NASCAR - Offseason 2007-2008 Withdrawal Thread #4

Jayski My Pics | 11-19-07 | Me Jack & Jr

[WestCoastGal]

WELCOME RACE FANS

Welcome to the offseason withdrawal thread which is here for everyone to post racing news during the time between Nov 19, 2007 and Feb 9, 2008 when The Budweiser Shootout begins the new season.

As always this thread is dedicated to our military men and women serving our country. A big thank you to all of them. Hugs and prayers to those who have been wounded and are recuperating at Walter Reed, Bethesda and Brooke Army Med Center. And, to those combat field medics who care for them - THANK YOU!!

[tubebender]

Wine Wine Wine... I prefer red whine. It got down to the high 30’s last night. Now that’s cold...

[tubebender]

Steevie the Wonder? Boy put a bad hurt in the nose of the #66 but the gate post will live to see another idiot... or three

[SouthTexas]

We’re above freezing, but drizzling away. Got hammered coming home Friday night and then it moved in here. 1-1.5” of rain, good for the farmers though!

[WestCoastGal]

Go or Go Home Drivers to Qualify Together; NASCAR to Provide Tires for Tests: Michael Waltrip suggested last season that drivers outside the top 35 in owners’ points should be allowed to qualify together so nobody would have an advantage in track conditions. NASCAR officials must have listened. The governing body kicked off its annual media tour by announcing that those outside the top 35 in all three series — Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series — will qualify at the end of their respective session. It also was announced that teams will be provided tires for testing at non-sanctioned NASCAR tests. Sprint Cup teams will be given 200 tires, Nationwide teams 160 and Craftsman Truck Series teams 120.

[Tom Pain]

Ahhh arrrrr innnnnnnnnnn for 2008!

Your 3rd place team from 2007 . . . "Ward Burton's Translator" is back, and ready to roll.

Thanks to WestCoastGal for setting up the league again!

[SouthTexas]

Mikey as the spokesman??? LOLOL

[tubebender]

Why don’t they let them qualify first? It’s going to take me time to decode that tire rule...

[tubebender]

From Jayski UPDATE:

;The Intimidator,” a one-of-a-kind RCR Series 3 Camaro with direct ties to Richard Childress Racing (RCR) and the legendary Dale Earnhardt, sold Jan. 19 at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., for $575,000. The RCR Series 3 Camaro (www.rcrseries3.com) is a joint venture between RCR and Total Performance Incorporated (TPI) of Wichita, Kan. “The Intimidator,” serial No. 3 of the 50 which will be produced through 2010, is equipped with the actual engine block and other engine components that powered Earnhardt and the #3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevy in the 2000 Daytona 500. The buyer, Jimmy Richardson, principal of Colson Park Capital, Inc., in Hickory, N.C., also has ties to the famed No. 3 GM Goodwrench teams. His Mom ‘N’ Pop’s Old Fashion Sugar Cured Country Ham was an associate sponsor of the team for six years (1991-96), three of which resulted in championship seasons (1991, ‘93, ‘94).(RCR PR)(1-21-2008)

[SouthTexas]

I really thought that it would sell for more than that.

[WestCoastGal]

I agree, in most cases qualifying late is a benefit and it should be given to the top 35 not the teams that probably won’t run well anyway.

That they will qualify together is probably a good idea so they all become a bit more equal.

[WestCoastGal]

The beginning of this article is about Jeffs PR guy and there’s more to Mike Davis at the end as well.
********************
For Earnhardt, heading into 2008, integrating himself with a new team in Hendrick Motorsports and working with new sponsors National Guard, AMP Energy Drink and Mountain Dew, and handling personal services contracts with adidas and Sony, his time is even more in demand and thus more precious.

Conversely, Davis finds himself being even more judicious in his decisions on what requests to approve and what requests to turn down.

“We try to take care of everybody once a year if we can,” he said. “The tricky part is getting it done when they would like it to be done.

“The grind with Dale’s calendar is not the travel to race tracks and race weekends. It’s the mid-week going to shoot commercials, going to make appearances.”

So it is Davis’ job to schedule Earnhardt and conserve his ability to hold up under the demands of the schedule and run his own race team, JR Motorsports and drive the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. And, allow him the free time necessary to keep everything in balance.

In the end, while saying “no” will result in disappointment or worse, Davis’ main concern is Earnhardt.

“He pulls his schedule, I don’t know how he does it,” Davis said. “And I actually am very conscious of, if I feel like he’s pulling too much and he’s getting in the race car and he’s not 100 percent, I take the blame for that. I don’t ever want that to happen.”

And exacerbating matters is come Saturday night of race week, Earnhardt naturally retreats into a shell where he can concentrate on Sunday’s race, leading people to misinterpret his focus.

“A big misconception about Dale, if you were to meet him on race day, if you were a fan, there’s a good chance you’re probably going to say he’s not a very nice guy,” Davis said. “The reason that is, is because . . . he starts to get in a zone, come Sunday morning, we don’t tell him any more than what he absolutely has to know because we know there’s a good chance he might not even hear it.

“And it’s a good thing. Listen, I love it about him. We all want a race car driver that’s going to be focused on the race and is dedicated enough to where he can get in his own little world.”

Away from the track and away from the personal appearance, Davis also sees a side of Earnhardt many people don’t know, a side diametrically opposed to his shoot from the hip, ready, fire, aim, shoot-first, ask-questions-later demeanor in front of a microphone or in a press conference.

“He’s shy,” Davis said.

That shyness has not prevented Earnhardt from expressing his unbridled passion for getting back in the race car and getting after establishing himself with Hendrick after a traumatic 2007 that saw him break ties with the company that bears the name of his late father, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.

With that move to Hendrick comes myriad details that need attending to, and a lot fall to Davis.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080122/SPORTS/801220327

[WestCoastGal]

You’re welcome.

I was right behind you but couldn’t get the draft to pass. :D

[WestCoastGal]

taglinus changus

[SouthTexas]

Now I consider that an insult to HMS!

[WestCoastGal]

Is it bad, I’m not a football follower?

[WestCoastGal]

IP is back!! WooHoo, I'm so happy we're back. I've missed everyone!!

[SouthTexas]

I don't that much anymore either, but the Patriots have been tagged as "cheaters" with their spying on opposing teams or maybe that's his point.

My point is HMS has been a dominant factor since the 90s. Would be more applicable the other way around. :)

[WestCoastGal]

NASCAR puts changes on hold to hang on to traditional fans

Earlier and more consistent starting times. Drivers that aren’t afraid to show their personalities for fear of being fined. Races that depend more on the drivers than the engineers and crew chiefs that prepare the cars.

After several years of change, from the move to a playoff format to the introduction of the Car of Tomorrow to a new series sponsor, NASCAR has decided it has had enough.

Chairman Brian France kicked off the 2008 Sprint Cup media tour on Monday by basically saying it’s time to go back to the basics, back to the way things were when Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers fought in the infield after the 1979 Daytona 500.

No, France isn’t condoning brawls. But he and the rest of the governing body do see the need to get back in touch with the grassroots fans that made the sport what it is today.

“We’ve got all the change that we think the sport can stand or needs,” France said from NASCAR’s Research and Development Center.

France wouldn’t say the changes are why television ratings have dipped over the past two years anymore than he would admit that the sport is in trouble. But everything he said suggested there is great concern for the direction things are going.

“I know when they change something at my favorite restaurant, it takes me a little while how to get there,” France said. “If you change too many things that’s confusing a little bit.

“Our interest is to make sure that in the future we keep changes to a minimum.”

So instead of a big announcement that has been commonplace at recent media tours there was talk of putting the focus back on the driver and what happens on the track.

“We need to get back to banjos and get rid of the violins,” said H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, the longtime president of Lowe’s Motor Speedway that hosts the tour. “We got a little too fancy there for a while. There were all kinds of forces moving in different directions in this to make it fancy.

“It’s not a fancy sport. It’s guys with big hands and getting sweaty and getting out there and banging on each other and knocking each other around and all-American fans sitting there having a good time.”

Earlier and more consistent starting times is the first move to correct that. When NASCAR announces starting times on Tuesday, races beginning at 2 p.m. or earlier will go from 15 to 18 on the 36-race schedule.

“There were a lot of things that we tried to introduce into this that just flat didn’t work and are not going to work,” Wheeler said. “That’s something that he certainly realizes now. This is meat and potatoes. It’s not caviar and smoked salmon.”

Wheeler agrees with earlier starting times even though his track is the biggest violator, hosting the Coca-Cola 600 at 5:40 p.m. in May and an October race that runs on Saturday night.

“Here I violate all of those things, but it’s good to get things back consistently,” he said. “Earlier start times for Truck and [Nationwide] Series races, that’s going to make a lot of difference. You start the truck race at 9 o’clock, that’s going to make a lot of difference.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/columns/story?seriesId=2&columnist=newton_david&id=3207561

[SouthTexas]

Okay, this means what?

[WestCoastGal]

It means maybe he’s seen the light and the YV ratings. :D