Danica mania must be dying down, she ain't won no pole position lately neither. What better to do than bring in her ex-arch nemesis to get into a steel cage cat fight death match to stir up the good ol' boys? They're grasping at straws to keep interest going. It seems I read recently that Venezuela may be selling off a portion or all of Citgo. That can't bode too well. BHW
The National Guard has decided that spending $40M annually (thats tax payers dollars) on their sponsorship of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Jr. Jr. in NASCAR and Graham Rahal in Indy Car hasn't resulted in any uptick of fresh recruits. National Guard to end NASCAR and IndyCar sponsorships - ESPN BHW
$40mm and not one recruit....what would happen if a business spent $40mm and got zero ROI? granted I think some of that is that people are reluctant to sign up for the Guard now that there's a significant chance of overseas deployment (or at least their has been up until now), but still....they're getting recruits from somewhere.... also sad that the government is considered a blue chip racing sponsor feel bad for Rahal more so than Hendrick/HMS, RLL just landed that deal this year, I was hoping that the funding would put that team up front.
I had a similar gripe when the USPS was sponsoring the US pro cycling team and paying the ***** lance Armstrong crazy coin. really? did the USPS need to sponsor a team for millions and millions of dollars? how was that ROI tracked and accounted for?
btw chas...I seriously look at you of the voice of reason regarding all forms of racing on this chat. you are deep in most disciplines. please give me advance notice when you are headed to charlotte for a visit...we will do a run. you take the Boxer and I will drive the 930 good times woot woot!!!
sounds like a deal! and I appreciate the compliment...30 years of following racing, 20 years of following the business of racing, 4 years in the business (support services), I like to think I've picked a few things up along the way I am very concerned for the future of NASCAR, and by virtue of their long reaching business interests, the rest of American motorsports. so far this year, two blue chip, front running Sprint Cup teams have lost major sponsors (JGR with Home Depot, HMS with Nat'l Guard). that's somewhere around $40-50mm gone from one series alone....the TV deal, ratings, attendance, the RTA, they can't fill fields consistently, I fear the next few years could be bad ones. I hope for the best, I think the ship can be righted, but ego and greed need to step aside to reality for a while.
The air is going out of NASCAR's sails. The only way to bolster interest is to be sure their most popular driver wins the championship this year. No doubt Jr. Jr. Jr. will get into "The Chase" and when that starts, expect to see the real manufactured drama nonsense fly. BHW
Dale Jr. grabs top spot in Chase Standings | NASCAR.com NASCAR announces Chase for the Sprint Cup format change | NASCAR.com
I have my *nice* 944 in boxes giving it a full going over, may take me another year, who knows. Once its back in one piece with some improvements, I'll be back on the car scene again. ^^ The valve guides are shot with age/use, making a packing crate tonight to ship the head off to Lindsey Racing. Once I get the top of the engine squared away, I can do an accurate leakdown and see what I'll be doing on the bottem end. I'm no longer on a dirt road, so removing the half in layer of concrete from the underside of the car has been a pretty time consuming undertaking. Its been fun, but my time to work on it is limited, so the time table to completion is a big question mark sadly. Car had seen some rough past ownership/mechanics. Pretty much anything the prior owner had his mechanic do was done half right/cheap. Re us of old cracked suspension bushings, etc. Kind of spooky I was driving the thing around.
Hendrick has steadily been moving some of their best personal behind Jr., as Jr. being the most popular driver, also brings in the coin. This started when Jeff and Jr. switched shops. Jr. has Jeff's old pit crew, and they've been doing fantastic this year. Carl Edwards new team is cannibalizing Jr's team, next year is gonna be crazy.
Congrats to AJ winning his first NASCAR race and a big kudos to Ambrose for racing clean, I love NASCAR road races.
A implementation of a rule that suspends/fines a driver for exiting the vehicle before safety personal arrive, is probably a good rule to put into place this week. Exception for fire of course. A rule like this would still permit Tony Stewart's helmet toss, as Tony Stewart threw after emergency vehicle's arrived, and and after the car's had had adequate time to form up behind a pace car, and be in reasonable control. The same also for Danica's wave of frustration not too long ago. Can anyone remember who/where/what the incident on pit road, where a driver slammed on the brakes in front of someone he wasn't happy with, climbed out his car, and went to the stopped car behind them for what I believe was a physical confrontation. The blocked car reacted by shoving the now driverless car in front of him out of the away to avoid getting a beating. The driver less car veered left into the pit wall, fortunately missing the gate area into the garage/spectators/crew. That was extremely unacceptable if the guy who got out was throwing punches into a race car at a driver strapped in with nowhere to go. I'm pretty sure they both got penalties for it. Problem is, I can't remember who/where to look it up. It was at night. There's a line between endangering yourself and others, and an acceptable display from a distance Jumping onto/into other cars is waaaaaaaay out of line, and jumping into/onto the path of cars before they've even formed up under yellow is even worse..
You're thinking about Harvick and Kyle Busch getting into it. Harvick blocked Busch coming down pit road after the race. They both stopped, Harvick got out to go back to Busch's car and right after he climbed out Kyle just pushed Harvick's car out of the way which then rolled into the pit road wall while Kyle drove away leaving Harvick looking like a dummy..
I am no longer posting in the other thread. In reguards to this type of action - to race in short tracks, and NASCAR, you HAVE to be uncaring, self centered, and somewhat hot headed. Unless you are some one like Paul Menard. Driver's just have different cool down periods. They nearly *all* throw fits, just some do it with the helmet on and you never see or hear it. It doesn't matter how "nice a guy" they may seem outside the car - nice guy goes away when a race is on the line for any championship driver.
