I haven’t blogged a whole lot about NASCAR this year, been pretty busy with various projects we have had going on with Pleth but I wanted to be sure and get my two cents worth posted on here before the last race at Homestead.
Mark Martin and the Daytona 500
Probably the biggest disappointment for me came when Mark Martin lost the Daytona 500 by only inches to Kevin Harvick. I just knew that Mark had this one in the bag. While it was great to see Mark doing so well in a very competitive field of drivers it would have done me a lot of good to see him win the race because he is my favorite driver, not to mention a favorite client, be sure to visit his websites: markmartinmerchandise.com, markmartinfordmercury.com, markmartinchevy.com, and markmartinmuseum.com that we have developed and are hosting for him. I am looking forward to seeing Mark next year running a ride from DEI…
Robbie Gordon’s Canada Race
Now, onto other things, another disappointment for me came when Robbie Gordon got totally screwed out of the Canadian Road Race this year, NASCAR did him wrong, plainly put. I’m not a huge Robby Gordon fan, but I do like to watch him race and admit that he’s one of hte best road race ringers out there, i know that a lot of folks dislike Robby.
Montoya and Harvick
Another disappointment for me was seeing Juan Pablo and Kevin Harvick’s incident at Sonoma. I posted my opinion to RacingONE’s blog right after the incident and almost incited a riot. My comment was this:
“one of them was scared, and the other one was glad…”
I said this in relation to the fact that during the entire altercation Kevin Harvick was trying to get in Juan’s face to argue his point and really put up his dukes, the whole time he was wearing a helmet and his Hans device. If you watch the tape of the wreck, it wasn’t even Juan’s fault this time… (most of the time it is..)
Dale Jr’s move to Hendricks
I was a little disturbed that Teresa Earnhardt handled Dale Jr. the way she did but I was glad to see JR move on. He’s going to be with a dominant team next year and should be in the chase for sure and possibly clinch a championship with Hendrick’s equipment.
Gordon’s Growing Up?
One thing that I almost hate to admit to but during the course of this year I have held my position that Jeff Gordon is a weenie. Have always been from that school of thought, but watching these past weeks as Jimmie Johnson has managed to steal Jeff’s thunder I have realized that somewhere along the way Jeff isn’t as big of a crybaby as he used to be when it comes to getting beat. It might be a different story if it was another car that he didn’t own that was schooling him like Tony Stewart or something but I would like to think that he is growing up. For the first time next year I might actually look at Jeff Gordon and not think the same way…
Joe Gibb’s Racing to Toyota
I was a little shocked that Joe Gibbs Racing announced that they were moving to Toyota next year. I really like Smoke, Denny, and the crew over at JGR and I hope that they can work with other Toyota teams like Bill Davis and MIchael Waltrip and hopefully come up with the right chemistry to make it a go for Toyota next year.
Michael Waltrip Still a Champ!
It’s not a surprise that I am a fan of Michael Waltrip. I have liked Mikey since he got into the sport, he’s a pretty cool guy on the track and off. I know that this year they had some problems but Mikey has apparently kept his head up and is heading into next year to give it another shout. One thing that I really like about Mikey is that he understands the business big time, he’s a marketer, if you don’t believe that just watch his NAPA commercials. He’s taken Lemons and made Lemonade for his sponsors and I firmly believe that next year will be a different year for Michael Waltrip Racing.
The New Chase Format…
I also would like to take a second to applaud NASCAR on their changes this year involving the format of the Chase, it made it pretty interesting for all of us to watch. I don’t think that the year ended up quite the way they wanted with Jimmie’s lead being so high but what the heck we have had a lot of action this year.
The Car of Tommorow
The COT, car of tomorrow, has gotten a lot of press this year, I think that there is a lot we still don’t know about the car and it might be a while before we do. I know that all of the teams out there are adding the new “point hitch” simulation equipment to try to get a competitive edge going into Daytona for 2008 but I don’t know if it’s going to be that big of a factor, the bottom line as I see it is that they have to just keep on adding as much horsepower as possible to keep these cars fast.
A NASCAR Blog for Next Year?
Another thought I wanted to share on my blog was an idea that I have for next year. My partners and I own a domain name, www.nascarview.com, I have been giving it a lot of thought as to whether or not starting a community blog would be a cool thing to do. I know that there are a lot of fan sites out there like RacingONE.com, NASCAR.com, etc., but this might be a fun outlet for me so I am strongly considering it… My motivation for this comes partly from watching what Jayski has done w/ his site over the years, he is now linked up w/ ESPN and no telling’s what kind of cashflow that fun to manage website is generating these days… I always like to find ways to make money running my mouth about things I enjoy… 🙂
Anyway, I guess it’s football from now on because the last race is coming up this weekend! Go Colts!!!!!
Questions or Comments?