Chicago and Crisis Management

One thing that could help us to handle our grief over the loss of our favorite driver's will to win would be a good race. We may just get to see one Saturday night in the first night race at Chicagoland Speedway.

In the past, the races at Chicagoland have not been all that exciting, but that has been par for the course at most of the intermediate class speedways. But things change. Some races that we have expected to be somewhat boring have been exciting this year. The Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's earlier this year is a good example of that.

We can reasonably expect Saturday night's race to be different from other races from Chicagoland we have seen. Because it is the first night race at that venue, we can expect the track surface to be cooler than it would be on Sunday afternoon, thus providing more traction. More traction usually means faster cars.

Faster cars could mean a better race, but not necessarily. Chicagoland is unknown to the new Sprint Cup car, and to the tire combination Goodyear has been providing this year. These unknowns were disasterous earlier this year at Atlanta and Texas Motor Speedway, where the teams didn't get a chance to test, and there was very little racing at those tracks.

On the other hand, the Sprint Cup teams have been learning how they can better adjust the car, and that may make a difference Saturday. We are more than halfway through the season, and, hopefully, Chicagoland will not mean unpleasant surprises for the teams, as they may be better prepared by experience.

If the race Saturday night turns into a follow the leader event, we can probably expect Kyle Busch to win yet another one, as he seems to be the only driver who is willing to go for broke to get to the front. If the teams have their cars ready to race, however, there are two drivers who are poised to present a challenge to the likely winner.

David Ragan has come a long way from the time his driving style was described as being like "a dart without feathers." He has shown himself to be a quick learner, and has been able to put what he has learned to good use with his talent. His performance has been outstanding this year, and there have been several races where he looked like he could have won had it not been for pit strategy, pit performance, or the bad luck of being caught up in someone else's accident. We could see him get his first career Sprint Cup win Saturday night.

We have been impressed, as well, by Brian Vickers. This is another driver who has shown that he can overcome a lot of adversity to get a good finish. He has long established himself as a fast driver who can really get on the wheel of a fast car, and his talent may be rewarded Saturday night. If he does win the second Life Lock 400 of the season, it will be his second career Sprint Cup win, and his first since Talladega in 2006.

We can't rule out Smoke. This is traditionally Tony Stewart's time of the year, we know he likes night races, and he has always performed well at Chicagoland. The pressure of having to inform his friends and his team that he would be leaving them next year is off, and his attitude seems positive. Even though we are still in the anger stage of coping with grief, and are still puzzled about him getting out of a car that could have won--it wasn't long ago that "flu-like" symptoms wouldn't stop him even if it meant soiling his driver's suit--he is still Smoke, and we hope he still has a competitive edge. Personally, we are hoping to see him in Victory Lane.

Speaking of Smoke, could it be he has already made a choice for his Stewart-Haas team beginning next year? During an interview during Nationwide Series qualifying, Stewart used some words describing crew chief Dave Rogers that raised a few flags, such as "leadership," and "team builder."

Now these are words that have been used to describe Rogers all season long, but in context of what Stewart was saying, and the way he said it, Rogers would be a great choice for Stewart in building his new team. Would Gibbs release him? We would speculate that he would, because we know that JGR will not be running four cars next year after all, as the #20 will be driven by an unnamed driver who will share the ride with a developing Joey Logano. This would not leave room for Rogers to move up to Cup within the Gibbs organization, and no organization has ever stopped a crew chief from moving to Cup even if it meant he was going to another organization. We can also safely speculate that Rogers would jump at the chance to be a crew chief for a Cup team.

Of course, my record for believing rumors that turn out to be true is very bad, and my speculation has even been worse, but I don't think the idea of Dave Rogers going to Stewart-Haas is all that far-fetched.

So I have moved through the denial stage, passed the guilt stage, and seem to be getting through the anger phase. This would be the bargaining stage, thinking that it would be a good thing if Smoke can get a good crew chief right away. I hope my readers continue to follow me as I deal with this crisis, and can find my progress interesting and entertaining, if not informative.

Uncovering Tom Bowles' "unnamed source"

On Rev'Jim's RantsnRaves, I have never claimed to be reporting news. Anything you read on here is based on my opinion, and that is as likely to come from my heart as it is from my brain. Still, when I mention something in the news, I am careful to attribute it to the source, complete with names. I am not a professional journalist, and I do not get paid for writing, so I hope and assume that people read my work for the purpose of entertainment, and that they find my opinion interesting.

A professional journalist, such as Tom Bowles for Sports Illustrated.com, can apparently present a supposition without naming sources. Last week Bowles published an article asserting that Tony Stewart would be leaving Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of this year to join Haas/CNC as a co-owner-driver, quoting "unnamed sources" so he wouldn't have to present proof. Even after more information came out that Stewart will not be leaving JGR at the end of this year, and that he was looking at several options before he decided what he was going to do after 2009, Bowles went on as if the Haas/CNC contract was already a done deal.

That article got such a wide and frenzied response that Bowles has decided to continue with the "unnamed source" theme, in his Friday "Inside NASCAR" assignment.

But he slipped up and left clues as to his "unnamed source" may be. Please feel free to set your sense of humor lose as I--tongue firmly in cheek--debunk some of the "points" in his article while exposing this source.

Theorem: The "unnamed source" is a fictitious character created from various quotes from various sources, including drivers, fans, crewmembers, and drinking buddies.

The first paragraph of the article begins with a phrase that could be attributed to anybody, fan, driver, etc, who has some connection to the sport, but ends with comments that lead us to believe that the source is likely a driver:

I love going to Richmond. It's a great race for the fans, and it's an enjoyable race for the drivers. It's a good short track; I like the fact that you can get side-by-side there. It's two wide, great racing all the way around, and it's always easy to get beside someone ... although it's really hard to complete the pass. That can be very frustrating, but that's just part of it. I think every track has its challenges; but even though it's great that we can run two-wide at Richmond all the way around, I still wouldn't want to race there every week. Even though I think that running four-wide at Talladega is great, I still wouldn't want to race there every race, either.

A little later, the source claims to have tested at Iowa and says what Rusty did in designing the track to be better than Richmond:

A great race track that I think they did a tremendous job with is the Iowa Speedway. Iowa is a better Richmond, in my mind. It's a little bit bigger, 7/8 of a mile, but it's short enough that you can get in there and you could race. We've been there testing, and I've run the second groove in a test; I know you could run it in a race.

What Rusty did with that race track, they took the best qualities of Richmond and then they fixed the worst qualities. One problem with Richmond ... one reason you get guys stuck side-by-side is turn three, and coming out of two, in particular, it gets so tight over there that the guy on the bottom -- is that the banking falls away so quick you can't complete the pass. When you get stuck side-by-side with someone, it's typically because the guy on the bottom doesn't have enough room to keep his speed. Well, they fixed that in Iowa. In Iowa, you come out of all turns with a little more banking, so you don't get loose, and I think they did a fabulous job with it.

This rules out Joey Lagano, who has raced at Iowa, but hasn't raced at Richmond, while the source has only tested at Iowa Speedway, but has raced at Richmond. Some names who fit that criteria, are Paul Menard, Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Martin Truex, Jr., and Steven Wallace. From the raving about Iowa and Rusty with no apparent prompting, and claiming that Iowa is better than Richmond, the clues are leaning toward Wallace.

"I don't know what Tony Stewart's doing; he hasn't told me yet."

That could be anybody. It is the most truthful statement Bowles has written in two weeks.

This next statement rules out Dale Earnhardt, Jr, and Martin Truex, Jr, because those two, at least, know about the exception when being forced below the line.

Kyle Busch should have been black flagged for his pass below the yellow line at Talladega. To me, it's a black and white rule. There's a very bright line going on the bottom of the race track, and if you pass somebody under it, it's very obvious that you did. NASCAR had said on many occasions that, "Gentlemen, this is a black and white rule. There is no gray area. There is no interpretation. If you go below the yellow line, you will be black flagged."

And, judging by the next statement, the "source" is apparently immature and has a predisposition against Kyle Busch, and seems to be making excuses for his own frequent wrecking:

And another thing; the only reason Kyle Busch hated Talladega [before Sunday] was because he wasn't any good. The only reason he hated it was because he always wrecked!

That comment could have just as well come from someone who has never raced in NASCAR. Add the next statement, which is something no driver who gets on the track wanting to compete with other drivers, would say about another driver, outside of a post incident "heat of the moment" rant.

Robby Gordon's going to be out of control at Richmond. It's really difficult to race around him. He's a great person off the race track, but he clearly loses his head when he gets in the race car. He's just a pain in the ass

That is one person's opinion. That person also claims that the Big One is no fault of Talladega, because people crash at every track. That leads us back to thinking the source is either Paul Menard or Steven Wallace, who crash at every track.

In order to narrow the identity of the "source" a little better, we should look at Wallace's post-race comments from Friday and compare them with the previous comments about other drivers:

"He’s just a little girl about it," Wallace continued. "I don’t know. I think it’s pretty bad when they call driver introductions and everybody in the grandstand boos you. He’s a sore loser."

If you noticed a similarity in the attitude, you are not alone.
But still, there is nothing conclusive here. The "source" could be a conglomerate of many people, or it could be Bowles' alternate personality. It could be Steve Wallace, or it could be Lauren Wallace, who is a fictitious character played by an actor.

I am tending toward Lauren.

It isn't going to catch on

The nomenclature being used on this blog for the Car Formerly Known as CoT, "Formula N" is not catching on as I hoped it would. Furthermore, it seems to be causing confusion. It seemed like a good idea at the time, because we didn't want to call it a "Sprint" car because that is what the cars in USAC and WoO are called. We couldn't call it the "new" car because it isn't really new anymore, and I just did not like "Car Of Right Now" because that just sounded CORNy.
But, to avoid further confusion, from now on, as long as the crews are still working to get a handle on it, it will be referred to here as the "Sprint Cup Car," where it is needed to differentiate from the "conventional" car being used in the Nationwide series, or just "the car," otherwise.
I gave it a try, to test my influence on other bloggers and discovered that there is none. That's okay, we enjoy writing about our passion for the sport here and will continue to do so, no matter who reads or doesn't read this blog. Thank-you.

Oops, I nearly forgot to do this!

Create yours at BlingyBlob.com!

Because there was nothing better to do....

I haven't posted anything yet this week, and I got tagged by Tina Renee for the following meme. I don't usually do these, but it is off season, and it is considered polite to play. I like to think of myself as being polite.

* Link to your tagger and post these rules.
* Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
* Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names and link to them.
* Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
Seven random and/or weird facts about myself:
1 I have lived in the same motel kitchenette suite for nearly ten years.
2 I have been a NASCAR racing fan since I was ten, and an open wheel fan for even longer.
3 I live with three cats whom I talk to more often than I talk to people.
4 I sincerely believe that a recently departed friend of mine has visited me, and her family members several times from the other side, since her passing. All of her visits and messages have been positive.
5 My favorite drinking buddies are a lesbian couple, and, no, I don't care to watch.
6 I spend much of my time on line trying to download public domain concert recordings using dial up.
7 After seeing it daily for nearly a lifetime, Pike's Peak is still my favorite landmark.

I tag:
Well, ain't this a conumdrum. Everybody I link to has already been tagged with this particular meme. If you happen to be passing by, and want to participate, please feel free to do so.

Bye Bye Blogmad

Blogmad has become a parasite, literally. When I tried to view my blog, the url kept getting redirected to adbaaz/blogmad.net. There was no way to view this page. It was easily rectified by removing all the blogmad widgets that were on this page, but I have to assume that Blogmad is no more. I tried to go to Blogmad directly, and got the same adbaaz page.
To my fellow bloggers who have used Blogmad, please remove the blogmad widgets and banners from your layout, so others may read what you have posted, if you haven't already done so.
It would have been nice if the owners of Blogmad had issued some kind of warning before they shut down the site. Now, who knows what kind of spam we will be getting because there was no chance to remove our blogs from their directory.
Both Blogflux and Blog Catalog are decent directories that are going strong, and I recommend these. Blog Catalog has been decent for generating traffic, and Blogflux has some good traffic widgets and other interesting things.
At least now I don't feel compelled to spend hours surfing random blogs.

Damage Control

I have to apologize for a statement I made in an earlier post. I referred to Tony Stewart as being "articulate." Clearly, I wasn't thinking, because by calling Stewart "articulate," I was implying that all of the other NASCAR drivers are inarticulate. That is far from what I meant, because I listen to a lot of race car drivers, and most of them do express themselves very well. Many of them are much better at speaking than I am. They talk gooder English than me. Before I dig myself in any deeper, I'll just have to say I've learned my lesson, and I'll never again make the mistake of calling a race car driver articulate.

Useless Stuff

I must be missing something, but I can't figure out how to use these things. These earphones are usually included with mp3 players, personal stereos, and the like. They don't go in the ear, apparently, unless you have nothing else to do except hold them there with your hands. I have never seen anybody use them, so I can't get a clue by example. I mean I can get them to stay put for a little while, but they usually fall out while I’m breathing and walking at the same time. There is nothing worse than having the earphone fall off in the middle of a good song while you’re crossing the street. It’s dangerous because it’s distracting.
Perhaps something should be included with the instructions like this:

Earphones: To use, discard and purchase some real headphones