NASCAR Media all A-Twitter!

I am finding it increasingly more interesting to follow the NASCAR media in the last few weeks. As an 'older generation' fan, and most certainly an older generation 'blogger.' I find that I am not on the same side of many of the bloggers and even some of the media who write about NASCAR.

But what the heck! This is the new age, and I have just as much right to express an opinion as anyone. As an observer, I found the recent Kyle Busch 'Guitar Gate' event to be an astounding mass of misinformation!

I recently discovered Twitter, and Lo! The media is all a-twitter!!!! The media was Aghast at the Smash of the Axe! (So was I!) Immediately after the guitar smash, I sent a 'tweet' to the Gibbs media representative who reports during the race. (Yes, I sent my displeasure, and I am sure many other Tweeps did the same! ) Within minutes, there was a steady stream of "Sam Bass loved it" and "The Sponsors Loved It!" I could see the spin happening! In fact, the spin happened for several hours into the next day.

Monday morning, listening to Sirius Radio's The Morning Drive, I heard NASCAR writer Nate Ryan as a guest host, declare the party line: "Sam approved of this a year in advance." After Sam came on the air on the later broadcast, Sirius Speedway, we found the whole story, as Sam did not know about the future trophy destruction at any time before the event. When it happened, Sam was stunned, heartbroken, and disheartened. He declared that Kyle told him LATER that he did not mean disrespect, but Sam was still upset. Sam, for those of you who have yet to meet him, is a humble and private man. He will do anything to help anyone, but even he said that the smashed guitar was not replaceable, it was one of a kind.

At that point, the Twittering Media was responding with..."What?!! Sam was not happy!!!???" Until Sam appeared on a few select shows, no one had asked Sam Bass how he felt, and no one asked the venue operator, and no one asked Federated Auto Parts. RESEARCH is important!

I woke up this morning with Sirius in my ear, and heard Nate Ryan continue with his philosophy. He and Mike Bagley decided that anyone who disagreed with their opinion would be discounted. I have to wonder, how would David Poole react? Encountered with evidence that what they had espoused the previous day was not true, they continue blindly in the same incorrect direction, picking apart any argument that did not agree with them. Indeed, Bagley went through a mass deletion of detractors on his Facebook page.

To take it to the other side of journalistic integrity, I had an encounter with an individual who writes for the blog compiler "The Bleacher Report" who made some statements about what he thinks should happen in a particular NASCAR ride. He had several facts wrong, and after several dialogues back and forth, where I, and others, presented facts, he finally gave up and deleted his blog. For someone who claims they are planning on a career in "Mass Communications" perhaps they should be prepared to RESEARCH and RESPOND with FACTS! If one has the courage of convictions, one should not need to delete the blog when overwhelmed with facts.

Hubris is not permanently attached, it can be pulled from your psyche to reveal humility and the desire to find out the truth.

Meandering among the Marbles! Pocono Weekend

Notes and Observations from Pocono Weekend

ESPN is up to their shenanigans from last year, by not starting the Nationwide Qualifying on time. This time, it was a regional baseball tourney. It would not have been so bad, if they had considered moving the qualifying to another channel. Even the watchers most ignorant of baseball will see that when the team is at the top of the 8th with one out, that the Qualifying will not be coming up soon, unlike the scroll at the bottom of the screen kept proclaiming. I gave up after 40 minutes, and went about my life. When ESPN takes over the Cup season, we will have more of the same.

A requirement of the contract to sing our Anthem for a NASCAR race is that it MUST be sung properly. This is not an audition for American Idol or America's Got Talent!

In pre-race, Kyle Busch told of his last Dover Nationwide race, where he was 'moved' out of the way by his team mate. He admitted that he had a tire going down, and then dropped a bombshell by saying he didn't tell anyone, because he wanted to drag out the start and hope there was a wreck behind him.

"I have no issues with Joey at all," Busch said Friday at Pocono Raceway. "I must have punctured a tire I because I felt it in the last two corners before the caution came out that the right-front was getting soft. I didn't call it over the radio because I didn't want to give everybody Christmas and say that I had a tire going down.

"If I could have jacked up the restart enough and caused a wreck then I would have been fine, I would have been golden — it was a green-white-checkered so I would have won the race. That didn't happen.

"I went off into turn one and Joey was going to follow me and that's why I was as high as I was because I wasn't expecting him to follow. He got in the back of me a little bit (but) it was no fault whatsoever of Joey." (From USA Today)

Rusty Wallace called him out for it, and Kyle deserved everything that Rusty said, and all that he didn't say. Brad Daugherty even called Kyle out for not stopping to talk to the media. If Joe Gibbs Racing and M&M's haven't listened to the fans comment on Kyle's behavior, perhaps they will hear the commentary from the booth, and act on it. It is one thing to be a polarizing player in the sport, it is another to try and deliberately wreck the field. And the worst part, is that he didn't wait to talk to the media, and left his young team mate, Joey Logano thinking that he was totally at fault for the messed up restart.

Kyle further stunned the fans by smashing his guitar in Victory Lane. Forty-eight hours later, there are mixed stories on how much of this was planned, and how much was spur-of-the-moment. Sam Bass admitted that the act stunned him, but that he and Kyle talked in VL, and Sam is OK with it since Kyle has ordered two replacements. It is indeed Kyle's trophy, and he can do what he wishes with it. However, combined with the above tire issue, the guitar smashing, the refusing to talk to the press, and the general attitude that whatever he does is ok do not endear him to me, or to many fans of the sport. He may think he is a rock star, but this is racing, not rock 'n' roll!

The new restart procedures did help to jazz up the middle of the race. The long green flag runs, however, were still there, and the restarts did not counter the boredom that ensues for the hours and hours of cars all strung out.

There has been a tremendous amount of time given to the trials and tribulations of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and the crew chief changes. There has been little discussion on the crew changes for Kevin Harvick. Both will take time for changes to make an impact. Hopefully, the fans of both drivers show patience.

John Daly's blog, The Daly Planet, spent the weekend dissecting the three races. Much talk in all three events centered on Start and Parks. I am sensitive to this subject, since one of my favorite drivers and teams recently had to resort to this practice. I do not like it, and I am sure the driver and crew don't like it either. But, the economy has hit, and hit hard, among the teams on the lower echelon of each series. It is a hard decision to make, but my team is picking their races, and hope to make a showing in markets that are important to them. Frankly, I don't see many cars standing in the wings that will be able to move up to full-time racing, to replace the start and park cars.

On the Michigan!

Meandering among the Marbles!

Random thoughts and mutterings from Saturday afternoon of Talledage weekend!

NASCAR Nextel Sprint Cup-Talladega

• My driver David Gilliland made it into the race. Watching the Non-top 35 qualifications as a fan is almost as stressful as it has to be for the driver, crew chief and team owners.
  

• I enjoyed hearing MRN radio interview both David and his crew chief, Slugger Labbe, prior to the qualification run by the #71 TRG Chevy. MRN did a fabulous job on interviewing everyone on pit road, prior to each car hitting the track for their runs.
  

• There is no excuse, though, for the Fox/SpeedTV announcers to NOT interview ANY of the Go or Go Home drivers prior to their runs. When it takes a car almost a full minute to make their warm-up run, there is plenty of time to have a few words. Even worse, there was quite a bit of time for track clean-up, and the talking heads just kept yammering on about other tidbits that had already been mentioned. Is it any wonder why the cars in the back have trouble finding sponsors?
  

• Juan Pablo Montoya won the pole! One cannot help but wonder, with the Target Bulls-eye on that car, and with JPM's reputation with many of the drivers on the track, how that Bulls-eye will provide a 'Target' of Opportunity for those drivers!
  

• Dodge engines have been blowing up this weekend. Five Dodge cars will have to go to the back of the field on Sunday. With the advent of Chrysler's demise at the hands of the economy, it looks like this weekend is a sobering omen of 'what is to come.'
  

• Having my favorite driver outside of the Top 35, and struggling for sponsorship puts me in an uncomfortable spot. I am now having to hope for the bad runs, bad luck, or parts failure of several other cars or drivers or teams. My discomfort comes from being pretty sure that wishing bad luck on someone else gets returned to you!
  

• After watching Matt Kenseth rolling and bouncing around the track in the Nationwide race, I find myself thankful for the COT. There has been no car rolling, flipping and tumbling at a plate track since the COT first rolled out on those tracks in 2007. Indeed the only time a COT has tumbled was Michael McDowell, making a rookie mistake during qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway.
  

NASCAR Nationwide Race-Talladega

• Matt Kenseth joined the long list of drivers who have taken the Talledega Tumble. Always bad to see by fans and by family members, it seems that much worse when you know that Katie Kenseth is pregnant.
  

• Many fans want to point fingers at David Ragan for causing Kenseth's wreck. Even more fans point even longer digits in the direction of Kyle Busch for tapping Jason Allgeier. As a fan, I find it hard to judge those situations. The NASCAR drivers in the top series are driving 180+ mph, inches apart! I sometimes make errors in judgement going 55 mph, with car lengths between me and the cars around. While I don't wreck, I come danged close. At those speeds, the wreck is done before one can even form the thought that there is something happening, let alone reacting to it. Of course, the driver doing the tapping usually does not have any damage from this type of wreck.
  

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series-Kansas Speedway

• I find amusement in the Race Analysis SpeedTV pop-up being sponsored by World of Warcraft, and the Todd Bodine truck being sponsored by Ventrilo, a chat application used by WoW players! WoW has gone redneck? Who knew? (My WoW'ing spouse commented on how often the Ventrilo application crashes right before Bodine's Ventrilo entry crashed at lap 10. Amazing, he says!)
  

• Friday listeners to Sirius Speedway heard many callers berating the Kansas Speedway ticket office, refusing to sell any tickets to anyone wanting to view truck practice on Friday. They had customers with money in hand being turned away, with the claim, as heard on Sirius, that race fans MUST buy tickets for the whole weekend. While that is certainly their right, it certainly does not appear to be smart to alienate fans who MIGHT end up buying tickets for the rest of the weekend if allowed in on the slowest day, gate-wise, of the whole weekend. Perhaps the economy in Kansas is just fine! Or perhaps they are resting on their laurels, knowing they have an 'in' to a second date with the building of the new casino, sponsored in part by ISC.

Have a good evening, and let's hope the racing at Talladega is great on Sunday. And, let's hope for a safe race!

Meandering among the Loudon Marbles.

This year's first race at Loudon is over. Finally!

• I fully understand that the enjoyment of watching a race goes hand in hand with the results of my particular driver, For instance, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Sonoma, and I hated watching today's race at Loudon. And yes, it depended totally on how my driver fared.

• Major belated props to David Gilliland for last week's podium finish at Infineion Raceway. He impressed fans and peers alike, receiving accolades from the likes of Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon, along with a host of media writers and broadcasters. He deserved every bit of the praise.

• This week was not so good for either Yates Racing team! The COT proves that it is very fickle, and if the set-up is slightly off, the driver and crew chief will spend the entire race chasing the track, and chasing the set up.

• Add Jamie McMurray to the Hate List for the Junior Nation. While the rear-ending of Jr seems to have been pointless, many fans forget there is a tremendous amount of things that drivers have to react to, including suddenly closing in on a car that comes down to try and pit. I firmly believe that McMurray would never have purposely taken his own car out of the race in that manner.

• The 4th of July Fireworks happened a week early, when Kyle Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya had their little tiff on track. Kyle was quite amusing in his post-race interview, with his air of injured dignity. Juan Pablo, however, boldly admitted he wrecked Kyle on purpose. After visiting with his new friends in the NASCAR hauler, he left with a 2 lap penalty. (David Gilliland's fans thank you for that JPM! It gave us an extra sorely needed finishing spot!)

• Sadly, the shenanigans of the above two wrecks will take away from the win of Kurt Busch. In fact, I am sure there will be discussion that the top 6 cars did not deserve their finishes, as they never ran up front during the race. However, each of those cars played their strategy brilliantly, and therefor deserve their finishes just as ANY other fuel race. ALL races are, to a degree, fuel management races. Sadly, the controversies of the two wrecks will over-shadow any joy for the fans of those drivers.

• Oh, and major props to Casey Mears. He got the word last week that he was the odd man out at Hendrick Motorsports. And of course, this week he runs the best race of the season.

• Silly Season has turned into a huge merry-go-round. The NASCAR World is watching for Tony Stewart to declare his intentions, so that we can watch all of the other dominoes fall in place. The only true domino I wish to see would be the ones of sponsors declaring their faith in Yates Racing, to ensure the continuation of the organization in the sport.

Wide Awake Racing Attitude!

The Coca-cola 600 was a race that was predicted by media and fans to be long, boring and a snoozer. I am sure there are fans out there who are on that bandwagon, but there is a field of NASCAR drivers who have a different attitude.

In fact, the racing in the NASCAR's top three racing series can be summed up in one word - ATTITUDE!

The Ohio 250 race at Mansfield was such a typical mess. For some reason the half mile tracks and the trucks seem to mix it more than the Cup drivers at Martinsville. Rookie Donny Lia smacked David Starr out of the way to steal the win. His jubilant attitude was evident in his post-race, however the final comment shows a different attitude.

You know, I got into (David) Starr right there a little bit and hey, that's last lap racing and I'm sure he owes me one now but that's cool. You know if it’s the last lap and I'm in his position then I'm going to anticipate him hitting me anyway whether I did it today or not. That's just short track racing and you know, I just can't believe we are here right now it’s just really unbelievable."

David Starr gave an impressive interview after the race, marked by the amazing amount of restraint in his comments. The 'read' certainly does not show how David was struggling to control his emotions. That struggle said far more than any angry outburst could have.

Can you talk about the last lap?

"It was just good short-track racing. He (Donny Lia) got a run underneath us, I guess. I left a hole open, and he got into me in the left-rear, as you can see. It's all beat up back there. It was just enough to break my momentum. Once we broke the momentum, we broke traction in the rear. We just drove into turn three on a prayer. He had the preferred line. It was a great race. I just feel bad this Red Horse Racing team. They did a heck of a job. Jamie Jones (crew chief) did a heck of a job. We had a good truck the whole race, we just didn't finish it off. Not a bad finish, but we're disappointed. We thought we should've won the race. That's just good short-track action. You just never know what's going to happen until the end."

Saturday’s Nationwide event at Lowes Motorspeedway, the Carquest 300 had more attitude than a bar full of retired Air Force pilots. Kyle Busch, in a non-Gibbs car, vowed to break the Gibb’s winning streak, and he succeeded!

"I said before the race that hopefully we could bring this Dollar General Toyota home in first, and the Joe Gibbs Toyota could be second. And fortunately, tonight it worked out that way……"That JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) team has been pretty stout this year and I've been fortunate enough to drive their cars a couple times and it's really been nice to see how fast those things are. But we had our Braun Racing car pretty fast tonight too. It sucked that we brought the streak to an end, but I'm glad that at least it's a JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) driver streak.

Amazingly, the attitudinal happenings were all taking place behind Kyle this time, involving the next three cars in the finishing order. Brad Keselowski, during a caution period, place his front bumper under the rear bumper of the car of Denny Hamlin, lifting the rear wheels a tad, or maybe it was a shove. Denny pulled back even with Brad, and then made a move into Brad’s car, damaging the left front of Brad’s car. Dale Jr, in 4th place, moved forward to give Hamlin another shove to the rear.

The emotions of that on-track episode spilled over into the pits, in the form a melee between the crew members of JR Motorsports and Denny Hamlin’s crew. (image courtesy of Getty Images)

Even more tense, were the two drivers, during the post-race press room interview. Watch for yourself!



In my opinion, Denny came off looking a bit worse than Brad. Hamlin fans will probably disagree. The real shame though, both of those boys? men? used to race with each other in Dale Jr’s DMP sim league. I would think that at one time they were friends. It does not appear that there is any friendship left between Denny and the Jr Motorsports drivers.

The Big Show on Sunday, Humpy’s Last Hurrah, the Salute to the Troops, had many salutes of other kinds! Mostly digits on hands wedge between A-posts and window nets.

Jeff Gordon:
YOU JUST HAD A CONVERSATION WITH KYLE BUSCH. WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT? “I don’t know. I guess he doesn’t like people to race him. You know, Kyle and I never had any issues. But I raced him hard tonight just like I did everybody. And when track position is as important as it is here, you’ve got to race every single car for every single position. And I wasn’t going to give anybody an inch and I was racing for position. He’s got an issue because he gave me the finger and you know what? That’s not necessary for a guy he just didn’t like racing him the way I did.”

Really Jeff? Then talk to your buddy, Jimmie Johnson. I heard he was displaying the same finger to at least one other driver during the race! Was it necessary then?

Tony Stewart, on his radio, was wondering what was going on with Juan Pablo Montoya, saying he had ‘gotten’ bad again. Patrick Carpentier should realize that he doesn’t get points for every pinball hit he makes.

David Gilliland was the recipient of the ‘What in the HECK was THAT award.” He suddenly went from a 20th place car in the lucky dog position, to having his hood bashed in by the loose wheel from Brian Vickers machine. Fortunately, David was not physically hurt, nor were the fans in the infield. It is always a scary moment when a 75 pound wheel goes flying in the air. Hmmmmm! I wonder what happened to the tether those wheels are supposed to use? And Brian said he was going to send some 'stuff' over to the camper site. I wonder what he would give David?



And, as America spends this Memorial Day Monday relaxing and visiting with friends, remember the real reason for this holiday. Thank a member of the military today. The ones that survived can be thanked verbally. The ones that didn’t, please send a prayer of thanks for them. And remember, we wanted out drivers to show emotion. We have it, but we must accept it from all drivers, whether or not we like that driver. Thank the military for giving us the freedom to speak our minds!

Meandering Amongst the Marbles!

There were some surprises coming out of the NASCAR All-Star event at Lowes Motor Speedway, but the few surprises were buried in a heap of boredom.

• Congrats to AJ Allmendinger and Sam Hornish, Jr. Both former open-wheel stars raced to the top 2 spots in the Sprint Showdown, thereby transferring to the All-Star Race. Both started from the rear of the field. While AJ finished 17th in the All-star, Hornish was able to push his way to 7th.
  

• Additional congratulations go to Kasey Kahne, the winner of the Fan Vote and then the All-Star race. As much as I hate the All-Star voting, this time it worked well! I did note, though, that Elliott Sadler finished 3rd in the voting, so evidently even the JR Nation could not make Sadler any closer to winning the popularity contest.

• Let us not forget Matt Crafton finally finding his way to Victory Lane in the Craftsman Truck series. During his interview on Sirius this week, he claimed that he and his crew chief felt they were on the verge of grabbing the checkers. They were right!
  

• Kasey will not have to worry about the whole 'Vote thing' for the next ten years, due to his win. So, will Jr endorse Sadler again next year? I wonder how Chevy felt about JR throwing support to a driver of a competing manufacturer! Hmmmm! Enquiring minds want to know!

• How ironic that the first two cautions in the Showdown were caused by two of the three GEM cars. The 10 and the 19 were out early. I am most thankful that we will not be subjected to Carpentier running nude down the front strecth. The vision of the double-tracking gaited driver wrapped in a checkered flag diaper is forever seared into my mind.
  

• Internet buzz still is of the opinion that Sadler was out of line when he was slamming AJ Allmendinger, post wreck. It will be interesting to see if Elliott actually shows up for his weekly appearance on Sirius Speedway. And if he does show, what will he say? Sadly, there is no way to retract ugly-talk. I can't help but remember the interview with Miss Bell Sadler, as she discussed that Elliott was a bit spoiled. Perhaps he has never out-grown that attitude.
  

• The latest Tony Stewart rumor has him buying into JR Motorsports. Many wonder how well he and Jr. would do as business partners, but many forget they are already partners with each other in the VLP club.
  

• There are quite a few cars that will have to go back to the drawing board, if NASCAR has their way. Ironically, some of the cars at issue include the 77 of Sam Hornish, Jr. Carl Edwards claims that his car never had any problem getting on the scales, in spite of being called out by Jeff Gordon.
  

• The two Yates Racing entries had a good showing in the Sprint Showdown. David Gilliland finished 7th in his FreeCreditReport.com Ford Fusion, followed by team mate Travis Kvapil in the unsponsored 28 Ford.
  

• Engine problems seemed to plague the Gibbs teams this weekend. Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin both had to retire early due to power plant failure. And Tony Stewart started from the back due to changing an engine prior to the race. This little blurb on Jayski.com sums up the issue.
  

Joe Gibbs Racing used its engines in the all-star race as opposed to the engines it receives from Toyota Racing Development. The team plans to go back to TRD motors for the Coca-Cola 600. Since the all-star race is a non-points race, it provides teams a chance to test equipment without fear that a failure will hurt them in the points.(Roanoke Times), #20-Stewart had to change engines before the race, #11-Hamlin and #18-Busch both lost engines during the All-Star race, all three had rocker-arm problems.(5-19-2008)

• Speaking again of the Fan Vote, there are many internet boards that claim "something is wrong with the vote process." Apparently some fans used 'voting macros' or 'voting bots' to try and sway the votes in the favor of their own driver. One wonders if ALL of the fans were using the voting bots, thereby canceling each other out.

The next few days may include some interesting revelations! There are rumors that there may be some more sponsorship for one or both of the Yates cars. Awesome!

M&M's, Pedigree, and Weapons of Mass Disgust, Oh My!

Richmond International Raceway - a race track that inspires drivers to claim it is the penultimate racing experience. Fans claim the same, and I must say I would be included in that claim. I visited RIR 4 years ago, and reminisce fondly on the whole experience.
The fans attending the race on May 3rd received a more exciting show than the value of their tickets implied. This race will compare to the most memorable races in the annals of NASCAR history, only because of the quirkiest of events.

First, Kudos to my favorite driver, David Gilliland! While Freecreditreport.com has extended their agreement with Yates, it is widely speculated that the car decorations are 'gratis' until the next big-time sponsor can be found. "Gratis or not, I am grateful for the logo's and I will be wearing purple and black as long as the FCR pirate hat continues to adorn the quarter panels.David had a marvelous run, starting from the 40's (when will the Yates cars start qualifying better?) and ran as high as 14th. Sadly, he was involved in the lap 230 fiasco that sent several cars to the garage. David's car was one of three that never returned to the track. His team mate, Travis Kvapil, finished 16th, and is now 19th in driver points with David sitting 20th. Not bad for two teams that are sorely underfunded! I am sure there are some big dollar sponsors out there who want some exposure! At any rate, this driver will continue to show the promise that came from his Cinderella-like win in the Busch series a few years ago.



Denny Hamlin certainly appeared to be the class of the field. Every restart had the hometown hero charging away from the pack, and he seemed to be unstoppable. Disaster struck for the 11 team when a tire was going down, and Denny stopped the car on the track, forcing a caution. Parked two laps by NASCAR for the infraction, he would certainly have gone down as many laps, if not more, with a green flag stop or a tire blow-out.

Denny's forced caution set the scene for one of the most talked about events of the last two days. Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. were racing side by side, when a 'racing deal' caused Jr. to spin, backing into the outside wall. The anger from the fans was evident in single digit gestures, booing, and the traditional "Jr got dumped" rain of beer cans, aka Weapons of Mass Disgust.



A Sunday afternoon spent browsing the internet shows there are three sharply divided camps on the Jr. vs Kyle subject.

• Group one is made up mostly of media, and a few fans who 'have no dog in that hunt.' The opinion's seem to agree that a racing deal happened. The members of this group are pretty sure that Kyle did not intend for it to happen, and should not be penalized by the Jr. Nation.
  

• Group two is the "I hate Jr and will now love Kyle" faction. Any driver that is involved in a battle with the scion of the man called Senior is automatically moved to the top of their list! They dismiss 17 Cup wins as a fluke in their sureness that Jr. is over-rated.
  

• And the third group is the one that will cause this event to never, ever be forgotten. Fans of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will not forgive this one easily. Already nicknamed Vile Kyle on more than one message forum, an arrogant attitude will force this driver to endure boo's and catcalls during driver intros for years in the future.
  

Many fans are already busy writing a plethora of emails and letters to every media venue available, to Gibbs racing, and are busy creating a hate-mail campaign to Mars, Inc., the sponsor of Kyle Busch. The anger directed to Kyle Busch will overflow to Mars being instructed on the sanity of sponsoring such a controversial driver, with threats to never ever purchase any of the products ever.

Kyle's attitude reared it's head in the Richmond Nationwide race on Friday. A post-race scuffle with Steven Wallace caused Kyle to mouth some pretty self-damning statements. Kyle is showing the world his attitude with statements such as

...he's probably not even driving Ritchie Wauter's Super Late Models anymore either.

and

We've got a lot of things that go on, but this is just a little piece of the pie. I race in the Sprint Cup Series...

The most amusing quote though, was

"That's Rusty Wallace's kid so I'm not sure you're going to be able to talk to him much and get through his head...

One cannot help but reflect "Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle!"

One also wonders if Mars got more than they expected. With the announced intent to acquire Wrigley, they may well have two of the most despised drivers on the NASCAR series driving cars under their banner. Oh my! Kyle Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya as 'mates! Who would have thought! And oh, by the way....congratulations to Clint Bowyer, the forgotten winner!

Does Candy grow on Shrubs? Mars to Kyle Busch?

Silly Season continues to shock and amaze us! This week saw Kahne wearing the Bud crown, and JR getting AMPed with the National Guard.

Last night, a surprise hit the internet, with it all but confirmed that Mars will sponsor Kyle Busch!

I have known for some time that the Mars company had decided to leave Robert Yates Racing. The teams have not performed this year. Yates has been struggling with below standard equipment, and lack of engineering, and a lack of clear direction. Yates has made so many plans for the future, and we have watched them swimming in circles.

Yates and Mars apparently had a 3 year contract. Last year, after Yates lost both drivers, and one sponsor, Mars stepped up to sponsor a second car with Ricky Rudd in the seat. Mars has indeed paid for three years of sponsorship, two years on the 38 and one year on the 88. They have fulfilled their end of the deal, as far as I can tell.

I will be sad to see them leave Yates. From comments I have read, Robert will always respect the Mars family, and he is grateful for the support they have shown in the last year.

I had a deep and gnawing fear that my favorite candy company was going to take a step backwards and return to sponsoring Elliott Sadler. Elliott may still be popular, but his performance since transferring to Ray Evernham's stable has been less than spectacular. One Mars associate summed it up recently...."That guy didn't stay with us, why should we follow him?" I agree with that person.

That leads us back to Kyle Busch. I am still reeling in shock! Logic dictates that Kyle will provide Mars with some potential to win. Even with the change to Toyota, the Gibbs stable cannot be discounted on its quality of cars, drivers, and operations. Kyle is a helluva driver, one hungry to be on top, and he has the talent to get there.

However, the emotional side of me wants to shriek "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" I just can't see the Shrub wearing the Candy colors. I don't want the Candy driver to have ANY association with Tony Stewart. Hamlin I can handle, but Tony the Terrible is not an ideal team mate! Kyle is adored by the media, mainly because they can ALWAYS get a sound byte from him that makes headlines. Kyle will be giving his media handlers a headache, instead of a sugar high!

So, Mars, if this is true, I send congratulations! You have an awesome driver in your future, and I am sure there will be lots of wins! I hope the headaches will disappear as Kyle matures.

But, in the meantime, I will continue to support the current bearer of the Candy M. Next year, I am still going to be a Gilliland fan, and very proud of it!