NASCAR Thoughts

Just a few thoughts from the last two weeks of NASCAR at Daytona:

• 50-something cars attempted to make the Daytona 500 and Daytona International Speedway filled the stands, so the economy, according to NASCAR and the talking heads, has had no negative effects on NASCAR. There will always be plenty of cars trying to make the Daytona 500 because it is the Daytona 500. Let's judge the economic impact on car county 5 to 10 races into the season. As far as filling the seats go, let's not forget that Daytona had to reduce ticket prices (something they shouldn't have to use the economy as an excuse to do - ticket prices should be lower in the first place).
• I will preface the following by saying that I am a Tony Stewart fan. Stewart-Haas racing will only be as successful as Hendrick Motorsports decides they will be. Should Stewart-Haas be too good, I wouldn't be surprised if the quality of the chassis and engines supplied by Hendrick to Stewart-Haas adjusts.
• Richard Petty Motorsports is Richard Petty in name only. Anyone who has followed NASCAR for a long time knows that Richard Petty would not run a beer sponsorship. With the 9 car still boldly displaying the Budweiser colors, that pretty much proves that GEM is using Richard Petty's name for the marketing possibilities that it opens up.
• I'm really impressed by the performance of A.J. Allmendinger the last two weeks. He has shown great improvement over the last year and I won't be surprised if Red Bull ends up regretting their decision to dump him for Scott Speed. They dropped Allmendinger just as he was getting his feet under him.
• Once again, NASCAR proves that it has two sets of rules: one for the Superstars and one for everyone else. Jason Leffler gets 5 laps for spinning someone in the Nationwide race but Earnhardt Jr. gets none for spinning someone? I'm waiting to see if anyone with Fox, Speed, or ESPN has the nerve to put a microphone in front of Helton or anyone else with NASCAR and ask why..
• Bud Shootout - Great Race. The Twin 150's - Great Races. The Truck Race - Great Race. The Nationwide Race - Pretty Good Race. The Daytona 500 - Not as good as I thought it would be and not what it had the potential to be (and it wasn't all due to the weather).

Mac McCormick III
kf4lmt@comcast.net