Random Thoughts

June 12, 2009

Brendan Gaughan's Crew Chief Suspended Indefiniately For Use of Racial Slur

A few days ago I took issue with the comments that Brendan Gaughan made towards Marc Davis after they were involved in an incident on pit road during the Nationwide race at Nashville but it turns out that a comment that his crew chief, Brian Berry made is even worse. Berry has been suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for directing a racial slur at Davis who is African-American. No matter how upset Berry was about the wrecked race car there is no excuse for using a racial slur. I applaud NASCAR for having zero tolerance and taking strong action against Berry.

There are some fans who think that Berry shouldn't have been suspended, that what he said wasn't a big deal. That somehow it's Davis's fault. That he's a spoiled brat with no talent so he somehow deserves what he gets. That somehow he's playing the race card or making things up. That even though his only public statement made no reference to the racial slur that it was somehow inappropriate and that he should stay silent. No one, whether they're to blame for a racing incident, are a spoiled brat, have all the talent in the world, or none, should have to put up with or stay silent about racism and a racial slur. The blame the victim mentality is disturbing, as is hearing stories from other fans about how Davis and others like Juan Pablo Montoya routinely get offensive slurs directed at them. Behavior like Berry's shouldn't be tolerated whether it comes from a crew chief or a fan.

The outrage about Kyle Busch smashing a guitar in Victory Lane should pale in comparison to the outrage about this incident. One thing that has long bothered me about NASCAR is the lack of diversity, not just in terms of race but also when it comes to religion (I don't know of any other Jewish NASCAR fans besides myself), gender, place of origin, opinion, etc... There are attitudes in this sport that have been expressed by fans and by some in the garage area as highlighted by this incident that are unacceptable to me. A core value of mine for my entire life is the importance of diversity and tolerance for others no matter how different they may be from me. If there's one thing that could stop me from being a fan of this sport, it's that at times it seems that there's not only not much tolerance for others who are different or have different opinions but also that there's a resistance to diversity both when it comes to the Drive for Diversity program and otherwise.

It seems to me that NASCAR must become more diverse even if some are resistant to it. I don't see how they can make in-rounds in major markets like New York or California if the sport isn't going to appeal to a diverse audience. Incidents like this make some fans feel like they may not be welcome. In addition, big sponsors aren't just looking to appeal to one type of person, they want to reach all kinds of fans - if I'm a sponsor who has to be concerned with where I'm spending my money due to the economy, I might have second thoughts about spending it in NASCAR if I'm not going to race a wide audience. But more than that this is 2009 and the kinds of beliefs and attitudes that were acceptable 50 or 60 years ago aren't anymore. Racism and prejudice of any kind shouldn't be tolerated.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2009

Brendan Gaughan vs. Marc Davis

Admittedly I didn't see the incident between Brendan Gaughan and Marc Davis during Saturday's Nationwide race so I can't say who was at fault but the basics are that Gaughan ran into Davis on pit road causing significant damage to the #62 as Davis was trying to pull into the garage and it may have been because Davis didn't signal as drivers normally do. Of course Gaughan was upset about his wrecked race car. I can understand that he wasn't happy with Davis but what I don't understand and don't like are the comments that Gaughan made. He said,

"I don't know if (Davis) is dumb, his crew chief is dumb or his spotter is dumb, but in the middle of the race when you end up turning left while people are coming onto pit road for green-flag pit stops is asinine. Maybe he needs to look that word up."

Gaughan then continued, "...apparently you get a better education at Georgetown than Howard University." I think Gaughan is lucky that Kyle Busch smashed the trophy guitar in Victory Lane which guaranteed that everyone would forget about what he said. There are countless fans slamming Busch for acting immaturely and inappropriately, saying that he acted with disrespect, well, what about Gaughan? Insulting the intelligence of a fellow competitor and then following it up with a shot at his sponsor is pretty immature and disrespectful in my opinion. Meanwhile Davis is just 18, almost 19, years old and very inexperienced in the series. It would have been more productive for Gaughan to speak with Davis one-on-one and explain to him what he thought he did wrong. Perhaps Davis could learn from it - I really doubt he's going to gain anything from being ripped publically on TV.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)

May 08, 2009

Rusty Wallace Gives Brendan Gaughan's Pit Crew a "Time Out"

What is this kindergarten? Rusty Wallace decided that he was so unhappy with the performance of Brendan Gaughan's pit crew that he's replaced them for the Nationwide race tonight. Instead, the #62 will be pitted by the #33 Cup crew on loan from Richard Childress Racing. Wallace said,

“We’ve had so much problems with our team [that] this particular race, Brendan Gaughan’s team, I said, ‘You guys are having so much problems that we’re going to have a timeout for one week. We’re going to have practice for the next two weeks. I lost confidence in what we were getting done.”

I don't know what the issues were with the pit crew that made Wallace so unhappy but Gaughan is 11th in points so the performance this season hasn't been that bad. Thing is just exactly how is sitting them for a week going to help them get better? In fact, it may make matters worse to have their boss say publically that he has no confidence in them. I also don't understand how they're supposed to get better if they're sitting at home instead of honing their skills in tonight's race. In addition, I have to wonder how Gaughan feels about all of this since at least one and possibly more members of his crew are people who have been with him for years in the Truck Series and whom he considers friends of his. Just doesn't seem like a move that's likely to motivate the crew to do better and it may create issues with Gaughan as well.

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

January 05, 2009

Brendan Gaughan Will Race for Rusty Wallace, Inc in 2009

Rusty Wallace, Inc made it official that Brendan Gaughan will race full-time for them in the Nationwide Series in 2009. Partial sponsorship for the #62 car will come from the South Point Hotel and Spa, the Gaughan family business so apparently Brendan's father decided that buying him a Nationwide ride with RWI would bring the best return on their money. Usually I have no issues with drivers buying rides or otherwise bringing financial backing with them to a ride since drivers need to do whatever is necessary to get a ride and teams need to do whatever is necessary to ensure that they have the money to operate competitively. However, based on Brendan's comments in a recent Sirius interview, his preference seems to have been returning to the Truck Series in the #10 truck for Circle Bar Racing but that decision wasn't up to him - where Brendan raced was entirely up to his father based on where he wanted to spend his money and Brendan was just fine with that because it made the money flow freely from his father to himself.

Brendan's Sirius interview was unfortunate to me because I think he came off like a bit of a spoiled brat, but I think it was also unfortunate because of the negative connotation that many fans equate with ride buying. Some believe that drivers who bring sponsorship with them and buy their rides only do so because they don't have the ability to get a ride based on talent. In reality Brendan has a lot of talent behind the wheel. If he has a competitive car or truck he's very capable of racing up front and winning races. Although Brendan has only raced one Nationwide race and that was in 2001, I wouldn't at all be surprised if he won a race in 2009.

I often wonder though what Brendan's career might have been like if he hadn't raced for his family's team and with the backing of his family's money for so long. The easy answer is that he might have had a much shorter career because his family's money opened a lot of doors for him and made it possible for him to race when there might otherwise not have been rides available to him. But I sometimes wonder if Brendan would have done even more if he had to rely only on himself, his ability behind the wheel and his other talents. I'm sure Brendan always gives 100% effort at all times but he would probably have had to work - and race - even harder to prove himself without his family's money to smooth the way.

The question now becomes who is going to end up in the #10 truck? As far as I know the truck still has full sponsorship from Maxxforce so presumably CBR will continue to field two trucks. Although the #10 didn't end up in Victory Lane in 2008 it's still a pretty competitive ride that would likely interest quite a few of the many drivers who are looking for rides right now. That puts CBR in a pretty good position because they can choose from a driver pool that includes veteran Truck Series drivers who are former series champions, talented Cup drivers who might be interested in taking their career in a different direction by racing a truck, and some promising young drivers.

As for Brendan, given how fan-friendly he is and that he'll be a Nationwide-only driver, he's a good addition to the Nationwide Series and I think he'll do well for RWI.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2008

Brendan Gaughan to Race for Rusty Wallace, Inc. in 2009?

Dave Moody is reporting in his blog that Brendan Gaughan is close to signing a deal to race for Rusty Wallace, Inc. in the #64 in he Nationwide Series next season, with the only thing preventing the deal from being signed is that there's a possibility that Brendan could end up in the #41 Cup car for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing because a sponsorship issue has cropped up that's prevented them from signing Bobby Labonte for that ride. I heard Brendan give an interview on Moody's show last week and apparently his father is going to sponsor Brendan in whatever ride he ends up in again because the casino, The South Point, is doing so well in Las Vegas. Brendan made it pretty clear that he would love to race for Circle Bar Racing again in the Truck Series but that it was entirely up to his father what direction his career went in.

Brendan would likely do well racing for RWI. The #64 is a solid team and Brendan is capable of racing up front and winning races. I don't think a second try at the Cup Series would work out any better for Brendan than the last time did. Not because he's lacking in talent but because the same issues regarding his refusal to conform and other things will still be present. It would probably help that he would be sponsored by his father, but I just don't think Brendan is a good fit for the Cup Series. However, the Cup Series offers the best opportunity for a sponsor to get exposure so for that reason an opportunity to sponsor Brendan in a Cup ride is attractive.

What's pretty much going on is that Brendan's father is going to be buying a ride for him and it might not necessarily be Brendan's first choice as to where he races next season. But Brendan made it clear that was fine with him. Although they had butted heads in the recent past regarding the Wyler Racing deal that never happened, it seems that these days Brendan is perfectly happy to go along with exactly what his father wants now. Based on the way Brendan boasted about skiing in Colorado and a lifestyle that he says he usually keeps quiet in the garage area, I would guess that unless he's in his father's good graces those things might not be possible. So I think he's going to be perfectly hapy to go along with just about anything his father wants as long as the money flow and way of life continues.

If I'm being honest I thought Brendan came off as something of a spoiled brat, but then I've thought that of him in the past. Most fans absolutely adore Brendan and he is very good with the fans. But there's something about him that sometimes rubs me the wrong way and I think yesterday I was a little bothered by the way he talked about spending a month in Colorado and some other things that seemed out of touch with some of the realities of the way the economy is right now and the effect it's having on most people. It's great for the Gaughans if the casino is doing well and they're able to live large but I thought it came off as a little distasteful to be boasting about it. Many of the other drivers, even though a lot of them probably aren't hurting for money, have taken to talking about cutting back on expenses and being careful with finances.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2008

I understand that a lot of people don't like the way Kyle Busch races, including some of his fellow competitors. But I don't think it's a wise idea for one of Kyle's fellow drivers to be so negative about him like Brendan Gaughan did this weekend. Brendan started out by saying, "A lot less trucks will get wrecked this weekend. We're all happy." I'm sure there are plenty who are happy Kyle wasn't at Kansas. But maybe Brendan should speak for himself and not for all his fellow competitors. I remember a few years ago Brendan went on a huge rant on XM about how horrible all the rookie drivers were in the series that year and how all the veteran drivers felt the same way he did. A few months later I had the opportunity to ask David Reutimann, who at the time was still racing in the truck series, about what he thought about the rookie class of drivers and he responded that he had no problem with them. I suppose that he could have been just saying the "right" things but with the way Brendan went on and on about how all the veterans were upset with the way the rookies raced and their attitudes, I'd think some hint of that would have come across in David's comments. So I have to wonder - is this something similar where Brendan is saying that "all" his fellow competitors are happy Kyle isn't racing but "all" is a bit of an exaggeration?

Brendan continued,

"The better question is, ask me if I care. I don't care. If you look at his record in the first four races, he's done a great job wrecking others and not taking himself out most of the time. Do I think he'll win the championship not coming all year? No, I don't think he will. I think we have too many good drivers and good race teams. There's too many Rick Crawfords, Todd Bodines, Mike Skinners that will be running up front every week to be able to miss races like that."

Fact is Kyle might not have always raced in the smartest way but he's also done some winning. In fact in those first four races Kyle has won twice and finished second once. Which is in addition to his two Cup wins and three Nationwide wins. To act as if Kyle's success in the series and overall in Nascar is a whole lot of nothing sounds like sour grapes to me. Maybe Brendan is a little resentful that he's not the one who is racing as well as Kyle is. Brendan has had a lot of success in the truck series in the past - eight wins is no small amount of wins. However, in recent years Brendan has struggled to race as well as he did in 2003 when he was in contention for the series Championship. Meanwhile Kyle isn't even racing every race and he could still contend for the Championship. Maybe that seems unfair to Brendan, particularly since Kyle doesn't always have a very good attitude and also races in a very aggressive way on the track.

Contrast Brendan's remarks with that of his teammate, Rick Crawford, who said,

"Fan or not, every doggone race from Cup to Truck to Nationwide series, Kyle Busch has been in contention to win. Every race this year. Hand it to the man. He's on top of his game."

Rick may have similar sentiments to Brendan but if he does he's not letting on. He also knows how to give credit where credit is due. Kyle is having an incredible season so far, not just in the Truck Series but also in Cup and Nationwide as well. Not that Brendan should fall all over himself praising Kyle, who he clearly doesn't like, but is it really necessary to practically celebrate that Kyle's not racing?

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

January 09, 2008

Brendan Gaughan Finds a Ride; Richard Johns Possibly Loses His

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

January 02, 2008

Brendan Gaughan to Fill in for Robby Gordon at Daytona Testing

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

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

December 26, 2007

Unanswered Questions Heading Into 2008

As 2007 comes to an end there's lots of unanswered questions heading into the new year for a lot of teams, drivers and Nascar itself...

*Will Brendan Gaughan find a ride? I think the last thing that anyone expected was that Brendan would still be looking for a ride this late but then again it was also pretty surprising when the merger between South Point Racing and Wyler Racing fell apart which led to South Point Racing closing their doors.

*How many other teams might have to fold due to financial or other issues?

*What team will Ted Musgrave race for in 2008? At the end of the season there was a lot of talk that he had a deal in place but nothing's been announced yet.

*Will Morgan-McClure Motorsports field a Cup car next season? That they're heading into 2008 with no driver, no crew chief and no sponsor doesn't seem to bode well for them.

*A lot of fans have dug in their heels and are insistent that everything about the "new" Nascar is horrible as compared to the way things used to be. Any change, no matter how small is met with negativity, and more and more fans seem to like complaining and being negative about everything they hate about Nascar from some drivers to the governing body more than they enjoy watching good racing (yes, there is some of that!) and cheering for their favorite drivers. How is Nascar going to respond to these increasingly vocal fans?

*How long will Steve Park keep looking for a ride before the desire to race is greater than his desire to find an elite ride? And if he doesn't race next year either, how long before Steve acknowledges that he might be done?

*How many other talented drivers will have to sit on the sidelines next season for all or part of the season due to a lack of quality rides, sponsorship or other factors?

*Rumors circulated at the end of the season that all or part of Bill Davis Racing might be sold. Will that sale actually happen? More and more teams are finding that they need to bring on additional financial partners due to the ever increasing costs of racing so it wouldn't be surprising to see this sale go through at some point.

*How will switching manufacturers from Chevy to Toyota effect Joe Gibbs Racing? Some are predicting that JGR won't skip a beat and will be just as competitive as ever, while others are predicting that 2008 will be a disaster for them. I think 2008 will more likely be somewhere in the middle - an organization like JGR doesn't suddenly become non-competitive that quickly, but with how many problems Toyota had in Cup in 2007 I don't think it will be smooth sailing either.

*How will Dale Earnhardt, Jr. adjust to racing for a different organization for the first time in his Cup career? Many are already penciling him in as the 2008 Cup Champion but I think things won't be as easy for Junior in 2008 as some think. Aside from making the transition from DEI to Hendrick Motorsports, Junior will also be dealing with new teammates who are just as high-profile as he is, new major sponsors and new obligations that could be a distraction from what he's trying to accomplish on the track.

*Will HMS continue their dominant ways in the Cup Series next year? Will Jimmie Johnson win his third Cup championship in a row? I believe HMS will continue to be one of the best organizations in the garage, but I suspect that some of the other elite teams will close the gap a little. I expect Jimmie to contend for his third championship in a row.

*Will BDR, Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull Racing improve in performance in 2008? MWR has made the most changes, bringing in a new financial partner, new upper management, a Director of Engineering, three new crew chiefs, as well as additional personnel and resources. However, BDR and RBR must also be working hard to ensure that they are more successful next season. Some believe that Dave Blaney is poised to have a breakout season but BDR has struggled so much the past few seasons I'm not convinced of that. I think Brian Vickers will likely have a much stronger 2008, assuming that RBR can give him more competitive cars than they did this season.

*Who's going to end up in the #00 for MWR after the first five races? It's expected that one or both MWR development drivers, Josh Wise or Michael McDowell, will end up in the #00, but MWR has been known to surprise - will a veteran end up in the mix?

*How will all the open wheel drivers fare in Cup in 2008? With two of them needing to qualify for races on speed to start the season, and a limited amount of experience in Nascar for all of them, the results might not be pretty.

*Will drivers who struggled such as Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, Michael Waltrip and Jeremy Mayfield rebound in 2008?

*What company will replace Craftsman as the sponsor of the Truck Series?

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

December 13, 2007

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*Jimmie Johnson will race in three Nationwide races next season for JR Motorsports in the #5 car. I would expect that Junior and Casey Mears will also see time in the #5. JR Motorsports is poised to become one of the top Nationwide organizations next season. For one thing they'll be using some of the best equipment in the garage area thanks to the merger of their Nationwide operations with Hendrick Motorsports. So I would guess that Brad Keselowski will be in the thick of the Championship hunt, which will be great to see since he's a full-time Nationwide driver. In addition, the #5 car should contend for some wins as well with Jimmie and other Cup drivers behind the wheel.

*Speaking of Jimmie, he's currently looking for an agency to represent him as he seeks to expand the Jimmie Johnson brand and secure additional endorsement deals. It'll be interesting to see what kind of deals he signs in the future. Jimmie's public persona, as well as his success on the track, would likely appeal to many companies. Personally, I find the way that Jimmie is in media interviews to be pretty uninteresting, as if every word he says is carefully weighed as to whether it's the "right" thing to say. However, there's definitely another side to Jimmie. Every week on his XM show Jimmie is much more relaxed, giving his opinions freely - and sometimes strongly - as well as telling stories about partying and other fun. He also has a good sense of humor that doesn't often come through in many interviews. Maybe the right kind of endorsement deals will allow him to show his fun side a little more often.

*Ryan Pemberton has left DEI to explore other opportunities, and he will be replaced as crew chief of the #8 by Doug Richert. It's been rumored that Pemberton was headed to Penske Racing to be Sam Hornish, Jr.'s crew chief but apparently Pemberton is still talking to teams and weighing his options. Since Michael Waltrip Racing has yet to name a crew chief for the #44, it would be great to see Pemberton end up there, but I suspect he might want to work for a more established team. I'm sure many fans see Pemberton leaving DEI as just one more sign of how bad that organization is but this is the time of year when there are many crew chief (and crew) changes so he may simply be looking to take advantage of some of the opportunities that are available to make a change and advance his career. I doubt Richert would end up at DEI if that organization was in such bad shape.

*According to Jayski, word is that the finalists for the #10 truck are Bradley Riethmeyer, Brendan Gaughan, Bobby East and Clay Rogers. One would automatically think that Brendan would be the front-runner but according to Dave Moody on his blog, East might be at the top of the list for Circle Bar Racing because he has backing from Ford. I would also think that Brendan's insistence that his next team hires 10-12 members from Brendan's #77 team might also be an issue. Hiring those crew members might mean that 10-12 current crew members lose their jobs. Overall, it's a big financial investment for a team to not only have to hire a driver, but 12 more people. I have to wonder if Brendan's stubbornness in wanting to do thing his way is going to cost him a ride for next season. It seems almost unthinkable that he wouldn't find a ride, but he doesn't seem to be as much of a hot commodity for next season as one might thing given his ability and previous success in the Truck Series. It's been said that Brendan's mouth gets him in trouble and makes some teams and sponsors leery of him so that could reduce his options as well.

*Although there's been no official announcement from the team, it appears that Robert Johns will be in the #60 for Wyler Racing. This announcement comes from the sponsor, Technology Based Consulting, who says that they've signed a two-year contract to sponsor Johns in the #60, with their brand logo, www.havfun.com, on the truck. Since the announcement refers to Wyler-Gaughan Racing, and that merger never happened, I don't know if Wyler still plans on putting Johns in the truck, but it hasn't been denied yet which leads me to believe that there's some truth there. Which means that Ted Musgrave won't be ending up at Wyler after all, nor will Steve Park. I had thought Musgrave would have been a good fit at Wyler, but I'm not surprised that it appears Steve won't get this ride. He's talked to Wyler since 2005 when he was released from the #62 truck about racing for them and I think if they were going to put him in a truck they would probably have done so already. Wyler is really going to be a different organization next season. They've gone from having a driver who has had a tremendous amount of success in the series and a fairly prominent sponsor, to having an unknown sponsor and a driver who has raced just 15 Nationwide races and no truck races, plus the merger fell though. I don't expect to see them racing up front all that much next season.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2007

South Point Racing and Wyler Racing Won't Merge After All

Looks like Brendan Gaughan is getting his way... sort of. The merger that Brendan was so against between his father's team that he raced for, South Point Racing, and Wyler Racing has been called off. But Brendan won't get to continue racing out of Las Vegas because South Point Racing will shut down at the end of December. Brendan is exploring his options for 2008 with other teams, and given that he was spotted talking extensively with Rick Crawford at Homestead, it may be that one of those options is with Circle Bar Racing.

There may be other reasons as to why this deal fell apart but I suspect that Brendan's unhappiness and reluctance to race for Wyler-Gaughan is a big reason why. I didn't care for Brendan's attitude or his comments on Sirius and XM in reference to this deal. I thought he came off as a spoiled brat who was airing issues publically that were better to be handled privately between himself and his father, and that he wasn't showing all that much respect to his father or the Wylers. But in spite of how against the deal Brendan seemed to be, I figured he'd work things out with his father, come to his senses and realize how many positives there were about the merger. Apparently that never happened. The last time Brendan raced for someone other than his father - Penske Racing - it didn't work out too well. Looks like he's now going to get to experience racing on his own without his father's support once more. I have to wonder if he's going to like it any better this time.

One of Brendan's biggest objections to the merger is that he wanted the team to continue to be based in Las Vegas and prove that a team out of Las Vegas could succeed. Well, unless he comes up with the money to field a truck himself, odds are he'll end up racing for a team out of Charlotte, and certainly not in Vegas, anyway. It also appears that the answer to the question of whether a team from Las Vegas can have long-term success and staying power in Nascar is "no."

What gets me is that Brendan has always spoken so proudly and so well of his crew on the #77 and how one reason he didn't want the merger to happen is because he didn't want them to have to uproot their lives to move to Charlotte (assuming they stayed with the team after the merger). Well, now his entire team, plus everyone else at South Point have now lost their jobs completely. I can't say I blame Michael Gaughan for closing up shop. For the past few years he's fielded the truck mostly out of his own pocket without an outside full-time primary sponsor. I would guess that the merger might have eased the financial burden a little and maybe even helped attract a sponsor for the #77 team. I can understand why he wouldn't want to keep the team going for a driver other than his son.

One question mark is what happens to Wyler Racing now? I'm sure that this merger has been in the works for a while and that their plans for 2008 and beyond were made on the basis of the deal going through. I'm not sure it bodes well that they now have no merger, no driver and no sponsor for the #60 truck. It's been rumored that Ted Musgrave is going to end up in the #60, but he's also been connected to a few other organizations as well - I'd think that a multi-truck organization would be more attractive than one that suddenly finds themselves a single-truck operation again. The merger getting called off may increase Steve Park's chances of getting this ride in one regard since I wasn't sure how likely he was to be considered for a ride at Wyler-Gaughan when the Gaughans released him previously. But on the other hand this may make it more difficult because the amount of sponsorship that Steve might have to bring with him (or that the team might have to find themselves) might be even greater now without whatever support they were going to get from South Point Racing. One race team has already closed their doors as a result of this merger falling apart, hopefully Wyler Racing won't have to do the same.

ETA: According to Jayski, Brendan was on Sirius talking about the failed merger, and while he wouldn't give many details he said, "It's unfortunate when individuals put themselves ahead of the team." I ass-u-me that Brendan is likely talking about someone other than himself otherwise he'd probably just say so. Well, given his previous comments, perhaps Brendan should repeat that remark as he takes a long, hard look in the mirror. Of course I don't know all of what happened and likely never will, but Brendan's comments a few weeks ago didn't reflect too well on him then, and even worse now in light of what happened. Brendan did indicate that he would like to take 10-12 members of his team with him to whatever ride he ends up with next but that might be difficult to do since a lot of teams will already have full crews already that they might not necessarily want to part ways with. It'll be interesting to see whether his father is willing to hand over the money to sponsor him with a new team or whether he's going to cut the cord completely.

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

October 30, 2007

Brendan, Brendan, Brendan...

Brendan Gaughan's mouth never fails to get him in trouble and I'm guessing if his father finds out about what Brendan just said during his XM interview with Claire B. Lang, Brendan's going to have some explaining to do. According to Brendan, he's completely out-of-the-loop when it comes to the just announced merger between South Point Racing and Wyler Racing, that all the decisions where his father's and he's not happy about any of it, to the point where he might not race the #77 next season even though a press release has been sent out indicating that not only will he be in that truck, but also that he'll be racing six Cup races for Wyler-Gaughan next season. Apparently Brendan is not happy about switching manufacturers from Chevy to Toyota and not happy about moving the team from Las Vegas to Charlotte, so much so that he said that if he got a better offer from another team that he couldn't refuse he would accept that offer instead of racing the #77. As the interview went along Brendan seemed to back down from that a little, saying that if his father thought it was best for him to race the #77 that's what he would do, but it's obvious that for now at least he might not be very happy about it.

Brendan needs to do a reality check. His career and his team is stagnant right now. South Point Racing has been unable to find an outside primary sponsor to provide them with the financial resources to be as competitive as they need to be to win races, something Brendan hasn't done since 2003. As much as Brendan may feel loyal to Chevy, the Toyota teams race up front more often in the Truck Series - in fact Wyler Racing had a truck in Victory Lane this season. Brendan may be able to find another strong truck team to race for but unless Robby Gordon is willing to field a car for him, I don't see a Cup team giving him a ride considering how poorly things worked out for him with Penske Racing, and I'm not sure that even too many Nationwide teams will be wiling to take a chance on him. So it seems to me that racing for Wyler-Gaughan Racing is exactly what he might need to jumpstart his career, and it could possibly take him to Cup full-time on his own terms, racing for his father who is a lot more understanding of Brendan's big mouth than many sponsors and teams are. (Not to mention the whole gambling issue.)

In addition, I think Brendan is being too stubborn to see how being based in Las Vegas is hurting South Point Racing's chances of being successful. If his father who has a tremendous amount of financial resources hasn't been able to make the #77 as competitive as they once were, then it probably can't be done. South Point likely has a hard time luring top personnel to Las Vegas to work in the shop, both because they might not be able to pay them as much as other teams but also because they're isolated from all the other teams. Not to mention the travel issues. South Point doesn't have their own plane like most of the Cup and some of the Nationwide teams have. Their crew has to fly commercial and it's harder for them than for other teams since they have to fly back to the West Coast after every race instead of to Charlotte. While there are some races on the West Coast and in the Midwest, the majority of events are still centered around Charlotte being the base of operations for the majority of the Nascar community.

I have to say that Brendan came across as extremely disrespectful and ungrateful to his father in this interview. He's very definitely entitled to his opinions, it's great that he speaks his mind and I don't think there's anything wrong with him being unhappy - change can be hard sometimes, especially when he has his own ideas about the way he wants things to go with his team. But I don't think an interview on his XM was the appropriate way of airing his grievances with his father. It makes his father look like a domineering a$$hat for making decisions without consulting Brendan, and it seems as if they have a poor relationship. Brendan needs to talk to his father privately, and if he's still unhappy there's ways to express that without making his father look bad. In addition, there's quite a few drivers who wish they were in Brendan's shoes, where they had a father with millions, maybe even billions, at his disposal to fund them racing in Nascar. Maybe Brendan should be a little more appreciative that his father cares enough about Brendan and the team to broker a team that will enable him to race more competitively. Maybe Michael Gaughan should give Brendan a taste of what he seems to want - trying to make a go of it with another team without the Gaughan family backing. I'm not sure Brendan would be very happy with that situation either.

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

October 29, 2007

Wyler Racing and South Point Racing Merge

Wyler Racing has long wanted to add a second team and South Point Racing has long been frustrated with their inability to get more competitive so the two organizations have decided to join forces. Today Jeff Wyler and Michael Gaughan announced the formation of Wyler-Gaughan Racing, which will field two trucks in 2008, the #77 for Brendan Gaughan and the #60 for a driver to be named later. The new organization will be based in Mooresville, NC and will field Toyotas as Wyler Racing has since their inception. Sponsors for both trucks will also be named in the future. In addition, Brendan will attempt to race in six Cup races next season for Wyler-Gaughan Racing.

I'd guess that we'll see Brendan racing up front a lot more often in 2008. Wyler has fielded some very strong trucks that have ended up in Victory Lane with Jack Sprague behind the wheel and overall all the Toyotas are competitive in the Truck Series. So it's likely that Brendan will be racing trucks that are consistently a lot more competitive than what he's had to race since he came back to the Truck Series. As hard as they tried, South Point was never able to regain the magic of 2003 when Brendan won six races. Although the Gaughan family has a significant amount of financial resources from their casino business, there's a limit to how much money they can put in without getting much in return, so I've been wondering how long they were going to be able to continue without an outside primary sponsor, something they haven't had since Jasper left in 2005. In addition, although the Gaughans have prided themselves on remaining in Las Vegas, their refusal to move to where the majority of the rest of the teams are based until now has likely hurt them because it's difficult to attract top crew members who are willing to move to Las Vegas and deal with the travel issues that come with flying (commercial) back and forth between Las Vegas and where the races are. So I think this merger had to happen if Brendan was going to continue racing in the Truck Series in a truck owned by his family.

Although some Steve Park fans are surely already penciling Steve's name in next to the #60 (assuming Jack Sprague doesn't stick around), I think this merger means that it's unlikely that Steve will race for the Wylers. For one thing Steve already raced for Michael Gaughan and he was released so I'm not sure how willing Gaughan will to be to revisit that partnership. But I also suspect that Ted Musgrave is headed to the #60. He's available, he's a former Champion which means he's more desirable to teams and sponsors than Steve, he's already raced for Toyota, and he's indicated that he has something lined up for next season so the timing seems to fit with the changes at Wyler. Oh yeah, his crew chief at Germain Racing also joined Wyler as the crew chief of the #60 just this week. And Jayski is now reporting that he's "heard" that Musgrave is heading to the #60 and that he's bringing the ASE sponsorship. So my magic eight ball says "outlook not so good" when it comes to Steve joining this organization.

Which is pretty much what I think about Steve's overall chances of finding a ride for next season. I've always thought that Steve's best chance of finding the kind of full-time ride that he's looking for would be with Wyler given the longtime friendship between himself and the Wylers. If Wyler isn't going to put him in a truck then who will? Don't say Bill Davis Racing because they just announced today that Phillip McGilton will race the #22 full-time next season alongside Mike Skinner and Johnny Benson. It's not likely to be Germain Racing either since Todd Bodine will be in one of their two trucks, and it's likely that a young driver or two will be in their second truck. Not Darrell Waltrip Motorsports either since the #00 truck was sold to The Racer's Group. I wouldn't count on Red Horse Racing either considering Steve hasn't ended up in the #1 either of the two times this season they've made driver changes. Don't hold your breath for Roush-Fenway Racing either - they've got a bunch of young drivers they're working with and Jayski also has an "I heard" item that Joey Clanton will be racing a truck for them next season. Which leaves a lot of mid-pack trucks that Steve likely won't consider.

So while I'm sure there's going to continue to be talk about how Steve is talking to teams in the Truck and Nationwide Series, how this is just a "temporary setback," "never surrender" and about believing in Steve, I'm thinking 2008 is going to be much like 2007 sadly where we won't be seeing much of Steve on the track. The other question is what happens to Jack Sprague? If he's not retiring, and why would he since he's shown he can still win races, maybe there will end up being some truth to the rumor (that was denied) that he's going to end up at Kevin Harvick, Inc. I can see him fitting in well there.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2007

Random Thoughts on Nascar Happenings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 29, 2007

Brendan Gaughan on Diversity

That Brendan Gaughan has three African-American men as part of his pit crew shouldn't be news because it shouldn't be anything unusual. But it is newsworthy because of a continued lack of diversity in Nascar. That's not to say that there are no other minorities working in Nascar - there are. But there's still only one African-American, and no female drivers in Nascar's three highest series. There's still not a significant amount of minorities or women seen working on pit road. In an attempt to rectify the problem - or at least make it seem like they are - Nascar created the Drive for Diversity program. Brendan was asked about whether he hired three African-Americans because of that program. He said,

"It didn't have anything to do with it from my standpoint. I played at Georgetown. I'm offended almost that there needs to be a diversity program. I'm glad they have it. Before I get in trouble by saying that, I'm glad they have it. Because they need it. They need it. But to me, that weighs no factor in who I hire. I will hire a woman to go over the wall for me if she is the best woman for the job. I will hire a man for the job. I don't care. But for me, the diversity aspect had nothing to do with it other than I wanted the best people. So they happen to be black."

Often I don't agree with Brendan on a lot of topics, but this happens to be one that I'm in full agreement with him on. It's unfortunate that the culture in this sport is such that a diversity program is necessary, but it's good that they have one. Rides and other jobs with teams should be given to the person who is best for that role regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or religion, but a diversity program helps ensure that the best people have opportunities and aren't overlooked.

As it turns out Brendan's crew members who are African-American will be the only African-Americans going over the pit wall this weekend during the truck race. Brendan was asked about whether others in the garage area share his attitudes, and Brendan declined to comment. That, as the reporter pointed out, is highly unusual. There isn't much that Brendan won't give an opinion on. And unfortunately that says a lot about what the attitude is in the garage area regarding diversity.

As a Jewish woman I sometimes wonder how accepted I would be in the garage area. There isn't much diversity regarding religious beliefs either, and at times some of my fellow fans close-minded beliefs regarding diversity and religion haven't made me feel too comfortable. I'd like to think it wouldn't be an issue, and that I'd be judged on the totality of who I am as a person, but unfortunately my experience has been that some (in general not just in Nascar) can't see past certain things. It makes me careful of who, and under what circumstances, I reveal that I'm Jewish to.

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

February 16, 2007

Random Thoughts on the 150 Duels

*Have I mentioned how thrilled I am that Michael Waltrip was able to race his way into the Daytona 500?!

*Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans are up in arms about the incident between Michael and Junior in which Michael got into Junior causing him to spin, something that could have been extremely costly to both drivers, but wasn't. Michael admitted after the race that he made a mistake, but that's something Junior should be familiar with. After all, Junior spun Michael so severely in 2005, when they were teammates, that Michael ended up in the wall, with a wrecked race car, and out of the race with a chance for a good finish ruined. Not only that but just last weekend, Junior caused a rather large wreck in the Bud Shootout wth another mistake while he was trying to bump-draft Elliott Sadler. So I don't think Junior has much room to complain about Michael, as frustrating as it probably is to get spun through no fault of his own. Junior ended up finishing second in the first 150, and he'll start the Daytona 500 in 5th.

*I'm astonished that more Toyotas didn't make it into the field. As happy as I am that all three Michael Waltrip Racing cars made the show, I thought that Jeremy Mayfield and Brian Vickers had good shots to race their way in as well. Vickers had a good car but got wrecked, so that had to be incredibly disappointing for him. What really surprised me is that inspite of testing well, and having a fast qualifying speed, Mayfield never seemed very competitive during the 150. Maybe there was so much focus on a good qualifying run to try to lock themselves in on speed, that they didn't do as much with race set-ups. That proved costly, since Mayfield had to rely on Sterling Marlin racing his way in if he was going to make the race, something that didn't happen so Mayfield will sit the 500 out. Somewhere Ray Evernham is probably chuckling. I'm not too surprised that A.J. Allmendinger didn't make the race - his car never seemed to have enough for him to be competitive, so even if he hadn't been wrecked it was unlikely we would have seen him in the show. I hope fans realize it wasn't Allmendinger's lack of experience that got him wrecked, it was all Robby Gordon. On top of several Toyota teams not being able to race their way in, two other Toyota teams had mechanical woes during their 150s - Dave Blaney and David Reutimann.

*I'm also surprised that Paul Menard wasn't able to race his way into the 500. Once David Reutimann was locked in on speed, my picks to race their way in were Vickers and Menard, neither of whom were able to do it. While DEI usually fields strong cars at restrictor plate tracks, in the early going it appears that this season could be a continuation of last season where DEI struggled to give Menard a car that was fast enough to qualify for races. I think Menard should be one of the leading candidates for Rookie of the Year in Cup, but missing races and having non-competitive cars eliminates any hope of that. We'll see what happens as the season goes along, but it may be that DEI isn't up to fielding three cars right now.

*Ward Burton got wrecked in the first duel, which ended any hope he had of making the 500, a race he's won before. Ward was upset after the race and pounded on the roof of his car after the race. Thing is even if he hadn't been wrecked, his chances of racing in weren't very good since he was experiencing some mechanical issues. On top of that, let's face it - Ward was in a Morgan-McClure Motorsports car. And while they were once a successful organization, the results have been much worse more recently. I'm sure that the team is working hard to get better, but Ward should've been prepared to miss races when he agreed to race this car full-time.

*Tony Stewart won the first Duel, and Jeff Gordon the second. Not that anyone really noticed with all the attention being focused on which go-or-go-home teams were going to race their way in. Until Jeff Gordon's car failed a post-race inspection that is, but I'll have more on that in a separate entry.

*David Gilliland continued to have a strong car, finishing 4th in his Duel - I would expect to see a lot of him up front on Sunday as well. Same for David Stremme who finished 3rd in his 150.

*A number of the drivers who didn't make the field complained after the race about how Nascar should have sent the teams home who cheated. That's just sour grapes. A few of those teams wouldn't have made the field even if all the cheating teams had been sent home. Drivers and teams need to be concerned with making their cars as competitive as possible, and race as hard as they can. That they failed to make the show isn't the fault of the teams who cheated, it's because they just weren't able outrace the other drivers who they were racing against for a spot in the 500.

*All three Evernham cars were in the second 150, and Kasey Kahne was the highest finisher in 16th. Seemed like none of them were much of a factor during this race, especially Elliott Sadler. It's going to be very interesting seeing whether Elliott has more success in this car than Jeremy Mayfield did last season.

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

January 16, 2007

When is $15 Million Not a Lot of Money?

Normally something like this wouldn't be of any interest to me at all, but the person who's operated the slots at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas happens to be Michael Gaughan, owner of not only the South Point Casino, but also South Point Racing, which fields the #77 truck for Brendan Gaughan. Apparently for the past 23 years, Gaughan's contract for the slots at the airports has been automatically reviewed because officials at the airport have been too busy worrying about construction projects to want to get involved with putting the slots up for bid, but now a lull in projects has allowed that to happen. Gaughan says that he plans on bidding for the right to keep operating the slots but

"I don't make a whole lot of money off it. The county gets the money."

I suppose that depends on how one looks at it. It's indeed true that Clark County gets 63% of the profits from the slots at the airport. However that still leaves 37% of the approximately 40 million that the slots took in last year for the Gaughan family. That comes out to about $15 million. I guess when one routinely deals with millions and millions of dollars, that does seem like a small amount of money, but to me that's big money!

I have no clue as to how the money that comes from the operation of the slots is used. But one thing's for sure is that for the past three years South Point Racing has been operating a truck out of their own pocket at a cost of about $4 million a year. So that "not a whole lot of money" that the Gaughans make off the slots could be used to pay for that truck three times over. That Brendan is behind the wheel is a lot of motivation to keep spending millions to field the truck, but if they don't find an outside primary sponsor soon, and the results don't improve this season, I wonder if Michael Gaughan will want to continue to spend $4 million a year, plus all the other costs of running a race team, without getting much back?

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

January 14, 2007

Random Thoughts on Truck Testing

There's been a few other interesting items from Truck Testing at Daytona this weekend besides that A.J. Allmendinger will be in a Michael Waltrip Racing truck for a few races this season.

*One of the fastest trucks all weekend has been that of Travis Kvapil. Travis must be thrilled to go from racing subpar Cup cars for the past two seasons where finishing in the top 20 was like a win, to being in a truck that tops the speed charts two days in a row! Mark Martin had a huge amount of success in this truck last season, and I'd expect Travis to pick up where Mark left off. The only thing that could prevent Travis from contending for a Championship is a lack of sponsorship since as of yet the truck apparently still is unsponsored. We've seen several trucks last season without sponsorship, such as the #17 of David Reutimann and the #11 of David Starr, do well in spite of not having a primary sponsor, but there's always a concern that an organization won't want to or be able to put as much money into a team they need to be competitive if there's not any money coming in from outside. Luckily, for Travis, Roush Racing is an extremely well-funded organization.

*Recently, Brendan Gaughan talked about how hard South Point Racing has been working to make changes that will help make the #77 team into one that will contend for a Championship this season. In addition, the team recently switched to Chevy. Their deal with Chevy is structured in such a way that Brendan gets paid based on what his results are on the track. Of course what happens during a test doesn't always translate to the track during actual races, but if things continue the way they've gone for Brendan during this test, Chevy won't be paying him much this season. Although the truck was better today until they experienced some engine woes, the #77 truck has been near the bottom of the speed charts all weekend. In addition, they and Kevin Kroyer, who they get engines from, are still trying to deal with transistioning those engines to Chevy. That doesn't bode well that they're still struggling with engine issues - it's essential that they get that straightened out by Daytona, because it's unlikely that Brendan will be contending for much of anything without strong engines.

*Chevy has the most trucks at testing with 16, followed by Ford and Toyota with nine each. Since Dodge has greatly reduced their involvement in the Truck Series, they have just two trucks at testing, both of which I believe are from Bobby Hamilton Racing target=. It must be very difficult for those from BHR to test in light of Bobby's death this past week. His loss will surely be felt not only this season, but for years to come. I would think that BHR will be extra-motivated to put their trucks in Victory Lane this season. With a veteran like Ken Schrader behind the wheel, who was a good friend of Bobby's, I think they have a good chance of doing so.

*Apparently Ken Butler III will be racing the #00 truck for MWR in a few races this season. I'm really interested to see how he'll do. Both Butler Brothers have been the subject of a lot of criticism from fans who feel that their father, Ken Butler, the President of Aaron's has bought them their rides, since Aaron's sponsors the #99 Busch car for MWR. I think there's no question that their father opened some doors for them, but it's not like they've been thrown into a Busch car or a truck right away. Most recently they've raced Hooters Pro Cup races, so it seems to me that MWR is taking the time to develop them, which they might not do if they had no talent and no real future, but instead were just being given rides to make their father happy. What I think is a little silly about when fans talk about a sponsorship only being about a parent buying their kids a ride, is that in reality it's never only about that. In the majority of cases it's likely that the sponsor stands to benefit from their involvement in the sport due to all the exposure they get.

*Todd Bodine said this weekend that Germain Racing is going to scale down their plans to race Cup this season. Previously they had said that they were going to try to race many of the Car of Tomorrrow races, but now they plan on focusing on trying to defend Todd's Championship. I think that's a smart move. Building the cars, testing them, and then trying to qualify them into the races takes a huge amount of effort, and with how many teams may show up to each race, it may be difficult to even make the races. So that definitely could take resources away from what they do with not just Todd, but also with Ted Musgrave.

*Johnny Benson's seemed to have a pretty good weekend - with a new crew chief and other changes to the team, I wonder how easy it's going to be for him to repeat his success from this past season where he battled Todd for the Championship? It sure would be awesome to see him as Champion this season!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:36 PM | Comments (0)

January 01, 2007

South Point Racing Becomes a Chevy Team

Brendan Gaughan was on Dave Moody's show on Sirius earlier and he said that South Point Racing , formerly known as Orleans Racing, had switched manufacturers from Dodge to Chevy. As part of the switch, apparently the money that Brendan, or possibly South Point Racing, that wasn't quite clear, recieves from Chevy will be performance based. That means that if the #77 contends for the Championship they'll get a lot more money from Chevy than if they struggle. That doesn't really bode well for Brendan, because as I noted last week, Brendan was among the worst of all full-time Truck Series drivers in 2006. While Brendan indicated that they are making major personnel changes at South Point Racing in the hopes of improving their results next season, 2006 was the third season in a row that this organization struggled with issues and problems that prevented them from being as consistantly competitive as a lot of other teams in the series. In addition, the #77 team still doesn't have a primary sponsor, which means that they have no outside funding coming in for the team, other than what Chevy gives them, again for the third year in a row.

While I was thinking about South Point Racing and their chances of being a Championship team in 2007, I was reminded of Brendan's rant on XM about the rookies in the truck series back in May. Brendan thought that the Truck Series rookie class of 2006 were "stupid," know nothing and are worth nothing. In essence he was extremely negative about their talent level. Well, out of curiosity I took at look at the final points standings and discovered that one of those truck series rookies, Erik Darnell, finished three positions higher in the points than Brendan did in 12th. Not bad for a stupid, know-nothing, worth nothing rookie, ay? In addition, another rookie, Chad McCumbee, finished just two spots behind Brendan, in 17th, inspite of racing one less race than Brendan. Aric Almirola, also a rookie in 2006, finished just behind McCumbee in 18th. Now neither McCumbee or Almirola had outstanding seasons, and some would say that the only good seasons in the Truck Series are those that results in top ten points finishes. But it seems to me that a few of the rookies in the series who Brendan was so down on didn't do much worse than he, a nine-year veteran. I wonder if Brendan's outlook on rookies changed any by the end of the season - maybe they don't suck quite as much as he thinks they do.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:36 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2006

Brendan Gaughan Gets a New Crew Chief

A little more than a year ago, Steve Park was released as the driver of the #62 truck fielded by Orleans Racing. At the time Steve and the Gaughans said all the right things about how it was an amicable parting of the ways and made it seem as if it were a mutual decision for Steve to leave the #62 team so he could focus on finding a new ride, and so that Orleans Racing could save money (or something). I guess something must come over Orleans Racing in October because for the second year in a row they've made a major personnel change, this time parting ways with Tony "Rambo" Liberati, who had been Brendan Gaughan's crew chief on the #77 since last season.

Liberati said,

"It was a difficult but mutual decision to leave Brendan and the Orleans team. "We had several good runs during the summer, however the team wasn't living up to its potential so we decided it was time for us to go our separate ways. Brendan and I had a great relationship, but it was time for a change."

I haven't heard who's taking Liberati's place as crew chief so I suppose they might want someone in as a trial run for next season. However, with just four races left to go in the season, it seems like a strange time to make a change. Even stranger considering how highly Brendan had always talked about Liberati and how much he enjoyed working with him.

Brendan's currently 15th in points, which isn't terrible, but isn't outstanding either so maybe Orleans Racing just decided that they needed to get someone in who might help them get better results. But the fact of the matter is that Orleans Racing hasn't been an elite organization in the truck series three years now. Much like Liberati says they had some good runs, highlighted by Steve's win at California, but these days they don't seem to be able to compete with the better teams in the series. Considering all the problems that Steve had to deal with when he was at Orleans Racing from subpar trucks to a huge amount of mechanical problems, to issues in the pits, I'm thinking that Orleans Racing will likely to make a lot more changes than just to the crew chief to improve.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2006

Random Thoughts on the Bristol Truck Race

*Mark Martin won last night's truck race at Bristol Motor Speedway from the pole. What's pretty cool is that he's now won at Bristol in all three of Nascar's highest levels - Trucks, Busch and Cup. I like Mark so I'm happy to see him be successful. However, more often than not, when Mark races in the Truck Series, he completely dominates the rest of the field and it doesn't make for a very exciting race up front, because there isn't much racing for the lead. So far this season in the eight truck races that Mark's raced in, he's won four, including last night, and came in 2nd twice. I'm wondering what's going to happen when he races a truck full-time next season? As much as I like Mark, I don't want to see the same driver in Victory Lane every race. But it's not like Nascar can tell his team or Mark to stop being so good.

*I was thrilled because Michael Waltrip was in the booth for last night's race! I don't know how true it is, but I've heard that his days of being in the booth might be numbered because he might race the #12 truck in a few races that are companion races to Cup races. As much as I like seeing Michael race, and as much as would enjoy seeing him race a truck, I love when he's in the booth working the truck races. Michael is so enthusiastic about the racing and he gets just as excited about what happens on the track as any fan at home does. So as much as I'd love to see him try to win one of these truck races and join the elite group who has won on all three of Nascar's highest levels, I would miss having him in the booth.

*There were two Waltrip trucks on the track last night. I refer to them as Waltrip trucks because technically they're D.W.'s trucks, as he's listed as the owner, but the responsibility for making decisions regarding the trucks seems to have fallen to Michael Waltrip Racing. At any rate, Joey Miller made his last start in the #12 truck and was able to finish 19th, which is okay, especially considering he's a rookie, but not tremendously impressive. I had been hoping that he might be able to finish really strong so that he might attract the interest of another team who might want to put him in a full-time ride. As always, David Reutimann was in the #17 truck. The night started off badly for him since a lugnut problem forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop. That put him at the back of the field but he and the team were able to rally and David ended up finishing 10th, which kept him 3rd in the overall points.

*Chad Chaffin finished 11th in the #59 truck fielded by HT Motorsports. That's the truck that Steve Park used to be in. As nice as it is to see that team have some success, since they're so small and work so hard, it's sad to see the postive results come without Steve behind the wheel, particularly since yesterday was his birthday. Truck racing at Bristol is always exciting and it was very disappointing to me that Steve wasn't a part of it. Seems like since Steve left the team, things have started to look up for them in terms of finding additional sponsorship and some improved results. So it's a shame that he can't be a part of that.

*Brendan Gaughan did a number of interviews yesterday on XM, Speed and elsewhere in which he talked very enthusiastically about his team, and his chances for success. Sherwin-Williams was featured on the truck, and Brendan said that they normally do very well when they have a new sponsor on the truck. Well, unfortunately for Brendan, while they didn't do poorly, he wasn't able to finish any better than 17th, in spite of starting 3rd. I guess this is going to sound silly, but sometimes I feel like Brendan jinxes himself. Not too long ago I popped in on the forum on Travis Kvapil's site and someone, who might be a relative of Travis's, was talking about how many drivers are superstitious and they don't (except for Steve Park) talk about the deals that they're working on for new rides until they're really a done, done deal, because they feel that if they do that it will jinx things and the deal will fall apart. I thought of that last night in terms of Brendan because I feel like sometimes he predicts grand results and they often fall short. Of course every driver is optimistic, and they should be, but there's something about the way Brendan does it, maybe because he's always so excited, that makes me feel like the bar is sometimes set a little too high, so Brendan puts a lot of pressure on himself and his team.

*Todd Bodine continues to led in the points standings with three wins, nine top fives (including a 2nd place finish last night), and 13 top tens. Johnny Benson, who trails Todd by 153 points, also has three wins and nine top fives (also including one last night), but has one less top ten than Todd. I'd love to see Johnny as the series champion at the end of the season, but I think Todd is going to be very hard to beat. Todd actually had a very cool guest in his pit last night - Eric Clapton. Apparently he's a friend of the Germains and had never been to a race before. It sure was surprising to see him there!

*Even though the race up-front wasn't very exciting, I didn't find the overall race to be boring. It's Bristol, where there's bumping and banging and trucks are wiggling and sliding all over. Sure, I'd much rather see a heated battle up-front with multiple trucks contending for the win, but I thought there was plenty of action throughout the track to hold my attention.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:03 AM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2006

Brendan Gaughan Gets a New Paint Scheme; Orleans Racing to Possibly Change Name

Brendan Gaughan's #77 truck will be sporting a revised paint scheme this weekend in the truck race at Nashville but it's not because Orleans Racing finally was able to convince a sponsor to sign on as full-time primary sponsor for the #77. Instead it's because the Gaughan family no longer owns any part of The Orleans. A couple of weeks ago, Michael Gaughan, Brendan's father, sold all his shares in Boyd Gambling back to that company in exchange for the South Coast Hotel/Casino, which will now be featured on the #77 truck, since it's the only hotel/casino that the Gaughans still own now that this deal went through.

I had wondered what Orleans Racing was going to do about the #77 since it seemed unlikely to me that they would want to give free advertising to what is now a competitor, no matter how many fond memories they might have of the time they spent running The Orleans. So I'm not surprised that the South Coast, which will eventually undergo a name change to reflect the fact that the Gaughans are no longer associated with the Coast Casinos, has ended up on the truck. Apparently they're also considering changing the name of Orleans Racing as well. That's probably a lot easier said than done, since that's the name they've been known as for years now, and it's probably somewhat complicated.

There's a lot of pressure for Steve Park fans to be fans of Brendan as well because Orleans Racing gave Steve a ride in 2004. And I am grateful to the Gaughans for believing in Steve when others didn't and making it possible for him to get his first, and hopefully not last, win in the Truck Series. However, Brendan has never been high on my list of drivers that I've liked, even before Steve joined Orleans Racing. In a way it's strange that I'm not a fan of Brendan's. After all, he's outspoken and I generally like those who speak their minds. He's also very fan-friendly and I'm usually very appreciative of those who take extra time with the fans. And Brendan is a non-conformist, who won't let Nascar suck away his unique personality. But often I find myself rolling my eyes at the things that Brendan says and does.

I'm sure a lot of people will assume that I'm not a fan of Brendan's because of how Orleans Racing released Steve - and it's true that I don't care for the way that situation unfolded and how many unanswered questions there still are. (Such as why Brendan said last season that they had to pull the #62 truck off the track because Dodge was pulling their support of truck series teams, yet this season Brendan says that Dodge pulling their support was a myth and Orleans Racing still gets Dodge support). But as I mentioned above, even before all of that went down, I was iffy on Brendan. Even after meeting Brendan in person and talking with him two years ago, I never really warmed to him.

What I'm interested in is what direction Brendan's career is going to take. In the Truck Series, Brendan's had a good year in 2002 and then an outstanding season in 2003. Only thing is that was three years ago and the results since in both Cup and the Truck Series haven't been stellar. Of course in the Cup series he was in the #77, which wasn't very competitive, even after Travis Kvapil got in the car, and Orleans Racing as an organization has seemed to struggle the past couple of years as well. I suppose Brendan can continue to race for as long as he wants for Orleans Racing, but how satisfied can he be with mediocre results? Yet what kind of a ride would he be able to find elsewhere? Unless Orleans Racing folds completely I can't imagine him racing for any other team in the Truck Series and he's stated in the past that he wouldn't go back to Cup unless it was with Orleans Racing, and they certainly don't seem like they're in a position to expand. Maybe Brendan would consider racing Cup for his good friend Robby Gordon, because otherwise it seems like he might be destined to spend the rest of his days struggling to repeat his past days of Truck Series glory.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

June 29, 2006

Harrah's to Sponsor Brendan Gaughan at Kansas

I think this deal is somewhat curious. Why? Because the Gaughan family is heavily involved with the casino business in Las Vegas and normally the #77 truck carries a paint scheme advertising one of their own properties, The Orleans. But this week at Kansas Brendan Gaughan's #77 will sport a Harrah's North Kansas City Hotel and Casino paint scheme. Of course being that this particular Harrah's is in Kansas City it's not a direct competitor with The Orleans, but indirectly they do compete with each other. So to me that stikes me as odd that they would end up on Brendan's truck.

Of course as Brendan noted in the press release, he's long been good friends with Robby Gordon, who Harrah's regularly sponsors so there is somewhat of a connection there. Still, it's not lilke Robby drives for Orleans Racing. However, he did shake down a truck for Brendan during a practice recently, so perhaps there's a possiblity that he could race a truck for them at some point, though I had never gotten the impression that Robby was anxious to race in any truck races.

In the end, since the #77 truck has no primary sponsor perhaps it simply came down to a matter of money and that Orleans Racing needed some.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2006

Brendan Gaughan on Truck Series Rookies and Respect

Brendan Gaughan was interviewed by Claire B. Lang on "Dialed In" on XM yesterday afternoon, and oh, how he unloaded on the rookie drivers in the truck series! Claire B. then talked to rookie truck driver Joey Miller for a response, and there was also input from listeners who called in. All of which made for an extremely interesting discussion about rookies and respect that I think applies not only to the truck series but also to rookies and young drivers in all three of Nascar's highest series.

The way it all came about was that Claire B. was asking Brendan about racing at Charlotte. Brendan proceeded to, and this isn't an exact quote, call all the rookies stupid and say that they're too dumb to know any better in terms of the way that they race! Claire B. was clearly taken aback and asked whether he meant stupid-good and he said no, stupid-bad!! That led into a huge rant about the inadequacies of the truck series rookies and their lack of respect for the veteran drivers, from the way that the rookies race, to how few of the rookies bother to seek out the veterans for advice. Other than Boston Reid, who is Brendan's teammate on paper, thanks to Orleans Racing selling the #62's owner points, and Chad McCumbee, Brendan thinks the rookie class in the truck series race know nothing and are worth nothing! Strong words indeed!

Although I don't care for the way that Brendan delivered his comments, I agree with a lot of his message. Many of the rookie and young drivers, in all three series, don't see to have too much respect for anyone else on the track. They won't just lay the bumper to another driver to move him out of the way, they will bump him so hard that he spins out and wrecks. Or they will run another car over, without checking up, and think nothing of it. I also think that it is extremely important for young drivers to pay attention to what the veterans are doing around them, both on and off the track, and seek out opportunities to learn.There is so much that the rookies can learn about racing, dealing with fans and sponsors, and so much more from the veterans who have been through it all. Nascar is an extremely tough sport and business. Only the strong will survive, and I think that the more help and support that young drivers have, whether it's from members of their own team or their fellow drivers, the more likely it is that a young driver will have a long career and be successful. I think it's very unfortunate that some of the young drivers are so high on themselves that they think they don't have anything to learn - how wrong they are. There is learning that can be done at any age.

Some might think that Joey would have defended his fellow rookies, but on a lot of points he agreed with Brendan. He feels that some of his fellow rookies drive crazy, have no common sense and have absolutely no respect for the other drivers they are racing with. In fact, Joey went so far as to name names, saying that Kyle Krisiloff, is "making himself look like an ass" and embarassing a lot of people! Yikes! He also said that another young driver wrecked him in practice one time and never bothered to come over and apologize, even though the damage to Joey's truck was so bad that his crew had to spend time fixing it. He feels that perhaps some of the rookies were never taught about respect for other people by their parents so the way they treat their fellow drivers may also be the way they treat everyone they encounter - scary! Also, he believes that a problem is that some of the rookies, and he admitted that he is one in this situation, have had their parents fund their rise through the ranks. For some of his fellow rookies, this means that they haven't had to earn their way into a ride like some others have and that effects their attitude. On the other hand, Joey feels that while he has made his share of mistakes, he tries to be careful on the track. That he is aware when he is having a bad day about staying out of the way of the leaders and trying not to race a 20th place truck into 2nd place, because that is only going to create problems.

Being aware of the capabilities of their car or truck is important for the young drivers on every level. Now every driver should try to get as much out of their car or truck as possible, but there are going to be some races, maybe even a lot of races if a driver is with a subpar team, that their car isn't going to be capable of racing up front. But that doesn't stop some of the young drivers from trying to charge through the field like a bull in a china shop! Of course veterans aren't immune to this either. A few times I've seen veteran drivers, who I think are feeling pressure to post good results, over drive their cars and the results haven't been pretty. I think it's also a matter of realizing when the time to race hard is and when the time to ease up might be. When a driver is six laps down that would be the time to ease up and let a lead lap car or truck go by. When they are racing for position at the front of the field, and especially when it's towards the end of the race, that's the time to race hard. Every situation is different and the rookies need to learn what each scenario calls for. However, one thing that I don't agree with is that the rookies should just pull over and let the veterans go by. If some of the veterans feel that the rookies shouldn't ever be racing them hard, then I think they are completely wrong. A rookie driver has just as much right to race for position and try to race their way to the front as a veteran driver, they just need to be smart about it.

One thing that both Brendan and Joey touched on is how a lot of the rookie drivers are given big-time rides and how that effects them. Joey mentioned how much money is poured into teams these days and I agree that has a tremendous impact. For one thing I think that the more money that a team and sponsor spends, the more pressure there is for results. That means that some rookies may feel that they have to drive extremely hard to try to finish at the front of the field in every single race, even when they don't have a car or truck capable of doing that. But also, I think that there are rookies in the truck or Busch series that already know that they are going to have a ride in a higher level, sometimes in the very near future. So those young drivers aren't really trying to prove themselves. In addition, if they feel they won't be racing in the series for very long, they may feel that they don't have to treat those that they are racing with very well. I think Michael Waltrip was wise in not saying that Joey automatically will be in one of his Busch rides next season even though that is what he would like to have him do. Instead Joey will have to show that he can handle racing in the truck series first and only then will Michael put him in a Busch ride. This ensures that Joey still feels that he has to prove himself and will likely be cautious about the way that he races.

One of the callers on XM brought up the age of the rookies and I think that is also a factor. Joey Miller is just 21 years old! Kyle Busch was only 16 when he raced his first truck race! These days youth is prized and it seems as if the teams want to promote drivers younger and younger. But it used to be common for a driver not to reach the upper levels of Nascar until they were in their mid-to-late 20's or even their 30's. I believe Brendan graduated from college before he started racing in the truck series full-time. Some of the other veterans probably raced in the lower levels or other divisions for years before getting their big break, and as someone pointed out on one of the forums, often raced cars that they personally built. That creates a level of experience and maturity that the young rookies simply aren't going to have because they've been thrust into Nascar, with all it's pressures, before they might be fully ready as a driver or as a person. Not to mention if a driver has hands-on experience with working on the cars and trucks they are probably more likely to be respectful of their equipment and be careful about not tearing it up because they understand how much work goes into it.

I also wonder given the age of some of the rookies if they don't fully realize the accomplishements of some of the veteran drivers that they are racing with. Jack Sprague is a three-time truck series champion, but his last Championship was in 2001, at a time when the truck series got even less attention than it does now. Brendan won six races one year... in 2003. What some of the young drivers might be most familiar with about Brendan is how he went to the Cup series in 2004 and was released after only one season in the #77. Mike Skinner is also a former Champion of the truck series but his best years in the truck series were in 1995 and 1996. Yes, I think that the young drivers should take it upon themselves to be familiar with those that they are racing against and be respectful of the accomplishments of those who have come before them, but ten years ago a 21 year old would have been 11!

Something interesting that Joey brought up is how respect should work both ways. He feels that some of the veterans are stuck-up, unapproachable, and have attitude problems of their own. For example, Joey told the story of how a veteran driver came up to him at Daytona, before even a single lap of the race had been run, and jabbed him in the chest with two fingers, telling him that he (Joey) better not get into him or else! Meanwhile, Joey's plan was to drop to the back, ride around and try to stay out of trouble. If the veterans are going to decide ahead of time that the rookies are trouble and treat them as such, then it sets up a hostile situation right from the start. In addition, I would add that if the rookie driver hears that Brendan called them all stupid and ripped into them publically, I'm thinking that's not going to increase the odds that any of those drivers are going to seek out Brendan for advice. Nor might they be likely to approach other veterans having heard that the veterans have sat around and talked about how they pretty much think all the rookies suck! I think that presents a problem - the rookies have no respect for the veterans, so the veterans have no respect for the rookies, who have no respect for... you get the picture. It's an unending cycle where lines are drawn in the sand and sides taken. Brendan said that veteran drivers like Mike Skinner or Jack Sprague will take care of things, meaning some sort of message sent on the track, well, I have to wonder is Brendan also going to be sent a message by a rookie or two who might have taken offense at what he said? And then the cycle continues...

Nascar is a very unpredictable sport and there's no telling what the future might hold. That's why I think the respect issue is so important for both the rookies and veterans. One of the drivers that Brendan thinks is so stupid now might be a driver who could be a possible teammate in the future or even someone that he might want to hire for a second truck at Orleans Racing. Or one of the veterans that a rookie so casually dismissed and then wrecked in the truck series might be someone that they will need to call upon for a favor a few years down the road in the Cup series. Something that I strongly believe is that it's extremely important to treat everyone with as much courtesy and respect as possible because you never know when that person could help you in the future.

I don't think there are any easy answers to what's going on in Nascar in relation to the seeming decline in driver's respect for each other or the crazy way that some rookies are racing. But at the very least I hope that the teams start doing a better job of mentoring their young drivers to prevent some of the problems that have sprung up.

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

January 02, 2006

The Clock Continues to Tick Ever Closer to Testing...

So the final week of 2005 passed with no announcement from Steve Park about what his plans for 2006 are going to be. I hate to harp on the same subject over and over again but then again it's not like there's much other news in Nascar to talk about. I really didn't expect any kind of announcement last week since my guess is that a lot of the race shops are either partially or completely shut between Christmas and New Year's. Maybe we'll get lucky and this week will bring news of a new ride for Steve - my fingers are certainly crossed that will be the case. Unfortunately though, in spite of some items on Jayski's about existing teams planning on making announcements and new teams that have been formed Steve's name still hasn't been mentioned in conjunction with any kind of rumor for a while now. I hope that's simply because there isn't as much interest in the rumor mill in the truck series as there is in other levels because sometimes no news is not good news.

Otherwise, I couldn't help but notice while I was looking over Truckseries.com's 2006 Truck Series Team Chart that Orleans Racing's #62 truck is still listed with Scott Lynch as the driver. I was under the impression that OR was only planning on being a one-truck operation next season with Brendan Gaughan as their only driver but this is the second or third place where I've seen the #62 truck listed as being on the track in 2006. More than likely it's simply a mistake that has been repeated as similar lists get copied and pasted from site to site but I can't help but wonder, especially since the OR site still features Scott Lynch as the driver of the #62 as well. While it's taken OR forever and a day to update their site at times, they didn't seem to have too much of a problem replacing Steve's information with Scott's. Visitors to their site certainly might come away with the impression that Scott is still driving for them but I suppose only time will tell.

And yeah, I have no plans to stop talking about Orleans Racing or Brendan Gaughan just because a certain someone took exception to some of what I posted in this space and said something about it somewhere else. Contrary to his belief discussing these related topics has nothing to do with any kind of effort to paint Orleans Racing or the Gaughans as villians or because I'm a Steve Park fan. Sometimes there are topics that I wonder about that I will continue to ponder for a while, especially when there are things that don't necessarily make sense to me. I will always ask questions, even when I know that the answers aren't always going to ever be answered. Someone who I believe is a former journalist should certainly understand what asking questions and wondering about various topics is all about. Not to mention if Brendan feels free to say what he wants whenever he wants, then fans should be able to as well even if it might not be what someone wants to read. Maybe if conflicting statements weren't made by those at OR at times (or by Steve for that matter) there wouldn't be so much speculation about the organization and the moves that they make.

As long as it's done in a respectful way without insults, anyone is more than welcome to comment in this space or email me privately to discuss anything that they might come across here. This space reflects my opinions and the things that I'm thinking about and I could be wrong just as much as I could be right. When information surfaces that runs contrary to what I've posted previously I make every effort to correct the record since accuracy is important to me. But I have no plans to suspend blogging because someone might not like what I post here at times.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:31 PM | Comments (1)

December 27, 2005

New Casino Operated by the Gaughan Family Opens

Owned by Boyd Gaming and run by the Gaughan family, who merged their Coast Casino properties with Boyd Gaming in 2004, the newest casino in Las Vegas, The South Coast, opened last week to a little more fanfare than wanted. A fireworks display to mark the casino's opening ignited building materials left on the rooftop of one of the hotel's towers which resulted in a visit by firefighters. Luckily, the fire was extinguished quickly with no injuries or major damage and the hotel/casino wasn't even evacuated. Not for lack of trying though - annoucements about a fire emergency were heard over the public address system but they were completely ignored, as were the firefighters entering the building. That's pretty scary. Fortunately it was a minor incident but what if it was a serious fire? Lives could have been lost because the majority of people were assuming that it was a false alarm which it actually wasn't.

Geared to the locals in Las Vegas rather than tourists like the other Coast Casino properties like The Orleans, The South Coast should be a big money maker for Boyd Gaming and the Gaughans. Of course there's a casino and 650-room hotel, seven restaurants, a 64-lane bowling center and a 16-screen movie theater. In May a 4,400-seat equestrian center and a second, 700-room hotel tower are slated to open. At some point in the future there will also be a nightclub/showroom but apparently Michael Gaughan, Jr., Brendan's brother and CEO of Coast Casinos, is still developing plans for exactly what it will entail. When I was in Las Vegas about a year ago we stayed part of the time at The Orleans and South Coast sounds very similar. The Orleans is nice but not as glitzy as the other hotel/casino properties directly on the strip on Las Vegas. The food at the restaurants was good but not quite as top-of-the-line as at the other casinos. Likewise, the rooms were comfortable, big and pleasant but less fancy than other properties.

What's amazing to me is that when Boyd Gaming aquired Coast Casinos in 2004 they did so for $1.4 billion dollars. Of course not all that money went directly into the pockets of the Gaughan family. But it's not an understatement to say that they likely made a significant profit on that sale. With that in mind, it's really hard for me to have too much sympathy for them in relation to the financial problems that Orleans Racing has been having recently that led to Steve Park being released and the #62 being parked four races from the end of the season. Yes, it's not good business to pour an endless amount of money into a business without making a profit and yes, the Gaughans can't just take money from any random place and use it to finance Orleans Racing. But after selling many of their holdings for $1.4 billion and presumably continuing to take in some share of the profits from the Coast Casino properties, including this one, I find it almost laughable that the Gaughans were crying poverty and talking about how they couldn't afford to race a second truck for four races until Scott Lynch showed up, money in hand. Maybe their money really was so tied up that they couldn't field a truck for Steve for those four races but on the surface it sure does appear that they have plenty of financial resources to play with.

Of course the family being involved in a $1.4 billion deal makes Orleans Racing PR representative Mike Snow's comment about Brendan's 2004 Cup earnings that likely totalled several million dollars being "meager" make a lot more sense, though I think it still came off badly. But when the family is used to dealing in billions perhaps a couple of million dollars really doesn't seem like much at all.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)

December 16, 2005

Brendan Gaughan Loses Jasper as His Primary Sponsor

Sponsors come and go all the time in Nascar and the latest to terminate their sponsorships is Jasper Engines and Transmissions who will not only cease to have a Cup sponsorship but are also ending their sponsorship of Brendan Gaughan's #77 for Orleans Racing. By the time testing in Daytona rolls around Brendan might have found new sponsorship for his truck but as of now I think Orleans Racing is in an extremely bad situation. Not only did they have to park the #62 for what they said was financial reasons but they lost the primary sponsor on their other truck and Dodge has withdrawn their support. So other than whatever associate sponsors Brendan has, Orleans Racing has no outside funding coming in as it stands now. And they don't have a lot of time to resolve that problem either given how little time there is between now and when testing starts.

As if it wasn't already obvious based on how poor the performance of the #62 was in 2005, it appears more and more that Steve Park and Orleans Racing going their separate ways was a good thing. I still take issue with the way Orleans racing released Steve with four races to go but to me Orleans Racing appears to be an organization in trouble. They had a significant amount of problems last season fielding competitive trucks and that was with support from Dodge and money from Jasper. I don't see how they can improve on last season if the financial means to do so aren't there. And if the performance isn't going to be there it's going to be very hard to attact new sponsors, something that Orleans Racing struggled to do when Steve was in the #62, no matter how dynamic of a personality Brendan is. A few weeks ago Brendan had said that Orleans Racing would be retiring the The Orleans as a paint scheme for any of their trucks but they may have no choice but to advertise one of the Gaughan affiliated properties unless they want to run a blank paint scheme if there's no primary sponsor.

I can't help but wonder what this means for the future of Orleans Racing. Assuming they can't find a new primary sponsor for the #77 will they fold that team as well and suspend operations, at least temporarily? After all, they pulled the #62 off the track until they found someone willing to pony up the necessary money to keep it going. So if they were in such bad financial straits that they said weren't going to be able to run the #62 for the last four races of the season until Scott Lynch came along how would they be able to field the #77 a full season without support from Dodge or a primary sponsor? Of course with Brendan behind the wheel it's a slightly different situation than it was with Steve since Brendan is the owner's son and general manager. They might decide to spend the money out of their own pockets so that Brendan can continue to race. But for how long?

Brendan isn't the only driver in the truck series to find himself in need of a new sponsor for 2006. NTN Bearings has decided to terminate their primary sponsorship of the #17 driven by David Reutimann for Darrell Waltrip Racing. That decision boggles my mind. Unless the company is having some sort of financial problems it doesn't seem to make sense to me. While Reutimann only finished 13th in the overall points he had a solid season, winning one race, two poles and racing his way to six top fives and nine top tens. In addition, being associated with DW has to have brought NTN a tremendous amount of visibility separate from Reutimann. So I would think that their financial investment would have paid dividends for them but apparently not, or at least not enough.

It should be noted that Jack Sprague and other drivers are looking for primary sponsors as well. So the competition for sponsors has got to be tremendous. Sprague, Reutimann and Brendan are all "name" drivers and it's almost unthinkable that at least as of now, none of them have primary sponsors for 2006. And if those three drivers have sponsorship woes what does it say about the chances for smaller teams with less known drivers to find and keep sponsorship?

I think it speaks to the problems that exist in Nascar currently when it comes to sponsors that even in the truck series, where it is significantly less to sponsor a truck, that there are problems finding and keeping primary sponsors. Teams must be successful unless they want to find themselves in a situation like Penske Racing with Kodak and they have to hope that the companies that they affiliate themselves with are in a good place financially. Some fans feel that the sponsors have too much influence over what the drivers, team and Nascar itself does. But I don't see what choice there is. With the costs of the sport continuing to increase in all kinds of ways, if the teams don't do things to keep their sponsors happy they might find that those companies don't choose to stay which could leave them with a lot less money coming in than they had. Which could then effect how successfully they can field a strong race team or teams.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:54 PM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2005

Interesting Quote by Brendan Gaughan on the #62

In Scott Lynch's post-race report teammate and Orleans Racing general manager Brendan Gaughan had the following to say:

“We wanted to give Scott a chance to show what he’s capable of out on the track,” said Gaughan. “Unfortunately we didn’t give him anywhere near the equipment he needed to do that. If other owners out there knew what he was driving they’d as impressed as we are --- he’s a heck of a little race car driver.”

So if the #62 was a piece of junk while Scott Lynch was driving it to the point where he couldn't show that he's a heck of a little race car driver, what was it like when Steve Park was driving it? Probably not much different. So why then is Brendan being nice enough to admit to the failings of Orleans Racing and the #62 on Scott's behalf but not Steve's? Not that it wasn't obvious. When bad luck wasn't befalling the #62, the truck didn't seem to be as competitive as it should have been to allow Steve to race up front more often than not.

I guess Brendan figures that it's not as important to keep up appearances now since unless something radical happens, and I'm not completely convinced that it won't, the #62 team will be dissolved and the only team that Orleans Racing will field is Brendan's #77. There's no sponsors to woo, no SParkies to keep happy, no promises of giving Steve all the resources that he needs to compete for a Championship and no promises that this season Orleans Racing will give Steve better trucks than they did last. Obviously that didn't work out too well.

Steve will likely get another truck ride from an owner who can see beyond the stats and realize that Steve is a much better racer than the #62 allowed him to show. Unfortunately there's also a lot of people who won't look beyond Steve's 22nd place finish in the points and will assume that because he was released the fault for both of those things lies with him. So I think it's unfortunate that Brendan choose to make those comments in relation to Scott but not Steve. Brendan has good intentions in mind in that he's trying to speak well of a young driver who he is fond of but Steve could also have used someone from Orleans Racing making those kinds of comments about his time in that ride as well.

As happy as I am that Steve got his first truck series win this season, that Orleans Racing gave him a ride in the truck series in 2004 and most of 2005 and for how supportive the Gaughans have been of Steve as a person, Orleans Racing perplexes and disappoints me.

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

October 31, 2005

What Would They Think?

Anyone from NYYFans.com knows that Curt Schilling lurks and occasionally posts at Gehrig38 on our fan forum as well as at Sons of Sam Horn and in a couple of other places. It's been said many times that Steve Park and Brendan Gaughan read Steve Park Central frequently. Michael Waltrip, Kevin Harvick, Brendan Gaughan and other drivers sometimes read and post on the fan forums on their own sites. So the question of what these folks think when they read what fans post on forums on in blogs is frequently an issue, usually in the form of "Gasp! What would driver X think if they read that!?" So I'm wondering really what do they think when they read fan forums? What would they think if they happened to come across my blog?

First of all, I don't think it's too likely that any driver or player spends as much time on fan forums as some fans seem to think that they do, with the possible exception of Curt. A quick read here and there but how much time do drivers and players really have to sit there and read everything that fans say about them? How much do they even care anyway about what fans think? Afterall, our opinions are often formulated on less than complete information about any given situation. That said, I'd like to think that players and drivers understand that we are posting from a fan's point of view and that our opinions are no less valid or worthy just because we've never been behind the wheel of a race car or at-bat against a tough pitcher. My guess is that there are times that they are curious about how they are perceived by the fans. I would hope that the majority of players and drivers respect the right of their fans to express their opinions on a full range of topics both pro and con. I hope that they understand that fans aren't always going to agree with everything that happens. As I'm fond of saying this world would be a very boring place if everyone agreed. I'm quite sure that on any given team and in the garage area not everyone agrees so I don't think the fans have to agree all the time with the team, players and drivers that they are fans of.

So when I post on Michael Waltrip's forum or Steve Park Central the vast majority of time I don't hold back or censor myself out of fear of what Michael, Steve or Brendan might think of what I'm posting. That doesn't mean that I bash or name-call - I'm very against posting in anything but a respectul manner and name-calling really bothers me. But I am outspoken and I'm not always a rah-rah cheerleader about everything that happens. I speak my mind everywhere else, why should I have to change the way I am? That implies that speaking one's mind is so offensive to those people that I shouldn't be doing it. And just exactly what is so offensive about giving honest opinions anyway? I didn't like the way Orleans Racing handled Steve Park's release and I have no problem saying that, even if Brendan might and probably did read it. Fact is to a lot of fans it didn't feel right no matter what all parties have said. I'm quite sure that Brendan has read a lot worse than me wondering what the real story was behind Steve's release when that story seemed to change on a daily basis. I would hope that he has thicker skin than to let one fan's insignificant opinion bother him.

It is possible, though unlikely, that some of these folks could have read this blog since a link to this place is usually in my sig file on the forums that I post in. I say unlikely because I doubt that anyone of significance cares what I think about much of anything. I'm just one voice in a vast sea of fans, many of whom are much more vocal than I am when it comes to their fandom. And let's face it while 99% of the time I'm extremely positive about both Michael and Steve as well as most of the other drivers and players that I like, I'm not the type of fan who usually gushes or only writes about how wonderful everything and everyone is. I'm sure that most of the drivers and players would rather read the more rah-rah comments than someone like me rambling on about what they think. But this blog exists for me to discuss all sorts of topics and if I only restricted myself to talking about how great Steve, Michael, Mike Mussina, Alex Rodriquez and others are then I don't think it would be very interesting for myself or anyone else. But above all this blog isn't written to get anyone's attention. Sometimes I get the feeling that some post on fan forums or create blogs trying to get certain people's attention but I'm writing this blog to satisfy myself, no one else.

However, if I'm being honest I do have to admit that I've written a few entries that I've later removed from public view down the road. This is particularly true after I started posting on Michael's site, just on the very remote and unlikely chance that he wanders by here. I'd guess that I've never said anything here or elsewhere the slightest bit critical of Michael but there are one or two comments about others that he knows, specifically other drivers that he might be friendly with or folks at DEI, that I did feel uncomfortable with. Most likely it wouldn't even phase him to read what I wrote because as I've said previously I stay away from name-calling and bashing so in comparision to what a lot of other fans say what I wrote was probably extremely mild. Still, I figured with those one or two items it was best to err on the side of caution just in case. I almost never post here with what Michael or anyone else might think if they read it because again, odds are they aren't and this is for me not them, but I'm also sensitive to the fact that you never do fully know who is reading what, when. I guess in some ways that means that I do care to some degree what Michael and those around him think, which isn't necessarily a good thing since Michael is a stranger, but I guess that comes with the territory of being a fan - sometimes you do care what your favorite driver or player might think about some things.

Maybe some of us care more than others. I guess my expectations are that Michael, Steve, A-Rod and all the other players and drivers respect the fans right to express our opinions which may be different than theirs. In fact I think I'd be more than a little disappointed if I found out that some of these folks think that all the fans are no-nothing idiots who should just shut the hell up unless they're talking about how wonderful their favorite drivers or players are. I'm not an expert on anything but I'd like to think that I know a little about a lot of things and I'm not an idiot. So that gives me the confidence to speak my mind because I'm hoping that there is some measure of respect, understanding and acknowledgement that sometimes fans do know what they're talking about and have valid opinions. But sometimes it seems like a lot of fans are so afraid of what driver X or player Y might think that they're afraid to give much stronger of an opinion than "Derek Jeter is awesome!" or "Dale Earnhardt Jr. Rules!"

However, I do think it's also possible for some fans to go too far in the other direction. For example, Michael Waltrip fans hate DEI and have taken to ripping DEI on his site every chance they get. When I say ripping I don't just mean harsh words I mean name-calling and personal insults directed towards Richie Gilmore and outright bashing as if driving for DEI was the worst thing that ever happened to Michael. That makes me uncomfortable given that he might be reading some of what is being posted. While I'm sure Michael has heard and read it all we have no idea who Michael might be friends with at DEI, nor was his entire time at DEI awful in spite of having to deal with some issues. I think there's no problem with fans being critical and having hard words for DEI or anyone else but when it comes to calling someone a name, that seems excessive since again, we really don't know who Michael likes and doesn't like at DEI, nor do we really know how he truly feels about everything that went down at DEI. It hasn't always been easy for him there but he did get those four wins, he did get to work with Tony Eury, Jr. this season which I think he very much enjoyed and there's also the connection to Dale Earnhardt, Sr. So it's at those times such as when someone is ripping his crew chief. to shreds that I do wonder - what the heck is he thinking if he reads this? He, like all the other drivers, probably appreciates the passion of the fans and loves that there are so many fans that will support him so strongly. Likewise, while I was critical of Orleans Racing when Steve was released some of what other said was really over-the-top to me. We are all devoted fans of Steve but he isn't a friend or relative to most of us, just a driver we passionately cheer for. The urge to lash into people that harshly sometimes makes me uncomfortable in some situations.

I guess we'll never really know what these folks think when they read fan's opinions. None of the drivers or players can say openly that they think their fans are morons. Maybe that's what they think of all of us. Or maybe not. I just hope they respect the fan's right to say what we think, just as we respect their right to their own emotions, opinions and beliefs. I would never in a thousand years expect my favorite drivers and players to think or believe exactly the same as I do so I hope that they are also tolerant of the diversity of their fans and their opinions.

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

October 24, 2005

Did the #62 Team Give Up on Steve Park?

Martinsville Race Gives Orleans Racing Something to Build On

Post-race reports are mostly just spin and this one from Orleans Racing in relation to Scott Lynch's first race in the #62 is no different. It's amusing how happy go lucky this article is considering Lynch's day was dismal to say the least. But what really caught my attention, as well as that of a few other fans is this quote by Charlie Wilson the crew chief of the #62:

“I think the guys are really pumped up now and you’ll see a little different attitude just with a different face in the seat. They really worked their butts off."

It's possible that this is just an unfortunate choice of words or a quote taken out of context but on the surface Wilson appears to be saying that the #62 team had a different attitude with Steve Park behind the wheel of the #62 and that the team wasn't as pumped up to be working with Steve as they are with Scott. Were they not working their asses off in other races when Steve was with the team? I always assume unless I hear otherwise that every team, regardless of talent level, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of whether they are a tiny team that has little chance of seeing Victory Lane or a huge team that is competitive every week, regardless of whether the team likes their driver or each other, regardless of whether they are a new team or a veteran team, that every team member from driver to crew chief to over-the-wall crew gives 100% effort at all times towards giving their driver the best chance at success possible. That's because not only do the results on the track reflect on a driver but they also reflect on the team and their organization. I would think that all the teams take great pride in what they do and want to do the best job that they possible can at all times. So it would be extremely disappointing to find out that the #62 team was giving less than 100% effort while they were working with Steve.

Yes, it was a very rough season for the #62 team. After the win at Fontana they probably had extremely high hopes about where the season would go and when things didn't go that way it had to be disheartening. Being mired outside the top fifteen in points and having to deal with bad luck and problems almost every race isn't good for team morale. However, there is still much to be working towards such as getting wins and getting themselves into the top fifteen in points even if they are well out of the championship fight. The season isn't over until the last race and it pays to work as hard as possible right to the very end.

That's one thing that I admire about Michael Waltrip and the #15 team. There appears to be no quit in that team. Just like the #62 team they've had rotten luck in the form of mechanical problems, cut tires and getting wrecked by others. But at no time have I ever gotten the sense that the #15 team has ever given up on Michael or each other. This past race at Martinsville is a great example of that. Three times Michael was caught up in incidents not of his own doing. And each time his crew worked extremely hard to get him back out on the track as quickly as possible. And Michael battled his way back through the field in an attempt to gain back the track position he lost in each incident. Even after the third incident that trapped them two laps down the team was still trying various things to make the car better and they were still talking about whether there were any other cars on their lap that they might be able to race for position.

Now it's quite possible that the #62 team was exactly like this in each and every race as well. I've never listened to them on the radio so in all fairness I can't say for sure. But back at IRP when his team ran him out of gas, he stalled on pit road and only one crew member showed up to help push him into his pit, one does have to wonder. And the comments from Charlie Wilson make me wonder even more. A few people have mentioned that Steve has seemed to be lacking in enthusiasm on the radio this season. Others have said that's always been the way he is over the radio so that doesn't mean anything. So again, without having heard him myself it's hard to say for sure. But it seems to me that taking the possibility that Steve wasn't as optimistic about his truck as some other drivers might be about theirs and Charlie talking about the team getting more pumped up with a different driver it seems like it's possible that the relationship between Steve and his team might have started to get stale and sour a bit.

Now I'm sure that if asked all parties would deny that. Anything the slightest bit negative in Nascar is almost always put through the spin cycle so completely that what emerges on the other end bares little resemblance to what the reality of the situation is. Just look at Brendan Gaughan, someone who I had always been under the impression is one of the most up-front people in this sport, something that I've always found to be extremely refreshing, even though I didn't always agree with all of his opinions. But each time that he speaks on Steve Park's release from Orleans Racing or why Scott Lynch is in the truck the story is different. So in all likelihood if there were any internal problems with the #62 team we'll never know about it. But it's comments like the one above make me wonder yet again what was really going on behind the scenes, not just with Steve's release but with the #62 team as a whole this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:04 PM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2005

A Few Additional Items on Steve Park and Orleans Racing

Item: Someone has said that Brendan Gaughan stated that Orleans Racing intended on renting out their equipment which has happened with Scott Lynch now sitting in the #62. I can't verify what it was exactly that Brendan said as I haven't seen this myself and it's possibly something that Brendan said on the members only message board on his website. However, if this is accurate I can't understand why Orleans Racing would insist at first that they were going to park the #62 for the rest of the season if they planned on renting it out which they did in fact do.

Item: Apparently Steve Park will have a new truck ride by Atlanta and he also told Bob Dilner on Speed that in about a month he thought he would have something for 2006. Both very good things and I hope that he ends up in rides that he will be happy in. It would be awesome to see him land in a competitive ride as soon as next week! Apparently though he didn't need to be out of a ride to find a new ride for 2006 after all. I said the other day that no driver ever wants to not be racing and if Steve found himself a new truck ride to finish the season in, or at least run a few of the races in, then I would guess that in spite of how much he talked of being released as a positive he didn't really want to be off the track.

Item: Lynch Mob Motorsports isn't the primary sponsor of the #62 this week. Orleans Racing remains on the truck, with Scott Lynch's name above the door. Perhaps there wasn't time to change the decals. Perhaps the Lynches only gave enough money to be an associate sponsor and a smaller decal is somewhere on the truck. Perhaps the #62 will have a different paint scheme next week and the rest of the season reflecting the new sponsor. Or perhaps Lynch Mob Motorsports aren't really a sponsor, it's simply a case of what many fans are already refering to is as - Lynch buying the ride and referring to them as a sponsor is a way of prettying things up.

Item: Brendan said in his interview before today's race in Martinsville that Orleans Racing will be sticking with Dodge next season in spite of the fact that Dodge will be reducing their support. Apparently Orleans has been affiliated with Dodge for a significant amount of time so I can see why they would want to stick with them, especially since they aren't leaving the truck series all together, just reducing what they will be providing to the teams. However, since Orleans Racing has indicated that they had to remove Steve from the #62 and plan on not running more than one truck in 2006 due to financial reasons related to Dodge pulling their support, I would have thought that they would want to explore their options when it comes to other manufacturers who might provide them with more financial support.

Item: As always despite expressing my displeasure at what went down with Steve and Orleans Racing here and elsewhere in the end what's most important is that Steve ends up happy, no matter who he's racing for. He's an adult who can take care of himself and will make the choices that he feels are best for himself and his future success. No matter what, I will always support and believe in Steve and I hope his future will hold a lot more trips to Victory Lane.

Item: I do appreciate the opportunity that Orleans Racing gave to Steve in 2004 and how much they believed in him. In 2004 he was able to finish in the top ten in points which was awesome! Obviously Steve and Brendan have also developed a personal relationship which is also a good thing. However, as any regular reader of this blog knows, I have not been pleased with the way Steve's season in the #62 has gone. Way too many mechanical problems, pit problems and trucks that wouldn't go. Also, from the start of the season I was concerned about what the return of Brendan to Orleans would mean for Steve and it's not meant good things in my opinion. So my unease with Orleans Racing is certainly not a new thing and it's not just because Steve was released this week.

That doesn't mean that I hate Brendan or Michael Gaughan. I don't know them, don't know the full story of what went down with anything and I have no idea who actually made the final decision that Steve would be out of the #62 prior to the end of the season. However, I think I have the right to express my concerns and opinions about how this situation was handled based on the information that's available to me. I'm just talking about the way I, a lowly little fan, see things - I could be right, I could be wrong but it's my right to speak my mind, just as it's Brendan's right to speak his mind something he does on a regular basis. No one at Orleans Racing, nor Steve, nor anyone else of significance cares about what I think and no one is forced to read what I write.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2005

What's the Truth?: Scott Lynch In #62 Truck

Lynch Takes Reigns of #62

Steve Park Speaks on XM

As the days pass and more is revealed about the totality of what's going on at Orleans Racing it doesn't get any prettier. As fans we are expected to swallow all sorts of excuses and stories from all the involved parties any time there's an incident, parting of the ways or any kind of unpleasant or ugliness that needs to be dealt with. The drivers, the teams and their spokespeople are masters at saying the "right" things that are designed to calm fans who are irate. It's in all parties best interest to pretend that every parting is a amicable one, that every incident is resolved by the next race and that all drivers and owners are all buddy-buddy with each other. Fans like happy endings and for everything to be all "flowers and rainbows" for their favorite drivers. The reality is that we are often fed PR bullshit that is carefully phrased spin that frequently omits important information so all parties can try and make themselves look as good as possible. I suppose I'm even more suspicious than other fans of what gets said because I worked in public relations so I've seen how the game is played.

Maybe I should just accept all the excuses from Orleans Racing or the happy-happy talk from Steve Park yesterday in his XM interview. But I'm having a hard time doing that. Yeah, it's great that Steve was so optimistic yesterday but let's face it - what choice does he have? He can't go on the air and cuss out Orleans Racing, particularly since I have no doubt he still has good personal relationships with people there. And he certainly can't curl up in a ball and give up on himself because then he's not going to get far when it comes to looking for a new ride. Likewise, Orleans Racing isn't going to say anything other than carefully worded statements that are little more than hollow excuses for throwing Steve out the door prematurely. Ironically, Brendan Gaughan has spoken previously about his unwillingness to completely toe the corporate line that was required of him in Cup. Well, it seems to me that he's doing a wonderful job of that as general manager of Orleans Racing.

Yesterday, Steve asked fans to understand that racing is a business and that this was a good business decision. I think I have a fairly good understanding about how the business of racing functions so in light of that I can understand completely why Orleans Racing might not be able to run two truck teams in 2006 given the lack of a primary sponsor and since Dodge will be withdrawing their factory support. Nascar is an expensive sport on any level and in spite of the significant amount of available funds that the Gaughan family has from their casino businesses I also understand that they can't pump an endless amount of money out of their own pockets into Orleans Racing. I also understand that since Brendan is the team owner's son, as well as general manager, he will always get preferential treatment at Orleans. However, what I've been trying to wrap my mind around for the past few days is the decision to take Steve out of the #62 with five races to go in the season. I have an extremely hard time believing that Orleans Racing couldn't afford to race the #62 for the last five races of the season when they had been fielding it without a primary sponsor for the last year and a half. What changed recently?

Apparently what changed is that Scott Lynch approached the Gaughans with some sponsorship in the form of Lynch Mob Motorsports which will now make it possible for the #62 to finish out the season, with Scott as the driver naturally. Of course Orleans Racing is falling all over themselves saying that this is an "11th hour" deal. But I'm highly skeptical of that claim. What's most damning is the appearance of the #62 truck on the official entry list for Martinsville on Monday. Teams are required to submit paperwork to Nascar by a certain date, and I think it must be send via snail mail, in order to be officially entered in each race. If they fail to submit their paperwork by that date then they don't get owner's points and I think the driver doesn't get points either. So I ask - if this deal just came together yesterday for Scott to be in the #62, if Michael Gaughan was dead set on parking the #62 for the rest of the season, how is it that the #62 appeared on the entry list for Martinsville on Monday?

Why else would they have released Steve if not for wanting to put Scott in the #62? Steve talked yesterday at length about how wonderful it is that he's been released because he will now be able to look for a new opportunity for 2006. How everyone thought he was locked in to Orleans Racing so no one knew to contact him about opportunities. How now he can make and recieve phone calls to find himself a new ride. Well, Steve I ask you this - how is it that every other driver who needs a new ride for the following season finds a way to do that while still remaining in their current rides? Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, Sterling Marlin, and Michael Waltrip are just a few of the drivers who managed to do it. In some cases they announced that they were parting ways with their current teams to make it known that their services were available but Kurt and Jamie didn't even have to do that. Neither do all the other drivers whose names are mentioned as looking for new teams - word gets out because the drivers make it known through the "network" that they're available. On top of that Jeff Burton recently said in an XM interview that drivers, even ones with contracts with their present teams, are contacted on a regular basis by other teams to see whether there's any interest in changing rides. So my apologies to you Steve, but I find the idea that it was impossible for you to find a new ride without getting released to be extremely hard to believe.

Finding a new ride, just like finding a new job, is all about selling one's self. Some might say that makes it even more important to be racing those last five races so he can impress potential new owners with what he can do behind the wheel. Though as we've seen all season long it's not like Orleans Racing has really given him the resources to showcase his true driving abilities. But I find it hard to believe that any racer would be happy about not racing. I simply can't buy that knowing what I know about the passion for racing that flows through their veins. Perhaps the explanation is that Steve has a new ride lined up for the remainder of this season. He did say that he would be at Martinsville so perhaps a ride will turn up for him in time to race there even if it's not for points. Or maybe something will be put together for the last four races of the season. But I fail to see the benefit to Steve in being off the track.

I have no idea where the truth lies in relation to what actually went down between Steve and Orleans Racing. I also have no idea who is to blame. So I'm not going to rip into anyone any harder than I have here. I'm not privvy to the inside details about anything so I could be wrong just as much as I could be right. After all, who am I but a fan? But I will say this - I don't appreciate it when folks treat the fans like idiots. We aren't. One of the first lessons I ever learned in PR is that lying is always a bad idea. It might seem like it's a good idea at first to try to fudge the truth to make your client, organization or yourself look better. Sometimes you get away with it, but often you get caught, even if it's not right away, and then you end up looking worse than if you had just told the truth in the first place. Maybe it's just because of my personal experiences but I value truth telling and people who have the courage to be up-front. I understand that it's not always possible and I don't expect it. But sometimes you get exposed to things that test your tolerance level and that really leave a bad taste in your mouth and this situation is one of those times.

Jayski's is reporting that Steve could get a ride from his buddy Jeff Wyler at Wyler Racing. He would then be a teammate to Jack Sprague. Jeff would be extremely supportive of Steve given their friendship and it would be very good to be associated with Toyota given the way they take care of their drivers as well the potential for other opportunities in other series. However, in the short term that could be going right back into a similar situation to what he experienced at Orleans Racing. Wyler Racing is extremely new and I wonder how well they would be able to successfully field two competitive trucks. Of course if they were able to do it and Orleans couldn't well, that would speak to just how bad the problems are in that organization.

Of course this is the problem with getting too attached to any driver, player, team, ride or organization. Steve is right. In the end it's all about business and the bottom line. Everyone is going to do what they think is best for themselves and what increases their chances for success. But inevitably people are going to let you down. Whether it's the Yankees for not re-signing Andy Pettitte or Orleans Racing for releasing Steve. Or maybe you have a negative encounter with a favorite player. It seems that we fans set ourselves up for disappointment by virtue of how passionate we are in our fandom. When Steve went to Orleans Racing many fans immediately became fans of Brendan and the organization as well. People supported Brendan and Orleans just as much as they did Steve. So discovering that in the end, yeah, it's just business, just like it is at every other organization doesn't sit too well. You see the thing is, just because something is "good business" doesn't make it right.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2005

I'm Not Buying What Orleans Racing is Selling

Steve Park Released from Orleans Racing

Apparently the sugar-coating was on the part of Steve Park's people since the official press release from Orleans Racing says exactly what this is in no uncertain terms - Steve has been released from Orleans Racing effective immediately. The release says:

"Orleans Racing was prompted by its indecision regarding their 2006 program and rather than keep Park from exploring other available options the decision was made to free Park from his obligations with the team for the remainder of the year."

Later in the release there's a quote from Michael Gaughan which says all the right things about Steve as well as,

"Steve’s a great competitor and with so many terrific rides available we wanted to let him explore his options for 2006 before the end of the season..."

Please don't insult our intelligence. There is absolutely no reason why Steve couldn't both explore his options for 2006 and finish out the season in the #62. Unless Steve has something lined up starting the next race in Martinsville and I tend to doubt he does on the basis of the little that was said on his site, then he could do what ever other driver who is looking for a new ride does - put out feelers while at the same time finishing out their obligations for their current team. DEI didn't release Michael Waltrip when they mutually announced a parting of the ways, RCR didn't release Dave Blaney when it was announced this past weekend that Clint Bowyer would be in his ride in 2006, Haas-CNC didn't release Mike Bliss when they decided to go in another direction next season and Chip Ganassi didn't throw Sterling Marlin out the door prematurely when it was decided that David Stremme would take over his ride. And make no mistake all of those organizations could have released those drivers early so they too could "explore their options for 2006" but none of them choose to do what Orleans Racing decided to do.

I have no illusions that drivers, teams or anyone else tells the complete truth all the time when they say something publically. I'd like that to be the case because honesty is something that is personally important to me but I used to work in public relations and still dabble in it occasionally. I know how the game works. But there's a difference between spin and untruths. And while I hope I'm wrong I feel like there's some untruths being told here. First of all, the statement on Steve Park's site gives a different reason for his release and states that Michael Gaughan is pulling the truck for the remainder of the season due to Dodge withdrawing their support. However, the above statement from Orleans Racing makes no mention of Dodge and instead indicates that Orleans wants to give Steve the opportunity to find a ride for 2006, something that again, we all know could happen at the same time Steve finishes the remaining five races of 2005.

Obviously not everyone is on the same page about this and that's unfortunate because it makes it hard to know what the truth is. When Michael Waltrip and DEI decided to part ways all sides handled things exactly right. There was one story given and they all stuck to it. I have no doubt that there was plenty that happened behind the scenes and plenty that wasn't revealed publically with Michael leaving DEI. But no one made each other look silly by making statements that claimed different reasons for why there was a parting of the ways. But it's not surprising given some of what we've seen in the past. Even recently the post-race release about Las Vegas
failed to mention one important fact - Steve's night was ended because his engine blew. Spin it all you want but omitting important facts that everyone knew about anyway, well, that just doesn't sit quite right with me. Because now I have no clue about whether there's some important facts being omitted from the statement about Steve's release.

So what's the real story about why Steve was released? Unfortunately it's likely that we'll never know unless Brendan Gaughan who is usually pretty outspoken and up-front decides to let something slip or Steve shocks me and has more to say down the road. It's possible that Dodge played a role, it's possible that the uncertainity for all parties for 2006 played a role, but I'd guess that there's more to the story. Because releasing Steve prior to the end of the season when there's so few races left simply doesn't make sense to me. There has to be other reasons why Orleans did this now. Maybe more will be revealed down the road, maybe we'll just have to read between the lines when other things happen, maybe we'll never know anything else about what went down. But I have no doubt that there is more to this than what the statement on Steve's site and the Orleans Racing press release is telling us.

My fear is that Steve is going to disappear for the next few months. Now it's his business what he chooses to do but it concerns me because making sure your name stays on everyone's lips and that you market yourself to some degree does matter in this sport. Steve has seemed less and less willing to have anything to do with the media the more time that passes and I can't blame him considering some of what was said about him after his accident. But he also does very few appearances outside the track and those won't be happening now that he has no team. In addition, Steve's website is rarely updated. Big deal? Yeah, it's a big deal when the fan forum on Steve Park Central and even this blog are a better source of information about even the basics like Steve's results in races than his own website. Even his own fan club doesn't do much in terms of disseminating information - there's no newsletter, no emails, no fan forum on his website, no fan club meeting, all things that fan clubs commonly do. The people who have been best informed, some might say the only people who are informed, about what Steve is up to are those who talk to him at the track. Bottom line is that it's sometimes impossible to know anything about Steve or what's going on with him. And that was when he had a ride. So if no one knows what he's doing, if no one hears from him for months at a time, if fans who aren't die-hard Steve Park fans forget who he is, then the decision makers in the garage area are going to forget who he is and what assets he can bring to a team.

And let's be clear Steve does have plenty of assets that he can bring to a team. Most importantly he's shown that he can race up front and win when he's given a strong car or truck. He's incredibly fan-friendly and as a result has a very large fan following who will support any team he races for. He would also represent any sponsor well. So why has Steve been released by two out of the three organizations he's been with and didn't have his services renewed with the third? That's a big mystery to me because it simply doesn't make much sense to me. Being released from Orleans makes the least sense of all to me because he won a race for them this season, has made the most of poor trucks and has done everything that's been asked of him. Meanwhile Orleans hasn't really held up their end of the bargain considering they said that they would make every effort to make the #62 into a championship team and they couldn't even race well enough to be a top ten team.

What gets me is that this is what I had feared for Michael Waltrip. From the start of the season I felt that Michael wouldn't be back with DEI in 2006. So I worried that once that decision was made final and particularly if he wasn't in the Chase for the Champsionship DEI would release him before the end of the season and put Shane Hmiel or Martin Truex, Jr. in. Hmiel tested positive for drugs and apparently DEI wants Truex to run for rookie of the year in 2006 so that thankfully made the likelihood of that happening remote, if it was even something that DEI was considering in the first place. I just never thought this would happen to Steve. The Gaughans have always spoken so highly of Steve and it's always been said what a classy organization they are. Well, I don't think Orleans handled this in a classy or an appropriate way. Being released is just a nicer way of saying getting fired. And I hate that for Steve. Let him finish out the season in his ride, let him keep his diginity and not have to have being released again be on his resume. Steve deserves far better.

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

Confirmed: Steve Park Parked for Remainder of 2005

From Steve-Park.com:

Due to recent cut backs in factory support from Dodge; Mr. Gaughan and Orleans Racing have decided to sideline the #62 Orleans Dodge for the remainder of the 2005 Craftsman Truck Series season.

Steve will keep the website updated as far as his plans for the 2006 season, once they are finalized. Steve will also like to thank all of the fans for your past and continued support.

Thank you,

Steve Park Motorsports

First and foremost I feel absolutely horrible for Steve. If there's one thing worse than racing a non-competitive truck as he's had to do so many times this season it's not being able to race at all. This also has to hurt considering what a good personal relationship he has with the Gaughans to have the rug pulled out from under him in terms of his professional relationship with them. They can phrase it any way they choose but Steve has just been released. And that doesn't sit well with me. I simply can't understand why it was necessary to pull the truck off the track before the end of the season. That boggles my mind. I had heard talk that perhaps Orleans would only run one team next season and that would just be Brendan Gaughan's #77 but why did this have to happen now?

On Jayski's it says that this is related to Dodge money and frankly Michael Gaughan complaining about a lack of available funding causing him to do this is laughable. This is a man who pulls in $16-17 million yearly just from operating the slots at McCarron airport in Las Vegas and has no shortage of money coming in from his casino businesses. Yes, you don't pour an endless amount of money into running two truck teams without getting much back but to pull the #62 when there are five or six races left in the season? I'm having a hard time understanding how it could be that the financial means weren't there to keep running the #62 for the remainder of the season. Especially since as far as I know Dodge was going to be pulling their support starting next season. However, if finances did play into this decision it shows why not having a primary sponsor on the #62 was absolutely deadly, as I've harped on all season long.

Prior to the start of this season I expressed concerns about Brendan being both General Manager at Orleans Racing and also driving the #77. It appears those concerns were justified. I felt that it would be difficult for Orleans to run two teams successfully and I worried that if there were choices to be made that Brendan's team would get preference. He is the owner's son after all. That seems to be exactly the way things have played out. Brendan's team had the primary sponsor, got the new crew chief to turned that team from an also-ran into a contender for wins and in more than half the races that Brendan has raced he's finished better than Steve. This in spite of the fact that prior to the start of the season Brendan said that Steve's #62 team was the priority and that they were going to do everything they could to get Steve a Championship. Well, they failed miserably at that.

Yes, Steve did win at Fontana in February and for that I will always be grateful to Orleans Racing for making it possible for Steve to get back to Victory Lane and quiet some of the doubters who still insisted on viewing him as damaged goods. But otherwise this season has been an utter disaster for Steve and the #62 team. Race after race was filled with mechanical issues, set-up problems, trucks that just wouldn't go and pit problems. Seemingly every single race featured some sort of problem that Steve had to overcome. Which meant that in spite of that wonderful win early on, he was mired in 17th in the points. Steve is a much better driver than that but no driver could do much with what he was given. And that's always been my issue with Orleans Racing - none of the problems ever seemed to be addressed in a definitive way that would allow the #62 team to be more competitive. And I found that attitude very troubling considering the #62 team was supposed to be a championship contender and Orleans Racing is supposed to be one of the better organizations in the truck series.

So what does Steve do next? Well, based on the statement on Steve's site it sounds like he's focusing on 2006 rather than looking for another ride to finish out 2005. Maybe he'll make spot starts for someone - I'd love to see Michael Waltrip put him in a car for a race or two just for fun - but my guess is that Steve is more likely to just use the extra time to ride around on his motorcycle and figure out what he wants to do in 2006. And personally, this may upset a few people, but I think he needs to give some serious thought to what his future in racing holds, if he hasn't already. The fact of the matter is that the way of the Nascar car world is that the emphasis is on youth and Steve isn't in the most desirable age bracket anymore. Ideally I would like to see him in a quality ride in 2006 in any series but I'm not sure the going is going to be so easy for him when it comes to looking for a new ride.

I'll probably have more to say on this later and over the next few days but for now I'll just close this out by saying as I've said before that above all, no matter where life takes him, I just want Steve to be happy. And whether he's racing or not I will continue to support and believe in him.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2005

What Does the Future Hold For Steve Park?

This entry is for all the people who have been intimidated out of openly discussing their thoughts about Steve Park and his future in racing. For those people, and you know who you are, I write this blog entry. And in case there's any confusion for those people who feel that this is a topic that should not be discussed - This is my blog.

While I've watched racing since I was a little girl the first driver that I ever became a die-hard fan of is Steve Park. I've discussed before how I became a fan of Steve's and some of the reasons why I like him so much previously so I won't go into here but it can pretty much be summed up by saying that Steve has a tremendous amount of qualities to admire both on and off the track. I believe with all my heart that Steve is a talented driver who can race up front and win when he's given the equipment and support that will allow him to do that. I will support Steve 110% no matter what he does, in racing or otherwise, and I will remain a fan of his long after he's raced his final race. What matters to me more than anything is that I want Steve to be happy, truly happy, because he's had to endure so many tough times in his life.

I say all this because I want it to be crystal clear that I have not now, nor will I ever stop believing in Steve, give up on him as a race car driver or think that he doesn't have the talent to race in Nascar. But increasingly this season I, and a number of other people, all die-hard fans of Steve, have started to wonder how much longer he'll be racing in Nascar. A few years ago I never would have thought that there would be any doubts that Steve would race well into his 40's. Sometimes this season I've worried that Steve won't be racing past this season, let alone several years in the future. That's not because I don't think Steve can race his way into Victory Lane - far from it. But I'm getting concerned that the direction that Nascar is going in combined with less than steller results this season may prematurely end Steve's racing career. And sometimes I'm not sure that Steve would be all that unhappy about that.

Of course I'm not privvy to Steve's mindset or how he thinks or feels about much of anything other than what he chooses to share publically which to be frank isn't much these days unless one encounters him at an appearance or at the track. But what I do know is that when you have a 39-year old driver who is 17th in points in the truck series and has done little of note on the track since February, it's not making a positive impression on the decision makers in this sport who hire and fire drivers. The worst part is that being 17th in points isn't because of anything that Steve is doing. It's because he's had to deal with countless engine problems and other mechanical failures, problems in the pits and trucks that just won't go or allow him to race up front. But the cold hard truth is that when it's all said and done many times it's only the fans who look deeper into the numbers and see that often Steve has been running up front only to have his day ruined when the electrical system goes or some other misfortune befalls him. I truly think that any driver could be put into the #62 and the results would be no better.

I would be surprised if things remain status quo at Orleans Racing next season. In fact I'd be disappointed if that's what happened. I have no doubt that everyone at Orleans Racing thinks very highly of Steve as a person and gives 100% percent effort towards doing their jobs the best that they can but the fact of the matter is that fielding two teams isn't working out too well. The #77 team with general manager and son of the owner, Brendan Gaughan has out performed the #62 team for quite some time now. That in spite of the fact that the #77 team was supposed to be the just-for-fun team and Steve's team was supposed to be the primary team that every resource would be put behind to make every effort to win Steve the Championship. Now despite missing two races, Brendan is only two spots behind Steve in the points and has finished better than Steve in more than half of the races that he's been in. Meanwhile, week after week the #62 seems to struggle to race better than mid-pack. And I can't see how that can continue into next season.

I've harped on the lack of a primary sponsor for the #62 on more than one occasion and I strongly feel that has contributed to some of the issues we've seen this season. Sponsors are what makes this sport go 'round - there is no two ways about that. Oh sure, The Orleans is on the truck but that is a family owned business. There is no primary outside sponsor to answer to, no outside sponsor to put pressure on the team for good results and no outside sponsor that gives Orleans Racing big money to have their logos on the truck. I have no idea why in two seasons Orleans Racing has been unable to find a full-time primary sponsor for that truck because one would think that with a driver who can win races, is incredibly fan-friendly and would represent any sponsor incredibly well there would be sponsors lining up for the chance to get on the #62 truck. But that's not happened. So Orleans Racing could easily eliminate the #62 team for next season and stick with just the #77 team which has a primary sponsor and has seemingly been getting top ten after ten, race after race. I'd love it if they went the other way and made the necessary changes to the team to make them a powerhouse with Steve behind the wheel but will they do that? If that didn't happen this season when they said that it would, why would it happen next season?

So that makes me wonder where Steve will be next season. Maybe still with Orleans Racing. Or maybe not. I highly doubt that Steve is happy racing this way. Especially when I'm starting to feel shades of what went on at Richard Childress Racing when Steve was in the #30 Cup car, an experience that Steve has since referred to as a "mistake." He was clearly miserable in 2003 in that ride and while I know he is a thousand times more happy in the truck series and at Orleans Racing, I can't help but wonder if he's starting to look at what his options might be with other teams. And there's always the possiblilty that when Orleans Racing makes changes for next season one of those changes will be to part ways with Steve.

So where does Steve go from there? That's what worries me. The push in Nascar, at least on the higher levels, is towards youth. As much as I'd love to see Steve in a quality Busch or Cup ride realistically I don't think that's going to happen. If he'd be willing to settle for a subpar ride maybe he could race on those levels but I don't think he'd want to settle, nor should he, considering how much I think his career has suffered from being in lousy rides that weren't competitive which led to people assuming that he was damaged goods when he wasn't. So if he leaves Orleans Racing it will probably be for another truck team and I hope there is one out there that sees past the points finish. There isn't as much pressure in the truck series for success as there is in Cup but there are still expectations. Teams want their trucks to race up front and I worry that when those that pay attention to these things see Brendan up front all the time but not Steve they will come to some conclusions that might not be very good ones about Steve.

What I've come to wonder about is whether Steve would be that broken-hearted if he didn't have a ride for 2006. Let me make it clear that I'm not doubting Steve's passion for racing. But other than last season he's had to deal with quite a few non-competitive cars and trucks the past few seasons and I think that would wear on anyone. His frustration has shown on several occasions this season and I highly doubt he's satisfied or happy with what his team has achieved thus far. So part of me wonders if he wouldn't be just as happy riding his Harley around the country with his girlfriend on the back as he is racing when he's stuck with trucks that aren't capable of doing much. Steve is a very strong person, that much is clear given how hard he worked to come back from his accident and race again. But even the strongest of people reach their breaking point eventually. And I'd guess that the older Steve gets the less and less appeal racing non-competitive trucks has.

Whatever Steve ends up doing in 2006 and beyond I hope that it's what will satisfy him and make him happy. Not what he thinks he has to do otherwise he will disappoint someone. Not what he thinks that his fans want. What he wants to do. I know full well that doing what he wants isn't always what happens but it's of utmost importance that Steve lives his life for himself and not for anyone else. The happiest I've ever seen Steve was when he won the truck race in Fontana earlier this season. I've never seen him smile so much or look so overjoyed. And seeing him that overwhelmingly happy has really made me want nothing more for him than for him to feel that good on a regular basis - I hope that no matter where his journey in life takes him that's what happens.

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

September 04, 2005

What Makes a "Good" Race Team?

Missing Ingredient Added to Orleans Racing Mix

The above article is on the Orleans Racing website, presumably written by the PR staff there and it's an interesting article about how the fortunes of Brendan Gaughan and the #77 changed when Tony "Rambo" Liberati came aboard as crew chief. A lot of that is attributed to good chemistry between Rambo, Brendan and the rest of the crew. But there's a few other interesting items in this article other than Orleans Racing patting themselves on the back for getting Brendan and the #77 team back on track.

The biggest thing that jumps out at me is this comment by Brendan, who is also the general manager at Orleans Racing about Steve Park and the #62 team.

"Steve Park and the 62 bunch has been the steady group. They’re running good. Steve has had that snakebite thing for awhile. But now we’ve got all the trucks at the shop to the point where everything is back where we think it needs to be. Now we think not only about consistency but we think we can go out and win."

I'd like to know how what the #62 team has done qualifies as running good lately? Yeah, Steve won at Fontana but that was the second race of the season and it's been a long time since then. Or steady for that matter unless Brendan means steadily having to deal with issues in almost every race. Yeah, there was definitely some bad luck that Steve experienced but it's seemed to me that he's also had to deal with trucks that aren't stellar and pit problems. That is not bad luck. I believe the #77 team is capable of winning but the #62 team? Steve is definitely a driver capable of taking a good truck to victory lane and he proved that earlier this season but I'm not convinced that the #62 team is capable as a team of getting back to victory lane. Winning teams simply can't make mistakes on pit road, winning teams have outstanding trucks and winning teams do not have parts breaking on the truck on a seemingly regular basis.

I would also be extremely disappointed if Brendan and Orleans Racing are truly satisfied with how the #62 team is performing this season. Because as far as I'm concerned being 17th in points isn't where I envisioned Steve being at this point in the season, particularly given how Steve, Brendan and everyone else was talking about how the #62 team would be contenders for the championship this season. That's quite far from the reality of how the season has turned out. A previously strong organization like Orleans Racing should not be satisfied if what is supposed to be their primary race team is not even in the top ten in points let alone contending for the Championship.

With others I'd say that I wouldn't expect them to say anything but the "right" things about how everything is rosy even if it's not. But this is Brendan Gaughan we're talking about who generally doesn't hold anything back and says exactly what he wants. He was pretty open about how they made major mistakes early on when it came to putting the trucks together and even in this article he refers to what a mess they were in to start the season. Of course Brendan isn't going to rip his employees, nor should he. But I would think if he truly felt that the performance of the #62 needed some work he might say something to that effect. But he didn't. And I think that's unfortunate because it means that there probably aren't too many changes on the horizon for the #62 team.

Brendan also said that soon there will be a link on the Orleans Racing website so that fans can listen in on the #77 team communications over the radio during races. I have no idea if that means live or not but that would be pretty cool. But will the #62 team's radio communications also be available on their site? That's what I'd really like to listen to so I can truly know what's happening with them each race. Though from what's been reported by those who have gone to races as of late perhaps they wouldn't want to let fans listen in to some of Steve's frustrations during some races which can take the form of lots of cursing! But I do hope that they have both feeds up there live. I love listening in to Michael Waltrip's radio communications via Trackpass and it really helps me have a better sense of what's going on with the #15 team as well as the race overall.

Another item of note is that Rambo is apparently growing his hair long so he can eventually cut it off and donate it to Locks of Love, an organization that takes donations of long human hair to make it into wigs for children who are fighting cancer and have lost their own hair due to treatment. Brendan is also mentioned but it's not clear as to whether he is also growing his hair long to eventually donate it. Either way it's awesome that Rambo (and maybe Brendan) is doing that! I should consider growing my hair super-long to do this too since my hair grows pretty fast...

Posted by silverdsl at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2005

Steve Park Finishes 15th at Nashville; Brendan Gaughan 6th

David Reutimann First Career Truck Series Win

I guess I should be happy. Steve finished 15th in the truck race in Nashville. And I am happy that he had a fairly decent finish. But considering how good the truck was in practice and early on in the race, I'm mystified by how he ended up only finishing 15th. Meanwhile teammate Brendan Gaughan ended up with yet another top ten, which allows him to move up to 19th in the points, just one spot behind Steve in spite of having missed two races.

Both Orleans Racing teams seemed really dialed in to start the weekend and I had high hopes that it would result in top tens for both drivers. And for a while it looked like that would be the case. Despite having to start at the back of the field due to a spin during qualifying which necessitated changing tires, a no-no on a inpound weekend, Steve had made his way up into the top ten. But he couldn't stick there. After a restart Steve started moving backwards, as far back as 18th at one point. He was able to rally a little thankfully and a late-race wreck by Ricky Craven allowed Steve to eventually finish 15th. Just seems like a disappointment after how great the truck seemed in practice. I'd love to know what, if anything, went bad to cause Steve to lose positions at the end but unless someone who was at the race comes back with a report of what was said over the radio, we may never know considering how much was left out of the offical Orleans Racing post-race report last race.

I think the worst thing is that a 15th place finish dropped Steve back a position in the points. Finishing in the top ten in points is highly unlikely but finishing in the top fifteen is certainly achievable and should be a goal for the team to strive for. I keep waiting for this team to go on a major run and put together a string of strong finishes to lift themselves in the points. They won a race early on in the season so they are certainly capable of running well but the fine finishes, and by that I mean top fives and top tens, since then have been extremely few and far between.

Meanwhile since adding Tony "Rambo" Liberati as crew chief Brendan Gaughan has come on like gang-busters. Had Rambo been with this team from the start there's no doubt in my mind that Brendan might be running for the championship right now. Instead he's in 19th place and rising, something I think he will continue to do. I'll be surprised if Brendan doesn't win a race over the last nine races. They are that good of a team right now. On the other hand, as great of a driver as Steve is, I'm not liking his chances of contending for a win right now. There is just too many issues that the #62 team seems to have from issues in the pits to issues mechanically. I hate to say it but even during this past race when Steve was in the top ten I didn't feel confident that he was going to stay there. Not because of something that he would do - he is certainly capable of racing up front. But because something always seems to happen more often than not to take him out of contention for a strong finish - and something did at Nashville. Not that he finished horribly by any means but it wasn't the top ten that the #62 needs to get into the top fifteen in points.

On the other hand things were much happier for David Reutimann and his truck owner Darrell Waltrip. His win at Nashville was his first career truck series win and it's always awesome to see someone get their first win like that! The show of emotion, the happiness, it's always clear how much a first win means to a driver.

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

August 06, 2005

Put a Fork In 'Em - Another Poor Finish for Steve Park

Runs Out of Gas and Stalls On Pit Road, Finishes 30th

Bad luck has plagued Steve Park all season and last night at Indianapolis Raceway Park was no different. The truck didn't seem to be outstanding to begin with but Steve was able to gain a few positions from where he started the race in 18th. However, both Orleans Racing crew chiefs decided to gamble on fuel mileage. Staying out while other trucks pitted put Brendan and Steve out in front of the field. Hoping for a caution they continued to stay out until they no longer could. Brendan ran out of gas as he got into his pit stall and I immediately knew that meant bad things for Steve who was still out on the track. And sure enough we soon saw Steve stalled at the start of pit road - out of gas. By the time Steve was able to get back out on the track he was eleven laps down and could finish no better than 30th.

I've got no problem with a crew chief taking chances. It can pay off big dividends and has for the #62 team before. However, when the team really needs to put together a string of strong finishes to raise them at least into the top fifteen in points, those gambles better pay off or at the very least not hurt the team. And in this case it hurt a lot. Yet another poor finish for Steve for reasons out of his control. And this far into the season as the title of this entry reflects - stick a fork in 'em, they're done. Let me be clear - I still believe in Steve, I still support him 100%, I still think he is very much capable of winning races on any level and I still think he could end up in Victory Lane before this season is out if things go right. However, I think Steve's chances of finishing well in the points, which is no small matter, is looking pretty dim.

Of course the #62 team could go on a huge run starting with the next race and prove me wrong. Orleans Racing is no fly by night operation and they should be more than capable of fielding two strong teams. However, it seems like every week Steve has some sort of issue to deal with - mechanical problems from engines blowing to countless electrical problems, pit problems, running out of gas, trucks that aren't set up right, the list goes on and on and that doesn't include the times that he's been wrecked by someone else. No team has a perfect season but Steve is a driver that should be contending for the Championship in the truck series right now.

I also wonder what happens when Brendan Gaughan leapfrogs over Steve in the points. Note I said when, not if. The #77 team also struggled mightily at times this season, even failing to qualify for a couple of races. But after the addition of Tony "Rambo" Liberati as crew chief, the #77 has really been outstanding, racking up quite a few top tens. Which means that Brendan is now 19th in points. Still not very high but considering he hasn't raced every race is impressive. And given how well they're racing I think there's a good chance Brendan will be even higher by the end of the season. But how is that going to reflect on Steve? Brendan has said that Steve was the priority at Orleans and that they wanted to do everything they could to put him in a position to race for the Championship. But now that he won't be and is going to have to fight just to finish the season in the top fifteen, how will that effect things?

I can't help but worry about what 2006 is going to bring for Steve. Maybe everything will be fine and he will be back at Orleans Racing with all parties understanding that Steve has simply been the victim of bad luck. But often cold, hard numbers win out and the driver is blamed for things not of their own doing. The Gaughans are very supportive of Steve and think very highly of him. But business is business and I'm quite sure that they want to see both of their teams higher in the points. If they give Steve the tools to work with he is more than capable of putting the #62 in Victory Lane again - I just hope he continues to get that chance assuming that's what he wants. For all I know Steve is entertaining thoughts of leaving Orleans - he can't be happy with the way things have gone this season. Maybe it's a done deal that he'll be back at Orleans or it could be a very interesting off-season.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2005

Gaughan Family Operates Slots at McCarron International Airport

Check Those Bags and Try Your Luck

McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is filled with slot machines - 1,300 of them to be exact - which are used continiously by travelers killing time while waiting for flights or before heading elsewhere in the Las Vegas area after they get off of a flight. With over 41 million visitors a year either walking by or better yet stopping to play the slots at McCarran Airport, that makes it the biggest commercial casino in the country and possibly the world. Revenue from the slots are split between the airport, which pays for the biggest part of their operating costs, and the operator, one Michael Gaughan of the Coast Casino chain and owner of Orleans Racing.

Gaughan has been operating these slots via Michael J. Gaughan Airport Slot Concession for 20 years. He gives the airport 86.5 percent of the gross revenue, which apparently covers the right to operate the slots. So last year McCarran Airport apparently took $38.5 million of the total take of $54.4 million. Which left $16-17 million for Gaughan, which probably doesn't seem like much particularly when compared to the revenue that probably comes in from Gaughan's other casinos. However, Gaughan says in the article that the revenue from the slots in the airport have increased "20-fold" in the 20-years he's been operating the slots. So the profit has continued to increase and presumably will as the years go on.

I always wonder where the money to run Orleans Racing comes from. Because obviously they can't just take a chunk of change out of the slots at McCarran Airport and bring it over in a truck to Orleans Racing, even though both operations are owned by Michael Gaughan. A few months ago on Wind Tunnel Brendan Gaughan said that his father, Michael, pays for everything at Orleans Racing, including his salary out of his own pocket. Which of course runs contrary to what a certain Orleans Racing PR person said on SPC about Brendan being the one to foot the bills but that's a whole other story. In any event we'll say the Gaughan family in some way, shape or form fields Orleans Racing from their personal money, which based on the various articles I've read is significant. However, I'm sure they don't want to throw all their own money into Orleans Racing so yet again I say: I wish that #62 truck of Steve Park had a primary sponsor. I think an influx this season of some additional revenue from a sponsor or other source might have helped prevent some of the struggles and challenges that Orleans faced as they fielded two teams this season.

The business operations of the various teams always interests me. Most team owners have to have a significant amount of personal wealth to start a team and keep it going but as with the Gaughan family they don't want to sink an unended amount of their own personal money into their team or teams. I guess in an ideal world the sponsors would pay all the bills. But I imagine that's not the case for all teams, particularly as the costs for racing continue to spiral upwards. I know some of the businesses outside of racing by which some of the various owners finance their companies - I'm sure it's all a very complicated process involving lots of accountants!

But just in case the money from the slots at the airport goes directly back to racing operations Steve Park and Brendan Gaughan fans should gamble a lot at the airport!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2005

Steve Park Finishes 8th!

Nice run for Steve Park and the #62 Dodge at Kentucky - an 8th place finish. That had to feel good. Steve was as high as 5th at one point but a late race pit stop put him back to 11th. He rallied back and appeared to be moving nicely towards the front once more but suddenly he started dropping back and the rest of the race he hovered around 9th-10th, until the last few laps when he ended up 8th. Unfortunately despite the fine finish, Steve didn't move up any in the points so he remains in 18th. I really thought he might move up a spot or two. The #62 team is apparently going to have to put together a very strong series of races to make any progress in the standings.

Tomorrow is Brendan Gaughan's birthday but it turned out to not be a very good birthday weekend for him as he was caught up in a wreck. At first it appeared he might clear it and be fine but someone came up and hit him, sending him into the wall. Brendan was eventually able to return to the track but he finished 29th, which keeps him in 22nd in the points.

The trucks are off next week but return to action on the 23rd in Memphis. Hopefully it will be a good race for both Orleans Racing teams.

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

July 09, 2005

Steve Park's #62 Team Running Out of Trucks

At Sparta Park Aims to Dodge His Foes

This article details some of the bad luck that Steve Park and the #62 team have experienced this season and how they hope to have a good run tonight in Kentucky. In the course of the article it's mentioned that Steve's gotten into so many wrecks, mostly not of his own doing, that the team is starting to run low on trucks. I'm sure they will not get to the point where they're on the verge of running out of trucks but what does a team do if they are down to their last truck or car? I assume that every team is constantly working on building cars and trucks but considering that they have to work on getting them ready for that week's race I imagine it's a slow process to build news ones from scratch. I wonder if it's ever happened if a team has run out of cars or trucks completely? Maybe to a smaller team.

Another item from that article is this comment by Brendan Gaughan: "When you have two or more teams, you always hear of one team having better equipment. Steve is in the position where his other teammate is the general manager, and if it comes down to it, and we have two trucks that are very similar, he's probably going to get the better one." Probably? Or will? That's the problem when one of the drivers is also the general manager who is making decisions about the teams. Brendan is a great guy so I have no doubt that he wants the best for Steve as much as anyone else. However, Steve and Brendan aren't separated by all that many positions in the points, though as of now Brendan has just been wrecked out of tonight's race so he will take a hit in the points. Brendan is a racer and every racer is intensely competitive - I'm quite sure he wants his own trucks to be the best they could possibly be as well. So I suspect it's probably harder than Brendan makes it sound to give up the best truck if he's ever in a position where that has to happen. Not that he won't, but he is a human being and a racer so giving yourself the lesser equipment can't be easy.

But I think the goal should be to make both teams as strong and as competitive as possible. It's true that most organizations have one team, or two teams with the biggest organizations like Roush or Hendrick, that consistantly get the best equipment and run up front every week. I just hate to hear about there possibly having to be a choice about who gets the better trucks. Brendan has alluded to Orleans Racing wanting to expand so for that reason also it's important to be able to field more than one consistantly competitively good truck. More than that of course it would be great to see Steve and Brendan be able to race well and be in contention for wins on a regular basis, something that hasn't happened all that often thus far this season.

A dream race for me one day would be to see Steve in Victory Lane (again) with the next four drivers behind him be Brendan, Ricky Craven, Johnny Benson and one of the female drivers. And then have both Orleans Racing teams race up front for every race after that.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2005

A Great Run Turns Into Another Dismal Finish for Steve Park

Late Race Accident Ruins Promising Kansas Run

Coming off of a 7th place finish in last week's race at Milwaukee, this past weekend's race in Kansas would have been the perfect place for Steve Park and the #62 to pick up even more momentum by getting another top ten. And at first it appeared that this might be possible given that Steve qualified 14th and spent the first part of the race in the top ten. However, Steve was nabbed for speeding off of pit road and instead of restarting the race in 6th place he had to re-start in 29th. Drivers are always going to make mistakes, particularly as it relates to speeding on and off of pit road considering how much Nascar is cracking down on speeding this season, but it's essential that Steve and the team eliminate as much of these kind of mistakes as possible if they want to rack up as many good finishes as they can. Getting sent to the back of the field is deadly at some tracks and anywhere it makes finishing well much harder because the driver then has to work his way back to the front of the field. And indeed making his way back into the top ten is where Steve found trouble. So while he was working his way back up to the front of the field Steve made contact with Rick Crawford while racing for position and ended up hard into the wall. Thankfully Steve was fine after the wreck and that's the most important thing, but a 32nd place finish drops him two places in the overall points to 18th which means he's got it even harder if he's going to make it into the top ten by the end of the season then he did before. This team just can't afford any more poor finishes regardless of what the reason might be.

Just like the Yankees season is pretty disappointing to me, so is Steve Park's season. I had really high hopes for how he would fare this season, particularly after he won at Fontana, and I thought he might be contending for the Championship for most of the summer. Instead I'm starting to think that he's not even going to finish the season in the top ten and that's really not very good considering the caliber of team and driver we're talking about. Some will shake their heads while reading this saying I'm being too negative, but I say I'm being realistic. Just like I think there's a good chance the Yankees might not make the post-season, I think there's a good chance that in spite of the wonderful win, overall this season isn't going to be a very good one for Steve based on what the season had wrought so far. Of course unlike the person who came to Steve Park Central to talk about how they were about to give up on Steve, even though I'm disappointed with the results for Steve on the track this season, I will still be a fan of his and I would guess that most other people will be too.

When I think about it a lot of my favorite teams and athletes are having disappointing seasons in 2005. The Yankees have been playing .500 baseball for most of the season, hovering between 3rd and 4th place in their division. Mike Mussina has been inconsistant. Jason Giambi has struggled until recently. Steve has had trouble plagued race after trouble plagued race. Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon have had their share of on-track problems as well. Michael Waltrip with his seven top tens is perhaps having the best season of anyone but he's also had to endure so much bad luck that he's not as high in the points as he should be. Then there's guys like Ken Schrader or Kyle Petty who I knew right off the bat would have little hope of contending for anything this season. Sounds bad right? Well, despite all of that I still love watching baseball and racing as much as ever. And I will never stop being a fan of any of those players, drivers or the Yankees regardless of how bad it gets.

I think it's hard for some fans because they invest so much of themselves in whoever they cheer for that it becomes so frustrating and difficult when their favorites struggle that they have to remove themselves from the situation. The person who came to SPC was most likely trolling for attention but there are a lot of people who just can't bare to watch things go wrong for their team or favorite athlete. And I can understand that. I find it aggrivating watching the Yankees in those games when they play sloppy and lifeless baseball. That's just not any fun no matter how much I love the team and the players involved. I also find it disheartening watching races in which fine finishes by Michael Waltrip or Steve Park get ruined by mechanical problems or by getting wrecked. That just isn't very enjoyable and it's even less fun when those bad finishes or losses come one after another, usually through no fault of the drivers themselves.

Sometimes I wonder how Steve feels about his season thus far. Outwardly he's always had a great attitude in which he's stayed positive and tried to keep the poor results of the race before in the past by looking forward to the potential of a great finish in the next race. But inwardly? Well, it's got to get to anyone to keep having good runs ruined so frequently but particularly to someone who seems to worry about disappointing others. And how does Steve trust that even when he's running well something isn't going to happen to put him out of the race, because almost every week it seems like something does. So by the time it's July and that's still happening I think it's got to start to wear someone down, no matter how awesome the organization is that they're with or how great their teammate is.

Two other items of note from this race - one is that Todd Bodine won in his first race reunited with Germain/Arnold Racing. He won two races with that team last season and I still don't understand why he wasn't re-signed for 2005. But now he's back and I suspect this won't be the last time we see Bodine in Victory Lane. Personally I don't care for Bodine as a racer and most others don't as well. However, I think he takes a lot of heat as a person for stuff he does on the track, not all of which I'm sure he deserves. So I have to admit that it gives me a certain sense of satisfaction when someone who is such an underdog, so disliked, thought to have so little racing talent ends up in Victory Lane. I too, think he's done some dumb things on the track and there's plenty of other drivers I'd like to see win more, Steve most of all, but I think it shows that no driver should ever be counted out - they might just surprise you.

Something else about this race is that Brendan Gaughan got his second top ten in a row, finishing eighth in this race. That's a good thing for Orleans Racing because it shows that both teams are hopefully headed in the right direction. But I ask again what I've asked in the recent past - is Brendan going to end up finishing higher in the points than Steve? Crazy, some are saying. Maybe not considering they are only separated by a little over a hundred points and four spots. If Brendan continues to finish races well and Steve continues to experience problems I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. Which would really say something considering Brendan has run two less races than Steve and a few of the other people he's ahead of in points. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Kentucky is next week and as I say seemingly every week when I discuss Steve's results from the week prior - I hope that this race brings much needed better results for the #62 team.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)

June 26, 2005

Steve Park and Brendan Gaughan Get Much Needed Top Tens at Milwaukee

Park Rebounds With Top Ten at Milwaukee

Despite not qualifying well (29th) Steve Park bounced back for a 7th place finish at Milwaukee and Brendan Gaughan who had a strong truck both in qualifying and during the race, started fourth and finished fifth. The incredible thing about this race was that Dennis Setzer had such an unbelievably fast truck that only four trucks were on the lead lap by the end of the race so both Brendan and Steve finished a lap down. But no matter it was still an outstanding race for both the #62 and #77 teams - strong finishes that both drivers really needed. The next race is next week in Kansas and hopefully Orleans Racing will be able to build on the momentum from Friday and get top ten finishes or better for both teams again. I would really love to see Steve be one of the dominant trucks that gets talked about all race long. Maybe that's hoping for too much but I'd love to see him have a race like Dennis Setzer did where it seems like no one else has a chance to beat him.

As for as the overall points go, in spite of what it says in the post-race report from Orleans Racing, according to Nascar Steve didn't move up any positions in the points so unless Nascar make a mistake in terms of the math, Steve remains in 17th position. On the other hand with his fifth place finish Brendan moves up to 22nd in the points, decreasing the gap between the two teams. At the end of the season it will be very interesting to see which Orleans Racing driver finishes higher in the points. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being Brendan given his recent upswing in the points. That's not a knock on Steve who is a terrific driver but he experienced a tremendous amount of bad luck to start the season and that could prove costly, particularly if any more bad luck befalls the team. Steve should be contending for the Truck Series Championship right now, he's that good of a driver, but a lot may turn out to be decided by mechanical failures and wrecks, rather than actual racing.

I can't say there's much else to talk about with this race. I peeked in here and there between commercials during the Yankee game and then watched the entire final hour of the race. Dennis Setzer won his second race in a row and took the points lead at the same time. Jack Sprague, who was the winner two races ago, finished second and it's clear that those two teams are really dialed in right now. Ted Musgrave and Ron Hornaday rounded out the rest of the trucks on the lead lap. Hornaday is in a Kevin Harvick, Inc. truck and he's currently in fourth in the points. Last season Matt Crafton finished fifth in the points and a lot of people thought that Harvick was crazy for replacing him. But it appears that Harvick might not have been so crazy - there's still plenty of racing left so anything can happen but it appears that Hornaday might at least duplicate Crafton's performance in that truck if not better it.

I still can't get over how few trucks were on the lead lap of this one and that has to be incredibly frustrating for a lot of the drivers who might be in the top ten but know that unless there's a caution and they're the lucky dog, there's only so many positions that they can advance. Actually they couldn't even hope for a caution since there was only one the entire race. So it's like there was a brick wall after fifth place. I would think that a lack of cautions makes for a very difficult race for the drivers since it was very hot in Milwaukee and the cautions serve as little breaks for the drivers. Apparently after the race a lot of the drivers, Steve and Brendan included, were pretty spent.

On to Kansas next week and hopefully more great results for Orleans Racing!

Posted by silverdsl at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2005

Brendan Gaughan on "Wind Tunnel"

Last night Brendan Gaughan was the guest host on Wind Tunnel along side of Dave Despain. Of course there is never any shortage of conversation when Brendan is around, though discussion with him was perhaps a bit curtailed because of what had happened in the F1 "race" in Indianapolis. But Brendan as always, had plenty of great things to say about Steve Park, all about how he was the best driver available and that's why they choose him for the #62 and lots of other nice things. Hearing positive things about Steve is always something I enjoy. Brendan also talked about the possiblity of going back to Cup someday and he definitely wants to do that. Though he deftly avoided talking specifics and about whether that could potentially happen in 2006 he did say that a key ingredient of any situation that he ended up in would have to be "fun." Which is no surprise when it comes to Brendan because fun is clearly his middle name.

Brendan also talked about what happened to him at Penske Racing last season in Cup. While he was very gracious in not blaming Penske for things not working out, which I think would be pretty easy to do, Brendan did make one very interesting comment. A few times I've discussed in this space the issue of gambling and Nascar, particularly as it relates to Brendan who had indicated that he has and may still bet on himself. It's been said that Nascar had a chat with Brendan regarding some of his comments about gambling and they weren't the only ones who were concerned. Last night Brendan said (roughly), "[Penske]... had some issues from the beginning about my background with Las Vegas, my father and the gambling business." For those that don't know the Gaughan family is heavily involved in the casino business in Las Vegas and has been for many, many years starting with Brendan's grandfather, Jackie. They run several very successful casinos including The Orleans, the primary sponsor of Steve Park's truck. I would love to know what the specific concerns were that Penske had and if those concerns had anything to do with why Travis Kvapil is now in the #77.

I never quite understood why Brendan wasn't given more of a chance in the #77, in spite of the way he struggled. One year just isn't long enough to see what a driver is really capable of doing and Travis isn't doing much better so I don't think the problem with the #77 is the driver. Also, Brendan is relatively young, has a dynamic personality, is fairly attractive, knows how to plug his sponsors almost as well as Michael Waltrip and is outstanding with the fans. So given the emphasis on personality and looks these days in Nascar I would have thought he would have lasted a little longer than just one season in Cup. I believe he'll be back sooner rather than later since there's no doubt that he's a talented racer but perhaps that Brendan isn't much for conformity, which is almost a necessity in Cup these days, combined with any concerns that Penske had about Brendan's gambling connections did him in. Of course much like everything else I wonder about, I will never know the real answers.

Brendan also said something that I'm sure not a single other person took note of but really made me laugh because it's in direct contrast to what someone else said about him and Orleans Racing recently. Which really puts that other person's comment in an even poorer light than when it was initially made.

Brendan would be an interesting person to sit down and talk to, particularly since he is often very candid in his comments. But I'm not sure he would enjoy our discussion as much as I would because I would want to ask him all kinds of hard questions about serious issues rather than the usual fun banter that most fans want to engage in.

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

June 19, 2005

Steve Park, Orleans Racing, Bad Karma and Bad Luck

Wrecked and Finishes 31st

Yet again Steve Park was cruising to another outstanding finish in a race only to see it spoiled by something out of his control. This time while he was in 9th place with nine laps to go, a tangle between Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday led to Steve getting spun and then hit by Bobby LaBonte, who was unable to avoid him. That knocked Steve out of the race and instead of a much-needed top ten he finished 31st. That dropped him to 17th in the overall points standings which really isn't too great. With an 11th place finish teammate Brendan Gaughan moves up to 25th in points and I hope it's not going to turn into a situation where I have to worry about Brendan (assuming he runs the rest of the season), who failed to qualify for a couple of races, possibly passing Steve, who should be racing for the truck championship right now, in the points standings.

As I've detailed in this space any number of times it seems like something is always going wrong for Steve on the track and often Brendan as well. Every team is going to get caught up in wrecks or experience mechanical problems from time to time but they make up for it with as many great runs as possible. When you have a bunch of top tens it doesn't make poor finishes very costly. So while Jeff Gordon has sunk to 11th in the points standings with a string of bad races, he is still very much in the hunt for the Chase for the Championship having won three times this season and overall has six top tens. Then you look at Steve who only has two top tens, one of those being the win, and it makes every time they experience trouble very costly indeed. I think it particularly hurts that a lot of their problems have seemed mechancial - the chassis not being set up correctly, engine problems, transmission problems, etc... I'm quite sure that Orleans Racing is working hard to address the problems that they've been experiencing but I wish that some of this had been addressed a little sooner, because now it's June. There's plenty of racing left to be done this season but Orleans Racing definitely needs to be sure that they do everything they can possibly do to make sure Steve and Brendan both have the best trucks they can possibly have, that are as mechanically sound as possible, so that getting wrecked won't be quite so costly.

What Steve also needs is a reversal of fortune. As already noted Steve had been plagued by an incredible amount of bad luck. I also believe in the concept of good and bad karma and I feel like there's a lot of bad karma hanging over Steve and Orleans Racing right now. Some will say I'm crazy because Steve had the ultimate good luck when he won in California early one but other than that it's been mostly bad news for the #62 team and often for the #77 as well.

It appears that Steve doesn't believe much in good luck charms as he recently said in a Q&A on his site in response to whether he carries anything for good luck, "I don't carry much of anything, I have tried it in the past and it didn't seem to help." He's also said in the past that he thinks that the team needs to make their own luck. I agree that teams make their own luck but on the other hand I also think that sometimes good luck charms and other positive rituals or items, for want of a better way of describing it, can lead to a positive mindset and a feeling of confidence. It's not that the good luck charm is responsible for a fine finish per say but I think it can lend to someone feeling an extra bit good about what the day will bring which can translate into more success.

Now all the positive thinking in the world can't do anything about other drivers wrecking him, but I just feel like Steve and Orleans Racing need to find some good karma and good luck somewhere. Maybe it's just a matter of surrounding himself with people who are positive people, who think positive thoughts and treat others in a positive way. Or maybe the team needs another lucky horseshoe like they've received from fans in the past. Or it could be as simple as Steve finding a good luck item or doing something when he's at the track that makes him feel like he's going to have good luck.

Each individual has to do what they feel comfortable with. I think Delana Harvick has lucky shoes she will sometimes wear for Kevin. Michael Waltrip carries good luck items in his pockets at times during races. Many baseball players are supersitious and will do certain things before and during games to bring themselves luck. Personally, for me I feel like what works for me is simply feeling good and getting myself into a positive mindset. The biggest way for me to achieve that is by doing something to help someone else. I feel like that brings me good karma and makes me feel good about myself.

I also become fond of certain stones which I get good feelings about. I gave one of my favorite stones to Michael Waltrip two weeks ago. I found it on Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine and I used to love rolling it around in my hands. And the funny thing is that I miss that stone. Yeah, I know everyone reading this is now laughing or thinking I'm a total weirdo. But yes, I do get attached to stones but I guess that's not surprising for one who collects gems and minerals. Michael had a great weekend at Pocono after I gave it to him so maybe some of that stone's good luck and karma rubbed off on him. So I don't regret giving it to him, but I do find myself wishing I still had that stone to play with. When I go to Ogunquit next month I will just have to find more stones to roll around in my hands that feel good and make me feel like it might bring me good luck.

Next week the truck series goes to the Milwaukee Mile and I hope that Orleans Racing finds better luck there.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)

June 12, 2005

Many Problems in Texas For Orleans Racing

Numerous Problems Ruin Texas Race for Steve Park

Electrical Problems Ruin Race for Brendan Gaughan

In five races prior to Friday night, Brendan Gaughan had four wins and one second place finish. So one would expect Orleans Racing to have a very strong race for both teams on Friday night. However, that was not to be. Gaughan even had his winning truck "Lonestar" but a faulty battery doomed Gaughan to a 27th place finish. Steve Park qualified well in 11th place and overcame the power steering failing, the shifter breaking and the transmission becoming stuck in fourth gear to be in line for a top ten finish thanks to a good call by his crew chief, Charlie Wilson. However on a final pit stop under green with only nine laps to go Steve came in for a quick splash of gas and was caught speeding off of pit road. According to the post-race report this was due to the transmission problem and it was costly as he ended up finishing 16th, two laps down. Luckily, Steve still ended up gaining one spot in the points standings but I imagine that a top ten would have allowed him to pick up even more positions.

I can only imagine how disappointing this race must have been for Brendan especially considering how awesome he's been at Texas in the past. I'm sure he envisioned getting back to Victory Lane either via the win himself or by being there for Steve. In some ways that has to be a bit heart-breaking. Brendan didn't have a steller rookie season in Cup and it's not been a great season for him in the trucks so a win at a track where he's previously dominanted would have made a nice statement.

The question was posed at SPC as to whether there are problems at Orleans Racing which account for all of the mechanical issues that seemed to have plagued both teams this season. While it's impossible to know for sure exactly what's going on over there I would say that there probably are some issues that need to be addressed. There is no team that isn't going to experience mechanical problems from time to time over the course of a season but there seems to be a lot of costly mechanical issues that have ruined potentially good runs. Brendan has spoken recently about having addressed some issues and about how well everything was coming together for both teams but I suspect they might have some further work to do. It's especially of concern to me when these problems pop up at a track where Orleans Racing should be strong. At that kind of a track where Brendan should be contending for the win, even more attention should be paid to making sure that these issues don't crop up. Of course there's a certain percentage of things that are totally out of the control of the teams but it does raise some eyebrows when both teams have problems.

Mike Snow commented on SPC about how expensive it is to run two truck teams and I wonder if some of the issues facing Orleans are financial ones. As I've harped on before there is no primary sponsor for the #62 and I would guess there's a limit to how much personal money the Guaghan family is willing to put into Orleans Racing in spite of how financially well off they are. More financial resources usually mean better personnel and more money to put into making the trucks as competitive as possible. The personnel factor could be key because if Orleans has trouble luring top people to Las Vegas to work for them because they can't pay them more than a similar team in North Carolina that could present some roadblocks for them.

I've probably said the same thing any number of times in this blog but championship caliber teams have to minimize problems and errors. Not only that but if they do experience problems they have to be able to overcome them. Steve was able to overcome his issues and get into the top ten but sped off pit road. I guess he had no way of knowing how fast he was going but that didn't seem to be an issue for him on earlier pit stops unless the transmission problem popped up after those pit stops. It just seems like almost every race there is some issue that Steve has to deal with instead of just being able to race his way up front. California with the win and Charlotte with the top ten seemed to have been his only clean races so far and that's a shame because he's certainly capable of racing better than the points standings reflect. Michigan is up next week and I have no idea what to expect out of either Orleans Racing team. Even when they're running well you have to hold your breath that the truck isn't going to fall apart or other bad luck isn't going to befall them.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2005

Brendan Gaughan to Relieve Mike Bliss at Pocono

Bliss Still Recovering From Hernia Surgery

Mike Bliss had surgery on Monday for a hernia and apparently he isn't up to a full weekend of race activities and particularly not running an entire race. So in addition to running the truck race in Texas Brendan Gaughan will be relieving Bliss in the #0 car during Sunday's Cup race, as well as helping out in practice as well. On Thursday Brendan will practice and qualify his truck in Texas. Then he will head to Pocono on Friday where he will practice the car for Bliss. After that he will fly back to Texas to take part in the truck race. On Sunday Bliss will start the race in the #0 for the points and then at the first opportunity get out of the car and Gaughan will relieve him for the rest of the race. So no matter how well Gaughan races, or how poorly for that matter, Bliss will be credited in the standings with the points. I wonder if they will have to do something like this in Michigan as well where both the trucks and Cup are racing in the same place?

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

Orleans Racing Website Finally Updated

Orleans Racing

A couple of times I've mentioned in this space about how hard it is to find any information on the Orleans Racing teams, one reason being that the Orleans Racing website was woefully un-updated for a very long time. Well, I'm pleased to say that finally the site is looking good with a bit of a re-design to feature current photos on the front page and also links to current news such as the pre- and post-race reports. In addition, there is now a page with links to all the past news items and it appears that there were pre- and post-race reports done for every race but they just never turned up anywhere. Having all of this information available on the site is really a very good thing for both Orleans teams and it makes it much easier for fans who are looking for information about past races. Not only that but fans love photos and they will surely see an increase in hits to the site with photo albums full of photos from each race.

So what lead to this sudden change on the Orleans Racing website? Apparently it was in the works for a while but all the complaining at SPC by fans is part of what prompted the PR person over there to make it a little higher on his priority list. That's a wise move on his part because it's always important to have current news and information on a company's website. Even more so as the racing season heats up and the truck races are more and more frequent. Fans are constantly looking for information on their favorite drivers and the frustration level increases, the less that's easily available.

Now if someone could just explain why they won't be putting those pre- and post-race notes on Steve Park's offical site as well. That still boggles my mind. There's even a note on his site to that effect with a link to the Orleans Racing page. I just don't understand what the webmaster there knows about why not having that information on Steve's official website is such a good idea as opposed to the PR people and webmasters of every other driver's official site. Those articles are even on Brendan Gaughan's official site so it's not like it's an Orleans Racing thing where they don't want them up on the driver's sites for some reason.

Speaking of Steve's website a while back there was talk about a Member's Only section to his site. There will also be a Member's Only section of Michael Waltrip's site soon. I'm very interested to see how the two compare. Of course I'm biased towards Michael's site but that's a whole other story.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2005

More Bad Luck for Orleans Racing at Dover

Yes, you guessed it. Another bad race for both Orleans Racing teams, completely due to bad luck. Steve Park was wrecked on lap one of the race in Dover when he was run over by Robert Huffman. Lap one! That wreck also collected another of my favorite truck drivers, Johnny Benson, so I'm not thinking too kindly towards Huffman right now. Mistakes can happen but drivers shouldn't be running over each other on the first lap of the race and it's especially bad when about five trucks are wrecked at the same time.

The race seemed like it would be much better for Brendan Gaughan but with ten laps to go he got a flat and that dropped him back. So both teams ended up finishing worse than they thought they would considering how confident they were in their trucks heading into this race, though Brendan finished 15th which is a lot better than Steve's 36th place finish. Brendan went up in the points standings to 27th which isn't that great but any movement upwards is a good thing.

This was Steve's comment after the race: "I got tapped from behind, but we didn’t even complete a lap. I’m disappointed in myself right now and disappointed for the whole team. There’s nothing left to do but try to get it fixed and go out and salvage as many points as we can." I have no idea why Steve is disappointed in himself for something that was completely out of his control. But if there's anyone who is going to find something to get down on himself about in a situation like this it's Steve because he cares so much about not disappointing other people and about doing well. He must be totally disheartened by the situation today given that he didn't even get a chance to race and he must also feel like he's let people down by not having more good finishes so that he would be higher in the points. And indeed he did take a hit in the standings dropping to 17th in the points. I understand why he's so upset, frustrated, angry and disappointed, yet I wish that he wasn't turning that inwardly on himself. I don't think that's a good mindset for him to get caught up in.

Unfortunately it's not really that surprising. When we talked to Steve in Vegas in January the season hadn't even started yet and he had any number of things that he was down on himself about. And the craziest thing was that none of these things were in any way such a big deal that he should be concerned with it to the degree that he seemed to be when we were talking to him. So I'm not that shocked that after he gets wrecked that he's going to be disappointed in himself, even though there's no way that wreck was his fault in any way, shape or form. He qualified well and by all accounts he had a great truck so it was really a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Huffman wrecked him no doubt about that and I hope after further review Steve stops feeling like he's in any way at fault or that he's somehow letting people down.

Steve got Orleans their only win this season and it's was Japser's first win as a sponsor - those are awesome things that he should be proud of. I do think Orleans has gotten themselves into a hole with the chassis problems that they had earlier in the season but if that's all straightened out they could find themselves in Victory Lane again this season. I really hope that happens for Steve. He was so happy in VL and I'd love to see him that happy again.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)

Brendan Gaughan's New Look

Today at the truck race Brendan Guaghan unveiled his much anticipated new look and as one can see by the above photo he's had his hair braided in cornrows. Personally I think it looks terrible on him. I've seen quite cornrows on quite a few people that looks great but it's definitely not a look that works for Brendan. Of course being that it's his hair, he's got to do what makes him happy so if he wants it in cornrows all the more power to him. More than likely this is just one more way of getting attention, much like his caveman look earlier in the season, which I also thought looked pretty bad on him. But when it comes to appearance, unless there is some sort of workplace dress code, and obviously there isn't for Brendan, I think he should be free to express himself as he so chooses.

A couple of months ago I wrote a fairly long entry about Brendan and the way he's expressing himself now that he's back in the truck series so I'm not going to repeat myself too much now. But needless to say I think Brendan's look is a way of attracting attention and also a way of thumbing his nose at the conformity that is imposed on the drivers in Cup. In Cup uniqueness and outspokenness is discouraged and those are two qualities that Brendan very much has. But since he's very happy racing in the truck series for Orleans Racing it's fine if he wants to have fun and be a little crazy. It's only going to be a problem for him if he decides he wants to go back to Cup. Because then he has a choice to make about what's more important to him - being an individual and expressing himself the way he wants or fitting in and doing what's expected of a driver on Nascar's highest level. I suspect that unless Orleans Racing expands to Cup Brendan is likely to stay in the truck series for a while longer. And as long as he's happy there's nothing wrong with that.

I'm not always a huge fan of some of the things that Brendan says and does which is evident to anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis. However, one thing I definitely admire about Brendan is his willingness to be different from everyone else around him. That's a very good quality to have, not being afraid to say and do what you want and not being afraid of what other people think. I hope that Brendan continues to do what he wants, when he wants to do it.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)

May 31, 2005

Brendan Gaughan Says Some Drivers are Greedy

Brendan Gaughan Teleconference

Today Brendan Gaughan did a long and wide-ranging teleconference with the media. He was very positive and optimistic about his new crew chief Tony Liberati and Orleans Racing as a whole now that they got some of their early season problems sorted out. Those are all good things to read because hopefully all the good vibes will translate into some more great finishes for Brendan and Steve like we saw at Charlotte. This week both teams go to Dover and I would love to see them build on the fine finishes that they both got two weeks ago.

But one of the answers which caught my attention the most was the following in response to whether or not he misses Cup racing: "I guess everybody misses the money. None of us can lie. Look at how greedy some of the guys are. They're definitely in it for the money, some of 'em." Gaughan then goes on to say that he doesn't really miss Cup racing because he's much happier now driving for a team that means something to him. Brendan is candid and honest about his opinions, something which I am a big fan of. However, as I've mentioned before those that are outspoken also have to know when to keep certain things to themselves and I think this is one remark that Brendan was better off not saying to the media.

One thing that strikes me right off the bat is that Brendan comes from an extremely wealthy family himself. In fact I seem to remember last year when Brendan was talking about going back to Orleans Racing him saying that he didn't care about the money and that wasn't why he was racing since he always had plenty of it. So unless I'm not remembering his earlier comments correctly I find it curious that now Brendan is talking about how he misses the money in Cup racing. I believe that the truck series drivers should be earning far more in terms of race winnings than they do but in most cases they are probably still earning more than many race fans. I kind of doubt that Brendan is hurting for money right now, particularly since I doubt he is acting as general manager at Orleans for free.

But more than that I don't think publically accusing other drivers of being greedy and only being in it for the money is a wise idea because that's not going to win him any friends among his peers in the garage area. There may be truth in what he's saying. But I think the majority of drivers are racing because they love to race, it's in their blood and it's a part of who they are. I don't think a lot of drivers could survive on the Cup level if they didn't love to race and compete against each other. The money is great on the Cup level but there is so many demands on the drivers in so many ways. Competition, as well as the pressure to succeed, is intense and drivers have to be there to race and win. Few drivers can last long if they are just there to pick up a pay check and don't care much about the results on the track. You take guys like Kyle Petty or Ken Schrader who haven't won for years and struggle for good results. No way are either of those two just in it for the money because if they didn't have a passion for racing I don't see how they could put up with poor results almost weekly for years.

I'm glad that Brendan is so outspoken because he makes some interesting comments. But like Curt Schilling and Gary Sheffield I think he sometimes gets carried away and says a little too much.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2005

Gaughan Wants to Run Full Truck Schedule

Moves Into Top 30 in Points, Guaranteed Spot in Races

This article is mostly about the good news that with his top ten finish at Charlotte Brendan Gaughan has moved high enough in the points that he is guaranteed a starting spot in the rest of the races from here on out, assuming that he stays among the top 30 trucks. That shouldn't be too much of a problem so not having to worry about missing races due to poor qualifying efforts should be a big boost to the team because it's one less thing for them to stress out over. Which should hopefully in turn help Steve Park to have a teammate who is also running well.

What's of most interest in the article is that Brendan still wants to race all the remaining races in the truck schedule. I figured he would. Most racers, other than those who are retired or semi-retired, don't want to have to miss races that they could potentially be a part of. What Brendan says is standing in his way is the lack of a full-time crew chief and sponsorship issues. Regardless of whether or not he races the full season I think Brendan needs a full time crew chief. Every team does if they want to have any measure of success. But the sponsorship issue will be interesting to see how that play out.

As I've harped on more than once in this space Steve Park's #62 truck has no primary sponsor. Yes, The Orleans is on the truck but that doesn't really count since it's the Gaughan family's company and they probably aren't paying themselves for the privledge of putting the decals on the truck. So while Steve does have associate sponsors this is the second year in a row that he doesn't have a primary sponsor. On the other hand Jasper is the primary sponsor of Brendan's #77 truck for at least the partial schedule that Brendan is running. If Jasper declines to sponsor Brendan in the rest of the races will he look for another primary sponsor for the rest of those races?

I will probably get chased with pitchforks if I ever said this outside of my blog but I wonder if there isn't a slight conflict-of-iterest there if Brendan is involved in the process of looking for sponsors for both Orleans Racing teams. He is the general manager so one would think that he might have a hand in sponsor related issues. The conflict comes in because he is also the driver for one of those trucks. Let's say there's a potential sponsor, new to the sport. Who does Brendan pitch a potential sponsorship for - his own truck for the remaining races that Jasper might not be sponsoring him for or for sponsorship of Steve's truck? Maybe he's not involved in the process at all but I would tend to think that he is. I guess having the owner's son, who is also the driver of one of the trucks, also be the general manager and be involved in business decisions sets up some potentially murky situations. Not that it's unusual in Nascar for teams to be family run but it seems, at least from how vocal Brendan is about some things, that he takes a pretty large role in the management of the organization.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2005

Just Wondering...

Park Moves Up in Points Standings With Strong Finish in Charlotte

TopTen at Charlotte Gets Gaughan Going in the Right Direction

If The Orleans and Kroyer Racing weren't one of the more prominent sponsors at truckseries.com, would Steve Park and Brendan Guaghan have so many articles written about them and their teams and would their race reports be featured so prominantly? I love any and all articles about Steve and I wish that more publications would do articles on him but it does seem that quite a bit of coverage of those guys ends up on truckseries.com as compared to other media outlets. Likewise, if the same people who do truckseries.com didn't also do Bobby Hamilton's offical site would there be as many articles about him either? Truckseries.com does a good job of providing articles and information about a series that is often overlooked, even on Nascar's official site, and that is a good thing but I can't help but wonder if some of these relationships, particularly the ones that involved advertising dollars might dictate their news coverage. Keldan Media Group also does Dennis Setzer's site so I will have to see if he gets more coverage than others as well. I could very well be talking out of my ass right now but often coverage on websites, even news oriented ones, aren't governed by the same rules as offline media publications so this was just something I was thinking about the other day.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2005

Orleans Racing's PR Person, Mike Snow, Responds

Comes to Steve Park Central

I've talked in this space about how it doesn't seem like Orleans Racing has been doing a great job of disseminating information about Steve Park in recent months and I'm not the only one who has felt that way. So it's been a topic of discussion at Steve Park Central. Apparently Mike Snow, the PR person at Orleans Racing, was informed that he was a topic of conversation at SPC and showed up to defend himself. Gee, I wonder who told him?

I kind of had a feeling that he would probably read our comments eventually and it's good that he took the time to respond to our concerns. It sounds like there are some things that they plan on doing in the future such as an email newsletter which will help get information out in a timely manner directly to the fans. They also plan on updating the website sometime in the next few weeks. All of these are good things. He also said that he does in fact do frequent press releases, a pre- and post-race report for every race and gets interviews for Steve on a regular basis. Which is also a very good thing. However, if these things are being done and no one can find any of it, especially when you consider that not everyone goes to truckseries.com, then a problem remains in terms of getting your message out to your audience.

Snow also mentioned about how busy he is which leads to some problems getting everything done. I pretty much figured that was the case. Of course being busy doesn't seem to stop all the other driver's PR people from making sure that information is disseminated as it should be. Some of those PR people are even busier given that they are with teams who have many more sponsors. But it is probably very difficult for Snow given that he is making the transition from being a journalist to being a PR person. There are probably some things that he has to handle that he never expected that he would have to do. It's a tough juggling act to get everything done for sure.

I mentioned on SPC that they should consider getting some interns and I think that would be a big help for them. There is at least one large university in the area with a communications program and probably other colleges and universities close by as well. All they need is one or two people who are looking for some PR exerpience who can help out with some of simpler tasks that would help free Snow to do some of the things on his to do list. We certainly made liberal use of student aides and interns for any number of things in the PR office I used to work in and many organizations came to us when they were looking for interns as well given that we were a university.

Snow mentioned that he intends on coming by at least once a week to SPC to answer questions and all. On one hand that's good because it's a great way to get some information directly from the source. It will also make fans feel good that they are important enough for Snow to come by to chat with them. But on the other hand it is a fan message board and usually it doesn't work out so well to have someone associated with the subject of discussion on a fan message board, particularly as it relates to discussion because people become unwilling to express their opinions openly. It will be interesting to see how his presence on the site plays out. I can't help but be reminded of the former PR person for the YES network who turned up on NYYFans.com. That sure went bad in a hurry but so did her tenure at YES for that matter.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)

Steve Park Finishes 5th at Charlotte, Brendan Gaughan 8th

I didn't get to see a single lap of last night's race because we were out celebrating Jim's father's 60th birthday but I was thrilled when I got back to find out that Steve Park finished 5th! Brendan Gaughan finished 8th and that was very a very good thing too. Both teams have seemed to struggle so much this season so both of them ending up in the top ten is awesome. Brendan had spoken recently about how the changes they made based on what they discovered at the wind tunnel would really pay off at Charlotte. I didn't want to get my hopes up too high but I was thinking that if he was right and they did get good finishes this weekend it would be a positive sign that they are starting to turn the corner. So I'm so happy that they did indeed finish this race so well.

What's important is that the #62 team builds on this great finish over the next few races. If they can put together a string of solid finishes in the top ten that will really give this season a huge boost for that team. There will still be some races where they are bit by bad luck but if they can have more good races than bad, something they really haven't seemed to be able to do yet, then they will be in good shape. My feeling is that Steve won't be winning the championship this season, though I'd love to be wrong about that, but what I'd like to see is Steve finish higher in the points then he did last season. A solid top five finish in the points would be awesome for Steve and might help get that truck some sponsorship. Hopefully a few good finishes in a row will lead to another trip to Victory Lane for Steve.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2005

This Can't Be True... Can It?

I don't like to put much stock in what random people on message boards say because anyone can say anything and there's often no way of verifying anything that they say. But what I just came across when I wandered by the thatsracin.com forum caught my attention. Someone said that the huge mistakes that Brendan Gaughan referred to that he said was corrected when the Orleans Racing trucks were taken to the wind tunnel was, according to this user on the forum, that the bodies were mounted in the wrong position on the chassis.

I dearly hope that this person is mistaken because if this was in fact what the problem was that seems like a huge error that should not have been happening. It's a very good thing if they corrected that problem or whatever actual problem existed that they discovered when they took the trucks to the wind tunnel. And in the short-term they will probably run better. But a team that doesn't realize that they are mounting the bodies and the chassis incorrectly is a team with some pretty big issues. If that is true I'm not sure I have confidence that they are putting other things together on the truck correctly or that they can avoid other making other big mistakes. And maybe Steve doesn't have confidence in that either as per his outburst over the radio after his battery went in the race at Mansfield.

I ask again - what is wrong with the Orleans Racing organization? Mistakes are going to happen but to be putting the trucks together that incorrectly, and Brendan did admit that they were making some huge mistakes, isn't what I would expect from an organization that is as good as Orleans. What's going on there? What happened to them? They had their struggles last season but I never would have expected things to be so difficult for both teams this season.

Now I'm even more curious to find out why Steve was so angry when he got out of his truck after the race and who he was yelling at. Maybe it's unconnected to the problems that he had during the race but it sure would be interesting to find out what it was all about. Any number of people saw him react in that way, and someone posted photos at SPC. Of course thus far we haven't heard word one about what it was about. Had that happened during a Busch or Cup race Fox would have been all over it but Speed didn't even mention it if they even noticed. They're doing another one of those Q&As over on Steve's site and I asked what his outburst was all about because a lot of people were wondering but somehow I have the feeling that he's not going to answer. Gee, ya think he'd honestly answer a question about whether the trucks were being put together incorrectly until recently? Doubtful on that one too.

Perhaps I need to start crossing my fingers to ward off bad karma and bad luck for Steve like I do for Michael. I'm sure it does nothing but make me feel better but it seems like Steve could use every bit of good thoughts at race time that he can get.

ETA: Apparently it is true that the bodies were being mounted on the chassis in the wrong position. Brendan said it somewhere and I guess I missed it the first time otherwise I would have been horrified then. It was added to the original thread at the other place that Dodge told them to mount them in a particular position that they found would make for the best results and they and a few other teams didn't do it for some reason. The whole thing is just perplexing - why wouldn't they do as Dodge recommended, if that's true? Why did it take them so long to figure out that this was the problem? Mind-boggling. I just hope everything is straightened out now.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2005

Maybe Not Bad Luck After All...

I had thought the battery dying on the #62 during today's race at Mansfield which ruined a good finish for Steve Park was pretty much bad luck, just one of those random things that can happen. But hearing a little of what Steve apparently said over his radio as per some people were at the race it appears that he feels that the battery going was something that was preventable and shouldn't have happened. It's reported that he said, "The GD battery is going! I know the trucks are better, but there WILL be some changes!" and more telling "It isn't bad luck, we make our own luck and that this kind of thing needs to stop happening."

I have no idea what kind of changes Steve might be thinking of but one thing he's right about is that having great finishes spoiled by these kinds of things going wrong has to stop. There are always going to be things that go wrong from getting caught in a wreck to bad pit stops to mechanical problems. But it seems like something is always happening every race to Steve. And when you think about it to the #77 too given that their season isn't much to speak of. If the team is on the top of their game as much as possible and runs as many mistake free races as they can then when batteries go or the engine blows it's not as costly as it can be since it's only one race. If it's an every race thing then after a while it is very costly indeed. I'm just really glad that Steve won in Fontana, not just because of how wonderful it was to see him back in Victory Lane, but because of how that is what is keeping him from being even lower than 15th in the points. I can't imagine how frustrating this has got to be for him to struggle through these problems just about every race.

What's perplexing to me is that Orleans Racing is a very well-funded organization. The Gaughan family has more money than they know what to do with. So they have the financial resources to hire the best personnel and get the best equipment they can. One roadblock is that they are a West Coast team when the majority of all other teams are based in North Carolina which makes it harder for them but if they are willing to pay enough then where they are located shouldn't be a problem in terms of attracting people to work for them, particularly given that they are located in a very vibrant area. Orleans also isn't new to the truck series. They almost won a championship with Brendan in 2003 and won many races with him his entire time in the truck series. So they know how to get the job done but they just aren't right now.

Maybe they are spread too thin between the two truck teams which is a distinct possiblity given that Steve had mentioned himself before the season started how tough it was going to be to run both teams. As much as I think Brendan is a great guy, perhaps having a general manager who is also the driver of one of those trucks isn't such a great idea, particularly when he is also the owner's son. A separate person as the general manager who doesn't have as much of a personal relationship with the company and the people working there might be able to bring in some perspectives that Brendan might not see as clearly since he is an insider. But I can't help but go back to the lack of a primary sponsor for the #62 truck. Having a major sponsor to answer to besides a few associate sponsors, at least one maybe two of which Steve has a long-time relationship with prior to coming to Orleans, changes things. If there is a demanding sponsor that insists on results then it tends to make the urgency for getting good results seem all the more important. Otherwise a sponsor could pull their sponsorship. Regardless of the reasons for some of the problems, perhaps there does need to be some changes as Steve mentioned.

Brendan has talked about Orleans potentially expanding. Well, it seems to me that they need to focus on getting things in order with their current program before they do that. Another thing Brendan said is that they learned a lot in the Wind Tunnel recently which should help them at some of the upcoming races including Charlotte on Friday. I really hope that's true because I would really like to see Steve get another good finish - kind of sad that his only top ten and top five came with his win at Fontana. He and the team are much better than that.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)

More Woes for Steve Park; Finishes 20th at Mansfield

Bobby Hamilton Wins

I don't have too much to say about this race because I could only listen to it on XM rather than actually watch it but what could have been a top ten and maybe even a top five was ruined for Steve Park when his battery died and he had to come in close to the end of the race to get it changed. That meant that he finished 20th. Yeah, it could have been worse but that sure isn't good considering how well he had been running. Once again, it's not something that was in his control at all, just more bad luck and again, what is there to say about it that I haven't already said in this space time and time again about the back luck that keeps hitting this team other than at Fontana? Luckily Steve remains 15th in points but I had been hoping that a much needed top ten finish would move him up a little in the standings. Brendan Gaughan has been talking up how well they're going to do at Charlotte and I very much hope he's right because they really need to start putting together some good finishes. It's still fairly early in the season but to slightly change a saying of Yogi Berra's - it gets late early.

Ron Hornaday looked like the man to beat for a lot of this race but he got black-flagged on a restart. I only know what they said on XM which isn't much to conclude whether it was the right call or not. I think it was kind of shoddy coverage of the race that they didn't really seem to go back and look at a replay to see if Hornaday did in fact jump the re-start or not. In any event a lot of folks felt that he got screwed by Nascar and that he didn't do anything wrong. To further compound Hornaday's problems he left the pits with a gas can which meant he had to come back in, that hurt him as well.

Bobby Hamilton ended up winning with Jack Sprague coming in second. Hamilton came from 26th and Sprague from 25th so that's pretty impressive. Rookie Todd Kulever finished 4th so he had to feel good about that. Other notables include Ricky Craven finishing 8th, having to overcome some early problems to do so and Guaghan finishing 15th. No idea what happened to Gaughan as he seemed to be in the mix for a top ten finish at one point but dropped back and never rebounded. The trucks go to Charlotte and hopefully it will bring better results for both Orleans teams.

Posted by silverdsl at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2005

Orleans Racing News

Orleans Racing Reorganization
Michael Gaughan Fined

For a chance we actually heard some news related to Orleans Racing today. The most important piece of news is that effective immediately Orleans is severing its ties with Brendan Gaughan's crew chief, Billy Wilburn, as well as his truck chief, Travis Sharpe. The reason that Brendan gave is that they are both from the East Coast which makes it hard to work with a West Coast team and also that Wilburn really wants to work with a Cup team rather than a truck team. Now all of this is probably true but I can't help but think that the departure of Wilburn and Sharpe is connected with the woes for the #77 team both in qualifying and during races.

Now here's where things get a little murky. Apparently Charlie Wilson, Steve Park's crew chief is going to take an expanded role at Orleans Racing. As best I can figure he will be handling duties for both teams in terms of setting up the trucks and a lot of the technical details. Basically he will be the crew chief for both teams. From what I can tell on actual race day there will be someone to be determined to help out as the actual physical crew chief for Brendan. What is curious to me is that Brendan seems to indicate that they are in no rush to hire a new crew chief for him and will let Wilson handle most of the duties for both teams for the next two races at least.

I guess I wonder how well that's really going to work out. Being the crew chief for one team is a tremendous amount of work, let alone for two teams. Every team seems to name at least an interim crew chief when there is a parting of the ways with the outgoing crew chief. So it seems strange that Orleans wouldn't look to name someone separate, at least for a few races to handle things for the #77 team. It's seemed like Orleans has struggled with two truck teams this season and now taking one crew chief and splitting him between two teams seems like it might be a recipe for further struggles. Wilson has apparently taken both trucks to the wind tunnel and according to Brendan he discovered some things that will greatly benefit both teams. That is definitely a very good thing. I just hope that they aren't spreading themselves too thin with what Wilson's role will be for the next few races. That would defeat all the benefits that they might have gained through taking the teams to the wind tunnel and also the testing session in Charlotte.

In other Orleans related news, Michael Gaughan was fined $1,500 for actions detrimental to stock car racing for unapproved carburator booster stems on the #77. I'm not really sure of the technical details of what that is or what it does but what I don't quite get is why Gaughan as owner is fined instead of the crew chief which is usually the way it works. My guess is that perhaps it is that way because the #77 now has no crew chief given the above parting of the ways but it would still seem like Wilburn would have to pay up even if he's no longer with the team.

I may as well throw another Orleans Racing related item in this space. From all that I've heard Mike Snow is an excellent writer and a great guy all-around. Any number of people have spoken highly of him. However, as the PR person for Orleans Racing, I'm not sure things are as well-oiled as everyone might like. I have no doubt that he's overwhelmed, particularly if working the PR end of things is new to him since he had previously spent a long time in the journalism field. But so far information about Orleans Racing and it's drivers has not been disseminated in a timely fashion. From the fact that the website is woefully un-updated to how unevenly pre- and post-race reports and other information is released to how hard it is to get information about appearances or even get questions answered there are definitely some problems that need to be addressed. I'm far from the only person who have raised similar concerns either. My guess is that Snow needs help in getting everything done that he is responsible for and I hope that happens. Because that will only benefit Orleans Racing, Brendan and Steve in the long run.

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

May 01, 2005

Steve Park Finishes 13th at Gateway

I meant to blog about this earlier but didn't get around to it sooner. But in last night's race at Gateway International Raceway, Steve Park finished 13th and Brendan Gaughan finished 22nd. Prior to the race Steve had talked about how he felt that Gateway "owed him one" since last year he was running 4th in this race until his transmission went. Well, this year mechanically everything seemed sound but they just didn't get as good of a finish as I'm sure they would have liked. I didn't get to tune in until the last 30 or 40 laps but apparently at one point they were in the top ten but after a pit stop they lost spots that they weren't really able to make back up. That's not good. I'm not sure what happened to Brendan but it seemed like at the end of the race he lost a bunch of spots too.

Steve moved up to 15th in the points which is very good. And he's not out of the top ten in points by much which is great because a couple of awesome finishes could vault him into the top ten. Still, I'm disappointed by Steve's finish last night as well as the season overall for this team in spite of the win at California. I guess some will think I'm a bad fan for not being thrilled for Steve because he finished 13th and moved up a bit in the points. But my expectations for Steve and this team are to do better than they did last season. And in order for them to do that they are going to have to rack up the top tens, top fives and win a few more races. 13th is definitely not bad but I would have liked it to have been even better - Steve is certainly a better racer than what the majority of his finishes (other than California of course) this season have been including last night.

The season is far from over so there is plenty of time for the #62 team to go on a great run and put together some excellent finishes. They definitely have it in them. Any team that can win is certainly capable of winning again. But I had hoped to see them build on that win and thus far they haven't. Some will say I'm being negative, because that 13th place finish isn't too bad, but it's just so important to get some momentum going. For Steve's sake, for the crew's sake, for the entire team's sake. The good feelings from the win will only go so far, particularly as more and more time goes by between great finishes. So I hope that if not a win, this team has a bunch of top tens and top fives in their future.

I can't even pinpoint anything that they can work on really. Unlike at DEI where everyone has been fairly forthcoming about what some of their issues are and where they need to make improvements, Orleans, Steve, Brendan and everyone else seem to be fairly tight-lipped about what issues they may or may not have and what they might be working on. No team likes to talk about the negative stuff but it seems like a lot of stuff goes unexplained. We never did hear anything about what occured in the pits in Martinsville and how the air gun hose came to be stuck in the truck when Steve left the pit. Nor did we hear anything about the tangle on pit road with Ted Musgrave if that actually happened. Nor did we hear why his engine expired in the race before that. So I guess we might never hear why Steve's truck wasn't as good as he would have liked after that pit stop or what happened to Brendan. Maybe it's just all random bad luck or maybe they still need to work on some things in the pits or at the shop. No idea, I just hope that in Mansfield we see Steve running up front.

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

April 15, 2005

Good Looks and Personality Matter in Nascar

Good Looks and Good Drivers Join to Complete a Nascar Package

I've long thought that in addition to a driver's potential for winning races, a major role in their staying power in the sport has to do with their attractiveness, personality and marketability and finally there's an article which supports my theory. As pointed out in the article when you take a look at who's in the Cup garage area, particularly when you look at the younger, up-and-coming drivers the majority of them are very attractive and personable. Even the Busch brothers who aren't thought by most as terribly attractive are pretty media-savvy and smooth. Of course the drivers still have to be able to race and win but there is no question that every team wants a driver who a ton of sponsors will want to get involved with and will also generate a lot of merchandise sales. Both of those things equals revenue and potentially a lot of it.

I discussed this kind of issue in relation to Brendan Gaughan recently and again when the rumor surfaced that he might be a candidate for a third Evernham car. I remember when Gaughan turned up in Cup last season he was clean-cut and fit in completely with the image that many of the younger drivers are trying to portray. Now that he's not in Cup he essentially looks like a caveman, which is probably his preferred way of looking. Travis Kvapil, who took over for Gaughan in the #77 car, also seemed to get a subtle make-over when he landed in Cup. Kvapil was always fairly decent looking but it just seems like this season there is something about him that is more stylized and less rough around the edges than when he was in the truck series last season.

The drivers all know the "right" things to say too. I discussed it in one entry or another just recently but they are all very polished and media savvy. Even Kurt Busch has learned how to be diplomatic and say the "right" things as opposed to what he might really think. Just look at his comments after the incident with Jeff Gordon in Martinsville. He didn't rip Gordon a new one, even though you know he must have wanted to. His sponsor doesn't want him to cause waves and the fans would just get on him if he did too. Busch and the rest of the drivers the majority of the time just say what's safe and expected, half of which they are probably coached on ahead of time by a PR person.

I thought this was an especially interesting comment by Jeff Gordon who said "In order to attract sponsors, we have to entice them to spend money with our teams. So we go there and we say, 'O.K., we've got a great team and we've got this great, young, good-looking driver, very marketable guy.' Because the sponsor's going to look at it and say, 'O.K., well, in case we don't win races, what do we have to fall back on?'" Which makes me wonder if there are sponsors out there who are okay with not winning as long as they garner a lot of attention because their driver is very marketable. Kasey Kahne hasn't won yet on the Cup level, though he's come close, but I'm pretty sure his sponsors don't have too many complaints. And of course there's Michael Waltrip, who readers of this blog are probably sick of hearing about, who goes above and beyond when it comes to taking care of his sponsors and being personable. Which apparently pays off considering how many advertising campaigns he appears in, despite not having won on the Cup level since 2003.

I thought about this in relation to Steve Park when he got the ride with Orleans Racing. No doubt that Steve is a talented driver who as we say in Fontana can win races. Yet at the time that Orleans signed him Steve hadn't won since 2001. So why did they sign him? Orleans says that he was the best driver out there but I think that Steve's personality, how good he is with the fans, his strong fan base and that he would represent any sponsor exceptionally well also played a role. Steve's fans will buy almost anything that he is associated with which of course means added revenue for Orleans in terms of merchandise sales and is attractive to sponsors. Correction, should be attractive to sponsors, given that for some strange reason the #62 still doesn't have a primary sponsor for most races.

There's also the issue that some female fans make their selections about what drivers they are fans of on the basis of which driver they think is the most attractive. Fox's Sexiest Driver poll certainly caters to this type of fan. Given the increasing amount of female Nascar fans it shouldn't be discounted that this is a way that looks plays into things as well. Teams know full well that the more attractive the driver the more female fans there will be. No doubt in my mind that some promotions and ad campaigns specifically play up the driver's looks and sexiness in order to appeal to this demographic.

I don't think there will ever be a day when a driver with no talent gets a ride just on the basis of their looks and personality. But I do think that drivers who aren't the complete package may find it more and more difficult to move up in the ranks as time goes on.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2005

Gaughan to Evernham in 2006?

From Jayski's via Sporting News: Gaughan to Evernham in 2006? Evernham Motorsports is the Dodge mainstay and is expected to add a third car, with Brendan Gaughan, next season.(FoxSports/Sporting News)(4-13-2005)

Ironically after I just posted last night about Brendan Gaughan's new look and the possiblity that he's thumbing his nose at some in the Cup garage comes this item that Brendan might be going back to Cup next season in a third Evernham car. Now this would be an ideal situation for Brendan as Evernham is a strong organization who would surely support him a hundred times more than Penske ever did. There's no question that Brendan can race. Given the right equipment he can win too - all his truck wins are proof of that. Even last season there was evidence that he could race with anyone else up front, only problem was most of those good runs were spoiled by blown engines or the car otherwise falling apart. My only question would be if, as I discussed down below if his individualistic personality is suited for Cup. I would hope that if Evernham signs him for 2006 that he doesn't try to rein Brendan in too much.

However, Nascar as a whole is pretty intolerant of people who try to go against the norm. Michael Waltrip, seems to have one of the more unique personalities among the drivers, which has worked well for him as he's parlayed his off-beat sense of humor into a persona on the various shows he appears on. But even Michael has learned in what situations he can be free-sprited and when he has to toe the line. He is very good at knowing what to say in what situation. But Brendan's personality seems to be on, 100% full-force at all times. Michael seesm to know when he can get away with speaking his mind, which he does a lot more than he is given credit for. However, Michael often gets his points across subtly, rather than stating things outright, which probably wouldn't go over so well. But it's struck me in the past that Brendan just says whatever is on his mind openly, which is a very good quality, but is something that tends to be frowned upon for the drivers who it often seems are expected to be cardboard cutouts of each other. Of course Brendan's willingness to state his opinions freely can get him into trouble too - his ill-advised comments on gambling is a good example of that. There needs to be a balance between stating one's opinions and knowing when it's best to not say certain things or phrase them in a certain way to stay out of trouble.

Sometimes I wonder what the drivers really think. Not what they say because they think it's what the fans, Nascar or their sponsors want to hear. Not what a PR person has coached them to say or outright wrote for them. Which is often how the drivers sound. Sometimes even what they say in Victory Lane after they've just won a race sounds stiff, rehearsed and devoid of a lot of emotion. When I listened to a bunch of drivers and other speak in relation to Shane Hmiel and the fallout from his run-in with Dale Jarrett there were a lot of great comments made but I still couldn't help but wonder what they'd really be saying if they weren't worried about saying the "right" thing all the time.

It's funny because a lot of people love Dale Earnhardt, Jr. because they think he's just like one of them. That he's real all the time and says whatever is on his mind. Yet I often feel like Junior is also speaking through the filter of what he thinks people want to hear from him. Now, with Jade Gurss as his PR person who is so liberal minded and out-spoken himself, there may be more of a willingness to let Junior speak freely. Yet I still feel that Junior presents a persona publically, just as every single one of the other drivers do. And you have to wonder with how influential Junior is because of the huge fan base he has how much Nascar tries to get him to say what they want him to say (or his sponsors, or DEI, or any number of other people) to get their preferred message out. Of course in thinking about that of course that happens because these drivers are acting as spokespeople for their sponsors, their sport and their teams. Which of course leads you back to wondering about how much of what the drivers really say is what they actually believe.

In addition, in terms of the driver's images and personas some of that is created by the public relations and marketing teams for the teams and sponsors. They decide upon the way they want to present, promote and market the driver as if he was a product just like the goods and services that the sponsors are pushing. So what you see isn't always what you get because it's sometimes a creation of the machine that sells the drivers and the sport. In essence I think it's hard to tell sometimes what's real and what's not. There's very much a "show" aspect to Nascar and people are very aware of doing and not doing certain things publically. Which means that people can't really fully express themselves as openly or as freely as they might like.

So the point of all this rambling? It will be interesting to see how Brendan does in another go-around in Cup.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2005

Brendan Gaughan Has an Interesting Look These Days

I just saw a photo of Brendan Gaughan that someone posted over at SPC and Brendan is starting to bear a startling resemblance to Johnny Damon. I hate commenting on the drivers looks or the players for that matter except in a joking way because I don't think the way they look has any bearing on how they race or play the game. However, in this case I'm going to make an exception because I find the change in Brendan's appearance from when he went to Cup last season to now somewhat interesting.

Brendan is a character and it's likely that his unique personality clashed with the stifling and conservative atmosphere in the Cup garage. Which is probably why he's back in the trucks where he can say and do virtually anything he wants not just because there's less of a spotlight on the truck drivers but also because he's the general manager at Orleans Racing. Who's going to tell him no? Actually now that Brendan is back in Las Vegas no one is going to tell him no there either considering how prominent his family is in Vegas due to their long-time involvement in the Casino business. I've always wondered if there was friction between Brendan and some in the Cup garage because in the truck series and in Las Vegas he was used to being a big fish who could do as he pleased but in Cup he was the little fish surrounded by much bigger fish. I just can't imagine someone who is used to be in a position of power in a way due to his family and their business being able to easily kow-tow to others, particularly since he likes to say whatever's on his mind all the time. Brendan probably had a great deal of trouble conforming to the sometimes restrictive expectations in the Cup garage area in terms of behavior and acceptable ways of expressing opinions.

But back to the way Brendan is looking these days. He seems to have gained weight, he's grown his hair pretty long and hasn't shaved for a while. That look is pretty unusual even in the truck series because appearances do count in Nascar, even in a series where there is less attention focused on the drivers. Sponsors want their drivers to get results on the track but also be well-spoken and look good too. Obviously Jasper Motorsports has no problem with the way Brendan looks but I suspect another sponsor might not be so pleased with the unkempt look. No matter how outgoing Brendan's personality is or what a great guy he is that look just isn't going to translate well in ads or on TV, when people judge and make assumptions on the basis of what someone looks like.

Brendan is a free-spirit who is probably having a lot of fun growing this look. Yet at the same time it's eye-catching and I can't help but wonder if subconsiously that's exactly the point. Is he trying to thumb his nose at the Nascar "establishment?" Maybe so. Get their attention and send a message that like it or not he's going to do things exactly his way. Maybe. I can only speculate on the "whys" but I find it very intriguing just as I find all aspects of human behavior and the motivations behind why people do the things they do interesting.

I applaud Brendan's individuality and his insistance that he's going to do exactly what he wants, what other people think be damned. That is the way I've always tried to be as much as I can, though I don't always have the freedom like Brendan does to express myself completely the way I want without having to worry about the consequences. I'd wonder if in the long-run going too crazy with this look is going to cause problems for him but what does Brendan have to lose? Brendan will always have a ride through Orleans and he sure doesn't have to race for the money.

Since I don't know Brendan, only met him the one time, it's impossible to know for sure why he's doing the things that he's doing but it will be interesting to see how far he takes this look.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)

April 09, 2005

More Bad Luck For Steve Park and Orleans Racing

So Martinsville didn't treat Steve Park and Orleans Racing any better than Atlanta did. More bad karma once again. For the second race in a row the #77 of Brendan Gaughan failed to qualify for the race. That's pretty bad considering Brendan and his team tested at Martinsville just last week or the week before. At that time Brendan said that Martinsville has never been one of his better tracks so perhaps that played a role. Then Steve's #62 truck was just awful during the race and he couldn't do anything with it. On top of that there were two problems in the pits, a tangle with Ted Musgrave and an air gun hose got caught in the truck which led to repeated pit stops and caused Steve to go laps down.

I'd love to really know all of what exactly happend to Steve's truck in today's race but since Speed barely said anything about him during the broadcast and not suprisingly there were no post-race notes (no pre-race notes either that I could find) we might just only have the race reports of fans to go on once they get back. Already someone has said that Steve was very frustrated with the truck and didn't understand how the truck could be so good in practice but so poor in the race. I don't remember the truck being so great in practice, it seemed mid-pack in terms of speed at best, but perhaps it handled great even if the speed wasn't there. Another person said that Steve kicked the truck when he got out of it - wish someone got a photo of that!

I'd really love to know about what happened in the pits especially. It's a tight pit road at Martinsville so it's crucial that the spotters and the crew chiefs really give their drivers a lot of help going in and out of the pit stalls to avoid problems. Unfortunately it appears there was a problem with Ted Musgrave and Steve. No idea what the details are though since Speed didn't show it but I would have liked to have seen it. I can't quite remember but I'm curious as to whether that was the same pit stop as the one in which the air gun hose somehow got collected when Steve left the pit. That necessitated him having to come in again. If it was the same pit stop I wonder if either the crew or Steve were flustered because of having gotten into Musgrave or they were paying so much attention to the air gun hose problem that they made the miscue with Musgrave. Might never know. I don't think the problem with Musgrave effected either truck as Ted had a top ten finish and Steve's truck wasn't too great regardless.

When you look at the season for Orleans Racing overall, other than Steve's awesome win of course, it's really not that great. It's still very early so I'm sure things will turn around for them but so far other than the win, there's been wrecks, engine problems, failures to qualify and other assorted problems. For an organization like Orleans, particularly since they have a primary sponsor for one of those trucks so there is some sponsor dollars coming in, that's just not very good. Expectations are higher for Orleans Racing as they are a strong organization with a lot of resources. Again, it's very early but Steve should be in the hunt for the championship right now given his win not 16th in points. 16th isn't bad by any means but I just would have liked to have seen some momentum carry over from his win and that hasn't happened yet.

ETA: Another person who just returned from the race said that the air gun hose issue came because there was a cross up with the jackman. That's really unfortunate because problems with the pit crew cost Orleans last season at times and it appeared that problem raised it's ugly head again this season. No team is perfect so there are always going to be some mistakes but I just hope they sort out whatever communication problems there might be so it doesn't happen again. Unfortunately I can imagine what the chain of events were for Steve once that problem happened especially hearing he asked for his shoes and stuff to be ready right after the race so he could get the hell out of there. Yeah, that's a guy who's not feeling too great about things. Not a good mindset to be in, especially since the next race isn't until the end of the month.

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

March 28, 2005

Gambling and Nascar

Gentleman Start Your Wagering

Increasingly more and more people are gambling on Nascar races, which is a sign of the sport's increasing popularity. But as more and more people gamble on races, Nascar may be forced to one day address some sticky issues as it relates to gambling.

A while back I discussed in this space the issue of gambling as it relates specifically to Brendan Gaughan, who made a comment which indicated that he may gamble on himself now that he's back in the Truck Series. My feeling is that even though Brendan is a great person, who is most likely as honest as they come, it's not a wise idea to bet on one's self or any of the races that he's involved with for that matter. At the time Brendan made the comment about betting on himself he indicated that no one from Nascar had expressed to him that his actions were problematic which is in direct contrast to the above article which says that Brendan was called in for an informal chat with Nascar's higher ups when he was still in Cup who said that gambling falls under the umbrella of "actions detrimental to the sport." There's no way of knowing for sure whether or not that chat actually took place but I can understand why Nascar might have wanted to clarify a few things with Brendan if they did indeed talk with him. While I don't have a problem with gambling in general, when it comes specifically to those who are involved with the sport I think great care needs to be taken as it relates to gambling so that there is no appearance of impropriety.

While it's very true about the difficulty in fixing a race as reflected in the comments by Humpty Wheeler in the above article, there is still the possibility that individuals might be tempted to do or not do certain things to try to ensure certain outcomes if it might benefit them financially due to a particular wager. A huge amount of money changes hands and while I'd like to think that everyone in Nascar is honest and upstanding, the reality is that there probably are people who might do dishonest things. Even if no one would even consider doing anything dishonest, innocent behaviors can sometimes take on a different interpretation to those on the outside looking in and it might be hard to go back and prove that there was no intent after the fact. Which is why I think that Nascar needs a written rule relating to gambling on races to guide the competitors and teams.

Nascar is constantly talking about how they are a family sport. With that in mind it's a little suprising that they don't have a rule in place since many think that gambling is not a family activity. Personally, I think adults should have the freedom to do as they choose for the most part, even if it means making bad decisions or getting themselves in trouble. But Nascar and the sponsors often don't see it that way. Drivers have morality clauses in their contracts which can get them released for all sorts of misbehavior. In addition, they put pressure on drivers who don't toe the party line to get with the program as Brendan found out. Given how conservative many of the attitudes in Nascar are one might think that gambling would be something that they might take a hardline stance on. If not for the money, that is.

Really it isn't all that surprising that there is no written rule son gambling considering that at least three different casinos sponsor cars or trucks, the International Speedway Corporation, a company owned by the France family, the same people who run Nascar, have had talks with an Indian tribe to build a track and casino in Washington state and a casino sponsors several races. So as long as there is the potential for Nascar to benefit from the casinos and gambling they will probably be hesitant to officially enact a rule about gambling. Because such a rule might upset current or future sponsors or business partners. That's unfortunate because I think that it leaves open the possibility, perhaps an unlikely one, of a competitor or team and Nascar getting themselves into a messy situation.

Given the possiblity of Nascar's chat with Brendan and that they denied an off-shore gambling sports book, Sportsbook.com, from sponsoring a Busch car it does seem to indicate that they have given some thought to this issue. Nascar's spokesman mentions in the article that all the gambling related sponsors that Nascar or the teams have worked with thus far are more than just gaming establishements, in that they all are also hotels and entertainment facilities. So that probably represents the distinction as to where Nascar draws the line. Even though every single one of these places probably makes the majority of their money from gambling, as long as Nascar can point to the other activities at these places, they have a little wiggle room. Nascar is probably just hoping that down the road they will never face any sort of gambling related scandal to force them to address this issue head on. But in general I think it's better to be proactive, which may be what Nascar is trying to do if they are having behind the scenes informal chats about "conduct detrimental" with some folks.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

March 26, 2005

Brendan Gaughan on New Qualifying Procedures and Sponsorship Woes

New Qualifying Process Will Hurt Nascar

Brendan Gaughan thinks that the new qualifying procedures will hurt Nascar for years to come and while I agree with him that it hurts independant teams and that it not a good thing I can't agree that the new qualifying procedures are going to hurt Nascar for years to come. First of all, independent teams are going to struggle regardless of what the qualifying procedures are. There is no way of getting around that because the way the sport is right now independent teams just can't compete with the multi-team organizations with resources and revenue that the small, single-car teams just don't have access to. They can go back to the old way of qualifying and there will still be independent teams who will not make the race, struggle to get and keep sponsorship and struggle to run well in races.

Beyond that Brendan believes that sponsors will not sponsor teams any more for full seasons and he connects that back to the new qualifying procedures because some teams will not be guaranteed making all the races so sponsors might not be as likely to put up the money for an entire season. I think the problem is that teams are asking for so much money for a full season primary sponsorship, perhaps as much as $15 million or more for the big teams. As costs rise teams are forced to ask for more money and with the economy being what it is, the amount of sponsors who can spend the big money is becoming more limited. It's not going to matter what the qualifying rules are if sponsors just don't have millions available to spend as freely as they once did.

For the most part Brendan is correct that sponsors are going to be more willing to be an associate sponsor on a team that is guaranteed to make a race than a full sponsor on a team that might have to go home. However, that would be the case regardless of what the qualifying rules are. Independent teams have always struggled to succeed in recent years. Naturally sponsors would rather be associated with teams that will bring them the most visility and chance of winning and the reality is that comes for the most part with the bigger, multi-car teams.

There's also one problem with Brendan's theory that sponsors want to be associated with teams that are guaranteed to make all the races over independent teams. The truck he owns through Orleans Racing, the #62 driven by Steve Park, is guaranteed to make all the races (by owner points at first and then later by staying in the top 35 in points) yet doesn't have a full-time sponsor. Meanwhile you have smaller, independant teams with primary, full season sponsors. When Nascar went to the new qualifying system one of their arguments is that it would help teams get and keep sponsorships because sponsors that spend a lot of money with big teams as primary sponsors won't have to worry that their team could get sent home, which is what happened with Scott Riggs and Kyle Petty last season. Well, apparently the new qualifying rule hasn't helped the #62. As I've mentioned before in this blog, it's actually a huge mystery to me why that truck has no primary sponsor and only a few associate sponsors.

Brendan also discusses how Robby Gordon had to get four different primary sponsors, each for a certain amount of races, for his independent team. I don't see this as a problem. Had Robby held out for a primary sponsor willing to pay him for a full season's sponsorship at the price he wanted he probably would still be looking. But by breaking up the season, he was able to attract four big name sponsors who are probably each paying him a decent amount of money to sponsor him in those races. Yes, he has struggled to make races and the new qualifying rules have hurt him. But I think what has hurt Robby the most is that he's been having so many problems with the engines that he's been getting from Menard's. For teams to succeed, regardless of who they are or who they are associated with, they just need to be flexible and adjust to new ways of doing business and getting sponsors. That is what Robby did and I don't see that as a negative.

What bothered me last season in particular with qualifying is that there were teams who were showing up for races, using the provisional system to get into races and then were slow as molasses or dropped out of the race after a limited amount of races. Sometimes they knowingly entered races with the knowledge that they wouldn't make it through an entire race. James Finch once didn't even bring a pit crew to a Cup race because he had no intention of keeping his car out there to pit the first time. That shouldn't be happening and I'm glad that the rules were changed to cut down on situations like that by eliminating the provisionals.

I'm also glad that time plays more of a role in qualifying at least in the case of the teams outside the top 35 in points. In the best case scenario Nascar would change the rules even further and make so that no teams get a pass into the race and it's all about the 42 fastest cars. That will probably never happen but at least this way the final spots outside the top 35 are decided on speed. It stinks for the teams outside the top 35 who are faster than those inside the top 35 and get bumped but at least speed is a factor to some degree.

For an independent team it's a vicious circle. To be competitive and get good results they need the money to pay for top engineers, crew members and equipment. But to get that money from sponsors they need to get good results and show that they are competitive. Brendan is right that the independent teams are dying out, partially because of that quandry those teams find themselves in. But I think the issue is far more complicated than new qualifying rules and speaks to some overall economic problems in Nascar. I have no idea how Nascar can really address the situation either without making some massive changes to the sport. The bottom line I think is that operating a competitive race team has gotten so expensive that there aren't all that many organizations who can do it or that many sponsors who can support those organizations. Even the multi-team organizations seem to struggle with making all their teams competitive. So until Nascar looks at reducing the costs associated with the sport, and in a big, meaningful way, not just a few rule changes here or there, then the independent teams may always struggle, regardless of what happens at qualifying.

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

March 18, 2005

Bad Night for Orleans Racing

Well, Atlanta was really not good for the folks at Orleans Racing. Brendan Gaughan didn't make the race, in the truck that actually has a primary sponsor. His crew chief had to leave to go home to be with his girlfriend whose father passed away. And then on lap 26 of the race the engine of the #62 blew. Just really a bad, bad day/night for these guys. As they pointed out on XM it really stinks for them that they hauled themselves and all their stuff out to Atlanta from Las Vegas only to have one car not make the race and the other be out so early.

I was in the car driving home when Steve's motor blew and I heard him give an interview on XM. The signal cut out mid-interview but it came back in time for me to hear him say "I'm just disappointed." Yeah, I'll say - last race a winner, on top of the world for three weeks and then everything goes to pieces (literally for the engine) this week. He was first last race, this week he's 34th. That can't be a good feeling at all. Yet another problem he's experienced that is completely out of his hands - nothing the driver can do when the engine falls apart. Steve dropped out of the top ten in points which really stinks too.

I really thought that the momentum from the last race would carry over to Atlanta and they'd have a streak of great races. Just like Steve said, it's disappointing that it appears that's not to be. I thought that bad luck was over and done with for Steve. I really was feeling confident that Steve was going to be a force to reckon with this season. That may still very well be the case, but it appears there was some bad karma in the air in Atlanta. Hmm...

And unfortunately the next race isn't until April 9 in Martinsville so there's a couple of weeks to brood about what happened with a bunch of off-time instead of immediately being able to concentrate on the next race being just a week away. Hopefully in Martinsville things will go better for both Steve and Brendan. I'd really like to see Steve compete for the championship this season so hopefully the engine expiring will just be a freak thing.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2005

Brendan Gaughan Bets on Himself?

Gaughan and Gambling

The Gaughan family has long been very successfully involved with the casino business in Las Vegas. So naturally for Brendan Gaughan gambling and betting has been a way of life his entire life. So in the article discussing his return to the truck series, the issue of betting on himself is mentioned. From the article: "...In truth, he often said he only bet on himself when driving for his family's team in the truck series... While NASCAR never had a problem with his claims, his major sponsor last year, Kodak, wanted no links between its driver and gambling."

So I ask - does this mean that now that Brendan is back in the truck series as both a driver and Orleans Racing General Manager/son of the owner he bets on himself or potentially Steve Park, since Steve now drives for his family's team? Every other sport has strict rules about gambling and players are not allowed to bet on themselves or their team. It's for obvious reasons - even if it's just an innocent bet it just doesn't look right. With that in mind when Brendan was a Cup driver, as the article notes, Kodak didn't want him to be gambling, presumably at least on himself.

The issue is that while Brendan is just doing what he's grown up around it opens up lots of questions. Such as is he betting on himself (or Steve) to win? Or to lose? And if he bets on himself to lose would he do something to cause himself to lose, such as not race as hard, to win his bet? If he bets on himself to win, would he do something to Steve's truck, such as give the #62 a lesser engine than what goes in the #77, to cause himself to win? Now from everything I've gathered about Brendan he is an outstanding, honest and wonderful person who would never do anything inappropriate. The problem is that to people who don't know him, betting on himself (or his teammate) just doesn't seem like the right thing to do. It opens up all these sticky questions. Particularly if there is a lot of money involved, that could get people's attention if it comes to light. And it may be hard to definitively show that everything is not suspect.

Some probably can't understand why anyone would even think twice about someone gambling on their own sport. Then you look at Pete Rose and see the trouble he got into with gambling and the black eye that brought to baseball and to a great player. You look at college sports and the strict rules they have about the players gambling. The other sports that have rules about gambling have those rules for a reason and it's to protect the integrity of the game.

I wonder if one day Nascar will have similar rules as well. I would guess not as long as there are casinos sponsoring cars there won't be. They can't have teams accepting money from casinos and then turn around and tell their competitors that they can't gamble or at the very least that they can't bet on themselves.

Since Nascar has never made an issue of this to my knowledge I assume no one else will either. But you never know what kind of a situation may present itself in the future. I would think that as General Manager Brendan wouldn't want to put himself, his team or Steve in a sticky position where they have hard questions to answer, some of which may be difficult to answer to everyone's satisfaction. So hopefully he keeps his betting on himself and his teammate to a minimum.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

I Can't Stand This! More Bad Luck For Steve Park!

This overall race really bothered me and I'll discuss it in a separate entry when everything gets sorted out but poor Steve. I figured after the problem in practice with Kerry Earnhardt that forced him to a back-up truck surely that he would have a good race tonight. Steve even joined a bunch of other veterans in hanging in the back, way back from the main pack of trucks to try and stay out of trouble until the end of the race. Well, that plan didn't even work out for him. Granted things could have been much worse in this race for Steve but it just seems like every time I think he's due for a great race and things are going well suddenly it all falls apart for him.

Ironically it was Steve's teammate and GM/son of the owner that led to his demise in this race. Brendan was racing to stay ahead of the leaders to try and get his lap back when he got loose. Way loose. It led to a huge wreck which took out many good trucks. At first I thought Steve got through since he was so far back but somehow he got into the back of another truck, most likely when someone checked up, though I don't know for sure because Speed never showed it. Apparently there was major damage to the nose and eventually the engine overheated and blew up.

Steve did an interview for radio and apparently he was extremely upset and disappointed as one might imagine. He thinks he's playing it safe and doing the right thing to stay out of trouble until the end when he can race his way up front and things still go bad for him. He said that he wanted fans to send him suggestions for ways to turn his luck around... to his website. Poor Steve must not know that the Visitor's Log on his website is disabled now so fans can't even send him messages that way.

I just feel terrible for Steve. He'll probably connect this all back to the practice wreck and back to what he was saying about making a bad choice about who to draft with. But nothing that has happened to him is in any way his fault. He was racing smart tonight with a very good plan. Bobby Hamilton did the same thing and ended up winning. Granted I don't know 100% what happened to cause him to get the nose of the truck damaged but it was most likely just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. No way was he at fault for the engine blowing either, stuff like that is completely out of his control.

It occurs to me that winning this race would have had extra meaning to Steve. It's the four year anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's death at this very track. So today Steve was probably feeling bad to begin with. A win would really have been something special today. Talk about a way to replace bad memories with good ones. But it was not to be unfortunately.

I had really, really hoped to see Steve start out this season on a great note like Michael Waltrip did yesterday. If not a win, a top ten or a top five would have been awesome. He ended up finishing 23rd which isn't terrible. Considering what else happened in this race it could have been much worse. But still it's not great either and I know it has to be very disappointing for Steve, who surely was hoping he had left all his back luck behind him.

It seems like I'm always saying this and I hate that I'm starting out 2005 like this too. I hate having to always say "poor Steve" and feel bad for him, feel bad for his team, feel disappointed with the way the race turned out for him. I really hope the next race goes differently for Steve. A top ten or a top five would be great a win even better of course. He could really use that win. Not just for the fans, not just for his team, but for himself. Most importantly for himself. I think that will be the best feeling in the world for him when he gets back to Victory Lane - and he will get there, hopefully soon.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2005

What Would Brendan Do?

Well apparently as General Manager of Orleans Racing Brendan wasn't too thrilled with seeing one of his trucks wrecked. So the answer appears to be do a little name-calling. I just read on one of the boards that he called Kerry Earnhardt a "knucklehead." Just like Gary Sheffield and his ill-advised comments about Jason Giambi or Trot Nixon's comments about Alex Rodriguez, sometimes I think it's best to keep some thoughts out of the media, especially when it comes to calling people names or otherwise insulting them. These guys have to race against each other and it's only going to create more ill-will to be calling each other names. Save those kinds of comments for inside the hauler or in the motorcoach. Express your displease all you want - Steve sure did, though even he was a bit harsh. But name-calling? At least save it for when something happens in a race!

I can only imagine how Brendan would go off if he was the one who got wrecked.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2005

Jasper Engines to Partner With Brendan Gaughan, Orleans Racing

Jasper Will Sponsor Gaughan

As I expected based on some hints that Brendan Gaughan made previously Jasper Engines and Transmissions will sponsor Brendan's #77 truck for 18 races this season. In addition, Jasper and Orleans racing has formed a technological alliance, though details of exactly what that entails were not given. I wouldn't be surprised to see Brendan run the full truck season if nothing comes up for him on the Cup level and I imagine that Jasper would continue their sponsorship for those additional races too.

So the question is - will Steve Park, who is running the full season, have a sponsor this season? I'm thinking that would be a no considering we've heard nothing about it. Granted, Brendan had an already established relationship with Jasper through working with them on the Cup level last season so that made getting them on board as a sponsor probably not that hard, but why is getting a sponsor for the #62 so difficult? Steve's very popular with the fans, would represent any sponsor well and most importantly can and probably will win races this season. Overall the #62 is a good team. Yet so far it appears he won't have a primarly sponsor outside of The Orleans yet again. Is Orleans asking for more money than most sponsors want to pay? Are there still doubts about Steve and his chances for success? I just don't get it.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2005

Gaughan to PPI in a Cup Ride?

Brendan to be Bobby Jr.'s Teammate?

That's Racin' is reporting that Brendan Gaughan is close to signing a deal with PPI to run most or all of the Cup races in 2005 as a teammate to Bobby Hamilton, Jr. I just don't get it. Brendan said very recently that he is racing because he loves racing, not because he needs money so he's not going to take any ride that's offered to him. While Cal Wells seems like a good guy he can't even field one consistantly competitive team with the #32 so how is he going to field two good teams? So I guess I'm a little surprised that Brendan would opt to take this ride. It's definitely a better ride than say the #4 for Morgan-McClure but a second year of struggling in Cup won't impress too many people. If Brendan ends up in the car, I hope that PPI is able to somehow put together a good ride for him. Maybe having teammates to bounce information and ideas off of will end up helping the organization.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2005

Gaughan Speaks on Steve Park and More

Converstation With Brendan

Some interesting comments by Brendan Gaughan in this interview he did with Nascar.com. First there's this about Steve: "Steve Park is going to drive the 62 Orleans Dodge. He's a fantastic driver. We're going to give him the equipment that he's supposed to have and get things back running like they're supposed to." So am I to take from that, which comes from the mouth of the team owner's son who is now the interim general manager, that Steve didn't have the best equipment last season? And if he didn't why was that? If they all feel Steve is such a fantastic driver, why not give him everything he needs to win? Furthermore, if they didn't give Steve what he needed last season, then why is it going to happen this season? Especially when Brendan will now be running in the trucks as well so naturally plenty of resources are going to be devoted to him. I hope that they find a sponsor for that #62 truck because that would certainly ensure that Orleans does everything they can to get Steve a Championship.

Later in the article Brendan says on a similar note: "Charlie Wilson and Steve Park are both coming back, the whole team is coming back. We feel like we have a lot to prove. We know we're a lot stronger than we ended up running last year. Everything got so haywire for that program. This year, we're going to make sure things are done right." Well, why did things go so haywire and what wasn't done right? I would guess that the mess with the woman they hired to be GM that left abruptly was one issue. But more than that the pit crew problems were probably another issue though it seemed like they straightened most of that out in the later half of the season. It's comments like that which make me wonder what else was going on behind the scenes that we never heard about. Steve seems way more happier now than he did in Cup the past few seasons so I assume that Orleans is a well run organization who treats him well. It's just comments like this that make me wonder sometimes.

Another topic that Brendan addresses is his parting of the ways with Penske, which he claims involved no ill will. Well, some of his previous comments in interview on XM didn't sound like there was completely no hard feelings there and if what others have said can be believed privately Brendan has made some comments which indicate that he wasn't happy with the way things went down. But of course publically Brendan, just like the rest of the drivers, have to put on a happy face. Particularly if he is angling to continue some sort of relationship with Kodak as this interview seems to imply.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

January 05, 2005

Brendan Gaughan Interim GM at Orleans Racing

Interim GM

In an article about the hiring of Billy Wilburn as Brendan Gaughan's crew chief for the #61, it was also mentioned that Gaughan is serving as the interim General Manager for Orleans Racing. Now that begs the question: what the heck happened to Fritz Kroyer? So in a year this is the third GM that Orleans Racing has had, and given that Brendan has a interim title, I would assume that means they might soon have a fourth GM. People come and go with the teams all the time but generally I would think that there is less turn-over with a position as high in an organization as the GM. Of course their first GM in 2004 was that woman who supossedly completely scammed them into thinking that she would get them all this sponsorship that fell through. We never heard what really happened with that situation and I wish that we did.

I have to wonder how Brendan as GM is going to effect things. He will be both the GM and the driver. How is that going to effect Steve? Obviously Brendan is going to want a quality ride for himself. I hope that Orleans can field two good and competitive trucks in 2005 otherwise Steve might find himself in trouble. Given that Brendan is the son of the owner of the company and in a management position if any preferential treatment is to be given it might go to Brendan though given that Steve will be running the full series and will be in contention for the series Championship and thus far Brendan is only slated to run 16 race, it would seem that Steve should be the priority for Orleans. It's definitely going to be interesting to see what happens with this situation.

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

December 12, 2004

Brendan Gaughan on Steve Park and More

From Jayski's (in part): UPDATE 2: Brendan Gaughan tells Sirius Speedway (Sirius Satellite Radio) that he will run a heavy schedule of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events next season, after being released by Penske-Jasper Racing earlier in the week. “Steve Park will run the full season in the #62 Orleans Dodge, and I will be in a second truck – the #61 – in a bunch of truck races, maybe even the full schedule... I beat Brian Vickers in the Rookie of the Year chase this season, but you never heard anything about him being replaced. There were no rumblings coming out of Hendrick Motorsports. You need to know you have the support of your team.” Gaughan said he expects to make major sponsor announcements for both himself and Park within the next 2-3 weeks.(12-11-2004)

The biggest news is that Brendan confirmed what was pretty much obvious for a while now that Steve Park is resigned with Orleans Racing in the #62 for 2005. He also says that he will be Steve's teammate for some races. I'm really happy to hear that it's a done deal that Steve is back in the #62 next season. He seems so happy with that team and I'd love to see him win a few races and hopefully contend for the championship next season.

Of particular interest is that Brendan said that they expect major sponsor annoucements for both he and Steve in the next few weeks. I hope it really happens this time. Last season it was said that Orleans was about to announce the biggest sponsor signing in the history of the truck series and then it fell through completely. So for Brendan's sake and Steve in particular I really, really hope that everything works out this time. Granted, the Gaughan family has plenty of money but the support of a sponsor is probably still a help in a variety of ways.

Brendan made some very pointed comments about his release as well. As much as I think he was screwed by Penske and that they should have given him at least another year in the #77 to show what he can do, I think he's off base with his comments about Brian Vickers. I understand his point that Vickers also struggled but Hendricks didn't release him and is willing to give him more time to develop. However, Vickers' average finish in 2004 was 22.1 while Brendan's was 25.4 and Vickers average starting spot was also better. In addition, Brendan only finished one point ahead of Vickers in the rookie of the year standings. So some might say that Vickers still has his job because on average he did better than Brendan in his rookie year. Truly, I think Brendan got a raw deal from Penske and that they made a mistake but I think he would have been better served by leaving Vickers out of his remarks.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2004

Gaughan Not Quite Gone from Penske?

From Jayski's: UPDATE: hearing that Gaughan will drive the #77 Jasper Penske Dodge Truck with Jasper Engines as the sponsor in the Truck Series?(12-10-2004)

There may be nothing to this rumor but if this is true I just don't get it - why would he expect running a Jasper-Penske truck would be any different than running a Jasper-Penske car in Cup? Unless they have some kind of contractual obligation to each other I think Brendan is probably better off getting away from them completely. I'm sure he knows what he's doing but Ithink he really needs a situation where he can make a fresh start.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2004

It's Official: Gaughan Won't be Back in the #77

From Jayski's:Gaughan will NOT return to the #77 in 2005; Kvapil? Brendan Gaughan was told his contract would not be renewed with Penske-Jasper Racing [#77 Kodak Dodge], and apparently Gene Haas has offered Gaughan, 29, the #0 Chevy seat for 2005. Haas-CNC G.M. Joe Custer added that Richard "Bootie" Barker would remain as crew chief on the #0 and has a three-year contract. Putting Travis Kvapil in the #77 next season is coming with a price. Alex Meshkin wanted compensation for letting Kvapil out of his Bang Racing contract, so Kvapil is expected to run 20 Busch events next season in a Dodge.(FoxSports/Sporting News)(11-15-2004)

The writing was definitely on the wall with this one. I have no idea what this means for Brendan as the #0 isn't exactly a top ride either. But it would keep him in Cup and it can't be as bad as the #77 has seemed to be most weeks. I just can't believe that Penske is willing to give up on Brendan so quickly after just one season. Their loss will be someone else's gain as I have confidence that Brendan can get the job done on the Cup level if an organization has enough patience with him. If he doesn't stay in Cup I just hope he doesn't end up taking Steve Park's ride, his old ride, back in the trucks. I don't think that's going to happen but one never knows. It would be cool if they were teammates - they really seem to enjoy hanging out with each other.

As for Travis Kvapil, he was apparently telling people this weekend he would be running full-time in Cup for Penske next season. He didn't mention the #77 specifically but one could definitely read between the lines there. I wonder if Penske will have any more patience with him than they did with Brendan? Even the few races they ran him in at the end of this season in Cup it's seemed like they gave him a much better car than they ever did to Brendan. That really told me how little they think of Brendan which is really unfortunate. I like Travis and I think he's better off getting as far away from Bang as quickly as possible so I hope this works out well for him. But he should be careful that what happened to Brendan doesn't happen to him too.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2004

Gaughan Frustrated

From Jayski's: Gaughan Speaks: Brendan Gaughan says he “doesn’t really care anymore” about behind-the-scenes maneuvering at Penske-Jasper Motorsports, and is concentrating on the next three races. Asked about Penske Racing’s decision to field a fourth car at Martinsville and Atlanta for former Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil, Gaughan told MRN Radio/Sirius Speedway's Dave Moody that the situation is frustrating. “Stuff we’ve been asking for all season and not getting, all of a sudden they’ve got it,” he said. “I can’t do anything about it, and I really don’t care anymore. All I can do is take what they give me and do my best with it, and the last couple of weeks, it’s been pretty good.” Gaughan declined to comment on rumors that he has spoken with Haas CNC Racing about replacing Ward Burton next season, saying, “If other people are looking at me and liking what they see, I’m flattered. But right now, I’m focused on the last three races of the season. After that, we’ll worry about what comes next.”(MRN Radio/Sirius Speedway)(11-3-2004)

The whole situation with Brendan Gaughan is absolutely perplexing to me. Here we have a young driver with some obvious racing talent who has been a great success in the truck series. He has an extremely outgoing personality and he's wonderful with the fans. So one would think that Penske would be giving him every opportunity to succeed because he is a driver who could become a real star in Nascar. Yet the #77 has rarely seemed to be competitive and half the time when Brendan is able to get it up front something mechanically seems to go wrong. He's got a couple of top tens but with better equipment I would think he could have a lot more good results.

But one of the biggest rumors is that Gaughan will be replaced by Travis Kvapil next season. Kvapil testing the #77 was an especially bad sign. Considering the quality of the cars they've been giving Kvapil it sure does seem like they are eyeing him for something. I can fully understand Brendan's frustration. He is trying to do everything right yet he must feel like his own organization doesn't rully support or believe in him if the new guy gets the stuff he's been asking for all season. Which is a real shame because a rookie driver needs all the help that they can get.

Brendan might be better off if Penske doesn't pick up his option for next season. I think it would be a mistake on their part because I think with better equipment and more experience Brendan would do a lot better but their loss could be another team's gain. I just don't know if that #0 car is going to be all that much better than the #77. They definitely struggle a lot too with mechanical problems and with trying to make that a competitive ride.

I just hope that Brendan isn't going to want his ride back in the truck series. If that's the case Steve Park is out of a job and he's the happiest he's been in a long time racing with Orleans in the truck series. They seem like a great organization and unless he's going to be racing in the Busch series or in Cup with another good organization I'd like to see Steve stay in the #62. A paper in Las Vegas reported that Steve was re-signed for 2005 but there's been no official annoucement which makes me wonder if they are waiting to see what Brendan's situation is before they make if official that Steve is returning.

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