Daytona 500 is All Wet - so is NASCAR. F1 for Danica?
Every year it gets worse for me. Nascar racing, that is. I tuned in for a few laps of the 09 Daytona 500 and realized I couldn’t tell the difference between a Ford or a Chevy unless the camera panned the front logo of the car. Daytona is supposed to be the best race of all in NASCAR. I’m supposed to be thrilled at the sight of 45 cars trundling down a banked straightaway, banging into each other while the announcers scarily predict the “Big One” (crash) is imminent.
Great, a race where accidents are welcomed, where drivers hit each other from behind and it’s termed part of racing.
One of the biggest problems I had with this race is the time it was held. As if to please their west coast fans, the Daytona 500 began at 3:30pm EST. This means the last laps would be run at night. This also meant the race would be rained out due to bad weather that every forecaster predicted would come after sundown. Why not start the race at 1:30 EDT? California fans are used to watching live sports early. They understand they’re 3 hours behind the East Coast. Why don’t the Nascar poobahs?
So, instead of Nascar’s typical bunch up the field for a 10-lap shoot-out finale, fans got a rain-shortened event where the winner was nothing more than the driver in the lead with 25% of the race to go. What a nice reward for all those folks who spent their hard-earned money to come and get soaked in the rain.
How about everybody’s favorite Dale Earnhart Jr. missing his pit stop, then after his 1 lap penalty, smacking fellow drivers out of the way to get back to the lead lap? Yeah, that’s great racing….not.
How about those back-marker drivers who have no possibility of winning - or placing in the Top 10 - but qualify just to get a check to keep their under-funded teams alive. These guys are like extra barriers in a video game. Yeah, that makes sense….not.
How about Tony Stewart’s new team being lionized for such great results so early? Then you find out Smoke’s getting his engines from Rick Hedrick which means any marginal team would leap up in results with these powerplants. Yeah, real fair that one.
If anything, the Daytona 500 solidified my feelings that Nascar racing is a lousy product with non-aerodynamic race cars chugging around in one big conga line until the last 10 laps. Kinda feels like the NBA, where they could give each team 100 points and five minutes to finish the game.
What’s the solution? You got me. As long as there are fans willing to tolerate the monotony of Nascar racing, the series will survive, if not flourish. But it’ll have to do that without me watching another race again this year. I find it all so boring.
Bad racing is bad racing and Nascar’s decaled taxis deliver little excitement after watching them go round and round and round….forever.
DANICA to F1? Bernie Ecclestone eats chauvinist pie!
News this weekend mentions an American Formula One racing team is being organized with plans to compete beginning in the 2010 season. IRL racer (kinda) Danica Patrick was mentioned as a possible choice for team driver. You remember Danica? She’s the lady F1 Emperor for Life, Bernie Ecclestone suggested should stay in the kitchen.
Why any team would think Danica could be competitive in the world’s greatest racing theater is downright stupid. For one, Danica can’t win in the IRL, even though she has arguably the best equipment and crew in the series. For two, Formula 1 drivers are a preening, conceited bunch known for giving a hard time on and off the track to rookies. The idea of a woman driver to this chauvo group is grounds for running her off the road at every opportunity. For three, if a US team were to come back to Formula 1 with Danica, they’ll be laughed off the grid and accused of shameless publicity vs. serious intent. Not the sort of introduction that bodes well for the future of their team.
I welcome a US based Formula 1 team as it may bring the USGP back to the Indy 500 track. But please, make it a team intent on competing and making a mark for US technology and racing expertise. Not another venue for swimsuit photos.
IRL is falling and may not get up…
This year’s IRL season is poised to be the lousiest since Tony George crowned himself King of US Open Wheel racing in 1996. The gap between the Haves and Have Nots is greater than ever before with only a select handful of drivers/teams capable of affording the series and being competitive. Get ready for a season of 16 car grids, bankrupt teams, runaway victories and no national interest.
Great move going to a cable channel I can’t find on my tuner. Versus can promote IRL all they want, but if you can’t find the channel, what’s the use? Kinda like a tree falling over in the forest.
And how about Mr. Dance King, Helio Castroneves, the poster boy for IRL about to become the poster boy for the IRS? Nice try moving those winnings to an off-shore account, Helio. I’m so not convinced you had no knowledge of this. And if you didn’t know about this, where did you think your money really went?
Here’s all you need to know about the pending demise of IRL in two words…Milka Duno. She’s funded by well-known USA hater, Venezuelan President for Life Hugo Chavez, and his CitGo gasoline empire. Petro bucks talk and Tony George has welcomed Milka and her team back for another year of back-marking and driver endangerment as she’s proven to be totally non-competitive.
How about a PPV Texas Cage Match with Milka vs. Danica the night after the Indy 500? Now that would generate some badly needed cash for the IRL. I’ll take Danica in 3 rounds.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
You’ve oversimplified the tax evasion case against Helio Castroneves. He never claimed that he didn’t know his Penske Racing pay was going into off-shore accounts. That payment setup in itself is not illegal. In some cases these accounts are tax deferred, so the income does not need to be reported. (Here the devil is in the details, or more precisely many pages of tax code fine print.) Helio claims that he has relied on his attorney and other tax experts in setting up these accounts and in filing his taxes. The trial hinges on when he and the others knew the correct tax status of the money sent to the accounts. The prosectution claims this was a conspiracy. Helio and company claim they didn’t know the accounts weren’t set up correctly for the money to be tax deferred.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Tom, thanks for the comment. I’m aware of the possible scenario you’ve outlined and know that some people really don’t know where their money goes - with Bernie Madoff being the poster child of this cause. My post is more to the “perception” of Helio’s dilemma by casual racing fans and how this negatively impacts the IRL image. As I’m no legal or financial expert, my over-simplification was one of public opinion versus the detailed account you’ve provided. I personally hope you and Helio are right and he’ll be exonerated. But much of the public will only remember that he was charged.