Dr. Bud E. Bryan's Disconnect

The Autoextremist site is at it again with its vitriolic NASCAR-bashing, this time it its Road Kill section with authorship by Dr. Bud E. Bryan. Bryan takes umbrage at hostile reaction to Peter DeLorenzo following the site's story that one of the three participating manufacturers may quit NASCAR. Bryan's umbrage displays the mindset of those who hate NASCAR.

Bryan screams that NASCAR is a spec car series. But is this the exception to the rule nowadays? Racing in general has evolved closer to spec-car specifications than anyone could have ever imagined. It is hard now to think of a racing series that isn't fairly close to spec car status.

And the question is begged - if spec car is bad, what is NASCAR supposed to do? Bryan never bothers to make some recommendations, instead he blathers on about NASCAR being a spec car series, homogenized, driven by marketing, etc. It isn't a free lunch here - given the reality of costs and absurd performance levels, what is so bad about a spec car mentality anyway? NASCAR as it was in the 1950s died out in the 1960s because the reality of racecar performance, costs, and so forth changed the sport to where it could never be a pure stock car series anymore.

"Anyone who can say with a straight face that restrictor plate racing makes any sense...." I can say it with a straight face, and 56 lead changes among 22 drivers at Talladega say it with a defeaning crescendo, Dr. Bryan. Where has a non-spec car series ever had racing close to that competitive?

They may be right on NASCAR's often embarassing marketing overkill and some other areas, but the Autoextremist site suffers from the very disconnect to attacks in NASCAR - the disconnect from the realities of modern racing. This, rather than NASCAR, is the fraud of modern racing.

Defining Success Down

In NASCAR nowadays we may be seeing a trend of defining success downward. This shows in Robert Barker's comment that finishing in the top 20 at Talladega was a good day.

Defining success down isn't a trend to be pleased with. "Top 20 is the new Top 10" isn't the way to approach racing, because it amounts to conceding defeat. No team worth its salt would be pleased to have finished in the top twenty, because it means they didn't do well enough. And it is recognizing that you didn't do well enough that motivates teams to do better and try harder.

Defining success down will not bring success upward for anyone.

Spring Sizzler Miscellenia

Stafford Motor Speedway kicked off its 2006 season with the 35th annual Spring Sizzler and it was pretty much as advertised. Doug Coby's win was doubly dramatic in that it was his breakthrough win on the Mod Tour, and it came at the track at which Coby became a competitive race driver, from his debut in Late Models upward in the track's ranks.

Short track racing in New England is a rich tradition, albiet something of an underground one - the publicity given over the years to New England sports legends in the realms of baseball, hockey, football, and basketball remains vaster than that given New England-area racers. Nonetheless, the richness of New England racing's tradition is there to explore, in such names as Ted Christopher, Greg Sacks, Ralph Moody, and Ron Bouchard, just a few of the great short track participants that helped make New England racing as tough and exciting as one can find.

The 2006 Sizzler was a bittersweet event for New England racing, and it says something about Jack Arute Senior that his passing in early April 2006 warranted rememberence on a national race telecast. Notes Lloyd Agor, the defending champion of Stafford's SK Modified division, "He built a great facility and put a lot of hard work into it."

SK-class Modifieds are today a popular staple of racing at tracks like Stafford and Thompson but when Jack Arute Senior first brought this class of racecar to Stafford it wasn't as well received. It nonetheless caught on and is the featured class at the track.

Ted Christopher is undoubtedly the lightning rod of attention at Stafford; in the Sizzler's SK feature he dodged numerous wrecks (which caused some ten cautions in a span of 11 laps) and got into a heated neck-and-neck battle for the lead late in the going with Keith Rocco before grabbing the win. It was the 81st win in the SKs for "Terrible Ted" and keeps him well ahead of everyone else in the lengthy history of the division in career wins.

Christopher ran both the SK and the Whelen Modified Tour race, and one driver he's had some good races with over the years is John Blewitt III, who has driven for several teams over the years, such as the now-defunct Mario Fiore #44 and also Curt Chase's #77, and presently drives his own #66. "We practiced well, but it's tough here in daytime races, it gets slicker than in night races," Blewitt said before the race.

Being a veteran of the Modified Tour Blewitt has seen the tour recently shrink from 20 races to 14, with Stafford, Thompson, and New Hampshire International Speedway making up the bulk of the tour. "It's what you make of it," Blewitt says. "I'd like to see better purses, but that drives up ticket prices, so you havew to draw a line somewhere. It's in pretty good shape, you have good young drivers and a lot of veterans."

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The Whelen Modified Series in 2002 found a diamond in the rough in Chuck Hossfeld. Given up for dead career-wise when he was released by Roush Racing after an unsuccessful stint in the Craftsman Trucks, Hossfeld joined Bob Garbarino's Mystic Missile #4 Dodge and pulled off some spectacular wins, none more so than two triumphs at New Hampshire in his first two seasons in the Mystic #4. Entering 2006, though, Hossfeld was looking for a ride. "I didn't have a ride, and we talked with Bob and it went from there. I've won races over the years, I'm proud of the wins, and been close to winning a title, and I want to win the championship, that will definately be gratifying."

According to Hossfeld, "NASCAR is stepping up their effort to get more dates. We've got different series that are taking some cars away, but I think it's overall going in the right direction."

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Kenny Horton, a former Late Modeler turned SK racer and part-time Tour driver, says that being a short tour, the Modified Series "can pick up some more tracks, but it's very expensive, very difficult to keep going at it. NASCAR is doing what it can, and it's the same with the Busch East tour, and with the Modifieds they may move further down the East Coast with some more tracks. It's a short tour now, but they're working at it."

Horton's weekend was an adventurous one, as he was involved in a melee in Saturday action, then had to dodge the wrecks in the SK feature as well as the Mod Series 200-lapper.

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The Late Model feature closed out Stafford's Sizzler and proved to be a good final tribute to Jack Arute Sr. as Rick Lanagan dominated but Woody Pitkat ran him down in the final laps and gunned him down on the outside. It was a good ending to the bittersweet beginning of the track's regular season, with nearly five months' worth of short track action now on the way.

"Jack Senior is watching from a better place right now," Lloyd Agor said.

Does Evernham Need To Start Questioning Mayfield?

NASCAR's Talladega weekend began amid several bouts of bad news such as the need to hastily haul out backup cars to fill out the BGN field and the hostile local reaction to the proposed NYC Speedway.

One overlooked story, though, concerns Jeremy Mayfield. He has won five NASCAR races, but in 2006 he has been all but irrelevent. Needless to say, he's worried about it, and apparantly is waiting for Ray Evernham to step in. "Ray's on top of everything that goes on, and yet we're this far into the season and I don't see the urgency right now for some reason of why we're running bad."

Evernham for his part has said he has talked to Mayfield about the dismal performance of his #19 Dodge, this while Kasey Kahne's #9 has won twice with the end of April and #10 Scott Riggs, though it has not shown much muscle either, has nonetheless climbed a ladder after failing to make the Daytona 500.

That Mayfield is struggling in the #19 is pretty old hat by now. Jeremy Mayfield's career has been a bizarre mix of great potential and uninspiring performance. Being hired by Cale Yarborough's team in mid-1994, Mayfield ran well at times, winning a pole at Talladega, before jumping into Michael Kranefuss' Ford in September 1996. Mayfield begfan to improve in his finishes, and when Kranefuss merged his team into Roger Penske's team in 1998 Mayfield broke through with victory at Pocono.

But after that his 1998 season collapsed. He didn't win in 1999 despite several good races, then in 2000 he won at Fontana, this after his Talladega pole run in April of that year resulting in a cheating scandal. He won again at Pocono, punting Dale Earnhardt aside on the final lap, and delightfully skewered Earnhardt's bald-faced lie from Bristol the previous August - "I was just trying to rattle his cage."

But 2000 was an epidemic of blown engines for Mayfield, and in 2001 his relationship with the Penske team soured and then blew up at Kansas when he called out the team for bringing the wrong chassis to the track.

Mayfield joined Evernham for 2002, and for the most part struggled. Just as everything looked lost, Mayfield finished second at Dover in 2003, and began a strong run of finishes. When he won at Richmond in 2004, he made NASCAR's inaugural playoff format, but once there never went anywhere. He nailed a fuel-mileage win at Michigan in 2005 and made the playoffs again, and again went nowhere.

Mayfield has been the one constant on a team that has seen several changes in crew chiefs, pit personnel, engineers - for all practical purposes Evernham has turned the team upside down trying to get consistent performance out of Mayfield.

Eventually, one has to begin questioning Jeremy Mayfield on that team. Evernham has seen what is working with Kasey Kahne - can Mayfield adapt his driving style to what works for Kahne? Perhaps Evernham should press Mayfield on matters in that regard.

Sharia Black Humor

You have to laugh at the lengths to which sharia goes to kill free speech, shown in sharia's attack on a brothel flying Islamo-Arab flags. Of course this tragicomic incident says a lot about the inhumanity and intolerance of Islamo-Arab imperialism.

Who's Cooking What Intelligence?

The line is recited in rote fashion - Bush cooked pre-war Iraq intelligence.

The case of CIA "leaker" Mary McCarthy brings up the question, Who's cooking what?

FOLLOW-UP: The whole Mary McCarthy brouhaha brings to attention the CIA's disinformation war against the Bush Administration, and it is worth examining the CYA culture of the Agency.

Gassy Gas-Price Rhetoric

So for the second time in two years fuel prices are exceeding $3 per gallon, and it's gotten a lot of people in a lather. This, though, is what happens when people get jittery about the workings of the market. There was jitteriness about the economy after the 2001 Islamo-Arab acts of war euphemistically called the 9/11 attacks, but the economy didn't skip a beat. Gas prices spiked to $3 last year and then dropped below $2 per gallon for awhile during this past winter.

It isn't stopping political jitteriness. Republicans who should know better are once again getting it backwards by demanding interference in the market instead of getting production increased while the Democrats do the only thing they are capable of doing on any issue - they're demagoguing it.

While some areas of energy policy do need a look, ultimately one can solve a lot of problems by simply leaving the market alone. The market can help in the area of oil sands, a source of fuel far more promising than biofuels, popularly pushed as alternatives to oil-based fuels but which aren't adding up in mileage.

The gas that is the rhetoric about gas prices needs to be shut off and calmnes brought into the debate.

From The Ashes Of Phoenix

Phoenix International Raceway's first Nextel Cup weekend of the season went off with the usual short-oval rough stuff and with quite a few stories in the background, such as Jeff Gordon griping about not being chosen for Goodyear tire tests.

None, though, was more bizarre than the story from Peter DeLorenzo's website that one of the sport's participating manufacturers was preparing to quit the sport with Toyota coming in. The story had no byline, as is common at the site, and didn't name the manufacturer supposedly preparing to quit. While Jayski vouched for DeLorenzo's credibility, it was also noted that DeLorenzo is controversial and has a history of being anti-NASCAR.

That's putting it mildly, for the site's NASCAR-bashing and IRL-bashing is continuous and for the most part illogical. The site is in love with road racing and with high-technology vehicles, yet never can proffer a particularly believable argument for either in contrast to NASCAR and IRL's more retro-tech approach - has there ever been a road race or a high-tech racecar series that saw better racing than IRL on most intermediate superspeedways or NASCAR at the restrictor plate tracks, or even NASCAR Modifieds at New Hampshire?

One theme of the manufacturer story is railing against NASCAR's tightness on car specs and what kind of technologies can be raced; the site regularly rails against NASCAR's aero-matching rules, yet has never explained how car shapes would have been different without aero-matching, nor has it bothered to wonder if technology has really benefitted racing - as Brock Yates wrote in 1986, costs and absurd performance levels have forced the banning of multitudes of technological items such as Wankel engines from many racing series. That there is a limit to technology's usefulness in racing is something DeLorenzo's site never bothers to consider.

The story asserts that the manufacturers have seen a continuing decrease in sales as their NASCAR involvements have increased, clearly trying to draw a connection that the manufacturers have wasted enormous sums of money on a pointless racing series. That declining car sales have more to do with influences outside of their NASCAR involvement is of course ignored by the site.

There is, though, one galling truth in the story - NASCAR has done a poor job the last number of years helping all of racing. Nowhere is this more graphically shown than in its feeder divisions, whose neglect is hardly a secret in NASCAR circles. It also shows in the escalation of costs at the Nextel Cup level, which NASCAR has not reigned in.

Certainly there is need for NASCAR to start spending serious money on its feeder divisions, far more than it presently is, and also to start cracking down hard on how much money teams can spend at the Nextel Cup level; with the effectivenes of revenue sharing in other sports, that avenue needs to be explored as well.

The reality is that manufacturer involvement benefits all involved, not just NASCAR, and that there are limits to what should be brought into the sport. This is something the site needs to come to grips with.

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The Busch Series is the most publicized example of NASCAR neglect of its feeder divisions, as Buschwackers continue to monopolize things. Jason Leffler's stellar run nearly ended the Buschwacker run but came acropper in a series of late-race melees, ultimately leaving Kevin Harvick the winner, the beginning of a weekend sweep.

The Busch brothers, meanwhile, continue to make waves. Kyle Busch made more waves in the Arizona 500k for the wrong reasons, while Kurt Busch and teammate Ryan Newman once again struggled at the end of a rough race. The steady decline of Penske Racing stands in contrast to the surge of Kasey Kahne and rejuvination of Bobby Labonte and the Petty team. Their surge gives hope that the rest of their programs will likewise begin clawing forward, though one still has questions to ask of Evernham Motorsports' Jeremy Mayfield.

It all added up to a pretty memorable weekend at Phoenix, and left fans eagerly awaiting November's second round, an eagerness that helps explain why tracks get two dates a year. It also showed how flat short ovals, often maligned for inferior racing, can be pretty competitive as well.

Busch Series Conundrum

The continued deterioration of what began as NASCAR's Late Model Sportsman series - today known as the Busch Series - has brought increased attention toward what to do, and some rather odd ideas are springing up. The oddest is converting BGN cars to "pony" car specs - Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger, and Toyota Solara.

The argument in favor of this is that it constitutes a clean slate with completely different cars from Nextel Cup. Such a change, it is argued, "would limit the value of running Saturday Busch races to gain data for the Sunday Nextel Cup race."

This, though, is false. The data gained from running Saturday races is far too great for switching racecars to alter, especially given limitations on testing that NASCAR refuses to recognize are a failure and the biggest mistake they've done in over twenty years. NASCAR pony cars would not handle so differently from Winston Cup cars to dissuade Buschwacking - if anything, we're seeing the answer to that argument in the entry of Winston/Nextel Cup drivers in Truck races that serve as Saturday undercards at certain tracks.

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That such ideas are getting some consideration indicates that the kind of hard, unpopular, but effective changes that a conundrum like this require are being ignored. This is not what real leadership entails. Leadership entails making unpopular decisions, because unpopular decisions tend to be the right ones.

The unpopular choice is the one that will actually work - an outright ban on Nextel Cup participation in BGN races. Banning the Buschwackers has always been recommended by series regulars going back to L.D. Ottinger and Jack Ingram in the 1970s, back when the series was not the touring series it is today and when drivers like Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, and Lennie Pond drove Winston Cup and Sportsman races (and usually won them at places like Charlotte and Daytona) and teams like Petty Enterprises, Junie Donlavey, DiGard, Junior Johnson, and Rod Osterlund entered Sportsman cars.

How can banning Nextel Cup participation help BGN? For starters, it frees up purse and sponsorship monies that can better serve BGN regulars, and also switches press coverage toward series regulars. The immediate counter-argument is that there are virtually no legitimate BGN regulars as drivers or teams to make a viable series now. This is true, and a damning indictment of NASCAR and the Buschwackers. Undoing the damage of four-decades of Buschwacking is a daunting task, but it is one that NASCAR can undertake by switching some the their TV and other outside revenue into BGN purses, promotions, searches for sponsors for teams - all the big and little things a sanctioning body is supposed to do for a series anyway.

Pony cars are not the answer for BGN - the answer is for NASCAR to put its foot down and ban Buschwacking, then start spending serious money on the series.

NASCAR's Washington State Speedway May be Aborted

The much-ballyhooed speedway in Kitsap, Washington that International Speedway Corporation wants to build may be aborted. ISC wants heavy public financing for the speedway and Washington State politicians and voters don't want to help pay for it.

They may be right, based on past experience with publically-financed sports stadiums. And as far as racing goes, the proposed track and its proposed New York City sister track are bad ideas. NASCAR has already penciled in two Nextel Cup/BGN weekends for its proposed NYC Speedway, but to get those dates it has hinted at taking some dates away from tracks like Martinsville.

Given the speedway fratricide the sport has endured the last ten years - North Wilkesboro and Rockingham are gone, Darlington is down to one date, and we've endured the spectacle of speedway lawsuits regarding Texas Motor Speedway and more recently Kentucky Speedway - few people support the idea of taking dates away from established speedways in favor of these newer tracks which don't promise particularly good racing to begin with. And one has to wonder why so much money is being invested in proposed new speedways instead of being spent on more pressing needs within the sport, such as its feeder series like BGN, the varied short track touring series, and even the Trucks, which need better purses and promotion and more sponsors.

The sport does not need new tracks. It needs to stay where it is and start reinvesting in its immediate problems.

NASCAR Goes Soft Again While Foyt IV's Career Fizzles

NASCAR has once again taken the cowardly way out. Instead of forcing drivers to toughen themselves up and accept slam-drafting for what it is - a necessary racing tactic that increases the competitiveness of the racing - NASCAR will require teams to remove steel plates from their front bumpers for Talladega, to soften them in the hope that if a team pushes another car it will buckle their bumper enough to hurt aerodynamics.

Predictably Jeff Gordon was front and center praising the change, and as usual there will be no media coverage of a contrary viewpoint, a viewpoint that takes the drivers to task for complaining instead of sucking it up and racing, a viewpoint that points out a glaring fact that refutes the Lindsey Lohan act - not one accident has ever occurred because of push-drafting.

If the Mainstream Media - MSM - and its coverage of everything from the Iraq War to Hurricane Katrina's aftermath to gasoline prices consistently takes the doomsday approach and never gets the story right as a result, then the Race-Stream Media - RSM - is also guilty of lack of ideological diversity and of thus not getting it right.

Put the proverbial gun to the heads of RSM types and tell them to name a wreck that was caused by push-drafting. They may grope for an answer but will not be able to come up with one.

On push-drafting, at least someone got under Tony Stewart's skin at Daytona, a refreshing change from a generally tepid Race-Stream Media. Why they don't take the drivers to task more often is a mystery. Criticism of participants in the other sports by their press corps is no rarity; why should the Race-Stream Media so consistently avoid taking drivers to task in print?

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On another note, the fizzling of AJ Foyt IV's racing career continues with his release from his BGN ride. It is disappointing that AJ IV's career is going nowhere at the present. His IRL days never saw any kind of respectable numbers, but being with a team all but devoid of sponsorship meant he could never get anything going to start with; on those few occassions when he had good racecars, he raced well.

Foyt IV once boasted he would not race "taxicabs." Circumstances made him change his tune, but he may have been right before, since he realistically hasn't shown any potential in a stock car. What will happen to him from here on remains to be seen, but one can't have much confidence that AJ IV will last in NASCAR now.

NBC Looks For NASCAR Bigots.......And Can't Find Any

The Mainstream Media's credibility has been on the wane for over forty years, from its slipshod coverage of the Vietnam War and Watergate onward. Outlets exposing the Mainstream Media and its lack of credibility did exist then but were heavily outnumbered, a situation that isn't quite the case today with many alternative sources of information.

The latest example of dishonest Mainstream Media is Dateline NBC and its "sting" attempt at the Virginia 500 at Martinsville. It sent decoy Muslims (they were Sikhs, the closest they could get to "actual" Muslims) with hidden cameras into the crowd to see if anyone would speak ill of them. They went looking for anti-Muslim bigotry, in short. Alas, they couldn't find any.

The reason for this story is the prejudice against non-minorities that exists in the MSM. NASCAR Nation is stereotyped as a "race of rednecks," as if anyone even knows what the word means. Dateline calls it a legitimate story to find anti-Muslim sentiment, thus exposing the manipulative mindset behind its prejudices.

The problem is that the legitimate story is not anti-Muslim sentiment, but Muslims, and in the context of this story, particularly American Muslims. There has been talk of anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is Muslims who should be taken to task, not NASCAR fans.

What has the Muslim community done? What has it done about its own prejudices? What has it done about antisemitism? What has it done about the issue of Islamo-Arab imperialism? What has it done to help improve the lot of its own people? This story shows the problems that exist with the Muslim community in the US.

American Muslims overall seem to have done quite well for themselves and integrated into America. But issues such as these deserve greater attention than bogus "stings" against NASCAR fans.

The Right NASCAR Rules Packages

As NASCAR continues debating what to do about potential tire trouble at Charlotte the varied ideas have predicatbly gotten lukewarm reviews from crew chiefs. The most controversial idea involves restrictor plates, with crew chiefs repreating the common refrain about not slowing corner speeds down and "we'll just run wide open here."

Restrictor plates continue to get bad press even though they work. It is repeatedly pointed out that they were used at New Hampshire in September 2000 and the race lead changed hands only once, on the opening lap, after which Jeff Burton led all 300 laps. That it had nothing to do with restrictor plates is never given a second thought, even though the mantra remains that restrictor plates somehow impede ability to pass because of reduction in throttle response. That theory, though, went down the drain from the 1988 Daytona 500 onward, and even at that NHIS race Bobby Labonte squeezed ahead of Burton for the lead on two seperate laps; Burton sidedrafted back around Labonte and beat him to the stripe both times, so officially the lead never changed.

The talk about running wide open at Charlotte ignores that they're for all practical purposed already wide open, a handling "sweet spot" teams regularly strive for, since wide open usually means perfect handling. Also ignored is that slowing the straightaway speeds won't mean faster corner speeds; corner speeds stay the same, the difference is the cars can take the corners harder because they're more secure to the track with slower straightaway speeds.

What is needed aside from the plates is a package that brings drafting back into Charlotte's playbook; drafting was a factor throughout the 1960s and 1970s until the slickness of the cars reduced the strength of the draft from the early '80s onward; it briefly returned in 1995-6 with the switch to GM's controversial W-body racecars. The roof spoiler package BGN runs at the plate tracks would seem to be a way to go there.

Also needed are better tires, and some (notably Chris Economaki, the nation's dean of race reporters and racecasters) have noted that NASCAR tires are too narrow for the cars to be secure to the track. Widening tires is a step worth exploring.

At NHIS the NASCAR Whelan Modified Tour has put on consistently superior racing from NHIS's debut in 1990, and their package is akin to the roof spoiler package combined with wide tires. NASCAR's fendered classes don't necessarily need as much tire as the Modifieds possess, but the principle is certainly easy to spot.

Pocono Shows How To Work With Other Tracks

Overlooked by many in racing lately is this interesting tidbit - Pocono Raceway's working deal with Barrie Speedway in Canada. Amid continuing track wars, the disbanding by NASCAR of several touring divisions, and the general struggle of American and Canadian short tracks in the last few years, Pocono's promotional alliance with Barrie Speedway is a breath of fresh air.

Many in racing seem to have lost sight of the fact that racetracks can and should work together, because both local tracks and superspeedways benefit from each other. Pocono's cross-promotions with Barrie should be expanded to other area short tracks when and where practical, and other superspeedways would be well-advised to engage in cross-promotions with local tracks.

New Hampshire International Speedway, for one, can cross-promote with numerous New England-area tracks like White Mountain Motorsports Park, Star Lee & Hudson Speedways (all in NH), Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Maine, Stafford and Thompson Speedways in CT, and Seekonk Speedway in MA. Talladega Superspeedway can cross-promote with Alabama-area short tracks; California Speedway can cross-promote with bullrings in the southern California and Arizona areas; and on down.

Given the alliances race teams have been forming the last few years - the Dodge One Team concept that somehow got lost in the shuffle, the RAD alliance between RCR, DEI, and Andy Petree, and others - it makes sense for speedways to work together and cross-promote, for their own benefit and that of racing at large.

More Fuel Cell Follies?

Amid the usual wreck-torn Martinsville weekend came a rumor that NASCAR will mandate smaller fuel cells for Charlotte, the road courses, and Atlanta. The idea appears to have sprung from less-than-encouraging tire testing on Charlotte's new surface between slight increases in speed and greater than expected wear. The hope for the two superspeedways is to necessitate fuel stops before tires wear to the point of failure. On the road courses the idea's rationale is harder to discern.

That small fuel cells are still seen as a reasonable rule change is puzzling after we've seen them in action in the last 14 restrictor plate races. Put in place at Talladega in October 2002, the idea of 13-gallon cells was to necessitate more pitstops and thus break up the gigantic battles for the lead characteristic of plate racing. But in that first race, the idea didn't work - the field pitted and shuffled back together each time; only in the final laps when potential race winners such as John Andretti, Bill Elliott, and a host of others had to pit for a final gulp of fuel did the pack thin out. In its next race, the 2003 Daytona 500, crashes kept erupting just before green-flag fuel stops were to occur. Indeed, the most striking aspect of smaller fuel cells is that the number of cautions has skyrocketed, invariably nullifying the need for green-flag stops; one gets the impression that the drivers, seeing they have only about 100 miles at most to run before needing to pit, fight much more savagely to get into the lead and thus be in a good position to pit, which displays the irony involved, in that the smaller fuel cell has done something much needed for racing - made the drivers race harder for the lead.

At places like Charlotte and Atlanta, the need for cautions is even greater, because the field does get spread out and a large number of cars are trapped out of any contention for the win, and the wrecking doesn't go down. It isn't difficult to imagine drivers fighting harder to get into a good position to pit.

If that is what results from use of smaller fuel cells, then it is an idea of definately mixed results but nonetheless with enough going for it to warrant trying. All the same, don't be shocked if the 22 cautions incurred in the 2005 World 600 turn out not to be that much higher than in 2006.


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UPDATE - As Keith Olbermann might put it, it's a final.

Racing Speed And Tires

Speed in racing has become an issue again both following Paul Dana's death in IRL practice at Homestead and with the repaving of Charlotte and subsequent tire testing there a few days after the Southeastern 500 at Bristol. Robby Gordon stated that Indycars are "too fast for ovals" and this is ultimately why he left Indycar racing.

Now the particulars of the Paul Dana tragedy are more complex than this. NASCAR barely escaped double tragedy at Charlotte in 1996 in seperate wrecks involving Johnny Benson (in the World 600) and Ernie Irvan (in the National 500) under virtually the same circumstances as in Paul Dana's death - a car spun in Two, slid down the banking into the path of traffic, then was nailed at full speed by another car. The speeds at Charlotte for stock cars then were some 40 MPH slower than with Indycars at Homestead. So in this particular instance the speed of the cars really isn't relevent to anything.

Having said this, though, there is something to discussing the speeds of modern racing. The repaving of Charlotte led to fears of speeds too great to race for stock cars and possible use of restrictor plates at Charlotte for the first time since October 1973. Initial tire testing seemed to allude most fears about the speeds involved, though more testing was necessary. But a disquieting situation happened when Jimmie Johnson blew a tire and wrecked, bringing back memory of the two NASCAR weekends at Charlotte in 2005 where the track surface was smoothed out but proved extraordinarily hard on tires, resulting in some forty caution periods in two Nextel Cup races there.

That stock cars are exceeding 190 at Charlotte is a huge growth in speed in 25 years when the pole speed was 165. But is it really that desireable? This is not the first time the speeds at Charlotte have been an issue, and one is hard-pressed to see where speeds well below 180 would not be better, in terms of safety as well as ability to race.

When Robby Gordon mentions Indycars, one should keep in mind how much more downforce and tire Indycars have - so much so that running stock car speeds on an oval like Charlotte would be considered sluggish for an Indycar. But would cutting the speeds to 190 for Indycars harm anything? Certainly the safety of the cars would be enhanced and more raceable grooves would definately be opened.

It is an issue that won't go away even though it hardly gets discussed, but the speed of modern racecars should be addressed, and one should question whether racing really needs the speeds of present.

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The other issue from the Charlotte tire test is the tire failure on Jimmie Johnson's Chevrolet. Tires have been an issue since the switch from high downforce and hard tires to lower downforce and softer tires - the Rusty Package, if you will. The Rusty Package - so named because it was Rusty Wallace who so openly lobbied for it - has been in place for two seasons now and one cannot cite a single race where it made for better racing. Tires have failed at serious rates numerous times over the past two years, leading to the usual back and forth about "aggressive setups" and so forth.

The entire package remains in drastic need of reevaluation, and one has to be more forceful on tires, because it is an issue in need of solving.

Take Five - A Take On NASCAR's Teams After Five Races

So five races have been run and the points battle is beginning to take shape. Exiting Bristol the top four were seperated by 32 points, a spread not likely to stay that close for long. As the season enters its third month, a look at where the teams stack up -

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ROUSH PERFORMANCE RACING - #17 Matt Kenseth holds down the point lead and will likely remember the shove from Jeff Gordon after the Southeastern 500 for awhile. The thing about Kenseth is that he can be deceptive - he has that laid-back modest demeanor, but as Bristol showed he can hammer.

#6 Mark Martin is in a typical Mark Martin season - solid, with few missteps.

Rallying from big holes right now are #16 Greg Biffle and #99 Carl Edwards; Edwards' hole is the first Roush surprise, while the other is the struggle of #26 Jamie McMurray, who still has something to prove given that he is driving the cars that won the title in 2004.


RAY EVERNHAM MOTORSPORTS - The surprise here is that rejuvination of #9 Kasey Kahne didn't begin sooner. Kahne stuggled throughout 2005 after his breakthrough Richmond win but he is now hooked up following a gut-check Atlanta 500 win. Kahne appears to have finally shaken the rookie and sophmore jitters.

The non-surprise is the poor performance of #19 Jeremy Mayfield, who despite two victories with Evernham has never seemed to click. His 2006 season has begun horribly and one has to doubt if Mayfield has what it takes to salvage something.


HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS - A joke circulating is that Rick Hendrick will fire returning crew chief Chad Knaus because the #48 of Jimmie Johnson had so much trouble at Bristol. It won't of course happen but it is a surprise that a team that didn't miss a beat en route to two wins in the first three races stumbled as badly as it did at Bristol. Chad Knaus certainly won't stumble like that again as he gets back in the groove.

#24 Jeff Gordon has been pretty solid off the truck as well, but his Daytona troubles took more momentum than maybe they expected, and the last-lap contretemps at Bristol spoiled a momentum-building effort.

#5 Kyle Busch will continue to be a lightning rod of controversy for awhile, but his program is certainly on a solid forward path.

The black sheep of the Hendrick squadron continues to be #25 Brian Vickers, still winless in his third season with Hendrick and not showing any particular improvement anywhere.


EARNHARDT INC. - After a costly 2005 season, Dale Junior's solid beginning to 2006 is encouraging. The same can't quite be said of rookie teammate #1 Martin Truex, who got into it several times at Bristol and is enduring what was once a typical rookie season - and it says a lot about what is expected of rookies today that Truex's rough sledding is now considered abnormal.


GANASSI/SABCO RACING - No one expected #42 Casey Mears not to show marked improvement in his third year. The problem here is that it has been happening while rookies #41 Reed Sorenson and #40 David Stremme have fallen behind. Of the two, Sorenson has more potential after a solid BGN effort, while Stremme's tentative driving isn't getting him anywhere.

JOE GIBBS RACING - In a less-than-similar situation is JGR's Chevrolet squadron. #20 Tony Stewart got off to a sluggish start with his Lindsey Lohan act at Daytona but has settled down since then. His rookie teammates, meanwhile, have gotten off to a pretty good start, notably #11 Denny Hamlin after moving up several points spots; #18 J.J. Yeley has more rookie jitters to shake off after a rough Bristol.

ROBERT YATES RACING - Going in opposite directions. #88 Dale Jarrett has been largely stuck despite two top tens, and his role in the Kenseth-Busch feud at Bristol is uncharacteristic; his acknowledgement that 2008 will be his last year may take more out of him than he may realize. #38 Elliott Sadler, meanwhile, continues inching into the top ten in points but continues to be missing something that will take him to the next level with the Yates team.

PENSKE SOUTH - #12 Ryan Newman has been up-and-down so far and continues to struggle with low downforce and soft tires. #2 Kurt Busch, meanwhile, made an important breakthrough with the Bristol win, both in points and in his position within the Penske organization.

RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING - No one made more of an improvement in the shop than RCR after it hired some Cosworth engine people for their motor room. #29 Kevin Harvick has been the big beneficiary so far amid a continuing contract squabble, while #31 Jeff Burton took the biggest Bristol hit in points after four strong weeks. Also benefitting right now has been rookie Clint Bowyer.

ROBBY GORDON RACING - Is the owner-driver making a comeback? Robby Gordon's DEI-powered ex-Jim Smith/ex-Kulwicki #7 is making a case for that, even though he hasn't yet finished in the top ten.

PETTY ENTERPRISES - Bobby Labonte's tenure in the #43 has benefitted that car, but the one who benefitted more was #45 Kyle Petty, as the two drivers' styles mesh enough to make them a true two-car team and this has made Kyle's runs more of an improvement. The improvement has been so marked at points that it caught some off guard. We may finally be seeing the Petty Dodges get to victory contention now.

MB2 MOTORSPORTS - Rick Hendrick's satellite cars have struggled, none more than #14 Sterling Marlin.

BILL DAVIS RACING - Several years of struggle continue.

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So the teams continue onward entering April.

Bristol - This Is The Hardest Ticket?

Over and over we hear about how Bristol International Raceway - the original moniker before it was purchased by Bruton Smith - is the hardest ticket to get for NASCAR events, especially at the Winston Cup level. As the track celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, one is hard-pressed to understand why tickets there are so popular.

Bristol is a half-mile bowl, initially designed both for racing and to hold football games in its infield (the trioval grass at Daytona had a similar intent). Banked at 18 degrees when first built in 1961, the banking was increased to 36 degrees to make the track more of a superspeedway than a short track. "If you ask me, they ruined a perfectly good racetrack," Richard Petty said after a crash-plagued race there in July 1969.

The track was owned by Larry Carrier for the majority of its existence. In the late 1970s Gary Baker bought an ownership take and industrialist Warner Hodgedon bought the track along with several other short tracks in the early 1980s, before the collapse of his businesses ended his involvement in racing after 1984. Carrier reacquired the speedway, but in 1996 it was purchased by Bruton Smith.

The track was asphalt for its first 31 years but in 1992 Carrier switched to concrete, because of endless work treating the asphalt. The switch to concrete wiped out most of the old track's raceability, wiping out a consistent high groove. It has been a single-file track ever since.

But it is packed with crashes, and in March 2006 the crashes were plentiful amid periodic snow; in BGN's 300-lapper some 25 cars were involved, and it says something both about the determination of raceteams to finish races and about both the absurdity of said effort plus NASCAR's Lucky Dog rules that very few cars failed to finish the BGN event despite all the wreck damage.

The win by Kyle Busch is unlikely to have set off much fan rejoicing given the yongster's burgeoning unpopularity; it also graphically displays the BGN Series' weakness as a series, in the near-complete lack of competitive stand-alone series regulars. One of the few who did do something was John Andretti, driving PPC Racing's #10 Ford en route to ninth, his best finish in a NASCAR race in three years.

With the race's lack of up-front passing, one is hard-pressed to call it a good race. It nonetheless remains the hardest ticket in NASCAR.

This Un-Civil War

Okay, I know it's lame to shoehorn a Martina McBride song title into a blog about the Iraq war, but the title "This Un-Civil War" says it all.

So my shameless thievery from mass media continues when I use this well-worn Paul Newman cliche - what the MSM has here is failure to communicate - or more accurately, failure to communicate accurately. Iraq's un-civil war doesn't come close to what a real one looks like, not now and not then. Not only that, the coverage as usual ignores what's going right in Iraq as it continues to outright falsify incidents so the US is made to look bad.

I'll try to shoehorn some Michael Nesmith song titles into future blogs.

A War Worth Winning

Predictably there were protests on the third anniversary of the start of the liberation of Iraq. Of course the antiwar crowd tries to pretend it is motivated by sincere concern, but of course this is nonsensical. The Iraq War remains a war to be proud of.

One of the antiwar talking points is that Saddamite Iraq didn't back Al Qaida and thus had no role in the 2001 attacks on the US. Why people actually believe this is beyond puzzling since Iraq's alliance with Al Qaida was well known in the 1990s and more details of Saddamite Iraq's backing of international terrorism continue to emerge.

Of course a lot of ink is spilled about the standoff in Iraq, but this late February look at improvised explosives best sums up who is really on the defensive.

The question to ask is - why should America give up trying to win in Iraq?

Todd Bodine Pulls Upset

So much for my proverbial mortgage.

The Daytona Truck 250 had by far the best racing so far in the season, but the finish of the year to date came at Atlanta. Mark Martin had won Daytona and Fontana, benefitting greatly from strong extra pre-race track time in his Nextel Cup car in the same fashion as when he was monopolizing BGN races run as companion events to WC, and in the Atlanta 200 he effortlessly stormed into the lead.

So there was little reason to expect anyone else to win the Atlanta 200 - yet Todd Bodine, the Truck Series' recent dominator in the Germain #30 Toyota, pulled off the upset. Bodine made perfect use of Atlanta's banking, pinching Martin to the bottom enough to stall him out coming off the corners, a classic strategy for high-banked speedways.

Bodine's upset is the biggest in Trucks in some time given the overwhelming edge Martin shows in Winston/Nextel Cup companion races. And it came in a surprisingly hard-fought race, as Bodine and Martin went at it side by side for the lead for several sustained periods. Bodine's decisive pass was as nervy as one can imagine, four-abreast between lapped traffic and sideways off Two to boot.

The Bodine-Martin showdown highlighted a race with strikingly little competitive depth, as the top two runners basically had the race to themselves. The only really noteworthy run other than Bodine and Martin was Bobby Hamilton, wrapping up his 2006 season with a respectable charge from midpack into 13th.

Other than Hamilton, there was little to discuss for anyone else. Bill Lester, the show-stealer in WC qualifying, never got untracked, had to pit with a vibration, and had another poor finish in Trucks. Erin Crocker likewise showed nothing from the start and was another lapped Truck. The Chevrolets as a group were largely MIA, while Martin's Ford was essentially alone on the speedway.

The finish, though, will be discussed for some time, particularly as the Atlanta 500 weekend proceeds.

Pre-Atlanta Miscellenia With Truck Prediction and Hamilton Shout-Out

It's that time again - the March tripleheader weekend at Atlanta. Entering the weekend NASCAR's three big league touring series have seen some action and some controversy - though the term "some" can be construed as an understatement.

Some miscelleneous observations entering Atlanta -

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The soap opera that is NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow continues to bubble with continuing trouble and doubt about the entire concept. Frankly, it will be a miracle if the concept ever sees a competitive lap in anger, this despite some rather pathetic spin in the concept's favor.

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The other soap opera remains the struggle of Dodge, a program out of control almost since it started and showing no sign of improvement, with questions worth asking about the leadership of John Fernandez and questions worth asking about where the One Team concept went. Two Dodge young guns are solidly in point contention but the bulk of the program remains racing for 20th at best when all five of Dodge's teams should be racing for top ten spots and race wins.

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I do not gamble and certainly do not endorse it, but bet the proverbial mortgage on Mark Martin winning the Craftsman Truck race at Atlanta. Between the strength of the Roush #6 and the extra practice time Mark gets from Nextel Cup practice, it is like when Mark ran BGN - the extra practice time of his WC program gave him so much extra realtime track knowledge that it became almost impossible for him to lose BGN races that were companion events with WC. The same thing is at work with his Truck program right now.

So bet the proverbial mortgage on Mark Martin in the Atlanta Truck race.

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Speaking of Trucks, a get well soon goes out to Bobby Hamilton, who after the Atlanta race will step out of his #18 Dodge Truck for awhile to get a health problem cured - a problem discovered when he went to the dentist to get a wisdom tooth treated. He should be back behind the wheel soon.

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For Nextel Cup qualifying, the story was Bill Lester, who picked up six MPH from practice - a pick-up beyond astonishing - and became the first black driver in a Nextel Cup event since Willy T. Ribbs' ill-fated drives for the moribund DiGard team in 1986.

As the weekend counts down, there will likely be more subjects to discuss as the NASCAR season heats up.

Repeal Gasoline Taxes

A look at the absurdity of gasoline taxes.

NASCAR Loop Statistics And NASCAR's Continuing Disconnect

NASCAR has a bevy of new statistics it has been pumping up based on the scoring loops it has around each racetrack. They show a lot of things like "quality passes" (passes for position within the top fifteen), straightaway speeds, etc. They have become a new angle of analysis of races in the same vein as passing yards, touchdowns, on-base percentage, and the like from football, baseball, etc.

But there is a glaring omission here - lead changes. NASCAR has these stats, but where are the lead changes? The number of lead changes is the only statistic, from scoring loops or otherwise, that is ultimately worth the paper it is printed on.

All those gaudy stats are of the same relevence as Peyton Manning's touchdown stats for the regular season - where it matters most they don't mean a thing.

NASCAR's Las Vegas Gladiators

The actual Las Vegas Gladiators - the Arena Football League team - had their bye week the weekend of NASCAR's annual trip to Bruston Smith's Nevada speed palace, and NASCAR did a decent job of showing off its own gladiators in their stead.

It also showed off a championship showdown that looks to already be taking solid form. That NASCAR's Winston/Nextel Cup title fight after three races of 2006 is between Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing isn't exactly a shock. It isn't that often that a title chase establishes itself this early in the season, but right now Jimmie Johnson has become the all-too-clear leader of the chase. And beating the Roush squad on one of their best tracks can only burn Jack even more.

Jimmie Johnson's two wins so far have come with a substitute crew chief, which raises some questions about a long-held belief about driver-crew chief chemistry. Without longtime chief wrench Chad Knaus, Johnson hasn't missed a beat. So just how important is such chemistry between driver and crew chief? If one cites the DEI crew swap of 2005 as evidence of the importance of driver-crew chief chemistry, one is making a flawed argument. Dale Earnhardt Junior won six races in 2004 despite what is now known to be constant friction with his crew chief, which was part of the reason for the swap. The change didn't work not because the chemistry wasn't there, but because DEI had lost the performance edge it had found in the first half of the decade, a performance edge based on engineering more than driver-crew chief chemistry.

Then there is Ryan Newman and Matt Borland, whose chemistry is superb, yet they and their Penske #12 Dodge continues to fall further behind, due to a Dodge program that has spiraled out of control almost since it started in 2001, and because of the inability or outright refusal of Newman and company to adapt to the low downforce-soft tire package mandated after 2003.

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The exciting finish of the Vegas 400 made it easy to forget what had been an otherwise unremarkable race. NASCAR isn't making it better with its publication of bizarre statistics such as "quality passes" and "average running position" as if they meant something. Indeed, some in NASCAR may be hoping such stats help make a race look more exciting than it in fact is.

Vegas will bank up its turns to 21 degrees for 2007, inspired by Homestead's increased banking and amid calls for higher and progressive banking for Fontana, calls no doubt heard by California Speedway's Gillian Zucker during a visit to Vegas for the race. Lost amid this rush is that Homestead has seen some good racing with progressive banking but hardly as much as at Daytona, whose banking is uniform, and ignored entirely is the effect progressive banking will have on a track in future years as the surface wears and ages. It is quite easy to imagine a scenario where the only usable groove is up high, leading to a Darlington-type scenario.

The exciting Vegas finish also came amid some concern that expectations for the races are unrealistic. While there is certainly a level of validity in saying that too many people may expect too much from a race, it remains true that Daytona-style warfare for the win is supposed to be the common template for the racing throughout NASCAR. Simply put, there is nothing in the layouts of Fontana, Vegas, Pocono, Michigan, New Hampshire, Chicagoland, etc. that is precluding racing as competitive as seen at Daytona.

Bruton Smith's campaign for a second Las Vegas date will no doubt be accelerated by the exciting finish, meaning the old question about the schedule and whether it can afford not to expand again will be raised.

Race Teams Getting On The Same Page

There are several reasons why multicar teams succeed or fail, and the effort is examined in this unusually sharp take with focus on the loss of control by Daimler-Chrysler of its NASCAR program. To make a long story short (I admit such is not necessarily wise), the teams of Dodge and the Dodge factory effort in general is not on the same page.

Of course with organizations like Penske Racing and Ganassi Racing, that may not be such a surprise, especially given suspicion of their ultimate loyalty to Dodge. One certainly should not feel it a mere coincidence that since Dodge got Roger Penske's NASCAR team into its fold, Penske South has been almost the only Dodge team to win races. From 2003 onward there have been sixteen wins by Dodges in Nextel Cup, and twelve of these have been by Penske Racing (eleven by Ryan Newman, one by Rusty Wallace); Ray Evernham Motorsports accounts for the other four wins.

The most revealing aspect of the Penske effort has been the drop in strength since NASCAR's ill-advised switch to lower downforce and softer tires after 2003 - a switch brought on by very public lobbying by Rusty Wallace, who was driven in very large part by near-endless squabbling with Newman. Newman has won just three races since the end of 2003, and right now appears ever farther away from recovering any kind of momentum.

Of the Dodge teams, Petty Enterprises, still looking form its first win with the Dodge program after five very frustrating seasons, may be in the best shape as far as drivers on the same page, given the similarities in driving styles between Bobby Labonte and Kyle Petty. Evernham Motorsports may be in the best overall shape among Dodge teams, but has continuing questions to ask itself about the viability of Jeremy Mayfield. Ganassi and Penske remain as they've been the last couple of seasons - among the wealthiest raceteams in NASCAR and yet still struggling to get on the same page.

More Global Warming Fraudulence

NASCAR, and automobiles in general, have taken a rap because of the alleged increase in global warming. The problem is the evidence for global warming is false. This of course won't stop the global warming lobby, but we really need to start getting more aggressive in countering them, because like all leftist causes they do not have genuine good in their heart.

Bring Back The Tire War

Winston Cup teams are using Hoosier tires to test around NASCAR's tire lease rule, a development that brings to mind an angle the sport has not dealt with since 1994 but which it may deal with again. The angle is the tire-exclusivity rule for Goodyear. Put in place following the 1994 Tire War, the deal basically locks out other tire manufacturers from participating in NASCAR's big leagues.

Of course the tire landscape is a lot different now, with Firestone a major racing force and the rumor never completely dying out that Firestone will enter NASCAR circles. It brings to mind the need for a tire war.

The idea of a tire war is considered verboten in many racing minds because of a supposed increase in injuries during such a time. Such "greater danger" arguments, however, fall flat after enduring years of consistent Goodyear failures, most notably in 2000 with Goodyear unable to make up its mind what compounds to bring to a race and with the endless game of "aggressive setups," a catch-all way to blame raceteams for frequent failures of right-front tires.

The danger level is not less now than it was during tire wars, and the advantages for the sport are numerous, most importantly in the ability of tire competition to break the quasi-monopolies that exist in the competitive field. Both times Hoosier Race Tire fought Goodyear - 1988-9 and 1994 - the number of different race winners increased dramatically, not only for drivers but for teams. The sport regularly saw more teams in contention for wins than has generally been the case with tire monopolies.

And there is certainly a need for an increase in competitive teams nowadays, given the lock on victories held by Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing and to a substantially lesser extent Joe Gibbs Racing. Dodge could potentially benefit the most from a tire war, getting the kind of competitive shot in the arm presently lacking for its program.

Hoosier's unofficial status as test tire supplier can be a road toward what more teams need in NASCAR circles.

Mexico And NASCAR's Disconnect

NASCAR's second annual Busch Series road race in Mexico transpired the first weekend of March, but in doing so it has raised new questions about its viability and also questions about NASCAR's support series.

The first running of this race occurred in 2005, and while it went off well, it has not lived up to what was expected of it in drawing sponsorships, and it is exceedingly difficult to see where it can ever do so, especially since, according to the AP, the crowd was smaller than in the 2005 running. This nonetheless has not stopped some from advocating removing a date from Martinsville to run a Nextel Cup race on a proposed short track near Mexico City. And just as Tony Stewart recklessly played the death card in griping about push-drafting at Daytona, so an advocate of a points race in Mexico is using the card of the end of the sport's growth if Mexico is kept off the Nextel Cup schedule.

The Busch race's lack of Nextel Cup stars, unusual for most BGN events nowadays, contributes to the disconnect involved here. Being a bye week for the Winston Cup guys, the Mexican race would be a natural venue for the biggest names in the sport. But they didn't show up last year and there seems no prospect for them to show up in future years, and one can expect a similar disconnect between hype and reality if the Busch Series races in Montreal as is expected in 2007 or '08. It is hard to see Canadian corporations forking over the $20-plus million per year now required for a Winston/Nextel Cup effort, even with Toyota involvement.

The present general disconnect in BGN is touched on extensively by Greg Pollex, owner of PPC Racing. As a follower of NASCAR's northeast-based Busch North and Whelen Modified Series, I've seen the disconnect between NASCAR's glittery facade and the economic crunch of its support series more directly - the indelible comment on this disconnect was by the late Tom Baldwin Sr. when he noted in 2002, "We need to get NASCAR out of the Modified Tour."

The prospect of Nextel Cup in Mexico is bound not to be popular with anyone - not raceteams for the costs involved, and not fans who have felt betrayed by the sport's loss of tracks like Rockingham and North Wilkesboro. And given the failure to attract new sponsors from Mexico, one strains to find a reason for such a venture.

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An additional comment -

The recently-settled strife in the NFL over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement has some relevence for NASCAR. Team owners have long agitated for a bigger slice of NASCAR's TV revenue because of the absurd costs that NASCAR has never succeeded in reducing - one wonders how hard NASCAR has truly tried to reduce costs. No one ever thought a CBA fight would ever develop in the NFL, the sports league considered the strongest and the one with the best plan for labor peace. That a CBA fight developed in the NFL is a sign that NASCAR should not be so smug as to assume something like that, or something like the 2005 USGP fiasco, can't happen in the top series. Of course the NFL got their act together and got their CBA done - if NASCAR faces a fight like that, what will they do?

Race Driver Gets Beaten Up By Horse

You know your career may be in trouble if you get kicked by a horse. Well Michel Jourdain suffered that indignity during a publicity shoot for the Busch Series' Mexican road race.

Jourdain, a former CART driver, isn't the first to suffer such an indignity. In October 1977 Darrell Waltrip drove in IROC's event at Riverside International Raceway and crashed hard, injuring his ribs. Later he was involved in a parade for the American 500 at Rockingham; he was riding a mule that suddenly threw him off his back and kicked him in the chest.

"I ran into a wall and got kicked by a mule," Waltrip said at Rockingham that weekend. Needless to say, he was a sore race driver.

The Continuing Saga of Science Under Siege

Think we're proceeding through a period of unprecedented increases in hurricanes?

We aren't - and it's just one example of the continuing siege of real science by the MSM.

2006 California 500 Postscript

Roush Racing continues to grow at a rather frightening rate, and it continues to win. Matt Kenseth's California 500 win continues a recent near-monopoly by the Roush organization on intermediate superspeedways, and any thought that it would be derailed this time was dashed almost immediately. Roush also posted a rare sweep of all three NASCAR touring series on the same weekend when Mark Martin rather easily cruised to victory in the Trucks, then Greg Biffle led the way to win the BGN 300.

Roush Racing is for all practical purposes the only Ford organization in NASCAR, and its success in 2005's playoff format led to NASCAR's attempt to limit ownership of race teams, a fundamentally necessary idea that NASCAR needs to have the courage to prosecute to its end.

Roush so dominated the weekend that it made the blown engine of Tony Stewart and the continuing struggle of Dodge all the more graphic. Though Kasey Kahne had a good effort in his Ray Evernham Charger, that was largely it as far as Dodge went, as the Penske pair of Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman continued to struggle with the two-year-old Intrepid they brought to Fontana, a model Penske Racing's Don Miller has said will be raced as long as is allowed by Dodge.

One wonders if someone at Dodge has given up on the Charger - which if true may be a bad sign for Dodge's entire NASCAR program.

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Fontana's lack of good racing is wrongly blamed on the track's flat banking. Flattish speedways have been blamed for lack of good quality racing for some years now, and among the more villified has been New Hampshire International Speedway. Many point to Homestead as the model for how to respond. Homestead banked up to 20 degrees and went with progressive banking, and Fontana's new president has mentioned with regard to the California Speedway.

The result of higher and progressive banking at Homestead has been faster speeds, but the increase in side-by-side racing has generally been less than promoted. Homestead's November 2005 400-miler saw some intense battling for the lead and a dramatic finish, but the previous two Homestead races were uninspiring affairs, particularly November 2004.

Some blame the scheduling of the first Fontana race to late February, within two weeks of NASCAR's annual trek to Las Vegas; others point to the fact the track now has two dates. Either way, it remains the lack of good racing that is the main problem here, and the track configuration isn't the reason.

One need look at Fontana's Indycar races, where the cars have more downforce, more tire, and in the late 1990s added air-displacement rails to the mix, making the draft more effective. Certainly the Busch Series package run at Daytona is worth looking at as far as tracks like Fontana go.

"There Will Be Peace When They Love Their Children More Than They Hate Ours"

That rationality is in short supply in the Middle East is true enough, but a reminder of what the war between Israel and the Arab World is about is still necessary to understand the historical fiction that is "Palestine." But then it never helps that perpetuating the myth of "Palestine" continues when women name their children after fictitious atrocities.

NASCAR's Two-Time Loser Gets Banned

Shane Hmiel is gone from NASCAR. At least that's the word from NASCAR following failure of yet another drug test for Hmiel - he has received a "lifetime" suspension from the sport. Shane Hmiel first got in trouble in 2003 but bounced back and won at Las Vegas in the Truck Series, but got in bigger trouble in 2005 after driving Todd Braun's #32 for most of that year.

Curiously, this occurs in the wake of Ricky Williams' pending one-year suspension for failing the NFL's substance abuse policy. The Miami Dolphins rusher quit the league for 2004 to avoid a lengthy suspension for failing a drug test, then came back when the Dolphins sued to get back a massive signing bonus he received.

Now the psychology of people like Shane Hmiel and Ricky Williams can be complicated, but the question should still be asked - just what is it about drugs that is so important to them that they'd sacrifice lucrative sporting careers to indulge in such substances? Now I confess having no personal insight into addiction, but I think even people with a personal insight can be puzzled by cases like Shane Hmiel and Ricky Williams.

Being primarily a race fan, my own message to Shane Hmiel is simple - grow up. Whatever it is you're ingesting - and NASCAR isn't saying - stop ingesting it.


NASCAR may come in for some outside criticism for the harshness of their penalty, but if they do, so be it.

The (Over)Selling Of Dale Earnhardt

It was a theme that if you tried to ignore it would come out and make sure you couldn't. It was five years ago that Dale Earnhardt died. It was a theme in coverage of Dale Earnhardt Jr. - can he win the Daytona 500 five years after his father's death? It was the subject of a SPEED Channel special that reinforced the impression that racing and its media are the most self-congradulatory industry out there. And it was the subject of many media pieces like this one.

I remain mystified that the sport continues to engage in historical revisionism on Dale Earnhardt, the biggest lightning rod of controversy the sport had ever seen. Nowadays many a driver is a lightning rod of controversy - Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson come to mind immediately - but in the 1980s and a lesser extent the 1990s it was not something the sport was quite used to.

In remembering Dale Earnhardt the sport does a disservice to its history, for it has glossed over very real shortcomings in Earnhardt in its effort to glorify him.

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The biggest disservice done to history is the glossing over of Earnhardt's on-track tactics. Tony Stewart set off the week-long controversy over "aggressive driving" during Speedweeks 2006 and then proved himself a supreme hypocrite once the shooting started. Dale Earnhardt was a common instigator of such controversies and certainly got an earful about it over the years.

"His mind goes out of gear when he turns on the motor." - Richard Petty, 1986

"If a man's got to put you out to beat you, that ain't what I call racing." - Bill Elliott, 1987

"I don't think NASCAR fined Dale Earnhardt for what he did at Richmond, I think they fined him for all the things he's done leading up to Richmond." - Darrell Waltrip, 1986

"Whoever wrecked us was driving a black car with a 3 on it." - Dick Trickle, 1992

"Why did he do that (wreck Al Unser Jr.)? He didn't have to do that." - Al Unser Sr., 1993

"He hasn't seen the last of me. I'm not going to stop racing him. I can tear up as many cars as I need to." - Mark Martin, 1993

"He's always the one who cries about the manufacturers championship, well he didn't help the Chevrolets today (at Phoenix)." - Ken Schrader, 1993

"He took the air off of me, then he hit me. It wasn't close at all." - Bobby Hamilton, 1996

"Has he ever said he meant to spin someone out?" - Terry Labonte, 1999

Earnhardt may have been the first NASCAR driver in history to be the subject of negative news coverage over his driving tactics - ABC News for one focused on that in 1987. And it led to an important anomoly - Earnhardt was perhaps the very first NASCAR driver ever who had a national fan club that was dedicated to opposing him. Fans Against Dale Earnhardt sold merchandise at all the NASCAR tracks before abruptly disbanding following his death.

Fan hatred of Earnhardt usually made him the most booed driver during introductions and led to several incidents, such as at The Winston 1994, where Earnhardt crashed against the wall in the trioval of Charlotte; roughly 100 fans gathered at the scene and many reportedly dumped beer on Earnhardt's head as he was climbing out of his car. There was also a near-riot at Bristol following his last-lap crashing encounter with Terry Labonte, where fans were seen burning Earnhardt merchandise in the track's parking lots afterward.


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There is also the frequent assertion about how much influence he had with NASCAR, about how when he spoke, NASCAR listened, and how he spoke for the drivers. Race drivers are a notoriously divided lot and Earnhardt usually spoke for himself, and was as big a hypocrite as any driver in the garage, particularly on restrictor plate racing, which Earnhardt always griped about yet so often excelled at.

As far as influence in the sport goes, one is hard-pressed to remember a single policy issue where NASCAR made changes because of Earnhardt. One can easily recall a recent policy change brought on by a driver's lobbying - NASCAR's change to lower downforce and softer tires from 2004 onward was a direct result of frantic and very public lobbying by Rusty Wallace, who was serially incensed at the fuel-mileage success with a package of high-downforce and hard tire compounds exhibited by his Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman in 2003.

One can also recall the influence of another driver on the sport. Alan Kulwicki turned down offers of high-dollar NASCAR rides to build his own team; he won the 1992 NASCAR title as an owner-driver and following his death numerous NASCAR drivers, notably Geoff Bodine (who purchased the #7 Kulwicki team from his estate) and Ricky Rudd formed their own teams and became owner-drivers. Bodine and Rudd together won ten races in the 1994-8 period, a period where the balance of power had shifted toward the owner-driver.

One simply can't recall similarly dramatic influence by Dale Earnhardt.

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Earnhardt is sometimes called The Dominator, and it is periodically stated that he dominated his era of the sport. Yet a simple check of the sport's history proves this wrong. Including ties with other drivers, Richard Petty won the most races in a season on seven occassions - 1963, 1967-8, 1970-1, 1974-5. Darrell Waltrip did it six times - 1979, 1981-4, 1989. Jeff Gordon did it six times - 1995-9, 2001. David Pearson did it four times - 1966, 1968, 1973, 1976. Cale Yarborough did it four times - 1974, 1977-8, 1980. Bobby Allison did it twice - 1972, 1983. Rusty Wallace did it four times - 1988-9, 1993-4. Bill Elliott did it three times - 1985, 1988, 1992.

Dale Earnhardt did it only twice - 1987 and 1990.

One can also argue that Earnhardt's titles came amid less competition than that Richard Petty raced against. In the period of 1970-84, facing over 40 races with at least 40 official lead changes and another 30 with 35 or more lead changes, Petty had to race very, very hard to win. In contrast, Earnhardt's heyday of 1985-2001 saw just seven races with at least 40 lead changes and seven with at least 35. There are numerous reasons for this decline, but a major one undoubtedly is that Petty raced two generations of drivers who raced for the win while Earnhardt raced two generations who raced for points.

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The sport did not see five-year retrospectives on the deaths of Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki; it has not seen any recent retrospectives on the deaths of Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, or Tony Roper; it has all but ignored Tim Richmond following his 1989 death; it has forgotten Ernie Irvan after injury ended his career. What retrospectives there have been have been low-key and quite dignified. The continuing rememberence of Dale Earnhardt, meanwhile, has become a continuing spectacle with an embarassing level of marketing behind it.

One has to ask when the sport will tone it down and be more honest about its past.

Will NASCAR Rethink The Whole Misbegotten Yellow-Line Rule?

Amid the varied topics for discussion after a very competitive Daytona 500 weekend, one worthy subject has gotten overlooked but requires attention. It is the rule that cars cannot pass other cars below the yellow line at restrictor plate tracks. Throughout the Daytona 500 we saw cars clip the yellow line trying to pass, and backing off to avoid drawing a penalty. The result was usually a jam-up behind the cars in question, including a near-wreck in the trioval when Mark Martin had to jump up the outside into the lead. It has made blocking more of an issue, especially since as Casey Mears put it before the Daytona 500 that has been more of a factor in wrecks rather than push-drafting - notably the jam-up leading to Steve Kinser's flight in the IROC race.

Will NASCAR rethink this whole misbegotten rule? History suggests not yet, but the absurdity of the rule continues to baffle. Put in place at Talladega in April 2001 immediately following the BGN 300, it was almost entirely a panicky rule because NASCAR was collectively scared to death of a wholesale driver park-out occurring during the Winston Cup 500. The rumor had been circulating in the weeks before that Talladega weekend of a driver boycott or park-out following the death of Dale Earnhardt and NASCAR's initial ruling that its roof spoiler package - all but openly blamed for Earnhardt's death in several media pieces, notably an infamously maukish piece by The Charlotte Observor's David Poole in the immediate week after Earnhardt's death - would remain in place.

Following Talladega's BGN 300 that weekend and a loud protest by Jimmy Spencer over drivers passing below the yellow line, NASCAR ruled it would flag drivers for going below the yellow line. It led to Tony Stewart's infamous confrontation with Winston-Salem Journal writer Mike Mulhern after the Firecracker 400 when Stewart passed below the line for fifth and was flagged to the rear in the final laps. Since then there have been numerous instances of drivers flagged for passing below the yellow line and a more-infamous no-call for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Talladega in 2003 - there Earnhardt passed Matt Kenseth on the apron of Turn Three with five laps to go but was not flagged, NASCAR lamely claiming he had "already passed" Kenseth when he got below the line, never mind the two were still nose to nose when he hit the apron and Earnhardt had to go on the apron to clear Kenseth.

It was a lame non-call universally recognized as favoritism by NASCAR toward Junior then and later, poor officiating on a par with infamous no-calls and bad calls in NFL lore. But it also raised questions about the sagacity of the yellow-line rule to start with.

Now we've seen numerous near-wrecks by cars clipping the yellow line and having to hit the brakes to avoid penalty. So NASCAR has some serious rethinking to do here.

Daytona Slap-Happy Hour, And More Dodge News

Final practice for the Daytona 500 went off without a hitch for the most part, other than some tire trouble for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Vickers painting the second-turn exit wall black ever so gently. Reading the Bull Sheet shows the speeds, but then that really doesn't say much, since the 500's weather is predicted to be some 15-20 degrees cooler than Saturday, more in line with Friday practice. Also, a striking aspect was how few cars ran the entire session - most ran the first quarter to third, then it steadily thinned out until only about half a dozen cars were still on the track by the session's end.

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Meanwhile, another Dodge team will run the Intrepid at Fontana, which would seem to be a factory call, and a no-confidence vote in the beleagured Charger. The blunt nose is being blamed, since it was designed for a higher-downforce harder-tire package than what NASCAR threw at everyone.

Dodge hopes to at least get some concession on spoiler, but the exercise is a symptom of a larger problem - the failure of the low-downforce package. Advertised as the way to eliminate the aeropush, it has had the opposite effect. And yet NASCAR is stubbornly sticking with it.

Dodge teams will press on, but there still remain issues to resolve before the racing gets back where it needs to be.

Tony Stewart Gets Some Comeuppance While NASCAR Chickens Out

A little-noticed occurance happened during Tony Stewart's pop-off about push-drafting at Daytona - he got a bit of comeuppance in the form of a writer asking, "Aren't you overreacting?" Stewart of course popped off along the lines of "Why don't you drive the car instead of me?" He even threatened to take Wednesday practice off.

Seeing Stewart pop off is a reason why, for all the improvement in his public deportment in 2005, he still can't be fully embraced as an ambassador for the sport. He still has a streak of overpaid underworked prima donna in him, and he's certainly not alone. When he played the death card with regard to push-drafting racing, not only was he overracting, he was insulting the intelligence of racing.

"Trust me, I did my share of push-drafting out there," Stewart acknowledged - which wasn't much given the all-too-obvious reality that he was as guilty of it as anyone else. But it does point to a level of hypocrisy involved - if he's so scared of that kind of racing, then why does he keep doing it? The old answer is "We're forced to do it." No, they're not, they do it of their own volition - because it is the best way to pass on the racetrack.

Too bad more of the NASCAR press corps doesn't take more drivers to task for acting like cowards in this fashion. Being taken to task is what the drivers need.

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Unfortunately, NASCAR has once again chickened out and taken some aggression out of the racing with the announcement that they will establish "no bump" zones in the corners at Daytona and presumably Talladega. Mike Wallace cuts to the chase - "How are you going to enforce it? What's the difference between bump-drafting and someone checking up in front of you?"

More to the point, will favoritism come into play as it does with NASCAR's yellow-line rule? Few forget that Dale Earnhardt Jr. got an indefenisbly favorable call on a pass below the yellow line at Talladega in 2003, solely because he is Dale Earnhardt Junior. Meanwhile, Mike Skinner, Tony Stewart, Kenny Wallace, and now Carl Edwards have been shafted by NASCAR calls on passing below the yellow line.

The yellow-line rule has never been plausibly defended by NASCAR or anyone else, and efforts to defend this new "no bump zone" rule will invariably strain credulity, because the whole controversy about push-drafting is overreaction by certain drivers.

And then there is research by NASCAR into a softer front bumper to dissuade teams from push-drafting without hurting the nose's aerodynamics. Softening the bumper is never a good idea for safety and is just more overreaction to Tony Stewart acting like a drama queen. The more NASCAR takes aggression out of racing, the worse the sport gets. It can't defend this rule or the yellow-line rule, and it makes taking drivers to task for cowardice all the more necessary.

Chad Knaus Gets Push-Drafted Out Of The Garage

Daytona's first round of racing has wrapped up and two big stories promptly developed.

First, Ray Evernham's former car chief Chad Knaus lived up to his former boss' comment after being fined heavily for a cheating infraction around 1995: "I guess I'm this week's ass." Chad Knaus, though, got pushed clean out of the garage area, reminiscent of Talladega last October when Kevin Harvick's crew chief was likewise escorted out for cheating. The cause of this brouhaha was some illegal offset put into the right rear of Jimmie Johnson's #48 Chevrolet, offset that got noticed by smoke coming off Johnson's wheel wells during his 500 qualifying run.

In the same post-qualifying inspection, Terry Labonte, driving Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman's #96 Chevrolet, got his time disallowed for running a carburator with illegal modifications. Now we've seen things like this before - Staubach and Aikman's team is a Joe Gibbs Racing satellite effort with its engines from JGR's engine shop; years ago (I think it was 1997 at Talladega) Billy Standridge qualified at Talladega with a Tony Santanacola engine at a time when Santanacola was Cale Yarborough's head engine builder; the Santanacola engine run by Standridge was found to be less-than-legal.

The deal here in 2006 sounds like Hall Of Fame Racing (the Staubach-Aikman #96) became the fall guy for some experimentation by JGR's engine shop.

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The other story was the Daytona Shootout and JGR's double-header. First there was rookie Denny Hamlin winning the race, the first rookie to ever do so (the closest analogy was Jeff Gordon's 1994 win in the Busch Clash as a sophmore). The second part of the double-header was Tony Stewart's post-race commentary about how "dangerous" push-drafting is and how "NASCAR has to do something about it." Incredibily, Jim Hunter of NASCAR acknowledged Stewart's comments and talked vaguely about push-drafting being a problem.

Why does NASCAR have to do anything here? Push-drafting dates back to the 1960s and '70s - the old Car & Track television series filmed the 1974 Daytona 500 and that footage shows plenty of push-drafting; it also filmed circa-1972 NASCAR at Michigan and that footage shows Richard Petty punting Bobby Allison, Bobby Isaac, and others through the trioval area to pass other cars.

The wrecks that happened in the Shootout had nothing to do with push-drafting - even Kyle Busch's tag on Mark Martin wasn't about push-drafting, that was trying to knock Martin out of the way. For Stewart and anyone else - Jeff Gordon comes to mind immediately - to gripe about push-drafting is more hypocrisy from race drivers.

This was about the kind of terrific racing that has been in such short supply in NASCAR circles the last 20-plus years. There was the usual caveat that the 500 will be different, but we should hope it isn't different, as the sport can use a Daytona 500 as ferocious as last October at Talladega.

Islam's Cartoon Violence

If you thought the infamous Peggy Charren was an enemy of cartoon violence, then you haven't seen anything yet. The violence over cartoons spoofing Muhammad says a lot about civilization versus savagery and it says a lot about the fundamental failure that is Islamo-Arab ideology. They may have military power and suicide bombers, but their lack of any redeeming societal quality makes their defeat a requirement.

Quick NASCAR Take With First Daytona Practice

It should of course be kept in mind that the following discusses one practice sesson for the Daytona 500, but glancing at first practice speeds before Daytona 500 qualifying, some quick thoughts -

1 - Talk about quick turnarounds. In 2005 RCR Enterprises Chevrolets were so down on power that they rented a couple of Hendrick Motorsports engines to test at Daytona. RCR later hired some personnel from Cosworth Engineering and it's showing up in Kevin Harvick's strong first practice run. Harvick's #29 led the first practice, while teammate Jeff Burton's #31 practiced 11th and rookie Clint Bowyer in the #07 clocked 16th.

The other quick turnaround were Petty Enterprises Dodges, as #45 Kyle Petty hit third and #43 Bobby Labonte hit ninth in the first practice. The key to watch with the Petty organization is that in Bobby Labonte they now have a driver whose temperment and driving style mesh with Kyle's. Petty Enterprises may also be in a much better position within Dodge's engineering totem pole given Toyota's pending arrival and related uncertainty about some other Dodge organizations.

2 - To no one's surprise the Hendrick Motorsports empire is all over strong practice speeds. #24 Jeff Gordon, the defending 500 champ, hit second; #48 Jimmie Johnson, perhaps smarting from Greg Biffle's preseason trash talking, hit fifth; #5 Kyle Busch hit a respectable 17th and #25 Brian Vickers overcame a blown engine in pre-Shootout practice and hit 23rd for 500 practice.

The Hendrick satellite teams also timed pretty well in the first practice. Morton-Bowers Motorsports, running Hendrick-built cars and engines, has three cars for the 500. #36 Bill Elliott hit seventh and #01 Joe Nemechek tenth, while the disappointment lay in #14 Sterling Marlin's 27th.

The other Hendrick satellite outfit is Gene Haas' #66 Chevy, and new driver Jeff Green reached 18th in the first practice.

3 - Joe Gibbs Racing won the Firecracker 400 last year and has won the Daytona 500 and once at Talladega, but their Chevrolets had a rather up-and-down practice. Rookies #11 Denny Hamlin and #18 J.J. Yeley hit the top 15 running, but defending NASCAR champ Tony Stewart was only 34th and JGR's satellite outfit, Hall of Fame Racing - how ironic that Washington Redskins coach Gibbs is helping Dallas Cowboys Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach, owners of the #96? - managed only 36th in the #96. One has to wonder if Gibbs' engine shop may be a little stretched right now.

4 - Petty Enterprises weren't the only Dodges showing something. Their engine benefactor, Evernham Motorsports, put #19 Jeremy Mayfield eighth in the practice session, while new teammate #10 Scott Riggs got in a decent practice time in 20th. However, the rest of Evernham wasn't so strong - #9 Kasey Kahne, who has generally plummetted since his breakthrough win at Richmond, was only 32nd.

The other high-profile Dodge teams are Penske Racing and Ganassi/SABCO Racing, and it is here that the Toyota cloud hangs closely - particularly with Ganassi, which won the 24 Hours of Daytona running Lexus racecars with Toyota's 2007 NASCAR engine design. Roger Penske's carpetbagging with manufacturers is well known - he ran Chevrolets then switched on little more than a whim to Mercedes, then when his CART effort eventually folded and moved to the IRL he ran Chevys then switched to Toyota. In NASCAR he ran Pontiacs when he came back in 1991, then switched to Ford to get more money and engineering help. He did it again when Dodge's NASCAR effort changed philosophies following Lou Patane's departure and the assumption by Stuttgart of control of the program. Dodge then went after Penske, cut back on helping their other teams (leading to the present Bill Davis Racing imbroglio), and Penske went with the money again. When Toyota enters, Penske is widely expected to switch again when his Dodge contract runs out - if not before.

Penske's Dodges were a mixed bag - Kurt Busch, fresh from resolving his traffic spat with Phoenix cops, clocked 13th in the practice while #12 Ryan Newman had a disappointing 31st. Of all the drivers in NASCAR Newman may be the most one-dimensional, as he exploded to eight wins in 2003 but has consistently struggled since the switch back to lower downforce and softer tires from 2004 onward.

Ganassi/SABCO were looking even less impressive with their new lineup following JGR's approach of two rookies led by a veteran. The veteran, #42 Casey Mears, was just 29th while rookie #41 Reed Sorenson was 28th and rookie #40 David Stremme was a lowly 39th.

5 - The crowd favorite remains Dale Earnhardt Jr., and amid some annoying maukish rememberences of Dale Sr. by the media, Junior didn't light up much in first practice as the #8 was 26th. DEI teammates were even worse - #1 Martin Truex was 40th and #15 Paul Menard, a former Andy Petree project, was 42nd.

DEI is paying for being too dependent on an aerodynamic gimmick to win on the plate tracks - aero work on the transmission tunnel and underside of the car. In the 2004 500 Michael Waltrip flipped and the underside of his Chevy was exposed and viewed to the world. Don't think rival teams didn't record that footage and glean something from footage of that underside.

6 - With Ford's program basically a Jack Roush effort, there aren't that many Fords to talk about. But some of them are pretty fast. Robert Yates' pair, with their engine program merged into Roush's, hit the track running and hit the top six together. #38 Elliott Sadler, though, may be feeling some pressure to perform, as he won twice in 2004 but has been disappointing quite a bit as well. #88 Dale Jarrett's comeback triumph at Talladega may be the shot in the arm he needs to run to the front more consistently.

The Roush fleet was up and down the first practice chart. #17 Matt Kenseth hit 15th and new teammate #26 Jamie McMurray was 19th. Perenially cheerful #99 Carl Edwards continues to ride the magic carpet as he clocked a decent 22nd, while loudmouth #16 Greg Biffle was 24th and is looking a bit surlier this year, and #6 Mark Martin in a year he wasn't scheduled to race was only 33rd.

The only other Ford of note is the Wood Brothers #21, beginning an ambitious alliance with Tad Geschteckter but getting off to an uninspiring start at 38th in practice for #21 Ken Schrader.

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One of only two other noteworthy teams is Bill Davis Racing, presently running Dodges, point man for Toyota come 2007, and struggling so far in 2006 - #22 Dave Blaney was only 45th, #23 Mike Skinner 47th, and new teammate, perennial loudmouth #55 Michael Waltrip, using BDR as springboard for his own team and presently allied with ex-Jasper Racing head Doug Bawel for the now-defunct #77's 2005 owner points, was an embarassing 50th.

The other noteworthy team is #4 Morgan-McClure Motorsports, the Chevy that won three Daytona 500s and two Firecracker 400s in the 1990s but is now a team priced out of contention by the bigger outfits. #4 Scott Wimmer was 43rd and needs a superb run in the 150s as they do not have owner points to fall back on for the 500 field.

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All this is of course subject to change as Speedweeks proceeds, so stay tuned.

A Look At Iraq's Big Picture

Check out this look at Iraq after a fourth eyewitness tour for some genuine insight into the war.