by richard teague tinynascars@yahoo.com
Well we all know who the man was, Bruton Smith, and the track was the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but Seventy Five Million Dollars? What was that for? Now, if you listen to Mr. Smith, and any of the employees of LVMS or Speedway Motorsports, Inc., it was all for the fans, OK? So I guess that means this conglomerate of Bruton’s doesn’t care about money and just wants to have better racing and the fans to have a better time on race day. Now if you or any cave man around thinks that is the case, then make that easy phone call to GIECO. LVMS general manager Chris Powell said, “Bruton Smith puts the race fans first, and that’s what he was doing with this new configuration.”
Let’s look at just a couple of the fan-friendly changes B.S. made for the love of the race and its fans, shall we? First the track was raised from 12 to 20 degrees of banking and the speedway was paved, which changes the whole way a driver races the car. There is no line to run in and, with a new surface, it’s (like one guy put it) “like driving on black ice.” So that means Goodyear has to come in and find a tire that will work for the new track. Not only does the tire company need to come up with a better combination for each driver, NASCAR steps in and adds the smaller fuel cells. Yeah, they make them rules up as they go along, don’t ya think? All this is for the better, they say, there’ll be side-by-side racing and no long, boring lines of cars going round and round.
Right here Tony Stewart steps up and says, “I thought they screwed up a really nice racetrack,” and goes on to rip LVMS and just doesn’t stop there. Later he loaded up on Goodyear with this statement; “It never ceases to amaze me on how they can always trump their ace, how bad they can build tires for us.” Just when you think Tony has said it all he comes up with, “I would give half my salary to get Hoosier Tire to be making the tires instead of the (junk) we’ve got to run on right now.” So here is Tony Stewart, a popular driver in NASCAR, and for two days running he’s ranting and raving about the track and the tires and just when you think it is over and he’s ready to race, here come the big guns.
I don’t know where Tony stayed while in Vegas, but you can bet that he kept one eye open after this here statement: “Where’s the light switch? Is it not coming on anywhere? If I had a billion dollars, I’d build me another daggone Bristol and put me 160,000 seats in it like Bruton did – and laugh all the way to the bank, but they’re not smart enough to do that.” After Saturday’s Busch Series race Stewart talked about how they spent millions of dollars to improve the track, but only caused a bunch of damaged racecars and could have hurt some drivers too. He said in preparation for Sunday’s race he wants GM air bags and pillows in and around his car.
Let’s move on to another great change at LVMS, the moving of pit row closer to the grandstands, which, to me, is nicer for the fans if you got a front stretch seat, but who cares when you’re on some other part of the track? So only a few fans benefited from that, but what about the drivers, did they like that hair pin turn into pit row? Looked to me like one of those babies from a road course where you got to slow down to ten miles an hour just to get through it. Now what was in B.S.’s mind when it came to that, I wonder? Right behind that is the new media center, but that’s only for (yeah, you guessed it) the “media” and I may be part of that, but do you think I’ll ever get my editor to pay for that, or my wife let me go to a race out there? I can dream can’t I?
With the media center, there’s supposed to be he Neon Garage, which one driver compared to a fish bowl, and I think he meant the drivers and teams as being the fish. Sure, the guys in the garage, hard at work, could and should feel that way, but what about the average fan that paid $99 for one day or $199 for the weekend to stand there and look dumb, point, gawk and plead for autographs through, I hope, bulletproof glass at their heroes.
After Sunday’s race, several drivers were very outspoken about the changes in the track to increase the side-by-side racing. Matt Kenseth put it best, “You couldn’t run side-by-side. When you got alongside of somebody, you were scared to death you were going to wreck.” Here’s a few other driver thoughts after the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400: “different challenge for us”- winner Jimmie Johnson, “I felt like I was on ice from lap one until the last one” – Jeff Gordon. More of the same like: “poorest race”, “out of control” and “It wasn’t fun to drive”, with many other comments, all brought on by the new configuration and the tires. Other tracks have made major changes over the past few years, but those had input from teams, drivers and Goodyear before they where done. LVMS, like Lowe’s, made improvements without any input from others and just made the changes the way ole B.S. wanted to do it, same thing happened there.
If Mr. Smith did all this for us, then why was he campaigning for another Cup race at LVMS by trying to get the President of California Speedway, Gillian Zucker, to give up one of her track’s dates? Now he has gone into partnership with ISC, which owns CS, but that is in a merchandising company of NASCAR items. Does he think that with that foot in the door he can get another race date? I doubt it. Bruton went so far to say that building new tracks in Seattle or Denver and New York is a waste of time, which I totally agree with, and he has beat NASCAR before in a law suit and got Texas another race, so how bout giving one up Brian? Don’t you just hate it when big money says they do something for the little guy just because, kinda like the gas companies dropping the price of gas so they can raise it higher in a few months. Bruton Smith’s BS don’t fly with me and it’s just like all of NASCAR these days, MONEY!!
Just a few quick things here: I didn’t file that law suit over the COT, but then again y’all didn’t think I was serious about that, did ya? LOL. How about Mikey Waltrip not making another one last week? And Dale, you’re using up your provincials pretty darn quick here aren’t ya? Waltrip says that he knows that NAPA is getting frustrated, not having the #55 in a race since Daytona, and he is working hard to change that. Aw, too bad Bubba. Did y’all see Ole D.W. jump to defend little brother in the ten second answer period Sunday? Maybe NASCAR secretly banned Michael for the season after the fuel additive and didn’t tell anybody, not even Michael-that wouldn’t bother me at all. O Yeah! How bout that Jimmie “ThreePeat” Johnson winning another one? That’s one of my drivers.
Now, for what may be bigger, is Dale Earnhardt Junior going to get what he wants at DEI or will he go to another team? This guy has changed his mind like some change teams, but says that he was under pressure to do so and he had also thought he was washed up, but after the first three races this season, he has found out something. The something is that he ain’t washed up. It has been the equipment he’s had to use for the past 19 years or so, but he ain’t come out and said they twisted his arm. WILL MARK MARTIN FINISH THE YEAR IN THE #01 CAR?! He says NO but he also said that his Chevrolet has made him rethink his driving abilities, then again, there is no one making him stay, which is just what he likes. So Mark, show them who is boss. I think he WILL retire and not go for a championship, but then again he can sure fool ya, can’t he? Do it again, like always, contact me at tinynascars@yahoo.com and since I’m back, and that other guy ain’t filling in for me this week, if it ain’t NASCAR, It ain’t s**t!!!!
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