A Voice for the Fans ~ When Enough Becomes Too Much
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I bid you welcome gentle readers, as I take to the
keyboard on a Saturday; a rare occurrence, I promise. You’d laugh to see that
I’m writing on a shrunken Word document as I watch the Barrett-Jackson auction
the only way I can… on my computer. When you live in the boondocks, sometimes
there is no choice of service providers and mine doesn’t carry everything I’d
like, even if I could afford it, and I already pay their much inflated prices
for what I can’t get. Are you listening Ellijay Telephone Company? Didn’t think
so!
You’ve probably guessed that I’m not here to complain
about my lack of available services… ARCA race on MAVTV tonight and I can’t get
that either. You’re right though; some of you know me too well. If I’m giving
up time on the weekend to do an article, then I am royally ticked about
something!
How did everyone enjoy what was passed off as
“Qualifying” on Friday for the Monster Energy Cup Race? Do those in charge of
NASCAR never tire of being the absolute laughing stock of the entire sports
world? The answer must be “NO!” because the sanctioning body keeps finding more
ways to accomplish that unenviable position.
Let’s do what we do best here and look at the current
problem from a logical point of view. According to NASCAR, almost every team on
the docket is trying to cheat, as each week, more and more are sent back again
and again to make minute changes to this or that or whatever. Then, to
exacerbate the problem, NASCAR decided that even if the car only fails one tiny
part of inspection, when the car is presented again, it isn’t merely to have
the offending part rechecked. The team gets to start all over, from the
beginning, and go through every part of inspection already passed once… or
twice… and sometimes three times. This week, the process took so long that NINE
cars never even made it on track, forcing those teams to start last on the
field, with a matching choice of pit stalls.
Included in those not allowed on track were Kyle Larson,
Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Erik Jones and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Filling out the list were Chris Buescher, Timmy Hill and Derrike Cope. There’s
a whole lot of racing talent in those first six names, and a huge amount of fan
backing for several of them. I guess NASCAR has so many fans these days, they
can afford to indulge their corporate paranoia because what they’re doing is
exactly that. Someone… is so afraid that every car out there won’t fit the IROC
profile that it’s been deemed necessary to match them down to micrometers with
laser measuring devices. Gentle readers… that is lunacy! Cars are merely
manufactured objects. They don’t come from the factory with the kind of
precisely identical standard that today’s NASCAR demands.
Once upon a time, the cars raced on track were built in
someone’s garage or even back yard. There were standards of course, but those
that ran NASCAR realized that those standards must have limits. This generation
has completely lost the power to reason with good and/or common sense. This is
not a suggestion that we go back to building them out in the yard, but this
scribe thinks that General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Toyota are doing a
very nice job of building their own cars and need no help from France and
Company with their laser beams.
There is of course, a simple way to continue down the
same path of over-inspection and still get all of the now-shortened list of
competitors on track for qualifying. Start earlier! Is it against Union rules
or something that NASCAR inspectors put in a full day’s work for what I’m sure
is a very decent remuneration? I realize that common sense isn’t as common as it
used to be, but if a task cannot be completed in the time allotted, then allot
more time!
Again, let’s look at things logically. Cars placing high
in the finishing order are going to be inspected again AFTER the race. That is
the time to hang them for a real offense, not punish them up front for a
perceived sin because some measurement is 1/10,000th of an inch out
of sync. What we saw this week is simply not wise and not acceptable from a
sport that claims to have the world’s best drivers. This sort of embarrassing
stupidity makes a mockery of that claim. Doesn’t anyone at NASCAR see or
understand that? This scribe has long defined IROC as Intentional Racing of
Clones. Where is IROC today? Oh, that’s right… there is no more IROC. The
series is now defunct. NASCAR, go look in the mirror. The reflection of that
paranoid sanctioning body you’ll see is the next series to go, and that is just
sad. Maybe it’s time to bring back the word “Stock” to the National Association
of Stock
Car Auto Racing. As it is now, it stands only for the National
Association of Standardized Chassis Auto Racing.
That’s it gentle readers; that’s all I came to say
today. By the time anyone reads this, we’ll know how those nine cars fared in
this IROC race. Some will work their way up. Others, sadly will almost
certainly be caught up in someone else’s nightmare while racing back there with
what Rusty Wallace used to call the “$#!+.” I have 5
of the top 6 on my Yahoo Fantasy Racing team this week. Maybe the ones I’m
playing will make it through… but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Darn, I think that Monster guitar is SO cool, and of
course it means it’s time for our Classic Country Closeout today. Today we
listen to another collection of “Grand Ole Opry Video Classics.” This one is
simply entitled “Love Songs” and any collection that opens with Sonny James
singing “Young Love” has my attention from the start. Please enjoy…
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling.
It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay 