Story Lines:
1. Historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway
2. Tony Stewart unveils #14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevy
3. Goodyear tire wear
4. Rusty Wallace sounds off on the Penske/Newman divorce
5. Mc Murray possibly out of #26 Ford
6. Truex deal with DEI not a “done deal”
It is late July and the NASCAR boys roll into the “historic” Indianapolis Motor Speedway. These hallowed grounds are steeped with tradition of open wheeled racing from the past 100 years. But for the last 15 years the names like Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarret, Kevin Harvick, Richard Petty, and Jimmie Johnson are inter-mixed with A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Jr., Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, Billy Vukovich, Andy Granetelli, and Roger Penske!!
The Indy 500 winner drinks the “celebrated” bottle of iced cold milk, while the Brickyard 400 winner “kisses the yard of bricks”! That NASCAR tradition of kissing the bricks started in 1996 when Dale Jarret won his first Brickyard 400. After the race, his crew chief Todd Parrott, urged Dale to follow him. Todd Parrott did not reveal to Dale Jarrett what it is they were to do, just trust and follow him. With that, Todd Parrott assembled the entire team at the start/finish line and proceeded to kneel down and pay homage to this historic facility by kissing the yard of bricks!!! Thus, a NASCAR tradition was born!!!!
Tony Stewart unveils his new sponsor and car number for next season’s debut with Stewart-Haas Racing. Old Spice and Office Depot were displayed on his new Chevy. Stewart pays homage to his childhood hero and racing legend by putting #14 on the car. His hero is A.J. Foyt, Jr. and it apprears that he immulates A. J.’s personality, too!!!!!
The foremost story that unfolded today was the Goodyear tire wear. Because of the “diamond cutting” in the track surface, the tires would only last 10-16 laps before the tread was gone and the chords would show. NASCAR was forced to throw “competition yellows” about every 12-15 laps to preclude massive tire failures and the crumpling of sheet metal. So in reality today we saw 10 heat races of about 12-16 laps, not a 400 mile race!!
Now you ask, why did you put a picture of Tony Schumaker’s Top Fueler on this post??? Well with the way the race was run today, it appeared that I was at a NHRA event. I saw repetitive short blast of speed with long intervals of 55 mph pace laps!!
NASCAR and Goodyear need to do their homework so as not to revisit this subpar showing!! As Bill France, Jr. said many times,”it is about the show“. Well today this reporter gives the show a low mark!!! It was not a 400 mile race, rather it was 10 16 laps heat races staged on a 2 1/2 mile track.
Sorry to say, today’s race was very boring… Don’t know if it was all due to the tire situation or the fact that Little Kylie didn’t win !!!! I do like Jimmie a lot though, so that was okay, too… My man “Smoke” kinda let me down today, but things will be back to normal for him when he gets his own team next year… I sure hope next week’s race is a little more exciting than today ~~~ even my “DIE HARD, NASCAR FAN, BLOGGER, SHERIFF, POONJOBBIE ELEPHANT RIDER, STRAWBERRY PICKER, CARDIOLOGIST, PILOT, HUSBAND” didn’t seem to be his normal self today…..
Good luck to all next week… (I ask myself, SELF, do you really mean that ~~~ that you wish everyone GOOD LUCK next week and the answer is NO, but it sounded good)…..
Sorry to say, today’s race was very boring… Don’t know if it was all due to the tire situation or the fact that Little Kylie didn’t win !!!! I do like Jimmie a lot though, so that was okay, too… My man “Smoke” kinda let me down today, but things will be back to normal for him when he gets his own team next year… I sure hope next week’s race is a little more exciting than today ~~~ even my “DIE HARD, NASCAR FAN, BLOGGER, SHERIFF, POONJOBBIE ELEPHANT RIDER, STRAWBERRY PICKER, CARDIOLOGIST, PILOT, HUSBAND” didn’t seem to be his normal self today…..
Good luck to all next week… (I ask myself, SELF, do you really mean that ~~~ that you wish everyone GOOD LUCK next week and the answer is NO, but it sounded good)…..