Pre Indy RacinDeals

SIRCAM: So, how many of
you were  hit by the SirCam virus? I’ve received about two dozen emails with the virus attached, but since I don’t open
attachments that I’m not expecting, I haven’t been infected.

So what’s this got to do with motorsports?
Well, one of the interesting things about SirCam is that it not
only uses the infected system’s address book, but it goes to the
browser cache and scans through the files there to find email
addresses. Since my email address is on the RacinDeals.com main
page, chances are it’s gonna show up in someone’s cache. What’s
interesting about that is that I’ve gotten some SirCam infected
messages from some race broadcasters you’d know if I disclosed
their names, which I’m not gonna do.

The bottom line, if you’re not expecting an
attachment from someone, then don’t open it.

POCONO: How long will race
fans continue to invest 3 or more hours of their time in order to
see 15 minutes of true racing action?

ONE RACE, ONE ENGINE: This
rule can’t come soon enough. You race the engine you qualify with.
They do it in the Busch Series, so they should know how to police
it well enough.

POINTS SYSTEM: It’s
started already. Whining and moaning about the Winston Cup points
system that is. "How can a fair points system award the same
number of points to the first and second place finishers?"
they cry.

Well, let’s see: First place gets 175
points, second place gets 170 points. Now it’s been a while since
I had any math classes, but my trusty computer says that 175 is
greater than 170, not equal to it. In other words, the points
system doesn’t award the same number of points for first
and second.

"But what about bonus points?"
Exactly. The key here is the word "bonus." A driver has
to do something other than finish in a certain position to get
extra points. So, if driver A wins, but driver B finishes second
but has led the most laps, they’ll both get 180 total points, but
A has only gotten 5 extra points while B has gotten 10 because he
did two things to earn bonus points whereas driver A only did one
thing.

Seems simple enough to me.

AERO PROBLEMS: Combine
flat tracks with the so-called aero push, and you get boring
racing. NASCAR needs to do something about the aero push, since
the manufacturers have "slicked" up their makes so much.
Look at Jeff Gordon Sunday. While he’s out front, no one can
catch him. But once he’s in heavy traffic, he’s at a standstill.
That’s not racing.

NASCAR racing has gotten record ratings
this year, I’d say mostly because there are a lot of new people
watching. These new people don’t know what real racing is, so the
product they’re seeing on TV is "racing" to them. How
long will these new viewers continue to watch the same thing week
in and week out? "Driver A dominates first 100 laps. Pit
stops. Driver B comes out with the lead and dominates next 100
laps. Pit stops. Driver C comes out and dominates next 100 laps.
Pit stops….etc."

IMHOF: Here’s my vote for
the six who should be chosen as inductees for the International
Motorsports Hall of Fame:

Alan Kulwicki, Ettore Bugatti, Ray
Hendrick, Ted Horn, Jack Ingram, and Jackie Ickx.

RACING AND WRESTLING, AGAIN:
Bob Howard has a track championship at Mobile International
Speedway. He doesn’t race full time these days though. He’s only
run about 5 Late Model races this year. Why isn’t he racing full
time? Well, he’s wrestling under the name of "Hardcore"
Holly with the WWF.

Here’s an interesting
interview with him. He talks more about racing than wrestling.
Oh, a "work" in wrestling terms is "any scripted
event." You’ll need to know that when you get to the end of
the interview.

HEY JOE: Congratulations
to Jeff Purvis, who showed what he could do Saturday if given
decent equipment. Richard Childress should keep him in the ride
the rest of the year, and let Mike Skinner concentrate on healing
and the Winston Cup Series.

DUBIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS: I’m
not sure what good the "no-DNF" stat is. Brett Bodine
has a streak of 25 races where he’s been running at the finish.
Perhaps a more telling statistic is that he hasn’t had a top five
finish in seven years, and it’s been over ten years since he won
a race.

THANKS ANDY: NBC and TNT
should send Andy Kirby a thank-you note. Andy Kirby, a two-time
track champion at Nashville Speedway USA, had Mapco Express (a
convenience store chain) as his sponsor when he ran Late Models.
Mapco Express was purchased a few years ago by Williams Energy,
and Andy was able to get them to move up with him to the Busch
Series.

Needless to say, given the equipment he was
driving, he was soon released, but the team kept the sponsor. Now
the sponsor has gotten even more involved in the sport by
sponsoring the NBC/TNT "Race Chase." So, I think they
owe Andy Kirby a debt of gratitude, since it was he who got them
into the sport to begin with.

Interestingly enough, Williams recently
sold Mapco Express.

DUBIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS, PART TWO:
NASCAR.com visitors (at work!) spend an average of 20 minutes per
session on the site, according to Nielson/Net Ratings.

I’d guess the main reason people spend 20
minutes on NASCAR.com is that they keep looking for practice
results or qualifying results that aren’t there, and they can’t
believe the "official" web site wouldn’t have that info
up in a timely manner.

BILL SIMPSON: You gotta
wonder what Bill Simpson’s resignation means, especially this
close to NASCAR’s release of the Dale Earnhardt accident
investigation report. Simpson more or less put himself in a no-win
situation with his claims of "proof" that the belt was
cut and general defensiveness. He should have come out and said
something like "we don’t think the belt broke, but if it
did, then we’re going to do everything we can to prevent it from
happening again." Instead, his continued cries of "not
my problem" led to the "disrespect" he claims
NASCAR has showed him. Seems to me he’s the one who disrespected
NASCAR and his customers.

"BUBBA" BLUNDELL:
Mark Blundell, a former CART driver, wants to move up in the
racing world. Of course I’m not talking about moving back to
Formula One (can I write that without paying a licensing fee?).
I’m talking about Winston Cup. Hey, if he can do as well as other
recent CART "graduates" who’ve come to Winston Cup,
then come on down!

BIAS PLIED: According to
the world’s best motorsport website (it must be true; they have
it right there on their web site), "NASCAR is renowned for
its complete bias towards American drivers."

The only bias I see in the article about
Blundell is that particular web site’s bias against NASCAR.
Reading between the lines of this British based site, you get the
impression that they’re astonished that Blundell would go
slumming in NASCAR.

STEWART: Tony Stewart
seems to think that people get upset with him when he’s "honest"
about things. Uh, Tony… people get upset with you when you act
like a child.

PREDICTION: There will be
a whopping 10 lead changes among 4 drivers at Indy. The winner
will be someone who’s already won this year. The margin of
victory will be over 1 second.