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January 31, 2008

Craig Goess to Race for Eddie Sharp Racing in Camping World East Series

Because Steve Park is going to be racing in the Camping World East Series this season I've been trying to familiarize myself with the drivers that he'll be racing against which is no easy feat since there isn't much coverage of this series even online. But this morning I came across an article about Craig Goess, a talented Legends car driver who will be racing in the Camping World East Series this season and I think I have another driver besides Steve to cheer for in this series. Why? Craig will be racing a Toyota for Eddie Sharp Racing, an organization that Michael Waltrip Racing has an affiliation with. Although ESR also gets help from Chip Ganassi Racing on their Dodge program, I would assume that MWR assists with any of the Toyotas that ESR fields. So in a roundabout way, Craig also has a connection to MWR and I support anything or anyone that Michael and MWR is involved with. Craig won an astonishing 40 of the 48 Legends races that he entered the last three years so it appears he has some talent behind the wheel.

Eddie Sharp Racing will also be fielding Toyotas in the ARCA Series for Scott Speed and Ken Butler, III, the later of which I assume is still in the MWR driver development program. I'm a little disappointed that Josh Wise won't be racing for ESR at all like he did last season, but I would guess that the same problem that's MWR from getting him a Nationwide ride is the same issue in ARCA - a lack of sponsorship. Scott has sponsorship from Red Bull and Ken has sponsorship from Aaron's. I don't watch as many ARCA races as I do Cup, Truck and Nationwide races, but I do like to watch them when I can, and it's always fun to have some drivers to cheer for.

Many fans seem to resent young drivers, even those with a lot of talent, because they take rides that could be filled by veteran drivers. Personally, I find new talent very exciting - I really enjoy watching drivers progress and seeing which ones become successful and which ones don't. A driver that I cheer for when they start out as a nobody on a lower level could turn into a superstar who wins a lot of races in Cup - or not. Either way it's fun to watch them race and wonder at what their potential might be.

Joe Gibbs Racing will have Marc Davis in a Camping World East car, and Paul Andrews, Michael Waltrip's crew chief on the #55, said in an interview on XM that his son, Tim, might race some Camping World East races again if they have the funding to make it happen. So those are two other drivers that I will be paying attention to as well in the Camping World East Series.

I suppose that some of my fellow Steve Park fans would whip out that "bad fan" label at the mere thought of me cheering for another driver in a race that Steve's in. Make no mistake, I will be cheering for Steve and hoping that he has a lot of success this season. But that doesn't mean that I can't wish well for other drivers too. Steve isn't going to win every race he's in this season - it might not be easy to win even won race since the talent level in this series is probably greater than some people think - so if he's not going to win it would be good to see other drivers that I like or who have caught my eye in Victory Lane.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2008

Photo of the Day - Peter Sheilds Inn

Peter Shields Inn, Cape May, NJ, Sept. 2005.

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

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (1/30)

Testing at Las Vegas for the Cup teams concluded yesterday and I'm happy to say that things continued to look good for Michael Waltrip Racing, at least in comparison to where they were last year. David Reutimann was the fastest of the MWR cars, with enough speed to be 11th on the cumulative speed charts. Michael was 18th, Dale Jarrett 20th and Michael McDowell 28th. I'm sure that MWR would have have liked to have been as high on the speed charts as they were at Daytona, but they have to feel good about not being at the bottom of the speed charts like they were last year at this test. I haven't really heard much about how MWR thinks this test went for them - and most times teams will say they had a good test even if they didn't - but I think they should feel pretty good about where they are.

Unfortunately the test didn't go completely as Michael (Waltrip) might have wanted it to. With just a half hour left in the test, Michael wrecked one of his cars due to a mechanical failure. Had it been earlier in the test it might not have been a big deal because MWR could have swapped that car out for another one, but with the California test starting tomorrow, there's not enough time so Michael will head to the California test with just one car. He'll be in good company though since several other drivers also wrecked cars yesterday as well.

As noted, Michael McDowell tested a fourth car for MWR, the #32. I have to wonder if this means that McD will be entered into any of the first five races of the season in the #32 before he takes over the #00 at Martinsville. While I'm all for anything that gets him as much seat time as possible, I can't help be a bit concerned about MWR fielding another car during those first five races if that's something they're considering. It's going to be hard enough for all three of their primary cars to make all of those races and get in the top 35, let alone worrying about a fourth car. Michael said in Daytona that he wasn't really comfortable with inexperienced drivers like the open wheel drivers at Daytona so I tend to doubt that he would put McD in a car for the Daytona 500 - a rookie mistake could cause carnage that could damage the way fans and his fellow competitors view McD for a long time to come. But we'll see what happens with the other four races.

This past weekend McD raced in the Rolex 24 and his team did very well, finishing 15th for Spirit of Daytona Racing out of 66 teams which is very good. I'm not sure if McD will be taking part in Nationwide testing today at Las Vegas but he will be testing the #44 at California on Friday in place of DJ, who will only be testing California tomorrow due to a previous commitment. Hopefully the California test will go well for McD and all the MWR drivers!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)

Junior Not Upset After All

Seems like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is having a hard time making up his mind how he feels about DEI having removed his memorabilia from where it had been on display when he was still driving for them. First, he was fine with it, then last week he was upset because he thought it wasn't properly recognizing the accomplishments of employees who are still with the company, now on his blog Junior says he's not upset afterall about "this non-issue."

Junior said,

"I feel there has been misunderstanding and misinterpretation regarding the removal of show cars and memorabilia at DEI to accommodate the media tour, and I think it’s proper to paint a clear picture of how the situation truly is. There is no anger or ill-feeling towards DEI, period. Nearly half the cars that were moved out of the showroom to accommodate the media tour consist of cars I’ve won races and championships with, and any fan of mine who wants a glimpse of my past can still and always will find it at DEI. I know that DEI is proud of its past. I know that they’re proud that they’ve won championships in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Busch Series, I know they’re proud of all the Daytona 500 wins with me and Michael, the All-Star victory, and all the other accomplishments we’ve had. In the name of success I made a lot of sacrifices, and DEI made those same sacrifices for me. Max Siegel has been nothing but honest, direct, and supportive. We both sincerely wish success for each other. We both want to move forward diligently with our individual futures in this sport. To continue to have to answer about the past makes it difficult for either one to achieve that. We’re both solidly entrenched in new chapters of our lives, and it’s a great feeling."

Color me confused.

If insignificant to him why did he say just a few days ago,

"It sort of hurt my feelings that it's sort of a hack at even the guys that are still there and have worked on that car. To not see the accolades or any sort of appreciation for the work that they did, and they're still there."

That doesn't sound like the words of someone who thinks that it's a non-issue, who believes that DEI is proud of their past or someone who is truly moving on from the past. I have to wonder whether someone told him that it wasn't such a wise idea to continue to make comments that rile fans and the media up as well as keep attention on his time at DEI as opposed to what he's doing now with Hendrick Motorsports where the focus should be.

It seems to me that Junior is doing an awful lot of thinking about what he claims is a "non-issue." While I understand that he's trying to calm his irate fans, this is what he should have said and stuck to, in the first place even if inside he truly was feeling slighted by DEI removing his memorablia. He poured fuel on the fire in the first place by talking about his hurt feelings and how he viewed his memorabilia being removed as a "hack" at his former team members who were still at DEI, and had he kept those thoughts to himself he might have saved himself - and DEI - some grief.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:10 PM | Comments (1)

Inside Nextel Cup Becomes This Week in Nascar

Just last week Michael Waltrip and others were under the impression that the Monday night show on Speed known last season as Inside Nextel Cup was getting canceled. In fact, when fans at Daytona fanfest reacted negatively to the news that Speed might not bring INC back, Michael asked that they contact Speed to let them know they wanted to show to be brought back. In addition, on the Roush Racing forums, I saw it posted that a Speed spokesperson was on Sirius saying that INC was being replaced for sure. But at the last minute it appears that Speed changed their minds and revamped INC instead of canceling it - a very wise decision given the popularity of the show and the drivers on it.

The new Monday night show will be called This Week in Nascar and Dave Despain who was a horrible fit as host of INC will be replaced with Steve Byrnes who should have a much better rapport with the "expert" panel. Regular panelists on INC, Ken Schrader, Michael Waltrip and Greg Biffle will be back, and Chad Knaus, as well as other crew chiefs will join them. I think adding the perspective of a crew chief is an excellent idea because they will be able to explain some of the technical things and also address some of the issues from a crew chief's point of view.

Best of all is that the format of the show is changing. One of my biggest criticisms of INC last season was that it had turned into nothing more than a recap and analysis of the past weekend's Cup race which can be found in many other places. So I'm very happy to hear that TWiN will cover topics from all three series both from the past weekend, but also looking forward. Rather than just explaining what the highlights from the race are all about as is what INC this past season often was, the new format will hopefully give the panel the opportunity to discuss and give their opinions at length on a variety of topics. Ken, Michael, Greg and Chad all are knowledgeable men who have a lot to share with fans from different perspectives - Ken is nearing the end of his career and he may only be racing sporadically in Nacar this season, Michael is a driver and owner of multiple teams, Greg is a younger driver who has had his share of success and Chad is part for a Championship team. So I anticipate that there will be a lot of interesting discussion on TWiN this season.

After Nascar had just announced that they wanted to give the drivers leeway to show more personality this season it was really puzzling to me that Speed was going to cancel a show where the drivers often did show a tremendous amount of personality whether it was due to Michael acting goofy, Ken picking on him or whether it came in the form of a member of the panel telling a funny story. That's really what always the Monday night show so unique - the stories and insight that the drivers shared that fans couldn't get anywhere else. And of course the laughs - I've laughed so hard - particularly at things that Michael has said - that I've literally cried. I've often found that show funnier and more fun to watch than most sitcoms!

Watching INC is what led to me becoming such a big Nascar fan again after having not watching any races for a number of years and it's a big reason how I became such a big Michael Waltrip fan. I had already come to admire Michael's ability on the track thanks to his Daytona 500 wins, but through watching INC I came to appreciate his unique personality, his love for Nascar and his knowledge about the sport.

I'm very happy that I'll still get to watch Michael, Ken and Greg on Monday nights!!

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

January 28, 2008

Photo of the Day - Grounds for Sculpture

Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:16 PM | Comments (0)

Junior Speaks on his Missing Memorabilia

The season hasn't even started yet and I'm already sick of hearing about Dale Earnhardt, Jr. If the recent to-do over his memorabilia being removed from DEI is any indication the media and his fans are going to make a fuss over the smallest of issues this year, even more so than in the past. I totally agree with all those who feel that DEI should respect the history of their organization and those who helped to make them successful, particularly when it comes to the son of the late owner. However, let's have a little perspective here. DEI has never kept the trophies and a lot of other memorabilia of drivers who have left the organization on display after they're gone. Why would they do that with Junior, especially since when he left there was such ill-will between himself and Teresa? So why would anyone expect them to do something special with Junior's memorabilia?

Max Seigel from DEI was on XM this evening and explained that DEI only keeps memorabilia from their current drivers and Dale Earnhardt in the showcases up front, so when Junior left his things were removed, just as the items related to Steve Park and Michael Waltrip were removed when those drivers left DEI in recent years. However, DEI does have cars from Steve, Michael, Ron Hornaday, and even Junior on display in their showroom, but the reason why the media didn't see those cars was because they had to be taken out of the showroom since that was where the luncheon was on media day and they had to have room for tables and chairs for 200 journalists. Once the luncheon was over the cars were brought back into the showroom where fans can see them if they were to go visit. So contrary to the belief of some fans and members of the media, all traces of Junior have not been removed from DEI.

Apparently there are also some fans who are distressed that nothing of Junior's is for sale any more at DEI. But as Max explained DEI can't sell anything of Junior's anymore, not even on clearance to get rid of it. They no longer have the rights to use his image and they don't have a contract with Budweiser anymore either. So they can't sell anything related to Junior or Bud anymore.

What really gets me is that instead of continuing to take the high road like he did when he was first questioned about this topic, Junior threw fuel on the fire today by saying,

"It sort of hurt my feelings that it's sort of a hack at even the guys that are still there and have worked on that car. To not see the accolades or any sort of appreciation for the work that they did, and they're still there."

Junior was at DEI when memorabilia related to Steve and Michael were removed after those two drivers left the company, so what happened with his things shouldn't be any surprise to him. I'm just guessing that Junior didn't think anything of it when Michael and Steve's memorabilia was removed while he was still at DEI. He never spoke up for those who had been a part of those two driver's teams even though there were multiple employees still at DEI who had worked on their cars cars, including Michael's Daytona 500 win and Steve's memorable win at Rockingham. Why is it only his guys that should be shown some appreciation? While he was at DEI Junior was in a position to make sure that all the team members were properly acknowledged for their contributions. If he didn't make sure that happened while he was there, then it's a little too late to be saying something about it now.

Junior was asked the question so he answered it, but I can't help but think he would have been better off keeping his feelings about his memorabilia being removed to himself as he had done previously. What good does it do to get fans and the media stirred up about this? Unless of course Junior doesn't mind turning the heat up on Teresa and DEI. It just seems to me that there's a lot more important things to be worried about - like making the transition to Hendrick Motorsports as smooth and as successful as possible.

What's most ironic to me is that when DEI let Junior go, it was said that Teresa was turning DEI into nothing more than a museum. So now DEI is moving forward and fans are horrified and saying that DEI should be more like a museum. It seems to me that this is a situation in which Teresa and DEI can't win. No matter what they do it would be wrong to some. If they kept memorabilia related to Junior Teresa would probably be accused of trying to lure fans to DEI and make a profit off of him. I think it's best for both for them to make as clean a break as possible and more forward as separately as they can - though it appears that's going to be pretty difficult.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:44 PM | Comments (0)

Ron Paul to Sponsor the #28 Car?

Yates Racing must be really desperate for sponsorship because it appears that they've entered into a possible deal with Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul that if his campaign raises enough money they will sponsor Travis Kvapil's #28 car for the Daytona 500. While I know why the Paul campaign wants to get on the #28 because it will give them a significant amount of exposure to a Republican leaning fanbase, I think it's an extremely bad idea for Yates Racing - or any team - to do these kinds of deals. Politics is a very sensitive and heated topic and Yates could alienate any number of fans - and potentially some sponsors too - by choosing to align themselves with a particular candidate. Making matters worse is that Paul appears to not be one of the more well-liked candidates.

Of course there's the question of whether the Paul campaign is even going to be able to raise the money necessary to get on the car. If the donations are less than expected I hope Yates has a back-up plan not only for what's going to be on the car, but also for where the money to field the #28 - and also the #38 which as of yet doesn't have a sponsor either for Speedweeks - is going to come from. Some seem to think that all the Yates cars need to do is finish great in the Daytona 500 and the sponsorship money is going to come rolling in, but I have my doubts about whether they'll be able to attract two full-time primary sponsors even if both cars finish in the top ten. They only race four restrictor plate races all season and the Yates cars were unimpressive last season on non-restrictor plate tracks for the most part. It's going to take a lot more than a good showing in one race to prove that they can get sponsors the exposure they want, particularly since both Kvapil and David Gilliland are fairly low-profile drivers who don't get a lot of media attention.

I'm not filled with confidence that there will still be two - or any - Yates cars on the track by the end of the 2008 season. I hope to be wrong but without any sponsors other than this one doesn't fill me with optimism.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

David Cone To Broadcast 50 Yankees Games for YES

There really hasn't been all that much to get me excited about the upcoming season for the New York Yankees... until now. The reason for my excitement? David Cone, my all-time favorite Yankee, will be in the YES booth for 50 games next season and will also host the weekly show, Yankees on Deck! David has never feared giving his opinions openly, to the point where it's gotten him in trouble in the past, and he's also very good with the media. I expect that he will have a lot of good insight to share during the games he works, and overall I expect that he will be an asset to YES this season. After David left the Yankees there was a falling out between himself and George Steinbrenner because Steinbrenner took offense to David trying to restart his career with the New York Mets and that prevented David from returning to the Yankees fold sooner. But now Steinbrenner's sons are in charge and David is welcome at Yankee Stadium once again much to the delight of the many fans that David still has!

David is my baseball version of Michael Waltrip - someone who I will always be a fan of no matter what they're doing, whether they're still actively involved in their sport or not, someone who will always have a special place in my heart. It's likely because there's some similarities between David and Michael. Both are incredibly fan-friendly, have a way with people, very media savvy, and both have magnetic personalties. Michael and David are both unafraid to give honest opinions, though David never had sponsors or a conservative garage area to worry about so he likely said what he thought openly even more than Michael does. David has had much more success than Michael over the course of his career, but like Michael, David has had his share of problems to endure, including a horrible 2000 season that I don't even like to think about it was so painful to watch during which he appeared to lose the ability to pitch. But just as Michael and his team showed up weekend after weekend to race even when they failed to qualify for any number of races in a row and had other issues to worry about, David kept going out to the mound, never gave up and kept fighting to help his team win. If I could pick any two athletes to invite to dinner, it would surely be Michael and David, though given how gregarious both are, I doubt that I'd be able to get a word in!

Even though I haven't been overly excited about baseball this off-season, of course I was still planning on watching and cheering for the Yankees just as much as ever - but now I have something to be excited about and I'm really looking forward to the start of the baseball season even though it's still a few months away!

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

January 26, 2008

Jacques Villeneuve's Future in Nascar in Jeopardy?

Sure sounds like based on today's story on Yahoo! Sports. According to Bob Margolis, Villeneuve was forced to part ways with long-time manager Greg Pollack because of Pollack's business tactics which didn't go over well with both Bill Davis Racing and Toyota. Apparently Davis was unhappy when Pollack wanted to buy BDR, and both entities wanted proof that Pollack had the sponsorship money secured for Villeneuve for a full season. I can't blame them. After the mess with 360OTC last season I can see why they would want to be 100% sure that they're not being made empty promises.

Now according to Margolis, it appears that Villenueve may have to provide the money out of his own pocket, in the millions of dollars, to start the season. Presumably that's for the first five races since it's been reported previously that due to a lack of sponsorship the team would race just those first five then re-evaluate where they were and then decide whether to continue or not, presumably depending on whether any additional sponsorship money turned up and what their status was in the top 35 in owner's points.

BDR's Cup program has had issues for a few years now and it doesn't appear that things are going to get much better this season. Many in the media fell all over themselves to compliment BDR for being the "best" Toyota team because the #22 finished 35th in owner's points, meanwhile this organization may have been taken by a shady sponsor and failed to successfully field a second Cup car. BDR is very strong in the truck series, but I have to wonder what their long-term future is in Cup. Maybe they'll straighten out all their sponsorship issues with Villeneuve and along with all the other Toyota teams improve their performance this season. But that may be hard if the sponsorship issues continue.

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

January 25, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip (1/25)

The big news this week for Michael Waltrip and Michael Waltrip Racing was the official announcement that Michael McDowell will take over the #00 car after the first five races of the season when David Reutimann switches to the #44, but Michael (Waltrip that is) has been in the news for other reasons as well.

On Monday Nascar said that they wanted to let the drivers show more of their personality this season, and as an ESPN article on that topic points out, no one has to tell Michael to show some personality! In fact, that's a big reason why I was drawn to Michael in the first place is because he's never been afraid to be himself. Michael speaks his mind, he's quick to make fun of what's going on around him, or himself, even if he makes himself look silly in the process.

In addition, Michael isn't afraid to do things differently than others in the garage area do. For example, at the Wednesday night media event for journalists, Michael didn't just have the journalists take a tour of Raceworld, feed them, made the announcement about Michael McDowell, have one-on-one interviews and then send everyone on their way, he made sure that the journalists were entertained too by having a comedian. I've seen some fans mock Michael for wasting journalists time by having a comedian, but personally if I were part of that media tour I'd be grateful for a break from the usual meaningless pronouncements about how the entire organization was excited about the upcoming season. In fact, Michael was a little sick of how excited everyone is at this time of year too so he banned the "e" word (exciting) from being used. Instead Michael was "ecstatic" and "overly optimistic." I bet he was thrilled too at the progress that MWR has made since last year! I know I am!

But back to the drivers showing some personality, I'm not sure that even Michael truly shows all of himself. How could he? There are sponsors to answer to, fans who have difficulty accepting when the drivers say or do things they don't agree with, the disapproving eyes of a conservative garage area, and a sport that sometimes frowns upon drivers or others being too critical of things that they do. It's the same problem for all of the drivers really. Michael seems to care less what people think - or at least he says he does - but to some degree he still has to be mindful of those who help pay his bills.

Problem is for all the drivers is that as much as a lot of fans say that they want the drivers to show more personality and speak their minds when they do fans rip into them for not acting in the right way or having the wrong opinion. That has to be very discouraging to the drivers because none of them want to be the center of controversy. Thing is I think it's possible for a driver to be themselves and show some personality - like Michael - and going too far and getting themselves into trouble all the time like Tony Stewart. The drivers who are often very vanilla in their interviews like Jimmie Johnson or Kasey Kahne aren't very interesting to me, but I definitely pay more attention to drivers like Michael, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and even Tony, though I'm often not on the same page as Tony.

One thing I'm excit...err, looking forward to is the new NAPA commercials that Michael filmed with NHRA driver Ron Capps who is also sponsored by NAPA. I absolutely adore the NAPA commercials because they are incredibly creative and very funny. Speaking of driver's personalities, I think NAPA does an outstanding job of utilizing Michael's personality and his sense of humor in their commercials. Ron found that Michael was just as funny when the cameras weren't rolling as when they were. He said,

"I had met Michael in a casual setting before, at a NASCAR race, but I had never really talked with him. It's much like John Force in NHRA. The fans I run into always ask the same thing, 'Is John Force really like the John Force we see on TV?' Yes, Force is the same Force. So, you wonder. But, let me tell you, when you see Michael on TV in those great NAPA commercials that are so funny, that is him all the time."

A few years ago I was at a charity golf outing that Michael took part in and those who were golfing with him couldn't stop talking about two things - what a great golfer he was and also how hysterical he was! Thing is though I think some people expect that Michael truly is cracking jokes every second and they're a little disappointed when he's not like that. I've found Michael to be very laid-back and down-to-earth when I've been around him, and I also know he has a serious side too - Michael is definitely very multi-faceted, and that's one reason he's so interesting!

Turns out Michael's a bit of an drag racing fan too. Ron said that in addition to asking about one of his teammates, Michael seemed like he wanted to get into Ron's car,

"If he wasn't as big as he is he would have crawled right inside that thing and sat in there. He said he had gone to Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School and drove an Alcohol Dragster 10 years ago and had the time of his life and that's all he kept talking about."

If it goes fast and he can race it, Michael's going to want a part of it, just like any other race car driver!

The commercials sound like they're going to be awesome! I'm so glad that Michael has NAPA as his sponsor and I really hope they re-new their sponsorship of him beyond this season. They might be able to find another driver to sponsor who ends up in Victory Lane more often than Michael does, but they will never find someone who does such an outstanding job of representing them as Michael does! Until they started sponsoring Michael, I know I never paid much attention to NAPA - now I take notice every time I pass a NAPA store, see a NAPA truck, and maybe most importantly from NAPA's point-of-view when I need auto parts, I head to NAPA!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (1/24)

*There's been quite a fuss made by the media and some fans over all traces of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. being removed from DEI, including all of his race memorabilia and trophies that used to be on display. I think this is much ado over nothing. I'm not sure what people expected really. Yes, Junior won a lot of races for DEI, was a big part of their overall success while he raced for them and is the son of the late owner. But when drivers like Steve Park and Michael Waltrip left DEI everything of theirs was removed too so it seems to me that DEI is just doing what they've always done. In addition, it was a bitter parting of the ways between DEI and Junior so I'm not sure why so many thought that DEI would continue to pay tribute to someone who seemed to leave on such bad terms. Also, while many teams continue to display memorabilia from drivers who used to race for them to reflect the history of the organization, another way of looking at it is that DEI is choosing not to give exposure to a driver and sponsor who left for two different competing organizations.

*Obviously Teresa Earnhardt and others at DEI were paying attention to the criticism directed towards Teresa last year about how she was an absentee owner who wasn't involved enough in what was happening at her organization. After hosting a party for the media during Champion's Week in New York in December, Teresa also made a brief appearance at the event DEI had for the media yesterday as part of Nascar's media week. Naturally many criticized her for that too saying that she didn't speak for long enough or that it was only for show. Hello, everything that every team does during media weeks is for show! It's all about impressing the media and getting them to write positive stories about how each team and driver thinks they're going to do during the season. Teresa will never be a Richard Childress or a Rick Hendrick who attends most of the races and makes themselves available to the media at all times, but it does appear that she's trying to make an effort which is a good thing for her organization and it's drivers. Of course to many fans nothing she does will ever be right. I don't particularly care for Teresa's approach to her company, however, it's her's to run as she chooses.

*There was another round of testing this week that's gotten very little attention - the truck teams tested at Atlanta yesterday and Tuesday. Ron Hornaday was fastest on Tuesday and Terry Cook was fastest yesterday. Of course testing isn't always that exciting, especially since the results aren't always a true reflection of how the teams are going to do during season. Still, it says something that there's been next to no coverage of these test sessions anywhere. Of course there's tough competition with it being media week so most of the journalists are involved with that. But it seems to me that it's a problem for this series that sites like Scenedaily.com don't seem to have even a bare-bones article about how testing went. How can this series be expected to grow and attract much needed sponsors if there's not much coverage of what's going on in the series?

*ESPN is going to air a five-part series chronicling Junior's move to Hendrick Motorsports called Dale Jr. – Shifting Gears. It sounds very similar to what ESPN did with Michael Waltrip Racing - A New Era last season. Given that the show is produced by Hammerhead Entertainment, which is a division of JR Motorsports, and in cooperation with Hendrick Motorsports, I would guess that Junior and his "people" had complete editorial control over each episode. I'd probably be a lot more interested in watching if this was something independently produced by ESPN that I thought was an honest look at the process. I'm quite sure that anything that will make Junior look bad or doesn't fit with the message that they're trying to get across won't make it to air.

*Although John Andretti will take part in the Rolex 24 this weekend, he doesn't have a ride in Nascar after having parted ways with BAM Racing due to uncertainties related to sponsorship and direction. Andretti may participate in Cup testing next week for an unknown team but otherwise he's still looks for a ride, though it sounds like he may race some truck races. Andretti raced four races for Billy Ballew in 2005 and the results were good - two top tens and a top fifteen.

*Key Motorsports didn't test at Daytona with the rest of the truck teams but they are planning to field a truck for Chad Chaffin at Dayona next month and at a number of other early season races, after which the team will decide whether to continue or not. I would guess that whether they're in the top 30 and thus guaranteed a spot to race each week, as well as their sponsorship situation will determine how many more races they'll run. Chaffin isn't among the elite drivers in the truck garage, but he has won a truck race and shown that he can get decent results at times so I wouldn't be surprised to see him put the #40 in the top 30 if luck is on his side and the trucks he's given to race are decent.

*The media tour wrapped up today and I don't think the media ever paid a visit to Red Bull Racing or Bill Davis Racing unless I just missed the articles or discussion that was generated from those visits. According to Claire B. Lang on XM RBR pulled some sort of stunt where they had a street-legal version of one of their cars drive next to the media bus when they were on their way to one of the stops on the tour, but I don't think they had an official event where their drivers, crew chiefs and executives were present like most of the other teams had. I'm surprised. I assumed that all of the larger teams took part in media week but it appears that they don't. RBR traditionally doesn't do things the way other teams does when it comes to media and promotions so maybe it's not that surprising that they didn't host an event. But what about BDR? I'd think that with the sponsorship problems for BDR they'd want to do something that would generate some press and exposure for their organization. Maybe they didn't want to have to answer any hard questions about whether Bill Davis might sell BDR, the fiasco with 360OTC or their current lack of sponsorship for the #27 which could leave them as a one-car Cup operation after the first five races this season. ETA: Claire B. Lang just said that Robby Gordon was the only Ford owner to not take part in that manufacturer's event today - why? I don't understand why an owner would opt not to take part in something which usually results in positive media attention and added exposure for the team and their sponsors.

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

It's Official: Michael McDowell to the #00

In early January word leaked to Nascar.com what many had already suspected that Michael McDowell would take over the #00 at Michael Waltrip Racing after the first five races when David Reutimann shifted to the #44 in place of Dale Jarrett. Last night as part of Nascar's media week, MWR had an event for 200 members of the media, at which it was officially announced that McDowell would indeed step into the #00 in March at Martinsville. That's a tricky track for any driver, let alone a young rookie with very little experience in any of Nascar's three highest levels. McDowell will race the Nationwide race at Daytona, and I would assume that MWR will look to put him behind the wheel either in actual races or at testing as much as possible from then until March to ensure he's as prepared as possible to take over the #00.

It's obvious McDowell has talent otherwise he wouldn't have done so well in ARCA last year, I'm just not sure if he's going to be able to have similar success in Cup with so little experience. However, those at MWR have a lot of confidence in him. As do others. Apparently one reason that Michael picked McD (McDowell's apparent nickname which I'll use to distinguish between the two Michaels) over Josh Wise is not only because he felt McD was more ready than Josh, but also because Boris Said vouched for him. Michael said,

"Boris said, `That kid gets it. He can go. No matter what he gets in, he's fast. Once I talked to Boris, and went to a couple of tests with Michael, to me it was a no-brainer. And there's never been that many of them."

I have to admit that part of me wishes they had put Boris himself behind the wheel of the #00 until McD got a little more experience. That would have given MWR a veteran driver who is good on restrictor plate track and outstanding on road courses. Boris is a bit of an unknown on other tracks, but so is McD. If McD knows how to fast that's big - Michael's said before that you can teach a young driver when to ease up but it's almost impossible to teach them how to go fast. I also like that Boris also said that McD is good on road courses - those kinds of tracks can be very challenging to even veteran drivers.

As for McD, last night he said,

"Michael said at a press conference last year that I was a candidate for the No. 00 Toyota Camry, but said that if I couldn't get the job done, somebody else would. I will never forget that. It pushes me even more to be prepared and I'm glad he said it. It's game time and there is no time to celebrate this opportunity. It's time to get serious."

I like the fact that McD realizes that he can be replaced if he doesn't get results and that it's giong to motivate him. The fact is that there's a lot of young drivers who would love a shot in Cup - including Josh - and some of them might have sponsorship to bring with them. I think it's too much to expect that McD is going to run up front every week as a rookie who has never raced in Cup before and has only a few Nationwide races under his belt. But as long as he can show improvement from week-to-week, not tear up too many race cars and hopefully race well enough to stick in the top 35 or qualify for races if he's outside the top 35 I think they'll keep him in the #00.

As I probably said in a previous entry about McD, while I'm very happy that MWR has found a talented young driver to work with, I'm the slightest bit disappointed that so far it doesn't seem like there's anything in the works for Josh. It just seems like ever since McD came along Josh is an afterthought which is unfortunate because I think he also has a lot of talent. I would hate to see his development be stalled or for MWR to lose him. So hopefully between now and the start of the season MWR can put something together for him like they did for McD.

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

January 23, 2008

Photo of the Day - Red Rocks National Recreation Area

Red Rocks National Recreation Area, Nevada. January, 2005. Not too many red rocks in this pic...

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

Ted Musgrave to Race for HT Motorsports

It's taken longer than many thought it would but Ted Musgrave finally has a ride for 2008. He'll be in the #59 for HT Motorsports, the team he tested with at Daytona, with Team ASE as the sponsor and Danny Rollins as the crew chief. Musgrave had cited sponsorship as the reason he didn't have a ride - apparently the Team ASE sponsorship wasn't enough for a full season with Morgan-Dollar Motorsports, the team he was initially speaking with, and at the time of testing didn't seem to be enough to get him a ride with HT Motorsports either. I suspect though that either Team ASE agreed to kick in more money or HT Motorsports decided that some sponsorship money was better than nothing.

HT Motorsports is a decent team but not among the elite in the garage area so I would guess that the #59 might not have been Musgrave's first choice. But it probably came to a point where it was either take a ride with the #59 or potentially not race. Last season Terry Cook had one top five and four top tens in the #59 - given the kind of driver that Musgrave is he should be able to improve on those results but it may come down to how competitive the trucks are that he's given to race.

With Musgrave being announced as the driver of the #59 once again I ask - what happened to the deal that Donny Lia had to race for this team?

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

Dale Jarrett to Replace Rusty Wallace in ESPN Booth

ESPN finally realized what fans had a long time ago - Rusty Wallace wasn't a good fit in the booth during races. So this season the soon-to-be-retired Dale Jarrett will replace Rusty in the booth for the entire season, except for those races that he's in the car for. Contrary to what the rumors had said last year, Rusty won't be fired. Instead he'll become ESPN's lead analyst for their pre-race show and other studio shows. I think being an analyst only in the studio will suit Rusty much better. Rusty is knowledgeable about the sport considering how many years he raced Cup and he's also very opinionated - something which will come in handy as ESPN's lead analyst. I'm really glad that Rusty won't be in the booth for Nationwide races especially - it was often uncomfortable listening to him trying to be unbiased when it came to talking about the struggles of his son, Stephen. In addition, it was embarassing when Rusty didn't know who was in what car or how to pronounce driver's names - hopefully that's something that ESPN has addressed with Rusty and won't be an issue in his new role. Rusty will be in the booth for those races that DJ will be in the car for but that will only be a limited amount of races.

Most fans - including myself - are very happy about DJ taking Rusty's place in the booth. He was very good when it came to doing TV work from what he saw of him on a limited basis last season. However, if ESPN doesn't address some of their other issues that fans are dissatisfied with when it comes to the way they cover the races it might not matter who's in the booth. So it will be interesting to see if at some point fans turn on DJ if he's not what they expect him to be.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*Yesterday Brian France said that Nascar is going to "return to it's roots," in 2008, minimize change and embrace the "traditional" fans, which is likely in response to declining ratings and attendance at races, though France denied that. Many fans are struggling to accept the way the sport is changing and I find it a little troubling that Nascar appears willing to cater to those fans. Yes, Nascar needs to ensure that their fans are happy and that they don't alienate long-time fans, but at the same time things can't stay the same forever if the sport is to continue to grow and be successful. It's impossible to go back in time and recapture the past - it's 2008, not 1998, 1988, 1978 or earlier - and the sport needs to keep up with the times even if that's a problem for some fans. In addition, there needs to be some balance - Nascar needs to ensure that all fans are happy, not just new fans or long-time fans. The bottom line for me is competition - I don't care about a lot of the things that some fans complain about endlessly. I just want to see good, competitive racing. How is Nascar returning to it's roots going to improve the racing?

*Rusty Wallace thinks that Nascar's big problem is that they've alienated original fans - country music fans and that the sport has turned fans off by featuring too much rock and pop music. Give me a break. Again, what does this have to do with the product on the track? I'm sure quite a few fans would like for there to be as much country music as possible, but there are some of us who are rock music fans. Personally, I don't care who sings the national anthem or makes an appearance at racing as long as the races are exciting.

*According to the schedule on Bill Elliott's website he's going to be racing 17 Cup races this season, presumably in the #21. I'm surprised that he's going to race that many races. I knew he would be in the #21 during Speedweeks and likely for some additional races, but I didn't think he was willing to commit to that many races up front.

*Turns out the team Kenny Wallace has been talking to about attempting the Daytona 500 is his old team, Furniture Row Racing. Kenny will attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 in the #87 car as a teammate to Joe Nemechek. While I understand why Kenny is attempting the Daytona 500 since sometimes some surprising teams end up racing their way in, I'm not sure how well this is going to work out for Kenny. He was unhappy with his situation at Furniture Row, particularly towards the end, because the team was outside the top 35 in owner's points, and the team wasn't too happy with him either to the point where members of his crew questioned his ability behind the wheel. I think it's going to be hard for this team to get one car into the Daytona 500 let alone two.

*One complaint that fans had last year was that they didn't like the later starting times for some races which was a way for Nascar to try to appeal to West Coast fans who didn't want to necessarily watch a Nascar race in the morning. This season apparently some start times for races will revert to the earlier starting time, not that it's really all that early to start at 2 p.m. I didn't really mind the later start times because I could do things during the day on Sunday and not miss the races but a 2 p.m. start time is fine with me too. What I'd like to see happen is for Nascar's TV partners to eliminate the lengthy pre-race shows. There's a lot of wasted time there. I skip the pre-race shows and many other fans do as well. I'd be happy with a brief pre-race show that touched on any important news with a short discussion of the race to follow, plus the pre-race ceremony.

*Kyle Petty is returning to Tradin' Paint on Speed. I used to love watching that show when Michael Waltrip was on, but I haven't watched since he was replaced with Kyle. As much as I like Kyle and his willingness to give his opinions openly, the show has zero interest to me without Michael (much like whatever Inside Nextel Cup is being replaced with - more on that to follow). TP is very much like what can be found on any fan forum or blog - debates about the latest news and issues in the sport. Sure, it's great to hear what those involved think but if I can find something similar online instead of having to sit in front of a TV, I'm going to to choose the first option.

*A lack of sponsorship is part of the reason why Stephen Leicht lost his ride with Yates Racing even though he won a race last season, and it's why he's only scheduled to race two Nationwide races for Richard Childress Racing so far even though they'd like to put him behind the wheel for more races. I hope that something works out for Leicht - he seems to have some talent behind the wheel and at one time it was thought he'd be in Cup having a lot of success sooner rather than later but somehow things went off track for him.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)

January 21, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*360 OTC is getting sued again, this time by World Wrestling Entertainment for non-payment of close to $2 million they owe for being the "official pain relief" for Wrestlemania 23. Is there anyone that 360OTC entered into a sponsorship deal with that they actually paid? So far Bill Davis Racing hasn't sued them which could be because it's actually true that Bill Davis agreed to take stocks instead of cash as had been rumored last year (Gee, how much is that stock worth now?) or maybe as someone pointed out on one forum, when they're still looking for a sponsor for the #27 car BDR doesn't want to scare off any potential sponsors by suing their sponsor from last season. It's really amazing to me that so many were taken by 360OTC. World of Outlaws, WWE and BDR aren't tiny entities - surely they did their homework on 360OTC but those at Rockford-Montogomery (360OTC's parent company) must have talked a good game and had a really great sale pitch. Meanwhile some fans were leery of 360OTC right from the start. Maybe it speaks to how hard it is in this economy to get companies to agree to big-money sponsorship deals that BDR and others entered into deals with 360OTC.

*Steven Wallace wrecked his car during testing today but not while he was on the track. Instead somehow as Steven was leaving the garage area to go back onto the track, he lost control of his car and hit a fence and pole behind pit wall, which caused considerable damage to his car. Every single driver on the track makes mistakes and wrecks cars, but it seems like there's a lot more mistakes and bent sheet metal when it comes to Steven than there is with other drivers. I suspect if he was racing for someone other than his father he'd be out of a ride by now. I hope he's very grateful to his father for his patience. Steve may end up turning into a good Nationwide driver but I'm not sure this bodes well for seeing him improve in 2008 over last year.

*Speaking of the Wallaces, Steven's uncle Kenny is working on putting together a deal to race some Cup races this season. I have a feeling that even if it happens Kenny is going to have a hard time making races as he did last season with Furniture Row Racing. In the meantime Kenny is probably going to race in the Nationwide Series and continue his work on Speed.

*Chip Ganassi Racing still doesn't have sponsorship lined up for Dario Franchitti and the #40 team. Although Chip Ganassi says that he isn't worried and that he expects to put a patchwork of sponsorship together, I'm not sure it bodes well for Dario and that team, especially since Chip said that they're going to have to "watch their nickels and dimes." It takes a lot of money to field a Cup team and even more to field a competitive Cup team. Some had said that one reason teams were putting open wheel drivers into their cars was because the thinking was that those drivers could attract sponsors that normally weren't interested in Nascar. However, this is the second open wheel driver - Jacques Villeneuve was the other - whose team has sponsorship issues.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:50 PM | Comments (0)

Go-or-Go-Home Cars to Quality Together

As the ESPN article notes, for much of last season Michael Waltrip pushed the idea that all the go-or-go-home teams should qualify together at the start or end of qualifying so that all the teams outside the top 35 were qualifying under as close to the same conditions as possible, since going out later in qualifying at many tracks was often an advantage because the track was cooler than at the start of qualifying. Nascar was apparently listening because they announced today that starting this season all the go-or-go-home cars would qualify together at the end of qualifying.

I expect that there will be a few teams inside the top 35 that will cry about this change because they'll say that it gives that group of cars a potential advantage that could help them get poles or better qualifying position. Well, those teams are already at a huge disadvantage by being outside the top 35 in owner's points because they're battling so many other teams for so few spots. In addition, a lot of these teams are just worried about making races, forget about qualifying up front or trying to get a pole.

While I wish that Nascar would go further and reduce the amount of cars locked in or eliminate the top 35 rule altogether, I think this is a step in the right direction. Every time that Michael pulled an early draw last season for qualifying I was filled with dread because often the go-or-go-home teams that went out early in qualifying were the ones that didn't end up racing because the cars that went out later sometimes picked up a lot of speed. Of course there are some teams for which it won't really matter when they go out to qualify or whether teams have an advantage over them or not - some teams are simply overmatched in terms of equipment and resources. But at least this will mean that at least in terms of the track conditions things will be a little more balanced.

There were a few other changes announced, one of which was that all the money that Nascar collects from fines will no longer be re-distributed to the teams at the end of the season as it had been previously. Instead the fine money will go to the Nascar Foundation which benefits a variety of charitable causes. I'm very much in favor of this change too. I've already thought it was ridiculous that a team might get back the money they paid out in fines (if they were high enough in the points). That made the fines even more of a meaningless penalty than they already were. Last season the fines that Nascar collected totaled almost $1 million - they could have done a lot of good with that money if this rule was already in place.

Nascar will also be distributing the tires that teams use for non-Nascar mandated tests. I really don't know the reasoning behind that change, though I imagine it might be that the teams might have been using non-Goodyear tires at their tests and in unlimited quantities. I'm not really sure what kind of an effect this will have on testing but I suppose it might make it harder for some teams to do as much testing as they might want if they are limited to a certain amount of tires.

As previously announced Nascar also made a few changes on pit road. Teams will no longer be able to push a stalled car as far down pit road as they want in an effort to get it re-started, they will now be limited to three pit stalls. In addition, the tires on the outside of the car can no longer be free-rolled to pit wall. I believe the later change is in response to a scary incident in which Art Harris from the #55 team was hit by a tire that had rolled free, got hit by a car and flew through the air into the #55 pit. Although these changes may make things harder for the pit crews I'm in favor of anything that makes pit road safer for the crews.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2008

Photo of the Day - Valley of Fire State Park

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, January, 2005.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

CitiFinancial to Sponsor a Roush-Fenway Nationwide Car

Stephen Leicht lost his Nationwide ride with Yates Racing due to a lack of sponsorship. Now comes word that his sponsor last season, Citifinancial, is going to a sponsor at Roush-Fenway Racing. On the Cup level they will be an associate sponsor on all the Roush Cup cars, and on the Nationwide Series they will be a primary sponsor on a variety of cars with a variety of drivers, including some of Roush's Cup drivers. What amazes me about this is that supposedly part of the agreement between Roush and Yates was that Roush was going to help Yates find sponsorship for their two Cup cars. Now it appears that Roush has actually taken sponsorship from Yates.

I can't say I blame Citifinancial for making the move to Roush. I think when given a choice between sponsoring a relatively unknown Nationwide driver at an organization that has struggled the past few years and sponsoring several well-known Cup drivers at an organization who has won many races recently in both Cup and Nationwide, they're going to go with the more successful organization which would be Roush. It's another sign that Yates may be in trouble this season when it comes to finding sponsors for their Cup cars.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)

Time to Panic... Or Maybe Not

Mike Mulhern's been making the rounds on XM and Sirius this week and in one of his appearances on Claire B. Lang's show on XM he claimed that Hendrick Motorsports is panicking about Casey Mears's blown engine during testing last week because it was an indication that they had a problem like that experienced by the Earnhardt-Childress engines that resulted in a lot of blown engines for those teams. Unlike Mulhern who often never gives teams or drivers an opportunity to respond to what he writes or talks about, Lang went to HMS for a comment. Scott Dixom (not sure of the spelling) was on her show yesterday and he said that there was no panic about engine issues. Of course no team is going to admit it if they are worried about engine issues but Dixom went on to say that they hadn't even fully finished analyzing what exactly went wrong, but that it was likely due to a failure of a part from an outside vendor. So how exactly could HMS be panicking when they aren't even completely sure what happened to the engine yet? In addition, why would they panic about a parts failure that wasn't of their own doing? Sometimes they're going to get an occasional bad part from a vendor and that's not something that the team has much control over.

Mulhern didn't include any specifics about HMS being panicked about their engine issues in his column from yesterday. Instead he wrote the story as if there's general concern by all the teams about potential engine issues at Daytona. Maybe he knew that HMS would just deny it. As per usual, Mulhern doesn't produce any evidence to support his allegation that teams are panicked about engine failures. Instead the column includes quotes about how teams are concerned about Toyota and how well they did at testing. It's par for the course with Mulhern - he makes some allegations about things that he's supposedly heard and produces nothing, not even a quote from an anonymous source to back it up. Mulhern is clearly well-liked among his fellow journalists but I've started to wonder whether he's on XM and Sirius because he's thought to be a legitimate source of news or because the things he says are so wild that it's sure to generate a lot of discussion. Mulhern could have done what Lang did and followed up with HMS about the engine failure but as far as I know didn't - I guess saying that they weren't worried at all is a lot less interesting than reporting that they're freaking out.

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

Palazzo Las Vegas Opens This Weekend

Palazzo Las Vegas, the first new hotel on the strip on Las Vegas in three years, opens this weekend. From the preview in today's USA Today it looks really nice. The stats are impressive - it cost $1.9 billion and when combined with it's sister property, The Venetian, because they share a central booking system, it's now the world's largest hotel based on room count. In comparison to the Venetian, apparently the Palazzo has a more modern feel to it.

I'd love to go back to Las Vegas and check it out in person, as well as see everything else that Las Vegas has to offer since we had such an outstanding time in Las Vegas when we spent a week there in 2005. This in spite of the fact that neither myself or my husband gambles. But we had a great time exploring the casinos as well as the surrounding area including Red Rock Canyon National Recreation Area and Valley of Fire State Park. We also very much enjoyed all the restaurants and the nightlife. However, now that we have a mortgage I don't think we'll be making any trips that involve flying anywhere that far unless someone else is paying! But someday we'll go back for sure.

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

January 17, 2008

Not Much Going On...

Not much Nascar news of interest today. I guess that's not surprising since Nationwide testing doesn't start until tomorrow and the Cup teams likely want to save whatever news they might have to announce until media week when all the teams have events for the Nascar media. Also, the Charlotte area got a couple of inches of snow today and while it sounds laughable to those of us who live in areas where it snows all the time, even two inches of snow and ice might paralyze the area.

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

January 16, 2008

Photo of the Day - Round Rock

Ogunquit, Maine, July, 2005. I'm fascinated by rocks - I've always collected rocks and minerals, but I'm especially captivated by wind, sand and water eroded rocks like this one. It's so very round and smooth - how long has it been sitting there, I wonder?

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

Nascar May Raise Age Limit for Cup Series

According to Rowdy.com and Claire B. Lang on XM, Nascar is considering raising the age limit for Cup drivers from 18 to 21. That would effect drivers like Joey Lagano who is just 17 and under the current rules could race Cup next year when he's 18, but if there's a change he'd have to wait maybe as long as until 2012. In some ways this is a good idea. A change like this would force teams to take their time when it comes to developing their very young talent. They would have to have them race in lower series and gain experience rather than rushing them up to Cup.

However, there are probably some 18-year olds who are more mature as people and as racers than some 21-year olds. 21 is still very young and there's no guarantee that a 21-year old is going to be able to handle racing Cup well just because they waited a few more years. It seems to me that if Nascar has some concerns in relation to young drivers that maybe they should approve drivers under 21 on a case-by-case basis. So a 20-year old driver with the necessary experience wouldn't necessarily get cleared to race Cup if Nascar felt they were immature or unable to handle racing Cup, whereas if an 18-year old showed that they had the maturity to handle all that comes with Cup on- and off-the-track, Nascar might approve them. Of course there's also some veteran Cup drivers who occassionally show a lack of maturity even though they haven't seen 21 in many years but that's a whole different story.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:47 PM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2008

Seeing Things Differently When it Comes to Steve Park Like Always

As per usual I'm not on the same page as many of my fellow Steve Park fans it appears in relation to the Camping World East Series ride he has for this season. I shouldn't be surprised since I'm often out in left field with the way I view things as compared to a lot of other fans of Steve's but I figured when it came to him finding a new ride everyone would be more or less on the same page. And to a degree everyone is - I think even the most casual fan of Steve's is extremely happy that he'll be racing fairly regularly this season since he hasn't raced for so long. But where I see things a little differently than some others is that some seem disappointed that Steve is going to be racing in this series as opposed to a Truck, Nationwide or Cup ride. Most seem to view this as a stepping stone to something bigger in that if Steve does really well in this series he'll be able to impress an owner in one of the higher series and they'll give him a ride.

Meanwhile, I'm just happy Steve's racing. I don't think it's a letdown that Steve had to take a Camping World East ride and I'm not counting on him turning this into anything more. Don't get me wrong - I would love to see Steve dominate this series and land a full-time Truck, Nationwide or Cup ride because he so impressive that owners in those series can't ignore him, I just don't think it's going to happen - and that's fine with me. As I mentioned, I'm just happy... no, thrilled that he'll be racing this season since I haven't been sure that was going to happen.

To me what's important is that Steve is going to be racing. He's said on multiple occasions how much desire he still has to race. He's talked about how he was born to race and how he feels he still has wins left in him. None of what Steve has said has sounded like someone who would be happy with not racing again, even if it was by his own choice because there were no elite rides available to him. It had to be so hard for Steve to go to the track and just be a spectator for the past year plus except for the race at Dover. So I've wanted him to just say "screw it, let's go racing" and take a ride even if it wasn't the ideal situation, not because I want to see him back on the track racing for my sake, but because I want Steve to be happy, and it seems to me someone who still feels the competitive fires, someone who still feels the urge to race, isn't going to be truly happy unless they're racing.

Racing in a lower series isn't something to be ashamed of either - it's a driver doing what they feel they need to do to keep racing. Steve will likely get to race a competitive car that he can contend for wins with. I think it's better to race competitively and contend for wins in a lower series than to hold out and wait for the perfect ride to come along in a higher series. Wins are wins - there's an incredible thrill that comes from winning a race whether it's in the Cup series or in the Camping World East Series. I'm just looking for Steve to have fun racing, and hopefully race competitively enough on a regular basis to where he feels good about himself as a driver. If it turns into something more, a Truck or Nationwide ride, great, but if not, that's fine too.

I'm not expecting Steve to make a return to a higher series, at least not as a full time driver. That has nothing to do with his talent behind the wheel - as I've said many times before I believe in Steve's ability to race up front and contend for wins when he has a competitive car just as much as I ever did. It's just that most of the issues that have kept him from finding a ride in Cup, Nationwide or Trucks to this point are still going to exist even if Steve dominates the Camping World Series.

I think some think that these past few years are a momentarily blip for Steve, that any day now he's going to get another break, get another elite ride and get back to racing like he did at the peak of his career. But it's impossible to recapture the past. Steve is probably at the tail end of his career - there's no shame in that either. Steve is a very talented driver who has won on all three of Nascar's highest levels. He's accomplished a lot of things, met a lot of people, and had a lot of great experiences over the course of his career in Nascar. There's been some tough times for Steve too, but there's definitely been a lot of great moments too. After the accident I think a lot of people thought that Steve wouldn't - and shouldn't - race again. But he did, and he won too. To me, Steve doesn't have anything to prove to anyone in terms of what he's able to accomplish on the track. He's a talented and winning driver - in Cup, in the Nationwide Series, in Trucks, in Modifieds, and now maybe in the Camping World East Series (has Steve ever raced and won in this series under one of it's other names?) too.

I'm just really looking forward to seeing Steve have a great season in the Camping World East Series that will hopefully include some trips to Victory Lane and being in contention for the Championship!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)

Wassagoinon? Rock of Love Returns

I have a secret shame - I like watching Rock of Love on VH1! Yes, I know I should hang my head in shame - not only is it a cheesy reality show, it's a dating reality show! Normally not the kind of show I'd go anywhere near. However, the bachelor on RoL is Bret Michaels of Poison and I've always been a huge Poison fan. The show is hysterical at times - as much as I like Bret and Poison I can't figure out why these girls are so anxious to get with him - I wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot flaming pole! This season looks to be just as crazy as last season and maybe even more so - it should be pretty entertaining in a somewhat horrifying way.

What cracked me up tonight is that first of all Bret said he was 40 - please, Bret turned 40 like four or five years ago! One of the women was mocking another woman there because she was 45 and "old" - well, what does she think about Bret then?

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

In the News: Michael Waltrip (1/15)

Michael Waltrip looked pretty happy this morning at testing at Daytona and it's no wonder - both he and Dale Jarrett continued to be fast during single car runs today. In this morning's session, Michael was 2nd and 6th fastest, and DJ was 4th and 9th. Cumulatively in single car runs Michael was 3rd and DJ 5th - that's excellent because the single car runs are when Michael Waltrip Racing (and the other teams outside the top 35) are working on things they can use during qualifying. Overall, all the Toyota teams have continued to do well. That doesn't mean that they're going to dominate during Speedweeks but it definitely makes me feel confident that things are going to go a lot better for MWR and the other Toyota teams this year than last at Daytona. This afternoon's test session, as well as both of tomorrow's, will feature drafting practice - hopefully the MWR cars will make a good showing in the draft as well. If nothing else it will make both teams feel good about themselves.

What I'm liking about how well MWR has been doing during testing is that there's been a lot of positive media coverage about Michael and his teams that emphasizes optimism about how improved MWR is going to be this season. After how much negativity was directed at Michael and MWR last year, it's great to see the coverage be so positive now. Today there was a good article in USA Today about how much progress MWR has made since last season. A big factor in what helped MWR - at least on the financial side - was Rob Kauffman coming on-board as a partner. Ty Norris said,

"He's forced in financial support and restraint at the same time. He's a stabilizer. If people were on the fence about whether we're a real organization, Rob helped eliminate some of those questions."

I think Kauffman buying into MWR eliminated some of the doubts in some people's minds because it's unlikely that someone with as much experience in investing and business was going to get involved with an organization that he thought was doomed to fail.

Eric Warren, who joined MWR to be their Director of Engineering last year said,

"People started talking inside the garage that something big is happening at Michael Waltrip's, and I want to be part of it,. You get people who are thinking about going to Hendrick or Roush."

That's a pretty big deal when people chose a relatively new organization that has struggled a lot over established and successful organizations like Hendrick or Roush!

Best of all is what Ty said about MWR's goals for this season and especially Speedweeks. He said that MWR set goals to put at least one car in the top 20 and have all three cars be in the top 35 in owner's points. He also said, Norris said the 2008 goals are a victory, putting at least one car in the top 20 and the others in the top 35.

"We had a companywide meeting three weeks ago, and no one left thinking we wouldn't win the Bud Shootout, (qualifying races) and Daytona 500. Those are lofty visions, but they're realistic this year. The cars are way better."

Of course it's not too likely that even the most elite teams in the garage area will sweep all the events during Speedweeks but there's no question that MWR is likely going to have a chance to contend for fine finishes and outstanding results in all the events during Speedweeks! I'm also not sure that MWR will be able to get all three cars in the top 35 and have them stay there all season considering one car will have a rookie in it after the first five races. However, I definitely don't think it's out of the question for two out of the three cars to be in the top 35 and for one of them to be in the top 20 in points. In fact, one writer a few months ago pointed out that had there been no top 35 rule Michael would have made more races since he often was among the 43 fastest cars but got bumped by drivers in the top 35 who had to use provisionals. Well, had Michael been in those races and raced as well as he did in the races he did make, the #55 would have finished 19th in owner's points! So I don't think it's unrealistic to think that MWR might very well achieve their goals this season!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)

You May Be Disappointed...

In looking at the stats for this blog in which I can see search terms by which people end up on this site, I notice that quite a few people are coming here looking for information on Steve Park's fiancee, Jessica Skarpalezos. If you're coming here looking for gossip, dirt or dirt related to Jessica, or Jessica and Steve you will be very disappointed. The same goes for any other driver's significant other. I enjoy a hot piece of gossip just like anyone else, and once in a while (very rarely) discuss something that relates to the driver's personal lives if I think it's newsworthy or effects what they do on the track such as the Ray Evernham/Erin Crocker relationship when it became an issue after Jeremy Mayfield was released from Evernham Motorsports. But for the most part I think that what happens in the driver's personal lives is their own business and while I may discuss things, odds are I'm not going to pass judgment in the same way some other fans have a tendency to do in relation to the choices the drivers make in their personal lives - again, something which may be disappointing to some . I've been known to chat about gossip when it interests me, but it troubles me how much some fans feel they deserve to know intimate details about the driver's personal relationships and the extents they will go to find out information - often the more negative the better it seems. I could generate a lot of traffic by discussing the driver's relationships all the time but that's not the kind of traffic I want here. So if you want information on Jessica or another Nascar wife or girlfriend you'd be better off visiting one of the many other sites with that kind of irrelevant stuff on it.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2008

Photo of the Day - Seal

Chatham, MA, August, 2007. I don't think I ever saw a seal that up close in the wild until Cape Cod. To the people living there the seals are pests, but I thought it was pretty cool to see the seals.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts On Random Thoughts (1/14)

*Not only is Ken Schrader testing for BAM Racing in the #49 this week at Daytona and racing for them during Speedweeks, he'll also be testing for them later this month at California and Las Vegas. Although Ken didn't say that he would be in the #49 for any races beyond the Daytona 500, if he makes it in, that he'll be participating in other test sessions for them beyond this one is an indication that they may put him behind the wheel for a few other races. Ken did say though that he plans on racing something somewhere every weekend this season and I have no doubt that's exactly what he'll do. I can see why BAM might want to put Ken in the #49 again since he might attract some sponsorship for them, but I have to wonder if Ken would want to race for them on a regular basis. While John Andretti was able to do a good job of getting the car in a lot of races towards the end of last season, I think that it might be even harder for this team to make races than it was last, especially if all the Toyota teams are improved.

*Whiskey River, the nightclub that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has been planning for three years, is currently under construction in Charlotte. Apparently Junior couldn't build the club while he was sponsored by Budweiser - at least with the Whiskey River name - presumably because Bud would have objected to him seemingly promoting another kind of adult beverage over beer. There's so many things that Junior is involved with on top of adjusting to racing for a new team and sometimes I wonder if he's not spreading himself just a wee bit too thin in spite of having his sister, Kelley Earnhardt and others to help him.

*The Junior Nation will get to see Junior Super Bowl weekend in some commercials for AMP Energy Drink. One ad features Junior taking on a camel (huh?) and another a gorilla (double huh?). Supposedly the animals are meant to "represent the forces that drivers endure on a race track at 200 mph." (triple-huh?). Maybe I have to see the commercials to get it but I don't think of camels or gorillas when I think of Nascar. The whole thing sounds ridiculous. Apparently these commercials came about because viewers like commercials during the Super Bowl that feature celebrities and animal antics. For the amount of money that's probably being spent on these commercials Pepsi (they make AMP) better hope these commercials come out a lot better than they sound.

*In other Junior related news Tony Eury, Jr. said today that he'll be disappointed if Junior doesn't win at least four races this season. Well, I think Tony, Jr. should hold off on making any bold predictions or setting any lofty goals. I seem to remember Tony, Jr. making some big predictions about how many races they were going to win last year and they ended up not winning a single one. I think Junior is going to be very strong this season and will likely win at least one race, but the Cup series is extremely competitive. Maybe Tony, Jr. should worry about getting through testing and being prepared as possible for the start of the season before he makes any predictions. It would not be a good thing for Tony, Jr., Junior or this team as a whole to get overconfident before they even took to the track for a single race.

*During his session with the media today Kevin Harvick said that he has a new hobby - watching politics. He then proceeded to diss Hillary Clinton and endorse Mike Huckabee. While I respect Kevin's right to his opinions and I like that Kevin is willing to be open about what he thinks, I think he needs to be careful when it comes to politics as that (and religion) are two topics that generate strong feelings and can be very divisive. Kevin's sponsors would be less than pleased if some were turned off from him based on the comments he made on politics. Granted many of those in the garage area as well as many fans tend to be Republicans but I just don't think this is a good road for Kevin to go down.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:08 PM | Comments (0)

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (1/14)

Dale Jarrett and Michael Waltrip are taking part in the second Cup test session at Daytona this week and the early test speeds are very good for both of them. While the standard disclaimer applies that it's hard to draw definite conclusions from testing since every team has a different agenda and some teams may be trying things that they can't use during actual races, I'm very happy to see DJ was fastest this morning (184.987) and Michael was 7th fastest J(183.299). Those speeds are particularly good to see because this morning's session was single-car runs which is similar to the way things are for qualifying and of course both DJ and Michael are outside the top 35 in owner's points so they'll have to make the first five races of next season on speed. There's no telling how things are going to go for the rest of testing this week, but at least early on Michael Waltrip Racing has to feel good about how they're doing.

Part of the reason why things are looking up for MWR as compared to where they were at this time last year is because of the new personnel they've brought on-board including Paul Andrews, who will be Michael's crew chief this season. Paul, who got to know Michael when they were both at DEI, has also know Ty Norris, MWR's general manager for years dating back before he was also at DEI, and it was Ty who asked Paul if he might be interested in joining MWR. Recently Paul did an interview for MWR's website and I have to say I like his optimism - not only does he think that MWR as a whole has a lot of potential, he also thinks that if Michael qualifies for the Daytona 500 that he can win it for the third time - I have to agree! Michael really needs someone as his crew chief who believes in him and his ability to win and Paul definitely seems to believe in him. Paul says that he would like for Michael to be the first Toyota driver to end up in Victory Lane and I would very much like for that to happen too!

Before going to testing in Daytona, Michael was in Nashville for the third annual Sound & Speed, which raises money for the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Victory Junction Gang Camp. Nascar drivers and country music stars join together for autograph and Q&A sessions, and there was also a concert and an auction. In the past Michael has been MC of the auction, which attendees have said has been hysterical. Someone who was at Sound & Speed said that when Michael was introduced for his autograph session something was said about how he was the stripper from the Wildhorse Saloon, which is where I think the auction took place. I would love to know the story behind that, and oh, does the imagination go wild with that one!

As I mentioned last week, Michael will be returning to the booth for Truck Series broadcasts again this season, something I'm really happy about. Some fans find Michael annoying as a broadcaster and because they don't like him believe that everyone who works with him must dislike him as well. But based on what Krista Voda, who works with Michael on Truck race broadcasts said recently that's not the case. She said of working with him,

"Michael is a riot. He is always so relaxed. If the rest of us are stressing during a commercial break, he is likely singing! Michael cares about the Truck Series, and, even as busy as he is, dedicates time to studying the series each week. We don't always see him as much, because he's pulled in so many different directions, but he's there when it counts."

I can't say I'm surprised in the least that Michael would be singing during commercial breaks! It doesn't take much to get him to break into song. Nor is is surprising that he would be more relaxed during commercial breaks than others. He's said previously that doing TV work is like a hobby for him, something he loves, and not like work. Plus, in comparison to the stress and pressure that comes from racing and all that he had to deal with as an owner last season being in the booth must seem like a vacation!

I agree with Krista about Michael caring about the Truck Series - he's talked about the series on his XM show and it's very obvious that he's a fan of the series and it's drivers. That he takes the time to prepare for broadcasting the races is clear too - some things may be fed to him by the producers but Michael seems to be very familiar with the teams and drivers. Of course some of that comes from having raced against some of them and being a presence in the garage area for years so that helps him to get to know people, but Michael seems to be familiar with the "nobody" or young drivers just as much as he is with the veteran or "name" drivers.

In other MWR news, David Reutimann won't be testing his Nationwide car until later this week, but he was extremely enthusiastic and optimistic about the #99 team while at Cup testing last week. David seems to think that the Championship battle might come down to himself and Carl Edwards again, which is probably a safe bet. David recognizes that Carl is a tough competitor and talented driver, so wining the Championship over Carl won't be easy. I think David can do it though. As he says consistency is key - if David can be as consistently good all of this season as he was the second half of last season he will be in the hunt for the Championship again, and the points battle will be a lot tighter.

Now if only MWR can get things sorted out with Josh Wise. Apparently sponsorship is an issue and it may prevent him from racing as much this season as originally planned. That's very disappointing to me because I think Josh is tremendously talented and I think it's important for MWR to continue to develop him for the future of the organization. Hopefully they'll be able to find enough sponsorship so that he'll race frequently in the Nationwide Series or elsewhere this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

Tourist Dies at Aruba's Natural Pool

In 2005 my husband and I went to Aruba for our honeymoon. Like so many others we made the trek to the Natural Pool which is on Aruba's North Coast and part of Arikok National Park. On the South Coast where all the hotels are the beaches are sandy and the water is calm, but on the North Coast where the Natural Pool is, the beaches are rocky, the waves are much bigger and everything is much wilder and less developed. The trip to the Natural Pool involved driving on a steep, rocky, dirt road - good thing we had a jeep! Jim loved the drive to the pool, I was terrified that one wrong move and we were going to tip over and roll all the way down to the water! However, one thing I didn't mind was the spectacular views - truly gorgeous, but due to all the dirt and the need to hold on tight so I didn't bounce around too much I wasn't able to take that many photos during that part of the journey. When we finally got down to the parking area for the Natural Pool, we then had to climb down numerous steps in oven-like heat, only to be very underwhelmed by what we saw. Though many consider a trip to the Natural Pool to be a highlight of their trip (maybe because of how good it feels to get in the water after the long hot trip to get there), we saw nothing to persuade us to stay more than a few minutes.

Nor did we venture into the Natural Pool itself. The rocks that we would have had to climb on and around looked too treacherous to us, and we were even leery of the pool itself where waves could sweep over the rocks into the pool, particularly considering that I can't swim too well. There wasn't a lifeguard - or an easy way to get help if something went amiss - made it seem risky to go into the water. None of this seemed to be deterring anyone else - there was a steady stream of people making their way into and out of the Natural Pool, but I didn't like what I was seeing, but I just chalked it up to me being a worry-wart as I often am.

But I can't say that I'm surprised to see that there was a drowning recently at the Natural Pool (if one follows the link, ignore the nonsense about Natalie Holloway, the original article is no longer available on the newspaper's site), and in poking around there I came across some talk of some other incident there. Apparently the waves were particularly big on the day of this incident because of even higher than usual winds, and that led to a Bulgarian tourist being swept out of the pool. Of course anyone can run into trouble with rouge waves and undercurrents at any beach, but it seems like it's especially something to watch out for at an area like the Natural Pool where it seems like the waves and current would be very unpredictable, yet I would guess a lot of people are in vacation mode where they think nothing's going to happen, plus there's probably an assumption that because countless people visit the Natural Pool that it must be completely safe. Not so.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

January 13, 2008

Mavericks Surf Contest

24-year old Greg Long won first place in the Marvericks Surf Contest in Half Moon Bay, California yesterday. Competitors rode waves that were "only" 30 feet - in 2006 the contest featured waves as big as 50 feet! I've long been fascinated by big waves and it's clear that many others are equally as interested in big waves and the men who ride them - 30,000-40,000 showed up yesterday to watch the contest. Yahoo has a great slideshow of images from the contest. It's amazing to see how the riders were dwarfed by the huge waves they were riding.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:56 AM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2008

Photo of the Day - Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth, Epcot Center, Walt Disney World, Florida. January, 2004.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

Steve Park Not Done Yet!

There's been no official announcement but someone just posted on Steve Park Central, that they heard Steve Park on Sirius and apparently he's going to race all thirteen races in the Camping World East (formerly Busch East) Series this season! This is awesome news! I'm so happy that Steve's actually going to be doing some racing this season! From the sounds of it Steve will be racing for the team that he's raced with twice before at Dover, NDS, which means that he will likely be racing up front and contending for wins in most, if not all, of the races since both times he had a very competitive car. Yay!!!!

I'm so glad that Steve didn't keep holding out for a ride in Cup, Nationwide or Trucks - nothing in any of those three series was likely to materialize for him given his insistence that it had to be an elite ride. Odds are racing in a lower series isn't what Steve would consider an ideal situation but this will be an opportunity for him to have some fun racing without some of the pressure that comes with racing in some of the higher series and I hope he really enjoys himself in the races he's in! It's hard to find media coverage of the Camping World Series and the races are only broadcast live on a channel I don't get (at least that was the case last season) but I'm really looking forward to seeing the replays on Speed (if they still show them), and seeing Steve on the track racing again!!

I hope to be wrong, but I still think Steve is pretty much done in Cup, Nationwide and Trucks, but I'm really, really, really happy that he's not done in racing completely! He's said so many times how much desire he has to keep racing and how he was born to race, so one reason why I didn't feel too good about his situation was because I know that it must be very difficult for him to sit on the sidelines and not race, even if it's partially by choice because he didn't want to race anything that didn't meet his standards. I feel so much better knowing that he's going to be going to the track and doing something that is important to him. I'm glad that he finally decided to just go out and race instead of waiting around for the perfect ride to come along.

Winning a race, maybe even multiple races isn't out of the question for Steve if the cars that he's given is anything like what he had to race at Dover the past two years. That would be so awesome if he got to Victory Lane again. The Camping World Series isn't as prestigious as Cup, Busch or Trucks, or even ARCA really, but it's still an opportunity for Steve to feel good about himself if the results are good, have some fun, and show that he can still win!

There's a few races in the Northeast, including two road course races, maybe somehow I'll get to see him race in person!

Posted by silverdsl at 03:23 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*Due to a lack of sponsorship, Morgan-McClure Motorsports has laid off all their employees and closed their doors. From the sounds of it there is still a possibility that they may field the #4 at Daytona for Mike Wallace but otherwise if not sponsorship is found, after 25 years, MMM will be no more. It's very unfortunate but it's not unexpected. Although MMM has had success in Cup, they've struggled considerably the past few years, and I knew it was going to be hard for them to find sponsorship since they didn't have a driver once they parted ways with Ward Burton and were outside the top 35 in owner's points. It was a vicious circle for MMM - they didn't have the resources that other teams did which prevented them from getting good results, but to get the money that would help them gain more resources they needed to be more competitive to attract sponsors.

*Erin Crocker is in Daytona testing a truck for Morgan Dollar Motorsports. As noted below Ted Musgrave is apparently trying to work out a deal with them so she might just be helping them out until that deal gets done, but I'd like to see Crocker get another chance in the Truck Series in a ride that isn't owned by Ray Evernham, who she's in a relationship with. Given the criticism and scrutiny that relationship received it might do Crocker a lot of good to race for someone else and the results might improve for her. I've never had as much of a problem with Crocker's relationship with Evernham as many fans, and I think it's a little ridiculous that after they've been together for so long that it's even still an issue for people, particularly if she's not racing for Gillett-Evernham Motorsports any more.

*Billy Ballew Motorsports will field a truck for Kyle Busch at all the truck races which are companion events to Cup races this season. David Stremme will race most of the remaining races. Busch loves racing a truck so much that at least in the past he's raced for BBM for free. I would expect to see him up front and contending for wins in many of the races he's in. I think this is a good opportunity for Stremme. His preference is probably for a full-time ride but this truck will be competitive and he'll also be racing some Nationwide races for Rusty Wallace, Inc.

*Last year Stacy Compton worked for ESPN and only raced part-time but this season he'll be racing full-time in the Truck Series for Bobby Hamilton Racing, something which came about because the company he has an ownership stake in, Arrington Manufacturing, merged with BHR during the off-season. At the end of last season he had expressed a desire to race more this year and it's good for him that he found a way to make that happen. Compton was 5th fastest in this morning's test session.

*The Wood Brothers announced that cousins Jon and Keven Wood will split the season in the #21 Truck with sponsorship from the Air Force, who will also sponsor Jon for nine races in the #21 Cup car. Maybe I'll be wrong but I have a feeling that Jon might not have it easy in Cup, particularly since the #21 hasn't been very competitive lately, but we'll see what happens.

*Boris Said is going to attempt five Cup races next season with his No Fear team including the Daytona 500 and both road course races. However, Said didn't seem too optimistic about his chances for qualifying for the races he's planning on attempting. Apparently he has some questions about the Ford engines and they haven't had much time to get used to the COT either. Said will also race the three Nationwide road course races. I expect that we'll see Said in the road course races where he will be competitive but I'm not sure we'll see him in the field for the other races given how much competition there is for so few open spots.

*Turns out the reason Kirk Shelmerdine is going to attempt the Daytona 500 in the #33 car for Richard Childress Racing instead of Scott Wimmer as originally planned is because Shelmerdine brought some sponsorship with him to RCR. I have to admit to being a little surprised that even a well-funded and established organization like RCR is bumping drivers based on who has sponsorship and who doesn't. Of course even RCR can't afford to field a car without sponsorship full-time, but for one race in which they had already made a commitment to a driver, I would have thought that they would have moved forward regardless of sponsorship.

*I realized that unless they show up late, Key Motorsports doesn't seem to be taking part in this weekend's test. That doesn't bode well for them for this season...

Posted by silverdsl at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

Musgrave Only Helping Out at HT, Doesn't Have the Sponsorship for a New Ride

No word on what the story is with Donny Lia and whether he's out at HT Motorsports for sure or just not testing with them (though it would seem curious not to test with a new driver considering it's an opportunity for the team to get used to working together), but apparently Ted Musgrave is only helping out the #59 team at testing and won't actually be racing for them this season (at least as of now). In fact, although he's been talking to some teams he doesn't have a ride at all yet for 2008. Musgrave said,

"I was going to come down anyway, not drive anything, not bring anything, sometimes you come down and waste your time and money. [I] didn't want to do that. But Jim called me up and asked me to come, and I'm willing to help out, no problem at all."

It makes sense that if Musgrave was going to be there anyway that he jump in the #59 truck and help that team out. It keeps him involved and visible and helps him feel a part of things even though he doesn't have a ride. In addition, one never knows where a favor, in this case helping the #59 team, might lead - there's no such thing as too much good will.

As with so many other drivers sponsorship issues are the reason why Musgrave hasn't found a new ride yet. However, his situation is different than a lot of other drivers. Musgrave actually has a sponsor - ASE - to bring with him to a team but that's still not enough to get him a ride because the funding from ASE isn't enough for a full season. He's been talking with Morgan-Dollar Motorsports and from the sounds of it he could have started the season in one of their trucks and hoped to find sponsorship for the rest of the year but he wants to have something set for the full season. Musgrave said,

"You need more sponsors to run the series. Nowadays it's taking anywhere from $3 [million] to $4 million to run this situation and ASE's sponsorship won't cover the year - it won't even cover half the year. Instead you've got to find other people to go along with them. That's what we're doing right now to see if we can collect enough sponsors, co-sponsors and stuff, that put a whole package for the year."

I have to say that I read that quote and I immediately thought of Steve Park. Steve has been telling fans that if only he could find a sponsor willing to hand over $2.5 million he would have a ride. Well, as I've suspected $2.5 million isn't going to cut it. Musgrave says he needs $3-4 million, and some of the best teams in the garage might want even more than that. If Steve is going to potential sponsors and asking for $2.5 million he's probably wasting his - and their - time, unless he already has other sponsors lined up to make up the difference (unlikely) or is willing to take a less than elite ride that would cost less to sponsor, something he has said multiple times he won't do. Musgrave is the 2005 Truck Series champion who has won 17 races, including one last season. Meanwhile Steve hasn't raced a truck in a year and a half and has only one win in the Truck Series (plus the Nationwide and Cup wins). If Musgrave and other talented drivers with more recent success than Steve can't find sponsorship to bring with them to a team, then how is Steve going to find a sponsor?

The next question is if Musgrave is only helping the #59 team out at testing then who is going to race for them this season? Maybe Lia will end up behind the wheel after all - I sure hope so! There's also drivers like Willie Allen, Ryan Matthews, Bobby East and others available. I'm sure that the emails will be starting pleading for them to put Steve behind the wheel again will be starting any second but considering he's not testing for them despite Jim Harris wanting a veteran's input during this test, I'm not thinking it's too likely that he'll end up racing for them.

Then the question becomes will Musgrave end up racing in 2008? There's not a lot of time between now and the first race of the season at Daytona. Musgrave has an advantage over a lot of drivers in that he has a partial sponsorship, so he doesn't have to find sponsorship for an entire season. Still, convincing other sponsors to work with him in time for Daytona might not be so easy. I wonder if Musgrave will eventually consider racing just part of the season with the ASE sponsorship rather than not race at all? It will be important for Musgrave to race at some point this season if he wants to continue racing because as we've seen it doesn't work out too well for drivers to sit out waiting for their ideal situation to come along. That's usually a career killer.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)

Donny Lia Out at HT Motorsports, Ted Musgrave in?

Here's a shocker - Donny Lia may already have lost his ride with HT Motorports in the #59! It had been announced at the end of last season that Lia would race the #59 this season and Lia was listed on a pre-testing release by Nascar as participating in this test in the #59. Well, when the team showed up at the track this morning they had Ted Musgrave testing with them, and according to Nascar Scene, a spokesperson for Lia said that he's still trying to get his plans in place for 2008.

What happened here? Lia, who was the 2007 Whelen Modifieds champion and won seven races in that series, was announced as the driver of the #59j with some fanfare. Originally he had been working with Bill Davis Racing, but when they couldn't put him in a truck, supposedly Tommy Baldwin, Jr. helped get him the ride at HT. Lia also brought sponsorship with him in the form of an energy drink - I have to wonder if that sponsorship deal fell apart. Whatever happened I'm extremely disappointed that Lia might not have a ride in the Truck Series anymore. I was very much looking forward to watching him race full-time in the Truck Series this year.

The question is whether Musgrave is going to be taking Lia's place in the #59 this season or whether he's just helping them out for testing? As a driver who has already been a part of the Toyota family in that he's driven for a Toyota team before I'm not surprised that Musgrave might find a ride with another Toyota team since those teams seem to like to use drivers who have already been affiliated with Toyota. But I didn't expect that Musgrave would end up with this team. Even if they hadn't announced that Lia would be racing for them this season I wouldn't have picked this as the team that Musgrave would end up with. But maybe whatever deals he was working on at the end of last season never came through for him and when HT parted ways with Lia, assuming he really won't be racing for them this season, since he was available - and he's a quality driver - they put him behind the wheel.

Eventually more is going to have to be said about this by Musgrave, Lia or HT since I think a lot of people are probably going to have a lot of questions about what's going on.

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

Chuck Knoblauch Surfaces

After he retired from baseball in 2002, Chuck Knoblauch almost completely disappeared, to the point where apparently even the New York Yankees, the team he played for from 1998-2001, didn't know how to contact him. When the Mitchell Report was released, Knoblauch was named as one of the players who used performance enhancers, specifically HGH. Knoblauch has finally broken his silence to say... well, not much of anything other than that he was no desire to be involved with anything to do with baseball. Bitter much Chuck?

Knoblauch didn't address whether the allegations in the Mitchell Report were accurate or not, simply saying that he has nothing to defend or hide. Which makes sense either way - if he didn't use performance enhancers he has nothing to be ashamed of and with the way Knoblauch's career went, I don't think it's going to make much difference if it turns out he did use performance enhancers. Knoblauch's reputation can't be any more damaged than it already is from the way he lost his ability to field his position to the point where one of his errant throws hit TV personality Keith Olbermann's mother in the face while she was sitting in the stands. Plus, there's Knoblauch's surly and unpleasant demeanor at times. Knoblauch said in his comments to the media that he didn't care what anyone though and that attitude was pretty obvious while he was playing.

One thing that's interesting to me is that Knoblauch was called to testify in front of Congress along with Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, but not other players who were named in the Mitchell Report. The common link between all three, aside from having all played for the Yankees and that they allegedly got performance enhancers from Brian McNamee is that all three (at least at the time when Knoblauch was still an active player) have the Hendrick Brothers as an agent. That may have nothing to do with any of this mess, and they might have been approached to testify because they are big-name players, but I still found it interesting that Congress singled the three of them out and not others (as of yet).

Although we'll likely never know for sure if Knoblauch used performance enhancers unless he admits to it, I wouldn't be surprised if he did use, and not because he was such a stellar player. By the time he allegedly started using his career was in a major downward spiral - once thought of as one of the best fielding second basemen in the game, Knoblauch became unable to play that position due to his throwing issues, and he wasn't able to contribute much at the plate either. So I could see him trying performance enhancers in the hopes that it might help him regain some of his prior success.

And just for old time's sake, something I almost never say about any athlete ever - Chuck, you suck! That should give some indication about my feelings on Knoblauch.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2008

New Crew Chief for Brian Vickers

Red Bull Racing announced that Kevin Hamlin, will be taking over as the crew chief for Brian Vickers on the #83 team. Hamlin is probably best known for his stint at Richard Childress Racing, where he was the crew chief for Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt, but he was also Dave Blaney's crew chief at Bill Davis Racing last season before being released in June in favor of Tommy Baldwin, Jr. I think this is Vickers's third crew chief since he's been at RBR, so it seems like he's had some trouble finding a crew chief who is the right fit for him and his team. I'd like to see Vickers do well so hopefully he and Hamlin will be able to work well together and get good results.

It seems like it's been a somewhat quiet off-season for RBR. I'm sure they're working just as hard as every other team in the garage area to get ready for Daytona and improve on their results from last season but not much has been said about any changes they've made on the competitive side. I guess since Michael Waltrip Racing made many changes in terms of personnel since last season in an effort to improve performance, I figured RBR might do the same. And maybe they have and we just haven't heard about it - it will be essential that they make big improvements from last season since neither of their cars are locked into the top 35 in owner's points. I wonder if having the owners also be the sponsors, so they don't have to worry about sponsorship like some other teams do, makes the sense of urgency different for them? Of course they want to get to Victory Lane just as much as any other team but they don't have to worry about losing sponsors if the results aren't good.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

Jacques Villeneuve May Not Race the Full Season?

Speed is reporting that Jacques Villeneuve may only race the first five Cup races in the #27 for Bill Davis Racing, not the full season as had been previously announced. Although there had been some rumors early on that Villeneuve was bringing sponsorship with him to BDR, that doesn't appear to be the case since a lack of sponsorship was cited as why they might not race the full season - I guess BDR isn't willing to go through what they did with the #36 last season when sponsorship woes severely affected their ability to be compettive. Apparently the plan is for BDR to see where they are after the first five races and whether they're in the all important top 35 in owner's points, then make a decision.

If I were at a company interested in sponsoring a Cup car, I would be very leery of giving BDR $15 million or more to sponsor the #27. Aside from being outside the top 35, meaning that that the team could miss races, which would mean little to no exposure on those race weekends, Villeneuve is not only a rookie to Cup, but has very little experience in Nascar overall. I wasn't particularly impressed with what we saw from him last season either in the Trucks or in Cup. In addition, BDR's second team was horrible last season even with a veteran driver who knows how to win races behind the wheel, and overall for the past few years their results haven't been all that great. Sure, Dave Blaney was was one of the better Toyota Cup drivers last season but even he had to fight to be in the top 35. BDR has to hope that some Canadian companies will want to latch on to Villeneuve in an effort to promote themselves to a new audience.

Not having a teammate could be bad news for Blaney. Single car teams are at a definite disadvantage to multi-car teams. Even having just two teams probably puts BDR at a disadvantage. There's less information and resources to be gathered and exchanged. So although the #22 team has a solid sponsor in CAT, and is in the top 35 to start the season if the #27doesn't race the full season it could have an impact on how the season goes for Blaney as well.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

January 09, 2008

Brendan Gaughan Finds a Ride; Richard Johns Possibly Loses His

It came down to the wire since truck testing starts in just a few days, but Brendan Gaughan found a ride for 2008 - he'll be racing the #10 truck for Circle Bar Racing this season as a teammate to Rick Crawford. The #10 is a solid ride - David Starr finished 10th in points in it last season. However, I don't think it's one of the more elite rides in the garage, in fact Brendan's results in the #77 were very similar to what David did in the #10 and Brendan wasn't all that happy with his performance at times last season. I definitely think it's possible that Brendan might contend for some wins next season, but I don't expect to see him among the trucks that race up front on a weekly basis.

Based on the press release it sounds like Brendan did bring some or all of his crew from the #77 to Circle Bar like he had said he wanted to do. At the very least his crew chief, Bryan Berry, will be following him from the #77 to the #10. What I'm wondering is if a number of Brendan's crew from the #77 were hired along with Brendan, how many people at Circle Bar might have lost their jobs as a result since the #10 team had their own crew. Of course teams make changes to their crews all the time, and if there were any changes to the #10 team maybe they found positions elsewhere at Circle Bar. However, I thought it was a little ironic for Brendan to say that he wanted to take care of his crew and make sure that they still had jobs but bringing them to another organization with him might result in other people losing their jobs. ETA: I heard Brendan on XM yesterday and apparently there were some openings at CIrcle Bar for six of his crew members so it doesn't sound like many, if any, people lost their positions for Brendan's guys. What was good to hear is that Brendan and his father tried to take care of as many of those who had worked for them at South Point Racing as possible, either by trying to help them find other jobs in racing or by giving them jobs at the South Point casino.

What's going to be interesting to me is how Brendan is going to adjust to racing for someone other than his father again. That didn't work out too well for him at Penske Racing and not just because the cars he was given to race weren't very good. Brendan admitted that he was unable to conform to the way other people wanted him to be like and I think his mouth also got him into some trouble. I don't think Brendan's father let him do whatever he wanted, but I think he had a lot of freedom at South Point Racing. It's not just an owner other than his father that he'll have to answer to - Brendan will also have a sponsor other than one of his father's companies for the first time in four years. Sponsors sometimes get a little prickly when their driver speaks their mind too honestly and openly. Some had speculated that Michael Gaughan would continue sponsoring Brendan even though South Point was closing but I'm not surprised that's not happening (at least not as a primary sponsor). For one thing if his father was going to continue to fund his career he might has well have left South Point open, but I also suspect that Brendan's attitude towards the merger with Wyler Racing might not have gone over very well with his father and might have led to them deciding not to continue working together (at least for now) in racing. ETA: In Brendan's XM interview he seemed to say that there was indeed some friction between himself and his father, but that in the long-run they'll be fine which is how it should be with family.

While Brendan found a ride just before testing, Richard Johns might have lost his before even testing with his new team let alone racing with them. Jayski has an "I heard" item that indicates that Johns lost his ride in the #60 at Wyler because the sponsorship deal with havfun.com might have fallen through. I can't say I'm surprised that this deal might have fallen though - it's one thing if they were dealing with Google or Amazon, but when it comes to these smaller, unknown dot-coms, they aren't always able to follow through on their obligations.

Some Steve Park fans are celebrating this bit of news because they think it opens the door to Steve getting this ride. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think the chances of that happening are very good. Without sponsorship for their second truck with Terry Cook, I would think that any driver they put behind the wheel will have to bring sponsorship with them, and I doubt Steve has any sponsors lined up. If he did he probably wouldn't still be looking for a ride this late in the game. In addition, as I've said before if Wyler really wanted to give Steve a ride they likely would have done so already regardless of the sponsorship situation as they did with Cook. I wouldn't be surprised to see Wyler only field one truck this season. Not only might they not have a driver and sponsor, but according to Jayski Rick Gay has also left the team. This late in the going, especially being this close to testing, I think it would be hard to put all those pieces together successfully.

If it's true that Johns has lost his ride I feel pretty bad for him. When the announcement was made Johns talked about how he didn't need any gifts for the holidays because this is the best gift he could get and how it was all of his dreams coming true. It must be a terrible feeling to have all those dreams dashed without even have raced a single race in the truck. Johns is a young driver without a lot of experience in Nascar and it might be hard for him to find another ride - if there's any open rides even left.

Of course all of this is a result of the failed merger between South Point Racing and Wyler Racing which is why I'm discussing both Brendan and Johns in the same entry. Brendan was slated to race the #60 for Wyler-Gaughan with sponsorship from his father/South Point Casino. No one has said exactly why the merger fell apart but I would guess that how vocal Brendan was about how unhappy he was about the merger and how he didn't want to race for Wyler-Gaughan played a big role in it. It'll be very interesting to see how things go for Wyler this season and what their long-term future is - if things don't go too well I have to wonder how much resentment might build towards Brendan. ETA: Brendan was also on Sirius yesterday and alluded to some ill will being directed towards him. He declined to discuss what led to the merger failing but indicated that there's been quite a bit of speculation and things said about him not just by fans but by those in the garage area as well.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*Best Nascar news of the day for myself and any other Michael Waltrip fans - Michael will be returning as part of the broadcast team for truck races on Speed! Yay! I really enjoy watching truck races and I love watching even more when Michael's in the booth. I adore his enthusiasm for the series and its drivers, and I think his barely contained excitement in the booth for the action on the track mirrors that of the fans at home. He also works really well with Phil Parsons and Rick Allen, both of whom I've come to really like a lot too. I know Michael really enjoys doing TV work and it gives him a break from the stress that comes from being an owner/driver in Cup so I'm glad that he's going to get to continue doing something that he enjoys. Speed does a great job with their truck race broadcasts and an excellent job of covering Nascar overall. I'm happy that they'll be adding HD content this season and I hope it will be available in my area.

*Jayski has an "I heard" item that Marc Mitchell is the new driver of the #15 truck for BIlly Ballew Motorsports but that the team might have to skip the first five races of the season "due to a lack of engines from Toyota." What does that mean? Did Toyota run out of engines for their teams? Did BBM not make arrangements for motors with enough time to get them prior to the start of the season? Did they not have the money to purchase them for the entire season? I've heard of financial issues limiting the amount of engines a team can purchase but I've never heard of a manufacturer running out of engines.

*Bill Lester might not have a truck ride but that's not going to stop him from racing. Lester will be racing in the Grand-Am Rolex Series for Southard Racing. While he might not be the most talented driver on the track, Lester isn't willing to give up on what he loves doing - racing - even if it means racing in a different series. I doubt he'll ever be a Championship caliber driver but it's good to see him continue racing and I hope he has some success in the Grand-Am series.

*Hendrick Motorsports and Jimmie Johnson have been talking about a contract extension but there hasn't been any urgency to get anything done... yet. Johnson is signed through 2010 so there's time, but I can see why HMS wants to lock him up for even longer as soon as possible. These days drivers get lured by big-money deals to other teams even when their current contracts have a year or more remaining. There are quite a few teams, sponsors and manufacturers that would love to be associated with a driver who has had as much success as Johnson so if his services were to ever become available HMS could find themselves on the outside looking in.

*A crew chief swap was announced yesterday - Cully Barraclough will move from the #38 to the #28 to become David Gilliland's crew chief and Todd Parrott will then move to the #28 to become Travis Kvapil's crew chief. If I remember correctly Barraclough worked with Gilliland previously, maybe in the Busch Series, so this change will probably work out well for Gilliland. And for Kvapil too since Parrott is a well-regarded crew chief.

*Speaking of Yates Racing, in an article on Nascar.com, Doug Yates talked about how he's funding both Cup cars out of his own pocket. From the sounds of it there's some possibilities for sponsorship for the Daytona 500, but not much after that. As I've said previously, I don't see how Yates can afford to field two Cup cars for an entire season with little or no sponsorship. Some have said that Roush-Fenway Racing, with whom Yates has a partnership, is going to find sponsorship for those cars no problem, but now that they're losing AAA as a sponsor, they may be in need of some extra sponsorship themselves in the future. I'm hoping for the best because I like Gilliland and Kvapil but I'm not feeling too confident about 2008 for them right now.

*Now that Joe Gibbs has retired as coach of the Washington Redskins, he's going to be making a return to the company that bears his name - Joe Gibbs Racing, which has been run by his son, J.D. in his absence. I'm interested to see if that's going to have any effect on the JGR drivers next season, all three of whom have a tendency to act out at times. Somehow I doubt any of those three will be any less emotional, aggressive or less inclined to speak their minds than they were before.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)

January 08, 2008

More Nonsense from Roger Clemens

After a big build-up like it was going to blow the lid off the performance enhancers scandal in Major League Baseball and clear Roger Clemens's name, the secretly recorded phone call between Clemens and McNamee amounted to a whole lot of nothing. At no time did McNamee say that he lied and at no time did Clemens admit to using performance enhancers. Although Clemens legally can get away with taping the phone call with McNamee as per Texas law, it comes across as pretty icky to me, particularly since the phone call came about because of an issue with McNamee's son - kids shouldn't be made pawns by anyone in this mess.

The whole press conference itself was a big waste of time from the sounds of it. After saying that he would answer any and all questions from the media, Clemens apparently got angry and stormed out after 15 minutes - convenient way to avoid having to answer tough questions at length isn't it?

I think Clemens would have been much better off issuing a strong denial personally instead of through his handlers when the news first broke, held a press conference at that time to address the media, and then stayed silent and out of sight for a while. Instead he and his "people" have opted to try to manipulate public opinion and it's very distasteful to me. In addition the more Clemens talks the more there is for people to examine and find fault with - such as his claim from the 60 Minutes that he had no prior knowledge of what McNamee told George Mitchell yet his legal team apparently sent investigators to interview McNamee the day before the report was released at which time he told them what he had told Mitchell.

As any number of media members have written about in the last few days the reality is that unless some sort of smoking gun surfaces - and the phone call with McNamee isn't that - we'll likely never know for sure whether Clemens used performance enhancers for sure or not.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2008

Photo of the Day - Grounds for Sculpture

Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ, May, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

Ryan Pemberton Feels He's a Better Fit at MWR Than at DEI

Today Ryan Pemberton repeated comments that I had heard him make on XM a few weeks ago in which he said that he didn't feel that he fit in well at DEI and that he fit in much better, philosophically and otherwise at Michael Waltrip Racing. I think that speaks volumes about DEI that Pemberton felt he fit in better at a relatively new organization that struggled to compete and survive last season than at an established organization that has a winning tradition. Pemberton said,

"It was just one of those things where it's just: Start over. ... I was more in sync with what [MWR] were trying to do than maybe with what DEI was trying to do."

It's hard to know exactly what Pemberton is talking about because he doesn't give details. It's not like DEI hasn't made changes recently - they have. But it seems as if their approach still isn't where it needs to be to move forward as much as what might be needed to be successful. MWR has made a tremendous amount of changes and there seems to be a willingness to make even more and basically do whatever needs to be done to establish themselves as a competitive organization.

Pemberton's dissatisfaction steams from the merger. Apparently Mark Martin tried to work things out so that Pemberton would stay but ultimately he was unsuccessful. Martin said,

"I fought to make that work for him and make that right for him, but at the end of the day, I don't know that he was going to be satisfied with the structure that was there," Martin said. "I'm disappointed that I couldn't get a smile on my race team's faces. I never managed to get a smile on their faces from the merger until the end. ... I tried my guts out. I did everything I could do."

I wonder how many other team members were unhappy and left after the merger? I have to give Martin credit - some drivers might have not wanted to get involved but it sounds like he actively tried to make things better for his team and ensure that they were happy at DEI.

Apparently Pemberton was impressed with MWR, not only their shop and physical resources, but also their philosophy and goals - I really liked hearing that Pemberton liked the direction MWR is heading in because it makes me feel optimistic about the future for MWR! He also said,

"They had to accomplish an awful lot just to do what they did. If you don't know what they went through, you can't really appreciate even where they're at today. I appreciate where they're at and where they're going and what they're trying to do to come back from last year."

MWR not only had to accomplish a lot to get to where they are now, but they also had to endure a lot - some people and organizations might not have been strong enough to survive all that Michael Waltrip and MWR had to deal with last year. But they did survive and they're going to be better in 2008 with Pemberton's help!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)

Robby Gordon Still Angry Over Dakar Being Canceled

*Robby Gordon is still upset about the Dakar Rally being canceled and after hearing that getting prepared for Dakar cost Robby Gordon Motorsports $4.5 million, much of which can't be recouped even though Dakar was canceled, I can't blame him for being upset. I also agree with him that ASO should have had a back-up plan - it's not just terrorism to be concerned with, a race like that could be effected by instability in some of the countries the rally goes through or a natural disaster. They should have a plan to shorten or change the route the rally takes. Had they had those kinds of plans in place perhaps a partial race could have taken place so all the money that over 500 teams spend wouldn't have gone to waste.

However, where Robby loses me completely is where he tries to compare the threats against Dakar to inner-city violence. While there's no question there are some cities where there's a high crime rate, Robby is completely off-base when he says that there's 11 killings a night in Los Angeles. Based on the statistics in the Homicide Report , a blog maintained by the L.A. Times, there were approximately 820 homicides in Los Angeles County in 2007. High numbers indeed but a far cry from 11 murders a night as Robby claims. In addition, I think there's zero comparison between the violence in some cities and international terrorism. Robby seems to feel that the only threat he would face would be from some guys in the back of a pick-up truck shooting at his team, but as we've seen unfortunately extremist groups are capable of violence on a grand scale. That's very different from someone getting murdered as a result of a domestic dispute or in a gang-related drive-by shooting.

Robby probably has to smooth things over with his sponsors that were partnered with him for Dakar in an effort to make sure they don't bail out of fear that Dakar might be canceled again. There's probably other fallout that Robby is going to have to deal with. So I have to wonder if the disappointment over Dakar getting canceled is going to be a distraction for Robby. His early test speeds - which don't necessarily mean much of anything - weren't very good. Given that the last half of the season wasn't very good for Robby it's essential that he starts off well this season.

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

Random Thoughts on News From Daytona Testing Day One

*The morning test session has been completed at Daytona and out of 42 cars, Jimmie Johnson was fastest. It was good to see five Toyotas in the top ten, including David Reutimann who was 8th fastest. Some had predicted that Joe Gibbs Racing was going to have a hard time adjusting after the switch to Toyota, but preliminarily based on the limited information coming from this one test session that may not be the case. Of course all of this doesn't mean much since it's hard to draw too many conclusions from testing. All the teams are on different agendas and some may be experimenting with things they can't or won't be using during actual races. Still, I'm always happy to see the drivers and teams that I like near the top of the speed charts in testing as opposed to at the bottom. It makes me feel confident about those drivers chances for success and it probably gives the teams some confidence as well when they do well in comparison to other teams at testing.

*Last season it had been said that Travis Kvapil was going to race the full Nationwide Series for Roush-Fenway Racing, but due to a lack of sponsorship that's not going to happen. In addition, there's still no primary sponsor for Travis's Cup car or that of his teammate David Gilliland. I've seen some talk that supposedly there are sponsors for both cars but it just hasn't been announced yet but Kvapil seemed to say that both teams were still in need of sponsors. In addition, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to hold off on making a sponsorship announcement if there's a completed deal in place - there's a lot of media attention given to Daytona testing since it's the first time the cars return to the track since last season. So I don't know why a sponsor would want to miss out on a chance for some exposure. There's also a website, sponsoryates.com in which Yates is soliciting sponsorship which is a big indication that they don't have sponsorship locked up - a lot of times teams seem to shy away from using the internet heavily to find sponsors, maybe because they think it makes them look desperate - well, this close to the start of the season Yates may be kind of desperate to get some outside sponsorship money coming in.

*Another team still looking for sponsorship is Bill Davis Racing's #27 team. When it was announced that Jacques Villeneuve was going to race Cup for BDR in 2008 most assumed that he was bringing sponsorship with him. But so far that doesn't seem to be the case. Given BDR's struggles the past few seasons and their inability to field a second car competitively last season, partially due to sponsorship issues, I have my doubts about how much success Villeneuve is going to have this season if BDR can't find sponsorship for him. It's going to be difficult enough for him to adjust to racing Cup and deal with the pressure of having to make races on time but it's going to be even harder if BDR isn't able to give him competitive cars because they don't have the financial resources to do so.

*Even though he's not scheduled to test until next week and the rules prohibit him from testing any earlier, Dale Earhnardt, Jr. showed up at testing today because he was bored sitting at home and wanted to be a part of things with his new teammates. While it might speak to his excitement about the upcoming season, I can't help but wonder if Junior was prodded by some of his handlers or those at Hendrick Motorsports to take an early trip down to Daytona for media and exposure purposes. There's a huge amount of attention given to every move Junior makes to begin with but even more so now because many are anxious to see how things work out for him at HMS. I can see some wanting to take advantage of that attention.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

Roger Clemens Speaks on 60 Minutes

Last night Roger Clemens sat down with Mike Wallace for an interview on 60 Minutes to discuss the allegations in the Mitchell Report that he used performance enhancers. I wasn't at all convinced by Clemens repeated denials that he didn't use performance enhancers. While Clemens strongly denied taking steroids and said multiple times very adamantly that Brian McNamee's allegations in the Mitchell Report were false, I felt that he was evasive at times in his answers to some questions and didn't provide a very compelling explanation as to why the allegations were false or why McNamee would lie. Nor did Clemens give any evidence other than his word that showed that McNamee is lying, which of course is the whole problem - until someone comes up with some concrete evidence right now it's one man's word against another's.

What I find really damning for Clemens is that he admitted that McNamee did in fact inject him with some substances which Clemens claims was vitamin B-12 and Lidocaine. First of all that makes McNamee more credible because at the very least he's apparently telling the truth about injecting Clemens. But the Lidocaine explanation really doesn't make much sense. Apparently Lidocaine is something that's administered locally, and wouldn't be injected in the ass to help with joint pain. In addition, as someone brought up on NYYFans.com, Clemens says that team doctors were injecting him with various things all the time. If the team doctors were available on a moment's notice to inject him - legally - with whatever he needed, why would he have McNamee, who isn't a doctor or any other kind of medical personnel, inject him with anything at all?

One thing that struck me was that when Clemens was asked what the penalty should be for those who are caught using performance enhancers he said,

"I think it's a self-inflicted penalty. They break down quick. It's a quick fix. They're in and out of the game."

No being banned from the game, no involvement with the legal system, no jail time or any other kind of punishment. Just the self-inflicted penalty of the damage done to their bodies. I can't help but wonder if Clemens doesn't want to put himself on the line and talk about how severe the penalties should for someone who uses because he knows full well that he used and could be subject to those penalties? I also found it interesting that Clemens talked about the possible damage to his body done by taking the painkiller Vioxx. If he suffers health issues down the road he could claim it was caused by the Vioxx, not the performance enhancers (if he actually took performance enhancers).

Clemens complained a lot about how his fame has made him a target and how his stature as a player should make him more deserving of the benefit of the doubt. While I agree that at times those in the public eye are the subject of some extremely harsh criticism that they don't always deserve, that's something that comes with the territory. This is a major story that can't be swept under the rug just because it would be more comfortable for Clemens and make it easier for him to get into the Hall of Fame. In addition, that he's accomplished a lot in the game over the 25 years or more that he's played doesn't make him immune from criticism. It also doesn't mean that he's not going to lie or distort the truth. People lie, including major league baseball players. I'm not going to automatically believe that Clemens is telling the truth just because he's famous or because he's won a bunch of Cy Youngs. Clemens might very well be telling the truth - but so could McNamee.

Now comes word that Clemens has filed suit against McNamee for defamation. If that goes to court it could prove to be more damaging than anything in the Mitchell Report since McNamee's investigators will be free to dig deep in an effort to uncover anything and everything about Clemens in an effort to show that their client was telling the truth. It's already publically known that McNamee was accused of date rape and has a checked past (something Clemens brought up in his interview - if McNamee had such a questionable past why was Clemens working with him?), but even the smallest piece of negative information that wasn't previously known about Clemens could be very damaging, particularly in relation to his bid for the Hall of Fame. It could be particularly bad for Clemens if the report in the New York Daily News is true that McNamee has multiple witnesses who will back him up.

Along with Andy Pettitte, McNamee and others, Clemens has also been called to testify in front of Congress. The question is whether he'll speak openly and risk prejury charges if he's ever found to be lying about something he says or whether he'll take the fifth. At first I felt that Clemens should strongly deny the allegations himself if he was really innocent. Now that he won't stop talking - though much of it seems scripted - he may be digging himself a rather large hole that he won't be able to climb out of.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2008

A few Minor Changes...

I've added new categories on this blog for Josh Wise and Michael McDowell so if any fans of those two drivers happen to wander by here they can easily find entries related to both of Michael Waltrip Racing's development drivers who I suspect I will be blogging a lot about this season. Although I blog a lot about Nascar in general, the focus of my interest is often with Michael Waltrip, MWR, and Michael's drivers so many of those who find their way here may do so because they're searching for topics related to Michael and MWR. So I may as well make it easy for those people to find what they're looking for easily.

I may make some other adjustments to the featured categories, including removing the category for Elliott Sadler - I really like Elliott but I've not found inspired to blog much about him. I haven't decided yet though - if Elliott has a good season and there's a lot of news about him I might be more inclined to keep that category. I may add categories for those who might be interested in entries by series - Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series but I haven't decided about that yet either.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*More than a few fans - mostly disgruntled Robby Gordon fans naturally - keep saying that by canceling the Dakar Rally the organizers let the terrorists win. And to an extent I can see their point since it does seem like the organizers are caving to the threats that they received. However, if terrorists were to carry out their plans and disrupt the rally though sniper shootings, kidnappings, bombs and other mayhem, aren't they winning that way too? This was a lose-lose situation for the organizers in which they would be the subject of criticism no matter what they did. If they went forward and there was an incident, the same people who are saying that they shouldn't have "let the terrorists win" would probably be ripping the organizers for stubbornly ignoring the threats and carrying on as usual. I wonder if those who wanted Dakar to go on as planned in spite of the threats realize what an immense and likely impossible task it would be to ensure the safety of the competitors, teams, spectators and media members in some hostile and remote regions. It's not the same as a race taking place at a track or a game at a football stadium where the event is contained in one location. None of those who are so convinced that the organizers made the wrong decisions have presented any kind of plan as to how the rally could have gone the full route safely - they just wanted it to happen. If Dakar is to be held in 2009 or in the future, the organizers are going to have to come up with a way to protect those they are responsible for from terrorists or anyone seeking to do harm.

*Apparently Kirk Shelmerdine is going to be testing a fourth Cup car for Richard Childress Racing at Daytona this week. I have to admit to being a little surprised that Shelmerdine will be behind the wheel instead of Scott Wimmer who tested and raced for RCR last season. That might mean that Shelmerdine will attempt the Daytona 500 in an RCR car - he made the Daytona 500 in his own car in 2006 so it's not out of the question he might be able to qualify for it this season as well, particularly in good equipment like he would have from RCR. However, there will be quite a few good cars competing for only a few open spots so it won't be easy to make the field at Daytona - or at any other subsequent races.

*Gillett-Evernham Motorsports will also have an additional car at testing - the #98 which will be tested by Jason Keller. Odds are that if Evernham fields an additional car at some point next season it won't be for Keller, so he's probably just lending them a helping hand.

*Boris Said won the Third Annual Chevy Bodine Bobsled Challenge this weekend at Lake Placid. It's turned into a real neat event and this year it featured Nascar drivers competing against NHRA drivers. Although those who participate aren't the most well-known drivers in Nascar, each year they've raised a good chunk of money for the U.S. Bobsled team, and had some fun too. This isn't Said's first win at the Challenge - bobsled racing must run in his family considering his father Bob was a member of the U.S. Bobsled team in 1968 and 1972.

*Michael McDowell didn't confirm that he'll be the driver of the #00 for Michael Waltrip Racing after the first five races of the season - the official announcement will come later this month - but it sure sounds like the rumor that he's been selected to race that car is accurate. Apparently McDowell has been testing with Bill Pappas, who will be the crew chief for that team, and he's going through the process to get approval to race Cup. In addition, McDowell said that he'll be racing the Nationwide race at Daytona. I had thought that MWR planned on putting Josh Wise in a Nationwide car full-time next season, but unless they plan on fielding three Nationwide cars, something I think is unlikely, it sounds like Josh will be missing at least the opening Nationwide race. I really hope they still have plans for Josh.

*Jimmie Johnson said today that there will be changes to his crew next season because they felt that they could get faster on their pit stops with two new tire changers. In some ways it's an indication of how good the #48 team is that they don't rest on their laurels and are continually working to improve their team. However, those two tire changers helped Jimmie win a championship and that's the thanks they're going to get? In addition, there's no guarantee that the next tire changers will be any faster, plus there could be an adjustment period while the crew gets used to working with new people.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)

About Freaking Time!

Steve Park finally got engaged to his girlfriend, now fiancee, Jessica Skarpalezos after years (maybe as many as ten years on and off) of dating! According to the announcement on Steve's site, he asked her to marry him on New Year's Eve. Yay, I was beginning to think it was never going to happen! It was just a few months ago that Steve had said on his site that he was putting off marriage and a family until he got his career back on track, but I guess that was maybe to throw Jessica off as to what he had planned. I'm really happy for Steve! One thing that's been concerning me the past year or so is that Steve hadn't seemed to have any plan for the next chapter in his life after he's done racing, and that since the odds of him finding a ride aren't too good, he might not be too happy if all he has to look forward to for the rest of his life is playing golf and riding his motorcycle. But getting married and starting a family is definitely something meaningful that will bring him a lot of happiness! They are lucky to have each other - not everyone would stick around for years on end without at least getting engaged. Congratulations to Steve and Jessica both!

ETA: I can't help but wonder - maybe Steve's comment in November on his website was meant to throw Jessica off ... or maybe that was really how he was feeling at the time, and maybe someone sat him down and did a reality check with him on the wisdom of putting off one's life for a racing career that might not ever get back on track. Maybe he even came to that realization on his own. Regardless, I feel better about Steve's situation knowing that he'll have wedding plans and then a wife to focus on instead of just his search for a ride. I'd feel even better about Steve's future and his future happiness if he got involved in some sort of business venture, racing or otherwise, to occupy his time and help support himself and his family, but hopefully that will happen down the road. For now best of luck to both Steve and Jessica, and may their marriage be a long and happy one!

Posted by silverdsl at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)

January 05, 2008

Michael McDowell to the #00

Sources have confirmed to Nascar.com that Michael McDowell will take over the #00 for Michael Waltrip Racing once David Reutimann switches to the #44 after the first five races this season. I can't say I'm surprised in the least. Although Michael Waltrip had said in the press conference at Charlotte last season when this first came up that MWR hadn't made a decision as to whether they would use McDowell, Josh Wise or some combination of the two in the #00, possibly with a veteran driver behind the wheel for some races, I felt like the decision had mostly been made to put McDowell behind the wheel, based on the way McDowell was being talked about in such complimentary terms. In some ways it's unfortunate for Wise who was a part of MWR's developmental program before McDowell, but on the other hand I don't think it's going to be a bad thing for Wise to race in the Nationwide Series for at least a season or more before making the jump to the Cup series.

There's no doubt in my mind that McDowell is a very talented driver who is capable of being successful in Cup - his results in the ARCA Series in 2007 in which he won four races, was rookie of the year and finished second in the points indicates that he can race. He also held his own in the three Nationwide races he was in. However, I think the jump from ARCA to the Cup Series is a pretty big one, particularly for a 22-year old. It's not just in relation to whether he can handle racing a Cup car - I think he can. It's also adjusting to significantly more pressure, obligations to sponsors, demands from fans, media attention and all the things that go along with being a Cup driver that aren't there for an ARCA driver. It's also a matter of adjusting to racing in a much more competitive series. I would have liked to have seen McDowell race at least one full season in the Nationwide Series, either at the same time he's racing Cup or prior to him being put in the Cup car. That's the problem with David Reutimann insisting on racing the Nationwide Series full-time again this season since it means that there isn't room for both MWR developmental drivers to race that series full-time unless MWR was to field three cars which is probably beyond what they're capable of right now.

Part of me wonders how successful MWR is going to be with three cars next season. While I think the overall performance for the MWR teams will improve over last season, will they really be able to get three cars into the top 35 in owner's points and have them stick there, particularly when one car is being raced by a rookie driver with zero Cup experience? It will be essential that Reutimann gets the #00 into the top 35 before handing it over to McDowell so that he won't have to deal with the pressure and stress of trying to make races on time. That's something that's very difficult for a veteran driver to deal with, let alone a 22-year old with very limited experience in Nascar. I also think it's going to be very important for MWR to have a good support system for McDowell. They'll need people around him all the time to help show him the ropes, help guide and mentor him, not just on the track but off-the-track as well.

The only question is what the sponsor for the #00 is going to be beyond those first few races when Aaron's will sponsor Reutimann. MWR has said that they would be able to field the #00 without sponsorship but I don't think that's a good idea. It takes a lot of money to field a competitive race car and this is an organization that had some financial issues last season to the point where they had to bring on an additional financial partner in the form of Rob Kauffman. So I hope between now and the start of the season a primary sponsor turns up for the #00.

As for Wise, I really hope they find the sponsorship to put him in a second Nationwide car. I met him over the summer at Pocono and I was extremely impressed with him. I think he's the complete package in terms of having talent behind the wheel but also having a lot of qualities that would appeal to sponsors, fans and the media, so if he continues to develop I think he could be a future star in Nascar in Cup. I'm actually not all that disappointed that he's going to be brought along more slowly - in the long-run that could help him be better once he does make the jump to Cup, which I think will likely happen when Michael Waltrip retires or opts not to race full-time in a few years. Wise is the type of driver who I think would make a very good replacement for Michael with NAPA, assuming NAPA re-signs with MWR beyond this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*Not only are Brendan Gaughan and Ted Musgrave still without rides heading into the 2008 season, but 2007 Truck Series Rookie of the Year Willie Allen is also still rideless. Allen thought he would have a ride this season with the same team he did last, Thorsport, but a lack of sponsorship derailed those plans. Although Thorsport says that they would like to field a third truck for Allen, they have Matt Crafton and Shelby Howard in their two existing trucks because there is sponsorship for those drivers and teams. I think it's really a shame that a driver with talent may not have a ride next season because he doesn't have sponsor money to ensure a ride. However, I can't blame Thorsport for the decision they made. It takes millions to field a truck, especially a competitive truck, and they need to do what's necessarily to keep their trucks on the track and their organization moving in the right direction. Hopefully another team will put Allen behind the wheel but these days many of them are looking for a driver to bring sponsorship money with them. This close to truck testing I'm not sure the chances of him getting a ride for 2008, at least to start the season are very good, particularly since there are other good drivers looking for rides as well.

*Wood Brothers/JTG Racing announced yesterday that Bill Elliott will race the #21 for them during Speedweeks, including both the Bud Shootout and the Daytona 500. There had been some speculation that Elliott wasn't interested in continuing to work with the Wood Brothers any more since the results weren't exactly stellar, but he had said at one point towards the end of last season that being in the #21 was fun for him. It's still unknown exactly what the driver lineup for the #21 is going to be - Marcus Ambrose will be in the car for 12 races and supposedly Ken Schrader was still in the mix for some races as well. However, I wonder if Elliott will end up in the car for many of the remaining races? He doesn't seem interested in racing full-time again, but Elliott seems to enjoy racing 20 or so races each season even if the results aren't that great. He may just like being on the track, trying to help a team and remaining immersed in the atmosphere in the garage area.

*Petty Enterprises has hired Derrick Finley to be their technical director. I believe last year Finley spent at least part of the season with Michael Waltrip Racing, and prior to that he was at Bill Davis Racing. PE has made a lot of what I think are very positive moves over the past two years or so, from bringing on Robbie Loomis to moving from their long-time shop in Level Cross to Mooresville where most of the other teams are based. Hopefully this will be another move that will lead to improved results for PE. However, I can't say I've been overly impressed with Finley when he was Michael Waltrip's crew chief or otherwise.

*Much as I suspected the future for Morgan-McClure Motorsports is very much in doubt. Although they plan on testing at Daytona with either Mike Wallace or P.J. Jones, and plan on participating in Speedweeks with a driver to be determined down the road, whether they race beyond that in 2008 will depend on sponsorship. At the moment MMM doesn't have much, if any, sponsorship for the #4 and Larry McClure says that they won't race on their own money any more. From the sounds of it they're looking for a driver to bring sponsorship with them, which isn't a bad idea considering I don't think the team has much hope of attracting sponsorship on their own considering their poor results last season and their lack of a driver, crew chief or much resources to give a sponsor hope that things will improve this season.

*There's a lot of teams that are selling off the old style Cup cars since the Cup Series is making the switch to the COT for all the races this season. The old style cars are of use to ARCA and I believe Busch East teams, as well as racing schools and driving experiences such as the Petty Driving Experience. However, they also make a neat addition to a bar or a cool collectible. Apparently once the still useful parts are stripped off some teams such as Michael Waltrip Racing are selling them for as little as $5,000. That's pretty incredible considering it cost substantially more to build those cars. While Nascar says that the COTs are going to save teams a lot of money going forward, the move to the COT is actually going to cost the teams a lot since they won't get back the money that was sunk into the the now virtually useless old-style cars. Now if only I had a spare $5,000 - a #55 car would make a very unique piece of memorabilia to have!

Posted by silverdsl at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2008

Dakar Rally Canceled Over Terrorism Fears

Due to fears that terrorists would make good on threats to target the Dakar Rally, organizers have made the decision to cancel, just two days before it was scheduled to start. This is the first time in 30-years that the race, which would have been run through the Sahara Desert, was canceled. More than a few think that the organizers shouldn't have given in to the terrorists and canceled, but I think they made the right decision. The safety of thousands of people from the competitors and their support teams to spectators is more important than sending a message to terrorists. Since a family was killed recently by al-Qaida-linked militants in an area that the rally would have raced through the threats needed to be taken seriously. Apparently there's some question as to whether the rally will return in 2009 - or ever - the terrorists aren't likely to go away in a year, and the rally was already a subject of some criticism for the high amount of deaths associated with it. I feel sorry for all the teams who spent so much time and money getting ready for the race.

This has to be a huge disappointment for Robby Gordon. Some feel he races in Nascar to support his off-road efforts such as his participation in this race. Racing at Dakar would have been a major event for Robby and in the past it's gotten him - and his sponsors - a good deal of exposure. That won't happen this year, and the cancellation is likely very hard to swallow for Robby - and his fellow competitors. Robby will now head back to the United States and I would guess will participate in testing at Daytona, which means that Brendan Gaughan's services won't be needed unless Robby ends up fielding a second car for him at testing which I would guess is unlikely.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

January 03, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*Tony Stewart hates testing so much so that for the past three years he's skipped testing at Daytona. But this year things are different. With Joe Gibbs Racing switching to Toyota and the COT being used for the first time all season, the upcoming test at Daytona, as well as those that follow in Las Vegas and California, take on greater importance for Tony and his teammates than they might have had in the past. So Tony will actually test at Daytona this year as part of the second group of Cup drivers.It'll be very interesting to see how things play out for Tony this season. Rumors continue to swirl that he's unhappy that JGR made the move to Toyota and that he will be racing for Chevy again sooner rather than later. Given the commitments that Tony has to his sponsors and other entities, as well as the money that stands to be gained and lost by Tony moving to a different organization, I think if anything's going to happen it won't be for some time since a mega-deal like that would take time to negotiate.

*Jeremy Mayfield has a primary sponsor... for one race. Atlas Copco Compressors will sponsor the #70 for the June race in New Hampshire and will also be on the car as an associate sponsor for the rest of the season. From the sounds of it this came about because Atlas Copco is involved with Haas-CNC Racing's wind tunnel project. It's great that there's there's some sponsorship for the #70, but it seems to me that until that car has a primary sponsor for all the races next season Jeremy may find himself in a similar situation to what he had to deal with in 2007 at Bill Davis Racing. Many fans think that Haas will throw Haas Automation on the car and everything will be fine, but there's quite a few costs that sponsorship normally pays for and no matter how profitable a company is or how wealthy an owner might be, I think it's difficult to come up with the money that's needed to make a car competitive for an entire season with little or no outside money coming in.

*In what's likely a cost-cutting move the Orlando Sentinel has got rid of Ed Hinton, their Nascar beat reporter. Apparently the Sentinel plans on reducing their Nascar coverage to focus on local sports, which doesn't entirely make sense since Nascar's headquarters and the sport's biggest race take place in Daytona which isn't all that far away. In addition, two other Tribune papers, the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Sentinel are also reducing their Nascar coverage. I can't imagine coverage of any other major sport being drastically reduced or eliminated. More than declining ticket sales and poor ratings for race broadcasts, Nascar should be extremely concerned that there is little Nascar coverage in the media in several major media markets including New York, and that other large publications are opting to cover the sport less. It will be very difficult to continue to grow the sport, attract and keep sponsors and gain fans if there is less media exposure.

*The National Guard will not only sponsor Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in Cup, but also in the Nationwide Series as well, along with Landon Cassill. Junior will be in the #5 for two races, while Landon will race the car for an additional 19 races. Jimmie Johnson will be in the car for an additional five races with sponsorship from Lowe's. I'm glad that JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports aren't just going with a bunch of Cup drivers in this car and will also be giving Landon a chance. This should be a very competitive car.

*Jayski has an "I heard" item that indicates that Morgan Dollar Motorsports is trying to put a deal together with Ted Musgrave to race a truck for them with sponsorship from ASE. MDM would also have a second truck that would be raced by a variety of Cup drivers. I'm a little surprised that it's so close to truck testing at Daytona and Ted still doesn't have a ride, particularly since the way he was talking at the end of last season his deal for a new ride was all but done. Unfortunately in this sport things have a way of changing very quickly and what seems like a sure thing one day falls apart the next. Or maybe there wasn't as much interest in Ted's services as he anticipated there would be. For now Brendan Gaughan is also still out in the cold as well.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2008

Photo of the Day

Somewhere near Las Vegas, NV. January, 2005.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:51 PM | Comments (0)

Brendan Gaughan to Fill in for Robby Gordon at Daytona Testing

Although there's been no news about a ride for Brendan Gaughan, he won't be sitting idle for Daytona testing. Only he won't be testing a truck (at least not that we know of so far), he'll be testing a Cup car. Brendan will be helping out his good friend Robby Gordon by testing the #7 for him while Robby's racing in Dakar. As I wondered previously, though it's often said that the driver isn't very important at Daytona testing, in light of the issues that Robby's team faced this past season, plus the addition of a new crew chief and that the Cup series will be using COTs exclusively, doesn't that make testing a wee bit more important this season for Robby's team than in the past? Even Tony Stewart will be testing at Daytona for the first time in three years. In any event, I'm sure Brendan will do a good job filling in for Robby. There will likely be speculation that this means that Robby is going to give Brendan a Nationwide or Cup ride, something that I think would be good for both Robby and Brendan. However, I suspect Brendan is still likely to end up in a truck - if he ends up getting a ride at all for this season. It seems late in the going for Robby to start a second Cup team and a full-time Nationwide team would need sponsorship. But if not now, maybe Brendan will end up racing for Robby down the road.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

January 01, 2008

DW Speaks... and Sometimes I Wish he Wouldn't

As a Michael Waltrip fan I know I'm also supposed to love DW, but I have to admit that sometimes he annoys the living daylights out of me. Not as a broadcaster - I actually like when DW is in the booth for races. But there's some things that he says that bug me. Of course I respect DW's right to his own opinions, it's just that I definitely don't share the same views as he does on more than a few things. Like today's article on Nascar.com about Sound & Speed. DW said,

"Quite honestly, NASCAR has really in my view kind of gone in the wrong direction with their choice of artists and music that they use at some of the races. I think country music is more appropriate for what we do. So this is kind of a nice marriage of traditional old stuff that we've always done -- country music, racecars, drivers."

DW made some similar comments on XM a couple of weeks ago and it irritated me then to. Times change - while there are many Nascar fans who are also country music fans, there are also many fans who also like rock, pop and other styles of music as well. Nascar shouldn't forget about country music fans, but those artists shouldn't be the only musicians who perform or sing the national anthem. Personally I feel that rock music is every bit as appropriate at races as country music. Maybe the issue for DW is age in that he can't relate to some of the bands and styles of music that some younger fans like. It's important for Nascar to do things that appeal to older fans and not forget about traditional, older stuff, but the sport also needs to grow and evolve. Everything can't stay the same forever - there also needs to be things whether it's music, the Chase or other things, that also appeal to newer and younger fans.

But it's a comment later in the article that really bothered me. While DW is often complimentary of Michael, sometimes I feel like he takes subtle little digs at him too. Last year Michael hosted the auction at Sound & Speed with Mike Helton. DW said, "They cracked the joint up. You know my brother. He can make a fool of himself real easy." Maybe I'm reading into it too much and DW didn't mean anything by it, but I don't care for DW"s choice of wording there - yes, when Michael is entertainer mode as "Mikey" he can be very goofy in an effort to make people laugh. But the way that DW says it there it's almost as if he's saying that Michael regularly makes a fool of himself, as if it's embarassing - which is a criticism that has been said of DW himself a time or two.

There was also something else in the past few months that really bothered me that I'm not going to get into the specifics of but I felt that something came up in one of DW's columns that really rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive. I have no doubt that DW and Michael care about each other very much and I'm glad that Michael is close with his brother. It's just that sometimes I wish that DW would phrase things in a different way or keep some thoughts to himself when it came to his brother. Michael gets enough criticism and people pointing out his mistakes and flaws that he doesn't need his own brother doing it too even if he's just giving his honest opinion or thinking that he's being helpful.

ETA: It occurred to me why I might be troubled by DW sometimes. Likely it goes back to how it's been said that years ago when Michael was young and DW was a big star in Nascar, he had no use for Michael and wouldn't give him any help when it came to racing. Eventually they became close and still are, but for years apparently they didn't have much of a relationship. Supposedly the excuse was that there was such a big age difference between DW and Michael that it was hard for them to be close. Well, my Mother is the youngest of six and there was an even bigger age difference between her and her older brother (now deceased), as well as between her and her oldest sister. They never let an age difference, distance or in my uncle's case that he was busy with his large import-export business get in the way of family. While it happens all the time for a variety of reasons, it's hard for me to understand how someone has no use for siblings. It's great for both of them that they are close now, and I'm glad that Michael has DW and his other siblings, but the hurt that came from having someone that he looked up to tremendously who was also his brother not seem to want to have much to do with him must have really had an impact on Michael growing up.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:46 PM | Comments (0)