Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Right Sides Only

This week the NASCAR bunch travels back in time to the sleepy little town of Martinsville in southern Virginia. A place that's been racing longer than NASCAR itself. The crisp air, the changing leaves, the shorter days, all reminders that the end grows near.

Three Stars

Tuesday night's airing of the Tim Richmond documentary on ESPN was about as good as could be expected. I would have preferred more old racing clips, and interviews with Richmond's peers. Maybe they tried, and not many wanted to go on record?

The music they chose, with the melancholy piano notes throughout, showed which way the film makers were going here. I kind of expected the movie to be maybe 80%, or more, about his racing career, and 20% on his illness.

It was an interesting look at how far we all have progressed in 25 years. One thing that bothered me was they tried to make it seem like all NASCAR fans were against Richmond when the rumors were going around. Not true. Everybody still loved that guy. As far as his friend's story about a 'fan' calling Richmond a faggot, I'll bet most other drivers heard that a few times about themselves, too. I'm sure DW was called worse every Sunday.

Summer of Recovery?

Recently, the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte announced they were cutting down on the hours of operations, and laying off employees. Mainly due to their original visitor projections being almost twice the actual number of people buying tickets.

Now, after laying off 40 office employees in the last two months, NASCAR is cutting back on some fan attractions at Daytona International Speedway. They are shutting down the Daytona 500 Experience and the IMAX theater. This also leads to more layoffs. Does BZF remind anyone else of BHO?

Red Bull and Bud, Mmmm

With Reed Sorenson in Gateway for the NNS race, Aric Almirola takes over the #83 Red Bull ride at Martinsville. Some were expecting to possibly see Kasey Kahne in that car after bailing on RPM last week. Kahne is none too happy with his cars lately, but that's what happens when you jump ship with eight months left in the season.
*****UPDATE******
Kahne will be in the #83 after being fired by RPM late Wednesday. Almirola will drive the Bud #9 at Martinsville.

Martinsville Musings

Is it weird that a track famous for its hotdogs, has a race sponsored by Tums?

Denny Hamlin has won the last two events here.

Jimmy Johnson and Hamlin have won the last eight races here.

Kyle Busch will be in his M&Ms Halloween car. So, it's okay to Boo?

8 comments:

  1. you left out what ridiculous costumes will the CW Truck gang wear this year, Gene :P

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  2. Maybe Jimmie and Denny will spend their tires, and brakes racing one another hard, and Jeff Gordon will steal a win? Nah... probably won't get that exciting.

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  3. It's gonna be PUNT, PASS and then a KICK fight after the race!

    Who's doin' the punting... Who's doin' the passing... and who's gonna be mixing it up in the pits after the race? Ryan Newman will be the punter... Tony Stewart the passer and Office Depot will be kickin' Lowes! LOL

    You can put different drivers in that scenario if you want, but don't mess with Lowes gettin' kicked!

    (I can hope can't I?)

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  4. Jobs are getting scarce everywhere it seems but the Washington bunch is living high off the hog don't you think?

    All I can say is Tony or Denny needs a win and JJ needs a spin out big time. Now that would be exciting.

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  5. Tez.... Have they been Kiss yet?

    CR.... I think it will be exciting, but JJ or Denny will win, as usual.

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  6. Dwindy.... Can't we hope that JJ gets punted, then passed, then kicked? lol

    Photo... JJ needs to do more than just spin out. He needs to drop out of the race early... and not return!

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  7. Havent seen the Richmond show yet but I know Jeffy G takes his share of abuse. Worse thing about it in my mind is there is still many many in NASCAR (fans and in the sport) who wouldn't accept him today. Sad.

    JJ will probably be too far out front to get spun but we can always hope cant we. Reminds me, I gotta go pick him for my fantasy team! LOL

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  8. Kris...I doubt NASCAR would let a driver with AIDS compete today. They would find some reason not to.

    When it was finally confirmed that Richmond had AIDS is when I realized that it wasn't just a disease for 'gays'. Watch the movie and you will see all the misinformation that was out there about AIDS in the late 80s. Amazing how much more tolerant we've become in 20 years.

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