Monday's Mumblings

What a weak title. But it's late, and I invested my time in typing the following vs. titling it. Who says Twitter is useless? I won a Best Buy Racing hat on Twitter for my submission of this picture I took of Elliott Sadler's #19 Best Buy Dodge at Richard Petty Motorsports shop back in May. Not on Twitter yet? C'mon and join us. Follow TMC there as well as Best Buy Racing.

  Denny Hamlin had some unbelievable horsepower Sunday at Martinsville. He needed it too with several late race re-starts against Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Juan Pablo Montoya. With his FedEx sponsorship, it was as if he opted for same day air delivery vs. 2-day ground. Dave Despain aired a new Speed TV show Sunday night titled "On Assignment". The debut show featured the building of Talladega. I'm pretty sure, however, the folks at Comcast didn't get the clear message about who visioned and built the track.

Let's see, Little Brian would have been about 7 years old when Dega opened. I'm reasonably sure he could not have accomplished the feat of building the track and then standing up against the gaggle of drivers who refused to race on it. The guy may have been dumb smart enough to develop the Chase for the Championship, but track building at such a young age still seems a far fetched idea. 

Richard Childress recently had an open house at Richard Childress Racing in Welcome, NC. The best quote of the gathering came from MRN Radio's Barney Hall. His quote about meeting Richard Childress for the first time: "He was so green he thought Johnny Cash was a pay toilet." 

Writer Dustin Long recently sat down with Kyle Petty, Larry McReynolds, and Jimmy Spencer to talk about the state of the sport. Some really interesting and candid comments were made by the three of them - many of which didn't exactly make the boys at the beach jump with joy. [Click here] for the 6th and final report in the series. The article includes links to parts 1 through 5. Read 'em all. 

Juan Pablo Montoya continues to impress me with his versatility on the varied Chase tracks. His on-track aggressiveness makes some of the drivers uncomfortable. For me, I applaud it. If it takes a new school driver to return old school racing, so be it. Rarely is anyone else willing to lay the wood to any of the HMS cars so it's good to see JPM and his take-no-prisoners approach. 

It's beyond me how Jeff Gordon can whine about getting roughed up by JPM. Gordon's a vet who remembers racing with Rusty, Earnhardt Sr., Rudd, etc. - or maybe he's forgotten with all the old guard gone by now. 

On the flip-side, Joey "J-Lo" Logano and Brad Keselowski thinks they've earned their stripes enough to run over folks whenever they damn well please. A suggestion to ya boys - 2 words: Ernie Irvan. Don't become him. 

Rick Houston of Stock Car History Online recently recorded his debut podcast. Do you like old school racing - or just want to learn more about the history of the sport and its characters from the past? Sample the podcast at SCHO, then give it a listen with iTunes, and subscribe to future podcasts. 

Our Nashville Predators NHL franchise and Baker-Curb Racing recently announced a cross-promotional marketing agreement. For now, a Predators emblazoned BCR Nationwide car will be at the Sommet Center, home of the Preds.

  Whether a Preds car hits the track itself in 2010 is uncertain. I hope to get by the BCR shop again soon and take some up close photos. Also, I've been planning to blog about my ideas for an NHL/NASCAR cross-promotion relationship for over a year. I need to get that written - perhaps after these last 4 races are run. Stay tuned. 

 TMC

A Marty Party

With apologies to John Prine, Denny Hamlin got his "Sweet Revenge" on Jimmie Johnson at today's Martinsville race. He reversed the finish of the spring race by passing Johnson about two-thirds through the race, staying out in front of him, and ensuring he didn't get moved out of the way by the 48 as he did in April.

Hamlin did something many others haven't been able to do lately. (1) He got stronger during long runs enabling him to pass the 48 and then stay there. (2) As the race wound down and the inevitable caution fever epidemic set in, he out-muscled the Hendrick cars with horsepower on restarts.

The two cars were pretty much the class of the field the second half of the race. Juan Pablo Montoya gave Jimmie a run for his money in the middle portion, but he used up his brakes a bit and couldn't cash the check when called to do so. However, with a 3rd place finish, JPM showed yet again he and the #42 team belong in this championship hunt. Were it not for his awful showing at Charlotte last week, he might still be nipping at the heels of the Hendrick juggernaut vs. wondering "what if?" these last four races.

The race had a few other entertaining moments:

• Joey Logano draped himself all over A.J. Allmendinger like a bear skin rug resulting in the 44 getting wadded up in the wall. No truth to the rumor, however, that Allmendinger's dad accosted J-Lo when the race ended.
• The slot machine hit cherries across the board when David Stremme, Paul Menard, Sam Hornish, and Michael Waltrip had a hand in wrecks - either of their own or by doinking someone else. The machine paid a bonus payoff because of John Wes Townley's wreck during Saturday's Nationwide race in Memphis.
  
• Red Bull's Scott Speed Stupeed charged into the corner like a bull seeing red. Apparently he was so jacked up on sugar, caffeine, and whatever else they put in those thin cans, that he forgot he was at Martinsville in a 3,400 lb stock car vs. in a sweet F1 ride at Imola.
• Near the end of the race right before a commercial, no one in the ESPN booth said a word for a few moments. Not Jerry Punch. Not Andy Petree. Not Dale Jarrett. Nor did anyone from the infield booth say anything. It was as if Bob Griese had just walked in the room taking orders for a Taco Bell road trip.

The primary story for me, however, was the race finish, NASCAR's hypocrisy, and ESPN's blindness to it.

The COT was supposedly developed first and foremost for driver safety. Its development was fast-tracked following the death of Dale Earnhardt, Sr. in 2001. The required adoption of full face helmets and HANS devices - same thing.

The number of debris cautions the last few years has also seemed to be on the rise - although I don't have any empirical data to support that claim. NASCAR says the cautions are valid for safety reasons. Stray parts falling from cars and sharp carbon fiber shards from splitters may litter the track, and attempts are made to unfurl caution flags before tires are cut.

I find it interesting the "debris" is most often and conveniently found by the NASCAR tower in three circumstances:

1. when the leader builds a significant lead and/or the field gets strung out during long green-flag runs (this usually happens when the TV network is at commercial)
   
2. Dale Jr. does his mid-race fade and goes a lap down (the debris caution gives him the "lucky dog" and an extended attempt at some lame hope at winning), and
3. near the end of the race having the effect of bringing the field back together for a double-file restart and hopefully a close finish to watch by drop-in TV viewers.

All for safety (or Dale Jr's sake), right? WRONG!

Today, John Andretti became another in a long list of Paul Menard victims. Predictable enough in its own right. Typical short-track stuff. John was spun to the inside front stretch wall. He tried to get going again to regain positions and allow the leaders to finish. He ran out of time, however, and ended up a car length off the call perpendicular to the racing surface. Rather than throw the caution on the back stretch or even turn 3, NASCAR let Hamlin, Johnson, and the rest of the herd race back to the finish line.

The full field - well, less the start & parkers - was headed straight for the 34 car! A couple of cars dipped to the inside trying to one last-gasp effort to gain an extra position. Had some of those attempted passes been challenged with a block, Andretti was a sitting duck to get double t-boned. A double t-bone might be an awesome entree at Three Forks in Dallas (especially with a nice bottle of Napa cab), but it sucks if you are hit that way in a stock car.

This is not the first time this has happened - nor even the first time this season. Just a few short weeks ago, Allmendinger was turned by David Stremme on the last lap. He could not re-fire his car, and sat on the front stretch certainly muttering "please let them see me, please let them see me". NASCAR allowed the field to race back to the line and then worrry about rubber necking as they drove around the stranded 44.

In my opinion, NASCAR took undue grief for not throwing a caution in the 2007 Daytona 500 as Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin came to the line for the win as all hell broke loose behind them. I agreed with the decision to let the leaders settle in under green. The wreck was behind them, and the track was wide enough for good driver decisions to be made and evasive actions taken.

At tracks such as Loudon and Martinsville, however, the track lengths are much shorter and narrower. I will concede neither stranded driver was plowed, no one was hurt, and the immobile automobiles didn't affect the eventual race winner. But that's beside the point. The drivers could have been drilled, and NASCAR made a bad no-call in both those situations.

Equally as bad to me as NASCAR's no-call was ESPN's no-review. Unlike most race weekends, when the network can't wait to wrap-up the burnout and victory lane interview so they can move on to Sports Center, The Simpsons, or an infomercial, ABC had time to burn today. They had almost 30 minutes for post-race coverage.

• The finish was not replayed, and not a questioning word was uttered by the 3 booth guys, Alan Bestwick, Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, or any of the pit reporters.
  
• The top finishers were interviewed as were some of the driver notables but with bad finishes (e.g. Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart Darian Grubb-Tony's crew chief).
• Tim Brewer gave a tech update on what Hamlin's Toyota post-race "look that way and cough" physical might involve.
• Even Denny Hamlin's parents were located so they could be offered the "how do you feel?" question the ESPN pit folks have mastered.
  

Yet, ESPN couldn't find John Andretti to ask his opinion? Was John Darby, Robin Pemberton, Ramsey Poston, or anyone else from NASCAR available to explain the rationale for the call (or no-call) that was made?

Good hard racing - I love it. Short-track racing - all the better. Wrinkled fenders, rutting competitors out of the groove, tempers flaring, paybacks, photo finishes - can't be beat. But superseding all of that is driver safety. NASCAR simply cannot allow itself to be put in the position again of taking undue risk with an immobile driver just to see a fantastic run to the finish.

I'm not alone in questioning NASCAR's decision-making. Jim Utter from the Charlotte Observer had similar thoughts.

TMC

Rainy days and race days always get me down

With apologies to The Carpenters...

NASCAR is a unique sport in more ways than one. One way it differs from others is the impact of rain. Football is played in cold, heat, rain, snow, fog, whatever. Fans of basketball and hockey may get wet walking from parking lots, but the game goes on once inside. Even golf, baseball, and tennis can be played if the rain isn't too intense.

With NASCAR, even a minor amount of rain can bring activities to a screeching halt. Even other forms of motorsports can often run in the rain when they race on street circuits with grooved tires. But with slick Goodyear tires designed for maximum grip and many high-speed ovals comprising the Cup series, stock cars and rain simply don't get along.

Each year, you can almost bet a race weekend or two will be adversely affected by the rain. Qualifying might get rained out. A practice session might be lost. And a race might be shortened or postponed to the next day. As a general rule, however, NASCAR gets pretty lucky each season as they bounce around the US.

With 5 races to go in 2009, however, this season seems to have been affected more so than in recent years. Check out this list.

• February - Daytona 500 - race shortened
• April - Martinsville - qualifying canceled, line-up set by points
• May - Coke 600 - race postponed to Monday (Nationwide race was also ended early because of rain)
• June - Loudon - qualifying canceled, race shortened
• June - Pocono - qualifying canceled, line-up set by points
• July - Daytona - qualifying canceled, line-up set by points
• August - Pocono - qualifying canceled, race postponed to Monday
• August - Watkins Glen - race postponed to Monday
• October - Martinsville - Saturday practice canceled, Sunday race in doubt

Nothing can really be done when the rains begin. Drivers, media, fans, etc. just have to wait it out and maintain an attitude of "ya gotta believe" the race events will continue as scheduled.

However, the domino effect of the rains can be pretty significant. TV and radio schedules have to be adjusted. Print/web media tighten their sphincters as they scramble to meet submission deadlines - especially when races are delayed on Saturday nights. Concessionaires and souvenir trailers often lose money as folks don't buy as much junk food or driver swag. Fans wonder if they'd have better chance at hitting the Powerball than booking an even-more-scarce, even-more-over-priced hotel room. Some leave altogether knowing they had one day to race before having to return to work the next day.

With the increasing fan dissatisfaction about the state of the sport, the butt-ugly Car of Tomorrow, vanilla driver personalities, cookie-cutter tracks, etc., I wonder if at least one positive change could be made in time for the 2010 season.

Perhaps NASCAR could spec out a COT 2.0 to accommodate driver safety, wider tire tread, side-by-side racing, AND a race car that will run in the rain when needed!


TMC

The camp

Today's ABC NASCAR pre-race show featured the Victory Junction Gang Camp. The camp is the vision of Adam Petty, the passion of Kyle and Pattie Petty, and the commitment of NASCAR drivers, owners, sponsors, management, and fans.

If you didn't see it, click below to view it here. A must see.



You can learn more about the camp and/or support it at:

• Twitter
• Web
  
• Facebook

TMC

PEE - Petty Earnhardt Enterprises?

From the founding of Petty Engineering by Lee Petty in the late 1940s - through the rise of the King in the 1960s - to Richard's domination in the first half of the 1970s - until Richard's retirement in 1992, Petty Enterprises was pretty solid. Richard's and the team's better days were clearly behind them when Richard stepped away. But with a wide variety of drivers, Petty Enterprises had a moderate level of success between 1993 and 2007 - although it was difficult to maintain the big mo' from season to season.

In 2008, the team's drivers often couldn't get out of their own way, the economy turned for the worse, sponsorships shrunk, and Petty Enterprises had 2 drivers under contract that didn't exactly fit the model demographic desired by Madison Avenue - Bobby Labonte and Kyle Petty.

Earlier this year, the venerable Petty Enterprises became no more. Though announced as a "merger", the King sold out to Gillett Evernham Motorsports pretty much adding nothing to the transaction except the famous #43 and the King himself as a marketable brand name.

Less than one year into the new relationship, the resulting Richard Petty Motorsports looks to be in a lot of disarray and turmoil. A newly announced letter-of-intent to acquire Yates Racing was met with hurt and confusion at the RPM engine shop. The employees were apparently informed their jobs were safe only to read a few days later the soon-to-be-Ford RPM would use Roush-Yates engines in 2010.

The President of the company, Tom Redden, left in the spring. And Mark McArdle was fired by the Gilletts after a garage area argument about the Yates/Ford announcement.

To me, this scenario is beginning to resemble Dale Earnhardt, Inc. in 2006-2007 time frame.

Absentee ownership

In late 2006 and into 2007, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. openly called out Teresa Earnhardt about the need to beef up the technology at DEI. Included in his comments was a threat to leave the team if things didn't improve. They didn't - and he did. Following Dale Sr's death through the 2007 departure of Dale Jr. through 2009's 'merger' with Chip Ganassi Racing, Teresa has not been visible much at all.

George Gillett bought the majority of Evernham Motorsports from Ray Evernham and has majority ownership of the post-Petty merged company. Yet, other than a single appearance on Dave Despain's WindTunnel show after the Evernham transaction, he hasn't been much of a presence at the track. In all fairness, he had a couple of other sports mega-franchises and a monster-load of debt to also occupy his time - the Montreal Canadiens NHL team and a UK soccer team. He has since sold the Canadiens, and he may have unloaded the soccer team as well.

His son, Foster, is supposedly a part-owner and the day-to-day owner representative for the team. Yet according to Kasey Kahne, Foster is AWOL as well. Kahne's recent comments and ones he made in the spring about the need for RPM to improve its performance have led many to believe this is a call-out much like Dale Jr. did with Teresa.

Hired scapegoat

Whether Max Siegel was hired by Teresa to truly run DEI or simply serve as a go-between for Dale Jr. and her will never be known. What is known, however, is poor Max was often left to answer questions at the track with data he didn't have.

Richard Petty now seems to be playing the role of Max Siegel quite well. The King is a part owner and does have his name on the building, the cars, and the haulers. Beyond that, however, his ownership and influence positions are limited. Yet, he's the one at the track answering the questions about the team's current and future situations.

Nothing spends like daddy's money

As a DEI driver, Michael Waltrip frequently showed he was a one-trick pony. Put him on a restrictor plate track and *boom* he could go. He could generally point it straight, mash the gas, draft a bit, and even slip up and win a few. Eventually, however, Mikey left to form his own team and was replaced by the consummate silver spoon driver, Paul Menard.

Menard was hired by DEI for one simple reason - and it wasn't his silly soul patch. Its the wheelbarrows full of cash his pop provides to promote his chain of midwestern Home Depot-wannabe Menard's home improvement stores. After a multi-year run at DEI with nothing to show for it, daddy moved his money and his son to Yates Racing for 2009.

So now look who gets stuck with him in 2010? That's right - RPM. I've been a critic of Reed Sorensen as an RPM driver this year - particularly in my beloved 43. But the thought of Paul Menard driving anything Petty related - including a Segway around the shop floor - turns my stomach. Yet because he'll drag multi-millions of his future inheritance with him to cover all 36 races, RPM will find a home for him just as DEI did.

These are just three examples. The comparisons might stop there. Who knows - its just my opinion and nothing more.

Kasey Kahne may well leave RPM at the end of 2010. If he does, I realize his leaving won't have near the impact of Dale Jr. leaving DEI. If RPM merges yet again or ceases to exist altogether, it won't be the same as DEI's merger with Ganassi. The bigger shock for me was when Petty ENTERPRISES took on an outside investor and then later merged with GEM.

And it wouldn't surprise me a year from now if Chip-N-Dale Racing merges with RPM/Yates to form PEE - Petty Earnhardt Enterprises.


TMC

A Forceful personality

I've been trying to gather my thoughts as to what to type about the New Hampshire race. I'm also working up a couple of other blog entries requiring more time and energy to compile than I have right now.

So in the meantime, I share with you this beauty of a appearance by 14x NHRA funny car champion, John Force. I'm not a huge fan of straight-line racing, but I know enough about it to know John's record, his wrecks, his unbelievably attractive and equally talented daughter Ashley, and his in-your-face way of communicating.

He appeared last week on ESPN addressing, among other subjects, allegations he took a dive in a race to get one of his drivers in the NHRA version of NASCAR's championship chase. He spoke these words meekly...not.

Note: I tried to embed the video itself. As of yesterday, the World Leader of Sports provided the code to embed it. Today, it doesn't work. I found the video on YouTube, but they will not allow it to be embedded either. Geez.

But, its well worth 6 minutes of your time to watch and laugh at this bizarre interview.

TMC

Hockey and Baseball Schaefer

Tuesday I e-mailed the Nashville Predators ticket office to order a block of tickets for a group hockey event. I couldn't help but laugh when the account representative who handled my order was Dan Schaefer.

I e-mailed him the link to this blog's Schaefer posts and told him I would explain later. Before having a chance to do so, he replied with "Schaefer - the beer to have when you're having more than one." The jingle! It was almost like sharing one of those life-long, Greek fraternity secret handshakes.

He said his dad lives in Oklahoma and still prefers to drink Schaefer - because of his name and because he likes it. I asked him to get a specific location where his dad buys it so I could add it to the Schaefer Seller Google map. His reply? "My dad can't get it out there. So I buy it in Nashville and give it to him as a gift for Christmas and his birthday."

I'd expect nothing less from a Schaefer family.

Dan also e-mailed me a 1950s era picture from Ebbetts Fields, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers back in the day. Schaefer sponsored the scoreboard back then, and I knew from my prior research Schaefer had been a prominent advertiser with several Major League Baseball teams.

Dan then shared some trivia I didn't know. When the Dodgers got a hit, the "h" in Schaefer lit up. When an error was committed (I presume by the opposing team), the "e" was lit.

I not only found that nugget to be pretty interesting - I could also relate in a round-about way. I often commit errors of my own when I'm lit on Schaefer.

TMC