Week 26 RacinDeals

HARVICK: If you ask me, Kevin Harvick is getting a
little too cocky. He’s stepped into the sweetest ride in NASCAR, and by default
picked up Dale Earnhardt’s fans.

But this weekend at Darlington, he ran over more people
than he passed. It’s one thing to be going for the win and tap someone, but it’s
another to just knock someone out of the way.

Someone needs to remind Harvick that he’s not Dale
Earnhardt. NASCAR’s fine of $10,000 isn’t even enough to get his attention.

RED FLAG FINISHES: By throwing the red flag at the
end of the race, NASCAR proves that they know the fans want a green flag finish.
But throwing the red flag is not the way to do it. So what if the race goes over
the advertised distance?

All races should be finished with at least a
green/white/checkered flag.

ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT: Here’s an idea: next
Saturday, don’t watch the Winston Cup race from Richmond. If you must see it,
tape it. Go to your local short track and watch those guys instead. You’ll get a
better show out of the deal.

STUPID THINGS: Speaking of action at the local
short tracks, I have to say that I’ve seen the stupidest, most idiotic thing at
a track that I’ve ever seen. Saturday night at Nashville Speedway USA in the
125-lap SuperTruck race, Brad Stell was involved in a wreck. His truck stopped
at the start/finish line and caught on fire. Stell was able to exit the truck
quickly and track officials extinguished the fire.

But Stell was still apparently hot. When the truck of
William Heath entered the pits under the yellow, Stell picked up a fire
extinguisher and threw it at Heath’s truck. It bounced off the windshield and
hit one of the track officials, knocking him out cold. The official, Glenn
Winfrey, was transported to the hospital but was released later that night, with
a minor concussion.

Earlier this year, Joe Buford also did a stupid thing,
taking out the leader who was parked in turn 2 while the race was red flagged.
Buford’s mental lapse resulted in a two race suspension, costing him a shot at a
fourth championship. Buford barely missed the pace car, and received the
suspension in order to get his attention.

If I were Brad Stell, I wouldn’t even bother showing up at
the banquet, even though he finished second in points. Nashville Speedway should
ban him, period. He’s dangerous and it’s lucky that Winfrey wasn’t hurt more
seriously.

STEADMAN: Just to correct something that Matt Yocum
said during the broadcast Sunday, Sterling Marlin’s son Steadman didn’t win a 25-lap
race Saturday night. He won a 125-lap race Saturday night. He dominated that
race just like he dominated the 50-lap race the previous weekend. Steadman now
has four career wins in the Late Models at Nashville Speedway (one more than
Casey Atwood), which puts him in the company of Jody Ridley and Neil Bonnett. By
the way, Sterling is third on the all time win list with 51, behind Darrell Waltrip and
Joe Buford who are tied with 55 wins.

HEAD RESTRAINTS: I thought head restraints were
supposed to keep drivers from getting injured? Steve Park certainly got his bell
rung and will be missing some more races. Robert Pressley looked pretty woozy
after getting out of his car.

What happened?

WEB SITES: Hadn’t been to Fox Sports auto racing web
site really since they ended their part of the race season. Just went back
to it and it really looks slick.

ROUSH IS…RIGHT: If you’ve read the stuff I’ve
written for any length of time, you know by now that I’m not a big fan of Jack
Roush. He treated Joe Ruttman wrong, and I don’t really like the way he did it.

But as the saying goes, even a blind pig gets an acorn
every now and then.

When asked about the "Humpy" bumper, Roush said "I
have no plans to put this bumper on our cars in the near future. These
situations can’t be dealt with too quickly."

Bravo. More car owners should take that attitude with this
thing.

THANKS: I haven’t been paying much
attention to the traffic RacinDeals.com has gotten over the last several months.
So today I decided to see what was going on.

Boy, was I surprised!

August 2001 was a record month for
RacinDeals.com. Well over 10,000 visits were made to the site in August. I know
that doesn’t sound like much compared to some other sites on the net, but just a
year ago getting 5,000 visits a month was a big month.

So, thanks to everyone.