I wake up late and happily see race coverage begins in 30 minutes. I didn’t miss anything! Hooray! Then the coverage comes on and its the loser crew from TNT in the booth – Aimless Adam Alexander, Larry McNuggets and Petty Kyle. Mute volume, head for the gym.
I so hope when NBC hires they will avoid hiring Adam Alexander, Brad Daugherty, Larry Mc, Petty Kyle, Michael Waltrip, Danielle Hot-To-Trotta, Krista Voda, Lindsay Csarniack, or any of the other aggravations that make televised racing difficult to watch. I know some of those are FOX employees. I’m just hoping none of them use this as an opportunity to get a promotion by getting a higher profile position with NBC.
I’ve not blogged the past couple weeks (Chicagoland and Loudon). The races were boring overall. There was news; not just news a scandal.
Clint Bowyer intentionally spun to bring out a caution in an attempt to keep Newman from winning at Richmond. It worked. Further back in the field Ty Norris told Brian Vickers to pit so Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. could get a couple of positions to put them in good stead for the Chase. David Gilliland was told by his spotter, who said he had a request from ‘the committee’ to let Logano have his spot to assure his spot in the Chase. After all of the manipulation Martin Truex Jr. was in the Chase as was Joey Logano. For some reason the ABC announce team – minus Dale Jarrett who’s attention was on another matter – we all talking about Clint’s intentional spin, and the odd radio chatter just beforehand which appeared to signal the spin. DJ was distracted by the fact Carl Edwards in second beat leader Paul Menard to the Start-Finish line. NASCAR chose not to call Carl on it and he went on to win the race. Everybody was awaiting NASCAR’s response to Saturday night’s incidents. On Monday night NASCAR released a statement and Mike Helton and Robin Pemberton held a press-conference with its reaction. Initially Michael Waltrip Racing was fined $300,000, Ty Norris, general manager of MWR, was suspended indefinitely, all three crew-chiefs were put on probation through the end of the year and each team was penalized 50 pre-Chase points. So that points penalty took Martin out of the Chase, but did nothing to Clint. Mike Helton said the penalty was more a result of listening to Ty Norris tell Vickers on the radio to pit to give them the spots than from the odd radio chatter and resulting actions of Clint Bowyer. Overall that penalty left everyone unsatisfied. Bowyer’s actions changed the race and started everything, but, effectively, he wasn’t really penalized. The 50 point penalty just before the reset made no difference with him. Bowyer spent his time denying spinning intentionally. Dale Jr was driving behind him and recognised the behaviour immediately as an intentional spin. Michael did an interview saying if he were standing next to Ty, or if he were in Ty’s shoes he would’ve done the same thing. He apologized for NASCAR penalizing them, but he has not yet admitted any wrongdoing. He specifically apologizes for doing something that NASCAR considers wrong, but he and Clint admit no wrongdoing. He acknowledges that he can’t deny the actions, because NASCAR had the audio of the incident. Throughout the week people were up-in-arms. Martin Truex was out of the Chase. No one was happy about that. Ryan Newman was added. Most people thought that was fair. But what about Jeff Gordon they asked. He was affected by Clint’s actions and, most likely, lost his spot in the Chase. On Friday Mike Helton and Brian France held a press conference and announced they were going to add a 13th spot to the 2013 Chase for Jeff Gordon, because they thought he had been unfairly affected by the actions of MWR. They also made it clear this would be the end of the issue – other than they would hold a meeting with all driver, owners, and crew-chiefs the following day before the race. During that meeting they modified the restart rule so the second place guy could beat the leader to the Start-Finish line going forward, among other things. People were still outraged the Joey Logano and Clint Bowyer were still in the Chase. Most people believe they should both lose their Chase positions, just as Truex did, due to the manipulation.
I believe Clint Bowyer should be ineligible for the Championship this year. If he were to win I would seriously consider continuing my support of NASCAR. I love NASCAR, but this situation stinks and to have another inappropriate champion would sully things for me. I am indecisive about Joey Logano. I believe his performance warrants his position in the Chase, but I would’ve accepted it had he not made the Chase. I am no longer a MWR fan. Mikey’s on-air appearances and a few other incidents had already caused me to no longer be a Michael Waltrip fan. But his hollow apologies, whining about people on Twitter being mean to him, admission that he would’ve done the same thing, and lies in general have turned me off totally. I am still a Martin Truex Jr fan. He did nothing wrong, other than signing with Michael Waltrip Racing, but he paid a heavy price. The only possible positive for this is that Michael Waltrip has said he will allow Martin to go to another team (if sponsorship isn’t found) since NAPA decided to not return to MWR as a result of all of this, leaving Martin without a sponsor.
The entire situation was due to NASCAR allowing behaviours to get out of hand. Ty Norris didn’t think to not say that on the radio, because, according to Michael Waltrip, it happens all the time, which would make it no big deal. Neither of them seem to understand the notion of fair play. The same holds true of the restart thing. Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards have been playing with restarts – manipulating restarts for years. A couple of times this season Bradley K was actually warned about his usual restart tricks. If NASCAR had cracked down, consistently, on this behaviour, instead of randomly applying the rule (like they did to Jimmie Johnson when JPM obviously had trouble restarting), or changed the rule early on they could’ve avoided any mention of the rule at Richmond. The same holds true with the ‘giving positions’ thing. I think most people know that happens occasionally. I think most fans realize that teammates will let teammates lead a lap for a point. Now, of course, that’s not the same as determining who gets into the Chase by asking other teams to let you pass. It’s kind of the way most police officers will stop people exceeding the speed limit on the interstate by more than 10mph. Most drivers know that to be true, but understand, the law states you drive the speed limit and are breaking the law when you exceed the speed limit and are therefore subject to punishment. Just because it is the usual operating procedure, that doesn’t stop it from being wrong. Giving up positions is wrong, but under non-critical circumstances it is acceptable behaviour. When entry into the Chase is on the line, the circumstances are critical and giving up position is not acceptable.
So, I’m watching the Dover NNS race. Dale Jarrett described driving the race as making laps and that seems to be what the drivers are doing – making laps. It doesn’t feel much like a race at the point. That’s been the problem with all of the recent races to me. The drivers leading the points are being so careful to avoid trouble they’re just making laps. The Sprint Cup guys come to the races and win them all, pretty much. Watching Joey Logano or Kyle Busch or Kevin Harvick win a Nationwide series race? Been there, done that, boring.
A guy on the radio suggested doing the NNS points a bit differently – basically awarded the points to the NNS championship contenders instead of the Sprint Cup guys. Give the Cup guys the trophy and give the NNS guys the points. I rather like that idea – thought of it myself a while back – but recognized the drawback. If an NNS guy finishes second and the next NNS guy finishes 22 – giving them 1st place and 2nd place points isn’t really fair since the guy finishing 22nd gets a lot more points than warranted. The wobbleheads on the radio (the morning show guys) were saying it was unfair because it would be a problem for the owner’s championship points. I think those are completely separate things anyway. I believe the owners should designate a car (or two) to accumulate championship points at the beginning of the year anyway. This deal of Roger Penske adding a car to get additional owner’s points is for the birds. That’s one way money is buying a championship. I think money buying a championship is wrong for Austin Dillon and for Roger Penske. It isn’t fair to the other teams who are racing to their potential and can’t afford to buy everything Roger Penske can. Just like they try to make a level playing field in other ways they need to also do so with the owner’s championship. So I think the owners should designate two cars to accumulate points at the start of the season and no matter how many other cars they field, those are the only two that will earn points for the owner’s championship.
Fuel mileage races. BOOOOOOOOOOOO. Mundo boring! Joey Logano wins. KyBu’s pit strategy didn’t work for him. Joey now owns the record for the most consecutive wins at Dover in any series.
Other news over the past couple weeks?
- Newman is going to RCR.
- NAPA apparently decided it had had enough of Michael Waltrip Racing.
- JPM has a job next year – in Indy car.
Jimmie Johnson wins a record breaking 8th Dover Sprint Cup Race! He had been tied with Bobby Allison and Richard Petty with seven wins. Dale Jr. finished second and Jeff Gordon finished fourth. Kasey finished 13th.
In NASCAR news this week:
- Hendrick will have a new sponsor next year. Valvoline has signed up to partner with Hendrick Motorsports for a multi-year agreement.
- Brian Scott apparently knows where the bodies are buried. He is going to wreck drive a Cup car in the upcoming Charlotte race.
- Quicken Loans is enjoying its relationship with Ryan Newman apparently. They’re moving to RCR with him next year.
- Preseason Thunder will be expanded next year. Both Nationwide and Truck series vehicles will participate.
- 5 Hour Energy doesn’t appear to care if their driver cheats or manipulates races or the Chase since they are staying with MWR and Clint Bowyer. Not too surprising under the circumstances.
- Kurt Busch will get new pit crew members. Kurt has complained throughout the season about the spots lost on pit road. He often regains them on the track, but he recognises the cost.
- Finally! ESPN has seen the light. Alan Bestwick will be the Nationwide series announcer for the rest of the season since Marty Reid is no longer with the network.