I can’t help but wonder if having a car in “raceable condition” would have allowed Ms. Patrick to pull out a backup car if the primary was wrecked in the qualifier? Sprint and NASCAR would stop at nothing to get the number 10 car in that race.
Now, consider this. IF Dale, Jr. was not already qualified for the All Star Race, how would the fan vote have turned out? We will never know because Junior was already in, but, in my opinion, had he not be qualified, Danica would still have won the fan vote. I did not attempt to “vote” in that farce, but several friends who did told me that you could sit there for hours and just keep clicking a vote. If that is true, I am suspecting D.W. had finger cramps Saturday night and our dirty old man was down to a nub. Remember a recent national election where a certain county in a certain state had 980,000 registered voters and at the end of the day, ALL 980,000 had voted and, coincidentally, had all voted for the same guy. Are you buying that? If so, let’s talk about some items I have for sale, like a bridge in New York, a canyon called Grand, and an island in the Pacific. I need the money.
NASCAR is facing another problem, of its own making, which I’m sure hasn’t occurred to those super intelligent gurus running the show because there have been no rule changes yet as to determining the “Rookie of the Year”. Who is in the running? Ricky Stenhouse AND Danica Patrick. Who is performing better on the track? Stenhouse. Who is finishing higher? Stenhouse. Who is actually competitive in some of the events? Stenhouse. Who will win Rookie of the Year? Well, common sense would indicate Stenhouse. But, as Cody Dinsmore says, “common sense isn’t so common anymore”. If the current performance trend continues throughout the season, how is NASCAR going to manipulate the Rookie Award to Danica? As soon as the powers that be figure out what they are facing at season’s end, there will be a conference to determine how best to once more deceive the fans into believing what happened was somehow legit.
One final thought on what I perceive is being done to the sport by all the Danica influence. I read that she donated her Daytona 500 pole trophy to the NASCAR Hall of Fame which has prominently displayed it indicating the “huge achievement” of Danica capturing the pole for the race. I will always have my doubts that her qualifying was not manipulated by NASCAR as will a multitude of others, but the point is, totally overlooked is Shawna Robinson who qualified on the pole for a “Nationwide” (P.N. – Pre Nationwide) at Atlanta International Speedway many years ago and yet NASCAR overlooks her. Sure, it wasn’t the Daytona 500, but Shawna was competing in a man’s sport with NO advantage such as all those going the way of Danica. I must admit a certain partiality to Janet Guthrie as well. When Janet was racing, access to the drivers was easy and I had many an encounter and conversation with her. She was a serious racer and, in my opinion, a talented driver. It is my considered opinion that Danica easily figured out how to take advantage of the simpletons at NASCAR and she is making a career out of running at the back of the pack and getting all the publicity. Frankly, I was insulted by the television commentators and radio announcers who kept “anticipated the outcome of the fan vote”. Surely, all those folks can’t be that stupid. They sure do believe the fans are though. Danica has learned to play the game and is laughing all the way to the bank with all the money coming her way. Remember this: “you can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time”. Danica, and NASCAR, are fooling the fans over and over with this hype. In fairness to Danica, she can’t control what the NASCAR hype machine is doing, but now she is contributing to her own demise.
Now to the All Star Race. Although the camera shots concentrated on the section of the stands where most of those in attendance were gathered, it did not appear fans showed up as they have in previous years. Weather forecast could have been a factor, but it seems strange that this race would pack the stands to capacity (and I have been in attendance more than one) had thousands of seats available. The overhead shots indicated there were plenty, and I do mean plenty, of parking spaces outside the track which is far different than my last three visits there, the last being the 600 in 2011.
The qualifying race was, for the most part, a good one although not as competitive as I expected it would be. Please note that Stenhouse finished second to move on to the main event while Danica stated she felt “she needed to preserve her car to be in the event with the fan vote”. Still wonder if it was “rigged”?
I thought the four segments of twenty laps each showed some pretty good racing throughout the field. I still wonder, however, why the Gen-Six cars can’t seem to overcome the “clean air advantage” where the leading car can just pull away no matter who that happens to be. Just seems to me that happens but all in all the racing was still good.
Now, here we go again with what is going to appear as slamming NASCAR, but it is true. It was announced the format would be used by “average finish” in the four 20 lap segments to determine who would pit in what order before the final ten lap segment. Listening to the FOX guys trying to figure that our clearly indicated their mathematical abilities mirror my own, but at least I can figure an “average”. I learned that in grade school. The discussion was that Kyle Busch had the best, then it was Kurt Busch, then it was a tie between the two, as the discussion went on. The FOX bunch did concur that Jimmie Johnson, however, was way down the list and would face a huge disadvantage on that final stop. It appeared to me that Brett Bodine was driving around a few extra laps while NASCAR was trying to figure out their own self-inflicted mess before giving up and opening the pits. If you saw it, you saw Jimmie Johnson come in as the third place car where he was running at the end of the twenty laps and he got back on track first which sealed the deal for the 48 team. Danica can take satisfaction in that the boos were louder when Johnson won the race that when she won the “fan vote” if only by a little.
As we often say here, especially me, we are all entitled to our opinions. I do have issues with someone who labels me as a “hater” because I do not like that word and the connotation associated with it. However, if that is his opinion, he is entitled to it and at least now he knows my opinion of his comments. The surprising thing to me this week is reading comments on all the racing sites I frequent to keep up with the sport. For the first time in my recent memory, negative comments were almost equally divided between a strong dislike of Danica, strong disapproval of how Jimmie Johnson won the All Star Event, and total disgust with NASCAR’s entire week last week. I really didn’t see many positive comments at all.
Tomorrow, NASCAR will announce the five inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame for this class. I will admit I voted daily for my five selections and I hope all five of them make it. I do know, as do each of you, that no matter who goes in and who is left out, there will be much commentary as to NASCAR’s failure to include __________________________, you fill in the blank. I am sure I will be disappointed. I am really disappointed that NASCAR didn’t take the car by the steering wheel and induct the first class of at least the top 50 drivers they picked a few years ago. That would have taken care of a backlog that will never be overcome with this five a year induction. But, quoting the NASCAR blob, “it is what it is”. Quoting another blob, “that depends on what the definition of is is”. But then he was a dirty old man too.
If you’ve enjoyed your visit so far, we invite you to check out the Stock Car RacersReunion site by clicking here. By simply creating a log-in you will have access to over 100,000 vintage racing photos and thousands of articles, stories and conversations, some with legendary participants whose names you will recognize. As part of our racing family, you are free to enjoy the Chat Room and all Forums will be open for discussing your passion for racing with others of like mind. RacersReunion truly is where legends and fans unite.
