Kasey Kahne Is The Star Of this Tale

 What a day for sports! For the joy that Memorial Day Sunday brings to a Sports Fan, it takes away on Monday. We were treated to two of the best races I've seen lately(I missed the Monaco GP), a Golf Championship from Colonial, NBA 
Western Conference Championship game one, and a dandy Sunday Night Baseball match-up. I don't know about you, but my remote control was busy until almost midnight.

Image Courtesy Yahoo Images

Both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca Cola 600 were very good races. The Indy cars have went through a Chassis Change that produced a record 34 lead changes among ten different leaders. The change produced one of the best Memorial Day races I've seen in a while. After an early pit road incident, race winner Dario Franchetti drove to the front and withstood a last lap move by Takuma Sato to take the Checkered Flag, putting his name on the Borg Warner Trophy for a third time. Team Target's owner Chip Ganassi would not fare as well at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

If you read my blog from yesterday, I had told you  that the driver who could keep up with the track changes the best would drive to Victory Lane. I also told you to watch out for Kasey Kahne and the Farmers Insurance #5 Chevrolet. Kasey and Crew Chief Kenny Francis knew early in the evening that they had a Rocket Ship, and all they would need to do is make minor adjustments, stay close to the leaders, and the track would eventually come to them.

And come to them it did.  With 40 laps remaining, Kasey Kahne took his Hendricks Motorsports Chevrolet to the front, and took a lead that he would not relinquish until the checkered flag flew.

If you were watching the broadcast as I was, when they showed pictures from the cockpit, you could see Kasey looked to be on a Sunday afternoon drive in the park instead of leading a pack of cars around Charlotte Motor Speedway at 185  Miles Per Hour. His car was hooked up and on a rail.

Kasey Kahne's victory Sunday Night was the 13th of his career and the 1st while working for his new boss Rick Hendrick, who now has win 201 in the bag. After a shaky start to the 2012 season and some bad luck, Kahne has posted seven top ten finishes in as many races and pulled into 15th place in the standings, 123 points behind leader Greg Biffle. He now has that all important win under his belt to at least contend for a Wild Card berth in the chase.

I look for Kasey Kahne and the #5 car to have another win or two before seasons end. Kasey has always had a ton of talent, and now he is in equipment that he can contend for a Sprint Cup Title with. With former Hendricks Champion Jeff Gordon having a bad year, I'm sure the rest of the garage area didn't want to have to deal with another Super Star from that stable. But here it is, another legitimate annual contender.

The #5 Hendricks car has not seen a Cup Championship since Terry Labonte hoisted the trophy at Atlanta Motor Speedway at the end of the 1996 season.

Follow Me On Twitter @Spin_47

Charlotte: A Tale Of Two Tracks

In tonight's Coca Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the drivers who are more able to keep up with the changes the track will go through in the transition from evening to night time, will stand the best chances of driving to Victory Lane. To win Nascar's longest race of the season, one will have to pay as much attention to the track conditions as his or her rear view mirror.

With the record heat and humidity in the Concord, North Carolina area this year, the task will be even more demanding. As the Green Flag drops around 5:30 PM, the track will start out very loose, and begin a gradual tightening as the race proceeds into the evening. When the sun finally sets and they are under the lights, the track will tighten up considerably.

Image Courtesy Yahoo Images

The drivers will have to continually monitor the handling of their race cars, and report these changes to crew chiefs, who will have to modify the chassis set ups  and tire pressures to keep their drivers competitive on the track. Drivers who are late in recognizing handling problems can get behind early, and put their team in a hole they can't get out of.

The History 300 that ran on Saturday did not provide much feedback to Rookies, as it finished before sundown. The All Star race last Saturday started and finished under the lights, thus not revealing secrets to what the transition will be like tonight. The onus will be entirely on the driver/crew chief team, and their ability to adapt.

The Coca Cola 600 started out in 1960, and for the first 24 years was known as the World 600. It was designed to be a 600 mile event to compete on Memorial Day with the Indianapolis 500. The auto manufacturers jumped on board to show the world how their cars could hold up on a race of this length.

Lights were installed in 1992 and the track owners, wanting to capture the magic of  The Winston, and responding to fans who were tired of the heat, moved the race to a Night event. They tinkered with the start times, and settled on 5:30 to apease Fox Television's request to be finished in time for their 10PM news broadcast.

Once the start time was set, the folks at Indianapolis agreed to start the Indy 500 at 11 AM so that drivers competing in both races would have time to make the commute back to Charlotte in time for the Green Flag. This hasn't been necessary for the past few years, so the Indy 500 has moved back to a noon start.

Jimmie Johnson and the Lowes Chevrolet team is one of the best in the business at making adjustments on the track. Jimmie has a firm grasp on his car's performance and, Chad Knaus seems to always know what he needs to do, to keep his driver happy. I don't look for anything different tonight. With the #48 Team hitting on all eight right now, and with Victories at Darlington and last weeks All Star race, I think they are the team to beat.

Look for challenges from his Hendrick Motorsports teammates however. Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon are always a threat at Charlotte. This of course, is barring more Bad Luck for the #24 team. Dale Earnhardt Jr. tends to have trouble with fast changing track conditions, and I don't look for him in Victory Lane tonight. In 13 starts in the Coke 600, his average finish is 19.5, and his highest finish being a 4th place finish. He finished 3rd in a fall race, but has never won a full length race here.

Danica Patrick finished 13th in the History 300 on Saturday afternoon. With the top four positions going to Cup drivers, I view it as almost a 9th place finish. She rolls off in the 40th position tonight, and I don't look for much out of her. Hopefully she will get what she need the most, laps in her Go Daddy Chevrolet on a difficult track, and not get wrecked out early.

Enjoy the race, and be sure to remember the Heroes who died so you could enjoy this Great Holiday and Great Race!

Follow Me On Twitter @Spin_47

So You Think You Want To Be A Race Fan

You're not sure how it happened, but after catching a race at a Sports Bar or your local Watering Hole, you have decided this sport interests you, and you want to become a fan. You're into Football, maybe the NBA, and you follow the Braves once in a while, and now you want to follow Nascar, but you're not sure how to become a real Fan.

Now the first thing that you will probably find out, is there are no home teams. If you went to college at the University Of Florida, chances are you are a Gator Fan, if you live in Dallas, you have to follow the Rangers or Cowboys. The thing with Nascar is, the races are like PGA Events, and race in a different area every weekend.

Image Courtesy Yahoo Images

So the first order of business when you decide you want to become a fan is, you have to have a driver to cheer for. You have be an Earnhardt Fan, a Jimmie Johnson Fan, or some people focus on a race teams and the drivers within that team. Once you have selected your driver, you are going to need a Tee Shirt with that driver and his number emblazoned on the front and back.

I want to caution you at this time! Make sure you spend some time deciding on who your driver will be. Nascar Fans won't put up with a lot of Bandwagon Jumping, plus if you change drivers for some reason, now you are going to have to buy new gear. This mistake can be costly with the price of memorabilia these days. The only way out from this commitment is when your driver retires or moves on to the Truck Series. If your driver moves to another team during silly season, you will need new stuff.

Your driver is now your driver. This means if he DNF's, misses the chase, or hits the wall, he or she is your driver. When you are totaly vested, you will have a Ball Cap, Die Cast of his car and probably an autographed poster. I sure hope I haven't scared you off by now, because we need you.

Just like Stick And Ball Sports, your driver comes with a team. Although he is the face of that team, he has role players who you need to know. As a new fan, you should know at a minimum, your drivers team owner, and crew chief, his sponsors will be all over your new Tee Shirt, making it easier for you to remember. As you become more familiar, you will get to know his tire carrier, jack man and spotter. You will have to do some digging for these names, as they can change without notification.

Now that you have your driver and his team set, you need to learn a whole new jargon. You need to become familiar with terms like Restrictor Plates, bump drafting, loose off, tight on and double file restarts. You can become familiar with this stuff by watching the broadcasts. Larry Mac and Jeff Hammond are always taking you to the cut-away car to show you all aspects while using and/or explaining this new jargon. Be sure to tune in to the Speed Channel where they will be discussing in detail, every aspect of what you are watching.

Last but not least, you need to know who your driver's arch enemies are. This is helpful in keeping up with the drama that usually surrounds this sport, and more importantly, who you need to boo during races. Don't worry, you and your buddies can have different drivers and still remain friends, even if your drivers are arch enemies. Nascar fans are the greatest fans in the world. They will share their beer and barbecue with you even if you like JJ and they are Dale Jr. fans.

Oh! One last fact. If you attend a race at your local speedway, your seat is only to be used during caution laps. Standing is required during all races. If this is a problem for you, you will spend your time at the track looking at a picture of  someone else's favorite drive plastered all over the back of their Tee Shirt.

I have been a Race Fan since 1955, and have enjoyed every minute of it. The rules for being a fan have changed since then, but the object of the game has never changed. I hope you have as much fun being a fan as I have. So come out join the few and the proud. Become a Nascar Fan today.

 Follow Me On Twitter @Spin_47

The Fan Vote Was Right On

What ended Saturday Night at Charlotte Motor Speedway with Jimmie Johnson doing a semi victory lap with Car Owner Rick Hendrick standing and waving to a crowd of well wishers, started with something that made me proud to be a Nascar fan.

Don't get me wrong, I know that if Dale Earnhardt Jr. had not driven his way into the All Star Race by finishing second in the Sprint Showdown earlier in the evening, he would have been voted in by the fans, and I probably wouldn't be writing this particular blog today. But by him racing in, the vote fell to one of my all time favorite drivers, Bobby Labonte.

Image Courtesy Yahoo Images

Most of the newer fans see him today, driving the JTG #47 Toyota, which is a small one car team owned by Tad Geschickter, and don't know how he dominated the Cup series for almost a decade in the Joe Gibbs Interstate Pontiac currently driven by Kyle Busch. The 48 year old driver from Corpus Christi, Texas has 21 Sprint Cup wins and has started on the pole 27 times in a career that has seen 665 races. He has 115 top 5's and 201 top 10's and a remarkably low 95 DNF's.

Bobby won a Cup title in 2000, finishing 265 points ahead of second place Dale Earnhardt. In 1996 Bobby won the season ending Napa 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway from the pole and, celebrated in victory lane with brother Terry who son the Winston Cup Championship. The Labonte brothers are the only brothers in Nascar history to have both won a championship.

During his decade of prominence, Bobby Labonte owned the Atlanta Motor Speedway. He had 6 wins in 37 starts on this track, three more than any other other track on the circuit. He had 12 top 5's here and 13 top 10's.

For reasons I'm not sure of, at the end of the 2005 season, Bobby asked to be let out of his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing and promptly signed on to drive the famed #43 at Richard Petty Motorsports. His attempt to restore dignity to the struggling race team ended in 2008 with some decent starts, but a lot of hard luck finishes.

Bobby, was in my opinion,  the masters of fast track racing. This was evident at places like Atlanta, Michigan, Pocono, Daytona and Talladega. He never got a victory at Daytona, but finished 2nd. in 2000 to Dale Earnhardt in his only 500 win. Bobby struggled in short track racing, with only one win coming at Martinsville in 2002. I think had he mastered the short tracks, he would have won a few more Cup titles.

Bobby Labonte is, and has always been a consumate champion in this sport and continues to be one of my favorite Drivers on the circuit today. Thanks again Nascar fans for voting him into Saturday Nights All Star Race, where he finished 19th. in most likely his last appearance in this event.

 Follow Me On Twitter @Spin_47

Sponsor Don't Care If We See Good Racing

If you have been following my blogs, you know by now that I am an older race fan who is somewhat opinionated about the product we see on the race track, in particular, the lack of good racing in the Sprint Cup Series. I continue to beleive the blame for the sports decline in fan interest, is perched  on the shoulders of the sponsors, with some blame burdened by Nascar.

An article in this month's edition of ESPN The Magazine(The Money Edition) caught my attention. In response to the question that "Dale Jr. and Danica Patrick haven't won a major race in four years", Go Daddy founder and Executive Chairman, Bob Parsons, Danica's sponsor since 2006, was quoted as saying, "Of course I want to win races, but we're winning either way". The 37 minutes and 26 seconds of exposure Patrick got at the Daytona 500 in February would have cost $11.8 Million Dollars. Since Go Daddy signed Danica Patrick, they have had an increase of market share from 25% to 54%.

This kind of relationship doesn't sound to me like something that will produce good racing. When the people who pony up the dollars to sponsor a car don't care if they win, as long as their logo is going around the track, and being televised, can't be good for fans. With that type of an attitude, they get more TV time if their car wrecks, especially late in a race when everyone is watching.

The portion of blame I put on Nascar, has mainly to do with the rules package. The car owners are put in a position that require them to deal with these types of sponsors in order to remain competitive on a week to week basis. The small race teams who don't have big dollar sponsors on their hoods struggle with even small rules changes. Let's not forget that when Nascar mandates a change to improve   fan interest, these teams have to comply without having that money tree in the back yard to harvest.

An article by  USA Today from July of 2010, points out that attendance and the quality of racing has been a problem for some time. After the success Nascar enjoyed up until the start of the new millenia , has been in a downward spiral since 2003. With almost 4.5 million fans attending races in 2003, that number dropped over a million fans by 2010 to just over 3.5 million.

One factor stated by Fox Sports chairman David Hill, was that young males (age 18-34 Yrs. Old) were leaving the sport, where declines in that  ratings were in the neighborhood of 29%. The economy didn't start a real decline until after 2007, so it probably isn't the total reason for decline. This particular demographic is telling me that they are leaving because the excitement is gone and the playoff system changes so often that it's tough to keep up with how one needs to compete in order to make the playoffs.

As a side bar to this article, Humpy Wheeler was interviewed and indicated that multiple sponsor packages on top cars was making it difficult for a fan to find his favorite driver as races begin, sometime not being sure of  where his car is on the track until late in races. He's in favor of each car following a year long paint scheme, with sponsor graphics being added to this fixed theme. He is concerned that fans are losing interest because they can't find their drivers.

I feel like the boom Nascar experienced in the late 1990's was a fad. It became cool to be a Nascar Fan. Like all fads, this one too is losing interest. The wanna be motor-heads have went back to baseball, hockey and which ever sport the were big on, and decided racing really wasn't their thing. Nascar didn't help in the effort to keep them here.

The big reason we watch football, is the "on the field action". If it weren't exciting, we wouldn't watch football. The NFL, has to change the rules occasionally to help with asset management and the safety of the players, but they haven't hurt the action so much as to make it un-watchable. Maybe what we race fans need is for the sport to hit bottom and purge it of the sponsors who don't care if their drivers win or not, because they don't care. Then we can get back to the business of sponsors who DO CARE.

 Articles Referenced were from ESPN The Magazine and USA Today's website.

Follow Me on Twitter @Spin_47

You Can't Have It Both Ways

When I was running Dirt Tracks in the Late 60's, there would always be some extra curricular activity at the pay window. Sometimes it was prudent to take a tire iron along when going to get your lap money, based on what happened during action on the track. Somebody is always ticked-off about something that happened on the track. This is what stock car racing has been since it's beginning.

The local promoters for the Bojangle's 500 Saturday night, used the after race altercation between Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick in last years race, to sell tickets for the event. I read one report where that scene was depicted on billboards throughout the area to get fans to the track for round two.

ESPN and Fox Sports has used the comical video from the incident last year as hype to promo both, the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races, using anything to intice fans to tune in for both nights action. A little drama goes a long way in encouraging viewers to watch the broadcasts.

This brings me to the point. A big deal has now been made out of the incident on Pit Road between pit crews for Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman. This has to be fodder for next weeks All Star Race in Charlotte. After all, this isn't a points race, so everyone needs to be watching their rear view mirror for someone with a grudge to settle. This makes good stories, and gets everyone to tune in Saturday night to see what is going to happen next.

Evidently Kurt Busch, angry about the late race incident that took him out of contention for a good finish, which by the way he wasn't upset at Newman, burned out of his pit narrowly missing Newman pit crew members. This angered Newman crew to the point of wanting a pound of flesh after the race. There was some shoving and jawing, and a Nascar official was pushed, or slipped , leaving Nascar and Robin Pemberton  to get involved after it was over.

When these high dollar sponsors we currently have in the Sprint Cup series threw in with the Rough and Rowdy Nascar crowd, didn't they understand what they were getting into, or wasn't it explained to them? Didn't they see the first prime time Daytona 500 ever televised in 1979, when Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison decided to settle on-track problems after the checkered flag? They must have left before all the action was over, and didn't watch the fight in turn three after the race. To date, that is still the most memorable part of the race. Most people don't remember that Richard Petty ended a 45 race win-less streak and hoisted the trophy.

This attitude puts Nascar in the precarious position of having to police the situation and hand out fines or suspensions for activity that is just part of the sport. The fans and media eat this activity up. Racing is not a gentlemans sport. If that's what they want, they need to invest their advertising dollars in Golf, and leave racing to the spark plug and shocks advertisers, that understand what it's about.

I don't think Big Bill France Sr. would have allowed these types of sponsors to push him into modifying his sport so much, that it has become almost unwatchable from a fans point of view. I lay the blame for the state of Nascar squarely at Mike Helton's feet where it belongs. I think Big Bill would have understood that you can't have it both ways.