a tire going down, but also managed to escape with little damage. There's been a lot of rumors circulating about Robby buying into or merging with Robert Yates Racing. I'm interested to see where that goes and how it works out if it happens. Robby has always seemed like a very independent person who likes to do things his way. Of course he has been working with DEI to some degree or another, but he doesn't actually own any piece of that company or vice versa. So I'm interested to see if he would be able to play well with others if he were to merge Robby Gordon Motorsports with another organization.

13. Jimmie Johnson Cut a tire early on, but whereas in some races the team would have rallied to get Jimmie back up front, this wasn't one of those times. Still, a respectable finish and it clinched Jimmie a spot in the Chase.

14. Scott Riggs - I don't think Riggs ever gets mentioned during races. Even in the context of the current scandal surrounding Evernham Motorsports, he's almost an afterthought.

15. Brian Vickers - Battled an ill-handling car to finish 15th, which keeps him 15th in the points.

16. Casey Mears - Finished second in Saturday's Busch race, but couldn't repeat that on Sunday. Yet another driver who battled a loose car.

17. Jamie McMurray - Received some damage in an early incident and had an ill-handling car, but even if the car had been perfect would it have made any difference? Jamie surprised some by finishing 3rd last week at Watkins Glen, but he and this team seem completely unable to string together two solid races in a row. This team is shaping up to be one of the bigger disappointments this season.

18. Ken Schrader - Not a bad race for Kenny. Was in the top 15 after the last pit stop but lost some spots due to a tight condition.

19. Bobby Labonte - You guessed it - had a loose car.

20. Paul Menard - I'm pretty surprised that he finished this well because Paul spent most of the race riding around in the back of the pack. But some adjustments during a late pit stop really made a difference in the handling of the car, and it allowed Paul to race his way to a top 20.

21. Travis Kvapil - Not a bad finish for Travis. I really wonder what his future in Cup is. Though he says that he's been talking to teams about a ride for 2007, his name really hasn't come up in the silly season rumor mill. If he can get a ride with a decent team other than the #32 he should probably take it because the long-term future of this team is still very much uncertain.

22. Carl Edwards - Was in the top ten, but tangled with another driver with only 30 to go and that hurt the handling of the car.

23. Michael Waltrip - As I mentioned yesterday, this is an awesome finish for this team in comparison to how they've been finishing for most of the season!

24. Dave Blaney - Word is that it will be announced this weekend that Dave will be staying in the #22 next season and Jeremy Mayfield will be in the #23. Dave should be able to race better next season with Toyota support, but I'm not convinced that duo is going to be dynamic for Bill Davis Racing.

25. Ryan Newman - Led the first eight laps of the race but faded after that. Somehow got a softball sized hole in the grill. Dropped two spots in the points to 18th. Another team that's been a disappointment this season.

26. Joe Nemechek

27. Jeff Green

28. David Stremme - Got caught in an early wreck. David has made some gains since early on, but I still wonder what his long-term future in this car is. He's probably lucky that the pool of available drivers is so thin this year.

29. Sterling Marlin - Finishing 29th caused Sterling and the #14 team to fall out of the top 35 in owner's points and I wouldn't be surprised if they can't get back in. Next season is likely Sterling's last in Cup, if not for that I wonder if this team would consider making a driver change?

30. Martin Truex Jr. - Might have had a top 20 finish, if not for suffering two flat tires due to contact with another car with only five to go.

31. Kyle Petty - In danger of falling out of the top 35 in owner's points and I think there's a good chance that will happen since this team struggles to finish in the top 30, let alone the top 20 or better.

32. Tony Raines

33. Clint Bowyer - Very tough luck for Clint at Michigan - was on his way to what would have been a career best 3rd place finish, but his engine blew with just three laps to go.

34. Derrike Cope - Yes Derrike was in this race.

35. Hermie Sadler - Did you know there were two Sadler brothers in this race? There often are, but TV usually only mentions of them.

36. Dale Jarrett - Engine woes for the #88. This team is in sad, sad shape.

37. J.J. Yeley - DNF'd due to hitting the wall because of a cut tire.

38. David Gilliland - Not a very good start to his tenure in the #38. Wrecked in practice which forced the team to go to a back-up. Then he hit the wall during the race because of a blown tire. I'm sure some will point to his lack of experience as the reason for his troubles during Sunday's race, but a cut tire can happen to any driver, even the best and most experienced.

39. Kyle Busch - A blown tire sent him into the wall damaging his car. This 39th place finish dropped him to 7th in the points.

40. Kurt Busch - This team missed on the set-up for this race and Kurt also found the wall three times. So it was pretty much a disaster of a race for Kurt, which dropped him to 14th in the points. Stick a fork in him, his Chase hopes are over.

41. Kevin Lepage

42. Jeff Burton - Started on the pole but blew an engine only 17 laps in, which was very costly for Jeff because it dropped him from 4th to 9th in the points.

43. Todd Kluever - Kluever's second Cup start wasn't a very good one, which will probably only add to the talk that he might not end up replacing Mark Martin in the #6 after all. Wrecked in practice which forced his team to pull out a back-up, managed to qualify for the race, but got wrecked early on.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

Carl Edwards vs. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

I'm a little late in comment on this, but I can't let the events at the end of Saturday's Busch race in Michigan go unmentioned. I'm sure most are well-aware of what happened - Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Robby Gordon (in a car owned by Junior) were racing Carl Edwards for the lead on the last lap after a green-white-checkers restart, when Carl appeared to get loose and slow in front of Junior, who then proceeded to run Carl over, causing him to wreck. Junior went on to win the race, and Carl's actions that followed showed just how displeased he was - going onto pit road and stopping in Junior's pit, going back on the track as the field circled round under caution to hit Junior's car with his own, and then confronting Junior in Victory Lane, not just verbally but physically as well.

I hate to see drivers get spun and/or wrecked. In spite of all the safety advances, racing remains a dangerous sport. So for that alone I can't stand to see drivers get run over and wrecked. I also think there's an increasing lack of respect in that there are times when drivers could back off instead of getting into each other, and instead choose not to. However, when drivers are battling for the lead on the last lap, it seems to me that aggressive and hard racing is to be expected and unfortunately sometimes those situations don't work out well. A driver isn't going to be as likely to back off in that situation as they might on lap 50, in fact I'd guess there are a lot of drivers, including Carl himself, who would have done exactly as Junior did. As they say - that's racin'.

What I really take issue with is Carl's temper tantrum after the race. I definitely understand why he was upset. No driver is going to be happy about being so close to a win and ending up wrecked, particularly at the hands of another driver. However, it's completely unacceptable to me that Carl went back on the track and used his car as a weapon to hit Junior. That shouldn't be happening, and especially not under caution or after the race. At the time Junior had his hand out the window of his car, and while nothing happened, there is the possiblity that if Carl hit him at a different angle or harder, he could have suffered a serious injury. In addition, Carl couldn't leave it alone even after that. He went into Victory Lane and exchanged words with Junior. When he apparently didn't like what he heard, he grabbed Junior by his firesuit. Some are going to say that they love that kind of emotion and that they wish that Junior and Carl had gotten into a fist fight. It's great to see drivers show emotion, but I think they need to be mature and be professional. Instead, Carl acted like an out-of-control child. There is a time and a place for Carl to make his displeasure known - post-race by retaliating on the track and Victory Lane was not it.

Although Nascar often likes to let the competitors sort disputes like this out among themselves, this was one time that they couldn't ignore it. Not only did they meet with both Junior and Carl after the Busch race, but also prior to Sunday's Cup race. It's expected that Carl will be penalized quite severely for his actions, and he should be. It's about time a message was sent to him. It's far from the first time that Carl has either been overly aggressive on the track, or let his temper get the best of him, such as when he retaliated against Tony Stewart on pit road at Pocono. Nascar didn't give him anything more than an aggressive driving penalty during the race, when they should have done much more - there is no excuse no matter how angry a driver is for retaliating on pit road. In some ways I suspect that lack of further punishment made Carl think that it was okay for him to go after Junior in this situation because he might have thought that Nascar would look the other way again. Unfortunately though, I suspect those who are expecting Carl to lose major points, be fined a huge amount of money or be parked a race will likely be disappointed. I think it'll probably be the standard 25 points, $25,000 and he'll be placed on probation. But maybe I'll be surprised and they'll actually send a message to Carl that will really get his attention.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

Outstanding Weekend for the New York Yankees!

What a weekend for the New York Yankees! Any time the Yankees play the Boston Red Sox it's sure to be an exciting series and this one's been no different! I didn't really know what to expect heading into this series since the Yankees would have to face the Red Sox five times over four days. I would have been satisfied if the Yankees won three games, I was hoping they'd win four, and now that they've done that, I'm really excited to see if they can complete the sweep this afternoon. Momentum is certainly on their side so I'm thinking that they have a very good chance of doing it.

Of course anything can happen, and the Red Sox have a dangerous offense - they will play hard to do everything they can to win today, just as they have in every other game this series. But how awesome would it be if the Yankees were to win today and sweep all five games? That would put them 6 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox for the division lead, and while there's still plenty of baseball to be played, that's a decent-sized lead that if they were to build on by a few more games, might make it extremely difficult for the Red Sox to overcome.

Today Corey Lidle faces David Wells. Neither Wells nor Lidle is exactly the ace of either of their respective pitching staffs, but nor have either one been horrible either. Wells has a way of rising to the occassion and pitching well in big games - perhaps even more so today against his former team. And Lidle's going to want to prove to a team that he's still a newcomer to that he can pitch well against a division rival. Of course both team's offenses have been on fire this series, so if the pattern we've seen the rest of the weekend continues it will be a very high scoring game today too.

I have to admit I'm still hoping that Alex Rodriguez gets his big hit today to "prove" himself to some fans who feel that nothing he does is every good enough because he doesn't ever seem to come up big against the Red Sox. The thing is that he's been getting on base and contributing, it's just that every time he comes up to the plate with the bases loaded, he can't seem to get that one really big hit that everyone expects from the player who is probably one of the best in the game. It will happen one day, could today be the day?

Posted by silverdsl at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2006

Michael Waltrip Finishes 23rd at Michigan!

How quickly things change. Last season it was a disappointment if Michael Waltrip finished 23rd, but this season when Michael finishes 23rd, as he did today, it feels like a celebration is in order! I had a good feeling about this weekend going in, and turns out I was right! Though I would have liked to have seen the #55 team improve their starting position - Michael qualified 22nd for this race - in comparision to most of their other races this season, where we've seen Michael struggle to finish 35th, let alone in the top 25, a 23rd place finish is outstanding. It's a sign that this team is starting to make some progress, that all the hard work that they've put into this season is starting to pay off and that finally they're making some improvements.

The key of course is Tommy Baldwin, Jr. being the crew chief. In fact, Michael said during one caution something about how one guy joins the team (Tommy) and suddenly he knows how to race again. Tommy said that it's a total team effort and that everyone's working hard, but clearly Tommy has had a huge impact on the team. It's not just in performance, but also in the overall communication and attitude of the team. One person can make a difference and Tommy has with this team. It's awesome to hear Michael sound happy over the radio, it's great to hear Tommy be so encouraging and sound like he believes in Michael like Tony Eury, Jr. used to sound, and best of all it's outstanding that Michael is actually able to race again, instead of ride around in back. I admit I was a bit worried when Michael had dropped back to 30th, just about the last car on the lead lap. But whereas in the past, that might be where he ended up finishing, today Michael was able to advance and race his way to 23rd, even getting past teammate Dave Blaney on the last lap.

I just wish that Michael was going to be able to work with Tommy next season as well. Unfortunately that's not going to happen since Tommy is going to be staying at Bill Davis Racing, most likely as Jeremy Mayfield's crew chief. I can't imagine Michael being able to pry Tommy away from BDR. So he's going to have to find a crew chief that he can work that well with, which based on how many crew chiefs he's been through this season, is no easy matter. It's been said that Larry Carter will be his crew chief, but I'm not sure how locked into that they are considering MWR is going to need crew chiefs for three Cup cars so Carter could easily shift to one of the teams other than the #55 if need be. All I want is for Michael to be surrounded by people who believe in him - not just as someone who can be successful as an owner or a TV personality, but also as a race car driver.

Just a really positive sign for Michael and the #55 team that they had a strong race, one that was incident-free. I hope it's something they can build on and maybe they'll be able to get a few top 15s or dare I hope, a top ten or even better by the end of the season. I've complained about it at length in this space before, but it's really irritating to see how many fans feel that Michael has lost his ability behind the wheel, or almost worse, think he doesn't care about performance and being competitive. This couldn't be futher from the truth, but all a lot of fans see are the numbers - where Michael finishes, rather than what's behind those numbers - mechanical issues, cut tires, getting wrecked, problems in the pits, or as has happened so often this season, just lousy cars. I would like Michael to be able to walk proudly, not just because he's putting together an awesome program at MWR, and because he's got all sorts of other exciting things happening off-the-track, but also because the results on the track are impressive. I'd really like to see fans have a little more respect for Michael as a driver, but that's not going to happen until he's able to race up front on a consistent basis.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)

Scott Wimmer to Sign With Michael Waltrip Racing?

I had heard a vague rumor quite some time ago that Scott Wimmer might be under consideration as the driver of the #00 for Michael Waltrip Racing, but it was what I like to call a message board rumor, in that some random person on a message board was saying that they heard Wimmer was talking to MWR, and with those kind of "I heard..." rumors on a message board, particularly when there's no source given, there's no telling how legitamite it could be. But apparently tonight on Speed, Bob Dillner reported that Wimmer could be announced as early as this week as the driver of the #00.

I would be pretty happy if that's true. I will always have a problem with Wimmer's DUI, as I think there should be zero tolerance for DUI/DWI for those who drive for a living. However, Wimmer is just 30 years old, he's personable, he's tried his best to make amends for the DUI, and most importantly he could probably be a solid driver in the #00. Wimmer was good in the Busch Series, winning five races in two years, but has suffered from a lack of competitive equipment in the Cup series, both with Bill Davis Racing, and now with Morgan-McClure Motorsports. I think this season Wimmer has done an excellent job of getting as much as he can out of what he's been given with the #4, which isn't much. Wimmer also seems to be able to stay out of trouble on the track and bring the car home in one piece, which is no small matter. I could definitely get behind Wimmer and cheer for him, so I hope this happens.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:02 PM | Comments (0)

Steve Park Under Consideration to Race for DEI Again?

When Steve Park was released by DEI from the #1 in 2003, most fans thought that he'd never have anything to do with the organization ever again. But a reporter from the Asbury Park Press mentioned today that Steve might share time in DEI's Busch car next season with Dale, Earnhardt, Jr., Paul Menard and Martin Truex, Jr. I'm not sure that there's anything more to that than the reporter's speculation, particularly since they have a few things incorrect such as the spelling of Steve's last name and that Junior may race Busch races for himself next season, not DEI. But let's assume for the sake of this entry that this reporter really did hear from a legitamite source that Steve might be in this ride for a few races next season. I think it would be great!! A DEI car would be more competitive than any of the cars or trucks that Steve's had to race in quite some time... actually since the last time he was at DEI. That could be a really good opportunity for Steve to show what he can do when he's got a strong car to race with.

Some fans think that DEI treated Steve so poorly last time, that there's no way he should even consider a ride with them again. Well, Steve has always said that he's remained friends with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and he probably still has other friends at DEI. In addition, no one really knows what went down at DEI that led to Steve being released, and exactly who was to blame. In the time that's past it's quite possible that those people are no longer there, or have changed their attitude in relation to Steve. And time has a funny way of healing all wounds - if a reunion could benefit both parties, I think they could put aside any ill will for the sake of getting good results on the track. It's happened with others who have left organizations under bad terms - Tommy Baldwin, Jr. is the most recent example of someone who went back to an organization where there was hard feelings on both sides when the left.

I think Steve is at a point where unless he's good better offers that he's considering that he can't rule out any competitive rides that he might be offered. Let me clear - I'm not saying that Steve should take any ride that's offered to him. Some are subpar and he'll do no more than ride around at the back of the pack rather than actually race in them. That wouldn't be good for him. But a competitive ride? Even if it's not perfect, I think Steve needs to at least give it some consideration. Because if he's too fussy, I fear that Steve is going to end up spending next summer on Moosehead Lake fishing with Ricky Craven, instead of at the track racing.

Odds are that nothing will come of this - I would love for Steve to hook up with a top organization that fields decent cars or trucks on a regular basis. But it seems like Steve falls through the cracks when it comes to being considered for those kinds of rides. Maybe this time it'll be different though.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2006

In the News: Michael Waltrip (8/18)

In another sign that Tommy Baldwin, Jr. as crew chief for the #55 is working out extremely well, Michael Waltrip was able to qualify 22nd for Sunday's Cup race at Michigan International Speedway! That's the highest Michael has qualified on a non-restrictor plate track all season! The only two times he's qualified better was when he qualified 21st at Talladega and 19th for the July race at Daytona. I'm just so happy for Michael! Maybe that sounds silly to some because it's only qualifying, but let's face it qualifying hasn't exactly been easy at times for the #55 team this season once they fell out of the top 35 in owner's points. So it's great to see him actually make a race with ease and have a decent starting spot.

For a few days now I've had a really good feeling about this weekend for Michael. I've just felt like there's good karma around Michael right now - maybe it's because he had a good race last week until the end, maybe it's because Tommy is once again on the pit box, maybe it's because this is a track where Michael's had success before, but I think we might see some better things on Sunday than we've seen from the #55 team previously this season. I don't want to get my hopes up too high - I don't think a trip to Victory Lane is in the cards right now. But I'm thinking a top 25 is definitely do-able. That would really make me happy because I want MIchael to feel good about his results on the track for a change. I know I might get disappointed but I can't help but feel a little excited for Sunday!

Today Michael said that Michael Waltrip Racing is close to signing a driver for the #00. He really didn't give too many hints about who it was going to be - he really got burned when he did that in relation to Jeremy Mayfield, who I suspect wasn't just at the top of his list, but was someone that he thought he was going to almost certainly sign until Bill Davis Racing apparently made a better offer - but he did talk about some possiblities that they've been considering ranging from young, to middle-of-the-road, to almost-retired. From what it sounds like he would really like to get a young driver in the car. He said,

"I'd really like to get a kid or somebody that is young and try to work with them and see if they're the deal or not."

That's what I'd like to see them do too, but who's available, and are Domino's/Burger King going to have the patience that's required for developing a young driver? And if they're going to do that, why not just put David Reutimann in the car? Well, that's one possiblity that's under consideration. Michael said of Reutimann,

"Certainly he's somebody that we've considered running both. He's always hauled the mail in everything he's gotten in, so he is a possibility. If you will, we have to appreciate and think about every option that is available because it is getting late and the sponsors are getting nervous and they want us to show them who their guy is going to be."

It wouldn't seem quite right to put a young guy in the car who doesn't have much experience, when they have Reutimann who has shown that he can get great results in both the Truck and Busch Series. The only thing is that while Reutimann is only 36, I'm not sure he qualifies as a "kid." Nor do Scott Wimmer or Travis Kvapil, two of the other drivers who come to mind as possiblities for the #00. I just hope that MWR takes all the time they need to find the exact right driver that is going to be a good fit, rather than rushing to find someone because the sponsors are putting pressure on them. Of course that's to be expected because they want to start planning for next season, but sometimes it pays to take a little more time.

Then there's going with an older, veteran driver. Like Mark Martin for example. Apparently Michael talked to Mark and he was interested but only if it was a part-time gig. I really hope they don't go that route. As awesome of a driver as Mark is, I would like to see someone in that car full-time. In fact, since it's a completely new ride, I think it's almost necessary to have one driver in there full-time to help develop the program.

All in al,l it sounds like they're leaning towards youth. Michael said,

"...we would really like to get somebody that can do it that's new and that we can grow into our organization and hopefully have a long-term relationship with a young cat because we have some old dudes in me and Dale."

I'm not sure what to make of the "new" comment - someone new to Cup racing? New to Nascar? New to their organization? Regardless, I think it's definitely pretty important to get someone in the car who could be around long-term and be the veteran when MIchael and DJ retire. Reutimann is possibly that driver, and even if he doesn't race Cup for MWR in 2007, he surely will soon. For now, Reutimann will continue to race the #99 - it was announced today that he would race an additional six Busch races for MWR. What I was happy to find out is that Michael will race the #99 himself for three races - I had thought that Michael might not race any more Busch races this season. I like Reutimann a lot, but I'm even happier when Michael's behind the wheel.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)

David Gilliland Officially Introduced as the Driver of the #38

Of course everyone knew this was a done deal for a while, but today David Gilliland was officially announced as the new driver of the M&Ms #38 at Robert Yates Racing, beginning this weekend at Michigan. There's quite a few people who are skeptical of Gilliland's chances for success on the Cup level, particularly given his overall lack of experience on any of Nascar's three highest levels. I have to admit that I think that he could use a full year of experience in Busch before he's moved up to Cup - things might not be pretty for the #38 team for the rest of this season.

However, I've been thinking about it and I'm not sure that Gilliland is going to stink as much as some seem to think he is. First of all, RYR is approaching things in the right way - they're putting him in the car now to get him experience as soon as they can. That indicates to me that they're willing to have patience with him and give him the rest of this year to adjust to racing Cup and develop as a driver, before being thrust into the fire in 2007. That's when the points will matter and the pressure to succeed will be in full force. Secondly, Doug Yates said,

"When a driver can get in average equipment and make it run better than average, you've got a good driver right there."

I think that's an outstanding point that a lot of people are missing - Gilliland put a car in Victory Lane in the Busch Series that wasn't fielded by one of the most elite teams in the garage area. That shows that he knows how to get the most he can out of the equipment he's given, something that could be important as RYR rebuilds. I guess I feel like fans need to give Gilliland a chance. Replacing Elliott Sadler is a tough task and the last thing he needs is people writing him off before he's even raced one race in the car.

I'm also getting tired of hearing how there are better drivers who should have been given the opportunity to race the #38 over Gilliland. M&Ms wanted a young guy - that really narrowed the options that RYR had because there weren't a heck of a lot of young guys who were available since Brian Vickers and Casey Mears were already signed by the time Elliott announced he was moving on. And no, I'm sorry but as much as I love Steve Park, he's not considered young anymore by those in the garage area. Nor is Ward Burton, Bill Elliott, Ricky Craven or Jeremy Mayfield. In addition, as much as some hate it, the reality is that whether a driver fits the sponsor's marketing plans plays a role in whether they might get a ride. I can see where Gilliland is a good fit for M&Ms.

Only time will tell whether Gilliland will be successful or not, but I'm very interested to see how he's going to do this weekend in Michigan.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)

Kevin Brown: Once An Asshat, Always an Asshat

Once upon a time, when Kevin Brown was a pitcher for the New York Yankees, he got upset and punched a wall, breaking his hand at a time when the Yankees needed him. Apparently now that he's retired, his anger issues haven't gone away. On Monday, Brown got into a dispute with a neighbor over grass clippings, and ended up pulling a gun on the neighbor. Yes, over grass. The situation was diffused by Sheriff's deputies and no charges were filed because neither man wanted to press charges. The neighbor, Michael Haws said,

"It was kind of an awkward evening. Luckily nobody got arrested and nobody got shot."

Yeah, awkward is a bit of an understatement! Apparently Brown intends on putting up higher fences around his property - is that to keep his neighbor out or him in?

Posted by silverdsl at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2006

Photo of the Day - Ogunquit

Ogunquit, Maine, 2004.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

In the News: Michael Waltrip (8/17)

This week the Busch and Cup series are both in action at Michigan International Speedway, and Michael Waltrip will be racing in both races. I'm not sure who his sponsor is for the Busch race, but his #55 Cup car won't feature the familiar NAPA paint scheme. Instead, for the first time ever, Domino's will be on a Cup car as a primary sponsor. That's a preview of what we will see on the track regularly next season, since Domino's will be one of the primary sponsors of Michael Waltrip Racing's #00 Cup car. Of racing at Michigan Michael said,

“Michigan has been a track that I have always liked. I have a lot of confidence as I head there. Anytime you are able to put together good numbers at a track, you feel good about going back. We’ve had a couple of top-10 finishes there recently, so I feel confident heading up there."

What Michael isn't mentioning is that he has a win in the Busch Series at this track on top of those top tens. So if he's good a decent car, he will hopefully be able to get a decent finish in both races this weekend.

Michael won't just be racing this weekend. He's also going to take part in a promotional event for Domino's to introduce a new item that will be available starting this weekend - warm brownie squares with chocolate dipping sauce. So Michael will be helping to hand out 60,000 brownies to those who are at the track. From what I've heard there's going to be some Little People dressed up as Domino's Fudgems, which is the mascot for the new brownie squares. Since Michael is 6'5", it should be rather interesting to see him with those Fudgems!

Earlier in the week, Michael was the guest on this week's teleconference with the media. He talked a lot about the expected topics - Toyota coming into the sport, being an owner, Domino's, racing at Michigan, etc... but he did have a few interesting comments.

One thing Michael mentioned is how the sport is getting more diverse.

"I expect that probably before I retire, or at least shortly after that, there will be a woman that is competing at the Cup level and being successful at it. It goes back to-- I like to tell this story-- When I was a kid, at 12 years old, we used to get in our car and drive an hour down the road to a little park just off Interstate 65 so we could set and listen to Darrell race. That's how much you had to want to know what was going on in the world of NASCAR in 1975. And now, 30 years later, it's everywhere! You read about it in magazines. You can go on the Internet and learn about NASCAR. You can see it on network TV. So, that in itself will diversify our sport and it will grow our sport. Because children seven or eight years old now know as much about NASCAR as I did when I was 16 or 17 because of the information that's available. That's why the sport is growing, and that's why the sport will become more diverse is because the fact that information is readily available."

I was particularly happy to read what Michael said about how he thinks that within a few years there will be a female driver competing in Cup and being successful at it. So many not only believe that a woman could never be successful in any level in Nascar, but also that they shouldn't even be trying. Michael put Shawna Robinson in his Busch car for three races in 2001, so he obviously is supportive of women trying to make their mark in the sport. I also appreciate that he seems to also be supportive of the sport growing more diverse in general - some seem very resistant to that as well and it's sometimes a little disheartening.

Michael was also asked about what the biggest challenge was in finding a driver for the #00 - was it the driver being a good match for the sponsor, their availability or something else? He said,

"All of those things make it a challenge. You have drivers that have contracts that they want to get out of. You have drivers that the sponsor doesn't think will fit their brands. There's a long list of items, or boxes that need to be checked off in order to make it happen."

Is he talking about Jeremy Mayfield in terms of a driver looking to get out of a contract, or is there another driver that Michael's been talking with who is also under contract to another team and looking to leave? At one point, Michael had said he wasn't going to talk to any drivers who were under contract for 2007, but I guess he changed his mind on that, probably when he realized how small the available driver pool was. In addition, I have to wonder if he presented Domino's and Burger King with some driver possibilities, only to have them say that they didn't feel they were a good fit with their brand. I definitely could see some drivers being a better fit than others - Carl Edwards for example is an extremely talented driver, very personable and would do an outstanding job representing any sponsor - yet he's a huge fitness buff - if he weren't under contract and were being considered for the #00, would it really be believable that he eats fast food like Burger King all the time?

Michael also admitted that in addition to Jeremy, he had spoken with Casey Mears about the #00. He said,

"We talked to Casey Mears early in the going because we knew that he was somebody that was looking around for a ride. Obviously, he's very marketable, and he's very competitive on the racetrack. We felt like he might be a guy that would work for us."

I would have loved Casey in the #00! He's young, he's probably got more talent than he's been able to show so far and he does a good job with his sponsors. But once Hendrick Motorsports entered the picture, I don't think any other team had a chance with Casey.

Another thing that Michael touched upon is the idea of racing as entertainment.

"People might say I'm a weirdo or whatever, but I love the fact that NASCAR is twofold. You have competition, which rules the world. You've got to have fast cars. You've got to be competitive. But, secondarily, it's entertainment too. That's why people turn on their TVs. That's why people buy tickets, to be entertained. So, I just really look forward to the opportunity of partnering with Toyota to ensure that our cars are competitive and they're fast and we can win. Then, secondarily, taking the entertainment aspect of racing to a higher level. I'm looking at this as a chance to win races and show the fans more than maybe they've seen before."

Unfortunately for Michael, some do think he's a weirdo, but not because he thinks that Nascar is about both competition and entertainment! Most recognize that there's an entertainment angle to the sport, however a lot of fans can't stand that part of things. They feel that Nascar is focusing too much attention on entertaining people, and not enough on the actual competition. But I think the majority of people in the sport are equally focused on both, just as Michael say he is. The reality is that if people aren't interested in what they're seeing, they won't watch the races on TV, they won't travel to the races to see them in person and they won't spend money on merchandise. The racing has to be good, but there has to be that added element of entertainment value to keep people's attention.

Michael was also asked about the problems in the truck series, in relation to why he thinks so many teams are having trouble finding sponsors. He said,

"The Cup Series is just so much bigger than the Busch and the Truck that if people are going to invest dollars into NASCAR racing they certainly look to Cup first. If they can't be a primary sponsor on a car because their budget is limited, then they sometimes try to do personal services deals with the drivers and also maybe an associate sponsorship on a car.Teams now are splitting out sponsorships so many different ways on the Cup level, so that companies can afford to be a part of the Cup level. So, the popularity of the Cup series is certainly taking its toll on the Busch Series and the Truck series -- that's my opinion."

The popularity of the Cup series in relation to the Busch and Truck Series is such that even when a driver is in contention for the Truck Series Championship like David Reutimann or winning races like Ron Hornaday, they might still not be able to find a primary sponsor. Those trucks are on TV all the time, yet it's still not enough because sponsors know that they can still get more exposure by being associated with a Cup team or driver. I don't think things are going to change any time soon either which could be very bad news for the chances of survival for some of the teams that are struggling to hang on.

Hopefully this weekend in Michigan, Michael will have a lot of success on the track and enjoy himself handing out, and eating, lots of Brownie Squares!

Posted by silverdsl at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

Mayfield vs. Evernham Gets Uglier

Just when I think the war between Jeremy Mayfield and Ray Evernham couldn't get any worse, it does. Yesterday, court documents from the suit Mayfield filed against Evernham seeking payment for the rest of the season after he was released, were made public. And both parties took their best shots at each other. Mayfield and his business manager, Dale Cagle, claim that Evernham's relationship with Evernham Motorsports driver Erin Crocker hurt the team, because Evernham wasn't involved with its operations as he had been in the past. Evernham responded by saying in his affidavit, that Mayfield breached their contract by not giving his full effort towards competing, including deliberately wrecking his car, and made disparaging remarks about Evernham personally as well as his organization. I'd like to say I'm amazed by how nasty this has gotten, but I'm not. Months ago, I heard some things that Mayfield was supposedly saying about Ray, which is pretty much what he said in those court documents. At the time it was clear that Mayfield wanted out and I predicted that things would get extremely ugly, and unfortunately I was right.

Mayfield said the following in his affidavit,

"For significant periods of time [Evernham] has been, at best, an absentee manager and owner, largely because, ... at some point in time Ray Evernham had entered into an [sic] close personal relationship with a female driver he engages to drive on NASCAR's ARCA, truck and Busch Series. That relationship became a subject of considerable discussion and distraction in the Nextel Cup garage area during the 2006 season."

and Cagle said,

"During the 2006 season, however, apparently because he was preoccupied by his personal relationship with a female driver Evernham engaged to drive on the ARCA, Busch and Truck Series, Ray Evernham has not been actively involved or engaged in the affairs or operation of the team."

I have absolutely no idea what the specifics are of the relationship between Evernham and Crocker, though it's likely that they are involved on a level that is greater than that of just owner and driver. I also think that it's a problem for Evernham to be dating one of his employees - that's just not a good idea. It sets up all sorts of questions about preferrential treatment and puts him in a position to be sued for sexual harassment if things go bad. I also think it's a career killer for Crocker, because most are going to assume that she got her ride, and has kept her ride in spite of poor results, because she's sleeping with her owner. I think it will be very difficult for her to get other teams to believe in her should she leave EMS. In addition, both of their reputations are pretty much ruined in the garage area and with fans - Nascar is a conservative sport and appearances do matter. Which makes me wonder what Crocker's sponsor, Betty Crocker (no relation) thinks about all of this? Or EMS's sponsors? All of that said, as inappropriate as I think the relationship might be, both are consenting adults. If they are willing to risk their reputations, and in Crocker's case, possibly her career, to be together, who am I to judge them as people?

Evernham said that he felt that Mayfield deliberately sabatoged the team. From the article,

Evernham said that Mayfield inexplicably pitted late in the Pocono race July 23 because of a flat tire that turned out to have nothing wrong with it. He also said that Mayfield brushed the wall at Indianapolis and "based on my experience, I believed that Mayfield's conduct in wrecking the car was on purpose."

I can believe that a driver might give up on his team and might not give 100% effort. However, I find it extremely hard to believe that a driver would deliberately wreck themselves into a wall. We've seen Dale Earnhardt, Jr. deliberately spin himself to bring out a caution. But put themselves into a wall? I can't see any driver willingly doing that. While there have been many safety advances through the years, and there's the safer barrier at most tracks, this remains a dangerous sport. I would be extremely disappointed to find out that Mayfield or any other driver deliberately wreceked themselves.

He also said that Mayfield has had communication problems with team members,

"Mayfield, however, has not interacted well with other personnel on his team at Evernham Motorsports and has had five crew chiefs in five years because of his inability to get along with them."

I didn't realize that Mayfield has had five crew chiefs in five years. However, it's not unusual for there to be a lot of turnover with crew chiefs. It can be difficult for a driver to find a crew chief they click with - just ask Michael Waltrip who's on his fouth crew chief this season alone! Ideally every driver would find a crew chief that's perfect for them early on and be able to stay with that person through their entire tenure at an organization. But with a few exceptions, that's often not what happens.

Supossedly there's a settlement in this suit. Mayfield may end up getting his money, and he may feel that he "won." But I don't think there are any winner in this mess.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

I Owe Someone Big!

There's a very kind person out there who looked into a situation for me when they didn't have to because it had nothing to do with them. Yet as a favor to me she did, and she got some much needed answers for me and some others. I really owe this person big, and it's not the first time they've been extremely nice like this to me. When I brought this situation up to this person, it was only to ask if they had a suggestion for someone else that I could contact because I knew that she knows all the involved parties, I never expected her to offer to help me herself, particularly considering how busy she is. And once she did offer, I never thought that I'd hear something back so soon, or that it would end up just about being resolved too. Wow!! This person will never see this, but a thousand thank-you's in her direction!!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2006

Photo of the Day - Jeykll Island

Jekyll Island, Georgia, July, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)

Shane Hmiel Admits He Tested Positive for Marijuana, Cocaine

Starting with the first time Shane Hmiel tested positive for a banned substance, there's been quite a few people in his circle, and otherwise, who have tried to defend him by saying that the banned substance he tested positive for multiple times was actually a legal drug that was on the banned list. Or they've said that Hmiel never tested positive at all and Nascar is framing him because they have a vendetta against him and want to get him out of the sport. And there was that rumor that Hmiel was even going to sue Nascar to prove his innocence. As it turns out all of it is absolutely false. As part of his lawsuit to collect the money he feels Braun Racing owes him, Hmiel admitted to testing positive for marijuana and cocaine. Regardless of how one feels about recreational drug use, there's no arguing that those are illegal drugs. What really boggles my mind is that Hmiel claims that he wasn't under the influence of any drugs while he was racing, but that they were in his system. So if they were in his system, how can he be so sure? Additionally, if he was addicted to either drug at all, and cocaine is particularly addicting, he might have been effected by his body's cravings for those drugs.

What continues to boggles my mind is that Hmiel threw away his career and changed the course of his life, even after being given multiple chances to get himself straight. The pull of drugs was so strong that he wasted a chance that many talented racers never get. And he will likely feel the effects of being branded as a substance abuser for years to come, and not just in relation to racing. He will probably be looked at with suspicion at any job he applies for, with anyone he encounters and with everything that he does. What a waste.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)

It's Official: Elliott Sadler to the #19

It's been a very badly kept secret that Elliott Sadler was going to end up in the #19 at Evernham Motorsports, the only question was how soon was it going to happen? That question was answered today when Elliott was officially announced as the driver of the #19, not only this weekend at Michigan, but also for the rest of the season and beyond. I have to admit that even though this isn't a suprise, considering how many rumors have been circulating, that it's still strange for me to think of Elliott in a car other than the #38, and without M&Ms as his sponsor. Of course he was with Wood Brothers Racing prior to joining Robert Yates Racing, so it's not like M&Ms has been his sponsor for his entire career. Yet Elliott has come to be called the Candyman by many fans, and it's a very fitting nickname. It's probably going to be a long time before I stop thinking of Elliott each time I see M&Ms. But change is a part of this sport, just like it is any other, so I'll get used to Elliott being in the #19, it's just going to seem odd for a while.

Elliott, who was testing the car today in Kentucky, said of Ray Evernham and going to the #19,

"Ray has a lot of passion for this sport, and a tremendous will to win. I just want to run well and have a chance to win, and the things this team offered me just seemed to fit what I wanted as a driver."

I most certainly hope that Elliott is able to win in the #19. I would love to see him in Victory Lane! But is he instantly going to have success in the #19? I'm not so sure. There's surely going to be an adjustment period where he gets used to working with a new team, a new sponsor, being at a new organization and racing a different manufacturer's cars. There's also the small matter of how the #19 has mostly been at the back of the field for almost every race. I have my doubts that all responsibility for the #19 performing so poorly this season rests completely on Jeremy Mayfield's shoulders. So I'm not expecting that Elliott is going to suddenly have the #19 up front in every race.

I heard some of Elliott's comments that he made to the media today via XM, and apparently he seriously considered four teams before settling on Evernham. He gave no indication as to specifically which teams those were, other than to say that none of them had yet filled their open seat. However, that's not to say that they necessarily have an empty seat either. I got the sense that at least one of these rides might have been replacing a driver who is currently in place, similiar to what he's doing with the #19. As he said above, he felt that Evernham offered him the best opportunity to win, and he was very impressed with the direction that they're going in for the future in terms of the Car of Tomorrow and other things, in comparison to some of the other teams he was thinking about signing with.

He also talked about how smooth the process of changing teams was this week, and how he made sure to do everything he could to leave RYR on good terms. Once again, Elliott refused to say exactly what "differences" led him to want to leave RYR, sayiing that he didn't feel it was right to air dirty laundry (something that Jeremy should give some thought to). He said that it was very important to him for there not to be any ill will between himself and RYR since the garage area is so small, and you don't want to burn any bridges because you never know. That's very true - sometimes I think people get wrapped up in the here and now when they're angry, and don't think of the consequences of their actions when they lash out. The person that they're rude to, that they diss or dismiss all together, or the person that they're nasty to, might be someone who they need help from in the future. I'm far from perfect, but I make an effort to try to handle even difficult situations in such a way that there's as little hard feelings as possible. And sometimes it's unavoidable, but I try my best, just like Elliott tried his best and apparently succeeded.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2006

Place of the Day - Anniversary Narrows

I haven't done one of these entries for a long time but I recently did a search for some information on Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, which isn't far from Las Vegas, and I came across some information about a slot canyon nearby called Anniversary Narrows. It's in the Muddy Mountains, which I believe VoF is also part of. Apparently there are also some mines nearby and some other cool rock formations. I wish I knew that it was there when I visited Las Vegas last year because it looks like a really beautiful area!

Posted by silverdsl at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)

I Wish!

Qualifying, Watkins Glen, New York, August, 2006. I really don't like to use other people's photos without permission in this space, and this one belongs to motorsports.com, but I sure do wish that this was going to be the Michael Waltrip Racing Cup lineup next season! Two out of three isn't bad, but it would be awesome if Elliott Sadler was going to be in the #00. Probably wouldn't have gone over very well with fans, the media or in the garage area if Michael had taken both of RYR's Cup drivers in addition to a sponsor for Michael Waltrip Racing. But a girl can dream, can't she?

Posted by silverdsl at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)

Kenny Wallace Loses his Busch Sponsor

Kenny Wallace is currently 10th in the Busch Series points standings, third if one takes out the Buschwackers. In addition, he's very visible each week on Speed. But that hasn't stopped Kenny from losing Autozone as the primary sponsor of his #22 Busch ride for PPC Racing after this season. I think that's a very bad sign about the health of the Busch Series if one of the better full-time Busch-only teams, can't keep their primary sponsor. At one time I would have said that the #22 team wouldn't have any problem finding a new primary sponsor for 2007 and beyond, but these days it seems like even the strong teams in the Busch and Truck Series struggle to find and keep sponsorship if they aren't in some way affiliated with a Cup team and driver. And if Kenny's team struggles with sponsorship issues, imagine what the smaller teams are going through? Not pretty.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)

Occam's Razor

I get caught up in speculating and wondering about things as much as anyone else but the conspiracy theories and complicated explanations for what might or has happened sometimes boggle my mind. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, but sometimes as Occam's Razor says, the simpliest answer is the correct answer.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2006

Photo of the Day - Boat

Aruba, September, 2005.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

Is It Over?

That's the question that someone asked today in reference to Steve Park, and I think the implication was is he done as a full-time driver? It's a question that has no answer at the moment, but the fact is as much as some might like to bury their heads in the sand about it, it's not unrealistic to wonder. I know I certainly have. To be clear that doesn't mean that I don't believe in Steve's abilities behind the wheel - I do, just as much as I ever have and I think that goes for most fans - if he has a competitive car he can race up front and win. But the reality is that it's very difficult for older drivers, particularly those who don't have a lot of recent success, to find new rides and even harder when they might still be tagged as "damaged goods" like Steve might be.

Steve had a great opportunity in the potential truck ride with Bill Davis Racing, but because of sponsorship issues it didn't happen - unfortunately that's not so unusual either for deals that seem like sure things to not work out since things can change so quickly in this sport. So I have to wonder - is that kind of opportunity to race for a solid and competitive team going to come his way again? Is he going to find another team and sponsor to believe in him as much as his fans do? Will he ever race full-time again? I hope the answer to all of those questions is yes and soon, but the longer it goes without Steve on the track and the longer we hear nothing, not even a vague "I heard" rumor, the more nervous I get. That doesn't mean that I'm giving up on Steve - he said recently on XM that he's not giving up, so I'm not either. I still have hope, but as someone noted tonight - for how long?

Someone else brought up the famous Yogi Berra quote "It ain't over 'til it's over" and noted that it's not over until Steve says it's over. That really pained me to read that because there are so many drivers who have that decision taken out of their hands, whether it's because of injury, or because they can't find a competitive ride... or any ride at all. I really hope that Steve is one of the lucky ones like Mark Martin, Bill Elliott, Michael Waltrip, or Dale Jarrett, for whom it seems when, and if, they retire is entirely up to them. I would hate for him to be like Jimmy Spencer, Casey Atwood, Brandon Whitt, Jerry Nadeau, Ward Burton, Ricky Craven and so many more, who seem to have been, at least for the moment, forced into retirement for one reason or another.

I'm reminded of another Yogi Berra quote - "t's like deja-vu, all over again" - and it is. There's been so much uncertainty in Steve's career since the accident in 2001. I feel like the same patterns keep repeating themselves over and over again for him, and for a change I'd like to see things finallly work out for him. I'd like to see him in a really competitive ride, on any level, see him compete for wins, and see him celebrate in Victory Lane. The question is - will it ever happen, or is it going to be more dashed hopes like we've seen so many other times?

I want to stay positive, really I do, but to be honest I've had a very hard time being positive about Steve's situation since last season as any regular reader of this space has surely picked up on. Again, it's not because I think any less of Steve or that I don't think he can be successful on the track anymore. It's simply that there are some realities about the way things work these days in Nascar, and about Steve's situation, that concern me and have for a long time. I worry that even if Steve finds another ride, how long will it be for? And what happens after that?

Eventually this is all going to come to an end, it does for every driver. With Michael I don't have to worry that he's going to retire and then vanish because Michael will still be active as an owner and likely as a broadcaster for many years to come. But Steve? He doesn't have teams that he owns, and apparently doesn't have any interest in going that route, he's not involved in broadcasting, nor to my knowledge in any other business venture related to the sport, like the way that Randy LaJoie has his company that builds seats for many of the drivers, which keeps him involved even when he's not racing. So when Steve retires it's very possible that he may simply fade away, and that's something that's very sad for me to think about. So I hope that day when it's over for Steve is very far in the future.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:59 PM | Comments (2)

Michael Waltrip: In the News (8/14)

A few items of note related to Michael Waltrip today. The biggest is that Domino's pizza will be a primary sponsor on a Cup car for the first time ever this weekend when they sponsor Michael's #55 car on Sunday in the race at Michigan International Speedway. Of course next season Domino's will be a regular sponsor for Michael Waltrip Racing in Cup when they split a primary sponsorship of the #00 car with Burger King. Domino's is also a partner of the track itself and as such they will have fan entertainment, displays, product sampling and will in general be a big presence during the entire weekend. In addition, Michael said,

"...people will be really excited when they hear about the surprise Domino's has planned this weekend. I can't say anything more about it, but I'll tell you this much, it's going to be a really sweet deal."

I'm interested to see what the suprise is. I hope it relates to a deal on Chicken Kickers - love those things!

After the race at Michigan, Michael will represent the Toyota Cup teams in a test of the Car of Tomorrow. Apparently MWR, Bill Davis Racing and Red Bull Racing all worked together on developing the Toyota COT. There's been some speculation that after Bill Davis's unfortunate comments recently, in which he unfairly blamed Michael for all of BDR's problems this season, despite the fact that the organization has struggled for several years now, that BDR and MWR might not work together so smoothly. Which would be a problem since Toyota's model in the truck series is for all their teams to work together and share information. I know some fans would like Michael to sever all ties completely with BDR after this season and refuse to work with them at all, but I think in the best interests of having the Toyota teams be as successful as possible, which may not be as easy as some think it will be right away, that MWR needs to have some sort of working relationship with both BDR and RBR.

In other somewhat Michael-related news, Joey Miller, who recently lost his ride in the #12 truck when the team was shutdown, either due to the need for more personnel to work on MWR's Cup efforts or because of a lack of sponsorship, depending on who's talking, will race the #12 one more time at Bristol and will then make his Busch Series debut in Michael's #99 Aaron's Dream Machine in Memphis. The article says,

"Joey [Miller] is a great young man and he has been a joy to work with," said Darrell Waltrip, who technically owns the truck. "I'm happy that he is going to drive my brother's car at the Busch Series race in Memphis. ... I want to support anything Joey may do in the future."

I love the way they refer to DW's ownership of the #12, as he "technically" owns the truck - it's very obvious that these days Michael and MWR are making most of the decisions about DW's truck teams. But I'm also very happy that Joey is going to get an opportunity to drive the #99. I'm not going to expect too much because often rookies don't do very well in their first races in a new series, but if he can stay out of trouble, bring the car home in one piece and finish on the lead lap, it will be a good thing. I also want to support Joey in whatever he does in the future as I've come to be a fan of his. So I hope he ends up finding himself another good ride. Maybe sometime in the future he'll even end up back at MWR - for a while Michael was certainly talking very highly of him.

Tonight Michael will be on Inside Nextel Cup> at 8 p.m. on Speed. Apparently one of the panel members will be Kurt Busch, and while he's often awkward when he speaks, he should have a lot to contribute since this weekend was so eventful for him.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)

Driver by Driver: Watkins Glen

1. Kevin Harvick - Worries about leaking fuel turned out to be all for naught. Kevin's a great road course racer, so it wasn't suprising to me to see him end up in Victory Lane, though I'm sure many figured that he wouldn't be able to hold off Tony Stewart.

2. Tony Stewart - Most people had handed Tony the win before this weekend even started. He even led some laps. But in the end Kevin was better.

3. Jamie McMurray - Jamie finished third in the Busch race on Saturday as well. I have to admit I was surprised because I don't remember him ever being much of a factor on road courses before. But a great finish for Jamie and his first top five since early June. There's been some rumors that Roush might be looking to replace Jamie since he's been underwhelming in the #26 so far, but I'd be surprised if Roush gave up on him so quickly, particularly after everything they went though to get him.

4. Robby Gordon - Best finish of the season so far for Robby on one of his best tracks. Interestingly enough, Robby was critical of the DEI engine he was using after this race, but it couldn't have been that bad if he was able to finish 4th with it. In fact Robby was the highest finisher of all the DEI associated cars.

5. Carl Edwards - Great finish for Carl, but it did nothing to help him in the points. He's pretty much done as far as making the Chase.

6. Scott Pruett - Replacing David Stremme worked out for the #40 team as this is their highest finish of the season. Scott also finished the best of all the road course ringers.

7. Elliott Sadler - Could have been a disasterous day for Elliott in what was likely his last race in the #38 after he got turned by Casey Mears early on. But Elliott and his team rallied and good pit strategy eventually got them up front. The majority of this season has been subpar for Elliott and the #38 team, but it was great for them that they finished up their time together on such a high note. This finish also puts him into 20th place in the points.

8. Ryan Newman - Both Penske cars were strong but only Ryan has anything to show for it. He's actually lucky to have finished this well since the motor mounts broke, causing him to lose some spots, and then Boris Said got into him.

9. Kyle Busch - Something big broke on this car early in the race and at one point they were as many as five laps down. But since there weren't many other lapped cars back they kept getting the lucky dog and eventually were back on the lead lap. Good job of using track position and pitting at the right time to their advantage.

10. Denny Hamlin - Denny was 12th at Somona and improved on that at Watkins Glen. I'm very impressed with Denny since it appears that he's capable of strong results at all kinds of tracks, which is no small feat for a rookie.

11. Jeff Burton - A solid finish by Jeff but still drops him a spot in the points to 4th. Still, if he manages to be consistently good through the remainder of the races until the Chase he should make it in.

12. Reed Sorenson

13. Jeff Gordon - Jeff's an exceptional road course racer so this finish has to be considered a disappointment for him. Got spun on lap 67 by Mark Martin and lost a huge amount of spots but was able to race his way up to 13th by the end of the race. Drops a spot in the points to 9th, so this team needs a few strong finishes in a row to ensure they are in the Chase.

14. Clint Bowyer - Spun Michael Waltrip. :(

15. Jeff Green - Best finish for Jeff since Charlotte in May.

16. Brian Vickers - I don't remember hearing much about Brian during the race, but this wasn't a bad finish for him. Over the past few races Brian's finishes have been consistently a little better than earlier in the season so it's enabled him to move into 15th in the points.

17. Jimmie Johnson - Not a great race for Jimmie - had a loose car and some other issues but still managed a top 20 finish.

18. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Second week that Junior's gotten lucky. After a spin caused by wheel-hopping put him far back in the field, it looked like Junior was in trouble in relation to staying in the top ten in points. But a late-race spin by Kasey Kahne saved him. Junior can't make any more mistakes in the remaining races leading up to the Chase because it's not in by much right now.

19. Kurt Busch - What a day for Kurt Busch. Had the car to beat, but pitted while leading the race when pit road was closed and got sent to the back of the field. Then got caught in a wreck, but damage to his race car didn't stop Kurt from racing his way to a top 20 finish. Had to be very disappointing for this team, but it's impressive that in spite of all the problems they were able to finish this well. In relation to the pit road incident, while technically Kurt did enter pit road when the red light was on signifying that pit road was closed, by the time the light came on, it was too late for him to go back on the track. If the team had been aware that the red light had come on, they could have sent Kurt back on the track but they were never told. So I think Kurt and the team got a bum deal with this one. There was also some talk that Kurt was acting up when he tried to restart in 2nd place, but he apparently had radio problems and didn't know at first that he had to drop back to the back of the field.

20. Mark Martin - Blew an engine in Happy Hour, and had to start at the back of the field. Never really had a great car, but pitting for fresh tires towards the end of the race helped him pick up some positions in the late going.

21. Matt Kenseth - A long pit stop on lap 54 put him back in 35th position and he ended up getting caught in a seven-car wreck a few laps later while trying to make his way through the field. The team thought they were going to have to go behind the wall for repairs but managed to do the work on pit road so they could stay on the lead lap, which allowed Kenseth to finish 21st.

22. Kasey Kahne - If Junior's had good luck the past two races, Kasey's had horrible luck. For the second race in a row, Kasey was on his way to a solid finish when he was wrecked on the last lap. Had he finished well Kasey could have taken advantage of a subpar day for Junior and gotten himself back into the Chase. He's not many points behind Junior though so it's still very doable.

23. Scott Riggs - I don't think Scott was mentioned much, if at all, in this race, but he usually isn't.

24. Bobby Labonte - It was thought that Bobby going to Petty Enterprises was going to turn this team around completely. And he has had some good races in the #43, but at the moment Bobby is no higher in the points than he was last season and not much higher than Jeff Green was when he was in this car last season.

25. Scott Wimmer - A top 25 isn't bad for this team, especially considering he got caught in the lap 62 mess. I think Wimmer does a good job of getting the most he can out of the #4.

26. Dale Jarrett - Another race, another poor finish for DJ. Hasn't gotten a top 15 since Talladega in May.

27. Bill Elliott - Putting Bill in the #19 didn't really work out so well for Ray Everham. First Bill was denied the use of the Champion's provisional so he had to qualify in on speed. Then, he spun during this race and only finished 27th, which wasn't good enough to get the #19 back into the top 35 in owner's points. It's expected that Elliott Sadler will take over the #19 starting with the next race at Michigan and it's going to be interesting to see if he can turn the team around.

28. Martin Truex Jr. - Another unimpressive finish for Martin.

29. Paul Menard - Barely made it into the race and wasn't able to do much during the race either. DEI has some work to do towards making the #15 into a decent car if they're going to race it full-time next season with Menard as the driver.

30. Kyle Petty - Got into Greg Biffle and wrecked him, also spun himself late in the race.

31. Boris Said - Originally credited with a top ten finish but was dropped to 31st for some reason.

32. Ron Fellows - Travis Kvapil was removed from this car for both road course races and a lot of money was spent on special chassis for Ron to use. However, at Sonoma he finished 37th due to mechanical issues and yesterday he finished 32nd. He originally finished 10th, but was penalized 30 seconds by Nascar for by-passing the inner loop on the last lap without stopping, which I believe was a result of a wreck.

33. J.J. Yeley - Tire blew on the last lap.

34. Ken Schrader - I'm not really sure what happened to Kenny during this race but the new Little Debbie's commercial with him in it is pretty funny.

35. Casey Mears - Spun twice in the same incident on lap 78. Drops four spots to 19th in the points.

36. Michael Waltrip - Contrary to popular belief, Michael didn't wreck himself "as usual." Instead as I discussed at length yesterday, he got spun by Clint Bowyer. It's incredible how quick some fans are to blame Michael for everything, even though most of the incidents he's involved with aren't of his own doing.

37. Terry Labonte - I believe this team had some mechanical issues early on which had to be tremendously disappointing considering Terry finished 3rd in this car at Sonoma.

38. Greg Biffle - It was already going to be hard for Greg to get into the Chase but getting wrecked by Kyle Petty probably makes it almost impossible.

39. Sterling Marlin - Wrecked on lap 62. Barely hanging on to 35th in the owner's points.

40. Dave Blaney - DNF'd due to the lap 62 wreck.

41. Brian Simo - Might have caused the lap 62 wreck by getting into Dave Blaney.

42. Joe Nemechek - DNF'd due to the lap 62 wreck.

43. Marc Goossens - A mechanical issue led to him wrecking.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)

August 13, 2006

Photo of the Day - Empire State Building

Empire State Building from The Top of the Rock, New York, New York, November, 2005. Incredible how much the haze from all the pollution effects how a photo comes out.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

Good Finish Ruined for Michael Waltrip; Kevin Harvick Wins at Watkins Glen

I love road course races, and Michael Waltrip is a good, and very much underrated road course racer, so once he qualified into the race on Friday, in spite of how iffy his cars have been this season, I was really looking forward to today's race at Watkins Glen because I felt like it was a chance for Michael to have a better finish than he's usually been able to get this season. I felt even more positive about this race for him after he was able to finish 13th yesterday in the Busch race. And for a while things did seem like they were going well for the #55 team. Tommy Baldwin, Jr. who recently joined Bill Davis Racing was Michael's crew chief today and he was terrific. The communication between he and Michael was far better than it had been with Michael and any of his other crew chiefs this season. It was obvious that Michael trusts Tommy and didn't try to call all the shots. He could just focus on racing, as it should be. So with just seven laps to go, it looked like Michael was headed for a a top 25. Which would be disappointing for another team, but would be a big improvement for this team, which so often struggles to finish in the top 30, thanks to slow cars and mechanical gremlins that so often crop up.

But a top 25 finish wasn't in the cards for Michael today, and I feel almost heartbroken about it. On lap 83, Clint Bowyer got into Michael and sent him into the tire barrier with pretty significant damage. Understandably Michael was angry, even after an apology from Clint was related to him. In what must have been a shock to some of his fans who are under the impression that Michael never curses he said something along the lines of "I'm going to fucking kick the shit out of him!" Ultimately Michael was able to finish the race, but he was scored in 36th, one lap down, which is a lot worse than it should have been. I feel really bad for Michael - I always do when the finishes are poor as they have been so often this season, because contrary to popular belief, I know that racing well is still extremely important to Michael, as it always has been. Many believe that he cares more about plugging his sponsors than he does racing, but I know the passion for racing burns just as bright inside of him as it does in any other racer.

Some fans of Michael's are upset with Clint and I can understand why. But I don't think there was any intent on Clint's part to deliberately run Michael over. In general, there's an issue with some drivers, veteran and young alike, being overly aggressive at times and not showing each other enough respect on the track. But when there's less than ten laps to go in a race, it's time to go, and drivers are going to be racing each other hard. Sometimes that's going to result in incidents, Michael accidentally spun Ryan Newman a few weeks ago at New Hampshire, this week Clint accidentally wrecked him. Of course I wish that Clint had done things differently because it robbed Michael of a better finish than he's been abnfortunately Michael was on the losing end of this one. I hate that things played out this way, but sometimes things just happen.

In spite of what happened to Michael, I did end up happy at the end of this race though since Kevin Harvick won. I don't often talk about Kevin in this space, but I'm a long-time fan of his as well. It's just that I'm not as passionate a fan of Kevin's as I am of Michael or Steve Park. But I do love how much success that Kevin is having this season. I was worried for a while today because a problem on pit road led to Kevin losing some gas on the track, which could have been a huge problem because fuel mileage does come into play at this track. But ultimately Kevin had enough gas to hold off Tony Stewart and win. It sure was awesome to see him in Victory Lane!

Posted by silverdsl at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)

Not Incident-Free After All

I was so disgusted with Steve Park's results in the #31in the Busch race at O'Reilly Raceway Park, that I didn't even bother discussing it in this space. Essentially it was more of the same for Steve as he's experienced in Busch all season in the scattered starts he's made- an iffy car right from the start and by the end of the race he was multiple laps down. What made this race sting particularly badly is that Steve had managed to qualify around 25th, but somehow the team neglected to connect his hoses properly and forgot to put his window net up before the cars started rolling off pit road for the start of the race. That resuslted in Steve having to pit and then start at the back of the field. Mistakes are going to happen, but when the team already has a lot of challenges to overcome the simple mistakes need to be avoided. In any event, in an effort to try to salvage some sort of positive from this race, I had been thinking that at least Steve hadn't been involved in any incidents and had brought the car home in one piece, since many of his other Busch starts this season had involved bent sheet metal.

So imagine my surprise when I opened the most recent issue of Nascar Scene and discovered there was a photo that appeared to show Johnny Sauter and Steve spinning, with the caption that indicated that was the result from them getting together. This incident was never shown on NBC so at first I was actually thinking that NS used a photo from a prior race by accident. Well, as it turns out, as per someone who was at the race, Steve and Johnny did get together and that photo shows the result. Steve had right side damage from that incident, as well as from a later incident so he didn't leave ORP without any bent sheet metal after all. I think most fans of Steve figured that he ended up two laps down because the car was lousy, but it appears that it's possible that those incidents played a role too. Of course since NBC showed us nothing, the #31 team doesn't do any post-race reports, and Steve's site never has anything more than how he finished, we'll never really know what happened.

I guess some will say, what does it matter? It was a bad race and getting tangled up with Johnny just made it into a worse night. Well, I think it does matter when Steve's looking for a new ride for the rest of this season and in the future, that he has some incident-free races. And so far in the Busch series there haven't been many of those. The majority of truck races that Steve has raced this season have been clean, but unfortunately for Steve much more attention is paid to what happens in Busch, than in the Truck Series. Which is highlighted by how I've seen a few people make note of how Steve seems to wreck in every Busch race that he's in. If that's noticed by fans, I fear it's being noticed by team owners as well.

What's also depressing is that it appears that it's up in the air as to when we'll be seeing Steve on the track again. Steve was scheduled to race the #31 at Dover, Richmond and Homestead this fall, but it's definite they're not going to Richmond, and there's some talk that Peyton Sellars might race the #31 at Dover, not Steve. In some ways, since the results have been so poor for Steve in the #31, and I don't think there's much hope for improvement given how little resources the team has, that it might not be such a bad thing if he doesn't race it anymore. But on the other hand, I know how much he loves to race and that he hates having to sit so many races out. And of course as a fan, I miss his presence at the track.

I hope that something turns up for him soon.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2006

Elliott Sadler to the #19 Sounds Pretty Certain

There's been a ton of rumors even before Jeremy Mayfield got released that Elliott Sadler was going to replace him in the #19. Today, Elliott confirmed that he's been talking with Ray Evernham about a ride, and it sure does sound like there's a good possiblity that not only is Elliott going to end up in the #19, but that it could happen pretty soon now that Mayfield is gone. Elliott said,

"We haven't announced what we're doing, but if that (Mayfield's firing) has happened, as far as that seat being open and that's a possibility, I think we need to talk about that. Getting in sooner rather than later might be a good thing. I haven't talked to Ray about any of those circumstances but I have talked to him some about next year, but have not really come to a final agreement. Now I guess we might have to speed things up a little bit."

It may not be a done deal, but I'd be pretty surprised if Elliott didn't end up in the #19, given that he's talking about speeding up talks between himself and Ray so that he can possibly get into the car before the end of the season to get started on next year. I really hope this works out as well for Elliott as he wants it to - I have my doubts about the only reason that the #19 team has struggled this season is because of Jeremy. He was in the Chase two years in a row and I don't think he suddenly forgot how to drive. So I hope Elliott doesn't encounter some of the same problems at Evernham Motorsports that led him to leave Robert Yates Racing.

This is disappointing news for some Michael Waltrip fans who were still holding out hope that Elliott would drive the #00 for Michael Waltrip Racing. But I kind of doubted that was going to happen. It wouldn't look good if MWR took both of RYR's drivers (and a major sponsor). Beyond that, when I saw Elliott at the Tom Baldwin Memorial Golf Outing in June, he seemed to have a subtly negative attitude towards Michael when his name came up. I don't know what that was about - someone else who noticed it attributed it to bitterness that Michael had signed his teammate, but as it turned out Elliott is going to end up leaving himself.

Turns out there's no need to speculate who would take Elliott's place in the #38 - Robert Yates said today that David Gilliland could race the #38 as soon as next week, if Elliott left. Which is a wise idea since it would give Gilliland some much needed experience on the Cup level. Only thing is that Gilliland wouldn't be eligible for Rookie of the Year in 2007, but I think it's more important for him to get started on getting acclimated to racing Cup since he's got so little experience on any level in Nascar, let alone on the Cup level.

Since all parties seem to be willing to move forward, I'd guess that we will end up seeing Elliott in the #19 next weekend, and Gilliland in the #38.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Jeremy Mayfield "Terminated"

Today at Watkins Glen, Ray Evernham acknowledged that Jeremy Mayfield isn't being replaced for just one race in the #19, he's been released all together or "terminated" as Evernham put it. He said that performance was the big issue,

"When the performance is not up to par, it's frustrating on both sides. "The decision was made because of the performance of the car. There was certainly frustration, and we weren't pleased with some of the comments that were made. But in no way was that the reason for the change."

I don't really believe that. If Evernham was so concerned about performance he could have looked at making changes to the team much earlier this season when they first started struggling, rather than waiting until the entire season was lost. There's no doubt in my mind that Mayfield was going to be racing for another team next season, but I think Evernham might have kept him on longer, except that Mayfield made some very critical comments of both Evernham himself and of the organization. In addition, Mayfield was rather openly looking for a new ride for next season. I think that it got to the point where the relationship had deteriorated so far and become so sour that they couldn't work together any longer.

Now Evernham needs to find a new driver - I'd guess he might have someone lined up already, but only time will tell.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)

On News Photography Sometimes Being Unreliable

Jim Lewis has an interesting column in Slate regarding some of the recent controversies with major media outlets like the Associated Press, Reuters, The Charlotte Observer, and others in which photos were found to be fake or doctored beyond what acceptable guidelines are for the use of Photoshop. Lewis points out that even when an image isn't manipulated in Photoshop, that doesn't mean that viewers are seeing exactly what the photographer saw with his own eyes when he took the picture. The camera "sees" and records things, different than the human eye does. There's the things that photographers do - they use zoom lenses, take photos from a variety of different angles which can make the same scene look very different, or they might crop their photos, to give just a few examples. And then once the photos are out of their hands, an editor might make their own changes in terms of cropping or adjusting things slightly in the ways that are accepted in Photoshop. So while the vast majority of news photographers go out of their way to be ethical, there is still not a 100% guarantee that what ends up in the newspaper or in a magazine is exactly what the photographer saw.

And the thing is that a photograph only represents one moment in time. Sometimes we look at photographs and see someone is similing and assume they must be happy or see that they're frowning and assume that they're upset with the person that they're with. But seconds after the photo is taken, the smile could be gone. Or the frown might have been directed towards someone else. We often see photos out of context and it can be hard to know whether the caption that goes along with the photo, or what we assume to be true based on what we see in the photo, is really true.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

Brendan Gaughan Gets a New Paint Scheme; Orleans Racing to Possibly Change Name

Brendan Gaughan's #77 truck will be sporting a revised paint scheme this weekend in the truck race at Nashville but it's not because Orleans Racing finally was able to convince a sponsor to sign on as full-time primary sponsor for the #77. Instead it's because the Gaughan family no longer owns any part of The Orleans. A couple of weeks ago, Michael Gaughan, Brendan's father, sold all his shares in Boyd Gambling back to that company in exchange for the South Coast Hotel/Casino, which will now be featured on the #77 truck, since it's the only hotel/casino that the Gaughans still own now that this deal went through.

I had wondered what Orleans Racing was going to do about the #77 since it seemed unlikely to me that they would want to give free advertising to what is now a competitor, no matter how many fond memories they might have of the time they spent running The Orleans. So I'm not surprised that the South Coast, which will eventually undergo a name change to reflect the fact that the Gaughans are no longer associated with the Coast Casinos, has ended up on the truck. Apparently they're also considering changing the name of Orleans Racing as well. That's probably a lot easier said than done, since that's the name they've been known as for years now, and it's probably somewhat complicated.

There's a lot of pressure for Steve Park fans to be fans of Brendan as well because Orleans Racing gave Steve a ride in 2004. And I am grateful to the Gaughans for believing in Steve when others didn't and making it possible for him to get his first, and hopefully not last, win in the Truck Series. However, Brendan has never been high on my list of drivers that I've liked, even before Steve joined Orleans Racing. In a way it's strange that I'm not a fan of Brendan's. After all, he's outspoken and I generally like those who speak their minds. He's also very fan-friendly and I'm usually very appreciative of those who take extra time with the fans. And Brendan is a non-conformist, who won't let Nascar suck away his unique personality. But often I find myself rolling my eyes at the things that Brendan says and does.

I'm sure a lot of people will assume that I'm not a fan of Brendan's because of how Orleans Racing released Steve - and it's true that I don't care for the way that situation unfolded and how many unanswered questions there still are. (Such as why Brendan said last season that they had to pull the #62 truck off the track because Dodge was pulling their support of truck series teams, yet this season Brendan says that Dodge pulling their support was a myth and Orleans Racing still gets Dodge support). But as I mentioned above, even before all of that went down, I was iffy on Brendan. Even after meeting Brendan in person and talking with him two years ago, I never really warmed to him.

What I'm interested in is what direction Brendan's career is going to take. In the Truck Series, Brendan's had a good year in 2002 and then an outstanding season in 2003. Only thing is that was three years ago and the results since in both Cup and the Truck Series haven't been stellar. Of course in the Cup series he was in the #77, which wasn't very competitive, even after Travis Kvapil got in the car, and Orleans Racing as an organization has seemed to struggle the past couple of years as well. I suppose Brendan can continue to race for as long as he wants for Orleans Racing, but how satisfied can he be with mediocre results? Yet what kind of a ride would he be able to find elsewhere? Unless Orleans Racing folds completely I can't imagine him racing for any other team in the Truck Series and he's stated in the past that he wouldn't go back to Cup unless it was with Orleans Racing, and they certainly don't seem like they're in a position to expand. Maybe Brendan would consider racing Cup for his good friend Robby Gordon, because otherwise it seems like he might be destined to spend the rest of his days struggling to repeat his past days of Truck Series glory.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2006

Photo of the Day - Wagon Wheel

Waterloo Villiage, Stanhope, New Jersey, May, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

Mark McFarland Released From JR Motorsports

Mark McFarland has been released from the #88 Busch car, fielded by JR Motorsports, and will be replaced this weekend at Watkins Glen by Martin Truex, Jr. Team owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. said,

"Mark was instrumental in getting our Busch program off the ground and he will always have a role in the history of JR Motorsports. But the reality is that as a business we have the responsibility of delivering a level of performance for our sponsors. This change is being made to address that concern."

I understand that there is a significant amount of pressure from sponsors for positive results and McFarland being 22nd in points wasn't impressive. But McFarland is a rookie. Since he's a rookie it seems to me that both the sponsor and Junior should show a little more patience with him, because it's not unusual for young, unexperienced drivers to struggle in their first season on a new level. In addition, how is he supposed to develop into a better driver if he's not given even a full season to do it in? Not every driver is going to be able to step into a car in a new series and immediately run up front, and it's even harder in the Busch Series where there's so much competition on a weekly basis from Buschwackers coming over from the Cup series.

Now the question becomes who will replace McFarland? On one hand, Junior has shown a desire to develop young drivers. But on the other hand, if the sponsor wants more immediate results than a young driver might be able to produce, then Junior might need to go with a veteran driver. Of course Steve Park fans are speculating that he might be a candidate for this ride, and if so, I think it would be a pretty good opportunity for Steve. The car appears to be fairly decent, and JR Motorsports gets their equipment from Richard Childress Racing. But unlike Whelen Motorsports/Ted Marsh Racing who also get their motors from RCR, JR Motorsports has more resources in terms of personnel and likely funding to field cars that are more competitive than the #31. The #88 is also a full-time ride, something that Steve is very much in need of. But even if the #88 weren't the most elite of all rides in the Busch garage, if Steve were offered it, I would guess he would still consider it. At this point, while he shouldn't take a ride with a subpar team where there's no chance of good results, I don't think he can be ultra-fussy about what rides he will consider, particularly when the season is still in progress.

Although some seem to think it would be a factor, I doubt that Steve's past history with DEI (he was released by them in 2003), would play a role. Steve has said on multiple occassions that he has remained friends with Junior and JR Motorsports is run by Junior and Kelley Earnhardt, not Teresa Earnhardt. That said, is it realistic to think that Junior will put Steve in the #88? I'm not sure that it is. Unfortunately Junior may very well judge Steve the same way that other team owners do - by his most recent Busch results, which haven't been good in the least. But Steve is available so maybe they will at least chat about it.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2006

Photo of the Day - Ring

Portland, Maine, 2005.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

MLB Loses First Attempt to Control Fantasy Baseball

A while back, Major League Baseball, or more specifically Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which oversees all of MLB's internet operations, sent cease and desist orders to a number of small fantasy baseball leagues that are run over the internet, claiming that they needed a liscence from MLB to operate and that the use of the players’ names in commercial fantasy leagues violated their rights of publicity. One of those leagues, CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc., decided to fight back and sued MLB, saying that the player's names and the stats that they use are in the public domain, therefore they don't need a liscense. Yesterday United States District Court Judge Mary Ann Medler agreed with CBC, saying,

“The players’ right of publicity must give way to CBC’s First Amendment right to freedom of expression.”

This ruling is very bad news for MLB, who plan to appeal, because they won't be able to control fantasy baseball and it could have repercussions on the big deals for as much as $2 million each that they have with Yahoo and CBS Sportsline for those companies to run fantasy baseball leagues. I say good for CBC for standing up to MLB. If MLB is allowed to regulate how fantasy baseball leagues use player's names and stats, I think it could effect how that information is used in other ways as well such as on fan websites and even in newspapers, who routinely publish game and player stats. I doubt that MLB is about to give up on this one though, considering how much money is generated each year by these fantasy leagues.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)

Bill Elliott Won't Be Allowed to Use Champion's Provisional at Watkins Glen

Oops. Evernham Motorsports pulled Jeremy Mayfield out of the #19, now the the team is outside the top 35 in owner's points, and put Bill Elliott in, with the idea that Elliott would guarantee them a spot in the race because he can use the past Champion's provisional if he weren't able to qualify in on speed. However, Nascar has informed Evernham that because of the timing of the change, Elliott won't be allowed to use the Champion's provisional. In which case they may as well put Mayfield back in the car, but since his name has apparently been taken off Evernham Motorsports's letterhead, it appears they don't want much to do with him these days.

This is good news for Michael Waltrip, because it's one more open spot that's not guaranteed to another team.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2006

Photo of the Day - Driftwood Beach

Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, Georgia, July, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

Jeremy Mayfield Out for Watkins Glen; Bill Elliott In

After a 41st place finish on Sunday, the #19 driven by Jeremy Mayfield dropped out of the top 35 in owner's points and speculation began that Evernham Motorsports might opt to replace Mayfield with a road course specialist for this weekend's race at Watkins Glen. Well, they didn't go with a road course specialist, they went with Bill Elliott, who drove for Evernham from 2001-2004. The reason for putting Elliott in the car? He's eligible for the Champion's Provisional, so Evernham has little to fear about the #19 missing the race, for this week at least. Evernham is probably also hoping that Elliott will get a finish good enough to get the #19 back into the top 35 in owner's points, but that might not be so easy since Chip Ganassi Racing is replacing rookie David Stremme with road course specialist Scott Pruett.

What really gets me is not that Mayfield is being replaced, I'm not surprised by that at all, but that apparently Evernham didn't bother to inform Mayfield in a timely fashion what was going on. Mayfield only found out when a reporter from Nascar.com called him for comment. I don't care how much ill will there is between Mayfield and Evernham, there should have been some sort of phone call, if no one wanted to tell Mayfield face-to-face. That's just common courtesy. Mayfield was of course extremely displeased to hear the news in the way that he did. He said,

"It's not professional, that's for sure. That's the way everything has worked around here for a while.''

I have to agree that it is indeed unprofessional. I have no idea what other unprofessional things Mayfield is referring to, but I have to admit that I immediately thought of the rumors that have been swirling around Ray Evernham regarding his personal life.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2006

Photo of the Day - Splash!

Ogunquit, Maine. 2004.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)

Driver By Driver: The Brickyard

1. Jimmie Johnson - An outstanding win by Jimmie and the #48 team. On lap 39 Johnson suffered a flat tire, which put him back in 38th when he returned to the track. But as they have at other times this season, the #48 team didn't panic and Jimmie was able to race his way up front and win. Since he won the Daytona 500 in February, Jimmie has now won both of Nascar's most prestigious races in the same season. I'm sure many who are jealous will start whispering about cheating, but the fact of the matter is that the #48 team is one of the strongest teams on the track. Anything can happen in the ten races of the Chase, but I think Jimmie will be hard to beat.

2. Matt Kenseth - Led some laps but didn't have enough at the end to catch Jimmie. That might be similar to the way the Chase for the Championship plays out.

3. Kevin Harvick - Great race for Kevin Harvick and the #29 team! I'm really loving that Kevin is continuing to have such a good season in '06 - so much better than last year! What's really impressive is that Kevin has finished in the top five in his last four races.

4. Clint Bowyer - A career best finish for Bowyer came as a result of his crew chief gambling to go with only two tires for better track position during a caution, when other teams went with four. Started on the outside of the front row, and had a strong car all weekend.

5. Mark Martin - Solid race for Mark, rebounds with his fourth top five of the season after a so-so finish at Pocono.

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Extremely lucky to finish this well. For most of the race Junior was no better than mid-pack, and sometimes he was even worse. At one point it looked like this race might kill his chances for getting into the Chase. But Tony Eury, Jr. made a risky call to stay out for track position when other cars pitted and Junior was able to hang on to finish in the top ten. Tony, Jr. could easily have been the goat if that move didn't work out, but instead he's a hero because Junior got back into the Chase. Though Tony, Jr. saved the day, with some help from Junior behind the wheel, this race is one more sign that this team might not be as competitive as they need to be to really contend for the Championship over the last ten races.

7. Kyle Busch - Another team that looked like they were going to have a miserable day until they also gambled by staying out when other teams pitted.

8. Tony Stewart - According to Clint Bowyer he needs to learn how to give a sincere apology. According to Carl Edwards he's a moron. Nascar called Clint, Tony and Carl in for a pre-race chat but it didn't take since Tony called Carl "Eddie Haskell" during a pre-race interview, which was followed by Carl questioning Tony's intelligence. I wish that both Tony and Carl would shut it already!

9. Carl Edwards - As noted called Tony a moron on the pre-race show. I understand why he's upset but let it go!

10. Denny Hamlin - Denny's very lucky to have gotten his 9th top ten of the season. He had to deal with some engine issues and getting caught up in the last lap carnage, but he was able to make it across the finish line to round out the top ten.

11. Tony Raines - Really outstanding finish for Tony and the #96 team. It's Tony's best finish of the season, and second best for the team overall. On the last lap he ran over debris from Kasey's Kahne's wreck but luckily he was still able to cross the start/finish line in 11th.

12. Kurt Busch - Kurt had to start in the back due to having had to go to a backup car because of a practice wreck and he didn't seem to be much of a factor at any point in this race. Still, a 12th place finish isn't horrible.

13. Ryan Newman - Battled handling problems and the only time he was up front was due to a two-tire stop when others took four which didn't really work out so great for him. It's extremely unlikely that either he or Kurt will make the Chase even though they aren't mathematically eliminated yet.

14. Ken Schrader - Second top fifteen in a row for Ken and the #21 team, which is the best two-race stretch this team has had all season.

15. Jeff Burton - Many teams would be happy with a 15th place finish but this has to be a huge disappointment for Jeff and his team considering he started from the pole and led 87 laps. However, he very suddenly faded and wasn't able to ever get back to the front. The team thinks that something mechanically might have gone wrong, such as a broken shock, for the car to have faded that much.

16. Jeff Gordon - Suffered a broken sway bar early in the race and went three laps down but due to being in position to get the lucky dog, ended up being able to get back on the lead lap and finish 16th. Many fans believe that Nascar deliberately threw cautions to help Jeff get back on the lead lap but I say BS. There are so many times that drivers go laps down and get back on the lead lap due to good luck and making sure they're in position to get the lucky dog. The sign of a good team is one that makes sure they're in position to benefit from good fortune. This finish was good enough to move him up to 8th in the points.

17. Brian Vickers - Another so-so finish for Brian. He finished 4th at Pocono but wasn't able to follow it up with another strong result. I'm really interested to see how he does next season when he's with Red Bull Racing and whether the results will be any better for him.

18. David Stremme - What would be a mediocre finish for another team is something to celebrate for this team because it moved them up a spot in the owner's points so that they are locked in for next week's race at Watkins Glen. I'm still not impressed with Stremme, but he has improved over the last couple of months as he's gotten more experience.

19. Martin Truex Jr. - Another decent but not spectacular finish for Martin. At least he made the race - teammate Paul Menard failed to qualify for this race in the #15, which is somewhat surprising to me. Although there were a lot of entries, that car should have been good enough to make it in the show.

20. Scott Wimmer - Good finish for Scott considering that he's racing for a subpar team. There's some talk that Scott might be under consideration for the #00 at MWR now that Jeremy Mayfield is likely to sign with BDR. I'm not thrilled with Scott because of the whole DUI thing a couple of years ago, but I do think he would probably get solid results in the #00. He would also be used to having to qualify on speed for races, as the driver of the #00 will have to do for the first five races of 2007.

21. Scott Riggs - It appeared that he got into Robby Gordon on the last lap which sent Robby into Greg Biffle. Oops.

22. Bill Elliott - Considering how stinky the #00 car has been both at testing and at the two previous races that it's been in this season, this is an outstanding finish for Bill. Though he might have picked up a few positions due to the last lap wrecking, it was still a better race for this team than what we've seen so far. That gives me hope for next season for MWR that they will be able to field better cars than the junk that Michael's been getting from BDR.

23. Casey Mears - Had a tight race car and also received damage from a pit road run-in with the #7.

24. Joe Nemechek - I don't think I heard Joe's name mentioned once in this race.

25. Travis Kvapil - Or Travis, despite a fairly decent race for this team.

26. Jamie McMurray - This team had started to show some signs of improvement but over the past few races, the results have really gotten poor again. Apparently problems on a late race pit stop doomed Jamie to a 26th place finish. I wonder how long Jack Roush will let this go on before making some changes, either to the crew or to the driver. I can't imagine him giving up on Jamie so soon, but surely Jack was expecting more from Jamie than this.

27. Kyle Petty - Kyle finished better than last week. These days that's about all the good that can be said about the #45 team. Apparently he's discussed retiring with Robbie Loomis if the right driver came along to replace him, but I don't know how soon that will be.

28. Dale Jarrett - This team is so bad that DJ went into this race aiming not to race up front, but just to manage to finish in the top 15, something they haven't done since Talladega in early May. The team wasn't exactly a Chase contender in the first few months of the season, but they were definitely a lot better than a back-of-the-pack team, which is sadly for DJ, about all they are now.

29. Dave Blaney - His teammate Michael Waltrip wasn't able to qualilfy for the race, but Blaney was even slower. The #22 team is lucky that they're guaranteed a spot due to owner's points.

30. Reed Sorenson - Had to go to a backup car due to a practice crash, then got into Boris Said and wrecked him on lap 20. Fought a tight handling car for the rest of the race.

31. Sterling Marlin - Another driver who wasn't seen or heard from during the broadcast of the race.

32. Kenny Wallace - And another driver who was never mentioned, depsite having qualified into the race on Speed over well funded teams like the #55, #15, and #90.

33. Greg Biffle - The last lap wreck probably eliminated any hope of Greg making the Chase. Greg's just has really rotten luck this season and this race was no different.

34. J.J. Yeley

35. Robby Gordon - Scott Riggs got into Robby which sent him into Greg Biffle. A lot of people are blaming Robby for this wreck, and that's easy to do considering how many times Robby does seem to get himself into trouble on the track, but I don't think this one was his fault.

36. Kasey Kahne - Poor Kasey. He was in 9th when he got loose while racing near Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart and went into the wall super-hard. Good thing for safer barriers! This was an extremely costly wreck for Kasey as it dropped him four places in the points to 11th, so he's outside the Chase for the moment and it likely won't be easy to get back in. It's incredible considering how he has 4 wins this season, that he might not make the Chase. A lot of fans felt that Nascar not throwing the caution led to this wreck but the fact of the matter is that Nascar didn't wreck Kasey he got loose. Considering it was the last lap and how the Biffle/Gordon wreck played out I can understand why Nascar didn't throw the caution.

37. Mike Skinner - Made it into this race with an engine built by Bill Elliott's brother.

38. Jeff Green

39. Chad Chaffin

40. Bobby Labonte - Engine woes ended his day early.

41. Jeremy Mayfield - Got into the wall at one point, but I'm not sure if that was what put him out of the race or not. With this finish, the #19 drops out of the top 25 in owner's points, something that I was pretty sure was going to happen sooner or later. They're now not guaranteed a spot in next week's race so Ray Evernham is thinking about replacing Jeremy with a road course ringer. Only thing is that it's probably way too late to start thinking about doing that as the majority of road course specialists already have rides for Watkins Glen.

42. Boris Said - Wrecked by Reed Sorenson.

43. Elliott Sadler - Poor Elliott. Got loose and wrecked on lap three!! And then had to stick around for the rest of the race because he promised Junior a ride home on his plane since Junior's plane was in for servicing.

44. Michael Waltrip - Okay, there was no 44th place finisher and Michael didn't race this race, the first time since 1975 that there wasn't a Waltrip in a Cup race. Michael ended up watching the race from Bill Elliott's pit since he owns the #00 - I'd guess it wasn't easy to stand there and watch knowing that he should have been racing.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)

Mark Martin Being Wooed To Continue Racing Cup for Roush in 2007?

I respect Mark Martin's right to continue racing as long as he wants to, particularly since the results have been so good this season - Martin is currently 6th in the points. However, it seems to me that Martin and all those around him should just drop all talk of him retiring from racing Cup full-time until it actually happens. Recently, Martin was talking as if the door was still open for him to race Cup next season, and the reason why may be that Ford and Roush Racing have offered Martin as much as $8 million to stay on in the #6 car for another season. Apparently Todd Kluever has not developed as much as it was expected he would and there are some concerns about him taking over the #6 as was the original plan.

I'm sure Kluever must be a bit disappointed by this turn of events, but he shouldn't be surprised. Jon Wood had a development deal with Roush and was given the impression that he might be given the #6 after Martin retired. Ricky Craven raced for Roush in the Truck Series, and it seemed as if he also thought he was under consideration for that ride. And when Jamie McMurray started talking with Roush last season, I would guess that he too thought he would end up in the #6, not fill Kurt Busch's suddenly vacant seat. The problem is, and particularly with how well Martin has been racing, that Martin's shoes are hard to fill. Ford, Roush and the sponsors probably want a driver who will have the same kind of success that Martin is having, and they probably don't want to wait that long for that to happen. Thing is that there really aren't all that many drivers like that available. Martin has had a tremendous career, it will be very difficult for the next driver to repeat what he did in the #6.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

Bill Davis Plays the Blame Game: It's All Michael's Fault

So Bill Davis decided that he was going to unfairly pin the blame for all of Bill Davis Racing's struggles on Michael Waltrip. He said to the Peoria Journal Star

"Certainly the Michael (Waltrip) deal was an enormous distraction at the first of the year. He came in and struggled and really disrupted the shop and had us changing our cars and doing crazy stuff. Five or six weeks ago, I took the stance that I didn't know what else we could do to help him - he'd had several different combinations of cars and bodies and chassis and crew chiefs - and we needed to get back to basics and do the things we'd always done and do what works (for Blaney's car). And that's what we've done."

Just exactly what is Michael supposed to do - be happy with racing around in 35th place every week? Accept cars that are slow as molasses? Put up with continuing mechanical issues like brake failures, engine woes, and issues with the electrical system? Of course if Michael hadn't asked for changes and tried to make things work, Davis would probably accuse him of not caring, and that would be his excuse for why things have been so bad for BDR this season. The cars that Michael has had to race this season have been unacceptably bad. While I know that Michael has some of his own personnel working on the #55 team, the fact of the matter is that he is still getting personnel, equipment and support to a large degree from BDR, and it is their responsiblity to find a way to make things at least marginally better, if not for Michael's sake, then because they should have some sort of pride in what they bring to the track each week.

Let's be clear about one thing. Bill Davis owns Bill Davis Racing. Not Michael Waltrip. Ultimately the buck stops with Davis and the success and failures of his organizations rests on his shoulders. And the fact of the matter is that both of his cars are embarassingly bad this season. While the results for the #22 have been somewhat better than for the #55, Dave Blaney is in 30th in driver points; the #22 is 31st in owner points, neither is much to be impressed with. Of course with the lack of factory support from Dodge it was going to be hard for BDR to field competitive cars this season, but let's face it, the responsiblity for that too rests on Davis's shoulders, considering he was the one who upset Dodge by entering into an agreement with Toyota to field trucks for them in the Truck Series while he was still associated with Dodge.

Months ago someone called in to XM and said that they felt that Michael's struggles on the track were because BDR doesn't want to give him as much support as they give the #22 team since Michael and the #55 won't be a part of BDR in 2007, whereas the #22 will be. I think there might be some truth to that. From BDR's point of view, why would they invest a lot of time and money into a driver and team who will be directly competing against them next season? In the truck series, all the Toyota teams seem to work together very closely, but it seems to me that there might be some issues when it comes to getting the Toyota teams to work together on the Cup level, though publically I'm sure they'll pretend that everything is fine and dandy.

None of this is surprising when it comes to BDR. I had my reservations about Michael racing for BDR, but I tried to be optimistic since in this sport it's impossible to predict exactly what's going to happen. But Ward Burton left BDR under bad terms, Tommy Baldwin's departure wasn't a good one, though they've obviously patching things up now, and Scott Wimmer certainly wasn't happy with BDR after he was released. There's also the whole debacle with Steve Park - it's a complete unknown whether BDR played any role in that deal not being able to be completed. And on top of that, I've always been troubled by the fact that BDR will say one thing publically one week and then shortly afterwards it turns out that something else is true. Such as saying that Scott Wimmer's ride for '06 was safe, then releasing him not long after. Or claiming that they hadn't had any discussions with Michael about a ride for this season, only to announce that he would be racing the #55 for them a few week later.

I'm kind of sick of Michael getting no respect from anyone. Not his "partner" or whatever Bill Davis's working relationship is to Michael at this point. Not from fans, many of whom are convinced that Michael doesn't care about racing and only cares about plugging sponsors and shilling for Nascar. Which is total BS. Michael cares about racing just as much as any other driver on the track. If not, there's no way he would have lasted in Cup for 22 years and he wouldn't get as upset, frustrated, angry and miserable as he does over the radio when things go poorly on the track, as they have so often this season. Not everyone has to like Michael, I'm sure he's made his share of mistakes just like any other human being does, and not everyone has to appreciate his abilities behind the wheel, which are a lot greater than most people think, but it sure would be nice if he wasn't always used as a punching bag for fans and others.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)

August 05, 2006

Michael Waltrip Fails to Qualify for Indy

I feel awful for Michael Waltrip because he failed to qualify the #55 for tomorrow's Cup race at Indy, but this outcome isn't all that unexpected unfortunately considering how much the team has struggled this season. Based on the comments by Ty Norris, General Manager of Michael Waltrip Racing, they weren't all that surprised either that they missed qualifying for their second race this season. He said,

"We've been dodging bullets for three or four months. If you run through a field full of landmines, you're going to step on one. We stepped on one in Charlotte and we stepped on one here.''

But unlike at Charlotte where they entered into a deal with Derricke Cope's team to buy his ride, that won't happen for this race. Apparently they agreed with NAPA that they would only do that once and since the #00, fielded by MWR, did make the race, it seems that presents a way to get NAPA into the race, via a few decals on that car. Michael will still be busy this weekend as he will appear on Tradin' Paint on Speed this evening and David Reutimann will be racing his #99 Aaron's Dream Machine in the Busch race this evening. Apparently there is a possiblity that Michael will also end up in the booth for tonight's Busch race or tomorrow's Cup race. He will also have sponsor and other hospitality obligations to keep him busy tomorrow.

Ty also said that going with Bill Davis Racing despite their struggles was the right choice - maybe even their only choice.

"Even sitting here today with an 800-pound boot stuck in the middle of your gut, it was the right decision. If you'd have done something with another organization you'd be faced with similar transitional issues, with similar build-up issues. You wouldn't have been able to get the points. Everybody else is tied up with a manufacturer, so that would have made tension with what we could and couldn't do with Toyota. Because of that it was the right decision."

Ty also said that NAPA (and presumably Michael's other sponsors) are understanding that this is a transiational year. LIkely they know that to make everything happen with Toyota next season, there really wasn't much choice but to go with BDR this season. It's unfortunate because it means that they will have to worry about qualifying in on time for the first five races next season, when there will be even more cars vieing for the available 43 spots, but so far the #55 team has managed to make more races than they've missed, even with some really slow cars. So hopefully with some Toyota horsepower under the hood next season, they'll be in much better shape!

It's very depressing to think about Michael not racing tomorrow. It breaks a very long streak of 268 consecutive Cup races that he's been a part of, which is no small accomplishment. Worst of all is how difficult I know it will be for him to sit it out. Michael might be smiling and trying to keep a positive outlook publically, but inside he probably feels pretty upset. No race car driver wants to sit out a race that they should be racing in. Some seem to have the impression that racing isn't Michael's first priority, that plugging his sponsors is. But that's far from the truth. Anyone who listens to him over his radio during a race knows that he is just as passionate about racing as any other driver. Otherwise he wouldn't get as frustrated and angry when things don't go right, as they often have this season, or sound so happy when he's racing up front like he did so often last season.

I realized that next week is Watkins Glen, so while Michael is an excellent road course racer, it likely won't be much easier to make the field for that race either because a lot of the teams, even the subpar teams, will have road course ringers behind the wheel. So depending on how big the entry list is, the #55 team might have their work cut out for them next week too. But no matter what happens, whether Michael fails to qualify next week or for other races, whether the results continue to be as putrid as they've been so far this season, I will still support him 110%. I believe in Michael's ability behind the wheel completely - when he's given a competitive car to race, he can race up front with it and win - he's proven that in the past. Michael is also an outstanding person with so many positive qualities, from how fan-friendly he is to how much he does for charity. And he's also extremely intelligent and goal-oriented - what he's doing with Michael Waltrip Racing is incredible. I'm very proud to be a fan of his, no matter how bad this season gets!

Posted by silverdsl at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)

August 04, 2006

Still Waiting for the Facts Surrounding Steve Park's Failed Deal with BDR

I'm one of the first ones to discuss, speculate, ask questions and wonder about all sorts of things related to baseball and especially Nascar - this blog is proof of that. But I at least like to have some sort of bare-bones facts to go on from some sort of reliable source. Mind you, that doesn't mean that I dismiss everything from Jayski's or every single "I heard.." item that's posted on a message board. But before I run with something and assume that it's fact, I like to have at least some sort of semi-official source commenting on it, even if it's a denial or in the vagest of terms.

In the case of Steve Park's failed deal with Bill Davis Racing for a truck ride, we have none of that. To my knowledge not a single person has commented on the record about why that deal fell through. Not even Steve, who claimed he didn't know exactly why the deal with the sponsor(s) couldn't get completed in a recent XM interview. All we have is a comment by Claire B. Lang in which she said after an interview with Mike Brown from BDR, that she "heard" that the deal fell through because a sponsor wasn't approved by Nascar. Any number of wanting-to-be-helpful anonymous (of course) posters on Steve Park Central and the Visitor's Log on Steve's official website have come out of the woodwork with all sorts of details of what supposedly went down. And I have no doubt that there is a good chance that some of the basic information is true - there possibly was a fuel sponsor lined up to sponsor Steve in a BDR truck, only Nascar didn't approve the deal due to a conflict with Sunoco, the official fuel sponsor of the sport. However, we have no idea if that is true or not absolutely for sure, regardless of what someone from BDR supposedly said, or what someone who talks to someone affiliated with Steve's team might have said. Nor are any of the other items that are floating around confirmed as fact either. Just because someone said that they heard from a friend of Steve's who owns a pizza shop on Long Island that there's a hauler at BDR all painted and ready to go or that someone at BDR screwed the deal up, doesn't mean that it's true. Like the game of telephone, frequently information gets miscommunicated as it passes from one person to another - and that's if the information was true in the first place. And don't even get me started on agendas and biases.

There are people already talking about blaming Nascar, blaming Sunoco or blaming BDR. That in spite of not knowing one single concrete fact about this failed deal other than Steve doesn't have a ride at BDR because they were unable to complete things on the sponsorship side. Not to mention while everyone is running around assuming that this deal failed to materialize only because Nascar didn't approve a sponsor that conflicted with Sunoco, it's entirely possible that there was actually more than one reason. Steve said during his XM interview that they were talking to multiple sponsors - for all we know Nascar not approving the fuel sponsor was one only one sponsorship deal that didn't happen that needed to for Steve to get this ride. And there are a thousand other variables that could have come into play here. For all we know Steve himself hasn't been told the complete story by BDR, Nascar or the sponsors that he might have been talking to.

Let me also add that assuming that it's true that they did have a fuel sponsor lined up and Nascar didn't approve it, I have a very hard time ripping Nascar for that, without knowing more specifics of what their agreement with Sunoco is. There could very well be language that forces Nascar to deny certain fuel-related sponsors. Maybe Sunoco even gets to decide whether those sponsors are allowed or not and Nascar has to go along with thier wishes. Fact of that matter is that Nascar can't do anything to jeopardize their relationship with Sunoco - they aren't just any "official" sponsor, they provide all the fuel to the sport. They are likely one of the largest overall sponsors the sport has in terms of not only the amount of money they might pay to be an "official" sponsor but also in terms of the goods and services they provide in relation to literally fueling the sport. Plus all the marketing and promotions they do. Truck sponsorships might be somewhere in the neighborhood of $2-5 million, I would guess the Sunoco sponsorship is worth significantly more than that and benefits the entire sport. So while it's extremely disappointing that Steve might have lost a deal due to a potential conflict like this, I have complete understanding for why this sponsor might not have been approved.

Sometimes it seems that in the online racing communities, fans are very trusting. There are plenty of people like me who are skeptical of anonymous people who claim to have inside information, question even what the official spokespeople say, speculate and wonder about all sorts of scenarios. But it seems as if there are many people who take what's said at face value, and believe that everyone is posting in good faith and tells the truth 100% of the time. Fact is, that's not always the case. There have been a number of times that even with my limited resources I've done a bit of investigative work and found that what some claim is true, isn't. On the internet, anyone can post anything, at anytime and there's often no way of verifying it. Or knowing if they're posting with some sort of agenda, leaving important information out, etc... That's not to say that all of what's been surfacing about this failed deal of Steve's is BS - I have no doubt that people are getting information from good sources. But there's simply no telling how much of it might be accurate or not, without some sort of even vague statement from an official source to back it up. Especially in light of Steve himself saying that he didn't fully know or understand the reasons why this deal fell apart - if he doesn't, then how could anyone else?

Posted by silverdsl at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2006

Photo of the Day - Spotters

Pocono, PA, July, 2005.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)

In The News: Michael Waltrip (8/3)

Things have been pretty quiet regarding Michael Waltrip lately, particularly since the Cup series had a break last weekend. But this weekend the Cup series returns to action at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Busch and Truck Series will also be racing nearby at O'Reilly Raceway Park. Before heading to the track, Michael will be doing an appearance at an Avon, IN, Sofa Express and will also be one of several Nascar drivers who will be on Larry King Live tonight on CNN at 9 p.m. to promote the new movie Talladega Nights.

As for the race itself, Michael said that this race is one that he would very much like to win.

“We all look forward to going to the Brickyard. It's definitely one of the biggest races of the year. I'm real proud to get to come here to this wonderful facility and compete. I've always enjoyed racing at Indy. I think the first year we had a top-10 finish and we haven't had one since; so we have to get back on it and hopefully we'll figure that one out and have a good run. Someone asked me recently how important winning the Indy race would be for me. I don’t think it would compare to winning the Daytona 500 just because of that track’s history with NASCAR, but the Allstate 400 trophy is definitely one I want to win. I sure would like to kiss the Yard of Bricks.”

Unfortunately I don't think Michael is going to kiss the bricks this year because barring the #55 team showing up at the track with a significantly better car than Michael's had to race of late, it would likely take a 42-car wreck to make a win possible. I sure would like to see Michael kiss the bricks at some point though either as a driver or as an owner! I know he has the ability behind the wheel to win, he just needs the car to allow him to race competitively.

Michael will also be busy as an owner this weekend. David Reutimann will drive the #99 Aaron's Dream Machine in the Busch race on Saturday and he will also race the #17 truck on Friday night. David has been extremely impressive as of late, not just in the Truck Series, where he's contending for the Championship, but also in the Busch Series, where he's been able to race up front with all the Buschwackers. I look forward to seeing what he can do next season when he's racing full-time in the Busch Series. Michael Waltrip Racing will also be fielding a car for Bill Elliott in the Cup Series. Elliott has won at the Brickyard before, and overall has raced very well there. Technically both he and Michael have to qualify for the Cup race on time, but as a past Cup Champion, Bill is eligible for the Champion's provisional. I'm just hoping that the #55 team shows up with a great car and that everything goes perfectly for them during qualifying. It would really stink if the #00 made it in, but the primary car, the #55 didn't.

Claire B. Lang had Joey Miller on "Dialed In" on XM yesterday to talk about his release from the #12 truck. He really didn't shed much light on what went down and volunteered very little other than what was already known publically. Basically, he said that the #12 truck team was shut down because Michael Waltrip Racing was short on personnel to work on the Cup side of things. What Joey said that was most interesting is regarding an issue that has been speculated about quite a bit this season - whether DW is just the owner on paper of the truck teams or whether Michael is the real owner of those teams. Michael has been talking as if he calls the shots with the truck teams and at the very least there have been signs that both operations were going to merge, but nothing has been officially announced. However, Claire asked Joey directly this very question. Joey didn't say yes, but he did say that DW had nothing to do with the decision, which would be pretty unusual if he was really the owner of those teams. Joey said that the decision was made by those at "Waltrip Racing" which was how he seemed to refer to MWR during the interview.

That pretty much told me that yes, those are Michael's truck teams, which gets me (and a lot of other people) curious as to just exactly how long Michael has been directly involved with those teams. Back when DW first started fielding Toyotas in the Truck Series, which I believe was two years ago, Michael was still a Chevy driver at DEI. Any contact with Toyota, particularly regarding the ownership of some teams would be a huge no-no - just ask Bill Davis. It also makes one wonder if the plan for Michael to field Toyotas on the Cup and Busch level through MWR really only came up last summer as he's said that it did. It's entirely possible that DW really did have the first contact with Toyota and it's only now that the decision-making has shifted to Michael and MWR, but it does make one wonder.

Someone on a fan forum, who apparently has a friend on the #17 truck team and has posted reliable information in the past, said that the #12 team isn't gone completely because Michael will be racing that truck in some races that are at the same track as Cup races. I know that Michael really enjoys truck racing and he's indicated that he would like to race a truck again. I would also love to see it happen, knowing how much fun it would be for him, though I would very much miss him in the booth for Speed, since I think he does an outstanding job. But if that piece of information is true, I just wish that Michael in a truck didn't come at the expense of another driver, particularly one who is just starting to develop. There may very well be more to the story as to why the team was shut down and Joey lost his ride - they might not have been happy with his performance, felt that he wasn't going to develop into the driver they thought he was going to or there were off-the-track issues. I'll likely never know. But I had taken a liking to him and I felt particularly bad when he made a comment yesterday about needed to find a new ride so he can make his house payments. I think a lot of fans assume that all the drivers are financially set for life once they start racing. That's certainly true for many. But that's not true for all of them, and especially not a young driver who has raced in the truck series exclusively where the purses are so low.

In any event, I hope Michael has a very safe and successful race weekend. I'm worried about how qualifying is going to go considering there are 50 cars entered so that's a big challenge for the #55 team to make the race. But Michael is up to any challenge on the track so hopefully everything will work out well for him there. Once he does make the race, I'm not going to expect too much - I'll be happy with an incident-free race and hopefully a top 25, if not better!

ETA: In all fairness, I have to add that I was listening to XM and during an MRN news update, they said that the #12 folded due a lack of sponsorship money, though they did have Curb Records on the truck. Supposedly they are searching for another sponsor and the future of the team is in question. Well, I'd guess if it's true that Michael is gettin behind the wheel for a few races, they won't have much of a problem finding a sponsor to put on the truck for those races. In any event, that is definitely not anywhere near what Joey said was the reason why he's now out of a truck ride, so with so much in Nascar, who knows where the truth lies? The team could have folded for a combination of reasons, I suppose.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)

Whaaaaambulance

This image totally cracked me up. Depending on the way it's used it could be really insulting and wouldn't be right, but there are times....

Posted by silverdsl at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

Tolerance

Sometimes it seems as if people really don't have that much tolerance for each other anymore, and particularly for each other's differences. Not everyone has the same life experiences. Not everyone has the same education level. Not everyone lives or has lived in the same part of the country or even the same part of the world. Not everyone has the same racial, religious, sexual or socio-economic background. Not everyone is as healthy as the next person. Not everyone has the same communication or social skills. Not everyone has the same thought process. Some people even have physical, mental or learning disabilities. And as I'm fond of saying in this space all the time - not every has the same opinions about things either. Yet it seems as if there are a lot of people who have trouble with anything or anyone who is the slightest bit "different." I put that in quotes because what is different from the norm to one person might be completely normal and accepted to the next person.

Throughout my life I've been exposed to a wide variety of people, places and opinions. I think I've been lucky in that regard because it's what led me to think that the world would be a very boring place if everyone was the same and had the same opinions. I've been harassed because I'm Jewish and because some in the past have felt that I've not fit in with everyone else. I've seen others harassed for other reasons. Perhaps that has taught me a lot about the importance for tolerance or what it's like to not be understood. Whatever the reason, sometimes it seems as if some people are very closed-minded to other people and their differences.

What brought on this post? Yesterday I was reminded of an incident that happened a while ago that I found very troubling because to me it reflected a lack of tolerance and understanding. And it makes me sad.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2006

Photo of the Day - Driftwood Beach

Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, Georgia, July, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)

Here's a Strange One...

Kevin Harvick was the subject of this week's 10 questions feature on Nascar.com. In response to what his most embarassing moment was, Kevin said,

"There have been a few of them, so I don't know. But I think the most recent one was probably waking up in the morning, to Tony Stewart, as I'm taking a shower. That wasn't embarrassing, but that was probably one of the most uneasy feelings. I get done washing my hair and turn the shower off and turn around and he's standing there watching me take a shower. So that wasn't the most pleasant thing, but he thought it was pretty entertaining, I guess. That was [at New Hampshire], a year ago."

I'm sure there's a logical explanation for why Tony was watching Kevin take a shower, but that's a little strange. It's like something out of a fan-fic. Only it really happened.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

The Two Sides of Elliott Sadler

I find Elliott Sadler a little perplexing. On one hand there's this guy who's outstanding with the fans, ultra-nice, a great race car driver, has a very family-friendly image in public, represents his sponsor exceedingly well and seems about as candid and forth-coming as he can possibly be in this sport. Yet there's this other Elliott Sadler that occasionally surfaces that really seems to irk even some of his die-hard fans. Few people share all of themselves with everyone and the vast majority of people who are any kind of celebrity have a public persona that might be very different than their private persona. I know full well that just because someone seems one way in the media or at appearances with fans doesn't mean they're necessarily that way all the time. I think most fans realize that we don't truly know the people that we idolize even though sometimes it seems that way. But I think most fans would like to think that when they meet someone that they're a fan of that they are encountering more of the "real" person than not.

And I think it's hard for some fans to think that they're getting a taste of the "real" Elliott when he says one thing and then sometimes does another. Like saying that he was staying at Robert Yates Racing, then using the "out" in his contract to leave, the second time in his career that he's left an organization he's been contractually obligated to before the contract was over. Or when Elliott indicates that he doesn't drink alcohol, when in reality it's clear that he does. When I was at the Tom Baldwin Memorial Golf Outing in June, someone offered Elliott a beer and he said something along the lines of "I don't drink that stuff." In all fairness that could have referred to the specific kind of beer he was offered, but given that I had seen at least one other "I don't drink" comment from him, I was kind of guessing that he was trying to claim that he doesn't drink at all. Which is beyond laughable considering how many photos there are on the web of Elliott holding beer or what is likely other alcoholic beverages. In fact, it was so hilarious that he made that remark, I seriously considered asking him about why he has said he doesn't drink when obviously he does.

Of course a lot of the drivers, teams and sponsors say one thing, when they might really think something else entirely. Or they spin and hide the full details about things that happen. Elliott is hardly alone in that regard and it makes it hard to know when someone says something whether it's trust-worthy or whether it's the full story. For example, just last week Steve Park said in an interview on XM that sponsorship for his ride with BIll Davis Racing hadn't been able to be finalized for reasons that he didn't fully know. Thing is that he likely did know, at least partially, what those reasons were since at least three sources have said in one form or another that Steve's sponsor wasn't approved by Nascar - I have a really hard time believing that those people know but Steve didn't. Given that one of those people was Claire B. Lang who had just talked to Steve, there's a very good chance she got that information from Steve himself off-the-record! Now, I understand that Steve probably wasn't free to talk about the sponsor not getting approved, but I find it very difficult to sort through exactly what the "real" story is when it's hard to know whether or not someone is being forth-coming. Which it appears Elliott might not always be, in spite of him saying to me at the same golf event that he will answer any question that a fan asks him honestly.

Then there was the whole My Space mess, and I still have no clue what Elliott or his "people" were thinking with that one. On one hand it's completely understandable that they would want to have an official My Space profile for Elliott, since there are many fake My Spaces for any number of the drivers. But what I don't get is why the initial profile, which was clearly a personal page meant for his friends was advertised on his official fan club website. There were references to things that weren't so family-friendly and the only people who could be friended were those who knew him, coincidentally many of them seeming to be scantily-clad women with big boobs. Naturally many of his fans were not amused. Actually a lot of them were horrified by what they saw in that profile. Now I think Elliott has the right to do whatever he wants in his personal life, as do all the drivers. They drink, they party, some of them have casual relationships, etc... But given Nascar's family-friendly image, if the drivers are going to do things like that they need to be careful to keep it under wraps as much as possible - and advertising a My Space that makes reference to a lot of those things is definitely not the way to go. Fact is, that a lot of the fans, and many of the teams and sponsors, are conservative and they aren't all that accepting of certain things, some of which was made reference to that My Space profile. Eventually that profile was cleaned up and made into something much more geared towards the fans and Elliott created a new personal profile, which he eventually made private, a very smart move. That's the way it should have been done in the first place, and it's really puzzling that a driver who is normally so aware of image-related issues, wouldn't think that the original My Space profile would clash with the way he presents himself publically to fans and potentially cause some problems for him, which it did.

I understand that Elliott and those around him likely made a decision at some point that he was better off having a squeaky clean image in public - and that's certainly not unusual for many of the drivers. I also think, as I made mention of above, that Elliott has the right to live his life the way that he feels is best. I like Elliott tremendously even though I don't always agree with some of the things that he says and does - but that's true of everyone that I'm a fan of. But I find that with most other drivers or other atheletes, there's a smoother blend between their public and personal personas. With Elliott it's like there's two sides to him that he tries to keep separate and he's not always successful.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:24 PM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2006

Photo of the Day - Misty Boat

Lincolnville, Maine, 2002. I really wish I was going to Maine this summer.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)

I Had a lot to Say...

...but it was one of those days that just about every time I started an entry I got stuck or got distracted. Maybe I'll do better tomorrow.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)

Shows How Little Anyone Cares About the Truck Series...

... that no one has seemed to notice that apparently Joey Miller has lost his truck ride with Darrell Waltrip Motorsports. In fact, the only reason I know is that someone on a Michael Waltrip forum mentioned that he was about to be released. So I looked at the entry list for the truck race at Indy and not only is Joey Miller not on the list, the #12 truck isn't even entered! I guess no one cares about a rookie who hasn't done much so far on the track, but in another series it seems to me that someone, somewhere would be wondering about why he's mysteriously been left off the entry list.

I had taken a liking to Joey since Michael had spoken so highly of him more than once this season, and also because if his interviews with Claire B. Lang on XM. So I'm disappointed that he's apparently been released. I have to say apparently because there's not actually been an official announcement so for all I know, Joey opted to leave the #12. It's just really puzzling to me because just a few weeks ago Michael was talking about Joey in reference to the 3rd Michael Waltrip Racing Cup car, now he seems to be out of a ride. If they really thought so much of him, why does it appear he's rideless now? Unless there was an off-the-track issue with Joey, it seems to me that a little more patience perhaps could have been shown for a 21-year old rookie to develop. It also makes me wonder what's going to happen with DW's truck operation next season - they'll need a driver at the very least, maybe even a sponsor too, if Curb Records is gone with Joey, since Reutimann's truck doesn't have a sponsor.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)