Random Thoughts

February 17, 2009

This Week in NASCAR with Michael Waltrip and Greg Biffle (2/16)

Last year I had a lot of fun doing weekly recaps of "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" on XM but unfortunately for me and the many other fans of the show, it won't be back along with the other driver's shows, a victim of the poor economy. But luckily Michael will still be appearing weekly on "This Week in NASCAR" on SPEED. Michael isn't able to give as many of his opinions in as detailed of a way as he did on Outloud and Tony Rizzuti isn't around to ask questions to draw out some of those interesting opinions, but it's still an opportunity to hear what Michael thinks about each race and the news of the week in the sport. So this season I'm going to do more commentary on TWiN than I have in the past, not a full recap by any means since then I'd pretty much just be recapping what happened in each race, but just whatever Michael (or the other panel members) say that interests me.

As I discussed in a previous entry one thing that always bugs me is when fans stay that rain-shortened wins aren't "real" wins. Michael had a great point last night on TWiN about this. He said that rain-shortened races are actually some of the hardest to win because you have to know exactly when to be in front when the race is called. That's very true - for a while it looked like Elliott Sadler was going to be this year's Daytona 500 winner but the rain didn't move in fast enough for the race to be called while he was leading and he lost the lead shortly afterwards which opened the door for Matt Kenseth to eventually take the lead. Whenever rain is in the forecast the teams have to use strategy not just in terms of how to put themselves in a position to be leading when the race is called but to hold whatever their current position is in general if they're up front or how to advance in what may be very few laps to gain as many positions as possible before the race is called. Although some fans don't like it, strategy has always been a part of racing and to me, as much as I'd like to see a race run it's full length and be decided based on some great racing, it adds an extra element of excitement to see which teams make the best decisions.

I was particularly interested to hear what Michael and Greg Biffle would have to say about the incident between Brian Vickers and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. However, they didn't seem to spend much time on it, maybe because they and their producers were afraid of setting off a big controversy given how hotly debated that topic is among fans. One thing that Michael said is that while he didn't think that Junior intended on wrecking half the field, maybe he was thinking that he wanted to get Brian out of sorts. So basically Michael was saying that there was some intent on Junior's part rather than it being just a mistake - I'm sure there are some Junior fans who weren't happy to hear Michael say that but he may be right. After all, Junior and Brian were racing and Junior probably didn't appreciate getting blocked. But no driver sets out to start "The Big One" so it's more likely that if there was any intent there, as Michael said, it was just to send Brian a message and maybe move him out of the way.

I couldn't help but be reminded as Michael was talking about that incident is that in a way Michael has been in Brian's shoes. The circumstances were different but at Charlotte in 2005, Michael got put in the wall by Junior who was at that time his teammate. Although I don't think Junior's intent was to plant Michael into the wall, I do think it was possible he let some frustration get the best of him, which may be what happened on Sunday as well. Of course Junior wouldn't be alone when it comes to a driver letting their emotions gets the best of them. It's happened many times in the past and it'll happen many times in the future. However, Junior can't let this one incident dictate his season. He needs to learn from the mistakes he might have made on Sunday and avoid making them again to ensure that he's a part of the hunt for the Championship at the end of the season.

Another interesting comment that Michael made was in reference to an incident that a lot of people probably didn't even notice or think much of. At one point Michael had pulled out of line at the same time Clint Bowyer did and Clint got into him a little. I'm not really sure exactly what was going on there but Michael went to the back after that by design so it may just be that Michael took Clint by surprise in that Clint didn't expect him to get out of line and slow up. However, Michael said on TWiN that his "buddy" decided to run him over and that he'll be keeping a tab on that. Although it's been said multiple times that Michael and Clint have made up after Clint's "worst driver" comment about Michael from last season, I've been skeptical and even more so after Michael admitted recently how much that comment hurt him. I get the feeling that one day when Clint needs Michael to give a little or otherwise needs a favor it's not going to happen.

One thing about Michael that he never gets enough credit for is how many good ideas he has such as when he advocated for having all the go-or-go-homers qualify together. Last night he had two of them. One was something he's talked about before how he thinks there should be a TV show just about what's said by the drivers and their teams over their radios during the races. I agree that it could definitely make for an interesting show, though some drivers may not be too happy about having extra attention brought to some of what they say since so many things are said in the heat of the moment. But I think it would definitely add some extra insight into what happens with particular teams and with the races themselves. Michael used the example of how Tony Stewart said over his radio that he was tired of seeing Sam's Club which was a reference to him being tired of seeing Kyle Busch in front of him since Sam's Club was on the back of Kyle's car, and how no one would know about that unless they were listening to Tony's radio or the clip was played somewhere. Maybe Michael could even host the show as I think it would be useful for their to be a driver or crew chief on the show to explain what the driver and his crew chief were talking about.

Michael's other idea was that he thinks NASCAR should allow the drivers to use tinted tear offs on their front windshields. Apparently NASCAR wouldn't let them use them because of visibility concerns but Michael said that there are visibility issues anyway with the COTs. Either Greg or Michael said that it would cut down on incidents that were caused by the setting sun at tracks like the one they'll be racing at this weekend (California). Some drivers use tinted shields on their helmets but I've never really understood why NASCAR won't let them use tinted tear-offs since it seems like there are times when the drivers are racing blind as they go into certain corners when the angle of the setting sun is a certain way which seems like a safety issue.

I'm admittedly not a fan of California Speedway where they'll be racing this weekend - that they have to promote the track by using footage of wrecks as opposed to showing exciting racing says a lot to me - but hopefully Michael and the rest of the panel will have a lot to talk about next week as well!

Posted by silverdsl at 08:44 AM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2008

Help Save Michael Waltrip Outloud!

For the last few weeks it was sounding like the chances of Michael Waltrip Outloud returning to Sirius/XM in 2009 were pretty good but apparently things have changed. Much to my dismay last night on both Out Loud and "The After Show" the discussion made it sound like Sirius isn't too sure about making Outloud part of the lineup on the Nascar channel 128 next season which would mean that it would be canceled. What's astonishing is that apparently they may cancel Dale Jr Unrestricted as well. Just exactly what are they thinking over at Sirius if they may not bring back shows by two of the three most popular drivers in the sport as per the results in last season's Most Popular Driver voting? At a time when it's hard to keep fans interested it seems to me that Sirius would want more unique shows like this featuring some of the most loved drivers in the sport rather than less.

On the show last night they asked fans to call and email Sirius to try to help convince the powers that be that the show should return in 2009. If you are a fan of Michael's and you want to help save this show, whether you have Sirius/XM or not, please email and call Sirius and let them know you want Michael Waltrip Outloud to come back next year!

You can call Sirius at 1-888-539-SIRIUS (7474).

You can email Sirius via this link: http://www.sirius.com/customercare.

If you are a current subscriber make sure to mention Michael's show as one reason you are keeping your subscription and if you aren't a subscriber please tell them you would consider subscribing if Michael's show comes back in 2009. Money talks and especially in this economy!

Some of you might be thinking that since you don't have Sirius/XM and therefore can't listen it's not a big deal, but I would guess that it's a big deal for Michael because it helps him and MWR to not only get their message out but it's something I think is likely a big selling point to potential and current sponsors. Doing this show, as well as TWiN and his other media appearances, are extra exposure for Michael and therefore extra exposure for all his sponsors. I would think this is part of the way they try to do more for their sponsors than other teams do.

Listening to this show is a highlight of my week when it comes to Nascar programming because Michael and Tony do an outstanding job of informing the fans, not just about Michael and his teams, but also about everything that's going on in the sport. I've learned so much from the show! Also, they've had some great guests on and of course they're very funny as well! It's so much fun to listen to this show and I really hope it's back in 2009!

Posted by silverdsl at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud and The After Show (11/20)

Michael Waltrip Outloud

Normally I'm in a good mood when I'm listening to Michael Waltrip Out Loud but I felt sad while I was listening to last night's show. I wasn't enjoying it any less than usual, it's just that it was the last show of the year and on top of that they said that the show might not be back on Sirius or XM next season because Sirius is still deciding whether it fits in for them. Make it fit Sirius! This show is so awesome and it would be not only a loss to those of us who are fans of Michael's but all fans if this show wasn't renewed.

Anyway, the show kicked off with a song by Ne-Yo and Michael said he hadn't heard of him until he sang the National Anthem on Sunday at the Cup race. Well, I can do Michael one better - I didn't know who he was until they talked about him on last night's show! I guess I didn't pay any attention to who was singing the anthem on Sunday. In fact, when they first started talking about the song I thought Michael said that it was Dio!

Michael told a story about a phone call he got from someone named Muscles - not sure who that is but I've heard Michael refer to someone as Muscles before. Everyone in the garage area it seems has a nickname, and it turns out Muscles has one for Michael too only it's not EmDub as some others call him. It's a nickname Michael said that rhymes with "truck race" and he's really disappointed that Muscles hung that one on him because it's not too nice. Yeah, not exactly a term of endearment! By this point in the story Tony was completely cracking up and once I did some rhyming and figured it out, I was laughing too. Turns out Phil Parsons and his son were there while he was talking on the phone with Muscles so that's why Michael had to resort to explaining what Muscles called him by saying it rhymed with "truck race." I know that some of Michael's more conservative fans might take issue with Michael even thinking the word that rhymes with "truck" let alone telling a story about someone calling him that but it really was pretty funny the way Michael told it! I guess you could be offended by it and wonder why someone was calling Michael that or take it in the spirit in which it was intended - as something to amuse listeners.

There was quite a bit of discussion about Friday night's truck race and no surprise since not only was Michael in the booth for that race but it was the race with the best racing all weekend. Michael said he thought of eleven things that had to go right for Johnny to win the Championship, but he only named six before forgetting the rest of the things he thought of. Besides those eleven things that Michael said had to fall into place for Johnny, he also said that Johnny's passion and heart was on display the whole race. He was racing for his life.

So many things had to go perfectly for Johnny Benson to win the Championship since he had a slower truck than Ron Hornaday at Homestead. It was hard to say that Rick Ren made a bad call when he had Ron come in for four tires. The big thing is not taking yourself out of the lead for the Championship. Ron put himself in a position to be vulnerable. The call by Rick would have been fine without all the other things that happened. Tony made note of the big smile on Bill and Gail Davis's face after Johnny won the Championship, but as we know based on some of their comments since they weren't quite smiling on the inside. Michael said that it was an inspired Championship and repeated that Johnny raced with passion. Michael seemed really impressed with the way Johnny raced and I think that's pretty neat that the way he raced this season made such an impression on Michael.

Tony and Michael continued their joke from last week about how careful Hendrick Motorsports should have been with Jimmie Johnson in getting him to Homestead, that he was "bubble boy." Michael said that there could have been a Tonya Harding-type situation - I laughed to myself when they brought up Tonya Harding because Nascar only wishes something like that would happen to generate a little controversy and therefore extra media and fan attention. When Jimmie was in the back he was freaking out on the radio about the idiots racing three-wide but Michael said that later on he saw a bunch of guys going three-wide and one of them was Jimmie. He said that if you see someone else doing something it's dumb but if you did it, it's okay and that they (the drivers) have a bit of a double-standard. I'll say! How easily some of them forget when they rip one of their fellow drivers that they've all likely done the same thing at one time or another.

Tony interviewed Carl Edwards in Victory Lane and called him "Mr. Fuel Mileage." Tony and Michael (and presumably a lot of others) are very impressed with the way that team has horsepower yet they can save gas like no one else. Usually you can't save gas when you're out front. I would guess a lot of teams are going to try to figure out what the #99 figured out that they haven't yet because that definitely seems to have gotten a lot of people's attention. Even Carl's own teammates have been wondering why he's been getting so much better fuel mileage than they have. Michael said it's fun to see what it takes to win - I'm thinking he's paying close attention in the hopes that he'll pick up something that will help him get to Victory Lane - sure hope that happens!. Tony said that usually when you talk to the person who comes in second for the championship they aren't too happy but Carl and his teams were all smiles. They dominated the end of the Chase. The big mistake that Carl made was at Talladega. Michael said that sometimes there are circumstances out of your control but Carl can zero in on what went wrong at Talladega because he made the mistake and caused the wreck.

Both Michael and David Reutimann were very loose during the race. Michael said that Michael Waltrip Racing had high hopes for the race since David was on the pole and all but it ended up being disappointing. David was able to race in the top five for most of the night even though he was so loose but he couldn't get the fuel mileage that others could. Michael was so loose he couldn't drive it. It made the most sense to just make sure he didn't get into the wall since he was racing the #22 and others in the points. So he couldn't afford to make a mistake. What popped into my mind when Michael said that was that he was driving like a granny! The finish was terrible but he just needed to survive. He also talked about Marcos Ambrose and how things didn't work out for him to finish the season in the top 35 but he may still end up in the top 35 when they go to Daytona due to the mergers and all.

Michael has fun doing the show. His Dad was famous for being a BS'er and sitting there doing the show reminds him of that. It makes him feel like his Dad. Michael's been mentioning his Dad a lot recently and it seems like his Dad is on his mind a lot. I always feel bad for Michael in relation to his Dad - it's always sad whenever anyone loses a parent but I believe Michael's father passed away before he won the Daytona 500 and had success at DEI. Not only would he have wanted his father to be around for those things, but I'm sure he wished he had his Dad for support and advice during the past couple of years when things have been difficult. Tony thanked Michael for asking him to do the show and helping him out with his career. They also thanked the fans for sticking with XM just for the show when they could have switched to Sirius - there are indeed many who kept XM just for Outloud.

Tony asked Michael about the new testing policy. Michael loves it. He talked with Jack Roush about being willing to sign off on a affidavit that they won't test anywhere. Sure Jack is willing to sign an affidavit like that because he has the money and resources to do all sorts of other testing instead! Michael was thinking something similar as he said there's no end to what people will do to circumvent the rule. If you rent Rockingham for the year you're not playing by the rules. Apparently there's going to be a lot of people not playing by the rules next year but I've heard that Rockingham as well as a number of other unsanctioned tracks are already completely booked - I hope MWR is one of the organizations who have booked time at one of those tracks. Michael said that the rule will help weaker teams gain traction against the stronger teams hopefully. I can't help but notice that Michael added in that "hopefully." Personally, I don't think it's too likely that the test ban will help the weaker teams other than that they won't be spending $1 million on testing. In fact, I think the test ban may actually hurt the weaker teams because they won't have the money or resources to do a lot of the things that the big teams can do. Tony wondered whether testing grounds and airports like some teams go to are covered by the test ban. Michael doesn't know. He said they should just tell them they can't go anywhere where they can crank an engine. They'll still have wind tunnel tests, seven-post shaker rigs and simulations.

The merger between DEI and Chip Ganassi Racing looks like a case of survival. Between them there's six cars that don't have three sponsors between them. Hopefully if they pull together it'll make one strong team. Michael loves that they came to an agreement, it took a lot of work for them to get on the same page. Tony said that he noticed that they didn't mentioned that the #15 was going to be used next season but Michael said that he's going to use the #55 next season because he wants to make it something special. I'm glad he's sticking with the #55 since I have so much #55 stuff! I don't know why Michael decided to stick with the #55 but I think it's a good decision because in this economy a lot of fans don't have the money to go out and buy a whole new #15 wardrobe.

Michael thanked all the fans and the show ended with them asking the fans to let Sirius know if they like the show. Sure hope Sirius will hear from lots of fans of Outloud and they'll put the show on channel 128 next season!!

The After Show on Tonyrizzuti.com

No Traci this week as she was still down in Florida so it was Tony, Rich and Geri (Jeri) - don't really know who Geri is but she works or worked for the same PR company that Traci is working for until she officially starts working for MWR, which is the same company Tony used to work for before he moved to MWR. So maybe Geri was filling in for Traci. At any rate, Tony figured that Rich was going to edit out Michael's "truck race" story but he said he's definitely leaving it in, and I for one am glad that he did!

That led into a discussion of how Tony was watching Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe show on MSNBC and how Scarborough dropped the f-bomb which caused quite a reaction from the guests on his show. When I googled to see what was being said about this I discovered that the irony of all ironies is that apparently Scarborough is one of the most vocal about "filth" on TV and how the FCC should go after the networks when they make a misstep like the infamous Janet Jackson halftime show a few years ago. So Scarborough freaks out about others being "filthy" and in the meantime he slips up with one of the biggest no-no words he possibly can on live TV! As a result MSNBC is going to use a seven-second delay on his show.

Tony and Rich were making the chances of Outloud coming back next season really bleak and that was pretty depressing to hear. Tony did say though that no one should underestimate Michael or the fans. If the fans say they want Michael Sirius may have to listen. Afterall, people make a conscious effort to listen since they have to pay for it. In general Tony seemed a little freaked out by the current state of things - I don't know whether it's because the future of Outloud is unknown or because of what's going on in the sport but a big portion of this two-part show was spent discussing the woes in the garage area right now.

In relation to the layoffs Tony and Geri agreed that every year at this time there are layoffs but because of the economy things that they're used to seem worse now. There were a lot of people in the garage area on Sunday that didn't want to go into work on Monday. Well, better to learn the news on Monday at the shop then in the back of the hauler like Jeff Hammond says one team did to some of their employees before the race! Tony thinks that maybe in January a bunch of teams are going to start wondering who is going to do this or that and a quarter or even a half of those laid off will be rehired by February. I'm not so sure about that - maybe a well-funded team can afford to hire back some people but the teams that have financial issues probably won't see things improve much by the start of next season.

As for Michael's idea that no one's going to test Tony said that's not going to happen and I agree. I would guess that maybe Michael is hoping that no one goes to test at non-sanctioned tracks so MWR won't have to either but they'll likely be forced to spend money on all sorts of alternative testing that all the other teams do. Rich wondered how Goodyear is going to handle their tire tests and I think that's an excellent question that hasn't really been addressed by anyone. As they said, the teams that take part in tire testing could end up with a big advantage over other teams who don't participate. Apparently some in the garage area think that Goodyear should have their own test team. Maybe Brett Bodine, some retired drivers or young drivers like Brad Coleman who don't have rides can test for them. It's actually puzzling to me why Goodyear already doesn't have their own test team regardless of what the testing policy is. Maybe if they did Goodyear might not have had some of the problems they did at Indy this season.

Tony Eury, Jr. was a guest on the pre-race show that Tony did with Pat Patterson on Sirius and he's okay with the testing policy. The only value in testing is the computer data for the engineers. Tony Jr. would like to see Nascar do the same thing that Michael suggested on TWiN a while back - give the teams systems on Friday during practice and qualifying that will allow them to collect data, then once those sessions are over Nascar takes the systems back. Then the teams have the data they need for that track. I thought it was a great idea when Michael brought it up and I still think it's an outstanding idea. That way there could still be limits on testing but there's a way for the teams to gather the same kind of useful information like they would at testing.

Rich had a few other interesting questions in relation to the test ban including something I heard a fan ask on Dave Moody's show the other day, about whether someone not associated with a team can take a car, test it and then take the information to a team, whether that would be possible or acceptable under the rules. Dave Moody thought that idea was ridiculous but Tony seemed to think it could happen and I agree. As he said if someone wants to they can find a way to cheat the system. The reality is that there are teams with a lot of money who even in this economy are going to be willing to spend whatever it takes to get around the rules.

Perhaps the most interesting thing that was discussed was about how people can't figure out why Steve Hallam is coming to Nascar or how MWR got him, but maybe it has something to do with Toyota and MWR anticipating the test ban. Hallam brings with him the simulations that F1 uses that can simulate things like seven-post shakers. So now that test money goes to IT (yay for computer geeks!). Tony wondered what's to stop Toyota from going to Europe and doing testing with a COT or Goodyear tire over there. Maybe someone will even have a whole European test team.

There was some discussion about the DEI-Ganassi merger. Both Geri and Tony knew Dale, and Geri said she had mixed emotions about it. What astonished me is that Tony said Martin Truex, Jr. was telling people over the weekend that no one was telling him anything about what was going on. Maybe part of that is that they don't have all the answers yet, but it's ridiculous to keep him in the dark. He's supposed to be DEI's top driver now and he's only signed to a one-year deal so if he's not happy he could walk at the end of 2009 which would put Earnhardt-Ganassi in even worse shape than they're in now.

During a discussion about how even Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is even having trouble getting sponsorship for his Nationwide cars Rich brought up something I've discussed a few times in this space, whether the issue is the economy or that people just don't want to sponsor Brad. Tony and Geri seemed to think the issue was the economy and with the background that they both have they would know better than I, but as I've said in the past with factors like marketability, appearance, media savvy, personality and other intangibles being as important to sponsors as talent behind the wheel I think that part of the issue is Brad himself. He's got a huge amount of talent and he might be a good guy, but there's no getting around the fact that he's not "cute" - it's hard to overlook the mouthful of braces he has. I'm just not sure he's what a lot of companies are looking for.

Tony painted a rather bleak picture of what ad sales are like for the motorsports media including PRN/MRN/Satellite radio and Speed - horrible. Maybe off by as much as half. In addition, a friend of his does the in-car camera sales and he has no idea what's going to happen with those either. When the friend contacts companies that have sponsored in-car cameras in the past they tell him they have no idea if they're still going to be in the sport next season let alone sponsoring a camera. It may have to be regional deals, where a local company picks up a one-race sponsorship of a camera at a particularly track. Geri said that they're seeing a lot more of that with the hospitality where the local people are coming in to support the tracks. The problem for Tony's friend is that he can't just cut it to four in-car cameras when the fans expect to see eight. I hate to be Debbie-downer (ha!) but I have a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better in terms of sponsorship and ad sales, but I'll save my thoughts on that for a separate entry.

Switching gears, they decided to talk about something happier - Jimmie's Championship win. As Tony detailed in his blog Jimmie is a friend of his and apparently they go out to eat with their wives at an Italian restaurant near where they live. I'd just like to point out that unlike Marty Smith from espn.com who seemingly mentions his friendship with Jimmie every two seconds, until I read Tony's blog I would never have guessed that he had a personal friendship with Jimmie. Rich and Tony said that Jimmie's Championship win isn't seeming to get as much attention or have that much excitement around it. They feel it's because Jimmie is too nice, normal and has a non-celeb persona. I think they have that perspective because they're around Jimmie in the garage area all the time and they know who he is as a person. Many fans think the exact opposite - that Jimmie is stuck up, craves celebrity, is too PC and is a fake. Tony said that unlike Junior, Jimmie can go anywhere in Charlotte and no one notices. Tony said if he were a driver he would like to have been like Scott Wimmer who could walk through the Cup garage and no one knew who he was but he still got Cup money. Well, that may be one reason why Wimmer is no longer in Cup (besides being arrested for DUI) - no one ever gave him and therefore his sponsors any attention ever.

That was pretty much it for the show, but that won't be the last we hear from Tony until February - he's going to do off-season radio on his website starting the Monday after Thanksgiving and the show will have a focus on motorsports which is something to look forward to. Rich may end up doing a show or two with him during the off-season as well.

Hopefully Outloud and The After Show will both be back next season!

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

November 17, 2008

Ryan Pemberton Leaving Michael Waltrip Racing for Red Bull Racing?

Because of how busy I was I only got around to listening to the most recent edition of "The After Show" on Tony Rizzuti's website and holy carp do I wish I listened to it sooner because Tony dropped a rumor that would potentially be big news if it were to happen! So this week "The After Show" gets it's own entry because that rumor is worthy of a stand-alone entry.

Once before Tony had mentioned that he hoped that Michael Waltrip Racing would be able to keep Ryan Pemberton because how much he's helped the #44 team improve has been noticed in the garage area so other teams might be interested in him. But I didn't realize that Tony was saying that based on having heard something of substance about Ryan actually leaving MWR. According to Tony on last week's "After Show" his sources have told him that MWR may lose Ryan to Red Bull Racing next season. Apparently the reason that Ryan might leave is because he's not convinced that the #44 will be fully funded next season so the "endless stack of cash" as Tony put it at RBR is attractive to him since presumably he would have no worries about finances effecting his ability to make his team competitive. However, Tony's sources are telling him that David would be happy with his replacement crew chief because it would be Brian Pattie, who is currently at Chip Ganassi Racing, who is a long-time friend of David's and has been his crew chief on lower levels.

As happy as David would be with Brian, Ryan leaving would be a major loss not only for the #44 team but also for MWR as a whole because he's been cited as a big reason why they've improved as much as they have. In fact, another thing that was said on "The After Show" is one reason Dr. Eric Warren left as MWR's technical director is because he had different ideas than Ryan and the improvements came when they started doing the things that Ryan wanted. I'm not sure exactly what that means but I have to wonder whether Dr. Warren was leading MWR in the wrong direction, much like some have said he led Gillett-Evernham Motorsports in the wrong direction in 2007. I also have to wonder whether he left by choice or whether MWR hastened his exit if they decided that they needed to using more of Ryan's ideas rather than Dr. Warren's. Regardless it sounds like there was some sort of conflict there and Ryan came out on top - which is probably a good thing for MWR if he was instrumental in helping them get more competitive.

Unfortunately Tony didn't give any specifics as to who his sources are for this information other than it that it doesn't come from Michael or anyone at MWR because no one from MWR will talk to him about anything that's going on, I guess because he's a member of the media. So it's hard to know how much truth there is to this rumor. If Ryan has been talking to RBR it seems like the kind of thing that would be hard to keep quiet so if it's true it would be surprising that nothing has ended up on Jayski this far. Tony gave so many details regarding why Ryan would be leaving and who his replacement would be that unfortunately I have to think that there's at least some grain of truth there. But maybe Ryan will change his mind about leaving. Supposedly David said in an interview I didn't get to hear on Sirius that MWR is close to finalizing sponsorship for the remaining Cup races that Aaron's won't be sponsoring next season. If that happens it would mean that the #00 would have full sponsorship next season and Ryan wouldn't have to worry about how much funding his team might or might not have. Problem is, will this sponsor get signed before Ryan accepts an offer with RBR or another team? Sure hope MWR can get him to stay!

Tony sounded like he was somewhat hesitant to talk about what his sources had told him, maybe because he's afraid of getting into trouble with Michael. Aside from the fact that he and Michael seem to be pretty good friends, I've heard - and I don't know how true it is - that Michael doesn't like it when those around him spread rumors or say things that he doesn't want them to so I can understand why he might want to be cautious. It's always seemed like MWR has tried to keep the lid on a lot of things, though they haven't always been successful. Thing is, Tony's not doing PR anymore where he has to be worried about saying the exact right thing and getting a particular message across. He's a media member now and part of what goes along with that is reporting or giving commentary on things that are newsworthy, even if it's about Michael or MWR and isn't good news. It's a delicate balance with rumors in that it's not good to report rumors that are potentially damaging that might be false but on the other hand if Tony has sources he trusts who he thinks are giving him good information, I don't think he's doing anything wrong by talking about it, especially since it would be a fairly big news story if Ryan left MWR after he helped David race so well this season.

There was plenty of other topics covered on "The After Show." Apparently Traci had to fix a wireless issue that Michael was having that was a matter of clicking one button. They joked that when it comes to electronic devices Michael doesn't know what he's doing so when he's trying to figure something out he'll hit a bunch of buttons and screw things up worse. Some are under the impression that Michael is on the computer all the time, and while there's no doubt that he goes online, based on everything I've heard, he needs help so I'm not sure he's the presence online that some believe, nor is it as easy for him as some think. Last year when I saw Michael at Pocono I was curious so I asked him if he did any photography and in talking about why he doesn't he looked at my digital camera and indicated that cameras these days were too complicated for him. Which is amazing to me. One, because Michael is extremely intelligent so it's a little surprising that he gets so confused by electronic devices so easily. But also, the man can not only drive a race car but talk about the technical details of what goes into making one competitive, but too many buttons on an electronic device and he gets confused!

Traci brought up how she feels sorry for her friend Melanie who does PR for Sam Hornish, Jr. because it seems like every post-race there's an incident that he's involved with. Sad to say but that's no exaggeration and things didn't get any better for her this weekend considering Sam failed to qualify for the race. Traci noted that no one cares about the Rookie of the Year battle and that's very true considering how poorly all the rookies raced this season for the most part. Tony wondered why Sam is coming back to Nascar next season when he can race competitively in the IRL. He thinks it's more a case of pride than money, but I would guess that money plays a role since even the worst finishing driver stands a chance of making a decent amount of money if they're with a well-funded organization which Penske Racing is. There's also a lot more exposure that a driver can get in Nascar, even a driver who isn't racing all that well as compared to the IRL. I also think one season is too soon to give up on a driver being successful, though as Traci said a lot of teams often aren't able to have the patience with a driver who is struggling. For Sam's sake I hope he's a lot better next season but it seems to me he has a long way to go.

Tony mentioned that he wanted to see a decent race at Homestead and that he hoped that someone that you'd never think in a million years would win a race would win. Well, I'm writing this entry a day after the Cup race at Homestead and neither of those things happened. In my opinion, the Homestead race stunk and not just because Michael had such a lousy day, but because the quality of the racing wasn't very good, at least what they showed us on TV. In addition, one of the usual suspects won - Carl Edwards, who picked up his ninth win of the season. I don't think anyone unexpected even sniffed at the lead. Sure would have liked yesterday's race a lot better if things had gone the way Tony was hoping they would!

There was also some discussion about how the Homestead race was going to be Bobby Kennedy's last as Michael's crew chief and how as good as it is that Bootie Barker will be coming on-board there's some concern that the momentum that the #55 has build up at the end of the season will be effected. Traci said that's because there's something that just "clicks" between Michael and Bobby. Yeah, and not always in a good way. As much as Michael and Bobby might be friends and as much as Bobby might understand Michael, from the perspective of an outsider looking in, aka a no-nothing fan, at times it's seemed like Bobby has struggled to make the changes to the car to get the handling right for Michael. There are also times when it almost seems like Bobby's not completely listening to Michael, though to be fair Michael sometimes struggles to communicate well and give good feedback. I just haven't got the feel-good, trust-him-no-matter-what vibe this season that Michael says he has with Bobby.

What was good about Bobby is that he didn't hesitate to put Michael in his place such as yesterday when Michael got to whining about something and Bobby told him to "give it a rest!" Michael has such a strong personality, and is not only the driver but the owner, so I suspect it might make it hard for some to stand up to him. But hopefully that won't be a problem with Bootie. I really hope that he and Michael are able to work well together because I really think Michael needs to be able to work with someone other than Bobby. Okay, he and Tony Eury, Jr. also work great together but the odds that Eury, Jr. will be available anytime soon probably aren't all that good. Traci said that from a PR standpoint Bootie is great because it's easy to sell him and he also likes to do media. He's also got a lot to say and he's attractive too! So I'm thinking NAPA is going to get some extra exposure with Bootie on-board!

One more Michael Waltrip Out Loud and one more After Show!

Update: Apparently there is some truth to what Tony reported regarding Brian Pattie at least - Lee Spencer reported in an article this weekend regarding the DEI-Ganassi merger that MWR had "courted" Pattie but he turned their offer down last week because of the way the #42 team has improved and because of the opportunity to with with Kevin "Bono" Manion, the crew chief of DEI's #1 car, who is one of his best friends. That really doesn't bode well because MWR probably wouldn't be offering Pattie a job unless they were going to have a crew chief opening. Jerry Baxter isn't likely to leave the Nationwide team with how long he's been at MWR, Bootie was just hired, Frankie Kerr is technically a JTG employee, so that leaves Ryan unless MWR is going to be fielding an additional Nationwide or Cup car in 2009 that we don't know about yet which seems kind of unlikely given that they don't have sponsorship completely lined up for their existing cars. So if MWR can't convince Ryan to stay and they couldn't get Brian, who is going to be David's crew chief next season? And how much will Ryan's departure from MWR - if it happens - effect both David's team and MWR as a whole?

Posted by silverdsl at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (11/13)

I wish I had the time to get to this sooner but I've been super-busy since last week, so busy in fact that I almost wasn't able to even listen to this past week's Outloud! As it turns out I did get to listen but I was in the car and I was exhausted from a very long day at work so I might have missed a few things. Anyway...

Just prior to doing the show apparently Tony had a big thing of sweet tea so that led them into a discussion of the best places in the area to get sweet tea. Which led into Michael talking about a place near Raceworld that he loves to go to lunch at which is a Greek place in a shopping center nearby. He mispronounced all the Greek names of the food you can get there and said you can get fallopian there. Har, har, har. More seriously he said that he likes to get a plate of food and if I understood correctly sit outside and eat it there. I love Greek food so I might have missed a little of what they said next because I was dreaming of yummy Greek food and places to get good Greek food near me. Even days after listening to this show I'm craving a gyro, some spinach pie and a big greek salad!

Michael was talking to Bill Davis at some point last weekend after the truck race and Bill was incredulous that both Ron Honaday and Johnny Benson made boo-boos on Friday night in the truck race. Tony said that you have to expect that kind of thing with Ron because that's the kind of driver he is - he races the first lap just like it's a green-white-checker. Aside from saying that he wanted Johnny to win the Championship because he's a Toyota guy, Michael said that he's been racing with Johnny forever and that he likes him so it's not just because of Toyota why he's pulling for him. Michael thinks that Ron has the advantage at Homestead and that Johnny needed to go there with that points lead if he was going to have any hope of beating him. As it turned out as we saw on Friday even though Ron had a strong truck, Johnny was still able to beat him based on taking a gamble on staying out when Ron pitted. I think what Tony pointed out with Ron, how he races hard on every lap of every race, is something that has helped him be as successful as he's been but it can also be his downfall - had he not wrecked at Phoenix he might be celebrating a Championship right now.

Tony pointed out that there are quite a few Hendrick or Hendrick affiliated teams - the Hendrick primary teams, the Haas teams, James Finch's team, etc... so if Jimmie Johnson ran into any problems where it looked like he wasn't going to finish well enough to win the Championship all those cars could pull over so Jimmie could finish ahead of them. However, Michael pointed out that wouldn't work if there was a massive mechanical failure like a blown engine because those cars wouldn't be able to pull over fast enough so that Jimmie would be ahead of them. Besides Junior isn't about to pull over and stop racing. I think Tony does have a good point though that Jimmie has a lot of friends out there and it might be something to watch as to how those teams might help him if needed. Michael joked that what they really need to do is to protect Jimmie on his way down to Homestead to make sure nothing happens to him while he's traveling so they should walk him down to Florida or put him in a cocoon. Turns out Jimmie made it to Homestead without incident and he didn't need any help from either his teammates or affiliated HMS cars to win his third Championship in a row.

Lee White from Toyota Racing Development was the guest in the second segment and he came prepared with a bunch of stats about how much the Toyota teams have improved over last season. When Lee said that he was going to give them some numbers I forget which one, Tony or Michael, joked that the last time numbers came up Nascar took horsepower away from their Nationwide teams. One stat that Lee mentioned is that Joe Gibbs Racing has something like 28 wins in the Nationwide Series over the 13 years they've been in the series... and 19 of them came this season. If I'm being honest I didn't think Lee had anything too exciting to say and certainly nothing that we haven't heard before, though some of the stats were mildly interesting. On The After Show Tony said he had wanted to ask Lee about the economy but he thought it might not be a good idea and didn't. Sure wish he had because it might have made for a more interesting interview!

At some point it came up that Michael wants to do the show live next year on Monday nights. He thinks they should get some candles, turn the lights down and serve some wine to their guests. More like Michael probably just wants an excuse to have some wine while he's doing the show! I have my fingers crossed that not only will the show be back next season, but that it'll be an hour! It would be great it if were on Monday nights too since we rarely have events at work on Monday nights so I'm almost always home.

In relation to his car at Phoenix Michael said they were like 12th fastest on average on Saturday but by Sunday the car was junk. He said that's something they need to work on making sure the changes and adjustments they make from Saturday to Sunday are the right ones I agree! Seems like Michael often complains on race day that the car doesn't feel the way it did during practice and that the changes aren't for the better. So it seems like the #55 team often gets behind even when they have a fast car because they have to spend so much time adjusting on the car to get the handling right. However, Michael also said he's really proud of Bobby Kennedy and his team because they took a car that was junk and made it into one of the fastest on the track by the end of the race. That is a good thing - I just wish they were able to do it before the end of the race!

There was some discussion about Marcos Ambrose and how well he's been racing. Michael said that Marcos and Frankie are good together. The cars that Marcos are racing are the same ones that Michael McDowell and other drivers were racing and Marcos is able to get more out of those cars than those other drivers. That really says something about McD imo, because while Marcos has more Nascar experience overall than McD, he has just as little Cup experience as McD, yet he was able to take the same cars McD was racing and get top 20s with them. In retrospect I wish they had taken McD out of the car a couple of races earlier because a different driver behind the wheel for just a few more races might have made the difference in terms of the top 35. Traci mentioned on The After Show that she wasn't sure that McD had enough of a chance in Cup to show he belonged (along with a few others who have come and gone) and there's probably some truth to that. However, one thing that's always bothered me about McD is that some of his comments seem to indicate that he thinks he has nothing to learn. I'm not sure how much a young driver is going to grow and develop from where they are if they aren't open to advise or learning from others.

There must have been some discussion about Homestead but I really can't remember anything they said, and not that it really matters anyway since they raced at Homestead yesterday. The show closed with "Smuggler's Blue's" by Glen Fry.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud and The After Show (10/7)

Before I get to talking about either show I have to say that I encourage all of Michael's fans and especially those who listen to OutLoud each week to be sure to listen to The After Show on Tony Rizzuti's site each week. Tony and Michael's PR rep, Traci Hultzapple, along with the producer of OutLoud, Rich York, give a behind-the-scenes review of the taping of the show each week but more than that there are always great stories and commentary on Michael that can't be found anywhere else. They also give their thoughts on what's happening in Nascar from the point-of-view of insiders who are involved in the sport. The After Show is free to listen to and well worth checking out. It's usually about 20 minutes long but it downloads very quickly so everyone should be able to listen no matter what kind of connection or computer they're using.

Michael Waltrip OutLoud

The show started off with a song by ELO. Michael said that nothing could bring him down because he was at Pebble Beach where everything is lovely. I have to say that I found everything he said about being at Pebble Beach and the way he felt very moving and meaningful. Pebble Beach is God's country, Michael said. It's like God served up a palette for some artist to work on. It's breath taking there. It makes him think of his Dad and how it would be special for his Dad to be there. It makes him look inside himself. You think about what's important, maybe your problems aren't so bad and that life is pretty good. He wanted to do the show from Pebble Beach specifically so he could have the opportunity to share with his listeners. I'm so glad that he did!

For me being immersed in nature evokes some special feelings too. For Michael it's being on these golf courses in beautiful settings, for me it's watching the waves crash to shore at the ocean, seeing amazing rock formations, or even just picking up wave-smoothed stones at the beach. I'm awed by the beauty of it all and the power of nature. As anyone who visits this site regularly knows, photography is one of my hobbies and I'm always trying to capture the wonder of what I see around me. In listening to Michael, I was reminded of sitting by my favorite rock at sunrise on Marginal Way in Ogunquit on the coast of Maine, watching the waves crash over it. I feel so good, so at peace then and at other times when I'm able to take in the beauty of natural world around me.

Anyway, If I heard what Michael said right MWR got Jim Aust and his wife a trip to Pebble Beach for his retirement. Michael is there to play golf with him along with Brian Jackson, the Tailormade golf pro who Michael seems to golf with a lot.

Tony said that the #44 and #55 were "on it" during qualifying. They sure were! Michael said that the #44 was also good on Saturday and then really good on Sunday. However, they never got the handling right on the #55, it was too loose and it made for a tough night. I think it's pretty unfortunate that the #55 team was never able to get the car adjusted right to where it felt comfortable for Michael since the speed was definitely there and he likely could have been racing up front like David Reutimann did if not for those handling issues. Michael's proud that all three cars with three different drivers, three different crew chiefs and three different groups of people all were in the 28.9 bracket (in qualifying or practice I assume). It shows the progress they're making. They dreamed of one team with three cars and they're beginning to make gains on it. It's a great feeling. It's not just a great feeling to Michael, it's a great feeling to me as a fan to watch the progression and know that they're only going to get better!

The #47 can race into the top 35, has an outside chance of getting into the top 20 (in points) and they're (the #55 team) are working towards being a top 20 team which is their goal for next year. I have a feeling some fans might be dismayed if they heard Michael say that the goal for the team for next season is to "only" be a top 20 team. But I think everyone needs to remember where they were last season when they struggled to make races let alone race competitively. Then at the start of this season the cars were pretty bad. But they've gradually made progress and that progress will continue. However, it's not realistic to think that a team is going to go from fighting to stay in the top 35 one year to contending for wins every single week the next. Given competitive cars Michael most definitely can race up front and contend for wins on a regular basis but since MWR is still a relatively new and still developing organization, it's going to take time for them to be able to field cars like that on a regular basis for all three teams.

Michael asked Tony how the Chase changed on Sunday. Tony said that Michael had been preaching that it's not over and then Jimmie Johnson wasn't on his game for the last two races. They rallied at Atlanta but were mid-pack most of the day at Texas while Carl Edwards has been winning races. Tony wondered whether the team is having doubts creeping in and if maybe they're over-analyzing things. Michael said that no, it's Tony who's over-analyzing things. The cars are temperamental, and it's easy to go from leading to laps down. At Texas he outran Jeff Gordon for 250 miles, then Jeff was able to get a free pass and ended up finishing 2nd. Jeff performed well at the right time like JJ did at Atlanta. Don't think it's because they're thinking too much, it's because it's hard to get the cars to do what you want them to. Michael gave kudos to Carl and Roush for how well the whole organization did at Texas. It's not that easy and you can get off in a hurry. While it's true that the cars are difficult to adjust, more so than I think a lot of fans realize, I think there may also be some truth to Tony's point about whether the #48 team was over-analyzing things. There is a mental aspect to racing and whether a driver or team realizes it there are subtle factors related to mindset, attitude, how they deal with pressure, etc... that I think can effect the way drivers and teams perform.

Michael was very surprised by what Carl and his team did with the fuel mileage. He never heard anything from his team about fuel mileage (presumably that teams were using fuel mileage strategy) and he likes to know about those things. He never thought anyone could make it that far and it was impressive. The #55 team pitted with just five or six to go and he thought that was a stretch. It was a strange night for the #55, they couldn't go on new tires which was the opposite of Atlanta.

Tony brought up the incident with Gilliland and JPM which he said was really bad and something that you just don't do. Michael on the other hand said that he's a race car driver, out there driving and he knows how emotional it gets. Turns out Michael hasn't seen a replay on TV yet so he doesn't know how bad it looks. He doesn't think it's fair to really comment much on it, he doesn't know what Gilliland was thinking and what led up to it. He knows Gilliland pretty good and knows that he wouldn't try to hurt someone. I wonder whether Michael would have said something different if he had seen the incident on video? But I agree with Jeannie that he probably felt he couldn't say too much that was critical of Gilliland in light of what he did at Richmond.

The third segment started with Tony playing a Sex Pistols song that Michael said he didn't understand. They got to talking about Louis Hamilton winning the F1 championship. Michael was amazed at the finish. Hamilton is the youngest F1 champion and the first man of color. Tony said that Hamilton is a role model for everyone in motorsports. I thought that was a pretty cool thing for him to say and I hope that one day Tony gets to say that about a man or woman of color in Nascar in relation to them winning a Championship.

Michael had fun dressing up as the cowardly lion on Speed. He's so thankful that he gets to be on Speed and that he gets to talk about truck racing - I'm very thankful for that too because he is awesome on Speed working the truck races! It's the best racing in Nascar and the best points battle according to Michael. Johnny Benson has been racing like a champion. It looked like he was going to finish 15th at Atlanta but he battled back to finish 7th. Then he worked and worked all night long at Texas to finish 3rd. Both he and Ron Hornaday are a threat to win every week. I got the feeling that Michael is pulling for or thinks Johnny is going to win the Championship and maybe Tony wants Hornaday to win it, which would be no surprise since he seems to be pretty friendly with Ron.

Tony brought up Kyle Busch donating $100,000 to Sam Ard. Michael said there are good people who race in Nascar. He's proud to be associated with people with such big hearts. He remembers how dominant Sam Ard was in the #00 the year he won all those races and Kyle is doing the same years later.

JJ has a performance advantage over Carl at tracks like Phoenix but at Homestead it's Carl. Tony will be working Carl's Directv Hotpass channel this weekend.

The show closed with Sun King by the Cult and Michael complained that he wanted a Toby Keith song to be played to which Tony responded that since Michael wasn't there he was in charge! I have to admit that since my taste in music is a lot more like Tony's than Michael's, I like it when Tony is in charge of the musical selections they play! A great thing about this show is that I've been exposed to some really good songs that I never would have heard if not for Tony and/or Michael having them played such as "Please Come to Boston" by Dave Loggins that they played on one show last year.

The After Show

Tony, Traci and Rich were laughing at how much Michael talked when he called in to do the show and how hard it would be for Rich to edit it down to fit the 30 minutes they have. I have to say that Rich always does a terrific job of editing in such a way that unless you know that he does it, you can't tell the show's been edited. Apparently Michael talked for something like 24 minutes just about Pebble Beach and I loved what he had to say so much that I would have been happy if they just made that the entire show!

Turns out Michael actually studied all about the cowardly lion on Thursday night to get ready for being dressed up as the lion on Friday! That's being prepared! He knew that he had to hold his tail and everything. Ray Dunlap claimed he wasn't wearing any underwear under his costume and I know it's terrible but when Traci said that all I could think was that maybe that was why he got suspended last year! Turns out as they were coming in on the golf cart after Michael got in costume they got hassled by security. First a guard said it was against the rules for Traci to be riding up front (why?) so she actually had to go sit on Michael's lap! That must have been pretty funny to see! Good thing Michael was in costume so most likely no one knew who it was otherwise photos of that would probably ended up on TGOM and other similarly slimy sites.

Next a guard hassled them and told them that those in costume needed credentials, not knowing that they were SPEED'S on-air talent. Okay, they were in costume so it's hard to tell who they are but presumably Traci and others with them did have credentials so come on, use some common sense! Traci always has these stories about them getting harassed by security over nothing or in situations where common sense should override a rule and I would guess the same thing happens to other PR reps and drivers too - Kasey Kahne certainly found himself in some hot water with a guard last season. Meanwhile, there are guards who let fans sneak into the garage area without the proper credentials, which is something that should never happen. They were blown away by the number of people at the truck race and how many of them were dressed up for Halloween.

There was some discussion about how Michael declined to be critical of David Gilliland. In general Tony feels that Michael tries to avoid being overly controversial, particularly when it comes to Nascar. I actually think that sometimes creates more controversy for Michael since being pro-Nascar isn't popular these days. They wondered whether Michael felt he couldn't be critical of David in light of his own incident he got parked for earlier in the season. Traci said that Michael might have gotten away with what he did if not for the in-car audio in which he claimed he had no brakes but he was "mashing it." I'd say that regardless of what Michael said over the radio he was going to be in some trouble since just like with Gilliland the replays of that incident made it look pretty blatant. Michael had said that he knows David wouldn't do something intentionally like that but Tony brought up how David had tangled with Michael McDowell earlier in the season and how it's the second time Gilliland has lost his temper like that.

I was surprised by Michael's comment on Outloud because of what Tony brought up - when that incident took place Michael went on TWiN and placed all the blame for it on Gilliland losing his temper. Michael was one of the few that saw the incident that way and it ignited a firestorm of controversy among fans, especially Gilliland's fans who organized an email campaign to NAPA to tell them that they should stop sponsoring Michael simply because he said things they didn't like about their driver - ridiculous. So it's a little curious that he would opt to say virtually the opposite this time, unless he didn't feel comfortable giving an opinion since he hadn't seen a replay of the incident. Or maybe he didn't want to deal with another round of nonsense from fans who are intolerant of opinions they don't agree with. I'm all for fans openly disagreeing with things that drivers say but some fans take things ridiculously far.

I was also surprised that Tony indicated that he thought that there wasn't a big deal being made of what happened and if it involved a driver like Tony Stewart there would have been much more conversation about it. Seems to me that this has been a huge topic of discussion all week not just with fans on forums and on XM/Sirius but also in the media too. There were some pretty harsh things said about Gilliland and I can't say that I feel too sorry for him - if you do something that blatant and in my opinion wrong, then there are going to be consequences you have to deal with.

Next there was discussion about how Texas went for the MWR teams. The #55 got fast midway through the race and Michael was able to outrace Jeff Gordon (but unfortunately the results don't show how fast Michael was). Because of the handling issues Michael didn't realize how good the car was from a speed standpoint. On Sunday the talk in the garage area was that David Reutimann was the driver to beat. Tony thought it would have been great if David had won and made UPS regret their decision to leave MWR (myself and every other MWR fan was wishing for the same thing). If I heard Traci right she made a comment that rumor has it that UPS may in fact already regret their decision. They should. David Ragan may race competitively next season but it's a better story for the media if the #44 team contends for wins in light of MWR's past struggles. In addition, they're joining a very PC organization where the drivers including Ragan don't show much personality. Meanwhile there's no shortage of personality at MWR and Michael always encourages his people to go above and beyond for sponsors.

Tony said that there's no way that those in the garage area can say that MWR isn't getting better and I definitely hope their progress has been recognized. Unfortunately I still see fans routinely talks about how bad MWR is in their eyes, completely oblivious to how far the organization has come and how much more competitive they've gotten. Even some in the media still down MWR. Thing is some fans are negative about top teams as well so in general there's an inability among some fans to recognize success. It must be frustrating for these teams and drivers.

The best part of the show was Tony saying that they have their fingers crossed that Michael Waltrip Out Loud will air on Sirius's Nascar channel next season and that it might expand to an hour! That would be awesome! I'm thrilled that it sounds like there's a good chance the show will be back next season and likely even longer! Tony said that there had even been some talk about the show being two hours long but that Michael wasn't too keen on that idea - too bad since I'm pretty sure he would have plenty to say to fill that time! I really hope it all works out. Listening to Michael and Tony is so much fun each week! I laugh a lot and I learn a lot too. An expanded show would give Michael more of an opportunity to talk about what's on his mind, have guests on or get the message out about what's going on with his team and MWR. I've come to think there aren't too many better venues for getting one's message out than XM/Sirius because it gives drivers, teams and sponsors the opportunity to speak at length as opposed to articles or TV interviews where there's often space and time limitations. Good thing for me there are no space limitations in this space!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud and The After Show (10/30)

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM

The show opened with the new song by Guns 'n Roses. Michael said that he can remember the first time he heard GNR - he was just waking up after a late night (which must have been pretty wild night) and he was under the covers at the end of the bed where his feet should have been. He untangled himself from the blankets because he wanted to know why there was a cat screeching and saw Axl Rose singing on the TV. It had such an impact on him that he remembers where he was the first time he heard that song to this day like where he was when Hank Aaron hit his milestone homerun. I can also remember the first time I saw and heard GNR - I was in my bedroom at home watching MTV and "Welcome to the Jungle" came on. I wonder how many others remember the first time they heard GNR - it says something about that band that they were that memorable. I'm looking forward to the new GNR album, but I'm keeping my expectations reasonable since the only original member of GNR still in the band is Axl.

Michael said there was a bunch of different circumstances that messed them up at Atlanta. They had a great car and were able to race up to ninth but then they lost radio communication just as Michael was about to ask for an adjustment to the car. As I suspected the adjustment that was made didn't work out - I would guess that not being able to get much feedback from Michael once his radio went meant that they were mostly guessing on the pit box as to what changes to make to the car. Tony brought up how they showed Michael on TV getting his gloves back on after having been in the pits to switch out his helmet to try to fix the radio problems and Michael said he doesn't like to race without his gloves on. But Michael said it was his mistake not the radio issues that really hurt them - he got too high, got into the wall and that led to a tire blowing which tore up the car. As he and Tony talked about later in the show all the drivers were saying that Atlanta is the new Darlington and half the cars have stripes on them after the race at Atlanta because they all brush the wall like what happens at Darlington. So it's not like Michael was the only driver who brushed the wall, it's just that his encounter with the wall turned out a lot worse than it did for some others.

Since MWR started, there's been a lot of Sundays that they've struggled to finish the race (or even make races) but Michael said that at Atlanta he had a car that he could have finished in the top five with and it was a great feeling. It's difficult to take having that spoiled. However, he noted that they leave each track running well and feeling like they'll be able to race well at the next track so they leave Atlanta with that feeling for Texas.

Tony asked about Marcos Ambrose and David Reutimann - the more Michael talks to Marcos the more he likes him and his attitude about racing. David and his team had a fast car on Saturday but it didn't translate on Sunday and they don't know why. Which is a good reminder for us fans. Sometimes how a driver does in practice is a good indicator of how they'll do during qualifying or a race but sometimes it isn't. A number of times recently Michael has been very slow in practice but has been able to race very competitively on race day. Or in the case of Robby Gordon he's often very fast in practice but usually doesn't finish as well as one might think he would after seeing his practice speeds. There's so many variables and teams are constantly making changes so one never really knows what's actually going to happen during a race.

Michael said that as he was riding around at the end of the race he was interested to see what kinds of strategies the other teams used and Tony slipped in a joking comment about how Michael was interested to see who was going to run over the debris that kept falling over his car. As much as I've been bothered this week by the way a lot of fans and the media have been mocking Michael for having a bad race in his 1,000th start, I admit that I did laugh at Tony's comment, probably because I know that he was just teasing Michael. (I'm so bothered by the attitude that some have about Michael's accomplishment and the accomplishments of some other drivers that I'm going to be doing a separate entry on it at some point.)

Recently Michael took a trip down to The Kingdom at Reynolds Plantation in Georgia for a Taylormade golf experience, which he said is the most fun he's had in a long time, so he had Robin English on from Reynolds to talk about it. Michael and Tony both love golf so they talk about it a lot and I'm sure there must be some in the audience who also love golf but from what I've seen a lot of those who listen tend to stop paying attention when the golf talk starts. I'm glad Michael had so much fun on his visit to The Kingdom but with how many times he mentioned their website and talked about how wonderful it was there, it sounded like he was trying to land them as a sponsor... or get a free trip back. Pretty much it was all about trying to get people to go book a trip there but I don't think there's any way the average fan can go there - it's really meant for corporate clients with money to burn. People go down there and get their golf swing analyzed, get clubs and clothes custom made for them overnight, stay in a Ritz-Carlton ($500 a night) and from how many times they talked about Tony being able to buy lunch with his favorite female golfer, they must put together high-end, dream packages... for a price of course.

Tony is convinced that Jimmie Johnson is going to win the Championship but Michael said that anything can happen and cited how he and Juan Pablo Montoya both had great cars at Atlanta and things went bad for both of them. The same thing can happen to Jimmie. That's true but as much as a lot of fans are hoping that Jimmie finishes last in the remaining three races and doesn't win the Championship I think the odds of the #48 team falling apart that spectacularly are pretty remote. The whole reason this team is on the verge of winning their third Championship in a row is because of how few mistakes they make, and their ability when there are issues to overcome them.

There was some discussion about Texas. It appears that there's a favorable weather forecast and they'll be able to get qualifying in. Tony joked that if Michael doesn't qualify well and he's interviewed afterwards he can say that his poor qualifying run was because he forgot how to qualify since it's been so long.

The email question of the week was about the rumor (since denied) that Nascar was thinking of shortening the field for Cup races from 43 to 36. Michael said he didn't understand what the question was asking, and I think he actually did understand the question, he just didn't understand why someone was asking because to him the answer is obvious. Basically he said if there's going to be short fields so be it, that's happened in the past. He thinks some only remember the past year or two of racing and don't remember when there were short fields previously. He said that it would be a good opportunity for Truck or Nationwide teams to move up and test the waters. I agree with Michael - I don't really see the big deal if there short fields sometimes, and I don't see a problem with part-time teams either (as long as they're not starting and parking) - Nascar needs to be sure that they don't make things too hard for new or small teams. I actually felt pretty good that he said all that because the majority of my fellow fans are freaking out about the possibility of short fields and are thinking that Nascar is going to and should make the fields smaller in response to the difficult economy. So I've been wondering whether I'm completely missing something or I'm an idiot or something because I see things differently - I may still be an idiot but at least there's one other person and an owner/driver no less who sees things the same way as I do about all that.

The show closed with a sappy Aaron Neville song and based on what was being said Michael wanted it played because of something with Aaron Neville's voice but it was hard to tell exactly what he was talking about. I didn't get to listen to Out Loud as closely as I wish I could have since I was in the car fighting through traffic on my way home from work so I'm sure I missed a few things in this recap.

The After Show

Apparently they talked a lot more golf on Out Loud than Tony thought they would, so much so that Rich was going to have to edit out 12 minutes of discussion from the show to get it to fit. They said that's because Robin was so long-winded. I just hope the 12 minutes they cut out wasn't 12 minutes of discussion about racing - as I mentioned above while I'm sure it was all very interesting to Michael and Tony to listen to Robin, I would guess that the average fan listening is much more interested in hearing from Michael, and especially about racing, than from Robin about an experience that not many of them can afford.

With the radio issues they thought that it was someone's mic that was keyed open as opposed to there being a problem with Michael's radio but the whole crew shut their radios off and Traci went into the motorcoach lot to Michael's coach and the corporate coach to see if anyone's radio back there was keyed open. None of them were. I was surprised to hear that they give radios to guests with open mics since I would think they wouldn't want to open the door to a situation like this happening or the possibility of someone talking when they shouldn't.

Tony said that he tries to not show any biases while he's working Hotpass but inside as he was watching Michael he was thinking "please don't hit the wall, please don't hit the wall." He was able to see that when Michael raced his way into the top ten he didn't level off, he was still coming - even to me at home who could only see what was shown on TV and make guesses as to what was happening otherwise from Trackpass it was apparent that Michael had a car that he could have raced his way into the top five or won with. That was really exciting and awesome to see!

With Michael's 1,000th combined start in Cup, Nationwide and Trucks, unlike with his 700th Cup start that no one besides the Wal-Nutz seemed to care much about, they had a little celebration for Michael. NAPA really liked what nascar.com did for Michael - it really was very well done. So they wanted the graphic that was on nascar.com with the two articles to present to Michael on Sunday which they did. And as a special surprise for Michael they flew Macy down but they had to hide her for two and a half hours until the celebration in the NAPA suite. Apparently Michael got all emotional that his sponsor cared enough to make the presentation to him and also that Macy was there. Someone on the forum on Michael's site found a youtube video of the presentation to Michael as well as them surprising him with Macy - it makes me emotional too watching that video and seeing how happy Michael was to see Macy! Sure is a lot of love in that hug between father and daughter! Traci commented on The After Show that it was a side of Michael that people don't get to see a lot and I agree - on one hand I wish that more people saw the sweet, emotional and sensitive side, the human side of Michael and his fellow drivers so that fans see that they're just like anyone else, but on the other hand maybe it's best kept out of the public eye most of the time because just like with everything else there are some who would rip apart and criticize even those kinds of shows of emotion. Sad to say but people have even passed judgment and criticized Michael's relationship with Macy and his other daughter Caitlin, as if it's anyone's business.

Tony said that it was unfortunate that things went so bad for Michael during the race since it was his 1,000th start and how a driver can go from hero to zero instantly.

Max Papis walked by and we found out that Traci apparently loves him - Tony joked that maybe she wants to "hold his hair." We also found out that Traci likes to party in the infield at Texas and that she's gone there with Stephanie Hamilton, Bobby Hamilton, Jr.'s wife - I figured they might bring up the incident from the Nationwide race at Memphis this past weekend where Stephanie gave Landon Cassill the finger but they didn't. During Out Loud Tony had said how much he wanted to eat with Paula Creamer as part of a golf experience at The Kingdom so he joked that he was going to have to keep his wife away from XM for a while - considering he said in his blog that his wife had called him recently to tell him how his "girlfriend" had golfed, I'm thinking it's too late if he didn't want to tip her off about his love of Paula! My own husband has a thing for one of the female golfers - don't know what it is about those lady golfers but apparently they have something that gets the guys going!

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

October 24, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud and The After Show (10/23)

Michael Waltrip Out Loud

A great classic song by Alice Cooper, "I'm Eighteen" opened the show in honor of Michael finishing 18th at Martinsville. However, Michael didn't think an 18th place finish was anything to celebrate. I like that attitude because at one time a top twenty finish might have been something to get excited about but now that Michael Waltrip Racing has made so much progress and the cars are competitive, the expectations are higher. There were several guests in the studio with Michael and Tony Rizzuti as they taped the show including Murray from Texas, the owner of a dirt track, who won the Best Western contest to switch jobs with Michael for a day. So this week was his turn to "be" Michael for the day, though it sounds like he just hung out with Michael as he taped TWiN, the XM show, did a photo shoot, etc... Michael will then go to Texas to Murray's dirt track but it doesn't sound like he's going to do Murray's job either. I had been hoping that the winner would have a really unique job that Michael would actually have to do but I have a feeling that Michael is pretty happy that the winner is involved with racing and that he's not going to have to do anything too crazy!

Last week Michael had to call in to do the show because he was at Home Depot Design Center picking out toilets for his new house. The contractor had told him that it wouldn't take long but he ended up being there for three hours. They asked him at Home Depot what he wanted in a toilet and Michael said that he "just wanted a place to crap in." I nearly fell over I was laughing so much at that comment particularly since I was picturing some older or more conservative listeners clutching their chests in horror.

Recently on one corner of the 'net some of Michael's fans expressed some displeasure about his language over his radio during races as well as for some of the remarks he makes on TWiN which some find objectionable for religious reasons. Sure Michael cusses over his radio sometimes, but what driver doesn't in the heat of the moment when they're frustrated? He's actually pretty good about watching his language and being aware of who might be listening. He often also apologizes as well. As for his comments on TWiN, this person took issue with him saying "hell" and "sexy" and thats the first time I've heard heard of "sexy" being an offensive word. Some seemed to think that it didn't reflect well on Michael but I think he needs to do what he's comfortable with based on his own beliefs, not someone else's beliefs and interpretation of what he should be saying and doing. Michael cursing or making naughty jokes is certainly nothing new and there's an easy solution if someone doesn't like what they hear - don't listen.

Anyway back to the show, Michael and Tony talked about Jimmie Johnson winning at Martinsville. Chad Knaus told Michael at the TWiN taping that they changed ten things on Jimmie's car on Sunday based on Jimmie's feedback. Michael knows how hard it is to do that, presumably because it's so hard to make changes on the car and get it right. The changes worked so well that Jimmie ended up winning, something they think would have happened regardless of whether Jimmie started on the pole or not.

Hendrick Motorsports has a long history of success at Martinsville dating back to when Geoff Bodine won there in 1984, a race that Michael was at though not racing in. I liked how Michael brought up how Rick Hendrick has a heavy heart whenever he's at Martinsville due to the plane crash a few years ago and how winning there allows him to put that all aside for a little while. As I mentioned in a previous entry there was a lot of complaining from fans that Jimmie and others from HMS referred to the plane crash in Victory Lane and I think there's a lack of understanding about how much that crash effected everyone at HMS (and others in the garage area) and how it's not something that is easily forgotten about, particularly when they go back to Martinsville. So I'm glad that Michael acknowledged what should be obvious to everyone that Rick and others still feel a great deal of sadness about those that were lost in the crash and always will to some degree.

Tony brought up how Mike Bliss never got to show what he could do in the #00 and Michael said that the same thing happened with "darn" A.J. (Allmendinger) the week before. Michael thinks that team has a lot of potential with Frank Kerr (back) turning the wrenches. Marcos Ambrose called and left him a message about testing the car at Kentucky and in the message he called Michael "mate" which Michael said was a "special moment." He said it made him want a koala bear and that he wanted to be infested with koala bears. Tony said that was a Mitch Hedberg bit and I have no idea what it was from but the image of Michael and a bunch of koala bears made me laugh!

Some had wondered during the race on Sunday what was going on with Michael and the #12, and maybe some sent emails into the show about it because Tony asked about that. Michael said that he just couldn't pass him. There was a rear end issue with the car where it would sometimes skip a gear in back. So one time coming off turn two it did it so violently that he got into the outside wall. That threw him off for three or four laps and caused him to lose a lot of ground. His team noticed and told him to get his rhythm back but that's easy to say and hard to do. They were better than 18th at times and worse at times. They're continuing to make themselves solid, they're continuing to make progress and he likes the direction they're going in.

Next there was some discussion about Jeff Gordon - Tony doesn't see him winning this season since he didn't win at Martinsvillle where he's had so much success and the rest of the tracks he's not done as well at. I must have misunderstood Tony because out of curiosity I looked at Jeff's stats and he's actually won at Phoenix and done well at the other tracks, particularly Atlanta. At any rate Tony thinks it's weird to talk about Jeff not winning this season because for the last 13 seasons he's won at least one race every season. Michael said that just because Jeff hasn't won yet or at a particular track doesn't mean that he won't still win one this season. I agree - Jeff may not have won a race this season but he's still raced well enough to be in the Chase which means that he and his team are among the best in the garage area this season. In addition, I have to think he'll be in the mix for the win this weekend at Atlanta since over his last six races there he only has one finish outside the top ten and that includes three top fives.

Tony said that Jimmie has all but won the Championship but Michael said that there's still 42 other cars on the track and you never know what might happen. Things are never as clear-cut as they may seem.

Coming back from break they played Kid Rock's "All Summer Long." Tony brought up how it will be Michael's 1,000th career start in Cup, Nationwide and Trucks this weekend. He asked Michael what the biggest change is between when he first started racing and now. Michael said that it used to be that after races you could change, hop in your car and just drive home but now you have to wait so the biggest change is the traffic.

The other change is that there's all cultures in the sport now. There's African-Americans and Hispanics, all kinds of people in the garage area now. Michael loves it when he's signing autographs and a African-American or Hispanic kid asks him to sign something. When he was a kid he was a fan way before it was cool to be a Nascar fan and that's the way it is for those kids. The sport is multi-cultural and diverse now and people all over the world enjoy it. I applaud Michael every time he brings up diversity in the sport and speaks of it in a positive way because there are more than a few who still wish the sport was the way it used to be where there wasn't any diversity. There is just a resistance from some to any kind of diversity in people's backgrounds, beliefs and opinions. Michael seems to be one of the few who is willing to speak openly about diversity and I suspect that some may be afraid of offending the segment of fans who are close-minded. So I think it's really important that Michael continues to talk about diversity and how it's a good thing.

Tony brought up the increased media focus on the sport and Michael said that's a good thing. When you're passionate about something you want more people to enjoy and understand it. I wondered whether Tony was trying to draw a particular answer out of Michael because he again said there's an increased scrutiny but Michael said once more that the biggest change is the traffic. As much as I suspect Michael isn't always a big fan of some in the media since there's been so much negativity directed at him at times, I don't think he's ever going to openly say that he doesn't think the increased media attention that's given to the sport is a bad thing because there more media there is the more opportunities there are for him to get exposure for his organization and most importantly, his sponsors.

A lot of Michael's sponsors are based in Atlanta so he's going to go down early to take part in a variety of events for his sponsors. He's going to go hunt for pigs with Aaron's. He said he doesn't really have anything against pigs so he has to try to work up some anger for pigs since he doesn't know if he can shoot at them. In the past Michael has said that he wishes that bullets were $5,000 per I guess so they weren't so easy to obtain and even though he's a big guy so some might think he must be aggressive, I've always thought of him as being somewhat gentle so ti's hard for me to picture him with a gun or going hunting. However, given the popularity of hunting in the garage area I'm sure it's not his first time going hunting. It must be difficult if he doesn't really enjoy it all that much because he can't decline an invitation to hunt from a sponsor and he has to make like he's having a great time even if he isn't. But since he seems to have an appreciation for nature and being outdoors I'm sure he enjoyed that part of things at least. He's also going to a Coca-Cola dinner and they're also presenting Bob Susor, the President of NAPA Auto Parts, with a painting of he and Jimmie on the front row at the Daytona 500. That sounds like a pretty cool painting so I hope a photo of it turns up somewhere!

The After Show

Tony and Traci referred to this as the Seinfeld episode because it was a show about nothing. Don't get me wrong - I still enjoyed listening but they definitely didn't talk about as much as they usually do. Tony hasn't been to the track for two weeks and spend this past weekend in the mountains so I guess he feels out of the loop with what's been going on and that's probably why he didn't have as many opinions to offer up as usual.

There was some talk about the Best Western winner and how he's been following Michael around. Tony commented that if you follow Michael around for even half a day you get worn out and that it may seem glamorous but it's a lot of work. I think that's something a lot of people don't realize is that the drivers have so many more obligations than just racing the car and they have a ton of things to do when they're not at the track too. That's especially true for someone like Michael who isn't just a driver but also an owner and a media personality as well.

Apparently Tony also went to a Carolina Panthers game and it sounds like Michael has season tickets. I'm guessing a lot of the drivers do.

Traci said that she and some others were teasing a rookie driver on pit road for how he looks in his uniform and it turns out that driver was Scott Speed. She said that he wears a diaper and I most certainly hope that wasn't what they were teasing Scott about because as Tony pointed out the reason Scott has had to wear a diaper at times is because he has a serious disease. That disease is Ulcerative Colitis, and since I know someone with Colitis and someone with a related and similar disease, Crohn’s, I can say that there really isn't anything funny about Scott having to wear a diaper because of Colitis.

Tony made reference to Michael visiting with some Wal-Nutz after he got done taping the show and as one of the Nutz that made me smile!

There was some discussion about Marcos racing for MWR this weekend and one thing that I've wondered about is what's going to happen to the current crew for the #00. Well, thanks to The After Show I got my answer! Traci said that as part of the deal between JTG and MWR the #00 crew is going to be the #47's crew. I had been thinking that JTG had their own crew but it turns out those that they were using were employed by the Wood Brothers who they are no longer associated with now that they're working with MWR. Traci and Tony both think that Marcos will do better than the last two drivers MWR had in their third car and I have to agree because as one of them pointed out that won't be that hard to do. Marcos just needs to race smart, something A.J. really didn't do when he was in the #00, and not have bad luck like Bliss did.

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

October 10, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (10/9)

Michael Waltrip Outloud

(Wish I knew whether the Out Loud in this show was "Out Loud" or "Outloud" as I've seen it both ways.)

Opening the show was a song by George Strait but I didn't catch what song it was. Apparently this show was taped the day that "Tradin' Paint" on Sirius broadcast live from Michael Waltrip Racing, so one of that show's hosts, Chocolate Myers sat in. I have to say while I've not always been a fan of Chocolate on "Tradin' Paint" in the past he was good on Out Loud with Michael and Tony Rizzuti.

Michael was eating lunch earlier that day at the place down the road from the shop and a guy walked up to him and said that Nascar should have keep their nose out of the finish of the race at Talladega. Michael asked him how many sports are there that don't have officiating? There has to be officiating. Before I go any further I just have to say I have no idea how Michael stopped himself from telling that guy that what he said was absolutely ridiculous. Michael is absolutely correct that there needs to be officiating. Do umpires stop calling balls and strikes in the 9th inning of a baseball game? Do they stop calling penalties in other sports as the clock winds down? Of course not! So why would Nascar officials stop applying their rules because it's the last lap of the race? I think the issue with all of the controversy over the finish of the race at Talladega isn't that Nascar has a yellow line rule, but that even within their own organization it wasn't clear how it was to be applied and some of the competitors had the impression that they could go below the yellow line if they could see the flagstand on the last lap, which as per Nascar's clarification earlier this week is apparently not the case.

Michael said that Nascar was faced with a tough decision. I would say so since no matter what Nascar did there were going to be fans who were upset. We saw the resulting controversy when they awarded Tony Stewart the win but had they given the win to Regan Smith we would have seen a lot of fans complaining about him violating the yellow line rule and it would also have set a precedence for that being acceptable at future races at Daytona and Talladega.

Tony was working Directv Hotpass and ended up on Jimmie Johnson's channel. He said he heard Jimmie over his radio talk about how he thought if the flagstand is in view you can go below the yellow and maybe that came from Ramsey Poston (A Nascar spokesperson). Michael thought if you had the checkered flag in view you could make your move. If that's the rule - and it's not - apparently no one on this show had read Nascar's clarification of the rule that states that there is no going below the yellow at Talladega or Daytona ever, not even on the last lap - then Nascar thought in their opinion that it wasn't the time for Regan to make the move (in actuality in Nascar's eyes there was never a right time to make that move). Maybe what happened at Talladega will result in things becoming more black and white - that's true since Nascar clarified the rule late Monday. None of the drivers asked questions at the driver's meeting at Talladega but Michael thinks there will be lots of questions next season at Daytona and Talladega. One thing that I heard brought up on one show or another was how the veteran drivers thought they knew what was allowed and didn't want to give away a potential strategy by asking any questions, and the young drivers are too intimidated to ask questions so that resulted in no one asking for a clarification. You have to wonder how often that happens a the driver's meetings.

Chocolate said he was watching at home, screaming and hollering that Regan just won. He too thought that on the last lap a driver could make that move based on what Phil Parsons had said the day before during the Truck broadcast. But then he thought about it and realized that Phil isn't a Nascar spokesperson (though Nascar's own spokespeople were saying "anything goes" and citing a "flagstand" interpretation at various times too). So Chocolate realized that Regan didn't win.Tony said what Regan did was a smart move. Regan could have wrecked Tony S. and it's good that he didn't since Brian Vickers still hasn't gotten over wrecking Jimmie. Regan went for it, he had nothing to lose. I agree with Tony that it was a good move on Regan's part to try what he did even though it didn't work out for him. He didn't win the race but he could have. In addition, he got a huge amount of attention this week for himself and his team and considering he's racing for a ride and the team for a sponsor for next season all that attention can only help. Michael said he never was told "anything goes" on the last lap but had heard the "flagstand" bit. You have to protect the integrity of the sport and have to have officiating.

Once again, Michael's idea for California Speedway came up, about turning it into a restrictor plate track. Most everyone has dismissed that idea as being ridiculous and impossible but they brought up how when changes were announced to Richmond everyone was very skeptical about that too. But they did do the things they said they were going to do and it's a great track now. With California it would make for a cool show but you have to make sure you do it right. Michael wants to go west for the "Piston Cup" one day. Fans love Daytona and Talladega and the drivers put up with it. California is an important market for Nascar but no one can get their arms around it, I guess meaning that it's not a sellout and a lot of fans (not to mention those in the media) don't think much of the racing there. I think that's something that a lot of people who think Nascar should stop going to California Speedway don't understand - it is an important market for Nascar in terms of the media, business, as well as potential revenue and the audience they could reach.

Chocolate enjoys doing Tradin' Paint (unfortunately for Chocolate quite a few fans don't enjoy him on the show) and he was really enlightened by hearing all about MWR and seeing what an outstanding place Raceworld is. He will be able to take all he learned about MWR and the things they do and use it in the future on Tradin' Paint. which really speaks to the value of that show that they did the other day - not only did all of us fans listening get to hear interviews from a lot of people at MWR in which they talked about everything going on at the organization, but being at MWR made a positive impression on Chocolate - it's always good to have people in the media be impressed with what you're doing.

Something that gets on Michael's nerves is when someone talks about how a driver is a "real racer." No one ever says he's a real racer but racing is all he's ever done and all he's ever known. He's only had two other jobs, both when he was young - he worked for Pepsi loading trucks for six months and he worked at Wendy's for two weeks until he cut his finger on a tomato slicer. There are many different ways that people end up in racing and it's not just by being under the car. People make the sport their lives. I have to say the concept of a "real" racer is just as ridiculous as that of there being "real" or "true" fans. Either you're a racer or you aren't. It boggles my mind that someone would think that Michael isn't a "real" racer, whatever that actually means, when he's raced for virtually his entirely life and spend the last 25 years racing Cup. I also think his point about there being many paths that people take to get to where they are in racing and it's not just about how much time they spend working on the cars is a very valid one. These days it seems like some fans look down on the drivers who didn't spend hours working on their own cars for their own team before they came to one of Nascar's highest levels. I think having worked hands on with the cars is an asset to a driver but if they didn't do that and only raced for someone else in a situation where they didn't work on the car that doesn't mean that they're any less of a racer.

Bootie Barker told Chocolate and Steve on their show how he looked around MWR and saw a bunch of racers. They're all guys who want to stick around and do what it takes to succeed. Michael said there are three or four dozen people at MWR who were there when they started who signed up to make it work and that's what they're going to do.

There was some discussion about the upcoming race at Lowe's. Michael mentioned briefly A.J. Allmendinger in the #00 and how Kenny Wallace was outstanding at Talladega. Twelfth is the best finish for the #00 team all season. The Roush cars were fast at the Lowe's test but Lowe's is Jimmie Johnson country. Tony Stewart should have won Lowe's in the Spring. Kevin Harvick looked like he could have won at Talladega. Jeff Burton has been good all Chase but he really needs a win. Personally, I'd like to see a non-Chase driver win on Saturday night but I suspect it likely will be a Chaser.

The alliance between JTG-Daugherty Racing and MWR keeps MWR at three teams, and keeps them healthy and going forward. They're maintaining in tough times. On one of the forums I visit there was some discussion about how there should be changes to make it easier for new teams to establish themselves and survive. I agree very strongly with the need for changes to help not only new teams, but small and independent teams as well. It's not a good thing for the sport to have all the resources, money, sponsors and success be consolidated among a few mega-teams. However, there are also some fans who are complaining about the alliance between JTG and MWR. Well, what other choice does JTG have then to enter into an alliance like this? There's virtually no way they can compete against the mega-teams on their own but an alliance with a larger organization, particularly a close one like this where they'll essentially be the third team for MWR will likely led to better results than they could have gotten on their own. But it seems like some fans would rather JTG fail then to be aligned with MWR like this.

Michael said the tire incident at Talladega was just two seconds but felt like a half hour. He said it scared him - I might have missed it on this show but he's said elsewhere he thought it might come into the car and at him. He was very complimentary about his team and the way they fixed the car - I think Michael also did a very good job of working with his team over the radio and in the car to help make repairs. I doubt any team has a game plan in advance to address a tire causing damage to the roof and windshield but the #55 acted like they did. Even after that incident Michael put himself in a position to win but got caught up in that wreck. He likes being part of the story - it seems to me that Michael and his drivers have been a part of the story more and more this season and that will likely continue in the future!

Michael like to do a one hour live "Outloud" show next year - sure hope that happens! A live show, particularly one where they took calls from fans, would be really awesome - and crazy too! They closed the show with a song by Good Charlotte but neither they nor I knew what song it was.

The After Show

It was a short After Show this week since everyone was short on time and rushed due to how much else was going on. Apparently Michael lost his license, credit card and maybe his whole wallet at Pocono and Traci also lost her credit card then as well. If I understood correctly Michael found his stuff in the chair in the studio as they were taping the show. Wha? Not even going to try to figure out how he lost his wallet in a chair and only just found it now. Is there a black hole in that chair?!

Once more the yellow line rule was a topic of discussion and Tony brought upt how there's rules that everyone seems to know but no one knows where they came from like the "flagstand" interpretation of the yellow line rule. He pointed out that it only seems to happen in Nascar and wondered why that was. That might because from what I understand Nascar doesn't make their rulebook available to one and all as compared to other sports where the rules are published and anyone can see exactly what each rule says. That creates confusion when there's only a limited amount of people who can go look to see what the rule specifically says. However, in most sports there are certain unwritten rules, grey areas and understandings that aren't specifically i the rulebook. For example there's the neighborhood play in baseball in which the umpire calls an out on a force play with the runner at second even though the fielder often doesn't actually touch second base.

Another issue Tony brought up was the tire issue at Talladega, how there were a lot of blown tires. He said that maybe it was good that it didn't come up on "Out Loud" because Michael always takes a Goodyear stand in that he always defends them. In this case I think Michael would be right to defend Goodyear as he did on This Week in Nascar. As Rich pointed out there were a lot of blown tires in the ARCA race and they use Hoosiers so I think you can't really point the finger at Goodyear when another tire manufacturer also had problems with their tires. But I also think it has to be expected that everyone is gong to blame Goodyear anytime there's a lot of tire issues after what happened at Indy and also because of the harsh comments that Tony Stewart made about them.

Tony, Traci and Rich thanked all the fans - the Wal-Nutz from the forum on Michael/MWR's website - who wrote messages to them this week. I ran out of time and only got to do messages for Tony and Traci so I hope they don't all compare and see how many messages each one of them got!

Each week Traci usually tells a story about something that happened to them at the track the week before so this week's story involved a no golf cart zone at Talladega. If I understood correctly, there's a no golf cart zone near the stands an hour before and an hour after each race for insurance reasons though they'll let other vehicles in. So Benito and Traci tried to pick Michael up after he was done with the truck broadcast and a security guard wouldn't let them go to him which forced Michael to start walking, thus creating a security issue, presumably because he could get swarmed by fans. Luckily, another security guard saw Michael and picked him up in his SUV and drove him to where Benito and Traci were. Which highlights a problem about strict, no-exception enforcement of rule - there also need to be some common sense involved. In addition, if the guard wasn't going to let Benito and Traci go get Michael on the golf cart then he should have come up with a solution so that they could get Michael without him having to walk though a mass of people.

From the sounds of it there may have been some discussion between Michael and Daniel Norwood, who is in charge of the Nascar programming for Sirius (and presumably XM now as well) regarding "Outloud" for next year. It sounded almost like there was talk about the show being an hour next year and I really hope I understood that right! Outloud is really outstanding and I would love for it to be longer!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)

October 03, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM and The After Show (10/2)

I hate to start off with a complaint but I'm not too happy that XM opted to have "Mad Dog" Russo on for an additional hour and a half last night, pushing the airing of Michael Waltrip Out Loud (and Dale Junior Unrestricted) to a later time slot and didn't bother to let anyone know when or even if the show was going to air. I understand that Mad Dog coming on-board is going to cause changes, but please keep the audience updated on where and when they can find their favorite shows! Claire B. Lang got shifted to an entirely new channel and timeslot which a lot of people are having trouble finding and I have a feeling a lot of people probably missed Michael's show last night because they didn't know when it was going to air. Maybe the listeners for Claire or Michael or Junior's show aren't much in comparison to the audience for Mad Dog but I hope we still matter. I just hope this isn't a sign that XM/Sirius isn't committed to Michael's show past this season - this show is a highlight of my week when it comes to what I watch and listen to that's Nascar related besides the races and I would be upset, as would a lot o others, if it didn't continue.

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM

Anyway... Last night's show opened with "Carry on My Wayward Son" by Kansas. Tony joked that the wind must have blown away because he was on the phone instead of being in the studio. That's because Michael was playing in a two-day golf scramble at the Cliffs in Greenville, SC for Gary Player to raise money and awareness of Childhood Obesity. Michael sounded very out-of-breath for the entire show and that was because he was playing golf and walking from hole to hole as he was doing the show. Playing at this golf scramble must be why he missed TWiN on Monday as well, and it must have been pretty important to him to play in it since it's rare for Michael to miss a TWiN taping. It sounded like he was having a lot of fun so I don't blame him for opting to golf for two days, especially considering how much he loves golf in general.

Michael and Tony talked briefly about the losses of Paul Newman and Dick Bahre. Michael said that if there was one guy who was the most important in helping him get to the level of where he's at as a driver it was Dick Bahre. He's really saddened by his loss and it was a tough weekend losing both him and Paul Newman. Dick Bahre is at least the third owner that Michael's raced for who has passed away in the past few years and I feel bad for him when I hear about these losses since I know in addition to feeling grateful to them for helping him with his career, these are probably people who had a tremendous influence on him inside and outside the car.

At Kansas it was a tough weekend for the #00. He was out of the top 35 by just 8 points. They has some good runs at a few tracks but came up short at a few others. Eight points and 6/1000ths of a second separated the #00 from racing. It's fun to focus on the Chase but it's equally as important what goes on throughout the field (such as what's happening with the top 35). I wish that ESPN/ABC did a better job of recognizing the importance of what's going on throughout the field. As I've said before I know it's impossible for them to talk about every single thing that happens for every single team and driver but I wish they would update fans on a wide variety of drivers throughout the field. I would especially like it if they didn't just give a points rundown for the Chase, but also for the top 35 so that fans knew who was in and who was out at the conclusion of each race.

Tony asked about Joe Gibbs Racing and whether Michael was surprised by what's going on with them in terms of falling apart in the Chase. Michael said that it's strange and that he is surprised but he doesn't think it has anything to do with the Chase. It shows how easy it is to get off-base. JGR never saw it coming. You can lose contact with what it takes. I still find it a little puzzling, and as Michael said, strange that suddenly JGR is off-track with all three of their teams. Maybe there were some signs earlier in the season that Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin might not be forces to contend with in the Chase, but Kyle Busch and his team were on it all season long. There were very few mechanical failures, now suddenly it seems like every week the cars are falling apart. JGR needs to figure out why it's happening, not just to salvage the Chase for their drivers but also for the future.

The track lacked grip at Kansas and that made it fun, that was why drivers were all over the place. Carl Edwards decided he wanted to win so he went all out with that move at the end. But he failed to take into consideration that Jimmie Johnson was doing the same. You can't out will anyone at this level, everyone wants it. I think that's an important point that maybe some fans don't really realize - every driver out there wants to win. Sure, if you're racing for Front Row Motorsports, realistically you know that you aren't likely to end up in Victory Lane but you still want to win. In addition, all the drivers have a tremendous amount of competitive fire, desire to succeed and passion for the sport - they have to otherwise they would never make it to Cup and last among the sport's most elite drivers.

They took a break and when they came back Michael was singing a Brooks and Dunn song as he was walking around the track. When he's golfing at beautiful courses like the Cliffs he likes to "suck in nature." When they built that course they didn't disturb what God built, just enhanced it. He likes having the opportunity to wander around, appreciate nature and be thankful. I always like hearing about Michael enjoying nature while he's out on the golf course. I don't golf nor would I go to a golf course to enjoy nature, but I most certainly love nature myself and I often wish I could spend more time sucking it in myself, particularly with my camera in hand.

Back to Kansas, it was Clint Bowyer's home track and Tony thinks poor ol' Clint is kicking himself for what could have been. Michael said you can't keep continuing to kick yourself. Clint was able to rebound from the first mistake but not the second. Clint probably never dreamed he would be racing so quickly at this track in his home state. I have to say I'm getting sick of hearing about the wonders of Clint Bowyer - it seems like there's a push in general around the sport to promote Clint and even Michael has gotten into talking about how great Clint it. I think Michael's too nice in light of some of the comments that Clint has made about him - I really doubt we'll ever hear Clint talk openly about how wonderful Michael is.

There was more talk about the various Chase drivers. Tony Stewart's aggressiveness ruined his day. They didn't talk much about Tony and I've been kind of perplexed that there's not been much of any discussion in general anywhere about what went on with Tony. Lost in the great move that Carl made at the end of the race was a great move Greg Biffle made to take third away from Jeff. Those five points Greg got for that could end up being huge at Homestead. Michael said you don't know what might mean something so you never can quit. You have to race all the way to the checkers and you never know what might happen on the last lap to allow you to gain positions. Which is another great point In some regards it's a fine line. A driver can't be overly aggressive and race like a bat out of hell on every single lap from the start of the race but at the same time they need to race hard to gain positions and there's no telling when a gain of just a spot or two might end up making a difference in the long-run. A gain of five points might not be just important to a Chase driver but also for a driver trying to get into or stay in the top 35 in owner's points.

Tony brought up the financial markets and the economy and whether Michael is worried as an owner about everything that's happening in terms of the effects on his race team. Michael said he's concerned all around as an owner or Dad of a daughter in college and a daughter in grade school. Need to ensure that these things don't occur again, especially for the working Mom's and Dad's. There are mistakes that were made long ago that are just coming to the surface now.

Michael said it's more important than ever to work hard for his sponsors, to help NAPA sell auto parts. These businesses still have to advertise but now there's more scrutiny. He thinks of how much more he can do as a driver, and owner and a spokesperson so the sponsors will stay as part of the team. Which as I wrote about in this space not long ago, highlights the importance of Michael's hard work and skill with his sponsors - it's absolutely essential for teams and drivers to work hard for their sponsors so they stick around because the teams can't operate without sponsors.

While I think that owners like Michael have reason to be concerned and are surely feeling the effects of the economy as are many others in the garage area, I think there's some risk in terms of how it might go over with fans for drivers who earn more in one weekend than many fans earn in a year to complain too much about the economy and all, but Michael did a good with what he said. In the not too distant past Junior has complained about the rising cost of gas - everyone feels the effects of the economy and rising fuel costs but it's a little ridiculous for someone who earns a reported $30 million a year to complain about how much he pays for gas. In Michael's case he probably puts most of his money into Michael Waltrip Racing so he has a lot more to lose in a difficult economy. But recently Michael took a helicopter to South Carolina just to check out a pool that was built by a designer he's thinking about using to build a pool at his house so he has to be doing relatively okay financially. I'm just glad that he was careful about what he said.

There was some discussion about DEI losing Paul Menard. Everyone, including me, has made more of an issue of DEI losing the Menard's sponsorship than losing Paul but Michael said that Paul is a steady driver who is a consistent top 20-25 driver, as if it was a loss for DEI in that regard as well. I thought that was an interesting comment which maybe makes some sense. If an organization has four teams ideally you'd like all four teams to race up front and win races consistently but realistically that might not be possible so you would at least want your driver to consistently race at least well enough to be in the top 35 and even better be in the top 20-25 in points. The reality is that while every driver in the Cup Series is talented not every driver can be an elite driver on the level of a Tony Stewart or Jimmie Johnson so just being a good driver who races consistently might be good enough for some teams depending on what their goals are.

Here's what could potentially be some big news depending on how things work out - Tony asked about the #15 and Michael is most definitely interested in "looking at the options" when it comes to the #15, so much so that he's already been on the phone with Mr. Susor, the president of NAPA, and other higher-ups to see if they should look at trying to race that number. However, they tried to get it once before from DEI and that didn't work out so it might not work out again if they tried to get it again, but he wants to look at his options. It really sounded like he wants to race the #15 again even though he didn't come out and say it.

It doesn't matter much to me which number Michael races - I like the #15 and of course there are many fond memories associated with the number, most significantly Michael's two Daytona 500 wins. But I've come to like the #55 as well and I have quite a bit of #55 shirts. However, I have a big piece of artwork that I spend quite a bit of time doing that incorporates the #15, that I had Michael sign the first time I met him so I wouldn't mind him going back to racing the #15 just because of that. But I suspect Teresa may not be very inclined to give up the #15, and in fact I read somewhere this morning that DEI is already looking for a replacement sponsor and driver for that car. Still, for MIchael's sake since racing the #15 again obviously has some appeal to him, I hope somehow he might be successful in convincing DEI to allow him to use it.

Next question from Tony was about whether Michael might be on the pole again for Talladega. Michael said no, they sat on the pole with a race setup (last year) but the go or go homers are a lot more desperate now. They're going to take advantage of the rules as much as possible and one of them will likely get the pole. However, the #55 will be in the mix for sure when the white flag drops... as will Kenny Wallace in the #00. Michael just kind of slipped that in, and didn't give any explanation as to why MWR decided to replace Michael McDowell. In fact, McD wasn't mentioned at all, even in the earlier discussion about the #00. It's fun for Kenny but he also wants to prove that he's just as good of a drafter as his brother Mike (who will be in the #33).

The email question was about whether there should be a second Nationwide race at Talladega. Michael launched into a defense of Nascar and about how he tries not to second guess Nascar, yadda, yadda, the usual things he says, and I expected that to be followed by a but... and maybe part of him does wish there was a second Nationwide race at Talladega. But Michael gave some reasons why there isn't that mostly relate to cost - the plate races are more expensive and it takes more money for the teams. Just three plate races allows the teams to maximize the use of the cars. If you go to two races at Talladega it's four plate races and there are concerns about back-up cars and the motors are more expensive.

Michael's pick as the song to close the show was "I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins.

The After Show

As for The After Show, as per usual there was some interesting discussion on that show as well.

A lot of us fans listening in on Michael's radio this past weekend at Kansas wondered who was spotting instead of Ty Norris. Turns out it was Roman Pemberton. It didn't sound like Roman is permanently taking over as Michael's spotter so hopefully Ty will be back this weekend at Talladega - all of us fans noticed a big difference between Roman and Ty. I'm sure Roman is a great spotter himself but Ty is really terrific, at least it sounds that way to us fans. During "Outloud" Michael talked about getting spun and he didn't know who had gotten into him, but as anyone watching the race knows it was David Ragan in the #6. Tony wondered whether some drivers race Michael are still thinking that he's not racing competitively so when they're racing him they're assuming that he's 42nd and multiple laps down and whether they would race him differently if they realized how competitively he's racing these days. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some truth there. Fans still perceive Michael and MWR to be struggling and some seem to assume that Michael still races at the back of the pack every week even though he's been racing much more competitively to the point where he's been racing in the top 15-20 on a regular basis - or better. So there may be some drivers who still think that Michael must be a slow car when they come up on him even though his cars have speed now.

Tony was working Kyle Busch's Directv Hotpass channel this weekend. Tony and those working the channel with him made the decision not to talk to Kyle after the race because they felt they weren't going to gain anything from it. On the other hand ESPN likes to cause drama so they send Shannon Spake over to ask Kyle some stupid questions that result in stupid answers that make Shannon look bad, and of course they're hoping to get some kind of controversial answer from Kyle. Tony says he always tries to ask whether you're going to gain anything by interviewing someone. Traci said it was like that last year when Michael was missing all those races, after a while when it came to doing interviews, was anything going to be gained, presumably from answering the same questions over and over. Thing is, as a fan, I want to hear from the drivers even when the same questions are being asked. I want to know what's going on, why things are happening as they are, what the driver's mindset is even if it seems obvious. I'm not in the garage area and I don't often even get to see races in person or go to appearances. So my only way of knowing what's going on with my favorite drivers - and this is true for many other fans - is by what they say to the media.

Tony said that thanks to the fans Michael is on Directv Superchannel every week. He's the only non-Chaser other than maybe Ryan Newman who is on every week and it's his fans who are keeping him on. So keep voting for Michael for directv hotpass superchannel!

There was some more discussion about the economy and also about the effects of the shortage of gas in some parts of the Southeast. Tony felt that Michael gave a politically correct answer - which imo, was a wise thing to do on such a delicate topic. Tony thinks that surely teams are feeling the effects of the economy. It was once a good value for sponsors to sponsor race cars but now it's a luxury. I have to think that not only is the economy playing a role but also the rising costs in terms of how much it takes to sponsor a competitive race car. A sponsor might be able to put in the same amount they did five years ago but that might not get them a car that's as competitive or a driver that's as popular as it once did.

Traci wondered about how the effect the gas shortage is going to have on race attendance. Apparently NAPA was going to bring a lot of people to Talladega but now they're considering not going because they're worried about getting gas. We don't have those issues in the Northeast so I don't really know what the situation is but I have to think part of it is perception vs. reality. It's been said that the gas shortage is only in certain areas and that it's easing up as more gas comes through the pipeline that supplies those areas. So I think an issue for Nascar and the tracks is making sure that if there is enough gas available that fans know about it and also that they know where to go to get gas. Some may be afraid to travel to races even after there's gas available. Tony wondered about whether these economic issues will cause teams to downsize, for example that they might go with an internal PR person instead of using an outside company.

Apparently Benito, Michael's motorcoach driver, had quite an adventure getting to Kansas. The motorcoach broke down a hundred miles away from the track, then after it was fixed broke down a second time. So Benito had to get it towed to the track, then Craig, Kenny Wallace's motorcoach driver had to use Kenny's truck to push Michael's motorcoach into position. Then the guys who came to fix the motorcoach kept asking for tools and much to Traci's annoyance free stuff. But from the sounds of it even though the motorcoach let off so much smoke when it was first restarted after it was fixed that there was concern that it was on fire (hopefully Michael wasn't around to see that!) all appears to be well now and Benito and the motorcoach made it safely to Talladega.

Traci said she was glad Benito (Michael's motorcoach driver) made it to Talladega. On the way to Kansas the motorcoach broke down not just once but twice so he had to get it towed to the track. Craig, Kenny Wallace's motorcoach driver had to use Kenny's truck to push Michael's motorcoach into place. Some guys came out to fix the motorcoach and Traci was getting annoyed by them because they kept asking for stuff, tools and free stuff. When they left the track Benito started up the motorcoach but there was a huge amount of smoke coming out the back and Kenny was in his motorcoach behind and called Benito to ask whether he was trying to asphyxiate them or something. Just by way of explanation, Benito got the gig with Michael because of Kenny - he was Kenny's handyman originally and Kenny got him in at MWR. From what I saw last year Benito helps Kenny and Craig out as much at the track as he helps Michael.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (9/25)

Michael Waltrip Outloud

The opening song was one by Chicago which they played for Phil Parsons who is the biggest Chicago fan ever, so much so that he doesn't like when people sing along to Chicago - must be hard for Michael to keep from singing along if he's around Phil when a Chicago song comes on since Michael seems to like to burst into song at the drop of a hat!

There was a picnic theme to the show according to Michael and Tony. Apparently Michael was running late so to make up for it he stopped at Steak and Shake to get everyone burgers. Seems Michael loves Steak and Shake and he's very happy to get a double portabello mushroom cheeseburger with fries and a diet coke. I hadn't yet had dinner when I was listening to the show last night so I was drooling - those burgers sounded very yummy! Hmm, maybe Steak and Shake wants to sponsor Michael?

Of course one of the first things they talked about was Dover and how well Michael finished, as well as how good the race was overall. Michael said he was so into beating Jeff Burton for position that he was totally oblivious to what else was going on in the race. So he saw the highlights on TWiN and saw that the racing at the end was "over the top." As for Michael Waltrip Racing, they've made progress. Michael had a couple of top tens in 2007 but they got off in a bad direction this season. So the whole organization had to come together and they came up with the new cars which is what has led to better results.

Michael made an interesting comment in that he said that when they came up with the third generation COT, They put out for fans and the sponsors that the new cars would make them run better and luckily that's exactly what's happened, but based on what he was saying maybe they weren't quite as sure internally that the new COTs would bring better results as they said publically. Of course all teams spin things in as positive as a direction as they can and put the best face on everything. I think it was particularly important for MWR back when they first started using the generation three COTs because at that time there were a lot of rumors that all of MWR's sponsors were going to leave, that the organization was going to fold and fans were extremely nervous about what was going to happen. So I think sponsors and fans definitely needed to hear that MWR was working hard towards making progress and moving in a positive direction. I'm not sure that everyone necessarily believed that the results were going to come as quickly as they have but hearing Michael and others at MWR speaking positively and confidently about the future settles people down somewhat and alleviates some of the concern.

Tony asked about something that I always wonder about in relation to how these days Michael often struggles in practice and qualifying but in the race he's able to race competitively and why they aren't good right off the truck. Unfortunately Michael didn't really answer or maybe I just didn't understand what he was trying to say. I think he was saying that it's a learning process and they try to learn and get smarter between the first time they go to a track and the next time but he didn't really seem to have a complete answer as to why that happens. During The After Show Tony said that maybe with how many engineers all the teams have that sometimes they outthink themselves and make all these changes, then have to make more changes to revert back to where they were. I think there's probably a lot of truth to that. I think qualifying better is something that the #55 team needs to work on. Maybe the results could be even better if they started up front more often and didn't have to spend a lot of the race gaining track position and worrying about getting caught up in a mess at the back of the field as so often happens since everyone else is trying to race their way up front as quickly as possible too.

At Dover during qualifying and practice Michael couldn't get it, the car was too tight in qualifying so he ended up 40th. However, during the last 10 minutes of the second practice on Saturday he had a time that wasn't much off the leader's time so he knew the car was right. Sometimes what you see on the monitor tells the story, but sometimes it doesn't. That's something pretty important for fans to understand. Sometimes fans look at the practice results and freak out if a driver is at the bottom in practice. But there might be more to the story than what is shown by what position a driver finished practice in. At Dover Michael felt confident going to bed on Saturday. Last year at Dover he started last and finished 15th, but when they went back in June of this year his was the worst car there. But this past Sunday he made one lap and passed three cars. He told Bobby Kennedy that's more cars than he passed the whole race back in June!

Michael then got distracted by his burger and gave a summary of the exact instructions regarding tomatoes and mayo he gave when he ordered the burgers to make sure he would be able to taste the mushrooms. I wondered whether Rich did some editing there and just how long Michael talked about the wonders of his Steak and Shake burger!

There was some discussion about the various Chase drivers and how they were faring. Michael was very complimentary of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his team. He thought Junior and his team did a good job of rallying and coming back from adversity after blowing the tire and wrecking. He was proud of Tony, Jr. and that group for still being able to finish in the top 25. I think the team that ultimately wins the Championship is going to be one that has that quality - we've certainly seen it from Jimmie Johnson and the #48 team in the past. Tony brought up how Junior blamed the track at Dover for his issues, but Tony saw others racing where Junior was without a problem and wondered whether their set-up was the issue. Michael said it might have been. Michael said they pitted 5-7 laps earlier than their fuel window because they weren't sure how long the tires would last.

At times Bobby was telling Michael during the race that he was the fastest car on the track. Turns out Michael has often been skeptical when he's told that through the years, reason being that he wonders if he's the fastest car why he isn't catching those ahead of him or why he's getting passed. But at Dover he could tell he really did have one of the fastest cars because he was gaining on everyone and they weren't catching him. 9 of the top 11 drivers were Chase drivers, and it was only him (he referred to himself in the third person like he said Jeff Green does) and Mark Martin who were among those not in the Chase. It was an honor to get to mix it up with those guys.

With Steve Hallam, he's won championships with a variety of drivers. They heard rumblings through their Toyota connections that he was interesting in Nascar. It'll be a steep learning curve for him and they'll have to implement him into the system but he'll act as a liaison, pick things up and see how to contribute. Tony asked what about MWR convinced Hallam to want to work there. Michael said it was their relationship with Toyota, that he knew how they approach racing, he felt good about the foundation of MWR, their facility and (as I suspected) he knows Rob Kauffman. It's really a testament to how far MWR has come that they were able to hire Hallam! There is no amount of money that would convince him to come work for MWR if he didn't think they had potential. While the results may not be immediate, I think down the road he's going to turn out to be a big asset for MWR!

Tony asked whether Michael was surprised by Red Bull Racing's decision to release A.J. Allmendinger and Michael said no, he had heard all the rumors that were out there. Michael spoke well of both A.J. and Scott Speed, but pointed out in relation to Scott that it's a razor thin margin between being the next greatest thing and a has-been. Michael made a good point in that maybe the decision about AJ was actually made months ago before he started racing so well. That makes a lot of sense considering how far in advance teams and sponsors plan for the following season. It may not be as much of a concern for RBR since they don't have outside sponsors but for those teams that aren't self-sponsored, particularly if those sponsors do a lot of advertising and promotions, they may need to start working on those things well in advance, and once those things are underway it's not so easy to scrap everything and go in another direction, particularly if there's a lot of money invested.

Michael mentioned that he's never had a Red Bull before and Tony commented that he doesn't need one - personally I would love to see the effects of a Red Bull or two on Michael! I love sugar-free Red Bull and it definitely kicks things up a notch for me - of course Michael seems to have plenty of pent up energy without having an energy drink! I also like the way Red Bull helps me focus but that's a whole other story.

There was some discussion about Kansas and how Michael feels that cookie-cutter tracks get a bad rap. As they mature and get their own characteristics. However, he wonders what happens when it comes time to pave those tracks - he would like to see them put in progressive banking like was done at Las Vegas. Since he has a bulldozer he would be happy to help with that! I would love to see Michael on his bulldozer knocking a few things over ! Michael doesn't think Biffle will win his third. He thinks Junior needs to step it up, put the car up front and finish up front which is very true - the #88 team always seems to have a competitive car but they often seem to fade or experience problems. As Michael pointed out they've shown the ability to overcome challenges, they need to put together a few races in which they finish really well without having any issues.

Tony will be on Kyle Busch's Hotpass channel this weekend. Michael reminded everyone of Tony's "slimy show" that can be found on his website. Tony mentioned on his "slimy" show that apparently Michael listens to it and since it's them talking about him perhaps that's why he refers to it that way. I think "The After Show" is great and I love hearing the perspective of insiders on Michael, MWR and the sport as a whole, but sometimes when they get to talking about Michael I wonder how he feels about what they say about him - Michael seems to have a very good sense of humor and take everything in stride, plus he likes Tony and Traci, but I might feel a little funny if I were him, particularly when they poke fun at him or bring up some of his quirks.

The show closed with a comment that made me sad - "Kind of like Yankee Stadium, they're all done." Sunday was the last game at the current Yankee Stadium and the team will be in a new stadium next season. There's a lot of history and for me, memories in the current stadium. My husband and I met outside the stadium and our first date was at that stadium. I've been to many games there and while I'm sure the new stadium will be great, I'll very much miss the old one.

The After Show

As usual there were a lot of interesting things said on "The After Show" target="_blank" as well. Tony said that at one point MWR was kind of considered the laughing stock of the Cup Series but now the tides are shifting. I was very happy to hear that MWR is being regarding in a more positive light and that they're being taken more seriously in the garage area. Traci said that now she's able to get publications like USA Today to do stories on Michael that they wouldn't have done in the past. Thing is while the perception of those in the garage area and some in the media may be changing, there are still quite a few fans who can't seem to acknowledge the progress MWR is making. There are some who are so caught up in disliking Michael or Toyota and want the organization to fail so badly that they can't admit when Michael or MWR does something good or that they've moving in a positive direction. Of course there are some fans who once they make up their minds about something there's nothing that can convince them - even facts - to see things differently, but the more positive press that Michael and MWR gets the better to help continue to change the way MWR is perceived.

There are also fans who seem to get more enjoyment out of complaining about what's going wrong and focusing on the negative than they do from being happy about what's going right and cheering for the good things. There's always a lot of people, even on Michael's own forum, who have a lot to stay when there's bad things happening or when there's something to complain about but there's sometimes far less discussion about positive news articles or good results. I'm not really sure why that is. Maybe people have a hard time believing it will last or that it's for real, or they don't think that there's any reason to acknowledge the positives because that's the way things should be.

UPS leaving for Roush Fenway Racing came up and how maybe they'll regret leaving MWR. Apparently Traci worked with Roush with Citgo and she made a very interesting comment about how UPS won't get customer service at Roush so they have to hope the performance is going to be there. I have to wonder if that partially explains why sponsors like Office Depot and AAA have left Roush. The way that sponsors (and fans) are treated most definitely matters. Tony said that David would have been great for UPS to continue to sponsor and especially now that the performance is there it would probably be a great value for their money as compared to what they're probably going to pay to sponsor David Ragan at Roush. Thing is, as friendly and as wonderful as David is, he's a lot older than Ragan, he's not considered "cute," he sometimes comes across as nervous or shy, and a lot of fans seem to think he's pretty goofy and not in a hilarious way like they do Michael but in a dorky way. I happen to adore David and think he would represent any sponsor exceptionally well but I can see where he might not fit what every sponsor is looking for.

There was some discussion about the way Junior was racing at Dover and how he was diving down low to make things three wide all the time, something Traci didn't like because at times he was impeding Michael. They joked that he was "Michael McDowelling" which is a sign to me that McD needs to re-evaluate his racing style, though he seems to think there's nothing wrong with it.

Traci said that Clint Bowyer reached out to Michael on pit road to make amends in relation to calling him the worst driver in Nascar. I honestly rolled my eyes when I heard that. It's hard for me to believe that Clint was sincere given what he said to Bob Pockrass recently. It's important for Clint that there be no issues between himself and Michael that could end up cropping up on the track, particularly since he's in the Chase so I can understand why he would reach out to Michael. However, I think it's also important that when given the opportunity he publically says something to indicate that he doesn't truly believe that Michael is the worst driver in the sport and he hasn't done that. There are fans who continue to use that comment as their proof that Michael is a horrible driver and owner because they feel that as a fellow competitor, Clint knows what he's talking about. I think it's very unfortunate that comment continues to linger and I suspect it will for a long time to come. Luckily, there are also a lot of us fans who know how ridiculous and inaccurate Clint's comment was. Hopefully the results will continue to be good for Michael and MWR to show all the doubters how wrong they are!

Posted by silverdsl at 01:28 PM | Comments (2)

September 12, 2008

No New Michael Waltrip Out Loud This Week

Although I know that a Michael Waltrip Out Loud was apparently taped this week, the previous week's show was played instead of the new one. So I don't know if there was a problem with what they taped or a screw-up on XM's end but everyone who tuned in missed out on hearing what Michael had to say about Michael Waltrip Racing's great weekend at Richmond. Disappointing!

There's also still the question of what happens to the show, as well as Dale Junior's Unrestricted (and other programming) once Mad Dog Radio starts next week.

There's a new "After Show" posted on Tony's site and at some point I'll listen to that and maybe do a recap of that since there was no Out Loud this week.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (9/4)

Before I get into talking about Michael Waltrip Out Loud I have to comment on Chris "Mad Dog" Russo's show which preempted Dialed In and will eventually take over it's timeslot permanently. In all fairness, I'm biased because I couldn't stand listening to Mad Dog when he was on WFAN, but I thought what I heard of his show yesterday was horrible. I never liked Mad Dog because of how much he yelled and how negative he was about everything when he was on WFAN and his show on XM/Sirius seems to be more of the same. He spent the last ten minutes of the show screaming and yelling about tennis - just about unbearable to listen to.

Anyway, I was thrilled to discover that there was an additional person in the studio with Michael, Tony and the usual suspects who are there when the show is taped - Rick Allen! Rick does the truck broadcasts with Michael and Phil Parsons and I love him! I think Rick has an awesome voice and he, Michael and Phil make an outstanding team in the booth for truck broadcasts! So I was really happy that they had him on the show! I don't really know how he ended up doing the show with them but I'm guessing that maybe he and Michael were golfing together earlier in the day. Rick teased Michael about how high his voice got at one point, which is something that happens with Michael a lot when he gets going, and Michael joked that when he came into the studio, he sat down on something!

Naturally they talked about Fontana first and Michael repeated some of his comments from TWiN that he's also made earlier in the season about how they should make the track into a restrictor plate track. I agree with what he's been saying about how the track needs to make sure that they show on the track is as good as the show they put on in the infield and around the track with all the events and activities they have that surround the race. That's not just for the fans in the stands but also for the fans watching at home on TV. Michael hates it when people say that a race was boring but the fact of the matter is that at least on TV that's exactly what the race at Fontana was. That's a problem for a track in a major market - ticket sales are going to continue to suffer and ratings will continue to drop unless fans see a better "show" when they watch a race at Fontana.

They were all excited about having Olympic medalist Dara Torres as the guest on the show. I had been wondering how she ended up as a guest on the show but someone on Michael's forum said that Michael and Dara did a spread in Golf Digest a while back so I guess they knew each other before the Olympics in China. That they knew each other didn't come across in the interview at all, and I hate to say it but it wasn't a very interesting interview if I'm being honest since they pretty much asked the same questions that everyone else has asked and got the expected answers. In listening to "The After Show" on Tony's site, it turns out that Michael was nervous about the interview and Tony shied away from asking about doping or anything else that might have made Michael mad because he made it clear that he wanted them to be nice to her.

Dara she felt more pressure at the trials than at the games. At the trails she was freaking out because she felt like there were a lot of eyes on her. Her training has changed a lot from when she was younger. She doesn't workout nine times a week anymore, now it's just five times a week. She does weight work with someone from the Florida Panthers and a lot of stretching as well. She had shoulder surgery last week. She's used to people referring to her age and that she's a mother - she knows she can't lie about her age. Dara thinks China did a fabulous job with the games. There was zero discussion of racing in this segment and I wondered whether Dara knows anything about racing or watches Nascar at all - I wish they had asked her.

In the last segment they talked about Richmond. Michael thinks Clint Bowyer is the favorite to get a slot in the Chase because he won at Richmond in the spring and he's good on these types of tracks. However, David Ragan is lurking - I'm really pulling for him to make it in! Michael was complimentary about how much improvement he's shown after starting his Cup career with lots of criticism. Kasey could also make the Chase - Tony wondered if Michael thought it would be a big deal if no Dodge teams made the Chase and whether Nascar would want to look at doing something about that. Michael said no, it would be unfortunate but not anything that Nascar should do something about. Dodge won the Daytona 500 and the All-Star race this season but they haven't put anything together on a consistent basis. Michael loves the mix of tracks in the Chase from Talladega to Loudon. One thing I noticed unless I missed it or it was edited out, Michael never talked about Michael McDowell's return to the #00. Hmm...

Tony will be on Denny Hamlin's Hotpass channel at Richmond. He reminded everyone to listen to The After Show on his website. Michael complained that "The After Show" sounds dirty and that they should change it. Tony said they would if he came up with a better name. That cracked me up that Michael wants them to change the name of a show that he's not even on!

Speaking of "The After Show" I have to admit that while I always enjoy listening to Michael Waltrip Out Loud - it truly is one of my favorite shows on radio or TV - I found "The After Show" to be more interesting this week.

As noted above, Michael was very concerned that they be nice to her so Tony didn't ask her about the doping issue. I kind of wish he had because I think it would have made for a more interesting interview. I can see why it might have upset Michael though since his show isn't exactly a hard news show but meant to entertain, plus he probably doesn't want any of his guests to get offended, particularly one who he considers to be such a big-name guest.

I had come across this photo which shows Michael getting a dancing lesson from one of the women from Dancing With the Stars:

So I had sent an email into the XM show about that because I was wondering if it meant that Michael was going to be on DWtS. Luckily for me they talked about this on "The After Show." Apparently Michael was kind of embarrassed by this (which you can kind of tell in the photo - he looks uncomfortable to me), partially because according to Traci he doesn't like to be touched. That comment got a few people's attention because Michael has never seemed to shy away from hugging fans and all, but it may be that he doesn't like being touched by strangers of which there are many pulling at him all the time, whereas there are some fans who are familiar faces to him that he's comfortable around. Traci didn't care that Michael wasn't too keen on getting a dance lesson because E Entertainment was there to film him learning the cha-cha so that made for some good exposure for him and NAPA. Traci said they would love to get him on the show but his schedule wouldn't allow it. ABC asked DW to be on the show for season two but FOX said no.

Turns out CBS asked for Michael to be on Circus of the Stars(?) and he couldn't do it due to his schedule. He wanted to be one of the ringmasters apparently. I think he would be great on a show like that but maybe it's for the best that it wouldn't work out with his schedule. As Tony brought up on "The After Show" last week there are many who think that everything is a goof to Michael and that he doesn't take racing seriously and an appearance on a show like that might add to that perception.

They talked some more about Fontana and how they need to make some changes. Apparently NAPA's getting rid of their suite at California because they can't get anyone to go to the race and they're going to take a suite at Las Vegas instead. Presumably NAPA pays a significant amount of money for their suite, as do other sponsors, and that they're going to spend their money elsewhere should be a huge wake-up call to the track - and maybe to Nascar as well.

There's been some emails about Michael texting while in the car like he did this past weekend while being held on pit road during a practice because the team was late to inspection the week before. Back at Daytona apparently he was shown on the in-car texting while he was being pushed around the track too. I got the sense some of these emails must be kind of negative because Traci was quick to say that he's got a lot going on because he's an owner now so that's why he does it, I guess so it doesn't sound like he's texting his buddies and goofing off or something. It's unfortunate that some would question why a driver would be texting. Whether he's sending a text for business or social reasons I think Michael and every other driver has the right to text whomever they choose - they have so little time. Of course you don't want a driver texting when they should be focusing on the race or something but just exactly what else was Michael supposed to do while he was sitting in the car being held for those 15 minutes?

In a discussion about Michael's struggles this weekend Tony brought up something that comes up on Michael's forum a lot. Seems like after every practice or race in which Michael struggles and David Reutimann does well, fans say that the #55 team needs to switch to the set-up for the #44. But Tony said just because something works for David in terms of the set-up of the car doesn't mean it's going to work for Michael. If it was that simple, just change to David's set-up, then Michael would never have any problems but it's really not that simple. Different drivers have different driving styles and different ways that they want the cars to feel. I'm quite sure that if and when Bobby Kennedy thinks that going with David's set-up is going to help that he will or does do exactly that.

According to Traci, Michael and Casey Mears had a good discussion in the motorcoach lot and if I heard correctly, threw a football around, which was a good bonding experience so there are no lingering issues between them stemming from the wreck at Bristol or from the earlier incident. That was good to hear. I know that there are a number of fans of Michael who are also fans of Casey and it's never easy when two drivers you like are have issues with each other. However, to Traci's knowledge Clint Bowyer never approached Michael to apologize or anything. As I said last week, I agree with what they said on the last after show that just to smooth things over and make sure there were no hard feelings even if he thought there was nothing to apologize for, Clint should have made the effort to seek Michael out.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2008

Michael Waltrip Outloud on XM (8/28)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 22, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (8/21)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 15, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (8/14)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 09, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 08, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (8/8)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 01, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (7/31)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 25, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (7/24)

Michael started off by talking about how he went on the internet via his "computer machine" to watch the NAPA commercial he did with Ron Capps and then how he ended up looking at a bunch of other videos of himself including his win at Talladega. Based on what Michael says on this show he's quite the YouTube addict! Also, pretty slick of him to slip in there where fans can find that commercial since I think it's only showed up during NHRA broadcasts and not during Nascar broadcasts.

There was a lot of discussion about what Michael did during his time off - sounds like it was actually a pretty busy weekend for him between going to Kentucky for the truck race broadcast and then to Mississippi to watch Macy barrel race! Tony asked Michael about whether he went home to Owensboro (his hometown) while he was in Kentucky and Michael responded in a rather curious way. I don't know if he was joking or what but he said that no, he didn't go home and that he has no desire to do so, that he has bad memories of home and that he got into trouble there! He then went on to say something about killing someone there or something which made me think that maybe he was trying to make some sort of joke or move reference that just sailed completely over my head but it was hard to tell.

After some discussion about Greg Norman and the horse show, Tony asked Michael for a status report on Michael Waltrip Racing now that they're at the mid-point of the season. What Michael said next is one reason why I love this show so much - he went into detail about some things related to the cars and how MWR develops the cars that no one would know about unless they listened to this show.

Michael said he's very jazzed up about the new car he'll be racing this weekend at Indy. He said that everyone thinks that the cars are all the same but they're not. The new car is the future of MWR, its' a third generation COT and it's lighter with a lower center of gravity which is very important. Jeff Gordon's center of gravity is lower than his so his car can get around the track better. So with the third generation car they've been able to accomplished lowering the center of gravity. They have twelve in the pipeline and his is the first. I have to admit that until Michael started talking about it, I had no idea that the center of gravity is so important. Nor did I know that it's possible to make the car lighter. I'm suddenly starting to understand one reason why so many of the drivers are so tiny. We hear so much about how the rules package for the COT is so tight that there isn't much that the teams can play around with but apparently there actually are some things they can do.

Apparently they started working on the third generation COT three months ago as soon as they rolled out the second generation COT. They had to start from scratch with a new chassis since they felt that the ones they were getting were too heavy. They had to figure out where to get the parts and pieces from and how to make it light. It took a couple of months to develop and a month to test. I wish that every fan who thinks that fielding a competitive car is simple would have heard Michael talk about that process and how it takes months. Not only that but before they can build the cars they first have to figure out how to address issues like weight and center of gravity. Every team must have a different approach and as Michael alluded to a little later in the show it takes money to make all of this happen.

In the next month MWR is going to have their own carbon fiber body shop so they won't have to send the cars out anymore. Apparently this will help them take another 10-15 lbs. of in weight. Michael said that they're "all in" which I presume refers to how they're doing all these things to move forward. He said that it's very expensive to do everything like have a shaker rig or a carbon fiber body shop. That's something else that I'm not sure some fans understand. Some seem to think that every team should instantly be able to do everything that every other team does or have the same equipment and if they don't it means that they're incompetent. But the reality is that every team can't afford the same resources and equipment. MWR didn't have the financial ability to spend money on all these things right away which is what's so good about Rob Kauffman coming on-board because he gives them the ability to get the equipment and do the things that they are necessary to become more competitive.

Michael credited Dr. Eric Warren and his group, along with help from Toyota as the key to moving the third generation car from paper to reality. He said it's all about roles and integrating the new people they've hired at MWR with the people who are already there. They've made a lot of personnel changes in the fab shop (and I suspect some of the negative rumors about MWR are coming from those who were let go from that area and aren't happy), but they've still retained key people. Michael can get excited now because he can see it, he's wanted to see the needle move, wanted it to come together for him and now it is!

The third segment kicked off with an awesome classic Pink Floyd song, "Another Brick in the Wall" which led into a discussion about Indy. From the sounds of it, Michael and Tony are just as excited about getting shrimp cocktail at a place in Indianapolis, St. Elmo's as they are about being at the track! Michael said he always goes a day early to Indy so he can hang out and relax in Indianapolis, specifically by getting shrimp cocktail and wine at St. Elmo's. I always enjoy hearing about good places to eat in the different cities they travel to - I'm always on the hunt for places with good food that aren't necessarily the fanciest place, just somewhere that has good food. I love to eat and try new restaurants so it's a very good thing that I have a fast metabolism that keeps me thin otherwise I'd be in trouble! At any rate, after relaxing on Wednesday, Michael will wake up on Thursday and start to get focused for Friday.

Tony brought up how there's always a Chevy golf tournament at the golf course at Indy which Michael used to play in but obviously doesn't anymore since he's no longer a Chevy driver. Claire B. Lang did her XM show live from that golf tournament yesterday and without even knowing that Michael always used to play in it, I immediately thought of him! Apparently one year he played with Tico Torres from Bon Jovi which led into Michael telling an embarrassing story that involved Bon Jovi. One time he and Buffy went out to eat with some of the guys from Bon Jovi after a concert. So he's sitting there chatting with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora (and at this point let me say that I'm very jealous that Michael got to eat dinner with Jon Bon Jovi because I think he's a very intelligent and fascinating person that I'd love to have the opportunity to talk to some day), and somehow his glass of wine dropped right out of his hand and into his lap. Well, Michael just crossed his arms and pretended it didn't happen. So the next night they saw the guys from Bon Jovi again and he told them that he knew that they all saw him drop his glass of wine but that he didn't know what to say so he just keep on going as if it didn't happen, and apparently they all got a big laugh at his expense. I totally cracked up when Michael told that story because I thought of how often I embarrass myself by spilling things. I'm very clumsy and I seem to do okay in public because I'm extra careful but at home when I'm more relaxed... well, let's just say I'm surprised no one has got me a sippy cup!

The email question was from Ben in Denver and he asked a great question about how it seems like retirement isn't what it used to be and wondered what Michael thought about guys like Brett Farve or Mark Martin who announce their retirement but end up coming back. Michael said that it's different in Nascar than in the NFL and he can't really speak about Farve's thought process. However, with guys like Terry Labonte or Bill Elliott they come back because teams need them. They need them to help them out of a bind. But not only that, Racing's fun! It's like a hobby for them. Plus, if they're able to race well they get to passing people and it gets the competitive juices flowing again and they think "darn, I'm pretty good!" I have to admit that I've never been a fan of the champion's provisional or the way teams put certain drivers in their cars just because it'll guarantee that their car will make races, even though I understand why they go that route. I think Michael had a very good explanation from the driver's view point that I'm not sure that I had ever really fully considered before. I've never agreed with those fans who think that a driver should just retire and then never race again - to me not only do drivers have the right to change their minds, I think that it must be very hard for those who are so competitive to not get back into a car or truck. But I think Michael laid things out in a way that no one really ever has about how it benefits both the teams and the drivers involved.

As for Mark Martin, Michael thinks that he was "bummed" about how close he came to winning the Daytona 500 in 2007 and just coming up short. He also came close to winning at Phoenix. Mark can taste victory and he still thinks he can win. So you can't quit when you think you can still win. Michael said he's asked all the time when he's going to retire and his answer is that he's not going to retire until he feels like someone can get into his car and do better. I thought that was a pretty interesting comment considering there's been some rumors that MWR will only be a two-car operation next season and that Michael won't be racing Cup anymore. That remark seems to indicate that retirement isn't imminent. Whether it's Mark, Michael, Terry, Kyle Petty or some other driver I think they should race as long and as much as they want - it's not up to the fans, no matter what some seem to think, to decide how long a driver's career should be.

Finally, the show closed with a plea to keep the emails coming (michaelwaltripoutloud@xmradio.com). They love getting them and they send the emails they get to the folks at XM to show how many people are listening in the hopes that they'll get renewed for next year since they love doing the show. They love doing the show and I love listening! I really look forward to listening to this show each week not only because I often laugh myself silly at some of what gets said but because of how much insight Michael and Tony give into the sport that I couldn't get elsewhere such as about the process of developing the COT.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:33 AM | Comments (2)

July 11, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (7/10)

Comedian Bill Engvall was the guest on last night's show which was pre-taped last week so there was no discussion of Daytona or anything else racing related that was current. I have to admit that I've never watched The Bill Engvall Show and I really don't know anything about him besides that he's friends with Michael. I guess he's a big-time comedian so I'm sure a lot of people were really excited about him being a guest but to me it was just some guy who is a comedian who they were talking to. So I also have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that there was to be no discussion of Daytona or anything much Michael or MWR related (and that will apparently be the case next week as well). That said, there were some interesting comments and observations because Bill was the grand marshal for the race at Michigan and he was paying close attention to what was going on around him.

One thing that Bill got to do was take a ride around the track with Wally Dallanbach - Bill said he thought his life was over. The g-forces were incredible and he was amazed by what the drivers deal with in a race based on the small taste of it that he experienced in his ride around. Michael said that he was glad that Bill brought that up and he went on to say something very interesting - when Bill gets on stage he exposes himself and puts himself out there. It's just him and after seeing him do his show people say they could never do what he does. However, with the drivers they aren't as exposed and it's not just them - they're in the car. Also, since everyone drives they think that everyone can race too. I think there's a lot of truth to what Michael said - fans can see exactly what Bill is doing or in other sports they can see the hitter at the plate in baseball or the player going for a jump shot in basketball. But in racing fans only see the cars not the people inside them so they don't realize how much physical and mental ability it takes for the drivers to race like they do. The reality is that as much as a lot of fans think they could jump into a car right this minute and have more success than some of the drivers who they think are lacking in talent, they would get a pretty big surprise - it's definitely not as easy as some drivers make it look.

During driver introductions Bill was standing on stage next to Bobby Allison and he made some observations about the young drivers that he found "depressing." He said that the drivers who have been around for a while are very cool but the young drivers have an attitude and that they didn't show any respect at all. Michael agreed with him and said that he tries to treat every fan and every moment like it's his last one - that's one reason why I like Michael so much is because he doesn't take racing in Nascar for granted. He realizes that he has a lot to be thankful for and that it could all go away in the blink of an eye. Michael then went into his rant again about how seemingly every driver besides himself whines about how hot it is in the new car. Meanwhile, it's a sporting event and it's going to get hot sometimes. Michael said that back in the day the drivers raced without insulation and technology, meaning that today's drivers don't know how good they got it, and that they did it because of how much they cared and how much passion they had for racing, so much so that they sacrificed their bodies and sometimes even their lives.

What absolutely astonished me is that Bill said that while all the older drivers acknowledged Bobby Allison (and presumably him as well) a lot of the younger drivers walked right on by. Bill said that you can't do that and that Bobby is the reason why they're there, meaning that he paved the way for them. I understand that by the time it gets to driver's introductions a lot of times the drivers are getting very focused on the race ahead of them. However, there's no excuse for not acknowledging the people who are on the stage during driver introductions whether it's the celebrity grand marshal, sponsor representatives, fans who have won a contest and especially a legendary driver like Bobby. It's completely disrespectful to walk by without even the smallest of acknowledgments. Of course every driver is going to have their good and bad days but I suspect some drivers don't have any idea why it's so important to show respect to everyone. Fact is, there's no telling when someone you encounter might end up being someone whose help you'll need down the road and especially when it's a legend in the sport like Bobby Allison. I think there's some drivers who think that they'll never need anyone's help that they'll always be at the top of their game and racing for a top-tier team but things can change very quickly in this sport.

The other topic that Bill brought up is something that I've complained about in the past - basically fans who behave badly. He told a story about how he signed for a crowd of people at a festival but how some guy screamed an insult at him because he wasn't able to sign an autograph for that man's daughter due to having to have to get off the stage so Leeann Rhimes could perform. Michael said that when he has to walk by a crowd of fans without signing it's because he has to be somewhere else whether it's because he has to be in the car or go to a meeting. Also, there are times that he rushes off because he needs time with his daughter (or for his personal life in general). I would also add that the reality is that the drivers have good days and bad days and sometimes they don't stop to sign because they aren't feeling good, aren't in a bad mood or their minds are elsewhere, same as happens to anyone else. There's a percentage of fans who simply aren't understanding of these things. Bill said that 90% of fans are great, but there's 10% of fans who are very vocal who aren't as great. Unfortunately I think the percentage of fans who are difficult might be even more than that. Yes, there are still more wonderful fans than there are fans who behave inappropriately, but it seems to me as time goes on the amount of fans with bad attitudes is on the increase.

I actually think that both issues, drivers with poor attitudes and fans with bad attitudes, comes from an inflated sense of entitlement. More and more people - and not just those that are young - seem to think that they're entitled to behave in any way that they choose, that everything should be exactly as they want it because they deserve to have everything they want, that they are deserving of the best without having to do much for it, and have a very hard time dealing with or accepting when things don't go their way. I think there's some general attitude problems in society as a whole that seem to be on the increase and that contributes to the things that Bill and Michael talked about on this show. It bothers me when some drivers - and not just the young ones - talk as if a top-tier ride should be handed to them because they deserve it without them having to do anything to earn it. (Anyone who has read this space for the past two or three years will know exactly who one of those drivers is that I'm referring to.) It also bothers me that some fans feel that they're entitled to not only have their favorite drivers do all sorts of things for them but also how no matter how much some drivers do it's never enough. Above all, it bothers me how little respect some have for each other - whether it's the drivers who ignore dignitaries on the stage or don't think much of their fans or the fans who don't have any respect for the drivers or their fellow fans in a variety of ways. I could speak at length on the entitlement issue but I think I'll end things here.

Apparently next week's show will be the second half of the conversation with Bill so it'll be interesting to see if they continue discussing some more about Bill's experiences at the track.

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

July 09, 2008

David Reutimann to Petty Enterprises?

I've not been paying more than casual attention to a lot of the silly season rumors that are making the rounds because a lot of them are likely not going to happen - Casey Mears for example can't possibly race the #12, #33 and an IRL car all at once, and some are just flatout ridiculous. However, I do pay slightly closer attention to some of the rumors that involve Michael Waltrip Racing. Like the one Yahoo! Sports is reporting, that David Reutimann may be announced soon as Kyle Petty's replacement in the #45 at Petty Enterprises. Although I take this rumor with a major grain of salt because this is the same writer that claimed that Bobby LaBonte racing for Richard Childress Racing in 2009 was a done deal and Bobby ended up re-signing with PE, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some truth to this rumor.

For one thing David's contract apparently runs out at the end of this season as does the contract that UPS has with MWR, and it's likely that UPS will opt to sign with another team for next season. Drivers who find themselves in that situation with no contract and with questions about sponsorship for their current car are going to look around at what other opportunities might be available to them. I can see David being very attractive to PE. He has a lot of talent behind the wheel, the #45 is going to be outside the top 35 in owner's points and he knows how to qualify for races and finish well enough to get the car into the top 35, plus he's fan-friendly and personable. David is an asset to MWR and he would be an asset to any other organization as well. PE may look attractive to David because Boston Ventures came on-board and they may have sponsorship lined up for the #45 but it's also possible that given his age he might not have many options other than PE or MWR in Cup since most teams are looking for drivers younger than him.

As much as I'd like David to stay at MWR if he left for PE it might solve some problems for MWR. The reality is that they don't have much, if any, sponsorship locked up for any of their three cars next season. If they don't have a driver or a sponsor for the #44 they could opt to go to just two cars in 2009. Although I think teams need to grown, not shrink if they're going to be successful, given the difficulties for all teams to find sponsors these days and the poor economy overall, combined with rising costs for things like fuel, MWR might be better off financially and otherwise with just two teams. It seems more realistic to think that they could re-sign NAPA and find a sponsor for the #00 than to have to nail down sponsorship for three teams.

The other thing to consider is that it's unknown what MWR's plan is regarding their driver line-up for next season. They may have told David that they'd like to go in a different direction with the #44. It's clear that Michael thinks highly of David and I think they will always be personal friends, but MWR is a business and they may need to make some difficult decisions to attract sponsors. The reality is that as terrific as David is he may not be as marketable as other drivers, he's viewed as somewhat "goofy" and his age may also be a factor for some sponsors. MWR may feel they might have better luck attracting sponsorship for that car with a younger driver or one who might have more appeal to a wider range of sponsors.

I would really like David to continue to race for MWR. I'm a big fan of his and I think he's been great for MWR. However, I also understand that David and MWR both have to make the decisions that they feel are in their best interest for the future. If David ends up at PE or another organization I'll still support him and cheer for him as much as ever.

The person I feel sorry for is Kyle if this rumor is true. He's hinted at times this season that he's being pushed out at his own family's organization and that he's not happy about it. While many think he should just retire because the results haven't been very good in recent years, Kyle has expressed that he still has the desire to race and would like to do so in the future even if it's not at PE. However, it might be hard for him to find another ride given the poor results but that might have as much to do with the #45 being non-competitive as anything else. It just seems to me that it must be difficult for a driver to not race to begin with and even harder if they aren't in control of the decision.

Another MWR related item mentioned in the Yahoo! column is that Michael McDowell is a candidate for the #12 at Penske Racing because he's fallen out of favor at MWR. I'm a little skeptical about that. For one thing Michael has always spoken very highly of McD, including recently but beyond that it seems to me that MWR is investing a lot of their own money in McD since they don't have full sponsorship for the #00 and it doesn't make sense to me that they would waste millions out of their (Rob Kauffman's) own pockets on a driver who had no future at the organization. It's certainly possible that something major happened behind the scenes that no one knows about but after less than a year it seems way too early to give up on a promising young driver. In addition, why would Penske go with McD over other available drivers like Casey Mears or David Stremme? Just doesn't make sense to me.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)

July 08, 2008

Nascar's Reasoning for Why Michael Waltrip Finished 27th at Daytona is Ridiculous

I'm not usually one of those fans who finds fault with everything that Nascar does. I understand that they have a tough job to do and that it's not always easy to run the races and enforce the rules. However, after hearing Ty Norris, Michael Waltrip Racing's Vice President and General Manager, as well as Michael Waltrip's spotter, talk about Nascar's explanation for the finishing order from Saturday's race, I have to say I don't agree with Nascar's thinking in relation to the finish of the race.

Ty said that as MWR understood the rules regarding what happens when the caution comes out on the white flag lap, everyone is locked into the position they're in at the time the caution comes out and you can't be passed. Apparently according to Nascar that's actually not the case. Michael had been 12 at the time the caution came out but he wasn't locked into that position. For one thing he got wrecked so he lost some spots because he had to come back down from the wall and then get going in the right direction. Once he did since the caution flag was out Michael got going at "reasonable speed" which was 30-40 mph. However, he ended up getting passed by four or five cars going 100 mph and instead of finishing 20th or 21st like Michael and his team thought they should have, he ended up being given 27th. Essentially for doing what he thought he was supposed to since the race was under caution he ended up losing positions for it.

Apparently Nascar's way of looking at it is that if a driver is involved in a last lap accident then they're given the position that they get when they get themselves going and blend back in with traffic coming to the checkers so Nascar gave cars that passed Michael on the apron positions. In addition, MWR also disputed the finish for the #00 because Michael McDowell got slowed down when the wreck happened like he thought he was supposed to but three or four cars went around him for position so McD lost position for not driving full speed into the wreck. Ty said that there were seven or eight teams that were arguing that their finishing position should have been different and Nascar gave them all the same explanation - everyone got the impression that when there's an accident on the last lap the drivers have to hustle through to save their positions since it's given to them based on where they blend into traffic. Nascar also admitted that it's a subjective call - they have all sorts of video and everything but nothing to tell them exactly who should be where in a situation like that where there's cars all over the place.

Ty also brought up the issue of reasonable speed - Michael had been going a reasonable caution speed but others who had slowed for the wrecked but weren't involved then sped up to 100 mph and to them that was a reasonable speed. So what exactly is reasonable speed - to each driver depending on their circumstances it might be something different. In addition, Ty said that Nascar told them that part of the field is locked in when the caution flies in that situation - those who are ahead of the wreck but those who are involved in the wreck or behind it don't have their positions frozen. He also said that their understanding was that the spirit of the rules was that you don't race back into the accident for safety reasons and to let the safety equipment get to the cars that are involved in the wreck but it's almost like Nascar is saying that when there's a white flag accident the drivers have to race back to the checkers, though that's wrong too. Ty emphasized that Nascar was consistent in their explanation to each of the seven or eight teams who felt they should be given a different finish than they got but that it perhaps wasn't consistent with the spirit of the rules as the teams had understood them to be prior.

While I understand that the way things played out on Saturday night on the last lap wasn't an easy situation for Nascar, I think their explanations to the teams is ridiculous. First of all, either the field is frozen at the time the caution comes out or it isn't. You can't have half the field keep their positions and half the field lose their positions. That really doesn't seem fair to the teams. But more importantly than that Nascar seems to be sending the message that when there's a wreck on the last lap that racing back to the checkers is not only acceptable, but a must if drivers want to keep their positions. That shouldn't be. Racing through a wreck presents a major safety issue, particularly to those drivers who were involved in the wreck and might not be able to get going as quickly as some of the other drivers are going or at all. I would assume that even with this in mind Nascar would still penalize a driver for racing full-speed back to the checkers under caution but it certainly seems like they're not only going to tolerate a certain degree of racing back under "reasonable speed" but they're also almost forcing the drivers to do it so they don't lose positions.

Of course all of this could have been avoided had Nascar thrown the caution when Jeff Gordon got spun. The race would have ended then with the same winner and with far fewer wrecked race cars - if I was one of the teams that got wrecked I wouldn't be too happy with Nascar for not throwing the caution for Gordon's spin. Nascar felt that Jeff was out of the way of traffic and was able to get going quick enough to where there was no danger to him or the other drivers if the race stayed green. However, I don't think that's an assumption that Nascar should have made. Sometimes crazy and unexpected things happen and when it comes to safety I think it's important that Nascar errs on the side of abundant caution.

Given how many green/white/checkers there's been this season and how many times it's resulted in a last lap wreck, I don't think this will be the last time this season that drivers will find themselves in this kind of a situation and I just hope that it doesn't play out in a disastrous way.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:20 AM | Comments (2)

July 07, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (7/3)

I'm a little late in getting my thoughts on last week's Michael Waltrip Out Loud up but better late than never...

I admit that I had a little bit of a hard time following some parts of this past week's show. Okay, yes I did have an adult beverage or two prior to listening to the show since I didn't have to work the next day but I swear they also jumped around from topic to topic rather quickly! From the sounds of it Michael and Tony were having a lot of fun doing this week's show - I actually wondered if they too had gotten into some adult beverages! Probably not but the show was very lively and entertaining. No, I really don't think that Tony's wet vac is going to be of much use to help with the floods in the Mid-West!

The best part of the show was the absolutely hysterical story that Michael told about his first visit to the grocery store for many years. He was having a cookout and he needed to get hamburger meat for 15 people, only problem is that he had no clue how much meat to get for that many people and was freaking out wondering how he's going to get his meat! He was figuring it was just going to be one big pile of meat so he thought it was the coolest thing when he discovered that hamburger meat comes in patties these days! I literally couldn't stop laughing picturing Michael, who has no fear going around the track in a big pack at high speed during races, all anxious about buying meat at the grocery store! That led me to picture Michael in all sorts of other unfamiliar circumstances that are routine to the average fan - doing the laundry, going to the dry cleaner's, etc... I suppose some might think Michael's not too swift for not knowing that hamburger meat comes in patties but the reality is that someone likely has always done the grocery shopping for him and his fellow drivers. Either they have a significant other who can shop for them or their motorcoach driver shops for what they need at the track in the coach or they might have a housekeeper, nanny or assistant who shops for them. So Michael probably isn't the only driver who might be a little thrown off by a trip to the grocery store!

The other two main topics for discussion was David "Reuty" Reutimann, who was the guest and the race at New Hampshire. As far as his second place finish at Loudon, Michael said when you finish second there's never any greater distance than between first and second. Of course to all of us fans we think finishing second is just about as good as a win but as competitive as Michael is (and all the other drivers) nothing less than a win is truly going to satisfy him! He thinks he's finished second more than any other four-time winner and proceeded to list some of those times such as his other 2nd place finish to Kurt in 2005, a time he finished second to Junior, etc... He thinks he's maybe finished second eight times which is twice as many times as he's won. In reality in looking up Michael's finishes unless I counted wrong Michael has finished second seven times including at New Hampshire.

He said that when you win it's huge. Second feels good and you're happy for the team, and happy to get the points but it's not the same as winning. Rain had nothing to do with why he finished second. He wished it hadn't rained so he could have shown the people who don't know, the people who think he finished second only because of the rain. In reality he finished second because of great strategy, great planning and because he had a great car! That is so true, and just like I said in my prior entry I really wish that more people than those of us who listen to Michael over his radio each week via Trackpass would know the reality of the way that he races, how hard he and his team work and that often the finish doesn't tell the whole story of the race for Michael and his team. The same is true for many of the teams I think. It must be really frustrating for Michael that people assume that the only reason he finished second is because of the rain and that he had no chance to beat Kurt if the race had re-started.

David talked about how his team and Michael Waltrip Racing as a whole have made slow gains, but that they are making progress. So Michael started talking about New Hampshire a year ago. He didn't have a garage because he was so low in the points and the car wouldn't do anything. So he ended up missing the race. He felt bad watching David struggle during that race a year ago. But things have changed since then. He forgets how much progress they've made. Because he's a competitor he wants to go from last to first. When the race was over this past Sunday he was happy not only with finishing second but the way they ran. They're definitely better this year than they were last year at this time!

Of course it's not just Michael who wants them to have immediate success - the fans do as well. A lot of fans don't have patience for the Michael and his teams struggle and they don't understand why MWR isn't racing up front with the Joe Gibbs Racing teams. It's something I find frustrating at times. There are things that I wish would get addressed but I also understand that it's not as easy as some think to resolve problems and race competitively. I think there are some in the media and elsewhere who also have higher expectations than they should for what the results for MWR and some other teams should be, even though anyone in the garage area should be aware of how hard it is to compete and build success, particularly for new teams, as well as smaller or independent teams that may not have the same resources, experience and personnel that an established team like JGR has.

There was an email question submitted that was perfect for David to answer which was in relation to the COT in the Nationwide Series. David said that from a driver's point of view he wishes that they'd leave it alone, that it's a good car now and he thinks that if it's not broke then don't fix it. In addition, he said it sounds like it'll be a huge hit for the teams on the economic side. (Which is likely why it appears Nascar may delay the Nationwide COT for at least a year). David added that doing what he's doing is his dream job and he's doing what he loves.

Tony made sure to remind everyone to vote for Michael for Directv Hotpass each week. Tony also mentioned that he was going to be working Jeff Burton's channel at Daytona to which Michael responded "it's all about you Tony, isn't it?" Little does Michael know that Tony had his own fanbase thanks to doing the XM show! Those folks appreciate knowing ahead of time what channel Tony will be on so they don't have to go looking for him.

For the second week in a row Michael let someone else pick the song they closed with so David got to pick the song (I missed which song it was). Michael said that David is this quiet guy who likes to rock. That cracked me up because the same is true with me - over the years a lot of people have been very surprised by the kind of music I like!

Posted by silverdsl at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (6/26)

Never thought I'd hear someone say that as a kid they were traumatized by "Hotel California" by The Eagles (great song!) but that's exactly what Tony Rizutti said on last night's show - apparently there was a line in it that scared him when he was a kid! I get the feeling that might be something he's not going to hear the end of for a while. I guess everyone has something when they're a kid - for some it's clowns, for me it was "The Towering Inferno" which led to a fear of tall buildings for a while and for Tony it was "Hotel California."

This weekend at Loudon Michael is going to pay tribute to the Bahre family who played such a big role in his racing career - Michael was driving Dick Bahre's car when he made his first Cup start in 1985. Apparently Dick is fighting an illness now and I would imagine that's why Michael wants to do something for him. There's going to be a large decal on the TV panel of the #00 car and a smaller decal somewhere on his own car. I guess they had to put it on the #00 car in addition to his own car since the TV panel was available on that car to increase the chances that it would make it on-air. It says something about Michael that he doesn't forget the people who helped him and that he has Dick in his thoughts while he's ill. Michael has a big heart and that's just one more reason why we all adore him so much!

Last weekend most fans assumed that the engine change that forced the #55 to the back of the field was due to a mechanical failure but unfortunately it was due to driver error. Michael said that normally the driver has nothing to do with it when an engine goes but in this case he literally broke the engine. Apparently he shifted incorrectly and that broke the engine. He said that there was a silver lining in that it forced him to focus more on shifting right on Sunday but I felt bad for him. Given that it led to the team having to make an engine change that's not a small mistake and he had to have been kind of embarrassed about it. However, every driver makes mistakes some of them even bigger and more embarrassing - at least Michael didn't do what Sterling Marlin did a few years ago when he looked down for a second during a caution and ended up running into the back of another car, wrecking himself and maybe the other guy too. Now that's embarrassing and even more so since he had to give an interview about it afterwards!

Michael also mentioned that his team failed when it came to fuel mileage. I have to agree with him there and I hope fuel mileage and the strategy they use is something they're working hard to address. Seems like fuel mileage is a part of more and more races so it's an area in which they need to be on top of.

Jim Aust from Toyota who is retiring was the guest on last night's show. Michael seems to really like him a lot and talked about what a great heart he has. A lot of what Jim said during the interview was very much what we've heard before from people from Toyota regarding their acceptance in the sport and fan misconceptions about Toyota. In light of how he's retiring and that he's been involved with Toyota's efforts in Nascar for the past ten years I admit that I would have preferred to have heard a little more about some of his memories from the past ten years or ways in which he helped bring Toyota to the Cup Series. They talked about how the fans have come to accept Toyota's presence in the Cup Series and how fans are always coming up to them and thanking him at races. That may very well be true and for PR purposes I know that's what Jim is going to say regardless of what the case may be but I encounter anti-Toyota sentiment every single day whether it's on forums that I visit, comments from fans in blogs that I read, or when I'm listening to calls from fans on XM and Sirius. Jim credited Michael being a great ambassador for Toyota as part of the reason why Toyota has been accepted and that I have to agree with since Michael is outstanding at being an ambassador for whoever he's representing whether it's Toyota, his sponsors or the sport itself. However, I cringed when Jim said that Michael is in "lockstep" with Toyota I understand what he was getting at there but that term is sometimes used to refer to people who mindlessly do as they're told without thinking for themselves and Michael most definitely thinks for himself!

As for the biggest misconception it was about how a lot of fans believed that Toyota is outspending the other manufacturers. Honestly, I think after last season when the performance for the Toyota teams was so putrid I think most fans stopped thinking that Toyota was pouring an endless amount of money into their teams because if they did the results would have been better. Sad to say but the conspiracy theorists and anti-Toyota crowd seem to have moved on to thinking ridiculous things like either the Toyota teams are cheating or that Toyota is using their money to pay off Nascar.

Michael and Jim are going to play golf at Pebble Beach soon - apparently Michael knows someone who can get them in. I sure hope we hear about that on the show! Pebble Beach looks gorgeous and I would think that it has to be incredible to play there!

In the last segment Tony and Michael had a spirited disagreement about the Sonoma race, fuel mileage, the length of the race, etc... Tony said that in other road course racing series the fastest car is the one that wins but if I understood right in Cup good fuel mileage is what helps a team win. I don't think he likes that too much and I have to say that I don't really either. I'm not like some other fans who think that fuel mileage wins don't count as "real" wins - to me strategy is a part of the sport, an important part, and if a team wins that way it doesn't take away from their accomplishment. However, it seems like there's more and more races where getting good fuel mileage and the strategy that a team uses in regards to pitting and fuel is what gets them success rather than how fast their car is. I was really bothered at Michigan by the fact that Michael seemed to have the fastest and best car he's had for quite some time and he still wasn't able to finish up front because the fuel mileage didn't work out so well for his team. I especially didn't like that Michael had to slow down to a ridiculous degree in an effort to save fuel. Drivers should be racing hard with everything they've got, especially at the end of a race and particularly when they've got a good car like Michael had.

Michael surprised Tony by letting him pick the song they closed with. Apparently Traci, Michael's PR rep had tattled on Tony and told Michael that Tony says that he's bossy and likes his way all the time so Michael wanted to show that he didn't have to have his way. I cracked up when I heard that because if I had a dime for every time I've heard some version of how Michael likes his way, he does what he wants, he likes to be in control or he's stubborn I'd be a very rich woman right now! I think some see how head-strong and stubborn Michael is as a negative (and I can see how it can be difficult for those around him at times) but it's that stubbornness and determination which is what has helped him to be a part of this sport for as long as he has.

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

June 13, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM (6/12)

Since Pocono was so disappointing for Michael since he both had a bad race and also dropped out of the top 35 in owner's points, I wasn't sure what to expect this week's show to be like. But Michael sounded like he was good spirits and made a lot of optimistic comments about being focus on the future and getting better. I'm glad he said some of what he did because I think his fans really needed to hear him be positive about the future instead of being down about the present.

Michael and Tony cracked me up at the beginning of the show. Apparently Michael spends a lot of time looking at old music videos on YouTube and he ended up singing an old Chicago song "Saturday in the Park." That's a great song and Michael really sang it well too! That led into them joking about Phil Parsons, who loves Chicago, and Rick Allen, who are in the booth for Truck Races for Speed along with Michael. When I was at the August Pocono race last year I noticed that Phil and Rick were always together each time I saw them but I didn't think too much of it. However, according to Michael and Tony they're always together so much so that some people joke about them being the same person! Michael calls them the Allen Parsons Project. So when he's in the booth with them what are they all three of them known as? The Allen Parsons Wal-Project?

Michael didn't say anything about Pocono that hadn't already been said before. The team worked hard all race long but things just didn't go their way - had that last pit stop played out different they might have gotten a top 20. I admit to being a little confused as I know other fans were as to exactly how Michael lost a lap. No one seems to remember him getting lapped and it's not clear from his comments whether the last pit stop that was so long cost them the lap or just prevented them from getting their lap back. It's really unfortunate because at times they seemed to be headed in the right direction but it never came together for them. Michael said that anything worthwhile is hard and there's a lot of truth there. Building successful race teams isn't something that happens over night nor is it easy but when that success comes it will be very satisfying for Michael and everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing!

This week's guest was Denny Hamlin and Michael noted how other drivers are getting a lot of attention while Denny is just quietly doing his thing and racing well. He said that Denny is letting Kyle take the flack for all of them. I guess Michael doesn't know that Denny is catching his own share of heat from fans these days too - many of them seem to feel that Denny is just as much of a punk as Kyle is. I don't really see it myself - fans seem to be getting more and more sensitive and jump to take offense at just about anything a driver says or does. Denny said that his team hasn't been setting the world on fire but they've been solid every week. I'll say - a win, five top five's and eight top ten's is very solid!

Later in the show Michael brought up how Tony was quiet while Denny was on - I guess that doesn't happen too often! Apparently Tony was working Denny's Directv Hotpass at Pocono and he made a bit of an error in judgment. After the race he was with the rest of the media who was interviewing Denny just after he got out of his car. He could see how hot and tired Denny was, as were all the drivers since it was a scorcher of a day. Tony asked him the first question but then couldn't remember the second question he wanted to ask. So he asked Denny about his pit crew and as he was asking that question he thought of the question he forgot and asked it. Which meant he asked Denny three questions which is a breach in protocol to ask that many just after a driver's gotten out of the car and even more so since Denny was so hot and tired.

As he's asking the question Denny rolls his eyes at him, glares and then when he was done Tony heard him tell his PR guy that Tony will never interview him again! Yikes! Denny then went to the in-field care center. Tony said that he knows better than to ask that many questions after a long race and he called Denny's PR guy to apologize. On her own show Claire B. Lang actually brought up, not Tony specifically, but the drivers being chased by the media after the race when so many of them them were clearly feeling the effects of the heat. She said that she opted to back away from drivers like Denny (who said said was actually vomiting he was so sick from the heat) and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to give them time to collect themselves.

Situations like this is why I wish Nascar had a cooldown period for the drivers after they get out of their cars before they had to speak with the media like they do in other sports. I guess it's not really practical since the drivers are all in a rush to leave the track and they wouldn't want to have to stick around for an extra 15 minutes but it seems to me that it would solve a lot of problems if the drivers had the time to collect their thoughts and on hot days like Sunday had some time to re-hydrate before having to give interviews. Maybe Tony could have asked less questions but on the other hand the media has a job to do too and they know if they don't ask their questions right then they'll never get to ask them. It seems to me that if Denny was that sick then his PR person should have intervened (but less interviews equals less exposure for the sponsor so that probably wouldn't happen).

There was some talk about how David Reutimann almost won at Nashville and how it was a great effort by David and his team. They've been together for ten years and it shows the importance of chemistry - the team knows what each other are thinking and that helps them race for the championship. What they see with the Nationwide team is what they're striving for on the Cup side but they need time to build it. It's easy to get down after races like Sunday but Michael sees everyone working so hard on Monday and it makes him happy to be a part of it. He feels like it's an honor for him to have a chance to do this. He's always wanted to be a part of the Cup Series in every form or fashion that he could whether it's by racing, ownership, TV, etc... It's an honor and a privilege. He doesn't wish it was back in the day when the team was small and it was based back behind his house. He can't wait "'til tomorrow" and every day that goes by they get stronger. I hope that Michael is sincere in saying that he looks forward to each day - with all that he's had to deal with the past few years I can see how it might really wear him down after a while. However, I can also see how despite the problems it's still exciting to see his teams develop and MWR as a whole grow. MWR really has come a long way since it was just the one Nationwide car in his backyard, and even though they've had some struggles, Michael should still be proud of taking MWR to the level that they're on now!

Tony then brought up the rumor that was on Jayski (which originated on another blog) about MWR possibly having financial issues. Michael said that he's always been a friend of Jayski, who has always been fair to him. He and Jayski have emailed back and forth. Which cracked me up because with the way that Michael has talked about Jayski in the past and how Jayski has handled Michael/MWR related items I've wondered a time or two whether Michael is one of Jayski's sources. Michael said that one of the most ridiculous Jayski rumors he's ever read - about him maybe, but I seem to remember a few other really out there rumors that Jayski has posted. Michael clarified that MWR has no debt, they're on as good financial ground as anyone. There will always be some turnover that will continue to go on until they hit their stride - which is exactly how it should be. No organization should stand pat when they think they have an opportunity to get better and that's true when it comes to their personnel too. MWR isn't in any peril and they aren't worried about how they're going to pay their bills. They're focused on the future. Again, that's how it should be - no matter what the reality of MWR's financial status is they have to be forward-thinking and focused on building a solid foundation that will lead to success for many years to come.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2008

This Week in Nascar vs. Michael Waltrip Out Loud

Regular visitors here have probably noticed that I frequently talk about Michael Waltrip's XM show "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" but unless I'm referring to a specific comment that Michael makes I don't give the same attention to "This Week on Nascar" on Speed. The show formerly known as "Inside Nextel Cup" used to be one of my favorite shows and I would look forward to watching it every week but as the years went on Speed made more and more tweaks to the panel, the host and the format and ever since Michael started doing the XM show I look forward to that far more than I do the Monday night show.

Of course I still watch TWiN every week - Michael still cracks me up on that show all the time and he still often has some interesting things to say but I think the format of the show doesn't allow Michael or the other panelists that much freedom to be themselves and discuss the happenings in each race or in the sport. There's been improvements as the season has gone on but I still don't enjoy the format all that much, particularly the way the first half of each show is taken up with a lengthy preview for the next race. I used to make a point of being in front of the TV every Monday night when the show was on but now I record it and watch later in the evening so I can fast-forward through the taped pieces and pretty much everything that doesn't involve discussion among the panelists.

So I don't really give as much attention to TWiN in this space because I suspect I would bitch and moan about the format all the time and I don't want to be negative about the same issues that probably won't ever change with the show over and over. I also know that Michael very much enjoys doing the show and I don't feel quite right about being down on something he enjoys doing out of the car, though the odds of Michael coming across this space is somewhere between slim and none and even if he did it's very unlikely that he would care what this no-nothing fan thinks.

The thing is that on the XM show Michael can really be himself with much fewer constraints than on TWiN. He and Tony are on the same page about most things including what they find funny so it makes for a really entertaining - and informative - show. There's just so much more personality on "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" these days than on TWiN.

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

June 06, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (6/5)

Not only did Michael Waltrip have his own XM show last night, he also was a guest on Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s show "Unrestricted" that's on right after (which will have it's own entry otherwise this one will be too long). So it was an entire hour of Michael! It doesn't get much better than that!

On "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" Michael was on the phone because he and Michael McDowell were at VIR testing along with a bunch of other teams in preparation for the road course race at Infineon coming up in a couple of weeks. There was also someone from Car and Driver magazine there with them doing an article - hope that's going to come out soon! Apparently McD is very familiar with VIR so he was coaching Michael as to what the track was like. Unfortunately Michael had an encounter with a retaining wall that ended the test early. I really hope that he's going to have a good car at Infineon. In the past Michael had done very well on road courses which is one reason why I look forward to those races.

One thing that came up was how some are saying that Toyota has an advantage over other manufacturers and that Nascar should do something about it because they've won five races. Michael said that those people don't know what they're talking about - I bet he wishes Toyota had some sort of advantage! He also said that last season no one called out Chevy when they won so many races but actually the same fans who are now saying that Toyota is paying off Nascar to let them have an advantage were the same ones last season who were convinced that the Chevy teams were only winning because they were cheating and that Nascar knew about it and was looking the other way. I could say a whole lot more about all of that and all the ridiculous conspiracy theories in general but I'll save it for another entry since I've been thinking about doing something on that topic for a while. Michael said that Kyle Busch's success this season has more to do with him and Joe Gibbs Racing than it does Toyota. I have to agree - if Toyota truly had an advantage all the other Toyota teams would be contending for wins on a weekly basis too like Kyle and his teammates are.

Michael was much less harsh about the big wreck at Dover than some others have been. A lot of people find it really puzzling as to why Denny Hamlin plowed into that mess seemingly at full speed, despite his spotter warning him to slow down. Even Jeremy Mayfield said on XM the other day that it was an unusual kind of accident because usually there's enough experience there that the drivers can either get slowed up in time or avoid it. Michael said that it's much harder to get these cars slowed down than in the past and that where the wreck happened made it hard to see.

Tony brought up Joey Lagano doing well in his Nationwide debut and wondered whether Michael can relate to the pressure that's on Joey to deliver since as DW's brother he came into the sport with a lot of hype himself. Michael said that it must be difficult to be Joey because of what he has to live up to. Joey's just 18 and he could become cocky and brash or he could just take it all in and not let it affect him. Michael feels sorry for Joey with how everyone is talking about how he's the greatest thing because if he isn't people will wonder what went wrong. I also think that's one of Joey's biggest challenges is how he's going to handle the pressure. It's asking a lot for an 18-year old to deal with it perfectly but if he doesn't fans and the media will show no mercy.

Michael also talked about how times have changed, how it used to be that drivers didn't get good cars to race until they were in their 40's and 50's and had proven themselves, something that was often a struggle to do. Now 18-year olds like Joey get into winning cars right away, and he hopes Joey realizes how lucky he is. Sometimes I wonder how much resentment there is from some of the veteran drivers about young drivers getting to race competitive cars a lot sooner than they did when they were that age. Steve Park has certainly made some comments that make it clear that he doesn't like it too much. There's certainly a lot of fans who don't like it either, particularly because a lot of times it means that veteran drivers have to take lesser rides. But it seems to me that the way drivers develop these days overall even before they come to Nascar is different and the sport has to adjust accordingly. If a driver has a lot of talent and is ready to handle racing good cars in the upper levels then I don't think they should have to ride around in lousy cars on lower levels just because that was how drivers in the past proved themselves.

This weekend they'll be racing at Pocono and Michael sounded very optimistic about his chances for doing well which was good to hear. He was top ten in speed, liked his car and felt he could race aggressively with it - I loved hearing that! Way too often this season it's seemed like Michael is racing just to hang on and not wreck due to how poor his car is handling as opposed to actually being able to race for position. I know how much he loves Pocono so I think it would be a very good thing for him and his team to get a strong finish there. Michael sounded much less optimistic about Michigan which makes it even more important to finish well at Pocono in light of the precarious position he's in with the top 35.

Apparently Michael is going to try to go to Belmont on Saturday to see Big Brown try to win the Triple Crown. He said he wants to pet Big Brown which just kind of cracked me up - most everyone is talking about Big Brown like he's a machine but Michael hasn't forgotten that he's a living, breathing animal, a horse just like any other. I suppose that comes from Michael having horses himself. If he goes to Belmont Michael is going to be nearby - I work pretty close to Belmont and don't live all that far either. However, knowing what the traffic is going to be like on Saturday I won't be anywhere near Belmont! I hope that sometime Michael will do an appearance up in the Northeast for fans. Seems like even when the drivers are up here for races like this weekend at Pocono they don't do too many appearances. I guess some feel that there aren't enough Nascar fans up this way or something but we are definitely here!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)

May 30, 2008

New Category: "Michael Waltrip Out Loud"

Even the most casual of readers who stops by this site would notice that I talk about Michael Waltrip in this space a lot. Naturally I also discuss Michael's XM show, "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" quite often - I love the show because it's both entertaining and informative. Michael and Tony Rizzuti, his co-host, make me laugh but I often learn something or think about things from a different perspective than I hadn't previously after I've listened to the show. On the forum on Michael's site myself and another fan do weekly recaps for those who don't have XM and I often discuss various things that Michael and Tony have brought up on the show over there. Since I've noticed a lot more traffic coming to this site via people searching specifically for "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" it would appear that there's enough interest in the show from outside the forum that I think I'm going to start doing an entry each week to give my thoughts each week on what they discussed on the show. As a result I've created a new category on this blog for "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" so that those who drop by looking for information on Michael's XM show can easily find what they're looking for.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (5/30)

Last night on "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" Michael talked about a variety of topics including the past weekend's race at Charlotte. Although he was disappointed with his own finish, he was happy about David Reutimann's top ten finish and felt that it was a sign that Michael Waltrip Racing was moving in the right direction. Some fans have wondered about the issues that Michael has continually complained about during races this season and whether it's a question of Michael needing to adjust to the COT and the way it handles and be less fussy about what how he wants his car to feel. I think there is some truth to the idea that Michael, like many other veteran drivers, is having some trouble getting used to the COT. However, Michael indicated last night that there's some issues across the board for all three MWR teams, specifically a front end issue, that has been a problem for all the MWR drivers, not just him.

Apparently it was only at Charlotte that David and Ryan Pemberton hit on something that worked really well and they were going to apply that to what they did at Pocono testing in the hope that it would help all three teams improve their performance. Michael certainly seemed to be having a good test - he was 6th fastest in the final test session - so hopefully they will see better results going forward. Michael expressed confidence in how the next few races would go for him and his team since Dover, Pocono, Sonoma and Michigan are all tracks that he has raced well at. Michael told me once that Pocono is his favorite track so I'm especially hoping for a good result for him there!

Something interesting that Michael talked about that happened off-the-track was the promotion he did for Coca-Cola with Yao Ming, the basketball player. Michael said that he doesn't often encounter people who are taller than he is but Ming is a full foot taller. So he found himself thinking about whether the way he felt when he was talking to Ming is the way people usually feel when they're around him. He said that he often wonders about people's mindset when they're talking to him and whether they're looking up his nose. I've often wondered how Michael feels about his height. Based on what others who are very tall have said there's some great things about being that tall but also a lot of bad things too since most everything is made for those who are shorter. I would think any issues about being tall are even more magnified in the garage area since so many of Michael's fellow drivers are so tiny - not only are many of them very short, much shorter than he is, but a lot of them are also very thin.

In terms of meeting Michael, when I've been around him I've wondered what he's thought when he's looked down at me since I'm more than two feet shorter than he is, plus I only weigh about 100 lbs. So I'm significantly smaller. When I'm around Michael I definitely feel like a tiny ant! Because I'm not that tall I often encounter people who are taller than I am and I don't usually feel small, but with Michael because he's not only big in stature, he's also big in personality and presence, I have felt very little. In all honesty, Michael wonders if people are looking up his nose (can't say I ever have!) with Michael and others who are that tall I sometimes wonder whether they're looking down my shirt - it's not that I show a lot of cleavage or anything but it's almost unavoidable from that vantage point to see down my shirt if I'm wearing any kind of a v-neck shirt!

There was also some discussion at the end of the show about the driver's meetings and how Michael always used to ask funny questions to make people laugh. He thought one of the funniest times was years ago when he hit water barrels at one track and water went everywhere so at the track the next week he saw there were more barrels so he asked during the driver's meeting whether those barrels had water in them too. But the meetings aren't as casual as they used to be - as time has gone on the driver's meetings have gotten more formal and serious. So Michael has to be more focused on finding out about the various rules for the track and everything else so there really isn't time to think of funny questions.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

May 08, 2008

Have I Mentioned Lately How Much I Love Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM?

One of the Nascar-related highlights for me each week is listening to Michael Waltrip Out Loud every Thursday night at 7 p.m. on XM channel 144. Yes, my fellow Michael Waltrip fans, I've come to enjoy this show even more than the Monday night show on Speed! You see there is no other show where Michael has free reign to talk about what's on his mind more than this one! Along with Tony Rizutti, his co-host, each week Michael not only informs listeners, he entertains them too. The past few weeks I've only been able to listen sporadically due to having to work at some events but when I listened last night it reminded me of just how awesome I think this show is!

The best part of this show is that it offers listeners a peak into Michael's world. Michael doesn't just review what happened to him in each race, he also talks about other news in the sport, what's happening at Michael Waltrip Racing, and pretty much anything that comes to mind that's going on around him. On one of the first shows last year Michael told a story about how Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace came to check on him in his motorcoach because they were worried about him since things weren't going too well for him. That's the kind of story that fans couldn't hear anywhere else. Of course Michael is also on This Week in Nascar and is in the booth for Truck races but there is no other place where Michael can talk at length as much as he can on this show not only about what's going on in racing or with his teams, but also about some of his other loves like golf and music.

What I think I like the most about this show is how much I've learned or been challenged to think about in a way I might not have before. I'm very opinionated when it comes to Nascar but I also like to keep an open mind and consider things from a variety of viewpoints. Michael is not only a driver, but he's also an owner and someone who has been involved in the sport for more than 20-years so he has a tremendous amount of knowledge about every aspect of the sport. He's also not afraid to give his honest opinion about things, something that I like a lot. So when something happens during a race or in the sport in general, whether it relates to Michael and MWR directly or not, I look forward to hearing what Michael thinks about it. Although I'm often on the same page as him and agree with many of his opinions, sometimes I don't agree. But that's okay because it still makes me consider a different opinion than mine which I like doing.

Two shows really stick out in my mind. One was in June of last year when Aric Almirola was removed halfway thought a Nationwide race for Denny Hamlin, a race that Denny went on to win. I had thought that it wasn't quite right for Joe Gibbs Racing to yank Aric from the car and I understood why he was upset. But Michael and Tony had a different way of looking at things, from that of the team. From an owner's point-of-view Michael felt that Aric's attitude was very poor and that he should have stayed around to celebrate the win. They both felt his attitude was so bad that it might prevent him from getting rides with other teams in the future. I had never considered things from that perspective and it gave me an entirely new insight into that incident.

Another great show was one from earlier this season in which Dr. Eric Warren, MWR's technical director was on to discuss bump stops. That was a really eye-opening discussion that I learned a lot from. I knew in general what a bump stop was but I had never given them much thought. I had no idea that Nascar doesn't regulate them much and that a similar situation has developed like what happened with springs when teams were doing coil binding. The larger, well-funded teams have the resources to go out and get bump stops made out of all sorts of exotic materials and do research to get them right with a large budget. However, not every team can afford to do what the bigger teams are doing, and in the case of MWR they're still in the learning stages when it comes to bump stops, presumably since they're still such a new team. A lot of fans have expressed frustration that the cars haven't been better for the MWR teams this season but after listening to Dr. Warren I could get a sense why because MWR is still figuring things out in terms of the bump stops (and likely in other areas as well).

Of course another thing that's great about this show is that there's usually an email question of the week that's been submitted by a fan that Michael answers. It's always fun to hear what other fans are wondering about and what Michael's response is. A few of mine have been answered including one on last night's show in relation to Michael's run-in with Casey Mears at Richmond. I had asked how a driver goes about making amends after an incident like that and Michael said that they just work things out and he and Casey will be fine. Michael then went on to say that these days drivers will actually sometimes just text each other an apology after a wreck or incident. That totally blew my mind! Of course everyone uses text messages these days but it seems to me that if a driver is really sincere about apologizing and explaining themselves the least they could do is make a phone all or even better speak with the other person face-to-face! The drivers don't have much time given all their commitments so a text message is probably an easier way of doing things but it just seems like the easy way out. I like to send emails to the show (michaelwaltripoutloud@xmradio.com) every week or so, not necessarily always with a question, but with some sort of comment, just so they know that I'm listening.

It's not just racing they talk about either which is one reason I think the show is so good. A lot of times they'll review the big sports stories of the weekend outside of racing, and frequently get going on a shared love - golf. Once they get started talking about golf it seems like it's hard for them to stop! I admit that I don't know much about golf, though I sometimes enjoy watching. What's interesting to me more than the games is the courses themselves so I enjoy when Michael talks about specific courses they've played on. One of Michael's other big loves is music so they'll talk music sometimes. But what's really great is that the show opens and closes with a songs that either relate to the race just past or coming up or are songs that Michael really likes. Since I also love music I enjoy that as well and especially since I've discovered some songs I hadn't ever heard before that way. Last year they played "Please Come to Boston" by Dave Loggins and it's now on my big list of favorite songs - I can't believe I had never heard that song before since it's exactly the type of song that I love! Naturally since Michael has a terrific sense of humor there's lots of laughing and joking around as well.

What really makes this show work is the great rapport between Michael and Tony. They know each other well since Tony at one time was Michael and NAPA's PR rep so they've worked together a lot and it seems like they're good friends as well. Tony does a great job of asking Michael questions and guiding him through discussions. On TWiN sometimes I feel like Michael is kept on a short leash and isn't always given the freedom to say as much as he might like, but on this show it's not a problem - he can say pretty much whatever he wants and the show is better for it. The conversation flows freely, so freely that I think they could easily fill an hour long show!

This is truly an outstanding show! There aren't all that many shows, on TV or otherwise, besides racing that I make sure to listen to every week but this is one that's a can't miss for me! I really look forward to listening each week and now that things have gotten quieter at work hopefully I won't be missing too many more in the future.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (5/8)

Unfortunately I was distracted for most of the time that I was listening to this week's show but I sure am glad that I was paying attention to the email question this week! That's because the question which happened to be my question! I was kind of afraid to ask this question because it related to the incident at Richmond with Casey Mears, but then I figured if Tony thought Michael wouldn't want to answer he just wouldn't use it. I asked after there's an incident like that how drivers make amends with each other. But first before getting to the question Tony mentioned that I was from Hempstead (where is where the university I work at is). So Michael wanted to know if they grow a lot of pot there (hemp)! As for the answer to my question Michael said that they just work it out, that he and Casey won't have a problem. How soon they talk depends on the severity of the incident. Apparently it used to be that they were dependent on calling each other, now they can't use the excuse of not being able to reach someone since they all have cell phones and all. Now drivers actually text each other to say that they're sorry. It kind of boggles my mind that these days some drivers don't even bother to apologize face-to-face or via a phone call. Of course the drivers are super-busy so I understand why they might just text, but it seems to me that it would be hard to tell if an apology is sincere or not if it's just a short text message.

So then it came up about how everyone should vote for Michael for the All-Star race. He said that someone should come up with a program to vote for him for the next seven days. So they said that the lady from *** (the university here I work) (me) could probably come up with something since I'm collegiate (in reality clueless about computer programming! ). Michael again pondered whether Hempstead is the home of medicinal marijuana and Tony said that he didn't know but *** (my university) is there.

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

Office Depot to Michael Waltrip Racing?

Jayski has an "I heard" rumor today that says:

Office Depot to MWR? Hearing Office Depot, currently the sponsor for #99-Carl Edwards, is considering a move to Michael Waltrip Racing with driver #00-Michael McDowell. UPS has been rumored as a possible sponsor for Edwards and Roush Racing in 2009.(5-8-2008)

Of course given that there's no source that rumor could be completely false but frequently there's some grain of truth to the rumors that Jayski reports, so I would guess that at the very least Office Depot is looking around and one of the teams they're talking to is Michael Waltrip Racing. Getting a sponsor like Office Depot for the #00 would be wonderful news! Actually any news related to sponsorship for the #00, or the #44 for that matter, is great news! If Office Depot was interested in being the primary sponsor of the #00 for the full season that would be the best scenario but even a partial sponsorship or associate sponsorship would be good to because it would be more than what they have now.

Some fans seem shocked that Office Depot would consider leaving Carl Edwards and Roush-Fenway Racing for Michael McDowell and MWR but it's really not that outrageous. For one thing Roush is supposedly asking for $25 million or more from companies to sponsor the #99. That's a lot of money, particularly with the way the economy is right now, and I'd guess that it would cost a lot less to sponsor the #00. In addition, although Carl is a much more experienced driver who has won a lot, McD is a dynamic, media savvy, young driver with a great attitude just like Carl. Plus, McD has a lot of potential - he could very well develop into as good of a driver as Carl over time.

In addition, Office Depot would be able to associate themselves with Michael, who has a knack for getting his sponsors exposure. I'm quite sure that any sponsorship deal would involve incorporating Office Depot into Raceworld somehow and that's something that other teams can't offer. In addition, there may be other creative packages that MWR could put together for Office Depot. In fact, last week on "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" Michael talked about how MWR would work with sponsors to find a package that fit their budget in and met their marketing and sales goals. That kind of flexibility is essential these days with how hard it is to keep and find sponsors and especially for an organization like MWR where the on-track results haven't been that strong yet since they're still developing.

Some fans have expressed surprise that a major sponsor might be interested in McD over David Reutimann who is more experienced and thought to be a better driver than McD. Unfortunately for David in spite of his obvious talent behind the wheel there's some factors that work against him, his age for one. Sponsors often want to be associated with younger drivers and given that they're with Carl currently, that's likely true for Office Depot. In addition, as much as I can't stand bringing in the driver's appearance into anything because I think it should be irrelevant, a lot of people don't share my beliefs. The fact is that David's "beak" which is why he has the nickname "Beak" and his overall goofy look may not be as appealing to Office Depot as McD who is very attractive and polished looking. David really needs to be paired with a different kind of sponsor - like UPS who is sponsoring him currently - that is a better fit for a veteran driver.

Hope this happens for McD and MWR!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (4/24)

Huge round of applause for Michael and Tony! I loved what they said in the first part of the show about Danica Patrick and Jamie Little, about how it was the weekend of the ladies because they both won this past weekend! Tony defended Danica's win, how it was every bit as valid of a win as any other even though it was a win by fuel strategy which is what I talked about in my "Wins Matter!" entry a few days ago. Michael agreed and said what an accomplishment it was for a female to have won a major race. Tony said that a win is a win and Danica crossed the finish line first. There's nothing wrong with winning based on fuel mileage like Danica and Jimmie Johnson did recently. Tony asked whether Danica was headed to Nascar and Michael said he didn't think so but that he would have a "chair" (a ride) for her if she was interested. Yeah, Michael and every other car owner! I was just really happy to hear them talk about how great Danica's win was instead of trying to dismiss it as so many others have.

After not having had a guest on all season they found one to have on - Dale Jarrett. Usually I don't mind when they get to talking about golf even though I don't always understand what they're talking about but in this instance I have to admit I kind of only paid half-attention. DJ took part in a televised golf event that Tony watched and it seemed like he had DJ describe every single shot he took the entire game! Michael was so quiet during that part I'm not even sure he was still in the room - it's hard for me to believe he could go that long without talking on his own show! When he finally did speak up Michael said he took part in his first members-members tournament and I think Michael took great joy in saying the word "members!"

When they finally did get around to talking about racing there was some discussion about DJ retiring and how everyone made him feel special at his last points start at Bristol, as well as some talk about Talladega. But DJ's most interesting comments were in relation to the organization he was with before he went to Michael Waltrip Racing, that being Yates Racing whose cars are still mostly unsponsored. DJ said that Nascar needs to "wake up" and make the sport more affordable for the teams, even if it means going so far as to cut down on the amount of races. Michael knows how much it takes to field a team and he doesn't know how Doug Yates is doing it without sponsorship. DJ said that he wants to help MWR in relation to their situation (presumably convincing UPS to stay) but that he would also do anything to help Yates Racing because of how many people he still knows over there and how highly he thinks of Doug Yates. (I wish that all those who think that DJ has never said anything good about Yates or Doug Yates would have heard him say that) DJ doesn't understand why the Yates teams are unsponsored and he thinks that's a red flag that there are problems in the sport in relation to sponsorship.

My guess as to why the Yates cars are still unsponsored is because sponsors don't feel that the Yates drivers are that marketable and also question how much exposure they would get if they were on one of those cars. Sure, they've shown that they can race competitively this season but when was the last time one of the Yates drivers was discussed at length during a TV broadcast for something other than one of them being involved in an incident or how they still don't have a primary sponsor? Both Travis and David seem to be nice guys but they don't seem to have very dynamic personalities. I also think that they aren't traditionally "cute" and unfortunately these days looks can play a role.

I agree with DJ fully that the woes of not just Yates but other teams is a red flag that there are problems in the sport in relation to sponsorship, and not just on the Cup level. The economy is such these days that companies that might have jumped at the opportunity to be on a car in the past might not have the money in their budgets now to do so. However, the costs of fielding teams seems to be continuing to go up - where are the teams going to find the money to pay for those costs if they're having trouble finding and keeping sponsors, especially big-money sponsors that are willing to spend $20 million or more to be the primary sponsor on a Cup car?

Posted by silverdsl at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (4/3)

On tonight's show Michael talked about the rumors about UPS leaving Michael Waltrip Racing and swaybar-gate but I'm not going to get into that much because he didn't cover much new ground and I've covered all that at length in other entries. One thing is that Michael did pretty much blow off swaybar-gate as no big deal and Tony said that everyone is laughing at Jack Roush. To a degree that's true but I think one person's "no big deal" is a huge deal to someone else and there are definitely some, particularly some fans, who are taking this as seriously as Jack Roush.

I've always been under the impression that Jeff Burton and Michael were good friends but now I'm not so sure because Michael had harsh words for him regarding how Jeff wasn't happy with the way Michael McDowell raced him and was very vocal about it after the race. Michael felt that instead of ripping him publically, Jeff should have sought out McD and discussed it with him privately. He said something along the lines of how "a veteran who is respected often begins to feel like he's smarter than he really is" which comes across like he's questioning Jeff's intelligence level. I happen to agree with Michael that Jeff's comments were completely out-of-line to be said publically in a TV interview but I was pretty surprised by how strongly Michael felt about it. I seem to remember that Jeff had some strong comments in relation to the Daytona mess last year as well and I wonder whether Michael was hurt by what Jeff said considering that they were supposedly friends. I might be completely off-base but I just sense that Michael and Jeff might not be as tight as many of us fans have thought they were.

There was some talk about Elliott Sadler's "mysterious" back injury. Tony said that they gave three different reasons as to why he hurt his back, then finally said that they didn't know. I have to say that I found the deal with Elliott's back to be pretty peculiar too. Maybe he hurt it in an embarrassing way but if he hurt it playing golf or lifting weights as some have said what's the big deal? Whether they're going to go with a fake excuse or give the real explanation as to how he hurt his back they just need to pick one story and stick with it. Otherwise they look like they have something to hide and they look untrustworthy with all the back and forth and conflicting stories. Of course that's something that some of Elliott's fans have taken exception to in the past.

The email question this week was about what would Michael changes Michael would make if he was in charge of Nascar. Immediately Michael said that Nascar does a great job and that he wouldn't change anything. Come on! I know that Michael loves the sport and feels that he has an obligation to be positive and defend Nascar but I find it hard to believe that there's nothing he would change. Particularly since there's been a time or two when even he has disagreed with some of the calls that Nascar's made or wished that they would make a directive governing what the teams did with certain things with the cars. No one can always agree with everything that a person or entity does, nor does it make them a bad person if they have a different opinion. Michael did indicate that he would like "them" to be more creative but I'm not sure who "them" is. If he means Nascar I agree completely - sometimes I feel like there's so much fear about who might get offended if various things were done that they're hesitant to do things different.

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

March 13, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM 3/13

This was such a great show tonight - Lots of good info. on bump stopsfrom Michael and Dr. Eric Warren, Michael Waltrip Racing's technical director. I love each week's show because Michael and Tony do such an awesome job of entertaining and informing listeners but this show was one of the best yet because Eric Warren was a terrific guest and explained a lot of things about bump stops that I didn't know. Hope they have him back on at some point! Onto the show...

Michael was contacted by Country Weekly magazine and asked what his favorite country songs are. So the show opened with one of those songs – “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma” by David Frizzell. That was his first favorite country song, but the first country song he ever heard was “I Never Picked Cotton” by Roy Clark. He heard that song when he was driving with his parents to see DW race somewhere. Tony’s Dad raced and every time they heard the song “Satin Sheets” by Tammy Wynette on the way to a race his dad would win so that was their lucky song.

It was weird weather in Atlanta but there’s always weird weather there. It was an interesting race – some teams nailed it with the cars, some teams are still searching. It’s a tightrope with the new cars. The bump stops make it hard for Goodyear to figure out the tires because some teams use bump stops and some don’t (and as they went on to explain Nascar doesn’t regulate the bump stops so every team does something different).

Nascar tells the teams what specific parts they can use for everything but the bump stops – those the teams can get from anywhere in the world. Michael wants them to get rid of bump stops because it’s “ridiculous.” They should run on springs not bump stops.

Tony asked about the splitters. Michael said that the splitters are Nascar’s friend because it keeps the teams from spending endless money on springs. It used to be when MWR first got going that they had to spend $1,700-2,200 on each coil spring (as an aside last year Chris Carrier who used to be the crew chief for the #4 said that one reason that team struggled so much was because they couldn’t afford to spend that kind of money on fancy springs like the big teams could). The splitter keeps those costs down.

Nascar wants to do something to address the bump stop issue but they don’t want to make a mistake. The bump stops make it hard for Goodyear to make a good tire, it’s not good for competition and it’s not good for the economics of the sport, Michael said.

Tony wondered if a wider tire, maybe one inch wider might help the cars. Michael said there’s lots of things that they can do before asking Goodyear to build a different tire. They can use more wing or a different splitter. Michael thinks they need to get everyone running on springs so they all have the same feel. The new car almost feels like a sprint car. It lifts up. Michael said that the new car is fun to drive. (Okay, come on now – after all that cussing and complaining he’s done, just exactly how is it “fun?”) Michael feels sorry for Goodyear because they’re a wonderful company and it’s not fair that they’re getting trashed. The tires used to wear out at Atlanta, now everyone still complains even though they don’t wear out.

When they got back from break Michael said they had two guests in the studio, Jason and Traci who are My Coke Rewards winners – presumably that’s Jason, who is one of the Wal-Nutz who told us he was going down to Raceworld. They got to have lunch with Michael the day before, go with him to see him tape TWIN, tour the shop, see him do the XM show, etc…. (Lucky!!)

Michael said that he had a brain fart on the Monday night show. Dow Automotive builds the boards on the sides of the cars that absorb the energy from the impacts and it’s key to these cars. He got messed up and named another company (which is a major, major boo-boo because Dow is one of their sponsors).

Dr. Eric Warren was there to explain more about bump stops. They first got started using them in 1997 or 1998 on the speedway tracks to get the car as low to the ground as possible. It holds the car rigid. But things got so drastic with the bump stops that it was a really rough ride and parts where breaking so they were outlawed.

Things progressed to coil binding which also holds the cars down to the ground by the use of various soft springs. The teams were using all sorts of exotic materials since they were trying to hold it down longer and there was a risk of the springs collapsing. So they were using high quality steels. What was once a $100 part became a part costing $1,000s. So there was discussion between the teams and Nascar about bump stops. They looks like a hockey puck and they go over the shocks. The teams felt like they were in a box with the splitter so they figured out what to do.

Michael doesn’t like that the teams can put whatever they want in the bump stops. They can’t do that with the engine or other parts. But with bump stops they can call Malaysia if they want and spend any amount of money.

Dr. Warren said that the bump stops are made out of either silicone or rubber and they create a lot of friction. The car doesn’t come back up as well as it goes down so they get weird handling issues (sounds like he just explained why MWR is having so many handling issues with their cars). If things continue they may end up spending double on the bump stops than what they were on the springs.

Two more of Michael’s favorite country songs are “Montana Café” because it makes him feel comfortable and relaxed, and “Miami, Miami” because he sang it somewhere. Tony asked if they could start a band – he would play guitar and Michael would sing.

Dr. Warren would like to get away from the bump stops because they don’t answer the problems. I missed some stuff here about car heights what he’d like to do as it got a little confusing to me.

Tony did Carl Edward’s Hotpass at Atlanta – Carl had a little pop-up Prowler instead of a motorhome so they got a kick out of how little it was. (For those that don’t know Carl’s motorcoach got in a minor fender bender – I believe his coach driver was cut off in a construction zone and the side was heavily damaged, but the driver was unhurt. Carl is using the Prowler until his coach gets repaired. I have no idea why he doesn’t just rent a coach temporarily.)

Michael brushed the wall then made contact with David Gilliland at the start of the race but was “too scared” to say much about it over his radio (presumably because of who was listening – fans, his daughters, all the reps from his sponsors in Atlanta, etc…) Chris Tucker was on Jimmie Johnson’s pit box.

Toyota got their first win. Gibbs upped the ante. They know how to win. Now MWR has cars like that and they will win too. Gibbs will help MWR.

Tony asked how much not having an engine department like Gibbs does hurts MWR. I don’t know if Michael misheard what Tony asked or was avoiding answering or there was a edit made here but Michael said that MWR is working diligently and spending lots of money on their bump stop program. They brought in intelligent people who know how to make the cars go faster.

The email this week was how someone loved the new NAPA spot and it made them wonder what Michael remembers about his bad Bristol wreck. He remembers that it was very cold and that it had snowed that morning. The wreck didn’t hurt and he didn’t understand why everyone was so excited and panicked until he watched video of the wreck that night.

The show closed with what Michael said is his favorite country song of all time… at least for right now. It’s “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” because it tells a story near and dear to him.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud (2/22)

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 14, 2008

Michael Waltrip Out Loud on XM Recap 2/14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 11, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip (2/11)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

December 11, 2007

Dave Loggins - Please Come To Boston

This is just one of the many great songs that was played on Michael Waltrip's XM show, Michael Waltrip Out Loud this year. Despite my love of music from the 60's and 70's, this is one that I hadn't heard until I heard it on Michael's show, now I can't stop listening to it. Something about this song tugs at me.

Please come to Boston for the springtime
I'm stayin' here with some friends and they've got lotsa room
You can sell your paintings on the sidewalk
By a café here I hope to be workin' soon
Please come to Boston
She said "No, would you come home to me"

And she said, "Hey ramblin' boy now won't cha settle down
Boston ain't your kinda town
There ain't no gold and there ain't nobody like me
I'm the number one fan of the man from Tennessee"

Please come to Denver with the snowfall
We'll move up into the mountains so far that we can't be found
And throw "I love you" echoes down the canyon
And then lie awake at night till they come back around
Please come to Denver
She said "no, Boy, would you come home to me"

And she said, "Hey ramblin' boy why don't cha settle down
Denver ain't your kinda town
There ain't no gold and there ain't nobody like me
'Cause I'm the number one fan of the man from Tennessee"

Now this drifter's world goes 'round and 'round
And I doubt that it's ever gonna stop
But of all the dreams I've lost or found
And all that I ain't got
I still need to lean to
Somebody I can sing to

Please come to LA to live forever
California life alone is just too hard to build
I live in a house that looks out over the ocean
And there's some stars that fell from the sky
Livin' up on the hill
Please come to LA
She just said "no, Boy, won't you come home to me"
And she said, "hey ramblin' boy why don't cha settle down
LA can't be your kinda town
There ain't no gold and there ain't nobody like me
No, no, I'm the number one fan of the man from Tennessee"

"I'm the number one fan of the man from Tennessee"

Posted by silverdsl at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2007

Season in Review: Michael Waltrip Racing

To a lot of people 2007 was a complete failure and a disaster of a season for Michael Waltrip and Michael Waltrip Racing. In some ways it was with the Daytona mess, Michael's accident and the struggles to make races and be competitive. However, there were some accomplishments and high points to this season too which prevent this season from being a failure in my mind.

For one thing Michael took MWR from a Busch team in his backyard with a handful of employees, and turned it into a huge organization with hundreds of employees, multiple major sponsors, fielding three Cup teams, a Busch car (likely soon to be two), and until the truck was sold a truck team, all of which is housed in an incredible facility - Raceworld USA. I'm in awe of the way that Michael was able to grow MWR. Some are thinking but he didn't do it successfully, but he still did it, and this was only the first year of a journey as an owner that will probably continue for many years into the future. For all the problems on the track, there's one thing that did turn out the way Michael wanted it to - Raceworld. Not only is a destination for Michael's fans, but for all race fans, and attendance has been very good since it opened in May. Raceworld is something for Michael to be proud of. I think what he did with Raceworld is innovative and will revolutionize how race shops cater to fans who visit.

On the track there were a lot of disappointments, particularly on the Cup side, there's no denying that. Still, as the season went along there was definite progress, particularly with the #00 and #55 teams. David Reutimann works so incredibly well with the #00 team and the way they've gelled as a unit is definitely a success of the season. Michael was able to get MWR their first Cup pole at Talladega, which was also Toyota's first Cup pole with an engine they built - no small victory considering that the Toyota built engines seemed to often be lacking in power. Plus, although Michael only made 14 races this season, he got two top tens, two top 15's and a top 20. That's not too good for an established team, but to me that's not bad for a team in it's first year that's struggled so much. With the additions of engineering expertise from Dr. Eric Warren and additional financial resources from Rob Kauffman, plus everything else that MWR is doing to make themselves a stronger organization, I feel very confident that we'll be seeing much better results for MWR in Cup in 2008. That doesn't mean I think that they'll be winning races and racing up front all the time next season, but I do think that MWR showed signs that they're capable of fielding cars that can race competitively and I think we'll be seeing a lot more of that in the future. I don't think a win is out of question either - David is an extremely talented driver, and when he has a good car, which he had at Talladega, Michael is always a threat to win at restrictor plate tracks.

On the Busch side, David was awesome! Not only did he win his first Busch race, but also his first Busch pole. And he and the #99 team were in the hunt for the Championship. Finishing 2nd in points is probably a disappointment to the #99 team but I think it's outstanding considering it was David's first full-time Busch season and he was dealing with a lot of stress on the Cup side. I'm really looking forward to seeing David battle for the Busch championship next season as well. It's also great that MWR added some more young talent in 2007 - in addition to Josh Wise, who we'll hopefully see in a second Busch car next season, they signed Michael McDowell, who also appears to have a lot of talent. Both of them are the future of MWR and it's going to be exciting to watch them develop.

One area in which it's hard to find as many positives is with Dale Jarrett and the #44 team. I have no doubt that the team worked hard all season, but they didn't seem to make as much progress as the #00 and #55 teams did as the season went along. At times, particularly towards the end of the season they did have a lot more speed in qualifying than they did earlier in the season, but even when they made races they never seemed to be able to do much in the actual race, whereas at times David and Michael were able to race their way to decent finishes in a few of the races they made. Maybe it was just that the team dealt with a lot of bad luck in the form of getting swept up in wrecks or having mechanical failures but I didn't feel like this team showed as much as the other two did. One positive is that contrary to some of the rumors that were circulating UPS is staying at MWR, and they'll be gaining a fine driver to represent them instead of DJ in David. Perhaps another positive will end up being that DJ is retiring earlier than expected. DJ is a past Champion and an accomplished driver who has won 32 races over the course of his career but his heart doesn't seem to be in racing like it once was. So it might do this team some good to have another driver behind the wheel. The #44 team will turn into the #00 team, most likely with Michael McDowell at the wheel possibly sharing time with Josh, and/or a veteran. An infusion of youthful excitement might be exactly what this team needs.

What Michael had to deal with this year might have broken some others who aren't as strong as he is. Not only did he have to worry about qualifying in for races himself, but also whether David and DJ were going to make it in. But Michael kept showing up week after week, no matter what, even when he had replaced himself with Terry Labonte. Some others might have given up, taken themselves out of the car, and stopped coming to the track. That would have been the easy thing to do, just quit racing, quit trying and only be an owner. Everyone would have understood if he had taken that route. But he didn't. Even on weekends that he DNQ'd Michael was there for his teams, took care of his hospitality obligations, and almost always did some sort of appearance for the fans. When he was able to race Michael sometimes the finishes were poor, but when he had a decent car he made the most of it, which resulted in those two top tens. No matter how difficult things were, Michael continued to be outstanding as part of the team in the booth for the truck races - I love his enthusiasm for the series and those racing in it! Although his smile was strained some weeks, Michael also entertained fans on Inside Nextel Cup each week. But best of all as far as his media work goes is the XM show he started doing this season. I looked forward to listening to Michael Waltrip Out Loud each week. Whether that week's results were good or bad Michael never hesitated to be candid on his show about MWR and everything else that was going on in the sport.

I'm a long-time huge fan of Michael's because of his talent behind the wheel, because of how fascinating and intelligent he is, and because of what a great person he is, but I've come to be even more of a fan of his this season. I wish that I had even close to the amount of determination, perseverance and sheer force of will that he has. There were times when Michael got down this season - sometimes very down - but overall, he continued to be forward-thinking and optimistic about the future for himself and for MWR. He rarely complained or blamed others and instead tried to find ways to make the best of things. I've come to admire all the go-or-go-homers and their teams because of how hard they work to make the best of the situation that they're in, but I really admire Michael's "no quit" attitude (as Ty Norris once put it).

In August I got to spend a little time with Michael at Pocono and he was wonderful as always. I always treasure the times I see Michael because I don't know when - or if - I'll see Michael again. For me that was a definite highlight of the season - seeing Michael and getting to experience all the sights and sounds of the garage area. Maybe the most incredible race-related experience I ever had was watching Michael get strapped into his car on pit road prior to the race and then standing there as the command to "start your engines" rang out. Hearing all those engines start up from so close was so awesome and almost overwhelming I thought I was going to pass out! Even though I knew that Michael wasn't likely to finish up front, I was still unbelievably excited - Michael made the show and I was going to see him race! Due to a fuel pump issue he ended up finishing 38th but I didn't care - I just loved being there! All of Michael's fans appreciate how terrific he always is - he made the day, no year, of many fans this season by taking the time to interact with them. But a big highlight for the Walnutz was definitely when he talked about how much he appreciated our support in the Chex Most Popular Driver Newsletter.

All in all it was quite a season with a lot of ups and downs - okay, a lot of downs. But the slate is wiped clean now and it's on to 2008, a year that will hopefully be filled with a lot more happiness and positive things for Michael and his teams than this season!

Posted by silverdsl at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2007

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (9/17)

It's been a while since there's been enough news of note to do one of these entries, but today Michael Waltrip announced that he hired Dr. Eric Warren as Technical Director at Michael Waltrip Racing. Michael said,

"It was a job we wanted to fill when we first started, but we didn't feel like the right person was available to choose from. Eric is a special dude. He'll help us out immensely."

I'm really glad that Michael hired a technical director and I think it will help them tremendously on the competition side. Dr. Warren spent the last five years at Gillett-Evernham Motorsports, also as their technical director. During his time at GEM, he oversaw the building of some very fast race cars including ones that Kasey Kahne was behind the wheel of when he won six races last season. With a degree in Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from North Carolina State University, he's also very knowledgeable, and he'll surely be an asset to MWR. Michael has spoken very highly of Dr. Warren the past few months, and it made me think that he was considering hiring him, which turns out to be the case.

As with a lot of things there is a caveat to Dr. Warren being hired. When Dr. Warren left GEM, it wasn't on good terms. In fact, GEM essentially blamed him for how non-competitive they've been this season, claiming that he made a big and costly error with some data that led to them having to pretty much start from scratch with the cars once they fired him. Of course there's no telling how much truth there is to the idea that GEM's poor season is his fault since GEM might be looking for a scapegoat for their issues this season. I find it hard to believe with how much goes into making teams successful, one person could be solely responsible for the organization's lack of success this season. However, people do make mistakes, and it's possible he made a big one. That doesn't mean that he shouldn't be given another chance though - for the first five years he worked at GEM, he helped them to have strong results on the track and hopefully he will help MWR achieve a lot of success as well.

Like just about every other organization in the garage area, Michael has considered a merger or partnership with others to strengthen MWR. However, it's only something he would consider if he would retain majority ownership and at least an equal amount of control. He said,

"I've certainly had a lot of people come to me saying, 'We want to invest in you. But it ends up sounding like they want to take over. That doesn't interest me. A true partner would interest me - half you, half me. You have your responsibility and I have mine. There's a lot of people that are interested in our sport, and I'll just hopefully keep improving our product and if someone is interested in being part of it, I'll listen. But for me, today, right now, the right deal hasn't come along."

Under the right circumstances I think a partnership or merger would help make MWR a better and stronger organization. Like we've seen with John Henry buying into Roush Racing or George Gillett with Evernham, it can work out well. Someone from the outside can bring new ideas, a fresh outlook, and most importantly added resources, both financial and otherwise. However, for it to work for MWR, I think that it would have to be a situation in which Michael would remain in control, as he indicated is what he would want. Michael is strong-willed and has a lot of ideas about the way he wants to do things. As I was once told, "Michael does what he wants." At this point after getting a taste of being an owner and being in control of his own destiny, I think he would have a hard time going back to a situation where he no longer had that control, particularly when it came to his own organization.

Supposedly David Reutimann is getting a contract offer from MWR this week, and Michael indicated in the interview with Jenna Fryer that he has a verbal commitment from David to return to the #00 next season. That's essentially what Michael said on his XM show last week, that he had spoken with David at Richmond, told him that he wanted him back in the #00 and that David indicated that was what he wanted as well. All that remained according to Michael was working out the details of a contract, not just for next season but for several years into the future. As I've said before I think David is a tremendous asset to MWR and I'm really happy that it sounds like there's a very good chance that he'll be back next season!

Speaking of David, he'll be doing something pretty cool next month. On October 10, customers who order a Domino's pizza in the Charlotte area might be lucky enough to have it delivered by David himself! I love the promotions that Domino's does as I think they're extremely creative and really do a great job of making the most of their involvement in the sport. From pizza making contests between Michael and David to having them deliver pizzas, they do some fun things and usually end up getting some publicity for it too. I think I would be speechless if I opened to the door to find David with a pizza, that would be so awesome! But even better if it was Michael delivering my pizza! Somehow I think that's unlikely to happen!

Dover is coming up this weekend and that was the track where Michael broke his string of DNQs to start the season. So it's a good place for him to rebound from the last two races that he failed to qualify for. ESPN showed a heart-breaking clip of Michael after he spun his car during qualifying at Loudon in which he was being driven away on a cart with his head in his hands. It really makes my heart hurt to see Michael so upset. As I say in this space all the time, I know that racing, and racing well, is extremely important to Michael, contrary to what some think. I also know that he's capable of far more than he's been able to show this season, and I feel terrible for him when things don't go well, especially since I know how much effort he's putting in to try to improve his teams. Hopefully Dover will be much better for Michael and his teams than Loudon was!

Posted by silverdsl at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2007

Michael Waltrip Speaks on Teresa Earnhardt

Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images.

One of the many things that I like about Michael Waltrip is that he's not afraid to speak his mind. Whether it's on Inside Nextel Cup, his XM show, Michael Waltrip Out Loud, or in an interview, Michael pretty much says what he thinks. In Nascar that's not always easy to do since not only does one run the risk of angering fans and the media, but there's also sponsors to answer to, one's team and also the governing body of the sport. Recently Michael's had something on his mind that he had been considering speaking out on, something that likely would have upset more than a few people since his viewpoint on this particular topic is extremely unpopular. Why was Michael going to be vocal on this issue even though he might have run the risk of making himself a target for some nastiness, particularly from fans? Not because he had to, but because he felt it was the right thing to do.

Some might be wondering what that might have to do with the photo of Michael and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. which was taken by Jason Smith at driver introductions this past weekend at Bristol. Well, apparently when this photo was taken Michael was talking to Junior about what he had been thinking of speaking out on - how people should back off of Teresa Earnhardt - something that Junior ended up addressing himself.

On both INC and his XM show Michael had some very interesting comments about Teresa, who he knows well as a result of his close friendship with Dale Earnhardt, that really shed light on Teresa's motivation for some of her actions as it relates to DEI and the #8. Some fans seem to forget that Teresa was Dale's wife, the woman that he loved, trusted and wanted to handle his business affairs. Not Michael, since he obviously saw them together first-hand. He said that Teresa and Dale were a perfect match together. So for all those fans who think that Teresa is some nasty, evil woman, what would that say about Dale? But Michael said despite what some think, Teresa's not a spiteful or a mean woman. All of her actions, according to him, are done out of her love for Dale, and that she's trying to preserve everything that belonged to him. So she didn't want to give up the #15 when Michael wanted to take it with him when he left DEI or more recently the #8 when Junior wanted it because those two numbers were owned by Dale so to Teresa they belonged with DEI. I can totally understand that way of thinking, and why Teresa wouldn't want to let go of anything that belonged to Dale. That would explain why it took so long for her to give Junior rights to his own name since those rights had been in Dale's name.

I think what really got me about what Michael said about Teresa is that while some have defended her right to make the decisions she feels are in the best interest of DEI from a business point-of-view, that I can recall until Michael's comments no one had defended Teresa as a person. A large part of that might be due to how private Teresa is so Michael is one of only a select group of people in the garage area who really know Teresa well. But I think it's also because it's become accepted and in vogue to hate Teresa and blame her for a lot of things that aren't necessarily completely in her hands. The vast majority of fans, some in the media and I would guess even some in the garage area are extremely negative towards Teresa, and when it comes to the fans, sometimes in very hateful ways. Speaking out in support of Teresa could put Michael in a position where some of that nastiness was directed towards him, but he was willing to risk that because he felt it was something that needed to be done. Apparently the only thing that had stopped him from saying something sooner was that he wasn't sure how to go about doing it. Based on what he said on his XM show it sounded like he didn't want to offend anyone in the Earnhardt family or seem to be taking a side since he's still on good terms with both Teresa and Junior, but he had finally gotten so fed up that he couldn't take what was being said about Teresa anymore.

Ultimately Michael didn't have to be the one who spoke out since Junior did so. And Michael apparently told him how proud he was that he did so during their conversation on Saturday. Junior told him that his father would be extremely upset about what people were saying about Teresa, and maybe that's what prompted Junior to speak up - that he realized that his father wouldn't be too happy. Maybe that's also part of why Michael was going to say something because he felt he owed it to Dale. Regardless, I'm just glad I'm a fan of a driver who isn't afraid to speak his mind, especially when it's to support a friend.

Posted by silverdsl at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2007

Another Perspective on Aric Almirola

Last night on "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" on XM, Michael and Tony Rizzuti, who does the show with Michael, got to talking about the Busch race and Aric Almirola being taken out midway through the race for Denny Hamlin. I was surprised to hear them say that they thought that Aric behaved inappropriately for leaving the track in a huff. Michael said that it might cause Joe Gibbs Racing, and possibly other teams, to not want to give him opportunities because of his poor attitude. He also felt that it would have made a better story if Aric had stuck around to celebrate the win with Denny. Tony said that he talked to a couple of veteran drivers who said Aric's behavior was so bad that he should be fired, and he bemoaned the attitude of young drivers these days, as opposed to drivers of the past who would have simply accepted Gibb's decision and gotten out of the car without question.

As I listened I realized that Michael thought so poorly of Aric's attitude because he was thinking of an owner, and Tony was also viewing things from the team's perspective. Of course any owner wants drivers racing for them who are easy to work with, don't cause any problems, and accept the decisions their team makes. Which is very different from the perspective of fans, who have little tolerance for decisions that are made purely for business reasons, in this case to please the sponsor. In thinking about it, Michael had an excellent point that it would have made for a great story if Aric had dealt with his disappointment, and stuck around to celebrate "his" win. It would have sent a message to Gibbs, that he's a team player, willing to do anything to help the organization succeed. That said, I still think that Gibbs and Rockwell Automation made a poor decision, if only for how much negativity they garnered from fans, and that they didn't show much regard for Aric.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2007

In the News: Michael Waltrip (5/16)

If there's any fans of Michael Waltrip reading this who don't already know, Michael's no longer guaranteed a spot in this weekend's All-Star Challenge due to being a past winner. So unless he races in, he's going to need to win the fan vote to race in the main event. According to Michael's website, he's in the top two in voting, so there's a good chance he might win, but he needs the help of all his fans. I usually don't like to vote in internet polls because they're often meaningless, but this one actually counts for something. If Michael wins the fan vote not only would he get to race, something he unfortunately hasn't got to do much of this season, but it would also send a message to NAPA, Michael's other sponsors, Toyota, Nascar and the media just how much fan support Michael has in spite of his struggles this season. Fans can vote an unlimited amount of times, and I urge everyone who likes Michael as much as I do to vote using this link.

Aside from participating in events for the All-Star Challenge, Michael will be celebrating the opening of Raceworld USA (formerly known as Waltrip Race World). The facility officially opens today, and I'm sure there's going to be a steady stream of visitors for the next few weeks since a lot of fans are in the area for the All-Star Challenge and the Charlotte 600. From what I've heard about it Raceworld USA is going to be well worth the visit, not just for fans of Michael and his drivers, but also for any fan of Nascar in general. Raceworld USA is going to give fans a look inside the inner workings of real race teams, much more-so than they can find at any other team shop. There's also going to be interactive exhibits, and fans will be able to watch pit practice, and eventually the taping of some episodes of Inside Nextel Cup. In addition, there's going to be exhibits and memorabilia related not just to Michael, but also many other drivers. I really wish I lived closer to North Carolina because I'd love to go, but hopefully sometime in the near future I'll be able to make a trip down there to check it out for myself.

Last night was Michael's XM show, Michael Waltrip Out Loud, and his brother Darrell was his guest. Naturally, the subject of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. leaving DEI was a big topic of discussion. I've found it interesting how involved DW has gotten with Junior - he was asked a few days before Thursday's press conference to be present, he did an exclusive interview that day for FOX with Junior, he's written a column about Junior for FoxSports.com, and essentially he's been very pro-Junior to just about everyone who'll listen. Although DW is very opinionated on his own, I have to admit that I can't help but wonder if Junior's "people" are using him to get their message out given how sympathetic he's been of late towards Junior. At any rate, the discussion between Michael and DW was interesting, though a lot of it is things that have been said already by others elsewhere about where Junior's likely to end up.

One thing that got my attention was that Michael brought up Junior talking about how he wanted to stay with Chevy, and how loyal he was to Chevy. Though I'm sure Michael's going to have a conversation or two about Junior racing for him, I have a feeling that means that the chances of Junior ending up at Michael Waltrip Racing aren't very good. In fact, most of the discussion between DW and Michael centered on the usual teams that everyone else thinks are most likely for Junior to end up with - one of the top-tier Chevy teams, along with Ginn Racing because Bobby Ginn apparently has a lot of money he's willing to spend. Neither one seemed to think it was very likely that Junior would race for himself, though DW said that's how he would get total control over his team, and that's because as Michael knows well, it's hard to contend for wins and Championships, as Junior says he wants to do next season, for an organization new to racing Cup. I think that's another reason why Junior won't be racing for MWR next season - although I expect them to make improvements as time goes on, I'm not sure they're going to be in a position to field championship caliber teams by next season (as awesome as that would be!).

Of course back in 2005 Michael also made the decision to leave DEI, so there was some discussion as to whether there were was anything with his experience that gave an indication about how things would go down with Junior. Michael joked about him being what set all of this in motion, but otherwise he didn't have much to say about leaving DEI, something he's never discussed in depth other than to say that he parted with DEI on good terms, and give some basics about his reasons for leaving. It might very well be true that he parted amicably with DEI, but I think it's pretty classy of Michael that he's never said anything negative about DEI even though he's no longer there.

Many of Michael's fans don't like Junior too much, something that some really felt strongly about after the incident at Charlotte in 2005 when Junior wrecked Michael. Some are convinced that Junior can't stand Michael, wrecked him deliberately and wanted him gone from DEI. I never believed that. Although I think it might be hard for Michael and Junior to be close because of their age difference and different lifestyles, I think there's a bond there because of how close MIchael was to Junior's father. Based on what DW said last night, it should remove any lingering questions about whether Junior actually likes Michael or not - he does. DW said he talked to Junior at Talladega two years ago when Michael was deciding whether he was going to stay at DEI or not, and at that time Junior expressed that "before he left" he wanted to get Martin and Michael re-signed and taken care of, so to me that's an indication that Junior cared about what happened to Michael and wanted him to remain a part of the organization, and as a teammate.

As I said above Michael's not really gone into great depth about everything that led him to leave DEI, but last night he said Michael that the reason Junior's leaving is because DEI is behind the times, and I would guess it's likely that played a role in why he left as well. When a team gets behind if they don't recognize that before they lose too much ground to other teams they can find themselves struggling to compete pretty quickly - ask Robert Yates Racing about that. However, it's possible to turn things around and make improvements to keep up with the other big teams. Richard Childress Racing fell behind, but the past two seasons they've worked hard to be successful again. The question is what's going to happen at DEI - will they continue to fall behind? DW said that Teresa is at a crossroads where she has to decide what she wants to do just like Junior had to. DW feels that Teresa might very well throw down the gauntlet and throw everything into improving the teams just to show Junior he made a mistake, or she could go the other direction and throw her focus back into the foundation and maintaining the legacy of Dale Earnhardt without much care about the teams. Only time will tell which way things will go.

As usual Michael's XM show was fun to listen to, and I'm already looking forward to next week's show, particularly if he gets voted into the All-Star Challenge!

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

March 15, 2007

Michael Waltrip Gets His Own XM Show!

When I read that Michael Waltrip was getting his own XM show starting this Tuesday, I nearly jumped out of my seat and started dancing around the room with excitment! I had suspected that this might be in the works when Michael said (on XM naturally) when leading a tour through Waltrip Race World during the off-season that they had an XM radio room. I'm so thrilled that it's actually going to happen! The show, which will be called "Michael Waltrip Out Loud," will air every Tuesday, from 7-7:30 p.m. Michael said,

“My XM show will be fun. I love that I have the opportunity to talk about the sport I am so passionate about. There is also a whole world of athletes and entertainers who love this sport and I think it will be great to have them as guests and get their feelings as well.”

Just like Curt Schilling's blog is a great way for him to talk about his opinions at length, Michael's XM show will be perfect for him to also share his thoughts and opinions. If there's one thing that Michael is exceptional at, it's talking. Yeah, some think he talks too much. But in reality Michael is a highly intelligent person, who has a lot of outstanding insights into the sport to share. And let's not forget, Michael's extremely funny too, so I expect this show to be extremely entertaining. Michael will have a half hour to talk about pretty much anything he wants. He can vent about the things that are bothering him, he can talk about the things that are going well at Michael Waltrip Racing, he can bring on some of his friends as guests, and of course it's one more way that he can showcase his sponsors. Speaking of which, it was also announced today that XM will be the sponsor of David Reutimann's #99 car for the Chicagoland race in July.

All in all, I think this is going to be an awesome show, not only for those of us who are fans of Michael's to listen to, but I think it's going to be a great experience for him as well, something that he might really enjoy.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)