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Starts and Stops - Random Thoughts After Michigan

I have a lot of random thoughts that fly through my mind when watching the races week to week, and since my wife really could care less about my ramblings and outbursts while she is forced to watch the races, I thought that this would be a good outlet to get said outbursts off my chest.  I also think that we as Americans don’t have the ability or patience to read through a 5 or 10 paragraph story anymore.  We have become a “bullet point” society, and need instant gratification.  I’m jumping on that bandwagon.  Without further adieu, here we go!

• First off, congratulations to Junior nation and to Junior himself.  With that win today, he can finally stop hearing the “when will you win a points race again?” questions from the media and fans.  The rest of us can stop hearing that question now as well.  My only concern is that the NASCAR Cup coverage on ESPN will suffer.  Whatever will they talk about now?
• Now that we have officially been moved over to the TNT network for broadcasts, I have to admit something:  I really really despise Bill Weber as an announcer.  The drama in every sentence this man utters is just plain annoying.  I guess that I am in the minority, since TNT decided to oust Alan Bestwick from the booth a few years ago.  If I were asked to run TNT Sports, my first order of business would be to bring him back, or steal Mike Joy from Fox for the job.  Sorry Bill, no hard feelings.
• Speaking of TNT, am I the only one who thinks that they lack that intangible chemistry that the boys over at Fox have going on?  I don’t know exactly what is lacking for this broadcast team, but it really pares in comparison to their competition.  When watching a race on Fox, I get the feeling that those guys really like each other, and that they hang around with each other off the track.  Their conversations segue well, they poke fun at one another in an entertaining way, and there is never any dead air.  Maybe the TNT guys just need to get a few races under their belt to get that same chemistry.  Whatever the case, I hope that it works itself out soon.
• Since I’m on the tirade of lambasting the TNT team, I should probably shift gears a little (see what I did there?  and they say I’m not a professional…).  I want to give a few kudos out.  That removable-body car that Larry Mac has down in the infield is pretty kick-butt.  I am always fascinated with the advances that we as fans get to benefit from when it comes to enhancing the viewer’s experience.  That “cutaway car” is so 2007.  Good work to whoever thought that new version up.  I look back at some of the old races on ESPN classic and just am amazed at how far we’ve come in the span of just 20 years or so.
• Tony Stewart is yet again giving back to the community by donating his share of the winnings from today’s race to the folks in his hometown of Columbus, IN.  There have been a lot of people here in the Midwest whose lives have been upended by the recent deluge of rain and outbreak of tornadoes.  It’s nice of Smoke to give the thousands of dollars he earned for his 5th place finish today back to the people.  Tony gets lots of jabs and barbs thrown his way for his gruff attitude, but he has shown time and time again that he’s not the jerk that everyone assumes he is.
• How can a top-tier team like the Miller Lite #2 miss a setup so badly?  On his first pit stop, Pat Tryson made a 4 round chassis adjustment.  4 rounds?  That’s pretty unheard of in these days of fractions-of-a-pound air pressure pit stop adjustments.  Makes me wonder if maybe they were practicing the car on some local dirt track over the weekend, then realized that they were in the wrong venue on Saturday night.  Kurt and the boys did some great catch-up and managed to finish on the lead lap, albeit in an unimpressive 21st place.
• Michigan is known as a fuel-mileage racetrack, and for the most part, they usually put on a snoozefest for 180 or so laps.  Today was quite uncharacteristic of that expectation.  We saw an uneventful first half, followed up by a spectacular, drama-filled finish.  Say what you want about so-called “strategy races”, but I am not at all disappointed after watching the finish of the LifeLock 400.  It had everything that a fan could want, including edge-of-your-seat racing entertainment, crashes, and nail-biting nervousness while you watch to see who will persevere.  Add to that the fact that the most popular driver in the universe took home the checkers, and I’d say this race was a surprising success.
• What’s with the “hot dog wrappers” and all the problems that they cause?  With the millions of dollars that NASCAR put into the R&D of the Car of Today (or Car of Tomorrow, whatever you want to call it), why was this never addressed?  I remember seeing this car for the first time and thinking that the new wicker was going cause 2 major problems.  One problem that I and everyone else on the planet anticipated was that it wasn’t going to stand up to the beating of a long race.  The other was, given its design, the debris that was inevitably going to gather and wreak havoc with the car.  The former “problem” is one that proved to be unfounded, but the latter is proving to be quite an annoyance to every team on the track.  I’m no engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but it seems that some kind of wiper device wouldn’t be that hard to develop.  Make it so the driver can flip a switch or a dial to wipe that grille clean right from the cockpit.  Losing a race because your car overheated from a silly thing like a 1 cent piece of wax paper is just plain asinine.
• Is Kyle Petty too technical in the booth?  I would argue 100% that he is not, and his perspective is a nice change to the pandering that networks usually do for the benefit of the “weekend warrior” newbie fans out there.  Listening to a driver/commentator that is currently immersed in the sport tell us about suspension travel, wheel load, overall setups, tire wear, and other great technical facts is great, in this writer’s humble opinion.  Hopefully, the producers allow this to continue, and don’t ask him to back off and dumb down our sport.
• Not at all related to the race, but Happy Father’s day to all the Dads out there, and more specifically, Happy Father’s day to my Dad, who first got me started in racing about 25 years ago.  Thanks for saying “yes” when I asked you if I could go watch your old coupe race at our local short track on that long-forgotten Friday night.  I was only 6, but that was one of the coolest things you have ever done, and it has had me addicted to the sport all these years later.
• Finally, I am looking ahead to Infineon Raceway and seeing these big, blocky cars do some left and right hand turns.  There are a lot of detractors out there that say NASCAR has no business in the road-racing market.  I am certainly not one of those people.  I cannot wait to see it, and have already picked out a nice bottle of Napa Valley wine and some old, stinky cheese to enjoy while watching the race next Sunday.

The writer can be reached at raychampagne [at] gmail [dot] com.  Please feel free to drop a line or comment on this post.  Criticism is always welcome.  Faxes will be eaten.

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