Michael Waltrip fan base has changed. Right?

On July 24, 1993, Schaefer Hall of Fame co-founder Philly and I headed for a weekend of camping and racing at Talladega. The headline event was Sunday's DieHard 500. In tow was one of Philly's co-workers headed to his first NASCAR race.

He knew little about racing and didn't have a favorite driver. As we headed south on I-59 towards Gadsden, I asked him where he was from. When he responded Owensboro, Kentucky, I paused, looked at Philly, and smirked a bit like Ferris Bueller breaking the fourth wall. I looked back at him and said "I've got the driver for you. Michael Waltrip. He is from Owensboro."

To his credit, he was open-minded about his newly assigned favorite driver. Philly and I then formed an unspoken covenant that we'd drain his wallet with purchases of Mikey swag.

After we settled into our campsite amongst the trees behind turn two and away from the rowdies that prowled the wide open spaces behind the back stretch, we headed for Saturday's Busch race and then the souvenir trailers.

In those days, souvenir row was positioned along Speedway Boulevard across from the track's main entrance. Our eyes roamed to and fro looking for what should have been the easily identifiable, vibrant yellow, Pennzoil emblazoned trailer featuring a boo-coodle of Mikey Merch.

Earnhardt had what seemed to be about a dozen trailers. The noob, Jeff Gordon, had his stuff sold at a handful of trailers as well. The other predictable trailers were there as well hawking gear for drivers such as Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Daytona 500 winner Dale Jarrett, Darrell Waltrip, etc.

As we roamed about the beaten-down grass, I still vaguely remember scalding my mouth with a cup of Maxwell House coffee. Why a cup of coffee in late July in the heat and humidity of central Alabama? Well, one - they sponsored Sterling Marlin. Reason enough, right?

But also - duh - it was free! Well, that plus the consumption of a prodigious amount of beer during the Busch race and a copious supply of stupidity. But I digress...

The search for Michael's gear soon grew weary. I was sweating like a hack poker player and had scar tissue forming inside my mouth from my free cup of joe. I headed for one of Kyle Petty's Mello Yello trailers for a transaction and an answer to a question.

A few weeks before the race, I'd won a Kyle Petty jacket on a Chattanooga sports talk radio show. One problem: it was a medium. I laughed at medium after about two semesters in college - yet the jacket was free.


I explained my situation to the guy at the Mello Yello trailer, and he was superb with customer service. "No problem. Whadda ya want? XL? *pitch* There ya go man." Boom, that easy. With a big grin, I shook off the lisp from my scalded tongue and dehydration from my multiple adult beverages to ask a legit question. "Can you help out my bud here? He's a big fan of Mikey. But we can't find his trailer out here anywhere. Are we just overlooking it - have you spotted it?"

The dude went from Mr. Gregarious to the scene from Casino when DeNiro and Pesci believe the FBI can read lips from a distance. His reply still makes me laugh to this day: "Naw, there ain't one here. Mikey has a lot of good lookin' stuff. He just ain't got any fans."

It was the line of a lifetime. In 1993, no one quite frankly could argue with him. Our new Mikey fan got off without spending any money on a shirt, hat, koozie, die-cast, seat cushion, jacket, decal, anything. Fast forward a few years, and Mikey did build a sizable fan base. He did it through hard work, some wins, and a sizable dose of campiness.

As the 2016 season began, it was indeed different. The field did not feature Michael Waltrip on a regular basis - as a driver or as an owner. The new guy was prepared to buy Mikey's gear that day in '93, not me. Yet, Michael has been a part of Cup racing for over two decades.

He is certainly still a part of NASCAR with his commentary during televised truck races and FOX Sports' pre-race grid walks. Many seem to love what he does - but he has also has a ton of detractors. As Dale Earnhardt once said "At least they’re making noise. It’s when they stop making noise that you know something’s wrong.”

 TMC

What lies ahead in 2010?

Holy cow, has it really been a year? The debut post for this blog was December 19, 2008. Its been real, its been fun, and yes its been real fun. As far as I'm concerned, we'll keep this thing a'going throughout 2010.

Banktruck and I would like to wish all who are reading this a Merry Christmas.

With Christmas just a week away, here's a bit of racing wish list I've got for 2010:

• I wish that tiresome Home Depot commercial with Joey Logano would go away.
• I wish the sport would have more teams with fewer cars per team. It bothers me Yates Racing is no more now that its merged with Richard Petty Motorsports. I didn't like it when teams of Junior Johnson, Bud Moore, and Harry Melling disappeared either.
  
• I wish Robby Gordon could get sponsorship to run all year.
  
• I wish the number of start and parkers would decline. Instead, it sounds like the number of S&P's may increase with the return of the #49 BAM Racing team.
• I wish more racing beat writers could be as honest, candid, and knowledgable as the late David Poole or the alive-and-kicking Monte Dutton.
  
• I wish talent and potential were still relevant in getting rides rather than who can bring a sponsor with them. It bothers me Danica is bringing GoDaddy to JR Motorsports at the expense of lesser known, more talented, longer term drivers. Same goes with John Wesley Townes taking daddy's chicken money to Richard Childress Racing and Paul Menard latching on with Richard Petty Motorsports.
• I wish I could go to about a half-dozen races in 2010; however, I'd probably be happy going to a couple of them.
  
• I wish Dodge had what it took to support more than one competitive team. But it doesn't, Ford gets the Petty cars, and Dodge is left with just Penske Racing.
  
• I wish Michael Waltrip's part-time #55 program included a few stints with Kyle Petty behind the wheel.
• I wish newer fans (and drivers) could develop an appreciation for the history of the sport. Rick Houston does a great job at Stock Car History Online making it easy for you.
  
• I wish Jack Daniels and Jim Beam could have stayed around. The schemes on those cars always looked classy and were certainly better than the neon green of GoDaddy.com.
• I wish Stewart-Haas Racing success in avoiding a sophomore slump with Smoke as the owner.
• I wish Digger and Jerry Punch would just go away. Hey...wait...I got an early Christmas present!
  
• I wish the NHL and its teams would sponsor a Cup team.
• I wish I could get use to seeing Matt Kenseth's #17 without DeWalt colors.
• I wish Schaefer beer wasn't so hard to find.
  
• I wish Jamie McMurray all the luck in trying to convince us he's a Bass Pro Shops outdoor guy.
• I wish someone would use a dipstick to whip the living snot out of Team Genius at Castrol who have subjected us to that nonsensical waste of commercial time.
• I wish more drivers and fans would join us at Twitter. The racing contingent already has a pretty good presence, and we have a lot of fun on race weekends using it. But there is always room for more!
  
• I wish I could be a fly on the wall at Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR if Dale Jr. and the 88 team don't get things turned around by early in the season.

TMC

Random Race Thoughts for the Week

For a couple of boring races over the weekend, seems like an awful lot of chatter came out of them. Let's see...where do we start? How about...

Kyle Busch - Trashing the Nashville Gee-tahr

Nashville Superspeedway has struggled to get on the national radar for its Busch/Nationwide races since opening. Without a companion Cup race, its races are stand-alone events rarely creating much interest. But that all changed Saturday when Shrub sent 'em home a'talking and a'cussing over his latest attention-grabber.

I personally don't think it was a cool move - and it particularly looked weak when he couldn't even break the guitar. However, it seems to me more folks are pissed off at his immaturity, at his disrespect of the city/track/race/sponsor/artist/yada yada yada, at a Cup driver flying down to steal the Regulars' money, etc. than were interested in the race itself!

Inquiring minds ask: What if Dale Jr. had dropped in, schooled the field, done the same thing, and popped off "Finally! We done won somethin'. And this 'un goes out to my buds in 3 Doors Down." Would have folks reacted the same way?

Track promoter/general manager, Cliff Hawks, was on a Nashville sports talk show quasi-apologizing for Shrub's behavior and trying to explain it away by saying Kyle doesn't "get it" - whatever that means. But mark my word - wait until next spring when the series returns to town. See if ol' Cliffy doesn't incorporate video footage of Kyle into his ticket sales promotions.

Lost amidst the puny Pete Townsend effort was his phenomenal burnout. Burned 'em up until the the whole back end went ablaze. How cool was that?

Martin Truex's Future

Read on Jayski Monday that Martin Truex Jr. plans to have GE Reveal light bulbs as sponsor for two races.
Hey Martin, here's a bright idea - DON'T SIGN WITH MICHAEL WALTRIP RACING FOR 2010!


Double File Restarts

This change was the worst-kept secret coming out of the NASCAR 'town hall' meeting the day after the Coke 340.5. Bill Weber from TNT hyped it up a bit but fortunately not as bad as if the Three Stooges from FOX had been broadcasting another week. In the end, it made zero difference as friggin' fuel mileage ensured Smoke was able to roll to his first official Cup victory at about the same speed as an old lady riding to church on Sunday morning.

Pocono's Trophy

I really respect 84 year-old Dr. Joe Mattioli and his family for trying to keep it old school at Pocono. A determined, independent track owner, he has no plans to sell his track or dates to SMI or ISC, and he has stopped pimping his race names to corporate sponsors. But the Mattioli family really needs to take up a collection at the gate or something to upgrade their trophy. Look at this thing. It looks like they bought it at Hobby Lobby to give to the Wilkes-Barre 8 year old Little League champs.


With such great and prized trophies as the ones given to the winners at the Daytona 500, Brickyard, Bristol races, Texas, Nashville, etc., its time to re-think the prize - especially for a Cup race winner. But at least Tony didn't smash it.

* Sproingggg *

I'm pretty sure that's the sound we'll hear as former Dale Jr. 'fans' start bouncing off his bandwagon and onto the Smokestack.

TMC

Kyle Petty: Shopping for Mikey

Kyle Petty's latest Unleashed on NASCAR.com is pretty funny. Its about his shopping for Michael Waltrip at a fully-stocked grocery store in the infield at Texas Motor Speedway.

Now while it is funny (especially quip at 1:22 mark), I'm not sure Kyle is coming all that 'unleashed'.

Gentlemen, start your buggies!








TMC

Michael Waltrip...SUPERSTAR!

I've been wearing out Google, Firefox, Photobucket, and my hard drive today looking for and saving racing photos of all kinds. I stumbled across this one of Michael Waltrip with Kyle Petty from February 2008 while searching for some Kyle photos.

Michael's struggles - both as a driver and car owner - in his long career have been well documented elsewhere. Yet he still continues as a fan favorite, and sponsors keep throwing money at him like Pacman Jones making it rain in Club Minxx.

Surely to goodness, Mikey knows he is just not in the same league - driver-wise, owner-wise, or bidness-man-wise as the upper crust of the sport. Some TV interviews lead me to believe he may just well be humble enough to know it. All too often, however, he also leads me to believe he thinks he really is a superstar. If so, perhaps he was parroting Molly Shannon's infamous SNL character.

The more I think about it, Mikey and Mary Katherine Gallagher have more in common with their tendency to crash into "safer barriers" than I originally thought. Watch & compare this one...

...to this one (FF to 4:30).