WEEK EIGHT MISCELLENEA
Entering Martinsville, some I-was-just-thinking ponderences:
One of the few sensible pieces to be authored recently about NASCAR’s use of aero anchors was by Adam Sewell at Autoracing1.com. He compares Tony Stewart’s tumble to that of Bill Elliott in 1996, and also notes the tumbles of Michael Waltrip and Jeff Green at Daytona in 2000. He does stumble when he gets roof flaps off the hook – contrary to the piece, the flaps have not worked terribly well in the seven years they’ve been employed. He also succumbs to “take the restrictor plates off” foolishness – but at least points out the greater danger such would have in terms of spectator safety – and bemoans how tightly packed cars are in plate races, ignoring the greater frequency of injurious crashes away from those tracks. Curiously, he also neglects to mention that it was drivers, the same ones who now gripe about the aero anchors, who recommended them in the first place.
Still, Sewell’s piece is a much-needed antidote to the bashing that has occurred recently.
Stock Car City has a piece on Earnhardt’s broken lap belt that asks why Earnhardt supposedly didn’t notice that the belt was weakened while he was driving. It also repeats the question of why NASCAR waited five days before revealing that the belt was broken – ignoring that the answer was provided at the Hampton Roads (VA) Daily Press on March 9th.
There’s renewed talk of a “rival” stock car series, with justifications provided at the Stock Car Reporters site. These justifications, though, fizzle on further analysis.
The piece gripes about NASCAR control via its marketing department. Annoying, yes, but so far it has been more a nuisance than a real threat. It also claims “NASCAR screwed ABC/ESPN,” which is self-deceiving nonsense. Also nonsensical is the statement about how FOX has “blackmail(ed) current sponsors into advertising on their broadcasts.” These sponsors who are angry are only being self-righteous, presumably having expected to keep getting airtime freeloading as they did before. Their gripes are worth ignoring – especially considering they have pressured NBC and TNT into dropping their experiment, first tried at Charlotte last October, with coverage continuing through commercial time.
Nor are the logistics there, as Journalnow pointed out in March – Mark Quenzel of ESPN noted that tracks are not in sufficient numbers and those that are there are tied up already.
And to trust Bruton Smith is to ignore the fiascoes his racetrack empire has wrought over the years.
Two short track tragedies recently transpired – at Rockland Speedway in IL Al Papini III apparently suffered a heart attack on Lap 34 of a 40-lap Late Model feature. His car shot through the infield and punched the first turn wall, then tumbled out of the track. Meanwhile, James Neaves, president of the New Smyrna Quarter Midget Racing Association, was hit by a Q-midget under a yellow and flipped and landed on his head. He was in critical but stable condition as of this writing.
More tragedy – Kathy Bodine, Geoff’s ex, passed away recently. She is perhaps best known for leaving Bodine during the August 1994 Bristol weekend, the event that sent Geoff on the tailspin of his career.
Kevin LePage has acquitted himself well in the Morgan-McClure Chevrolet in his first two starts. A Vermont native and graduate of the Grand National North series, LePage drove in Grand National with his own team before David Ridling came calling early in 1996. LePage ran the ’96 season well and capped it off with victory at Homestead. The Ridling team foundered the next year and LePage wound up in Joe Falk’s ex-Ron Neal Winston Cup Chevys, showing stunning form as he made race fields despite having basically no money to work with. In 1998 he found himself taking over Jack Roush’s #16 Fords from Ted Musgrave while on the side driving Doug Taylor’s #40 Chevrolets in Grand National – and winning at Bristol on a late restart that August.
LePage, however, suffered the same fate with Roush as Musgrave, Chad Little, and Johnny Benson – Roush refused to spend any serious money on his outfit, focusing instead on Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, and then Matt Kenseth. As a result, LePage’s ride was closed down after 2000 and he was adrift with only his own GN team.
Now LePage looks like he can resurrect his career with a team that still has competitive spunk.
Among the other Roush rejects, Johnny Benson has blossomed since leaving Roush and joining what was at the time Tim Beverly’s ex-Darrell Waltrip outfit. The team’s merger with Morton-Bowers Motorsports and acquisition by Valvoline has only added to its strength.
His former teammate, Musgrave, has won twice in the Craftsman Truck series so far, driving Jim Smith’s Ultra Dodge.
Chad Little has begun to rebuild his career, driving Bill Baumgardner’s Chevrolet in Grand National competition. Lacking sponsorship, BACE Motorsports has not been terribly strong, but it hasn’t been all that weak, either.
Seven years ago Jeff Green was virtually unknown in racing. Then Dale Earnhardt hired him for his Grand National car and he showed competitive fire, despite a reported inconsistency with setups. He then won with Gary Bechtel and got a Winston Cup opportunity 1997-8, first with Bechtel, then with Felix Sabates. Then he went back to Grand National as teammate to Jason Keller and has set the series afire. Richard Childress has thus hired him for his third Winston Cup team for seven races in 2001. Look for Green to be driving a full-time AOL Chevrolet in 2002.
They say watching the end of drivers’ careers can be painful. It certainly is painful to see the collapse of Tim Brewer’s career. Once a crew chief you could count on to win you a championship, Brewer has never recovered from reportedly taking Flossie Johnson’s side in her divorce battle with Junior. Junior fired him after 1992 and he has bounced from team to team since, first with Bill Davis, then with Michael Kranefuss, then with Morgan-McClure, and lately with Jim Smith’s Ultra Motorsports team. It’s been quite a downward slide from the days when Brewer chiefed Cale Yarborough to his last title and Darrell Waltrip to his first, through days in and out of Johnson’s outfit, through his return to competitive glory with Terry Labonte, Geoff Bodine, and Bill Elliott.
One who has not acquitted at all has been Shawna Robinson. In case you forgot why she was gone from racing for nearly four years after early 1995 – no, her bearing of two children came after she was axed from Grand National – you saw again in her pathetic performance at Texas. Qualifying well, she faltered in traffic and tried to dive-bomb Shane Hall despite not having anything approaching a decent entry position in Three; the result was a two-car wreck, a typical ending to a Shawna race.
Finally, the drop-dead funniest droll answer to a smart-aleck letter this side of Jesse Helms’ wise-guy satire of the hunt for Slobodan Milosevic comes from Mike Calinoff at StockCarCity – in answer to a suggestion for a piece on underdogs, Calinoff responds with a dissertation on The Underdog Show from the 1960s, complete with a snap of “One of the city’s most humble and lovable residents….Shoo Shine Boy” who of course caused endless fits to AT&T by blowing up phone booths in transmuting to his superpowered alter-ego, all the better to save Sweet Polly Purebread from such dastardly perps as Simon Barsinister and wolfy mobster Riff Raff.
Unfortunately we must end this part on a sad note with the recent passing of Norma McMillan, the voice of Sweet Polly Purebread and also of Davey Hanson from The Lutheran Church’s long-running Art Clokey animated classic Davey & Goliath.
So now it’s on to Martinsville. After that I’ll be looking for copies of Eddie Gossage’s signature 1998 Texas T-shirts, all the better with everyone’s favorite track coming up after Easter.