Well, I read in the news today that Michael Waltrip is giving his 55 NAPA car to Terry Labonte for the upcoming road courses atInfineon and Watkins Glen. Labonte gets to use his past champion exemptions (a la Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett) so that the NAPA car gets in the race.

Does it bother anybody else that a car that qualified 20th at Talladega missed the race? I'm not a shill for Waltrip racing, but it seems to me that NASCAR has reached a point in its "modern" history that it ought to qualify every car, and put the fastest 43 on the track on Sunday afternoon! I don't like exemptions (past champions, top 35, whatever they are) in a race! Heck, we are supposed to be watching the fastest cars!

Call me old fashioned, but I thought it was...a race!

Hey fellas!

It's been mighty quiet in the "blogosphere" lately. Let's see if I can suggest something that will wake you up.

A few weeks ago I heard an analyst on the Fox sports network refer to the "modern era" of strock car racing. As I was sitting in my Easy-Boy trying to figure out just when the "modern era" might have begun, someone else on the show said that the "Modern Era" would encompass the years from 1970 (or thereabouts) to the present. What they were discussing was who the best driver of the modern. They mentioned Petty, Pearson, Allison, Parsons, Baker, Earnhardt (Sr.), Waltrip, Gordon, Stewart, Johnson (Junior and Jimmie) among others.

We could all pick a top ten, based on a variety of criteria: total wins, starts, total money, driving skill, looks, hair, whatever. I suspect that if we all picked a top ten, there would be four or five common to everybody's list. So, let's make it harder: who is the best modern era driver ever to sit in a stock car? (Sorry, we're not talking about open wheels or Formula I or Hooters, or anything else; just stock cars.)

My pick: David Pearson, by a mile.

What's yours? _________________

Well, by now we have all had time to think about the 600, so here's my point of view: It was a good race, perhaps even a great race. You can't have been sitting there (or in front of your wide screen TV) and tell me you weren't excited! Those last 100 laps were, to me, what NASCAR racing is all about. Tires, gasoline, strategy...yes...no...to pit or not to pit! The big boys all chose to pit, thinking all the little guys would follow suit, and they all lost out to a first timer (granted, he races for Hendricks, but he still has to lace up his boots.)  

So tell me, didn't you enjoy it? You just can't beat NASCAR racing.

Last week I criticized Jorgefor having called the Nextell All-Star race "pointless." I argued that the race was the point, and that the All-Star Race, or any race, was worth watching.

I was wrong.

Saturday night was a boring, pointless, useless mess of a race. I gotta tell you, halfway through the second 40 lap whatever my wife suggested that Guys and Dolls on TCM might be a better choice, and I had to agree. We flipped it back and forth, but a fifty year old movie was more entertaining than what was transpiring in Charlotte.

I am looking forward to the 600 next Sunday night. Really! At least it will be a real race...with a point!

Bill Elliott, one of NASCAR's favorite drivers in the 80's and 90's, crawls back into a car for the Wood Brothers.

At age 51, can Bill succeed again? What do you think?

I am new to this site, but I am certainly not new to racing. I had the great good luck as a child to live next door to a dirt track racer name Red Singleton. We lived in Atlanta, and Red was well known on the old circuit which included the Lakewood Speedway. He was pretty much retired from active racing when I was a kid, but he kept several old race cars in the back yard (old Ford roadsters) and he was always working on an Indy car in his garage. He was a great guy. It was a kid's dream to play in that yard! I still miss him.

I went to my first "super track" race in the 1960's, at the Atlanta International Raceway (now the Atlanta Motor Speedway.) I have followed all the NASCAR greats through the years, especially Roberts, Lorenzen, Isaacs, Petty, Pearson, and Baker. Many others.

There are many outstanding racers today, but I can't say I have any single favorite. I enjoy watching Stewart drive, as well as Biffle, Gordon, and a few others. I don't get to the tracks as much as I used to, but I watch all the televised races. I also like the SPEED channel. Wish we had had that thirty years ago!

One thing I don't want NASCAR to do is to legislate or "fine" all the color out of racing. Stewart's comments a few weeks ago about "phantom cautions", while probably a little over the line, just add a dash of spice to the pot.

Well, thanks for having me in the community. I look foward to reading all of your posts!

The Paladin