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June 17, 2009
Not Much I Want to Say Right Now
I've been a bit neglectful of this blog of late, not because I don't have anything to say but instead because I don't have the heart to do entries about some of what's on my mind right now. If there's anyone who is still stopping in on a regular basis they may have noticed I haven't at all addressed other than in a passing way the rumors about Martin Truex, Jr. going to Michael Waltrip Racing to take over the #55 and the likelihood that Michael will only be racing a few races next season. I have a lot of thoughts about all that but I've decided that I want to wait until the announcement is officially made before I blog about it. The fact of the matter is while I understand all the reasons why all of this is happening, like many other fans of Michael, I'm sad about it and having a difficult time like many other of Michael's fans. The rumor mill says that the announcement is coming by the Daytona race in early July and after that a lot of things will be very different for many of us.
I'm also disappointed in the results for MWR at Michigan this past weekend and I just didn't feel like writing a negative entry about their poor performance. Yes, David Reutimann finished 19th which isn't terrible but that finished dropped him out of the top 12 in points. With Juan Pablo Montoya on the rise, other top teams performing well, and the series racing at a road course this weekend which isn't the kind of track where David excels it may not be so easy to get back into Chase contention, though I very much hope that happens. It's also a downer that Michael continues to struggle. I very much want him in what's likely his last full-time season to have some races in which he races competitively up-front, and maybe even contends for a win. At the start of the season it had seemed like that was going to happen and it's disappointing that things went in another direction. I feel really bad for Michael because it has to be hard on him.
If I'm being honest the Michigan race overall didn't do anything for me. While some fans and media members have been falling all over themselves to say how exciting the race was I can't agree. The race was incredibly boring for 198 of 200 laps and not just because the MWR teams were struggling. Sure, there was some drama on the last two laps not knowing who was going to have enough fuel to make it to the end and who was going to run out. But to me exciting racing is watching drivers racing each other hard. I understand that strategy, fuel mileage and otherwise, is a part of racing and I don't think Mark Martin's win is any less of a win because he won based on getting better fuel mileage than others did. But I think it's a sad commentary on the state of things that fuel mileage, not good hard racing, is what passes for exciting racing these days.
There's other things on my mind as well. Michael said at the Wal-Nutz gathering in May that the sport is changing and it's true that it is. To some fans and those in the sport it's changing too fast and too much but to me in some ways the sport hasn't changed enough. Because of how much of a fan of Michael and MWR I am, as well as my long-time love of racing, I've continued to be a NASCAR fan, but sometimes I wonder whether there's going to come a time when like so many other fans I find other things to do on race day. Which is pretty sad considering I've always been the kind of fan to find something positive and fun in everything.
Posted by silverdsl at June 17, 2009 08:49 AM