Lest we forget...

Magnets and Marble Musings

Some more Random Thoughts just keep popping up. This week's Magnet-Gate is still seething and roiling on the NASCAR airwaves! Talk about a storm!

Just because Jack seems to whine a lot, it does not mean that he is wrong!

As the engine dyno was revving in the background at Michigan, Nationwide race-winning owner Jack Roush gave a detailed account of the initial advantages Toyota was given to help the Camrys get up to speed when the manufacturer entered the sport in 2007.

"(NASCAR) gave them a bunch of considerations from a parameter point of view, a dimension point of view that was outside the box in terms of what the Ford engine was," Roush said. "The pushrods are straighter. The camshaft is higher. The pushrods are shorter. The valve train is stiffer. The cooling system works better. All of those things were things that NASCAR uses discretion to approve that obsoleted the Ford engine and we can't make as much power as they do with the parts we have and right now we can't afford to obsolete all the parts that we have.

"So NASCAR, in the interest of fairness and balance in the competition from a potential point of view, after they went to great lengths to be able to check the engines to find out what they were doing, decided that they needed to rein Toyota in and that's what they did. There's crying and complaining about it, but the problem was when they submitted the engine, Toyota had approved things that obsoleted, really, everybody else, and now we've all got the necessity to come back and re-design and obsolete our current engines in order to get competitive.

"The error wasn't ours for getting behind. The error was in what Toyota offered and what NASCAR approved."

Joe Gibbs claims he is taking the hard line:

Team owner Joe Gibbs issued a statement saying the orgnanization would impose its own penalties with "the minimum being suspension for the remainder of the season for those involved, including our two Nationwide Series crew chiefs."

One would think from Joe's statement, that the "Magnet Seven" are all gone from the shop. Someone might want to give Kyle Busch the news!

“They’re still going to be at the shop putting together some race cars and doing all the work that they need to do to keep the stuff up to par. We’re just going to have different guys here at the race track to crew-chief during the race.

This situation has certainly shattered trust in NASCAR and in the workings of the Gibbs organization. The last time news of this magnitude rocked our NASCAR world is when Michael Waltrip was accused in the "Sterno-Gate" disaster last year in Daytona. One has to wonder how this impacts all of the sponsors at JGR. It certainly taints our sport.

Musings from the Marbles

NASCAR's constant ritual known as Silly Season is in full swing, with new news almost every day!

Texaco will be leaving the sport at the end of the year. It will be sad for a large group of Robert Yates fans, who associate Texaco-Havoline with Davey Allison. I can certainly understand, that in these economic times, Texaco may not have received great value for their money in recent years. However, the exit of this iconic brand may have great impact on the future of Ganassi racing. The OTHER sponsor of the 42, Wrigley, is facing an acquisition by Mars, who happens to be the primary sponsor for the Joe Gibbs #18 car. While Mars, last year, helped out Yates Racing by sponsoring two cars, I think it is far too much to expect them to continue the Wrigley sponsorship after this year, and certainly not with another organization.

Carl Edwards seems to be one of the hottest properties in the garage. It appears that not only will he have the primary deal with Aflac, he may well have partial sponsorship from Subway and the US Army. It appears that part of the reported $26 million a year from Aflac will be sold off to other sponsors.

Yates Racing is listed on ESPN as making a play for Paul Menard. I am sure that the Menard's sponsorship is very attractive. I am hoping this is part of a three team plan, as I feel very strongly that David Gilliland and Travis Kvapil both deserve to continue with Yates Racing.

Much of the racing world was stunned to hear about Magnet-Gate at Joe Gibbs Racing. Many times, we hear the perpetrators of scandals in this sport deny and swear they will follow through with in-house punishment. I don't believe most of them, however, I do believe Joe and JD Gibbs when they say they will take care of the issue in-house, above and beyond whatever penalties NASCAR will hand out on Wednesday.

A three-way schedule change for the Sprint series gives a Chase date to the Auto Club Speedway, also known as California Speedway. However, this has to be the 'make or break' deal for the Fontana race. They have been suffering from incremental declines in ticket sales for the last few years. Gillian Zucker has declared the hot weather over a California Labor Day weekend to be keeping fans away. Indeed, it has kept me away for a few years. But now, it will be 'Step Up or Step Away' time for the track, its fans, and for NASCAR to make a decision on retaining two races at that venue. While Atlanta, another track in this swap, also suffers from lagging attendance, its figures are still very high when compared to Fontana.

This week is Bristol week! Look for some switching around in the points as teams try to take advantage of the side by side racing provided by the new track surface!

NAPA needs a new driver, Waltrip is not fit!

Something is very, very wrong with Michael Waltrip. The friendly, likable guy that I used to think was a pretty cool dude has left the building. His angry diatribe attacking David Gilliland on his show Monday night was another example of how far off the diving board he has fallen. His rant makes me think he has hit his head one too many times on the bottom of the pool. The anger was made even worse as David was not there to respond, and placed fellow panel member, Greg Biffle, into an uncomfortable position of not being given an opportunity to defend a fellow Ford driver.

I will give Mikey a bit of consideration. He left Watkins Glen with his car wrecked, another car a lap down, and his rookie being called to the NASCAR 'Oval Office' to discuss a horrific accident that took NINE cars out of the race. They have one car barely in the Top 35 and one that is NOT in the top 35. It is entirely possible that the stress of his car ownership has pushed his stress level to the max.

But, I think that he is showing that he is an angry, angry man. He has problems in his personal life. His business is struggling. He has lost one major sponsor, and only has a one year renewal on his long time sponsor, NAPA. It appears he only has enough sponsors for two cars next year.

It looks like he is deflecting his anger away from his own problems and redirecting them at the target known as David Gilliland. He is probably angry and jealous that he is failing in his business model and he is seeing that Doug is having success with the new team and with a lean business model, especially after Mikey was so gleeful after wrestling UPS and Dale Jarrett away from Robert Yates Racing. I think that Mikey's shop and fan experience has turned into a financial drain. I think he is still smarting from the NASCAR sanctions of cheating from early in 2006.

I need to remember to chalk it all up to a buffoon who has made his living on being a class clown. That show of his is the only thing he has left where he has a voice. He uses it to rant and rail against the supposed injustices of the World Against Mikey. However, he should realize that the court of NASCAR Opinion is firmly on David's side, judging from what I am reading all across the internet.

Forgive me if I take a moment to respond with a few rants of my own:

• David Gilliland did not have a scratch on his car until he was shoved out of the way in Turn 11. He did not have any issues with McDowell before the accident happened. It only happened because the 00 needed to catch the 84 car.
  
• David Gilliland is NOT worried about his ride, unlike Mikey worried about his company or the MWR drivers. (How interesting that McDowell is out of his ride for more than one race!)
• David Gilliland, a class act over this whole deal, responded to Mikey's allegations by saying (on Sirius Speedway Tuesday afternoon) " Even when we were in the trailer with NASCAR, and we were watching the replay, (McDowell) said 'Oh , I didn’t even realize he was out there!' I don’t know if Michael Waltrip needed to be in the NASCAR trailer to hear his driver say that."
• McDowell spent the remaining laps fretting over the finish of AJ Allmendingers car, which is ahead of them in owner's points. In hindsight, it certainly appears that he had orders to get through as much traffic as he could, to get as high as he could.
  
• If it weren't for the safety of the COT, there could have been some very hurt drivers! It is time to put to rest the fact that the drivers are not 100% happy with the way the car handles. Because today, we have several drivers who are 100% alive after bad wrecks.

I sincerely hope that Michal Waltrip can find his way back to being an affable fun-loving guy. However I have no hopes for it, as he has already run into a brick wall, one made from several brick built on his own idiocy.

Or, he could just be showing that he is, after all, a huge ass!

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