Track Trash - Vegas, and I’m all in

As has happened sooo many times before, the best racing is in the last 25 laps.

This time it was JJ trying to throw a blanket over his bud, Gordo.

Apparently JJ has no respect for his elders, or specifically, his elder partial team owner. JJ coulda taken the low road and given Gordo a needed shot in the arm.

But no, it didn’t work that way.

Jr: OK, I guess we have to cut Jr. some slack for just a tad longer. Last week’s fiasco was caused by a bad axle, and could have burned JJ had he run a while longer. Every now and then the racing industry runs into complications with specific parts, and they often raise their ugly heads during races. Of course, this again convinces everyone that JJ is a lucky SOB, and that Jr. couldn’t find a lucky penny if he tripped over it.

Curling: The only Olympic event I watched was the curling. It has all the thrill and action that a NA$CAR race can muster up, and the team make-ups are similar. The thrower is the driver, the sweepers are the pit crew, and the coach sits back in the box and rarely makes his presence known. Plenty of strategy, plenty of action, and enough quiet intensity to put you on the edge of yer couch. Yep, if they had a curling league on TV, I’d probably give up my day job to be a reporter.

Bristol: Let’s assume the new extension to the SAFER barriers will add something new to this track. Let’s assume there will be tighter racing at the exits of Turns 2 and 4. Then we may have to assume that there will be more wrecks, and perhaps more delays when they have to fix the SAFER barrier. In a few more weeks we’re gonna know, but the bottom line by most old time fans is that when they reconfigured the banking, they ruined a legend. I know; I’m one of ‘em. I remember that black #3 gouging his way through traffic, bangin’ cars out of his way when necessary. But life moves on. No more Intimidator, no more freight train traffic moving around Bristol. Go ahead, call me an old fart…..

Sponsors: As a driver or a team owner, you’re dead without ‘em, but there are a few that can give you a screaming headache. Take Mike Bliss in the 36 car. He used to have Wave Energy Drink (yes, there are far too many ‘energy’ drinks on the market), but as of now, Bliss is tooling around in a pink car with Kim Kardashian plastered on the hood, trying to hype her line of perfumes. It wouldn’t matter so much if the driver was a female, but this must secretly have Mike Bliss tearing his hair out. I mean, come on…….a pink car.

Start N Park: NA$CAR finally took a swipe at the ‘start and park’ teams, and it was about time they focused on these underfunded teams. They show up, get in the race, drop out early (before they damage something), then go to the cashier’s booth and collect a reported $ 160K. They bring one car to the track, one set of tires, no back-up parts, and walk away with a fist full of cash. NA$CAR could quickly end this fiasco by lowering the ‘take’ to these guys. I know, some of you fans are for the little guys, the start-up teams that wannabe like the big teams, but this is a dog-eat-dog world and if they don’t have the finances to run a complete race, they shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Da Race: Sorry, Gordheads, but when you lead the race for over 200 laps, it gets a tad boring. But then, you haven’t had this kind of elation for many, many months, have you? No, we haven’t quite torn the title of ‘Dominator’ from the grasp of yer best bud JJ, not even for a brief moment in time.

Stupid Move #1: When teammates race each other, it is imperative that they not cause carnage to each other. But alas, JamieMac was trying too hard, and put the whammy on Pablo. Had they not been teammates, Pablo would be just itching for a payback. But not to be, cuz you have to reserve this emotion for someone worthy of your ‘Ooops, I’m sorry’ moves.

Stupid Move #2: The last pit stop is when heroics are performed. Sorry, but LeFarte blew it big time. He knew he had to hold off JJ, but he chose to only replace 2 tires (whereas das Knaus went for 4 tires). With 35 laps to go, it really doesn’t take a genius to know that in spite of (finally) having a finely tuned car, the 24 car would eventually fall to the 48. Sorry, LeFarte…..you had no reason to gamble, and you blew it big time.

Penalties: Another race with large numbers of cars caught speeding on pit road. Hey, guys……this really doesn’t look good on your resume’. The crew chiefs need to take the bull by the horns and retune the Green/Red warning lights on the tach, cuz we all know that the drivers are gonna push the cars to the edge of the limit. Or, they can learn to live with this sort of penalty, and not go for the W’s.

5 peat: With two W’s under his belt (he’s won 2/3rds of the races thus far), one can speculate that JJ might be able to get another Championship. But both RCR and Roush seem to be stepping up to the plate, and may give the Rickster a run for the money. Let’s hope so, cuz we don’t really need a super dominate team….we need good competition to keep the interest in the sport. We need multiple lead changes….between teams AND car manufacturers. If not, itchy fingers will be tuning to another channel on most Sundays.

Heaps of 3’s all over yer local Lowes store,

Racing Maniac #3