Track Trash – Motor City Madness

6/13/10

New Schnozola: NA$CAR is ready to allow new noses on the cars, to allow them to look more like production cars. The hope is to get more fans to relate to the Cup cars, and to get more interest in attending the races. This supposedly will do away with the splitter braces, but wouldn’t it be great if they could do away with the splitter itself? What a novel idea…..try to make the Cup car look like an actual car on the road.

Idiots in Suits: Now we hear that some lame-brain in GM wants to do away with the nickname “Chevy”, and make all of their employees call it ‘Chevrolet’. As far as the fans go, it reminds me of an old adage: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. (Someone may change that phrase, cuz Obama’s gonna make us buy health insurance). At any rate, let’s hope that this hair-brained idea quickly goes the way of ‘the New Coke’. And anyone with that much time on their hands to think up this stupid scheme oughta be shown the express way out of the building….and not come back.

Good rumor: This one has KaseyKahne moving to James Finch’s Phoenix Racing for a one year stint in 2011…..and SirMark eventually buying the team. One could only hope that the Markster could come up with a nifty name…..like Razorback Racing. Anyway, the rumor is plausible, but at this point it’s just one of many rumors.

A “Suggestion”: After last week’s run-in between JoeyPhenom and Happy, NA$CAR reportedly “suggested” that Joey’s dad take a few weeks off from the racing scene. Tom Logano has had a few ‘situations’ in the past with NA$CAR, so this forced vacation was a lenient slap on his wrist. And as Happy so aptly said: “This isn’t Little League baseball anymore”, so Dad oughta back off and let Joey do his thang.

The Cat’s Hat: Roush finally admitted that his simulation data (hired from an outsider) was flawed, and this was the main reason they were not racing with the leaders. There’s no question the Roushketeers are quality drivers, and they’ve been hampered by cars that won’t perform. With this sticking out like a sore thumb, it might take Roush about a month to fix the problem. Let’s hope it’s not too late by then to get da Biff and da Flipster into the Playoffs.

Start Yer Engines: Kevin James and Adam Sandler did a superb job of firing up the engines, and this probably won’t be out done for quite some time. With only four words to say, they said it…..with mucho gusto.

Da Race: Finally. A race that was interesting, and with only 3 Yellows, it relatively short. Only 200 laps, and on this fast track it with 4 wide racing at times, it rarely becomes a ho-hum race.

Report it: If I have even one gripe about the reporting, it would be due to Adam Alexander (who he?) doing the play-by-play reporting in the booth. Coming from Speed and MRN, he has the credentials, but seems to lack any personality. On the other hand, his ‘non-personality’ seems eminently better than his predecessor, Bill Weber. So I guess I should count my blessings after all……..

Family Feud?: Speedo was spun into the grass….by his team mate Mears. Later in the race, Mears tried to pancake the wall, but didn’t bring out a Yellow. I probably shouldn’t even mention this, cuz upon putting it in print it seems like such an inconsequential news item. Again, neither is what you would call fillet mignon.

FR9: Realizing the new Ford engine runs cooler, it appears that at least two teams overcompensated and used too much tape on the nose. Both Kasey and MattyBoy were spewing water toward the end of the race, but it apparently didn’t do any damage to the engine. Although not a profuse Blue Oval fan, I would like to see them get racy with the Chevy’s.

Da End: This was one of the few races that didn’t include a Green/White/Checkered finish. The way the field was strung out, it woulda been hard to create one, unless you were mid-pack and racing like an idiot.

Kudos: To DennyHambone for an outstanding series of races recently. He just keeps getting stronger and stronger. To KaseOfKahne for putting together a solid run, and trying to wipe the recent disasters out of his mind. To Das Kurt for a great race. No, neither Gordo nor JJ ran up front with the leaders, but Jr. finally put a significant race together, and ended up with a Top 10.

Heaps of 3’s all over yer local FedEx Ground team,

Racing Maniac #3

HackingEthics