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Golfing is Dangerous (And Other Idling Thoughts from the Weekend)
3/31/08: SOZ Studios, MI - By Dennis Michelsen "DMIC" (RaceTalkRadio.com)
Poor Elliott Sadler I feel his pain! Dealing with a back injury is never fun. But dealing with the embarrassment of doing something silly to throw out your back is even sillier! How do I know something silly was going on? On Friday evening on RaceTalkRadio we featured selected audio from some of the Friday press conferences from Martinsville. Mark McCardle from Gillette Evernham Motorsports was very evasive on what happened to Sadler's back and when it happened. Elliott was quick to say it was a workout injury that got worse after golfing. When will these racecar drivers learn? Jimmie Johnson broke his wrist playing golf and now Elliott Sadler has thrown out his back! Golfing is a dangerous sport so if these guys need a hobby they better take up a safer one…like racing!
Part Gate Gets Ramped Up
NASCAR should not tolerate theft at the races and I am disgusted that they are saying this whole Michael Waltrip Racing steals a Roush-Fenway part should be settled between the teams. No I do not think that MWR should get a fine or points penalty for their actions. Yes I do think the team member that took the part should be turned in and banned from having a hard card at the track for a long, long time! I hear what you are thinking, "How can you be sure who the culprit was in this theft?" When the part is taken and sand blasted this part has been looked at to see if it can be duplicated. A manufacturer was even called according to Jack Roush to see if the parts needed to attach this to a racecar could be produced. This was far more than just wandering by and picking up the wrong part. Someone at MWR did this on purpose and got caught! They know who the culprit is and that person should be tuned into NASCAR and banned from the garage area immediately!
Big Week on RaceTalkRadio.com
NASCAR Nationwide Series
Monday: NASCAR driver Brad Coleman on "Doin' Donuts"
Future Stars
Tuesday: ARCA Drivers Patrick Sheltra and Gabi DiCarlo
NASCAR Debate
Wednesday: NASCAR news, views, and nonsense on "Quick Change"
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series News
Thursday: Lori Munro takes you for a ride on "Cargo Light Review"
NASCAR Drivers
Friday: Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards Podcasts
Sunday: LIVE post race audio from Texas Motor Speedway and more!
Martinsville Tradition
If we ever lose one of the two races from Martinsville in the name of progress we will be ripped off as race fans! The weather was awful, which cut into the usual strong walkup crowd at NASCAR's oldest and greatest track. Empty seats always gets the debate going that NASCAR needs to cut down on the number of races in their old birthplace of the Southeastern USA. But the reality is that hockey has failed to spread in most hot weather cities down south and NASCAR racing also will never be the most popular sport in the Northeast. But it IS still the king of sports in the Southeast. A trip to Martinsville is a trip back in time to NASCAR the way it used to be back in the day. This track is the living history of stockcar racing and needs two races to stay here every season!
Rambunctious Racer
Those same attributes that make Kyle Busch one of the most exciting drivers in NASCAR will also be the things that lead to Kyle making the occasional mistake as he did in the closing laps of the Kroger 250 on Saturday. Johnny Benson was the victim and if this comes back to cost him the championship by a few points Kyle will be off his Christmas card list! Maybe people will be blasting Kyle big time for his mistake and they probably should, but I would rather have 20 more drivers that won't settle for second place rather than 1 less Kyle Busch.
What Makes a Memorable Debut?
NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt finished 22nd in his NASCAR debut in a Dodge…a race won by Richard Petty. Old King Richard's debut in 1958 resulted in a 17th place finish in his Oldsmobile. Four-time champion Jeff Gordon crashed in his debut back in 1990 in a Pontiac. (Five points is you know which restaurant chain was on the car that day!) This weekend at Martinsville Speedway we saw Chrissy Wallace make her NASCAR debut. While I am NOT suggesting she will grow up to be a four or seven time Cup champion, I do think we will look back at her 18th place finish someday when we are celebrating her success in NASCAR and remembering that first race. Chrissy needed the lucky dog pass to get back on the lead lap but showed she belonged at this level! She ran a smart race all day and brought the truck home in one piece with a top 20 finish. That makes her debut a memorable one over the weekend.
More Than Just NASCAR
The scheduling could not have been better for the racing junky over the weekend! The NASCAR races were during the day and the other racing in the evening. Not only did we get treated to the usual great racing from Martinsville us racing junkies also got Rolex Series racing and the IRL opener! SPEED TV's coverage of the Rolex Series is fantastic. I am still learning the basics in this type of racing but the more I see the more I like! It is also obvious why so many great racers in this discipline such as Michael McDowell and Colin Braun have adjusted so easily to stockcar racing. Half of the track on many of the circuits they race on are the ovals from the NASCAR tracks. Mastering the road course section of slow flat turns and the high speed of the banked oval part of the course is a challenge that helps these drivers adjust to oval racing! I am quickly becoming a fan!
IRL has Issues
Tuning into the first race of the Indy season it is obvious the merger between CART and IRL will have some growing pains. Only twenty-five cars showed up and many of those car/driver combos were not ready for prime time on an oval! If the IRL officials had black-flagged these slow pokes, as they should have, they would have ended up with just 10-15 cars by the halfway point. The outcome of the race was affected due to drivers that were not ready for the challenges of high-speed oval racing with Tony Kanaan a victim in the closing laps. In this year of the bad economy this could be a rough year for the IRL.
Getting Black Flagged Online
Have you heard that Jeff Gordon is growing back a mustache to turn around his early season woes? Did you hear about the letter that was sent to Bobby Labonte by the Martinsville Victory lane? Have you heard the news that DW lost his bet and is now Uncle to a monkey? If you can't find those stories on your usual NASCAR site that is understandable because all those stories appeared on the most UNUSUAL of NASCAR sites in the past week! The good folks at www.blackflaggedonline.com will join us Monday night on "Doin' Donuts" to discuss the latest NASCAR nonsense!
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