News-Record.com

Whatcha mean, race on snow? These guy can't/won't even run if it sprinkles a couple of drops of rain.

Guess that means we will be watchin NASCAR cup racin year round. Sorry but as good as I like racin, even I need a rest occassionaly and I am sure that the drivers and teams do as well.
What next, take over of Aussie racin? That way they could have a world cup race.

Granny use to say that when folks started gettin too big fer their britches they usually got their comuppence. Could NASCAR be gittin that way?

All NASCAR would need to do is put New Hampshire or Michigan on the schedule after the Daytona 500, or maybe the rumored Canadian race.

Heck, if NBC or Fox would shell out enough money, Brian France would run the snowblower himself at Homestead.

Just once. Is it too much to ask?

John, just go to the Busch North link on NASCAR.com. You'll see reference to my favorite race sponsor Fisher Snowplows, they have sponsored a car for years.

As a matter of fact, 61-year old Dave Dion, won the last race in Oxford, Maine. Just so Matt knoows, he won in a Ford. By the way the race was the Fisher Snowplows 150.

Mark, as always, speaks the truth.

Not only did Dave Dion win the Fisher Snowplows 150, he turns 62 in November.

He's 11th in Busch North points. Andy Santerre, who pops up in the regular Busch Series every so often, is leading en route to his fourth straight title.

Not too much to ask John. I bet it would be more like the old demolition derbies at the old Tri-Cities speedway in the 50's cept with lot more expensive cars. hahaha. Heck I''d pay to see it...... once.

John, thank you for the Busch-North link.

I don't know if you noticed by DEI is hoping that lightening strikes twice. Ryan Moore, who came in 2nd and is 4th in points is making is 2nd start this weekend at Richmond. Very similar to Martin Truex, Jr.; Moore is the son of a BGN driver, Kelly Moore.

Oxford Plains is where Ricky Craven first got noticed by Busch teams. Back in the 80's and early 90's the Busch cars used to car up to Maine. Craven's BGN team built a Busch car and crushed everyone in Maine then came down south and did the same thing at Martinsville in the fall. I believe he was hired by a Busch team at the end of the season.

Here's moore, er, more on Ryan Moore, if anyone's interested. (I'd forgotten about him -- thanks for the reminder, Mark.) And the Richmond paper has a piece on Moore here. In his only Busch race this year, Moore started a respectable 19th at New Hampshire, but crashed out and finished 34th. He'll be at Homestead in November.

Two interesting points here, now that I think about it:
1. Dale Jr. seems pretty interested in the ownership part of the sport. I'm not sure if he has any direct financial stake in DEI. But he's part owner of Chance 2 (w/ his step mom -- that's Truex's team), and Junior is going to put Mark McFarland in a Busch ride next year with his year-old JR Motorsports. McFarland raced with that team in USAR Pro Cup this season.

2. What's with the Earnhardts and all of these Yankees? McFarland is from Virginia, which in some parts of the world is considered north. But Moore is from Maine, Truex Jr. is from New Jersey and Steve Park (remember him?) is a NY native. I'm not sure what to make of all that, but DEI has had pretty good luck w/ the Yankees they put behind the wheel.

John, the Yankee connection is easy and it goes back to the Modifieds. If you can drive one or work on one (like Everham, Zippadelli, or Manyan?) you learn how to transfer a great deal of horsepower to a light car.

The northern modified guys are everywhere down south for this reason. As a matter of fact one of current drivers I grew up with up in NJ, Jamie Tomaino, has a son who works at Bill Davis Racing for the same reason.

If you think about it the same logic is true of Gordon, Stewart, Newman, Kahne, etc. via sprint cars. That's what made Everham and Gordon so dangerous when they were together. It's what makes Hendrick take a chance on Steve Kinser's kid and Everham take a chance on Erin Crocker.

Plus John if you can make a modified go fast for the "Greatest Race in the History of Spring" you can surely make a car with 4 fenders on it go around Richmond.

Makes sense to me, Mark, and explains why Zippadelli can survive in NASCAR with that wicked accent of his.

But why no Northern drivers? The newcomers are coming from California (Harvick, Johnson), the Northwest (Biffle, Kahne), the Cheese Belt (Kenseth) and still N.C. (Junior, Riggs, Vickers).

I looked through the entry list for Saturday's Richmond race, and unless I'm going blind (it *is* small type), there's a not a single regular driver (the field filler doesn't count) from New England, NJ, NY or PA. The only two drivers from those areas with recent Cup experience are Ricky Craven (Maine) and Jimmy Spencer (Pa.)

So why is that? Maybe it makes sense that DEI is mining the Northeast - untapped talent?

John, I'm hoping Truex, Jr. reverses the trend of a lack of Northern representation on the driver side.

The 2 drivers I had the greatest hope for, Craven and Park, ended up with career altering head injuries. Granted Craven got both his cup wins after his problems, but he has never been the same. I had bigger hopes for Park, but I think Big E put him in a Cup car too fast after 1 very good year in Busch. I'm hoping the extra year for Truex pays off.

Todd Szegedy (I just butchered his name)is another young modified driver who wound up in the shop at Robert Yates Racing. Now he might be hoping for a shot at a Busch car because Nemechek late him drive 2 or 3 races for him either last year or the year before.

The other thing the pops in my mind after reading the BGN website you showed me up above is how many of the driver profiles show that these guys have "real jobs". That's more of a comment than a response to your question; I just found that to be interesting.