I would offer my two cents against the JR bashers on here, but like Bill Elliott's dad once said about Ed Hinton and "writers" in general:
"You can't win an argument against someone who buys their ink in 10 gallon drums."
Lenny Kravitz is a GREAT choice in my opinion. He will do a great job!
I see my wrestling outlook is about to cross over to Nascar...
Cena 'nuff...
Call me biased...but I think they got a heck of a driver for that car. Wonder if this sponsorship might play out down the road when Chase is old enough to drive in the big three series. Remember that there was talk last year that Jeff Gordon was gonna get the Wal-Mart sponsorship; Chase is contracted with Hendrick, Jeff not too far from retirement...just a lot of things lining up.
Looks like David Ragan is headed for the 43. Wonder if this was more of a Pennzoil decision, or a Jack Roush decision to make sure Ragan didn't leave the Ford camp. At some point he is going to have some hard choices to make- he has Biffle, Edwards, Kenseth, Stenhouse, and Bayne in the same house and not nearly enough cars.
Looks like Harlow was on to something...
Sirius XM NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody has learned that in an effort to retain sponsor Best Buy, Richard Petty Motorsports has proposed replacing AJ Allmendinger as driver of the legendary #43 Ford with Busch. RPM struggled to re-sign Best Buy a year ago, negotiating until early January before inking a one-year contract. The electronics retailer served as major sponsor of the #43 team in 26 events this season.
Richard Petty Motorsports Chief Operating Officer Robbie Loomis confirmed today that discussions have been held regarding Busch, saying, "Best Buy has been a great partner for a long time, and AJ Allmendinger has done a fantastic job for us. He's coming off his best season yet, but I can tell you there is a lot of interest on our part in having Kurt Busch in the fold. It makes sense to have Kurt with our team, if we can make it work.
"Our main focus is to continue building on what we finished the season with last year," said Loomis. "But right now, I feel like I'm running down two different sets of train tracks. From a personal standpoint, nothing has excited me more than when I heard Kurt had become available. I'm excited about the opportunity to add a driver like Kurt Busch to Richard Petty Motorsports. I would mortgage my house to make Kurt a part of this team. We value what he has done on the race track. He has won a (Sprint Cup) championship and worked for a first-class operation like Penske Racing. Guys like that don't come along every day."
Allmendinger finished 15th in 2011 Sprint Cup Series championship points, with one Top-5 and 10 Top-10 finishes. His best finish was a fifth in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in late May. Busch won a pair of races this season at Infineon and Dover en route to 11th in points, tallying eight Top-5 and 16 Top-10 finishes.
Just going to preface here by saying that this is a "vent" of sorts...so be prepared.
In the last three weeks or so, this forum has been overwhelmingly dominated by Kurt Busch bashing. I was going to call it talk...or discussion. But I figure- why beat around the bush (no pun intended?) I have held off from voicing my opinion, but I feel like now is the proper time to speak my peace on it.
First of all, I grew up as a Richard Petty fan during the early 1980s. Being from Georgia, I couldn't help but change my allegiance as a 9 year old back in 1985 when Awesome Bill From Dawsonville obliterated the record books, and managed to win the hearts of scores and scores of fans. After giving Bill my complete and undying support for nearly 20 years, when he decided to cut back after 2003, I was forced to find a "new" driver to support. I picked Kurt Busch.
Why? I thought Kurt was a hard-nosed racer, didn't take crap from drivers like Jimmy Spencer (who I detest), and I always liked the #97 Sharpie Ford. And then Kurt went and did the wrong thing at Michigan with Spencer by deliberately cutting his tire down and suffered the consequences of his constant berating. Like him or not, I said at the time Kurt was in the wrong for carrying the war of words with him on for as long as he did. Then he eventually got mixed up with Kevin Harvick, another driver I dislike. He had his meltdown with Roush at the end of 2005, but I stood by him as a fan.
Then he got on the bad side of Tony Stewart, yet another driver I dislike. I feel like Tony cost Kurt the 2006 Daytona 500 by driving on the apron and causing them both to wipe out when Kurt had the fastest car that day. Later, Kurt went on to have his meltdown at Dover after a dustup with Stewart, and nearly killed one of Stewart's pit crew. Again- I stood by Kurt, because he was my guy.
After that, I felt like Kurt eventually turned a corner. His demeanor was a lot better, and he seemed to have calmed down. After seeing Jimmie Johnson take him out on several occasions over the last couple of years (the road courses immediately come to mind), I felt like Kurt gave Jimmie what he had coming with the nudge at Pocono this summer. But then Kurt cursed out Jamie Little, a person I have a LOT of respect for because I have had the pleasure of meeting her the last 3 years at Atlanta, and then his outburst at Dr. Jerry Punch was the final straw for me as a fan.
All of this being said...let me just say that I in no way condoning any of Kurt's actions. He is paying the price for a lot of indiscretions both this year, and in his past. But the board sentiment here has also been so negative in the last three weeks, it has gotten to the point that I have been visiting the site less and less, just because I don't want to read any more Kurt-based witch hunting. I also understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, I feel as though there are several people here that have taken personal shots towards the Busch family as a whole, not to mention Kurt. And while I am in no way defending Kurt, what a lot of people fail to mention is that he is in the midst of a divorce. I am almost willing to wager my two cents that has at least something to do with his outbursts. Shame on him. But I can only imagine how his personal life has affected his professional career. It is because of that that I choose NOT to judge him personally. And I also think it's unfair of people here to do it.
I have had the privilege of attending races at Atlanta from the garage and pit area the last three years. And I will say this much- Kurt Busch is NOT the most arrogant and rude person strolling that area of Hampton, Georgia on race weekend. It's Tony Stewart. Every driver I have seen down there has been cordial with the fans any time they are approached. That includes Kurt Busch. That includes Dale Earnhardt Jr., Juan Montoya, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, and Kurt's brother Kyle. That goes for every driver except one. And it's your current Sprint Cup Champion...who scoffs at all autograph requests, at all fan interaction on his way to somewhere. Even members of his race team thinks they can get away with the same smug attitude. During one rain delay this Labor Day at Atlanta, all of the pit areas had cleared out, and the crews were all on pit road. Me and my friend positioned ourselves at the pit wall to get a snapshot of some of the drivers huddled beside their cars...COMPLETELY out of the way of anyone working (the pitbox was EMPTY) when suddenly someone rudely yells at us that "we need to get out of their pit area...they're trying to run a race." We turn around to find the person speaking is wearing none other than an Office Depot team jacket. What's funny is we were in and out of many pit areas all day, making sure that we were nowhere near a crew member that might have a job to do...and NEVER had a crossed word said to either of us.
In closing- again...Kurt Busch has nobody to blame but himself. He has lost more out of this than any of us will ever know. But do people REALLY need to keep piling on after the fact, three weeks later? If James Finch or Front Row Motorsports or TRG want to hire him to drive their cars, they are well within their rights to do so. Does he deserve a ride? You might not think so. I might not. But to take personal shots about a driver and person that MANY of you have never met or know only what the press tells you about is pretty unfair if you ask me.
