David Gilliland Appearance

I am proud to say that I met David Gilliland at M&M's World on the Las Vegas strip earlier this evening.

From all perspectives, he is one heck of a nice guy. He seems relaxed with his fans and takes the time to look them in the eye and express his thanks that fans are there.

He appears to especially be great with children! Tme and again, I saw him taking extra time with each child, and listening to each of them. I saw several youngsters leave thrilled and excited, tightly clutching their prizes!

While most events work out very well for the fans, I find that driver signings can also be 'make or break' for the fans. Many fans will wait for hours in line, and then be upset that they were shuffled through the line. If the driver does not react within expectations, a fan can leave the appearance disgusted with the driver, and indeed so angry they are no longer fans. Other fans will assume that the driver is just having a bad day, and they will accept the poor reaction blissfuly, explaining away any apparant bad mood based on something bizarre and unusual.

Every one has heard reports about fans being upset with the drivers. Some drivers can start out very attentive to their fans, and at some point in their careers, the signings seem to be less enjoyable for both the driver and the folks who wait in line for hours. One would hope that the drivers take time to remember that they continue to be ambassadors for the sport, even if they have issues with circumstances that are not caused by the fans.

Fortunately, I have very good feelings that David will be steady and solid with his fans. I am confident that Mars/Masterfoods will continue to be proud of this new driver.

And from around town, I heard of the following experiences of other driver's signings. I was unable to attend any other than David's, but did talk with several who were at these other events.

• Kasey Kahne's signing was overwhelming and poorly organized, according to several who attended. Five hundred wristbands given out had to make for a long night for KK.
• Brendan Gaughan, as usual, put on an excellent open house. By now he is, by all reports, heading out to run around in the desert.
• Elliott Sadler's appearance at a local Walmart went well. The reports I heard was that he was in an unusually good mood. That may have something to due with his new ride, or it may be due to his posse coming in town too! There is some speculation that his new 'galpal' may be along for the weekend. YO! Elliott! this IS Vegas, known for a 24 hour marriage license bureau with drive up chapels!
  
• Several other drivers are still signing about the city. Many are at the Speedway Childrens Auction at Sam's Town. This key event for race weekend always draws a nice amount of people, and an equally nice amount for a great charity.

More observations later!

PS...Question of the Day!

As of late Thursday, it looks like Ken Schrader may win the Sirius Driver Fan Choice this week. Ricky Rudd won the first two weeks. I remember when Elliott Sadler's fans would vote in E. for the scanner 'Voted In' on Trackpass. One has to wonder if the closing of the message board has prevented the fans from being unified and banding together to work towards a common goal.

Race Week is FINALLY here!

I am glad to say the Vegas NASCAR race is finally around the corner! We have a house full of company and plans are being made for every day of the weekend.

First off will be the trip to meet David Gilliland at M&M's World Thursday night. M&M's World hosts a nicely run event. The associates there make sure the line is kept entertained by the M&M's spokescandies Red, Yellow, and the vampy Miss Green. I want to thank Robert Yates and M&Ms/Mars for hiring David. He is proving to be an excellent representative for the brand. Ricky Rudd is a great representative for the Snickers brand, too!

The race itself should be interesting. The test in January had weather considerably cooler than what we are experiencing now. We are expecting temperatures in the low 80's, so the the new track may have less grip. At the truck race last fall, the second groove came in pretty fast as the sun was setting.

Fifty-three cars are projected to try to qualify. Friday will be a long long loonnnngggg day! The Busch race will be earlier this year, thank heavens! And the Cup race will have its usual long wait to get out of the parking lot!

If I can, I will post my observations during race week. I hope the TV version of the race will be exciting, but it usually is never as exciting as actually being at this race.

Scatter-shooting!

I am sorry I have been not been blogging, but my work load and home responsibilities have recently escalated. So, here goes with some random thoughts and observations, in no particular order!

• Awesome job to Robert Yates Racing and David Gilliland at Daytona! I was holding my breath that Yates was on a comeback, but after Fontana, I see that they appear to have more work to do on the intermediate tracks. While I am not continuing to hold my breath (a blue face is so smurf-ish) I do hope to see steady progress on the downforce program, especially in the last half of the year.
• There are a few drivers that are on the hot-seat. Jeremy Mayfield has not made the first two races, and hopefully having Tommy Baldwin on the pit box at Vegas will be helpful. Jamie McMurray....wow, being in the wrong place is rough, but I am hoping the Jack sees that, and doesn't force him out early. Jack already has a few candidates ready for that seat. AJ Allmindinger is so very talented, and yet he has not made a Cup race to date. I hope Dale Jarrett is planning on being there for the long haul, as he is not showing any sign of being any better at MWR than he was at RYR. Teammate David Reutimann is appearing to be the star of the organization. As for Mikey, he is not on the hot seat..... he is sitting in the Electric Chair with NASCAR, Toyota, and his sponsors ready to flip the switch.
  
• Engines seem to be the talk of the NASCAR world this week. There is much commentary that the engines wouldn't survive the unleaded fuel changeover. Yet, it seems some teams had little to no problems, like Yates, Childress and Hendrick. DEI will need to go back to review their program. I am sure they are thankful for the break.
• The Car of Tomorrow is happening Today, or at least tomorrow. The first big test for all of the teams happens in the next few days. I am thrilled for the obvious safety improvements, and I am hoping for the racing to be better. Many say it will be like the CTS racing, and my fingers are crossed in hopes of that!
• Sirius is still rocking my world! I love almost all of the programming, with Sirius Speedway at the top of my list.
  
• The new site at NASCAR.com is at the bottom of my list. I am tech oriented, but that site is danged hard to navigate. I have mostly given up, and find myself getting news from other web sites.
• On the other hand, I may be one of the few in my circle who really LIKES the RaceView and the 3-D effects from NASCAR.com. Yes, it is not perfect, but I can see who is battling on the track with my favorite driver . However, the leaderboard part of that does not work, so I keep another computer live with Pitcommand and the scanner playing my favorite driver. They seem to have gotten many of the bugs worked out by Fontana, but I realize that NASCAR.com will probably foul it up in some way, just because they can.

Only partly racing related.....I have both Cox cable HD DVR and DirecTV with the TiVo type of functionality. I LOVE the HiDef for watching racing, but I think there is a conspiracy to prevent maximum enjoyement. The Cox DVR software is pathetic, and for some reason, we have been told there are software upgrades that will allow the DVR to be more intuitive, yet it is not available to us. DirecTV had a great deal on a HD/DVR...we ordered it the 3rd week of January. They were supposed to install it on 2/22...but they suddenly don't have the receiver. Yet, our credit card was charged at the moment of ordering. I will post more on this later....I forseee another customer NON-service issue looming. DirectTV might want to check with Sprint, and see how that worked out for Sprint. (I won, BTW!)

Have a good off-week...and I will check back in with information on the Vegas race.

From the Bottom to the Top

From the Bottom to the Top

(we HOPE!)

The Bud Shootout is over, Tony Stewart wins, and David Gilliland comes in at second. Following the strong testing results, and the strong practice results, it appears that things are looking up for Robert Yates Racing, We Hope!

David is showing himelf to be able to think logically through the challenges of a 70 lap exhibition event, on an unfamiliar track, giving an omen to the 500. Todd Parrott and Ricky Rudd were both providing advice and guidance to ensure David would have a great finish.

I observed smart pretty thinking from David. In the final laps of the race, David may have felt there was opportunity to pass, but he decided to stay where he was and finish the race. Yes, he could have jumped out and tried to win, however, he seemed to know as a rookie that no one would follow him! (Isn't it weird that for several years of racing at plate tracks, Elliott Sadler has made moves to run for the lead, and no one seems to follow him? What is with THAT?)

At any rate, David showed focus, perseverance, and calmness under stress. (Todd Parrot must be thrilled to have no driver tantrums! It has to be a great relief!)

While surfing the net to read all of the glowing articles about David, I discovered an amazing article:
Yates plans to hand team to son after season


I was stunned by the comments reported in this article. I knew that Robert Yates was in a huge funk last year, but who wouldn't be? Dale Jarret decided to accept a bigger paycheck with another team and another manufacturer, and Elliott Sadler spent the first half of the season denying it, but ultimately admitted that he was shopping for jobs, and managed to (for the second time of his two team career,) get out of his contract to drive elsewhere.

Robert, in the article, has a few comments that are most upsetting to any Yates Fan!

"I'd go home like Friday nights or something and say I wanted to check in (to a hospital), I'm going to die tonight," Yates said. "And they're like, 'You're not going to die, there's nothing wrong with you.' I really felt that bad. And really, that's just how much this business works on you. I hated it.

and

Yates said he became so stressed by his team's poor performance that his body began to stop functioning. "A mess" physically, Yates 1didn't believe his health problems were stress-related until his doctor prescribed "green pills" - he isn't sure what they were - to help take the stress away.

What a shame! Robert Yates has been working for years to keep teams to the forefront. I cannot begin to understand the stress he has suffered, with the loss of Davey Allison, and the injuries of Ernie Irvan.

With the struggles he and his organization have suffered, it is amazing that he still perserveres. The 2006 year had to be another extremely low point, and yet Robert is still here for the year.

David Gilliland is showing promise. Many thought he was put into the Cup competition far too early. His first races were indeed a bit shaky. Todd Parrott came on board, testing ensued, and we saw improvement with every race. Now that Ricky Rudd is also mentoring, the outlook is very bright indeed!

Ricky has brought skill and knowledge back to the teams. My fingers are crossed that the Yates team will start on their comeback.

With this statement in mind:

If everything goes according to Robert Yates' plan, his NASCAR team will rebound from a gut-wrenching season, and he will retire at the end of the year, handing the team over to son Doug.

one can see that Robert is hoping that he has a one-two punch to complete a strong season, and retire gracefully. Robert, all of my hopes are for that strong season, and if you decide to retire....I understand, but this race fan will miss you.

In the meantime, may Robert's teams lead the way to the checkered flag. Several times!