Absentee RacinDeals
ANOTHER "FINE" MESS: Driver wins race, car too low, crew chief
fined, driver keeps win. SSDD.
But at Dover, NASCAR really put their foot down. They say they’ll start
taking away points if it continues. Could they be getting a clue? Nah. Dale
Earnhardt, Jr. or Matt Kenseth or Rusty Wallace or whoever will win a race and
be an eighth low, and they’ll get slapped with a $75,000 fine. It’s all monopoly
money anyway (hey, I made a pun).
TEAM SWAPPING: One has to wonder at Richard Childress’s swap of the #29 and
#31 teams. The question is, which driver has alienated their team so much that
it forced the swap?
ARUTE OBSERVATIONS: Would someone tell Jack Arute that he’s a pit reporter, and not a
color commentator? It’s really annoying when he butts in to the racing
commentary.
SOUNDTRACK: Who in the world does Fox think watches racing who would like
that gawdawful music they’ve put together on their CD?
ANTHEM RATING (CHARLOTTE): This week, we split the anthem rating into two
parts: performance and execution. Since the performance was recorded in a studio
under perfect conditions, it went off without a flaw. Give the performance about
a seven out of ten (Jones didn’t exactly follow the melody). The execution comes
in by the promoter having the gall to have the anthem lip synced. Give that a
zero out of ten. If George Jones couldn’t sing it live, then find someone else
who can. Even his lip syncing was so bad that Fox only showed him for a few
seconds at the beginning before they realized how stupid it looked.
There’s no excuse for that, especially on Memorial Day.
ANTHEM RATING (DOVER): As I write this, the race was yesterday. For the life
of me, I can’t recall the performance of the anthem. And as I think about it,
that’s probably a good indication that it was done well.
EXPOSURE: A few weeks ago, Ricky Rudd complained that he wasn’t getting
enough TV attention. Well, he certainly can’t complain after the World 600 TV
coverage. Seemed like every other mention referred to his "iron man"
status. Plus, his team capitalized on it with a special paint job (and I assume
will be selling a special die cast collectible of the car).
The simple fact is, if you want to get exposure, run up front. There’s a
"young gun" that’s younger than anyone out there who’s had a mediocre
season, and he’s not getting any attention. Well, actually, he’s getting a
little. Casey Atwood had his best run of the year Sunday at Dover, and would
have had a top ten if he hadn’t gotten run over by the eventual race winner. On
the last lap, the tap would have been ok. With that many to go, NASCAR should
have black flagged Johnson.
SOME RESTRAINT, PLEASE: The two companies who sell head restraints have come
out with new versions. I still have mixed feelings about these gizmos. When I
was at Nashville Superspeedway a few weeks ago for the ride along, neither Kerry
Earnhardt nor Jeff Purvis wore one. Now Purvis is in a halo for a few months
after crashing a couple of weeks ago wearing a NASCAR mandated device.
Why is no one asking the question: Are these devices helping or hurting?
DOVER’S OVER: I remember when the Dover races were 500 miles. At 400 miles
they’re just barely bearable. They should reduce them to 300 miles like New
Hampshire. I think that’d generate a better race.
R.I.P., UNCLE BOB: Bob Harmon passed away last week. You might be asking
yourself, who’s he? I daresay that other than Bill France (Sr. and Jr.) he
contributed more to racing and racing promotion than anyone.
- He and a couple others (including Neil Bonnett) came up with the idea of
racing pick up trucks at least a decade before NASCAR did. - He created the All Pro Series, which NASCAR purchased from him in the late
80’s or early 90’s. The All Pro Series has produced guys like Joe Nemechek,
Steve Grissom, Hank Parker, Jr., Roy "Buckshot" Jones, and others. - He created the All American 400, in its time the Daytona 500 of short
track racing, ran for 19 years at the Fairgrounds Speedway at Nashville. - He acquired the lease to the fairgrounds track in Nashville, and was
successful in landing a Busch and Craftsman Truck Series race at the
historic track. - That led directly to Dover Motorsports acquiring the lease, and building
the superspeedway complex in Lebanon, TN. That superspeedway will host it’s
second Busch Series race next weekend, and is the only track in the Series
with two races that doesn’t have any Winston Cup events.
Those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. I think Bob
did for short track racing what NASCAR did for superspeedways.
Bob was in the racing business for over 50 years, longer than just about
anyone around. He knew what the fans liked, and tried his best to give it to
them. That’s probably the best way to remember him.
R.I.P., GLEN E. HARNESS, SR.: The last column I wrote was posted on Thursday,
May 16, just 8 days after my dad’s 64th birthday. Little did I or anyone in my family know, by
the next night, my dad would
be dead. He died of a massive heart attack and was found slumped over his
computer.
So, this is the first column I’ve written since his death. Racing
doesn’t seem as important to me anymore. Yeah, I half heartedly watched the Charlotte races
(but not the Winston) and the Dover races (only half of the Busch race though)
and the Indy 500. I wasn’t sure if I was really going to be interested in writing any of this
stuff anymore. I even contemplated shutting down the site or finding someone who
might be interested in running it. But when I heard George Jones (actually
"saw" is the better word) sing the National Anthem, I just had to
write about it.
I guess that means that I’m back. But I’m not going to go out of my way to
watch a Winston Cup race on TV just to have something to write about. I’ll be
visiting my mother a lot more often now, and that’s a weekend trip, which means
I’ll miss some races. Big deal. I may go a few weeks without writing anything,
or I may get inspired a lot. Who knows? After the events in month of May, racing has moved
way back in the order of things. Life comes first.