Thanking My Lucky Stars

I was lying in bed in the guest room of my boss’s house last night staring at the ceiling as I tried to fall asleep, and I began to wonder, “How did I get here?”

Obviously, I know how I physically got in Mike Kerchner’s guest room; I’m dog sitting while he and his wife are in New York for the annual NASCAR Nextel Cup awards ceremony. But like so many times over the past 10 months, I found myself thinking back to what I was doing a year ago.

A year ago, I was no more than a young NASCAR fan working as a copy editor at a daily newspaper in south central Pennsylvania with aspirations of one day making it in the industry. I didn’t really know what “making it” really meant, but, if nothing else, I wanted to be able to say I gave it a shot.

Somehow, I used what page design skills I had garnered and some entries from a race-related blog to land a job here at National Speed Sport News. So, with a tightly packed U-Haul, I bid farewell to the life I’d known for 24 years and moved to Concord, N.C., to pursue the glamorous life of working in the racing industry.

Thinking back, I laugh at how green I was when I made the move. I would stare in awe every time I drove past Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Seeing Hendrick and Roush crew members at lunch was exciting. And don’t even get me started on the day I saw Casey Mears at Applebee’s.

There was also the time Mike and I went to the speedway for “Quesadillas with Kasey.” Somehow — surely by pure luck — we sat at the same table with Kahne and speedway president and general manager Humpy Wheeler. I thought my heart was going to stop when Kahne shook my hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Sheena.” Actually, I think Mike thought I was going to faint.

But it was a last-minute invitation to “Larry Mac’s All-Star Barbecue” that was nearly my undoing. As I stood on the patio of McReynold’s house surrounded by NASCAR personalities, industry insiders and Speed execs, I had to swallow a lump in my throat.  It was like an out-of-body experience — like a scene from “The Great Gatsby” — and I wasn’t quite sure that I belonged. What had I done to deserve to be at an invitation-only party at Larry McReynold’s house that was being broadcast live on Speed? I was, after all, only a NASCAR-loving fan who had somehow landed a job at the Bible of Motorsports. 

I’ve had similar experiences since then —walking through the garages at Darlington, watching qualifying on pit road at Lowe’s, interviewing Greg Anderson and Jason Line, meeting Donny Schatz — and each time I’ve stopped and asked myself, “How did I get here?”

After each experience, I shake my head, almost in disbelief of what had just happened. Even after nearly 10 months, I still feel like I’m just a NASCAR fan — though my tastes in motorsports have grown and changed exponentially — who somehow gets to experience so many things that so many will only dream of doing.

It’s been a heck of a year for me, and though some of the charm has warn off — I can’t see myself fainting the next time I see Kahne — I can’t wait to see how many moments next season will make me shake my head and wonder, “How did I get here?”

Off Season Time For Improvements

There are less than 90 days until the beginning of the next NASCAR season. For drivers, those 90 days of the “off season” will be filled with vacations, a little rest and relaxation and testing in preparation for the 2008 campaign. For those of us in the media, the next 80-some days will be spent wrapping up 2007 before preparing for next season.

Hopefully some of the media will take the opportunity to amply prepare for next season. The ESPN broadcast team, for one, could use some work. In the network’s return to NASCAR coverage, the comedy of errors by ESPN’s cast of characters has been well documented. Just on Saturday during the Busch Series season finale, Dr. Jerry Punch commented that Jason Leffler scored Toyota’s only victory this season. While it’s true Leffler scored the manufacturer’s first win at O’Reilly Raceway Park in July, David Reutimann notched another victory for Toyota in October at Memphis Motorsports Park.

What upset me about Punch’s error is that no one — not Rusty Wallace, not Andy Petree, not any of the ESPN technicians behind the scenes — corrected Punch. I’m certainly not suggesting that any broadcaster needs to be perfect; we all make mistakes. But ESPN, “the leader in sports,” has statisticians; there’s even an NHRA statistician who pops up from time to during the network’s broadcasts. So is there no one capable of keeping track of such data on the NASCAR side, someone who is able to slip corrections covertly to the broadcast crew when they make mistakes?

I fear for the unknowing and unsuspecting NASCAR fans who don’t know when broadcasters make mistakes, when they are being fed the wrong information, yet take it for gospel.

Hopefully this will serve as a warning to fans to think about what they’re hearing or reading from any media outlet. More importantly, I hope ESPN heeds these comments — and those by others in the industry — and improves upon its coverage of NASCAR’s two top series.

Bliss Takes Issue With Rowdy Busch

Kyle Busch started his weekend off right at Phoenix, taking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race Friday night. Busch passed Mike Bliss on a restart to take the lead and to score his second truck victory in three weeks.

But while Busch was in victory lane celebrating his win — his first of two on the weekend — Bliss was left wishing for a different result.

“I just wanted a chance to run into the 51 (Busch),” Bliss said after finishing third and leading the most laps. “Who would have booed you?”

Who would have booed? That’s a bold statement.

Bliss, 42, is the 2002 series champion and has 13 victories in 191 starts, the last of which came in 2006 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Meanwhile, Busch, 20 years Bliss’s junior, has never raced full time in the series, but has six victories in 35 starts.

When it comes to NASCAR’s other two series, Busch has stronger stats despite his youth and inexperience. In the Busch Series, Busch has 11 victories in 108 starts and finished second in the 2004 standings. Bliss has one victory — at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in October 2004 — in 107 starts. In Nextel Cup, Busch has three victories, 30 top fives and 51 top 10s in 113 starts and has been in title contention the last two years. Bliss has 81 Cup starts, zero victories, one top-five (a fourth at Richmond in 2004) and five top-10 finishes.

What is Bliss’s beef with “Rowdy” Busch? Did the two get together during the race, or does Busch’s much-publicized moments of immaturity rub Bliss the wrong way? Or is it simply a matter of Busch having more success at a younger age than Bliss will ever see in his career?

I’m sure some of the fans in the stands would have cheered had Busch spun out while leading Friday’s Casino Arizona 150, but fans have a tendency to cheer when anyone spins. My question is: Who would have cheered for Bliss? At 22, Busch has legions more fans than Bliss, especially in the West where the Las Vegas native cut his teeth.

Whatever the source of Bliss’s irritation, he should get used to Busch’s presence in NASCAR. At 42, it’s unlikely that the Hendricks, Gibbses and Roushes of NASCAR will come calling. Busch, in just the beginning of what will be a long, successful career, has already proven himself a winner with top-notch teams, and he’ll only continue to hone his skills as he matures.

Cheer, Cheer For The Pennsylvania Posse

“It sure is good to see home folk.”

That’s what Mammy said when she and Scarlet O’Hara ran into Frank Kennedy in Atlanta in Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With The Wind.”

I found myself saying the same thing as I walked around the pit area at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway prior to the World of Outlaws World Finals last weekend.

PENNSYLVANIA POSSE: Doug Esh (left), Fred Rahmer and Lance Dewease. (Julia Johnson Photo)

With what seemed to be every dirt-track racer in the world converging on Concord for the three-night affair, it seemed nearly half came from the Keystone State, or at least enough to compete in their own feature.
Passing through the pits, I saw the familiar cars of Donny Schatz, Joey Saldana, Steve Kinser and other World of Outlaws regulars. But here and there were the local guys from my home state: Lucas Wolfe, Doug Esh, Lance Dewease and Fred Rahmer, just to name a few.

I don’t know any of these drivers personally, and they don’t know me. But for a girl who left home nearly nine months ago to pursue her big dreams of somehow making it in NASCAR, knowing the Pennsylvania Posse was in town put an extra pep in my step and helped ease some of the homesickness.

When Esh and Rahmer took the C and B Mains Friday night, I felt like waving a Pennsylvania flag. These were “my people,” and they had come to Concord to prove themselves alongside the best in the business and in front of a national television audience on Speed.

And prove themselves they did. Out of the 26 sprint car drivers that started Friday’s A Main, seven hailed from Pennsylvania. On Saturday, seven Keystone State drivers made the 25-car feature. Tim Shaffer, a World of Outlaws Series regular from Aliquippa, was the highest finishing Pennsylvanian, posting a third-place finish Friday night. Rahmer of Salfordville and Wolfe of Mechanicsburg finished sixth and eighth on the first night of the World Finals. On Saturday, Dewease of Fayetteville was the highest finishing Pennsylvanian in 11th.

Now the World of Outlaws seasons are over, and the Pennsylvania Posse has returned home to the shadows of Williams Grove, Lincoln, Selinsgrove, Port Royal and Grandview. Though their stay here in Concord was brief, they gave an ole Pennsylvania girl something to cheer for.

No Keeping Forces Down

A little more than a month after his terrifying crash during the O’Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas, 14-time Funny Car champion John Force returned to the starting line.

But unlike his previous at-track appearances, this time the colorful, 58 year old guided a walker between lanes instead of steering a 2,400-pound Funny Car down the track. Though Force’s dominant presence was no doubt similar to other race weekends when the champ oversees the operation of his Funny Car teams, his walker, casts and weakened state were serious reminders of the top-end collision with Kenny Bernstein weeks ago, a crash that some suggested would end Force’s career.

The crash was the worst in Force’s 30 years behind a car. He suffered a compound fracture of the left ankle, tendon and ligament damage in his right knee and badly mangled fingers on his right hand and toes on his right foot. His left wrist was so badly dislocated that it required surgery, the insertion of pins and a cast.

HOT STREAK: Ashley Force fought the good fight for John Force Racing on Sunday and made it to the final round of Funny Car eliminations despite this fire in the second round. (AutoImagery.com Photo)

Force, though, has stayed true to his personality, returning to the track mere days after his release from Baylor University Medical Center. Originally, the drag racing icon said he would make his return at Richmond — a little less than two weeks after the Texas crash — but later admitted “that was mainly the drugs talking.”

Still, Force knows that he’ll get back behind a Funny Car, and that’s what is keeping him going.

“I know now that I’m not going to drive the rest of this year. It’s still hard, the physical therapy,” Force said, “but I have a goal, and that’s what gets me up and going every morning.”

Standing there on the line Sunday in Las Vegas, Force watched his four team cars competing in Funny Car eliminations. It was the first time since Eric Medlen’s death in March that the team fieled four cars. Title contender and son-in-law Robert Hight lost during the first round, as did 2008 rookie-to-be Mike Neff. Only Phil Burkhart, Jr., Force’s substitute in the Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang, and daughter Ashley advanced to the next round.

The younger Force made good on her family’s name, showing that she, too, has her father’s unwillingness to quit. Just as she defeated Del Worsham in the second round, her Funny Car caught fire. Ashley and her team rebounded, fixing the car to compete twice more, losing only to former John Force Racing driver Tony Pedregon in the final round of eliminations. Her preserverance allowed her to become the first woman to reach the final round in Funny Car competition.

On Tuesday, Force underwent another surgery, this time to insert a pin into his right foot to support a broken bone. Now fitted with a new boot cast on his right foot, Force will be confinded to a wheel chair instead of hobbling about with a walker.

But you can bet that Force will still be at this weekend’s season finale in Pomona. Hight says his presence in Las Vegas last weekend was a boost for everyone.

“Nobody loves drag racing more than John,” Hight said. “That’s all he talked about in the hospital was getting back out here.  He’s the leader of this team whether he’s in a wheelchair or in a race car.”

Just as the Force family and crew rebounded after Medlen’s death in March and again after Ashley’s firey, near head-on crash in Seattle in July, the group continues to appear strong and unwilling to throw in the towel when adversity comes their way. Though it seems unlikely that Hight will capture the Funny Car title for his father-in-law at this weekend, Sunday’s showing at Las Vegas proved that nothing can keep the Force camp down.