July 10, 2007
Below the Yellow, and Under the Checkers
by Carol Einarsson
CHEERS to coming back to Daytona and Lake Lloyd. Anyone who thinks it would be a good idea to move the first race of the season at Daytona to be the last race of the season has clearly been drink-— er, rather... dropping a soda in his car and trying to pick it up while he drove erratically. The only way Daytona should be the end of the season is if it’s also the beginning and the middle as it is now.
JEERS to the new Suspended Crew Chief rule prohibiting punished crew chiefs from being anywhere near the track, including the stands, the parking lots, the surrounding hills,...etc. Can anyone say “Constitutional Rights”?
JEERS to the rain, but mostly to NASCAR. Sure, we’ve lined up by points for some time, now, but we haven’t always given up on qualifying so soon. NASCAR’s ridiculous rule sent not just Michael Waltrip home, but they sent the POLE SITTER home!! I didn’t think it could get this bad so soon after Bill, Jr. died.
CHEERS to all the fans standing around the Race Day stage booing the name change to Sprint Cup. I even heard people yelling “Winston Cup!” Wow. Those are my people! Not just because they aren’t fond of the new series name, but because they all seemed so averse to change.
CHEERS to Junior’s frightening helmet being an interesting contrast to his patriotic car.
CHEERS to Tony, Jr. outing NASCAR as the ones who told him he could be at the track. I wonder how that will go over.
CHEERS to the Pride of NASCAR and Kyle Petty interviewing The King.
CHEERS to “You snuck off to South Carolina and got married, what was that about?” And a hamburger wedding supper, too.
JEERS to picking your nose on TV, looking at the booger, and wiping it on your steering wheel! Eeeewwww!!!! After the spit in Victory Lane, and the Busch Booger Bomb, I’m sure those are two mighty proud parents.
CHEERS to God Bless Our Troops, God Bless America, and Gentleman Start Your Engines. I thought he was gonna pass out!
CHEERS to the majority of people that are watching the race on that small TV. The way Gordon described it, though, if that were accurate, big screen high-def viewers wouldn’t be seeing that stuff at the bottom that I’m looking at right now.
CHEERS to King Richard in the tribute car. Very cool, but I’m not sure anyone in the booth knew what was going on. I’m glad Kenny Wallace told us what was happening before we saw it.
JEERS to a wreck on lap four. Is there anyone spotting for Jeff Green?
JEERS to badness begetting badness. First Tony tagging his teammate in the turn, and then Junior and Stremme wrapped up in it, too. Looking at Denny’s car, I don’t think that’s the kind of kink that Kinkos likes to see. And until I saw Bobby’s wreck, I was about to feel sorry for no attention being paid to Stremme’s damage.
JEERS to Tony throwing his innocent teammate under the bus. I hope he has a meeting this week with JD over those comments. I’m telling you, dieting Tony is cranky.
JEERS to putting the commercials in a small box and then tricking us into watching them by having a whole parade of new and amusing ads!
JEERS to JPM putting Harvick in the wall. Oh, and then he pulls way left as if to try and trick the viewer’s eye that he was nowhere near the 29. Does anyone else have family pools placing bets on how many cars Montoya will wreck each week?
CHEERS to the Subway commercial that had me fooled. And Larry Mac with a stopwatch at the Subway stand. See? Now they have all these very cool commercials, but they’re squished into a small box. I think the best shot of the whole spot was the look Wally gave Larry Mac. Just a shake of the head in disgust.
JEERS to seeing a replay of Juan Pablo driving OVER Bobby! Kyle can kindly try to absolve him by saying that Bobby checked up, but of course he checked up. He SHOULD HAVE checked up. The question is, why didn’t Montoya? Does he know there’s a race going on beyond the nose of his own car?
CHEERS to Jamie being pushed to the front, ironically by the guy he passed out of bounds early in the race.
http://racejournalonline.com/index.cfm?Pagename=column&id=322