I Believe in Monsters and Fast Laps

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.

6 Responses to “I Believe in Monsters and Fast Laps”

1. Marc on May 26th, 2008 12:32 pm

   1. No. There’s little reason to think it will, he’s run there before and won. If he continues to stay among the leaders the next two weeks I’d agree, ’til then it’s just a momentary flash in an otherwise terrible two years for the Dodge Boys and GEM in particular.

   2. I don’t think the question is allowing the move, the question is will he get a date if he does. He can move whatever he desires, it’s his property what he gets out of it is not in his hands and he could end up with a single date in Kentucky and losing one at the track hes selects to move one from.

   If the later occurs NASCAR would take the now “open” date and place it on the Iowa Speedway calender.

   And here’s the kicker no one has thought of while being blinded by all the NASCAR talk. Just after Smith purchased New Hampshire he said a drag strip would be built on the premises. He already has built a one-of-a-kind 4 lane drag strip at Lowes. Watch for drag strip plans to be announced for Kentucky along with the purchase of drag racings sanctioning body NHRA. Smith has long been in the market for the NHRA and was trumped in that purchase by a group whose plans fell apart just before the season started. Watch as he builds more 4-lane strips and take the NHRA from tape delay to more live TV.

   3. Bootie Barker says what?

   Whatever, if I had just been caught and looking at 100pts, 100 thousand large and a crew chief suspension I’d try to play the blame game also and try to shift it towards the inspectors. Nice try, I hope he fleshes the excuse out a little better for the appeal before the commission.

   4. 500 - 6 mostly based on it being The 500 counting the tradition and all. Aside from the tradition I’d give it a 4.5 or 5 on a 10 scale mostly because of the 69 laps under caution. Now if they would have let Danica go to bitch slap Brisco I woulda, coulda given it an 8.

   the 600 - probably a 7 based on 30 green flag lead changes and all the drama of tire and gas stops within the last 50 miles mixing the order.

2. 4ever3 on May 26th, 2008 10:41 pm

   1. Will the victories at Lowes propel Kasey Kahne to more wins?

   I agree with Marc, probably not unless he becomes more of a consistent front runner. Could have Gillett/Evernham engineers have found something? Quite possible, and if that is the case then expect more top 10’s and 5’s from the Bud machine.

   2. Should NASCAR allow SMI and Bruton Smith to move a race to the newly purchased Kentucky Speedway?

   No, but if they do then they should take away the All-Star race and move it to Darlington.

   3. Bootie Barker says the “illegal” wing brackets on their cars have been there all year. How could NASCAR have missed them all this time?

   Easy, no one complained about them until now. Why now you ask? Because both CNC/Haas cars are close to the top 35 cut off (one above and one below) and if you take away 100 points from each you get the 66 within 50 points of the cutt off and the 70 100 points more out of the cut off.

   You take a look at who is in and around the top 35 and you’ll see how competitive it is going to be from here on out, no wonder the CNC/Hass teams were sold out.

   4. Rank the 500 and the 600.

   Moneco F1 - 7/10
   500 - 6/10 (would have been higher if Danica got passed security, but not as high as the 600 though).
   600 - 8.5/10

3. Luke on May 27th, 2008 9:29 am

   1) Momentum has its place, and that organization needed it. Sadler wasn’t too shabby either, in the Showdown or the 600, if you recall.

   I can’t say it’s going to go anywhere, but it’s definitely more on the track than they’ve had in a while.

   2) Sure, if he rips it up and makes it something other than a lame cookie-cutter. For the price he paid for it though, he isn’t going to lose out without a Cup race. The purchase was a steal.

   Call it market saturation if you will, but the people it would draw aren’t going to be driving to the tracks France listed in his concern. Not in today’s market anyway. So they’ll be capturing fans who wouldn’t be going to a race anyway.

   All that said, in the tracks current configuration, it’s best left as a test track.

   3) Something about this whole situation doesn’t smell right.

   Since when did NASCAR impound and remove a car (taking it back down the street to their R&D shop) just for brackets?

   4) The 500 was OK, although 35% of it under caution was a tick much, I’ve seen worse. It had some drama, confrontations, and broken hearts. Such is the 500.

   Overall, comparing it to itself alone, about a 6/10. Had any one of the storylines that were tauted so much this month played out, it would be a different story.

   The 600 wasn’t bad, but 7/10 or 7.5/10 compared against itself. It had drama, yes. But does anyone else find it funny that today’s big headlines have to deal with stats about passing? Seems like its being played a little much to me.

   I guess what concerns me the most is that he who lead typically built up a good buffer between themselves and second place during longer runs. Occasionally though, they were chased down.

   It does seem however that as the season progresses, the teams are getting a better grasp on the car and this type of track. What I wonder though, is how much of that goes away now that NASCAR is policing the “adjustments” to the rear of the car?

4. Luke on May 27th, 2008 9:30 am

   Oh, one final shot onto #4 there, since “someone” mentioned F-what?

   How about Chelsea v. United? Now THAT’s drama.

5. Charlie Turner on May 29th, 2008 1:24 pm

   1. I want to see how that #9 handles with the new limitations on “rear axle adjustment. Michigan should tell us if GEM is really getting the handle on anything.

   2. Yes. If he has one to move there.

   3. I get the feeling that if this had been Gibbs, RCR, Roush or Hendrick that the violation would either have been found earlier or ignored all together. Is this the “Smoke to the rescue” moment?

   4. I said on the show, 4 of 10 for the 500 - still missing something and too many cautions. Maybe because it has too many inferior drivers? The 600 gets 7 of 10. Pretty good, but 600 mile races are tough to watch beginning to end.

6. RevJim on May 30th, 2008 1:20 pm

   My turn to be late.
   1. It depends on how much of a difference the the restrictions on the rear axle toe-out make. They still can have toe out, ust not as much. Kahne and Sadler are both running better this year than they have, and Hornish seems to be learning. The team as a whole is learning how to win, so, yes, we should see some more wins from Kahne this year
   2. I’m sure NASCAR will go with anything Smith does to move a spot on the schedule from one of his other tracks to Kentucky Speedway. Just not next year.
   3. Charlie, Smoke is not going to go to a team that is understaffed and does not have the resources to put together a winning operation. Watch Trackside tonight.
   Oh, my answer. The position of the mounting brackets was the infraction, and, since the jig for the template uses the mounting brackets, it threw off the entire set of specs that were measured and passed, which is why, if you don’t know what to look for, you’re not going to find it.
   4. The 500 was a 4 for me, but like the other guys, if they had let Danica slap Brisco, it would have gone up to an 8.
   The 600 is showing us that the teams are figuring out how to make the car work on intermediate tracks, and I give it an 8. I fell asleep during the Monaco GP

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