NASCAR: Saunders Remark Controversy Oversold

Just before the Firecracker 400 weekend a controversy was stirred up by the Race-Stream Media over a remark by John Saunders, president of International Speedway Corporation, Daytona's parent company.   Saunders noted a mild regression in ISC track attendances the last six race weekends; the controversy stemmed from this -

"We still have an issue with star power.   Hopefully this stable of young drivers coming along will start to win and build their brands."

The controversy that ensued was summarized by Brendan Marks of The Charlotte Observer in a piece where he claimed that Saunders was laying all blame on NASCAR decline on lack of star power.   Marks was not the only writer to make a controversy out of Saunders' remark, but oversells it (as did other writers judging from remarks from such drivers as Ryan Blaney) and thus uses driver comments in response to attack Saunders by saying "NASCAR's attendance issues predate any of these young drivers' time (in Winston Cup)........it's a faulty argument attributing all of NASCAR's decline to the departure of a few drivers."

The problem with Brendan Marks' analysis is the old cliché - hearing is a sense, listening is a skill.   Re-read what Saunders actually states.   The sport still has an issue with star power, and he expresses hope that the generation of young drivers coming into the sport will win and thus begin building star power.    Marks reaches enormously in trying to make Saunders' remark out to be just an excuse by ISC.


Marks notes the retirement of drivers Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. - both now TV analysts, widely praised as such, Junior in particular earning much attention for his "Slide job, slide job!" call on the Kyle Larson-Kyle Busch set-to at Chicagoland, a call humorously reminiscent of "BERGERON! BERGERON!", the call of a game-winning overtime goal by Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins in 2011 by the Bruins' then-play-by-play announcer Dave Goucher, now the TV play-by-play man for the Vegas Golden Knights.  

Other drivers who have retired in recent years are Tony Stewart - still an active car owner with Gene Haas and the owner of Eldora Speedway - Carl Edwards, and Brendan Marks also cites Danica Patrick.    This is where his argument gets weaker - NASCAR's attendance declines where happening during elements of their peak as drivers, and also Marks oversells their star power.   There has never been any evidence Danica Patrick brought anyone to racing that otherwise would have ignored the sport, while the unlikeability of Stewart and Edwards weakens their star power.   If anything the sport has gotten a certain freshness now that the abrasive and periodically dangerous Edwards is no longer participating.

Carl Edwards authored two of the most malicious melees in recent NASCAR memory - to imply his star power is something the sport misses is nonsensical.



In short, Marks exaggerates the star power of those drivers he lists who have retired.   He also is ignoring the obvious when it comes to the young guns.   He quotes Ryan Blaney's argument -

"We're trying. We're trying our hardest. It's not like I go out there and I'm happy for fifth every single week. Any other guys under the age of twenty-five I'll just say is the same way."

The issue is less whether the young guns are trying hard enough - it's always open to debate just how hard drivers are trying; one certainly wants to believe they truly are fighting as hard as possible, yet given how much importance is put into points as opposed to going for the lead, doubts become inevitable.    The issue is - is this class of young guns really that good?

Chase Elliott by default is the "leader" of the young guns and with his third Winston Cup season droning forward his inability to finish the mission is becoming more and more of an issue.   He's posted 26 top-five finishes in Cup so far, yet has shown no evidence of learning how to win.   Running up front has never been an issue; actually doing what it takes to win is the issue.  

Ryan Blaney, meanwhile, stunned the sport by winning at Pocono in the Wood Brothers #21, and thus were expectations raised with the switch to a third Penske Ford in 2018.  And running up front hasn't been a problem.   If anything it's surprising that Blaney hasn't won to date in Penske's Ford.  

Erik Jones' Firecracker win adds to the issue, as one now awaits how he follows up the win.   He's been the quiet member of the young guns with the win and just six other top-fives in his two seasons in Winston Cup.  


Overall, Brendan Marks gets it wrong - the young guns are not being given an undue burden because of Saunders' remark.    The sport instead is seeing a generation of young drivers who were promoted as something they really are not.   The old racing saw is a driver needs five years to see if he's truly that good, yet this has been forgotten given the immediate success of rookies like Davey Allison (1987), Jeff Gordon (1993), Tony Stewart (1999), Dale Junior and Matt Kenseth (2000), Kevin Harvick (2001), Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman (2002), and Kyle Busch (2005).   So rookies are supposed to win right out of the chute, that's no longer any kind of unfair expectation.

Now some of the young guns of this season may indeed blossom into legitimate powers and thus "build their brands" as Saunders put it.   But they have to actually do it first.   The young guns have to win, they have to prove they're not doing less with more.  

Winston Cup Enters 2018's Second Half

NASCAR's 2018 season blasts into its second half and the old cliché about the more things changing the more staying the same got some confirmation in a demolition derby of a Firecracker 400 weekend, and it also may have offered answers on where the season is going.     

NASCAR's ridiculous yellow-line rule cost Justin Haley the victory in the Firecracker 250 and led to an interesting question on social media by Brad Keselowski, whose question about having two or four tires below the yellow line illustrated the EIRI clause that has forever dominated the NASCAR rulebook and also illustrated that no matter how Steve O'Donnell calls it, he can't justify this rule.    This helps explain why so many question the sanctioning body's credibility, because the rules put in place too often are there only to justify more control, not to address actual problems.   The blunt reality remains there never should have been a yellow-line rule.

Why has Ricky Stenhouse only won twice in Winston Cup?   His Gurney Ernie Irvan antics in the Firecracker 400 showed why, right down to drivers openly calling him out a la calling out Ernie Irvan back in his day.    That the uncompetitive Roush Fords led as much as they did in the Firecracker was something of a surprise, and we doubt it will carry over to greater muscle down the road this season.

So what to make of this going forward?   Some takes -



---   It's now manifestly clear to everyone, including the Race Stream Media that treated Chevrolet as though it were on the brink of winning again, that Chevrolet's program is fundamentally flawed.   For all the hype about Hendrick Motorsports putting three cars in the top four in qualifying, the Chevrolet class was still clearly behind the Fords and Toyotas.    For Hendrick Motorsports in particular - especially Jimmie Johnson - the failure in the Firecracker, despite showing some legitimate power, indicates whatever progress is being made with this racecar is weak at best, and the Chevrolet program is simply screwed up.    We frankly doubt Chevrolet will win again in 2018; there simply is no reason right now to think Chevy can get this thing turned around.

Which begs the question - what exactly has gone wrong?   Part of it is this Chevrolet more and more looks like a terrible racecar.   The bigger part is the engineering effort clearly has no answers, and one should start questioning the competence of the engineering leadership in Chevrolet's racing program.   Tied into the engineering is inter-team cooperation - Chevy teams claim their is genuine cooperation between them, but MRN's Dave Moody has noted either information isn't being properly used by Chevy teams, or someone in the Chevy camp is not giving everyone everything needed to make these cars better.  I suspect the latter is the case; if it weren't the Chevy effort would be much farther along by now.

---  The young guns of NASCAR were hyped by the sanctioning body despite having little evidence of potential accomplishment, and even with Erik Jones' surprising Firecracker win the young guns overall have simply not shown much firepower.    Jones' effort the last three races has gotten notably better with top-tens at Sears Point and Chicagoland before the Firecracker win; the same cannot be said for Chase Elliott, with just six top-tens overall, just three in the last nine races, and only nineteen laps led overall (compared to 64 by Erik Jones just at Texas earlier this season).    It holds my view that Elliott is not a budding superstar but the next Mike Skinner - an overhyped hack with the greater issue that he's been shoved down the sport's throat.

There needs to be a lot more out of the young guns to justify the hype from the start of the season.

---  The Firecracker was one of those rare good paydays for the smaller teams with top-tens by Brad Daugherty's two cars, Archie St. Hilaire's Ford, and Ron Leavine's Chevrolet.   Jay Robinson, Mark Beard, and the Gaunt Brothers also had respectable days.   The funniest irony is the "independents" accounted for most of the nine Chevrolets that finished in the top-ten.

So it went with the Firecracker 400 weekend.

The Immigration Debate Fraud

Immigration policy is always lied about to protect what has become "a political interest" that violates reality, a reality shown in antisemitism in France, forced marriage of children in Sweden, etc.

Intellectuals At Work

Blatant racial hatred is a hoax - and proven such over and over again.   The latest hoax is the claim that the US is among the ten worst nations for women, even though it is the US that fights hardest for actual rights for women. And Intellectual bigotry - the heart of Intellectualism is bigotry because Intellectuals are personal and social failures who lash out in denial - shows again in yet another NY Times piece, this one attacking admissions standards at specialized high schools in the city - all because Asians outperform others in such schools.

Seven Reality Checks On Social Security

There are seven myths about Social Security. Here are the reality checks.


Social Security is an Entitlement - that is a program the government is required to pay whether it finances it or not; those arguing it isn't an entitlement claim it can't be because beneficiaries contributed to it - except that money goes to someone else.


Social Security wasn't robbed by politicians, it went bankrupt precisely by being a money shuffle.


Social Security pays out benefits its beneficiaries did not contribute to - again, because it is nothing but a money shuffle where someone pays for someone else's benefits.


Social Security's insolvency is far earlier than the often-claimed date of 2034.


Social Security never was "self-funed" - government was paying for it from the beginning.


The "rich" can't finance it.


Privatization was never attempted, despite media mythologizing to that effect

The UN As "Theater Of The Absurd"

"It is possible that there is no more misplaced and absurdly titled international body than the United Nations Human Rights Council?"

Probably not, and the UN's hatred of Israel displays this "theater of the absurd."

The New Scandal Language Coverup

Barack Obama's role in Hillary Clinton's email coverup of her giveaways to foreign financiers and Russia involves the FBI's creative use of coverup language.

Phony Border Anger

There's been a lot of sanctimonious fraudulence regarding separation of children from illegal immigrants at the border. This piece shows the truth and the abuses of history and the relationship to larger derangement against Donald Trump on this issue - ignorance of which is shown in Laura Bush's foolish pedantry - are also examined.

The Mixed Bag Of Globalization

Victor Hanson looks at the mixed results of globalization.

Sorry But Iowa Is Not A Cup Track

With Iowa's first Xfinity-Truck series doubleheader of the season the calls for NASCAR to switch a Winston Cup race from an existing track to Iowa Speedway has renewed. And it remains wrong, because Iowa simply does not deserve a Cup date.








The reasons why are addressed by Nick Bromberg. But in essence the case against Iowa as a Cup track comes down to three simple facts -


The market for a track owned by the sanctioning body simply isn't that strong.   
Iowa's seating capacity is some 30,000, and as Andy Hillinberg's failed reopening of Rockingham showed that's not a sustainable model for major league racing, never mind Cup alone.

The racing is overrated.
Yes the battle between Justin Allgaier and Christopher Bell was spirited, but this season has seen terrific racing quite often; Iowa's racing was good but Michigan's racing the previous week was better. Short tracks have aeropush issues just as bigger tracks do and far too much of short track racing at the major league level is about lapped cars rather than a showdown between the leaders. The fact remains the most competitive racing in motorsports is not short tracks (never mind road racing which NASCAR first enters next week), it is superspeedway racing.


Dragging the sport back to the farm is regression.   It bears reminder the Truck Series began as a short track model and found out right away the short track model can't support major league racing between insufficient crowds, lack of sponsor interest, and overrated racing.   The 1995 "test" race at Homestead proved the superspeedways are better racing venues than short tracks, so the evolution away from short tracks began. 

And it bears reminder that the clamor for more short tracks is actually a desire on the part of some fans to lash out at the superspeedways because people are frustrated at the lack of passing on the bigger ovals - ignoring of course the consistently lower incidence of passing that defines short tracks - the number most telling there is the most competitive short track in NASCAR, Bristol, averages thirteen lead changes per race vs. 22 for Michigan, 24 for Pocono, etc. 



The real answer for Iowa and other short tracks is for NASCAR to start switching more of the TV money away from Cup - which takes some 90% of the TV money - and put more into the Xfinity, Truck, K&N/ARCA, and Modified tours.   This was supposedly part of the original goal of the Truck Series, to make it strong enough that it would stand on its own, some smaller tracks could replace their Cup races with Truck dates, and thus free up those dates for bigger tracks and bigger markets.   Making it worth Iowa's while to be a track for Xifnity and Truck races atop local and ARCA dates will stop the ridiculous lobby for Cup to be dragged there.


The sport has begun showing genuine change for the better in recent races and a better TV money distribution can shut up the people who want to sacrifice a better track to give a mid-western short track a Winston Cup date.

2018 Mass Pirates vs Columbus Lions, Week 10

The 6-3 Mass Pirates come out of their first bye week of the NAL season hosting the Columbus Lions, with both teams locked with the Carolina Cobras and Jacksonville Sharks in the NAL playoff race.   The ensuing game gets off to an ugly start for the Pirates but then erupts into a contest with a combined 117 points scored, a host of penalties, and a shocker of a final minute.

Basia - No Heartache and Matteo

New music from jazz great Basia

No Heartache

Matteo

NFL Classics - 1983 Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins

The Antisemitism Of Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter was and is a gang of savages and among its hatreds is its antisemitism.

The Obamacat FBI

The Justice Department's Inspector General report on the FBI's crooked "investigations" pertaining to the 2016 election  - and the Bureau's coverup for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - was elusive, in keeping with hiding the reality the DOJ and FBI were engaged in an illegal character assassination campaign masquerading as a criminal/counterintelligence investigation, and also in keeping with Obama's rampant corruption and dishonesty, shown in ever-more graphic detail in its appeasement of Iran.

Kaz Grala Puts The Lie To Brad Keselowski

Elliott Sadler and a plethora of others battled for the lead in a spirited LTI 250, the latest race to feature NASCAR's restrictor plate-draft duct package



Michigan International Speedway's 2018 season kicked off and immediately NASCAR's new rule sagacity debate took center stage in a Friday presser by Brad Keselowski.   Keselowski's presser concerned NASCAR's new restrictor plate-draft duct package introduced to MIS for the first time, run in the Michigan Xfinity 250.

Keselowski's missive expressed "concern" - aka opposition - to expanded use of the plate-draft duct package by NASCAR, and it included all the usual nonsensical allusions to driving skill and talent and how they are supposedly stifled by this plate package; his missive got endorsement from Mark Martin via social media but also earned sharp rebuke on NASCAR's satellite radio network from Dave Moody.

The focal area of Moody's rebuke was Keselowski's startling claim that "the best drivers" would avoid racing in NASCAR if this package is integrated into more tracks because in such a scenario they would not be able to showcase their skills.


First, as Moody noted right away, Keselowski's breakthrough in the Winston Cup level was in a restrictor plate race.

Second, that drivers from other series have come to NASCAR stems from the series being the strongest in motorsports, and it is worth noting these drivers such as Juan Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Max Papis, Sam Hornish, and Scott Speed did not succeed in NASCAR outside of two Winston Cup road race wins by Montoya.


And finally to Brad Keselowski - just what is the definition of "driver skill and talent," anyway?   It is an old debate and the answer is usually along the lines of "throttle control, braking, and acceleration points."   This begs the question - would Keselowski throttle-control his way to victories if he was still in James Finch's Chevrolet?

But the strongest rebuke to Keselowski comes from Kaz Grala's superb run in the slapped-together Tony Eury  Xfinity car, storming into the top-ten and challenging for the lead in the race.    Far from stifling driving talent, this package by making the draft more important is opening up driving talent.


This is a fact Keselowski seems oblivious to here.    For driving racecars and racing them are not the same thing. Passing and repassing is what brings out true racing talent, and Kaz Grala's wildcard victory bid displayed a talent more impressive than Keselowski's prerace pedantry.

It's Not Gaza's Economy, It's Palestinian Aggression

Gaza'a poverty is blamed in some circles for Palestinian violence. It's actually the other way around.

Pocono And NASCAR's New Rule Sagacity Debate

Here's what you need to know about race drivers as frauds and hypocrites - Kyle Busch griped about the restrictor plate-draft duct package being phased into NASCAR "It's boring as (hell)."   Then in the Pocono 400 he screamed "Can't f---king pass," this with aeroclean bodies and unrestricted power - and resultant superior throttle response.

It is all part of what is becoming the raging rule sagacity debate in the sport - the restrictor plate-draft duct package first used in the 2017 Lillys Xfinity 250 at Indianapolis, then used in the All-Star Race and open at Charlotte, and now debuting at Pocono and later Michigan for the Xfinity series.   The racing with this package has seen a palpable increase in passing with Ontario-style passing and repassing at The Brickyard and at Charlotte there was passing and drafting reminiscent of 1970s-era Charlotte racing as well as reminiscent of circa-1993 Daytona racing.   In its debut at Pocono, the package took a distant back seat to Kyle Busch's annihilation of the field; he routed the field in Stage 1, got a penalty so he had to pass the field while Paul Menard got into an eye-popping two-by-two push-draft slugfest to win Stage 2, then stormed to the lead on the outside of the Tunnel Turn on the ensuing restart and ran off.    He then flunked postrace inspection.

The Paul Menard car-cam view of the Pocono Green 250 - the fight for the lead swelled into an epic in the final lap of Stage 2

The plate package was easily the talk of Saturday and also in prerace for Sunday.   Word has now circulated that NASCAR will run the plate package at more Winston Cup Monster Energy series races in 2018, with scuttlebutt identifying potential sites as Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Indianapolis; also supposedly considered are Pocono's Summer 400 and Michigan's Yankee 400 weekend with both tracks seeing the package used in the Busch/Xfinity series.

NASCAR's Director of Aerodynamics Simulation and Design, Eric Jacuzzi, issued an apology for the perceived failure of the plate package at Pocono (curiously deleted) -

"Disappointing day today (Saturday June 2). Not enough cornering ability to make the package work through One and Three. Was worth a shot. We'll make it up to you at Michigan next week."

Eric Jacuzzi need not be hard on himself, for objectively the plate package did indeed work at Pocono.   The four-car draft battle where all four raced side-by-side all the way around the track - including all the way through the Tunnel Turn, something considered impossible even when in 1995 Tim Steele and Mike Wallace did so for the lead on some three separate laps in the ARCA Syracuse 150 at Pocono - indicated it in fact does work well.   And the more teams work on this package the better they will make it.

Some historical perspective is needed.   In 1990 Dale Earnhardt was in essence unpassable on the plate tracks - indeed the common theme among rival drivers was the draft no longer worked, especially when Earnhardt was out front.   Teams worked on their cars and engines, especially in the November-March open-season on testing allowed by NASCAR back then, while NASCAR made a spoiler enlargement to boost the power of the draft, and in 1991 the plate races erupted in memorable competition in all four races, especially that July's Diehard 500.

Elsewhere commentary on the plate package has been animated and after Pocono came the usual nonsensical criticisms that NASCAR needs to drop these big tracks for "more short tracks," never mind Pocono and other superspeedways are superior venues in competition, market strength, etc.   The gripe has come in some circles that "short tracks don't need aero packages to make good racing," a claim belied by the fact fendered short track racecar classes run downforce-style bodies with big clear-vu spoilers, some form of engine restriction, and bias-ply tires - and even the Modifieds on the Tour as well as local Mods also run some form of engine restriction and bias-ply tires.   In other words short tracks need "special packages" because the model of low-downforce aeroclean bodies with unrestricted power and radial tires simply doesn't work.

Kyle Busch's runaway in the Pocono Green 250 brings to mind his dominance of the 2017 Overtons Truck 150 at Pocono  - a racing vehicle package that is a good approximation of the plate package used in 2018's 250 - until his wreck on a mid-race restart.  It is an indication he's figured out how to engineer his racecars for this track like few others have, though his postrace penalty in 2018 casts some shadow.


There is also the angle of the 400 - what if that race had run the plate-draft duct package?   As it was, Martin Truex's semi-upset win showed Kyle Busch and erstwhile race dominator Kevin Harvick weren't the duopoly this race seemed to have for so long.   One thus suspects the Menard-Custer-Allgaier-Cindric epic in the 250 would have been replicated and then some by the Cup guys in the 400 if that race had run the plate package.

So it's become that for now every race will be some kind of forum on this plate package given its success at opening up passing.   It also is a raging discussion amid a noticeable surge in enthusiasm for the sport in recent races, with widespread fan enthusiam for Martin Truex at Pocono in clear evidence as he surged to the win.

NASCAR thus can see something it has lacked for so long - a positive outlook for the future.

Obama Kisses His Own Ass

And yep, his nitwit bumkissing assistant Ben Rhodes is back with a memoir on his boss that shows how much an idiot he is (and Rhodes as well).

Revisiting the U.S. Role in Three Mideast Crises

Israel, Iran, and other MidEast crises have created a myth about the US role that persists today - the myth of aggression that never happened.

What's Wrong With NASCAR Driver Opposition To Draft Duct Racecar Package

Note: originally published June 2, it has been updated on June 4:

Jeff Gluck spoke to Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, and Christopher Bell about NASCAR's restrictor plate-draft duct package used at the All Star Race and All Star Open and they expressed "concerns" about greater use of this package.  Their concerns can be summarized thusly - the cars were "easy to drive" and "you want them to be more difficult to drive."

It's an old argument against this kind of racing and it's deeply flawed.   Kaz Grala offered a great perspective -  "We're all just biased because we like to have more control in our hands."   It's an insight into the narrowness of focus by so many drivers. The larger issue - define "more control in our hands."   It is simple fact that the races with the most horsepower and highest level of throttle response, braking, and acceleration have seen the lowest incidence of passing.

The argument made here brings to mind how Carl Edwards forever pushed for lower downforce, and as Gluck notes, his opinion has now been discredited by the racing at Charlotte and Indianapolis.


Matt Weaver of Autoweek expanded the argument before Pocono in a silly missive claiming the sport's identity is "on the line" with expanded use of the plate-draft duct package. He rehashes driver quotes while ignoring the gross hypocrisy showcased in Kyle Busch's post-Pocono "Can't f--king pass!" radio rant during the Pocono 400.

"In a true sporting environment the best teams win.......I think that advocating for the 'All Star package' threatens the very idea of motorsports as a concept."

No, Matt Weaver, it doesn't.   Contrary to Christopher Bell, racing is not about pushing the limit of the tire, it's about pushing your car into the lead and retaking the lead when challenged for it.   Making this package more common to the sport doesn't sacrifice "sporting integrity" - which Weaver doesn't credibly define or seem to understand.   "Does it really want to make over half its races just short of a random number generator?  These are supposed to be the best stock car drivers in the world, not the luckiest or most fortunate."   Yet Weaver cannot cite examples to buttress this argument.

The reality that making the cars underpowered and overgripped relative to everything else and making the draft more important is what increases passing now seems to be sinking into the sport more and more; reading the scuttlebutt the consensus seems clear this package will be integrated into the sport more and more, perhaps beginning at Indianapolis in September with the Xfinity series already running it there and elsewhere.

That some drivers still oppose the concept stems from their own myopia about "having control."   Cars difficult to drive is not the same as difficult to race, and in the two races to date run with the restrictor plate-draft duct package - 2017 Lillys Xfinity 250 at Indianapolis and now the All Star Race B and A-mains - the racing saw prolific passing and drafting, which by any objective competition measure is more, not less, difficult.

The further argument made is that restrictor plate draft/pack racing produces "random results," as though a driver against his will is thrown into the lead by the draft.   Such a scenario of course does not exist, which makes the argument foolish.

In the finish of the decade David Ragan won the 2013 Winston 500 - some think this somehow illegitimate because he hasn't followed up with another win, but that's irrelevant.   The reality as shown here is HE made the moves to win, HE earned the win, there is nothing remotely "random" about it.   That loudmouthed Carl Edwards got outdrafted by Ragan makes it all the more delicious


The bottom line remains the argument against this restrictor plate-draft duct package doesn't work - NASCAR wasted some twenty years fighting against downforce and nowhere did the concept ever succeed - not in 1998, not in  the John Darby era running the garage, not with the ill-advised car Of Tomorrow concept.   What NASCAR would have seen if it had figured out the restrictor plate-draft duct package in 1997 is easy to imagine - far more lead changes and far better racing.

And the argument seems to betray a myopia of history, for what transpired in the two plate-draft duct races run to date was as old-school as one can find -

The racing with the plate-draft duct package brings back the true old-school of NASCAR - the power within what the track and cars can handle and the draft being more important.   This is what built racing in general and NASCAR in particular - and bringing the draft to the other superspeedways is a necessity and thus an opportunity.

UPDATE:  The Pocono Green 250 debuted the package at Pocono and it turned into the most graphic runaway win in a while.   Kyle Busch annihilated the field, breaking the draft with little difficulty, though he had to execute a highside pass into the lead in the Tunnel Turn.   A penalty at the end of Stage One put Busch in the back and the battle for Stage Two was a close chase until on the final lap Paul Menard challenged for the lead and the battle became an eye-popping two-abreast sidedraft war all the way around, including all the way through the Tunnel Turn, something we haven't seen since Mike Wallace and Tim Steele raced all the way through the Tunnel on some three separate laps in the 1995 ARCA Syracuse 150.   

Busch's runaway was curiously seen in some circles as a failure of the package when in reality it showed how well engineered his car was - one also recalls Busch dominating the Pocono Truck 150 (the closest approximation of this package) in 2017 before crashing out at the start of the third stage.  Things got curiouser and curiouser when Busch's #18 flunked postrace - reportedly with an illegally raked left front fender.

A key angle is mentioned in Chase Elliott's postrace comment that the package works better as the cars get wide open, which they struggled to get at Pocono but which we expect the teams to iron out the more they work on the cars with this package.  

Pocono International Raceway At Fifty

The inaugural Schaefer 500, the debut race at Pocono's 2.5-mile triangle, July 3, 1971

Pocono International Raceway is, by both design and circumstance, the most unusual major racing facility in the country. It is virtually a 1,025-acre gravestone to the frenzied superspeedway-building craze of the 1960s.........

So wrote Richard Benyo in SUPERSPEEDWAY: The Story Of NASCAR Grand National Racing in 1977.  2018 marks the 50th season of racing at Pocono International Raceway and the speedway's history has been curiously overlooked in racing history.    It began with the rapid development of the Pocono Mountains region in the 1950s with the expansion of the Interstate Highway system.   Read a 1970 historical outline for the track...........

In the mid-1950s the concept for Pocono International Raceway was born as the product of informal discussions between Pocono Mountain business people.  Each agreed that as racefans they would like to see a major championship racing facility on the East Coast.  Their initial interest led to the formation of Racing Incorporated in 1957 and the resulting plans for Pocono International Raceway

Doctor Joseph Mattoili, a Philadelphia-area dentist, and his wife Rose, a foot doctor, were the prime movers behind Racing Incorporated, but when a 1,025-acre site near Long Pond, a famous duck-hunting stream, was purchased - at $100,000, a strikingly affordable land deal - the company was run by fellow fan David Montgomery, but he faced that he had no one to run the track. He hired short track veterans to help run the company.

The track was built as five tracks in one - a 3/4-mile oval within the main superoval; a 1.8-mile road course and a 3-mile road course, a revolutionary 2.5 mile triangle, and the mammoth frontstretch would serve as a drag-racing strip.   With just three turns, each turn was banked differently, each turn representing another speedway - Trenton for the 14-degree banked Turn One, Indianapolis for the eight-degree second turn, named The Tunnel Turn because it bridges the tunnel entrance to the infield, and Milwaukee for the relatively sweeping 6-degree Turn Three.

The 1975 Schaefer 500

By 1969, however, only the small oval and the mammoth frontstretch was finished, when the very first race was run on May 4.   It was a supermodified race and tragedy struck right away with the death of Troy Ruttman Jr. in the ensuing race.   The track ran week after week as it struggled to finish the superoval.   By 1970 Montgomery was fired and Mattioli was in command with USAC veteran Bill Marvel hired as GM.   Pocono got a five-year agreement for a 500-mile Indycar race for 1971, but to get the 500 Pocono also had to run a 500-miler for USAC's stock car division, something other USAC tracks weren't required to do.

The Schaefer 500 took off in 1971 and despite period rain over the years Pocono drew well.   The USAC stock car race, under ACME Super Saver supermarket sponsorship, first ran in September 1971 but rain interruption led the race after 1971 to run in late July, an off-week for NASCAR's Winston Cup Grand National tour.   Richard Petty and Bobby Allison thus entered the ASS 500 with Petty winning it in 1973.

USAC withdrew its stock car division after a late-April 1975 500 won by Ron Keselowski - he of the now-famous Keselowski NASCAR clan - and NASCAR arrived in August 1974 with Purolator sponsorship.

It was 1975 that NASCAR at Pocono first established itself as compelling competition with controversy over David Pearson's win and a highly competitive affair.    1976 was even more exciting as the lead changed 47 times and Pearson's blown tire with two to go sent Richard Petty to a popular win.

Petty's 1980 crash, which broke his neck, was a fateful turning point for his career.


The decline in Indycar racing hurt Pocono as it continued with the race until 1990; driver complaints about the physical plant were addressed with money freed up from the cancellation of the Indycar race.   NASCAR's rising popularity benefitted Pocono as it did other speedways, with highly competitive racing year after year.

The 1982 Mountain Dew may have been Pocono's greatest race.

Tim Richmond, of Ashland, Ohio, was brought to stock cars in the 1980 Coca Cola 500 and he won four times in the 1982-84 period, but it was hooking up with third-year team owner Rick Hendrick that erupted Richmond's career to legendary heights, with the 1986 Summer 500 Richmond's greatest win.

The track also ran the Modifieds, in the 1970s running them on the 2.5-miler.  By 1980 they'd switched back to the infield short track.

The track saw spirited competition as well in 1990 in an exciting Geoff Bodine win.

Hard crashes have been a reality in Pocono's history.........

.........and when Darrell Waltrip took out rising superstar Davey Allison it became one of the worst.

Davey's death before the 1993 Summer 500 rocked all of racing and his memory permeated postrace reaction.

With the sport's technology arms race the racing was affected, but in the mid-1990s Pocono saw a renaissance of passing.

NASCAR's new Truck Series arrived and in 2010 saw a spirited affair

And in 2017 an even more exciting affair broke out.

Indycars returned in 2015 and the most competitive running ever broke out in 2017.


Happy 50 years, Pocono - keep at it for fifty more, and beyond.

The Democrats Prey On Civil Liberties

The Democrats prove anew their fraudulence by attacking the very civil liberties they claim to have defended in their determination to punish Donald Trump via Robert Mueller.

The Disinformation That Is Linda Sarsour

A malicious media story claimed Israel spied on Palestinian ape Linda Sarsour. The reality is shown here.

France's Hypocrisy on Israel

They say the law is an ass, well France proves anew International Law is a bigger ass.

Palestinians Hoist With Own Petard

The savages of the Middle East fall into their own trap.

A Look At Airline Deregulation

This piece looks at the successes of airline deregulation and where it needs to go from here.

The Rise of Islamic Antisemitism in Canada

Canada is now seeing a rise in antisemitic violence, a result of refusal to criticize Islam and its ideology of hate.

2018 Freedom 100 Indianapolis

Is it possible to have forty lead changes in a forty-lap race? Colton Herta and a pack of hungry drafters say Yes.

Indianapolis, Charlotte, And A Racing Renaissance

The 2018 Indianapolis 500 and World 600 capped a month of May that brought out a genuine sense that racing, a sport struggling for years, has begun a turnaround.

Indianapolis has seen a renaissance of the 500 the last several seasons, most notably in 2016 with the 100th running.   The explosion in lead changes in the 500 in the 2012-17 period - the period of the Wheldon-12 racecar - began the renaissance, and the surge of darkhorse winners added immeasurably to the race's renaissance.    It thus has truly reclaimed the title as Greatest Spectacle In Racing.

Indycar debuted a lower downforce body in 2018, and the loss of 300 pounds of downforce has been credited in some circles to an increase in passing - but in the 500 the loss of downforce was a manifest mistake with a weak drafting effect, cars running poorly in dirty air, and numerous spinouts.   There was some very tense racing nonetheless, but clearly the 2012-17 package is far more raceable for superspeedways, and Indycar would be well advised to add downforce and thus drafting effect for the bigger ovals.

The 500 was the story of three teams - Ed Carpenter's self-owned #20, AJ Foyt's team with former 500 winner Antoine "Tony" Kanaan and rookie Matheus Leist, and of course Penske Racing.    Carpenter stole Penske's thunder by grabbing the pole, but in the end it was Will Power grabbing the win after the upset bids of Oriol Servia and Stefan Wilson - adding a poignancy to the race is that Wilson is brother of Justin Wilson, killed at Pocono in 2015 - ran dry in the final five laps.   Power led 59 laps to Carpenter's 65 but in the end Power had too much of a lead for Carpenter's bid.   Kanaan was the big wildcard bidder, posting the fastest practice at least once and leading nineteen laps, but his bid was first frustrated by a cut tire near halfway, then as he'd clawed back into some contention the car spun out and hit the wall with thirteen to go.   His rookie teammate Leist soldiered home 13th.

Those were the dominant angles of the 102nd 500, but of course there are others - Schmidt Peterson Motorsports had a solid if mind-boggling week as James Hinchcliffe somehow missed the 500, due in part to a forlorn qualifying effort by Pippa Mann, who also didn't make the race; the botched qualifying effort is the most bizarre since Jigger Sirois blew his chance to make the 1969 500.   

Carpenter entered two cars, and Danica Patrick ran his second car - why anyone thought she warranted any ride remains perplexing, especially as she ended her racing career the same way she personified it - she wrecked.    

Other notable contenders were Alexander Rossi - fourth in this 500 - Ryan Hunter-Reay - fifth - top race rookie Robert Wickens in another Schmidt Peterson car, Graham Rahal after leading twelve laps from 30th and finishing tenth, and Marco Andretti, finishing a respectable 12th in the Curb #98, still looking for his first win since 2011 and first since losing his ride with his dad's team.

With the 500's drama wrapped up, the racing focus switched to Charlotte and the Coca-Cola 600, and there seems a palpable sense of renewed love of racing in the sport, shown in a consensus of positive fan reaction on the postrace shows on satellite radio.   While the 600 was hardly all that competitive -  the 600 saw fewer lead changes (23, official and otherwise) than the All-Star Race and All-Star Open (38, official and otherwise) - and Kyle Busch, among the most hated drivers in recent NASCAR history, led 377 laps - there was surprising attention paid to intense racing outside the top five.

There seems to be several reasons for this positivity -


- the biggest angle may be that people's perspective changed when Kevin Harvick crashed, for the expected blitz to yet another Harvick win disintegrated and suddenly the race became radically different.

- the All-Star Race's competitiveness may have provided drivers an unconscious motivation to race harder.

- having seen such exciting racing in the All-Star Race, fans may have come into this 600 with a generally more sated attitude and greater sense of gratitude for the effort by drivers.

- Dave Moody noted on Sirius Radio a subtle shift by the FOX telecast in its broadcast focus; long has been the complaint that TV ignores racing in the back and doesn't scan the field to better promote all the racers, and the focus on the leader certainly seemed noticeably lower this time around.

- the racing outside the top five - and some of the racing within it - featured a plethora of darkhorses and productive finishes as a result.   Alex Bowman in particular showed a very respectable effort a week - finishing a solid ninth - after criticism of his racing during All-Star weekend.   Ricky Stenhouse - tenth at the end - also showed noticeable improvement with veteran Matt Kenseth replacing Trevor Bayne as a Roush teammate.    Veterans Jamie McMurray - the target of some running social media abuse of late - and Kurt Busch, both largely lost in the shuffle of the season, salvaged top-ten finishes.   Bubba Wallace clawed from the back of the field - result of a post-qualifying change and resultant penalty - and ran in the top-15 for awhile, then passed several cars late to salvage 16th.   Michael McDowell had a respectable night as well salvaging 18th.

- Chevrolet has taken it on the chin all season, but this time around put four cars in the top nine, including Jimmie Johnson, who reached his fifth top-ten finish of a season where he and the entire Hendrick fleet have been outclassed by the SHR Fords and the Toyotas.   Certainly this 600 was a race of progress for the Chevrolets after so poor a beginning of the season.


Hovering over the 600 of course is the success of the All-Star Race restrictor plate-draft duct package, and monitoring the scuttlebutt the consensus seems to be the package will be used at Indianapolis in September, with one curious sub-rumor being that New Hampshire will also use this package come July.   Certainly there is no credible reason not to begin integrating this package into NASCAR's varied fendered classes at the most propitious possible moment.

It all added up to a racing weekend where a genuine sense of renewed love of the sport can be felt, in a sport where positivity isn't so easy to detect.

2018 Mass Pirates at Carolina Cobras

A shocker out of Carolina as the Mass Pirates face a heartbreaker in a spectacular affair combining for 137 points.

Harvick Keeps Powering In Spirited All-Star Race

NASCAR's 2018 All Star Race became a test bed for the restrictor plate-draft duct package and the test proved worth it in a spirited affair with numerous upset bids.

The Winston Cup Monster Energy All Star Open and Feature

The new package, first run in the Lillys Brickyard 250 last season, was anticipated to where the lone practice session before the race was monitored more intently than most practices. As one might expect the drivers spent lengthy time feeling out the cars, and as they got comfortable they became more spirited, to where late in the session there was a roughly 20-car sidedraft.   


Takeaways from the most anticipated All Star Race in years -


Scoring showed 38 lead changes, nineteen official and nineteen additional between the Open and the Feature.   Even with that passing the leader proved harder than hoped, but clearly this was not caused by this package, given the drivers now have a genuine drafting effect to work with.  Handling proved more important than perhaps anticipated, especially fresh tires - all of which teams will address down the road.   Historically the draft has mattered at Charlotte and Atlanta but not to quite the effect as at Daytona and Talladega; it nonetheless has been an aid to passing.

For several lengthy periods the leader was free because his pursuers spent too much time racing for second.   Kevin Harvick had posted the strongest trap speeds down the backstretch in Friday's qualifying session and it showed in the race at the end the way he was eating his chasers up entering Three.    It showed anew how much stronger Harvick is compared to everyone else.

In the Open Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez grabbed the first two segments and thus transferred to the Feature but it was AJ Allmendinger who stormed to win the race and then followed that up by flying through the Feature field.  His very promising night ended when he whacked the wall pretty hard, thus denying the All Star Race a darkhorse winner even though he salvaged a respectable eighth at the end.

Allmendinger was one of several wildcards whose promising night didn't end as well as hoped.  In the Open Bubba Wallace led seven laps and was clawing for the win; the last-lap three-wide near-shunt wound up killing his night down to a disappointing 11th.

It was once again a showdown between Harvick and the Toyotas and the Toyotas wound up either shooting themselves via a big melee involving Martin Truex and Kyle Busch or couldn't quite get past Harvick, as was the case for Daniel Suarez en route to a frustrating second.

It was yet another lousy night for the Roush Fords - Matt Kenseth and Ricky Stenhouse swept the front row then were never heard from again after Stenhouse led the opening five laps.   The Ford fleet outside of Harvick curiously was also uneven - Joey Logano ran stout but crashed with Kyle Larson late and still finished third; Brad Keselowski was quiet all night and eliminated in the big wreck with Kurt Busch - his second crash of the night - and Clint Bowyer, who self-servingly whined the racing was like an Xfinity race.   Ryan Blaney also had a rough night.

Though not in contention, the Chevrolets overall showed for the first time since Daytona some actual fight, especially Jimmie Johnson.   Though it was the tail-end of the top ten, five Chevys nonetheless finished in the top ten - far and away better than what the Chevrolets have run pretty much all season.

But the big story was and is the restrictor plate-draft duct package and its effectiveness, to where Harvick on PRN offered an endorsement of it.  "How do we merge this package and the superspeedway package to be the same, because I think we can." Even more interesting is that there now seems to be advocacy toward integrating this package this season rather than wait to 2019. Certainly the bottom line is this package is far and away better than what the sport has had for many years.   Difficulty passing the leader is no longer something the teams can't solve, and this race also showed while Harvick is well above everyone else it's no longer the canyon of a gap it had been earlier this season.


So the sport now has genuine reason to anticipate better racing and also that a number of teams will eventually ascend to challenge Harvick and others.

Continued Hypocrisy On Russia And ICE

By now it is manifest that the investigation of Donald Trump is about the Obama Administration engaged in an illegal persecution prosecution that drew investigation away from Hillary Clinton and Obama criminality. Such hypocrisy is in keeping with the Democratic Party and its support of enemy forces, such as with its attack on the Immigration-Customs Enforcement agency, a body that has found among other things that some 80% of illegals arrested have criminal records.

The Continuing Lie That Is Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter movement is a vengeful fit of bigotry pretending to be about justice - shown in the group's dishonesty about crime and its antisemitism.

The Real Point Of The Investigation Of Trump

The FBI's investigation of Trump is not a criminal investigation - because no crime was ever committed.   It is a counterintelligence investigation at the behest of then-President Obama.   Basically the rules were changed to try and deny the defendant right to defend himself, even though literally no evidence exists that Trump or his people in any way aided Soviet espionage.

The Fraud Of "Me Too"

First this post from January 18:

The entertainment industry's non-reform after the exposure of rapist Harvey Weinstein continued with the idiotic Golden Globe ass-kissing. The fraud continues as the "Me Too" movement pushes not accountability but feminist entitlement in a hookup culture. It also extends to Public Radio as it enabled sexual molester Garrison Keillor while Harvey Weinstein's moral relativism gets examined.

Now the fraud of "Me Too" continues as Eric Schneiderman exposes yet further the fraudulence of leftism in general and the Democratic Party and its cultural control in particular.

The Savages Of Gaza

Hamas launched a "protest" attack in Gaza looking to sacrifice lives to score propaganda points against Israel. And as usual some are falling for it.

The Case for Holding Students Accountable

Students work harder and better when they're held accountable and have a direct stake in succeeding - something they don't necessarily have now.

A Scientific Fraud Becomes Enshrined In EU Regulatory Law

A pesticide is banned in the EU based on a lie

The Perversion That Is The Democratic Party

Racial and sexual perversion has overwhelmingly been a Democratic Party failing from Harvey Weinstein to Joe Biden et al to Eric Schneiderman of late. This piece looks at reasons why, yet oddly seems to ignore the roles that entitlement and moral relativism play in left-wing hate - liberals want to bully and boss around people and mold people into doing what they're told, and they dress it up as "it's good for you."

The Privileged Palestinian 'Refugees'

Treating them as something they're not has only made the scam of Palestine permanent.

NASCAR's State Of Confusion

NASCAR enters Charlotte's two weeks of racing with yet more confusion as to where the sanctioning body is going. First came a Reuters story that the France family was looking to sell its ownership stake, or at least part of it, to an outside buyer - the story got a sharper angle when a name of a potential buyer was mentioned in Comcast, the entertainment giant - in keeping with Liberty Media's purchase of the F1 sanctioning body. Another angle comes with word that team owners are increasingly unhappy with NASCAR even as the sanctioning body and team owners have striven to work together more in recent years. Such news comes amid ratings for the sanctioning body continuing to labor.

"A budget cap is one aspect of the wider topic of the competitive framework of the sport, which has been an imoretant topic of late in Team Owner Council meetings and RTA discussions."

Andrew Murstein of Richard Petty Motorsports in the Sports Business Daily piece advocates going to more night races and going to some mid-week races, ignoring the failure of night racing in Winston Cup and the fact that late start times for Sunday races have helped drive fans away.  


This comes as the 2018 season has seen some genuine improvement in the racing, with a wild and compelling Daytona 500, a strikingly spirited Phoenix 300, and a wild finish at Kansas.

Kansas had several spirited bouts up front.

 





It also had a huge melee late in the race.

Kevin Harvick had to run down Martin Truex to win the race.


Word of a possible sale of at least partial ownership to an outside entity has brought out the usual bitterness from some long-time fans with the usual nonsensical calls for "bring back stock bodies" etc. - never mind stock bodies proved unusable long ago.   Solutions are well known and should not need belaboring and the bitterness by some fans continues to reek of spurned lover syndrome.


As for the on-track competition, with the coming All-Star Race the restrictor plate-draft duct package will get its first race on an intermediate oval after last year's successful Lillys Xfinity 250 at Indianapolis.   Given that the draft historically has mattered a great deal on intermediates like Charlotte and Atlanta one can feel this package will open up passing.   The likely winners will be Fords, whose program is simply that much better than everyone else's, especially the Stewart-Haas Fords, though Penske's bunch is still good.

JGR and Truex are still stout, but it's obvious Truex's team misses the #77 car, as their muscle simply isn't there now.

Chevrolet has become irrelevant, period.   More and more the prospect that Chevrolet will not be in any contention the rest of the season is becoming real, and shows how the favoritism of Chevy to Hendrick's team is now costing them - having done nothing to bolster their other teams, Chevrolet is now not just also-rans but junk as such.   Chevy needs to reassign some of their engineers to other teams and get all of their teams working directly together a la the Pontiacs two decades past.

A humorous byproduct is the failure of the young gun drivers, who have simply been out of contention from the start of the season.   True, Chase Elliott has led laps and fought for top fives but nowhere has shown the maturity or intelligence that indicates he's learning how to win.   His young Hendrick teammates right now look lost at the Cup level; they look like actual rookies, and weak ones at that.   The old NASCAR saw that it will take five years to see if the kids actually can become competent racers seems to have come back to the sport - talk about throwback.

Elliott's idiotic tantrum at Ricky Stenhouse after the race shows what's wrong with the young guns - Stenhouse swerved Elliott high in Four and afterward Elliott drilled him, then complained about Stenhouse racing him too hard, a contemptible opinion for which Elliott was deservedly ripped by Larry McReynolds.   Stenhouse for his part does deserve criticism for chopping off Elliott instead of holding his line better.

The flameout of the young guns has now cost one of them his race team as Trevor Bayne is now going down as the first spectacular drafting bust of NASCAR in recent memory.   One struggles to see him ever getting another Cup chance.


******


An unexpected angle came with the Supreme Court's overruling of government bans on sports betting, opening up the potential that sports bodies will see direct gambling by fans on contests, players, etc.  Concern about competition integrity is legitimate, but as pointed out on Sirius XM radiocasts it is bookies themselves who expose cheating scandals and thus ensure competitions are legitimate.   The potential revenue sanctioning bodies may achieve has been the big temptation involved, and NASCAR may be the sport best suited to legalized gambling.

For the sport to benefit most, teams and tracks need to see genuine benefit.  Betting should also shy away from NASCAR's misbegotten playoff idea - instead betting should be about winning races, laps led, and hard charger awards - performance, in short, not contrived title formats.

So we thus await the All-Star affair and whether NASCAR can begin getting things in better order for going forward.

The Fraud Of Palestinian 'Refugees'

By treating "Palestinian" "refugees" as something they've never been, the world - and especially the uncurious media - enabled a multi-generational humanitarian swindle.

2018 Maine Mammoths vs Massachusetts Pirates

Arena football is as exciting and competitive as anything and the first-year Massachusetts Pirates squared off in Week 6 with the Maine Mammoths in a wild affair where two-score leads were twice erased, a unique scoring rule was utilized to pivotal effect by the Mammoths, and the game went to a wild overtime.

Another Feminist Perv Goes Down

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman fancied himself a leader of the "resistance" to Donald Trump and a supporter of feminist causes - including abortion. And like all such, he got exposed as a serial rapist.

Abortion is, first and formost, an easy way out for men who do not wish to take responsibility for their sexually libertine lifestyle. This is why first-wave feminists opposed it.

Of course he wasn't just a feminist perv, he (being a liberal) was a crook.

Mueller Transcript Showcases His Fraudulence

Robert Mueller lost big when a judge in Virginia ruled he overstepped badly in prosecuting Paul Manafort as part of his attack-Trump vendetta.

 The full transcript.

The 2018 ARCA General Tire 200

Islamic Violence Against Women Continued

A notorious mosque in the environs of DC has advocated slicing women's genitals in the past and its misogyny continues today.

Iran's 80,000 'Shi'ite' Fighters in Syria

Presented is an analysis of Iranian-backed fighters in Syria.

Teacher Hacks And Their Strikes

Teacher unions are calling strikes in several states over ostensibly lower pay - reflecting the hackeramas they created with inflated benefits packages etc. It also generates perpetual sham grievances about teacher pay.

The Nature Of EPA Meddling

A look at a Richard Epstein piece on the EPA and the nature of its meddling.

Senator Chris Murphy Stands with Islamists

Senator Chris Murphy proves himself a tool by standing with the enemy.

NASCAR Blasts Into Talladega But Not Without Disappointment

NASCAR's first Talladega weekend arrived amid several eye-opening changes and in a season that has yet to arrest the sport's decline in ratings and attendances.    The continued popularity funk comes amid some reason for optimism down the road with aerodynamic issues now being addressed properly and the racing in 2018 being noticeably better than in recent years.   Once the weekend was over, though, more questions were left being asked about some of its rules sagacity.

The Geico 500 weekend began with an eye-popping crash involving former Talladega winner Jamie McMurray, whose blown tire set off the nastiest tumble in years and raised questions about the wisdom of  allowing speeds in the 200 MPH bracket - Daytona's recent bad melees involving catchfencing both involved speeds in the 200 range, this after decades of experience that 194 is realistically the cut-off point for keeping the cars on the ground.  NASCAR made a restrictor plate change after this wreck that was the weakest form of window-dressing and which thus didn't really solve anything, leaving the question about the restrictor plate size come the Firecracker weekend in July.   A larger spoiler and smaller plate would seem a no-brainer; the curiously unexamined angle is the draft duct package now in use on the flat superovals and beginning at Charlotte in the All-Star Race; one would think down the road that will become a part of the package at the plate tracks as well.

The weekend accelerated with ARCA's General Tire 200 - this coming after the stunning announcement that NASCAR has purchased the sanctioning body.  

Reaction to NASCAR's purchase of ARCA was negative, with angry citation of NASCAR's purchase of the ARTGO and All-Pro tours as evidence against the purchase. As Matt Weaver of Autoweek put it, this buyout is basically a case of the pie being too small for the two bodies - longtime quasi-allies - not to merge.  Given ARCA's experience with superspeedways I doubt it will affect that series that much and may have been inevitable.

As for the General Tire 200, once again the policy of not racing to the flag came back to ruin what was a terrific race with a terrific finish won by Zane Smith.   Sheldon Creed in the Ranier/MDM #28 and Sean Corr in the Petty-affiliated Empire car - this time #46, the number normally used by Petty's grandson Thad Moffitt - were as at Daytona in the thick of the fight for the win, and once again a race-ending wreck left Corr with the worst of it.   The racing was awesome with the sidedraft for the lead raging pretty much wire to wire.


The weekend also saw a major Late Model race at Five Flags Speedway that was even uglier than the crashing at Talladega with a nasty encounter between racers Stephen Nasse and Donnie Wilson, a set-to where Nasse punched out Wilson while Wilson was still in his car; Wilson then got out and the brawl was on.   The track PA announcer supposedly said, "Nasse is known as a hothead" and  Kyle Plott said, "That's Nasse's fault.  He started that.  That's stupid as hell."   When it was all over Bubba Pollard stormed to the win over Casey Roderick and Chandler Smith, who gagged on the last restart.

Nasse for his part spoke afterward.

******

The other big story entering the weekend was the announcement that Matt Kenseth - idled since JGR released him after 2017 - will drive for Roush-Fenway Racing in replacement of Trevor Bayne in the #6 starting at Kansas. With reports that Roush was working on some sort of long-term deal for Kenseth, the change is suggestive that Roush has given up on the mostly-unsuccessful Bayne, who won the Daytona 500 in the Wood Brothers #21 in 2011, managed four top ten finishes 2016-17, and won twice in Roush Busch-Xfinity Fords, but has overall accomplished nothing - ironically illustrated in being eliminated in a wreck in the Geico 500.

The seeming failure of Bayne raises anew concern that the much-vaunted Young Guns simply lack the ammunition as racers.   Chase Elliott has run strongly, including second at Richmond, but overall has not shown evidence he is actually learning how to win.   He also has been in essence the only Chevrolet doing anything in a season monopolized by SHR Fords, Penske Fords, and JGR Toyotas.

That Elliott is the only Chevrolet in this sea of Fords and Toyotas is the lone highlight for what looks more and more like a season where the Daytona 500 is the only win the Bowtie Brigade will get.   Talladega showed anew how outclassed the Chevrolet fleet is, with the Chevys basically dragged along from pillar to post.


*******

Fans also got a front-row seat to the downside of modern racing.   In the Sparks Energy 300 and in the Geico 500 the drivers were capable of passing yet didn't do it.  In the Sparks 300 almost the only combat was the two-lap finish where Spencer Gallagher, who's been kicking around the Xfinity and Truck Series as well as the K&N Series and ARCA since 2011, blasted to the win, his second career win anywhere after his ARCA win at Kansas, both times in Maury Gallagher Chevrolets.

The Geico 500 was actually worse.   NASCAR's liberalized ride-height rule may have backfired with racecars noticeably unstable and drivers were focused more on short-pitting - which so staggered the field as to make it a mess, this even without the rash of pit speeding penalties that permeated pit sequencing - than on actually leading the race.   Even though the battle for the lead in spots swelled to epic proportion - i.e what Talladega is supposed to be - it simply wasn't a case of drivers committed to going for the lead.

Thus was the melee started by a sideways Jimmie Johnson racing for about fifteenth all the more ironic, a confluence of the worst aspects of racing - unstable racecars and drivers almost scared to pass anyone (and yet getting wrecked anyway).  

And in the end Joey Logano grabbed his first win since the Richmond 400 in 2017, a surprising thirty-six race slump.   The starkest contrast in this slump is Logano managed just eight top tens the rest of 2017 while nailing eight top tens before the Talladega win - in contrast teammates Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney have managed just two top-tens combined in the last four races.  


So Talladega blasted through its first race weekend of the season and the patterns of the season appear now to be set with Dover coming up.

Socialized Medicine Kills A Youth Named Alfie

Britain's National Health Service is killing a baby named Alfie and has bullied the boy's father into accepting it. This is socialized medicine in action - they control you and you have no right to object.

Scott Pruitt's Crime Is Beating Leftists

EPA chief Scott Pruitt is under attack - because he stands up to leftists in their campaign to persecute business.

The Fraud Of Establishmentarians

"Establishmentarians" - government hacks who claim to be professional - try to run amok as they disgrace themselves, and show anew that respect is not given, it must be earned.

The Myth Of Canadian Health Care

The myth of government-run health care always cites Canada as an example of success. In fact it is a failure, with Canadians paying far more than they're supposed to and get less than they're supposed to - the iron law of government intervention in market forces.

Trump Winning In Justice Department War

Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein have proven their critics wrong - and in the process they - and the inherent fraudulence of the Robert Mueller investigattion - discredited Andrew McCabe and his coverup for Hillary Clinton.

Earth Day's Murderous Founder

Nicknamed the Unicorn Killer because his last name means "one horn" in German



Intellectuals have a reputation for being despicable people - Earth Day's founder proves that anew.

The Future of Israel Looks Good

Despite concerns about Israel's future, the country is doing well economically, militarily and internationally. The future bodes well for the country.

The Dangers of Failing Middle East States

Key Arab countries are unlikely to retain their past structures.

Global Warming Myth On Tornadoes Blown Away

A recurring claim about global warming is that tornadoes would increase - they've actually dropped since 1954 to a record low.

Hypocrats Discovery Federalism

In the hypocritical manner that defines the Democratic Party, they are embracing federalism.

Russia's History Of Military Overkill

Soviet Russia's continuing development of "doomsday weapons" reflects the empire's history of desiring overkill.

Scott Pruitt Bashing

Leftists hate Scott Pruitt of the EPA because he is effective at reigning in the regulatory state.

If the NY Times and Washington Post were truly concerned about wasteful spending at the EPA, there was plenty of it to cover over the years. Yet never has there been this degree of outrage about this type of business-as-usual waste in Washington.

Honor Killing Is Not Just a Muslim Problem

Islamic imperialism specializes in "the most extreme form of institutionalized violence against women on the planet." But it isn't alone.

A Historic Step in Austria?

Something unprecedented took place in Austria in December 2017 – it took a massive step against Islamo-Arab Imperialism.

The Democratic Debt's Excuse-Making

The NY Times - natch - tries to portray the Democratic Party as "the party of fiscal responsibility." It isn't, and never was.

NASCAR's New Business Model

With word that Monster Energy will not renew its sponsorship of the Winston Cup Grand National series after 2019, Matt Weaver analyzes what appears to be the coming business model for NASCAR that appears modeled after the models used in the NFL etc. with multiple official partners. The potential problem here is NASCAR needs more, not less, sponsors and it needs to swallow its pride and welcome competing sponsors like Gatorade, Mountain Dew, STP, etc. Stop worrying about "conflict" because bundling sponsors for the series, tracks, etc. should eschew the "one size fits all" mentality that has hurt the sport. Sponsors competing against each other has long helped the sport as well as the sponsors themselves.   Teams also need to be benefitted because too many sponsors who should be on racecars were taken by NASCAR as "official sponsors."

The Weaver piece lobbies for schedule changes so NASCAR can "reinvent itself" and claims "a handful of tracks...do not currently warrant two dates."   This is false.   The tracks with two dates manifestly do warrant two dates and contrary to contrarianism in fan and some media circles the sport doesn't really need new markets, it needs to make itself more competitive as racing and thus strengthen its existing markets.   This is why NASCAR's use of the restrictor plate-drag duct package at the All Star Race is all the more a positive development.  

The business model for NASCAR also needs to address spending, because this is why costs have increased.   Team spending needs to be addressed by all involved because no team should be spending $10 million or more to run forty races a season.

NASCAR now seems to be grasping at least partially what has to be done.

Facebook's Crony Capitalism

Mark Zuckerberg runs Facebook and after the Cambridge Analytica "scandal" - it was simple advertising research - was grilled by a Congress that showed it has no idea how Facebook operates, a Congress that has "never produced anything valuable in their lives and are in the business of using force to achieve their ends" Zuckerberg welcomed government meddling in Facebook, continuing the dubious tradition of crony capitalism.

Fem Hypocrisy

Feminism is portrayed as advocacy of women's empowerment. This, though, is a lie - the goal is women's entitlement. And even then feminism reeks of the hypocrisy that is the dominant quality of Leftism - yet another case in point is the Women's March and its fight for the website Backpage, a site that empowers sex trafficking.

"Modern day sex workers are modern day slaves," is a paraphrase of British feminist Julie Bindel's 2017 analysis of modern "sex workers."  And the feminist movement is.........empowering sex slavery?

The Equal Pay Myth

Equal Pay Day is one of those phony days that push a myth. The myth is the "77 cents per woman for every dollar per man in earnings" myth. But that's all it is - a myth.

The Success Of School Choice

The leftwing Center For American Progress attacks school choice. Like larger leftism it dos so by being dishonest. School choice works.

Despite Trump Boast, US Staying In Syria

Because there are no positive outcomes from a U.S. withdrawal

Conspiracy Mongering And Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King is still portrayed as a God for civil rights, as though his speeches accomplished what market economics weren't already quietly achieving and what market economics inevitably always achieve. Unflattering facts about King - his womanizing, the fact he lied on his dissertation at BU, being wrong about Vietnam - are always glossed over, and oddly with his killing a conspiracy theory was created.

MeToo Warrior Hoist With Her Own Petard

The #MeToo movement continues the Democratic Party and Leftism's fraudulence on sexual abuse and harassment as a California #MeToo harlot is hoist with her own petard.

MeToo hypocrisy gets bigger as now emerging is testimony on how Obama-era regulations stifled reporting on sexual abuse.

Medicaid, The Fraud That Keeps On Giving

California takes a ponzi scheme - Medicaid - and commits fraud.

John Brennen And Careerist Sabotage

Former CIA chief John Brennen's threat to unseat Donald Trump showed him to be a bureaucrat who has been incompetent and dishonest, just like similar "deep state" careerist Susan Rice, who lied about the Benghazi ambush, Syria's chemical weapons stores, and so forth. And the worst aspect is we also have the sanctimonious James Comey and his multiple instances where he basically perjured himself and didn't do his job.