News-Record.com

Said the driver of the No. 48 after Sunday's race (which someone, according to Dustin, dubbed the "Organ Donor 500"):

"It's real easy to sit on your couch and point fingers and say so-and-so did something wrong. But, until you're out there in these cars at these speeds and seeing all the near-misses and what is really going on, it's not worth forming an opinion."

Hmmm. I'll give it a shot.

Jimmie caused the first Big One on Sunday.

Boy, that wasn't nearly as hard as I thought.

P.S. Dale Jarrett had one amazing come-from-behind win on Sunday. Still not as good as this one, though.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the IHRA will be racing at Rockingham this weekend.

It's not the same as the Cup racing at The Rock, but it's the best we're going to do these days.

Just moved on the wire:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Michael Waltrip's penalties for allegedly making an inappropriate gesture during a race last month were overturned Wednesday.

NASCAR had accused Waltrip of gesturing during the Sept. 18 race in New Hampshire after Robby Gordon threw his helmet at Waltrip following an accident involving the drivers. Waltrip was fined $10,000, docked 25 points and placed on probation until the end of the year.

Waltrip denied making the gesture and appealed to the three-member National Stock Car Racing Commission. The panel said two members found TV footage "inconclusive," and the commission then voted to rescind the penalties.

That scream of outrage you just heard came from Carrie, who swearsshe saw a bird. Oh, well.

That would be these folks, who have added a sixth blog. This one, called Turn 3 (what, were Turn 1 and Turn 2 taken?), will be written by ex-Speed Channel and ex-Fox Sports talker Krista Voda, ex-NASCAR.com writer Lee Montgomery and David "Not the Busch Driver" Green.

So that begs the question: If the thatsracin.com blogs were Roush drivers, who would be who? I've got the biffleblog picked out ...

Speaking of multi-blog teams, Carrie of flashofgenius.com has set up shop at Joe Gibbs Blogging, er, AOL, along with Diecast Dude and The Scotsman.

Meanwhile, this blogging shop remains a one-car operation. No, you can't call me Ken Schrader. (That's an insult to him.)

Update, 9:40 p.m.: As Carrie pointed out in the comments, CJ has moved her site over to AOL, too. Talk about being ganged up on.

Carrie slapped a comment last night on this post from last week, and it got me to thinking, always a dangerous thing.

What would I get if I googled nascar+blog?

You'd get this list. The Dude and The Scotsman are running 1-2, according to one method of tracking activity, and I'm just trying to keep up with their draft. (No, I'm not Jimmie Johnson in this scenario.)

The same search turned up some other promising racin' blogs:

I've got nothin' today. Sorry. So use the comments to talk about Kansas. Conventional wisdom says the top 6 on Sunday will be some combination of Tony Stewart and the Roush 5. Maybe Mark Martin will win? My guess is the winner here will win the Cup title.

Or if you don't want to talk about Sunday's race, go read the always stout Ed Hinton.

Or check out the redesigned Sporting News site. They've got Lee Spencer writing about Tony Raines and HOF racing and ... what's this? ... RYR's Eddie D'Hondt is blogging. He's one of the few not complaining about 'Dega, and who can blame him?

Or you can check out what passes for enlightened discussion in this thread about about Ryan Moore, the DEI development driver who got nailed for some post-race bumpin' in a Busch North event last weekend.

That almost makes me feel sorry for Lee Montgomery. No telling what will happen when Krista Voda finally gets around to posting.

I spent Sunday here in the mud listening to music. (Pity my poor wife - she and her crew spent the whole four days there.) By the time I got back in the car yesterday, the race was over.

Did I miss anything other than Mark Martin winning? And can anyone stop Tony Stewart? Dustin Long's story from today's paper suggests that the answer to my questions are "no" and "nope."

I don't mean to interrupt the Robby-bashing in the Kansas thread below. Please carry on if you'd rather talk about him than Kansas.

I'll post tomorrow on the suggested limitations to car ownership, once I get my thoughts together. It'll be profound. Just watch.

Anyone catch the 60 Minutes interview Sunday with Brian France?

I didn't. But one of the topics (you knew it was coming) was this flag.

Said NASCAR boss Brian France: "It's not a flag that I look at with anything favorable. That's for sure. I can't tell people what flag to fly. I can tell you the flag we get behind: It's the American flag."

After I finished saluting France for his patriotism, I had to wonder: ISC (i.e. the France family's other business) owns about half of the tracks in NASCAR. Why the heck can't ISC say something about the flag? Free speech doesn't apply on private property. Anyone who been fired for telling their boss where to go with that stupid suggestion, give me an amen.

The bigger question France's statement raises is this: Why do some race fans feel the need to fly the stars-and-bars above their mobile homes at the race track?

I'm sure he's wondering the same thing. So, why?

8 p.m. Tuesday update: In comments, Marc from Full Throttle mentioned his discussion on his blog. Here it is.

By going here, clicking on "Race to the Finish" and figuring out how to play the game.

Here's my advice: Put Jimmie Johnson first, Junior sixth and the four other guys somewhere in the middle.

That's my insight into the Charlotte race. If anyone wins, I'll tell you where you can mail my cut.

Other predictions:
It will last all night.
There will be 45 caution flags
And when Ken Schrader questions why Humpy Wheeler did more of the same to the track, you're in trouble.

P.S. When the heck are they going to repave Lowe's? Is there a worse track surface (other than Pocono, that is) that's worse than the one in Concord?

Update: 4:40 p.m.: Lee Spencer's weekly column moved this week. It's not online at the Sporting News, but I pasted it below. In it, she gets the drivers who won the most recent races at the remaining tracks on the schedule to talk about the tracks.

Johnson's take on Charlotte cracked me up. If you'd won three straight races there, you'd be singing its praises, too. For some of those guys, those Humpy Bumps are something that should be here instead.

Our own Dustin Long, who's getting into race trim for Charlotte, was on "Pit Reporters" today. If you missed the radio show, the PRN folks posted this week's broadcast online.

First topic: The proposed ownership limitation rule.
Dustin's take: It'll be like everything else in the NASCAR rule book -- it'll be written in pencil.

Dustin phones in to report that he and ESPN's Mike Massaro went at it a little bit. Dustin says he won, of course.

P.S. If you tuned in late, Dustin's the one who's talking too fast. That's because his brain is turning hot laps at Daytona.

Fast track. (More levigating; The Scotsman blames Wheeler.)
Fast field. (Elliott and Flyin' Ryan broke 193 mph.)
Scary race? (Remember May?)

Just to be contrary, I'll throw this out there:

It's going to be a pretty clean rate for about the first two thirds. The lesser drivers will take themselves out, and maybe a chaser or two. (That's what Jimmie Johnson gets for blowing up his engine in practice yesterday.)

The last, oh, 50 laps, when drivers start to get tired, tires and equipment starts to wear out and chase pressure kicks in ... it'll be just like you remembered in on Memorial Day. Only this time, Bobby Labonte wins. Man, that would rock.

p.s. Ricky Rudd is going to hang it up after 2005. That's my gut based on his age (up there), his recent performance (not so hot) and the rumors going around the garage, according to Dustin Long. Of course, everyone figured this would be Mark Martin's last year, too, and we all know how that turned out.

Y'all talk. I'm dealing with a wedding this weekend (my sister's, not mine), and if I catch a few break, I'll be back at the house for the reception to catch the green flag. Shhhh ... don't tell her.

I agree with David Poole.

Humpy Wheeler has to keep in mind that he'll sell tickets even if he tore up the track and planted grass. Remember, he's got the only Cup track in North Carolina right now.

Never try watching a NASCAR race during a wedding reception, especially when you're staying at the reception site, which in this case was my parents house.

Why?

1. It's bad manners, especially when the bride (my sister in this case) is downstairs and the TV upstairs is tuned to "Thomas the Tank Engine" and "Dora the Explorer" to pacify my two-year-old. The kid will always win.

2. You'll completely miss what's going on.

When I did get a peek (I was changing videos, okay? I called it an intermission, a concept my younger son didn't quite get), I saw that Earnhardt and Gordon were both out (Wouldn't it be fitting if the two of them had knocked each other out? I thought). I also noticed Sadler was leading. Believe it or not, I didn't see a tire blow in that five-minute span.

That's the long way around to get to the point, which is this: I had absolutely no idea until Sunday morning that the Joe's Towing and Body Shop 500 might have been one of the worst races in NASCAR history.

Dustin Long: "They ran in circles Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, but drivers didn't call it racing. They called it survival."

Ed Hardin: "NASCAR's theater of the absurd returned to its most visible stage Saturday night after waiting for a football game to end and before the demolition derby began."

Charlotte columnist Scott Fowler: "Fender, meet wall. Boredom, meet tedium. Fiasco, meet debacle."

Fox Sports' Jeff Hammond: "Wheeler must fix the track before May."

Marc at Full Throttle: "I’m guessing Humpy Wheeler will dream of waving a magic wand and returning the infamous 'Humpy Bumps' to their original position and he had never heard of the term 'levigating.'"

CJ delivers a must-read on the physics of tires.

Also, The Diecast Dude channels Madness. And The Scotsman has all the photos you need, including one of Ryan Newman's car with an attachment.

I'm sensing a trend here. That bad, huh?

On the bright side, it's just six days till Martinsville. Good times.

Unlike, say, Ricky Rudd, who's mum on his 2006 plans for now, I will not be driving the No. 8 car last year.

However, I might be tempted to try to beat Earnhardt's time. Wrangler is bringing to town one of its racing simulators (High Point on Wednesday, Eden on Thursday), and anyone who gets behind the wheel of this thing will get a chance to beat one of Junior's saved scores. More details after the jump.

Speaking of fast, make sure you check out the new blog written by Matt, one of our regular and long-time commenters. He's tearing it up over at AOL at The Catfish Show. Scroll down to his entry from last Wednesday to check Matt's close encounter with Paul Menard's hauler. Btw, Matt, it looks like your old friend Bob Brevek has moved into an ownership role in the Truck Series.

This is why:

Nascar Nextel Delivers Record Rating
October 17, 2005
By John Consoli
Mediaweek

NBC's broadcast of the NASCAR Nextel Cup race on Saturday night (Oct. 15) was the highest overnight rating ever for the televised event.

The race --from Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C.-- delivered a 4.8 overnight rating and 8 share, up from a 4.6/8 last year, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

The top-rated local markets were Greensboro, Greenville and Charlotte, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Indianapolis.

-30-
(emphasis mine)

Everyone seems to think it was the worst race ever.
But if you're getting a paycheck from NASCAR, the odor of blown tires is really the smell of money.

And the Greensboro thing? This TV market, which includes Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem and points all around the compass, always leads the ratings. It's as sure as the sun rising in the east and Kyle Petty being O-for-the-21st century.

Hat tip to my boss' boss for remembering we exist over here.

If Earnhardt fans are to be believed, Jeff Gordon is ...

... you thought I was going to write something that rhymes with hay, right? Nope, not here.

... a chardonnay-drinking, book-reading, classical music-listening, smoking jacket-wearing kind of guy.

Not true, according to one of his neighbors in center-city Charlotte. (Gordon's neighbor, btw, is involved in basketball.) Here's the scoop from the neighbor, Bob Johnson:

Q. Do you ever go knock on Jeff Gordon's door and say, "You wanna have a beer?"

A: I would knock on Jeff's door and say, "Do you want to have a Patron tequila. That's Jeff's drink. That and Red Bull. But I don't have to knock on Jeff's door. Jeff's music is so loud I can just hear it and he'll come on down. We just leave the doors open. We have a doors-open relationship. You come down to my place, I'll come up to your place. Somebody's just gotta have the Patron and the Red Bull.

I had no idea.

The full Johnson interview is here.

Good thing the Diecast Dude lives on the West Coast, or this line might get him in trouble this weekend:

"For many moons I have read with quiet horror tales of the Martinsville hot dogs, these bun staining and buns swelling creations of unknown parts from even more unknown animals who in a previous half-life served as fodder for glow sticks tossed about during arena rock shows."

Ouch.

I've never had one, so I can't give you a pro or con view. But hot dogs in general scare me. Still, I might try one if I ever get up there. Tradition is sacred around these parts.

The Martinsville dogs worry some of the drivers, too. Not worried for once about fan reaction, they have some choice things to say about the dogs. Who knew these guys could utter the word "diet"?

A Wood Bros. release from April gives another description of the Martinsville dog:

Some people can’t get past the color -- red -- to take the first bite, but to others including Eddie they are just about the best food on earth dripping with slaw, onions, chili and whatever else over a bright red hot dog all "smushed" in a bun and wrapped in wax paper.

The money line from the release:

... if you haven’t been to Martinsville Speedway, you can’t appreciate the hot dogs served there since Eddie Wood was a little boy.

It might explain a few things if the track is still using that original shipment of dogs.

Here's a little something Dustin wrote and graphic artist Tim Rickard put together for the Thursday paper. It's here in case you missed it.

Make sure you click the picture in the top right corner of the page.

For another view of it, the Roanoke Times version is here. Watch out - it's a pdf file.

Martinsville is smooooookin'. For Martinsville.

Dustin Long checks in from practice for the Paper Clip Track 500: With 10 minutes left in the first Cup practice, here are the top speeds:

1. Tony Stewart 97.850
2. Ricky Rudd 97.613
3. Rusty Walalce 97.588
4. Brian Vickers 97.493
5. Travis Kvapil 97.468
6. Denny Hamlin 97.337
7. Ryan Newman 97.252
8. Jeremy Mayfield 97.148
9. Joe Nemechek 97.138
10. Bobby Labonte 97.018

The top nine are all above the track record of 97.043, which Newman set last fall.

Y'all talk about the race. I've got papers to get out.

One of the many subplots to the current NASCAR season is the proposed cap on ownership.

Lots of people have been writing about it.

Jim Pedley has a story in today's KC Star ("From the sound of it, NASCAR might be in for a fight — perhaps in a courtroom — if they follow through with the plan").

David Poole of Charlotte had a story Wednesday about talks between Rick Hendrick, the guy who pioneered the multi-car approach; and Jack Roush, who has the most cars (10 bazillion at last count).

Lee Spencer weighed in here: "My voice of reason tells me: NASCAR wants to squelch the increasing clout of the mega-owners. Period."

And pretty much everyone on the blog roll to the right has a take on it. The consensus seems to range from "It stinks" to "It'll be worse than the U.S. open-wheel split." I admit I haven't looked all that hard, but I haven't found anyone outside of Brian France and Mike Helton who says it's the best thing for racin' since the HANS device.

The team with the most to lose, Roush Racing, responded quickly to NASCAR's proposal. You might have seen references to its five-page rebuttal, quickly dubbed "The Roush Manifesto." That was Dustin Long's name for it, anyway, and it seems to have caught on.

I'm not sure if anyone who wasn't in the press box at Kansas a couple weeks back has actually read Roush's reply. So here it is.

So what do you think? Does Roush make a compelling case for leaving things as they are?

You stink.

You really, really stink.

Not that I don't empathize with you, because I do. There were about 20 other drivers I would have rather seen win today's race at Martinsville.

But there was no need to boo Jeff Gordon after he won today's race. Sure, you don't like him. But a year ago, the guy lost a bunch of good friends and coworkers in an airplane crash near this track. So cut him some slack. It was a big day for the Hendrick team. Let them enjoy it without the boo-birds pooping on it.

Next time, keep your yaps shut and leave early.

Signed,
The Spotter

P.S. I'd normally try to defend any Dale Jr. fans included in the Anybody-but-Jeff-Gordon club, because I'm one of y'all. This time, though, you're on your own. Good luck.

I missed the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr. has fallen to 21st in the points.

21st!?

That ties him with Kasey Kahne. He's 34 points behind Kyle Busch (20th) and 180 points behind Brian Vickers (16th).

I think I need to go lie down.

P.S. If it's any consolation, Jeff Gordon, after Sunday's win, moved up to 15th in points. The last time he finished a season that low, he was 12 years younger, had the world's worst moustache and was called "rookie."

Toward the end of Sunday's race, the best race was for second between Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, who entered the event tied in points. Greg Biffle was running about 78th at the time, but insisted on racing both drivers rather than getting out of the way like, oh, just about everyone else on the track would have.

Here's Stewart post-race, on Biffle:

"He's an idiot," Stewart said. "I don't really understand why he held up Jimmie first and then held me up. It's no wonder Kevin Harvick has wanted to kill him so many times. They name streets after guys like that: 'one way' and 'dead end.' I like him, he's a nice guy, and I've played poker with him in the motorhome lot and all. But if he walked over here right now I think I'd have to strangle him."

Har.

Biffle's response: "Tony has a problem with running guys into the fence the second he gets position on them. I don't know why you do that when he's running second."

Am I being too hard on Biffle here? Or is Stewart right?

They're new to me, anyway.

Church of the Great Oval (link): "I have a Grateful Dead sticker on one side of my 1970 Mercedes bumper and a #20 Tony Stewart sticker on the other." The pastor there is also female with an apparent penchant for astrology.

The NASCAR Dad (link). He's a computer guy from Pennsylvania who seems to be a Junior fan.

I think I've mentioned Race Chick (link) before. She's got something on Steve Park getting the boot from his truck ride (which I heard last week but didn't get around to blogging about) and another post about Ryan Moore, who was suspended for a month earlier this month for some serious post-race bumping in a Busch North race.

She's saying Moore got fired, but doesn't have any links. Has anyone heard something one way or another?

In the meantime, go show some of those other bloggers some love. In the metaphoric sense, I mean.

10:10 a.m. update: Marc from Full Throttle, who seems to have this place on speed dial, responded quickly to my Ryan Moore question. He blogged on it on 10/21 based on something he saw on Scene Daily, and Motorsports Lounge had this post.

David Smith says it's true, and so does BGNracing.com.

Smith and BGN also have items on Justin Labonte (fired from Hass/CNC) and Paul Menard (part-time in the No. 15 in 2006).

'Tis the season, no?

Here's something Dustin Long mentioned to me Monday and was posted at nascar.com Tuesday afternoon.

The latest possible driver change rumors floating around the garage:

Bobby Labonte (car No. 18) or Ricky Rudd (21) to the 42 now driven by Jamie McMurray.

That would let McMurray go to the 97 and Kurt Busch to the No. 2 (Rusty Wallace).

Which makes some sense. Roush and Penske gets the drivers they want, and Ganassi gets a veteran to babysit all of the child drivers they'll have in 2006.

That would give Joe Gibbs racing two empty seats. Denny Hamlin seems to be the odds-on favorite to drive the 11, and J.J. Yeley, now sharing time with Hamlin in the 11 (formerly driven by what's-his-name, who flamed out spectacularly), could take over the 18.

That said, the other rumor (the one that Dustin is most interested in because our sister paper in Norfolk covers Chesapeake) going around is that Rudd will retire after this season.

Whether he hangs it up or moves on, it seems that the Wood Bros. aren't sitting still: If you scroll to the bottom of the nascar.com piece I mentioned above, you'll see the rumor about Ken Schrader driving the No. 21 in 2005.

And that makes sense, too. Jon Wood just isn't ready for a Cup ride just yet.

In case you've lost track of all of the pending moves, nascar.com has a handy chart that's a lot prettier than the one over at Jayski.

Scott Wimmer will finish the year in the 22, but he's out in 2006.

And Sterling Marlin will stay in the Cup Series. He'll be driving the 14 (i.e. this year's 10, with a new number and sponsor), which is the same car number his dad had.

And who's in the 22? No, not Ward Burton. It could be ... Bobby Labonte. Apparently he's really tight with Bill Davis, and ...

... ah, who knows. The Wimmer-out/Marlin in are facts (I'm looking at the releases now), but the B-Lab thing is 100 percent Grade A speculation.

So who should get the 22? What about other rides? Any big surprises left for silly season?

The AP has a story out this morning that says Mark Martin will be back in the No. 6 next year for one more season.

No surprise there -- everyone figured that would be the case.

But Martin won't be racing with Viagra on the hood next year.

You remember Viagra - everyone's favorite NASCAR joke after Dick Trickle.

Viagra, I thought, was always an odd sponsor. Sure, it's geared toward middle-aged guys, NASCAR's core demographic. But Viagra isn't a young man's drug, and everything NASCAR is doing these days, from the Young Guns to the 12-year-olds being hired to drive these high-powered cars, is geared toward the Under 35 crowd.

That brings us to Martin's 2006 sponsor: AAA, the outfit that makes the sticker that your grandparents have on the back bumper of their 1995 Buick Century.

Insert your own joke here about Mark Martin having to drive an entire season with his turn signal on. I just don't have the heart.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. apparently is a big fan of old races and has a collection of footage from the 1970s.

Who knew? I didn't. But Rick Minter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution does and has a very cool story today to prove it. Go read. Register if you have to.

One of Junior's favorite drivers: Jimmy Means. Junior recounts the tale of Means' missed chance at the fall 1987 race at Charlotte.

Not here. Here, over at the Scotsman's place.

The highlights:

* Humpy Wheeler, president of Lowe's Motor Speedway, is thinking about a couple of different corner options for the track

* He says the track isn't in as bad a shape as people think, but it'll still be repaved.

* Speaking of repaving, Talladega will be investing in new asphalt as well

* The car of tomorrow that NASCAR will unveil in 2007 is the shizzle.

Okay, so Humpy Wheeler didn't say "shizzle." But he's excited about the car - more side-by-side racing, less expensive to run.

Go read.

Lots of good racing this weekend.

I probably won't know, because we've got friends coming over Saturday night and my parents on Sunday.

If I'm lucky, I'll catch the Sunday night NFL game.

So what on- (and off-) track action am I missing?

According to Dustin Long, it doesn't look much like a car.

NASCAR is testing the COF at Atlanta today, and Dustin stuck around to take a look. The COF is the larger, safer, less aerodynamic car that NASCAR wants to roll out (supposedly) at next year's Talladega race and then run full time in 2007.

Dustin's reaction: "It doesn't look like a car. I'm not a car guy, but it doesn't look like a car. It looks like a sports car, one of those Grand Am cars ... it looks weird."

That's Dustin's take via cell phone. And, it's true, Dustin's not a car guy. (Neither am I, for that matter.) So keep in mind that if Dustin notices something different about the NASCAR car, it's different.

More when I hear something.

Update #1 (1:20 p.m.): We can confirm that the Car of the Future does have roof flaps.

Dustin called to report that Jeff Burton, one of six drivers testing the COF today at Atlanta, spun coming out of Turn 4 and went through the grass. Burton's explanation: The car got tight and went around.

The future, and Burton, were unhurt.

Carl Edwards, yesterday's winner, reports over the radio that he's having fun, but he nearly brought out the second COF (caution of the future) when he got a little too close to the wall.