From the Marbles: Stocking up
In From the Marbles, Yahoo! Sports' NASCAR team ponders the latest news, biggest issues and behind-the-scenes action in the NASCAR world. Submit your question or comment below for future use in From the Marbles.
Recent entries: Good and evil | Cartoon rain | Runnin' 'shine | Tony talk | Musical Mark | A better Kurt
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June 2, 2006
Back in the groove
By Bob Margolis
DOVER, Del. – After spending an entire month of all Indy, all the time, it felt good to be back in the NASCAR garage Friday.
It also took the better part of the day just to get caught up on all the news, changes, rumors, etc.
Every year the silly season gets started early and this year is no exception. Everyone seems to be talking about where Casey Mears is headed for next season, and at least five people asked if I knew whether Elliott Sadler was going to stay with Yates.
Ricky Rudd looks like a man who definitely is enjoying retirement.
He's back in a Cup car as Tony Stewart's sub, but don't count on seeing Rudd back in a full-time Cup ride in the future.
"I am not ready to commit to anything," Rudd said.
That's about it, in a nutshell.
Why would Rudd want to get back into the grind of 38 race weekends plus testing and appearances now that he's had plenty of time to sleep late, smell the roses and race dirt bikes with his son?
Yes, he's still a racer, but he's got that covered.
 Familiar sight. Sort of. (AP) |
Rudd recently tested a Daytona Prototype at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which he enjoyed very much. He also has been keeping himself in shape racing shifter karts, which both F1 and IndyCar drivers use to stay sharp.
It's a safe bet that Rudd, who was a road course ace during his Cup career, will be driving a Daytona Prototype next season – if the money is right.
In the meantime, Gibbs will keep Rudd on call for the next month. In addition to Dover, plans call for Rudd to be ready to substitute for the injured Stewart at Pocono, Michigan and Sonoma – three tracks, like Dover, where Rudd has had great success in the past.
Robby Gordon is racing a unique double this weekend.
He qualified his Cup car for Sunday's race, but on Saturday he'll be racing in Ensenada, Mexico, where he'll be defending his title in the Baja 500 off-road race.
"I wish it came on a weekend when we were racing in Vegas or Phoenix," Gordon joked. "It's a long flight from here, but it gives me time to rest."
Paul Menard will sit in for Gordon during Saturday's two Cup practice sessions.
Gordon also described this year's Indy 500 as "an excellent race."
He almost won the Memorial Day weekend classic in 1999 but fell short to eventual winner Kenny Brack when he ran out of fuel with one lap to go.
"I thought young [Marco] Andretti was going to get it," Gordon said, referring to this year's Indy 500 in which Andretti lost on the final lap to Sam Hornish Jr. "He cashed his check a little too early on the back straightaway."
Gordon once more expressed his desire to race at Indy, but with several representatives from his new Cup sponsor standing within earshot, Gordon reiterated that his focus was on NASCAR.
The press was crowded around Kyle Busch's hauler after the first practice session to get his reaction to being handed a stiff penalty by NASCAR for his on-track shenanigans last weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Busch was very polite and answered questions in the to-be-expected, semi-rehearsed Hendrick Motorsports fashion – a la Jimmie Johnson.
Busch reminded everyone that Casey Mears took the blame for what happened on the track, but Busch did take responsibility for his reaction (throwing his HANS device at Mears' car).
It all seems so silly, doesn't it?
When the press gaggle left, Busch enjoyed discussing a completely different subject – his favorite NFL football team, the Denver Broncos, whose quarterback Jake Plummer recently had a run-in with the law after a road rage incident.
Parallel lives, perhaps?
There was a huge cheer from the Dover crowd when Jimmie Johnson spun his Monte Carlo SS on the front straight during his qualifying run. Somehow, the Cup points leader managed to keep his race car off the wall.
Ryan Newman sweated out the rain delay after qualifying. Had qualifying been canceled and the field set by points, the Penske driver, who is having a miserable year, would have missed out on his first pole of the season.
I still can't figure out how a driver can go from winning eight races and 11 poles just three years ago to struggling to collect top-10 finishes this season. Newman's last victory came at New Hampshire last fall, 22 races ago.
Got an early favorite for the Brickyard 400? If not, make it Kasey Kahne, who admitted Friday that he loves the track and wants to win at Indy "really bad."
"I think it would be great to win there."
Kahne finished second to Tony Stewart in last year's race.
Kahne also commented on his participation in the recent Goodyear tire tests at Indy, saying Goodyear has found "part of the tire" they want to use from those sessions. He added that when everyone comes for the open test in July, the tire compound will be complete.
Kahne gives Goodyear high marks for their efforts.
"I was real happy we were able to work with Goodyear and they listened," Kahne said.
The rains that interrupted the afternoon's activities and delayed the start of the Craftsman Truck race are expected to be a factor for Saturday's Busch race and final Cup practice sessions.
June 1, 2006
Good and evil
By Jon Baum
So Kyle Busch is in trouble again.
And this time, it's costing him.
No, this isn't about the somewhat hefty $50,000 fine NASCAR levied. That's not the point.
Or the points, so to speak.
For tossing a safety device at Casey Mears' car following their wreck at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Sunday, NASCAR docked Busch 25 driver points and placed him on probation until the end of the year.
(Right here is where we'd consider a tangent about Busch making Rick Hendrick look bad, as the team owner also was docked 25 points for Busch's temper, but Jeff Gordon also is on probation and Chad Knaus spent four weeks in NASCAR purgatory, so it's not as if the Hendrick organization has a pristine record this season. So we'll just keep this focused on Busch.)
Many of our readers have written in complaining about Kyle Busch and his big brother, calling them spoiled, saying they are whiners, etc. But whenever these penalties are levied for non-competition infractions – we're not talking about illegal carburetors or roofs being too low – many readers also write in complaining that NASCAR is taking the personality out of the sport.
 The incident. (AP) |
Let the drivers be themselves, especially when they drum up so much attention and controversy for the sport. It's all in fun, and this sport has thrived for years on the idea of heroes and villains.
Curb the driver personalities and you risk losing the villains, they say.
But do these fines and point penalties really dampen personalities?
Further, does a driver expressing himself always have to end with a questionable gesture or some thrown equipment?
No, it doesn't.
Take a quick poll to find out which drivers are the biggest "personalities" in the sport, and a guy like Michael Waltrip might come out on top.
Sure, he gets testy now and then, but mostly he's known for being goofy, amiable, good-natured … and sponsored by NAPA.
Rusty Wallace, meanwhile, sometimes was good-natured during his driving days, and sometimes he wasn't. But no matter his mood, his personality was always strong, often evidenced by his opinions.
Wallace and Waltrip don't need to throw tantrums to be colorful.
Now obviously NASCAR would have no reason to come down hard on Waltrip for being a funny guy or on Wallace for being opinionated. But even some of the sport's edgier personalities can shine through without throwing punches or kicking tape recorders.
Or can they?
Kevin Harvick can be jovial one minute but then spend an entire weekend ripping Kurt Busch apart – and laughing all the while (well, most of the while, anyway). Of course, Harvick and his crew went ballistic at Richmond a few years back and attacked Ricky Rudd and his car.
Then there's Tony Stewart, who also can be the funniest guy in the sport one minute and lunging for Matt Kenseth's crew chief the next.
The common element? Volatility and unpredictability.
Often it's inappropriate, often it's embarrassing. But almost always, it's fun.
After all, it gives fans plenty to talk about.
As did Kyle Busch on Sunday.
Maybe you like him, maybe you don't, but can anyone really say Busch is bad for the sport?
Well, OK, surely some can.
For Busch's part, he was apologetic afterward.
"The bottom line is I made a mistake that's a poor reflection on everyone I care about and there isn't anything that justifies it," Busch told the AP after the penalty was handed down.
(Busch might feel even worse if he misses the Chase by less than 25 points.)
The key is for these drivers is to push the envelope without going too far past the line – and to do something that riles up the fans and drivers but isn't worth apologizing for.
That's the mark of a top-notch, great-for-the-sport villain.
May 27, 2006
Cartoon rain
CONCORD, N.C. – The weather was enough to make you want to go home, but the end result was more than worth staying for.
Friday's much-hyped world premiere of the movie "Cars" at Lowe's Motor Speedway endured a rain delay prior to the start and audio problems for several artists that performed on-stage during a mini-concert before the debut, but it ended on a high note with a massive fireworks show that was a fitting symbol of how good the movie was.
In a sense, Lowe's Motor Speedway was turned into the world's largest drive-in theater – well, 35,000 people had to drive to the track, at least, so they could sit in the Turn 2 stands and watch the movie on four massive screens in the infield.
Heck, even Darrell Waltrip did the Icky Shuffle after winning a 12-lap pre-movie "exhibition" race where he was the only star among a cast of no-name drivers.
 Big screen indeed. (AP) |
Comedian Larry the Cable Guy, who speaks the part of Mater the tow truck driver in the animated film, hosted the pre-movie stage show and did a great job. The red-hot comedian definitely got-r-done, but he could have stood to ditch the huge stack of cue cards in his hands that he kept reading from.
Rock-n-roll legend Chuck Berry performed "Route 66" from the movie soundtrack, but he endured horrible audio glitches that caused him to start and then stop, and leer at the sound technicians who first couldn't get his guitar amplified and then couldn't get his microphone volume right, either.
While you have to cut Berry some slack (he is pushing 80 years old), his performance was marginal at best, with several instances of missed or wrong chords. The backup band that supported him eventually wound up having to considerably tone down its own volume because it was Berry's show and his chords, right or wrong.
After performing his song, Berry then did a bizarre act where he walked across the stage pointing his guitar like a rifle at the crowd. There was no rhyme or reason, but he did so for about 30 seconds before laughing and scooting off the stage.
On the flip side, country star Brad Paisley performed three songs – he was slated to only do two – including his mega-hit "Mud on the Tires," which he dedicated "to all the rednecks in North Carolina."
One of the best parts of the night was the Walt Disney Co. donating $1 million to charity – matching $500,000 donations made to Kyle and Patty Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp as well as Bruton Smith's Speedway Charities.
Most of the movie's stars sat through the rain, including Owen Wilson, Cheech Marin, Bonnie Hunt and others, along with several current Nextel Cup drivers, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. (who has a minor speaking part in the movie) and Jeff Gordon.
Although the media was embargoed from printing reviews of the movie until its official June 9 debut, I can say this: it's definitely two-thumbs-up material. It'll be a hard act to follow for Will Ferrell's "Talladega Nights," due to be released August 4.
While some of the G-rated plot seemed a little hokey at times, the animation by Pixar was nothing short of outstanding. Think of it as "A Bug's Life," "Toy Story" and "Monsters Inc." – only better, and on wheels. It's no wonder it took a reported five years to bring the finished project to the big screen.
Wilson is the star – well, his voice is, actually – playing the role of Lightning McQueen, while Bonnie Hunt voices McQueen's love interest, Sally. Newman is the voice of the stodgy and bitter Doc Hudson, and Larry the Cable Guy steals plenty of scenes as Mater.
Racing legend Richard Petty also has a role in the movie as the retiring Strip Weathers, naturally nicknamed "The King." TV sportscaster Bob Costas is dubbed Bob Cutlass and Waltrip, playing a pseudo version of himself, is Darrell Cartrip.
So what if 35,000 fans, media and celebrities got a little wet Friday night? It was well worth it.
May 20, 2006
Runnin' 'shine
CONCORD, N.C. – It's a well-known fact that NASCAR's roots are steeped in moonshine running, where lead-footed bootleggers piloted high-performance cars to outrun the cops and rival moonshiners.
The finish line six or seven decades ago was the delivery point.
Don't look now, but moonshine is back in racing – and it's legal this time.
Nextel Cup driver/owner Kirk Shelmerdine announced a new sponsorship here at Lowe's this weekend with Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine, which bills itself as the only official and legal moonshine in the Carolinas.
"We're the only legal flavored moonshine on the marketplace," said Joe Michalek, president of Piedmont Distillers, Inc., manufacturers of Catdaddy. "We have federal and state approval, both for the label as well as for the formula and facility."
 Shelmerdine's new gear. |
Michalek said he couldn't have found a better partner. His company has just three employees, including himself, and Shelmerdine's team is a three-man operation as well.
"Like Kirk, we're fighting against the big guys and just trying to make the big show," Michalek said.
Granted, today's moonshine is not your grandfather's moonshine. Unlike the 190-proof mixtures of yore, Shelmerdine's new sponsor's product is only 80 proof and is more of a boutique drink that goes better mixed – with cola, ginger ale, cranberry juice and the like – than straight-up.
"We make every product in a copper-pot still, it's all small batches, based on a corn product, we add our own flavor and ingredients, we do all the government reporting, pay our taxes and we're licensed and registered to actually make the product, which is different from the traditional side," Michalek said.
Shelmerdine will wear the Catdaddy colors this weekend and also for next weekend's Coca-Cola 600, as well as for October's UAW-GM Quality 500, all at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
"There's been a long history of moonshine in the past with racing," Michalek said. "But obviously as racing has come a long way, so has our product. We're legal, the sport's huge and there's no better venue for us to get a product that tastes great out in front of hundreds of thousands of people. That's why we're so excited to be here."
Shelmerdine has struggled for sponsorship over the last couple of years. That's why his new deal has him quite excited.
"I just feel like we're barely getting started," Shelmerdine said. "I'm just now getting two hands on the rope, if you will."
While I wish Shelmerdine and his new sponsor well, I do have one complaint: where are the free samples for the media?
May 20, 2006
Tony talk
CONCORD, N.C. – Now here's a scary thought: Tony Stewart, member of the media.
The man known at times as "Terrible Tony" soon will be co-host of his own two-hour national radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio. The show will have a trial run later this fall and then become a regular weekly staple on Tuesday evenings beginning in January.
Stewart said the show, which will include audience call-ins, will be no-holds-barred. He'll talk about whatever his on his mind, unedited, unadulterated – and he won't get fined 25 points if he lets a misplaced cuss word drop here or there.
Think of it as Howard Stern going stock car racing – with Fox TV announcer Matt Yocum as Stewart's sidekick/co-host.
"Everybody knows I like to talk, so this is a natural high for us, obviously," Stewart said. "When they said we can talk about anything I want, whenever I want, there was no second-guessing."
Stewart added that his first foray into the broadcast world will produce the kind of show a mother could love – his mother, that is.
Well, maybe.
"If both of our moms are listening, they might not agree with our opinions on stuff, but they're not going to be embarrassed the next day – well, mine probably will be, but that's all right because she's still on my payroll," Stewart quipped.
Stewart's show follows fellow driver Jimmie Johnson's weekly soiree on XM Satellite Radio that debuted earlier this year. Dale Earnhardt Jr. also has a show.
Sirius will become the exclusive satellite radio provider of NASCAR on Jan. 1, and will offer broadcast coverage of all races on the Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series, as well as a dedicated 24-hour-a-day NASCAR channel.
But I can't help but wonder …
What if Tony the radio co-host asks Tony the driver a question he doesn't want to answer? Will he say "no comment" or maybe knock the microphone out of his own hand?
This is going to be very interesting. Tony Stewart, media member – God help us all.
May 19, 2006
Musical Mark
CONCORD, N.C. – Let's see, the stage name "Marky Mark" is taken. So too is "Eminem."
What about MC Martin? Maybe Eminem Lite? Or how about M-Dawg?
What does this have to do with NASCAR?
The guy you'd least expect to be a fan of rap and hip hop now has a new theme song devoted to him and his career: "Start Your Engines, The Mark Martin Rap Anthem."
You read that write, dawg.
Performed by rapper Budda Early and produced by New York-based hip hop impresarios Kevin Dent and Derrick Garrett, the song has a gritty, urban beat and feel to it. It traces Martin's history from his days in his native Batesville, Ark., to his impending "retirement" to the Craftsman Truck Series next season.
"I love it," Martin said Friday here at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I think they did a great job. I know people think it's kind of funny, and my wife Arlene and [son] Matt tell me I'm too old to listen to rap and get into all that stuff.
"That is the right format for an anthem. Can you imagine AC/DC singing a song like that? I don't think so. I think it's pretty cool."
 The man. (AP) |
Martin's love of rap and hip hop is no gimmick. He likes artists like Dr. Dre, 50 Cent and Eminem.
"A lot of people are very surprised that I like rap and hip hop," Martin said. "A lot of people are very surprised, including my own family, when they catch me listening to country."
I couldn't help but ask Martin that if he was a rapper, what would he call himself?
"Not very good," he said. "That's what you'd call me."
That doesn't quite have the same melodic ring as 50 Cent or Ludacris, but then again, those guys can't drive a race car like NASCAR's resident rap fan.
"To me, when you listen to a rap song, a lot of times, if it's done real well, the lyrics really mean a lot more in those songs," Martin said. "I listen to the lyrics. I listen to the story, to what the artist is saying. That's different and that's some of what's drawn me into this new music."
May 19, 2006
A better Kurt
CONCORD, N.C. – Even Kurt Busch haters can't help but feel good after Friday's announcement that Busch's newly-formed charitable foundation will donate $1 million to Kyle Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp. The money will go toward building a 28,000 square-foot indoor sports and activity dome.
"It's a good launch for the Kurt Busch Foundation and [shows] how serious I am about it and the initiative to try to get kids into sports and put a smile on their faces at the end of the day," Busch said.
The donation is not part of the community service or fine Busch received in Phoenix for his run-in with a sheriff's deputy. Rather, the 2004 Nextel Cup champ said it's the first of several planned donations his foundation will make to various groups and causes.
"I've been to the camp quite a bit and this will make it to where I really want to be there and put my hands in the mix and make a difference with the children," Busch said. "It's very special to me, and to have fun with it is the No. 1 thing."
Friday's gesture comes right from Busch's heart, even though his critics might think the driver known as one of the most hated men in sports doesn't have one.
"Your heart pours out to [those kids]," Busch said. "They can't live ordinary lives or sign up for Little League in their community. You feel like you can make a small impact in their lives if they've got a place where they can fix it together and all feel welcome."
