Raw RacinDeals

I’m going to deviate from the normal RacinDeals column format for this column
because I have a few things to say on just one subject. Now, for those of you
readers out there who don’t know anything about Fairgrounds Speedway at
Nashville or care to know anything about it, stop right here. Come back Monday
and read Michael Daly’s column. Also, if you don’t want to read anything about
"dirty laundry" then again, stop, and come back tomorrow.

If you’ve made it this far, then I assume you’re at least mildly interested
in what I’ve got to say. And let me emphasize the "I" in that.
As with all my other columns here, what I’m posting under my name are my own
opinions and may or may not be those of any entity I’m associated with. One of
those entities is the Fairgrounds Speedway at Nashville; I’m the webmaster of
their web site. 

Still here? OK. Let me get down to it then. Fairgrounds Speedway at Nashville
has produced some of the best stock car racing talent in America in the past.
There are three former track champions racing right now in the Winston Cup
Series, and one or two in the Busch Series. In all, in NASCAR’s top three
series, there are nine or ten drivers total that came out of the Fairgrounds
track. Looking at the ARCA results from Friday night, there are four drivers who
were in that race.

This is partly about one of those drivers.

Deborah Renshaw started racing at the Fairgrounds last year. For the first
six or eight races, she dropped to the back no matter where she qualified so
that she didn’t get in the way of the guys who were running for points. This
year, she came on like gangbusters. At one point early in the season, she was
leading the track points. Some bad luck since then dropped her back to seventh.
Just last week, she became the first ever woman to win a pole at the track.
She’s gotten a lot of media attention since the beginning of the year. The local
TV stations, radio stations, and print media have given her a lot of press
because of how well she’s done. But one thing she hasn’t done yet is add her
name to the list of names that includes Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt,
Sterling Marlin, Bobby Hamilton, Marty Robbins, Newt Moore, Rusty Wallace, Benny
Parsons, Jimmy Means, Neil Bonnett, Jody Ridley, Donnie Allison, Butch Lindley,
Red Farmer, and Mark Day. All those drivers have won a points-paying feature
race at the track while Renshaw hasn’t; as far as I know, she hasn’t even led a lap.

That last name I mention, Mark Day. He’s had quite a few Busch Series starts
(mostly in the Wayne Day owned #16 car that Chad Chaffin is currently driving).
I mentioned above that this is partly about Deborah Renshaw. It’s also partly
about Mark Day.

Day is still active in the Late Model division at the track, and he’s won two
races this year (remember, Renshaw hasn’t won any but she does have 6 top fives
out of 14 races). Earlier this year in a couple of races, the two drivers
collided on the track, and Day had some less than complementary things to say
about Renshaw (actually, not about Deborah Renshaw, driver, but Deborah Renshaw,
woman driver), and the fact that she was hogging all the media attention
and he wasn’t getting any attention.

Going into Saturday night’s races, Renshaw, with no wins was seventh in
points. Day, with two wins, was eighth, just 12 points behind Renshaw. Day
"won" the first race of the year, but the win was disallowed due to
his use of an illegal carburetor. If Day had been legal, he could have been as
high as third in the standings before Saturday night’s race.

Can you tell where this story is headed? Stand by, because I don’t think
there’s any way anyone could have known what was to take place Saturday night.

There was a new driver who made the race Saturday, a fellow by the name of
Scottie Smothers. Smothers, as far as I know, had never been in a Late Model car
before. Oh, and Smothers was driving a car owned by Day. The 75-lap race starts,
Smothers runs six laps, then pulls off the track. Big deal right? Maybe he got
all the experience he wanted in those six laps, because he certainly didn’t have
a mechanical problem to cause his early exit.

Before I go too much farther, let me make you aware of a rule in Saturday
night racing. If you suspect someone of cheating, and you put up the required
money, you can protest someone who finishes in front of you. With that info, now
you might be able to get a clearer picture of where this story is headed, but
there’s still a twist.

So, they run the race. Joe Buford (who has also made a handful of Busch
Series starts) wins again after leading all the laps. That’s probably the third
or fourth race he’s done that this year. Mike Reynolds (another former track
champion) was second. Day held off a last lap charge by Chevy White to finish
third (White is Renshaw’s teammate, by the way). A fellow by the name of Bo
Miller was fifth. Renshaw was sixth.

You’ve probably guessed by now that Smothers filed a protest against Renshaw.
That would make the 16th and last place driver (that dropped off the track after
6 laps) protesting the finish of the sixth place car that completed all the
laps. And for good measure, he protested Chevy White’s car as well. The money he
had to put up was a total of $3,600. That’s a LOT of money for a fellow who just
showed up for his first race.

Remember above who I said owned Smothers’ car, Mark Day? In effect, what we
had was Mark Day, car owner, protesting a driver he’s had a grudge against for a
few months now.

But it gets better (actually, sleazier would be the better adjective). That
$3,600 that had to be put up? Seems that Day went around and got 12 or so of the other drivers and teams in the field to chip in. And….
they’d planed this before the race. That’s the whole reason Smothers was there
in Day’s car. His mission was to run a few laps and finish last or at least
behind Renshaw so that the protest could be filed. And if Day had finished
behind Renshaw, he wouldn’t have to tear down the engine on his main car and go
to the considerable expense of reassembling it. 

So, the money’s put up, but it’s obvious to track officials what’s going on;
it’s so transparent that you’d think they would have been embarrassed to pull
off the scheme. They give a call to NASCAR to get some guidance on the
situation, and NASCAR says don’t do the teardown in effect because it’s a grudge
protest, and not a competition protest (remember, Renshaw hasn’t won any races
this year, and neither has White).

But Renshaw and her team are adamant; they insist that the engine is legal
and want to prove it via the teardown. Track officials impounded the three cars
of Smothers, Renshaw, and White and began the tedious process of disassembling
the engines. They checked the legality of Renshaw’s engine first. Crank: legal.
Cam shaft: legal. Carburetor: legal. Heads: oops. The heads were off by less
than a couple of cubic centimeters. But the heads were off, and therefore the
car was illegal. That completely removed Renshaw from the race results. 

White’s car and Smothers’ cars were legal.

Mark Day is now in seventh place in the points, 34 ahead of Renshaw in
eighth. 

"SEE! I TOLD YOU SO". That’s basically what Andy Johnson said on a
radio show Sunday night. "The drivers got together and did what the track
refused to do," he said. Let me reiterate, neither Renshaw nor White have
won races this year. And while Johnson is winless, he’s been more consistent and
is third in points. He couldn’t or wouldn’t answer Larry Woody on the radio when
Woody asked him why not just file a regular protest instead of getting a ringer
to come in. Johnson just kept saying that because Renshaw’s engine was
"illegal" they were vindicated. He also admitted that the only reason White was protested was to keep it from looking like they were picking on Renshaw.

If you were running an illegal engine, and someone protested your car after
the race, but then NASCAR said the track could decline the protest, would you
have insisted on going ahead with the teardown… if you KNEW you were illegal?
Of course not. So I think it’s fair to say that Renshaw’s team didn’t know they
had a bad set of heads (that apparently had a manufacturing defect which led to
the illegality).

The bottom line here is, 12 or 13 drivers conspired to harass Renshaw by
bringing in a ringer to deliberately finish last so he could file a protest against Renshaw.
It’s obvious to anyone with a half a brain that if she were cheating, she wasn’t
doing a very good job of it (like Mark Day did in the first race; at least when
he cheats, he wins). I have very little doubt that Day was the ringleader in
this sorry incident because of his jealousy of the press Renshaw has been
getting, and the fact that Renshaw looks to be on her way to bigger and better
things.

So, I have only one thing left to say, or ask really. And this is directed at
those dozen drivers who paid into the protest fund: How did you sleep Saturday
night? If any of them are reading this, they can feel free to email me and let
me know; I’m curious to know the quality of sleep a sleazy person gets.

Mark Day, you wanted publicity; now you’ve got it.