Critics, Find A Hobby

O.K. I get it. Some people don’t like anything about NASCAR the way it is today.
What I don’t get is why they keep watching races on TV, going to the race tracks, listening to races on the radio and complaining to NSSN.
I don’t like NFL football. I don’t watch games on TV. I don’t go to games. I don’t write to NFL News Weekly — or whatever.
Please use the ink and paper for anything more exciting or newsworthy. Even pictures of Tony Stewart would be better.

Name Game

Dear NASCAR, could you please change your name back to something other than Sprint Cup? People are confusing your WWF-style show with real racing, called sprint cars.

Losing A Friend

The sign in front of Wall Township Speedway reads “Closed for Good.” What a slap in the face of the race fans who love New Jersey stock-car racing. There is nothing “GOOD” happening here. The sights, sounds and smells of short-track racing are leaving Wall Township, N.J. The day has finally come. I am losing an old friend and NASCAR is losing a proving ground for future Sprint Cup drivers.
The last asphalt track will be plowed under by the almighty dollar or lack of it. I really wonder how a track, which existed for more than 50 years, can’t keep its doors open. What changed to put them in this state? Is it that more race fans are spending more of their racing dollars on the Sprint Cup series and not having a little money left to spend at the local track? Is it the amount of prize money needed to draw the drivers and the teams to the show?
Why isn’t there a trickle-down effect from the parent organization to the local track that races under the NASCAR banner? NASCAR was built by local tracks and they are the foundation, which supports the giant organization.
Where do all the fans and drivers get their first feel for racing? At their local short track. It gets into your blood and works its way deep inside of you. It’s like a drug that you crave more and more. I’ve been hooked for more than 40 years now, and I’ll be having withdrawal pains from this loss for a long time.

Rid Us Of Top-35 Rule

I’ve been a motorsports fan for 45 years and a NASCAR fan for the last 25, but my interest in NASCAR is waning with the various rule changes. I object to locking in the top 35 for the first five races of the year because the other teams are highly unlikely to make the top 35 in points after the first five races of the year.
As well, determining the starting lineup from last year’s final standings when qualifying is rained out is also unfair, especially when you’re at a place like Bristol where starting position is critical. I would only use this for the first race of the year, and use current points after Daytona.
Look at the stick and ball sports — no team is given any preference based on performance from the prior year, all teams start even.
We should go back to everyone qualifying for all races on qualifying time.

Thoughts On Indy’s Future

I enjoyed reading many thoughtful and insightful letters on the IRL-Champ Car reunification as well as some good editorials such as Dave Argabright’s.
Much of the response reflected the fact that Indy no longer has anything to do with American speedway racing, so who cares?
I agree, this “sea change” might not have happened were it not for the tragic loss of most of the USAC management in the 1978 plane crash. However, the dye must have already been cast with allowing illegal rear-engine Formula One cars and drivers to compete in 1961. By ‘64, it was a done deal. Reader Duane DuPuy puts the blame on our short-track cars for not going to rear engines for driver experience, but super modifieds ran them, even with four-wheel drive, but they were not practical.
Today’s front-engine supers are just as fast, but without a vulnerable and expensive trans axle.
If you want a solution, there is one and only one: Start over with long-track versions of short-track super modifieds, maybe with turbo iron-block four-cylinders. It’s Indy’s only real option, and even that is fading.

On Toyota And Sprint

My friends in racing — the ones fearing Toyota — should look at your scanner and cell phone and see where they came from. They sure as heck don’t come from Brooklet, Ga.
And your title sponsor of the Cup series has only dropped from $13.01 to $6.17 per share from Jan. 2-March 11, 2008, according to the March 12 business edition of the Kansas City Star. I don’t believe the stock holders who are hanging on are crazy about spending money on racing. And what you might fear is that a Mexican by the name of Carlos Slim Helu, a billionaire, might take the company over.
And how sad it is to see the Sprint/Nextel representative in the winner’s circle looking like an on-the-job training or Job Core representative. Winky Louise must be shaking her head.

Bring Back Michigan

Great news that the IndyCar Series is united.
A note to all the decision-makers: Do not leave Michigan Int’l Speedway off the schedule ever again. Having raced Indy cars there since 1968, it is the best facility ever.
No other track in the world comes close to it when it comes to the excitement it provides.

Facts On Marcum

It’s nice that you took the time to remember John Marcum, a fantastic pioneer in auto racing. Marcum was a truly gifted promoter, who I had the pleasure of knowing when I was young. You did, however, fail to get some of the facts straight.
Marcum and his traveling series were not rewarded with their own day during Speedweeks due to his loyalty to “Big Bill” France during the opening drivers’s boycott in 1969 at Talladega Superspeedway. Marcum was invited to Daytona years earlier for Speedweeks in 1964 by France due to their longstanding friendship.
The inaugural Daytona 250, which was won by Nelson Stacy, marked the first appearance of John’s series on a superspeedway.

Fine Wasn’t Fair

If NASCAR wants to view another reason for the exodus of fans, they don’t have far to look.
The so-called “level playing field” certainly leans in favor of certain teams. Take Robby Gordon — he arrives at inspection with the wrong bumper cover, which was supplied in error by Dodge. He never got on the track with the part in question. His crew chief’s fine? $150,000.
Carl Edwards’s crew chief has the lid to the dry sump tank come off, and his crew pulled the fenders out to facilitate the exit of air and aid downforce. Carl’s crew chief is only fined $100,000. Is the hypocrisy of NASCAR’s action lost in all of its techno-babble?

Too Much Complaining

Sometimes I wonder if NSSN is a racing paper or an anti-racing publication. My complaint is the complainers. A lot of what is written in Public Forum and NSSN’s own writers is complaining about everything and everyone.
I started racing 52 years ago, and I still drive, winning a vintage series championship this year with my V8-60 midget. In my early days of racing, the only press racing got was when someone got killed in a race.  Appreciate the racing we have today.
In response to your idiots who complain that stock cars are not stock cars anymore: How long would you be happy seeing four-cylinder, four-door, front-wheel-drive stock cars racing like we now buy to drive on the street? Get real.
About the CoT not looking like a real car: Have you ever looked at a dirt late-model stock car? Quit complaining. Let’s race.