If you are like me, you can now hear Aretha Franklin singing in your head. I love inflicting earworms on people. If you don't know what an earworm is, it is basically reading or hearing something that puts the lyrics to some annoying song like YMCA in your head and no matter what you do, it won't go away!
Anyway, the point of this blog is not to fill your heads with earworms. I am talking about the lack of respect shown to Ken Schrader. Who happens to be my favourite NASCAR driver. Why you ask? Heck if I know. It was probably from watching him on Inside Winston Cup on Speedvision which has now morphed into Inside Nextel Cup on Speed Channel. It might also have something to do with cheering for underdogs and M&M's, his sponsor at the time.
It seems that if you aren't one of the "pretty boys" or a favourite of the TV announcers you can forget about being seen on television. Which makes it hard for your fans to follow you or to gain new fans. Is it fair? Probably not, but when the networks are after ratings a 52 year old driving for a single car team whose best years are behind them will not win you TV time.
I guess I don't understand why in a four hour long telecast they can't find a minute or two to talk about every driver in the race. Even if he (or she) is 43rd and 6 laps down. If they are on the track, talk about them. If they are off the track, tell us why. It'd be impossible to track how many times we've heard "Driver so-and-so has gone to the garage" Why? Tell us why he is in the garage dang it. Even if it's just his parents, someone wants to know.
This might be part of the reason why TV ratings are going down every year. People get sick of hearing about the same 10 drivers week after week and they use Trackpass or listen to the radio play-by-play to follow their favourite driver(s). I've actually done more of that this year now that NASCAR is on Sirius. Listen to the radio announcers while watching the pictures on TV.
And then if one of the "non pretty boys" has a good run then it doesn't get mentioned either. Most recent example, the charity race at Eldora Speedway. Schrader finished fourth with a real chance to win. Look at the post-race quotes, Top 3 get mentioned as do the drivers that finished 11th, 15th and 23rd.
I know, life isn't fair but I'll just plug along cheering for a driver whose career is winding down because he is a good guy and who doesn't love an underdog?
Showing posts with label racing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racing. Show all posts
6/03/2007
4/27/2007
Change of plans
I was going to write a blog about NASCAR and debris cautions and Tony Stewart's comments on his Sirius Satellite radio show Tuesday night but that has been beaten to death. Instead, after watching Nextel Cup qualifying today, I would like to offer this comment.
&^&^^%%*&^*%^^%&%&%*&^*^())((&&*%%$^$!!!
What the heck happened to the 21 car? Time wise they should have made the race, especially when you have a car that started on the front row driven by a past winner at the track, but no.... some teams wanted to do race runs in practice and since they are in the Top 35 in owner points a lot of faster cars went home. This just doesn't affect the 21 but also the 55, 83, 22, 84, 09 and 34. All of those cars were one of the 43 fastest in qualifying but they have all loaded up for the long drive back to Charlotte.
I will admit to being a fan of Ken Schrader, a peak at the links on this page should tell you that. But he was fast enough to make this race as were all the drivers listed above. I know that if all the cars were going to qualify the 7 teams that received gifts this week would probably qualify anyway but we don't know that for sure until they get on the track. In the case of the 55 car, it was 0.009 seconds between him making the race and going home. Written as a fraction, that would be 9/1000. Try doing anything in that period of time. In fact, the difference between Paul Menard, who made the race and Schrader, who is going home was a quarter of a second.
I understand why NASCAR changed the provisional rules when they did and why they did it. But times have changed when you have 50 full-time sponsored cars showing up every week and these rules need to be changed too. Maybe make it Top 25 in points, or let the "go or go home" cars all qualify at once. It's been reported Michael Waltrip has to return $300,000 dollars to NAPA everytime he doesn't make a race. So far he is up to $2.4 million dollars. Is the deal the same for the UPS and Domino's/Burger King cars?
Anyway, I'll probably still watch the race but not really pull for anyone to win. I just hope no one is hurt and whoever ends up in Victory Lane is someone who hasn't been there for a while.
&^&^^%%*&^*%^^%&%&%*&^*^())((&&*%%$^$!!!
What the heck happened to the 21 car? Time wise they should have made the race, especially when you have a car that started on the front row driven by a past winner at the track, but no.... some teams wanted to do race runs in practice and since they are in the Top 35 in owner points a lot of faster cars went home. This just doesn't affect the 21 but also the 55, 83, 22, 84, 09 and 34. All of those cars were one of the 43 fastest in qualifying but they have all loaded up for the long drive back to Charlotte.
I will admit to being a fan of Ken Schrader, a peak at the links on this page should tell you that. But he was fast enough to make this race as were all the drivers listed above. I know that if all the cars were going to qualify the 7 teams that received gifts this week would probably qualify anyway but we don't know that for sure until they get on the track. In the case of the 55 car, it was 0.009 seconds between him making the race and going home. Written as a fraction, that would be 9/1000. Try doing anything in that period of time. In fact, the difference between Paul Menard, who made the race and Schrader, who is going home was a quarter of a second.
I understand why NASCAR changed the provisional rules when they did and why they did it. But times have changed when you have 50 full-time sponsored cars showing up every week and these rules need to be changed too. Maybe make it Top 25 in points, or let the "go or go home" cars all qualify at once. It's been reported Michael Waltrip has to return $300,000 dollars to NAPA everytime he doesn't make a race. So far he is up to $2.4 million dollars. Is the deal the same for the UPS and Domino's/Burger King cars?
Anyway, I'll probably still watch the race but not really pull for anyone to win. I just hope no one is hurt and whoever ends up in Victory Lane is someone who hasn't been there for a while.
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