Week 28 RacinDeals

I’M BACK: It seems like
forever since I wrote something for RacinDeals, but I’m back now.
The World Trade Center and Pentagon tragedies, and the death of
my brother in law combined to keep me out of circulation for a
couple of weeks. Although I was back in Nashville late Saturday
night, I didn’t watch the Dover race; I was catching up on some
much needed sleep. But there are a few things to comment about,
so here we go.

BELTS AGAIN: Jeremy
Mayfield is lucky to be alive. If his belt had completely
separated, instead of just partially tearing, we’d be mourning
another fatality.

His crew insists the belts were installed
correctly, and I don’t have any reason to doubt that. Why in the
world would anyone in their right mind not intstall a
belt correctly after the results of the Earnhardt investigation
were announced?

At least NASCAR is not doing nothing about
it. They mandated this week that the belts should not be mounted in such a way
so that labels are under the adjusters. That makes sense. If the label lets the
belt slip under the adjuster, then that could cause the dumping that’s occurred
so much this year. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Personally,
I wish they’d have just out right cancelled the race, once it
became clear that it wasn’t going to be run as scheduled. But why
schedule it for the day after Thanksgiving? Why not run it on the
Sunday after Thanksgiving? And why stick with the starting lineup
that was created when qualifying was cancelled? Why not let the
teams qualify? Make it a two day show with practice and
qualifying on Saturday, then run the race on Sunday.

I don’t understand why Friday the 23rd was
the only option, and NASCAR hasn’t made it clear.

And who is Bruton Smith think he is,
offering to run the race at his Texas track? People use the word
greedy a lot when referring to NASCAR, but there are other folks
it applies to as well.

COOLER HEADS: Coolers seem
to be on the endangered species list at race tracks now. In a
major over reaction to the threat of terrorism (and a victory for
the terrorists), coolers have been banned at all ISC tracks and
were banned at Dover last weekend.

Frankly, this stinks of the promoters
wanting extra revenue from the fans by taking advantage of the
tragedy to eliminate the coolers. That makes me ashamed to be a
fan. At least Bruton hasn’t jumped on this bandwagon. He’s to be
commended for that.

If you go to a track that has banned
coolers, then here’s what I’d suggest you do: eat your lunch
before the race. Here’s another idea: stay sober. Don’t give the
promoter any more of your money than necessary to get into the
race.

Perhaps if they see concession revenue dry
up, they’ll realize that the fans are voting the only way they
can: with dollars.

GOODYEARS, AND BADYEARS:
It’s getting to seem more and more like Goodyear is just losing
it. How many wrecks this year have been caused by lousy tires?

Hey, Firestone, if you’re listening,
there’s a racing series that needs your tires….badly. I haven’t
heard any complaints from the IRL or CART (or F1 teams for that
matter) about bad tires. Perhaps Goodyear is resting on their
laurels at the expense of good competition, and, dare I say it,
safety for the teams.

MEMO TO RICHARD CHILDRESS: Robby
Gordon?