TRR NASCAR Extra: The Biggest Silly Season Game Is Dominoes

Nobody asked me but:

In the parks in the old neighborhood the
old guys play dominoes. If you’ve seen them, you know there’s an art to
playing dominoes. There’s a certain way you slam down the bones, as the domino
is called. There’s a way you talk trash with your opponent during the game to
distract them from the real intent which is victory, of course. And there’s a
particularly loud way you’re told to "rise and fly" (a phrase also
used in a popular card game) when you lose!

All of that trash/smack/taunting is
underway in this silly season game that is NASCAR’s off-season. Bones are
flying! Drivers are right behind! Even teams are getting caught up in the
"rise and fly" attitude that is motorsports these days.

I got a call the other day from Winston
West driver Tim Woods who was expecting to move into a Roush CTS ride next
season. But, when the economy soured and Roush dropped a program that wasn’t
going to be built around underage teenager Kyle Busch, Tim found himself home
for the holidays and beyond.

It’s doubtful if his father, a
significant Ford dealer in Southern California, will step up with the backing
for a ride that Tim is more than ready for.

The biggest game being played, however,
is the high stakes contest between Jeff Gordon and everyone else who wants his
time. Until someone else steps forward with the championship skill set, smile
and disposition to carry the NASCAR brand into battle, Gordon will have to
shoulder the load.

But Jeff’s shoulders, broad as they
are, are only so big. He can’t be selling paint, Pepsi and promotions, tend to
his family, tend to his business interests, recover from that championship
season and fit his mind around next season – ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!

His decision to skip the International
Race of Champions – which is a poor excuse for a television show and neither
International nor a competition of champions – will have great impact on
Madison Avenue and whatever thoroughfare represents the sports television
industry. Let’s say, for the sake of this discussion, ESPN Drive.

Gordon’s name is the largest in U.S.
motorsports. Without it, an inconsequential race becomes a second-tier
promotion. Always remember the first rule: It must matter who wins and loses.
IROC won’t meet that criteria this year. That means advertisers will be asking
for discounts, rebates or, even, make goods. All of those mean losses on a
production like the IROC series of races, already in declining ratings.

Do you hear the sound of dominoes
falling? Of bones hitting the park bench? Of some guy from Madison Avenue
telling a young TV producer from ESPN Drive: "rise and fly out of
here!"?

The original IROC was such a great
concept, even made for TV as it was. To see it trivialized to this is sad.

What would you say about an IRL/NASCAR
doubleheader at Watkins Glen some summer? The IRL made great strides over the
past two seasons by openly selling itself to NASCAR fans on NASCAR tracks during
exhibition runs on NASCAR weekends. Now that you can’t call the IRL struggling
anymore, you must consider a possible IRL/NASCAR weekend even at a road course,
something IRL founder Tony George will no longer exclude from his planning.

One of the things you’ll notice in the
Penske move to the IRL is the presence of two great road course drivers, Gil de
Ferran, the CART champion the last two years, and Helio Castroneves. Neither was
brought in on the long range planning for the jump to the all oval IRL so,
unless they can be made happier, they may not be available to Roger when Roger
plans for life after next season.

The Glen, and/or the promise of a road
racing event at California Speedway, might have been part of the allure that
brought CART founding father Roger Penske – and all of his road racing
background and success — to the IRL starting next year. You’ll notice, by the
way, that the IRL’s appearance at California Speedway next season is within
weeks before the NASCAR stop. The IRL is scheduled March 24th and NASCAR Winston
Cup will be there April 28th. What that means for the future, obviously, is pure
speculation but you must admit that it’s curiouser and curiouser!

ExxonMobil and its Mobil One brand say
they’ll be staying around Penske’s NASCAR operation as an associate sponsor.
Jayski was reporting that Mobil might disappear after the problems with its car,
driven by Jeremy Mayfield and Mike Wallace this season. An underlying issue
involved the shabby way the Penske operation treated staff when the team was
contracted from three to two cars several weeks ago.

Now Jayski is saying Mobil One will
appear as an associate sponsor on those two remaining cars which will be in
Miller Lite and Alltel livery next season.

Here’s a hunch. I’d bet some behind
the scenes conversations were — and maybe still are — underway over Mobil One
shelf space in Penske service centers around the nation. Roger is legendary for
getting involved with sponsors as a distributor/owner/partner/whatever if it
helps both make money. I bet Penske had a Pennzoil can somewhere in the
background of some conversation and that helped bring Mobil One into the barn.

I’m told I’m wrong on this but it’s
just a hunch.

By the way, We’re told that Ryan Newman
and #12 ALLTEL Team Penske will head to Lakeland, FL to test on December 19th
and 20th, yesterday and today. The team will resume testing in January beginning
with the NASCAR sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway from the 7th
through 9th.

Possibly the silliest thing of the
silly season is Winston Cup driver Jimmy Spencer taking a Champcar around
Sebring. Wouldn’t happen on a bet? Actually that’s what triggered it. Spencer
drives for Chip Ganassi’s Target-sponsored Cup team. They had the #41Dodge in
Sebring doing a commercial. Ganassi’s CART team was there testing. One thing led
to another and, before anyone was aware, there was Spencer, cigar and all, in a
Champcar tooling around in third gear. If the story
on Speedvision is true, Ganassi lost the bet that Spencer wouldn’t fit in
the 2002 Toyota-powered Lola.

Stock car racing’s success in the U.S.
has spread to Canada and Great Britain. British Association of Stock Car
Automobile Racing veteran Michael Vergers was in Daytona last weekend testing
with the ARCA crews. The Dutchman has lived and raced in Britain for over a
decade. He hopes to eventually get to Winston Cup. His times in the ARCA test
were respectable. He tested the Taurus at Peach State Speedway in Georgia before
going to Daytona. His time of 49.625 and 181.36 MPH would have put him at the
back of the field at last year’s Daytona 500 but he would have been in one of
the 125s.

Eighteen-year-old Chase Montgomery, of Mt.
Juliet, Tennessee, pushed his Pontiac around at 48.897 at 184.06 MPH, a time
that would have put him on the pole. His speed, however, was a little down to
Bill Elliott’s 49.029 and 183.565 last year.

Lee Montgomery’s column on
RagingOne.com had an interesting discussion comparing Jeff Gordon to Michael
Jordon in the world of Best of. Here’s the
link. And here’s a quote: "’I’m not one to go out and say I’m
the greatest and I want to be the best,’ Gordon said. ‘I want to have
respect and I want people to think I have talents, but I just look at this sport
as unique to any other sport out there. It’s not like a pitcher standing on
that mound. That ball is in his hands.

‘I look at Michael Jordan a little
different. No doubt about it that he is the best – an awesome basketball
player. He’s the best in the NBA, but he’s not winning because the team is
not there. When they get more experience, they’ll be winning. If you ask him
whether he’d rather be a great player or winning, I guarantee you he’d
rather be winning. I just want to be a part of the greatest team. We did show
that this year.’

"But without Jordan, the Bulls
have struggled. And minus Gordon, Hendrick has struggled. In the nine years with
Hendrick Motorsports, Gordon has 58 victories and four title. Hendrick’s other
drivers over that span – Terry Labonte, Ken Schrader, Ricky Rudd, Ricky
Craven, Wally Dallenbach, Jerry Nadeau and others – have 13 victories and one
championship."

To them, Gordon can say: "Rise and
Fly, youngster!"