News
Tuesday, July 30, 2007

Tinkerbelle Goes to Indy
By Walt Newcomb

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! There has been a lot of stuff going down in Cupland this week. Let’s get to it.

Hey! NASCAR Nextel Cup racing is back on ESPN! They told us that Dale Earnhardt could “see” the air and gave us a demonstration with fancy gold and teal overlays on the video. That’s great looking stuff but it is absolute (expletive deleted)! [If anyone wants to know the real word, revisit Tony Stewart’s victory lane interview.] Remember that ESPN and ABC are Disney companies. What we saw was the Little Mermaid went to the races.

There are people who will actually believe that this “Draft Track” technology was real. Oh yeah, people think they’re using Doppler radar and satellite imaging to bring this new toy to us. It’s just a new plaything to “try” to show folks at home airflow over the cars. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make it work the same way through one race.

The biggest news of the week was arguably the “merger” of Ginn Racing and DEI or DEI’s “acquisition” of Ginn Racing depending on who’s doing the talking. I think Bobby Ginn and Jay Frye think it’s a merger. Teresa Earnhardt may feel otherwise.

What DEI got out of the deal is tremendous. They now have the ability to field four cars in the top-35 in Nextel Cup owner points. They get Mark Martin and former Joe Gibb’s hot shoe, Aric Almirola. They also get real estate to expand their operation.

Bobby Ginn and Jay Frye may have a firm grasp on an empty bag. Ginn appeared on one of the pre-race programs this week. He fully believes that he will be an integral part of the DEI organization. Unless he becomes a good sponsor hunter overnight, I figure he’s in for a short stay. Either way; there are a lot of people who were gainfully employed a couple of weeks ago who have suddenly or will shortly become free agents down in Cupland.

Mark Martin, who was just trying to have a good time, now has a full-time job. Although there doesn’t appear to be anything on paper, Mark’s handshake is perhaps the best contract that anyone might want. Because of his commitment to Almirola, and his efforts to lure the young lad away from JGR, it appears that he will be the force behind DEI’s driver development program for the time being.

DEI had three cars; Ginn had three cars; who’s on first? Okay, Martin Truex, Jr. may become the “new face” of DEI for now. NASCAR informed DEI that they could not “sell” the #13 team after the merger because that would mean they had five teams. The #13 and the “old” #15 teams will slide down the owner point standings into oblivion. Meanwhile, Paul Menard gets the points from the #14 and he can thank Sterling Marlin and Slugger Labbe for carving out that spot for him.

There was another merger this week as well. Robert Yates Racing merged with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (NHLR) to form Yates/Newman/Hass/Lanigan Racing (YNHLR). This is a combination of letters one might have only previously found in a game of Boggle or at the bottom of a bowl of alphabet soup.

According to Robin Miller on Dave Despain’s Wind Tunnel program, the key to this merger may have been Kyle Krisiloff. The intrigue of Robin’s wandering thoughts is that it unites the George Family of Indianapolis Speedway and IRL fame with Paul Newman and Carl Haas of Champ Car and former CART fame to play in the France’s sandbox.

Krisiloff has been driving the #14 in the Busch Series with Clabber Girl as a sponsor. Originally, I thought that was a beer, like St. Pauli Girl. Apparently this is a brand of baking power which I have been calling Clobber Girl for the #14 car’s propensity to hit the wall at these Busch races.

Yates will gain technology and financial help that they have needed for a long time. Some of the more interesting things might surround NHLR’s Champ car driver, Sebastien Bordais and whether he might wind up coming to NASCAR too. Another subplot to this merger might be the relationships that Paul Newman and Carl Haas have with companies like McDonalds and Anheuser-Busch. How would Ricky Rudd look in a Budweiser fire suit?

Carl Haas has had two previous trips to Cupland including a stint as a partner with Sam Belnavis in BelCar Motorsports. Newman co-owned the #18 cars that Greg Sacks drove out of the Hendrick Stables back with the Slim-Fast livery. The sport has grown a little since then.

Do we think we have a problem with substance abuse in racing? I don’t want to go off on a rant here but, who’s watching our astronauts? We’re all worried about some kid whose girlfriend was caught with some incriminating stuff in her purse. Meanwhile we’re ready to let somebody try to get a DUI on the way to the International Space Station.

Our tax dollars pay for the T-38s and the Space Shuttle and whatever other crafts that these flyboys are piloting. If they don’t want to straighten up and fly right I’d like them to have to say six words on their next job. Would you like fries with that?

The biggest problem I see in NASCAR today is that these “Superstar” drivers never get a chance to live life before they’ve become multi-millionaires. We pull them out of their lives when their friends are going to see Tinkerbelle at Disney World and expect them to stay that way for the rest of their lives. When they fall, like Shane Hmiel or Kevin Grubb, we beat them up for their shortcomings. When they succeed, like Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson, we beat them up because they’re too perfect.

How (expletive deleted) colorful do we expect these kids to be if they become multi-millionaires before they have had a chance to fail on their own? NASCAR’s heroes of yesteryear often became our heroes because of the hi-jinx and antics that surrounded their pursuit the racing dream. This pursuit has become so homogenized and sterilized that we have no one to blame but ourselves for racing to become such a bland product that it makes vanilla ice cream look like Rocky Road.

Speaking of colorful, Tony Stewart dropped the ‘S’ bomb during his victory lane interview on Sunday. Expect at least a $25,000 fine and 25 point penalty for that. I will say that it was the first race that Matt Yocum, his friend and satellite radio partner wasn’t there to try to keep him in line. All I can say is, “Tony, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?”

Dave Blaney drove to his first top-ten finish of the season at Indy. This vaults the Bill Davis #22 team over the #21 Wood Brothers JTG team in the owner standings into the top-thirty five in “active” owner points. This is a team that has performed far better than their results have shown. Look for the Caterpillar Toyota team’s stock to rise quickly. They still need a finish of sixteenth or better next week to pass the now defunct #13 in the standings.

Speaking of Toyota, Jason Leffler drove the Braun Racing #38 to victory at ORP Saturday night. It was Toyota’s first trip to victory lane in the Busch Series. Fresher tires were the key and although he may have ruffled a few feathers on his way through the field, Leffler’s car appeared to be quite clean at the end.

The team that really seems to be on the march is Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. All three of this team’s drivers were running in the top-ten all day long at the Brickyard. A late race incident relegated David Stremme to a twenty-sixth place finish while Juan Pablo Montoya finished in the runner-up spot and Reed Sorenson earned his second top-five finish of the season.

That goes to show that not all of the Dodge camps are performing poorly. By the way, the Chip Ganassi team will be featured this week on “Survival of the Fastest”. Check it out. Hey, you might even get a chance to see our publisher, the world famous spotter, Mike Calinoff!

That’s the way I see it. Opinions vary.