Pre-Season Testing RacinDeals
FANATICS II: Some people
are so rabidly fanatic about their driver that they remind me of
a scene from "A Few Good Men." Jack Nicholson is being
pressured on the witness stand by Tom Cruise to tell the truth.
Nicholson’s characters shouts "You want the truth? You can’t
handle the truth!"
Some race fans can’t handle the truth. And
some fans can’t distinguish the difference between criticism of a
driver and criticism of a pseudo-award. I’m still getting hate
mail and veiled threats because of what I wrote about the NMPA’s
Most Popular Driver "award."
At least Jeff Gordon’s fans aren’t as vile
as Bill Elliott’s (at least the ones I’ve heard from). While I’m
not called any names, it’s made pretty clear that I don’t know
what I’m talking about when it comes to him snubbing the IROC
Series.
I was a big Darrell Waltrip fan. Unfortunately, I only got to see him win a handful of times. But
when someone was critical of him, I didn’t just automatically go
in defense mode and say that person didn’t know what they were
talking about.
It’s called being an adult.
MAKING NOISE AT INDY: In
my hypothetical role as a car owner, if you’re my driver, you’re my
driver. If you want to run the Indy 500, then resign your ride
with me and let me find someone who is committed to running for
the Winston Cup Championship. That means every month, not every month except
May… and especially not with a rival car owner in the Winston
Cup circuit.
DAMAGED GOODS: It’s hard to tell what will happen
this year with the #14 team. AJ Foyt just hired Stacy Compton to drive his
Pontiacs, and Compton apparently plans on driving full time in the Busch Series
as well.
After Ron Hornaday’s season last year, you have to wonder
if Foyt is putting all the resources in the team that it needs. Compton’s record
in the Truck Series doesn’t come close to Hornaday’s, although he does have more
experience in the Cup cars than Hornaday did.
For all practical purposes, the #14 is a startup team this
year. Yes, I know they’ve turned in some fast times at Daytona. See below.
STORY OF THE YEAR: In racing, it was Dale
Earnhardt’s death. In real life, it was the terrorist attacks on September 11.
What else needs to be said? How many more "story of the year" columns
do we need to see?
AGE BEFORE EXPERIENCE: I see that ARCA has mimicked
some of NASCAR’s newer "safety" regulations, including the minimum age
requirement. At least they’ve effectively grandfathered in anyone who’s 16 this
year if they’ve already had superspeedway experience. NASCAR should have done
that, but they had to give in to the racing media’s demands for
"safety".
NOT ANOTHER SIRIUS PUN, SERIOUSLY: Casey Atwood’s new sponsor is a
satellite radio broadcasting outfit. I sure hope they got all the money up
front. The company hasn’t even launched their service yet, and their stock has
dropped from a high in the mid $30’s to around $10 a share. They’ve just issued
more stock to raise a $150 million or so. Sirius is betting the farm that people
are not only willing to shell out the bucks for the special radios, but $12.95 a
month to receive programming.
Sirius’ biggest competitor is XM Satellite Radio, which
already has 30,000 subscribers. Their subscription is $9.99 a month.
I really think this product is a solution looking for a
question.
DAYTONA TESTING "SPEEDS":
Ah, the cars are back on the track at Daytona for the first testing sessions of
the year. And wouldn’t you know it, Jimmie Johnson is at the top of the
"speed" charts.
I put "speed" in quotes because
the speeds coming out of Daytona are less than meaningless. They’re numbers with
no context. Did Johnson get a sniff of a draft while the more experienced
drivers knew when to take their laps? Plus, there are reports that drivers of a
certain make of car are sandbagging in order to get some aero concessions from
NASCAR.
So while the speeds are of more value for
curiosity’s sake, they’re not really useful in telling us how good anyone in
particular is going to do.
INSIDE INFO: If you haven’t gone to
NormPartin.com yet, do
yourself a favor and check it out, especially the breaking news area. Just
ignore the spelling and grammar.