TAINTED WINS, ATWOOD, AND MILLIONAIRES
WILL EVERYONE WITH A TAINTED WIN THIS YEAR PLEASE STAND
UP: OK folks. Here’s the chance for all those other internet columnists who call Jeremy Mayfield a “cheater” to do the same for Jeff Gordon.
I’ve seen Mayfield referred to as a “cheater” by several people. I wonder if they’ll start referring to Gordon that way? Or will he continue to get off easy in the press?
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: if you have an illegal part on your car, then your entry in the race should be disallowed. They do it at the local Saturday night
tracks, and some of the other NASCAR touring series. Wrong carburetor? You just ran for free. Wrong compression ratio? You’re outta here.
I guess from a PR standpoint, it’s not good to have your drivers disqualified, especially if they won the race. That’s why NASCAR should get back to being just a sanctioning body, not a “licensing” machine. They need to enforce the rules fairly and evenly, and if it costs a driver a championship (or a sponsor), so be it.
Of course, this one is a little more complicated than
most. How would you like to be the No Bull 5 fan who had Dale Earnhardt as
your driver? "What, you mean I lost a million bucks because someone had an
illegal part?" And should Jeff Gordon be eligible for the No Bull 5 at
Talladega?
MAKING HISTORY: I’ve only been going to the weekly races here in Nashville since 1994. Before that, the only races I went to at the Fairgrounds track were (starting in 1991) the All American 400 and the odd ASA race.
So I missed out on getting to watch guys like Sterling Marlin and Bobby Hamilton cut their teeth at the historic track. But I did get to see Casey
Atwood attend “NASCAR University.”
In his two full seasons at Nashville Speedway USA, he captured Rookie of the
Year honors in 1996 and won three races in 1997. He ran a partial Late Model
schedule in 1998, but after he won the pole for the BellSouth Mobility 320 and
came in second in the race, you knew it was just a matter of time before he’d be
moving to bigger and better things.
I think Atwood expected to run in the Busch Series more
than two full seasons. But what he didn’t expect was a "bidding" war
between Rick Hendrick and Ray Evernham for his driving services.
People were calling him "the next Jeff Gordon"
five years ago. I’ve said all along he’s the first "Casey Atwood". But with
Evernham in his corner, he’s got a better shot at being the closest thing to
"the next Jeff Gordon" than anyone.
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR, YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT:
"Fix New Hampshire!" "Do something now!" "If
something’s not done by the time we go back there, it’ll be pretty
serious."
That’s what everyone from drivers to fans was yelling last
week. So, NASCAR did something: they’ll be using a restrictor plate at New
Hampshire. I’ve said all along that you can’t just "do something, even if
it’s wrong." But now the drivers and owners are saying that while they
appreciate NASCAR doing something, it did the wrong thing.
THE END OF OWNER/DRIVERS?: The conventional wisdom
is that the era of the owner/driver is almost over. With guys like Darrell
Waltrip, Ricky Rudd, and Bill Elliott getting out of the ownership
business, and with other owner drivers such as Dave Marcis and Brett
Bodine not exactly tearing up the field, it’s easy to come to that conclusion.
But there’s one owner/driver out there who’s apparently
doing something right. He’s got one win this year and his drivers have three
wins between them. Dale Earnhardt seems to have finally redefined the way a
driver should own a team: own the team and drive for someone else.
It was just a couple of years ago when people were
wondering if Earnhardt would even win another race. "He’s too distracted by
his teams," they said. I guess he’s gotten over the distraction, or figured
out a way around it…especially now that he’s apparently adding a third team to
his stable.
WHO WANTS TO BE A RACING MILLIONAIRE?: If you’re in
the top 31 in driver points, you’ve won over a million bucks in purse money.
That’s with just 24 races run this year.
There are 10 drivers, including one of the Rookie of the
Year candidates, who’ve won over $2,000,000 so far this year. Three have won
over $3,000,000, and two of those have topped $4,000,000. Even if you’ve managed
to run in only half the races this year, you’ve taken home a half million bucks.
I’d guess that by the end of the season, the top 40
drivers will all be over $1,000,000 in earnings.
Who said the purses were too small? Even Martinsville’s
purse for the next race there is over $2,000,000, almost 10% more than last
year. Expect these numbers to get even higher once the TV revenue starts rolling
in next year.