- Admin
- #1
I was watching Speed Center and saw where Kyle Petty was bent out of shape about the talk of Kyle Busch was closing in on 100 wins. KP seems upset that someone may come close to The King's record of 200 wins. KP insists that only Cup wins should count. I disagree.
To win 100 races is a major accomplishment. KB is running in three different types of vehicles, sometimes on consecutive days and usually against the same drivers ... 100 wins is 100 wins. Against the same drivers, all driving legal equipment, they all should count as 100 NASCAR wins. I personally don't wish to see KB win another race, however he is a great driver and I would hate to see his accomplishments shortchanged.
— John Edwards
North Carolina
I'm with you. As easy as Busch makes the truck races look — and let's be honest, he often looks like the dad who doesn't ever let his four-year-old win at anything out there — I'd still venture that, top to bottom, the level of competition in truck races now is better than the level of competition in Petty's day. Now, before you start your angry comments, read what I said: top-to-bottom. Sure, Pearson and Yarborough were as good as anyone ever, but Petty did a lot of racing against guys with names like Skeeter. Not a whole lot of guys in NASCAR's top series are splitting their time between the track and working at a garage store these days.
I will say that Kyle needs to win multiple championships to get taken seriously as an all-time driver. Racking up, oh, 120 truck wins is nice and all, but it does carry that whiff of beating up on lesser competition.
Next up: yep, it's time to talk Kentucky.
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I don't want to enrage the masses, but I have been to 3 different tracks with infamous traffic nightmares: Sonoma, Fontana, and (sold-out) Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A lot of fans were wrong in the belief that they would get to [Kentucky] in a just a few hours. Glad to see that there are posts from alot of fans who already know that arriving ridiculously early for parking and walking is a part of it. I have several examples of my race travels, but I want to offer this one: I already knew LVMS was sold out. Drive the rental to a track that is far out in the desert with essentially one way in and one way out? NO. I sucked it up and paid $50 for a shuttle bus that went completely around the track the other way. It was air conditioned and with a bathroom. Worth every penny.
—RJ Johnson
Yeah, I've made the mistake of leaving too late for races, and I have no one to blame but myself. Still, this was a debacle — perhaps not the apocalypse that some in the media made it out to be, but ugly nonetheless. And this will hopefully spur NASCAR to step up its oversight of the off-track operations. NASCAR is an experience, not just an event, and it reflects badly on the sport if you've got greedy hotel owners, incompetent traffic-management plans and squabbling local politicians screwing up that experience.
Still, an air-conditioned bathroom at a NASCAR race? That's worth triple what you paid for it, easy.
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Here is a little research about this "offer" that SMI made for those 20k people that didn't get into the race. Miles and travel time from the Kentucky track:
New Hampshire (July 17, Sept. 25)......900 miles...16 hours 41 minutes
Bristol (Aug. 27) 296 miles...5 hours 29 minutes
Atlanta (Sept. 4) 446 miles....7 hours 27 minutes
Charlotte (Oct. 15) 465 miles...7 hours 56 minutes
Texas (Nov. 6) 894 miles....14 hours 26 minutes.
Wow! What a fabulous deal for those guys! (sarcasm) Not only are they out all those travel/hotel cost for the Kentucky race, they get to pay them all again if they want to for tracks that are farther away! Sign me up!
—Chris in Crestview
Which is a good point, but where's the break point in this? Should people start sending in gas and hotel receipts? You've got to draw the line somewhere. I do think that tickets to the Kentucky race in 2012 is a good, if dangerous offer. (No, really! We'll be better next year! Just in case, though, could you plan to leave for the race in January...?)
Here's the thing, and if you know someone at the Kentucky Speedway, pass this on to 'em: twist this to your advantage. NASCAR has a number of track promotion teams, led by Texas's Eddie Gossage and including Michigan, Atlanta and Martinsville, who know an opportunity when they see it. Turn this into a positive: make up a commemorative t-shirt that says, "I went to the inaugural Kentucky Sprint race and all I got was this stinkin' t-shirt! REALLY!" Create a "no-start, no-park" club and have "reunions" every year from here on out. Yeah, it was an embarrassment, but once the track has done all it reasonably can to address its fans' needs, it's time to move on and have fun.
Hey, speaking of start-and-park ...
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I know what the "start & park" cars ARE, and I think I understand why they do it (lack of sponsorship). My question is, if they can't afford to run a race, even just more than a few laps, why do they even bother to come to the track and start? They'll never get a sponsor unless they prove they're worth it.
—Jim Atteberry
It's not quite that simple; most do have sponsors, even if they tend to be of the "you have to call an 800 number to order our product" variety. They can run a whole season based on just the winnings from finishing in the bottom five, which can be substantial, and with any luck, they might just vulture a good finish in a road course race or avoid a Talladega Big One and finish in the top 20.
It's not an ideal situation, but it's the rules as they now stand, and fans who love the idea of scrappy underdogs and one-man shows ought to at least appreciate what start-and-parks are doing.
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I watched the Kentucky Race last Saturday night and fell asleep. While FOX's coverage has too much hot air; last night's coverage didn't have enough. I woke up a couple time to a camera shot outside a driver's front window and no talking. BO-ring. ESPN (?) talked about how they had 40 extra mics throughout the track, which was great, but did they use them? Let's not even get into the amount of commercials I had to fast-forward through. I did like Larry Mac's insight onto the hand signals Brad Keselowski had to use since he was having communication issues. On another positive note, I did enjoy hearing the chatter between driver, crew chief and spotter, but it would have been helpful to know who was talking to whom. Your thoughts on the ESPN coverage?
—Red_23
I thought ESPN did a hell of a job covering the ACC women's softball quarterfinals, or whatever the hell they had on while TNT was covering the race. But hey, at least you found the race, even if you couldn't remember the channel.
I've said this before, but I'm not nearly the critic of TV presentation that some are. Don't get me wrong, the commercials are excruciating; I took last race off and watched as a fan, which is a fascinating and maddening experience. (A commercial with ten laps left? GREAT IDEA!) Generally I'm too busy trying to come up with one-liners and listening to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s radio to worry about the broadcast presentation, but I can understand that commercials are infuriating. I like the TNT folks, but I think they took a big step back this year by overloading on the commercials ... or at least giving the appearance of doing so, which is just as bad.
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I'm not sure who the announcer was [Saturday night] but he said the race was the biggest crowd ever gathered for an event in the history of Kentucky.* He was wrong.* Anyone who's heard about Hillbilly Days in Pikeville Kentucky knows that is the biggest event.* Back in the day it would draw crowds pushing over 250,000.* I think one year we may have made it to 300,000.* Just a little useless knowledge for ya.
—Wes R
A quarter of a million people come to something called "Hillbilly Days"? Let's take a look at what goes on at said Hillbilly Days, shall we?
Wow. That's, like, 150-proof redneckery. You people in Kentucky are weird.
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Busbee, do you think Logano needs to worry? While he is having the "junior jitters", Ol' Sliced Bread hasn't gone all that stale. While he started out rocky this year, he's been building momentum, confidence, and some might say respect (via the Robby Gordon spin cycle at Sonoma). He isn't the show-stopping winner Kyle Busch was at age 20-21, but Logano definitely has potential. He just needs time. What's up?
—Luke
Laramie, WY
Logano still has upside, but I'm not quite as convinced that he'll be a legend as I was previously. I see him topping out at the Greg Biffle level: capable of winning a race or two each year and making the Chase most years, but never really one of the superstars. Which is still a really good place to be, and reason enough for Gibbs to hang onto him.
Next, today in spam.
Hello am Lionel.
I am actually interested in Marbles for my newly established building Company. please i will like to hear a Fast reply from you if you have it in stock. Also let me know if you do accept Credit Card as form of payment.
Regards
Lionel.
Marbles? Why, of course we do! We're From The Marbles! You don't get more marbly than us! We'll even throw in a few commenters who'll deliver them to you personally. They'll tell you about how horrible someone named "Junior" is, but don't pay them any mind. We take credit cards, but we prefer straight cash, homey.
With sponsors leaving NASCAR, I thought it was appropriate to show how influential sponsors are to children.* I was driving through my neighborhood when my 5-year-old nephew shouted out "Jeff Gordon!" I was a little confused, and I said where?* He was pointing to a house that was adding an addition that had the Dupont Tyvek wrap on it.* I was amazed as he only watches races every once in awhile and has a very short attention span.* He's also very aware that M&M's and Kyle Busch go together.* I'm waiting for him to find Tornadoes at the grocery store because Ryan Newman is his favorite driver.
—Nathan Sulmar
Arnold, MO
Aw, that's a sweet story. I would've been a lot more concerned had he shouted out "Jeremy Mayfield!" because, well, you never know. Could've been the real guy, walking down the street.
Do you find NASCAR seeping into your day-to-day life? Like, I killed time at the grocery store last week counting the number of NASCAR-branded products. (Many still advertising the 2011 Daytona 500; my grocery store is about six months out of date, apparently.) And I was golfing with my brothers last weekend, and actually felt a twinge of disappointment when I got the No. 31 golf cart. (Aw, man, Burton? He's terrible this year!) My brothers got the #20, which at least gave me a fighting chance. FYI: course marshals are no more in love with 2x2-style racing than you are.
And on that note, we're out. Thanks to all our writers this week. You want in? Fire up the computer and hit us with whatever's on your mind, NASCAR-wise, at [email protected], find us on Facebook right here, or hit us up on Twitter at @jaybusbee. Make sure to tell us where you're from. We'll make you famous!