Earning their stripes
Given a fighting chance, Darlington is for racers
Posted: Monday March 17, 2003 2:23 PM
Updated: Monday March 24, 2003 9:42 AM
A few things jumped out at me Sunday:
The best thing about tracks like Darlington and Rockingham is that you can't get your car perfect for more than a couple of laps. Guys were sliding all over the place all afternoon. And what's great about that is that it makes the drivers drive, which gives guys like Ricky Craven and Dave Blaney a fighting chance.
Right now, guys like that -- NASCAR's equivalent of mid-majors -- stand a much better chance of winning on an old track or a short track, where anything can happen and the setup isn't everything. "It's a great racetrack," Michael Waltrip said. "This is the kind of racetrack we need. Tracks that are real wide and real easy to drive, somebody hits the setup." And when that happens, it's boring. No one wants to see a car dominate a race. They want to see a driver outdrive the other 42 guys.
Said Craven: "I'm not the world's greatest race car driver, but [Darlington] suits me perfect. I like sliding around. I love being up against the wall. I'm not nearly as good as Jeff Gordon is here or David Pearson or some of these legends, but I'll tell you -- I wouldn't mind running 36 times a year here. Right now, I'll settle for two." I hope it stays that way.
FOX, for all the jokes we make about their coverage, is awesome. ("O'Boogity, O'Boogity, O'Boogity?" Come on, DW.) Still, John Madden wishes he was Darrell Waltrip. The racing was unbelievable, but you could tell the most excited guys at the track were in the booth. They told us what was going to happen (they pointed out several laps from the end that Craven was better off 3 and 4 and that would be the difference) and it did.
Craven is a great story. I swear, I was this close to picking him in my preseason top ten, but I chickened out.
Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- The DEI boys are 3-4 in the standings, but more importantly, they're running well at tracks where they've historically been bad.
Jeff Gordon -- Interesting note: in 41 races as Jimmie Johnson's owner, JJ has finished ahead of Gordon 21 times. He looked like the man to beat before he smacked the wall.
The Roush engine program -- Jeff Burton blew up early Sunday, two days after two trucks blew up and Kurt Busch blew up in practice. Tack that onto four in Atlanta and one at The Rock, and it's like we're watching Pintos in the early '70s.
Sterling Marlin vs. Jimmie Johnson -- After their last-lap get-together at Las Vegas, Ol' Sterling could've thrown some kerosene onto this one after Johnson hip-checked him into the wall, but he wrote it off as "a racin' deal." (When is something not a racin' deal? I'd give my left pinkie to hear someone say, "Man, that was as far from a racin' deal as I've ever seen.") I for one would like to see them mix it up in a cross-generational, transcontinental donnybrook.
A slow week for feuds, but that's what Bristol is for.
The latest rumored replacement for Winston as the series sponsor is Microsoft. If it happens, will David Boies, who hammered Microsoft for the government and is now handling NASCAR's side of the Texas lawsuit, have to recuse himself? And will we see Bill Gates in Wranglers and an Intimidator trucker's hat?
The No. 29 of Kevin Harvick will run a paint scheme featuring longtime Dave Marcis sponsor Realtree at Bristol night race. Yeah, good idea. There's a lot of good mojo in that scheme.
"I certainly wouldn't have arm-wrestled him and made a fool of myself." -- Ricky Craven dismisses a possible post-race occurrence, while at the same time greatly underestimating his arm-wrestling prowess vis-a-vis Kurt "Look at me, I'm Kobe again" Busch.
Someone calling herself "Montega" wants to know what "dropping trou" means. (It came up last week when we were discussing Marky Mark and him possibly starring in Britney Spears' NASCAR movie.) Well, dear, if you haven't figured it out on your own by now, I can't really help.
My question for you guys: Who is the dirtiest driver out there?
The great bullring we know as Bristol. Not that playing NASCAR Thunder on the X-Box is comparable to driving in a race, but at Bristol something's always going on. There's no letting up, whereas at someplace like Vegas you can pretty much drive one-handed, talk on the phone and eat an ice cream sandwich at the same time. Whether or not you could eat an ice cream sandwich in a Winston Cup car is debatable.
Any ways, you shouldn't completely discount setup at Bristol. It helps to have a car you can handle, especially one that works anywhere on the track. But you can have the greatest setup in the world and it's not going to matter if you can't keep it out of trouble. The track favors a driver who is smart and patient and who isn't going to swear vengeance on the first guy to hit him. Rusty Wallace is always a safe bet, and Lord knows he's due. He's the pick.
As for last week's pick, Ryan Newman quietly rolled home in 14th, good for 126 points, bringing us up to 570. That would get us up to 13th, wedged snugly between Newman and Dale Jarrett.
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Mark Bechtel covers NASCAR for Sports Illustrated and SI.com.
Click here to send him a question.
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