Still on the subject of changing times, I attended a high school JV Soccer tournament Sunday evening in which my oldest grandson was playing.  He goes to high school at the school that was one of  my high school’s most bitter rivals back in the dark ages. I found myself cheering loudly for the previous arch rival.  By the way, Andrew’s team won the tournament! But still that reinforces the premise that times change.  For those of us gathered here tonight, we don’t need a reminder as to how much times have changed in our sport.

With the retirement of The King, along comes Jeff Gordon to shake up the racing world.  With the death of The Intimidator, along comes Kyle Busch hoping to wear the mantle of Dale but failing miserably in doing so.  But that is another issue entirely.  We have seen the progression of the cars from “stickly stock” to slightly modified, mostly for safety reasons, to the Car of Tomorrow.  We have seen so many innovations in so many areas of the sport and sadly, most, it seems are the result of a loss.  I admit that it disturbs me greatly that we lost so many drivers in accidents, including Dale Earnhardt, that could have been saved had the sanctioning body installed SAFER barriers as soon as Smokey Yunick had suggested that option which was, as my information provides, in the late 1980s.  Three drivers  died and nothing was done.  Dale Earnhardt, Sr. is killed and more innovations have taken place in safety in the sport in the three years after his death than in the previous 30 years.   Changes. But changes for the good.

Probably shouldn’t have brought up those issues, but watching races has changed as well.  I actually stayed up through the entire Daytona 500, sitting there watching the track crew work to repair the track after the fire was extinguished and realized, when I finally went to be at 1:30, that back in the day, 1:30 a.m. would be about the time I would be getting home from the 500. Rather than the long drive, I had sat in my recliner and had a short walk to the bed instead of a long drive to the house.  Back in the day, I wouldn’t have been anywhere else but the Daytona infield.  What has changed?  Why am I content now to sit in my den and watch rather than actually be there?  Why would I leave the television Sunday afternoon during the Phoenix race to go watch a soccer game when I freely admit I don’t really understand soccer?

I guess the biggest changes from my point of view is that while stock car racing and NASCAR remain a big part of my life, things have changed to the point that my patience is being pushed to the limits.  For instance, allow me to “fuss” about several things that have irritated me over the past month.

1.  The continuing overbearing press coverage given to Danica Patrick. I realize she is now the biggest publicity stunt NASCAR has ever had, but it is pathetic the way she is handled.  D.W. is especially disgusting in his excuses for her.  But, considering D.W.’s explanation of how Mikey lost it in the Duel, no one can make up excuses like the old mouth of Kentucky.  I do admit that I now clean my tires everytime I leave the house so there will be no tire debris to cause me handling problems.
2. I also have issues with Danica constantly making her own excuses which have no basis in fact.  I loved her comments at Phoenix this week that her “teammate had better give her plenty of room on the track this race”.  He did.  About 3 laps as I recall.
3.  The issue with penalties for the 48 team.  As I understand the point and as it has been repeatedly stated by all the talking heads on tv, the infraction was a “visual” by a NASCAR official and the template claw was never even placed on the car. Moreover, the car never even went on the track!  The alleged infraction was discovered when the car was rolled off the trailer and presented for inspection.  That is just ludicrous.
4. It has long been known, and Jeff Gilder has stated here many  times, that it’s NASCAR’s show and the drivers are the “clowns” within that show.  That either the clowns abide by whatever rules are penciled in this week, or off they go.  While I understand the need to have control, it would seem to me that some measure of fairness should go into the enforcement.
5. Number four above brings up the issue of the points buying and selling, i.e. to get Danica Patrick in the 500.  Oh, I know it has been going on for a long time and will always be used to the advantage of NASCAR but it should be stopped.  NASCAR is, I do believe, trying to listen to fans these days, at least to the extent that it benefits NASCAR, but I personally have not talked to one person who approves of getting Danica in the 500 that way.  But, as one of our most astute members of RacersReunion posted in a Forum response, NASCAR would have had Danica in the 500 no matter what had to be done.  Manipulation of the Rules is nothing new in the NASCAR world. It is just simply the way it is.
6. There is also the issue of Elliott Sadler, one heck of a nice guy, who won the Nationwide race in Phoenix and was offered the chance to drive for Michael Waltrip Motorsports in 5 races Mark Martin has chosen to bypass. It seems, from reports I’ve read, that Chevrolet, for which Elliott drives in Nationwide, has told him that he will NOT drive a Toyota in the Cup series. That seems to me to be so unfair.

So, now that I’ve gotten all that off my chest, I’ll address the issue of the latest word of change to come out of the Cup ranks.  Penske going to Ford for 2013. That leaves Dodge without a representative in the sport, unless Dodge decides to throw backing to Robby Gordon.  Robby has shown flashes of talent over the years and with the right backing, he may produce winning results, but the bottom line is that Dodge once more appears to be out of the running for a viable Cup team.  There are many of us who don’t like that.  All we old Mopar fans  remember the days when the Plymouths and Dodges would win and win often. It’s sort of hard to take to once again know that Mopar will not be running for a win.  Hope Brad K will rock the racing world this season and send Dodge out with a championship run!

And lastly, let’s talk about the changes to our own RacersReunion website Jeff incorporated over the weekend.  It did allow me the opportunity to go back and –re- read posts in the Forum over the past several months.  Each of you should do that when you have time.  We at RacersReunion are blessed to have so many members here who will share their memories and experiences and allow us to recall days from the past when our world of racing was shining like a mega-star.  We can, for the most part, be thankful that even disagreements and different points of view are presented with courtesy and respect.  Let’s keep it that way.