I'm a Little Grumpy This Morning......

One of the great things about this blog format is that you can scan through the archives to determine if I have stayed consistent or not when it comes to an opinion on a certain subject. Therefore, if you look back to July (Daytona) and April (Talladega) you will see that I have not wavered in how I look at this whole “restrictor plate” scenario. Of course I am thrilled that Ryan Newman emerged unhurt from his wild ride and after going through something like that I would expect him to say some pretty bold things, which is of course what he did. But I still want to know from him, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and every other driver that rips NASCAR after a late lap melee just what it is that they want NASCAR to do about it???? Seems to me that it is pretty easy to stand there and complain about it, but I still haven’t heard any concrete solutions being offered up by our brave heroes.

The key word in the last sentence of the previous paragraph is that despite being involved in a wild wreck they are still able to “stand” there afterwards. So is their solution to take the restrictor plate off of the cars and let them go 220 or 230 miles per hour so that they can “drive away from each other”? Um, do you remember why we went to restrictor plates in the first place? It was back in 1987 when Bobby Allison had a right rear tire blow out and at 215 mph his car started to slide and then lifted upward nearly clearing the catch fence on the front straightaway at Talladega. Do our drivers of today think that there will not be wrecks without the restrictor plates? Do they feel that they will stop bumping and blocking each other in the final laps of a race if they are running 225 instead of 190? How much worse would have Ryan Newman’s crash been if he were doing 230 mph down the Talladega backstretch instead of 195 mph? Exponentially worse! How much higher would have Carl Edwards’ car flew coming through the tri-oval in April at 225 mph? I shudder to think! And you’ll recall that in that accident it wasn’t because there were thirty cars running four-wide and somebody bobbled, there were only four cars running together in two drafts of two and it was because the leader tried to throw a block coming to the checkered flag that caused that wild accident. I’ve got news for you boys, without the plates you are still going to have guys drafting off of each other and running in packs of two, three, four, or more at Daytona and Talladega so if you try to throw a block, or if somebody miscalculates a move by an inch or two you are still going to have a wreck and, at thirty miles per hour faster, it’s going to hurt one hell of a lot more! Or worse…..

So what did we get yesterday? Mike Helton warns the drivers about bump-drafting and pushing pre-race so for 170 laps we get a three-wide parade with no issues, but when that checkered flag comes into sight, something happens to these drivers of today. And I only use that phrase “drivers of today” because of Ryan Newman’s reference to the greats of the past and how they respected each other. I’m still waiting for a driver to make the observation during a post-race-post-crash interview that “you know, we are all able to put on quite a show and respect each other with some give and take for the first 480 miles, but then in those last 20 we kind of forget how to play nice.” So if NASCAR decides against taking the restrictor plates off the car, what can they do? Maybe they could mandate that all car owners inform their drivers that the cost of replacing their wrecked car will come out of their own paycheck. Sure seems like the drivers of the past respected each other more and perhaps it was because the financial hit of not putting a racecar back on the trailer in one piece after a race was incredibly more substantial than it is today. Sure, the cars of today cost more, but the car itself is a far lesser proportion of the team’s overall budget than it was twenty or thirty years ago. Maybe they can pull 4.3 million dollars out of the purse and state that the only way that it goes back in is if the race runs the last ten laps under green and then, if successful, each of the 43 positions will collect a $100,000 bonus.

Do you get where I am coming from? No matter what rules package, or lack thereof that NASCAR comes up with for Talladega or Daytona, due to the nature of the tracks and of the science of drafting you are still going to have drivers racing each other at a high rate of speed inches apart from each other and the only thing that can be done to minimize or eliminate the crashes is to change the mindset of the drivers. You do not need to make that wild move on the final lap to move from seventeenth to fifteenth and pick up those extra six points. And it is better to hold your line and finish second with a car that you can drive onto the transporter rather than to throw a block and nearly fly threw a catch fence so that your crew has to dismantle what is left of your race car just to get it onto the transporter in multiple pieces. Heck, we even have these same late lap issues at all of the other tracks on the schedule and that is a big reason why my interest in NASCAR Cup racing has faded over the past several years.

So again, my follow up question to Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin after the race yesterday is “it is obvious that you want something to change with NASCAR in regard to Daytona and Talladega, what do you suggest that change should be?” A part of me wonders if, deep down, their true honest answer to that would be that we should stop racing at both facilities.

Next subject. A couple of AWP’s are accusing Todd Staley of being a “greedy” promoter because he is still trying to get in night number two of the Annual Fall Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Heavy rains from last Thursday made the facility too wet to run this past Saturday night so it is now rescheduled for Sunday afternoon November 8th. Greedy for trying to run the second day of a show that he has already collected entry fees for? Wow, a promoter just can’t please anybody these days when it comes to making a decision on how to handle a situation that the WEATHER caused. In my opinion every promoter should be “greedy”, after all why be in this line of business if you are not going to make some money at it! Here’s hoping that there is at least one “greedy” promoter out there for every race track that still exists here in the upper Midwest, somebody “greedy” enough that will go to the extreme effort and costs required to prepare the facility and then risk that elements beyond his control may force his or her bank balance to take a negative hit as a “reward” for those efforts. Oh yes, and then be called about every name in the book on a public forum by somebody so wise that they are not willing to hang their name to their all-knowing comments. Because if there isn’t enough greedy people to go around then there are going to be more tracks sitting idol in 2010 than what we ended up with in 2009 and that would be a shame. Look out AWP’s, there are already a couple of promoters who have released their 2010 schedule where they are going to charge you money for a pit pass or make you buy a ticket in order for them to put on a whole list of races, those greedy bastards!!!

One thing that I know for sure is that a promoter never comes out ahead when he or she is forced to run an event on a date other than when it was originally scheduled. I believe that this was the third time that we have run Shiverfest on a Sunday after not being able to go on the original Saturday date and each and every time we have seen our car counts drop and our grandstand be less than half of what our averages have been on the Saturday shows. This isn’t even a “high dollar” show, but the result of running it on a Sunday has once again proven that it is a loser on a “re-scheduled date” and the last thing that a promoter wants is to end the year on a sour note. That is why we will likely not have a “rain date” for the event going forward, if it is unable to be run on the originally scheduled date then it will just be cancelled and we’ll try again the following October. The majority of the money that is raised for the dialysis units comes from the sponsorship program that we have in place and a great deal of the recognition that the sponsors receive comes in the form of pre-race publicity on the local radio stations. Therefore, while the portion of the sponsorship that goes toward running the race will be refunded, the portion that goes to the dialysis units will still be donated, so even if we do have to cancel the event we still maintain the benefits to the community that we are so proud of.

And here’s another note on Shiverfest that might get some of you talking. The Lee County Speedway proudly flies the IMCA flag in three of its weekly racing divisions, the Modifieds, the Stock Cars and the Sport Mods. But for Shiverfest, in an effort to be able to draw in more cars from around the area, promoter Terry Hoenig has tried to put together a rules package in each of these three divisions that would make it as close to an even playing field as possible for those cars who run IMCA weekly and for those cars that do not. And each year Terry has to field phone calls and e-mails for a month leading up to the event from drivers on both sides of the fence telling him why he is wrong, why he is an idiot and, if he had half a brain, how it should be done. Then, on race day, there is always one or two drivers or car owners who want to get in his face and go through the same process that the pre-race callers and e-mailers did. Frankly, I blame myself for putting Terry through this torture and that is why on the Monday after this year’s Shiverfest I looked through the numbers of this year’s participants. Seven of the thirty-five Modifieds were not IMCA members, four of the twenty Stock Cars were not IMCA members and six of the twenty-five Sport Mods were not IMCA members. Now at first look I was thinking that with 20% of the Modifieds and Stock Cars, and 24% of the Sport Mods being non-IMCA, it was good that we opened up the rules. But then you have to consider how many IMCA racers stayed home because the rules had been “opened up” for this event. I knew of a few and Terry knew of even more, so when you look at the big picture and determine that only seventeen of our total field of 144 racecars (11.8%) were there because we opened up the rules, it made me reconsider my thought process. Is it worth the grief in regard to the rules that the promoter has to take for the month preceding the event and on race day for this kind of turn out from the non-IMCA contingent? Why should a track that supports IMCA and a promoter who believes in the IMCA concept so much be “pushed” to go away from it for a season-ending event? The answer was easy for me and I have suggested to Terry that the 2010 Shiverfest should be IMCA sanctioned for the Modifieds, Stock Cars and Sport Mods. Sure, I would hate the fact that a couple of the drivers that have supported this event from day one, and who have even won this race in the past, would now find that their cars would not be legal to participate. But, if they know early enough, perhaps Bruce, Donovan and others can start working deals with an owner of an IMCA-legal car for a one-day ride in October of 2010. Of course, just because I have “suggested” it, doesn’t mean that it will happen either!

If you peek back a few weeks on the Back Stretch you’ll see that I offered up some unasked for advice in regard to promoters who might take on a track that had either shut down recently or was in jeopardy of closing. One of the tracks that I had in mind when I offered up those thoughts was the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis. This facility is in a catch-twenty-two when it comes to what rules to run as it basically needs to draw existing drivers from two different sanctioning bodies, and two completely different Hobby Stock rules packages in order to have a fighting chance. No matter what the new promoter decided upon he was going to have one contingent not happy with the choice, and the last thing that a promoter at Memphis needs right now is griping back and forth on the internet over the off-season as he tries to sell sponsorship of race nights to prospective supporters. There is not enough money brought in to pay the feature winner in each of these eight divisions (USRA A-Mods, IMCA Modifieds, USRA B-Mods, Sport Mods, Stock Cars, “Outlaw” Hobby Stocks, 9 to 1 Hobby Stocks and Four Cylinders) and nobody wants to watch 75 racecars spread across those eight divisions with only eight to ten cars in each! The promoter has made his choice and has announced his five divisions (one more than I even suggested earlier) and has indicated the type of rules that he will be going with. Now gang, if you want this place to succeed, don’t start lobbying for having your type of rules either through word of mouth or via the internet. Decide if you are going to make the changes necessary to your current equipment either through modifications, or by selling what you have and buying something that does meet the rules to race there and, if not, go race somewhere that you are legal without bitching about it! Give the guy a fighting chance to put on a good show on a nice racetrack in a community with some great small-town dirt track racing tradition.

Only twenty-one Modifieds showed up for a $5,000-to-win show at Outlaw Speedway in Muskogee, Oklahoma, this past weekend. I’m not sure how to look at this, but I will say that I am surprised at the lack of numbers. Terry Phillips took the win with Jason Hughes, Johnny Bone Jr., Jeremy Payne and Kelly Shryock completing the top five.

Final subject of the day involves my second favorite sport, college football. I usually like Lou Holtz, but he kind of ticked me off during College Football Final on ESPN Saturday night. Yes, Iowa’s win against Indiana was incredibly ugly on Saturday and ol’ Lou wanted to get in his digs, but during his rant he stated that the Hawks had to block a field goal to beat Northern Iowa, they beat Arkansas State by only three, they beat Penn State on the road which was impressive, they beat Michigan State who isn’t as good as some earlier thought and that they beat Illinois. Come on Lou, at least get your facts right when you are trying to support your opinion! Iowa doesn’t even play Illinois this year! But they did beat Wisconsin on the road and downed Michigan at home, yes Lou, that same Michigan team that beat your beloved Fighting Irish and that same Michigan team that lost to Illinois on Saturday. So by your incorrect facts, maybe Iowa isn’t so bad after all?

That’s it for me today…..time to get back to being Positive! :)