We’re Not In Kansas RacinDeals

DEATH AGAIN: My sincere condolences
go out to the Alexander family. I was shocked when I heard of his passing this
morning on Paul Harvey’s morning broadcast.

OPPORTUNISM: Sadly, some people
seem to be using his death as an opportunity to push their safety agenda onto
NASCAR, even though this wasn’t even a NASCAR sanctioned race. Lew Composites
released a statement from Paul Lew where he said "As far as I’m concerned,
as soon as the bumper testing was completed one extra day in approval was one
day too long. This didn’t have to happen."

Instead of trying to push a product onto
NASCAR by using the death of an ARCA driver, Lew should be doing more tests on
his bumper. The impression I get is that there hasn’t been much real world
testing of the bumper, just mostly computer simulations and only one or two
actual crash tests. Why not test the bumper on 40 or 50 cars at different angles
and at different speeds instead of blasting NASCAR for something it had nothing
to do with?

Maybe it’s me, but it sure seems like the
folks who manufacture safety equipment lately are shooting themselves in the
foot.

THE NUMBER THREE: There seems to be
some confusion over the number three for some reason. RCR has announced that
they’ll be running the #29 next year and that they’re lobbying NASCAR to retire
the number three. Where the confusion comes in is when RCR said that if NASCAR
didn’t retire the three, they still have it registered.

Folks, the registration they’re talking
about is with the trademark office, not NASCAR. If you Earnhardt fans will look
at the "3" closely, you’ll see the ® symbol next to it. All that
means is that RCR (and Earnhardt’s estate) will still be able to make a ton of
money off of collectibles with the stylized three, no matter who in the future
uses the number.

NASCAR should put the number three back
into the pool of numbers for 2003. I think what will happen is that the number
will be semi-retired by team owners. In other words, even though the number is
available, no owner will request it for a long time. I daresay that it’ll be at
least 5 or so years after the number becomes available that someone would have
guts enough to ask for the number.

LITTLE 3: Some people want Dale
Earnhardt, Jr. to assume the #3. Seems to me that Dale Sr. wanted to honor his
father by having his son run the #8. Now we want to go against Dale Sr’s wishes?

NASCAR’S NEW PRIMA DONNA: Congratulations, Kevin
Harvick! You’re the newest prima donna in the racing world. Yes, that’s right.
You get to cause wrecks and then blame others for them. You get to blast your
team mates. And finally, you get to start losing fans because of your attitude.

Let me see if I get this right: a car is practically down
on the apron, and Harvick still cuts him off by cutting down when he wasn’t
clear. Then Harvick has the balls to blame NASCAR and the car he was passing.

Kevin Harvick, you’re in one of the best rides in the
sport. Your Winston Cup ride was the result of the death of Dale Earnhardt…
remember him? You’re taking the team that he helped build and the fans of his
that you inherited for granted. You need to step back and count your blessings,
because you’re the luckiest driver in NASCAR.

The fact is, you caused the wreck with Andy Kirby, and no
one else is to blame. Why not show some class next time and take the blame when
you’re at fault?

You need to count your blessings. You
should thank your lucky stars that you live in America and get paid a LOT of
money to do what a lot of people would do for nothing.

SPEAKING OF RCR: You have to wonder
if Jeff Green and Robby Gordon are having second thoughts about their future.
Both failed to make the Charlotte race driving RCR cars; Green in the car he’ll
be driving full time next year, and Gordon in the car that he’s rumored to be in
next year.

CHARITY GIMMICKS: Robby Gordon and
Jimmy Johnson, both sponsored by Lowe’s this weekend, were supposed to earn $100
each per lap and $1000 each per lap led in Sunday’s race for the 9-11 Disaster
Relief Fund. But Gordon didn’t make the race. Does that mean now that Lowe’s
will only donate $100 per lap and $1000 per lap led instead of the $200 and
$2000 originally planned? Can it be true that Lowe’s will potentially cut in
half their donation just because of the performance of one team?

Which brings me to my point: I think it’s
great that sponsors and drivers and race teams do a lot for charitable causes.
But to tie the amount of money given to the number of laps run is just a gimmick.
If Johnson goes out and blows up after one lap, will Lowe’s only donate a measly
$100? If both teams completed all 334 laps, that’d come out to $66,800. If one
team managed to lead just 50 laps, that’d be another $50,000.

Lowe’s: why not just donate $100,000 to
the cause and forget the gimmicks?

NOT SILLY, BUT CRAZY SEASON: Bobby
Hamilton, Jr. in the #4. Jeremy Mayfield fired. Mike Skinner quits for surgery.
McDonalds bails on Andy Houston, who’s going to Busch next year. Jimmy Spencer
leaving Travis Carter. Bill Elliott rumored to be retiring at the end of the
season.

What in the sam hill is going on?

And now I see that Mike Wallace will be in
the #12 for the rest of the year. Can you say nepotism?

3, 2, F1, BLASTOFF: During one of the countless
cautions in the Kansas race, I switched over to ABC for a few minutes. I watched
those NASA guys getting ready for the next shuttle launch. Those control panels
with all the monitors are really impressive.

Wait a minute. Turns out it wasn’t a NASA launch I was
watching, but the US Grand Prix from Indianapolis.

I keep thinking that if I watch enough of those
"races" I’ll figure out what the attraction is. But as far as I can
tell, all you have is a bunch of vastly overpaid guys out there running lap
after lap with little or no passing. A typical F1 race goes like this: start on
the pole, win the race. Sure, there are exceptions, like when the pole sitter
has mechanical trouble, or the pole sitter’s team mate is the one who is really
supposed to win and his team owner orders him to pull over. But as a general
rule, there’s really no competition on the track.

I guess I don’t get it. TV ratings this week
were interesting. The USGP ended up with a 0.8 rating and a 2 share, just a tad
over 800,000 households tuning in. The Winston Cup race from Kansas had a 4.7
rating with an 11 share, 4.8 million households watching. The Winston Cup race
drew the most ever viewers for a race going against the NFL.