NASCAR Thugs
Where Are The NASCAR Thugs?
Tony Stewart has been called NASCAR’s bad boy — but he can’t hold a candle to some players in other sports.
Star NFL quarterback Michael Vick is sitting in federal prison right now on dogfighting charges.
Plaxico Burress, the New York Giants receiver, was charged with 2 felony counts after he allegedly shot himself in a New York City bar.
Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps is dropped by his sponsors after being photographed smoking pot out of a bong.
Player after player in Major League Baseball have admitted to using steroids.
So where are the scandals in NASCAR? Where are the thugs?
Here are the biggest scandals in NASCAR in the last few years.
It’s pretty calm in NASCAR compared to other sports.
- Kasey Kahne knocks down a security guard while trying to get to his motorcoach.
- Kurt Busch is detained by police in Phoenix for running a stop sign,
- Kyle Busch is charged with squealing his tires leaving a fast food joint.
Why is it that NASCAR drivers seem to get into a lot less trouble than people in other sports? I think it’s because racing requires a special skill set. Physical ability combined with mental sharpness. Racing just doesn’t attract the same type of participants that other sports do.
Another thing is that the garage is self-policing. Drivers have to depend on one another at 200 mph. They won’t tolerate thugs amongst themselves.
So why are NASCAR drivers more responsible than players in other sports?
Earnhardt Family Home Video
Earnhardt Home Movie
Dale Jr joins his family at his Grandmother Martha Earnhardt’s home in Kannapolis, NC. Junior gets in trouble for teaching the kids ‘bad words.’
Dale Earnhardt Jr Scrensavers
New National Guard Dale Earnhardt Jr Screensavers
Thanks to the people over at the National Guard for coming up with some new nice looking Dale Earnhardt Jr. screensavers and wallpapers. I’ve just replaced my old screensaver with one of them on my laptop.
National Guard does a great job with its Dale Earnhardt Jr screensavers. Some of the other sponsors could stand to learn a thing or two from them.
There are 5 background wallpaper images and 2 screensavers that feature Dale Jr and the No. 88 Chevrolet.
These are free for all race fans and are on the official National Guard Racing site. If you want to take a look or download one for yourself head over 800goguard – then click on the download link.
By the way, did you notice that National Guard was on Jeff Gordon’s car in the Daytona 500? It seems they will be a sponsor on the No. 24 car for 8 races. But that won’t affect Dale Jr. – they’ll still be one of the primary sponsors for the No. 88 car. The sponsorship must have worked well for them.
I’m hearing that Amp is coming out with some new Dale Earnhardt Jr. screensavers too. I just checked and they’re not available yet — the links to them are broken. If someone at Amp Energy wants to take a look at it and let me know I’ll be glad to post it.
Go to the Dale Jr screensaver page – then click on downloads.
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Photo courtesy Hendrick Motorsports
Fans Turning Against Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Are NASCAR Fans Turning Against Dale Jr?
Brian Vickers has managed to do something no one else has been able to do – until now. With one little block he has turned the news media and half of NASCAR Nation against Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“We were racing, he had a run and I tried to block,” said Brian Vickers.” I think I was doing want I had to do.”
That’s some pretty big talk from a driver with a total of one career win in Sprint Cup – and he had to wreck the leaders on the last lap to get that one.
One fan, who was obviously not a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan, had this to say:
Jr fans are pathetic. Why can’t you admit that maybe your boy was at least partially to blame? I’m not saying that Vickers is innocent, it was as much his fault as anyone, but this whole Jr is infallible business is out of hand. They were BOTH a lap down, and they are BOTH to blame for turning a
battle for the free pass into a race changing big one.BV should have realized that Jr had that much of a run. Jr. had plenty of room and should have gotten out of the gas for a fraction of a second to slide back in line, not shove his way back in. The result was a lot of wrecked cars for no reason. As they say, that’s racin’. It happens.
This incident had nothing to do with Talladega a few years ago. It is kinda ironic that Vickers only win came off a block gone wrong where Jr and JJ ended up in the grass (a dream come true). For all the people that are trashing Vickers for getting his win by wrecking someone, probably never watched Sr. race. It was pretty much guaranteed that if Sr. was running second in the closing laps, the guy in the lead was gonna get “moved.” Everyone loved him for it.
I’m sure this isn’t going away anytime soon. The media is gonna play it up all week going into Cali. And I’m sure all the Jr. fans are gonna praise his innocence and rip on Vickers. Whatever, Jr. fans aren’t all that bright anyways from all that I have seen.
Junior has been getting beat up in the media following the incident. “There are no excuses for Dale Earnhardt Jr.” said David Poole with the Charlotte Observer.
Larry McReynolds said what Earnhardt did was “Totally uncalled for,” while his Fox TV partner Darrell Waltrip said “I don’t care who you are that’s totally wrong.”
Earnhardt didn’t see it the same way. “I got a run — Vickers drove me below the line. He ran into me and sent me below the line,” said Junior. “I just tried not to drive into the grass and tried to get my car under control, and get above the line so I don’t get penalized. I ran into his quarter panel and spun him out. He shouldn’t have started that and that would have never happened. At that point in the race that was pretty reckless.”
Internet message boards are lighting up with comments from 88 haters like “Dale Jr is an absolute idiot,” and “what is the deal with Jr. any way?”
If things keep going like this do you think Junior will get booed at Talladega — and will all his fans switch over to Kyle Busch?
I doubt it, but Vickers has caused quite a stir.
If Junior could have gotten his hands on Brian Vickers after the race there would have been a brawl. “Tell Vickers if he wants to meet me in the garage to get his ass beat I’m willing” said Dale Jr.
So what did you think? Did Junior intentionally wreck Vickers, or is Vickers to blame for the Big One?
Photo courtesy Hendrick Motorsports
NASCAR Should Keep Fans Informed
NASCAR Owes Its Fans an Explanation
When NASCAR makes an important decision – especially one that determines the outcome of a race – they owe it to the fans to tell them in person.
When NASCAR decided to call the Daytona 500 due to rain a NASCAR Official should have came out and explained exactly why the race was being called, and why they felt there was no hope of resuming the race. Instead NASCAR chose to hide behind its TV and radio partners and let them make the announcement.
NASCAR and Fox both seemed to stick their heads in the sand when it came to telling fans it was raining at the race track. They came back from a commercial break and it was business as usual with cars riding around under caution and TV announcers getting a few sponsor plugs in. It wasn’t until one camera picked up rain pouring off one pit box that anyone even admitted it was raining.
There were zero updates on the real condition of the racing surface. No close-ups of what the track looked like in the turns, on the backstretch or through the tri-oval.
When it came time to throw the red flag and stop the race the only warning were race cars rolling to a stop. There was no official word from NASCAR.
NASCAR never provided any sort of opinion on whether this was a brief rain shower or a hurricane coming through.
Fans deserve to be kept informed of what’s going on. Nobody likes surprises like these.
Maybe NASCAR needs an official to come out and make announcements about race conditions the way the NFL does.
Fans want information. NASCAR needs to give it to them.
Do you get all the information you need from NASCAR?
NASCAR Called Daytona 500 Too Soon
NASCAR Not doing Enough to Assure Green Flag Finishes
When the Daytona 500 was declared over by NASCAR the winner wasn’t crossing the finish line — he was sitting in his covered car on a rain soaked pit road.
NASCAR had plenty of time to dry the track and restart the race. Sure, it would mean a late night for all involved. But this is big time auto racing — it’s the Daytona 500.
It shouldn’t end on a judgment call.
NASCAR’s has made every attempt to get a race in before. Remember what happened at Kansas in 2007 when the race was stopped and restarted twice for rain. That race eventually had to be called due to darkness. But Kansas has no lights. At Daytona the lights were already turned on.
So what if the race has to run until midnight. I’m sure most NASCAR fans would have still watched it.
Instead Matt Kenseth is left with a victory in a race he never led a lap in until being credited with one by crossing the start finish line under caution.
This race is left with no real winner.
NASCAR owes it to it’s fans, drivers team owners and sponsors to do everything it can to finish the race — and finish it under green. Even if it means re-starting the race at an inconvenient time.
I’m guessing the only people happy about this outside of Roush Racing are Matt Kenseth fans.
I would like to know what input Fox TV executives had in calling the race. I’m sure they didn’t want to disrupt their Sunday night prime time lineup. But I hope a Fox executive didn’t decide who won the Daytona 500.
So, what do you think. Did NASCAR make the right call?
Petty Blue Plymouth Superbird
Petty Blue Plymouth Superbird
This car was once banned by NASCAR
Richard Petty drove this Petty Blue Plymouth Superbird on the parade lap just prior to the start of the 2008 Daytona 500.
These cars were really fast back in the day on NASCAR tracks. Especially high banked tracks like Talladega and Daytona.
The Superbirds were so fast that they were banned by NASCAR.
The Superbird wasn’t really a case of taking a ’stock car’ and racing it in NASCAR. Plymouth built these cars with for the express purpose of racing them in NASCAR. Then they built a few more to sell in dealerships.
It used to be that NASCAR required a car manufacturer to sell at least 500 cars in order to race it. That’s what makes this car so rare – and the fact that production was halted shortly after the winged cars were banned
The car is a little pricey at $275,000 on eBay, but the Superbirds have been bringing top dollar lately at Barrett Jackson. I don’t really think the fact that Petty drove the car adds a lot to the value – but it certainly can’t hurt.
That’s Fireball Roberts’ car sitting next to on Daytona’s pit road, and if you look closely you can see another of Petty’s cars lined up just behind the Superbird.
I was really disappointed to see that it doesn’t have the hemi engine. The car has the big-block 440 six pack with three 2-barrel carburetors.
It’s in original condition and unrestored and has been stored in a climate controlled garage.
The car has 39,000 miles on it – which is a little high for an unrestored car like this. But given the quality and rarity if this car I won’t be surprised to see it sell for that.
See all 24 photos of this Superbird
Daytona Dueling
Daytona Duel Talk — Have Your Say
Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch Winners
Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch were winners in todays two Gatorade Duel qualifying races in Daytona.
The first of two Gatorade Duels were a little wild with Daytona 500 polesitter Martin Truex Jr. spinning, but avoiding the wall.
Bill Elliott — another fast qualifier — also had trouble and brushed the wall after he burned his transmission up.
Tony Stewart proved that his new team is a contender when he crossed the finish line just behind winner Jeff Gordon.
In the second race Dale Earnhardt Jr was out front early and often. But Junior made a rare mistake in the pits when he slid through his stall on the first pit stop. The mistake moved Junior from the lead to 7th.
Then Dale Jr had to pit again under green with tire problems — losing a lap in the process. His teammate Mark Martin also pitted with tire problems.
With just 13 laps to go David Reutimann booted Ryan Newman into the concrete wall on the backstretch. Looks like Newman will need the backup car.
Mark Martin made a strong run at Kyle Busch on the last lap, but couldn’t make the pass giving the win to Kyle Busch.
Did you see any wild moments in the race? Anything you want to talk about? Have at it.
Dale Jr Under Pressure
Daytona Dale Jr Video
In this video from the Associated Press Dale Jr talks about the pressures of racing at Daytona, and what he expects for the 2009 season.
NASCAR Sponsor Profile: Visa
The Official Card of NASCAR
Visa is the Official Card of NASCAR – and they’ve rolled out this new Black Card just in time for the Daytona 500.
American Express has a black card too – but they don’t sponsor anything in NASCAR so I never bothered to apply for one. I think it’s important to support businesses that support NASCAR, that’s why I use Visa. This new Visa Black Card has some pretty nice benefits too:
- Limited Membership
- 24-Hour Concierge Service
- Exclusive Rewards Program
- Luxury Gifts
- Patent Pending Carbon Card
It’s a heavy black carbon card designed especially for Visa. The card gives airfare rewards that let you redeem points for airline tickets with no blackout dates. You can also get 1% cash back on all purchases.
If you don’t fly much you can also redeem your points for gift cards at stores and restaurants. The card also is good for points you can use on rental cars and hotel stays.
Now I’m not saying you need to blindly support all NASCAR sponsors, but when you’ve got a choice between two products and the prices and benefits are about the same it would help if you could choose the company that supports NASCAR racing.
The same goes for when you are choosing an item that sponsors your favorite driver versus one that sponsors a driver you may not like so well.
Visa, The Official Card of NASCAR
