NASCAR

    Yeah, I sure do wish I could get a day off like the Cup and the CTS drivers, but I have this editor (which is also one of my oldest friends) that says with the money he pays me, I write every week no matter what. Gee, I’m glad they don’t race around Christmas or New Year’s because I’d be writing then too, but that may not be too bad because I would get paid double-time and a half (yeah, right). Even with this weekend free of a NASCAR Nextel (soon to be Sprint and formally Winston) Cup and the CTS running, there was a Busch race. I can’t use the term “BuschWhacker” that much because this week’s Busch Series race is soon to be something else, and I wish it would be the AT&T, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

    It seems that the Cup drivers really wanted the time off because there weren’t nearly as many of the “BuschWhackers” racing on Saturday as there normally are, but there were still quite a few. One “BuschWhacker” kept up the streak of winning these races. Reed Sorenson got his third career win in the Busch Series after a drought last year. He’s still lacking one in the Cup Series, but that should change soon. I’ve liked him since he got started, and one reason is because he’s a Southern Boy born in Georgia. He may not be one of my favorite drivers (I have 4 or 5), but I keep him on standby because he’s young and a fan needs to look to the future. One of your guys will eventually retire or step back, as some of them do, so you need a backup.

    Everybody asks me questions all the time, since I am such a NASCAR aficionado (yeah, right), so here’s a question I got for y’all: If I am a fan of a driver, do I have to like the team owner or not? I like Reed, and I used to like Chip Ganassi, but when he let Sterling Marlin go…well, it didn’t sit right. So can I still like Sorenson? Okay okay, here’s the real deal. All season I have been talking about Bobby Ginn and how he came to NASCAR with guns a-blazing while doing everything top-notch, like getting Martin to drive for him. Now Mr. Ginn has dumped TWO of my guys at once, so what should I do? Keep Mark, or drop him from my list? I wonder what input Mark had in all this, because Bobby said he talked to him about those guys and how to handle the money problems the team is having.

    Think about this: If Ginn and Martin are conferring so much about the teams, does this mean that Mark Martin is much more involved with Ginn Racing than he lets on? Could he have signed on with Ginn as a silent partner or something? After all, he is racing the way he has wanted to for so long, unlike his situation at Roush Racing. Mark’s son Matt is also with Ginn racing. Did Roush not want to let him in? Martin is the Development Manager plus the main driver now, so he’s got the power because Ginn was a land developer and entrepreneur until last year when he became a team owner. So was Martin his ace-in-the-hole when it came to running several NASCAR teams? Was it Mark’s idea to let Joe and Sterling go at mid-season, whereas most owners might have just waited until the end?

    Sure, Bobby Ginn said a few weeks back that the team was having sponsor woes and needed to do something, but he said his cars would carry the Ginn Resorts name on them. Then he decided to paint them black with no sponsors to show they’re looking for some. Now they’ve let Marlin and Nemechek go. Wasn’t it Ginn that said whatever Earnhardt Jr. wanted he would give him to join his team? Where was that money coming from? Talk about “silly season” at Ginn Racing, it’s more like having sex with a Disney character (you know…f**king Goofy!). Man, I know I’m going to get fined for saying that, but no problem- my editor will pay it. Go ahead, deduct some of my writer’s points, I got plenty.

    Will Joe and Sterling find another ride or not? Could another team pick them up at their age when owners and sponsors want young drivers? We, the old fans, want to watch them drive. They are among our favorites and they still have the ability. After all, they have their teams in the top 35 in points and they make races. You see new and veteran drivers that can’t make a race, so where’s the problem with them getting another ride? Sterling has said that next year he was cutting back, but Joe figured on full-time driving, and now he’s hoping just to finish the season, let alone drive next year. I can see it now, “...and on the pole for the 2008 Daytona 500, ‘Front Row’ Joe Nemechek in the #8 Budweiser car.” Man-oh-man, would that be something! Dreams…aren’t they wonderful?

    Let me talk about another “old driver,” Kenny Schrader. He’s got a ride! Yes sir, he’s back and at BAM Racing in the #49 car, which is a long way from the Skoal Bandit and light years away from the #64 Sunny King Ford & Honda car. The year was 1984 at Nashville Speedway, where he got started in a field of 30, qualified 27th and finished 19th, his second best finish of 5 races that year. As they say, “the rest is history,” with Schrader driving anything and everything with wheels for the next 23 years. Kenny, as I have always called him, hasn’t got a gazillion wins like some big name drivers. He only has four, to be exact, but he’s had his share of top-tens and he has been in the top five at season’s end 3 times.

    When the Woods brothers move Bill Elliott into his ride, I could maybe understand, but gee, it was really a letdown for me. Schrader is a classic driver. I’ve talked to him at Daytona before and he’s like so few drivers nowadays, “real people.” Kenny is the kind of guy that would race at your local track and then come over to your house for Sunday dinner. You’d just have fun being around him, and that’s just what I feel after seeing him in NASCAR for so many years. Heck, when Little Debbie became his sponsor, I loaded up on them even though I was on a diet. He’s their driver and I buy what he drives for! Now BAM Racing isn’t RCR or JGR, but it dang sure ain’t Ginn either, ‘cause they know what an old guy can do. Driving the wheels off is in his nature, as it is with Marlin, Nemechek and several other drivers who still have a ride.

    Well I’m done for this week, and I hope my editor is happy that he got his money’s worth and y’all got to read another column of mine. Just one more thing: ESPN is starting up their coverage of NASCAR and they plan to broadcast it to the free world and parts unknown. They have 17 multimedia platforms, as they call it. I call it “ways to make sure they take in enough money to pay everybody.” But whatever it is, it’s a bunch of avenues for broadcasting a race. There’s regular TV and then that high-definition stuff on many channels (along with radio), but what’s cute is that they have it in several languages, so plenty of foreign money can be exchanged to US dollars and put in their bank account. No biggie I guess, they got to get back something on their investment, don’t ya know?

    Y’all know where to reach me: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), if’n you need to. And you also know that If it ain’t NASCAR, It ain’t s**t!