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February 29, 2008

Robby Gordon on Sirius

Yesterday Robby Gordon was missing in action, as he had been scheduled to call in to Sirius's morning show and never ended up calling in. Robby did manage to call in this morning but I have to wonder if he never called yesterday because he didn't like what David Poole was saying regarding the penalty that was given to Robby's team considering his obvious displeasure about some of David's comments. If the only reason that Robby didn't call in yesterday to do an interview that he was booked for was because he disagreed with David's opinion that Nascar is was right regarding the penalty, that really doesn't reflect too well on Robby. I'm quite sure that there are many drivers who would like to skip interviews with media members who have written things they don't agree with or who they've had conflicts with. But most of them suck it up and fulfill their obligations. It's good that Robby called in today, but most of the time he argued with David like a stubborn mule. It's pretty clear that Robby has a hard time hearing opinions that conflict with his own views, and I can't help but think that if he took a step back sometimes, was a little more open-minded and willing to consider things from other people's point of view in addition to his own, he might have it a little easier in Nascar.

As for what was said in the interview, much of it is the same things that Robby has parroted over and over again. Some questions he dodged such as regarding the extra "-A" at the end of the serial number on the unapproved nose and he had to be asked multiple times before he would answer "yes" about whether he thought that the teams are responsible for the cars they bring to the track. Robby was also asked about whether he thought Nascar was out to get him, and he wisely answered "no," though just this past weekend he implied the opposite.

A big part of Robby's argument is that there's no advantage to the unapproved nose, unlike with some of the other unapproved parts on the COT that Nascar's penalized for. Well, since Nascar hasn't actually finished testing the new nose, and contrary to popular belief there actually is a difference between the two noses - the indentation where the decals go is different - no one actually knows for sure if there is an areo advantage or not. Why would Nascar take the word of a team or manufacturer that there's no areo advantage? Maybe there is no advantage to the new nose but Nascar has to do their due diligence and find out.

But what was most interesting was Robby's comment that his team doesn't have the financial resources to pay the $100,000 fine. Usually the fines are meaningless to the teams and it's the suspensions and loss of points that they're most worried about. That Robby Gordon Motorsports might not have the $100,000 to pay the fine speaks to some financial problems, something that isn't all that surprising. Not running Dakar is probably a major reason why they're having financial issues now. To fund Dakar they took $4.5 million from a "slush fund" (and the very fact that that they had to do that instead of funding Dakar from the off-road budged speaks to some pre-existing financial issues), thinking that money would be replaced after Dakar was run, but that never happened. I suspect the fine would also be paid from this same "slush fund" only there's probably not much left in it now.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2008

What Happened to Robby?

This morning Robby Gordon was scheduled to be a guest on Sirius on "The Morning Drive," hosted by David Poole and Mike Bagley. Robby was supposed to call in before the end of the show but he never did and it was clear the hosts weren't too happy about it and I can't say I blame them considered it was pre-promoted and not just on their show. I wasn't too happy about it either considering I had the show on all morning so I could hear what Robby had to say when I really wanted to be listening to some music while I worked. It may very well be that there was a miscommunication between those that book the show, Robby's PR person and/or Robby himself. Maybe something came up such as a meeting with a sponsor, something else he had to attend to in relation to his team or there was an emergency. But should it turn out that Robby just forgot or decided that he didn't feel like doing the interview that wouldn't reflect very well on him. With all the controversy that Robby's found himself in lately I'd think he'd want to make it a priority to do media interviews to tell his side of the story, particularly since the appeal of his penalty has been scheduled for next Tuesday.

Maybe Robby was listening earlier in the morning and discovered that David Poole is very definitely not on his side in relation to the penalty. Maybe Robby didn't want to have to answer any hard questions. Maybe he didn't feel like doing the interview. Or maybe this and everything related to the penalty mess is a sign that Robby needs to address some things in his shop and with his team as Mike Bagley suggested.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)

Camping World Series TV Schedule Announced

I guess I should just be happy that the races are being televised at all, but it sure is going to be hard to follow Steve Park in the Camping World East Series this season. The races that are going to be televised will be split between HDNet and Speed, with the majority of races being shown on HDNet, which my cable company doesn't carry. No, I won't be switching to Dish TV or Directv just to get HDNet to see Steve race. Speed will broadcast three races on the day they're raced but they'll be delayed not live. They will also re-air the HDNet races, but if it's anything like what they've done in the past it will be two or three week after they've first air. Unless Steve or another driver I'm interested in finishes up front I really doubt I'll be too interested in watching races that I've already known the outcome of for several weeks. There's just too much other racing - most of it live - to watch and other things to do.

In addition, there's at least one race that isn't televised - maybe that's just an oversight and it'll be added to the broadcast schedule down the road but that really makes thing tough when the race won't be on TV at all. It's even more difficult to follow this series when there's not really that much coverage of it online either. Eastseries.com covers as much as they can but in the past their website hasn't been updated all that quickly with information. There's also speed51.com but their focus is much broader than just the Camping World Series. I'd like to think that Steve's site will have news and information that pertains to him but that's often not been true in the past and right now they haven't even updated his site with the logo of his new sponsor or taken down logos from teams and sponsors he hasn't been associated with in years so I'm not holding my breath that there will be much of value on Steve's site. The section on Nascar.com with coverage of the Camping World Series doesn't have much and isn't usually worth visiting.

There's a lot of talent in the East Series and a lot of young drivers who have a good shot at ending up in Trucks, Nationwide or Cup one day. But how are they supposed to develop a fanbase if it's so hard to follow the races and get coverage and information on the series and its drivers? Nascar needs to do a much better job of promoting all it's lower level series, not just the Camping World Series, but I guess they figure that most fans don't really care. And maybe that's true. After all the names are mostly unknown - at this point there's a lot of fans who don't even know who Steve Park is - so no matter how well promoted the series is maybe it would be hard to get fans to be interested without the involvement of a Tony Stewart or a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. But some of these drivers could be the next starts of the sport, which is one reason why I like following young drivers so much - it's interesting to see them develop. Too bad there doesn't seem to be as many fans as I'd like who are as interested as I am or the coverage of the series might be a little better.

Speaking of Steve, wonder what he's up to these days? Seems like he's pulled one of his disappearing acts again but I guess that's what happens when he won't be racing until April. There had been some talk that Steve was going to race a modified at New Symrna a few weeks ago but not surprisingly that didn't amount to anything. These days it seems like conditions have to be exactly perfect to get Steve behind the wheel, which is why in spite of my dissatisfaction with the coverage the series gets, I'm really happy that Steve has a ride and will be racing this season.

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

Roger Clemens is a Cooked Goose

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has officially asked the federal government to investigate whether Roger Clemens lied under oath during the recent congressional hearings in the revelations in The Mitchell Report. Along with the letter Rep. Henry Waxman, the Chair of the committee complied a detailed memorandum listing assertions that Clemens made in his deposition prior to the hearings or at the hearings themselves that are "implausible" or "appear to be contradicted by other evidence before the Committee." In reading the full memo the evidence against Clemens is rather damning, and it doesn't even include recent reports of photos that show Clemens at the Canseco party he insisted he wasn't at.

Seeing all the evidence laid out is astonishing. It's truly unbelievable how many times Clemens contradicted himself, told apparently half truths or possibly told complete bold face lies. There's new evidence in the memo as well, or at least evidence that hasn't been made public. Clemens has always claimed that trainers from his various teams routinely injected him with B12 and other substances but every team refuted those claims. In addition, Clemens's claims that McNamee injected him in his back with Linocane, not steroids, according to the evidence gathered by the committee is extremely implausible.

After reading through the memo, it's hard to understand why Clemens took the route that he did because it appears that he set himself up for a major fall. Was it ego in that he didn't believe that anyone would be so bold as to produce evidence that contradicted what he was saying or that he thought that his status as a star baseball player would protect him? Was it that somehow Clemens convinced himself that he hadn't used performance enhancers even though he did? The best course of action for Clemens was to admit to what he had done and apologize for it - most people are very forgiving of those who make a good faith effort to show that they regret what they did when it comes to performance enhancers. Instead Clemens continued to deny, deny, deny and go on the attack but his denials are increasingly hollow.

Unfortunately for Clemens what might surface in a federal investigation might make the allegations in the Mitchell Report look like child's play. According to a report in the New York Times, the feds are investigating whether Clemens got performance enhancers from dealers in the Houston area. Clemens could end up being charged with a crime - prejury or something else. At this point I think that's likely.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2008

Auto Club Speedway to Become Restrictor Plate Track?

It's no secret that Michael Waltrip enjoys restrictor plate racing. After all, he's had the most success on those kinds of tracks. So it's not a surprise that he'd like to see there be more restrictor plate racing. Over the weekend Michael had an idea and at first it probably sounds pretty crazy, but the more I think about it, the more I think he's on to something. Michael believes that the Auto Club Speedway should be made into a restrictor plate track both because it would make for a better "show" but also because it would be a draw for fans. He's right on both counts. Although the Cup race wasn't terrible on Monday, not only have fans often complained about how boring the racing is at California, drivers including Jeff Gordon have also complained about it as well. Bobby Hamilton, Jr. was just on Sirius yesterday saying how happy he would be to not race at California and how it's boring even from his perspective in the car. Fans also love restrictor plate racing so attendance and ratings would likely go up if that kind of a change was made to the track.

Gillian Zucker, the track president, was not only open to the idea, says she's seriously considering it. She said,

"I think what we're seeing is this new car [formally known as the Car of Tomorrow] will have its best racing at restrictor-plate events. The Daytona 500 was spectacular. So to me, this is a very exciting idea for us."

Of course this is all about revenue and more specifically what will get fans to buy tickets and attend the races at California since the track hasn't had a sellout since 2004. There's no question that restrictor plate races are popular with fans since they usually feature very exciting, close racing and the winner usually isn't determined until the very last seconds of the race. And there's also no denying that there's a percentage of fans who also like all the wrecking that often happens at restrictor plate races.

But how likely is this to really happen? Zucker hasn't yet broached this with Nascar or ISC, the track's parent company. Both may shoot the idea down immediately, though I think something needs to be done to address the problems at this track in terms of attendance and fan's overall dissatisfaction with the racing at this track. Zucker may even realize there isn't much chance that this will actually happen but in light of all the criticism heaped on her and the track after the debacle this weekend, she is wisely making it seem as if she's willing to make changes for fans.

What gets me is that many fans have complained through the years about how bad the racing is at California, but now that someone has vocalized an idea to change the track, many of them are against it. I think there are some fans who are going to be negative about any kind of change or idea, and even more so when it comes from Michael - there is a segment of fans who are going to be against anything he suggests because he's viewed as being a Nascar "yes-man" which is unfortunate because Michael often has some ideas that are not only good, but innovative as well. There's also quite a few fans who aren't going to be happy with anything that happens in relation to the Auto Club Speedway because they don't think that Nascar should be racing at that track. Those fans believe that Nascar shouldn't be racing at that track at all, and that they should return one or both dates to a Southern track such as Darlington.

But the reality is that something needs to be done to address the issues that the Auto Club Speedway faces. They need to sell more tickets, whether it's to local fans or to fans from other parts of the country who might be willing to travel to the track if the race or the experience at the track is something exciting and unique.

Michael is always thinking about things and coming up with ideas and I like that he doesn't hesitate to discuss those ideas with the people who can put them in motion - maybe we'll never see restrictor plate racing at Auto Club Speedway, but maybe his idea will at least get the track and Nascar to think about making some changes to improve the racing there.

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

February 26, 2008

Michael Waltrip Racing Struggles at California

A lot of Michael Waltrip Racing fans had high hopes headed into California but things didn't go as well as most would have liked. Luck was on their side on Friday as Cup qualifying being rained out put all three cars into the race, but it wasn't a stellar weekend on the Cup side after that. David Reutimann finished the best of all three cars in 23rd, Michael Waltrip was 28th and Dale Jarrett was 33rd. On the positive side all three cars finished in the top 35 which is important since the biggest goal over the first five races is locking themselves into the top 35 in owner's points, but I'm sure they would have liked to have finished a lot better to make some upwards movement in the 2008 owner's points standings. I can't say I'm entirely surprised by the results this weekend. Michael had said on his XM show last week that their qualifying runs during testing at California were extremely good but they weren't as confident about their race set-ups so they changed a bunch of things. Seems like they're going to have to change a bunch more things for the next time they come to this track.

The weekend had to be very stressful for Michael, and not just because his car wasn't very good. On Friday his sister Connie's son Jason passed away at the age of 28. The loss of anyone is always difficult but it's even harder when it's someone who is so young. I'm sure both Michael and DW both very much wished that the weekend would end as soon as possible so they could fly back to be with their sister. So Sunday's rainout had to be even harder for them to bear than for others in the garage area. Michael had a tribute in his car to his nephew and the thoughts and prayers of all his fans are with him and his family.

Unfortunately right from the start the race was a trying one for Michael and his team, in fact before the green flag even flew they had problems. As Michael was going around the track for the parade laps, a clamp fell off the oil line and every drop of oil in the car poured onto the track, creating quite a mess. That mess turned out to be a blessing for Michael because the delay in the start of the race due to the cleanup allowed his team to fix the problem, get oil back in the car and get him back on the track before the race started. Michael had to be completely freaking out inside when that happened, particularly since at first it wasn't known whether it might be a terminal problem or not - had he not been able to race he would have taken a big hit in the owner's points. But luckily his team did a good job of calmly taking care of everything and Michael was able to start the race without losing any laps.

However, it quickly became clear that the car wasn't very good, and if it was bad on Sunday it was even worse yesterday. No matter what Paul Andrews did for the majority of the race, much to Michael's frustration, it didn't seem to make things any better. When his cars aren't good Michael has always been known to get extremely agitated and yell, however, I've never heard him yell, scream and curse quite as much as he did yesterday, something that was probably partially a result of hat he was dealing with in relation to his nephew. At one point he screamed "motherfucker!" out of the blue at the top of his lungs and since I was at work I thought I was going to have to turn off Trackpass if he didn't settle down since I was at work even though I had it on low. Michael complained throughout the race that the car was one of the worst that he'd ever driven and so loose that he was going to wreck... and that's kind of what happened.

On lap 150 Michael spun out but luckily he only brushed the wall and the damage was minimal so his team was able to get him fresh tires and get him back out without losing any laps, though I think he was already a lap down at the time. Curiously Michael said after the race,

“I don’t know what happened when the NAPA Camry spun out. It was a crazy deal. It wasn’t handling well, but I didn’t expect that to happen. It was pretty unpredictable out there.”

So if he didn't expect it to spin out, why did he say at least once that the car was so loose that he was going to wreck?

In any event, after that Paul Andrews, Michael's crew chief, continued to make changes and finally those changes worked and the car got better. At one point Michael said that the car was the best it had been but that it was still terrible - but even with that terrible car towards the end of the race he was able to pass some others to finish 28th. Not a good result but considering how many problems there were it's better than it could have been. I was impressed with Paul - no matter how much Michael yelled, Paul simply said 10-4, tried to be encouraging and went to work on making changes. I liked how calm he was even though Michael was clearly very upset, and I think that will be an asset going forward. Some think that Paul won't last the season, but I think if he's able to brush off Michael when he's frustrated and yelling without taking it personally or letting it get to him, I think they'll eventually make a pretty good pairing.

For a while it seemed like David was going to have an excellent finish - he was racing in the top ten and seemed like his car was better than Michael or DJ's but by mid-race on Monday David had dropped back. That had to be disappointing but if David continues to finish in the top 20 and top 25 at least for the next few races he'll be in the top 35 for sure - or at least the #00 will be since David is switching to the #44. I suspect if the #00 is in the top 35 in owner's points and the #44 isn't they'll swap the points when David takes over the #44 so UPS is locked in each week. As for DJ, he never seemed to be able to make much forward progress like Michael and I imagine he was also battling handling issues. Spinning on the last lap was unfortunate because it cost him a number of spots but he was still able to finish in the top 35.

I don't know what to expect next weekend at Las Vegas. I know what I want to see, which is all three cars qualifying for the race and then all three finishing in the top 20 at least if not better. However, next weekend may be a struggle as well. I suspect that MWR is concentrating all their efforts on qualifying right now so I'm not as worried about whether they're going to make the race, particularly since there are "only" 48 cars entered, though of course anything can happen so until qualifying is over and they're in for sure I'll still be nervous. What I'm a little more concerned about how is competitive the cars are going to be under race conditions. They really have to have some solid finishes to lock themselves into the top 35 and stay there. But hopefully we'll see some good things from MWR next weekend.

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

Driver by Driver: California I

I'm a little handicapped because I couldn't watch yesterday's race, only listen with the volume low to Sirius and to Michael Waltrip's radio via Trackpass. So I probably missed some things but I'll give going through the field a shot.

1. Carl Edwards - On his XM show Michael predicted that Carl was going to win based on how strong he was at testing - that was definitely a good guess! Roush has always done well at this track so it's no surprise that one of their cars would end up in Victory Lane. Apparently Carl is still doing flips to celebrate his wins - it's cool for the fans but I hope that one day he doesn't crack his head open if he misses a landing.

2. Jimmie Johnson - Started on the pole for the second week in a row thanks to qualifying getting rained out. Led 76 laps but Carl had the better car at the end.

3. Jeff Gordon - Could have been a second disastrous week in a row for the #24 team thanks to a mechanical issue. However, Jeff had some good luck - his engine held together until the white flag before it went. Of course every team experiences mechanical issues from time to time but usually the Hendrick cars are pretty sound so it's unusual that two weeks in a row there's been a major problem with the #24 car.

4. Kyle Busch - Kyle is currently the points leader after the first two races which is driving some fans nuts. He's also the points leader in the Truck Series where he won a race, and second in points in the Nationwide Series so Kyle is off to a phenomenal start to the season with Joe Gibbs Racing. Yesterday I saw someone comment that they thought that JGR is going to regret signing Kyle but I really doubt it if he continues to race this well for them. Sure he has some behavioral issues but if JGR is willing to put up with misbehavior from Tony Stewart, they'll do so with Kyle as well.

5. Matt Kenseth - Led four laps but wasn't a contender at the end of the race.

6. Martin Truex Jr. - I don't think too many people noticed that Martin finished in the top ten but he did. After DEI didn't have a strong showing last week at Daytona some felt that it was a sign that they were in for a poor season but I think Martin is going to do just fine.

7. Tony Stewart - Kind of funny - this morning on Sirius they were talking about how Tony might be struggling with the COT since he "only" finished 7th yesterday. Some drivers would love to "struggle" like Tony!

8. Kevin Harvick - Kevin did a good job of overcoming a penalty for pitting too soon, a penalty which might not have been deserved.

9. Kasey Kahne - 2008 has already started out better than 2007 did for Kasey. Hopefully two top tens in a row, at two different kind of tracks signals that Kasey is going to rebound from his struggles last season.

10. Ryan Newman - I'm sure Ryan would have liked to make it two in a row but following up his Daytona 500 win with a top ten isn't bad.

11. Brian Vickers - Has anyone noticed how well Brian's done in the first two races? 12th last week and 11th this week. Just like last season when he makes races he generally races well. If he can qualify for the next three races he shouldn't have any problems sticking in the top 35 this season. That's the good news for Red Bull Racing. The bad news is that due to qualifying being rained out A.J. Allmendinger missed his second race in a row which will make it hard to get his team in the top 35. With Brian doing well, A.J.'s really going to step it up or he may not last long at RBR.

12. Jeff Burton

13. Kurt Busch - Started 36th and fought a loose condition to finish 13th.

14. David Ragan - I'm sure a few fans are surprised that David not only finished this race without wrecking but also finished pretty well.

15. Greg Biffle - Seemed to have a good car on Sunday but faded by the time the race resumed on Monday.

16. Mark Martin - This was Mark Martin's 700th start, something which I think is a pretty big accomplishment.

17. David Gilliland

18. Robby Gordon - Finishing 18th moves Robby back into the top 35 in owner's points. Maybe if Robby focused on racing and finishing as well as he can over the next few races instead of whining about how unfair the penalty as, those 100 points he lost wouldn't make much difference.

19. Clint Bowyer

20. Juan Montoya - Highest finishing Ganassi car despite losing positions towards the end of the race after he brushed the wall.

21. Scott Riggs

22. Jamie McMurray - Towards the end of the race Jamie was in the top ten but suddenly began falling back pretty quickly. I thought he had either a mechanical issue or that he brushed the wall but apparently it was because his car was very loose.

23. David Reutimann - For a while David was able to race in the top ten but the handling on his car went away. But in comparison to this race last season when David was involved in a very hard wreck, this is a good result.

24. Elliott Sadler - Got into the wall on Sunday but recovered to finish okay yesterday.

25. Bobby Labonte - Rumors continue to swirl that Bobby's leaving Petty and his contract with them is up at the end of the season - if they want him to say they'll have to give him cars that he can finish better in.

26. Bill Elliott - Made the race when qualifying was rained out thanks to being a past Champion. Jon Wood was supposed to race the #21 at Las Vegas but Bill is going to race it again just in case his Champion's provisional could come into play. I can't blame the team for wanting to go that route - missing the Daytona 500 put them in a hole that could be hard to climb out of.

27. Paul Menard - Never had a very good car.

28. Michael Waltrip - Not a good race for Michael and his team. First on the parade laps, a clamp fell off the oil line which dumped oil on the track. Luckily the team was able to make repairs before the race went green but once the racing got underway it quickly became evident that the car wasn't very good. I thought different track conditions might help yesterday but if anything it was worse. Michael eventually spun because the car was so loose but luckily there was no damage. Towards the end of the race the changes that Paul Andrews made ended up helping the performance, but by then Michael was stuck two laps down.

29. J.J. Yeley - It's only been two races but so far the results for the #96 haven't been much better with J.J. behind the wheel.

30. Dave Blaney - Had a terrible car that he couldn't do much with. Needs a few good finishes in a row to get into the top 35 and stay there. I'm not sure BDR has the resources right now to make that happen.

31. Regan Smith - Had an ill-handling car all race long.

32. Dario Franchitti - Starting the season worse than David Stremme did last season. Franchitti will need to get some good results if he wants to be in the top 35 this season and that may be hard if he's still adjusting to racing Cup.

33. Dale Jarrett - Like his MWR teammates, DJ never had a very good car but he would have finished a little better if not for spinning on the last lap of the race.

34. Joe Nemechek

35. John Andretti

36. Travis Kvapil - Travis was racing up front until the splitter on the car broke. Poor finishes are exactly what this team doesn't need since they're still looking for sponsorship.

37. Reed Sorenson - Was collected in one of the wrecks on Sunday but his team was able to make repairs so that he was able to get back on track.

38. Kyle Petty - Another race, another poor finish for Kyle.

39. Jeremy Mayfield - A blown tire ruined his day.

40. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Bad luck for Junior - he got caught up in a wreck touched off by his teammate Casey Mears, and although he was able to get back into the race he was many laps down.

41. Denny Hamlin - Blamed poor track conditions for getting into the wall but a blown tire might have had something to do with it too.

42. Casey Mears - Went over one of the weepers on the track and moisture and these cars aren't a good mix. Ended up getting flipped over when Sam Hornish, Jr. ran into him, but luckily he was uninjured.

43. Sam Hornish Jr. - Some fans have criticized Sam for hitting Casey and causing him to flip over but Sam couldn't see anything since his hood was pushed up and apparently his brakes weren't working too well either.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

Snow Scenes

Last week we were hit with snowstorm in New Jersey during which we got about eight inches of snow which seemed like a lot since it was the biggest storm this winter so far. Well, that's nothing in comparison to what upstate New York routinely gets! My friend Jules was kind enough to share with me some photos from a recent storm in her area - yikes, that's a lot of snow!

As short as I am by the time the snow stopped falling it was probably taller than I was!

I sure wish there were some waterfalls near me - I'm always fascinated by moving water like waterfalls and ocean waves. It's really cool to see this waterfall all iced over yet still flowing strongly.

As much as I don't like the cold and snow too much, there's something about a coating of snow on the trees that's really beautiful to see.

I really love this photo! I wish that we had some wide open spaces like this close to where I am where I could take some winter photos like this! I like living in the area where I do because it's very easy to get to everything but for photography purposes it would sometimes be nice to live in a more rural area.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

Rain Wrecks Havoc

The rains in Southern California wrecked havoc at the track this weekend. First qualifying on Friday was washed out, then the Nationwide race and finally the Cup race. What a disaster for Nascar yesterday. They started the Cup race yesterday, a decision that seems extremely questionable in light of the obvious weepers that popped up on the track and a number of drivers indicating that the overall condition of the track was poor. Not surprisingly they weren't able to finish the race due to rain and moisture. What's incredible is that Nascar waited so long to make the decision to post-pone the race. It was about 11 p.m California time, 2 a.m. Eastern time before they announced that the race would be run today - a ridiculously long time to keep fans at the track and teams/drivers at the ready to re-start the race. Nascar said that they owed it to the fans at the track to try to get the track dried but at some point it should have been obvious that wasn't going to happen. In addition, there was pressure to get the teams back to North Carolina as soon as possible since they have to turn around to head back out West for Las Vegas. However, once it's past midnight Eastern time even if the teams were able to leave at some point after the race was run they would still be getting home today.

I've seen some criticism of the track, that it's evidence that there shouldn't be a race at this track at this time of year - or at all. But the reality is that the track has no control over the weather. Nor does any other track. Moisture is a problem on every track because the cars can't race when the track is wet. In addition, California isn't the only track where they can get weepers. Maybe there are things that this track could do better to prevent the problem of weepers from happening but all the track can do is try to address the problem, they can't guarantee there won't be any rain.

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

February 23, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*Kyle Busch just won the Truck race at California. I only got to see the last six laps but from the sounds of it I didn't miss much as Kyle pretty much dominated an uneventful race. The rest of the top ten was made up of the usual suspects including Todd Bodine, Johnny Benson, Ted Musgrave and Mike Skinner. Kyle has never been a well-liked driver to begin with but now he's even more disliked, I guess because Dale Earnhardt, Jr. replaced him at Hendrick Motorsports and to some fans that means that they have to tear down Kyle even more, maybe out of some sense of competitiveness. Junior is a talented driver, but anyone who thinks that Kyle is lacking in talent is completely off-base. He's also a true racer - Kyle races in all three of Nascar's highest levels, including all three races this weekend, and he also races his Late Model frequently as well. Kyle loves racing so much that he races the truck for free. I'm not a fan of Kyle and he's definitely made his share of mistakes, but he is deserving of the attention he gets.

*Qualifying was rained out yesterday for tomorrow's Cup race and I can't say I'm disappointed about that because it means that all three Michael Waltrip Racing cars will make the race. It's a complicated system that determines who races in event of a rain-out during these first five races of the season, but essentially David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip had enough owner's points and Dale Jarrett, who would have had enough owner's points anyway, gets in by virtue of being a past Champion. I'm extremely happy about that because solid finishes tomorrow will help them solidify spots in the top 35 in owner's points if they qualify for the next three races that follow. Unfortunately some drivers who missed the Daytona 500, Ken Schrader, A.J. Allmendinger and Patrick Carpentier, are in an even deeper hole now because they won't get to race tomorrow either. Overcoming missing one race is do-able but missing two races is pretty hard to get past in terms of getting into the top 35, but we'll see what happens. I have a feeling the #49 team won't be around by the end of the season and I'm not sure A.J. will make it to the end of the season either.

*I saw somewhere that to get one of the t-shirts that Jim Beam made in support for Robby Gordon, fans will need to purchase $25 worth of merchandise from the hauler. I don't know how true that is, but if so Jim Beam really is doing everything they can to get as much mileage as they can out of Robby's penalties. Not only are they looking to maximize their exposure but they - and Robby - are apparently looking to make a profit by selling additional merchandise too. I guess Robby has to come up with the money for the fine somewhere.

*Another article I saw and can't locate now indicates that other Dodge teams got the wrong noses in addition to Robby Gordon Motorsports. So how were they able to avoid showing up at the track with those noses on the car and Robby's team wasn't? I believe it was Robby Loomis from Petty Enterprises that said that their organization went so far as to cut the noses in half to be sure they weren't used.

*And in yet another article I can't locate at the moment Robby whined about how he thinks Nascar is out to get him. He noted how the first caution during the Daytona 500 came out while he was in the pits - hello, Robby you finished 8th you have nothing to complain about with that race! He also complained about how he didn't have a garage stall at California - well, that's what happens at many track since so many teams show up to qualify. The teams higher in the owner's points get the better stalls - if it's okay for the go-or-go-homers to deal with that each week why can't he deal with it? The best way to resolve that situation is to race his ass off for the next few races and get higher in the owner's points. Those complaints come on top of Robby saying that maybe Nascar penalized him because the Daytona 500 was boring and they wanted to give people something to talk about. It's one thing for fan to have conspiracy theories and think that Nascar is out to get their favorite drivers, but for one of the drivers to think that way? Ridiculous. And if Nascar does have a problem with Robby maybe his behavior over the years, including the childish temper tantrum he threw in Montreal has something to do with it.

*Yes, there's more on Robby - today he said "This penalty could be life-threatening to our race team. ...If this sticks, I don’t know what our plan will be.” For one thing, if a penalty like this is so disastrous for his team, then maybe they should have checked and double-checked everything to be sure it was 100% correct before they brought it to the track? In addition, every team is going to be penalized for things at one time or another and they need to be able to deal with it without folding. Last season, the #55 team was penalized in a similar fashion for having an illegal substance in their fuel. That meant that they had no chance of making the top 35 in owner's points and as a result Michael missed many races. Yet he and his team kept showing up each weekend to race and they're back for more this season. As a more established team that for now is still in the top 35 Robby should be in a better position than Michael was last season. His plan should be to finish as well as he can over the few races to make up the loss of points and lock himself into the top 35. If this penalty is life-threatening to his team, maybe his team wasn't in such great shape to begin with, something I suspected given the rumors of disgruntled employees, how they needed to borrow money from a "slush" fund to pay for their Dakar efforts and how much of a financial blow not racing Dakar in January was to the organization.

*Yahoo Sports is reporting that Richard Childress Racing will field a 4th Cup team next season with Bobby Labonte behind the wheel. Supposedly Labonte will bring his current sponsor at Petty, General Mills, with him to RCR. Labonte is already racing for RCR this season in the Nationwide Series so it's not that much of a stretch to think they might want to put him in a Cup car too. Bobby has talent behind the wheel, more than he's been able to show with Petty, but I suspect a big reason RCR wants him is for his past Champion's provisional which could help them as a new team without owner's points in qualifying for the first five races in 2009. Bobby leaving Petty wouldn't bode well for that organization, especially if he takes his sponsor with him. Petty has had some trouble finding and keeping sponsors, probably because their results haven't been too impressive for a number of years now. In addition, they don't have a driver development program, largely because they couldn't come up with the sponsorship to put Chad McCumbee in a Nationwide car, so they don't really have anyone to replace Bobby.

*I'm getting a little tired of some of the feature "lifestyles" articles on Nascar.com that I guess are supposed to appeal to female drivers. This week there was a feature article on Krissy Newman, the supposed "first lady" of Nascar. What makes Krissy the First Lady of Nascar? She bakes cookies, is educated enough to assist Ryan with his affairs and does charity work. Doesn't that describe many of the driver's wives and significant others? I'm sure Krissy is a lovely woman who has helped Ryan a lot over the course of his career but I couldn't care less about her cookie-baking skills. Nor do I care about the clothing that the drivers and their significant others wear. I care about the racing, and it's almost offensive to me that so many of these fluff-piece articles have popped up lately on Nascar.com. I really hope Turner Sports doesn't think that most female fans are more interested in cookie baking and clothes than in the racing.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (2/22)

Of course the big topic of discussion on this show was the Daytona 500. One thing that Tony Rizzuti, Michael's co-host brought up is the importance of teamwork in races like this. Michael said that you have to have a teammate or partner. That driver doesn't have to be from your team but has to treat you like they're an actual teammate. He cited Dale Earnhardt in 2000, how he won with Kenny Wallace's help and how they worked together like they were teammates. He said in 2001 Dale told him before the race about the importance of all three of them (Dale, Michael and Junior) working together and they did. Michael said that you have to have someone you can count on.

I'm always interested when Michael tells that story because at that time Steve Park was also racing for DEI in Cup but Dale apparently didn't cite Steve as one who would be working with them to help one of them win - I've always wondered why. Maybe it's because Steve wasn't standing with them or maybe Dale knew that the #1 car wouldn't be as competitive as the others, or maybe he didn't think that Steve was as good on restrictor plate tracks as they were or maybe there was some other reason. I'll never know. But it's always interested me. Dale believed in Steve of course otherwise he wouldn't have put him in one of his cars - that belief in his abilities was and still is important to Steve, and the same is true for Michael. Still, based on that story it seems as if Dale - correctly - sensed that Steve wouldn't be racing for the win at the end of the race.

Fans of both Steve and Michael often say that if Dale was still alive both would still be at DEI. I'm not sure about that. These days there's a lot more driver movement than there was in the past and as much loyalty as Dale had to both of them and vice versa, there's no telling what direction Dale might have taken DEI in. In addition, Michael and Steve could have moved on to other organizations by choice - Michael for instance might have joined with Toyota so he could become a car owner on the Cup level regardless. It's impossible to know how things would have played out and what would have been difference.

The email of the week was one that I had submitted about the gold wheels that were on the Michael Waltrip Racing cars in honor of the 50th running of the Daytona 500. I had wondered about whose idea they were. What made me smile is that Tony referred to me as "our good friend Deborah in New York" which made me smile. That's probably just because I try to send them an email with a question or comment just about every week or every other week just to give feedback and so they know that someone's always listening. I actually don't live in New York but I do work there.

Turns out the gold wheels were Ty Norris's idea. The first wheel was auctioned off for $6,100 (all proceeds go to charity) and another three will be offered to the next three highest underbidders. Several other wheels will be donated to the Autism Foundation presumable to be auctioned of by them.

Posted by silverdsl at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

More on Robby Gordon

Jim Beam sure knows how to make the most out of an opportunity for some exposure. They've written an open letter to Nascar protesting the penalties given to Robby Gordon, there's t-shirts for fans to wear and they've started an online petition that they're going to present to Nascar. I can't help but wonder if they really believe that the penalties are that unjust or whether they just recognize they might get more publicity and exposure from this than from anything else this season. "Rally for Robby" and at the same time advertise Jim Beam.

What really cracks me up in the open letter is how they talk about Robby's character. Every team and driver tries to get as much of an advantage as they can get over their fellow competitors and I highly doubt that there are many who haven't pushed the line when it comes to the rules at one time or another, but Robby is far from an innocent flower. It's really hard to view Robby as a man of complete integrity who would never break the rules after the roll bar padding incident when he deliberately threw padding on the track to cause a caution.

I think Robby also needs to take a step back. The more he whines about how it was just a clerical error and that it's not the fault of anyone at Robby Gordon Motorsports the less sympathy I have for him. Robby claims the difference in serial numbers was just a dash. This is big-time racing at the highest level, not putting together a go-kart for the local track. Any difference in the serial numbers, even a dash, should have been checked to be sure it was right. To my knowledge Robby has not once taken any kind of responsibility for the wrong nose being put on the car or even talked about how he would prevent a similar incident in the future. But his team is responsible for being sure that the car they come to the track with has legal and approved parts on it. Maybe if Robby had come back sooner from Parker instead of leaving the change-over to Dodge in other people's hands this could have been avoided. Of course it could have happened anyway but as soon as I heard he wouldn't be around to supervise the change-over I had a feeling things might not go as smoothly as he wanted.

Robby said today, "I think open wheel got back together last week and I know I can drive one of those cars." Maybe that's exactly what he should do if he can't handle operating his organization on the Cup level.

Posted by silverdsl at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2008

Penalties Announced For Robby Gordon, Dale, Jr. and Others

Kind of interesting the way things worked out - the infraction that was downplayed in the media as being accidental resulted in the biggest penalty and one of the infractions that was made out to be a big deal resulted in a minor penalty. The biggest first - for being found to have the wrong nose on the car Robby Gordon was penalized 100 driver and owner points and his crew chief, Frank Kerr, was fined $100,000 and suspended for the next six races. For the infractions found after inspection on the #5 Nationwide car, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was penalized 50 driver points, Rick Hendrick 50 owner points and the crew chief, Chad Walters was fined $25,000 and suspended for the next six Nationwide races. Five other Nationwide teams lost 25 driver and owner points and their crew chiefs for six races for having an oil reservoir tank cover that wasn't securely fastened. Lastly, Jerry Baxter, the crew chief of the #99 was fined $5,000 and placed on probation until July for an infraction with the carburetor, something many thought would result in a major penalty but didn't.

More than a few people thought that Robby would get off lightly because the team said that in changing the cars over from Fords to Dodges they simply put on the noses they were given from Gillett-Evernham Motorsports/Dodge and had no idea that they were the wrong ones. However, I suspected that Nascar wouldn't feel that was an acceptable excuse. For one thing the team and especially the crew chief is responsible to make sure that the car they show up with to the track meets the parameters set forth in Nascar's rule book even if they are changing manufacturers. If Nascar allowed Robby Gordon Motorsports to get off for accidentally and unknowingly putting the wrong parts on then any team could claim the same thing even if they were deliberately trying to get away with something. In addition, it was a COT violation and Nascar's made it clear that the penalties are going to be very harsh when it comes to COT violations.

Since Robby is locked into the field for the next four races because of the 2007 owner's points, there's no worries about him possibly missing races due to the loss of owner's points... right now. Odds are Robby will finish well enough over the next four races to be high enough in the 2008 owner's points to where he'll still be locked in when the 2008 points come into effect, but the team can't afford any mistakes. If they finish poorly in several races they could find themselves in trouble. Losing Frank Kerr for six races is probably what will hurt the team the most. Of course he can still work on the cars in the shop, but he won't be able to work with the team at the track, and Robby will have yet another crew chief just when he was starting to get used to working with Frank (again). Any failures to communicate as has sometimes been a problem for Robby with his crew chiefs could be costly if it effects performance.

As for the penalties for the #5 Nationwide team, the driver points are meaningless to Junior since he's racing only a few races. The owner's points are more costly but a few good finishes will take care of that. Losing the crew chief for that team for six races will hurt more but since Nascar talked about how blatant the violation was, they're probably lucky they didn't lose him for longer. Hendrick Motorsports has never penalized Chad Knaus (that we know of) for getting caught cheating numerous times on the Cup side but both Junior and Rick Hendrick had expressed their displeasure about Walters messing around with the spoiler so it will be interesting to see if they take any additional action against him.

Michael Waltrip Racing - and David Reutimann - must be breathing a major sigh of relief. After last year's mess at Daytona the last thing they needed was to be tagged again for a major rules violation even if it was on the Nationwide side. In addition, since David is racing for the Championship every point is important so a loss of points wouldn't be a good thing. Nor would losing Jerry Baxter be good either since he and David seem to work very well together. I'm not sure why the #99 team got off so lightly as it had been said that the infraction to the carburetor was considered a major violation that could give them an areodynamic advantage. But maybe it was determined that there wasn't actually as much of a rules violation as originally though. I'm just glad that the penalties were so little.

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

February 19, 2008

Joey Clanton Out of the #09 Truck After Just One Race

Jacques Villeneuve isn't the only driver to lose his ride after Daytona - it was announced today by Roush-Fenway Racing that Joey Clanton, who just joined the organization in the off-season, would be replaced in the #09 truck at California by Travis Kvapil. After California the team will "re-evaluate" their plans and decide what to do. Since the truck has sponsorship from Zaxby's they'll continue to field it without Clanton. I would guess that given his success in the Truck Series Kvapil will at least race it in those races that are companion events to the Cup races, and Roush will probably find another driver for the other races.

I'd like to know how Clanton lost his ride so quickly. With Villeneuve, it was a lack of sponsorship but that's not the case here. The Roush press release made it seem like Clanton decided to leave the team to "pursue other opportunities" but it's hard for me to imagine a young driver willingly giving up a change to race a quality truck so soon. Clanton was involved in wrecks with his teammate Colin Braun in both Daytona testing and in the race this past weekend so I can't help but wonder if those two incidents had anything to do with his sudden departure from the team.

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

"This Week in Nascar" Not So Great

In some ways I feel bad saying how much I disliked This Week in Nascar last night on Speed. For one thing as a Michael Waltrip fan I tend to like everything that he's involved with and I feel guilty for not liking this. Also, it's only the second show since they revamped the Monday night show so I should probably be giving it more time. But I was really unhappy with the product that Speed presented to it's viewers last night - other than Michael being on the show it was really hard for me to find much to like. When Speed first announced the changes to INC I got pretty excited and I felt optimistic about the direction that the show was going to go in. It seemed like Speed understood what elements of the show appealed to fans and there seemed to be a willingness to return to a more relaxed format. That was most certainly not what viewers got last night in the first airing of the show in it's regular format.

One of the best things about Speed's Monday night show has always been hearing the insights of the drivers on the panel about the race(s) they were just in or on whatever is going on in the sport. Fans also love the banter and joking around between the panel members. Last night there was very little of that, though Michael and Greg Biffle tried their best.

For me the show started off on the wrong foot with just a minute or two's discussion about the Daytona 500 before launching into almost 20 minutes worth of discussion about the upcoming race at California that featured lengthy video highlights on last year's race. Yes, that's right. A day after Nascar runs it's biggest and most prestigious race of the season and the 50th anniversary running of it no less, Speed feels that it's more important for the panel to talk about last year's Cup race at California and what viewers might see this weekend. Of course that should be a part of the show, but before they discuss the Daytona 500? At the end of the show Michael talked about how he felt about taking part in the concert and ceremony in tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500 with his brother - letting Michael talk about that at length towards the beginning of the show would have been a wonderful way to put into context the importance of the 500 and how honored drivers are to participate and especially to win it. But instead Speed deemed Daytona 500 discussion to be secondary to promoting next weekend's race. What really amazed me is that the name of the show is yet they spent significant time on a race from last year! I would much rather have heard Michael and Greg talk about their impressions of what happened in the 500 at much greater length than they were able to do last night.

There were also what seemed like constant promos for other Speed shows. I think the show really sunk to a new low when they played video highlights from Speed's coverage of Speedweeks - why do we need to see any of that again? And if they were going to play highlights how about letting the panel talk about the Duels? After all, a story of the week is how John Andretti and Kenny Wallace beat the odds and raced their way into the Daytona 500 and how all three Michael Waltrip Racing teams made the race as well. I'm not sure they even mentioned the Duels - or the Nationwide race for that matter.

As much as I like the Pettys I don't understand why the show's producers felt that they should run a feature on Petty Enterprise's move from Level Cross, something which is pretty much old news at this point since it took place a couple of months ago. Surely there must be more timely news that they could have done a feature on? And if they were going to show the feature on the Pettys, why not have Michael share a story or two about when he lived with the Pettys? Again, the stories and insights that can't be found anywhere else is why fans are watching.

What was most disheartening is that I felt like far more of the show was scripted and controlled than it ever had been. I felt like the drivers were told when to talk, and though I hate to think this would be the case maybe they were even told what to say too at times. When Greg responded to an email question about Nascar possibly changing the minimum age in the Cup series - something that's also old news - he sounded like he was reading off a card instead of giving a candid opinion. Some viewers also thought that Steve Byrnes chastised Michael when he disagreed with Nascar regarding a driver dropping down below the yellow line - I want to hear the drivers give their candid opinions whether they're pro Nascar or not, and as a driver and team owner Michael is certainly entitled to have independent opinions on what happens in the sport.

Where was the personality last night? It's been said how great it was that Michael was "excited" about what he was talking about. To me personality is more than Michael talking about things in an excited tone of voice. It's the drivers on the panel being themselves, sharing stories and laughing with each other. It's what used to make the show such a much-watch. But other than that Michael's on the show there isn't much to compel me watch - maybe that's it. Speed knows that there's a large percentage of fans who will watch to see the drivers they like no matter what the format of the show is or how many promos they run.

Hopefully the show will get better as the season goes on and they settle into their new format.

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

February 18, 2008

Pho

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

Posted by silverdsl at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (2/18)

*More than a few fans have speculated that both Penske Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing would eventually switch to Toyota. That won't be happening, at least not for the foreseeable future since Dodge has signed new contracts with both organizations. It seems to me that Toyota is pretty set in Cup for now as far as teams go - how many do they need? It's better to have a smaller amount of really good teams than many teams that split resources and aren't very good. In time Toyota will likely have multiple successful teams among the organizations they're affiliated with now, not just Joe Gibbs Racing, if they give them enough support.

*Michael "Fatback" McSwain was in the garage area at Daytona looking for a job... but not with a race team. Instead Fatback wants to do TV or radio work. Good luck - I don't think he's particularly suited for either. Apparently Fatback is very much in need of some kind of income that will allow him to continue to stay at home with his family so he's resorted to selling memorabilia on Ebay. Something here seems a little strange to me. While I can understand why he might not want to travel every weekend, aren't there jobs in Nascar with teams where he could just work in the shop? Maybe even in a consultant's role? Also, Fatback must have been very well compensated for being a crew chief all those years. While that might not be enough to live on forever it seems to me he shouldn't be so desperate for cash that he has to sell stuff on Ebay.

*Although Jacques Villeneuve is out of a ride and the #27 has no sponsorship, Bill Davis Racing has decided to continue fielding the #27 for the next few races with Mike Skinner and Johnny Benson behind the wheel. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that BDR is willing to field the #27 without sponsorship for Benson and Skinner but not for JV, a driver they claim to be committed to. However, I can only guess that maybe BDR thinks that Benson and Skinner have a better chance of qualifying for races and getting the car into the top 35 in owner's points than JV. Still, I wonder how long BDR will be able to keep this team going without sponsorship.

*Bill Elliott has said that 2008 will be his last season in Cup. In addition, Elliott says that although he's committed to racing part-time in the #21, he's be okay with cutting back if Marcus Ambrose or Jon Wood were deemed ready to do more Cup racing. I can't say I blame him. Although Elliott has talked about having fun racing for the Wood Brothers the team isn't able to be as competitive as they once were. Missing the Daytona 500, a race he once was, and not even being the least bit competitive in the Duels had to be very disappointing for Elliott. So I can understand why he might not want to deal with it anymore. What I think it interesting is that he specified that he'll be done racing Cup, not done all together with racing.

*Most fans seemed to really love the pre-race concert and tribute to the past Daytona 500 winners but I thought it was pretty lame. First of all, with all the musicians available they went with Chubby Checker, Michael McDonald and Kool & the Gang? Did a lot of other musicians turn them down? Brooks and Dunn, though not usually my taste in music were the best of the four, but even with them it seemed like the audience didn't really seem to be into the performances all that much. I liked when they brought out all the past living Daytona 500 champions onto the stage but TV didn't do a very good job of showing them all which I thought was a major oversight considering they were who was being honored I did very much like seeing Michael Waltrip with his arm around his brother.

*Something that doesn't bode well for the Nationwide Series is that even the Busch... I mean Nationwide-wackers can't even attract sponsors. JGR had hoped to field both the #20 and #18 Nationwide cars full-time but due to a lack of sponsorship they won't bring the #18 to California next weekend. That in spite of Kyle Busch having finished second in that car this past weekend. If teams fielded by Cup organizations with high-profile Cup drivers who win a lot can't attract sponsors, how easy is it going to be for independent and smaller teams to find enough sponsorship to keep going?

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

Andy Pettitte Addresses the Media

I gained new respect for Andy Pettitte today. Instead of hiding and letting his affidavit to congress speak for him, something that no one would have blamed him for doing, Pettitte addressed his admission to using HGH head on today in a press conference during which he candidly answered questions from the media as much as his lawyers would allow him to. Petittte didn't just answer one or two questions either, he sat there for over an hour. Contrast that with Roger Clemens who stormed out of the press conference he had called to defend himself against the allegations he used performance enhancers after less than 15 minutes. Gee, who came off better between the two? Guilty or innocent and in spite of having many people his legal and PR teams, Clemens has horribly mishandled everything related to his inclusion in the Mitchell Report.

One thing that's pretty clear is how difficult this situation has been for Pettitte since he says that he's good friends with both Brian McNamee and Clemens. One thing that really made an impact on me is that Pettitte said that he said what he had to say not only because he was under oath but also because he will one day have to answer to god. Really, the odds of him making things up or "misremembering" as Clemens said, doesn't seem too likely in light of that.

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

Driver By Driver: Daytona 500

Although as to be expected the action picked up towards the end of the race, for the majority of time I thought this race was really boring. To be fair, it may just be that the TV coverage didn't do a good job of showing what was happening on the track, but it seemed like although there were some lead changes there really wasn't a tremendous amount of hard racing until the end. Maybe it was because a lot of the drivers had handling issues or were still feeling out the COT at Daytona, but I just felt this race was lacking in some excitement which is unfortunately given that it was the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500. No, it wasn't because there wasn't "The Big One" - I can't stand the big wrecks and I'm always extra nervous when they race on restrictor plate tracks. It was just that I didn't see a lot of really exciting racing. Of course not every race is going to have a close finish and be exciting from beginning to end, but I did expect more from one of the biggest races of the season.

1. Ryan Newman - Ryan hasn't won since 2005 and he sure did pick a great race to make a return to Victory Lane in! Although I was hoping to see a Toyota in VL, I'm happy for Ryan - it shows that contrary to what some fans think he's not done in Cup yet. It's also great to see a different than the usual driver and team win. Overall, the Dodges were really strong in this race.

2. Kurt Busch - Terrific teamwork between Ryan and Kurt there at the end of the race. I'm sure he's disappointed that he wasn't the one who won, but he'll surely get his chance to celebrate a win this season.

3. Tony Stewart - Tony was my pick as the driver to beat for the win and it turns out I was right. Only I thought he would actually win, not get beat on the last lap. Tony's mistake was being in the lead on the last lap - the driver who leads heading to the finish line on a restrictor plate track often isn't the driver who ends up winning. Tony may not have won but he did show that Toyotas can contend for wins in Cup.

4. Kyle Busch - Got called a "girlie" driver by Martin Truex, Jr. after the Nationwide race on Saturday but there's nothing "girlie" about the way Kyle races. Those in the booth were in awe of some of the moves that Kyle was making and I think more than a few people probably figured that he would be the one to touch off "The Big One." But he didn't and ended up with an excellent finish.

5. Reed Sorenson - Reed had a strong Speedweeks and ended up finishing just as well as he qualified - 5th. He's a driver who really needs a strong season to ensure that he keeps his ride so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for him this season.

6. Elliott Sadler - Last season Elliott and Kasey finished 6th and 7th in the Daytona 500 and this season they got the exact same result. So while some seem ready to pronounce that all of Gillett-Evernham's performance issues are over I'd like to see what they do in the next few races to be sure we won't see a repeat of last season when it was all downhill after the Daytona 500.

7. Kasey Kahne - The results for Kasey were better in the second half of the season than the first so hopefully this 7th place finish is a sign that carried over into this season.

8. Robby Gordon - Great finish for Robby considering he just switched over to Dodge last week. However, Robby has always been decent on these kinds of tracks regardless of manufacturer so the true test may come next week at California though that will be true for a lot of teams.

9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - For more teams this would be a finish to be very happy with but for Junior it's probably pretty disappointing. For one thing he had almost dominated Speedweeks by winning the Bud Shootout and his Duel. And for most of the race it seemed as if Junior would be in the mix at the end for the win. But then came a puzzling call by his crew chief, Tony Eury, Jr. to stay out for track position when all other cars pitted. That made no sense to me. At this kind of track even if he loses a few spots Junior could easily race his way back up to the front, plus I have no idea why Tony, Jr. didn't think that fresh tires would be important - as it turned out they were. Junior is probably lucky he finished as well as he did. A bad decision in one race doesn't mean the whole season is going to be a failure but if Junior is going to perform as well as most think he will at Hendrick Motorsports it's going to be important that the calls from the pit box are just as good as the cars are that he has to race.

10. Greg Biffle - A much better finish for Greg than in this race last season. I'd really love to see Greg race well and be a Chase driver this season.

11. Bobby Labonte - Of course no one noticed but this is a really good finish for Bobby, especially considering he probably didn't have much help from his teammate.

12. Brian Vickers - Another driver who didn't have a teammate to rely on, though I assume he got help from some of the other Toyotas. A top 15 finish is good for Brian considering he had to overcome a loose wheel early on that caused him to have to make an unscheduled pit stop.

13. Jeff Burton - Led nine laps but really faded towards the end of the race. After the race he and teammate Clint Bowyer had words apparently because Jeff was upset with the way Clint was racing. It's hard to comment too much on that incident because not much is known about it right now.

14. Kevin Harvick - As the defending Daytona 500 champion I'm sure Kevin had much higher hopes for yesterday but he's probably lucky he finished 14th considering he was telling his team that he thought he had an engine issue early on.

15. Sam Hornish Jr. - Terrific finish for Sam considering his lack of experience on these kinds of tracks and in Cup overall. I have to admit to being surprised that he did so well, but he raced in the top ten for a good chunk of the day. We'll see how he does on other kinds of tracks though.

16. Dale Jarrett - I'm sure his fans would have liked to have seen him won this race since it's the last Daytona 500 he'll ever be in but this is a solid finish which is hopefully the first step to locking this team into the top 35 in owner's points.

17. Denny Hamlin - Got some damage in the Jimmie Johnson/Martin Truex, Jr. incident which is probably what kept him from being up front with his teammates at the end of the race.

18. David Reutimann - Like his teammates, David fought a loose condition but he ended up finishing fairly well, particularly as compared to last season. Like DJ, this is a good first step towards locking himself into the top 35 in owner's points.

19. Carl Edwards - What race was his PR person watching? In his post-race recap his PR person referred to this race as one of the best Daytona 500's ever - maybe if you were watching at the track but it certainly wasn't that exciting for those of us at home. Carl had a decent car but tangled with Bobby Labonte on lap 102. While the damage wasn't so severe to cause him to drop out of the race, it was enough so that he wasn't able to be very competitive for the remainder of the race.

20. Martin Truex Jr. - Was an innocent victim when Jimmie Johnson spun and got into him. He was able to continue but not finish as well as he might have liked. I'm very interested to see if Martin can keep his momentum from last season when he really broke out as a driver who could contend for wins.

21. Scott Riggs - Not a bad finish for Scott.

22. Paul Menard - Finished about where he started. Because he DNQ'd for this race last season this was actually his first Daytona 500 even though he was in Cup last season. Paul's another driver who really needs to improve his results this season.

23. Jeremy Mayfield - A top 25 isn't terrible but it's not all that impressive either. A strong finish might have helped this team find some sponsorship.

24. Clint Bowyer - A very disappointing finish for Clint considering with less than 20 laps to go he was in the lead until he got bumped from behind by Juan Pablo Montoya. Though his car was undamaged in the spit he did have to come in for tires which put him far back in the field.

25. J.J. Yeley - Last year J.J. finished 12th in the Daytona 500 which was one of his best finishes of the season so a 25th place finish might not bode well for him. While this team has raced well enough to be in the top 35 in owner's points they don't often race up front. I suspect that may not change with J.J. behind the wheel.

26. Jamie McMurray - The car Jamie had to race yesterday wasn't the one he was supposed to be racing. First he wrecked his back up 500 car in the Bud Shootout, then the primary 500 car got wrecked too. So this was the back-up to the back-up car so it's not too surprising that it wasn't very good. Jamie fought a loose condition all race long and never could make much forward progress.

27. Jimmie Johnson - A rare poor race for the #48 team - and Hendrick Motorsports overall. First his car slipped off the jack during a pit stop which cost him track position, then Sam Hornish Jr. made slight contact with him which sent him into a spin. Although the car was mostly undamaged Jimmie wasn't able to get back to the front before the race was over.

28. David Gilliland - Highest finishing Yates car which may not bode well for that organization since one of the races in which they were the best was this race last season.

29. Michael Waltrip - Poor Michael. As I discussed in a previous entry he had such high hopes for this race. However, just when the car was starting to be right and Michael was racing in the top 15, he got into Denny Hamlin trying to avoid the Jimmie Johnson/Martin Truex, Jr. wreck. That bent the nose on the car and while Michael was able to continue he wasn't able to make any forward progress at all. The #55 team did an excellent job of fixing the damage and getting Michael back on track without losing any laps. Michael is still leaving Daytona in better shape than he was last season.

30. Travis Kvapil - Not a very good finish for Travis in his return to Cup. That's not going to help this team attract sponsorship.

31. Mark Martin - Tough race for Mark. Ran over debris on lap 82 which caused him to get two flat tires and lose a lap. When he finally got back on the lead lap, Mark looked like he might race his way to a decent finish until he got collected in the Dave Blaney wreck.

32. Juan Montoya - Clint Bowyer blamed him for getting spun but JPM's post-race notes blames Clint for blocking. JPM fought a loose condition all race but was still on his way to a decent finish until he got damage in the Dave Blaney wreck which caused him to have to pit.

33. Dario Franchitti - Really struggled in this race. Afterwards he admitted that he needs to improve the way he gives his crew information about changes that need to be made to the car and seemed to indicate that he struggled to race in the draft.

34. Kyle Petty - Kyle was slow all Speedweeks and it was no surprise that he was in the back and laps down for most of this race. Kyle's been very lucky to somehow manage to stick in the top 35 for most of the last couple of years but I suspect this will be the season his luck runs out since some of the bad teams last season are improved this season.

35. Matt Kenseth - Had a good car and led some laps but was sent into the wall on lap 161by his own teamate and the damage was so bad that he had to spend some time behind the wall.

36. Regan Smith - Regan was in this race? I don't think he was mentioned once. Got damage when he tangled with Dave Blaney on lap 131 but he wasn't racing very well prior to that.

37. Casey Mears - Was racing in 3rd until he got into the wall with just five laps to go.

38. Dave Blaney - The bad luck continues for Dave. Was racing well until he made contact with Kevin Harvick on lap 189 which sent him into the wall. With all the problems for the #27 team it's essential that the results are good for the #22 this season otherwise BDR could be in trouble in Cup.

39. Jeff Gordon - Maybe this season isn't going to be as charmed for Jeff as last season was. A suspension problem ended his day early.

40. John Andretti - I can't say I'm surprised by this finish for John since I knew it would be hard for this team to be as competitive as the larger teams even if they didn't have any mechanical issues. However, it was still a major accomplishment for this team to make the race.

41. Joe Nemechek - After qualifying so well an engine issue ruined his day. Even if this team qualifies for races it will be hard for them to get into the top 35 if they have mechanical problems and the overall in-race results aren't very good.

42. David Ragan - Wrecked himself and his teammate, Matt Kenseth on lap 160. The Daytona 500 was one of David's best races last season so this has to be a very disappointing finish for him and his team.

43. Kenny Wallace - Both Furniture Row cars had mechanical issues in this race.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)

Photo of the Day

Somewhere over the East Coast, July, 2006.

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

February 17, 2008

Mixed Day for Michael Waltrip Racing

The highlight of the Daytona 500 came early for Michael Waltrip when he started on the front row and led a couple of laps. However, due a loose handling car he had to drop back in the field until the first round of pit stops when his crew made some changes for him in an effort to get it right. Unfortunately just when the car started getting right for Michael and he had raced his way into the top 20, and was likely posed to make his way back up front, things went bad as Michael got into the back of Denny Hamlin presumably as he checked up to avoid the Jimmie Johnson-Martin Truex, Jr. wreck. Although the damage wasn't bad enough to send Michael to the garage, the front end got bent and it was impossible for him to make any headway after that. The disappointment was evident in Michael's voice at the end of the race as he was only able to finish 29th.

After proclaiming that he had a car good enough to win the race with earlier in the week, I felt really bad for Michael that he wasn't up there contending for the win at the end of the race. However, there was still a lot of positives for Michael and Michael Waltrip Racing in this race. I really liked what I heard in terms of the communication between Michael and his crew chief Paul Andrews. Although Michael seemed irritated at the start of the race Paul was able to take command and stayed in control through the race, whereas in the past Michael has dominated his crew chiefs. But today while Michael gave feedback and made suggestions, he let Paul call the shots from the pit box. Also, when Michael got damage in the wreck, Paul did an outstanding job of keeping Michael and the team calm. They simply went about the business of fixing the car and getting Michael back on the track without losing a lap or freaking out - very well done. In addition, even when the car wasn't to Michael's liking while he complained, he didn't curse or yell as he's done in the past when things haven't been right. Instead he was mostly quiet, an indication to me that while the car wasn't handling well, it wasn't all that bad either - a far cry from last season when he would complain constantly all race long about how terrible the car was.

While Michael didn't finish well, Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann both had solid finishes, especially in comparison to last season. DJ finished 16th, the highest finishing MWR car like last season, and David finished 18th. Looking at the big picture, that two of the three MWR cars finished in the top 20 is terrific, and I think even that all three cars finished in the top 30 and on the lead lap is pretty good, even if it's not entirely satisfying. What that means is that all three teams have taken the first step towards being in the top 35 in owner's points after the first five races, something that's even more important than contending for the win in one race. Of course I would have loved to have seen Michael or another MWR car in Victory Lane or otherwise finish extremely well but that all three cars finished the race on the lead lap keeps me from being too disappointed about the race for MWR.

MWR did a few other cool things in this race that don't relate to the actual finish. First, since it was DJ's last Daytona 500 before he retires all the other drivers in the field signed his car. I assume that DJ will get that car at some point which will make a really cool memento. In addition, all three MWR cars raced with gold wheels until the first pit stop when they reverted back to their usual awesome looking chrome wheels. The gold was in honor of the 50th running of the Daytona 500 and they'll be autographed and auctioned off to raise money for charity. I love the way Michael is always thinking of creative ways to help good causes and in this case he paid tribute to a race that's always been important to him. Also, as a two-time winner of the Daytona 500 Michael took part in a special pre-race show with all the other former living Daytona 500 champions including his brother. It was really sweet to see Michael with his arm around DW when all the former champions went out on stage. I also liked seeing Michael with Macy - she might be getting older but it's clear she still enjoys being with her Daddy!

Overall I think MWR had a very good Speedweeks with only a few bumps in the road. Michael qualifying on the front row and all three MWR cars making the Daytona 500 is a definite highlight, as is all the very positive media coverage they got this week. Although the #99 Nationwide team will be penalized for the carburetor issue, on the Cup side Speedweeks was significantly better for MWR than it was last year and that's something to be happy about. If nothing else MWR showed this week that they're heading in the right direction. Hopefully next weekend at California all three teams will qualify for the race and continue to build on their finishes at Daytona!

Posted by silverdsl at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2008

Random Thoughts on the Daytona Truck Race

*I happen to love Michael Waltrip in the booth during the Truck races for Speed - I think his enthusiasm and love for the Truck Series really adds to the broadcast. However, I understand that not everyone likes Michael as much as I do - to each their own. But I wish that those that criticize Michael would do it for legitimate reasons. Last night someone started a thread on the Speed forum to complain about how much they dislike Michael being him in the booth because he plugs the Toyotas too much and that he blamed Brendan Gaughan for "The Big One." Neither of those things are true. I thought that Michael talked less about his sponsors last night than he has in the past, but of course he was going to talk about the Toyotas at times since there are so many Toyotas in the race! Was he supposed to ignore the Toyotas even when they were doing something of note or when he had something he wanted to say about a Toyota driver just because he happens to be a Toyota driver (and owner) himself? In addition, it was Rick Allen and Phil Parsons who brought up the possibility that Brendan was to blame for that wreck first, not Michael. Ultimately all three seemed to agree that it wasn't really any of the involved driver's fault, just one of those racin' deals. Some are just so anti-Toyota that even one mention is too much for them, and are so anti-Michael that they find fault even when there's no fault to be found.

*Speaking of last night's big wreck although some fans - and a few of the drivers - are very willing to blame Kyle Busch for it I don't think he really did anything so terrible. Kyle moved down on the track and unfortunately it just happened to be when Mike Skinner moved up - how was Kyle supposed to know that Mike was going to be where he was headed when they both went there at the same time? Plus, Mike had already had a loose car and Brendan was bouncing around right there too. Sometimes things just happen and it looked to me, just like it did to those in the booth, that it was just one of those things rather than something that could be blamed on any one driver. It was unfortunate that a lot of other trucks got caught up in it too but that's to be expected at Daytona. I don't really care for Kyle myself but not every incident that he's involved with is caused by him doing something he shouldn't. It's true that he's an aggressive driver but he was far from the only driver driving aggressively last night.

*I'd really like to like Brendan Gaughan. He's funny, quirky and very fan-friendly. Plus he seems like a pretty intelligent guy and he's not afraid to speak his mind. However, I often find myself shaking my head at the things that Brendan says. Like last night with what he said about Kyle. Brendan said,

"Anybody that was watching that understands anything about racing can understand that Kyle just will say 'I'll race tomorrow' he doesn't care about this. This is his fun time."

So does that mean when Brendan does an off-road even he doesn't really care about tearing up the truck or what happens because it's not his full-time gig? It's true that Kyle isn't racing for points because he's not racing the whole season but anyone who has half a clue about racing - which Brendan should considering it's what he does for a living - would know that Kyle probably cares very much about what happens. If given a choice between tearing up his truck and racing for the win, I'm pretty sure that Kyle would much rather be battling for the win at the end of the race - which is exactly what he was doing at race end last night. It's true that truck racing is fun for Kyle which is why he told Billy Ballew that he would race his truck without getting a paycheck. But that doesn't mean he's out there looking to start wrecks. Not to mention, even without Kyle in the race there was likely going to be a big wreck, that's just what happens at restrictor plate tracks. Brendan's caused a few wrecks of his own - as has every driver - some times things just come together in a bad way. ETA: I've now seen elsewhere what I had forgotten - Kyle might not be racing the full truck schedule but the truck he's in will be. So owner's points matter with that truck something Kyle is surely aware of.

*Todd Bodine ended up winning. I doubt it will be his last trip to Victory Lane this season. Since 2004 Todd has won multiple races every season. While a lot of fans don't think much of Todd's talent behind the wheel since he's never had much success in Cup, it's clear that truck racing really suits Todd. A driver without talent wouldn't have won 13 races in the last five races.

*One thing about the truck race this week is that there were only 37 trucks entered. This in spite of the race at Daytona being one of the ones that attracts the most attention all season since the racing is traditional so good. If there's only 37 trucks showing up at a big race, I have to wonder how many short fields we might see at tracks that are less popular? Next week the series goes to California and some teams may not have the money to make the trip.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)

Disappointed

Lately the news has all been very positive for Michael Waltrip Racing but yesterday MWR's fine Speedweeks was tarnished by the news that Nascar had confiscated the carburetor from David Reutimann's #99 Aaron's Dream Machine car prior to Nationwide qualifying. MWR referred all questions to Toyota who builds and provides their engines, which presumably also includes the carburetors, so at the moment it doesn't appear to be an issue that originated in their shop. It's also not as serious as an infraction as what Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s #5 team was busted for. But it's still a rules violation all the same.

I'm extremely disappointed. With all that happened last season for MWR during Speedweeks with the illegal fuel additive, there shouldn't have been any rules violations with any of the MWR teams on any level this week. Of course mistakes are going to happen and I didn't expect that MWR would never fail an inspection or ever have any issues in the future. But I did think that this week after what happened a year ago, both MWR and Toyota would make sure that everything that went into the cars was perfect. Of course it might not have been something that was obvious and like what happened with Robby Gordon Motorsports and how they got the wrong nose pieces from Gillett-Evernham/Dodge, MWR is going to assume that everything is correct with what they get from Toyota. And Toyota might not have noticed that there was an issue either. But I think for this week at least the quality control should have been such at Toyota that they were making sure there were no issues not just for what they sent the MWR teams, but all of their teams in light of last year.

It concerns me that there were engine issues this week with a number of Toyota teams that required them to change engines before the Duels, and now there's another issue that might have originated at TRD. Last season the engines appeared to be a real weakness for Toyota. If they're to have success this season that can't this season as well.

It wasn't just the #99 or the #5 that was found to be in violation of the Nascar rulebook. There were five other teams that had their qualifying times disallowed because they were found to have illegal aerodynamic modifications. Ramsey Poston, Nascar's spokesperson, said that they all had the same violation. He said,

“Essentially what that is is the lid on the oil tank behind the drivers seat was loose. With that, you have both a safety consideration and a possible aero enhancing advantage.”

I wonder which crew chief was the first to think of that modification? And how they all ended up trying it? Unfortunately for Johnny Davis Motorsports the modification had big consequences - since Kertus Davis wasn't in the top 30 in owner's points having his 15th place qualifying time thrown out meant that he won't race today. Why take that risk? That team has a hard enough time as it is keeping up with team with more resources, but maybe that's why they felt they needed to try to do something that would give them an advantage over other teams.

The penalties won't be announced until next week and hopefully those that are given to the #99 team won't result in too much of a loss of points.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2008

Jacques Villeneuve's Cup Future Looks Even Bleaker

Failing to qualify for the Daytona 500 may have ended Jacques Villeneuve's Cup career before it got off the ground. Bill Davis said today that without sponsorship Villeneuve may not attempt to qualify the #27 next week at California. He said,

“We’ve got to have a sponsor. We’re going to [sit down] in the next day or two and kind of re-evaluate. They have a lot of companies up there [in Canada] in play. Some are very interested. We’ll have to see where we’re at. Obviously, not getting in this deal was a lick, [but] I think everybody was realistic about the odds.”

Davis went on to say that Bill Davis Racing might consider putting another driver behind the wheel for California but I'm not sure how likely that is to happen either without sponsorship. BDR has struggled to successfully field a second Cup car, and really struggled overall on the Cup level for quite some time now. Given the advances that some of the other go-or-go-home teams have made since last season I'm not sure the chances of them getting the #27 into the race at California is too good. After all, even Villeneuve admitted that due to the lack of financial resources the #27 team was behind other teams, and missing the 500 makes things more difficult. Even if they found a sponsor immediately it still would take time to get the team up to speed. Thing is these days it's almost impossible for a single-car team to have success in Cup so BDR's problems may get even worse if they are only fielding one car.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)

Junior's Nationwide Team Busted for Cheating

This probably won't get as much attention as it might if it had happened on the Cup side, but Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s #5 Nationwide car, a joint effort between JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports, was impounded for a "blatant" offense yesterday. Apparently after inspection the team altered the spoiler in an effort to gain an aerodynamic advantage. The violation was considered so serious that Nascar almost sent crew chief Chad Walters home. It boggles my mind that the team took this kind of risk and for what - Junior is already one of the best drivers in the sport at Daytona and any car with HMS equipment is going to be very strong. So this team really didn't need more of an advantage.

Tony Eury, Sr., JR Motorsports Director of Competition says that his organization and HMS may take action against Walters on top of whatever penalties Nascar assesses. He said,

"That's not something either of them approve of. Neither side [NASCAR or Earnhardt] is happy about it."

Thing is every organization says things like that after one of their teams is busted for a violation of the rules but if they were really serious about making sure that their teams didn't cheat they would make it clear up front that violating the rules wouldn't be tolerated. Yet over and over again HMS teams are busted for rules violations.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)

Photo of the Day - #44

Pocono, August 2007. In honor of Dale Jarrett racing his way in today - a photo of him heading out to practice from last season in the car of yesterday.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2008

Michael Waltrip Racing Will Have Three Cars in the Daytona 500 and other Duels Thoughts

Terrific day for Michael Waltrip Racing! It was outstanding enough when Michael Waltrip qualified on the front row for the Daytona 500 and David Reutimann also locked himself in, but today Dale Jarrett raced his way into Sunday's race despite starting from the back during the second Duel. That's right, DJ didn't have to use a past Champion's provisional like last year, in fact it wasn't available to him because Kurt Busch had to use it due to having mechanical problems in the first Duel that prevented him from trying to race his way in. So DJ's car, his ability behind the wheel, and a big dose of teamwork got him into Sunday's race!

To me what I saw today from the MWR teams is as impressive as anything this Speedweeks. For one thing Michael was able to lead laps today and contend against some of the strongest cars in the garage area. He even said at one point over his radio that his team had built him a car that he thought he could win the Daytona 500 with! What a thrill it was to hear that! But what really impressed me was the way all three MWR drivers worked together to get DJ into the race. They had a mutual goal and they achieved it. Michael, David and DJ discussed their plans over their radios and were determined to get DJ in the race - so they did it. That kind of teamwork showed me just as much as the cars having more speed how far MWR has come. Last season it seemed like the three teams were somewhat separate. Of course they all shared information and all, but it seemed like they were each so wrapped up in trying to make races and their own strategy for doing so that there wasn't necessarily a cohesiveness there. I really felt that was there today and I think that's just one more sign of how much stronger MWR is now that they were a year ago. A lot of that is because of Michael's leadership - he knew that there were issues that needed to be addressed and he did what he felt he needed to to fix them.

In the past Michael has been criticized for taking on too much by trying to drive and be an owner at the same time but I think he did an excellent job of balancing both today. He took care of himself and his team by leading laps and trying to see what his car was capable of in race conditions, but then he dropped back to make sure that DJ made the race, something that was essential for MWR. It can't be overstated how important it is for all three MWR cars to be in the Daytona 500 - it makes their sponsors happy and it also makes a statement that they're a very different organization than they were at this time last season. Not to mention the Daytona 500 is the most prestigious race of the season and it's going to be the last time DJ takes part in it. Of course this is just one race and MWR still has to get their cars into all the other races this season but I think getting this season off to such a positive start is huge for them. As Michael said on his XM show tonight, he just wants all three teams to get solid finishes - that's what I want to see too, but I'd be beside myself with happiness if Michael's solid finish was his third Daytona 500 win. I guess some think it's ridiculous to even dream about that, but I think it's very possible if all the pieces fall into place for Michael in the right way on Sunday.

Overall, the Duels were pretty exciting as they always are. There's always lots of hard racing since there are so many go-or-go-home teams trying to race their way in with very few spots being available. I think it's probably pretty shocking to many that Kenny Wallace got one of the transfer spots in the first race and John AndrettI in the second race. I certainly never expected either of those two to be able to do it, but maybe I should have at least in the case of Kenny. In 2005 Kenny raced his way into the 500 in a MWR car so he has experience in this exact situation. In addition, Furniture Row Racing is using engines from Hendrick Motorsports this season, something that already helped Kenny's teammate Joe Nemechek lock himself into Sunday's race on time. Kenny also had help from his brother Mike, who also has experience racing his way into the Daytona 500, who acted as Kenny's spotter today. Naturally, both Kenny and John were thrilled with what they achieved today. It definitely was great to see a couple of underdogs have their moment in the sun!

Toyota has to be very pleased with what they've seen in Speedweeks so far. Michael on the front row for the Daytona 500 was a great start but Denny Hamlin becoming the first Toyota driver to win a Cup event when he won the second Duel had to make them extremely happy. It appears that Joe Gibbs Racing is going to pick up right where they left off even in spite of the manufacturer change - I doubt this will be the last time one of their cars is in Victory Lane this season. In addition, they'll have nine teams racing in the Daytona 500, four of them because they raced their way in.

However, Toyota's excitement is probably tempered just a little by the engine problems that many of their teams experienced that led to some of them having to make engine changes before the Duels. Engine issues were a weakness for Toyota in Cup last season and I'm hoping it won't be again this season. I sure didn't like seeing Dave Blaney's engine blow, but hopefully that was the last of the engine gremlins for the Toyota teams this week.

The other thing that Toyota probably isn't entirely happy with is that while the majority of their teams will be racing on Sunday, they still didn't get all their teams into the show. Brian Vickers did an incredible job of coming back from an early spin and a tire issue to race his way in - I don't think I've ever seen him smile as big as he did after his duel - but his teammate, A.J. Allmendinger failed to make the Daytona 500. I can't say I'm surprised that Jacques Villeneuve both failed to race his way in and also started a big wreck. Though some have sung his praises I've not liked what I've seen of him in Nascar thus fan including today and apparently more than a few of his fellow competitors were figuring he was a wreck waiting to happen today. I don't think it bodes well for Red Bull Racing or Bill Davis Racing that they're starting 2008 essentially where they did last season. Sure, all of their teams could end up making the next four races and lock themselves into the top 35, but missing the first race of the season puts them at an immediate disadvantage that might be hard to come back from. It's particularly bad for Jacques and BDR since they were depending on a strong Speedweeks to try to attract a sponsor - without sponsorship the #27 team might fold.

Unfortunately ten drivers and teams failed to make the Daytona 500. It has to be particularly heart-breaking for Boris Said since he had the 9th fastest speed in qualifying. But he failed to race his way in via the first Duel and in spite of David Reutimann trying hard to help Boris by taking one of the transfer spots because Boris had helped him last year, Boris wasn't able to fall back on time either when John Andretti passed David on the last lap. I was really hoping Boris would make the race since I like him a lot and I think he's shown that he can race a Cup car well on a variety of tracks so I wish he would get more of an opportunity to race. Patrick Carpentier looked good for a while but towards the end of the race he brushed the wall several times and eventually blew a tire. I really thought he was going to be able to race his way in since his car was so good but his inexperience behind the wheel probably helped lead to his undoing - I'm thinking that 2008 may be the third year in a row that the #10 spends time outside the top 35 in owner's points.

Incredibly for a while it seemed like he would race his way in but he got caught up in the wreck that JV started, thus ending his chance - I have no idea how Stanton and his team were able to build a car that good when they had never really been competitive in Cup in the past but I'm thinking they may want to give trying to qualify for a restrictor plate race another go later in the season. Ken Schrader gave it his all but a lack of speed and tire issues did him in - as much as I like Ken I really didn't expect him to be able to make it in. Perhaps saddest of all though is that for the first time in 46 years - yes, 46 years, the Wood Brothers won't have a car in the Daytona 500. I can't say I'm surprised by that either considering that the #21 struggled all Speedweeks. Although they've been around for a very long time I have to wonder how much longer the #21 will be able to survive, particularly if they aren't able to get back into the top 35.

Oh yeah, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the first Duel but I'm not sure anyone noticed outside his many fans given all the other drama that was going on with the go-or-go-homers.

Hopefully the Daytona 500 will be as exciting as the Duels were today!

Posted by silverdsl at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM Recap 2/14

Every week myself and another fan do a recap of Michael Waltrip's XM show, Michael Waltrip Out Loud for those on the forum on Michael's site who don't have XM. If I'm typing it all up, I figure maybe I'll post it here too since I know there are fans of Michael's who stop by this space and some of them who don't have XM might be interested in what Michael talks about too. This show is terrific and I wish I could better capture how much fun it is to listen to. I love XM overall and it's even better that Michael does a show on XM so I definitely recommend to anyone that doesn't have it who is a fan of Michael's to get it!

The show kicked off with Ratt’s “Back for More” which is a song that Tony picked. Love hearing some of that 80’s glam metal! The show was taped on Monday and Michael was still in Daytona – he said he was having a great day after he and David locked themselves in the day before. He knew that the cars were better than they were a year ago, now the whole world knows too. Michael said that he thinks DJ will race his way in and as we all know that’s exactly what happened!

Tony said how Thursdays always used to be the must-see TV night so since their show was moved to Thursdays this season that must mean that they’re the hot ticket now. Michael joked that he’s surprised that they’re having them back at all.

Michael had a fun off-season. He mostly spent it in Sherrill’s Ford and getting ready to go racing. It was relaxing for him. He had a calm about him because of the way the cars were and the way MWR was pulling everything together. He spent a lot of time hanging out with Macy and Caitlin, and had a get together for the Super Bowl (I think at his house he said). It seemed like the off-season was very brief to him. (Felt like forever for all of us fans!)

Qualifying was an emotional roller coaster. DJ’s car didn’t go as fast as they thought it would, maybe because of how early he went out, but that made him nervous. Then David went out and had a fast lap which made him feel better. Michael said it gets on his nerves when the young kids like David Ragan walk by talking about how qualifying isn’t a big deal and how they’ll just race on Thursday, but for some it is a big deal.

Aaron’s really stepped up to help by being on David’s car for the first five. Good things happen to good people and the Aaron’s folks were rewarded by having their car in the Daytona 500. Ken Butler and all at Aaron’s really “get it” and love racing.

Dr. Toyota, the honorary chair of the board and one of the founders of Toyota visited the MWR shop last Fall and liked what he saw so much that he decided to come to the Daytona 500. Michael’s happy that now he’ll be able to walk up front and have his photo taken up front.

NAPA also stood behind them though some trying times. Michael hopes to grab more headlines for them and the others who have stood behind them.

Tony talked about how MWR has fought to survive and how that “fight” might be what defines MWR (I agree!). Michael said that they have a long way to go to feel good about where they are but that they feel good about where they’re going. Last February Ty and Michael went to Toyota and said that they needed to be supported differently and that they needed to redefine Toyota’s role with the team. (Which basically imo, is Michael saying that part of their problems last season were caused by Toyota not supporting them the way they needed). Also, hiring Eric Warren and bringing on Rob Kauffman made a difference. This is all part of the process of getting to the next level. Michael just wants them to get three solid finishes in the Daytona 500 and build on that.

With the Bud Shootout they had issues with the car on Friday where they couldn’t get it to drive well over the bumps. He didn’t like what he had during the Shootout and they could never come up with a set up he liked. However, he was happy to have led laps. Then he got back in a traffic jam and couldn’t do anything. They did have some mistakes on pit road that they’ll learn from – they need to make sure there’s no mistakes on Sunday.

As for the Kurt Busch – Tony Stewart incident Michael wasn’t surprised by it. He said that everyone’s been off for three months and they want to get out there and see what they have. There needs to be give and take but that didn’t happen. There’s always going to be people arguing over space as long as there’s racing. Michael thought it would be the coolest thing ever if Tony went into the Nascar hauler and punched Kurt. Tony said watching at home it seemed like every lap was exciting.

Michael thinks they’ll be able to race fine either on the top or the bottom in the 500. Racing is hugely circumstantial and the cautions at the end of the race will dictate the way the finish is. That’s why the finish last year was so exciting.

Tony asked Michael about Junior. Michael said he’s a confident young man with a great team. He compared Junior’s situation to his when he went to DEI. When Michael went to DEI everyone asked him about all the pressure he must be feeling but Michael felt that the pressure was off and that he knew that he had a car he could (and did) win with. Junior probably feels the same way and it’s a rewarding feeling.

At the time this taped they had no idea what would happen in the Duels but Michael said it was going to be a strategic race for them. He was going to do whatever he had to do to make sure DJ got in. He and David planned to race hard, find out what they had and also help their teammate get in. The Duels are crazy so the first 100 miles of the 500 will probably be calm then things will get crazy again.

Next Tony asked about Penske swapping points between Kurt’s team and Sam’s team. As I figured, Michael said he’s 100% for it. Penske can do whatever they want with their teams and that it’s a smart move within Nascar’s rules. He said that it’s fair.

Michael’s favorite Daytona 500s of the past are ’76, ’78 and ’79. He talked about as usual how he used to go down with his parents to watch DW race. Racing is all Michael has ever done and known. But he doesn’t take being on the front row for granted – he’s very thankful.

Earlier Michael had brought up young drivers so Tony asked about what lessons Michael learned as a young driver. Michael said as a rookie in 1986 in the Southern 500 he had been racing in the top ten then had a mechanical issue (but still finished pretty well). So Dale Earnhardt was in the lead and as he came around to lap him, Dale pointed at him because inadvertently Michael had pulled up in front of him and gotten in his way. So Dale sent him a message just by pointing at him “Better get out of my way, boy!”

Megan from New York emailed in with a question about how Michael felt about Joe Gibbs Racing stealing all the glory now that they were aligned with Toyota after MWR put in all the hard work last season. Michael said that JGR is a 20 year old team and they’ve won championships. They’re a better team than MWR and he doesn’t mind that JGR is getting all the attention because they deserve it. One day he hopes MWR is to a point where they deserve accolades. (It will happen!) Tony Stewart is one of Michael’s favorite drivers, Denny’s a buddy of his, and everyone know how much talent Kyle has.

The song they closed with was one Michael choose – “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” which Michael said is kind of the story of his life. Last season he did find out who his friends were and he’s grateful to all those who stuck by him.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:15 PM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (2/13)

*Good to see the Michael Waltrip Racing teams continue to be fast during practice today. In the second practice Michael was 2nd fastest, David Reutimann 6th fastest and Dale Jarrett 9th fastest. I hope that's a sign of good things to come in tomorrow's Duels as well as in the Daytona 500. DJ will definitely need as competitive of a car as possible to race his way in via the Duels tomorrow but unfortunately a number of other go-or-go-homers including Patrick Carpentier and Stanton Barrett who are both in his Duel appear to also have very good cars. It's pretty surprising to see Stanton that high on the speed chart as that team has been slow all Speedweeks so far. If they were to somehow make it into the 500 over more established teams it would be a huge upset. Some go-or-go-home teams continue to struggle to find speed including those of Ken Schrader, A.J. Allmendinger and Sterling Marlin. Anything can happen in the Duels but those teams can't be feeling too good right about now.

*There's been some interesting discussion about what Michael Waltrip will do and have David Reutimann do during their Duel, the reason being that Dale Jarrett is also in that race. The question on many people's minds is whether Michael will go for the win and tell David to go for the win if he can or whether he and David will lay back on his instruction to help DJ race his way in. That pits Michael the owner who knows that it's essential that DJ gets into the 500 versus Michael the driver who would want to do what ever he can to win if he thinks that's possible. My guess is that it will be a combination of both based on how the race plays out. Michael will likely do all he can to help DJ race his way in but if he has a chance to win I don't think he'd pass it up. A MWR ending up in Victory Lane would be pretty important for the organization too for a variety of reasons including because of how happy it would make the sponsors. How about if DJ wins the Duel? That would certainly make everyone happy!

*One of the biggest problems for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. last season was how many times he lost engines during races. Ironically, today the #88 teams was one of the many with engine issues that were so bad that the involved teams had to make engine changes. In fact all of the Hendrick Motorsports teams made engine changes due to a lifter problem. The HMS engines are some of the most dependable in the garage area - it's pretty unusual for them to have engine problems let alone ones that require them to change engines on all of their cars. The problem may also extend to some of the other teams that use HMS engines and at least one of the Hass-CNC Racing teams will be making an engine change as well. Any of the teams that change engines will have to start from the back during the Duels but it won't effect where they start during the 500.

*Turner Sports who produces Nascar.com has entered into an agreement with Roush-Fenway Racing to do their website as well. While I've never liked the Roush website too much, the Nascar.com website is even worse. It's hard to navigate and extremely difficult to find even the simplest of information. In addition, even on a high-speed connection the site is often very slow to load probably because of how graphics heavy it is. Other than when I'm using Trackpass I avoid spending much time on the site. It'll be interesting to see what they do for an individual team's site.

*Ray Evernham continues to redefine what he'll be doing now that he's taken a step back from the organization that bears his name. Today it was announced that he would be joining ESPN as an analyst which will include appearances on Nascar Now and in the booth for selected Nationwide races. I think he'll be a pretty good addition to ESPN's Nascar coverage. He's a weekly guest on Dave Moody's show on Sirius and I enjoy listening to him on that show. A lot of fans lost respect for Ray due to the whole Erin Crocker mess, but he has a lot to offer in terms of knowledge about the cars and the sport overall, both as a former crew chief and current team owner.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

Roger Clemens Not Looking Too Good

The danger for Roger Clemens and his legal/PR team in presenting him as an unblemished saint who is unjustly being persecuted and going on the attack against Brian McNamee's credibility is that it would set Clemens himself up for a hard fall if anything surfaced that put his own credibility in doubt. That's exactly what's happened today. What astonishes me the most about the proceedings today is that the committee was willing to issue their findings in a written report but Clemens's own legal team urged them to have the public hearings so Clemens could tell his side of the story. Major mistake. From his opening statement and throughout the hearings Clemens has come off extremely poorly. Disastrously really.

A few of the issues for Clemens today:

Told the committee numerous conflicting stories, inconsistencies and apparent falsehoods. Gave rambling, sometimes nonsensical answers to some questions that often didn't answer the actual questions that were asked to him.

Can't explain why Brian McNamee would tell the truth about Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, something that is supported by both of their testimonies, but isn't telling the truth about him.

Can't explain why Pettitte, someone he says is extremely honest would make false statements about conversations with Clemens in which Clemens admitted to using HGH. Claims that Pettitte must have "misheard" or "misremembered."

Insisted he was never at a Jose Canseco BBQ, then when his nanny indicates he was in fact there, recants and says that it was possible he was there after all.

Might have engaged in witness tampering by speaking with the nanny prior to the hearing and trying to coach her on what to say.

Blamed his mother for advising him to take B12 even though he didn't have any medical condition for which it would be prescribed which apparently made his use of it illegal.

Insisted that he never discussed HGH with McNamee but later said that he had a heated conversation with McName about his wife, Debbie's use of HGH.

Claims he never got any of the numerous letters from George Mitchell and his aides asking him to speak with Mitchell for the Mitchell Report. Blames his agents.

Can't explain other than to say that he's a trusting and forgiving person why he kept McNamee on his payroll through 2007 even though numerous issues had come up with McNamee previously.

Had an abscess on his ass that a medical expert said is more likely to have come from a steroid being injected than B12 as Clemens claims.

Of course there were issues with McNamee's credibility as well that were pointed out by members of the committee but McNamee was able to handle the questioning put to him far better than Clemens by giving mostly short and sweet answers, something he probably learned is most effective from his time in law enforcement. There really isn't anyone who is likable or who comes off well here - both Clemens and McNamee are likely liars and both likely did things they shouldn't have. But we already knew those things about McNamee prior to today. Clemens had more to lose and I think lose he did.

It'll be interesting to see what the fallout from this is and whether Clemens will face prejury charges at some point. Clemens's best bet would be to keep his mouth shut from here on out, same with his legal team, and keep a very low profile.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2008

Photo of the Day - Grounds for Sculpture

Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ, May, 2006. Looks like I'll be making a trip down to Grounds for Sculpture on Friday - too bad the snow is likely going to be all melted by then because that would probably make for some interesting photos.

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

Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch Placed on Probation

Today Nascar announced the penalties for the Tony Stewart-Kurt Busch clash from Friday and the only punishment that both will get is that they will be on probation for the first six races, a truly meaningless penalty. This in spite of the fact that Kurt used his car as a weapon and that Tony allegedly took a swing at Kurt in the Nascar hauler. Nascar's Vice President of Competion said that this is a reflection of how Nascar is trying to be more lenient this season. He said,

"We're still working into letting the drivers develop and vent in proper ways. We're giving them some more latitude. We said in the offseason that we would do that, and I think this is another step to letting you know this is what we mean."

Ridiculous. There may be a lot of fans who want to see drivers use their cars as weapon to retaliate or long for the good ol' days when drivers regularly had fist fights, but this fan would rather see the drivers behave as the adults they are. I definitely want the drivers to show emotion and personality, but there's plenty of ways to do that without physically attacking each other or doing something that could hurt a fellow competitor or someone else. I'd say that it boggles my mind that Nascar is willing to tolerate this kind of behavior but I know what their motivation is - a desire to win back the fans who have stopped watching on TV and stopped going to races because they don't like the direction the sport is going in and think that the races have gotten boring. It seems to me the best fix to that problem would be to ensure that each race produces the best and most exciting racing possible.

Pemberton did say that even though Nascar might be lenient for a first offense they won't be tolerant of repeat offenders.

"Going forward, if we were to get repeat offenders for similar offenses, whether it be crew members or drivers or owners or anything like that, we have the ability to escalate the penalties."

Thing is both Kurt and Tony are already repeat offenders. Both of them have gotten into trouble with Nascar numerous times in the past and have tangled with each other previously. Of course Nascar didn't consider any of that when handing out the penalties because in reality they don't really want to have to punish Kurt or Tony, especially considering both are former Champions and Tony is one of the most popular drivers in the sport so it would anger his many fans.

Which is why Tony and Kurt are only on probation. Nascar says that they're serious about putting them on probation and that future infractions will mean more penalties. But I can't remember a situation, at least not in the recent past, where probation actually meant something in that a driver on probation got further penalties for acting out again.

In my mind Nascar's sending a message to fans and drivers that it's okay for the drivers to misbehave and lash out in what to me is some very inappropriate ways. That could lead to some very ugly incidents and some negative publicity but at least the ratings will be good, right?

Posted by silverdsl at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)

You May Be Disappointed Part II

It's come to my attention by looking at the logs and stats for this site that much like what happened last month when a lot of people were dropping by looking for information about Steve Park and his fiancee, some people might be coming to this site in search of information related to some rumors making the rounds about Michael and Buffy Waltrip. You aren't going to find what you're looking for here. If you happen to be a fan of Michael's you'll be very happy reading all my entries about how wonderful I think he is both as a driver and as a person, but if you're looking for speculation or some juicy gossip you'll have to go somewhere else to find it.

One thing though is that just because a woman is interacting with a driver on pit road before a race or elsewhere at the track doesn't mean that they're involved. I actually find that assumption to be incredibly insulting - there are many women in the garage area who are there to work as Nascar officials, crew members, PR reps, journalists, scorers, etc... who have no interest in getting with a driver. There are also women who are there as guests of sponsors, because they won a contest or a charity auction, or are lucky fans. And of course there are friends and family of the drivers, crew members and others in the garage area. Something that looks like funny business to fans when they see a quick snippet on TV might be completely innocent.

Seems like it's fun for some to assume the worst about everyone and everything.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:55 PM

February 11, 2008

Photo of the Day - Ogunquit

Ogunquit, Maine, July, 2004.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:15 PM | Comments (0)

In the News: Michael Waltrip (2/11)

Oh yeah, Michael Waltrip's definitely in the news today and unlike this time last season it's all positive coverage, which I love! It sure was sweet to read all those great articles this morning and see all those photos with Michael smiling so much!

One thing I'm really looking forward to is hearing Michael talk about his awesome qualifying run on tonight's This Week in Nascar, the revamped version of Inside Nextel Cup. I didn't think that show was going to start up until next week but apparently it'll be on tonight. Not only will Michael and Ken Schrader be on, but this week supposedly David Reutimann will be on as well. Later in the week Michael will again be able to talk about how happy he is about qualifying on the front row for the Daytona 500 when his XM show Michael Waltrip Out Loud returns. Last season MWOL was on Tuesday nights, but this season the show will air on Thursday nights at 7 p.m., replay immediately following and then Dale Jr's Unrestricted will air at 8 p.m. I absolutely adore Michael's XM show so I can't wait until Thursday!

In the meantime I'm still enjoying reading all the wonderful stories about Michael and Michael Waltrip Racing. In some ways it seems that Jimmie Johnson winning the pole has been overshadowed by the story of how Michael has rebounded from last year. Michael said,

"It's incredible what this team has accomplished. I'm just thankful. Like last year, I still want to cry, but now I'm happy. Now we're on the front row."

Only Michael is secure enough to admit that he felt like crying! But that's one of the many things I love about Michael is that whether he's in a good mood or a bad mood he wears his emotions on his sleeve and isn't afraid to get emotional. He's also not alone in being moved to tears by him qualifying so well yesterday - more than a few fans were shedding tears of happiness!

Michael credited NAPA's support for helping him but also his new crew chief Paul Andrews. Of Andrews Michael said,

"Paul is a real leader. He says, 'Get behind me and I'll show you what we need to do.' I needed someone like that."

No question Michael does need someone like that to take charge on the pit box. I didn't get to listen to the radio communication from the Bud Shootout on Saturday night but I understand there were some of the same communication issues that there's been in the past between Michael and his other crew chiefs where Michael has difficulty letting the crew chief call the shots. However, if Paul really is a good leader I'm confident that he'll earn Michael's trust to the point where Michael will let Paul be in control.

Of course Toyota was very happy to have one of their cars on the front row and to see their other teams qualify significantly better than they had last season for this race. Jim Aust, Toyota Racing Development's president said,

"Having a car, especially Michael's, on the front row is something that dreams are made of, I guess, considering the season he had last year. Not to go into a great deal with that, but really, it's 180 degrees different from where we were."

I was definitely dreaming about Michael qualifying that well - or even better being on the pole! So I guess it is something dreams are made of!

What had to be really difficult for Michael last season was that the media - and many fans - constantly criticized Michael and harped on Michael Waltrip Racing's failures. Michael said,

"Making the (2007) race ended the chapter to me, but it didn't end it to you all (the media) or people across the country, and that was something I had to deal with. To be able to be talking about it with you guys, I'm so happy. I'm thankful this is the story instead of what I was dealing with a year ago."

I'm really glad that the media has something much more positive to write about this season too! However, unfortunately for Michael while the media might move on to a different "angle" for their stories, fans have incredibly long memories and seem very unwilling to forgive or forget, particularly when it relates to negative news. Rick Hendrick will always be a criminal, Teresa Earnhardt will always be a bitch, Chad Knaus will always be a cheater, and Michael will also always be a cheater who got in a suspicious accident with his personal vehicle. It's something that's pretty disturbing to me that once a lot of fans make up their mind about a driver or form an opinion about something they refuse to change their viewpoint. I could go on at length about that particular issue because having an open mind and considering all opinions even if I don't agree with them is something that's important to me. But needless to say what the media and some fans said about Michael last season had to be hurtful to him even if he won't admit to it publically.

But Michael wouldn't have even been able to get to this point if he wasn't determined to preserve even in spite of last season's struggles and all the negativity that was directed towards him. Humpty Wheeler, the President of Lowe's Motor Speedway called Michael a survivor.

“It’s the survivor story of the decade. He went through more than anymore than I’ve ever known who didn’t get hurt in a race car. ...If he hadn’t have been so personable and, to a great extent, humble, he would have never survived maybe not even halfway through the season. It was as tough as you can get.”

As I've said many times in this space one of the things I admire most is Michael's no-quit attitude. No matter how bad things got last season he kept showing up to the race track week after week, even when he had replaced himself in the car with Terry LaBonte. I think some others who weren't as strong-willed as Michael might have given up and been unable to endure all that he did. But Michael kept on going.

Hopefully some of the positive coverage about MWR's success yesterday will make Michael feel good about himself and his organization. It's time to move on from all the negativity of last year. The slate was wiped clean with the start of the new year and my hope is that the entire season will hold many more happy moments like yesterday for Michael and his teams. Michael summed everything up best by saying,

"I love Mr. [Rick] Hendrick and I respect him. But there's no way they're as happy as me right now; I'm second [on the speed chart], but I'm first in happiness."

I think it's pretty safe to say that there wasn't a happier person at the track yesterday than Michael!

Posted by silverdsl at 03:41 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2008

*I'm still thrilled that two out of the three MWR cars are locked into the Daytona 500 - like I said in my previous entry, I'm so happy for Michael! This is really a great way for MWR to start the season! Of course they'll still need to make the rest of the races too, but this has to give the whole organization a big boost of confidence!

*Jimmie Johnson got the pole for the Daytona 500 - that was overshadowed a bit by Michael's success today but it's a sign that Jimmie might be poised to pick up right where he left off last season. Also, so far Hendrick Motorsports has swept the first two events of Speedweeks with a win by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the Bud Shootout, and Jimmie winning the pole today. I wouldn't be surprised to see a HMS car in Victory Lane next Sunday.

*Another driver who has to be on cloud nine right about now is Joe Nemechek who also locked himself into the Daytona 500 today. I've never been a big fan of Joe's but he's a veteran driver who has found a way to stick around in Cup and I have to have respect for someone who has found way to make the most of the talent that he has. Joe has always been known more for his qualifying skills, hence the nickname "Front Row Joe," rather than for the way he races and that ability to qualify well was a definite asset today. While he didn't qualify on the front row today, I'm sure neither Joe nor Furniture Row Motorsports has no complaints about him qualifying 3rd since it means that he'll race for sure next Sunday. FRM is getting support from Hendrick Motorsports this season and has apparently put a lot of effort into improving the organization overall so it'll be interesting to see how this season turns out for them. Even with HMS support I still think it's going to be tough as a one-car team based on Colorado but today is an indication that they may surprise.

*Boris Said, Patrick Carpentier, Brian Vickers, Jacques Villeneuve and A.J. Allmendinger were the next best go-or-go-homers but all of them will have to race their way in. Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is very complicated so it's still possible that their times will help them make the race depending on where others finish in the 500 but essentially they're going to have to go all out and race their asses off to try to make the race. Patrick and Jacques both had good cars for qualifying today and I think their teams were probably counting on both of them being able to qualify for the 500 on time today. That they couldn't presents a problem because both drivers have very little Cup experience so I think they're going to have a hard time racing their way in on Thursday. The pressure for all the go-or-go-homers who need to race their way in is going to be immense and I'm a little concerned about how drivers who are so inexperienced on a track where a little mistake can cause a huge wreck are going to handle that pressure.

*Both Red Bull Racing cars qualified in the top 20 today which isn't terrible, but after how well they did at testing last month I expected them to be a little better. It's entirely possible that neither Brian or A.J. will make the 500 which would really put that organization in a hole to start the season for the second year in a row. I have more confidence that Brian will make the race than A.J. and unfortunately I think the odds aren't that great that both are going to make it in. I suppose it's too much to expect that all the Toyota teams that aren't locked in are going to make every single race and then end up in the top 35 after the first five race but I guess that was my hope. I'd really like to see both Brian and A.J. do better this season than they did last. I think both have way more ability behind the wheel than they were able to show last year.

*Kurt Busch wasn't one of the drivers who locked themselves in on speed - in fact he didn't qualify very well at all - and that had to be pretty disappointing to Dale Jarrett and Bill Elliott both of whom have a champion's provisional to use if there's not a more recent champion who needs to use it. If Kurt races his way in he won't need to use a provisional so one of the other past champions could use it, but if he uses his provisional both DJ and BIll will need to race their way in. All of this will also effect the other go-or-go-home drivers which makes qualifying even more confusing than it already was! I'd guess that Kurt doesn't want to have to use a provisional as that might be kind of embarassing for him so he'll likely be doing whatever he can to race his way in.

*Anything can happen when it comes to the Duels so really any of the go-or-go-homers have a chance to make the 500. A big wreck can change everything or some driver might find themselves in the right spot at the right time. However, there's some teams like the #34, #150 and #08 have quite a bit of work to do to add some speed and improve on their cars so they can be competitive in the duels. There are some drivers who have really good cars that will be trying to race their way in and it's going to be tough to make it.

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

Michael Waltrip Qualifies on the Front Row for the Daytona 500!!!

Oh happy day!!!! I knew Michael Waltrip had a good chance at locking himself into the Daytona 500 today after he practiced so well yesterday, but in qualifying anything can happen so I was still a bundle of nerves watching qualifying. Michael went out last of all the go-or-go-homers and not only did he lock himself into the race, but he flirted with the pole and ultimately qualified second! On top of that David Reutimann also locked himself into the 500 with a terrific qualifying lap! What an outstanding day for Michael Waltrip Racing, that two of their three cars are locked into the 500 and Michael will start on the front row! I'm so happy for Michael - this has to feel so good . He's talking right now on Nascar Live on Speed and he sounds so proud! Kenny Wallace asked him if the trophy he got for qualifying on the front row is the most important trophy MWR has ever gotten and Michael said that yes, it is and that he wants to put it on a chain and wear it around his neck all week! Michael was all smiles in that interview and sounded happier than he has for a really long time!

MWR has really come such a long way since a year ago! Some said that MWR would fold before the year was out but the organization has survived and is far stronger than they were back then. Talk about showing something to all the naysayers! I'm sure there are some who are going to say that qualifying 2nd is no big deal, after all it's not a pole and there's still the race to be run. But it's a huge accomplishment for an organization - and a driver - that struggled so much last season. I never stopped believing in Michael or MWR - I knew that eventually all of Michael's hard work would pay off!

One thing that Michael's mentioned a few times in the interviews he's done today is that none of what he's been able to do would be possible without NAPA, that their belief in him and in MWR is what kept them going. I'm really glad that NAPA stuck by him - and they should have stuck by him. In spite of all the negative stuff last season Michael has gotten them a tremendous amount of exposure which has helped them sell a lot of auto parts in the time that he's been associated with them. I know that I, and lots of other fans, wouldn't be shopping at NAPA if not for their association with Michael. They too have to be extremely happy because Michael qualifying on the front row is going to get a huge amount of media attention!

The only negative from today for MWR is that Dale Jarrett still has to race his way into the 500. I can't say I'm surprised that DJ didn't qualify as well as Michael and David did since he often struggled last season in qualifying. While DJ is very capable of racing his way in in Thursday and he appears to have a decent car, it's not going to be easy because there are many others who will be fighting hard for a tiny amount of available spots. The Duels are going to be crazy! I wish DJ had locked himself in as well but I'm very relieved that I won't have to worry about Michael and David having to race their way in.

Overall it was a really wonderful day for MWR - MWR made a statement today that they're capable of coming to the track with fast cars. Hopefully next Sunday they'll make another statement and show that this season they're going to race competitively!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2008

Wild Shootout Practice

Practice for the Bud Shootout yesterday would have been eventful enough with just the first wreck that took out five or six cars including those of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, but things really got crazy when Tony Stewart got into Kurt Busch and wrecked him, which angered Kurt so much that he retaliated against Tony as they were getting off the track onto pit road. Both drivers were made to visit the Nascar hauler, not only last night but this morning as well. Reports have circulated that Kurt insulted Tony during one of the meetings which led to Tony taking a swing at Kurt, something that all parties involved refuse to comment on, which leads me to believe there might be some truth there. If it didn't happen why wouldn't it just be denied, and why did Nascar feel the need to have to meet with them this morning as well?

Is it too much to ask that the drivers behave like adults? Both drivers had reason to be upset with the other - Kurt for Tony wrecking him in practice of all times and Tony for Kurt retaliating. Not to mention the possible insults and thrown punches. But as much as I understand that emotions run high and as much as I like the drivers to show their true selves, I don't want to see the drivers using their cars as weapons or throwing punches at each other. What was most disappointing to me was that Nascar's spokesperson Jim Hunter said in reference to Kurt and Tony, "This is the NASCAR everybody fell in love with." Sorry no, that's not the Nascar I fell in love with. Yes, the drivers used to fight with each other back in the day but that's not why I'm watching and that's not what I want to see. I fell in love with this sport because of the racing. I didn't even know who the individual drivers were, I just wanted to see great racing. That's still true today. While I now have favorite drivers, I still want to see exciting racing, not drivers acting like children.

Both drivers are saying the right things about how they're over the incident but I have to wonder. Drivers have long memories and these drivers have tangled with each other before. I wouldn't be surprised to see another incident between them before the 2008 season is over.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

Robby Gordon Faces Penalities for Wrong Nose

Changing over from Ford to Dodge didn't go as smoothly as Robby Gordon would have liked. His car failed inspection on Friday because they had the wrong nose on the car. Apparently Gillett-Evernham Motorsports gave Robby Gordon Motorsports noses for his cars that weren't yet approved for use by Nascar and that could result in penalties. While this certainly isn't a blatant attempt to cheat, more like sloppiness on the part of the teams involved that they put the wrong nose pieces on the Daytona cars and the rest of the cars at RGM, but it's still an unapproved part that was on the car. While the intent to cheat might not be there I think Nascar will likely still give Robby some sort of penalty otherwise teams could show up with all sorts of unapproved parts and then claim that they just made a mistake. In fact that's exactly what Tony Eury, Jr. said when the #8 was busted for having an illegal part last season. RGM will probably claim that they just put on the parts that GEM gave them but Nascar may not view that as an acceptable excuse either. A couple of years ago the #96 team was penalized for a carburetor violation even though they got the carb from Joe Gibbs Racing and handled it themselves very little, if at all, so they would have no idea that there was anything wrong with it. I doubt Robby will be hit with a severe penalty but any loss of points could end up hurting his team.

What boggles my mind is that GEM was so disorganized that they gave RGM completely wrong nose pieces for all his cars and no one noticed. That speaks to some problems at GEM. In addition, while RGM isn't going to be as familiar with the specifications for Dodge cars since they're just switching over now, they're still responsible for the cars that they bring to the track and at some point someone with RGM should have noticed something might not be right too. I suppose they just took GEM's word for it that these were the right nose pieces but as an organization that isn't entirely stable they need to be 100% sure that everything is right when they go to the track. Any issues or poor results over the first five races this season could be very costly to the team.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2008

Random Thoughts on Random Thoughts (2/8)

*Donny Lia found himself a truck ride for this season... again. At the end of last season it was announced that Lia would be in the #59 for HT Motorsports but for unknown reasons that deal fell apart in the off-season leaving Lia without a ride. But today it was announced that he would be in a second truck for TRG Motorsports, as a teammate to Andy Lally. The only catch is that Lia isn't approved to race at Daytona so he won't be able to start racing for TRG until the next race in California. I'm glad that Lia found a truck ride as I had been looking forward to seeing what he might be able to do full-time in that series.

*More than a few Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans have been hatin' on Mark Martin. They've come up with all sorts of criticisms and reasons why everything that Martin does and says is wrong but essentially it comes down to him replacing Junior in the #8. So it's probably going to come as a surprise to some of Junior's fans that Martin will be racing for Junior in the Nationwide Series. Martin will be in the #5 which is now being fielded by JR Motorsports in cooperation with Hendrick Motorsports, for five races. Junior fans won't dare boo Martin when he's in one of Junior's cars! Martin would like to race in some truck races too but as of yet he hasn't been able to put a deal together - apparently even he's having trouble finding sponsorship to make a truck ride happen.

*Poor Ken Schrader. It appears that there might be some funny business with the sponsor that BAM Racing found for him for the Bud Shootout. Qtrax claimed that they had agreements with all the major record labels to make millions of songs available to be downloaded for free, legally with ad revenue paying for the costs. However, those labels have since denied that they have agreements with Qtrax which puts a rather large crimp in that site's plans to allow downloads of their songs. While the site might be well meaning I have to wonder if BAM is going to get all the money owed to them for this sponsorship since if Qtrax has to put their plans on hold they probably aren't making any money from ads.

*Junior is skeptical that Nascar is really going to allow drivers to show more personality without penalizing them for it. Junior said,

"I don't believe them. I don't think anybody does. What does that mean? Are we supposed to walk the line and see where we step over it and where are we going to get fined when we go too far? What are they saying?"

and

"Their [intentions] have not been relayed to the driver as to what's been changed. Just a press release went out to the press, 'Hey, we're going to do this. How about that? You guys like that, right?' So what have they told us? I don't know what that means."

Oh please. Did Junior really expect an addendum to the rulebook outlining how the drivers should show more personality? As an adult I think he - and the rest of the drivers - can figure out how to show personality without getting in trouble with Nascar. All he has to do is be himself, which he pretty much says he does anyway. Showing personality doesn't have to mean that the drivers get in fistfights, rip each other and Nascar or cuss all the time. It's just showing more of themselves and their true personalities, as opposed to being the cardboard, boring robots who make sure to say the "right" things in interview after interview out of fear of offending someone.

*Jacques Villeneuve's situation continues to sound bleak. While he says that he has a company that's close to signing on to sponsor him this season, it sounds like his performance during Speedweeks could be a deciding factor. Unfortunately for JV, due to the sponsorship issues he has a "shell of a team" and they lag behind other teams. That doesn't make his chances for making the 500 or performing competitively there or in other races sound too promising. JV also said that contrary to some of the speculation making the rounds, he won't pay to field the car out of his own pocket so finding outside sponsorship is essential.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:21 PM | Comments (0)

Tino Martinez Returns to the Yankees as a Special Instructor

David Cone isn't the only former member of the World Championship winning Yankees teams of the late 90's to return to the Yankees fold; Tino Martinez has also returned to the team (again), this time as a special instructor. Tino has already been working with first baseman Shelley Duncan at the Yankees's minor league complex in Tampa, and he'll also be assisting the team during the season as well. Tino will also continue to volunteer as an assistant coach for the University of South Florida's baseball team.

I used to be a huge fan of Tino's. No question that for a while he was one of my favorite Yankees along with David Cone and Paul O'Neill. However, along the way while I've remained just as much of a fan as ever of Paul and especially David, my enthusiasm for Tino definitely faded. Not that I stopped being a fan of his - I'll always like Tino, take an interest in what he's doing and wish him well, however there's no question that the way I feel about him has changed over the years, similar to how the way I feel about Steve Park has changed.

Of course in some people's eyes it makes me a bad fan that I'm less of a fan of Tino and Steve. After all, fans are supposed to be loyal, passionate and supportive of their favorite athletes no matter what. And to some degree I'm still that way. But my way of being a fan of both of them is just different than it once was. And I don't feel ashamed about that in the least. Things change and people change.

With Tino it started when he left the Yankees. I think that part of it didn't have as much to do with Tino as much as it had to do with being burned out by the Tino-Giambi wars on NYYFans.com. I got really sick of having to moderate people for arguing over Tino and whether the Yankees were making the right move by signing Jason Giambi to replace him. Some of the viewpoints that were expressed on both sides were extreme and flat out ridiculous, and I really don't have much patience anymore for extreme fandom anymore (when I mean extreme I mean people who hate athletes, who live in fantasy worlds, who harass other fans in the name of their fandom, are stalkers, are obsessed with the object of their affection, or otherwise act inappropriately).

Beyond that, what really changed the way I viewed Tino was when I met him at an autograph signing a year or two after he left the Yankees. How an athlete interacts with fans is pretty important to me and I didn't think he was particularly fan-friendly. In fact he almost seemed indifferent to those who were there for the signing which I thought was the wrong attitude to have when people were spending a minimum of $100 to get his autograph and had been waiting in line for hours. I'm one of the most understanding people there is when it comes to the reality that sometimes athletes are going to not be feeling well, have things on their minds or otherwise not be in the right frame of mind at an appearance. But I've heard other stories about Tino not really being particularly friendly towards fans at signings so I knew that this probably wasn't just a one time thing. He may be a nice person who is well-liked by everyone he plays with, but there was something about my encounter with him that left a bad taste in my mouth.

With Steve, I'm still a pretty big fan of his, I just know that he's no longer even close to being my favorite driver like he once was. As anyone who has read this space in the past couple of years can surely tell I've been extremely disappointed in Steve's attitude towards certain things. As accepting as I am that drivers are going to have opinions and make choices that I don't necessarily agree with, and that I can still like them anyway, it's been hard to overlook some things. I've been frustrated about his approach towards racing at times, and there are a few other things that bother me. Maybe some of this might not be an issue for me if there was more positive things that had happened for Steve the past few year because there'd be more to cheer about, but instead there seems like there's been a lot of disappointment and negativity. Now that Steve has a Camping World East ride maybe my attitude will improve... but I tend to doubt it because no matter how well Steve does in that ride some of the same issues will still be there.

There's some athletes I'll always be a fan of and I don't anticipate that changing. David Cone and Paul O'Neill will always be favorites of mine. I discussed some of David's virtues in an earlier post, and Paul will always have my admiration for the way he played the game, for how he helped the Yankees win and for what he brings to YES broadcasts now that he's retired. I also anticipate always being a fan of Michael Waltrip - I've talked about the many things I admire about him in this space, he's always been great to me when I've seen him in person, and the majority of his fans, particularly the Wal-Nutz are really outstanding people.

So yeah, I'm happy that Tino's back with the Yankees but maybe not as happy as I might have been in the past.

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

Random Thoughts on the Bud Shootout Draw Show on Speed

*Last night Speed broadcast the qualifying draw for tomorrow's Bud Shootout and because Michael Waltrip is racing in it I watched. While I enjoyed certain aspects such as Kenny Wallace joking around with the drivers, I felt like I was watching paint dry at other points - the show just seemed to move really slowly and the producers knew it since they kept telling Kenny to hurry it up. The drivers also looked bored to tears for most of the show. Most fans probably loved it even though it ran long but I think the show could have been better if they found a way to move the show along a little quicker. Dropping the taped intros for each driver would help - the majority of people watching know who the drivers are.

*Michael had to wait until nearly the end of the show to find out where he would start the race but waiting that long paid off because by the time he drew all the starting spots at the tail end of the field had been pulled. He'll start 3rd which is terrific and I expect we'll see him lead at least a few laps tomorrow night as a result of starting so far in front. Michael was thrilled with the way qualifying worked for the Shootout, joking that it was his easiest qualifying ever - I'm sure he wishes that qualifying every week could be as stress-free and simple as choosing a bottle!

*Throughout the show Michael was taking photos with a digital camera. Although this was commented on several times since he was having drivers pose for photos after being interviewed by Steve Byrnes or when Kurt Busch got the pole, it was never followed up on as to why he was taking the photos. It seems to me that would have been a natural question for Steve or Kenny to ask Michael when it was his turn to be interviewed and make his draw. But it remains a mystery as to why he was taking so many photos and whether fans will eventually get to see them anywhere. Michael was probably pretty happy to be a part of the Bud Shootout festivities so he might have wanted to take photos for his own purposes or the camera might have been a new toy that he was enjoying playing with. I've always thought that Michael would be a good photographer if he ever did it regularly so I was happy to see him with the camera last night, but I don't know how often he'll actually use it - when I talked to him about taking pictures last year he said that he's a perfectionist in terms of wanting the photos to come out exactly right and that it can be frustrating when they don't, plus cameras these days are a bit complicated for him. But a point and shoot like he had last night is easy to use, easy to take good photos with and easy to have on hand at all times. I'd love to see the photos that Michael took last night and any others he takes end up on his website!

*When Dale Jarrett went up to make his selection I couldn't help but notice that Michael showed absolutely no interest what-so-ever which seemed a little peculiar to me considering he owns the car that DJ will be racing. From what the camera showed Michael didn't even look at him once yet he at least glanced at most of the other drivers when they were making their draws. It may mean nothing at all but it definitely made me wonder if something's going on there - I've wondered just how well DJ's decision to retire early sat with Michael.

*I was astonished when Kenny asked Martin Truex, Jr. about whether he was going to marry his long-time girlfriend Sherry Pollex, and even more floored when Martin responded by saying "no" and that it "wasn't in the cards." I don't know if Martin and Sherry are still together, but if they are I wouldn't be too happy in her shoes with hearing him say on TV that he had no intention of marrying me. The look on Martin's face when Kenny asked the question was like he had smelled sour milk and with good reason - even if Martin plans on getting married to Sherry at some point I don't think Kenny's question would have been appropriate. It's one thing to ask a driver about being newly engaged, getting married, when they have a new baby or other happy news but for the most part I think the driver's personal lives, particularly as it relates to their relationships should be off limits as a topic for questions and especially in a setting like that.

*Casey Mears was so sick last night that his crew chief Alan Gustafson had to participate in his place. Hopefully Casey will be better by this afternoon to take part in practice for the Shootout! Casey wasn't the only one feeling under the weather. Several other drivers including Kurt Busch mentioned yesterday during media day that they weren't feeling well. Whether it's the flu bug or something else that's bit those drivers, hopefully it won't spread to anyone else - Speedweeks is busy and difficult enough for the drivers without them being sick on top of it.

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

Thoughts and Predictions - Ford

Roush-Fenway Racing - Essentially Ford sinks or swims with Roush who provides support to the other Ford organizations, none of which are likely to make much of an impact on the track this season. This will be an important season for Roush's drivers since Roush faces a deadline by which they have to eliminate one team and thus one driver. It appears the plan is to move the extra driver to one of the other Ford teams but that might not be so great for whoever that driver is since none of the other Ford teams have been as competitive recently as the Roush teams have been.

One question facing Roush this season is whether the issues between Carl Edwards and his teammates have been put to rest. When asked this week Matt Kenseth said everything was fine between himself and Carl, but seemed vague on whether any of the Roush drivers had actively done anything to try to work together better. If the divide between Carl and his teammates continues that could effect his performance if information isn't shared between teams as well as it could be, though it's likely that Carl will have another strong season in 2008. Another issue is how Matt is going to react to having a different crew chief for the first time in his Cup career - it may be a seamless transition but I wouldn't be surprised if it took Matt a little time to get used to having someone other than Robbie Reiser on the pit box for him. Odds are though by the end of the season Matt will be in the Chase contending for the Championship as usual. Greg Biffle was unhappy last season with the inconsistent results for himself and his team - one week they might contend for a win but the next they showed up to track with a junk car. If that happens again this season Roush's problem of having too many drivers may be solved by Greg looking for a ride elsewhere since Greg is certainly capable of winning races when he has a competitive car. Jamie McMurray won a race last season but the results after that win weren't impressive - if this season is anything like his second half he may also find himself looking for a new ride. David Ragan struggled in his rookie season last year and while I think he will likely be better this season I don't expect him to contend for wins too often.

We'll likely see Roush cars in Victory Lane several times this season but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the same inconsistencies from last season continued into this season.

Yates Racing - An organization in trouble. While partnering with Roush Racing will likely keep them afloat for longer than if they were trying to make a go of it alone, especially since the cars they'll be getting from Roush will likely be pretty decent, there are major sponsorship issues with both Yates teams. Besides cars, the Roush partnership was supposed to lead to sponsors for both Yates cars but just a week before the Daytona 500, the #38 has a sponsor for just seven races and the #28 has no sponsors at all. Hard to believe but the #28 - a car with a lot of history, that's locked into the Daytona 500 may hit the track with nothing more than a sponsoryatesracing.com paint scheme.

Part of the problem is that neither Yates driver has been impressive in Cup so far. Travis Kvapil has enjoyed a lot of success in the Truck Series, and there's no doubt he has talent behind the wheel, but the results for Travis in Cup between the #77 for Penske Racing and the #32 for PPI Motorsports were poor. So there may be some doubt about what he's capable of in Cup. Also, while Travis seems to be a nice person who is good with the fans, he doesn't seem to be as marketable, outgoing or media friendly as some other drivers so that could one reason why there's at least a partial sponsorship for David's car but not for Travis's. The results weren't very good for David last season either but to be fair it was his first full season in Cup and the cars he was given to race likely weren't all that great. If the cars are any good this season he may show some improvement.

It will be essential for the Yates drivers that they get off to a good start and race competitively if they want to attract sponsors. While Yates has said that they're committed to fielding both cars the entire season even without sponsors, they may find that the costs are too great without any outside money coming in. I suspect the first driver to lose his ride would be Travis, especially since David has brought in some sponsorship, so hopefully there's a plan B for Travis if his second stint in Cup doesn't work out the way he hopes.

Wood Brothers Racing - Another team fighting to survive. At least both of the Yates cars are starting the season in the top 35 in owner's points but the #21 will have to qualify for at least the first five races on time. The Wood Brothers hope that using a combination of three drivers - Bill Elliott, Marcus Ambrose and Jon Wood - will get them the results they're looking for but I think it's going to be hard to maintain any kind of consistency with multiple drivers. Bill Elliott who can make use of a Champion's provisional to lock himself in races if there isn't a more recent past Champion who needs to use a provisional, did a good job of making the most of the cars that he was given to race but the results still weren't very good. Marcus Ambrose could be decent, but I don't expect much from Jon Wood who had issues relate to ADD/ADHD which kept him from racing for part of last season. If this team struggles to make races and be competitive this season too I have to wonder how much longer they'll be around.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:21 AM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip (2/7)

There's two things that I love when it comes to sports - the New York Yankees and Michael Waltrip. So I nearly fainted in excitement yesterday when I came across a blog post by the young Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes in which he said that he, as well as teammates Shelley Duncan and Ian Kennedy were going to be Michael's guests at the Bud Shootout this weekend. Phil didn't say how this came about but I'd sure like to know! He's also not a Nascar fan but I'm willing to bet that he might take a lot more interest in Nascar after being in the garage area to see the teams work on the car up close and after watching the race from the pits. It also doesn't hurt that Michael is such a great guy - Phil, Shelley and Ian will probably have a blast talking to Michael who definitely knows how to entertain his guests - I'd guess he'll make an even bigger effort with fellow athletes.

It would be awesome if this led to Michael going to a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium. I would love to see him take batting practice with the Yankees or throw the first pitch out for a Yankee game. I would also love to be there if that happened! Due to rising ticket/parking/concession prices I don't go to as many Yankee games as I used to but if I knew that Michael was going to be at a game I would be there for sure ! Another cool thing would be if somehow Michael Waltrip Racing ended up with a pinstriped car with the Yankees as a sponsor. YES Network sponsored a Petty Enterprises car at Watkins Glen a few years ago and it sure would be awesome if that happened again only with MWR. It's probably unlikely but I can dream can't I?

Today was media day in Daytona where every driver makes the rounds to every media person who covers motorsports and answers the same questions over and over again. So far the only comment to surface by Michael isn't about his high hopes for himself and his teams for 2008 but about his former teammate, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Apparently Michael was asked a question about Junior, likely in reference to him leaving DEI, and Michael recalled what happened before he left DEI. From Nascar Scene,

In talking about his final season at Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2005, Michael Waltrip recalled how he was having a good year until late May or early June that season.

That was when teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. had wanted his crew back after a swap in crews among the teams.

That led to Earnhardt Jr. talking about whether Waltrip was part of the team's future.

"At Dover in June, Dale Jr. said I wasn't part of that team's long-term plans," Waltrip said Thursday before deadpanning, "Evidently, he didn't know he wasn't either."

I assume that Michael was making a joke but perhaps there was something serious there as well. The first thing I thought of when I read that comment was a column that Marty Smith wrote for Nascar.com in June of 2005 in which he said that a source "close to Michael" had told him that Michael had been informed by DEI that regardless of what the results were for him that season that DEI wasn't going to re-sign him. That conflicted with what was being said publically at the time that Michael and DEI were still negotiating, and in fact later that week both Michael and Richie Gilmore denied that there was any truth to Marty's column. However, it appears that as I suspected at the time, there was truth to the story because Michael had been told by Junior earlier in the month essentially that he was out at DEI because he didn't fit into DEI's long-term plans. That must be how Junior made his pitch to get his crew back, that Michael wouldn't be around long-term so it didn't matter what crew he worked with.

Michael actually brings up an interesting point, how back then Junior would speak for the organization, never dreaming that one day he wouldn't be a part of it. Junior had no idea there that there wasn't a long-term future for him at DEI either. In retrospect it turns out that maybe Junior didn't have as much pull at DEI as he thought he did. After all, although he eventually got Tony Eury, Jr. back towards the end of the 2005 season, I don't think he got crew back until the following season. And ultimately Teresa Earnhardt wasn't willing to give Junior what he wanted to ensure that he continued to race for DEI which is what led to him leaving for Hendrick Motorsports.

Naturally some Junior fans have their knickers in a knot over Michael's comment but I don't think he really meant it as a diss on Junior. I can understand if Michael has some lingering unhappiness over the way some things played out in 2005, not necessarily in relation to him leaving DEI since if he didn't do that he likely wouldn't have joined with Toyota and grown MWR the way he has, but in relation to what happened on the track. Michael was in the midst of one of the best seasons of his career - with Tony Eury, Jr.'s help he was racing up front and contending for wins regularly while Junior was struggling. But as the article points out in May or June - particularly after Junior wrecked Michael at Charlotte - things seemed to go downhill for the #15 team. I'm not sure why that was but it had to have been disappointing for Michael that the season didn't turn out the way it seemed like it was going to in the first half of the season.

Then again, Michael isn't really one to dwell on the past as he prefers to focus on the present and on how to make the future as good as possible. And the immediate future is looking pretty good for Michael and MWR since both Michael and Dale Jarrett will be taking part in the Bud Shootout on Saturday.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (2/7)

*The much hyped "unique" announcement by Las Vegas Motorspeedway that involves Dale Earnhardt, Jr. turned out to not be very unique after all. The first 8,888 fans who renew their tickets for 2009 will get their tickets for free if Junior wins the Championship this season. Free tickets unique? Please. Also, while Junior could very well win the Championship it's certainly not a given so odds are Las Vegas Motor Speedway will come out ahead in this one by luring people to buy for next year when they might not even have bought tickets for this season yet. Unique might be if everyone who renewed their tickets would get a chance to win Junior coming to their house for dinner or the opportunity to be Junior's guest for a weekend at the track and see how a race weekend goes for him. Free tickets are nice but LVMS is hardly the first to (possibly) give tickets away.

*One interesting thing about LVMS's promotion is that it's sponsored by South Point Hotel. Of course the South Point Hotel is owned by Michael Gaughan, who used to also own South Point Racing. Maybe after South Point Racing closed they found themselves with a little extra money in the marketing and sponsorship budget.

*David Gilliland has a sponsor for seven races, Freecreditreport.com, but as of yet teammate Travis Kvapil still doesn't have a sponsor for his car. That was highlighted this morning as I was watching Nascar.com's coverage of media day and they spoke to both David and Travis at the same time. David was wearing a colorful uniform featuring his sponsor, but Travis was wearing a plain all-black uniform that had nothing more than the Yates Racing logo on it and some patches that all the drivers wear. I can't say that I'm all that surprised that David is getting sponsors over Travis as it seems to me that David might be viewed as being somewhat more marketable than Travis.

*In other sponsorship news, Boris Said has a pretty good sponsor for the Daytona 500 - 7-Eleven Slurpee. That's a company that has some money behind them and I wonder if Boris qualifies for the 500 and does well if they would sponsor him in other races.

*For the third year in a row Miller Lite has issued a challenge to their fellow beer sponsor, Budweiser. In past years Budweiser has been disinterested in challenges involving the losing team having to run a race with the winning team's sponsor and naming rights to each of their hometown baseball stadiums to the point where they haven't even responded. So this year Miller Lite is upping the ante by betting $25,000 that would go to the Kurt Busch Foundation if the #2 finishes ahead of the #9 in the points this season, and $2,500, which would also go to Kurt's foundation if the #2 finishes better than the #9 in the Daytona 500. Miller Lite's challenge to Budweiser is for them to bet money that their car will finish better than the #2 in the 500 and the season overall with their money also going to a charitable cause (of their choosing) should they win. I can understand why Bud might have not wanted to get involved in the past challenges, but I would hope that Bud would consider taking part in this wager since a charitable cause would benefit. Of course even if Bud opts not to participate Miller Lite has still achieved one of their goals - exposure and publicity leading up to Speedweeks.

*Bobby Hamilton, Jr. is taking after his late father and is becoming an owner in Nascar. Bobby has purchased half of the team owned by Earl Sadler, a team he used to race for. The team, now called Sadler Hamilton Racing, will race some Nationwide, ARCA and Camping World East races and hope to field a full-time truck or Nationwide team next year. They will start the season by fielding a Nationwide car for 2007 Truck Series Rookie of the Year Willie Allen in the Camping World 300 at Daytona. Danny Gill, who worked with Willie at Thorsport Racing last year, will act as Willie's crew chief. It's kind of unfortunate that things deteriorated so much between Bobby and his father's second wife that he wants nothing to do with Bobby Hamilton Racing, but it's good that Bobby found another way to pursue his ownership dreams. I have to admit I've never liked Bobby much but I have to admire someone who is determined and works hard to continue to be involved in the sport whether it's as a driver or otherwise. Bobby will also race full-time in the Nationwide Series this season for Rensi Racing and will also race in some Camping World East races.

*Something interesting this morning on Nascar.com's coverage of Media Day. J.J. Yeley showed off his new tattoo in honor of his daughter and separately Tony Stewart talked about how much he seriously wants to get a tattoo of his own. That was a little surprising because in the past it's been said that due to the conservative nature of the garage area that some sponsors and teams would have a problem with a driver with tattoos so very few, if any, drivers had or were willing to get tattoos. But that J.J. and Tony both openly talked about tattoos makes me wonder if the perception that they're unacceptable for drivers is changing a little. There sure are plenty of fans - and people in general - who have tattoos so it seems like being anti-tattoo is an outdated attitude.

*Morgan Shepherd plans to attempt to race a full Nationwide schedule this season but the question is how many of those races will he actually be around for at the end? Odds are not too many. In fact odds are he won't even make it to halfway. Morgan, who was once a driver that contended for wins (he has four Cup wins) is now notorious for starting and then parking, meaning that he starts races but then parks it with "mechanical issues" sometimes as little as 20 laps into the race. Essentially he's starting to collect last place money and has no plans to race competitively or until the end of the race. I don't blame Morgan for doing what he feels he needs to do to support something he believes in but at the same time I don't agree with drivers who are only there to start and park. That takes money - and sometimes starting spots - away from drivers and teams who are there to compete and race every lap.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2008

McNamee Gives Physical Evidence to Investigators to Prove Clemens Used Performance Enhancers

Until now the allegations by Brian McNamee that he injected Roger Clemens with steriods and HGH have been purely he said-she said. McNamee said he injected Clemens and Clemens denied everything. However, McNamee's lawyers said today that they gave federal investigators physical evidence which a source says is vials, syringes and gauze, that supposedly collaborates McNamee's claims. Apparently McNamee's lawyers want investigators to use DNA testing to prove that there's traces of Clemens's blood as well as performance enhancers in what they handed over. I've also seen speculation that it's possible that Clemens's fingerprints are on the vials since McNamee has said that Clemens provided the performance enhancers that he was injected with. If his fingerprints were on the vials it would be particularly damning for Clemens because it would support the idea that he asked McNamee to inject him fully knowing what was in the vials.

Clemens's legal team has said that the evidence is manufactured and "not credible." I think they need to be careful with how far they go in trying to discredit McNamee. After all, he's been talking with the Feds and a variety of others for quite some time now and they all seem to think he's credible to some degree. If the Feds feel that their competence as investigators is also being attacked, they may take that personally which would definitely not be a good thing for Clemens. Even if there are fingerprints or DNA evidence to link Clemens to these vials and syringes, his legal team can still claim that it was tampered with and performance enhancers were injected after the fact. In addition, they can also claim that Clemens didn't know what he was being injected with, that he thought it was B12 or linocaine, the local painkiller he claims that he had McNamee inject him with.

On one hand it's curious that McNamee saved used syringes, bloody gauze and old vials with blood in them for so many years, but on the other hand after seeing how Clemens went on the attack, maybe McNamee was just trying being careful - it has been said that he kept everything for a scenario like this where he was being discredited or being made to take the fall for Clemens taking performance enhancers. Right from the beginning I felt Clemens and his legal team were making a mistake by denying he used performance enhancers so strongly and attacking McNamee so hard. I can see how someone - McNamee or others - might view that as a dare and find a way to show that Clemens was lying - or at least create a lot of doubt in the court of public opinion.

The upcoming hearings when Clemens, McNamee and others will be testifying publically in front of Congress will be very interesting.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)

In the News: Michael Waltrip (2/6)

Like every other driver Michael Waltrip will be in Daytona tomorrow for media day where the drivers are forced to perform like trained seals... I mean meet with every TV, print, radio and online journalist who covers motorsports, has to pose for countless photos and tape promos for Fox Sports and others. If I were a driver's PR person I would dread it because the PR people have to drag their charges to endless interviews and other obligations for hours on end which probably leaves the drivers very grumpy. I'm sure they get asked the same questions over and over again and the whole process seems very tiresome. Which is probably why the majority of photos from media day usually seem so bad - it's probably hard for the drivers to muster up a bright smile and show some personality when all they want to do is just get everything over with as quickly as possible.

But once media day is over the fun begins - it's time to go racing! At least for those drivers who will be participating in the Bud Shootout on Saturday which this year includes Michael Waltrip Racing's Dale Jarrett, a three-time winner of the event, and Michael himself thanks to his pole at Talladega last season. Although the Bud Shootout isn't a points race, it's a chance for drivers and teams to show a little of what they've got for their fellow competitors. Last year DJ pulled the pole position (drivers draw for where they'll line up for the Shootout) for the Shootout but dropped to the back very quickly. In fact, DJ was so slow that little old ladies were probably getting around the track faster than he was! That was an early sign that it was going to be a rough season for MWR. But I have a good feeling that things will be different this season. I'd love to see DJ or Michael win the Shootout, but I'd also be happy if both were just able to race competitively and finish well. That would start things off on a positive note which would be good for MWR.

Michael feels that it's important for MWR to show that they've made advances since last season and that the Shootout is the perfect opportunity to do that. He said,

"So now with everything that happened last year, I feel like we have a lot to prove by running in this year’s Budweiser Shootout. We think we have proved a little bit with testing at Daytona, Las Vegas and California. However, the truth will be told when in high definition on FOX with the NAPA and UPS Camrys in the race, and with my big-mouth brother calling the race, there will be no hiding. Darrell loves me and he loves what I am doing. But he’ll be the first to say, ‘Ooh, it looks a whole lot like last year’, if it doesn’t look good. I am determined it is going to look a whole lot better this year than it did last year. The Shootout will be a good indication of whether or not we have turned a corner at Michael Waltrip Racing.”

I'm very confident that MWR has turned a corner, but after how bad things went last year at Daytona, even though Michael is outwardly confident, he must be a bundle of nerves inside! But his determination to show not only his brother, but also all his critics and everyone else who has doubted him that they MWR can be a successful Cup operation, is hopefully going to translate into better results not just in the Shootout, but also all season. Unfortunately Michael probably is right that DW will be among the first to point out any of MWR's failings. As I've said before, while I have no doubt that Michael and DW are close and love each other very much, I'm sometimes troubled by the way DW seems to slip in little digs or criticisms of Michael even when he's saying something positive. Maybe DW thinks that if he doesn't that he'll be accused of not being objective, but I sometimes wonder just exactly what's behind some of what he says.

Unlike fans who have been sitting idle since last season, Michael has been working hard to ensure that MWR is a much improved organization in 2008. He said,

“I haven’t been waiting for the 2008 season to start. I just have been preparing for it. I haven’t been wishing for each day to pass by. I have been trying to make the next day better. I think everything happens for a reason. You just constantly dig and try to make tomorrow better. I am very proud of where I am today. I don’t focus on ‘what if?’ I did what I thought I needed to do. I am OK with everything that happened last year, especially if it allows us to be more successful in 2008. I believe we will be, so I have no regrets.”

Well, I'll be honest and say that I'm not okay with everything that happened last season - I could have done without the scandal at Daytona, his accident in April, the DNQ's and some of the other negative things that happened for Michael and MWR. It was a really tough season for us fans, so even though Michael has such an upbeat, positive and forward-looking attitude, I think last season still had to be very hard on him. But I'm really glad that it didn't keep him from giving 110% towards working towards this season. I like hearing that he tries to make each day better than the one that came before it and I'm also happy to hear that from the sounds of it he's accepted last season and moved on. He's also right in that all those problems last season likely taught them a few lessons that will pay dividends not just this season but far into the future as well.

Speaking of working towards the future, one of the ways that MWR strengthened themselves over the last few months is by adding more management personnel. Rob Kauffman came on-board as an owner and Cal Wells joined MWR as the Executive Vice President of Operations. Both of them are also members of MWR's board of directors which also includes Johnny Harris who is very involved in the real estate and sports industries in the Charlotte area, Mike Malone who recently retired from Bank of America, Phil Parsons who works the Truck broadcasts along side Michael, and of course Michael himself. With all these changes, and particularly after he gave up half ownership of MWR, I had been concerned that Michael was going to lose control of his own company. But after seeing the board and management structure, I feel much better. Michael is CEO, President and Co-Owner of MWR and he's also the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Since it's a five-person board, that means that as Chair, Michael has the final and deciding vote, and as CEO he remains in control of MWR. While having input from others is going to be a very good thing for MWR and Michael, I've always thought one reason Michael wanted to go this route of expanding MWR and fielding multiple Cup teams including one for himself was so that he could be in control and I'm glad that appears like it's going to continue. (One note on the board of directors page on the MWR site is that Eric Warren is listed with Ty Norris's title - based on other recently updated pages I believe that's an error and Ty remains as VP and General Manager and Eric Warren is still VP and Technical Director.)

Back to the competition side, Michael McDowell will be racing the #00 with Bobby Kennedy as his crew chief in the Nationwide race at Daytona. I think pairing McD with Bobby is a good idea and I kind of wish they were going to do that on the Cup side as well, though Bobby is probably needed to do other things among all three Cup teams rather than just focusing on one team. Bobby has a tremendous amount of experience and he's worked extremely well in the past with Michael and David Reutimann. Of racing at Daytona McD said,

“Daytona is the home of motorsports. It’s such a unique atmosphere that feels so intense. There’s so much media around it and an enormous amount of sponsors and fans attend each event. Things can happen so fast at a place like Daytona and it’s in my hands not to wreck the car and have a good run. You can be running well and all of the sudden get caught up in a wreck that ends your day. It’s all about paying attention and being there at the end.”

Luckily McD has some experience at Daytona since he's raced at this track in an ARCA race that he finished 10th in. He also seems to have a good sense of how easy it is to get into trouble when you least expect it at Daytona. First, McD will have to qualify into the race on time, but after that hopefully he'll have an incident free race and will not only be there at the end, but be up front somewhere - maybe pushing David to the win?

Even if there's no wins in the cards for MWR during Speedweeks, I'll still be happy if they have a good showing in the Shootout, if all three cars make the 500, if both cars make the Nationwide race and overall MWR has an uneventful and strong Speedweeks!

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

Thoughts and Predictions - Dodge

Penske Racing - Probably the best of Dodge's Cup organizations right now and even they had their struggles last season. An extremely strong second half, which included having to overcome a 100 point penalty for a pit road incident at Dover, got Kurt Busch into the Chase, while Ryan Newman fell just short. Ryan improved between 2006 and 2007, but he still hasn't won a race in two years. Some feel that Penske may look to make a driver change if Ryan doesn't win in 2008 but I don't think they'll part ways with him quite so easily. I'm not sure he'll be a Chase driver in 2008 but he will at least race as well as he did last season. If Kurt can race as well all season as he did in the second half of last season he will make a return to the Chase for sure. However, like with all drivers, it's all dependent on how competitive their cars are - Dodge overall hasn't been that strong as of late, though they are supposedly going to have a new engine mid-summer which could help their teams.

Kurt and Ryan will have a new teammate this season - Sam Hornish, Jr. Although Sam is very accomplished in other series, I think Penske is making a huge mistake by having him race Cup so soon. That he'll be locked into the first five races via the owner's points swap with Kurt's team will help him, but he may have trouble racing well enough to stick in the top 35 in owner's points. Sam has raced sporadically in the Nationwide Series where the results haven't been very good for him - he would probably benefit - as would all the open wheel drivers - from racing a full season in Trucks or Nationwide and then easing his way into Cup. The other issue is that while publically Kurt has said that he's fine with the owner's points swap and the possiblity of having to use his past Champion's provisional if qualifying doesn't go well for him in the first five races, one has to wonder if there could be some hidden resentment about having to give his owner's points to a rookie.

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates - One of the only reasons why I would say that Ganassi Racing is behind Penske is because their drivers are so inexperienced, at least in Nascar. Reed Sorenson is the veteran when it comes to Cup experience with two seasons under his belt, Juan Pablo Montoya is entering his second season of Cup racing and Dario Franchitti has no Cup experience at all. JPM will likely be the best of the Ganassi drivers this season and I wouldn't be surprised to see him race well enough to finish in the top 15 in points, if not make the Chase which would be a huge surprise to some people. But JPM is an extremely talented driver - some shrug off his win last season because it came on a road course but I think it's a major accomplishment for a rookie to win a road course race even if he's an accomplished road course and overall racer in other series. JPM made a lot of rookie mistakes but I think he will learn from his errors and be significantly better this season though I don't expect him to lose too much of his aggressive driving style which earned him the ire of fans and some of his fellow competitors at times.

I don't expect much from Reed or Dario this season. Reed is still very young - just 21-years old - so he could still develop into a successful Cup driver but I think he's going to need more time, and possibly more competitive cars. It's also possible the results won't ever improve much for him since he's not shown much on the Cup level so far. It'll be interesting to see how much patience Ganassi has with him if the results aren't all that great for him this season too. Just like with Sam Hornish, Jr., Dario would be much better off with more experience in Nationwide or the Truck Series before racing in Cup full time. Ganassi is at least entering Dario in the ARCA race this weekend at Daytona in an effort to get him some extra experience at that track which is a good thing. But it could be a very long season for Dario - racing a stock car in Nascar is very different than racing an open wheel IndyCar.

Gillett-Evernham Motorsports - On the surface this organization seems to be in good shape with a new owners, three talented drivers and several major sponsors. However, I think under the surface GEM has some issues that need to be resolved. For one thing their performance last season was poor - very poor. That Kasey Kahne went from having won six races in 2006 to barely being able to race competitively is an indication that this organization has major problems on the competition side. Aside from their on-track issues, Ray Evernham sold a major share of ownership in GEM to George Gillett, and while Ray is still involved, his role at GEM seems to be undefined and changing week to week. Some believe that Ray's issues in his personal life led to his decision to take a step back, but I suspect he might have made this move any way since GEM likely needed the outside help if they want to get back to racing up front.

Some feel that Kasey is over-rated as a driver, but a driver who wins six Cup races in one season clearly has talent behind the wheel. I'm not sure we'll see him win six again, but if the GEM cars are competitive this season, he'll likely make a return to Victory Lane. I think Kasey's quietness and feminine looks make some thing he's weak as a person and as a driver, but he's shown that he can be very aggressive behind the wheel and he's just as determined as any other driver to get back into Victory Lane. Budweiser may look to toughen up Kasey's image to be more in line with their own marketing and branding image. 2008 is a very important season for Elliott Sadler if he still wants to be considered one of the better drivers in the garage area. Since the best season of his career in 2004 when he won two races and made the Chase, the results for Elliott have gotten worse and worse. Part of that is because he's been racing for organizations that have struggled to be competitive overall but part of that might be that Elliott will never be the driver that some predicted he would early in his career. Like the other open wheel drivers, Patrick Carpentier will likely struggle with almost no Cup experience. To make matters worse Patrick will start the season outside the top 25 in owner's points meaning that he'll have to qualify for races on time - a tall order for such an inexperienced Cup driver.

Petty Enterprises - Moving from Level Cross to where most of the other teams are based was a good move, but as much as I'd like to see Petty Enterprises find success this season I don't think it's going to happen. Kyle Petty is an exceptional fundraiser for the Victory Junction Gang Camp and is very good with the media, but he hasn't contended for anything on the track in years. Bobby Labonte has shown he can still race up front but it's hard to picture that PE is going to be fielding cars good enough to beat the larger organizations. PE needs to do some driver development so that there's someone to replace Kyle when he retires but a lack of sponsorship has prevented them from fielding a Nationwide car for Chad McCumbee as they had wanted to do this season.

Robby Gordon Motorsports - Partnering with GEM will help Robby but that the decision to do so came so close to the start of the season may make things difficult for Robby as his team rushes to change the cars over from Ford to Dodge. Robby will contend for wins at both road course races but I'm not expecting him to do much better than last season at the other tracks. There are still sponsor and other financial issues to work out at RGM which could hinder their progress even with support from GEM.

BAM Racing BAM will start the season with Ken Schrader behind the wheel but I'd be surprised to see the #49 still around at the end of the season. Then again, I've been surprised that BAM's lasted this long. BAM has an ambitious program to attract sponsors and I don't think that's gone very well for them which is no surprise considering the current state of the economy. BAM changes drivers early and often, so they may try John Andretti or other drivers they've worked with behind the wheel, but they always seem to return to Ken. As much as I like Ken I think the chances of him having any kind of success this season with this team aren't very good. Just making races would be an accomplishment.

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

February 05, 2008

Photo of the Day - Georgia Sunset

Sea Island, Georgia, July, 2006.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:23 PM | Comments (0)

Thoughts and Predictions - Chevy

Hendrick Motorsports - I expect Hendrick Motorsports to pick up right where they left off - Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon will race up front on an almost weekly basis, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Casey Mears aren't likely to be too far behind. Last season Hendrick might have been ahead of the other teams with the COT but I think some of the other teams have probably been working very hard to catch up to them so we may not see Hendrick in Victory Lane for quite as many races as we did last season. But they will likely still enjoy quite a bit of success - all four of their drivers - yes, even Casey - are capable of winning multiple races and being in the Chase Hendrick provides their drivers with the best of the best in terms of resources, equipment and personnel.

One of the biggest issues for Hendrick next season could end up being the dynamics between teammates. How will Jeff and Jimmie adjust to having another superstar driver at Hendrick? Although Casey is good friends with Jeff and Jimmie so he's certainly on good terms with them personally, I sometimes wonder how he feels about being the forgotten man of sorts at Hendrick since his more successful teammates get so much attention - how will adding yet another high profile driver into the mix effect Casey? How will all of them react to the constant media attention being focused on Junior? Jeff and Jimmie are used to being in the spotlight at Hendrick - will they take issue with being overshadowed by Junior in the eyes of the fans and the media, even if their results on the track are better?

Also, there's going to be a lot to adjust to for Junior. 2008 will be the first time he's racing for an organization other than DEI and there's going to be tremendous pressure on him - and Tony Eury, Jr. - to show that Junior's failure to win a Championship thus far was all DEI's fault. The cars that Hendrick will give Junior are going to be extremely competitive and he should win at least one race this season. I have to wonder how Junior - and his fans - will react if he doesn't have as successful of a season as most seem to think he will. Also, will Tony Eury, Jr. have the same job security at Hendrick as he did at DEI if Junior struggles? I also have to wonder if all the outside projects that Junior is getting involved with from JR Motorsports to a new nightclub to possibly building a new house could end up being a distraction to him.

DEI - It's only fitting to talk about DEI next. I think DEI and Hendrick will be compared and contrasted with each other all season long which is unfortunate for the drivers who are currently at DEI because none of them, other than perhaps Mark Martin, are probably quite the caliber of driver of the Hendrick drivers. However, that doesn't mean that DEI's stable of drivers are lacking in talent, not by a long shot. It's just that a DEI driver isn't likely to be the 2009 Cup Champion. That said, I think Martin Truex, Jr. will continue to blossom now that he's not overshadowed by Junior. He's very capable of winning multiple races this season. Mark is also still capable of racing well but I think it's going to be hard for a part-time driver, even one that's racing as much as he is, to find Victory Lane. However, his presence at DEI is still very valuable even if it might not lead to any wins since he will help mentor Regan Smith and especially Aric Almirola. I don't expect to see much out of either of those two young drivers, but if DEI has patience with them they could have success down the road. Paul Menard is a question mark to me - I wasn't very impressed with him last season, but it was his rookie season and he could end up being like Truex, who really broke out in his second season in Cup. Paul has a lot of job security though since his father is sponsoring him via Menard's.

While many are writing off DEI completely this season without Junior, I think they be fairly decent, particularly if Martin races as well as he did last season. DEI lost a lot of personnel when Junior left but in some ways that's not really such a bad thing because they found out who wasn't really on the same page with their philosophy. It's best for a company to have as many people as possible who truly believe in their vision for the future. And despite what some think they do have a future in Nascar. Although their partnership with Richard Childress Racing on engines started out bumpy it will likely pay dividends for both organizations down the road.

Richard Childress Racing - Each of RCR's driver's won a race last season, including Clint Bowyer who won the first Cup race of his career but the performance was pretty uneven for Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick at times. Kevin started out the season in the best way possible by winning the Daytona 500 but never really seemed to make much of an impact after that, though he raced well enough to make the Chase. Since Kevin is a driver I like quite a bit I'd love to see him win a Cup Championship one day, but it may happen for him as an owner if he ever expands Kevin Harvick, Inc, which is outstanding in both the Trucks and Nationwide, into Cup. It's not really because of any failing on Kevin's part, it's just that I'm not sure RCR has the pieces in place to move to the next level to where they truly contend for Cup Championships, not just get drivers into the Chase. I'm interested in seeing whether Clint can race as well as he did last season. I think Kevin will be determined to improve his results, but RCR will have to give him the resources and personnel to help him. Jeff will likely continue to get solid results but I'm not sure if we'll see him back in the Chase.

One thing's for sure - RCR will have to make sure that if they're going to use the engines developed via their partnership with DEI that last season's issues are a thing of the past. In the long-run the information shared via these two teams working together on the engines will likely be a good thing for both organizations.

Hass-CNC Racing - I would really like to see Scott Riggs and especially Jeremy Mayfield prove some of the naysayers wrong who think that both aren't talented enough to race in Cup. Unfortunately I suspect neither will get the opportunity to do that with Hass-CNC this season. This organization struggled last season and sponsorship issues this season might make things worse. Getting equipment and support from Hendrick Motorsports should help but I don't anticipate seeing too much of Jeremy or Scott up front unfortunately. Both of them will have to start the season strong and continue to race well to ensure they remain in the top 35 all season.

Furniture Row Racing - Another organization that will be getting support for Hendrick but I'm not sure it will make much of a difference for them. Being based in Colorado makes things even harder for an organization that doesn't have as much financial or other resources as other teams. Nemecheck may make some races in the #78 but it won't be easy. Kenny Wallace will attempt some races as a teammate to Joe but I'm not sure his second stint with Furniture Row will work out any better than his first one did.

While I think some of the other manufacturers will make gains on Chevy, I expect 2008 to be a very good year for Chevy just like 2007 was.

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

Thoughts and Predictions - Toyota

Seems like everyone is making their predictions about what the 2008 season has in store for the various teams and drivers, so I figure I might as well get into the act too. I'll take a look at each manufacturer's Cup teams in a separate entry, then maybe do an entry for the Nationwide and Truck Series as well.

Michael Waltrip Racing- I figure I'll start with my personal favorite organization. I feel very optimistic that Michael is going to surprise some who have written him off as being done as a driver - in the races that he was able to qualify for last season he showed that he can still race up front at restrictor plate tracks, and is capable of solid finishes at other tracks. I believe Michael will contend for wins at the four restrictor plate tracks and his results overall will improve but it all depends on how competitive the cars are that MWR are fielding this season. David Reutimann will continue to be consistently good for MWR. He's shown he can race up front in every series he's raced in when he has a good car - we may see a lot of that this season from David, again depending on how good his cars are. There's no question in my mind that in the Nationwide Series David will once again contend for the Championship and will hopefully win it! Dale Jarrett and his team will likely be highly motivated to improve on their results from last season so that DJ retires on a high note but I'm not expecting a trip to Victory Lane before he steps out of the car. While everyone seems to think very highly of Michael McDowell's ability behind the wheel and there's no question he has talent, I'm a bit concerned about how things are going to work out for him in the #00 - it's a big jump from ARCA to Cup. Sponsorship has to be a concern as well - if MWR can't find a sponsor for the #00 how might that effect their ability to give McD a competitive car?

Of course I'm biased because I'm such a big fan of Michael's but overall I believe MWR is going to show a significant amount of improvement between last season and this. MWR has added a lot of good personnel on the competitive and management sides including Cal Wells and Dr. Eric Warren. Ryan Pemberton and Paul Andrews as crew chiefs for David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip respectively should be assets as well. While test results aren't really all that meaningful, it's still a positive sign that the MWR teams had more speed in pre-season testing this year than at the same tests last season - that's an indication that they've made progress that will hopefully translate into improved competitiveness on the track. Michael is very determined to show that he can be successful as an owner and I think this season he and MWR both will not only start to achieve that success but show that they have a long-term future in this sport.

Joe Gibbs Racing - As much as I'd like to see a MWR driver get Toyota their first Cup win, I suspect it's likely to come from a JGR driver and it probably won't take long. JGR is likely to be just as successful affiliated with Toyota as they were with Chevy - this is an established organization that knows what it takes to field competitive cars and their drivers are extremely talented. JGR will help the other Toyota organizations not only via information sharing and with the shocks project they're all working together on, but also because all the expectations and attention will be focused on them which should take some of the pressure off of the other teams.

Any of the JGR Cup drivers are capable of contending for wins on a weekly basis and with luck on their side all three could make the Chase. That is, if none of them trip themselves up. All three are among the most talented drivers in the garage area but both Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch are also among the most volatile, and Denny Hamlin has let his emotions get the best of him in the past as well. Tony can't seem to go more than a couple of months before he's ripping a fellow competitor - sometimes even a teammate, tangling with the media or angering Nascar. Questions about whether Tony is going to sign an extension to his contract with JGR could end up being a distraction as well.

Hall of Fame Racing - An association with JGR should help, as will that they are starting the season in the top 35 in owner's points, but HoF is still a one-car team with a driver whose results have been unimpressive in Cup so far. J.J. Yeley will have to race well consistently throughout the season. J.J. hasn't been in Cup for long so he may be still developing as a Cup driver, but I don't anticipate we'll be seeing him contend for wins too often. HoF will be fielding a second Cup car at selected races for Brad Coleman, who I suspect could turn into a more successful Cup driver than J.J. one day.

Red Bull Racing - Another organization that I think will show a lot of improvement over last season. While RBR hasn't seemed to have made as many changes as MWR has, they have added some key personnel and like MWR they had very positive tests last month. I think Brian Vickers could be another driver like Michael who shows significant improvement over last season, particularly when once considers in the races that he was able to qualify for he often raced in the top 10 or top 15. I'm not sure we'll see quite as much improvement from A.J. Allmendinger since he doesn't have as much experience as Brian does - racing every weekend would help him a lot but it remains to be seen as to whether he'll be able to qualify for every race this season. If A.J. doesn't improve over last season there could be a driver change at some point - RBR is backing Scott Speed in an ARCA car this season so he could be waiting in the wings to take over for A.J.

Bill Davis Racing - I think BDR's problems are often overlooked by the fact that they have so much success in the Truck Series and because Dave Blaney was Toyota's most successful Cup driver last season. As an established organization that isn't new to fielding Cup teams BDR should have been better than they were last season, even though it was Toyota's first season in Cup and there were issues to deal with in relation to that. There are major questions as to whether BDR will be able to field two cars for the whole season to the point where Jacques Villeneuve may have to pay the costs of his car out of his own pocket. Many are expecting a breakout season for Dave in 2008 but given BDR's struggles for a few years now I don't expect to see him racing up front as much as his fans would like. Though test results don't provide a true picture of how a team's season is going to go, it's not a good sign that they struggled to find speed at times during testing last month. That could be an especially big problem for JV since he will have to qualify for races on time. Although some liked what they saw from JV in the truck and Cup races he was in, I was unimpressed and I'm particularly concerned that it seemed as if he caused a few incidents in a truck race or two, likely because of his inexperience. If BDR can't give him competitive cars and he struggles his time in Cup could be a short-lived disaster.

Overall, Toyota should have a lot more success in the Cup Series than they did last year. I'm not convinced that they'll dominate the series like Chevy did last season which is what some fans seem to think is going to happen but I do think that adding JGR will help get them to Victory Lane pretty quickly.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)

That $4.5 Million Loss Still Stings

Another blog raised some interesting questions in relation to Robby Gordon Motorsports partnering with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports and switching manufacturers to Dodge. Robby had said in an interview on XM that a major reason for making this move was that there wasn't going to be any information shared from the other Ford teams. However, there's also a financial angle as well - RGM took a loss of at least $4.5 million when the Dakar Rally was canceled.

I've seen some fans shrug that off as having no effect on Robby's Cup team since it's separate from his off-road efforts but even if it's two separate budgets, it's the same organization. And it appears that losing $4.5 million prompted Robby to look more seriously for a partnership because "it cleaned some of our slush fund out." Full Throttle wondered why Robby was using money from the slush fund, a kind of fund that most organizations usually avoid touching except in an emergency and I think that's a valid question. While Robby surely figured that once the rally was run and his sponsors paid the money would be replaced, it's an indication that RGM didn't actually have the money in their off-road budget to pay for Dakar since they had to dip into the "slush fund." In addition, they now have no margin for error financially since they didn't end up getting the $4.5 million back - what if there were unexpected expenses in another area? Yesterday it was announced that there would be a Dakar Series rally in Eastern Europe in April to make up for last month's Dakar Rally being canceled so that could help Robby regain some of the lost funds, but it remains to be seen if Robby's Cup schedule will allow him to run the race himself and whether all of his sponsors will give him the same level of support they were going to for the original Dakar Rally.

In addition, I'm wondering what the financial arrangements are between RGM and GEM. Money has to be changing hands for GEM to be providing RGM with technical support and information. I assume the money that RGM takes in from their sponsors from the Cup side would pay for that, but it's still a little unclear if Robby has a sponsor for every race this season. So I have to wonder if Robby could end up coming up a little short on the Cup side as well, particularly since they now might not be able to take money out of the "slush fund" to augment the Cup budget should they need additional funds because they don't have a full season's worth of sponsorship money coming in.

Robby's fans seem to think that partnering with GEM will automatically make him have one of the better teams in the garage but while I do think this partnership will help Robby, I think their expectations should be kept reasonable. If there are any financial issues for RGM it could make it difficult for them to field cars that are as competitive as they need, even with GEM's help. After all, GEM supposedly helps BAM Racing and Petty Enterprises as well and I don't see either of those two organizations racing up front very often. The other thing to consider is something raised on another forum - is Robby going to end up as nothing more than a test team for GEM? I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that something like that could happen since GEM won't want to do too much experimenting with their own teams.

While it's commendable that RGM has been able to survive in Cup and stay in the top 35 in owner's points as a single-car team I wonder what the long-term future of Robby's organization is. Joining with a larger organization is a wise move and should help performance. However, that doesn't solve the financial and other issues that may be present at RGM. This could end up being a very important season for RGM.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)

February 03, 2008

The Giants Win the Super Bowl!!

Football is really just something I watch when there's no racing or baseball on and I'm not much of a Giants fan, but I generally cheer for the underdog and I didn't want to see the Patriots win. So I was basically cheering for the Patriots to lose - which they did! Kiss that perfect season goodbye! It was really a great game the whole way through and I'm happy that the Giants pulled it out!

Posted by silverdsl at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2008

Robby Gordon Partners With Gillett-Evernham Motorsports

Turns out there was some truth to the rumor that Claire B. Lang reported yesterday on XM. Robby Gordon isn't selling his team but he is switching to Dodge and has entered into a "Technological and marketing agreement" with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports. Robby Gordon Motorsports will remain an independent operation. Partnering with a larger, more established organization with more resources should help RGM. While Robby has gotten many kudos for surviving as an independent driver/owner, just about the only thing that Robby has had to celebrate was that last season he raced well enough to stick in the top 35 in owner's points since the results often weren't too impressive, particularly at season's end.

However, I have to wonder how switching manufacturers this close to the start of the season is going to work out for Robby. Particularly since RGM just completed three tests as a Ford team. It's possible they were preparing for this for a while since as I noted previously, RGM didn't take part in Ford's media day so odds were something has been in the works for a few weeks at least. Maybe switching manufacturers isn't a big deal - after all, Joe Gibbs Racing hasn't seemed to miss a beat after their switch to Toyota. Then again, JGR has had since last season to prepare. The other thing is that GEM - and Dodge as a whole - have had their own struggles recently. So I'm not sure this will be as much of a boost in performance as some of Robby's fans may be hoping for. Still, having any kind of help has to be considered a good thing.

What I don't understand is why RGM deleted two threads off of Robby's Uprising where fans were discussing the rumor that Claire had reported. There was no negative comments being made, only speculation - what's the big deal if fans speculate on what might be going on?

Posted by silverdsl at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)

Robby Gordon Exploring Selling His Cup Team?

Last night Claire B. Lang reported on XM that a source told her that Robby Gordon is looking into selling his Cup team. In the past Robby has looked at merging with another organization, but none of that went anywhere, however, Claire seemed to indicate that this time the talks are more serious. According to Claire's source, Robby has been speaking with Star Motorsports, a company with which former NFL player Steve Smith is involved. In addition, he's supposedly also been trying to convince George Gillett to purchase his team to become the fourth team at Gillett-Evernham Motorsports.

Although no one else in the media is reporting anything about this as of yet, Claire normally doesn't report rumors on her show unless she believes there is some truth there. One thing that struck me as odd during the media tour was that at the event Ford had for all of its teams, there wasn't anyone there from Robby Gordon Motorsports. Robby was taking part in an off-road event but it seemed strange to me that he wouldn't send a representative to speak on behalf of his organization. In addition, in all of the press related to the project Roush-Fenway Racing is working on in relation to chassis with the other Ford teams, I didn't see RGM mentioned anywhere. In light of the rumor that Robby is looking to sell his team, it raises questions in my mind as to whether Robby didn't participate in the media tour with the other Ford teams and won't be working with Roush because he knows he won't be associated with Ford for much longer.

On one hand it's surprising to me that Robby might think about selling his team to another organization. Robby seems to have a lot of control issues, and while he's raced for others before, I'd think that now that he's been racing for himself for a couple of years again that it would be hard for him to go back to a situation where he's not making all of the decisions about his team - and the organization - himself. However, it maybe that Robby doesn't have much choice. Given the level of competition in Cup these days, it's very difficult for even multi-car teams to be successful, let alone a one-car operation. And the fact is while Robby finished the season in the top 35 in owner's points, he struggled significantly in qualifying, and the results particularly towards the end of the season weren't impressive. Robby has always put together sponsorship in a patchwork-type fashion using multiple sponsors to cover the full season, and it's unknown as to whether he has a sponsor for every race this season. In addition, it was said on XM that Dakar being canceled caused Robby to lose a significant amount of money, a sponsorship deal with Microsoft and a publicity/ad campaign that included TV commercials that Robby was counting on to help bring visibility to his Cup efforts and help bring in sponsors. Consider that Michael Waltrip Racing and other large organizations with major sponsors had to being in additional owners and financial partners last year, it seems to me that it's not out of the realm of possibility that Robby has to do the same for his team to survive.

Robby loves to race but his passion seems to be with off-road racing. I would think he would continue racing Cup, especially because the exposure he receives in Cup helps with his off-road program. However, there could also be a chance that Robby is looking to ease out of racing Cup. I think the chances are slim that Robby would stop racing in Nascar, but the fact is that his team is valuable because of their status in the top 35 in owner's points. There are more than a few organizations that would probably be interested in acquiring Robby's team to transfer the owner's points to one of their existing teams.

It'll be interesting to see where this goes, if anywhere.

ETA: A thread on this topic was deleted from Robby's Uprising, a fan site that's run by RGM. If it's a false rumor they should just address it and stop the speculation, but if there's any truth to the rumor, perhaps they don't want discussion about it because they aren't ready to announce anything yet. Thing is while they might be able to control what gets discussed on their own site, they can't control the rest of the fan forums where this is being talked about.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)