Wreck-free Racing

I saw a story today at yahoo sports about an upcoming boxing match. The author, Kevin Iole, mentioned how boxing fans can be bloodthirsty and have a lust for violence. That in itself is debatable, but he went on to state that nascar fans have the same desire for carnage.

Iole claims that nascar fans stream into the tracks by the hundreds of thousands hoping to see fiery wrecks. According to Iole, if somehow all wrecks were magically eliminated, attendance would drop rapidly and long term TV contracts would also dry up.

Of course, wrecks in nascar will never stop; there are just too many variables. Mechanical failures are the biggest cause, mainly due to those Goodyears. Then they have wrecks caused by driver error, followed by debris, weather, and revenge (the Vickers Effect).

But, lets say that all wrecks did magically stop; with all yellows being discretionary cautions as nascar sees fit. Big stretch on that, I know. But, my question is, if there was never another wreck in nascar would you continue being a fan and viewing races?

The boxing story...

http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ki-iole_cotto_margarito112811

Thanksgiving with the Busch Brothers

"I'm thankful that f&%*!ng Addington won't be back next year. What the %@&* are you thankful for, Kyle?"

"I'm just thankful that Gibbs or M&Ms don't have the %@!!s to fire me."

"Mom, where the %*&# is that turkey? I've been waiting ten %#$ !*^$ minutes!"

"Where the $&*% is your new girlfriend, Kurt?"

"#@$*! She said I had %#$&!ng anger management problems! Can you believe that $!##!"

"You? What the %@#$ is she talking about?"

"Still no %&$#!@* turkey?! Couldn't you have pre-%&&#!@*-cooked it, Mom?!"

"Un-%&$#!@*-believable!"

Happy Thanksgiving to all of us Busch fans!

View From The Flagstand: Stewart is the Man in Miami

That is how to win a title! We finally were treated to a down-to-the-wire championship battle in nascar's season finale. Tony Stewart imposed his will on his competition in route to winning the Ford 400 and the 2011 Sprint Cup championship.

CHECKERED FLAG

Stewart overcame adversity during the first two thirds of the race before a late rain shower, coupled with his team's fuel strategy, suddenly left him leading on the last restart. You could tell that Smoke was not going to be headed off after that. Stewart drove harder and deeper into the turns all race long, and deserved the win and title more than anyone in recent memory.

GREEN FLAGS

Carl Edwards chose to try the "Mr Consistency" route to the points championship. It almost worked. He and Stewart actually had the same points totals, but Stewart won the tiebreaker based on total wins, five to Carl's one. Matt Kenseth was 4th in the race, and 4th in the points race. Kevin Harvick wound up 8th at Miami, and was 3rd in the title hunt.

YELLOW FLAG

I know fans pay for their tickets and have the right to boo the competitors. But, booing the first lady, Mrs Obama? All she's ever done is marry a politician, and she was there for the US military and veterans. The booing fans did nothing but advance her husband's us vs them campaign. She would have won some fans by giving a Rowdy bow to the booers.

RED FLAG

Friday night, nascar waited all of seven minutes to call the truck series race an official finish when it rained with 17 laps left. Surely Austin Dillon leading the points race at that time had nothing to do with that hair trigger decision.

BLACK FLAG

How in the hell can Stewart win five of the ten Chase races, and still only tie Edwards for the points lead? nascar was extremely lucky that Edwards didn't stroke his way to the championship with zero Chase wins. Wins and leading laps must pay more!

View From The Flagstand: Kahne Finally Wins

Recently repaved and reconfigured, Phoenix International Raceway was supposed to be a wild card in this year's Chase. Hosting the next to last race on an unknown entity was bound to create some havoc. While it was not the wreckfest that many predicted, there was plenty of drama in the desert.

CHECKERED FLAG

Kasey Kahne scored his first victory in more than two years on Sunday. He has consistently been running in the top five for the last couple of months, and his perseverance paid off with the win just one race before he leaves Red Bull Racing for Hendrick.

GREEN FLAGS

Points leader Carl Edwards was second, and Tony Stewart, just three points back, led the most laps and came home in third place. Joining Kahne, other lame ducks with top runs included David Reutiman in 7th and Clint Bowyer in 10th.

YELLOW FLAG

Geoffrey Bodine caused at least three cautions, and didn't even complete half the scheduled laps. Some things never change.

RED FLAG

A sixth title for Jimmie Johnson. It is weird not having JJ already coasting to another Cup by this point in the season. The Carl vs Smoke show is damn good, as both guys are trying to win every week.

BLACK FLAG

Brian Vickers! While his teammate, Kahne, is collecting wins, top-5's, and top of the line job offers, Vickers is carrying out petty vendettas on championship contenders. After deliberately wrecking three drivers at Martinsville, he came to Phoenix gunning for mild mannered Matt Kenseth. Vickers did take Kenseth out, and it was intentional. That is, it was intentional to everyone except for the hack nascar officials.

*** Due to their handling of Kyle Busch's situation, and, now, Vickers' no-calls, I will refer to nascar in lower case form until they earn back the all caps.

Cool Down Lap for Kyle Busch

I was shocked when nascar parked Kyle Busch for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series races in Texas on Saturday and Sunday for his actions in the Truck series race. After having a couple of days to think about it, I see that nascar did what needed to be done. Busch wasn't parked for intentionally wrecking Ron Hornaday during a caution period, he was parked for his total body of work in nascar for several years now.

This is Busch's seventh full year in the Cup series, and every year he is surrounded by controversy at some point, most years it's more than once. He is dead serious behind the wheel and hates to lose, especially when it's someone else's fault. He's had run ins with nascar officials, the police, team owners and other drivers. He's been on probation, been fined, and served penalty minutes in the pits during races.

We've heard all about the "new" Kyle, and his numerous "wake up calls", supposedly even a "come to Jesus" meeting with Joe Gibbs in the past couple of years. I hope this incident makes him realize that he has to work around lesser talents and you don't always get your own way. I also wish he would use this as an excuse to quit playing around in the lower tier series. He should focus on winning Cup races and titles, only.

Busch is a polarizing figure among fans. It's either love, or hate. There is no in between. The offensive comments from his haters on the internet this weekend are embarrassing. It is one thing to not like a driver for whatever reason, but the cursing, the wishing evil upon, the comparison to Mike Vick (by my own Aunt!) are ridiculous.

Speed TV and ESPN have over-saturated this story to death. I bet the Busch/Hornaday wreck has already been replayed on air more than any other piece of nascar footage. And, the dumbass polls by ESPN... Should Gibbs fire Kyle? Should M&Ms leave Kyle? More than half the fans responding say yes. What a shocker.... they would have said the same thing a week ago!