Bubba Wallace Beyond Daytona

The Forbes website authors a piece on why the success of Bubba Wallace has more clout than people may realize.

Smithfield's Petty Squabble

Aric Almirola and Richard Petty's win in the 2014 Firecracker 400 was the highlight of a partnership that suddenly has been torn asunder


Rumor that Smithfield Foods, one of the most prominent sponsors in NASCAR and one of the primary sponsors of Richard Petty's #43 team, would shift over the Stewart-Haas Racing organization has been circulating for a number of weeks.    The rumor became fact September 12 with announcement of the changeover and concurrent announcement that Aric Almirola would leave Petty's team, the rumor being he will be shifted to the SHR #10, replacing Danica Patrick.

Where the story turns eye-popping comes when Richard Petty himself expressed disappointment in the decision, stating Smithfield had expressed interest in staying with the team and even gave a handshake agreement to stay - "I come from a time when did major deals with sponsors like STP on a handshake."  

Smithfield's CEO strangely took umbrage at that, claiming that Petty "is lying" and attacked the team's performance.   The claim that Petty is lying is beyond incendiary, for Petty is famous for giving his word and staying with his word even at his own expense, most famously in the ill-fated two-year period under the Curb Motorsports aegis.   There is also speculation that it was Smithfield leaking out claim to be leaving; the rumor by all accounts never emanated from Petty's shop.

The team's present performance has certainly not been a winning performance; it has, though, been encouraging and strikingly strong (the #43 has been among the cars passing more cars than anyone else), notably the Daytona 500 and Winston 500 before Aric Almirola's disastrous back injury at Kansas.   Indeed the biggest irony is Smithfield attacks "RPM's inability to deliver on the track and the organization's repeated failure to present a plan to address its lack of competitiveness" yet is switching to a racecar, the #10, with fewer top-tens (one) than Almirola this season.

And the claim of "inability to deliver on the track" is grossly simplistic given encouraging efforts not only in the team's three top-ten finishes so far but also in promising efforts at the Firecracker 400 and Kentucky, Indianapolis, and Michigan, plus a decent run at Richmond.    This for a team that has had to field four drivers in one car this season and is recovering from the disastrous effort at building its own chassis in 2016 - which incidentally constitutes an attempt to "address its lack of competitiveness."  

The journey of Petty's team has been an enterprise of survival.  Reestablishing winning legitimacy has dogged Petty since the ultimately failed Curb Motorsports period, yet it finally got there in 1996, winning three times in a four-season span as the sport's economics became increasingly absurd.  It faltered badly in 2000 and had to survive the sport's fratricide of 2008-09.   Petty is still standing as a team owner when teams like Andy Petree, Robert Yates, Ray Evernham (whose team disintegrated and wound up being absorbed into the Petty organization), DEI (likewise absorbed, into Chip Ganassi's team, the two teams once fielding six racecars and from the beginning of 2010 a truncated two-car version of its former lives), and even Petty's present equipment supplier Roush Racing have either disbanded or are a mere shell of themselves.  George Gillett's merger of Ray Evernham's former team into Petty's organization and the signing of AJ Allmendinger gave the team competitive spark, but Gillett would leave and the team nearly foundered at the end of 2010; it was Petty who kept it going, winning twice at Watkins Glen with Marcos Ambrose in the #9 team before Almirola's Daytona win in 2014.

Smithfield's decision comes after the Subway chain of sandwich shops abruptly quit Joe Gibbs Racing in an apparent snit that one of its drivers made an ad for the Dunkin Donuts breakfast and coffee chain in promotion of New Hampshire's coming race.    It also comes amid commentary by Regan Smith, who on FOX Sports' NASCAR news show proclaimed discomfort with Smithfield's argument because he competed in Petty's #43 in two races this year on a handshake deal.  

One also should keep in mind Target's decision to leave Ganassi Racing despite the recent surge of success of Kyle Larson, this after some striking inconsistency.   Sponsors looking for reasons to leave find them for reasons unrelated to performance.

It all adds up to a stunning and disconcerting development - the team working to get better in essence gets ambushed by its sponsor.    Petty, the ultimate participant in stock car racing even today commands a respect unmatched in racing outside of AJ Foyt, his equal in Indycars, and his #43 on the racetrack personifies racing now and forever.    Effort to win has never been an issue, and Smithfield's rhetoric was ugly and grossly improper.  

With this development, the word is Darrell Wallace will drive Petty's #43 in 2018; after his very encouraging four-race tryout in 2017 one can feel confident he will make the team stronger.  It is no criticism of Almirola; the scuttlebutt was the original Petty plan was to field a two-car team for Almirola and Wallace under the aegis of RCR (a rumored RCR alliance supposedly explains the team's decision to vacate its present shop).   One feels the #43 will continue to make effort to win, and the possibility of success, despite the unfortunate criticism of Smithfield, remains real.



UPDATE, October 30, 2017: Smithfield apparently has worked out its disagreement with Petty and will sponsor the #43 in 2018 with driver Darrell Wallace Jr.   

Busch And Blaney Bag Bizarre Daytona 500

The 2017 Daytona 500 will go down as the most competitive running since 2014 - 37 official lead changes seems low given how sustained the nose-to-nose battles for the lead were - and one of the more bizarre runnings and one that decidedly didn't go according to anyone's plan.   It was also a humorously fitting debut for Monster Energy Drink's sponsorship of the Winston Cup Grand National series, not only for the intensity of the racing but also for the imaginative nature of some of the promotion - in a clever crossover of sports Patriots tight end/controlled party star Rob Gronkowski was part of the prerace show (adding to the irony the prerace show proceeded amid the Boston Bruins' 6-3 whipping of the Dallas Stars, a nice synergy of racing, football, and hockey) - was won by a car whose primary sponsor is also the series sponsor - a scenario the sport has seen play out from such races as the 1975 Purolator 500 (won by the Purolator Mercury) to the 1981 Mountain Dew 500 (won by the Mountain Dew Buick) and so on.   There is plenty to break down in this one -



The curious case of Joe Gibbs Racing -  NASCAR's new segment format saw the first case of raceteams trying to beat the format with strategy, and the result was farce.   Joe Gibbs Racing put themselves behind the eight ball by short-pitting fifteen laps in, and cost themselves a lap doing it again later.   Stewart-Haas Racing short-pitted and caught a lucky caution courtesy of rookie Corey LaJoie, who committed the dumbest rookie mistake we've seen in a while.    Kevin Harvick cycled into the lead, but it seemed he would have done so without short-pitting - the whole strategy of working pitstop sequencing backwards as if a superspeedway were a road course did nothing but put the teams who kept short-pitting behind the eight ball.   

Kyle Busch wound up winning the first segment and the bonus points resulting, this after some of the best Daytona Cup racing in many years, and after two days of terrific racing from the Truck and Busch/Xfinity Series.  

But Kyle Busch's day ended past halfway after JGR yet again short-pitted and were barely on the lead lap during a lengthy green flag run - and a tire went down (the resulting melee also saw the third red flag in two days of racing).    Kyle Busch's criticism of Goodyear was refreshing given Goodyear's seeming sense of entitlement for being an exclusive tire supplier and also its inconsistent and generally mediocre record with raceable tires - and in an odd coincidence 2017 marks the last year of Goodyear's present contract.

The net result was a confusing series of pit strategies, the likes of which Daytona hasn't really seen since the ill-fated 1991 500 when NASCAR banned tire changes under yellow and teams insisted on strategizing to avoid green flag stops.  



Chase Elliott channeling Ernie Irvan - Chase Elliott won the pole and won his qualifying race, and he showed true aggression fighting to get to the front.   The problem was Elliott at times looked less like his dad and closer to Ernie Irvan, looking out of control at times - before the race NASCAR gave a mild warning about "the consequences" of blocking, which had become more pronounced for the Cup side not just this Speedweeks but last season as well.   Elliott got damage in one of the crashes, but the theme all week was cars getting damaged and roaring back to the lead anyway - "these cars look like they've been running Martinsville" was a phrase Darrell Waltrip first used at Talladega in 1996.

Five years ago this July Kurt Busch was in what amounted to NASCAR exile from his firing from Penske Racing thanks to chronic psychopathic behavior on the track and in his treatment of people around him - he exploded to one of the signature races of the decade in winning the 2012 Firecracker 250.

Five years later Busch's Ford was crunched up and he clawed to steal the win from Kyle Larson.    It is his fifth win for Stewart-Haas Racing and first in a Ford since the Summer 500 at Pocono in 2005 driving for Roush Racing.  


Pearson/Petty reborn plus a whale of a day for darkhorses - Not that Richard Petty qualifies as a darkhorse in the traditional sense, but the struggle for success for Petty's raceteam the last thirty-plus years doesn't require elaboration, and seeing Aric Almirola claw to finish fourth was something to behold.   Even more magical was that Petty's #43 and the Wood Brothers #21 were in the lead draft at the end - though Ryan Blaney raced closer to Tim Richmond than David Pearson en route to a spectacular second and an eye-opening Speedweeks.  

And muscling into the fray was AJ Allmendinger, driving Brad Daugherty's #47 and finishing a solid third.    And the way the finish shook out it was a big payday for team owners Jay Robinson, Archie St. Hilaire, and Mark Beard, whose cars all finished in the top-eleven.



How much more incentive is there to go for the lead?   This much..... -  Kevin Harvick finished 22nd and outpointed all but four other cars - Joey Logano finished sixth and outpointed all but two other cars.   In the Truck race Johnny Sauter finished 15th and is second in Truck points - all because the new bonus points structure rewards going to the front sooner rather than later.    Incentivizing going for the lead - it may be just one race weekend but it's clear there is more incentive to go for the front now - and that is only a good thing for racing.


In all, it was by far the best Speedweeks in years, and a great start for Monster Energy in NASCAR.    It can become even more competitive down the road - and this start gives reason that it will.

Bobby Hamilton And Richard Petty's Breakthrough

Twenty years ago this day Richard Petty returned to victory as Bobby Hamilton ended two seasons of promise and frustration with his breakthrough victory.

1975 Champion Spark Plug 400 Michigan International Speedway

MRN's call of the 1975 Yankee 400 from Michigan International Speedway, a tough race with a wild five-lap shootout at the finish between Richard Petty and David Pearson.

From Daytona To Kentucky With The Kez

 

 

Brad Keselowski literally survives to win the Quaker State 400.

The last two weeks of the 2016 Winston Cup season have seen one of the races of the year and the most bizarre finish of the year.   Sandwiched amid the two Cup races were also one of the most exciting Busch-Xfinity Series races of the year and the Truck Series' first test of Kentucky Speedway's new asphalt.  

The Firecracker 250 and 400 weekend was far and away more competitive than the BGN and Cup portions of February Speedweeks.   Aric Almirola's spectacular win in the Firecracker 250 was overshadowed by controversy over NASCAR's timing of yellows and the issue of not racing to the line remains the most foolish and needless controversy NASCAR has.    It put a damper on a statement win by Almirola, driving a Fred Biagi Ford two years after his Firecracker 400 win in Richard Petty's #43.   The win was followed by a superb storm to the front in Richard Petty's car in the 400, an effort wiped out by the two lines shaft-drafting him out of the top-15 near the end, and the result was a disappointing 15th.

Aric Almirola's win at the Firecracker 250 was followed by a stout effort in the 400 and another superb effort - derailed by gas - in the Kentucky 400

The common demoninator above everything else is Brad Keselowski won both races; his sidedraft fight with Kyle Busch in the final 30 laps was the highlight of the season so far.   When people advocate that drivers prove themselves in different forms of racing I'm not sure they meant winning the way Keselowski had to win it - by running out of gas yet sipping enough residue to hold off Carl Edwards.  

Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards had not squared off against each other for a number of years until Kentucky, but less than ten years ago the two became blood enemies as seen in the 2010 Gateway 250.


Brad Keselowski has now become the odds-on favorite for the title, and his title chances are one of numerous subplots from the last two weeks.

The Firecracker 400 was the best Cup racing of the year so far, with the final 30 laps seeing an epic sidedraft war for the lead.


** Kentucky saw its first racing with new asphalt and predictions the surface would be one groove proved only partly accurate.   The Trucks hit first and the trickiness of the surface was apparent right away, yet the longer the race went the wider  albeit slightly - the surface seemed to get; there was also a striking draft effect for the leaders, as the first-place Truck could never get any gap on the others.

It was another win by William Byron as his career continues to advance faster than a lot of people expected. 

It was the Cup 400-miler that was considered the real test, and with very low downforce the cars endured a bizarre event as multiple crashes led to eleven yellows, and with so many restarts the lead changed twice in Turn One on seemingly all of them.   There were also several incidents where cars passed by taking air off the lead car and aero-shoving him out of the groove.   But the downside was the high incidence of air-off-the-spoiler crashing, and while the telecast noted air-off-the-car passing the race also saw aeropush, most glaringly when Martin Truex caught the top two and suddenly couldn't close up to pass.   The inevitable result of low downforce remains aeropush and it will always get worse.

The biggest upshot of the high number of crashes is that it wound up making for the bizarre fuel duel at the finish.

The issue of Kentucky's asphalt overall looks more promising than some may have felt - with more racing the groove will widen out, as it seemed to do so in One and Two more than on the other side in this season's 400.


** Keselowski, Edwards, and Almirola were the primary focus of the race, between Keselowski going for the win, Edwards doing likewise, and Almirola was easily the best Ford other than Keselowski - with a 4th-place effort on the final lap derailed by gas.    The effort by Ford overall began to show real progress in the Firecracker and while Kentucky wasn't as fulfilling in terms of competitive depth there remained evidence that Ford's NASCAR program is finally getting out of being dead last.  

Petty's guys showed they're capable of winning and the Roush fleet finally has become worth taking seriously again after being irrelevant for several years now.   The most bizarre resurgence has been Greg Biffle, while Trevor Bayne has come back from career death with stout finishes the last two weeks.   Ford needs them to win so they stop being only about Penske's guys.


** Toyota has definitely suffered from NASCAR's underside aero changes.   Not that they're uncompetitive, but the Toyotas no longer have the firepower they had the first third of the season.   The upshot of that is Martin Truex appeared to be the strongest car (leading 48 laps) at the end and it didn't become a win. 


** In 2015 Chevrolet fell behind Toyota and Chevy's fall from grace continued at both Daytona and Kentucky, even with the resurgence of Stewart-Haas Racing in its final season as a Chevrolet team.   Jimmie Johnson's Kentucky crash best symbolized Chevy's fall from grace while Tony Stewart's sudden rise to the front cannot be looked at sympathetically by Chevrolet given SHR's pending switch to Ford next season.

The race also displayed a striking trend with Kevin Harvick - he led handily (128 laps) and still couldn't cash in on anything, ending in ninth.  
 Lost in the shuffle was RCR, which saw Ryan Newman come home third in the fuel duel - the kind of strategy that damned him in Rusty Wallace and others' eyes in his second season in Cup - and got some good effort from Paul Menard and Austin Dillon, though neither was around at the end. 


And it adds to NASCAR's first sojourn to Loudon, New Hampshire of 2016.

Classic NASCAR - 1979 Daytona 500 MRN Call

The MRN call of the immortal Daytona 500 of 1979.

The 1976 Daytona 500

The MRN call of the 1976 Daytona 500, the race that rocked the NASCAR world.

NASCAR's Eye-Popping Year, And It Isn't Over Yet

NASCAR has struggled in the last decade and plus as its popularity has declined and the costs and absurdity of its economics have taken a toll on raceteams and speedways.   2014 was promised to be something different with yet another wrinkle to Brian France's absurd Chase format.  

Yet as the NASCAR tour heads to Michigan International Speedway for the Yankee 400, the stunning win by AJ Allmendinger over Marcos Ambrose and the ferocity of the racing at Watkins Glen - not to mention the ferocity of the numerous crashes - have made one reflect that this season has turned into one that has genuine reason to be remembered.  

The sport's most popular driver is Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Junior has finally found the groove in his racing career that's been missing.  He's raced to win, and has won three times, from the Daytona 500 through his sweep of Pocono, the first driver to do the Tim Richmond sweep since Denny Hamlin.  And once again the Hendrick Motorsports juggernaut has won a lot, highlighted also by Jeff Gordon's resurgance to reach 90 wins - though chronic back issues have plagued Gordon recently.

And Gordon's back hasn't been the biggest story at the Hendrick shop - Jimmie Johnson's campaign for the seventh series title has been bombed like the PLO by crashes and mechanical failures, and suddenly the #48 team that looked a Cup title lock no longer is. 

While Hendrick has run up more wins, the resurgance the sport has seen - and needed - has been from Richard Petty's organization.   Aric Almirola's surge to competitive legitimacy has been striking and the return of the #43 to the Firecracker 400 victory 30 years after the STP Pontiac's historic triumph has only been liberating.   A NASCAR season where Earnhardt Junior is winning has certainly benefitted the sport; that same season seeing Richard Petty's team winning again is the ultimate fusion of the old guard and the new - a fusion that is only right.

Watkins Glen brought these trains of thought on a curious collision course as multiple melees affected the field and put a damper on a stunning slugfest of a finish between Petty's #9 car of Marcos Ambrose and the Brad Daugherty #47 driven by Petty's former driver in AJ Allmendinger.   Coming after Ambrose drove a Petty car to win the Busch Series 200 the day before, the weekend was a Petty-themed weekend the sport hasn't seen to this level in many, many years.  

And the finish at Watkins Glen brought out some of the vinegar seen in other races, such as the two Daytona races, Talladega, and the NASCAR Modifieds at New Hampshire, races where passing and repassing were the focal point and the winner got the win by outfighting the field.



*****

Yet hanging over everything was the ugliness of an upstate dirt track set-to between Tony Stewart and local racer Kevin Ward where Stewart ran over Ward and thus took his life.   It brought out the uglier side of recent NASCAR history and the surge to success of drivers displaying the kind of irresponsible deportment that leads to situations like what happened the night before the Watkins Glen NASCAR GP.   Drivers getting out of their cars to call out those who raced them dirty is universal to racing, and cars calmly drive by even when helmets are thrown at windshields - or even when we see situations such as at Stafford Speedway years back where a driver hammered by another car jumped onto the hood of the offending car trying to get the ignition wires.   That Stewart did not calmly drive by with enough opportunity to do so is the gravely disturbing reality of this situation - one simply cannot concoct a scenario exonerating Stewart here, though it hasn't stopped multiple forums from being filled with nonsensical condemnation of Ward for walking toward Stewart's car.

Even if running over the other driver was indeed accidental, Stewart is still guilty of gross stupidity in not paying enough attention to see Ward walking onto the racetrack - as other cars did in calmly driving by him without any harm.  And it bears remembering it began with a hard sideswipe by Stewart that took out Ward's racecar.   Slide job crashes are not uncommon in dirt racing - or even asphalt oval track racing for that matter - but most are not malicious.   Stewart's history, though, carries a malicious quality to wrecks in which he's been involved.    And NASCAR's recent generation of racers has seen numerous others who display a similar level of psychotic quality to their racing - Carl Edwards and his numerous crashes, notably his savagery in encounters with Brad Keselowski; Joey Logano and the 2009 Irwindale melee that has carried over at times to his Cup career (notably the Fontana crash with Denny Hamlin); the Busch brothers, widely hated by fans for derangement spanning years; even Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have displayed heavy rap sheets of tearing up someone else's sheetmetal.

And there is the overlooked fact his Winston Cup raceteam issued a statement early Sunday morning that Stewart would race and it was "business as usual," a statement that raised eyebrows on such non-racing forums as WEEI Radio in Boston.   It was around noon that Stewart announced he would withdraw from the race and Regan Smith would take over the #14 that Sunday.   That timeline looks suspicious, like Stewart was going to race as though nothing had happened and had to be persuaded at the last hour not to go through with it.

In the past the likes of Ernie Irvan and Ricky Rudd were drivers under the microscope following brutal on-track set-tos; the upshot is Irvan wound up paying the price as his own injuries ultimately ended his career.   One now wonders if Tony Stewart pays some price, not in injury but in the cloud that will hang over him now.  


*****


With the Yankee 400 at Michigan the sport returns to the big tracks still grappling with the technology arms race and its harmful effect on passing - ironically shown in a recent K&N series race at Iowa Speedway (won by Brandon Jones, who looks all of thirteen years of age even though he's older) where the cars, running on bias ply tires instead of radials, were four abreast for the lead in a wild ten-lap battle to the finish.   Should Michigan see racing like this the sport will take another step forward in making itself better.  

And it will showcase how a season already shocking isn't over yet.

Daytona: Welcome Home, Richard

There are many reasons why the heart grows fonder. In racing the passage of time has that effect perhaps like no other sport.   Seeing Richard Petty's #43 return to victory at Daytona International Speedway, regardless of the rainy circumstances, showcases what he means to racing, because where Daytona has showcased the excellence of David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, and others and they have more than proven themselves as genuine competition heroes, Petty's absence from winning was still wrong.

Richard did what others have not done - made an entire sport his showcase and made it a positive one.   His rivals in Pearson, Cale, the Allisons, Buddy Baker, Isaac, Benny Parsons, AJ Foyt (his equal and then some in Indycar racing), Fred Lorenzen, and others all need no  justification as Hall Of Fame racers and people who made racing excellence for all involved; indeed together they grew the sport at least as much as the Frances and others involved in its gestation such as the Vogts, Joe Littlejohn, John Holman and Ralph Moody, the Wood Brothers, the Ranier family (Lorin still wields influence on Jamie McMurray's Chevrolet and that car runs strong as a result), Clay Earles, the Mattiolis, and more than can be remebered off-hand here. 

Yet Richard Petty was able to go an extra mile in integrating with all involved as well as going the extra mile to win.   He combined guile with aggressiveness and at his best he was amazing to watch wheeling that blue and red Dodge through traffic for the lead.  

For all of its faults, racing offers enormously in terms of competitive virtue, and the 2014 Firecracker 400 offered some excellent racing as the battle for the lead was a true battle.  The criticism that racefans want to see the wrecks got examples for certain, notably Kyle Busch's set-to with nineteen others near what was the race's end.   The battle between Kurt Busch and Petty's driver Aric Almirola was as good a bout of racing as the sport has seen in 2014; even more impressive has been Almirola's surge after a patch of poor results that was at times ugly.   He resurrected himself at Kentucky until a mid-race melee swept him up, and now he's taken the next step.

Of course there's the next step beyond that - winning again, and again.   Pocono has a Petty history as do Michigan, Atlanta, Martinsville, Charlotte, and Talladega.  Almirola now has to take that next step, but now we can see he has that ability.   And now we can say - for one week anyway - racing order has been restored.


Welcome home, Richard.

1986 Talladega 500

NASCAR's most bizarre race as Richard Petty, Tim Richmond, and seemingly everyone else led before a dark horse who stopped being relevant after this race stole the win.

1987 Daytona 500

Looking back at the 1987 Daytona 500. The racing, while not as competitive as earlier (such as 1971, 1974, 1976, and 1983) and later (notably 1993, 1996, 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2014) 500s, nonetheless is pretty good, and the cars for the most part are better looking than today's - Elliott's Thunderbird, Benny Parsons in Tim Richmond's Monte Carlo (renumbered 35 here), and Richard Petty's Pontiac 2+2 are handsomer racecars than today's sedans.

Of particular interest is the segment at 1:47:00 of this package - Dave Despain shows how the draft has largely disappeared from the racing and thus made passing more difficult. The draft had been effective even on intermediate tracks like Charlotte and Atlanta as well as flat big tracks like Pocono, Michigan, and the by-then-shuttered Ontario track. The disappearance of the draft combined with later switchover to radial tires from bias-plies all but eliminated passing - and the effects of both continue to be felt; one need only contrast the 2014 Indianapolis 500 with NASCAR's Pocono 400 held earlier today as this is written. The draft needs to be returned because that's where the most passing happens.

These cars in this 1987 period would have also benefitted from the roof blade NASCAR ran on and off 2000-10 - not only for a stronger draft but also to plant the nose of the cars onto the ground, as they had a problem of pushing.

Identity Politics Infect NASCAR and the NFL

The biggest story in sports right now before the beginning of Speedweeks at Daytona, and less than two weeks after the Superbowl, is Michael Sam, a defensive lineman looking to enter the NFL Draft. he said in an interview earlier this week that he is homosexual, and it's naturally set off a wave of congradulatory messages from Barack Obama (though Sam's father was naturally troubled by the news) to Robert Kraft, who stated he'd like the Patriots to draft Sam if he can help them win. Sam led the SEC in sacks (11.5) and tackles for loss (19).    Some scouting reports, though, paint him as basically a one-trick pony, who struggled at the Senior Bowl against more-NFL-caliber tackles.  


Therein lay what I suspect is the real reason why Sam is making being homosexual an issue.


The standard line "His orientation doesn't matter" has been trucked out to defend him, but the fact he is the one bringing being gay into the discussion indicates it does matter; it paints him as someone to whom being gay is more important than being a football player, and the NFL has already had to deal with a strikingly similar issue in Jonathan Martin, to whom being weaker and whinier than his teammates was more important than football.   When some quotes attributed to unnamed NFL GMs were published, NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith reacted angrilly (calling them "gutless"), an illustration of the utter dishonesty that exists in discussing such issues.


The blunt truth that no one dares state is Sam's lifestyle is wrong.   Homosexuality has no biological reason to exist, and the constant assertions that "you don't choose to be gay" will never ring true no matter what junk science is cited in its defense.    Here is the hypocrisy at work - if Sam had stated that he is a smoker, he would be criticized in the media for it; that homosexuality is not a healthier alternative is ignored because as Michael Graham once wrote, it "doesn't feel right" to criticize on that score.   We tell smokers, "Change."   Why not also say that to gays?  Because it "doesn't feel right?"


What Sam is doing here is laying down a gauntlet - he's telling the league "You have an obligation to draft me because I am gay."   In short, his lifestyle is his entitlement to be drafted into the NFL.   And it is implicit in the varied media coverage of this whole issue - one hazards to find negative coverage of Sam anywhere; the premise in all coverage now is that he should be drafted by the fact of him saying he's gay.


########



The entitlement mentality that is identity politics is also at work in criticisms of Richard Petty for comments belittling Danica Patrick's racing ability - she would win only if "everybody else stayed home."   Petty also noted "If she were a male, nobody would ever know if she showed up at a racetrack."


Having followed racing and thus had to witness Patrick's career, it is impossible to see where Richard Petty is saying anything particularly inaccurate.   In 226 combined NASCAR, ARCA, and Indycar races she has led a shade over 200 total laps entering 2014 and posted just eight top five finishes.   Her one win in Indycars was a split-squad race against a truncated field won on fuel mileage at Motegi.   And she's done this with quality racecars - Rahal Racing, Andretti Autosport, Hendrick/Stewart, etc.   She has gotten a lot to work with and done very little with it.


The blunt truth here again is the fact of her identity - being a woman is her credential to race.   And it's even more blatant with Danica - she famously posed for soft-porn photography to promote herself before joining Indycar. 


Yet if that is stated, the one making the statement is treated as the enemy.   Such is what identity politics entails - suppression of truth.    There's nothing about being gay that's to be proud of, yet Michael Sam clearly is more proud of that than of football; being a woman remains Danica Patrick's credential to race, despite nearly ten years proving she's not entitled to anything.

1974 Firecracker 400 MRN Classics

The 1974 Firecracker 400 at Daytona, the MRN radiocast of the full race.

Dodge Disaster

The word that Dodge is withdrawing from NASCAR after twelve seasons in Winston Cup brings to an end a period of unrealized potential and constitutes a blow to the competitive depth of the series as it already struggles with weakening competitive depth and spending issues that no doubt played a role in Dodge's withdrawal.

Dodge and its parent company Chrysler had been a NASCAR participant in the 1950s onward as a direct factory backer of race teams, and with Richard Petty, the Harry Hyde-Bobby Isaac tandem, and teams such as Ray Fox, Everett "Cotton" Owens, and Ray Nichels Engineering, Chrysler enjoyed great NASCAR success and a bitter rivalry with Ford Motor Company. When the factories withdrew in the 1970-71 period, Dodges fielded by Petty and Hyde kept winning but parts shortages finally ended the success of the brand in 1978.

Then in the early 1990s a Lebaron was entered in ARCA racing and began to win. It led in 1996 to Dodge involvement with the new NASCAR Truck Series, with Petty as its first team. The Dodge program grew to where by 2000 Petty and other teams were fielding Dodge Trucks and working together under Lou Patane under the One Team catchphrase and philosophy. The success led Dodge to sign Petty, Bill Davis, and Ray Evernham to field Winston Cup Dodge Intrepids.

But things began to go wrong almost right away. Indycar owner Chip Ganassi muscled in by purchasing SABCO Racing and getting Dodge backing, for which he earned a rebuke from Bill Davis in August 2000. Ganassi began winning almost immediately and the program appeared to be struggling as Patane's authority was usurped by Daimler, which had bought into Chrysler; officials in Stuttgart now began running the program and the One Team philosophy disappeared. Davis got into trouble with Dodge despite winning races and was dropped from the program in 2003. Evernham began winning with Bill Elliott and in 2004 Kasey Kahne began becoming a star when he joined the Evernham team. Behind the scenes there, however, chaos was reigning with teammate Jeremy Mayfield, who won twice but chafed at the internal workings of the team and publicly called out Evernham and his relationship with development driver (and his future wife) Eric Crocker. Petty Enterprises had it by far the worst, as the engine program never got untracked in 2001, leading to a deal with Mike Ege's engine shop, then eventually with Evernham's shop. Kyle Petty ran the team and hired Robin Pemberton for 2002, but Pemberton quit in a dispute with Kyle and the team steadily weakened, despite a burst of muscle from driver Bobby Labonte in 2006-8 following the return of team manager Robbie Loomis, who'd been Richard Petty's crew chief from 1991-1999.

Eventually Evernham's team itself began falling apart in 2007 with a publicized dispute between Evernham and his engineering staff. With the sport's economics becoming more and more difficult, Evernham merged his team with businessman George Gillett, a deal that fell apart by the end of 2008, to where the team merged with Petty Enterprises after Richard Petty took back day-to-day control of his team. The new Richard Petty Motorsports won twice in 2009 before leaving Dodge. Ganassi, meanwhile, had also left Dodge after its own slow-motion collapse and eventual merger with Teresa Earnhardt's Chevrolet team.

This left Roger Penske as the only team running Dodges. Penske had signed with Dodge in 2003, and his history of siphoning off factory help from other teams to buff up his own carried over here. Then Penske announced a switch to Fords for 2013.

The program's legacy is that of a casualty of poor management and the sport's increasing expenses, to where $20 million team budgets are now considered low ball. The technology arms race in the sport escalated - no small part thanks to Dodge - to the point where success has become almost too difficult to be worth it. It's a bitter legacy to racing and to the Dodge brand.

1976 Purolator 500 MRN Call

MRN Classic Races: 1976 Purolator 500 at Pocono.