I heard on SiriusXM that Jack Roush denied team drafting orders for the NASCAR Talladega last weekend. And if you’re a general auto racing fan, you know that in Formula One racing, team orders are common.
I’m disappointed that Roush is denying the Roush Yates Motors clan order.
There are basically just a few huge teams that make up most of the top tier of NASCAR and I would be totally shocked if there wasn’t something afoot. Come on, back at Richmond when Menard missed his alleged coded radio cue, things seemed suspect back then.
But when it comes to Plate Racing, I see the need to make plans but the racing in the moment can definitely create new or more opportunistic moments.
Bayne even noted earlier this week that depsite his helping other manufacturer drivers, if he’d been given the word, he would have backed another Ford.
And despite Roush’s denial, Jeff Gordon pretty much confirmed in a different media report that everyone knew Ford was going to back Ford.
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Since Danica Patrick announced her plans last week to join NASCAR‘s Nationwide Series full-time and Sprint Cup Series part-time next year, the fans and anti-fans have been having a field day.
Since Danica Patrick announced her full-time NASCAR plans for 2012 and beyond, nothing she’s done has gone unnoticed. Folks are on-board with tracking her 1 in 112 race-win record, or the huge high-heels she wore to last week’s announcement, and of her GoDaddy ads.
To be honest though, being a hater is too easy. I do get it, I have my anti-liked aspects of drivers of the sport of auto racing. But hating is just too easy to do and it’s like shooting the side of a barn while being inside the barn.
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Earlier this week I heard a caller on the Sirius XM NASCAR radio show call in to Dave Moody and trash on Danica Patrick’s scathing GoDaddy ads and the lack of clothing she adorns herself with in those ads. But this particular called seemed to be a “hater” and wasn’t balancing out things.
Dave Moody & Angie Skinner both asked the caller that if she wasn’t happy about Patrick wearing her firesuit top unzipped and hanging around her waist, showing off a bikini-like ensemble, how did she feel about Carl Edwards being nearly stripped for a men’s magazine?
Ah, how the double standards flew. She was fine with Carl and Denny’s ads, (Denny’s TV ad has a fake upper torso, but still funny) The caller definitely couldn’t see the “fun” of the GoDaddy ads and I’m guessing her moralistic meter only had one gender and direction it could go.
I do get her perspective, but one needs to see both sides of the coin before admonishing it. And this caller somewhat inspired this little tirade!
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Last weekend auto racing had a few exciting finishes with cars hitting walls (Indy 500) and running out of fuel in the final turn of the last lap (Coca Cola 600). This weekend the drama continued in Chicagoland Speedway in the closing laps of the STP 300.
With laps winding down, 2nd place driver Elliott Sadler had to pull into the pits to fix a tire going down, and it looked like Carl Edwards had the race in the bag, even if Justin Allgaier was ever so slowly catching him. But Carl’s team told him not to worry, Allgaier didn’t have enough for him.
But heading down the backstretch into turn 3 of the final lap, it looked like Allgaier did indeed have enough for him, but then “it” happened! Carl Edwards ran out of go-juice (gas).
Yet right as Edwards found himself passed, Allgaier too sputtered out of power from running his tank dry, but he had the magic combination of momentum to finish in first.
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The 2011 Coca-Cola 600 fr NASCAR
Race Notes and Results
The 2011 Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway was the culmination of a very long day of auto racing viewing. Monte Carlo, Indianapolis 500 and then this, the longest race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the Coca-Cola 600. This is a long race, in fact it became the longest race ever in NASCAR. It started around 3 something in the afternoon and tore in into the evening, coming up on 8 at night.
So yea, today was an auto racing fan’s dream come true. That and my butt hurts!
But as the Coca-Cola 600 wound down, the question of fuel mileage started finding itself being pitched by the race announcers. Who had enough, who was told to put their foot in it and who was being told to save gas. At least that was the tactic with 10 laps to go, barely over 20 cars on the lead lap, and then with 8 laps to go, Matt Kenseth hit the pits for a splash of fuel, starting the cycle of green flag pits.
Then Jeff Gordon pits, while others were guessing the Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were good to go for the last five laps. And yet with 5 to go, Jimmie Johnson‘s engine blows up, throwing the suspense of cars trying to make it under a green flag out the window and now we had to worry about if yellow flag laps was going to affect the front-runners. That and some crew chief foul language being let slip out into the airwaves.
Under caution, a few cars stayed out, the rest came in for gas and tires. This didn’t bode well for Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and 8 other cars who stayed out. And then “Junior Nation” starts to worry because Dale Jr is turning off his engine to save fuel under yellow… but then he couldn’t get it going for a bit. Biffle had to buckle and pit under caution.
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This is going to be a super brief bit of news on the 100th running of the Indy 500. I’m not an IndyCar fan, I don’t watch it that often at all. But today’s race hit some incredible highlights of racing drama that endeared the 2011 Indy 500 to my memory.
First up, it’s awesome to see that IndyCar racing has adopted double-file restarts and that adds an entire depth of dramatic excitement to the ESPN on ABC telecast already. Heck, I think they need competition yellows every 35 laps so we can see more of those!
Back to the 2011 Indy 500: But as the race wore on, as a casual fan of the series, the coverage seemed fine enough for me. For a moment, I got the coverage aspects of a race for the generic fan.
With the laps winding down, the optimal media sound-bite finally hit the air as teams were pitting and Danica Patrick took the lead of the Indy 500. It was short lived as she too had to pit, but it was a gamble on her team’s part, hoping for a yellow. If that yellow had come out while other teams were down a lap, that would have been a huge boon to their efforts. Considering that two cautions of the day bit the team with terrible timing for them.
After Danica Patrick pitted, another driver, Bertrand Baguette, took over the lead but he too had to pit. Then the lead went to J.R. Hildebrand… who had the race fully in-hand, but as he came around turn four, he decided that if he ran out of gas (it was a close call), he didn’t want to jam the teams up behind him… and pulled up out of the groove but he hit the marbles and slammed into the outside wall!!!
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When I tuned into the Indy 500 pre-show event on ESPN on ABC, I was treated to a wonderful opening piece that was narrated and presented by William Fichtner. Through the opener, William Fichtner walked up the track talking about various aspects of the last 100 years of the Indy 500, from its humble origins to present day marvels, talking about the races, the technology and the track.
I’m not an Indy car fan. I tune into one, maybe two Indy Car events a year, the Indianapolis 500 being one of them.
One of the opening lines was:
“100 years marks heroes, tradition and glory.”
As William Fichtner walks the track he touched on so many aspects of the history of the race and the track that I have to say it was probably one of the best pre-race informative bits I’ve ever seen for any race.
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The Kenseth’s Are Expecting
As we head into the 2011 NASCAR season with barely a few weeks left before the Daytona 500, you must know that Matt Kenseth and his wife Katie are expecting a child… well, Katie is expecting and Mr. Kenseth is along for the ride as dad-to-be!
The Kenseth’s are expecting the new little bundle sometime between now and the end of February. NASCAR’s Speedweeks starts next weekend, with practice and qualifying events taking place between Feb. 11-19, and the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20th. This kind of timing could put a crimp in Matt Kenseth‘s driving duties as a happy, expectant dad.
Standby Drivers
So Roush Fenway Racing has put a few drivers on standby in the event Matt Kenseth has to go somewhere. Those drivers are are Kenny Wallace and Brian Ickler.
Kenny Wallace is in standby mode for the Daytona week and Mr. Ickler will be prepared to drive for the Roush Fenway team during the following Phoenix and Las Vegas weekends, if need be.
Kenny Wallace has had 344 Cup Series starts in his career and is probably one of the most under-rated drivers out there.
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Right now when you hit up the NASCAR website, call any of NASCAR’s listed phone numbers or other such attempts at communicating thoughts to the sanctioning body, you get anywhere but. For instance, NASCAR.com is peppered with 2nd & 3rd party interactive sources. Eleven right upfront. Most notable of those is Turner.com. For me to see most content on NASCAR.com, I have to allow Turner.com in my NoScript add-on here on FireFox. Emails via the website end up with Turner Sports and phone numbers are answered by ISC. (International Speedway Corporation)
In other words, good luck! It’s like trying to find an email address for the YouTube (Google) support gang!
Recently, NASCAR hired a survey firm to understand how the NASCAR fan likes to interact with NASCAR and the study involved 1,500 fans. But right off the bat, from my opening paragraphs, you can see the issue already at hand. NASCAR on the web is anything but. The overseeing company of this study project, in both the study phase and latter execution, is called Taylor.
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Now NASCAR is looking to refocus their identity when it comes to the internet and in so doing, and in replacing Ramsey Poston, they are looking to hire someone outside the industry of auto racing to replace him.
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With wallets thinner than normal these days, times aren’t as flush as we’ve become accustomed to. It’s not just the average Joe, but sports and the industries that support those sports that also have to look at their purse strings these days before they pout support/advertising monies into businesses such as NASCAR. When that happens, some things that we’ve become accustomed to tend to have change in the wind. Those changes can range from the sport itself to the participants like Kevin Harvick, Marcos Ambrose and others within the sport… including fan-favorites.
When we watch auto racing, in my case NASCAR, we see the racing of the high powered machines rubbing fenders and chasing each other to the checkered flag. We don’t always see the complications behind those metallic colored beasts running the track of choice each week. The physics of racing, the conditioning of the drivers, the money behind each team and the human story within each car’s cockpit and each team’s infrastructure. It’s a very convoluted set of relationships that intertwine around and throughout the visuals and experience of the race.
It’s a sad thing in this era as monies have dried up and our sport, NASCAR, is no longer living fat and happy and rolling in dough. Yet the financial crisis has had some good impact, believe it or not: NASCAR started listening more intently to what fans had to say and that was one of many changes that got our attention. When NASCAR was in power and didn’t really need to worry about things, they did what they would do, regardless. But now, as they look to keep the survival of the sport flowing, TV ratings afloat, they find themselves paying attention to the fan has become a paramount focus!
But we also see the stands that appear to be sparsely populated. But that’s not because of the racing. The racing is the best I’ve ever seen in the sport. No, some people just can’t afford to drop money on a race weekend. Especially when sometimes weather threatens & events are nonrefundable.
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Normally, when I see a blood drive, you can find me setting land speed records… running the other way. Me, needles and my own blood being somewhere beside in my body never combine for a good experience. Yet Infineon Raceway is taunting me with an offer in conjunction with a blood drive that I’m finding almost too hard to resist because they’re offering hot laps for donating blood.
This blood drive will be Infineon Raceway’s 10th annual High-Speed Blood Drive in association with the American Red Cross & the Blood Bank of the Redwoods.
As the title implies, every blood donor will receive a hot lap around the 12-turn road course. Each donor will be driven around the course in the official Toyota Camry by a professional instructor from the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School.
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