From F.A.D.E. To F.A.K.H.
What is it about that sponsorship?
When Goodwrench sponsorship entered NASCAR
in the mid-1980s, its bearer had already proven his cheapshot bona-fides over
nearly a decade and kept proving them through his remaining years, so much so
that his name is all the adjective needed to describe on-track roughness. His
replacement this year didn’t even take that long to establish solid cheap shot
bona-fides.
The funniest part was that Bobby Hamilton
got Earnhardted by Kevin Harvick, and he wound up damning
Earnhardt with faint praise.
"He’s just trying to be Dale
Earnhardt, and Earnhardt knows how to do it, and he don’t. Earnhardt had earned
a lot of respect for everybody. It’s different now."
Well, yes and no. It isn’t different in
that Hamilton got Earnhardted out of the win by the Goodwrench Chevrolet. No
doubt he remembers the 1996 Carolina 400 – sponsored, ironically, by Goodwrench
– where he got Earnhardted, by the original, even more blatantly out of what
would have been his first win. I don’t know if Bobby’s "he’s just trying to
be Dale Earnhardt" jibe will be as memorable as his "It wasn’t
close" diatribe after the 1996 deal. He did note that "If he came over
here and said something, me and him would have a fight." Too bad Grand
National was at Memphis – Chad Little was at Memphis and knows something about
kicking Harvick’s butt from Darlington.
In the Martinsville bash Harvick at least
can point to getting hit first and retaliating. The key difference is that
Hamilton, who had gone with just one top ten since his Talladega win in April,
was a lot more deserving of the win than Harvick was. It didn’t hurt Hamilton’s
cause that Harvick is already under the microscope for roughhousing.
"He’ll never be what Earnhardt
was," Hamilton concluded – more damnation by faint praise. The problem is
that this isn’t quite true – Harvick is already what Earnhardt was, and that is
why he is so disliked. It’s considered blasphemous to say that, but unlike
others I remember the real Earnhardt, not the one hagiographized this season
after the Daytona tragedy.
There used to be a fan club called F.A.D.E
– Fans Against Dale Earnhardt. There was more than enough reason for F.A.D.E. to
be as big as it was. Presumably it folded after February of this year, but it
could re-form into F.A.K.H.
Kevin Hamlin added his own cut – "I
guess the whole deal is when you’ve got a rookie driver who’s a pretty good
driver and he does pretty well, they like to show their stiff-arm, they like to
show everybody who’s boss. Maybe Tony Stewart is right." Kevin, they like
to show who’s boss, all right – that is what bosses are supposed to do.
Two long-rumored (one of them a year
overdue) and one short notice change have transpired. The short notice change
was the departure after this season of Dave Blaney from Bill Davis’ team to Doug
Bawal’s Ford. Going from a multi-car team to a single car team with little
prospect of getting the resources needed for two cars is a risk on Blaney’s
part. There has been some rumbling that he would quit BDR, but it never sounded
particularly believable. I guess we know better now.
Two other changes are coming. The first is
the year-tardy one-motor rule. Other than at Speedweeks and Charlotte in May,
teams will have to qualify, practice, and race with the same engine; if teams
change engines it will be at the discretion of NASCAR as to whether they will
start in the back – presumably this discretion angle is to keep teams guessing
and thus dissuade them from trying any funny stuff. There is some concern that
some of the funny stuff teams might try would be to "boycott" all
practices to keep the motor fresh for the race – in such circumstance NASCAR
should kick them out of the garage onto the track, make them run the whole
practice, and fine the bejeezus out of them should they try that again.
Long term, there may be some cost savings
in this change. Certainly it is worth trying.
The other change will be the entry of John
Darby as Winston Cup series director, replacing Gary Nelson as he heads off to
head NASCAR’s new engineering facility in Hickory, NC. There is some debate as
to whether Darby will be more confrontational due to his no-nonsense approach to
the rules, or whether teams will accept him more than they did Nelson.
Also in need of change soon is the provisional
system. The system as it is now is too well known to be flawed for a whole lot
of debate or detail – suffice it to say that when a car weekly out qualifies
most or all the cars that get in on provisionals – a la Kyle Petty – yet has to
go home after qualifying, the system is wrong, period. The optimum change would
be to take the competition out of qualifying – i.e. don’t pay anything for the
pole, and start all entries whether it numbers 45 or 52 – so that teams will
worry about race setups only and thus have no incentive to spend the absurd
amounts they do just to qualify. At the very least, if NASCAR feels that seven
provisionals are necessary, then award seven provisionals – AFTER lining up the
top 40 on qualifying times.