Taking stock of the weekend
In random order:
* The best thing we published all weekend in the dead tree version of the N&R was the In Their Words features that Dustin Long has made sort of his calling card. This year he caught up with Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Burton. Make sure to click through for audio and complete interview transcripts.
* The second-best thing we published this weekend were Ed Hardin's columns. On Sunday, he took the COT behind the woodshed ([Kyle Busch] has this look on his face like he means it. Just to his right is the vehicle itself, a sheet-metal box, really. It's covered in decals that make it look like a car, but it's not, really. It's a lab experiment. And it's not for sale."). Today, Ed plays bump-n-run on Jeff Gordon ("In other words, Gordon chickened out."). Aaron McFarling up in Roanoke took the opposite approach. ("All's fair on the final laps? Wrong. Not with Gordon, not this time. And darn it, good for him.")
* There's no team better right now than Hendrick Motorsports. If I had a team rankings, they'd be first, second and third. You know, I might just do that - rank the teams. Check this space later this week....
(more after the jump)
* Good news: Junior's in Chase contention. (He's 11th in the standings.)
* Michael Waltrip is now 993 points behind the leader.
* Juan Pablo Montoya: Not to be messed with. Sixteenth is about 20 spots better than what I thought he'd do. Guy can definitely race.
* Once again the question is asked, Whither Martinsville? nascar.com's David Caraviello says Martinsville's living on borrowed time. The Big Dog barks back. Our Canadian friend gets it exactly right: "Martinsville is an entertaining track."
Look, whether there is racing or not in Martinsville in future years has nothing to do with the lack of asphalt parking lots, the courtesy level of the staff, its out-of-the-way location or the otherwordly redness of its hotdogs. It has everything to do with making a buck. The day ISC figures it can make more green in Seattle, Denver, New York City, Toyko or Buenos Aires, Martinsville will be deader than Michael Waltrip's chances of making this year's Chase.
P.S. At least half the tracks on the NASCAR circuit are "an hour from anywhere," especially the new ones near Chicago (in Joliet) and Los Angeles (Fontana's an hour east of anything cool). You think Talladega is near anything? How about Watkins Glen? Pocono? Sonoma? Michigan? New Hampshire? Please, stop with the distance argument. Race tracks are supposed to be an hour from anywhere. Who wants 43 unmufflered 800-horsepowered engines and 100K plus beer-drinking Dale Jr. fans in their backyard?
P.P.S. Greensboro is 45 minutes south of Martinsville. Combine us with Winston and High Point, and you have NASCAR's No. 2 TV market and a metro area of about 1 million folks. Roanoke (200K or so, when you through in the county) is an hour north. No, I don't know why more folks come to the races. But this isn't BFE, either.
Comments (4)
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With all the good coming out of Hendrick do you think Casey Mears is starting to feel the pressure already. He's torn up at least one Busch car or Cup car per weekend.
Posted on April 2, 2007 6:56 PM
I don't know what's up with Mears, Mark. I was a little surprised last year when he was such a hot commodity around the garage. He put together three good races at the start of the season, true, but he had just five top 10s the rest of the way.
I figured he'd struggle - new team, COT, etc. But not 33rd-and-fading struggling.
The flip side - at least the other three Hendrick drivers are high up in the points like everyone figured they would be. Think of, say, the Evernham camp, where 2006 Chaser Kasey Kahne is 34th in points. You think they aren't panicking up there in Statesville?
Posted on April 2, 2007 11:47 PM
Being a baseball as well as racing fan, I would hope that the economics of NASCAR will allow at least some of the classic (read mostly short) tracks to remain on the cup schedule in the future. In baseball you're down to pretty much just Wrigley, Fenway and Yankee Stadium, - with the latter scheduled to be bulldozed. I went to a game at Wrigley last year. No amenities or skyboxes - but you couldn't replace that atmosphere, no way. The same will be true if we lose all of the old tracks. Very nice blog. I will link up to you today.
Posted on April 3, 2007 9:55 AM
That's a good point, Charlie, and the racing at Martinsville probably doesn't disappoint.
But the will-they-or-won't-they-leave-Martinsville debate has officially gone on hiatus: ISC came out late Monday and said they're going to abandon the Bremerton, Wash., site, then said today that a possible track in Colorado won't be in play till 2012 at the earliest.
But here's the most important thing that usually gets left out of the mix: Martinsville is essentially a home date. It's less than two hours drive time from Charlotte, and a helicopter ride is, what, 30 minutes? If NASCAR's going to make these guys work 36 weekends a year, keeping races close to home is a key.
Posted on April 3, 2007 9:34 PM