a voice for the fans ~ Red hot, ice cold, and free

6/6/2013

PattyKay Lilley

 

I bid you welcome, gentle readers, to a place where you can make your voices heard by those in NASCAR that matter. A warm welcome as well to our assigned reader for today, somewhere in the Media and Fan Espionage Center ("We kid because we care" - Chris Myers) in Charlotte NC. Before we even get started, I have to tell you all that I think this job may be getting to me. Last night, Brian France was in my dream/nightmare... your choice. It was one of those we only half remember on waking, but I remember vividly that man coming to visit my departed husband and me for dinner, and there was something about a sum of money I didn't want Brian to know that I had. Beyond that, it's all lost in a haze, but dang it Brian, stay out of my dreams! That's just scary!

 

Now then, back to the White Cliffs of Dover on a very hot Sunday afternoon that got hotter for a few and dashed cold water on the hopes of others. And as soon as she says we're back to Dover, she's off on a different tangent. To whom it may concern at nascar.com. I am a member of the motorsports media. No, I'm not one of the highly paid ones that adorn our TV sets each weekend; I'm essentially a relic that's been around since the days of Big Bill France and have a close to excellent command of the English language and the grammar that should, but seldom does, accompany it.

 

As such, why is it that when I go to your sparkling new website to view for myself the restart between Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya, I am forced to sit through a complete TV-length commercial for Farmer's Insurance before the video can be started? I know I'm speaking for a multitude of fans when I say this is the sort of unwelcome fan "unfriendliness" that gets the folks to thinking there must be something better to do with a Sunday afternoon. Even days after the race is over, you are still trying to trap us into one more commercial... in case someone dared to make a pit stop during the 4-hour FOX infomercial on Sunday. It really is possible to let us see a video without it being preceded by commercials, and you might want to try it. Remember those thousands of empty seats we're seeing at every track? The fans have learned how to vote and are exercising their right to do so... with their wallets and their feet.

 

Since Turner Broadcasting was removed from the mix and racing on radio is free again, a whole lot of us have tuned out the Sunday dose of Waltrip squared plus Larry in favor of listening to MRN or PRN on line. It's not commercial free, but there is only a reasonable amount of them, combined with blessedly unbiased calling of the race. For any of my gentle readers not familiar with this way of listening/watching a race, there are two free radio networks that carry the races. One is PRN (Performance Racing Network) www.goprn.com. That one carries all races from tracks owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) aka Bruton Smith. The other is MRN (Motor Racing Network) and it carries all other races. www.mrn.com.  Each website is free and offers the race broadcast live with only a click of the mouse. Then mute Commercials Я Us, and you're good to go. This works equally as well with TNT (No more KFC to excess!) and ESPN. It is by no means exclusive to FOX.  

 

More and more, I see some folks making a big deal of scanner chatter and Twitter patter, as if it were some sort of news to do with the race itself. Unless it somehow affects the outcome, it is not. It's long been my contention that folks that eavesdrop via scanner deserve exactly what they get, and quite often, it's an earful. There are some very frank and "colorful" conversations going on during the heat of the race. Personally, I never cared to listen to them, so my precious sensibilities have never been wounded by the dropping of an "F-Bomb" or things of that nature. If yours have, it's time to tune out, don't you think? No one is holding a gun to your head and making you listen.

 

Same goes for Twitter. Depending on whom you choose to follow, you will read accordingly. I don't care much for a timeline full of filth, so if that's what someone is pushing, I simply don't follow. Don't misunderstand; no Pollyanna here, and I can slug it out with the best of 'em if need be, but it seldom is, so I seldom do.

 

Now then... focus, focus, focus! The Dover race was hot! Matt Kenseth was not. After leading 29 laps and running with the leaders, his engine spit up a valve on lap 159 and relegated him to 40th position on the day. Fellow Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. followed suit with a similar malady on lap 279 after riding in the top-three up to that time. Truex finished 38th for his trouble, and they're scratching heads yet again at TRD, where the valve puking engines originate, along with the one Kyle Busch lost last week at Charlotte... to a bad valve.

 

At lap 296, Ryan Newman put David Gilliland into the SAFER barrier AND the inside wall, and despite the rather colorful "Nasty ass" Twitter comment from wife Krissie Newman, no way on earth was any of it Gilliland's fault. He finished the day in 37th spot and hot under the collar, to be sure. Newman finished ice cold in 36th... and the Monster was eating well. Next course on the menu would be the Hendrick Chevy of Kasey Kahne when he spun all by himself on lap 318 and lost his argument with the SAFER barrier. That would eventually cost him 4 laps and relegate him to 23rd in the finishing order.

 

Miles jumped out and bit another of the JGR competitors when Denny Hamlin blew a right front tire at lap 378 and drove hard into the turn-1 SAFER barrier. He limped it back to the pits, but something in the right front suspension was badly amiss and the #11 retired to the garage for the day at lap 380. Denny was followed almost immediately by Jamie McMurray, who thought he had a bad tire, but I guess it turned out to be, as Ken Schrader used to say, "One of them real important parts." Jamie finished 33rd and Denny 34th.

 

While all this feeding of the Monster and filling of the garage was taking place, Jimmie Johnson, who started 24th and almost fell from the lead lap at one point, had done what Jimmie Johnson does... stormed through the field to eventually lead 143 laps. Then came the final caution of the race, when Hamlin blew that tire. Juan Pablo Montoya beat Johnson out of the pits to assume the lead. On the restart, NASCAR deemed that Johnson had jumped the restart and he was black-flagged to the pits for a pass through. Jimmie would eventually finish in 17th position, one lap down to the leaders.

 

Gentle readers, this one has always been a judgment call, and as such, I have never liked it. (Nor, for the record, do I like sports such as gymnastics and diving, as the contestants are totally at the mercy of human judging.) We cannot sit in our living rooms and assess correctly who was right or wrong. Did Jimmie jump the restart? Did Juan short-brake on the restart? That too will bring a penalty if so assessed. NASCAR uses a "starting box", which is nothing more than the distance between a pair of red lines and the Start/Finish line. Cars may begin to accelerate at the red lines, but the leader has to be "in control" of the race until he/she crosses the Start/Finish line. If I can't tell, and you can't tell, what makes anyone think that Mike Helton, John Darby or whoever else is in the control booth can tell better? It's simply a judgment call, and I've seen it go both ways on many occasions.

 

Mr. Helton, Sir, I have an idea. Those invisible scoring loops that we're told encircle every track read transponders on the cars. Why not put the little red lines at the appropriate scoring loop? Voila, combine that with the transponder readings at the start/finish line and you have it on computer, who did what and when he did it. Would that not work more fairly than having to guess in each situation which driver might be honest and which might have been fudging just a tiny bit? I don't have to tell you that in this case, both are quite capable of doing the latter... or the former, of course.

 

Meanwhile, up front, Juan Pablo Montoya looked poised to get that long overdue oval track win, when out of the west in a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Chevy came Tony Stewart, edging ever closer and finally overtaking Montoya to lead the last three laps. They were the only laps he led, but that last one is the one that really counts. Montoya finished second and behind him in third, electing not to pit brought Jeff Gordon's #24 to a podium finish. Kyle Busch, who led 150 laps on the day finished fourth and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-5.

 

So, at the end of the day, it was Smoke doing a smoke show, but it was the Blue Deuce failing once again in the post-race room of doom with a front end deemed too low. I won't even ask, because I already know it's not just me thinking that just maybe NASCAR is looking to even things up a bit with a certain John Middleton, who Mr. France opined let the Penske boys off a bit too easy last time. The upshot of that is the now standard loss of 6 owner points, (Penske) 6 driver points (Keselowski) and another $25K from the pocket of crew chief Paul Wolfe, who will remain on "probation" until December 31.

 

Well gentle readers, there you have my thoughts for another week. Please feel free to add yours to them. I promise you; they will be read, and the more interesting they are, the higher up the reading chain they are likely to go. We always keep it civil here, as no one... including me... cares to read trash and name calling. Thanks for reading, and both NASCAR and I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

 

Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!

 

 

~ PattyKay

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