Battle of Champions

Today, the NASCAR fan world is holding their breath over the impending doom to be applied to Kurt Busch, for his pit road transgression at Dover. While perusing the message boards, and listening to the commentary on "Morning Drive," I discover that there is a wide range of opinion on What To Do With A Man Like Kurt" (hum a few bars from The Sound of Music!) It is my turn to add my thoughts.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will remember from my Tony Stewart rant that I am no longer a Tony Stewart apologist. However, in this case, he was certainly the lesser of two evils.

Tony has a habit of being stubborn and unrelenting while in his car. This year, he is demonstrating a need to be proved right, and to teach lessons. For example, after David Gilliland moved out of line at Talledega, Tony feinted as if he was going to follow, and then Tony closed the gap. He then claimed on the radio "He (meaning David) has to learn to not do that." At the time, I marveled at Tony choosing to teach a lesson in this manner.

During Dover, he was an instigator in the situation. By insisting he was not going to give up a spot, when there was over 125 laps remaining. Tony himself has claimed folks race too hard too early in the race, and yet here he was doing the same thing. The battle then ruined two potential winning race cars.

However, my commentary on Tony in no way clears Kurt Busch of any blame. Kurt totally blew it by taking an aggressive stance on pit road, and putting a pit crew member in jeopardy.

Many Kurt Busch fans are taking a firm stance that is surprising. "The Pit Crew Guy had plenty of time to jump out of the way!" Huh? If it were me, I would have been jumping also, as I have no way of knowing if the angry driver is going to stop on time! When Carl Edwards spun Tony, he didn't get in much trouble! Another HUH? If you haven't figured it out from the penalties at the first race of the year, NASCAR has escalated the penalty process!

As I type this, I am hearing a rumor that Kurt will be forced to sit out Pocono. He will lose 175 points by not being allowed to race. I am also hearing a rumor that there were some issues with his car, that will cause a further point loss of 100, and a monetary penalty of 100K.

If the rumor is true, Kurt will effectively be out of the Chase.

It is a shame that two Champions cannot meet off track and clear the air. Now, there are negative consequences for one of the teams, and the sport as a whole.

I guess there is no way to fix idiocy!

***************

My condolences go to the family of Bill France, Jr. There is no denying the impact he had on the world of motorsports.

Miscellanea from the Marbles

NASCAR moves fast, and not just the cars. The news and rumors move even faster! I am taking a moment to comment on some of the items that piqued my interest.

• Cingular is the new AT&T! So far, it is AT&T 2, NASCAR 0. Many have hailed the judicial decision as being right and just. But is it really? It may indeed be a deal breaker for our sport. IF NASCAR cannot enforce the exculsive part of the Sprint-Nextel contract, will the series sponsor hang around?
  

AT&T has won so far. It appears that the next round of court briefs will not receive judgment until later in the summer. Even if AT&T loses the next round, they have been able to rebrand their car, and their new brand will be in front of the consumer's face every Sunday.

• The greatest conversation of the last two weeks is the Monstor Job Search for Junior's New Ride. Amid all of the speculation, the 'net has been busy with conjecture on Teresa Earnhardt's part in 'driving JR away.' We then discover that SR left everything to Teresa. I had personally wondered why JR was asking for 51% of the business, when there were other children that would not have been able to take part in the same level of the company. And I have to wonder just how difficult it was for Teresa. By JR's own admission, the stepmom-stepson relationship was rocky for years. I can't help but feel there are two sides to this story, and the truth is somewhere in the middle.

• The Black Helicopter squad is still active. NASCAR apparantly is still attempting to control the way the races end. The latest entry claims that Casey Mear's win was another award for the Hendrick organization. Sorry, the kid won that race, fair and square.
  

• Speaking of Conspiracy Theories....the media is not immune! I heard, on my favorite Satellite Radio, two different members of the Talent Pool claim that NASCAR is forcing Goodyear to give the crappy tires to the SMI tracks. Hmmmm!

• One great suggestion that came up a few weeks ago on Sirius, was to have NASCAR Contol be live on one of theSirius Driver Feeds! Now, that is a GREAT idea! Listening to David Hoots during a race would give the home-bound race fan an opportunity to hear the decisions from NASCAR while the race is running. I LOVE this idea. I don't currently utilize the Sirius Driver Feeds, because my drivers are not part of the line-up. Instead, I pay NASCAR.com for their Trackpass scanner. Having NASCAR Control on one of the Sirius feeds would be a bonus!
  

• And speaking of NASCAR.com, I love the Raceview! I know many have issues with it...but I saw a first hand 'view' of the wrecks (my driver included) at Charlotte. It is well worth the $$ for me!

• Father's Day is next month, and I just finished reading a charming article by Dorothy Schrader, daughter of Kenny! Check out Growing up a driver’s daughter. It is very charming, and gives great insight into the lives of the driver's families.
  

• And finally, I must thank Humpy for a wonderful Memorial Day show. The salute to the military was inspiring and touching. The bagpipes version of Amazing Grace, followed by Taps, left me weepy. Then the reuniting of the family of a military service man made me run for the tissues. God Bless all of our military, those who serve abroad and at home, and the family members who continue to support their heroes.
  

NASCAR Is Ignoring Their Roots!

For those that are interested, I am still in love with my Sirius Radio, and in particular most of the programming on the NASCAR channel 128. I work retail, and manage multiple stores, which means I am on the road a bunch, going from store to store. This radio and the NASCAR channel are my sanity-savers, providing me with entertainment to survive the traffic jams.

During today's drive, I heard once again another fan call in, and declare "NASCAR is ignoring their roots, and the fans who made them!" I shook my head, pulled into a parking place and headed into work. Within the hour, I had a SHAZZAM moment!

Our company recently changed our merchandise and our selling strategy. Some of our customers arrived in our stores expecting to find the same merchandise they had found for the last 20 years. Many customer have embraced our change, but other have been shocked, dismayed and one declared "Your company has ignored the people who made them!" Wow....SHAZZAM! DEJA VU!

NASCAR has been doing something that all SUCCESSFUL businesses do. They constantly perform 'gut-checks' to see how they measure up. Are they reaching their audiences? Are they saturating their customer base? Are they working towards the future?

And that last question is indeed the most important question.

The NASCAR fans who attended North Wilkesboro, Rockingham, and the original Southern 500 at Darlington, for some reason, stopped attending those races. The attendance was falling every year. Indeed, the warning signs were there. Even when the ax was hanging over the heads of those tracks, the fans still did not fill the stands.

NASCAR traditionalists LOVE picking on Fontana's two races. Yet even with the appearance of lowered attendance, the stands had more fans parked in the seats than at any of the above tracks on their best days.

NASCAR has also tried to move with the times. The Championship race is boring? Well then, let's make it into a CHASE. Fans complain of a lack of passing at the 1.5 mile tracks? Gee, the COT may help that.

FACE IT! If a business does not change with the times, it will die. The customers in my retail store were content and happy to show up for the holidays, but were not there every day, or every week. Our business model changed and while we have upset some of the previous customer base, we have created new customers. Will we make bad decisions? Yes! But we would have tumbled into oblivion if we had not changed. We would have died as a business.

The harsh reality? You MUST continually build your business. Living in the past will put your business into the grave, along with your aging fan (customer) base. Change is necessary. There may be failures, but the greatest crime is to fail to try.

One other side to the argument is that NASCAR is not successful with it's changes. I really don't believe that. While the 'ratings' are going down, NASCAR is still the highest rated sport on most weekends. They are still switching and playing and tweaking to create more interest, and to build the fan base for the future.

Is NASCAR making mistakes with those changes? Oh, yes, they are! But are they sitting on their collective butts just waiting for the former fan base to come wandering in...no!

However, I do understand the yearning for the good old days. I remember my first calculator...and am saddened that this danged newfangled computer is messing up my life. Dang, I long for the old Texas Intruments doodad that cost me $160 bucks. Or the TRS-80 Model 1 computer with 4K of memory! Or, I could go searching for the ten minute blurb of the NASCAR race mixed in with the rest of the Wide World of Sports. Well, TV has obviously forgotten its roots if it shows the whole race! Then again, we could go back to transistor radios, black and white television or even refrigerators that were really iceboxes. Yoicks!

Wait, the $160 TI calculator and the TRS-80 are long gone. Would any of this blog's readers REALLY want to go back to those days?

Neither would NASCAR.

Dear Tony Stewart,

Dear Tony,

I have liked you since the beginning of my NASCAR fandom. I admired your fire and your passion. I managed for years to shrug off your issues as being a sign of passion. However, the last few weeks have pushed me past the line of Tony Apologists, right into the line of Disgusted with Tony.

It is very easy for a two-time NASCAR Champion to get too big for his britches. Three years ago, I waited in line for you to show up for an appearance in Vegas. You were an hour late. I waited again the following year. You were 45 minutes late. You complained about feeling like you were in a fish bowl, at Daytona and Vegas, because fans were staring at you through the glass. You seem to enjoy it more when you don't have to interact with fans. Come to think of it, you don't enjoy interacting with reporters, either. Beware, Tony, as both of those groups can make you or break you.

You have had your hide tanned by Mr. Helton, and from what I read, Mr. Gibbs is next in line with the paddle in hand. According to Jenne Fryer, Mike Helton refuses to even talk about how he feels about you now. Mike was a poker bud of yours.

You recently dissed the sport of NASCAR, the one that pays for your living. You got spanked for it, then went right out on the track for the Busch race, and you were promptly a factor in two crashes.

One of those crashes was because you had contact with the car of David Gilliland. When David was questioned afterwards, and indeed was PRESSURED about your part of it, he steadfastly refused to say anything negative about you. Take a look, Tony:

• DAVID GILLILAND – No. 25 freecreditreport.com Ford Fusion (Finished 37th) – “Our freecreditreport.com Ford Fusion was running real good today, but, I don’t know. There was a little bit of contact there and sent me spinning. It’s too bad we ended our day soon, but we had a good car. It felt really good to run up front there.” YOUR THOUGHTS ON TONY’S DRIVING OUT THERE TODAY? “It’s a little rough, but, I mean, if it was the last lap you could swallow it a little easier. It’s just Talladega. You’re running close and bump-drafting and everything else. You’re real close. It’s just kind of the nature of the beast, especially here, so it’s just one of those deals I guess.” YOU HEAR ABOUT THE YOUNGER DRIVERS KNOWING WHEN TO RACE AND HERE YOU HAVE A VETERAN GETTING INTO THE BACK OF YOU. “Yeah, a little bit. But I think the track gives everybody so much confidence that it gets them into trouble, but it’s just too bad. Like I said, our freecreditreport.com Ford Fusion was real good today and it just felt good running up front there. I wish we could have finished up there.”

Too bad you, a veteran, could not be nearly as graceful. Instead, the post-race interview today, after the Cup race, had you throwing out a cheap shot about David "lucking into his ride."

I am no longer apologizing for your "heated emotions' excuse. I am no longer buying into your 'woe is me' attitude. I am no longer going to believe a word you say.

And one more thing, Tony, you claimed that David was getting back at you for taking him out after the Busch race. That implies two things:

1. You took him out deliberately.
2. You expected that action from him, because YOU would have reacted that way. You assumed that he did it because that would have been your response.

I find it amazing that after Daytona, you reported that David was a great driver. And now, he 'lucked' into his ride. So, he is good when he helps you, and then becomes a bad driver because he got into you. One doesn't lose talent like that, Tony.

Oh, and Tony...the reason why you got jacked up by David at the end, was because you drove right down in front of him. You were not driving a straight line on the track, your straight line was going off of the wall down to the bottom. You went right in front of him. Man up, Tony, and take some of the blame on yourself.

In the meantime, I am cutting my Tony Stewart Fan Club card into pieces. My Sirius radio, which is turned on 24/7 to the NASCAR channel, will be turned off for two hours on Tuesdays from now on. I will drive out of my way, go past Home Depot straight to your competitor. I will check in my house for any sponsor's products whose badges you have worn in the last year, and clean them out. Coca-Cola out, Hello Pepsi products. Old Spice will never be in this house again. Did your comments about David Gilliland cause this? Yes, because it was the last straw heaped on the back of a very heavily laden camel. At this point, an apology from you is about as valuable as a counterfeit dollar bill.

Just remember this Tony, not all of the boo's you received at the track come from JR fans. Many come from former fans who no longer believe in you.

For being such a good driver, you certainly are looking more and more like the southbound end of a northbound mule. And a pompous mule, at that.

Very Sincerely,

One extremely peeved SNAFAM


Tony, the decal says it all!

“If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.” Abraham Lincoln.