Week 2 RacinDeals

BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU: Looks like some "minority"
shareholders in Speedway Motorsports, Inc. have filed a lawsuit against NASCAR
for failure to grant Texas a second race.

Hmm, let’s see. If I’m a majority shareholder in this company, and I want to
sue NASCAR, but I don’t want it to look like I’m behind the suit, what would I
need to do to get some of the smaller shareholders to bring the suit?

Texas doesn’t need a second race. If Texas wants a second race, then SMI
knows what to do to get it. They just take it away from one of their other
tracks like they did North Wilkesboro. Las Vegas would be a good place to not
have a race if you ask me.

If this suit actually gets to court, it could have a detrimental affect on
NASCAR’s ability to sanction races. It’s bad enough that some judge somewhere
who barely knows what a computer is is ruling on what Microsoft should put in
Windows. But can you imagine another judge somewhere who doesn’t know anything
about the sport controlling the tracks that NASCAR races at?

INCREASING COSTS: It looks like NASCAR is bound and determined to have the
Truck Series fail. Seems like every year they change something which makes it
more expensive to run. For example, the first Truck race I went to, Bobby
Hamilton’s truck team had a total of 3 pit crew members and their tool box was
just that, a small tool box.

But then NASCAR decided to do away with the half time stops, which meant
teams had to have enough people to pit the truck under caution. Now this year
they’ve eliminated the rule that limited the teams to changing only two tires
under caution. So you need better and faster guys on your pit crew, plus your
tire bill just got doubled.

The Truck Series was fine the way it was, with the half time stops. But
NASCAR’s tinkering with it has changed it so that it’s basically not any
different from the Busch Series or any of their other touring series. So if it’s
not any different, why even have it? Why not put car bodies on instead and just
have another regional touring divison?

A SPONSOR MADE FOR WINSTON CUP: I’m surprised that the sponsor for the Busch
race this weekend isn’t actually sponsoring the Winston Cup race. It’s a term
life insurance company, and when you go to their web site, they tout the fact
that smokers can get life insurance from them. Only problem with that is,
smokers can generally get life insurance from any insurance company, albeit at a
higher premium.

But would you really want to do business with this company? If you’re in
South Carolina, you can’t,
at least not this year.

BACK HOME AGAIN: Finally, NASCAR has come back to Fox.

TIME WARP: Ok, I didn’t major in math, so my calculation might be off.
But I figure the Indy Racing League is around 6 years old or so. So then, how
can there be a 20th Anniversary Grand Prix of Miami next week?

ENGINE RULE: Slowly but surely, NASCAR is coming around to my way of
thinking <grin>.  One of my first columns was titled "If
I Ruled NASCAR." One of the final points in the column was a blurb
about qualifying engines. Hey, if I don’t toot my own horn, no one else will.
[TONGUE-IN-CHEEK MODE OFF]