Monday Morning Musings

There was absolutely no open wheel racing to catch this weekend. However, NASCAR nation rolled into Richmond, VA for their annual Spring Saturday night shootout.

I had no interest in watching this, but ran across it as K and I were looking for something to watch late Saturday night. K made her disdain known as soon as we heard Darrell Waltrip's voice in the booth. I don't blame her; I don't watch NASCAR racing any more. Mainly because it's oval racing 98% of the time and I find the majority of those races as fun as going to the dentist.

But there were only about 10 laps left and Kyle Busch was inside Dayyyuhl Jr battling for first place. I said, "They are going to wreck" and sure enough Kyle gets a little loose being pinch down low in the turn and Dayyyuhl Jr looks to chop down a him slightly and a spinnin' they go. My next comment was "Sonofa.... now watch these fans go nuts". And like clockwork the Jr fans were on the catch fence five deep like flies on fly paper. You know, the gooey amber colored ribbons you pull out of the little canisters and hang up for all the summer bugs?

You see Jr hasn't won a race in 71 tries, I think. BUT he is THE most marketable driver in NASCAR since the death of his dad at Daytona. That along with his Budweiser sponsorship, up until this year, was a promoters' wet dream. And NASCAR, no dummies, to pimping out their drivers(not bad in my mind), capitalized on this to no end; sometimes with suspicious calls near the ends of races or a particular driver getting 'the call'. No proof of this just a hunch.

And you know what? Jr is a genuinely good guy. He's not a phony, he's not a whiner, but he's just not that great of a racer. I don't think he's got the talent that his dad had. That's not a bad thing but sometimes the yahoos in the booth act as if he's the second coming of Christ; and the borderline homo erotic fanaticism by the fans freaks me out to no end.

I'm sure Kyle Busch had to have a police escort to get out of Richmond in one piece after that accident. But that's all it was, a racing incident; no more no less. But it did provide a little bit of entertainment on a Saturday night.

I guess it's official

AJ Allmendinger is officially on the bench at Red Bull Racing, being replaced with Mike Skinner. I really don't have that much sympathy for the guy, leaving Forsythe Racing after the tear he went on with them. Maybe it's because, as a fan, to see an American do so well in open wheel racing is a chance to say, 'hey we do have talent here!'. I don't think Memo Gidley would have jumped ship like AJ did for Nascar, but what do I know?

I think the transition to a tin topper with all the weight they carry is quite the change for an open wheel guys. Do I like it? Hail no! We've now lost Dario(who was getting a little long in the tooth any way), Patreek(who I met when CART was to run at Texas Motor Speedway, he is truly a great guy), and Jacques(which doesn't mean a hill of beans to just about anyone even though he's an INDY 500 and F1 champion).

And what about Bourdais bad mouthing the series that gave him a life for the last several years? So he bolted for a backmarker F1 team, whoopee! How long before we see him with his tail between his legs and moving in to Nascar?

I hope that the IRL(please tweak the name, PLEASE) will be a step in the right direction to retaining talented open wheel drivers.

I know there are many more factors in play in all of this; and who can blame these guys for looking for the bigger buck out there. It's just a shame that it's taken 12 years of decimation to bring the powers that be to their senses.

The Fix Will Be In

I'm going out on a limb, albeit a pretty sturdy one, by saying Dale Jr. will win the Daytona 500. Or should I say Dayyyyal, as pronounced by his minions of fans.

I'm not a Nascar fan by any stretch of the imagination. I prefer open wheel racing, specifically Champcar or Formula 1. You may say, 'what about the IRL?' Well my feeling on the IRL is that they tried to instill a business model to copy that of Nascar. Only problem is, most open wheel fans want more than just the roundy round tracks on the schedule. They want something that shows off the drivers skills to the nth degree and that requires right turns as well as left turns, off camber turns, out braking a competitor on a blind uphill turn to gain a position, etc. We want more than just to know a racer is brave(or stupid) for driving on a high banked speedway. But NOW IRL is becoming what it despised....CART.

Back to my prediction, Dayyyyal is going to win. NASCAR needs it. As their ticket prices go up, TV ratings go down, and track attendance goes down they want, no they NEED Dayyyyal to win because he has the fan base. NASCAR has a history of mysterious yellow flags to bring the pack back together for an 'exciting finish'. Is that right to manipulate like that? What happened to the best man winning based on his skill and his machine, regardless of the gap between positions?

While I wait for the needed merger of the IRL & Champcar(rumor this morning is that it's a done deal), I'll probably tune in to the snoozer 500 today from time to time to see the obligatory 'big one'. But don't be one bit surprised to see the former Bud poster boy win this one and have the fans leaving Daytona satisfied.