NASCAR Ranting and Raving - For NASCAR Fans

I've got issues ...

by 4ever3 on Mar 16, 2010 12:42 AM EDT in Bob's Articles Comment 2 comments

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted or anything but I'm having some severe computer problems. I can't seem to get an Internet connection for longer than a few minutes and any page I try and load takes forever. The cable company says it isn't them, but this is happening on both of my computers not just one - what are the odds that they both have the same problem at the same time?

Anyway, once I'm fixed I'll be back! In the meantime check out some of the fanposts down in the right hand column, there's some pretty good stuff there. I'll try to put them on the front page once the Internet connection window opens up a little longer!

This sucks! Good thing there wasn't a Cup race this weekend.

Take care.

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Nascar Video Game

by Troy J. on Mar 13, 2010 12:02 PM EST Comment 1 comment

I've said it numerous times to my friends. There is an insanely awesome NASCAR game out there. It can be made. For years now we have been able to select an NFL team, fire every player, fire all 4 main coaches, relocate the team, and change the name and jerseys. We have been able to work our way from Double A up to the Bigs, while asking our manager for a trade, or more playing time. We have been able to send players to Triple A, the D-League or the AHL. (Although still no Practice Squad in Madden, funny huh?) Yet for the past few years we have been shackled to mediocre NASCAR games from the very same studio that makes Madden, NHL games, and NBA Live. So, why haven’t we seen the NASCAR game that gives us full control?

For one year only we were able to buy a NASCAR team. But we couldn't do anything with it. We could only add a team to that team, and you still couldn't make your number only 2 digits to match the rest of the team. RCR with the 29, 31, 33 and the 103. Terrible. With NASCAR 09 we could now customize our cars to the extreme, but we could only be a one car team, and still we had 3 digit numbers. Even Gran Turismo 5 (the only game slated to have NASCAR in it) will most likely NOT have much of a NASCAR program to it, other than being able to select a car and race it against other nascars. So here is how my perfect NASCAR game would go.

You would have a few different options. Obviously you would have the normal options of a single race, or a season, or just the chase. But I would have the Sprint Cup Series, The Nationwide Series, The Camping World Series, The Camping World East, and West Series, and the ARCA Series. Hey, we can do it. We have the technology. You would have the option to take over any NASCAR team. Let’s say Roush Fenway. You would have all 4 Cup teams, AND all 4 Nationwide teams, and you could start up a Truck team, an ARCA team, ECT. You would then have to find sponsorship for every race. Existing deals would be in place. That way you'd have to court sponsors for the Vegas Race so Colin Braun isn't all white. Then you could design that one race sponsor, or choose one of a few premade schemes. At the end of the year, you would have to decide if you wanted to keep David Ragan, extend Carl Edwards, or Move up Ricky Stenhouse to the UPS 6 Ford. You'd have to sign a manufacturer agreement, sign a technological agreement with Richard Petty Motorsports (or whoever), and find sponsors for next year, or try to extend current sponsorship deals. So for 2011 you could have Kenseth in the Crown Royal 17, Biffle in the Aflac/3M 16, Edwards in the Subway/Bass Pro Shops 99, and Kevin Harvick in the Shell/Pennzoil/UPS 6.

If we can have all that freedom in Madden and MLB the Show, why can't we have the same freedom in NASCAR 2011? You should also have the option to be just a driver. You'd start off in ARCA, move your way to the East or West series, get invited to the Toyota All Star Race, begin driving in the Nationwide series while starting 7 races in cup to get ready for next year, and finally winning your first Truck Championship. All while being a developmental driver for Michael Waltrip Racing. You'd also have the option to be an owner/driver. You'd start your own team, and move your way up the ranks. Until you expanded out your team. Outsiderz Racing team with Troy Boesen driving the 71(That's me!) and Paul Menard driving the Menards 70, and Jon Wes Townley driving the Sunoco 72. This shouldn't be a hard game to make. With Downloadable content, you could have up to the minute driver, crew, sponsor deals, ARCA drivers, and owner details. You could download new sponsors, new templates for cars, anything. What would be in your perfect NASCAR game?

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Well it is now official ...

by 4ever3 on Mar 11, 2010 9:57 PM EST in Bob's Articles Comment 10 comments

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via www.tourismhamilton.com

I just lost my freelance writing gig for The Hamilton Spectator. I used to write a weekly NASCAR Column for them during the racing season. I thought they were just limited with their space due to their coverage of the Olympics but I was wrong, their freelance budget was significantly cut this year and I was one of the first to go.

Oh well, to be honest with you after the market bottomed out last year I thought I was a goner, but they held on to me for the entire season except for a few missed weeks due to illness and the US Open so I consider myself lucky to have been writing for them at all this past year.

With that being said anyone know of any local papers looking for a freelance NASCAR scrib?

There's not many links to my stuff left over at their site, but here is one about last year's All-Star race that I like because I got to talk a little bit about the history of the event itself.

I've really got to thank Rick Hughes over at The Spec for having the vision of bringing a Blogger into the fold. I never had a contract with him, all we had a handshake deal that lasted almost two years - kind of unheard of in this day and age isn't it? But that's what it was.

After my first article for him, Rick emailed me and told me to stop trying to sound like a reporter, "I want your voice not what you think it should be for a newspaper" he wrote. After that I ran with it and aside from a few changes to my original work due to space restrictions he and his associate editors left my work alone.

I really appreciate the opportunity Rick gave me I really enjoyed my time writing for The Spec and you never know I just might end up back there again one day, especially if the Canadian Motor Speedway becomes a reality.

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Atlanta: The Rest of the Story

by RhodeIslandRoxfan on Mar 10, 2010 2:41 AM EST Comment 0 comments

I'm going to surprise you; I'm not going to talk about the Edwards vs. Keselowski incident. While that is the biggest story of the week, Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 had multiple layers of appeal that need to be examined. In this post I'll briefly touch on ten of them that could generate some discussion.

1) Tire Issues

The person happiest about Edwards turning Keselowski and sending him airborne in Atlanta is Goodyear tire chief Stu Grant. (OK Denny Hamlin is probably the happiest person but Stu Grant is no lower than second on this list) Reason being is that Goodyear would have been on the hot seat after this race for the number of tire failures that occurred. Robby Gordon, Mark Martin, David Ragan, Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, and Denny Hamlin all had issues of varying degrees with the tires Goodyear brought. While this was absolutely nothing like the debacle at Indy a few years ago and I do believe that many of the tire issues were the team's fault for being too aggressive with the setups, there were a whole bunch of tire problems Sunday that need to be reevaluated.

2) Early Surprises

Paul Menard and Scott Speed finished 5th and 10th on Sunday and are 9th and 11th in the points. This means that if the Chase started today they would both be involved in it. I know it's early but that's still really impressive for a couple of drivers who finished 31st and 35th in points last year and they deserved to be noticed.

3) Still Some Work To Do

Dale Jr. won the pole and recorded the fastest lap ever in a COT on Friday but couldn't even lead a single lap of the Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday. The 88 team still has a steep hill to climb if they want to compete with the elites.

4) A Champion's Performance

Kevin Harvick showed us another reason why he is one of the favorites to win the title this year. After running in 20 something place all day long, the #29 team slowly made the car better and better as the race went on, got a wave around, made up a lap, and avoided all the carnage during those late race restarts to finish 9th. Those are the things championships are made of.

5) The Sleeper

Kasey Kahne is stronger than his finishes show this year. While the Nascar box score may read 17th in points with finishes of 30th, 34th, 9th, and 4th, don't be fooled; the #9 is better than that. He won his leg of the Twin 150's and showed speed all week at Daytona before getting caught up in a late race wreck in the 500, had what I believe was a top 5 car before crashing at Fontana, was running 5th before he got a pit road penalty at Vegas, and led the most laps this this week at Atlanta before failing to keep up with track changes and constantly getting in the wrong lane on late race restarts. The bottom line here is that with the possible exception of the Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne is closer than anyone to catching the Hendrick and Childress Chevrolets.

6) Brotherly Love?

Speaking of Kurt Busch he beat his brother to victory lane this year. Why is this so significant you ask? Well Steve Addington, the man who helped guide Kyle Busch to 12 wins over the last two seasons is now Kurt's crew chief. It's still too soon to form any conclusions, but early indications are that the #18 team may end up lamenting letting Addington get away.

7) What Might Have Been

Kurt Busch may have never won Sunday's race however if it wasn't for the Keselowski caution coming out in the closing laps. Montoya had closed the margin down to 0.6 seconds with three laps to go and was catching Busch at 0.2 seconds a lap. I'll let you do the math for yourself but I believe we were headed for yet another Atlanta photo finish.

8) Clint's Choice

One topic I haven't heard anyone mention so far this week is Clint Bowyer's lane choice on the first green-white-checker restart. His options were A: (Restart as the leader in the inside lane with Jamie McMurray who only has two fresh tires right behind him) or B: (Restart as the leader in the outside lane with Kurt Busch who has four tires and has been the fastest car on restarts all day long right behind him) Bowyer chose option B and boy was it the wrong call. Not only had he fallen to 6th by the time he got to turn three, but he ended up in the huge accident and finished 23rd.

9) What Might Have Been #2

The lane choice intrigue doesn't end there however. Remember, Kurt Busch was starting 4th (second car on the outside lane) and Montoya was starting 5th (third car on the inside lane) on that restart. If Bowyer chooses the inside line, that means it's Montoya's and not Kurt Busch's lane that moves first. While Kurt Busch was great on restarts all day, the end result might have been Montoya winning the race.

10) Chad Knaus is the Man

In case you're not yet convinced Chad Knaus is the best crew chief in Nascar, the Atlanta race gave you another really good reason to jump on board with that line of thinking. During Sunday's race, the 48 team was pitting in a really congested area of pit road with Kasey Kahne right behind them and David Gilliland right in front of them. You may have noticed that despite David Gilliland staying on the lead lap the entire race, he wasn't pitting with the leaders during cautions in the second half of the race. That's because Chad Knaus somehow convinced the 38 team to wait another lap before pitting so Jimmie could have an easier time exiting the pits. You may not like Chad Knaus but you have to admit, he's pretty amazing.

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NASACR's decision on Carl Edwards' actions against Keselowski at Atlanta: three race probation. Really?

by 4ever3 on Mar 9, 2010 11:29 PM EST in Bob's Articles Comment 37 comments

I will never understand NASCAR's policing of its drivers. Carl Edwards gets a three race probation (only in the Cup series too) for deliberately wrecking Brad Keselowski in last Sunday's race at about 190 mph causing Keselowski to get airborne and fly into the outside retaining wall and catch fence upside down landing hard on the driver's side A - pillar.

Officially Edwards was found to be in violation of Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing - aggressive driving) of the 2010 NASCAR rule book.

Now granted having Keselowski flying through the air with the greatest of ease was not what Edwards intended to happen, all he wanted to do was just spin Keselowski out and into the grass but unfortunately things at 190 mph don't always go as planned.

Mike Helton explained NASCAR's position regarding this incident; "We made it very clear to [Edwards] that these actions were not acceptable and did go beyond what we said back in January, about putting the driving back in the hands of the drivers. I believe [Edwards] understands our position at this point."

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Pictures of new spoiler in action at Goodyear's Darlington tire test today

by 4ever3 on Mar 9, 2010 9:03 PM EST in Bob's Articles Comment 6 comments

Clint Bowyer tests Goodyear tires Tuesday at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C. - Credit: MotorRacingNetwork.com

Elliott Sadler takes on the rough track surface at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C. Tuesday during a Goodyear Tire test - Credit: MotorRacingNetwork.com

Marcos Ambrose avoids getting a Darlington Stripe Tuesday during a Goodyear Tire test at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C. - Credit: MotorRacingNetwork.com

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Light Edwards penalty fits, as the damage is already done

by A_Rosser14 on Mar 9, 2010 5:42 PM EST Comment 22 comments

A lot of people have already launched into tirades that Carl Edwards received a mere slap of the wrist Tuesday when NASCAR handed him a three-race probation for the incident with Brad Keselowski on lap 322 of Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500. and that he should have sat out the March 21 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway

The cries that if Keselowski's car had flown a few inches in another direction, Carl could have potentially killed someone in the stands, if not Keselowski himself, are valid, but what-ifs rarely play into penalties.

When Kurt Busch almost struck Tony Stewart's jackman, Jason Lee, during a road rage incident in the pits at Dover in 2007, there were cries for Busch too to be suspended, but he wasn't because Lee was not hit or injured.

The penalty may not have fit the crime in many eyes, but it would have merely been overkill had NASCAR heavily fined Edwards or sat him down a race, and I'll explain why.

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Carl Edwards must face the music for his actions, but will it be Metallica or Bobby Vinton?

by 4ever3 on Mar 8, 2010 6:39 PM EST in Bob's Articles Comment 46 comments

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ATLANTA - MARCH 07: The wrecked #12 Penske Dodge, driven by Brad Keselowski, sits in the garage after an incident on tack during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 7, 2010 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)

There is no mistaken what Carl Edwards did today to Brad Keselowski was a big no no in the eyes of anyone watching the race including NASCAR but what kind of penalty is he going to face as a result?

Well Keselowski wants Edwards parked for at least one race, which seems possible but unlikely in my opinion.

Why? Sponsorship dollars. Think of the lost revenue by not having the Afflac, Scotts, (name of other sponsors here) car in the race. Certainly if I were a sponsor of Edwards I would not be pleased that my car was not in the race with my driver behind the wheel. Of course the 99 car would be in the race, but not with Edwards behind the wheel.

In fact I might just be so upset that I would pull all of my television advertising from the race too which would mean a loss of revenue for NASCAR and FOX.

Get the picture?

So what would you do?

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