The Stuff Floating Around in Frank’s Head
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Serotonin,
dopamine, glutamate, norepinephrine… no, not that stuff.
And
not beer, wine or bourbon, either.
This
is a collection of thoughts that have popped up as the 2018 NASCAR season is entering
its closing phase. Maybe some are your thoughts, too.
- Something about the demise of
Furniture Row Racing still really bugs me. Here’s Toyota talking about
planning to have five or more cars running next year, and everybody thinks
Levine Family Racing will step into the role of #2 Toyota Organization,
but that’s going to take a ton of money, and I don’t see where Levine is a
more attractive sponsorship partner than Visser & Co. So if Toyota’s
pocketbook has to open, why couldn’t it have put that money toward keeping
Furniture Row going? It had taken Toyota a long time to get a really
successful second team – remember, Furniture Row followed Michael Waltrip
and Red Bull Racing. Why give that up? Just doesn’t make sense.
This team should NOT be going away. It’s just
wrong.
- NASCAR President Steve Phelps
talked the talk in his recent meeting with reporters, but there remain
some paths where walking the walk is going to be really hard. Everybody’s
talking about schedule changes, but in this brain it still says if the
product is compelling, the schedule will work, but it the product sucks,
you can tinker all you want, and seats will still be empty on race day.
The cars MUST become less technologically complicated, much
less aerodynamically sensitive, and much less expensive. Then more
people can enter the sport, and the fans of those people will follow. The
racing will be better, too.
- Here’s a thought: Remember how we used to brag about how
racing led to many of the safety features in cars? The first Indy 500
winner pioneered the rear-view mirror, and racing tires helped make street
tires better? What’s happened there? New cars now have blind-spot warning
systems, rear and side cameras, even accident avoidance braking – where
are those on race cars? We got splitters.
With the safety features we have on our
passenger cars, this could have been avoided.
- I am SO happy to see Ryan
Preece get a Cup ride, even if I worry that
nobody can make JTG Daugherty consistently competitive. It’s just so
refreshing to see a guy who built his reputation win by win get rewarded,
instead of a driver whose family money got him a Legends ride, a K&N
Series ride and a driver development deal. The next driver to get a shot
should be Bubba Pollard. The Georgian is 31, but he’s won major late model
races all over the country – his credentials are matchless. Put him in the
trucks with Stewart Friesen and then move both of them up, showing that
skill matters and that you’re not too old for your big break just because
you’re over 30.
To hell with driver development programs, just
look for winners like Bubba Pollard and give them a shot.
- Years ago, before the Xfinity
(Busch) Series, we had Late Model Sportsman racing, which was both the top
class at weekly tracks in NASCAR Land and
a loose “series” of major races that drew top drivers from those weekly
tracks and a variety of others. Sprint car racing still is sort-of that
way, with the World of Outlaws sharing rules with weekly tracks and
inviting weekly stars to join the party for Outlaw races. The lack of an
arrangement like that in NASCAR has hurt the sport, I think, creating
distance between “hometown” racing and the Cup Series. While the “Roval”
was grabbing our attention, major short track races were being held at
Martinsville (ValleyStar 300), Lake Erie, Pa.
(Race of Champions for Modifieds), and Thunder Road, Vt. (Milk Bowl), not
to mention the National Open sprint car race at Williams Grove. The
All-American 400 at Nashville is the next weekend, then the Winchester 400
and other major shows. These races seem to be in another world from
NASCAR, and we’re all losers for that.
- Fans at Dover will be able to bet
on the races at the track’s casino, and I guess the same holds for Kansas.
With sports betting laws having been shaken up nationally, there’s really
nothing to keep legal betting from becoming part of a track’s planned
weekend activity, and many people, notably Dale Earnhardt Jr., think
that’s good. I’m not a gambler, so it doesn’t really matter to me, but we
all know gambling kept horse racing alive when the “Age of the Horse”
ended, so maybe we have to at least consider its role in the future of
auto racing in a “Post-Car-Culture” world.
- Speaking of gambling, when I
visited Grays Harbor Raceway in Washington State last month, I noted that
two casinos were significant advertisers/sponsors there. That area is host
to several American Indian reservations and at least four Indian casinos
(those are just the ones I drove past). That seems a good revenue source
for tracks. On the other hand, Grays Harbor had another revenue source not
yet available to most tracks in other states: four marijuana
dispensaries advertised on the track’s scoreboard, and three of them also
had billboards. What better sponsor for the driver who’s highest
in the standings?
Coming soon to a speedway near you?
Frank’s
Loose Lug Nuts
There’s hope for me,
yet! My racing hero, “Cowboy” Jim Kennedy
scored top ten finishes at both Clinton County and Path Valley Speedways over
the last few weeks. If my math is correct, the Cowboy is now 84 years old, so I
guess I can hold onto the dream of racing stardom for a while, yet.
Three cheers for the Cowboy – still flying at
84.
Near
the other end of the spectrum, Giovanni “Gio” Scelzi topped the best in the sprint car business when he
won the opening night of the National Open World of Outlaws weekend at Williams
Grove Speedway, just up the road in Mechanicsburg, Pa. Scelzi,
from Fresno, Calif., is 16. Some young sprint car stars have successfully made
the transition to NASCAR after making their name early in open wheel
competition. Remember that one named Gordon?
I
hate to be a killjoy about this, but in the lively discussion with NASCAR
President Phelps about other manufacturers joining the party, the name Dodge
dominated. Might everyone remember first that the Dodge nameplate is outsold in
the U.S. by Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, Subaru and Kia? Thanks mostly to Jeep,
Fiat-Chrysler tops those makes in total corporate sales, but Jeeps don’t race
in NASCAR.
Hmm…
and why shouldn’t Jeeps race? When trucks were big, NASCAR started the truck
class, so isn’t it time for SUVs on the speedways? That might get even more
brands involved.
Gotta
go out and put contingency sponsor stickers on the Highlander.
If they can race across Africa, how hard could
the Roval or Martinsville be?