10.16.2005

Let's talk NASCAR

I'm a big racing fan... I've never made mention of it on here, but figured a few stories are worth mentioning.

First, anybody watch the race tonight? I sat through the end of USC and Notre Dame trying to figure out how to play 15 minutes of football in a shade under 45 or so. Made me wish NBC had one of its 'Heidi' moments. Thankfully they held up the start of the race in order to get the game in and not let us watching miss any action. I joked that by the time the game had ended, they'd have had 12 laps and 2 cautions! I'd never seen so many blown tires ever at that track. So, Jimmie Johnson won the race. Hope it fails inspection, because there is no way he could've not blown the tire he was rubbing, as hard as he was rubbing it. Internal suspension switch, perhaps?

As I've told people, Chip Ganassi is an evil, evil person. He should go back to IRL where he belongs. He's now saying the main hold-up for him letting Jamie McMurray go to Roush is that he has no driver to replace him. Um... he has one he's firing because he's "too old" they ("they" being the marketing gurus at Coors) say, but he has a driver ready to go! I'm sure Havoline wouldn't mind letting Sterling Marlin race a car sponsored by them. But I'd bet they'd go with McMurray over to the 6, or 97, whenever he goes.

So, as I said I was wishing NBC had a 'Heidi' moment. My other thought was, "Either drop Notre Dame football to let the more popular sport be aired properly, or drop NASCAR." Came across a report that NBC is, in fact, dropping NASCAR. Wouldn't that leave them with no major sports whatsoever? (I do not count the Olympics in that equation, since that's a once-every-two-years thing.) No, wait, they signed on for some NFL action, didn't they? Actually I prefer NBC coverage of NASCAR over Fox, since they're more concerned with developing storylines that almost resemble the WWF*! NBC has a more professional approach IMO.

But, the Chase did tighten up after this night... hopefully it gets so tight that come Homestead, the top 10 will be seperated by roughly 50 points. That would be drama and a network executive's dream come true... imagine Game 7 (or, the Super Bowl) and having two teams, only one of which would go home champions. Multiply that by 5 then a few million!

*By the way, I know its now WWE, but I'm old-school through and through! Although to be honest, old-school in that case would be WWWF.

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