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Posted on 08/06/2007 7:37:52 PM PDT by NYTexan
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Yes yes, lol lol..........is there an echo in here? :)
He’s a master roadracer.
Nascar does need to fix things and it seems as though there has been a lot of rain this year. At least more than usual if my memory serves me.
See you all later tomorrow hopefully.
Yup, a darn shame that a good road racer is sitting it out..
and if it rains, at least they have Centurion boats there to ride around in.. they should have rain t’ars available.. :-)
Big money has ruined NASCAR. The top 35 are bought and paid for.
Any more I prefer dirt track racing in Late Models.
A few make a living at it. But for most it is just for fun. it does help to have some money to back a team up. But for twenty grand a year a dirt late model team can be pretty competitive. The limited late Model division I compete in, we can run very well for ten grand in a regional series that covers about half of Missouri. We can build the limited engine for under 5 grand. Of course, no marketing partnership offers are refused!
Pretty good advertising opportunities for several small to medium sized businesses are available and divided up.
NASCAR is a business. Racing is supposed to be just for fun. Big money takes all the fun out of it. However, even the smallest teams have to operate like a business to budget many times limited resources. We blew our only engine a few weeks ago. Probably going to sit out now because we weren’t able to secure half of the money needed and end up running out of pocket. So I have to think of my self as an enterpreneur, operate on whatever we can recieve in sponsorship, and hope nothing happens like losing an engine, although it was the first in 5 years.
And we are in the process of building two so next season, there will be no down time.
Yes, Boris Said said that.
He really did did.
I saw the whole interview, he said said it.
:)
The sad thing was all the "Said Head's" in the crowd (small) behind the show - life size poster pictures of Boris...they have to be really bummed.
I’m not so sure that NASCAR wants to deal with with small teams any more. IMO, these small teams will be “ruled” out of existence.
Remember when they ran in Japan? I don’t but they say they had rain tires available for Cup cars and windshield wipers.
I also just read that the Montreal hotels tripled their prices for the race weekend. They’re ahead of us there, we only double them here in Dallas. There should be a law against price gouging.
Mr Brains forgets where Nascar came from. And, I have to say it’s very unfortunate. There are many fans out there who root for the little guys against the giants just like in the real world of big business.
Where I live they will not let the big box stores in or any other kind of chain store. Except Walmart of course, because the people who live here have to shop somewhere!! I personally hate that part but there’s always the big city if you dare go there these days. One really needs a CCW license these days to go there. :(
I’ve been to all sorts of racing my entire life, road, oval, drags etc. but never dirt tracks. I should try it one of these days.
We even used to make our own midnight road racing track over Coldwater Canyon from SF Valley to Sunset Blvd but don’t tell anyone. :)
Actually we street raced before it was a big deal also, but we were smarter than the guys these days because we went to areas where housing was going to be built. The roads were in but there was no through traffic yet thus not endangering anyone else.
Also, there were several dragstrips that anyone could put two cars up against each other. I had several opportunities to take a corvette down the 1/4 mile and that was a blast.
Of course these days where can you find open space like that? Sigh...
I wish you the best of luck with your team and keep us posted. :)
As is often the case in family run businesses, the third generation is the killer.
Generation 1 invests blood, sweat, tears and money to make a go of it.
Generation 2 sees what the parent has had to sacrifice in order to succeed...often working right beside the parent.
Generation 3 comes along and having not seen what went into building the endeavor, thinks that this "success" is his birth right.
I’ve seen a couple of good, well run family businesses succumb to this.
Very well said and unfortunately true.
Money creates selfishness in some folks.
The market may be oversaturated with too many races as it is. Jr was asked this question during his Sharpie media scrum day. He was asked if he was Brian France for a day what would he do. He answered that he would pare down the race schedule to 28 races because you need to leave the fans wanting a little. :D
I'm off to the salt mine....
This is long but very good.........
Unable to make the show, a thought NASCAR drivers perish, is what prompted me to share with you readers the series of unfortunate events that nearly forced me, and dozens of key characters in the show, to miss the opening acts at Watkins Glen this weekend.
If you’ve ever seen the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles then you have a good idea of what happened and what dozens of others working in NASCAR went through to get to Watkins Glen, located in upstate New York, where the weather and air traffic has been as volatile as Tony Stewart during a post-race interview.
The melee began at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday at the Charlotte, N.C., airport starring myself, two NASCAR driver public relations reps and a brake specialist.
Unbeknownst to them while boarding a plane to LaGuardia Airport, the quartet, who arrived separately, would ultimately spend the next 15 hours traversing inclement weather and bottlenecked airlines transportation together.
Why? To make the show of course, because when you’re Denny Darnell, Kasey Kahne’s public relations manager, you have to be there, as does Jade Gurss, who handles publicity for Earnhardt — and you know how popular Junior is. And the brake specialist, well he offers tech support for Brembo brakes for the Nos. 24 and 48. So yeah, he felt it necessary to make the show as well.
As for me, well I suppose their vigilance rubbed off on me a bit, because had I not hooked up with the determined travelers, I’d still be in Charlotte, not Watkins Glen, N.Y.
So ...
1 p.m. — I board the plane, wave to Denny sitting in first class (nice) and take my seat with the groundlings in economy class. Jade was two rows behind me likely working on how many different ways to say no to the onslaught of media requests the man receives for Earnhardt.
1:50 p.m. — Pilot comes over the intercom to indicate the line is too long to take off and we need to refuel anyway, and so we were headed back to the gate. I turned and looked at Jade and laughed.
2 p.m. — Our plane gets a splash and go, but actually we don’t GO anywhere. Apparently flights to and from LaGuardia are delayed, nothing is moving so we deplane. OK, no big deal. What is a big deal is that we don’t re-board the plane until 5 p.m. Still, all is not lost. At the advice of Gurss and his platinum gold card rewards plus mega miles flyer club membership, we rebook for a later flight, as does Denny.
5 p.m. — We board only to sit for 15 minutes and only to get in a long line of planes also waiting to take off. But before we make any real progress, Denny comes back to Jade and me and says, “Hate to be the bearer of bad news gang but our connecting flight to Ithaca is canceled.” OK, still no big deal, we can always catch a later flight or if anything fly out in the morning.
7 p.m. — We arrive in LaGuardia. First thing, I check the board for flights to Ithaca while Jade stands in line to inquire about lodgings. There are flights remaining to Ithaca, however, they have big fat CANCELED flashing in red next to them. Jade, being the upbeat polite character in the story, pleads with the airline representative to find us another flight. Her response: I can put you on a flight at 3:45 p.m. Friday.
Hmmm, well gee, lets see, that’s after Cup practice and qualifying so that won’t work. Now everyone is completely panicked.
9 p.m. — Jade to the rescue with his rental car rewards platinum plus gold medallion club frequent driver membership that provides us with an option, an option that will ultimately provide me with hours of priceless NASCAR entertainment.
“If we can get our bags and they aren’t being sent on to Ithaca, I guess we could drive. It’s only about 300 miles.”
Ah, 10-4 Jade, as long as you’re driving. We head to baggage where we find Denny flustered beyond belief having what sounded to be a deep conversation with an automated system of some sort.
http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/opinion/08/10/rswan.traveling.watkins.glen/story_single.html#page2
^^^^There’s more, I don’t even have time to read it all^^^^^
Sounds like my last flight to Dallas.
ROFL!! A much needed laugh today : ) Thank you dear friend!
He’s ba-ack! };^)
I was watching HH at work off and on and I saw the name Said go by and I go WTH? Yippee...... Now is he on the fantasy league is my next question? LOL Did Said said thanks.... I’m sure he did.
What a nice gesture by Awesome Bill. :)
Just got home so...........
Kurt Ugh
JPM Ugh
Rocket
Pruett
Robby
Ambros look out
Hanlin
Said
Coleman
Fellows
Kenseth
“Now is he on the fantasy league is my next question?”
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The ‘DNQ’ has been removed.
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