Pre Shootout RacinDeals

CORRECTION: I’ve been informed that Robert Pressley didn’t bring any
sponsorship money with him to the #18 truck ride. To me, that makes Joe
Ruttman’s release even more puzzling. Why drop a driver that’s had several top
five finishes in the championship for one that doesn’t have that type of
experience in the series? Wouldn’t Ruttman without a sponsor have a better shot
than Pressley without a sponsor? Nothing against Pressley, but something doesn’t
add up.

RANKLING RANKINGS: The Charlotte Observer has come out with their rankings
of Winston Cup tracks for the 2001 season. Surprise, hometown track Charlotte
Motor Speedway is first. Guess they want to sell more advertising space to
Humpy. Second was Daytona, in part for the "competition." If they want
to base it on the Daytona 500, then fine. But the Firecracker 400 had what, 2
lead changes? No, I know it had more, but when you have one car dominate the way
Earnhardt did, where’s the competition?

The fact that Las Vegas even made the top ten should tell you how much their
rankings are worth.

BITING THE HAND THAT FED ME: Thank God Dover Downs Entertainment no longer
has anything to do with the historic speedway at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds
(now called Fairgrounds Speedway at Nashville). I’m not sure there’s an
organization that was less interested in running a weekly racing show than
Dover, and it showed. 

As you may or may not know, I was the
webmaster for the track (and for about a year, Dover’s main website), so a lot
of times I held my tongue on some things I saw. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of
good people working for the organization. But the management at the top levels
just makes mind boggling decisions sometimes. I know that if I ever decide to
run a race track, unlike Dover, I’m going to hire people who actually know
motorsports.

RED LIGHT SPECIAL II: So, is Kmart in or out? Take your pick, since both
stories are on the internet. Why is it so hard for these reporters to call Kmart
and find out the truth, instead of writing about something they found somewhere
else on the ‘net? Now the latest is that Kmart will be with Travis Carter’s
teams for the first two races. Ah, sports journalism at its best.

24 HOURS? 24 MINUTES WAS ENOUGH: I
tried to watch some of the 24 hour race at Daytona this weekend. Since I got
digital cable, I now receive Speedvision, so I get a lot of race programming
that I didn’t get last year. I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe it’s because I
knew virtually none of the names, or maybe it’s because I just don’t like road
course racing. I heard that it was a "close" race, in that the winner
"only" had 6 laps on second place.

That’s not racing.

THAT’S NOT THE ANTHEM, EITHER: If
you’ve read any of my columns in the past, you’ll know that one of my pet peeves
is the performance of the National Anthem. Whatever "national recording
artist" they got to sing the Anthem for the 24 hour race needs to go to
remedial Anthem-singing school.

Folks, it’s simple: the National Anthem is
not a "signature" song, it’s not an "interpretative" piece,
it’s not something you ad lib. Part of being an American (especially after
September 11, 2001) is being able to sing the National Anthem at sporting
events. If you have some "singer" "interpreting" the song
and changing the melody or even words, then it’s impossible to sing along,
because you don’t know what the singer is doing.

You’d think the powers that be would have
learned something from Roseanne Barr’s disgraceful performance of the Anthem a
few years ago.

GOING LIKE HOTCAKES: So, Fox, TNT,
and NBC supposedly lost their collective shirts on ad revenue from the NASCAR
package last year. And with the economy the way it is this year, they’re liable
to lose more clothing, right?

Well, not so fast. According to TVInsite,
ad sales are brisk so far this year, and the NBC/TNT combination has already
sold 75% of their ad space.  There’s no word on how Fox is doing, but if
they’re doing as well as NBC/TNT, then they might regain some of the loses they
had last year.