The Track too Tough to Tame, in 100 words or less

by Charlie Turner

I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot.

4 Responses to “The Track too Tough to Tame, in 100 words or less”

1. steve on May 9th, 2007 7:42 am

   1) The blame for Kevin Harvick’s “mishap” on pit road falls squarly on the shoulders of his spotter. The spotter’s job, and only job, is to make sure the driver has a clear path to navigate his racecar in. Whether it is on the race track or the pit lane, the spotter has to be watching what is happening in front of, and behind HIS driver, AT ALL TIMES!

   2) If both sides of this deal are telling the truth, the whole truth and NOTHING but the truth, that only leaves one course of action. Junior will not be getting his majority ownership in his father’s company and he will tell Teresa to “pound sand” as he either steps up his Busch team to become a Cup team and drives for himself, or he will be driving the ‘ole number 3 with Bud sponsorship for RCR.

   3) Tyler Motorsports was “a little smarter than the average bear” in that they didn’t try to bite off more than they could chew. They focused on a limited schedule of races–all CoT races, prepared and tested that car and were in a position to take advantage of that plan when they got to the racetrack. Congrats to that organization for being exactly that–organized.

   4) Not only has this scenerio played itself out in American open wheel racing, it has surfaced in almost every other major sport in this country. The NBA suffered through and eventually merged with the ABA. The NHL had to fight for its stars with the WHA which led to escalated salaries and the eventual absorbtion of the WHA into the NHL. The NFL had to deal with the USFL. The point being that there are enough Tracks that want races, cars that aren’t making races ant thus sponsors that are not being seen that someone with a butt-load of cash and/or a few prime racetracks could lure some teams into trying an alternative major stockcar series. NASCAR can’t bury their head in the sand and say it can’t happen, because history shows it can and that could spell doom for the goose.

2. Charlie on May 9th, 2007 8:47 am

   1.I have never been a spotter or a crew chief. Larry McReynolds has. He blamed the fowl up on the crew chief. The spotter’s responsibilities are primarily on-track. He cannot override the crew chief in the pits.
   2.I believe that Yates will stay Ford. It would simply be too devastating to Ford and NASCAR if they lost the asset that is Yate’s engine expertise. Junior could drive Chevies in Busch with JR Motorsports a,d Fords for DEI. Or he could leave DEI.
   3.The success or failure issue as determined by qualifying or not, is over emphasized. Most of the teams not qualifying, are faster on the watch than the bottome ten that do qualify. NASCAR– change the rules!
   4.Steve, you are an idiot. First of all, any new stock car series would be– at least third in line behind the Busch Series,ARCA Re/Max and ASA. The split open wheel series disaster will cause any intelligent racing entreprenuer to look elsewhere. By the way…you ran out of worlds at”butt load of…”
   Bonehead.

3. Luke on May 9th, 2007 9:27 am

   Y’all crack me up.

   1) Spotter get em into the box, crew chief gets em out. Todd was paid by NASCAR under the table to keep Harvick from stinking up the show. (I’m joking, of course, but Todd did miss the call.)

   2) Been saying this for a year. When Jr is ready to take his career to the next level, he’ll embrace his home waiting for him at RCR. No JR Motorsports, no Hendrick (wherever that rumor came from), or anyone else. It’ll be RCR if he wants to step it up from where he is now, and get out of the “also ran” category.

   3) How I see the JB deal is simple. Allow me to illustrate. If you have 10 exams to study for, and need to pass each one, that’s going to take “X” amount of your time/resources to prepare for all 10. Now, if your buddy only has 3 of those 10 exams to study for, in the same time frame, would it not be expected that on those 3 exams he does better than you? No different with running a very limited schedule. Same amount of time to prepare, just more effort can be focused on a few vice a lot.

   4) Ridiculous. I’ve talked to a lot of longtime fans over the past 6 months or so, and here’s what I’ve got as an overall response to NASCAR’s biggest issue.

   A) Too much change in one big swoop.

   B) Favoring markets over quality of product. AKA: the racing.

   C) Not letting them race. Best described and discouraging the beating and banging (not wrecking, but rubbing and nudging).

   D) Media robots. There’s nothing wrong with manners and courtesy, but drivers being coerced to suppress emotion and not speaking their mind. (On the flip side of that, you can run your mouth too much.

   E) Top 35. Fastest cars make the show. Top 15 guaranteed to start. Fields of 45 cars.

   Simply adding a competing series won’t sole it. Look at ASA, Hooters, etc. The racing is good, but they are smothered by the beast that is NASCAR. So the answer isn’t add competition, it’s FIX what’s there.

   Alternative: Cup East/West, like the NL/AL, or East/West Conferences in the stick and ball sports.

   Fields of 36, separated for the first 26. Top 18 (or 22, etc) from each are allowed to run in the final 10. The top 8 (or 5, etc) from each would actually be running for the Series title. I don’t see that anytime soon, but someday it might not be too far fetched.

4. steve on May 9th, 2007 11:20 pm

   Charlie–you are such a chucklehead. I never said there was going to be a competing series to the CUP series any time soon. What I have been saying is that the France family (read as Brian France) is doing crap that WILL piss enough people off that it COULD happen. And there are people out there who have enough money and ego to think they can make a go of it. OF COURSE it will screw up the sport. THAT, CHUCKLEHEAD IS MY POINT.

Got something to say?

Did you know you can log in with your Thunder Lounge account, and have your personal avatar and site link available when you comment at On Pit Row?

Don't have an account yet? Sign-up for free.