My Kind Of RacinDeals

RACING EXCITEMENT: I attend the Saturday night races here in Nashville
at the Fairgrounds as part of my duties as webmaster for their site. A fellow by
the name of Joe Buford has been stinking up the Late Model races. In one
stretch, he won four races and had led about 95% of the laps. I think there were
even a couple of races where he led all 75 or 100 laps.

Those races were boring, mainly because there was no one who could contend
for the win with Buford.

But Saturday night, June 30, Buford started seventh (due to the inversion),
with another fellow named Roy Binkley on the pole. Buford fought his way through
the field and by about lap 40 of the 75 lap race, Buford was in second behind
Binkley. Binkley had built up a 10 car length lead at one point, but once Buford
passed for second, he started closing up.

In the remaining 35 laps, Binkley held off Buford lap after lap. Binkley went
on to win the race, after leading all 75 laps.

So, what’s my point? We have two examples of races where one driver led every
lap. In one example, the racing was boring, because the leader ran away from the
field. In the other example, the racing was exciting because a driver from the
pack worked his way through the field and tried his best to get the lead.

The point is, racing excitement comes from the drama created when one driver
is trying to pass another for the lead. All too often in the last few years, in
Winston Cup you hear about how "smart" drivers are (e.g. Mark Martin)
when they pull over and let a "faster" car pass. Not only is that
boring, but it smacks of the F1 fiasco a few weeks ago when one driver let
another one win when he pulled over. NASCAR racing is about racing. It’s not
about driving smart. If there’s no entertainment value in a race, then why
bother watching?

If you watched the Firecracker 400 you got a great lesson in boring racing.

AWARD-WINNING INSULT: Seems that one of NASCAR’s insulting "How
Bad Have You Got It?" ads has won some kind of award. And it’s probably the
one that’s least complementary of NASCAR fans, the one that says fans are stupid
enough to run in front of traffic to make the car skid its brakes so the
"fan" can sniff the rubber on the road. That’s pathetic.

DRIVERS ARE STUPID TOO: For some reason, NASCAR thinks that Brendan
Gaughan refusing anesthetic for a dental procedure is going to draw fans to the
Truck Series. I don’t know who’s in charge at NASCAR of approving TV
commercials, but they need to find someone with some sense.

YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK…: I thought it was the Talladega fans that
were supposed to be obnoxious…

CHANGE IS GOOD?: Bobby Hamilton says he’s leaving Andy Petree because
he doesn’t like change. Uh, isn’t the fact that he’s leaving one operation and
going (back?) to another a change?

PRE-RACE BASEBALL: I don’t know about the rest of the country, but in
East Tennessee where I watched the Daytona race, the baseball game went into
extra innings and pre-empted the pre-race show. In fact, I was beginning to
think that the race was on FX (and where I was doesn’t get FX).

They didn’t say a thing about "stay tuned to the Firecracker 400 after
the game" or anything like that. Then when they did come on, their
so-called pre-race show was nothing but an ad for another baseball game. And at
the beginning, they kept mentioning that the teams hadn’t had any practice since
qualifying. I still don’t have a clue as to why they didn’t get to practice.

What a way to end your half of the TV coverage.

HOWEVER: I did see some criticism of Fox’s decision to show Darrell
Waltrip during the last few laps of the race. I don’t get what the problem is.
He’s a color commentator, paid to give his opinions and add "color" to
the broadcast. Now if it were his job to call the race, then it would have been
improper. He certainly didn’t do anything different than Alen Bestwick did last
Feburary when Bestwick called for a penalty on a driver, instead of just calling
the race.

PRACTICE TIME: As I mentioned above, I don’t know why the Cup cars
didn’t get a chance to practice. But one thing NASCAR could have done would have
been to give them a happy hour on Saturday. Why is it so sacred that the cars
can’t get out on the track the day of the race?

CHEAP SHOTS: There’s an androgynous columnist named Robin Smith Miller
who’s made such a stupid assertion that I’m not even sure it’s worth my time.
But what the heck.

She/he claims that Sterling Marlin and NASCAR has forgotten the common fan
when Marlin made the comment about the "fans in the cheap seats"
throwing trash on the track. Aside from not making much sense, Miller doesn’t
seem to have any knowlege of cliches.

I don’t think Marlin was actually saying those were cheap seats; he was
saying that the people (I refuse to call them fans) in those seats were cheap.
This is obviously way above Miller’s grasp, as he/she seems to think Marlin is
at fault here.

What he/she doesn’t acknowledge is that under caution, those cars are going
70 mph. Imagine one of those drivers swerving to miss a cooler and running over
a seat cushion, causing a spin into the wall. At the least, the driver would
have lost a lot of positions. The worst case scenerio would be injury or even
death to the driver if enough other freak circumstances were right.

It’s unconscionable for someone to condone this sort of behavior. Mr/Ms
Miller should be ashamed of even thinking that Marlin or the other drivers
deserved being subject to this dangerous behavior.

SEEING RED: There’s a lot of talk about an "absence of
rules" regarding throwing out the red flag. First off, I don’t believe
NASCAR should be stopping the race if there’s no obstruction on the track. But
secondly, since they’ve decided that that’s

It was obvious when the caution came out the other night that there were not
enough laps to throw the red flag. But some people insist on being stupid (see
above).

NEW CREW CHIEF: Evernham Motorsports is pleased to announce the naming
of a new crew chief on the #19 Dodge Dealers Dodge driven by Jeremy Mayfield.
Effective immedialy, acting crew chief Sammy Johns will reassume his duties
officially as head of Research and Development at Everham Motorsports. The new
crew chief will be Rube Goldberg.
"I’m pleased to be taking over the crew chief job on the #19 Dodge Dealers
Dodge Intrepid," said Goldberg. "I’ve had a lot of experience
with mechnical devices in the past, and I think I can bring a new outlook to
the team. I also have some experience with safety
devices, and with NASCAR’s new focus on safety, I think that can only be an
asset."