Drag Racers Owe Parks

Anyone who ran at a drag strip owed Wally Parks perhaps their life, as so many young lives were lost in street races.
We still see the mangled up wrecks from those who still race in the streets, killing themselves and other innocents.
In founding the NHRA, so many things evolved as a result.
Look how many legends and millionaires rose from drag racing. Not to forget the little guys like myself who had a blast with their Hornets or Olds 88s.
The NHRA boosted the economy of the towns where these strips were located, especially for the Nationals.
Last — but not least — as an 11-year-old running to the store to get my 1949 Hot Rod! How I wish I had them now.

Teammates In Name Only

John Clayton makes part of a good point, but not enough. There are no “teammates” in NASCAR: There are other employees of the same employer. You can't honestly name me two people on the same “team” who regularly work together. Working together — not “sharing information” — is what makes teams.
The other thing is that everybody refers to Cale, Bobby and Donny on TV, but that wasn't the really good one. The real one was Wide World of Sports at Phoenix when TV cameras caught Johhny Rutherford three different times trying to “visit” Gordon Johncock in his trailer (no motor homes back then). JR was extremely pissed, and Gordon more or less said “Let him come on over.” And I don't think they were planning on holding hands.
Maybe once and for all there needs to be a real fight to settle out all the whining, complaining and he-said-he-said we get forced to watch every week in the soap opera that has become NASCAR. And we all know that Joe Weatherly, Curtis Turner and all the real NASCAR greats would have just had it out, finished it and shook hands. Unless it was Wendell Scott, that is.

Clayton Got It Right

John Clayton’s recent Op/Ed about Busch-wackers is what many of us long-time NASCAR viewers have been feeling for a long time.  I have two possible solutions to rectify the issue:
1. Each regular Cup driver can race in only five Nationwide series events per year. 
Or, 2. NASCAR brings about 20 go-karts for the Cup drivers only. Let them race each other on a tiny track on the front straight so the fans can get a great view of their favorite driver. Let's call this new series NASKART.  

Suggestion For Series

I am writing a response to John Clayton’s article on Busch Wackers.  The following is my suggested solution:
Limit the number of Cup regulars that can race in any particular Nationwide Series race. Guarantee 35 starting positions to non-Cup regulars.  Let the Cup guys qualify for the eight remaining positions. If fewer than 35 non-Cup regulars show up to qualify than those positions can go to the Cup regulars. A Cup regular could be defined as anyone having qualified for 75 percent of the previous 36 Cup races.  This allows the A.J. Allmendingers of the world to race in the Nationwide Series until they get consistent in Cup.
My numbers are arbitrary, but the idea is to guarantee the vast majority of the positions to the non-Cup drivers and to open the door for the independent teams. Cup teams still can race their developmental drivers. I actually prefer to see the up-and-coming drivers performing in the minor leagues than to see the Cup regulars racing and winning.  Since NASCAR likes to compare itself to other major sports (The Chase), in no other sport that I can think of do the major leaguers play regularly in the minor leagues. The minor leagues are there to develop the players and in NASCAR’s case, teams. 

Way To Go, Hamilton

On the recent telecast of the Busch race in Memphis, Bobby Hamilton, Jr. blamed Kyle Krisiloff for wrecking him. Hamilton, Jr. then went further and offered his opinion that the only reason Krisiloff had a ride in a good car was because “his grandmother wrote a big check.”
I’m glad Hamilton had the boldness to expose the blatant nepotism that exists in NASCAR. Many drivers only get rides because they are the son or relative of a famous driver. I applaud Hamilton for pointing this out.
My only hope is that other people are inspired by the candor of Hamilton and begin to speak out on the many problems that plague NASCAR. I think Roger Penske should identify car owners he believes spend too much money. Darrell Waltrip should speak out against TV announcers who had dyed their hair an unnatural color and talk incessantly but say nothing. And if a driver has a wispy or ridiculous facial hair configuration, Kyle Busch would be the perfect guy to call him out.

Losing Las Vegas

I just returned form the USAC-CRA sprint and midget races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. What a poor presentation of the sport we all care so much about.
The track prep was poor to non-existent. By the end of midget qualifying, the surface was black rubber from top to bottom. The surface had deteriorated so badly that when the sprinters came out to qualify they were two seconds slower than the midgets.
By the time the sprint heat races started, the cars were smoking the right-rear tires so hard that they could barely get the 10 laps in before the tires blew apart. No track maintenance was done the entire night.
LVMS’s concession to push starts was to provide four LVMS wreckers to start the entire field of 26 starters. With one of the four stationed in the infield the remaining three took forever to get the starting field under way. Every red flag required starting all over again.
Despite all this, the drivers put on a great show. Cruz (Pedregon’s) Toyotas  were pretty impressive. (Jerry Coons, Jr.) did an incredible job to finish second in the semi with a Toyota that sounded like a John Deere.
Half the midgets in the A main blew the right-rear before the end of the 20-lap feature. The officials shortened the 30-lap sprint main to 20 since nobody could run 30 laps on that surface. More than half of the starters fell out with right-rear tire failures. With a yellow flag at each tire failure, the night went on forever. LVMS put on a fabulous fireworks display following the last race. Unfortunatley, by that time (12:15 a.m.) all the kids had fallen asleep, and everyone else had lost interest. LVMS disappointed and irritated a bunch of real race fans.

Disappointed At Irwindale

While we have been to fan-friendly California Speedway many times, we recently attended our first short-track event in a couple of years. We went to the Toyota Showdown at Irwindale Speedway, and we were very disappointed in the treatment we received.
Even though we were given two-day comp tickets by Toyota, is it too much to expect for the parking-lot attendant to say thank you when we paid her to park? She took our money but otherwise ignored us while talking to some of her friends in a car next to us, which she let park for free. Same thing happened at the turnstiles — the guy checking tickets acted like we didn’t exist while he talked on a cell phone. There was no sign of security anywhere at the track, but there was plenty of smoking in the “no-smoking” grandstand.
Attendance was low that night, but people still sat in the aisles, making it difficult to go down to the snack bar. We gave up trying to buy souvenirs (again, the cashier ignored us while talking on her cell phone) and decided instead of coming back to Irwindale, we would go to Ventura Raceway.
As soon as we arrived at Ventura there were employees at parking, turnstiles and souvenirs, etc., saying, “welcome, may I help you?”  “Thank you,”  any questions, etc. There was plenty of friendly security and even though it is a dirt track, the grandstand was cleaner than at Irwindale. Guess where I’m spending my racing money and time next year? Thank you to your columnist, Bryan Gapinski, for reminding everyone that, yes, Ventura is one impressive facility.