Recommending a great site.

I want to give a shoutout to Seeing 20twenty and WFO Racing Fans, A site that has much to offer the NASCAR race fan. I discovered the site after they discovered me, and, with permission, posted a copy of my "Live on Type Delay: Kansas" item a few weeks ago.

The site has many different pages, featuring blogs, charities, and bits and pieces from the world of NASCAR race fans.

From the editor's page:

Seeing20twenty and WFO RACING FANS(TM)
We want to put racing in focus, but we also want to put you in focus! Whether you are a business or a fan, we want you to feel that we are doing everything possible to make sure the focus is on you.
Fans:WFO Racing Fans will be a fan oriented web site, and will focus on getting the fans veiw noticed. There will be many forums for your opinions, as well as chances to be a featured writer

I've spent much of my allotted hour per day on line exploring this site, and, while it is still in its growing stages, it already has a lot to offer, and promises to offer much more. Please check it out, it is worth the visit.

Thanks, David!

David Cohea asked your's truly to write a guest column for NASCAR This Week, a request I humbly accepted.

I am a big fan of Monte Dutton's, though I don't always agree with what he writes, and feel quite honored to be featured on the same blog that features his articles.

Please read "Guest Columnist Jim Grady: How to pick a favorite driver"at NASCAR This Week.

Observations on NASCAR and my other passion

The Sprint Cup is taking a week off. There is still something to get excited about this weekend, and that would be the Truck Series race at Kentucky this weekend. Randy Moss Motorsports will be making its debut in the series with the #81 Chevrolet, driven by last year's Truck Series Rookie of the Year, Willie Allen.

Moss is playing it smart, having purchased an established team that has had some success in the series. Morgan-Dollar, the team in which Randy Moss bought controlling interest, has proven itself competitive with the likes of Kevin Harvick Incorporated, Roush-Fenway Racing, and Bill Davis Racing. Moss plans to eventially move the team to the Cup level, but he acknowledges that it will be a hard road. Still, citing his passion for the sport, and for winning, he is optimistic, and confident that he will reach his goals with his new team. We wish him success in his endeavors.

Yesterday, Ryan Newman reportedly announced that he and Penske South Racing will be parting ways after the end of the current season. We expect him to be joining Tony Stewart next year in the newly-formed Stewart-Haas Motorsports organization, which would make it the Team from Indiana. However, there are rumors that he may be the driver for RCR's fourth car next year. Since we were left embarrassed by our insistance that Smoke would not be leaving JGR before 2010,. we have decided to believe any and all rumors we hear or read about. However, we will offer our opinion that Casey Mears would probably be a better fit in the RCR car. Mediocre record aside, Mears is a driving talent looking for the right surroundings. RCR did just that for Jeff Burton, and it stands to reason they could do it for Mears.

With the NASCAR Sprint Cup series being off for the week, we can explore our other passion, and that would be music. For me, amazing musical feats in concert are every bit as exciting of the sound of the engines fireing up after the command to "start your engines."

We understand that not many NASCAR fans are fans of what we call "Jam Music," but there are similarities that should be explored. At a NASCAR event, the crowd is generally happy, friendly,. helpful, excited about what they are seeing and hearing on the track, and drinks a lot of beer. At the Grateful Dead events we attended, and at other concerts we have attended since then, the crowd is generally happy, friendly, helpful, excited about what they are seeing and hearing on the stage, and drinks a lot of beer.

To me, hearing a band go off in different directions during a jam, then pulling it back together for a reprise of a song they began earlier is just as exciting as watching Dale Earnhardt, Jr threading the needle to advance through traffic, Kyle Busch beating a block and going hard into a turn and making it stick, or Tony Stewart outsmarting Jeff Gordon on exiting a turn.

Some of the music we listen to is an acquired taste. You won't hear much of it on the radio, as it isn't music that is meant for radio. But NASCAR is an acquired taste as well. But the truth is, a Redneck can be a Deadhead and live a balanced, well-ordered life.

To celebrate and share my passion for Jam Music, I have started a social network called "Eclectic Jammys" That is a pun, but "Jammy" is meant as a title for a person who loves to listen to Jam Music. It doesn't have to be a Deadhead--a Jammy could be a fan of Phish, Widespread Panic, String Cheese Incident, or countless other bands that are ignored by radio but fill theatres, arenas, ampitheatres, and stadiums with their amazing musical acrobatics.

"Eclectic Jammys" features a built in music player on every profile page that allows loading from either your computer or from another site. It also features forums, blogs, photo and video uploaders that every member can use. It is a MySpace lite, for a specific group of people. Those who join the group will be able to share and enjoy their favorite music. There will be conversations about our favorite bands and memories of our favorite concerts.

I have just begun building the site, but it can't be a social network without people, so, if you think you may be a Jammy, or are interested or curious about Jam Music, please visit and join us at Eclectic Jammys

Does the stereotype of NASCAR fuel lawsuits?

I don't know if there is or is not any credence to the allegations in this story or if it is just a lawyer trying to capitalize on NASCAR's stereotypical reputation with charges that can't be proven or dis proven.

Mauricia Grant, a former NASCAR inspection official has filed a lawsuit against NASCAR claiming "sexual and racial harassment."

Personally I can't believe that some of the charges are true in this day and age. It is very hard to believe that anybody who would treat another person the way it is claimed Grant was treated would even be able to get a job these days. This is not to deny that some of the alleged incidents could have happened, because there are still a lot of stupid people out there. If Grant was treated in the way her attorney claims she was, then NASCAR should deal with those individials in the harshest way possible.

While prejudice and imbecilic behavior have not been wiped completely from society and the work environment, it is hard to believe that such a case of harassment would involve so many perpetraters. As Marc points out at Full Throttle if the practice is as common as the language of the lawsuit suggests, why haven't women and other minority members who are employed by NASCAR had similar experiences?

True, there is the story of David Scott, a hauler driver for Penske who was harassed by other hauler drivers at New Hamshire International Speedway in 1999, but those drivers were suspended indefinitely for their actions, and we can safely assume that such behavior is not tolerated in NASCAR.

Of course, fall out is unavoidable, and we are already seeing opinions from those who believe that NASCAR is a bunch of racist hillbillies, such as this one from the Nation of Islam Sports Blog:

We would proffer that Ms. Grant should never have taken the job in the first place. Clearly, a Negro woman working in what is essentially a large scale KKK meeting is not a good idea.

When one accepts employment, one also accepts the certain obvious dangers involved. If she had been hired by a circus to walk a tight rope, and fell and broke her legs, would anyone be the least bit surprised?

That is essentially what happened here. Ms. Grant picked up a stick and poked a bear.

We are talking about NASCAR! What sane Negro would accept employment with them and not expect to be maligned, mistreated, harassed, shamed, whipped, shackled and eventually lynched?

Those of us who watch NASCAR on a weekly basis, and are aware of the many African-American people who are employed by teams involved in NASCAR and by NASCAR itself, know better than to even try to respond to the above statement.

The blogger who wrote the opinion for Nation of Islam Sports Blog chose to respond to a story about racist behavior with a statement accepting a stereotype that should have long since been overcome. Racism seems to go both ways.

If I had written about this....

There was something in the news yesterday morning that got me so fired up that I thought I would write about it here, even though this is not my political blog. The news even had some NASCAR connection, since yesterday marked the announcement of the USO Salute The Troops tribute on Memorial Day, which will be part of the festivities at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and the news was about an insult a prominent author made toward the military. However, when I checked on the background of the story, it turned out that the offending comment was not made yesterday, but over a month ago.
So, it really isn't news.

However, if I were to write about it, I would mention that the offending comment was made by none other than Stephen King, while he was addressing a symposium for young writers of high school age. And I would have to quote the offending comment thusly:

"I don't want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that. It's not as bright,"

Mr King, who has written many books that I have enjoyed reading, seems to be a little undereducated on the subject of the intelligence of military personnel, so if I had written about it I would have pointed out that most military personnel are educated and literate. A person may enter the military with a high school education and leave with technical and personal skills, and also with what amounts to a scholarship for higher education. These days, without a draft, people enter the military not only because they feel a need to fulfill their duty, but also for the educational and job experience they receive in the military. Very few enter military service because it is the only job they can get.

If I had written about this, I would not have accused Stephen King of not being patriotic, but I would have pointed out that he lives in self imposed isolation with very little contact with the world of common folk. How could we expect him know the nature of a military person?