To say that I’m miffed about that fact that the NASCAR Nextel Cup All-Star race is only being shown on the SPEED channel is a serious understatement.
I’m mad, annoyed, irritated. Obviously I don’t have the SPEED channel and therefore won’t be able to watch the festivities this weekend.
You’re probably thinking to yourself “Well if you’re such a big racing fan you should already subscribe to SPEED,” This is true but because cable costs an arm and a leg these days I’m not in any hurry to sign up and drive my cable costs up.
I just want it to go down for the record that I’m mad about this and I find it very stupid to put any All-Star anything on a premium cable channel. It should be on FOX or ABC, some channel that I could see for free with just rabbit ears on my TV.
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For this past weekend’s race at Darlington I was in La La Land (aka Los Angeles). I was at my sister’s house celebrating Mother’s Day.
The great thing about the race being delayed until Sunday was that I was able to watch the race with my nephews. I had never done that before and it was fun explaining to them who I liked (Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, Clint Bowyer) and who I didn’t (Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart).
When they asked why I didn’t like Kyle Busch, I said it was because he whined a lot, a problem that my nephews — ages 10 and 8 — could relate to. It suddenly occurred to me that this was a great opportunity to show them how important it was to control their anger, to not whine but to instead articulate their frustrations in a more productive way. Hopefully by seeing my distaste for Busch and Stewart they’d understand that it’s not cool to whine about every little thing that goes wrong for them. Sometimes you just have to take it and move on.
This whole Jeff Gordon winning thing is becoming a problem.
I don’t like the fact that he’s been winning so many races lately. I don’t dislike the man, I’m just tired of him. We know who Jeff Gordon is, we know he’s a winner, blah, blah, blah. I want to see someone else, someone else who can become the next face of NASCAR.
Because even if you’re not a fan of NASCAR you know who Jeff Gordon is. I suspect that Jeffie is a little jealous of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Even though Gordon is still obviously kicking butt and taking names, I think he’s irked that Dale Jr. is more popular than him, especially now that there’s all this hubbub surrounding Junior’s free agent status. If Junior would just get out there and do stuff like Saturday Night Live (and win the Championship) he’d be the new golden boy.
Others are trying to make names for themselves outside of NASCAR, Carl Edwards for example. Lately he’s been on MAD TV and covers of many magazines. Carl has been working it and I appreciate that. He’s making the most of the opportunities that are being given to him. He’s got charisma too, which is helpful. I like Carl, but of course I don’t want him to win a championship before Junior.
If I’m anything I’m loyal.
Like whoa.
I come into work this morning and I start up Internet Explorer to find my personalized Google homepage filled with the same headline listed over and over and over again.
“Earnhardt Jr. leaving DEI after the season”
I had to do a double take. Maybe it was just the media being clever trying to trick me but no, it was all true. Dale Earnhardt Jr. scheduled a press conference for today (the invites to the media were sent out midday yesterday) and before the thing even began speculation was flying all over the place about what he was going to announce. Everybody’s money was on him announcing his departure from DEI, and so they were right.
It’s a very sad thing for him to have to leave DEI. It would have been the sweetest thing if he could have stayed and won a championship for the company his dad started. But I guess it wasn’t meant to be that way.
Being the true and dedicated fan that I am I don’t care which team he goes to next, uhm… wait… it can’t be Hendrick, puhleeese don’t go to Hendrick, not like he could anyway they’re already at the 4 team limit. I’m ok with Richard Childress Racing or Joe Gibbs Racing, although him having Tony Stewart as a teammate makes me want to retch, but whatever, I’d get over it.
I really hope that Dale Jr. and his sister Kelley get what they want and find the right team/company that can support their efforts to win (and win consistently).
I thought it was really awesome, and speaks to how cool Dale Jr. is, that he asked Darrell Waltrip to come down for the announcement. Darrell has said many times in the past that he thought Junior would have to DEI at some point in the future in order to really make a run for the Cup championship.
So my next questions are… Is Junior’s crew chief and cousin, Tony Eury Jr., coming with him?
Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes a break during testing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway Monday. (Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images for NASCAR)
– I didn’t think it was possible to dislike a driver more than I do Juan Pablo Montoya. He totally beats out Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart in the lack of warm & fuzzies department. He doesn’t give off any kind of vibe that says that he cares about his fans or anything. I’m sure he appreciates them in general, but I have a feeling that any kind of success that he has is purely for his own ego and that’s about it. He doesn’t show you anything that leads you to believe that there’s something more to him. When I think of Juan Pablo I’m reminded of a scene in the classic television sitcom “Seinfeld.” Elaine ponders if there was perhaps more to Jerry’s rival Newman than what they had seen/knew; he simply replies “No, there’s less.”
– Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon must be stopped! I’m not saying this because I’m not one of their biggest fans I’m saying this because it’s incredibly boring watching them win every weekend. And I would think other fans would have to agree with that. It’s just lame. I love close finishes, which we’ve had, but what we desperately need is some serious overall competition. It can’t just be one team or one or two drivers that swap trophies every weekend. It’s getting old.
– In July NASCAR will launch the “NASCAR Cooks! Race Day Recipe Contest,” in which one lucky fan will receive party at their house with a special NASCAR celebrity… which is another way of saying that it won’t be a NASCAR driver… details below:
The contest will consist of fans submitting recipes, which must include at least one “NASCAR Cooks!” family of products, online at NASCAR.com, where online visitors can also download and vote for their favorite recipe. Finalists will be posted online and the winner will receive a party at their house for him or her and their 20 closest friends. The grand prize winner will receive a NASCAR viewing party and backyard tailgate with a NASCAR celebrity during an upcoming NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race.
Fans interested in participating will be able to download contest rules and an application online at NASCAR.com later this summer.
– In honor of Mother’s Day (which is actually on Sunday) the Nextel Cup series drivers’ moms will be the official grand marshal’s of the Saturday night race at Darlington. Casey Mears’ mom Carol will be in attendance and he’d like nothing more than to win one for her, says Casey, “I’ve told my mom before that I wouldn’t be where I am today without her, but it would be pretty special to tell her again this weekend in Victory Lane. She’s an amazing person and a great mom.”
All of the mom’s will gather before the race to give the command “Sons, start your engines!” Awwww.
– And now something for those IndyCar fans out there. There’s a headline that says “Danica feels pressure to win more races,” how about just winning one for a change?
Like I’ve said before the Indy 500 is on May 27th and this entire month will be dedicated to speculation about every angle, every possible outcome and analysis of every single driver in the field. My hope, my deepest sincerest hope is that Michael Andretti can pull out the win this year. It’s so annoying to have come so close to just fail again and again. I would say that even if Michael doesn’t win it, then it’d be great if his son, Marco Andretti did, but even that’s not good enough. Michael has to win it, period.
The Crown Royal Presents the Jim Stewart 400 at Richmond has been red flagged due to rain. I highly doubt they’ll get the race underway, but ya never know. I really don’t mind because I loooove rain delays.
A rain delay means that the broadcast team must go around and interview all 43 drivers if necessary. There’s the usual lame attempts to be funny by Chris Meyers and Jeff Hammond, and the obligatory analysis of the weather radar by non-certified weathermen. I also enjoy hearing the pit reporters ask each driver the same question in a different way, “How do you feel about the weather?” “What do you think of the rain?” “Doesn’t rain suck?”
As I type this they’re officially postponing the race until tomorrow. Aw shucks! They didn’t even get a chance to interview Dale Jr.!
