NASCAR 2008 wrap-up podcast available

My last podcast for the 2008 season is now available on iTunes (search "Caution Laps") or click here.

Vickers Penalty at Martinsville

This is a consolidation effort from my previous blog site.

The original post date was Thursday, October 23, 2008.

In response to NASCAR's penalty for Brian Vickers #83 Toyota Red Bull team, David Poole of Sirius satellite radio's "The Morning Drive" program on channel 128, stated that he would also include hefty penalties for the sponsor of a team found in violation of NASCAR rules. Poole stated at 7:28 am this morning, that if he had his way, a race team found in violation of NASCAR rules would be parked for one race (along with other various point deductions, suspensions, etc.) and the sponsor would not be allowed to host any hospitality or participate in that race weekend in any way.

Well, somebody is trying to bite the hand that feeds them. You cannot hold the actions of a race team against a sponsor. Sponsorship is the driving force of this sport we love. Sponsors pay good money to these race teams to get their names on the cars and when a team is penalized and points are taken the profile and visibility of that sponsor may be lessened, which is a huge blow to a sponsor. Television doesn't discuss too much, those teams outside of the top 15 or so in points.

Along with being a major sponsor comes some benefits like being able to host hospitality events at the tracks for their customers. Poole would have them locked out and bleeding cash because they can't host cool events for their VIP clients because the race team they are associated with had a rules infraction the week before. And to punish the race team, you must alienate the pocketbook that keeps food in the race team’s mouths and keeps NASCAR alive. The idea of sponsorship lockout is insane.

If Kasey Kahne's #9 Budweiser dodge had a rules infraction; no Bud could be sold or consumed that weekend at the track? If Kevin Harvick's #29 Shell Chevy broke some rules; nobody with Shell gasoline in their tanks would be able to drive their car to the track? Poole needs to remember that sponsorship build the sport that he makes a living off of. Leave the sponsors out of it.

NASCAR is doing a fine job of being judge, jury and executioner. They haven’t forgotten what’s gotten them here.

Britney Spears? Didn't "Chinese Democracy" get released this past week?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have reserved the right to refocus the subject matter of this blog during NASCAR's off-season. Since Jimmie Johnson nailed down the title a few weeks back, I really haven't felt the need to address any of the issues facing NASCAR. The testing ban, teams merging/folding and the advent of Stewart-Haas Racing all have been diligently covered in traditional media and the blogosphere.  So I'm leaving the track for now to take a look at a matter of pop-culture that is puzzling me. Axl Rose releases Chinese Democracy, the most anticipated rock record of all-time, and Rolling Stone magazine's comeback cover story is...Britney Spears! 

Rolling Stone! The music magazine of record, puts TMZ Princess Britney Spears on the cover and not the real comeback story: Axl Rose and the 13 year Guns N' Roses odyssey. I've had my beef with Rolling Stone in the past: leaving Mike McCready off the list of the top 100 rock guitarists, giving Tool's masterpiece 10,000 Days 3-and-a-half stars (the same score they gave to Britney's new album Circus), and having Barack Obama featured on the cover 3 times in the last 9 months, but this is ridiculous. How much did Jive Records pay to have this story done? RS—I've questioned your integrity before, now I know you are all in bed with a marketing blowup doll.

I suggest Rolling Stone include themselves in their standing feature "With us/Against us" and place themselves as far to the right as possible. You are the bubblegum pushers. You've poisoned what's real and forgotten the proletariat that made you. 

NASCAR Chase Rundown - 10th Place: Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch had, without a doubt, one of the best seasons in the history of NASCAR. His combined stats for the top three series in NASCAR racing for 2008 are mindblowing. "Rowdy" had 21 wins , 45 top 5's, 57 top 10's and led a staggering 4,362 laps. He also gave Toyota it's first win in Sprint Cup history. What's even more unbelievable is that the junior Busch brother barely finished the season in the top 10 in points for the Sprint Cup Championship.

Kyle Busch entered the playoffs 30 points ahead of Carl Edwards and left New Hampshire 74 points behind. A broken suspension piece early in the race put Busch 12 laps down and was a harbinger of things to come. The seemingly unbeatable Busch from earlier in the year was no where to be found; his car suffered catastrophic engine failure after 172 laps at Dover and finished 43rd. Kansas was no picnic either. The #18 M&M's boys couldn't get that JGR Toyota hooked-up and Busch finished a disappointing 28th. The one no one could catch was now mired in last place in the Chase after 3 races and was in a fight just to make the stage at the awards banquet.

Busch gutted out 4 top 10's later in the Chase, but he never truly contended for a win in any of the races. His amazing season ended with a sputtering 19th place finish at Homestead; having to stop for fuel with under 5 laps to go. He did manage to finish 2 points ahead of Matt Kenseth in the final Championship standings.

Did the rigors of racing in 84 NASCAR events between Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Trucks take its toll? Did Busch's team peak too early or did other teams just get better? Was Kyle a victim of bad luck or just bad timing? I'm not rally sure. What I do know is that this kid is only 23 years old and he is a wheelman! Kyle Busch has many years of race car domination in front of him. He is "checkers or wreckers" every race he is in. You build him something with 4 wheels and he'll get you the best finish that machine was capable of (and often two spots more). A future champion? You bet. The question is not if, but how many.

NASCAR Chase Rundown - 11th Place: Matt Kenseth

2003 NASCAR (Winston) Cup champion Matt Kenseth makes the Chase again, but fails to make any progress toward his second cup. He is one of only 2 drivers to make the playoffs every year since the system was implimented (Jimmie Johnson being the other). Starting the Chase in 12th place and having zero wins on the season provided the #17 car with a difficult challenge; finishing 40th at New Hampshire didn't help matters any.

Kenseth's bright spot in the Chase came in the second race, The Monster Mile of Dover International Speedway. He led a race-high 136 laps and finished second to his teammate Greg Biffle (Biffle's second win in a row). Matt followed up his Dover performance with a solid weekend at Kansas, qualifying 3rd, leading 49 laps and finishing 5th. The only problem was that 4 Chasers finished in front of him and Kenseth failed to make up much ground in the Chase.

Mr. consistent was really anything but in the Chase. The #17 had 5 top 10's and an average finish of 29.4 in the other 5 races. Those stats just won't get it done against the talent pool currently in Cup competition. Kenseth's frustrations were apparent with a deliberate wrecking on A.J. Allmendinger at the checkered flag in Phoenix.

Hope is not lost however. Matt Kenseth has solid support from team owner Jack Roush; having just inked a new contract extension. He is also surrounded by talent that rivals Hendrick Motorsports with Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards also being locked-up long term by Roush Fenway. It should also be mentioned that this was Kenseth's first season with crew chief Chip Bolin. His Championship crew chief, Robbie Riser is now involved with all of the Roush Fenway teams in a front office capacity.

NASCAR Chase Rundown - 12th Place: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

A Big move to Hendrick Motorsports and Junior Nation doesn't even get to see there hero on stage at the awards banquet in NYC. Only 3 top tens and 5 finishes outside the top 20 will not get it done in the chase for NASCAR's Sprint Cup.

Starting 4th in the Chase, things looked good for the #88 to bring home his first big-time championship. A solid top 5 at New Hampshire gave "The Nation" encouragement for the next 9 races, but finishing 3 laps down in 24th at Dover quickly dashed those hopes. Things didn't get much better with a 25.5 average over the next 3 races. At this point the Chase was pretty much over for the Amp Energy/National Guard team as they now sat in 10th place.  Junior earned a well fought 2nd place finish at Martinsville, but still lost points to the Chase leader and the winner of the race, Jimmie Johnson.

A 19.5 average finish over the final 4 races sealed the deal for June-Bug and there would be no joy in Kannapolis this year.

Overall, not a bad year: 1 win, 16 top 10's, but you've got to do much better when you are playing the same game as Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Next season Mark Martin joins Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Jr. should benefit greatly from the wisdom of a man who has finished in the top 5 of the NASCAR top series Championship standings 12 times.

Silly Season Off-Topic Disclaimer

I'm just putting it out there, that I reserve the right to go off-topic occasionally until speed weeks next february.

NASCAR Trucks better in Low-Def than the Cars in Hi-Def at Ford Championship Weekend

Fantastic pit strategy and iron will put Johnny Benson in position to capture the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship this past Friday. The final race with Craftsman as the series title sponsor was far more exciting and entertaining than either of the 2 "car" races this past weekend.

Maybe it was the nature of the championship beast with Benson grabbing the title by a mere 7 points over the crafty Ron Hornaday. Maybe it was that Hornaday and Kevin Harvick (Hornaday's truck owner) were, as one caller to Sirius' TMD put it, playing "Maverick and Goose". Four wheeled wingmen that weren't going to let anyone get in front of them and yet a no-guts-no-glory call in the pits gets Benson the position over Hornaday for the championship. Maybe it was simply that the Truck Series is better than either the NASCAR Nationwide or Sprint Cup Series'. No, for me it was the race presentation. The simple pleasure of sitting on my couch and watching/listening to people who actually gave a damn about the on-track action made the truck race tops for the weekend.

SpeedTV is not available in HD in my area thanks to the crappy selection and service of Charter Communications, but it didn't matter. So what if the trucks didn't look as awesome as the cars did on ESPN2 or ABC. The enthusiasm and delivery of information from Rick Allen, Phil Parsons, Mikey and Darell Waltrip,  Adam Alaxander and Ray Dunlap totally buried the coverage of the Mickey Mouse networks this weekend.

If you watched the Cup race on ABC this past Sunday, did you know what was happening to your favorite drivers in the last 10 laps with all of the fuel stops going on? Did you even hear about Scott Speed (outside pole sitter and part of the future of NASCAR) after the drop of the green flag? Where did Matt Kenseth finish? How the hell did Kasey Kahne finish 6th? What about Awesome Bill finishing 12 for the Wood Brothers? The lack of plot-lines discussed in a 400 mile race was staggering. We all knew the Jimmie Johnson/Cousin Carl story, but that's really all we heard about . Let me just say that the Championship points "battle" was not as compelling as some exec wanted it to be. WTF ABC!? 

Race fans are passionate and knowledgeable. ABC could at least pretend to be. Maybe you should just stick to America's Funniest Home Videos.

Fixing NASCAR - Well said by Ed Hinton of ESPN

Great article with suggestions for fixing NASCAR's issues (expenses, competition, excitement, etc). The article was written bt Ed Hinton of ESPN. Click here

No marching orders from The Cat in the Hat?

During the first 26 races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season we routinely see cars pulling over to let teammates lead laps to gain the all-important 5 bonus points. Like it or not, it happens all the time. It's just one of the reasons that mutli-car teams have an advantage over single-car teams. 

It occurred to me that on the last lap of the green/white/checker in Phoenix, coming out of turn 3, the only drivers with a shot for the win were Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch. Jamie McMurry was in third place and his teammate Carl Edwards (2nd in the Chase) was in fourth. With no shot for the win, would it have killed McMurry to let Edwards have third? I know all about the integrity of the sport argument, but I think that would have been an awesome move for McMurry. He has been rumored to be the car that would be sent over to Yates after the 2009 season and really has not warranted all the fuss that was made over him when he dumped his Ganassi contract for Rousch.

Like most business situations, you have to make people notice you to gain any respect. I know Edwards would have appreciated the extra few points and people would have been arguing the legitimacy of the move had McMurry surrendered the spot. I am actually more surprised that Jack Rousch didn't call for the move himself. We know The Cat in the Hat loves headlines.

I have not been a fan of Jamie's, but his last three races have made me take notice. Let's move on to Homestead and see what transpires. Maybe Jack could have McMurry take out the #48 at the green flag...Just kidding.

NASCAR: Phoenix Recap Podcast

Head over to the iTunes store and search "Caution Laps" or click here. I run down the top 10 from Phoenix.

Matt Kenseth: NASCAR's New Villain?

So Matt Kenseth takes out The Dinger at the finish line along with 8 or so other cars. A.J. had it coming; even though he was very apologetic over the radio when only a few laps earlier, he took out Kenseth, Stewart and a few others.

I heard people calling for Kenseth to be parked, to be moved to the tail end of the lead lap and so on. Callers to Sirius Speedway this afternoon were comparing him to Montoya at New Hampshire, even Gilliland at Texas (an incident that also involved JPM), saying that Kenseth does this sort of thing all the time, he's a menace, blah, blah, blah.

Look, Matt Kenseth is a Champion and if he's got a beef with Dinger or anyone else, #17 will handle it how he sees fit. Reminds me of another past Champion — a 7 time Champion.

Should NASCAR shorten some races?

YES! Absolutely. Look I love my NASCAR, but 500 miles, twice a year at Pocono is way too much time working around the triangle. (More on this next summer when we go to PA for the second time.)

Bagley and Poole were tossing this around on The Morning Drive on Sirius this morning. I get the arguments made for having long races. Get your money's worth of entertainment, TV contracts and advertising money, etc., etc. But look, The Brickyard is only 400 miles, the 4th of July Daytona race (Not sure what it's called anymore) is only 400 miles and the 2 NHMS races are perfect at 300 miles. 

A NASCAR race is so much better when you can sit down and watch the entire event. You can follow the developing story lines and actually see your favorite driver. Typically, if there is 100 miles or less left in a race and your guy isn't in the top 8, forget seeing him on TV.

I don't always have 3 and-a-half to 4 hours to sit down and check out the race. Poole mentioned a magic number of 2 hours and 45 minutes and I agree. Shortened races would force better racing, cuz it's go-time all-the-time. And the general public, that aren't fans, may be willing to check out a race if they knew it wouldn't blow their whole Sunday.

NASCAR: Texas Recap Podcast

Head over to the iTunes store and search "Caution Laps" or click here. I run down the top 10 from Texas.

8th Place for Truex Jr.

Martin Truex Jr. started on the outside pole for yesterday's race and he sank like a stone at the drop of the green flag. He finished 8th, but I expect more from this team. I know DEI will take a top 10 when they can get it.

Hey NASCAR: No Points for you!

David Gilliland took out J.P. Montoya with about 100 laps to go at the Dickies 500 in Texas today. Gilliland was parked by NASCAR for aggressive driving and was rewarded with a higher finish than JPM. So all Jimmie Johnson needs to to is bury Carl Edwards 12 rows deep at Homestead and he will be crowned the champion. NASCAR needs to disqualify cars if they are parked for disciplinary reasons. No Points for you! End of story.

Kyle Busch: 6th Place at Texas

Well, he ran second for a while and looked like he had a shot, but it just didn't happen. +23 spots isn't too bad. Another solid top-10 for the #18 moves him up 2 spots in the Chase.

Kyle Busch: Texas two-step?

It is about 1:30 to the green flag at the Texas Motor Speedway for today's NASCAR Sprint Cup race. I've got a feeling about Kyle Busch today. Not a great starting position (29th) and not a Chase to be proud of (12th), but Rowdy likes winning. He finished 2nd in the Craftsman truck race. He won the Nationwide race. He was second quick in happy hour and his team dominated the mile-and-a-half tracks for the first 3-quarters of the season. That is the stuff  that can take a lost season to a winning afternoon. Look out boys, #18 could be in victory circle by the end of the day.

Jeff Gordon could have won Martinsville if qualifying hadn't been cancelled

Jimmie Johnson received the best pit stall and starting position for the most recent Martinsville race due to the qualifying provisions, in case of rain, set by NASCAR. In my opinion, had there been the opportunity to qualify for that race, Jeff Gordon would have gotten his first win of the season. He has 8 poles and 7 wins at Martinsville. Texas, for the #24, is a whole other story with 16.1 average finish and a 43rd place finish this past spring.

This blogger has some nice solutions: Racedriven.com: Qualifying in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series makes all the difference.

My First NASCAR Race

  The first NASCAR race I ever attended was the 1999 Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

  My brother and I drove the 1,200 miles from Framingham, MA to Daytona, FL in our parents' red Ford Windstar. The check engine light came on somewhere in South Carolina, just to make things interesting.

  We arrived at the track 8 hours before the green flag; I remember sitting in the parking lot and it being the hottest day ever. My brother and I walked the souvenir trailers packed in like a herd of sweaty sheep. We bought a giant number "6" decal from Mark Martin's Valvoline trailer and put it on the back window of our minivan to show our support.

  Inside the track was amazing. Grand in every way imaginable. They sold beer buy the buckets. You could actually buy a bucket full of ice with 5 cans of Budweiser in it. The pre-race ceremony was filled with patriotism and wonder. Four F-14A Tomcats flew by as the Star Spangled Banner was being sung. It was simply magic. Our seats were about 50 yards past the start/finish line and we had an amazing view of turn 4 and the tri-oval; pit road stretched out right in front of us.

  I actually don't remember much about the race itself except that unbelievable second lap. 43 cars, side-by-side, 2 inches apart, nose-to-tail all up to full speed, 199 m.ph. They entered turn 4 and a feeling of panic almost knocked me to the ground. There was no way they were going to make that turn, they were going way to fast. They are going to pile up, 30 rows deep and thousands of people were going to get hurt...But that didn't happen. At the apex of the turn, every single car sank to within a half inch of the track and they held that turn at 190. The panic turned to sheer joy and I was a NASCAR fan.

  Dale Jarrett beat Dale Earnhardt Sr. to win the race under caution and Mark Martin finished 17th. I've been to at least one race a year ever since.