Well she definitely got a lot of attention that is for damned sure!  After the past couple weeks at Daytona I’d say that its now just a matter of time before the girl wonder makes a permanent move from Indy Car to NASCAR.  Obviously she’s not ready to run a full cup schedule tomorrow and obviously it isn’t a given that she’ll do well.  What is a given is that she can bring a whole new group of fans to the sport, more sponsors, etc, etc.  And in through out all that she can make a boat load of dough!

All that aside Danica is a racer.  I don’t think she has much interest in being a showpiece and not a contender.  I also think she has unfinished business in IndyCar that she wants to take care of before going anywhere.  Winning at Motegi last year is great and all but if she wants to win in NASCAR first she must win in Indy Car on a more regular basis.  As Franchitti proved last year one does not easily beget the other.  Montoya is proof positive that switching between disciplines with success is absolutely possible but you have to be a good driver to do so.  She is a good driver but she’s not JPM.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no NASCAR honk.  When I say it’s hard to switch racing disciplines  I mean that in all directions.  I don’t think Jimmie Johnson could switch to Indy Cars and be competitive tomorrow.  It’s just different.  DW was quoted during the elongated coverage of the Daytona 500 as saying that (and I summarize) “racing here will help her when she goes back to Indy Cars.  Look what happened to Dario Franchitti… He went back and he won the championship.”  Now I don’t think for a minute that Dario won the Indy Car championship last year because of his short stint in NASCAR.  He was going to win that anyway.  But does it teach some things to race different types of cars?  I’m sure it does.

Either way you look at it this foray into NASCAR will be interesting to watch.  Fans will watch, nay-sayers will watch, lots of people will watch.  We’ll see what she can pull off.

So the speculation of will she or won’t she is over.  Now we can move onto will she succeed or won’t she.  Although the media outlets have been reporting it for days, it is finally official.  That is if you can believe her own words from her twitter, “I will see you all in indycar and nascar!!!! #7 go daddy car with jr motorsports.”  Talk about a power couple, Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr.  As far as marketing power goes anyhow; maybe not so much for on track results though.

As afan of motorsports that transcend NASCAR, I wish she didn’t have to make this move.  However, for the Danica brand, she probably had to.  You have to make hay while the sun shines they say, and in the current state of American motorsports, the sun shines brightest in NASCAR.  There is definitely a risk involved.  She needs to produce at least mediocre results quickly and there is a laundry list of very accomplished open wheel drivers who have not been able to make the transition.

ESPN is reporting that Danica Patrick is nearing the completion of a deal to drive a partial schedule for JR Motorsports in the Nationwide series next year.  According to their sources she’ll be running 12-13 Nationwide races for the team in 2010 and may start as early as the ARCA race during Daytona Speedweeks.

Photo Credit: Phot Mojo

This has been talked about for some time and most have been aware that some sort of talks were going on.  Prior to her resigning with AGR there was wild speculation that she was looking to move to NASCAR full time.  I, much like others, figured this was just a stunt to get some attention and probably pump up her power at the AGR bargaining table.  But I totally missed the Go Daddy tie in with JR Motorsports.  This sponsor could only gain by moving one of their Go Daddy Girls into a more visible series.  Keselowski’s a great driver and all but whose a better fit for the Go Daddy car than Danica?

But…  I think this sucks.  I like Dale Jr, I like JR Motorsports, and I’m down with Danica.  I just don’t think this is the right move for her.  Dipping your toe in the waters of NASCAR isn’t really going to get you anywhere.  We’ve seen this with Paul Tracy in the past. He made some runs in the NASCAR feeder series and it didn’t get him anywhere.  Danica will need a full time ride most likely in ARCA to be brutally honest to have any chance at making it to a competitive position in Cup.  Scott Speed did that and he’s still not competitive (my money says he will be someday though).

I’ll be interested to see how this all pans out.  She’ll probably have the biggest merchandise trailer of any of the part timers that aren’t BushWhackers. What do you call them now that it’s the Nationwide Series?  NationWhackers?

You can check out the full story from ESPN here: 

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/news/story?id=4622687

I’m callin’ it TacoGate!

For those of you that live under a rock I’ll cover the basics of this story first.  During last Saturday’s ESPN coverage of the Ohio State – Minnesota game Chris Spielman asked Bob Griese “where Montoya was?” a reference to his position in The Chase.  Griese doing his best impersonation of a completely uninformed xenophobe responded, “He’s out having a taco.”

OK, now that we’re all caught up we can move on to all the reasons this incident and the coverage of it piss me off.  After that we’ll get to the part that reaffirms why Juan Pablo is so friggin’ awesome in my book.

So this isn’t the first time a sportscaster has said something stupid, it definitely won’t be the last.  It should also be noted that this probably isn’t the worse offense ever committed by someone in this position.  I think the worst was probably Jimmy The Greek, but that’s just my opinion.  Immediately after the broadcast where Griese committed the offense he issued and apology.  I think he’s issued a bunch more since.  Who hasn’t said something completely stupid before?  We all have.  Who hasn’t offended someone with said stupid remark?  Yep, same group.  I think I  may have more than most.  (Don’t think so?  Keep reading dumb ass!)  The problem with this is that it had obvious ethnic overtones and what made it even more worse was that the ethnic overtones were completely wrong.

That’s what makes the whole thing so ridiculously drop on the flow, get a cramp in your gut, piss your pants funny.  It’s like Griese told a Jewish joke with a Polish Joke punch line.  It’s too bad that the rest of America seems to be equally uninformed because they all quickly picked up on it as offensive.

I guess I don’t have much more to say about this one.  Just same random angry ramblings.  I’ll close with two points.

Come on America, we can do better than this.  Our time on the top of the heap is limited so we’d better get off our asses and not only drop our prejudices about other cultures but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to learn a thing or two about them.  For Christ’s sake there is a guy from Colombia gunning for the 2009 Sprint Cup Championship, if that doesn’t tell you things are changing I don’t know what will.

And finally, throw up some devil horns for JPM.  When asked for a comment on the matter earlier in the week JPM simply stated that he had no comment and that, “I don’t even know who he is” of Griese.  Bad ass!  Add to that the tweet that he sent out around lunch time today, “Guess what I’m having for lunch…..TACOS!!!!!….and I’m serious about it!!!!”

Touche JPM, Touche!

Talladega, AL 4-08 Talladega Race Photo Credit: pamarama73

AJ Allmendinger was arrested for drunk driving early Thursday morning in Mooresville, North Carolina according to NC Police.  Allmendinger is the current driver of the number 44 for Richard Petty Motorsports in NASCAR Sprint Cup.  He is(was?) slated to move to the storied 43 car in 2010 with Best Buy sponsorship.  The RPM team had no comment at the time, and AJ basically said he hopes some good can come from the situation and people learn from his mistake.

Everyone knows that drinking and driving is bad.  Why anyone with the means to easily avoid this sort of situation would take the chance blows my mind.  It will be interesting to see if there are any NASCAR penalties forthcoming.

Penske Racing DHL RS Spyder 2007 ALMS Photo Credit: kptyson

Autoweek is reporting that Penske racing will campaign three Indycar entries, two NASCAR Nationwide series cars, and three Sprint Cup cars in 2010. Noticeably absent from that list is any sports car series entrants. Drivers Sam Hornish Jr. and Kurt Busch will return, with the addition of Brad Keselowski for Cup. Justin Allgaier will be joined by Keselowski for Nationwide. The Indycar drivers will be Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves, and full time next year, Will Power.

It was enjoyable to see Penske campaigning sports cars the last few years under the Porsche banner. The successful organization brings credibility to any series they run. Plus Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas are top notch sports car racers and deserve to be in elite cars. Surely they will land somewhere if The Captain can’t put something together last minute to keep them in the stable. Hopefully Penske will be back in road racing in the near future.

Could he go to F1? Should he go? Photo Credit: Big Ed's Photos

According to the article USF1 has had conversations with Kyle’s business people and Kyle has publicly said he would consider such a move, if only for a few years.  His contract with Gibbs goes through next year so nothing would happen prior to 2011.

I don’t know what to think about all this.  Bush is a good driver, you can’t deny that no matter how much we’d all like to.  His persona leaves a great deal to be desired but he’s made a great villain for NASCAR.  That in itself makes him an interesting choice for F1 where robot drivers reign supreme.  They thought JPM was outspoken and reckless just wait till they get a load of Rowdy!  An American in F1 would be great, a loud one would be good too, but it probably wouldn’t help our national image of the Ugly American.

Bush Lover!!!! Photo Credit: ph-stop

I watch both NASCAR and F1 so either way he’ll be popping up on my tube.  We’ll see how this one shakes out.

See the full article here:  http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/formula1/2009-10-21-us-f1-wants-kyle-busch_N.htm

Photo Credit: Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway

NASCAR got it right yesterday when they announced their inaugural class of five inductees.  They were (if by chance you haven’t heard) Bill France, Bill France Jr., Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, and Junior Johnson.  There are not five other people that have had as large an affect on NASCAR.  There are arguably better drivers; barely arguable.  I hear a lot of people complaining David Pearson was left out.  Well if he isn’t the sixth inductee, and number one on next year’s list, then they have a valid complaint.  But the cut off line was five, and these five have birthed, grown, and transcended the series.  Honestly it was too easy for NASCAR this year.  Subsequent years will display whether NASCAR turns the hall of fame in to a true tribute to the great, or if they go the football route and if you were pretty good and popular you get in.

Apparently a bad gauge was to blame for Reutimann's shock problem. Phot Credit: Wigstruck

After a stellar qualifying run which landed David Reutimann in 2nd for this weekend’s Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway NASCAR tech deamed his shocks illegel and confiscated them.  After review they stated that the gas level in the rear shocks was too  high.

Michael Waltrip stated Saturday on twitter that MWR had a new gauge and they didn’t calibrate it with NASCAR’s.  After the shock’s were confiscated they checked their gauge vs. NASCAR’s and they were out of sync.  Waltrip claimed responsibility for the mishap stating that it was, “our bad”.

Denny Hamlin qualified for pole and Greg Biffle is moved up to 2nd taking Reutimann’s spot.  Jimmie Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Martin Truex Jr. round out the top 5 qualifiers for tomorrow’s race. 

The Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway can be seen Sunday @ 2:30 on ABC.

It might be a hassle some times but memories are made at the track. Photo Credit: TequilaMike

I was presented with a dilemma recently.  I received my annual renewal for my Nationwide and Sprint Cup tickets for the August Michigan race.  My family has had four tickets together for both races and we have attended for at least 10 years now.  As time goes by interest wanes with all parties involved; everybody seems so busy these days.  Michigan isn’t exactly an excitement track like Bristol either.  Plus it really is a chore to go to a NASCAR race.  All the traffic, the people, the long walks, and 90+ degree humid Michigan summer day, just doesn’t appeal anymore.  The tickets are getting ridiculously priced too.  So we are reluctantly going to let them go.  Nationwide in the shadow of the pressbox, and turn 1 grandstand aisle seats for Sprint Cup.  Even selling our extra tickets if someone doesn’t want to go hasn’t been possible for the last couple years given my region’s economy.  It just wasn’t worth it.  Or is it? 

Why do we go to races?  It’s easier, cheaper, and you seemingly get to see more up close action with today’s television coverage.  I can even listen to Dale Jr.’s radio through the computer at home better than I can on my old Radio Shack scanner in the stands.   Why do we go?  Yeah, we aren’t down on the track like we all wish we were.  But we have skin in the game when we are at the track.  Well at least sunburnt skin, and lots of sweat.  We are invested in the sport we love.  We are connected to the point we think we are participants.  You don’t get that through the TV.  Not even in hi-def.  You can’t smell or hear the cars. 

Seriously! How awesome is this shot! We took this picture! Photo Credit: Angry Race Fan

I go to races so that when I’m BSing with my buddies, I can say, “yeah, but I was in Cleveland when Danica and AJ were running Barber Dodge cars.”  Some of the races you remember clear as day.  Some are forgettable, either because they are boring (MIS stock car), or because you drank so many oil cans of Fosters at an F1 race at Indy and you don’t even remember getting home six hours away (I wasn’t driving).  It is the most fun when you can stay on site for the weekend.  Jimmy Vasser played football with his buddies next to our camp site at Road America.  Paul Newman practically drove through said campsite on his scooter staring at the sky. 

I feel as though I was truly a part of the IRL/CART split. I sat in the stands at the US500; people with portable black and white TVs sitting behind us were watching Indy and giving us updates.  I watched a buddy almost get killed by Chip Ganassi driving like an idiot on his scooter, or same friend almost run down by AJ Foyt on a golf cart.  Since we don’t have the talent to drive side by side with Juan Pablo, and we can’t call a race like Tim Cindric; we accept our role as fans.  As a race fan, you truly need to put your butt in the seat at a racetrack as often as you can.  That is where you truly connect with the sport.  It also makes watching those races on TV more enjoyable.  You subconsciously recall it all, and you truly know what it would be like if you were there. 

OK, so I’ve waxed ecstatic and gotten a little too romantic.  You still need to vote with your wallet first and foremost.    Babies still need shoes, and you need to take your lady or man out for dinner.  Those dance class and gymnastics for the kids don’t pay for themselves.  Whenever you can pull it off though; take in a race.  It’s worth it. 

Now I hope I didn’t already recycle that ticket renewal slip.