Easter, call me Joe, and azaleas
I bid you welcome gentle readers, to a site so
new we haven't got it all unwrapped yet. As I mentioned with Matt McLaughlin's
history page yesterday, we will be under construction for a bit, so please bear
with us. I'm still me, mostly because I don't know how to be anyone else. And
since I am still me, I expect that I will still have an assigned reader at the
Fan and Media Espionage Center in Charlotte, so I bid you a warm welcome as
well Sir or Madam, as the case may be.
I do hope everyone enjoyed a nice Easter this
past weekend. That's a holiday I'm never quite sure how to celebrate. I get the
Easter Sunday part about the resurrection, but I'm very confused when I hear
someone wish me a "Happy Good Friday." In the first place, there was
nothing "Good" about that day, and I've never understood how it came
to be so named. The "Happy" part just makes it more contradictory.
Then of course, enter the egg-laying bunny that brings baskets full of candy, which
has nothing whatsoever to do with anything religious, and I'm over it and out
of there. That one makes me a flag-waving fan of the Fourth of July... and the
Firecracker 400, of course.
That's another thing about Easter. There is no
racing to be found... so what did I do Easter Sunday? The same thing I do most
every Easter Sunday; I pulled out an old VCR tape and went racing by myself. When
I do that, I have a large library of tapes from which to choose, as I taped
races from 1986 through 2000, stopping after the Daytona 500 in 2001. They fill
three large cabinets to overflowing. I usually pick randomly, just to surprise
myself. (File that under mind games people play.) This time I reached into the
newest cabinet and came up with the Atlanta finale in 1996. The tape also had a
bonus, with abbreviated coverage of the Suzuka
Thunder Special in Japan. As happens with so many races, I wasn't more than a
quarter of the way through it when I realized I knew who won the Atlanta race,
but I "tortured" myself and watched it anyway. Yep, it still ended
the same, with Bobby Labonte winning the race and Terry Labonte winning the
Championship. The two brothers took a Victory Lap side by side... the only time
in the history of NASCAR that has happened. It was also quite lovely, as it
always is, to see Bob, Ned and Benny another time, looking the same as when we
parted company four years later. For some reason, they looked much younger than
that lady I see in my mirror every morning.
Rusty Wallace won the exhibition race in
Japan, which I truly did not remember, and Dale Earnhardt, the original,
finished a close second. Best part of that race was getting to see another time
a Japanese driver that spent a bit of time racing in the Winston Cup Series
back then. His name was Hideo Fukuyama. Those of you that remember my Lady in
Black will readily understand why I was glad he retired from NASCAR before that
column began. He was a sweet guy though. He got the joke that his name might be
seen as more than challenging in English and repeatedly told folks, with a
bright smile on his face, "Just call me Joe."
And switching directly from Memory Lane to the
orthopedic ward, please allow me to send my very warmest wishes for a speedy
recovery to Denny Hamlin, who as the world knows by now, suffered a compression
fracture of his L1 Vertebra in a late-race crash at Fontana while racing for
the win. Denny, this is the first chance I've had to extend my well-wishes to
you, as I didn't do a column last week on the Fontana race. Please hurry back!
It's not the same without you.
Just a few days ago, a reader found another of
my columns, the Tribute to Dale Earnhardt, and was thoughtful enough to leave a
comment, though belatedly. He also asked if I'd written that column on Fontana,
to which I had to reply that I had not. If I had done so, I would have called
it the best race since the one at Watkins Glen last August, hands down.
Fontana, though a half-mile longer than the bulk of the
"cookie-cutter" tracks, is still the intermediate type track that the
new Gen-6 cars were geared to and expected to perform well on; they did not
disappoint. As a matter of fact, to these experienced eyes, nothing but Denny's
injury at the end could be called a disappointment.
The cars raced much as we see them do at
Michigan or Atlanta. There were several distinct grooves and we saw much side
by side and even 3 and 4-wide racing. For years, we've wondered why that track,
that so resembles Michigan, never raced like Michigan. This year, she did.
Whether it was the age of the asphalt, the new cars or a combination of both, I
have no idea, but it was good. Oh, and I noticed another distinct difference
that many either didn't catch or don't think is important. I do. As I said, we saw
the passing. I'm thinking that someone at FOX has gotten the word, or come to
understand what we've been talking about for so long. The gyro-cam is great,
but those long shots or overhead shots, showing the whole field, are wonderful.
That's what the home audience wants and needs to see... the race, much as they
would see it at the track.
I believe I touched on that back at the
Bristol race as well, and in doing so, I said something to the effect that DW
had quoted me when talking about the ability to see the passing beyond the top
2 or 3 cars. I do hope that most of you took that only to mean that he said the
same thing I had said, in almost the same words. I really have no idea whether
Darrell reads my columns. He has honored me with a couple of tweets on Twitter,
and I have done the same for him. My point was to offer a compliment to the FOX
network for ceasing some of the silliness and showing more of the racing. I get
the feeling that this year many entities are all working on the same side in an
attempt to right what might well have been a sinking ship... NASCAR, all three
manufacturers, FOX Network and affiliates, MRN, PRN, and the vast majority of
both the print and screen media, those that report, comment and opine on all
things NASCAR. In that light, it should not be surprising that many of us may
be found in agreement this year, about any number of things. Sometimes, good
things do happen.
Harkening back to the Fontana race for another
moment, there were of course, a couple of incidents near the end that caused
controversy. The wreck between Joey Logano and ex-teammate Denny Hamlin, which
resulted in Hamlin's back injury, has been criticized, praised, discussed and
dissected by every journalist and writer in the sport. In this journalist's
humble opinion, it was good, hard racing; end of report. We cannot justify
praising Cale and Donnie, or Curtis Turner and Lee Petty, while damning either
of those young men for wanting to win the race. That's what racing is...
getting to the end first... not settling for 5th because of a point system.
First pays more points than 5th anyway.
Then there was the dust-up when the same Joey
Logano, who really did seem to have the best car at many points in the race,
threw a blocking move on Temper Tantrum Tony on a late-race restart. That
resulted in Tony attempting to deliver his own version of Allstate's
"Mayhem" upon the person of said Logano after the race had ended.
Once again, it was broken up by teammates, and no harm was done. If you have
somehow missed the irony in that one, check out the blocking move by Tony at
last fall's Talladega race, which included 24 hunks of scrap metal before the
wrecking was done.
Since the race, we've all had our choice of reading
any of hundreds of columns, each of which employed the word "feud."
It seems that everyone is looking forward to a whole lot of wrecking on purpose
come Sunday at Martinsville. That little lady generally does pretty
well all on her own, without a lot of hotheads out there bent on
revenge. Personally, I'm hoping for a good race, or better still, another great
race... like Fontana. (Whoever thought I'd ever type those words?)
I understand the thought process...
Martinsville is a short track, so speeds are lower and no one can get hurt,
making it the perfect place to settle one's differences with anyone that has
crossed him, going back as far as last year. I don't believe we've had testing
at the Paperclip yet, but on Monday and Tuesday past, the kids from Ganassi Racing and RPM went to test the new cars on the
short track at Richmond. They reported the cars, in race trim, were just a tiny
tick off pole record speed. Alrighty then... Allow me
to remind you, or inform the younger readers who never knew him, of a racer
inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, class of 2012. His name was Richie
Evans; he was a nine-time Champion in the NASCAR Modified Series. Richie died
on October 24, 1985, having already clinched that 9th Championship the week
before at Thompson. He died in a practice crash at Pretty Little
Martinsville... that seemingly harmless little short track... of a basal skull
fracture, an injury that should sound familiar by now to everyone reading. My
hope would be that the men and women that take to the track on Sunday might
think for just one short moment about Richie and realize that though she is
small and dainty, Martinsville can be as tough as all the rest when it comes to
matching her walls against the very best in racing. Rest in
peace Richie and Godspeed. You ran a great race!
Mr. Helton, please accept my personal thanks
for all that has gone into making the racing this year so far superior to what
we've seen in recent years. Many of the fans understand that, and we are on
your side. Those that don't understand, well... they're not really fans then,
are they? FOX Network,
and Darrell Waltrip in particular, thank you too. This fan has seen the
difference in camera work and coverage and has and will continue to comment on
it. Please, don't back away from it now. It is great to once again be
"seeing" the race, not just hearing about it.
Just two quick comments on the Paperclip...
Could we please have back the beautiful azaleas sacrificed in the name
of the SAFER barriers? We were told they'd be replaced. When they were taken
away, Martinsville lost a small but very important part of her ambiance. The
lake, with the ducks and geese, was a lovely setting, but those azaleas were
just strikingly beautiful, and almost always in full bloom for the spring race.
And my second point... I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but unless you
have a cast-iron stomach, beware those famous (infamous?) dyed red hot dogs. They
are one of those things in life with only two extremes... you either love them
or detest them... no middle ground. I fall heavily into the latter category.
Well, Jim has informed me that we
"think" we have comments up and working. We shall see. If they are,
then please leave yours here as always. I promise, they will be read by the
folks that matter. They haven't disappointed me in years... and that
is no joke. If they are missing for any reason when this goes into publication,
my email address always accompanies my articles. Send your comments that way
and I'll make arrangements to print them, with answers, separately... she
promises without even consulting the man that has to make that happen.
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep
smiling. It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay