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He Said She Said: Change,
Change, and More Change!
September 19, 2007
Everett
Mugg and Debbi Willis - SCR
88 Is Just Great?
He Said: The latest rumor and worst kept secret is that Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) bought or is buying the No.
88 from Yates Racing (the team name for 2008) for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to run next year. Am I the only one who thinks this is
one of the lamest purchases ever? The question is not who to bash, but who to
bash first. What is the mindset here? The Jr. fans that had the No. 8 tattooed on their butts only need to add another 8 rather
than get a wash and a new tattoo? I am sure their boyfriends and husbands will not mind so in that light it is a useless gesture.
Girls will be girls.
Robert Yates Racing (RYR) has
fallen so far that they need to sell the NO. 88 and pimp the No. 28 now just to generate some interest? Sorry, I am not interested.
This has to be the most pathetic move I have ever seen in any so called sports venue. “Plop Plop Fizz Fizz oh what a
relief it is,” is widely recognized as the worst advertisement campaign in history. Whoever the genius that thought
that one up is either the architect of the 88 deal or happy as hell that it is going down to replace their moment of infamy.
Stick a fork in RYR, burn them at the stake, scatter the ashes and then salt the field so nothing will ever grow there again.
This is just pathetic.
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She Said: I won’t be quite this harsh on RYR. Money talks…
Always has and IF THIS TURNS OUT TO BE TRUE, then that’s all it was about and no matter how anyone paints it, yes, RYR
buckled to the influx of money for a number to keep the Jr. Nation happy. Now, I say “if it’s true”, because
I found the declaration of these “worst kept secrets” during the Countdown to Green to be the lamest way to make
such announcements. Of course, Jr. Nation will be happy for all their tattoos. However, with that said, were I one of them,
an 88 would ALWAYS scream Dale Jarrett (DJ) at me, especially since he won a championship in that number in the modern era
we’re so fond of noting. I know times change and Jr. Nation can scream, “He’ll make it his own” all
they want, talk about living in a shadow! DJ’s very much alive and well and that 88 still grace many other DJ fans vehicles
and bodies. Change is good but not at the expense of another fan base.
I’m still not convinced
RYR has done this but it won’t surprise me. The anticlimactic announcement was probably made just to avoid the
huge fallout when it is finally announced at the all-important Dale Earnhardt Jr. press conference Wednesday announcing his
number and sponsorship. As recently noted by Hendrick himself, he hasn’t seen so much fuss over a driver change since
Darrell Waltrip switched to him with Tide. What an odd remark when he and Dale Jr. have orchestrated the whole chaotic mess!
Personally I’m thinking the big announcement really will be a big announcement and it really WILL be a NEW NUMBER all
together. Earnhardt himself said that a while back and I’m inclined to believe him more than all this rumor mill stuff. I
think this is a decoy to keep everyone stirred up, which by the way I’m just sick of. I wondered once who cares where
Juan is, I’m now not caring what number Dale Jr. gets either!
IRL Drivers chasing the Talent by Bringing the Money
He Said: It was reported this week that Buddy Lazier, an Indianapolis 500 winner is going to drive a stock car for Billy Ballew Motorsports.
He will drive the No. 15 truck at Las Vegas.
I am so unimpressed.
IRL runs what? 17 races a year? Of those 17 races maybe 8 teams run them all? It is hard to tell as the IRL website requires
more time than I am willing to spend to figure out how many races a driver has run. Who really cares? It is an insignificant
series that has to resort to Indiana blackouts to try to fill the seats for
the Indianapolis 500. I think there were eight (or maybe fewer) drivers who competed
in all the IRL races in 1997; Tony Stewart won his IRL Championship. There is more than twice that number of Cup drivers competing
regularly in any given Busch race. Open wheel other than Sprint cars is dead in America as a “sport”. Open wheel
drivers have less than impressed me with their skills. Sam Hornish has flirted with stock cars for years but he probably lacks
the skills to mix it up with the big boys of NASCAR. It is much easier to win in the IRL than to win in NASCAR. I would much
rather see GOOD drivers like Brian Keselowski, Justin Allgaier, Dexter Bean and Deborah Renshaw get a ride than some wannabe
open wheel driver who brings a big fat money purse to a team. I’ll be surprised if Lazier finishes the race.
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She Said: Can’t fully disagree with you here on the IRL series
coming to NASCAR. I’ve been unimpressed since they split from CART. Having watched the USAC/CART split and how they
hurt them, I knew it was only a matter of time for the CART/IRL split to virtually kill their sport (haven’t watched
them much since.) But yes, the IRL/CART drivers, maybe even some of the Formula One drivers are on their way to NASCAR
whether we like it or not. From a personal standpoint, I don’t like it one bit. From a fan standpoint, I like it even
less. But it’s all part of the changes in an ever-changing sport.
The drivers of those
divisions are a different breed unto themselves as has been exhibited time and again by the likes of those who’ve come
before them, i.e. Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya. Now before anyone begins typing vicious fan mail at me,
understand this: that breed of driver has the highest caliber of skills in my personal opinion because of their racing demands.
Open wheel racing requires more finesse and fine tuned, thread the needle style driving than most NASCAR drivers ever develop.
However, those skills don’t serve them very well when they come to NASCAR and their attitude about themselves serves
them even less.
They tend to be arrogant and
in NASCAR that shows rather quickly until they figure out the need to fit in. The influx of these drivers though, brings bigger
money to the sport, another whole fan base and encompasses the world because of the foreign drivers. This in and of itself
will benefit NASCAR and ultimately achieve NASCAR’s number one goal, to be the world-wide known sport in auto racing.
Plus, like driving against Dale Earnhardt Sr., the skills exhibited by these drivers will drive the NASCAR drivers’
skills up a notch, once they figure their cars and tracks out.
How about that RCR?
He Said: With only two victories in the 26 races leading up to the Chase, Richard Childress Racing (RCR) not only
put all three of their drivers in the Chase but one also won the first Chase race. Clint Bowyer scored his first Cup win and
catapulted into 4th place in the Cup standings at Dover Sunday with the win. Clint who? Mr. Stealth Guy. He has run well all year
and made the Chase in lieu of other high profile drivers that just did not get it done this year. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan
Newman, and Kasey Kahne may be household names but none of them are contending for a Cup Championship. Look for even more
changes to the Chase format if Bowyer wins the Championship. Matt Kenseth started the whole chase format when he won a Championship
with consistency.
Consistency used to be
what it took to win a Championship and somehow in the WWE world that NASCAR has become, consistency has become a bad thing.
Who cares how good a team or driver is? They have to be cute and sexy or the most popular driver. They need to have their
fingers on the throttle of the money train. Driving skill is secondary. Shame on Bowyer for his success and quietly sneaking
into the chase, when the named drivers missed it. Is a hanging good enough for Bowyer or should he also be staked, burned,
and his ashes scattered… what was he thinking?
She Said: Bravo for Clint Bowyer and all of the RCR teams! Actually,
I believe no matter what NASCAR tries to do to deter consistency from making a championship count, it always will! NASCAR
can’t control that and they very well shouldn’t. In this way, the Chase backfired on NASCAR and now without the
stars they think they’ve got to have in their, they’ll revamp it again for next year! It’s so blatantly
obvious when one of the super favorites like Earnhardt Jr. (this year) or Tony Stewart (last year), don’t make the Chase
and NASCAR “take it under consideration” to tweak more changes! Or when the guy with the biggest lead feels “cheated”
out of another championship because of this Chase format, they have to do something to insure his lead when he starts the
Chase.
Maybe by the time they
get done continually revamping it, it’ll be back to the full field in competition for the Cup and everyone counts again.
NASCAR proves time and again they only listen to certain drivers. How discouraging for the sport. Thankfully RCR’s teams
listen to themselves, do their best and leave the rest up to the way the races fall. May they all enjoy a super successful
Chase Run! And may NASCAR not change things again!
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We Three Kings of Orient Are:
He Said: Everyone knows that three Kings (or Magi, or Wiseman or whatever) brought gifts to Baby Jesus, (Ricky
Bobby’s favorite Jesus, baby Jesus). Yet in reality there may or may not have been three Kings. All we know for sure
is that there were three gifts. Everyone also knew that Toyota was going to ruin NASCAR. Toyota so far has barely been able
to make races. The three Michael Waltrip Toyota’s last week were 5 MPH slower than the pole sitter and were unable to
qualify (again). I am still waiting for this Japanese dominance of Cup racing. Will it be next year when Gibbs runs Toyotas?
I doubt it. The Germans (who owned Dodge until earlier this year) were unable to dominate NASCAR and the Japanese will not
do it either. Bring on the Italians, the French, the British, and the Koreans. I will bet on the Americans i.e. Chevrolet,
to keep getting the job done. Ford gave up, so it is up to Chevy to carry the American torch in Stock Car racing.
She Said: At the risk of blasphemy, I’m not a Ricky Bobby fan,
but nice segue from Magi to Toyota! As
with any new manufacturer, it takes a lot of time in a season in real life situations to work out the bugs, to understand
the nuances of each track, each car and the dynamics of each races personality, not to mention the driver. I never expected
Toyota to jump to the forefront. One day they will be up there but not soon. And
I don’t expect it next year with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), not by a long shot. Toyota
is going to learn that you can’t build your engines in remote and then expect them to perform immediately and then delay
getting feedback to get better performance. It took them time in Trucks; it’s taking them time in Cup.
Like Dodge’s reemergence,
it was a slow start too. And now with the Car of Tomorrow (COT), really everything is more in the hands of the driver and
the dynamics of the race. NASCAR has everything so tightly regulated, they may want to reevaluate whether or not they’ve
strangled their teams. Times change, and time will tell.
Questions, Comments;
Email Everett
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