NASCAR

On Saturday NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie Michael McDowell crashed during qualifying. While the crash looks extremely devastating, it’s a testament to the focus the sport has made on driver safety.

Several years ago, NASCARS most dominant figure, Dale Earnhardt was killed in an accident similar to the one McDowell had. As you’ll see from the video, McDowell had a much more positive experience.

Watch video here.

[Guess I should learn how to spell before I post]

Unfortunately for Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI), the son who would be King has left the palace. There are a hundred reasons to say so what, but if you’ve been a NASCAR fan for any length of time you know how important the Earnhardt name is to the sport. After losing Dale Sr. to a wreck at the Daytona 500 in February 2001, fans have been looking for their next ambassador. Everyone wanted Dale Jr. to carry the torch, live up to the hype and the expectations. I truly believe he wanted to do that and really can, but it won’t be as a driver with the company his Father started.

It’s debatable the feud between Dale Jr. and his Mother Teresa (oops, no pun intended), denying him majority ownership in DEI, is the real reason he left. It could be that he’s just tired of fighting her over it and wanted to focus on racing. Because results speak louder than words and the DEI teams performance has been deteriorating all season. It could also be positive for the DEI team that Dale Jr. leaves, giving the whole team a breather and allow them to refocus their attentions, on winning.

But let’s look at it from a fan perspective. I’ll give you mine. I attended a NASCAR race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway a few years ago. The track seats about 120,000 (more now I think), but that’s a lot of fans. On the second lap of the race Dale Jr. was involved in a wreck that took him out of the race. I was completely shocked to see a majority of the fans get up and leave. The mere fact Dale Jr. was out of the race was enough to cause people who had just sunk $100 to see a 500 lap race, leave before it had even begun. Stupidity or fan loyalty? I thought it was stupid, but then I’ve struggled to keep my cool watching Tony Stewart’s up and down season this year.

I respect everyones opinion, even this guys, and yeah, it probably won’t hurt the team and Dale Jr. will undoubtedly land on his feet. But it’s sort of like seeing Micheal Jordan wear any other basketball jersey number but 23. It just isn’t right. I think it’s a shame that Teresa Earnhardt is so out of touch with fans. She has no idea how big this thing is. If she succeeds, good for her, if not, she ruined a life time of work.

According to a post on Planet Blacksburg, NASCAR officials have been given permission to place a VT logo on its cars for the next three races at Phoenix, Talladega and Richmond. I think this is pretty cool.

I’ve been a Tony Stewart fan for a very long time. I’ve seen the ups and downs, and this season Tony only wanted two things… a win at Daytona and the Championship. Well, at least he has a shot at one of them.

In NASCAR’s season opener, the Daytona 500, it looked like Tony was on his way to a first place finish. He managed to get by Kurt Busch, who was the cause of Stewarts last place finish. Kurt inadvertantly bumped Tony in the left rear causing both Stewart and Busch to hit the wall resulting in damag that put both drivers out of the race.

It’s sad really. Both Steward and Busch had great cars. Tony had a speeding penalty for leaving the pits too fast and and had to start a push from the rear. He did it, with speed and accuracy. This race Tony showed a lot more patience than in previous years. He knew the car was fast, he just had to stay clear of the “big wreck”. He did that, and took back the top spot.

I give Tony high marks for performance and racing skill. The finish was one of the best I’ve ever seen. As Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin drove neck and neck across the finish line, the rest of the field was wrapping themselves up in a major crash that saw Clint Boyer slide across the finish line upside down. It was incredicle. Harvick just nosed Martin out for a win. I would have loved to see the old man win.

After a short battle with cancer, race car driver Benny Parsons is dead at age 65. Personally I like the way he called a race. He seemed to get along with the other announcers. He was a soft spoken guy. He was also a pretty good driver. There aren’t too many of the “old timers” left. The guys who drove cars with little if any safety gear and did it for nearly nothing but the fun.