Forum Activity for @andy-denardi

Where's NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees David Pearson and Cale Yarborough?

Current NASCAR

I understand where Cale is coming from. He has multiple championships but didn't get paid much for many years. NASCAR has no pension plan or medical care. On the other hand, Peyton Manning is paid millions a year by his team and advertisers. Yet he still requires more than a quarter million dollars for a two hour appearance. That was 2007, I'm sure it's more now.

I think that Cale should make some exceptions, and the Hall of Fame is one, but that makes it difficult to enforce an appearance policy. NASCAR has always had the attitude that drivers were just independent contractors that could be easily replaced, and fought hard against unions. It's not surprising that some continue to be resentful even if they do recognize that they owe all of their fame to the sport.

In general, I think a lot of people have an inflated opinion of how valuable an hour of their time is. It's certainly true of politicians and lawyers.

Legendtorial for January 28th.

Administrative

A moderate amount of bragging is certainly allowed and it motivates others to greater things. You aren't the first or most prolific poster to account their contacts and adventures. I'm happy for you and happy that the sport is getting this kind of publicity.Moderation and truthfulness are the keywords for touting one's successes in life. Some have taken it to extremes and have suffered a job providing color on Fox's NASCAR broadcast team.If it were me, I would have done a cut and paste from Word into this site's text box. I don't know how that would have altered the formatting, but I make it a practice to never open documents online because of potential malware and viruses.

HIDE YOUR HORSES WHEN YOU GET READY TO GO RACING

Current NASCAR

Nearly every sanctioning body runs six or four cylinders. They need to get on the ball instead of waiting thirty years like they did with fuel injection. A smaller engine would eliminate the need for restrictor plates and provide manufacturers with data that they can use on street cars.Indycar already has a longevity requirement for their engines. It appears to be a good idea but the implementation hasn't been completely ironed out. NASCAR should wait another year or two to see how the program should be done. I'm open to anything that would increase the potential for mechanical attrition during a race. Today's stock cars are too reliable and the sport suffers because of it.

January 27th racing history

Stock Car Racing History

That's quite a typo in the second paragraph of 1969 Plymouth article. Mario Andretti apparently took over the Rossi shop down in Spartanburg. I wasn't aware that Richard waited until 1968 to switch to Plymouth either.

No two Frances are the same

General

Jim France's newly acquired TUDOR Sports cars ran their The Daytona 24 Hour this weekend and was a good race if you're into that kind of thing. I am.

The reason I bring it up is because of a longstanding NASCAR rule that the fan always knows who the winner is when they leave the racetrack. On the last lap there was a tight race in GTD, one of the four classes that run this race. A Ferrari was in the lead with an Audi close behind. Going into a left hand turn, The Audi made a last ditch effort and tried to pass on the right. This is the same as trying to make a pass on the outside coming out of turn 2 on any oval. The Audi managed to get about half a car length ahead, but he was on the Ferrari's line and was run off into the grass.

The Ferrari won the race but NASCAR immediately called a time penalty for unnecessary contact. In my view and that of the TV commentators, it was a bad call. The Ferrari had the racing line, and even though the Audi got an advantage, he was not pushed off. There was no contact (although the rules states that they don't actually have to touch).

The win was given to the Audi and they got their victory lane interview. However two hours later, NASCAR reversed their call and gave the win to the Ferrari. As I said earlier, I think this was the right outcome.Had this been Brian's outfit (or even Bill's), they would have stuck to their guns on who had won the race and fined the Ferrari. I understand the intent of the Grand National rule, but I think that rules are meant to be broken. In the typical stock car situation, if a car is found to be illegal in post-inspection, he should be penalized and the second place finisher should get the win.Longtime crew chief Gary Nelson manages the Daytona Prototype team that took the overall win by 1.5 seconds.

updated by @andy-denardi: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

That Didn't Last Long

Current NASCAR

Nobody knew back then how serious the process would be. Jeremy was the first high profile casualty. He certainly would have lost out on any rides with a major team and may have spiraled into the same hole anyway. He had already been let go from Penske, Evernham and Bill Davis and was forced to start his own team. But the redemption of Kurt Busch makes me think that he could have made it back up if he drove some good races.

I'm still not positive that he was guilty of the original charges. NASCAR's testing was a little flaky back then. But his actions in the years afterward gave me a pretty good indication that his integrity left something to be desired. It seems like a lot of folks just plain didn't like him and maybe they had good reason.

That Didn't Last Long

Current NASCAR

Yeah but he has that probation hanging over his head. One wrong move and they'll suspend him for another week. A couple more suspensions and they might take away his infield parking pass. I don't remember the specifics but I seem to recall that Kurt Busch got a 3 month suspension when he cussed out Jerry Punch. It lasted from November to January.

"Silver Spoons" is More Than a Television Sit-com From Days of Yore.

Current NASCAR

I think some of the "silver spoon" comments are residual hatred of Dale. But most of it is a preparatory reaction against what many fans see as a media blitz over the Dillon boys. For a long time, there was an abundance of press for Junior and he didn't live up to expectations. Then there was Danica, and she didn't live up to expectations.Racing is hard, and I don't fault someone who doesn't rack up multiple championships. But fans are tired of being sold the sizzle instead of the steak. It's less a protest about the Dillon kids as it is about the way stories are manufactured ahead of time and the script doesn't change when race turns out to go differently. Childress is just the scapegoat and he's been around long enough that people can add additional baggage one way or the other.Many people in racing have silver spoons these days. It's extremely expensive and NASCAR has made it difficult for an independent to build a car in his backyard and race it. If a driver doesn't have money, he's got to have latched onto a big sponsor. There are dozens of talented drivers who have to sit out the big series because they don't have a personality that attracts sponsors and looks good in the media.Paul Menard drives for Childress because he has a silver spoon. Chase Elliott has a silver spoon. Travis Pastrana had a silver spoon. Although it was much smaller then, Richard Petty had a silver spoon. NASCAR has a long history of nepotism. To put it plainly, if you have family in the sport, there's a better chance you'll make it than some off-roader from California.

Racing History Minute - 1981 Winston Western 500 (311.78 miles)

Stock Car Racing History

Look at all that open land. Beats me why they thought that a shopping mall had to go right there. I hate it when people move in next to a race track and then campaign to get rid of it because it's too loud.

Kinda Sounds like a Australian Pursuit race to me--what you think?

Current NASCAR

This seems like a concession to track owners (which includes the France family). They probably figure that more people will come out if there are a couple of cars on the track at the same time instead of one at a time. Qualifying is boring, especially if you only have 44 carts contending. I'm in favor of the change.

The other consideration is that there will be more wrecks with fast and slow cars on the track at the same time. I don't care about wrecks but since there is so little mechanical failure in today's races, this might shake up the field when Jimmy Johnson's car doesn't run well because it wasn't completely fixed. Something needs to be done to make it harder for a dominant car to complete 500 laps.

I don't know how they ever talked Speed into carrying it live, nothing made me madder than when they would break away from live LeMans 24Hour coverage to show two hours of trucks doing qualifying.