Pre Dover Miscellenea
To open this newest piece, a link is
necessary to better contexualize
my previous two columns.
The link serves as an example of how
NASCAR and the NFL should have handled the recent crisis.
More New Hampshire – the following story
displays just why Bruton Smith is not well liked among certain quarters of the
racing community –
Smith called NHIS’ Bob Bahre to negotiate
a buy-out of New Hampshire’s postponed second event, scheduled for November 23.
Smith wanted the date to be switched to Texas, claiming he could line up a
sponsor and reimburse Bahre to where he’d make more money than if he ran his
rescheduled race.
Weather wise the switch makes some sense,
but track wise it reflects an insufferable arrogance on Smith’s part. New
Hampshire had scheduled a second Winston Cup race and it ought to be run AT NEW
HAMPSHIRE.
Bahre wisely blew Smith off.
Now comes Dover. Contrary to initial
fears, it appears there will be no trouble with air travel with the closure of
Dover AFB. Getting back to racing is necessary and Dover should be a welcome
sight.
There was considerable growling over the
track in the June visit, but such is fairly common at any racetrack.
The Delaware 400 will be a sendoff for Cal
Ripkin, as Dover is the closest track to Baltimore. Unfortunately, the present
crisis brings to mind that Cal Ripkin plays for a team owned by Peter Angelos, a
sleaze and Fidel Castro sympathizer.
Among Dover preparations are banning of
coolers and large bags and a general warning about greater search activity –
i.e. come early and be prepared to wait. International Speedway Corporation is
implementing similar new policies.
When pondering how to improve security, we
all need to remember Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s words after the
Pentagon attack: "The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. It is to alter
behavior. It is to force people who believe in freedom to be less free. That’s
not the way Americans live and it’s not the way we ought to live."
Amid preparations for Dover, some other
news items have popped up. During Charlotte testing Jeff Gordon headed a
ceremony announcing the hiring of Jimmie Johnson for the new fourth Hendrick
team. Given Johnson’s status as a Herb Fishel protégé – steered into stock
cars via Fishel beginning with ASA – it was inevitable that he’d wind up with
Hendrick.
Another item got lost in the wave –
Speedway Scene reported after the Capital City 400 that the Humpy Bumper is a
fraud. According to Mike Snow, the device’s data has turned out to be
"garbage," and thus there appears to be no hope for it. One could see
something of this nature coming in the general failure of soft walls and roof
flaps to be of any serious help in safety.
Resistance to NASCAR’s proposed one-motor
rule has reportedly been unexpectedly high, with warnings that teams would
"boycott" all practices if forced to run one engine for all on-track
activity. There are also considerations about enforcement of such a rule – Mike
Snow reports a potential fight over engine bore spacing, as GM and Ford run a
4.185 while Dodge teams want a 4.25.
Another lost item during the Richmond
weekend was tires, as the Capital City 400 saw a rash of blowouts, some caused
by car contact, others by brake heat, and others no doubt by excessive camber.
Tire failures have once again become an annoying habit, one that can be at least
partly solved with higher stagger.
Remember Red Cell Batteries? They were on
Brett Bodine’s car – were being the operative term. It appears they are another
of those sponsors that turn up periodically to get their name on a car and wind
up stiffing the team they’re sponsoring.
Another sponsor fight may be raging
between Jim Smith and Nations Rent, which may be gone after 2001, as may Smith’s
Winston Cup team.
It’s been a very strange journey for this
particular team. A lot of people have forgotten that its gestation was Alan
Kulwicki’s title team of 1992. After Kulwicki’s death Geoff Bodine purchased it,
but by 1997 Jim Mattei had purchased into it and had full ownership by 1998. He
switched the team to Chevrolet by becoming a satellite of SABCO, and hired
Michael Waltrip. But about halfway through 2000 Jim Smith bought out Mattei,
switched the team back to Ford for 2001 and went through a three-race soap opera
of driver changes in June. Now it may all fold up.
Finally, the ultimate insult to
intelligence is Jeff
Gordon’s whine about "aggressive driving" by Kevin Harvick and
others.
"I think they need to draw the line
somewhere," Gordon opines. This is laughable given Gordon’s history.
Nothing Kevin Harvick has done approaches sending Todd Bodine head-on into
Daytona’s Chicken Bone Alley wall, crowding Greg Sacks into Bodine at Talladega,
hooking Ken Schrader on his roof at Talladega, hanging Mark Martin into that
track’s wall before Turn One, wiping out the field there and lying about a
"blown tire," blindsiding Bobby Hamilton on Atlanta’s pit road,
punting Tom Kendall into Randy Lajoie and the wall at Daytona, blasting Rick
Mast and John Andretti into traffic and the wall at Texas, knocking Rusty
Wallace into the wall and then getting a much-deserved earful from Dale Jarrett
after a last-lap shove, and onward.
Jarrett, for his part, gets it wrong as
well in recommending suspensions for "rough driving." Racing isn’t
supposed to be about "controlling you emotions" (Gordon again), it is
supposed to be about channeling them into going for the win.