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The first stop on the Formula 1 schedule was this past Saturday on a searingly hot day in Melbourne Austrailia. New teams, new drivers, new year.
New Rules.
The biggest of which is the FIA mandating that traction control is a thing of the past. That the presumed best drivers in the world ever needed traction assist in the first place is a concept that frankly eluded me. The back to the future approach that limits the amount of computer assistance an F1 car can showcase, puts major emphisis on throttle and brake control from the the driver thus making the driver's championship more relevent.
It will probably also give Lewis Hamilton his first championship THIS YEAR.
Hamilton showed uncanny car control in Austrailia. Something that McLaren team principal Ron Dennis felt would be his strong suit before Hamilton's rookie year. The best F1 drivers over the last handful of years have known F1 cars with traction control, now that they do not have it, they are learning to drive F1 all over again. Due to the F1 rules mandate, second-year drivers, like Nico Rosberg, Heiki Kovalainen and Hamilton find themselves on level ground with former champion Fernando Alonso, and reigning champ Kimi Raikkonen.
What Hamilton showed at Austrailia is that nobody can match his consistant pace. Hamilton dominated the weekend, garnering the pole and leading all but a few laps of the Austrailian GP, setting fast lap several times over.
My advise: Get used to hearing "God Save The Queen" a whole lot this year!
You may be telling me to wait and see, but be aware that the second stop for the F1 flying circus is this coming weekend in Maylasia with no time to go back to home base for technical adjustments. Hamilton should once again show that his driving style is hot.
As hot as a one hundred degree day in Austrailia.
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Its tough for Tony Stewart to reach new heights of bombast, but his thoughts about the first stop of the Cup Series at Atlanta, and the tires they used there may have set a new standard even for our beloved Smoke!
I could insert a nasty quote from TStew here but I have Goodyear tires on my personal car.
Many of you here know what I have said about Tony's skitzoid behavior at times, but this time with such resounding agreement from others, it seems that he is totally right. Well, far be it for me to run against the streem of blame, but sometimes I just cannot help myself, so I will look Tony in the eye (so-to-speak) and utter these words...
Dood, you are only half right... Maybe.
The tire issue is really the result of the overall construction of NASCAR's Car Of TODAY. The COT presents a wierd balance of factors yet to be figured out on every track that the Cup Series runs on, especialy the extreemly fast Atlanta circuit. For instance...
Suspension.
NASCAR mandates that the new front end of these cars that feature a spliter that they do not wish to be scrapped on the track surface. No problem. Well, on second thought... yeah, there is a problem because you want the car to get as much downforce as possible in the turns. How to you go low without going too low? Enter the Bump Stop, a suspension device that fits in between the spring spacing that alows you to go soft on front springs, but will only allow the suspension to travel just above the splitter-scraping level.
Simple right?
Now I know what you are saying. "Mark, why don't they just go to a stiffer front spring? Glad you asked, friend! Well, that would make the ride height too high on the straights, and decrease aerodynamic effeciency (or balance), thus slowing the car down in a straight line. The result is this compromise on suspension, that makes this car more than a handful on different courses. The Atlanta cunundrum is this - the place is very fast, and NASCAR has been trying to slow down the place for years now. One of the ways you address it is by mandating a harder tire compound. When you insist on that, with a new car and a suspension settup that teams are still trying to figure out, something bad is bound to happen because the suspension cannot get the maximum grip from a tire as hard as a Superball.
Goodyear is not the problem.
A softer compound at Atlanta would have seen blowouts on the right front, or right rear (I guarentee it). So what do you want the complaint to be after a race - that you had a tire with less grip, or that you had a tire that would not hold up? Now you must be saying, "Mark, they SHOULD have had a tire test at Atlanta. Then they would have known what tire to bring."
They did!
They tested with a softer tire at Atlanta and were not happy with the results. My guess is that they did blow some tires, and decided that you can go really fast and put people in the wall with blown rubber, or you could go with a harder compound, and get what they got.
Stewart's tirade would have made more sense if they were racing last year's car, because the Nationwide Series did not have that problem (Note to Stewart - please notice that.) Such is the problem that exists now in NASCAR. A racecar is a single unit with many parts interdependant on eachother to perform well. If you change anything you change the performance of the whole unit. If Stewart thinks that Firestone, or Hoosier could come in and perform better with this new car, he is really mistaken, but I gotta hand it to Tony, because his latest tantrum will light a fire under NASCAR to get the problem fixed, and if that gets rid of the Bump Stops, or changes the spring rates to make the racing better, then he has accomplished his mission.
I do believe though that Smoke will keep the Goodyears on his personal car. Afterall, I do believe he gets them free!
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For years American open wheel fans have been awaiting what happened last week, and now that the series formerly known as CART, and the Indy Racing League are now "unified" again, some of racing's most powerful people can stop pointing fingers at eachother and find a way to get their sport back into racing's mainstream.
Let's get something straight off the bat. Excuses like "NASCAR has taken much of our fanbase," is totally untrue. OW lost its fanbase to nobody. People just quit watching. Those guys and gals are out there to be brought back into the fold, and the job ahead for Messers George, Kalkoven, etc. is big to say the least. The biggest problem may be who is going to be on the sidepods of these cars, and how do you generate interest from companies that no longer know you exist, or no longer CARE that you do?
At the forefront of this movement back to center is the Indianapolis 500. An event that has been eclipsed in popularity and importance by the Daytona 500. Tony George's leadership at Indy has made the Speedway more profitable than it ever has been with the addtion of events that did not exist before the OW split. Problem is that the Indy 500 is the center of the George family empire, and they want Indy in May to be what it was before the debacale. With the re-unification of American open-wheels, the door is open to get the race back to what it was, but there will be no harder thing to do than lancing the beast that is NASCAR, and the Daytona 500 in the American conciousness.
This partnership came just in time for ChampCar. A company that has seen more transition over the last handful of years than Britney Spears' personal life. The fact of the matter is that they were on life support, and only an olive branch from George could have saved them. The IRL still has value, ChampCar did not. The value of the IRL lay in the month of May, so we must reccognize that the Indy 500 is still a force in this industry. Too bad that was not reccognized in the mid-ninties before the split. We could have avoided all of this, and instead of wondering if Indy will ever be again what it was, we could be looking forward to the month of May.
Who knows, maybe we will again.
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Missing trucks? Probably not. Bill Lester is too busy these days flying from his home in Atlanta, to Daytona and other places where you can turn left and right.
Lester is driving sportycars.
In his early days in sport, Lester cut his teeth in Sports Car Club of America regional competition. He got good enough to become a regional champion, and used it as a stepping stone to eventually get into SCCA Pro Racing, including Trans Am. His sportscar racing journey also saw him compete in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. By the time he became a rookie in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Lester had four Rolex 24 Starts and one podium finish in the race to his credit.
After a half decade in NASCAR, Lester is back road racing again and loving the experience. He is rumored to be in front-running consideration for a top-teer Daytona Prototype team in the Grand American Rolex Series for 2008. Running for a championship is Lester's main goal in Grand-Am Rolex, a goal that was never realized in NASCAR. Never one to look at anything as a waste, Lester does not see his leaving NASCAR as a negative. Quite to the contrary. NASCAR actually opened even more doors for him. Because of his exploits in NASCAR, Lester has found sportscar teams very interested in his services, and last year on the Rolex Series trail he had several starts to compensate for his loss of a Craftsman Series ride.
What is Craftsman Truck's loss is now Grand American's gain - again. Not only that but Lester's experience as a TV analyst should see him getting even more work as a broadcaster for NASCAR telecasts. For Bill Lester one door closed and a few more opened. The result of his talent, and his resolve. Fans no doubt will follow him to his new challenges, something he's truely thankful for.
For Bill Lester and his fans there's still a lot to look forward to.
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Back to back in any major sport is hard to do. In the highly competitive world of NASCAR Cup Series racing, its close to impossible. The names that have repeated not only had the resources behind them, they figured out every track to optimize maximum results. That is how championships happen.
You need a lot of things to win championships. The obvious things are great ownership/sponsorship, teamwork provided by a close-knit group of highly talented people, a crew chief who is the epitome of focus, and organization, and last but not least, a driver who has a relentless drive to go to the front and stay there.
To win the Cup championship is the zenith in American motorsports. To win it in consecutive years, especially when you have to beat a four-time champ who just happens to be your teammate to do it, is the stuff of greatness.
Give it up, the Hendrick/Lowes number 48 Chevy team has now added themselves to the group of elite teams who have accomplished the near impossible. In the process, Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have moved out of the shadow of the 24 team at Hendrick to be reccognized as the best in the business.
The great 48...
Has a nice ring to it!
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Cut it out!
Stop it now, because you don't know what you are saying. I now get the impression that NASCAR fans have no clue of what they want, or what the sport has now become.
That's right, I'm talking to you.
If you were raised on this sport from the sixties, you have forgotten how boring the racing was. If you are a Johnny-come-lately of the last twenty years, you THINK you know what racing should be.
Stop it.
The Daytona 500 was boring as dishwater when it was being won by three laps, Martinsville was sleep inducing when Petty won it by eight laps. Today, when and if a driver wins by a half a lap or more, it is refered to by the media as a dominant performance. Today's arguement is that cars do not pass enough. Ladies and gentlemen, there are races in the history of NASCAR remembered as great that had less than five passes for the lead over 500 miles.
How quickly we forget. Perhaps we never knew.
Today is as exciting as it gets, but even if a driver wins by less than a second, people (fans, and media) are complaining that there was not enough passing. "Well they are just lining up, they ain't racin'" What race are you watching? Please, never tell me that Talladega is boring to you. If fourty cars inches apart at almost 200 mph for 500 miles bores you, then you must live one heck of a personal life!
Give me a call, I wanna hang out with you!
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Something puzzles me.
I don't recall any top NASCAR driver ever deciding to leave NASCAR to drive open-wheels. Conversely, this year we have seen two new defections to next year's Sprint Cup season. This on the heels of Juan Pablo Montoya's rookie year. Jacques Villeneuve, the former F1 World Champion and Indy 500 winner, will join Dario Franchitti, the reigning IRL, and Indy 500 champion when the big show comes to your town.
And the crowd goes wild!
The question is why. An easy question to ask, not an easy one to answer. Is it the money? Is it the prestege? Is it because they need a new challenge? One thing is for sure, (guys like Scott Pruett, and Wally Dallenbach can tell you) As a driver, Cup is the hardest thing you will ever attempt in your life. Dallenbach drove for Hendrick, and never won. Never won in a car sponsored by Budweiser! Ok, so Pruitt drove for Cal Wells, but Ricky Craven did win at Darlington for Wells, so every once in a while they put a decent car on the grid.
Villeneuve has seen his meteoric career go from the highest of highs, to stints with lesser F1 teams, to the Puegeot LeMans factory team this year. Of the six drivers on that team, his was the least impressive in overall performance according to observers. Rumor has it that his manager Greg Pollack brought the money needed to Bill Davis Racing to make his NASCAR dream come true. Pollack was also the guy who gave Villeneuve the bad advise to leave the Williams F1 team the year AFTER he won the world championship to drive for the newly formed British American Racing, a team that Pollack was a part owner of. A move his career never really recovered from. Villeneuve's last major accomplishment in racing? You guessed it!
Franchitti has been a major face in American open wheels for a decade. This year saw the pinnacle of his success, after bouncing around from good team to good team. Though his talent has never been questioned, his luck has not been complementary. Like Villeneuve, Franchitti is at the tail-end of his career. Two earth-departing wrecks this year punctuated the both the best and maybe the worst year of his racing life. These mortality checks might just be the reason why he now wishes for the safety of a closed cockpit car with fenders. I don't get the impression that he thinks that NASCAR will be a cakewalk, this is more of a case where Chip Ganassi is betting that lightning can stike twice in consecutive years. JP Montoya's first year in Cup has been at least a moderate succcess, and Chip wants to see Dario have the same kind of impact.
My advice to Jacques - Understand that you will sign more autographs in one day at a Cup event than you did in a entire year in F1. If you think you can be an island unto yourself in NASCAR, think again. NASCAR will demand that you actually represent sponsors, and face the public. The days of being a racing diva are now offically over.
My advice to Dario - If you think that your wife (Ashley Judd) got attention in the IRL, just wait till all of these down home American Wynonna and Naomi Judd loving fans get a hold of you next year! Keep that girl away from the track or you will not be able to move five feet.
My advice to both - Get ready to get your head handed to you in your first year. If you don't wish to take my word for it, call Montoya and find out. If you thought the racing you've done up til now was competitive, you aint seen nothing yet. Montoya learned that quickly. Gotta hand it to Juan though, when he got pushed, he pushed back!
Welcome to NASCAR, your life will never be the same.
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The start of the GP of Belgum was the most illuminating 20 seconds of the 2007 F1 season. An all Ferrari front row saw Kimi Raikkonen, and Felipe Masa maintain position to finish one and two. The second row saw the defending, two-time champ in Fernando Alonso do everything possible to make sure that teammate, and series points leader Lewis Hamilton did not pass him.
The move was blatent.
A wheel-banging move so extreme that it forced Hamilton onto a grass partition seperating the outside racing line from a runnoff area, which Hamilton used to get back on track. Raikkonen, Massa, Alonso and Hamilton would hold form to finsh in the same positions they started. The Ferrari 1-2 clinched the F1 manufacturers championship for the prancing horse. For McLaren who is now fighting for the only title that F1 will allow them to, (the drivers title) the fight for third and fourth at Spa was the one worth watching, and it will continue to be for the final three races of the F1 season at Japan, China and Brazil.
Get your popcorn (or oatmeal) ready. This is going to be worth getting up for at some obsene hour of the morning to look at. In Hamilton and Alonso you now have two drivers who clearly do not care for eachother, fighting for a title that only one can win. Hamilton, the young upstart, has held the points lead for most of the F1 season. Alonso is a guy with momentum and fire in his eyes. A man who desparately wants a three-peat, and obviously does not care about who's feelings he may bruise to win.
The line is simple: Hamilton 97 pts. - Alonso 95 pts.
The McLarens have shown tremendous reliability, and that will be the basis for the stretch run. Even if Ferrari wins the final three races, all eyes will be fixed on the Silver Arrows of Hamilton, and Alonso. Alonso must at least finish one place in front of Hamilton in each of the last three races to win the title, making this the most compelling drama that F1 has seen in years.
Danielle Steele could not write better drama.
Alonso wears the black hat - willingly. The defending champion has accused the English-based McLaren of favoring the Englishman Hamilton over him, has intentionally blocked Hamilton from winning the pole position at the Hungarian GP, and in recent weeks, has been rumored of providing damaging information to the FIA that ultimately brought punitive action against McLaren, thus costing them the manufacturers championship, and a hundred million dollars in fines. His last win at Monza two weeks ago even saw Alonso snub his crew as he took the checkered flag, when not making the ceremonial salute pass along the pit wall.
This is clearly not Mr. Happy.
Hamilton has simply been magnificent as a rookie driver. Not expected to be a contender for the title, Hamilton has advanced every time Alonso had a misstep. The Alonso/Hamilton fight has been taxing on McLaren team principal Ron Dennis. Dennis groomed Hamilton for the job at McLaren, but also spent a lot of money to get Alonso from Renault. Placed In a dificult situation, Hamilton has shown great cool while also showing a great will to win. Staring down a defending world champion in the process.
The last three races are critical to both drivers. Neither can afford a gaff in either race. Hamilton, even as leader in points must be as aggressive as Alonso to hold on to the smallest of leads. This would be compelling even if Alonso and Hamilton did not wear the same uniform, but as teammates the drama is further hyped. The question is whether the team truely favors either driver. In a season where controversy has been their constant companion, two great drivers must ignore it all in a fight for the right to be called champion.
Make sure that alarm clock is set!
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A disgruntled employee of Ferrari F1 decides to send confidential documents to F1 arch rival McLaren International. McLaren sits on the documents, deciding not to immediately inform F1 officials of the situation.
The result?
This week McLaren was told that no constructors points earned this year will stand, and that they are also not competing for the constructors championship next year as well. This basically gives the title to Ferrari for 07' and 08', and makes Mercedes Benz' participation in F1 basically irrelevent this and next year.
Oh, and McLaren has been fined one hundred MILLION dollars.
If question marks are flying around your head, I thank you because I am as confused as you are! This situation has become very convoluted, with a lot of finger pointing and accusations of wrong doing on both sides. Above all of it is the inference that McLaren actually used the information to improve their current cars. Information that they did not seek, and did not steal.
Don't get me wrong. I would totally respect McLaren for blowing the whistle as soon as they got the documents, but also understand that in the world of industrial esponage, you can get documents that are totally bogus. What are you to do? Tell the FIA that you've got the stuff and then be embarrassed when Ferrari tells the world that you got duped?
A hundred million dollar fine has got to be the biggest fine ever levied in the history of any sport. How can you afford to stay in F1 if you are a hundred million bucks lighter in the wallet? F1 makes an obsene amount of cheese but that's a lot of zeros! I know that mine might be a knee-jerk reaction, but I would tell the FIA to get lost, and in my mind be totally justified for saying it. Let me emphisise something for you. You are just sitting there, and the ultimate result is that you get fined a hundred million spotties!
How does somebody come up with an insane amount like that?
Of course the issue is not as simple as I make it sound. There are all kinds of nuances and back stories that my blog does not have room to go into. But the basics remain that McLaren is guilty of having a mailing address.
I don't know about you, but after this, I am going to check my mail a whole lot more carefully now.
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Jim Aust is not Japanese, but as far as some NASCAR fans are concerned, Jim Aust is the American turncoat who just started World War III, and this time Pearl Harbor has a Home Depot.
Aust is the VP of Motorsports for Toyota Motor Sales USA. Aust also runs Toyota Racing Development (TRD). There may not be a more powerful manufacturer rep in the world of racing, and this week he showed it when he landed Joe Gibbs Racing as Toyota's flagship Nextel/Sprint Cup team for 2008 and beyond.
There are a lot of people who believe that NASCAR should "stay American," and should have never allowed Toyota to join NASCAR. Of course such thinking is very backward, given the fact that when Dodge came back to NASCAR in 2000, they were owned by Daimler-Benz, a German company. Also factor in that Toyota is a major employer of American workers, and sells a heck of a lot of cars in the US.
Ok, off the geo-political and back to racing.
Toyota got off to a slow start in NASCAR. Its first year in the Craftsman Truck Series was not the stuff of legend, with only four wins in 25 races. Two years later, they won almost half the races on tour, the manufacturers championship, and the drivers championship.
I'll repeat that - Two years later.
Aust and his people at TRD have won championships in Grand American Rolex competition with Ganassi/Sabates. They accomplished that in short order as well. TRD has a habit of getting into a series, connecting with great teams, and winning championships. This week that tradition got a great potential boost with JGR siging on. Suddenly, people are taking Toyota a whole lot more seriously than they were in February of this year. You remember February at Daytona - The Waltrip debacle, several Toyota teams show up, most of them leave, Toyota never a factor after much hype. Chevy, Dodge, and Ford lovers basically toasting the Japanese Cup debut as a joke.
Nobody's laughing now.
Up until now, nobody saw JGR's relationship with Chevy as a liability, but with the fusion of RCR and DEI's engine program, and the Hendrick aquisition of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joe Gibbs Racing was starting to feel like being Chevy property was not really a winning situation for them. Not one to sit on his laurels, JD Gibbs decided that if JGR was going to compete on the same support level as Hendrick, he had to make a move, and Jim Aust was there to offer it to him. The result may mean a fourth Nextel/Sprint Cup Championship next year for JGR, and the first for a "foriegn" automaker.
Another thing that makes this move easier for Gibbs is the COT. Every COT chassis that JGR has currently can accomodate a Toyota engine and Toyota body. There is no aero advantage for any manufacturer so the only thing that JGR has to worry about is power, and as they have already proven in the Truck Series, TRD can make power. In Cup, people ultimately make the difference, and JGR has quality people.
Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Toyota - I'm lovin' this! This is why Cup racing is the best motorsports entertainment on the planet. With the swipe of a pen on a contract, NASCAR's stock just went up! If you were looking for the next Dale Earnhardt in NASCAR, this story just gave it to you. Toyota is the new guy in the black hat. American purist race fans are going to root against "The Rising Sun," and are going to get their hearts handed to them.
It is now officially "us against them," except now "them" is also the head coach of the Washington Redskins, and the three-time Nextel/Sprint Cup Series champs. It'll be interesting to see how many boos will rain down when Tony Stewart wins the Daytona 500 - THE 50'th DAYTONA 500 in a CAMRY. Think it can't happen?
Think again.
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You are one of the great names in the history of F1. You have the first place driver in the standings, and the second place guy, and you know that one of them is going to sit on the pole in Hungary. The guy with the points lead is the hottest rookie in the history of the sport, and the guy in second actually wears number one. He is the two-time and defending World F1 Driving Champion. You've got the world by the throat!
And then you forget how squeeze.
In the Hungarian GP's last qualifying session, Fernando Alonso, stalled in the pits in front of his teammate's car before going out on one last bonzi run for the pole. The guy he sat in the pits stalling was McLaren rookie and World Championship points leader Lewis Hamilton. When Alonso left, he had time to make one flying lap to grab the pole. Hamilton did not get that chance.
So...
Alonso gets pole, team manager Ron Dennis gets upset, F1 slaps Alonso with a grid penalty that starts him 10th, Hamilton inherits pole, Hamilton wins race, Hamilton retains points lead, F1 dissalows McLaren constructor points for both cars, Dennis and McLaren appeal, Alonso says its Hamilton's fault for not following team orders in the first session, and Ron Dennis is looking like a complete fool for allowing this to happen in the first place.
Why? Thank's for askin!
If you have the lead in the World Championship, YOU PROTECT THE LEAD, no matter who has it, the defending World Champ, or the rookie upstart! The lead in F1 is hard to get, its even harder to keep. So what you do is protect it. That is why you have two cars, that is why they are painted alike, that is why you have the same sponsors on both cars, and that is why you are called TEAM McLaren. Somewhere in all of this, Fernando Alonso forgot that F1 is a team sport and decided that his winning a third consecutive World Championship is more important than McLaren winning one for the first time in several years.
I know, I know...
They pay Alonso a lot of money, he's the best driver in the world, yada-yada... Get one thing through your head, Alonso and Hamilton are both very young. You cannot treat this like its Alonso's last year in the sport. In Hamilton you have a driver the equal in driving skill to Alonso. Not only that, he has proven that he is competitive as all get out. This kid is not being compared to Schumacher or, Fangio, he is being compared to Ayrton Senna. You do not get higher praise than that. If he has Senna-like ability, that means that he has Senna-Like pride and desire. You do not reward that with favoritism to a guy who is in second place.
McLaren once placed the same kind of situation on the table with Alain Prost and the aformentioned Senna. They dominated in their years at McLaren, with both winning championships but it ended in disaster in 1989 with both drivers taking eachother out at Suzuka at year's end with Senna, (the defending champion) making one last gasp effort to overtake Prost for the crown. For all the races and championships won while they were there, it is the most memorable moment of the Senna/Prost years at McLaren.
McLaren was'nt really asking for this because they never really expected Hamiltion to be this good this fast. Well surprise Ron Dennis, you've got the best driver in the world in the number two car, and you better make sure that you let it be known that the guy in front is the guy you work to keep in front, or the two best drivers in Formula One are going to make you remember the old axium:
Those who do not heed the mistakes of history, are doomed to repeat them.
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Ah, picture it...
The Dale Earnhardt Inc. #8 Chevy Impala SS, sponsored by, (insert name here) driven by, (insert name here) pulls out to qualify for the 2008 Daytona 500...
Insert BOO here!
A pattern originates at Daytona that will be repeated every race during the 08' season. No matter who sponsors the 8, no matter who drives it.
If you are Teresa Earnhardt why would you allow this to happen? What possible good can come of it for you, your organization, your sponsors and your driver? None, and here we are on the outside looking in wondering what the heck the people at Teresa Earnhardt Inc. Are thinking.
I'm a PR guy, so I think like a PR guy. When I look at this situation, I think to myself "How can I make lemonade from this rotting lemon?" Well, if I am "The Stepmom," I go to Junior and say. "That number is just as important to you, as it is to us. As a parting gift from your FAMILY at TEI, take the number with you." Magnanimuous, gracious, classy, call it whatever you want. Teresa Earnhardt would win the hearts of NASCAR fans everywhere with this gesture. I would be among the first to say "That was big of Mrs. E."
Instead I'm writting this.
Kelley Earnhardt Elledge (Junior's sister and manager) and Teresa Earnhardt do not go shoe shopping together, they do not exchange e-mails or recipies, they do not hug in public, and I am positive they do not hug in private. The temprature in any room that both are in has to go down at least ten degrees, and Teresa Earnhardt sent Elledge a little more freon this week when TEI announced that the number 8 will not accompany Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he moves to Hendrick Motorsports.
Think of this.
Your 8 tattoo just got obsoleted, diecast shops are selling number 8 cars at bargain basement prices, (I know because I just spent fifteen bucks for one!) Clothes will be burned, cars and houses will be repainted all because of this. (Home Depots and body shops the nation over are bracing themselves!) Congratulations, you get to buy all new stuff when the new number, and new sponsor come on line, because what will not change is the amount of love there is out there for Dale Jr.. Make no mistake, Junior will make tons of cash and remain as popular as he ever was, no matter what the number, no matter who's product he schleps.
Junior will continue be cheered, NEW driver #8 will be lothed and the gap that divides Dale Earnhardt Jr. from the former Dale Earnhardt Inc. will get even wider. Perhaps I am wrong, I hope that I am, but how can you be on the outside looking at this and not think that this team owner and her company are Earnhardt in name only when something as simple as Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s number cannot successfully be negotiated.
How do you hold family hostage?
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Kyle Busch just signed with Joe Gibbs Racing, and in my simple mind this is more impactful than Junior's defection to Hendrick.
Don't go off on me yet, that is what the comments box is for.
I shall reserve judgement on the Earnhardt/Hendrick connection until I actually see that Junior and Mears are afforded the same level of commitment that the 24 and 48 teams get. Say what you want, when you've got Gordon and Johnson in one building and evidence that they do not share the same info with the "other two" Hendrick teams, it leaves you room to draw your own conclusions. Regardless of if that is true or not...
Kyle Busch won races with Hendrick regardless!
Love him, hate him, Kyle Busch is one of the most talented young drivers we have seen in Cup in the last decade. This kid can flat out drive. He is the youngest driver to have won in the Cup, Busch, and Truck divisions. That he has a personality even more abrasive than his brother will not bring in truckloads of fan mail, but then again JGR already has Tony Stewart! They have made it perfectly clear that they are not interested in winning beauty contests, they want to win races.
JJ Yeley may have been a fine USAC talent, but he has always played catch-up with NASCAR's learning curve. His being fired was just a matter of time. The Interstate Batteries team is a former Cup championship team, but has not done anything noteworthy since the departure of Bobby Labonte. JD Gibbs did not stand pat. Gibbs siezed upon the opportunity to get that team back to the forefront, and he did it with a driver who isn't afraid to mix it up to get up front. That is what great drivers do. That is what great teams want.
In Stewart, Hamlin and Busch you now have three of the best in the business under one roof. In JGR you have a company that wins races and championships, and more importantly could not care less what anybody else is doing. Next year I guarentee that JGR will have three legit championship contending teams.
Can Hendrick really say the same?
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I have heard Tony Stewart blast other drivers for dangerous driving one day, and the next, intentionally take out Matt Kenseth at Daytona. I have heard him make comments that told the world that he has just about had it with NEXTEL Cup racing one day and then the next day proclaim that retirement is nowhere in his immediate future - twice!
Jekyll and Hyde comes to mind.
Tony Stewart may be the best racing driver that the US has produced in the last thirty years. He may also be the most schizophrenic. This year's Brickyard 400 showed once again that Stewart has the capacity to be gracious one second, and totally irreverent the next. On second thought, check that, on Sunday he proved he can be both at the same time! A post race interview on national TV before the Victory Lane celebration got a "B-bomb" delivered in classic Stewart fashion while saluting his adoring fans.
If you are a Stewart fan, you loved it, if you hate Stewart, you found another reason to throw darts at his poster. Tony will probably appologize for the remark AFTER his fine, but you have to wonder what all the wonderful people at Home Depot, and the other companies that sponsor him think of the guy who seems to live by the seat of his pants a little too often.
Defend him if you wish, but in a sport where every point counts, he just lost 25 of them for being "true to himself," while other drivers who show more self retraint gained those same 25 points. It is said that talent is the world's most common commodity while common sense is the one in shortest supply. Common sense would seem to dictate that upsetting Mike Helton is not in your best interest if you are a NEXTEL Cup driver.
What of the engineers and mechanics at Joe Gibbs Racing who toil for hundreds of hours to gain every advantage in performance, to gain every precious point? For some reason Tony Stewart shows very litte respect for their efforts at times like this. What of Joe Gibbs himself who had yet another "oh no!" moment at Indy on Sunday courtesy of NASCAR's favorite "Bad Boy?"
On the other hand...
The man does have two Cup championships, so I could be totally off base here. Acts such as this seem to galvanize a team, and rally them around their driver, thus making the team stronger down the stretch. This irreverent moment might be the launching pad for a third Stewart championship run.
Thanks Smoke, now I'm sounding skitzo myself!
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Boy, the Anheuser-Busch company suddenly has a whole lot of money to spend now, huh?
The beer icon is officially giving somebody else the chance to sponsor NASCAR's second-teer series starting next season, and "The King of Beers" just recently decided to part ways with Dale Earnhardt Jr. after this year. You probably noticed the level of depression felt by Budweiser drinkers everywhere.
What to do with all of that cash? Speculators are now saying that that the red tide may land in a number of camps for next year's NASCAR Cup Series campaign. At the top of the list is Evernham Motorsports, and young prince Kasey Kahne. The word is that Kasey is the perfect candidate because of his overall appeal, his commercials are cool, and the ladies like him as much as they do the departing Earnhardt Jr.(maybe even more). He also happens to get into victory lane every once in a while.
Evernham Motorsports might be a nice fit for Bud since Dodge is backing off their corporate sponsorship of the 9 and 19 cars. Hey, but hold the phone, DEI is not out of the running to keep the crown. Not that driving the red number 8 would be a good PR move for anbody after Junior leaves, but Kyle Busch (rumored) could suddenly become the driver of that car. Let's just hope they at least change the car number. Not even Kyle Busch deserves that much booing.
Of course a lot of people are still curious as to why Junior just did not take the Bud brand with him to Hendrick. Well let us recall that Hendrick had a very non-successful run with the Bud brand. They ran the number 25 with Bud paint for half a decade, and did nothing with it. My guess is that the people at Bud might still be a little bitter about that, and decided that the Hendrick move might be good for Junior, but not good for them.
The most famous driver, sponsorship combo in NASCAR has now produced two free agents. With Junior spoken for with a sponsor still yet to be named, Bud needs to find a home. Bud loyalists everywhere are wondering just where that home will be. They also want to know who will be the next driver to represent Bud Nation, and become the lord of happy hours all over the land. For all of those who wish to know who - This one's for you!
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