The first word that comes to my mind is "Phew!" It's been a busy week. When last we met, we discussed the inevitable "Big One" that ended the race at Talladega... and discussed it, and discussed... well, you remember. We beat it to death is what we did, and not a moment too soon. Since leaving Alabama and heading back to Charlotte, a whole lot of "stuff" has happened. So much in fact, that I'm not sure which topic or topics you folks might want to tear into this week... so I'm going to toss out several very recent happenings and let you pick the ones for more intense conversation. Just imagine we're moving from appetizer to soup and salad, to entree and finally to dessert. Mr. France, you are welcome to stay for dinner as well. Here's what's on the menu:

First came the news, a couple days after the race and wreck, that NASCAR's favorite son... he who spoke so disparagingly of the massive wrecks on plate tracks... had sustained a concussion in that wreck and would be missing the next two races. First thing to make the presses were  disclaimers from several media members that the lad spoke from injury and didn't know what he was talking about, so his remarks should be disregarded. Sure... whatever...

Coming right on the heels of that announcement was another, this time revealing that the same favorite son had sustained another concussion only six weeks previous, in a test crash at Kansas, which he had chosen to hide for all that time. Want more? This was not the first time that this same driver perpetrated this identical scenario... hiding one concussion until sustaining another. To paraphrase George Santayana, those who do not learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them. I don't know how it was at your house, but around here there has been a running conversation on the effect of multiple concussions and how such injuries are handled in various sports... as opposed to how they properly should be handled.

Another topic, directly spawned by that one, was the question seemingly on every media member's mind... who's gonna drive the car? (One more reason why I refuse to assume the title of "Media member." Silly me, I cared more about how severe was the injury and what is the long-range prognosis.) As it turns out, the lottery drawing for a seat in the #88 was won by Regan Smith, which is perhaps some sort of poetic justice for having just this week been removed from his seat in the #78 in favor of that guy everyone loves to hate, but can drive the wheels off a race car... sometimes literally... Kurt Busch.

So with Busch now wheeling the #78 for Furniture Row and Smith temporarily ensconced behind the wheel of the #88, whose fanny will sit in the #51 for James Finch? That would be once disgraced but now reinstated A.J. Allmendinger. Welcome back A.J. I missed you. Perhaps the best question I've heard all week, and certainly the most pertinent to that entire situation was when someone asked, "which presented a greater on-track danger to others, A.J. with a mild "upper" or Dale Jr. with the lingering effects of a serious concussion?" Since I hold no medical degree, I'll leave you to answer that one yourselves... but I think you'll agree, it's a great question.

And then... came word from the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte that they would debut a brand new exhibit on Friday, October 12... the day formerly known as Columbus Day. And what would that new exhibit be, you ask? Well, they're calling it, "Wrecks! Dramatic Crashes of NASCAR." And the following is taken directly from the press release, "The exhibit will explore the breath-taking, inevitable aspect of racing through historic collisions, multimedia and authentic artifacts that demonstrate how competitors and their equipment are pushed to the limit and beyond."

Somewhere, the Church Lady is cocking her head to one side a bit and saying, "Well... isn't that special?" Piled (pun intended) right on top of the wreck at Talladega, the timing for that one couldn't have been better... or is that worse? It all depends on your outlook I guess. Me? I saw the wrecks they will exhibit when they were new... live and in real time. Once was enough, thank you very much.

The question I would pose to NASCAR is how can you claim to care so much about "safety" and yet glorify the wrecks at every opportunity? The leading film for any race at any track is the biggest wreck from the last time we were there. That is multiplied exponentially for the restrictor plate tracks, where reruns of horrendous multi-car wrecks, crashes, flips and barrel rolls are shown over and over as an advertisement to "come get you some of this." Now, the glorification of the wreck moves to the Hall of Fame.

Oh, but wait! There is still more gentle readers! It was a very busy week. Have you heard that Series sponsor, Sprint, is in discussions with a Japanese Telecommunications Company called "SoftBank" regarding the purchase of 70% of Sprint for $12.5 Billion? That's Billion, with a "B!" At the moment, there is no way of knowing how or even if such a transfer of control might affect the status of existing contracts dealing with the NASCAR sponsorship. $12.5 Billion with a B however, can speak very loudly. Oh yes, and NASCAR has "no comment."

One more for dessert will complete the menu. Raise your hand if you ever watch SPEED. Yep, that's what I thought. We all do! Well... tough cookies; it's going away! This is something I've brought up several times here on our site and no one seems to either believe it or care, one. Did you happen to notice last weekend that a new logo was sitting atop the familiar red SPEED logo? It too was familiar; it was the FOX logo. Fox, for those that aren't into studying the family trees of TV networks, is the parent company of SPEED. In short, they own it.

FOX wants to play with the "Big Boys" now... Cable networks dedicated to sports, such as ESPN and the new NBCSN, which is found where Versus used to live. Apparently, those reruns of Cops that seem to occupy almost every viewing hour of FX are dear to someone's heart, so that network can't be sacrificed. It will be SPEED that will fade quietly into that dark night sometime in 2013, giving way to an all-sports channel with MLB seemingly the central interest.

There's a ton of things involved in this one, including all manner of speculation as to on-line streaming of live races (For a price, of course) and it's going to require some earnest studying on my part to even sound as though I know what I'm talking about. Right now, I am only sure of two things; that it is going to happen and that I don't like it. Somehow, somewhere along the line, SPEED got "off track" if you will, and instead of bringing us things we used to watch, such as the Legend Cars in the summer at Charlotte or the Sprints/Midgets from anywhere or the Monster Trucks, Mud Racers or Swamp Buggies, it offered more and more of the supposed "Reality" shows, which are about as far from reality as one could get.

Am I going to miss reruns of "Pinks" or "Pimp My Ride?" Not likely; but I will miss an occasional episode of RaceDay; I will miss seeing F1 races live, not rerun 7 hours after I found out who won. I will decidedly miss the Barrett-Jackson auctions. I've watched those for so many years now, I feel as though I'm part of the family. I cried when Mama Jackson passed away and her chair on the aisle was left empty, save for a single rose. R.I.P. Mama. I cried again on word that Carroll Shelby would never again be on stage to hype one of his own creations. R.I.P. Carroll. I still say a silent prayer for God to bless Ron Pratt each year at Scottsdale, as he makes donation after donation to various charities supported by Barrett-Jackson, one of which is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund, dear to my heart and the heart of my 12-year old Angel Baby, Isabelle.

All right then gentle readers, what I've given you is the menu for what will hopefully turn into a Tuesday article, written on Monday. Right now, because there is no race on Sunday, I am your waitress and I'm taking your orders. Which one... or two or three... of those subjects interests you most? There is certainly enough to choose from. This week just seemed to overflow with "stuff."

Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!

~PattyKay

Email:  nas3car@etcmail.com

Twitter: @MamaPKL

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