Archive for December, 2007
Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-30-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Now that Christmas/New Years has arrived the NASCAR fan is found wanting for their beloved sport. As Jerry over at Restrictor Plate This notes, “it is at times like these we could most use racing”. The ‘distraction’, as it were, of NASCAR would provide us with a bit of a boost from the melancholy that some of us experience during this time of year.
Alas though, there is no NASCAR and that new Dale Jr T-shirt you got for Christmas will only carry you so far. You could watch your personal copy of the 1998 Daytona 500 a few times, but that still won’t carry you too far once you realize you’ll never see that ‘Black 3′ car in victory lane anymore. Melancholy sets in again.
That is why the World Junior Hockey Championship is the best form of melancholy medicine there is. Here are a bunch of under 20 year-olds out there on the ice, skating for nothing more than pride for their country, and the love of the game. OK, some could be looking to boost their NHL draft rating, but to be honest with you, most of these ‘kids’ have already been ear-marked by the numerous scouts in the NHL long before they got to this tournament anyway.
If you haven’t seen a game yet, I suggest you do so. If you are not into hockey too much, check it out anyway - you get to see the world’s best hockey players before they get all jaded by big contracts and the NHL media machine. This is the best hockey that you will ever see at this time of year - pure and simple.
Photo Credit: Stanislav Souček - Canada vs. Czech Republic
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Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic
This I took at NHIS last Sept. I’ve no idea whose holding the cap.
Happy New Year and I hope ‘08 is a better year for some of the drivers whose ‘07 was horrible..and we know who they are!
Lucky shot
Originally uploaded by Racefan57
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Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic
A tribute to DW. Ha Ha… As in he’s all washed up!! Kidding of course. Just playing around with the manual settings and got a cool effect. Shot taken in my kitchen sink which is stainless which caused to monochrome effect.
Do the Dew
Originally uploaded by Racefan57
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-26-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
It has been busier around here than I thought - tis’ the season. I still need to get Part 3 of my three part series on ‘What NASCAR Needs To Fix’ up sometime too.
My goal is to get it up before the end of this weekend, but we’ll just have to see.
Photo Credit: http://www.qbn.com/topics/535934/
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Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
I’m beat, and I’m going to bed - so there! I’ll be back at it Thursday.
I just realized something tonight; I past my 500th post a few weeks back and during that same week I had my 80,000 visitor to this site. Wow!
Photo Credit: sharpie.com
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-19-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
As you know, I was asked to participate with Steve and Charlie on their show ‘On Pit Row‘ tonight, and let me tell you listening to the radio is easier than talking on it.
Charlie and Steve (photo, L-R: Charlie, Steve) are great guys and are professionals all the way and I appreciate the opportunity they gave me by inviting me on their show. I had a blast.
If you haven’t heard any of their shows before you can still catch up with them at racetalkradio.com and follow the links to the On Pit Row audio archive. They’ve had a lot of big names in the sport on their show so it is worth it to check it out.
Today’s show will not be up until Thursday though. Steve and Charlie did send me a copy of my segment, but I’m too computer inept to figure out how to put it up on my site. I’ll work at it and hopefully I’ll get it up there in the near future.
I’ve been working feverishly on two more posts, one of which is Part 3 in the ‘What NASCAR Needs To Fix’ series. It is looking like Part 3 will be posted on Thursday as my son’s Christmas concert is Wednesday and I don’t want to miss it.
Take Care.
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-18-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Charlie and Steve over at Bench Racing have invited me to be one of their guests on this week’s radio show ‘On Pit Row‘ which can be heard LIVE every Tuesday from 5-7p.m. EST on WCWA - Fox Sports Radio in the Toledo, Ohio area.
To be honest with you, I’m quite honoured to be asked to be part of this week’s show. It is the last show until after the holiday season. I’ll be on from about 5:15 until 5:30 pm. I hope I have enough to talk about - we’ll see.
Check it out if you get a chance, or wait until Thursday when the show is available for your listening pleasure at racetalkradio.com.
I hope you have been enjoying my ‘What NASCAR Needs To Fix’ Series, I should have Part 3 up by Wednesday.
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-17-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
The Chase:
NASCAR needs to look at current situation with the Chase format it is using right now. By instituting changes in the Chase format for this past racing season NASCAR is admitting that, although they like the concept of The Chase, it needs to be fixed. I agree. The concept of the Chase is unique and with a little tweaking it can be more exciting, and perhaps closer to what NASCAR expects to happen in the point standings: multiple drivers within a handful points of each other coming down to the last race of the season.
Here is how I propose they do it:
Instead of making The Chase the last 10 races of the season and setting the Chase field by the first 26 races, make The Chase be a driver’s best 26 races over the entire season and throw away 10 races. Similar to the Rookie of The Year format where you only include your best 15 races.
Wait, wait - WAIT!! Before you go off the deep-end, hear me out. Obviously there will have to be certain stipulations instituted, so here goes;
1) each driver must include the first race of the season and the last race of the season as part of their 26 races.
2) if you go to a track more than once you must include at least one of those races from those tracks in your total. For example, Michigan has a race in June and in Aug, therefore you must include one of those races as one of your 26 races.
3) if you go to a track only once you must include that (ie. Indy) - except road courses where;
4) you must include at least one of the road courses in your total. That would get rid of some of the hired road racers too - although those guys are exciting to watch - and since the Top 35 rule doesn’t exist anymore (see Part 1) then there is no need to hire hot shoes for road races.
5) you must attempt to qualify for all 36 races
6) you must race at the all-star race - either in the main race or in the open qualifier race.
7) NASCAR also started handing out point bonuses for wins this year, and I like that idea but I would hand out 25 bonus points for a win and 10 points for a won pole position (unless the field is set by points due to bad weather).
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Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic
Michael Waltrip
Originally uploaded by Racefan57
This post is linked to my Flickr account because I have this pic of Mikey that I took at Loudon. He was standing there talking and joking with Pattyjo and I like we knew each other for years. After that I found a whole new respect for the man and I am happy to hear that Ryan Pemberton has joined MWR as David Reutimann’s crew chief. I predict an awesome ‘08 season for the “Domino 00″.
Click “Michael Waltrip” under his picture. It will take you to my Flickr photostream.
Happy Holiday’s and for those of you down south…. I could use a hand shoveling snow!!
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-13-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
I was going to go on with Part 2 of my 3 part series tonight, but I’m going to stay with Part 1 instead. I got an interesting reply from my friend Marc over at Full Throttle to what I wrote yesterday. One thing I like about Marc is that he likes to Play Devil’s Advocate every now and then just to stir up the pot a bit, so I’ll play along because I enjoy it too.
Marc wrote:
“Don’t take this as a slam but frankly I’m tired of hearing, reading this line of thought. Based on a study done by the Charlotte Observer, any changes to the rule would make little to no improvements to the current rule. Having said that, I would be in favor of allowing a single champ provisional, to the current champ, and to be used in all points paying events.”
My reply to Marc is: (I’m standing on my soapbox right now, so get ready)
Marc,
No slam taken and I hope you don’t take this as a slam either. Point well taken, but I have a problem with the article you provided a link to. In the article they only do their analysis on 8 races, hardly a significant sampling (you must have at least 25% for it to be classed as an accurate sampling) – also it does not have an accurate representation of all the different types of tracks in NASCAR (ie. no road courses).
They also wanted to get rid of the Talladega results because they were ‘skewed’ due to the fact that it was an impound race and the ‘go or go home’ teams put their cars in qualifying trim because they wanted to make the show while the Top 35 cars all qualified in race trim and qualified poorly. That is exactly my point. If there were no Top 35 rule then, the top 35 cars would have had to set their cars up differently to make sure they made the field yet were still competitive enough to race. All of the teams would be more equal. Isn’t that what NASCAR claims they want?
They also didn’t count Daytona, “which has its own (qualifying) procedure.” What? You still have to count it because they still used the top 35 rule to set the bottom end of the field.
The only exemption I agree with is Texas because qualifying was rained out, but let me say if there were no top 35 rule then the standings would have been different and some of those drivers outside of the top 43 would have been in the top 43 and made that race. So in the end they were still affected.
Another problem with this article is that it was published in the middle of July (almost halfway through the season) but it only looked at the first 10 races? What about May and June? I’ll leave July out of it so they could have time to collect, analyze and publish the data.
The interesting thing about working with data is that you can manipulate it to make it say what ever you want based on your own bias. I know, I’ve taken a course on data manipulation. What would be a more accurate and unbiased look at this would be to take all the races since the top 35 rule has been instituted into account– eliminating rain outs of course.
Now let’s look at this; “For the eight races in which traditional qualifying was held, 8.1 percent of the cars making the fields would have changed if NASCAR had allowed in the fastest 43.” Based on that and what follows in the article you are given the impression by the author that 8.1% is insignificant, and it would be if it were a 1000 car field but that 8.1% represents 4 cars (actually 3.48, but since you can’t have 0.48 of a car you must round up – those are the rules) that are effected each and every race for the 8 races they looked at. That is significant in my opinion. 4 cars/teams of the 43 car field is a significant amount. They then justify this by saying that it doesn’t matter anyway because there are always more than 43 cars trying to make the race, so someone has to go home anyway. Again, what? Of course someone has to go home, it is a fact of life, but why do the faster cars have to go home – in particular the 4 cars that are affected each and every race?
What I would really like to see is for The Observer to go back and revisit this subject again and take into account all of the races since 2005 (when the rule was first instituted) and look at the whole picture instead of a snapshot.
I too am tired of hearing about this, and until NASCAR does something about it I guess we’ll just have to continue to keep hearing about it. As far as a one Champ Provisional for the current Champ and no Past Champion’s Provisional, I could live with that.
Still friends?
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-12-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
In this series I’m going to point out 3 things that I feel NASCAR needs to fix before the 2008 season.
Part 1: Get Rid of The Top 35 Rule
The top 35 rule is destroying NASCAR. Fast cars are not making the show, and because of this rule other cars that actually do qualify (on the pole no less) are not making the show if the rest of qualifying gets rained out. This happened to Boris Said, not once, but twice last year. Also you are getting car owners who are abusing the provisional starting rules to make sure their cars make the show. Current and past car owners and abusers of this rule are Penske, Waltrip, Petty, and The Wood Bros.
Do I blame these car owners for doing this? No, not at all. Hey if they can manipulate the rules to their advantage, why not do it? I would.
So what should NASCAR do instead?
- First, get rid of the guaranteed top 35 starting spots.
- Then make all of the cars qualify on speed only.
- Bring back second round qualifying with one exception; only use it if the initial qualifying day is interrupted due to bad weather and if the second day is cancelled due to bad weather then revert to the setting the field by owner points - the top 43 that is!
- Let each driver have 4 provisionals to use throughout the year, and let past Champions have an additional 2 provisionals.
- The use of the provisionals is based on the old rules of using provisionals with two exceptions: 1) if you use a provisional to get into the race you can get it back for future races if you finish in the Top 10 for the race you used it in and 2) you are penalized 10 driver and owner points for having to use it which you can get back if you finish in the Top 10 for the race that you used the provisional in.
This would make the qualifying process more fair to everyone and still give teams a chance to make the race, even if they mess up during qualifying.
What do you think?
Part 2 will deal with the point system and Chase format.
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-11-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Twenty-six year old Brazilian Rafael Sperafico died this weekend in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos (in Brazil).
I caught wind of this incident yesterday from Marc at Full Throttle, but I was just too beat to write about it.
Marc has also posted a link to this video at his site. It isn’t a pleasant video to watch. Watching someone die is never a pleasant thing to do, but if you do watch it, pay attention to how the  car Rafael was driving is hit and look at how it crumpled and how the “green house” (driver’s compartment) was constructed. You don’t have to speak Spanish to understand what they are talking about either.
Now take a good look at the CoT and tell me - I mean it, really tell me - that you can honestly say NASCAR should still be using the old cars and not the CoT.
For all of it’s faults the CoT is meant to be a safer vehicle for our favourite drivers and heroes to use while racing on the track at speeds in excess of 190 mph. That is good enough for me, and it should be for you too. It certainly is good enough for Steve and Charlie at On Pit Row at their Bench Racing Site.
Photo Credit: No idea, help me out if you can.
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Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Did you know that Hermie Sadler has been a bit of a wrestling promoter oever the last two years? I didn’t.
Did you know that Hermie Sadler has actually been an in-ring performer for TNA? I didn’t.
Did you know that Hermie Sadler is quoted as saying, “Commentating for professional wrestling is, in a lot of ways, quite similar to commentating on NASCAR”? I do now.
Does that mean that NASCAR is, in a lot of ways, like wrestling, as suggested earlier in the year by Tony Stewart? I hope not. I really hope not.
More importantly, I just hope that those conspiracy theorists out there don’t get a hold of this one and twist it to serve their purpose.
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Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
So I’m going to do this in point form:
1) If TSN (Total Sports Network) is Canada’s leader in NASCAR coverage, and has the exclusive NASCAR broadcasting rights, then why the heck did they not televise the NASCAR Awards Banquet? Better yet, how come they didn’t broadcast the first ever Canadian NASCAR Banquet held in Toronto (where TSN’s studios are located)?
2) Did you know that the top 49 point finishers in NEXTEL Cup all made at least $1 000 000?
3) Add to that the fact that the top 42 point finishers all cleared $2 million?
4) Hey did you know that the space shuttle Atlantis will carry 3 NASCAR flags with it on their next mission (launch is Thursday Dec. 6) and one of those flags will go to the winner of the 2008 Daytona 500? Man that is out of this world! (couldn’t resist the pun, sorry) The other two will be on display at NASA and at Daytona.
5) Want to know the real reason why Sears has pulled its sponsorship of the NASCAR Truck Series through their Craftsman tool line? Because it is called the NCTS (NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series) and it is being confused with the NCTS (NASCAR Canadian Tire Series) and Canadian Tire makes its own tools (guaranteed for life too) called Mastercraft. O.K. this isn’t really the reason, I actually don’t know what the real reason is besides what I can find at NASCAR.com - which isn’t really much. I just thought I would stir up the pot a bit on this one.
6) You don’t believe Jimmie Johnson is Champion material? Then check out Jimmie’s stats since the Chase was introduced:
Year,Races,Wins,T-5s,T-10s
2004,36,8,20,23
2005,36,4,13,22
2006,36,5,13,24
2007,36,10,20,24
Totals,144,27,66,93
Now here is the kicker: Jimmie’s wins, top-5s and top-10s are the most among all drivers from 2004-2007. That makes him the most consistent driver, (even better than Jeff Gordon), in the last 4 years. So there! I got this info from Duane Cross at NASCAR.com and his chart is a lot nicer than mine.
7) The abuse of the Owner’s Points and Past Champion’s Provisional’s continue to make NASCAR look second rate with Penske taking all of the Owner’s point from the #2 Miller Dodge driven by Kurt Busch and giving them to the #77 car driven by rookie Sam Hornish. Why is Penske doing this? Because he can.
By giving the #2’s Owner’s Points to the 77 car that guarantee’s Hornish’s start in the first 5 races of the season and it is assumed that after those first 5 races Sam will be solidly in the Top 35 and his guarantee of a starting spot will continue. But wait, how does this affect Kurt? It doesn’t really, because he has 6 past Champion Provisionals that he can use to guarantee his starting spot in any race that he fails to qualify for based on speed. It is also assumed that Kurt will also be solidly in the Top 35 after the first 5 races too.
I don’t blame Penske for this, I blame NASCAR. Penske is operating within the confines of the rules made by NASCAR and any good businessman/team owner would do the same - I know I would. It is NASCAR’s fault that things like this continue to happen and until they get rid of that stupid Top 35 rule it will continue to happen. So much for the parity that NASCAR says it strives for.
 I’m outta here. I’ve got to get my beauty rest as I’ve got to coach my Boys Volleyball team in the City Championship tomorrow. This is the second year in a row I’ve made it to the Championship. Last year I did it with my Girl’s Team and now this year with my Boy’s team. I wasn’t even supposed to coach the Boys this year but their coach took ill so I took over the team 2 days before their first game. They hadn’t even had a tryout or practice yet. So their tryout was their first practice as I kept everyone who came out for the team so I could at least get them somewhat ready for their first game.
My girls team lost out in the quarter finals this year, not too bad of a result if you think about it - we made it to the Elite Eight after all - there are about 40 teams in the league and I had no returning players from last year’s squad.
Wish me luck!
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Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Due to a ton of things at work, plus coaching (my boys volleyball team is in the City Finals tomorrow!), I’ve been on pause here lately. Sorry, but it is the off-season after all.
I’ll be back at it tonight. There seems to be a few things to talk about like Craftsman leaving Truck as the series sponsor. I have a few thoughts on that one that I may delve into tonight.
Take Care.
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-4-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic
Craftsman dropping sponsorship of NASCAR truck series…
Sears Craftsman dropping the Truck Series??
I stumbled across this article in my Google reader. It’s the only article I could find, but it seems to hold merit.
Sears probably ran out of advertising revenue after the $11 Billion {yes that’s a B} Kmart buyout.
So, one more year of silly Craftsman tool ad’s. The best one is the spring board incident.
It’s hard to imagine who will step up, but I’m certain it won’t be hard for NASCAR to get a replacement.
I just hope it’s not another insurance co. or telecommunications… here’s one
The NASCAR Tonka Truck Series
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-3-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Well the awards show went off without too much of a hitch. In fact, according to other sources,it was almost too perfect. The reason why I say ‘other sources’ is because the awards show wasn’t televised in Canada - at least to my knowledge anyway, I couldn’t find it on anywhere on TV.
Except for a little mix-up with the teleprompter by Jimmie Johnson, and a tear shed by Jeff Gordon while talking about his wife and daughter the rest of the night was pretty much boring - at least that is what I’ve read.
You know, I just wish I had the opportunity to see for myself if it was boring or not. The missing of the awards show happens a lot in Canada. They sometimes will air it at a later date - meaning like over Christmas Holidays and late at night when nothing else is on.
One thing I find very interesting, and I’ve noticed that not too many people have really made a fuss about, is the absence of Dale Jr in New York. He is on vacation in Australia. Now granted he didn’t make the top 10 in points and he wouldn’t have been up on stage, but the absence of NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver (as voted by you) from NASCAR’s biggest celebration (albeit, self-proclaimed - but still …) leaves one wondering just exactly who needs who. When the fan’s favourite is a no show at the year end party then what are the fans to think?
Is it just a case of sour grapes? Is Dale Jr’s battle with his stepmother bad enough to keep him away from the ceremonies and hang with with his bud Martin Truex? Does he have a lack of respect for his fellow drivers - two of which are going to be his teammates next year? Imagine if he wins the Championship next year and they didn’t show up to support him? Is he on a secret covert mission for NASCAR to spy on the Aussie V8 Supercar Series Championship, or even spy on the newly established Speed Car Series?
I don’t know, but what I do know is that even when his father finished out of the top 10 he still showed - it made him want it more the next year.
Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images - Dale Jr (R) with supercar driver Mark Skaife.
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Filed Under ( NASCAR) by admin on December-2-2007
Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic
Ok so now I find another new way to post. First was directly from my Flyckr account and now I found a way to post direct from any website using Windows Live.
Ryan McGee writes well and I usually try to read his stuff. I watched the Awards banquet Friday night and like Ryan, I found it comical and as soon as Tony Stewart made his funny speech I turned out the lights.
This post is more of a test than of anything else. I want to see how this posting works out from anywhere I happen to be.
Have a happy Sunday!!
ESPN - Champions Week ‘07: JJ, the Big Apple, Tiffany’s … and, oh, NASCAR - Nascar
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Submitted by NASCAR Eclectic
flag tower
Originally uploaded by Racefan57
It seems like last week is when I took this picture. It was actually in September, but here we are only a few short weeks away from ‘08. I’m looking forward to the Daytona week in Feb., but I just found out this morning that our son’s National Guard unit is working the NASCAR Bobsled Challenge in Lake Placid Jan. 3rd-5th, so Pattyjo and I will get VIP passes to that and get to be upclose and personal with Boris Said and Geoff Bodine. This will surely break up the lapse and I’ll be sure to get pics.
Back at the Cottage… We are in for a winter storm today and into tomorrow. It hit the midwest hard yesterday but we are also getting a storm off the Atlantic coast, so we have two systems converging on us. I want to move south!!
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