Random Thoughts

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August 30, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/30)

*Patrick Carpentier has confirmed that with the hiring of Reed Sorenson at Gillett-Evernham Motorsports, he's essentially a free agent. Although GEM has indicated that they are trying to find sponsorship and get a fourth team going so both drivers can race for them next season the odds of that actually happening don't seem very good. I think it's really unfortunate for Carpentier. He was put in a very difficult situation with a rookie with limited Nascar experience and he needs more than one season to develop as a successful Cup driver. I hope he ends up finding another team to race for but he may find a lack of sponsorship an issue at other organizations as well.

*A couple of interesting items in relation to the #12 car that has yet to have a driver named for it. Apparently Penske Racing gave Brad Keselowski a tour of their facilities recently, and while Keselowski denies that they offered him the #12 as had been rumored, he did say that they asked him what his contract status was with JR Motorsports so I think it's pretty clear they had interest in him. Keselowski says he's happy at JR Motorsports and wouldn't be interested in the #12 and I don't blame him. He's in contention for the Nationwide Championship this season and in 2010 could be a candidate for the #5 at Hendrick Motorsports, an organization that is more competitive right now than Penske. As for Penske, I can definitely understand why they might have been hoping to convince Keselowski to race for them since he's got a lot of talent - I think he will likely develop into a better Cup driver than David Stremme who is rumored to be the leading candidate for the #12.

*If Stremme ends up racing for Penske in Cup, it might not be in the #12 though. According to Scene Daily one option might be for Sam Hornish, Jr. who is currently in the #77, to race the #12 next season apparently to "placate Alltel." I have to wonder if one reason why there's been no announcement about the driver for the #12 is because Alltel isn't entirely happy with Stremme. Hornish is definitely a higher profile driver than Stremme, though the results for him this season in Cup haven't been very good.

*Brad Coleman said this weekend that he expects to race the #96 before the season is over even though Hall of Fame Racing plans to have Ken Schrader and Joey Logano race the car for most of the remaining races. There are three races that a driver hasn't yet been named for but unfortunately for Coleman, Jeremy Mayfield has been rumored to be talking with the team about racing for them some so that could leave him out in the cold. I can't say I fully understand what happened. J.J. Yeley gets released and with much fanfare Coleman is named the driver of the #96 but after one race he's pretty much out in place of Schrader and Logano. It's understandable why HoF opted to turn the car over to Logano given their relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing but why not have Coleman race the car the rest of the races, particularly if he's still a part of their long-term plans? The top 35 situation is cited as the reason why Schrader is racing over Coleman but they were outside the top 35 when they put Coleman in the car in the first place. I feel kind of bad for Coleman because he not only doesn't have this ride but he also left his Nationwide ride to focus on the #96 so now he's sitting on the sidelines completely.

*Hard to believe but A.J. Allmendinger, who has shown tremendous improvement in Cup since last season, still doesn't know if he'll be racing for Red Bull Racing next season. In fact he said,

"Phone is silent as can be from their end … I've stated I'd like to be back next year, but I just want an answer. I need to know I'm racing somewhere next year."

I'm amazed that A.J., who qualified on the outside pole and has raced up front quite a bit recently to the point where he was briefly back in the top 35 and could still get back in, hasn't heard a word from RBR regarding next season. With how well he's raced I would think they would be in a hurry to get him re-signed for next year but apparently not. I just hope they let him know if they don't want him back soon so he has time to find a different ride. It would really be a shame for A.J.'s Cup career to come to an end so soon, just when he was starting to show progress. I would actually love to see him at Michael Waltrip Racing in their third car if RBR lets him go.

*One of the original Truck Series sponsors, Team ASE, is leaving the series because they want to "redirect those resources" which probably means they no longer feel they're getting enough return on the money they're spending on the sponsorship. This is pretty bad news for Ted Musgrave, who only got a ride this season because he was able to bring the Team ASE sponsorship with him to his new ride, and HT Motorsports who he's racing for. Musgrave hasn't had a great season - he's just 14th in points - but I think that kind of had to be expected since HT hasn't been among the elite teams in the Truck Series garage the past few years. Team ASE is also going to cease sponsoring truckseries.com and I hope that site is able to find a replacement sponsor so they can keep providing as in-depth coverage as they do on the Truck Series.

*Jayski has an "I heard" item that Donny Lia has been released from TRG Motorsports which is kind of incredible considering he won a race for that team this season. However, the results otherwise haven't been all that impressive so maybe the team felt that they needed to make a change to improve performance. Lia's brief Truck Series career has taken many twists and turns - he thought he had a ride with Bill Davis Racing until a lack of enough sponsorship put an end to that. Tommy Baldwin helped him get a ride with HT Motorsports but that ride dried up too, likely because his sponsor pulled out. So he finally ended up at TRG, but that opportunity is also coming to a premature end. I had really hoped that Lia would race well and stick around for a while since he's from the Northeast and I always pull for drivers from the Northeast since that's where I'm from. Hopefully another truck team will give him a chance since one season really isn't enough time for a rookie to fully develop as a driver.

*Jayski has another "I heard" item that if true would be more bad news for the Truck Series - reportedly Bobby Hamilton Racing let go a number of employees yesterday and may scale back to only one team for the rest of the season, which might not bode well for next season since Dennis Setzer is rumored to be leaving for Randy Moss Motorsports. BHR is an organization that has won a Truck Series Championship and at one time fielded very competitive trucks. Those days aren't entirely over since Setzer won a race for BHR this season, but they aren't as competitive as they once were which I imagine might have led to sponsorship and other financial issues which could be at the root of them having to stop fielding one of their trucks or have to close all together.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:35 PM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2008

Michael Waltrip Outloud on XM (8/28)

Right from the start Michael and Tony discussed what's been a hot topic for many of Michael's fans this week - the big wreck at Bristol that Michael was involved with and Clint Bowyer's comments that were aired on ESPN. Michael said that he didn't expect Casey Mears to turn right in front of him and if he had he would have let off. He said that went into that corner in like three seconds and for one and a half seconds everything was fine. For all those who have been critical of Michael for not letting up, I'd like to see any of them react in a second and see if they could let up! Michael said that's just part of it at Bristol. He appreciated all those who got out of their wrecked race cars like Jeff Burton and Kasey Kahne and also said that's just part of the racing at Bristol. When Michael got home he watched some video of the wreck and thought that instead of slowing down when they got to wrecking he should have sped up and maybe he would have escaped without any damage. He said that whenever the drivers are involved in an incident they second guess themselves as to what they could have done differently so the outcome would be better.

Then Tony brought up Clint Bowyer's "worst driver" comment about Michael. On "The After Show" Tony said that based on the look on Michael's face he didn't want to talk about it and I can't blame him. Having to continually think about a negative remark that someone made about you can't be pleasant. However, Michael took the highroad and was a lot more understanding of what Clint said than I am. Michael pretty much totally excused Clint for saying what he did by saying that it was a heat of the moment thing and that they all say things out of emotion - he (Michael) has said plenty of things out of emotion that he's regretted later on. I think Michael is being a little too generous in excusing Clint because when Clint had the opportunity to take back what he said on Wind Tunnel apparently he didn't - seemed like he was more upset about it going out on air than about possibly having insulted Michael. Also, it's true that sometimes things are said out of anger or other emotion that someone might not really mean, but sometimes they do mean the things that they say. I think that just about anything can be excused away by saying that it was said in the heat of the moment out of anger and frustration but that doesn't mean that it was the right thing to say or do. The drivers all know that any number of people are listening to their radios and that anything they say can be used by ESPN or another media outlet so that means that they need to be careful even when they're angry. Michael can be more understanding because he's been in Clint's shoes but as a fan I really can't stand to hear someone, and particularly another driver, talking that harshly about Michael.

What Michael didn't like was that the comment was played over and over again on ESPN - he felt that there should have been more thought given to whether it should have been played. He said that it was hurtful to him, and also hurtful to his Mother and Macy and they didn't need to hear it. As it turns out Michael didn't actually hear what Clint said himself - he said he mostly only watches HGTV, Speed and CMT. In fact, until Tony mentioned it, he had no idea that Clint had made the remark about NAPA. I have to wonder if Michael might feel differently about what Clint said if he actually heard it for himself to hear how calmly and matter-of-factly Clint said it. Tony asked whether Clint had called to apologize and Michael said that no, (as of when they taped the show) he hadn't.

During "The After Show" (which is free for anyone to listen to via Tony's site even if they aren't XM subscribers), Traci said that she thought that maybe Clint should do Michael the courtesy of apologizing to him and I agree. Regardless of why he said what he did and whether he meant it, the comment was made and it was an extremely harsh comment. I think that as a show of respect for an older, veteran driver Clint should speak with Michael about it just to be sure that there are no ruffled feathers. I think it was Tony or maybe Rich the producer who said that especially since Clint is in the Chase - Michael lashed out at Casey in anger at Richmond and Clint shouldn't want to risk that something like that could happen to him. I have to agree. Michael is saying all the right things but just like we have no way of knowing how Clint really feels about Michael, we also have no way of knowing what MIchael actually thinks about hearing a fellow competitor insult him like Clint did. That doesn't mean he's going to go try to wreck Clint this weekend but he may be inclined to race him harder than he might have in the past.

Tony also brought up how Michael has an "interesting personality." He's very soft and polite most of the time but he's also "a larger person" and you wouldn't want him angry at you. But on the other hand not everyone takes him seriously as a race car driver because he goofs off all the time. Some find it very easy to make fun of him - so true! A lot of people think that everything is all a goof to Michael but that's not the case. I guess Tony's point was that maybe Clint didn't think there was a need to apologize because he, like others, might not think that kind of a comment is a big deal to say about Michael. That more than a few people don't take Michael seriously as a driver is something that has always bothered me. There are some who think that he doesn't care about the way he finishes and that he only cares about getting exposure for his sponsors - while Michael is always mindful of his obligations to his sponsors he most definitely cares about how well he finishes! Michael is every bit as competitive as any other driver on the track! It also bothers me when people dismiss Michael's opinions because in their eyes he's not a good driver or because he jokes around a lot. Michael has been a part of the Cup Series for nearly 25 years and he's also not just a driver but an owner as well. He has a tremendous amount of knowledge about the sport as a result and his opinions are every bit as valid as any other driver's.

The other thing on "The After Show" was that finally someone addressed this from the perspective of NAPA. Naturally that was Traci, who is NAPA's (and therefore Michael's) PR rep. Apparently she used to be a producer (for FOX?) and she wondered with how much NAPA spends on advertising on ESPN why they would do something like that at the expense of one of their sponsors. Apparently Traci has been trying to pitch an idea for a segment to an ESPN producer about Michael and Ron Capps who NAPA also sponsors. So when she called him to follow-up since she hadn't heard from him she said that she wasn't calling to complain about Clint's comment being played but to ask if they would do that segment. Here's the thing - it's tricky with advertisers. You don't want to do anything to make them angry because it might cause them to pull their ads but on the other hand ESPN might be nervous about doing a segment on Michael right now out of fear that it might look like NAPA is dictating what gets on the air and that they ran a positive piece only to make up for playing Clint's comment at Bristol. I would love to see a segment about Michael and Ron at some point but I have to wonder if ESPN is going to be more or less likely to agree to it because of the controversy over them playing Clint's comment.

Getting back to the main Out Loud show, Michael and Tony talked about the bump and run that Carl Edwards did to Kyle Busch, as well as what happened afterwards on the cool down lap. Michael didn't think there was anything wrong with what Carl did. Everything that happened made for good TV. There was some discussion about how Kyle handled things afterwards and I don't think Michael liked the way Kyle "whined" though he said he understood Kyle's frustration about leading so much of the race and then not winning. He brought up how Dale, Jr. didn't complain after Kyle ran him over earlier in the season and pretty much said that it was just part of it. Tony mentioned how Kyle called Carl "Mr. Ed" and I'm not sure either Tony or Michael realized that the reference was to Mr. Ed, the horse and that Kyle meant it as a dig at Carl, and a not-very-nice one at that.

I don't remember exactly how it came up but it turns out neither Michael nor Tony know just how old David Reutimann is - Michael said something about him being 20 and Tony said that he thought he was 35. Meanwhile David's actually 38. That cracked me up because I've seen some wonder about why David has so many teams that were interested in him if he wasn't going to re-sign with MWR since he's older than the age that teams usually seem to prefer their drivers to be. Well, maybe no one realized what David's true age is! Michael said that when Dale Earnhardt told him he was getting the #15, he asked Michael how old he was, and Michael said 38. So Dale said that he told them (NAPA?) that Michael was 35, and Michael said he could be 35 if he wanted him to be! Michael does look and act younger than his real age to me, so I don't think that would have been a problem! Tony joked that Ron Hornaday (who I think was also a candidate for the #15) was like 107 years old and I have to say that it's true that Ron looks and acts older even though he's only five years older than Michael.

Yet again I was listening the show in bad traffic so I didn't catch a lot of the discussion about Fontana other than that Michael figured out how to look up the weather on his "internet machine" and found out that it's going to be cooler at Fontana this year than last. Tony is going to be working the pits for Directv Hot Pass (he has Carl Edwards) this week so he's happy about that. Michael teased him that he was whining last week about not working for Hot Pass and now he's working this week and he's complaining. So Tony said that he was just trying to be like all the drivers who had complained about the heat earlier in the season.

Apparently the #44 and #55 teams will be using Gen 3 cars for the rest of the season including this weekend at Fontana. I wondered why the #00 isn't - perhaps there's a cost issue involved? It was also interesting to me since they have Mike Skinner in the #00 who is supposed to be giving them feedback to make improvements - has he been racing the Gen 3? And if not, will the feedback he gives about the other style of COT be beneficial? There was also some talk about the Affliction paint scheme on the #00 and the "Day of Reckoning" Mixed Martial Arts event in Las Vegas.

Tony brought up the Southern 500 and asked Michael if he considered it one of the crown jewels of the sport which Michael said he did. One of his first Cup starts was in the Southern 500 at Darlington in 1985.Michael said that there are some things that are traditions that you think will be around forever. Then he brought up how they're tearing down Yankee Stadium which made me sad since I have so many memories of the current Yankee Stadium - that's where I met my husband for one thing. I'm sure the new Yankee Stadium will be great when it opens next season but for us Yankees fans it's the equivalent to a race fan like if decided to tear down Daytona International Speedway.

Tony asked Michael where his good luck monkey is that a fan (Leslie/Leaton from Michael's forum) gave him at Michigan. Michael said he needed to get the monkey but wasn't sure where it was, maybe in the Michigan car. He said that he needed to get it and that it should be okay because "no one had spanked the monkey." Yet again, I suspect Michael is just as happy about Leslie giving the monkey to him so he can make spank the monkey jokes as he is about it bringing him good luck!

The show closed with one of my favorite all-time songs - "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne (Ozzy is performing at Day of Reckoning).

Okay, I realize this is long and I realize that a lot of people probably won't read through all my ramblings but when I listen to "Out Loud" and now "The After Show" I get to thinking about all these things and get all excited. But since I don't have anyone to talk to about all of this in person, all I can do is use this space to get all my thoughts out. That's really why I started this blog in the first place - I'm happy when someone finds what I write about interesting enough to take the time to read it, but I a big reason I have this blog is for me, so I have a place to express what I'm thinking about - and I have a thought and an opinion about seemingly everything, particularly when it comes to racing!

Posted by silverdsl at 10:34 AM | Comments (2)

August 28, 2008

Done.

That would be the New York Yankees. Done as in stick a fork in 'em, done. As I'm writing this the Yankees are on the verge of possibly getting swept by the Boston Red Sox at home in the Bronx which would seal the inevitable - the Yankees are almost certainly going to miss the post-season for the first time since 1995. The Yankees are ten and a half games out for the division and it's no better in the Wildcard standings - seven games back there. Some fans refuse to give up until the Yankees are mathematically eliminated but it's hard to have much hope when the team has so many weaknesses. Even if the Yankees some how pulled off a miracle and made it to the post-season odds are they wouldn't get too far. Not with so many issues with virtually all aspects of the team.

After last night's game in which the Yankees lost 11-3 Hank Steinbrenner said that the team sucked and while I really hate to bash or be overly negative, I really can't disagree with that assessment. It's really disappointing, particularly considering how many talented players are on the team, and it's no fun to watch games when they aren't playing well but this is the reality of the 2008 Yankees. They just aren't very good. I'm really not as upset about it as a lot of fans though. I'm as die-hard as any other Yankee fan but I saw the writing on the wall pretty early on this season. I feel very lucky that I've been gotten to see the Yankees put together such a great streak of post-season appearances that included multiple World Series Championships and some outstanding and very exciting baseball. I wish that streak was going to continue but nothing lasts forever. I have no doubt that in the off-season the Yankees will put a lot of time, money and effort into making changes to the team that will hopefully result in the start of a new streak of post-season appearances beginning in 2009.

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

August 27, 2008

Photo of the Day - Island Beach State Park

Island Beach State Park, Seaside Park, NJ, 2008.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/27)

*Nascar today placed Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards on probation for the next six races for their actions during the cool down lap following the Cup race at Bristol on Saturday night. Being on probation is a truly nothing penalty since I can't recall any instance in which being on probation led to anything, even for a driver or crew chief who was involved in another incident while they were on probation. Basically it's the tiniest of slaps on the wrist just so that Nascar can say that they did something and didn't turn a blind eye to what happened. A nothing penalty for what to me was a nothing incident. As I said previously, while I dislike it when drivers use their cars as weapons against each other this is a part of the sport. It's happened many times in the past and will happen many times in the future, and since Nascar hasn't done much about past instances unless there was some other circumstance such as the retaliation taking place on pit road, they really haven't done too much about it which is why I wasn't expecting much of a penalty if there was one given out at all. One thing I'm happy to see is that the same penalty was given to both Busch and Edwards. Just because Busch is viewed as a jerk by some fans doesn't mean that it's okay for Edwards to spin him even if Busch used his car as a weapon against him first.

*Earlier this season there were some rumors that circulated that Home Depot might end their sponsorship of the #20 car after 2009 due to the downward trend in the housing market that was cutting into their profits. Turns out those reports were erroneous - Home Depot has actually signed a multi-year deal with Joe Gibbs Racing to remain on the #20 for a number of years to come. At first I wasn't sure if Joey Logano, who will race the #20 starting next season was a good fit for the Home Depot brand but apparently their target demographic is 18-54 year olds so Logano will definitely appeal to the younger consumers in that demographic since he's only 18.

*In other rumors that relate to sponsors that was incorrect it turns out that Target will remain the sponsor of the #41 car past this season. Rumors had indicated that Target was leaving Chip Ganassi Racing, something that had been denied by both Target and Ganassi but the rumors persisted. Sometimes it's hard to know whether to believe it when teams and sponsors deny things because it's not unusual for exactly what they deny to come true but in this case the denials were correct and Target has signed an extension. That probably saves Ganassi's Cup operation for next season since without Target Ganassi would only have one driver and half a season's worth of sponsorship for one car. This way they'll be able to field at least two cars. Ganassi now has to find a driver to replace Reed Sorenson in the #41. That driver could be Dario Franchitti who had been racing the #40 until Ganassi stopped fielding that car due to a lack of sponsorship. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ganassi put another driver behind the wheel though.

*Rolling Stone has a long and interesting article on Tony Stewart. I might be biased because Stewart isn't among my favorite drivers - I actually don't like him too much - but it seems to me this isn't a very flattering article. Stewart comes off as a bit of a jerk and it's never a good thing when a high-ranking official in the sport says that someone has been known to be an asshole at times. I also find his attitude towards women a little troublesome as I have in the past. I'm well aware of what goes on with pit lizards and partying so that's not what bothers me, it's his callous way of speaking about his break-up with his ex-girlfriend and about how he had to "fire" her as if she was nothing more than an employee that I don't care for. Maybe he truly thinks it's something to brag about but if his parents are concerned that his "d**k is going to rot off" because of how many women he's with it might be time to rethink things a little.

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

Ty Norris on Sirius (8/27)

Ty Norris was on Sirius this morning speaking with "The Morning Drive" co-hosts David Poole and Mike Bagley. Ty sounded very upbeat and positive as he usually does. He said that Michael Waltrip Racing had a good month since NAPA Auto Parts and Aaron's both re-signed. In addition, Ty said they've had "good movement" with partners like Dow Automotive and Best Western which hopefully means those two sponsors are sticking around as well. Those things, Ty said, have "stabilized the fear" which I assume means reassured those both internally and externally who thought that MWR might fold due to a lack of sponsorship as some rumors had indicated.

Apparently MWR has been speaking with numerous sponsors that are possibilities to sponsor the other half of the races on David's car that Aaron's won't be sponsoring as well as the third car. Ty actually said that if everything were to fall into place in the right way, in one scenario they might actually have four cars next season though he seemed to indicate that wasn't too likely. Within the next 30 days Ty thought that there would be a lot more "clarity" on the third car and then after that they would see what happened with everything else. I would think that MWR is probably speaking to a lot of the same sponsors that other teams are and that one reason things are moving slowly on the sponsorship front for a lot of teams isn't just due to the poor economy but also because they're probably also looking to see which team will offer them the deal that they think will best meet their goals.

Ty also talked about the Afflication sponsoring the #00 this weekend. He said they're a cool and popular clothing company that has gotten involved with the MMA, and that this will help them promote their huge fight in Las Vegas in October, Day of Reckoning. There's going to be some MMA fighters coming o the race and Michael has been joking that he's going to "assign those badasses to a few people." Ty joked that there was one in particular he though Michael might have been thinking of who was associate with a Tennessee Whiskey, meaning Clint Bowyer. That's an indication to me that Bowyer's comment won't be forgotten as quickly as some seem to think it will be. Ty said he may also need those fighters for protection since he's a bit of a wiseass himself. Apparently there's a chance that Ozzy Osbourne might appear at the race as well as part of the Affliction promotion which would be awesome! I'm a big fan of Ozzy and I think a meeting between him and Michael would be interesting and potentially quite humorous. Maybe Michael could convince Ozzy to be a guest on his XM show?!

A topic of discussion on "The Morning Drive" was the changes to the Bud Shootout that were announced yesterday so they asked Ty what he thought and of course he said he liked the changes and not just because two of their cars could be in the 2009 Bud Shootout as a result of those changes. He said he loves how Nascar is continually trying to make the All-Star kind of races better for the fans. Unfortunately a lot of fans don't agree that this makes the Bud Shootout better - personally, unlike many of my fellow fans I have no problem with change and in the long run I don't think it's going to effect the quality of racing that we see in the Shootout at all, there's just a different way that the field is determined. Ty said that for their sponsors there's no way to put a value on being part of the opening race of the season. It definitely is huge because there's a lot of attention given to that race even though it's a non-points event since it's the race that kicks off the season.

Ty also talked about the Best Western promotion where the winning fan gets to swap jobs for a day with Michael. He said he's hoping that the person who wins has a job like mowing the lawn that Michael doesn't normally do himself. That led into a discussion of possible jobs for Michael to do that would be funny like milking cows and whether there's anything that Michael would opt out of. Ty said that Michael would agree to do just about anything - when a sponsor comes up with a promotion he does it no matter what it is because he knows that it's important to the sponsor. Mike Bagley wondered whether Michael would be able to do a job like a librarian that would require him not to talk and Ty ended the interview by joking that might be the one job that Michael would try to get out of doing!

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

August 26, 2008

Photo of the Day - Rainbow

Aruba, 2005.

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

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (8/26)

Michael Waltrip Racing's #00 car with Mike Skinner behind the wheel, will have a different paint scheme this weekend in California. Affliction Entertainment is partnering with MWR to promote the “Day of Reckoning” mixed martial arts pay-for-view event Oct. 11 in Las Vegas. I just have to say upfront that mixed martial arts is definitely not my thing. I always say that I'll watch anything that involves two or more people competing against each other other than competitive eating but I realized recently when I tried to watch boxing that any kind of fighting really isn't my thing. That said, I'm very happy that MWR has a new sponsor, even if it's just for one race! Mixed martial arts may not appeal to me but it's a growing sport that a lot of people do like to watch - not only will Affliction get some exposure for their event but MWR might also get some attention from some that wouldn't normally watch Nascar or otherwise pay attention to the #00 if not for this paint scheme/ sponsorship. I'm pretty much in favor of any entertainment related sponsorships as I think it often presents a lot of additional opportunities for exposure for both the sponsor and MWR.

Best Western is doing a pretty cool auction which will benefit World Vision which is "a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice." The Fan Swap auction will give a lucky winner a very cool experience - they will get to be Michael Waltrip for a day and Michael will spend some time doing their job! The experience will include a VIP experience at Raceworld with Michael, lunch with Michael and David Reutimann, being present at a taping of Michael Waltrip Out Loud, a Richard Petty Driving Experience with David and Michael will also come to the winner's hometown to work as him/her for up to an hour! I sure wish that I was able to bid on this auction! I have to admit that it cracks me up to picture Michael doing my job. I'm quite sure he would not only be good at events planning but might just make me look bad since he's so creative I think he would come up with a lot of great ideas for our events. However, a big part of my job is updating our website and given that Michael's "computer machine" (as he refers to computers) are still somewhat limited I'm not sure how well he would tolerate even an hour of my job! I hope after the auction is over and the experience takes place, we find out what job Michael ended up doing!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

Changes Announced to the Bud Shootout

There's a lot of fans freaking out about the changes to the Bud Shootout that were announced today. Instead of featuring drivers who won a pole in the year prior, the field will be made up of the top six teams from each manufacturer based on the preceding year's owner points. I liked that there was an incentive to winning a pole but once Coors took over that sponsorship there was no way that Bud was going to let there be any connection between the pole program and their event so I expected that there might be big changes to the Shootout. What makes me happy is that under the new way if the owner's points stay the same both David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip would race in the Shootout next season, but under the old rules they wouldn't be eligible. Sure hope Michael is able to stay ahead of Dave Blaney in the owner's points! (Though I'm not convinced the #22 team will even exist next season.)

The one driver I do feel bad for is Joe Nemechek - he races for a single-car team and there isn't opportunity for really positive results or exposure. Winning the pole at Talladega was really big for his team and will likely be the highlight of their season so it's unfortunate for them they won't be able to reap some of the rewards they were expecting. But change is part of the sport and this isn't the first change that has negatively affected a team or driver. It used to be that when a driver won the All-Star Race they were guaranteed that they would be in the race for the remainder of their career but Nascar changed that a few years ago to that it's a ten-year cap. So Michael, a past winner of the All-Star race, is no longer guaranteed a spot in the race and either has to race his way in or get voted in. I'm sure he's pretty disappointed about that just as Joe is disappointed about this change to the Shootout.

I actually think it's a good thing that all the manufacturers will be equally represented considering how some may be questioning whether their involvement in the sport has as many benefits for them as it one did. I also think that most of the teams and drivers will likely end up in the Shootout that would have under the old system since usually the best manufacturer's teams are also the ones who tend to win many of the poles as well.

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

Reed Sorenson Signs Multi-Year Deal to Race for Gillett-Evernham Motorsports

Reed Sorenson is currently 31st in points with only one top five and a top ten this season and has never won a Cup race but that didn't stop Gillett-Evernham Motorsports from signing him to a multi-year deal. Next season he'll be in a GEM car with a number and sponsor to be announced down the road. I'm far from surprised that even though both Sorenson and Chip Ganassi Racing spoke of being close to getting a contract done that would keep Sorenson at Ganassi that he's leaving for another organization. Sorenson's results in the three years he's raced in Cup for Ganassi, his only three seasons in Cup, haven't been very good. What I am surprised about is that another fairly good organization is willing to take a chance on him. A driver can only make the best of the cars that they're given and Sorenson may never have gotten competitive cars to race with at Ganassi, but I've not seen much from Sorenson that impresses me either on or off-the-track. He won three Nationwide races in five years which is okay but nothing spectacular and I've not seen much of a personality from Sorenson to make me think that he's tremendously marketable or attractive to sponsors. Still, Sorenson is just 23 so he could very well still develop into a solid Cup driver who contends for wins if he has enough guidance, a good team and competitive cars to race. GEM certainly must think he has potential.

The question is whether Sorenson will take Patrick Carpentier's place in the #10 or whether he'll end up in a 4th car for GEM. I tend to think that unless GEM comes up with sponsorship for two cars, Sorenson is going to race the #10 next season and Carpentier is going to be out of a ride. I feel bad for Carpentier - he's likely a much better driver than what he's been able to show in the #10. Putting a driver with no Nascar or Cup experience in a car that's outside the top 35 in owner's points is a recipe for disaster - the cards were really stacked against Carpentier from the start. I like him a lot better than Sorenson as I think Carpentier has actually shown some personality so hopefully if GEM releases him some other organization will take a chance on him. As for Sorenson I'm not sure racing for GEM is going to end up working out much better than racing for Ganassi. At least at Ganassi he was in the top 35 in owner's points but unless GEM makes a deal to acquire some owner's points, Sorenson will start next season outside the top 35. Given the past history of the #10 it's not a guarantee even with a driver with experience and talent behind the wheel that they'll make every race.

Another question is what does this mean for the future of Ganassi Racing? At the moment they have one driver and one and a half sponsors. They may not even have Target - although the rumors have been denied there continues to be talk that they are going to do what Texaco did and discontinue their sponsorship with Ganassi, at least on the Cup side. It's possible that Ganassi will simply field one car next season with Juan Pablo Montoya if that's the case or two cars with a different driver taking Sorenson's place if Target stays, but I don't see them as a three-car team even though they've said that they want to find enough sponsorship to field three cars next season. I think Sorenson signing with GEM increases the chances that Ganassi will merge with another organization whether it's a true merge where part of their organization remains active or whether it's just about another organization acquiring the owner points from their teams (and possibly JPM). There has been talk that Michael Waltrip Racing has been talking with Ganassi about a merger but considering that MWR seems to be moving forward with their own plans I'm not sure how likely that is to happen though there would be enough sponsorship and drivers between the two organizations to field at least three teams next season, if not four if the #00 got back in the top 35.

When the talk of a merger between Ganassi and MWR first started I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea since it seemed like that would require losing a couple of drivers and I feared if something were to happen with Ganassi and MWR it would be David Reutimann and Michael. However, the way things have played out it's clear that wouldn't be the case so I've very much warmed to the idea of a Ganassi-MWR merger. Many of Michael's fans can't stand JPM but I happen to like him. I don't always care for the things he does on the track or the way he races but he has a tremendous amount of ability behind the wheel and if he were racing for an organization that fielded more competitive cars I think we'd be seeing him race up front and contending for wins a lot more often. He's also a "name" driver who gets his team and sponsor exposure. In addition, JPM has personality and from what I've seen of him in person he can be surprisingly fan-friendly. So I would be thrilled if JPM raced for MWR.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

Michael Waltrip's Response

Last night on This Week in Nascar would have been a golden opportunity for Michael Waltrip to respond to Clint Bowyer's assessment of him as a driver with insults but instead Michael took the high road and I'm glad that he did. In declining to stoop to Clint's level I think Michael only made Clint look worse than he already does. As he did on a radio interview earlier in the day Michael joked that he's "...the worse driver in Nascar to have ever won two Daytona 500s and an All-Star Race." There's a lot of truth there - if Michael is so bad as a driver just exactly how has he been able to win two Daytona 500s, an All-Star Race as well as two other Cup races and eleven Nationwide races? During the radio interview the hosts pointed out that while Clint has won a couple of Cup races and had success on dirt tracks, it's not like he's won any Daytona 500s.

Instead of ripping Clint, Michael instead opted to express his disappointment that ESPN made the decision to play the clip in the first place. I definitely agree with Michael that it was a poor decision on ESPN's part and as he said, added nothing to the broadcast since by the time the clip was played it had already been made clear that Casey's spotter was the one who was mostly responsible for the wreck. One interesting thing that Steve Byrnes brought up is that on Fox broadcasts they'll sometimes run driver audio by those in the booth like DW and Larry McReynolds to get their opinion on whether it's appropriate to be played on-air. Michael said that his producer at Speed for the Truck Races does the same thing. If ESPN doesn't do the same then they should.

I also wonder whether ESPN would have done the same thing to a different driver - if it was Mark Martin instead of Michael who Clint had made the comment about would ESPN have still played it? As I discussed in a previous entry there are some who don't think much of some of the veteran drivers who aren't racing as competitively as they might have in the past - is that possibly true for ESPN as well? While ESPN has to make the decisions they feel make for a good broadcast, I think there also needs to be enough respect for all the drivers, teams and sponsors to not do anything that's going to make them look bad for no reason, meaning that it's not newsworthy and it doesn't add anything to a storyline in a race.

A fan on Michael's forum brought up whether this would all be forgotten by those involved by the weekend, something she thought would be the case. I think the opposite is true. Not that Michael is going to be actively seeking out Clint to confront him or anything, but a comment like what Clint said is so insulting that I don't think it will be forgotten anytime soon, not just by Michael but by others at Michael Waltrip Racing, and especially since it came the following weekend after Clint wrongly blamed David Reutimann for a wreck. I suspect that somewhere, sometime Clint will get his from Michael or one of his drivers, not necessarily that one of them will wreck him, but that maybe in the future they'll race him a lot harder than they might have in the past and won't be willing to do him any favors.

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

August 25, 2008

Joey Logano Will Race the #20 in 2009

Joe Gibbs Racing confirmed today what many already knew - Joey Logano will race the #20 full-time in the Cup Series next season. Logano has huge shoes to fill - there's no way no matter how talented he might be that he will immediately race as well as Tony Stewart has in the #20 over the course of his career. In preparation for next season Logano will race the #02 for JGR in the Cup races at RIchmond and Atlanta. It'll be interesting to see how he does particularly since he'll first have to qualify the car into the show. Home Depot will remain the sponsor of the #20 in 2009 and crew chief Greg Zipadelli will also remain with the team.

There's no question that Logano has a lot of talent but I think JGR is rushing him to Cup. He's just 18 years old and while he's shown he can handle racing on every level of racing that he's been on and has been successful as well, it seems to me that given how young he is there's plenty of time for JGR to take the time to make sure he has the necessary experience that will help him develop into the driver that he has the potential to be. Logano says that he can handle the extra pressure that comes from racing in Cup but it really is a much different ball of wax than even the Nationwide Series. Everything is greater in Cup - the expectations, the media attention, the level of competition, the demands from sponsors and fans, everything. It's hard for me to understand why JGR isn't playing it safe and putting a veteran in the #20 for at least a season and have Logano race a full season of Nationwide before having him race Cup full-time.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

More Random Thoughts on Clint Bowyer's Comment About Michael Waltrip

It occurred to me that maybe one reason why Clint Bowyer might have the opinion he does about Michael Waltrip and his ability behind the wheel is because Clint only first stated racing in Nascar in 2004 and in the Cup Series in 2005 (one race) so he's never raced alongside Michael when Michael was able to race competitively because he was in good cars. 2005 was the last year that Michael consistently was able to race up front because that was the last season he was with DEI. In 2006 he raced junk from Bill Davis Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing's struggles to be competitive are well-documented. But Michael's struggles on the track the past few years are in no way a true reflection of his complete ability behind the wheel since he's not been racing competitive cars that he could race up front with. It's kind of like how many people don't think much of Morgan Shepherd because he starts and parks in the Nationwide Series but at one time he was a good Cup driver who won four races in that series. Then there's Richard Childress, Clint's owner, who had even less success than Michael - if Clint thinks that a driver who has won four times in Cup, including two Daytona 500's, is the worst driver in the sport, I wonder what he thinks of a driver who never won during the time they raced Cup?

I also have to wonder how many other drivers might not think much of some of the other veteran drivers besides Michael because they've never seen them race good cars. There's a lot of drivers who may love Kyle Petty because of all that he does for the Victory Junction Gang Camp but might not think he has much talent behind the wheel because they've only raced with him when he's not been competitive. But in the late 80's and early 90's Kyle raced well and won eight races. I don't anyone would doubt the ability of veteran drivers like Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte or Dale Jarrett since they are all past Cup Champions, but maybe some think they've lost it too since the past few years they've only raced beside those drivers when they've been in non-competitive cars. But a driver can only make the most of the car that they're given whether that driver is Jimmie Johnson who is among those at the top of their game now or Michael who had his greatest success in Cup (to date) from 2001-2003.

Or maybe it's just that Clint doesn't think much of any of the drivers he's racing with. After all, it was just the weekend prior in Michigan that he blamed David Reutimann for a wreck that he (Clint) was mostly at fault for during the Nationwide race. Drivers have egos and maybe Clint's happens to be bigger than some others and he thinks he's better than those he's racing against. To some degree that's an asset for a driver because it gives them confidence but it doesn't make it acceptable to have no respect for their fellow competitors.

What I'm wondering is what NAPA Auto Parts thinks of all of this since part of Clint's comment was directed towards them. If I were NAPA I might be tempted to take out an ad in Nascar Scene that poked fun at Clint's comments or went something along the lines of "Two Daytona 500's, we don't agree Clint" or something similar to get themselves some extra exposure out of it. If I were with NAPA I might also have a chat with the folks at ESPN for replaying that audio clip so much considering the amount of advertising money NAPA spends during the race broadcasts. On last week's "The After Show" on Tony Rizzuti's site, Traci Hultzapple, Michael and NAPA's PR rep, spoke of how upset she was about Clint's comments about David in relation to the wreck at Michigan to the point where she was joking with one of the other MWR PR reps about how maybe they should go track Clint down in the motorcoach lot - if she was angry at Michigan she must have been livid this past weekend and I'm guessing she wasn't the only one associated with Michael, MWR, NAPA and the #55 team who would have felt that way!

The good thing is that although some who dislike Michael are using Clint's comment to justify their opinions of him, there are also more than a few who are coming to Michael's defense including his brother. DW said in his foxsports.com column this week,

I know Clint Bowyer was upset with my brother. You heard his radio comment during the broadcast. When my brother does something wrong, I am the first to admit it. When he doesn't do something wrong, I am the first to point it out. What happened Saturday night had nothing to do with my brother.

Casey Mears just came up into Michael and that started a chain reaction. Once Clint sees the replay and once Clint hears Casey's TV interview, he will change his opinion. Casey said in that interview that his spotter told him he was clear, but he really wasn't.

There are others who have also stated that it wasn't Michael's fault as well - and it wasn't Michael's fault. Casey's spotter didn't clear him. Michael was just as much of an innocent victim as Clint was. Thing is, Clint was given an opportunity on Wind Tunnel last night to smooth things over but he apparently didn't back away from his comment in the least. While he noted that he was speaking out of emotion he reportedly said that was what he was feeling at the time and that it was what it was. No clarification that he didn't mean what he said, no apology, nothing which makes it seem as if what he said was indeed what he thinks about Michael. Which doesn't make me think too highly of Clint.

The thing is Michael's not just a driver, he's an owner (and a media personality). At some point in the future maybe Clint will be looking for a ride and by then maybe MWR will be fielding competitive cars - I'm not sure Clint would be tops on Michael's list of drivers to put in one of his cars if he thinks Clint doesn't have much respect for him. Or even now that comment will probably be in the back of Michael's mind when he's racing Clint and I'm thinking he might race him extra hard as a result - I suspect David would likely do the same. It's hard when a driver is in the car in the middle of a race and they think they're only talking to their team but the reality is that they're not - and it pays for them to watch what they say as a result.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:52 AM | Comments (2)

August 24, 2008

Photo of the Day - Walt Disney World

Posted by silverdsl at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)

Clint Bowyer Makes Ridiculous Comments About Michael Waltrip

I'm not too happy about Clint Bowyer's comments about Michael Waltrip last night. Following a big wreck on lap 217 that Michael was involved with but didn't cause, ESPN played audio from the #07 radio during which Clint said "Michael Waltrip is the worst driver in Nascar. Period." He then questioned why NAPA re-signed with Michael. I'm trying to keep Clint's comments in perspective. After all, he was in his car, speaking to his team as opposed to giving an interview and he had no idea his comments were going to be played on ESPN. In addition, he had just been involved in that wreck while he was trying to race for a spot in the Chase at a track where emotions run high to begin with, and there's also some turmoil with Clint's team in that he may lose his crew chief and team at the end of the season when he moves to the #33. So I can understand that Clint might have been taking out some frustration on Michael. But that doesn't mean that his comments - or that ESPN played them on-air - sit very well with me. I can't stand when drivers rip each other in general and I especially hate it when it's directed towards Michael.

What's particularly ridiculous about Clint's comments is that he was probably assuming that Michael was to blame for the wreck and he was totally mistaken. Casey Mears even said so when he was interviewed in his car
immediately following the wreck. He said,

"I like my spotter; he's a good guy, but man that was ridiculous. We took a bunch of cars out for no reason. I was just running along, heard "clear, clear" and went up there and there was someone (Waltrip) still there. I'm pretty upset about it. There were a lot of people that got involved in that, which shouldn't have been involved because it shouldn't have happened."

Of course this is the second time this season that a mistake by Casey's spotter led to an incident between he and Michael, only this time it swept up quite a few other cars in the ensuing mess as well. As noted, I can understand why Clint was upset about being one of those who was an innocent victim. But it seems like there's a pattern in which Clint deflects blame onto others from where it really belongs. Last week at Michigan he blamed David Reutimann for a wreck during the Nationwide race when it was Clint who came up the track into David, and now this week he blamed Michael for this wreck when he actually had no clue who was at fault. There's an increasing amount of fans who are becoming irritated with Clint's attitude and I'm one of them.

It's not just a matter of placing blame where it doesn't belong. I also think Clint's comment about Michael reflect a complete lack of respect for a veteran driver who may not be among the elite drivers in the sport like Tony Stewart or Jeff Gordon but has still accomplished plenty. Michael is a two-time Daytona 500 winner who has been racing Cup five times as long as Clint has. He's also not just a driver but an owner who is also a media personality. I don't expect every driver in the garage area to like each other so Clint has the right to dislike Michael but I do think that he should show Michael and the rest of his fellow drivers some respect - even over his radio considering that anything that's said over the radios during the race can be heard by fans and others at the track or at home and could be broadcast on-air by ESPN or other media entities. In general, I feel like there's an increasing amount of drivers (and others) who don't have much respect for each other and I don't think it's just a problem exclusive to young drivers either.

What really bothers me is ESPN broadcasting what Clint said in the first place. Yes, they do have the right to put on-air any of the team communications during races that they want but that doesn't mean that they have to play everything. I think someone at ESPN should have used better judgment regarding the wisdom of playing that particular clip. It's not just what he said about Michael that's a problem, it's that it also made Clint look like an asshat who doesn't think much of Michael, when there's really no way of knowing whether he genuinely feels that way about Michael or whether he was saying something he didn't really mean out of emotion and frustration. Drivers insult and curse each other out over their radios during races all the time. Sometimes they mean it but sometimes they don't. I think ESPN did both Michael and Clint a disservice by playing that clip which didn't do anything but cause trouble.

It's also upsetting to find out that ESPN keeps replaying that clip - I feel real bad for Michael because as much as he might say that it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks and especially a driver in the thick of it in their car, it has to hurt to hear that kind of comment from a fellow competitor. Now that I've heard that Clint's comment is being replayed on ESPN over and over I feel even worse for Michael because it has to be embarrassing to him. Unfortunately some of those who disliked Michael previously are using Clint's comment as "proof" that they're right about Michael even though Clint's opinion is only that - an opinion. There's so much negativity directed towards Michael (and many other drivers) and no matter how much a driver just tries to shrug it off it still must get to them at times.

What's going to be interesting is how this is handled on This Week in Nascar tomorrow night on Speed. Obviously the wreck will be discussed but will Michael be given an opportunity to respond to Clint's comment? I have to think that the same audio that was played on ESPN will also be played on TWiN because producers will know that a lot of people will be tuning in to hear what Michael has to say about it. In the past Michael has often excused what drivers say over their radios as coming from emotion but this may be different since he was the one getting ripped. While I hope he takes the high road since he would likely be better off in the long-run I wouldn't blame him in the least if he lashed out at Clint - part of me feels like Clint deserves it.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:30 PM | Comments (5)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random thoughts (8/24)

*First it was announced that Brad Coleman would be taking J.J. Yeley's place behind the wheel of the #96 for Hall of Fame Racing for the rest of the season but it's looking like he's not actually going to be racing the #96 for too many races. It's already been rumored that Joey Logano may race the #96 for a few races to prepare him for taking over the #20 next season, and Ken Schrader finished 21st in the #96 last night at Bristol. According to Jim Utter from thatsracin.com, Jeremy Mayfield may also race the #96 for a few races. Some don't think much of Mayfield but he's a veteran driver who knows how to win and I think his feedback could help the #96 team. I'm not sure Mayfield will ever be back behind the wheel of a Cup car full-time again but I definitely don't think he's done as a driver so hopefully he'll be able to find something for next season even if it's in the Nationwide or Truck Series. Apparently HoF is also considering merging with another organization next season if even they have to switch manufacturers to do it - that's probably wise that they're considering going that route since the odds are increasingly stacked against single-car teams and I'm not sure how likely it is that HoF will be able to find sponsorship for a second team any time soon.

*From the start of the season myself and others have thought that this will be Reed Sorenson's last at Chip Ganassi Racing even though at various points both Sorenson and Ganassi have spoken about working on a new contract. Turns out Sorenson may indeed be with a different team next season - Gillett Evernham Racing. Although it's possible GEM secured sponsorship for a 4th car next season I think it's more likely Sorenson would be racing the #10 which doesn't bode well for that car's current driver - Patrick Carpentier. That's pretty unfortunate - I think Carpentier was put in a really difficult situation this season trying to get good results with a team that wasn't locked into the top 35 in owner's points when he had very little Nascar experience. I'm not sold on the idea that Sorenson's only problem was that he was given lousy cars to race at Ganassi - my feeling is that in the long-run Carpentier might develop into a more successful driver than Sorenson but what do I know? Felix Sabates sure doesn't seem too disappointed that Sorenson might go to GEM. He said, “From my point of view, his contract is over. I think Reed is today as good as he’s ever going to be. If somebody else wants to put him in a car, fine with us."

*Sabates also didn't sound too disappointed about Texaco leaving even though it means that Ganassi needs to find additional sponsorship for Juan Pablo Montoya for next season at a time when sponsorship is very hard to secure. He said,

“Texaco was a great sponsor for a long time, but for the last year they really have been disconnected with the sport. They have focused on other things. We really didn’t get much support from them. The money wasn’t all that great. For us, it was a blessing that we can go out and find somebody who can pay us some real money.”

Which may partially explain why Ganassi hasn't been the most competitive of organizations lately if they were fielding one car (the #40) without much or any outside money coming in from sponsorship and the amount that Texaco was paying them wasn't all that great either. Racing competitively takes more and more money and teams that don't have sponsors willing to pay what it takes to make the car they sponsor competitively are going to have problems keeping up with sponsors who spend $25-30 million a season.

*Even though Scott Wimmer has done an outstanding job in a part-time role for Richard Childress Racing in the Nationwide Series he won't be part of the organization in 2009. Wimmer combined with Jeff Burton to help win the owner's championship in the Nationwide Series last season and even won a Nationwide race this season but that apparently wasn't enough. The problem really not that Wimmer isn't good driver but that RCR has too many drivers that they need to find a place for in the Nationwide Series and not enough cars, plus General Mills didn't want him in the #33. I hope Wimmer can catch on with another team - he clearly can race well when he has a competitive car and he would be an asset to another organization on the Nationwide level, if not the Cup level.

*Kyle Busch might be penalized for his post-race tangle with race winner, Carl Edwards. Kyle was displeased with the way Carl bumped him out of the way to take the lead so during the cool down lap Kyle bumped Carl, who then retaliated against Kyle and spun him. I never like to see drivers use their cars as weapons against each other. Although I understand the reasons why it happens I don't like it. That said, I don't think either Kyle or Carl should be penalized. Other drivers have shown their displeasure in similar ways and gotten away with it. Bristol is a track where emotions run high and I don't think it's outrageous for Kyle to be upset about the way Carl took the lead away from him (even though Carl did nothing wrong). If it happened when other cars were around or on pit road I'd probably feel differently but I'm having a hard time seeing what the big deal was here as compared to other similar situations even though I still don't like seeing drivers retaliating against each other.

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

An Unhappy Birthday for Steve Park at Mansfield

When Steve Park qualified in the top five for yesterday's Camping World East Series race at Manfield I really thought it was going to be his night and that when I got back from dinner out with my parents for their anniversary that I'd find out that Steve had at least gotten that elusive top five finish that he's been hoping for all season if not a win. After all Steve has plenty of experience racing at Mansfield, he clearly had a good car and it was his birthday so I was thinking that all the pieces might fall into place for him. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. For a while it seemed like it was going to be Steve's race as he battled Brian Ickler (who went on to win the race) for much of the first 100 or so laps of the race. However, while leading the race on lap 113 Steve got loose and spun which forced him to restart the race far back in the pack. Any remaining hopes that Steve had of finishing up front were dashed when he spun a second time, this time with help from another car. Steve ended up finishing 8th and is now 9th in the points with three races left. Sure hope Steve can finish off the season on a high note with three great races that will hopefully keep him in the top ten in points!

After the race some fans were talking about all the "squirrels" in the East Series, which is apparently what Steve and his team have taken to referring to some of the drivers in the series, presumably those who often seem to be the ones who cause incidents or have other issues in terms of the way they race. Given the way this series has apparently changed over the years to where it's mostly a developmental series full of young and/or inexperienced drivers I think it has to be expected that Steve's going to be racing with a lot of drivers who are still adjusting to a higher level of racing or haven't finished evolving as drivers yet so they don't always race as cleanly as they could or make the best of decisions. Thing is, Steve made the decision to turn down multiple offers for Truck and Nationwide rides to race in this series. If he doesn't want to race with "squirrels" then maybe he needs to consider a wider variety of rides so that he doesn't have to race in the East Series next season.

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

Casey Mears to the #07 in 2009, Clint Bowyer to the #33

As had been rumored for a while Casey Mears will race for Richard Childress Racing next season but not in their new team. Instead Mears will race the #07 that Clint Bowyer is racing this season, and Bowyer will move to the #33 with sponsorship from General Mills. Reportedly, General Mills had concerns about Mears representing them since he was sponsored by their competitor Kellogg's, this season at Hendrick Motorsports. I find the way this is playing out to be somewhat curious. For one thing there's the question of the owner's points. If I was Bowyer I wouldn't be too thrilled to be going to a team that right now will have to qualify on time for the first five races. Richard Childress has indicated that there's a number of things in the works to try to get owner's points for the #33 but even if he's able to work a deal with another team for owner's points, Bowyer will still lose the owner's points he raced for which would like have put him a lot higher in the top 35 to start next season. The other thing that strikes me as odd is that Bowyer may not be able to keep his current crew chief and team because they may be given to Mears. Why break up a team that's been successful together? It's also interesting to me that Jack Daniels apparently had no problem with losing Bowyer as their driver even though he's gotten them in the Chase - although I think Mears will be a pretty good fit for Jack Daniels, I would have thought that if they're staying at RCR they would want to remain with the driver they've developed an association with since he's raced for them for the past three years.

There are some who question the wisdom of RCR giving Mears a ride but I think he'll be a solid driver for them. What I think will be important is that they keep their expectations reasonable. I'd love to see Mears in the Chase but realistically that's not been the type of driver he's been over the course of his career. However, that doesn't mean that Mears won't have success for RCR. He'll likely race well in the #07 since the cars will be competitive and will probably contend for some wins - he just might not race up front all the time. And that's okay, at least to me. He may not be an elite driver but Mears is a good driver and hopefully with RCR he'll have found a ride that he can comfortably race for a longer than some of his other rides.

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

August 22, 2008

Aaron's Sales and Lease Extends Their Partnership with Michael Waltrip Racing Through 2009

On the heels of the announcement that NAPA Auto Parts had extended their partnership with Michael Waltrip for next season comes today's news that Aaron’s Sales & Lease Ownership has also extended their partnership with Michael Waltrip Racing!! Not only that but they've stepped up their sponsorship from the Nationwide level to the Cup level! Aaron's will be the primary sponsor for David Reutimann in the #00 Cup car in 2009 for 18 races. But that's not all! Aaron's will also return as the sponsor of the #99 Nationwide car for ten races and it won't just be David behind the wheel of the car - Michael is also going to race the #99 for some of those races! I'm thrilled that MWR has sponsorship for David for next season in Cup but I'm also extremely happy that Michael's going to race a few Nationwide races next season! As much as I love David race the #99 I miss Michael in the Nationwide races so it's not even 2009 yet and I'm looking forward to seeing Michael race those Nationwide races!

It's interesting that this announcement specifically says that David will race the #00 Cup car next season which is a number that his family has long been associated with in racing and the number he started out racing in Cup until he moved to the #44 when he took that car over from Dale Jarrett. I have a feeling that's a sign that number may go back to Petty Enterprises for them to use for their possible third team. That would be fine with me as long as David got to keep the owner's points from the #44 from this season. I've always liked the #00 as a number better and I know that David would prefer to race that number as well because of his family history.

Of course MWR still needs to find sponsorship for the rest of the Cup schedule for the #00 and presumably they intend on fielding the #99 for the full season in the Nationwide series so they'll need some more sponsorship on that level as well. I wonder if Champion Mortgage might take some races on either level? From what I understand they're associated with Fortress Investments, the company Rob Kauffman is involved with so I don't know how much they're actually spending to be on the car, but they took the time to do a website and they have a contest going so they are investing some time and effort into this sponsorship so maybe that's something that will continue next season. There was also the rumor that State Water Heaters was going to be involved with MWR next season - I can't track down exactly where that came from or how reliable that information is so we'll see if that actually ends up happening.

Really even though there are still some races they need to find sponsorship for this is such great news for MWR! Just a couple of months ago there were rumors circulating that they were in dire financial straits and speculation that none of their current sponsors were going to come back next season. Obviously that's not the case - MWR will have at least two Cup cars that are mostly sponsored for next season and according to Cal Wells recently they're working on finding sponsorship for a third. When even high-profile, larger and more established teams are experiencing problems finding and keeping sponsors it's pretty impressive that MWR that is still new to Cup and hasn't had as much success as they would like is able to not only keep sponsors but get one of them to increase the level of their involvement!

Hopefully the coming months will bring additional positive news regarding sponsorship for MWR!

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

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (8/21)

DW was the guest last night on Michael Waltrip Out Loud and he was on for the entire show - no surprise since DW always has a lot to say! It was also no surprise to find out afterwards via listening to The After Show on Tony Rizzuti's site that Michael spent part of the time while DW was talking playing with his phone, checking voicemails and all!

One of DW's first comments was about how Jack Roush always has some story about why the Toyotas are winning and then his driver goes out and wins both races this past weekend. But DW said he was still complaining about Toyota. The thing with Jack is that he complains so much about Toyota is that I don't think a lot of people even take him seriously any more. Apparently DW calls Bob Osbourne dial- tone because of the way he communicates with Carl and Michael said that the drivers need their crew chief to be the voice of reason. I immediately thought of Tony Eury, Jr. when Michael said that - although Tony, Jr. and Dale, Jr. get to arguing a lot it seemed to me when Tony Jr. was with Michael he very much was a voice of reason who Michael trusted.

This weekend DW is doing Kevin Harvick's Hot Pass and from the sounds of it even thought Tony said it wasn't the case and that he wouldn't mind even if it were, essentially Tony got bumped off Hot Pass this weekend because of DW. During The After Show Tony also said something about how he just got his hard card back from Nascar because they had pulled it for a couple of weeks because he interviewed Tony Stewart during the red flag rain delay at Pocono. Not sure what that was about since quite a few drivers were interviewed during the rain delay but maybe Tony approached Stewart on pit road when he wasn't supposed to. So I hope Tony didn't get in trouble with the folks from Hot Pass over that incident as well. Back to DW, he hasn't been to a race since Daytona in July and he hasn't been to a night race at Bristol since he retired in 2000 which is why he decided to go to Saturday night's race at Bristol. However, he doesn't want to just stand around, he wants to be involved. So that's how he ended up working Kevin's Hot Pass channel. DW wasn't all that impressed with Hot Pass when it first started (and a lot of fans weren't either) but he thinks it's gotten a lot better.

Michael brought up how his family used to sit in his Dad's impala at the side of the road with the windows rolled down, sweating their butts off trying to get the race on AM and that's what they did to follow the sport they loved. He likes to paint that picture all the time. People don't get that in the mid to late 70's you couldn't get coverage on TV so they had to drive down the road to try to get it on AM. Now things have progressed and they can watch one car on Hot Pass. DW said that yes, there are so many new fans that think everything started in 1992 when Jeff Gordon showed up.Jeff started a youth movement back then that brought in a lot of new fans that the sport wouldn't have without him. I have news for DW - there are a lot of fans who think Nascar first started in 2001 - that seems to be another year when a lot of fans started watching, maybe drawn in by the aftermath of Dale Earnhardt's death, though for some Michael Waltrip fans they became his fan that year because that's when he won his first Daytona 500.

1983 in North Wilksboro, a race I think DW said he won, was the first time ESPN covered a race. Because of that there are a lot of things and drivers that people never got to see and that many fans don't know about. I admit that I'm not the best when it comes to the history of the sport. I've been a race fan since I was little but I only got into watching hardcore around 2000 or 2001 myself so there's a lot I'm not aware of myself about "back in the day." However, whereas some newer fans only seem interested in what's happening now that relates to their favorite drivers, I try to absorb as much as I can about the sport then and now. I think knowing and remembering what happened in the past, and not just when it comes to Nascar, is really important. There's a lot of things even from the recent past that a lot of fans have no idea about. These days when Steve Park's name comes up it's not unusual for there to be fans who say "Steve who?" It doesn't surprise me any more but I used be really astonished that there were fans who didn't know who he was since he won that emotional race at Rockingham the week after Dale Earnhardt died.

There was some discussion about the extreme conditions that DW raced in back in the day before technology made advances to make things more comfortable (and safer/healthier) for the drivers. Back then there was no head rest, no carbon monoxide filer, no cool box, etc... The drivers today take those things for granted. Back then they got out of the car burned, blistered, with pounding heads and burning eyes and it lasted for two or three days. It was hard and that was the way they thought it was supposed to be.

Michael said he (meaning himself) is a rare breed in the garage area. At Watkins Glen he was the only one who had been in the field the first race there in 1986. What a crazy feeling that must have been! He has a real strong feel for the way things used to be and how hard it was. I'm glad that Michael does and I hope he keeps talking about the way things used to be because I think it's important for the young drivers to understand the way things were and be grateful for the way things are now. Michael then proceeded to make what I thought was a pretty astonishing comment - he said was that it was a good thing that Leeroy beat the hell out of them, I guess meaning that it prepared them for the beating they took racing the cars back then. Tony told him he shouldn't talk like that and I agree - although DW and Michael continued talking about their father taking off his belt and all like it was the most normal thing in the world and they were even joking about it, even though that was a different time when there were different views towards that sort of thing than there is now, it's still something that's kind of shocking to hear and could be easily misinterpreted. With Michael you never know what he might be saying for effect so he might have been exaggerating with that comment - I sure hope so!

Next they talked about what happened with JGR in relation to the magnets being put under the gas pedal so that Nascar wouldn't be able to get an accurate read on the dyno about the horsepower the engines were producing. DW 's question - and mine too - is why would they choose to do what they did after the race? DW said there was no way that the drivers could go down on the floorboard to do it themselves - I'm glad DW said that since there are quite a few fans who seem to think that Tony and Joey put the magnets in themselves, maybe due to an ESPN reporter who brought up that possibility . DW speculated that those that were involved from JGR thought the rule that Nascar made in relation to the Toyota horsepower was unfair so they wanted to make it seem like Nascar had taken more power away than anticipated. But that's not a good thing from the integrity stand point and not a smart thing to do.

Michael made a very good point that those involved at JGR scienced out exactly what size spacer they needed to use for an exact amount of horsepower reduction. I don't think a lot of people realize that. It's not like it was a spur of the moment decision to throw the magnets underneath the gas pedal that day - they actually put time and effort into figuring out how to try to make this work exactly the way they wanted to back at the shop. To me it makes this worse that it was something that was planned out and likely experimented with.

Tony said he heard that with the first car no one saw it, and that it went through the dyno fine. However, with the second car they waited too long to start working on it and a sharp inspector (Gadget?) who doesn't miss anything saw them. DW said that it's a different inspection area than it was 20 years ago when they got the inspectors from Waffle House (he really said that ) and now they're trained. Which is a good thing. I know there are some who lament how hard Nascar is on the teams and long for the good old days when everyone was cheating left and right but with the way technology has advanced there has to be limits on what the teams could do otherwise they'd really go crazy pouring money into doing all sorts of things to try to gain an advantage. And as technology advances and everything becomes more sophisticated, the inspection process needs to advance as well.

It's a shame according to Tony that JGR will have a black eye due to one or two rogue employees. Michael said that he lived that and boy did he ever! However, one or two employees won't knock JGR off their feet like it almost did to MWR. DW brought up Kevin getting suspended for a Cup race because of something he did in the race the day before and said that's what worries him, teams doing something on Saturday that can effect them on Sunday (which is exactly what happened to Robby Gordon last year when he got in trouble in Montreal and Nascar parked him for Pocono on Sunday). DW hates it for Joe Gibbs but it will pass. Michael said that their mother says "This too will pass."

I have to say I disagree with them a little on that. Maybe in the garage area all will be quickly forgiven - after all, most teams have been caught cheating or otherwise breaking the rules at one time or another. Problem is fans and the media have very long memories for things like this. Chad Knaus will always be "Cheatin' Chad" to some fans. Other fans bring up the Daytona mess in just about every conversation about Michael Waltrip Racing. The media will also always refer to these incidents. So while the talk about this incident may die down, I don't think it's going to be forgotten about or pass as easily as all involved may like. There are going to be more than a few who will probably always be suspicious of JGR's success and wonder if this was a sign that it came because they were cheating even though this wasn't something that had any effect on the way the cars raced. I think it's kind of unfortunate for Kyle Busch because he's in the process of putting together an incredible season and in some fan's eyes it will always be tainted even though the cars and trucks he's raced this season have always passed inspection.

There was some more discussion between Tony and Traci, Michael's PR rep, on The After Show regarding the JGR mess and their comments from the perspective of what happened with the #55 team last year were particularly interesting. They seem pretty convinced that the drivers and higher-up's in a particular organization are almost always out-of-the-loop which makes sense because when someone is up to no-good in terms of breaking rules, they wouldn't want those people to know about it, not just because it's wrong, but also for their own protection. I just wonder when I hear about how things were worked on in the shop whether more people than those who were directly involved might have noticed or become aware of what they were doing. Tony also made some interesting comments about David Hyder and how it killed Michael to let him go. I have to listen again to what he said because it almost sounded like he was saying that Hyder didn't know what was going on and that begs the question if Hyder wasn't involved - and my understanding is that he has always insisted to people that he didn't do it - then who was?

Something else that came up on The After Show that wasn't discussed during the main show was the incident between David Reutimann and Clint Bowyer during the Nationwide race. Traci was just as outraged and disbelieving as any fan about Bowyer's comments. I agree with her that his comments were ridiculous and out-of-line - it was almost astonishing to me that he really thought that it was David's fault, even though he seemed to come up the track into him. Sometimes a driver needs to see a replay to really know what happened but if he wasn't sure or didn't know he certainly shouldn't have blamed David.

Among fans it seems like Bowyer is developing quite a reputation for never taking responsibility for anything or admit that he made a mistake. He's not the only one. Drivers could do themselves a favor and even if they don't think they were in the wrong still take some responsibility for their role in an incident because it goes over a lot better with the fans and would save them from having some negativity directed their way. Even better would be if drivers didn't comment until they had seen a replay or were sure they knew what happened though that's hard because the media wants an immediate comment and often don't give the drivers time to cool down or see a replay. In general I wish the drivers had a cool down period before they spoke with the media to prevent them from making remarks in the heat of the moment out of emotion because they just got out of the car that they might regret later after they've had time to think about it. Denny Hamlin comes to mind in relation to his comments this past weekend in which he ripped his team. Fans aren't too happy with Denny these days either and I think he's another who could benefit from a cool down period before he speaks with the media.

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

August 21, 2008

Random Thoughts on Things that Aren't Nascar (For a Change)

Yes, I do actually give thought and am interested in things that aren't Nascar related!

*In fact I'm a huge Yankees fan as anyone who comes over from NYYFans knows. However, even though I'm still watching as many games as I can, it's not all that fun to write entires about the Yankees woes and how they may miss the playoffs this season for the first time since 1995. Not may, likely will. Oh sure, they aren't mathematically eliminated yet but they're ten games out in the AL East and five and a half games out for the Wild Card so it sure doesn't look good. I'll even say it - the Yankees are done, though I would love to be wrong about that particularly since I'm not looking forward to what it'll do to the mood on the forum if the Yankees aren't in the post-season. I can't say though that I'm upset as some as some about the Yankees woes. While they've been less successful in the post-season as the years have gone on, the Yankees have really had an incredible run since 1995. All good things have to come to an end at some point and I knew that eventually the Yankees weaknesses if left unaddressed for too long would catch up to them. Hopefully missing the post-season this year - if it happens - will motivate the Yankees to do what's necessary both as a team and as individual players to come back stronger in 2009 to ensure that they start another streak of post-season appearances.

*I've been very much enjoying watching the Olympics, particularly since some sports are highlighted that normally don't get any attention. Like table tennis for example. I'll watch just about anything other than competitive eating as long as there's two or more people competing against each other for something but I can't say I've ever seen a table tennis match until the other night.I had really wanted to watch BMX biking last night but I had to go to sleep before it came on so I'm really hoping that I'll be able to catch it tonight. I have to admit I had no clue that trampoline was an Olympics event - I only got to see a little of it but it was pretty cool. I've been really enjoying watching Track & Field this week. I guess because I'm used to seeing people go fast by use of a car or truck I'm really in awe when they go fast just by using nothing other than their own bodies. Really I'm in awe of all the Olympic athletes - although I love sports I'm very nonathletic myself and I could never come even remotely close to anything that any of them have accomplished just by being at the Olympics let alone those that medal.
*

*Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC was critical of Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who not only won two golds but did in incredible and record-breaking fashion because he felt Bolt showed a lack of respect to his fellow competitors. Rogge said,

“I understand the joy. He might have interpreted that in another way, but the way it was perceived was ‘catch me if you can.’ You don’t do that. But he’ll learn. He’s still a young man."

and

“He still has to mature. I would love him to show more respect for his competitors. That’s not the way we perceive being a champion. But he will learn in time. He should shake hands with his competitors and not ignore them. He’ll learn that sooner or later. But (he’s) a great athlete, of course.”

I understand the point about not showboating and having respect for those he's competing against but if there's a competitor in these Olympics besides Michael Phelps that deserves to showboat a little it's Bolt. He was the first since Carl Lewis to win the Gold in both the 100 and 200, the first ever to set a world record in both event, and the world record he broke in the 200 is a mark some thought no one would ever beat. So I think he has good reason to celebrate. Maybe it comes off as obnoxious or disrespectful to some but I would much rather someone make it look it means something to them than act "professional" and like it's no big deal what they're accomplishing.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2008

Joe Gibbs Racing to Impose Additional Penalties

Immediately following the announcement of the penalties from Nascar that were handed out to the #20 and #18 Nationwide teams, Joe Gibbs Racing released a statement in which they apologized for the actions of their employees and indicated that because what they did was so contrary to the way JGR operates they were going to impose additional penalties on those involved. The statement said,

"We take full responsibility and accept the penalties NASCAR has levied against us today. We had come to the conclusion that we would add to any NASCAR imposed penalties with the minimum being suspension for the remainder of the season for those involved, including our two Nationwide Series crew chiefs. There will also be an additional monetary fine beyond the amount announced by NASCAR earlier today, which will be the responsibility of those involved."

It may end up being that JGR's penalties to the individuals involved end up being worse than what was given out by Nascar to the teams. Any monetary fine on top of already having been fined $50,000 is going to hurt. Being suspended by JGR, particularly if it's without pay, will hurt too. Being fired, if that's what happens, would hurt even more, though odds are once these team members have their suspensions lifted by Nascar down the road there would be more than a few teams interested in hiring them since they'd be coming from JGR.

The biggest damage might be what's done to the reputation of Joe Gibbs, J.D. Gibbs and the whole JGR organization. Many fans already assumed that the reason they were having so much success this season was because they were somehow cheating or breaking the rules but many will see this as proof that their theories were right even though there were no illegal parts or modifications on the cars during the actual race. Chad Knaus and Hendrick Motorsports will always be viewed by some as cheaters because of how many times Knaus was penalized by Nascar for a rules violation. Michael Waltrip Racing is still recovering from what happened at Daytona last year. For quite some time into the future there are probably going to be quite a few people who will continue to bring this incident up in discussions about JGR. That's unfortunate because it may only be a small group of individuals who took it upon themselves to have magnets put under the gas pedals of the cars after the race but the entire organization is going to be condemned for it.

It's also unfortunate that all the success that Kyle Busch and JGR is having this season is going to be tainted, even what they've done on the Cup level. I've already seen it said multiple times that this should mean that Nascar should inspect the JGR Cup teams closer to find out how they're cheating on the Cup level even though what these team members did wasn't something that helped them race any better than any other team and was done after the race. Unless Nascar finds magnets under the gas pedals of the JGR Cup cars it's hard for me to see how what the Nationwide teams did relates to the success the Cup teams are having.

There is still one question that is yet to be resolved - what, if anything, were these teams trying to hide when they tried to manipulate the dyno test results?

Posted by silverdsl at 01:38 PM | Comments (2)

Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide Penalties Announced

Nascar was clearly not amused by the attempt by Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide team members to alter the dyno test results for the #20 and #18 cars. Seven JGR team members, including both team's crew chiefs, car chiefs and engine tuners have been suspended indefinitely. In addition, both crew chiefs have been fined $50,000, Joey Logano and Tony Stewart have each lost 150 driver points and Joe Gibbs has been penalized with the loss of 150 owners points from each car. On top of that both team have been placed on probation through the end of the year.

While the penalties are harsh, as they should be, are they enough? Losing team members indefinitely is disruptive to the team but JGR has so many employees that they probably won't have too much of a problem finding replacements. Being suspended indefinitely sounds bad but as we saw in the case of fuel-gate with the #55 team last season, eventually those that were indefinitely suspended from that team were not eventually unsuspended but returned to work in the garage area before the end of the season as if nothing had ever happened. The loss of driver points is meaningless since neither Stewart nor Logano were racing the full season. Being placed on probation certainly doesn't seem to mean anything either since nothing has ever happened to any driver or crew chief who acts out while on probation. What might have some meaning is the loss of owner points since the #20 was in the running for the owner's championship, but I believe they still lead in the owner's points even after the loss of points and just exactly who pays attention to those standings anyway? If the crew chiefs have to pay the fines themselves that will really hurt them financially since I'd guess that a Nationwide crew chief doesn't make a huge amount of money. But I question whether these penalties are enough to prevent another team from doing something similar in the future.

It seems to me if Nascar really wants to make sure that teams play by the rules then they need to make the penalties so severe that no team would want to take the risk. Maybe that means they need to park a team for a race or two, something I used to not be in favor of until I realized how meaningless a lot of the penalties are for these teams, particularly the large and well-funded teams. Or for post-race violations that are serious enough that involve illegal parts or modifications that were on the car during a race maybe teams need to lose their finish. I can understand Nascar's hesitancy to take steps like that since it not only punishes the teams but also the sponsors and fans, but it seems to me that teams have no fear of breaking the rules and what they're doing aren't just minor violations that are accidental in nature but are major blatant violations. That's a problem. I would really hate to see one of my favorite teams and/or drivers not be able to race because they were caught cheating or otherwise breaking the rules but there is a rulebook for a reason and teams need to follow it no matter how much they don't like some of the rules or how much of a competitive advantage they might gain with something they're doing.

What I'm interested in is what action JGR is going to take. After the mess at Daytona Michael Waltrip Racing got rid of those they thought were involved so I'm wondering if JGR is going to do the same. It seems to me that might be a pretty big deterrent if team members think they might lose their jobs if they do something their organization doesn't approve of.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2008

Chevron Texaco Leaving Nascar?

Dave Moody is reporting in his blog that Chevron-Texaco is ending their sponsorship of the #42 car for Chip Ganassi Racing and instead of moving to another team or organization are leaving the sport all together. If true, Ganassi might be in major trouble for next season. They still haven't found (at least that's known publically) a sponsor for the #40 that they stopped fielding for Dario Franchitti earlier in the season due to a lack of sponsorship, they would need to find a sponsor for the #42 and there's some uncertainty in relation to the #41 since Reed Sorenson hasn't yet been re-signed and there have been rumors that Target is ending their sponsorship of the #41 as well. I'm now understanding why there were rumors about Juan Pablo Montoya connecting him to other rides and why there have been rumors that Ganassi might merge with Michael Waltrip Racing. Suddenly it seems that Ganassi's future in Cup is looking very uncertain.

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

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo to XM/Sirius

Not to happy right now. It was announced today that Chris "Mad Dog" Russo will be hosting a show on XM channel 144 (as well as Sirius 123) from 2-7 p.m. every weekday starting September 15. The first problem with that is that Claire B. Lang's Nascar show "Dialed In" is on from 3-7 every weekday. To say that I would be upset if her show was canceled as opposed to just being moved to a different time or channel would be an understatement. Claire does an outstanding job of covering the sport and I've found that there's no better source for interviews and information - that's factual - than Claire. She is also incredibly fan-friendly and always willing to exchange emails with fans and try to get the drivers they ask to hear from on the air.

The second problem, for me at least, is that I can't stand Mad Dog. I used to listen to "Mike and the Mad Dog" on WFAN in New York but I got so sick of him that I stopped listening years ago. I think he's nothing more than a loud mouth blowhard and I definitely won't be listening to his show.

Really not too happy about this news.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:13 PM | Comments (2)

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (8/19)

According to Jayski, Michael Waltrip Racing has an announcement scheduled for Friday at Bristol that relates to the plan for David Reutimann in 2009, including sponsorship. It's been rumored that Aaron's is going to step up and sponsor David in Cup for a partial season which is great news - they obviously like him a lot so it doesn't surprise me that they want to be associated with him - and MWR - in an even higher-profile way. But that would leave some races unsponsored... unless MWR is also going to be making an announcement about another sponsor for David's car. I admit that someone passed along a piece of information they had come across somewhere that indicates that might be the case - since I can't verify whether this information is correct or not I'm not going to mention specifics but that they're making the announcement at Bristol indicates there may be some truth there. Whatever the case may be I'm just happy that David will be racing for MWR again next season and that they apparently have at least some sponsorship from Aaron's!

The other bit of MWR related news is kind of confusing to me. MWR development driver Josh Wise had been racing the #22 Nationwide car for Fitz Motorsports with support from MWR, who had hired a crew chief to work with Josh, and built some Toyotas for Josh to race. They were also providing a pit crew for the #22 and I had thought that Josh was going to be in the car for the rest of the season. Apparently I thought wrong because it was announced yesterday that Andrew Ranger, who had raced the #22 for Fitz at Montreal and Watkins Glen will race the #22 for seven of the last ten Nationwide races. What's up with that?

Maybe Josh will race the remaining three races that Andrew won't be in the car for and that was the plan all along but if MWR went as far as hiring personnel and spending money on building cars it seems to me that's a big investment for just a few races. There's been a lot of rumors circulating that Fitz is on very shaky ground financially and give that Mike Bliss just sued them for non-payment there could be some truth there. That makes me wonder if money somehow played a role in this in that Andrew brought more money to Fitz than MWR did. I have to say I'm pretty disappointed that Josh won't be racing the #22 much if at all (though I suppose it's possible he could end up in Fitz's second car). I was thrilled when MWR found a ride for Josh since I hated that he spend the first part of the season on the sideline, and I was very happy when he started to have some success in the #22, including the first top five of his career at ORP. So I really wish he was going to be in the #22 for the rest of the races this season.

Sure hope to see Josh in a Nationwide car next season - I'd love for it to be the #99 for MWR but it's possible David will race it again next season. Maybe that'll be something that we'll find out on Friday.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:13 PM | Comments (2)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/19)

*Sporting News is reporting that Subway may enter into a $2.25 million deal to be the primary sponsor of the #99 Cup car for three races and also use Carl Edwards in their advertising. I think they'll get their money's worth there. Not only is Carl a very popular driver who is very successful on the track, I think he's a much better fit for the Subway brand than the driver Subway is currently associated with - Tony Stewart. I always hate to bring up a driver's looks or weight but the reality is that Stewart isn't the slimmest of drivers which is a bit of a conflict with the whole ad campaign Subway has with their spokesperson, Jared Fogle, losing a huge amount of weight by eating Subway. On the other hand, as Sporting News points out, Edwards is very much into staying in shape. Reportedly this came about because AFLAC, which signed a $26 million deal to be the primary sponsor on the #99, is looking to sell off some of the races they're committed to. In addition to Subway they've also been negotiating with the U.S. Army for them to take nine to twelves races. The U.S. Army has been rumored to be negotiating with virtually every team in the garage area so I'm not sure how likely it is that they'll end up with Edwards - particularly if the price tag is $750,000 a race - but I think Edwards would be a good fit for them as well.

*Turns out Ryan Newman's car number at Stewart-Haas Racing won't be #4 after all. Tony Stewart announced on his show last night that Newman will instead race the #39. He attributed the change to that being the number that Newman raced in his USAC days, as well as that he wanted Morgan-McClure Motorsports to be able to use the #4 if they wanted to in the future. I have to wonder if there's more to it than that though. After I wondered yesterday in this space about whether Morgan-McClure Motorsports had a trademark on the #4 I went and checked the TASS database that's maintained by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and according to the most recent record, MMM does indeed have a live trademark on the #4. I'm far from an expert on copyrights and trademarks so I could be completely wrong, but I suspect there could be big legal issues for SHR to contend with if they used the #4 in Nascar related merchandise without and agreement with MMM. Based on the unhappiness expressed by those affiliated with MMM, I'd say they might not be too willing to transfer the trademark to SHR or otherwise let them use it so Stewart might have figured it was just easier to choose a different number, particularly since there was one available that would have meaning to Newman.

*The 2009 Cup, Nationwide and Truck schedules is out and there are some changes. I can't say that I'm too worked up about any of it, mostly because I almost never get to go to any races so it doesn't really matter to me where they are on any given weekend since I'm usually watching on TV at home. Some seem very worked up about some of the date swapping so I'll just have to take their word for it that it's a big deal.

*Lee White from Toyota made the expected remarks in relation to the mess with the Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide teams about how wrong it was what those involved did and how Toyota doesn't condone that kind of behavior. However, he also said,

“We have seen instances throughout the last couple of years where teams were found to be doing things in postrace inspection which were obvious attempts to affect the performance of the car during the race. To me, that is a blatant attempt to affect the outcome of the event. This was not an attempt to affect the outcome of the event."

I have to disagree with him. The JGR teams were apparently trying to ensure that Nascar couldn't get a true read on the amount of horsepower their cars were producing. As a result Nascar could have made more rules changes on the basis of faulty information which down the road could end up having an effect on the outcome of races.

*Patrick Carpentier will race the #04 for Bobby Hamilton Racing in tomorrow night's truck race at Bristol (which I'm very much looking forward to) and since it's going to be his first time in a truck it'll be interesting to see how he does. At the very least it's an opportunity for him to get some additional seat time that could help him for the Cup race, but maybe he'll end up wanting to do more truck races. Carpentier hasn't been told yet whether he'll be back in the #10 next season or not and I have a feeling he might not be. It's unfortunate because he seems to be a good guy who has a lot more talent than he's been able to show in Cup - problem for him is that it's a really tough challenge to try to be successful on the Cup level with very little Nascar experience and even more so when racing a car outside the top 35 in owner's points.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:36 PM | Comments (5)

August 18, 2008

Photo of the Day

Sandwich Glass Museum, Sandwich, MA. 2007.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/18)

*I understand Denny Hamlin was frustrated at his engine blowing and that he had just gotten out of the car so he really didn't have time to get his emotions under control before speaking with the media but he sure did a lot of whining and complaining yesterday, much of which was directed at his team and Joe Gibbs Racing. Among other things Hamlin said,

“We came here with a new engine package, [and] we're a bubble driver. We just make stupid choices. We can't keep our cars together. We have dash malfunctions, motors breaking. At this point, we don’t even deserve to be in the Chase.”

I wonder if his team who surely work extremely hard to make sure he has the best possible cars and are the ones who have helped get him into Chase contention agree with his assessment? Despite the fact that all three JGR teams almost always run up front and his teammate is having a dominant season, Hamlin also complained that the engine department is behind in comparison to other teams. I'm all for drivers speaking their minds and offering up constructive criticism but it seems to me that Hamlin might have been better off keeping those kind of comments behind closed doors instead of airing his complaints openly in the media. I hate saying things like this about the drivers but he kind of came off like a whiny, spoiled, brat yesterday. I understand his frustration and disappointment, I just wish he expressed it in a different way.

*Bill Davis is talking to several investors and may sell part or all of Bill Davis Racing. Although BDR continues to be extremely successful in the Truck Series their Cup program is barely hanging on. Given that they don't have a sponsor for the #22 let alone the second car they wanted to field next season, I'm not even sure bringing on an investor is going to be enough. There probably aren't too many who are going to be wiling to foot the bill for two Cup cars without any help from at least a partial sponsor. The uncertainties facing BDR on the Cup level have left Dave Blaney in limbo as to whether he'll have a ride next season. Unfortunately for Blaney if he's not in the #22 again I think he's going to have a hard time finding another Cup ride given his age and that while a steady, reliable driver he's never won in Cup.

*ESPN.com is reporting that Yates Racing is attempting to sign Paul Menard. That's almost certainly because of the Menard's sponsorship rather than that they believe that Menard is an outstanding driver. While Menard may be better than the results he's gotten so far in Cup - a driver can only make the most of the car they're given to race - he really hasn't been very impressive. The question becomes whether it's for a third team or whether one of the existing Yates drivers would lose their ride. I suspect it would be to replace one of the current drivers since it's going to be hard to field those two cars next season with only limitedl sponsorship again.

*Austin Dillon is going to make his Nationwide debut at Richmond in September for his grandfather's organization, Richard Childress Racing. Although Dillon has been successful in the East Series this season I can't help but think that maybe he's being rushed along a little too quickly. Joey Logano has shown that he can handle racing the Nationwide Series at 18-years old but I'm not sure that Dillon, while talented, is Logano. The plans call for him to race a partial Nationwide and a partial East Series schedule in 2009 which is good so they won't be throwing him full-time into the Nationwide series right away, but I can't help but wonder if having him race another season in the East Series or having him race the Truck Series for a season before moving him up to the Nationwide Series might not be better for his long-term development. There's such a rush to move these young drivers up as quickly as possible and I definitely think that some of them like Logano can handle it but I'm not sure it's right for every young driver.

*The other issue with Dillon is whether he will one day race the #3 which RCR still has the rights to. There are many fans who think that number should be retired forever out of respect to Dale Earnhardt but the number has meaning to Richard Childress and I think he should be able to use it if he wants to, particularly for his grandson.

*Morgan-McClure Motorsports isn't too happy that Nascar is going to let Stewart-Haas Racing use the #4, their long-time number next season. Despite the long odds MMM was hoping that they might be able to return to the track if they found sponsorship but if that happens - and it probably won't - they'll have to use a different number. Tim Morgan, one of the co-owners, is particularly upset because according to him Mike Helton said that he would contact MMM if anything changed with the number and never did before they let SHR use the #4. My question is what kind of issues is SHR going to run into if MMM still holds the trademark on the #4 for use in motorsports? Unless MMM gives up that trademark it might be difficult to do merchandising for Ryan Newman that includes the #4.

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

August 17, 2008

Photo of the Day - Longwood Gardens

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

Good Day for Michael Waltrip Racing at Michigan

Two out of the three Michael Waltrip Racing cars finished in the top 20 today at Michigan which made for a very good day for MWR! In fact, for the #55 team I'd say their 19th place finish made for a great day considering how much bad luck that led to poor finishes they've had to contend with lately! Michael's finish might have been even better considering he was among the fastest cars on the track in the latter half of the race but some ill-timed cautions kept him pinned a lap down. I think if he had gotten his lap back he would have ended up with a top 15 finish, if not better - the car really was that good by the end of the race. I was really happy with what Michael and his team did today - the car was bad on Friday, so bad that he qualified at the back of the field and they weren't all that great in practice yesterday. Even when the race started the car wasn't all that great due to how loose it was but a couple of changes later and Michael was making his way through the field! It sure was awesome to see... okay follow on Trackpass since ESPN didn't think he was worthy of being shown. Even when Dale Jarrett brought up how well Michael was racing they didn't show him! But it really was a good day for the #55 team especially in relation to the owner's points. Sure hope they can build on this and get a solid finish next weekend at Bristol too!

If Michael had a good weekend, David Reutimann had a terrific weekend! He qualified 7th on Friday and was able to race in the top fifteen for the entire race today. I think he also had a loose condition to contend with otherwise he likely would have been racing in the top ten or better. Sure was nice to see David race up front! If he gets a competitive car on a regular basis we could definitely see a lot more top 15 and better finishes!

The only MWR car that didn't fare very well was the #00 that was raced this week by Mike Skinner. He qualified the car in the top 25 and was able to stay up there for a while but dropped like a rock after the first pit stop. He ended up finishing 35th, two laps down. Of course nothing was mentioned during the race on TV about Skinner and the #00 so it's a mystery as to what happened, whether there was a mechanical issue or the car was just bad. Unfortunately that means that not only is the #00 still outside the top 35 in owner's points, they lost ground on the 35th spot. They aren't out by much so one finish up front combined with some poor finishes by those in front of them could get them back in but there haven't been any finishes up front for the #00 since David got out of the car to race the #44 so I'm thinking the odds of them finishing really well at Bristol probably aren't too great, though if there's one driver who I think could get them a good finish at Bristol it's Skinner.

In terms of the top 35, A.J. Allmendinger didn't spend long in the top 35 - one race in and he's already out again. Scott Riggs did a good job of racing his way back in, but ultimately I think Allmendinger may be the one in the top 35 at the end of the season not Riggs since overall it's seemed like his results have often been better than Riggs. Dave Blaney and Robby Gordon continue to sink like stones in the owner's points standings. Blaney got wrecked this weekend but the results haven't been too good for the last month or so. All the uncertainty surrounding Bill Davis Racing for next season may be taking it's toll on Blaney and his team. It was the same old story for Robby - good in practice but bad on race day. There was some sort of mechanical or electrical issue this time - this team is very much in trouble if they can't finish off the season on a strong note.

Posted by silverdsl at 06:53 PM | Comments (2)

Joe Gibbs Racing Nationwide Teams Caught Trying to Manipulate Dyno Results

After the Nationwide race yesterday Nascar took some of the cars for some post-race chassis dyno tests which would show what kind of horsepower the various manufacturers's cars and their motors were producing. Nascar ended up finding more than they bargained for when they discovered that the Joe Gibbs Racing teams had placed magnets under the gas pedals on the #18 that finished 7th and the #20 that finished 3rd, which prevented the pedals from going down completely. That would mean that it would seem like the cars were producing less horsepower than they really were. The reasons why the teams put the magnets there I think are just as important as that they were caught - it has to be asked whether they were trying to hide something in relation to the amount of horsepower that their engines were producing. J.D. Gibbs said that he wasn't entirely sure why those responsible in his organization did what they did but he speculated that there was some frustration about the recent rules changes aimed at reducing the horsepower for the Toyota teams and that the JGR teams were trying to made it seem like they were now at a disadvantage but I'm not sure I buy that.

Whatever the reasons where, this is a blatant attempt to falsify the dyno results that even the team can't excuse away. I would expect that Nascar will give out some very severe penalties to those who are responsible and take away quite a few points from both the #18 and #20. As they should - what these teams were attempting to do is inexcusable. I can understand when the teams play around in the grey areas of the rulebook but interfering with the inspection process is a pretty big no-no.

I'm very disappointed by what the JGR teams did. There's already enough negativity being directed towards JGR and enough people who are suspicious that the only reason they've been so successful this season is because they're cheating. Even though even Nascar has said that everything on the cars was completely legal during the race some have already jumped to the conclusion that the cars were cheated up during the race.The last thing JGR and Toyota needed is to give the anti-JGR crowd and the conspiracy theorists ammunition. The worst part would be if it turned out that the JGR teams put the magnets under the pedals because they did actually have something to hide, that they turned up the horsepower in spite of the rules change.

What amazes me is that a couple of people have brought up how terrible this is because of what a good Christian Joe Gibbs is. I don't think religion should be brought into things like this. One's religious beliefs are something that's deeply personal and what specifically one believes and how they apply it to their day-to-day lives varies from person to person. I really don't like it when someone passes judgment on another person and whether they are doing a good job of living up to their religious principles.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:05 PM | Comments (2)

This Could Be Interesting...

So yesterday at Lime Rock a fan talked with Steve Park about the rumor that he was out of the #35 after this weekend and he said there was no truth to it. He said that the reporter never spoke with him and that contrary to what the reporter speculated on, he wasn't looking for a Modified ride and that he would be in the #35 for the rest of the season. I most certainly hope that's the case! However, while I don't always agree with the things that Shawn Courchesne writes, it hasn't seemed to me that he makes things up from thin air which means he likely got that information about Steve being out of the #35 soon from someone else. Hopefully whoever that someone else is someone who is misinformed but it could also be someone from Steve's team - sometimes the driver is the last to know when they're going to be replaced, though I sure hope that isn't the case here!

The other thing is that Steve encouraged his fans to email this reporter and let them know how displeased they are with what he wrote. That could make things interesting since this reporter is very vocal and has been known to take on others in his blog who confront him or that he otherwise disagrees with. This kind of thing hasn't worked out well for Steve in the past - taking on the media that is. In general, no matter how frustrating it might be when the media is negative or reports things that are inaccurate I think drivers and others need to use extreme caution when being confrontational with them. Fact is, the media has a great deal of influence and they can make one's life very difficult, not just in the short-term but also in the long-term.

Hopefully things work out for Steve and he keeps racing the #35 but I'm still going to be a little nervous before each week until the entry list comes out with his name on it.

(8/20) - It's been nearly a week since the original item was posted in Shawn's blog and there are still fans who are continuing to freak out about it. As someone else pointed out, doing so continues to give it attention - more attention in my opinion than it's worth which is why I'm not doing a new entry on this. The reality is that as much as Steve and some fans may not like it Shawn was writing in his blog and a blog is different than a formal article in the paper. Shawn is entitled to give his opinion and yes, even speculate on what he thinks could happen. Somehow he got the impression that Steve might get released and more than Shawn speculating on that happening I'd like to know where he got that information - has there actually been discussion by Steve's team about that or is someone causing trouble by making something up?

I just wish Steve had simply said "The reporter was wrong" instead of saying that his fans should go harass this reporter. What exactly does he think that's going to achieve? It's not too likely there will be an apology or a retraction, especially since again, Shawn was speculating in his blog as opposed to stating that he knew for a fact that Steve was going to be released. The only thing that's likely to happen here is that the next time Shawn goes to write something about Steve he'll remember this incident and it might influence the way he writes about Steve and not in a good way. As frustrating as it is when the media gets something wrong it's also important to maintain a good relationship with reporters because it helps result in more favorable coverage.

I'm also wondering why if Steve and the team were so upset about this, for days as it's been claimed, why no one released a statement that confirmed that Steve would be with the team for the rest of the season? Something could have been posted on Steve's own website or in the comments on the blog itself. Then again, sometimes it's best to just let things like this go and move on. The best way of showing that there's no truth to what Shawn speculated about is for Steve to race hard in all of the remaining races this season and hopefully finish up front.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2008

UPS to Roush? The Truck Series? RCR? Stewart-Haas Racing?

One thing that irks me about Silly Season in Nascar is that there are so many rumors that circulate about the same drivers, teams and sponsors that all say different things that it's impossible to know what's true and what's not. So far this season it's been reported that UPS is going to sponsor a car at Roush-Fenway Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, and might have also spoken with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports, Yates Racing and also Nascar in relation to becoming title sponsor of the Truck Series. UPS may very well have spoken with all of those entities but they are only going to end up as the sponsor of one of them. The question is which one? There's really no way of knowing right now. Every rumor is written as if it's close to a done deal that UPS is going to end up signing with this team or that but thus far UPS hasn't signed with any of them. The only thing that seems to be known for sure is that they won't be returning to Michael Waltrip Racing where they're currently sponsoring David Reutimann.

It's getting kind of tiresome to me to read a different rumor every week about where UPS is going to end up. I don't fault reporters for writing stories about what they hear, particularly when they have a good source that's giving them information, and particularly when it's something like the most recently story that says that UPS is going to sponsor David Ragan next season since Geoff Smith went on record to confirm that Roush is in talks with UPS. It's just that I would rather hear what's actually going to happen as opposed to what might happen. I have a feeling it's not just fans like me that would like some of this settled - there are teams and drivers who are probably in a holding pattern in relation to their plans while they're waiting for UPS and other sponsors, as well as teams and drivers, to make their plans for next season definite. It was thought that when Tony Stewart announced that he was leaving Joe Gibbs Racing for Stewart-Haas that it would set a lot of other things in motion and some things have been announced but it seems like everything is happening a lot slower than many people anticipated.

I can't say I really understand what UPS's thinking is. They were associated with Dale Jarrett for so long and had one of those increasingly rare sponsor-driver relationships where fans don't think of one without thinking of the other. DJ did a terrific job representing UPS and they made some really outstanding commercials together. So UPS has quite a challenge when it comes to finding a replacement driver. Given the economy I can also understand why they are going to be extra-careful about what they do with their money. But a while back UPS said that they were looking for a "rock star" type driver to sponsor and I can't say that any of the drivers who have been rumored to be candidates to represent UPS fit the bill as a "rock star." Talented? For sure. But a dynamic personality who will be a presence in their commercials and create brand awareness? I'm not so sure about that. David Ragan who is the most recent to be connected to the UPS sponsorship seems like a nice young driver whose performance on the track has gotten better over time. But how much attention does he really get even when he races well? Seems to me it's not that much. Clint Bowyer is another nice guy who will likely always contend for the Chase but as I saw someone else say about him he comes across in interviews as if he has all the personality of an empty box.

To me the Truck Series sponsorship makes a lot of sense and would create the most opportunity for consistent exposure that isn't reliant on what kind of results a driver gets on the track or how many times they mention UPS during interviews. It seems to me that there would also be a huge amount of marketing and promotional opportunities for UPS as the Truck Series sponsor. Only thing is that the audience is smaller for Truck races than for Nationwide or Cup races so maybe UPS isn't sure if it's a good investment of their money particularly since Nascar wants a five-year commitment.

What I find unfortunate is that UPS apparently immediately ruled out re-signing with MWR to continue to sponsor David. Many are assuming that's because the MWR cars haven't been very competitive but David has raced pretty well this season. I have a feeling that regardless of what the performance was like UPS was probably going to leave as soon as DJ did. That's too bad because not only is David an extremely talented driver who is capable of winning races for UPS, but he's also got a huge amount of personality (and he once worked for UPS in his younger years). UPS has seemed to do virtually nothing with David this season and I think they've missed out on some opportunities. David may not be as "cute" or as young as some other drivers but I don't think that would conflict with the UPS brand, especially considering that DJ was just their driver. David is very fan-friendly but he is full of personality. He does come across as nervous or a little goofy sometimes but those are qualities that can be managed, particularly if a sponsor is creative. But UPS is clearly determined to sever ties with MWR who apparently already have a replacement sponsor lined up for David.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)

Matt Kobyluck Wins at Lime Rock, Steve Park Finishes 7th

Another road course, another win for Matt Kobyluck! He was fast in practice and he backed it up in the race too. With this win, Matt has now won three of the last four races at Lime Rock so this is certainly a track he likes racing at! Matt also won at Watkins Glen earlier in the season, has four wins overall and is leading the points - awesome! I sure would love to see him win the East Series championship!

As for Steve Park, he finished 7th which is excellent considering his car didn't seem to have much speed in practice and probably wasn't one of the best on the track during the race. He also had to overcome a penalty for jumping a re-start. I'm really not sure what happened there since all I have to go on is the updates on eastseries.com because I don't have HDNet, but he was threatened with a black flag for refusing to come to pit road to serve a pass-through penalty. I anticipate that when those who were at the track get back there will be complaints about how Nascar screwed Steve once again or were otherwise unfair but in the end it really didn't seem to hurt Steve too much as he finished in the top ten for the 5th time this season. This finish should move him up a couple of spots in the points which is a good thing too.

Apparently Steve was asked about the rumor that he was going to be out of the #35 after this race and he said that he'll be in the car for the rest of the season. That's great news and I hope that is what ends up happening! I don't think it makes a lot of sense for the team to release him now when he's done nothing but race in the top ten and lead laps for them. That said, the reporter who put the item about Steve possibly needing to look for a new ride also spoke with Steve in person so there must be a reason he wrote what he did. So I'm not going to feel completely comfortable until I see Steve's name on the entry list for each of the remaining races - sometimes the driver is the last to know when their team plans on making a change. J.J. Yeley was certainly surprised recently when he got a text message while he was at the beach asking him to come to the shop for a meeting and when he got there he was informed that he was out of a ride.

There's only four races left in the East Series schedule before their season ends in September. I don't think Steve is going to be able to make a run at the Championship though I sure would love to see him win a few and somehow do it. So if Steve isn't going to be the series champion, I'm hoping that Matt will hold on to the points lead and be the East Series Champion!

Posted by silverdsl at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2008

David Reutimann Will Be Back at Michael Waltrip Racing in 2009!

Great news today! Michael Waltrip Racing picked up David Reutimann's option so he'll be back for sure in 2009!! I'm so happy about this, almost as happy as when it was announced that NAPA was going to sponsor Michael again next season. I don't often discuss David in this space but he's among my favorite drivers so I'm thrilled that he'll be back at MWR next season. He's got so much talent behind the wheel, he's really been solid for MWR (especially in the Nationwide Series where he's been in the hunt for the Championship the past two years) and he's also extremely fan-friendly! David is so nice to everyone, he's funny and full of personality - I've not heard of anyone who's encountered him who has had anything bad to say about him.

Some other good news is that sponsorship for his car will be announced next week at Bristol. It's been rumored that Aaron's is going to sponsor half a season and I'm hoping that an additional sponsor will be announced to pick up the remaining races, unless MWR convinced Aaron's to sponsor the full season. That it appears that MWR is going to have two sponsored teams next season really makes me happy - earlier this season there was speculation that they would have no sponsors for next season but that's clearly not the case.

I have to mention that David was awesome in qualifying today - he laid down a really fast lap so fast that even though he was among the first to qualify he still ended up qualifying in the top ten - outstanding! Mike Skinner got the #00 into the show with no problem, qualifying 22nd. Unfortunately Michael was the only MWR driver who didn't do so good - in fact he did pretty bad, qualifying 42nd. I don't know what happened there - he seemed to be okay in practice but when it came time to qualify he actually lost speed whereas most teams gained speed. Not sure if there was some sort of issue or what but hopefully during the two practices tomorrow he and his team make some changes to find speed. Michigan is one of Michael's better tracks so it's an opportunity to finish well and move up in the points.

Hope to see some great things for the MWR teams on Sunday at Michigan - sure seems like David might have a car that he can race up front with all day and I hope that ends up being the case for Michael and Mike as well!

Posted by silverdsl at 05:39 PM | Comments (2)

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (8/14)

My bad luck that this show got moved to Thursdays since traffic is always the worst on Thursdays and Fridays so it was with no surprise that I ended up listening to the show in the car while I was stuck in a massive traffic jam caused by flooding from heavy rain. That meant that it took me three hours to get home but at least I had Michael's show to keep me entertained!

The show kicked off with a song that I can't remember now and some discussion about how much Michael and Tony both were loving watching the Olympics - it sounds like they've both been watching non-stop. I know some people find it difficult to get into the Olympics since some of the sports that are featured aren't the ones that are seen on TV all the time so the scoring can be confusing and the athletes unfamiliar, but I also really enjoy watching the Olympics. Then again, I enjoy watching pretty much anything that involves at least two people competing against each other besides competitive eating!

Johnny Benson was last night's guest and he talked about the awesome run he's on in the Truck Series. I like Johnny a lot and I'm thrilled that he won three truck races in a row (four overall) and leads the overall standings in the points! Sure would be great to see him win a Championship! However, as much as I like Johnny he doesn't always offer much in his interviews and I thought this one was no different. He didn't really have much to say that he's not said in any other interview that he's done recently. I did think his comment about the Cup Series and how he would go back if the right opportunity came along was interesting though since a lot of the other Truck veterans say that they have no interest in going back to Cup no matter what was offered to them, but it sounded like Johnny still misses the Cup Series a little.

Michael talked about how NAPA had re-signed to sponsor him again next year and about how they are part of the foundation at MWR. He said that people don't remember that MWR is only a year and a half old trying to compete against teams that have been around for years. He's right. It's not really fair to compare MWR to organizations that have been around for years or for people to expect them to have immediate success just because another team does. Unfortunately that's the way things work - people don't have a lot of patience and they're very quick to find fault when a team doesn't perform.

At Watkins Glen, Michael was still in bed a little before 11 on Friday morning when practice was starting so he looked out the window and was hoping that it would rain so he could stay in bed but no luck. So he got up, got dressed, went into the garage area, got in his car and just about as soon as he drove out on pit road it started raining, so he was wishing that the rain had "worked with him" so he could have stayed in bed! That's not the first time Michael has mentioned or I've heard about him staying in bed late - I sure wish I could sleep until almost 11! Of course with Michael and the rest of the drivers their schedules are so crazy that there are probably more days that they have to get up early and rush around from morning to night so I'm sure they treasure the days when they can sleep in a little.

Tony visited with Michael during one of the practices on Saturday and he said he knew Michael wasn't happy with his car because of the look on his face. Michael said that was true, that he wasn't that happy with his car on Saturday. At Sonoma he felt they had a top ten car (it was indeed fast) but couldn't finish in the top ten because of the pit strategy they had to use so he was expecting that kind of car at Watkins Glen where he had always raced well. But Saturday the car wasn't that great, however, his team worked hard and made some changes that made the car somewhat better on Sunday. They raced around 25-30th all day and he felt they were somewhat competitive because he was able to pass cars. Then came the wreck - he was surprised by that wreck because he didn't see it and neither did Ty so he couldn't warn him.

Like he said on TWiN he said that it was important to get back on track because of NAPA, because of how their parts don't break so he didn't want a DNF next to the NAPA car. So he complimented his team on what a great job they did on getting him back out for the last lap. Tony said that his car looked like a modified car when it went back on track. I really liked what Michael said there for two reasons one, he praised his team and I think that's important, but two, I think his comment about not wanting a DNF for NAPA because their parts don't break signifies how Michael thinks about things in a way that some others wouldn't. How may people would think of something like that? I know I sure wouldn't. I know that the less DNFs the better but I never would have made the connection between not wanting a DNF and NAPA. A lot of other teams probably wouldn't have even put in the effort since there was nothing to be gained and by the time they got him back on track it was the last lap - but the #55 team did and that was good to see (well, hear since they didn't show him on TV or mention that he came back on track).

Michael repeated his comments about David Gilliland that he made on TWiN and to be honest, I was pretty surprised. They taped this show on Wednesday and since he made those comments on Monday McD, Gilliland, Cal Wells and Travis Kvapil have all said that it was just a case of hard racing and there was no intent or anger involved. So I would have thought that maybe he would change his tune a little since even those who were involved and/or are at his own organization are saying something different. I don't really see this incident in the same way that Michael does (and given his comment about McD over his radio during the red flag I'm not sure we're hearing all of what Michael thinks about what happened) but one thing about Michael that I've always liked is his willingness to speak his mind even if his opinions are different than everyone else's.

Tony's "After Show" should be posted on his website sometime soon - I'm very much looking forward to that!

Posted by silverdsl at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Ryan Newman to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009

If anyone was surprised by today's official announcement that Ryan Newman is going to race for Stewart-Haas Racing next season they must have been living under a rock. According to Newman three other teams made offers but in the end he liked Stewart-Haas the best. I can't say I have much of a reaction to this - it's not that I dislike him or anything but Newman has never been among my favorites so it really doesn't matter much to me who he races for. Newman will be an asset to Stewart-Haas, not only because he has talent behind the wheel, but because he's an outstanding qualifier and that skill might come in handy since it's likely that the car he races won't have the owner points to be locked into the first five races next season.

What did surprise me about the press conference was that Newman's sponsors weren't announced and according to Stewart that's because sponsorship isn't completely finalized yet. I think that says something - and something not very good - that even Stewart is having trouble nailing down sponsorship for his teams. Perhaps some of that is because some sponsors are leery of the fact that the #4 may be outside the top 35 to start the season or maybe it speaks to what the difficult economy has wrought - that sponsors can't throw money around like they used to. It's been said that these days it takes as much as $30 million to field a top-tier competitive team - that's a huge amount of money and I think the amount of companies that can afford to spend that kind of money or even half that if they split the season with another sponsor are less and less as time goes on given the state of the economy.

One somewhat humorous thing about today's announcement is that it confirms the very thing that Krissie Newman denied was true in her blog at the end of July. At that time she ranted about how all the rumors and articles (all of which were saying that Newman was going to race for Stewart-Haas) shouldn't be believed. Since Newman was talking with multiple teams it was likely true that nothing was a done deal yet at that time but I would guess that this is the way he likely was leaning all along. David Newton from ESPN.com has twice taken heat from reporting rumors that were supposedly false but in fact as it's turned out what he's reported hasn't been that far from the truth.

Some are predicting that Stewart-Haas won't be very good next season but I think they'll be better than some are expecting. They may not race up front and contend for wins right away but it's not like they're starting from scratch with these teams. The infrastructure in terms of personnel and equipment is there and there will have more money coming in than they've had in the past. In addition, Stewart and Newman have had much more success over the course of their careers than any other driver that has raced for Haas. That doesn't mean those past drivers don't have talent - they do otherwise they wouldn't be in Cup - but Stewart and Newman can be considered top-tier drivers and that will likely make a difference in performance as well.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

Steve Park Out of the #35 After Lime Rock?

This was most definitely not the news that I wanted to read first thing this morning. Shawn Courchesne from the Hartford Courant is reporting in his blog that Steve Park's last race with the #35 team in the Camping World East Series might be this weekend at Lime Rock.

Reading this makes me want to cry. Seriously. I know that more than a few believe that I'm a "bad" fan because I haven't exactly been jumping up and down about some of the things that have happened with Steve the past few years but I want the best for Steve just like anyone else. I had thought that finally things might work out for Steve but it appears that this may end up ending badly just like so many other rides that there were high hopes about. I think what saddens me the most is that it would really not bode well for Steve at all in terms of his Nascar career if he were to be released from this ride. No matter which way it was spun it really wouldn't look good to be let go from a lower level ride and particularly since he was also released from a couple of other rides in the past. So I really hope the speculation that Steve is going to out of the car after this weekend is erroneous and that he finishes out the season with this team.

I'm sure there will be talk about him looking (yet again) for a Nationwide or Truck ride but that he might be considering a modifieds ride says something about how likely it is that we'll be seeing him in a Truck or Nationwide car as much as I dearly would like to see that happen. The reality is that if things were tough when he was looking for a ride in those series before it's even harder now given the poor economy. Not only are there even less opportunities than ever, Steve will have to be less fussy - he simply can't insist as he has in the past that the only rides he'll consider are those that race in the top five and contend for wins every week. I so hope that Shawn's speculation is wrong or that Steve has something else lined up because I'm really not looking forward to the whole process of him looking for a ride again.

There's so much more I can say but I think I'll wait to see how things play out and whether Steve is actually out of this ride or not.

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

August 14, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/14)

*It's great that the Southern 500 is returning since there were so many fans of that race, including in the garage area. However, I can't help but notice it's not coming back to Darlington for Labor Day weekend, instead it'll be Mother's Day Weekend. So it seems like this is a matter of naming, maybe in an effort to boost ticket sales. Time will tell if they'll be successful. There's certainly a lot of history and tradition associated with the Southern 500.

*Germain Racing's #30 truck team was penalized for infractions found in a post-race inspection after the race at Nashville related to the right side bed panel height. Todd Bodine lost 25 driver points, Stephen Germain lost 25 owner points, and crew chief Mike Hillman was fined $2,500. What I don't understand is why the penalty to HIllman wasn't more severe considering he was already on probation for an earlier incident? Also, apparently the earlier penalties weren't much a deterrent to stop the team from either pushing the envelope when it comes to the rules or making them be more careful about making sure the truck is in compliance with Nascar's rulebook.

*The next in a series of diecasts that pairs Dale Earnhardt with a variety of legends in the entertainment industry was released today. This time Earnhardt was paired with John Wayne and the cars are meant to remember and pay tribute to the legacy of both men. Predictably, some Junior fans are already upset and accusing Teresa Earnhardt, once again, of trying to make money off of her late husband. Considering this is a two-year program and there are other similar diecasts to come, I guess this kind of outrage is going to be a regular thing. I fail to see what the big deal is. Aside from the fact that it's not just Teresa who is involved with this program but others such as Motorsports Authentics, Taylor Earnhardt, Richard Childress and the families of the various legends Earnhardt is being paired with I don't see why so much ire is being directed towards Teresa. The thing is if Teresa did nothing in Dale's memory fans would criticize her for that too.

*A couple of interesting items from Marty Smith in relation to the #33 at Richard Childress Racing. I was very surprised to read that apparently the reason why a driver hasn't been announced yet is because RCR is having trouble finding a driver. This in spite of the fact that the car is fully sponsored, RCR is a top-tier organization and there have been quite a few available drivers. Maybe General Mills is being fussy about what driver they want, but the only other reason I can think of is that a lot of drivers don't want to have to deal with having to try to qualify for races since the #33 won't be in the top 35 in owner's points to start the 2009 season. That appears to be the case with Casey Mears who has been the driver most recently connected to the #33 - according to Marty he refuses to consider racing for any team that isn't locked in via the top 35. While I understand why he might not want to put himself in that kind of a situation it seems to me that really limits the rides that are going to be available to him, particularly since more and more teams are finalizing their plans for next season. Maybe he's hoping to race the #12 for Penske Racing next season but that team's sponsorship is up in the air so there's some uncertainty with that team as well. It seems to me that RCR is such a strong and successful organization that he might be better off taking a risk with them even though the team isn't going to be locked in at first than taking what might be a lessor ride that's locked in... or ending up with no ride at all.

*Interesting article from Forbes in relation to the Microsoft sponsorship on Michael Waltrip Racing's #00 car. The article is written from a somewhat negative perspective, at least in terms of MWR, because it talks about how Microsoft is getting $1 million in free sponsorship since they aren't actually paying for the sponsorship, their small businesses are and only about 40 of them in the amount of $165,000. I actually think that this sponsorship is worth a lot more to MWR than the money that they're getting because being associated with Microsoft, a company that's known world-wide, even if it's only through their small business division, is a big positive for them. It makes MWR look good to have a Microsoft logo on their car. In addition, some money coming in is better than no money at all. With how difficult the economy is I think teams can't be fussy when it comes to sponsors, particularly with a car like the #00 that has so little sponsorship. As time goes on teams may need to be creative and flexible when it comes to what kind of partnerships they create with sponsors since the poor economy which shows no signs of getting better is going to reduce the number of companies that are going to be willing to spend $20 or $30 million to be a full-time primary sponsor.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

Frustration for Robby Gordon and His Team

The race this past weekend at Watkins Glen was a disappointment to say the least for Robby Gordon who is known for his prowess on road courses. The fuel mileage strategy the team used was puzzling to say the least and it ended up putting them a lap down early in the race, something they never really recovered from. Tony Rizzuti, who was part of the broadcast team for Directv Hotpass on Robby's channel at Watkins Glen, made mention in his blog yesterday about some comments Robby made during the race about he thinks he doesn't get the same engines as the other Gillett-Evernham Motorsports teams, and that GEM reportedly wasn't too happy to hear of Robby's comments. I had heard that Robby had said something negative about GEM during the race but I thought he made the comments in the heat-of-the-moment out of emotion to his team rather than while he was talking with Larry McReynolds as part of the Hotpass coverage. I think that puts the comments in a different context and I can understand why GEM might not be so happy, particularly since I had heard talk previously that Robby wasn't too happy with the support he's been getting with GEM so this might not be the first time he's made negative remarks about them.

Robby's apparent dissatisfaction with his partnership with GEM is fueling speculation that he's going to change manufacturers yet again. Robby Gordon Motorsports has only been fielding a Cup car since 2005 but during that time he's been affiliated with Chevy, Ford and now Dodge. I seem to remember when he was still with Chevy he had some sort of partnership with John Menard and DEI in relation to engines that he also ended up expressing unhappiness with. A move to Ford came in 2007, and then just before Speedweeks this year came the switch to Dodge, a changeover that happened so fast that Robby's team put the wrong nose on the car which resulted in a penalty from Nascar. At this point the only manufacturer Robby hasn't been affiliated with in Cup (I believe he raced for them outside of Nascar) is Toyota but considering the other issues his team seems to have I wonder if switching to a manufacturer that is still trying to get all their Cup teams up to speed in Cup would work out for him. Robby could very well end up staying with Dodge and continue his partnership with GEM, however, I think he's going to need to do some work to smooth over some ruffled feathers. He may very well have some legitimate complaints about the quality of the engines he's getting from GEM but expressing that publically probably isn't the way to go if he wants things to improve.

Speaking of Robby's team and being critical, the frustration among Robby's fans has been building all season long and many of them are extremely negative and critical of Robby and his team, so much so that it was allegedly one reason why Robby's Uprising was shutdown. Of course even if a driver has an official site or forum shutdown fans will find other places to post and Robby's fans did indeed do that. One of Robby's crew members (verified to be an actual crew member) found the criticism of the team so intolerable on Planet Robby that he posted the following:

FOR ALL THOSE WHO WANT TO BLAME THE TEAM OR THE CREW ON THIS ONE..... GO AHEAD AND F**K YOURSELVES WE HADE NO PART IN THE FUEL STRATEGY, PIT STOPS WERE GOOD AND THE F**KING CAR WAS FAST. FOR THOSE THAT SEE IT HOW IT IS ...
THANKS AND HAVE A GREAT NIGHT!!"

I'd like to say I was astonished to read a crew member telling fans to f**k off but these days it's not unusual for crew members to turn up on fan forums and rip the fans (and sometimes even the team if they've recently been relieved of their duties). I can understand how incredibly frustrating it must be to read criticism and negativity, particularly if it's off-base and lacking in fact. I also think team members should be able to defend themselves and their team, especially if they're setting the record straight. However, I think it needs to be done in a professional and appropriate way, and that post was most certainly not that. A post full of curses not only makes the individual crew member look bad but it also reflects poorly on the organization.

Whenever I see crew members go off like this I'm always reminded of the old adage in retail about how the customer is always right and I think it applies here too. Fans are customers too - they buy merchandise, buy the sponsor's product and support their favorite teams and drivers in a way that is often monetary. That doesn't mean that drivers and teams should only agree with the fans or say or do things that the fans approve of. However, I think the kind of sentiment that was expressed in the post by Robby's crew member needs to remain behind closed doors. Ripping the team's own fans publically isn't productive even if it seems like it is at the time, no one is going to change their opinion on the basis of a post like that and it only serves to create ill-will, something Robby's team doesn't need right now.

What I wondered about after reading that post was what he was talking about - if the team wasn't to blame for the issues at Watkins Glen who was? Is he implying Robby's to blame? GEM? The crew chief? Of course there's no way of knowing - another problem with angry rants like this is that they're often hard to understand and easily misinterpreted - but regardless of who he was referring to publically pointing fingers at who is to blame for the team's woes even if it's not directly isn't a wise idea either.

I've never been a fan of Robby's - in the past his behavior on the track has bothered me and I really didn't like the temper tantrum he threw that was directed towards Michael Waltrip a few years ago. However, I do want Robby Gordon Motorsports to be able to survive and eventually be a successful Cup organization. I think Nascar needs more small, independent teams, not less. Unfortunately Robby's team seems to be in turmoil to the point where I've been wondering whether they'll be around next season. I hope that they are but it seems like they have some challenges to overcome first.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)

August 13, 2008

Photo of the Day - Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens, PA, 2008.

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

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/12)

*There's been a variety of rumors about quite a few teams, drivers and sponsors lately but there's been absolutely nothing in the rumor mill about Bill Davis Racing lately. When last we heard from BDR in June they needed a sponsor to replace CAT on the #22, Dave Blaney's status for 2009 was unknown and there was talk of a second team that so far hasn't materialized into anything. They may very well be one of many teams who are waiting for some more dominoes to fall but the silence from BDR regarding their plans for 2009 is deafening at the moment. I would be a little nervous if I was a Blaney fan right now.

*Fan boycotts seem to be all the vogue these days. Every time a driver, team or sponsor does something a group of fans don't like they call for a boycott. Kyle Busch mouths off too much? Fans try to organize a boycott of M&Ms. Michael Waltrip blames David Gilliland for the wreck at Watkins Glen. Fans try to organize a boycott NAPA. But shouldn't boycotts be saved for things of importance like say criminal activity? You know, things that actually matter. How effective is a fan boycott anyway? Most of the time the boycotts involve such a minuscule amount of fans who often express themselves with insults, driver bashing, a lack of facts and in other inappropriate ways to the point where I have my doubts as to whether anyone actually pays any attention. I definitely think that fans should make their feelings known both when they like things and when they don't, but I also think that if fans want to be taken seriously they need to pick and choose what they boycott and complain about. Unless a driver is making offensive comments, and by that I mean those that are racist, sexist, homophobic, etc... it's probably not too likely that a sponsor is going to tell their driver not to give their opinions on things that happen on the track and especially when it's a driver like Michael whose role on TWiN is to analyze what happens in races. What these fans who are boycotting and sending emails of complaint to NAPA don't realize is that they're actually re-enforcing to NAPA how many fans pay attention to Michael even if they don't agree with what he says and does.

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

August 12, 2008

Photo of the Day - Aruba

Aruba, 2005.

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

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/15)

*When Felix Sabates was on XM a while back talking about the decision to shut down the #40 team, he mentioned that Ganassi Racing was close to re-signing Reed Sorenson. He made it sound like there was no question that Sorenson would be back. Well, it's weeks later and it's still unclear as to whether he'll be racing for Ganassi or not next season. Sorenson says that he's still talking to Ganassi about a new contract but apparently those at Ganassi have said that they've re-signed him. Since there's been no official announcement yet that he'll be back in the #41 I have to think that it's not yet a done deal. The question becomes if he doesn't re-sign with Ganassi, where will he go and who would take his place?

*DEI has hired Bobby Hutchens to be vice president of competition. Previously Hutchens was general manager of Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines and before that spent 20-years at Richard Childress Racing. What's interesting is that this came about because of a joint decision between DEI and RCR. Although RCR and DEI have long worked together on a variety of projects it seems like it's unusual for two organizations to jointly decide on a major personnel move like this. I've already seen some Earnhardt fans try to spin this into a negative like they do with just about everything that DEI does, but I don't see how DEI hiring someone with a huge amount of experience on the competition side is a negative. It seems to me that this is a good move for DEI.

*Apparently the plan is for Joey Logano to make his Cup debut at Richmond next month and then race another six or seven Cup races through the end of the season. What's unmentioned is what car he'll be in. Some have speculated that Tony Stewart could be released early from the #20 if he doesn't make the Chase so that Logano could get some experience in the car and with the team he might be racing for next season. Others have wondered whether he'll be in the #96 since that team is a Joe Gibbs Racing satellite team. Since Dave Moody said that Logano might have sponsorship from Gatorade that seems to indicate that it will be a fourth JGR car since both the #20 and #96 are fully sponsored.

*Apparently Mike Skinner will be in the #00 in place of Michael McDowell for three races and then McD is slated to get back in the car for the September 6th race at Richmond. Everyone is saying all the right things about how this is just temporary, as a way to evaluate the program and get feedback that might help the team and MWR improve, and that MWR is still committed to McD and fielding a car for him next season if they can find sponsorship. But I don't know... I can't help but think of the performance clause that McD said is in his contract that goes into effect in September. I have no idea what that entails but it would seem to me that if he hasn't met the performance goals outlined in his contract which I would guess would be to keep the car in the top 35, which he hasn't, they might be able to get out of the remaining time on his contract without owing him any money. With sponsorship being an issue it seems to me that if they don't find a sponsor soon they may end up letting McD go regardless of how they feel about him because how long can they keep him if they don't know if they're going to have a ride for him?

*Speaking of McD he was on XM saying all the right things about being replaced by Skinner. I was a little surprised by his comments about the wreck on Sunday in that he pretty much said it was no big deal though he said he was sorry for all the wrecked cars and that the fans had to sit through the long red flag. He said that it was just a racing deal that got blown out of proportion. He said there was no ill will between himself and Gilliland, neither of them was angry at the other, there was no intent and it was just a matter of them racing for the same piece of real estate and that neither gave to the other. Just a matter of hard racing. He said that Nascar recognized that it was likely just hard racing but wanted to double-check to be sure that there was nothing that would carry over into Michigan. So essentially McD contradicted everything that his owner and teammate, Michael Waltrip said on TWiN last night when he said that Gilliland deliberately wrecked McD in anger. I don't even know what to think about that. I assumed that one reason why Michael made the comments that he did was because he talked to McD and found out more about what led up to the wreck but doesn't sound like that's the case.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

In All Fairness, Another View of Gilliland vs. McDowell

I didn't like what I saw from Michael McDowell in terms of his role in causing the huge wreck on Sunday at Watkins Glen. However, in all fairness I feel that I need to make note of what his car owner, Michael Waltrip, said on This Week in Nascar last night. There was talk over the #55's radio during the red flag after the wreck that McDowell was at fault but I assume after speaking with his driver and seeing more video Michael came to a different conclusion because last night he said that David Gilliland was at fault and that he had intentionally tried to "hook" or wreck McDowell and that was what led to the big wreck. I don't really agree with Michael's assessment of the incident, though he surely is in a position to be a better judge than I am. Thing is, even if Gilliland made the move that led to the wreck, one has to ask just what McDowell had done prior to that which got Gilliland so angry that he tried to wreck him? Regardless of who actually caused the wreck, it seems to me that it's not likely that McDowell is a completely innocent victim who was just minding his own business and then suddenly out of the blue Gilliland tried to wreck him.

Naturally there are more than a few fans who are ripping into Michael for blaming Gilliland. Michael's really in a no-win situation. There are people who are calling him names because he blamed Gilliland but if he places blame on his own driver then there are fans who will feel that being openly critical of his driver is wrong too. Even though I didn't entirely agree with what he said, I have to commend Michael for his willingness to stand behind and support his driver even though he was expressing an unpopular opinion. That's a good thing. Owners need to be supportive of their drivers and maybe even more so when there's negativity being directed towards them. It's particularly important when it's a young driver like McDowell who is still learning the ropes in Cup and developing as a driver.

Speaking of learning, I hope that McDowell is going to be open to learning from Mike Skinner who will be in the #00 at Michigan and maybe for a few more races. Presumably Skinner won't just be giving feedback to the team about the cars but will also be giving advise to McDowell. A.J. Allmendinger really benefited from working with Skinner, and I think McDowell can too. Even though Skinner hasn't had a tremendous amount of success in Cup, he's an accomplished racer who won a Truck Series championship, he's very good at qualifying cars into races even when they're not the greatest and he was a big help to the #84 team. Hopefully he can work the same kind of magic for the #00 team and Michael Waltrip Racing overall.

Michael also commented last night on NAPA Auto Parts re-signing with him next season. According to Michael, the reason why it was just a one-year deal is because they'd like to see the performance improve. If it does approve, they would then continue their partnership with Michael for a lot longer. Michael expressed a lot of confidence that they are close to making big gains in terms of performance and I hope that's true. I want to see Michael and his drivers be able to race up front and contend for wins like I know they're capable of!

Just getting back to those who are bashing Michael for his comments about Gilliland, it's a little disturbing the degree to which some are taking this. I think it's a little extreme to be talking about organizing a fan boycott of NAPA or going over to Raceworld to express displeasure in person because Michael is of the opinion that Gilliland was at fault. Michael has the right to his opinions - and people have the right to disagree with him. But I think fans need to keep things in perspective. Michael didn't attack Gilliland. He simply gave his opinion and then explained why he thought Gilliland might have done what he did.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

Mandatory Metallica!

When I'm not listening or watching something sport related I'm almost always listening to music but it's been a while since I've been really excited about something music related but I got really excited this evening when I heard Eddie Truck say on The Boneyard that for six weeks starting on Friday XM is going to have a channel that plays nothing but Metallica! Mandatory Metallica will be found on XM channel 51 and I can't wait! To me Mandatory Metallica means classic Metallica - anything from The Black Album and earlier. I really don't like anything later than that though I'll surely give their new album a listen in the hopes that they've reverted back to their classic sound. Can't wait for Mandatory Metallica!

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

McDowell Out, Skinner in at Michigan

Turns out Michael McDowell wasn't just racing to get back into the top 35 next season or to make a good impression so that he would have a ride for next season, he was also racing to stay in the car at Michigan. McD will be replaced by Mike Skinner in the #00 next weekend at Michigan, something the team was considering even before the mess on lap 83. Cal Wells, Michael Waltrip Racing's Executive Vice President said,

"If we choose to do that, it would be for two reasons. One would be to evaluate the package itself, and the other would be to make sure we get in the shows. Not that McDowell can't bust a lap off - because he can - but anything's possible."

Since there's only 44 cars entered in the race I'd say that they probably weren't too worried about whether McD could get the car in the race. Skinner did an outstanding job of helping the #84 team improve, so MWR is probably hoping he'll be able to work the same kind of magic for them. However, since Wells indicated that they didn't have anything definite in place on Sunday to replace McD, one has to wonder whether the massive wreck he helped cause played into the decision to replace him next weekend, since MWR seems to have made the decision to replace McD for sure at Michigan very quickly.

As for McD's long-term future at MWR, Wells said,

"We have a lot of things in the hopper that involve Michael. All of the things we're selling are built around Michael McDowell. We made a very big investment in him. He's a very talented guy. I like Mike a lot personally, and I feel he's really championship-caliber. It's just going to be a matter of sequencing - when he matures, when that team matures. As far as sponsorship, we're not selling around anybody else. I just hope the timing works out, but I don't know right now."

The first part seems to indicate that MWR very much wants to keep McD for next season but the last part in relation to when he and the team matures makes me think that the performance needs to improve if that's going to happen. Not to mention there's the pesky little issue of sponsorship. McD is always smiling and seems like a great person. I also have no doubt that he has a lot of talent behind the wheel - if he didn't he wouldn't have had so much ARCA success, nor would MWR have had the confidence in him to put him in the #00 this season. However, as I've mentioned a few times recently I haven't had a very good feeling about McD since Sonoma - that the #55 team felt that they had to stress to the #00 that McD better be sure not to run his owner over on a re-start wasn't a good sign. I sense that it's not just his skills behind the wheel that need to mature but also his attitude and approach. Today I got to thinking about what Scott Speed said on Michael Waltrip Out Loud last week about how never goes in thinking he's going to win and he just tries to make the best of what he's given to race and tries his best to make good decisions. I wonder what McD's approach is? Sometimes it's hard to know for sure how much of what a driver says in an interview is what they really think and how much is spin but I also wonder at times if McD gets over-confident. Cup racing is hard and good results don't come easy no matter how much talent a driver has or how much experience they have at particular tracks.

It'll be interesting to see if McD returns to the #00. Ideally I would like MWR to be able to field three Cup cars next season and I'd have no problem if one of their three drivers was McD. But I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up elsewhere in 2009.

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

Random Thoughts On Watkins Glen

*Slump? What Slump? Kyle Busch continued to show that he is one of the best drivers in the Cup Series right now by picking up his 8th win in the Cup Series and 16th overall in Nascar if one counts his Nationwide and Truck wins as well. Truly an incredible season for Kyle. Odds are he's going to win at least one or two more before the end of the season so his stats are probably only going to get better before the season's over.

*Another driver who was impressive this weekend was Marcos Ambrose. Not only did he win the Nationwide race on Saturday, but he also raced the #21 from 43rd to 3rd. That's a car that has been less than competitive for a few years now and he didn't get up front by pit strategy - he raced his way up there. His Nationwide win was not only the first of his career but also the first win for an Australian in Nascar and also the first win for JTG Daugherty Racing. Only time will tell if he'll be able to have success in Cup on tracks that aren't road courses but I have a feeling he's going to race pretty well next season, or at least as well as he can for a one car team.

*Once upon a time Robby Gordon was always a threat to win at road courses but those days are over. Not surprisingly he not only didn't contend for the win yesterday but he didn't even race up front. Finishing 27th has to be considered a major disappointment for him on one of his best tracks. The pit strategy his team used was truly puzzling and resulted in him being a lap down for a good portion of the race. Robby complained over his radio about the engines he's getting from Gillett-Evernham Motorsports and I have to think that's a sign that partnership won't last too much longer - not only did anyone listening to Robby's radio via Trackpass hear what he said but Robby was also a featured driver on Directv Hotpass and his comments were repeated on a variety of websites so odds are someone from GEM is going to hear about it and I can't imagine they'll be too happy. I have to wonder if Robby is going to make yet another manufacturer change in the off-season. One thing's for sure when Robby Gordon Motorsports struggles even on road courses that's not a good sign about the health of their program.

*Speaking of Robby, it used to be that I thought the way he pieced together a full season's worth of sponsorship for his car from a variety of companies was a good idea because it allowed him to ask for less money from multiple companies instead of having to ask one company for $15 or 20 million. However, I've since reversed my thinking. That approach to sponsorship has left Robby with multiple races in which he hasn't had a sponsor and with less money than he needs to field a competitive car. It also prevents him from developing a close relationship with a sponsor in which he's identified with a particular sponsor in fan's minds like Michael Waltrip with NAPA Auto Parts.

*The #88 also had a puzzling pit strategy that hurt their result. I can't understand Tony Eury, Jr.'s thinking, though I'm sure he had his reasons for what he was doing. It's just unfortunate for Junior because it seemed like he had a very good car and he ended up finishing 22nd instead of up front. There was some interesting discussion about this on Sirius this morning in which David Poole said that he thought that the #88 team doesn't look like a Championship team even though they often race up front and I have to agree. Championship caliber teams make good decisions on the track and show an ability to overcome challenges - that's always been a strong suit of the #48 team and a big reason why they've won two Championships in addition to Jimmie Johnson's talent.

*The top 35 situation is getting pretty interesting. A.J. Allmendinger has done an amazing job of racing his way back into the top 35 despite DNQ'ing for three races. A.J. has been outstanding behind the wheel since he got back in the #84 and it would be a real shame if he lost his ride to Scott Speed. A.J. is showing that he can not only overcome adversity but also that he can race up front. The #00 and #66 are both outside the top 35 and even though it's not by much I suspect that's where both will remain since both teams seem to struggle to race well. Of course that's true of all of the teams that are near the bottom of the top 35 but I've seen some more signs of life with some of the other teams. And poor Michael Waltrip has been bit by bad luck three weeks in a row - he took responsibility for the Indy wreck but his engine blowing and then getting swept up in the big wreck that his own driver started are things that are out of his hands - has to be frustrating!

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

August 10, 2008

Not too Happy With Michael McDowell After Watkins Glen

With help from David Gilliland, Michael McDowell caused a huge wreck at Watkins Glen and I'm not too happy about it. While racing for position McDowell got into Gilliland and set off a massive wreck that results in nine wrecked race cars - including that of his owner Michael Waltrip, and sent Bobby Labonte to the hospital for evaluation after he got out of his car in obvious pain. The race had to be red flagged for 40 minutes for clean-up and I have to say it was one of the scariest wrecks that I've seen on a non-restrictor plate track in a long time. I'm very thankful that they race the COTs because if not there might be more than just Bobby making a visit to the hospital right now.

I'm all for hard racing particularly towards the end of the race and I know that sometimes when drivers are being aggressive and racing hard it could result in a wreck. When Jeff Burton criticized McD for racing him hard earlier in the season I defended McD's right to race him aggressively. But what troubles me is that it's possible that McD was retaliating against Gilliland for the way he was racing him. That's not acceptable to me to retaliate against another driver and particularly in a way that results in a massive wreck. But regardless of whether McD was just racing hard and made a mistake or deliberately got into Gilliland he has to use better judgment and be aware of the big picture which is that he's racing to get back into the top 35 in owner's points.

The other thing is that McD may not have a ride for next season since MWR may not continue to field the #00 if they can't find a sponsor for it. That means he's racing to impress sponsors and teams. After today he may very well have raced himself out of a ride for next season, particularly when one considers that he's a very experienced road course racer and the expectations for him at this track are likely for him to finish a lot better than 25th.

I'm now understanding why at Sonoma Michael (Waltrip) made a point of telling his spotter, Ty Norris, to tell McD's spotter to make sure McD didn't run him over. I'm also starting to understand why there's been some rumors that McD has fallen out of favor at MWR. Teams want young drivers who will race hard and be aggressive on the track but they also want them to make good decisions - I'm not sure McD did that today. I didn't hear it myself but I saw somewhere that supposedly Michael called McD "McDiddle" over his radio. If so, that certainly says a lot about what Michael thought of that incident - and maybe of McD. That wouldn't be very good for McD considering Michael owns his car.

McD isn't very far out of the top 35 so a few good finishes and he could race his way back in. I have my doubts about whether that's going to happen though given that the results haven't been very good for him this season. And if he can't get the car back into the top 35, I have to wonder if MWR is going to continue to field the #00 or whether they might pull the car before the end of the season so they can concentrate on the #44 and #55, since there's a question of whether they're going to field the #00 next season.

I was leery of the plan to put McD in the #00 with almost no Nascar experience but based on how well he did in ARCA I knew he had talent behind the wheel. I figured that he'd at least race well enough to keep the car in the top 35 particularly given his road course expertise. It's kind of disappointing the way things have gone with him. I really didn't expect him to race up front, particularly given that MWR is still struggling to field competitive cars overall, but I expected more than McD has shown so far.

Posted by silverdsl at 06:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2008

Photo of the Day - Ogunquit Sunrise

Ogunquit, ME, 2004. Some of my all-time favorite photos that I've ever taken were taken that morning in Ogunquit along Marginal Way. If not near the desert, I sure wish I lived close enough to the ocean to be at the beach for sunrise.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:01 PM | Comments (1)

Canyon Country

I really need to go to the Southwest - as per usual the past few months when I'm not watching racing or baseball, or doing something photography related I'm reading about canyons and remote areas of Arizona and Utah. The other day I got sucked into reading about Hole-in-the Rock Road in Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and Fantasy Canyon near Vernal, Utah. Fantasy Canyon in particular fascinates me even though it's most famous feature, Teapot Rock is no more, because of how unusual and otherworldly the rock formations are. I got a small taste of the beauty of the desert in the Southwest when I was in Las Vegas a few years ago. In between events for Operation Marathon we did a lot of exploring of the area outside the city including Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire State Park and (a tiny taste of) the Grand Canyon - loved it! If I ever suddenly stop posting in this space for a long period of time without explanation I might very well have run off to Canyon Country!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Waltrip Out Loud Co-Host, Tony Rizzuti, Has a New Website

Part of the reason Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM is so fun to listen to each week is because of the great rapport between Michael and Tony Rizzuti, who co-hosts the show with him. Tony's background is in radio and public relations and at one time he worked for Michael at Michael Waltrip Racing. These days though Tony is a full-fledged media member and he can be found each weekend working for Directv Hotpass. He can also be found on his new website which is full of content that is of interest not only to fans of Michael's but anyone who is a sports fan.

What I'm most excited about is "The After Show" which is going to be where Tony and the producer of the XM show, Rich York, give listeners a behind-the-scenes look at the show, which will include stuff like what got edited out, an explanation of movie references and what got the guys to laughing like they do. I'm thinking that's going to be a pretty popular feature! Michael has a lot of fans, not all of whom can afford to subscribe to XM, yet many of them are very interested in all that Michael and Tony say on the show so this way they can hear a little about each week's show without having to pay for it. But it'll be great for regular listeners too. I know there are times when fans are a little perplexed by the movie references and inside jokes. In general, everyone likes to hear as much about anything Michael is involved with as possible!

But Tony's also going to have a blog and a daily 30-minute online radio show in which he talks about what's going on in the sports world. Tony's known mostly for his work in Nascar but he's clearly a big fan of a lot of different sports. Somehow I suspect there will be quite a bit of golf discussion on his site, but given that the first two entries in his blog are about Brett Favre and the Olympics, I think he's going to be talking about quite a few different sports - much like Michael, Tony seems to have an opinion on everything which is a good thing since he'll have 30-minutes to fill everyday with his radio show!

A lot of us fans of Michael have come to really like Tony a lot, not just because he's Michael's friend and does the XM show with him, but because Tony seems like a great guy - he has a terrific sense of humor, he's intelligent, isn't afraid to say what he thinks (even when his opinion is different than Michael's), and he does a great job of co-hosting the XM show. (I'm sure he's equally as awesome on Hotpass but unfortunately for me I can't get Directv since I live in a condo - but everyone who listens to him seems to like what they hear!)

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

August 08, 2008

Michael McDowell in the Silly Season Mix

Michael McDowell said today at Watkins Glen that even though Michael Waltrip Racing has an option on him for next season, he may have to look for another ride due to a lack of sponsorship. In fact McD has apparently already spoken with several teams including Petty Enterprises. McD said,

“The way the situation is right now, we’re looking really hard to lock down funding for next year, and we have a tough time doing that with today’s economy and how we’ve been running. I’m committed to Michael Waltrip Racing. They have an option to take up on me in the next couple weeks. But in the meantime, I have had some conversations with Petty and a few other teams to kind of put my name in the hat to make sure that if we aren’t able to secure the funding at Michael Waltrip Racing for the third car that I’ll have a place to run next year and build upon my rookie season.”

I find this all pretty interesting since it wasn't too long ago that it was being rumored that the NAPA sponsorship could move from Michael Waltrip to McD - as per today's announcement obviously that won't be happening. Although it hasn't yet been made official supposedly Aaron's will be sponsoring the #44 for at least part of a season. I would guess that David Reutimann would then stay in the #44 which is also interesting if that's were to happen since often teams choose youth over a veteran's experience.

I can't say it would entirely surprise me if McD wasn't at MWR next season. Any regular reader of this space might have noticed that I've not been as high on McD as I once was. Of course a driver can only make the most of the cars they're given and MWR is still struggling to field competitive cars. However, I think the expectations for McD weren't all that much this season - keep the #00 in the top 35 and race well on road courses. So far the #00 is outside the top 35 and he didn't do all that much at Sonoma, in spite of saying that he would race up front and contend for the win heading into the race. Maybe he'll have a great race this weekend at Watkins Glen in Cup - it's unlikely he'll do much in the Nationwide race since he'll be "racing" a car that normally starts and parks, but I kind of doubt he'll race the way it was predicted he would on road courses earlier in the season.

That said, McD may still develop into a successful Cup driver. He did extremely well in ARCA so he does have talent behind the wheel. Although I've heard some say that he's complained about teammates and MWR openly, at least publically McD is always smiling. He handles himself well in the media, he's attractive, seems to be a nice person and is also fan-friendly. So there's a lot about McD to like and that would appeal to sponsors and teams. He may end up racing well and winning races in the future, it just might not be for MWR. I suppose some will say if McD ends up leaving MWR that they should have had more patience with him but if there's no sponsorship for his car it probably wouldn't be a wise idea to continue fielding it out of their own pocket as they've partially been doing this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)

NAPA Auto Parts Will Sponsor Michael Waltrip in 2009

Terrific news for any Michael Waltrip fan - it was announced today that NAPA Auto Parts will sponsor Michael in the #55 car once again in 2009!! I'm so happy to hear this announcement, I can't stop smiling! Contrary to what some thought I was fairly certain that NAPA was going to re-sign with Michael Waltrip Racing but there had been some rumors circulating that Michael was going to stop racing at the end of this season, and that NAPA was going to sponsor Michael McDowell instead. That didn't make much sense to me considering how closely connected Michael and NAPA are, and particularly since McD hasn't exactly been too impressive in Cup thus far, but since the rumor kept popping up, I was pretty worried. Eventually Michael is going to stop racing but I didn't want it to happen this soon. I'm absolutely thrilled that Michael and NAPA will continue to be partners again next season!!!!

Bob Susor, NAPA's president said,

“Michael Waltrip is a terrific spokesman and brand ambassador for NAPA. In fact, our research indicates that Michael Waltrip and NAPA AUTO PARTS have become synonymous to many race fans. The bond we have forged has helped us sell a lot of auto parts through the years and we are pleased to have Michael represent us again in 2009.”

Which is exactly why I figured they'd be back in some form at MWR. As I detailed in an entry a while back, and as Michael also mentions himself in the press release, fans don't think of Michael or NAPA without thinking of the other - they are truly a perfect fit. I won't revisit all that I wrote about in my entry from April but Michael does an outstanding job of getting NAPA (and his other sponsors) a tremendous amount of exposure. NAPA is in the sport to create brand awareness and sell auto parts and Michael definitely helps them do both!

I would much rather that the sponsorship deal be longer than just one-year but I think it's to be expected that NAPA - and Michael - might want to re-evaluate things next season. MWR needs to improve their performance and even NAPA may not be willing to continue handing over millions if the performance doesn't get any better. But the reality is that Michael may be willing to turn over the #55 - and the NAPA sponsorship - to another driver at some point in the near future. I hope that's years down the road, but the trend is definitely towards youth in this sport. When the time comes for another driver to take over the NAPA sponsorship I hope it's another MWR driver - I would love to see Josh Wise representing NAPA but he'll have to continue to show progress as a driver for that to happen.

And now for something I rarely do:

That's for all those who were so sure that there was no way that NAPA was going to re-sign with MWR or Michael and all those who are so caught up in their dislike for Michael that they can't understand why NAPA would re-sign with him or MWR. There are very definitely some people who are all twisted up inside and stewing in their own juices over this bit of news. But anyone who doesn't know why NAPA re-signed with Michael doesn't have a very good understanding of the goals that many sponsors have in terms of brand awareness and exposure or the way it works in terms of sponsorship in general.

Truly outstanding and wonderful news for Michael, MWR and all of Michael's many fans!

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

Truex Re-Signs with DEI

Today Martin Truex, Jr. confirmed that he had signed a one-year contract extension with DEI to keep him in the #1 through 2009. Although they made it sound like it was Truex's decision to return to DEI, there was apparently some sort of option that DEI had on Truex for next season so I don't think he was as free to leave for greener pastures as some have made it seem. Truex said all the right things about being excited to return and how he's seen signs that DEI is improving, but I have to wonder how he really feels. Given how often he was rumored to be talking with other teams about a ride I would guess that he likely did lean towards leaving but ultimately he probably couldn't get around that option. If he truly does want to leave DEI next season will be an important one because he will be a free agent for real heading into 2010 so racing well and getting good results will be very important.

I can't help but think back to a few weeks ago when Truex wigged out because an ESPN.com reporter wrote that Truex had agreed in principle to a two-year deal with DEI. Well, turns out there was some truth to that report. Truex did indeed end up re-signing with DEI - perhaps the hold-up in getting this deal done was that DEI wanted him to re-sign for two-years and Truex was resistant. The way Truex reacted to that article - an article which contained a quote from him that seemed to substantiate that there was truth to what this reporter wrote - was over-the-top to me in light of the fact that he's now in fact re-signed with DEI. I used to like Truex very much but there's things like that in terms of his attitude that have soured me on him a little.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (8/8)

Jayski says that the Michael Waltrip Racing sponsorship announcements are going to be this afternoon so while nervously waiting for those I figured I would do an entry on last night's Michael Waltrip Out Loud...

The show opened with Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" presumably in honor of going to Watkins Glen for a road course race this weekend. Michael is apparently a fan of Willie as well because he exclaimed "I like me some Willie Nelson!" Tony wasn't in the studio as he usually is - Michael said that was because he was sick and kept making Tony's in the bathroom and needs to pull up his britches jokes for most of the show. In reality it turns out that Tony was stuck in a giant traffic jam, which made me think back to earlier this week when some read into a joke/comment Michael made on TWiN far more than they probably should have. That seems to be happening more and more these days when it comes to Michael and I think some are getting too caught up in trying to figure out what he means when all he "means" is to try to get people to laugh. Michael has said in the past that sometimes his jokes have a grain of truth to them, but he also very much says things for effect and to make people laugh. I think that's particularly true on TWiN when he's playing a role to a degree that's an exaggerated version of himself - people expect him to say certain things and act in a certain way on that show. At any rate, Michael seemed pretty excited that he was going to be in control of the show due to Tony not being in the studio.

There was some discussion about Pocono and how Tony saw the #29 and #2 have trouble early on so he thought to himself that if he was Michael he might get nervous since those were the three cars/drivers that had issues early on at Indy. That turned out to be the case at Pocono too since Tony then heard Michael come by which a bad engine so it was deja vu all over again as Yogi Berra used to say. Michael commented that engines don't usually fix themselves and that things in his engine were all confused - yeah, I'll say! Michael flew back to North Carolina and ended up being able to catch the last 40 or 50 laps of the race at home. I've seen some criticism of Michael for not staying at the track to watch the cars he owns race but I really can't blame him for leaving the track early from Pocono. For one thing it's one of his favorite tracks so it was probably pretty difficult for him to DNF there to begin with but on top of that it was his second race in a row that went bad very early on. Plus, the traffic at Pocono is so bad that no one is going to stick around any longer than they have to there. But Michael said that it was very difficult to follow on TV what was going on since so many people were doing so many different things. I agree and unfortunately that's often the case - TV frequently doesn't do a very good job of fully explaining what's going on.

Scott Speed was the guest in the second segment and I have to say that I really liked what I heard of him. Apparently Scott was calling in from his boat but not on Lake Norman like most of the drivers and others in the Charlotte area who have boats. His is on a different lake in the Lake Norman area that's quieter. Michael commented that the open wheel drivers refer to Lake Norman as the "Redneck Riviera" and noted that his boat is on a quiet part of Lake Norman because he likes to keep to himself and stay away from the crowds and cliques. It's always interesting to me when Michael makes comments like that because so many think of him as the goofy, crazy guy who never stops talking that they see on TWiN or in other interviews. But that's not the way that Michael is all the time and I think some are sometimes surprised when they encounter him when there are no cameras around.

Michael said that as a team owner it's been interesting to see how Red Bull Racing learned to make sure Scott Speed was prepared for racing in Nascar by having him race ARCA and trucks as opposed to what they did with A.J. Allmendinger (last week's guest, who was thrown into a Cup car with almost no experience). Scott said that you have to be in the right place at the right time to succeed and the backing from Red Bull has allowed him to race up front. Scott talked about racing in F1 as compared to racing in Nascar. One big difference is coming back to America since he spent so much time in Europe and China. Scott said that people in this country are much more social and friendly. Life itself is so much different in this country. He also said that F1 is considered to be more prestigious but that leads to them taking everything so seriously, especially since there might be $42 million or more invested in the team. It's more enjoyable as a driver to race in Nascar and he also said he has more control.

I loved what Scott said his mindset as a driver is. He said that he can't predict when he goes to the track when he's going to have a good or bad car or truck. He never goes into it thinking he's going to win. Instead he just thinks about making the best of what he's got to race and about making good decisions. He said that when he won at Dover he wasn't the best that day, not by far, but it's been a progression to where he thinks he can race with the best of them in the Truck Series. Michael said that it's obvious when someone shows up who "gets it" and I would say Scott most definitely gets it. Scott said that he's been the one telling them to take it slow because he's having fun. He's really enjoying the process. It's exciting to him to be in the lower ranks and know that he will eventually have an opportunity in Cup. He's just enjoying the opportunity he's been given.

When Scott was speaking I thought of two drivers - Steve Park and Josh Wise. Steve because he often speaks about wins and winning. However, while the ultimate goal of racing is to win there's more to it than that sometimes - Scott is having fun racing and while he wants to win as much as any other driver he's just going to make the most of what he has to race and see what happens. I also thought of MWR development driver Josh Wise. Where Michael McDowell was perfectly happy to rush up to Cup, Josh spoke about wanting to take things slow and gain more experience on the lower levels before racing in Cup. I might be wrong but I suspect that ultimately Josh may end up having more success in Cup than McD.

Michael said that he likes to listen to Scott talk back and forth over the radio with Slugger Labbe who used to be Michael's crew chief. Scott said that he and Slugger have similar philosophies in that they have a lot of fun with it but always keep things in perspective. I have to say I nearly laughed my ass off when I heard Scott say that since in 2004 I witnessed Slugger throw a temper tantrum in the hauler when he was still Michael's crew chief over something fairly minor that a crew member did. But maybe he's better able to keep things in perspective when it comes to what happens on the track.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/7)

*Turns out J.J. Yeley is indeed out of the #96 for good. Brad Coleman who has been testing for the team will take his place behind the wheel starting at Michigan and for most of the rest of the races this season. I heard an interview with Coleman on XM yesterday and he had no idea that this was going to happen until he got a phone call yesterday morning. Coleman will continue to race his Nationwide car as well even though the Nationwide car is a Ford and the #96 is a Toyota. In the past some manufacturers have frowned on that sort of thing but Coleman said he's not signed to a contract with any one manufacturer so he can race for both. I can't say I'm too optimistic that the results are going to improve for the #96 with Coleman. He has zero Cup experience and he's going to be racing a car that hasn't been all that competitive for a team that is outside the top 35 in owner's points. I hope Hall of Fame keeps their expectations for what Coleman is going to be able to do very low.

*At a new conference tomorrow Martin Truex, Jr. will announce that he will remain at DEI next season. I won't get into anything related to the Truex situation too deeply right now since I'd like to hear what he has to say tomorrow first. However, unlike a lot of people I'm not entirely surprised that he's staying at DEI. Once I heard that DEI had some sort of option on him for 2009 I figured it wasn't going to be all that easy for him to walk away even if he wanted to, which rumor has it that he did. I saw some speculation that Truex had to stay at DEI because there wasn't any team willing to buy out the option which if true would indicate that maybe Truex isn't as highly regarded as some other drivers who are free agents right now.

*And so it begins - the dirt digging on Mauricia Grant that is. She sued Nascar for $225 million over alleged racial and sexual harassment. Grant was once arrested for DUI, was charged with driving with a suspended license while employed by Nascar and had a restraining order filed against her by an ex-boyfriend. Nascar says that these transgressions are a reflection on her character but I have to ask just exactly what does any of that have to do with whether she was the victim of racial and sexual harassment? People who make mistakes, act out or have otherwise done bad things can still be victimized. In addition, I get the sense that Nascar is trying to make it seem like they terminated Grant due to some of these issues. Thing is, I would guess that in the garage area it's not just Grant who have character or legal issues.

*Dish Network is going to sponsor David Gilliland in the #38 this weekend. Dish Network is normally a Roush-Fenway Racing sponsor and given how closely Roush and Yates Racing are working together I wonder if any money is actually changing hands or if this is just a make-nice for Dish Network? In fact, I've been wondering how many of the one-offs that Yates has had this season have just been to make nice with one sponsor or another as opposed to that a sponsor had stepped up to hand over money to sponsor the Yates teams. There are other teams in the garage area who have done that this season (and likely in the past as well) and it's probably a wise idea since it always looks better to have something on the car even if the sponsor is getting the space for free than to race with a blank paint scheme.

*Earlier today I saw someone describe Clint Bowyer as having the personality of "an empty box." I can't say I disagree with that assessment. In fact more than a few of the drivers come across that way to me. I'm sure they're all nice people who have diverse interests and have a lot of personality in person. But often in interviews many of the drivers seem so stiff and uninteresting. Of course that's not true of all the drivers but there are some who are... well like empty boxes to me. That's why I've been a little perplexed by the rumors of UPS going to Richard Childress Racing to sponsor Bowyer - they said they want a rock star but Bowyer sure doesn't stike me as a rock star.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)

August 06, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/6)

*Jayski has a bunch of "I heard" rumors today the first of which is that it's rumored that Mark Martin may move to the #5 car at Hendrick Motorsports, the ride he'll be in full-time next season, for the last four races of this season. That makes sense for both Mark and the team so they can get started on working together. However, I would feel bad for Casey Mears who is currently in the #5. Even if he's also understanding as to why it might happen, it can't feel good to be replaced and even more so if his next ride isn't yet available to him at that point. I would also feel bad for Casey's fans, particularly any of those who had tickets to those last four races if he was released from the #5 and wasn't able to race for a different team.

*P.J. Jones is going to be in Hall of Fame Racing's #96 at Watkins Glen this weekend. I like P.J. and even though I didn't like that David Reutimann wasn't in the #00 for the road course races last year, I thought P.J. did a nice job in his place. So I'm glad he's getting a chance to help Hall of Fame out. Jayski has "heard" that J.J. Yeley's removal from the #96 may not be for just one race, that it might actually be permanent. That wouldn't surprise me. I think the expectations for J.J. in that car were much higher than what he's been able to do so far. The question would then become who would take J.J.'s place in the #96 for Michigan and the rest of the races this season?

*Ron Fellows is going to race DEI's #01 car this weekend at Watkins Glen instead of Regan Smith. DEI had originally planned to put Regan in a fifth entry, the #81 until Nascar told them they could only field four cars unless the fifth was used for a rookie with less than seven starts this season. That meant that Aric Armirola could race DEI's fifth entry since he only has five starts but not Regan so DEI withdrew the #81. I feel bad for Regan. DEI had worked it out so they had someone in the car who might be able to help them gain some additional points to put them in a better spot in the top 35 in owner's points but they were also going to make it possible for Regan to still race. Unfortunately for him it appears that he'll have to sit on the sidelines after all.

*Although Robby Gordon spoke in positive terms about next season, it sounds like his sponsorship situation isn't going to be much better than this season where he hasn't had sponsorship for a number of races. In fact it might even get worse since it sounds like it's not definite that Jim Beam will be back even though he expressed confidence that they would be back. Jim Beam has done a lot of marketing campaigns with Robby and really seem to like him so I'd think they would return as one of his sponsors next season but there's no telling how the poor economy might effect their marketing/advertising budget just like it has so many other sponsors. If Jim Beam were to opt not to sponsor Robby next season I think his Cup program would be in significant trouble and it's already not doing so great.

*Robby was also asked by the media yesterday about the possibility of adding a second Cup team, maybe with Scott Riggs, who is rumored to have sponsorship from State Water Heaters to take with him to a new team. Of course Robby would like to add a second team but how realistic is it really? Multi-car teams really are a necessity for any Cup organization to have success but without the resources to make it competitive it's not going to be much of a help. I have my doubts as to whether the State Water Heaters sponsorship - if they would really go with Scott to whichever team he ends up with, is worth all that much. Of course some sponsorship money is better than no sponsorship money, but until Robby has full sponsorship for his own car it might be a drain on his organization to add a second car unless there was enough sponsorship money to cover all costs and have it be at least somewhat competitive.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

August 05, 2008

Photo of the Day - Flowers

New Jersey Botanical Gardens, Ringwood, NJ, 2005.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)

The Announcement That Wasn't

On Sunday one of the Directv Hot Pass announcers who would be in a position to know supposedly said that NAPA was going to announce today that they had signed an extension to their deal with Michael Waltrip Racing. Then last night on This Week in Nascar Michael said that there was going to be a major sponsorship announcement made today at the MWR employee picnic. Well, there was never any announcement. In fact, Claire B. Lang from XM in response to some listener inquiries emailed Jennifer Chappelle, MWR's PR person who said that there was no news announcement today, that the only thing that went on today was an employee appreciation event. I have to say I'm extremely puzzled. There are times when Michael gets excited about something or gets an idea and goes ahead and says something about it and it ends up being what he wants to happen as opposed to what will actually happen. But Michael is normally pretty reliable about anything that relates to sponsors and since something was also said on Hot Pass over the weekend, it seems to me that as of yesterday there likely was some sort of announcement that was going to be made. What happened between yesterday and today? There's a lot more I could say about this but I won't - I think very highly of Michael and am very supportive of everything he and MWR does even when I don't entirely agree with everything so I'm leery of saying anything that might be twisted around or interpreted as me being overly critical. Hopefully there will be some sort of sponsorship announcement made at some point this week - there's lots of anxious fans of Michael's who would like to hear some good news regarding the NAPA sponsorship, particularly if it involves them being back on his car next season!!

ETA: (8/6) No idea if it's true but word is that maybe those sponsorship announcements were made after all yesterday but for some reason they're keeping it hush-hush. It's hard for me to believe that there were major sponsorship announcements made to a couple hundred people yesterday and no one went to Jayski or anywhere else to start circulating rumors about what those announcements entailed but then again Jayski does have a reference today to having heard that it was announced at MWR that UPS won't be back in 2009 for sure. Maybe the sponsorship announcements will be made at some point today - seems strange to hold back on what I would think would be considered positive news that MWR has one or more sponsors lined up for next season since I assume the person on Hot Pass had his facts correct. There is the question of whether NAPA will be continuing to sponsor Michael Waltrip or whether as rumored they may shift over to Michael McDowell (which would be a rather puzzling decision) and what that might mean for Michael's future in Cup but that might not even be something which was going to be included in this particular announcement. Very strange if there was indeed sponsorship announcements made yesterday that haven't been made public yet.

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

Michael McDowell to Race in the Nationwide Race at Watkins Glen

Michael McDowell is going to race in the Nationwide race at Watkins Glen on Saturday but it won't be for Michael Waltrip Racing. Instead he'll be in the #91 for MSRP Motorsports. I'm really surprised that MWR is putting McD in the #91. Both cars that MSRP has fielded this season, including this one, have started and parked in every race this season, with the most laps that either cars has lasted is 45 (and usually much less). Phil Parsons, who is on the board of directors at MWR, is one of the owners of MSRP so it might be a favor to him, but it still strikes me as pretty odd. I hope that MWR plans on giving MSRP some money, a pit crew and maybe even a car so that McD can go the whole distance and get some seat time that might help him in Sunday's Cup race, but I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't on the track for long. At Montreal both MSRP cars went to the garage on lap two with "transmission" issues. After seeing that I wondered if MSRP even brought pit crews with them to Montreal for the race?

It's possible that MWR is just trying to get McD some additional experience. Although MWR and McD himself have boasted of his road course experience to the point where Ty Norris predicted that he would contend for wins at both Cup road course races, he certainly didn't live up to those expectations at Sonoma. But this doesn't seem like the car a team would want to put a driver in for seat time and experience.

I just hope that it ends up being a legitimate effort to race. There's a lot of fans who don't think well of teams and drivers who start and park. I don't care for it too much myself but I do understand why teams opt to do it, as well as why drivers might agree to "race" those cars. However, there are a lot of fans who don't and I would hate to see McD's image tarnished by doing a S&P - there's already some negativity being directed towards him for this. You just don't usually see young drivers like McD - or any Cup drivers for that matter - taking part in a S&P effort. Unless someone wants to teach McD a lesson about where his career could end up if things don't improve for him in Cup it's really hard for me to understand why MWR would agree to put a young driver they think so highly of in this car. Maybe if there's any pre-race notes it'll shed some light on how this came about.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

August 04, 2008

Photo of the Day - Aruba

Arikok National Park, Aruba, 2005. Looks more like the Southwest of this country somewhere than what most people think of when they think of Aruba.

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

Michael Waltrip DNFs, ESPN Doesn't Notice

When ESPN didn't follow up on why Michael Waltrip went to the garage early in yesterday's race other than Michael's many fans, probably not too many people noticed. However, John Daly from "The Daly Planet" blog did and it became the topic of a column. As it turned out Michael spoke with MRN and also gave a quote that was used in Toyota's post-race notes in which he explained for those that weren't listening to his radio communication via Trackpass that his engine expired. Daly's main point of his column is that ESPN should have followed-up about what happened to Michael after he dropped out of the race either with an interview or at the very least mentioning what the issue was that put him in the garage. I have to agree. It's a continuing problem not just with ESPN but all of Nascar's broadcast partners - that every week there are teams and drivers that are ignored, even when there is a storyline that should be followed-up on.

Contrary to what some seem to believe every driver and team has fans and those fans want to know what's going on with their favorite drivers. Yet every race there are some drivers who go unmentioned and I find that when I'm curious about what issue a team might be experiencing rather than depending on the TV broadcast to inform me, I often have to either be listening to a team channel via Trackpass or visit a driver's fan forum if they have one to find out what's going on with that driver and team. That some drivers and teams go unmentioned unless they're involved in a wreck does a major disservice to those teams, their fans and the sponsors who are on the cars to get exposure. ESPN and the other networks are failing to give a complete picture of all the storylines in a race when they fail to keep fans informed about what things - good or bad - a team might be dealing with. Of course there's no way that every driver can be interviewed in every race, nor is there always a storyline worthy of being pursued in depth for every team in every race but I don't think it should be too much to expect that when a team goes to the garage area or is otherwise obviously dealing with a major issue that there is some explanation on the broadcast.

Of course it's to be expected that some teams and drivers are going to get more coverage than others. I have no problem with that. Superstar drivers have large fanbases that the TV partners want to keep happy. Drivers who race up front are also deserving of the attention they get though at times even some drivers who race up front can't seem to get a mention. Kyle Busch is the Cup Series points leader and is having an incredible season overall in all three of Nascar's highest series so he's also very deserving of all the attention that's given to him. But race broadcasts are hours and hours long and even more so yesterday since there was a rain-delay. It seems to me that there should be enough time to at least briefly mention almost every driver and team in the field at least once, and especially if there's something going on with that team such as that they're making a trip to the garage like Michael did yesterday. A team experiencing problems or even when a team that normally races in the back is racing competitively are storylines worthy following.

There's two things that really bother me about the TV partners not following storylines that they should be giving attention to. One is that at the end of the race fans aren't always completely informed as to why a particular team might have finished where they did. Again, it's impossible to interview every driver or give details on why every single team finished where they did. However, some fans are very passive and don't look for additional information beyond what they might get on a race broadcast. So some fans who see that Michael finished 43rd for the second week in a row assume that it's because of driver/owner ineptitude when in reality it was a mechanical failure that Michael had no control over since the engine on the #55 which is provided to Michael Waltrip Racing by Toyota Racing Development blew up. I might have missed them mentioning it but I also don't recall them saying during the broadcast that David Reutimann ran out of gas on the last lap which is why he ended up finishing 30th instead of in the top ten or top fifteen like he had been running in for most of the day.

Where I think it really hurts the teams is with the sponsors. Given the current state of the economy it's difficult enough for teams to find and keep sponsors but it's made even harder for teams when they get no coverage during races. The Yates Racing teams both race fairly well each week despite having no sponsorship yet some races both cars and drivers go unmentioned unless they're involved in an incident. That makes it very hard for those teams to convince full-time primary sponsors to fork over $15-20 million for sponsorship because the company's logo might never made it on air - even when something happens that warrants some discussion. Good or bad coverage is coverage that results in the sponsor getting exposure.

Of course the problem is that many fans will watch no matter what the coverage is like and regardless of whether their favorite driver is mentioned or not. Again due to the economy many fans aren't able to spend money on tickets, hotel and travel to go to races so they're opting to stay at home and watch. So if fans want to see the race they have to watch on ESPN or whichever network happens to be broadcasting that particular race. This isn't a new problem either - fans have complained about a lack of coverage for many drivers for years now. But no one seems to be listening. All I know is thank goodness for Trackpass which enables me to listen in on the radio communication between Michael and his team because it's often the only way I know how his car is or what's going on for him and his team in each race.

As a sidenote I'm often amused when Daly writes columns about Michael which is often. I always wonder whether Daly writes those columns because he knows that there will be a lot of comments. Whether they love him or hate him everyone seems to pay attention to Michael (which is one reason why his sponsors love him so much) and there is often a lot of discussion about him.

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

August 03, 2008

DNF for Michael Waltrip at Pocono

Last week he got wrecked on lap four, this week a blown engine took Michael Waltrip out of the race less than 25 laps into the race. I feel really terrible for Michael - he was so excited about the new car that Michael Waltrip Racing had come up with but so far he's not got to actually do any racing with it. What's unfortunate is that some fans will use this weekend's 43rd place finish as evidence of Michael's failings as an owner and driver meanwhile MWR doesn't have their own engine shop so all their engines come from TRD. Any issues with the engines have little to do with anyone at MWR. At least Michael is still in the top 35 in owner's points - his idea to stay out to lead a lap and gain five bonus points was a very good one. Michael - and everyone on his team - must be incredibly frustrated right now. This is one of Michael's favorite tracks so it has to pain him even more when things go bad at Pocono. Really not good.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (7/31)

Thanks to an overturned propane truck and a Bruce Springsteen concert I was in the car stuck in a massive traffic jam when I was listening to last night's show so unfortunately I couldn't give it my full attention so I know I missed some things but I do have some thoughts (of course!) on what I did hear.

Of course one of the first things that Michael and Tony talked about was the horrible mess at Indy - not that either of them would ever openly refer to it that way. Unlike on TWiN where Michael bent over backwards to avoid being critical of Nascar or Goodyear, last night he said that Goodyear should have done a lot more testing prior to the race and that they got fooled by the new car. There are differences with the new car such as with the center of gravity and the way it leans that effects the tires differently. They also assumed the track would rubber up like it had in the past and obviously it didn't. I'm still completely puzzled as to why Goodyear made assumptions about what would happen even though there was a new car and particularly since it's been said the drivers who tested for Goodyear at Indy made note of tire wear issues during the test. It seems to me that if that was the case there was some advanced warning that there might be an issue or that a different tire needed to be used and there should have been more testing.

Michael and Tony both had high praise for the way that Nascar managed the race at Indy.Tony liked what they did with the competition cautions - it was consistent and everyone knew what was going to happen. Also, they closed pit road a couple of laps before each caution so no one could pit early. The vast majority of the time I'm on the same page with Michael with most of what he says but I have to admit when he asked fans to join with him in thanking Nascar for the wonderful job they did with the race on Sunday I just shook my head. I'll support just about anything that Michael is involved with or asks his fans to do but sorry, not this. If Nascar and Goodyear had done things differently prior to the race there wouldn't have been a crisis for them to have to manage at Indy. Michael said that the finish at Indy was super-exciting because it was a great battle between Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson. That may be so but no one is going to remember anything about this race other than the debacle with the tires, which is pretty unfortunate for Jimmie and his team because they did a good job of making the best of a bad situation.

With his wreck on lap four Michael said that his car had been loose to begin with then he got to racing with Sam Hornish, Jr., who pinched him down more than he should have, then he thought he had it saved but ended up getting run over (by Paul Menard). Although Michael took responsibility for wrecking by saying that he should have been able to control his car, he said that Sam "looks like a drunk going after more liquor" so perhaps he feels his biggest mistake was in racing Sam or in not being careful enough when he was around Sam.

A.J. Allmendinger was the guest for both the second and third segments - he talked a lot! Michael was very complimentary of A.J. and how great he did at Indy. A.J. talked about how the race came together for them because of good strategy. Red Bull Racing has added personnel that have helped them improve and Jimmy Elledge specifically has helped A.J. race better.

The topic of the rules change in the Nationwide Series that was directed at the Toyota teams came up. They didn't think that the Toyota teams as a whole needed to be slowed down, just Kyle Busch who has seemingly won a hundred races. Michael said that the Toyota drivers could complain about other manufacturers like Jimmie Johnson and his teammates at Hendrick who are always good everywhere but Toyota drivers don't whine. (Apparently he's not heard a lot of what Tony Stewart has said this season.) It has to be frustrating for Toyota drivers like A.J. and Michael who have struggled while they've been with Toyota to hear all the talk about Toyota's advantage - they only wish they had an advantage!

Tony asked A.J. about his Champ car days. Apparently one season A.J. won three race in a row and five of nine. A.J. talked about having confidence and it's really important for any driver. When you feel like you have confidence you feel like you're unbeatable basically. A driver needs to have talent, a competitive car and a good team to be successful but I also feel very strongly that attitude plays a role as well. A driver needs to have confidence in themselves, their car and their team and believe they can race well and win.

For some reason A.J. being from California led Michael to ask him if he had a mohawk when he was growing up - was that a popular style at one point in California? A.J. said that no, he had a flat-top and short hair until he realized that women liked men with long hair. He said that much be why Michael gets so much attention from women. Gotta say that's very true - there's so many female fans who love Michael's hair the longer the better, myself included. Michael joked that he should have shaved his head a long time ago and it would have saved him from some legal problems. Well, I'd say that short or long hair wouldn't make a difference - Michael is an attractive man but beyond that he has a lot of personality and can be very charming so I'm quite sure that he would have a lot of female admirers no matter what!

Somehow they got into talking about the owner of Red Bull Racing, his fashion choices and being different. Unfortunately this part of the segment is part that I missed a lot of what was said but Michael did make a comment along the lines of how sometimes you're supposed to conform but he (Michael) doesn't do a very good job of it. Which I think is one of the big reasons why I was drawn to being a fan of Michael's. He's never been afraid to show personality, act goofy, make silly jokes, and say things that others might not be willing to whether it's to defend Nascar or speak up for Teresa Earnhardt like he did last year. Michael is very mindful of his obligations and responsibilities but at the same time he's never been afraid to take a different path such as by trying to field three Cup cars when no one thought he could. Michael is extremely creative and is always thinking of all sorts of ideas which is how Raceworld came to be.

I think it has to be very difficult for the drivers because the garage area is conservative and there's a lot of expectations from Nascar, their teams and especially fans and sponsors regarding the things they say and do. Something that has always bothered me about this sport as I've discussed before is how there doesn't seem to be a lot of tolerance for those who are different, whether those are demographic differences or differences of opinion. For some people fitting in and conforming is easy and something they don't mind, for others it's harder. I've had a great deal of difficulty in my life because I haven't been one to conform and at times I've stuck out like a sore thumb in my surroundings whether it's because I'm a different religion than everyone around me, because I'm a female sports fans, or because my ideas and beliefs are different. The pressure on the drivers to always say and do the "right" things must be immense since the "wrong" thing could create problems in terms of image and how they're perceived by fans and the media which in turn could create some issues with their team and sponsor.

Even though I didn't get to listen as closely as I would have liked, as always it was a good show that both entertained me and made me think.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)

Manny Ramirez Traded to the Dodgers

The biggest move at yesterday's trade deadline was one that sent Manny Ramirez from the Boston Red Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers. A lot of fans thought that the Red Sox would never trade a player who was such an impact player for them for so many years, and all day rumors were circulating that every deal that the Red Sox were trying to enter in was dead. But in the end Ramirez was traded as I knew he would be. There was no way that Ramirez could remain with the Red Sox. Not only did he speak of being "tired" of the Red Sox and say that they didn't deserve him, Ramirez allegedly faked an injury and sat out a few games, and when he did return to the field half-assed it at times. There was also the incident a few weeks ago when he pushed the traveling secretary - when a player lashes out physically that's something that's really hard to overlook. When a player is playing well and helping them to win, teams are often willing to overlook just about anything, and especially when the player in question is a superstar, but there are still some things that won't be tolerated, and especially when the player's production is on the decline. Although most of his former teammates wouldn't likely admit it publically, I would guess that a lot of them probably weren't all that happy about Ramirez's behavior, particularly since it's a major distraction. There are some who say that attitude doesn't matter, that all that's important is what a player does on the field and to an extent that's true. But when a player's attitude starts carrying over to the field, and there's concern that the player might start dragging the team down, then attitude becomes very important.

It'll be very interesting to see how Joe Torre handles "Manny being Manny."

Posted by silverdsl at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)