Brad vs Carl - Lessons Learned

When you grab the tail of a dragon, you just might get burnt. Brad Keselowski grabbed Carl Edwards tail when he hit Carl in turns 1 & 2 of the last lap and got burnt a half a lap later. Brad and Carl passed each other a number of times without hitting each other. What Brad has to learn is if you have to hit someone to pass them, you just might get hit back.

I just do not understand why Brad, his family & many fans think he was a victim in the Gateway last lap deal. If Brad would have passed Carl without hitting him, Carl would not have hit him to re-pass him. Simple. Carl passed Brad to get the lead without hitting him. Why Brad thought he had to 'move Carl over' to pass is beyond me. What is even more amazing is why Brad was surprised when Carl 'moved Brad' to take the win a half lap later.

It looked to me after numerous replays on many TV shows that Brad moved up to block Carl, almost like he thought Carl would get into him and Carl moved down to 'move Brad over'. And they had a racing deal on the last lap, within sight of the checkered flag.

Whatever the small details happen in the last lap, the main lesson from the last lap deal is simple. If you hit someone to pass them, you just gave them the green light to hit you to re-pass you.

After almost 40 years of watching racing, I still do not understand why a driver thinks they have the 'right' to hit / move over / rattle their cage / etc. another driver to pass them. You pass clean, you most likely will not get hit so they can re-pass you. Ask Mark Martin or better yet, watch him race. His 40 Cup wins prove you do not need to hit someone to pass them.

Brad, you are getting a rep as a dirty driver. Now the payback is not any fun. Brad, learn to pass without hitting someone and you will not end up in the wall anymore. Simple.

What's the Big Fuss about Danica?

If you read any blog, listen to any racing show or read any racing publication, you would think Danica Patrick is either going to save or wreck stock car racing. I really do not know what the big fuss is about Danica trying out stock cars. She is a racer and has sponsorship for a stock car, so let her race. Just like any racer, she is either going to do well or not do well.

Let her give it a shot. At the end of the year, then we can grade her. She has only tested a stock car, not ran one stock car race, yet some are writing her off already. Others think she got her ride because she is female. Some think others should have the chance before her. And then there are those that think her running stock cars will save NASCAR. Only time will tell.

Racing is sponsor driven today, in case you have not noticed. She has done well in different forms of open wheel racing. She is a racer and she has a sponsor. Let her race. In a race car running around a track, unless you know who is in the seat, you cannot tell if the driver is male or female, what color they are or how old they are. The bottom line is how well they do on the track. Performance counts. At the end of the year we all will know if she will continue in stock cars or like some other open wheel drivers trying stock cars, give it up.

2010 Will Be Better

It has been a long time since I posted anything on my racing blog. It is not that I have lost interest in racing, just that some major forms of racing have lost interest in me, the long time racing fan.

NASCAR and other forms of major racing organizations have been courting the "New Fan" and forgetting about me and my fellow long time fans. This caused a temporary jump in interest in the sport. Increased attendance at races and sales of race items skyrocketed. But that was short lived.

The economy has had something to do with shrinking interest in auto racing, mainly NASCAR, but that is not the only reason. That "New Fan" that NASCAR courted, has moved on to some other fad. Some have stayed and will be long time fans. But a big chunk of that "New Fan" influx of fans have moved on.

There will be another influx of Danica Patrick fans that were never race fans, but are drawn to the news buzz of Danica mania. Some will stay and some will more on.

But the bottom line is the long time race fan. One that has been a fan for some time and will remain a fan for the rest of their life. That is the base of auto racing. That is who NASCAR and other forms of racing should not forget. I am hoping 2010 will be better for those fans.

Teamwork vs. Sportsmanship

I am still hearing fans gripe about the other Hendrick teams helping Jimmie Johnson fix his car at the Texas crash. The race is over, the championship won and the season is over.

Some NASCAR fans are still bringing it up on the radio or in blogs. I was thinking about a comment I heard on the radio about why the other Hendrick teams helped Jimmie out. The host said it was sportsmanship. Something sounded wrong and it did not hit me until this morning in the shower. The other Hendrick teams helping Jimmie fix his car was not sportsmanship, it was teamwork. There is a major difference between sportsmanship and teamwork.

Back in 1973 Benny Parsons was in a tight battle with Richard Petty for the NASCAR championship. At the last race of the season at Rockingham, Benny was involved in a crash on lap 13. His car was heavily damaged. Benny needed to finish the race for a chance at the championship. As his crew worked on his car, other teams from the NASCAR garage started helping his crew get the car back on the track. That was sportsmanship. Benny was not part of a multi-car team and was not as financed as the Petty organization. Today it would be like Robby Gordon vs Jimmie Johnson. Benny got back on the track and finished high enough to win the 1973 Winston Cup championship. The crew members from the other teams may have wanted to see the underdog win over Richard Petty or they were just helping out another racer. Whatever the reason, the act of the other teams, and there were many, helping Benny out was true sportsmanship.

The other Hendrick teams helped out Jimmie Johnson's crew get his car back on the track was not sportsmanship, it was teamwork. If you are a fan that thinks that was wrong, you are not aware of how Mr. Hendrick runs his organization. Unlike most multi-car teams, the Hendrick teams operate more like one large team with four drivers rather than four teams under the Hendrick banner. The Hendrick organization does not bring four separate teams to the track, they bring one team with 4 drivers, 4 over-the-wall crews, 4 crew chiefs, etc. Most of the crew from the other Hendrick teams working on Jimmie Johnson's car most likely work on all four team's cars during the week. During the week they wear plain Hendrick uniforms. At the track, they get divided up and wear the different sponsor crew uniforms. In reality, that Texas day, there was one team working on a damaged Hendrick race car. They were just wearing different sponsor uniforms. A perfect example of teamwork.

Drivers and Their Sunglasses

I do not know what it is with race car drivers and their sunglasses. I was looking through some old slides of racing in the 1970's and found this picture of Tom Reffner and his cool sunglasses. Even back then, drivers had to have the cool shades.

Now days, just about every time a driver is interviewed on television, they have to put their sunglasses on. I know they must get some endorsement monies. But it is hard to tell who’s sunglasses they have on most of the time.

I do not know about you, but I like to see someone's eyes when they are talking to me or being interviewed on television. It is just polite or good manners. A few drivers do take off their sunglasses when being interviewed, but very few.

I am just not sure how far this endorsement fad will go. It started out by stating the manufacture of your race car. Then the drivers started getting their major sponsor into every interview. Small patches started appearing on the upper half of their driver's uniforms so they would show up on the head shots. Then the drivers had to take a drink of their drink sponsor's beverage before they could answer any question. Then the sunglasses started getting in on the act.

When will this all end? Will drivers strip down to their boxers to make sure we know Jockey is giving them underwear?

Back to Comments

ARCA racing is done. Summer is winding down. So I will now have more time to write about racing. There is still time left in the NASCAR season. The Chase is rolling along. The NASCAR Hall of Fame just announced the first class. There is plenty to write about just in NASCAR. Check back often for new articles about racing.

Is The Testing Ban Saving Teams Money?

On the surface the NASCAR ban on testing at tracks NASCAR visits looks like it will save money for all teams. I think the key phrase here is the ban on testing AT TRACKS NASCAR VISITS. They did not ban testing altogether. They just banned testing at tracks any of the top NASCAR divisions race at. But does this ban really save teams money?

Last year, for example, several teams would go together and rent Dover for a day. There would be a cost to send the test team to Dover for the day. The driver would have to fly in for the testing. There would be hotel rooms, fuel, tires and the maybe some damage to a car to repair. The cost of the track rental would be shared among a few teams. The day of testing would be costly for sure.

This year teams cannot test at any NASCAR tracks. Does this stop testing? No it does not. It just stops testing at the tracks NASCAR races at. The top teams are still testing, just at tracks NASCAR does not race at. There is still the cost of rooms, fuel, tires, etc. Teams might not share the cost of renting a track, so that cost might be more. The smaller teams will not be able to test at Non-NASCAR tracks like the larger teams, so they will be at a disadvantage.

The larger teams are also spending more money on in-house testing equipment to shake down the car before it gets to the track. Again, smaller teams cannot afford the same equipment and are at a disadvantage. So the net result might not be much in savings because the money will still be spent on testing, just either at non-NASCAR tracks or in-house equipment.

I think a better solution would be opening the track for testing a day before you would normally have to be at the track for the race weekend. Teams have to travel to the track for the race, so there would not be any extra fuel costs. There would be extra tire costs, maybe an extra motor rebuild and one extra day of hotels, food, etc. Then ban ALL testing, at any track, for all teams. This would be easy to control. If I can read about teams testing at non-NASCAR tracks at Jayski’s Web site or a number of other Web sites, so can NASCAR. Let the teams still use all their electronic testing equipment to give the teams the information they are looking for.

The only downside, and I am not really sure this is a downside, is the teams would not have time to go back to the shop and digest the testing information. They could only use it for the upcoming race weekend. I am not sure the day-before-race weekend testing would be a downside. I think this would be good for the sport. This would save teams more money than the current ban on testing at NASCAR tracks.

How Young Is Too Young?

When NASCAR made 18 the entry age into their Top Divisions, I thought the entry age should have been at least 21, if not 25. I have nothing against the talented younger kids. Some can race against the more experienced drivers. Some could if they had a little more experience.

Joey Logano just could be the next Richard Petty or Mark Martin. Or will Joey join the list of young drivers thrown into the NASCAR Cup pressure cooker and then discarded because they did not perform fast enough. Now where are these former young drivers? If they are lucky, they are still racing somewhere. If not, they are flipping burgers.

Dale Earnhardt made his first NASCAR Cup start when he was 24 and did not run full time until he was 27. He still had time in his career to earn 7 NASCAR Cup championships. He started racing in the Cup series when you first had to prove yourself in one of NASCAR lesser divisions before getting a chance in the elite Cup division.

The last few years NASCAR has been following the other sports, mainly the “ball” sports, by bringing in younger and younger kids into their premier series. In football, basketball or baseball, many of these young kids cannot handle the pressure and turn to drugs or alcohol before burning out. But there is always a deep pool of talent to draw from for replacements. I think NASCAR is following the same path and that is not good for the sport in the long run.

Many of the new NASCAR owners are also “ball” sports owners too. Is that why there is a shift from talented and experienced drivers to just younger, and hopefully talented drivers? There is almost a race between team owners to find that young kid that will be the next star. And they get younger and younger. Owners are now signing drivers to development contracts before they even graduate from high school.

Does a driver that is 18 really have more talent than a driver that is 30? Not necessarily. What they lack in experience, they make up in aggression. They will drive into a hole that a more experienced driver will wait until the next lap to make the pass. The younger drivers will destroy more cars, but get their sponsors more exposure. Owners used to value a driver that would finish a race with a car that was in one piece.

The Gibbs organization has a lot of resources and deep pockets. Joey Logano has a better chance of making a success in racing with Joe Gibbs Racing than with a smaller, less financed team. I am not saying Joey Logano is not talented or will not make it in the NASCAR Cup series. But why put him into that position? Why not let him mature and gain more experience in the truck or Nationwide series before moving him into Cup? He might just end up as another Richard Petty or Mark Martin and race for decades, instead of being a possible flash in the pan driver.

Daytona 500 – Local Boy Wins!

OK, lets get this out first. I am a fan of Matt Kenseth. I watched Matt “The Brat” Kenseth race at the local tracks around Wisconsin before he moved south. His win last Sunday in “The Great America Race” or the Daytona 500 or whatever they call it from year to year, was just plain great. He finally was in the right place at the right time.

Very few race fans from Wisconsin were not overjoyed that Matt won one of the biggest races on the NASCAR Cup schedule. Hell, from what I have been reading, very few drivers or crew in the NASCAR Cup garage were not happy to see Matt win. Well maybe Elliott Sadler was not too happy to see Matt win, but that is racing luck.

Maybe because Matt is from the Midwest and not from the south, he does not get the press or respect others do. Or maybe because Matt is not in your face type of driver others are, that he does not get the press or respect others do. Whatever the reason, maybe with a Championship and a Daytona 500 win, he will start to get more press and respect.

It might take some time to change. I say this because the big story from this year’s Daytona 500 was not so much Matt Kenseth winning the race as Dale Earnhardt Jr. screwing up again. Even in our local Wisconsin State Journal newspaper, that story almost received as much space as Matt’s win. And Matt is a local boy!

If I were Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s handler, friend, boss or whoever he is close to, I would sit him down and have a talk. I would talk and he would have to listen. Somebody needs to explain to him that he is not the center of the NASCAR universe. His fans and he might think that. And sometimes I think NASCAR thinks that, but he is not. He screwed up royally in this year’s Daytona 500. The “Big One” was not Brian Vickers fault. It was Dale Earnhardt Jr’s fault.

Junior has been racing long enough to know that you do not turn somebody around in front of the field at Daytona. Somebody could have been hurt. He screwed up and he should be man enough to say so. He lost a lot of respect from drivers, crew and fans last Sunday. If he would have said after the race that he screwed up and apologized to the other drivers and crew, he would have gained respect instead of losing it.

NASCAR is also at fault here too. They should have sat Junior in the pits for at least 5 laps. They did that in the Nationwide race the day before for actions that were not as blatant as Junior’s. Maybe they were afraid of a Junior Nation riot. Whatever they were thinking, they screwed up too.

NASCAR, it is called “tough love”. Just because Junior is NASCAR’s favorite son, does not mean he cannot be punished for his actions. If he is not punished for his actions, how will he ever learn? He will keep on making mistakes until he learns the right way.

NASCAR just needs to play fair. If they punish one driver for his actions on the race track, then they have to punish another driver for the same actions, even if his name is Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Is The NASCAR Schedule Too Grueling?

Is the NASCAR Cup schedule too grueling? A simple and loud NO is the answer. I have been a NASCAR fan since 1964. I have seen a few changes over the years. The NASCAR schedule had more races in the 1950's. NASCAR would sometimes be racing three or four times a week. Now only at Daytona do they race more than once a week. The current schedule is really too short. There should be between 40 and 50 races a year.

 

I have been an auto racing crew member on short tracks and the ARCA series. In Wisconsin during the summer months in the 1960's and into the 1980's the short track racers competed up to 7 times a week racing from April until October. Then some would head south and race the rest of October and into November. Others would start down south and race for a month or two before coming back to Wisconsin. All for a lot less money than the big boys were getting in NASCAR.

 

A person is not forced into racing. He or she chooses it as a career. At the top of your profession if a driver cannot practice, qualify and then race 40 or 50 times a year, they should look for another way to make money. Yes they have sponsor commitments, but they still have more time off than the people paying their wage, the race fans. And they make a ton of money more than most race fans.

 

Maybe the NASCAR championship has caused some of the problems. In the early years of NASCAR racing the emphasis was on winning and not the championship, some drivers and/or teams would only race the races they wanted to race, not the full schedule. As the emphasis switched from winning races to winning the championship, only than has the schedule been an issue.

 

The schedule is probably more grueling for the crew members than the drivers. The schedule can be more grueling for the smaller teams. The larger teams have crew members for the shop and another set for race weekend. Some even have another set for testing (now laid off due to the no testing rule). Again, few are forced into racing. They choose it because they like racing. Along with racing comes long hours, many days away from family and hard work. All of that is known up front.

 

More of a problem than the grueling schedule is the economy. Will the current economy support the current schedule or will lack of sponsorship force a cutback in the schedule? That is going to be a far larger issue in the next few years.

 

I do know one thing. If any driver thinks their schedule is too grueling, step aside. There are plenty of drivers out there that would gladly take their place. I would even jump at the chance to take their place. They just need to suck it up and race or find another way to make a living.