The Spin Out Zone – Hendrick Motorsports & Jim Smith Get Bumped
Hold on – here is the bump and the SPIN OUT!
WHAT? Doesn’t anyone want to be the 2002 Winston Cup Champion? What a strange
season, first SQUEEGEE Gate back at The Winston with Jeff Gordon and now ROOKIE
Gate at Talladega with Jimmie Johnson. I know the Winston Cup veterans do not
want to see a rookie taking the championship, but JEZZ Mark, isn’t taking the
rookie Winston Cup point leader OUT even before the race a bit much? Jimmie
Johnson lost a lap when Mark Martin lost his steering when he was warming up his
tires right before the green flag dropped. Mark shot across the track and nailed
Jimmie causing front-end damage to his #48 Lowes Chevy and forcing him to pit on
lap one. Of course, Mark is in the championship hunt too, so both found
themselves loosing ground on the NEW Winston Cup point leader, Tony Stewart. Oh
well, I guess Tony now holds the BAD LUCK torch and we’ll see how long he stays
on top before he trips up.
QUICK BUMP
JIM SMITH and ULTRA MOTORSPORTS: We HAVE NOT heard much about this in
NASCAR’s elite media and I am wondering why? Reports have Jim Smith, co-owner of
the #7 Sirius Dodge and owner of two Craftsman Truck Series teams, has been
accused of illegal dumping of hazardous materials. Mr. Smith and three others
have been accused of 17 counts of this type of dumping in California.
I’m actually upset because IF Mr. Smith is GUILTY of this CRIME, he should be
punished to the full extent of the law. This is a selfish act of greed to save
money on PROPERLY disposing these materials. If this is true, it will go down in
NASCAR history as one of the most STUPIDEST crimes. This guy has it ALL
including a partnership with Ray Evernham that saved his Winston Cup operation.
Yes, he has been around the sport for a while, but while others in the sport do
ALL they can to help men, women and children in need, Mr. Smith dumps corrosive
acid and toxic metals which could cause all kinds of problems to people
including KIDS! Skin problems, lung problems and eye problems are typical
reactions from these type of materials and if exposed at high levels, could
result in death. BEEP, BEEP, Mr. Smith this is why it’s ILLEGAL!
I hope for your case that you are not involved and you will walk away CLEAN,
but if you did DO IT, my advice to you is – If you can’t do the job the right
way, then get the HECK out of DODGE!
SPIN OUT
Normally the nightmare at Talladega involves the BIG ONE, maybe 15 or 20
cars. This past weekend in Talladega, the nightmare involved six cars and one
engine department. I’ll be careful with my criticism of the Hendrick Motorsports
engine department, because I do not want a black eye from some engine tuner.
What? Ahh yeah, that was over at Yates, thanks Ricky for the reminder!
All the Hendrick teams, the #5, #24, #25 and the #48 all had engine problems
at Talladega, plus their two "clients", Johnny Benson in the #10 and
Ken Schrader in the #36 ended their race early with engine problems as well.
Obviously something went wrong over at Hendrick Motorsports and good thing they
didn’t run a Busch race last weekend or someone could have lost a job!
Ultimately who did it hurt? Actually it hurt everyone involved in their own
little way. At the end of the day, it may have cost Jimmie Johnson in the #48
and Jeff Gordon and his #24 team a championship. For the #5 and #25 teams, it
just increases the perception of having bad teams. For Ken Schrader and his #36
team, it may have cost them a sponsorship as they are trying to attract the Army
after loosing M&M’s as their primary sponsor for the 2003 season. But one
driver, having flat out bad luck is Johnny Benson and his #10 PONTIAC team. If
you look at Johnny and his current 32nd position in the Winston Cup point
standings, I think we would all agree that Johnny finds himself there because of
other people’s mishaps and not because of a bad driving year. Two broken rib
incidents sat him out this season, one coming from his pal Michael Waltrip.
Michael accidentally BUMPED Johnny sending him into the wall hard causing one of
his two rib injuries. Now, this past weekend Johnny had to call it a day because
of an engine failure. Thanks Hendrick Motorsports because of your failure,
another NON-BENSON incident took Johnny out of the race again. Kind of like
being kicked when you’re all ready down! Johnny is one of those good guys who
happen to need some good luck, AND NOW!
NOTE TO SELF, If I’m the #10 & #36, I would grab a few engines from Gibbs
before they leave PONTIAC. Test them out to see if they work better than what
Hendrick has delivered. Not to say I’d switch because Hendrick does a decent job
for Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. But I’ve got to tell you, teams selling
teams engines just does not add up in my eyes sometimes.
Let’s look at Hendrick engines, half of the Hendrick cars do the job week end
and week out, however they sell their engines to Johnny and Kenny and yet, no
wins. Look at Yates engines, Dale Jarrett has seen his problems this year,
however Ricky Rudd has done a pretty good job. However Yates sell their engines
to the Ricky Craven and Todd Bodine teams and yet, no wins. Roush engines are
used by the Roush #6, #17, #97 and #99 teams. All have done very well this year,
however Roush partners with the #21 team of Elliott Sadler and even though the
Roush teams have seen several wins this year, Sadler and his #21 team has no
wins.
Is it just me? Am I the only one seeing this? This just doesn’t add up. Even
though I am not privy to "insider" information, if I am purchasing
engines from one of the BIG BOYS and I am seeing their cars winning and I cannot
buy a win, I may nail down some stronger financial guarantees if I see engine
failures. I may even hire a third party to test all engines afterwards to ensure
fairness. I am sure they do this, but DANG it’s a shame to see good teams not
running at their potential.
This weeks SPIN OUT goes to – HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. SIX engine failures in
ONE weekend puts a whole new meaning to "HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"
Until next week, happy bumping and GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Editor’s Note: Recent editorial difficulties prevented previous posting of
this column in timely matter. Such difficulties have been resolved, and
for the sake of completeness we are posting this article as it is – the date of
it’s original submission is highlighted to better remind the reader of the
particular context of time in which it was intended to be published. We
hope you understand, and we thank you for your patience.