Big Wreck RacinDeals

CABLE ACCESS: Thanks to Comcast Cable here in Nashville, I missed the
first 70 laps of the Michigan race on TV. There was an "outage" which
knocked out my cable including my internet access. I did listen to it on the
radio, but it certainly didn’t sound that exciting. When I was able to tune in
on the TV, there wasn’t really anything going on that was interesting. It looked
to be another typical fuel mileage "race" but then that last caution
came out and instead of fuel mileage being the deciding factor, it was tires. At
least the pass that gave the winner the lead occurred under green.

GIVE ‘EM AN INCH: The radio announcers made a big deal before the race
that the only reason the top five qualifiers were Chevy’s was the rule change.
Not mentioned was the fact that the DEI teams opted not to use the full amount
that NASCAR gave the Chevy’s. Any way, it didn’t seem to matter much during the
race, since once the Fords got dialed in, they ran away with it.

RUDD DEMOTED: Well, he finally did do something. Apparently a
last-minute deal put Ricky Rudd in the #21 (the ersatz 5th or 6th Roush Racing
entry). I daresay that Rudd can kiss any title shot goodbye with this move. I
wonder why he didn’t just retire?

WHERE ARE THE DOMINOES?: With Rudd and Elliott Sadler effectively
swapping rides, it looks like there won’t be a domino effect, or at least it
won’t be as large as it could have been. M&M’s going to the new Yates team
leaves a hole for MB2 to fill, and unless they fill it pretty soon, Ken Schrader
may start looking elsewhere.

LAYING THE SMACKDOWN: A couple of years ago, the top shows on cable
were WCW wrestling, followed by WWF wrestling, then usually followed NASCAR’s
Winston Cup. Now it’s NASCAR’s Winston Cup, followed by WWE wrestling (if they
have a good night).

UN-PC: I’m going to say something that won’t be popular here (what
else is new, right?). Bristol had eight of the nine formerly trapped
Pennsylvania coal miners as grand marshals. I realize that those guys went
through 77 hours of hell. It’s great that those guys are being honored, but to
me the people that deserve the honors are the rescue personnel. Those people
risked their lives to save those trapped miners, but yet it’s the minors who are
getting the publicity and selling their story rights. As I said, if anyone
deserves to be honored, it’s the rescuers.

SPENCER VS. BUSCH: Here’s a prediction: absolutely nothing will happen
between Jimmy Spencer and Kurt Busch this weekend at Bristol. Nothing. But the
press sure hopes it will.

GATE-GATE: Now the question is, who’s responsible for not securing the
gate at Bristol? I’d have to say, if I were a driver there, I’d want to go and
inspect the gate myself before getting on the track.

WHERE’S THE THANKS?: The never ending saga continues. I see where
Deborah Renshaw is actually being considered for a Busch ride next year. I can’t
imagine how much more this whole deal can backfire on the perpetrators, unless
she actually gets a ride.

Deborah, you owe Mark Day, et. al. a big thank you. You could not have bought
this kind of publicity. And every time Mark Day’s thugs, er, crew members,
harass Larry Woody about writing about you, you should send them a thank you
note, because he invariably does write about you.

Now, all you have to do is perform on the track. Bypassing the dues paying
and getting a ride because of gender or race is one thing, and will only take a
driver so far. At some point, results will be factored into the mix; then it
doesn’t matter what race, sex, nationality, or whatever "minority"
status got you the job.

DIRE STRAITS: I think it’s interesting how government required
statements with government required language get taken out of context when new
businesses file them with the SEC. First, we had Sirius Satellite Radio next to
bankruptcy, and now we have TRAC next to bankruptcy. The funny thing is, the
stories are quoting from their SEC filings, and the verbiage from the two
different companies is virtually identical.

Perhaps the funniest misinterpretation is the line that goes something like
"if we don’t get any more funding, we’ll have to go broke." Duh.
That’s true for any company. Perhaps motorsports reporters should stick to
activity that happens on or around the track and stay away from financial
reports.

BIG ONES: They had two wrecks Friday night at Bristol which involved a
total of around 25 cars.

And drivers complain about the "big one" at Talladega.

MIDAS, WE DO YOU WHILE WE DO THAT: This doesn’t have anything to do
with racing directly. But since Midas sponsors racing broadcasts, I guess you
could say it’s indirectly connected.

The short version is: Stay away from Midas. I’ve learned this the hard way
over the last six weeks. Took the car to get the brakes fixed, and after
spending almost $1,000 they still weren’t right. Finally I took it to a local
service station who hires only master certified mechanics, and they got the job
done. Of course, Midas says they’re not at fault here, and I doubt that I’ll see
any type of a refund from them. Perhaps if Midas spent money on hiring competent
technicians instead of those stupid, insulting commercials, they’d be better
off.