Thursday, November 29, 2007

2007 Revvin' Awards

I have nothing to add to what needs to be done to "save" NASCAR or to any of the "Greatest Moments" that have been hashed and rehashed in numerous articles and blogs. Rather, I will expound on those categories that have been overlooked:
Tragedy most narrowly averted:
There was no competition in this category. The run-away winner is from the Ford 300, the final Busch Series race for the season and forever:

Cockiest comment:
There were three to select from, in my opinion, in this category.
Tony Stewart gets the second runner up for the comment, "Here, Zippy, see if you can fix it now!" as he rolled his wrecked car into the pits. He later admitted that the wreck that took him out of the running for fourth place in the Championship points was his own fault, but when Smoke is smokin' mad, his sarcasm is stellar.
Jimmie Johnson's comment that he would vote for himself for driver of the year made runner up for the cockiest comments award. It's not that he was having an "I'm the Greatest" moment, because he admitted that the other drivers must have done something, but "To be honest, I know my world. I'm not all that up and up on what other drivers have done and wins and things like that. But we had an awesome year.”
That's pretty cocky, coming from a participant in a sport where most drivers acknowledge the accomplishments of their competition.
But my favorite cocky comment came from Kyle Busch, during the Yellow Transportation 300 Busch Series race at Kansas Speedway. He was very pleased with his car, and was running in second place to Matt Kenseth in the closing laps of the race. As the cars lined up for the final restart, The Schrub read the words on the back of Matt's car, "I race 4 free fries," which refer to the Arby's promotion where if Matt won, his sponsor Arby's would give away free fries on the following Monday.
Kyle keyed his radio and asked his crew chief, "Do I want free fries or a radio call-in show on Monday?"
Okay, so it wasn't nearly as cocky as we have heard from the Schrub on other occasions, but it won the award for its entertainment value.
Gustafsen, answered, "If you win the race, I will buy you all the fries you want."
After an exciting final nine laps, Kyle beat Matt by .085 seconds
The "I think I hurt my foot" Award goes to Brad Keselowski for this horrifying crash at the Camping World 300, at Fontana on September 1rst:

The crash not only propelled Keselowski high into the air, but showing that he had real cajones by making the next week's race after the crash, propelled his career, making him Dale Earnhadt, Jr's choice for the full-time driver for his #88 JMS Nationwide Series team.
The Rudest Fan Forums Award:
This was very close to a tie between the Topix NASCAR Forums and the That's Racin'.com Auto Racing Forums. Both abound in trolls and pot stirrers, who like to take over a thread with ignorant and irrelevent statements and character bashing of other forum members, but Topix has improved in its moderation, while the Auto Racing Forums have degenerated so far that even the respected NASCAR journalist David Poole, who participates actively in that forum, has fallen to troll baiting and bashing. By shear numbers, Auto Racing Forums wins this award, because it is a troll forum for and by trolls. You will notice that while the link to Topix is still on my sidebar, the That's Racin' forum link has been removed.
Finally, we have the Best Kept Secret Award, which is another uncontested catagory. Hands down, the Best Kept Secret is the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. This is real racing, with all the beatin' and bangin' you could ever wish to see in a race. The CTS races are short enough that all the drivers know that they have to go for the win from the green flag, and long enough that there is pit strategy involved. I figure it must be a secret, because all we hear about is that the Cup Series isn't like the "old days," and the Nationwide Series isn't what the fans want it to be, which is ARCA. If the fans really wanted to see "Old School" racing in a series that includes both seasoned veterans who are exclusive to the series, and young rookie up and comers, the stands would be full of fans for the CTS races, and the forums less full of complaints.
I would be remiss if I didn't present Special Awards to the kindness and perserverance of my regular readers--who have put up with all my inconsistancies, mood swings, and bad information this year--and to the members of the Blog Catalog group, NASCAR Bloggers Full Throttle. Thank you all for your kindness and support.

5 comments:

Mike said...

I hadn't heard Shrub's comment, that's pretty good. I like your award choices, taking a sifferent tack than most of the mainstream websites and their generic categories.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your posts Jim. I stop by regularly to read them. I read your seven things about yourself in your next post.........and I see nothing strange about you. Keep on truckin'. Mike.

Racefan57 said...

you make me smile Jim.

RevJim said...

Thank you guys very much.
Mike Marshall--But my own mom used to tell me I was weird, but she stopped when she realized that I took it as a compliment. Thanks, Mike, I really appreciate your loyalty

John Dornoff said...

I agree with you Jim, the Truck series is the best kept secret.

I also agree with you about the forums. That's why I have not participated in them. They are just too mean spirited especially when it comes to some drivers. We all have our favorites but the vicious attacks just go way too far.