NASCAR's Chase continues with race three from Kansas Speedway this week. This would be the ideal time for any pretenders to the throne to step their game up and try to derail the three car HMS express of Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, and Jeff Gordon. Don't hold your breath.
The Chase/playoff style format was contrived by NASCAR to try and maintain TV ratings during the fall when the NFL crushes everything that goes up against them. So far this Chase season, ratings are at an all time low. Also, more and more aluminum was visible in the bleachers last week at Dover as that race wore on, and on.
Meanwhile, NASCAR Top Gun, Brian France continues to fiddle, and thinks that his new clothes are poppin'. When asked about declining interest in his product France casually replied, "The Chase has the right storylines, the right things going on..." Storylines? You may want to hire some new writers, B.
Kevin Harvick will be in the Reese's Cup Chevy #29 at Kansas. Bright orange car, candy, Halloween must be coming. Scott Speed will try to race a Cup car at Kansas for the first time this week. Last year Speed won an ARCA race, and finished 8th in a Truck Series race at Kansas, on the same day.
David Gilliland will be in a JGR Toyota for three Cup races later this year. The #02 will carry Farm Bureau Insurance sponsorship for Gilliland. Paul Menard says he's not interested in taking daddy's money to RCR and driving the #07 Chevy. Well, RPM is in the Chase, and RCR is not.
Principal RPM owner, George "Speedy" Gillett is attempting to unload his vast pro sports holdings, including the Montreal Canadiens, FC Liverpool, and Richard Petty Motorsports. The Molsons (yeah, those Molsons) of Canada are lined up to buy the Habs. Gillett has a Saudi Prince on the hook to buy the soccer team in England, and also is trying to foist RPM on the sheik.
Prince Fasil of the Saudi royal family is reportedly going to pay up to 650 million bucks for the soccer team and part, or all, of RPM. Some of the fallout from this deal may include the Richard Petty Driving Experience coming to the middle east, and a stock car facility being built in Saudi Arabia for exhibition races. Think global, race local.
A recent poll of well informed NASCAR fans showed that 57% of them think that Dale Earnhardt Jr will make the Chase next year. While a rational 42% said, no, he won't.
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GReat stuff!
ReplyDeleteMy vision of stock car racing in the persian gulf area is a 4 cylinder pugeot being chased down by a crew in a VW bus with one crew member standing through the sun roof with a rocket launcher.
Might be good ratings on TV?
I got some Q&A's for you,
ReplyDelete1. How great was Kyle Busch's Chase last year?
2. Did Kyle Busch make the chase this year?
3. What was the biggest failer Kyle Busch missing the chase with 3 wins this season and running up front or Dale Jr getting a crew chief change and no wins going by the this season?
4.Have you broke a smile yet?
5. Have a great weekend and some day a Dale Jr fan might just agree with you on some things about Dale.lol
Cheers2You
I voted for Daytona and should be the last race of the year.. The big one could change alot of things even if they stay in the back till the end.
ReplyDeleteI do think a road course should be at least one race in the 10 as well.
Fireball...I would pay to watch that on pay-per-view! Now that would be a 'storyline' for Brian.
ReplyDeleteF2...Yes, not onlysmiling but LOLing.
ReplyDeleteA's...
1...Greater than this year's.
2...No. You should know this one.
3...Kyle actually has 4 wins so far this season. And him not making the Chase is a much bigger failure than Jr not getting 1 win. Everyone expected Kyle to make the Chase.
4...Yes
5...You have a super weekend too. The Jr fans would have to use logic and stats to agree with me on him...LOL
That would be my pick too, Daytona. Don't know about the last race though. In case the points leader was caught in a wreck that wasn't his fault. He should have a few more races to overcome that.
Great stuff! Love the line on Jr at the end. However, things will get really interesting if he misses the Chase again next year. We will see how much patience those fans truly have.
ReplyDeleteI saw aheadline today about stock car racing going to the middle east, was wondering what it was about. Now I know. Thanks for keeping us to date on these little tidbits of news.
ReplyDeleteBrian France certainly does need new writers, if he thinks the chase is going to keep the folks interested during football season.
I've always loved the Reeses Cup car. It's so... burnt orange? Anyway, it's not a pumpkin 20 car orange.
ReplyDeleteWhat? Mr. France is now a writing critic? If the Chase has a storyline, I'd say it's a boring romance paperback; "HMS Love".
I'm sorry, but motor sports on a track just dosen't cut it in camel land. F1 has shown that the desert sand wins everytime over a track. Now off road is different. Maybe there could be a Robby Gordon Driving Experience over there? Robby, call me.
BTW... I just proved the pole system is flawed. I voted for Sonoma twice, and it counted. No hanging chad even! So one Dale Jr fan probably stuffed the ballot box. I have my suspicions, but I'll keep 'em to myself. LOL
ReplyDeleteJMayer....he has the best fans. A lot of them are now pulling for Martin or Stewart. If he doesn't make the Chase next year, it may time for he and Rick to consider another career path.
ReplyDeleteTsfan....Im sure Brian will be falling all over himself trying to get in bed with the Saudis. Another foreign country that he can waste time and money on (Japan, Mexico) then leave.
CR....that is a beautiful track they have out there though.
ReplyDeleteThe Reese's car is cool...the way the chocolate is melted a little on the side.
Rigged polls? It wouldn't let me vote twice before. I haven't voted on the last couple of them. I may call in Hanner....I smell Obamanism!
...or ACORN? LOL
ReplyDeleteagree w/Forensic, Daytona should close out the year. The Firecracker has tradition and all, but nothing more than the Southern 500 on Labor Day.
ReplyDeleteOpening and closing a Daytona would be perfect. Move Miami to....just move it out of the way altogether. If there was ever a stereotype in NASCAR that didn't fit, it's Miami, let alone having the finale there.
Fireball....I love the idea of Daytona closing the season....I just would hate to see a guy get screwed out of the title by getting caught up in the big one, when he didn't cause it.
ReplyDeleteI bet I haven't watched 100 total laps of racing at Miami since they opened the track. Bruton is lobbying for Vegas to be the finale. Not much better than Miami.
Nice Low Down Gene
ReplyDeleteIs anybne actually listening to Brian France ? Guess his employees have to.
Nascar can change it up anyway they want but it still comes down to who scores the most points. Sooner or later a close battle will happen with the last race deciding the champ. This one is not over yet .....feeling kind of snoozey ....
Dale making the Chase next year ? How about winning a race period. The HMS curse of the 25.
HMS ....England starts the names of their Naval ship with HMS. Gene can you look that up ? What does HMS mean other than the Hendrick Motor Sports.
Can't wait to see Petty wearing a Turbin.
Enjoy the weekend and the race
Rick...I doubt even the employees listen. They know his last name is the only reason he's there.
ReplyDeleteKyle Petty is probably glad he got shafted right about now.
Latest on Her Majesty's Service.....
NASCAR didn't like the offset from center on the 48 and 5 cars after Dover and took the cars back to their facility in NC. JJ was over allowance and tolerance. Martin was over allowance but not tolerance.
Don't look for any point deducts for these two.
Knew about the offset issue before before posting up this morning. There for your deifnition of HMS.
ReplyDeleteSir, you are now have the sword across your shoulder thus being knighted
Oh Gene, Gene...you calling me irrational??
ReplyDeleteOh and I did stuff the ballot box!! =)
I can attest that even some of the officials cringe at their boss. I too cannot wait to see the Prince and the King and then wait for fan's heads to explode. They thought Toyota was bad...
I read that JJ and MM were on tolerance not over...I dont even know what that means, it should be a black and white issue no?
RL... His/Her Majesty's Ship.
ReplyDelete...as in HMS Bounty.
ReplyDeleteI hear you Gene about the big one,, but that will be what keeps the fans threw the hole chase knowing it might come down to the last race that is if we don't have a run away before that.
ReplyDeleteA two car spin out taking out the leader on the last race and not of his doing is the same as the big one. Daytona starts the season and ends it.
I feel the chase is wrong but thats that, I feel Tony is the champion for the season and should be awarded something big in prise money and trophy to keep them all racing till the chase. Now its who's the best driver/team at these 10 tracks is NASCAR champion. WTF?
Guess what NASCAR ? WE ARE READY KNOW WHO IS THE BEST AT THEM 10 RACE TRACKS AND UNLESS SOMEONE KNOCKS THEM OFF IT WILL BE 4 IN A ROW.
We get it,, noo,, WE GOT IT and we are boared with it. lol
GO MARK MARTIN!!!!!!
Cheers2All
I would like to volunteer Robby Gordon to take out the HMS trio blocking the leaders to go three laps down.
ReplyDeleteSo Gillett lasted less than two years in NASCAR and don't believe he has owned Liverpool for much longer. There are the dudes that give capitalism a bad rap. Invest, develop, nuture and grow th e product. Another Gordon Geckko disciple....
Think that pole actually was asking if Dale Jr. would CHASE Victoria Lane next year.
poll not pole - yikes!
ReplyDeleteKristen....I just said that the ones that voted no were rational. I don't know about the ones voting yes 5 or 6 times. LOL
ReplyDeleteF2....I agree with everything you said....except for the Mark Martin part. lol
ReplyDeleteCrowning a champ based on 10 races is ridiculous!
Moseby....I'll secong the motion for Robby to do it. He's not doing anything anyway.
ReplyDeleteCapitalism could never get a bad name. I nicknamed Gillett, 'Speedy' because it sounded like a good name for a con man.
I'm sorry, but I've had enough of Mark Martin's whining! Did anyone here him in final practice? "It won't tern... it just won't tern..." Why is he tryng to sound like a low life redneck?
ReplyDeleteInteresting thought on the empty seats at the last race. More interesting is the TVs turned to Football games for excitement. Do you think NASCAR excitement is missing the mark now because the story line is a repeat from last year and the year before and the year before?
ReplyDeleteHey! If I am watching a football game, I can stay awake for the entire game. If I am watching a NASCAR race, I fall asleep after the start and don't wake up till the last 50 laps.
Perhaps the excitement factor has vanished from NASCAR racing or people are tired of the same old same old week end and week out.
Nice RSO as always. Wouldn't it be funny if one day we had a NASCAR race in Dubai???
ReplyDeletenot Dubai; I mean Saudi Arabia... lol
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGreat predictions. Poor Junyer. You can also vote multiple times on SRM.lol
ReplyDeleteAn observation....I was a proofreader once and you can tell when a blog is exciting when everyone leaves out words, spells stuff wrong and uses poor English, as shown in these comments.lol It's like you can't type as fast as your brain is working! Not criticizing, that's a good thing. But Moseby, the "pole" error....you're preoccupied with where the girl probably works?lol
I did the "pole" thing too.
ReplyDeleteBut CR, you're Smirnoff, remember? Never would have accused you of meaning anything other than a poll!lol
ReplyDeleteCR....Martin sounds like he's whining all the time, but the fans never call himon it. they call every other driver a whiner but not him...or Jr. Although Jr doesn't whine.
ReplyDeletePhoto...As long as Brian France believes it, we should too...LOL. Some football games put me to sleep too.
ReplyDeletegonger....I'm sure they'll pay the money for an 'exhibition' race at least.
BOS...interesting theory. What does it mean when comments have errors on a boring blog? lol
ReplyDelete