NASCAR Offseason Withdrawal Therapy Thread 2005

Various News Sites ^ | 11-21-05 | Me & Jack

[WestCoastGal]

Morning G, it suddenly got VERRRRY cold here this morning as well. No snow, but something's in the air. I haven't watched the weather report so I have no idea except I need to wear a coat today.

I guess the Race of Champions was on HDNet yesterday, but who get's that channel? I don't have time to look up how Flash did this morning, I have to run.

I am somewhat jealous of your snow, only for a few minutes though until I thought about having to shovel myself out!! LOL There were times in Wyoming we couldn't get out because a blizzard had shoved so much snow against the garage doors. We always needed to be prepared to spend a few days out there on our own.

Maybe the Christmas 400 could be with snowmobiles. :)

[tubebender]

It tells you how to make simple, delicious food that is good for you in a tailgate setting as opposed to traditional bratwursts and steaks and hamburgers.

Should I continue reading?

[Pete-R-Bilt]

SI: What did you serve at Dover?
Batali: At Dover we did sausage and peppers,

---

now thats a big change from the redneck menu.

thats why batali never wins Iron chef...

[WestCoastGal]

Bobby Flay is my favorite Iron guy. He does the greatest reductions, chutneys etc that enhance whatever food he's presenting. He made a heck of a prime rib today weighing in about 10 pounds. Yikes & Yum!

I've never really liked Mario's show even though I'm half Italian.

[WestCoastGal]

A little birdie whispered to me that ABC may have the deal for their portion of the 2006 TV broadcasts replacing NBC. [that's one year early] HOPING!!

[tubebender]

My wife and I were in a Kitchen Store today and I asked to see a Wusthof Chefs knife they had on display. She said they can't keep them in stock because of Rachael Ray's show. I bought the last one they had >:o)

[WestCoastGal]

Wow I never noticed the knife she uses. That reminds me, I need to look up a recipe for something she fixed the other day. I really like her $40 a day shows.

[WestCoastGal]

NASCAR, Hollywood stars and a party to remember in New York City
December 4, 2005

I just flew in from New York, and finally have a chance to share with you highlights from banquet week.


Drivers said crowds were much bigger everywhere they went. Tony Stewart seemed surprised to be recognized in Central Park, especially considering he was wearing a suit. "My parents wouldn't even recognize me in a suit," he said. I don't think he was kidding.

The whole parade Wednesday through Manhattan might have looked innocuous on The Today Show. But the drivers behaved about how you would expect them to. The cars ran for just a few seconds before the crowd urged drivers to rev it up, which of course they did ad nauseam, and the noise echoed off the skyscrapers. "We rattled the city," Jeremy Mayfield said. The route was only a mile or two, but the tires spun enough to cover 10 miles.
Ryan Newman became a running reference point after he turned a doughnut after overdoing a fishtail taking a corner. Instead of "one time, at band camp ..." this was "one time, at the corner of 42nd Street and Madison Avenue ..." It became such a memorable moment that Brian France mentioned it in his "State of the Sport" address and Newman highlighted it in his banquet speech. I heard rumblings that the New York City police were not thrilled with the drivers, which threw NASCAR into damage control mode. Someone needs to tell the NYPD the story about the frog giving the scorpion a ride across a river. If you put 10 racecar drivers in high-powered cars and say, "go slowly and don't screw around," you might get one or the other, but there's no way you'll get both.


The most intriguing event of the week was a party held at a beautiful-people club called the Marquee. I don't want to sound like I have hay falling out of my pockets, but my wife and I were excited to hobnob at a place cool enough to be featured in the New York Times and be visited by Paris Hilton, Leonardo DiCaprio and other huge NASCAR fans.
Most of the top 10 drivers made at least an appearance. Ten minutes before Jimmie Johnson arrived, VIP couches were cleared for him and his entourage, which included an unshaven Brian Vickers. Matt Kenseth sat on a couch, looking like he was having as much fun as you would expect a quiet man from Wisconsin to have at a New York City hot spot.

It was fun, I suppose, if you think standing shoulder-to-shoulder and hip-to-hip with 998 people you don't know is fun. It was fun in an "I write about NASCAR, what in the world am I doing here?" kind of way. A totally unverifiable statistic I heard is that the club was supposed to welcome 350 guests and by midnight 1,000 people crowded inside. Conversation was impossible. So we stayed for only a couple of hours. Strangely enough, when we got back to the hotel, we turned on ESPN Hollywood and saw a news brief about the party we had just left. The report said Will Ferrell and Luke Wilson would attend; we didn't see them there, neither did anybody else I asked. Then again, my parents could have been there and I would have missed them, it was so crowded.

The next day, the scuttlebutt was that we left too early, that the party turned, um, interesting as the adult beverages flowed. Comedian Chris Tucker and actor Bruce Willis showed up. One driver played bartender. I would share details with you, but you know the old saying: What happens at banquet week, stays at banquet week.


At the banquet, the security was unbelievably strict. I walked in to the Waldorf-Astoria coat checkroom behind Joe Gibbs, and security would not let him in without his pass. Joe Freaking Gibbs. Only the owner of the team being honored at the banquet, only one of the most revered men in two different sports and an icon in both the NFL and NASCAR. It was not until that moment that I abandoned plans to sneak my wife in. LINK

[WestCoastGal]

Idiot Alert!

Per Jayski regarding the Hall of Fame.... Kansas to get the NASCAR Hall of Fame? 610 Sports racing show Inside Motorsports in Kansas City Saturday, December 3rd at 12:30pm/cst was the first nationally to break the story that Kansas City, Kansas would reportedly get the NASCAR hall of fame. Hosts Mark Merrell and Ryck Sanders stated that a source had reportedly told them of a meeting in New York this week between NASCAR officials, International Speedway, and Speedway Motorsports Incorporated. Reportedly in that meeting, Brian France, relenting to pressure from SMI president Bruton Smith, reportedly told Smith that NASCAR would award the NASCAR Hall of Fame to Atlanta (an SMI owned track), but that the track would have to give up a race date, and that that race date (Nextel Cup) would go to Kansas Speedway (an ISC owned track) (creating two NEXTEL Cup races at Kansas). Smith at first reportedly agreed to the deal, but days latter reportedly re-approached NASCAR with the idea to take a NEXTEL CUP race date from the Texas Motor Speedway, and move it to Atlanta, leaving Texas Motorspeedway with one date, and Atlanta with the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and two NEXTEL Cup race dates, and Kansas Speedway with two NEXTEL Cup race dates. NASCAR officials, reportedly tired from Smith, pulled the deal, and reportedly will award Kansas Speedway with the NASCAR hall of fame, all according to an unnamed source. The story was related to race fans live on Inside Motorsports, a weekly comprehensive racing show hosted by Mark Merrell and Ryck Sanders Saturday, December 3rd at 12:30pm central. A subsequent story was posted on their web site, Insidemotorsports.com [didn't work when tried], and also presented on KCPT, TV-19, a PBS station in Kansas City during a pledge break by Merrell while co-hosting show featuring the 25th anniversary of Motorweek latter that same day. The show aired live in Kansas City at 2:30pm/cst. The story is unconfirmed by NASCAR and ISC officials as of today's date.(Mark Merrell/Inside Motorsports/The Race Report/610 Sports KCSP)(12-5-2005)

[WestCoastGal]

TMS alert/Ping

[WestCoastGal]

Putting the HOF in Kansas City has to be the kick in the shins to all the drivers, teams and owners who began in Nascar and to the fans in the southeast who made it what it is today. But, considering the mess brainless has made up to now, I'm not surprised.

[flutters]

Indy drivers aid military with crash research
December 05, 2005 6:47 AM

DAYTON, Ohio
Researchers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton have been analyzing data from some unusual test pilots: drivers at the Indianapolis 500.

To communicate with their pit crews, the Indy drivers use earpieces that also contain tiny devices that detect and quantify the forces that pummel drivers during crashes.

Air Force scientists have been collecting that information to develop safer helmets, harnesses and ejection seats for military pilots.

Racing officials and military researchers have been amazed at how drivers can endure intense gravitational forces without always suffering serious head injuries.

The Wright-Patterson team is trying to help develop an ejection seat and harness for a new all-purpose fighter jet.

http://wsyx6.com/newsroom/oh/news8.shtml

[WestCoastGal]

Very interesting thanks for posting that flutters.

[WestCoastGal]

The envelope please ...
My '05 award winners, from top race to breakout star
Posted: Friday December 2, 2005 11:42AM; Updated: Friday December 2, 2005 1:36PM


As the 2005 NASCAR season fades in the rearview mirror, here are my end of the year awards:

Best Driver
Tony Stewart. This is a no-brainer. By finishing in the top 10 in 19 of the last 22 races, Stewart had perhaps the most consistent final five months of a season in the sport's history. The most deserving driver won't always win the title under the Chase for the Championship format, but Stewart did.

Best Race
The Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. For future reference, when Tony Stewart is being hailed in 2050 as the greatest NASCAR driver of the early 21st century, look back to this late-summer race as the moment when Stewart ascended into the strata of megastardom.

Best Interview (Owner)
Rick Hendrick. In the fall I hung out with Hendrick for a morning to discuss all that he had lost in the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash that had occurred about a year earlier. I'll never forget the way in which Hendrick conducted himself on that day; he was thoughtful, deep, surprisingly candid and, most of all, plain nice. That's the thing about Hendrick: he's probably the kindest man in motorsports.

Best Interview (Driver)
Dale Earnhardt Jr. His first year on the Cup circuit -- 2000 -- happened to be mine as well. I did a year-long diary with him back then, and he was always as funny and honest as anyone in NASCAR. When I chatted with Junior late this season in Phoenix, the boy was on a roll again, telling insightful stories about why Stewart was one of his best friends in racing. It's become obvious to me over the past five years that there is much more to Dale Jr. than just his last name, which is why he has sustaining star power.

Breakout Driver
Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards (tie). Biffle emerged from relative obscurity to win a series-high six races this season, while Edwards, in his first full year on the Cup circuit, was a serious title contender all the way to the final lap at Homestead. These two Roush drivers should be in the Chase again next year and will give Roush an excellent shot at winning his third championship in four years. LINK

[SouthTexas]

Ain't that about par for the course. Glad I went to the almost "one and only" November race in Texas. Already have tickets for the April race, so they better not start jacking with that one too.

There seems to be a bit too much of a conflict of interests in Nascar owning and operating tracks. I know Smith may not be the easiest to get along with, but Kansas City is an absurd location for the Hall of Fame.

[WestCoastGal]

I saw third hand this evening that Na$car is denying this. [I haven't had time to check Jayski] Only time will tell.

We may get snow aka ice tonight.

[tubebender]

I was in Dallas Fort Worth in the late 80's and they had a ice storm. I was lucky to get out of there without frost bite.

Another time I flew out of D-F/W a few days before the plane crashed because of wind shear.

[alancarp]

Does Bifflage get the tie-breaker in that Breakout Driver category? Just curious.

[alancarp]

Idiot Alert, Part II

NASCAR upset with no-shows by some stars
Associated Press, posted on ESPN.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- NASCAR officials are "extremely disappointed" in Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and other drivers who failed to attend the season-ending awards ceremonies.

"It was very disappointing to NASCAR and the entire industry that drivers did not show up for various awards," spokesman Jim Hunter said Tuesday. "It shows a lack of respect for the history and tradition of the sport."

NASCAR president Mike Helton plans to speak with the drivers who failed to attend last week's ceremonies in New York, Hunter said. The sanctioning body also is considering ways to ensure future attendance.

NASCAR has held its season-ending ceremonies in New York the past 25 years, handing out numerous awards during a weeklong celebration capped by a black-tie banquet in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria.

Gordon, who finished 11th in the standings, skipped the banquet because he was in Paris preparing to compete in the Race of Champions all-star event. Actor Will Ferrell, pretending to be Gordon, accepted the $1,075,386 payout -- which included a $250,000 bonus for finishing 11th -- on Gordon's behalf.

Gordon's absence was glaring because under NASCAR's new points system the 11th-place driver is awarded a spot at the banquet as a reward for being the highest finishing driver outside of the Chase for the championship.

Earnhardt, selected as NASCAR's most popular driver for the third straight season, didn't travel to New York to pick up his award. Also absent were Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne, who earned a combined $175,000 in secondary awards.

"The banquet is not just for the championship and the top 10 drivers," Hunter said. "It's for everyone that put NASCAR on the map, for all contingency awards and for all the sponsors who support this sport.

"Dale Earnhardt went to New York every year whether he won the championship or not. It meant a lot to him to represent the sport and we expect that from all our competitors."

It's not clear what NASCAR can do to force drivers to attend the ceremonies. Among the things being considered is revoking the contingency awards that Kahne and Sadler received and giving the money to the runner-ups.

My commentary: Let's see, you have a sport in which money drives (no pun intended) EVERY decision made -- including the tracks to use, the cities, the networks, the sponsors, etc. You pay millions to the winners for their well-deserved slice of the pie.

You have a 10 month season - longest in any sport. 2-3rds of the way through that season, you tell 35+ drivers that they cannot compete for the championship, but they need to show up for the races anyway. Then once that is all done, you tell the same 30-35 drivers that they have to show up - gratis - to a banquet that honors others and pays them millions while you postpone some of the rare full honest-to-goodness vacation time that you have.

Sorry, NASCAR, but the message you've delivered from day one in the "modern era" is that it's all about money -- the way to encourage these guys to willingly and happily show up for a fete in NYCity (why there, of all places??) is to pay them, NOT to penalize them.

If I were running the show, I'd have a Saturday shootout for the championship (though probably not at Homestead) and then do the awards dinner immediately on Sunday night. Give every driver a $1,000 for every start during the year as a bonus for attending - and my thanks for their sticking around. And I'd ditch the penguin suits. That ain't NASCAR. It's a beer league, not champagne -- that's for spraying around victory lane. It would become a celebrity roast targeting NASCAR and the league champs. Good ol' boys having a real good time.

Who needs to hire a comedian for laughs at something like that?

[WestCoastGal]

It's gonna get really ugly tomorrow according to the news.

I used to fly for business from LAX to Tampa with a stop in Dallas, that was about the closest I ever got to the city. There were a few times I had to change planes, so I got real familiar with that airport. And in the winter it could get nasty. I remember that crash.