Looking to Daytona

Curtis' attempts at unionizing the drivers was why Nascar banned him. I don't think they much cared one way or the other about the other stuff.

Yep, and it's about time somebody said something. Long-time fans have said it; DW said it over the winter; and Mike Joy all but says it when he says, "We'll show you the debris if we find it". What's it going to take for somebody to listen?

Maybe Nascar will do something about it, but as long as the seats are getting filled enough to turn a profit, and as long as the TV money is there to turn a profit, they're not going to do anything. They'll do exactly what Jim Hunter did, which is to turn the conversation to something else and ignore the real point.

Everybody else may be afraid of the emperor, but that doesn't change the fact that he's naked.

 

As usual, David Poole nails it.

http://www.thatsracin.com/247/story/3921.html

 

Really? I never heard anything like that. At the time, Al Gore hadn't invented the Internet yet, and we got precious little Nascar news here in Yankee-land.

 

Not only that, but the wording of their response suggests it as well.

I know what you're thinking of, the aftermath of the '89 fall North Wilkesboro race when he and Rudd tangled on the last lap. Yeah, Earnhardt's post-race interview was full of profanity. But, wow, what a finish.

BTW, ESPN Classic replays that race every once in a while, and if you a) get ESPN Classic, and b) have the time, I highly recommend watching that race. What an incredible finish. When the incident happens, Bob Jenkins' voice goes up at least a full octave. It was very exciting.

 

Not that I think anybody looks forward to them at all, but in case I'm wrong, if you're expecting to see Talladega notes this morning, you're going to be disappointed.

My wife had the laptop (imagine her grading papers when I have important things to do! :smilewinkgrin: ), so I took notes by hand and didn't bring them with me today.

Japanese Fruit Inspection
Who's seen Days of Thunder? I didn't like the movie all that much, but there is a scene that I think is appropriate in light of what's going on with Tony Stewart. When they finally get on the track together, Cole and Rowdy (those are terrible names, even for a movie) constantly beat on each other and wreck each other. It gets to be so bad that Not Bill France, played by Fred Thompson, calls them together for a meeting.

Not Bill: If you two wanna turn yourselves into a greasy spot out on a country road somewhere, go right ahead. I don't {care} [sic] and I don't think anybody else does, but you two monkeys are not going to do it on my racetrack. You ever heard of a "Japanese Inspection?" Japanese Inspection, you see, when the Japs take in a load of lettuce they're not sure they wanna let in the country, why they'll just let it sit there on the dock 'til they get good and ready to look at, But then of course, it's all gone rotten... ain't nothing left to inspect. You see, lettuce is a perishable item... like you two monkeys. You trade paint one more time, you so much as touch, I'm gonna Black Flag the two of you, and tear apart your racecars for three-hundred laps. Then, if you pass inspection and you put your cars back together, I might let you back into the race."

After that meeting, wouldn't you know it that the 2 didn't wreck each other anymore?

Put it another way.

I know a fella who went to a certain university one time and really liked it. But, his grades were awful, and after one semester, he was called into the academic dean's office.

AD: Son, do you like it here?
Student: Yes, sir, I do.
AD: Would you like to stay?

What are the odds that Nascar sat Tony down and asked, "Son, do you like to race in our series? Would you like to keep on racing?"

We knew it was coming
Every Earnhardt fan with half a brain, and, admittedly, there don't seem to be that many, knew that Jeff Gordon was going to pass him for wins someday. Considering that Jeff was so young when he had seasons with 7,10,10 and 13 wins from 95 to 98, it was only a matter of time before he passed Earnhardt. It was inevitable. That doesn't mean anybody's happy about it. I don't have anything kind to say about the morons throwing beer cans at him after the race.

 

A few odds and ends

I found my Tally notes and thought I'd mention a few things about the race.

Draft tips from the Miami Dolphins
In homage to the NFL draft, Chris Myers asked DW and Hammond who they would draft if they were starting a team, but they couldn't choose Stewart, Gordon or Johnson. I don't remember who DW chose, but Hammond chose Carl Edwards. Carl Edwards? Really? He had a good 05, a bad 06, and he's done nothing in 07. I'm choosing Kenseth or Hamlin myself.

I kindof understand not picking Junior because, let's face it guys, Junior doesn't have the talent his Daddy did. I think Dale Jr is an above average driver, but I don't foresee him ever winning anything but a handful of races here and there. I think his career will end with him having won about 25 races or so, and 0 championships. I hope I'm wrong.

Yellow Line Rule
Have I ever said how much I don't like the yellow line rule? Well, I don't.

Kenseth is good at Talladega, supposedly
I think it was one of the pit reporters who said how good Matt Kenseth is at Talladega. Look, when a driver wins more than 1 race at a track, and Kenseth has never won at Talladega, then you're allowed to tell us how good he is at said track.

Bowyer's wreck
Clint Bowyer smacks the wall and then, 2 laps later, crashes because of tire failure. What's going on with the #07 team that he doesn't come in after slamming the wall?

There's no doubt who's winning
This must have been what it was like for the ABE fans to watch Dale Earnhardt at Talladega and just know that he was going to win.

Sammy's in the closet
Hey, did you guys know there's a #55 Napa Toyota? That car's like Bigfoot. We hear rumors about it, but nobody sees it on raceday.

Take my mother-in-law, please
So, the guy is driving his MIL home to stay with them and his car dies in front of a nursing home. That would totally be me, except I would stop at the nursing home on purpose.

Casey Mears and the Curse of the #25
I think the #25 car is cursed. That team has always been the red-headed stepchild of Hendrick Motorsports. Apologies to those of you who were red-headed stepchildren and it was never a problem for you.

Just think if you were hired to drive the #25 car.

Your agent: I've got good news and bad news.
You: Let's have the good news.
Your agent: You've been hired to drive for Hendrick Motorsports.
You: Awesome! What's the bad news?
Your agent: You're going to be driving the #25 car.
You: :BangHead:

It just doesn't matter
How many rule changes have been implemented by Nascar to keep the cars from hitting the "magical" 200 mph speed on the track? I have no idea, but for all the rules they've implemented, we saw several cars hit 200 on Sunday. The innovation and ability of these teams is remarkable.

Tires on pit road
I don't remember which team let their right-rear tire roll away, but I know they got their butts chewed out for it on Monday. Speaking of that rule, I will always maintain that somebody left a tire out on purpose for Dale Earnhardt to hit in the first Daytona night race. He didn't see it, hit it, and it ruined his car. I guarantee you he would have won that race.

If I'm the leader, I want that guy to be 2nd
The tators went on about Jamie McMurray running 2nd and how many races it had been since he won, how hungry he was to win, blah blah blah. If there's anybody I want to see running 2nd behind me late in the race, it's Jamie McMurray. If I've got McMurray running 2nd behind me, that's a sure win for me.

 

Richmond

Saturday night
I think the only thing that needs to be said about Saturday night is this. Enough of the green/yellow nonsense to start a race. Either the conditions are good enough to race or they're not.


Sunday
We got home from church right in the middle of the national anthem. Which leads me to 2 questions. #1, what was the best national anthem you ever heard? Mine was Whitney Houston at Super Bowl XXV. #2, what was the worst national anthem you ever heard? Mine was the 1998 race at Las Vegas when some girl shrilly screeched out the national anthem. We spent the afternoon trying to scrape the cat off the ceiling after that one.

air
Larry Mac said, "The air is confused. It doesn't know where to go." Huh?

Creepy Spiderman guy
In the commercial with the grown man wearing the Spiderman commercial, that guy looks just like a well-known former Christian singer from years gone by. Who does he look like?

Montoya-Newman Trend
Is Newman taking Montoya out a trend? Newman took him out at Homestead last year, and took him out yesterday. Trend?

Harvick leading
I don't remember whether they said anything about it or not, but Harvick dominated last year's race until a bad decision to not pit with everybody else late, coupled with having to make a pit stop on the next caution put him too far back to win.

Anybody paying attention?
And, just like that, Harvick gets taken out. I would have thought somebody's only job at that point would be to watch for a car to do just what Ragan did. BTw, not to imply that Ragan had anything to do with this, because it wasn't his fault at all. Larry Mac laid that at the feet of Todd Berrier, and I agree. Maybe it was the spotter's job, but the crew chief needs to be on top of that situation, and Berrier wasn't.

Are we sure this is Richmond?
With all the beating and banging, this race looked more like Martinsville than it did Richmond.

Frenchman on the track... again
Another phantom debris caution. Loved Fox's shot of the frontstretch looking for the debris. Mike Joy didn't have to say anything. There was no debris on the frontstretch.

Nascar is like pro wrestling? Oh, no no no, of course not, no siree.

24.. is it over yet?
Fox promotes 24 again and I'm just so sick of that show this season. I know it's become an overused phrase, but 24 has jumped the shark.

He got 2 with that one
Jeff Green took out both Dale Jr and Biffle. Nice work, Jeff. What's bad is that everybody knows Green isn't any good, and they give him plenty of room, and he still takes them out.

The Amazing Thing
The most amazing thing about the Napa RFID chip commercial isn't that it contains all Napa parts and has mp3s too. The most amazing thing is Dale Jarrett asking about hip-hop music.

Pizza, pizza
About the Pizza the Hut commercial where they congratulate themselves for being so good, here's the thing. Pizza the Hut does have good pizza. No question about that. But, it's also greasier than most. I love Padre Juan's because it's great pizza without all the grease of Pizza the Hut.

Best restart in Nascar
Who's got the best restart in Nascar? For years, it's been Jeff Gordon. Today, Kyle Busch is challenging for that title.

More Jeff Green
DW said that he doesn't know why Jeff Green is up there messing with those drivers on the lead lap late in the race. I know why. It's because he doesn't know what he's doing out there and has no business driving a Cup car.

This was a good race, even though Nascar threw a phony caution.

Thus ends the Rick Hendrick Invitational 400.

 

He's leaving

http://www.thatsracin.com/247/story/4129.html

Dale Jr is reportedly having a press conference this morning to announce he's leaving DEI. I'm going to go through the list of teams and make a guess as to where he lands. I'm only going to consider Chevy teams because I think they'll move heaven and earth before letting any other manufacturer get him. I look for a huge push from Toyota. Jr would give them instant credibility.

JR Motorsports - From what I've read, he doesn't want to be an owner/driver ala Alan Kulwicki, Ricky Rudd, Darrell Waltrip, etc. I say those reports are right and he won't start his own Cup team.

Hendrick Motorsports - Rick Hendrick has a pretty good lineup of drivers. The only weak link is Casey Mears, but I don't see him a) firing Casey to put Jr in that car and b) Jr taking the #25 ride.

RCR - This one makes a ton of sense. I don't know if he'll drive the 3 car, but I think it's a sure thing that he won't be in the #8 either. The number belongs to the owner, and don't you think that Teresa won't mind sort of sticking it to him and keeping that number for DEI's use?

Joe Gibbs - This one makes sense too. If they want to put him in an established team, the 18 is there already and JJ Yeley hasn't done much in that car. But, if Gibbs doesn't want to let JJ go, he has room, like RCR does, for a 4th team.

Ginn Racing, Morgan-McClure, Hall of Fame Racing - There's no way Jr goes to a lesser team when he could easily land at either RCR or JGR.

I think either RCR or JGR would be a good fit for him. While he still has the name to live up to, he wouldn't have the pressure of carrying an entire company, which I think would be huge. For sentimental reasons, RCR has the leg up, and considering Jr's fondness for history and honoring such history, I think RCR is where he'll land, taking Budweiser with him.

Prediction
I think we'll see Dale Jr driving a Red #3 Budweiser car for RCR in 2008.