Look At Those Marbles!
11/11/2016 |
First, I want to send out a big salute to all of our Veterans all over the world. In two of the most sincere yet simple words possible: Thank you!
Every now and again, something breaks loose in my head and rolls around like an empty cup on the floor in the back of a car as it traverses the side of a mountain in the range of your choice. Left turn. Bah dumb a dumb a dumb a smack. Right turn. Dah bumb a bumb a bumb a slap. Back and forth, rolling randomly, it has no goal, and really has no place in this world other than a recycling bin.
Yeah….that’s my brain.
What does rattle around up there is probably about as original as the same cup. But it’s there, and I have to get it out.
I miss Rockingham. There was just something about that oddly shaped track that made me enjoy it more than some of the others. And the surface…that surface, so rough that it seemed like the drivers sometimes had to pit every 20 laps or so. I mean, I know it wasn’t every twenty laps, it just kind of felt like it sometimes. That slightly offset front stretch, with the little kink and the not so centered start/finish line…all of these things tied together and made The Rock a special little place.
It’s cut off week again in the Chase. The Joe Gibbs Racing Teams had a plan, and it if went perfectly, there would be four cars in the final race at Homestead, and they would all be associated with JGR and it would have been the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for the rest of the field. Well, Martin Truex, Jr. had his problems and then Jimmie Johnson made sure it wasn’t going to be a one stable show when he Martinsvilled the Martinsville out of everyone else and locked up a spot in the final race. Now it comes down to one more race, this one at Phoenix, which, if you know your recent Phoenix history, they have already engraved Kevin Harvick’s name on the trophy. That, along with Carl Edwards’ win at Texas, may mean that Joe Gibbs only has two of his four horses running for the roses. Let’s not put the cart before the horses, though. Harvick will still actually need to win at Phoenix to ensure he moves on. Anything can happen.
Right around the corner. That’s where there's an envelope with a contract inside that has already been negotiated and signed. All it needs is time. At some point, after this season has ended, we will all find out who the new Cup Series sponsor will be. I personally would like it to NOT be a communications company. I could go for a nice cheeseburger or beer sponsor. And maybe it can stop being a “cup”, not that it really is now. (What does it look like, PattyKay?) How about just the _____________ Championship Trophy, or even just the ________________ Championship? Do we have to have that one word on there so that silly writers such as myself can take shortcuts and just call it the Cup Series? Let’s make the trophy a three dimensional square and call it the Cube Series.
And then there are the cars. Brand recognition, my halo! The only way I recognize the brand is to look at the front of the car. I kind of miss the old days when you could look at a car and say, “Hey, look at the hood and nose on that car. That’s a Ford Thunderbird!” Yes, yes, I know….that’s not really fair to all the manufacturers who build the cars our favorite competitive models are based upon. But so what if one brand is faster than the others? That’s when the manufacturer went back to a blank piece of paper and tried to create a better performing race car that they would eventually build a street version. Or import the European version. Wasn’t that what Chevy’s SS was?
I’ll bring this up now, I guess.
Stop it!
Stop gloating because Donald Trump won the election, and stop crying because Hillary Clinton lost it.
Neither are saints.
But you can help. Take the high road.
We're Stronger Together
and together we can Make America Great Again.
I'm With Us.
Anyway, I’m not necessarily out of broken brain fragments,
but I am out of time. I’m hoping you
stop by and make a comment or something, maybe start a conversation as well,
and I hope maybe you make a new e-friend.
Feel free to leave comments below, and be sure to follow me @RaceFansJim on Twitter, because sometimes I give stuff away!