TESTING, RACISM, AND OTHER STUFF

TESTING 1 2 3: Kenny Wallace says
they were "narced" out on their test at Michigan, in which his team
was "caught" running two cars on the track at the same time. 
NASCAR penalized the team by taking one of its tests away.

But if you’re a top team, you get to test
for free. It’s called a "tire test".

Jeremy Mayfield, Dale Jarrett, and Bobby
Labonte recently did a tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  This test
doesn’t count against their NASCAR allotted tests because it’s a tire test.
Guess which three teams will have a big advantage at Indy next month?

Goodyear could and should find other ways
to test tires. It’s simply unfair for them to cherry pick teams that are
competing in the current season; they get just too much of an unfair advantage.

HE PUT THE RACE IN RACISM:
guess NASCAR’s in trouble now.  Bobby Norfleet was dead last (again) in
qualifying at Evergreen Speedway last week. Norfleet has threatened legal action
against NASCAR for not letting him even attempt to qualify a few weeks ago on a
superspeedway.  NASCAR’s policy, which they followed to a tee with
Norfleet, is to not allow inexperienced drivers to qualify on superspeedways
until they gain more experience.

Norfleet didn’t enter or apparently show
up at the Texas truck race.

Norfleet claims that NASCAR didn’t let him
attempt to qualify because he’s black. NASCAR, who’s hired a minority consulting
firm to help them with their "diversity", wouldn’t risk the ire of the
black community. 

I’ve gotten several email’s on this since
I wrote my original column
last week. One, purporting to be from a black man, took me to task for not
understanding what affirmative action really is (that is, among all the
profanity in the message). But I got another email from a black race car driver
who lamented that Norfleet is setting the cause of blacks and minorities in
racing back several years because of this.

There are a lot of things I disagree with
NASCAR on (see above), but in this case, they’re exactly right. Norfleet needs
to take some driving lessons and stop trying to sue his way into the field.

CLOSING THE WRONG LOOPHOLE: Larry
Woody of the Tennessean told me last Saturday night at the Speedway that he was
probably going to make some Darrell Waltrip fans mad in his column
about Waltrip’s "buy-in" at Charlotte. He says that he’s not
criticizing Waltrip, but NASCAR for allowing it to happen.

"No other sport allows it," he
told me.  He compares it to a golfer who didn’t qualify for the Masters
"buying" another golfer’s 64 to get into the field.

I like Larry, and have a lot of respect
for him. But you just can’t compare racing to any other sport. There are just no
similarities to base that comparison on. In racing, the car is what’s qualified,
and if the owner wants to put another driver in, that’s his business.

If he wants to criticize a NASCAR rule,
how about the one that allows one owner to only own two teams? Jack Roush and
Rick Hendrick violate this spirit, if not the letter of this rule, every time
they put those extra cars out on the track.

PILING ON: Speaking of Darrell
Waltrip, a lot of people on the net lately are taking a lot of cheap shots at
him. I said in an earlier column that DW has done more than anyone for this
sport, including Richard Petty. I stand by that statement.

I’ve never seen so many
"journalists" take the opportunity to take pot shots at a driver.
Waltrip can’t do anything it seems without getting criticized for it. Should he
have retired last year or the year before? I don’t know, and wouldn’t presume to
tell him when he’s too "old" to drive.

I do believe that Dale Earnhardt owes him
in a major way, since it was Earnhardt that effectively ended his career. 
When Earnhardt threw the #1 ride to Waltrip a couple of years ago, we got to see
just how good Waltrip still is. (By the way, I’ve yet to hear Steve Park
publicly thank Waltrip for the help he gave that team during his tenure there,
which is showing this year).

OUTLAWS? I tried to watch. I really
did. TNN tonight had the World of Outlaws from Bristol. But that type of racing
just does nothing for me. The first two heat races were mercifully only 8 laps
and I think the margins of victory was something like 3 miles. 

And why do they call them
"outlaws"? If they’re outlaws, why is there a championship?

YOU’RE FIRED: If Tony Raines were
my driver, I’d fire him.  As the countless people who’ve blasted me on
NASCAR’s points system have told me, the object of this whole deal is to win.
Raines intentionally backed off of Jeff Green today at South Boston, instead of
using the chrome horn to move Green up in the groove and make the pass.

"I touched him down there, but we
haven’t had a top-5 all year and didn’t think I needed to wreck the car trying
to go for a win," Raines said. "We don’t need to beat our way in
there." 

To me, that shows a lack of fire that you
need.  Green complemented him on racing clean. That’s all well and good,
but on the last lap, if you’ve got a shot at going for the win, you take
it.  Casey Atwood showed Green how it was done last year. (And something I
still think is funny is that Green still insists he’s a "clean"
driver).

COLUMN SCHEDULE: Hopefully I’ll be
able to get back to writing some stuff on a more regular basis. Money making
ventures have to take precedence over this "hobby" of mine I call
RacinDeals.com.