Post-Season RacinDeals

ENTERTAINMENT: I’m not sure which is more boring… a race with a
LOT of cautions or a race with no cautions. I got a chance to see both (more or
less) Sunday, and you could tell that the end of the season was wearing on
these guys (the All Pro and Dash Series). The All Pro guys couldn’t do anything
but wreck, and the Dash guys had one leader for the first 70 of the 75 lap
race. Neither race was especially compelling in the action on the track.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: So, I get back into Nashville around noon
Friday after Thanksgiving,
and turn on the TV to see that I’ve missed the first 100 laps, all of which
Jeff Gordon apparently led. I watch the next 100 laps, and when I wake up, I
discover it’s time to leave for the super speedway to catch the All Pro and
Dash cars practicing.

I turn on the
race when I get close to the track, and they’re under yellow with around 25
laps to go. Much to my surprise, I hear that Robby Gordon is leading. First
thing I thought was "there’s going to be a wreck before the end of this
race."  Turns out I was right, and he was in the middle of it.

It’s one thing to
get a guy loose going into turn 4 so he has to move up and you pass him on the
last lap. But with 15 or so laps to go you knock the car in front of you out of
the way? Sure, I can understand he wants to win a race (wasn’t his predecessor
who said he’d wreck his own mother to get his first Cup win?). But I don’t
think he knows the word patience. He could have waited a few more laps. Ah
well. Next year should be interesting.

END OF
THE  YEAR TIRE SALE: Step right
up folks, we’ve got some great deals here at the Goodyear tire barn at New
Hampshire International Speedway. All the stuff we over produced this year is
going at unbelievable prices. Act now, and you get three tires for the price of
four!

TIME OUT: Jeff Gordon retaliated against Robby Gordon under
caution. That’s a major no-no. Didn’t he learn anything when Tony Stewart did
it to him (after a race in the pits)?

Oh well, he’ll be
fined $25,000 and go on. The irony of that is that he’ll get the money back
more or less. The money teams pay in fines is added to the point fund money, so
next week when those drivers get those big checks, part of that money is just a
reimbursement of the fines they paid this year.

NASCAR has been
suspiciously silent this past week over this incident. Maybe they wanted to wait
until after the banquet to slap JGordon’s hand.

PAY PER VIEW: NASCAR is investigating ways to put their races on
pay per view channels. Three or four years ago, that might have been viable.
Now though, with the economy the way it is, and with the racing the way it is,
I’m not sure they’ll have a market.

Although, it
would be interesting to see a race commercial free. But I wouldn’t pay more
than $5 for it…

BITTER IRONY:
It’s too bad that the tribute to New York they did on the awards banquet used a
song written by a Muslim who joined in the call for the death of Salmon Rushde.

POPULARITY
CONTEST: The farce that is the NMPA’s Most Popular Driver Award continues.
After years of his fan club stuffing the ballot box, Bill Elliott withdrew his
name this year, which gave Dale Earnhardt fans the chance to stuff the box
themselves, purely because he was dead. That’s not to say that he wouldn’t have
won it had he been alive, but there are better ways to pay tribute to a fallen
driver than through a sham popularity contest.

I think Teresa
Earnhardt put it in perspective when she said that Earnhardt knew who the most
popular driver was, despite Elliott’s awards. I’d suspect that the real voting
for most popular driver is done at the souvenir trailers every Sunday. Something
is definitely wrong when a driver who hasn’t won in 7 years consistently beats
out a driver selling $30,000,000 a year in merchandise…. and I think the
Earnhardts new that.