Random Thoughts

« July 2007 | Main | September 2007 »

August 31, 2007

More Numbers Issues for Junior

Earlier in the week it had been reported by Bob Dilner on Speed that Robert Yates had offered Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. the use of the #38, a number that is probably very much of interest to Junior considering it combines both his father's number as well as the only number that Junior's ever raced in Cup, that he couldn't get Teresa Earnhardt to hand over. Fans were ecstatic about the idea, and Hendrick went so far as to submit a trademark application for the use of the number. There's only one problem. The #38 is currently in use by Yates, and from the sounds of it they're not as willing to turn it over as the initial reports indicated. In fact, they didn't approach Hendrick, it was the other way around - Hendrick asked Yates if they could have the number. Doug Yates, president of Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing said,

"Dale Jr., since he can't have what he wants, he might want the 38. "They're asking for the 38, and the 38 and 88 are our numbers.It's almost a little strange. It's like somebody asking if they can take your girlfriend or your wife out. We feel we're going to have the 38 and 88 [next year]."

That really doesn't sound like an organization on the verge of giving up one of their number does it? He did go on to say that a final decision is up to his father but he also reiterated that those are their numbers and they expect to continue racing with them next season. I have to say that I think it's incredibly inappropriate for Hendrick to register a trademark application for a number in use by another team that they intend on using. Maybe Robert Yates has expressed some willingness to hand the number over that his father isn't aware of, but otherwise I think Hendrick should wait until they know if they'll be able to use that number or not before they file paperwork for it.

In other related news, one of the other numbers that Hendrick is apparently considering for Junior to use is #51. Someone emailed in to Sirius this morning with a very interesting point about that number, how it would symbolize the 51% ownership of DEI that Junior asked for during failed contract negotiations between himself and DEI. Running that number, this emailer said would be taking a shot at Teresa every race weekend for as long as they used that number. I hope that's not the thinking of Junior and Hendrick in considering that number - not only would that be extremely childish, it would be a little hypocritical of him to do something like that after having just pleaded for people to back off of Teresa.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)

Gibbs to Announce a Switch to Toyota Next Week?

Barring GM swooping in with a last-minute offer that Joe Gibbs Racing can't ignore it appears that organization will be announcing a switch to Toyota at a press conference next Wednesday. Of course in this sport things that seem like a sure thing one day can fall apart completely the next, and I had wondered about whether the rumors of a Gibbs switch might be a negotiating tactic for Gibbs with GM, but scheduling a press conference is an indication that something is in the works and that it's a major announcement. More than likely if they were just announcing that they were re-signing with GM, they would do it at the track, not have a stand-along press conference away from the track and spread the word about it well in advance to ensure there's a big turnout.

Assuming that this happens as expected, I think this is terrific for Toyota. Instead of having to wait for one of their current teams to develop, they're adding a team that's capable of winning and contending for championships right away, along with three of the sport's top drivers, plus at least two big sponsors. In addition, Gibbs has an established and successful engine department with some extremely talented personnel. Information and input from Gibbs should strengthen Toyota's overall engine program which has been a weakness for them this season. A stronger engine program will benefit all the Toyota Cup teams since Toyota provides engines to two out of three of their current teams. I doubt that suddenly every Toyota team is going to be racing up front next season, but I do think a move like this could mean improved results for all the teams, particularly since they will also have a year's worth of experience to build on.

Some fans are questioning why Gibbs would make a move like this after seeing how much the Toyota teams have struggled this season. But I think Gibbs is looking at this long-term. Sure, the Chevy teams may be dominating now, and the Toyota teams struggling, but down the road that might change. I'd guess that Toyota presented Gibbs with a very impressive plan as to how they plan on gaining success as a manufacturer in Cup sooner rather than later. I don't see any way that Gibbs would make this move - no matter how much money might be involved - unless they thought they could win with Toyota. In addition, there's probably a lot of appeal for Gibbs in being the #1 organization for a manufacturer. With Chevy they have to share the spotlight with Hendrick, RCR and DEI, but with Toyota they immediately become that manufacturer's flagship operation.

Some of my fellow Michael Waltrip fans have expressed some concern about that, how Gibbs becoming the #1 Toyota organization might mean that Toyota's resources will all be focused on Gibbs. But Toyota can't put all their eggs in one basket. While I think it's natural that they will work closely with Gibbs, they're going to provide their other teams with what they need to succeed - after all, they're contractually obligated to do so. Beyond that I don't think it would be such a bad thing if Michael and MWR is out of the spotlight for a while. Let Tony Stewart and Gibbs bear the brunt of the fan's displeasure about Toyota racing Cup. Let the media scrutinize every move that Gibbs makes and if they don't win immediately talk about how that organization is a failure. Let everyone speculate about sponsors leaving and other negative things happening. Meanwhile, MWR can quietly go about the process of continuing to strengthen their teams and their overall racing efforts.

What will be interesting to see play out is what happens with Tony. Rumor has it that Tony has an out in his contract that allows him to leave if Gibbs switches manufacturers, and given his close ties to Chevy, who are heavily involved in his dirt track efforts, even if he doesn't have that kind of clause, some feel that he will find a way to leave Gibbs sooner rather than later. It's been rumored that Home Depot may also have a similar clause, which would pave the way for a feeding frenzy by every team in the garage area to sign Tony and Home Depot. However, I'm skeptical about whether Gibbs would sign with Toyota if they thought they would lose either one. In addition, I can't help but wonder - if Tony is supposedly so pro-Chevy and anti-Toyota, why did he help Josh Wise, a young driver he thinks highly of who drove for him for a few years at Tony Stewart Motorsports, get a development deal with MWR, as opposed to with a Chevy organization?

One thing there's no doubt about though is that there's a significant amount of fans who are extremely upset about Gibbs signing with Toyota. Some of Tony's fans who have called into XM or Sirius are so upset that they've said that not only are they done as fans of Tony, but also with Nascar overall. It's going to be a very hard sell for Tony and Gibbs to convince some fans to continue to support their efforts. To a degree I can understand why some fans are upset. Not only is their driver loyalty, but there's also manufacturer loyalty. Just like it's hard when a member of the Boston Red Sox joins the New York Yankees or vice versa, it's difficult for some fans to accept when an organization or driver they're a fan of changes manufacturers.

However, what I take issue with is those fans, and there are many of them, who can't deal with Tony or JGR being associated with Toyota because they're a Japanese owned manufacturer. Those fans cry about how Nascar is an American sport and only American cars should be raced in it. Of course Toyota builds more of their vehicles in the United States than some of the other manufacturers involved in Nascar, but some fans are incredibly close-minded about perceiving Toyota as an evil, foreign company, that there's nothing that can be said that can get them to accept Toyota's presence in Nascar. It's going to be interesting to see how many boos Tony and the other Gibbs drivers will get after this announcement - and how Tony's going to handle it. Traditionally Tony has a hard time being silent about the things he takes issue with but ripping the fans will only make matters worse.

Some fan have been celebrating Toyota's failures this season and hoping for them to fail in Cup so badly that they'd have to abandon their efforts completely. That's not going to happen. It may take them a while but eventually Toyota is going to have a lot of success in Cup, just like every other manufacturer. If they really do sign JGR that's a big step towards achieving that success.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)

August 30, 2007

360OTC Gets Sued... Again

What a surprise. 360OTC is getting sued yet again, this time by Dirt Motor Sports, the entity that operates World of Outlaws, who had dropped 360OTC as title sponsor of the World of Outlaws Dirt Model Series for nonpayment. Apparently Dirt Motor Sports wants the money owed to them which is considerable - the deal Rockford-Montgomery Labs/360OTC agreed to was for $1.5 million in 2007, $1.6 million in 2008 and $1.7 million in 2009. Apparently a check Dirt Motor Sports got in February for $150,000 bounced. This lawsuit is on top of ones filed by Just Marketing for non-payment and Morgan-McClure Motorsports for breaking a $10.1 million sponsorship deal. So far Bill Davis Racing has neither taken the 360OTC logos off the #36 car nor sued for nonpayment, but apparently Bob Dilner reported on Speed this weekend that BDR hasn't been paid either, which is likely why 360OTC won't be back with BDR next season even though they were supposed to sponsor the car through 2009.

That some in the motorsports media are finally giving some attention to how shady 360OTC appears to be is a good thing for Jeremy Mayfield. Many fans have assumed that the lack of performance by the #36 team is his fault but it's hard to field a competitive team when the sponsor isn't handing over any cash. Some fans will also assume that 360OTC is leaving because of how poor the results were for the #36 this season, but that's unlikely regardless of what they might say publically (which might be nothing lest BDR reveal some unflattering things about them), it's pretty clear that this sponsor has some major issues that have nothing to do with what happens on the track.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2007

Michael Waltrip Speaks on Teresa Earnhardt

Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images.

One of the many things that I like about Michael Waltrip is that he's not afraid to speak his mind. Whether it's on Inside Nextel Cup, his XM show, Michael Waltrip Out Loud, or in an interview, Michael pretty much says what he thinks. In Nascar that's not always easy to do since not only does one run the risk of angering fans and the media, but there's also sponsors to answer to, one's team and also the governing body of the sport. Recently Michael's had something on his mind that he had been considering speaking out on, something that likely would have upset more than a few people since his viewpoint on this particular topic is extremely unpopular. Why was Michael going to be vocal on this issue even though he might have run the risk of making himself a target for some nastiness, particularly from fans? Not because he had to, but because he felt it was the right thing to do.

Some might be wondering what that might have to do with the photo of Michael and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. which was taken by Jason Smith at driver introductions this past weekend at Bristol. Well, apparently when this photo was taken Michael was talking to Junior about what he had been thinking of speaking out on - how people should back off of Teresa Earnhardt - something that Junior ended up addressing himself.

On both INC and his XM show Michael had some very interesting comments about Teresa, who he knows well as a result of his close friendship with Dale Earnhardt, that really shed light on Teresa's motivation for some of her actions as it relates to DEI and the #8. Some fans seem to forget that Teresa was Dale's wife, the woman that he loved, trusted and wanted to handle his business affairs. Not Michael, since he obviously saw them together first-hand. He said that Teresa and Dale were a perfect match together. So for all those fans who think that Teresa is some nasty, evil woman, what would that say about Dale? But Michael said despite what some think, Teresa's not a spiteful or a mean woman. All of her actions, according to him, are done out of her love for Dale, and that she's trying to preserve everything that belonged to him. So she didn't want to give up the #15 when Michael wanted to take it with him when he left DEI or more recently the #8 when Junior wanted it because those two numbers were owned by Dale so to Teresa they belonged with DEI. I can totally understand that way of thinking, and why Teresa wouldn't want to let go of anything that belonged to Dale. That would explain why it took so long for her to give Junior rights to his own name since those rights had been in Dale's name.

I think what really got me about what Michael said about Teresa is that while some have defended her right to make the decisions she feels are in the best interest of DEI from a business point-of-view, that I can recall until Michael's comments no one had defended Teresa as a person. A large part of that might be due to how private Teresa is so Michael is one of only a select group of people in the garage area who really know Teresa well. But I think it's also because it's become accepted and in vogue to hate Teresa and blame her for a lot of things that aren't necessarily completely in her hands. The vast majority of fans, some in the media and I would guess even some in the garage area are extremely negative towards Teresa, and when it comes to the fans, sometimes in very hateful ways. Speaking out in support of Teresa could put Michael in a position where some of that nastiness was directed towards him, but he was willing to risk that because he felt it was something that needed to be done. Apparently the only thing that had stopped him from saying something sooner was that he wasn't sure how to go about doing it. Based on what he said on his XM show it sounded like he didn't want to offend anyone in the Earnhardt family or seem to be taking a side since he's still on good terms with both Teresa and Junior, but he had finally gotten so fed up that he couldn't take what was being said about Teresa anymore.

Ultimately Michael didn't have to be the one who spoke out since Junior did so. And Michael apparently told him how proud he was that he did so during their conversation on Saturday. Junior told him that his father would be extremely upset about what people were saying about Teresa, and maybe that's what prompted Junior to speak up - that he realized that his father wouldn't be too happy. Maybe that's also part of why Michael was going to say something because he felt he owed it to Dale. Regardless, I'm just glad I'm a fan of a driver who isn't afraid to speak his mind, especially when it's to support a friend.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)

Random Thoughts on Nascar Happenings

*Apparently the 12 Chase drivers will make an appearance at the ESPN Zone in New York City on September 13 from noon - 2:30 p.m. to take part in a Q&A with fans. it's free to stand at the bar, but if fans want a seat at this event they have to be willing to buy $10 worth of food and beverage per hour, per person. Which might add up to quite a bit of money if one were to stay for the entire event. I guess there's not really a choice but to charge those prices - odds are ESPN Zone does a very brisk business at lunch hour and they don't want to lose the profits they would normally make.

*A.J. Allmendinger is going to race five Busch races for Chip Ganassi Racing, starting this weekend at California. I guess the need to get Allmendinger seat time in the hopes that it might improve the results in Cup, particularly on qualifying day, overrode the fact that Allmendinger drives for a Toyota team in Cup and Ganassi fields Dodges, though it may also be possible that none of the Toyota Busch teams had the resources available to field a car for Allmendinger. I think this will be good for him - even if he fails to make the race in Cup, at some tracks he'll also still have the opportunity to race in Busch, and the more time he gets behind the wheel the better.

*There will be another hearing in the case of Nascar/Sprint vs. AT&T on September 18. Back and forth, back and forth - I get the feeling that those AT&T logos will be on and off the car from now through the end of the season depending on what happens at which hearing. And this isn't even the trial yet! I wish that they would come to some kind of compromise already. Jeff Burton was on Sirius this morning and naturally one of the topics he talked about was this. Jeff said that fans aren't interested in stuff like this, they're only interested in stuff that actually relates to racing. Well, normally I'm very much interested in the business side of the sport, but I'm getting a little tired of hearing both sides plead their case like broken records about why they should get their way. I wonder what Richard Childress Racing's back-up plan is if AT&T is permanently barred from being on the car?

*Turns out Hendrick Motorsports has applied for trademarks for a variety of numbers, not just the #38, presumably for possible use for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. I can't help but wonder if there's a little smoke and mirrors game going on here to throw people off. Maybe it's one of those numbers that they plan on using, or maybe they have another number in mind - after all, they can file for a trademark for that number at any time. Personally, I just wish they'd pick a number already - I'm getting really tired of the same speculation and debate over and over again.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2007

Photo of the Day - Tangled Web

Chatham, MA. August, 2007.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)

Jacques Villeneuve to Race for Bill Davis Racing

It sure didn't take Bill Davis Racing long to find a replacement for Jeremy Mayfield. Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve will race for BDR starting this season in the Truck Series with the eventual goal of racing Cup in 2008. The plan is for Villeneuve to test a truck this week and then he will race the #22 truck for the rest of the season starting at Las Vegas. While I don't blame BDR for making a decision that they feel is in the best interest of their business - Villeneuve will likely attract sponsorship which BDR is in need of since BDR's general manager Mike Brown said a few days ago that 360OTC won't likely be back next season - it appears that BDR might be about to screw yet another driver over.

I'm hesitant to completely rip BDR since they may have plans that I'm not aware of but it appears even though it was said a couple of months ago that Ryan Mathews had a ride in the #22 for the rest of the season, he's lost his ride in place of Villeneuve. That boggles my mind because Mathews appears to be a young driver with some talent - there was a streak of five races in which he improved his finish in every race, culminating in a top five finish at Kentucky where he also got the pole. He did all that in spite of having next to no experience in Nascar when he was put in the truck. So it seems to me that even though he's struggled a little over the past three races, Mathews is exactly the kind of driver that BDR would want to hang onto. And maybe they will - maybe they plan on putting him in ARCA and Busch races and keep him in their development program. But right now it looks like they're tossing him aside for Villeneuve, and while to a degree I understand why, I still think it's unfortunate and unfair to Mathews who might have been thinking he had a future at BDR.

Villeneuve will be working with Slugger Labbe at BDR. I laughed when I heard that. Slugger spent time with the #36 team at Pocono a few weeks ago and sat on that team's pit box with a headset on during the race. Afterwards Tommy Baldwin, Jr. who Slugger is good friends with, said it was "just coincidence" that Slugger was around the team, but I knew better. So I was completely unsurprised when it was announced that Slugger was joining that organization to work with Villeneuve. From what I've heard Villeneuve sometimes has some attitude problems, but if there's one crew chief who won't take any nonsense from a driver, it's Slugger.

As for how well Villeneuve is going to do in Nascar I have no idea. I'm really not all that familiar with him from F1 but he must have some talent if he's a former champion. I'd expect he might do what Juan Pablo Montoya has done - be impressive at some tracks and look like the rookie he is at other tracks. Of course BDR is going to have to find a way to field competitive cars first. Finding a primary sponsor other than 360OTC will probably help. So will having one crew chief for their second Cup team for the entire season so the team can gel. But the biggest thing is that Toyota needs to make improvements to their overall Cup program on the technical side to help their teams improve. Villeneuve's Nascar career might be over before it starts if he has to struggle with non-competitive cars and dealing with being a go-or-go-home driver like Mayfield did all this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)

Random Thoughts on Nascar Happenings

On Friday Dale Earnhardt, Jr. asked his fans to lay off when it comes his step-mother Teresa Earnhardt, who has been the subject of a considerable amount of harsh criticism after his decision to leave DEI and her decision not to let him take the #8 with him. Junior says that it's not right that Teresa's daughter, and his step-sister, Taylor, might have to hear about some of these remarks from her classmates, and that Teresa doesn't deserve in general to have so much criticism directed her way. Junior's comments are curious to me. It's only now that some of the nasty comments that fans are making towards Teresa are bothering him? Junior's no stranger to the internet, surely he had to be aware of what was being said. In addition, it's only now that he's thinking about how all of this might be effecting Taylor? Maybe he should have given all of that a little more consideration previously, and had he done so maybe he wouldn't have made some of the comments recently about Teresa after he didn't get the #8 which led to some of the harshest of the comments from fans.

*In other Junior related news, as it turns out Teresa's decision not to let Junior take the #8 might not work out so bad for him after all. Apparently Robert Yates Racing appears willing to let Hendrick Motorsports have the #38 for Junior to use. Personally I think that number is an even better one than the #8 because it not only reflects Junior's history in the sport but more of his father's as well. However, part of me thinks that Junior might be better off racing the #5 or another number with no Earnhardt history attached to it. It's going to be a completely new chapter in his life racing for Hendrick, and it might be good for him to have no ties to the past, and particularly not to his father's legendary number. Another part of me doesn't want to hear any more rumors or speculation about what number Junior might race - just find a number for him and be done with it!http://www.roushracing.com

*There will be some changes among the Roush-Fenway Racing teams next season. Instead of one primary sponsor, the #16 driven by Greg Biffle will have four different primary sponsors, who have yet to be announced. It's interesting to me that Roush broke this sponsorship like this. I wonder if that was a choice they made from the beginning to make it more attractive to sponsors since a partial sponsorship is more affordable on a top team like the ones that Roush fields than a full sponsorship, or because as they tried to find a sponsor for the #16 they couldn't find a company willing to sponsor the car for the full season? Roush has said that Biffle will be back in the #16 next season but given the so-so results this season, Biffle's dissatisfaction and that his contract only goes through the end of next season I can't help but wonder if Roush might be willing to let another team buy out the remainder of Biffle's contract? As for who might end up in the #16, that could be Travis Kvapil, who has gotten good results for Roush in the Truck Series. They clearly like Travis since they may have him race in the Busch Series next season if sponsorship is found for a third team. Travis would take the place of Todd Kluever who is "free to explore other opportunities." Roush had high hopes for Kluever but he hasn't lived up to expectations. Travis would likely do well in Busch next season, but I think if Roush advances him to Cup the results would be much better than they were the first time Travis was in Cup since he didn't get competitive cars to race with either organization he was with.

*According to Max Siegel, DEI will probably announce their driver lineup for next season at Richmond in two weeks. Although a number of drivers outside the organization have been rumored to be under consideration for a ride at DEI, I suspect there won't be many surprises in DEI's announcement and the #08 and #01 rides will be filled by some combination of Mark Martin, Regan Smith and Aric Almirola. I really doubt that David Reutimann will end up at DEI since his contract with Michael Waltrip Racing forbids him from negotiating with other teams about a ride until October. While drivers can get around this by using a middle-man like a business manager to negotiate for them, I highly doubt David could sign with another team before October. Hopefully that means that David will stay at MWR - I think he's a tremendous asset to that organization and I also think they're good for him as well because it seems that they allow him to be who he is, both as a racer and as a person, something that isn't always true at every organization since some want their drivers to fit a specific mold.

*Speaking of David, he was outstanding in Friday night's Busch race! David led 33 laps and took part in a very exciting three-car battle for the win at the end of the race. It sure was great to see him racing up front and right in the middle of the action! At the very end of the race David turned Jason Leffler, who had spun him at ORP and I had initially thought David was getting a little revenge since I know he was furious after that incident. However, Leffler said after the race that he had to check up and there was no way for David to avoid getting into him. But even if it wasn't intentional, I'm sure David didn't mind spinning Leffler - I don't think either David or Michael Waltrip have much love for Leffler even though he's a fellow Toyota driver. After the race David was interviewed by ESPN and even though he was happy about the way the race went for him, he clearly wasn't too thrilled with the way the interview led off with a mention about how he DNQ'd for the Cup race - David visibly rolled his eyes, and at home I joined him with an eye roll of my own. Unless it directed effected the way things went in the Busch race, which it didn't, there was no need to bring up the Cup DNQ when there was so many positive things to talk about from that night's race.

*Nascar made a boo-boo during the Busch race and blew a call on Kyle Busch which resulted in them giving him a penalty he didn't deserve which put him back in the field and hurt his chances to win. Kyle, Rick Hendrick, fans and others were livid with the blown call, but also that Nascar didn't hold up the race to review video to be sure they got the call right. Nascar was apologetic but it doesn't sound likely that they'll be holding up races any time soon to go to the video when teams challenge a penalty. And I have to agree - how can Nascar get into using video replays for every penalty? Suddenly there would be huge amounts of laps run under caution or races would be red flagged for long periods of time while penalties were reviewed. It just doesn't seem practical to me. You hope that Nascar gets the calls right but the reality is that no one is perfect and fans, teams and the drivers have to accept that sometimes mistakes are going to be made. It happens in baseball where they also don't use video replays and somehow the teams and players live with it.

*Newlywed Brendan Gaughan finished second in last week's truck race at Bristol. In a sign of the way things work for drivers and teams in the Truck Series, Brendan got far more publicity for getting married than he did for finishing second or for pretty much anything else he's done the past couple of years. Of course part of that is because even though Brendan has had some good finishes, and has run well at other times but seen bad luck ruin races for him, the overall results the past few years haven't been too impressive. He's not won a race since 2003 and hasn't been even close to being in contention for the Championship since he returned to the Truck Series full-time.

South Point Racing remains a bit of a puzzle to me as it was when Steve Park raced for them. Obviously a big reason, if not the only reason, the organization exists is because of Brendan since his father owns and funds the team. For one thing at times it seems as if they could use some additional financial help to be more competitive. Now the Gaughan family is very wealthy thanks to their involvement in the casino business in Las Vegas, and they're doing so well that they have $95 million for an expansion to the South Point Casino. Yet there's clearly a limit to how much Michael Gaughan is willing to put into this organization which resulted in Steve being released when they decided the funds weren't available to keep the truck on the track for the rest of the 2005 season. However, they've not been able to find an outside sponsor for Brendan's team either since Jasper left. I guess it seems to me that the organization is stuck in suspended animation - a lack of an outside sponsor means that it will be hard for them to have the funding necessary to be more competitive and if they can't even find sponsorship for one team it would be hard for them to find the sponsorship necessary to expand. I suppose South Point Racing might only exist as long as Brendan wants to race or run a race team.

*Joe Gibbs Racing says that there will be no announcement about them joining Toyota at California and I'm starting to wonder if Gibbs really is going to switch manufacturers as has been rumored for a while. I wouldn't be surprised if Gibbs did switch to Toyota because I think it would really boost Toyota's efforts in Cup but I also wouldn't be surprised if all these rumors were just Gibbs using Toyota as leverage to get the best deal possible from GM. There also seems to be a rather large roadblock in relation to Gibbs becoming a Toyota organization - Tony Stewart. Apparently Tony has close ties to Chevy through the teams he fields through Tony Stewart Motorsports in other series and the feeling is that Tony isn't going to want to drive for any other manufacturer besides GM. Tony may even have an "out" in his clause that would allow him to leave Gibbs if they went with Toyota. I can't see Gibbs doing anything that would result in them losing Tony who is probably one of, if not the, best drivers in Nascar right now.

*Apparently Steve Park went to Bristol, though I've not heard of anyone who actually saw him at the track. Some members of Travis Kvapil's family ran into Steve at a Wendy's on the way to Bristol. Someone who will remain anonymous joked "was he eating there or working there?" Yeah, that's how bad things have gotten. I'd like to think that Steve was working the garage area, networking and meeting with teams regarding a ride for the rest of this season and beyond, but it's also possible he just went to be part of the excitement that is Bristol and watch some great racing for his birthday which was last Thursday.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

Driver by Driver: Bristol

All morning they've been talking on Sirius about how boring and bad Saturday night's race at Bristol was. The reason being that in spite of there being some good racing through the field, something that wasn't seen in the past at this track, there was only one pass for the lead, when Carl Edwards made what ended up being the winning pass on Kasey Kahne around lap 330. The feeling is that's a indication that the racing was actually really bad at Bristol if no one was able to pass for the lead. Well, instead of it being a matter of the changes to the track being bad ones, or the tires being too hard or the other things that they've named as problems that need to be fixed, maybe it's just that Kasey and Carl had the best cars for most of the night. In addition, as one caller pointed out, the majority of time there's only a handful of teams who are consistently in contention for wins anyway. Maybe the problem isn't so much that a couple of cars checked out once they got in front, but that a large portion of the field doesn't have any chance to win on a weekly basis.

1. Carl Edwards - Carl called this win the biggest of his career. I really doubt he had any complaints about the lack of racing up front.

2. Kasey Kahne - With the way some in the media and some fans have been wringing their hands one would think this weekend was a disaster for Kasey. But in reality this was the best weekend on the track for Kasey all year in what's been a dreadful season for him. Kasey won the pole for the Cup race, won Friday night's Busch race and then followed it up on Saturday night with a second place finish. Sure, finishing second might be a disappointment after leading so many laps to start the race but this shows that Kasey and Evernham are very much still capable of being competitive. My only quibble with Kasey is that after the race he complained that Michael Waltrip raced him hard while he (Kasey) was leading the race not to lose a lap, then didn't race the other leaders as hard. Well, seems to me that after Michael's lost his lap and a couple of the leaders have passed him by there's not much reason to keep racing so hard because he's already lost the lap and isn't racing for as much at that moment. Kasey seemed annoyed, as a lot of fans are, that Michael dared race him in that spot. Well, Kasey's been a lap or more down a lot this season due to how non-competitive the Evernham cars have been - so does he just pull over and not fight not to lose any more laps to the leaders when he's been in Michael's position?

3. Clint Bowyer - Clint's one of the drivers who is in a slightly precarious position in terms of the Chase, but Saturday night's strong finish went a long way towards ensuring his place in the Chase.

4. Tony Stewart - This is Tony's best finish at Bristol in six races at this track, and prior to his third place finish in 2005, the results at this track hadn't been pretty for him since he won in 2001. So while a lot of people probably assumed that they'd see Tony up front at the end, this hasn't always been one of his better tracks. Good job by Tony to finish in the top five.

5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Junior did everything he could to try to win this race in an effort to try to gain some points and make it into the Chase but a top five was the best he could so. Which certainly isn't bad by any means, but considering Kurt Busch finished just one spot behind him, only allowed Junior to gain five points on Kurt for the last spot in the Chase. Seems to me that it's not looking very likely that Junior will be in the Chase this season unless one of the drivers just ahead of him in the points has a disastrous next two races.

6. Kurt Busch - Another strong finish on a track where Kurt has had a tremendous amount of success (five wins). In his last seven races Kurt hasn't finished worse than 11th. If he keeps racing that well over the next two races he has no worries about falling out of the Chase.

7. Ryan Newman - A top ten keeps Ryan in contention for a spot in the Chase should another driver fall out, but I don't think it's too likely.

8. Bobby Labonte - For the second week in a row Bobby finished in the top ten, the first time all season that he's got two top tens back-to-back, and once again it appeared that no one really noticed how well he finished.

9. Kyle Busch -

10. Greg Biffle - Another driver that I didn't think got much attention on Saturday night. But he should have. Greg started 34th and did a good job of racing his way into the top ten.

11. Martin Truex Jr. - Martin raced his way into the top ten in the first 100 laps of the race but was penalized for a missing lugnut on a lap 127 pitstop which caused him to have to restart in 26th. Martin did a good job of racing his way back towards the front, but if not for the miscue on pit road Martin probably would have had an even better finish than 11th.

12. Jeff Burton - Just about anything that Jeff did on the track this weekend was going to be overshadowed by the lack decals on his car from his primary sponsor after AT&T and Nascar couldn't come to an agreement on an acceptable paint scheme for this weekend's race after a court ruling that went in Nascar's favor and allowed them to bar AT&T from being on the car.

13. J.J. Yeley - J.J.'s another driver who did a good job of racing his way through the field after qualifying poorly (40th). This is J.J.'s best finish since he finished second at Charlotte at the end of May. Is it any wonder why Gibbs is replacing him at the end of the season in favor of Kyle Busch? J.J. may be a talented driver who will have success with another team but his results with the #18 team haven't been impressive at all.

14. David Stremme - Like J.J., this is also David's best finish in quite some time - in fact his best finish since Talladega in April when he finished 9th. Still no word on whether David is back in the #40 for sure next season.

15. Reed Sorenson - Best finish for Reed in his last four races.

16. Kevin Harvick - Never had a very good car at any point during this race but Kevin did a good job of making the most of the car that he was given. Kevin's not finished all that great the past few races which has put him in danger of slipping out of the Chase, but ultimately I think he'll be able to hang on. However, I'm not sure how much of a factor he's going to be in the Chase if he and his team doesn't find the consistency and good results they had earlier this season. Towards the end of the race Kevin got into Robby Gordon and spun him which of course angered all of Robby's fans, some of whom feel that Kevin was trying to cause Robby to get into Juan Pablo Montoya, who Kevin is still angry with from Watkins Glen. Doubtful. More likely Kevin was just driving aggressively with the laps winding down in an effort to get the best possible finish he could.

17. Juan Montoya - JPM started on the front row and many fans predicted it would be a disaster with JPM causing a big wreck on the first lap or at some point later in the race. That didn't happen and JPM got a much better result than he did the first time he raced at Bristol.

18. Scott Riggs - Not a bad finish for Scott, especially considering how poor his season has been.

19. Jeff Gordon - For the first time all season Jeff's run into a bit of a rough patch, with three finishes in a row of 19th or worse. Jeff took the blame for this finish, saying that he asked for some changes to the car that ended up not being the right ones. Plus he got caught up in the lap 452 wreck. I have to wonder if we might continue to see some so-so finishes from this team until the Chase starts. Since Jeff's locked in the team has the liberty of experimenting with a few things and it doesn't hurt anything if it doesn't work out.

20. Robby Gordon - It looked like Robby was on his way to a pretty decent finish until he had some issues towards the end of the race including a love tap from Kevin Harvick that resulted in Robby going for a spin. Still last car on the lead lap at a track where cars get lapped quickly and easily isn't bad.

21. Jimmie Johnson - Involved in two incidents in this race - one on lap 226 when he got into Aric Almirola and later in the race when Matt Kenseth hit him when Ricky Rudd spun.

22. Casey Mears

23. Michael Waltrip - Michael continues to be criticized for having the nerve to race the leaders hard in an effort not to go another lap down. Somehow some seem to think that Michael was already three laps down at that point, but I believe he was only two laps down, which likely was why he was racing them so hard there since it's a lot more do-able to get back on the lead lap being just two laps down instead of three. Regardless, as I said at length in the previous entry, I think it's ridiculous that Michael (or any other driver) should be expected to just pull over for other drivers when they're still racing for something. Finishing 23rd might not seem very good, but considering all his struggles this season a top 25 isn't that bad. Michael was also the top finishing Toyota driver in this race.

24. Paul Menard - It was mentioned over on one of the Sterling Marlin fan forums how Paul was slower than Sterling in qualifying on Friday but ended up making the race anyway due to being locked in via owner's points. Those owner's points being the ones that Sterling got for the #13 car that became Paul's after DEI merged with Ginn Racing.

25. Bill Elliott - Not a terrible finish for this team and since they finished ahead of the #22 they probably picked up some points on 35th in the owner's points.

26. Jamie McMurray - Jamie qualified very well for this race but had to fight an ill-handling race car thoughout the race which prevented him from finishing well.

27. Jeff Green

28. Tony Raines

29. Elliott Sadler - Got a cut tire on lap 62 and having to pit under green cost him two laps which he was never able to make up.

30. David Gilliland - Had an ill-handling car not just during the race but all weekend.

31. Dave Blaney - After finishing 6th at Michigan this team had to have had high hopes that they would be able to race well at Bristol too, but they missed the set-up during the first half of the race and it wasn't to be. Although most seem to consider this the best of the Toyota teams, I think Dave and his team still need to work a little on their consistency.

32. Kenny Wallace - The #45 isn't a very competitive car but it's likely still a lot better than anything Kenny's raced in Cup recently. Unfortunately Kenny made a costly mistake on pit road in that he took the wrong way off of pit road during a pit stop under green and it caused him to lose almost three laps.

33. Ward Burton

34. Dale Jarrett - The #44 was too tight, but DJ's poor finish was also the result of a penalty for pitting outside the pit stop and having to come in to get damage repaired on lap 396 that was causing a tire rub.

35. A.J. Allmendinger - Got damage when the #48 and #01 tangled on lap 225 but fought handling problems and a vibration prior to that. The finish wasn't very good, but at least A.J. was racing - the last time he was able to qualify for a race prior to Bristol was Michigan in June.

36. Aric Almirola - Didn't have a very good car because a lack of practice time because they had to change an engine meant that they couldn't work much on getting the car right. Also, got damage when Jimmie Johnson got into him on lap 226.

37. Jeremy Mayfield - The car was never any good at any point during this race and it's no surprise. With Jeremy leaving at the end of the season, and likely the sponsor as well, plus having no chance to get into the top 35 in owner's points there really isn't much incentive to race competitively for this team.

38. Ricky Rudd Ford - Got spun by Martin Truex,Jr.

39. Matt Kenseth - Got swept up in the carnage after Ricky Rudd spun.

40. John Andretti

41. David Ragan - David had a really bad night at Bristol. Not only did he spin three times but he also had a loose wheel which forced him to pit under green and caused him to lose laps, and also he couldn't keep the car in gear.

42. Johnny Sauter - A blown tire on lap 126 caused him to tangle with the wall and brought out the race's first caution.

43. Denny Hamlin - DNF'd due to a mechanical issue, the first DNF for Denny in 53 races.

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

August 26, 2007

Michael Waltrip Didn't Cost Kasey Kahne the Win at Bristol

On lap 331of last night's race at Bristol, the leader at the time Kasey Kahne, came up on the already lapped car of Michael Waltrip who proceeded to race Kasey and the rest of the leaders hard in an effort to not go another lap down. In the ensuring battle among the leaders as they tried to race their way past Michael, Kasey lost the lead to Carl Edwards who ended up winning the race. Some fans feel that Michael was extremely out of line for racing the leaders as opposed to just pulling over to let them by, and that Michael cost Kasey the win. I can't disagree more.

First of all, there was plenty of race left. If Kasey's car was so good he should have been able to pass Carl for the win regardless of what happened with Michael 150 laps prior. Second, let's say that Michael had let Kasey by easily and he would have kept the lead there - that doesn't mean that Kasey would have gone on to win. Carl had an extremely good car and it's quite likely that he would have raced his way past Kasey anyway.

But my biggest issue is with the idea that Michael should have pulled over instead of racing - unless a car is 50 laps down, is torn-up or has a mechanical issue, if a driver is still racing for something - and despite what some think Michael was - then they have every right to race hard.

Michael finished 23rd, two laps down. Had he pulled over easily to let the leaders go by, he's putting himself three laps down and making it harder to salvage anywhere near a decent finish. And considering how much his team and organization has struggled this season even a top 25 has to be considered an okay finish. Beyond that, Michael's racing to keep ahead of the #49 in owners points so that if qualifying is rained out he's locked into the show. So he needs to be racing for position to gain as many points as possible on the #49.

What really got me is that a fan on the Speed-TV forum said that two laps down isn't racing. Tell that to Jeff Gordon who came from at least two laps down to win a race. There's no telling what might happen in a race - drivers get lucky dogs and there's all sorts of things that can happen, particularly at a track like Bristol. In addition, because the track at Bristol is so small, cars get lapped very quickly. Only 20 cars finished on the lead lap last night, and of the remaining 23 cars, only one was just one lap down. Does that mean that the other 22 cars weren't racing? I'd guess all the drivers who had at least one other driver on their lap thought they were racing for something. Not to mention any driver who was looking to pick up points in the Championship or owner's points standings. Should all those lapped cars have pulled off the track? After all, maybe another lapped car besides the #55 might have been in the way of the leaders at some point - how dare they try to race?

In general I don't think any drivers should pull over and let another car go by, unless as already mentioned they're already many laps down and it doesn't matter. Sure if there's two laps to go, I hope lapped or slower cars will show some courtesy for the leaders but I want to see the drivers racing each other hard. Fans complain that the races are so boring, that there's no good racing, but when drivers race each other hard they complain about that too. Some fans accuse Michael of caring more about plugging his sponsors or doing truck race broadcasts than he does about racing - so last night he goes out and races, but that's not right either.

I want to see Michael fighting to not lose another lap. Some think that Michael was just trying to get some extra TV time for his sponsors, but to me that was a sign that he's not giving up, that even though he's a couple of laps down he's still going to try to finish as well as he can. That's the kind of attitude I want to see - that all the problems and issues this season haven't gotten him down, haven't killed the desire to race and his competitive spirit.

Hopefully soon MWR will be fielding competitive cars so that Michael can race hard for position up front, not just to not lose additional laps.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2007

Sterling Marlin Speaks on Ginn Racing

Sterling Marlin had a lot to say about Ginn Racing, his former employer until being released from the #14, during interviews on Sirius and XM the past couple of days. And not much of what he said was good. I'm shocked by how deep the financial problems for that organization went considering how wealthy Bobby Ginn supposedly was. Sterling said that neither he or Joe Nemechek have been paid since May, and that payment caught them up from what was owned from the start of the season. None of Sterling's phone calls to Bobby Ginn or to DEI have been returned, and as a result his and Joe's lawyers have gotten involved to press the payment issue.

However, the financial issues go beyond what's owned to Sterling and Joe. Sterling said that one race weekend a member of his team approached him asking for several hundred dollars in cash to pay a tire bill otherwise the team wouldn't be given tires, and therefore wouldn't be able to race. Supposedly one pay period general manager Jay Frye, paid some employees out of his own pocket. Overall, I got the sense that Ginn Racing had significant debts that will eventually have to be dealt with by DEI. Once their deal with Ginn is finalized that is. According to Sterling, the merger isn't final yet. What that means is that DEI doesn't assume responsibility for those debts until the deal is completely done, so I would guess they would try to prolong the process of getting it finalized for as long as possible.

After hearing all of this, I'm amazed that Ginn was able to keep operating as long as they did. I'm also surprised that word of their financial issues didn't leak out sooner if they were having so many problems that they couldn't pay their tire bills.

The other bit of news that Sterling shared is that he and Joe will be reunited at Furniture Row Racing since they will both be racing selected races for the #78.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)

Mark Martin and Aric Armirola to the #8?

Reports are that Mark Martin and Aric Almirola, who it was previously announced would split time in the #01 car next season, will be shifted to the #8 car by DEI in 2008, along with the sponsor of the #01, the U.S. Army. If this is actually what happens I think it's a brilliant plan by DEI, and major kudos should go to whoever thought of it. Most fans have a tremendous amount of respect for Mark and all that he's accomplished in the sport so they probably wouldn't harass him too much for taking over the #8, something that might happen to other drivers who are less popular than Mark is. Even fewer fans would dare boo, throw cans or otherwise direct any kind of negativity towards the U.S. Army, or any other branch of branch of the Armed Services. So the whole issue of DEI keeping the #8 would likely become a non-issue very quickly.

As for the #01 car, DEI would need to find both a sponsor and a driver for that ride. While David Reutimann is apparently still under consideration for a ride with DEI it seems to me that they're more likely to go with Regan Smith who is already under contract after the merger with Ginn Racing. David may also not be too inclined to consider DEI under they have a sponsor for that car given that sponsorship is what's holding up him being offered a new contract by Michael Waltrip Racing (which is where I really hope he stays not just next season but well into the future).

Aric is making his first start in the #01 car this weekend at Bristol and already things aren't off to a very good start. Unfortunately yet another DEI engine has bit the dust, but this time it's not due to anything being mechanically wrong with the engine, but rather because Aric missed a shift. It's amazing how many Junior fans believe that Aric is being forced to take the blame because DEI doesn't want it known that they had another blown engine. Ridiculous. This is a driver whose Cup experience is limited to 46 laps in a race early this season. Although Aric is a talented driver, he's probably nervous and it's not surprising that he might have made a mistake. I really doubt that anyone forced Aric to take the blame, just like DEI doesn't make Junior take the blame for things going bad against his will. The reason Junior said that it was his fault that he didn't finish better at Michigan, was because Junior did in fact make a costly mistake which cost them positions on the track when he missed his pit stall and had to back up during one pit stop. But I guess that's too be expected - there's some fans who think their favorite driver can do no wrong.

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

August 22, 2007

Photo of the Day - Cape Cod

Posted by silverdsl at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)

Driver by Driver: Michigan II

Since I was at work I didn't get to watch this race on TV, but I listened to a combination of MRN and Michael Waltrip's radio. Although the race was a disappointing one for the #55 team, the overall race sounded like it was a pretty good one. A lot of fans thought that it would be follow-the-leader the whole time but it sounded like there was some decent racing. I feel bad for all the fans in Michigan and everyone in the garage area that it took until Tuesday to finally get the race in. Many fans probably couldn't stay through Tuesday so they ended up losing a lot of money - something I'm very familiar with given how I spent more than $600 on my Dover weekend and never ended up seeing a race due the rain and not being able to stay through Monday when the race was run. It's also very difficult for all the teams and everyone else in the garage area - it's not like they were in Las Vegas or somewhere else where there's a lot to do, plus everyone plans on only being there until Sunday or at the latest Monday so a lot of people were probably running out of clothes and other necessities.

But unlike some, I was pretty sure that Nascar was going to do everything they could to get the race in this week, even if it meant having it this morning. Moving the race to Thanksgiving weekend would create way too many problems. For one thing, Homestead is billed as Ford Championship weekend so there would be a lot of upset people if suddenly Michigan became Championship weekend. Plus no one would be happy about having to be at a race on Thanksgiving weekend. One thing Nascar wasn't going to do was just cancel the race completely like some fans seemed to think they would. Barring an insurmountable disaster like a hurricane that destroys the track, they will find a way to run the races. It's not fair to the teams, drivers, fans and everyone else involved to simply eliminate a race. Sure, it might not matter to Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin who are already locked into the Chase but there are other drivers fighting to get into the Chase or stay there, plus a battle for the last spot in the top 35 in owner's points. For them every race counts. But beyond that when was the last time a game was canceled completely in another sport? It almost never happens and it won't happen with a race in Nascar either.

Kurt Busch - I can't say enough about how impressed I am with Kurt and the entire #2 team for the way they've come on strong over the last six races. The first half of the season was pretty mediocre for Kurt, but ever since Pat Tryson came on board, the team has been revitalized and very motivated to make the Chase. I think some people wrote Kurt off after the trouble he got into at Dover and the resulting loss of 100 points but if he keeps racing this well he's not only going to be in the Chase but he'll also be a serious threat to win the Championship.

2. Martin Truex Jr. - Overcame a clutch problem to finish strong. Martin's still not a lock for the Chase but I have a feeling he and his team will find a way to solidify their place in the Chase over the next three races.

3.Jimmie Johnson - Jimmie's started 7th for three races in a row and that must be a lucky starting spot for him because over those three races he's got three top fives, which is exactly what he needed to do to be sure he didn't fall out of the Chase. This was the first week back for Chad Knaus after a six-race suspension.

4. Matt Kenseth - Led 31 laps but made contact with the wall at one point which effected the aerodynamics of the car. Still, a strong finish for the #17 team.

5. Denny Hamlin - Denny's 10th top five of the season locks him into the Chase.

6.Dave Blaney - The first of two Toyotas in the top ten so it was a good race for that manufacturer. Dave's second top ten in four races puts him into 35th in the owner's points and guarantees that he'll race at Bristol. The question is whether he'll be able to hold onto 35th - a few more top tens and he likely will since the other team in contention for 35th, the #21, hasn't had a top ten all season with any of the drivers they've put behind the wheel.

7. Carl Edwards - Second top ten in a row for Carl and 9th of the season.

8. Brian Vickers - Not only did Brian finish in the top ten but he also led 11 laps. One thing's for sure the poor results for this team aren't driver related because clearly when Brian has a competitive car he can finish well. Thing is that RBR seems to struggle to give him competitive cars consistently and can't seem to give A.J. Allmendinger a competitive car that he can make races with at all, much like how BDR can't seem to get the #36 team racing as well as the #22. But this is definitely a good sign for RBR and Toyota that if they can figure out all their issues they can be competitive and contend for wins.

9. Bobby Labonte - Say did anyone notice that Bobby got just his second top ten of the season and his first since April? That had to feel good to Bobby and his entire team.

10. Tony Stewart - After having won three of the last five races, Tony "only" finished 10th. It'll be interesting to see how he does at Bristol next week since I don't think it's one of his stronger tracks.

11. Casey Mears - A solid finish moves Casey up to 14th in the points which I think is pretty good considering he started the season with some pretty poor results up until he won at Charlotte.

12. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Most Junior fans are trying to find a way to blame Tony Eury, Jr. or DEI for Junior losing ground to Kurt Busch for the last spot in the Chase but Junior made an extremely costly mistake when he overshot his pit during a pit stop, had to back up and then lost track position. After the race even he admitted he was to blame for a finish that wasn't as good as it should have been.

After having won at least one race every season since 2000, Junior has yet to win this season at all. In addition, it's looking like Junior may miss the Chase as well. The Junior Nation of course blames Teresa and DEI, for not giving Junior cars that are competitive enough with some even thinking that Teresa is deliberately sabatoging Junior. Ridiculous. There's a combination of factors at work here - it's true that Junior has had a number of blown engines this season that have been costly. However, losing 100 point because Tony, Jr. got creative with the COT hurt and this team hasn't seemed to have done as good of a job as the #2 team who were also penalized 100 driver points, at making up that loss of points. Overall, the performance of this team doesn't strike me as that of a Championship team and I thought the same thing last season as well. Junior is a talented driver but the intensity and focus for the whole team doesn't seem to be there like it is for some other teams. He may go on to win the next three races but I wouldn't be surprised if his misses the Chase. I can't help but wonder if leaving DEI for Hendrick and all the drama that's gone along with it has been a bit of a distraction for Junior.

13. Kyle Busch - Choose to make a late pit stop that cost him track position.

14. Jeff Burton - Nascar came out the victor in the latest round of legal wrangling against AT&T and the result is that the AT&T logos have to come off Jeff's car at Bristol - it'll be interesting to see what will be on the car instead, if anything. I can see them opting to run an all black paint scheme without a replacement sponsor to draw attention to the issue.

25. Kevin Harvick - Handling issues meant that Kevin could finish no better than 15th.

16. Ryan Newman - Not only does Junior have to worry about Kurt Busch, but he also has to worry about Ryan, since Ryan's just seven points behind him in the standings.

17. Clint Bowyer - Clint's still in the Chase for now but if there's one driver who I think could fall out, it's Clint. He's only got one top five and he hasn't won a race yet. So he probably needs to improve his results a little over the next three races to ensure he stays in contention for the Chase.

18. David Ragan - The only Roush driver that never gets talked about unless something negative is happening to him but that's what happens when you're a rookie and the results aren't very good.

19. Greg Biffle - Was on his way to a good finish until he spun on lap 198. Since he won at this track twice and also has a number of other strong finishes, this finish is probably extremely disappointing to him. Unless Greg is able to leave Roush for another organization I don't expect the results to improve too much next season either. Based on the way Greg's been talking recently he seems extremely frustrated with the car he's been given, and during a discussion about Pat Tryson on Inside Nextel Cup a few weeks ago he made it clear that he wasn't very happy with the decision by Jack Roush to let Tryson go.

20. Ward Burton - A decent finish for this team. Ward's made 12 races this season but DNF'd seven times - four times due to wrecks and three times due to engine woes.

21. David Stremme - Yet another unimpressive finish for David. I'm starting to wonder how long Ganassi is going to stick with him.

22. Jeff Green

23. David Reutimann - Sad to say but this is David's second best finish this season. Not through any fault of his own but because of wrecks not of his doing, mechanical woes and ill-handling cars. David wasn't very happy with his car at Michigan either but he made the most of it and ended up with a top 25.

24. Robby Gordon - Yet again another poor decision for Robby that ends up being costly for him. During a competition caution when every other driver came in to pit for inexplicable reasons Robby stayed out. Pitting out of sequence ruined his entire race and he was never able to make up the ground he lost.

25. J.J. Yeley - Yeley is a hot commodity in the garage right now, rumored to be a candidate for every open ride. Thing is, if not for his youth I doubt there'd be much interest in him considering how unimpressive the results have been for him the two years he's been in Cup.

26. Juan Montoya - His spin early on collected Joe Nemechek and Chad McCumbee.

27. Jeff Gordon - Just his third finish this season outside the top ten. In fact he was on his way to another strong finish until he was spun by Matt Kenseth.

28. David Gilliland

29. Johnny Sauter

30. Jamie McMurray - This is Jamie's best finish since he won at Daytona in early July and I have to wonder what's going on with him and his team. Seems a little strange to go from a team capable of winning to one that struggles to finish in the top 30. To be fair in this race he brushed the wall which damaged the car but he wasn't exactly racing up front when that happened.

31. Kasey Kahne - Yet another putrid race for Evernham Motorsports as Kasey is the top finishing driver from that organization. Had an ill-handling car all day which prevented him from having the speed necessary to be competitive.

32. Elliott Sadler - Another Evernham team, another lousy, non-competitive car.

33. Ricky Rudd - Never had a competitive car.

34. Tony Raines

35. Bill Elliott - With such a strong finish by Dave Blaney, finishing so poorly was costly for this team since it knocked them out of the top 35 in owner's points.

36. Scott Riggs - Had an ill-handling car just like the other Evernham cars.

37. John Andretti - Was able to qualify into the race and finished.

38. Reed Sorenson - Started bad and finished bad. Said after the race that his car lacked power.

39. Paul Menard - DEI's engine woes continue with more engine issues for Paul.

40. Michael Waltrip - Michael had high hopes for this race after how well he finished last time at this track. However a strong finish was not to be. First Michael erroneous thought he had a flat tire which put them a lap down. Then he spun on lap 92, a spin which he thought he would be able to recover from until Joe Nemechek didn't listen to his spotter telling him to "go low" which resulted in wrecked race cars for both of them. Michael spend many laps in the garage and returned to the track only to pick up a position on Joe and points in the owner's standings on the #49 team.

41. Chad McCumbee - Filled in for Kyle Petty who is still recovering from a self-inflicted broken hand. Never got to do much because he was swept up in the early JPM spin.

42. Mark Martin - Another DEI car, another blown engine.

43. Joe Nemechek - A really bad day for Joe. Not only was he "racing" a non-competitive car but he was also a part of two wrecks.

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

August 20, 2007

Bill Lester Out of the #15, Nate Monteith In

For quite some time any number of fans have assumed that Bill Lester kept his ride at Bill Davis Racing and then more recently at Billy Ballew Motorsports because he brought funding with him in the form of sponsorship and money from Nascar's diversity program. That seems to be a myth as Lester has lost his ride, at least for now, due to a lack of sponsorship, and he's been replaced by Nate Monteith, who is bringing sponsorship with him to the #15. While Billy Ballew says that they're working with Lester to secure sponsorship so he can get back into a truck for them, there's apparently also the possibility that Monteith will continue racing for BBM next season as well.

For a while even I had been under the impression that Lester had all these sponsors in his pocket because so many had said the same thing so many times - that the only reason Lester had a ride was because he "bought" his rides via bringing sponsorships and diversity program money with him. But when he left BDR and none of his sponsors there followed him to BBM, it seemed apparent that he wasn't brining much, if any, sponsorship with him to make that ride possible. In addition, I have to question how much money BBM actually got from Nascar's diversity program if they're willing to replace Lester and stop receiving whatever funding was coming from that program. Which means that maybe Lester didn't actually "buy" his ride in the #15 afterall.

Besides Monteith, Kenny Wallace will apparently be racing at least one race for BBM this season, in the #15 or another truck. That should be interesting since the last time Kenny raced a truck was in 1996, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he does.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

Red Bull Racing Sticking With Toyota

One of the things that Red Bull Racing does that I really like is that they have a blog which they update almost every day. Instead of filling it with useless PR fluff, RBR uses it to give fans a peek into the inner workings of the organization that they wouldn't know about otherwise. They've also used it as a tool to disseminate information directly to their fans, which is what happened today when they addressed a rumor that's been floating around that RBR intends to switch manufacturers from Toyota to Chevy. When I heard this rumor I didn't think there was much truth to it because major organizations don't often drop one manufacturer for another mid-contract, except in unusual cases such as when Bill Davis Racing was in a dispute with Dodge over BDR working with Toyota. So I wasn't surprised to read on the RBR blog this morning that they will be fielding Toyotas not just next season but beyond as well.

Some fans probably think RBR is crazy to stay with Toyota if there was ever a possibility of them becoming affiliated with Chevy. But there's no guarantee that just because Chevy has had so much success this season that will be the case next as well. It's also likely that as time goes on the results for the Toyota teams will improve as Toyota gets a better handle on their engine program and other problem areas. I don't think anyone, even at Toyota or with the teams, thought they would struggle this much this season, but now that they have it's shown them what needs to be improved. And with so much money on the line in terms of sponsorships and overall investments in the teams, all parties will be working extremely hard to make sure that next season isn't a repeat of this season. I have a feeling they'll be successful too - not just RBR, but all the Toyota teams.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2007

Photo of the Day

Chatham, MA. August, 2007. A little something unusual I came across in Cape Cod.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

With today's Cup race having been postponed due to rain until tomorrow, it's a good opportunity for me to get caught up on some of what happened in Nascar while I was away that I didn't haven't gotten a chance to blog about yet.

*Ricky Rudd has told Robert Yates that he won't be back in the #88 next season, and intends on taking a step back from Cup racing next season, at least full-time. While some are referring to what Rudd's doing as retiring, he said he'll consider a part-time ride with a good team if something came his way, but he doesn't intend on pursuing anything. From the sounds of it Rudd will be very content to hang out with his family, but might consider racing here and there if the right opportunity presented itself. I have to wonder if Rudd might have stuck around for another season or two if the #88 had been more competitive this season - I can understand why the grind of the full season might not have so much appeal as compared to spending time with his family when the cars he's racing aren't all that competitive. Now the question becomes who will race the #88 next season? I'd guess that would likely be Stephen Leicht.

*While Ken Schrader remains under contract to Wood Brothers/JTG Racing, the chances of him returning to the #21 aren't looking good. Bill Elliott will remain in the #21 for the time being, even though it had been said that once the car was back in the top 35 that Schrader would get back in the car. Problem is that the margin between 35th and 36th is so slim that things could change on a weekly basis, which could necessitate the use of Elliott's champion's provisional to ensure the team is locked in to that week's race should they fall back to 36th. In addition, I think Elliott has done a good job racing the #21 and he showed how much of a team player he is by recognizing an opportunity to help the team gain in the points and stepped out of the car at Watkins Glen so that Boris Said could race in his place.

*I really like Kevin Harvick but sometimes I wish he'd put a sock in it and quit yapping. Harvick simply refuses to acknowledge that perhaps Juan Pablo Montoya didn't do anything quite as wrong as Harvick seems to think. On Friday Harvick said of JPM, "He drives like he doesn't know what he's doing, to be honest with you." First of all, to point out the obvious, hello, JPM's a rookie in Cup this season. So if at times he doesn't seem to know what he's doing it's because he doesn't have all that much Cup experience. But the fact of the matter is that JPM is an accomplished winner - he's not only won in Cup at Sonoma, but he's also won the Indy 500, in F1, and a CART Championship. So it seems to me that JPM does know a thing or two about what he's doing out there. Problem is that he's very aggressive and JPM's fellow competitors don't like it too much when JPM or any other aggressive driver gets into an incident with them that they feel might have been avoided had that driver raced differently. Thing is, whether it's JPM, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch or any of the others, they are who they are - their racing style might not work for another driver but it works for them.

*Bill Davis Racing announced last week that they were able to re-sign CAT as the primary sponsor for the #22, and will likely re-sign Dave Blaney shortly. I had wondered whether CAT and BDR might finally part ways if BDR and Blaney couldn't get the #22 into the top 35 in owner's points, something that a spokesperson for CAT specifically mentioned as something they wanted to see happen, but it appears that wasn't much of an issue. Many fans have wondered how the Toyota teams have kept their sponsors given the poor results for them this season, but in some ways it's not that surprising. For one thing, how often does a sponsor really opt out of a contract early? It happens, but it's not all that common, and the reasons are usually due to financial problems on the part of the sponsor, not because of a lack of results. But also in spite of the results not being very good this season CAT was probably happy with the exposure they got from being the sponsor of one of Toyota's first teams in Cup, plus there was the pole that Blaney got at Loudon.

*On the other hand, not only does BDR need to find another driver for their second Cup car next season, but they may need a new primary sponsor as well. In spite of a multi-year deal with 360OTC, that company may not return to BDR next season due to their "growing pains," as Mike Brown from BDR put it. So where is BDR going to find a sponsor if 360OTC can't fulfill their obligations? Depending on the driver they get, it might be a hard sell considering how poorly the #36 did this season.

*Kenny Wallace is out of the #78 and I can't say I'm surprised. Fact is, that team's been struggling big-time recently to make races. At the start of the season Kenny did pretty well qualifying in to races, but as the season progressed it's seemed like other go-or-go-home teams have made improvements while that team hasn't. What I saw and heard in relation to that team at Pocono was not encouraging and Kenny didn't seem too happy. Apparently Kenny was told by Joe Garone that some of the crew members had lost faith in Kenny's abilities behind the wheel which I think is laughable. Scott Wimmer didn't fare any better this weekend at Michigan - is he lacking in talent too? Fact is while talent levels vary among the drivers, a driver can only do the best with the car that they're given, and I don't think Kenny was given cars that were very competitive. I really doubt the results will improve much with Sterling Marlin or any other driver this team uses this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:18 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2007

Just Wondering...

We'll never know what happened between Teresa and Junior to cause things to be so difficult between them or why Teresa has made the decisions that she has regarding Junior, him leaving DEI and the #8, but I got to wondering about something. Just exactly how often does Junior hear "No, it's not possible." "No, I won't do it." or "No, you can't have what you want." Of course no one ever gets everything they want in life, but I'd guess that Junior doesn't hear "no" very often. That's what tends to happen when someone is wealthy, famous and is a person of influence as Junior is in Nascar as the sport's most popular driver. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Junior is surrounded by all "yes" men and women since Jade, his/Bud's PR person doesn't seem to shy away from giving his opinions, and his sister Kelley seems pretty head-strong, but a lot of times the people who surround someone like Junior are sometimes afraid to disagree with them, tell them that something's not a good idea, or simply say "no" because they're afraid of losing their friendship or job with that person. In addition, money makes almost anything possible and Junior certainly has plenty of money. So I can't help but wonder if on some level there's some issues with Teresa because she's someone who won't say "yes" to everything that Junior wants, and likely hasn't for his entire life. Of course I have no idea what the issues are between himself and Teresa, but I suspect that Junior, much like a lot of others in his position finds it particularly frustrating when he can't get his way, when he usually does with so much else.

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

Junior Not Too Pleased About Having to Get a New Number

Based on today's comments seems like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. might be in need of a whaambulance pretty soon. Okay, I exaggerate. In truth, I do understand to some degree why he's upset about not being able to continue to race the #8 since it's the only number he's ever raced in Cup plus his father and grandfather also raced using that number. However, I can't help but think of a saying that Michael Waltrip once used on Inside Nextel Cup which went something along the lines of how sometimes you "need to pull up your big girl panties and just deal with it!" Indeed, Junior needs to suck it up and deal with the fact that his step-mother isn't going to give him everything he wants. And if today's comments are any reflection on the way he treats her privately, maybe I can understand why.

Now to be clear, I think that blame for the way things have turned out between Teresa and Junior, along with his sister Kelley, is likely shared. Some fans think that Junior can do no wrong, so naturally all the fault must lie with Teresa, but through the years a lot has probably happened and both "sides" have likely made their share of mistakes.

That said, Junior's comments today make me roll my eyes. Let's look at a little of what he had to say...

"I'm not going to sit here and get personal about this. This personal stuff is way far away from the racetrack. It's upsetting as hell and unfortunate. But that's just what happens sometimes."

No, he's not going to get personal about it at all. Junior's cool, calm and collected, couldn't care less that Teresa won't be handing over the rights to the #8 to him. He's not upset one bit... oh wait. Yes, indeed sometimes life is upsetting. Sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to. It really sucks sometimes but as I said above sometimes you have to just deal with it... especially when you knew going into negotiations that it was unlikely that you were going to get the number.

"I kinda had an idea that we were going to come to this road and have to take a turn, and I knew this was the way it was going to happen. I am not really all that surprised. I knew I wasn't going to get the number a long time ago."

So then why exactly did they even enter into negotiations if they knew what the outcome was going to be? I hate to think things like this but part of me wonders whether Junior recognized an opportunity to make Teresa look bad and garner sympathy for himself?

"But she either feels too personal about the number, or the rift between me and her or whatever is too personal. I can totally understand if I was in her shoes, I would be inclined to probably keep the number myself."

He understands why she would be inclined to want to keep the number, yet he's "upset as hell" about not getting it? If Junior truly understands then he'd still be disappointed but seems to me he'd be more accepting and less upset.

Earnhardt Jr. said Teresa wanted part of licensing revenue and wanted the number back after he was done with Hendrick.

"Just ridiculous kind of requests," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We just wanted the number. I was willing to give the number back when I was done driving. I wouldn't have any use for it personally.

Hello! It's called a negotiation. It's business. Teresa had something of value that Junior wanted, did he think she would simply hand it over without getting anything in return? No matter what money was going to change hands if this was going to happen, seems to me that Teresa was being somewhat shrewd in asking for a percentage of licensing revenue, given how much that revenue was likely going to be.

"It meant that much to her, but I feel like it is an Earnhardt tradition because my grandfather and my dad [used] it a little bit, too."

I know that some thing that Teresa isn't a "real" Earnhardt, or that she's somehow lesser because she married into the Earnhardt family, but the reality is that like it or not, her last name is also Earhardt, the same name that's also a part of the name of the company she runs. Oh yeah, there's also the little part about how Junior's Dad was her husband. Seems to me those very same reasons why Junior wanted to take the #8 with him are reasons why Teresa has no obligation to hand the #8 over. Like it or not, whether her decisions are good ones or bad ones, Teresa is an Earnhardt, and is entitled to make decisions that relate to DEI, her late husband's legacy and the family - particularly when she has the legal right to do so, a right that was given to her by Dale Earnhardt.

"I knew that this was the way it was going to be. I just didn't have the guts to tell my fans because they were holding out and hoping it would work out. I just didn't have the guts to tell them that it was a waste of time hoping that it would happen."

Quite a few of Junior's fans worked pretty hard on the Free the 8 campaign, and there was a lot of noise made in general about how Junior should be allowed to take the #8 from DEI. Out of consideration to those people, seems to me that maybe he owned it to them to let them know that they might be wasting their time. Maybe they would have still done the petition, the website and everything else, but it doesn't sit quite right with me that he let his fans get their hopes up that he'd be allowed to take the #8 with him when he knew right from the start it wasn't going to happen.

"We're starting with such a clean page next year anyways. Maybe it's for the best. Maybe it's sort of a blessing in disguise to really make that kind of clean break because when I walked away from DEI, I wanted no ties whatsoever and if I was to get the 8 and allow Teresa to still have control over it, I would still have to deal with it. That is not what I wanted. I have to let it go."

If he wanted a clean break from DEI, why would he want to take the number that he raced with at DEI for so many years? Starting over completely is for the best for Junior in the long-run. He can make his mark in the sport separate from DEI, Teresa, his father and everything else that's hung over his head the entire time he's been in Nascar. He does need to let it go, but from the sounds of it, he's having a hard time doing so. If he was okay with not getting the #8, something he claims he knew was going to happen right from the start, then it seems to me Junior's comments might have been a little more along the lines of "I'm disappointed because of how much that number meant to me because my father and grandfather raced it, but it's time to move on with a new chapter of my life separate from DEI."

I think the other thing that gets me that everyone seems to be forgetting is that Nascar controls the numbers. Not Teresa, Junior, Rick Hendrick or anyone else. Nascar gave the rights to the #8 to Teresa, and will presumably let her renew those rights in 2008. Nascar isn't going to force Teresa to give up the #8, nor should she have to. I think the other thing that needs to be pointed out is that Teresa entered into negotiations with Junior so it's not as if she refused to even consider the idea of letting Junior use the #8 in the future. He just wasn't willing to pay her price.

It'll be interesting to see how things go for Junior in 2008 and beyond. He won't have his step-mother and their poor relationship to blame anymore if he doesn't get what he wants.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2007

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (8/17)

Although it was disappointing that Michael Waltrip Racing couldn't make it three weeks in a row with all three of their Cup teams in the show at Michigan, it was still a fairly good day for MWR as Michael and David Reutimann qualified extremely well for Sunday's race. Michael was the fastest of all the cars who needed to make it in on speed, qualifying 11th, and David qualified just behind him in 12th. That makes me really happy for both of them, and I'm optimistic that we'll see a repeat of the last time they raced at Michigan when Michael finished 10th and David 15th. Unfortunately Dale Jarrett DNQ'd, and I can't say I completely understand why DJ's team seems to be making less progress in relation to the other MWR teams. The thing is that when they make races DJ seems to be able to race fairly well when there's no mechanical issues, but qualifying really seems to be a problem for this team. Hopefully they'll find a way to make the race next week at Bristol when the #44 will carry a special paint scheme honoring UPS's 100th anniversary. DJ will have two chances to race at Bristol since he'll also be racing the #44 Busch car, also with that special paint scheme.

Speaking of DJ and UPS, some rumors have been making the rounds that DJ planned on retiring early, at the end of this season, and due to their unhappiness with the results this season, UPS was going to leave MWR before the end of their contract with that organization. I didn't think that rumor was likely to be true, but given how frustrating it must be for DJ to struggle on a weekly basis when he had raced competitively for most of his career, I thought there was some possibility that he might opt to retire earlier than planned, which could set other dominos in motion. However, if DJ planned on racing as expected through next season, I figured UPS wouldn't go anywhere either since it wouldn't make sense for them to leave now when it's likely they already have marketing, advertising and promotional plans in place for next season in conjunction with DJ's retirement. Why would they throw those out the window, and why would hey align themselves with another driver while DJ was still racing, which would open the door to some confusion among fans given how closely aligned DJ and UPS are? In fact, it appears that UPS isn't going anywhere and neither is DJ.

Today DJ emphatically stated that he's not retiring, and that UPS will be back next season. He said,

"I don't know where all this other stuff got started. Nobody came to me and asked me. As a matter of fact I was standing in a restaurant with some friends and a guy tapped me on the shoulder last week and said, 'I didn't realize you were retiring at the end of the year,' and I said: 'Well I didn't either. I've been on the golf course for two days, but I didn't realize things had changed quite that much.' I have no ideas of making any change, and I'm committed."

I think what really boggles my mind is that no one went to DJ and asked him about whether this rumor was true. How is that possible?! Racingone.com reported on August 8th that MWR was likely to lose UPS, drop to just two teams and that DJ would retire early. Pending a renewal of sponsorship for the #00, which is supposedly close to happening, none of that appears to be true. And Racingone.com should have done more homework before reporting that rumor. For one thing a few weeks ago, Michael said that he, DJ, NAPA and UPS are all set for 2008, and that he was 99.9% sure David would be back as long as they were able to re-sign the sponsors for the #00. Secondly, on the day this rumor was reported, MWR was having a sponsor summit which included participation by UPS, and one of the things they discussed was apparently plans for 2008 for all the sponsors. When contacted Ty Norris denied this rumor was true. Lastly, DJ himself has now denied there's any truth to the rumor. It seems to me that if Racingone.com had bothered to do even the most basic of fact-checking - picking up the phone and putting in a call to MWR or representatives from UPS or DJ, they would have known there was little to no truth to this rumor. But I guess that's the problem - reporting denials doesn't make for a very interesting story, whereas reporting a juicy rumor gets fans talking and gets some publicity for their site.

Seems to me that recently fans, websites and even some media members are reporting every wild rumor that comes their way without bothering to do any real legwork to find out if it's actually true or not. Just because someone in the garage area says that it's true, doesn't mean that it really is. When I was at Pocono, someone with one of the teams (not a MWR team) said that Nascar was going to suspend Robby Gordon for six races as a result of his actions in Montreal. Obviously that didn't happen. While people from teams talk, and there's clearly some rumors that do end up being true, there's just as many rumors that surely come from insiders in the garage area that aren't true. I've seen some fans say that someone from DEI or Gibbs or Hendrick told them this or that about another team so surely it must be true. Well, just exactly how is someone from Gibbs going to be privvy to all the inner workings at Roush and what happens at their internal meetings? Just because someone is in the garage area doesn't make them familiar with the thinking and plans of every driver or team owner. And of course, as I've said many times before, there's always the possibility that someone is spreading a rumor to suit an agenda, whether it be to make another organization or driver look bad, to gauge the reaction by fans and the media or to try to make something happen, or for countless other reasons.

I'm not against rumors, and I find it as interesting as anyone else to read about what might happen. But I think those that report the rumors (and I'm not talking about Jayski who usually just re-posts rumors from other media outlets and is quick to make corrections when necessary in most cases) have a responsibility to do proper fact-checking and sourcing of what they report (I know I must sound like a broken record).

What also irks me is because of some organizations and driver's less than stellar record when it comes to being candid about what's actually going on, there's a lot of fans who refuse to believe it when rumors are denied. Michael, Ty and DJ himself have all made statements that indicate there's no truth to racingone.com's rumor, yet there's still going to be some fans (I've see one already) who think that they're all lying to save face and that the rumor is actually true. It's true that there have been times when fans have been misled or when things have been denied that have later come to pass, but there's also just as many times when those denials are truthful. In addition, things change fast in this sport - what seems like a sure thing one day might fall apart the next, so sometimes what teams or drivers say is what they legitimately believe to be true at that time, but the situation may change down the road. I think Rick Hendrick's "no room at the inn" comment about Dale, Jr. is a good example of that. There's also times when teams or drivers aren't at liberty to reveal everything that's going on due to contracts, negotiations or legal issues. I just wish fans would sometimes take a step back sometimes and give teams and drivers the benefit of the doubt sometimes in relation to these denials. I'm sometimes guilty myself of being skeptical of denials and some teams or driver's statements, but the bottom line is that unless I'm sitting in on team meetings or have spoken to those involved in a situation, I don't truly know that these folks are liars, as some fans are convinced everyone they don't like in Nascar is. There's someone whose words I don't give much weight to anymore because that person flip-flops, and says one thing to one person, than another to someone else, but I try to remind myself, I don't truly know what's going on, and in the end I'm just a fan looking in from the outside.

Anyway, I'm hoping to see a great race for Michael and David on Sunday!

Posted by silverdsl at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)

John Blewett III Dies in Modified Wreck

Last night at Thompson International Speedway in Connecticut, Modified driver John Blewett III was killed in a wreck while racing for the lead during the New England Dodge Dealers 150. It's terrible enough when a driver dies as a result of a wreck in a race, but it's even more horrific that the wreck involved John's brother, Jimmy whose car ended up on top of his brother's. I feel awful for the Blewett family because this tragedy will be a hard one to deal with. I also feel for the 8,000 people in attendance who saw a sight that will be very hard to forget.

Like I discussed in a previous entry regarding the accident I saw on the way to Pocono a couple of weeks ago, John's death puts things into perspective. So Junior won't get to take the #8 with him to DEI, Steve Park still doesn't have a ride and Michael Waltrip Racing continues to struggle - all of those things and more are sad and disappointing to a degree, but at least Junior, Steve, Michael and others still have their health and the rest of their lives ahead of them. Incidents like this are why I never wish or cheer for a driver, even those I dislike, to wreck. In spite of all the safety advances the past few years, racing remains a dangerous sport.

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

August 16, 2007

New Number for Junior

DEI and Hendrick Motorsports failed to come to an agreement which would allow Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to take the #8 with him to Hendrick, so next season he'll have a new number. Most Junior fans are cursing Teresa Earnhardt and are horribly upset in general, which I can understand to a degree, but at the same time I think some of the reactions are extreme. After all, it's only a number. Sure, that's the only number that Junior has raced in Cup, but DEI is the only organization he's raced for in Cup until this point too. So to me it seems like it might not be such a bad thing for Junior to make a completely new start in 2008 - new organization, new sponsor and new number. Some fans feel that Teresa should have handed it over because Junior's grandfather, Ralph Earnhardt raced the #8 years ago, but maybe that's just as much reason for her to keep it. After all, DEI is Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

In some ways I suspect Junior, Kelley and Hendrick might not be so unhappy with the number change because it'll guarantee that there will be huge merchandise sales since fans will want to replace all their old #8 gear with new stuff. So changing numbers will generate a huge amount of revenue.

In the end Junior will race on and surely be successful no matter what number he races with.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2007

Hard to Believe It's Been More than a Year

Since Steve Park's raced in one of Nascar's three highest series that is. I didn't even realize it until I saw someone post about that on Steve Park Central. But it's true. Other than that Busch East race in September of last year, the last time Steve raced in Nascar was the Busch race at ORP on August 5, 2006. The results for Steve in that race, much like the results in just about every other Busch race last year were less than impressive as Steve finished 32nd. It's really hard to have much optimism that we'll be seeing Steve racing any time in the near future in Nascar again, and I don't care who has a problem with me thinking that. It's hard enough for veteran drivers to find rides, but even harder when they sit out for long periods of time.

Oh sure, Steve's talked this summer about a potential deal for a truck ride coming together late in the season or working with JR Motorsports, and I'd love to see that happen, but from what I understand when the right questions are asked he's been far more pessimistic about the chances of him racing this season. That Steve will only consider competitive rides that he can win in only complicates things since there's so few rides like that available, and younger drivers with better recent results, or those who can attract or bring sponsorship with them will likely be considered before Steve. As much as I hate to think it, and as much as I think Steve could still race up front and win in a good car or truck, I think there's a chance we've seen the last of Steve in Nascar unless he considers a lesser ride, and I certainly understand if he's not willing to do that at this point in his career.

Lately a few have taken to complaining about drivers buying rides, something Steve isn't willing to do, so he sits out while others get to race. Seems to me a driver funding a ride through a family connection, exchanging goods or services for a ride or bringing sponsorship with them - what Steve is looking to do for a truck ride - is all the same. In every case the drivers involved are doing what they need to do to find a ride and I see nothing wrong with any of it. The reality is that it's very expensive for teams to field cars or trucks, so they need drivers to act as partners with them to help keep the team going, especially if they want to be competitive. In addition, with how hard it is for drivers to find rides, they need to do whatever will make them more attractive to teams and sponsors. But the bottom line is that no team is going to put someone behind the wheel who has absolutely no talent, despite what some think. Bringing money or a sponsorship opens doors for some drivers, but they still need to produce to some degree to keep their ride.

It used to be that I was incredulous or upset when Steve was passed over for rides, now it barely registers because Steve's simply not a good fit for a lot of rides. He wouldn't consider racing for teams like the #49 or #78 in Cup that struggle to qualify for races let alone race competitively, and it's understandable when David Green gets selected to race for Red Horse Racing over Steve since David had been working with that team previously. Then there's all the issues about sponsors, age, results that teams are looking for etc... and the pieces just don't seem to fit for Steve with a lot of teams.

Hopefully things will change and a good ride will become available for Steve, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's raced his last Nascar race, at least as a full-time driver.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

Making it Official: Kyle Busch Signs with Gibbs

A lot of fans seem really up in arms about Kyle Busch signing with Joe Gibbs Racing, predicting that it's going to be a huge disaster, especially for Gibbs because most fans are predicting that Kyle will act out and clash with his teammates. Just exactly how is that any different from what goes on now at Gibbs? Every other week Tony Stewart is complaining about someone or something and his past is littered with incidents in which he's been unable to control his emotions. Plus, it wasn't long ago that Tony and Denny Hamlin wrecked each other, which resulted in Joe Gibbs having to fly in to smooth things over between the two drivers. Somehow I think Gibbs (both Joe and the organization) are going to handle Kyle just fine. Some fans feel that Kyle will be forced to remake himself now that he's joined Gibbs, but if that didn't happen while Kyle was a member of Hendrick Motorsports, where the environment is very corporate and proper, why would it happen now at Gibbs? I suspect that Gibbs is going to let Kyle have the freedom to be himself as they seem to do with their other drivers, and only reign him in when and if he gets himself into trouble, something I suspect he'll learn how to do less of as he matures and gets older.

Of course that Kyle signed with Gibbs leaves the question of who DEI is going to sign for the #8 since Kyle had long been rumored to be joining that organization. There's drivers like Scott Wimmer, Jeremy Mayfield and potentially a few others who are still signed to other organizations available, but their best choice might be a driver they already have a connection to due to the merger with Ginn Racing - Regan Smith. But that's if they have the #8 next season at all. Shocking, I know to imagine that they don't race the #8 next season but if Budweiser really leaves DEI that leaves them with a sponsor for that ride and Hendrick would certainly have interest in that number for Dale, Jr. So maybe DEI would end up tabling their dreams of having four teams, at least for a while. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

Another subplot to Kyle signing with Gibbs is whether that manufacturer will remain with Chevy or sign with Toyota as has been rumored for a while. I'm not convinced that's as much of a done deal as some think since it seems to me that there could be a bit of a negotiating ploy for Gibbs with Chevy at play here to ensure they get the best deal possible, but it also wouldn't suprise me if Toyota made Gibbs an offer they couldn't refuse. Given how disappointing the performance has been for the exisiting Toyota teams in Cup this season I can see how Toyota would want to add an established organization with some of the sport's best drivers to get improved results sooner rather than later, including some wins. However, I don't think adding Gibbs will ensure that Toyota gets those wins right away as it seems as if they have some engine issues that go beyond what the individual teams are doing that need to be solved. Signing Gibbs though could help solve those problems since Gibbs has a strong engine program that could boost Toyota's efforts in that area and as a result help some of the existing Toyota teams. I think it would also be good for Michael Waltrip Racing if they were no longer the face for Toyota in Cup since the spotlight would turn to Gibbs. Much better for MWR to be able to quietly built their organization into a competitive one without having to live up to expectations, answer questions and be under scrutiny all the time.

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

August 13, 2007

On Watkins Glen

I'm up in Cape Cod and we were exploring for part of the day on Sunday so I didn't see the whole race but a few quick thoughts on what I thought was a a pretty good race...

*Pretty weird how Tony Stewart ended up regaining the lead and going on to win via a spin by Jeff Gordon, which was exactly the way Tony had lost the lead in the first place. In the same spot no less! Strange how things work sometimes.

*I was a little surprised to see that Nascar apparently doesn't plan on penalizing either Kevin Harvick or Juan Pablo Montoya for their shoving match during the race. Maybe Nascar figures that two torn up race cars and poor finishes are punishment enough. I can understand why Kevin and JPM were both upset, and they're both hot heads so it's to be expected that things might get heated. Still, Kevin needs to keep better control of himself. Yes, I can understand he's pissed about getting wrecked, but JPM got punted by Martin Truex, Jr. Yes, it was because JPM was blocking. But there was no intent there. Yet Kevin blocked JPM, then got out of his car to confront him, and when JPM made it clear that he wanted no part of it, Kevin kept pressing. Later Kevin said he threatened to "kick his ass." Well, I don't like drivers threatening each other to begin with, but I think if that kind of thing is going to happen it should be reserved for when drivers deliberately get into each other or something of that nature. To me this was just a racing incident without any intent that Kevin over-reacted about because he made some assumptions before he saw a replay on the basis of JPM's reputation.

*After seeing all the signage for Toyota at this race, I would guess that's one reason Michael Waltrip Racing replaced David Reutimann with P.J. Jones and Michael replaced himself with Terry Labonte. If Toyota is spending a lot of money to advertise and/or sponsor the race naturally they're going to want as many of their cars in the race as possible, just like was surely the case at Somona where they sponsored the entire race.

*Speaking of MWR, the results were less than impressive and both the #44 and #55 seemed to be non-competitive for the majority of the race. The #00 on the other hand appeared to be halfway decent and towards the end of the race it seemed like P.J. Jones was on his way to a top 20 or better finish until he was punted by Kurt Busch who was anxious to make his way to the front. What impressed me is that after being spun P.J. was back in 34th or 35th place, but he still didn't give up even with just a few laps left. He was still able to race his way to a 25th place finish which isn't great, but was still best of all the MWR cars, and I believe also best of all the Toyota teams - pretty good for a driver who had just been spun.

*Due to Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s engine failure, and Kurt Busch's good finish, Kurt was able to gain a lot on Junior for the final spot on the Chase. Junior could still rally, but I'm thinking Nascar has to be pretty nervous right now that Junior might miss the Chase once again - will they further increase the number of drivers eligible for the Chase if Junior misses it this season? Thing is that Junior has had competitive cars most of the time but often it's wrecks and engine failures that have done him in - all things completely out of his hands.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2007

Photo of the Day - Michael Waltrip

Pocono, PA. August 5, 2007. Just keeping with the theme of this blog this week. Michael is awesome!!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:14 PM | Comments (0)

Race Day at Pocono!

No question the highlight of my weekend at Pocono was the time I spent with Michael Waltrip on Friday as I detailed in a previous entry. However, race day was unbelievably exciting as well!

Before I get into the details of our adventure on the track I have to mention something rather disturbing that we came across on our way to the track. While we were on Route 80 still in New Jersey we came across an extremely gory motorcycle accident that had just happened mere moments before so emergency personnel were just arriving. Needless to say what I saw was extremely upsetting though I'm happy to say that the person who was injured survived though I wasn't sure that was going to be the case based on his injuries. In spite of being pretty upset I had to put this accident out of my mind when we got to the track because it would be bad karma otherwise. But the reason I'm bringing this up is because it put some things in perspective, much of which I won't get into in this space because this is meant to be about the race. But some fans carry on when their favorite driver is wronged on the track or their season isn't going well as if it's the worst thing in the world. Well, what I saw was far worse than Nascar doing Robby Gordon wrong, Steve Park not having a ride, or the MWR teams struggling to make races. I get just as worked up as anyone else about some things but it was a good reminder that there's more important things in life than what happens on the track.

On to much more pleasant things, just as we had every other day we got to the track nice and early in an effort to avoid traffic and also be able to experience as much as we possibly could in the garage area. There was a different feel to the garage area on race day - if the teams were focused on the prior two days, they were even more focused on Sunday. But the two biggest differences was that the garage area was a lot more crowded with people and there were no drivers to be seen anywhere. Some fans think that race day is the best time to spot drivers in the garage area but that's when the drivers are usually the scarcest other than when they're going to the driver's meeting and to driver's introductions. Aside from wanting to avoid all the people who want a piece of them in the garage, most drivers have hospitality visits to make, sponsor guests to greet and merchandise trailer appearances to make. So the drivers do a lot of running around up until the driver's meeting, which is usually about an hour and a half before driver's introductions.

We had plenty of time before we had to be at the #55 hauler to meet up with Benito, Michael's motorcoach driver who was going to escort us to the driver's meeting. So Jim parked himself where he had spent most of the weekend - in a seat by the #00 hauler - and I wandered around the garage. Naturally I wandered past the #55 stall a few times. Some fans have voiced concern about the way the MWR teams have prepared for races given all the mechanical failures, but I saw with my own two eyes that they have check lists that they go through just like every other team. Those were attached to the #55 car and presumably every piece and part on that list was checked off before the car went through pre-race inspection and was pushed out onto the grid for the race. At one point someone who I presume was a TRD engine guy was working on the car, presumably testing and tuning the engine to be sure it was right. Unfortunately as it turned out that engine most certainly wasn't right and neither was that of the #44 or #00. But those issues don't appear to have anything to do with these teams slacking as I've seen a few fans speculate - they put in just as much hard work and effort as any other team in the garage.

Eventually I decided to go out on pit road and find out where the the #55 and #00 pits were located. I was very happy to find out they weren't too far from each other on pit road so I'd be able to go back and forth to take photos during the race. I neglected to mention in my entry about Saturday was that I ran into Danny and his brother, and enjoyed chatting with them for a while. Danny is a member of both Michael's forum and NYYFans.com. It was crazy enough to have seen both Ruth and Danny during the weekend out of the thousands of people who were at the track but I knew both of them were going to be there. Well, as I'm walking down pit road to go back to the garage, I run into two other people from NYYFans - Allybear and JP. I had no clue they were going to be there so that made it unbelievable that with so many people at the track I just happened to run into them. It was good to see Ruth, Danny, Allybear and JP in person since normally I just "talk" with them online.

So when I got back to the garage I started getting excited since it wasn't that long until I'd be seeing Michael again. I knew that I wouldn't likely be talking to him much, if at all, since it's so crazy for the drivers on race day that there's not much time for chatting. Plus, every driver, Michael included, is focused on one thing above all else - getting in their car and racing. Oh sure, they do hospitality and pose for photos and fulfill whatever obligations they have, but a piece of them is always elsewhere, with their cars. (This week's Nascar Scene coincidentally has a great article about this.) Still, in spite of knowing that I probably wouldn't get to interact with him much, not only was I excited, but nervous too!

I decided to make yet another trip to the Ladies's Room, and when I got back I made my first driver sighting of the day - Greg Biffle. Greg's hauler was next to David's and although I had seen him a few times the two days prior, I hadn't gotten too many decent photos of him, something I wanted to rectify since I had grown to like Greg a lot over the past year or so. Knowing that Jim had taken some photos of Greg while I was gone which made me happy - that was sweet of him considering he couldn't care less about Greg. Since Greg was still standing there posing for photos and signing autographs, I decided to do something I never do and approach him for an autograph, but by the time I had made my mind up to do it, he had walked off to talk with someone from his team and my opportunity was gone. Oh well, at least I got some good photos of him.

Before it got too late we decided we should have a bite to eat. I'm not sure what they do at other tracks, but at this track there's an area that appears to be sponsored by Weber Grills where breakfast and lunch is provided for the garage area. It's quite an impressive spread of food and good too! Some teams have grills and cook for themselves, but many of the teams seemed to take advantage of the food that was available there, as did Jim and I. We brought our food back to the #00 hauler where David's team was eating as well - this would be the last downtime they had for the rest of the day. While we were sitting there Josh Wise came by - I guess he had stuck around to watch the Cup race. After he was done eating I congratulated him on how good he did in the ARCA race the day before. Josh definitely has exactly the kind of attitude that every teams wants out of their young driver - he seemed to be having a hard time feeling good about finishing second because he was disappointed that he didn't win. Josh will be racing some more truck and ARCA races, and potentially a couple more Busch races. After meeting him there's no doubt in my mind he's going to be a huge success in Nascar one day, hopefully for MWR. First and foremost he's an extremely talented driver - that Tony Stewart personally picked Josh to race for him says a lot. But beyond that Josh is going to appeal to sponsors and fans. While he's somewhat quiet, he's extremely nice and well-spoken. Plus, he's very attractive and these days that does matter to sponsors. So he appears to be the complete package and hopefully he'll continue to develop as expected.

Finally it was time to go over to Michael's hauler to meet up with Benito for the driver's meeting. I knew I would be seeing Michael at some point but I figured that Michael and his PR person, Traci would head over to the meeting themselves and that Jim and I would go with Benito. Well, what I didn't realize was that the plan was for all of us to go together. So you can imagine my surprise when Michael comes out of his hauler! I really didn't expect to see him then except from a distance when I observed the driver's meeting. What really amazed me is that in spite of having to rush to the driver's meeting, Michael still took the time to say hi, ask how we were doing and pat me on the shoulder in greeting. I was so unprepared to see him that I could do little more than grin like an idiot, squeak something that resembled a "hi, I'm good!" and pat him in return on the only part of him that I could reach - his stomach. What the heck was I thinking there? That he was some kind of genie and I might have a wish come true if I rubbed his stomach? There wasn't much time to think about it because we all had to take off after Michael so we didn't get separated and/or knocked over in the crush of people outside where the driver's meeting was taking place.

Allow me to put this story on hold briefly so I can bring up something I've never understood - why the garage area is cold when the driver's meeting is taking place, and why Nascar allows such a large crowd to gather around where the meeting takes place. Sure, there's plenty of security and the meeting itself is roped off, but to get to the meeting the drivers have to navigate through a gauntlet of several hundred people all of whom want autographs, photos and in general are very pushy about it. Most drivers literally run to and from the meetings and some of the drivers like Junior need security to escort them past the crowd of people who gather. Some version of this plays out before and after every single driver's meeting, at every track on every race day, and I think it's ridiculous. While I understand that Nascar wants to let fans get as close as possible to the drivers, it seems to me that so close to the race the drivers shouldn't have to deal with people shoving things at them to sign. I've been inside to one driver's meeting and stood outside of two, including the one this past weekend, and I'm content to stand back and take photos of the drivers coming and going, but that's how I always am. I'll never chase a driver, but there's definitely plenty of fans who will, and even though the drivers must be used to it by now, it's something that makes me cringe when I see it happen - and it seems to happen a lot before and after the driver's meeting, particularly with the most popular drivers. I guess some people lose their heads when all the drivers are in one place.

Anyway, I had been told a few years ago that Michael's preference is to sit in the back at the driver's meetings and he must have expected that's where he's be sitting this time too because of where he initially entered the space where the meeting was taking place. I wonder what he thought when he discovered that Bobby Kennedy had taken a seat in the front row? For those that aren't familiar with what goes on at the driver's meeting, it's really not that exciting. Basically Nascar goes over the schedule, reviews important information that the drivers and crew chiefs need to know about the race and the track, they introduce any special guests and then there's a brief prayer. It's interesting to observe the drivers, all of whom are still in their street clothes as they interact with each other and then as they listen... or at least pretend to listen since a lot of what's said they've heard many times before.

Before the meeting started Michael went over to chat with some of the people from Directv Hotpass who were standing at the front. It looked like he was talking to Rick Allen and Phil Parsons (are those two ever seen separately?) but my view was partially blocked so it was hard to say for sure. Those who have seen my photos will have seen that I took a couple of photos at the driver's meeting but I don't feel that it's really an appropriate time to take photos once the drivers are seated for the meeting so I just took a couple of quick shots of Michael and then a shot of the entire room before the meeting really got underway.

Like I said above the driver's meetings are pretty tame, but something really caught my eye during this particular driver's meeting. I had debated whether I was even going to share this because it'll probably make sound a little strange, but it happened and it's my blog so here goes. As everyone knows Kurt Busch won on Sunday in most dominating fashion and it didn't surprise me at all. At one point during the driver's meeting I looked at Kurt and somehow I just knew he was going to win. Before I explain, let me just back up a little and say that Kurt had caught my eye at other times during the weekend too. Whenever I saw him he seemed incredibly focused and determined. That's true of a lot of the drivers, but there was something about Kurt that made me think he was "in the zone" as they sometimes say about athletes in other sports where they're locked in and everything falls into place for them to perform to the best of their abilities and have a really good game. Still, until the driver's meeting I wasn't thinking about him as the possible winner of this race.

As most probably know immediately following the driver's meeting there's chapel for those drivers and crew chiefs who wish to attend. But towards the end of the driver's meeting there's a brief silent prayer that everyone takes part in. Throughout much of the meeting for some reason other than Michael I had been very drawn towards looking over at the Busch brothers who were sitting next to each other fairly close to where I was standing. So during the silent prayer I looked over at them again and I saw them both extremely deep in prayer, and to me, even though I'm not religious, that image of the two bothers standing there prayer was very moving to me. It was something that went beyond racing because in that moment they weren't two race car drivers that a lot of people don't like but simply two people lost in prayer and their own thoughts. I wondered to myself in light of them standing next to each other whether they were praying not just for themselves but for a safe race for each other as well. And In that moment as I observed Kurt and Kyle, I had an overwhelming feeling that Kurt was going to win that day. Of all the drivers in the room, I just felt that it was Kurt's day - and it was.

Now some are probably wondering whether I took a photo of Kurt and Kyle since I was so intrigued by watching them, and the answer is that no, I didn't. I'll take photos of pretty much anything but there's a few instances when I put my camera down. I'll never take photos of the drivers in prayer as Kyle and Kurt were because I think when the driver's are praying it's a personal moment and to photograph them would be intrusive. I also won't take pictures inside their motorcoaches because I feel that's their home at the track and it's not appropriate. And I also avoid taking photos of children who aren't the drivers own kids who have been photographed many times before. I'm also not big on taking photos of the driver's significant others. If a wife or girlfriend happens to be with a driver I'll take a picture, but I don't seek out the significant others to take photos as some do because I feel they deserve a little privacy. Besides that, as I've said before while I enjoy a good piece of gossip as much as the next person, I also believe that what happens in the driver's personal lives is really their business and not mine.

Anyway, after the meeting ended Michael went his way (presumably back to his motorcoach - no, he didn't stay for the Chapel service) and we went ours. After a while I decided that I wanted to head to pit road to where the drivers introductions were going to take place to stake out a good spot for taking photos. Well, after spending quite a bit of time in that spot, it turned out that I wasn't going to have to worry about having a good spot. After having dropped Michael off for the start of driver introductions Benito found us. Knowing of my love of photography he took me and Jim over the pit wall onto pit road, which at this point was restricted to media or those with teams, and led me over to where the "real" photographers were positioned to take photos of the drivers as they made their way off the stage. All I can say about that is - wow! I definitely owe Benito for that one! Technically I wasn't supposed to be there since it's really only supposed to be there as a mere fan, and security gave some other fans who were there a hard time, but I acted like I belonged and no one tried to chase me away - having a decent camera probably helped make it look like I was supposed to be there too.

So needless to say I had a great time taking photos of every driver in the field, Michael included. It was kind of amusing to watch the process of getting the drivers onto the humvees for the ride around the track since there was a lot of confusion. Usually at most tracks the drivers ride around two to a vehicle but for some reason at Pocono they decided it would be three drivers to a humvee which threw a lot of drivers off. In addition, they only had a handful of humvees so at times drivers had to wait for a humvees to discharge other drivers who had just gotten done with their trip around the track before they could get on. But that the drivers often had to pause to wait to get into their respective humvees or for their humvee to leave made for some great photo ops! When Michael got into his humvee, he sat facing me so I was able to get some great shots of him and best of all, when he spotted me taking photos, he smiled right at me - he's so good like that. Michael's very aware of what's going on around him. Sometimes it might seem like he's not but I don't think he misses much - he always seemed to be aware of when I was around even when I thought I had gone unnoticed.

Eventually the humvee with MIchael, DJ, Ward Burton and Ward's son left, so I concentrated on taking photos of the rest of the drivers. Most of the drivers ignored all the photographers who were assembled which was a common theme the majority of the weekend - the drivers often don't blink an eye or acknowledge the many cameras that sometimes surround them. There were a couple of drivers at driver introductions like Jeff Burton and David who were good about pausing and looking in the right direction to make sure that the photographers got the photos they needed. What was humorous to me is that on Friday David had joked with us just before he did an interview about making sure the bottle of water he was drinking was facing out, and how maybe Coke should sign him. So during driver introductions I look over at David and sure enough he's making sure that bottle of water is facing label side out - well done David!

After Michael got done riding around the track I figured he was just going to go by the car, but as it turned out he had an interview to do with Jimmy Spencer for Speed. When Michael had got on the humvee he was all smiles, but when he got off he looked dead-serious. I don't know if that was because he was starting to get his game face on and he was ready to race or because he wasn't really all that thrilled about doing an interview at that time. But it was pretty interesting to watch Michael stand there completely serious, and then once the camera went on, how he switched into his TV persona that we all know so well. I think most of his fans know that TV persona is just one side of him but some fans seem to think that's all he's about which is very far from the truth. One thing about Michael that I noticed then and at other times during the weekend is that he's an incredible presence. He has a way about him that draws attention. He's got a tremendous amount of personality and charisma. When he's focused and serious he can seem extremely intimidating and when he's in good spirits that big smile of his is infectious. That way of his is a big asset to him in a sport where image and the ability to promote and gain exposure for sponsors and one's self is so important.

While Michael was still doing the interview we made our way over to the car and Michael soon joined us as did Ty Norris and his family. By this time I sensed that Michael was getting anxious to race - most of the drivers become a bundle of emotions and nerves (at least inwardly) just before the race starts but I imagine it's even more so for Michael since he's missed so many races this season and he had just sat out the week before at Indy. At one point he started to wander away, maybe to go down to where the #00 was but he quickly came back, probably remembering he had to take photos with us and a few other MWR guests by the car. When it came time to take the photo we went over to him and much to my embarrassment my husband decides while we're posing with Mcihael for the photo to bust out with "Gee Michael it looks like you could use a haircut!" To which Michael responded "I did it myself!" Not knowing what to say, I said "I like it long!" while internally I was cringing thinking that Michael wasn't going to be too happy to have his hair commented on and that the photo might not come out too good as a result. Well, as it turned out Michael apparently didn't mind because he had what appears to be a genuine smile on his face so maybe my husband made him laugh.

Afterwards we all came around to the other side of the car to wait for the National Anthem and the rest of the pre-race ceremonies to take place. On TV it probably seems like all of this happens very fast but it seemed like we were standing there forever! During this time Michael talked a little with Ty and his wife, but mostly with Ty's kids. I hung back and didn't try to talk to Michael because I felt just before he was getting into the car was a time for him to chat with those he was most comfortable with as opposed to fans who are pretty much strangers to him. At one point DJ came over to talk with Ty and his kids - if you see the photo in this week's Nascar Scene of Ty and DJ, the two people standing behind them that are partially blocked are Jim and I. Just before the pre-race ceremonies started some folks who were presumably from MRO come over to pray with Michael.

Eventually the pre-race ceremonies started and this too seemed to take forever - and if it felt like forever to me, I can only imagine how impossibly long it felt to the drivers. What was funny was that when they did the flyover, all of us turned around literally for less than five seconds to see it and when we turned back Michael had vanished! In those few second he had gotten into the car which was a sign to me of just how anxious he was to race! Once Michael got in the car Ty and his family vanished rather quickly as well - I saw Ty a number of times during the weekend but other than a brief exchange of smiles I never talked to him. He was pretty focused much of the time I saw him as well and that's to be expected considering he had three teams plus a development driver to be concerned with.

I took a photo or two of the crew members helping Michael get set in the car, and noticing what I doing once again Benito got me in the perfect spot for photo taking - where he was standing there was a clear view right into the car, so I was able to see and take photos of Michael getting ready to race. I have to say that watching that was one of the coolest things I saw all weekend. When a driver is strapped into their car that's where they go to work, their private sanctuary away from everyone and everything, and it's the center of all that happens in a race. To the drivers and teams the process of putting on the helmet and everything else they do at that time is probably very mundane but I felt very privileged to see something that not everyone gets to see from up close. It's hard to fully describe but I had been really interested all weekend whenever I was able to get a good look at the drivers inside their cars. As a mere fan I couldn't approach the cars as closely as the credentialed photographers could but I tried my best to get some shots when I could of the drivers sitting in their cars. Someday I'd love to do a whole series of photographs specifically of the drivers in their cars - getting ready to race or just for practice and qualifying. I'll likely never have the necessary access but seeing the drivers at that time is fascinating to me.

If there's one thing I could do over it would be at this moment - I couldn't see completely clearly into the car when I was taking photos because it was so sunny outside and so comparatively dark inside the car. Well, when I looked at my photos afterwards I saw that in the last photo I had taken of Michael inside the car, after he put his helmet on, his visor is up and he appears to be looking over at us - I wish that I had noticed that then and given him a smile or a thumb's up or something, particularly since there was no one else by the car other than his employees to wish him well before the race.

Then came the next incredible moment - being on pit road when the command to "start your engines" rang out. Most people had already walked off of pit road but we had to wait for Traci who was going to led us to the #55 pit. So we were standing there when 43 cars started their engines - wow! That was amazing! The sound! The feeling! I had been close to a number of individual cars during the practices that were running but there's nothing like the sound of 43 cars going all at once!

After that we quickly made our way to the #55 pit. Some might think that watching a race from the pits is the coolest thing ever - and it's definitely awesome to watch the teams perform pit stops. However, it's impossible to see much of what's happening on the track except when the cars pass right in front of the pits. Luckily there was a big Nextel Vision screen (or whatever they call it) nearby that I could watch, and of course I was also listening to the #55 teams's radio communications over the scanner but the vast majority of time I had no clue what was going on in the race unless something was said over the scanner. The other problem, at least at Pocono, is that the area behind the pits, at least on the section where Michael's pit was located was extremely narrow, which is probably one reason all three MWR teams ended up in that section because qualifying towards the back gave them poor pit selection. It was hard to find a place to stand where I would be out of the way so I tried to be very conscious of what was going on at all times so I didn't get in anyone's way.

There's another section of pit road that's wider where many of the better teams were located and when we took a walk down into that area I can see why they picked to pit in that area since there was much more room to spread out. What's unfortunate is that some teams have had to resort to chaining off their pit areas so that fans don't wander in and get in the way during pit stops. I saw that happen a few years ago at Dover to Junior's team - during a couple of his pit stops fans were literally leaning over the shoulders of Junior's crew to take pictures as the crew were going over the wall to service the car. Security and Junior's PR person had to chase them away, and it's pretty clear from those chains that Junior's team isn't the only one to have experienced that problem. It really boogles my mind that there are some fans who don't understand that they need to stay out of the way and let the crew have room to work.

Anyway, I won't bother to recap the entire race because everyone knows what happened by now with the flat tires and all. It was pretty interesting to watch what happened when Michael got those flats. As soon as the tire came off the car there were multiple people clustered around gathering data and trying to figure out what had happened, not just from the team but also from TRD, Goodyear and Nascar. Even members of other teams, MWR and otherwise, came by to take a look. Some fans seem to think that a crew chief pulls decisions about changes to make to the car or strategy out of thin air or only based on the driver's input but that's definitely not the case. Not only are there over-the-wall members of the team in the pit but there's also a variety of others such as tire specialists, car chiefs, etc... who are gathering data and consulting with the crew chief. One thing's for sure - from the biggest team with the most resources to the smallest team that struggles to make races, they all work extremely hard to try to ensure the best result possible.

Once it became clear that it wasn't going to be a good race for the MWR teams Jim and I decided that we would leave with about 40 laps to go. I know that some people think that makes me a bad fan that I left the race early but I had to be considerate of my husband who at this point had been at the track for a significantly longer period of time than any non-Nascar fan would want to be. He wanted to leave early enough to avoid the worst of the traffic and I had agreed that unless there was a MWR team in line for a top finish that's what we would do. In retrospect I'm glad we left then because I would have been upset had I been there when Michael's engine expired with just a few laps to go. As we made our way out, we walked through the garage area which was now almost completely empty of people. All the teams had their haulers prepared to load the cars up after the race, and I felt kind of sad that my weekend at the track was now over.

Being at the track and experiencing all I did really reaffirmed my love of Nascar and for being a fan of Michael. I'm not going to pretend - there were issues last time we were at the track for our Waltrip Challenge experience but things went much better this time for sure! I'm very grateful to Michael for taking the time just after he had woken up when he would probably have rather just be left alone to meet with us on Friday. In some ways he was obligated to meet with us, particularly in light of what had happened last time and afterward, but as I had been told more than once - Michael does what he wants. So I had been concerned about what his demeanor with us might be or that somehow we wouldn't end up seeing him. But we did and he was terrific! We very much enjoyed talking to Michael and he was just as nice as he's always been to us in the past. In addition, Michael made an effort to acknowledge me every time he saw me the rest of the weekend, something other drivers probably wouldn't have bothered with. That made me very happy that he took the time to do that. Both Jim and I agree that Michael is a good person and it's a shame that things have been so difficult for him this season - I hope that he gets the right people and pieces in place to make Michael Waltrip Racing successful in Cup and overall as soon as possible.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:51 AM | Comments (3)

August 09, 2007

Saturday at Pocono

All that was on the schedule as far as the Cup Series went at Pocono was the two morning practices before the ARCA race but we made the trip to the track anyway. Although I had been in the garage area for qualifying before, Friday was the first time I had been in the garage for practice and I found it really interesting to watch the drivers and teams at work. So I wanted to experience it again on Saturday. As soon as we walked into the garage area I saw a few different drivers such as Jeremy Mayfield, David Regan and Bobby Labonte.

One hint for anyone who has garage passes is to get to the track as early as possible each day. The less crowded the garage area is the more visible the drivers are because they aren't as afraid they're going to get swarmed by people wanting autographs and photos. So there were a lot of drivers standing around prior to the first practice because there apparently weren't all that many fans who were willing to get up to be there for a 9 a.m practice on Saturday. As more and more people turned up as the day went along the drivers got less and less visible and reverted back to some of their stealth techniques for moving around without being noticed.

One driver who had been completely invisible on Friday was Dale Jarrett. I've never been a big fan of DJ's and even after he joined MWR I haven't really warmed to him, even after meeting him last year. But I still wanted to get a few photos of him if I could just so I had some of each of the MWR drivers. So I was happy when I spotted him walking from his hauler to his pit stall and I was able to get a few decent photos. After I saw DJ I wanted to find out where Michael's pit stall was located because it has been moved from where it was Friday due to additional space having opened up because of the teams that went home. Much to my dismay I discovered that the #55 was now on the other side of the garage which meant I wasn't going to be able to stand there and watch them at work and take photos once the practice started. The reason being that on that side the cars come in and out a lot quicker than they do on the other side because there's far fewer people, and Michael's stall was in a particularly bad spot so if I found a place to stand, I'd probably be stuck there all practice and I would rather have the freedom to wander around. Plus I didn't want to feel like a stalker standing there watching just them the whole time!

When I made my way back around to the side of the garage where all the haulers were I noticed a very rare sight - Junior standing out in the open in the middle of the garage with Tony Eury, Jr. talking to Mike Helton. Junior is almost never spotted in the garage unless it's (literally) running from place to place. The reason being that he's almost instantly swarmed by people who want a piece of him and sometimes they get so excited at seeing him that they forget how to behave appropriately. Yes, even in the garage. But I guess because it was so early in the morning he felt more comfortable standing in the open, though it didn't take long for a crowd of photographers and fans to gather. I quickly took a few photos and then backed off because I didn't want to be part of that crowd.

By now those of you who are still reading might have noticed I haven't mentioned my husband much. That's because he's not a Nascar fan. Although he enjoys being in the garage area and seeing the sights, there's really only one thing that Jim likes about Nascar, and that's Michael who he thinks is a good guy. Otherwise he was pretty much just along for the ride. Since it was so hot out Jim spent the majority of the weekend when we didn't have to be somewhere in the shade by the #00 hauler. It should be mentioned that the #00 team was very nice to us - they're definitely a friendly bunch of guys. I'm very appreciative not only of how nice they were to us, but also that they let us take as much water and powerade as we wanted from their stash which was a very good thing otherwise I would probably have passed out due to the heat.

First practice was pretty uneventful. At one point Josh Wise went up on the #00 hauler to watch some of practice, probably in the hopes it would help him in the ARCA race later on. After that practice ended David Reutimann headed out to catch a flight to Montreal. I had figured they were going to just not have the #00 take part in the second practice since the driver who often steps in for MWR when they need an extra set of helping hands, Mark Green was already up in Montreal. But as it turned out Kenny Wallace, who had failed to qualify for the Cup race in the #78, was going to practice the #00. That came about because some of those around Kenny being aware of what a hard time he's been having recently due to missing so many races having encouraged him to approach Michael about practicing the #00 so Kenny could feel useful and involved, as opposed to just sitting around while Cup practice was going on thinking about how much he wished he was a part of it. Once Michael agreed there was apparently a bit of a scramble to get Kenny's firesuit since the #78 hauler had already left the track - from what I understand Kenny's motorcoach driver drove down to meet the hauler somewhere and get Kenny's firesuit.

On Friday I had seen Kenny heading to qualifying and he looked very serious and worried, with good reason as it turned out. From where I had been standing it had seemed like his team had trouble making it through pre-qualifying inspection, then from what I understand they also had some issues out on the grid, and Kenny ended up DNQ'ing. Kenny's only raced in nine Cup races this season, the last being a month ago at Daytona. Just like with Michael, some think that due to Kenny's fun-loving TV persona that he's not all that serious about racing, but that couldn't be further from the truth for both Kenny and Michael. I've seen both of their serious sides, and both men are just as passionate, competitive and focused when it comes to racing as any other driver. So I feel very bad for Kenny that his team has been struggling so much. The big problem for that team is that they don't have as much resources as the larger teams have so it's harder for them to make the necessary improvements to keep up with some of the other go-or-go-home teams that seem to have stepped things up lately.

Something that I think is important to mention is in relation to Michael and his team that relates to the way people perceive him as I mentioned above. Michael's been criticized a lot because some feel that he has too many outside distractions and that it takes away from time he should be spending with his team trying to improve. Granted there wasn't a truck race this weekend that Michael had to be in the booth for, but I spent a lot of time observing Michael and his team and I can say that he puts as much time in as any other driver does when it comes to working with his team. Michael spent time before and after practices talking things over with them, and he was 100% serious and focused whenever I saw him during all three practices. Some seem to think that the way Michael is on TV - goofy, carefree, constantly plugging his sponsors, etc... is the way he is at all times, but that's not the case. And for those who would say, well, it's great that Michael was working with his other teams, but he's also an owner so he should have been working with his other teams as well - Ty Norris was there all weekend. As general manager it's his responsibility to take care of things with all three teams.

A the end of the second practice it was another good opportunity to get some shots of some of the drivers walking around the garage area though most of them were pretty hasty in making their way to their haulers or to the motorcoach lot since the garage area was a lot more crowded than it had been earlier. Jim and I went to get some food and when we got back I spotted Michael as did a number of other people. Because I had just seen him the day before and I knew I'd be seeing him the following day, I kind of hung back and just took some photos instead of trying to talk to him or anything, partially because of my reluctance to be a part of the swarm for Michael or any driver. Michael was really good about signing autographs for everyone who wanted one as he walked through the garage area - where his hauler was he could have opted to get back to the motorcoach lot via the alternate route and avoid all the fans, but instead he walked from one end to the other signing as he went, in spite of how clearly overheated he was from having just been in the car. Maybe it's because he's not raced as many full races as many of the other drivers or because he's a lot bigger than the majority of drivers but it seemed like the heat was effecting Michael a lot more than some others - he looked like he was sweating buckets and had a cool towel around his neck, whereas a lot of other other driver seemed unaffected by the heat.

Speaking of the size of the drivers, one thing I had noticed when we were at Pocono in June that I noticed again this weekend is that the drivers seem to be getting smaller and smaller. Of course there were always a lot of short and thin drivers so the bigger drivers like Michael, DJ and Elliott Sadler really stick out like sore thumbs. But it seems like even the drivers who are average sized are losing weight and getting tinier. So many of the drivers looked like a stiff gust of wind would blow them over. Yeah, I know, I'm one to talk since I'm so tiny myself, but it just seems abnormal for men to be that small. A lot of female fans seem to find those tiny drivers very attractive, but I find it kind of gross how small some of them are. Michael talked in a recent interview about how he's gained 25 pounds since 2005, the last time he ran a marathon, and how he wanted to get himself into shape again to run another marathon. Part of me wonders if Michael who I thought looked terrific, would be so conscious of that weight gain if he wasn't surrounded by so many others who are so dramatically smaller than he is. It's not just the drivers who are small either - there really aren't many who are over-weight, even by a little bit in the garage area.

Anyway, back to Saturday, I would have loved to watch the ARCA race to see Josh Wise race but I was having so much trouble with the heat that there was no way that I was going to be able to spend any more time in the hot sun. So we ended up watching some of Busch qualifying from Montreal somewhere air conditioned with David's motorcoach driver, who is extremely nice and quite a character (in a good way), and his cousin. Which wrapped up another fun day at the track. As we left I was getting excited already for the following day - race day!

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

August 08, 2007

Photo of the Day - #55

This is one of my favorite photos that I took all weekend that doesn't involve a driver. There's something about the way the car fills the whole frame that draws me in, and I feel like the car is advancing, almost as if it's going to jump right out of the photo. The colors are very vivid too, but that was true of all the cars.

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

Michael Waltrip's New NAPA Commerical

Due to missing the last two races because of a family event and being at the track in person instead of at home watching on TV, I've missed seeing Michael Waltrip's new commericals for NAPA. But based on what I've heard they sound absolutely hysterical! I dearly wish they were available on Youtube, but as of yet no one's uploaded them. For those that aren't familiar with the commercials Michael sits down to read what he thinks is fan mail, only to find out it's mail from fans, but not of the supportive kind. There's apparently two versions of the commericals with lines such as (paraphrasing) "No, they did not give me the car of yesterday by mistake," "Yes, I checked. The parking brake isn't on." and "My head is still attached thank you for asking."

I think these commercials are absolutely brilliant! Instead of doing what a lot of sponsors, drivers and teams would want to do when things get tough and gloss over or ignore the problems, Michael and NAPA are acknowledging how tough this season's been and making light of it. Talk about turning a negative into a positive! Even fans who don't like Michael too much think these commercials are hilarious. Not only are people watching when they air, but they're also talking about them on fan forums, in blogs such as this one and with each other. There's no doubt that they've got a big hit on their hands - people are definitely paying attention to them, and that should make NAPA very happy!

Michael constantly amazes me. These commercials might have been created and written by someone else, but somehow Michael is always involving himself in things that are innovative, fresh, creative, and when it comes to commercials, often very humorous too. Michael has a tremendous amount of ideas, so many that I think it's sometimes hard for his people to keep up with him and he's very forward thinking as well. He doesn't seem to dwell on the failures of the past, instead he's very optimistic about the future (at least outwardly), and that attitude is probably part of why he felt so comfortable doing these commercials.

Michael also really has a gift when it comes to his TV persona. He has a way about him in these commercials and on the TV shows that he does that's very appealing. But what's also always been interesting to me is that even the people who claim they don't like Michael pay attention to what he says and does. He has such a presence and such a way about him that draws people in. Add into that his ability to find creative ways to get his sponsors exposure, plus the fact that he's a great person, and it's clear why they're all sticking with him.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:12 PM | Comments (0)

Jeremy Mayfield to be Released at Season's End

Bill Davis Racing announced today that Jeremy Mayfield will be released at the end of the season, and while usually a driver getting released is bad news for that driver, I have to think that Jeremy has to be really happy about being set free from a really bad situation. Not only has BDR struggled to give him cars that can qualify for races let alone be competitive during races, but there's a considerable amount of issues with the sponsor of the #36 car, 360OTC. In fact BDR alluded to those sponsorship issues when announcing Jeremy's release. They said,

"We have had great support from Toyota on this endeavor, but it takes more than just manufacturer support to compete on this level. It takes a tremendous amount of additional sponsorship support that just did not materialize as we had anticipated."

Basically without an influx of money from a sponsor, it's really difficult for an organization to field a competitive car because there isn't the financial resources to pour into the team. BDR must be getting something from 360OTC since that sponsor hasn't been removed from the team (yet), but it's been rumored that Bill Davis accepted stock from 360OTC instead of actual cash. The big question in my mind is whether 360OTC will come up with the cash to stay on the car next season and whether they might end up off the car before the end of this season.

In addition, will Jeremy remain in the #36 through the end of the season? If BDR hopes to field two cars next season they might look to put Jeremy's replacement in the car over the last ten races of the season to allow that driver to gel with the team. However, if that team goes away completely due to a lack of sponsorship, I'd think they'd be likely to just leave Jeremy in the car. Regardless with this piece of news I doubt the results are going to get much better for this team in the second half of the season since at the very least they'll have a new driver and possibly their very existance is in question.

I have no doubt that Jeremy has been aware that he'd need to find a new ride for 2008 which is likely why his name has popped up in the rumor mill as of late, particularly in connection with the rumored 4th team at Richard Childress Racing. I'd say that just about any established organization he goes to would be better than BDR, simply because of the sponsor situation since virtually any other sponsor would likely be one that he'd be more comfortable representing. Some fans think very little of Jeremy and believe that he'll have trouble finding another ride, but I think his services will be very much in demand. Jeremy has shown he knows how to win, and just as importantly he's shown that he knows what it takes to make the Chase. So I expect he'll end up with a decent ride before too long.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2007

Pocono Day One

I don't really even know where to start!! So how about at the beginning? For those that don't know how this came about this was all in relation to winning an auction for The Waltrip Challenge. Some might remember I was at Pocono in June, that was when the original experience was supposed to take place, but when Michael DNQ'd that threw things into disarray, so this was a do-over. And I'm happy to say that it was a major success - we had an awesome time at the track this weekend! :) Michael was great to us, as was David, Josh Wise and others from MWR - we spent quite a bit of time with the #00 team and they were terrific! :)

Friday was practice and qualifying, but we got to the track well before any on-track activities started to avoid any potential traffic issues. Even though it was early, that didn't mean that there was nothing going on in the garage area - in spite of it being several hours before the first practice, the teams were already hard at work on the cars getting ready for inspection, and there were a number of drivers out and about. So we wandered around taking in the sights - of course it didn't take me long to find where the #55's stall was located!

Of course as it got closer and closer to when we were to meet with Michael, the more nervous I got. Benito, Michael's awesome motorcoach driver, took us back to the motorcoach lot, and between the heat and my nerves it was a wonder that Michael didn't find me collapsed on the ground when he finally came out to greet us! The last time I saw Michael was two years ago, and I figured he wouldn't remember me but apparently he did because he told me how good it was to see me again and gave me a hug. I had all these things prepared to say to him, but that made me completely speechless!!

So when I was able to talk, I gave him the messages and he said that yes, he looks forward to getting them each week. I asked him whether he got "101 Reasons the Wal-Nutz Love their Head Nut" and he said that he did, and that he liked it because it reminded him that "this" can be fun. I then gave him two things for good luck - a coin with an angel on it, and a rutilated quartz crystal. I figured he would like the coin better, but he seemed really fascinated by the crystal and asked me a number of questions about it.

Michael ended up putting both the coin and crystal in his pocket in the hopes it would bring him luck that day and that made me feel good that he seemed to like getting them. We got to talk to Michael for about 10 minutes or so about a variety of things, half of which I can't remember because I was so in awe, but I do remember asking him about how he designed the MWR logo, which led to some discussion about drawing and photography. (He used to draw a lot and doesn't do photography because he's too "anal" about making the photos be perfect.) there was some discussion about him being an owner, and I told him that I liked that he was doing something that would keep him involved in the sport for years to come, and he said that yes, he can't drive until he's 100, but he can own until then. I tried to avoid talking much about the teams and racing, but he brought up a couple of things on his own. I tried to be positive and complimentary which he seemed to appreciate, but it was clear that he's still feeling stress and pressure over the way things have been going for his teams. Overall Michael was in good spirits, but since it was a race weekend he wasn't fully relaxed because he had so many obligations ahead of him. Before I knew it, Michael had to go to tape something for Coke, but before he left he gave me another hug. :)

We went back to the garage area and walked around some more but before practice started Jim wanted to go find the merchandise hauler. When we walked towards the tunnel, we ended up running into Michael again just by sheer coincidence, as he was just finishing up the taping. There was quite a swarm of people who decended on Michael and he signed some autographs before Benito whisked him away on the cart. I ran into Ruth over there as well, and it was nice to finally meet her in person. :) Unfortunately we never ended up finding Michael's merchandise hauler because it wasn't there. Phyllis and Homer took the weekend off and apparently they couldn't find anyone to fill in. That probably cost Michael a lot of money in merchandise sales - I know Jim and I had planned on buying some stuff and surely others were as well.

Next up was practice, and I had fun taking photos of the drivers headed to their cars and then once they got in their cars, them waiting to go out to practice. Then it was time for us to meet Josh Wise. We walked over to the ARCA garage with Jennifer, David's PR woman, and discovered that Josh was a bit preoccupied because there was a brake problem on his car that needed to be addressed before their qualifying. I spoke with Josh briefly then, and than longer later in the weekend - he's much quieter than Michael or David, but he's also extremely nice. He also had a great attitude towards racing and he's extremely competitive - I have no doubt he's going to be very successful for MWR in the future.

After that we went back to the Cup garage to watch the rest of practice, and as you can tell from my photos, I wandered around some, but I mostly I staked out a spot near the #55 stall to watch them at work which was pretty interesting. Whenever Michael got out of his car he looked very intense and not all that happy so I was kind of concerned, but towards the end of practice I asked one of his crew members how things were going, and he said that they were second fastest of the go-or-go-homers so I felt better. When practice ended Michael walked back to his hauler and as he passed me by he had a big smile and a wave for me - he's really great when it comes to his fans, whenever he saw me all weekend he acknowledged me in some way. :)

What was interesting to observe in the garage area during the weekend was the drivers and how they moved around. Obviously there's fans who want their autograph, and the amount of fans increases as the weekend goes on. However, the drivers are there to work with their teams and sometimes if they stop to sign one autograph, they might get mobbed, yes, even in the garage area. So every driver seemed to have a strategy for being as stealth as possible when they didn't want to be bothered which usually involved trying to walk through areas where fans weren't.

That said, at one time or another I saw just about every single driver signing for fans, either in the garage area, in autograph alley or in the case of Junior on pit road during qualifying. Even the most popular drivers like Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson spent quite a bit of time signing for fans in autograph alley, and then Jeff signed many additional autographs as he walked back through the garage after qualifying. So if anyone complains that some driver or another doesn't sign autographs, odds are that person just didn't see them when they were signing because the drivers sign a lot, it's just a matter of catching them at the right time. The only exception might be Tony Stewart who I've never seen signing anything except items for charity.

Juan Pablo Montoya believe it or not, was actually one of the few drivers who didn't seem to bother trying to hide at all at any time, and he was also the only driver other than the MWR drivers that I interacted with. I guess because he saw a lot of me standing by the #00 hauler which was next to his, every time he saw me he said hi or smiled which was cool. The other thing about JPM is that there was media who wanted to interview him constantly, probably as much as Junior or Jeff Gordon. So unlike some other drivers that would agree to interviews whenever a reporter walked up to them, JPM would tell them to talk to his PR person first because there was no way he could agree to every interview because that's all he would end up doing all day.

Next up was qualifying. Early in the day I had every intention of bouncing back and forth between pit road and the garage area to take photos, but by that time the heat had really gotten to me and I wasn't feeling all that well in spite of downing a lot of water and powerade. So I knew I couldn't stand out in the sun on pit road so I stood in the shade in the garage and watched the teams and drivers go out for qualifying. It actually ended up being a good spot as I got some good photos of some of the drivers.

Eventually though as everyone knows the clouds started coming in so I went back in the garage area. Now I wasn't using my scanner so I had no idea what was going on with Michael or David. So when Benito walked by I asked him how Michael did and you can imagine my horror when he told me that Michael had brushed the wall. However, Benito must have been walking around away from a scanner or coverage of qualifying for a while because by the time I found Jim again he told me that in spite of the brush with the wall, Michael was now locked in... except that the rain was coming. We decided to sit by the #00 hauler until qualifying ended which ended up working out really well because we encountered David who had some interviews to do. Between interviews he chatted with us since he remembered us from last time. David is really awesome! He's so friendly and easy to talk to. I gave David the messages and he said that he really enjoys Cathy's cover sheets because they're always so funny. He was in a very good mood and joked around with us about living in New Jersey.

Once the rain came I really started freaking out because I was so worried that qualifying would get rained out. Even though it was just a brief rain shower, it seemed to take them a really long time to dry the track and there was more rain on the way. So I was really afraid that Michael would get bit by Mother Nature once again. I later found out that if I was freaking out, as you can imagine everyone with the team was ready to pull their hair out that they were so close to making it in but once again rain was an issue. Much to Jim's dismay I made him stay until qualifying got restarted and then finished just to be sure that Michael was in. I was thrilled for Michael when qualifying was over and he was in, but also excited for myself because I knew that they had some plans for me for race day if Michael made it in.

ETA: Just wanted to add a couple of things I've been thinking about...

When we were talking with Michael he made a comment about how he "thinks differently than other people and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing." I immediately said that I though it was a very good thing, and I do - I think one of the reasons why I like Michael so much, and it's likely true for Jim too is that we recognize that Michael is very creative, full of ideas and most of all, Michael marches to the beat of his own drummer. Jim and I also tend to think differently and see the world from a different point-of-view than many others around us. So we often like others who are unique and quirky and think differently as well. To us those things are very positive qualities. However, the garage area tends to be conservative. There's a lot of rules - some written and some just understood. There's accepted ways of doing things and those who buck the system, like Robby Gordon, sometimes stick out like a sore thumb. So thinking differently likely is a major asset to Michael because it allows him to be forward-thinking, take risks, be creative and be an innovator in the sport (Raceworld is a good example of this), it might also create problems for him as well. Not everyone in the garage area might be able to understand or relate to why he's doing certain things. But I admire Michael's courage for doing things his own way.

As I mentioned above we talked a little about drawing and photography - I bet a lot of people would never think that a Nascar driver would talk about stuff like that. But I've always been intrigued that Michael used to do a lot of drawing, and still sometimes does, as well as that he designed the MWR logo. That's so cool to me. And I've been wanting to ask him about whether he's ever done any photography for a long time because I think he's be very good at it - people who have an eye for design often take very good photos. But he said he get frustrated with taking photos because he wants them to come out perfect. Somehow I suspect his imperfect photos are far better than a lot of people's supposedly perfect photos! He also indicated that he would have trouble using a digital camera and remembering what he needed to do to take a good photo. That made me laugh inside because I have a great deal of trouble, likely because of my learning disability, remembering the rules of good photography. So a long time ago I decided I was just going to take photos the way I wanted, the way that felt right and forget most of the rules. It's worked out pretty good for me so far. A big problem I think Michael would have with photography is the size of the cameras. The trend is towards shrinking the cameras, and even the larger cameras like I use have tiny little buttons. With his big hands that's something that he might have difficulty with. Well, maybe someday MWR will have a camera sponsor like Canon or Olympus and they'll get him to use a camera for a promotion - it would be really interesting to see what kind of photos he would take.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:59 PM | Comments (2)

Photo of the Day - Pocono

August, 5, 2007. Pocono, PA. Yeah, it was a pretty good weekend. :)

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

Robby Gordon Gets Penalized

Since I was at Pocono this weekend I didn't get to do an entry about Robby Gordon's action in Montreal on Saturday, but believe me I've been giving it plenty of thought. Although Nascar parked Robby for Sunday's Cup race in response to his actions the day before, they penalized him further today by placing him on probation and fining him $35,000. At first I had thought that Robby got off easy but there's a stipulation to the probation that I think might be Nascar's harshest punishment of all. Nascar said,

"...if, during the remaining NASCAR events in 2007, there is another action by Gordon that is deemed by NASCAR officials as detrimental to stock-car racing or to NASCAR, or is disruptive to the orderly conduct of an event, he will be suspended indefinitely from NASCAR."

Why is that such a harsh punishment? Because over the course of his career, as evidenced by his actions this past weekend, and many other instances, Robby has shown an inability to keep his emotions under control, which usually leads to behavior that gets him into trouble. There's the helmet toss, deliberately causing a caution, ill-advised comments about Danica Patrick and so much more. What Nascar has forced Robby to do is either change his pattern of behavior or not race, possibly for a long time. As a result Robby might be forced to change his racing style to be less aggressive - spinning another competitior like what he did to Marcos Ambrose, regardless of what was done to him first, likely won't be tolerated. But Robby will also be forced to be careful in terms of his overall attitude and behavior - "actions detrimental to stock-car racing or Nascar" is extremely broad and Nascar can apply that (and often does) to virtually any situation where they feel there needs to be some sort of penalty. One way or another Robby will have to conform and accept Nascar's authority.

As for Robby's actions in Montreal, I think he was competely over-the-line. Yes, he had reason to be angry with Nascar. Good reason. But the fact of the matter is that Nascar is the governing body of the sport. If he doesn't feel like abiding by their directives and rules he can find another series to race in, and I think that's the message that Nascar is trying to send with the stipulation to the probation. Most of Robby's supporters are glossing over his actions after Nascar black-flagged him and are only concentrating on how unfair it was that Nascar wouldn't let him stay in second place on the re-start. But in my mind, it's Robby's actions afterwards that overshadow any mistakes that Nascar made.

As soon as Robby was told to get off the track for deliberately wrecking Ambrose - something Robby admitted to in an interview that was played on XM yesterday - he was obligated to comply. Robby claims that he felt he had to stay on the track and "win" so that if he appealed and won he would be declared the winner. Give me a break. There's no way Robby was going to win that appeal once he refused to get in line and then failed to comply with a Nascar directive to go to the garage. What's worse though is what Robby did after the race - his victory "celebration" with the burnouts and the show for the fans was an embarassment. That showed a complete lack of respect not only for Nascar, but also for Kevin Harvick, the real race winner, and Richard Childress, who happen to be Robby's former teammate and owner respectively. I think his antics displayed not only a lack of respect for everyone else around him but also an incredible selfishness because in that moment not only did Robby not care about Nascar, Kevin or Childress, he also didn't care about how his actions would effect his Cup team, his organization overall or his sponsors.

Robby was practically begging for Nascar to take action against him - and they did. I completely agree with Nascar suspending Robby for Pocono, and I would have fully agreed with them parking him for more races too. Regardless of how in the wrong Nascar might have been in relation to some of their calls against Robby, they are the governing body of the sport and they have to send a message that no competitor can ignore their rules or create a sideshow like Robby did, something which completely overshadowed not only Kevin's win but what should have been a feel-good story about how great the racing was in Nascar's first race in Montreal.

Many of Robby's fans think his behavior is wonderful because he's standing up to Nascar and making them look foolish. Most of them think that not only did Robby "win" the race in Montreal, but he also "won" some sort of battle against Nascar. I don't think so. In the long-term Robby's actions could be quite costly. For one thing it's never a wise idea to be on Nascar's bad side, and there's no doubt that those that run Nascar were furious with Robby. What if Robby needs their help with something down the road - they might not be so willing to help him out. But beyond that on Sirius yesterday morning there was some discussion about how some of Robby's sponsors aren't all that thrilled with his antics. While it's true that there's no such thing as bad publicity in many cases, that doesn't mean that sponsors condone bad behavior. At some point sponsors would rather that exposure comes from good results on the track or other more positive things rather than a driver constantly acting out. Plus, Robby already has some sponsorship issues - some sponsors may think twice about getting involved with him, which could be especially costly considering Robby wants to get a second Cup team going full-time. In addition, there's Robby's Cup team to consider - I think by getting himself parked, Robby really let them down. Perhaps that's what's most unfortunate of all to me - Robby doesn't seem to understand that he's not only a driver now, he's also an owner and that brings additional obligations and responsibilities.

So Robby's response is to put Ambrose in a second Cup car at The Glen. I suppose it's his way of making amends with Ambrose and also generating some additional PR. But part of me wonders if it's not an additional way of saying "screw you" to Nascar by doing something to ensure that this incident keeps getting talked about through next week. It seems that Robby's pattern is to screw up and them do something splashy to make up for it. In this instance he's giving Ambrose a ride, when he threw the helmet at Michael Waltrip, he ended up auctioning it up for charity. Those are nice gestures, but I think it's unfortunate that he's not just doing those things anyway as opposed to doing them because he needs to do damage control.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2007

Not Many Posts This Week...

Yeah, I haven't had much to say this week. Correction. I've had things to blog about but not really much time to actually getting around to doing it. Between stuff at work to do, not much free time at home and making preparations to go back to Pocono, blogging has come to a virtual standstill. Hopefully that'll change next week. In the meantime, as I mentioned I'm going to Pocono this weekend and hopefully things will go better than they did in June. Back then I was terribly disappointed by the way some things were handled and it left me very upset. Between now and then some kind people stepped in to try to help make things right and I'm hopeful that will happen starting tomorrow. If all goes well - and I don't melt in the extreme heat - I'll be back with some decent photos of cars and drivers.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)