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!

Kasey Kahne. Bad Boy Bad Boy Whatcha gonna do?

Kasey Kahne, the current Bad Boy of NASCAR?

When Kasey Kahne started the year in 2007, he was looking forward to the success that comes after a season of 6 wins. Sadly, Kasey was looking forward to the wrong future, as the success never happened. The entirety of Ray Evernham’s organization failed miserably, for reasons that are still somewhat elusive.

Kasey's frustrations revealed themselves by showing some fits of temper this year. He took part in some name calling of other drivers, up to and including his claims that one driver was overweight and out of shape. Then, at Homestead, while trying to enter his own motorcoach lot, he suddenly found himself in handcuffs.

The story is making the rounds of the media, the blogs and the message boards. Most opinions appear to have no middle ground…either Kasey is a Punk, or Kasey is a Saint. The details of the police report certainly do not paint a picture of Sainthood.

A few points…

• Kole Kahne, being supportive of his brother, claimed that the guard grabbed Kasey first. Four, count them, FOUR Law Enforcement Officers' statements told the opposite, that Kasey shoved the guard.

• Kasey may have been unaware that the security had been stepped up. However, there was one statement that members in the garage had been informed that hard cards were going to be required, after some fans managed to get by a guard earlier.

• The fact that Kasey was wearing a driver's suit as proof he was allowed into the lot is amazing. Any given day, I can go to ebay and find a used driver's suit. Anyone could don a suit, and then appear to be a driver.

• If Kasey had been shoved first by the security guard, he would have lost his job. The security guard had been ordered to not allow anyone to pass with credentials, even if they said they were a driver. The guard was following the orders given to him a half hour before. If the guard let Kahne by, he would have been fired. If he physically tried to stop Khane, he could have been fired. He was in a no-win situation.

• There has been much joking about Kasey’s size vs that of a security guard. The security guard is 62 years old, indeed old enough to be Kasey’s grandfather. Just because a security guard has that title, does not mean that all of them are big bruisers. Many Law Enforcement Officers would fall in the same height and weight category of Kasey, particularly if they are female. Most would be insulted to think that they could not 'take down' a 62 year old man. Would Kasey have shoved someone younger and bigger? I doubt it. Kasey may be small, but he is an athlete who weekly drives under g-forces for 400 to 500 miles. He shoved someone who is old enough to collect Social security.

• An Embarrassment of NASCAR Fans has struck again. According to the attorney speaking for the guard, they have been inundated with ‘hate mail.’ If the tone of those emails equals what I have read on some pro-Kasey message boards, then it is indeed embarrassing to claim NASCAR fandom at this time.
  

• The TV station, Channel 10 WPLG, displayed an amazing lack of sense on the posting of the police report. The original posting included Kahne’s personal address, phone number, driver’s license and social security number. The posting was up for 12 to 24 hours, before those items were redacted. Shame on them! I know it is legal to publish the police report, but in this day and age, posting personal information that can lead to personal safety issues is irresponsible and lowers them to the level of tabloid writers, and not journalists.
  

I normally enjoy catching Ray Evernham on Tuesdays for his weekly call into Dave Moody’s Sirius Speedway show. I was especially eager to hear it due to the Kahne case. I knew Ray would defend Kasey. I was surprised however at the continual jokes by Ray and Moody, over Kahne being such a lightweight. He did not say Kasey had not done it, but there was a lot of hilarity at the expense of the security guard.

Ray also claimed that Kasey was being ‘preyed’ upon. Yep, for $15,000. Many statements also claimed that Kasey has shown no remorse. At this point, I am pretty positive no one would believe statements of remorse, except perhaps that Kahne is sorry to be going to court! And the more that Ray continues to joke around about this, the higher the punitive damages will climb.

I will agree that Kahne’s actions are not what we have lead to believe are normal for him. However, I find it amusing that Kahne is a saint for actually physically assaulting someone, and Carl Edwards was vilified for coming close to punching Matt Kenseth, but never actually following through.

Perhaps Kasey should get his checkbook ready. And perhaps Mr. Evernham should follow the advice of his media reps, and not be so bold on the radio, to make light of his driver’s actions….actions that led to handcuffs, court dates, and law suits.