RASN Discussion Topics
*Robbie Gordon--Right or Wrong, I say he was Right to finish
the Montreal Race & then let Nascar sort it out afterwards.
It was his only recourse to a series of inaccurate rulings by N.
As my backup, i think DW got it right, altho he didn't express it
very well that N was at fault in creating their latest controversy.

FOX Sports on MSN - NASCAR - Doing right thing wrong ends in disaster
Darrell Waltrip, AllWaltrip.com, aka FoxSports.com Updated 17 hours ago 8/7/07.
DW goes on to say what Whacky really is--F1 ruling between McClaren team mems!

It's probably too late, but I thot Robby's offer to Marcos Ambrose to run
an RG Cup car at WG was a heartfelt gesture as makeup for doing Marcos wrong!
Perhaps a measure of a man is to not only say you're sorry, but then
do something positive to make up for your wronging of that man?

Altho i do not necessarily agree with Monte Dutton's conclusions
about the Robby Gordon incident in his article at:
http://sports.aol.com/story/_a/chase-gripping-despite-flaws/20070806125209990001
I encourage your reading of it.

*Why Monte acknowledges the excitement created by The Chase & yet continually
tilts against The Chase is beyond me. I'll just remind all readers that
from '98 thru '03, The Champ was decided well before the last race.
Since The Chase was implemented in '04, all 3 Champs were decided at the last race.

*Regan Smith is entered at WG in the #01, even tho Aric Almirola was named
to replace RS as Mark Martin's substitute driver for the rest of '07.
Whata mess, this Ginn, DEI, Gibbs merger has become! Apparently there is
no feelings for drivers nowadays. Have young drivers become throwaways?

*NYTimes recognizes that Rusty's son Steven may not be much of a driver:
For a Young Wallace, Success Is Slow to Come - New York Times
By DAVE CALDWELL
Published: August 8, 2007
Steven hisself may recognize this fact by stating:
"I thought I was Superman, but I guess not,"
And Steve said he knows he is picking up a reputation for being reckless.
"I've done some stupid stuff," he said.
CRU--Equipment will get u so far, but talent will get u the rest of the way,
e.g. JJYeley. Also a Father's desire, even with a ton of money,
may not make a Father's dreams come true.

So many Racin' Topics, so little time between Na$car Controversies!!
The above are my picks to discuss this week's Controversies.
--
Crusader

I'd have to agree with you on StevenWallace. As usually happens to a
successful father doesn't happen to the offspring and throwing money on it
ain't gonna help.

He just doesn't have dad's talent and drive.
"Crusader" <cru357 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote

"Crusader" <cru357 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote

<snip>

And now the old man has hired a new crew chief and added a 'General Manager'(Like
that's gonna help.)

http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/bg/08/08/rwallace.swallace.rwi/index.html

"Everyone knows that our driver, Steve Wallace, has a ton of talent; we believe
that these changes will help him move closer to earning the vast success that he's
capable of achieving."

Surrrre, Rusty.
"We're planning on expanding our Busch Series effort to two teams for 2008 and
that will certainly require a lot of organization and planning. Both of these
gentlemen will play a vital role in that process and I know that they'll do a
great job."

Oh, boy.

--
Tom in Bristol



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"Crusader" <cru357 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote in
news:5huoneF3lbrktU1 (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net:

He would have been had he lined up where NASCAR told him to and
finished as best he could. Even tho NASCAR would almost certainly
not have changed things after the race, he'd at least have had a
moral victory.

Starting in second, had he drove clean and finished second, he
might have been able to argue he belonged there, and might have
been in the right. He probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere with
the arguement, tho.

Intentionally spinning the leader, and then doing everything he
could think of to embarass NASCAR, was guaranteed to not get the
result he wanted. After embarassing NASCAR he's probably lucky
he was allowed to keep 18th place.

It certainly has done a lot to resucitate Robby's reputation.

I am pretty much mystified by this, actually. It looked like Smith
was totally out of the DEI picture. Does this mean DEI thinks Aric
isn't quite prime-time ready, and will leave Regan in the 01 and
Aric in Busch? Is it a one-time deal? Does DEI have plans for
Regan in 2008 that haven't leaked into the rumor mill yet?

I don't know if we know if Steven Wallace has talent. He certainly
seemed to in late models. Maybe it will show up with experience,
maybe not.

Yeley, I think, has had time that experience shouldn't be an issue,
and talent should be showing itself. I'm thinking that there's
not a top-tier driver in there, and at best he's going to be a
Nemechek or Mayfield, with a win every rare while but mostly running
in the middle of the pack.

John

Crusader wrote:

He was right at the time. He's wrong in hindsight.

Completely unfamiliar to me, as I have zero interest in F1.

It's never a bad a idea to hire the guy that beats you.

When the last race is decided is meaningless since "the chase" was
concocted. They could just reset the points with one race to go and say
"See! Every championship is decided in the last race! How exciting for
the fans!" The old point system wasn't broken. It rewarded consistency
throughout the season. The new system rewards wins in the last 10 races.
The playoff method works for sports such as baseball, football, and
basketball because they play one team vs one team each game, not every
team vs every team each race.
Further, under "the chase", it's no longer the driver who scores the
most points throughout the season who will win the championship. It's
the guy who scores the most points in the last 10 races. It increased
the importance of Homestead while lessening the importance of both
Daytona races, both Bristols, the Coke 600, and Indy.

Yes. They are corporate whores whose only two duties are to look good in
front of a camera and don't trash the equipment... in that order.
Drivers are much less important in the "new" NASCAR.

In other news: Harry Gant won 4 in a row in September.

Sucks too. I like Yeley. Picked him for a Cup ride long before he got a
Cup ride.
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.autos.sport.nascar/msg/f9d67ba5e852299a
I expected better from him at the top level. Hopefully it was a
chemistry thing and he'll find success elsewhere in the series.

Tom Duwe wrote:
Rusty took his new crew chief from his Busch East effort that hasn't
exactly been setting the world on fire, including a pair of DNQs in the
early-season 'combo' races with NASCAR West in Elko MN and Iowa Speedway
- which started 40 cars.

But of course that driver will get in a Busch car later this year and
much more next year with such amazing stats, instead of drivers in his
current series with better results racing on a fraction of RWI's budget.

"Crusader" <cru357 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote

yeah what's better than a contrived last lap close finish. why should a
team having a dominant year be allowed to win?
the show is the show. throw those debris cautions, homogeonize the
cars..keep the field tight,

On Wed, 8 Aug 2007 16:50:39 -0400, "Crusader" <cru357 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net>
wrote:

Well, as they say, it is F1. What did you expect? ;-)

Haven't seen all of that race yet off the Tivo (I wuz doin some racing
of my own this weekend) but ain't that some crazy mess? WAS Robby in
front when the caution came out? I thought N had said repeatedly that
they would "review video or whatever means they had to determine the
proper running order" when they outlawed "racin' back to the yeller".

Either way, seems to me that the "scoring loop" system needs to be
updated and/or perfected a little more.

But do we really want to be like EVERY OTHER sport and have some
"final game"? Seems to me that NASCAR's year long points system worked
great for the first 50 years. And if it ain't broke...I guess you
could break it. I still don't care for the Chase, and am a bigger fan
of the CTS, NBS and local racing now as a result of the playoff system
in NNC. I don't care how many "more" drivers have a shot at the title
now. Matter of fact, that's what I don't like. We've intoduced "wild
cards" into title contention, and it cheapens winning the Cup as a
result, in my eyes anyway.

You just now getting that implication Cru? It's been old news since
the time that sponsors started picking their drivers. They're all
expendable assets once you get below the current big names in the
sport.

So much for Dale Jr only being in Cup due to his name then. Apparently
he can get it done enough to be in demand at that level. And is
getting it done good enough without his dad even being around to
mentor him any longer. Matter of fact, the only ones I even hear
reference Junior as "a mediocre driver" are the haters. (reference to
the NYT commenting on Wallace's Success being Slow to Come.)

Let all 2nd and 3rd generation drivers come, and try. Each failure
only pours water on the "Junior is where he is due to his name" kook
faction out there.

SimRacer wrote:
The jury's still out for me on that one, Sim.

On one hand, he must at least have some degree of talent to be in a Cup
car. No matter what we all may think from time to time, you can't just
stick any Joe off the street into a racer and expect him to hang in
there for 500 miles, let alone keep it at or near the front of the field.

On the other hand, he *has* been driving with what is essentially the
family team, and more so, was the only marketable driver on said team
for quite some time. Mikey pretty much proves that talent is *not*
genetic. Truex is looking good this year, especially after his win, but
that's a recent development if you ask me.

I think we'll find out a lot more about what he can do next season when
he settles into a Hendrick cockpit, but there will still be questions,
especially since there's a contingent that thinks Gordon and Johnson are
only stars because they have great equipment.

We'll see, eh?

-Steven

--
Your annoyance tastes sweet to me, like candy.

"SimRacer" <NOsimracer68 (AT) yahoo (DOT) comSPAM> wrote


Too bad u didn't see the most controversial race in NA$CAR
in many years. I agree with u that road races need more scoring loops.
ESPN didn't show RG's pass of M.Ambrose, but they did show
M.Ambrose's right rear quarter panel flared out as if his car
had not been so cleanly passed by one RG.

Too funny u would mention 'not racin back to the yellow'.
I'm sure u recall that it was RG who raced agressively under caution
vs KHarvick that inspired N to change 'The Gentleman's Agreement'
to NO racing back to the caution.
I'm sure i cain't convince u or anyone else that The Chase is better than
the previous arbitrary Point System. All i can say is since '04,
it's better to have some wonder who might be Champ than MKenseth
in '03 that ran away with a no doubt Champ, or BW CEdwards totally
destroying '06 KHarvick's winning margin of 824 points.