NASCAR's 2010 "All Star Race"

I would have liked to have watched Indy 500 Qualifying and the ALMS race from Laguna Seca but I don't have Versus here in Brunswick and I don't have an internet connection most of the time other than a tethered Blackberry. Instead, I watched NASCAR's "All Star Race." My thoughts from an afternoon, evening, and night of a NASCAR overdose:

• SpeedTV coverage keeps calling the NASCAR All Star Race "Racing at its Purest.". Is it really? I don't think it is racing at its purest. This All Star Race still has segments and mandatory pit stops designed to fabricate drama and excitement. Instead of 100 laps split up into segments, if they wanted pure racing they should have just held a 100 lap race and let the teams stop when they wanted to, change the tires they wanted to, and add whatever amount of fuel they wanted to.

• Maybe I'm feeling cantankerous because my sinuses are raging, but... I watch racing for racing, not burnout contests and not over-the-top driver and team introductions. I've got an idea... How about they do away with the burnout contest and scale back intros and spend the money to put SAFER barrier all the way around the track. Do I really need to say anything else. Too much money is being spent on extraneous crap and not enough on the racing. It is ridiculous that a track that is making as much money as Charlotte is spending can't put SAFER barrier all the way around the track. Crashes don't just happen in the turns, they happen on the straights, too.

• TV folks know the first segment was a snoozer. DW: "Now folks don't get upset..." The majority of this race was boring to watch. The 48 dominated the first 3 segments and the racing wasn't all that good behind him. The last segment was good, but do we really have to sit through 90 laps of stale racing to see 10 laps of good racing?

• Good to hear from Keselowski about the #12's power steering issue: he wouldn't complain, just said "time to man up and go to work." I'm not a fan of Brad Keselowski, but I appreciate how he handled this situation. He really could have complained about the power steering but he didn't, he put his head down and pushed on. If he keeps that kind of attitude and matures a bit, I could be persuaded to look at him more favorably.

• Just got to see the end of the NASCAR race on the replay. Outstanding job by the #2 team to patch that thing back together for the win. On the other hand, 2 weekends in a row with uncharacteristic mistakes from Jimmy Johnson. It seems he is human after all. The Penske team did a truly great job of patching up a damaged race car; that car was pretty beat up in the first 3 segments but they fixed it up and adjusted things during the 10 minute break and Kurt Busch was able to storm through the field in the fourth segment. Jimmy Johnson put his left front on the apron and spun trying to catch Busch, but to be honest I don't know if he could have or not. As far as the Kyle Busch/Denny Hamlin business goes, I don't think Hamlin did anything wrong; he didn't force Busch into the wall with contact, but it was a race for "all of the marbles" and he did close the door on the outside very hard. If it was a points race, it would have been a different situation; I don't think Kyle Busch would have done anything different. He would have closed that door just as hard as Hamlin did.

Mac McCormick III

Danica Mania for the Second Week in a Row

Before anyone thinks I've got something against Danica Patrick, let me assure you that I don't. I really wish her well in both NASCAR and the IRL. Once again, this week, my problem is with the media. Just as they did at Daytona, they completely over covered Danica Patrick to the detriment of everyone else at the track. Never before have I seen a backmarker, and let's be honest - that is what she was at California, get so much TV time.

To be honest, I feel sorry for Danica and the microscope she's been under. It's really unfair to have such attention and expectations placed upon you when NASCAR's rules don't allow for a lot of testing. She has not had the chance to test in these cars and learn about them before coming to the race tracks. It really puts her behind the eight ball because most of the other rookies come from a stock car background rather than the open wheel background she comes from.

Mac McCormick III

DanicaMania Invades NASCAR

The Danica 500 week, sorry - I mean Daytona 500 week is over. No offense to Danica Patrick, but SpeedTV, ESPN, and other media outlets made it seem like it was the Danica 500 instead of the Daytona 500. She isn't to blame. The media is and they went overboard.

First, entirely too much attention was paid to Danica. The coverage seemed, at times, to be All Danica, All the Time. No doubt she was a major story line for the week, but you would have thought she was the only story of the week. What about the stories of Mike Bliss, Max Papis, and Joe Nemechek making the Daytona 500 with small under-budget teams? What about what seems to be the best restrictor plate package in Cup in quite awhile? What about teams who are working hard to make a full season in Nationwide or Cup but don't have the sponsorship; some media attention to their efforts could help them find that sponsorship.

Second, there were some absolutely ludicrous statements made during the course of the last week's NASCAR coverage. One analyst referred to Danica Patrick as the most important driver to come along in decades (not a direct quote, but a paraphrase). Huh? Seriously? Just to go back one decade, are we going to say she is more important than Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jimmy Johnson, or Tony Stewart? Another analyst stated that coming to NASCAR would make Danica Patrick a better driver in Indy Cars and inferred that the reason Dario Franchitti won last year's IRL title is that he spent a year in NASCAR (He also won an IRL championship BEFORE he came to NASCAR!). When she heard talk like this, I can't imagine how embarrassing it must have been for her.

In closing, I would like to say that I think Danica Patrick did a great job this past weekend. She raced well and finished well in ARCA and got an education in the Nationwide race. Her performance bodes well for her IRL season in that she seemed to handle adversity even better than she did last year; her temper control seems to be getting better. I don't understate her importance in NASCAR either; she probably has the best chance of any female to win a NASCAR race given the team she is racing for.

Mac McCormick III

Racing Ramblings

Miscellaneous stuff that has come to mind while reading recent racing headlines:

• Earnhardt Jr. Voted Most Popular Driver Again. It almost baffles my mind that a driver who has not accomplished much and finished 25th in points as his teammates finishd 1, 2, and 3 wins the popularity contest. I realize that popularity has nothing to do with results but I don't have to understand it.
• Jimmy Johnson to race in the 24 Hours of Daytona with Gainsco again. I'm happy to see this. I have to admit that Johnson is not one of my favorite drivers but you can't deny his skills in a racing car. I would love to see him in an ALMS GT or Prototype car to see what he could do some serious high tech equipment.
• British Touring Car Championship and the Australian V8 Supercars will be shown on Speed TV this winter! I love the touring cars and the V8 Supercars. Watch the V8 Supercars and learn where Marcos Ambrose came from; those guys make NASCAR look like a bunch of wimps when it comes to wheel to wheel racing; they make racing a Full Contact Sport.
• The DTM and Japanese Super GT series could race together in the future. Now this is interesting. Exciting racing in both series with some interesing machines; I'd love to see that if it could get on US TV.
• Andretti Autosport. Andretti Autosport has hired Tom Anderson as VP of Racing Operations. Anderson was running the Fernandez team in ALMS before they closed down and has a stellar history in American Open Wheel Racing. This could be the shot in the arm that Andretti's team needs. Also, Ryan Hunter Reay is in the running for a seat at Andretti Autosport. They need to hire him pronto; I think he would do a good job in proper equipment and he brings solid sponsorship from Izod. He's also one of the more high profile American open wheel racers.

Mac McCormick III

NASCAR Hall of Fame

This evening, the first five inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame will be announced. Prior to the announcement, here are the five that I voted for in the open voting on the internet earlier this year:

1. Bill France Sr. Love him or hate him, there is no doubt that without Bill France Sr. that there would be no NASCAR as we know it. There are a lot of arguments that he cheated others out of their stake in NASCAR but he is the one who brought the founders together. It can also be argued that his style was dictatorial but NASCAR is the sanctioning body that has survived and prospered; you just cannot say that about other sanctioning bodies such as AAA, USAC, and CART.
2. Bill France Jr. Once again, there is no doubt that without Bill France Jr. there would be no NASCAR as we know it. Most of the same arguments from the father apply to the son. Bill France Jr. grew the sport from what he inherited from his father as a regional sport to gargantuan national sport that now garners international attention.
3. Raymond Parks The creator of the first superteam before NASCAR was even started, Raymond Parks planted the seed of what Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush operate today. Raymond Parks supported Bill France Sr. with loans before NASCAR was started and in NASCAR's early days. It would not be a stretch to say that there may have been no NASCAR without Atlanta's Raymond Parks.
4. Richard Petty There are only two seven time champions in NASCAR. Along with Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty has to be among the first five. Richard Petty also has the record of 200 wins, perhaps untouchable for the forseeable future.
5. Dale Earnhardt The same argument: The only two seven time champions must be in the first five selected to the Hall of Fame. Besides Earnhardt's success on the track, it must also be mentioned that Earnhardt's death on the track, more than any other's pushed NASCAR from simply paying lip service to safety to being more serious about safety (although in my opinion, they still have a VERY long way to go).

Mac McCormick III

Hendrick cars pass inspection

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=4537242&campaign=rss&source=RPMHeadlines

"NASCAR found that the bodies of the cars raced at Dover barely met specifications. The crew chiefs were warned not to bring the Chevrolets back to the track.
The close call led to grumbling by rivals that the Hendrick teams had been given a break by NASCAR and should have been penalized. Darby insisted the cars were legal, by a hair."


If the cars were legal, why can't they bring them back? This smacks of NASCAR's ban of Ray Evernham's Godzilla car at Charlotte in the 90's.

Mac McCormick III

Earnhardt Jr. Runs Off at the Mouth

Apparently Dale Earnhardt Jr. has continued to carry on throughout the week and throughout the weekend at Dover about the contact between David Reutimann and he at Loudon last weekend. Apparently hurling insults in the garage area wasn't enough for Earnhardt Jr. First thing first: he should take a page out of his Daddy's book and not say a word. File it away in the back of your head and take care of business later. Second, you shouldn't take to denigrating another driver when you're not on top of your game. Earnhardt Jr. telling Reutimann that he needs to "polish up his craft" is like the pot calling the kettle black.

I came across this gem in a David Newton piece on ESPN.com:

Reutimann admitted he made a mistake. He looked NASCAR's most popular driver in the eye and said he was sorry.

But Earnhardt still criticized him after the race and did so again at Dover. Just a guess, but this has to do more with frustration from a disappointing season for Earnhardt than Reutimann, or one wreck.

"He definitely hasn't had the kind of season I'm sure he would like," Reutimann said Saturday. "A lot of us haven't. He obviously had a very good racecar. When you get taken out, that's not going to sit very well with you.

"I can't blame him, but I've been hand-whipped pretty hard this week. … You can only talk about somebody for so long before you get tired of it. That's kind of the point I'm at right now."

For the record, Reutimann didn't comment on how many times Earnhardt has missed his pit stall this season. He also didn't note that he qualified fifth this weekend and his chief critic will start 24th.

Mac McCormick III

Racing on the Brain

ALMS
I blogged awhile ago about rumor that the ALMS would be going to a 2 class structure in 2010. The series will remain with a 4 class structure, but the structure will be different from the current one. Instead of LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2 the structure will be:

1. Le Mans Prototype (LMP)
2. Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC)
3. Grand Touring (GT)
4. Grand Touring Challenge (GTC)

LMP1 and LMP2 will be rolled into 1 class except for Sebring and Petit LeMans. The LMPC class is an entry class prototype car using an ORECA Courage chassis with 450hp engines. This could be an interesting class to watch, offering a relatively low cost prototype platform to both gentleman drivers and up-and-coming drivers. The GT1 class is all but dead, so the new GT class will be what the GT2 cars are now. The GTC class will be Porsche GT3 Cup cars with the class expected to open up to other manufacturers in the future.

NASCAR
I watched very little of the Michigan Sprint Cup race and really didn't miss it, indicating just how much I've lost interest in NASCAR's top level racing. Instead I watched ALMS with it's varied mix of chassis/engine combinations, tires, and classes and enjoyed some good racing. With the exception of a few races (Watkins Glen being one of them), the Sprint Cup racing just isn't that good and the cars are too similar, with no opportunities for engineering or design originality. I don't like the Nationwide series either. It has become essentially an extra practice session for the Sprint Cup drivers; they come down and take prize money and sponsorship from Nationwide teams and drivers.

Mac McCormick III

Kasey Kahne Wins Sonoma

Congratulations to Kasey Kahne on his win at the weekend's NASCAR Sprint Cup road race at Sonoma. He held off Tony Stewart and Marcos Ambrose handily in the caution filled closing laps. Coming from a sprint car background, Kahne is not one you would think of as a top level road racer; obviously his skills carried over as he proved to be quite proficient on the road course. He qualified well and raced well; his win was well deserved.

Mac McCormick
kf4lmt@comcast.net

TNT Neglects to Mention Serious Injury to Johnny Benson?

I didn't see all of TNT's pre-race coverage before the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan yesterday, but I don't think anyone brought it up until Tony Stewart mentioned it in an interview they did with him during driver introductions. If this is the case, shame on TNT.

If anyone saw them mention it before Stewart's interview, please let me know.

Mac McCormick III
kf4lmt@comcast.net

Ed Hinton Column on NASCAR Paint Schemes

Remember the old days when you could pick out your favorite Sprint Cup Series driver on the backstretch at Dega because of the color on the car? Those days are long gone.

All that I'll add to this column from Ed Hinton is this: "Amen Brother."

Mac McCormick III
kf4lmt@comcast.net

18 More Races for A.J. Allmendinger

I can't be more happy for A.J. Allmendinger. After truly being given the shaft by Red Bull last year he was picked up by Richard Petty Motorsports (Gillette-Evernham) and given a ride for the beginning of this season. He has done pretty well, currently standing 20th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points, not much worse than his more experienced teammates. Autosport reports this morning that he has picked up sponsorship and will have his ride at Petty for at least 18 more races.

Allmendinger is definitely one of the most improved over the last season and deserves the chance to show what he can do.

Mac McCormick III
kf4lmt@comcast.net

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

A.J. Allmendinger Gets a Raw Deal

Yesterday, I saw on the Autosport and SpeedTV websites that A.J. Allmendinger and the Red Bull NASCAR team had mutually agreed to part ways.

In my opinion, this was a raw deal for Allmendinger given the improvement he has shown over this racing season. Granted, he started poorly but he gracefully stood by while Mike Skinner got in the car for several races and helped Red Bull sort out the car. Allmendinger learned from Skinner while out of the car and stood by the team in what was no doubt an embarrassing situation for him. When he got back in the car, he began to show improvement and his results have improved over the course of the season. How unfortunate it is that Red Bull is not giving him the chance to continue his improvement and show what he can really do.

I read that one of his options is going to Ganassi racing. This, in my opinion, would be a terrible move on Allmendinger's part. He would essentially be going to the same situation he has been in last season and this season. Ganassi isn't providing cars that are any better than the Red Bull cars. I really don't see where hiring Allmendinger would benefit Ganassi either; what Ganassi needs is a good veteran driver to sort out their car problems. Allmendinger doesn't yet have the experience to do that for them. Allmendinger needs a good, established team to provide him good equipment and Ganassi needs a good, veteran driver to improve his equipment.

Mac
kf4lmt@comcast.net

NASCAR at Dover

I haven't had much good to say about NASCAR lately, but I have to admit that today's race at Dover saw some good racing. The last 50 or so laps, with Biffle, Edwards, and Kenseth racing hard at the front, was some of the best racing I've seen all year long.

Mac
kf4lmt@comcast.net