If you think this piece is out to bash Kyle Busch then click somewhere else.
I’m not a big basketball fan, but, when I read that LeBron James, who had been voted the NBA’s Most Valuable Player of the year, refused to shake hands with the victorious Orlando Magic or handle interviews with the media, it rang a bell.
Many top sports celebrities are available to promote commercial or their own charitable ventures. On the other hand, when they have a bad day -- or worse -- a loss then, it’s hands off.
That’s quite the double standard.
After Kyle Busch’s car was shoved into the wall by Joey Logano’s at the end of the Nationwide race in Dover, two images lingered. Busch hurrying away from the camera; yes to go to his next race. And, there was the young Logano, almost in tears, apologizing for something that turned out wasn’t his fault. Busch’s car had a tire going down which slowed him down right into the path of his teammate’s front bumper.
Dover can be viewed as a bad example because Busch did have another, immediate, commitment. It’s just the most recent occurrence of that sort in my mind.
There have been other races where Busch, and others, lose a sure victory at the end and refuse to face the media. That’s when some apologists state “(insert your favorite driver’s name) hates to lose.” Give me a break, who likes to lose?
Athletes are paid sums of money unrealizable to common folk in everyday life. They are paid not only for their performance but also to communicate with the ultimate employers - the ticket buyers, the merchandise buyers and their companies. Part of that includes, yes, talking to the media.
Over the years NASCAR, and other professional sports organizations, have adopted a set of rules on who is required to conduct interviews after a game or a race. And, most of the time the second or third place race finisher is just fine to give some perspective on the day’s event.
When you have a dominating driver eliminated at the end or near the end, that person could be the “big” story of the day. Unless there is some rule (with a hefty punishment for non-compliance) the paying public will not know the rest of the story.
Let’s give athletes a partial break. In the heat of the battle they’re likely be very emotional. I’d say give them two or three minutes, and a cool towel, to collect their thoughts. Even if the responses come out robotic, at least, we’d hear the other side of the story.
On the other hand, let’s stop treating athletes like princes or princesses and just be called up to give an account of the day’s action.
Any other treatment is unfair to those who actually pay the bills, you.
Showing posts with label NASCAR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NASCAR. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Sunday, November 30, 2008
It's all about the Money - Why Open Wheel Drivers Failed in NASCAR this year
By Lewis Franck
There's a saying “when someone says 'it's not about the money.' It really is all about the money.”
Just one year ago traditional NASCAR fans were upset because it appeared that an invasion of mostly foreign “open wheel” i.e. IndyCar drivers were going to take over their sacred stock car sport.
Team owners, seeking new markets, thought that if they would bring in the open wheel drivers they could bring in new sponsors. It did not work out that way.
One year later only Juan Pablo Montoya, the ex-IndyCar and ex-Formula One driver, and Sam Hornish Jr. were in the picture for a full-time ride. The reason – they both drive for the owners of their former IndyCar teams. Montoya drives for Chip Ganassi and Hornish, Jr. for Roger Penske, both are the most successful owners in IndyCar history.
At the Daytona 500 this February there were more previous Indy 500 winners than those who would run at the Brickyard in May. Montoya and Dario Franchitti were driving for Ganassi. Hornish for Penske, and Jacques Villeneuve for Bill Davis Racing. Other open wheelers Patrick Carpentier for Gillett Evernham Racing (GEM), and A.J. Allmendinger for Team Red Bull Racing.
Perhaps Mario Andretti who in the 1960s and 1970s successfully raced in and won in everything from dirt track sprint cars, to his World Championship for Lotus, is best to explain why they came over.
"From where I'm sitting, it is probably because of the money [in NASCAR]," said Andretti, who won the 1967 Daytona 500 two years before his Indy 500 win.
"Every individual would give you a different reason. I think the strongest one might be financial. It's not the only motivating factor but it is a strong one. And right now, the best chance to earn some money is NASCAR," he said one year ago.
Since “the split” in 1994 which divided (the now-defunct )CART from the Indy Racing League fans and, more importantly, big money sponsors deserted Indy-type – now called Open Wheel – series for the more stable NASCAR top-level Cup Series.
CART's problem was that top stars would go to Formula One, and in an effort to keep American drivers at Indy the IRL was formed; only its' stars, like Tony Stewart, ended up in NASCAR, because that's where the higher paying jobs were.
It turns out that the lack of money – due to the sudden decline in the US economy – hit the hardest of most of the teams with the open wheel “invaders”.
Also, lack of proper experience, that is running in the junior series for two years or more was another reason that these drivers had a difficult time making the transition to the heavy 3,400 pound cars.
Rusty Wallace, the 1989 Cup Champion who drove for Roger Penske, explained to Francklyspeaking, “these drivers undeniably have a tremendous amount of talent. Because it takes many years to really understand these heavy NASCAR cars, being thrown right into one of these cars and expected to be competitive right off the bat is unrealistic.”
Kevin Harvick, the Daytona 500 winner in 2007, agreed (in a previous interview), “It just takes time to establish that foundation," he said. "A lot of people from the outside looking in say, 'Well, I race Formula One. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to race the Sprint Cup Series.' If you can get over the ego part of it, racing the Truck Series or the Nationwide Series, you'd be better off, I think."
Wallace added, “also, the downturn in the economy has killed these drivers' long turn prospects of succeeding in a stock car. With money so tight now and sponsors expecting immediate performance, it makes it especially difficult for these guys. I honestly think that if a sponsor would spend 2-3 solid years with these open wheel drivers, and understand that the first couple years would be investment years, then I think that victory and success in NASCAR would be more of a realistic long term goal.
Dario, Sam, Juan Pablo- these guys are all damn good.”
What is also interesting, and crucial, is that NASCAR's Big Four, Richard Childress Racing, Hendrick Joe Gibbs Racing Motorsports, and Roush Racing chose to stick with NASCAR-trained drivers and they were the only teams to fill the 12 places in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs. If you did not race for a fully-funded team you had virtually no chance of succeeding.
Jacques Villeneuve's attempt wasn't much of an attempt because he bought a ride at the struggling Bill Davis Racing, failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 and was not heard from, in NASCAR's Sprint Cup since then.
A disappointed Davis lamented "We've built a bunch of cars for him, have gone testing and spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel. But it gets to this point -- they thought they had a sponsor for the whole year; we had the cars decaled and uniforms made and like you've read 100 times before -- the check never came.”
Francklyspeaking enlisted the help of Ford Aerodynamicist, Bernie Marcus, who used to be an engineer at the ATS, Onyx and March Formula One teams. Later he worked with Bobby Rahal in his 1992 CART championship. There's probably no better expert, who has seen it all.
Montoya, hired by Ganassi after he was released from Team McLaren, seemed to be a win-win situation for NASCAR eager to exploit the Latin American marketplace. He's had relative success with wins on road circuits and, a second place in the Brickyard 400 in 2007 and the fall race at Talladega in 2008. Late this year Ganassi was forced to merge with Dale Earnhardt Inc. because he couldn't obtain sponsorship for the three cars he started with this year.
Marcus said “Juan has the talent to succeed in NASCAR, but Ganassi was such bad team this season, that he rarely had a good enough car to demonstrate his talent. Hopefully the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing merger will improve the teams technical staff and program, so that he gets the results he is certainly capable of.”
Hoping lightning would strike twice Ganassi hired Indy 500 and IRL champ, Dario Franchitti. Franchitti was injured (broken right foot) at Talladega in the Spring in the Nationwide race in an accident caused by an inexperienced driver. By July the Scotsman, married to actress, Ashley Judd, was finished because Ganassi couldn't find enough sponsorship to finish the year. That day 71 employees were terminated. He had only 10 Cup races with a best finish of 22nd.
Marcus explained “Dario struggled the most of all the Open Wheel Guys, and a lot of that is down to the Ganassi team being so bad, but he wasn't even close to Montoya anywhere and the biggest letdown was his inability to qualify the car at Sonoma, (one of two NASCAR Cup road races) where he should have been really good. But perhaps his luck, that had given him excellent drives without merit in the past, from DTM to CART to IRL, finally ran out. He clearly had no business being in NASCAR and took a seat away from a potentially young rookie.”
The parent company of GEM racing, which owned the Montreal Canadians in the NHL ,thought Carpentier, a competent IndyCar driver would help bring Canadian fans to NASCAR. Like in Franchitti's case the sponsors never showed. He was replaced by an American. He said “I’m the one getting the boot. It’s part of racing. I’m not pissed off. I kind of expected it. I still hope they find it (sponsorship).”
Marcus commented “Patrick did a very solid job for being in a tier 2 team, in which both the established drivers with a lot more NASCAR experience struggled mightily this year. In fact he out qualified them most of the time and had some decent race runs. It's a pity he got fired after the Talladega qualifying fiasco, for which he clearly can't be blamed. My feeling is they used him as a convenient scape goat. I believe that Patrick deserves to get another chance in a top team and he will get results. Talent wise he is the best of all the Open Wheel guys in my opinion.
AJ Allmendinger, who was a winner in the defunct Champ Car series, joined Team Red Bull in their first struggling year with Toyota in 2007. He, too, jumped over to NASCAR seeing that his team Forsythe Racing was going under. After two years he was let go in favor of Scott Speed. “AJ is a talented driver and we really enjoyed working with him,” said RBRT Vice President and General Manager Jay Frye. “He’s come a long way in just two years and we wish him nothing but the best.”
Allmendinger, who had one Cup victory in an non-points race, said “Cup racing it’s not easy. What happened to Dario and Villeneuve is going to make people wonder.You have to remember, Sam’s (Hornish Jr.) is only in his first year.”
Marcus thought he was under-rated “AJ struggled at first, but once he sat out those few races when (veteran) Mike Skinner drove his car, he came back and did a very good job, which he continued after he transferred to Gillett/Evernham.
He added “Red Bull, as a team, did the best job of any team where an Open Wheel Driver competed.
For 2009 former F-One driver, Scott Speed will be full-time at Team Red Bull. Marcus explained “Speed did a decent job after he replaced AJ for the last few races. He has shown that he has the ability to qualify the car well up the grid, but needs to improve his racecraft, which may or may not come with time. He wasn't too stellar in the ARCA series (a midwest based series using older NASCAR Cup cars), which he should have won hands down.
Over at Penske Racing, Hornish struggled with a non-performing Dodge, as did his teammate and former Champ, Kurt Busch, and Daytona 500, winner Ryan Newman. The American and Penske are committed for the near future. He said ““I would say it’s a struggle but I remember when I first started racing I ran a dirt oval and won I think the third race out and then I won five of the next six.”
Marcus added “Hornish is difficult to judge, since the Penske NASCAR team has been uncompetitive all year, except Daytona, where they pulled off a 1-2 finish and Hornish was top 15 also. It's hard to understand that Penske is so competitive in Indy Car and Sports Cars, but so uncompetitive in NASCAR. Hornish has the talent to succeed in NASCAR, he has shown flashes of brilliance, but unless Penske gives him better technical support, he will not be able to showcase his talent.”
At present only Montoya and Hornish have firm contracts, again, because of the two-way loyalty between them and their car owners, Ganassi and Penske, respectively. It's unlikely that there will be any new Open Wheel drivers, (barring Danica Patrick if she wants to switch) jumping over to stock cars unless they bring sponsors, because it is, after all, all about the money.
There's a saying “when someone says 'it's not about the money.' It really is all about the money.”
Just one year ago traditional NASCAR fans were upset because it appeared that an invasion of mostly foreign “open wheel” i.e. IndyCar drivers were going to take over their sacred stock car sport.
Team owners, seeking new markets, thought that if they would bring in the open wheel drivers they could bring in new sponsors. It did not work out that way.
One year later only Juan Pablo Montoya, the ex-IndyCar and ex-Formula One driver, and Sam Hornish Jr. were in the picture for a full-time ride. The reason – they both drive for the owners of their former IndyCar teams. Montoya drives for Chip Ganassi and Hornish, Jr. for Roger Penske, both are the most successful owners in IndyCar history.
At the Daytona 500 this February there were more previous Indy 500 winners than those who would run at the Brickyard in May. Montoya and Dario Franchitti were driving for Ganassi. Hornish for Penske, and Jacques Villeneuve for Bill Davis Racing. Other open wheelers Patrick Carpentier for Gillett Evernham Racing (GEM), and A.J. Allmendinger for Team Red Bull Racing.
Perhaps Mario Andretti who in the 1960s and 1970s successfully raced in and won in everything from dirt track sprint cars, to his World Championship for Lotus, is best to explain why they came over.
"From where I'm sitting, it is probably because of the money [in NASCAR]," said Andretti, who won the 1967 Daytona 500 two years before his Indy 500 win.
"Every individual would give you a different reason. I think the strongest one might be financial. It's not the only motivating factor but it is a strong one. And right now, the best chance to earn some money is NASCAR," he said one year ago.
Since “the split” in 1994 which divided (the now-defunct )CART from the Indy Racing League fans and, more importantly, big money sponsors deserted Indy-type – now called Open Wheel – series for the more stable NASCAR top-level Cup Series.
CART's problem was that top stars would go to Formula One, and in an effort to keep American drivers at Indy the IRL was formed; only its' stars, like Tony Stewart, ended up in NASCAR, because that's where the higher paying jobs were.
It turns out that the lack of money – due to the sudden decline in the US economy – hit the hardest of most of the teams with the open wheel “invaders”.
Also, lack of proper experience, that is running in the junior series for two years or more was another reason that these drivers had a difficult time making the transition to the heavy 3,400 pound cars.
Rusty Wallace, the 1989 Cup Champion who drove for Roger Penske, explained to Francklyspeaking, “these drivers undeniably have a tremendous amount of talent. Because it takes many years to really understand these heavy NASCAR cars, being thrown right into one of these cars and expected to be competitive right off the bat is unrealistic.”
Kevin Harvick, the Daytona 500 winner in 2007, agreed (in a previous interview), “It just takes time to establish that foundation," he said. "A lot of people from the outside looking in say, 'Well, I race Formula One. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to race the Sprint Cup Series.' If you can get over the ego part of it, racing the Truck Series or the Nationwide Series, you'd be better off, I think."
Wallace added, “also, the downturn in the economy has killed these drivers' long turn prospects of succeeding in a stock car. With money so tight now and sponsors expecting immediate performance, it makes it especially difficult for these guys. I honestly think that if a sponsor would spend 2-3 solid years with these open wheel drivers, and understand that the first couple years would be investment years, then I think that victory and success in NASCAR would be more of a realistic long term goal.
Dario, Sam, Juan Pablo- these guys are all damn good.”
What is also interesting, and crucial, is that NASCAR's Big Four, Richard Childress Racing, Hendrick Joe Gibbs Racing Motorsports, and Roush Racing chose to stick with NASCAR-trained drivers and they were the only teams to fill the 12 places in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs. If you did not race for a fully-funded team you had virtually no chance of succeeding.
Jacques Villeneuve's attempt wasn't much of an attempt because he bought a ride at the struggling Bill Davis Racing, failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 and was not heard from, in NASCAR's Sprint Cup since then.
A disappointed Davis lamented "We've built a bunch of cars for him, have gone testing and spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel. But it gets to this point -- they thought they had a sponsor for the whole year; we had the cars decaled and uniforms made and like you've read 100 times before -- the check never came.”
Francklyspeaking enlisted the help of Ford Aerodynamicist, Bernie Marcus, who used to be an engineer at the ATS, Onyx and March Formula One teams. Later he worked with Bobby Rahal in his 1992 CART championship. There's probably no better expert, who has seen it all.
Montoya, hired by Ganassi after he was released from Team McLaren, seemed to be a win-win situation for NASCAR eager to exploit the Latin American marketplace. He's had relative success with wins on road circuits and, a second place in the Brickyard 400 in 2007 and the fall race at Talladega in 2008. Late this year Ganassi was forced to merge with Dale Earnhardt Inc. because he couldn't obtain sponsorship for the three cars he started with this year.
Marcus said “Juan has the talent to succeed in NASCAR, but Ganassi was such bad team this season, that he rarely had a good enough car to demonstrate his talent. Hopefully the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing merger will improve the teams technical staff and program, so that he gets the results he is certainly capable of.”
Hoping lightning would strike twice Ganassi hired Indy 500 and IRL champ, Dario Franchitti. Franchitti was injured (broken right foot) at Talladega in the Spring in the Nationwide race in an accident caused by an inexperienced driver. By July the Scotsman, married to actress, Ashley Judd, was finished because Ganassi couldn't find enough sponsorship to finish the year. That day 71 employees were terminated. He had only 10 Cup races with a best finish of 22nd.
Marcus explained “Dario struggled the most of all the Open Wheel Guys, and a lot of that is down to the Ganassi team being so bad, but he wasn't even close to Montoya anywhere and the biggest letdown was his inability to qualify the car at Sonoma, (one of two NASCAR Cup road races) where he should have been really good. But perhaps his luck, that had given him excellent drives without merit in the past, from DTM to CART to IRL, finally ran out. He clearly had no business being in NASCAR and took a seat away from a potentially young rookie.”
The parent company of GEM racing, which owned the Montreal Canadians in the NHL ,thought Carpentier, a competent IndyCar driver would help bring Canadian fans to NASCAR. Like in Franchitti's case the sponsors never showed. He was replaced by an American. He said “I’m the one getting the boot. It’s part of racing. I’m not pissed off. I kind of expected it. I still hope they find it (sponsorship).”
Marcus commented “Patrick did a very solid job for being in a tier 2 team, in which both the established drivers with a lot more NASCAR experience struggled mightily this year. In fact he out qualified them most of the time and had some decent race runs. It's a pity he got fired after the Talladega qualifying fiasco, for which he clearly can't be blamed. My feeling is they used him as a convenient scape goat. I believe that Patrick deserves to get another chance in a top team and he will get results. Talent wise he is the best of all the Open Wheel guys in my opinion.
AJ Allmendinger, who was a winner in the defunct Champ Car series, joined Team Red Bull in their first struggling year with Toyota in 2007. He, too, jumped over to NASCAR seeing that his team Forsythe Racing was going under. After two years he was let go in favor of Scott Speed. “AJ is a talented driver and we really enjoyed working with him,” said RBRT Vice President and General Manager Jay Frye. “He’s come a long way in just two years and we wish him nothing but the best.”
Allmendinger, who had one Cup victory in an non-points race, said “Cup racing it’s not easy. What happened to Dario and Villeneuve is going to make people wonder.You have to remember, Sam’s (Hornish Jr.) is only in his first year.”
Marcus thought he was under-rated “AJ struggled at first, but once he sat out those few races when (veteran) Mike Skinner drove his car, he came back and did a very good job, which he continued after he transferred to Gillett/Evernham.
He added “Red Bull, as a team, did the best job of any team where an Open Wheel Driver competed.
For 2009 former F-One driver, Scott Speed will be full-time at Team Red Bull. Marcus explained “Speed did a decent job after he replaced AJ for the last few races. He has shown that he has the ability to qualify the car well up the grid, but needs to improve his racecraft, which may or may not come with time. He wasn't too stellar in the ARCA series (a midwest based series using older NASCAR Cup cars), which he should have won hands down.
Over at Penske Racing, Hornish struggled with a non-performing Dodge, as did his teammate and former Champ, Kurt Busch, and Daytona 500, winner Ryan Newman. The American and Penske are committed for the near future. He said ““I would say it’s a struggle but I remember when I first started racing I ran a dirt oval and won I think the third race out and then I won five of the next six.”
Marcus added “Hornish is difficult to judge, since the Penske NASCAR team has been uncompetitive all year, except Daytona, where they pulled off a 1-2 finish and Hornish was top 15 also. It's hard to understand that Penske is so competitive in Indy Car and Sports Cars, but so uncompetitive in NASCAR. Hornish has the talent to succeed in NASCAR, he has shown flashes of brilliance, but unless Penske gives him better technical support, he will not be able to showcase his talent.”
At present only Montoya and Hornish have firm contracts, again, because of the two-way loyalty between them and their car owners, Ganassi and Penske, respectively. It's unlikely that there will be any new Open Wheel drivers, (barring Danica Patrick if she wants to switch) jumping over to stock cars unless they bring sponsors, because it is, after all, all about the money.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Top Formula One Engineer signed by Michael Waltrip Racing
Whitmarsh, Hallam and Ron Dennis
catch(e) {}" href="http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/michael-waltrip.jpg">
Another big name in Formula One, even bigger than Juan Pablo Montoya, is jumping ship and will be coming to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series in 2009. While Steve Hallam is a name virtually unknown, in the United States, he’s considered the one of the leading engineers in that world-wide circuit and he’ll be joining Michael Waltrip Racing according to a highly-placed source at MWR who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Hallam, currently head of McLaren Mercedes Race Operations, engineered World Champions such as Brazil’s Ayrton Senna, Britain’s’ Nigel Mansell, and Mika Hakkinen of Finland. He leaves a huge operation with an annual racing budget, reportedly, in excess of $400 million the largest budget in the series for the two-car team.
Martin Whitmarsh, CEO of the UK-based McLaren, told reporters "Steve had been with us since 1990 and remains a hugely respected member of our team," Whitmarsh added, "I understand his desire to spread his wings, and I wish him well, but he will nonetheless be hugely missed." McLaren is one of the top team in Formula One.
Some ex-Formula One types have done well in NASCAR like Britain’s, Nick Hayes, who is the engine research and research director at Richard Childress Racing after being an engine designer for Cosworth for over a decade. Some of his expertise can be credited with helping Kevin Harvick win the 2007 Daytona 500.
Ken Howes, vice president of competition for Hendrick Motorsports, began his career in 1968 as a Formula One mechanic before being hired by HMS in 1985, and was Ken Schrader’s crew chief in 1992.
On the other hand Red Bull Racing tried a Formula One approach, in Sprint Cup in 2007, without much success. They hired NASCAR-regular Jay Frye in January as general manager and turned the team around.
Other teams have engineers who came from to NASCAR with a stop at IndyCar. The transition to the COT has made teams more desperate to gain an aerodynamic advantage on a car with fewer “gray areas.”
Hallam’s exact position is not defined as yet, according to the same source. Eric Warren will continue as vice president and technical director. An official announcement is expected by the end of the week.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Rings all around a NASCAR Championship
Above:Max Papis with Ken Howes,Hendrick Motor Sports vice president of competition.
Daytona Beach,FL
This is an amazing little story, about Championship rings, for a quiet day at DIS.
Before heading out to the NASCAR Media tour at Lowe’s I was talking with Max Papis, the Italian-born driver, who is another former open wheeler attempting to make the transition to NASCAR. In addition to his driving skills ranging from Formula One to a Le Mans challenging Corvette, he’s married to Tatiana Fittipaldi, the daughter of two-time Formula One champ and Indy 500 winner, Emerson Fittipaldi.
Papis, who can be emotional at times, was excited to tell me that he had been given a championship ring by Hendrick Motorsports for his contribution in testing the COT on road courses.
That made me very curious. It turns out that everyone, that’s 550 people (actually more) got a ring honoring Jimmie Johnson’s Sprint Cup (then called Nextel) title in 2007 in the Lowe’s Chevrolet.
Ken Howes, Hendrick Motorsports vice president of competition, explained, “typically every full- time employee here gets a championship ring. That’s something Rick steps ups and does, then add on anyone who has contributed to the that effort. Max is one of them. He did a lot of work testing especially on the road course many laps at VIR (Virginia International Raceway) and Kentucky.” Howes added that David Green, who did yeoman-like work on the COT on ovals, was also given one of those priceless rings.
Papis said “it is an honor to be able to be part of the HMS family and give my contribution testing on the COT.I have been extremely impressed by the attention to details and by the great atmosphere that is in the team.
Before Christmas I went by the shop, sat down with Ken Howes, and while in converstion he passed me an envelope. I opened it and inside was a letter from Mr Hendrick. It said that thanks to the effort I put in in 2007 he was going to gift me with a Championship ring.”
He said tears welled up in his eyes.
Papis is scheduled to drive the #09 car for Phoenix Racing in the Sprint Cup series this year on the road courses and the #64 car for Rusty Wallace, Inc. on three road course races in the Nationwide Series.
As they say in Italian “saluti” to two class acts.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Free speech? Well not exactly, just ask Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Daytona Beach,
Have the rules of conduct for Sprint Cup drivers changed, specifically, in post-race interview language?
Not according to Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
“No, I don’t believe them. I don’t think anybody does,” said the driver making his Sprint Cupt debut for Hendrick Motorsports this weekend.
Then he added, rhetorically, “are we supposed to walk the line, and see where we step over it, and get fined when we go too far?
Just a few weeks ago, when NASCAR officials admitted that drivers needed more leeway in on-track conduct and speech. There was the promise of a return to a more colorful NASCAR as part of that presentation. To most of us - on the media tour - that meant we were, again, to expect drivers really say what was on their minds and not worry about the consequences.
Flash back to Talladega, October 2004, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. uttered a forbidden curse word in the moment of celebrating his win there. NASCAR officials slapped him with a $10,000 fine and 25-point penalty dropping him out of first place in the points standings.
That points loss hurt much more than the dollars.
Since then he’s been a lot more circumspect in his language and has not run afoul of NASCAR officials nor language police.
At media day, going into the 50th running of the Daytona 500, Earnhardt said NASCAR’s policy was all smoke and mirrors, for now.
“I think honestly they’re playing to you guys and not talking the drivers . I think…they’re trying to appear looser when the message has not been relayed to the driver as to what’s been changed,” he said.
Then he looked some of us, straight in the eye, adding “it’s just a press release; we’re going to do this. That was a just a little card game between you, two and really has nothing to do with the drivers. I don’t feel like I’ve been holding back.
And there’s words I don’t use that I have used in the past that I shouldn’t use on National television, for me I get to be the same. I don’t feel like I’ve had to reserve myself too much."
Don't you wonder who, if anyone, is going to test that new line drawn in the sand?
Have the rules of conduct for Sprint Cup drivers changed, specifically, in post-race interview language?
Not according to Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
“No, I don’t believe them. I don’t think anybody does,” said the driver making his Sprint Cupt debut for Hendrick Motorsports this weekend.
Then he added, rhetorically, “are we supposed to walk the line, and see where we step over it, and get fined when we go too far?
Just a few weeks ago, when NASCAR officials admitted that drivers needed more leeway in on-track conduct and speech. There was the promise of a return to a more colorful NASCAR as part of that presentation. To most of us - on the media tour - that meant we were, again, to expect drivers really say what was on their minds and not worry about the consequences.
Flash back to Talladega, October 2004, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. uttered a forbidden curse word in the moment of celebrating his win there. NASCAR officials slapped him with a $10,000 fine and 25-point penalty dropping him out of first place in the points standings.
That points loss hurt much more than the dollars.
Since then he’s been a lot more circumspect in his language and has not run afoul of NASCAR officials nor language police.
At media day, going into the 50th running of the Daytona 500, Earnhardt said NASCAR’s policy was all smoke and mirrors, for now.
“I think honestly they’re playing to you guys and not talking the drivers . I think…they’re trying to appear looser when the message has not been relayed to the driver as to what’s been changed,” he said.
Then he looked some of us, straight in the eye, adding “it’s just a press release; we’re going to do this. That was a just a little card game between you, two and really has nothing to do with the drivers. I don’t feel like I’ve been holding back.
And there’s words I don’t use that I have used in the past that I shouldn’t use on National television, for me I get to be the same. I don’t feel like I’ve had to reserve myself too much."
Don't you wonder who, if anyone, is going to test that new line drawn in the sand?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Ray Evernham is not ready to quit NASCAR
Ray Evernham said that rumors of his retirement from NASCAR were greatly exaggerated.
After selling part of his business to the Gillett group (GEM) Evernham, Jeff Gordon’s former crew chief who started his own team full-time with Dodge in 2001, admitted that racing is not fun any longer in an interview during the Sprint NASCAR Media Tour in Concord.
“Honestly, no, I wasn’t having fun,” he said, adding “it wasn’t just because of the (team’s poor) performance. There was a lot going on, over the last few years, that took the fun out of it for me because I love racing. Some of the fun had gone away, but, there’s a lot of great people in the sport and I want to spend time with those people and maybe being away from the negative people will help a little bit.”
Remaining in NASCAR’s top series was a battle he explained “it was a constant fight to keep people, to keep sponsors, to keep relationships in a in a highly competitive world not all things don’t always go well.
Being in the constant limelight, constant media where you can not live a normal life; it wears on you,” he said referring to press coverage of his personal life. “The competition on the track is the easy part,” he said with a smile, but weary look in his eyes.
Evernham said that since it took three people to take over his previous job, he was working too hard to accomplish his goals. For now he’ll remain an “owner” but have the freedom to chose what role he’ll continue with at Gillett Evernham Motorsports.
Back to the basics, but when and how?
It did not come as a shock that there were no earthshaking announcements coming out from NASCAR officials yesterday, but what was shocking is that it took so long for series’ leaders to admit they’ve dropped the ball and overlooked the fans who brought the stock car circuit to its’ preeminent position in auto racing in the United States.
While the series is not in crisis, declining attendance and lower television ratings are good indicators that it’s time to change stock car racing’s main focus.
For one moment consider that any business, because NASCAR can call itself a sport, but it is a business, must continue to grow to continue to exist. On the other hand, those at the helm lost sight of a simple business rule: It’s more expensive to get new customers than keep existing ones. And, in losing existing customers the organization also overlooked the grassroot fans.
Prime time Saturday night Cup racing is a stunning sight on television, but, it puts a crimp on attendance at the short tracks that are the spawning grounds of young talent. In Concord we were told that the local promoters need to put up a big screen of the Sprint Cup event while the locals are racing. That sounds like a mixed message if there ever was one.
Hiring big, and not-so-big, open wheel names adds a touch of glamour to the series but, contradicts the idea of a farm system. Saturday Nationwide races, with big name Cup drivers, may help the bottom line of some race tracks, yet it hinders developmental teams and upcoming drivers.
The series can not have it both ways, if it is truly going back to basics first it must take the development, short track, Nationwide and Truck series more seriously and not look for short- term fixes.
If NASCAR is truly going back to basics it will take more than lip service to make things better. Too much is at stake to continue chasing the glitter instead of the gold.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
