For your Racing fix….

As NASCAR’s season is still a month away there are still ways to get your racing fix. For example Jan 24,2009  at Boyd’s Speedway in East Ridge Tn. there is a $5000.00 to win dirt late model race coming, I see a full house coming for this one. Boyd’s has undergone a transition to new ownership in the past year and the Harvey Brothers with promoter Gar Dickson have made Boyd’s one of the souths premier race tracks. Untold money has been spent and no cost has been spared, with upgrades in all areas the race track is ready for some super fast racing. There is new clay, walls for the first time at
Boyd’s in years, making it very fan friendly, a scale house that has a large display that the fans can see! Thus making the fans even more involved.

First opened in as a clay oval in 1952 by its namesake, E.A. Boyd.

Operated as a paved track from 1962 through 1976, with several NASCAR legends such as the Allison’s and the Petty’s making laps and scoring victories here.

Converted back to dirt track in 1977.

Through the years Boyd’s has seen several owners and promoters, including the founders son Butch Boyd.
Boyd’s has also had it’s name changed many times: (Chattanooga International Raceway, Chattanooga Raceway Park, Tennessee-Georgia Speedway, Stateline Speedway, Tennessee Georgia Raceway), but it seems the original name was favored by the racers and fans no matter what official name it wore at the time. That’s why when the track was purchased in 2006 by George Shaw and Russ Ruskin the Boyd’s name was again used, and the Harvey’s have chosen to go with the sentimental favorite for the same reason.

http://www.boydsspeedway.com

If your a little far away to attend Boyds then find you a dirt track close by and give it a try, although I would strongly suggest making the trip to Boyd’s it is fastly becoming the premier track in the N.W.Ga. area, lots of motels in the area and other attractions to fill the day and then polish it off with a race in the evening, oh and don’t worry about eating before you get to the track, Boyd’s has some of the best race track fare I have ever eaten, and very reasonably priced. so come on out to Boyd’s Speedway.

If you decide to join us let me know and I can give you a guided tour!!!!

the Dr.

Drug Test in NASCAR?

NASCAR has announced that this coming year they will be testing 12-15 crew members randomly at each race,  while this is a good thing is it the right thing?

NASCAR  recently has had its share of drug issues with Arron Fike and his girlfriend getting busted for having heroin, but he is not exactly a household name. NASCAR needs to address the issue with the drivers too. this new memo from NASCAR only addresses the crews, the ones who work on the cars, now I agree with this completely and I think it is long over due, but from the looks of the list they say they will be testing for they are testing for olympic athletes not race crews.

Rusty Wallace and Kevin Harvick have both spoken out on this  and it needs a closer look. These drivers need to be checked each and every time they get in a car, why have each driver “pee in a bottle” when they arrive at the track and by race time they can have a results? No way ….. NASCAR will not inpune these drivers like that, they will infringe on the cash cow that NASCAR has going…..

Brian France needs to step up and let the chips land where they may. Drug test everyone in NASCAR from the top breass all the way down to the drivers, if they are fgoing to do it….. then do it. Don’t half step, test them all officials, drivers ,flagmen, NASCAR president, everybody!

Taking this way out NASCAR can stand back and say “well that one must of slipped thru the cracks”, that isn’t going to get it. Test them all.  Or don’t test any of them.

We may see some good raing this year who knows.

the Dr.

James Hylton is back!!!

James Hylton is coming back! The veteran driver who has been around racing forever will be trying to run as many races as he can. John Carter who owns EM Motorsports has picked James Hylton to drive for him this coming year at Daytona.

Hylton who’s career in NASCAR started in the 50’s as a mechanic for Rex White, has come a long way.  He got his first driving job July 8th 1964 when he started the Old Dominion 400 in Manassas Va. he wound up 19th that day and made $100.  1966 was a really good year for James when he finished second in points and won the Rookie of the year title. in ‘66-’67 he was there every week  with 46 top 5’s in 87 races. In 1968 James became a car owner/ driver and in 1970 on March 1st he found victory lane for the first time at the Richmond 500 driving the familar #48. August 6th 1972 he led 108 laps of 188 to beat Ramo Stott in the Talladega 500. He ran every race up until 1982 and stayed in NASCAR until 1993 when he switched to ARCA.

Having this icon back at the races where he will take his 74 years of experience to run against guys where wasn’t even born when he started says alot about the man and racing in general. It says look out here comes the little guy, something that fans of NASCAR have wanted for a long time.

This will be his 17th run of the Daytona 500 and his has a career high finish of 3rd.  With over 300 top ten finishes  he knows his way around the track. And this coming Febuary 15 he will try to make the field in the EM Motorsports #08 car.

I want to wish him all the luck in the world and hope he makes the race, and has a good finish. It will be great to see a little guy at Dayonta again.

O

NASCAR with out a Petty??

SI.com broke the story a few days ago and it seems that we really could be watching a NASCAR race without the iconic name of Petty. Could this really be true? Can this happen? Sure it can, and in todays market of big bucks and mega teams it seems to be the way of things to come. Long gone are the things we once thought of as tradition, long gone are the days of the “little guy” winning one, also gone are the meager paydays that was once the norm in NASCAR racing. Along with the good comes the bad, and so it seems this time the “bad ” has hit so close to the true roots of NASCAR it seems like it can’t be true.

The drivers wanting bigger and bigger paydays for the few hours they spend in a race car makes it seem more and more like stick and ball sports. With the  super big paydays of the pro athletes these days did you really think that NASCAR would be far behind? Did you ever think that a driver would be charging for autographs? The King Richard Petty once took caligraphy classes so the fans who asked for his autograph would be getting something, thus the reason for his autograph looking like it does. This is the man who always stayed til the last fan was happy, the one who drove with a rag in his mouth to help keep him from succumbing to the gases that are often found in a race car. The same guy who set records year after year only to break his own records year after year. The same man who set the bar pretty high for other drivers to try and follow, it has yet to be done, no one will ever reach the mark set by the “king”. He came from a different time, a different era, he came from one where winning meant that you had just outrun the best that day. From a time when drivers actually worked on the very same cars they drove, not like today and the prima donna’s that sit in todays  race cars. Richard Petty was the true last of a dying breed of race car drivers ones who cared about “how ” they won not just the numbers they have posted. He cared about the fans, not because they stopped by his trailer to buy a hat or tee shirt, but he really cared about the fact that they got their money’s worth watching a race he was in.

But sad as it may be these days are gone, along with the fans who loved these drivers so, and the fans who would camp out all weekend just to see the race on Sunday. Now when I say camp out , I am not talking bout a $200,000 motorhome, I mean camping like sleeping bag on the ground fighting the bugs and weather. These are the fans King Richard Petty cared about, the ones who made NASCAR what it is today, but those days are gone. Watching the Daytona 500 is just not going to be the same this coming Febuary, It wont be the same, no matter what NASCAR does.

I will shed a tear or two just as I did a few years ago when Richard Petty retired from driving, it wasn’t the same watching some one else wheel the 43 car, it will be much the same when we turn on the race to not see a Petty Enterprises car in the lineup. But we as fans keep hoping the end is not near, and that someone will see what has happened and will come riding in on a white horse an fix it, they will take away the C.O.T. and the “race to the chase “crap and give us pure racing like it was supposed to be. Well all I have to say is don’t hold your breath….
the Dr.

Changes…… good or bad?

Rodney Childers will leave Gillett Evernham Motorsports, where he was crew chief for Elliott Sadler, to become David Reutimann’s crew chief at Michael Waltrip Racing and hearing that Todd Parrott is leaving Yates to join Sadler at Gillett Evernham Motorsports, so it this a good move?

Lets look at it from another view, for Sadler it will be good  simply because he is getting a guy he has worked with before and knows they work good together. So this will be a real positive, and it should help with Sadlers confidence.

On the other hand, Rodney Childers going to MWR to crew for David Reutimann, may not be such a good deal.  Childers will replace Ryan Pemberton on top of the box for the 00 next year, Reutimann was having a real good comeback at the end of the season this past year, and he needs stability to keep that going, Childers has always been more of a behind the scenes type of guy, and I think he had done all he was going to do at G.E.M. , so the move is good for him, but for the #00 car next season they are going to need a crew chief who will take the gamble and stick his neck out making calls to put the #00 in victory lane, is Childers the man for the job? that remains to be seen.

Based on what I have seen from all involved, the 19 car will be a contender this coming season, and the #00 will be in the top 10 if Childers sticks his neck out a little bit, but if he does like he did on his last job, the the #00 will be an also ran…..

Good luck to both teams and I hope for Elliot Sadler that he is reunited with Parrott. And to David Ruetimann I really hope Rodney Childers comes out of his shell….. if he does the #00 will be up front.

the dr.

Another question answered… I think.

One of my regular readers sent this question in, (I am trying to answer questions during the off season to fill in the lack of real racing news. )

As you know a couple of years ago, they changed all of the rules and decided to go to a top ten shoot out for the cup. How has that changed the field in regards to competition? I mean, if you aren’t in the top ten, do you really compete as you used to during the real season? I dunno, but I sort of wish they would bring back the old way of doing it, even the little guys still had a chance (1 in a million) but it was still a chance of getting recognized. What is your take on this?

The New NASCAR....

The new version of NASCAR VS. the “old version” of NASCAR….

The old NASCAR....

The “old version” of nascar… Which is better?

Looking back on the way that NASCAR crowns a championship…… Used to long ago NASCAR would award points for how you finished a race, winner got the most and if you led the most laps and led a lap you got bonus points for each of those feats.

Today you need a computer to figure out the points, you race for 26 weekends to try and make a 10 race shootout at the end of the season, in this format the top 12 are locked in, no one else can get in and the points are reset, then the final 10 races you race and your points are added up separate from the rest of the field, who by the way are racing for a $1 million bonus for 13th place, the first driver to not make the chase.  In theory this gives the fans “2 races with in a race, one for the top ten and one for the rest of the field who didn’t make the chase.”

This is where NASCAR has tried to compete with other “stick and ball sports” by putting in a playoff type champion. To some it works but to the purist it is an insult.  To change something that has worked for years, kind of like following the old saying “if it ain’t broke ….. don’t fix it”, this is the mindset most purist fans view the points system, but the higher up’s of NASCAR didn’t see it that way, thus the changes. The driving mindset of NASCAR has been greed since the takeover of Brian France, his actions seem to root out the true fans that has over the years put NASCAR on the map, in favor of a “new Breed” of fans. Ones who come to the races not minding spending $1500.00 for the weekend. And in attracting the “New Breed ” of fan NASCAR felt they had to give the new fan something they could relate to, a playoff system. But has it worked? Has it improved the numbers? well to hear NASCAR tell it it has , but to the purist who has watched ticket prices skyrocket it hasn’t, to the teams who have went from 35 or 40 full time employee’s to teams that have 275 per car. To the teams who have had to spend countless millions on R&D, it has affected those numbers…..the true cost of racing. It is quickly getting out of hand and will only get worse, if left unchecked…………. But what are we to do? Should we go back to the old way? Or stay with the new? Or come up with a combination of both?

In my opinion, which never means much, I would like to see it done this way………

Go back to the old way, in as much as you race all teams for the entire season, taking away the 10 race shootout.  Give more points for winning, give a few points for qualifying, that would liven up the points race with out making sponsors mad, keeping all drivers in the hunt a little bit longer, and rewarding the teams for winning will liven up the on track racing.

I know everyone will have idea’s on how they think it should be, so why dont NASCAR try a poll? let the fans who foot the bill have a voice? naw that wont ever happen……but a guy can dream can’t he?

The Dr.

Dirt.. the new way to Cup?

I was recently asked that with the new cars( I.E. Car of Tomorrow) would having a dirt background help?    Well since 75% of my racing has been dirt I find this an interesting question, an one that is hard to answer. But let’s try anyway, from a experience standpoint, dirt is excellent experience for any form of racing, it teaches good car control and teaches you  to respond in ways that will often “save your bacon”. But from a sponsor standpoint it seems to hurt dirt drivers, or it has in the past, look at Steve Kinser the true “King of the Outlaws” he made the trip to NASCAR a few years ago with Quaker State in tow, he didn’t cut the mustard so to speak. There were many factors that caused Steve to finally go back to dirt where he was and still is the”king”.

In todays NASCAR you must bring the sponsors with you to get anyone to take a chance on you, but the skills you develop running dirt will serve you for years to come.

Nothing  can teach car control like running 125mph sideways on dirt, it is simply “seat of the pants driving”. Learning how far around the rear end can go before it goes past the point of no return, will sure enough help you at the cup level. Learning how far the car can rotate on pavement will help you to relay input to the crew, and will help in improving the car during practice or during the race. Anything a driver can do to get a good feel of the car and be able to tell the crew what your feeling will only help the team to improve the car. Without the input from the driver the crew is just guessing, this is why you see some drivers go like the blazes during qualifing but soon fall back during the race, they lack the ability to relay info to the crew to make good changes. The changes that are needed to keep up with the track as it changes through out the race, and nothing changes more than dirt, moisture moves from top to bottom, or the track goes dry slick, or the groove moves down, all these things are vitally important information that neds to be relayed to the crew so they can make informed changes on the car.

So to answer the question” will dirt racing experience help you at the Cup level? the answer is YES it will. But will it get you a ride at the Cup level? not always. Hope this helps explain the question….

Man I love it when I am asked questions…..

The Dr.