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February 28, 2007

Photo of the Day - Paulinskill Viaduct

Paulinskill Viaduct, New Jersey. Spring, 2006. I really want to make another trip out to the viaduct once it gets warmer out.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)

Jeremy Mayfield Gets a New Crew Chief?

It's a little hard to piece together exactly what's going on with Jeremy Mayfield's #36 team but Derrick Finley appears to be out as crew chief, and Tommy Baldwin, Jr., Bill Davis Racing's director of competition, is in, at least somewhat. There's been no official press release about this, but according to what's been said on the forum on the 360otc.com site, Tommy confirmed in an interview tonight on Speed that there has been a crew chief change on the #36, and that it will be a crew chief by committee scenario. Of course the #36 team has failed to qualify for the first two races of the season, and it's going to be almost impossible for them to salvage a good finish in either the owner or Championship points this season. However, it's not often that a team panics after the first two races, and makes a change so soon. I think what's even more unusual is if it's true that it's a crew chief by committee situation - usuallly a team would want to get even an interm crew chief to provide stability.

I can't say I'm surprised that Finley didn't work out as crew chief of the #36. He's been around the sport a long time, and has an engineering background so I'm sure he's extremely knowledgable about the cars. However, I didn't like his crew chiefing style when he was Michael Waltrip's crew chief on the #55 last season, a position he had only through the first ten or so races until he was replaced. Finley's communcation with Michael was terrible, and it seemed as if he was always unsure of the decisions he was making, which seemed to lead to Michael not having much confidence in those decision either. I think that situation hurt the performance of the team because they never really gelled as a team, and Michael often seemed unable to focus on just driving, because he had to worry about trying to direct what they were going to do on pit stops as well. Without having listened to the radio communication of the #36 team I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some of the same issues between Finley and Jeremy, as well as the rest of the team, which might have made trying to qualify in for these races even more of a struggle. I was actually really surprised that Finley was even named crew chief of the #36 in the first place since he didn't work out for Michael, but perhaps Bill Davis Racing assumed that Michael was the problem. They might be realizing that wasn't the case now.

It'll be interesting to see if this change helps the #36 team. Jeremy's not a terrible driver, and the cars seem fast in testing and practice - they just need to find a way to gel as a team and make the show. The pieces are there, but a crew chief by committee, if that's really the route they're going to go, may keep them from coming together the way they want.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

More on David Reutimann's Wreck

David Reutimann felt well enough to head to Car of Tomorrow testing today, but it was mostly to act as a spectator. He's apparently still feeling sore so Mark Green, who works for Michael Waltrip Racing as Michael's spotter, filled in for David as the test driver for the #00. David, who hopes to take a few laps in the car at some point before the end of the test session said,

"I'm getting better. It's a slower process, as far as feeling better, than you'd like, but it's coming along pretty good, so I'll hopefully be OK here at some point during the day."

I'm sure he probably hates to see another driver behind the wheel of his car, but it's a good idea to play things safe and let his body heal more from the wreck. This way when he heads to Mexico tomorrow, he's as close to 100% as possible.

As he's being doing for the past few days, David continued to say that he got the wind knocked out of him, rather than he was knocked out like some have speculated happened. He said,

"It just knocked the breath out of me really bad. It took me a minute to try to get my breath back and kind of figure out what I was doing. That's why I didn't say anything on radio. I didn't say anything on radio because I couldn't get enough air in there to make some noise."

If I were in a wreck like that, I'd be too scared and in shock to say too much!

Over the past few year or so, I've started to like Greg Biffle a lot more than I ever did. A big reason for that is that I have a friend who is a big fan of Greg's, and she's told me lots of great things about him. But Greg is also an awesome driver, and he's friendly with Michael, so that tells me he must be a good guy too. But what I really like is that Greg immediately took full responsibility for causing the wreck, something that many drivers might not do. He said,

"It was my fault 100 percent there at the end of the race."

Greg than explained that he was trying to pass David for position.

"It was not intentional by any means. I was trying any way possible to get underneath David there to try and get that position. He was two laps down, and I was trying to race Joe Nemechek and Ryan Newman in front of him for position. We were about 12 laps to go."

Of course it wasn't intentional - no driver wants to put another driver into the wall that hard, and no driver wants to screw up a chance for a good finish for themselves that close to the end of the race by doing something that could result in wrecking themselves too right along with the other car. But every driver on the track wants to finish as well as possible, and they will be aggressive and race hard in an attempt to gain positions at the end of the race. This is racing, not knitting, and there's going to be some bad things that happen as a result of hard racing sometimes.

He also said that he found David in the motorcoach lot after the race to talk about the incident.

"I saw him in the motorhome lot after the race. I just told him that certainly I didn't mean to get in the back of him. It was a racing deal. And he knew that I didn't mean to do it, and [that] it was a racing deal."

David who was the one who was involved in the wreck understood that Greg didn't mean to do it, and that it was just one of those racing deals. So why do fans who weren't even there have such a hard time understanding that?

Posted by silverdsl at 04:25 PM | Comments (0)

On Drivers Making Transitions

A few days ago, among other things, I was pondering how Steve Park hasn't so far seemed to have gotten himself involved in anything to keep busy while he's waiting for a new ride as opposed to other drivers who have, perhaps as a transition to the time when they're done as active drivers completely. Coincidentally today I came across articles about two drivers who are dealing with that kind of transition, and what they're doing to occupy themselves. Chad Chaffin, who took over the #59 truck when Steve left thinking he had a ride with Bill Davis Racing, seems to have accepted that his career as a driver, at least full-time is starting to wind down. Chaffin said,

"I'm not giving up, but at the same time I'm not out knocking on doors, either."

What he's been doing instead of waiting around in the hope that a ride is going to turn up is working at the business he owns, Southeastern Recycling in Nashville, TN, something that's kept him pretty busy. He said,

"If I wasn't so busy with this, I'd be out working harder on my racing. I'm still exploring some possibilities, and there's a chance I'll run a few Cup races later this season. But right now there's nothing definite."

Seems to me that Chaffin has a good attitude. He's not ruling out a return to racing, but he's found something else to fill the void. I'm not sure running a recycling business is what Chaffin would prefer to do, but being a successful businessman can be very fulfilling, and it will certainly help Chaffin pay the bills.

Based on what I've heard of him, which isn't as much as I'd like, Ricky Craven's been doing a terrific job on Sirius, and from the sounds of it he's really enjoying all the media work he's doing, particularly on Sirius because it gives him an opportunity to continue connecting with fans. He said,

"I like connecting with the fans,. At first, I thought most of the calls would come from the northeast. But we get a lot of calls from everywhere. We get a lot of calls from Canada."

I hope Steve saw that article and it got him to thinking, because it's always seemed to me that Steve very much enjoys interacting with his fans - now that he's not at the track or doing any appearances, he must miss talking to his fans. Maybe there's something similar to what Ricky's doing that he could do? Or whatever happened to that Fanzone thing he was going to do? There's no way to justify making fans pay a lot of money to access content about a driver who isn't racing, but maybe they could make some of what they were going to do available for free so that Steve could interact with the fans. Or even just have fans submit questions for him to answer like he used to do? Of course the fans would love that, but it would also give Steve the opportunity to continue connecting with fans, something he'd probably enjoy just like Ricky.

Ricky doesn't consider himself retired though.

"To be clear, I absolutely miss competing. That does bother me. I still have an interest in racing. I could still enjoy racing. I could race a partial schedule. But I don’t see myself racing full time again."

Unfortunately for Ricky, and quite possibly Steve and Chad as well, though they might not consider themselves retired because they still have the desire to race, the sport has essentially retired them unvoluntarily. I wonder what Steve would say if he was asked if he sees himself racing full-time again? Not whether he would want to - I suspect the answer to that is yes. Unlike Ricky, Steve doesn't have kids, and as of yet doesn't have another day job to keep him busy. But does Steve honestly think he'll race full-time again? Maybe one reason we've not yet seen him get involved in anything else is because he still thinks that a full-time ride is still a possibility if he has enough patience to wait for one to open up. It's looking like it's going to be a long wait, so I hope he finds something else to occupy his time with that he'll enjoy in the meantime.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2007

David Reutimann's Wreck One of the Hardest Ever Recorded

David Reutimann's crash with 11-laps to go in Sunday's Cup race at Fontana was one of the hardest impacts ever recorded. The crash was scary enough to see, particularly when David appeared as if he might be knocked out with the car on fire, but I have to say that it's even scarier to hear how hard that impact was because if not for all the safety advances that Nascar's made the last few years, particularly in relation to the safer barriers, David might not have walked away from that wreck. David's cousin, Shawn, who is also his spotter, said on XM yesterday that David was sore but mostly okay, with an aching foot being his worst problem, since his foot hit the clutch so hard it broke off. Apparently David's also suffering from a bad sinus infection which is making him feel even worse. However, like any driver, David apparently said that he could get in the car and go racing if he needed to in spite of all his aches and pains. David was checked out by the medical personnel in the in-field care center at the track, cleared to leave and was allowed to fly back to North Carolina on Sunday night, something they likely wouldn't have done if he had a head injury such as a concussion. Still, hopefully David will get checked out by his own doctor to be sure that he doesn't have any injuries that need attention before he races in Mexico in the Busch Series this weekend.

Some fans are ready to storm Roush-Fenway Racing because they think that Greg Biffle might have wrecked David deliberately, possibly even intending on wrecking him that badly. That's ridiculous. For one thing Greg has never been a dirty driver but beyond that, no driver wants to see a fellow driver in the wall, with their car in flames, possibly injured. What's even more ridiculous is that some fans believe that Greg deliberately wrecked David because Jack Roush has an issue with Toyota. I highly doubt that Greg is giving any thought to what Jack thinks about Toyota when he's in the midst of trying to race for a top 15 or better finish in the last laps of the race. Greg said over his radio that he got into David accidentally while trying to pass him. That's likely what happened, though I suspect that if it were two veterans racing, who were both on the lead lap, and it wasn't the last few laps of the race, things might have turned out a bit differently. However, in the end it was really just one of those racin' deals - I think Ken Schrader said something similar last night on Inside Nextel Cup, but sometimes when two drivers get to racing each other things don't always work out so well. Shawn also said on XM that Greg apologized to David, and I give him a lot of credit for being so quick to do so.

As a big fan of David's it was upsetting to see that wreck, and I'm so happy that it sounds like he's going to be fine. Hopefully David will fare better in Mexico - he's 11th in Busch Series points, and it would be awesome to see him contend for the Busch Championship this season!

Posted by silverdsl at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2007

A Potential Source of Conflict Between Jack Roush and John Henry

...over Toyota. Jack Roush has been one of Toyota's biggest critics for quite some time to the point where one has to wonder if he's actually concerned about the effects that Toyota is going to have on the Cup Series or whether he's just xenophobic. Apparently his new partner in Roush-Fenway Racing, John Henry, who is also owner of the Boston Red Sox, definitely doesn't share Roush's sentiments when it comes to Toyota. When Red Sox slugger David Ortiz showed up for Spring Training, Henry presented him with a brand new truck - a Toyota Tundra.

Not only that but Henry said recently,

"Jack is as competitive a human being as I've ever seen, and it's about competition. It's akin to Curt Schilling going into Yankee Stadium. It has nothing to do with anything more than that. I haven't made any of those statements. I have a very good relationship with Toyota and the people of Toyota."

I'm not sure whether the Red Sox have any arrangements with Toyota or Toyota dealerships as a sponsor in Fenway Park or otherwise, but it kind of sounds like Henry has some sort of dealings with Toyota - I wonder if Roush was aware of that before he entered into the deal with Henry? It only makes sense for Henry to have a good relationship with a Japanese company. After all, the Red Sox signed Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka to a big contract, and the Japanese market is quite lucrative in terms of advertising and other revenue. It would be very bad for business for Henry to make any kind of anti-Toyota comments himself.

Henry has a good point about the Roush vs. Toyota battle being similar to the Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry. I'm just not sure that it's really all about competition for Roush - seems very personal at times for Roush, but then again the Yankees - Red Sox rivalry gets very personal for some, particularly some fans, at times.

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

Driver by Driver: Fontana I

1. Matt Kenseth - Matt swept both the Busch and Cup races. Roush Racing has had a lot of success at this track so it's not surprise to see one of thier drivers in Victory Lane. Too bad it's not one of their drivers that I particularly like.

2. Jeff Gordon - So far the season's gotten off to a good start for Jeff. A top ten at Daytona, won the pole for this race and then finished 2nd. Some have written off Jeff as having lost his competitive fire and not being the driver he once was, but we'll see if that's really the case as this season goes along.

3. Jimmie Johnson - The second of three Hendrick cars in the top ten. A much better race this week than last for Jimmie. Not only did he finish 3rd but he also led 31 laps. I think we'll be seeing a lot more races like Fontana than like Daytona for the $48 team.

4. Jeff Burton - So far Jeff's picking up where he left off last season with a 3rd place finish at Daytona and a 4th place finish yesterday. Jeff also led 18 laps.

5. Mark Martin - With this top five finish, Mark Martin leads the points. Sure it's only two races and anything can happen but it's certainly an excellent start to the season. Ginn Racing has to be extremely happy - Joe Nemechek never got them results - nor exposure - like this in the #01 car. The only question is whether Mark can be convinced to race the full season.

6. Clint Bowyer - Finished the race right-side up. Had he not been caught up in the wreck last week Bowyer would have had two strong finishes in a row. I'm thinking we'll be seeing him in Victory Lane before too long.

7. Kurt Busch - Seems like Penske Racing might have made some improvements over last season. Although he ended up wrecked last week Kurt had an extremely strong car until that point, and this week he had a car good enough for a top ten. Kurt may also be more comfortable with his new team as well.

8. Tony Stewart - Two races, two penalities for speeding on pit road that Tony's had to overcome. While he's been able to race his way back up front after those penalties, I think Tony's going to have be be more careful because it makes things more difficult for him and his team. Eventually one of these penalties will ruin a race for him.

9. Kyle Busch - When he's not wrecking it seems like he's finishing up front. Kyle's not been racing in Nascar's top levels for all that long himself, and he's already looking to develop young drivers. Kyle Busch Motorsports will be sponsoring a young driver in the Grand National West Series this season.

10. Brian Vickers - After missing the Daytona 500 Brian rebounded in very fine fashion with a top ten! It was awesome to see Brian have such a great car for most of the race, and Red Bull Racing has to feel really good that one of their teams was the one to get Toyota their first top ten.

11. Denny Hamlin - A better finish for Denny than last week.

12. Ryan Newman - Not as strong of a finish for Ryan as for his teammate, but a top 15 certainly isn't bad, especially in comparison to last week's poor finish due to his engine blowing.

13. J.J. Yeley - Two races, two top 15s.

14. Joe Nemechek - Doing what he needs to do to get himself into the top 35 in owner's points.

15. Greg Biffle - Last year at this race Biffle had the dominant car and looked like he was going to win until his engine blew. This year he was only able to lead a couple of laps but had a car that lasted to the end of the race. I think he'll take this year's result. Of course Biffle's post-race report indicates that he got into David Reutimann accidentally at the end, but he was a lead lap car trying to get around a lapped car at the end of the race, plus he's a veteran racing a rookie. While I'm sure Biffle didn't want to see Reutimann wrecked and in flames, I suspect he deliberately moved him.

16. David Ragan - In a surprise to all, David's the top finishing rookie for the second race in a row. Of course it's still very early, but if David keeps this up all those who thought that he would be way over his head in Cup and he would tear up a race car a race might need to re-evaluate.

17. Kevin Harvick - Heartbreak for Harvick. With just six laps to go he was running second to Matt Kenseth, and it seemed as if he had a chance to follow up his Daytona 500 victory with another win. But a flat tire forced Harvick to pit road and he could finish no better than 17th.

18. Johnny Sauter - Another driver who's doing what he needs to do to get into the top 35 in owner's points. Johnny's another driver who many feel doesn't belong in Cup, but as I suspected he might, so far Johnny's showing that he's learned a lot since the last time he raced Cup.

19. David Stremme - Highest finishing Ganassi car.

20. Paul Menard - Not a very good day for DEI when their highest finishing car is rookie Paul Menard in 20th place. After missing a race, DEI will have to give Menard cars that will allow him to finish higher than 20th if he's to have any success this season.

21. Robby Gordon - I wonder what happened to Robby's plans to expand Robby Gordon Motorsports?

22. Kyle Petty - Fought a loose handling condition but still managed a top 25 finish.

23. Tony Raines - A top 25 finish isn't horrible, but it's not so great either. If Tony doesn't start making some improvments in this car now that the team is in their second season, I wonder how long they'll stick with him?

24. Elliott Sadler - Highest finishing Evernham car. Never had a very good car at any point in this race.

25. David Gilliland - Had the flu so bad that his Busch team had to have Kenny Wallace fill in for him.

26. Juan Montoya - So far Juan's Nascar career hasn't taken off in quite the way he might have envisioned though it's still very early.

27. Ricky Rudd - Again it's very early, but so far the results for Rudd in the #88 are no better than they were for Dale Jarrett.

28. Bobby Labonte - Had a car good enough to race in the top ten for a while but then he brushed the wall and that ruined his race.

29. Carl Edwards - Got put a lap down twice when he was caught pitting when the caution came out but the bigger problem was that he never had a very good car.

30. Jeff Green

31. Casey Mears - Not starting things off too impressively in his new ride. Mears battled an ill-handling car all race.

32. Dale Jarrett - Had three separate mechanical issue to deal with this weekend - a transmission problem during qualifying, then rear end and carburator issues during the race.

33. David Reutimann - David was dealing with a not very good car, then got wrecked by Greg Biffle. It was a very scary wreck, and I'm very glad that Nascar has done so much to improve safety over the past few years otherwise David might not have walked away.

34. John Andretti - Made the race when no one expected him to, then was racing fairly well until mechanical issues ruined his day. What's interesting is that his Busch team, Braun Racing claims that they might not have a Busch ride for him due to sponsorship issues, but the same sponsor, Camping World seems happy enough to sponsor him in Cup, which probably costs more money.

35. Sterling Marlin - Cut a tire which sent him into the wall. Sterling's always had a lot of bad luck and it seems to be continuing this season.

36. Ken Schrader - Another driver with terrible luck. Mechanical woes for the #21 team.

37. Jamie McMurray - Two races, two wrecks makes it impossible to know if Jamie's going to show any improvement over last season.

38. Kasey Kahne - Blown engine.

39. Dave Blaney - Engine woes for Blaney as well.

40. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - If DEI wants Junior to be able to contend for a championship this season, there can't be too many more blown engines.

41. Scott Riggs - Got loose, hit the wall and took Jamie McMurray and Reed Sorenson out with him.

42. Martin Truex Jr. - DEI knew it might not be a good day when Martin's engine blew early in the race.

43. Reed Sorenson - Got wrecked.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2007

Photo of the Day - Aruba

Aruba, September, 2005.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)

Whose Fault is it that Steve Park Isn't Racing?

Some of my fellow Steve Park fans should stop reading this entry now because you won't like it. But it's my blog and I'm going to post what I'm thinking about here. If you're sensitive about what gets said about Steve, you read on and get upset, it's not my problem - you were warned.

There's one thing that's really impossible to ignore - Steve's not racing. He wasn't at Daytona, he wasn't at Fontana and the chances of him racing anytime in the near future, particularly in a quality ride, don't look very good right now. That's not me being a negative-nellie, horrible fan, that's the reality. And that's not any other driver's fault, though some fans seem very willing to rip other drivers like Jeremy Mayfield and Michael Waltrip for racing when Steve isn't. I guess it makes some feel better about Steve's situation to delight in the trials and tribulations of other drivers like Michael or Jeremy. Thing is, I hate to point out reality once more but even if Jeremy and Michael miss more races this season than they have already, it's likely they'll be at the track racing more than Steve is this season. And beyond that, anyway you slice it, it's not Michael or Jeremy's fault that Steve doesn't have a ride, nor is it any other driver's fault.

I've fallen into the trap myself of getting upset when drivers who seem like "lesser" drivers get rides when Steve's sitting out. And I've blamed all sorts of bad luck, circumstances, and unfair situations such as Steve being tagged as "damaged goods" for him not having a ride. But as much as Steve has been hurt by a lot of things out of his control, when it comes down to it a driver has to make the most of the cards that are dealt to them even if it's a crappy hand. As Steve himself once said a long time ago - you make your own luck, and it seems as if the time is overdue for Steve to find a way to make some of his own.

Michael is a favorite target for the ire of some Steve's fans, because some fans don't understand why he has a ride and Steve doesn't. Well, Michael's learned how to play those cards he's been dealt like a master. Why does he still have a ride and is a huge presence in the sport? I'd say part of that has to do with Michael's two Daytona 500 wins - sorry, as much as some might like to say that restrictor plate wins don't count, the Daytona 500 is Nascar's most prestigious race. And there's those two other wins too which proves that he's a driver who knows how to win, just like Steve. In addition, Michael has learned how to maximize his talents outside the car from being one of the most fan-friendly drivers in the sport to how well he represents his sponsors to how he's developed and expanded Michael Waltrip Racing. Those things have helped him to survive in this sport for more than 20 years. And his involvement as an owner and on the broadcasting side could keep him involved for another 20 years after he retires.

It's almost more laughable for fans to get on Jeremy. I'm no fan of some of the things that Jeremy has said and done over the years - his feud with Ray Evernham is an embarassment. However, one thing's for sure Jeremy has shown through the years that he's a decent Cup driver, with five wins and three finishes in the top ten in points. Yet some think he's a sucky driver - what then is Steve with only two Cup wins, and not a single finish in the top ten in points in Cup? I think Steve can race up front and win when he's given a competitive car, but as hard as it is for some fans to admit to it, there's lots of other drivers who can do the same and are deserving of rides every bit as much as Steve, including both Michael and Jeremy. And Jeremy is another who didn't sit idle when he was between full-time rides last season. He raced a little for Billy Ballew in a truck, he and his wife, Shana, interacted with his fans on the 360otc.com website, he tested for Bill Davis Racing, he auctioned off signed memorabilia on Ebay, and maintained a presence in the media by continuing his weekly column on nascar.com, as well as by giving interviews.

Getting back to Michael, even though he didn't race this past weekend he was a part of the Truck Series broadcast team, he taped Tradin' Paint, he was part of the team covering Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on Directv Hot Pass, and as an owner he surely took care of his obligations to his teams and their sponsors. Other drivers who don't have rides at all find ways to keep themselves involved in the sport too. Mark Green is spotting for Michael, and there are other former drivers who spot, some of whom hope to get back on the track. Ricky Craven, another driver who some believe is blackballed due to a head injury, has kept himself very active, from his work with Sirius and Yahoo!Sports, to a yearly charity event, to testing with PPI Motorsports, to racing a Busch race, and possibly racing some COT races this season if things work out for him. Even Jerry Nadaeu has kept himself involved in Nascar by consulting with teams and doing other things.

Where have I been going with the past few paragraphs? Well, what's Steve doing while he's between rides? Nothing at the moment apparently that is known about publically, at least when it comes to being involved with Nascar. Personally, I think the disappearing act that Steve often pulls when he's not at the track might hurt him and his chances for finding a ride. Of course I have no way of knowing exactly what Steve is doing or why, but this sport is all about exposure and drivers need to keep themselves visible, if not they fade away like Steve's doing. Steve is in control of what he does with himself when he's not racing, not Michael, not Jeremy, not any other driver, team, sponsor or Nascar. There's nothing stopping Steve from doing broadcasting or other media work, starting his own racing-related business, consulting with a team, mentoring a young driver, starting a foundation to raise money for charitable causes, interacting with his fans on his website, or doing any number of other things that other drivers do to keep themselves actively involved with their fans and the sport. Why isn't Steve doing any of these things? The simple answer is that maybe he doesn't want to. And that's fine. Steve has to do what makes him happy and what he feels are the best decisions for his career. Myself and other fans have all sorts of opinions about what Steve is or should be doing, but he's a grown adult who has to make his own decisions for better or for worse. But there comes a point where I see all sorts of drivers doing all kinds of things to keep a connection to the sport, and I wonder - why isn't Steve doing any of that? Instead I see him just fading away, and that's pretty sad to me.

The immediate answer for many is going to be as to why Steve's not involved in the sport all that much isn't that it's by choice but instead because they feel Steve's black-balled, that Nascar has it out for him, they have something against him and they don't want him back. Rubbish. Steve finding himself a competitive ride, racing well and returning to Victory Lane is exactly the kind of feel-good story that Nascar loves. Much like James Hylton and all the press he got for attempting the Daytona 500, if Steve made a triumpant return, Nascar - and the media - would run with it. We saw that when Steve won in California in the #62 truck. If Nascar truly didn't want Steve to race they wouldn't have cleared him to return after his accident, and they would have found a way to prevent Richard Childress Racing, Orleans Racing (now South Point Racing), HT Motorsports and Marsh Racing from giving him rides.

The other thing I've been wondering about is this - there's other series to race in - if the desire to race is so great why isn't Steve racing elsewhere to keep himself fresh? He got a Busch East ride for a race and had an outstanding race - why not race more Busch East races? Or go back to his old stomping grounds and race Modified races? I guess maybe the answer there is that Steve would rather wait for a quality ride to open up in one of Nascar's three highest series instead of taking a ride in what might be a lesser car, truck or series. Well, he might be waiting a long time for one of those quality rides to become available.

There's quite a few reasons that are out of Steve's control as to why he doesn't have a ride - his age, that he's still considered damaged goods, that sponsors don't feel he would be a good fit, the lack of strong results on the track the last few seasons because of having to race cars and trucks that aren't very competitive, etc... However, I think it's a little ridiculous to think that the course of someone's life, and their career, is entirely out of their own hands, and that everything that happens to them is someone else's fault. We'll never know exactly why Steve's career has taken this path, but one thing's for sure it's not the fault of other drivers - no, not even Larry Loyt's fault since that wreck was an accident. I was reading the newspaper earlier and a quote from an ad jumped out at me - "Opportunity is everywhere if you know where to look." I hope Steve looks around and finds some opportunities that might open some doors for him in relation to getting back on the track.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)

California Thoughts

I watched the Truck and Busch races this weekend, but because I was sick I wasn't really able to concentrate on watching too much. So there's not much I can say about either of those races. But a few thoughts on the Cup side of things...

*Michael Waltrip just missed qualifying into this race. In fact he was beat out by David Reutimann, in a car Michael owns. I'm extremely sad for Michael the driver, that already he's failed to qualify for a race on top of the whole he's already in due to the penalties. However, I'm happy for Michael the owner that his other two cars made it into the show, David because of his time, and Dale Jarrett because of his past Champion's provisional. That said, Michael Waltrip Racing has some work to do to make these cars better. DJ has a limited number of provisionals, and for as long as they're outside the top 35 in owner's points, David and Michael have to have cars good enough to qualify in for the races. What happened during Speedweeks probably sent shockwaves throughout the entire organization, and made it difficult for them to concentrate on the task at hand, but they've got to put it behind them. I believe that MWR can be a strong organization that fields good teams, but it may take them time to establish themselves. But the sooner they can do that the better.

*I was shocked that Jeremy Mayfield failed to qualify for this race. I really figured that after they missed Daytona, Bill Davis Racing would make sure to give Jeremy an outstanding car this week. But they didn't. Not only that but Dave Blaney lost an engine midway through the race. I had been thinking that with full manufacturer support BDR would be much improved this season, but the one thing that I wondered was whether they'd be able to fix some of the other issues such as the constant mechanical woes, communication problems, and other things that plagued BDR last season. It's still early but one of their teams missing the first two races, plus a host of problems for Dave, isn't a good sign for how this season is going to go for BDR.

*David Reutimann got wrecked again this week. Not a very good start to his rookie season in Cup. Apparently Greg Biffle got frustrated trying to pass him and spun David with less than ten laps to go. Although some fans felt that it was because Jack Roush has an issue with Toyota and MWR, I think it had more to do with a veteran not having much patience for a rookie driver than anything else. Unfortunately it led to David going into the wall hard and getting the wind knocked out of him. He got out of the car and walked to the ambulance gingerly with help which was a good thing, but I'm hoping that he doesn't have any broken ribs or anything. Even though the softer barriers were there, David still hit extremely hard. Unfortunately he doesn't have an off-weekend like most of the other Cup drivers do either since he'll be heading to Mexico to race in the Busch race.

*Bad day for the DEI - both Martin Truex, Jr. and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. lost engines. DEI has major work to do in their engine department. With how competitive things are if the blown engines and other problems continue, DEI could find themselves in a position where more than one of their cars are outside the top 35 in owner's points after the 5th race. Of course it's only the second race, and it seems crazy to think that DEI would struggle that badly, but it sure isn't a good sign for this organization that they've struggled so much across the board to start the season. One has to wonder how much these problems might influence whether Junior re-signs with DEI or not?

*After another strong race, Mark Martin leads the points. He says he's not going to race the full season, but if he keeps racing this well, how can he not?

Posted by silverdsl at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)

Been Sick...

So until today I haven't felt like doing much. :(

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

February 22, 2007

Why Won't Nascar Say What the Illegal Substance Was and Other Questions

At the moment, the biggest question in my mind other than who was actually responsible for putting the illegal fuel additive in the #55, is why Nascar won't release specifics about what the substance they found is. Nascar's Robin Pemberton said yesterday on XM that the only thing that needs to be know was that it was a foreign substance that didn't belong. I couldn't disagree more. By not releasing more specifics about what the substance was it opens up a whole host of questions. Such as what's Nascar trying to hide? It could be something as simple as Nascar not knowing exactly what was in the substance or what it would do and they don't want to admit that because it opens up the door to questions about why they penalized a team without fully knowing what they were penalizing them for, or it could be that they feel that releasing the specifics might direct speculation about who's responsible in a direction that they don't want.

Nascar, Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota themselves have taken great pains to distance Toyota from the situation. We've heard over and over again it's "a team issue" or "it's between Nascar and the team." Toyota has positioned themselves as bystanders who are trying to be both helpful and supportive to Nascar and MWR, but are completely uninvolved otherwise. I have to wonder if Nascar doesn't want to give any details about the substance because it's so unusual that it might led to speculation that Toyota was somehow involved. Mike Mulhern raised the possibility of the substance being something extremely sophisticated in a column from this past weekend where he said,

But sports executives are telling teams they are worried that the specific chemical used as a horsepower enhancement might be a very sophisticated chemical, rare and quite difficult to obtain, well beyond the ability of any mere race team to acquire.

It's important to note that the source of Mulhern's information is extremely vague. "Sports executives" could be anyone from someone directly in Nascar's inner sanctum to an executive with a team to an executive who's trying to start a rumor with a sponsor who overheard others speculating. So there's no way of knowing how accurate his information is. However, I might be reading into things, but I sense that even though he's careful not to specifically name Toyota, that he's implying some sort of direct involvement by the manufacturer. If a mere race team couldn't get a chemical this sophisticated, then who could?

Mulhern goes on to say later in his column,

And there are reports that NASCAR inspectors may have noticed similarly curious manifolds at several Truck races last year with a pale-blue greasy substance on the inside.

Of course Toyota has a number of teams in the Truck Series. So it's natural to wonder if the other teams that were caught with a unknown foreign substance on their manifolds were also Toyota teams. However, these "reports" are completely unsourced. Mulhern's information could come from someone in the garage area making up stories to make Toyota look bad. But in light of some of the rumors that seem to be floating around, I think it's plausible that Nascar might be trying to protect the manufacturer since that would further taint their entry into the Cup Series. I have to admit that while I don't think Toyota had any direct involvement in this incident, I have been wondering since Toyota Racing Development provides the engines and technical support to MWR, if at any point anyone from TRD noticed anything that wasn't quite right with the #55 car, or whether anyone from the team asked anyone from TRD any questions that now might be suspicious in light of what's happened. It seems to me that even if Toyota was in the dark about all of this, if there's anything that could open them up to speculation about what they really knew and when, it creates a whole host of problems.

Another article that raises some questions is one by Marty Smith in which he writes that David Hyder is continuing to maintain that he's innocent. Smith wrote,

Michael Waltrip Racing vice president Ty Norris told ESPN.com Thursday that the company offered crew chief David Hyder an opportunity to come clean about the illegal additive found in the fuel system of Waltrip's Toyota following qualifying for the Daytona 500.

Hyder didn't do it.

In fact, he claims he can't.

Norris said Hyder maintained his innocence -- even with the company promise of no termination in exchange for information.

Norris said Hyder continues to say he has neither information nor answers as to what the substance is, how it was introduced into the fuel system or, ultimately, what it does.

So if Hyder didn't do it, who did, and how did they do it without him knowing about it? After all, as crew chief he's responsible for the car and oversees what gets done to it by the crew. If I'm understanding the little information that Nascar has released about the fuel additive correctly it was some sort of gel-like substance. I could be completely mistaken if I misunderstood what Nascar said at their initial press conference to announce the penalties, or because I'm not very knowledgable technically, but that doesn't sound like something that could just be dumped into the fuel system quickly. Instead it sounds as if this was something that had to be smeared inside parts of the car. How could Hyder not notice that happening?

As I'm sure I've discussed already in a previous entry there's quite a few conspiracy theories making the rounds. The most common, that someone from outside the organization sabatoged the car, or that another team or manufacturer planted someone inside MWR to sabatoge the car, I think are highly unlikely. I would guess that it would be hard for someone from another team to get access to the car without being noticed by the team. That would be especially true if whatever was specifically done to the car was more complex than just throwing something into the fuel quickly. As for planting someone inside of MWR, it seems to me that would require so much time, effort, planning and money, that it doesn't seem likely that another team or manufacturer would go through all that trouble when they have their own race efforts to concentrate on. Especially since the consequences for getting caught doing something like that would be far worse than what Michael and MWR are dealing with right now. I would also think that regardless of how much other teams and manufacturers dislike Toyota's entry into the Cup series that they would want to beat them on the track via winning more races than Toyota, rather than beat them by sabotaging their teams.

So then you have to go back to one or more people internally at MWR putting the fuel additive in themselves. And there's really only two possible reasons for why they would do something like that. One, because they were hoping to enhance the performance of the car. Or two, because someone within Michael's own company is out to get him and decided to deliberately sabatoge his car. Neither scenario is good, but I hope that the first one is the situation that occured, that someone was making a misguided attempt to help. Otherwise, there's the possibility that if MWR doesn't find out who was responsible, the guilty party could strike again.

It's likely we'll never know the answers to all the questions. Maybe Michael and MWR will never know all the answers either. That's unfortunate because I think for Michael to gain some closure on this incident he needs to know who was responsible and why they did what they did, because this person or persons seriously damaged his reputation and that of MWR, something he's worked hard to build for a long time. I continue to feel terrible for Michael. Some have speculated that Michael's been pretending to be upset to gain sympathy and cover-up that he really knew what was going on with his team. I couldn't disagree more. I don't think there's any faking the hurt in Michael's eyes or the general sadness that's been about him since this situation first came to light. I hope things go well for him at the next few races because it will go along way towards helping him put all of this behind him, though I'm sure it will never be fully forgotten.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

Sunoco Objects to Shell Branding on Kevin Harvick's Helmet and Uniform

Unlike most fans who are outraged that Sunoco dares to object to the Shell branding on Kevin Harvick's helmet and uniform that was splattered throughout the media after Kevin won the Daytona 500 this past weekend, I can understand Sunoco's position. The deal they have with Nascar to be the official fuel provider of the Busch, Truck and Cup Series is worth a significant amount of money and guarantees them the right to be Nascar's official fuel. Shell-Pennzoil's deal with Richard Childress Racing and the #29 team was supposed to focus on automobile lubricants, not fuel products. But there's no question that the Shell logo, which is what Sunoco objects to on Kevin's uniform and helmet, are closely aligned with gas and fuel products. So I can't blame Sunoco for being upset at seeing a direct competitor get that much exposure, particularly since their deal with Nascar guarantees that's not supposed to happen. Shell-Pennzoil are probably lucky that they were allowed to sponsor a car in the first place. As unfortunate as it is that the deal with Sunoco allows them to deny certain sponsors or force changes to be made to others like in this situation, Nascar probably has no choice but to agree to those kind of clauses if they want those kinds of large deal to happen.

What I think would have helped prevent this problem is if when the deal for Shell-Pennzoil to sponsor Kevin's car was announced last season if Sunoco had issued some guidelines as to what would be acceptable to them regarding the branding on Kevin's helmet, uniform and otherwise. That would have prevented RCR from having to re-design those items, something that they're in the process of doing now.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2007

Photo of the Day - Tino Martinez

Tino Martinez. New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Indians. June, 2001.

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

I Don't Get It

What makes fans think that they have the right to intrude on, judge and know every detail about the personal lives of those people that they're fans of? I'm just as interested in a juicy piece of gossip as the next person, but there's quite a few fans who take things way too far, and it's really disturbing. In the past few months two different drivers have had their personal lives ripped to pieces by fans online who think that their significant others aren't good enough for them. And it's hard for me to understand why some fans feel compelled to do this instead of wishing their driver well, and hoping that they're happy.

I do have opinions about certain things I hear about, but in the end the drivers are strangers to me. What they do in their personal lives really isn't any of my business, and I would never dream of thinking that I know best about who a driver should date or not date. How could I? As fans it sometimes feels as if we know the people we cheer for well because we speak to them at fan events, get their autographs at the track, read articles about them, see photos of them and those around them, and hear them give interviews on TV or the radio. But the reality is that the people who we are fans of are still mostly strangers to us. We can get a sense of who Michael Waltrip or Dale Earnhardt, Jr. are, but when it comes down to it, we really don't know them like a friend or family member does.

Only the drivers know the truth about their relationships. Not blogs that think they're somehow working towards the greater good by exposing the messy details of the drivers personal lives, or people who claim to be "in the know" on message boards. The amount of people who really know is a lot less than what it would appear from all the people who spend time dissecting every photo and quote to find proof to support their ridiculous theories. It's astonishing how many dots people connect from a scanty bit of information. It's scary that some seem to think that the drivers should only date people their fans approve of, and that somehow they can tell whether someone is right for that driver or not. And it's frightening that some will take things to such an extreme that they will email scathingly criticial emails to public relations representatives and sponsors.

I think what really troubles me is something that I've discussed in this space before. There are a lot of people who believe everything that they read even if there's no source given as to where the information comes from, and there's no way of knowing how accurate it is. The reality is that there's a lot of false information floating around that passes for truth. A few months ago someone told me a wild story about how badly a driver supposedly behaved somewhere. Only one problem - other than that the driver was in that particularly place at that particular time, there wasn't a shred of truth to the story. How did I know? Because I was there too, and spoke with this driver! I know that none of what was told to me happened - this driver acted completely appropriately during the entire time they were there. It makes me sad because this story had likely spread far and wide, and some fans probably think less of him because of it. So my advice to anyone who reads or hears about some of the stories that make the rounds is to take them with a major grain of salt because there might not be much truth there.

I definitely don't always agree with all the decisions my favorite drivers make, and have no problem saying so when I feel that way. I think they sometimes make mistakes, which we all do since no one is perfect. But I try to keep things in perspective. My favorite driver's life isn't my life. In the end, what I want for my favorite drivers is that they're happy - if that means doing things that I might not agree with, so be it. As grown adults they're entitled to make the decisions they feel are best for themselves whether the fans like it or not.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

Notes on Spring Training

So far the news out of spring training so far for the New York Yankees has been more like a soap opera than anything to do with baseball.

*Steve Swindal, the Yankees general partner and George Steinbrenner's Son-in-Law got into a little trouble last week. Swindal was arrested for driving under the influence in Tampa, after he was spotted driving erratically, so erratically that he almost hit a police car. I've really come to expect it - at least once in spring training someone associated with a baseball team is going to be arrested for doing something stupid while intoxicated. Yes, people make mistakes, but it's not too smart to drink and then get behind the wheel of a car. Even worse when one is in a high-profile position where one's reputation often matters. Drinking and driving is something that really bothers me. (and no, I've never gotten behind the wheel of my car under the influence - some seem to think everyone does it, but that's not the case. I don't drive after even one drink, let alone multiple drinks.) It'll be interesting to see if this effects the previously announced plans for Swindal to one day take over the Yankees.

*Then we have Mike Mussina vs. Carl Pavano. While I agree with a lot of Mussina's comments, I can't quite figure out what he's up to. Starting with his fan club dinner at the end of January, Mussina's been publically taking shots at Pavano. At first it was just a joke at the fan club dinner, then he followed it up a few days later with some mild critcism of Pavano to the media at an event where he was receiving an award, now during spring training he came out swinging, going so far as to question Pavano's desire and saying how he needs to prove himself to his teammates. Perhaps Mussina was trying to be something of a team leader, and say what he felt Pavano needed to hear that was representative of how his teammates feel about him, but I question why Mussina didn't make those comments to Pavano directly and privately, instead of saying it to the media. A few days later Mussina met with Pavano to clear the air, and acknowledged that was indeed what he should have done in the first place, but it's a little strange to me that Mussina, who has no love for the media, wouldn't have realized that in the first place.

*Andy Pettitte must have been feeling left out because he jumped into the mix by announcing that he had told Pavano that he was on the other man's side, and that he's got Pavano's back, even though he had only been a teammate to Pavano for all of one day in spring training, and apparently didn't know him previously. I understand that Pettitte is a veteran now, and he's certainly familiar with what it takes to succeed in New York. However, having not been with the Yankees for the past few years, he really isn't familar with the Pavano situation and how his teammates feel about Pavano being such a "glass ass" to borrow a phrase another fan used to refer to him as. Although I'm not sure going to the media was the best way to handle the situation, Mussina was completely correct that Pavano is going to have to prove himself - not only to his teammates, but to fans as well. I think Pettitte might want to wait to find out a little more about Pavano and his situation, not to mention wait to see whether Pavano lasts all of spring training without injuring himself, before rushing to the defense of someone he really doesn't know.

*A subject of much debate by the fans and the media has been the friendship between Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, and whether it still exists. At one time Jeter and A-Rod were extremely close, spending a significant amount of time together, even going so far as to sleep over at each other's houses. As time went on the two drifted apart, particularly after an interview a number of years ago in which A-Rod seemed to take a shot at Jeter as being a lesser player. Often friends grow apart and that's to be expected. However, there's been some speculation that Jeter and A-Rod didn't just grow apart, but that they aren't even friends at all any more to the point where there's animosity there. Both Jeter and A-Rod addressed the issue over the past few days, with A-Rod acknowledging that they aren't as close as they once were. What I think is pretty telling is that they didn't address the media together - that would be a sure way to end a lot of the speculation. Instead they both insisted they get along just fine and support each other on the field - pretty much all the standard things that one would expect them to say.

What struck me is that Jeter tried to downplay the whole thing, saying that relationships don't matter, and that it was a non-issue. While it's to be expected that teammates aren't all going to be best friends with each other, that some players are going to dislike each other, and that sometimes there are going to be arguments between players, I think relationships between teammates do matter. When there's a coolness between people or they don't get along, it can effect group dynamics. As team captain, I think that's something Jeter should be conscious of - he needs to make sure that even if the team goes their separate ways after the games are over that while they're in the clubhouse and on the field they can work together as a cohesive unit because that will help them win games and get back to the post-season.

*One of the big questions heading into spring training was whether Bernie Williams was going to accept the Yankees offer for a minor league deal or not. But Bernie let it be known what his answer was not with a phone call, but simply by not showing up. He didn't even bother to return his former teammates phone calls. Apparently Joe Torre spoke with Bernie recently and encouraged him to come to camp to compete for a roster spot, but that wasn't something Bernie was willing to do as he felt that he deserved a guaranteed spot, even though the Yankees don't really have room for him. Bernie's agent Scott Boras says that Bernie will work out privately in the hopes that the Yankees will change their minds, but I think that's highly unlikely. Time for Bernie to face the facts - his career as a Yankee is over. And since Boras says that Bernie isn't going to entertain offers from other teams - more likely he didn't get any - odds are his playing career as a whole is over. I appreciate everything that Bernie did as a Yankee - he was a huge part of the Yankees success from 1996 to the present, but that was then and this is now.

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

February 19, 2007

Photo of the Day - Waterloo Village

Waterloo Village, Stanhope, New Jersey, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)

Driver by Driver: Daytona 500

1. Kevin Harvick - Some felt Nascar helped Kevin steal a win away from Mark, others feel Kevin was a very fitting winner since he won for Dale Earnhardt's former team six years to the day that Dale lost his life on the last lap of this race.

2. Mark Martin - Clearly it must be a tremendous disappointment to lose the Daytona 500 on the last lap, but I doubt it's the last time we'll be seeing Mark battle for the win at the end of a race this season even though he won't be racing full-time. Most, including myself had questions about Ginn Racing's ability to field a good car for Mark, but at least for this race they came through for him.

3. Jeff Burton - Jeff admitted to being pretty conflicted after this race in regards to who he wanted to win this race more - his former teammate, Mark Martin, who he respects tremendously, or his current teammate, Kevin Harvick? Josh Yost, one of Jeff's pit crew members who suffered a serious injury when he was hit by Rusty Wallace in the pits in 2005, was injured again yesterday, and unfortunately it sounds like it's another serious injury that could cause him to miss significant time.

4. Mike Wallace Mike raced his way into the Daytona 500, then showed why he's considered such a good restrictor plate racer. Great finish for a part-time driver! What wasn't so great was that one of Mike's crew members got hit by Jamie McMurray, but luckily his injury likely isn't any worse than a bad sprain.

5. David Ragan - That rookie David Ragan finished in the top five had to be a big shock to some fans. Perhaps even more shocking to them is that he didn't appear to struggle or be the cause of any incidents. I'm sure that David will experience some rookie growing pains during the season, but it seems to me if he can get around this track without causing any wrecks, he should be able to do so on other tracks where there isn't such a small margin for error.

6. Elliott Sadler - Great start to the season for Elliott! At points Elliott didn't have the car to race up front, and found himself in the back of the pack, but good calls from owner Ray Evernham and car director Kirk Almquist, who were filling in for Elliott's regular crew chiefs who's serving his suspension, put Elliott where he needed to be in the last 30 laps to get this top ten.

7. Kasey Kahne - Amazingly Kasey was never higher than 14th position at any time during this race until the green-white-checkered finish, and was still able to pull out a 7th place finish. From the sounds of it his car wasn't all that great, but other cars getting wrecked probably helped him gain positions.

8. David Gilliland - It was a pretty eventful race for David. He started on the pole, but a pit road incident with Robby Gordon damaged his car and put him into last place. He lost a lap, but gained it back via the lucky dog, and eventually was able to race his way into the top ten. A solid finish for a driver many thought would be a liability for Robert Yates Racing this season.

9. Joe Nemechek - Ginn Racing ended up with two cars in the top ten. A good job by a driver who had to race his way into this race.

10. Jeff Gordon - A poor handling race car prevented Jeff from finishing as well as he would have liked, but I think he'll take a top ten over the fate of his teammates, which includes two wrecked race cars.

11. David Stremme - Stremme had a very strong car all Speedweeks. He started the race 6th, and in spite of getting caught in the last lap wreck, he still managed to finish 11th. David was unimpressive last season, and I doubt he'll ever turn into an elite driver. But a lot of fans have taken to ripping him because they think he's undeserving of his ride. So I'm pulling for him to do well this season and show that he has what it takes to race Cup.

12. J.J. Yeley - I don't remember hearing much of anything about J.J. during the race, but quietly he got himself a 12th place finish, highest among all the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers.

13. Reed Sorenson - Not a bad finish for Reed. It'll be interesting to see if he makes any improvements in his second season in Cup over his rookie year.

14. Boris Said - Recovered from a lap 17 spin to finish in the top 15. Will someone give this man a full-time ride already? He's an expert road course racer, he's shown he can race well on restrictor plate tracks, and I'd guess he'd be able to do okay on other tracks as well. Problem for Boris is his age and that his appearance and personality don't fit into the cookier cutter mold that most teams want for their drivers. Hopefully he'll do well with a part-time schedule this year but it's tough to have a lot of success when one isn't racing every week, especially since he'll have to qualify in on time for each race.

15. Robby Gordon - A solid finish considering he had to recover from a spin on pit road caused by David Gilliland getting into him.

16. Johnny Sauter - Much to a lot of people's surprise, Johnny didn't cause any incidents yesterday. I predict his results will be better than many expect.

17. Sterling Marlin - Ginn Racing might have had a third car in the top ten if not for Sterling getting caught up in the last lap wreck.

18. Clint Bowyer - Also a victim of the last lap wreck, Clint actually crossed the finish line on fire, on his roof. But luckily it looked a lot more scary than it was - Clint calmly climbed out of the car uninjured.

19. Juan Montoya - Handling problems meant that Juan was never a factor in his Cup debut. I think that he got a top 20 in his first Cup race is a good way to start the season, but the expectations for him are so high that I suspect many are disappointed that he didn't finish better.

20. Casey Mears - Considering all the problems that Casey had to deal with, finishing 20th, second among all Hendrick Motorsports cars, could probably be considered a good finish. Casey made a mistake on pit road on lap 16 and drove by his pit stall, which caused him to have to come back and then re-start the race in 39th position. He then had to deal with an ill-handling race car which prevented him from making as much forward progress as he might have liked. Towards the end of the race after his team made some additional adjustements to the car, Casey was able to race his way towards the front. However, he was swept up in the last wreck and had to settle for a 20th place finish.

21. Bobby Labonte - I don't think Bobby was mentioned once during the race broadcast, probably because he was never a factor at any point. Based on his post-race report his car wasn't very good and finishing this well was mostly due to how many other cars got wrecked.

22. Dale Jarrett - Considering how bad this car was for most of Speedweeks, which meant that DJ needed to use his Champion's provisional to make this race, and how often he was racing in the back during much of this race, finishing in the top 25 is pretty good for DJ, who was the highest finishing Toyota.

23. Carl Edwards - Looked to have a strong car and a chance for a good finish, but after a restart, Carl lost the draft and as he drifted back, he brushed the wall which touched off a wreck. Not the way to start off the season for a driver looking to improve on his results from last season.

24. Kyle Busch - Had one of the best cars on the track, and was as high as third place on the final lap of the race, but he either lost it or was tagged by another car (I've seen several different accounts), which touched off a major wreck to end the race.

25. Greg Biffle - For much of the race it looked like Greg was going to finish this race extremely well, but he got caught in the late race wreck. Greg has a new crew chief this season and apparently many or all of the #6 crew members moved to the #16 with Pat Tryson. Although the result doesn't reflect it, if this race is any indication, the changes that were made to Greg's team may work out well for him this season.

26. Ricky Rudd - Not the way he wanted his first race back in Cup to go. Started from the front row, but then got wrecked when Junior couldn't avoid getting into him.

27. Matt Kenseth - Wanted to make a statement that he could finish well without his crew chief Robbie Reiser, who was suspended for a rules violation, but it wasn't to be. Matt survived a wreck caused by Matt bouncing off of teammate Jamie McMurray late in the race, but he wasn't so lucky on the last lap when Kyle Busch got into him, triggering a second huge wreck.

28. Denny Hamlin - Got swept up in the lap 174 wreck caused by Jimmie Johnson.

29. Martin Truex Jr. - Led 13 laps and looked like he was on his way to a fine finish but he got caught in the same wreck on lap 195 that ended Junior's day early.

30. Michael Waltrip - I've already detailed Michael's day in the previous entry, but it has to be considered a success just that he was racing considering the events of last week.

31. Jamie McMurray - 2006 was underwhelming for Jamie on the track to say the least. So he must have felt pretty excited when it seemed as if he was on his way to a strong finish yesterday. Until he was involved in a big wreck in the last few laps of the race.

32. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Junior was able to race up front, but in a surprise to all he never led any laps, and didn't appear to have one of the stronger cars on the track, a surprise since the #8 is usually among the best cars at Daytona. A late wreck put him out of the race, and when Junior got out of the car he complained about DEI's engine program, and the car's lack of speed, as well as some mistakes he thought he might have made on the track. I suppose some will see this as another sign that Junior's going to leave DEI, but it seems to me that Junior's gotten into a pattern where he's constantly complaining about his cars, his team and everything else after he gets out of the car.

33. Tony Raines - Wrecked on lap 195.

34. Dave Blaney - It's a mystery no longer - Blaney was in fact given a five-lap penalty, then parked by Nascar because they were none too pleased about him racing down pit road on lap 185. Had a flat tire which caused him to have trouble controlling his car when he got back on track, leading to him wrecking Ken Schrader.

35. Ken Schrader - Probably crossing Dave Blaney off his Christmas card list as I write this.

36. Jeff Green - Got caught in the lap 174 wreck caused by Jimmie Johnson.

37. Scott Riggs - A broken transmission that might have been caused by him having to back up on pit road because he overshot his pit stall caused him to have to spend time in the garage.

38. Ryan Newman - A blown engine ended his day early.

39. Jimmie Johnson - Last year's Daytona 500 winner and eventual Champion didn't start the season off very well. Jimmie got loose on lap 174 and caused a wreck that took out several other cars. Ugly.

40. David Reutimann - Didn't have a very good weekend. Had problems in Saturday's Busch race, and then had an extremely ill-handling race car yesterday. But David was hanging on as best as he could until he got wrecked on lap 174 through no fault of his own.

41. Kurt Busch - Had one of the best cars on the track until he and Tony Stewart wrecked while they were battling for the lead. Kurt apologized for wrecking Tony, but it wasn't Kurt's fault, it was just one of those racin' deals where Tony got a little loose and Kurt couldn't stay off of him.

42. Kyle Petty - A blown tire caused damage to his car that ruined his race.

43. Tony Stewart - Tony had won the Bud Shootout and his 150 Duel, so many were picking him to win the 500 as well. But that's why they race the races since anything can and will happen. Although Tony had an exceptionally strong car, he and Kurt Busch wrecked while Tony was leading the race, and instead of finishing first, Tony finished last. Ouch.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:12 PM | Comments (0)

Kevin Harvick Wins and Other Daytona 500 Thoughts

Most people are disappointed that Mark Martin couldn't hold on to win the Daytona 500, but as a Kevin Harvick fan I'm pretty happy for Happy! On the last lap, as a major chunk of the field was wrecking behind them, Kevin and Mark battled their way to the end, with Kevin ultimately crossing the finish line just ahead of Mark. What will keep fans talking this week is why Nascar didn't throw a caution flag as soon as the field started wrecking which would have frozen the field and given Mark the win. If it were any other time other than the last lap, there's no question that Nascar would have thrown the caution immediately, instead of waiting until the race was pretty much over. I guess it's another example of how inconsistant Nascar is when it come to enforcing the rules, but I can understand why they were hesitant to interrupt the battle for the win that was going on between Kevin and Mark. As disappionted as Mark surely was to have not won, it's still an outstanding finish, especially considering he was racing for an organization that wasn't very competitive last season.

After astonishing a lot of people who had counted him out completely by racing his way into the field, Michael Waltrip didn't have a very good day on Sunday. In fact, Michael's 30th place finish was his worst finish ever in the Daytona 500. The reason for such a poor finish is that the set-up of the car ended up being off, but also Michael brushed the wall, which necessitated him coming in for repairs which caused him to lose a lap. During a normal Daytona 500, that might not have been so bad because odds are a caution would have come quickly to allow him to get back on the lead lap. Unfortunately this wasn't a normal Daytona 500 and there was an extremely long period of green flag racing, which led to Michael losing another lap. Definitely not the result that Michael was hoping for, but at least he was racing. At one point last week it appeared possible that Nascar was going to suspend him for the 500, and maybe more races. Even though that didn't happen, Michael also considered voluntarily withdrawing. So I'm happy that not only did he race yesterday, but he finished the entire race and wasn't involved in any of the wrecks. May next week bring a better result for him!

What bothers me a little is that the #55 team changed the set-up from what they had gotten success with on Thursday during the 150 Duel to a set-up that Michael had used previously with some success. That was Michael's decision, and he later acknowledged that was a mistake. Last season it seemed as if the team ran into some problems because Michael didn't just focus on racing, he tried to make all the decisions about changes to make to the car. I'd much rather see a situation where Michael trusts his crew chief enough to the point where Michael gives feedback about what he'd like, but the crew chief ultimately makes the final decisions about set-ups and changes to make to the car during races. The team was put in a difficult position when David Hyder was suspended, and I hope that Scott Eggleston or whoever becomes Michael's permanent crew chief will have a strong enough personality to be able to be the primary decision-maker in relation to the #55 car as I think the team would be better off. Still, this team did an outstanding job of preparing Michael's car for the Duel, then fixing the damage the car got during that race to even be able to race yesterday. It's a sign of a good team that they were able to rally past what happened last week to race on Sunday.

What I'm really wondering about is why nothing was ever mentioned on the TV broadcast about Dave Blaney being held for five laps, and then ultimately parked, for racing down pit road at full speed, and then ending up wrecking Ken Schrader when he went back out onto the track. It's been hard to piece together exactly what took place, and what Blaney was thinking, but that's what happens when no one in the media bothers to cover what I consider to be a major part of the story, at least as it relates to that incident. Yes, it's hard for everything that happens to every driver to get mentioned during a race broadcast or in articles that follow the race. But it seems to me that any time Nascar parks a driver, it's worthy of discussion. I also wonder what Toyota felt about this incident, because it's another case of one of their teams getting a severe penalty, though not many people knowing about it probably takes a lot of the sting away.

Over all, I thought this was one of the most boring Daytona 500s that I've watched recently until the end. Personally, I'd rather a race be excited because of great racing, than because of spectacular wrecks that take out multiple cars. Unfortunately a large part of the middle of this race featured a lengthy green flag run during which the majority of the field went around the track in single-file, seemingly without a lot of passes for position. I'm hoping this isn't a sign that this season is going to feature a lack of exciting racing because it won't be very fun to watch, even if Michael and his teams do well.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2007

Random Thoughts on the Truck and Busch Races

*What a great finish to Friday's truck race! It looked like Travis Kvapil had the win all locked up, but Jack Sprague had other ideas. In the last few seconds of the last lap, Sprague teamed up with Johnny Benson and was able to pass Kvapil for the win. That finish though exciting, wasn't without controversy since Benson seemed to drop below the yellow line to advance into second position over Kvapil, who finished third. A driver advancing their position below the yellow line at this track is supposed to be a big no-no, and drivers who don't give their position back are supposed to be penalized - but that didn't happen to Benson. The question is why? I saw somewhere a brief mention that Nascar had reviewed it and said that the pass was legal, but there was no explanation given. Was it because they were so close to the finish and Benson had no time to give his position back? Was it because Nascar didn't want to create another controversy and ruin a great finish? We'll never know because Nascar doesn't seem inclined to explain further. I'm a Benson fan, so I like seeing him finish second, but it still seems like a very inconsistent application of the rules.

*Kevin Harvick picked up where he left off last season by winning the Busch Series opener, which was a sign of things to come on the Cup side. In fact many of the Buschwackers picked up right where they left off - the top 12 finishers were all full-time Cup drivers. Out of a field of 43 cars, 24 were full-time Cup drivers. Some were thinking that with less Cup drivers racing in the Busch Seris full-time it would give more of the Busch-only driver and teams opportunities to win races, but I think we'll be seeing just as many Cup drivers win Busch races as every before. Not many of them will be racing the full Busch schedule, but quite a few of them are racing partial Busch schedules of 10-15 races.

*Prior to the start of the season Fitz Racing bought the #22 from ppc Racing. But unlike some other deals of that nature, Fitz bought only the number itself and not the owner's points that went along with it. At the time Armando Fitz said that the team wasn't going to need the owner's points because so many Busch teams were in "limbo" that by the second or third race they'd be securely in the top 35 in owner's points. I wonder if he regrets that decision considering David Stremme wasn't able to qualify the #22 into the season opener at Daytona? That puts the #22 in a hole to start the season, and missing another race could be deadly for the team. It's possible that Fitz didn't want to buy the owner's points because he would have to make Greg Pollex the owner of the team, at least on paper, but considering the lack of competitiveness of the Fitz teams in the recent past, which it appears might have extended into this season, it seems to me that Fitz might have made a bad decision.

*Bill Lester finished 11th int the truck race. It's going to be very interesting to see how he does this season. Most have written him off as a driver with little talent who has only stuck around because he's articulate and he's a minority. However, there's always the possiblity that he wasn't very high in the food chain at Bill Davis Racing, and that less resources were put into his team than into Benson and Mike Skinner's teams. Friday night's 11th place finish matches his season high last year which came in the final race at Homestead. I"m thinking we might see more out of Lester than we have in season's past. He's probably looking to prove himself, and being with a new team might given him renewed energy about racing.

*David Reutimann had a tough Busch race (which was a preview of how his Cup race would go). Although he was able to race his way into the top ten at times, the car wasn't right, and David struggled with it as the race went along. Which unfortunately led to him smacking the wall twice, which ultimately damaged the car. David limped to a 29th place finish, but at least he finished. Hopefully he'll fare better next week in California.

*Dave Blaney was the highest finishing Toyota in the Busch Series, but there was only four Toyota teams racing. I wonder if Toyota is going to increase their presence in the Busch Series, or whether that series will always be an afterthought for them? At one time BDR was planning on fielding a Busch car, but I'm not sure if they still plan on doing that this season. I'd think if Tyler Walker does well in a BDR truck they might look to put him in a Busch car.

*In the Truck race, Toyotas made up four of the top five finishers, and five of the top ten finishers. Some have wondered if Toyota was going to divert some of their resources from the Truck Series to their Cup program, and whether that might hurt the performance of their truck teams, but in the early going that doesn't seem to be the case.

*I can't say that I was as enthralled in the Busch race as I was in the Truck Race. Problem is that even though I don't mind the Buschwackers as much as some other fans do, I feel like the same drivers keep winning over and over again. I'm a Harvick fan, so I was happy to see him win. But I'd like to see a few more David Gillilands in Victory Lane, and a few less mini-Cup teams.

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

More on Michael Waltrip

There's been a lot to digest over the past few days regarding Michael Waltrip, and other than when he raced his way into the Daytona 500, I've felt very sad when I've thought about Michael. Whoever took it upon themselves to cheat in such spectuacular fashion nearly destroyed everything that Michael's worked so hard on for so long, but more than that has hurt Michael personally so deeply that I think it's going to be quite some time before he fully recovers. I've seen Michael look down before, but I've never seen him look as beaten, worn-down and depressed as he did on Thursday, and I wanted to cry for him. In some ways it's strange that I would feel that way because outside of having met him a few times, I don't know Michael. I'm just a fan of his, but fans get very attached to the people they cheer for, and we feel their successes and disappointments. So when Michael's pain at being betrayed by someone in his organization showed through so clearly, it was very difficult to see.

I have to give Michael a great deal of credit for getting in front of the media on Thursday morning when he probably felt almost as low as he possibly could feel, when he could have hidden in his motorcoach, and refused interviews. But he showed a great deal of courage by not being afraid to answer questions and let it be known just how deeply this was hurting him. There's some in the media who feel that Michael was putting on a performance. After all, he does play up parts of his personality for the camera when he's on Inside Nextel Cup or Tradin' Paint. Michael also has a gift for words and being able to be very persausive. But I don't think what we saw on Thursday was any act in any way, shape or form. Racing has been a part of who he is for more than twenty years, the competitive fires burn bright within him, and talk about not racing isn't something that I would think comes easily to a race car driver. That's the biggest indication to me about how deeply hurt Michael is about all of this, that his instinct was to give up - this from a man who was recently described by Ty Norris as having "no quit" in him. That he was on the verge of quitting, is heart-breaking to me.

But Michael did end up racing on Thursday. And I'm so glad he did. First and foremost, because I think it helped him. By his own admission, once he was in the car he was able to shut out all that had been swirling around him, and I think he dearly needed to be able to stop thinking, and likely obsessing, over what had been done to him. He needed something that he could feel good about, even though it was very difficult for him to enjoy having raced his way in afterwards. But also because I think his fans needed to see him race. We needed to cheer for him, and we needed to be have something to get excited about, and ultimately be happy about. Even if he hadn't made the race it would have been fine. Fans just needed to see that Michael was going to continue racing because that was a sign that things were going to eventually be okay.

Michael made a comment during one of his media session on Thursday about how he wanted his fans to be able to wear his hats and shirts with pride again. Well, what Michael doesn't realize is that there's still a tremendous amount of fans who are supporting him, and will continue to do so. While many fans were disappointed that this happened to his team, most of his fans believe him when he says that he had no knowledge of what someone in his organization was planning to do, and as hard as it may be for him to believe, it doesn't appear that he's going to lose many fans. The vast majority of Michael's fans still believe in him, and are behind him all the way. In fact, it almost seems as if his fans are becoming more vocal about being fans of his so that they can show how much they support him. I'm not ashamed to wear my shirts of his - how could I be ashamed to be a fan of a two-time Daytona 500 winner, who is a highly intelligent person, who cares about his fans, so much so that even with all that's on his mind the past few days he's approached people that he's known are fans of his in the garage area to ask them how they're doing, and how they're handling all of this? I'll never be embarassed to be a fan of someone who has remembered me each time I've seen him, and has always treated me with kindness.

Of course there will always be some, mostly people who were never fans of his in the first place, who will view him as a cheater and believe that he not only had knowledge of what his team was doing, but encouraged it. Unfortunately, there's really nothing that Michael can do to change those people's minds. As I've said before, there's a segment of fans who are rigid in their views, and once they make their minds up about something, there's nothing that will cause them to change their opinions. It's something that's always bothered me. While a lot of my core beliefs and ideas will always be the same, I'm constantly re-evaluating a lot of my opinions based on things that I see, read and hear. I love information, and often in the course of trying to become more informed about something my opinion might change from what it was originally. But that's not the case for many fans who are totally unwilling to even consider any information, often even factual information, that doesn't agree with their opinions.

My hope is that Michael, Ty and MWR can find out the truth about who was responsible and perhaps it will help clear their names a little. Ty was on XM and he indicated that MWR has already started an internal investigation, but if they can't find the answers they're looking for, they will hire an outside investigator. Apparently no one on the team, even after intensive questioning, has admitted guilt. But I suppose that's to be expected, especially since Ty said that MWR may look to take that person to court to sue for damages. Ty also said that the MWR employee contracts have morals and other clauses that prohibit behavior like this, and that Michael had specifically warned everyone to respect Nascar's rules. So they view what happened as a betrayal of Michael - and I agree. Michael placed his trust in someone, and they betrayed him in a massive way to the point where it's tarnished his reputation and that of his organization, in addition to ruining this season for him. No wonder he feels so hurt. I hope they can find out what the truth is because maybe it will give him some peace of mind to know exactly what happened.

I just want the rest of the season to go well for Michael. My wish for him is that he's eventually able to smile not just on the outside, but also on the inside. That he's happy again, and that he enjoys himself when he's at the track. I want him to be able to qualify in for all the races this season, and that the same is true for his teams. I also hope that he's able to get good results on the track - a win might be a tall order for a new team, but with Michael's determination and if he's able to regain that "no quit" attitude of his, he may just do it. I really hope so - that would certainly erase this week's bad memories.

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

Toyota Will Continue to Support Michael Waltrip Racing

Many fans had been speculating after the harsh words by Toyota's Jim Aust, president of motorsports for Toyota Motor Sales USA and president and CEO of Toyota Racing Development, that Toyota intended on dropping their support of Michael Waltrip Racing over this week's incident with the illegal fuel additive. Even I was concerned for a while. But the company has since relaxed it's stance significantly in regards to Michael and his organization, while still being clear that integrity and following Nascar's rules is important to them. I'm not sure whether the initial statement was a PR move, or whether they really meant it, and after talking with Michael and others at MWR changed their view after being convinced that it was only one or two individuals who did this rather than a company-wide scheme that Michael was a aware of. Whatever the reason, I'm glad that Michael is getting support in public from Toyota.

Aust said,

"This is not something he intended to have happen. Michael will probably see the effects of it over time, but he's a very charismatic individual, he's got a lot of fan supporters and we are supportive of his organization as well. I think we have to let NASCAR go ahead with their investigation. Certainly we're looking forward to a long-term relationship with Michael [because] he's a great guy. It's unfortunate that this happened to his team -- it's disappointing to him and it's disappointing to Toyota and we will continue on with our relationship with Michael. What we would like to do is help him to get to the bottom of the problem so that he knows how things happened and that's our aim at this particular point."

That's my hope at the moment, that MWR is able to find out who was responsible and how they went about doing what they did so they can prevent it from happening in the future.

Lee White, TRD's senior vice president and general manager was also supportive of Michael,

"There's just so much at stake here, to have the reputation of a man, the reputation of his sponsor, and certainly our company, tarnished over the actions of a couple of people. Frankly, it's a tragic situation."

I agree with him completely. One or two people made a very poor decision, one that Michael wouldn't have wanted them to make. And he has to suffer the brunt of the consequences of their actions. Michael's reptuation has taken a big hit, and it's going to be hard to restore it to what it once was for some time to come.

But how likely was it that Toyota was really going to withdraw their support from MWR? I'm not sure it was too likely. For one thing, when's the last time a manufacturer withdrew their support from a team when they were caught cheating? Yes, this was a very serious incident, but the reality is that playing in the grey area and trying to get away with something to gain an advantage is part of the sport. Last year's situation with the #48 team was also fairly serious but Chevy didn't say a word. Neither did Dodge nor Ford this season when their teams were busted and penalized. I think the difference here is that Toyota is new to Cup, and is already facing a great deal of negativity and resistance from some fans and even some in the garage area, so anything like this hurts their efforts.

In addition, it seems to me that there's likely complex contractual agreements between Toyota and MWR that might make Toyota withdrawing their support difficult unless there's an out clause for the team being caught cheating. Withdrawing their support might also result in an ugly lawsuit, and I doubt that Toyota wants that. Not to mention withdrawing their support would be a huge waste of money and resources.

But more than all of that, I don't think Toyota is likely to withdraw their support from an organization that in spite of their issues this week ended up being the strongest of the three that are backed by Toyota in Cup. MWR is the only one who got all of their cars into the Daytona 500 - Dale Jarrett because he has the Champion's provisional, Michael because he raced his way in, and David Reutimann because he made it in on his time from Sunday qualifying. Meanwhile, from Red Bull Racing, A.J. Allmendinger was both slow and got wrecked; and Brian Vickers got wrecked,but also might not have made it in even if he didn't. Bill Davis Racing's Jeremy Mayfield was fast in qualifying on Sunday, but was never a factor when it really counted during his 150 Duel on Thursday. Toyota has to be a little disappointed with the performance of their other teams. While I'm sure they knew that all of them being able to get into the Daytona 500 was a long-shot, I'd think they were hoping to at least have one car from each team, something that didn't happen thanks to RBR's woes.

I'm sure that Toyota will ask MWR to enforce strict guidelines regarding the need to follow Nascar's rules, and will also stress that there must be no other incidents, otherwise there will be severe consequences. But I suspect the relationship between Toyota and MWR will be a long and happy one.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:54 AM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2007

When is a Rules Infraction Not Like Any Other?

When it involves the car of Jeff Gordon. After Jeff won the second 150 Duel yesterday his car was found to be too low by Nascar officials due to misalilgned bolts in the rear shocks. But instead of becoming yet another cheating scandal, Nascar was quick to state that although the car failed post-race inspection, the infraction wasn't intentional, that the team had gained no advantage on the track, and that the only penalty that the team would incur is that they would have to start the Daytona 500 from the back. Now that's a fairly costly penalty for Jeff, since the majority of recent winners of the 500 have come from inside the top ten starters, and no driver has won from as far back as Jeff will be starting. However, that penalty certainly doesn't compare to that levied against teams such as the #9 or #17 (the situation with the #55 is in a class by itself). I suppose it's easy to say that the issue with the #24 wasn't intentional because it didn't give them an advantage on the track, but since some of the other violations were for things like tape not being aligned correctly, one has to wonder how they can be so sure that those issues weren't accidental as well? I can understand if some of the other teams who were penalized this week feel that Nascar was very heavy-handed with them and let the #24 team off easy.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

Random Thoughts on the 150 Duels

*Have I mentioned how thrilled I am that Michael Waltrip was able to race his way into the Daytona 500?!

*Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans are up in arms about the incident between Michael and Junior in which Michael got into Junior causing him to spin, something that could have been extremely costly to both drivers, but wasn't. Michael admitted after the race that he made a mistake, but that's something Junior should be familiar with. After all, Junior spun Michael so severely in 2005, when they were teammates, that Michael ended up in the wall, with a wrecked race car, and out of the race with a chance for a good finish ruined. Not only that but just last weekend, Junior caused a rather large wreck in the Bud Shootout wth another mistake while he was trying to bump-draft Elliott Sadler. So I don't think Junior has much room to complain about Michael, as frustrating as it probably is to get spun through no fault of his own. Junior ended up finishing second in the first 150, and he'll start the Daytona 500 in 5th.

*I'm astonished that more Toyotas didn't make it into the field. As happy as I am that all three Michael Waltrip Racing cars made the show, I thought that Jeremy Mayfield and Brian Vickers had good shots to race their way in as well. Vickers had a good car but got wrecked, so that had to be incredibly disappointing for him. What really surprised me is that inspite of testing well, and having a fast qualifying speed, Mayfield never seemed very competitive during the 150. Maybe there was so much focus on a good qualifying run to try to lock themselves in on speed, that they didn't do as much with race set-ups. That proved costly, since Mayfield had to rely on Sterling Marlin racing his way in if he was going to make the race, something that didn't happen so Mayfield will sit the 500 out. Somewhere Ray Evernham is probably chuckling. I'm not too surprised that A.J. Allmendinger didn't make the race - his car never seemed to have enough for him to be competitive, so even if he hadn't been wrecked it was unlikely we would have seen him in the show. I hope fans realize it wasn't Allmendinger's lack of experience that got him wrecked, it was all Robby Gordon. On top of several Toyota teams not being able to race their way in, two other Toyota teams had mechanical woes during their 150s - Dave Blaney and David Reutimann.

*I'm also surprised that Paul Menard wasn't able to race his way into the 500. Once David Reutimann was locked in on speed, my picks to race their way in were Vickers and Menard, neither of whom were able to do it. While DEI usually fields strong cars at restrictor plate tracks, in the early going it appears that this season could be a continuation of last season where DEI struggled to give Menard a car that was fast enough to qualify for races. I think Menard should be one of the leading candidates for Rookie of the Year in Cup, but missing races and having non-competitive cars eliminates any hope of that. We'll see what happens as the season goes along, but it may be that DEI isn't up to fielding three cars right now.

*Ward Burton got wrecked in the first duel, which ended any hope he had of making the 500, a race he's won before. Ward was upset after the race and pounded on the roof of his car after the race. Thing is even if he hadn't been wrecked, his chances of racing in weren't very good since he was experiencing some mechanical issues. On top of that, let's face it - Ward was in a Morgan-McClure Motorsports car. And while they were once a successful organization, the results have been much worse more recently. I'm sure that the team is working hard to get better, but Ward should've been prepared to miss races when he agreed to race this car full-time.

*Tony Stewart won the first Duel, and Jeff Gordon the second. Not that anyone really noticed with all the attention being focused on which go-or-go-home teams were going to race their way in. Until Jeff Gordon's car failed a post-race inspection that is, but I'll have more on that in a separate entry.

*David Gilliland continued to have a strong car, finishing 4th in his Duel - I would expect to see a lot of him up front on Sunday as well. Same for David Stremme who finished 3rd in his 150.

*A number of the drivers who didn't make the field complained after the race about how Nascar should have sent the teams home who cheated. That's just sour grapes. A few of those teams wouldn't have made the field even if all the cheating teams had been sent home. Drivers and teams need to be concerned with making their cars as competitive as possible, and race as hard as they can. That they failed to make the show isn't the fault of the teams who cheated, it's because they just weren't able outrace the other drivers who they were racing against for a spot in the 500.

*All three Evernham cars were in the second 150, and Kasey Kahne was the highest finisher in 16th. Seemed like none of them were much of a factor during this race, especially Elliott Sadler. It's going to be very interesting seeing whether Elliott has more success in this car than Jeremy Mayfield did last season.

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

February 15, 2007

Photo of the Day - Grounds for Sculpture

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

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

Michael Waltrip Races His Way Into the Daytona 500

When Michael Waltrip woke up this morning, he was thinking about withdrawing from the Gatorade 150 so that the cheating scandal that Michael Waltrip Racing is currently embroiled in wouldn't overshadow the day's proceedings. But he was talked out of that decision by people from Toyota, NAPA, Mike Helton, and his wife, Buffy. Good thing too. Not only did Michael race, but he was the top finishing go-or-go-home car in his 150, finishing 8th to earn himself a 15th place starting spot in the Daytona 500. What Michael did today is incredible on several levels. He got in front of a packed house to give a press conference, in which he was nearly in tears as he answered every question candidly, then he got behind the wheel of a car that he had never practiced in, that was set-up as a back up car for another driver, and drove it like he stole it into the Dayonta 500. And some people think he has no talent as a driver? A driver without talent couldn't do what Michael did today, especially considering the weight of the world probably felt like it was on his shoulders. I can't even begin to express how thrilled I am - I'm not usually an emotional person, especially over racing, but I literally cried tears of happiness when Michael made the race! While I'm still sad for Michael for all that he's going through, I'm extremely happy that he has something to feel good about.

What's also awesome is that all three Michael Waltrip Racing cars will race in the Daytona 500. The #44 because of Dale Jarrett's champion's provisional, Michael because he raced his way in, and David Reutimann because his speed ended up being enough to lock him into the show. That is absolutely awesome! I'm sure Toyota is still very unhappy about the actions of someone in Michael's organization, but considering MWR is going to be fielding three of the four Toyotas that were able to make it into the show, I'm thinking they're not really regretting their decision to align themselves with MWR as much as some might think.

I'll have more thoughts on Michael's situation, and the Duels themselves tomorrow, but I couldn't resist writing a little about how happy I am for Michael! It shows that he should never be counted out because he might just prove his doubters wrong! Michael will have plenty of challenges ahead of him this season but this is one step towards righting things for himself and his organization.

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

Michael Waltrip Makes the Daytona 500

I don't have time to say much more than WHOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO! I'm so happy that Michael Waltrip was able to race his way into the Daytona 500. Everyone counted him out, but he did it! Go Michael!

Posted by silverdsl at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)

Nascar Hits the #55 Team With Heavy Penalties

...and they deserve it. Before I start discussing the situation with the #55 team, I want to make it clear that I'm just as much of a fan of Michael Waltrip today as I was last week before anyone had any idea that he would be swept up in a gigantic cheating scandal. I'm not going to stop supporting Michael because of this, nor are the majority of his fans. In spite of this setback, I still think he's got a bright future ahead of him as owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, and hopefully as a driver as well. I will support Michael no matter how tough this season is going to be, whether the results on the track are good or bad, and no matter how much negativity is dumped on him. People make mistakes, and someone in his organization made a serious one.

That said, I'm extremely disappointed by the actions of the person or persons at Michael Waltrip Racing who put this plan into motion. I'm not against teams being creative and playing around in the grey area of the rule book. However, blatant cheating on this level is unacceptable to me - teams can't be disregarding the rulebook this blantantly. What's even worse is that it happen during Speedweeks for the Daytona 500, when the team isn't locked into the field. This team should have shown up to the track with everything perfectly as it should be. The risks, as the team has found out, far outway the potential benefits. Did I mention how disappointing that is yet? I would expect more from people who have been working in this sport for a significant amount of time, know the rulebook, and should be aware of how costly it would be to get caught. To me, that someone had no concept of how wrong putting an illegal additive into the fuel system is shows a stunningly lack of good judgement.

Michael's lost his crew chief, David Hyder, who has been suspended indefinitely, and will likely be fired from MWR, as he should be if he was responsible for this. The organization has also lost Director of Competition, Bobby Kennedy, which will hurt all three MWR teams, as he's been suspended indefinitely as well. In addition, Michael's been fined $100,000, he's lost 100 driver points, and what will be most costly of all is that he's also been penalized 100 owner points. Michael's already outside the top 35 in owner's points, and this may make it impossible to get back in this season, particularly since it's going to be very difficult for him to race his way into the Daytona 500 today. Michael may find it impossible to climb out of the big hole he's going to start the season in, but I have no doubt he will give all he's got towars turning things around and making this situation a distant memory. Problem is, it won't be so easy to make people forget what happened.

Almost as bad as what these penalties will do to the team's chances of success this season is the reaction from Toyota who publically all but threatened to pull their support of MWR. They've been working extremely hard to establish a positive image and this sets their efforts back considerably, something which they have to be extremely unhappy about. Which is why everyone, from Michael to Nascar to Toyota, has taken great pains to make it clear that this is a team issue, not a manufacturer issue. Jim Aust, president and CEO of Toyota Racing Development said that Michael's been apologetic,

"For this to happen to him is extremely disappointing and extremely disappointing to Toyota. ... He has certainly apologized to just about anybody that would be associated with his organization. He's beside himself with what's happened."

However, Toyota is so unhappy with the events that unfolded that they intend on sending a letter to all their teams that indicate that the next team that gets busted for cheating will lose their suppport. I have to wonder how likely that is to happen though. For one thing Toyota has a tremendous amount of money and resources invested in these teams and it seems like dropping an organization would be like going out back and burning all that money in a big bonfire. In addition, there are contracts that may not be so easy to break unless there's an out clause for cheating. Most of all, I'm not sure it's realistic to think that none of their teams won't ever be caught for rules violations, deliberate or accidental. Teams make mistakes, and they also push the grey area to try to get an advantage over other teams. That's s the way of the garage area. Another Toyota team, Bill Davis Racing, has Tommy Baldwin, Jr. as their Director of Competition, and he's been known to play fast and loose with the rules. If past history is an indication, Tommy may be inclined to experiment with a few things on his cars, so we may find out how serious Toyota is about pulling support.

What pains me the most about this situation is that I know how dearly Michael wanted to show that he could get better results on the track than last season as a driver, but also be successful as an owner. Both of those things have taken a heavy hit before the first lap of the first race, and that has to hurt Michael terribly. Particularly since it was due to the actions of someone within his own organization. Michael released a statement which said,

"In the past 12 months, Michael Waltrip Racing has hired more than 150 people and we currently employ more than 200. Although we have grown at an accelerated pace, it has been our mission to hire people with high moral value and character to properly represent our sponsors and our ownership.

During preparations for the 2007 season and especially the 2007 Daytona 500, I specifically requested that our competition teams not disrespect NASCAR, our competitors or our sponsors by blatantly circumventing the rules.

This is not the action of an organization, a manufacturer or a sponsor. This was an independent act done without consent or authorization from me or any of my executive management team. As an owner, I realize I am ultimately held responsible for the actions of my employees. Therefore, I accept the penalties issued tonight by NASCAR.

I respect NASCAR's rules, its people and the sport's integrity, which is why I am so sad and embarrassed. I am dedicated to get to the bottom of this because I will not let the independent act of an individual or individuals tarnish the incredible accomplishment my organization has made to be where we are today.

I want to apologize to the other owners, who know how hard I've worked to get here in such a short period of time, NASCAR, Toyota, NAPA, all my sponsors, the drivers and especially the fans."

Unfortunately there's a lot of people who think that Michael likely knew about what his team was going to try to do, and they aren't going to change their minds no matter what he says. While I do think he wanted his team to do what they could to ensure they had a good chance of making the Daytona 500, I highly doubt that he knew that his team was going to break the rules in such a major way, particularly if he warned them not to do things like this. In general, I think it's unlikely that crew chiefs tell their drivers or owners when they're doing something that violates the rules for their own protection so they can honestly say they had no clue about what their crew chief or team was up to. In addition, in Michael's case, while he's extremely intelligent and knowledgable about racing, I don't think his technical knowledge, or in this case chemical engineering knowledge, is such that he'd be able to help come up with a scheme like this. I think if Michael had known about it he would have put a stop to it because he'd recognize the risks that would be involved.

Some fans believe that this is all a big conspiracy against Michael. That Nascar's out to get him or that another team somehow sabatoged his car either by sneaking in after hours to tamper with his car, or by planting someone within MWR to tamper with the car. Ridiculous. Nascar wouldn't manufacture something this serious because there's no way they want the negative publicity that comes from a scandal this serious. In addition, Michael is one of the most pro-Nascar people involved in the sport, and one of the few to consistantly support almost everything they do - he wouldn't be their choice to snare in a fake cheating scandal. In addition, the chances of someone from another team being able to tamper with the #55 are slim to none, and I think that most teams have enough problems of their own to worry about without concocting an elaborate Mission Impossible like scheme to plant a mole at MWR.

However, I would agree that this is sabatoge - but it's internal sabatoge. Michael's been betrayed by one or more of his own employees who he trusted to help him succeed this season. Instead those actions have likely ruined his season completely, and perhaps even worse his reputation. This is a sport where image matters, and Michael has always put a significant amount of effort into maintaining his image, and cultivating the relationship he has with his sponsors. I can't imagine how much damage control he's going to have to do with NAPA and his other sponsors. Plus there's the damage that's been done to how others will view him in the garage area.

There's also no doubt that damage will be done to the way that fans view him. Because there are a signficant amount of fans who are rigid in their beliefs and unwilling to change their minds once they make a decision about a driver or situation, forevermore some fans, maybe even a lot of fans, will view Michael as a cheater. There's also some of his own fans who are tremendously disappointed and upset about what's taken place. Fans are the lifeblood of any driver or team because they support the sponsors, buy the merchandise, and in Michael's case, visit Waltrip Race World. So Michael is going to have significant work to do in that area as well. He's always been one of Nascar's most popular drivers, and I hate that he's likely going to have to deal with boos and other backlash from fans.

What was incredible to me yesterday is how many erroneous rumors were reported by the media, even when it was obvious there wasn't much truth to any of it. From rumors about sterno, to jet fuel, to that Michael was going to be suspended for several months, to all three MWR teams getting kicked out of Daytona, to one of the #44 cars being re-wrapped as a #32, to another driver going to race the #55, the media ran with all of it, particularly Sirius and Lee Spencer. Meanwhile there wasn't a shread of truth to any of it! Now I have no problem with rumors, sometimes they can be interesting, and often there's some grain of truth there. But not in this case. The jet fuel rumor particularly had wings and was widely reported, even though those with technical knowledge said that it was highly unlikely that the team used jet fuel due to how damaging it would be to the car's engine. And in fact Robin Pemberton denied the jet fuel rumor straight out at the press conference. It seemed as if the media reported every piece of speculation out of the garage area whether it made sense or not, probably because they had so few hard facts to go on.

The media also spent a significant amount of time speculating about how Michael was likely to be suspended for a long period of time which got all of Michael's fans extremely worked up. However, I suspected that was unlikely to happen. One, because they had never suspended a driver or owner for cheating before, so if they were to take that step, I figured at most it would be for a race or two. But more than that, suspending a driver not only punishes the team, it also punishes the sponsors and that driver's fans - is Nascar really prepared to go down that road? I'm not sure that they are, especially since one day they may find themselves in a position where they have to suspend an elite driver like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or Jeff Gordon.

So what happens from here? The team has no choice but to carrry on, trying to get the best results they possibly can to get themselves out of the huge hole they're in. And Michael has to do whatever he can to heal the damage that was caused by someone in his organization doing something very stupid. The reality is though, even if Michael wasn't involved with what his team did, and it's likely that he wasn't, as owner of the team he's responsible for the actions fo his team. Which is why he accepted responsibility and apologized in his statement. I know all of this has to be killing him inside. And it makes me incredibly sad for him.

My feelings can pretty much be summed up by me saying that I'm sad and disappointed - I had wanted things to be so much different for Michael this season. In spite of what many think he doesn't just care about plugging his sponsors, he cares deeply about his results on the track. Michael is a much more talented driver than he's ever given credit for. And he's a terrific person too. Because of how judgemental people are many are going to think he's a terrible person because of this, and that's very unfortunate because Michael is a highly intelligent, caring and good person who got caught in a bad situation.

I guess this post probably rambled all over the place but it's been an upsetting few days, and I've been thinking about all kinds of things in relation to this. I just hope that from here things improve significantly for Michael as a driver and as an owner - he deserves so much better than this.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2007

What do Steve Park and Bernie Williams Have in Common?

What could a baseball player and a Nascar driver possibly have in common? Both Bernie Williams and Steve Park are in limbo as far as their careers go. Both want to continue taking part in the sport that they love but there doesn't seem to be a place for either one, at least not on their terms. One of the local papers actualy referred to Bernie as being in limbo - not retired, but not signed to play this season - and I immediately thought of Steve because the same is true of him. He's expressed his desire to keep looking for a ride, but so far nothing has turned up for him for this season. I would guess that we won't be seeing much of either Bernie or Steve in 2007.

In Bernie's case his preference is to play for the New York Yankees. Out of respect for all that he's done for the organization, the Yankees offered him a non-guaranteed minor league contract. But even if Bernie played well in Spring Training there's no role for him with the Yankees. He could gauge other teams interest in his services, but in spite of some comments that indicated that he might do exactly that, Bernie seems unwilling to actually follow through. So essentially that means that Bernie's career is over if he's not going to play for the Yankees. Which might be a good thing because there's nothing more painful than watching a player try to hang on even as their skills continue to erode to the point where you cringe when you see their name in the lineup. Such was the case with Bernie the past couple of years. Although he was able to contribute at the plate at times, he looked terrible in the field, and overall he was a meer shadow of the player he once was.

Likewise, it's been painful to watch Steve on the track the past couple of years. As I've said many times before, I believe in his talent behind the wheel, and that if he's given a competitive car or truck he can race up front and win. However, it's been quite some time since Steve has raced a competitive car or truck in any of Nascar's three highest series - probably since 2005 when he won in the #62 truck. It was no fun watching Steve ride around in back last season, and it's been less fun waiting for announcements about rides that as of yet haven't materialized. Steve has said in the past that he's only willing to consider rides that are competitive and will give him a chance to win, so at this point as sad as it might be, I think that means that his career, at least as a full-time driver, is over like Bernie's. The elite teams simply aren't going to be lining up to offer rides to 40-year old drivers who haven't had impressive results the past few years, even if the fault for that is due to the lack of resources or other failings of the teams they've been with. So I'm thinking unless Steve decides to consider some rides that are less than ideal, he'll be watching races from his couch instead of from behind the wheel this season.

I think for both Steve and Bernie, their respective sports have moved on without them. If they were willing to consider a wider variety of options, maybe they'd both be able to find some way of staying involved - Bernie with a team other than the Yankees and Steve with a less competitive team than he might like. But I don't think that either one would really be happy with those scenarios. For Bernie the Yankees are all he's known his entire career so after this long playing for another team probably sounds extremely undesirable. Especially since in his heart he probably realizes he's not the player he once was. And for a race car driver, riding around in back every race is no fun at all.

There's fans who think that if Bernie goes to spring training and plays really well that the Yankees will make room for him on the roster even if it's at the expense of a player who's likely to perform better over the long-term. As loyal as Joe Torre is to his veterans, I think that he even he recognizes that there's not a role for Bernie with the Yankees any more. There's also fans of Steve's who think that some team is going to suddenly decide to give Steve an ultra-competitive ride or that if he sits out 2007 he'll find a ride for 2008 as rides open up via drivers moving to other organizations. But what's becoming increasingly clear is that there doesn't seem to be any teams who believe in Steve's ability to get results like his fans do. In addition, Steve's not Ricky Rudd. Ricky was able to sit out a year and get a full-time ride for this season because of his accomplishments over his 31-year career as a Cup racer during which time he won 23 races. Steve's not even Ward Burton. For Ward to come back he recognized that he was going to have to work with a team that wasn't as competitive as he might like, something that Steve doesn't seem willing to do.

So do I think Bernie is done in baseball? Yes. Do I think Steve is done in Nascar? As a full-time driver, yes. Am I ashamed of thinking that as some fans in both sports think I should be? Not one bit. Fact is that every athlete's career comes to an end sometimes. If they're lucky it's on their own terms. If they're not, it's on someone else's terms, and I think that's what's happening to both Bernie and Steve. I'd love to be wrong, but so far it's not looking too good for either Bernie or Steve.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

More on the #55 Team

I feel a lot better about the situation with the #55 team today than I did before. Yesterday on XM, Claire B. Lang played a couple of interesting interviews that shed some more light on Nascar taking the manifold from Michael Waltrip's #55 for testing and the confiscation of the car. For one thing it sounds like there are many in the media who jumped to a lot of conclusions based on what some of their sources in the garage area were speculating the problem might be, without actually knowing whether or not the #55 had actually done anything wrong. In fact, as of yesterday when Claire talked to Jim Hunter, Nascar's spokesman, Nascar still hadn't determined whether the #55 had actually done anything wrong. He was pretty clear in saying that while Nascar saw a substance they wanted to investigate more closely, it may turn out that the #55 team simply had an engine problem that caused oil to get into the manifold. So any speculation about penalities or wrong-doing has no grounds in fact right now - if Nascar doesn't even know what the substance is yet, then outside of the team, no one else could know either. Meaning that no one could know what, if anything, Nascar is going to do to penalize the team. That includes whether or not they're going to let Michael race on Thursday. Hunter also specifically said that as far as he knew the car that Michael raced during qualifying on Sunday was legal and passed post-race inspection. So seeing as how the car passed post-race inspection, and his time hasn't been thrown out like that of Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth, I can't see why Nascar wouldn't let Michael race on Thursday, with at least a back-up car, if not the original car.

What I found very interesting was what Felipe Lopez, the crew chief for Hall of Fame Racing said in a later interview. Of course he also has no idea exactly what the substance is that Nascar found so suspicious. But his speculation was that it was unlikely to be sterno, as rumored. Instead he felt that the #55 team might have been playing around with oil additives and exotic oils, and that they had something that looked off to Nascar, but it might turn out to be exactly what the team is claiming that it is - oil. Furthermore, oils apparently fall into a large grey area because it's very hard for Nascar to regulate a lot of what goes on with the oils because different engines might require different oils. In addition, testing the oils wouldn't be feasible since it would require Nascar to have a lab set up at the track and test every car's oil individually. So Lopez felt that the #55 team might have been doing something with an exotic oil, and something in the engine went mechanically wrong to cause the oil to get in the manifold. According to him, teams aren't likely to deliberately put a substance into the manifold because of how obvious it would be to the inspectors. He could be completely off-base, but a lot of what he was saying made a lot of sense to me.

Naturally there's a lot of fans of Michael's who are thinking that Nascar deliberately targeted him because they're out to get him - nonsense. Every time a team gets busted for a rules infraction fans assume that Nascar has a vendetta. But in reality Nascar has a job to do. They aren't always consistent in their application of the rules, but if they see something that's suspicious or in violation of the rules, they're obligated to check it out further as they're doing with the #55 team, and act on it if there is actually wrong-doing. Hunter commented that Michael is a "great ambassador for the sport." And it's true. Unlike some who complain all the time, Michael is constantly talking about how great he thinks Nascar is. I suppose some see that as kissing up to Nascar, but I truly think he loves racing in Nascar and likes the direction the sport is going in - how couldn't he considering it's made it possible for him to field three Cup teams this season? But back to Hunter's comment, I don't think that Nascar would throw a driver they consider to be a great ambassador to the sport under a bus without good reason.

On last night's Inside Nextel Cup Michael said that he really didn't know what was going on or when he might get his car back. Of course he said that the substance in question was oil, and gave a technical explanation as to how the oil might have gotten into the manifold. One thing he made sure to say was that the mistake that allowed the oil to get into the manifold was a mistake on his team's part, not Toyota's part. I guess he wanted to be sure to say that since some in the media have been trying to use this incident as a way to portray Toyota in a negative light. That's silly. Does it reflect badly on Dodge and their ability to field a good team that the #9 team was busted for a rules violation? Or Ford with the #17 team?

Yesterday evening Michael did a few interviews in which he said that his team was going to get their car back on Wednesday in time to practice with it, and that this incident wouldn't effect him racing in the Duels on Thursday at all. I don't know if his comments were him being optimistic or whether he had updated information that came after the INC taping, but I can't see why Nascar wouldn't give them the car back unless they found something else wrong with it.

Nascar may still find something major wrong with the #55 or the substance in the manifold that's a major rules violation and the #55 team may face harsh penalties. However, from the sounds of it, I'm starting to think that it's possible that a lot of the hand-wringing is an over-reaction by fans and the media based on speculation about what the #55 team might have been doing wrong, rather than there actually being any hard facts. I sure hope Nascar clears the #55 team completely, and this is all forgotten after Michael races his way into the 500 on Thursday!

Posted by silverdsl at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2007

Photo of the Day

Somewhere over Nevada, January, 2005.

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

Random Thoughts on the Bud Shootout, Qualifying and More

I had a lot of family over this weekend so there was no time to comment on much this weekend but I did watch the Bud Shootout, and paid a little attention to qualifying beyond what happened with Michael.

*Perhaps the biggest thing that jumped out at me this weekend is that predictions about the fall of Robert Yates Racing might have been extremely premature. Yes, it's just a non-points event and qualifying for the first event of the season, but the RYR cars sure looked like they had a lot more speed this weekend than they did at any point last season. David Gilliland was impressive, finishing second to Tony Stewart in the Shootout, then followed it up by winning the pole for the Daytona 500. Most people have made very dire predictions about Gilliland due to how limited his experience in Cup is, but I'm not so sure there's going to be as much torn up sheet metal as some thing there's going to be. In addition, Ricky Rudd was able to put the #88 on the outside pole for the 500 - a great way for him to make his return to Cup!

RYR's fortunes may go downhill from here, but I'm thinking this is a sign that they've made some progress on some of their issues from last season. That wouldn't be a surprise. Although they faced a lot of challenges when they lost two drivers and a primary sponsor, this is an established organization that knows how to be successful. Towards the end of last season it sounded like they had recognized what some of their problems were so I had a feeling they'd work hard this off-season to do everything they could to ensure that the organization survived. It's also a smart move for Robert Yates to make plans now to hand the organization off to his son next season. That indicates that they're looking long-term which is important.

*I still can't get used to the new Pennzoil paint scheme on Kevin Harvick's car. For one thing I'm used to the way the #1 Pennzoil car looked when Steve Park raced it so anything different than that is going to look strange to me. But overall I think the paint scheme of the #29, while eye-catching, is pretty fugly.

*Dale Earnhardt, Jr. made a rather large mistake trying to bump draft Elliott Sadler during the Shootout led to a number of wrecked cars. Because it was the Shootout and no points were involved I think this incident got a less attention than it might have otherwise, especially since Elliott didn't seem upset about it in the least. While every driver makes mistakes, Junior is considered by most to be one of the best drivers in Nascar on these kinds of tracks so one wouldn't normally expect him to make that kind of mistake. To his credit he took responsibility immediately following, but I was a little surprised that it happened in the first place.

*Unfortunately Dale Jarrett couldn't do much with the pole he drew for the Shootout. There's no sugarcoating it - his car looked like it was pretty bad, and he could barely keep up with the pack. DJ knew even before the race he wasn't going to have a very good car and his team apparently used the Shootout as a test of sorts. I hope to see better results for DJ in the 500, but he's been pretty slow in practice so far.

*Tony Stewart won the Shootout. Yawn.

*In all the excitement over the RYR cars sweeping the front row for the Daytona 500, no one noticed that Chip Ganassi's drivers David Stremme and Juan Pablo Montoya were also fast, laying down the 3rd and 4th fastest qualifying times. There's no telling where they may end up in the lineup after the Duels are run, but I don't think many expected that organization to have such fast cars considering most have written Stremme off, and Montoya has no Cup experience.

*Boris Said, Sterling Marlin and Johnny Sauter were the three go-or-go-home cars that locked themselves into the show yesterday. I'm not surprised. Boris has shown that he can race well on restrictor plate tracks, and his team is affiliated with Roush Racing so I knew it would be fast. I'm also not surprised that Sterling was able to lock himself in, but Johnny is a bit of a surprise. I'm interested to see how he does this season in Cup since his last attempt at Cup racing was just about a disaster.

*David Reutimann was the fastest of all the Toyotas, followed close behind by Jeremy Mayfield and Mike Skinner. The controversy over Michael Waltrip's car being seized by Nascar has overshadowed that his organization fielded the fastest Toyota, which was likely a surprise to some because most everyone other than Michael's fans have been expecting that his teams were all going to suck this season. Of course it's only one qualifying run, but I don't think a sucky organization could qualify a car in the top 15.

*The Toyota team with problems is Red Bull Racing. A.J. Allmendinger had the 38th fastest speed, and Brian Vickers had the 43rd fastest speed. Of course anything can happen in the Duels, so maybe they'll find a way to get in, but it's not looking too good right now. There's not been many positives for RBR dating back to last season when they weren't able to qualify for races at the end of the season. Their test speeds were pretty dismal, and A.J. wrecked two cars. It's too early to really know how things are going to shake out but even Toyota has admitted that RBR might be behind their other teams so it could be a long season for them.

*Joe Nemechek is another driver who could be in trouble. He was only 45th fastest and he too may face a tall mountain to climb to race his way into the 500. Even Paul Menard wasn't all that fast - just 31st fastest. I think Menard has a tremendous amount of talent and I hate to see him in a situation where as a rookie he has to race his way into races. There will be some good teams missing races each week, but I'd like to see Michael, David and Paul be able to qualify in for every race.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Waltrip's Car Impounded; Daytona 500 Hopes in Jeopardy

To say that I'm disappointed that Michael Waltrip's #55 team had their car impounded after qualifying yesterday, and that the intake manifold was sent back to North Carolina because Nascar's inspectors weren't convinced that the substance they found on it was just oil is an understatement. In a best case scenario, Nascar determines that the substance is in fact oil, and clears the #55 team of any wrong-doing. However, a worst case scenario is that Nascar discovers that the substance is sterno, as some have rumored it might be, or something else that's illegal according to the rulebook, and the team faces a heavy penalty, which could include them not getting their car back, and not being allowed to go to a back-up car for the Gatorade 150 Duel on Thursday. That would mean that Michael wouldn't be able to attempt to race his way into the Daytona 500 and he would miss it for sure, the first time he's missed a Daytona 500 in 21-years. Even if Nascar allows him to race on Thursday, and even if he's able to race his way in, the team could face heavily fines and a major deduction in owner's points which could be almost as costly as if they missed the race. No matter how it shakes out, unless they're cleared completely, or there's a reasonable explanation for how a strange substance ended up on the intake manifold, this situation is extremely bad for Michael and his team.

I can't imagine what this team was thinking if they really did try to get away with something. As a new team that isn't guaranteed a spot for the first five races of the season, they have no room for error. They needed to show up at Daytona with everything exactly as it should be - no mechanical issues, no games with the rule book. Everyone needed to be focused on the same goal of getting Michael, and his cars, into the Daytona 500. Instead Michael faces an uphill battle even if he's allowed to race on Thursday. I'm hoping that the #55 team gets cleared, and it turns out this was much ado about nothing, but if it turns out that they were trying to cheat the system, I'd be extremely disappointed. Not in Michael specifically, who as driver and owner was likely out of the loop about any funny business, though as owner he's ultimately responsible for the actions of his teams, but with the team as whole for putting themselves in this position. Michael's qualifying speeds weren't bad - at another track he would be in the show for sure - but no one's going to remember that. It's one thing to work their asses off, doing everything right and race hard, but just come up short in a bid to make the Daytona 500. But to not make the race because there were caught cheating? Well, if it bothers me as a fan if that was the scenario for the team, imagine what NAPA would think, and I'm sure they're already none too pleased.

I've seen in mentioned that some are wondering about whether someone deliberately sabatoged the manifold, by putting an illegal substance on it. I think another team doing that would be highly unlikely, and very difficult to pull off. Yes, there's defintely people in the garage area that are opposed to Toyota's presence in the sport. But to go so far as to to try to sabatoge another team? Seems like they'd much rather want to beat them on the track than in the inspection bay.

As I mentioned above, there's some speculation that Michael wouldn't be allowed to race on Thursday. What would be ridiculous about that is that the qualifying times for Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth were both thrown out because both of those teams were found to have serious violations, as serious as as a violation found during last season's Speedweeks that led to major penalties for Chad Knaus, but both of those drivers will be allowed to race during the Gatorade 150's on Thursday. I hope that's a sign that Michael will also be allowed to race, but there's always the possibility that Nascar will decide to use him and his team as an example.

Most fans of Michael are ready to storm Daytona and rip Nascar to shreds if they don't let him race. While I'm going to be extremely upset if Michael isn't allowed to race because I think it would be unfair, I'm not sure how angry I'm going to be with Nascar. If this team was trying to cheat, then I would be extremely disappointed that they put themselves in this position. Teams are always going to try to get away with things, and play around in the grey area of the rules. I doubt this will be the last time that a Michael Waltrip Racing car gets busted for something because every team has been busted multiple times over the years for things. But at this race, when they had so much to lose? Did I mention how disappointed I'm going to be? I expect much more from this team. I really hope they get cleared.

What makes things worse is that Michael is under the weather this week, so sick that he had to miss an appearance he was supposed to do for Aaron's. I can't remember the last time Michael's had to miss an appearance due to being ill, so I know he must be feeling pretty lousy. It's probably hard enough for him to function without having to deal with all of this nonsense as well. I just hope that Nascar moves to resolve this quickly for everyone's benefit.

All of that said, it's important to keep this all in perspective. Michael is still an awesome person and a talented driver, and MWR still has a bright future ahead of them. This is only the first race of the season, and there were some positives from qualifying in that David Reutimann was the fastest of all the Toyota teams, and Michael also was fast enough to race if this had been qualifying for any other race. While I think it would create a significant amount of challenges for this team to overcome if they miss the Daytona 500, Scott Riggs failed to qualify for the 500 last season and went on to rebound into the top 35 in owner's points. So it can be done, especially by someone as determined as Michael is. Michael and his team will have to work even harder, and be even surer they don't miss any other races. But hopefully Michael will be allowed to race on Thursday, and he'll use this incident as motivation to race his way into the race. As a two-time Daytona 500 winner, he certainly knows how to get around this track, and if there's any driver who I have confidence can race their way in, it's him. In addition, no matter how disappointed I might be if the team put themselves in a bad situation, I will continue to cheer for and support Michael just as much as I ever did - every driver (and owner) is going to experience all sorts of ups and downs. Ultimately I think there's going to be many good things ahead for Michael due to his association with Toyota.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2007

In the News: Michael Waltrip (2/10)

Last season Michael Waltrip was heavily criticized for buying the #77's owner's points to use for his #55, a move which guaranteed him a spot in the first five races of the season. That didn't stop him from apparently doing the same this season. Although there's been no official announcement, a preliminary entry list for the Daytona 500 from Nascar shows Cal Wells listed as the owner of David Reutimann's #00, and presumably the reason for that is because Michael Waltrip Racing purchased the owner points from the #32. The move doesn't guarantee David a spot in the first five races of the season because the #32 didn't finish inside the top 35 in owner's points. But the #32 did finish high enough in owner's points to where those points would lock David in if qualifying for any of those first five races was rained out.

Likely it's only an ownership on paper for Cal Wells, but I suppose it could open up the door for him to stay involved in Cup racing if he does more for MWR than just sell them the owner points for the #32. Supposedly when PPI Motorsports closed, Michael hired most of the crew from the #32 for his operation, so it seems that MWR essentially swallowed PPI. Some will surely bitch and moan about it, but Michael and MWR are operating within Nascar's rules. I think it's a smart move by MWR, and I can't blame them for doing everything they can to increase the chances of their cars making it into races. It doesn't matter how fast of a car a team might have if qualifying gets rained out.

The war between Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Teresa Earnhardt continues to be a hot topic of conversation, with several drivers being asked to give an opinion, including Michael, who not only raced for DEI from 2001-2005, but was also a close friend of Dale Earnhardt, and has known both Teresa and Junior for years. Michael said,

"I know that if Teresa wants Dale Jr. to have majority ownership in DEI, then he'll have (it). If she doesn't want him to have majority ownership, he won't. It won't matter what he says or what he does, she'll have the final decision."

That pretty much sums things up for me too. Junior can whine from now until the end of the season about what he wants or how he feels, but the reality is that Teresa holds all the cards when it comes to Junior getting the ownership he wants in DEI. Most feel that's not the case, that Junior has all the leverage because of who he is, and the effects at DEI should he leave the organization. But I think Junior has actually given Teresa a powerful bargaining chip, because he's told her exactly what the contract negotiations come down to. And the reality is that Teresa owns DEI - she can decide to do with it as she pleases, and if she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to hand over even a small percentage of ownership to Junior, let alone a majority ownership. This is a battle for control, and I have a feeling that this might not end up turning out satisfactorily for either party.

In an article about how Best Western is revitalizing their brand, Michael said that he never stayed at Best Westerns until they started sponsoring his car. Gee, it's funny how a sponsor handing over millions of dollars can suddenly make one feel the need to use their product! He also said that once he "started paying attention" he noticed how diverse their product is. Yeah, probably because he had to take a crash-course in everything Best Western so he could appropriately represent them! That said, it's true that Best Western seems to be doing a lot to improve their image and appeal to a wider amount of people. They've added free internet access in all rooms in their properties in the United States, plus flat-screen TVs and alarm clocks with IPod connectors in many of the rooms at their newer properties. When Jim and I were in Hood River, Oregon, we stayed at a Best Western. It was a pretty nice hotel since it was located right on the river, however it was a bit rough around the edges.

Otherwise, Michael's going to be on TV a lot over the next week. I believe there's an airing of Tradin' Pain tonight, which I'm very much looking forward to, Inside Nextel Cup on Monday, he'll be part of the broadcast team covering the Trucks for Speed, plus there's everything he'll be doing as an owner/driver that will surely get him some air time. But there's one other program Michael will be on. The morning of the Daytona 500, Fox will air a documentary, Chasing Sunday: The Race to Cup, which will feature all the Toyota Cup teams and drivers as they get ready to go racing this season.

Tomorrow night is the Bud Shootout, and it'll be the first time that a MiWR car hits the track in actual race conditions. That Dale Jarrett is on the pole is outstanding, and I'm hopeful that the Shootout will go just as well for DJ and MWR as the draw for a starting position did!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)

Ugliness Between Junior and Teresa Earnhardt Continues

If Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is trying to talk his way out of a new contract at DEI, he's doing a good job of it. Aside from conducting contract negotiations in public, Junior's latest demand is that for a new contract to be done, he must have a majority ownership in DEI. He said,

"The main factor is the ownership part. It has nothing to do with money and nothing else really. I would really like my team, I like how things are going. ... The motors are improving, everything is on an upswing. My father has been gone for almost six years now, I want majority ownership."

Later another reporter asked for clarification.

"I want majority ownership, basically," Earnhardt Jr. said during media day at Daytona International Speedway.

As in more than 50 percent?

"Absolutely," Earnhardt Jr. said emphatically.

Ridiculous. First of all he's not the only child that Dale Earnhardt had - what about Kelley, Kerry and Taylor? Secondly, Teresa may only be an Earnhardt by marriage, but she was still Dale's wife, and she's entitled to a share, maybe even a large share of DEI. Especially since the whole reason why Teresa has ownership of DEI is because she received it as per Dale's will, along with the rest of his estate, when he died in 2001. It's very common for fans to speculate about what might be happening if Dale was still alive, and it's impossible to know. But what's clear from his will is that he wanted his wife involved with DEI and his other business interests.

I haven't seen this myself, but supposedly in later interviews Junior clarified that one day he envisions all four children having equal ownership in DEI, but I can't help but wonder if that clarification only came because it was pointed out to him how bad it sounded for him to demand a majority ownership in DEI himself. In addition, I have to wonder if he sees an equal role for all the children in DEI, why wait until down the road, why not set that up now?

What's a little perplexing is how the demand for a majority ownership in DEI is in line with his other comments yesterday about not wanting to be a Cup owner. He said,

"I really don't want the headaches of being a Cup owner. I would just as soon drive, save as much money as I can and retire. I want to race a long, long, long time. The older I get, the better I feel about my ability to compete longer and not run into the burnout of just wanting to get out of it. Once I am done driving, I really don't want to do anything else as far as ownership."

Just exactly what does he think would happen if he got a majority ownership in DEI? That he could just be an owner on paper, and not actually have to deal with any of those headaches? If he were the majority owner at DEI, he would have the responsiblity for final decision making on not just one Cup team, but three, plus a Busch team, a driver development program, and everything else that DEI is involved with. Many have been highly critical of Teresa for not being hands on when it comes to the racing operations at DEI, and it sounds as if that kind of arrangment would be just fine for Junior as well. I think DEI has suffered because of that ownership style in the past, and if Junior were to continue that pattern should he get a majority ownership in DEI, I don't think that would be the best plan of action for DEI, or for his own career.

What's really troubling to me is that Junior seems to be letting others heavily influence him. He said,

"You don't like public opinion or media opinions to sway decisions. But in this case, I have a real bad habit of being way too modest about my position in this sport. A lot of people, including the media, have helped me understand what I'm worth, what the situation really is."

Junior needs to come that kind of understanding on his own. The media twists things to make for an interesting story that people will read, and other people often have agendas of their own. Of course it's natural for Junior to discuss his situation with others, and get some advice, but ultimately the decisions that he makes about his career, and his life are his to make on the basis of what he feels is best for him, not what others think or want. One of the biggest traps that people in his position can fall into is letting others have too much control ot the point where things happen that damage that person's well-being, financially or otherwise. Yes, he needs a trusted circle of people to help him manage the "business" of being Junior, and handle things for him that he can't personally. But he needs to ensure that they're doing what's best for him, not what's best for themselves.

Junior continued,

"People around me are all the time having to remind me of the magnitude of me. They're like, 'Hey, we want you to come to the ESPYS to present?' I'm freaked out, scared to death to go to it. They're like, 'Man, you've got to get more confidence because you're that big. You deserve to be there on that stage.' The media, when you guys write about the position that I have, the leverage that I have, it sort of helps me understand what my sister, J.R. Rhodes and all of those people have been trying to explain to me for the last five or six years."

I was astonished when I read that because it comes off as incredibly boastful and arrogant. Usually most are humble about themselves and their "magnitude." Just exactly what has some of those around Junior convinced him of? Yes, he's the sport's most popular driver with a huge fanbase, and yes, he has a lot of bargaining power because Budweiser would likely follow him to another organization. But it's very easy to overestimate one's importance. Everyone is replaceable - yes, even Junior eventually. Would DEI lose a tremendous amount of revenue and sucess on the track without Junior? No question. But would the organization fold as some predict? I don't think so. Martin Truex, Jr. and Paul Menard are both young and tremendously talented. While neither one may ever win like Junior has, or be as popular as he is, both are capable of winning races. And there's no telling who DEI could sign down the road to take Junior - or Budweiser's - place.

I also have to wonder how things would really work out for Junior at another organization. On the surface it seems like Junior would be able to enjoy the same level of success no matter where he raced. But I'm not so sure about that. What strikes me is that Junior has always enjoyed being the priority at DEI. All of the organization's best resources and effort have gone towards making his team the strongest possible to give him the best chance for success on the track. But at another organization he may have to share resources - and the limelight - with other elite drivers. Joe Gibbs Racing has Tony Stewart. Hendrick Motorsports has Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Richard Childress Racing has Kevin Harvick. I highly doubt any of those organizations, or any other of the top organizations where Junior is mostly likely to go if he leaves DEI would do anything to harm their already strong teams. After all, they have major sponsors of those teams to answer to. Junior could suprise everyone and go to team that's not among the elite in Nascar. But his results on the track could suffer. Throwing $20 million at a team by way of the Budweiser sponsorship would help make any team better, but it would take time for a team to build the right mix of personnel and resources if they don't have that already.

Only time will tell how this is all going to work out, but regardless of whether Junior stays at DEI or leaves, I'd like to see less talking about Junior's contract and what he wants openly, and more talking behind closed doors. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen. For whatever reason, both parties have decided that it somehow benefits them to talk more to the media than they are to each other. I think that's only serving to make them both look bad, but sometimes it's hard to see that from the inside looking out, particularly if they have an agenda that they're determined to see through.

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

Dale Jarrett Draws Pole for Bud Shootout

What a way for Dale Jarrett, Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota to start the 2007 season - DJ drew the pole for the Bud Shootout tomorrow night! Of course it's not a points race, and DJ didn't get the pole by virtue of being the fastest car on the track, but a pole is a pole, and it's still something to celebrate! This will give DJ and MWR an opportunity to lead a few laps at least and maybe show a little of what they're capable of. It's really something to be very happy about. Since the Shootout isn't a "real" race in that it doesn't count for anything in the points the pressure is probably a little less so DJ can go out and just have fun - a win from the pole would certainly be fun! I really hope this is a sign that things are going to align in a very positive way for MWR this season!

Brian Vickers, the other Toyota driver in the field, also drew a good starting spot - 4th. What's good about that is that it will likely allow Brian and DJ to draft with each other. Although things didn't work out too well at Talladega last season when Brian was drafting with Jimmie Johnson, but hopefully he's learned his lesson from that mistake. It's pretty important for drivers to have a teammate, or at least another driver from the same manufacturer, who is willing to draft with them at restrictor plate tracks. Most of the drivers in the field have a teammate to work with. The only ones who don't are Boris Said, Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Bill Elliott. However, Boris's team is associated with Roush Racing so he and Greg will likely work together. Both Junior and Bill can work with drivers associated with their same manufacturer, but I suspect Junior may find it hard to find as much help as he'd like if past patterns repeat themselves. Because he's had so much success on these kinds of tracks, some drivers don't seem to want to draft with him, because they don't necessarily want to help him to win yet another restrictor plate race. Though as a non-points race it may be a different story on Saturday. He's worked well with Tony Stewart in the past so maybe they'll team up again.

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

February 07, 2007

Photo of the Day - Infrared Oregon

Infrared Sun in fog, Portland, Oregon, September, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)

Charlize Theron Sued by Watchmaker Raymond Weil

This is a big-time cautionary tale for Nascar drivers. Charlize Theron had an endorsement deal with Swiss watchmaker Raymond Weil, which said that she would wear their watches exclusively, and they would use her in advertisements. In addition, she had a separate endorsement deal with Christian Dior to promote their perfume, which somehow led to her being photographed wearing a Dior watch at a film festival in Texas, a big no-no according to her contract with Raymond Weil. She was also prohibited from appearing in advertising to promote any kind of jewelry, and apparently she did that as well. So Raymond Weil is suing Theron for breach of contract.

Nascar drivers have many sponsors and endorsement deals. Although I'm not aware of a driver actually being taken to court, probably because they're all so careful about it, based on my conversations with two different drivers, they could also get into big trouble if they were photographed or even seen publically with a competing sponsor's product. It must create a great deal of pressure because even a casual dinner out could be stressful if the restaurant doesn't have the "right" cola that the driver is affiliated with. Or there's a need to make emergency repairs in their house, a driver goes into a competing home improvement store, and photographs show up on the internet. As silly as it seems, sponsors take these things seriously and it could led to some pretty bad consequences - I would think a sponsor would be able to walk away from a deal in that case.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)

Jerry Nadeau Wants to Race Again

Because he's from Danbury, Connecticut, which is very close to where I grew up, I've always been a fan of Jerry Nadeau, whose promising career came to an abrupt halt when he suffered a severe head injury in a practice accident at Richmond International Raceway. I can still vividly remember that day, and I miss Nadeau's presence on the track. But that doesn't mean that I think it's a good idea to make a return to racing Nascar, as he'd like to do. For one thing he's still suffering from effects from the head injury, which calls into question whether Nascar would even approve him to race again, or if a team would put him behind the wheel. Although Nascar has made safety advances since the time of Nadeau's accident, some risk of injury still remains, and another head injury could have some very bad consequences for Nadeau.

What makes me sad is the comment by Nadeau in which he said, "Boom, in one-split-second, my life ended." Maybe his career as a Nascar driver ended, and that's been difficult for him to deal with. But not his life. Nadeau's just 36-years old. He's got a young daughter, and as hard as it might be there's a lot left for him to do. It might not be the same but if he wants to stay involved in racing, he can do what he did last season with David Gilliland, which is to mentor young drivers. Nadeau, like any other experienced driver has a lot to offer young drivers, but I can see how it might be difficult to watch others get behind the wheel when he can't. Life is for living though, and I hope that some day Nadeau finds something as fulfulling as racing was to him.

Apparently one issue for Nadeau, which relates to my previous entry, is that he had the attitude that "nothing will ever happen," and didn't get as much insurance as he could have. He said,

"I'm sure no driver likes paying for the insurance, but if I had known that my accident would have happened like it did and I would never race again, I would have never taken the smallest portion of insurance. But I'm the one who got caught. It's a harsh, helpless feeling, and I would never put this on any other driver."

From what's been said in the past, Nadeau has had some financial trouble, which led to the loss of his house, because much of the money he earned from racing went towards his medical bills. Although it's a painful chapter of his life, even in that regard he has something to offer young drivers, because they can learn from him about the importance of being prepared.

When I think about Jerry Nadeau, I can't help but think of Steve Park. I sometimes wonder how much of a financial hit Steve took due to the medical bills from his head injury. At least he was able to return to Nascar, but since his results after the accident were never what they were before, his winnings were less as well. It's possible that Steve had more insurance or was better prepared financially for "what if" than Nadeau was, but it's crossed my mind that even though Steve won millions years ago in Cup, that doesn't mean he's still a multi-millionare now, which could make it tough for him not racing. Which is another reason why I wish he had some other involvement in Nascar via working with a team as a mentor to a young driver, working in broadcasting, or with some race-related business to bring in some additional funds should he need it.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)

Should There Be a Pension Plan for Drivers?

The hot topic of discussion lately in light of news about the struggles of Sam Ard, is whether there should be a pension plan for drivers. After all, the other major sports have pension plans for their atheletes so why not Nascar? Even though athletes in the NFL, NBA, MLB and other sports receive pensions, I'm still not a fan of the idea in Nascar. The reality is that many drivers earn a significantly larger amount in a month than many people might earn their entire life. I'm with Jeff Burton, who believes that drivers need to take responsibility for themselves, and plan for their future or for an unexpected end to their racing career due to injury. He said,

"You really have to plan for things you don't think are going to happen. You have to paint a worst-case scenario."

Of course there are some drivers who don't earn millions of dollars. The race winnings and other revenue was significantly less years ago. In addition, there can be dire circumstances, such as a serious illness that can drain even a very healthy bank account. For former drivers in those kinds of situations I'd like to see a fund or foundation that the Nascar community can contribute to so that retired drivers in need can be taken care of. But I'm not in favor of drivers who earn more money than they can spend being given more money by the governing body "just in case."

What I think is essential is that young drivers are given some financial planning advice as soon as they enter the sport. We take it for granted that everyone knows about planning for the future and how to make sound financial decisions, but that's not the case. I think it's especially difficult when a 20-year old who might not have a tremendous amount of education past high school gets thrown into a situation where they suddenly have a huge amount of money at their disposal to spend any way they want. That's not to say that all 20-year olds are irresponsible about money, but I think becoming a millionare in one's 20's might require some special guidance that not every young driver is necessarily getting. It's not just a matter of counseling drivers to make good decisions regarding the need for good insurance and saving money for retirement. It's also about advice on things like how to invest wisely and how to determine if a potential business deal separate from racing is a good idea or not.

As the average age of the drivers in Cup gets younger and younger, the retirement age for drivers may continue to get younger as well. If a driver retires in their early 40's, they need to have a plan for what they're going to do to support themselves for the rest of their lives. Drivers like Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart will likely never have to worry about those kinds of issues, but what about drivers who have achieved some success but not on an elite level? I hope they heed Jeff Burton's words of wisdom.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)

Junior to Meet With DEI Today

Today comes word that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his sister Kelley, will meet with representatives from DEI regarding a possible new contract for Junior. Teresa Earnhardt will not be at the meeting by design because, according to Richie Gilmore, "the parties wanted to try to keep the emotions to a minimum, and they wanted to keep Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Jr. separate."

I have to wonder why there's a need for this kind of an update? Teams and drivers are notoriously close-mouthed in this sport about contract negotiations. I also question why there's a specific mention of emotions and wanting to keep Teresa and Junior separated. It almost comes across to me like an attempt to add fuel to the already heated speculation that the problems between Teresa and Junior are so bad that he's going to leave DEI for another organization. In addition, the source for this information appears to be ESPN's Marty Smith who is friendly with Junior so I always question whether there's a bias or agenda there when he's reporting on Junior (or Jimmie Johnson who he's also friends with). I normally dislike conspiracy threories, but I can't help but wonder, like others are, as to whether this is part of a publicity scheme by DEI and Junior. I just don't see why there's a need to alert the media about this meeting unless they're looking to keep the chatter about Junior and his contract going.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)

Kyle Petty to the TNT Booth

Turns out the rumors of a few weeks ago were accurate regarding Kyle Petty joining the TNT broadcast team for a few Cup races this summer. Petty will step out of the #45, and another as yet unnamed driver will take his place, for races at Pocono, Michigan, New Hampshire, Daytona and Chicago. In addition, Petty will call the Sonoma race in June from behind the wheel, because he says that he likes road course races too much to miss racing it. On one hand getting Petty's input from behind the wheel sounds like an interesting idea, but I have to wonder how well it's going to work. After all, there's going to be a lot of other things that Petty is going to have to focus on, first and foremost being the racing that he'll be doing. Petty said,

"There's constant communication between drivers and their spotters and crew chiefs anyway. Really, just pushing another button and talking to millions of people won't be a ton different. Maybe I'll have to clean up my language."

I'm thinking that if they look to talk to him mid-race, he might find that it's a little different, particularly if they start asking him questions or look for more than the brief feedback he might give his crew chief under green flag conditions. Maybe TNT will only go to him during cautions so they don't distract him. When Petty worked several Busch races as part of the broadcast team last season, he was outstanding, so in each of these races, whether he's behind the wheel or not, I'm sure his contributions will be an asset.

Now the question becomes who will take the wheel of the #45 in those five races. I would guess that it'll be a young driver that Petty Enterprises is looking to develop to eventually take over the #45 permanently. The only problem with that plan is that PE doesn't field any entries in lower series for a young driver to get experience before they were to race in Cup. But I think it's essential that PE start trying to develop some young talent to be the future of the organization.

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

What I've Been Up To...

I'm sure no one really cares why there hasn't been any new entries in this space for a bit, but I got sucked into reading about abandoned mines and ghost towns in some of the more remote parts of Oregon. I've long been fascinated by the history of places, as well as that which is abandoned. So are many others luckily for me because there's plenty of websites to poke around in with information, trip reports and photos.

Then there's also the adventure of trying to get stuff fixed in our new condo, specifically our heat, but I'd rather not re-visit what a pain in the rear end that's been.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)

February 05, 2007

Photo of the Day - Storm Rolls In

Sea Island, Georgia, July, 2006.

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

In the News: Michael Waltrip (2/5)

I mentioned on Friday there was a media event at Waltrip Race World that Claire B. Lang was going to cover on her XM show. And cover it she did! Claire took her listeners along on a Michael Waltrip led tour of the new facility. I can't even begin to say how incredible it sounds like Waltrip Racing World is going to be, and how excited Michael sounded to show it off! Not only will WRW house the organization's shop and offices, but it's also going to be an interactive attraction for fans where they can get an inner look into a race team. It would be impossible for me to cover everything that Michael said in this space, but WRW has been designed to be a place where fans can not only stay all day, but stay over night too! Yes, that's right! There's going to be a motorcoach lot at WRW where Michael, Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann's motorcoaches will be parked, but there will also be another 20 motorcoaches where fans can rent for a night to find out what it's like to sleep in a motorcoach like the drivers and their families do.

And when they wake up there will be plenty to entertain them at WRW. A tour will take them through the shop where they can see cars being built as well as pit practice. In a NAPA parts store fans can see all the parts that are used to put race cars together. Occasionally, the MWR crew chiefs or others might give seminars to the fans. There will also be plenty of memoribilia from Michael and his drivers on display, plus interactive exhibits that will give fans a sense of what it's like to be a driver. In the movie theater fans will be able to watch races (if Nascar gives Michael Waltrip Racing permission to show them) and other Nascar related films or shows. There will also be a restaurant area with food supplied by Domino's and Burger King - of course. Fans will also be able to buy plenty of merchandise in areas designed to replicate haulers that they might buy merchandise from at the track. There will also be space for sponsors to rent for events, and office space for outside companies to rent as well. One feature that Michael wouldn't give much details about was what he called an XM radio room - is that for Claire B. Lang to broadcast from, or even better - is Michael getting his own show? I would love that! I'm sure I'm leaving plenty of things out, but Waltrip Racing World is clearly going to be a must-see designation for race fans, and not just those that are fans of Michael or his drivers!

What never occured to me is something that Michael mentioned during the tour. Not only is WRW for the fans, but it's also for his sponsors. It's a way for their involvement in MWR to seem even more attractive because it offers them additional opportunities for exposure. And people wonder how Michael has been able to convince so many big sponsors to join MWR? It's because of the way that Michael and those around him at MWR think out of the box to give their sponsors the maximum amount of exposure possible without depending solely on results on the track. Yes, performance matters. Michael was quite clear that WRW is about racing, and that is the priority. However, I think it's extremely impressive how Michael continues to go above and beyond for his sponsors to give them what they want - exposure to fans to market themselves and their products.

Terry Blount wrote a great article about Michael for ESPN.com, and about how he not only hopes to succeed as an owner, but also rebound as a driver after his awful 2006 season. Blount thinks that he can do both. There are many fans who think that racing and performance isn't very important to Michael, that all he cares about is making sponsor plugs. As noted above, there's no question that Michael is mindful of the importance of getting his sponsors exposure, because without them he couldn't field three Cup teams and one Busch team. But Michael is every bit as competitive as any other driver on the track, and last season was extremely upsetting and disappointing to him. He said,

"It cuts to my heart and tainted who I am. It definitely changed me."

I'm not sure how it might have changed him as a person or changed his approach to racing. However, unfortunately it did solidify in some people's minds their belief that Michael isn't a very good driver. I think that's ridiculous because a driver who isn't very talented wouldn't have won two Daytona 500's, and two other Cup races on top of that, as well as numberous Busch races. He also wouldn't have lasted in Cup for over 20 years, and have had someone like Dale Earnhardt hand-pick him for his Cup team. And in spite of the fact that he's not won on any non-restrictor plate tracks, he's proven that he can race up front at a variety of different tracks including road courses. Michael has had to deal with racing some extremely non-competitive cars, including all of last season, and that's prevented him from getting the results that he's capable of. Many people never looked inside the numbers last season to see how putrid the cars that Bill Davis Racing gave him were. They never knew how slow the cars were, or that if he was able to qualify in for races how often parts fell off or failed. That's very unfair to Michael, and to all other drivers in his shoes, and I hope that this season gives him an opportunity to show that he can race up front and contend for wins at all kinds of tracks if he's behind the wheel of a competitive car.

Of course Michael knows all of this. He said,

"I understand last season was a failure and I have to do better. That's why I can't wait to start and make myself feel better about who I am as a race car driver."

I can't wait for Michael to feel better about who he is as a driver too! I do think that there will be some bumps in the road for Michael, MWR and Toyota this season, but I think we'll see results that are much better than they were last season. In some ways it would be hard for the results not to get better just by virtue of Michael's team having manufacturer support from Toyota. But not just better - I would like to see Michael have a great season and show a few of the doubters that they might be wrong about him.

What I liked about Blount's article is that finally someone in the media isn't dismissing MWR's chances for success. It seems as if most are predicting that MWR's expansion will be a failure. But Blount writes,

"At age 43, Waltrip heads a business that could eventually rank him with the top team owners in NASCAR. All the pieces are in place."

I agree. As much as I want MWR to be successful right away, realistically I know that might not happen. But I do think that in the long-run MWR will be an organization to reckon with. They have the support of a manufacturer committed to being successful in Cup, they're partnered with some major sponsors, MWR has a tremendous amount of outstanding personnel working for them, and they have the support of a large fanbase. I really think that the future is extremely bright for Michael in racing.

Not only is Michael getting his teams ready for the start of the season, but he's also been busy making appearances and filming commercials. Recently, Michael got to go to two places where I would love to go - Orlando, Florida and Sedona, Arizona. Michael went to Orlando this past weekend to be present with Mike Helton at the Goodyear Dealer Conference for the announcement that Goodyear was extending their agreement with Nascar to be the exclusive provider of tires through 2012. I wonder if Michael go to swing by Walt Disney World while he was in Orlando?

Unfortunately when Michael was in Sedona to film a Best Western commerical with David, it was cloudy and he didn't get to see the gorgeous red rocks that the area is famous for, even though he wanted to - you and me both Michael! He said he wants to go back to Sedona, I'd just like to go there even once! As a photographer who loves rock formations it would be heaven for me. But I digress. Michael says that the commerical he filmed for Best Western is going to be the funniest one yet and I can't wait to see it!

Hard to believe but this weekend marks the beginning of the 2007 Nascar season with the Bud Shootout on Saturday night. MiWR will have a car in the field driven by DJ - how awesome would it be for MWR to make a statement with a strong finish by DJ?!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)

In the News: David Reutimann (2/5)

It's nice to see a little pre-season publicity for David Reutimann. He's going to be racing for Rookie of the Year in the Cup series, while also racing full-time in the Busch Series, which will present a number of challenges. Most seem to be completely writing David off as a threat to do anything in note in either series, but those that do are significantly underestimating him. After all, he contended for the Truck Series championship last season. About racing in Cup David said,

"It's a tremendous amount of trust that they've put in me to go out and perform. So the last thing that you want to do is go out there and disappoint guys like Toyota, Burger King, Dominos and, most importantly, Michael Waltrip."

Not to mention Aaron's, who will be his sponsor in the Busch Series. David continued,

"The pressure's there. I don't want to be here for a season and gone the next. I want to be here for a while. In order to that, you've got to step up and do your deal and perform."

I have a feeling that he will indeed perform. Though there's sure to be some bumps in the road adjusting to racing Cup, racing both series full-time, and racing for a new team and manufacturer in Cup, I have a lot of confidence in David's ability to get good results in both the #00 and #99.

I had wondered who David's crew chief in Busch would be, and according to an article in Racing Milestones, it'll be Jerry Baxter, who David worked with last season. David said,

“We can come out of the gate strong and win races. We have Toyota’s support and the team is in tact from last season. Jerry and I were able to work together several times last year and have a good relationship. He’s the right guy for the job there’s no doubt about it. Our team is capable of making a serious run for the championship.”

I definitely think that David is going to make a run at the Championship! He's got the talent and he's working with a good team. Not only that but he's one of only a handful of Cup drivers who will also be racing the full Busch season, so while I think the level of competition from Cup-backed teams will continue to be high, there won't be as many of them who will actually be eligible to contend for the Championship. So I like David's chances in comparison to some of the other drivers who will be racing in the series full-time.

Racing in Cup and Busch is a dream come true for David. He said,

“I never thought something like this could happen to a guy like me. If it can happen for me, it can happen for anyone.”

I like how humble David is. He's not boasting about how great he is, or strutting around like he owns the garage area. However, I'm not sure that this could happen for anyone. David was extremely lucky because in that he caught Darrell Waltrip's eye when DW needed a truck driver. And from there he's lucky that Michael decided to expand Michael Waltrip Racing and knew what a terrific person and driver David was via his brother's team. Most of all, I think one of the biggest reasons that David is racing Cup and Busch next season is that Michael, Ty Norris and others believe very strongly in David - a lot of drivers don't have people like that to champion them and make things happen for them.

What's pretty cool is that David is hopping on the blogging bandwagon this season. He has his own blog on the Domino's racing site to share his thoughts. I think a blog is an outstanding way to connect with fans who love hearing what the drivers think in their own words (assuming that a PR person isn't writing it for him). I'm looking forward to reading what David thinks about his experiences this season racing in both series.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)

Random Thoughts on the Super Bowl

*I didn't have a rooting interest in either team to win the Super Bowl which sometimes makes it hard to get involved in watching. But I ended up having fun watching. The most exciting moment was probably when the Bears scored a touchdown in the opening 15 seconds of the game. Too bad for Bears fans that momentum couldn't carry them though the rest of the game.

*Since I'm not a huge football fan, although I enjoy watching, I don't follow what happens with the teams and players all that closely. So I don't know all that much about Peyton Manning other than he's a very talented quarterback. So it's a bit puzzling to me as to why so many fans seemed to be rooting against the Colts because they didn't want to see him win the Super Bowl. I might have missed something but I don't remember Manning ever getting arrested or being involved in some sort of scandal that might turn a lot of fans against him. Maybe it's similar to how a lot of fans hate Derek Jeter or Jeff Gordon - some fans seems to dislike the elite athletes who have achieved a great deal of success.

*I didn't have high hopes for Prince's performance during the half-time show so I was surprised by how good it ended up being. Prince can definitely still bring it and rock out. That might have been one of the better half-time shows in recent memory. Good choice for Prince to perform some of his older songs that the audience would be familiar with rather than some of his newer material.

*A lot of people watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials which are supposed to be some of the best of the year. I was completely unimpressed. Granted I really don't enjoy watching commericals to begin with, but it's seemed like in the past the millions of dollars that some companies spend to create the ads and buy ad time has resulted in more humorous and entertaining Super Bowl commericals. This year the Budweiser commercials were good for a few chuckles, and the Oprah/Letterman commercial was funny because I can still remember when their feud was in full effect. Otherwise I thought the Toyota commercials did an effective job of showcasing their product, but there weren't many other commercials that I thought were memorable in a good way. The Snickers commercial was embarassingly bad, and I'm not one who has a problem with homosexuality. It was unbelievable, ridiculous and a poor way to showcase the virtues of their candy.

*One other commerical note is that Kevin Federline really scored with the commercial he was in. Some others in his position might not have felt comfortable poking fun at themselves, but he wisely recognized that it could be an opportunity. Let's see - he's intentionally making himself the butt of a joke, and Britney's unintentionally doing it by forgetting her underwear when she goes out in public - I'm thinking Kevin's coming out ahead in the PR war.

*The weather was a definite factor in the game, and not just for the players. The constant rain must have made it miserable for the fans sitting in the stands, the photographers and TV crews covering the game, the performers during half-time, and just about everyone else in the stadium who were exposed to the elements. If I were a fan in the stands I think I'd have a hard time sticking it out for the entire game with rain like that even if it was the Super Bowl.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)

February 03, 2007

It's All About Attitude

That's what Michael Waltrip said recently in relation to owners hiring drivers. I would say that it's all about attitude in relation to a lot of things in life, but it's very true that in Nascar as well the right attitude or approach can matter. Some drivers have it, and some drivers don't, and according to Michael the drivers that don't - or aren't willing to change their attitude - don't last. David Reutimann I think has the right attitude - he just wants to race. David didn't even ask how much he was going to get paid when Michael Waltrip Racing hired him to race their cars. I'm sure on some level David would be happy to be well-compensated, but David was so eager to race, and so happy to be hired by MWR that he didn't care what his compensation was going to be. I wonder how many other drivers have that kind of attitude? The longer David races Cup, the more his attitude might change in regard to wanting to be well-paid for all the obligations he has as a Cup driver, but for now I think his attitude is outstanding.

Attitude extends to far more things than just compensation. It seems at times like some of the younger drivers have some attitude issues in terms of maturity and respect. Of course teams and sponsors are a lot more willing to put up with attitude problems if a driver, particularly a young driver, gets results, but that likely only extends so far. Not many teams want to put up with a driver who is unwiling to listen to direction, gets involved in incidents on or off-the-track, or is constantly in the middle of controversy. Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch both gained some maturity as the years went on and learned to control their emotions a little more. A driver like Robby Gordon seems to still struggle with that, which I think has kept him from developing into the driver that he could be. Kyle Busch could benefit from having a more mature attitude about some things as well.

Of course there's many other factors that go into why owners hire the drivers that they do, but it seems as if the right attitude could go a long way for a driver.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2007

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (2/2)

According to Claire B. Lang there was some sort of "groundbreaking" at Waltrip Race World today. Since they've been working on the construction for quite a few months now, I guess it was really some sort of event for the media and sponsors to give them a tour. Claire will have audio from the event in the second hour of her show - I'll be in the car then so I won't know until later what went on today. I'm pretty excited to find out!

In other news, Michael Waltrip Racing snagged themselves another sponsor. Dow Automotives will be a "major" associate sponsor on Dale Jarrett's #44 car starting this season. George Hamilton, president of Dow said,

"Dow Automotive's involvement with NASCAR has been developed to help provide excellent safety solutions to the Car of Tomorrow program. Michael Waltrip and Dale Jarrett are two people who believe in this approach, and we are delighted to form a partnership to help us highlight this work. Of course, it's great to be associated with two winners and the entire Michael Waltrip Racing organization -- a team dedicated to the same performance success as we are."

I'm really not sure exactly what services Dow Automotive provides, but apparently it's something related to safety. And it's definitely true that Michael is committed to safety. Several times he's had quite a bit to say on Inside Nextel Cup regarding issues related to safety. I'm glad that he cares not only about his own safety, but that of his fellow drivers.

I'm happy to hear that MWR has added another sponsor. It's not easy for teams to find and keep sponsorship these days so it's impressive that MWR signed Dow Automotive to a multi-year deal, especially in light of the fact that they haven't raced a single race yet so Dow has no idea what the on-track performance is going to be. But they apparently believe in MWR and Dale's ability to get results and the exposure for Dow that they want.

Michael also had a comment in the press release. He said,

"The evolution of Michael Waltrip Racing is based on innovation and technology. Our new marketing partnership with Dow Automotive is a perfect fit as we continue to grow toward the future."

I like what he said about MWR being based on innovation and technology. Innovation because it suggest a willingness to take risks and think outside of the box to suceed. And technology because being on their game in terms of engineering and technology is essential for success in this sport.

A new show that covers Nascar exclusively will debut on ESPN next week. Nascar Now will air Monday through Friday at 6:30 p.m. (ET). Fans of Michael will be able to catch him on the show sometime in the second half of next week.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)

Top Chef Season Two Ends

What a disappointment. That sums up almost the entire season of Top Chef for me. It's really unfortunate because this show is one of the few shows that I looked forward to watching every week but I'm almost dreading the next season out of fear that it'll be a repeat of the ridiculous and immature drama that took the focus off of where it should be - on the food. The final episode of season two was Wednesday night, and the show ended with a thud, in spite of the high quality of the food that the two remaining chefs apparently cooked. Ilan Hall beat Marcel Vigneron for the title of Top Chef, but anyone with access to the internet and an interest in the show knew that already because of the goof Food & Wine Magazine made when they briefly and prematurely posted a press release announcing Ilan as the winner.

Tom Colicchio noted during the final judge's table that one of the two chefs might go on to surpass the other but the decision was made based on what they had prepared for the judges that day. My impression was that he was implying that in the long run Marcel would likely be a better chef than Ilan and I have to agree. Throughout the entire competition, including the final round, Ilan cooked some variation on Spanish food, much of which was heavily influenced, if not taken outright from the menu of the Spanish restaurant he was employed at until a couple of weeks ago. On the other hand Marcel showed that a tremendous amount of creativity and a willingness to experiment. While not all his experiments worked out well, it seems to me a chef with creative vision, who is willing to take risks and step out of the box might be more likely to make their mark in the restuarant business in a way that is different than those that have come before them.

Of course there's also the issue of the way Ilan and Marcel behaved during the show. Neither is without fault. Marcel was irritating and obnoxious to those around him. However, Ilan's behavior was a hundred times worse, though he doesn't seem to realize it. He took continual digs at Marcel, including about his sexuality, insulted him to the judges and other guests, was a participant when Cliff tried to shave his head, and overall showed a complete lack of maturity, self-control and tolerance. As I've said before the fact of the matter is that there will always be annoying or even nasty people to deal with. No matter what line of work one might be in, it's essential to be professional at all times no matter how difficult it may be, and especially in public.

The ratings for this season were exceptionally strong, in spite of a large percentage of people being turned off by the extreme to which Marcel was bullied by his fellow chefs. So my fear is that the Top Chef producers are going to cast for drama again for the third season. I would much rather the battle be about whose food is the best than on whose personality is least repulsive.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)

Larry Foyt to Race for Key Motorsports at Daytona

This boggles my mind. Steve Park, who has won in the Truck Series, can't find a ride, but Larry Foyt, who has never raced a truck, and hasn't raced anything in Nascar since 2004 has a ride for Daytona. Foyt will race the #44 truck for Key Motorsports, with Silestone USA, a distributor of natural quartz surfaces, as the sponsor. Maybe Foyt brought sponsorship with him, but it's incredible to me that Foyt will be racing at Daytona, and it's looking like Steve won't be.

I think this is yet another bad sign about the state of Steve's career. Yes, maybe he was offered the ride and turned it down because it didn't fit with what he was looking for. Or maybe Foyt brought sponsorship which got him the ride. But I just wish we'd see Steve race even one or two races. If it were a full-time ride I can understand why he wouldn't want to be with a team that can't be competitive because it's no fun to ride around in back every race. However, with a one or two race deal there doesn't have to be as much worry about being competitive or getting great results. Instead Steve could have some fun being back at the track and seeing his friends in the garage area. He could work with a different team than he has and maybe they could benefit from his veteran experience. It would also provide him with an opportunity to network and remind people that he still exists. But if Larry Foyt has a ride over Steve, I'm thinking even a one or two race gig isn't looking very likely at this point.

ETA: I just want to clarify one thing - I'm not upset in the least at Larry in regards to this deal. In fact I think it's great that he made something happen for himself. Clearly he doesn't just want to run his family's company, he still wants to race as well, and I commend him for finding a way to make that possible, something that isn't always easy, especially for a driver who doesn't race regularly - just ask Steve. In addition, after thinking about it, I really can't get too upset about a driver getting a one-race gig - maybe Steve will find himself a similar situation.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)