Even though he drives the Baja 1000 I wonder if he has the sort of concentration required for 500 miles of tight traffic. He's also a 'loose ' driver, and the line between in and out of control in Sprint Cup is very thin.
That was a good reminder of the changes going on. I forgot about Childress' Grandson. Seems like his rise has energized Richard. Should be fun to watch it unfold.
Good points. RCR was in a funk from probably '96 to '99. Dale didn't win much, and the cars were definitely not competitive. They seem to have pulled out of it in 2000, and 2001 was going to be a very promising year. I recall Childress saying that he very nearly closed up shop after Earnhardt's death. And who could blame him? I'm pretty sure he had enough money to live an extremely comfortable retirement, and I think the spark was gone for a few years after that tragedy. Many teams seem to suffer that ebb and flow, with the exception of Hendrick. Even with the loos of all those key people in the plane crash, they still stayed competitive. That is truly remarkable. I was at Childress' shop/museum in late October, and they have a state of the art facility. It looks like he is committed to going forward, and he has two grandson's who have skills (one was the truck champ, and the other was the ARCA champ this year). I'm guessing that is his reason for keeping things going and remaining competitive. His, like Earnhardt's, is a real rags to riches story, and he is one of the few remaining links to the "old NASCAR" tradition. He gets a lot of respect from me. PS - plus he manhandled Kyle Busch, so that put him off the chart on my respect-o-meter.
Didn't know that Stewart was running last years Hendrick chassis...that's a little embarrassing. :eek1 I had forgotten about Richard getting Kyle in a headlock. Maybe they should fire Burton and hire Kurt. I mean Burton did lose a shoving match with Jeff Gordon.
Exactly, now the tough part is deciding to develop the new chassis or go back with the proven winner. The "old" Hendrick chassis is a six time champion.
Childress had the dirtiest(and another who tries real hard)driver ever,the man who wrecked more cars than anyone and he gos after Busch.What a douche-bag!
This Kurt Busch thing is baloney if it was based on the Doctor Jerry Punch interview. Here it is on U tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsaBQq5D4Zg KB clearly didn't want to talk to Punch at that moment. If Penske had somebody there with any balls, nothing would have happened. Jerry Punch, like all those tabloid paparazzi, doesn't care what Busch wants. He only cares what he and his producer wants. This from a guy who has been trackside for 25 years... After this so-called 'tirade', we have all the media columnists piling on in outrage over KB's rejection of the their man. I think it's laughable... Look at it and decide for yourself. I think guys like Punch are creeps (lots of them in baseball too). Plus, if that is an anger management tirade, I've heard a lot worse in the 12 years I carted my kids to youth hockey matches all over New England. Heck, you should go see a Saturday night modified race in California! :eek1 Just preposterous in my mind. It's nothing more than the reporter darlings being pushed aside. One of them made that video and put it on U-tube for effect. It's all contrived. They want to end his career if they can. Those people are garbage. They serve no good purpose at all. Of coures they are part of the show... If I had a team or was a driver on a team, I would have a personal media handler to run interference with those creeps. He'd grant or decline the interviews and stand right next to the driver during. When things went sideways, his job is to simply take the driver into the hauler and leave the creeps standing. That would make for better TV yet, except they wouldn't publish it... NASCAR could learn a few things from DORNA. MotoGP riders are protected from the garbage out there like Jerry Punch, Michael Vega and the like. In any event, teams have to run at the front to keep sponsors. Tony Stewart (and many others) demonstrated that winning is more important than talking to Jerry Punch. Kurt Busch will get a good ride and win more races. There are lots of needy teams and a driver that can win won't go hungry.
All good points Pantah. There was talk a few years ago of keeping the reporters away from the drivers for a cooling off period after incidents and race finishes. I kind of like Jerry, so that smarts, but he was pushing it as most of them do. Then they are all aghast when they get exactly what they were hoping for. It is a lot hooeeey. Get your delay and beeper button out if you are going to be in their face.
Punch has been there for a long time. He was pretty good in the early days too. But you can see from the video that he is consulting his producer as the interview failed. KB made his point that he didn't want to talk. Nobody left. They simply pressed him until they had something to make a story. Foul play in my mind. Punch knew it and proceeded anyway. Contrived in my mind. Seriously, you can't turn the sport over to the media with all-access. They'll kill it off for a bump for chrissakes. Every major league sport controls media access to players. It's a battle, but they get it done except the folks on International Speedway, Daytona FL! There is a reason the major sports control their media and we have seen it first hand. NASCAR needs to step up. If not them, than thier teams need to control it. We fans are not stupid. We know when a player is cursing pissed for whatever reason in any sport!
So you vote with the sports media against the sportsmen actually doing the deed? Shame on you. There is not one sports writer who has ever won anything for us fans. Sportsmen ply their athletic trade against whatever odds. They do it for themselves and maybe a little adulation from those of us who love the sport. When they become winners, I think they owe the media zero. In fact, once they reach the top, the media is only downside. Screw those people. And Pennzoil can take a hike too. I use Golden Spectro.
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Thanks RedRocket, that was awesome!! Sounds like me on some bitchin twisty road trying to get around a Prius holding up the entire world.
There would be races in the south like the old days, that is what it would be like. Oh yeah, and a whole lot less expensive to compete in.
I guess I was trying to say that they're all partners. TV, sponsors and NASCAR share the product. Obviously, without the first two the series would be a lot smaller and many fewer people would follow it. All obvious stuff, I realize. As you were.
Interesting stats from the 2011 season. Four times the leader at the end of regulation didn't win due to the green/white/checker format...Earnhardt just rolled over. Joe Gibbs Racing blew up 6 engines during points races, changed 8 engines putting them at the back of the field...fired everybody in the engine shop and closed it up. Childress/Earnhardt engines blew up 7 times. http://www.nascar.com/news/111210/by-the-numbers-year-in-cup/index.html
Is there still a Yates car in the field? I was a big fan of the #28 and 88 cars and all the drivers that drove them. Allison and Irvan my favs. How about Morgan McLure? does he still field a car? Thanks
